Fuentes de Oñoro

 I previously wrote that I was having a month's break from wargaming. I don't seem to have added that I signed off by taking the role of General Ney in the first night of a refight of Fuentes de Oñoro. 

I obviously expected it to be all wrapped up by the time I returned to the legendary wargames room of James 'Olicanalad' Roach, but there seemed to have been some slacking in my absence because the situation hadn't moved on much at all. In particular some stubborn British infantry in square, who had held up the French swinging left flank advance were, weeks later, still doing the same thing. However, I broke the square with my heavy cavalry and rode them down. This was historically a rare event, and to do so in Piquet, or at least the bastardised version which we play, requires a rather unlikely sequence of cards to be turned. I got so excited at it all falling into place that sadly I forgot to take a photo of the event. After that it was fairly inevitable that the British would eventually run out of morale, which they duly did.

I also got in the first game in months in my annexe, with a re-run of the C&C game of Dennewitz last played with my plumber. This time it was against one of regular boardgaming opponents, who acquitted himself well in this different form of gaming as long as you ignore all the suicidal cavalry charges he made. 

And to continue this startling run of hobby activity I'm off to Partizan on Sunday, provided of course that I survive the excitement of tomorrow's 214th Otley Show.

As I Was Going Over The Cork and Kerry Mountains

Mush-a ring, dum-a doo-dam-a-da

Whack for my daddy-o

Whack for my daddy-o

There's whiskey in the jar-o

I have been on a bit of a road trip in the South West of Ireland. Oddly, given how very, very old I am, I had never been to the Republic before. I really enjoyed myself, and I don't think it was all down to the glorious weather we had. Wargaming related stuff was there if one looked for it, such as this dark ages stone fort:

Or this Martello tower on Garinish Island:

Or Elizabeth Fort in Cork City. I haven't got a photo of the whole thing as it's surrounded by buildings, but here's a doughty Englishman seeing off a Spanish invader. Or possibly a noble Spaniard trying to  to aid the liberation of his co-religionists. Your money, your choice.

We were travelling from Kenmare towards Cork when I suddenly saw a sign proclaiming "Toy Soldier Factory & Visitor Centre". Sadly I wasn't driving and my companion for the holiday - who was at the wheel - forcefully expressed the view that I was merely guilty of wishful thinking and that in any case she had an urgent appointment with a cup of tea and a home made scone in Macroom (*) and so refused to turn around and look for it. Subsequent investigation at the Cork tourist information office identified it as the premises of Prince August. I didn't know that they were Irish and in any event had done no research of any kind about anything at all prior to boarding the ferry, so I suppose it's very much my own fault. From the leaflet which I eventually picked up far too late the visitor centre seems well worth a look.

The only model soldiers encountered on the visit were these in the Cork City Museum:

The room at that museum which I found to be the most interesting was that covering local events and personalities during the Irish Civil War. As William Faulkner said "The past is never dead. It's not even past.".

* In fairness the scone turned out to be rather excellent.