Tuesday 18 May 2021

It's been a while

Warning! No wargaming material. The following post fits more into the field of "reflection" or "therapy".

This has been the longest layoff in posts for quite some time. A lot has happened over the last three weeks. None of it wargaming related, bar finishing reading a book*. None of it serious either. I had the mother of all hay fever spells (the bathroom cabinet looks like a pharmacist's shelf), and after a gathering with two pals in a pub beer garden, I developed a cold. In the middle of all this I brought into our domestic "bubble" one of said pals** who was between accommodations, thus raising the number of exiled Grimsby Town supporters, that I know of, in this postcode to 3. I'm not counting my daughters as they are, at best, "part-timers". This temporary addition to the household didn't directly impact on my wargaming space, but it did create additional distraction.

Exercise has been a stop-start process because of said ailments. I start to get up to speed with my swimming then have a layoff for a few days, and start all over again. The odd walk, but nothing more than a few miles. It's been a few weeks since I've been on my bike. I was just getting clear of the cold yesterday when I got a message from the NHS to say I could bring forward my 2nd vaccination appointment from June, so I rescheduled for this morning and have been feeling a bit groggy and have 'fluey' arms, and ankles.  I've heard second time round, symptoms can be worse. I was pretty lucky last time (or unlucky if it means I didn't have the hoped for immune response).

* The book was Bair Irincheev's Vyborg 1944: The Last Soviet-Finnish Campaign on the Eastern Front. This was one of the better Helion books that I have read lately. Irincheev seems to have researched the book well from both sides. There is plenty of information in there for the wargamer. Orbats, casualties, detailed descriptions of the initial planned offensive. A lots of inspiring accounts. A bonus is an appendix showing the clauses in the peace proposals tabled by the Soviets in Spring 1944, and the clauses eventually agreed upon in September. The main downside was as I mentioned before, the maps. Unlike the books on the Saxon army of the 18th century, this one has been translated well by someone who clearly understands Russian and English. However, at times I'm not sure the translator has got a handle on military terminology. Regiments, brigades, and divisions seem to be a bit confused occasionally. One other quibble is over the spelling of Finnish place names and surnames***. I've struggled for years to get my tongue round these, but having done so, I'm buggered is I can cope with some of the renditions in this book. I suspect this is because the names have first been written into Cyrillic script, and then translated into English. Some letters and sounds do not have exact correspondence between the different scripts and then you throw in a different orthography and you have a recipe for confusion. It took me a while to work out that often words which have the sound "ä" in Finnish are rendered as "ya" in this book - nothing like the sound it's meant to be, and actually impossible in Finnish because of the "rule of vowel harmony". An example would be "myaki" which from context I realised was mäki" (hill). Sometimes a Y was used where the original Finnish word used a J, but that makes sense because the English Y makes the same sound - "Yoki" for "Joki" (river). These are minor quibbles. For the avoidance of doubt, I would recommend this book if you have an interest in this theatre of the war.

** all fellow oldies, and all "exiled Mariners". I do have some friends who are not Grimsby Town fans. I think.

*** One of the names rendered correctly, was that of my wife's paternal family name. I don't know if the person referenced was related, but I will attempt to find out before it is too late. 

The new command bunker for Schloß Nundanket got ordered about a month ago, and delivery is scheduled for late August (subject to the shenanigans at the border). When erected (don't) it should provide me with an internal floor space of 5m by 4m, excluding the bike room. So plenty of room for a good sized table. Thoughts are turning to a stowable format, with a permanent desk forming one 1/3 or a 1/4 at one end and maybe 2 or 3 foldable tables allowing the size to be extended or reduced as gaming requires. This will require a lot more thought, not least because the solution must be approved by the Chief Designer.

In other news, the long anticipated relegation back to 'the National League' of Grimsby Town occurred on 27 April, coincidentally the date of my last post. No, I haven't been in mourning. I've been too angry for that. The club has been badly run for two decades now, under the control of the same man. You could write a small book about the shoddy way things have been done over the years, and more stuff started to seep out when it became clear that said man's regime was ending. It really does need documenting in one place as our children and grandchildren won't believe it when we bore them with the tales in the future. I know a chap (a fellow Mariner) who can write, and I would love to see him do this.  If you're looking for a story that epitomises Tory austerity, followed by questionable Tory use of office, this is it on a small scale. The bloke concerned was until recently the councillor in charge of regeneration up there. Suffice to say he made the Rotten Boroughs column in Private Eye a few months back.

If you're still reading, you as an astute reader will have picked up on the phrase "said man's regime was ending".  Indeed, just over a week later a long-running takeover attempt was concluded. The new owners (both local lads made good) appear to be the acceptable face of capitalism. They certainly seem to be aware that ethics isn't a county near Thuffolk. And crucially, both appear to be competent in the ways of 21st century business. Hopefully, the Micawberish-Gradgrindian days are behind us. All of this matters to me, and thousands of others with a similar birth affliction, because it concerns a 143 year old institution embedded in a community. Indeed it is a community. Sure there are bigger problems in the world, but this one is much easier to solve, and it is part of what makes it all worthwhile.

Thoughts will turn back to my ECW campaign plans in the next post. It'll be a welcome distraction from everything else.


Well done if you got this far! As a reward here is a shot of some little figures that I spotted in a wooden fence at the London Wetlands Centre on Saturday.



21 comments:

  1. Exciting times in anticipation of your game room. You will love having the devoted space. Bike room? What are you setting up?

    Jab #2 gave both my wife and I 24 hour flu. Hope you fare better.

    Your ECW campaign has me thinking of one-off ECW battles. If I can get my set up in place, I may tempt fate by hosting my first remote game. Still working on logistics and infrastructure.

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    1. That’s something to think about for the command post. I’m planning to have cat 6 cabling (or whatever number we’re on now) and will think about cameras. I’ve relied on my phone hand held before and I don’t think that is satisfactory.

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    2. PS bike room will be 1.5m wide by 4m. Purely for storage. A shed by any other name. Within the envelope of the building but with its own entrance and partitioned off from the main room.

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  2. Forthcoming command post sounds full of potential, I await news and further developments...
    Next time you are at the Wetlands centre why not leave a figure yourself, add to collection...

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    1. That’s an idea, though I can’t see myself returning there soon. It wasn’t quite the wild space I was expecting. But you’ve given me an idea.

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  3. Sorry to hear you've been hit with hayfever of late. A week or so ago my wife was suffering a lot, but fortunately not the runny eyes bit. Since being on asthma inhalers I don't suffer really with hayfever, but I was a tad wheezy at the same time was wife.

    I'm envious of your wargames shed of dread as having finished a recent game where I was 'allowed' to leave the table set up for about a week, the difference in the gaming experience was marked. Maybe if and when the kids/young adults fly the nest, I'll be able to convert one of the bedrooms. Until then temporary measures will continue.

    On a Finnish related notes, I saw on Amazon Prime that they have some Finnish WWII war movies and immediately thought that you might be interested, assuming you haven't seen them already! Can't remember what they're called, but worth checking out under the 'War' section.

    I think the figures in the last photo are by an artist who paints them up and leaves them all over the place. Some of them are really very clever. Sadly I can't remember the artists name.

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    1. Thanks Steve.

      I’ve probably seen most of them. Tali-Ihantala, Talvisota, Tuntematon Sotilas (Unknown Soldier) and another one who’s name escapes me. Unknown Soldier is a must (at least the 2017 version, I haven’t seen the earlier two).

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  4. Hello there nundanket,

    We are wargamers/military historians/modellers/collectors (delete as applicable) but are also people that have lives away from the tabletop and these impact on our hobby pursuits - sometimes more, sometimes less. Feeling wretched due to hay fever/cold of whatever certainly dampened one’s martial ardour but you have certainly maintained your sense of humour!

    The new war room at Schloss Nundanket sounds really good and in my experience nothing inspires like inspiration so you will be back firing on all cylinders before you know it.

    Good news re Grimsby Town - a new broom will galvanise everyone so next year should be better.

    All the best old chap,

    DC

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    1. Cheers David. There was a big upswing in positivity amongst the faithful when the takeover happened. And the new guys hit the ground running with 3 initiatives starting in the first couple of days.

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  5. The substitution of я (which is a funny old vowel in Russian) also doesn't always translate to the sound "ya" in English.

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    1. That probably adds to the problem of transliteration. I think I’ll have a go with Google translate Finnish-Russian-English to see what it comes up with.

      How would you spell Järvi in Russian letters? (The “är” sound is a bit like “ar” in a Grimsby accent. 😁 “Ar” would be a posh “ar” ).

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    2. They'd probably go for a я again there:
      Ярви. Bit sharper than the Finnish - no hang on the Ar as it's part of the Ya.


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    3. It’s funny. I tried Google Translate with ‘mäki’ and it Used an O. холм. Back into English and it gave ’hill’. Then I tried Puckinmäki (a suburb of Helsinki, meaning goat’s hill) and it gave Пукинмяки. Translated into English it just gave Puckinmäki. Maybe Google knows it’s a proper noun.

      Järvi came out as озеро. Tricky!

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  6. You just need some curry sauce mate, that’ll cheer you right up! You’ve some strange folk around your neck of the woods with the whole Spandau Ballet and gypsy woman dolls thing. Witchcraft? Couldn’t see any pins stuck in ‘em...which I s’pose is a blessing!

    Ps I’m too jealous of the whole custom war game room to even mention it. Pah.

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    1. Talk about culture wars. Curry sauce! Tut.

      By the way, I’d have said Human League. He’s definitely got a Phil Okey haircut.

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    2. Goddamit you’re right! Phil Oakey - which means the bint with him must be the black haired one of his backing singers. The whole things just got a lot more strange. If I were American I’d be muttering “we’re through the looking glass here people” or some such.

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    3. Where else can you get such a rich cultural mix: cuisine, pop history, football, history, language, mysticism.

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  7. I like a post with a happy ending, at least as far as Grimsby Town is concerned! I hope you feel better soon!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers Iain. As the day wore on the ‘flu’ symptoms went so fingers crossed.

      As for Town, it looks like we’ve joined the list of clubs’ fans who have seen that Holloway is just a bag of wind, and possibly worse. He certainly left last December with suspicions about his motives.

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  8. Yes, I made it all the way to the end of your post - an interesting mix of non wargaming topics it was too, just as advertised!

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