12.29.06
Hambone’s soliloquy – with apologies to Shakespeare
To base, or not to base — that is the question,
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outraged Old Schoolers
Or to break tradition to solve a sea of troubles and base for looks,
And by choosing, end the discussion. To decide, perhaps to magnetize,
And by magnetizing store them, on their sides
No more — and to magnetize, we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That miniature warriors are heir to. ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To paint, to continue,
To finish, to complete — perchance to rebase:
Ay, there’s the rub, for in the viewing of battles what thoughts may come,
What projects are left before we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. For there’s always a new one
That makes calamity of so short life
For who would bear the whips and scorns of significant others,
Th’ in-law’s laughter, the proud man’s scorn
The pangs of despised paint schemes, the opponent’s delays,
The insolence of rules writers, and the spurns
That historical gamers merit of th’ unworthy fictions,
When he himself might his own rules write while
Wearing an Old School Thong? Who would family bear,
That grunts and sweats as he modularizes terrain,
With the dread of something not to scale,
The undiscovered eras, from whose bourn
No gamer returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those systems we have
Than fly to others that we know not the rules of?
Thus conscience does make hoarders of us all,
And the hue of uniform colors
Is matted o’er with the pale cast of Dullcote,
And enterprise of great pitch and moment
With these miniatures allows plans to turn real
And share the realities of action. — Command you now,
Magnificient Soubise! — Graf von Grunt, in thy battles
Be all thy successes remembered.
