Friday 31 October 2008

It's That Hockey Stick Again

"War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production." Click the graph for further info, after nailing planks across your doorways and windows : )

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Marchin' & Fightin'

The American Civil War

First one side Marches or Fights, then the other.



Marchin’

Movement of 1 or 2 hexes for infantry, up to 5 for cavalry, up to 3 for artillery.

Mark movers as moving.

All troops in a hex must do the same thing, though they may move to different hexes, splitting their number. Never enter enemy hex.


Fightin’

Troops which did not move may fire upon the enemy. Firing is by hexes.
Up to three hexes may fire on the same target hex at the same time.
Add up the power of all guns firing on a particular target (artillery = range 5 hexes, power 20, infantryman = range 2, power 2, Cavalry = range 2, power 1 at range 2, 3 at range 1)
Then if the target hex contains cover or there is cover between firer and target, halve the total.

Then roll a d6 on the Casualties table below. And remove or mark the casualties indicated (firers choice as to which figures are removed)

Die roll> 1 2 3 4 5 6

>20 Firepower = Casualties> 0 0 0 1 2 3
21-60 Firepower = 0 1 2 3 5 7
61-100 Firepower = 0 1 3 5 8 14
101+ Firepower = 1 3 5 7 11 21


When all a cannon’s artillerymen are casualties, the cannon is removed.

Friday 24 October 2008

"Does growth matter?"

BBC News has a very apposite story for Ollie, and indeed the rest of us: "Why do we need economic growth?"

Not read it all, but just delighted that somewhere mainstream is asking the question ...

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Are Greenpeace luddites ...

Apparently so, according to the Register.

While I'm no scientist, I didn't think fusion power produced nuclear waste. And while I do reckon that there's a bloody good reason that it's taken this long to even come close to making it viable (i.e. we'll probably never make it viable on a scale we can use), I can't help agreeing with Mr. Orlowski that this might be ludditism too far.

(Good word, eh?)

Thursday 9 October 2008

Dubious Freecycle requests: "womens shoes"

"Myself and a few collegues are doing a research into creating a
product that can be used on shoes to remove the natural adours that
occur wearing footware.
Currently i need womens shoes which have been well worn or have some
sort of smell in them, wether slight or very strong. Condition does
not matter and i am willing to accept any type as they will all be
used for the research. So if you have shoes you no longer wear or just
are worn out please dont throw them away but give them to us.
We can collect even if you have just the one pair."

Ancient STAND!

First roll for which side moves first, the loser places his troops first, on the first 3 hexrows on his side of the table, then the winner places his on the first 2 hexrows on his side.

Movement = 5 hexes per turn for Cavalry/Chariots, 2 for Infantry. Either Cavalry or Cavalry and Chariots or Chariots or Infantry per hex only. Never enter enemy hex. Face one hexside only. May change hexside facing before, after or during movement. Mark occupied hexes as Standing, otherwise they are regarding as being ordered or allowed to fall back under pressure (no marker necessary). Only as many troops as can easily fit into the non-terrained parts of a hex, with some minute space between bases and around terrain features, may do so, other figures are left behind in the hex they came from. May move any or all units every turn.

All-water hexes = not allowed except by bridges or boats or fords. Cavalry and Chariots not allowed up steep inclines or declines, Chariots not allowed in wooded or swamp hexes.

Fighting – from an individual friendly hex to an adjacent enemy one. Add chances up, every 1 = an automatic casualty, then up to 0.5 causes one more, then roll d10 to decide if any fractions remaining between 0.1 and 0.4 lead to another. May attack with all troops adjacent to enemy every turn.

Infantry
Vs. Standing =0.4 chance per man
Vs. Falling back =0.2 chance per man
Vs. Standing in cover =0.2 chance per man
Vs Fall back in cover =0 chance

Cavalry
Vs. Standing =0.6 chance per cavalryman
Vs. Falling back =0.8 chance per cavalryman
Vs. Standing in cover =0.2 chance per cavalryman
Vs Fall back in cover =0.4 chance per cavalryman

Chariots
Vs. Standing =1.3 chance per chariot
Vs. Falling back =1.6 chance per chariot
Vs. Standing in cover =0.2 chance per chariot
Vs Fall back in cover =0.4 chance per chariot

Archers/Slingers
Vs. Standing =0.4 chance per man
Vs. Falling back =0.3 chance per man
Vs. Standing in cover =0.2 chance per man
Vs Fall back in cover =0.1 chance per man

Modifiers: from one of the rear 3 hexsides = + 0.2 for each man, + 0.4 for each cavalryman, + 0.9 for each chariot.

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Serendipity in an automotive fashion.


While thinking of this post, the phrase 'grinding my gears' came to mind.

Which is good, because I want to talk about a car.

This one.

The thing is, someone's spent a lot of money on a posh car, and a self-aggrandising number plate.
And then parked it in a disabled bay. Which really grinds my gears. Now, I may have been blinded to the disabled badge, but I don't think this is the case. IN which case: what a lazy scumbag.
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Comment from Ol
Someone anti-social enough to get a Bentley in the first place, polluting everywhere, won't care much about using up a disabled bay. I remember listening to a radio programme once that described the word in psychology that is used to describe people that don't care about others and don't care what other people think about them (the people in question on that programme were actually queue jumpers). That word is "psychopath".