Mumbling about the dying of the light

Stealth

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:29:54 GMT

I think Sky+ is great, one of the best home entertainment inventions ever. Yes I know it's been done before and it's not that revolutionary really but the integration of it and ease of use just make it oh so very good. A bit like the iPod I guess, not the first, just done right.

However now I've been hurt by it.

Last night I watched Stealth.

I think the box did try to save me, the first time I recorded it it had signed "subtitles" on it. I didn't learn, I tried again.

Now I enjoy trashy movies. A couple of hours of popcorn fun can be quite enjoyable. Earlier on I'd finished watching K-PAX so I was in the mood for something fluffy.

When I want fluff I want it to be fluff. Stealth tried to be more. Someone involved with the script had clearly picked up a few buzz military words and threw them about all over the place with scant regard for what they actually meant.

What was worse though was it's complete flagrant disregard for the rest of the world. The American's could do what they want, when they wanted and they were always the good guys.

They blow some nukes up, the cloud of nuclear waste covers a town of thousands of people and is going to drift into Pakistan. Never mentioned again...

Two armed military aircraft fly into Russian airspace, one with the intent of attacking a Russian target. The Russians understandably launch aircraft to intercept them. They're shot down without thought. Hello? You're kind of in the wrong aren't you? Especially in the wake of 9/11 you'd think that the movie people might realise that. No. They're still the heroes.

Another aircraft later flies over North Korea and the pilot ejects. She starts shooting the North Koreans who are trying to capture her. Then another "hero" plane shows up and starts blowing up North Korean soldiers. Finally the US Navy show up.

So two foreign sovereign states are invaded and attacked by the "good guys" and when they try to defend themselves and their borders they're "bad".

It all really kind of annoyed me.

Much of the conflict and "drama" in the movie revolved around the heroes actually being bad.

To really cap it off the same pilots spend bits of the movie talking about the ethics and morals of war. They speak of how a human is better than a computer because they understand the moral dimension of what they're doing. Um. No. Not by their example.

So basically it was a bad movie. A very bad movie. I had to rant somewhere about it.....

Wonderful

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:36:17 GMT

Transformers and Badgers in glorious union....

Click Here

Metallica @ Wembley

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:51:36 GMT

So off I went to Wembley yesterday to see the Metallica show.

Wembley itself looks pretty good. I only ever went to the old stadium once, several years ago for Aerosmith. It struck me then as being a bit tired. Now it looks rather swish and very very big. We were on the pitch and the seats tower above you.

However the view from the pitch was pretty sucky, and I'm not short. The stage needs to be higher.

What did I think of the show?

Well they were good, very good. I've seen them a few times and this was up there with the best of them. We got the new nice clean James Hetfield once again. Years ago when he used the term MFs on stage it meant something a bit ruder than the My Friends term he uses now. He did slip up near the end though and out came a few profanities. I'm sure his therapist was rubbing his hands at that, that'll take several hours to discuss away.

One complaint I did have was that there didn't seem to be much interaction with the crowd. On the positive side that means no more 20 minute long sing along versions of Seek and Destroy, on the downside it did leave me feeling that something was missing.

A bigger concern I've got is that of Metallica becoming a nostalgia act. The bulk of their set came from the albums up to, and including, the black album. Scarily enough that's over 15 years old now (even scarier I saw them on one of the many tours for it). There was one track from ReLoad, which is 10 years old, and one track from the S&M Album (which was very cool to hear live) which is 8 years old now.

St. Anger and Load were just avoided.

So as said it was a nostalgia trip. I'm kinda worried that they're going to turn into Black Sabbath, who much as I love them to bits and paid a fortune to see them in the Astoria ended up becoming just that. A worshipping of things and times past rather than something new and vital.

There was a positive sign, it was nice to see the new bass player being "allowed" to play Orion. A sign of respect in him and also of the band also feeling able to step up to the oche and dealing with that aspect of their history.

Fingers crossed the new album will be good and the first step forward since the Black Album that they don't later seem to regret.

I'm 0x21!

Sun, 20 May 2007 17:23:36 GMT

I've managed to drag my birthday out to over a week not but I think it's finally over......

Many things to cover.....

Avenue Q, fantastic, very funny indeed.

Souk Medina Restaurant, an amazing atmosphere. You sit around the low tables on low seats or benches, you really do feel like you're in a different world. The food though was good but not superb, filling and satisfying it is though. They do an excellent Mohito cocktail though. Lots of fresh mint, very good indeed. I'm usually a beer man so it takes a lot to tempt me away, they managed it though.

The Star Wars Exhibition, very good indeed! Highlights included seeing some young kids "fight" Darth Vader at Jedi school, watching Mr Vader come down the stairs very slowly because it was dark and his force skills don't seem to cover detecting stairs and seeing lots of the famous concept art at first hand. Everyone who went seemed to enjoy it and it's woken a desire to watch the movies again.

Getting a boat back to Greenwich, much better than the train! Sure it takes a while but it's so good.

I seem to have been going down with a cold recently but it held off yesterday and kicked today so even that's good.

So much happy happy joy joy going on!

External Disk Drives

Thu, 17 May 2007 17:09:08 GMT

OK hit a problem.....

I use my work provided external HDD as a backup for my Mac. The problem is I now need to work on a huge database and it looks like I'm going to need to use the external drive to do that, which means it'll have to be converted to NTFS, which means it won't work with my Mac (well it will apparently read from it but won't write to it).

Plop.

So I might have to buy my own external drive, it's not just for backups but I'm playing around with videos now and they're huge.

Do I buy the 250gb (£80) or the 500gb (£130) version of the model I've got my eye on. A part of me is determined not to cut corners and get the bigger one, you never known when I might want the space. However 500gb is huge! I've got an hours odd of footage from Vegas and the project comes in at about 35gb right now and that'll probably be deleted once I've finished it. I can't see me ever working on more than one or two videos at a time so the 250gb is plenty big enough. Or is it.

Ponder, ponder, ponder.....

Found the music!

Thu, 17 May 2007 10:22:26 GMT

Well that was quite quick.....

It's from the movie Requiem for a Dream, well almost. An edited version of Lux Aeterna was produced for the trailer to LOTR The Two Towers and has then been reused in many trailers, it's that version that is the one in particular I was looking for and it's known as "Requiem for the Tower".

Anyhow the original music can be found here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=e2Ma4BvMUwU

The "remix" is here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VQnE74BDzu0

Go me :)

I'll probably grab myself a copy of the soundtrack now, it sounds like it'll be ideal for gaming purposes.

Edited to Add:
Well partial curses.....

The Soundtrack is available on Play, which is good. However there's an album which has the remix and some other material on it which is an iTunes exclusive, it's called Requiem for a Tower.

Now iTunes is great for buying the odd song from, something that I'm finding myself increasingly doing. However the idea of purchasing a whole album doesn't sit well with me. If it were a great deal cheaper than a hard copy CD then great, but as it is laden with DRM and at a low(ish) bit rate and all for the same price as many CDs it seems a bit much. However it's only on iTunes, I've got no choice, awkward.....

What's this music?

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:48:27 GMT

Does anyone recognise the music that starts off in the trailer for Sunshine at about 50 seconds? I've heard it before and it's often used for trailers (I've got an excellent fan trailer for Star Wars III that uses it) but I'm sure that it comes from another movie. Any ideas?

While I'm on YouTube I came across this the other day while searching for Roger Waters videos. I thought it looked really pretty good, though it does kind of give away how the movie ends. Anyhow it's from the movie The Legend of 1900 and I managed to find it on DVD the other day, whoop whoop!

News from the Hoffiverse

Fri, 04 May 2007 09:04:11 GMT

I so want to see this movie....

If only so I can see this bit properly....

The Hoff in makeup with a lightsaber, oh yes, oh yes indeed.

Digg & HD-DVD Keys

Wed, 02 May 2007 12:56:45 GMT

There's a flurry of activity going around the Web 2.0 crowd, well those that aren't engrossed in writing rude scripts for Second Life, about digg.com and it's publishing of one of the keys for the protection system on HD-DVDs.

It went something along the lines of....

REPEAT
Digg.Add(Key)
Digg.Remove(Key)
UNTIL CeaseAndDesistLetter

Personally I think copying movies, TV and music is a bad thing, unless you've got permission to do it it's theft in my opinion.

However I equally dislike the industries reaction to the problem with the emergence of ever increasing DRM on what we buy.

I buy it, it's mine, I should be able to do what I want with it.

So the publishing of the keys to get at encrypted comment. People are saying that it's freedom of speech. If I know the PIN to get at your bank money and spread it all over the internet is that freedom of speech?

Awkward.

Big business is fighting a bad thing and is using a bad thing to do it.

I wonder where this will go.....

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 22:14:47 GMT

I've just watched what is currently the last piece of Babylon 5 TV that you can watch, the Legend of the Rangers movie. It wasn't much cop to be honest, and that's from someone who liked Crusade. It was intended to act as the possible lead in for a new series, it didn't happen, I can see why.

However I must admit that it was so good to see Andreas Katsulas back in action again, G'Kar was such a good character that went through so much. He will be much missed, I always hoped I'd see G'Kar and Londo together again somehow. I know that Londo's arc had kind of finished but they always brought out the best in each other, maybe that's just the inner fan boy talking though.

This kind of brings me on to my next point. More Babylon 5 is on the way, in July apparently. A direct to DVD release which should be the first of a few. Apparently the bean counters were more than impressed with the sales that the DVD box sets pulled in and have agreed to fund some new DVD releases. JMS agreed to it under the proviso that he gets full control over them. So now we'll see if he really has still got it in him or if the pretty poor Babylon 5 production since the end of Season 4 was really down to him....

Anyhow here's some clickys....

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/118.html
http://www.babylon5scripts.com/TLT-JMS-Photos.html

London Marathon

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:14:26 GMT

Well it's the day of the London Marathon and for us spectators it's fantastic weather, less so for the runners though. I watch the start of the race on the TV while having some juice and wait till the lead women are approaching the 5 mile mark which is at the bottom of my road, only a couple of minutes walk away. Then I toddle down there and watch the action.

I really enjoy watching the race. It's kind of broken in two with the professionals and then the masses behind them, two very different moods. It's also something that makes me very glad that I live here, it's so cool to have something like like just roll past the end of your road. It's also so nice to see what it would be like if the streers were car free :)

The only slight downside is that I'm planning on doing some DIY today so I didn't partake in the cool beers that the Antigallican was selling, tempting though, very tempting.

Anyhow roll on the Tour de France which will go along the same road in the summer :)

I've posted up some photos behind the following cut for those who are interested.....

Oh and I had a lovely day yesterday baby sitting a friends kid. We took him over the park and fed the squirrels and ducks and then in the evening got in a game of Settlers of Catan with the parents. We only had to deal with one nappy change and, thankfully, it wasn't a stinky one.....

Daywatch

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:05:47 GMT

I've won tickets to go and see Daywatch next Monday :) As far as I know the official UK release date isn't until October so I'm seeing it a fair bit ahead of schedule.

Should be fun :)

Photos from Vegas will be posted up soon.....

Gatchaman

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:11:21 GMT

For those who are into such things the company doing the film version of Gatchman (better known as Battle of the Planets to me when I was a nipper) has posted some pieces of art online:
http://www.imagi.com.hk/web/main.php

It's a cracking example of why I hate flash and frame based web sites. Oh sure it's all very flash but they're a b*tch to navigate around and link to.

Anyhow I hope that Keyop and 7-Zark-7 are put into it....

Wub

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:43:25 GMT

I've just watched the final Babylon 5 episode with the commentary turned on, even not being able to hear all the dialogue I still found it an incredibly moving program. JMS was the guy doing the commentary and he seemed to find it hard to do, he said that he's not seen the episode since he made it.

Things don't exist in isolation. The episode gets to me not so much because of what it is but because it's the end to all that came before. Little moments that echo back through the past 5 seasons. In so many ways it's the right ending, it fits.

I think that it's also weird and somewhat moving to think about the changes from when I saw the first episode back around 1994 to now thirteen years later.

"There can always be new beginnings, even for people like us."

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 11:24:14 GMT

I finally upgraded my Babylon 5 collection to DVD the other day. Well there was quite a gap between selling my VHS box sets (before Christmas) and getting the DVD set (yesterday) but I got there in the end.

Anyway I watched the final episode last night as a starter. I think it was the fourth time that I've seen it, once on TV years ago, twice on video and now on DVD. I still think it's an amazing episode that knows how to touch many of the right emotional buttons.

The D was working in another room but popped past and saw just a few minutes and she said that brough tears to her eyes.

I'm looking forward to watching them all again gradually over the next year or so. I've also got a few of the movies that I never quite caught that I can now catch up with.

To begin with I think I'll watch that last episode again with the commentary turned on....

Thames Barrier Closure

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:38:21 GMT

The Thames Barrier closed today due to the weather, there's flooding up in East Anglia and it might spread further down around the coast.

Anyway I took myself down there, I've never seen it closed before :)

They had closed off the riverside path itself (I think they are concerned that it might flood) so I took this from the embankment that runs above it.

Looking along I noticed something odd.....

I happen to know a little bit about the barrier and realised that one of the gates had been opened up into the underspill position, basically they over open it and water can slip past underneath. That way they can let some of the water into the pool of London in a controlled fashion.

Anyhow I nipped around to the other side and saw the water pouring under the open gate.

For some reason I then went back around to the down river side, I'm glad that I did. Sirens went off and I could hear engines going. One of the gates began to lift up so that it too was in the under spill position, you can see the line of water on the gate showing that it's been lifted clear. Also look the groove on the concrete piers and where the water is.

So back to the other side I go!

And whoosh comes through the water! A very strong "Thames" smell that I remember from being a kid :) You can also see the groove again and gain some idea of the difference in water heights from one side to the other. The piers are huge, it's not easy to get an impression of how big they are from the photos. There is a little door visible (I promise) just at the top of the ladder on pier 8. Comparing it to that it looks like the difference is about 6 to 10 feet.

Anyhow very interesting to see, very windy too....

New iMacs?

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:12:09 GMT

Rumours are coming out that Apple's going to rejig the iMac line and make widescreen models that would function as HDTVs.

I've been considering getting one anyway, what would have tipped me over the edge would have been a way of using it as a monitor for my PC.

So if Apple are going to push this new iMac as being a TV then might it have inputs, might it accept VGA or DVI?

If they do that then I think I'm sold!

It would then mean that I'd have a HD display unit and a PS3 becomes an option further down the line......

Dreams

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 21:31:52 GMT

I had a dream last night, rather good, but as has happened before the special effects department seem to have blown their budget on something more important (Krispy Kremes?) rather than the
visuals.

Anyway I was on a plane, I think I was flying to New York, well New York was where we ended but I might have been trying for Vegas, but I skip ahead....

The plane's flying low through a city, something's wrong, it's very low. I can look out of the window and see that we're flying in between the buildings. A guy behind me panics, I stand up and begin to calm him down, I'm genuinely not concerned.

Then it's the big SFX moment. My wonderful imagination's turn in the spotlight.

Cut to an external shot.

Buildings zoom past (not badly done either).

Then we see the aircraft.

Sod.

It's small. Tiny. Obviously a model. A few strings hold it up and it's being jiggled around. D'oh!

Anyway back to the inside and the SFX boys nip off down the pub for an ill-earned pint. The plane gets lower and lower, then it lands along a stretch of motorway. Strangely enough that's a reoccurring theme in my dreams, planes flying too low and landing/crashing. So if I end up singing with the choir eternal that way remember that you read it here first.

The panicking guy has calmed down and we're all back in our seats. The plane takes off again, I know it's not far to the runway. We're still too low though, flying between the streetlamps, bang, off go the wings. The lack of the wings, and the engines attached to them, doesn't seem too big a deal though. We bank to the left (yeah I know, no idea, the scriptwriters out with the SFX boys) and approach the runway. This is at a higher level than the road, at the top of an embankment. We cross it and crunch we have our undercarriage knocked off. We land though, and taxi to a gate (yup, no comment).

Turns out that there's special gates set up to handle planes that crash land and we're at one of them, we all get off and I remember to take some photos of the plane. I meet the pilot and ask him why we took off again, he said that he only landed to begin with the try and get all the passengers calmed down and the crew in the right places (?).

Beside the plane there's a big plaque, it's got a diagram of a 747 on it (or some widebody plane) with an illustration of how one of the other planes to end up there had some of it's internal struts collapse but the rest held the fuselage together.

I then meet someone that I know, I think he looked like Mike McShane. What are the chances of that I wonder.

Finally walking away from the plane I remember I've left my bag on it, fighting the stream of not particularly distressed people I turn around and try to get back onto the plane. And then it ends.....

LOTR Marathon

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:46:09 GMT

On Saturday I finally had the LOTR movie marathon that I've been speaking about with few friends for months. We started at about 8.30 and finished about 7.30 at which point we promptly went down the pub for a few well earned pints.

The conclusion seems to be that they are very good films but that all told the first one is the weakest. Opinion seems split on the length of the Shire scenes, personally I really like them where as the others felt that they went on for far too long for very little gain.

We all agreed that the Elvish scenes could have been hacked down, possibly even beyond what was done for the cinema cut. Everything just kind of dragged in those parts.

After the first film things picked up and were soon clipping along.

A few complaints were made though.

Firstly the appearance of the army of the dead out side Minas Tirith and their pretty much complete destruction of the "evil" army makes a lot of that battle, and the sacrifices made, pointless. The book's version where they just deal with the Corsairs makes the battle a lot more dramatic.

On the matter of Minas Tirith how on earth does that city work? There was no farmland around it or signs of merchants. Rohan to me makes sense, a scattered dark age society of farmers and herders. Minas Tirith just seemed awkwardly dropped in for story reasons with little thought for the why.

Finally why not just pop the ring on the back of an eagle and fly it to Mount Doom?

Anyhow a good day, they are very good films. Sam's definitely the hero though :)

Boudica Movie

Mon, 05 Mar 2007 12:00:59 GMT

There's a film on the way about Boudica, apparently it's going to be called Warrior and is out next year.

So far so [shrug].

Rumours are though that Mel Gibson is/was attached as a producer. Now you begin to worry. We all know that Mel's got a thing or two against the English and a very "relaxed" view of historical accuracy. I dread where he could take the story.

Even worse could he somehow get some digs in at Jewish people too? Some historical accounts say that after Boudica's husband died money lenders called in the debts that he had built up. Mel's had a few beers, reads the script, reads money lenders and away his mind runs.

Please no. Just no.

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:29:56 GMT

On Friday I finally had my first proper game of Victory at Sea. It was fun and seemed to go pretty well, the rules are fairly slick though some obvious simplifications are apparent (such as it being impossible to hit ships going at their top speed at "long" range). I'm looking forward to trying it again, _end3r_?

On Saturday it was up to Camden to meet nicki_w and then go to a club. We did find a great Indian Restaurant, but the club itself wasn't too great. We tried out Klub Kerrang. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't very good either. The music never really went through a "sucky" phase, which is good, but likewise it never really picked up and got going either, it just stayed in the middle. Two of the best songs they played were used to get people onto the dancefloor just as a band was about to come on and play.

While I'm thinking about the club what is it with hair these days? Lots of styles where people have clearly tried to make it look "random" but it obviously took hours. Still it's better than mullets I guess.

The journey home was nice and quick, I was half of the mind to get a taxi all the way home but as it turned out the moment we got to the south bound main road a night bus came along heading to Tottenham Ct. Road. Once we got there another came along right away, well we actually had to run for it, that would take us all the way home. Very smooth.

Sunday was a nice sleep in and a cooked breakfast at the cafe up the road :)

I then caught up with a few bits and pieces that I needed to get done. All told a great weekend.

After a long dry spell I ordered a new RPG last week, The Esoterrorists by Robin D Laws. He's someone who's work I'm quite interested in, his games usually have some game design philosophy behind them and even if you never play them they're informative. This one tried to put a different spin on the investigative game, the sort of scenario that often ends up being stuck when the PCs miss out on a clue somewhere. So far so interesting anyway.

On other gaming fronts I've finally turned in one character for a new game that'll be starting soon, got the ideas for another one and I might be trying running something new one weekend soon.

As for gigs well I've got to remember to sort out Ozzy and Paradise Lost, must speak with the D about getting that sorted. I've not seen a proper Ozzy gig since 1995, I don't really count the Ozzfest from about 5 years ago.

Minor mystery solved.....

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 12:40:41 GMT

I was at a Ginger gig the other week and he played a song that I knew as a B-Side on a Senseless Things single from many years ago.

That struck me as being a bit odd, Ginger had some issues with the STs singer back in the day.

Anyhow I fish the single out today, it's an excellent song, and lo and behold it's written by another band, the Replacements. Ginger's a known fan of them, so that explains it.

As things go it's a tiny mystery but isn't it sometimes nice when you find out there's a reason for something?

How do you say I miss you to an answering machine?
How do you say good night to an answering machine?
How do you say I'm lonely to an answering machine?
The message is very plain
Oh, I hate your answering machine

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:24:39 GMT

From pirate_destrin

Go to Google and type in "[your name] needs"

Then post the results of the first page.

Mark needs more room

Mark Needs A Chick

Mark needs to clearly state the nature

Mark Needs Your Help: Your Responses and My Thoughts

Mark needs a Bra

Mark needs you

Just my luck that there's a song called "Mark Needs A Chick", kinda dominates the results

Another game of Britannia....

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:38:01 GMT

We had another game of Britannia yesterday with _end3r_, pirate_destrin and nicki_w.

The Romans went after the Welsh right from the outset, they nearly wiped them out. This really hampered the green player. In the previous game they took a won of points from the holding of their land and also their raids into bordering areas. Without that they lost one half of their main point winning possibilities, the other being the Danes much later in the game.

The Romans once again suffered greatly at the hands of the raiding armies from Europe. They've got to watch for this happening and reinforce the coasts. Every burned fort is points that they have lost.

The Saxons were very successful indeed. Buying Burghs, at one third of the cost of an army, is a great move and lets them hang on to land. The red player also exploited the Roman invasion of Wales and Cornwall by taking land that they had erased the Welsh from.

The Danish raids were once again devastating, the Angles tried to hold on to a lot of land and lost most of it. Perhaps less land but more strongly held?

The Norman Calvary is devastating, the Normans were also very bold and took a lot of chances to take land from the Saxons. That was a very successful tactic.

So a few lessons in there, in a couple of months I hope to try it again :)

I was red this time, after loosing clearly in the first game with the Yellows this time I cleaned up. I was lucky with my Irish and our Mt. Baddon was a decisive disaster for the Romano British with Aelle's Saxons wiping them out. Thinking of the points at all times I was also able to use the Brigante's as very effective point scorers, they can gain a lot of points if they can hang on to one or two key territories.

Anyhow fun seemed to be had and then we followed it up with a very nice meal at the local Tapas restaurant.

Britannia, 1st January 2007

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:16:35 GMT

_end3r_ asked about this at the latest Britannia game on Sunday. Well here's the (blurry) photos and a quick report from the last one.....

Start of Game

The Romans are poised in the English Channel.....

End of Turn 2

The Roman invasion hasn't gone too well. The Welsh have not only held onto most of their territory but have already invaded into England. Two groups of Belgae have survived as well, though Boudicca snuffed it.

End of Turn 3

England has been pacified by the Romans though several forts have been burned. The Romans turn their attention to the north of the country.

End of Turn 4

The Romans have pushed up into Scotland and still hold England, though a few more forts have been lost to marauding Welshmen.

End of Turn 5

The Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Irish have all claimed land for themselves in England. Once more the Welsh have also claimed some land. Not good for the Romans.....

End of Turn 6

The Roman legions have been recalled, The Roman British are holding on in their place. The Saxon's have increased their foothold.

End of Turn 7

King Arthur appears, the Saxons have lost some ground but still hold a lot of land. Arthur survives and is still leading his people in Sussex. The Angles have arrived and have claimed a lot of land along the eastern coast.

End of Turn 8

The Welsh pour out of Wales, stream across England and claim York. In the North the Scots have been very successful over the past few turns. The Angles are now concentrated in the North of England.

End of Turn 9

The Welsh have been forced back, the Roman British are still clinging on.

End of Turn 11

The Saxons have expanded though they still face opposition from the Romano British who are growing in numbers. The Angle hold on the north of England is still strong.

End of Turn 12

Danish and Norse raiders have been raiding the coasts, this has weakened both the Saxons and the Angles. The Saxons have also taken steps to try and control the Welsh and stop them invading England.

End of Turn 13

The Saxons continue to fight the Welsh and cling on to the South West of England. The Danes are now in England to stay, the Angles have lost much land to them. The Roman British still cling on between the Saxons and Danes.

End of Turn 14

The Saxons continue to take land to from the Welsh while the Danes expand their holdings in the east.

End of Turn 15

The Saxons are pushing the Welsh back as they expand into their land, the Romano British still hold their own land.

End of Turn 16

The Norman's and Norwegians have invaded. Harald the Norwegian, Harold the Saxon, Svein of the Danes, and William the Norman have all survived though. Harald's Norwegians hold vast swathes of the North of England, the Saxons finally wipe out the Welsh and claim the west for themselves. The Norman and Danish grips are both weak.

There is no King of England.

The Winner is....
Red wins on points, Green is close with Yellow clearly last.