My copy of Callsign Taranis for The Ion Age

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“This last decade has seen suffering on a scale not seen for centuries since the obliterating horror of the Aldan Crucible. In the twenty years since the murder of my father in rightful battle and following this my abduction as a child, Prydia has been aflame and never more so than in the this decade now closed. None know the true count of this conflict but it is in the billions of needless deaths. All these deaths needless and the result of the ambitions of the rebel barons and their leagues. Now, here, in the liberation of Bosworth IV we have reached the high water mark of the Leagues. They will rise no more. Edmund Bluefort, leader and lord of the League of Canlaster, is dead this very day in fair joust. With his death and the returning of this planet to freedom I send out this message across all the systems in the Precinct. Freedom is coming and the darkness will be lifted in the months and years to come. As long as it takes, you will all be liberated and returned to a worthy peace. Coming from the skies the red and white of the Prydian Army will drive out the rebel barons and their lackeys one planet, one settlement at a time. The flame that threatened to burn us all and reduce us once more to savages will be put out. Already it gutters and fails. That which has been ruined will be rebuilt and restored. Prydia is rising once more and now more than ever before we must stand united against threats that may come to us from beyond our own stars. This civil war will end!”
Princess Daphne Cyon addresses the Precinct from Zone 62 New Bosworth 4330 IC

My space opera setting just doubled in size!

You can read all about my latest book Callsign Taranis online on its page of the website. I am very proud of this expansion book and though it took longer than hoped or expected to chisel to a finished monolith it is now crossing the globe to all those who made the choice to order it up early. Thank you! I only wish to add some pictures here of what the book likes like internally. Its pages and their quality. We decided to get the book printed in Scotland and went for a high quality paper and bind meaning Callsign Taranis will stand up to the rigours of long term use by wargamers.  It is a thing of beauty and that is important and I think we will do this again.  It costs more and means we make less money but at the same time the customer gets a ruddy good product and we keep people in work here.  This also applied to the larger format pre-print with new cover art of the original Patrol Angis book to which this new one is the expansion sequel.

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“In Callsign Taranis you will find the expansion rules covering the use of Vehicles in play as well as Structures and other bolt on mechanics. There are also game statistics for the vehicles of the Prydian Civil War and additional skills, equipment and items for your troops. Following on from Patrol Angis is part two of the Prydian Civil War background. Also in this book is the Support Phase and the Between Games development of your forces. Rules for how to play larger games of Patrol Angis and how to generate random terrain. A bolt on section for Building your Forces with Vehicle and Mixed platoons. This and more all in a packed sixty four pages! 15mm Wargaming!”

The Ion Age is my own baby. My forth child as it were. It is by a long margin the smallest compared to Alternative Armies and 15mm.co.uk but it is growing and between myself and Sam Croes we are creating something special, something unique.

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I have made the choice that although I will not be posting much here on my own site I will be putting up short articles with my own look at some of the books and products I am involved with closely. What I have written or been impressed by. If you want to see what I am up to most every day then look to the right and follow me on Googleplus and or Facebook. My own site is for musing and mutterings beyond these.

GBS

The 2016 EU Referendum – Brexit

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This week the United Kingdom makes one of the biggest choices it will ever make by public vote. To leave the European Union or to remain in the European Union. On Thursday 23rd June 2016 voters will turn out and decide with a result which will decide the future of the nation. It has been a constant for me for months now and after all the ‘fun’ of the Scottish referendum of 2014 which lasted many months I am frankly tired of it all.

This short posting on my own personal blog is not exhaustive by any means and it is not meant to be either. The whole matter is so complex that it is virtually impossible for any mere mortal (believe me I have watched and read so much it is a joke that any normal person would subject themselves to such dry torture) to make an informed choice as to how to vote. What I know for certain is that you have to choose if you wish Westminster to be sovereign in law making, if you wish to have politicians who are accountable to be voted out if you do not like them, if you believe fundamentally that diversity is vital, if you think political expansion over all other concerns is the goal and so on. In the end do you side with a corrupt but expansive market or with a smaller corrupt but accountable one. Certainly no one in power who has a vested interest in remaining in the EU gives a toss about normal people; that has been plain to see. I think the EU has been a bain upon the normal poorer people of Britain (and other member nations) who have born the brunt of its policies in the last twenty years in many areas while the wealthier have reaped the benefits. If you are liberal and see it as all and only good then you see only half of it; which is your choice. There is room enough for all argument in a future too vague and wide to see properly. I think the Euro zone will collapse and that Turkey is a mistake which will be made by the EU. No more political or economic integration.  Enough.  This island is full and diverse enough.  We have enough unemployed of our own and the world is not our problem.  If we remain the UK will regret it…in ways too horrid to list here.  Sad I had to say that but it is what I think will happen based on investigation.

For me issues of sovereignty are paramount and that is how I came down during the 2014 referendum (I voted to stay in the UK if you are interested). A political choice for me and on that basis alone I will vote Leave with my one ballot paper. I think to be able to decide things on our own is better. Better for me, for my children and better for Britain. I respect your choice if you respect mine. Don’t call me racist or xenophobic. I am not and it makes me sad you might think that for speaking my refined opinion which I am entitled to. I give to charity and I have friends all over the world. Ask anyone who knows me I am a great guy and very helpful to those who need it. It is my choice and I have made it based on months of thinking and reading. The last item here and longest to finish but well worth it to understand macro power structures like the EU…

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So what will happen? I will make my prediction so that I can point back to it rightly or wrongly after the 23rd what I thought would occur openly. I think that this week the UK will vote to Leave and it will be down mainly to the bulk of the silent population being fearful of immigration and that the Westminster village has once more, as it did with the last general election, totally failed to read the mood of the nation correctly. Was I right?

Two points to finish on before I sign off. Another prediction firstly that on November 8th 2016 in the American presidential election that Donald Trump will win. He is coming to Turnberry up the road from here in Girvan to open his golf resort personally on Wednesday 22nd June and from what I know has done a lot of good for the people here in terms of jobs and pride. If Clinton wins then America is tragically racing for the cliff edge. Secondly a very sad admittance that all the politics are actually a side show to something much larger and more sinister and that is the world now. There are structural challenges in population shifts, wealth going to the 1%, climate change, religious radicalism and so on which threaten us all regardless of our geographical location….fun eh.

I prefer wargaming and writing books so normal service resumed in the next post here. I just had to make my statement.

GBS