Perfect Circle

I sometimes have a look at The Miniatures Page (TMP). I am a member – I believe I am a Trusted Member, no less, but sadly I can’t remember my password, and can’t be bothered doing anything about it, so my involvement is limited to a casual gawp from time to time.

Often I find TMP interesting, even useful. On occasions it is a bit depressing, though – a general dumping ground for nerds of all nations who may misunderstand each other and at times aren’t paying much attention anyway, being distracted by the need to strike attitudes and out-nerd each other.

All this is merely my humble personal opinion, of course, but I was interested to note that I have been getting a fair few hits on this blog from TMP readers, and it highlighted what might be a classic example of collectively missing the point. Naturally, I am delighted to welcome all TMP activists here – pleased to meet you – but I was amused by the particular thread which got them here.

A few posts ago I put up a tweaked set of map cards for the Perfect Captain’s Battlefinder system. This was entirely an exercise in self-interest on my part, since I wanted a set of their (excellent) cards which were changed a bit to feel comfortable in a Northern Counties ECW context. Thus my son and I did a bit of PaintShopping and altered the place names to suit. In case it was of wider interest, I offered it up on the blog, with all due credits and links to the Perfect Captain.

It was of wider interest, as it happens. In particular, some worthy Resource Investigator type [check out Dr R Meredith Belbin’s famous work on team roles – identify the members of your local club...] put up 3 of my 4 altered sheets of map cards on a TMP post [obviously not a Completer Finisher, then], with a link to this blog – though not to the post in which they appeared. There are a few responses – one fellow says he found the blog and the C&C-derived rules, but not the map cards. The original thread setter suggests that he should contact me directly, which is accepted as a good idea, though none of the 500 or so hits which came from TMP in the last month seem to have resulted in such a contact – why am I not surprised? Eventually, some hero has reported that the map cards can be found on the Perfect Captain site – which is true, though not my tweaked version, obviously. We can all settle peacefully now – we have successfully completed the circle and arrived back at the point immediately before the point at which I started. Maybe someone will link to this new post, and we can go around again.

In fact, if I have drawn the attention of a few new people to the Perfect Captain then I am more than happy. I am more than happy in any case, simple soul that I am. Some more ECW cavalry will be going away for painting next week, and my artillery should make some major progress shortly. I have an interesting collection of random kit for the guns – some heavy stuff from the old Hinchliffe 20mm range, and a fair assortment of light pieces (from sources unknown), which includes a robbinet, a leather gun, a little frame gun and some other intriguing objects. As ever, I have no real idea what colours to paint these things – maybe plain wood, and there seems to be a generic orange stain whch is often depicted. I am also confused by the various explanations I have read of the names of the types of guns, so for the time being I shall not attempt to identify Falcons or Sakers or even Bastard Demi-Cannons – my ECW artillery will be called Heavy, Medium and Light, which is a cop-out but avoids argument.