Working Down The Stack

Finished one book and just starting on a new one:

Saturday 15tth July 2017 - WDW

Black Powder - ACW
Age of Eagles - Napoleonic - Hohenlinden


Monday 24th July 2017 - WDW

Bolt Action - WW2 - Japanese v Americans
Space Ship Battle - Tim's Rules - searching for pirates in an asteroid belt - encounter another fleet.
Heroes of Normandie - WW2 - boardgame / tile game

DBM - Marian Roman v Pyrrhic - terrain deployment gave the enemy two steep hills in the centre - this severely cramped my style!

My left wing consisted of two commands - cavalry & light horse plus a 'pip sink' (sorry - strategic stike and reconaissance).  I was able to clear the slight opposition but couldn't get between the steep hills and our central command.

At close of play a  Pyrrhic command was one element away from breaking.  Our central command was also in trouble.  Yet another draw!!!!


Thursday 27th July 2017

"Conquistadors" by Michael Wood - "The Spanish Explorers and the Discovery of the New World."  The story certainly shows what an appalling bunch the Renaissance Spanish were - exploitative, perfidious, land-grabbing and cruel.  They destroyed whole civilisations and peoples.  Capitalism in the raw.

The last section "El Dorado" concerns not conquest but exploration. The struggles and privations of the journey are well illustrated comparing the modern trek against the historical.  Herein also lies a problem - it is sometimes hard to tell when the author is in the present or the past.  On tv different voices are often used so it is obvious, to the viewer, which is which.  In print the reader has no such auditory clues.

Nevertheless the book is well worth reading if, perhaps, a little lightweight.


"Monsters Inside" features my favourite Doctor of the modern ers (I may have said that before).  Only about 30 pages in so a review might be a tad premature!

Plenty more books in the stack plus some academic papers - will it ever end?  Well if I hold on long enough somebody else will be reading them to me - I hope the nurse is cute!



 

Out of Chaos

Another week struggling to get around my house.  No floor in the 'living room', furniture and boxes everywhere and no room to swing the proverbial cat.  Work re-commences on Saturday so maybe, just maybe, there is a light at the end of the tunnel! 

Excursions outside the house have provided some wargaming escapism:



Saturday 15th July 2017 - Gt. Houghton

4 games of DBA - took along some of the more unusual armies:

Villanovan v Samnite - Villanovan Wb were demolished two at a time.
Hawaiian v Tupi - the Tupi couldn't stand up to the Hawaiian Bd.
Sumerian civil war - managed to win by chance.
Hittite v Later Babylonian - the terrain fell to my advantage so I could dictate the battle.


Saturday 15th July 2017 - WDW - two games going on - details to follow.


Monday 17th July 2017 - Wakefield (Al's Place)

DBM - Classical Indian v Tamil Indian & Sinhalese - an early bath - over by 2100 hrs.  Couldn't get my left flank moving - centre was demolished.  Will definately have to morph the Classical Indians into something with more winning potential.

The Place Was Packed!

Saturday 8th July 2017

Slingshot 312 finally showed up.  More interesting, for me, than the previous issue - "The Second Sui Invasion of Koguryo" by Nicolas Spratt and "The Battle of Amnias 89 bc" by Richard Andrews being of particular note.

Horbury Library - Andrew put on a WW2 game based upon the "One Hour Wargame" book.  Some interest shown.


Monday 10th July 2017 - WDW - 17 people in attendance - is this a weekday record?

A pile of these mags was dropped onto a table with the general invitation to take what you wanted - these are the three that I fancied.  There was also cake contributed by the same 60 year old (I can vaguely remember being that young).

HotT competition - 'round robin' divisional play starting.  Tim took on Andrew (Lizardmen v Wood Elves).  Surprisingly the Lizardmen were triumphant in a very long game. 

"Heroes of Normandy" boardgame set up by Bob but the Hott game dragged on too long.

Trafalgar - naval games with ships of the line are always a treat for the eyes.

Black Powder - Texans v Mexicans - an unusual period - Deany seems to have so many PAINTED figures!

DBM - Hussite v Yorkist - a boooooring game with no conclusion.

Magazine Roundup

 WNQ issue 3 - available as a download - maybe not as interesting as the previous two but worth a look.

 Paid for Download - in order to get "Chariot Rampant" (Lion Rampant variant).  The rest of the mag was mostly WW2 so of no interest to me.

After not being able to purchase this at Phalanx I ordered it online.

Still waiting for this - was not impressed by issue 311 either.


Sunday 2nd July 2017

Received an email telling me that a new version of 'Triumph' was out.  One free download later I was able to give it a quick read.  Can't see any substantial changes just a few tweaks.  Seems like there will be one more pre-issue "in the fall" before a winter publication.  Now I must get round to playing a test game.


Monday 3rd July 2017 - WDW

'Black Powder' Crimean War fight
'Talon' hex game, sci-fi, spaceships
'Hordes of the Things' - Ian's Orcs v Tim's (pseudo) Medievals v Andrews Rats - all practice for the HotT Cup (tournament)

DBM - Latins v Athenians.  I wanted an infantry fight so I put together a Latin army.  Seemed like a good idea at the time - until I worked out just how much the compulsory troops cost.  Precious few points left - certainly not enough for an ally and the Latin cavalry.  So I fielded a Gallic ally which gave me 8 chariots and a load of warband.

Our two Latin commands set up at the front with the Gauls hidden behind.  The right (allied) command promptly went on strike.  Luckily, after 2 rounds, Lazarus came back to life.

When the Wb(F) hit the 73 hoplite elements their central command suffered and was one off breaking.  Unfortunately both the Gallic Wb and the chariots fell first and streamed off the table.  We never did get that last element.

Chris complained about the Wb(F) but as he picked the only Early Hoplite Greek army that has any Bw plus a load of Lh ........