Dog Days of Summer

Yes, the Dog Days of Summer are upon us here in the Pacific Northwest and temperatures have been hot.  Even the dog seeks refuge from the heat.

The latest addition to the household, Milo, tends to hang out with me when I am downstairs in the game room whether painting, reading, or studying the game laid out on the table.  Now, I tend to think he likes the company but it could simply be that he enjoys the coolness of basement.

Anyway, I stood up from the painting desk one afternoon and looked all over for the dog.  He had been on the couch earlier.  Well, he was there last time I noticed, anyway.  He was nowhere to be found.  Then, I heard a faint rustle coming from under the game table.  I walked around to the end of the table and looked between the boxes lining both sides of the table.  I see two eyes and a white curly head peeping up over one of the boxes from under the table's dark underbelly.  In the few seconds it took to grab the camera, he jumped up onto one of the boxes and walked over to me.  Clearly climbing over my boxes of figures was no concern to him.  The box he is padding across is the one containing my 1/72 WWI aircraft collection.  Funny dog.

Given that we are in the throes of the heat of summer, my attention turned to a little retail therapy from the comfort of the couch in the game room.  Besides a small order to Lancashire Games for FPW Prussians and Bavarians, Pat Smith's Volume 3 of Setting the Scene arrived in my post box.  Looking forward to diving into this work with thoughts of returning to Norway for an early WWII game.  That game may wait until winter when the snow flies.

Also in the mail was an order from Jerry's Artarama for a fistful of Rhapsody Kolinsky Sable brushes that were on deep discount.  Rhapsody brushes are a regular staple in the brush arsenal along with Winsor & Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sables.  Why not stock up?  Exactly!

On the gaming front, this week is a busy one with games on Monday (in a conclusion to the Quistello battle with the Rejects) and Tuesday with Peter (see ECW Siege Battle Report).  On the schedule are two more games on Friday, and Saturday.  Four games in a week is a lot!  Hopefully, I can carve out some time to chronicle many of these games.  For now, though, it is time to walk the dog.

Spinning My Wheels

Spinning both figuratively and literally!

Upper Falls split by Canada Island.

The literal wheel spinning gives a nod to an increase in mileage out on the bike.  While not up to the mileage of old, I am pushing an average of about 150 miles per week.  This is much better mileage than logged during the winter and early spring months of indoor training.  Good to get out in the pleasant weather before the daytime temperatures nudge the thermometer up into the 90s.  Doubly good to get the roadwork in before the hazards of negotiating crosstown traffic make the journey a bit stressful until I can get out onto the relative safety of the bike path and relax.

Upper Falls, South Channel

Saturday morning's ride saw me stopping on the Post Street Bridge for a brief snack break in the middle of downtown.  Breakfast consisted of downing a couple pieces of sushi while I enjoyed the pleasant view of the Upper Falls before making the long and hot climb back up the South Hill and home.  With no measurable rain for more than a month and the mountain snowpack long gone, the Spokane River is running low with both Lower and Upper Falls showing their mid-summer, natural state of exposed rock and reduced water flow. 

Lower Falls under Monroe Street Bridge

The figurative wheel spinning is happening on the hobby front.

Following the series on Mortimer's Cross battles and the chronicling of those very enjoyable games, returning to the keyboard and painting table has been difficult.  After wrapping up a series of battles, I am frequently distracted by what might occupy the table next.  That research continues.  After suggestions, a return to the 18th Century may be in the cards.  Early candidates include War of Austrian Succession and War of Polish Succession battles.  Which one to tackle first is still undecided.  

Another distraction is that Nancy and I brought a new dog into the family.  We all are adjusting quickly and this fellow has every hint at being a very good dog.  His calm and friendly disposition is unmatched by any dog we have had before.  The animal shelter says he is a poodle (mix?) but when I conducted an image match, a Spanish Water Dog came up as a close look-a-like.  Time (and possibly a DNA test) will tell, I suppose. 

Lee delivering a bow rake into Steve after I softened him up!

Finally, I did get a game in this week!  Reject Richard hosted another of his superbly directed playtests for the Age of Sail rules he is designing and developing.  Game ran smoothly and Lee and I came away with a victory.  Great fun!

Jon delivering a stern rake into Dan to seal the deal!

Richard's account of battle can be read at Naval Playtest 4 - Nearly There!

Next time, maybe some new units to parade?  By the way, the dog is asleep at my feet as I type, snoring...

Chasseurs de Fischer

Activities on the hobby front continue winding their way through the month of May in the seasonal downturn mentioned in an earlier post (see A Few Spanish and a Seasonal Funk).  Contributing to this stall and recent lack of posts was my week away in California.  Nine days between posts is likely the biggest gap in more than a dozen years.  Returning sees even more work to catch up with on the home front.  Hopefully, I will be back to normal operations soon.  The forced hiatus presents one interesting fallout.  Having not posted in more than one week, I find it challenging to actually restart the blogging routine.  I considered holding off for even a few more days needing a little recovery time to collect my thoughts.  Once jostled out of a routine and regular habit, I am a little surprised how easy it would be to either slow down or stop altogether.  

Anyway, back to today's offering.

Mustering out earlier in the month are the French Chasseurs de Fischer.  This body of 15 light infantrymen are added into the French Army for the 18mm SYW collection.  Figures are Old Glory.  Still a number of units awaiting their turn at the photo booth.  With luck, I will return to the painting desk soon and the next post with not be nine days away.

Until next time.

What's In A Name?

After seeing the above book mentioned on Peter's blog (see A New Book...) and listening to the authors' podcasts, I placed an order.  Book arrived quickly and was read just as quickly.  I won't repeat the contents of the book since Peter did that and Table of Contents can be seen on Amazon.

What I do want to discuss is the authors' wrestling with the renaming of the gaming aspect of the hobby that we enjoy.  Many of us likely refer to this hobby as miniatures wargaming or playing a miniatures game.  Really, I lump all facets of the hobby simply into the catch-all, wargaming. 

The authors' take a different tack, however.  They state their rationale for first dismissing the use of tabletop games, then dismissing miniatures games, then dismissing miniatures wargames, before settling onto the term of non-discrete miniatures games. 

The name, non-discrete miniatures game is chosen since the authors argue that,

• Games are not necessarily about war.
• Spatial relationships between miniatures and terrain are crucial.
• Any physical object can be introduced into the game and have meaning in game terms (non-discrete components).
• Movement and positioning are not limited to fixed increments or grid spaces (non-discrete positioning).

Non-discrete is an interesting term to choose and returns me to the days of studying mathematics.  Typically, one sees a bifurcation between discrete and continuous but not between discrete and non-discrete.  I suppose if the term, continuous was utilized as in continuous miniatures game, readers might conclude that we game non-stop!      

Moving on, the authors define these games by their unique spatial characteristics in that,

• Precise physical positioning matters.  That is, movement and placement are analog (and continuous) and not grid-based.
• Players can bring any object to the game table and game systems must accommodate an infinite variability of components.

One example given of discrete movement and figure (marker) placement is the game of Monopoly.  A playing piece can only be in one of the grid spaces on the playing board at any one time and not between two spaces.  In a non-discrete game, movement is governed by a measuring device with a miniature able to move anywhere along that vector and stop anywhere short of the maximum move distance allowed.  This non-discrete movement criterion seems to not only explicitly exclude grid-based games from inclusion into non-discrete miniatures game by definition but implicitly as well with the continuous nature of measured movement along a vector. 

In later chapters, the authors relax the condition for non-griddedness.  Games having gridded movement or zoned movement may fit into the structure of building a non-discrete miniatures game as long as the focus on the design remains on the spatial relationships within the game and the infinite variety of components.  Given that discrete positioning and movement criteria are later relaxed, the grid vs non-grid distinction should be dropped from the definition altogether.

With the argument for excluding gridded games jettisoned, what remains the focus of non-discrete miniatures gaming?  What remains constant is the reliance upon the external components brought into the game system.

What distinguishes many boxed miniatures games from the non-discrete miniatures games that the authors describe?  The difference is that the former is self-contained with the rules and all of the components necessary for play while the latter is similar to a toolkit with a programmed game engine requiring any number of external inputs provided by the player(s).  These external inputs could include figures, terrain, army lists, dice, measuring devices, etc.

       

Is the classification still between discrete vs non-discrete miniatures games or is a better fitting distinction between endogenous vs exogenous miniatures games?  I suggest that the latter terminology may be a better fit if one agrees with the authors that the deciding attribute is bringing external inputs into the system.  Still, it is all wargaming to me.

There is much more to be pulled from this book of interest to wargamers and wargame designers whether focusing on non-discrete miniatures gaming or not.  I have only brought up the main thesis of Chapter 1!  With so much to consider, I may non-discretely dip back into this text on occasion.

Bavarians and the Current State

While I cannot speak for others, I occasionally fall into a period where there is so much on my wargaming plate that thoughts explode on possibilities and works pile up. Without concentrated focus, the wheels of progress wind up spinning with limited traction.  Anyone else suffer from too many ideas and not enough time or energy to tackle them all?

I notice this sense of falling behind correlates closely on the heels of hosting a game and tapping out a long battle report.  Both require a lot of work.  These two efforts can leave my energy levels depleted for a few days.  Last week's Agnadello game with Richard (see Agnadello, Rematch) is the latest such example.

Before I had a chance to catch my breath, another Agnadello battle played out on the table in a rematch on Tuesday.  Another interesting and exciting battle whose tale is yet to be told.

Battle of Agnadello

After today's task of clearing the gaming table of Great Italian Wars, the plan is to pull out the Old West gunfighters for a game or two.  Now, these figures have not seen action in more than 20 years.  

I will dig up my playtest copy of Bryan Ansell's The Rules With No Name to see what I remember from hosting gunfights all of those years ago.  I have been making character cards and a QRS and should be prepared to host a few remote games in a week or two.  Rather than historical, big battle scenarios, we will try our hands at something more lighthearted and Hollywood.  Tentatively, the plan is to host a few cross-group remote games.  I think it will be a fun change of pace for all involved.  Hopefully, I can get up to speed on the rules quickly enough to present a seemingly smooth game.

Besides gaming, there are two GWS2024 analyses in work.  Preliminary data wrangling is complete.  Now, just need to write up the findings.

Among the books arriving in-house over the holidays, one title delivered last week was Ford and Hutchinson's, The Fundamentals of Tabletop Miniatures Game Design.  While weighing-in at 241 pages, the book is a quick read containing a number of interesting ideas and thought-provoking commentary.  For me, the first section, Miniatures as Medium, especially deserves further exploration and counterpoints before delving into the remaining two sections.

What about Bavarians?  Oh yeah!  I ended 2024 with a satisfying flourish of painting activity that will be detailed once I get around to the Year in Review painting round-up.  Figures are stacking up at the photo booth but I managed to push out a 23-figure regiment of Bavarian infantry today.

Foot figures are Lancashire Games led by a Eureka mounted colonel.  Lots more SYW/WAS units mustering out soon including British, French, and Spanish.

Until next time...

In Between

As the calendar ticks down to the end of October, I find myself in between a number of projects and draws for attention.  A handful of projects are In Work but not many have jumped over to the Completed side of the ledger.

A brief summary of what is currently on my plate includes:

Great Wargaming Survey 2024 Edition

The data for the 2024 GWS appeared in Dropbox yesterday.  Usually, the data file is dropped in early September shortly after the survey closes.  This year, there was a two-month delay.  Respondent counts are way down from last year.  Will this reduction in response distort any of the trends seen in prior years?  Stay tuned.

Battle of Shiloh - the final act

The final game in the series of Shiloh battles played out on Monday.  The game featured Postie's Rejects swapping sides in a "grudge" rematch.  Great battle and some good fun.  Writing of the battle report awaits.

Painting Desk

Activity at the painting desk has been hit and miss of late.  Work on two dozen British cavalry sees final stages toward completion.  Painting mostly wrapped up this morning with staining and basing left to accomplish before moving on to something else.  Looks like more FPW Prussian infantry are up next.

Mikata Ga Hara - Next game up 

Having cleared the gaming table of Shiloh and all of its accompanying detritus, gaming focus switches gears with a return to Feudal Japan.  My Samurai armies have not seen action in a long, long time.  For a change of pace, play goes back to Basic Impetvs on hexes for the first of possibly a number of battles in this period.  First up is the 1572 Battle of Mikata Ga Hara.  First game is on the schedule for Friday.  Looking forward to the action in which I take a hand at commanding the Takeda Army.

That wraps up this short update.  Expect to see progress on one of these four fronts next time.  Or, maybe not!

Mixed Bag

Today's journal entry is a bit of a mixed bag with no clear direction.  Perhaps no direction at all!  

With no game on last week's schedule and visitors in and out throughout, hobby activities focused primarily on administration and preparation in short and irregular bursts.  I take that back, writing the Shiloh battle report in the previous post took a measurable block of time and concentration.  Some tasks saw completion or at least some good progress.  Others were left wanting.  Let's see what got checked off for the week.

Figure Priming.  With cold weather approaching quickly, time to jump start the figures "ready to paint" inventory before the really cold temperatures set in.  This annual fall ritual began this week.  Italian Wars, Franco-Prussian War Prussians, Sumerians, and SYW cavalry have all seen additions to the "ready to paint" pile.  Much more work to do.

Hex Terrain.  A box of wooden hexes arrived to augment both the four-inch and five-inch hex layouts.  The first batch of four-inch hexes have been painted and flocked.  With both scale hex layouts optimized for remote games, no hurry in adding to the already large stockpiles of painted and flocked hexes. Still, something to keep in work rotation. 

Flags.  With expectation that FPW Prussians will be mustering out from the painting desk, time to consider flags.  One flagsheet was created with Prussian flags along with a selection of Spanish WAS flags.  The Spanish flags are all from the talented hand of David at Not By Appointment. 

Storage Labels. While painted figures continue to fill boxes and new boxes are brought into service, I have been negligent in adding proper labels to these newly recruited storage boxes.  Fixed that this week by printing off a sheet of half dozen labels to give these unmarked boxes an identity and help in finding stuff quickly.  Well, more quickly.

Terrain.  Lastly, I tackled applying stain to the Gallia castle purchased a while back.  While it lacked a gatehouse, Vol (A Miniatures Hobby Room), scratch built a gatehouse for this massive castle.  Amazing what Vol created.  Superb effort!  The castle could use one more wall section.

OK. This week, Shiloh returns to the table in a second remote game.  Stay tuned for reports from the front on that one.

12 Years and Still Here!

The Palouse Wargaming Journal (PWJ) sees another annual milepost crossed.  The milepost on my path today reads, 12 Years Blogging.

This experiment began twelve years ago with my first post here.  Times have changed in the intervening dozen years but much remains the same.  While the early years saw many posts on figures painted and few on games played, recent years have seen a shift to gaming and reporting on those games.  

Writing about wargaming and reading about the wargaming exploits of others remain a constant place in my daily routine.  On the writing front, I still manage to hammer out about ten posts per month.  At my current rate of publication, the total post count may not reach what has become a standard 120 posts per year but the ending count will be close.  Looking back to January, a reduction in frequency was foretold.  Still, my pace remains consistent and steady.  I have yet to run out of topics to consider and chronicle within these pages.  Hard to believe that even after a dozen years pounding away at the keyboard, I have neither lost inspiration nor motivation. A bit surprising really since having sufficient content was one of my concerns when I first began all of those years ago.  As mentioned in last year's marking of time, I am convinced that I actually could spend all of my time simply writing scenarios, hosting games, and writing battle reports.  There are times when I wonder if the results justify the efforts.

My gaming schedule continues on a robust pace but there has been a switch to hosting more games than I attend.  New gamers continue to find themselves seated at the remote gaming table often with one or two games per week.  I am even seeing a pick-up in F2F gaming.  There remain several distinct groups that regularly take up my offers for a game.  So far, they are all willing to keep returning for more.  Remote gaming opens up my connection to many more likeminded wargamers than I thought possible even a few years ago.  I always look forward to our games.  All are considered close friends and solid gaming companions.

What about blogging statistics?

Well, wargaming blogs have come and gone but I remain still standing.  The PWJ is up to 1,698 posts (1,579 posts at this time last year), 51,551 comments (45,318 last year), and 331 Followers (322 last year).  The number of followers does not move much but I have seen a few new names joining in lately.

As I wrap up this brief commemoration, I am grateful to anyone who stops by for a quick read or a long linger and doubly grateful for those readers who regularly offer up a comment or two.

Thank you for your patronage and friendship.

Another remote game is on today's docket and a return to regular programming soon.

Saving Me From Myself!

Yes, occasionally, the Hand of Fate must reach in to keep my plans on track.  Today witnessed one of those timely interventions.  Not the outcome I wished but, nevertheless, one of my 2024 goals remain mostly unblemished.

Which goal remains intact?  Well, my goal of reducing the Lead Pile.

At the beginning of the year, I set out to reduce The Lead Pile by painting more figures than I purchase.  As the graphic above illustrates, 636 painted figures have gone out from The Lead Pile while only a mere 114 unpainted figures have slipped into inventory.  Good progress, for sure, but I really have not even managed a slight dimple into the size of this beast.

Thinking I have shown respectable restraint, several recent lots on eBay tempted me to stray from this goal.  Several lots of 18mm SYW figures containing mostly artillery showed up in my eBay feed.  With low starting bids, I placed bids for both the British and French lots.  I ended up winning both lots for a song on Saturday.  

Now, I had a little regret about blowing up my goal of purchases but who can pass up such bargains?  Well, certainly not me!

After receiving a combined shipping invoice from seller and making payment immediately, imagine my surprise on Sunday morning when the seller issued a cancellation of my purchases.  The reason given was "Out of stock or damaged."  Really?  The photos look fine and in stock.  What do you suppose happened?  I have my hunch but will give the seller the benefit of the doubt..

Anyway, this cancellation has helped in keeping my painting goal on track, for now.  While these lots contain more artillery than realistically needed, I would have enjoyed thinking about a box of lead inbound.

Sometimes, the Hand of Fate delivers a heavy but necessary blow.

Spinning the Wheels of Progress

Last Thursday saw a doubleheader at the gaming table.  Two games in one day is a rarity even for me.  The first game of the day saw the 1108 Battle of Ucles fought out on my gaming table in a remote game with three UK players.  The battle saw another hotly contested clash on the fields in front of Ucles.  The battle ended in a close decision and, as always, great fun. 

Emerging out from the other side of an exhausting weekend, I have yet to muster the energy to piece together a battle report.  My wheels of progress are spinning but I am getting little traction.  For a teaser, Colin (Battle of Ucles Remote Reconquista), has published a series of screenshots of the game on his blog.  Thank you, Colin!

Battle of Ucles

The second game of the day saw me joining into a Zoom session with Peter (Grid based Wargaming) in Australia.  Peter hosted a Samurai battle as we test drove the latest amendments to his OHW variant.  Peter's battle report can be found at the link above.  Again, another fun game with the introduction of messengers adding to the decision matrix.  I may have come out on top but only just.

What is up next on the gaming front?

Well, the Battle of Ucles takes to the field once again this week with a game seeing a different group testing their mettle on the field of battle.  Ucles may see action in other contests too before I pack the Reconquista armies away and move onto something else.  Matt and I may see action at the remote table after a very, very long hiatus as we ponder returning to the AWI campaign.  I have forgotten exactly where we are in the campaign!

Finally, Peter and I are discussing a possible return to our Home-and-Away game series first seen in our battles of Lake Trasimene.  Since we both enjoyed the format, we are entertaining a return to this series.  Peter's report from his hosted Trasimene game is here.  The report of my hosted Trasimene game is here.  In that battle, we each took our interpretation of Lake Trasimene using our favored rules and presented the battle.  I enjoyed seeing the battle from different perspectives using different rules and different scenarios.

What is the battle for this next series?  Well, we are considering a dip into the ECW with a look at the Battle of Cheriton.

Thoughts on a variety of topics are percolating away in the background including a few more units to parade out from the painting desk.  Now, I simply need to gain some traction to bring some of the topics to print. 

A Peek Through the Looking Glass with AI

Having spent considerable time exploring machine learning and developing business applications using such techniques during my career, the broadening application of artificial intelligence to search engines and expert systems is fascinating.  General-use applications such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and CoPilot have taken the techniques of natural large language processing (nllp) models and offered them to the masses.

Intrigued by recent AI experiments by two wargaming bloggers,

An AI Take on my Blog

Limitations of Artificial Intelligence  

I buckled in, fired up the search engine, and posed the following question to perplexity.ai:

I asked, What is the focus of the Palouse Wargaming Journal? 

 

After only a few seconds wait, the algorithm returned the following summary:

Based on the search results, the focus of the Palouse Wargaming Journal blog appears to be:

1. Wargaming and miniature wargaming, covering a variety of historical periods and conflicts such as the Italian Wars, Napoleonic Wars, American Civil War, etc. 
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2. Providing battle reports and game recaps of wargaming sessions played by the blog author and his gaming group. The blog frequently features posts about specific wargames played, such as the "Battle of Sanguetta 1497" series. 
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3. Discussing the author's painting and modeling projects related to his wargaming hobby, including updates on figures and terrain he is working on. 
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4. Sharing the author's thoughts and reflections on wargaming, game design, and the broader wargaming community. For example, the post "Thoughts on Re-Fighting History: War in the East" discusses the evolution of wargaming mechanisms and content. 
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5. Engaging with the wargaming community, as evidenced by the blog's participation in book giveaways and discussions. 
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In summary, the Palouse Wargaming Journal appears to be a blog focused on the author's personal wargaming activities, battle reports, painting projects, and commentary on the broader wargaming hobby. 

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The results are not too bad for a general assessment of the content and focus of this blog.  In fact, the results are quite good.

Notice that the emphasis on Italian Wars content seems to score higher than older content especially when the recent series of battle reports on Sanguetta are singled out. Since the battle reports on Sanguetta have only been published in March, search currency suggests that these nllp models are being retrained frequently.  The Thoughts on Re-Fighting History scored highly too.  Could this result be driven by reader commentary and discussion as (5) suggests?  Are these models devouring content as well as commentary?

Is Google actively vacuuming up Blogger content (without permission) to train its large language models?  Would this activity lead to an increase in pageview traffic or remain unseen in Blogger statistics?

This experiment raises a number of questions, hopefully, without making me out as a conspiracy theorist.  I may re-run this experiment later and see if results change as content evolves.

Have you tested these waters with your own blog?  What are your results?