Breaking the Fast

So as previously stated I finally got some of the boys together for a game of Hail Caesar last night. I wasn't sure if Dan was bringing some troops so I left the scenario until the last minute. But the gifted temple prompted me to say "I think the Goths should try and loot it, don't you?"
A town was assembled mid-table. an army of Goths has penetrated the frontier and invaded northern Italy. A field army is marching to intercept them.

The town of Cuniculus basks in the Mediterranean sunshine

The Romans had a large force of cavalry with a few cohorts of lanciari skirmishers, sent as an advance guard.

Roman center

Roman left and center

The Goths with some allied Huns, came on from the other end.

Gothic center

Dan usually does really quite badly with any sort of cavalry. But not last night. Initially both centers held back due to bad command rolls, while both sides wings swept forward to engage around the town.

My Huns got the worst of things. The Roman heavy equites got tired of the skirmishing and charged home:

Notice the accumulated hits (red chits)? Notice my abysmal roll for the Break Test? The resulting Sweeping Advance gave the same result on the second unit of Huns.

Meanwhile the Gothic right wing under Mike was doing the same to the Roman left commanded by Patrick:

I tried to save things and with some good command rolls I was able to swing my center and charge into the flank of the Roman right wing. However, the target of my charge sensibly evaded, leaving my Gothic bucellari to careen into the midst of a swarm. They hit the flank of some lanciari, but crossed the front of some Roman LC who joined in with a certain gusto.

Gothic nobles stick their head into a bag of bees

The Roman heavy cavalry then started counterattacking, smashing into the flank of one of my supporting warbands. And by this time the Roman center had marched through the town to deploy on the edge of it facing my center which was in considerable disarray and suffering some bruises.

The Gothic king thought it prudent to ask for terms and join the Roman army.

Figures are 15mm and quite a mix of Essex, Old Glory, Chariot and Viking Forge. We accidently used inches instead of centimeters which got us into contact pretty damn fast. And I messed up a few things, but fun was still had by all.

A Gifted Temple

Broke my gaming hiatus last night with a small game of Hail Caesar. Upon arrival, my buddy Dan gave me a nice little temple for my 15mm armies.

It started out as a brass mantel piece decoration that someone probably brought home from a holiday in Greece or Italy. My friend's dad picked a pair of them up at a garage sale! My buddy removed them from their marble base and gave them a coat of paint.

Here it is beside the purpose made gaming model I got year's back from Miniature World Maker:

Quite the contrast. The one on the left is solid brass. The one on the right is hollow rubber! But they work well together I think.

And what is late antiquity without ruins of ancient glory?

A few years back I benefited from Dan's experimentation. The ruin on the right is made from washers and fluted wooden pegs that carpenters use to pin pieces together. The low bits of broken wall are I think match sticks.

So by adding in some buildings I made for my WW2 Italian games, I've been able to accumulate a nice little town for my Romans:

The little farm house and the big building with the three arches I made from card stock. The other two buildings are resin cast Bring and Buy finds.

Bacon Marmalade

We saw this in our local Zehr's the other week and were intrigued:

That's right; bacon marmalade. It's part of the Loblaw's group's new 'black label' upmarket private label range of gourmet foods.

It's an orange marmalade with balsamic vinegar (from Modena, because everything is posher if it's from Italy), sauteed onion and bacon bits added. Very interesting flavours with it's sweet and tangy marmalade juxtaposed against the smoky salty bacony goodness.

We're speculating on how it will serve as a glaze for baked chicken breasts. But this morning I just had some spread on a thick heel of my wife's homemade bread for my eleven o'clock tea. Pretty tasty.

Those who espouse the view that anything is made better with bacon are right in this instance.

Olive Oil

We didn't need olive oil right away, but the Mrs. saw this in the store and had to get it:

Notice the brand name.

And some more olive oil won't go to waste.

Although I guess the Duchy of Mantovia should take on a more Mediterranean theme now.

Playing with the new camera

Took the shiny new toy down to the basement to try a few snaps and get a handle on how it works.

Here are some Old Glory 15mm 18th century Ottoman Janissaries and cavalry waiting to be picked up by a friend from Ottawa.

I rather like the grey coats and red pants. I'm thinking the Duchy of Mantovia's landwehr battalions might copy this colour scheme.

Unfortunately this is about as close as I can zoom in on a single figure. The camera keeps wanting to focus on the wall behind. I cropped the photo in iPhoto on my daughter's ancient iBook G4, but the crop hasn't stuck. Cropping in too close and you just get a pixilated shot anyway even with 12 megs of data.

Gordy, of course, was quite curious about the goings on:

 This last shot was just freehand, no flash, no timer, held at arm's length.

A shiny new technical upgrade

Some other excitement from last weekend that I didn't include because it was somewhat tangential to the previous post.

After the Sergeant-Major dismissed us early on Saturday, while my companions napped or put some more polish on their boots, I went shopping at the Canex.

The Canex is the Canadian Forces version of the American PX ('Post Exchange'), a department store trying to cater to the needs of the military community on the base. In the aisle of cadpat accessories for the soldier on the go (wallet, smart phone pouch, laptop bag etc) I found a few necessaries that one cannot find at a normal store like a refill for my Field Message Pad and waterproofing paste for my combat boots. But nearby they also have a large and impressive display of shiny new electronic goods.

So I got myself this:

12 Meg pictures, 10x optical zoom, rechargeable lithium battery. For only $89.99! Of course I still need to play with it, I only got the memory card (16 GB) for it today.

But at least now I don't have to borrow a camera from a friend or wait until offspring come home to take pictures.

Bowties, Crud and a Parade

This past weekend was sort of my final weekend for my BOTC. We had our small party tasking exercise, our Mess Dinner and our Graduation Parade, so I'm done the course.

But I have to go back up in two weeks for a First Aid Course.

It was a fun weekend. Friday nights after checking in and unpacking, we would go to the Officer's Mess for a social drink and catch up. This weekend Jay announced he had brought some Chocolate Vodka for us all to try. Intrigued (well some were just attracted by the smell of booze), 16 of  us squeezed into his room to have an impromptu University Dorm party. When I walked back to my room from the Mess later on I realized it was a Good Thing I didn't have to drive. It made for a less than restful night. The instructors were very concerned about our long faces the next morning during the Small Party Taskings Ex. and turned it into a Teachable Moment.

I canvassed my course mates and one of them shared some snaps he took with his iPhone (when he wasn't playing the assorted apps that is).

Here we are having a break during practice for our Graduation Parade. That's me third from the left. The fellow doing the Vulcan gesture was my room mate. He's wearing his NCDs (Naval Combat Dress; the standard workday clothes for the RCN). The people in blue berets and combats are Air element officers. The more formal looking woman checking her phone is another Naval Cadet in her Class 3 DEUs because she never got her NCDs from her home Support Unit in time.

The gentleman in the middle is one of our drill instructors, a semi-retired Royal Canadian Regiment MWO who mentioned doing jump training in '72 and when he arrived for our Grad Parade he was sporting a chest full of service medals and the French Commando school badge.

I found myself repeating many of his helpful tips for the improvement of our personal drill to the cadets last night.

That night we experienced (for most of us) our first Mess Dinner. Here are most of the ladies on the course posing with our Guest of Honour and new Boss, LCol McMillan, Commanding Officer, Central Region, Canadian Cadet Organization. He previously spent 30 years in the RCAF on AWACS aircraft and posted to NORAD Commands.

 The LCol is wearing proper mess kit for an RCAF officer. The rest of us junior officers have to make do with our Class 1 tunics, a white shirt and bow tie. The ladies are required to get a special blouse (different depending on branch of service) and pumps.

A couple of my Air colleagues. Nicole and Pablo. He must be crouching down, because he's pretty tall and she is not even in the four inch heels. But she is a very capable young lady who reminds me a lot of my oldest daughter (they're the same age, height, and she made a smile at the dinner that made me flash on my girl). Notice that Pablo is wearing his pilot's wings.

More of my colleagues in the bar of the Waterloo Officer's Mess. The young man on the right was our Parade Commander. We were seated together at dinner. He made me feel a bit old by remarking that I had been married longer than he had been alive. Yup he's only a year older than my oldest girl.

After a bit of polite chitchat in the lounge the LCol asked if the Mess had a pool table and did anyone know how to play Crud? So the party moved over to the informal side of the bar, referred to in Messes world wide as The Snake Pit.

It's decor is more relaxed and it contains the big screen TVs (one tuned to sports and the other to music videos), comfy sofas, jukebox, Foosball, shuffleboard and a couple of pool tables. And the hi jinx began:

The LCol was a pretty enthusiastic Crud player. Crud is a game that uses a pool table and two balls. You roll the cue ball to hit the coloured ball (you get three tries). Once the ball is struck, the person on the other team then has to crab the cue ball and hit the coloured ball again before it stops moving or goes into a pocket. You can only shoot from the short sides of the table (I kept going off side in my excitement). If you fail in the above you get a strike against you. Three strikes and you're eliminated. Play continues until all of one team is eliminated.

Needless to say after a few drinks it gets very lively. There are variations, such as Contact Crud in which you can check players as they try to get the ball.

So we stayed up too late. I started drinking water once the Port for the toasts was done, since I get horrendous hangovers. But I was still very glad the Sergeant-Major let us sleep in an extra hour the next morning. When we practiced our Graduation Parade that morning, the CSM was so pleased he let us break early to have lunch, get changed and clear our rooms.

Then after lunch we had our Exit Interviews and Debriefings (I did well btw) and then the Grad Parade. Of course there was posing for pictures:

Me on the left, Mariska in RCAF blue, Jay looking sharp in his RCN uniform and Shauna. Shauna was our Parade 2i/c. I tended to hitch a ride with Jay a lot. Our quarters were a 5 minute drive from the School and I didn't feel comfortable finding my way around the base until this last weekend.

Taronish, Nicole and Pablo all looking sharp too.

I've really enjoyed these weekends, in spite of the stress of giving up my days off for the last two months. I tend to come home pretty happy and energized. I'm going to miss it I think. But I've already signed up for my next course and hopefully I'll keep bumping into these people over the years as we move through our CIC careers.