Review of Cold Victory by Poul Anderson

Author:  Poul Anderson.
Title:  Cold Victory.
Publisher:  Tor Publishing.
Copyright:  1982.
Pages:  282.
Price:  $2.75 (US).

Overview and Impressions:

Cold Victory is an assortment of short stories about the Psychotechnical League that rose out the ashes of World War III in 1958.  Science became the guiding force behind human development.  Prosperity became common place.  But automation and technology put human labor to waste.  Discontent and revolution soon followed. 

Anderson's short stories are set in this dystopian future.  They revolve around Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, and Jupiter's moons.  Each of them has a retro feel to them.  Most were written in the 1950s.  Cold Victory reads quick.  It was nice change from WH40K novels to read some hard retro sci-fi.

Recommended.   

Review of The Unremembered Empire by Dan Abnett

Author:  Dan Abnett.
Title:  The Unremembered Empire.
Publisher:  The Black Library.
Copyright:  2014.
Pages:  413.
Price:  $9.99 (US).

Overview and Impressions:

This book in the Horus Heresy series features the Ultramarines primarch Roboute Guilliman trying to salvage what was left of the Imperium as civil war raged between Horus's Chaos traitor legions and the Imperial loyalists. 

However, the Five Hundred Worlds are isolated from Terra due to warp storms.  Guilliman tries to rebuild civilization as refugees from all over the galaxy flee to his realm.  Assassins and primarchs also descend on Macragge.  There are also xenos led traitors and all sorts of plot twists as the novel progresses.  The reader also meets an insane Vulkan and Lion el Johnson, primarch of the Dark Angels who come to Macragge on a mission to insure Guilliman doesn't betray the Emperor in his attempt to save the Imperium.

Overall, a good read.  Recommended for WH40K fans.

Die Con 2015 AAR: 20JUN15

Here are some photos from Die Con 2015 at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville, IL:

                                          Pat Lewis' AWI 6mm game board.

                                          Dave Schaeffer's Blue Max game.
                   

                                          Mark Johnson's 25mm Napoleonics game.

                                          Lance Western conversing with GM Pat Lewis.

                                          Adam Jones III's 1/2400 Battle of the Java Sea.

                                          Privateer Press Weekend 2015 at Die Con 2015.

Here are photos of the 28mm Franco-Prussian War Battle of Woerth:  August 6, 1870 using Chassepot and Needlegun.  Lori Brom was kind enough to provide participation prizes for Sergeants3.com for several of the players!

       Initial deployment.  Each side a 28mm infantry brigade, a cavalry regiment, and a battery of artillery.

                                          Bavarian movemtnt.

                                          Pat McGarriety ponders his next move.

                                          Pat McGarriety advances his regiment of Bavarian infantry.

     Lance Western waits to move his jagers.  They never did advance that far due to lousy movement rolls.

                Glenn Wilson looks on as Craig fails another command roll with his French cavalry!

                       Glenn Wilson failed another command roll after Craig's troops refused to move.

                                          The Bavarians regrouped and put the hurt on the French.

         The Bavarians succeeded in causing the French to fail army morale and won the game!

June 2015 Projects

I decided to downsize some of my figures.  I'm running out of room in the basement.  I thought about things long and hard and came to the conclusion it was for the best.  I have years worth of painting to do.  I don't have room for everything.  That's the problem.  So...

I got rid of my remaining GW High Elf army.  I also am looking to get rid of 28mm ECW armies and a 28mm Mongol army.  I'd like to sell them locally because shipping would kill me.

I went ahead and started up some 15mm SYW Reichsarmee brigades.  I also primed some 28mm Bronze age Greek spearmen.  I have the following projects staring me in the face:

28mm Trojan army
28mm Bronze age Greek army
84 28mm Masai Warriors
42 28mm Colonial German Marines
28mm Sudanese Dervishers
28mm Viet Cong, US Marines, and ARVN
15mm SYW Reichsarmee
15mm SYW Saxons
15mm SYW Swedes
15mm SYW Prussians
28mm Warmachine Rhulic army
28mm Warmachine Steelhead Company army

This will keep me busy for YEARS.

On my literary efforts, I'm reading The Unremembered Empire now.  I didn't get to read much this week.  I'm also giving up on my efforts to learn ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.  I'll going to try and learn a living language.  I'll have to see what I want to do with all my books on Egyptian hieroglyphs.  It's been hard to consistently be able to study the subject with my daily schedule.  I should have made more of an effort.  But alas, things didn't work out...