CameraDave.co.uk

I just like to take this moment to say I am not dead, I say this as I recently got a phone call from my father asking me just that - His reason for asking that was because I am not someone who phones regularly, he uses this site to keep tabs on me.

I’ve not put anything up here of late as I have been sidetracked and not quite myself, but hopefully all I am back to normal (or what passes as normal for me anyways) and things should start appearing up here regularly once more.

Now whilst I am not dead I wish the same could be said for 3rd Unit. 3rd Unit is my unit in a campaign wargame based during the Vietnam War (which interestingly wasn’t a war) using a ruleset called FNG (Fuckin’ New Guy). The idea behind the system is that you start off with a bunch of cheese dick cherries and if they survive long enough they eventually turn into a bunch of Rambos - However the game is rather lethal and not everybody makes it, rather like Vietnam reallly.

Here’s an example of one of the missions and shows why being in ‘Nam was also reffered to as ‘being in the shit’.

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The mission was simple, unfortunately so was Sgt Clint Norris who had to lead his squad out past the perimeter and prepare a surprise for Charlie. Having advanced past the perimeter and located a suitable ambush site, Sgt Norris gave the order for the unit to split up into 2 fireteams and prepare secure positions defended with claymores to greet any unwelcome visitors.

So far, so good, but not for much longer, as the sound of two claymores going off in quick succession at opposite ends of the lines pierced the night. Unfortunately it was not because they were not set off by VC forces, but by the men setting them up. Cpl Doyle was killed outright by the explosion and Sgt Norris received a serious wound to the head incapacitating him.

Worse news was yet to come, as not only were the officers of the unit down, the radio which had been carried by Doyle was like him and lying in pieces, although unlike him it looked repairable.

At this point with the officers down, the radio out and position given away Spec. Spike took charge and gave the order to withdraw with four men carrying each body.

Having given their position away so spectacularly, the VC forces in the area were quick to investigate and 3rd Unit soon found themselves being pursued and coming under occasional fire and led the VC straight back towards the rest of the platoon.

Meanwhile back at base, Sgt Killins and 2nd unit were guarding the perimeter.

Having a bad feeling about the night Killins advanced out into the cleared killing ground and prepared a claymore of his own attached to a tripwire. Suddenly from outside the perimeter came the sounds of people running through the trees with shouts punctuated by sporadic gunfire.

Panicking, Killins went to run back to the safety of cover, unfortunately for 3rd unit he hadn’t finished setting up the claymore properly and in his rush to get to safety he caused it to detonate and kill the first two members of 3rd unit as they emerged from the hostile side of the killing ground. Startled by the blast before them, Pvt Stone stumbled and fell to the ground.

Unfazed by this Spec Stone ordered Pvt Felt; who was toting the Sarge’s M60, to help him cover the remainder of the unit, whilst they fell back carrying the dead and wounded.Weighted down by the remains of Cpl Doyle and slowed by the sudden absence of Pvt Stone, the GIs at the back of the unit came under sustained fire from the VC and Pvt Wild fell to the ground, as an unlucky (for him anyway) bullet tore his throat out.

Lying on the ground praying silently that the advancing VC wouldn’t notice him Pvt Stone laid amidst the bodies and his prayers were answered as the VC walking around him were distracted by the sight of Spec Spike lining up a shot with his M79 and cut him down in a hail of fire from their AK47s before he could launch a grenade at them.

Finally something went right for 3rd unit. The VC in their eagerness to chase when down had brought themselves within range of 2nd unit who were concealed amidst the tree line on the other side of the killing ground - Surprising them, they managed to drop one of the advancing VC, however in giving away their position the return fire caused two of 2nd unit to fall to the ground, only one of whom started screaming in pain.

Pvt Stone, unnoticed and now behind the advancing VC brought his M16 up to bear and dropped the last of the standing VC from the unit that had walked over him. As that man dropped, another of the VC rose up from amongst the bodies who whilst injured hadn’t yet given up the fight and he charged at Pvt Stone, who in turn fled into the jungle in fear.

Now standing alone amongst the dead and injured with the sound of more VC approaching Pvt Felt decided he was on the wrong side of the killing ground and fell back towards 2nd unit shouting to identify himself. 2nd unit found themselves being reinforced as the platoon command and 1st unit came out to find out what was happening on the perimeter, 2nd unit having engaged the enemy and having an idea of how bad things were radioed for further support requesting a gunship for cover.

Falling back across the open ground between refuge and the VC, firing the M60 as he did so Pvt Felt managed to drive back the VC on one flank before being wounded and taken out of action.

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Rather amusingly the random soundtrack of music from the era happened to be playing ‘The End’ by The Doors, although it was only the end of the battle for 3rd Unit as the remainder of the platoon fought off the VC with a little help from a helicopter. As an addtional note it’s good to know that pretty much all of 3rd unit was shot dead and not merely wounded as their bodies along with the VC wound up being the targets of rockets.

The final toll for the ten men of 3rd unit was 6 dead, 2 wounded, 1 MIA and 1 coward (or perhaps 1 sensible person). Private O’Hanlon, one of the wound was wounded so severely that he was sent back to the world, Sgt Clint Norris however was made of sterner stuff and was patched up and back on duty within a couple of days. Of the missing Spec Spike and the unit’s M79 however there was no sign and they have been presumed captured by the enemy.

A little while ago I comment on how I had yet to edit the photos I had taken before Christmas when visiting my father in Cornwall - Photos that I still haven’t edited.

Enjoying my first full day in Cornwall I have added about another 700 photos to the queue, but despite being at the back of the queue. I have already given them a quick edit down to about 100 photos which I will try and get put up on here shortly.

All the photos were taken down at Widemouth Bay whilst I helped my father take the dogs for a walk and whilst one of the dogs wasn’t particularly obliging, the other was a right poser as you can see above.

I’ll put a link up to the gallery just as soon as I can get the photos up - Due to the vagaries of the Internet at my Dad’s I can’t get access to my website and so I am having to type this up elsewhere and so can’t upload them all at the moment.

Over the past week I have learned that I seem to be reasonably good at warfare, but not so good at being tribal - Especially as at one point I got bored and decided to leave the tribe I was part of and wage war on them as well.

Allow me to explain how I came to this conclusion, about a week or so ago a friend introduced me to a game called Tribal Wars. The premise is simple, you start with a village and develop it and then join with other players in a tribe to wage war on other tribes. All of this happens in real time, so you can wake up and find that your village has been annexed by a nearby player - This hasn’t happened to me yet, but has happened to several players near me, most of whom have decided to go and try starting a village somewhere a little quieter.

My favourite moments so far have been coming home slightly inebriated at 4am and deciding that was the perfect time to attack nearby players. Sadly as the game is populated by a lot of male 16-25 year old maturity varies from player to player.

One player actually congratulated me on taking out his village as it was apparently carried out in a textbook manner with troops being used appropriately to weaken his village and not giving him a chance to recover at any point, despite the help he was getting from friends of his in defending his village. He didn’t believe that I was quite the n00b I was claiming to be only a couple of days beforehand.

Not all players are as pleasant though and here’s an exchange that started with the player after I scouted him out:

Mikusina: come and get some

Me: I will, but only when I am ready.

(Cue me doing the number crunching between his forces and mine, with me concluding that I could wipe him out without any real difficulty and launching an attack. He dodges his troops out of his village so when my attack hits he loses nothing except a few resources.)

Me: Sorry we called while you were out, however rest assured that we will call again at a more convenient time to catch you in. Would you care to suggest a time for me to visit you?

Mikusina: dude u scared shit out of me , i will cry to my mommy ohh

Me: So that’s where you were when I came knocking, it’ll be a few hours before I visit you again - Should give time for her apron to dry out nicely before you get it all wet again.

At this point realising I was probably arguing with a 16 year old American schoolkid, I decided that I’d teach him that someone who knows how to use punctuation and grammar, might also know how to kick some ass as well.

A few attacks at random intervals and now he has no troops left and is in line to be the second village I take over at some point in the next couple of days.

Further evidence I am doing something right is my place in the rankings, as out of over 45,000+ players I am in the top 400 and if all goes to plan I should be in the top 100 inside of 48 hours.

In terms of aggressive player however I do even better, as I am already in the top 200 for enemies slain. I might only have an army of about 2000, but I have killed over 13,000 troops and scared off 5 other players in the process.

I’ve argued repeatedly that Maths can be funny to little avail with most of my friends and now I’d like to argue that it can also be romantic. I admit that it’s more of a stretch to argue this particular case without some kind of obligatory multiplication gag.

A picture being worth a thousand words here’s a post from xkcd that I meant to post a couple of weeks back for Valentine’s Day:

I know technically it doesn’t work, but I have to admit if I got this as a Valentine I’d be well chuffed - That said seeing as how I haven’t had a Valentine for several years, I’d be chuffed just to get one so perhaps I should say I’d be especially chuffed if I received something like a Sierpinski Valentine.

For the uninitiated and curious the idea comes from a fascinating shape called a Sierpinski Triangle which is a surprisingly complex shape that is generated by a couple of very simple rule, for more on it have a look here at wikipedia on Sierpinski Triangles.

Back in December I visited my father at his new home on the Devonshire coast and I took quite a few photos, however for one reason and another - The main one being that I am putting off trying to learn to use a new photo editing programme called GIMP.

Still I am detirmined to get round to it at some point, preferably before I visit him next month and add to my backlog of photos to be edited, until then here is a photo of his dogs.

Just before roleplay this evening Gav, a friend of mine shared with me today and it’s possibly the best sentence I’ve heard all day - And if it is bettered this week I’ll be lucky.

“I discovered earlier today that I had two balls of string and not just one - Aren’t I lucky?”

Yes, I am that purile sometimes.