Inside the underground Nazi 'village'

Shifting sands have revealed a forgotten world of Nazi tunnels underneath The Hague. Link to the BBC website.
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Search/Destroy: A Strontium Dog Fan Film

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Comment: This is very good, and definately worth a watch if your into sci-fi :)
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BATTLETECH - PDXCON Trailer

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Comment:  I could get quite excited about this :)
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Stargrunt II - 15mm Sci-Fi - 'Supply Column Hit'

Played a game of 15mm sci-fi using the Stargrunt II rules at the club on Thursday night, our fourth SG2 game in a row.  This was a follow-on to a game the previous week (one that I've yet to add to the blog).

SCENARIO

Planet:                  Rimstone

Location:              Outer Periphery

Date:                     Terra Year 2250 May 4th 

Scenario Name:    'Supply Column Hit'

Scenario Setting:

Battlegroup Elwen having failed last week to secure Ambassador Lauralie from a downed dropship have been re-tasked to convoy duties.  Task Force Ludlam has been given the mission to intercept them… 

Table Set Up
Lightly wooded terrain with a road running north to south.  Small village to the west.

Task Force Ludlam

Background:      

Intelligence have determined the route for a re-supply convoy belonging to Battlegroup Elwen.

Your Mission:

Ambush the convoy.  Destroy at least half the vehicles and secure a least 1 prisoner.    

Forces At Your Disposal:

Light Infantry Platoon – Veterans (4 squads of 6 men in each  (1 x SAW, 4  x Low Tech Assault Rifle + GL, 1 x MAR)).

Special Equipment:

1.            Enough (dumb) mines for a strip 4” long.

2.            Electronic stealth cloaks.  Troops completely hidden when dug-in underneath them.  Discarded once that element fires/moves.

3.            Specialist ECM Operator (2 chits per turn).

Deployment:

Mines can be placed where ever you want.

Troops can be placed where ever you want (and can be dug-in).

Battlegroup Elwen

Background:      

After recent combat activity you have been assigned a less onerous task.  You are tasked to escort the re-supply convoy from 'Firebase Alpha B’ to ‘Strong Point Dredd’.  No enemy activity has been reported in this sector.  This is a ‘safe route’.

Your Mission:

One of the soft skins is carrying valuable fuel rods for grav vehicles.  This vehicle must make it off the north table edge.

Forces At Your Disposal:

Light Infantry Platoon – Regular (4 squads of 6 men in each  (5  x Low Tech Assault Rifle + GL, 1 x IAVR or SAW)

2 x 4 wheel high mobility scouts, 4 x Low & High Tech Grav APCs, 1 x Low Tech Grav Sled with Rocket Pack (no ammo), 2 x military trucks, 1 x Piranha APC, 2 x Hover sleds (unarmed and unarmoured).

Special Equipment:

One of the trucks is a HQ vehicle with some ECM capability (1 chit per turn).

Deployment:

Enter the sector from the South and exit on the North.  Vehicles are in column.

Umpire Notes:

The missions for both sides were not known until after the game.
Ludlum had intel and knew the strength and composition of the Elwenian forces.  They by contrast knew nothing about the ambush forces.
Elwen secretly picked the vehicle to carry the fuel rods.
The convoy vehicle sequence had to be decided before the game started,
The convoy could not depart the road until the ambush was triggered.
Vehicle convoy spacing was 10". 

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Pictures From The Game

Ludlam's troops spring their ambush knocking out the head of the Elwelian column.

Game Result
After an entertaining game, Task Force Ludlam managed to (just) grab a victory by achieving their victory conditions.

Alien Covenant - Official Trailer

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Comment:  So excited by this film, can't wait to see it !
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Post viewing comment:
Went to see it with my son, we both enjoyed it a lot :)   I give it a solid 8.5 out of 10.  If your a fan of the franchise, 'it's a must see' :)
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Dunkirk - Official Film Trailer

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Comment:  This looks like it could be good :)
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2CELLOS - Now We Are Free - Gladiator [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

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Comment:  This is great.
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Flames Of War Cold War

10mm Flames of War Cold War is being played on a regular basis at our club at the moment, even joined in a game myself recently.  Here's a few pictures from the last two games :)   (None of the vehicles or terrain belong to me)
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My general observation is that 10mm is a great scale for this set of rules.  15mm I'm afraid just looks like a tank park IMHO (apologies to those purists offended by such heretic thoughts... :) ).

Star Wars - The Last Jedi Official Teaser

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Comment:  :)
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Giant Rc F 35 Lightning II

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Comment:  This is well impressive !
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StarGrunt 40,000

Came across this interesting page today about a system for converting Warhammer 40,000 army lists into a format that will work well with the Stargrunt II rules system.  Worth a look: Link
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Operation ‘Platinfuchs’ Was an Early Nazi Defeat on the Eastern Front

The Soviet navy during World War II is perhaps best remembered for its vigorous role in the doomed defense of the ports of Odessa and Sevastopol in the Crimean Sea. However, in the Arctic north, the Soviet warships would have a major impact in the opening months of the war with Nazi Germany.

A ragtag fleet of destroyers and patrol boats, backed up by two stout-hearted rifle divisions, brought Hitler’s elite mountain troops skidding to a halt, preserving a vital supply line to Britain and the United States.  Link to the full article.

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Comment:  This article makes for an interesting read.

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Rabbit hole leads to 700-year-old Knights Templar cave

An apparently ordinary rabbit's hole in a farmer's field leads to an underground sanctuary once said to be used by the Knights Templar - a medieval religious order that fought in the Crusades.  Link to BBC web site article.
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Star Citizen MMO

My son Alex has joined in the Star Citizen MMO game.  It is in the Alpha state at the moment (i.e. still being developed) but looks fantastic.  The concept art for some of the yet to be released ships is fantastic.
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C5 Take Off

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Comment:  Not much runway left at the end there...
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Picture Of The Week - No 63 - SA-8 Gecko

Comment:  Took this picture back in 2011 at the Duxford Vehicle Day.  The vehicle in question in a Soviet SA-8 Gecko Anti-aircraft missile system.

Crepusculum Imperii: Adapting Lion Rampant to the Late Roman period

I'm a big fan of Lion and Dragon Rampant and find myself quite impressed with this article written by David Sulivan on his blog about adapting the Lion Rampant rules to the Late Roman period. Link
Highly recommended :)

Picture Of The Week - No 62 - Destroyed Leopard 2

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Comment: Came across this article on a site called 'Defence Watch; where there are a load of pictures of Turkish owned Leopard 2 tanks that had either been destroyed or severly damaged by ISIS in northern Syria.
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The Perfect Captain

I've found this web site called 'The Perfect Captain'.  Their own description of the site is as follows: "We are a small group of gamers with some big ideas! We like to play and design boardgames, miniatures rules, and campaign games for a host of periods. We have a yahoo group that supports our products. By the way,  maybe we should mention that our goods are totally FREE! If you'll be so kind as to look below, you'll see a list of products under the headings of their historical periods. Each one of these has its own webpage with a bit of background, a list of variants, and of course, the download."

Comment:  I've very impressed with what I saw.  This is a great resource for the wargamer.

The Mud Hates These Tanks: US M1 Assault Breacher Vehicle + M1 Abrams Stuck in Mud Being Recovered

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Comment: Stumbled across video of this vehicle that I never new existed ! LOL
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U2 "Dragon Lady' Pilots Skim the edges of space at the Terminator Line

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Comment: Awesome :)
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Picture Of The Week - No 61 - A10 Thunderbolts In Action - Team Yankee

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Comment:  Taken on Thursday night at my club, here we have a couple of A10s making a pass over the table in a 10mm scale Flames of War 'Team Yankee' game.  I wasn't playing in it, but it looked a fun game.
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Company Of Heroes - Europe at War Mod

Fans of the PC game Company of Heroes should check out this new mod that is available on Steam:  Link.

Description:
"EaW is a historical mod for Company of Heroes that adds new battlefronts with new commander trees, abilities, units, vehicles and weapons for each, representing in the best way, as far as possible, historical accuracy, to immerse players in a much more realistic gaming experience."
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Lead Adventurer Forum - Post A Picture Of The Last Game You Played

This is a very inspiring thread on the Lead Adventure Forum.  People simply posting a picture(s) of the last game they played.  Worth checking out: Link
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Eight Things You May Not Know About The Battle of Passchendaele

2017 will see the centenary of the Battle of Passchendaele with events taking place in Belgium in July. The battle which was also known as The Third Battle of Ypres was one of the major engagements of the First World War and one of the largest battles Britain’s Armed Forces have ever fought.

Here’s eight facts on what First World War soldiers used to call the Battle of Mud:

1.The battle took place on the Western Front, from July to November 1917, for control of land south and east of the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders. It lasted just over 3 months, marginally less than the Battle of the Somme. The loss of life was considerable and the offensive achieved mixed results.

2. Within a few days of the battle the heaviest rain for 30 years had turned the soil into a quagmire, producing thick mud that often immobilised tanks. When the Tank Corps was formed it had no distinctive colours but in 1917 — just before the Battle of Cambrai — it adopted its Brown, Red and Green colours which are still used by the Royal Tank Regiment today. The colours represented the struggle of the Corps — ‘From mud, through blood to the green fields beyond’.

3. The standard British army rifle in 1917 was the iconic Short Magazine Lee- Enfield (aka the SMLE), a marksman could fire 15 aimed shots a minutes and earned an extra six pence a day — almost doubling his pay back then! It weighed around four kilograms, a similar amount to the SA80 individual weapon carried by troops today; however the SA80 fires a potential 610–775 rpm.

4. The battle saw an estimated 325,000 Allied and 260,000 German casualties. By 1917 armies had tried to modernise to reduce the casualty rate. At Passchendaele soldiers of all sides wore protective headgear. The weight of the British Mark I helmet was about 2 pounds, made out of manganese steel alloy, it was light, robust, simple to make and had the best ballistic performance of any WW1 helmet. The Mk 7 helmet used by troops today weighs 2.2 pounds and can stop fragments travelling at over 650 metres per second.

5. Some estimates claim 90,000 British and Commonwealth bodies were never identified and 42,000 never recovered from the battle. However bodies from the First World War are still being found and identified 100 years later. The remains of two British soldiers were found recently and given a ceremonial burial with full military honours on 19 October 2016. The Ministry of Defence’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre will deal with fallen soldiers in the same way whether they’re casualties of the First World War or recent conflicts like Afghanistan.

6. As with the battle of the Somme in 1916, Passchendaele saw Britain forces fight closely alongside its Commonwealth allies of Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa. This would be repeated many times in the next 100 years, including the Second World War, the Korean War, in Afghanistan and currently in the fight against Daesh.

7. Blood banks and transfusions were developed during the First World War and by 1917 the Royal Medical Corps (RAMC) established the first blood bank on the Western Front in preparation for Passchendaele. The RAMC expanded rapidly during the First World War; on mobilization the Corps consisted of approximately 9,000 ‘other ranks’, by 1918 there were 13,000 RAMC Officers and 154,000 ‘other ranks’. Wherever there is conflict featuring British Armed Forces the RAMC is always there. Since the Victoria Cross was introduced in 1856 there have been 29 Victoria Crosses awarded to members of the RAMC.

8. The last British surviving combat soldier of the First World War was 111 year old Harry Patch who died in 2009. Harry, who fought as a Lewis [machine] gunner at Passchendaele where he was wounded and evacuated never spoke about the war until he turned 100 years old. Harry was laid to rest in Wells Cathedral, his body was carried by members of his old unit The Rifles and walking behind his coffin in solidarity were military representatives of France, Belgium and Germany.

Comment:  Saw the above info on UK MOD web site and found it quite interesting. 

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Happy New Year - 2017

Happy New Year to all the readers of my Blog  :)
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TK-436: A Stormtrooper Story (FULL DIRECTOR’S CUT)

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Comment:  Quite impressed with this :)
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English Electric Lightning - Cape Town - South Africa

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Comment:  Nice quality video of one of the Lightnings that used to operate at 'Thunder City' in South Africa.  Years ago I used to buy parts for these when the RAF operated them.
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A Sad Day

A very sad day here in the Garbutt household.  Our fabulous black Labrador Jed is no longer with us :(
Lovely with kids, adults and other dogs he had such a great disposition.  We got him when he was 4 months old and today he wasn't far short of being 14.   A small piece of  my heart is broken...  :(
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For liberty and righteousness': A chaplain at war

Early on Christmas Day in 1916, a group of soldiers knelt on a rough floor in a candlelit barn in France to receive Holy Communion from their chaplain. The man tending to their spiritual needs was Samuel Leighton Green. He had swapped a quiet life as a Norwich curate to share in the physical and mental suffering of those on the World War One front line. Why?  Link to the BBC web site to read more.
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Alien: Covenant - Official Trailer 1

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Comment:  Awesome !
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Elefant Arrives

The historic Elefant tank has arrived safely at The Tank Museum for new Tiger Exhibition, opening Spring 2017. Seventy-two years after it fell into Allied hands, one of the largest combat vehicles to see action in the Second World War has arrived safely at The Tank Museum in Dorset. Link
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D-DAY normandy 70th anniversary (DRONE PICTURES)

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Comment: This is quite good :)
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BBC granted exclusive access to nuclear bunker

Last month, Russian authorities conducted large-scale civil defence drills and announced they were upgrading underground nuclear bunkers to accommodate the entire Moscow population. 

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg was granted exclusive access to one attack-ready shelter in the north of the city.  Link
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When Soviet tanks crushed Hungary’s bid for freedom

Seen this on the BBC web site.  Worth a visit.
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After seven years as a Soviet satellite state, many in Hungary were chafing at the restrictions imposed by the communist government.
In October 1956, thousands of people came onto the streets of Budapest to demand greater freedom
In a confrontation with Hungary's secret police, several unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed.
Violence flared forcing Soviet troops to withdraw from the capital.
But the Hungarian revolution's triumph was short lived as Peter Pallai, who joined the demonstration told Witness.  Link
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FUBAR 40k Themed Game

I ran a game at the club on Thursday using an adapted version of the FUBAR rules with a 40K themed army and weapon listing. I do like the activation sequence and acton options in this rule-set.  The game was a good excuse to get out and some of the huge range of 40k figures we have between us.  A first outing for my friend John Elwen's nicely painted Space Wolves.
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By the Emperor, Someone Made a Working Warhammer 40k Chainsword

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Comment:  Vey cool :)
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Heligoland, a tiny island that survived the second largest non-nuclear explosion in human history

'With 4,000 torpedo heads, 9,000 depth charges and more than 91,000 shells – all in all some 6,700 tons of explosives – set aflame, a 40-mile-tall black mushroom cloud rose above Heligoland and shook the island to its core. The detonation, a third of what had happened in Hiroshima two years before, was registered as far away as Sicily.'

Read more about this:  Link

That one time when president Roosevelt almost got killed – by a US warship

Found this interesting article on the history of the USS William D. Porter.  It is worth a read :)   Link 
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Royal Artillery in WW2

For anyone who is interested in learning about the British Royal Artillery and its role in WW2, you need look no further than this web site:  http://nigelef.tripod.com/

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The Grand Tour

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Comment:  Looking forward to this :)
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Massive US Submarines Breaking Through Ocean of Ice in the Arctic

US Navy Submarine USS Hartford emerging from ice during the ICEX 2016.  Link to article.
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Panzers in the Golan Heights

A fascinating web page here about Panzers in the Golan Heights. Worth a read :) Link
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Dragon Rampant - Harrogate Wargames Club - House Rules

You know what it's like; you have several games using a rule system.  Not all the situations you might want/need covered are in there, so you agree with your friends an approach to take.  You then leave the system for a few weeks and when you go back to it, there is confusion over what was and wasn't agreed...  This is what my gaming group had with Dragon Rampant a few weeks back.

The simple way forward is of course to write down this stuff down, so I resolved to put pen to paper and write up a set of 'House Rules' that we could all agree on.

My efforts can be downloaded at this link (currently at version 8-4-0), and reflect our collective thinking after playing some 75+ games.  (note, the latest version can always been found here)

If you have any questions or suggestions for improvements, feel free to post them here :) 

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Aliens | 2016 Comic Con Full Panel (James Cameron, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton)

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Comment:  This is great :)
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Trailer (Official)

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Comment:  Slightly underwhelmed by this trailer. Might be the music score which seems a bit confused. Thoughts everyone ?

2011 Flying Legends Mustang Tailchase

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Comment:  Nice piece of footage of WW2 American P51 Mustangs flying.
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Viking Gold Treasure found at Vejen in 2016

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Last week three amateur archaeologists found seven bangles from the 10th century in a field near Vejen in Jutland. The amazing thing is that six of the seven are made of gold, while the last is of silver.  Link
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Yes Minister — Why Britain Joined the European Union

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Comment:  After the vote yesterday, this clip seems quite topical...
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Humour - VW GOLF 'GAS STATION' ADVERT - 1996.

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Comment:  This is such a great advert, I just had to post it :)
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