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RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 12:12 am
by simovitch
My brother Mark and I ran 10-day wargamer tours of the Bulge battlefield several times over the past 10 years. He is over their now with this years group. I haven't been able to make it since 2008 because of work.
However... next year is the 70th anniversary of the 1944 battles so that may be the best time to go to see HTTR and BFTB battlefields, as I will hopefully. I went in 2004 and met a few veterans and saw a lot of reenactments. At night we would drink beer and play wargames.
I made a movie of the 2008 Ardennes tour (with Dave "Arjuna" O'Conner) but with the soundtrack it was too large to upload to YouTube. Someday I hope to be able to upload it to an ftp site.
RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:17 am
by decaro
ORIGINAL: simovitch
My brother Mark and I ran 10-day wargamer tours of the Bulge battlefield several times over the past 10 years. He is over their now with this years group. I haven't been able to make it since 2008 because of work.
However... next year is the 70th anniversary of the 1944 battles ...
As per usual, I will be playing BftB for the anniversary.
My late father was a vet of the Bulge, but I never found any 643rd TD units in the game, though I recall the 644 in at least one scenario.
TDs platoons were doled out as support to other units, so I'm not sure how the game can represent an entire TD Bn.
In any event, dad died not knowing exactly where in Belgium (?) his platoon was.
RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:23 am
by jimcarravall
ORIGINAL: phoenix
Yep. Loads of that stuff. Never let the perfect get in the way of the good. etc etc etc.
I got sick to death of all that stuff when I was working for the UK government. Business self-help books have a lot to answer for.
I think it's fair to say - as a gross generalisation - that Americans (meaning people from the USA) tend to be more 'positive' and 'optimistic' than people from the UK, or even Europe. But people are different and it's not a sign of anything particularly bad to be either more pessimistic, or more optimistic - just a cultural difference. It irks managers, of course - because pessimistic people mean more work for them and harder interpersonal relations. What the employer and the manager always want is for the people below them to just shut up and get on with it, no matter how bad it is. I know, I managed a lot of miserable lawyers at one point.
another analogy might be telling people to just drive the car on the hubs, since the wheels are missing, otherwise you won't get to appreciate the beautiful soft leather seats and fantastic steering.... And whilst you're scraping along, keep smiling and stop griping about the noise!
It had nothing to do with accepting substandard.
It had everything to do with understanding the point where the originally-defined issue (with a negotiated schedule and funding burden) was resolved and the gold plating (with added schedule and funding demands) got in the way.
RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 10:30 am
by Phoenix100
Quote:
Original: Jimcarravallah:
It had everything to do with understanding the point where the originally-defined issue (with a negotiated schedule and funding burden) was resolved and the gold plating (with added schedule and funding demands) got in the way.
Maybe things are more rigid in the military, more technical, less freedom to consider ends, not just means. But certainly my experience is that your thinking about any given issue, your determining if it's worthwhile not taking the difficulties without complaint, or worth complaining etc need not be always constrained by someone else's idea of the issue you're grappling with, someone else's idea of the funding burden.
To go back to the car analogy - you've just told me the original spec and funding was for a car that rolled on its hubs with no rubber tyres and that - like a good employee - I should therefore just get on with it (and moreover, enjoy the other features). But I don't see why I shouldn't gripe about the original spec and funding, assuming I had nothing to do with it. Because a car is meant to run on wheels.
RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 5:08 pm
by jimcarravall
ORIGINAL: phoenix
Quote:
Original: Jimcarravallah:
It had everything to do with understanding the point where the originally-defined issue (with a negotiated schedule and funding burden) was resolved and the gold plating (with added schedule and funding demands) got in the way.
Maybe things are more rigid in the military, more technical, less freedom to consider ends, not just means. But certainly my experience is that your thinking about any given issue, your determining if it's worthwhile not taking the difficulties without complaint, or worth complaining etc need not be always constrained by someone else's idea of the issue you're grappling with, someone else's idea of the funding burden.
To go back to the car analogy - you've just told me the original spec and funding was for a car that rolled on its hubs with no rubber tyres and that - like a good employee - I should therefore just get on with it (and moreover, enjoy the other features). But I don't see why I shouldn't gripe about the original spec and funding, assuming I had nothing to do with it. Because a car is meant to run on wheels.
When the griping was about something that didn't need to be addressed to complete the mission, and on an issue beyond what the griper was capable of addressing or willing to address with his / her efforts / resources, it was allocated to the noise spectrum.
RE: anybody still playing?
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 7:22 pm
by Phoenix100
Lol. But in here all we're doing is trying to make this game better, I assume - all of us. And still playing it meanwhile, even if some of these issues - the supply one, for example - can make things a bit artificial.