Walsingham

Sorry. I can't get over wondering what a "maroon" is.

Up betimes, after a fantastic night's sleep. Coffee and cold chicken. I plan to do some sunbathing in the garden, then this afternoon we have a huge session of tabletop RPG planned. My lads have just been arrested, and I have to finish mapping the jail they're in before we start. EDIT: "Their" instead of "they're"? What the blistering knee-demons is wrong with my brain?

Abnett's books are pretty well layered, going beyond and behind the front lines. My money's on starting out as part of an Inquisitor's band, then he gets knackered and you have to take it over. Corruption vs fascism. Huzzah!

I am randomly reminded of David Mitchell saying "Twitter is for people who won't shut up, even when they're on their own."

Someone should invent a system based around throwing darts at a dartboard, and drinking shots of bourbon.

If I printed this onto 2000 leaflets I could get elected at the next local elections.

This sounds sensible, but I'm too drunk to understand just now.

The thing that always amused me was how none of the chick tracts or whatever bothered to ask what we DID with the wizards and demons in the dungeons. The answer being "set fire to them, chopped them into salsa, and seized all their misbegotten treasure" you'd have thought they'd approve.

Could be just FIBUA Fighting In Bloody Unpleasant Areas

BBC Report on smartphone addiction: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22397932

Well, Zor, there IS a point to it, because governmental decisions always come back to the Treasury. Maybe Enoch will back me up on this. And the Treasury isn't interested unless and until you can slap a numerical assessment on something. Hence - and if you've never come across this before prepare for your mind to be blown - Quality Adjusted Life Years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year

The guy listening isn't the character. Bernado Barracuda is going to be in the main story. I found it amusing that the player chose that name so that every time he said it he would find it easier to put on a Spanish accent.

So what you're saying is that TIME isn't what it used to be?

Good read. Just wrote one thing and erased it. I think the internet has given me a lot of new ways to interact and learn from and support people I just wouldn't otherwise. The best and worst being you arseholes. The internet has softened all my interactions as it broadened them. So I know a lot of people not very well, while my close friends have dwindled. Actually, I'm not even sure about that. I've always thought that friends are the people you do stuff with. The internet lets me do basically just gaming. And its hard to think of any actually meaningful friend-forging experiences you can have while gaming. Maybe because gaming and the internet, when it stops being fun, you turn it off. Hm.

I was just lamenting the likelihood of running into the romantic light of my life this evening when a thought struck me, like a comedic baseball to the groin. If I had had a girlfriend this last year I would certainly not have had the time or inclination to write to a few of my exes, find out what's up in their lives, and offer (it turned out) well timed votes of confidence and support. Writing daily, exchanging cards, but keeping things strictly above board. Apparently I've been really helping them get back up from the dirt. Humbling to realise I'm not a nice enough guy to have been any help otherwise. But I guess I can do the right thing when the wind is southerly . I'd post the Forever Alone meme, but it's too true to be funny!

Good call. Nothing could crown the clusterf*** of morale in the British Army like abolishing every regiment, and calling them all the Viet Minh. Gordon Brown is going to be so f***ing annoyed he never thought of that.

Well, the debate has deepened a wee bit, and broadened out. I'm pleased it's struck a chord. Jarmo was certainly in harmony with my thinking when he said that wars mainly progress by superior force. My point was precisely that when this doesn't happen it shakes the kinds of political forces mentioned by Gorgon and Nonek. ~~ The question of wars being fought long before they start is because of the good old principles of warfighting. You don't just wave your arms around and conjure up a fighting force. There was a brief period during the mid 1800s when I'd say maybe you could. But someone still had to be training troops, breeding horses, studying malaria prophylaxis etc. etc. But I'd rather leave that one for now. ~~ I supose the reason I'm particularly interested is that HM Forces base every assumption on the idea that the UK is not going to bring a superior force to almost any conflict. I'm trying to imagine why in God's name they'd do that.

You enjoying the prequel tale, by the way? I'm waiting on the player getting the rest to me. At some pointing I'm intending to upload the entire campaign, as he's been writing up as he goes.

Isandhlwana could have seen the Zulus seize Natal with its harbour, easily. But Cetewayo refused to believe that the Queen was so dishonourable as to annex him on a flimsy pretext. he deliberately restrained the impis. Unfortunately Bartle Frere and general colonial evilness intended exactly that. In the long term I'm not sure anything the Zulu nation could do in the 1860s would save it. However, I would point out that the record of the Zulus fighting against the British remains a point of pride and national identity for them. Indeed I would suggest that the Zulu nation is still in existence to a greater extent than many European ones. ...Althoguh I'm straying into Churchillian poetic license now! More to the point Ulundi was certainly intended to win. Massive force had been accumulated by the British and was weilded like a steamroller. Th emore important question is what would have happened had the Zulus abandoned Ulundi like Moscow and somehow exacted serious casualties? After the slow and nervous tedium of the build up I think it likely that the administration would have been gravely embarrassed and those arguing that the entire war was pointless greatly strengthened. Alt History HO!

I would caution against calling them a dumbass. I'd say they were resisting groupthink. An interesting read. What I was referring to was that person that just cant "get it". Even though they heard all the same information you did and participated in the group discussion, they still need to go over every little point ad nauseam. I know not every brain clicks at the same speed but man is it infuriating, lol. Yeah. I can see how it would be. I knew a lady who did jury duty and was so nervous she couldn't even follow what the charge was, let alone the evidence. She voted to acquit based on his _eyebrows_. I'd love to be kidding.

BUMP! EDIT: Alt names: Fighting In Some Goblin's Bedroom Creeping Round Tunnels in Total Silence

Well, I know what you mean. But it's no worse than the sodding Latin!

I don't but into this whole "assymetric warfare is beyond military science" schtick. Which may be rude, but isn't meant to be offensive about what you just said. Assymetric warfare is about relaxing your strategic goals to the point of imbecility, driving operational flexibility from that to doing just about anything, and hoping that makes up for your movement being a bunch of mentally challenged high school dropouts armed with socks full of gravel. your only objective is to wreck anything within arms reach until no-one in tehri right mind would want to be anywhere near you. Huzzah!

To clarify my point, and echo yours, I am defining those crucial battles as those which defy expectations. A breakthrough, an upset, a shock to the folks back home, the end of a general's career. These things lose wars. I'm not sure I'd agree that assymetric war is an exception to this principle. I believe it to be an expression of the principle. The assymetric actor, by virtue of their weakness, has many more opportunities to 'score' unexpected wins. The conventional actor has almost none. I'm not suggesting that it's the only distinction of assymetric war, but it's one of them.

"Gortoz a ran" (English = "I'm waiting") by Denez Prigent and Lisa Gerrard