Twenty Questions For The Mad Padre

Following the example of Fran the Angry Lurker (email me if you want your shirt, git) and Ray Rousell, here is the Mad Padre's take on twenty questions for wargamers.

1. Favourite Wargaming period and why?

The American Civil War. It's the period I keep coming back to. I love the tragic clash of romance and idealism versus the brutality of industrial scale, total war. It's the point in the 19th century where you can look back and see the Napoleonic Age in all its glory, and see ahead to the Great War and all its horror It's also a war where both sides had enough idealism, however misplaced, that I can paint and play with CSA troops without thinking of them as the bad guys. I can't muster the same enthusiasm for the Germans in WW2 gaming, which is my close second favourite period.

2. Next period, money no object?

I am just dipping a toe into Napoleonics with an initial 6mm figure order from Bacchus. If money was no object, I would get into this period in a big way, and buy the books, figures, and terrain I needed to do corps level battles - but since I'm kind of cheap, and a slow painter, I think I'd keep to 6mm.

3. Favourite 5 films?

Tunes of Glory

Doctor Zhivago

Buckaroo Banzai: Across The Eighth Dimension

Mystery Men

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

4. Favourite 5 TV series?

The Middleman

Babylon 5

The Wire

Avatar: The Last Air Bender

Barney Miller

5. Favourite book and author?

Karl Barth, Evangelical Theology

6. Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!

Maybe not the greatest, but a personal favourite, fellow Canadian Bert Hoffmeister from World War 2.

7. Favourite Wargames rules?

I am a big fan of Too Fat Lardies rules, and would likely rank Troops, Weapons and Tactics as their best rules, though I refuse to use the acronym.

8. Favourite Sport and team?

Baseball. I'm a loyal and often disappointed fan of the Toronto Blue Jays.

9. If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?

Keeping with baseball, I would go to Ebbets Field, Brooklyn, New York, on 15 April, 1947, and see Jackie Robinson break the colour barrier playing for the Dodgers.

Afterwards, I'd go up town and buy a bunch of those awesome late 1940s men's suits and hats.

10. Last meal on Death Row?

Pork souvlaki and a Greek salad with fresh olives, with a nice crisp lager, and a shot of ouzo afterwards.

11. Fantasy relationship and why?

I would love to have been in Oxford in the 1930s and 40s and been a regular in the Inklings. Going for pipes and pints w J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Nevil Coghill, and hearing them read their work and talk about art, literature and religion, would have been wonderful.

12. If your life were a movie, who would play you?

Kenneth More

13. Favourite Comic Superhero?

Cerebus the Aardvark

14. Favourite Military quote?

"Loss of hope, rather than loss of life, is the factor that really decides wars, battles, and even the smallest combats." B. H. Liddell Hart

15. Historical destination to visit?

I would like to do a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago in Spain some day.

16. Biggest Wargaming regret?

I will totally echo what Paul from the Man Cave wrote when he essayed these questions: "Not having the opportunity to have a regular gaming group each week, and having to move away from gaming friends every two years."

17. Favourite Fantasy job?

Running a small pub and well-stocked wargames shop in the kind of resort town that women drag their husbands to. While the wives are looking for crafts and antiques, the men can drop in for a pint, a game, and a chat. Mind you, I couldn't run a business to save my life, so this will remain a fantasy job.

18. Favourite Song, Top 5?

This could change in a few months, but for now ...

Pretenders, Back On The Chain Gang

The Clash, London Calling

R.E.M., It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Steeleye Span, Sheep Crook

New Pornographers, Crash Years

19. Favourite Wargaming Moment?

That special moment when you meet someone in the hobby, play a game or talk shop, drift into other subjects, and start to realize, "I like this person".

20. The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Politicans who lie when they need to tell people the truth. Corporate greedheads. Ignorant and intolerant people of all religions. People who drive with aggression and don't give a f**k about others on the road.

AND

That horrible moment when you meet someone in the hobby, play a game, and realize he (its usually a he, but it could be a she) has his army packed with elite troops, tries to use the rules against you, lacks any empathy, fair play, and hygeine, and then turns into a whiny little b***h when they lose.