Whether The Weather

By Now - 
 - you ought to have realised that Conrad, when stuck for anything interesting to say, can always fall back on the British weather.  The climate here does tend to be changeable, sitting as we do off the Continent and abaft of the Atlantic, with the jet stream and the North Atlantic Oscillation all playing their part.

Conrad:  stooping to use sex appeal
But they are wet!

     You should also have noticed that Conrad is rarely, if ever, happy with the weather.  It's usually too wet, and has been for at least the past five years, or too windy, or too cold, or all three together.  Even in our few brief days of summer your humble scribe complains that it's too hot, too bright, and that his delicate skin is suffering*.
     "So, Conrad, you otter of odium, what's wrong with the weather today?" I hear you ask.
     If I were an otter then at least I'd have a fur coat, which is de rigeur today as it is bright and sunny, yes, and DRY! Hallelujah! and also barely above freezing.  When the wind picks up it suddenly becomes sub-zero thanks to wind-chill.
     Not only that, <Mister Hand intervenes to prevent an endless self-pitying screed>

The Haul
Acquired from Church Street Books, as of yesterday.  I didn't post the picture because I like to keep one or two things in reserve.  Here it is:

     "The Marine Book" is interesting as it was published in 1988, long before Gulf Unpleasantness One and the War on Terror began, and a long time after Vietnam had ended.  How will the Marine Corps function in future combat? wonders the author.  I think we already know the answer to that one ...
     "Encyclopedia of Pseudo-Science" is also interesting, being a refutation of all things silly that were once believed to be real**.  It's rather reserved in it's judgements, going for the Dignified approach rather than Suckers! Laugh-and-point viewpoint.  Only up to "D" so far, and even a mere skimming takes a while.

Music And Memory
You'll have to bear with me for this one.  There I was on the bus into work, reading about the 6th Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, listening to "Cross the river on your own" by Mew, with it's utterly awesome guitar solo at the end***.  It's so good it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, every time.

Miouw.  Close enough

     "What would these chaps of 100 years ago make of it, though?" I wondered.  They didn't have the benefit of electric amplification, nor electric or electronic instruments, nor modern digital recording technology.  Nor did they have decades of experience of rock music.  Here's a link to what they were familiar with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToQTmUl_6XA

     That scary chap in back is Lord Kitchener, who was not a man to get on the wrong side of.  Conrad doubts he would have liked Mew ("Long-haired foreign weirdoes!") nor Cross the River ("Godawful racket!").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBxP1kr5AG0

     There's the link to see if Lord K is correct.

Say what you like about K Of K, he had a splendid moustache

In fact I think I'm going to play CTROYO right now.

Spirit Games And "The Air Eaters Strike Back!"
NO!  Not games about spirits - see "The Encyclopedia of Pseudo-Science" above.  A retailer, based in Burton On Trent.  Conrad, back when he bought a ton of wargaming stuff regularly, used to order from them, and paid a visit in person once or twice.
     Thanks to my memory I suddenly recalled them last night and checked to see if they were still in business.

Yes!

     Indeed they are.  Not only that, they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves, despite not getting orders from Conrad for 6mm figures and tanks.
     Scanning lists of second-hand games, one from 1981 caught my eye - "The Air-Eaters Strike Back!"
     What could this be about, I wondered?  Intrigued by the title, I checked and found a review on the Boardgamegeek website, which is rather long, so here's the link:

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/558962/review-and-play-summary-air-eaters-strike-back

     It's an alien invasion boargame, where Hom. Sap. i.e. you, has to fend off an alien invasion force determined to conquer and terraform the habitable planets of the solar system.  Humanity has to fight them off, carry out critical research and keep the economy going.  The game apparently flows well and is balanced, which means the design and testing were done properly.  All of this sounded like a precursor to the PC game "X-Com", which came along years later.

The "board" itself

     The fact that the game is 35 years old, and plays well, means that it's now priced, not at the original $10, but £40, or your humble scribe might be tempted.


* A complete lie - Conrad's skin is like crocodile skin oozing butter - courtesy Mister Hand.
** Remember "crop circles"?
*** I would bang on about overtime but I think I've exhausted all the sympathy I'm going to get from that by now.