Midweek Odds & Ends

Odd #1

I was looking around on BoardgameGeek.com earlier today and browsing game titles of more temporary World War III hypotheticals. I was specifically searching for air and naval centered games in the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean. To my disappointment I’ve only found a limited number of these games so far. Judging from reviews I’ve read the aggregate quality appears to be average at best. But reviews never tell the whole tale, so I’ll have to try one or two titles out on Vassal and see for myself. The titles are fairly recent, with three of the four having been published in the last seven years or so. Even more interesting is the range of game-types, going from traditional wargames with hex maps to one set up as a strategy game. As time goes on, I’m becoming more disillusioned with the new style counters found in contemporary games. I am a traditionalist at heart and spent most of my life playing tabletop games with NATO symbols. In the past decade we’ve seen a shift to the icon counters designed with miniature tanks, troops and aircraft instead.

I loathe these counters for a myriad of reasons and will not go into a rant on the subject now. 😊 But I will probably talk about it more at some point in the future. From my own experiences it seems that gamers who have spent time in uniform (officers especially) are partial to the NATO symbol counters.

Odd #2

Fleet Week 2023 kicked off today in New York City. Historically, the US Navy sends a decent number of warships to NYC for Fleet Week, usually accompanied by one or two ships from the naval arms of some of our allies. There used to be an aircraft carrier as well but since New York has a law against nuclear-powered ships in its waters, and we do not have any conventionally powered carriers left, it has been over twenty years since a US flattop has sailed under the Verrazano Bridge. I have to say, this year’s list of participating ships is disappointing to say the least.

Most of the ships this year are from foreign navies. Canada, Great Britain and even Italy have all sent one ship each. The Coast Guard is contributing two ships. But the US Navy’s show of force is pitifully small, made up of the USS Wasp (LHD-1) USS Oak Hill (LSD-51) and the USNS Newport. Two ‘phibs and a transport ship. No destroyers or cruisers. New York City doesn’t even rate an LCS! Okay, Wasp has a flight deck but she’s still a ‘phib. Don’t give me that sea control garbage 😉

End

I am going to put the entirety of the WWIII 1987 bibliography together on a PDF and make it available to download around mid-summer. Between now and then I’ll offer up a couple of entries with abbreviated sections of the bibliography. Just enough to whet the appetite and give you an idea of the amount of research material that went into this blog.

Advertisement