Armchair Dragoons Forums

News:

  • Connections Online 2024 will be held 15-20 April, 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

Connections Online 2024 will be held 15-20 April, 2024 ~~ More Info here

Recent Posts

21
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on March 25, 2024, 09:28:02 AM »
22
4X Gaming / Re: Millennia by Paradox
« Last post by Barthheart on March 24, 2024, 10:25:20 PM »
Some good thoughts...

23
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on March 24, 2024, 04:45:20 PM »
771   BC   Romulus, future King of Rome (753 -717 BC) and Remus (d. 753) [Trad]

809         Haroun-al-Raschid, twenty-fifth Caliph (786-809), at 44

1241         Mongols take Cracow, Poland

1401         Tamerlane sacks Damascus

1545. During the reign of Henry VIII (1509-1547), England developed what may have been the most sophisticated ordnance in Europe; the very word "ordnance" was coined during this period, reportedly due to a typo in the spelling of in the "ordinance" that formalized the new system of artillery.  This was eventually inherited by his daughter, Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603).
 English artillery was under the control of the “Captain General of Artillery,” later renamed “Master of the Ordnance.”
The Master of the Ordnance was not only responsible for the manufacture and maintenance of cannon, powder, and shot, but also for the recruiting and training of artillerymen, for the supply of ammunition to arquebusiers and musketeers and archers (the longbow remained a weapon of issue for the English militia into the 1590s), and for many engineering duties as well
So there were a host of personnel under the command and supervision of the Master of the Ordnance.
 Master Gunners, senior artillery officers for a particular post or command
 A Gunner, and Gunner’s Mate for every cannon
 Wheelwrights
Carpenters
Shipwrights
 Coopers
 Smiths
 Fletchers
 Masons
 Wainwrights
 Cable makers
 Pioneers

The smiths, carpenters, wheelwrights, and wainwrights (wagon makers) were needed to make the guns and their carriages, cable makers made the ropes necessary to haul the pieces, especially those to be fitted aboard ships by the shipwrights.  Masons and pioneers were needed to build or modify fortresses, castles, storehouses, and so forth, and coopers made the barrels necessary to store powder. . 
In addition to these personnel, if the Master of the Ordnance happened to go on campaign, he would also command infantry companies, as required, to protect the guns, a task more normally assigned to the master gunner of the army in the field.
To carry out his duties, the Master of the Ordnance initially had a very small administrative staff, just a lieutenant and some clerks, the numbers of whom increased over the years.  That's because, by Victorian times the Master of the Ordnance was responsible not only for artillery, engineers, and fortifications, but also for supplies, transport, hospitals, and a lot more, and yet was not a subordinate of the commander-in-chief of the British Army.  This odd situation came about because additional tasks kept being dumped on the Master.  Since he received a cut of all money that passed through is office, the Master was not likely to protest when a new task was entrusted to his care.  Nevertheless, by Victorian times it became clear that some of the muddle that accompanied military administration was certainly attributable to the highly jury-rigged arrangement that put the Master of the Ordnance in charge of all sorts of unrelated matters.  Reform eventually took hold.
There still is Master of the Ordnance, but the post is today largely an administrative one, similar to the Chief of Artillery in the U.S. Army.

1830, over objections that long distance communications were not a military concern, the Prussian Army finally acceded to proposals by officers who had been impressed by how Napoleon had benefitted from his signal service and formed an optical telegraph section in the Guard Pioneer Battalion.

1896, the 11,520 ton battleship Kentucky (BB-6) and her sister Kearsarge (BB-5, the only American battlewagon not named for a state), were among the most powerful warships afloat when they were commissioned in 1900.  The pair toted four 13"/35 guns in two twin turrets, each of which also had a "superposed" double 8"/35 turret on its top, plus a plethora of lighter armament, and could make a respectable 16 knots.
The ships were launched in a unique double ceremony on March 24, 1898, at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock, which today builds Uncle Sam's aircraft carriers.  And on that occasion, Kentucky definitely stole the show.
On the appointed day, Kearsarge was launched first, christened by Mrs. Herbert Winslow, the daughter of Rear Admiral John Winslow, who had commanded the screw sloop Kearsarge in her famous 1863 duel with the Confederate cruiser Alabama.  Mrs. Winslow, who had married her cousin Herbert Winslow, also a naval officer, performed her duties properly, wielding the traditional bottle of champagne.
Kentucky's sponsor, however, had a different idea.  Miss Christine Bradley, daughter of Blue Grass State governor William O. Bradley, was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance League.  Spurning tradition, Miss Bradley chose to christen the ship with  bottle of spring water taken from Sinking Spring Farm, the old Lincoln homestead in Hardin County, Kentucky.
Word of Miss Bradley's intentions has been widely circulated.  As a result, many of the guests came prepared to "correct" her heretical proposal.  As Miss Bradley smashed the water bottle and the great ship began sliding down the ways, members of the crowd began hurling the contents of their hip flasks at the ship, and even whole bottles of bourbon, so that when she entered the water, her hull was well lubricated with a considerable amount of good Kentucky whiskey.

1917. When the United States declared war on Germany in April, the only war plans on hand were for the defense of the country against a British invasion from Canada, a conflict with Japan in the Pacific, involving a possible invasion of the West Coast, or a German invasion of the East Coast from the West Indies.

1945         Gen. George S. Patton pisses in the Rhine from a pontoon bridge near Oppehneim, Germany -- http://imgur.com/gallery/enIbnty
24
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on March 24, 2024, 01:30:20 PM »
Probably too busy dodging Conestoga wagons on Sunset boulevard.
25
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by bbmike on March 24, 2024, 08:44:37 AM »
...

1806  Lewis & Clark reach the Pacific Coast
...


Did they rave about the seriously overrated In-N-Out Burger?  ::)
26
Saturday Night Fights & Tabletop Simulator / Re: General d'Armee 2
« Last post by bayonetbrant on March 23, 2024, 09:48:30 PM »
Tonight it's Quatre Bras


https://wp.me/pae4WL-8ya
27
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on March 23, 2024, 02:01:08 PM »
500 BC. Roman Festival of the Tubilustrium - Purification of the War Trumpets

1208. Pope Innocent III excommunicates King John and lays England under interdict until the Crown restores ecclesiastical rights

1514  Born. Lorenzino de' Medici, author, later murderer of his kinsman Duke Alessandro "il Moro" de' Medici of Florence in 1537, murdered in turn by his kinsman Duke Cosimo I de' Medici of Florence in 1548.

1603. Emperor Go-Yozei declares Tokugawa Ieyasu Shogun of Japan (1603-1616), establishing the Tokugaw Shogunate that woud rule until 1868

1680. the Jesuit missionaries of what is now Paraguay, organized a militia from among their Guarani Indian converts, under the command of former soldiers who had taken Holy Orders, who proved quite effective in beating off slaving raids from Brazil.

1806  Lewis & Clark reach the Pacific Coast

1862. Battle of Kernstown, Va: Jackson begins his Valley Campaign

1918, as the Germans unleashed the first of their massive offensives that very nearly led to victory over the Allies on the Western Front, the U.S. War Department informed all general officers that one of the principal weaknesses of American soldiers was a slovenly and indifferent salute.

1944. RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survives a 5,500 m fall without a parachute after his Lancaster is hit near Berlin
28
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on March 22, 2024, 07:32:13 PM »
1622  First Indian War: Powahaten attacks Jamestown, Va, 347 die

1808. The Battle of Sjællands Odde. Danish Prinds Christian Frederik (74), Cmdr. Carl W. Jessen, engaged English squadron of HMS Stately (64), Commodore George Parker, HMS Nassau  and 3 frigates. She grounded outside Odden harbor, was set on fire and exploded.

1817  Birth of Braxton Bragg.  his Memoirs, U.S. Grant, mentioned a tale about Bragg that circulated in the “Old Army” before the war.
On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!”
Grant’s anecdote is probably not true, but that it circulated suggests the degree to which Bragg was, as Grant put it, “disputatious.”

1820. Commo. Stephen Decatur, 41, in a duel with Commo. James Barron. over criticism Decatur had when Barron lost his ship, USS Chesapeake, to HMS Leopard in 1807.

1910  Birth of Nicholas Monserrat.  Although a pacifist, during World War II, Nicholas Monsarrat (1910-1979), a promising young novelist, decided to do his bit to defeat Hitler. Being an avid yachtsman, he promptly joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Commissioned a sub-lieutenant, Monsarrat saw service in corvettes during the most desperate days of the Battle of the Atlantic. Proving a capable officer, he was promoted with unusual speed for a temporary reservist. By war’s end, having commanded successively a corvette, a frigate, and an escort group, and helped conduct numerous convoys across the ocean, he had risen to captain, and was serving on the staff of the Admiralty in London.
With the formal surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, a carnival atmosphere quickly developed in London. By chance, Monsarrat was the Duty Captain in the Admiralty that night, assigned to stand watch in the command center. He arrived at the Admiralty at 9:00 p.m., by which time perhaps a million happy people were crowded into central London. From his post, Monsarrat could hear the cheers and singing of the crowds outside the historic Admiralty building, which had seen many a similar crowd celebrating Britain’s victories since it had been completed in 1726. As he would later write, “On a guilty impulse I deserted my post” to take in the scene. He made his way to the top of the great stone arch which marks the formal entrance to the Admiralty.
From the top of Admiralty Arch, Monsarrat could see an enormous host of people cheering and singing, from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square and, most astonishing of all, a city in lights for the first time since blackouts had begun, nearly six years earlier.
But then he noticed something else, which he described in his memoirs.
Then, on a half-turn, I became aware that I was not alone, on top of the Admiralty Arch.
There was someone standing within five yards of me, also staring down at the crowds, and oblivious of close company for the same reason as I had been—because we were both entranced by the magnet of what was going on below.  With that perceptible twinge of nervousness which had been built into my life for so many years, I recognized, first the rank and then the man.
The massive display of gold braid told me that he was an admiral, like his brave and lonely brother on top of the column [Nelson].  Then I realized that this was a very superior admiral indeed.  I counted one thick band of gold, and four thinner ones.  He was an Admiral of the Fleet-the highest any sailor could go.
In fact, I suddenly recognized, he was the Admiral of the Fleet.  The man in my company was the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Cunningham.

2228  Capt. James Tiberius Kirk of the 'Enterprise', in Riverside , Iowa
29
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on March 22, 2024, 10:11:01 AM »
New blog post up this morning announcing the release or more updates, this time for the Musket & Pike series.

Also included is a section on the update process as it applies to all of our games, because we are doing things a bit differently for this round - for ALL game series. So suggest everyone read this to ensure they understand...

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/musket-pike-4-04-1-updates
30
Thanks!

The screen that is used when printing in resin determines the quality of the prints. 8K is higher than 4k, and more than the other value.

"Regarding 3D resin printers, 4K and 8K are used to gauge the resolution of the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD screen). The higher the LCD screen resolution, the more details the printed models will deliver. For more density and details, an 8K 3D resin printer will be better than 4K but will require more printing time and will cost more."

(https://reolink.com/blog/4k-vs-8k/#:~:text=Regarding%203D%20resin%20printers%2C%204K%20and%208K%20are,require%20more%20printing%20time%20and%20will%20cost%20more.)

Essentially we print our figures at 0.05 mm per level and in 8k there is twice and as much density for the details compared between the 8k & 4K

Michael