Archives for games - Page 10
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CLWG July 2013 Game Reports
There were five of us at July's CLWG meeting, myself, Nick, Mukul, Dave & John. There were three game sessions presented: I went first with a two part committee game called "The High Ground" about the consequences of cheaper surface to orbit space travel; Nick presented an economics card game for educating people about markets and the effects of money and credit; Mukul's session on the 1914 campaign on the Eastern Front. (more…)
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Book Review – To Reason Why, by Denis Forman
This is more than just an infantry officer's memoir. Denis Forman was closely involved in the Battle School movement that transformed the British Army's infantry training during the second world war. He then went on to serve alongside Lionel Wigram (the primary proponent and intellectual leader of the Battle School movement) in Italy. The story is as much about Lionel Wigram as it is about Denis Forman himself. However one of the stand out pieces for me is the honest treatment of how men deal with battle. The psychological impact and how unreliable things become is often not mentioned in most memoirs, there is an unspoken need not to embarrass anyone, or bring up things better left to lie. This book manages to discuss it without shaming anyone. Also, the appendices have copies of the reports into the lessons from…
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Urban Nightmare – the megagame pt.2
Shortly after lunchtime (when I ate my lunch, megagames don't have breaks, they run continuously until the end) I changed role. The trigger for this was that the Emergency Services didn't really need two players (and Geoff had clearly got the hang of megagames even though it was his first time). Also Federal assistance was invoked, and there wasn't a player team at Federal level (because it was always uncertain if it would be required and carried too much risk of boredom to be staffed before it was required). Combat Service Identification Badge of the 101st Airborne Division (Photo credit: Wikipedia) So I ended up as a Major General in charge of the 101st Airborne Division and in command of the Federalised State National Guard forces. I also had a special forces team attached. The direct Federal team was lead by…
Urban Nightmare – the megagame
So we're about to start playing the megagame Urban Nightmare, which is a political crisis management game of a zombie outbreak in Romero City. I'm playing the Deputy Chief of the Emergency Services (which is a combined paramedic and firefighter service). We've got 20 fire appliances and 8 emergency ambulances to service the city. Overnight we've had four emergency calls for paramedics at Sin Street, Cass Tech High School, Elmwood Park & the Water-works Park. All four incidents have had their casualties taken to City General Hospital (which is the closest). Related articles Urban Nightmare - the megagame 'The Price of Victory'- Somme Megagame, Royal Armouries, Leeds. Hack Days and Megagames - Time for a "Fantasy Tax Hack"?
Defeat Into Victory
Image via Wikipedia A friend sent me a copy of Field Marshal Bill Slim's Defeat Into Victory. It has always been on my list of books I'd like to read, but somehow I'd never quite got round to acquiring a copy. The version I have is a reading copy of the original edition, with fold out maps all through it. The reading style is very engaging and easy to read, especially if you have the space to fold out the map at the end of the chapter so that you can follow all the places when they appear in the narrative. It was the first time I'd read about the ebb and flow of the war in Burma (even though my grandfather drove a DUKW out there). So I found it very interesting, the nature of warfare was hugely different that both Europe and North Africa (and I suspect even…