Last Sunday, in all its warm sunny glory, saw myself, my good lady Diana, my son and my future mother-in-law high-tailing it down I-80 to Minooka, Illinois to go to a pumpkin patch. We were to rendezvous with Colin (Dethtron) and his Dr. Girlfriend there shortly after noon. This place was pretty cool, it was relatively cheap and there was a lot of stuff going on, including, much to my excitement, an American Civil War battle re-enactment. Anyone who knows me well will know of my love for the ACW, and will know that I was once a ACW re-enactor myself in ol’ Blighty (yes, we really do have ACW re-enactments over there!). I was a private (later Corporal) in the 24th Michigan, part of the ‘Iron Brigade’.
It’s been a good 15 or so years since I took to the field amidst the rattle of musket fire and the earth-shaking boom from the artillery, and it was great to see the field pieces set up ready for action. We all walked around the living history camps before the battle started, in both US and CS areas. I was like a big kid and was loving every minute of it. I had to share my nerdy knowledge of the Civil War with the others as we wandered about. I remarked to Colin that this was ‘Wargaming on a larger scale’. It was great to hear the fife and drum music, to which I could sing the old marching song words to. Dr. Girlfriend found a new friend in one of the the Cavalry’s mounts, and apparently spent the rest of the afternoon mentioning about ‘getting another horse’. Good luck with that one Dethy. I’m sure you’re garden is big enough for it and Loki won’t mind 🙂
Cannons roared and muskets sung their battle hymns as the confederate forces tried to repel the armies of the North, and seemed to do well in the first instance, but then the line began to crumble and the Army of the Potomac gained more and more ground by the minute ending in a defeat and surrender for the Confederate forces.
After the display we hauled ass all the way back down the hill to the farm, where it dawned on me that I had caught the sun pretty well. Dammit! Dethy was asked (read: told) by the little fella to ‘pick me up’ and was consequently carried back down the hill for the most part. I’m pretty sure that he was being taught how to spit as well. Thanks Uncle Dethron!
Man, was I bitten by the bug again! I did mention that I would like to get back into re-enactment, but I got ‘the look’ from Diana, which told me ‘don’t you dare!’ So I guess I’ll have to assuage my hunger for this by attending other events and actually painting my 15mm ACW army and playing the rules system I have. Not suprisingly, a lot of the people on the ‘scene’ (back home, at least) who were re-enactors were/are also ardent wargamers…
So, we saw lots of pumpkins, a couple of tantrums (boy that was fun…) and ate way more unhealthy food that we probably should have: funnel cake, pizza, chocolate preztels, real lemonade etc etc.
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In other news, played a game of 40K against my buddy Evan on Saturday. I fielded my holy Black Templars against his foul traitors of Chaos. Evan managed to squeak out a win, due mostly in part by a couple of stupid decisions on my part later in the game. The dice gods were certainly not with me that day either. I’m not a sore loser (for the most part, lol!) but I really did seem to be making constant lousy rolls throughout the game, so, after we finished, I filed them in the garbage can… So, I need to get some new ones. I’d actually heard about the GW dice cube die having air bubbles and whatnot in them (not that I’m using this for an excuse) but I thought I should just try some new ones anyway.
I’ll be starting on a Black Templar Rhino this week, and I’ll be posting a tutorial on that as well, so stay tuned!
Cheers!
Paul.
When Cannons Fade... 