So that's my fantasy Royal Navy. Who's it going to fight? Practically anybody.
Some time in the 1980s, a terrorist attack on oil infrastructure leads the USSR to invade Europe.
Last Sunday, we went for a walk on the Thames Path near Goring. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
Feels like a very long time since the last of these.
As always, spoilers abound. See Wikipedia for production details
Doctor Who - Tom Baker Leela - Louise Jameson K-9 (voice) - John Leeson
A flock of young bluetits has found our bird-feeder. I have my suspicions about where they nest, but I'm not going to risk disturbing them by finding out. Large images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.
2012, dir. Julian Roman Pölsler, Martina Gedeck: IMDb / allmovie
A woman staying in a remote lodge discovers that an invisible barrier is separating her from the rest of the world. (In German, viewed with subtitles.)
The YF-23 was a prototype that competed against the Lockheed YF-22 to become the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter in the 1990s; the Lockheed plane won.
In the Firefly board game, the Artful Dodger is an optional add-on ship. Is it worth picking?
Diamond Dust is the seventh book in Lovesey's Peter Diamond series, and one that makes for a very substantial change in tone.
A reader expressed surprise that I don't use a smartphone.
People have all sorts of objections to wargaming with particular periods, wars, or types of unit.
I've been keeping this blog since the beginning of the year, and it's gradually been accreting ancillary code.
Yesterday I played my third game of Chain of Command, and while I was still beaten I did a bit better than last time. Still fun. Be warned, this is a very image-heavy post; each image links to the original high-resolution version. cc-by-sa applies to all images.
The last Helldesk stories. For now.
Late in the Second World War, the crew of a midget submarine gets into trouble off the Italian coast.
2010, dir. Stephen Frears, Gemma Arterton, Luke Evans: IMDb / allmovie
Tamara Drewe, formerly the ugly duckling and now a glamorous journalist, returns to the village where she grew up… and everything is upended.
Carriers and submarines are dealt with. What about the rest of the Navy?
Doctor Who - Tom Baker Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen Leela - Louise Jameson
Last Saturday I went with some friends to tour the Camden Town Brewery. (Images follow; all are cc-by-sa.)
The Yak-38 (NATO reporting name "Forger") was the Soviet carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft of the Cold War.
In 1945, Britain had a large and often hastily-constructed fleet which was clearly close to obsolete, and very little money with which to update it. This is the story of what happened next.
My hopes for the Pirates and Bounty Hunters expansion to Firefly were that it would increase interaction between players and make runaway victories more difficult. My copy arrived yesterday. At first glance, how does it do?
2013, dir. Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Idina Menzel, Kristin Bell: IMDb / allmovie
The new queen flees from her coronation, plunges the country into winter, and disappears; her sister goes to find her.
This boardgame café has recently opened in Oxford, and I went along with some friends to try it out.
Some more things that happened while I was on the Helldesk. (Of course that's what we called it. Sometimes we challenged each other to answer the phone that way)
In 2016, China and an alliance of South-East Asian nations go to war over the Spratly Islands.
Yesterday was sunny, and we went for a walk in one of the local woods. (Images follow.)
The XV-4 was a prototype V/STOL aircraft built for the US Army.
Astronaut Mark Watney is on Mars. Alone; the rest of the crew thought he'd died in the dust storm that they were escaping from. Now he's trying to work out how to survive.
So Queen Elizabeth, Duke of Edinburgh and let's say Eagle are built during the early 1970s. That's the easy bit. What aircraft do they carry?