The Return of the Wanderer.....

It hasn't been 10 years since I set off on my own personal Odyssey to the Ionian island of Corfu although the first three days of our trip certainly felt like it!

I would love to be able to regale you with tales of historic and cultural interest and of days spent rediscovering the remnants of civilisations that have risen and fell - sadly though, and for reasons too tedious and depressing to recount, the first three days on the island were an unmitigated disaster. Mercifully we were spared at least half of our holiday being ruined by virtue of a rapid relocation courtesy of Messrs. Thomas Cook and Company to a vastly superior hotel - complete with an en suite swimming pool (I kid you not - you merely stepped through the balcony gate into a rather nice pool!) and with food and drink in quantities (and quality) that would have any self-respecting bacchanalian acolyte reaching for the Gaviscon in very short order!

This change in our fortune came at the price of precious time and so we were sadly unable to visit Corfu town as planned as a day wandering about historical sites would have taken too much time away from the 'chilling out' we all needed - especially after the aforementioned three days of the apocalypse. We have decided though that next year we will return for a 'two-weeker' and so all of the various historical goodies will be given their proper attention.

My planned holiday projects were impacted to a degree but  was able to give my tweaking of Dave Manley's Man 'O War Ironclads variant a fair crack of the whip. My basic approach has been to take the detail from Dave Manley's 'serious' ironclads set - Iron and Fire - and to translate it (or dumb it down if you prefer) into Man 'O war speak. Initially I considered using a D10 based system (Dave himself suggested this) for hit locations but I have managed to wring out a D6 version that is not only true to the original but also manages to add a level of complexity within the spirit of the rules. I hope to have this drafted over the next few days and so will of course report on progress in due course. The existing ship charts will need a little modification but nothing hugely drastic.

I managed to locate a source of the small ceramic Greek buildings I had earlier acquired at a local boot sale and so I now have a selection of 11 such buildings including a couple of Churches so will not need very much else in terms of real estate for the Balkan Wars project. My order to Irregular Miniatures for the Greeks will be underway over the next few days - together with the WW1 Russians for use as the Bulgarians.

Aside from the first three days we had a great time - the weather was great, the food and drink fantastic in a Mediterranean, simple fashion (I have developed a fondness for olives in any shape or form!) and my consumption of Mythos - the beer of the Gods - was suitably excessive. I will also never forget the rhythmic strumming of massed bouzoukis as we threw ourselves into Zorba's Dance on our last night - it was the stuff that dreams are made of.....