Castles and gravestones

 I didn't think I'd be able to squeeze in a history post on this trip to Glasgow but we managed a couple of trips out in between hospital visits, so here goes...

First up is Dunure Castle.  This used to be a popular family day trip out when I was a wee boy and I still love it.  There's been a castle here since the 13th century although these buildings date to the 15th century.  Mary Queen of Scots stayed here (of course she did... like every castle in Scotland!!) and its other claim to fame is that in the middle of a struggle over who should be the Commendator of Crossrageul Abbey (a lay person who holds the title to the Abbey) in 1570, Gilbert Kennedy, holder of the castle captured and 'roasted and basted'  his rival over a brazier.  The rival was eventually rescued and survived the ordeal!

As today is International Dog Day my 2 hounds make an appearance in the photos...

A 15th century doocot

Cleo guarding the beach against raiding Vikings.

And Cisco on the look out for anyone with treats.

A couple of days earlier we went up to Loch Lomond and the very pretty (but busy) village of Luss.  Mainly famous for being the location for TV soap Take the High Road, Luss is a lovely spot on the shore of the Loch.  In the churchyard I came across a Viking Hogback stone.  These are carved and decorated  grave markers.. in this case from the 11th century.  The information board suggested it may be linked to a Viking raid on Luss and Loch Lomond in 1263

Hello, old friends...

Another trip back home to Glasgow to see family and keep an eye on my mum who's currently in hospital.

Usually I try and find something historical to post about, but I suspect this trip is just going to involve trips back and forward to the hospital so that's going to be unlikely.

I was also up in June and ventured into the loft in my mum's house.  This was my family home from about the age of 2 and there is all sorts of junk/family heirlooms up there (anyone in the market for a Spanish donkey circa 1972??).  In amongst old family photos and lots of tat I did come across some genuine buried treasure which I'd believed were long gone.

Back around 1978 I spotted an advert in a now defunct British Scifi magazine called Ad Astra for some new-fangled company called Games Workshop (I wonder what happened to them?)...

I don't know if I'd heard of roleplaying games already or if this just caught my attention but I bought the D&D boxed set.  It was a truly life-changing moment... I still remember the game arriving in the post and my amazement at a box containing so little and yet full of so many possibilities.  This is the 'Holmes' edition of D&D and covers characters up to 3rd level.  It leads neatly into AD&D which was the path I merrily trotted down over the next few years.

The boxed set came with the rule book, a set of dice (which I still have) and an introductory scenario... B1: In Search of the Unknown which is a proper dungeoncrawl.  The box is sadly long gone.   And finally in the pile was the 'Giants...' set of scenarios which i think I acquired on family holiday to the USA.

In these days where RPGs are a commonplace game its hard to remember how game-changing something like D&D and the other early games were... I remember the confused look on my friends faces when I tried to explain the concept to them.  Eventually D&D, along with other games like Gamma World,  led me to my local wargames club (the Glasgow & District Wargames Society) and a whole new world of toy soldiers and wargames.  So this book is the starting point that set me off on a hobby that has lasted 45 years and introduced me to lots of good friends... I must admit I had a real emotional reaction to finding it again.  

I also found my set of Superworld which we played quite a bit an Uni.  Not a bad game as I remember

The Return of the King(maker)

 My Kickstarter copy of the new edition of Kingmaker arrived back in March but has been sadly unplayed since then.

[There's a post about the newly arrived box here... Link]

This week we more than made up for it with 3 games in a week!  The first two games were 5 player versions (original KM takes 6 players, the revised Kingmaker 2 can accommodate up to 5) and the 3rd game was a 2 player head to head.

In the 1st 2 games we also used the preset factions.  One of the issues in Classic KM is that having a duff or brilliant starting hand can really mess up the opening moves... this version gives everyone a selection of Nobles, Titles (ie the Earl of....) and offices (eg Admiral of England or Chancellor etc), as well as a selection of Bishoprics, Towns and mercenaries. These all give you additional troops as well as control of towns and  castles.  Using the preset factions makes it all a bit more balanced.  In the final 2 player game we randomly allocated cards.  Even then. Some of the more powerful cards (eg the Marshal of England or Lord Percy) are held back until later.

We made a few mistakes but all in all the games worked really well..  the updated rules make it a much faster game (we reached a conclusion in an evening) and avoiding some of the stalemate positions that KM always seems to descend into with large stacks of Nobles glowering at each other from either end of the country.  Now you can win by gaining prestige from holding Offices, winning major battles etc, as well as controlling Royals.  The old tactic of sitting back and waiting doesn't really work any more.

Each game featured all the things we love about KM... treacherous battles, people dying of plague just when they thought they'd found sanctuary in a city and wheeling and dealing to form alliances.  

It was interesting to play the 2 player variant which I'd never tried before.  It worked well: obviously there's less subtlety in tactics... you know you're going to be attacked by your opponent and there won't be any deals to be struck... but it made for a challenging and fun version.  As usual when playing against my son I had my arse handed to me but the Prestige points swung wildly... at one point he was almost in a position to win (thanks to his possession of Henry VI) but the King was summoned to an embassy at Ravenspur.  My noble, Lord Scrope swooped in and seized the king, dispatching the accompanying Lord Hastings... all the Prestige points swung my way and balanced the game!  But then more enemy Nobles piled in and we had to fight the 2nd Battle of Ravenspur where Scrope met a brave but doomed end.  A great conclusion to the game.

The game also includes 'Classic' KM for the nostalgia value but more interestingly it includes 'Extended Classic KM' which adds some interesting variations to the rules including fatal storms at sea, treachery and pirates!

Some new painting projects

The last few months have seen one of my regular slowdowns in painting with nothing for months, but in the last few weeks I've made a bit of an effort to re-start a couple of projects which I'd bought figures for.  I posted about these at the end of April so for me this has been really speedy work!!!

The first was inspired by my visit to the Little Wars Revisited games day (LINK) back in the spring.  The range of bigger figures on show reminded me that I do like the larger scale and inspired me to have a look at starting something new in a larger size than 28mm.  My only other figures in larger scales are my 54mm Northwest Frontier figures.  After a bit of pondering and hunting around online I settled on a setting that I'd always wanted to do and which wouldn't require a lot of figures... The Three Musketeers.  It's one of those settings that lots of gamers seem to dabble in, judging by the number of blogs and posts that I came across.  I settled into that pleasant part of a new project... perusing figure ranges and working out combinations of figures, before eventually settling on the lovely range of 40mm figures from Steve Barber Models.  These are really lovely looking figures although the range isn't huge,  I picked up 4 Musketeers to start with although I now have some Cardinals Guards on order.  I also added some figures from Eureka... these are a little smaller in some cases (Constance and Planchet are a bit weedy although Rochefort is a good match) but they should work well alongside the Steve Barber figures.  There are also some 42mm figures from Irregular which I may check out for a comparison at some point...

In terms of rules there are a few options... Osprey's En Garde is designed for exactly this setting but I also have a set of Donnybrook which I bought years ago and have never played, and my old copy of GW's Legends of the High Seas which I think would work well.

The other project is another one that just about everyone seems to do at some point.. Mythic Greece.  I guess most of us are of an age where Ray Harryhausen is a big influence and everyone loves Jason and the Argonauts, right?  I'd been looking at this in a larger scale as well but eventually decided that the Foundry 28mm were the best option in terms of the sheer amount of stuff that was available.  A lucky check on eBay showed up someone selling some of the Argonaut range as well as a few other figures so i snapped them up. 

I also bought a set of the Tales of Men Myths and Monsters rules which are designed for exactly this setting although, again, GW might be a good option with few tweaks to their Lord of the Rings rules.  

For inspiration I borrowed Stephen Fry's Mythos from the library as an audiobook... I've been doing a lot of long car journeys recently so audiobooks have been ideal.  I've now ploughed through all 3 of his books... Mythos, Heroes and Troy.  I can highly recommend them all, especially the audio version although this does seem to hinge on whether you enjoy Stephen Fry's style of writing and delivery or find him annoying.  I loved them but reviews seem very split  on this point.