Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!

Despite a nasty fever (102 degrees yesterday, down to a manageable 100 today) I felt I couldn't let the 600th anniversary of Agincourt pass by without  some fun and games in the newly recommissioned wargames HQ. So I broke out DBA and gave it a bash. I don't have 100YW armies so my Wars of the Roses and Burgundians stood in for the action.

Things went fairly according to "plan", although some poor die rolls on the part of the English as battle was joined made it look a bit iffy for a while.

However, normality was restored as good King Henry despatched d'Albret for the 4th element killed and victory once again went to the English.

Just curious to see that my green sheet looks blue in these photos - obviously the ground was pretty waterlogged :)

Goodbye XH558

Today was a bittersweet day as Vulcan XH558 made her final "tour of the South". I went up to our local airport at Staverton between Gloucester and Cheltenham to join a thousand or so other Vulcan enthusiasts see the old girl stage a flypast of the airport and the Jet Age Museum. I got there early and spent a while watching some of the other traffic, it was surprising how busy the airport is. We were also entertained by a Pitts Special which took to the skies a few times and did impromptu aerobatic displays, often very low and often just seconds after takeoff (for example 3 complete rolls between wheels up and before reaching the perimeter fence)

After a long but pleasant wait in the semi-sunshine XH558 hove into view over Gloucester for a single fast pass along the runway, waving her wings as she went, then off in a roar towards Brize Norton and her next appointment.

It was all over in a minute, but it was well worth the wait. There were quite a few damp eyes at the airport, I can tell you.

Stingray at Blast tastic

Today has been a lovely day spent in the sunshine at Frampton where I have been a fence judge at the FFRC Hunter Trials. Great fun, and spoilt with plentiful supplies of tea and cake during the day :)

But yesterday saw the latest (and probably last) public outing of my "Stingray" participation game at the Blast Tastic sci fi wargames show in Bristol.

We got through a few very enjoyable games using the latest "tweaked" rules and it was interesting to see the development in tactics that the new rules encouraged (especially counter missile tactics). My planned pit crew had to drop out for various reasons but I was ably assisted at short notice by Chris, Neil and the "mystery wargamer" - many thanks chaps.

Of course these games themselves have led to a few modifications which I've implemented today. I think now very close to being the "final" set (until the next time, anyway!)