The Hinterland femal Askari figures are excellent and are on the small scale for modern figures being closer to the older true 25mm size. They are in uniform with Fez and skirt but no blouse. The same nudity alert as for the last blog exists. If you do not like partially naked female figures then better skip this blog. If not read on.
No not Credence Clearwater Revival, but those dastardly opponents of the Ghost Who Walks (Amazon warriors in the Lost Kingdom of Avaria), and Lord Greystoke (Tarzan and the Amazons). In real life these are the Minon or Dahomey Amazons.
“These are not mythical characters. The last surviving Amazon of Dahomey died at the age of 100 in 1979, a woman named Nawi who was discovered living in a remote village. At their height, they made up around a third of the entire Dahomey army; 6,000 strong, but according to European records, they were consistently judged to be superior to the male soldiers in effectiveness and bravery.
From daughters to soldiers, from wives to weapons, they remain the only documented frontline female troops in modern warfare history. A sub-saharan band of female terminators who left their European colonisers shaking in their boots, foreign observers named them the Dahomey Amazons while they called themselves N’Nonmiton, which means “our mothers”. Protecting their king on the bloodiest of battlefields, they emerged as an elite fighting force in the Kingdom of Dahomey in, the present-day Republic of Benin. Described as untouchable, sworn in as virgins, swift decapitation was their trademark.” From Messy Nessy
Seh-Dong-Hong-Beh (meaning, “God Speaks true”) was a leader of the Dahomey Amazons. In 1851, she led an all-female army consisting of 6,000 warriors against the Egba fortress of Abeokuta, to obtain slaves from the Egba people for the Dahomey slave trade.
Over the years I have collected a number of Female miniatures from Hinterland Miniatures who unfortunately closed up shop late last year. They had a large range of female warriors, and Askari, as well as Shutztruppe and sailors. Unfortunately I only have a smattering of each, about 50 figures in total, but a least enough to support the Pulp Figures Germans (available in Australia from War and Peace Games) as enemies of the Phantom and Tarzan in my Pulp Fiction games.
Over the next few blogs I will share these with you, but first there is a BOOBIE ALERT. If you are offended by naked depictions of the mamary glands of the female member of our species then you should read no further, if not…………….enjoy.
Next blog will include the Askari.
The Sontarans are a pugnacious race of combative, belligerent, and militaristic clones from the the planet Sontar. They serve as recurring antagonists in the Doctor Who series.
The Sontarans love fighting and are obsessed with war. They are not scared of death, as dying in battle is a honourable fate for a Sontaran. They are in effect the Klingons of the Whovian genre.
I’ve always really liked The Sontarans as they are a warrior race who have a really cool “Battle cry“
The Sontarans are lead by General Staal , known as “Staal The Undefeated”, played by Christopher Ryan. His nickname of “Undefeated” was remarked by the Tenth Doctor as not a very good one as it could not remain if he was defeated and jokingly suggested “Staal the not-quite-so-undefeated-anymore-but-never-mind” as a replacement.
Staal attempted to invade a planet for their sausages which he and his troops believed to be the best in “the whole of the universe”. After he saved Staal the 10th Doctor convinced him that he didn’t need to invade the planet to continue enjoying their sausages, but rather just stop by for lunch. Realising he was right, Staal accepted the Doctor as a friend, and the two of them sat down for lunch with Staal’s platoon – ONLY IN DOCTOR WHO!
For me this creates an anomaly because in the episode “The Sontaran Experiment” it was clear that the Sontarans fed on pure energy. The BBC being inconsistent? Well I never!
Now I would like to think that sausages are made up of pure energy, but my waste line says otherwise!
Can Victor find wife Nora or will he wind up in a cryonic state of his own? Will Snowy freeze out his opponents or will Gordon puts his thugs on ice. Does Hugo have a strange crush on Nora and has he frozen out Gina Atwater. All of this will be answered in the next thrilling episode………………………
The protagonists consisted of Victor Fries and his cohorts (Me), Commissioner Gordon and the boys in blue (DaveK), and Dr Strange and his Arkham inmates (Bucko – how apt).
Victor Fries has “misplaced” his wife Nora (living at sub zero temperatures will do that to ya!), and has been told she is being held in an industrial quarter of Gotham. He must find her before Hugo has his strange ways with her and before Gordon frosts them both out.
Six buildings are numbered one to six and only that number must be rolled for Nora to be present. If five buildings have been searched unsuccessfully Nora will be in the sixth. Each character must bring Nora back to their base edge for “safe” custody. As Nora is in a frozen state moving her is at half speed, or full speed if two thugs are present.
“Snowy” and “Ice cream” travel through the sewers and search the railway ticket box for Nora. You guessed they roll a six and find her on the first turn of the game. So much for all my pregame planning. This looks like being an early night.
The cops arrive and get iced by “Snowy’s” freeze gun.
Meanwhile Victor, “Iceberg” and “Glacier” head towards the Metro subway to get to Nora.
Snowy and Ice Cream escort Nora back to safety with the Cops in “hot” pursuit.
Alas disaster strikes because of the random initiative roll Gordon, Bullock and the cops move last in turn 2 and first in turn 3. Suddenly what looked like a piece of ice cream cake is now “hotting” up for Snowy and Ice Cream!
Ice cream go down as Bullock uses his arrest powers.
Meanwhile Hugo and his thugs move in to help……. yeah right!
Snowy fights on, moving Nora at half speed.
Unfortunately Gordon moves in and Snowy is also arrested.
Victor freezes two cops in a desperate attempt to get Nora back.
Bullock tries vainly to stop Victor but ends up a Popsicle.
Gordon takes out an Arkham inmate as Hugo takes his @#$%&! time!
Hugo finally arrives but is it too late?
Gordon puts Victor on ice…………..
and makes Hugo an inmate! Game over!
Gordon was certainly MVP taking out Freeze and three of his thugs as well as Hugo and four of his inmates. It is a real conga line heading back to the precinct tonight.
Dave K really whooped Bucko and my ass in this one.
I have done a large amount of motivational speaking over the years and depending on the audience have often used sporting anecdotes to illustrate the points I wanted to make.
Having just moved house recently I came across a folder with lots of notes, cuttings and and an old USB drive with lots of interesting stuff. I will share some of this from time to time but will always preface this with the words OFF TOPIC if you don’t want to read the rantings of Guru PIG.
Unfortunately I am unable to credit much of the material but will include in italics those words which I know are not mine.
It is often said that sport has the capacity to transcend the petty bickering’s of men.
Alas, this is not always true, as I am old enough to remember, at the ripe old age of three, the 1956 Melbourne Olympics “Blood in the Water” water polo Semi-final match between the USSR and Hungary that was set against the background of the Hungarian revolution (the good guys won 4-0 – the water polo, not the uprising).
It was dubbed “Blood in the Water” and centres on a water polo match between Hungary and the Soviet Union. The match occurred just weeks after the Soviet invasion of Hungary, where hundreds of Hungarians were killed and thousands arrested.
The pro-Hungarian crowd at the Olympic pool saw numerous altercations and fights – including underwater headlocks – between the players. Late in the match, Ervin Zador, who had scored two goals for Hungary, was hit by Soviet player Valentin Prokopov and climbed out of the pool with blood streaming from his head. Spectators and Hungarian officials rushed toward the Russian team. Police and security intervened to protect them (more than what had been afforded the Hungarian people I may add), escorting the Soviet team from the pool.
Hungary, the defending gold medalists, won 4-0 and went on to take gold again with a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia.
Zador, who died in 2012, defected to the United States after the Olympics, along with about half of the 100-member Hungarian team.
“I deeply regret that picture,” he said in a 2008 interview. “I would have loved to be remembered as one of the best young players in the world, rather than the guy hit by the Russian.”
At the time, Zador was a 21-year-old college student. When the Hungarian revolt began, in October 1956, he and his teammates were training at a mountain camp outside Budapest. They could hear gunfire and could see puffs of smoke in the city. Before they could determine the outcome, they were bused out of the country and flown from Czechoslovakia to Melbourne. At the Olympic Village, Zador recalled, they were desperate for news. A water polo player who was fluent in English read a Melbourne newspaper and told his teammates what had happened: after freedom fighters had tried to overthrow the Soviet-dominated Communist regime and establish a democratic government, about 200,000 Russian troops poured across the Hungarian border, their tanks rumbling through the streets of Budapest. They left more than 5,000 people dead. The first thing the water polo players did in the Olympic Village was tear down the Hungarian flag with the Communist emblem and replace it with the banner of Free Hungary.
At the opening ceremony the Hungarian team marched on to the the Melbourne Cricket Ground to a standing ovation. Lead by the current Olympic Champion in the Hammer Throw, József Csermák, who proudly waved the Free Hungary Flag.
Before water polo games, the captains of the two teams customarily meet at poolside with the referee and shake hands. At the 1956 Olympics, the Hungarian captain refused to shake. The crowd of more than 5,000 people who crammed the Melbourne Olympic Pool was dominated by Hungarian expatriates, who shouted, “Hajra Magyarok!” (Go Hungarians!), waved flags and shouted epithets as the Soviet players were introduced. “We always had an extra incentive when we played the Soviets, but the atmosphere at Melbourne was another dimension,” Zador said. “The game meant so much to us. We had to win the gold medal. We were playing for ourselves, for our families back home, for our country.”
Having been lucky enough to represent my country at junior level I remember the huge emotion when you first go out on the arena and then stand while your national anthem is played. How much more emotion would the events of previous weeks and the partisan crowd have created for the Hungarian team. To be able to perform so well and totally “kick their ass” was a real credit to their professionalism and determination.
Ervin Zador did not play in the gold medal match, or ever again.
In a break of protocol the Melbourne Olympic Organising Committee decided to award him and all other members of his team who had played during the tournament a gold medal. This tradition continues today.
In 2008, when Zador read about activists disrupting the Olympic torch relay to protest China’s crackdown in Tibet, he was saddened.
In the tenth episode of the fourth series of Dad’s Army Chief Warden Hodges challeges the Home Guard Platoon to a cricket match. The platoon readily accept. Mainwaring announces he is an opening batsman, Wilson is the captain of the local cricket club, and Jones volunteers to act as a wicket keeper with a particularly long anecdote on an occasion when he stumped a renown Indian cricketer.
Godfrey reveals that he used to play cricket for the Civil Service Stores when he was younger. Jones arrive late, and when he bats, the ball ends up smashing a church window.
On Saturday, at the cricket changing rooms, Hodges pulls a swifty and brings in a “ringer”, E.C. Egan, a world-class professional fast bowler, played by Freddie Trueman. This is kept a secret until Mainwaring opens the batting. Egan signs up as a Warden so it is legal for him to play and when he asks what he has to do if the air raid siren goes off he is promptly told “he should resign straight away”!
The platoon arrive, with Wilson wearing a yellow, blue and brown striped blazer, Frazer in his funeral attire, Godfrey in the panama hat he wears for bowls, and Pike wearing his bank clothes. Mainwaring is shocked, and lends Pike his spare cricketing trousers.
Hodges reappears, and asks Mainwaring to toss the coin to see who is batting first, but Mainwaring insists on getting the umpires, the vicar and the verger, to do it. Mainwaring calls heads, but it is tails. The platoon are fielding first.
Hodges and Gerald open the batting for the Wardens, and the usual shenanigans occur with Mainwaring threatened by the Verger with being sent off Godfrey droping a simple catch and losing the ball in some long grass. The Wardens keep running until a second ball is produced amassing twenty four runs of the delivery. At tea they declare at 4 for 152 after Jones makes a magnificent stumping.
Mainwaring opens the batting with Wilson and faces the “ringer”, Egan, first ball. Mainwaring is confused when Egan strides down to the sight screen to bowl, until Warden Hodges gleefully informs him that the ball comes flying out of his hand at 95 mph. Egan charges towards Mainwaring, and delivers a ball which causes Mainwaring to dive to the floor, much to Hodges’ delight, however the delivery has pulled Egan’s shoulder, and he goes off, injured.
The platoon now have a chance. Mainwaring does well, and Jones, Walker and Frazer all contribute. Meanwhile, Wilson holds the innings together, scoring 81 runs. Eventually, Godfrey is the only one left to bat, and they only need five more runs to win. Wilson is still in at the other end. Eventually Wilson hits the ball out of the ground to win the game and as they cheer the wardens, and Godfrey and Wilson, the siren goes, and the platoon take up their Home Guard positions.
It is hard to get a picture of who scored what as their are a large number of contradictions in the episode. For instance Godfrey is credited with scoring 8 runs when only five were needed to win when he comes in to bat! As best can be ascertained the scores are as follows:
The three other players are not mentioned, however one is seen being bowled out.
In addition the TTT (Tupi Test Team) Cricket Board has announced they are preparing to send a team to take on both the Wardens and the Home Guard, however this will be some time away (code for not yet on the project list, but ready to be painted!). The figures are from Eureka miniatures.
I plan to use all these figures and the pavilion in a Pulp Fiction game using PIGS Pulp rules and the “Owzthat” cricket game with the dual objectives of winning the pulp game and the cricket match. Although I have a modern version of the “Owzthat” game, way back in the sixties my Uncle Frank owned a garage in Country Victoria and gave me a Castrol Motor Oil version of the game for Christmas which had large hexagonal wooden rods as the “dice” which I still have.
The cricketer figures are produced by Sloppy Jalopy and are available from Sally Forth.
I am a big fan of Sam Mustafa’s rules. He is an Historian that actually writes simple games with great mechanics that reflect the period they are written for.
The first edition of Lasalle was produced eleven years ago and won awards for its novel approaches. Over the last decade of playing, the rules have stood the test of time and are now ready for a small update.
If you are after a Divisional plus size Napoleonic wargame I can thoroughly recommend these rules to you. They should be available in a week or two for purchase both in electronic and hard copy.
The Honour website has all the details.
Now I know that there is some dispute about what game is actually played in heaven, Rugby Union or Cricket. Now I may be biased, but what would be more fitting, a graceful cover drive from an opening batsman, or some thug act from a front row forward with a short neck? Biased? Not much!
Now of course I am not talking about that “hit and giggle” game they call T-20 but Test Cricket. Oh, but I forgot. There are a number of readers of this blog from North American and Europe who may not understand what I am talking about.
“I travelled through the dusty alleyways, the run down dilapidated mud brick homes, and the rag tag market of the village our church had sponsored, looking for where our church’s pasture improvement aid package had been spent.
Moving through the ancient monuments to long lost Kings and the tombs of generations long gone, I suddenly came upon the most wonderful of sights. A pristine verdant oval bounded by a white picket fence. In the middle were a group of men, one throwing rocks at the other, who tried to hit them away with clubs.
I asked a bystander what was going on and he replied:
“You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side that’s been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.
When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game”.
I later learnt that George Bernard Shaw wrote, “cricket is a game played by 22 fools and watched by twenty two thousand fools.”
Surprisingly, amidst the chaos going on around that verdant place, there was a serenity and peace that was only shattered by the occasional sound of “Howzat!
From the apocryphal 1904 Diary of the American Episcopalian minister, Benedict Maximilian Fraser.
The “Sarissa Precision” cricket pavilion was purchased for my Very British Civil War project and what could be more “Very British” than this.
A “spidercam” view of a game being played:
You will not that the Walmington-On-Sea oval has that “new fangled” modern technology called a “drop in pitch” because the dastardly Hun had the audacity to crash a bomber on the oval, destroying the wicket. The attempt to destroy the Home Guards morale failed miserably as we will see in a coming blog.
Same old story. I bought these years ago thinking they were cool and then never did anything with them until now…………..
Not sure that I think they are as cool as I did when I first bought them. Anyway they are now on the shelf.
I just need some suitable figures to act as appropriate mentors and role models – just like Nurse Bernadette!
What self respecting Pulp Fiction Game would be without intrepid airmen.
I remember that I bought a few packets of pilots because I needed three female pilots for a project I was completing for my Darkest Africa Campaign and these were the left overs.
Not sure of when or how I will use them, but at least they are now completed and on the shelf.
