Oops...and Geekery

Well, that didn't last long. I had money when I last posted...now I don't and I'm still unemployed. Joy. What to do, what to do...

Still, on more positive terms, my geekery is slowly progressing. I played my first game of Hordes last week and I can see the appeal...the added element of resource management is a welcome one in a skirmish level game. I just need to play more games and develop some solid tactics and strategies. I've got some ideas, but my real weakness at the moment is the fact that I'm unfamiliar with the forces my opponents will be fielding, especially when I come up against Warmachine players. I think the best I can do for now is to focus on my own force and hope for the best...I'm certainly not going to go out and spend a fortune buying the various books I'd need to research other forces.

I'm a little disappointed by Privateer Press, it has to be said. They have some nice models, but they've really decieved customers, I think, with some truly excellent paint-jobs. The models are good but not as good as they, perhaps, make out. Casting is frequently shoddy and I don't think there's a single model I own (of theirs) that isn't going to need the application of some modelling clay to bring it up to par (let alone look good). Still, they've done a good job with their rules and I'm not going to be spending the hundreds of pounds I spend on GW stuff buying Hordes.

On the subject of GW stuff, my Skaven army is finally approaching a point where I don't have any more infantry left to assemble! That's some 300+ models of Core Infantry alone. I've still got some new Stormvermin left to clean up and my "Fanatic Clanrats" (made up primarily of Plague Monk figures and any odd models I've got left over from other sources) that will be pushing my Screaming Bell. Speaking of which, once I have some spare cash (which may be some time!) I'll have to invest in a Bell kit to finish off my 'scratch build'. I've also invested in a new Doomwheel, so I'm only a Warp-Lightning Cannon away from a competitive list! Woo. Mostly, though, I need to get making up some movement trays...shifting units of 40+ isn't easy without a decent tray and cardboard approximations just don't cut it.

Most of the Warhammer I've been playing of late is against my dads' Bretonnians. Neither of us have been taking anything cheesy and the games have been fairly balanced...his heavy cavalry against my crappy infantry. I've lost a little of the love I once had for Warpfire Throwers...they're very good against infantry, where you have time to line them up for a decent shot or two, but against faster moving things, the old WFT suffers from "Move or Fire" a lot more and is certainly not worth the 70pts you pay for it. On the other hand, the Poisoned Wind Mortar being able to ignore armour and fire on the move, combined with the disintegration of guess-range artillery, are a god-send againt Brets.

I've finally given Rat Ogres a field test and I'm not that impressed. The lack of an armour save makes them kinda vulnerable, but they do hit very hard if you can get them in the right place. Having said that, compared to Giant Rats, you don't appear to get that much. For each Rat Ogre, you can buy 8 Giant Rats. That's more than twice as many Wounds and with Wave of Rats, you're actually getting more attacks over the same frontage. It's true that those attacks are at significantly lower Strength, but I'm still umming and erring about it. The only problem with fielding Giant Rats instead of Rat Ogres is getting hold of the bloody things...quite why GW decided that you should only be able to get 6 G.Rats at a go and even then you have to buy 2 Rat Ogres with them, I don't know. I'd like to field units of 60 Rats, but it's just out of the question from a purely monetary point of view...even if I wasn't skint! Still, I'll keep an eye on eBay and I might get lucky.

It's been a while...

It's been a good long while since I last posted anything here, but not much has really happened in the meantime. Aside from moving to Swansea and (eventually) finding a job washing pots, I've done nothing constructive at all. Oh, I quit the pot-wash job after somehow managing to do it for 11 months; I couldn't bring myself to work there for an entire year. This leaves me with the same conundrum that I had the last time I posted...I need work and have no idea how to get any. Or rather, I do have lots of ideas on what I could potentially do, but don't know which ones to follow up first. I do have one advantage over my previous position, inasmuch as I've got some money this time, so paying for a training course isn't out of the question. The problem is that I no longer wish to be a chef. I've worked in a kitchen and watched chefs at work, even done a little bit myself and have come to the conclusion that I would rather leave my culinary skills at home. This means that all my ideas before about following that ambition have swirled nicely down the drain in a pretty pattern.

Where does this leave me? It leaves me dog-sitting at my parents because they think I have nothing better to do with my time than be stranded in the arse-end of Carmarthenshire. Not only that but I have my sister practically begging me to go to Holland with her in a couple of weeks after helping her move into her new flat, despite knowing that I have no reliable or easy way to get from Carmarthen to Hertford. I'd like to go back to Holland (it has been a couple of years), but I really don't have the time (especially given the past two weeks having been wasted) and I'm not sure if I can drum up the effort for it. On eof the most frustrating things about being unemployed is not having very little money, it's not the uncertainty of ever finding a job, but it's the assumptions that other people make about what you do with your time. Sure, you don't get up and do something constructive every day, but every day someone pulls you away from your normal routine to "help them out" is a day that you are definitely not doing something constructive towards your own needs! This pisses me off, especially when those same people constantly badger you with really unhelpful suggestions that you can't follow up on because you're always doing them a favour. Sigh.

Anyways, the latest plan of action (if it can be called that) is to see about finding work (again) and going back to college to re-do my Maths A-Level and get a decent grade. Following that, the plan is to hopefully return to University as a mature Student and study Philosophy and Maths, possibly followed up by a PhD. and/or PGCE and look into going into teaching. I'd be good at being many things, but I think I'd excel at being a teacher; I've the patience of a brick and a couldn't care less if someone isn't willing to let me help them help themselves...they say teaching is a stressful job but stress falls off me like water off the proverbial duck. It's a long term plan and it ends with me having a bunch of qualifications as well as a bunch of experience in service industry jobs. That's got to be better than just the service industry experience, right?

Had a visit from Ellie the other day and she suggested working the oil rigs in Siberia like she did a few years back. I could do that, but would they employ me? I've no experience in engineering or similar and the closest I have to a qualification in the field is my rather poorly graded Maths and Physics A-levels. It's a thought though. At least it wold get me out of the country for a while...learn a new language...meet some new people...earn some significant money (for a change)...sounds pretty good on paper, but is it ever going to happen? I doubt it.