First game

A 91 win after losing 33 out of 34.5 elements against abbasids.

Combat in bound 1 !!

A 27.5 ee command (of mine) totally eliminated!!!

THe Vikings have definately landed....

And we are now in the pub.

Sweden

Having breakfast now, after spending over £50 on beer last night. Each. And
we only had a kebab.

£5 for 400ml of beer is a bit severe isn't it?

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Stockholm 'Nordic Championships' 8-10th June

Here is an updated list for the coming weekend....
1. Jesper Ohlsson Later Carthaginian II/32
2. Niilo Kalakoski Pictish II/68
3. Hannu Uusitalo Fanatic Berber III/74
4. Kimmo Ylinen
5. Mika Mäkelä Early Samurai III/54
6. Tero Särkijärvi Minoan I/18
7. Arne Björk Order of St. John IV/56
8. Ulf Olsson Abbasid Arab III/37
9. Chris Smith Medieval O'irish IV/58
10 .Me!  Norse Viking III/40
11. Brian Holmes Mithridatic II/48
12. Ludvig Uhlbors Iazyges II/26 ( I know...)
13. Greg Mann Papal Italian 1283 AD III/72
14. Sebastian Routh
15. Andy Routh
The mystery armies are still in there. Not sure what Routhish will have in
it !

Nordic Championships Runners & Riders

My Viking army will go to Sweden in June to play in the Nordic DBM
Championships
The runners and riders so far are:
Jesper Ohlsson Later Carthaginian II/32
2. Niilo Kalakoski Pictish II/68
3. Hannu Uusitalo Fanatic Berber III/74
4. Kimmo Ylinen
5. Mika Mäkelä
6. Tero Särkijärvi
7. Arne Björk Order of St. John IV/56
8. Ulf Olsson Abbasid Arab III/37
9. Chris Smith Medieval O'irish IV/58
10 Me!!  Norse Viking III/40
11. Brian Holmes Mithridatic II/48
12. Ludvig Uhlbors Iazyges II/26
I'm not sure if numbers 4 thru 6 are the players or their armies !
My Viking list is the proper thing - Bd F, pre 850 AD.
Coals to Newcastle !

The Result

A crushing victory for the cathaginian - the filler plus skirmishers plus 3 units of killer cavalry (inlcuding an elephant unit) worked well as they picked apart an Alexandrian army with far too few skirmishers.

 

The Numidians even managed to devastate a unit of Argyaspid Pikemen, killing 1/3 of them in one round of shooting from 3 units of light horse.

 

The Alexandrians had no answer to shoot-evade tactics.

 

Still not convinced though - not really working as a simulation of ancient warfare at 1000 points. It needs more points or a "play nicely children" rule added I fear!

Warhamster Tonight

Going to be trying out a highly mobile hard hitting Carthaginian army tonight, with elephants, 2 units of shock cavalry and a core of compulsary infantry and optional warband to bulk it out

My theory is that the game revolves around a bit of messing about coupled with some decisive rounds of combat from the uber troops. So expendable ubertroops due to a cute army composition, plus a mess of skirmishers might just work

PBI Last Weekend

Played PBI in Portbury this last weekend, giving the mighty 1939 Belgians a run out - and they actually did quite well, coming 2nd overall.

 

With 3 defensive games they managed to hold off 2 sets of Later War Germans (both with Volksturm impressed infantry and elite panzers) and then a wall of Italians dashed themsleves against the Maginot line for a large victory for the Flems and Walloons

 

Pictures and a report to come

 

 

 

 

Warhamster

Played another game of Warhamster on Tuesday - the 2nd with my new whizzy 10mm figures. My Greeks just about beat an Indian army, after we both worked out that shooting is only one attack per base, not the number of attacks given in the army lists (which must be for combat only).

10mm figures look really good - if they had been around 15 years ago, I doubt there would be much 15mm being played now - or then again maybe we'd be onto 8mm or 7mm instead!!

I remain to be fully convinced by Warhamster - nice simple game, and definately has some more depth than it first appears, however the ability of bodies of troops to jump around the table still feels odd - or certainly not in line with my view of what ancient warfare consisted of.

In many of the games I have played it also is a lot of dancing about, and then one "super-unit" charges in and knocks down 2 or 3 enemy units and then bounces off, either alive or dead - and that seems to decide the game. It will be interesting at Devizes to see how the rules stand up to competition - I can't help feeling they are fine if people "play nicely" but whether they work as well when people want to win remains to be seen.

Pulp Birmingham

Or, Why Joey Miller really wants to make the US team for Ghent ...

The famous Trout of The Confederacy

Steve & Adam discover the truth behind those internet rumours outside The Museum of The Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia

The end of the Line

We are now ending our epic journey. Antietam yesterday finished our Civil war odessey, and vodka and red bull finished us generally. Back to the airport for the flight home......

manassas

First Bull Run

Walking the field right now. Sun is shining. Sky is blue. And there are lots of those clever fences that all three of us are thinking how we can make out of matchsticks!

The end of the Campaign is in sight!

Yesterday we covered land and sea, modern and old, by taking in the USS Wisconsin at Norfolk Virginia's Naval museum, and then the museum and battlefield tour of the British defeat (!!) at Yorktown in the American War of Independance. Apparently we almost accidentally surrendered to the French, so a narrow escape there then....

The Wisconsin is rather large and very grey,

..and the Yorktown site is fantastic - a really American place, in that it allows drive through tours, where you dont even have to get out of the car to see some of the sights and read the information boards.

We ended up in ex Capital of the Confederacy, Richmond, and today our agenda should include the museum here, then a trip to Manassas and Antietam ("Anne-tee-tam"). The Museum of Aviation near Dulles Airport is on the list for Friday.

Unfortunately the business centre computeres in the places we have been staying recently are cleverly put together, and I cant upload photos from my camera to them, but there will be plenty coming in the next few weeks !

18th - Wednesday

We are now in Winston-Salem, a traditional town where the residents still believe the Prime Minister of England is a Witch.

Yesterday we attempted to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway whilst listening to Bluegrass music and spitting chewed corn cobs out of the car window every 200 yeards. This proved somewhat difficult as the Parkway was closed - for no apparent reason.

Last night a local resident narrowly escaped a heavy beating, as we walked 6 blocks to find what our guidebook described as the best restaurant in Winston Salem, as all three of us had just about reached the EU legal limit for the number of fried and grilled meat based meals one is allowed to have in any one week, and we were desparate for "proper" food.

Unfortunately the restaurant was closing as we walked in (at 930pm), but the barman was able to helpfully recommend an alternative. When we asked him what it served, he volunteered the information "Oh yeah, they serve REALLY great Chicken Wings. And the Sandwiches and Ribs are excellent too...."

He will live his life not knowing how lucky he was...and we are one step closer to believing Clarkson is right - here is more Top Gear

textbook stuff

We saw both types of music in Nashville, watched baseball in Chattanooga, and now are on the road listening to Springsteen.

What's not to like?

3 Bars

3 versions of "Sweet Home Alabama". Welcome to the South

heckle That !

Right now all 3 of us are in a bar where someone (a mid 40s mousey haired glasses wearing librarian/hairdresser) has just shouted out a request to the band for a song by Conway Twitty loudly enough to be heard over the noise of the band. .

Now, That is what I call entertainment....

Boy Band of NICT?

Note the remarkable similarity between Scott "baseball cap and hoodie" Jeske and any member you wish to choose of Boy-band Backstreet Boys??

Rumour on the North American DBM circuit is that Jeske was an original member, but found the competition from the other five members in the original lineup of the band was too intense.

However he has taken counselling since then, allowing him to succesfully become The American Continents Best DBM Player This Year For Sure Uncontested etc etc etc as NICT Invitaional Champion where he won from a similarly sized field of , erm, 6

Hilton Nearly Kills us All

Before the tourney started we took a late night ride to Hooters with Hilton in his mobile Roy Orbison Shrine/Widescreen Cinema



Handsfree driving means something different in the UK. At least he had only been drinking Miller Lite !

Steve Royle on Monorail at Gatwick

In Britain today there are many people like Steve.

But they are all special, and need our support

Please send your donations to

BHGS

The White Cottage....

Me Collecting the Winning trophy In Birmingham

The information published by the Yanks is all lies!! This Marc Crotteau bloke (on the right) is NOT accepting the "best Placed Non Brit" award donated by me, Steve & Adam - he's giving the winners prize to ME, honest!!!

Is there a Hooters in Ascot...?

Me with my new friend Hollie on the first evening in Birmingham Alabama.

I suspect will never quite have the same degree of positive sentiment about the offerings of the the curry house in Ascot ....

Finally...

We had more time than I thought, so after the CinC command was almost totally eliminated by the Germans some light horse sacked the Jewish baggage and the final element came as the elite of the Judean army, some Ax S came out of the rough to take on my light horse.... And lost on a 6-1 !!!!!

.

Steve lost to Steve Payne, so Marc Crotteau wins.

What a weekend!

Now for the holiday - more reports to come.

Photos to follow of our evenings out in a few days, and full game reports in more depth in a few weeks.

.

Yee Hah !!

ps - Talledega Speedway actually exists as a real place - we saw it! We thought it was made up for the film!!

Almost!

Got the CinC but still need 3 more elements. And I can't see them .

Need to work out how much time is left

The Teutons have a lot of dead stuff to wade through

Still grinding on

Germans are nearly in but there are a lot of judeans to kill here and I'm making no progress with the rest of my army as it has been becalmed with had pips for a few turns.

The Parthians

Are about to go I think. All 4 cats killed by wagon action. This will bring the Germans online, and allow me to go on the offensive.

My aux attack has virtually petered out on my right...

So far

Its all very bitty but the teutons are still unreliable.

I am having to mess about with wagons to try and create something as my army is rather toothless without the Germans.

My attack on the right with the aux has stalled due to poor pips.

The only opp is to pick on the Parthians with wagons and try and make a hole in the line to get the Germans online again.

.

Its started

The teutons are unreliable with a line of bd I facing them!! Doh!

But there may be a chance to push on my right over some ps I with my auxilia and flank some Bw I

So, I will attack anyway!

Sunday am

I'm lying in 6th or 7th, playing Ricky and his Later Judeans. Lots of terrain here so far. A morning of extracting auxilia I feel....

Steve is in the hot seat as far as is Brits go, sitting in 4th

1:25am

We are in a redneck Karroke Bar in the middle of nowhere. We only recognise 10% of the artists on the juke box. There are adverts for the NASCAR special bargain deal (it involves Bud and free ham).

This is why we came !