Fitter, healthier...and more productive - A Year Of Blogging

I started this blog a year ago. Officially it kicked off on June 4th with an obligatory introduction, explaining who I am and why I returned to blogging.

"So think of this blog as a rearguard action. An attempt to retain some of the ground lost to age and commitment (and lose some of the weight I've gained). Think of it as a means of putting dots on the horizon and enlisting the help of others to stay on course."

Me with a WWI A7V tank on display at the Tank Museum in Munster, Germany

But my first real post was on June 10th. On June 14th I set out the projects I had in mind. It may be useful to review to what extent I have persevered with these projects, given that this blog was partially meant to provide focus on a few projects that I could see through to completion.

Grand Projects

Maximum Effort, World War I Megagame. Shelved to focus on another grand project, but I still have it in the back of my head and keep buying books. Reviewed a few on Italy after my holiday there,  the Battle of Adua, then Why Italy came to dinner with only a plate and no cuttlery and Arditi del Popolo. The Maximum Effort blog is now in torpor.

Waterloo, books. Is now a Grand Project. Bought many books in the past year.
Hero of Waterloo? and  Hero of Waterloo II onto 1813-5 battle casualty rates
All is fair in love and war and history and Prussian Infantry Tactics

First Dutchman to lounge in the chair of the First Sea Lord
Admiralty Board Room, London

Minor projects

Mother Russia, the political economy game for WWI. Shelved with the megagame.

Ypres, books. Shelved after reading half to move on to other projects. I reviewed Belgian Patrouilleurs. Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Through the Mud and the Blood, WWI miniatures. Although delayed many times, I have actually started on them recently. However, this is all prototype and no production line. I'll get back to this soon.

Barbarossa, books for the megagame. I did review one of the books I'd read, but not all. Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Dux Britanniarum, Dark Age skirmishing. Bought minis, had them painted (also here), generated my characters, bought more and had them painted too, played a battle. Read a few books but did not review all of them. Here´s Britain After Rome. Even played Struggle for Rome. On slow burn now.

King John, books and possible megagame. One of my first posts. Bought more books, read none. Founded the King John Appreciation Society in response to the resurgence of love for Richard III. On slow burn.

Essen 2011, boardgames. I did play most of the stuff bought in 2011. Like Guards! Guards! Unfinished, but drawn the line.

Leipzig, books and megagame. Now a sub project for Waterloo. Been doing my reading, but not much reviewing. Game is played in two weeks so maybe I can do some more reviews afterwards.

Playtest for Master of Europe and Maps for Master of Europe

Me posing with a T-33 trainer on Vancouver Island

Projects started later

Vietnam, megagame Lost Youth. Read about counterinsurgency, played the megagame. Finished.
 
Essen 2012, boardgames. Started October 2012. I have played most of the games I bought at least once, but still some work to do in the coming four months, like Signum Mortis. And there's reports of games played as planned, games played unplanned, games unplayed and Metro 2033. Ongoing

Al-Andalus, books. Reading up for my holiday in Andalusia last May. Read the books, but only finished my review of the big one. Others to follow.



Humanitarian intervention in the 1990s. Preparation for Crisis in Binni megagame. Read the books. Finished and reviewed. But I need to get the report on the game itself on screen from my notes. Soon! Posts: Zero Dark Thirty, Lessons of Humanitarian Intervention, Crisis Caravan, Black Hawk Down, Crisis in Binni Game Materials 

Me in 2008: fitter, healthier, but not as productive

Conclusions

I still get distracted too easily. A megagame or a holiday is enough to get me sidetracked for a few weeks. And that´s only the projects. I also lost weeks on analysing what makes a real wargamer, reports on boardgames such as Civilization (the game I have played the most over the last two years), bookshops and general musings about the state of the hobby.

For the coming weeks I plan to close off the humanitarian intervention and Al-Andalus projects, then in the following months I should try to focus on Waterloo and Essen 2012. I hope to play some Dux Britanniarum. WWI and King John will be on hold until better days.

The temptations of Essen

Weight loss. On aggregate, I have lost no weight. It was no official project, so I'll make it official now. Let's get it structurally to under 90 kgs by next blog birthday.

Closing remarks

Although I have been graced by many viewers over the year (not all of it referrer spam), the best experiences for me have been to get comments from you. The blog soapbox is nice, but I actually prefer discussion and exchange. Thanks to all of you who have honoured me by entering the conversation.

Chemin des Dames books

Last week I brought Some books for Michiel, since he's going to camp around Compiegne in France this summer. Right in the middle of a number of WWI battlefields.

For a number of years I used to go to the nearby Champagne Ardennes region for a weekend in summer with a bunch of friends. On a few occassions we visited the Chemin des Dames battlefields, and I picked up the books in the picture.

One local guide, with a cover by Tardi, the French comic artist who has had a great impact on the way we see WWI. And another a more extensive account of the many battles fought on the Chemin des Dames, starting with the 1814 battle of Craonne (Napoleon's Last Victory), the 1914 battles, the disastrous 1917 offensive and the German offensive of 1918.

Added are two monographies: Pyrrhic Victory by Robert Doughty on the French Army in WWI and Pierre Miquel's book on the Chemin des Dames. And finally an issue of the French WWI magazine Tranchées, dealing with the offensive with limited objectives, among which the capture of Fort Malmaison on the Chemin des Dames in October 1917.

So Michiel is well prepared for his holiday.

Michiel bought me a Dutch translation of Albert Nofi's book on Waterloo for my birthday. An interesting take, you can spot the wargamer from miles away.

Flat Earth News - The Dumbing Down of Journalism

Hopelessly late in reading this, but Nick Davies´ Flat Earth News is probably more true now than it was when published first in 2008, before the great culmination of scandals that brought down the Sun and threatened the Murdoch media empire.

Davies argues that by the establishment of media empires in the 1980 and 1990s there started a trend towards rationalisation of news production. Budgets were lowered, fewer journalists were required to produce more news. This has led to a decline in the quality of journalism as there is not enough time to check facts and dig beyond what is delivered to them.

News is now delivered by press agencies with similarly reduced staff, but increasingly directly by PR organisations from the government, interest organisations, companies and intelligence agencies. Davies notes that the time is fast approaching where PR personnel outnumbers the journalists.

PR people have become much better at offering journalists ready-made news items. Political press officers provide Sound bites, arrange exclusive interviews and plant scoops. Interest groups selectively quote-mine scientific reports to support their arguments. Businesses subsidise related research that draws headlines, so that their message gets across. This is just what allows journalist, short of time, to meet their expected levels of productivity.

How journalism is squashed between rationalisation 
on the one hand and expanding PR on the other

The lack of time available has led to several sub-trends, picking stories which:

• Are easy to process. So only give the facts, not the context
• Carry low risk. They come from 'trusted' sources like the government, don't offend those powerful/wealthy enough to sue you or block your access to new stories, present both sides of the story as is they are equal. It also means that news media tend to hunt in packs, because a story published elsewhere is a safe source. Esepecially when there's a moral panic.
• Are guaranteed to sell. So no news from far off places that nobody cares about, but endless celebrity gossip. And nothing that challenges the preconceptions of your audience.

The most interesting development is the support of astro-turf organisations, that is (fake) grassroots organisations supported by companies or intelligence agencies. Look for instance at the many patients representation groups supported by the pharmaceutical industry and non-representative expatriate organisations like the Iraqi National Council.  Or the dubious think tanks and research establishments used by the oil industry to sow doubt about climate change.

Most worrying is that the intelligence agencies have found their way to the newsrooms as well. It is not entirely new, as Cold War agencies also had their journalistic ´assets´, conduits through which they could convey their message. Or undermine the credibility of someone who lifted the lid on them. But since the 1990s they have used their information monopoly to steer reporters in their desired directions.  Their power is as big as those of the independent press agencies. The War in Iraq being a case in point.


Davies´ chapter on The Observer shows how the CIA led reporters astray by misinforming them (through the Iraqi National Council) while the political editor was bagged by Downing Street. But the chapters on other newspapers are as chilling and depressing, especially the collusion with private investigators and policemen that bug phones, gather private information from protected databases and harrass victims to get their side of the story even when all they want is to be left alone.

Tragically, it seems that this book has not been able to change much, although I can see an undercurrent of journalists trying to wrest away from Big Media. And judging by the results of the Leveson Inquiry and the opposition from the media to its conclusions, I have no confidence that it will prove more than a dint in the trend, let alone a break.

Even though this book isn't directly about gaming and history, I think it holds very important lessons when it comes to current military subjects. We cannot assume that information on opponents of the intelligence agencies is truthful. Information is leaked, planted through 'assets' and distorted. It also hold important lessons about the role of the press and the way in which it can be used to keep the truth from the public. We should be thinking hard about how we integrate these lessons into our game design.

It would be nice to say that this trend is only confined to the UK or the anglo-saxon media, but there's enough signs that it also applies to the Netherlands. Joris Luyendijk, writing about the same time, showed the weakness of foreign correspondents in the Middle East. He argued that in countries with hardly any room for independent public opinion, lacking social scientific research or even opinion polls, if not controlled by security services, how could the foreign correspondent really know what people felt?

And when you cover such a large and diverse region, you end up doing a standup from your hotel roof 30 minutes after you'd flown in based on nothing more than what you got from the newsroom and a quick chat with your taxi driver on the way in from the airport. But his criticism of the work of foreign correspondents was met as much by indignant replies from his colleagues as by others commending him for his bravery to be open about the limitations of his job.

Maps for Master of Europe

Jim gave me a set of maps to take with me to the Netherlands: player and umpire maps for Master of Europe. The game is on for June 22nd in Nijmegen. Casting is done and handbooks and invitations will go out later this week.

Note the larger scale umpire map!

Movie education

Saturday my host Richard delighted me with two excellent low budget movies. They prove that a good story and creative use of limitations can beat million dollar budgets.

The first was The Call of Cthulhu by the Lovecraft historical society. Although fairly recent it was shot in black and white and in a 1920s silent movie style. This worked excellently.

The second was Dark Star by John Carpenter (who went on to make other great movies). It is the story of group of astronauts after 20 years of their scouting mission, charting the stars and blowing up instable planets.

You could see how it had influenced later sci fi movies. But it has more merrit than that. There's great dialogue (especially with the intelligent bombs) and monologue, hilarious chase of the pet alien and like in The Call of Cthulhu , creative use of materials to create props. And it's given me a few interesting quotes to throw at people.

Both movies come highly recommended.

Richard and Jim also educated me on sci fi novels. I'll see if I can fit that hobby in somewhere.

Books bought in London (and Leiden)

For those of you who wondered whether I'd bought any books this weekend, the answer is yes. Of course.

Friday's reluctant loot: in the end I didn't do too much book shopping and my heart wasn't in it, I guess. Nevertheless, I picked up a book on the end of the Russian Empire because it had lots of social economic stuff linked in to the politics. Then 1815 The Road To Waterloo by Gregor Dallas as an old school introduction to the politics behind the peace process of 1814-1815. And finally The Verdict of Battle, a correction copy. I read a review of it recently and the book argues that battles became accepted as a legitimate way to solve political differences. And in this way, they could become decisive.

On Monday I picked up the catalogue to the exhibition on George Catlin's portraits of North American Indians

Last minute buys at the airport: Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise and Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. The first on scientific approaches to prediction, and why we are still so crap about it. By one of the smarter guys in electoral predictions. The second decision making and why it is often not economically rational (as economists expect us to do) but rational from the perspective of time and experience. By one of the leading economists.

Also one book I bought in Leiden just before I left for London. It's the travel account of a Dutch reporter in the wake of WWI to revolutions and internal conflicts all over Europe between 1919 and 1923. Should be an inspiration on the postwar situation from the view of a non-participating nation.

Catlin's paintings of North American Indians

Yesterday Nick and I went to the National Portrait Gallery and among other stuff, we saw George Catlin's portraits of North American Indians in the 1830s and 1840s.

Catlin began his project because he saw the Indians as a vanishing culture and wanted to conserve as much of it as possible. At the same time he needed to make money and these two goals didn't always go together well. But it has resulted in a unique collection of hundreds of portraits and paintings of most of the tribes of the east and west.

Apart from the information on the dress, appearance, customs and beliefs of the Indians, the paintings offer beautiful facial expressions. It's evident that Catlin empathised with his sitters. Not all paintings are of even quality because Catlin did many of them and fast, but even some of the unfinished ones are fascinating.

Catlin's other interest like geology also feature on the side of the exhibition. And since the National Portrait Gallery is free to visit, make sure you give it a try when you get to London. The turnover of exhibitions is quite high and there is lots to see.

How I love going to Chestnut Lodge

Sunday I joined a meeting of Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group, a rare pleasure because megagames and CLWG don't often coincide.
We had 3 great sessions, the first set in the A Very British Civil War alternate universe where Britain descends into vivi war after Edward decides to ascend the throne with Wallis Simpson as queen.
It was a tactical scenario by John Seaton on attempts by fascists and worker militias to capture the neutral borough of Croydon, including the important airport.
Next was a session discussing Muku Patel's design for an army group level game on the opening stages of WWI on the eastern front.
We discussed some design parameters (which period, what area, at what level of resolution, the character of combat on the eastern front (and how it differed from the west) and some mechanics (trading speed for combat effectiveness, effect of terrain, intensity).
Last was a meeting of the board of a large multinational discussing how it would make the best use of revolutionary new technology.
We faced several fundamental decisions. Given its cooperation with a superpower, how would that affect it's ability to trade with others? What was our window in which we were the sole owners of this technology, and how could we leverage this towards customers and competition?
A busy day with some fascinating insights, good discussion and inspiration

Judd books

One of my favourite bookshops. Always something special to pick up.

Edith Cavell, a 1915 PR disaster

Ok, ok. So she was guilty of helping allied soldiers getting back to their own lines. But just because she is a spy doesn't mean you should shoot her.!?

Oh well. This is the stuff you run in to on your way to the bookshops at Charing Cross Road