Something to do today

OK, sometimes keeping to a hospital or doctor theme is tenuous...

Surgeon fired off a few more missiles. A sudden shock wave from a near miss. The battle wasn't going well.

Sudden flash - another one gone. That's a light cruiser ahead. Not one of ours and BatCom not coming up with an id. Missiles away, easily intercepted. Annoying.

Surgeon kept thinking to himself 'Sure there's something I'm supposed to do today.' No, can't think. Concentrate on the fight.

That cruiser is finding it too easy to stop everything. Our losses are too high, not doing anything against his lot. Cruiser getting closer - starting to shoot back. Near miss. Give it a full spread. Closer, missiles still deflected or shot down.

Surgeon floored it, accelerating towards the enemy. Only one thing left to take this guy out.

He finally realised what he had to do today.

Die.

Ending Issos

This lot are where not-Issos had reached before I was sent to hospital. Because of the long delays before I'll be able to do anything else with it I may as well end it - pretty much a case of Cunaxa rather than Issos, the phalanx is going to end up completely isolated then have to get home - except Persia will have lots of Greek mercenaries around, so may find it harder.

The Macedonian right flank is about to be overwhelmed.

The Macedonian left isn't looking happy.

Continuation of the Macedonian right being outflanked

And I just don't understand how the Macedonian left has survived this far.

At the end of the day the Macedonian phalanx would have a chance of breaking the Greek mercenaries before they are swamped by cavalry in the rear - but then what?

The bell

Not sure whether to post all these individually as I write them or save them for one bigger posting every day or two. Decided to just keep this system up. There's a Doctor's meeting on Monday when they'll decide what to do with me, possibly get round to doing cutting-into-me things like biopsies - could be done on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday then home? Or is that wishful thinking.  So any readers may only have  five or six days of these interludes to suffer before I get back to normal. Curse, by then probably no one reading them...


'Bell's going in Room 9'

'OK, I've got it.Thought Room 9 was empty'

It was. It was also empty when the bell went the next day,and the next. Same time.

I thought it might be an idea to see what was happening... Next night I sat in the chair next to the bed. I must have dozed off and the bell woke me with a jolt.

I looked up at the bed... this time it was occupied by a gaunt, unconscious man wearing a torn lab coat. He wasn't hurt and soon recovered when I woke him - though his memory was completely gone.

Oh, there was one other thing on the bed. A typewritten  sheet of A4. The words said 'Sorry -got the date wrong.'

After that, the bell stayed quiet.

Five Hounds

One from the Newhaven universe... and easily  sorted with pictures (eventually) as I made a point of using things I've got... but feel the text needs to be longer to build up the tension more. It'll be better with pictures.
 

Shift over, Doctor John closed the iron  hospital gates behind him and opened the door of his red roadster, arm brushing the top of the black canvas roof. In the distance he heard the sound of a hound baying. It seemed to be coming from Shelbury Hill, a tree-covered mound off the road named after Wallace Shelbury, former owner of Shelbury Hall. That was a hundred years past, Shelbury Hall now being Shelbury Memorial Hospital, Doctor John's place of employment.

As he drove past the hill five large wolf-like shapes suddenly dashed out of the woods, crossing the road in front of him; a pack of what appeared to be large  hounds. One stopped, turning towards him and glaring with shining phosphorescent  eyes; he slammed the brakes on but it was too late. A loud shriek of pain and the animal disappeared under the roadster's wheels. Straight away the pack turned towards him and rushed in a howling frenzy towards the car. One jumped up and slashed at the roadster, claws raking and tearing at the canvas of his roof.

Panicked, Doctor John gunned his engine and fled the scene,  surviving hounds left in the dim moonlight as they gathered around their fallen companion.

Doctor John reached the junction and turned left along the river road towards town. As he drove along his lights picked up a lone figure walking along the road. He slowed so he could warn the pedestrian about the vicious  pack ahead.

Winding his window down he was about to speak when the remaining hounds burst out of the woods. The man turned to run; two of the beasts followed as the other two jumped up at the roadster, tearing at the roof. The man fell and, as John watched, the pack started tearing him apart.

There was nothing John could do but try to escape. As he drove off and crossed the bridge he could just see the hounds in the dim moonlight, apparently happy with their fallen victim.

He reached home and parked, looking at the ravished roof of his vehicle. Exhausted, he let himself in and collapsed on the couch. Without a phone he decided to leave things until morning...


And woke to find his car intact. No sign of rips and scratches...

.... a dream or nightmare? It had been so... real.

Next morning he drove to work past the scene.A police car and the coroners wagon were there, packing away an unidentified something.

Shuddering, he knew everything was real, Strangely confirmed by an item in the evening paper.

But the paper didn't concentrate on the victim. It seemed more interested in another case, exactly a hundred years before. The previous owner of the Hall, Wallace Shelbury, had been on that road. His coachman has run over a large hound and the coach attacked by the rest of the pack. As they ripped into the fabric of the coach, one managing to clamber in,  Shelbury dashed out to escape from it as the coachman kept going. The pack had then ignored the fleeing coach and concentrated their attention on Shelbury... who fell at the exact spot where the pedestrian had been found.

AntiBiotics

The human prisoner looked at the Shurm medic and inched back in his cell. The Shurm had what was an obvious hypodermic syringe of human design. It wasn't empty.

'What's that?' the human asked.

'AntiBiotic. Painless. We aren't barbarians like the Oookli.'

The human gradually relaxed a bit and let the medic inject him. Death followed quickly and painlessly.

Humans were funny. It was almost as if they thought that AntiBiotic had a different meaning for them. Yet surely it was plain - Anti as in against and Biotic as in biologicals...

Tooth Fairy the game

Totally untested and at time of writing these words it only exists in my head. A game for 2 or more players...

The premise is that you are a trainee tooth fairy on your first mission. Your objective is to get as many teeth as possible and, should you accidentally remove a mouthful when that individual is still using them - well, you then have to avoid your supervisor finding out.

Each trainee has a nominal street as their territory.

Move to the first house (bottom left). All  players dice at the same time. 1 or 2 equals nothing, 3 or 4 1 tooth collected, 5 or 6 2 teeth. You dice again and if you roll a 1or 2 you've 'got' someone by accident. You multiply your  score at that house with 1D6. Enter your score in the square representing the house. If you had accidentally removed the teeth from someone's mouth mark an 'x' next to the square. Note if didn't get any teeth you don't roll for an accident. Move on to the next house unless you decide you have collected enough teeth and go back to base.

Why would you not want to complete all 12 houses? Keep reading.

You take your haul back to base. But your boss is a suspicious type. Your figures look high... Roll a die for every 'accident'. 3 or above you got away with it.

A 2 and you have your highest-scoring accident confiscated - it's cumulative, 2 2s and you lose your top 2 accidents.

Roll a 1 on any of your dice and you not only lose all your teeth but you are sacked and kicked out of Fairy Land to spend the rest of your life trying to get jobs as a cleaner in a Dentist's.

The winner, of course, is the one who is left with the most teeth. The stop at any time you want is a measure of how much of a risk taker you are...

I should point out (before anyone complains) that the 1 street and the teeth collected represent the real thing. I don't really believe, for example, that the maximum number of teeth a person has is 12!

The tooth fairy - a tale to relieve my boredom.

Sometimes when you've got nothing else to do it's good to just write. And I've got nothing else to do.

Those people who believe in the tooth fairy mostly think there's just one. Not so. It's a franchise - one boss but hundreds of Senior Tooth Fairies, Junior Tooth Fairies and Trainee Tooth Fairies. Their job is simple. A tooth falls out, you leave it under the pillow, the tooth fairy removes the tooth and leaves a coin in payment.

Elizabeth was a very new trainee. Feeling very happy with herself she showed her night's haul to the boss.  The boss looked at the haul. Hundreds of teeth.

Going to be trouble, time for some retraining he thought...

'Now, Elizabeth, I appreciate your enthusiasm but...

Well, it's like this. Not all teeth under pillows are put out for us. You see, there are some people who, well, sleep with their heads under the pillow.

So, in future could you just take the teeth that are no longer attached to someones jaw?'


I'm working on a simple game, perhaps tomorrow?

Life in Hospital - an update

Firstly, thanks for the kind wishes.

So, water retention slowly going away. They found a 'large cyst' in one of my kidneys, seems that this is nothing to do with my problem... so was expecting 2 specialists today, one for each issue. They didn't show. I'm expecting to be off work for at least 3 weeks though the protein loss may have to be checked for the next 18 months. Course of steroids expected for the protein loss that causes the water retention, no idea about the cyst.

Side effects of the water retention drug (Furasamol or something... I usually call it Fuzzy Bear) include confusion and memory loss - which gives me an excuse for rambling on a bit.

Hospital is... boring. Internet access is ssslllooowww... as in lots of things won't load. I've got a laptop with me but if I had the last lot of battle photos (still in camera) it would be unable to handle putting them on the blog.

Sleep limited. Up to six of us per cubicle, some are noisy at night. Can be 3am before get to sleep. Then at 6 they wake us up for a drugs round and tests. Which would be OKish if breakfast wasn't until 8. Most of the day spent semi conscious. Have nearly  finished 'The complete fiction of H.P.Lovecraft' though. Can't do  Sudoku at the moment - tried, brain won't let me. When I told the consultant he said something along the lines of 'Of course not' in a very matter of fact tone.

Anyway, Internet access allowing I'll do further updates as I can... if I'm going to be bored, don't see why everyone else can't share!

Normal service will resume...

As soon as possible.

Mainly because I seem to be spending a few days in hospital.

A few weeks ago my ankles started swelling. Couple of visits to doctor, after last one 'Go home and get things together then go to A&E, here's a letter and I'll phone on ahead.'

Hospital can't find cause yet other than it's kidney related so I'm in for a barrage of tests over thext few days - losing blood protein and now retaining some 20lbs of liquid!

So, write ups will be delayed for a while!

As I said... ALMOST...

It's one thing to sort-of do a refight, but that isn't always as satisfying as... well, I'm a wargamer, what if...

In this case, got up to the point of the last post and started looking at things from a wargamers viewpoint.

Now, one thing to remember. I tend to type these posts in a kind of 'real time'. The things I've typed so far is where I'm at after my last post. Everything that happens next in the post... hasn't been done yet.

So, now done, let battle recommence.

The Persian plan was to hit the Macedonians as they crossed the river. However, the 'real' Issos involved the Greeks on the hill just sitting there... seemed to me a lot better to pin the Macedonians in the centre with the Greeks and move the cavalry to the flanks...

So here we have the Greeks coming off their hill while the scythed chariots hit the javelins as they emerge from the river.

Masses of Persian cavalry heading for the Macedonian left flank.

While other Persian light cavalry hit Alexander and his Companions on the Persian left.

As pretty much expected - javelins destroyed, but next move chariots will hit the phalanx.

As not expected... sometimes, the dice just aren't with you...

Technically the Companions were destroyed but routing takes a better photo.

At this point I don't think there's much hope for the Macedonians so I ended today's post here - but will do and record the rest of the battle anyway.  Perhaps Macedonians could have done with a unit of light cavalry here as well, but some things are just fate.

Almost but not quite Issos...

Having spent a lot of time on  Minifigs recently I thought it was about time to do something with Garrison.

I decided to go with an Alexandrian versus Persian battle and Issos seemed a good starting point.

Initial setup. General scenario, Alexander and a few friends forcing a river crossing against a force of Persian cavalry and Greek mercenaries.

The Persians. At Issos, the Persian army was 50:50 Persian cavalry and Greek mercenaries. However, the Greeks took no part in the battle until after the Persians were beaten and simply sat on a hill. Further, I didn't have a bigger hill. So seemed reasonable to just use enough Greeks to fill the hill. Those windows at the back make photography awkward.

Macedonian right flank - Companions, Hypaspists and start of the phalanx covered by a few light archers.

The Macedonian centre. 3 48 strong phalanx units covered by some light javelins.

Macedonian left - Greek cavalry covered by some slingers.

First move, Macedonians start advancing to the river and expanding their frontage. Persians start moving to cover the river but making sure to hold back the cavalry behind the scythed chariots.

Macedonian cavalry move a bit to the right as they approach the river while the archers start to cover the gap. If the Persian cavalry look a bit washed out... those windows behind them make photography a bit awkward...

View from behind the Macedonian army as the Companions reach the river.

View at the end of the first move just before the Companions have reached the river. The Macedonian left is in danger of being a bit outflanked. If the river at the bottom of the picture looks strange, could be because I ran out of narrower sections.

Persians and Dahae

Originally I was going to do these as two posts but they're all horse horse archers that fought for the Persians so...

Originally Assyrians, these make excellent Persians - S Range Assyrians on early PB horses. I can't do scale armour as well as I used to though.

One reason I went for Persians is that the helmet design is the same as an example dug up on the battlefied of Marathon.

All in all, really would like more of these conversions.

Another one of the orphan units, these early PB Dahae come from a variety of sources  though most were painted by me.

The rather complicated patterns on some of these show I painted them in the late 90s.

Or at least I painted most of them then... and finished them off a couple of days ago.

'S' Range Persian horse archer.

Another 'orphan' unit. I've got loads of the Egyptian and Assyrian S Range horse archers but only 8 Persians. 12 being my standard Persian unit (unlike 6 for Egyptian scouts) they've been lying around for a while. Decided to paint 6 rather than all 8 as I had 6 'spare' S Range horses lying around. I've got a load of Assyrians waiting to be painted - might paint some of them up as Persian cavalry rather than as Assyrian light horse, they make a pretty fair representation of early Persian cavalry.

Persians in the Delta... thought I might as well add a backdrop of palm trees.

Not based yet, they'll be on open order bases as light cavalry.

I've used one of my 3 standard patterns for the tunic - lots of dots - with a flower motif on the Gorytus.

More Egyptians?

Finally got the rest of the Egyptians finished - some scouts and a couple of infantry units. And that is mostly it...

Archers, spears and scouts...

Slight mix of figures for the spear unit

Considering the archers to be the elites I've given them bronze rather than crocodile armour.

The cavalry have been abstracted from Ptah - Garrison horses because at the time I painted them I didn't have any Minifigs.

And this lot of newly painted Nubians replace them in Ptah - complete with S Range horses!

The Pharaoh's Division is now on a par with all of the others - never intended it to be this way, it's just that I had to do something with all the odd figures lying around and the 4 Divisions of the Army were full!