Holien

Yes found that and it is a great basis to work from, at least a baseline for say the end of war... Thanks H

Thanks for the explanation Sublime, for me I saw a nurse posting asking those folks to stay at home and in her post she said something along the lines that folk will say she is a snowflake. I do thank the Americans here posting either side of the political spectrum as it helps me understand better your pov's. My last post was more playing devil's advocate because it seems those protesting are cloaking themselves with patriotism when it could be viewed the other way.. BTW in the UK snowflake is not a common term being used...

Bingo, found a copy, wow never seen it before what a document! Thanks for the nudge in the right direction.

Thanks I will see what I can find just need the right words and I will see what google throws up.

Thanks Bil, It was an open question on communication and I am guessing it was not been companies. What I have read is that the Germans were ahead of the game but no specifics. This relates to how well they could co ordinate their formations and for that you need great comms. I have just checked the 222 Armoured car used for recon and the early war ones had no radio, so how good is that in getting the information back to the HQ! As you know I am running the Sealion game which was designed by me 11 years ago so I had less research and made some general assumptions. I thought I would do a trawl to double check my views and for the Brits I have it right. The Germans are making me re think. I still might have made the right assumptions but nothing jumps out on radios. Lots of technical details of German radios but no detail on range of operation or what level radios issued to in units. So anything any one has even late war would be an interesting read / discussion.

Just a call out to any of you who might know the sort of communication ranges for early war German radios. I am researching how well connected German units were and how quickly messages between say Companies could be sent. (This is for an early war game I am running) My Google Fuu is failing me and I wonder if anyone has any info. I guess even late war would be useful as a benchmark to say at that it would be no better as this... So radio ranges, how well supplied to units and what sort of level down to... Thanks in advance.

Good point 37mm, history repeats as we often fail to learn from the past. For example Jeremy Hunt was in charge of health service during the Cygnus simulation and had seen the reports, he was removed by Boris and replaced. What might have been the outcome if he was getting the Cobra info? He was certainly on TV asking the government to change course when the herd immunity was being followed. He of course has to answer why emergency stocks and lessons learnt from Cygnus were not implemented but he was certainly trying to get government to change approach in the early days.... Found something similar to what I saw on the TV showing spread graphically https://reactfordataviz.com/articles/corona-simulation/

Hmmm just a thought about this debate that seems to be hitting the USA at the moment... While I don't use the term "snow flake" as it is effectively just name calling to paint a group as "worthless" I do wonder if those complaining about how they are suffering because of their perceived "loss of liberty" could be the snow flakes as they are not prepared to suffer a bit of hardship to save lives? If this is a war surely our leaders would be saying "man up" so we save people from death? Of course it seems to have been twisted that those enduring the hardship by staying at home are anti American when nothing is further from the truth. They are staying at home because they love their country and are prepared to pay the price for lives.. IMO a truly noble act... Just my 2p YMMV

Hi KevinKin, I kinda of get some of your concerns about are we over reacting, from my reading and understanding I don't think we are but it is a valid question to ask and understand. The ONS in the UK are trying to get to grips with this but as we are still seeing deaths well above normal it is a moving target. Have a look at this bit the BBC has pulled together. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654 Scroll down to see UK death rates in 2015 vs figures this year. These are like for like so a good comparison for UK figures. So depending on when you compare at one point it was ohh well just like 2015 flu, but we have exceeded that and we are still not done! The article does explore if we are just bringing forward deaths that would have happened in the near future. For me I think I will be fine if I catch it, but would it be fair that I contributed to deaths by passing it on to others? I am trying to find a clip I saw on a BBC program that showed what Wicky is trying to show about the R0 rate a what difference a slight increase makes. It was basically white and red dots bouncing around in a box to represent people and red dots infected, white not. It was astonishing to see the rate of infection on the clip, wish I could find it... We are being asked to endure comparatively a short period of isolation to save someone else's life, I can live with that. I do worry about the economic impact but I hope that will bounce back especially with the extra people alive to be part of that recovery. Just my take on it and hope you and everyone has better days ahead...

I have over the years run many of these games and the insight you get is really important to understanding how battles happen. It is usually more down to the orders and when units receive them than the actual combat. It is difficult to explain and I will try and note some examples from my current Sealion game which finally started last night once I got orders from the last allied player. Usually I run them FtF and try to have an umpire per player so with 3 a side we end up with 6 umpires and me. Each umpire talks to their player to work out what they intend. This then gets brought back to master map in an area away from the players eyes and ears. I collate the information update the map and resolve any combat. Each umpire notes what their player should be aware of and then goes back and updates the player. Messages between players are sorted by me and sent to the right player after the appropriate time delay. The key to winning is usually how well players coordinate and respond to messages and the situation, combat often the least important aspect... Running a pbem version is a bit more of an overhead for me and trying to get every one lined up harder...

The photos popping up just lately are great, thanks for posting them...

What I have found photo wise is some of the games I ran where I had a bit more time, this is an image of the small scale Sealion game I ran in June 2009, it is a map and counter game where the players do not get to see the master map and the umpires move the units based upon the player orders.

To answer that important question... Maybe but not shown at that level of detail.... I have searched my Photo archive and it would appear I have none of that day which is a pity in hindsight but at the time I was pretty busy and I tend to live life through my eyes rather than be one of those always taking photo's and then missing the experience. What I have found is the e-mails sent to me with the briefings and game structure plus the end of game debrief. Some Samples of the umpire sheet written by Paddy and to give you an insight of the days structure With something like this there will be a lot of fudging to recreate Sealion in 4 hours, so were there "Schwimmwagens?" Yes some where in the fudge... Some notes from Paddy's debrief It was an interesting day and fell between two stools which left many unsatisfied in what they had hoped for. Some had thought it would be just lecturers and for the older portly lady cast as Herman Goering it was a tad too much to bear and she left. For those of us expecting more gaming it was lacking and fudged too much. It was a useful day to attend and learn from and did give me a better insight on Sealion and there were some funny human moments that still make me smile like seeing Andreas in full on Hitler mode... He was even mentioned in the debrief as he made a big impact... So when you see things like this noted on the WWW don't let your imagination run wild, the reality might not always be up to your imagination. Just remember the Wizard of Oz and what might really be behind the curtain!! For me 11 years older it is usually all about people and how well they work with one another and the leadership from the top and how that filters down. That is usually what is more interesting to watch...

Hi Bil, Hope you are still enjoying your wine, as it happens I know a few folk in the DC area and once this play test is completed I plan to run it for them, I shall invite you at same time. Better to keep folks together in the same time zone. A few years ago I ran a Vietnam Hue map game for them just via locked forums on the Kriegsspiel web site. As for Paddy's game when I get on my PC I will see what of interest I can share. I seem to remember you have moved south of Richmond? My yearly trip in July to Historicon looks very doubtful at this stage so I need to focus on online gaming, the chaps in DC are using discord not sure what they are playing but hopefully I will get an insight soon... Stay safe...

Well too late now but Paddy re ran the game on the 26th April 2009 and I was the ground umpire. An interesting insight into the process and often these games are better in your imagination than in practice. I just checked the cast and Andreas who used to frequent here a long time ago took the role of Hitler. Watching a German play Hitler was very interesting and he was perhaps too good at it! I have the debrief that I might post some notes from if there is interest. I think our version was a pale imitation of the original game and Paddy was past his peak and perhaps should not have tried to re live it... As it happens due to lockdown I am currently running a Sealion Battalion level Kriegsspiel game for some of the Oxford Wargamers but it just focuses on a small action around the River Arun...

I think business models are going to have to change and I would be happy to be tested. Pity our government is not this far ahead, but that is bureaucracy for you... Private enterprise gets the job done especially when money is involved...

Some good news on the testing front and a possible way for businesses to start taking control. https://www.businessinsider.com/emirates-tests-passengers-coronavirus-covid19-flights-2020-4?r=US&IR=T Testing is the key, you have to know you are safe to others and safe from others, this has to be way forward until vaccine is available.

Hmmm I see some of the American public are not impressed with the measures to help stop the spread of the virus.... https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/lock-her-anti-whitmer-coronavirus-lockdown-protestors-swarm-michigan-capitol-n1184426 It is certainly a different approach, I saw clips of folk travelling to church and meeting large groups of worshippers. It does not look like America is implementing a similar approach to the Chinese? Then people wonder why the death rate figures for the Chinese are less?

Hmmm, While I in no way think the Chinese Govt always tell the truth (lets face it do many Govts tell the truth) I do think they enforced a lock down very tightly and that could account for the lower reported deaths. I think in the days and months to come those figures will get more examination. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-52223193 The Iranian figures are looking doubtful and even in Germany there is some indication that Covid deaths are being reported as the underlying health issue rather than Covid that just pushed the person over. Conversely in the UK there seems to be a push to report people as dying from Covid rather than other causes so our true death rates of Covid are being over egged. In the UK it can take up to two weeks (and at times a lot longer) to get a death reported. This is something I went through with my Dad's death at the end of December where the Doctor messed up with the Certificate and had to be chased by the Registrar to get it sorted. You would think the process is automated but it has lots of checks and balances implemented after Dr Shipman went on the rampage and hid his mass murder... So comparing the deaths between countries is always going to be fraught. At least with the UK we can have some confidence once the ONS figures get updated and then use that to help hold the Govt accountable. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/52282844 Trying to hold some other Govts accountable is a lot harder.

The whole issue around actual deaths vs "normal" flu is starting to get some meaningful analysis. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52278825 Some stats around last 5 years vs this year in the uk.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/11/america-two-decade-failure-prepare-coronavirus-179574 "Meanwhile, an Obama-era improvement plan crafted post-H1N1 offered suggestions that were batted back by the Republican-led Congress — for instance, investing in the nation’s hospital preparedness program, which has undergone years of winnowing by congressional appropriators, and ensuring a sufficient supply of ventilators and masks in the stockpile, another problem that’s haunted the response to Covid-19." South Korea had a plan and learnt lessons. The US and UK have failed to prepare.

He did what the Republicans allowed and his team did a handover to the new team... But of course no one could predict this was going to happen. This lie is being told in the UK to avoid responsibility for lack of preparation. Tier one threat....

Just watched this... Nice compare and contrast towards end... UK failed too and we are paying the price. The 2016 exercise conclusions were not acted upon...

If anyone was left alive I am pretty certain that you would be combat ineffective. While a scenario or two would be interesting to see this in action I personally would not waste time on implementing for the game. Just my 2p. Certainly as ever great to see the info and get a better understanding of the actual fight. Thanks for the information.

Hmmm a business man in charge of the Navy? Ok he was an Navy officer for 7 years... Sounds like a good choice to run the entire navy I thought he might have been an admiral?