Sapper Joe's Wargaming & Toys

Movie Review: “The Iron Lady” (2012)

2012-01-28T23:01:00.000-06:00

I liked this movie! Meryl Streep well deserves every award and nomination that she gets for her role as Margaret Thatcher. This movie is about Margaret Thatcher, the woman that rose to power as one of the longest lasting Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and not about her policies. They touch on her policies, as it would not be possible not to without explaining her decline as the head of her party. Whether you like Thatcher or despised her, one can’t deny that she was a powerful figure in the British politics.

The movie is done through flashbacks, after Thatcher has suffered her strokes and memory losses. While I don’t recall them ever giving an actual date when the modern day scenes are suppose to be taking place, one event where they place an statue of her in Parliament and that occurred in Feb., 2007. As part of her memory lost, she is repeated visited by her dead husband, Sir Dennis Thatcher, played by Jim Broadbent.

There are scenes in the movie that touch on what I am doing for my Falklands project and the Anarchy in the UK project. The Falklands section is probably only 5 to 10 minutes long, but was very interesting, especially with her meeting with the US Secretary of State, Alexander Haig and the scene dealing with the sinking of the General Belgrano.

Again, I enjoyed it and think it is worth the seeing if one is interested in the 1980’s UK.

Cheers,

Joe

IABSM3 Play test – Falklands

2012-01-17T14:19:00.000-06:00

Well, this Sunday we did another play test of IABSM3 to introduce more of the rules like indirect fire, snipers, and night fighting. We did this play test at Wargamer’s Cave (link) again, but this time using my 20mm Falklands figures. The scenario was a fictional engagement of two platoons of UK Para’s with some support (a SFGPMG team, a Carl Gustav team, and a half battery of 105mm on call) vs. a weak platoon of Argentine Army Commandos with some support (a SFGPMG team, a section of 81mm mortars with a FOO, and a sniper). Steve H. was running the Para’s and Curtis T. was running the Commandos. Each Para figure was equal to two men and the Commando figures were 1 figure to 1 man. I didn’t get my Falkland’s Blinds done, so I was using Viet Cong blinds for the Commandos and the Para’s did not start under blinds. I also did not get my Art Cow cards yet either.

The background of the scenario is that the Commandos were camped out at a farm, but expecting a push by the British, was able to deploy his platoon and support in about the center of the board. The Para’s were on a time schedule, so had to advance in a fairly straight line until an engagement broke out.

I failed to take photographs until about half way through the game. So, what happen earlier in play test was the Commandos were very observant and spotted the Para’s right off at the get go, but the Para’s were have some problems spotting until their Big Men started using their flares. Thanks to the flares and the poor dice rolling by Curtis, the Commandos were losing men, but doing no damage to the Para’s.

One of the Para platoons laid a base of fire as the other started to flank the Commandos. The Para’s never got their FOO in to a position to call in the 105’s, but the Commandos were able to eventually get their 81’s to fire for effect on one of the Para sections. The flanking Para platoon crested the hill next to the Commandos. With that, the Argentine commander orders the one section of Commandos still around to charge up the hill against two Para sections. It did not go well for the Commandos.

At the end of the game, fourteen Argentine Commandos were killed, mostly from the charge up the hill. Three Para’s were killed, with two from the Commando charge and one from the mortar attack. I think everyone enjoyed the game, but we still need to get more familiar with the new Big Man rules.

Argentine Commandos in defensive positions

The Para Platoon making a flanking attack

Preparing to cease the hill crest

Moments before the Commando's charge

The Commando's charge

The result from the Commando's six dice, two Para's killed

The results of the Para's 20 dice, 12 Commandos killed

Falklands, IABSM3, Litko, and Art Cow

2012-01-08T14:07:00.000-06:00

I have been a busy guy this last two weekends and during the week on working on a side project that started 9 months ago. I finally got it done today…YEA!

As you know, I am really pushing to get into gaming the land combat of the Falklands conflict this year. Part of this includes choosing a rules set and getting what is needed to run a game. My 20mm figures are mostly done that must have, but I am still missing a few figures mainly more Milan ATGM teams and Argentine .50cal HMG teams and got them on order from Liberation (Link). I still have other odds and ends that I need to pick up like an Argentine shoulder launcher SAM, a Panhard 90mm Armored car, penguins, buildings, and terrain. Luckily, the Panhard is available from S&S Models (Link), the penguins are back again from MJ Figures (Link), some buildings are available from Card Models by Tony (Link), so I need to do is convert a UK Blowpipe figure to look like an Argentine commando from Liberation (plan to use the figure with the beret so I should only have to modify the webbing) and get terrain done.

So, now for the rules, I plan to use Too Fat Lardies’ “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!” 3^rd edition for the company size battles. In the 2004 Xmas Special from TFL is a supplement for IABSM2, but I also have the information on how to convert the IABSM2 to IASBM3 for Big Men, so no problem there.

Since I will only have about a platoon “+” size force for both sides on a 1:1 scale, I will use 4-5 figures on a base to represent a section for the games. I plan to leave my figures mounted on individual stands for skirmish games, so I am going to pick up some bases that have the round holes in them that I can place my figures in, like these from Litko (Link) or these (Link).

Also, I am picking up some more different type of tokens from Litko for the IABSM3 system. I already have the following Litko's IABSM set (Link) so I am going to keep the tokens along those lines in design. But for keeping track of “Kills” and “Shock” on individual sections and teams, I will be using a device from S&S that hold three 7mm six-sided dice and looks like a trench. I plan to paint and flock it up so they will blend in on the board. I will be using red dice to keep track of “Kills” and white dice for “Shock.”

Now, this is where Art Cow comes into play. Too Fat Lardies games are a card driven game for sequence of play during a turn. While I got my IABSM3 card deck with the IABSM3 bundle, I wanted a special Falklands card deck with pictures from the conflict. Art Cow allows people to create various art projects with photographs and one of those projects is a 54 card playing deck. So using that program, I designed two playing decks, one for the Argentine forces and the other for the British. Both decks combined will have everything I need to play the Falklands scenarios from the TFL’s Seasonal Specials, 2004 Xmas and 2008 Xmas issues. Since there were too many cards for one deck, but not enough to complete two decks, I added some extra cards. Some of these cards, ‘Critical Wound’, ‘Medic’, and ‘Medical Evacuation’ are from the “Charlie Don’t Surf” Vietnam rules, but I think plays into the Falklands as well from what I have read. I also added some sections and team cards which could be used for independent patrols.

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/tfl-iabsm-falklands-cards-argentine-o46iru6o0378

http://www.artscow.com/gallery/playing-cards/tfl-iabsm-falklands-uk-cards-xwursu7uzvee

I can’t wait to get everything together and start gaming the Falklands soon, hopefully.

Cheers,

Joe

2012 - the 90th anniversary of the end of the Newport Rolling Mills Strike, Kentucky

2012-01-02T19:22:00.003-06:00

OK, I was Google surfing today looking for some pictures of armored vehicles used the Falklands and I some how got side tracked (which is actually very easy for me when I am looking up historical photographs.) I am not really sure how I got to the following as I was not looking up anything that related to the following. But behold, I found the picture that haunted me since I first saw it on the Ken Burn's documentary, "Prohibition" (Excellent show and excellent book, see my review here - Link). If you have not noticed from some of my earlier post, I have had a long fascination of the 1920's and 1930's, especially the Rum War (the enforcement of Prohibition) and the War on Crime (bank robberies and other lawlessness of the 1930's). I have also found some of the labor strikes interesting, but really have not started reading up on them, even thought I have a dozen or so books on the subject, mostly on Blair Mountain. It is some thing that I have often thought of dabbing in miniature, but really have not yet. Anyway, this is one of those pictures that really gets my attention and really start thinking about gaming the period.

The picture is a FT-17 tank from the Kentucky Army National Guard crushing captured moonshine stills during the Newport Rolling Mills Strike. The National Guard was sent in on Dec. 24th, 1921, and the strike did not end until April, 1922. Two National Guardsmen were killed during the strike duty and both by accidental discharges of a revolver falling and striking the ground and discharging. This was two different events, which I also find amazing. Below is another picture from the strike.

Of course, this could also stir some one's interest in doing a 2nd American Civil War in the 1920's or 30's that is something in the line of the popular gaming period, "A Very British Civil War." But that is too much for me to consider to game due to other commitments, but it idea is keen.

2012 - And the 30th Anniversary of the South Atlantic War

2012-01-01T15:21:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, 2012 – The last year of Man! (Or at least to New Age Mayans.) But more importantly, this is the 30^th Anniversary of the South Atlantic War over the Falklands / Malvinas Islands. I am hoping to be running some 20mm games for this conflict during this year. The only thing really holding me back is terrain of bunch of hills, but I am trying to fix that.

Anyway, I have finally given up on my search for trying to find a correct model of LVTP-7 for the Argentine Marines in 20mm. At first, all I could find were 1/72 Dragon kits, of which none were right. All of them have the Up Gunned Weapons Station (UGWS) turrets, which are not correct for the Argentine LVTP-7’s, all though one kit has the old turret which would work. Next problem is that all of the Dragon kits have the ramp / cattle guard looking thing on the front (I am not into studying the Marines, so I really have no clue what that thing is called or what is used for at all.) That would not be so bad, but I would have to cut down the “bumps” on the front from the cattle guards hinges to make the front smooth for the Argentine Marines LVTP-7s. Finally, the headlights are all wrong. The Argentine LVTP-7s had the three lights in each of two circle indentations, where the Dragon models have the current two sets of two rectangular lights on the front. But I recently find that Altaya released a 1/72^nd collectible of an AAVP7A1. It still has the wrong headlights, but at least it has the right looking turret and no cattle guard. So, I order two of them to armor up my 20mm Argentine platoon. Now I need to order a 1/72^ndPanhard 90mm from S&S Models to give my Argentine conscripts something to fight with my British Scimitar light tank. I also have on order from Liberation some figures that I am hoping to convert to work for Argentine .50 HMG and 107mm Recoilless Rifle teams, but I am still looking for some figures that would work for the M20 Super Bazooka teams without heavy conversions. Then I should be done with my Argentine forces in 20mm, except maybe for a helicopter or two for an air insertion scenario.

See the pictures below for the Argentine LVTP-7 and the kits.

Argentine LVTP-7s in Port Stanley

Dragon 1/72nd AAVP7

Altaya 1/72nd AAVP7

Also, I am putting up a picture of an Argentine TAM tank which I found will searching for pictures of the Altaya model of the AAVP7. They did not see action in the Falklands War as they were still under trials and final production. I am only including this picture as I really find the paint job pretty cool.

Finally,I am putting up a picture of one of rare photographs (possibly the only one also) of the Top Malo house before it was destroyed in 1982. It is from the 1930’s and I got it from Gordon Ramsey’s, “Falklands War Then and Now.” Excellent book if you are looking for photographs on the Falklands war.

Falklands - Argentine improvised weapon at Goose Green

2011-12-27T22:20:00.000-06:00

This is a quick post of a picture that found of an Argentine improvised weapon that was located at Goose Green. I had forgotten about it until I was looking up a picture of the Top Malo house for Tony at “Card Models by Tony” (Link) and I relocated it. I find this amazing myself and will have to scratch build it for my 20mm Argentine conscripts to try (that would be the key word!) to use it against the 2 Para.

The weapon is a 2.75” rocket pod from a Pucara strike aircraft tied down to a wooden crate. The crate is mounted on top of children’s slide in the settlement. The weapon was to be aimed by using the step ladder that is seen in the picture and then to be fired by an electrical charge that was connected to a car battery!

Cheers,

Joe

Too Fat Lardies I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! III – Review & AAR

2011-12-25T14:23:00.004-06:00

This AAR blog entry is different than my previous ones in that this was not a ‘proper’ game, but a play test of Too Fat Lardies’ new third edition of “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!” with Steve H. (Combat Colours) , Curtis T., and myself. Both Steve and I have played the previous editions of IABSM, but both of us have not played IABSM for a few years due to various reasons, mainly the lack of my free time and trying Blitzkrieg Commander/Cold War Commander and Force on Force systems instead. Needless to say, it was like coming back home to a long lost love by using these rules! I enjoy them greatly!

First, both Steve and I bought the IABSM3 bundle, a hard copy and a PDF version of the rules, a pack of cards for game sequence, a pack of tokens, and finally a limited edition 28mm figure of one of Too Fat Lardies’ Big Men characters, Hugh Jarce. See the Official Too Fat Lardies blog, ‘Lard Island News’ (Link) to see what the cards and markers look like.

The Book / PDF

I really like the quality of the printed book and find it easy to read. Too Fat Lardies have come a long way since their first printed materials, and I know that they will only improve in the future. I have become a big fan of PDF’s for the last few of years. I really like the lack of physical space needed for storage of tomes of books or other printed material. With PDF’s , I am more willing to make impulse buys on different rules, books, etc. of systems I am not familiar with or periods that I would not be normally be interested in since they take up space on my bookshelves. The only problem that I have with PDF’s is not been able to use them at games, except if I printed them off before a game. (Note: Up to now I didn’t have an iPad or E-reader, but I got a Kindle Fire for Xmas so this issue is now moot.)

Cards / Tokens

The cards are huge! That is not a bad thing, but will take a bit of getting use to shuffling cards that are bigger than traditional playing card size. Quality is good with a heavy stock and simple, but easy to read writing on them. The tokens are the only thing that I am not super please with (Sorry, Richard!) I think that some of them are too small, thin, and fiddly for fat fingers, especially the “wrenches.” I have not measured them, but they seem smaller then the Litko tokens which I am use to using. It probably is just me. Of course, I am planning to use 7mm dice to keep track of shock and kills on my infantry squads…so just ignore my comments on the tokens being too small.

Hugh Jarce

I like the figure! Great sculpt and casting, but it is in 28mm. I don’t game WWII in 28mm. But that has not stopped me from buying 28mm before. I plan to paint it up and I might use it somehow with the game – maybe a counter to keep track of how many Tea Breaks have occurred.

The Game Mechanics

As the gaming system is a proprietary item, I will not go into detail of it, but I will explain the rudimentary system of it. First, this is a game built heavily on the idea of “Friction” in the battlefield as explained in Carl von Clausewitz’s book, On War. A great article on the theory of friction in war was done by Richard Clarke on his blog. (Link) Secondly, the system is also built around the idea of “Big Men” or leaders influencing their men to go beyond what would be expected of them in battle. Finally, the other core element is the cards which randomize the sequence of play. See the following blog entry by Richard Clarke on the cards. (Link) Just look up some of the other blog entries at “Lard Island News” to see them give AAR’s of their past games to get a better idea of the system as well. One final note about the system, it encourages gamers to know about the period, tactics, and to have an understanding how to properly Kriegsspiel certain events or conditions that might occur in a game.

Our Play Test

As this was our first IABSM game in a few years, it did move rather slow at spots as we double checked certain things in the book, but once we got a few rounds in, it was all clicking back. We stuck with the core rules and did not use artillery, engineering, or Aces.

The game was using Steve’s 10mm late war WWII Germans and Soviets from various manufacturers. He did not have any German infantry, so my 10mm WWII US infantry stands stood in for the Germans. This specific game was armor heavy, by pretty much all standards and especially IABSM standards. Steve was Game Mastering it, Curtis T. was running the Soviets, and I was running the Germans.

The Location / Store

We meet at the Wargamer’s Cave in Granite City, Illinois to do the play test. Great place to deal with. See the following link for their website (Link)

The Forces

The overall objective of the game was to have the Soviets advance across the board and capture the supply dump on the opposite site of the board and the Germans trying to stop them

They Soviets had two JS-2 tanks, five T-35/76 tanks, six M4 (76) tanks; three platoons of infantry, three platoon ‘Big Men’, one company ‘Big Man’, and four blinds + two dummy blinds.

The Germans had three Tiger I tanks, three Pz IVH tanks, two Marder III SPAT’s, two platoons of infantry, two platoon ‘Big Men’, one company ‘Big Man’, and three blinds + two hidden groups on the board.

Instead of using the blinds as described in the rules, we used the unit’s cards to represent their blinds on the table until proper blinds are made.

The Action

Ok, I did not take notes as this was a play test or a lot of pictures as I did not have a camera and my cell phone does not do good quality pictures. Plus, I really did not get to debrief Curtis about his actions after the game as I had to leave pretty fast at the end of the play test. So this AAR is very German player (me) focus and just comments on the pictures instead of the game as a whole as I would normally do.

This is a picture of the part of the store, with Curtis and Steve in it as well. Most of the board can be seen in the picture. The Soviets were advancing from the table edge near the lime green tape measure. One hidden German infantry platoon is entrenched along the road in the wheat fields near the village. In the village is the second German infantry platoon on a blind. This picture was taken after some action already had happen. The two burning markers almost center of the picture at the bottom near the farm complex are my two Marders. I had them set up in a blind that was partly hidden by the forest. They both got a couple of shots on the lead JS-2 and did hit it for some minor damage, but they were quickly destroyed before they got another action. The JS-2s and some tank riders are in the wheat field near the burning Marders.

Curtis is pointing to the farm complex as his attempt to spot any hidden units. It was vacant. This also is a better picture of the burning Marders and JS-2’s. If you look at the JS-2 unit, you will see a red chit out in front of one of the JS-2’s. This is a marker to help keep track of what unit that is for players to remember that group is “Armour One” (A1 on the chit) for when cards are drawn. Behind the other JS-2 is a dark color token that is a “Loss of Action” token that comes with the IABSM3 bundle. That was being used to represent the one level of shock that I did to that tank from my Marders. The three “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum” cards around the group are being used for three Soviet blinds.

This is a better view of the table as a whole. The German blind of the infantry in the village can be seen in the crossroads and on the far bottom left is the blind for the platoon of PZ IVH. On the only hill is my remaining German unit hidden, the Tiger I platoon. I was holding off on firing them until I had the JS-2’s within close range.

Curtis drove his Shermans down the road without any recon. Prior to that, the German Blind card came up, so I had all of my blinds / hidden units on over watch, so when Curtis’ tanks drove past me, I started letting loose with Panzerfausts and machine gun fire, from both the hidden infantry in the wheat fields, the infantry in the village that was set up to provide supporting fire with range for their Panzerfausts, and my Pz IVH that where set up on the other side of the board for side shots on armor. As you can see, it was pretty deadly with taking out three and crippling a fourth of the six tanks and almost eliminating one Soviet squad to the man, but it could have been worst for Curtis. I decided not to use my Tigers as I was still waiting for the JS-2’s to get closer.

I took these after the game was called, so some of the tokens were already picked up by then. In the last turn, Curtis could not sort my entrenched infantry out as I keep shooting and hunkering down. The T-34’s drove around and hit my Pz IVH’s in the flank and killed one and damaged a second. The JS-2’s never did move, so I elected to open up with my Tigers on the JS-2’s. I killed one outright with my first shot (hint, it is nice to be shooting down from hill!). The other JS-2 took the brunt of the remaining Tigers, but I was never able to really damage it. It had in returned destroyed one of the Tigers.

Overall

The Germans blocked the Soviet advance temporary, but the Soviet would have eventually put enough pressure on both of my flanks that I would have to pull out. The Soviets lost five tanks and two squads of infantry by the end of the game, which was about a third of his total force. I lost two tanks and two SPATs, which was half of my armor, but only about a third of my total force.

The game went really good and we all had fun with the system again. Even though this was a lot of tanks on the table for an IABSM game, it ran very smoothly and we can easily run this much again. It was really nice to be able to sit down again and to have good discussions on proper tactics, the period in general, and general comradeship as a whole.

I know Steve is going back to his roots of IABSM by painting up 15mm WWII figures again for the 1941 Russia. Hopefully he will get that running soon again. I am planning to redo my 10mm Vietnam figures and start running Too Fat Lardies’ “Charlie Don’t Surf” soon, as well as push for some 20mm Falklands games in 2011 using either IABSM3 for company actions or Too Fat Lardies’, “Troops, Weapons, & Tactics” for platoon actions.

MILLENNIUMCON 14 AAR Part II: Too Fat Lardies - Charlie Don’t Surf

2011-12-24T14:06:00.007-06:00

This was my first game that the convention and the one that I enjoyed the most of the two. It was called “The Great Rice Hunt” and it is the first scenario from the TFL’s CDS scenario book, “Surf’s Up!” It was run by Brian Weathersby and I think he did a pretty good job. There were some rough moments where he was having troubles explaining thing, but he even admits to that on the TFL Yahoo Group, but I didn’t have too much of problem. I was the one of the three US players and I commanded the 2^nd Platoon. While this was my first game of CDS, I had read the book and played in TFL games before, so I was sort of familiar with the rules and I had done some reading on Vietnam tactics in the past and even coached my follow US players on some tactics since neither were familiar with the rules or period. However, I really didn’t use any tactics in this game…I was pretty much the proverbial bull in the china shop…but more on that later. I pretty much know what I was thinking as the game progress, so I can only make comments about what I did and what was easily known on the board. Also, I started to write this AAR weeks later, so I probably got some things wrong and only remember the highlights for me, sorry if it drifts too much from what really happened.

Overall picture of the game board

Originally, I was pushing for a two platoon push from one end of the board and my platoon acting as a blocking force on the opposite end to shoot up fleeing VC. We all agreed on that plan, but then told that we had to come in all on the side table edge, so we changed our plan. We had four blinds: 3x platoons and one dummy blind. The dummy blind was our far right flank, then 3^rd Platoon, 1^st Platoon & CO HQ, and then my 2^nd Platoon on the far left flank, which also was large jungle area that I would had to move through. The center of the village was in front of 3^rd Platoon and the idea was that 3^rd Platoon would move up through the rice paddies and take up positions to provide cover fire into the center to the village. 1^st Platoon and CHQ would start sweeping through the right edge of the village looking for VC caches in the huts. My platoon would move through the jungle and block the road out of the village between the jungles. I failed to remember how hard it was to move through jungle, both in real world and in the system. I also failed to remember that I could have gone into “Indian file” movement which would have sped up my movement rates. I was barely moving 3” per turn that I moved.

Pretty much on the first turn, both 3^rd Platoon & 1^st Platoon were spotted by a VC machine gun team and a squad sitting in a trench in the wide open in the middle of the village. Needless to say, they were notice too! The CO requested authorization to use artillery right away and it was fast coming too.

The VC MG trench in the middle of the village is to the upper left corner and my platoon is almost at the top center

A couple of turns passed with the two US platoons and the VC trench position exchanged fired before a second VC trench line with a VC platoon decided to open up on the US 1^st Platoon along the jungle edge that I was still moving through (very slowly, I might add.) Then the artillery came down on the villagers (luckily none were harmed or that would have been bad for us in Political points!) Artillery was eventually shifted on top of the trenches in the village. The US 1^st Platoon was really starting to lay down some serious fire on the VC platoon in the second trench line.

Amazing, all this time and hits, no one was killed. It was one of the most bloodless war games I have ever seen! The VC was either not getting hit or only suffering a little shock. Finally, the VC platoon in the 2^nd trench suffered enough shock that they finally broke out of the trench to run away. I was joking that they finally broke and fled because they knew my platoon would be on top of them soon…maybe in few days at the rate they were moving. Of course everyone else was joking that this would be one roll that my platoon would finally move fast enough to seized the glory of claiming to have routed the VC platoon. Wouldn’t you have known it, I did almost maxed out my movement roll, which got me to the jungle edge (finally) and to get one die of firepower shot off into the fleeing VC platoon! So, yes, my Platoon Leader wrote in the official AAR that he routed the VC platoon.

2nd Platoon sneaking up on the entrenched VC's

2nd Platoon "routing" the VC out of their trenches

By this point, I was forgetting period tactics and was more interested in getting prisoners to meet one of our Military objectives. So, while I was waiting for one of my cards come up again, I was seriously debating my actions next. I figured the VC had a company or only two platoons on board (note: I have not read the CDS scenario book yet, so I am making this estimation on what would be logical for this area of operations). I knew we had this one platoon beaten and on the run, but they could escape under a “Di Di Mau” card if they got out of line of sight from me, plus I knew part of a weapons platoon was under an artillery barrage in the center of town. I was fairly certain that there was another VC platoon on the opposite end of the village (note: after the game, the VC player confirmed that I was correct), so that left one platoon that I was not sure where it was located. I figured that was more to the center of the village and directly opposite of 3^rd Platoon. I was convincing myself to do something that crazy and that was to launch a platoon assault across the opening and mix it with broken VC platoon to try to cripple it more and possibly capture some prisoners, instead of safely firing across the opening with full firepower and possibly only causing shock and driving them into the jungle, out of my line of sight, and possibly losing them for good. My other option was to have my Weapons Squad occupy the abandon VC trenches and place them on over watch and had 3^rd & 2^nd squads fire full effect at the VC platoon and had 1^st Squad charge across the opening to the jungle edge to keep an eye on the broken platoon if they fled backwards into the jungle. I finally decided on a platoon assault as I did not want to have only a single squad crossing the opening. Even when my card came up, I opening admitted that I believed it not to be a good idea, but I just couldn’t bring myself to possibly allow this broken VC platoon to get away.

So, I charged across…and the third VC platoon opened up just off to one side of the broken VC platoon. Luckily for me, it did not come up on a VC Blind card, otherwise it would have been an Ambush and the amount of damaged suffered would have been worst…there was over 30 dice of damage as it was. It was pretty bad. Weapons Squad suffered the worst with 5 killed out of 9 men and 3^rd Squad had 3 or 4 killed. The platoon as whole had a lot of shock damage and suppressed. Weapons Squad fell back into jungle and I left them there. For the next few turns, both my LT and Plt SGT, along with the Medic, worked to get the shock off my squads, while they hunkered down in the opening.

The effects of 30+ dice of damage

Once I was able to get 1^st Squad down to a manageable level of shock, my LT decided he was going to give it one more “go” now that the nearby 3^rd VC platoon was under artillery fire. He order the LAW to used on a VC bunker that was seen in the opposite jungle line…and it missed. Not to be deterred, my LT yells, “First Squad, follow me! I am bullet-proof!” (note: quite literary, the LT had to roll three different times to see if he was hit when some of his men were killed in platoon, all three times I rolled a 10 on a d10!) I overrun the bunker where both the VC commander and commissar were still hiding out and gunned them down (I really was trying to get prisoners, darn it) and shot up one the VC squads from the broken platoon. I suffered one kill to 1^st Squad. And the next card was “Critical Wounded”…Yea! Private Franklin might still live! It was beautiful drawing of cards next was my NCO to pop smoke for the Medevac, then the Medic card came up so I could move him up and stabilize Private Franklin until the Medevac arrived. That was pretty much when the game was called.

"First Squad, follow me! I am bullet-proof!"

Overrunning a VC bunker

Calling for a "Dust Off"

My platoon was the only one to suffer casualties among the US players. I believe all together, I lost 11 men and 1 critically wounded out of my 42. Yes, that is unacceptable, but I was also the most aggressive platoon and after the initial hit, I only suffered a couple of killed. By being aggressive, I forced a whole VC platoon to disperse and prevented the other VC platoon to carry off their dead. In the end, the US didn’t do so great on our Military Objectives with only meeting the secondary Military Objective of locating the cache of rice. But even with all of my casualties, the VC’s were not able to meet their secondary Military Objective which was to inflict a certain percentage of casualties on the US forces. Politically, the VC’s again did poorly, even with all of my casualties again! Yep, I the US won a minor Political victory too. So overall, this was a US win, a minor, insignificant one, but still a win.

At the end of the game, as I was voted the winner for the event’s prize of a 10 GBP gift reward for Too Fat Lardies products! Hoo-Ha!

MILLENNIUMCON 14 AAR Pt I - General Info & Force on Force: Africa

2011-12-11T21:29:00.010-06:00

While I am working in Texas, I got a weekend off where I was not able to go home, but fell on the same weekend as Millenniumcon in Austin, TX. As I was about a 2 hour drive away, I went up there for one day. While I was there, I was able to get into two games (Force on Force Africa & Charlie Don’t Surf), which is a lot for me lately. What I am going to do is break this entry into three different parts: a review of the convention as a whole; a review of one game; and finally a review of the other game.

The Convention

All in all, it is not a bad little gaming convention. It is not a huge national gaming convention like GenCon or Origins, but a nice size for a regional convention which I quite honestly prefer over the large national cons due to the smaller crowds and lack of big ego and openly public mudslinging/poo-pooing that taints the HMGS-East conventions (I have been both a HMGS-E Cold War & Fall-In cons and can easily say that the smaller regional cons blow both of them away pretty much in all aspects.)

It was held a nice looking hotel that had a small convention building attached to it. There was a bar/restaurant there, but I did not eat there. The only thing that I would like to have seen was some more places to eat within walking distance. The gaming areas were nice and located in several rooms with the dealers located in the largest room along the gaming. While there were not a huge number of dealers, there were more than some other regional cons that I have been to. They had a flea market set up for Sunday morning only, which I was not able to attend, so I can’t comment on the number of sellers then. There were some nice looking games tables and some pretty figures. I didn’t get many pictures of any of this due to me being more interested in playing in games and the fact that I forgot my camera, so I had to use my camera phone which does not take the best of pictures.

The Convention Hall with Dealer's Area

One of the nicest look table boards

Force on Force: Africa

OK, this actually my second game for the day, but I am going to talk about it now. The guy running the game is one of the authors of the upcoming Force on Force: Africa supplement book. We talked a little bit about various books and information on the post-WWII African wars. I am not going to claim that I am expert on African conflicts, but years ago I was in hot and heavy on researching the Congo conflicts, Rhodesia, South Africa, plus Liberia & the Ivory Coast long before those last two conflicts where of any real interested over here in the US. I actually was able to start reading French, even though I never had been properly taught, because I was reading French magazines/news articles and was able to figure out enough by just knowing what the articles were about.) I always found the conflicts very interesting and brutal…humanity at its worst. Anyway, I have my opinions on this setting with these rules, but I will hold off expressing them depending on how the final book looks…especially the section on the Belgian Para-Commandos for the Congo.

As for the game, it was called “Bronze Cross of Rhodesia: Operation Snoopy”. In the scenario, platoon of Rhodesian Light Infantry has to ambush a Mozambique army armored column of a platoon of infantry riding in BTR-40’s and a T-55 tank. The RLI was to hit hard, stop the column and escape from the board. The Mozambique army was to exit their armor off the board and try to keep the RLI from escaping the board for at least 10 (or something like that) turns. The game went badly for the RLI. Mostly it was due to really bad dice rolls, I felt sorry for the one RLI player whose dice rolls were as bad as someone I know back home! (You know who you are!) He shot my BTR-40 several times with an RPG and only slightly damaged it once, still allowing me to escape off the board with it. He also rolled a lot of “1’s” for his reactions and was getting hammered with bad luck cards. But, I also believe that the RLI players lost the objective of their mission and got too tunnel visioned with shooting up Mozambique troops that they didn’t try to break contact and run away to set up another ambush site. Of course, they couldn’t do that after a while as too many of their men were getting hit and were rolled as serious wounded. In the end, the Mozambique army was bloodied with probably 50% wounded or dead infantry and a knocked out T-55 blocking the only vehicle ford at the stream. But every RLI was killed as the remaining Mozambique troops shot all of the wounded before turn 10.
In review of the game, it was way too bloody and both the Mozambique and RLI where too much like supermen for morale as they were being massacred and didn’t run. At one point, half of my squad of Mozambique troops jumped out of a moving BTR-40 because they failed a morale roll from small arms fire…I have a problem with that. If it was from a RPG hit or the BTR was still, I could see them jumping out. Instead, I believe that they would have hidden gone “to ground” inside the BTR.

Pushing on without my vehicle-leaping infantry

Upcoming blog entries!

2011-12-09T14:38:00.002-06:00

Well, I will hopefully have some time to type up a couple of AAR's for a few games that I got in lately soon. I got to go to MILLENNIUMCON 14, in the Austin, TX, area back in the middle of November and got into two games. I just never got round to typing anything up due to work and not being in the best of moods. This Sunday, I will be trying out a game of "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! III", as we will be giving the new rules a stab and seeing how things go. I probably will not get that AAR up for another week or two after Sunday.
So, what has been going on in my life? Well, I have been setting everything in my personal life aside for work...especially the current project that I am working on. It is draining my time, energy, and mojo to really carry on. I have tried to work on my 15mm ACW figures, but with the exception of working all day on Thanksgiving on them, I have done nothing to accomplish anything miniature wise. I really only find time to read and have finished off several books since my last on-line book review. I really don't even have time to type up those any more! I finished several books on the Battle of Wilson's Creek, 1861, and currently reading books on the Falkland's War, 1982.

I have found many good stuff to add to my ever growing 20mm "Anarchy in the UK" project and the Falklands, but just don't have to time to put everything together. I really need to push more to do this and get it going.

Also, I am really trying to suppress my inner "bomb thrower" personality (you guys that know me, know exactly what I mean!), but I am finding it harder and harder as I find some modern looking rioters in 28mm to lead into fighting against "The Man." I might start looking at picking up on some riot games in the future (darn that Offensive Miniatures for making their miniatures too beautiful! Link) I can't afford to get into another project!

Anyways, I am going to start working on my MILLENNIUMCON 14 AAR blog entry. Hopefully, I will get it done sometime this weekend.

Cheers...and crush the Establishment (stupid rioters miniatures...must have them.)

Which Rifle is better? The AK-47, the AR-15, or the Mosin-Nagant

2011-11-28T21:26:00.002-06:00

I saw this joke on some forum or another a while back and forgotten about it until I recently found my copy of it again. I thought I will post it here as I found it funny and sadly, pretty true. I shot an AK-47 once many years ago and never gotten the urge to join the “Cult of the AK.” I handled and shot the M16A1 (a variant of the AR-15) for 15 years in the Guard and I liked it, but again never got into the “Stoner Cult.” But now, I am a proud owner of a Mosin-Nagant rifle. So I really could relate to a lot of items listed below. I hope this brings a laugh or two.

AK-47

AR-15

Mosin-Nagant

Cost

AK-47: You paid $330 for your rifle.
AR-15: You paid $900 for your rifle.
Mosin-Nagant: You paid $49.95…and that includes the cleaning kit, 100 rounds of ammunition, the cost of the ticket to the gun show, and the hot dog & soda that you bought while you were there!

History of the Rifles

AK-47: Has been around for 50 years.
AR-15: Has been around for 40 years.
Mosin-Nagant: Has been around for 100 years and counting.

AK-47: Your rifle has been used by any two-bit nation's most illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide.
AR-15: Your rifle has been used by elite forces worldwide to fight two-bit nations' most illiterate conscripts.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has fought against itself - and won every time.

AK-47: Your rifle has won some revolutions.
AR-15: Your rifle drove Saddam out of Kuwait.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle conquered Hitler, Russia, half of Europe, parts of Asia, and forced the United States into a stalemate on the 38^th Parallel

Maintenance & Cleaning

AK-47: Any fool can be taught to field strip it.
AR-15: Anyone with an IQ over 160 can be taught to field strip it.
Mosin-Nagant: What's field stripping?

AK-47: It works even though you have never cleaned it.
AR-15: You have to buy a $9 per ounce special non-detergent synthetic Teflon infused oil for cleaning.
Mosin-Nagant: It was last cleaned while in Berlin in 1945.

AK-47: You can repair your rifle with a big hammer and a swift kick.
AR-15: You can repair your rifle by taking it to a certified gunsmith, if it's under warranty!
Mosin-Nagant: If your rifle breaks, you pick up another one cheap.

Accuracy & Damage

AK-47: You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from inside.
AR-15: You are able to hit the fly that landed on the side of a barn at 100 meters.
Mosin-Nagant: You can hit the barn from two miles away.

AK-47: Your sight adjustment goes to10, and you've never bothered moving it.
AR-15: Your sight adjustment is incremented in fractions of minutes in an angle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your sight adjustment goes to 2000 meters, and you've actually tried it.

AK-47: You can put a .30" hole through 12" of oak.
AR-15: You can put one hole in a paper target at 100 meters with 10 rounds.
Mosin-Nagant: You knock down everyone else's target with the shockwave of your bullet going down range.

Finishes & Functions

AK-47: Your rifle's finish is varnish and paint.
AR-15: Your rifle's finish is Teflon and high-tech polymers.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's finish is low-grade shellac, cosmoline, and Olga's toe nail polish.

AK-47: Recoil is manageable, even fun.
AR-15: What's recoil?
Mosin-Nagant: Recoil is often used to fix shoulders dislocated by the previous shot.

AK-47: Your safety can be heard from 300 meters away.
AR-15: You can silently flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a safety?

Accessories

AK-47: You can accessorize you rifle with a new muzzle brake or a nice stock set.
AR-15: Your rifle's accessories are eight times more valuable than your rifle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's accessory is a small tin can with a funny lid, but it has been buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest back in '45.

AK-47: Your rifle comes with a cheap nylon sling.
AR-15: Your rifle has a 9-point stealth tactical suspension system.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has a dog collar.

AK-47: Cheap magazines are fun to buy.
AR-15: Cheap magazines melt.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a magazine?

Ammunition & Bayonet

AK-47: It's easier to buy a new rifle when you want to change cartridge sizes.
AR-15: You can change cartridge sizes with the push of a couple of pins and a new upper assembly.
Mosin-Nagant: You believe no real man would dare risk the ridicule of his friends by suggesting there is anything but 7.62x54 R.

AK-47: You buy cheap ammo by the case.
AR-15: You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
Mosin-Nagant: Your ammo was dug out of a farmer's field in the Ukraine and it works just fine.

AK-47: When out of ammo, your rifle will nominally pass as a club.
AR-15: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a great waffle ball bat.
Mosin-Nagant: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a supreme war club, pike, boat oar, tent pole, or firewood.

AK-47: Your bayonet makes a good wire cutter.
AR-15: Your bayonet is actually a pretty good steak knife.
Mosin-Nagant: Your bayonet is longer than your leg.

AK-47: You can intimidate your foe with the bayonet mounted.
AR-15: Your foes laugh when you mount your bayonet.
Mosin-Nagant: You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the stream without leaving the comfort of your hole.

Recognizing what kind of rifle owner you are

AK-47: You consider it a badge of honor when you get your hand guards to burst into flames.
AR-15: You consider it a badge of honor when you shoot a sub-MOA 5 shot group.
Mosin-Nagant: You consider it a badge of honor when you cycle 5 rounds without the aid of a 2”x4”.

AK-47: After a long day the range, you relax by watching Red Dawn.
AR-15: After a long day at the range, you relax by watching Black Hawk Down.
Mosin-Nagant: After a long day at the range, you relax by visiting the chiropractor.

AK-47: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for a stiff shot of vodka.
AR-15: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for hot dogs and apple pie.
Mosin-Nagant: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for a shish kabob.

AK-47: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold your rifle over your head and shout "Wolverines!"
AR-15: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie from room to room.
Mosin-Nagant: Late at night, you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench to sleep in.

AK-47: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Mikhail Kalashnikov.
AR-15: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Eugene Stoner.
Mosin-Nagant: Are there even photographs of Sergi Ivanovich Mosin and Leon Nagant?

The Empty Chair - Bill Nardin - RIP

2011-11-22T16:41:00.001-06:00

Today, I have been informed that a follow gamer from St. Louis, MO, that I have known for twenty years has passed away on 11/21/11, after being shot in the chest in a case of ‘road rage’ while traveling through Texas with his wife. I will not comment about the incident as I only know what was published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch news.

Bill was a master painter and kit-basher when it came to miniatures. I never ceased to be amazed at some of his work, especially his 1/285th scale Bosnian city that was built as a table top exercise device for the USMC Reserves in several events (which, I also had a fun time being a part of that training.) I know that he will be sorely missed within the St. Louis and other miniature gaming circle.

Bill’s website

http://commandoperationscenter.com/

Below is a poem that has periodically shown up in a RPG comic, “The Knights of the Diner Table,” which is a eulogy for a lost gamer. I don’t believe anyone has ever been given credit for writing it, so I don’t know who the author is to give credit. While it is for a role-player, I think it also speaks true for all gamers.

The Empty Chair

Eulogy for a Gamer

There is an empty chair,

at the table this day.

A hallowed place where,

a friend once played.

The roll of his dice,

my ears long to hear.

Or perhaps it would suffice,

if he should suddenly appear.

With character sheet in hand,

and a bag of Cheeze-doodles to share.

All his friends would stand,

as he sat in the empty chair.

I hear his voice a-callin’,

and it ties my heart in a knot.

For he cries, “Though a comrade has fallen,

You must play for those who cannot.”

We conquered worlds on the run,

he and I in the name of fun.

And as others may come and go,

I make both both friend and foe.

But what I long for most,

is our past now long a ghost.

11/11/11

2011-11-11T18:40:00.002-06:00

I am not going to write about why I am posting these videos.

If you don't understand, I can't explain.

1916 - Motörhead

The Band Played Waltzing Matilda- The Pogues

Green Fields of France - Dropkick Murphys

A Quick History and Safety Tips For Guy Fawkes Day

2011-11-05T23:07:00.001-05:00

Horrible Histories - Fawkes'13

Horrible Histories - Bonfire Safety Tips with Guy Fawkes

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November"

2011-11-04T22:56:00.001-05:00

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,

the Gunpowder Treason and Plot.

I know of no reason

why the Gunpowder Treason

should ever be forgot...

The Return of MJ Figures 15mm Falklands line!

2011-10-15T19:17:00.002-05:00

Well, this is sort of good news to me, even if I am not doing the Falklands in 15mm. It appears that MJ Figures has come back into existence and has brought back his 15mm Falklands line: http://mjfigures.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=63_64

I don't remember all of what was available from his original line, but it appears that a lot of it is back...minus the pack of penguins! And is what I want!!! I am going to have to email him and see if I can convince him to re-release the penguins as I need a horde of them for my 20mm Falklands project as they are close to the 20mm size for the King or Gentoo Penguins which inhabits the Falkland Islands, which can be seen in these pictures.

15mm MJ Figure's penguins and 20mm Hotspur/Stonewall Falkland's line British

King Penguins

A Gentoo Penguin with Argentine soldiers in the Falklands

Any way, this is still good news for anyone that wants to do the Falklands now there is an additional choice in scales.

Books on the Falklands

2011-10-07T19:22:00.003-05:00

Hello,

I just add a list of books on the Falklands War that I have read; have got but haven't read yet; planning to buy; and waiting for release still on my Falklands tab above. I am including the list in this entry as well. If anyone has any additional suggestions on a really good personal accounts or a fairly detail account on the logistics issues for one or both sides, that will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some Books on the Falklands Conflict

Currently Reading

Arthur, Max; Above All, Courage: Personal Stories from the Falklands War

Have Read

Adkin, Mark; Goose Green: A Battle Is Fought to Be Won

Anderson, Duncan; The Falklands War 1982 (Osprey Essential Histories)

Bicheno, Hugh; Razor's Edge

Braybrook, Roy; Battle for the Falklands (3) : Air Forces (Osprey Men-At-Arms Series)

Chant, Christopher; Air War in the Falklands 1982 (Osprey Combat Aircraft)

der Bijl, Nick Van; Nine Battles to Stanley

der Bijl, Nick Van; Argentine Forces in the Falklands (Osprey Men-At-Arms Series)

English, Adrian; Battle for the Falklands (2) : Naval Forces (Osprey Men-At-Arms Series)

Fowler, Will; Battle for the Falklands (1) : Land Forces (Osprey Men-At-Arms Series)

Middlebrook, Martin; Argentine Fight For the Falklands

Middlebrook, Martin; The Falklands War, 1982

Ramsey, Gordon; Falklands War Then and Now

Thompson, Julian; No Picnic: 3 Commando Brigade in the South Atlantic: 1982

Own, But Still Yet to Read

Barker; Nicholas; Beyond Endurance

Ethell, Jeffrey and Alfred Price; Air War South Atlantic

Geddes, John; Spearhead Assault: Blood, Guts and Glory on the Falklands Frontline

Thinking about Reading

Bramley, Vincent; Two Sides of Hell

Burns, Jimmy; Land That Lost Its Heroes

Kon, Daniel; Chicos de la Guerra

Weale, Adrian; Green-Eyed Boys

Waiting to be Release

Rivas, Santiago; Wings of Courage: The Agentine Air War Over the Falklands

20mm Falklands - The British Forces

2011-10-04T16:35:00.002-05:00

OK, here is part of my British forces for my 20mm Falklands game. This is almost a complete paper strength infantry platoon for the Army. I need three more guys with SLRs and one with a GPMG to round out the platoon. I also need to get a few more figures to convert it over to a Royal Marine troop. All of these figures were painted by Northumbrian Painting Services. The figures are mainly Liberation, with some exceptions: the Scimitar light tank is from Britannia, and the Sustain Fire Machine Gun and mortar teams are from FAA.

Since my Hotspurs are all in berets or soft caps and most of the battles during the Falklands, the British forces wore helmets, I wanted to get a platoon of infantry in helmets. Also, with some exceptions, they can easy work for British army or Royal Marines. Whereas my Hotspurs I have to chose what color to paint the beret, so limiting my choice to the Paras or the Royal Marines. Plus now that I have large force in helmets, I can split up my Hotspurs and paint half Paras and the other half as Royal Marines. Now I just have a few more things to pick up or send off to be painted for my British forces. I need to get a Milan team with helmets, a Carl G team with helmets, and a Carl G team with the Royal Marine berets painted up; a Scorpion light tank painted up; and British infantry with '44 Pattern helmets for the Welsh Guards and Tam O'Shanter for the Scots Guards. I already have SAS figures off to be painted now.

Of course, all of these figures will also see action as part of my "Anarchy in the UK" games later.

The anvil of the Iron Maiden!

My support forces for the British forces

Britannia's Scimitar light tank

Liberation's Radio Operator for my Forward Observation Officer

FAA's Sustain Fire GPMG team and mortar team

Liberation's command and infantry with a Para Carl Gustav team

More of Liberation's infantry and a 50mm mortar

The figures at the far right are armed with Bren LMG so I can do the Royal Marines or part of my 1970's "Anarchy in the UK" games

The stand to the left are the Liberation's Paras painted up by Northumbrian Painting Services. The figure to the right is one of my Hotspurs that I painted up for the Paras (back when I had free time). Overall, they should mix in together OK.

We Are Coming Father Abraham - Part 2

2011-10-04T15:45:00.003-05:00

Since I was taking photos of my 20mm UK Falklands stuff, I thought I should do a teaser of my next big project, 15mm/18mm ACW. All of the figures are from Blue Moon. This is about half of my Union infantry for late '62 and on, in other words, generic dark blue coats and sky blue pants. I do plan to eventual do the more colorful '61 / early '62 Union forces for Wilson's Creek and operations in Missouri & Arkansas, but right now, I am doing uniform / flag research. I am also planning to for my Rebels, the Missouri State Guard & CS forces for Wilson's Creek & Pea Ridge specifically.

I almost missed it today - 75th Anniversary of Cable Street

2011-10-04T11:34:00.001-05:00

In keeping with my theme of "Anarchy in the UK" which is my one of my side projects, I am adding these two YouTube videos on the Battle of Cable Street on to my blog. Here is a link to the Wiki description to the Battle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cable_Street

Period news footage of the Battle

Just a great music video done with a song by "The Men They Couldn't Hang", called "The Ghosts of Cable Street"

"The Ghosts Of Cable Street "

Lyrics

England, 1936
The grip of the Sabbath day
In London town the only sound
Is a whisper in an alleyway
Men put on their gloves and boots
Have a smoke before they go
From the west there is a warning of
A wind about to blow

Like Caesar marching to the East
Marches Mosley with his men
Dressed in their clothes of deepest black
Like a gathering hurricane
This is the British Union
With its flag of black and red
A flag that casts a shadow in
Berlin and in Madrid

So listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

So mile by mile they come on down
To a place called Cable Street
And other men are waiting there
Preparations are complete
Mosley comes so close
They now can see his outstretched arm
A hand raised up that way
Never took the future in its palm

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

The battle broke as the fists and the batons fell
Through the barricades came the sound of the wounded yells
Jack Spot burst through with a chair leg made of lead
Brought down a crashing blow on Mosley's head

And so we learn from history generations have to fight
And those who crave for mastery
Must be faced down on sight
And if that means by words, by fists, by stones or by the gun

Remember those who stood up for
Their daughters and their sons

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

20mm Falklands Conflict - Argentine Army

2011-10-03T22:56:00.002-05:00

Well, finally I am getting around to posting pics of my 20mm Falklands figures. Due to my work schedule, I was forced to use a painting service. So, this blog entry is also a review of the painting service that I used.

So first things, first - the painting service: I am using Northumbrian Painting Services in the UK. I have been going through Robert Anderson with Reiver Castings. I don't have nothing to say, but good things about them. As you can see below, this is their quality. I also had them do most of a UK platoon (I was missing a few figures at that time that I sent them off). I was so happy with them that I sent another batch of figures to work on. I highly recommend them.

Next, the figures - most of these figures are the old original Hotspurs' miniatures (but the molds are currently owned by Stonewall Miniatures) that I bought probably 20 years ago. The only figures that are not Hotspurs are the two surrendering figures, which are from Platoon 20, and the mortar and Sustained Firing machine gun teams which are from FAA. Unfortunately, these are the only three companies that make 20mm Argentine figures. Also, sadly, other then these, no one else makes Argentine figures for the Falklands, expect for Mo-Fo which are 28mm (I don't own any, but from the pictures that I have seen, they are very nice.) The only other company that I am aware of that did Argentines for the Falklands was MJ Figures in 15mm. But they have since went out of business. I never saw any of their 15mm Falklands stuff with the exception of their penguin pack, which I was lucky to obtain one for my 20mm games.

Before I start up with the pictures, I have added a few blogs to my 'Blogs that I follow' list over on the left side of my blog. One of them is call "Hurry Up And Wait!", which is a blog about gaming the Falklands. It is still fairly new, but it a good read so far, so check it out!

My Argentine army platoon with support. This is the bulk of my Argentine force. I will also have a small Army commando force and a small Naval commando force as well. I plan to also pick up a Platoon 20's UK Wombat Recoilless Rifle and convert the crew to pass for Argentine soldiers. I am also going to have to search for something that will pass for an Argentine .50 cal HMG team. Finally, S&S Models has a 20mm AML 90 armored car that I will need to pick up one for some armor support for this platoon (assuming the armor cars ever decided to adventure out of Port Stanley!)

Another view of the platoon

The Argentine headquarters

Originally, I didn't like the figure walking with his rifle slung over his shoulder, but I really like it now. I think that it has some great character

I really like the rifle grenade figure

The figure to right is firing a Fusil Automático Pesado, which is a Argentine manufactured heavy barreled version of the FN FAL rifle.

A couple of Platoon 20's Argentine surrendering figures

One of the two FAA's Sustain Fire machine gun teams. I accidentally damaged the machine gun, but just need to re-glue it back on

One of the two FAA's mortar teams

Ghosts From My Past - Part 6 (15mm Road Kill Rally)

2011-10-02T23:37:00.002-05:00

Here is the last of my "Ghosts From My Past" series. This was built, converted, and painted by me. It was never finished, but I got a lot done on it. Years back, I was involved in playtesting a game called "Road Kill Rally", which is now in print by Z-man Games, but it has changed in several ways since my playtesting days. The owners of the now defunct St. Louis game shop, "The Underground", was doing the playtesting at their store and was also running a campaign with the rules. I had the racing philosophy of "Whatever is behind me, does not matter...all that matters is what is in front of me." It was a good philosophy and got me first place for most of the races that I made it to play in. I went very light, with little armor or weapons, and always pushed the envelope on speed. I am also the playtester that became "famous" for using the Rocket-Assist pack at the start of the race. All would have been good if I had thought to bought the parachute pack or the minesweeping brushes...it sort of looked like the scene of the end of the chase of the "Nightrider" in the first "Mad Max" movie, but I was not Mel Gibson...8)

This is my display stand. The three cheerleaders are Peter Pig's naked women that I putty up with uniforms and pom-poms. I had the cheerleaders on my display stand, because in the playtest, you could have "slutty cheerleaders" that distracted the judges so you could do something "dirty" on the first turn. The car is a Porsche 911 from the Micro Machine line. The base is a GW 40mm square base.

Another view of the car. I really wanted to get a Ferrari Testarossa for my car, but could never find one. The "wings" on the doors and the bumper were blades. There was a needle gun mounted on the hood and mine sweeping brushes under the bumper. One the back, I had added two discharging tubes for my smoke screen. The car is mounted on a small metal base.

Here is the front of the display base. The concrete wall was built with green putty.

The back side of the display base where you can see were two of the concrete walls meet up.

Finally, the road surface of the display base is a magnetic sheet! So my car or cheerleaders don't easily fall off of the display base as I show here while holding my base vertically.

Ghosts From My Past - Part 5 (20mm Post-Apocalyptic)

2011-10-02T22:42:00.002-05:00

Even more rare unearthed goodies! I painted the old Games Workshop's 20mm Dark Future figures. They are not finished, but I would through them up on the blog. I have got a lot more of them that are not painted yet. The armored police van in the back is an old Matchbox that has been converted to be a post-apocalyptic vehicle done by Stan Johansen Miniatures many years ago.

Ghosts From My Past - Part 4 (WWII 15mm Vehicles)

2011-10-02T22:29:00.002-05:00

More 15mm WWII goodness that was unearthed that was painted by me!

A box of Detroit's finest!

Old Glory's DUKW

Old Glory's jeep and crew

Battlefront's M3 halftrack

Battlefront's M4A3 tank with dozer blade and deep wading kit

Battlefront's M4A3 tanks with wading kits

Battlefront's M4A3 tanks with sandbags

Battlefront's M4A3 (105) tank

Battlefront's M4A1 tanks

Just to prove how "anal" I was with my 15mm WWII US stuff. Each US vehicle has it's only different serial number with I did research on to make sure that I did not use the wrong numbers for the wrong piece of equipment. In other words, none of my M4 tanks have halftrack or tank destroyer's numbers and the flip side is the same. If I was able to find the vehicle serial numbers for the platoon's that I was doing, I would have made sure to even have that correct!

Ghosts From My Past - Part 3 (15mm WWII Infantry)

2011-10-02T22:10:00.002-05:00

Another installment of "Look what I found in my basement!" This is 15mm WWII figures that I had based with either one or two figures per base for Platoon / Company size skirmishes. When I had using these, our gaming "group" was using Larry Freeman's "Combat Command" rules. Again, all were painted by me.

A Tub of 15mm WWII goodness!

Old Glory's Germans...it was not until after I was editing the pictures that I noticed that the two figures are the same pose!

Old Glory Germans and Peter Pig French Resistance

The four figures to the left of the Peter Pig French Resistance are also Peter Pig's, but they are converted figures from their French Motorized Infantry. They were converted and painted up to be French rural police. I left off the FFI armbands so I can use them as either FFI or anti-Resistance operations.

Battlefront US Paratroopers painted up for the 82nd Airborne Division

More 82nd Airborne

US line infantry from Old Glory. The one figured was converted to have a rifle grenade by Combatcolours.

Mostly Old Glory with some Peter Pig US troops in the mix

Ghosts From My Past - Part 2 (25mm Figures)

2011-10-02T21:30:00.003-05:00

Here is some more stuff that I had unearthed in my cleaning up the basement. They were all painted by me.

The figure to the left was a mini that I used in a RPG game to represent my character in a modern supernatural detective type game. It is from Foundry's Street Level Violence line. The figure to the right is one of my favorites! It was from the long Out of Production line, Macho Women With Guns line for the RPG with the same name. It was one of the monsters from the game called "The Congressional Subcommittee". Somewhere, I hope that I still have my other favorite miniature from that line, a crow with bowler hat, cigar, and a M60 machine gun!

Here is another RPG miniature that I used from many, many moons ago. It is a Games Workshop dwarf miner.

This figure was to used for Pulp Action or Gangster games. It is from Brigade Games. I really like the pose of this figure. The lonely deck hand tries to keep warm with a cigarette on a deck of a Black Ship while watching for pirates, rival rumrunners, or the Coast Guard with his slung Tommy gun.

"Who knows the evil that lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" He is from Pulp Figures. I was really happy with the eyes, but after taking this photo, I noticed some red on his cape that I am going to have to fix.

Ghosts From My Past - Pt 1 (The Fenians)

2011-10-02T18:53:00.002-05:00

Well, I have been on holiday for a week and have been cleaning up the basement. As part of that, I also have been bagging up miniatures to sell off and reorganizing my storage of my stuff to keep. While doing that, I have unearthed some of my older projects and decided to add them up on the blog for review. First is my Battle of Ridgeway, 1866. I only got the Fenians finished, but I have figures to do the Canadians. Originally they were all mounted on individual bases, I have since decided to based them three to an 1"x1" base. That is why you will notice that they have flocking around their feet, but the base is not done. I am planning to revisit my Fenian Raids, 1866, project using Regimental Fire & Fury.

The storage case with the Fenian forces

General O'Neill and the standard bearer carrying the flag presented to Thomas Meager in 1848

The IRA Regt'l command stands - since then, I found descriptions of the actual flags used at Ridgeway and plan to replace these with them

More Irish Volunteers

Even more Irish Volunteers!

Paddy and Sean expressing themselves towards the English Crown!

150th Anniversary of the Battle of Wilson's Creek, MO, and more!

2011-09-20T21:02:00.001-05:00

Hello!

I have been working some really long hours at work and have been neglecting my blog and my travel website.

I went to the 150th Anniversary reenactment of the Battle of Wilson's Creek last month with my friend Steve. We also visited the Wilson's Creek National Park, the National WWI Museum in Kansas City, MO; the Battle of Lexington State Park and Visitor Center, and finally stopping at the Missouri Confederate Memorial and Cemetery. It was pretty much a full weekend of activities.

I have photos from the reenactment and the other sites up soon after I do some cropping and resizing. I will place some up on this blog, but all of the pictures for Wilson's Creek, Lexington, and the cemetery will be placed on my ACW website. The WWI museum pictures will be placed on my travels' website.

Since then, I also visited several more ACW sites or museums. I visited in the Atlanta area the Atlanta Cyclorama which is a mural painting and display of the battle of Atlanta that was commissioned by the former Union general John Logan after the war. Also located there is one of the two locomotive engines involved in the 'Great Locomotive Chase', the Texas. There is also a Medal of Honor medal located there. Just outside of Atlanta, I also visited the Southern History and Locomotive Museum. At this museum is the other locomotive engine involved in the 'Great Locomotive Chase', the General. There is also one of the raider's Medal of Honor medals is also located there. Finally, also in the Atlanta area, I visited the Kerrshaw Mountain battlefield, but my camera's battery died shortly after getting there. I also visited three more Civil War sites in Tennessee, Fort Donelson, Stones River, and Lookout Mountain.

I also finally finished several books, but still have to do write up for them. The first book was "Nine Battles To Stanley" by Nicholas van der Bijl. I had a hard time finding the free time to read it, but enjoyed it. While it did not add much to description of battles for the Falklands, it did cover a lot of "extra" details that I found very useful for my future Falklands games. The next book was, "Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History" by Yunte Huang. It is about how the real life Honolulu detective, Chang Apana, became the role model for the character, Charlie Chan. Also it covers how the novels, movies, and radio shows came about to become one of America's great icons of the 20th Century and how the character influenced America and Chinese relations. The last book was "The Lost Patrol: The Mounties' Yukon Tragedy" by Dick North. It is the about the 1903 RNWMP overland dog patrol from Dawson City to Fort McPherson by Inspector Francis Fitzgerald and two other Mounties and one former Mountie that got lost and eventually perished in the wilderness.

I got to go for now, but be expecting the travel photographs soon.

Cheers

We Are Coming Father Abraham

2011-08-04T21:39:00.002-05:00

Well, since my last posting, I refigured out what I will need for figures from Blue Moon. So now, I will not have four RGTs of 880 men (22 stands), but 10 small RGTs of 9 stands or 12 stands (360 or 480 men for RF&F.) But combining the small RGTs, minus a few stands, I can field three 760 man and two 840 man RGTs for the generic Union troops. With the Zouaves and Wisconsin RGTs, I will be able to field either one 800 man RGT or two smaller RGTs with 440 & 480 men each. All I will have left will be four spare generic Union troops, one spare Zouave and two Wisconsin figures. Excellent!

So with these recalculations, I made my order to Blue Moon for the first half of my Union force. But I will still need artillery and cavalry figures. Any of the unique RGTs with specialized uniforms, I will have to look into for the future. Also, if I want to do a bunch of different RGTs for flags, I can pick up a pack of officers & a couple packs of standard bearers and that will get me another 10 stands to for different RGT’L flags!

Now, I should have enough to do all of the bigger battles that I want to do using a 1:100/1:125/1:200/1:250 ratio for TCHAE or F&F with all of the above for the infantry RGTs. But like above, I will need to order artillery and cavalry.

Now, all I need is to get the catalog and address for a guy that Steve H. knows that does the flag research and makes 15mm paper flags. I plan to help him do some research on the flags for the Missouri and other Trans-Mississippi RGTs, since that is one of my interests and one of the main key things that I always get photographs at any museum that I visit.

The next blog entry should be about my trip to the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek with some pictures of the reenactment. After that, I plan to get an entry on the following things (but not necessary in this order): A review of my current book that I reading, “Nine Battles to Stanley” by van der Bijl on the Falklands Conflict; A review of a painting service that I used to paint up a bunch of 20mm figures for the Falklands with pictures; A generic scenario for the shoot-out with the police with Bonnie & Clyde at the Red Crown Travel Court in Platte City, MO, 1933; and finally, an ‘Order of Battle’ for the Battle of Carthage, MO, July 5, 1861, with notes.

To Fight for Abraham's Daughter

2011-08-02T21:20:00.002-05:00

Well, my American Attention Span Disorder finally kicked in...yet again. While I am still driving forward with the 10mm Vietnam and 20mm Falklands/UK Anarchy, I am shelving my 15mm WWI project. In it's place I am starting a new project that I have resisting up to now for the last 20+ years...the American Civil War in 15/18mm.

I have been sucked into this project for several reasons, besides my normal interest in military history. I have always love the history of the ACW, especially west of the Mississippi River. As a kid, I pretty much did an annual trip to the Pilot Knob battlefield for many years. On vacations with my grandparents, we always stopped at any ACW battlefields and museums. My first unit in the National Guard carried the linage for the 1st Missouri Infantry (CSA) - (Ok, I had some trouble with that, but at least I was not serving in the Confederate army.) When I was in college, I attend the burial of William Quantrill (I wanted to make sure the $*~#@ was dead!) In the last 6 years, I have read a lot of ACW books. The last two years I have been visiting a lot of ACW battlefields, museums, or monuments. With this year being the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the ACW...I was pretty much doomed. But the killing blows came from discussions of 15mm ACW for Regimental Fire &Fury with my follow gamers and various emails about the ACW in Missouri to a friend in the UK.

So, here I am starting a new project! Ok, so what are the details of this new project?

Rules: I have ordered Regimental Fire & Fury, plus I already have Fire & Fury and Too Fat Lardies, "They Couldn't Hit An Elephant". RF&F will be the main rules, but I would like try out TCHAE for bigger battles. The rules all have the same frontage of 1". So, there will be no need for different bases. RF&F is one stand for 40 men and TCHAE is one for 100 men or 200 men depending on what scale you choose.

Figures: As mentioned earlier, I will be doing this in 15/18mm. I have some Old Glory already, but the bulk of my force will be Blue Moon, which is really 18mm. Some units might also include Peter Pig, or Battle Honours.

Units: I am first starting off with an Union Brigade of four 880 men regiments (22 stands with 3 figures.). I know that 880 man RGTs for the Union are extremely rare, but due to the way that Blue Moon package their miniatures, I might might as well use them all up which will get 22 stands with 2 packs of infantry, and one pack of each of the officers, Non-Coms, flag bearers, and drummers.

This Union BDE will not be a historical Brigade, but a grouping of some historical regiments that I like for various reasons. Two RGTs will be generic sack coat & kepi units so I can switch out the flag stands to be another RGT. Depending on the availability of flags, I want to make them Missouri RGTs or failing that, Illinois RGTs. The next RGT will be the 8th Wisconsin with Old Abe on the flag stand. I can also later switch out this flag stand and make it into another Wisconsin RGT from the "Iron Brigade." The final RGT will be a Zouave RGT. I have to do a little research on uniforms, but I plan for it to be the 8th Missouri. If I am lucky, they will have the same uniform as the 11th New York so that they can double for them. Also, I plan to do two more generic RGTs so I can re-flag all four generic RGTs to be the "Irish Brigade."

I currently have about 100 painted up Old Glory Union in mixed uniforms & civilian clothes, plus tailored green uniforms for the Fenian army for Ridgeway in 1866. The figures wearing the green uniforms will be grouped as one or two Fenian units. The ones in Union uniforms and mixed civilians clothing will do double duty as Fenians in 1866 and the Missouri Home Guard or the Enrolled Missouri Militia. I am going to try to do research on the flag for the 1st Northeast Missouri Home Guard as that is the unit that I want them to mainly represent.

Later, I want to do several other RGTs with unique uniforms, like the 3rd Missouri (3 Months), or the African-Americans, like the 1st Kansas or the 62nd USCT.

Between completing the various Union RGTs, I plan to start up some rebel units: 1st Missouri CSA and the Missouri State Guard. I will also get the flags so eventually I can do the Bowen's Brigade.

After the infantry is complete, the cavalry will come next. I only plan to do a RGT per side. Any battle requiring more then one RGT of cavalry, will be done using F&F or TCHAE rules. Artillery will be done throughout all of this.

With this, I give you two YouTube videos in the spirit of this new project...

Book Review: “Ozark Gunfights and Other Notorious Events” by Larry Wood

2011-07-29T20:57:00.003-05:00

General Information

This book is a collection of twenty-five short chapters (5-13 pages each) about various gunfights, outlaws, and crimes in the Ozark area (SW Missouri, NW Arkansas, NE Oklahoma, and SE Kansas). Each chapter is on a specific event or person. The book covers the period from post - Civil War (starting with “Wild Bill” Hickok’s shoot out in Springfield, MO, in 1865) to the mid-1930’s (with Bonnie & Clyde’s shoot out in Joplin, MO, 1933), and one chapter about a 1950’s crime. There are quite a few B&W pictures scattered throughout the book, including pictures from the time and contemporary pictures of areas, buildings, or graves as they look like today. The chapters are actually different magazine articles written by the author (but one was co-written by the author) for various Western magazines.

The Good

I enjoy this book for a couple of reasons, besides the obvious interest in the topic. First is that the chapters are fairly short and secondly, they are fairly straight to the point with details. This makes for an easy and fast read for each chapter. Since each chapter is a completely separate event/person, one can choose to read one chapter and not another if they choose to do so.

The Bad

In some ways, I wish that there were more details, but with this being a collection of articles for magazines instead a continuously flowing book, some details had to be dropped.

Stuff of Interest for Gamers

There are some chapters that could work out for a tabletop Western era bank robberies, but generally they are pretty one sided or fairly small and would work for a solo or two person game only. Most of the more detailed bank robberies discussed take place in the 1890’s to 1920’s. While this is out of the period, as well as regionally, to what most people considered to be the “Wild West”, there were a lot of infamous gangs or outlaws that are associated with this area and period: the Daltons, the Doolin’s “Wild Bunch”, and Roy “Arkansas Tom” Daugherty for examples.

In some of the very earlier issues of “Miniature Wargames”, there were articles about three of the events or outlaws covered in this book. If you are interested more into this, I highly encourage you to look up those magazine articles for more details on how to table top those events. I would consider writing something up, but I don’t want to plagiarize any of these articles, plus I am lacking the free time to take that task to hand.

“Miniature Wargames” Issue #41 covers the Dalton’s raid on the Coffeyville, KS, banks. Issue #42 covers the Doolin’s “Wild Bunch” hold-up in Ingalls, OK. Issue #46 covers the Doolin’s “Wild Bunch” robbery of a bank in Southwest City, MO.

Wargames Illustrated Issue number 127 also covers the Dalton’s raid at Coffeyville, KS.

Next Review

It is back to the islands with “Nine Battles to Stanley” by Nicolas van der Bijl. I decided to read this book for two reasons. First, I read his book on the British army in Northern Ireland and enjoyed it. Secondly, he was the sole Intelligence staff officer for the 3 Commando Brigade on the liberating of the Falklands in 1982. I figured with his background as an intelligence officer, he should be able to provide some good insight into the operations done by 3Commando Bde and the Falklands as a hold. I plan to read Thompson’s “No Picnic” immediately after this one, since Thompson was the commander of 3 Commando Bde.

Book Review: “Slow Boat on Rum Row” by Fraser Miles

2011-07-29T20:56:00.002-05:00

General Information

This is an autobiography of a Canadian rum runner on the Pacific coast line. The author was 18 years old when he went to sea and spent two years as a short wave wireless operator and 2^nd Engineer on the rum runners, Ruth B and Ryou II. His career ended with the abolishment of Prohibition. The book is broken down into two main sections, the story of his life from childhood leading up to becoming a rum runner and his years as a rum runner. There are several appendices that cover other items related to Canadian rum runners, which will be discussed below. The book is 221 pages long, including 40 more pages for the appendices. There are many B&W pictures scattered throughout the book of actual rum running ships, their crews, and a few pictures of Fraser Miles childhood.

The Good

I will admit that I had some reservations about this book after I got it when I saw that 81 of the 221 pages was about his personal life a kid. I am now glad that I read it as the author was very good at keeping the stories interesting. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the author states that he took to rum running for the money, but was only making about sixteen cents per case during his years running rum! That was a very insignificant payment when one considers that the average case probably sold up to $200 depending on the label. But the amount of cases that his ship handled, still gave him roughly $125 a month for his pay. So one can do some quick math to figure out how many cases his ship handled in a month!

The author was a short wave wireless operator for a shipping company that was a front for a rum running operation out of Vancouver, Canada. He landed the job quite by accident, without going into a lot of it, basically he showed up in place of another friend, who was asked to show up because the regular operator did not show up. While serving on the rum runners, he kept a diary of his trips which allowed the author to have a fairly clear memory of what happen when he wrote this book much later. The author’s service was pretty much uneventful, but as with his childhood, the author is very entertaining with his telling.

The Bad

I enjoyed it, but I can see where some will found this very boring. If you think that the life of a rum runner was filled with shoot out with the Coast Guard, pirates, or rival rum runners…then you will be very disappointed in this book.

Stuff of Interest for Gamers

There really is not much for miniature gamers other then the description of the paint jobs of the type of ships. The “fireboats”, which was the high speed boats that took the case of alcohol to the beach, were painted dark grey. The delivery ship, which is what the author served on, would transport the alcohol from the “Mother ships” located on ‘Rum Row’ to the 12-mile limit to meet up with the “fireboats.” The delivery ships were painted light grey.

But for the role-player, there is tons of useful information about the daily life on the rum runners. One of the things that I thought is a great tool is the author gives an example of what a typical rum runner signal code matrix looks like and this could a layer of interesting game resource. Also in the appendices, is a USCG’s report on how they were able to triangulate the Ryou II’s location by listening to the Ryou II’s wireless transmissions.

There is a ton of information in the appendix on the various rum running ships or ships that thought were involved in rum running. This section is 17 pages long and has various information like who owned the ship, the length of the ship, when it was built, and a sentence or two about it history if know.

Next Review

“Ozark Gunfights and Other Notorious Events” by Larry Wood, is a collection of chapters about different gunfights, criminals, and lawmen in the post Civil War southwest Missouri, up to the 1930’s, and including on 1950’s event.

Book Review: “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by David Okrent

2011-07-29T20:54:00.005-05:00

General Information

The book is 398 pages long, including the appendices, but excluding the cited material, index, and pages with the pictures. The book is broken into four main sections, each containing four or seven chapters. The first main section cover the history of alcohol in the US prior to Prohibition, to include the rise of the various anti-alcohol societies and individuals, various court cases involving alcohol, and the political scene leading to the vote for the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. The section main section covers the Volstead Act, or the methods to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, and the histories of the various legal alcohols allowed under the Volstead Act (pre-Prohibition personal stocks, wine/cider making, religious wines, medical alcohol, industrial alcohol, and near beers) and how the legal alcohol clauses were abused. The third section covers the illegal alcohol and the rise of various criminal powers. The final section is the rise of the rise of the anti-Prohibition movements and the end of Prohibition. There are three sections of B&W photographs with 61 pictures combined. Finally, this book is to be made into a Ken Burn’s documentary for PBS.

The Good

This is a very good book, period! It reads very well and the author does a great job in the flow of information from one subject to another. The author covers a lot of ground and gives a lot of information, but it never seems rushed, incomplete, or overwhelming to me while reading it. I think that this will make a great Ken Burn’s documentary.

The author did a great job discussing the various ‘dry’ and ‘wet’ factions and leaders and some of their reasons for why they were either for or against the Prohibition. Some of these groups or individuals are sort of surprising. For example, the Ku Klux Klan were a ‘dry’ faction because they viewed the power behind the alcohol industries where foreigners and that by keeping alcohol way from African-Americans, that they will not get ‘out-of-hand’. Whereas some of the more powerful ‘wet’ leaders included Pierre du Pont, the owner of DuPont Chemicals, because he was against the income tax laws. He believed that by repealing Prohibition, that the need for income taxes will cease since prior to Prohibition the alcohol taxes was so great, that there was no need for income taxes!

What is so amazing is the absolute amount of hypocrisy by the ‘dry’ leaders and organizations. The amount of corruption, ineptitude, and just out right insane logic is just amazing by the various ‘dry’ leaders. That is not to say that the ‘wet’ were plaster saints by any means, but they were not the ones claiming to be morally good either. Also, I was not aware of the Jones Law before this book. The Jones Law was passed in 1929 and it made alcohol related offences have far more severe punishments, including life imprisonment for a fourth alcohol conviction!

This book also has one of my favor titles for a chapter, “The Hummingbird That Went to Mars”. I don’t know why I really like it, but I do. The title is a reply to the remark made by the author of the Eighteenth Amendment, Morris Sheppard in 1930. When asked what he thought the chances of the Eighteenth Amendment being repealed were, he replied back, “There is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tailed to its tail.” Needless to say, that this chapter deals with the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. Thank goodness for that hummingbird!

The Bad

I have nothing. The author was very well informed on the history of Prohibition and is a good writer. I really enjoyed it all.

Stuff of Interest for Gamers

Really, there is nothing that will be useful for a miniature gamer, like specific shootouts that can be gamed on the table. But for role-players with games set in the 1920’s, like Call of Cthulhu from Chaosium, this book is an invaluable resource for understanding the total aspects of the Prohibition. It covers the loopholes of the Volstead Act, what individuals and groups supported the “Dry’s” or the “Wets”, and key events in Prohibition.

There is one event that is talked about in the book which could make a great plot for a scenario for a detective RPG game (and could be done as a Cthulhu horror as well.) The incident happened in September, 1923, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. A 107’ Canadian steam trawler, the John Dwight, was captured and scuttled by an opposing gang. Eight of the crew’s bloated bodies were found on washed up on the beach, with three of them having their faces skinned off and the others with their eyes gouged out and their fingertips burned away by acid so they could not be recognized. The captain of the John Dwight was founded adrift in a dinghy with his skull fractured and shoved underneath the bench. This could make for an interesting game of investigating some of the upper society for bootleg / criminal ties or possibly some horrid evil cult!

It could also be a great resource for an abstract matrix game on Prohibition in the US with the players representing various factions (like the Anti-Saloon League or Pierre du Pont) on either keeping Prohibition or ending Prohibition and still getting their primary / secondary goals (such as women’s equal rights or to end the income tax laws) in as well by dealing with the other players.

Next Review

“Slow Boat on Rum Row” by Fraser Miles; it is an autobiography of a Canadian rum runner.

General Update on my gaming and the blog

2011-06-27T21:10:00.004-05:00

I am still working 80 to 100+ hours a week, so even though I am posting entries on my blog, I am still considering myself to be on a long hiatus since I am not able to do any gaming or working on my gaming projects. Plus, it may take me a week or even a month to type up another blog entry.

Besides the book reviews and my article on getting organized, I am still trying to do some research on the Platte City, MO, shootout with Bonnie & Clyde to create a skirmish scenario for that shootout. I just don’t have much time to do any Google-Fu on more information about the armored car and armored shields used during the shootout. I also have to play around on coming up with more information on the individual policemen involved. If nothing else, I hope to have it finalized and up on my blog by July 19^th, for the 78^th anniversary of the shootout.

My current gaming projects are (if I ever get the time):

10mm 2^nd Indochina War (US involvement in South Vietnam): Most of this project is finished and I have played a few games with the figures in the past few years as you may have seen from my previously blog entries on After Action Reviews of the games, which are now located on my Vietnam gaming website (https://sites.google.com/site/sapperjoesvietnamwargames/ ). I had previously used “Cold War Commander” (CWC) rules for my Vietnam games, but I plan to use “Charlie Don’t Surf” (CDS), by Too Fat Lardies, for future Vietnam games. I do want to get a game off some time this year, but everything is up in the air with my work load and working out of town. Plus, the days of having a game shop to run it at are pretty much over in St. Louis, so I have to clean out my basement for gaming or do some backyard gaming.

One of the first things that I need to do with the switching of rules is make some more “Big Men”, or leaders in Lardies’ talk, for the US side and possibly the VC side. I already have enough command stands that will work for the minimum required number of US “Big Men”, but now I need to get some more for the possible extra “Big Men” that the US might get. I will also need to increase the number of VC stands that I have. Other than that, I still have my unfinished “Snoopy” gun truck, M48’s, trucks, artillery, and other odds and ends for the US, but those are support units and what is required for the basic force. Since these are scenario specific items, I will work on them off and on.

The next thing that I need to do is start buying more terrain, like rice paddies, roads, hills, etc. I got some stuff, but I just need to get enough to do this right. I plan to start buying a bunch of stuff over the next few weekends for terrain.

I do plan to rebase my US troops to 40mm x 20mm bases for the infantry and vehicles instead of their current 50mm hex / circle base (yes, oddly enough that means actually basing them off of the CWC basing sizes instead of my original hex bases!) The reason for this is three things: 1) Reduce the size of their ‘footprint’ for less foliage and other terrain on be mounted on the base; 2) I plan to repaint some of the figures and replace some of my ANZAC miniatures that were posing as US troops with maybe some head swapping, and; 3) by reducing the base size, I should take up less room in my storage trays allowing me to carrying less boxes. I will not rebase the VC stands, as those were done by Steve H. Steve did such a wonderful job on the bases, that I cannot bring myself to rebase them.

Finally, my US force is a mix of the ANZAC and US figures from Pendraken to give more different poses. I still have several ANZAC figures left over, so I am also going to make an ANZAC forces as well (hmm…do you think reading about Long Tan has something to do with this!) I just ordered the figures with the SLR’s and that should be everything for a company of ANZACs for CDS. I am also planning to do a NVA force in their green uniforms for Long Tan and the later war. I am not sure if I really want to try to do an ARVN force. Not because I don’t want them, but in 10mm, I am not sure if they would really stand out vs. US figures, so I just might use my US figures as imposters for ARVN. I will probably still pick up a few vehicles and paint them up as ARVN though.

15mm WWI, Turkish Front skirmish and tactical: I have already bought some Minifigs Turks and British to start working on this project. I actually got about 17 Turks finish! I just got to do some minor details, flocking, and a sealer. That will be my first battalion for “If the Lord Spares Us” (ITLSU) by Too Fat Lardies. I am using an individual figure to equal one platoon for ITLSU, so that by having figures mounted separately, I can then also use them to equal one man for Too Fat Lardies’, “Through the Mud & the Blood”, (M&B). I did this so I can either fight brigade size battles with ITLSU or a platoon or weak company size skirmish with M&B. This is a low priority project that I am doing so I have something other than green uniforms to paint, plus I have been interested in WWI in the Middle East lately.

20mm ’Anarchy in the UK’ skirmish: This is the second highest priority for projects with me right now. Originally this was project was going to cover the low intensity warfare in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ for the period of the 1970’s and early 1980’s when the British Army were still using SLR and not the bullpup SA80’s rifles. After seeing the blogs, “Winter of ‘79” and “England Prevails…”, plus many emails with Mark & Math from “Winter of ‘79”, I decided that the route that I am going to follow instead of games on Operation Banner. Basically, I am pretty much going to parallel the “Winter of ‘79” blogs’ events of the breakdown of the UK in the 1970’s & early ‘80’s leading into a civil war. I am not going to worry too much about a back story, I just want to players to be at a little bit more at ease about the games with fictional Welsh Nationalist militants fighting off the conservative military coup forces from Salisbury, instead of PIRA and SAS trying to ambush each other. This will be an expanding project as the buildings, vehicles, and miniatures will be doing double duty for other future projects, like London zombies, ‘Red Dawn’ in Cornwall, and ‘Mad Max’ in Somerset. But right now, I just don’t have the time to be building my cardboard buildings for the project, but hope to start up again soon.

20mm Falklands skirmish: This is the project that has the highest priority. I sent off miniatures to be painted for most of a platoon of Brits and Argentines. I have gotten them back in the first week of June, but they are at home and I am working away from home and have not seen them yet. I probably will not get back to look at them for a while still. I also have some British figures that I painted up as well are on this blog. The British forces will double duty for the ‘Anarchy in the UK’ project, so there is more happiness there! I plan to do platoon size actions and some small section patrols. I need to get cracking on terrain and some buildings…and penguins! I plan to start buying some large hills over the next few weeks.

I made some orders during the month of June that are game related. First I made an order to Liberation miniatures for some more 1970’s/Falklands UK figures that I need (like a Milan team and SAS) and more squaddies with helmets to create a second platoon for Falklands or a rebel platoon for the UK meltdown. I also have some British vehicles, armed civilians, and ANZAC SAS (Vietnam line) for ragged militia types for the UK meltdown. Plus, I have some US figures with ranger caps and M1 steel helmets, along with a Ford MUTT for the US intervention forces for the UK meltdown and for shooting zombies along with my Hotspurs’ 1970’s SWAT team in 1978 Philadelphia.

I then order a few packs of 10mm ANZACs for Vietnam from Pendraken, so that should complete what I need there for an ANZAC company.

Next, I order some used books on the Falklands and on the 1920’s from Amazon. The Falklands books are: “No Picnic: 3 Commando Brigade in the Falklands” by Gen. Julian Thompson (the commander of 3 Commando Bde); “Above All, Courage: Personal Stories from the Falklands War” by Max Arthur; and a DVD from the History Channel, “The Greatest Raids from the Falklands Campaign”. The books covering the 1920’s are: “Alcohol, Boat Chases, and Shootouts!: How the US Coast Guard and the Customs Fought Rum Smugglers and Pirates, Part I: 1919-1924” by James Morrison; and “When Miners March – The Battle of Blair Mountain” (audio book, including 16 musical tracks) by William Blizzard.

To go along with the book on the USCG during the Rum War, I found an interesting download that is free on the internet, Intelligence In The Rum War At Sea: 1920-1933, by LT Eric S Ensign, USCG. I have not read it yet, but sounds like a very interesting topic. (www.ndic.edu/press/pdf/38038.pdf)

I plan to order some more used books in July which will cover more on the Falklands and some more books on the Rum War. In addition, I will start picking up terrain for the 10mm Vietnam and hills for the Falklands.

Anyway, that is basically what is going on in my life besides working my life away for the “The Man” as my youth fads away.

“Gamers of the world, organize!”

2011-06-15T21:45:00.045-05:00

“To horse, Proletariat!”

Err…sorry, I was getting carried away this blog entry’s title. As you might have guess, this blog entry has something to do with getting organized...not against “The Man”, but organizing your gaming paints and materials instead. I am going to discuss some things that I have done in the attempt to get organize for gaming. While everything in this write up is available in the USA, the equivalent should also be available in other countries.

Organizing your paints

I mainly use Vallejo and Reaper paints, which both come in a similar size dropper bottle. Over the years, I had to continuously move from job to job, which also meant that I moved from city to city. So I had to make my painting cases easy to transport and keep some type of order so I could find the various colors without dumping out everything out to find one bottle of paint. I played around with different boxes until I finally found the best box to keep everything organized. I use the Plano’s extra deep tackle tray box which can be bought just about in any fishing & hunting store or department. The depth of the box is the right height to hold the paint dropper bottles up right. With the semi-clear plastic, you can see the bottles tops and even read the labels on the bottles that are along the outer edges. I can easily get over 100 dropper paint bottles in one box. Also as an added bonus is that since it is a fishing tackle box, that means that there are various carrying cases designed to carry more than one box from Plano if you got hundreds of paints – like me.

  
T:  Paint Storage Box 
B:  Paint Bottles with paint blob and ID number

What I did next is to place a drop of paint on the top of the bottle’s cap which has a little depression that allows the paint sample to have some protection from being rubbed off. This allows me to quickly identify where my different colors are located in the box. Next I take a permanent marker and mark on the cap the paint manufacturer’s product code so it can be reference to a manufacturer’s color chart or listing to see if I have a bottle of that paint, especially when someone provides a list of what color paints that they use to match a specific uniform, etc.

The Gamers’ Box

I have played around on various methods of organizing stuff for gamers, like dice, markers, reference sheets, etc, so when I run games (unfortunately, which is not often enough), the player has everything that they would need for a game. I use to keep everything in one or two banker boxes. Then when I showed up at a game, especially if I would run something at a convention, I would have to dig everything out and separate it which takes away from the time limited time available, especially at conventions.

Over this Memorial Day weekend, I had a vision on how I could speed up the process and keep things more prepared than before this. I created “The Gamers’ Box”. I am using boxes from the ‘Really Useful Boxes’ manufacturer, which are available at most of the major office supply stores in the US, and being an UK company, I would assume also in Europe. These boxes are molded in several colors, clear, black, blue, red, green, etc. But my local office supply store doesn’t have everything available, but has enough that I can make it color coded for three different players or sides: Red (Aggressors), Blue (Defenders), Green (3^rd Force – for a three-way scenario). I will use a similar idea to create a “Game Master’s Box” using either black or clear boxes, but more on that later.

T: The "Gamers' Box" unopened

B: Inside the "Gamers' Box"

The premise is that at the beginning of a game, I will give each side one of these ‘Gamers’ Boxes”, which will contain everything that the player(s) will need for the game for their side (Aggressor, Defender, or 3rd Party.)  As the boxes are color coded, I can make sure that any scenario sensitive information is in the right box before the game and not have to hunt for it later or worry that the opposing player might have the information for the other side in their box.

The Clipboard for Reference sheets & other papers
  

The main box to hold everything is the 4 Liter box which will work for both the US 8-1/2”x11” page size and the UK A4 paper size material. At the top of the box will be a clipboard of that side’s color for the player to keep track of any paper work that would be need for the game, like reference sheets, unit organizations, maps, scenario outline and victory conditions, etc. I will create a cover sheet that will cover the top of the paperwork for privacy that will probably be the game systems cover page, like in the example photograph below for Too Fat Lardies’ “Terrible Sharpe Sword”. Since the clipboards will be the color of one of the sides, that side will be able to keep track of their clipboard and not grab the wrong one. But if they don’t care to keep track of it, then the other side can use their lack of “security measures” and break their enemies’ “code” and gather intelligence!

Inside the 4L box

Also inside the 4L box will be a flexible 12” ruler in the proper sides’ color laying loose for measuring movements and shooting, but I will properly pick up another flexible ruler so that there will be two available for multiple players sides. I am going to see if I can find a 36” cloth tape measure or a clothing size tape to add for any measurements requiring distances over 12”. I don’t want any tape measures or rulers made of metal in my boxes as they have a possibility of damaging paint jobs on miniatures when accidentally used carelessly. While I did not put them in the box for the photographs, I also use special ‘Blinds’ markers to identify hidden troops and dummy markers for the various games, especially for the Too Fat Lardies games. These “blinds” will also go in the various boxes.

0.2L, 0.35L, and 0.55L Boxes in the 4L Box

Besides the rulers, clipboard, and other loose items like blind markers, the 4L box will also have at the minimum a 0,55L pencil box and at least one dice box of one of two sizes, 0.2L or 0.35L. There might more boxes depending on the game system or additional items that I might want to add, like status counters, blast templates, or smoke markers. For now, let’s just discuss these three smaller boxes from the biggest to smallest and how they will be used with the ‘Gamers’ Box.’

    
55L Box 
  

The 0.55L box, unlike the other boxes, has a double duty. First it is a pencil box that will contain a couple of mechanical pencils, an eraser, and a 6” ruler for keeping notes and updating a scenario map if there is one. I will pick up some grease pencils to add to the box for drawing on a scenario map, if one is needed. I will probably also add a small note pad for passing notes or making notes to oneself. The box’s next duty is to be used to roll dice in so they don’t go bouncing all over the table and possibly damage miniatures or knock over miniatures. As you can see from the pictures, one can easily roll up to 10 dice within the box and not have them bouncing out. Again the box is the same color as the side so it can easily be identified which side the box’s dice rolls are for when needing to make comparison rolls (like in the rules ‘Force on Force’). A second 0.55L box could be added to the 4L box if there is a desire to have a second dice rolling box for multi-player sided games, but if that is the case, you might want to consider using the 2^nd 0.55L box for carrying your dice instead of one of the next two sizes that are discussed below, due to the limited size of the of the 4L box.

0.35L Box

The next size box in my ‘Gamers’ Box’ is the 0.35L box. This is a great box for a large number of different size dice. In the picture, in the box I have ten dice of each of the following sizes: d6, d8, d10, and d12. I still have enough room for probably another 10 x d4’s and 10x d20’s. What you might have noticed in the picture is that each die type is a specific color. That is because in games like ‘Force on Force’ where the two opposing players roll off and then compare the dice to beat the opposing player’s individual dice, it is a lot easier to tell one player to roll their red dice and the other to roll their blue dice as the only d8’s in your game are the red and blue dice! So this should help to prevent the accidental rolling of a d12 with the d8 because all of the dice are different colors. I have not created a separate pool of dice for my Green box yet, but I don’t plan to do many three-way games. So I can take my time getting those dice.

0.2L Box

Finally, the 0.2L box is the smallest that I have for my ‘Gamers’ Box’, but they do make smaller boxes. The 0.2L box can hold up to 48 ‘Flames of War’ size dice or a deck of normal size playing cards (Poker deck size). While I don’t like “Flames of War”, personally, I do like the themed dice and use them for various games that are d6 based, like the Too Fat Lardies systems and the Blitzkrieg Commander system. In this photo, you can see the FOW Soviet dice which I use for any Communist forces, like Soviets, Viet Cong, etc.

Game Masters’ Box

I did not have time to really start working on this box yet, but this will be the box that I will carry everything that I will need as a Game Master, minus miniatures and terrain (unless I have room). Currently, I am thinking that the 9L box might work, but some of the rules that I have are in 3-ring blinders from PDF files, and the 3-ring binders might not fit in that size box. So I might have to look into getting a different size box, but I will have to follow up on that on a different date. But, here is what I am planning to be packed in it.

Clipboard for paperwork
0.55L box for pencils and dice rolling box
0.2L box for a deck of playing cards or a 0.3L box that can hold two playing card decks (some games of the Too Fat Lardies games, like ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’, has enough cards for two decks when all of the optional cards are added in to the count.)
0.2L box for some dice that might be needed for the GM
Note pad for taking and passing notes if needed
Boxes for spare counters, markers, and templates
Copy of the rules and scenario notes/maps/etc
Some cheap name tag stickers for convention games, if they don’t have name tags
For conventions, a display stand with the different game segments (i.e., Player A moves, Player B shoots) that can be seen by everyone so everyone knows what turn is on in the game. It should help in keeping the game moving and not missing any steps, especially when having a bunch of new players.
A display stand for convention games so a sheet can be put in it giving the scenario’s name, the game system used, a brief description of the game, the GM(s) name(s), Club name, and website or blog site address for passer-by and the players – especially if you have a website or blog since you spend all of that time to have on, announce it!
Players’ awards or manufacturer’s support if available at conventions – Consider if nothing else, a simple paper award for the “Most Humorous Moment”, “Most Heroic Action”, “The Best Kill” etc, can go a long way to make your game more remembered to the players and encourages future return gamers at conventions
Possible additional books or collection of photos to allow the players to look at regards to an actual battle the game is based off, or even other game books for the same game system. Sometimes a simple game might spark an interest in a new period with players, so encourage it!
Camera, spare batteries and film/memory cards for memories and blogs

Book Review: “The Battle of Long Tan: The Legend of ANZAC Upheld” by Lex MacAulay

2011-06-12T20:37:00.001-05:00

Book Review: “The Battle of Long Tan: The Legend of ANZAC Upheld” by Lex MacAulay

General Description

I got the paperback version, so the page count is 184. It is broken down into 11 chapters and 6 appendices. There is a 14 page section of 50+ B&W photographs. There are an additional 8 maps scattered in the different chapters. The book covers the Australian side of the battle of Long Tan during the 2^nd Indochina War on August 18, 1966.

The Good

This is a good book of the Australian side of the battle of Long Tan. The author did a very good job interweaving individual accounts about the battle in the different chapters. As the author did not have access to the Vietnamese side of the battle, the author includes a paragraph every now and then of what the Vietnamese side probably was doing based on their standard operations and what they did do later in the battle. While I have read several books on the 2^nd Indochina War, all were accounts on US Army troops, except one which was about the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong. So, this was the first book that I read about the ANZAC forces. While the battle barely lasted a day through a rain storm, it involved an infantry company of 108 men supported by artillery holding off an estimated force of 2000 NVA regulars and VC locals until they were relieved by a squadron of M113 APC’s and another company and a half of infantry. After the battle, the official Australian count was 245 Vietnamese were killed for a loss of 18 Australians killed. There is something to say about the professionalism and courage on both sides to continue to fight under these conditions.

The Bad

Really, I don’t have anything bad to say about this book. The only thing that I wish to be better was the lack of the Vietnamese accounts of the battle. But the author was hampered by the fact at the time of his research and writing of this book, the open communications with Vietnam was not available. The author does a good try to show what the Vietnamese forces probably did experience, so I have to give him credit for that, instead of totally ignoring their story.

Wargaming “Long Tan”

As in many battles where the odds are heavily on one side, it is hard to recreate the battle. Instead of trying writing up a scenario for Long Tan, I will mention that there articles for Long Tan in “Miniature Wargames” in #39 and #114. There might be more articles in other gaming magazines, but I am currently only aware of the two from “Miniature Wargames”. That would be the best route for starting to game this battle. But basically you have a company of ANZAC infantry spread out a little in platoon formations in a rubber plantation which would be a fairly clear of underbrush and good firing lanes. The ANZAC’s has a superior Forward Observer Officer and good artillery support and almost no air support, with the exception of some ANZAC Huey slicks flying in ammunitions, supplies, and evacuating the wounded.

I would next encourage that “Charlie Don’t Surf” by Too Fat Lardies to be the rule set of choice. I think that would make the best system to reflect the ANZAC’s support and rigidness of the NVA command. Under “Charlie Don’t Surf”, the NVA must go for a military victory in destroying D/6 RAR, instead of a political victory.

A couple of painting notes should be that D/6RAR worn black and green camouflage floppy hats that were specially obtained by the company commander. According to the personal accounts, most of the NVA were wearing their green uniforms.

Miniatures should not be hard find in any scale, accept maybe the ANZAC’s M113s. From the description of the book, the M113’s where pretty much split between having a gun shield for the 0.50 cal HMG and not having a gun shield. The picture in the book shows a gun shield like that on a M113 ACAV, but without the armored bucket. Later, the ANZAC’s M113s had a machine gun turret which is totally different than the ACAVs. It looks like that machine gun turrets came after Long Tan. If that is the case, the M113s should be available in any scale. But if any of them had the turret, I am only aware of Britannia’s 20mm M113’s with the turrets, but Britannia is no more with the pasting of the owner, David Howitt in Jan., 2011. Grubby Tanks is supposed to have the rights to the Britannia lines, but we will have to see if they are released. Liberation Miniatures list parts to make the turret for the JB Models, 1/76^th M113.

Personally, I have two scales for the 2^nd Indochina War: 10mm and 20mm. My 10mm is designed to be for larger battles where a company or battalion is on the board, so that is what I will eventually use for Long Tan (but I might disguise it by using an American company). My 20mm are ANZAC’s from Britannia and is a platoon size strength force. I can use them to do the action of the 11 Platoon as they fought off wave after wave of NVA troops.

Next Book Review

Well, it is back to the USA during its darkest of moments…Prohibition! The next book will be, “Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition” by Daniel Okrent. This book is suppose to become a Ken Burn’s documentary for PBS, so I am really looking forward to it as I have enjoyed Ken Burn’s work.