An American "Flashman"?

We shall see!

SCOUNDREL!

The Secret Memoirs of General James Wilkinson In the humorous, iconoclastic tradition of George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman novels, Gore Vidal's Burr, and Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, meet real-life scoundrel James Wilkinson as he lies, schemes, backstabs, and seduces his way through our nation's early history.  In Scoundrel! historian and novelist Keith Thompson mixes fact and fiction with intense characterization and riveting story.  Scoundrel! is a book for anyone who loves adventure, and will hold special appeal for aficionados of historical fiction, military fiction, and U.S. history. This first book, subtitled The True Spirit of '76, recounts Wilkinson's misadventures during the momentous year of 1776, starting at the siege of Boston, following him through Benedict Arnold's disastrous Canadian invasion, and ending with Washington's attack on Trenton.  Along the way he battles savage Indians, seduces beautiful women, fawns over egomaniacal generals, falls in with British spies, and betrays everyone who strays into his path. In short, Scoundrel! is "History with Humor", and after experiencing Wilkinson's irreverent spin, the reader will never view the Revolution or the Founding Fathers the same way again.

http://www.scoundrel1776.info/

20mm Nostalgic Revival: Donald Featherstone

20mm Nostalgic Revival: Donald Featherstone: The Father of UK Wargaming is 94 years young around this time, many congrats to him, his books got me started way back in the mists of t...

PREPARING FOR A WARGAME

( WITH THE HELP OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE )

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a wargamer

as modest stillness and humility;

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

disguise fair nature with hard favour’d rage.

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect,

let it pry through the portage of the head

like a brass cannon; let the brow o’whelm it

as fearfully as does a galled rock.

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;

hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit

to his full height. On, on, you noble wargamer

whose blood is that of fathers who wrote the rules !

Fathers who, like so many Alexanders,

have at these Conventions from morn ‘till even fought,

and pocketed their dice for lack of argument.

Dishonour not your mothers, for did they not sit

whilst those whom you call fathers painted their armies ?

Feel superior to players with troops in other scales,

and teach them how to wargame. And you, good players,

whose hands were made for wargaming, show us here

the mettle of your army; let us swear

that they are worthy of your painting, which I doubt not;

For there are none of them so mean and base

that hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

straining upon the start. The game’s afoot !

Rattle your dice ! And upon the charge

cry ‘God for Scruby! Featherstone! and HG Wells!’

Space 1889 Audio Dramas

I'm doing a lot of driving during the week at the moment, and have rediscovered these stories set in the Space 1889 universe by Noise Monster Productions.

The first 3 stories are a series set on Mars: Red Devils, The Steppes of Thoth, and The Siege of Alclyo.
The fourth story The Lunar Inheritance is a stand alone story.

I quite enjoyed all of them, particularly the wonderfully stereotyped characters.  If you haven't heard them before, they are 70 or so minutes well spent, even if just to get a few different ideas.

The CDs can be elusive to locate, but seem to still be available from the US here:
http://www.whona.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=W&Category_Code=space1889

JC of Mars

The girls went out to the Taylor Swift concert tonight, so naturally the boys sneaked out to see John Carter of Mars after they left.  Its had a bunch of mixed reviews, but our opinion? Epic!  A great adventure movie with amazing effects.  It had some slow spots, but these were necessary for the plot and I guess they just seemed slower after all the action bits.

Seriously, ,the Green and White Martians and the associated special effects are fantastic (and should be for 250 million dollars!)  If you are looking for a good, fun adventure yard this is a great ride.  The Lad and I are itching to play some "Redcoats on Mars" style games now!




PS Its pretty WoW in 3D!

1891: A Space Odyssey

UnMuseum

Some fun "relics" and bits and bobs here, including the possessions of Professor Aronnax!
www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/league_art.htm

A Cracker Day on the Field

My lad Reilly captained his Cricket team for this week's U/12s match. A great game on a hot day, here is the match report, posted by a proud Dad (BTW Reilly also got a wicket, bowling out the opposing Captain):

Match Scores:
Grammar (Navy) 5-75 (Reilly 12no, Ethan 7, Jack 7, Angus 2-3) defeated Grammar (Sky) 5-57 (Angus 13, Justin 10no, Bailey 9no, Tom 3-8)

Match Report:
This was another closely fought contest between these two evenly matched teams. Navy batted first and posted a respectable score of 75 from their 20 overs. When Sky batted they lost some early wickets which put them behind the required run-rate and although they recovered their final score of 57 was not quite enough. There were some good performances on both sides with bat and ball but perhaps the difference was the excellent fielding of Reilly O’Grady for Navy who stopped many possible boundaries fielding at mid-wicket. Both teams have displayed excellent improvement throughout the season and will look to continue this in their final two games.

Player Awards:
Navy – Reilly, Sky - Angus

Dr Grordbort and the Deadliest Game!

Dr Grordbort Presents: The Deadliest Game from Media Design School on Vimeo.

French Aeronef Le Louis Daguerre: Part 1

Renowned modeller Tony from Dampf's Modelling Page, has entered the Roebeast trash bash competition.  Excitingly, his project is titled:

French Imperial Aeronef Le Louis Daguerre

An Observation and Survey Nef currently serving at Le Mons, Mars (French Sector)

He has posted this teaser to get our VSF juices flowing:

Part One;

Ten years after the first human set foot on Mars the Colonial Land-Grab is in full swing with Great Britain, Germany, The United Stated of America and the Belgian Republique leading the assault. Japan and France came late to the table and have never achieved the victories of the earlier states. This is all about to change with the French Government finally agreeing to build both the largest Astronef - Le Gloire and now Le Louis Daguerre an observation and survey Nef to explore and map the Le Mons area of Mars.

The Loius Daguerre is one of the largest Nef's ever constructed on Mars and was built to house the newly developed Daguerreotype Camera which uses huge half-metre square silver coated glass plates to take images of the Martian landscape and 'map' the built up areas.  The process needs huge reserves of dangerous chemicals which are housed in two large and two smaller containers built into the main hull. Early experiments have proven than an area of five square kilometres can be successfully mapped in less than three days, thereby cutting down on man-hours and the risk of being assaulted by rival States or marauding Martians.

The new technology of image capture is causing quite a stir amongst the other Earth-Bourne Governments and Le Louis Daguerre is now accompanied by at least one French Aeronef when ever out on operation's. It is rumoured that The Kaiser has raised a bounty of one thousand gold crowns for the capture of the Loius Daguerre - a rumour that is having quite an effect on the fleets of Martian Pirates.

I'm looking forward to seeing his entry on 1 March!

http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/trash-bash-2012.html

Adventures in a Lost Land

I haven't done any Dino Hunting games for awhile, but I came across these rules by 2HW the other day.  Anybody tried them out?

Take the shot!


You hear the whispers. Giant creatures from the dawn of time alive and walking the earth. Dinosaurs! How can it be? As a hunter you have to find out the truth so you follow the rumors to this God-forsaken corner of the world, Lemuria!


You've spent days and large sums of money in tracking the Beast and now it's come to this. Your bearer trembles as he pulls back the branch giving you a clear view of the Beast in all its splendor. As you steady your aim it turns, looks you in the eye and at that moment you wonder... Who's hunting who?


Adventures in the Lost Lands, introduces you to a world like no other. A world of giant creatures and prehistoric men where you can Be a Pulp Era hero exploring Lost Lands and searching for valuable treasure. Lead your tribe of primitive cavemen in a fight against other primitive tribes. Be a modern day big game hunter who travels to a pre-historic land that time forgot. Command a Victorian Era expedition bent on discovery and conquest. Be a dinosaur, not only a dinosaur, but THE dinosaur, as you take on all others for supremacy.


In Adventures in the Lost Lands you can do all of this and more. We've included a number of linked scenarios forming a campaign which can be played solo, cooperatively with all players on the same side, or head to head against your friends. It's all up to you!


*Really? Louisiana? Yep, it's a long story.


http://www.twohourwargames.com/adventures-in-the-lost-lands.html

England Win Calcutta Cup!

What ho chaps! A stalwart display by our young fellers at Murrayfield today, beating the bally Scots at rugger in their back yard 13 to 6 to win the Calcutta Cup! Jolly well done chaps, have a well earned Indian Pale Ale!

The Baron Rides Again!

An "Aeronef over the Aegean" campaign report, by Ruaridh.  Its great to see one's creations being used by others - now I know how Mssr Blease feels all the time!
http://ooh-shiny-complex.blogspot.com/2012/01/aeronef-over-aegean-photo-report.html

The Russian Ironclads

An interesting (and short) essay regarding the development of the Russian ironclad fleet from the Crimean war onwards:  http://www.neva.ru/EXPO96/book/chap9-1.html

Though I notice there is not much mention of the Tsar's Aquanefs...

Usuthu!!!!

Yes, today is the Anniversary of the Battle of  Isandlwana and day 1 of of the Battle of Rourke's Drift, in which the most Victoria Crosses were awarded for a single engagement.  May you have a better day than the lads of the 24th and raise a glass to the courage of the participants.

New Sky Fortresses and Carriers

Now available from Spartan: the wait is over!

Covenant of Antarctica Epicurus Class Sky Fortress, Federated States of America Savannah Class Sky Fortress, Kingdom of Britannia Illustrious Class Sky Fortress

Empire of the Blazing Sun Kagoshima Class Mobile Airfield (left), Federated States of America Alamo Class Mobile Airfield (right)