ACTA DIURNA

Western Suburbs Games Society News

June 2004

Commentarii Senatus (Comments from the Senate)

Nothing official from the committee for this newsletter, so I’ve used this spot to highlight Trevor’s announcement at Leviathan 2004.

Andrew Waterson has been awarded a well deserved Honourary Life Membership at Leviathan 2004 for always assisting and helping the club far beyond that of normal members since joining in 1981. Andrew is our longest continuous serving club member. He has served for many years on the club committee and has always assisted in all our major activities.

Trevor Williams (Club President)

News and information

Did you know WSGS currently has 3 campaigns playing. So if you are interest please visit our club and have a game.

q       Battletech (running for more than 12 months)

q       40K

q       Full Thrust

Other regular games played are, Flames of War and Australian Tactika. Members also play infrequently Napoleonics, (Shako and Napoleons Battles), Napoleonic Naval, Dbm, Seven Year War, Warhammer Fantasy, Bloodbowl, HeroClixs, AD&D (especially now at the school), Slaughterloo, board games like Diplomacy and Civilisation and the kids sometimes play Yu-Gi-Oh (the card game). ALL STRAGETIC TABLE TOP GAMES ARE WELCOME.

Full Thrust Campaign

We currently have 9 players aged from 3 years old to 15/16, with lots of Parents assisting. Promotion is based on the number of successful mission that the players survive. Given the age range you would expect teamwork to suffer however the players work well together.

3 year old saves Teenager. Elan sits on his Mum’s lap while playing in the Full thrust campaign. Elan is asked does he want to fly faster or slow down and always replies; “Faster, up into the sky”. Elan is asked does he want to defend or attack the Baddies, he always attacks.

So when one of the High School students ends up in a escape pod pleading to someone to slow down and save him, Elan is asked: “Do you want to save Beau or fight the baddies?” everyone expected Elan to say, fight the baddies.

Previous Years have proven that Pat Sibbald never wins against children 5 years or under or against Kamin.  

UP and COMING MEETING and EVENTS

q       19^th and 20^th June All weekend meeting. Come and join a massive Flames of War game or a Big Celtic revolt against the Romans. Alternatively bring your own game to play.

q       A General Meeting 20^th June Committee Elections

q       Family Day and BBQ 4^th July 2004

Children 14 years and under accompanied by their parent(s) will receive lunch from the BBQ for free. Paint has been provided courtesy of Matisse Paints. All the children need to bring is their paint brushes and a miniature to paint. Children are invited to bring their favourite table top game. WE need a volunteer for the BBQ for this meeting.

q       4^th July 2004 – Battletech Campaign

The Battletech campaign is played on the first Sunday meeting of the month. All are invited to join in and have some fun playing a game where you command 10m tall robots weighing in from 20 to 100 tones. No rules knowledge is needed, just rock on up and see Rob, the ½ Ogre with the Mohawk.

 Leviathan 2004 Part 2 – Role Play and Miniatures Hobby Convention and Tournament will be held in  August 2004. Please see Pat Sibbald who will be the overall Organiser of the event. www.westernsuburbsgamesociety.com

q       WSGS Inaugural Dinner

- Saturday evening 10th July 2004, from 5.30p.m.

q       Theme: Medieval and Dark Ages, Myths and Reality

q       COSTUME IS OPTIONAL

q       Venue: Unlimited Hobbies Games area

q       Costs: WSGS Members/ Former Members/ and Partners plus friends of current Members $22 per head.  Children 12 and under free, 13 and over $12 per head

q       Places are limited to approximately 40 people.

q       All Funds remaining after food and other necessary items are purchased will go into prizes

q       All attending go into a raffle for a prize.

q       Plus prizes for Best Gentlemen in Costume, Best Lady in Costume and Best Child Costume

RSVP with payment By: Sunday 20 June 2004 to Ty Gock

Ancient Recipes - Fish Sauce

Fish sauce is made from small fish and salt fermented for a long time. The juice is extracted and boiled. Good fish sauce should be clear and brownish in colour.

Roman Garum (fish sauce)

The recipe was a basic sauce popular throughout the Roman empire as an accompaniment to many meals

A collection of oily, fatty fish from Sardines, Herrings, or Pilchards.

Place a layer of herbs that have a strong aroma (dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, oregano) into a large pitcher.

Remove the bones from the fish and mash them. Place a layer of fish on top of the herbs. Add a layer of salt to the length of two fingers. Repeat the layers of herbs, fish and salt until he pitcher is filled. Leave for seven days, then turn daily for the next twenty days, by which time it should have liquidised and is then ready for use.

Roman Liquamen

Similar to garum, this sauce was a standard Roman preparation that was added to courses

Small fishes (Sardines etc.) and Salt. Place the fish in a pot and completely cover with the salt. Leave for 7 days until liquid. Use as an ingredient for other dishes.

Garos (Greek - liquamen): Liquid that is produced when straining fish that has been kept in salt for 3 months. The fish was put in salt without been cleaned. The smell of the fish that was mixed with salt was often very bad. This is the main reason why the production of Garos in big cities was often forbidden. Garos was used in large quantities in Greek and Roman dishes.  Recipes from      http://www.romans-in-britain.org.uk/arl_roman_recipes-garum_fish_sauce.htm

q       Paint

WSGS has purchased some more paint, based on the interest Ross showed in the Matisse Background range and Matisse have donated another $500 of paint to our club. Members may now borrow the paint between meetings, please see Ty.

Remembering our club history.

Recently we have been interviewed on the ABC radio (2003) and we had a 2 day display at the Easter show (2004), Bunnings public displays (2003 and 2004) and the Matisse Open days (2002 to 2004).

However this public promotion of the hobby by our club started in the late 1970's.

Joel Williams and the Committee managed to get the then Parramatta Wargames club on channel nine news with a 60 second interest segment. I recall my Parents watching the news to see their silly child losing a game Sassanids vs Roman. Joel was the Roman player I was the Sassanid player.

Joel and the committee also organised the club to participate in the Parramatta foundation day parades. Some members use to dress up in armour for the march. These days if you walked down the street with a steel sword, spear, armour and shield you would get arrested. But then some of the guys use to dress like that just to buy their lunch from the corner T-away store. Our club even had an all day club cricket match and a club trip to see the movie Alien at the Parramatta Roxy theatre. Joel Williams is an Honourary Life Members of WSGS.

WSGS Meeting Dates for 2004