21 Again!

Yes, it's that time of year again when I celebrate my 21st birthday. I know, I know - you can't believe that I'm that old...


WHAT?

*Harrumph!*

OK, let's just say that I haven't celebrated as many birthdays as Ray the Budgie-Smuggling Badger who is also celebrating his birthday today.


However, my plans for having a nice relaxing birthday dossed on the sofa watching TV have not gone entirely to plan.

This morning I popped out for a while and when I got back my key wouldn't go into my lock. Aaaarrrrggghhhh! A quick visit to my neighbour to borrow their Yellow Pages to find a number for a locksmith, call said locksmith and wait for them to turn up and get me back in.

After waiting half an hour for him, I got a call from their office to say that he was stuck on another job and they were going to send their back-up locksmith, but he'd be about 1.5 to 2 hours. So, I went to the local greasy spoon for a fry-up while I waited. When he still hadn't turned up after the 2 hours I called their office again and they checked in with him and phoned back to say he would be with me in 20 minutes. It was actually 25 minutes in the end.

So, 3 hours of waiting for the "half hour guaranteed" locksmith.

He got me in and I decided it was probably a good time to get a new lock fitted.

I could have done without the expense, hassle and wasted doss time. Especially on my birthday.


Well, that's enough whinging, so on with the post. Part of my reason for going out this morning was that I had a blue card of joy and frustration (not a red one - this was from Parcelforce!) waiting for me when I got home last night, so I needed to go to the Post Office up the road to collect my parcel.

I knew what it was. During the Challenge, Ian of "The Blog With No Name" fame had submitted some 15mm Dominate Romans and said that when the army was complete he was probably going to sell it. I called "dibs", so when he finished it the other week I called "dibs" again and we sorted out a price.

So, I am now the proud and happy owner of this lovely army:

Plenty of space in the boxes for future additions!

Ian had done a very good job with the packaging and there was only one minor casualty - a rider who had come off his horse. A quick spot of superglue was all that was needed to reseat him.

This gives me a mini-project for tomorrow - adding magnetic sheet to all the bases and lining the box files.

As I haven't been posting much since the end of the Challenge, I ought to bring you up to date.

Painting - errmm, I still haven't put brush to figures since the end of the Challenge. Maybe tomorrow...

Gaming - I did post an AAR of a game of ADLG the other week and I've had 3 games since then. On Monday I joined in a big game of King of the Battlefield (Seven Years War) with a few other guys from the club. This was the second outing for my Russians. Jolly good fun was had by all involved - I did take some pics, but don't ask me to give a proper AAR as I didn't take notes and didn't take many pics.

View down the table. On the left are the Prussians (left flank and centre) with a corps of French arriving on their right flank - those dastardly Gallic types had done a deal with the enemy!. On the right we have the allied forces - Saxons on the right flank, Russians in the centre and An Austrian corps just arriving on the left flank.

Russians vs Prussians in the centre

Saxons advancing on the Prussian left flank

Weren't there some Russian cavalry? Ooops!

Didn't the Saxons have some infantry columns attacking the hill?

Hordes of treacherous Frenchies advancing on the Austrians (when the traffic jams allow)

I'm sure I had more Russian infantry a few minutes ago. Oh well, I'm sure the Apsheronskiy regiment can clear the woods on their own...

The original Saxon and left-flank Prussian corps withdrew from the field to allow new corps to come on

Or maybe the Apsheronskiy regiment can't clear the woods on their own...

On Thursday I played my second club-comp game of ADLG. This time my Alans were up against Classical Indians. Not the best match-up in the world for my horsey-boys. In fact, possibly the worst match-up that could be found - cavalry do not like shooty infantry interspersed with nellyphants. My best hope was to get into a position where I could hit their battle line in the flanks and rear and roll them up that way. I did manage to get into that position, but sadly too late as Brian's archers had killed enough of my shooty cavalry to break my army. As it was still fairly early we decided to swap over and play another game for an hour or so. At that point we called it in favour of the Indians as the Alans' centre and left flank were about to disappear along with their camp. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera, so there aren't any pics.