December 2020 review

Busy month, for multiple reasons. I continued with sorting out my stock and sorting out. After going through my Blood Bowl collection, that is now pretty much complete, I went on with Necromunda (not the 2017 re-release, but the mid-90s variant). I did sheets for the multiple gangs, to get an overview on poses and doubles. Quite happy with the status. Will post a search and sale post in the new year.

Not only stock taking, but acutally sorting out and selling stuff. A couple of busy days to bring stacks of packages to the post office. But it is still a way to go, to slim down to the stock that I want to keep.

One of the reason why I didn't had the time to take on the test miniatures yet, was this almost 3.000 pieces MOC of a 1965 Ford Mustang Hoonicorn RTR that I was gifted on christmas. Quite massive build, slightly bigger than the 42096 Porsche RSR, I got last year.

A bit of a rant, but I don't want to take this with me into the new year. I am annoyed by the current situation myself, reading the news is grueling and I really enjoy diversion. And it is sad to see, that our hobby community didn't improve in the last year. Instead of being reasonable, a lot of people still saw the need to push a tournament no matter what. I am sad that a lot of events were cancelled, but seriously guys, it is just wargaming. Use tabletop simulator, Total War, etc., get your support bubble to have a game with you, but don't travel across half the country. And that is something I have seen with some careless dickhead influencers as well. Some seem to see the situation as an invitation to have to travel or visit others (it's work bro!) instead of staying ffs at home (general thing, not just limited to wargaming, as we don't really have influencers). I get it, if you don't want to make a topic out of covid, but at least don't be a bad example. That's one of the reasons, why I don't really subscribe to wargaming content on Youtube. But there have been a few positive examples among food channels.
Another thing is the insanity of the second hand market, that got partially completely out of hand. I get that certain projects are sought after, like Dogs of War, or nowadays Bretonnians and Khemri. But 200 GBP for 5 Questing Knights? I don't know who is more insane, the people making those prices or those paying them. And yeah, those dipshit scalpers with the Specialist Games dice, the Indomitus box earlier this year and so on. It is a hobby, if you want to make money out of it, open a store. Just don't be a dick.

And this goes hand in hand with the toxicity in our community, that didn't get better with people spending more time in their basement. Beginning with reading the same post over and over again "I ordered 9 days ago, why isn't the product already here? Should I be suspicious?" You dense moron are aware, that there is a pandemic going on, and everybody in that supply chain has a huge backlog, working with fewer people than usual and so on. The companies in our hobby have a hard time in regular times, with some companies already taking forever to deliver even without all those circumstances. So especially for those asking this question in the last few days - holidays, you are aware these still exist and people usually don't work on them. This goes hand in hand with the entitlement of some our peers. Many people are completely overestimating the possibilities of the manufacturers in our hobby, along with overestimating their individual importance. 10 years ago, when I visited Warlord Games for the first time, me asking them if they would release something in a different scale than 28mm they looked at me quite irritated. Times have changed, yes we have a lot of 28mm plastic, resin and metal, but we have plastic for Age of Sail, Speed boat fights and now even 15mm scale American Civil War. And what's the reaction? People are pissed, because Warlord does their own scale. Because it is 13,8mm feet to eyes and not "real" 15mm. So what? Have you seen "28mm", with heroic or true proportions and anything from large 25mm to 32 or even 34mm in that range (sometime even from the same brand). And it is called epic, "but, but, but epic is 6mm" and this is not epic. Yeah, that is dumb. GW simply called it epic, it's an adjective for something that is legendary, monumental, huge or extra ordinary. So having cheap plastics for a mass combat system, could be called epic.

I get the point, that using the same uniforms for both sides isn't ideal or historically correct. But that was never the goal, they wanted to release a cheap / affordable sprue that would cover the conflict in an appropiate style (see John Stallard's video on it). So yeah, you can have a problem with that and simply use different miniatures, that fullfil your needs. There are plenty of other companies offering ACW miniatures for you to choose from. I am not convinced by a lot of modern combat miniatures in 28mm, guess what? I don't buy them and go for other manufacturers. And those arguing "How dare they offer pre-order exclusive miniatures only to those who pre-order", yeah? So? There are Kickstarter exclusives, event exclusives and pre-order exclusives all along in this hobby, for ages, by all kind of manufacturers. So why is a General Lee all of the sudden a problem? Especially with the huge point that it is a historical system and you can get your Lee, Grant and Custer by a lot of different companies, like Essex, Old Glory, Peter Pig and so on. Without a vendor lockin with IP-specific projects, so seriously, what is the problem? Why can't we simply be happy about a new range, based around a decent plastic kit and available at the manufacturer, distributors, retailers and your local store. If the reaction would be more constructive, companies would take more risks. But yeah, you could simply ignore all that and be pissed, that some slowly turning products, produced in resin by hand are currently not in stock. Remember it is still a relatively small company from Nottingham, that went through lock down, restrictions and all that, like many other companies did this year - and not a fortune 500 that simply burns through some reserves during a rough patch.

/rand-mode-off - I needed to get that off my chest.

What did I watch in december? Let's start with the suggestions for binging, the shows. By chance I stumbled upon Swedish Dicks, with Peter Stormare (Fargo, Constantine) in the lead. Entertaining, wild cameos and good pacing. On Disney+ the 2nd season of The Mandalorian came to an end, wow, simply wow. Not just the finale, but the overall season. Don't want to spoil anything, but it is so worth it. On Amazon El Cid started, only 5 episodes in the first season, quite entertaining and the costumes and props are well made. Looking forward to season 2. As well on Amazon, the latest instalment of The Grand Tour: A Massive Hunt, watchable but a very short lived entertainment... and missing some of that special Top Gear flavour. I managed to pick-up on Westworld Season 3. Interesting twist, not a bad story arch, but I hoped to see more of the worlds and their different settings. Since the 27th, the 2nd season of Das Boot is available in German free tv, but the mediathek can be quite annoying (limitation of some episodes from 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.), so grab them via MediathekView. Story is better than in the first season so far (I am at episode 4), but not as much submarine action as you'd expect from a tv-series with that name. Talked about the show in 2019, quite a bit of wargaming material available if you fancy it.

As for movies, quite a few dulls among them. I catched Mortal Engines, what a boring mess. The idea is a bit weird, but could work, yet the story is not that interesting and not develops properly over the running time. On Disney+ Soul started, yeah, well expected a bit more entertainment from a pixar movie. It is not bad, it just doesn't catch you properly. Bill & Ted - Face the Music is okay-ish, I didn't expect much, just something that could run along in the background but the story doesn't fit the main characters or their usual motivation. Then there is Knives out, feels a bit like Cluedo the movie, not bad, but not that clever reveal of a crime story they might think they have produced. Yet, watchable. A hot tip is the korean movie Parasite, unusual setup, and if you're not familiar with eastern cinema a bit strange, but well made. Then I catched a documentary, Pretending I'm a Superman (The Tony Hawk Video Game Story), I like the style, but it is a bit too much pathos and could have been a 15-20 minute youtube video to be honest. For a 2020 movie it is a bit strange, that they cut the latest releases.

Among german podcasts, there is Krauthorn, episodes 19 and 20. 19 is quite interesting with their talk about Bolt Action, as for 20 it lacks a bit of a main topic and is more of an open chat.

That's it for the year, see you in 2021.