Overall it's been a restful Christmas break spent reading, painting toy soldiers, watching TV and playing video games
I have spent a part of the break watching the new (fifth) season of The Expanse on Amazon. This season was a short one, perhaps because of coronavirus issues, however it was still worth watching. In fact the whole series is well worth seeing if you like science fiction and it does stay remarkably true to the original books. As an aside the books are also well worth a read. They consist of the main story arc and a number of novellas exploring back stories and parallel events to the main story. The TV series manages to blend a number of these into the main narrative in a fairly seamless manner.
Another unlooked for TV gem has been El Cid also on Amazon. It is a Spanish production overdubbed into English, but don't let that put you off. It's a more detailed version of El Cid's story than the Charlton Heston movie and seems more rooted in history. Think Game of Thrones meets the Last Kingdom but with way better kit standards. The first series covers the reign of King Fernando the Great of Leon until his death and the splitting of his kingdom between his sons.
On the book front, but as yet not started, I have the last of the Last Kingdom sequence of novels and the latest Simon Scarrow Roman adventure to keep me amused.
On the wargaming front I'm starting to map out a project which has been on the back burner for a number of years, which watching El Cid has kick started into life again. Yes folks its the 11th Century, it's Spain it's the wars of El Cid. For reasons which will not immediately (if ever) be clear but which involve the quiz show host Jim Bowen and a failed attempt to play football at age 11 my nick name at school was El Cid, shortened to Cid or as most people thought plain old Sid. Ever since I started wargaming I have had a hankering to field the army of El Cid, so that means the project has been on the back burner since the early 1970's. But 2021 is the year where I intend to create the three relevant DBA armies; Feudal Spanish, Andalusian and Islamic Berber. There will be a lot of proxying if I'm going to achieve this using Baccus figures alone but it can be done. The shopping cart is meant to reopen in January so I will be ready and waiting to pounce when it does.
So all that remains is to wish you all health, wealth and happiness for 2021. 'Lang mae yer lumb reek' as some Scottish bloke said.
A Good New Year to you and yours
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