Climb Aboard the Bandwagon!

So Ray from Don't Throw a One and The Angry Lurker seem to have created a minor blogosphere meme with their 20 Questions - so I thought I really ought to jump aboard before the bandwagon left town...

1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?
Ah, start with the tricky ones eh?  I have such a wide ranging and, some might say, eclectic set of interests that picking a favourite is going to be rather challenging.  I suppose if I have so plump for one it would be 1937-1942 (so Interwar / Early WW2) - which probably doesn't quite fit any of the traditional classifications!

Why?  Well there's the short answer and the long answer.  The short one is:  No Tiger tanks - I just find that games are so much more interesting without armour dominating the table.  The long one:  Really? I doubt you really want to hear me drone on about it ... but I find it an endlessly fascinating period both from a general and military historical point of view.

2. Next period, money no object?
Er, where do I start?  I have so many ideas and plans I could make a massive list but if I had to choose then the "money no object" element makes it a bit easier: Big Battle Napoleonics - I've always wanted to get into it but every time I work out what I would need I shy away due to the "investment" required. I have dabbled with skirmish level stuff but proper battles are a different thing altogether.

Why not get into it in instalments? I hear you ask.  I suspect that's due to my butterfly tendencies and I doubt I could keep focussed on it and commit my wargaming budget for long enough at the expense of the myriad of other ideas filling my head!

3. Favourite 5 films?
Blimey, another tricky one!  Well, if I had to give you a list, right now (by which I mean it will have changed by the time I finish typing it) then it would be: Aliens, Terminator, Highlander, The Apartment and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Ok, so it's not the most critically acclaimed set but they are ones I return to time and time again).

4. Favourite 5 TV series?
Ok, so the caveats for the last question apply equally well here...but the 5 would be: Alias, Justified, Band of Brothers, the Big Bang Theory and Battlestar Galactica (the new one - duh!).

5. Favourite book and author?
This one is another challenge as I love to read.  For fiction I think I would have to say Legend by David Gemmell who was my favourite fantasy author.  For non-fiction, I'm not sure I really have a favourite but if I was pushed to pick one it would probably be The French Foreign Legion by Douglas Porch.

6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!
I just have to go with John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough whose combination of diplomacy, strategy and battlefield tactics would be hard to equal.

7. Favourite Wargames rules?
Nuts! (2nd edition) by Two Hour Wargames.

8. Favourite Sport and team?
I'm afraid I've never really been interested in sport so I'm not sure how to answer this one.

9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?
I'm presuming this is a return trip and not one way (as I wouldn't be using it!).   I think I would probably use it to go back and meet my grandfathers who both passed away before I was born.

10. Last meal on Death Row?
Without thinking too carefully as to why I might be on Death Row, I suspect I would probably go for roast beef, roast potatoes and yorkshire pudding - of course the potatoes would have to be beautifully crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside!

11. Fantasy relationship and why?
I really fancied this gorgeous girl at work and used to wonder what it would be like if we got together - then I asked her out and we did (we've been married a while now too!).

12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?
If you asked my wife I suspect she would say Richard Wilson!

13. Favourite Comic Superhero?
As I like my superheroes to be on the darker side it would have to be Batman (without the slightly dubious sidekick).

14. Favourite Military quote?
“Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage than audacity”  - Karl von Clausewitz.

15. Historical destination to visit?
I would love to tour the sites of Marlborough's great victories - Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet; however, battlefield tours aren't usually an option on family holidays!  The closest I've got so far is the tapestries at Blenheim Palace.

16. Biggest Wargaming regret?
Probably not getting into the hobby earlier.  I really only got involved in my early 20's and didn't start collecting figures seriously for some years after that.

17. Favourite Fantasy job?
Eccentric billionaire?

18. Favourite Song Top 5?
I used to listen to music a lot but got out of the habit and now I don't really do it that much.  My taste in music is like my wargaming interests - wide ranging and regularly changing - so picking a top five is really rather difficult.  I suspect most of my favourite songs come from the past as they are the ones with the most memories attached - from bands such as the Alan Parsons Project, Barclay James Harvest, the Electric Light Orchestra and Queen.

19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?
There have been so many - one of the reasons I like the hobby so much - if I had to pick one, it would be the WW2 game I ran.  It was based around Arnhem and one of the aircraft had gone off course and dropped some paras away from the target.  As the players advanced across the table they spotted a German army patrol and so decided to sneak through some woods - the look on the players faces when they discovered the woods concealed elements of a refitting SS Panzer Division was an absolute corker!

20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Everything in some way or other!  Joking aside I think the thing that upsets me the most is people being inconsiderate of others.