Real HEAVY Metal

The Year 1812, Festival overture in E flat major, Op. 49 composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is by far my most favorite piece of music ever written. It far exceeds any song written by any one else, it is better than the Star Wars theme, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd, anything by the Beatles.

I therefore present to you the following;

Of course it MUST have real cannons accompanying the performance.

Another excellent rendition of this masterpiece;

This music ROCKS!!!!

Ocean Thunder at Millenniumcon 12

I have registered to run Ocean Thunder at the Lone Star Historical Miniatures gaming convention called MilleniumCon this coming November.

The convention is being held in Round Rock, TX at the Wingate Inn and Convention Center, it starts November 6th and goes until the 8th.

There are two sessions scheduled, the first will be on Friday night starting at 8:00 pm and runs until Midnight. The second session will be starting on Saturday morning at 9:00 am.

The Friday session will be a what if scenario between the Royal British Navy and the Kriegsmarine. The Germans are trying to sink the cruise liner Queen Mary which is carrying thousands of U.S. soldiers to England for the upcoming invasion of Fortress Europa. The Brits are escorting this mighty ship and will try to drive off or sink any enemy ship to protect the Queen.

The Saturday session is a more historic in the sense that I am basing the scenario on the Battle of Cape Esperance, a battle between Japanese and U.S. cruisers and destroyers.

I will provide orders of battle for each scenario soon.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Ocean Thunder

Some of you may know that I have had a naval miniatures rule set I have been working on for the past two decades. It has resurfaced and fallen back into the depths of mind many times over the years. Well with the upcoming game convention in Austin, MillenniumCon 12, I have decided to once again resurrect Ocean Thunder.

I am planning on running two sessions. One will be U.S. v. Japan and the second will be Germany v. Britain.

I will be posting more information shortly once I determine the scenarios and get the confirmation that I will be running the sessions at the con.

Till then see ya in the funny papers.

Field of Glory

My brother has been kind enough to give me an excellent deal on the rule book and three of the army books. So I should have them shortly.

For those of you who don't know what Field of Glory is, it is a miniatures game using 10-15mm figures representing armies from historical cultures spanning the time frame of 4000BC to AD 1500.

FOG, as it is known in the gaming circles, is very well supported by my FLGS, Great Hall Games, with plenty of opponents and a thriving map campaign.

So what army am I going to build? Well, I'm thinking of maybe starting with an ancient Britain list or maybe a Scots-Irish list. Something that would go up against the Romans easily. I am also planning on looking into the history of the Welsh and see what I can come up with there.

Of course I will eventually build an Early Imperial Roman legion, aka "movie" Romans. Or possibly some Hellenic hoplites, aka Greeks from the classical age meaning Alexander or earlier.

I am also up in the air about which scale to use. I can go 15mm or 10mm. If I go 15MM, I am used to the scale after building my US Infantry Company for Flames of War. And there are some superb models out there. For instance Corvus Belli make some beautiful sculpts.

Here are some Celt swordsmen.

and here are some Early Imperial Romans.

I am also thinking of 10mm figures, Magister Militum produces fine sculpts as well.

Here are some 10mm Early Imperial Romans.

The 15mm figs look nice as do the 10mm figs. My brother suggested I get a pack of the same type of troop and paint them up to see which I like best.

So that is what I will be doing over the fall and winter months before I dive into my next Flames of War army.

Memorial to Darrell "Shifty" Powers

Memorial to Darrell Powers

Another powerful story. I hope our Leftist Government reads it, not that any of them would care a bit.

I can't verify the story below but I can verify SSgt Darrell Powers, late of Co E 2/506th PIR, 101st Division, died 17 June 2009 in Virginia.

Shifty volunteered for the airborne in WWII and served with Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Infantry. If you've seen Band of Brothers on HBO or the History Channel, you know Shifty. His character appears in all 10 episodes, and Shifty himself is interviewed in several of them.

I met Shifty in the Philadelphia airport several years ago. I didn't know who he was at the time. I just saw an elderly gentleman having trouble reading his ticket. I offered to help, assured him that he was at the right gate, and noticed the "Screaming Eagle", the symbol of the 101st Airborne, on his hat.

Making conversation, I asked him if he'd been in the 101st Airborne or if his son was serving. He said quietly that he had been in the 101st. I thanked him for his service, then asked him when he served, and how many jumps he made.

Quietly and humbly, he said "Well, I guess I signed up in 1941 or so, and was in until sometime in 1945 . . . " at which point my heart skipped.

At that point, again, very humbly, he said "I made the 5 training jumps at Toccoa, and then jumped into Normandy . . . . do you know where Normandy is?" At this point my heart stopped.

I told him yes, I know exactly where Normandy was, and I know what D-Day was. At that point he said "I also made a second jump into Holland , into Arnhem ." I was standing with a genuine war hero . . . . and then I realized that it was June, just after the anniversary of D-Day.

I asked Shifty if he was on his way back from France , and he said "Yes. And it's real sad because these days so few of the guys are left, and those that are, lots of them can't make the trip." My heart was in my throat and I didn't know what to say.

I helped Shifty get onto the plane and then realized he was back in Coach, while I was in First Class. I sent the flight attendant back to get him and said that I wanted to switch seats. When Shifty came forward, I got up out of the seat and told him I wanted him to have it, that I'd take his in coach.

He said "No, son, you enjoy that seat. Just knowing that there are still some who remember what we did and still care is enough to make an old man very happy." His eyes were filling up as he said it. And mine are brimming up now as I write this.

Shifty died on June 17 after fighting cancer.

There was no parade.

No big event in Staples Center .

No wall to wall back to back 24x7 news coverage.

No weeping fans on television.

And that's not right.

Let's give Shifty his own Memorial Service, online, in our own quiet way.

Rest in peace, Shifty.

So close.

And yet so far.

The Texas Longhorns fell apart tonight and lost the baseball national championship. Oh well it is only a game, and I didn't even throw or break anything.

There is always next year and always football (I know Cruft, you hate football.)

YAY AT&T/Apple!!!

As you know Apple just released the iPhone 3G-S, now AT&T has shortened the time needed to become eligible for the upgrade price if you bought a 3G iPhone in July, August or September of last year.

What does this mean, it means I am now eligible for the upgrade price for the new iPhone 3G-S. Now I just need the $199.00 plus the $18.00 upgrade fee.