Remembering PRESTAGS

What were they thinking?

2017 was a very good year for me at the office. I had successfully brought my Manila posting to the originally requested outcome and received my best bonus ever for my development work. I had also written a product that falls into the top five best products I have ever written - largely unsung at the time, it has become a major selling feature late last year. In recognition of my hard work, I knew a deserved a lovely piece of crockery in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the kitchen is brimming with lovely pieces of crockery such that they have overflowed into the dining room cupboards, which are also now full. This left me on the horns of a dilemma, so I had to go with my third option (the second being membership to the art gallery, but when would I find the time!), a subscription to everything coming out of Strategy and Tactics press, at an eye watering US$1000 for two years.

Reviewing it now, I think it was a good decision - I had many evenings of pleasant reading and some great maps and counters to review. From top to bottom:

• the venerable Strategy and Tactics, now up to issue #314,
• Modern War, that provides interesting insights into the current tensions of the world, mostly from a military perspective, which you rarely find the in the news
• World at War, which tries to be S&T but for only World War 2, so perhaps the least interesting of the set, but perhaps the most believable of the games
• Strategy and Tactics Quarterly, the new kid on the block, with a lot of articles on just one topic, no games, but a poster.

A feast of new games, and the anticipation of finding room in the attic for 18 more in 2019. I have failed in one respect, I have not punched the counters of any of them last year. I resolve to so this year. Let the readers of this auspicious blog pausing their eating and spider hunting to hold me so accountable.

The observant would ask why there is a gap? The answer is simple: if a US Civil War game arrives in your mail box, there is a board room I know of where it can be swapped for a Scotch, for some people simply cannot have enough US Civil War games!

And the winner is

I think the best read of them was the Quarterly of Caesar, and how a Roman of modest means, but the highest ambition, can break into the Cursus Honorum. (The article on that was fascinating - young aristocrats were expected to move from government post to post building up an understanding of how the Roman state worked until they reached the role of consul. It gave the state a large pool of experienced leaders to fall back on in times of emergency, and something to consume the energies of the young. The article went to far as to suggest that Rome's resilience during the second Carthaginian War was due to this.) The poster showed Caesar's marches during the Gallic Wars and the Civil war, and is on my wall.

The magazine about Stalingrad was a close second. I do not read a lot of WW2 history, but had heard of this one (and watched the excellent "Enemy at the Gates" with Spetz). Stalingrad was never the objective of the the drive into the Caucasus. The original plan was to get close enough so Germany artillery could interdict the railway and interfere with Stalin's transfer of troops and oil. One of the reasons given for the diversion was that Hitler had become a drug addict. There was a doctor for the German elite who used to mix his own remedies for the wealthy who felt they had lost their vim. These remedies contained stimulants and narcotics. Hitler had appointed him as a personal physician at the time, and soon developed an obsession that a capture of Stalingrad would equate to a defeat of  Stalin.

It was matched with a World at War article where you can attempt to replay the the campaign. You have all that lovely oil to the south and boring Stalingrad to the north. However, the action chits you have to pull each turn keeps pulling you south. I like the action chit idea as it adds a lot of colour to otherwise boring Panzer corps and Guard armies.

An honourable mention goes the World War 3 Quarterly for all the bits that happened when I was little that nearly resulted in me not growing big. I am still reading that one.

Puti-phobia

Puti features in two of the Modern War series. There is much interest in his possible future actions, but the general consensus is that he is more interested with disrupting the US Hegemony to create a series of Russian based alliances, than territorial acquisitions. There is more fear about these alliances backfiring and drawing Russia into a war they did not intend and the US into it. This game, Puti Moves South, looks at the Stans south of Russia and north of Persia and Afghanistan. There is oil and gas there that mostly travels through Russia so disruption to that supply could draw in the Russian army. Interestingly with this game, at the start of each game you roll a die for each power to decide whether it is in the Russian Coalition or US/NATO aligned. Every game would be very different. The latest Modern War, The War on Terror, does the same in the Middle East. It means that every play of the game would be quite different. I think this is one of the games I should set up.

Rise of the Solitaire games

Six of these games are solitaire. I should set up a few this year. I have played a couple in the past, but the issue is that there is no marvellously clever play you can make to give you the game. You are grinding through taking objectives that weaken the strength of the enemy play system, while having some flexibility for random events. That said, I should try them as some game systems are brilliant. Perhaps there is a new John Michael Young other there.

The most intriguing of the game is submarine warfare in the Pacific. Unlikely the Atlantic, submarines featured in navel battles. This game lets you play as the Japanese or the US.

Perhaps this article is better named "What was I thinking?" I stand deprived of a new piece of crockery in my kitchen by pure obsession!

 

Did Paul cancel his S&T subscription too early?

The other possibility is that she-who-must-be-obeyed advised him that he did not need any more American Civil War games. It is possible that a man can have enough American Civil War games? What if a man is no longer a man? Is this the game that finally reveals the unstoppable spirit of the south?

The force pools look pretty equal. The map looks pretty comprehensive. It also works with a bottle of single malt scotch!

It could be that the scope of play is more than Paul can imagine:

Perhaps Paul does not believe there is anything more to say on the American Civil War after S&T #43, or that Joseph Miranda cannot design a wargame.

Of course the true answer is that Paul does not like games where the Union wins by losing some battles at the start!

If work actually does suck, perhaps Paul needs a reward; a light. But more likely, he now prefers the punishment of work against the ambiguity of an unowned wargame!

Not Really Macro.

There are never any insects around when you want them.

I was mucking around trying to get close ups with my 18-200 mm. Not bad shots, but not macro.

The US Civil War

No, I have not looked in the brown envelope yet. I have been too busy admiring the absolutely awesome production values of GMT's game: The US Civil War. Thank you again Python for this fantastic Christmas present.

I managed to obtain control of the dining room table for 20 minutes, just long enough to admire the mounted map. Two enormous sections.

General Lee surveys the map and definitely approves. Washington is well within striking distance.

Everything in this game is full colour and to the highest standard, from the rules to the counters to the cards to the dice (one set for each player). I need more space - a big house like the Python has.

Tough Little Bastard

This is a tough little bastard. No, not General Lee. He was tough, but not a bastard.

I mean the little USB Drive. This tiny drive holds 32 GB and includes an entire Court Book for one of my cases with over 37,000 pages of documents. I left it in my shirt pocket on Friday night, and ever diligent better half was up early on Saturday morning and did all the washing.

The USB Drive went through a full wash and spin cycle, and I must say it is shiny and clean.

I plugged this tough little bastard into my computer, and - voila - it is still working perfectly and all the data is fine.

 

Sitting Bull Says (3)

Cultural Censorship and Historical Revisionism

The current attacks on the Confederate Battle Flag in the United States constitute some of the greatest crap I have seen in many years of observing crap coming out of the formerly great United States.

If the Confederate flag is a racist symbol why isn't the United States flag a symbol of the genocide of the American Indians?

The nazi book burning is in full swing now, and how long before the cross is banned.

Look at some of this garbage:

As we reported yesterday, CNN’s Ashleigh Banfield suggested that statues of Thomas Jefferson should also be removed because he owned slaves. Co-host Don Lemon remarked that, “There may come a day when we want to re-think Jefferson.” 

The L.A. Times also weighed in the farce, noting that statues of Jefferson join “other public statues depicting Southern or Confederate figures, including Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, that some are arguing represent the country’s racist past and should be removed.”

Top retailers like Amazon, eBay, Sears and Walmart have all removed Confederate flags from sale (while continuing to sell Nazi memorabilia), while Warner Bros has announced that it will stop making the iconic Dukes of Hazzard car because it features the rebel flag on its roof.

Even the multiple Academy Award winning classic Gone With the Wind may not be safe, with film critic By Lou Lumenick calling for its censorship because the movie offers “the most iconic glimpse” of the Confederate flag. Nazi book burners would be proud.

Numerous other Army bases, parks and memorials are also under scrutiny, although at least former Georgia congressman Ben Lewis Jones, who is now chairman of Heritage Operations for the Sons of Confederate Veterans, declaring the move a form of “cultural cleansing.”

As someone who has actually taken the time to study American Civil War history (unlike most Americans) the ignorance displayed by the flag banners is staggering, and of course all of the old Civil War myths are being trotted out again.

It is so true that "the victors write the history", and so many facts about the American Civil War are never reported. The North is mythologized as going to war to free the slaves, however the North went to war to hold the union together.

Pres. Abraham Lincoln was personally against slavery, but in his first inaugural address, he made it clear that placating the Southern states was more important. Quoting himself in other speeches, he said, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."  You NEVER, EVER hear about this.

Even Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 left slavery intact in border states that hadn't seceded. In other words, slavery was only abolished in the Confederate States at that time. So much for the great principle or the high moral ground. You NEVER, EVER hear this either.

And as for the morons who want to destroy statues of Confederate generals, the Confederate president himself, Jefferson Davis, came to strongly support ending slavery. So did CSA Secretary of State Judah Benjamin, Governor William Smith of Virginia. The CSA's two highest ranking generals, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, both disliked slavery and supported emancipation. Lee called slavery "a moral and political evil." Johnston called it "a curse." Other Confederate generals who supported emancipation included General Daniel Govan, General John Kelly, and General Mark Lowrey. In fact, the majority of Confederate generals did not own slaves and did not come from slaveholding families. Yet again, you NEVER, EVER hear this.

The real history is even more interesting. Robert Lee was the South's greatest general, and he did not own slaves and found the institution of slavery to be vile and corrupting. Probably the most successful general of the North was Ulysses S. Grant (who actually became President of the United States after the Civil War) however - and you NEVER, NEVER, EVER hear this - was an overseer of slaves on his wealthy father-in-law’s 850 acre plantation known as White Haven in Missouri. These slaves were owned by Grant and his father-in-law until 1865. Wait – 1865? What about Lincoln’s ‘Emancipation’ Proclamation in 1863?

The victors write the history.

A Week Since Christmas

Already a week since Christmas. How come holidays go so much faster than normal time. Santa was good to me at Christmas, and I received a device that I have been after for quite a while (below, left) which makes life easier for an old man like me. Our budgie Aristo received a bird gymnasium, which he actually quite enjoys.

I also received a confederate sniper, complete with a pumpkin jacket, to join my confederate collection. And speaking of the South, my Mum gave me a steak marinade, which we road-tested last night and it was delicious.

Christmas lunch was my favourite. That means no turkey, but rather a magnificient Aussie roast lamb followed by rich Christmas pudding.

There was much other feasting, including Nanie's famous Spag Bol on Christmas Eve, and plenty of salami, smoked salmon and olives.

 And a little quiz for Python. Does he recognize this:

Paul really needs to subscribe to Strategy and Tactics

I acknowledge that in the age of the internet, I can no longer base a "PRESTAGS Quiz" on the latest issue of S&T, but the magazine is much more than just the game (although the gameis still the first delight when the lovely, thick brown envelope appears in my mail box every two months). This issue has a detailed article on the origins of the America Civil War including how it could have started earlier, later or not at all.

While slavery is at the core of the conflct, the article finds that the cultural attitudes towards slavery were much more relevant. In in the early 1820 conflicts on the topic, the average American on both sides were small farmers who made a small surplus from their farms. It was the industrial revolution that forced the differences. The elite of the North were the "self made men" factory and railroad owners. The elite of the south were the genteel land owners living off the high European commodity prices their estates could benefit from.

So while the North was growing rapidly from immigration and industrialisation, the south was falling behind. Politically though, there was parity in the electral colleges and senates, and that parity was maintained through most of the ninteenth century through political compromise, routinely challenged by the founding of new states.

Where the compromises were canny, the union held. Where they were not, war became likely. The magazine suggests the presidential elections of 1852 could have sparked the war, but as a compromise candidate emerged successful, it was avernted. However, the southern states did take it as a warned the be prepared to secede in a future event. When the Democratic convention of 1860 collapsed, the option for compromise disappeared with it.

When Paul returns my WW1 S&T, I'll loan him this one, but he really, really needs to subscribe!

Lee Moves North

Having discovered that John Young designed an American Civil War game - Lee Moves North - I have double checked my collection an was excited to find that I have a copy although I have never played it.

Lee Moves North looks like a very interesting game. It is strategic, and covers both of the South's invasions of the North and attempts to capture Washington: the 1862 campaign which culminated in Antietam, and the 1863 campaign which culminated in Gettysburg.

The first thing I did was set up a new hypothetical scenario which I call "One Month After Gettysburg". This is the great thing about wargames; you can explore all manner of alternative outcomes. Here is the set up:

I have discovered an interesting bit of trivia about this wargame. The rules are called "Lee at Gettysburg" whereas the game is "Lee Moves North". It looks like there was a late name change, a very late name change, probably to capture the fact that the game covers more than the Gettysburg campaign. This was an early SPI game, 1973, and there is something quite charming and 'homestyle' about the production values. But I must say, over 40 years later, only the traybox is showing signs of wear.

The designer's notes by John Young include a short paragraph which is a brilliant summary of the South's position, and of Lee's strategy. I think entire books have been written which say the same thing and not much more.

I will definitely take a closer look at this game, and hopefully play a few solitaire games.

The blog this time last year: Remembering Antietam

Paul's awesome blog has been running strong for over a year now with many great articles. The pity about the sheer number of articles is that some very good ones are buried even beyond the Archive. Here is one of Paul's better contributions, but alas with no Civil War aficionados in the readership, it garnered no comments.

Remembering Antietam

Today I remember the Battle of Antietam.

From Wikipedia: The Battle of Antietam also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, fought on Wednesday, September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil.

It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with 22,717 dead, wounded, and missing on both sides combined.

After pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Union Army Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan launched attacks against Lees army, in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. At dawn on September 17, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hookers corps mounted a powerful assault on Lees left flank. Attacks and counterattacks swept across Millers cornfield and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up.

In the afternoon, Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnsides corps entered the action, capturing a stone bridge over Antietam Creek and advancing against the Confederate right. At a crucial moment, Confederate Maj. Gen. A.P. Hills division arrived from Harpers Ferry and launched a surprise counterattack, driving back Burnside and ending the battle. Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout September 18, while removing his battered army south of the Potomac River.

I hope to visit this battleground one day, as I did at Gettysburg.

Python stumbled on this article here and includes it (or a portion) because the article is worthy of a repost and doing so does not appear to breach the conditions of use.

A Lost Cause

I feel the bitter experience of a lost cause.

No, not General Lee waiting for General Grant after months (if not years) of a lost cause. I am thinking of the new three player EDEE and my first encounter with Star Lord. He just has too much armor, and too many reinforcements, for me to hold the island.

Why Don't We Have Politicians Like this in Australia

I don't know whether this letter is a fake, or even an April Fool's day joke, however (notwithstanding my personal views about 911) it actually summarises the true situation in Syria and the complete hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of the United States' support for anti Christian terrorists.

Senator Black is a hero. I notice from internet searches that he has sponsored legislation to protect military chaplains from censorship if they want to make public Christian prayers, and to protect Christian prayers in schools.

In 1998, Senator Black tried to pass a law to require doctors give anaesthetic to foetuses before late-term abortions and in February 2001 he called emergency contraception "baby pesticide". In late 2002 and early 2003, Black opposed erecting a statue of Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas at the Tredegar Iron Works to commemorate Lincoln's visit to Richmond on April 4, 1865, 10 days before his assassination. Black said, "Putting a statue to [Lincoln] there is sort of like putting the Confederate flag at the Lincoln Memorial."

In July 2003, Black proposed legislation that would prevent unmarried and gay couples from applying for low-interest home mortgages, saying that the state was "spending $90 million to subsidize sodomy and adultery. I just don’t understand why we are taking money away [from worthwhile programs] and supporting a radical homosexual agenda." Also in 2003, he handed out plastic foetuses to fellow delegates before votes on abortion issues, and he also once remarked that abortion was "a greater evil than segregation or slavery". In 2004, he said with regard to Virginia's sodomy law: "If I'm the last person on the face of this Earth to vote against legalizing sodomy, I'll do it."

We don't have any politicians like this in Australia.

Good things come in big packages!

But I have never been one to complain if a small one arrives at work...

Thank you Python for the surprise birthday gift, a nice hat pin: The South Will Rise Again! (PS the globe was a surprise birthday gift from my Dad, which looks great in the board room).

If at first you don't succeed...

I am at the end of a long journey. Many times I despaired, but then, on my dog walks a new strategy presented itself and I would try again, only to fail again. Twice I walked a way and promised not to try again, but both times I came back with a "What if" in my mind. Last night, I was crowned in laurels. Blood soaked and radioactive, but victory against the odds.

The journey began in February when between filling our resumes, I started up Darkest Hour and played as  Nazi Germany. I thought it would be a quick game as I had won the game a few times on the previous version, but I was in for a shock. For something different, I decided to focus on a Germany enmoured of naval power. I started in 1933 and built a fleet of aircraft carriers. By 1939, I had a small elite army and a big fleet. I wiped out Poland in normal time, but then came crashing halt in France. Unlike history, the French did not waste their time in the interwar years, but had built up a large army and causualties mounted. No problem, I thought, so I sailed my fleet out to out flank the French. It worked well and the army advanced again, but I had taken my eye off the fleet. Suddenly I found it engaged against the combined navy of the United Kingdom and France. It the end, I had two damaged carriers left of my fleet of 6, and my armies were being pushed back. So, I did what Hitler couldn't, I reset the game back to 1933.

This time the army got much more emphasis, and I had a smaller carrier fleet. Unfortunately, by early 1939 I ran out of my manpower reserve and had to mobilise. Mobilising in peace time is very expensive, and you cop a nasty disaffection rating from your people. Strikes in the factory, production in disarray, I had to reset again.

In the third attempt, I got the balance right and was rewarded with swift victories in Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Norway. Further I cut a good deal with Yugoslavia and Spain and brought them in. That meant I could take out Gibraltar. I then unleased my carrier fleet on the Atlantic and destroyed the British convoys. By avoiding naval battle, I kept the fleet intact and the British impoverished. I invaded USSR on schedule and wiped captured the Ukraine and occupied Poland quickly. Then I died. The USSR had a higher production than me by 20% before I invaded. They got a massive hit, perhaps from the Americans, and my spies told me their production was more than twice mine. My casualties mounted. Then an American carrier fleet wiped mine out, and I reset.

In the fourth and fifth attempts I tried to really build up my production before the war started, so I could match the Russians. I even tried invading Turkey to outflank the Middle East and start with a salient in Armenia to try to outflank the Russians. No joy.

At this point it occured to me that it might be a good idea to ignore the Russians for as long as possible. So around the 6th attempt (16 march according to my save games) went south and south east. I took out Iraq, Persia, India and all of Africa. This left me with oil and resources to spare, a starved England, but still not within coo-ee of Russian production yet. I settled down to a technology strategy, and built elite armour and air force and equiped every infantry division with a brigade of support artilery or armoured cars. I also began to research Nuclear Power with intent. By 1944, I was dealing well with the US and English incursions and strategic bombers when the USSR ruined the party and attacked. Without the element of surprise, I could not destroy their forward armies. When Romania and Hungary surrendered, I saw the writing on the wall and reset again.

At this point, I gave up for the first time. The game was biased! On a train trip homeI read up on other's tactics. They suggested that an invasion of England has possible through a "bug". While all their beaches are well defended, their isolated ports are not. So I reset and made sure that after France fell, I had a paratrooper division ready in Antwerp. I dropped it on the Hull and raced in with my transports. I got three corp ashore when a concerted British counterattack destroyed most of my transports. My main fleet was intact, but the transports were gone!

The next few resets I tried different fleet compositions. The best was a few carriers and a swarm of destroyers to screen. So around the 9th attempt, I had England out of the war, but Russia was still a cliff face. I then read another article the advocated a massive factory building program starting in 1933 and finishing after the 1936 Olympics. That meant that I could have industrial parity with USSR and make up the rest on tactics.

The eleventh attempt looked promising, but I failed to properly garrison the USSR front. They launched a surprise attack in Winter 1940 while I was occupied in South Africa, and again causualites mounted and I was losing.

So attempt 12. I started on the 14th of April my time or March 1933 game time. Massive factory building increased my initial production of 135 to 240. With the Anschluss of Austria, partition of Czechoslovak Republic and invasion of Poland, along with some good policy, the became 360 (top right corner).

France fell quickly and I moved on to Britain. My production was now nearing 600 but the soviets were massing.

 

This time Spain wanted no part of me, so I invaded their country to take out Gibraltar. (Canada had taken on the mantle of the United Kingdom at this point.)

 

The quiet USSR frontier looked like a WW1 Map:

 

All the while, I was invading darkest Africa. It was November 1941 (or 20 April my time).

 

My fleet and submarines were patrolling the Atlantic to stop reinforcements:

 

And Erwin Rommel was having a rumble in the jungle:

 

I waited until May 1943 before taking on the USSR. My production was nearly 600:

 

Their's was a hundred less and still to spike:

 

But I had a lot of armour and and surprise. By June 1943 I was in Stalingrad, Leningrad and approaching Moscow:

 

The Soviet production was collapsing along with army and they surrendered two months later:

 

In 1944, I began to think about USA. Although my production was now a healthy 490 raised to 680 by good policy, theirs was 590 in peace time. It jumped to 800 when I declared war. Then I was very impressed to find that the Italians had snuck an invasion force into Newfoundland, so I raced over with my army. However, on the second crossing, I lost most of my transports so a clever Canadian counterattack. Fortunately, I had enough to force Canada out of the war. A few years later I had rebuilt the fleet and got a large fully mechanised force over.

 

I tried my hand in 1947 and crashed into a massive game bug. My convoys would not supply an Italian holding. The automated convoy builder had created a massive convoy between Caen and Exeter (in England), and thought that was good enough. Within a day of fighting, my forces were unsupplied and within a week retreating everywhere.

Rather than resetting, I quit and went back to the save game. (Well, it was a bug. Just don't mention the bug above that gave me Britain.) I found that one of my conquests had granted me French Guyana, so over the next 18 months I ferried my entire army there. I then began another rumble in the jungle and worked my way up to Mexico. (Crazy game. Each country took no action until I declared war on it, so I only fought one at the time.) By late 1948 I was on the Mexican border, fully supplied and ready for fun.

 

What's more, I had all turbojet bombers, which was cool!

 

Bt winter that year, USA surrendered, although it was a tough fight and I took surpising casualties. That just left Australia and New Zealand, but at this point it was over. What is more, I had two nukes.

 

So I tried to Hiroshima approach. I asked politely for a surrender and was told no. I then nuked Sydney and Auckland and asked again. (Hey, this is the Nazis. They don't have a conscience.) The stupid game said no again, so I had to sail an invasion force all the way to Nouvelle Caledonie. (I am unsure again how I got that.) I then had to fight a one sided battle across both islands. To my surprise I found the remains of the UK fleet in Melbourne, so we had a big naval battle to finish. I lost a few carriers, but I had them coming our my ears at that point of the game so did not care.

Then I expected a screen to pop up saying you win, but no. Nepal was holding out. I begged the British Raj (they went neutral when Britain fell), but  they refused me passage. I had ICBM at this point with Hydrogen Bombs, so I launched those and hit another bug. ICBM do not fly over neutral countries. I told the game I was the Nazis and didn't care about other's neutrality, but it told me it did not care either - neutral was neutral - and if I didn't like it, I could guess what to do. So I launched a final invasion of India to get at Nepal. As soon as I declared war, I heard four big explosions as four ICBM hit Nepal. I had forgotten about them and as soon as India was no longer neutral, they launched. Well, you can imagine the rest. Armour across India finishing with a final rumble in the jungles of Burma. And an enormous sense of accomplishment (and not bad value for a $10 computer game).

 

Pale blue india shows that I gifted that to Bulgaria to administer

 

USA split into the Northern states, Confederacy, Texas and California after the surrender.

 

Australia with a boat people problem.

So now I can finally rest, or do I need to go back a try without the paradrop in Hull bug?

Oh, and a final summation. Praise God Hitler did not have a retry and stuffed his one shot!

Paul needs to buy Total War: Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai

I have been playing Total War Shogun 2 this afternoon (as there are no turns to play), and I popped on the site to work out how to grow more rice. (I keep running out of food!) I found someone had uploaded a Civil War Mod. This is what the game actually looks like, and according to the article, you can change the faces from Eastern to Western.

If you have time (generally via pausing the game), you can get a close look at the soldiers in battle. Loading and firing are somewhat realistic, but hand to hand melee is not. Still, we live in amazing times!

Robert E Lee

Today is the anniversary of the death of Robert E Lee (19 January 1807 to 12 October 1870).

Lee was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War (1861-1865) and one of my favourite generals.

An Interesting Start

On the eve of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, through Secretary Francis Blair, offered Lee command of the Union Army. Lee was opposed to secession and considered slavery evil. However, Blair’s offer forced Lee to choose between his strong conviction to see the country united and his responsibility to family, friends and his native State of Virginia. After a long night at Arlington, searching for an answer, Lee finally came downstairs and told his wife Mary that he could not lift his hand against his own people. Lee replied to Blair that “…though opposed to secession and a deprecating war, I could take no part in the invasion of the Southern States.” He resigned his commission and left his much beloved Arlington to “go back in sorrow to my people and share the misery of my native state.”

Always Outnumbered and Outgunned

The website of Stratford Hall, a home of the Lees of Virginia, has a great little summary which captures the reasons why I admire General Lee: On June 1, 1862 Robert Edward Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in the Confederate capital of Richmond. Not until February 1865 was he named Commander in Chief of all Confederate forces, but the leadership throughout the war was undeniably his. His brilliance as a commander is legendary, and military colleges the world over study his compaigns as models of the science of war. That he held out against an army three times the size and a hundred times better equipped was no miracle. It was the result of leadership by a man of exceptional intelligence, daring, courage and integrity. His men all but worshiped him. He shared their rations, slept in tents as they did, and, most importantly, never asked more of them than he did of himself.

Battles

The victories achieved at the command of General Lee included the famous battles of Seven Days, Second Manassas, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor, Spotsylvania  and The Wilderness. The losses included Gettysburg, and Antietam (in which Lee  fought a much larger army) was inconclusive although a strategic union victory.

General Lee (nicknames The Grey Fox and Marble Man) had the benefit of two outstanding corps commanders, James Longstreet (nicknames Old Pete, Lee's War Horse and Bull of the Woods) and Thomas Jackson (nicknames Stonewall, Old Jack, Old Blue Light and Tom Foot).

Credited his Troops

General Lee always gave credit to his troops. On 10 April 1865 when Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia he issued General Order No. 9 to his army which  was his farewell address: After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to the result from no distrust of them. But feeling that valour and devotion could accomplish nothing that could compensate for the loss that must have attended the continuance of the contest, I have determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you his blessing and protection. With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your Country, and a grateful rememberance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

General Lee had a horse called Traveller, who survived the war and remained with him. Lee on traveller is a well known monument that was erected at the Gettysburg battleground.

A Great Eulogy

In an address before the Southern Historical Society in Atlanta, Georgia in 1874, Benjamin Harvey Hill described Lee as:

... a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.

Nomination for Weirdest Counter

I would like to nominate this counter from "The Three Days of Gettysburg" (GMT Games) for the weirdest counter award:

Just in case you don't believe this is a real counter, I include the section of the countersheet:

In this game and more noticeably in the 2nd edition (2000) version of this same game there is another weird counter: "Harry Flashman". This counter deserves an award for "Best Fictional Counter".

This is because Sir Harry Paget Flashman VC KCB KCIE is a fictional character created by George MacDonald Fraser (1925–2008), but based on the character "Flashman" in Tom Brown's School Days (1857), a semi-autobiographical work by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896). The character appears in a series of twelve books, collectively known as The Flashman Papers.

The designer of "The Three Days of Gettysburg" is wargame design legend Richard Berg, whom boardgamegeek.com describe as a Flashman fan. The inclusion of this counter is a great example of wargame humour.

Remembering Antietam

Today I remember the Battle of Antietam.

From Wikipedia: The Battle of Antietam  also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South, fought on Wednesday, September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil.

It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with 22,717 dead, wounded, and missing on both sides combined.

After pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Union Army Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan launched attacks against Lee's army, in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. At dawn on September 17, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker's corps mounted a powerful assault on Lee's left flank. Attacks and counterattacks swept across Miller's cornfield and fighting swirled around the Dunker Church. Union assaults against the Sunken Road eventually pierced the Confederate center, but the Federal advantage was not followed up.

In the afternoon, Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's corps entered the action, capturing a stone bridge over Antietam Creek and advancing against the Confederate right. At a crucial moment, Confederate Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill's division arrived from Harpers Ferry and launched a surprise counterattack, driving back Burnside and ending the battle. Although outnumbered two-to-one, Lee committed his entire force, while McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout September 18, while removing his battered army south of the Potomac River.

I hope to visit this battleground one day, as I did at Gettysburg.

150th Anniversary: Battle of Gettysburg 1-3 July 1863

Today is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

To all of the brave soldiers who perished in this terrible battle, I pray for your souls.

I congratulate the Americans for preserving the Gettysburg battlefield. Even today it is possible to walk the ground with a real understanding of what happened a century and a half ago, with numerous monuments marking important locations and events during the battle.

The little town of Gettysburg is one of those rare places that has hardly been changed by time, with many period buildings, some of which still bear bullet holes from the battle.

From the other side of the world, I remember.

 

The United States of America: A Love-Hate Relationship

Time for an over 50 rant. And to increase this website's ranking with the NSA.

I have a love-hate relationship with America.

I think this is about promise. The greatness and inspiration of what America and its history promised. And the fact that this promise has been so often broken.

I love the American constitution, which was a part inspiration for our own constitution. I hate the way America has trashed its constitution since 911 for no genuine reason. I really hate that most Americans don't know their own consitution. How can they value and defend what they don't know.

I love American people. I've always found Americans to be friendly, intelligent, humorous and above all generous. I even like their accents. I hate American politicians. They are so dishonest and so dishonourable and so dis-everything. They are even worse than our own politicians (which I didn't think was possible). I am perturbed by the street people who constantly ask for money, even in America's richest cities.

I love JFK's speeches and I love the way he delivered them. I don't like his personal life. I hate that he was assasinated. And I hate that this has never been properly investigated or explained.

I love American junk food (I prefer to call it comfort food). I love American serving sizes. Enough said.

I love American Civil War history, which is strange because I didn't like this period of history five years ago. I hate the bloodshed and the total futility of the Civil War and American Irish brigades fighting American Irish brigades. But I admire the courage of the Confederates and the sheer genius of the greatest Confederate generals. The victors always write the history afterwards.

I am not a fan of Abraham Lincoln, even though he is being particularly hagiographised (did I just invent a new word) at this time. I hate and despise slavery, but in the Civil War this was never the only issue and President Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation which declared slaves in Confederate states to be free but not in Union states like Maryland did not show much courage or genuineness.

I hate the total hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of American foreign policy. I hate that America has supported more dictators than any other nation since World War II. What part of defeating fascism did they not understand. I hate the pathetic American economic justifications for supporting vicious dictators and feudal regimes even today. I absolutely hate that dictators suddenly become an 'enemy of freedom and democracy' when their usefulness to America's corporate cartels has ended. Above all, when these dictators reach their 'use by' date I hate that America supports 'freedom fighters' and 'democratic rebels' (as if it's an episode of Star Wars) these very same 'rebels' use terrorism which America condemns elsewhere.  

I hate the militarisation of the American police. I hate the increasing use of the American military inside the United States. Great nations use their armed forces outside their borders and in defence. The Department of Homeland Security reminds me of nazi Gemany and it scares me. I love American military courage. I love the loyalty, initiative and determination of the average American officer and soldier. And I have not forgotten the American assistance in defending my nation against the Japanese. I deeply respect the American soldiers who died for my own country.

I love that America is full of overtly religious things. I love that Americans will sincerely and happily say that they are a Christian (even to a complete stranger) as a matter of course in ordinary conversion. I hate the immoral filth that is most of American television. They say that television is a window into hell. It may not be here, but it is in America.

I love American movies. I hate American movies.

I love that older American Catholic churches and their altars and statues were not destroyed after Vatican II. I love that Americans are sophisticated enough and  love beautiful things enough not to have ruined all their Churches after Vatican II. I love that America is a heartland of traditionalism. I love that many American religious are happy and proud to wear their religious habits in public. I hate that America is also a heartland of modernism. I hate that America is the spiritual home for feral nuns.

I love the American genius for science and technology. I love computers and jet aircraft and satellites and iPads and kindles and the internet and computer games and just about everything technological. But I hate microsoft. And I hate the total surveillance state that America appears to be 'one minute from midnight' from becoming. I hate that every email, website, phone call, text message and even what you type on your own computer is captured and stored somewhere. I hate that computer software always has a back door for a big brother I don't want.

I hate the mainstream American media. I hate that a handful of corporations own and control the vast majority of media outlets. I hate the shallow and manipulative propaganda that it pumps out. I love the American alternative media. I love that I am not alone in seeing the problems with America and that there are thousands of Americans waking up and speaking out, now more than ever.

I love the natural beauty of America's forests and parks. I adore giant redwood trees. I love that America has deserts and canyons and massive mountain ranges and snow that we don't have here. I hate the grime and soul destroying monotony of apartment ghettos in many of America's largest cities.

On this Queen's Birthday holiday in my own fair country I must say that I like the American republic. I love the absence of degenerate royals, inbred aristocracy and a fawning public. I love the idea of American egalitarianism and that any person can achieve success whatever their background. I hate the cult of personality, especially the preoccupation with useless and vacuous celebrities. I hate reality television.

And last (at least for now) I like ancient alients and modern aliens and UFOs. I like Roswell. Only in America.

I have been privileged to vist America twice in the last couple of years. I submit a very small selection of photographs taken on my visits:

 
These photographs say something about America. And about me.

May God bless America.

PS Of course I love America most of all because they invented PRESTAGS.