RogerBW's Blog

McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II 31 March 2014

Not the ancestor of what would become the SR-71, this A-12 was to be the US Navy's very own stealth bomber.

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Cold Choices, Larry Bond and Chris Carlson 30 March 2014

Some time after the events of Dangerous Ground, Jerry Mitchell heads north again in USS Seawolf. Mild spoilers will follow.

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Twister 29 March 2014

1996, dir. Jan de Bont, Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton: IMDb / allmovie

A team of atmospheric scientists chases tornadoes. Action ensues.

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Tailsitters 28 March 2014 - 2 comments

One of the desiderata of an air defence system is to put defending fighters close to the high-value targets. That way they don't get decoyed away by diversionary attacks, giving the enemy bombers a clear run, because they're dedicated to protecting a specific target; nor do they need massive endurance (adding to weight), if they don't need to make long-distance flights.

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Never Go to Sea, John Winton 27 March 2014

Fourth of Winton's novels and in the loosely-connected series. The Artful Bodger (Commander R. B. Badger, RN) takes over public relations for the Royal Navy, and gets involved in running a horse in the Derby.

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Reading Boardgames Social 25 March 2014 26 March 2014

A short session this time as I was a bit weary. New venue, just re-opened that day after an emergency closure which hadn't done the beer much good, and mildly tricky to get to with Reading Station being rebuilt nearby.

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Time to declare a new wargaming period 25 March 2014 - 8 comments

For convenience, wargamers tend to split history into periods with broadly similar weapons and tactics.

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Dangerous Ground, Larry Bond and Chris Carlson 24 March 2014

A Los Angeles-class submarine, USS Memphis, goes on an intelligence-gathering mission off Novaya Zemlya.

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YSDC Games Day 2 23 March 2014

Yesterday was the second one-day convention organised by the yog-sothoth.com crew.

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Vought F7U Cutlass 22 March 2014

The Cutlass was a high-subsonic carrier-borne fighter, flying off Essex and Midway-class carriers.

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SSN, Tom Clancy 21 March 2014 - 4 comments

In 1997, an Improved Los Angeles-class attack submarine, USS Cheyenne, joins the war against China.

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Morale and command in wargaming 20 March 2014 - 4 comments

There seem to be two basic approaches to command in wargames: do you get to move every unit as you'd like to, or are you restricted in what you can do?

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Piasecki PA-97 Helistat 19 March 2014

The Helistat was a hybrid airship/helicopter combination, designed for heavy vertical lift.

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The Last Ship, William Brinkley 18 March 2014 - 3 comments

After the total nuclear war, the captain of a missile destroyer leads his crew through the irradiated world and towards a new life.

I am going to talk about plot details, so if you care about not knowing that sort of thing you probably shouldn't read this review.

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Spring Not-Barbecue 2014 17 March 2014 - 1 comment

Things heard, and links, from the Not-Barbecue on Saturday. In no particular order.

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Doctor Who Re-Watch, series 11 16 March 2014 - 2 comments

As always, spoilers abound. See Wikipedia for production details)

Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee
Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen

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Fateful Choices, Ian Kershaw 15 March 2014

Kershaw examines ten choices made during the years 1940-1941 that, in his opinion, substantially affected the course of the Second World War.

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American Parasite Fighters 14 March 2014 - 2 comments

One of the great scars on the American military-aviation psyche was the unescorted bomber. As the men who'd been on the front lines during the Second World War became the leaders of the Air Force, they tried to do something about it.

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Five Minutes to Home 13 March 2014

Where on the road am I five minutes from home?

I have data. I can check this. (Images follow.)

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A Prayer for the Ship, Douglas Reeman 12 March 2014 - 1 comment

Sub-Lieutenant Clive Royce is assigned to a Motor Torpedo Boat working off the east coast of England during the Second World War.

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Bookmonth, February 2014 12 March 2014

Here's what I've read in February.

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Convair B-58 Hustler 11 March 2014 - 6 comments

The Hustler was not just the first aircraft to be named after a pornographic magazine (this is a lie, it first flew nearly twenty years before that was thought of), it was the world's first operational supersonic bomber.

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The Same Page Tool 10 March 2014

The Same Page Tool is a series of questions to try to get players and GMs onto the "same page" in terms of the sort of behaviour they expect in a game.

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Ruddy Gore, Kerry Greenwood 09 March 2014

Seventh in Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series.

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Convair B-36 Peacemaker 08 March 2014 - 2 comments

The Peacemaker was the world's first intercontinental bomber, and the largest mass-produced piston-engined aircraft ever built.

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Junction 21a, 22 or 23? 07 March 2014 - 4 comments

There's one bit of the canonical route to Cambridge where I have a choice: from the M25, should I leave at junction 21a, 22 or 23 to reach the A1(M) northbound? If in doubt: data! (Images follow.)

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Ark Royal, Christopher Nuttall 06 March 2014 - 3 comments

Some time in the future, most major countries have space fleets and interstellar colonies. Ark Royal is an outmoded carrier left in a parking orbit, not broken up only because of her famous past, and her captain's a drunken embarrassment. Then the aliens arrive, and blow straight through the more modern fleet…

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Doctor Who Re-Watch, series 10 05 March 2014 - 2 comments

As always, spoilers abound. See Wikipedia for production details)

Doctor Who - Jon Pertwee
Jo Grant - Katy Manning

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Overlord 2014 at Abingdon 04 March 2014

Last Sunday I visited Overlord, a one-day wargames show in Abingdon.

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86th Academy Awards Results 03 March 2014

I've updated my Academy Awards Predictions post now that the results are in. I called ten out of twenty winners, not bad for me.

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John Macnab, John Buchan 03 March 2014

Three men find themselves successful, but un-challenged, and bored with their lives. They decide to take on a challenge: they will poach from well-defended estates in Scotland, and warn the owners that they're coming, by sending letters over the name "John Macnab".

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RPGs on-line: how I do it 02 March 2014 - 6 comments

Douglas Cole asks about experiences with RPGs played on-line and/or with virtual tabletops.

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Short Mayo Composite 01 March 2014 - 3 comments

The Short Mayo Composite was a solution to the range problem of fixed-wing aircraft.

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