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 thomo the lost posted this in  Ancient, Medieval, Wargaming on  May 16th, 2012 
Society of Ancients members can stop reading now 
One of my favourite reads every two months is Slingshot. This is the journal of the Society of Ancients, based in the UK. The Society is a collection of wargamers, historians (military and otherwise) whose common interest is ancient military history and playing games with small soldiers (or similar).
Over the last couple of years the journal has changed its shape and the cover to the left here is the current iteration of the journal. It is now printed with a soft cover and colour throughout, with more colour illustrations to illustrate articles (we do live in a colourful world after all).
The journal now looks and feels more like a magazine than it has ever felt and whilst it avoids a look that is “slick” it does feel good reading through it.
The contents this month consist of the usual sections – editorial, guardroom (that’s the letters to the editor – some people still do write them), figure reviews and book reviews. In addition this month there are articles on the Seventh Crusade, the Role of the Mast of Dragons (Later Romans), a continuation of East Roman Cavalry Warfare and Tactics c. 410-641 as well as some specifically wargaming topics, such as the report from the 2011 Victorian Field of Glory Championship and perhaps my favourite article this month, the Ruleset Round Table where the authors of a number of wargaming rules were asked the same questions. Some interesting reading indeed in there.
One thing I was pleased to see was William Shepherd’s Plataea receiving a very high accolade from a reviewer, an accolade I agreed with when I wrote Plataea 479 BC – Part 2.
If you are not a member of the Society of Ancients but you have an interest in Ancient Wargaming or Ancient Military History, then I suggest you head over to their website – it is not expensive for a year’s subscription and worth every cent.
thomo the lost posted this in Technology on May 3rd, 2012 Yippee! From the Sydney Morning Herald Digital Life section yesterday:
Web wanderers are more likely to get a computer virus by visiting a religious website than by peering at porn, according to a new study.
…
Websites with religious or ideological themes were found to have triple the average number of "threats" that those featuring adult content, according to Symantec.
An interesting statistic it seems – figures were generated from Symantic who noted that there was an 83% increase in virus attacks this year over last year – although they would report that wouldn’t they?
I wonder if this will alter my browsing patterns?
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/consumer-security/religion-riskier-than-porn-for-online-viruses-20120502-1xxx4.html#ixzz1tgwaxqkq
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on May 1st, 2012  I enjoyed Salute 2012 and if I had an unlimited budget, I would have spent a small fortune happily. I resisted spending a small fortune on Aeronefs and Land Ironclads at the Brigade Models stand, resisted the ships at Tumbling Dice UK, the 1/300th figures at Heroics & Ros, the 10mm at Magister Militum oh I could go on. I thought, however, the sensible thing this trip was to purchase stuff that is difficult to get sent mail order, either because of fragility or weight. That really meant that I was looking at scenic items and books. That’s what I did then.
With the scenic items, I have been slowly building Soviet forces for World War 2 as well as an Hungarian force as opposition. I need buildings for the battlefields so paid a visit to Timecast who make some fine resin buildings. I ended up getting:
- wooden cottage and barn
- Stalingrad factory set
- Lvov town house
- Kharkov town house and shop
- Rostov town house
- Romanian church c. 1772
- Thatched Crimea buildings
These will go with the other buildings I’ve collected for the Eastern Front battles to come.
The other items I grabbed whilst there were printed materials – books and rules principally. I picked up:
- First three issues of the Medieval Warfare magazine
- a number of publications of the Pike and Shot society
- re-joined the Pike and Shot Society after a number of years non membership
- picked up some ancient publications from the Society of Ancients stand grabbed the CDs covering the Order of Battle of the Roman Empire for the Civil Wars 68-70 AD as well as the Ancient Strategists CD (Vegetius and Sun Tzu)
- A copy of the Hammerin’ Iron and AK47 rules from Peter Pig
So, no figures, no time spent on the bring and buy (although I was there late in the day so maybe there was nothing there) and no huge expenditures but hey, it was a great day. There was so much inspirational stuff there in the demonstration and participation games. More on that in a later post.
thomo the lost posted this in England, Europe, Scotland, travel on April 26th, 2012 
Friends Douglas and Gillian decided to get married – the decision, like all good decisions, was contemplated and made jointly and the result was an April wedding in Dundee, Scotland. Right says Thomo (you’ll remember my full handle is Thomo the Lost which never augurs well for long distance travel), I think we should go to Scotland for the wedding. It’ll do us good as we’ve not had a wee holiday for some time (OK, so I didn’t say “wee” but I could have).
A quick bit of planning, reference to 18 airlines online booking pages on their websites (sorry KLM – your booking page caused me problems, sorry Qantas, you are just too expensive and sorry Qatar, yours was the most appealing but your return flight meant I would have missed Salute) and we were ready to go via Etihad Airlines.
The plan was to fly into London Heathrow (not my airport of choice but the only one I had at this stage), rent a car and drive on up to Dundee via Carlisle and Edinburgh. Credit cards were flashed, money changed hands and we were off.
The 10 things I learned?
- Heathrow sucks. Sorry, you might be holding Olympics in a couple of months time but you really cannot organise things. They are so used to queuing that they think this is a normal state of affairs. We queued for over 90 minutes (this is not an exaggeration and judging from what the nice immigration lady said, this is quite normal). It took 90 minutes to reach the immigration officer. Lesson – fly into Schipol in the Netherlands then arrive in London through Stanstead. Or fly into Birmingham, Manchester, anywhere but Heathrow!
- If you already own a GPS, pay the upgrade for the Western European maps and use it. In our case, the cost was AU $99 and we had to bring it from Australia. we could have “rented” one in England for AU $20 a day. As we were travelling by car for 11 days, the arithmetic there is pretty straightforward.
- The English generally are quite nice, especially up north. That is, they are quite nice until you meet the Scots then the English seem a bit miserable. The Scots really are suh a warm, open and friendly group – well, except for the buggers driving around Edinburgh.
- Single Malt whisky does not keep the cold out … but my goodness you feel great about being cold.
- Scotsmen can’t drink – neither can South Africans. Surprisingly, the last two men standing at the wedding were the two Aussies (and the groom it must be said but we were still leading 2:1)
- When you are driving, you really get an idea of exactly how small England and Scotland are, especially when you have an Australian view of things. We would think nothing back in Oz of driving 500 kms in a day and will, at a pinch, do 1,000. Try that in the UK and you run out of island very quickly..
- The Scots missed the boat when they didn’t invent pockets. The kilt is fine and warm but my hands were cold. Trying to put them in your sporran just doesn’t work. Build me a kilt with pockets and I’ll be a happy bloke.
- Did I mention Heathrow sucks? When you’re busy with your creams and such in your plastic bag prior to the security check, you may sometimes not hear the words “take iPads out of bag”. Not sure why you have to do that – it’s a freaking x-ray after all – I suspect that most security checks have no real idea what they are looking for and it is all for show.Anyway, be that as it may, you forget to take your iPad out and your bag goes through the x-ray. Anywhere else in the world, the security staff frown at you, you take the iPad out and the bag and iPad are immediately x-rayed again and you are on your way with no real delay to other passengers. Did I mention the English love to queue? At Heathrow, your bag is put aside with the bags of other similar security miscreants and it remains until a security officer can come along and test the bag for explosives, search the bag and then (wait for it), put the bag and the iPad in a different coloured tray and pass it through the x-ray again. This whole process adds a further 20 minutes to the user security experience.
- The English love to complain about the hotel room they booked on the Costa del English Tourist on the Mediterranean being in a building site. I am pleased to inform you that the practice is alive and well in the UK. The Holiday Inn in Wimbledon South (sorry Kas, we ran our of time) was a building site. The taxi driver drove three times past it before we noticed the name behind the hoardings. Waking in the morning to see a big burly workman staring in your window is always a pleasure as well. Room service breakfast was to move to part of the building site, grab your sausage and powdered egg and take it back to your room to eat. All this luxury for GBP 80 per night.
- I learned what a Scotsman wears under his kilt.
Having noted all that, at the end of the trip both of us are hoping for Scottish Independence. We also know that we will return to the Highlands, especially to the area around Spearn Bridge. We will also return to the lovely pub in the Lowlands at St Boswells – the Buccleuch Arms Hotel, a lovely spot to spend a night or two.
Oh, and one other useful hint for weary travellers … the left luggage operations in the London mainline stations are a godsend.
thomo the lost posted this in Books, History on April 20th, 2012 
I finally finished reading this and I am glad I did. Already, as a result of the first quick look, Anthony and I had decided to expand our little ancient Greek project to include the Persian invasion. I thought I had a good understanding of the politics, military systems and battlegrounds of this conflict but Shepherd’s book has me reaching for other reference works as I reassess my understanding of this conflict of systems.
The coverage of the forces, commanders and opposing plans sets the stage for the conflicts to come. A good interpretation of Herodotus along with a review of other sources and secondary works makes this book one of the few that actually covers the battle of Plataea.
The illustrations of Peter Dennis are very evocative and help bring the text further to life. I particularly like “the Most Glorious Victory Ever Known” illustration on pages 70-71 and want my Greeks and Persians to look like that.
The battle maps really help to understand the flow of the battle and Shepherd’s interpretation of it. It is also quite nice to have an Osprey where the supporting photos are generally all colour and not taken in the 1950s – modern photos of the supporting materials.
Well done William, this is a wonderful addition to the Osprey range and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone with an interest in ancient history generally and the Greek and Persian Wars in particular.
the details of the book:
Campaign 239.
Author: William Shepherd
Illustrator: Peter Dennis
Plataea 479BC
The Contents are:
- Origins of the campaign
- Chronology
- Opposing commanders
- Opposing forces
- Opposing plans
- The campaign to Plataea and Mycale
- Plataea
- Mycale
- After the battles
- The battlefields today
- Further reading and bibliography
- Index
It was released as a paperback; January 2012; 96 pages; ISBN: 9781849085540
thomo the lost posted this in Painting, Wargaming on April 6th, 2012  In an effort to thin the lead pile a little I sent some 6mm figures off to a painting service. I already had some 15mm ACW being painted at Miniature Lanka and had been happy with their service but for the 6mm, I thought I would give DJD Miniatures a try. The price was good so I made an inquiry to Richard there, got a formal quote and sent two 6mm armies off to him.
The figures were Baccus 6mm and were Romans and Numidians (see the last post here). I did not send any painting instructions (too lazy to spend the time researching for this) – just sent the figures. I must admit that I was really looking forward to see how these turned out and how near or far from my own painting style they would be. Near my style and forces would look consistent on the table.
I was quite pleased with the result. The two photos here are taken with a Macro lens and so get you much closer to the figures than your own eyes can.
DJD Minis runs their service out of Phuket, Thailand and I will happily use them again for painting – in fact, I am looking at a pile of unpainted 6mm Napoleonics even as I type 
thomo the lost posted this in Ancient, Wargaming on April 6th, 2012  A Wargamer’s Indecision Dilemma.
I have a bunch of 6mm figures painted and ready for basing. That’s them on the left there with the bases I was going to use. They look neat laid out ready for basing. I was intending to base them on 60x30mm bases for Polemos. On the left would be a Numidian army and on the right, an Imperial Roman army. There are enough figures for the standard 20 bases per side Polemos army. 7 bases of legionaries, 5 of auxiliaries, 2 of auxiliary archers, 1 of artillery and 5 of cavalry. The Numidians are 10 of Light Horse and 10 of Light Infantry.
The indecision dilemma?
Once I glue them to the base and scenic it, I will be disinclined to un-base them and rebase them for a different set of rules. Once I base these for Polemos, I will have to use them for Polemos. I could probably use them for DBA as well, using the 25mm ground scale (they will be on a 60mm frontage after all) but that’s about it.
Next option?
Base them for Warmaster. Use the standard Warmaster 40x20mm bases. That would change the mix to 14 elements of legionaries which would equate to 4 units (each Warmaster unit is three bases after all. Third option is base them for DBA – base them on 15mm scale bases and use four 6mm figures for each 15mm figure. That has the benefit of fitting with the other 6mm ancients I have and would allow me to have two Imperial Roman DBA Armies.
Basing them as DBA elements – I can use them for Polemos anyway as Polemos uses a Base Width x Base Depth measurement method and so I can assume that all bases are 20mm deep for that.
My next issue then is the Numidians. I already have a (very nice) 6mm Numidian DBA army. Should I just expand that by making another? On my 4:1 scaling that would give me 20 elements of Psiloi and 10 elements of Light Horse.
But then again – they will just look so neat as Polemos bases. I think I’ll base some 15mm ACW figures instead – I know what I am doing with them.
Sigh, and as there are three options, I guess it is not a dilemma either.
thomo the lost posted this in Ancient, Rome on March 26th, 2012 One of my favourite podcasts has been The History of Rome. I have spent many an interesting hour driving to visit my mum near Coffs Harbour or my kids in and around Canberra, listening to this podcast on my iPod as the kilometres sped past.
This has been an ambitious project of Mike Duncan, to cover the History of Rome in podcasts and currently he is up to an episode called The Broken Bow. In his own words he describes this episode as:
In the early 450s a string of deaths changed the political dynamic of Roman world. Between 450 and 455 Galla Placidia, Aelia Pulcheria, Atilla the Hun, Flavius Aetius and Valentinian III would all die- leaving the stage wide open for the next generation of leaders.
Also, an announcment [sic].
I believe the announcement is that he is completing this series around 476 – the traditionally accepted date for the final collapse of thw western Roman Empire. I shall miss this although I must admit, I am still around episode episode 120 (I do only listen to the podcasts when driving north or south from Sydney after all).
As a wargamer, I have found this series remarkable … and I am sure that the purchase of some of then 6mm Roman figures I acquired not so long ago are the result of listening to some of these episodes.
This series I can thoroughly recommend as a good primer.
thomo the lost posted this in General, Thomo on March 26th, 2012 We’ve had a few technical issues back here at Hole Central. Not quite sure what has caused the issues although Hole Tech Admin noted:
Looks like it’s running out of network buffer space. Weird traffic profile just before… Steady 600kB/s inbound then nothing.
I turned the numbers up. Will see if it helps.
We will indeed see if it helps.
In the meantime, my apologies for the downtime but we are back and I promise that I will absolutely get around to catching up with the posts I have in the draft pipeline.
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on March 18th, 2012 
As if I did not have enough wargame plans for this year, friend Douglas’ foray into 1/1000th scale pre-dreadnought vessels has caused the usual wargamer’s “bright, shiney object” syndrome. Yep, purchased some more ships in yet another scale for yet another period.
In this case, Italians and Austrians of the Battle of Lissa fame. The manufacturer? Houston’s Ships. Houston’s Ships are not known for their extreme accuracy. In fact, some of the vessels, to scale, are longer than the original vessel, others are shorter.
First off, the Italian Fleet. The box I purchased contained models for the Formidable, Terrible, Carignano, Messina, Conte Verde, Re d’Italia, Re d’Portagallo, Regina Maria Pia, Castelfidardo, San MArino, Ancona, Palestro, Varese and Affondatore. Enough vessels to cover the Italian fleet.
Opening one of the packs, in this case, the Formidable, we can see that there are two hulls and sufficient masts, whale boats and guns to complete two vessels of this case.
The instructions and rigging instructions are basic and I would recommend consulting something like Conways All the World’s Ships for additional information.
Whilst the castings are a bit rough around the edges, a little bit of filler and some clean-up and they should produce some nice models.
More on all this later. In the meantime, I am trying to decide whether to paint these vessels in an Italian Grey or make them vessels of an imagi-nation and paint them in a good Victorian Livery.
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