Switzerland and the Rhine

I have never had any interest in taking a cruise. First, the Caribbean holds little interest for me. Second, the notion of sitting on a private beach in an all-inclusive resort while abject poverty stares at me through a chain link fence just doesn’t interest me. Some friends of ours took a Viking river cruise of the Danube a couple of years ago and came back with glowing reports. We decided to give a Viking river cruise a try by traveling from Basel to Amsterdam along the Rhine with stops every day for excursions and sight seeing.

The trip began with two days in Lucern after a flight into Zurich. The first day was raining and cold, but we had nice weather for the second day. While we waited for Greg and Nicolle to arrive, we got a quick bite to eat at the nearby train station, I worked out for an hour in the fitness center, and I talked Candy into experiencing the sauna. It was a bit of culture shock for Candy to be in a sauna with naked people.

Candy, Nicole, and Greg in the lobby of our hotel as we set out for dinner the first evening.

When Greg and Nicole arrived, we set out to find some traditional Swiss fondu at a restaurant, called Pfistern. Instead of fondu we had raclette. It was really good, but somewhat heavy with all that cheese. Lucern, like many European cities has a downtown area (the altstaedt) that is pedestrian only. We felt at ease walking around town, window shopping, and chatting.

The restaurant Pfistern where we had raclette.
The front of our hotel. I highly recommend Raddison Blu. I have stayed at several in different countries, and they are excellent. Plus they always have a very nice fitness center.

The next day we took a guided walking tour of Lucern led by an expatriate American from Ft. Lauderdale. The tour was interesting, and it gave us ideas where we wanted to go the next day to do some shopping.

The first of several views of Lucern.
The pink clock tower is on top of the rathaus (city hall).
Greg and Nicole in front of the Chapel Bridge. This wooden bridge is decorated with paintings dating back to the 14th century. Many were destroyed when the center of the bridge caught fire in the 90’s.
Candy with her trophy husband. We were all wearing “quiet boxes.” These allow the tour guide to talk to all of us without yelling or bothering others.
Another view of the area surrounding Lucern.
Another view of Lucern.
A final view of Lucern.

After the morning walking tour, we grabbed sandwiches from the Coop grocery store in the train station and hopped on the train to Interlocken, north of Lucern. Interlocken is a ski resort town. The Viking people recommended the trip as a way to see Swiss countryside. The views were very nice, but the glare off the train windows made photography a challenge.

A church in Interlocken.
A view out the train window. This was interesting as it showed the gradual snow covering.
A town out the window of the train.
Another view out the train window.
A building in Interlocken.

That night we walked to another restaurant that the Viking people recommended, called the Rebstock. It was more meat and potatoes than cheese, but still traditional Swiss food. It was quite good, and we enjoyed the walk to the restaurant and back.

Our final morning in Lucern we checked out of our hotel, handed over our luggage, and then walked round town, even experiencing (briefly) a farmer’s market in town. We did a little shopping, and we enjoyed lunch in a small restaurant along the water specializing in burgers and craft beers; although, none of us had burgers. What’s the point of visiting a foreign country and eating food you can get easily at home.

We met up with the Viking folks at 1500 and took a bus to Basel, where we boarded out boat for the rest of the trip. Once we were underway, we had an excellent dinner and sat around the lounge listening to an Eastern European piano player, Gigi, play old American tunes on the piano while we enjoyed some cocktails.

We all slept very well as our boat traveled northward on the Rhine, going through four sets of locks before docking at Breisach am Rhein for the remainder of the evening. There is almost no sensation of being on the boat as it travels. We slept very well as the effects of jet lag, early mornings, long days, and booze lulled us to sleep.

Stuff I Did This Weekend

This was an unusually hobby-filled weekend. Friday night was HAWKs club night. I hosted another play test of the Wars of Ozz rules for Old Glory on Saturday. On Sunday, I painted some figures that have been staring at me on the painting table for a while.

This is a shot of the game Friday night. Wars of Ozz will be a “big battle” game, with regiments of 20 figures plus a mounted leader. For these play tests we have been using ersatz figures, because the figures are not in production yet.

I have been working on a set of rules, called Wars of Ozz, for Old Glory to go along with a new line of figures. Both rules and figures should be in full production and for sale by March 2020. Friday night was the first test outside the small group that has been involved while the project was secret. Now that Russ has posted some news about the project on TMP, I can talk about it a little.

Another view of the table.

Saturday we held another play test of the rules with a smaller group. I am working on just a few things to get the Reaction Test chart correct. Then I have to work a little on the named generals and wizards. I am hoping to have it done by Christmas.

After we finished the Wars of Ozz game, we broke out gladiators for an hour or hacking and slashing.
The crowd cheers!
Greg’s gladiatrix bites the dust.
The second game pitted Greg and Chris against a rhino, hippo, and lion. The animals won.

On Sunday I had a chance to paint these Imperial Assault figures that have been sitting on my painting table, mocking me, for months.

The crew from the Phantom in Star Wars Rebels along with Asoka Tank.

Combat Patrol(TM) at Southern Front

Les ran a Combat Patrol(TM) game last weekend at the Southern Front convention.  The tables looks great.  Les said it was the first time he’d run the game at a convention, and that it went very well.  Many of the folks in the pictures have played in my Combat Patrol(TM) games in the past, so apparently they weren’t too traumatized.  🙂

Les gave me permission to post these pictures.

A productive weekend!

My forces try to hold off Chris while Greg takes his sweet time turning Chris’ flank.

My daughter and CINC Domicile (my wife) our away this weekend on a girl road trip, so I have had the house to myself.  I started with the HAWKs club night on Friday where Chris and I ran a Feudal Patrol(TM) game while Eric ran a play test of his Fall In Napoleonic game. The Feudal Patrol game went pretty well, but I’ll be making another couple of changes to the Action Deck cards and the unit record sheets as a result.

Then Saturday morning a couple of us continues with another play test of the rules I am developing for a miniatures company but cannot discuss.  We are using ersatz figures for these play tests to disguise the project for the time being.

Using ersatz figures has given me a chance to put some troops on the table that haven’t seen battle in a few years, including my Rooman warriors.  (There is some rumor that there may be more Roomans in production soon.)

The play test went well.  I think the basic mechanics are flowing well.  Now I have to bolt on some chrome to give it more period flavor.

Winston Churchill and his body guard.

I also had a chance on Sunday to do a little painting.  I purchased this iconic figure of Winston Churchill with tommy gun some months ago, and I finally got around to painting it after looking on the Internet to learn that the suit was pinstriped.

At the same time I ordered Churchill, I also ordered Hitler and his bodyguard.  Look for a Combat Patrol(TM) game that is The Eagle Has Landed and The Eagle Has Landed in the Other Direction soon.

Bad Squiddo slingers.

I also painted some peasant ladies with slings and stones that I will work into my Viking games — when I start to run Viking games.  Greg has volunteered to write the Viking supplement for Feudal Patrol(TM), so watch for those announcements.  (By they way, my intent is turn Feudal Patrol(TM) over to the publisher in December, with an eye toward Cold Wars and Salute release.)

Bad Squiddo peasant ladies with improvised weapons and a vignette they call “My Heroine.”

Ever since I saw these figures in an announcement on TMP, I knew they were calling to me.  While my paint job is not as good as the ones on the package I think they turned out respectably.  Watch for these in a Feudal Patrol game soon.  I have been running Sea Lion games with the Bad Squiddo British ladies with similarly improvised weapons and the Land Girls.  My plan is to represent the same town as a dark ages costal village and run similar scenarios with Viking Raids instead of German Fifth Columnists.    Hopefully I’ll be ready by Cold Wars, but I am short Vikings and longboats.

What’s on the painting table now?  Some Border Reivers that Zeb picked up for me at Salute this year and a US WWII .50 cal. machine-gun crew.  Then I think some Hydra Valkyrie riding some odd creatures.  I have painted everything I purchased at Historicon plus a bunch, so I am still trending in the right direction with my lead pile.

Sally Forth Jousting Barriers

I was gone most of the weekend, but my daughter helped finish these jousting barriers while I was gone.

I got a copy of the jousting rules used by Brian De Witt to run his jousting game in the HAWKs Battle in a Box contest.  I finished printing and cutting up the cards and lining out the board (not used in these pictures).  I plan to bring this game to Barrage in case we have an overflow of people.

Buck

Italian Renaissance Figures

This was a rare weekend at home in which I was able to play games AND paint figures.  Given the amount of travel I have had to do for work, it was fun to focus a fair amount of the weekend to my hobby.  I have had a pack of figures from Eureka that are Italian Renaissance duelists and assorted bystanders.  I like the figures, but frankly, the sheer riot of color for the Italian Renaissance had me continue to push this project deeper and deeper into the queue.  I didn’t want to start this project and then have it languish on the painting table for weeks or months.

The figures had enough relief on them that they were easy to paint.

These were fun to paint, because I was completely unconstrained on which colors I could use.

I will use these with Blood and Swash.  It will essentially be the same as my pirate tavern games, but with different figures.

ACP 164 Vehicles

I was involved with the Albedo Miniatures Kickstarter.  I adapted Combat Patrol for the Albedo universe.  I also bought into the Kickstarter to get some of the figures and vehicles.  The figures are really nice and will work by themselves or mixed in with other science fiction figures and games.  I am working short days this week, so yesterday afternoon I painted two vehicles and an aircraft that I had prepped and partially assembled two days ago.

An Albedo fire support vehicle and APC

The fires support vehicle comes with a more traditional gun, but somehow during prep, I accidentally threw out the barrel, and it was trash day, so by the time I realized it, my barrel was on the way to the landfill.  So, I replaced it with a “Tesla gun” from Company B miniatures.  I am going to have to order another couple of packs of those barrels.  They have come in hand recently.

The LARC

I really like this aircraft.  In fact, I have ordered two more of the kit with more optional variants.  I had a little trouble figuring out how to attach all the various weapons, and had to refer to pictures online, but I love this kit!  I plan to use this both for Albedo and for other science fiction games.

At Historicon I purchased a giant gorilla from Eureka Miniatures.   Two weeks ago, when I opened up the packaging, I discovered that the gorilla’s left arm was missing.  Rob put one in the mail right away, and it arrived before I returned from my long business trip.  So, I painted it while I was painting my Hawaiians.

Eureka giant gorilla and giant crab from Reaper Bones MCMDLXMI (or whatever they are up to)