WW2 US Infantry Company OrBat

Great reference point for US Infantry Company OoB:  

• https://www.battleorder.org/post/usa-rifleco-1944
• https://www.battleorder.org/

Useful for these game systems: 

• Chain of Command
• Command Decision
• Spearhead
• SL
• ASL
• Crossfire

Perhaps?

Lex Fridman interview - Ray Kurzweil: Singularity, Superintelligence, and Immortality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykY69lSpDdo

A heady mix of topics! Advised to watch and listen without alcohol!

Note to Self: Source David M. Glantz - WWII Reports, Free PDF

https://discover.dtic.mil/results/?q=glantz#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=glantz&gsc.sort=date

Col (Ret) David M Glantz is an impressive author on military matters, in particular the WWII Eastern Front. 

Der Tag (Minden Games) : The Holy Grail of WWI North Sea HSF v GF Wargaming is found!

For the better part of thirty years I have been searching and experimenting with various rule systems that allow me to play WWI naval games, specifically North Sea actions between the Royal Navy (RN) Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet (HSF). This encompassed and included a vast fleet of 1/3000 Navwar ships (the Jutland Battle Pack and much. much more [ahem]) for use with General Quarters (I and II). I have acquired a shelf load of books and various boards games (Avalanche Press - The Great War at Sea Vol II - The North Sea and the Baltic and SPI Dreadnought to name two). There is the History of Wargames project's reprint of Fletcher Pratt's rules, a copy of "Si Vis Pakem" (Prof David Manley's WWI rules), an old copy of A&A's Sea Wars [1894-1945] and teh Jutland scenario booklet, XTR's Command Magazine Jutland zip-lock game and many other things I bet I have forgotten about, but all of which make me think "Jutland". The wilderness years are now over as Minden Games "Der Tag" officially does it for me (see below, a simple and brilliant game, designed originally as a solitaire game, but it was cleverly expanded by a ingenious friend to a multi-player system which we played over Zoom for myself (as Admiral Scheer) and some friends as the various RN "fleets" [most of the Grand Fleet at Scapa, some Grand Fleet elements at Cromarty Firth, at Rosyth the BCF and the "Wobbly Eight" of the Dover Patrol]):   

It is a high level operational game, German action cards initiating missions but there is a huge emotional buy-in during combat, from a simple but effective combat system that "gets it right". It is set in the 1916 Jutland year and plays for four turns of nerve racking play. We ran the game twice on consecutive days, each game lasting just over an hour of playing time. It was also a great conversational piece and highly entertaining to play as everyone got into teh mood. I can only say "I highly recommend it to you" if you are of a similar disposition as myself to WWI naval warfare. I just wish I had found it sooner! Please also see Board Game Geek's review (and if you get it, enjoy the solitaire version, but do think about translating it to a multi player version to spread the joy): 

• https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316075/der-tag-1916-solitaire-ww1-naval-game

Footnote: My WWI naval addiction. I must also give a shout out to Paul Hague's two books of naval wargame rules. The first I discovered as a teenager in the Public Library and I ended up making 1:3000(ish) WWI ships out of bits of balsa wood (looking back I am amazed at the fortitude and ambition of that young man, I think I got the BCF, 5th BS and 1st SG of the HSF). The second book was purchased some twenty years later and was a welcome reunion to somebody returning to his hobby's "second life" in his late twenties. 

Board Game Geek Comments: 

• https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3168818/der-tag-is-der-game
• https://boardgamegeek.com/video/542479/der-tag-1916-solitaire-ww1-naval-game/coffee-with-kilroy-panzerschreck-issue-17-fall-202

Steel Beasts Links: Computer Wargame

It is simply ages since I have looked as a Computer Wargame, but I am interested in Steel Beasts: 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1vHH3M2I6M
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIfy6nTy7cA
• https://youtu.be/lIfy6nTy7cA?si=3lBMm0EwFar06yCY
• https://www.youtube.com/@eSimGamesDtl

Note to self: NATO Symbols Explained

Good article: 

• https://ryanmcbeth.substack.com/p/decoding-nato-military-symbology
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Joint_Military_Symbology

The Dead Internet Theory

Watching two trends: 

• en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/torconstantino/2024/08/26/is-ai-quietly-killing-itself-and-the-internet/

The Fourth AI Winter Cometh!

Minifigs Macedonian/Successor Elephant

An old friend, now repaired, the infeasibly long Macedonian pike became a casualty of rough handling and (eventually) got a superglue repair (see below, but the question on my mind is for "how long will it last" - I may have to re-pike it with brass wire):  

The old Minifigs figure stands up well despite being over (at least) twenty years old.  

The Worse Case Scenario for Gen AI - "Vegetive Electron Microscopy" - Eh?

Spoiler alert .. this post highlights a silly episode in Gen AI (see below, the construction of a bogus term, "vegetive electron microscopy" by AI automated consumption on mass of thousands of documents, because the input process did not expect the document to be formatted in columns): 

Column one is about biology, column two is about physics, by parsing convention the AI sees "a thing/entity" called "vegetive electron microscopy" and pumps it into the LLM and from there is gets used and recommended. Read full article below:  

https://theconversation.com/a-weird-phrase-is-plaguing-scientific-papers-and-we-traced-it-back-to-a-glitch-in-ai-training-data-254463

Funny after you spot it, serious when you don't!

Peter Perla's Tribute Video (YouTube) courtesy of Connections UK Professional Wargaming Website

I would recommend The Art of Wargaming by Peter Perla, as it stands the test of time and is a myth buster and gives good practical common sense explanations. No magic, dispelling the aura of professional omnipotence and getting to the "heart of the game" for the "benefit of the players". It is all about the communication and narrative of the event.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA8LB4gr5-0

This is worth reading (or listening to in the final minute of the video) as advice to anyone interested in recreational and/or professional wargaming (see below, I can testify that Peter Perla had time for anybody, he even game me ten minutes):  

The annotated page of advice that Peter Perla wrote to Colin Marston inside the front cover of Peter's Art of Wargaming book (magnus opus) that rings so true! No finer words sum up wargaming! (If you cannot read the handwriting then it is worth listening to in the last minute of the video).