Armchair Dragoons Forums

News:

  • Origins Game Fair 2024 – featuring the Wargame HQ with the Armchair Dragoons – will be held 19-23 June, 2024 ~~ More Info here
  • Buckeye Game Fest will be held May 2-5, 2024, with The War Room opening on 29 April ~~ More Info here

News

Buckeye Game Fest will be held May 2-5, 2024, with The War Room opening on 29 April ~~ More Info here

Recent Posts

1
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by Sir Slash on Today at 11:32:47 AM »
Thusly giving the Japanese the shits also.  :hehe:
2
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Today at 09:42:42 AM »
305         Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305) retires to grow cabbages at Spoletum, while his partner Maximian (286-305) retires too, under protest.

1308         Holy Roman Emperor Albrecht I von Hapsburg (1298-1308), c. 53, assassinated by his nephew

1675 finally that the French Army firmly established the principle that an officer's bureaucratic rank, not his aristocratic rank, determined precedence in command, which was one reason why Louis XIV's forces began doing much better than most other armies.

1769. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, d. 1852.
The phrase “duke it out”, meaning “fight”, appears to derive ultimately from a nickname of one of the Great Captains, the Duke of Wellington (1769-1852).
It seems that the Duke had a rather prominent nose, so distinctive, in fact, that his troops often referred to him as "Old Nosey". So the word “duke” soon became a synonym for “nose” in working class English slang, attested during Wellington’s own lifetime. That, in turn, led to the rise of the threat “bust your duke”, meaning “punch your nose”, and thus to “duke buster” as slang for “fist”, which was soon shortened to “duke”.
By further evolution, the phrase “put up your dukes” developed as an invitation to fight and “duke it out” became slang for “fight”.
While some etymologists apparently do not agree with this derivation, it’s worth noting that there is in London a mini-monument to the ducal proboscis, suggesting how notable it was.


1811. HMS Pomone (38), Cptn. Robert Barrie, HMS  Unite (40), Cptn. Chamberlayne, and HMS Scout (18), Cptn. Alex. Renton Sharpe, destroyed Giraffe (26) and Nourrise (14) and an armed merchantman in the Bay of Sagone, Corsica. The two French warships blew up and their burning timbers destroyed a Martello tower and caused a shore battery to blow up.

HMS Guerriere (38), Cptn. Samuel John Pechell, stopped the brig USS Spitfire off Sandy Hook in New Jersey and impressed Maine citizen John Diggio.

1862. David Farragut captures New Orleans

1863. Battle of Chancellorsville begins (ends on the 4th)

1961. Fidel Castro announces there will be no more elections in Cuba

1934. Lt. Frank Akers makes a hooded landing in an OJ-2 at College Park, Maryland, in the first blind landing system intended for an aircraft carrier.

1943, Capt. Harold L. Meadows of the escort carrier Natoma Bay, then operating in tropical climes in support of operations against Japanese forces, called up the ship's "GSO" (General Services Officer). When the laundry officer answered, the Captain roared, "Who put the itching powder in my underwear?"
The startled officer expressed doubts that anyone would have the temerity to do so, but the Captain emphasized that such was indeed the case, and ordered the man to apprehend the malefactor immediately.
The GSO promptly headed for the ship's laundry. Lining up the men, he demanded, "Who put the itching powder in the Captain's underwear?"
The assembled men were silent. Then, just as the officer was about to repeat his question, a man in the rear of the assembled laundry workers spoke up, "Do you suppose that's where the fiberglass curtain went?"
Everyone looked at the man in surprise. There was a missing curtain, one of many which had been supplied by the Navy in lieu of more expensive doors. The curtain had become mixed up with the regular laundry. Unfortunately, it was not supposed to be washed using the same water temperature, soap, and bleach used to wash the men's cottons. As a result it had disintegrated, leaving behind a fine, abrasive dust, which was now all over not just the Captain's underwear, but that of the entire crew; the Captain had just had the misfortune to have his laundry delivered before anyone else's.
It took two additional washings before the men of Natoma Bay were able to rid themselves of the itchy fiberglass in their skivvies.

1944 during her third war patrol, the USS Angler (SS 240) sank a Japanese tanker in the Sunda strait despite widespread gastrointestinal Illness throughout the crew caused by an inadvertent addition of a can of carbon tetrachloride, a cleaning agent, to the water supply.
3
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on Yesterday at 09:41:38 PM »
37.  Roman governor Lucius Vitellius, successor to Pontius Pilate, arranged a sacrifice to "the God of the Jews" at the Temple of Jerusalem

535  Queen Amalasuntha of the Ostrogoths (516-534), 40, strangled by order of her husband Theodahad, who assumes the throne (534-536),


1305   Massacre of Adrianople: Byzantine Emperor Michael IX Palaiologos contrives the destruction of the Catalan Company

1492. Ferdinand & Isabella agree to bankroll Columbus

1797. HMS Indefatigable (44), Sir Edward Pellew,, midshipmen Horatio Hornblower, & others captured French privateer brig La Basque (8) in the Channel

1828.  King Shaka zan Senzagakona of the Zulu (1816-1828), c. 41, murdered by his brothers

1863. one point during the siege of Vicksburg, while viewing Confederate lines from an observation tower, Union general James McPherson’s carelessness in exposing himself led a Reb to shout that if he didn’t duck he’d likely get his head shot off; whereupon the Reb’s officer reprimanded him for swearing at a superior officer.

1945     Lt. Raqymjan Qoshqarbaev raised the Red Banner over the Reichstag Building in Berlin
     .1945         Col. William O. Darby, of "Darby's Rangers," kia at 34 near Lake Garda, while serving as Assistant Commander, 10th Mountain Div
4
Intel Dump / Re: The PODCAST now known as "Mentioned in Dispatches" !
« Last post by bayonetbrant on Yesterday at 06:26:30 AM »
see?  it was a good idea!
5
The Modern World / Re: Consolidated thread for Thin Red Line's C3 series
« Last post by bayonetbrant on Yesterday at 06:26:00 AM »
as always, it's fun to check out the maps and find the places you used to live :)


That would be hex 1811.  :bigthumb:

0227 on this map for me
6
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on April 30, 2024, 10:57:01 PM »
711      Tariq ibn Ziyad’s Moorish army landed at Gibraltar, to overthrow the Visigothic Spain, initiating and a multigenerational conflict that ended in 1492.

1676. Dutch Adm. Michael Ruyter, cannonballed at 69, Naval Battle of Syracuse

1837..Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger, 54, French general, frustrated putchist, suicide in 1891, on the grave of his mistress

1873. Francis John William Harvey was born, Royal Marine who received a posthumous Victoria Cross at Jutland.  veteran major in the Royal Marines and a specialist in gunnery, commanded Q turret on HMS Lion. Early in the battle, as the battle cruisers were exchanging fire, Lion was hit by nine shells from SMS Lutzow, and at 16:00 one struck the turret, blowing off the roof and started a fire. Although mortally wounded, ordered the turret’s magazine to be flooded, preventing tons ammunition from exploding and destroying the ship, a deed which prompted Winston Churchill to comment: "In the long, rough, glorious history of the Royal Marines there is no name and no deed which in its character and consequences ranks above this". Harvey ‘s name is inscribed on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

1918         Gavrilo Princip, assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, in jail at 23 of TB

7
Sci-fi & Fantasy Warfare / Re: Star Fleet Battles, no thread?
« Last post by Putraack on April 30, 2024, 09:45:34 PM »
At Buckeye Game Fest this week, I found some players for SFB: 2 who hadn't played before and 2 who hadn't played in a long time, so I refereed some (re)teaching games. One duel of tournament ships and 2 back-to-back plays of an old 1v1 scenario, the players switching sides after one play. A newbie won the first duel, a veteran won both plays of the scenario.
8
The Modern World / Re: Consolidated thread for Thin Red Line's C3 series
« Last post by TTC on April 30, 2024, 09:43:47 PM »
4th game in the series has been announced

https://warwithoutkia.blogspot.com/2024/04/in-dark-wood-here-is-battlefield.html


Quote
Well, after a long pause in Greece we are back to our favourite, familiar and apocalyptic World War Three environment! Ah, nothing better than the smell of napalm in the morning.

Here's the first complete, almost approved version of the map for the C3 Module #4 - In a Dark Wood. Actually, Tony is still griping about it, but that's not big news...He always does :D

The map is slightly bigger than the Less Than 60 Miles one, in order to include the whole US VII Corps Area of Responsibility.


as always, it's fun to check out the maps and find the places you used to live :)

That would be hex 1811.  :bigthumb:
9
Intel Dump / Re: The PODCAST now known as "Mentioned in Dispatches" !
« Last post by TTC on April 30, 2024, 09:41:45 PM »
Mentioned in Dispatches Season 12 Ep 10 ~ Commercial Wargames for the Pros
In preparation for Connections Online next week, we’re joined by a pair of wargame practitioners: Kevin Williamson, and Mitch Reed, both up in the DC area.
Mitch is well-known to the hobby world as the lead sled-dog of the No Dice No Glory team, but he’s also on his third different professional wargaming gig, after an extended military career.  Kevin’s hobby background is more digital than tabletop, but it’s serving him well in his current wargames-in-military-education role.



https://www.armchairdragoons.com/podcast/s12e11/

I heard on the podcast: "You should follow Kevin [Williamson] on LinkedIn."

Good idea, I thought. So I logged onto LinkedIn... and saw that I already followed him. :)
10
Intel Dump / Re: Tuesday Newsday! Weekly dump of wargaming news
« Last post by bayonetbrant on April 30, 2024, 04:06:31 PM »
Convention Season Coming Up ~ #TuesdayNewsday

From tabletop tactics to warfighting masterpieces, #TuesdayNewsday covers it all

https://wp.me/sae4WL-tn043024