11.10.2010

Flames of War


In my search for more information on Warhammer 40k for my son, I discovered the WWII miniatures wargame, Flames of War. It's been a really long time since I wargamed or painted miniatures; and I've had a lot of other hobbies over the years. To be honest, I can't wait to get involved and start building an army! I attended "Fall In" (an annual wargaming convention) held in Lancaster, PA a couple of weeks ago. My mission was to find out more about Flames of War (and I suppose Warhammer 40K). Although I wasn't able to find any of the scheduled games amongst a sea of Incas, Prussians, Samurai and Space Marines, I did find the Flames of War US distributor. After a friendly greeting and entertaining my noob questions, I ran through a battle with one of their reps. Never mind that we were both fielding Mother Russia's finest... I had a blast! The game mechanics are pretty simple, and I'm sure Joe took it easy on me. I won our 40 minute skirmish by capturing one of the objectives and contesting the other. I picked up the "Fortress Europe" book as an early birthday present. This will help me configure a late war list in order to play. I'm still undecided as to whether I want to field Americans or Canadians. I'm considering Canadians simply for something outside my normal realm of interest - WWII US Army. Any suggestions from experienced gamers would be welcome.

11.09.2010

What's in a name?

Rhinexing (Rhine Crossing), the name of my blog, has been my screen name for just about every occasion online for many years. It stems from my intense and long-running interest in World War II history. I started by reading books on the subject while I was in middle school. The first piece of my militaria collection was a WWII-era front-seam M1 helmet when I was 12 or 13 years old. My collection of American WWII militaria was quite extensive, until I parted with it a few years back due to a divorce.

I've met a lot of people and made many great friends through WWII reenacting and collecting. The most satisfying aspect of the hobby is meeting veterans and hearing about their personal experiences first-hand. Although finances and family obligations have curtailed my hobby expenditures, (both monetarily and time-wise), I have the full support of my new wife regarding my interests. Boy, do I love her!

Let's get started.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so we'll see how it goes... or more like, how long I keep at it. I'm going to use my blog as a record of my hobby activities, and keep the family/work topics to a minimum (that's what I have my facebook account for anyway).