Girls und Panzer

We've seen some of these Girls und Panzer episodes and they're all a hoot to watch.

For those who like to play wargames then TooFatLardies What a Tanker would be perfect for recreating a Girls und Panzer campaign.

A Quick History of Wargames

Found this on YouTube, as one does, and enjoyed it enough to share it with you all here.

It also serves as a reminder of the need to get my finger out, and finish the unfinished rules sitting on my computer. Add to this the need to move the current conversions on my workbench, I need them for play-testing.

I know, I know, I could bathtub using other miniatures but, for me, miniature gaming is all about the toys.

Something about having a model of the actual person or vehicle to play with just clicks for me. I become immersed in the fate of the model. That of course is just how I play. Other ways or playing are perfectly good.

The Veteran Podcast

I've been interviewed and talked about Japanese mecha, science fiction and warfare in the shape of mecha and wargames.

Hear me speak in Episode 72: Mech Mania is live!

And, having listened to myself yack on, I can authoritatively say the word of the day is Absolutely.

I use it so often in the podcast that one could turn it into a drinking game.

If anyone does, please let me know what happened so I can add the number for that totally authentic Sesame Street vibe.

Summer is Here

  

 

And it is hot. Well, yesterday was, but today will be cooler. Still not doing much model-making because I've been out shooting arrows at straw butts. I like to think of this as one-to-one scale wargaming or perhaps LARPing might be a better description. Sure is fun when one gets an arrow in the gold.

Been rewatching a bunch of TV shows. The sort that  make for good RPG scenarios. Fringe is all about a team investigating "The Pattern" caused... well that would be spoilers. But mad/crazy science that carries one along, and a rich source for games.

Equally crazy/mad science is the time traveling show 12 Monkeys. Inspired by the movie, this show is a wild ride through the various time travel tropes that is inspired by great SF stories of the past. Well worth watching, and again ripe for a referee looking for plot twists.

And now we've started a rewatch of Primeval. Dinosaurs and hyper dimensional time portals. What's not to like?
   

Professional Wargaming

  

 

As you can all tell by the paucity of posts here I've not been doing much wargaming or model making. Let's just say I've been going through a rough patch health wise and leave it at that.

However, I have maintained my interest in all things wargaming, and read around for idea etc. and I came across these two articles about professional wargaming that I thought I would share.

Both articles are by Dr. James Lacey who is the Professor of Strategic Studies at the Marine Corps War College. I am now a fan and shall be following his work.

The first article is an overview of Wargaming in the Classroom. Be advised that there's a formatting issue with the pictures, but right-clicking on them to view will reveal the picture in the correct aspect ratio. It makes for a fascinating read and I learnt new stuff about the Peloponnesian War (though I don't wargame anything much prior to WW1 – No Tanks, No Thanks – being my motto, my wargaming roots are in Greek Hoplite warfare).

The second article was firmly in my bailiwick, being a piece on wargaming WW3, called Lessons from a Wargame. This article is about the use of commercial wargames and the things that they bring to teaching that professional wargames used by the military don't. So it makes for a fascinating read.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading these two articles as much as I did. Catch you all on the bounce.
  

Team Yankee

 

My friend Graham Worsfield has been talking about Team Yankee and his Chieftan tanks.  For me 15mm WW3 games are out of the question given I only have a 40 x 45 inch table.  It would be hard enough to have large games fighting over the Fulda Gap in 1/300th, let alone 15mm.

I only mention this in passing, not because I'm getting into the game, but rather taking advantage of the plastic tanks they're doing.  In particular the Abrams and T72s.  My AK47R project has been languishing unloved in a box going nowhere for a number of years, six to be precise.  This was down to me becoming dissatisfied with the basing conventions of the game, which meant every thing ground to a halt and then I saw some thing else that was shiny.

However, given some recent navel gazing, pondering on wargame scales and toy soldiers – all very deep and meaningful stuff I can assure you – I'm feeling a bit more love for my 15mm lead pile.  So this is me planning, plotting and preparing for when TooFat Lardies release Fighting Season, which I intend to use as the basis for Mogadishu inspired games.

Ogre Miniatures Rules

  

The Ogre Miniatures rule books stands as the central pillar for playing Ogre on wargame terrain.  It is both a testament to the popularity of the original game, and the levels that one can stretch a set of rules to convert them from being a hex map board game to one that can be played on a green tabletop.  I have a confession to make though, I have never played Ogre Miniatures on the wargame table.  Why, because I don't have a big enough table to play the game as written, and I also have certain reservations about the conversion.

The ground scale of Ogre Miniatures is two inches to 1500 metres, or approximately one mile if you prefer Imperial.  At that ratio the miniatures are at best tokens, and at worse things that are far too large, which get in the way of playing the game; in short gonks.  Also, because the original game is based on hexes that are units of area, the miniatures game conversion causes for me problems around measuring a straight line distance versus counting areas.  This is a problem one also encounters when playing BattleTech.  The two systems of counting distance are sufficiently different in their assumptions that for me they break the flow of the game.

If I lived in an ideal world where I had a house with a dedicated wargames room, and the financial resources to throw at my hobbies that meant I could do whatever I liked, then I would use Kallistra's Hexon range, which would meet my needs to have nice looking terrain, and no need to muck around with converting rules that changes the flavour of the game being played.  I also think that the Ogre miniatures line are the Redheaded stepchild of Steve Jackson Games.  I believe this because they don't fit within what SJG see as their core products, namely games using paper and card.  However, I also think that the miniatures played on the hex map boards are the epitome of the hybrid board wargame. 

So here's hoping that Ogre Miniatures go from strength-to-strength now that the Ogre Designer Edition has reinvigorated interest in the line.

  

Aliens: A Rant

  
There has been recently what I consider to be a rather fraught thread on this topic on the CBT forums, which I'm not going to link to for two reasons.  First it is has been moderated, and second it is dead.  My post here is a slightly revised version of my last post to that thread, which is as much about getting stuff off my chest as anything else.

I kind of assume that most people are au fait with the real world arguments for aliens.  I suspect this is a wrong assumption on my part.  The arguments around whether or not aliens should, or should not exist in the BattleTech universe, tend to be a discussion on what different types of aliens would add interesting opponent's to the boardgame.  The arguments then tend to degenerate into:

• I'd stop playing BattleTech if aliens were added.
• Aliens don't add anything to the game that can't be done with human protagonists.
• The TPTB said no aliens.

I'm not interested in arguing the these points in any shape at all, because as I agree that it's either down to personal opinion, or taste.  Also, I have no control over the direction of the BattleTech product line at CGL.

What I do want to do is throw a big spanner into the works and prove that the probability of aliens existing in the BattleTech universe is high enough that some explanation for their non-existence has to be provided, which has to be better than "because we say so".  Though if they say "it's FASA's biophysics, move on nothing to see" I'd be okay with that, because we would at least have acknowledged that there is a problem, even if it can't, or won't be corrected.

Now let me start with three current ideas around aliens in our universe; the Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equations and Panspermia. I'm not going to expound on these at great length, but I will give a couple of links to help those whose Google Fu is weak, and or genuinely don't understand the concepts.

Fermi Paradox

Basically Fermi was a scientist who in 1950 asked why haven't we met aliens, given how long we've been around etc?  Worked from the optimistic assumption that even at slower than light speeds it doesn't take forever to actually explore the Milky way galaxy (about 300,000 years, which is a very long time, but it can be done.  Or as one NASA scientist allegedly said, "Getting to the stars is a biological problem, not an engineering one").

Quote, "The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations."

Drake Equation

Once you read the Fermi Paradox link you will see mention of the Drake Equations.  Drake being another scientist who thought to himself it must be possible to calculate the probability of the existence of life on other worlds, and come to some conclusions about the chances of meeting aliens?  He was a bit more pessimistic than Fermi, because he assumed that technological civilisations will always destroy themselves, or have a natural life span that ends up with them dying out.

Quote, "The Drake equation (sometimes called the Green Bank equation or the Green Bank Formula) is an equation used to estimate the number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.  It is used in the fields of exobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).  The equation was devised by Frank Drake in 1961."

Panspermia

Panspermia has to do with the origins of life in the universe in general.  It predates both of the above ideas by a considerable margin as it was first proposed around the 5th Century BC.  In the 1950s the astronomer Fred Hoyle promoted the concept, but tied it into "intelligent design", much to the detriment of his professional standing in the scientific community at the time.  In more recent years space probes have provided supporting evidence for panspermia.

Quote, "Panspermia (Greek: πανσπερμία from πᾶς/πᾶν (pas/pan) "all" and σπέρμα (sperma) "seed") is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by meteoroids, asteroids, and planetoids."

Three Theory Argument

Now in our real world all of the above is subject to a lot of problems from having what statisticians would call a "very sparse data set" i.e: life only known to exist here on Earth.  While we now have astronomical data on 200 or so extra-solar planets, we are still fumbling around in the dark that is the vastness of space, if you'll pardon the pun.

However, in the BattleTech Universe this is not the case, as we have a background where there are 2500 colonised planets, and IIRC, 7500 or so other explored systems with no life.  Even if these figures are wrong it hardly affects the basic answer, which is that we have (within the game) now tested the Panspermia hypothesis, and can put all of data into the Drake equation, which will answer the Fermi Paradox.

I know from reading various source book and novels that there are planets in the BattleTech Universe with dinosaurs, proto-humanoid hominids, and at least one tool using alien race called the Tetatae.  Now some of you might be thinking, but the Tetatae could be any where in the universe, not just the Milky Way galaxy.

Well actually no, because even though FASA physics suck, we do have some limits from in game sources about the limits of the jump drive.  We know from the Word of Blake (WoB) use of super-jumps, during the Jihad, is how far a jumpship can jump, given the energy it has stored on board.  From this we can make some educated guesses, on the upper limits, about how far a jumpship that has miss-jumped can go.

My best guess, using the worst case scenario, is that the miss-jump radius is within one or two orders of magnitude larger than 800 light years.  Based on the distances from the WoB super-jumps during the Jihad, this would mean 8,000 light years up to 80,000 light years away.  This is well within our Milky Way galaxy, and really not all that far in cosmological terms.  Assuming one order of magnitude, a missjump radius of 8000 light years is certainly within the possible travel distance of a jumpship in the BattleTech Universe (about 61 jumps to get to the Tetatae homeworld).  Given no other hard data in any of the sourcebooks, it is difficult to firm-up this educated guess.

Alternatively, even if you took the argument that the miss-jump in Far Country was a jump forward in time as well as space, this would still not invalidate the the existence of aliens in the BattleTech Universe, because the Drake equation looks at the statistical probabilities of aliens existing over a set period of time.  Given that we only have one reference in the source books to a jump-ship miss-jumping forward in time, it is hard to have any meaningful discussion of the physics of time travel in the BattleTech Universe.  My best educated guess would be a minimum of one year forward for every light year travelled, because this would fit in with what we know about time dilation and general relativity, and is a very rough approximate fit for the events as described the book Living Legends.

Statistical Probability of Aliens

Now I know that the mention of statistical probabilities tend to turn most people off, but such tools allow us to make educated guesses about the number of aliens that could exist in the BattleTech Universe.

There are minimum of 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way.  This figure could be four times higher, and the astrophysicists will no doubt get back to us in due course when they've finished arguing over the numbers (I've taken the conservative position to make my argument stronger).

In BattleTech we have a distribution of life supporting planets per system that is approximately one in four (it was unclear to me whether there are 7500, or 10,000 star systems in the BattleTech's known space.  Taking the larger number makes my arguments stronger, because it reduces the chances of aliens existing). That is 10,000 known star systems with 2500 having "habitable" planets, very roughly one in four.

Using that data ratio, as our assumption for the Drake equation, we end up with 100,000,000,000 divided by 10,000 divided by four, which if I've done my maths right is 2,500,000 planets that are capable of supporting life.  That's a lot of planets.

From here we then go back and look at the number of planets that had life on them that developed life in the BattleTech known sphere before humans arrived.  A minimum of 5 planets (may be higher, but I'm being conservative here to strengthen my argument), but the number at this really doesn't affect the answer all that much.  So 10,000 systems divided by 5 equals roughly 1 in 2000 had an intelligent life form.  Arguable as just being humans in the BattleTech Universe.

Now, divide 2,500,000 by 2000 and we get a possible 1250 technological aliens species living in the Milky Way.

They're Dead Jim

Of course, as Drake suggests they may be all extinct, so the question becomes what would be the chance of that being true?  The answer again lies in the Drake equation, and handily enough he guesstimates that a technological civilisation will last about 10,000 years.

Human technological society may have arguably been around for about 8,000 years, in the BattleTech Universe, if you make the assumption that we became technological started around 5000 BC or so.  However, a different definition of technology based on social infrastructure to support artisans, would require moving the clock forward to the changeover from hunter gathering to formation of agrarian city states, rather than tool use per se.  Then we are talking around 2500 BC or so, which would make our human technological society about 5000 years old.  Pick a figure really.

Anyway, the "timey-wimey" thing.  Are all these aliens civilizations around at the same time?  Clearly not, but regardless there would be archeological ruins from dead civilizations to find.  Even so how many aliens might be around now?

All I can say is more than one, but less than 1250.

My best guess, maybe one in ten.  So maybe up to a 125 technological aliens exist in the BattleTech Universe Milky Way galaxy.  Probably with technology comparable to the Inner Sphere, in the time period that BattleTech is set.  Could be a lot higher number of aliens, or they could all be technologically much further advanced, or behind, depending on your assumptions and other variables.

What Are They Good For?

Now the aliens are not out there thinking "what do we add to the game of BattleTech ", because this is not a discussion of the merits of adding, or not adding aliens to BattleTech?  IMNSHO the aliens just exist.  One just has to accept that they may add nothing new, it is just inevitable from the assumptions that underpin the BattleTech universe as a place where "mankind can go forth, multiply and die".

If FASA had set BattleTech at a time when the whole galaxy had been explored, and the first empire had fallen during the long night, like Asimov did in the Foundation series, then FASA could say that there are no aliens in the BattleTech Milky Way galaxy.  FASA would still not be able to say that there are no aliens in the BattleTech Universe, because there are more galaxies in the universe than there are stars in this galaxy.  However, they didn't.

Hopefully I've demonstrated that aliens are like economics, physics, and other stuff that FASA made up a bunch of stuff about, holds very "little water" when you examine it closely.  I remain, neither for, nor against aliens in BattleTech.  I can see how if done badly they would suck.  OTOH I can imagine that if done well they would be good.  What I know is that unless there is a change of heart by TPTB at CGL then the introduction of aliens is very unlikely, which I think is bad, because I think an open mind is better than a closed one.

Disclaimer: All posts are condensed & abbreviated summaries of complex arguments posted for discussion on the internet, and not meant to be authoritative in any shape, or form on said subject, T&CA, E&OE & YMMV.
   

Not Quite BattleTech

   

I got up today with the intention of painting and making a variety of things that are sitting on my work bench waiting to be done. For instance I have for industrial mechs that I'm making up as "technicals" for games of BattleTech where one side has really rubbish mechs, because let's be frank and honest here, industrial mechs suck. However, I quite like the idea of campaigns where you have to put down a local uprising, or have to lead a revolution against conventional forces with whatever you have to hand.

This kind of segues into a rant about wargamers only wanting to play what are seen as somehow fair, or at least balanced games, which is fair enough I suppose as we are wargaming, not actually carrying out acts of war. I was thinking in bed last night, as one does when one is about to fall off to sleep, about wargames as games versus simulations. A debate that comes up time and again in the press, on forums and in conversations with one's mates.

You know the argument I mean. Point systems versus balanced play debated against the background of linked scenarios versus pick up games, and whether it is fairer to have randomised armies versus picked armies that exploit the rules etc. I can see it now, Napoleon Bonaparte standing at Waterloo saying " zat Vellington chap is awfully nice and we should have a good clean fair fight to zee oou iz ze best generalé?" Or Wellington looking back across the field and saying that Boney is a fine chap, let's give him a warm welcoming hand. Actually I could imagine Wellington saying something like that, nothing like understated British humour in a tight spot!

IMNSHO, I've find myself thinking that all the games we are playing about war are first and foremost games, and rarely simulate reality in any shape or form, though they can have rules that allow for the game to produce outcomes that mimic historical processes. I'm not a military person, but I have some family who have been, and know quite a few other former soldiers too. This doesn't really qualify me to have an opinion as such, but I will quote the general consensus that military people convey to me. Hobby wargames can be useful, but they are not simulating warfare as such.

Having been out with military personnel on a few occasions getting an introduction to TEWTs (Tactical Exercises Without Troops), and having participated in light infantry training exercises for a number of years through playing a Live Action Role Playing game that has a high number of former military personnel who play, I know what I do, I do for a couple of hours of fun. What real soldiers do is spend hours of their lives bored by stuff, punctuated by moments of sheer adrenaline rush when the shit hits the fan.

Anyway, what I've learnt from my time hanging around soldiers and having fun, is that when you go into a fight the last thing you want is fair. Fair leads to a lot of Blue team casualties. What you want is at least 4 to 1 odds in your favour so that you can mallet the opposition good and proper. If you should find find yourself in the unenviable position of being out numbered, then dig in, because then they will need at least 4 to 1 odds to steam roller over you.

So, when I see people moan about players who stack the odds in their odds, I do sympathise, but I see it as a natural predilection of human being desire to survive, which is probably inappropriately focused when it come to playing games, but which makes perfect sense from a Darwinian perspective. Perhaps the secret for writing really good rules is to factor this need in and have systems that allow for the natural tendencies of the player to minimize their risks, and maximize their benefits?

So to sum up. I can't remember a game I played for hours with boring stuff that ends in a few minutes of total adrenaline overload, not even the ones where I've been on training exercises with soldiers simulating a field exercise. And why would I spend hours of my life doing something that bores me? I have a job that can do most of that, and I get paid for the boredom, and when it get really exciting, as in oh my god someone might die kinda way, then I'm still getting paid for doing my job. Wargames OTOH are generally some enjoyable hours spent with a few mates playing a game, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh yes, I primed another platoon of Pendraken Late WW1 British infantry, and then I was sucked into cleaning up and basing the rest of the company and support elements, but I shall talk about that in another post.