bucksurdu – Page 15 – Buck's Blog

Hawaii Vacation, Days 4, 5, and 6

Lookout from a cliff near the Makapu’u Lighthouse trail

On day 4 of our vacation we began with a short drive to the Makapu’u Lighthouse trailhead. The trail was about 1.5 miles mostly uphill to the point of land overlooking the lighthouse. The lighthouse was built to prevent ships running aground while traversing the water between Oahu and Molokai.

Sam was decidedly unimpressed with this “dumpy little lighthouse” and didn’t think it was worth the uphill climb to get there. The views from up on the point were very nice.

We then drove to the north shore to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Fancy hotdogs with lots of stuff on them from a truck outside the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Since the last time we visited the PCC, they have added a lot of shopping and food outside the center. We bought some fancy hotdogs from a truck outside the gates (apparently food trucks are a big tradition in Hawaii). Then we had to try some malasadas, which are like filled doughnuts. We bought one of each flavor to share: guava strawberry, chocolate, and coconut cream.

The Polynesian Cultural Center has six distinct areas for the various Polynesian islands. Each area has traditionally constructed buildings, traditional crafts, and entertainment. After our truck-lunch we entered the PCC just in time for the show on the water that runs through the center of the park.

One of the rafts of dancers that traverse the waterfront “theater” during the show.

A sample of the entertainment at the PCC in the Cook Islands area.

Some of the entertainment by the Maori of New Zealand.

After a day of walking around the PCC, we attended the Luau dinner show. The food was good, but we were disappointed the the kalua pig didn’t have much taste. As that was what we were most looking forward to, we though the luau was “okay.”

Some of the entertainment during dinner.

A woman who juggled fire during the luau show.

The highlight of the day was the Ha, Breath of Life live show featuring a huge cast of dancers and (the highlight for us) fire jugglers. The storyline was impossible to follow, as a Polynesian family transits from one island to another. The storyline wasn’t that important however, as it was really about the various acts.

You aren’t allowed to take pictures during the show, so these are ones I found online.

We were in the second row, so we had a great view of the entire show.

The next day we got up early to head to Hunauma Bay for some snorkeling. We were worried that the crowds would be heavy on a Saturday morning, but we really didn’t feel crowded. We rented snorkeling gear and had a really good time seeing the sea life up close and personal.

Candidates for Jaques Custeau’s next television special

Hunauma Bay is a wildlife preserve, and it is full of sea life. We even got to see a seal that was sunning himself on the beach.

Looking at descriptions of the different fish in the bay so we could identify what we saw.

You enter Hunauma Bay from up top and then walk down tot he beach. From this view you can see how the bay was once the caldera of a volcano, but part of it has eroded away.

After snorkeling we went back to the Hale Koa to rest and then got two hours of surfing lessons on Waikiki.

We didn’t get any pictures of any of us up on the board. We were at least a quarter mile out (quite a swim!!), and they wanted $50 per person to provide a photographer.

After a tiring day, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner. We went to a local place, called The Goofy Cafe, for Mahi Mahi. The food was great. After dinner we walked to a local ice cream parlor and had ridiculously large ice cream desserts.

The next day we got up early to check out of the Hale Koa and head to Honolulu airport for a flight to the big island.

Last panoramic view of Waikiki from our hotel balcony

After getting our rental car a the Hilo airport we drove to a farmer’s market outside town where we hand a nice lunch and picked up a bunch of fresh, local produce. This was to make salad with our dinner in our cabin. We then drove to Volcano National Park, took in the victor’s center, and checked into our cabin at the Kilauea Military Camp, inside the national park.

On the way from Hilo to our cabin we stopped at a grocery store to buy stuff for dinner, breakfast, and lunch. We had to stop and take a picture of the spam aisle.

This is a military camp, so it has a theater, PX, several places to eat, a recreation center, and a six-lane bowling alley. We made quesadillas with two different flavors of spam (jalapeño and garlic) and then went to bowl.

After two games of bowling, Sam and Tom played pool in the recreation center. We capped off the evening with some fresh watermelon and mango from the farmer’s market and a couple of mai tais.

Hawaii Vacation, Days 1, 2, and 3

On Tuesday we began our family vacation to Hawaii. This may be the last time we can go on a long vacation like this for some time due to Tom’s military schedule, Sam’s school, and Buck’s work so we wanted to do it up right. Candy planned a full schedule of interesting events.

The trip began in an interesting way, with a flood at BWI airport that brought down the baggage conveyor belt system. This led to an hour delay to our departure. We had a tight layover in Oakland, CA, but we made our flight to Hawaii. We arrived in Honolulu airport around 8:30 PM in the midst of a torrential rainstorm that flooded roads all over the area. There were three lighting strikes on people that day, two at the airport. When we got our baggage, a lot of our stuff was wet. The rental car facility was flooded, so they couldn’t use their computers for fear of electrical shock, they wrote down our information on a piece of paper and handed us the keys. We arrived about 10:00 PM at the Hale Koa hotel, which is an Armed Forces Recreation Center on Waikiki beach, a prime location.

A swell dude and his trophy wife under “Gus” the large Banyan tree

Under the 16-inch guns on the Battleship Missouri.

Our first morning in Hawaii we grabbed a quick breakfast at Happy’s Cafe in the Hale Koa. Then we headed to Pearl Harbor. Last time we were here 13 years ago, we saw the Arizona, which is closed right now, but we wanted to see the Missouri, which began life in WWII and was decommissioned after Desert Storm. We took the “heart of the Missouri” tour, which included a detailed, docent-led tour below decks.

After our tour, we ran into one of the normal guided tours and hear a very interesting talk about the signing of the Japanese surrender document. For those not aware, the Missouri is where the famous picture of the Japanese surrender was taken in Tokyo bay.

Tom and Candy swabbing the deck of the Missouri

A view of the Arizona memorial over the bow of the Missouri — where WWII began and ended

We were flirting with rain all day. We had planned to spend the afternoon on the beach at Waikiki, but with the rain, instead we chose to do some shopping for Hawaiian shirts at the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange and wander around some of the shops in Waikiki. We also enjoyed pina coladas at the Barefoot beachside bar (in the rain). That evening, we took in a really good magic show in the Hale Koa Warriors Lounge. Earlier that afternoon, Tom and I were in the lobby waiting for the girls, when the magician came up to us, saying “hey, I have this new trick I’d like to try out on you.” He proceeded to perform an amazing card transformation slight-of-hand trick in Tom’s hand. This clinched it for us. We wanted to see the show.

The next day, our second full day, Candy had arranged for a guide to take us to a number of lesser-known things round Oahu. Shane picked us up in the lobby of the hotel and drove us around the island.

Waiting for our guide in the lobby of the Hale Koa.

We began the day with a hike to a waterfall. There were all kinds of signs saying “keep out,” but that is meant to keep the tourist traffic down, and our guide took us up to the falls. There were many other groups of hikers we met along the way.

We began the tour with a three-mile hike to a secluded waterfall.

It was a nice hike. We got rained on during the hike back, but we dried out quickly and moved on to lunch.

Some kind of flower related to the Bird of Paradise.

We had pre-arranged with Shane for lunches. He drove us to a park across Kaneohe Bay from the Marine Corps base. We were a couple hundred yards from a small island known as “Chinaman’s Hat.” We ate a really nice lunch on a picnic table and then headed to our next stop.

Lunch. You can see how overcast it was all day.

Some swell people posed in front of mountains that have been used in the various Jurassic Park movies

Next we drove around the coast — after a stop at a Kona coffee and macadamia nut tourist trap (where we bought macadamia nuts!!) — to this interesting rock formation.

Ancient Hawaiian legends talk about two Hawaiian heroes / gods who defeated a giant lizard that was eating people. This is supposedly the lizard’s head that was chopped off by one of the heroes.

You can see that the sky was overcast and the surf was pretty rough here. No one was foolish enough to be swimming here, and most of the people left as the rain began again.

We stopped at a roadside farmer’s market and picked up some fresh pineapple, mango, and mixed fruit. Our guide wanted us to try two local fruits. The first is Lychee, which looks like a strawberry, but has a very tough skin that must be peeled before eating. They were very sweet and very good. The second was called a mountain apple, that had a peach-like pit and tasted more like a sweet pear. Both were really, really good.

Our next stop was 90 minutes of snorkeling around “Three Tables” beach were we swam with schools of fish and got very close to three sea turtles frolicking along the rocks. We were probably one good kick away from being able to touch them!

Then we drove to Waimea Bay to do some “safe cliff jumping.”

This was a lot of fun. Sammy surprised us by doing a forward flip! I didn’t even know she could do that.

Our last stop was at a small stretch of beach where we saw this Hawaiian Green sea turtle. It was 37 years old and weighed 225 pounds. The park ranger had placed a rope on the beach to keep everyone at least a meter away from it.

On the way back to Honolulu we drove through pineapple plantations. The air had a pineapple aroma. We had heard that pineapples weren’t grown on Hawaii any more. It turns out that a LOT if pineapple is grown here, but it is not exported; it is all used in Hawaii. The pineapple you find in Publix or Giant comes from Costa Rica. I’m not sure my palate is sensitive enough to tell the difference, but the pineapple here SEEMS softer and slightly less tart that what we get in the grocery store.

We had a really good day. After an overpriced dinner we spent a half hour at the Hale Koa pool before collapsing in the room.

Feudal Patrol (and a secret set of rules) play test

Take a close look at the different units in this picture.

I have alluded a couple of times to a secret set of rules I am working on for a major figure manufacturer for a new line of figures. We are targeting Cold Wars 2020 in March. Because of the compressed development schedule, I am having to re-use bits and pieces of ideas from previous development efforts. It normally takes me there to six years to develop and write a set of rules. For these kinds of early play tests, a very small crew is best. Later, when the design is more mature, I will open up play tests to the whole club. So a couple of folks came over, and we put a lot of surrogate troops on the table to test out activation (didn’t work well) and combat (worked fine). We used an odd assortment of mismatched figures for this first play test to obfuscate the subject of the rules and figures. I will be making a LOT of adjustments to the rules before the next play test in August.

We also worked on a couple of details for Feudal Patrol (TM). Feudal Patrol is the version of Combat Patrol (TM) for early black powder and mediaeval periods. The big stuff is all working fine, and the design of the Action Decks are pretty much complete. In this play test, we were working on magic, confirming that the cavalry rules from the Napoleonic supplement to Combat Patrol were okay (they were), and testing a few new things. Once you include things like long pointy sticks, you have to consider fighting in two ranks, which we tested and seemed to work okay.

Zeb’s Riever cavalry advances toward Greg’s pike block.

The early stages of the Feudal Patrol game.

Cavalry versus infantry in the center of the table.

Chris wanted to try out a change in how melee is resolved. In Combat Patrol: WWII, when a figure loses melee, he drops back, and the unit takes a morale check. For a melee heavy game, like Feudal Patrol, Chris thought that the defeated figure should also be stunned. That seemed to work fine.

Combat Patrol(TM) Games at Historicon 2019

I just went through the PEL and identified the various games that will be using Combat Patrol(TM) and Feudal Patrol(TM) at Historicon in July. Don’t miss your chance to play in one of these exciting and fun games.

Thursday Combat Patrol(TM) Games at Historicon in July. Click to enlarge.

Friday Combat Patrol(TM) Games at Historicon in July. Click to enlarge.

Saturday Combat Patrol(TM) Games at Historicon in July. Click to enlarge.

Combat Patrol 1939 in York, PA

The Little Wars TV people asked me to come to their clubhouse and run a Combat Patrol(TM): WWII game for them. Greg and I drove up there yesterday after work to set up and run a 1939 Polish scenario that I have run in conventions previously.

A German halftrack pushes ahead of the German force and gets “air conditioned” by the Bofors.

The scenario involved a German attack toward a Polish armored train that was sitting astride their route of advance. The turret on the train was out of ammunition, but there was a Bofors gun on top that the Poles used effectively throughout the game.

The Polish commanders plan their defense.

Greg watches as the German commanders plan their attack.

The Bofors gun on train. The train is from Sarissa.

The Germans had two 38(t) tanks, a Pz. I, three halftracks, a full platoon of infantry, and a command car. The Poles had a platoon of infantry, the Bofors on the train, two Wz-34 armored cars, three tankettes (one with a 20mm cannon). The Bofors had a limited field of fire down the center of the table, but fortunately for the Poles, the Germans pretty much pushed up the center of the table.

The Germans bail out of the burning halftrack while the “light squad” advances to take up positions on a hill.

A view of the burning halftrack from the Polish point of view. Lots of high fives and chest bumps in Warsaw!

Polish tankettes advancing past the train to engage the Germans.

Despite losing a halftrack early, the Germans advanced steadily across the table, but mostly where they weighted their attack on their right. The Poles began to lose a lot of infantry across the table They had occupied the building in the center of the table, and for a while, that was the Germans’ only target. While the Germans only had a little more infantry than the Poles, the Germans made good use of the machine-guns on the halftracks.

A scene toward the middle of the game. The Germans have lost a 38(t).

A scene late in the game. The Germans have lost two tanks, a halftrack, and the schwimwagon. The 20mm on the tankette is threatening the German halftrack on the German left, slowing the advance. The halftrack at the top of the picture had taken a mobility kill. The only remaining intact vehicle on the German side was the Pz I, which you can’t see in this picture.

While the Poles had lost much of their infantry and the Bofors, they had lost no vehicles. The armored cars and the machinegun-armed tankettes were advancing on the Polish left, threatening to overwhelm the Germans on that flank. The tankette with the 20mm cannon was causing the remaining German halftrack (with half a squad of infantry) to seek cover.

At this point, we called the game a Polish victory. It appeared that all the members of the club really enjoyed the rules and the game, which was gratifying.

The Little Wars TV club is a great bunch of guys. Greg and I had a very good time with them. They also have a great facility for gaming.

The “plunger faust” in the bathroom of the Little Wars TV clubhouse.

Play Test of “Tales of the Gold Monkey” Game

Last night at the club meeting I play tested my Tales of the Gold Monkey game for Cold Wars in two weeks. For this game I am using the G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. rules, but I gave all the extras a Save as well as the Main Characters. The game began with most of the board blank, covered with palm trees. As the different groups of explorers and adventurers pushed into the jungle, they discovered different sources of treasure, from a native village to idols with jeweled eyes. These were, of course, guarded by natives, animals, or monster. Each player had a “cut” card they could use for one free re-roll. In addition, each player had three dirty tricks cards they could use to slow down other players.

Jake Cutter and the Sergeants Three gangs move out.

The table at the beginning of the game. The players begin near the trading post by the lagoon.

Bing, Bob, Dorothy, and the Andrews Sisters of Mercy climb a ridge to find a lizard idol with jewels for eyes. Later in the game, Bing and Bob killed a couple of Italians with golf balls.

A giant spider has other ideas for Bing and Bob.

It’s a grim day for the Andrews Sisters of Mercy.

And then to add insult to injury, another player played a dirty tricks card that had a herd of oryx stampede through them.

Despite all their setbacks, and the death of Dorothy being gored by an oryx, Bob and Bing were able to retrieve one treasure.

The Italians found the lost elephant idol — but it was guarded by pygmies.

The Italians lost many men to pygmy attacks but were able to get a treasure at the elephant idol.

A much-reduced Italian contingent is attacked by an angry elephant (another player’s dirty trick), but they managed to secure a second treasure at the raptor excavation.

The French Foreign Legion ran into apes guarding an idol.

There seemed to be a never-ending supply of apes!

The foreign legion found a treasure after defeating a LOT of apes. They also found Amelia Earhart and a boat and were headed down the river to the lagoon when they were attacked by giant tentacles of some unseen monster. In a “Von Ryan’s Express” moment, the last Legionnaire tried to leap into the boat as it floated past. He rolled a 20, fell into the water, and was eaten by the crocodile you can see in the bottom right of this picture.

Teddy Roosevelt, two “dangerous dames,” the lady photographer, and his band of fearless adventurers ran into natives guarding an idol. As Kurt was the first one to find a treasure, players played FOUR dirty tricks cards on him, stacking up natives. But Kurt has perennial kid luck and easily swept them aside.

At this point, the Easter Island heads at the lagoon turned around and started to cut off Teddy’s path back to the lagoon. Teddy and his group tried to cross the river to avoid them but ran into some trouble.

The Sergeants Three found a native village where they were preparing to sacrifice a white woman for some purpose.

It took some time, but in the end the Sergeants One (as two died) freed the woman and advanced on another idol.

The Sergeant One approaches the idol to get a second treasure, but Jake Cutter and Professor Challenger beat them to it.

Jake Cutter and the American infantry ran into a giant scorpion defending the lost temple. Almost all the American infantry were killed, but Don was able to grab the treasure and also find Professor Challenger to add to his party.

The game was sufficiently chaotic and bloody, so I don’t plan to make any changes before Cold Wars. I think all the players had a really good time. This will make a good Saturday night game at the convention.

Preparing for my “Tales of the Gold Monkey” GASLIGHT Game

I am going to run a GASLIGHT game at Cold Wars that is very loosely based on the Tales of the Gold Monkey television show. Each player will have a group of explorers and will set out to find treasure. They will have cards that they can play on each other to slow down the other teams with wild animals, natives, natural disasters, and monsters. The table will be mostly empty except for some jungle. When the players move into terra incognita, I will place different terrain pieces on the table.

Team 1: Teddy Roosevelt and some odd explorers.

Team 3: The sergeants from Gunga Din and some friends.

Team 4: Bing, Bob, Dorothy, and the Andrews Sisters of Mercy.

Will the players pry the eyes out of this idol?

GASLIGHT at HARCON

One of the HAWKs is the faculty mentor for the Harford Community College gaming club. That club runs a gaming day every year, called HARCON. The HAWKs have supported HARCON for years with games. This is a small, multi-genre event, so we found years ago, that we are unlikely to get someone to devote four hours to a miniatures game, but they are willing to give it a try for an hour or two.

For the past three years, we have been running a really large game that allows passers by to participate for an hour or two. We have en0ugh of our own HAWKs around the table to act as opponents and keep the game moving.

This year’s theme at HARCON was Steam Punk, so we decided to run a large GASLIGHT game set on Mars with many different factions.

Rooman crosswbowmen close assault a British timer clad

Bicycle lancers battling British infantry for control of the crashed aether flyer.

Female hussars with helicopter support advancing toward the Sanwar

More fighting around the crashed airship

British infantry, plant men, and Red Martians

Roomans with support from “the copper tank.”

Green Martians fighting female hussars, including some mounted on “Death Jaws.”

Though attendance at HARCON seemed to be a little light, the game was fun and successful. We introduced six new people to miniatures gaming.

Barrage 2018 is TODAY

Don’t let the rain keep you away from Barrage 2018. Barrage runs today (at noon) until 2000 tomorrow, Saturday. Don’t miss the best two days of gaming you’ll experience for a long time.

See www.hawks-barrage.org for more information, directions, lists of games, etc.

You could lament the rain, or you could come to Barrage 2018. We have spacious, free, paved parking right next to the convention venue. You’ll barely get your feet wet. And it is easy to carry your loot from the deals and flea markets to your car and come back for more!

Duncan’s Napoleonic Game with Combat Patrol at Historicon 2018

From Duncan Adams:

[Here are two long shots of the table to help provide context for Duncan’s narrative.]

“On Friday afternoon I ran ‘Welcome to Sunny Spain,’ a Peninsular War convoy ambush using Combat Patrol: Napoleonic Supplement.

“The game starts with the French convoy warily entering the town. Bill Mollineaux had the lead infantry, a new player (forgot his name:( ) had the cavalry, and Robert, who played Dave’s Zulu game and wanted more CP, played the infantry in the rear. There was a guerillo band, divided into three groups of six, controlled by Jeff Kimmel of the Rogues, a platoon of Cacadores (2 sections of 8) controlled by Terry (one of my groupies) blocking the road ahead, and a platoon of Portuguese light infantry (2 sections of 8), controlled by Mike waiting to close in behind the convoy after the trap was sprung.

“Things were quiet until the Guerillos card came up, then the French forward contingent moves out to clear the way.

“The new player, due to his inexperience, thought that this six man cavalry troop could clear eight elite cacadores out of the woods by charging them. It didn’t work very well.

“Bill brought up his infantry platoon to try and clear the way ahead by defeating Terry’s cacadores. He was repeatedly undone by morale checks that went very badly for him while Terry’s had minimal effect.

“Meanwhile, Robert’s French infantry was using superior numbers to get the better of Mike’s Portuguese at the rear of the column, while sending a section to clear some buildings of guerillos.

“In desperation, hoping to finally put a bad morale result on Terry, Bill sent the French commander charged the woods.

“Despite having impetus and a better M value Bill lost the fight.

“Though at the end the French had just about won the rear and center fights, the cacadores were holding strong and it was far from certain that the whole remaining French could have driven them off over time. So we called it an Allied victory. Everybody seemed to have a good time.”

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