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News:

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News

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

Recent Posts

11
Intel Dump / Re: Tuesday Newsday! Weekly dump of wargaming news
« Last post by bayonetbrant on March 26, 2024, 02:51:05 PM »
I'm getting an error - That page can't be found

Bad link. My fault. Fixed now
12
Intel Dump / Re: Tuesday Newsday! Weekly dump of wargaming news
« Last post by JudgeDredd on March 26, 2024, 02:49:14 PM »
I'm getting an error - That page can't be found
13
Intel Dump / Re: Tuesday Newsday! Weekly dump of wargaming news
« Last post by bayonetbrant on March 26, 2024, 12:24:57 PM »
RIP Dean Essig ~ #TuesdayNewsday
Even with our editorial director goofing off in Florida over Spring Break, #TuesdayNewsday must roll on with the key headlines.

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/news/tn032624/


14
RPGs & Adventure Gaming / Blade Runner RPG
« Last post by bayonetbrant on March 26, 2024, 07:54:44 AM »
No cold case ~ Case File 02: Fiery Angels for the Blade Runner RPG

https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/reviews/fieryangels/

15
thanks :)

I knew there was a difference in 4k/8k for displays but had never heard it applied to printers before.
16
History and Tall Tales / Re: Tales of Military Idiots
« Last post by besilarius on March 25, 2024, 04:07:55 PM »
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_as_Mars_the_Peacemaker

As you may know, the sculptor, Canova, carved a statue of Pauline Bonaparte as Venus.
Rather than being outraged at the nude of his sister, Napoleon wanted one of himself by Canova.
He obliged and created a statue of Mars, the Peace Maker, obviously modeled on Nappy.
Rather embarrassed by the - ahem - well equipped representation, it was put behind a acreen.
After the war, this statue was observed by the duke of Wellington.  He let the British government know how much he liked the marble.  They bought it from Louis XVIII and it was gifted to the duke.
It graced the stairway at Apsley House, the Duke's residence, where it can be appreciated to this day.
17
History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on March 25, 2024, 02:09:51 PM »
421   Venice, founded by fugitives from the Hunnish sack of Aquileaia

1300  Sometime cavalryman and poet Dante Alighieri took a walk.

1811 the famous sculptor Antonio Canova, who had carved the famous statue of Pauline Bonaparte as a reclining nude Venus, completed a marble statue for her brother depicting him as the god Mars in heroic nudity, which proved so embarrassing that Napoleon hid it in a closet, though it was later given to the Duke of Wellington, who displayed it in his London home, where it remains.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_as_Mars_the_Peacemaker

1897. Reportedly, latrines in British Army barracks were not lighted at night until1896, because the Crown could save £200 a year, not to mention the cost of installing lamps in the first place.

1898. Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt, recommends to Secretary of the Navy John D. Long that he appoint two officers of scientific attainments and practical ability who, with representatives from the War Department, would examine Professor Samuel P. Langley's flying machine and report upon its practicability and its potential for use in war.

1905  Most battle flags captured during the Civil War are returned to the South

1925. During the period between the world wars, Joseph M. Reeves (1872-1948), nicknamed “Billy Goat” because of his beard, was one of the most able senior officers in the history of the U.S. Navy. Both a traditionalist and an innovator, while playing at Annapolis he invented the football helmet and later became the “Father of Carrier Aviation”.
While Reeves was commanding the battleship North Dakota (BB-29) in 1922-1923, one of the ship’s float planes went into the water.  A nearby destroyer promptly dispatched a motor whale boat. While rescuing the plane's crew, one of the destroyermen briefly becoming entangled in the wreckage and was almost pulled under as it sank.
Reeves deeply appreciated this effort, and wanted to show both his gratitude for the rescue and encourage similar efforts if other planes went into the drink.  So he initiated the paperwork for awards.  But he wanted to do something more, something immediate.  Now, as captain of a battleship, Reeves had a pretty good cook, a man who was a top notch baker.  So, the next day that destroyer received enough fresh-baked apple pies for everyone in the crew to have a taste.  Knowing it came from the captain's mess only made it sweeter.  This was much appreciated, and word got out to the fleet that if one of Reeves’ flyers went in, he would be generous in his thanks.
In 1925, Reeves, having qualified as an aviation observer, became Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet, aboard the Langley (CV-1). This began what was to be his most important work for the fleet: developing carrier aviation.  Now Langley was not the best ship for working aircraft, and planes often went into the sea.  Destroyers were assigned to plane guard duty, which was -- and is -- difficult and dangerous.  While planes were landing, a destroyer serving as plane guard was pretty safe, as she was in an offset position about a thousand yards behind the carrier.  So if a plane went into the sea on its landing approach, the destroyer could make a quick run toward it, put a boat into the water, and fish out the aviators with some degree of safety.
But plane guard duty when aircraft were taking off could be very dangerous.  The destroyer had to stand off the carrier's bow in case a plane fell into the water.  If that happened, attempting a rescue could put the destroyer in great danger.  The Langley was much less nimble than destroyers, and much bigger, while the rescuers’ whaleboats were even smaller, and in danger of getting too close to the flattop and being overrun.
Needing to inspire rescuers, as well as reward them, Reeves recalled the pies from his North Dakota days.  But pies are rather fragile, and don't take rough handling well.  Thinking harder, Reeves realized that the Langley was equipped with something new and unique and not available to destroyers: an ice cream machine.  So Reeves passed the word that a ship whose boat crew pulled a pilot out of the water would get ice cream, gallons of it.  Soon, instead of shunning plane guard duty, destroyermen were actually volunteering for it.
Admiral Reeves' thoughtful incentive worked where orders and exhortations might not have.  It was an easy, elegant answer that benefitted everyone.  And rewarding ships with ice cream for pulling aircrew out of the water became a tradition in the U.S. Navy that lasted into the 1950s when new destroyers began being equipped with their own “geedunk machines

2184  Pavel Andreivich Chekov, Star Fleet officer

3019. of the Third Age.  the Ring was destroyed, Gollum died, and Sauron was overthrown
18
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on March 25, 2024, 09:28:02 AM »
19
4X Gaming / Re: Millennia by Paradox
« Last post by Barthheart on March 24, 2024, 10:25:20 PM »
Some good thoughts...

20
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