Grenadiere

Die ersten zwei Grenadierbataillone sind komplett.

Grenadiere, von oben nach unten: IR 43, 38, 4

Erster Ausmarsch: vorne Grenadierbataillon Burgsdorff (38/43), hinten Willemey (IR 4/16)

Ankerstein für Kinder: Mausoleum aus Baukasten 10

Abstract in English: even children who have never handled Anker stones before can sit down and build from the original instructions with a little help, and get something done within an hour.

Am Sonntagnachmittag wollten wir mal wieder ein kleines Vater-und-Sohn Ankerprojekt machen. Dann kam noch ein Nachbarsjunge dazu, der Ankersteine gar nicht kannte. Also habe ich die zwei Jungs bauen lassen und nur dafür gesorgt, dass sie immer die richtigen Steine in die Hand bekommen haben.

Sie haben sich das Mausoleum aus Kasten 10 ausgesucht und in einer knappen Stunde aufgebaut, danach sogar ohne Jammern wieder ordentlich abgebaut und die Steine sortiert. Wenn das kein pädagogischer Erfolg für ein klassisches Spielzeug ist...

Hier die Fotos - wie immer kann man auf die Bilder klicken, um alles größer zu sehen.

Das Gebäude entsteht, mit den nach innen versetzten Wandflächen an den Seiten und hinten.

Rohbau ist fertig für die Dachkonstruktion

Das Mausoleum steht, die Bauherren sind zufrieden ;)

Vorderansicht mit doppeltem Portal und vielen Ornamenten über dem Eingang und am Dach.

2ndo Volterrania: Wüstenchimäre - Desert Chimera

Nachdem die ersten Artilleriegeschütze und ein begleitender Infantriezug (Modelle der Vostroyaner) jetzt fertig sind, soll als nächstes eine kleine, schnelle Aufklärungstruppe im Wüstenlook dazukommen (ja, auch als Reverenz an die berühmten Desert Rats und die LRDG). 

Auf die Idee kam ich, als ich über diesen Umbausatz gestolpert bin, mit dem man die Chimäre vom Ketten- auf ein Radfahrzeug umrüsten kann. So sieht das erste Fahrzeug aus: 

Befehlsfahrzeug für das 2ndo Volterrania, schnelle Aufklärer. Das Wappen gehört zu einem der Volterraner Stadtteile, allerdings zu einem anderen als die Artillerie.

Auf der anderen Seite ist, wie bei den Artilleriefahrzeugen, das volterranische Stadtwappen zu sehen, und auf dem Turm ein dem Logo der Desert Rats nachempfundenes Einheitenabzeichen.

Natürlich sind schon weitere Einheiten in Planung. Als Infantrie sollen Tallarner von GW und Elysianer von Forgeworld ran, als Fahrzeuge eine weitere Chimäre und ein Greif, und die leichten Fahrzeuge von Forgeworld für die Elysianer.

Hochelfen Phönixgarde

Im letzten Urlaub habe ich auch ein paar halbfertige Figuren aus der Grabbelkiste mit unerledigten Restposten dabeigehabt, darunter den Fahnenträger und einen Gardisten der Phönixgarde, die ansonsten schon seit Jahren in ihrer Kiste im Keller schlummert.

Nachdem die beiden jetzt fertigbemalt und lackiert sind, ist also auch die Phönixgarde komplett:

Hochelfen Phönixgarde - bemalt über einen Zeitraum von fünf Jahren oder so von drei Leuten im alter zwischen acht und 45, daher einigermaßen uneinheitliches Bild aber immerhin fertig und einsatzbereit.

Die Figuren sind übrigens die alten Metallfiguren, noch nicht die aktuellen Plastikbausätze. Also schön massiv in der Hand, doof allerdings, dass der Standartenträger ständig kippelt weil seine Fahne ihn auf die Seite zieht...

Rückansicht der Kommandogruppe - Chef und Fähnrich heben sich durch andere Mantelfarben von den Mannschaften ab (der Musiker, rechts neben dem Fähnrich, nicht - ups)

Vitrinenpanorama: Vostroya vs. Orks

Bevor ich die Vitrine umräume, um die neuesten Projekte auszustellen (Flachfiguren etc.) habe ich ein ganz primitives Panoramafoto des bisherigen Displays versucht.

Es zeigt meine Vostroyaner / Volterraner gegen die Heiza von Waaghboss Donnabirnä.

zum Vergrößern klicken - Orks stürmen eine vostroyanische Artilleriebatterie. V.l.n.r.: Basilisk, Infantrie, Greif, Killakoptas, Donnabirnä und Boys, Kampfpanza

Bases für die Flachfiguren

Nachdem die ersten Flachfiguren bemalt sind, brauche ich jetzt noch Bases zum ordentlichen Aufstellen und Bewegen.

Verfügbarkeit und Beschaffbarkeit haben mich auf die Plastikbases von Renedra gebracht, die gibt es nämlich im Spielbetrieb in Heidelberg zum Anschauen, dann aber auch in deren Onlineshop zu bestellen, so dass ich nicht nur wegen der Bases nach HD fahren muss.

Nach vielem Hin-und-Her habe ich mich dafür entschieden, als Bases für die Flachfiguren ein Standardformat zu verwenden (25x50 mm), damit ich nicht in zu exotischen Maßen lande.

Und so sieht das Ganze aus:

1. Bat. Füsilierregiment Salmuth (IR 48) auf Renedra-Bases

vlnr: 2. Bat. IR 44, 1. Bat. IR 48, Grenadiere IR 16 (werden mit denen vom 4. IR kombiniert)

Auf der Unterseite kann man sogar kleine Labels mit der Angabe der Einheit befestigen.

SOM Diary: 2013 Replay schedule

When I posted the summary of the Redsox' second three game series I noticed that I had not yet posted my overall replay schedule. So here it is:

The idea is to have nine games against each division rival (odd number so there is a winner), and a limited number of inter divisional games so the total number of games remains manageable.

Every team plays two three game series against teams from other divisions. To keep it more interesting I paired teams against teams with similar performance in the real season (1st/2nd placed teams against each other, and 3rd/4th placed teams).

That gives a total of 27 games against division rivals and 6 games outside of the division for a total of 33 per team. This allows starters to play in 5-6 games, and overall counting stats can be multiplied by five to compare with a real season of 162 games (33x5 = 165, close enough).

Overall I need to get through 33x6 = 198 games. I started in April 2014, and until August inclusive played 21 games, so at this pace I'll need about two - three years for the complete season replay. That's a very similar timeline to my other hobby projects (e.g. here and here).

SOM Diary: Redsox at Orioles

So I do get to start the second round of three game series before the year ends (I wasn't sure how much progress I would make, but being on vacation sure helps find some time for rolling the dice). My season structure has all games in three game series so the scheduling is less complicated - I just realize that I haven't posted the replay season schedule yet, that's for a future post.

Without further ado here are the results of Boston's second series.

Orioles at Red SoxGame 1: BAL 7, BOS 5

060 000 001 7 12 0 7
010 001 003 5 7 1 2

The Orioles get one big inning off Doubront, scoring 6 runs in the second.Wei-Yin Chen cruises through eight innings, giving up only two runs incl. a solo homer to Gomes, striking out ten and walking only two. His attempt to go all the way falters in the ninth, though, where Napoli hits a three run homer after Pedroia reaches on a fielder's choice and Ortiz singles.

Johnson gets his first save of the season in two thirds of an inning with a single, a strikeout and a botched hit-and-run by Middlebrooks that makes Gomes easy pickings as he slides into second.

Game 2: BAL 4, BOS 5

400 000 000 4 8 0 4
112 010 00- 5 7 0 5

Boston gives up another big inning early, Lackey welcomes the Orioles with three singles, a double and a three run homer for Matt Wieters, who is obviously back in shape after starting the season with an injury.

However, this time the Redsox start to nibble back into the game immediately and finally take the lead with another Napoli solo homer in the fifth, and their bullpen takes it home with a solid setup inning from Bailey and save number three for Koji.

Game 3: BAL 5, BOS 6 - Bullpen bloopers

000 301 010 5 5 0 3
100 003 11- 6 13 2 8

Davis has a field day with two homers off the Boston ace John Lester. Both bullpens give up critical runs, the lead changes several times between runs conceded by McFarland in the seventh and eighth, and Tazawa in the eighth.

At the end the Redsox come out lucky despite two errors (a bad overthrow from the otherwise very agile Iglesias, and a Saltalamacchia throw into left field as Wieters tried to take third despite a swing-and-miss on a hit and run attempt by Adam Jones). Tazawa takes home the lucky "W" and Miller gets the save with a walk and three quick outs to end the game.

SOM Diary: last season opener, first standings

Orioles at Yankees

Game 1: BAL 3, NYY 4
In the third inning, both catchers - both batting ninth - hit solo homers. The game continues to be close. With one out in the seventh, CC Sabathia loads the bases with a double and two HP. The second hit batsman (Pearce) even has to leave the game with an injury. However, Boone Logan can bail out Sabathia with two K's and gets some help from Robertson who keeps the Orioles to just one run in the eigth. Mariano Rivera notches his first save of the season with  clean 1-2-3 ninth.

Game 2: BAL 3, NYY 4 - Defense and bullpens decide

Both starters are solid and give up one rub each, both bullpens give up the close lead at some point. Defensive heroics keep it close (Nix with a barehanded play on a ball that deflected off Kuroda, Jones with a catch on the warning track closing in on the wall in left center, the Yankees with two double plays, JJ Hardy with a couple of highlight plays on short).

Mariano shows that he is back with the second save in as many days, albeit giving up a walk and a single on the way.

Game 3: BAL 12, NYY 8 - Down, but not out

Once again, both starters start with a few innings of solid one-run ball, scattering occasional hits and runs but not allowing any big innings. The Orioles don't play spotless defense, though - Davis lets a ball get past him on a botched backhand play for an unearned run.

Bottom of the fourth, Hammel does get into trouble, loading the bases with one out and conceding a total of five runs (incl. a two RBI single from Cano and  three run homer from Ichiro) before Tommy Hunter gets Baltimore out of the inning with a three pitch strikeout to Jayson Nix.

The Orioles' chances don't improve when Markakis is hit by a pitch and injures his ankle. However, they start a rally with a three run homer from Jones and chase Pettite from the game in the sixth. With Mariano unavailable after two straight saves, Robertson tries but fails to bring it home, giving up the tying runs.

With the game in extra innings, both bullpens run out of available relievers. Adam Warren breaks first, giving up four runs in the top of the eleventh after 2.1 solid innings. TJ McFarland gets the win with two scoreless innings after Jim Johnson kept the Orioles in the game with a 1-2-3 ninth.

Although they're basically meaningless, here are the first standings after three games:

AL West
OAK 2-1
SEA 2-1
LAA 1-2
TEX 1-2

AL Central
DET 3-0
KC    2-1
MIN 1-2
CLE 0-3

AL East
NYY 2-1
BOS 2-1
TB    1-2
BAL  1-2

Laura's Konfirmationserinnerung

Hallo alle, die nicht Laura heißen und 2014 in Deizisau konfirmiert wurde: dieser Post ist nicht direkt für Euch gedacht, Ihr dürft aber trotzdem gucken ;)

Hallo liebe Laura,

ich habe bei Deiner Konfirmation den Umschlag mit der Aufgabe gezogen, Dich im Juli an Deine Konfirmation zu erinnern. Ich möchte das gerne mit bewegten Bildern tun, daher mache ich es per Internet und nicht per Brief auf Papier (na ja, obwohl eine Postkarte auch eine Rolle dabei spielt, dass Du diesen Post entdeckt hast).

Zwei Links will ich Dir weitergeben, eins ganz allgemein zur Konfirmation: Video 1

Damit ist dann hoffentlich auch die sachliche Aufgabe erledigt, Dir nochmal den Zusammenhang der Konfirmation ins Gedächtnis zu rufen. Übrigens, obwohl der Video sonst eher ruhig und sachlich ist, musste ich einmal leise und einmal laut lachen, hast Du die Stellen auch bemerkt (Stichwort Fragebogen und Sektflasche)?

Und dann hab ich noch ein Link, dass ich allgemein sehr beeindruckend fand - die Tonspur kannst Du ruhig auf lautlos stellen (ist sowieso Englisch), die Bilder sprechen eigentlich für sich: Video 2

Viel Spaß, und viele schöne bleibende Erinnerungen an Deine Konfirmation!

Klaus

SOM Diary: Redsox salvage series at Rays after dropping season opener

Game 1: BOS 3, TB 5 - too many walks...

Boston pitchers give up total of six walks (two of them later turn into runs), 13 hits and five runs. Jon Lester takes the loss with 5 innings pitched, 3 walks, 9 hits, 4 earned runs. David Price has a strong season opener with 7+ innings, giving up 1 run on 8 hits for the win.

Joel Peralta with a 1-2-3 inning for a hold and Rodney with the save bring it home, although Mike Carp comes in as a pinch hitter against the Rays closer and manages to score a double and a run off him.

Ben Zobrist has a field day, going 4 for 5 with a 3 RBI double mixed in. So do Evan Longoria (3 for 4 and a walk), Wil Myers (1 for 3, 2 walks, run) and Sean Rodriguez (starting in left field against the leftie Lester, 3 for 4).

Game 2 BOS 9, TB 7

First innings see great defense, including several heroic feats by Zobrist and an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track from Ellsbury.

Then the Rays pitching crumbles, as a procession of pitchers fail to do more than get out of a single inning - somehow it's all walks, hits and wild pitches as the Rays pitchers come to the mound after watching their own team bat.

The same disease affects the Redsox bullpen - Miller walks three in his second inning of work, Tazawa closes out the eigth on 2 pitches and then gives up a hit, a steal and a balk to put Zobrist on third.

Nevertheless, the Redsox pull through with Buchholz taking the win and Uehara the first save of the season.

Game 3: BOS 6, TB 5 after 10 innings - Ballpark robbery

Top of the fifth, the Redsox trail the Rays 2-4 and Ellsbury leads off. Ellsbury hits it deep to right field, just over the wall, or does he? No, what an amazing catch by the rightfielder! Joyce jumped up and reached over the wall and to his own surprize came up with the ball, robbing Ellsbury of a homerun by inches (in Stratomatic terms, Ellsbury rolled a 6 on the ballpark chart, just enough to barely scorw a homerun in Tropicana Field, and Joyce rolled the smallest possible number for a 3-rated outfielder to turn the HR into a flyout - can't have it any closer...).

However, next inning Bradley gets sweet revenge for the Redsox, hitting the ball cleanly out of the ballpark towards left field, scoring (of all possible payers) David Ortiz who had doubled to start the sixth.

The late game is a nailbiter, the tie after nine innings is broken up by classic Ortiz with a towering homer, but Miller gives up a double to the Rays' leadoff hitter Desmond Jennings who advances to third on a bobble by Carp in right field. However, Uehara comes in for the second save in two days and summarily dispatches Ben Zobrist (2 for 4 until then) with a three pitch strikeout. Reliever Andrew Bailey takes the win, and James Wright takes the loss from he hands of Big Papi.

SOM Diary: Season opener Oakland A's at Texas Rangers 2:1

The A's take their opening series against the Rangers   with two wins clearly decided by struggling Texas pitching and a loss against Texas stalwart Yu Darvish.

Game 1: Starters bad, bullpens good: A's 7, Rangers 3

OAK 005 110 000 7 10 0 8
TEX 200 100 000 3 6 0 6

Both sides in the OAK-TEX season opener display the same pattern: starters struggling to get through the first innings, giving up hits and runs aplenty, and then solid bullpens taking over and essentially freezing the game in the state after four innings.

The Rangers come out of spring training blazing away on all barrels: Holland has back to back 1-2-3 innings backed by a strong infield, while the Rangers' bats greet AJ Griffin with two solo homers in the first by leadoff Ian Kinsler and short stop Adrian Beltre.

However, in the top of the third the bottom of the A's order hit back with a single from Seth Smith and a two run homer from Derek Norris to tie the game, and the A's continue to hit nearly uninterrupted - Donaldson makes it 5-2 with a three run long ball. Bottom of the third the Rangers continue to hit, loading the bases with one out, but Griffin pitches out of trouble with a forced play 1-2 and a flyout to center. After that the offensive fireworks peter out with just a few single runs being added by either team. The bullpens take over from Holland after 4+ innings and from AJ Griffin after six, and bring the game home without any big shifts in balance anymore.

Game 2: A's 1, Rangers 3

Three solo homers by Beltre, Cruz and Moreland were all it took for the Rangers to get by the A's in the second game of the series.
Rangers starter Yu Darvish got into trouble early and often, loading the bases with no outs in the second and with two outs in the first, but was saved by timely double plays from his defense each time. He allowed one run on six hits, seven strikeouts, five walks and hit one batter in 6.1 innings. Joe Nathan got the save with a clean 1-2-3 ninth.
Jarrod Parker went seven innings for the A's, only allowed six hits and not much else but took the loss as the Rangers made the most of their hits and prevented the A's from scoring after the second inning.

Game 3: Texas pitchers are losing it: A's 9, Rangers 1

The series finale was decided by struggling Rangers pitchers and solid Oakland hitting (9 hits including three doubles, and a homerun from Brandon Moss).
Top of the fourth, Alexi Ogando is struggling with his control: with one out and rightfielder Josh Reddick on first base, catcher Norris is hit by a pitch and has to be replaced by John Jaso; Reddick advances on a flyout to left from Brandon Moss and scores on a wild pitch that also advances Jaso to second. Eric Sogard scores Jaso on an RBI single, steals second, advances to 3rd on another wild pitch and then scores on a balk from Ogando, who then gets out of the inning by inducing a lucky flyout from Coco Crisp.
In the eighth, Ross Wolf comes in for Ogando but fails to record a single out while giving up four runs on three hits and a rare two base fielding error by Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus.

SOM Diary: Opening series Angels@Mariners

Game 1: 4-0 Pitchers' duel in a pitchers' park

LAA 000 010 003 4 7 2 5
SEA 000 000 000 0 2 0 3

Both starters go deep into the game and see several long flyballs picked off just before they leave the ballpark. Iwakuma takes the loss despite  quality start of 7.2 innings, allowing just 3 hits and a run (a solo homer by the catcher Hank Conger) on 4 strikeouts and three walks.

The loss looks higher than it was because the Mariners' bullpen gives up another three runs in the top of the ninth. CJ Wilson pitches eight shutout innings, giving up just one hit and two walks with ten strikeouts for the win. Conger has a field day, going 3 for 4 with a homerun and a double.

Game 2: 6-9 Just the opposite...

LAA 120 021 000 6 12 0 8
SEA 000 251 10- 9 14 0 7

In stark contrast to game 1, both starters struggle. Thanks to better offense and an LA pitching meltdown in the fifth that sees ten batters come to the plate, Felix Hernandez comes out with a win despite giving up all six of the Angels' runs.

Jered Weaver lasts just 4+ innings and leaves a tied game in the fifth, but Hansen fails badly in an attempt to provide long relief, giving up three hits, a walk and two runs in a long fifth to come away with the loss. Tom Wilhelmsen earns a close save, recording the last two outs with back to back K's after walking two.

Both teams get two homeruns. For the Angels, Ianetta and Callaspo hit a homerun each while Hank Conger continues to be on a roll, going 3 for 4 with a walk and missing just a homerun for the cycle.
For the Mariners, Justin Smoak homers in the sixth after hitting into double plays twice in the first and third. Michael Saunders hits 3 for 4 with three RBIs and is just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.

Game 3: Mariners take the series win

LAA 000 200 200 4 11 4 7
SEA 150 000 02- 8 11 0 7

Angels starter Jason Vargas struggled mightily, ans couldn't get out of the second inning after the Mariners hit around and scored six runs (five earned). The Angels' cause wasn't helped by the four errors committed by their defense, although their bullpen was able to stop the bleeding with good performances from Richards and Kohn.

The Mariners sealed their season opening series win with back to back homers from the bottom of their order in the eighth. Hank congers hot streak continues with another homer and a single for a 667/692/1500 triple slash line after three games.

Maibaumaufstellung 2014

Wie schon sein großer Bruder vor drei Jahren, war Jakob dieses Jahr als Viertklässler beim Festumzug zur Maibaumaufstellung in Heidelsheim dabei. Hier ein paar Fotos von diesem schönen Frühlingstag - es ist echt super, in einem Ort zu leben, der groß genug ist, dass es solche Veranstaltungen gibt, und klein genug, dass sie so überschaubar und familiär sind.

Wie immer kann man auf die Bilder klicken um sie größer zu sehen.

Treffpunkt der Viertklässler mit ihren selbstgebastelten Stadtwappen

Die Bürgerwehr kommt zum Treffpunkt marschiert (die Fanfaren und Fahnenschwinger der Feuerwehr wurden gefahren ;)

Es geht los - Fahnenschwinger und Fanfaren vorneweg

die Viertklässler in Stadtfarben (na ja, das mit den gelben Hosen war doch etwas viel verlangt... auch Jakob hätte vermutlich keine angezogen, wenn ihm die Mama nicht eine mit einem BVB-Logo gekauft hätte)

Aufstellung am Marktplatz

Es ist geschafft, der Maibaum steht. Dieses Jahr kleiner als sonst, aber dafür ist das Aufstellen auch keine so wackelige Angelegenheit...

SOM diary: Royals sweep Indians to open their season

Royals sweep Indians 3-0 to start the season

1.5. DET@CLE 2-1: Pitchers' duel decided by homers
Bottom of the third, Chisenhall starts the scoring with a solo homerun. In the fourth, both pitchers put runners on base but manage to pitch put of the jams. Top of the fifth, Omar Infante ties the game with a solo homerun off Masterson, and in the eigth Miguel Cabrera hits the winning homer, again a solo, from reliever Albers who takes the loss.
Verlander tosses seven innings, gives up only one run on five hits, four strikeouts and three walks for the win. Putkonen pitches a scoreless eighth for the Tigers and Benoit notches up the first save of the season despite giving up a run in the ninth. In the bottom of the last of a nailbiter of a season opener, the Tigers get help from a fortunate out as Asdrubal Cabrera is cut down by Avila trying to advance to second on a botched hit and run by Brantley.

2.5. Game 2 of the DET@CLE series saw both starters struggle, Jimenez getting in deep trouble in the first, third and fourth and lucky to escape having given up only three runs. On the other side, Scherzer seemed to be cruising through the first three innings but hit a brick wall in the fourth when the tribe hit around and scored four runs. Jimenez left the game after five and two thirds, and in full synch Scherzer was chased from the game with two outs in the sixth by a solo homerun from Chisenhall.
In the last three innings the Indians bullpen gave up a total of five runs (four earned), the second error from 3rd base man Chisenholm (third error in total) didn't help matters and a solid Tigers bullpen brought home the 8:5 lead with Phil Coke getting the save.
DET 100 200 302 8 12 0 11
CLE 000 401 000 5 9 3 8

3.5. Game 3 Kazmir vs Fister 5-1
Kazmir struggles for 5.2 innings, giving up 11 hits, including three doubles, for four runs. While the Tigers clearly brought their bats to the game, the Indians didn't:  Fister dominates the Cleveland offense, limiting them to one run on two hits with nine Ks and 1 walk over 7.2 innings, and Putkonen gets the final four outs.

SOM Diary: AL Central opening series KC@MIN

The Kansas City @ Minnesota series continued with a game where batters started to make more contact than in the first game, at least for the visiting KC team.

KC@MIN game 2: 6-2
In game 2, Ervin Santana quickly recovered after giving up two runs in the first, while Kevin Correia labored through 6 innings giving up four runs. Josh Willongham showed his range limitations by conceding two triples to hits to left that younger, faster leftfielders might have had a clean play on. The Twins bullpen gave up another two runs while the Royals relief corps held up well and brought the game to tie the series safely home. Final score Royals 6, Twins 2. Santana takes the win, Correia the loss, the Royals batters contribute a HR and three (!) Triples, while the Twins manage only 5 hits out of 32 at bats and only Joe Mauer continues his work as anon base machine with two hits and a walk.

KC@MIN game 3: 8-1
Game 3 was a pretty lopsided affair. The Royals hit ten hits off Mike Pelfrey and scored seven runs off the starter who lasted only 4+ innings, while the Twins' bats remained mostly silent (the team is batting below .200 as a whole in the three first games of the season). Jeremy Guthrie cruised to an easy win, pitching seven innings and giving up one run on three hits, a walk and seven strikeouts. Billy Butler went 3-for-5 with a two run homerun to get the Kansas City scoring started in the first inning.
They paid a high price for it, though, losing both starting catcher Perez and infielder Getz to injuries. However, the Twins didn't fare any better, losing Joe Mauer in the first inning after he fouled two balls off his foot.

SOM diary: Season Opener - KC@MIN

To get the season started, and to learn how to prepare lineups and rosters in a somewhat historical way, I decided to start with teams I don't know at all (which are actually most teams outside of the AL East ;), and randomly picked KC @ MIN as the series I would play first.

BTW, as mentioned earlier, I had decided to up the Twins' chances by giving them RA Dickey as a starter. This is basically the only unhistorical player assignment I will intentionally make to my 2013 replay rosters for now (given my general penchant for knuckleballers it felt such a shame not to have Dickey play despite running only four teams per division...).

Anyway, both opening day starters went deep into the game after shaky starts: James Shields pitched seven innings, coneding runs in the first and fourth inning, and R A Dickey nearly played a complete (nine inning) game, giving up a two run homer to Billy Butler in the top of the first, adding five 1-2-3 innings and leaving only after giving up two hits in the ninth.

The game went deep into extra innings and ended on a not-so-dramatic note when Royals reliever Chen gave up back to back walks in the bottom of the 12th. Aaron Crow took the loss, Casey Fien got the win with two hitless, scoreless innings of relief.

Josh Thole (brought to Minnesota to catch R A Dickey) actually went 1 for 3. He was replaced by Joe Mauer who went 0 for 1 with a walk in extra innings.

Let's see how the season opening series continues for these two teams...

SOM Diary: Lineups and Rosters for 2013 Replay

After some experimentation I have arrived at the following format to get an overview of each team's roster and some reminders of historical use of the players (how many games played, which position, typical position in the line up). I create these via sheet.zoho.org and intend to use printouts to record the games played and some simple indicators (smilies) for performance (click on the thumbnail to see a larger version):

Initially I wanted to start building these with the SOM cards in hand, but I found that inventing my ownlineups led to very unrealistic results so I ended up using baseball-reference.com to build these sheets and only refer to the actual SOM cards to figure out which players were available at all.

I used the following data available there:

• Team Roster for number of games started per player and position
• Defensive lineups for default starting positions and position players
• Batting orders for a default batting lineup (that's the order in which position players appear on the roster above, and how I sort their SOM cards after each game)
• Lineups linked above, and pitching gamelogs to understand why some players only played few games or had few at bats - were they players brought on the team (or leaving the team) at some point during the season or were they bench players who only got to play once or twice a week all season long?

I will try to use players in their historical roles, rather than inventing my own usage patterns and trades. That's why the roster contains the inetnded number of games each player should get in each position (scaled down from the real 162 game seson to my 33 game season by a factor of 5).

Die ersten Füsilierbataillone komplett

So, die ersten zwei Füsilierregimenter aus dem schönen Repertoire von Grünewald sind geschafft. Es ist ja auch erst knapp vier Monate her, dass die aus der Schachtel herausmarschiert sind :)

Vorne erstes Bataillon vom Füsilierregiment Salmuth (als erstes Bat. mit weißer Leibfahne) und hinten das zweite Bataillon vom Füsilierregiment Hoffmann mit normalen Kompaniefahnen

Die Trommler müsste man aus größerer Nähe anschauen (oder wenigstens aufs Bild klicken um sie größer zu sehen).

SOM Diary: 2013 replay - team selection

I've started thinking more specifically about the 2013 replay with the cards I ordered today (yay!). I've also started to write up some depth charts and charts where I can track each players games played to track performance and make sure I roughly hit the correct numbers of games per player.

Team selection

After some more thinking and reading, and also simply looking at the sheer number of games to be played, I have decided to go for the AL only option 2 in my earlier list. So there will be three four team divisions, dropping the fifth placed team in each:

AL East: BOS, TB, BAL, NYY
AL Central: DET, CLE, KC, MIN
AL West: OAK, TEX, LAA, SEA

Individual "player trades"

In general I will do the 2013 replays without and changes to the player rosters provided by SOM card selections. I will reflect major trades like Peavy or Soriano.

However, when I read the AL 2013 summaries in the Hardball Times Annual 2014, the idea occurred to me to make a few individual "trades".

In addition to trades that occurred in reality (e.g. the Iglesias/Peavy trade for the RedSox mid season) I could help out the worse teams and at least get a look at some of the key players from the fifth placed teams by moving one or two people from the fifth placed teams to a fourth place team with an obvious need.

For example, the Twins (? to be verified) seem to have struggled with below average starting pitching, and on the other hand with the Blue Jays placed fifth I was sad not to be able to run R A Dickey. So why not move Dickey to the Twins, give the Twins a reliable starter with good ERA and many innings pitched and get a chance to see some knuckle balls fly past batters and catchers? I guess he'll have to take Thole with him as a personal catcher - if only to get the passed ball stats roughly right...

I might also look into giving the Yankees some support in the injury plagued infield, e.g. by looking for some good infielders from the Astros or White Sox.

Ankersteine: Getreidespeicher (GK-NS 14)

I think I have now built most of the original models from the Anker sets up to GK-NF 14, so I've started to dabble in other stuff. One thing I wanted to look into was the Neue Serie models released by the company later, today available via the CVA archive at ankerstein.ch.

I started with the grain storage (Getreidespeicher) from the booklet for GK-NS 14. I like these more modern buildings, with different proportions and style than the classical Richter buildings.

However, I quickly stumbled across the many differences between the NF and NS stone sets, started to improvise and towards the end of building had to add a few stones from a surplus set normally used by my son. I think I will continue my dabbling in the NS models with the buildings for set 12 and come back to the models for 14 when I actually have the stones from GK-NF 14A available to compensate for missing or different stones.

Building the model was a lot of fun, though, and it has many characteristics that set it apart from other Anker buildings I've tried earlier.

• the bridge between the small administrative building and the actual storage building (and I always thought that the one in my company's headquarters was a very innovative idea ;)
• the space for a railroad between the buildings, with loading areas on both sides
• the neat little stairs at the end of the unloading platforms
• the strong vertical design with the high walls structured by niches and windows (leading to a rather shaky construction as the window frames and the walls to their sides don't interlace at all)
• the long flat roof over the unloading platform, and generally the nice mix of roof angles to use up nearly all blue roof stones

Overall a very nice project, highly recommended and also nice to show to people who don't know much about Anker buildings to avoid the impression that they are only good for classical castles and churches...

The main walls with the different protruding columns and niches are starting to take shape

First layer of the roof on the main storage building, with the ventilation holes already in place

Side view of the face of the building with the same vertical niche design as the main building front, and the pedestrian bridge over the railway line.

Backside of the building, same facade and roof layout as the front but not interrupted by bridges or other building parts.

My podcast directory

More for my own use as a favorite list, but maybe someone else might also be interested: here's the list or podcasts I listen to more or less frequently.

1. Magic the Gathering

• Limited Resources (high octane limited advice and analysis)
• Judgecast (Judges talking rules and more)
• Drive to Work (the Magic designer Marc Rosewater talks game design)
• Constructed Resources (fledgling constructed derivative from LR)

2. Games in general

• The 2 Halfsquads (the one and only ASL podcast)
• Three Donkeys (Garfield and others talk board games, unfortunately inactive since mid 2012)

3. Sports

• Grand Sumo
• Rasenfunk
• Glubb Podcast

Baseball aktuell

• Just Baseball
• FanGraphs audio content 
• Effectively Wild
• Baseball Rabbi
• WEEI.com RedSox Audio

Baseball outdated

• Rotographs fantasy podcast
• Over the Monster (RedSox fan podcast, apparently season only)
• ESPN Baseball podcast
• Strat-O-Matic (THE baseball strategy boardgame, see my blog diary for more) - very infrequent updates
• Stealing Home (Hardball Times)

4. Tech

• HCP podcast

5. History

• History Extra
• D-Radio politisches Buch
• Newly discovered podcasts to try out: one - two - three
• German language new finds: Geschichten aus der Geschichte - JMU - Tell Me a history