Author: james
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Company Training by Gen. Haking
When in Southport last week I found an antiquarian bookshop in a very small gap between two other shops. It was very much like the fabled ‘magic’ shops that when you go back to it isn’t there. (Although I hope it is if I get a chance to go back, it had a fantastic collection of…
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Economics of New Colonies
I often play in Jim Wallman’s hard SF games set in the universe he’s created. I’ve been thinking about how new colonies get set up and the sort of funding they need. There is a lot of infrastructure required to build a viable colony on a new system. Firstly you need to survey it to…
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The Defense of Jisr Al-Doreaa
This is an excellent update of an old classic. Two books in one, the author’s have brought Swinton’s Duffer’s Drift and re-written it for the modern conflicts (which bear more than a passing resemblance to the Boer War). Swinton’s book is in the second half of the volume. Â The basis for Duffer”s Drift (if you…
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The Other Side of the COIN
An on-side report of how the first run of ‘The Other Side of the COIN’ went. In all a fun day with a lot of useful positive feedback on how to make it better for the next time we play it, and there will be a next time.
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Kings of War
Kings of War is a blog written by faculty and research students at King’s College War Studies department. A very interesting blog with lots of articles on a variety of different aspects of warfare, both modern and historical. I came across it when looking for things to help develop my insurgency game. I am enjoying reading…
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Thoughts on an Insurgency Game
An article I read in the New Scientist on why people got involved in the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia triggered some ideas about trying to run a game about the locals caught amidst an insurgency campaign. Farming Today, Fighting Tomorrow? This is a game to explore why people become insurgents (or perhaps not).…
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CLWG June 2010 Meeting
What you missed at today’s chestnut lodge meeting (unless you were one of those present) were some good conversations and two games: Come One, Come Eorl – another megagame tryout from Andy Hadley; and D-Day beach landing – an improvised game by Jim Wallman. We started with a chat as Jim, Mukul & I watched…
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Siege Engines R Us
Alexander asked me to build him a catapult the same as the one on the picture of his new castle playset.
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War in the West: German Plan
Alex Kleanthous, Trevor Duguid-Farrant and I got together a couple of weeks before the megagame to do the German plan. At the planning session we had a discussion about the plan to use, we were constrained to the historical planning directive issued by Hitler, but not to the historical operational plan. After a debate we…
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Book Review – Blitzkrieg Legend
A book review of Bltzkrieg Legend, the German Army official history of the 1940 Campaign in the West
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Inspiration – Glencoe & Dinosaurs
Inspiration struck not once, but twice! Got two outline games designs in my head, one of which I’m putting on next Saturday at the CLWG Christmas meeting.