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.

My new ride

I will soon be the proud owner of a 1972 BMW R75/5 motorcycle. This motorcycle has been in my family since about 1974 when my dad bought it. My mom had it in her garage for the past 10 or so years, and will soon be in mine.

There will be much work needed to be done. I figure at least the carbs need to be rebuilt, and all the rubber tubes on the air shocks will need to be replaced and of course new tires.

Once I get it down to Austin, I will get some pictures of it posted and keep y'all up to date as the work progresses.

See ya in the funny papers

NEED MONEY!!!!

So Apple has done it again! My former employer has pushed out more Aluminum and Plastic covered crack.

13" MacBook Pro

That's right I said MacBook Pro and 13" in the same line, and no I didn't stutter.

The "New" 13" MacBook Pro; what makes this a MBP? Spec wise it isn't much different from the previous unibody 13" MacBook, slightly faster chip, same GPU and shared memory, same max RAM. What is different, and thus the "Pro" tag, the screen is now the higher grade OLED, the new industry standard mini-monitor connection, back lit keyboard, and FIREWIRE is back. And the price tag is not bad either; at $1199.00, it is only $200.00 more then the white MB. Add to that AppleCare is still the MacBook price of $250.00 instead of the pricier $350.00 for the 15" and 17" MBP.

All this makes the "little" MBP the laptop for me. I really miss my old 12" G4 PowerBook and this updated 13" model should fit the bill nicely.

iPhone 3G*S

It looks the same on the outside, but is completely different on the inside.

It has a brand new 3MP camera with auto-focus that can also video capture at 30 fps. Not only can you capture video but you can also edit the video right there on the fly with all the elegance and panache on would expect from Apple.

The iPhone also now has an actual magnetic compass that is used by the map app and gives you your orientation on the map. This feature will be available to other app developers as well. And speaking of maps the 3.0 OS will allow integration of the Google Maps in other to other apps as well.

The iPhone is also getting a longer battery life. It is now on par with other cell phones as far as talk/standby time, but is still has features that make it a class unto itself.

There are many, many new features and wizgogs with the new iPhone. I will just have to go play with one to see all the great reasons why I need more money.

To the old geezer.

Happy birthday to me. Another year older and another year bolder.

Now where are all my presents.

Thanks to Cruft, Jay and Donna for their appropriately timed gifts. All well thought out and will be put to good use.

What a month

First, I want to apologize for not keeping up with the blog like I had intended. A lot has happened in the month of May. It started with me running around Texas like a chicken with its head cut off.

First, I get picked for jury duty. This causes a great deal of shuffling of my work schedule.

Second, we moved into a new house out of our apartment.

Third, my promotion finally came through.

Finally, my mom passed away on the 13th, ironic since she always said the number 13 never gave her any problems.

The jury duty has been postponed because my mom died and we are now completely out of the apartment. So now we are just faced with getting the house in order.

I will be posting a tribute to my mother later next week, as i get back into my regular schedule. Also my birthday is coming up so I will tell y'all about my presents.

Until then, see you in the funny papers.

TANKS, again.

Well with the completion of my first rifle platoon I finally get to work on my M4A1 Shermans. I have put a bunch of work on them already. I have drilled holes for the rare earth magnets in both the turrets and the hulls as well as ground down the area between the treads on 3 of them (these are the one piece resin models from "Open Fire") so the won't look like Patton's mock army in the south of England before D-Day.

I will post pics of them once I am done with them.

First Platoon finally complete

And here are the pics to prove it. I know they aren't the best, but they pass the three foot test and they aren't supposed to be individual masterpieces.

Here is the whole platoon, including CiC and bazooka team.

Another shot of the platoon.

Here is the company command section with the Cic, 2iC and two bazooka teams.

Here is my company CiC stand.

And here is one of the bazooka teams.

I plan on adding some sparse grass and small shrubs. They are supposed to represent 36th ID in Italy.

So, what do y'all think.

I know, I know,

I'm late. It has been a crazy week. I will be posting about the Fiesta trip and the awesome American Heroes celebration last Sunday, in the near future.

For now though, you get this.

I want to have the crew visit the Aberdeen Proving Ground Armor Museum.

This place looks so cool.

FIESTA!!!!

Hey everyone,

The entire crew is headed to San Antonio to celebrate the first weekend of Fiesta in San Antonio.

http://www.fiesta-sa.org/

See ya at the party.

Back to the obsession

Yes, Flames of Way again. Here is a 1750 point Late War US Italian Veterans Infantry Company.

HEADQUARTERS

Company HQ 20 pts

Bazooka Team 20@ x 2 40 pts
60 pts

COMBAT PLATOONS

Rifle Platoon w/ Bazooka Team 205 pts

Rifle Platoon w/ Bazooka Team 205 pts

Rifle Platoon w/ Bazooka Team 205 pts

Weapons Platoon w/ 2x MG sections 165 pts
780 pts

WEAPONS PLATOONS

Machine Gun Platoon w/ 2x MG sections 130 pts

130 pts

DIVISION SUPPORT

Tank Destroyer Platoon w/ 1x M10 sections 230 pts

Tank Platoon w/ 4x M4A1 Shermans 360 pts

Field Artillery w/ 2x 105mm Sections 190 pts
910 pts


Company Total 1750 pts

So that’s it.

Discuss.

See you in the trenches.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Good Friday instead of good Friday. There is a difference. With Easter approaching I have been doing some thinking. This will be short don't worry.

Why is the day that is verifiable, the day Christ died, variable? Where as the day that doesn't seem to be able to be nailed down, because the only witnesses are barn yard animals, is set in stone on the calendar.

I have my answer, you can think about it and figure it out for yourself.

Also why is it called Good Friday when that is the day Christ died?

Think about it.

Jamaica me crazy.

My very better 3 quarters and I recently stopped by our FLGS on their weekly board game day. We were just poking around looking at Flames of War stuff and puzzles, we moseyed our way back to the gaming rooms where there were several tables of board games being played. As we came up to one of the tables a guy asked if we wanted to play a game? I asked what game was he offering? Jamaica, was his answer.

Jamaica is a wonderful board game that is essentially a race game. The premiss is really great. The pirates in the area have "reformed" themselves and the island nation of Jamaica has asked them back for a regatta around the island. However, what happens on the "high seas" is anyone's guess. The pirates gather gold, gunpowder and food stores as they travel around the island. When the sail into port, it costs the captain (the player) gold, the stay out too long and it costs food and when they meet another pirate on the open seas they spend gunpowder to win the battle and steal the booty form the defeated pirate. They can also find buried treasure along the race route.

This game is quite fun and a great party game, I highly recommend this game to anybody.

The Battle of Olive Bridge

Cruft and I sat down Wednesday night and had ourselves a game of Flames of War. You have read about this new obsession of mine, it is the 15mm WWII miniatures game produced by the New Zealand company Battlefront.

I have some pictures and an after action report, so y'all can see what all the fuss is all about.

It was determined that Cruft would be the attacker while I would be the defender. We played the encounter mission, so we had to hold at least half our forces in reserve and not have them placed on the table until we could roll for them at the beginning of turn 3.

We placed our troops on the table, Cruft placing his StuG F/8 platoon with two tracks, Panzer III L platoon with three tracks and his anti-tank gun platoon with a pair of 5cm PaK 38 guns. I placed a full three squad rifle platoon, a platoo

n of four M4A1 Shermans, and my company command with the 2iC taking the bazooka teams as his own.

TURN 1

Cruft made the first move by advancing his tank platoons while under the protective eye of the anti-tank team. The StuGs opened up on the rifle platoon and took out the bazooka team. And the PaK 38s fired on my Sherman platoon and caused the tank covering the left flank to bail out. His Panzers weren't even as effective as that, missing with all shots.

I took my first turn and successfully dug-in my rifle company, using the Trusscott Trot my 2iC and the pair of bazookas advanced through terrain to outflank the StuGs and get into a better position to take them out. My Shermans advanced slightly trying to keep their side armor from becoming exposed to the Panzers to my right while still threatening the StuGs. The M4s fired on the StuGs and struck a few glancing hits, net even enough to make the crew jumpy enough to bail out.

Turn 2

Feeling confident, Cruft pushed closer with his StuGs and Panzers. Again he opened fire on my teams, this time the StuGs fired on the 'zook teams coming up on his flank. Although he had some nice hits, my guys dove behind some close by terrain and saved their hides. While this was going on the Panzers and PaK 38s took shots at the Sherman platoon but with no hits of any value.

The 'zooks felt they were at a good angle and came out of cover to bring the StuGs into range and fired, knocking one out. The platoon leader of the Shermans sees this and decides to split his platoons fire; two more shots down range to the StuGs and two toward the Panzers on his flank. These guys are excellent shots, the second StuG went up in a ball of flames and smoke while two of those pesky Panzers got their turrets popped. The third Panzer sees the carnage and decides discretion is the better part of valor and retreats from the battle.

Turn 3

Cruft brings on his PanzerGrenadier platoon and moves them up to the area just between the two olive groves preparing to deploy for the next action. Again the PaK 38s open fire on the Sherman platoon and makes three strong hits, but I made the miraculous roll of three sixes to save.

At this point Cruft still had some life in his forces, if he could keep that platoon from getting mauled and make an assault he could still pull out at least a draw. But that wasn't to be. I rolled for my reserves and got them, still some hope for the Germans. Nope they landed right on top of that battle saving platoon and obliterated them.

The coups de gras was the 'zook teams taking out half of the Pak 38s. With that blow, Cruft conceded defeat.

Fun was had by all.

This is the first time we have used the random terrain layout method as prescribed in the hardback rulebook. The process was fairly painless and resulted in a fairly dynamic table providing a very believable battlefield. The one thing I would have changed is the size of the battle area. when we started playing FOW, Cruft and I started on a small area of no more than 3'x2', this has grown to about 3'x4', as it was last night. With the number of points we are going to be able to field I think we need to expand to at least 4'x4' if not to the full 4'x6'.

Now that I have got about a half dozen games under my belt, I can honestly say I prefer this game over any other game I have played with my current gaming group. And I hope to expand my gaming horizons with all the historical gamers in the Austin area and the great support provided by my FLHGS.

See you in the trenches.

GREEN ! ! ! !

Going green is the new "thing" these days. It is all the rage, "everyone" is doing it, everyone except the "evil" conservatives that love digging coal, drilling oil, and killing polar bears.

Now let it be known I am a fairly conservative minded person, I believe in limited federal government and strong state rights. So being green is not on the top of my list. I have been hounded about "doing my share" and "saving our planet" by numerous tree huggers. This has been the tree hugger mantra for the last 20 years or so.

Well the tree huggers have been going about it all wrong. Most people are selfish and lazy by nature, so they won't go out of their way to recycle, or to use eco-friendly products. They have been pushing the whole "save the world", "save the polar bears", "save the owls" rhetoric.

What they should be doing is showing how when we recycle we can save money. For instance plastic bottles, if we don't recycle these things we have to make them out of petroleum. So the use of petroleum to make bottles drives the price of oil up, which in turn will cause the price of gas higher. And gas is to damned high now. (yes I know it is under $2.00 a gallon, but it is still to high.)

So, tree huggers stop trying to save the baby seals and start showing how we can save money.