Kirk Douglas in Vikings, what an ace film – may have to root it out for my Sunday afternoon viewing me thinks now that you’ve mentioned it! Forgive me for being an ignorant Englishman but doesn’t Dublin translate as black pool? Vikings always were prone to finding the best natural harbours when making their incursions, the Rhone, the Schelt, the Humber all provided nice big estuaries that could be exploited. If you’re in England, would check out the Jorvik museum in York, great place, any profits from the museum go back into financing new archaeological digs so it’s a nice place to support. Just thinking, Ben was on to something when it came to Romans – you had three legions lost in the Teutoberg Forest, General Varrus defeated by the great Arminius of the Germans (literally, Herman the German – “Varrus, give me back my legions!!!’), but you also had an expedition to Caledonia that was annihilated, several expeditions into the deserts of north Africa and the big famous one being Crassus and his expedition to Parthia (where he was later executed by having molten gold poured down his throat), there’s a village in China (forget the name) but the survivors from the Battle of Carrhae fled into the mountains and ended up surviving as mercenaries, ending up on the Parthian frontier with China. Worth remembering that Roman recruitment patterns aren’t completely understood, the Legio Hispania was based in Britain for years, no way they could have survived on a slow trickle of Spaniards, in which case there’s every chance that Romanised Gauls, Germans and later, Britons would have been recruited into the ranks. In the case of the Auxilia, the odds are they would have scraped together whatever they could. If they were going to struggle getting the ethnically correct recruits for the legions then what are the odds of Roman bureaucracy doing the same for the arrow fodder? Certainly with the auxiliaries you can add loads of flavour. One thing I’ve always wondered, the Romans from time to time realised that the European frontier, as good as it was, was still vulnerable. The Rhine freezes over in places in harsh winters, the Alps, as Hannibal proved, are in fact crossable. There was a scheme thrown about from time to time for the complete annexation of Germania, mass conscription into the army to help pacify the new territories and supply the eastern colonies with the manpower they needed. The new border of the Roman Empire would be the Carpathians and the River Oder (modern NE Germany) in which case Rome would now border Scandinavia. Does that mean viking auxiliaries in the Roman army? Varangians a couple of hundred years early? Great show folks!! Loving the Noodle place, having only just got into Infinity recently my mind is buzzing when it comes to terrain options, and having stuff like that pre-painted it’s looking like a serious threat to my wallet… Happy Sunday!!!