Liebster Blog

Liebster Blog Award

I've been nominated for this virtual award by the honourable Tim Gow  .  As I understand the  'rules' of this award (which, for the benefit of non-German readers among us, translates as 'Favourite Blog') are to post the above picture and nominate five favourite blogs.

So excluding Fine Blogs which I know have already been awarded, my list of 5 would be (in no particular order and drawn randomly from a field of worthy candidates)

• David Crook all round good guy and recently hit the kilo-post milestone.
• Curt at Analogue hobbies for hosting a good party last night (even if I did have to look at his legs under the kilt)
• Rob Hingley an old wargaming opponent with interesting facts
• Steven Page of Old Admirals (and not ex of the Barenaked Ladies) 
• Stokes at The Grand Ducke of Stollen fellow academic, family man and old school gamer.

Not Dead ...

I realized today that my last post was 11 days ago.  So in case anyone is watching I am not dead, in fact I am suffering from a bit too much real life these days to blog!  End of term is on me fast (I had 130 first years stats midterms to mark).

However, last week I went over to Curt's for an intro game of Bolt Action, which I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed.  The mechanisms were quick to learn and it had a good feel.  I like the draw the die from the cup method a lot - I've used a similar mechanisms in various generations of MacDuff and it's ancestors.  I had 3 squads of German paras plus an MG and an armoured car (visions of Lt. Gruber of courses) and we kicked two squads of Brits (plus an MG) out of an Italian town.

Santiago Light

Last night Sylvain hosted Stacey and I for a game.  I was quite happy to finally see my Spanish American War models on the table.  These are home scratch builds dating back to 1998 (yes the centenary), so they have been waiting 14 years to see action.

The rules were "Fire When Ready" by fellow blogger David Manley (do yourself a favour and buy a copy there are great ideas to be found and David's a worthy chap).  The scenario saw two Spanish Armoured Cruisers and a destroyer running for safety, with one US Armoured Cruiser in a blocking position and two battleships in pursuit.  I was kind to the Armada Espanol in that I gave Cristobal Colon her main guns (historically left off due to government cheapness) and didn't apply crew quality modifiers.  Sylvain requested the Armada Espanol (brave lad) while I took the USS New York and Stacey the two battleships (Indiana and Iowa).   The ships were 1:1200 and therefore we should have measured in inches).  However with the smaller table surface and low ship count, we measured in cms as if the models were 1:2400.  Therefore max range was 1m (10,000 yds), the cruisers moved 20cm (20 knots) a turn,  while the battleships moved 15-16 cms and the destoyer Pluton 30cms (30 knots).

Our host provided apt libations of dark rum and pineapple juice!

Vizcaya ranges in on USS New York

Clever move by the Armada Espanol see the New York circle to counter.   By this time,  a special hit from Vizcaya  had caused a flood in the New York, which the crew was having difficulty plugging.

Close up of the New York. Like Tim Gow, Sylvain uses fancy bespoke splash markers.

The destroyer Pluton blocks LOS to and from New York, but Stacey's battlewagons have found the range on the Colon.

Spanish line with USS Indiana and USS Iowa in the distance.

The New York sets Vizcaya afire!  I was excited to use my plastic fire markers.  Unfortunately for me Sylvain's crew was much faster at damage control than mine aboard New York.

The Vizcaya gets away, with Brooklyn badly disabled after  a magazine hit.   Stacey's battleships have by this time slowed the Colon down to half speed, so she strikes.  Note that the Iowa and Indiana have split apart for better fire effectiveness.

Almirante Rheault looking pleased with the results.  He got Vizcaya and Pluton away and came within a whisker of sinking USS New York.

Remembering...

The sister of a school friend put this together.  The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZeHiadsIsw&feature=youtu.be

Cool Way Off Topic Story

By far the best reason yet for a student to take a gap year from her BSc in Actuarial Science. Hat's off to Chelsea (she's second from the left without a kid on her lap)

http://olympic.ca/news/team/bobsleigh-team-set-for-season

A Quick Post

It's been a week since my last post, as real life is getting in the way of gaming and blogging.

I was off in Saskatoon over the weekend as my daughter was in the Provincial High School Honour Band.  Toontown got a big dump of snow on the 2nd, and I was glad to have the Subaru and even more glad that my wife insisted I put snow tires on both vehicles.  However, the minutes spent in a narrow up hill ramp watching an SUV and a bus slip down hill towards me were stressful enough!

I stopped in at Dragon's Den and picked up some modelling tools, having been inspired by Steven Page and Spike's efforts over at Old Admirals.  I am hoping to have some more Spanish American War warships rolling down the slipways soon.  I am also eying the Sino-Japanses war.

I also stopped at McNally Robinson, ok many times over three days, including dinner at the restaurant.  Right now I'm reading Charles Townshend's book on the Mesopotamian campaigns in WW1.  History buffs note, the author shares the name of the general who surrendered at Kut but is not related.  So far it's a good read with lots of good connections to modern times.  Years back Wargames Illustrated or Miniature Wargames ran an article by Richard Brooks on gaming this campaign.  I'll have to dig it out since Richard's articles and rules are all ways worth a read and inspiring.

Two Generations in Costumes

The pith helmet wil likely reappear next time we venture into Wascanastan.  I convinced my wife that it would be used after Halloween, but she didn't realize where and when.  I may steal Katie's hat if I ever do the League of Augsburg or Spanish Succession.