I'm in charge of a library in Southern Illinois. Since I, my assistant, and one of the Library Board members are gamers (they mainly RPG, me whatever I can get) the library has started having a monthly Game Day on the last Saturday of the Month. I had hoped to get people into miniatures gaming, but that just didn't work out. Still we get to play a variety of board games (Settlers of Catan, Bang, Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Puerto Rico, and others) and at least one RPG usually DC Superheroes. Since some of the attendees are families with small children my wife (god love her) spends her time doing Chutes and Ladders, Ants in the Pants, and other kiddy games (she is not really a gamer and works at a daycare so she's good with kids). Since Saturday this year fell on New Year's Eve we decided to have all night Gaming New Year's Eve (started at 10PM and finished at 6AM). Since it was so late at night we were able to say no kids, for which my wife was very happy. I brought the miniatures and terrain to do a Where Heroes Dare pirate game, but once again no one was really interested. Instead we played Betrayal on the House on the Hill, I'm the Boss, The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, two sessions of DC Superheroes, Bang and many other games (I think someone even dragged out the Spongebob Operation game from the kid's games box). We had thirty to start with and a good 20 made it until 6AM. Lots of Gaming and lots of food and drink (you know gamers, and their fondness for eating). Of course, we had to have party hats and noise-makers to bring in the New Year's with.
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This plane is not actually weird, if it was 1916! But in 1931, it was plenty strange. It was created to carry the 37mm COW (Coventry Ordnance Works) gun for use against bombers. The gun is mounted in a fixed position to fire forward and upward at an oblique angle of at least 45°. Provision was made for oversize and automatically-fed ammunition clips totalling 50 shells, the entire COW gun mechanism had to be easily accessible to the pilot and steadiness as a gun platform was a prime requisite. An unequal-span two-bay biplane with comparatively high aspect ratio wings with duralumin plate and tube structure, it had a metal monocoque nacelle, accommodating the pilot to port and the COW gun to starboard, which was faired into the upper wing and raised above the lower wing by splayed N-type struts. The Type 161 was flown for the first time on 21 January 1931, and after provision of a broader-chord rudder, it flew extremely well. The whole idea of a cannon armed airplane to attack bombers was abandoned shortly thereafter.
General characteristics Crew: 1 Length: 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m) Wingspan: 32 ft 0 in (9.75 m) Height: 12 ft 4 in (3.76 m) Wing area: 270 ft2 (25.1 m2) Empty weight: 2,318 lb (1,051 kg) Gross weight: 3,350 lb (1,520 kg) Powerplant: 1 × Bristol Jupiter VIIF 9-cylinder radial, 530 hp (395 kW) Performance Maximum speed: (at 10,000 ft, 3,048 m) 185 mph (298 km/h) Rate of climb: (to 10,000 ft, 3,048 m) ft/min (8.76 m/s) Armament 1× 37 mm (1.46 in) COW automatic gun |
Mysterious BillI've been gaming since the 1970's and even wrote some RPG adventures in the 80's for the Judges Guild. It seems that I can only get in miniatures is gaming at cons, but I do regularly play boardgames and RPGs. Archives
February 2018
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