Mystery of the dawn surge of book sales

I was a little surprised to get a modest surge of Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame sales around dawn (UK time) one Sunday morning. I was intrigued.

It took me a few days to solve this mystery.

The Community TV Channel (a less well-known UK channel) used a cut down version of my Fletcher Pratt lecture as a filler. They edited the 50 minute Youtube talk down to 10-12 minutes.

Apparently the Open University, a distance learning institution, hires the space on some obscure channels for their course related learning programs. Between these programs, the channel uses 'fillers' from around the digital world. Hence, my lecture was seen by some people who were learning German/ Italian.

Clearly some of these people had good taste, as they bought a book on naval wargaming (and a few other titles).

Reveille Wargaming Show Sun 25 Nov 2012

I am putting on a participation game at my local club and show.

As the great explorer and daughter have been missing for some time, the 1920's British Empire has decided to launch a search. All that is needed is an experienced gentleman to command the airship and troops. A 45 minute participation game for 1 to 4 players.

I will also have a book stand with over 50 different wargaming books for sale.

http://www.bristolwargaming.co.uk/reveille.html

What Really Happened in Ancient and Medieval Battles?

Will Whyler commented on this in the Guardroom pages of Slingshot in March 2012. Even the best documented battles have gaping holes in our understanding. For example the classic book, the Battles of St Albans by Burley, Elliott and Watson is a marvellous detailed account of the first battle of the Wars of the Roses in 1455. Taking just the first battle of St Albans, they have a wonderfully detailed account of what happened and where. By some fine battlefield detective work they have documented where each of the three assaults were launched against the gates/ walls of the town, where the last stand was etc. However, the why is less certain.

In summary, Salisbury and York attacked at the wall at two points against Clifford and Somerset/ Northumberland and while this was happening Warwick broke through at a less well defended part of the wall. What is the subject of conjecture is was this by chance or was it the plan. Did the attackers cunningly attack at two points to draw the less numerous defenders to face them, or was it just improvisation by Warwick. He saw a gap in the defences and went for it?

Having got across the wall Warwick did not turn left or right to take the defenders in the flank (which would have been the most obvious tactical move), but made straight for the defenders reserve around the king. Seizing the king effectively ended the battle. How did Warwick know the king was in the marketplace, as the pre-battle negotiations took place at the nearby abbey?

Even using the pioneering methodology of SLA Marshall, we do not understand more recent battles. Marshall, while controversial, attempted to understand battles by interviewing combatants as soon as possible after WWII, Korean and Vietnam battles. Other pioneering work by Paddy Griffith has opened a new window on 19^th century battles; his method was analysing similarities in large numbers of personal accounts of battles.

Despite the best efforts of many wargamers who have spent years as amateur historians examining battles from the distant past, to me, the why in battles of the ancient and medieval world is nearly always conjecture.

Education Research

While having no relevance to wargaming at all, some of my research on student excuses in higher education has hit the national media.
 
Times Higher Education Supplement

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=420995&c=1


The picture looks a bit scary. Actually, when one of my articles was published in a computing journal last year, they substituted someone else's photo for mine as their photo looked better... They did however keep my tie in the photo.

I was also in the Daily Mail Newspaper

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195737/My-World-Of-Warcraft-character-died-List-student-excuses-late-homework.html

and on BBC Radio 5 live this afternoon, then I went on the Voice of Russia (aka Radio Moscow), then a number of BBC local radio stations.

The Independent Newspaper has just done an article as well.

Autobiography in Simulation and Gaming Journal

I was a little suprised to recieve a request for an autobiography of me by Simulation and Gaming Journal. This academic journal is the premier journal on the study of simulations and games.

The request was on the grounds of my contribution to simulations and gaming e.g. through the History of Wargaming Project. This will be the third one they have done in the magazines history.

Actually, I can suggest many other names who, to me, have made a far larger contribution.

Surprise Battalion Parachute Drop on Belarus

On the 4^th of July 2012, a Swedish public relations firm dropped 879 toy teddy-bears by parachute on the town of Ivenets near Minsk in Belarus. This was a pro-democracy protest against Europe’s last dictatorship, with each teddy-bear carrying a suitable slogan.   

Belarus is former Soviet state that has been ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko since democratic elections in 1994. Since the first free election, the state has become progressively more autocratic and has seen a clampdown on press freedom. The European Union has an asset free and travel restrictions on 200 Belarus officials for alleged human right abuses. If any of these people travel in the rest of Europe, they will be detained. 

The incident has wider interest than merely highlighting the excesses of one ex-soviet regime.

Belarus is part of the air defence network of Russia and although the light aircraft managed to enter Belarus airspace from Sweden, Andrei Savinykh, the spokesman for Belarus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the intruded was detected ‘but the air defence did nothing. They didn’t consider the aircraft as a military threat because it was a small aircraft and usually the air defence system is focusing on high-speed heavy crafts.’

This incident raises questions about the effectiveness of the Russian air defence umbrella. 

In the days of potential air attack by suicide terrorists, the wider question is how to react to such suspicious civilian aircraft? There are dangers to over-reaction; in September 1983, the Soviets shot down a civilian Korean Airline Flight 007 over the Sea of Japan by a Su-15. America shot down civilian flight Iran air flight 655 in July 1988 over the straits of Hormuz. 

Belarus is quite clear about their reaction to a further incident. Their spokesman said any further unauthorised aircraft would be treated as a threat. Belarus air space will not be a good place to stray from one’s registered flight plan.

Connections conference on game design in US

There is an excellent write up of the Connections Conference about game design. Write up on paxsims

The conference is the American equivilent of the UK Wargame Development's Conference of Wargamers (COW). The Connections conference looked very structured in the traditional way e.g. with key note speakers. The UK COW conference is a post-modernism conference, disorgranised,  parallel sessions and much of the important insights are developed in informal discussions between sessions.