Tag archives for Military - Page 2
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Author Interview – Chris Martin
This week's author interview is with Chris Martin. He is a long-time journalist (specialising in motorcycle racing and special operations), he's currently working on a very grounded military science fiction episodic series titled Engines of Extinction. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I actually started a website about World Superbike racing in the late '90s while still in college. I knew I wanted to get my foot in the door in motorcycle racing, and I saw an opportunity to do so in that way. I guess I figured the site needed content and somebody had to supply that, so I just kind of took on the bulk of the writing myself. The site filled a void and proved to be quite popular. Before long I had professional journalists and photographers from all over the globe volunteering their…
Remembrance Challenge
We took our cubs to the local war memorial in the Church near the Scout Hall as part of our own remembrance challenge. Before we went the cubs each made a wreath of poppies and wrote a message on it. Each boy did his own personal wreath. We then walked to the Church where we spoke about why we remember, and how different things were in 1914. South Merstham wasn't as big then as it is now, the new houses were mostly built in the 1950s. In the 1911 census there were around 600 men in the locality. About 150 of whom signed up in August 1914. (I'm guessing some would be unfit, others in jobs that couldn't just go off to war and some others not that keen). @N04/15767315095/ Remembrance Challenge The remembrance challenge was to find out as much as…
Book Review – Zero Six Bravo by Damien Lewis
Zero Six Bravo: 60 Special Forces. 100,000 Enemy. The Explosive True Story by Damien Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars I make a point of reading first hand accounts of special forces operations. I started with world war two tales of the SAS and have worked up to the present time. Since the Bravo Two Zero fiasco I don't expect much from tales of recent events. This particular book tells the tale of a Special Boat Service mission in Iraq in 2003. It suffers a bit from excessive hypebole, presumably to garner sales. However it is actually very readable, and although much of the outcome is telepgrahed in advance the way it's done is through a good hook to keep you reading to find out the detail of how/what happens. Well before all the debates in Parliament in 2003…
Book Review – War Stories edited by Andrew Liptak
War Stories: New Military Science Fiction by Jaym Gates My rating: 5 of 5 stars I really loved this fantastic collection of short stories. They are well laid out with a set of general themes, covering a wide range of perspectives and points of view. What first attracted me to this was that there was a short story by Linda Nagata set in the same universe as her The Red: First Light novel. (See my review here) I'd enjoyed that so much that I was keen to read more, hence funding the kickstarter. Having read it I think I'll need to go look up some more of those authors and add them to my reading list. Not one of the stories in the collection seemed like it didn't belong there, and all of them had something novel and engaging about…
The 200 Foot General
This is the third post on my Operational Research driven wargame rules (and it's probably about time that I came up with a catchy name for them, ideas in the comments section most welcome). One of the most unrealistic things I find in most commercial wargames that I have read or played is that it is very easy for players to change their plans and give new orders to their troops every turn. This is so common that there's even a name for it, the 200ft General. What is the Problem? The concept being that the player is like a General with perfect perception and control of his troops, and he can react to things that they aren't yet aware of because the player can see the models on the table. Here are a couple of relevant quotes from the Operational…