Recruitment posters going up around the town.  

This morning the trumpet sounded and Colonel Elyard graciously welcomed his new Regiment into existence.  The troops made a splendid display marching from the old fort field where they've been bivouacking in tents, down the Rue Latte.  The local amateur Umpah band played them through town to the square, and with the cheering we barely noticed the occasional dying cat sounds.  The kids were excited and were blowing up brown lunch bags and popping them, like any good holiday.

Colonel Scott Elyard reads the oath and joins in the rousingly patriotic "Clarion of Chanticleer" a fine looking Regiment of Chasseurs, no? It was dreadfully cold however, and we were soon envying the heavy wool coats of the NCOs.  No matter, It was a thing of beauty to see my hard work, Everyone's hard work come together.  With the problems in Wormwood it's clear that one day or other we will need these trained women and men.  They've taken up the hard duty and will live a life of toil pain and sweat that makes my more
Military Police on security detail intellectual efforts pale.  but here I am getting carried away.  Instead listen to the Colonel's remarks;

“The time is now near at hand, which must probably determine whether Polyestrine Peoples are to be free men or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under the Gods, on the courage and conduct of this army. This Regiment.        “Our own, our country’s honour call upon us for a vigorous and goodly exertion; and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. “Let us, then rely on the goodness of our cause, and the aid of Providence, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions. “The eyes of all our countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the tyranny mediated against them.   Let your training sustain you, rely now on one another, go forth, and come back not unless with the laurels of Glory, or the Red Badge of your courage!"
Well, I can't vouch for those being the exact words as from my seat it was Impossible to hear him over the wind, the kids, dogs, trucks, and general chaos, but what I have here is clipped from the venerable Forge Reader I copped at my favorite place on the Rue Latte.         Well, the troops are nestled safely in their permanent quarters, the cardboard box with a lable, awaiting the call to defend their Nation, and now I can lay me down to rest of my labours.

B

Got some sleep last night so was bright eyed and bushy tailed.  polished off the dossier on my desk, then headed to experimental tank factory, actually the old Locomotive plant...several new models were being tooled for production; the new Hussar, Dragoon, and Cuirassier tanks are in pieces and the machine tools are  being molded, shaped, cast, ground and finished to cast, stamp, forge, and mill the many parts.  Industrial Designers are running on caffeine and excitement right now...they'll be found on deadline day snoozing under their drawing tables.  Then it was back to the office to continue updating the Dossiers.  being a Dark Poobah of Polyestrine People is always fun and never ever tedious.  Thank god I get to see parades.  In speaking of which...tomorrow I get to attend a graduation of sorts.
anyhow allow me to leave you this evening with a sheet of paper soldiers in Guapamolotl uniforms...  enjoy!


tank Parts undergoing moldmaking

antique Ornrian atlas, neat find! Hey, was going down the Rue Latte early this AM, and passed a bookstall with this gem out front.  It has maps, and you know how I love maps...  Look at that Roach Harbor, they don't do them like that anymore.  And the color inserts of flags are pretty cool too, I'll have to give close ups.  Anyway, hope you enjoy them.

 All the flags of the Ornrian nations are deligtfully rendered in color.  I love color plates in books!


I never noticed the continent and islands taken together kind of form a dragon shape...it's head, to the right, seems to be biting the Ouroboros Rim.  a delightful whimsy...
     Anyway I like the street maps of cities like Roach Harbor, old cities change, but not much...
trade 

Just tried a Kola Rosa, Imported from Guapamolotl...yum.  However I did not spontaneously find a big white clad guy to hold my head over the fountaining bottle...I guess that costs extra. Chocolotl prices are rising because of the political problems in Guapamolotl.  Thank Goodness we have the Wormwood dependency; the plantations there made a fine domestic chocolotl, so we can spend our money at home.

Well, the CoC called, and they've stuck me with putting together a Headquarters for the Experimental Tank Lab, College, or Corps, if they decide on a name soon it will help.  So I burned midnight oil, and put this HQ together.  mostly a recolor of Spanish Civil war paper toys, but with the added piquancy of a set of Timmee Toys inspired "stickers".  Enjoy!

and if you just want to print the stickers you can do that.  You notice the tiny medals?  Those are for sticking on to toy soldiers who earn medals in Warplay.
 

Admiral Saltbum stopped by today with an armful of charts to discuss a few new pieces of cartography.  We shared some tea and discussed the evolution of big dreadnoughts and submarine chasers...  I'll take the tank development problems anyday over the horrors of drowning while you burn and sharks if you survive, but that's just me.  Anyway, the point is, he shared Admiral Maywests' new Mappamunda, which I have obtained a copy to share with you.  It's a classic North is Up representation of the diskworld, with it's new more accurate rim sketched in.  Those mountains go right up to space and keep our air in.  I understand the Bhore-Nye Science Institute plans to mount an assault on the rim mountain range using zepplins, I bet that will be quite an adventure!  I've heard talk that it would be a good place to put an observatory, above the weather at the very tip of what we can breathe, the edge of space itself.  The mind dizzies!  well, here's the map.  Enjoy.

So, the War Department released the new Training Circular, and I got my review copy via post today.  So I poured a cup of coffee and leafed through it.  A few revisions of the uniforms, but nothing we haven't seen already.  I'll say it appears to be a boringly useful reference book.  Here's a few pics so you can see what I mean.
splash page, features the new version of the White Rooster...in black.
the pink and brown service uniform in glorious black and white
nice out of date paste in page of flags.  I'll have to get on them about this

Ah our Maxim gunner is in color...the pink is a bit bright...

ORIFLAMME OF THE FREESTATE The Oriflamme of the Polyester Freestate figures a white rooster.  The origin of this symbol lies in the foggy history of Spunkdumpling.  It is said the Farmer Obgurd the Clearheaded was woken in the middle of the night by a glowing white Rooster who presented the astonished man with a crown, a feather pen, and led him to the location of a sword.  It taught him to write letters by scratching the soil, then it sprouted a second head, and led him to the king who was so impressed with either the Farmer's crown or the Roosters' accomplishments that he made him a Knight.  The fabulous two headed rooster is lost to history after this time, but luckily sired a line of  poultry of prodigious vitality that has remained tasty to this day the Spunkdumpling Baldcoc.   The heirs of Obgurd maintained the practice of Haruspicy, and in Spunkdumpling one can still find practitioners of the art.
Obgurd


     The Oriflamme Banner of the Second Polyester Freestate is; Per Bend Purpure et Rose. Sinister a White Rooster Displayed gripping Pen and Sword.  which just means it's Purple over pink with  the white rooster on the left.  The official flag is always in swallow tailed form, but it's sometimes seen in the rectangle, and, popular in the army, a more square version with the charge centered.


The Polyestrine Kings put enormous effort into creating the pan Poly Postal network, and the sabretache pouch became it's symbol, and by virtue of the role of the state clerks in the Glorious Transformation the badge and emblem of the Freestate as a whole.

Badge of the Freestate

There was a clipping today in the paper about the Brubberband Heavy Artillery Regiment.  Colonel Oldstash Banghum's boys were getting to fire off the big guns for the Departmental Winter Maneuvers.

The Big Guns
It appears that a sham battle was played out with elements of the local garrisons, against the Experimental Armor Force.    I'm wondering how that played out...  I understand the column had problems with communications and fighting the mud.


an informant in the paper suggests the TKSes did very well, and I bet I'll be hearing that they will be the top choice for arming the Uhlan regiments.
A TKS in the foreground towing an Anti-Tank Gun Meanwhile, I didn't feel too well, and niether did the Spouse so we took a late bracing walk out on the Rue Latte for drinks.  I chose the diet sam's cola, a common vintage, but easy on the budget.
Rue Latte, Brubberband  It was a lovely evening for a stroll, but we were glad to be back home.  I dug around trying to find out more about the local maneuvers and consulted my maps...  It would seem the armor was trying to move down the Rush creek line towards Souppot, so I called a friend down at Moldstews, and she told me they'd been going at it hammer and tongs in the direction of the Potomacancheese River, making "a dreadful din" and interrupting her watercress sandwiches.  I tendered apologies on behalf of the Fabulouth Armee, and we had a nice laugh.
Still, that seemed to verify that the ETF was trying to move on the Rush Creek Axis, presumably to get the rail line.  There's a nice prominance near Cheesepit, so I lept in the tin lizzy and spun wheels over that way.  The roads were in a state, wet and muddy, and filled with broken down lorries, tanks, and laughing soldiers.  some clowns in the lee of the hill even found enough wet dirty snow for a mudball fight.       I went looking for the Colonel, and though I didn't find him, I climbed the hill to find all the big guns cheerfully booming out shells with an abandon as great as the direction was small.  How we manage not to kill all the cows in the valley is beyond me.

Roach Harbor   The Warshipers Journal
     PMS CITY OF BAD MOULDINGS - DREADNAUGHT reports OVERDUE at coaling station MOSQUITOTUCH, WORMWOOD.   TUNYBOAT SEABEAR reports typhoon in the Greenshell Sea,  It is feared she is lost.  the City of Bad Mouldings has an establishment of 900 souls.  The Weekly Lighthouse is dispatching a special reporter to learn the fate of this magnificent ship.   
City of Bad Moudings at sea

I like this new page title splash, from a Japanese matchbox cover via Agence Eureka.

WIDDERSHINS DAY REVIEW Roach Harbor Whig                                                 Throckmorton Wheeze

Spigotoon Point was crowded with holiday makers converging on this outskirt of Roach Harbor for a glimpse of the Homefleet's famous annual Review.  The weather was perfect-warm, clear, golden and festively breezy.  The Naval Bands regaled the crowd with shanties and hornpipes while happy children in sailor suits flew kites over the beach in mock aerial battles, or splashed about in the surf with toy sailboats.        The great old Admiral Jellyroll  made a delightfully rousing patriotic speech praising recent reforms in sailor's welfare, dedication of our good officers and the qualities and great improvements in Naval Affairs over the past three decades, and he further welcomed the Government's decision to prioritize all big gun dreadnoughts in the coming decade.  Then the Grand Old Hero assisted by a glowing young boy of the crowd touched off a firecracker that signaled a massive volley by the fleet.  It's Thunderous Din shook windows throughout the whole precinct!      It is perfectly obvious to this writer that so long as our walls of steel are manned by heroes such as Jellyroll, the bakers, farmers, bankers and paper workers, the industrious dressmakers and smiling children of the Polyester Freestate will always be able to sleep well at night.      I must remark upon the veritable castle of steel that is HMS Polyesterdelphia, now out of dry-dock and undergoing her fresh first sea trial, she was festive in pennants and flags.  The Anarchist's bomb that sheared her rudder but could not sink her has left no scars.  I am given to understand she takes to sea with a treble reinforced bow allowing her to break ice in the rimward latitudes, or ram torpedos or submarine boats with impunity.        Of course the marvelous submarine boat S-15, called by her crew the Sea Sow,  is one of the stars of the Review. and spent the day braving the spray of great ships giving giggling girls and happy boys short tours and quick rides about the harbor.  It is held by her crew that a single motor torpedo can sink even a dreadnought, heaven forbid such infernal machines be used in earnest!      The day drew to a close as the Homefleet steamed out to sea to begin a month of maneuvers, piped into the main with the calls of the gulls the fluttering of kerchiefs by adoring pink cheeked girls and the freshening salt breeze.  In the redding rays of the sinking sun the mastheads disappeared beyond the horizon I took note of a grizzy old salt nearby.  With his one good hand he wiped a sparkling tear from his eye and allowed "as how it was good to see they still kept the brass shipshape on the old City of Soup-pot" and taking on a crooked grin, "Served on 'er, man an' boy I did, unner good ol' Cap'n Squallshorts hisself, 'e it was as bound up this missing yard, taken by a big ol shell at the siege of Gabapolotl... 'E bound it up with a sleeve torn from 'is very own coat, and winked and sez how he don't need it nohow as he had no arm t'port for to wear it on hissown self..."     The Siege of Gabapolotl and the first Chocolotl War and the old one armed Captain Squallshorts are history now, gone down to the home of all fine old things, but the fleet carries on their proud service tradition, and the Sun can never set on the Freestate so long as such stout courage and fine steel encastle us.
The Fleet holds it's annual Widdershins day Review in Testorton

Old heavy cruiser Pigbelly Bottom, with the band on deck.
The great Carrier; Arthrodire.  with a deck of new fighter aeroplanes!


Sub SB-15 with brave captain Sogjodper 
The fleet on maneuvers, with destroyer escorts
The grand battleship Polyesterdelphia

And another late night quiet time post!  We've been crazy busy, way too busy to worry about gaming or figures or anything much up here in the freezy frontier...  Howevah, dat said...  I DO have a few projects spinning around my brainpan while I wait for the crazystorm to pass...

Allow me to introduce to you to the Marik Periphery border world of Ezmer's Regret.  As you can see the map is in a very old format...

Meet Bob, She is an off sequence Orange giant,.  A bit dim, cold for a star, but enough to make a slim "garden zone".  It's family of Planets is less than impressive;  a silicate ball called Toast, tidally locked with a surface of rough natural glass.  Moonpie, an airless ball of cratered silicates, Ezmer's Regret, moonless, and with an iron core, it's somehow on the good side of habitable...ish.  Sodapop;  a carbon dioxide atmosphere around a rocky core.  Creamsicle, a not very exciting gas giant...  presumably once a bit bigger. and two asteroid belts; Trashbelt (full of dense metallic ore bearing rock), and Blackbelt, a lot of carbonized ice balls...

I've made a nice paper model of the place... I'll have to tell you more about it tomorrow.

I don't make blog posts often enough, do I?  Well, Here's my first blog video about a lil' something my Debbiewife got me a few days ago...

On a dark Alaska night, with the winter wind howling outside clanging mysterious heavy things into the side of the house and whisking slivers of ice under the door to semi melt in a dirty puddle I have decided to record my latest game of Battletech; the Battle for Ubba's Bridge.    Here's a Map to orient the dear reader to the tactical situation as it was that cold red morning of somemonth, 3025, on a little known, and less regarded world named Ezmer's Regret, on the fringes of the great Free World's League...

REPORT OF DOTOROTU REGIONAL COMMAND, EZMER'S REGRET.

Ezmer's Regret;

Tactical Map, Ubba's Bridge environs.
Someday 0400; 
     The tiny Marik Garrison at Dotorotu City became concerned about reports of a possible bandit landing in the Hopalong Valley; an important breadbasket region feeding the main depot.  Satellite and Scout assets determined a reinforced lance of unknown mechs had indeed infiltrated onworld with trucks and an apparent aim of raiding food supplies and kidnapping young labor. The raiders were slow, but advancing, and it became clear that to prevent further depredations in the more heavily populated upper valley the bridge near the Ubba farm was going to have to be held or destroyed, this mission was given to the young new lieutenant Molly Flandersfield, and her wingman, the green Sgt. Zindy Kate; piloting an antiquated Falcon and a light Hermes mk I respectively.  
Someday +3, 0700      Lt. Flandersfield approached the bridge moving west down the Moopig Pike, at Rock Candy Hill sensors detected two mechs holding the bridge; tentatively identified as a Clint and a Whitworth.  Scouts by this time had determined that the bogies were probably House Liao troops via radio chatter.  Lt Flandersfield immediately ordered Sgt Kate to barrel down the pike closing range as quickly as possible so as to minimize the enemy's superiority in long range weaponry, and tilt the firefight into a Marik advantage.  The enemy, meanwhile maneuvered it's Whitworth into the light woods by the bridge, while the Clint, using jump capability, summeted Fozzil Rock, establishing a field of fire to support his companion.  Lt. Flandersfield engaged her own jumpjets and leleapfrogging from Rock Candy Hill to Armadillo Ridge, then down to the woods sheltering the Liao Whitworth.   At this point it looked like her plan was going very well, but by chance the exchange of weaponfire with the Whitworth took a very bad turn, and an SRM round seems to have punched through her aged Falcon's torso armor and detonated the copious Machinegun ammunition storage, the ensuing cookoff was catastrophic, and her mech was reduced to atoms within seconds.  It appears that the Lieutenant had disengaged her ejection system (though against all regulations, a common practice with warriors who own their mechs to avoid being dispossessed and shaming their families).  At this point Sgt. Kate, correctly, chose to save her asset since the mission of taking the bridge was impossible against these odds.  Having pulled back to the company bivouac for minor repair, it is determined to deploy a new Mission to take the bridge.  Tonight Sgt Kate will scramble again with a detatchment of Dotorotu Public Safety armor vehicles and infantry, and medium artillery support. She will take the bridge and hold it until further notice.

I finished reading the John Curry edition of Donald Featherstone's "War Games; Battles and Maneuvers with Model Soldiers". and thought I'd write a short but proper review. To begin with, It's a great effort, and I feel that making these out of print books in a price range I can reach, is an awesome thing. Now on to the critical part; As is common with print on demand press-work there is a decided lack of polish. I noticed several minor typos, and one spot where the formatting seems to have knocked out part of a sentence, typical problems with word-processed documents. Next, the black and white photographs are obviously .jpg files and suffer from compression artifacts and loss of fidelity that comes from low resolution scanning. The pics would have fared better if High Resolution scanning and .tiff format had been used. They are, however, not all bad, in some cases it's actually easier to make out the subject of the image than it was in the original! I think some processing of the image was done, bringing out the stuff that had been lost in dark shadows. So overall it's a bit of a plus! Now a review of content; Wargames is a major seminal work in the toy soldier and wargame hobby. The book is divided into about 5 sections; the first is a brief history of the toy/model soldier and general overview of the hobby as it was 50 years ago. after a brief synopsis of a general battlegame, it moves on to briefly cover campaign games and how to make one's own figures. Then comes the real "meat" of the text. One plus about this new edition is commentary by the editor and various luminaries of the hobby. To begin with, A set of ancient rules based on Tony Bath's original Hyperborian campaign, followed by a sample battle to illustrate how the rules are used. A chapter detailing a nice set of Horse and Musket rules follows, it uses the

Hyperborian Rules for melee, but really stands alone apart from that. I especially favor the mechanic that allows the risking of an Officer casualty. The famous "Battle in the Platteville Valley" scenario follows, a medium sized wargame with balanced forces; 6 infantry Regiments of 20 castings, 2 15 man Cavalry Regiments, and 2 Artillery Batteries (1 gun represents a battery) form each army, thus to play one needs a grand total of ; 240 infantry, 60 horse, and 4 guns with 16 artillerists. a reasonable sized pair of armies! The book moves on to the modern era, with the famous Lionel Tarr WWII rules, and a minor gloss of his solo Stalingrad campaign (eye candy!). Then illustrates the rules with a battle for a crossroads. This is interesting if only for the images which include plaster home-made tanks! An added bonus is that Curry's revision of the book includes the western front equipment that was missing from Tarr's original Eastern Front focused game rules. The book ends with a skirmish rules chapter that is notable primarily for being more in the nature of a set of suggestions. It reminds me very much of a simple Basic Dungeons and Dragons melee. To cap the book is a timeline of publications in Wargaming highlighting the "essential reading" for the serious gamer and toy soldier enthusiast.All in all, as I spent about $20.00 including shipping, I think I got my money's worth! Really, if you only ever buy one book about wargames, this would have to be it. It's certainly on my "stranded on a deserted island" library list!Many Thanks to John Curry, who is engaged in a laudable effort! Well, your mileage may vary, and results may differ, and my opinion is not necessarily reflective of reality, etc....

Field Trials have begun at the Fabulouth Armee's proving grounds outside the small town of Parachute-Guy-Deployment-Center-Delta.  The Army is testing proposals for new tanks to fill the needs of the recent expansion and conversion of the army's Cavalry Regiments.  Under consideration are tanks to fill the needs of Hussar, Uhlan, Dragoon, and Cuirassier Regiments.  According to Colonal Barbette, Proctor of the Martel Cavalry Training School and liason officer of the Quartermaster's Requirements Office, "Several Polyestrine companies have come forward with wonderful machines.  We are quite seriously pushing these machines to the limit in order to reach the requirements of military provision.  After all, it's not merely the speed, armor, or firepower that determines our decision.  The army must also have machines that are durable, rugged, can be made quickly and cheaply, that use minium resources and supplies, in all it's really quite exciting to see these compititions."    The Army must rapidly provide for the several different needs of the Cavalry Regiments,  The Hussars require rapid movement and communications for their primarily reconnaissance role.  The Dragoons require a good all around mix of armor, speed, and firepower.  Of course the most glamorous arm, the Cuirassier Regiments need to be equipped with a powerful heavy tank.        It has been said that there is a real "tank gap" vis-a-vis the PDSR, whose industry is estimated to be building 10-30 new machines per month.  It is a real question whether or not Polyestrine industry can re-arm the Freestate before hostilities in Mantissippi spread into neighboring states.  Concern in the cabinet borders on a tank obsession, and bills have been posted requiring the donation and compulsory recycling of paper products  to supply local factories with the necessary construction materials for mass manufacture of military hardware.  Chrysrolet executives have begun hiring to establish a new factory in Polyesterdelphia, and have opened negotiations with the Paperworker's Union that so far have proven quite amiable.  Below are some images from the workyards of the Proving grounds showing some examples under consideration.

There is a friendly stranger in the skies!  The Army Air Service has just received delivery of its first flight of Flyit fighters.  Built by the Flyit Avaiation Factory of Polyesterdelphia, these powerful aircraft put the Freestate ahead of it's rivals in Aeroplane development.  It is made of the best paper materials from the papermills of Pactraplant, and welded with powerful new Elmerson Adhesives of Testorton.  These beautiful machines composed of only dozens of parts can be made more quickly and cheaply than former defense aircraft, and yet fly faster, and carry more machine guns and bombs than anything before it.
    Amazing too, is the speed at which Military Aviation Engineers from the Army and from Polyestrine industry were able to produce these powerful new elements of national defense.  Only days from the planning, to printer to flight status!
     Flyit Aviation is proud to put this newly minted sword into the hands of The Freestate's finest pilots, the Chevaliers of the Army Air Service!