Month: May 2013

05/31/13

Mayviation Interview With Matthew Caffrey, AFRL

Brant Guillory, 31 May 2013

COL(R) Matt Caffrey works at the Air Force Research Labs wargaming office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.  He is also the organizer behind the Connections conference that brings together military wargaming practitioners, academics, and industry professionals to advance the art, science, and application of wargaming.

Splash-PMWSome opening comments from Mr Caffrey:
Before I answer your specific questions I need to make two disclaimers:
First, the views expressed in these responses are those of the author (myself) and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
Second, I am not so pretentious to believe I know of all US defense Wargaming.  Growing up in New York City I heard the expression, “only the dead know Brookline.”  That is, that borough was (and is) so big and so diverse that no living individual could know all of it.  No one living individual can know all of defense wargaming. The Joint Staff and each Service use wargaming for a host of applications.  Though I a student of wargaming and have worked in defense wargaming as a primary or additional duty since 1983 I would be surprised if some wargame somewhere is an exception to my below generalizations.  I do not know what I do not know.
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05/30/13

A Civilization V AAR – Part Ten-and-Five

aar

Brant Guillory, 30 May 2013

Do the math. Seriously. We’re at 1180 AD, and we’re 15 freakin’ episodes into this AAR. Most game run ’til at least the mid-1800s, even on “quick” speed. And the turn/year ratio gets more granular as we go. Oy.

Click images to enlarge

civv

More Canadians.

Barbarians in the snow at the far north edge of the map: Canadians!

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05/27/13

GARPA 19 – GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory

Back by popular demand, the boys from GARPA are hard at it again bringing you all the crowd funding projects to empty your wallets. While the working conditions might not be the best and we are still waiting on that that funding grant from management, we still think we have a pretty cool job finding all sorts of great games and projects for you, our cherished readers. And now while we wipe the brown off our noses, enjoy the column!

Board Games and Miniatures

CCNormandy-1(RBM)

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid by GMT Games

P500 – Not yet – Orders to Date: 240

In honor of Mayviation we bring you another aviation-themed boardgame in the throes of development. Enemy Coast Ahead covers the British 617 Squadron and their WWII mission, Operation Chastise. Operation Chastise was aimed at destroying three German dams that contained important reservoirs used by German industry to produce much of its war material. The task was never an easy one and even forced the creation of a special “bouncing bomb” to help the munitions reach their intended targets. Now GMT brings us a game that puts you in the shoes of the “Dambusters.”
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05/23/13

Cap’n Darwin versus The Red Baron

Author: Jim “Cap’n Darwin” Snyder

1. Introduction

Welcome To my Grogheads May-viation article. When Brant contacted me saying, “Hey you’re a propeller-head. Can you say a few words about aircraft and the things you have done.” I said, “Sure.” So I jumped on the ole computer and started typing. ‘Wings, propeller, flap, rudder, fuselage’. Then it hit me. Maybe, just maybe, he wants a bit more insight and pop for this article. Something a Groghead might actually be interested in reading about that combines aviation, gaming, and game design activities. Lucky for me, I just happened to have worked a number of years back on a little project known as Full Canvas Jacket.
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05/21/13

Birds Make Terrible Dive Bombers

Author: Jim Zabek

Mankind has been inspired by birds for as long as we could appreciate their ability to fly. We have marveled at their ability to take off on a moment’s notice, soar effortlessly through the sky, and alight somewhere that we could never aspire to climb. Nature, fantastic and wonderful, has managed to perfect through evolution some fantastic creatures.

Mankind, always inventive, seems determined to take that evolutionary perfection and improve it to his own ends. Nowhere could this be more obvious than during the Cold War, when the CIA concocted a brilliant scheme to teach cats to spy on people. The idea was simple: surgically implant a microphone and transmitting device inside of a cat, then teach that cat to walk up to a suspected pair of people having a suspect conversation, and Presto! The purrrfect eavesdropping device. Operation Acoustic Kitty was born.
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