Going out Stars-style

There is no question the season, for a Dallas Stars hockey loyalist, has been disappointing; and, further, that perhaps all three bulwarks of the franchise were playing their final home game tonight. But for one night, everything was as it should be, again: Jere Lehtinen and Mike Modano set up the team's first goal, Modano scored the second with barely a minute left to send the game to overtime--then in the shootout Lehtinen and Modano both scored again, and Marty Turco stoned the opposing shooters to make the perfect ending stand up, for an electric victory.

I want them all back. There is no question Modano still has it, and makes everyone around him better, and what a helluva fourth line center he could still be; the talk certainly seems to be that he is leaning to retiring, and the argument can be made that the Stars are ready to run Richards, Rebeiro and some combination of Ott/Benn/Wandell down the middle without him; I counter that Modano, returning at the level he is still playing, allows some of those centers to stay on the ice as wings, and the front line becomes even more formidable. Bottom line, he is still greatness and if he wants to play one more, I will be heartily cheering. Lehtinen has had difficulty staying healthy and there have been games where he has looked spent...but those who know far more than I say his mastery of all the little, inobvious, intangible things is second to none, and that if he could be had at a bargain, he will be welcomed back. If he can contribute consistently like he contributed tonight, that would be grand. Marty is likeliest to be gone simply because the Stars, having signed their future goalkeep, will not give him a starting keeper's salary--wouldn't even if they somehow remedy their grotesquely-handicapping ownership situation in the off-season--but...if it happens that he isn't offered giant money elsewhere, one hopes the Stars have kept the relationship open enough that if he is forced to consider a lesser contract, he would welcome the one that keeps him home. I do not expect that to happen: someone is going to realize Marty's biggest problems this season were Dallas' woeful blue line, and realize how much his presence in goal will make them better. They way these things tend to work, it will probably prove to be a team which will allow him to make the Stars pay, repeatedly. But by all reports he is beloved in that locker room, and he certainly is in this community (and in this household, where 'wanting to be like Marty' has turned my seven-year-old into a rabid Stars fan, a budding hockey player...and allowed him to show us things we never guessed he had, as his team's soccer goalie)...and you hate to say goodbye to class like that.

But if they must go...what an amazing way to go. Life rarely follows the script; tonight, for Marty, Jere and Mikey, the heroes rose to the moment, and saved the day, and got to take us with them as they went out in style. Stars-style.
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April 1829: The Fall of The Raven

Mention 'Sam Houston' in 21st century America and the image conjured by the name is of a giant of the War for Texas Independence, and in the governance of that same republic once independence was won; a man as big as the towering statue of him which overlooks I45 in Huntsville, Texas.

It is worth remembering that he was all of those things, while still being as human--and flawed--as us all. And his darkest moment of failure culminated almost two centuries ago this month.

Houston was an Andrew Jackson man. He fought under Jackson at the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River against the Red Stick indians, where he was nearly killed but his relentless courage was noted by Old Hickory; both were promoted from Tennessee militia to regular army as result--Houston to Washington to recuperate from his horrific injuries, where he watched in fury as the British burned the upstart nation's capital in the War of 1812, Jackson eventually to New Orleans, where his makeshift coalition of bayou Cajuns, southern gentlemen, blacks slave and free and Jean LaFitte's pirates shattered those same British, further idolizing him in Houston's eyes--and when the two turned after to politics, they did so as virtual father-and-son, Jackson eventually to the presidency in no small measure due to Houston's relentless support in Congress, and Houston ultimately to follow Jackson to the governance of Tennessee, and commandery of her militia (whence he would take his title, like Jackson before him, of General). As the tidal wave of liberalized 'western' democracy reshaped the face of the establishment 'eastern' American republic in the late 1820s, there were no small few who believed the tall Virginian who had lived among the Cherokee in his youth and earned the name 'colonneh,' or Raven, would continue to follow his mentor on to the presidency.

His resume lacked only the social touch. The Raven needed a wife.

He took one in Eliza Allen, blonde and blue-eyed daughter of a Gallatin, Tennessee colonel. She seemed the perfect fit, embraced by the gentry of Nashville, and Houston, by all accounts, fell deeply for her.

And never recovered--for within three months, it was over, and Sam Houston's rise with it.

It is still not absolutely clear what happened. Considerable aspersions of character were suggested of Eliza, which so provoked Houston that he swore in print to kill any man who questioned her purity. She slipped after into obscurity, and Houston refused publicly ever to speak of it, the rest of his life; most likely, it was the simple, calamitous combination of a man in love with a woman who loved another, which neither could reconcile.

By April of 1829, the marriage was over (Houston not being of either honor or temperament to demand Eliza remain in a loveless union of politics or convenience), Houston had resigned the governorship of Tennessee due to 'overwhelming...sudden calamities'...and The Raven, once destined for greatness in the East, had disappeared, miserable, beaten and failed, into the west.

Fortunately--for Sam Houston and for the many liberty-minded settlers of the next decade--to the west lay Texas. Without the 'calamity' which took him down so completely in disgrace by April of 1829, there likely would not have been a man of his stature west of the Sabine in 1836, a man capable of making the difficult, wrenching decisions which kept the newborn republic alive in the face of overwhelming adversity, of weathering the bitter scorn of the humiliating 'Runaway Scrape' without breaking; he had broken once, and been so tempered by it he would not falter again. By the April of seven years later, the old Sam Houston was reborn...and when the time came to turn and break Santa Anna and Mexico instead, at San Jacinto, in the name of liberty, freedom, the selfsame rights so essential to the democracy of the west that had changed the American nation a decade earlier and borne him to triumph after triumph, this time, Sam Houston was ready.

The Raven had risen, phoenixlike, and borne a nation up with him. A weight he likely would not have been equal to without the tempering of disgrace, in April of 1829.
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Hobby Synergy

There has *never* been a better time to be starting a Warhammer 40,000 army in North Texas.

That is a pretty unqualified statement, I know--but consider how much play value is available to a hobbyist who decides to begin playing 40K right now (or start a new army for same):

1. a purchase of any basic Citadel box set (a cost of as little as under thirty bucks) from The Gamers Realm gives admission to their months-long Escalation League.
2. a minimum purchase of forty-five bucks worth of GW product from Lone Star Comics Dallas gives admission to their months-long Escalation League.
3. there was no additional cost to participate in XMax Games' Moon XM campaign, which included brand-new campaign mission designed to allow new forces onto the table in small points increments and a two-day, five round Doubles tourney Mar 20-21--and they will be starting another all-new, no-cost-to-play mapbased campaign (using Planetary Empires) April 3.
4. HobbytownUSA Dallas just completed a centerpiece modeling and painting contest.
5. Lone Star Comics Mesquite will offer a multi-player mega-battle in early June.

And those are just the events local retailers have made Adeptus North Texas aware of; I know the Grapevine and Frisco GW stores have ongoing events which would be complementary (not least of which is their excellent Academy programs), Comic Asylum and Area 51 regularly run events and contests for 40K, most of the other Lone Star locations have their own events (particularly the Plano crew), Comic Book Craze in Garland continues to build their GW presence, etc.

In terms of entertainment bang for the buck--it doesn't easily get better than this.

Supporting local stockists who make space available for play and--perhaps even more importantly--put effort into events which keep the hobby fresh and fun is the best way hobbyists can ensure such stockists remain. When they make such supporting purchases this good a value, everyone benefits. A squad or similar box from TGR, a beast from HTUD and the minimum Lone Star Dallas purchase could come in at about a hundred dollars--and produce *months* of league and campaign play, until summer. That kind of synergy didn't exist in North Texas until very recently. Let's ensure, as customers, it remains.
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Space Hulk: The Heresy

One of the (many) things Warhammer 40,000 hobbyists, designers and the keepers of Intellectual Property at Games Workshop seem perpetually of two camps about is playing the events of the 31st Millennium Horus Heresy out in miniature.

If *I* were emperor, the Horus Heresy would never have been explored in the kind of detail the recent Black Library novel series has done--precisely because it has added very little (one really strong book, a couple higher quality books, and a raft of under-par disappointments) and robbed the Warhammer 40,000 background of mystery, stature and scope in the process. Mythic events stay mythic better when we concretely *know* very little about them.

Fantasy Flight Games' new and expansive board game Horus Heresy will provide additional detail...and bring the events of the Heresy that much closer to game play (admittedly still not in miniature--though the game pieces look very much like the sorts of things we miniatures hobbyists will *have* to have...).

And GW itself has occasionally toyed with recreating the Heresy in 28mm--though usually for 'showpiece' events like the GamesDay Seige of Terra table--while steadfastly positing that there will never be official rules or models supplementing the existing forty-first millennium background with armies, characters and events from ten thousand years earlier.

That is pretty much my preference, as well; when you start statting up Leman Russ, Magnus, Horus and the Emperor for 40K play, their magic goes away (see 'destroying the mythic' above).

*If* I had the power, however, I *would* explore the Heresy in miniature, in a very specific way--a way GW themselves have recently templated for us, so successfully: I would release a self-contained game, with the draw being the specific models everyone would like to have from the Heresy, in a limited edition. In other words: Space Hulk: The Heresy. Purists would get it for the ability to possess 'official' Guileman or Dorn or Mortarion miniatures, 40K players would get it to turn the included models into their own elite, ornate Ultramarine or Imperial Fist or Death Guard characters, GW would make a short fortune...and be able to 'officially' say there still weren't 40K minis (or more importantly, statistics) for Heresy-era figures.

If such a game were successful (and does anyone think it would not be?), GW could cover the major Heresy players in supplemental releases, over a series of years.

Imagine the first limited edition game recreating Horus' battle barge in Space Hulk board tiles (compatible with existing segments, of course, and of the same extraordinary quality) and featuring the confrontation between Horus and the Emperor; perhaps in addition to those two awesome miniatures might come Sanguinius, figures of Heresy-era Blood Angels and Luna Wolves/Sons of Horus/Black Legion. I'd even find a way to put the villain Erebus from the Word Bearers in there, to balance the Blood Angel primarch. What hobbyist would not want such a game? Follow that a year later with a supplement pitting Guileman against Alpharius, with Heresy era Ultramarines and Alpha Legion, or Perturabo and Iron Warriors against Rogal Dorn and Imperial Fists. Culminate the series with the piece de resistance: Leman Russ and his Space Wolves against The Thousand Sons and Magnus the Red, all with exquisite Citadel limited-edition 28mm models--40K scale miniatures that still were not 'really' 40K Heresy-era products--and GW could bridge both Heresy camps...at a likely considerable profit, besides. Win/Win/Win.

All I ask for suggesting the idea is a copy of my own of each game--and (for purely selfish reasons) that the Mortarion sculpt look especially wicked cool :)
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Despatch: Plastic Minotaurs

Acknowledging that I am probably a hard-sell--I love the existing Citadel pewter Minotaur models, they were the core of my previous edition Beastmen army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and I had a small hand in creating the Minotaur HQ option for same (what became the Doombull) so I have a certain entirely-unearned-but-real-nonetheless emotional sense of ownership toward them--my initial reaction to the all-plastic, multipose Minotaurs released along with the all-new Beastmen Army Book was *not* enthusiastic.

Having assembled my first unit of three, however, my opinion has modified, to the positive.

The negatives remain: I do not like how oversized they've become compared to the existing metals, I do not like some of the strange anatomical decisions made by the sculptors (chiefly the weird non-hooved hybrid feet and the 'bubble-muscle' look), I do not like how fur/pelt detail has become stylized rather than realistic (an aesthetic choice across the new Beastmen line which looks cartoonish and fake and doesn't work at all, for me), and I do not think the heads resemble either the existing Citadel Minotaur look or real bovine creatures. It has been suggested there is a World of Warcraft influence....

Those points made, I observed in building the actual models that much of these (admittedly subjective) aesthetic issues could be pretty-easily modified by a painting approach which geared the Minotaurs either toward the existing GW look, or just toward a more subdued, realistic approach generally; it appears the Eavy Metal versions seen in advance of their release in White Dwarf uniformly opted to accentuate the design choices made in the sculpts (an admittedly understandable marketing decision). This is particularly true of the heads, which are more recognizably Minotaurish in bare plastic.

And as has been the case with GW's multipart plastic figure kits for some time now, the technical execution is impeccable (sharply-cast details in high-quality plastic with little flash and outstanding fit) and the parts value is high (after assembling my three Minotaurs I had two heads, three sets of horns, four sets of arms, almost a dozen weapons and myriad optional extra detail bits left over). Particularly impressive is the ability to model full command, or three hand-weapon-and-shield, two-hand-weapon or double-handed great weapon armed Minotaurs in each box.

Will they replace my mighty pewter beasts, if I ever return to fielding Beastmen? No. But might they augment those worthies? That they might...
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The Hoard of Arthur?

In July 2009, an amateur with a metal detector uncovered on of the greatest hoards of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver yet found, buried in Staffordshire, England. The find has now been tentatively dated to the AD 600s--an era to conjure with--and the nature of the treasure does not suggest noble burial, as at Sutton Hoo, so much as hastily-hidden war gain: virtually all of it is military, from helmet fragments to sword hilts, virtually all of it appears to have been used (and recently) as opposed to ceremonial or ornamental in nature, and such things as still-evident rivets on the gear suggest it was ripped from it's original owners hastily, and buried to hide it. 'It looks like war booty,' according to the archeology head of Staffordshire. 'Losing these objects, (a Saxon) king would have lost his status and authority.'

So much is lost and unknown from these dark ages--called the Insular Period in Great Britain as it seems almost completely isolated from events occurring across Europe, about which little enough is even known--we may never know who the defeated Saxon was...much less who conquered him, stripped him and his warband of the objects which demonstrated their power, and threw them into at least temporary disorganization and chaos by hiding away their status symbols. But it fires the imagination to consider literature, folklore and tradition's likeliest candidate.

Modern 'historical' Arthurian scholarship tends to put its favorite candidates for an historical King Arthur earlier than this, into the early sixth and even likelier fifth centuries...and given what the two great historical documents (the Anglo Saxon Chronicle and the History of Gildas) of the era say--or rather *don't* say, at least explicitly--about the dux bellorum of Roman Britain's successful-if-brief turning-back of the Germanic invasion of the isle, they are probably right. There is no shortage of evidence--including in their own literary tradition, the epic Beowulf--of Anglo-Saxon internecine warfare in these dark times.

But could it have been 'the Bear' and his mounted champions of the Romanized and perhaps Christianized British tribes, who struck this blow against barbarism and brute tyranny on the Staffordshire plain a millennia-and-a-half ago? Fortunately for the poet or romantic in us all, the times were too dark to definitively answer no....

'And here we leave Arthur...who was never historical, but everything he did was true.' --Thomas Berger, Arthur Rex

Source: Kate Ravilious, 'Archeology' Jan/Feb 2010, page 22, Archeological Institute of America
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