November already?

My head has been elsewhere over the last month. Any spare time has been filled with hard labour in my own little piece of ex-convict Island. While it is nearing end stage (which is better than good) a massive back yard project has interrupted normal routines. Go ahead and skip the last part if this slice of life outside of gaming if it is of no interest to you. You probably didn't come here for my backyard blitzkrieg in any case.

I had pushed back a game of Lion Rampant vs Lochy due to 'The Project' but we got together a week later for our first test run. We did something very wrong in the game (my fault) but we got a feel for it. Our thoughts are that terrain is handled really well. We had a big chunk of hedge on our table and it was interesting with a cover bonus for fights across it and also large foot units crossing the obstacle. We both had the opinion that a good amount of terrain will be excellent for this game. Easy to handle rules wise, looks good and gives you pause for tactical thoughts perhaps.
Wild Charge special rule for Mounted Men-at Arms units was hilarious with them mostly very random once in reach of enemy units.  

Our random made up forces not at 24 points.

Move out! If the dice let you that is.

Hedge of Doom!

Bash! Smash! Ching! Slash! Stab! Neigh! Screams! Blood! Grunt!

RUN AWAY!

AAAAAARRRRGGGH!

Crossbow unit. Caused a few casualties.

I don't know which side won in the end but we called it over when tests to Rally became hard to achieve. Little plastic men had other places to be rather than becoming casualties.
Cheers

Project Lawn Be-Gone!
It started with thinking about getting some outdoor furniture. Sure we got camping chairs and tables but maybe something else would be nice for an afternoon or evening in the yard. It can be real nice in the back yard with lots of shade from Golden Canes I planted when we first moved in now all at a very nice height Those same palms though caused other problems. Palms tend to have a large shallow root mat that spreads out in search of water. The modest back lawn was suffering due to trying to compete for food and water. It looked crappier as the years went by and my plan was to be rid of it one day. What started as 'we will just pave an area' became...the paved area got bigger and eventually... lets just be done with the grass that just needs watered and mowed. Yaay! Less work in the future. A pick axe was required to break up the root mat under the lawn. Stupidly we timed it with a very hot time of the year so I sweated truckloads and it made my patience wear thin. Eventually we could pave, order some stones and get it over the line to near complete. I was concerned that at our age if we one of us or both of us would emerge without major injury at the end. Unfortunately my partner in construction now has a very sore back. Hopefully she gets well soon.

Before shot. White string to mark approx position of paved area. Trampoline is no longer used so will be going soon.
Morning shot. Sun is behind the corner at the top by afternoon.

Tough stuff to get out. We put a root barrier down to help keep them out. Hopefully it helps out for the future.

Distorted Panoramic of almost completed. Each paver is 400 x 400mm. We have some stepping stones to place in the stones.

It's far from perfect. I would call it mostly Bogan Built. Close examination might find gaps and slight height difference between some pavers. But we are happy with the result. No lawn to mow and water (as small as it was) so that's a win with time being spent on my hobby instead perhaps. I pushed myself physically with this and also tried some things for the first time like mixing concrete to make a little holding wedge around the pavers. I will need to spend some time in the garden now to get that to a tidier state and shift around a few large heaps of dirt from the epic surface excavation. Cold Beer time I think. Actually I still have some stepping stones to distribute in the rocks...yep better get some Beers.

Cheers from Brendon