The steppe west of the Chir river - Soviet rifle divisions lay across the path of the advancing Germans

The formation card for 24 Panzer Division - at fatigue level 3

The formation card for 16 Panzer Division - at fatigue level 3

MMP's Inflection Point - Kalach campaign. My spearheads are 24 miles from the town, but the panzer formations are exhausted and an ever-thickening sludge of Soviet infantry continues to form in my path. The Jackal is giving ground grudgingly and popping me with the occasional counterattack.

Great article, thanks for the heads up

January, 1945 - as the Allies go back on the offensive in the waning days of the Ardennes Offensive, my paras of the 551PIB slam into Curt's Volksgrenadiers in the Belgian village of Rocheinval. Very interesting scenario for an upcoming HASL module from Multi-Man Publishing.

German infantry approaches concealed Belgian positions on a historical terrain map of the Ardennes

May, 1940 - my landsers try to clear Curt's Chasseurs Ardennais from the heights above the River Salm at Rochelinval. An early playtest for a 1940/1944 HASL from MMP @multimanpublishing.bsky.social

lol

I love liverwurst

It’s hard to fuck up liverwurst. It starts out pretty fucked up and if you’re already into that you’re not gonna let a little grape jelly get in the way.

How it started: 5D Chess

How it’s going: 52 Pick-Up

Pure nightmare fuel

Drop a movie that traumatized you as a kid.
media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2l...

This is n-level game theory with weighty consequences, and Massie makes it clear there were no easy choices and has little time for second-guessers (looking at you, Beatty). I don’t recommend a bazillion-page endeavor lightly, but if you do take the plunge, I think you will find it highly rewarding.

Massie balances detail with big picture themes, delivering drama without embellishment. His writing is on point and engrossing. The themes are timeless - the period is a key case study in strategic force planning and application and is frequently cited in deterrence analysis related to nuclear arms.

I just finished Robert Massie's Castles of Steel, following up his earlier Dreadnought. It's about 2500 pages between the two of them, but I'm still sad to finally wrap them up.
Dreadnought covers the naval arms race between Britain and Germany running up to WWI, while Castles covers the war itself.

How I arrived on Bluesky

Maxine Curtis inspecting the undercarriage of an SB2C dive bomber

In celebration of Women in Aviation Week, here's my mom in 1943, inspecting the undercarriage of an SB2C Helldiver, at the Curtiss-Wright plant in Columbus, Ohio. An aeronautical engineer, she met my father, another engineer, while working on the Helldiver program.

The big picture - the scenario is 135, Acts of Defiance (originally published in an Annual as A68, and by Critical Hit before that) @multimanpublishing.bsky.social

Urban terrain with burning T-44s and advancing Germans

The Breslau canal with one destroyed bridge and oncoming Soviet forces

It's February 1945 and I am once again acting defiantly in Festung Breslau. At the end of T1 I am down 1.5 squads and have a wounded leader, but have knocked out two T-44s. A Goliath dropped one bridge but the other will likely remain intact for the oncoming ISU-122s @multimanpublishing.bsky.social

I invaded France with the greatest army the world has ever seen and now basically have two corporals, a German shepherd, and half a ham sandwich - it might still be enough but it has been quite a brawl. GMT's PoG, Historical Campaign @gmtgames.bsky.social

Yeah, the operational pace has been blistering - neither of us has dared pause for replacements. As the Central Powers I’m desperate to knock him out, as the Entente he always has a new hole to plug

WWI in France - German units are attacking Paris - there are more British units in action than French at this point, and all are reduced in strength

France is fighting to the last Tommy! Paths of Glory from GMT, historical campaign game scenario @gmtgames.bsky.social

I’m afraid my little tardigrade experiment got out of hand. Apparently they’ve built a spaceship and are heading towards Earth

What can I say, she gets me. Valentine's Day e-card from my girl.

Industrialization, the internal combustion engine, nuclear technology, computing itself - all are a mixed bag with demonstrable negative impacts but undeniable benefits. The case varies for each but to argue any one is wholly worthless and/or harmful is nonsense, and the same applies to AI

When it reaches too-stupid-for-Dr-Oz levels of stupidity, it's pretty fucking stupid

Currently stuck to a flag pole for reasons I prefer not to discuss

In my previous game, mistakes were made. Defending as the French, I aggressively counterattacked Volko Ruhnke’s Germans, coming within a whisker of cutting off their penetration. Failure meant doom, however, and by May Volko was enjoying a nice steak frites in Verdun proper.

I’m in the mud above the Meuse as my Germans grind their closer to their objectives in Verdun 1916: Steel Inferno from Fellowship of Simulations. Bob Heinzmann’s French are definitely not letting me pass. Very interesting game - simple systems but complex interactions

A grim Christmas Day in Buda, 1944 - Danny’s Hungarian students try to stem the looming encirclement against my 2nd Ukrainian Front - 122 Extracurricular Activity from MMP’s Armies of Oblivion

“It tastes like freedom” - kinda says it all