Light at the End of the Tunnel

I've been silent on the blogging front for the last two weeks as gaming and painting has been interrupted by a severe case of real life - sickness and final exams coexisting in a tight space with a list of "honey dos".  We did get together at Curt's for two games of Formula De, and damn it if I didn't win the second race in Brazil on the last corner having trailed everyone else by 1/2 a lap for the whole game!

I spent Easter weekend deep praying at the shrine of the porcelain goddess with a nasty stomach bug.  We had to phone the butcher to tell them to sell our leg of lamb to another customer (sniff, sniff) and Easter dinner for me was plain eggs (and the first solid food I'd kept down for 2 days).    Back at work on  Monday I was almost un-wobbly when I walked into a nasty head cold.  That is fortunately mostly over but it was a stinker!

I had students writing exams on the 22nd and 24th and I'm in the home stretch on marking - with Spring and Summer semesters (when I have no classes) in sight!  I've lots of interesting stuff on plan for May and June, but I am going to be coy on that front for now.

Dardanelles Submarine Game

Last night we were at Sylvain's for two games.  The second was a Star Wars X-Wing game GMed by or host which was very enjoyable.  For the first game of the double header I put on Bob Cordery's Dardanelles Submarine game which can be found over at Bob's treasure trove of goodies his blog
Wargame Miscellany.  This game which was originally published in the 80s or 90s in a Wargames World annual (the yellow specials by Wargames Illustrated).

This game replicates the very successful attack by HMS/M B11 which avoided mines, patrol craft, gun batteries and hostile currents in a very enclosed space to torpedo the Turkish battleship Messudieh (see details over at Bob's site here).  It's a great little game and well worth the hour's diversion.

In our game, our intrepid adventurers wound their way through the hazards through a combination of good luck, good planning and bad umpiring (just kidding) to find them selves perfectly placed for an attack on their target.  The first torpedoes missed at close range, so the B11 lay low until nightfall so that they could reload the tubes and have at her again.  This time the first fish missed but the second struck home and sank the Messudieh.

Their return journey was far less arduous than the original's had been.  Historically, Messudieh open fired as she sank and B11's crash dive threw her compass off.  A nine hour blind crawl on dead reckoning followed.  When B11 finally surfaced, the oxygen was so low that her diesels wouldn't fire up!

More Shameless Pimping of Worthy Blogs

Ok, I am a sucker for potential free stuff, but these are great blogs so check them out if you haven't done so already.

Thoughts of A Depressive Diplomist  (love the title and the obit of the week)

Mad Padre Wargame I've gamed and drunk with him he's neither irate or crazy (well most of the time..).