Five Parsecs and Beyond!!!

It's been a few weeks since the last post.  Been busy with work, home and holiday (Yorkshire coast, lovely!).

I've started work on another project as well.  Now that doesn't mean I've given up on Five Parsecs.  Far from it!  I have the next 'episode' of the adventures of the crew of the Envoy in preparation; they've rolled up their first quest, and I need to get a few models and bits of scenery sorted for what I have in mind.

In fact, while on the subject, I want to cast some praise Five Parsec's way.  Not specifically for the rules themselves (which are elegantly simple, yet allowing for surprising complexity), but for what it's given me.  In the last few months I've played more games than I have played for the last couple of years before now, painted more models and built more scenery than I have for a while. 

Partly this is a matter of scale - it's such an achievable goal to say to yourself that you will get a new faction painted for the next game, or sort out a specific piece of scenery.  It's also structured well for solo play, and quick to set up a run.  Most of my solo gaming is conducted late, when my other half has dozed off on the sofa, or in little gaps of time when she and the little miniature are out with family.  Add to that the campaign phase, which fills in the gaps between games to keep the interest going, and you have a system that perfectly fits my current circumstances.

All that said, I don't want it to get stale.  With that in mind I'm planning ahead.  I think (at the moment), I'm going to let the Crew's current quest play out through a few games, then call a temporary halt.  Think of it as the end of a TV season!  Then for a bit of a change, I'm going to try out Nordic Weasel Games fantasy equivalent for a bit, Five Leagues from the Borderland.  I already have a pretty massive selection of suitable figures and scenery, which have been pretty unused for years, especially some of the older models.

I've started to flesh out the band of 'heroes' that I'll use for this.  I'll say more about them individually, and the world they'll inhabit, in a future post, but for now lets see the models and my latest bit of painting.

Here are our four main heroes.  The models reflect a pretty good cross section of my gaming career as well.  Second from right is an old citadel 'Strider' from their old Lord of the Rings Range.  He was one of my earliest models, back when I maybe had only a dozen or so, mostly used in RPGs (I used to play Traveller and Middle Earth Role Playing - MERP, mostly, and unsurprisingly).  Painted rather poorly with enamels, and now missing a sword.  The chap gesticulating on the far left is a Perry sculpted Brettonian archer from the late 80's, early 90's, who was used as a forester in the earliest incarnation of my Empire army.  The priest is of course from my later Empire army, when it was all puffy sleeves but still properhammer.  The beardy bloke on the right is of course the Frostgrave knight I did relatively recently.

Some of the paintjobs still stand up well, bit poor old Strider needed urgent TLC.  So out came the bits box.   A little drilling a pinning saw the missing sword replaced with one from a plastic Empire militiaman, and a new and improved paintjob was employed.  I have to say I am pretty pleased with the result, and it's lovely to see an old model brought back to life.