(OT) About Ancients --

For those of you who don't know, we currently have no mail delivery here in Canada. After a long period of fruitless negotiations, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on a limited strike. They would take off for two days in a rotating series of major Canadian cities.

After two weeks of this, Canada Post's management claimed that this had cost them $100 million dollars (a ridiculous figure -- if they really were losing that much money for missing a few days business in a few cities when they didn't have to pay any wages, they would normally be making so much that they could easily pay down the national debt) . . . so the Canada Post management locked out the postal workers and we don't have any mail service right now.

Anyway I am now awaiting a number of items that I'd ordered. Among these is "Hail Caesar", the new Ancients rule set. I am hoping that it will help me become re-energized about Ancients.

I got my start with Historical Miniatures back about the time that WRG 7th came out. I fell in with a crowd of fellows who were just starting out playing it . . . . And I started building armies along with them . . . and I collected and painted lots of them (mostly in 25mm).

By the way, while I enjoyed the mental challenge of WRG 7th at the time, I would NOT advise anyone to start playing them today. They have a very steep learning curve and do not in my opinion give a very good simulation of ancient warfare.

Later we switched to DBM, which I felt gave a better simulation of ancient warfare, but which I never really warmed up to.

Anyway I haven't played any Ancients (apart from a few DBA games at Murdock's) for at least 25 years . . . and since I have a lot of large painted armies, I am hoping that these new rules will re-excite me about the period.

Using the WRG List terms, some of the large painted armies in 25mm that come to mind (I think there are more) include:

• Alexandrian Imperial
• Hoplite Greek
• Carthaginian
• Syracusan
  
• Feudal Spanish
• Feudal Scots
  

I know that I also have unpainted lead for large 25mm armies of:

• Indian
  
• Gauls
• Illyrians
• Early Imperial Romans
  
• Ayyubid Egyptians
• Feudal Germans (partially painted)
  

In 15mm my painted armies include

• New Babylonians
• Hoplite Greeks
• Early Germans
• Late Imperial Romans
• Arab Conquest
• Feudal Germans

I also have a number of miscellaneous 15mm DBA armies . . . so when I come right down to it, I have a lot of reasons to see if I can re-ignite my long dormant interest in Ancients.

When the lockout ends at Canada Post, maybe the "Hail Caesar" rules will do that . . . and maybe not.

-- Jeff

It's My Birthday --

Yes, strange as it may seem, I was actually born at 6:48 am PWT on June 19, 1948 in Carmel, California . . . so anyone who wants to draw my natal chart can now do so (although I've no idea of why you'd want to do so).

My dear wife did gift me with a few wargaming related items (okay, she asked me to order a few for myself and have them sent to her -- which I do much earlier in the year so that I don't remember everything and they can come as a surprise).

I got four DVD titles of note:

• "Khartoum"
• "The Man Who Would Be King"
• "Zulu Dawn" (yes, I already have "Zulu")
  
• "The Civil War", a film by Ken Burns (actually 6 DVDs)

I also got a number of non-wargaming books and "Flames in the Punjab", a radical variant of "The Sword and the Flame" covering the Sikh Wars of the 1840s.

And tonight we will be going out to dinner . . . so turning 63 isn't all that bad.

-- Jeff