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Showing posts from August, 2012

Holidayland

I'm feeling well-fed and happy over here in my family's old homestead in Holidayland, short only on cares it seems (except for the spectacular but heartbreaking game yesterday played by the Canadian and American women's Olympic football teams). Everybody has a NYW-SYW-FIW Vauban fortification in their neighbourhood, or should have one.  I just packed up the family and re-visited ours, Fort Anne, at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.  European settlement on the site dates back to the opening years of the 17th century and the colony of Acadia founded by Samuel de Champlain.  Scots settlers then built a fort on the site, named after Charles I (the Stuart Charles I that is), followed by the French who built one expedient fortification after another.  A formal earthwork star fort was built in 1702 by an engineer trained by Vauban himself.  The fort then changed hands (along with the colony) several times before ending up permanently in the hands of the British.  The fort was parti

King Ivan finds himself on the defensive: The Campaign season of 1684 begins

I'm on a family holiday, no figures are on hand but I had a few minutes with everyone in bed, some paper and found a die, so I could continue the historical background of Syldavia's 17th century...     The arrival of spring 1684, delayed by a cold snap and late heavy snow falls, saw both King Ivan of Syldavia and the Ottoman governor of Borduria, Hassan Muhtar Pasha, in their winter quarters plotting out their strategies as antagonists for the upcoming campaigns.   King Ivan and his troops in Klow were well-rested and in an optimistic mood having received the news of Kara Mustapha Pasha’s sudden and dramatic demise .   In it, the Syldavian troops saw proof of unexpected weakness in their Ottoman adversaries and reason to hope for victories and a return to their homes.   For his part, King Ivan saw an opportunity to tighten his grip on the newly-gained territories of the ancient Syldavian heartland or even to dare to go looking for more in Moltuja and Zympathia while som