The Gear: Little Plastic Army Men

I love little plastic army men*. I bought a whole bucket of them when I was in the Middle East to use in sand table exercises that never happened, and they were awesome - the Brits had bagpipers! I can't describe how much I squealed with glee over the discovery of those bagpipers, in among Brits in khaki shorts and pith helmets with Bren guns and Lee-Enfields, Americans with bazookas and M2 machine guns, and so on.

When I left the Middle East, I gifted a bunch of those toy army men to a bunch of the folks I worked with. A handful of my favorite folks (like Big Sister and L, both of whom may be reading this) got the bagpipers. The machine gunners or bazooka shooters went to folks (like Sergeant Mike, who may be reading this) who were always there to support me when I needed help. A few useless folks received tactically useless ones like the waving binoculars guy as a sort of backhanded compiment. I thought about packing a bucket of them to bring with me to Scotland, and I thought about ordering them to be sent over by some friendly compatriot back home - there are always practical, non-practical, and diplomatic uses for little plastic army men.

Well, no need: I found an extremely cheap, extremely low quality bagful of them at Poundland. Unlike the bucket of plastic army men, which isn't of particularly high quality, the bag of army men is of exceptionally poor quality. Regardless, I'm quite pleased to have them, and I may even go back for more of them - particularly if I can convince some of my classmates that we ought to do map and/or sand table exercises, or play Risk, or possibly militarize a game of Settlers of Catan.

I tell you what, between these little plastic army men and my note and/or index and/or record cards, the only other thing I need at this point is an entrenching tool!

* Reader discretion advised.