De nerdibus

Have yourself a nerdy little Christmas...

2016-12-24T07:53:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure when the holidays became the time to let your nerd flag fly high, but I'm all for it!

Dancing with Dragons

2016-12-17T07:59:00.001-08:00

That feeling you get when the dragon who just kicked your ass goes airborne.

Friday night D&D. We took the dragon down in an epic combat that left the party with about a dozen hit points to share among us.

Star Wars: Armada

2016-11-12T04:30:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I posted anything from the Ambler Gamers. Sporadic meetings and my own laziness have all but killed this blog. But last night we met up for a game of Star Wars Armada. It was my first dip-of-the-toe in this game. I was familiar with SW: X-Wing. Despite some superficial similarities, Armada turned out to be nothing like X-Wing. While in many ways it was more complex, we all agreed that it felt just like a SW space battle, with lumbering capital ships and swarms of light ships and fighters trying to score an advantage. Scott provided the miniatures, and Joe provided the expansive playing space.

I'll say this right off the bat: Armada is the most visually impressive sci-fi space combat game I have yet played in.

Big ships hovering above the table...I wonder if anyone has made a stop-motion film of one of their games?

Here's my command: the bad boy Star Destroyers in the center of the Imperial fleet. They pack quite a punch to the front and can take a crap-ton of abuse, but I quickly learned that they have vulnerabilities, too.

We imperials had a hella lotta TIE fighters. Fun in swarms, but they are just as fragile as in the movies.

Both sides seemed to have the same idea: peel off ships in the center to get a local advantage. We randomized initiative instead of using the standard rule. It produced some nail-biting moments as commanders pushed their ships into the sights of the enemy.

My biggest Star Destroyer caught Joe's frog-like non-canonical vessel. The command system was fun in that we had to think hard about our priorities in combat. Launching a fighter strike at the right time can be devastating.

Mark and Jeremy sparred with smaller vessels to my right.Mark quickly gained an edge with a devastating strike against Jeremy's cruiser. I tried to get Jeremy support, but my lumbering ship was too slow.

Yes. Yes we are seriously going into an asteroid field. Never tell us the odds.

A shot towards the end of the game. We called it around 9:00. The rebels had lost some significant tonnage, but they had taken a heavy toll on the Imperials. Both of my Star Destroyers were in bad shape, and a serious salvo could have taken out either. Had we played to the conclusion, I'm not sure there would be many survivors...

Nerd Club!

2016-09-23T10:25:00.002-07:00

At the school where I teach, I am one of the faculty advisors of what has come to be known as the "Nerd Club!" (our official name is the Leland Society, named for Charles Godfrey Leland, a 19th century cartoonist/occultist/fantasy author who was an alumnus of the school). Yesterday, we held out first meeting of the year. What did we serve for refreshments? Well, September 22 is a pretty big day for fantasy nerds...

J1Con in the can...

2016-09-20T08:36:00.001-07:00

A video I made of our time at J1Con this past weekend, with my brother's former band providing the soundtrack.

Time and Relative Dimensions on my Workbench

2016-08-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I've posted anything, but that's because it's been a while since I painted anything. For the first time in years, I didn't give myself any big project to work on this summer. Eventually, the bug returned. I started off with these Dr. Who figures that have been in my unpainted pile for over a year now. I gave them a little more attention than I give my usual wargaming miniatures, with a few layers of shading. However, I'm still rubbish at photography. I had hoped that morning light would remedy the problems that come from my tomblike house. Short answer: no. It's me.

Miniatures are from Heresy and Crooked Dice.

Martha, the tenth Doctor, Rose, and Donna

Jenny, Strax, and Vastra

Amy, Rory, Amy from another manufacturer, and the eleventh Doctor

Capt. Jack Harkness and River Song

De Nerdibus: The Next Generation

2016-04-03T06:33:00.002-07:00

Well, as a reward for doing better in math, I agreed to indulge my daughter's nerdly enthusiasms. Thus we found ourselves attending her (and my ) first anime con: Zenkaikon in Lancaster, PA. I included her photos below, which emphasize her particular fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug, Undertale, Gravity Falls, and Steven Universe. I liked the theme of tolerance and self-expression which pervaded every event, and I crossed paths with two former students, both of whom were rather surprised to find me there.

Cold Wars

2016-03-19T17:47:00.002-07:00

Cold Wars usually falls at a very bad time of year for me. I'm either travelling on spring break, or else I'm swamped with a very busy week at work. However, with rumors that this might be the last HMGS convention at the notorious Lancaster Host "Resort," I felt I just had to go this once. I went out for the day on Saturday, and clearly a lot of people brought their "A" games.

The glowing icicles alone were enough to make me consider taking up Frostgrave.

Double blind: The only way to play Midway

My son would probably love any game with evil snowmen

Dealer hall!

The game I played in: the siege of Carcasonne during the Albigensian Crusade. I was on the side of the peasants who were due to be butchered (and broiled) should the Crusaders get inside the wall.

The castle was entirely scratch-built!

Victor Hiris was our GM and host. He provided a simple but elegant set of rules and kept things fast-paced and fun.

The peeing boy wound up rendering one of the besiegers' ladders unusable.

A key move turned out to be keeping a reserve peasant mob to plug up any holes. They plugged with extreme prejudice.

Our opponents elected to throw their entire force against the gate, which freed up a lot of our peasants to do the horde/swarm thing.

The first shot of the trebuchet brought down a corner tower. Stupid cheap construction! A swarm of knights prepare to go through the breach, one by one, right into the waiting and angry arms of the peasant horde. It won't end well...

On the other side, the attackers had some success with non-pee-soaked ladders.

The horde killed more knights with insanely accurate rocks than cholera and Plague combined.

The ram proved ineffective, but the scaling parties were able to render the point moot when they opened the gate. But there were few attackers left to exploit the opening.

The gate was about to become a dangerous place. But time was running out, and there was still an inner keep that remained to be cracked.

Young Frankenstein!

Teaching the Revolution

2016-03-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

From the newsletter of the Towamencin Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution:

Mark Rabuck, historian, met with the children to tell them about the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is the 250^th Anniversary of the Battle. He used a diorama with toy soldiers to show them what happened.

They learned that most of the fighting took place in 1775 on Breed Hill not Bunker Hill. General Howe was the leader for the British and General Prescott was the leader for the Patriots. During the fight, the Patriots stayed up all night to build a huge wall like structure – the British were very surprised to wake up and see it the next day. The expression “don’t shoot until you see the whites of their ‘eyes’ “ was coined in this battle because the Patriots ran out of ammunition and eventually had to flee. The Patriots lost 145 soldiers with 274 wounded, while the British were the big losers with 226 killed and 828 wounded. The Patriots may have lost but they left feeling very confident for the next battle.

OK, the press misreported a few details. But the kids were a great audience who asked lots of good questions. And they loved the minis, of course.

Miniature soldiers...is there anything they can't do?

Here they come again!

2016-03-16T18:03:00.001-07:00

After the first two sessions, I moved all of the units back to their starting positions. Both British and Zulus got to recover some casualties, each side was able to redeploy (the poor British had to set all of their troops in place before they knew where the Zulus would attack). Once the halftime show was complete, the Zulus began their second wave.

The Zulus find the blind spot in the British defenses...

I knew the game was going well when both sides declared that it would be impossible for them to win the battle.

The north wall holds,for now, but another impi approaches from the west.

Once more, the Zulus hit the rampart by the hospital. Friday's session will determine the final outcome.

Rorke's Drift 2016

2016-03-14T16:53:00.001-07:00

Our study of Rorke's Drift/Isandlwana last year was so resoundingly popular that I decided to add it to the regular rotation. Comparing Zulu and British ways of thinking about war was provocative, especially after reading Marlantes' What it is like to go to War. And, of course, we got to watch Zulu, one of the best war films of all time, in my opinion. Ian Knight provided a lot of the reading for this section, through both his excellent Zulu Rising and his more approachable Osprey book on the Zulu War.

The Battlefield. I gave the students a chance to deploy the British inside the compound. The two "horns" of the Zulu attack were moved off the board and allowed to appear anywhere on the flanks on turn three.

Bromhead's platoon. Though most of the figures are Old Glory,I have some plastic Zulus from Warlord. And, of course, I had to represent the cinematic heroes with the character miniatures from Empress! Michael Caine can be seen in the left foreground. Note that this is before the students deployed the British infantry within the compound.

And here is Stanley Baker with his platoon.

Two Zulu leaders push the head and loins at the ramparts. The northern walls seem thinly manned...

Holy crap! says a British commander. That's a lot of Zulus!

Where we left off today's session. Despite heavy fire, two impis reach the walls.

My mandala week

2016-03-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

So, I write about miniatures so often in this blog, I frequently neglect some of my other nerdy enthusiasms. But I here confess to being an art nerd, so it was a thrill for me when the Art Department at my school invited a Buddhist monk named Losang Samten to create a sand mandala in our school over the course of a week. Losang told us that his mandala signified "compassion," and he took plenty of time to talk and meditate and joke with teachers and students. He's sort of like Yoda with better grammar. The gamer in me noticed how much the mandala resembled a landscape--it was far more textured than I realized. It was very easy to get lost in its elegant contours.

I thought it was funny that Losang used dyes from the craft store, where I buy my terrain paints. The natural earth colors he obtains from Sedona, where the Rabuck clan will be visiting in a week..

And people say that painting miniatures takes patience!

At the end of the week, Losang and some of the younger students destroyed the mandala. Don't get too attached to material things (unless they're your best painted minis. I'm pretty sure Buddha allowed an exception for those).

We carried the colored sand in a procession across campus...

...and dumped it into the Wissahickon Creek. Losang is 75% of the way across the photo, and you can see a thin trail of sand falling into the water. What a cool thing to experience, and what great relief to be able to visit the mandala in a busy and stress-filled week.

Tabletop Germantown 2016

2016-03-11T08:40:00.002-08:00

It's time for my Military History class to take what they've learned from their theoretical readings (Clausewitz and Sun Tzu) and their reading about their first case study (The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777, in which our school played a minor role) and take it to the tabletop and try to win a battle.

This year, we were using my 15mm AWI troops and a set of rules that echoes Black Powder, but embraces many concepts of the house rules my club regularly plays with.

Washington advances up Germantown Pike towards the Chew House. Like the historical general, he decided to engage the Light Bobs garrisoned there rather than plunge ahead to the main British lines.

The main British force in Germantown. A smallish game this year, as I only have six students in the class.

The battlefield from the south. Though our school moved out of Germantown in the 1960's we are still along the banks of the Wissahickon Creek, which lies on the left.

The British commanders talk tactics.

While the Yanks dice to see when the other wings of Washington's force arrive. As it turns out, the Game Washington was much more lucky with the timing of his attack than the historical Washington was. This proved to be a decisive factor in the outcome, as the British elite reserve took its sweet time arriving.

The troops on Washington's far left were able to encircle Germantown. Historically, these militia units (meant to be a diversion) never showed up.

The British commander committed the whole Hessian force to stop Armstrong's Pennsylvania militia on the Continental far right. In the post-game analysis, the British commanders realized that they should have sent one unit to delay these troops while sending most of their force to hold the center.

Teenage generals are often impatient. Much of the British line advanced north to meet the continentals, rather than wait for them to fight on ground of their choosing.

The Chew House served as a minor speed bump, and with their reinforcements arriving early, the Continentals were able to engage a smaller British force just north of Germantown.

When the British elites finally arrived, they found some Virginia line waiting for them. To make matters worse, a botched command roll meant that the columns of soldiers had to take enfilade fire down the length of their column for two turns.

Can it get worse for the British? With utterly abysmal dice rolls, anything is possible! The Hessian move across the Wissahickon met with disaster, and despite the best efforts of their Jagers, the longer ranges of the militia rifles proved telling

Washington starts to strut as he rides triumphantly into Germantown.

Run away!

The Nerd Club hosts the Normals

2016-03-11T08:22:00.001-08:00

Every year, our school allows members of the community to host mini-assemblies. This year, clubs were encouraged to share their enthusiasms with their peers. The Leland Society (named after former student and American proto-nerd Charles Godfrey Leland), also known as "The Nerd Club," hosted a variety of nerdy games. We had Settlers of Catan, King of New York, and a game of X-Wing (which I ran).

Pilots of the Galactic Empire

And their rebel scum counterparts

King of New York on the left. On the right, a maze game with mirrors and lasers.

The guys were really getting into Settlers. It took only a few minutes for the jokes about sheep and "woods" to come out.

The Falcon and Po Dameron took advantage of an uncoordinated Imperial attack.

Overall, the kids had a blast. Rumor had it that the nerds put on the best show. But we all knew that, didn't we?

Been a long time

2016-02-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since I posted here. I've been keeping my nerdy self busy since last fall: adding zombies to my 28mm fantasy collection and testing out some rules I wrote with Germantown Academy's Leland Society (aka "Nerd Club"), whipping up some 28mm WWII Americans and Germans ("teaching tools for my Military History class," if anyone asks), painting up 15mm Stormtroopers and Rebel scum, and adding a few Napoleonic odds and ends. Despite that rush of activity, I've been too lazy to post any of it online.

Then, last week, after many weeks of dormancy and scheduling conflicts, I was able to game with the Ambler Gamers once more. Last week's game was AWI, with a Franco-American force trying to hold three bridges against the British and Hessians. Kind of an 18th century "Bridge Too Far." Joe had the Game Cave tidied up, with a full table ready to go.

Below, the American regulars and militia prepare to head off the main British thrust.

Above, my French, whose mission was to secure one of the bridges. Their left flank was to be secured by a brigade of American troops. As fate would have it, these same Yanks helped the Hessians to improve their marksmanship by catching unfortunate amounts of lead. The French performed capably, thanks to Steve's ice-cold dice, but thanks to their exposed flank, stood no chance of holding their ground.

(Below) While Scott plans his advance, Joe shows Herb his Hessian brigades. These naughty little sausage eaters would prove to be my bane.

We had some special guests at our game--two gentlemen looking to produce a show for the Discovery network which would explain famous historical battles with the use of military miniatures. We were happy to share with them our particular brand of nerdy goodness.

Revolutionary Germantown 2015

2015-10-03T11:39:00.002-07:00

A fun day out with the kids and the Children of the American Revolution. The damp weather kept the crowds away,but the soldiers provided an engaging show with drama mixed with light moments. The American gun was trained on our exact position, and even though they were firing blanks and I had a line of Redcoats to catch any grapeshot, I still felt intimidated.

Welcome back to school 2016: A Close Run Thing

2015-09-04T08:18:00.001-07:00

Like many schools, the school where I teach has a summer reading programs. Unlike most other schools, my school allows individual teachers to choose a book of interest to them. Then, on the second day after the end of summer vacation, the students engage in a day full of activities related to their book. This year, a colleague and I offered Iain Gale's Four Days in June. This historical novel tells the story of Waterloo from several different perspectives, and the students seemed to have enjoyed it. In the morning we showed the film and talked about why things were the way they were in regards to weapons, uniforms, and tactics. Then, in the afternoon, we brought out my collection of 28mm Napoleonics, and we fought a scaled-down version of the battle ourselves.

Team France. They look cheerful and enthusiastic. If they only knew what lay ahead...

Team Britain/Prussia. Since the book focused largely on the Hougoumont and the arrival of the Prussians, those were the key elements in this game.

Due to bad command rolls and general timidity, the French advance was very slow. An uncoordinated, piecemeal attack didn't work in 1815, and, dammit, it wasn't going to work a century later.

The French did manage a few breakthrough moments, as when the heavy cavalry made a hole i n the center of the British line, however, without infantry or artillery to support it (sound familiar?) the British soon plugged the hole in their lines.

Fighting raged around the Hougoumont all game. While French artillery scored some early hits on the chateau. the defenders and their supporting units were able to hold on.

Due to some truly crappy dice rolling, the Prussians failed to appear on the field at all. This meant that, despite their success in other sectors, Wellington's left had to beat a fighting retreat to the center of the field. When we ended the fame, the Anglo-Allied army held the center, though a few more turns of French attack (who had finally managed to coordinate) might have made a difference.

And now the eye candy...

Good heavens, sir! The French are going to advance right across Mr. Trump's hair!

How hard can it be to capture one chateau?

My armies are painted for the Peninsula. Playing the role of the Prussians are some Portuguese infantry and Spanish cavalry and artillery.

Friday Night's Pretty Dang Good for Fighting

2015-08-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend saw a "Supermoon" in the night sky, and that must have meant the stars were aligned just right for all of the Ambler Gamer regulars to come to Joe's house for a War of Spanish Succession Slugfest. Over 1500 figures contested the field, and some early choices and extreme die rolls determined the outcome.

Mark, Scott, and Steve T chat before the game. We used Mark's rules, and he was kind enough to referee. Like all of our preferred sets, play was fast, bloody, and decisive. Unlike other WSS games I have played, cavalry did not cancel each other out early in the game.

Here is the main part of my command on the allied right flank. With some good initiative rolls early on and a brigade of infantry (not shown) that I pulled away from the center, I thought I would have a cakewalk against Joe, my opponent. It didn't hurt my cause that Joe made a series of catastrophically bad rolls on turn two, essentially giving my troops a free bound to capture the objective and set up a defense.

Scott looks sadly at the glacial advance of the troops in the French center.

On the far side of the table, Steve P surged onto the French right flank. His infantry dig in against an expected counterattack by the French cavalry.

While my own die rolls were not great, I felt confident enough against Joe's formed infantry to ignore the dismounted dragoons who had crept through the woods onto my flank. My reinforcements would take care of them, I thought.

After advancing the Guard to the center of the table, Scott advances the turn marker. Mark reminds him that there are only two turns left.

Though the green objective marker is firmly under my control, a sustained firefight is leaving my troops shaken and bloody. Sensing an opportunity, Joe sends reinforcements to push me back. By the end of the game, the best I could claim was that the objective was "contested." Not shown: given that our cavalry had stared at each other for most of the game, I thought I would shake things up in the final turns with a cavalry charge. If I could threaten Joe's flank, I could shake off the shame of a "contested" objective. Bad idea. You know, sometimes cavalry charges don't work. A dead officer and two shattered regiments later, I found my own flank threatened.

Steve P cannot fathom the rotten showing of the British cavalry, who have failed to take any pressure off of the foot soldiers opposing the French Guard. Suddenly, the Allied position looks far less certain.

The British line is trained and resilient, but the French cavalry is out for blood. The Allied left starts to look shaky. Sort of like my hands in these long-range shots.

By the time the French Guard started to have its morale waver, the French and Bavarians had completely secured the center of the battlefield. The brigade I had pulled off to reinforce my right could certainly have been better used to hold the center of the field. Would it have been enough to turn the tide of battle? Such questions are why we gamers keep coming back for more...

How have I not noticed this before?

2015-08-04T07:01:00.002-07:00

On our recent trip to Lancaster County, I saw this sign posted just outside of Columbia, PA. No wonder the central part of our state is so messed up. They're in need of some serious Tudor intervention.

And for those of you for whom that joke made no sense,please do a little background reading.

2015 Historicon report: Saturday

2015-07-19T04:10:00.001-07:00

Alas, a last day at Historicon. I played in two games, helped to referee another, and saw lots of miniature eye-candy.

This is only half of a game with a cool double-blind setup.

This was an interesting Plancenoit scenario I took part in, led by the fun-lovin' boys from Jersey. An interesting scenario, with a long, thin table that turned our battle into a meat grinder, just like the historical one.

My troops. I led the French vanguard. My job was to hold off the French long enough for my fellow players to occupy the village and bring up the guard. I was kinda successful, but history is not kind to speed bumps.

Prussians on the ramparts!

The village that was the focal point of the battle. Anyone who says that the Prussians just showed up at the last minute to carry the day needs to get a taste for the bloody combat that went on here.

We're in the village. To keep the battlefield tidy, I eventually routed all of my cavalry off of it.

I had to leave early to help Joe set up his game, but here is how I left the battle, with my lines staring into the legions of landwehr bearing down on me...

On Saturday afternoon, I helped Joe Alexander (of Ambler Gamers) set up and run a Spanish Civil War scenario. We used a simplified version of Bolt Action that guaranteed a fast, bloody game. Just the way we like 'em.

I got to contribute my 28mm MBA Spanish houses, including a barn I had picked up from their clearance table the day before. The houses were objectives, and most changed hands several times in the course of the game.

Communist militia backed by the Soviets face of against Falangists backed by the Nazis. Who are we supposed to root for again?

Joe!

Our mascot!

The Foreign Legion creeps toward an objective.

Nationalists allocate resources.

And Republicans surge forward.

Things start to get hairy around one of the objectives. Both sides waited until they were very close to open fire, guaranteeing lots of casualties.

The other side of the table saw more armored action, with vehicles and troops swarming around the church.

The International Brigade comes knockin'.

The saddest little piece of artillery in the game. Pinned, shot up, and immobilized.

The final assault on the church. It changed hands three times in the last turn.

A crazy-looking game involving a raid on an airfield in North Africa.

Those who don't like Zombies at Historicon may avert your eyes.

My last game, the Attack on the Kashmiri Gate, led by Roxanne Patton. Some terrific terrain designed and built by none other than Ambler Gamers' own Scott Washburn.

The British and their Sikh subjects prepare to leave the Customs House.

My command--disorganized Mutineers.

Roxanne and my opponents discuss the assault.

My guns did their best to keep the British off of the breach.

Not going to happen. I was not able to take advantage of the bottleneck.

How do you solve a problem like Historicon?

2015-07-17T19:03:00.002-07:00

Friday evening, I was back for more games and eye candy.

This amazing setup was for some kind of pulp/role-playing game. Looked pretty entertaining.

Nice miniature, lady, but finding terrain in that scale is going to be really expensive. This was the first year I watched some of the Hobby U workshops. I may have to give one a try next year.

Where do smart gamers eat? Wegmans!

The Gnomies were out in force, as always.

And here's my Friday night game. Note that the hills are alive with the sound of Uzis.

The majestic Alps. the foam hills are Switzerland, to which the von Trapps had to flee.

The Austrian polizie, with Kommandant Schwartzenegger

Lonely goatherd? Check.

The adorable von Trapps

The nuns. There were two groups of nuns with guns. The one on the right is led by soul singing Sister Whoopie

In this scenario, the jilted baroness forms a crack legion of female nazi chorus girls straight from The Producers.

The lonely goatherdess. She successfully hooked up with the goatherd.

Rolf and the Hitler youth, a repressed sea of homoerotic energy.

The anti-Maria, played by Carrie Underwood (who starred in the live TV version). Her goal was to replace Julie Andrews. As if.

Some kind of symbolic white flower. I forget what it's called.

The Wasileskis, crafters, referees, and showmen extraordinaire

I played the stern Mother Superior and her kickass nuns. Climb every mountain, baby.

The whole table from Salzburg to the Alps.

My nuns tried to ambush the Hitler Youth in the graveyard. Sadly, the nun ninjas I sent to finish Rolf off got gunned down, leaving me at half strength.

The police tried to pull over the gangsters (who were looking for Sister Whoopie). A chase and gunfight ended in a wreck.

Wait! That's not Julie Andrews!

Not to worry. Julie is up and dies a flying windmill kick.

My remaining nuns pursue the wermacht, led by the bitter composer from The Producers.

Theatrical Agent Max drives a beer truck into some German motorcycle troops. Beer!

In the end, Maria (the real one) won best in show. In the game, you could reroll a bad outcome if you sang a show tune. It wasn't pretty. Anyhow, in the epilogue, the Marias ran off together to found a lesbian music festival in New York. The Captain got hitched to the baroness, but died tragically in a u-boat in the war. The gangsters remained in Europe to become brewers with the surviving Wehrmacht, while Sister Whoopie went and founded a convent in the Nevada desert. me? Mother Superior remained in Austria and founded a new convent/auto body repair shop--Our Lady of the Manifold.

Friday Morning at Historicon

2015-07-17T11:34:00.001-07:00

For me, one of the real joys of Historicon is walking around and admiring all of the time, effort and talent gamers put into the scenarios the offer up for the community. This year's convention was no disappointment. I took a lot of photos Friday morning. More to come soon!

My Friday morning game: A Day in the Second Afghan War, by the friendly and gracious Bob Bryant. I fought on the British side, assaulting a ridge held by stubborn Pathans.

My command was the infantry on the right, composed of line infantry, Sepoys, and Highlanders. My boys fought bravely, pinning the Pathan cavalry before turning up the ridge.

Scott and Paper Terrain will be happy to take your money! He makes some amazing stuff, and we're lucky to have him in the Ambler Gamers community.

Historicon and Giants

2015-07-16T04:38:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow I'm off to Historicon, leaving in the wee hours to avoid DC traffic. I'm looking forward to a long weekend of gaming and hanging out with fellow nerds. I'm signed up for a Napoleonic game and a skirmish game based on "The Sound of Music" (!). I'm also helping Joe Alexander run a Spanish Civil War game that was a lot of fun when we tested it last week.,

And just before I left, I finished up some Reaper Bones giants. I'm using them as test samples before I go all in on the current kickstarter. While I'm not happy with my paint job on the male storm giant, they allayed my concerns about paint adherence. As far as the price goes, they can't be beat. Even at retail, these minis were about 1/4 of the price I would pay for metal. The Kickstarter halves even that low price.

Fort Mifflin Game Day, 2015

2015-07-11T13:35:00.003-07:00

Thanks to a head's up from fellow miniatures gamer Eric Turner, I learned about a games day at Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia's own star fort and site of a dramatic battle in 1777. My brother Adam brought his son Jonah, and it was a great day for a family outing. As I was playing Dad, I could not get in on the miniatures gaming, but since there was so much to see and do, I didn't mind in the least. It was my first visit to Fort Mifflin, a place I have wanted to visit for decades, ever since I caught a glimpse of it out of an airplane window on the approach to PHL (Indeed, my kids loved having jets scream overhead every five minutes).

Due to a misreading, Audrey was vaguely disappointed when she learned we were not about to visit "Fort Muffin." I confess that would have been cool.

The land approach. The existing fort dates to the early- to mid-19th century, the original having been pounded into rubble by the British navy.

Eric (at right) trying to get his Redoats up Bunker Hill.

The afternoon game waits its turn.

Tristan gets pegged in the belly with a cannonball.

Dungeon dancing.

Adam and Jonah arrive just as we reach the ramparts.

No, serious. This was an actual dungeon, home to many unfortunate confederates in the Civil War.

Gun emplacements overlooking the Delaware.

An itty bitty gun.

The reproduction cartoon lampoons the attack on Fort Mifflin. the fort is personified as a woman firing a cannon between her legs. I think this image gives Dr. Freud a posthumous headache. BTW, the ship portrayed in the lower left is named the "Roebuck." I assume it's named for an ancestor.

There were teams of Quiddich players doing their thing. Laugh if you will, but any sport that involves running around with a wooden pole between your legs takes pure courage. They haven't built the cup that's strong enough for me to give it a try.

The main gate. The kids were impressed that the fort had a moat.

Checking out a powder magazine. Apparently Adam and I were not supposed to stand atop it.

Audrey's favorite part was playing Dungeons and Dragons in an actual dungeon. That's the sort of thing that can raise one's nerd cred 17 points.

Tristan and I found this swallow's nest in one corner of the dungeon. There were three speckled eggs inside.

Am I the only one to notice...

2015-07-11T13:16:00.002-07:00

...that Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) is left-handed.