Missing What Never Really Was and Other Musings

I seem to be going though a slightly nostalgic phase. In part this may be due to breaking out MacDuff for some single figure off grid games and partly due to trying out Airfix's new rules which have a very old school feeling combat system  with handfuls of dice and morale checks. It may pass.

Recently I watched an old 1950 movie called "Tripoli" starring John Payne and Maureen O'Hara,  not to be confused with the 1942 movie called "Shores of Tripoli" starring John Payne and Maureen O'Hara which is a WWII film.  Tripoli is an adventure film set in 1805 involving a small party of US marines on horse back leaving Egypt with a force of mercenary Greek Arnauts (in amazingly accurate costumes) and Arabs to take the town of Derne from the rear. (As unlikely as it seems, this part was based on historical events).  When the final bombardment and attack was playing, I couldn't help but think what a great scenario it would make for a MacDuff to the Frontier or The Sword & the Flame game. I even once had all the 54mm troops and scenery I would have needed, even the Greeks.

OK these guys aren't actually my old Greeks but close enough.
The fort and its defenders are long gone but they went to a good home.

Actually the movie would have been even better as a game with separate characters with objectives etc as well as units of troops, perhaps Gaslight or something similar. It won't happen here though, despite numerous efforts, I just can't seem to "get into" semi-roleplaying games with characters and story lines. I can just manage if its a group game run by someone else but certainly not solo, I get bored to distraction and self-conscious at the same time. In fact my lack of both imagination and playfulness is downright shocking at times, at least as shocking as my lack of seriousness!   Luckily I'm OK with just being me.

However, since modernized nostalgia or "the way it should have been" is still active, I have been poking about at my boxes of 54's for the Cyprus Hills campaign, thinking about the latest edition of "With MacDuff" and musing.