Unfamiliar Ground, Me Boys - Fire and Fury

 I've just returned from a most pleasant weekend trip; I travelled to visit Baron Stryker and his lovely wife on their Northern estates. Apart from the quiet surroundings and splendid hospitality, I also enjoyed an ACW game - unfamiliar ground indeed for me these days. Although this period was the context for my very first involvement with wargaming, it has been a long, long time. I estimate that my last ACW miniatures game must have been in 1973... 

If you weren't around in 1973, you may find this difficult to visualise. Rest assured that you probably didn't miss much - especially as far as my prehistoric wargames go.

I think that Ian may put together a post on his own blog, so all I'll do here is present some of my own photos, just to show what a nice game it was. 15mm figures, and an OOP version of Fire and Fury's brigade level rules - I was the Confederate commander; this was all new to me. The rules are reassuringly straightforward, and Stryker made an excellent job of guiding me through.

 

Troops in my centre at the start; lovely armies - it's some years since I've been involved with 15mm, and I have to say I approve very much

 

My cavalry makes an inauspicious entry on my left. The rules put Confederate cavalry at a disadvantage, but these fellows exceeded my expectations...

 

Troops deploying in the early stages. Both armies were waiting for reinforcements around Turn 3 or so

 

I spy Tigers - I recognised these fellows from an Osprey book I haven't seen for 50 years

 

Enemy approaching, looking worryingly brisk and professional

 

Partly because I wanted to see what would happen using F&F, I launched an enthusiastic but wildly optimistic attack with my right flank infantry. This worked much better than I had any right to expect, wrecked two opposing brigades and captured two limbered batteries...

 

...Crikey!...

 

One of my successful right brigades - still amazingly fresh [official F&F terminology] moved across to threaten the Union centre

 

As the reinforcements came into play, it seemed likely that both armies would win on their respective right flanks, but things started to balance out, and towards the end of our day I had regained control on my left (I think so, anyway)

 

My thanks to Ian and Sharon for their kindness and my appreciation for a most enjoyable trip and a stimulating (and thought-provoking) game are supplemented by my sincere apologies for outrageously lucky dice-rolling. Can't understand that at all...

More Hills and Even Further Away

 Travelling again - my life seems to have taken on an unfamiliar level of sophistication, not to mention luxury. I have just returned from the home of the Archduke, in the mountains of Northern England - a wild region which was once known as Scottish Cumberland, I understand. There we were joined by more travellers - Stryker and Goya - for a very fine day of Old School Napoleonic gaming, and of gazing in awe at the resident soldier collection.

Our game scenario was from 1809, the setting being what is now known as the Battle of Aspern-Essling, taken as a single action, and fought on the open ground between the two villages. I shall not attempt a detailed account of the action, but will include a series of my own photos, to give a taste of what the day looked like. I was Hiller, commanding the Austrian right flank, fighting alongside Stryker. [You will find rather better pictures and a more coherent narrative on Stryker's blog here.]  

 

General view at commencement; Austrians on the left. Both sides are expecting reinforcements, but the French reserves may only arrive if they can still get across the Danube. The Danube, you understand, is just off the table-edge on your right, and there is a wooden bridge on the edge of the table to represent this crossing 

 

This is my command, the Austrian right flank. You can see me (Hiller) bravely leading the infantry forward

 

 A look over towards the Austrian left. The cavalry unit nearest the camera is the best the army has to offer - because of problems with Austrian command, all the rest of the cavalry were rated as "militia". The unit pictured here looks very impressive, and it took me 5 or 6 turns to remember that these were mere chevauxlegers (O'Reilly), however smartly turned out

 

Here I am, with me boys, steadfastly remembering not to fight uphill

 

Our plan was to get cracking, just detaching small forces to watch the edges of the villages and sweeping everyone else forward and toward the bridge in the centre. The idea was that this would restrict the space in which the French could deploy their reserves, and in any case capture of the bridge was a potential game-winner. Here you see my advance getting a little bogged down, as my own regiment of infantry takes a battering from the French artillery

 

View from the French side. The battery in the lower left corner caused me a lot of discomfort throughout the day. I should mention that for years it has puzzled me that one's own army in a wargame always looks more intimidating from the front...

 

After a while, the Austrians are definitely cramping the space available for the French reinforcements. You may notice a number of guns facing the wrong way - this is obviously because they are now limbered up, trying to advance with the army. We were reminded that if you rush forward over flat terrain there is a tendency to mask your own artillery

 

The French are bringing more troops over - things getting more crowded all the time

 

At the very end of the day, I made a token attack on the brickyard of the village at my end of the table, and was reminded that stone walls are tough going. At this stage we ran out of time, and had to end our game to address the requirements of transport and dinner 

At the point at which we broke off, there was still some fighting to be done, and the Archduke continued later, solo, for about 4 hours; once again history required the Battle of Aspern-Essling to extend into a second day. He subsequently sent a photo of the Austrians in command of the crossing of the Danube, so Stryker and I had won, if only in absentia. It could be argued that we are usually at our best in absentia, anyway, but that's a discussion for another time.

My thanks go to my colleagues for their company and enthusiasm, and most especially to our hosts (Mr and Mrs Archduke) for their kind hospitality and a great deal of work - a splendid trip in every way, and very much appreciated.  

Over the Hills and Far Away

 Excellent day out yesterday; I drove up north to Stryker's estates, for one of his fabulous Napoleonic extravaganzas. Waterloo re-revisited, and very good too. I know Ian will make a wonderful job of putting together an appropriate report, so this is the most humble of glimpses of what went on - no thunder will be stolen. Here are a few of my own photos of the battle, just to give a taster.

It's been 12 weeks since my last involvement in any wargaming at all, and yesterday was really most enjoyable; Stryker's magnificent collection of Hinton Hunt figures, proper Old School rules and organisation and game management, faultless hospitality and a sunny day spent in the company of friends. Good chat, no issues with attitudes or alternative agendas. Restorative.

My thanks to Baron and Baroness Stryker for all their hard work and kindness, and to everyone involved. 

Hooptedoodle #470 - Saturday Night Out in Maryhill

 Very nice too - I hadn't suddenly come up with a death wish, I went to a gig in Glasgow last night. I was at the Queen's Cross Church to see a solo concert by Julian Lage, whom I like very much. Simplest possible format: acoustic guitar, mostly improvised, just played into a mic. Unbelievable - a privilege to be there.

I found this on Youtube, which is a clip from his show in Dublin the night before. It might not be your thing, of course - maybe you had to be there...

 

Hooptedoodle #468 - Another Nostalgia Trip - Football Safari

 Last week I visited Liverpool, with one of my sons. Although it is my home town, it had been six years since my previous trip there.

 

Tourist-style photo (not mine)

We had a very loose agenda; my son was keen to have a look around the dock area, and visit the football grounds; there were a few personal memories I wished to see again, I hoped to meet up with my last surviving relative in the area, and also - following my recent wargame based on the ECW siege there - I was keen to have a walk around some of the relevant sites from the 17th Century.

Let's start off with something of a spoiler: the weather was dreadful - torrential rain with very few pauses. We had to modify our plans quite a bit; we enjoyed some excellent (but very wet) walks, had some terrific evening meals (including a jovial dinner with the aforementioned relative!) and quite a few beers [I had a couple of pints of an ale called Titanic, which, as you might expect, went down very well]. Some of the proposed walks were shelved because we didn't fancy another trek through the monsoon, so the ECW sites were left in peace until another occasion (though we did look around the area that used to be the Pool, the inlet which served as a port in 1644 - subsequently replaced by Hanover Street, Paradise Street, Whitechapel). Eventually we ended the trip and returned home earlier than planned, partly because I had run out of dry walking gear!

On our drive home, the rain stopped somewhere near Wigan (maybe 40 miles from Liverpool river front), and it was a lovely sunny day all the way back to Edinburgh. Yes, quite.

One other result of the weather was that I took hardly any photos. Never mind. Where necessary, I shall borrow someone else's.

On the first full day there, we initially abandoned a hefty hike up the hills to see the Liverpool and Everton football grounds, but then - mostly because we couldn't think of anything else to do on such a wet day, and because we knew we could always give up if things got too bad - we did it anyway. We walked from the Pier Head, downstream (North) into a disused area of the old docks, and had a look at where Everton FC are building their new stadium, at Bramley Moore Dock. It should be ready for the start of the 2025/26 season, so it is to be hoped they will still be in the Premier League when this happens. How the economics will stack up if the home games are in the next league down, against teams like Plymouth and Bristol City (no offence), and the TV companies are not interested, remains to be seen. On the other hand, the fans may come pouring in if they actually start winning some games. We wish them well.

 

Bramley Moore Stadium, nearing completion

This part of the walk took us past some historic Port of Liverpool landmarks such as the old Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, which I knew of but had never seen close-up before. The Tobacco Warehouse was (maybe still is?) the biggest brick-built warehouse in the world. The fact that it is still standing, despite the best efforts of time and the Luftwaffe, is entirely due to the fact that it was built to be fireproof - which means bricks, masonry, and vaulted ceilings supported on cast iron pillars, no timber - and when the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board specified "fireproof" they were not messing about. More recently, the continued survival of so many of these old buildings is because no-one fancied the expense of trying to demolish the beggars, and there is now a big demand for them to be converted into riverside apartments, at fancy prices. My dad would have been astounded. 

 

Stanley Tobacco Warehouse, built in 1900 and still unmovable - you can buy a posh flat here if you fancy one

After we had a look at the Bramley Moore development, we cut inland, up Boundary Street and the hills leading up to Everton. Not much tradition left here; Everton was once the site of some of the worst slums in Europe, and there is a lot of modern housing up there now - much of it very attractive.

We got to Anfield (Liverpool's stadium), dripped dry for a while, had some lunch, and on a whim, because we found there were spaces on the afternoon session, paid for the official tour, which was a significant first for me, and a marvellous experience - recommended, even if you are not an LFC fan.

 

Son No.2 on the Anfield tour, enjoying a short break from the downpour

Subsequently, we walked through Stanley Park (which is lovely - a big surprise) to Everton's current ground at Goodison Park, which is looking very shabby these days - hardly surprising, since they will be moving out next Summer. As a schoolboy, I often went to Goodison (Everton were my number 2 team), and it was always an eye-opener. They were the big team locally (this is the 1960s), played in the old First Division (Liverpool were exiled to the Second for years), and benefited greatly from the ownership of the Moores family, who also owned Littlewoods Pools and the retail stores. Thus Everton had expensive players (many of them Scots, in fact), their ground was bigger, safer, better floodlit, more businesslike. I can also remember the ground being smartened up and made to line up with international regulations in preparation for the 1966 World Cup, and they were selected as one of the official venues for that competition. [In 1966 I saw Brazil vs Portugal (Brazil lost, and Pele was kicked off the park after about 20 minutes), and Brazil vs Hungary (Brazil lost again, and Pele was still injured)]

Time has not been kind to Goodison Park. The new stadium looks marvellous, so I hope Everton thrive there.

 

Interesting aerial shot of the old Goodison Park stadium, looking over towards the new site next to the river

We didn't attempt to enter Goodison - we were too tired and wet, so from this point we took the bus back into Liverpool city centre, and started to search out enough dry clothes to go out for dinner.

Hooptedoodle #465 - Much to See on the 253

 After some rather hectic weeks of trying to plug holes in dykes, I am pleased to be able to say that I have managed to get my mother safely relocated from a local residential care home (which our County Council has suddenly decided to close - they didn't ask my mother, by the way) to a very satisfactory nursing facility in Berwick-upon-Tweed. The move finally took place on 28th June, and it all seems to be working out rather well.

Berwick-upon-Tweed (which I shall subsequently refer to as just "Berwick") is the famous old frontier town, which at various times in the past has been in England and/or Scotland. It is about 45 minutes drive from where I live, so not an impossible journey by any means, but over the last few weeks I have made quite a few trips down there to get things sorted out. Today I had to make another visit to sign contracts and set up payment details and so, partly for a little variety and partly to take advantage of the free travel pass available for Very Old People like me, I travelled by bus.

 

My bus, in far more pleasant weather than I saw today

The bus journey takes almost exactly twice as long as driving there, but I decided to make it a day out, and took my camera along. Surely, I hear you thinking, the old fool isn't going to give us an illustrated narrative of his free day out on the bus? Well, yes - in fact that is the plan, though it may be even less promising than you fear - the weather was so awful that I didn't get to take any useful photos, so I shall use a few borrowed from elsewhere.

This now stops being a tale about me and my bus pass, or even about my mum, and becomes a little potted history of part of the A1 - the Great North Road.

The A1 is the official main route which connects Edinburgh and London, the capital cities of Scotland and England. The London Road from Edinburgh has evolved almost beyond recognition over the years, as you would expect. Back in the days of stagecoaches, roads connected villages to local market towns, some of which were large enough to offer stabling services for horses and hospitality, and the run to London consisted of an extended join-the-dots puzzle.

As time passed, many of the towns were bypassed, new expressways were built across-country to get traffic away from town centres and speed things up, and a lot of places were left high and dry. It surprises even me, but I am old enough to recall when the A1 used to include the main streets of a few villages which are well off the beaten track now.

I have always been interested in this stuff; in a village about 6 miles from where I live, there is a fine old stone bridge - single track - which was a toll bridge on the London Road into the age of the motor vehicle. It was bypassed in 1927 by the new link road which later became the A1, and that new road was itself bypassed when a brand-new, motorway-standard A1 section was opened in about 2002. This is all progress in all sorts of ways, and the little stone bridge is now just an old curiosity in a quiet backwater town.

 

I boarded the bus at East Linton, which is about half-way between Haddington and Dunbar

My trip was on the No. 253 bus, run by Borders Buses, which travels from Edinburgh to Berwick, and it goes all over the place (which is really the whole point, both for my trip and for the existence of the bus route in the first instance). The reason it takes twice as long as a trip by car is not because the buses are very slow, it is because the service supports some isolated communities in rural Eastern Scotland which otherwise might struggle to survive at all. This is an oft-forgotten aspect of public transport. I just about remember the Doctor Beeching years, when railways which did not make a profit were culled wholesale, and stations were closed in their hundreds, which was hard luck for those people who were stupid enough to live in the wrong parts of the country. Mrs Thatcher's later privatisation of local transport services complicated things further (as countless visitors to rural bits of the UK will testify).

 So today's run to Berwick included many loops off the A1, to visit (as far as I can remember) East Linton, Dunbar,  Innerwick, Thurston, Crowhill, Oldhamstocks, Cockburnspath, Grantshouse, Reston, Ayton, Eyemouth and Burnmouth. I saw a few places I have never seen before, and some I haven't seen for a long while. Some of them used to be on the A1 in living memory (well, mine, anyway), some are just outliers. They are not all trivial; the river crossing at East Linton was of military importance right back to ancient times; the castle at Innerwick was one of the lairs from which the Moss Troopers tormented the English army after the Battle of Dunbar; Dunbar itself and Eyemouth were important fishing ports until comparatively recent times. 

I emphasise that these are not my pictures, just things I borrowed from the Internet to add some body to my little story.

 

The 253 well off the beaten track, in Eyemouth town centre

 

 

Ayton High Street, a very long time ago

 

 

Burnmouth Harbour

 

 

The Mercat Cross at Cockburnspath, founded by James IV

 

 

Dunbar High Street

 

 

The old bridge over the (Scottish) Tyne at East Linton, once part of the London Road, with the old Toll House on the right

 

 

What remains of Innerwick Castle

 

 

Nearly 60 years after Dr Beeching closed the last one, they have a new railway station at Reston. Here you see a typical resident waiting to get on board [this last bit is a joke, by the way]

 

 

Reston - has both a railway station and a post box...