Tuesday 5 March 2024

Dunkirk 1940 the German View - Audible Book

Although I have not been posting I have been listening to "wargaming stuff" throughout February. I can highly recommend this book to get a much needed German perspective on the fighting around Dunkirk (see below, a valuable item to my understanding of the early 1940 campaigns): 


Like a lot of the factual Audible books I listen to, as soon as I was getting into it, I could not resist getting a hard copy - there was too much detail I knew I would want to go back to, even though it was still at a hardback price! That in itself is a complement to the quality and standard of the careful research that went into the book. The RAF got a better press than usual, as the German infantry also did not like being attacked from the air (no "superhuman" soldiers there) and the almost comical German command and control problems were highlighted.

Well worth the read if you can get it!

Monday 4 March 2024

Sad News: The Passing of Dr Peter Perla - The Art of Wargaming

It is old news, but it is sad and still significant news. Others say it far better than me: 

PaxSims: 

https://paxsims.wordpress.com/2024/01/22/we-say-goodbye-to-peter-perla/

Wargaming Miscellany: 

https://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2024/01/peter-perla-doyen-of-professional.html

Brian Train:

https://brtrain.wordpress.com/2024/01/21/obit-peter-perla-1951-2024/

I had the pleasure of talking with Peter online at VCoW sessions and all I can say was that he gave freely of his time and was encouraging in the endeavours of all gamers, great and small.

He will be greatly missed, his words are worth reading and listening to, again and again.

https://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/OnceAndFuture-Perla.pdf

https://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/OnceAndFuture-Perla.MP3

https://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/2016PeterPerla.pdf

https://www.professionalwargaming.co.uk/2016PeterPerla.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czIDMcJBaUM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxLQmPA1-4o&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aknHj_6a2RM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvZ1EZukoWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE7yKFuZwtA

He also published games, his last board game was: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twtWueB4tqs

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamedesigner/2728/peter-perla

Oh and one last important thing, as Dr Perla said, it's spelled: "wargaming" and not "war gaming" despite what some spell checkers think. 

Accept no other!

;) 



Thursday 1 February 2024

Question to Fellow Bloggers: What to do About Bot Accounts sending Spam to the Comments Section of Posts?

This is bugging me. 

I moderate all comments so I see them coming in. An obvious Spam comments totally unrelated to the Post bit sneaking in a link to an "online gambling site". I click on the ID to see who the person is and it is obviously a Bot account. I click "Report Abuse" and say it is a Spam/Bot giving details. This all takes time. I get a "Thank You" (NoReply) email back from Google. No action seems to be taken though. They still dribble in and I am pretty sure I am seeing teh same accounts being used.

Anyone else suffering from the same scenario?

As I have "Moderation On" in my settings they don't make it through to the public page.

Slowly but surely it will fill blogs with Spam links. 

Is there a better way of reporting it to Google?  


Monday 29 January 2024

Audible Book: Victory at Sea - Paul Kennedy

A good general read of naval war in WWII, from the man who brought us Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In fact how I came across this Audible version of this book (Victory at Sea), was because I was looking for an Audible version of "that" book (Rise and Fall). I was intrigued at his (Kennedy's) obvious obsession with WW2 naval power and the world wide implications of naval conflict. I listened to the sample and was hooked (see below, it gives a good all ocean coverage of WWII and I have to say "I learned a few new things" - although the editors should have picked up some silly errors [Hipper was not in the Channel Dash, but the Prince Eugen a Hipper class cruiser heavy, while accounting for RN CVs they had tallied the Furious sunk despite it surviving the war, getting confused with the loss of the Hermes I think], in the main it was wholesomely good and accurate [so I forgive the previous small errors], but I would double check specifics of ships to see if they are correct): 



As per what is now a recurring theme of my Audible purchases, if (as I usually do) I like the audio recording of the book I also end up getting a print copy too. It is a knowledge at your fingertips thing for me. Here, despite it being newly in print (so a relatively "expensive" treat) and despite it being in hardback, I really wanted it for the glorious watercolour artwork which beautifully accompanies it. If but only for that reason alone, the watercolour illustrations make it a beautiful book for the library shelf and thus I can whole heartedly recommend it. 

Sunday 21 January 2024

Random Sci-Fi Stuff: From the Photo Archive Bucket .. Dust Bucket World

The usefulness of some of the Revell Star Wars spin-off range 15mm(ish) miniatures is shown with this beautiful "Combat Shuttle". A pretty much snip and click piece. It is the focal point of a 'planet drop' scenario and an ideal centre piece for a skirmish around a local spaceport or emergency wilderness dust-off . Ramp down, the "Away Team" is covered by heavy cannons as they disembark (see below, sitting on a nice little diorama made from the local wargames club terrain and friends bric-a-brac science fiction extras): 


This reminds me of the 2000AD Cursed Earth style shanty town with "Muties" hiding in the shadows(see below, careful searching is required, kicking doors in and covering your arcs - notice, there is a platoon of Ground Zero Games [GZG] Star Grunt forces approaching in the background): 


Good stuff, I liked the feel of Star Grunt and the "Western in Space" feel to barren desert planets! 


Friday 19 January 2024

Late Review of some Xmas Presents - Family Games

The Reign of the Cthulhu board game is now fixed as a family favourite, however the family was gifted two additional games "Taskmaster: The Board Game" and a story card game called Odyssey (see below, a trio of charmers):  


Taskmaster is a hoot, but like the series of the name, you would not want it played in your house - too much danger of collateral damage (and lateral thinking wins in spades). 

Odyssey looks the more intriguing game, despite being the simplest. You have to weave a Greek Tragedy through twenty "flipped" story cards (a few variations on how to draw the cards and use them) - perfect to be mixed with alcohol in a suitably inspiring setting. I think it needs careful cast selection and people to be in a certain storytelling frame of mind, the creative juices flowing, less of the analytical to the forefront and more emotion.

Tuesday 16 January 2024

Trying to learn "Root"

Darn if the US Marine Corp use it in their training, then I have "got to" take a look at it. Now from what I thought was going to be a straightforward A4 booklet of rules to read say in 45-60 mins, I was a little taken aback with the wealth of rule related material. It was all beautifully produced, engaging and rich in "pleasant" detail - but I have to "get my head round it" so I can explain it to others. It is a competitive faction (players v players) game, most play is not collaborative (although there can be moments of alliance [that also could lead to betrayal]) so it is important to get the "rules right" (see below, three instruction manuals - a light introduction, example of play booklet [a run through of a few turns], then the "Lore of Root" which is the definitive guide which looks "medium to heavy"):


It is beautiful and I am keen to play.