Just returned from Merrie Olde England and enjoyed some interesting sights. This time I did not drag my poor wife out to Bosworth Field as I did on a previous visit and never heard the End of it!! It was neat to visit the site though it's tough to get there unless you have a car. By the way, unless you are left-handed and enjoy a manual shift be sure to specify an automatic transmission if you plan to rent a car in the U.K. The Brits don't have a park system like we do for our battlefields so visiting the battlefields is spotty as some are privately owned and most don't have the the elaborate documentation that our best ones do. Gettysburg is my favorite but we have lots of good ones.
Bosworth is worth a visit and so is Hadrian's Wall which I went to this trip. Just in case you don't know, this is a complex of frontier installations running 73 miles from West to East across England close to what is now the border between England and Scotland. This six meter high wall had a milecastle every Roman mile garrisoned by 10-20 men. There were two turrets set into the wall between the milecastles and large forts every 7-10 miles which held up to 1000 men, often supplemented by a town outside the walls. The system was constructed in A.D. 120-128 by the emperor Hadrian hence the name but mostly on top of preexisting works. Some of the wall was off limits due to hoof and mouth disease but the Roman Army Museum and Vindolanda were worth the visit. Very impressive but as with most Roman sites in the world, much of the stone was pirated off for construction of later buildings.
Spent most of a day in York. You can visit Clifford's Keep, walk the medieval walls and take in the Richard III museum which I really enjoyed as I've always been fascinated by the Wars of the Roses. Has anyone come across a computer game on the Wars of the Roses? E-mail me if you have. I've only seen the board game Kingmaker which looks like fun. If you like this period, read "The Sunne In Splenclour" by Sharon Kay Penman. It's a great read!
On to Warwick Castle which was awesome. We arrived on Saturday morning a bit after 10am and it was already filling up with visitors. It is a huge castle with full walls, towers and a keep with the river Avon as a moat. Built on an old Saxon fort in 1068 by one of William the Conqueror's followers it has been restored to it's former glory. The home of the Earls of Warwick, it was stormed sucessfully only once by Simon De Montfort's men. When the famous Beauchamp line ended, Richard Neville married Anne Beauchamp and became Earl of Warwick, The Kingmaker, by deposing Henry VI and then switching sides and deposing Edward IV whom he had previously supported. Edward got him though at Barnet in 1471 and the Kingmaker was slain. If you go to England visit the website (www.warwick-castle.co.u ) to find out about special events and there are lots of them. Concerts, fireworks, reenactments, tons of great stuff. If you must haul along females, trade off with a visit to Blenheim Palace where the 1 Ith Duke of Marlborough still lives. The ladies will enjoy the tour of the rooms and can even see part of the Duke's living quarters if they are not in residence.
I also spent a day at the Imperial War Museum in London. My wife came along but sat most of it out yapping with another abandoned wife. Great hardware in good shape. Lots of artillery pieces, armor, planes etc. I saw a Jadgpanther, a Matilda II., a Sherman, Monty's Grant tank and a Desert Rat's Humber. Suspended from the roof 4 stories up were a P-51, a FW190 and a Spitfire among others. Well worth a visit and seniors are free.
Age of Sail II
Well enough travelogue. I'm having trouble solving Age of Sail II which requires a 3-D video card so more on that later. If you want a fun game which in some ways is better than Age of Sail II and needs no 3-D video card then try Age Of Sail. This is a good game if you are into the period 1775-1820. There are plenty of scenarios which are individual battles and can play pretty fast. Good beer and pretzels material! There are several campaigns covering parts of the period and the Grand Campaign from 17751820. There are multiple difficulty levels, start with novice until you learn the game mechanics and progress to more difficult and I mean difficult, levels if you wish.
You can then select a character and provide him with a name of your choice and a picture of his face. This is fun and gives you a commander for the campaign game. You can then choose to be British, French, Spanish or American. I have played all four nations for the full grand campaign and spent many hundreds of hours sailing the seven seas. You start as an Ensign and earn promotions and command gradually larger ships as you progress through the years.
The zoom out and in is really a necessity in this game. There are times when you must run away from more powerful ships, remember weight of metal from the guns is decisive in sea battles. If you elect to tackle a larger ship, be careful and make sure you can run away if the tide of the engagement is not going your way! There will also be times when you cannot catch the opponent. In both these runaway situations, speed up the game so the scenario ends faster or you will find the game boring! Try to get a really good quality crew A or B and do some boarding as this is great fun, albeit difficult, and captured ships give you more points and money. I'm not so sure about the accuracy of the United States ships early on as I didn't think we had such a large Navy. Comments and references would be appreciated.
Once you get beyond Captain and into the Admiral promotion levels you will get some scenarios of large fleet actions that are really great stuff if this interests you. I loved it but it's hard to keep track of everything and confusion may reign but then that's how it was West ce pas? You may recognize some names and faces but it just adds to the fun. The same faces are available in Age of Sail II which appears to me to have less choices. Any advice or comment from anyone who has played AOS II extensively would be welcome and appreciated. If you like the travel stuff or book recommendations, let me know and I'll give you some more of the same.
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© Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum
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