Thery are coming (Thargoids in Elite: Dangerous)

First contact with the Thargoids in Elite: Dangerous



They are back. Run for your life!!!

Leonard Cohen is dead

The Canadian poet and snger Leonard Norman Cohen passed away in November 7, 2016. I discovered him in my teens and his songs have been in my life until his death.

Sit tibi terra levis

Voyager probes found in 'Elite: Dangerous'

I'm taking these holidays to play 'Elite Dangerous' (sorry, no wargaming at Christmas).
Below is a sample of the "realism" of the game: a close encounter of a gamer (unluckily not me!) with the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in the outskirts of the Solar system.

Voyager 1



Voyager 2

Remember that the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 twin probes, were launched 37 years ago (September 1977) and are still flying.

Watch this space!

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Elite Dangerous launching

Today, December 16, 2014, is the first day of Elite Dangerous 1.0. See the official Trailer (best in full screen mode) and enjoy!

The galaxy is waiting!

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30th anniversary of the first ELITE

The 30th anniversary of the BBC Elite, the first released versión of this game, was celebrated on 20th September. There is a small BBC machine emulator available on the Elite Dangerous site (only for Elite Dangerous buyers, sorry!), to play it.
Watch below the Elite Dangerous commemorative video

And below a Youtube video from the Commodore-64 versión, the mine!

I still remember the trepidation of the game.... and the veeeeeeeeery looooog loading times with the old cassette storage unit of the Commodore 64!

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Break time

Still summer. Enjoy this old song!

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Ferrer-Dalmau: a Spanish painter of battles

Agustina de Aragon by Ferrer-Dalmau

Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau Nieto (Barcelona 20 January, 1964) is a Spanish hyper realist painter specialized in Spanish military history. He currently lives in Valladolid (my home town). I don't know him in person, but I have watched several of his works in internet and today I have seen his pictures in live: a sample of 35 chosen pictures, privately owned, are exhibited in Valladolid.
My favourite Ferrer-Dalmau picture is 'Agustina de Aragón' shown above. Agustina Raimunda María Saragossa Domènech, or Agustina de Aragón (March 4, 1786 – May 29, 1857) was a Spanish heroine of the Spanish War of Independence (the Peninsular War for the english-speaking people). The action that made her famous, took place during the first French siege of Saragosse. "On July 2, 1808, the French army stormed the Portillo, an ancient gateway into the city defended by a hodgepodge battery of old cannons and a heavily outnumbered volunteer unit. Agustina, arriving on the ramparts with a basket of apples to feed the gunners, watched the nearby defenders fall to French bayonets. The Spanish troops broke ranks, having suffered heavy casualties, and abandoned their posts. With the French troops a few yards away, Agustina herself ran forward, loaded a gun, and lit the fuse, shredding a wave of attackers at point blank range. The sight of a lone woman bravely manning the cannons inspired the fleeing Spanish troops and other volunteers to return and assist her."
The picture shows the moments after the firing of the gun. A young Agustina (she was 22 years old) remains challenging at the side of the artillery piece, amongst dead and wounded, waiting for the next French attack and knowing that she can no longer do anything.

General Alava by Ferrer-Dalmau

Another favourite mine is the above picture showing the General Alava along the British 15th Hussars.

The above video is a summary of the exhibition. You can enjoy more of the Ferrer-Dalmau's work in Wikimedia Commons

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Spanish train crash

What can I say? It is very sad huge loss of so many lives in a tragedy of such a level. Unfortunately in Galicia is not the first time that we live an unprecedented tragedy, Prestige oil spill in 2002, summer forest fires of 2006 and now this horrible train accident with at least, 78 killed and 130 injured.

I can only offer condolences to all the families of the dead, wish the best to all injured survivors and recover as soon as possible and all my support and encouragement to the people of Galicia.

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The Bicentennial of the Battle of the Pyrenees

The history
After the Battle of Vitoria on June 21, 1813 and the withdrawal of the forces of King Joseph, French rule in the Iberian peninsula consisted only of the eastern coastal area (along with some cities with garrisons in Catalan) held by the Marshal Suchet, who stood as an independent force until 1814 and in the fortresses of San Sebastian and Pamplona were immediately besieged by Wellington, whose forces amounted to 62,000 British, Potuguese and Spanish men defending the line of western Pyrenees.
Faced with the threat of an Allied invasion, Napoleon sent from Germany to Marshal Jean de Dieu Nicholas Soult, who reorganized the demoralized French forces and built up a new army of 64,000 men in three Army Corps: Clausel (left), D'Erlon (center) and Reille( right). One month after the battle of Vitoria, Soult attacked the border passes in the Navarrese Pyrenees, in the zone located between Saint Jean de Luz and Saint Jean Pied de Port.
On 25th July, Soult with the Corps of Clausel and Reille fought the reinforced British 4th division and a Spanish division at the Battle of Roncevalles. The Allied force successfully held off all attacks during the day, but retreated from Roncevalles Pass that night in the face of overwhelming French numerical superiority.
Also on 25th, the D'Erlon's Corps severely tried the British 2nd division at the Battle of Maya. The British withdrew from the Maya Pass that evening.
Wellington rallied his troops a short distance north of Pamplona and repelled the attacks of Clausel and Reille at the Battle of Sorauren on 28th July. Instead of falling back northeast towards Roncevalles Pass, Soult made contact with D'Erlon's Corps on 29th July and began to move north. Soult abandoned the offensive on 30th July and headed towards France, having failed to relieve either garrison.
On 30th July, Wellington attacked Soult's rearguard at Sorauren, driving some French troops to the northeast, while most continued to the north. Soult led his army up the Bidassoa River valley and escaped the British after a final rearguard action at Etxalar on 2nd August.
In conclusion, Soult failed to relieve the sieges at San Sebastian and Pamplona, suffered about 13,000 casualties. Wellington's total losses for the campaign were 7,000. The next action was the Battle of San Marcial on the Bidasoa River banks, at the end of August.

More basic information at the Wikipedia: Battle of the Pyrenees
The British version can be read at the works of Oman, Napier and many other British historians. The French version can be seen in 'Campagne de Marechal Soult dans les Pyrenees Occidentales' and the Spanish version in 'Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolucion de España Vol V' de Toreno. The full Toreno's book can be found at Historia del levantamiento, guerra y revolución de España (go to the 23th book).

The Wargaming
The battles of Maya, Roncesvalles ansd Sorauren were known to me, 30 years ago, thanks to the Terence Wise's booklet The Peninsular War: 1813 ( Model & Allied Publications Ltd., Hemel Hempstead, 1974). This was one of the first wargaming books I buyed by mail from Great Britain.

The pictures of the booklet, with detailed battle maps showing the movements of the armies and depicting French and British Airfix 1/72 plastic miniatures, like the ones I was starting to collect and paint, were an important inspiring factor in my early wargaming activities.

I can remember me carefully placing the scenery on a very simplified wargaming table, following the troops movements marked in the book, moving carefully my newly painted figures, and trying to apply the rules of the Bruce Quarrie's book Napoleonic Wargaming.

Ah, we were young!

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Summertime is here!

At last, the summer and the heat has arrived to Spain!  Enjoy this Roxette's old song

It's July (not June) but the sun is late this year!

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A true 'Space oddity'

In April 2011 I posted about the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. That post also included a video about the David Bowie's song 'Space oddity' (you can see here that post). Today I am posting a cover of that song, and the singer is now a true astronaut, the Canadian Chris Hadfield now onboard the International Space Station.

Enjoy both versions!

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A short film about the battle of Vittoria

Watch the first version of a film Project about the battle of Vittoria 1813, the last great battle of the Peninsular that marked the end of the Spanish Napoleonic adventure.

The battle of Vittoria - First Version from Silberius de Ura on Vimeo.

You can see other Spanish Napoleonic short films at the Silbelius' Vimeo page

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A Napoleon's Battles game in youtube!

Many rainy days here in Spain and only internet to play with! However, while waiting for the releasing of NB-IV, I have been able to find a Napoleon's Battles game in youtube. It involved Prussians against French and Italians.
Below you can see the four parts of the game

Enjoy!

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How to paint (well) faces

The above video, How to paint faces #1, was discovered while seeing a post in the Befreiungskriege 1813-14 site. This is a very interesting site devoted to 28 mm figures, and I follow it not only because of its background theme (Germany 1813), but also because of the marvelous figures and useful painting tips.
The video is part of the interesting Art Master Studio collection.
I strongly recommend both!

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11M. In memoriam

If I were more pretty

and a bit smarter

If I were special,

Off a magazine cover

I would have the strength

to cross the train

and ask you who you are.

You sit in the front

and you don’t even imagine

that only for you

my best skirt am I wearing.

and as I see you yawn

that crystal panel

my eyes well up.

Suddenly, you see me

I watch you and you sigh,

As I close my eyes,

you turn back silently,

I hardly breathe,

I feel so small

and I begin to tremble.

And thus days go by,

from Monday to Friday,

as the flying swallows

of the poem of Becquer,

from station to station

we sit there, you and I

and so passes the silence.

Suddenly, you see me

I watch you and you sigh,

As I close my eyes,

you turn back silently,

I hardly breathe,

I feel so small

and I begin to tremble.

And then sudden, it happens,

and my lips wake up

pronouncing your name

in a stuttering voice,

You’re probably thinking

“Such a foolish girl!”

and I want to die.

But then the time stops,

You approach to me,
you whisper…

“I do not know you,

But I already miss you.

You know, every morning

I skip the direct route

and board this train”

And now, we are arriving

and my life is changing.

Such a special day

this eleventh of March.

You take my hand,

we enter a tunnel

that turns off the light.

With the help of my hands,

I find your face

I kiss you on the lips

I become very brave

you say that you love me,

and I grant you

the last beat of my heart...

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A French TV series about 'The Note-books of Captain Coignet'

Chants de l'armée française dans JRC por MarechalLannes

A friend of mine posted some days ago in the ALKAID Wargames Forum, a link about a French TV mini-series from year 1969, "Jean Roch Coignet" based on the "Cahiers du Capitain Coignet".
The book is published in English by Greenhill Books, under the title "The note-books of Captain Coignet" (See here for a review)

The above video is part of a Daily-motion account with many other Napoleonic videos and there is also a Youtube reproduction list

All those videos are only a small sample of some of the episodes, but the full mini-series can be acquired (French version) in Amazon

Enjoy!

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The Bicenntenial of the Parallel March: the videos

My friend Luis Torrecilla has sent me these two videos (in Spanish sorry!) about the Bicentennial of the Parallel March, celebrated this year in Cañizal (Zamora, Spain) at the Guareña stream banks. This amateur event commemorates the minue-like dance between Wellington and Marmont, as this last tried to outflank the Wellington's right flank.

 

The enclosed map can be found in the Luis Torrecilla's article about the Parallel March, published in the issue No. 8 of ALKAID. The magazine can be obtained by suscriptio by downloading the subscription form at the ALKAID web site
Enjoy!

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Scott McKenzie, singer of San Francisco, is dead

Scott McKenzie, best known for the 1967 hit "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers In Your Hair)" has died at 73. McKenzie had been suffering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease affecting the nervous system.

McKenzie was born Philip Wallach Blondheim and grew up in North Carolina. He and John Phillips, who later formed the Mamas and the Papas, played together as teens in a doowop act called the Abstracts and moved to New York, where Blondheim changed his name after comedian Jackie Curtis noted that the singer resembled a Scottie dog. With the rise of folk music, McKenzie and Phillips switched their focus, forming the Journeymen with banjo player Dick Weissman and recording three albums before splitting in 1964. Although Phillips invited his old friend along when he formed the Mamas and the Papas, McKenzie preferred a solo career. The pair remained close, and when Phillips wrote "San Francisco," he had McKenzie sing on the record. The track became a counterculture anthem and hit Number 4 in the U.S. and Number 1 on the U.K. charts.

McKenzie released two more solo albums but left music in the late Sixties, relocating to Virginia Beach, Virginia, to escape the limelight. He made a comeback in the late Eighties, touring with the Mamas and the Papas and penning the Beach Boys hit "Kokomo." He also performed at the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 2002.

I am growing old!

Taken from Rolling Stone magazine

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Summer break!

Mrs. Pardo and this humble wargamer will be travelling to Murcia, the next monday August 6th, to enjoy our holidays in the Spanish Mediterranean coast, near our daughter. No work, no troubles... at least for the two next weeks...

Enjoy the summertime!

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The Boss in Spain!

Bruce Springsteen started his European Tour at Sevilla (Spain)
Watch and enjoy 'We Take Care Of Our Own' the first single of his last work 'Wrecking Ball'. A right song for these times of crisis

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