Urban Combat: Rubbletown Game by David Burden

If you are interested in Urban Warfare, this is well worth a look (see link below, David is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Bath Spa in wargaming): 

https://taunoyen.com/wiki/doku.php?id=rubbletown:rubbletown

The Three Block War

Once upon a time the professional soldiery side of the West, there was the prevailing thought was that they only ever face the "Three Block War" problem and it was a matter of training (see link below, courtesy of the US Marine Corp): 

https://www.mca-marines.org/wp-content/uploads/1999-Jan-The-strategic-corporal-Leadership-in-the-three-block-war.pdf

Then came along the prospect of a peer adversary conflict in a First World setting, and a resurgent Southern Hemisphere "New World Order" to contend with! The times are certainly "a changing"!  

A Book of its Time: Them: Adventures with Extremists

In retrospect the world of 2012 seems such a quainter quieter place, where when we worried it was about the possible "what ifs?", that we really did not think would come to pass, despite the history of 9/11 (2001) and "The War on Terror". The world still seemed "bounded and explainable" to all those fortunate not to be in a war zone. Afghanistan was heading down a road "we thought" we [The West] controlled and could and would be put to rights. Afterall there was only one global Superpower in town - the USA and its weight was unstoppable  (see below, Jon Ronson gives an off the wall, humourous assessment of idiosyncratic and peculiar dangers the world was facing. The danger was from within, it seemed adolescent and seemed to be small. You could make jokes about it. a bit like a BBC2 family sit-com):  

It seems that what you are not looking for, like another major war in Europe the like of which has not been seen since the Second World War, a Superpower Trade Wars and the complete failure of Western intervention in non-westernised cultures, these are the things we should have really been worried about!

Note to Self: Trillion Credit Squadron - Clarifications on Origins 1981 and Lenat

Also see previous post:  https://exiledfog.blogspot.com/2025/03/navy-fleet-design-and-lessons-of.html

Question to Self: Am I getting the basics about Eurisko, Lenat and The Trillion Credit Squadron (TCS) Tournament, staged at Origins in 1981 correct? It is forty four years ago and is definitely drifting into the legend and folklore territory.

It seems to have been a messy and emotional thing, like a lot of human endeavours and as above, with the passage of time, some forty four years, it is becoming less and less clearer. From an academic perspective on AI the Origins 1982 TCS event was largely ignored. I don't think it helped get Lenat tenure and may have even harmed him (the toxic nausea academia can have with respect to "games" was perhaps stronger then). The GDW Trillion Credit (TCS) Tournaments were not inundated with AI postdoc research students from respected AI Departments in leading universities trying to be "King" TCS Admiral. That much seems clear (and I think, much to the relief of Origins and GDW staffers).

For the record in 1981 there were three nation TCS competitions. One at Origins (San Mateo, California, winner Douglas Lenat) , one at Gen-Con East (Cherry Hill, New Jersey, winner Martin Misciagna) and one at Gen-Con XIV, near Kenosha Wisconsin, winner Mike Moline). There was no national play-off, but I think it is safe to say the Lenat/Eurisko would have won, because the other two winners were regarded as "conventional fleets. Lenat/Eurisko's fleet stats for Origins 1981 were:

Winning TCS fleet - TL 12 - Origins 1981
-- Lenat/Eurisko Fleet (96 Space Ships in total which probably looked like a floating asteroid belt, 86 on table immediately and ten tucked away inside the bellies of their mother ships)
-- Main Battle Line -- (75 Space Ships)
Seventy-five Eurisko class (Purpose - Battle Armoured (Buffered Planetoid) Missile Ships): 
BA-Eurisko 
BA-K952563-J41100-34003-0 
Cost MCr 13,030.385 
Tech Level C (12) Tonnage 11,100
BA-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Class - Battle Armoured
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Tonnage [10,000 - 19,999 tons] (actually 11,100 tons)
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Buffered Planetoid
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Jump (5)
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Manoeuvre (2) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Power Plant (5) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Computer (6) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Crew (3) Complement of 131 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Hull Strength [Planetoid + Buffered Armour]  (19) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Sand Casters (4) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Meson Screen (1) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Nuclear Dampeners (1) 
 Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Force Field  - None
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Repulsors - None 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Lasers (3) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Energy Weapons (4) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Particle Weapons - None  
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Meson Gun - None
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Missiles (3) 
Ba-K952563-J41100-34003-0  : Fighter Squadrons - None  
Ba-K952563-J11100-1100V-0  : Batteries Bearing
Ba-K952563-J11100-1100V-0  : Batteries
Crew=131; Agility=2; Fuel=555; Passengers=0; Cargo=8; Low=0; Fuel 555; EP 555; Marines=35 
Note: L-hyd drop tanks add 5,550 tons of fuel and mass, change the agility to 1, and cost 5.56. (BA-K931363), change Agility to 1 AND COST MCr5.56.  The ship is designed to manoeuvre when carrying up to 16,650 tons of drop tanks.
Design Notes: 
**-*9*****-*******-*****-* the '9' implies it is a planetoid, basically a hollowed out asteroid. The advantage of this is that it is cheap to build.
-- Reserve Line Space Ships -- (11 Space Ships with another 10 small ships carried in them)
Four Garter class (Purpose Fleet Tender - To Jump the other Space Ships into the battle): TB-Garter 
TB-K1567F3-B41106-34009-1 MCr 17,584.104 Bearing C 1 EE 7 12,000 tons 
Batteries C 1 EE 7 crew=170 Agility=4; Fuel=840; Cargo=4.3 low=170 
Design Notes:
Needle-Wedge shape
Note: L-Hyd drop tanks add 6000 tons of fuel and mass, change the agility to 4, and cost MCr6.01.(TB-K1344F3) The ship is designed to manoeuvre when carrying up to 72,000 tons of drop tanks and one Wasp fighter.
Four Cisor class: BD-Cisor 
BD-K9525F3-E41100-340C5-0 MCr22,291.175 Bearing 1 11 1U 19,980 tons Batteries 1 11 1U crew= ? Agility=0; Fuel=999; Cargo=19.1 low=95 Note: L-Hyd drop tanks add 9,990 tons of fuel and mass, and cost MCr10. (BD- L9313F3) The ship is designed to manoeuvre when carrying up to 29,970 tons of drop tanks.
**-*9*****-*******-*****-* the '9' implies it is a planetoid, basically a hollowed out asteroid. The advantage of this is that it is cheap to build.
Three Queller class (Purpose - Life-Boat Killer): BH-Queller 
BH-K1526F3-B41106-34Q02-1 MCr27,802.392 Bearing Z 1 NN1 N 19,600 tons Batteries Z 1 NN1 N crew=263 Agility=0; Fuel=1,176; Cargo=10.72 low=232; marines=200 Note: L-hyd drop tanks add 9,800 tons of fuel and mass, and cost MCr9.81. (BH-L1314F3) The ship is designed to manoeuvre when carrying up to 29,400 tons of drop tanks and two fighters (one Wasp and one Bee).
Notes: 
Needle-Wedge Shape
**-*******-******-**Q**-* the Q implies a very large particle accelerator weapon, the idea being it can blow up other peoples Lifeboats (or Shield Maiden if you care to call them that).
-- Smaller Ships -- 10 in total, Wasp (7 x 1,000 tons) and Bee (3 x 99 tons) -- 
Note: These are carried on other ships
Seven Wasp class (Purpose - Lifeboat [Almost unhittable ship] creates Shield so other ships can retire and repair damage, then return to fight): IL-Wasp 
Il-A90ZZF2-J00000-00009-0 MCr896.75 Bearing 1 1,000 tons Batteries 1 Crew=19 Agility=6; Fuel=60; Cargo=0 low=0
Notes:
**-*9*****-*******-*****-* the '9' implies it is a planetoid, basically a hollowed out asteroid. The advantage of this is that it is cheap to build.
Agility 6 therefore hard to hit!
Three Bee class: FF-Bee FF-0906661-A30000-00001-0 MCr127.945 Bearing 1 2 99 tons Batteries 1 2 crew=2 Agility=0; Fuel=5.94; Cargo=0
Notes:
**-*9*****-*******-*****-* the '9' implies it is a planetoid, basically a hollowed out asteroid. The advantage of this is that it is cheap to build.
90 Rocks and 6 Needle Space Ships
- End of Fleet --

Note: I have been unable to locate the 1982 Lenat/Eurisko Fleet. It was almost the polar opposite to the above, being fast and unarmoured, but again numerous. In 1983 he was asked, "not to participate" by the organisers. Credit should also be given to the nameless runner up at Origins 1981 who has a similar (relatively individually small sized 10k+ [when compared to 75,000 tonne Dreadnoughts] but heavily armoured fleet, so numerous space ships - without the "specialist ships" Lenat had) fleet. He/She (but let's face it probably a "he") too would have beaten all the conventional fleets. 

According to the Trillion Credit Traveller booklet the Origins 1981, 1982 and 1983 TCS Tournaments conformed to the following rules (they seem to have been advancing the Tech Level by one each year): 

Douglas Lenat did include the event in his published research papers as an example of a test-case use of Eurisko, alongside other more standard domains (such as helping with Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit Design [VLSI]). It was a supplementary research issue that helped him think about his core interest, that is common-sense logic, that is a form of knowledge representation we have yet to crack. He was in the Symbolic-Ontology camp, even if it became uncool (see below. Lenat on Cyc, in one sense the ongoing evolution of Eurisko): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjkbmLjwXO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2rK40bNrrY

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ogbl#search/ontology/QgrcJHrnzwWHQQTPRRXBqPthsMKBxgQvtRV?projector=1

https://www.first.army.mil/Mission/Units/Division-West/videoid/913493/dvpTag/ACT3/igphoto/2003313038/

Citizens of the Imperium - Forum Threads on TCS and Eurisko:

https://www.travellerrpg.com/threads/eurisko-and-tcs.38249/page-2

Send Reinforcements: I need more Adventurers - Female Elf Adventurers

The eldest son is off at university and it comes as no surprise, he is soon to be found running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign with new found friends (and hopefully attending some lectures). The "gaming group" are obviously expanding into new character classes (or perhaps needing replacements for dead characters?) as he wants an urgent "resupply" from his toy cupboard (see below, lead figures were consequently pulled from their retirement sanctuary of the "cupboard cloisters" [after being carefully packed away on his departure] and thrown once more into the frenzied life of adventuring, with new eager young hands waiting to push them around a tabletop, trying to doing unspeakable things [and probably failing ignominiously, as I remember doing]): 

"Please send elves, female elves, I need adventurous female elves!" Dad sighs. "Don't we all son! Try the University Bar on a Friday night." The son is not impressed. "Thanks dad, I need lead figures! "Ok, looking into my side of the figure collection I bring out some old Grenadier classics. These ladies will be some forty five years old, or older. I wonder if they will survive the modern tabletop experience (see below, a female ranger and a female monk [or so I am lead to believe if I recall the listings correctly], they are painted green so they must obviously elves):

A close up of the figures and to my shame the female monk has some "chipped paint" -- gasp -- on her staff, but fear not she should still be able to blend in nicely to the forest backdrop, pity as they are destined for dungeon delving (see below, farewell my lovely ladies. I fear I may never see you again as they have been passed onto another's (un)worthy hands, I hope you get beyond third level (base) with my son and his friends as I never did - too lightly armoured for my dumb ass style of play, I always needed to be wearing chain or plate mail!):  

Final thoughts? He will be after my Orcs next, which means I will have to finish painting them! I mean I have only had them just under twenty years?

"On The Beach" (Nevil Shute)- One That Didn't Make The Shortlist To Jackanory!

I had heard about this one. It was talked about in hushed terms. An old book, published in 1957. A classic, also two films - old and new. So not wanting to be told off for getting "yet another book in the house" I used an Audible subscription token to listen to it, and if anything hearing it as the spoken word was much more traumatic than reading it. At times the dead pan delivery of "the way life went on" was truly chilling, a dystopian reflection of a normality that is not quite normal, against the nightmare world events and its approaching consequences (see below, Neil Shute, a fantastic read/listen. as relevant now as then):  

Bedtime reading for the young ones it is not and remember this was years before Carl Sagan's calculations of a "nuclear winter" hypothesis resulting from a strategic nuclear exchange.   

Overflight: A Solitaire Cold War Game

I can neither confirm or deny the existence of this "book game" to be in my possession, or then again not in my possession. The administration does not offer any comment on rumour or conjecture, nor does it use Signal messaging app for important communications. That said, the U2 spy plane is as an iconic piece of Cold War spy-craft technology and is still being used today (see below, another information packed book game from Historic Wings, to join my growing collection): 

Would readers kindly "not look to the skies" as a large dark object takes to the skies and flies off to mysterious places (or not as the case may be).