A Whale Of A Tale

When I started the blog, the intent was to average one post a week. As I have heard numerous friends with hobby blogs tell me, starting is easy, staying started is a little more difficult... 

My civvy job has been time consuming and this was added to by a four-day drill with my Brigade last weekend. Between normal staff officer things, the exercise we are using for staff training, and random events like a bear popping up in the barracks dumpster and a kamikaze fawn charging us during our morning run, it wasn't boring, just busy. 

But that's not the tale in the title that I speak of. 

In August I will finally (fingers crossed) begin my MS degree through SUNY Maritime College. The degree is in Naval and Maritime Studies and is very focused on history, literature, etc. 

My faculty advisor provided me a reading list and I purchased several books, including the one below. 

Dolin's book is about the overall history of whaling in America. And he states up front, there is no debate on the moral or ethical nature of whaling. It's just the facts, ma'am. The whaling industry is not something I've ever read about before, despite growing up in that area, and I am developing a whole new appreciation for how it impacted both the economic direction and social development of the English colonies in North America. 

The author does a wonderful job. His style is engaging and he doesn't overburden the reader with details or assumptions. The chapter he devotes to the sperm whale is fascinating. I did not realize how very little we know about whales in general and the sperm whale in particular. 

Concurrently, my good friend Mark N. had recently reported on a whaling game based on Moby-Dick at the HUZZAH! convention in Maine. You can read about it here:

My Brave Fusiliers!: Hunting Moby Dick or The Revenge of the Whale

I remember the original games done at Historicon years ago and I thought they were very clever, though I never did get to play in one. 

One thing I found interesting in Dolin's book, is that Moby-Dick was taken from an actual giant bull sperm whale from the Pacific, known as Mocha Dick. Named for the island where he was found, Mocha Dick was every bit the legend in real life that Moby-Dick was in fiction. 

As gamers, we sometimes may choose a period or scenario which may seem a bit on the edge or cause a raised eyebrow or two. But reading Leviathan, I think I now give the whale even odds when it comes to fighting the hairless monkeys in their little wooden boats. 

Anyway, more about gaming anon. I've got another test drive of one of my Historicon games tonight up in the wilds of Luzerne County. 

Hunting The Whale will have to wait for another time...

OttoCon AAR

 This past weekend, I trekked out to Carlisle, PA to the Comfort Inn on Hanover Street for the Society of Daisy's annual gathering, known as OttoCon. 

Founded as The Weekend, by Daisy founder, Otto Schmidt, after his passing it was named in his honour. 

All games, really, are welcome, be they miniature wargames or boardgames. But the focus is always to put on something different, unusual, and especially, fun. 

Tracy Johnson, our current Grand Pooh-Bah, is pretty much the entire staff, although I traditionally assist him (I'm the Volunteer Staff).  For 25 bucks for the weekend or 15 for the day, you get to play in anything and everything available. 

Sadly, circumstances beyond control (aka "Life") managed to keep some Daisys away and cause other to have to leave earlier than expected. Attendance was a couple of dozen, this year. Down from our peak of 90 +/- pre-COVID. 

But the stalwarts who came brought some excellent games.... 

Eric Ackermann put on an excellent Hordes of The Things (HoTT) game set in Barsoom on Mars, between two Martian forces. This was my first time playing HoTT and I loved it. He used 60mm-ish Dollar Store figures converted and homemade Airboats. 

This was a fun and creative game. Just as it should be for OttoCon. 

There were some other interesting games, some homemade, some using commercially available rules. 

Robert Ricigliano put on a Mid War WW2 meeting engagement in Russia with his homemade rules. I did not happen to get to play in this particular game, but the terrain looked nice and the miniatures were excellent. 

Keith Wyttenbach put on a very nice WW2 British Paras versus Germans in Arnhem game with A Fistful of Lead. The figures were absolutely stunning. Another game that I was not able to play in. 

My own game, The Battle of El Guettar, a la the 1970 movie "Patton". This was a test drive for Historicon and the feedback the players provided has been very helpful and much appreciated. 

The game is about 1/48th scale for the tanks and 1/32nd scale for the infantry. I used the Too Fat Lardies rules, "What A Tanker", which is a fast fun set. 

Another fun set of rules, and something I thought I'd never say about an Age of Sail set of rules, was Form On The Admiral's Wake. This was a 1/1200th scale game run by Keith. I led the van of the Royal Navy against the dastardly French and we gave them a solid thrashing. It was a very enjoyable game. 

My dashing ships beating the Frogs soundly! Soundly, I say! 

All in all, OttoCon was a very good, if sparsely attended, show. I brought a 28mm King Philip's War game that never left the box due to my own fatigue and a lack of players. Hopefully, next year the Steering Committee and Planning Staff will be able to reach more folks and we'll get a better turnout. 

Still, a couple of days in Carlisle playing games is not a bad way to spend the weekend. 

To Da Shores of Triple-Lee...

 Saturday night I played in a game pitting the might of the US Navy and US Marines against the unwashed hordes of a maritime commercial enterprise based in a Mediterranean clime. 

No less a personage than John the OFM played the part of Major Smedley O'Bannon Carroll, of the USMC Horse Marines, leading The Sultan to safety, away from the clutches of his rivals, El Kaboom (Jim B.), El Kabang (Mark C.) and El Kabong (Mike S, our host...). And if we happened to sink any of their ships that would be lovely... 

Major Carroll was ably supported by the NEPA Naval Squadron, consisting of the USS Berwick, USS Pittston, and the USS Kunkle. 

Above: The USS Kunkle, pride of the NEPA Squadron, riding at anchor, ready to "bash the Bashaw".

The rules were devised by Darrell, our GM, and the game was a Combined Operation, which really means that our die rolls sucked on ice, both on land and sea. 

In fact, the Pirates couldn't roll worth a damn, either, Allah be praised! 

El Kabong and El Kabang looking dejectedly down at their commands, in preparation for how sucktastical their dice rolling would be.

The mighty USS Kunkle fending off all comers! Which in reality meant that despite seven attempts to ram me, Mike couldn't do anything but scrape the barnacles off my stern. Neither of us could cause any damage with our cannon or muskets. 

Darrell, our GM, trying to comprehend how we could defy all laws of mathematical probability and screw up his perfectly crafted and well thought out scenario. I mean, there MAY have been a disturbance in the Farce, but we really set a new club low for wiffy dice. 

Somehow, Major Carroll and his Horse Marines managed to get The Sultan onboard one of the two locally hired D'hows. If they had performed any worse in their gunnery, they could have been called "D'ohs!", that's how poorly they rolled. 

The game also featured the improbably scenario of dismounted Horse Marines, in a whaleboat, trying to board one of Mark's feluccas to kill bad guys. As Darrell didn't have any dismounts, the stands of mounted Marines were left on the boat, and....yeah. 

Out of an abundance of caution for readers' sensibilities, I chose not to take electronic lithographs of said scene. Enough to say that we had a good chuckle and there were a number of inappropriate jokes made all around. 

A view of the action, with James, commanding the USS Pittston, in the corner. In the foreground, the USS Berwick cleverly uses the tactic known as "hiding behind your shipmate", as she skates behind the brave little USS Kunkle. 

Jim B and John the OFM staring at the disaster that unfolded on the table. John, in his guise of Major Carroll, managed to kill off Jim (as El Kaboom), when Jim tried a dashing and daring cavalry charge against a line of really cheesed off US Marines in line with supporting artillery. I mean, after all, what could go wrong, given how badly we rolled all evening....except this one time John rolled well....

As the various vessels sailed and rowed their way into a Schuylkill Expressway like traffic jam, The Sultan was aboard and trying to get away. Mark's double parked felucca prevented that, but then again, nobody could fire a shot that hit anything...somewhere there are a bunch of actuaries that are preparing to self-immolate over the Laws of Probability that were violated last night. 

In the end, Darrell called it, and in the post-game recriminations phase universally condemned the dice as the reason for failure. 

It was a great time, with good friends. I predict that the handling of the USS Kunkle shall be studied as an example of Littoral Combat Operations for future generations of Naval Officers. Praised be to him that saved The Sultan!