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Sunday, September 30, 2007

How to Find Opponents

STEVE COLE WRITES: Many gamers are looking for new opponents. This is nothing new. When I was a teenager, there were maybe four wargamers in Amarillo that I knew, but there must have been more as the one store that carried Avalon Hill games (then the only wargames) would sell one or two now and then that my friends and I knew we didn't buy. Funny, it never once occurred to us to ask the store manager to give our phone numbers to the other guys. When I was in college, SPI (then the second wargame company and rapidly becoming larger and more innovative than Avalon Hill) had an opponent wanted list. I sent in my dollar to get it, and found only one person (of the 20 on the list) who was within 120 miles; the first and last person on the list were each 450 miles away (in opposite directions).

These days, the concept of contacting other gamers has had decades to mature, and works much better, and you have a lot of ways to do it. For best results, do all of them.

You can go to the Commander's Circle and enter your data (as much or as little as you are comfortable with) and perhaps find opponents near you. We are gaining new sign-in's every day, and since it's free you can try it every month or two and find out of somebody near you has signed in.

You can go to the forum and find the area where local stores and groups post announcements and invitations and let people know you're around. How silly would you feel if you found out that the guy who you've been arguing with on the forum for years actually lives in your town. (That HAS happened.)

Feel free to go to your local store and ask them to let you post a notice looking for opponents. You could also run a demo of FEDERATION COMMANDER (or any of our games) and "grown your own" opponents. If anybody already plays the game you demo, they'll doubtless drop by just to swap phone numbers.

Many towns have community bulletin boards on the local cable company's "home" channel. These are variously free or cost just a couple of dollars. It's hit-and-miss, but you could get lucky. (When I commanded Company C of the 1-39 MPs, I gained a dozen new recruits in a year that came from cable TV.) You could also buy a cheap want ad in the newspaper or the free advertising newspaper (American's Want Ads or whatever yours is called) found in quickie marts.

The quickest result, probably, is Starlist. Go to our Legacy site and look for the button that says Player Resources. Under that menu is a link for Starlist. Enter your data in the form, and you'll get a list of local players back. (This may take a day or two as it is done by hand.) Starlist is the most effective hunt for new players because the database has some five thousand players in it, far more than all of the other sources combined. The only drawback is that Starlist works with full information (name and address) and those who are seriously concerned about identity theft often find this uncomfortable. In all reality, however, Starlist would not give an identity thief any more information than your local phone book would, and if that's enough for those criminals to operate, they would be vastly more likely to use the phone book than to request a copy of Starlist.

The original website has a bulletin board system and the 8th item on the main menu is "seeking opponents". You can post a notice there (and search the previous postings). Again, you can post as much or as little information as you are comfortable with.

Many of those on Starlist and StarFleetGames.com/discus will be players of STAR FLEET BATTLES, but most of those can be convinced to play FEDERATION COMMANDER. Indeed, over half of the names on Starlist are people who quit playing STAR FLEET BATTLES for lack of opponents (or because SFB was too complex for them or their opponents) and most of those are ready recruits for the faster cleaner FEDERATION COMMANDER game system.

With more effort, you can post opponent wanted notices in a whole lot of boardgame sites (see the links list on our site).

If there is a game convention within driving distance, it's worth a trip to see if you might find someone who is also within driving distance. If there is a game club in your home town, or a store with a gaming area, go there and set up the game and wait for somebody to ask what it is. (Even better, take a friend who will play the game with you so you won't be bored.) If there is a star trek club in your home town, show them FEDERATION COMMANDER or Star Fleet Battle Force. There are people who have printed a card with the logo of one of our games and their Email address and left these in the windows of their cards who got Emails from other gamers in their home towns who were seeking opponents.

You can go always go to SFB Online and play FEDERATION COMMANDER on-line with live opponents from around the world for the princely sum of $4 per month. You might even stumble into somebody local.

There are probably more ways than this to find opponents, but unless you live in a cave somewhere, you can almost certainly find a new friend within a short while by trying these methods.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Preconceptions and History

This is Steven Petrick writing.

One of the things that affects the discovery of the past is preconceptions. It applies whether one is looking for a previous undiscovered civilization, or when one is simply dealing with the more recent past. Recent examples are the uncovering of the Maya civilization. Their lost cities in the Yucatan Peninsula were presented initially as the realm of great philosopher kings. A peaceful society. Only later were the signs of mass sacrifice and general blood letting found. But it does not stop the search for the mythical kingdoms of peace that waged war not, and students who will be the next archaeologists are being inculcated even now to continue the search for such kingdoms. Even though all we know and have learned of the nature of man says they will not exist.

Another more recent example is Custer. While I am not a fan of Custer, I often find the modern presentation of his final battle as being basically clouded by preconception. We know that Custer stopped for a while to watch Reno's engagement. This was learned by interviews with Indian scouts who accompanied Custer to that point in the early 1900s. The man who found this took the information to President Theodore Roosevelt, who apparently agreed that this was an indication that Custer had done something wrong and suggested it should not be discussed, resulting in its being buried for a century. (At least according to the History Channel.)

Let me put my own spin on it.

Custer stopping to observe Reno's engagement was exactly what a competent officer should have done. At that point he could make a decision of what to do with the balance of his forces (the five troops that were with him, and the two troops that were with Benteen). That Theodore Roosevelt might see something wrong is perfectly understandable. Roosevelt, while having served as the commanding officer of his own regiment of Cavalry, was a military Neophyte. He had no formal military education, and achieved command of his regiment by, in essence, buying the regiment. And his command never operated independently, and he never was in a situation where he divided his command and had to coordinate the different forces. His judgment that Custer was doing something wrong, used to strengthen that conclusion, is flawed and no better than that of those trying to draw the conclusion they wanted.

What Custer probably saw was that Reno's attack was doing what it was clearly intended to do: Draw the bulk of the Indian fighters onto him and leaving their camp open for an attack from the flank by the rest of Custer's command. And he did not see Reno "in trouble". Instead, he saw Reno accomplishing the mission. And while Reno himself indicated he was pressed, the pressure on his command was not to the breaking point. The History Channel merely states that Custer's men were poorly trained, and they can only make this claim by ignoring anything that contradicts their decision.

Consider the performance of Reno's command. His three troops advanced. When the advance was contested, Reno had them dismount and form a firing line. When that line was pressured, Reno had the men remount and fall back, and then dismount to again form a firing line. This while the mighty Plains Indians, the greatest warriors in history (according to the History channel) were continuously pressuring his three troops. When his second line was pressured, Reno again ordered his men to mount and fall back (this has been attributed to Reno himself being in shock due to the death of an Indian Scout right next to him which splattered him with blood and brains). This was again accomplished, the three troops falling back on and joining the two troops under Benteen, where they again made a stand.

Reno's men did not break. They did not panic and scatter to the winds trying to save themselves. They remained combat effective and under the control of their officers all through the fight. That is NOT something that untrained or ill-trained men do when under attack. But the fact that they did not collapse into a rabble fleeing for their lives would contradict the view that Custer's men were poorly trained.

If we return ourselves to Custer watching the fight Reno was undertaking, one can see Custer deciding that Reno could "hold what he had" while Custer executed the flank attack, and once the panic of his flank attack reached the Indians attacking Reno, they would break and flee (an attack on their rear). That was not an unreasonable conclusion for Custer to have come too. And, ultimately, Custer's judgment of Reno was born out. Reno's command survived.

Note again, I am not a fan of Custer, and I tend to agree that he was over-reaching and that was what got him and the men with him killed. But there is far more to the battle than historians seem willing to teach.

Friday, September 28, 2007

We had to Destroy It in Order to Save It

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

One of the things that makes discussing military operations with people who have, themselves, never served is the built in bias that is presented in modern entertainment and even in the media.

An example is the famous statement from Vietnam where an officer said "We had to destroy the village in order to save it."

This is often taken and presented bluntly as the stupidity of military men. How can you have saved the village if you destroyed it?

Perhaps it might be better understood in a larger context.

"We had to destroy France in order to save it."

What does that mean?

It means that French Railroads were being used by the Germans to move troops and equipment, so we shot up French Trains and bombed French Rail Centers.

It means that French Roads were being used to move troops and supplies, so we destroyed bridges and bombed road tunnels.

It means that French Canals were being used, so we bombed locks and shot up canal boats.

And that was just transportation infrastructure.

We also bombed French Communications nodes, French factories (being used to make material for the Axis), and blew the daylights out of more than one French town, farm, and even city because the Germans were using it as a fortification.

We did this, despite the fact that we killed French Citizens in so doing. Not because we wanted to, but because we could not free France unless we defeated the Axis, and we could not defeat the Axis if we did not "destroy France".

In both cases (the Village, and France), it could be rebuilt after the enemy was defeated. But allowing the enemy (whether Axis soldiers or Viet Minh insurgents) to occupy a position and use the local citizens as shields is a losing proposition. There is not enough military force to garrison every village and town in enough strength to prevent all of them from being occupied at one time or another.

All you can do is, when the enemy shows up, destroy him. You can help the villagers (the country in the case of France) rebuild afterwards, and be a little more secure because that enemy force is destroyed. But not destroying the enemy, allowing the enemy to hide behind civilians, is an operation doomed to failure.

Whether it was in France in World War II, or Vicksburg in the American Civil War, or a Hamlet in Vietnam, or, yes, even Baghdad today.

Wars are won not by allowing the enemy to hold what he seizes out of fear of harming civilians, they are won by destroying the enemy wherever and whenever he is found.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Free stuff for FEDERATION COMMANDER players!

STEVE COLE WRITES: Some people do not realize that you can download what amounts to a free copy of the FEDERATION COMMANDER game (well, enough of the game to play a few battles). Go to www.StarFleetGames.com/fc and you will find a lot of stuff you can download. Some of those downloads include:

o The free First Missions packet (demo version of FEDERATION COMMANDER).

o Turn gauges and firing arcs for the tabletop rules.

o Sample Ship Cards.

o Wallpapers of game covers.

o Frequently asked questions.

o Information for retailers.

o The original theatrical trailer (ok, not that, but it WAS the original flyer handed out at trade shows).

o Notes from the game designer (Steve Cole) on what parts of the older game STAR FLEET BATTLES we decided to include in FEDERATION COMMANDER.

But that's just a start. If you join the Commander's Circle, which is free, you can download the monthly Communiqué which includes scenarios, tactics, and new ships. You can also access a database of FEDERATION COMMANDER players looking for new opponents (you!).

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

What If

This is Steven Petrick Writing.

One of the most frequently asked questions of history is "what if".

An example of these can be found all through the American Civil War.

Most of you are probably aware of the clash between the C.S.S Virginia (former U.S.S. Merrimac) and the U.S.S. Monitor, the first clash of iron clad ships. What if the Monitor had not shown up on the second day? (It could have happened, the ship was almost lost in a storm on its way to Hampton Roads, just as she would be lost in another storm off Cape Hatteras. She was not designed as an ocean-going vessel.)

The Union tried several early machineguns (like the coffee grinder gun being one of the failures), and actually had access to Mr. Gattling's gun and could have mass produced it. What effect might it have had if every Union Brigade had been equipped with a six-gun gattling battery?

There were also early and effective repeating rifles. Some Union units actually paid to equip themselves with these. But other than the late war issue of Spencer Carbines to Union Cavalry units, the Union did not equip its infantry with repeating rifles. Why? Because the officer in charge of procurement for the Union Army felt that it would result in the men using up their ammunition too rapidly.

Those are simple technological questions.

What if Hood's Army had not gotten confused at Spring Hill? This was the crux of what destroyed what seemed to have been a brilliant operational plan. Hood left part of his Army and his artillery to feint at Columbia while he marched the majority of his troops around the Left of Schofield's Army to cut his line of retreat. At the last possible moment Schofield sent a division to cover Spring Hill, and the lead brigade of that division clashed with Hood's main body. In the confusion that resulted, Hood failed to cover the road from Columbia through Spring Hill to Franklin. That night, Schofield marched his 23,000 (or thereabouts) man Army right by Hood's Army. So close that Schofield's marching men could actually hear the Confederate soldiers talking to each other around their campfires. If the road had been closed, Schofield's Army might have been lost. Hood might then have accomplished the goal of taking Nashville. (At the very least, he would not in fit of pique, committed his troops to a bloody frontal attack on Union positions at Franklin that bled his Army white before he advanced on Nashville.)

What if, on any of the first six days of "The Seven Days", Stonewall Jackson had performed at the level he had previously demonstrated in the Valley? At the very least several of the Army of the Potomac's corps would have been wrecked, and perhaps on the Seventh day Lee might have been able to take Malvern Hill and totally wreck the Army of the Potomac. (Most people are not aware of Jackson's performance during the Seven Days where he consistently failed to deliver the flank attacks that Lee had ordered. Most just put it down to exhaustion, and there is some truth to that. But that only provides an excuse for the first and second days at most.)

What if?

History is full of them, and not just in the American Civil War.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Problems with Submissions

This is Steven Petrick Writing.

One of the problems with submissions is a tendency for the submitter (not all submitters, but there is a minority that does this) to think he has found a loophole and decide that he is going to drive a supertanker through it.

An example was a recent submission of base designs.

The author of these noticed that there is a considerable gap in the number of internals between a Base Station and a Battle Station. Taking this as a starting point, he assumed that he could design base stations that had a number of internals that was 67% of the way between what a Base Station had, and what a Battle Station had. He could then keep the shield costs and life support costs of his bases at size class 3 (Base Station), while in the process putting more weapons and power on his Base Stations (in some cases more weapons and power than any existing Battle Station).

Having done this, he then submitted his Base Stations for approval, and was surprised when they were rejected.

Part of the problem is that he failed to realize that a lot of that "gap" between a Base Station and a Battle Station is to allow for the use of Base Augmentation Modules (which his bases would also use) and Pods being docked to the base. (A Base Station in SFB could conceivably have six Cargo Pods docked to its Module Docking Stations instead of Modules, but even if it just had six Cargo Modules on those six Module Locations you are adding 72 boxes to it which covers at lot of the difference between a Base Station and a Battle Station.)

And, of course, the submitter did not bother to explain what he had done, he simply assumed that if the bases looked pretty they would be approved. When they were rejected as both too big and over-gunned, only then did he start arguing that since they were still smaller than Battle Stations (pretty much admitting that he did design them by simply subtracting a Base Station from a Battle Station and adding 67% of the remainder to his Base Station designs) there was no problem.

Bases have to have room for augmentation Modules to allow them to grow. A Base Station could not be used in Y120 with Fighter Modules and a PF Module. Those Modules will appear in the future adding those abilities to the Base Station.

Monday, September 24, 2007

I WANT YOUR COMMENTS!

Graphics Director Matt Cooper writes:

As the graphics (on the website and in the products) continue to improve here at ADB, Inc., I am learning about new things every day. It seems that I drive SVC crazy because I do my list of things to do before he is ready to give me another list, so your help in finding things for me to do would be appreciated.

We have merged the two websites. The combined site now has a new front page, site map, and index, making it a lot harder to use. You are welcome to comment on my changes, but more importantly, please suggest changes, and check the changes I make.

Here is my e-mail: graphics@StarFleetGames.com or you can comment on either forum.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Star Fleet Fiction

This is Steven Petrick Writing:

There are a lot of players who have a gift for writing fiction. Their biggest problem tends to be finding a story to tell that "works". And, as SVC will tell you, I tend to be the biggest headache for any writer.

I tend to insist that the background makes sense, that the tactics make sense, that the story not rely on one side being complete idiots, or simply rely on the "heroes" being somehow "legendary".

If the basis of the Story is that a squadron of ships is intercepting an enemy squadron of ships to save a base, it has to make sense that the interception is better than, say falling back on the base itself and using its firepower to support your squadron and thus repel the attack. In short, an enemy force that is large enough to destroy the unsupported base, but small enough to be repelled, or at least engaged on near equal terms by your "hero's" squadron is simply not a threat to the base if the hero simply took his squadron to it. You would need something more to make such a story work.

An option might be to have the enemy force be a "follow up attack", the base having already been heavily damaged by a previous assault and needing time to make repairs. In such case, even if your hero tried to defend at the base, the base would be too vulnerable to enemy fire. This gives a logical reason for the hero to lead his squadron to intercept the approaching enemy.

Another problem is, of course, to not have the hero act as if he has perfect and complete knowledge of the enemy. For example, no commander of a Federation Force engaging a Kzinti force in the first Federation-Kzinti War is going to be able to operate as if he knows for a fact that the Kzintis only have type-I drones. Even if his intelligence reports indicated that the Kzintis were having problems resupplying their front-line combat units with drones such that few type-IVs (much less type-IIs or type-Vs) were available, he would always have to be leery that the Kzintis he is fighting might have a few. Consequently, if a pair of Kzinti ships launch six drones at his YCA, he cannot simply target one phaser-2 on each drone and act as if the problem is solved. And of course there is a a 16.67% chance that even if all the drones are type-I a phaser-2 shot will fail to kill it. So such a Federation Captain should know that he is gambling and be relieved that all the drones are destroyed (good luck does happen), or glad that only one got through (the average), or perhaps dismayed that two (or more) got through (bad luck does happen too, especially when you gamble).

And luck is another thing to avoid too much of in a story. If the Federation Captain fires eight photon torpedoes at ranges greater than one, and is getting constant reports of the photons hitting, i.e., they never miss no matter what range he fires them at. Well, a scenario written to simulate that battle is going to have a drastically different outcome than the one in the story.

Watch the weapon fire and recycle rates. It is amazing the number of submitted stories that will have a Photon armed ship firing the photons at twice the rate the Disruptor armed ships are able to fire in the same battle (lets not mention how the disruptors are somehow far less accurate than the photons when they do fire).

Another thing is hand weapons. While Television shows often have advanced science hand weapons that instantly disintegrate their targets, the logic of the situation is that it cannot work that way. How does the disintegration beam know to just exactly disintegrate that one humanoid (or other alien) form and the things in direct contact with it (clothes, weapons, incidentals), but nothing else? And how much of the person has to be hit to accomplish this? Does the beam hitting an exposed leg disintegrate the whole person, or does that only happen if the beam hits the center of the target's mass? And consider the amount of energy being released. A disintegration beam is in essence converting matter (the target) to energy. When the Power Module in the target's weapon suddenly becomes energy, what happens to all the energy that was stored in it? The result of such disintegrations would of necessity be "explosions". And could you picture trying to recruit people to be in the ground combat units if that was the effect of being hit with an energy beam? So in fiction where combat between individuals is occurring, allow your hand weapons to wound and kill, but do not disintegrate.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Reporters

This is Steven Petrick Posting

One of the things that must be realized is that reporters are people, and they have an agenda (beyond any that exist in a larger sense in their particular organizations). That agenda is to make a living, i.e., to get the story and get it published, to do so before anyone else, or at least not be too far behind. Not doing well at such things can result in the reporter not getting the promotion (as in any business) or even being fired if the reporter is behind the curve too often. This affects how they deal with the rest of us merely mortal beings. To the extent that empathy and even simple courtesy rapidly vanish from their dealings with the "objects" between them and "the story".

On the 12 of December in 1985 I was called to the phone by one of my NCOs. When I picked up, I found myself engaged in a conversation with a reporter on the other end of the line. This reporter wanted to interview over the phone one of the people in the gymnasium I was in.

After being repeatedly told that I was not authorized to allow that, she switched tactics and tried to interview me.

When she was told that not only was I not authorized to allow her to interview anyone in the Gym, but that I myself was not authorized to answer any of her questions.

At this point she became, not quite offensive, but definitely "snippy", finally asking, as if she believed the only response she would get would be another "I am not authorized", if there was anyone who was authorized. I responded that she should talk to the Post Public Affairs office.

This led to a moment of (apparently) stunned silence, as if she could not believe that the barrier between her and her story would actually answer any question in a manner other than "I am not authorized", and go so far as to actually suggest a course of action that she should take.

After a few seconds of silence the reporter asked if I had the number of the Public Affairs office.

My uppermost thought was that there are six Gyms on Fort Campbell, and she had found the number of this one, and she could bloody well find the number for the Public Affairs office.

Instead, I responded that if she would hold for a moment I would find the number for her. I then opened the post phone directory, found the number, and gave it to her. Because part of my job (Captain, U.S. Army) required me to mind my manners in a public forum even under considerable stress. To be cooperative where I could be, and allow others (in this case, the Public Affairs office) to do their jobs.

As soon as I had given her the number, she hung up. She did not even have the time to give even a brief moment to common courtesy and say "thanks" for my having given her the number.

All she wanted was to interview someone who was grieving the loss of spouse or relative or, in my case, friends who had been killed in a fiery plane crash at Gander, in Newfoundland, and to be the first one to get that story and air it.

I do not know what her luck was with Public Affairs, nor do I know her name, but she lived down to all my worst expectations of reporters.

Friday, September 21, 2007

FEDERATION COMMANDER Play-by-Email

FRANK BROOKS WRITES: FEDERATION COMMANDER Play-by-Email

Playing FEDERATION COMMANDER by Email is an alternative to playing Face-to-Face. While there are a few differences (i.e., your opponent isn't sitting across the table from you), it is the same game.

The basic gist of the FEDERATION COMMANDER Play-by-Email (PBEM) system is that you and your opponent submit your orders for the turn to a moderator via Email. The moderator then processes them, and sends a "Sitrep" (Situation Report) to the players via Email. You receive the results, write up your next set of orders, and then submit your orders once again. The process is repeated until the game is completed. Sounds simple? That's because it IS! It'll take a little getting used to (after all, what doesn't?), but once you've got the hang of it, you'll be lobbing photon torpedoes (or whatever your weapon of choice is) at opponents from all over the world.

Every FEDERATION COMMANDER PBEM game has at least three participants: two or more players and one moderator. The moderator's purpose is to accept orders from the players and carry them out, reporting the results of those orders to all players. While (s)he is not a player, the moderator fulfills a very important role in the game. Good moderators and good players make for a good, enjoyable game of FEDERATION COMMANDER. Moderating a FEDERATION COMMANDER PBEM game is also an excellent way to learn more about the FEDERATION COMMANDER rules.

While there are some disadvantages to PBEM (it does take longer to finish a game), there are advantages as well. You can play against people in other parts of the world (how often do you get to Australia, anyway?), you can play multiple games at once, and you can have large multi-player games (without worrying about running out of chips and soda).

For more information about playing FEDERATION COMMANDER PBEM, please visit the Play-by-Email section of ADB, Inc.'s website at www.StarFleetGames.com/pbemgames and we will be happy to help you.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Stephen & Leanna on the Road

Thursday: Fairly easy drive (3 hours) from Flagstaff to Gallup, with lots of stops for breaks because, with our colds, we just do not want to drive more than an hour at a stretch. Before that, however, we needed two hours to cover 50 miles from Cottonwood to Flagstaff via a beautiful mountain road. We bought a lot of rocks for the garden.

Mother is stable in the hospital (recovering from pneumonia caused by food going down the wrong pipe), but she's dropped to a new and presumably final level. She can barely swallow without choking, and (based on her wishes) I declined to let them insert a feeding tube, so she will be moved to a hospice for her final days or weeks or months, whatever God chooses for her. She wants to be with her husband (my father) and her son (my brother), and I'm at peace with that. Leanna is being very supportive, and my aunts have told me to get home safely, not in a hurry, they have mom covered in the hospital and hospice until I can get home.

My first Jump Continued

I went to Jump School directly from my ROTC Advanced Camp. The Jump School Training companies in the Summer are filled with Cadets (with a leavening of regulars and foreigners). One of the things our instructors noticed was "an unusually high number of washouts among the cadets" as we got closer to jump week.

Now, "unusually high" covers a host of sins. Certainly it was not something "I" noticed. It might have been no more than something like "normally out of 500 cadets four or five will washout, but this time we had ten washouts", I do not really know how many Cadets chose for various reasons to go home without their jump wings.

Being me, I took the time to talk to the blackhats (the Instructors, so named because they wore black ball caps as part of their training uniforms) looking for suggestions and advice. Being one of the cadets, they asked me if I was aware of the high washout rate.

As noted, I was not.

But it happened that I had an inkling of why when the question was raised.

Before those of us who attended our Advanced Camp at Fort Bragg departed for Jump School, the 82nd Airborne put on a demonstration of a Mass Tactical Drop. All the Cadets at Fort Bragg that did not have some compelling reason not to be in formation that day (sick, orders to be someplace else, etc.) were bused to bleachers to view this event.

As we sat there watching, two parachutes came into contact, and they and their loads then plummeted to the ground far more rapidly than the other parachutes.

From there, the Cadets going to Jump School returned to their barracks, picked up their bags, and boarded transport for Fort Benning. It was on that bus that we heard the news that the two men we had seen plummet to the earth had perished as a result.

When I went out the door on my first jump, I looked around for my fellow jumpers.

And I saw that scene begin to play out once more.

Two cadets had come out after me on opposite sides of the aircraft (you jump from both sides). Their chutes had opened such that one was higher than the other, but even with the other's parachute. The higher cadet collided with the lower cadet's chute.

During Jump School you are taught what to do if this happens. Just spread your arms and legs out and allow yourself to "bounce" off the other guy's chute. It is really no big deal (coming down on TOP of the other guy's chute is a little more complicated, but covered in the training).

The Higher cadet Panicked, forgot his training, and instead of allowing himself to bounce off, he grabbed the other guy's chute and held on for dear life.

This was one of the worst things he could have done. The lower chute now stole the air out of his chute, causing him to fall faster, and tip the lower chute spilling its air, and both cadets started heading for the ground at a faster rate.

I had cupped my hands and sucked in a lungful of air to shout "LET GO YOU IDIOT" when the upper cadet released one hand and pulled his reserve, which shot straight down. At that point I froze (hands still cupped to my lips) with the overriding thought of "Oh my God, they are dead!" The wind was grabbing the limp reserve chute (not enough air flow to inflate it) and pushing it into the lower guy's chute. Once it tangled, it would be all over.

It was at this juncture that the upper guy apparently finally and fully realized just how bad his situation had now become, and he did the "right thing" . . . well, sort of.

He fainted.

Releasing his grip he fell clear of the other guys chute, and in the air flow, both his main and his reserve inflated. With his weight gone, the lower guy's chute refilled, and both made it to the ground safely.

Well . . . sort of safely.

The cadet who fainted went down in a circle due to the two chutes, and the plot of ground he was going to land on was being rapidly approached by white figures with rapidly pumping black jump boots and black hats. Like sharks on a wounded fish. I and everyone else still in the air nearby pulled slips to land as far from that point as possible.

There was no question that the Blackhats were not at all amused by that Cadet's failure to use the training he had been given.

But at least no one died that day.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Stephen & Leanna on the road

Mother is much better and her sisters are looking after her, so Leanna and I spent the day here in Arizona at a wild animal rescue shelter with lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and leopards.

We had dinner at sizzler again (don't ask me why) and it was actually great.

Plan for tomorrow is an easy drive to Gallup to be in position for a Friday morning "play with the wolves inside their cages experience". Leanna spilt BBQ sauce on my pants but insisted it would be no problem.

My First Jump

This is Steven Petrick writing.

I graduated the Airborne Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, in August of 1978.

I remember that first jump pretty well (I remember all five of my School jumps, if not the specific incidents in each one in order).

There are two stories I tell about it, one is the complete truth, the other is somewhat embellished.

I talk about how I had decided NOT to jump. The Airborne instructors having told the cadets (of which I was one) that if we could not bring ourselves to jump from a plane some 1,250 to 1,500 feet above ground level, all we had to do was go to the door, tell the jump master we could not do it, and they would move us to the side.

So as I climbed into the plane, I decided that I would not jump.

This calmed me down and I was able to joke with the other guys, although I did not tell them that I was not going to jump.

When we approached the drop zone, the Jump master started giving the jump commands.

We had done these a hundred or so times on the ground, and all of knew them by heart by this time (I still do).

When the light turned green and the first jumper got the tap and went, the line started to shuffle forward, and I did the same.

I was focused on the man in front of me.

Suddenly, he pivoted and stepped to the side, and as I had done a hundred or so times before, I stepped into his place, released my hold on my snap ring and pivoted, dropping and swinging my left arm so that my hand slapped the outside of the aircraft, while simultaneously reaching out with my right to accomplish the same thing and thus taking a "good door position".

As my brain desperately tried to kick start, the Jump master tapped my thigh and called out "go" (first jump was individual tap out, you do not jump until the Jump master tells you to).

Instantly, my reflexes (from more than 100 previous executions of this maneuver on the ground)snapped my hands to either side of the reserve parachute on my chest, my elbows in tight to my sides, while my legs propelled my six inches skyward, and thirty inches outward of the aircraft cabin, before snapping together (heel to heel) with my torso bent into an "L" shape.

As my body, locked in the jump attitude, hurtled earthward, my reality was consumed with mentally cursing myself for having been this stupid.

I cursed for a long time.

A real long time.

Longer, it seemed, than the five seconds in which my main parachute was supposed to deploy.

The realization hit that I had had a "total malfunction", my chute had failed to deploy and I was heading for impact with drop zone.

My right arm went into spasms, trying grip and pull the D-ring to deploy the reserve, while a part of my overrode it with the thought that the Jump Instructors had warned us not to pull our reserve chutes unless we "had a very good reason" to do so.

As I continued hurtling towards the earth, with gravity in full control, my right arm in spasms, that cold, ruthless, and utterly without pity part of my brain calmly recited "3,000", and forced my lips to part and express the number.

Then it made my lips say "4,000", and while it was making them say "5,000", I felt the opening shock as my main chute deployed.

However long I imagined the time between my exiting the plane and the Chute opening, it had been less than five seconds.

With the opening shock, training immediately took hold again and I automatically reached up and grabbed my risers and examined my chute for any flaws (none), then began looking around for "fellow jumpers".

There was a incident with my "fellow jumpers", but I will leave that as a tale for another time.

Oh. The Complete truth? I stood up, hooked up, shuffled to the door, and jumped as I had been trained, but there was a moment of panic right after I jumped, but there was never really a point where I had decided to not jump. I was committed to that the moment the ramp at the back of the plane closed.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Stephen & Leanna on the road

Tuesday, 18th: woke up, used the double-hot-tub one last time, had a great breakfast at the pyramid cafe, left Vegas. Got a call that my mother was very sick, near death, better blow off the vacation and get home. Three hours later, mother is sitting up in bed eating jello. Since Leanna and I are both sick with colds and having trouble staying alert, we stopped before we were unsafe to drive. If mother is better tomorrow, we will resume the vacation with a visit to a tiger sanctuary.

Stephen & Leanna on the road

We got to vegas the 16th, got married the 17th, and are moving onward to the tiger sanctuary in Arizona today (18th).

Getting re-married was very special. Leanna was so beautiful in her dress. Looking deeply into each other's eyes as we repeated the vows we said 30 years ago was deeply moving.

How to Find Opponents

STEVE COLE WRITES: Many gamers are looking for new opponents. This is nothing new. When I was a teenager, there were maybe four wargamers in Amarillo that I knew, but there must have been more as the one store that carried Avalon Hill games (then the only wargames) would sell one or two now and then that my friends and I knew we didn't buy. Funny, it never once occurred to us to ask the store manager to give our phone numbers to the other guys. When I was in college, SPI (then the second wargame company and rapidly becoming larger and more innovative than Avalon Hill) had an opponent wanted list. I sent in my dollar to get it, and found only one person (of the 20 on the list) who was within 120 miles; the first and last person on the list were each 450 miles away (in opposite directions).

These days, the concept of contacting other gamers has had decades to mature, and works much better, and you have a lot of ways to do it. For best results, do all of them.

You can go to the Commander's Circle and enter your data (as much or as little as you are comfortable with) and perhaps find opponents near you. We are gaining new sign-ins every day, and since it's free you can try it every month or two and find out if somebody near you has signed in.

You can go to the forum and find the area where local stores and groups post announcements and invitations and let people know you're around. How silly would you feel if you found out that the guy who you've been arguing with on the forum for years actually lives in your town. (That HAS happened.)

Feel free to go to your local store and ask them to let you post a notice looking for opponents. You could also run a demo of FEDERATION COMMANDER (or any of our games) and "grow your own" opponents. If anybody already plays the game you demo, they'll doubtless drop by just to swap phone numbers.

Many towns have community bulletin boards on the local cable company's "home" channel. These are variously free or cost just a couple of dollars. It's hit-and-miss, but you could get lucky. (When I commanded Company C of the 1-39 MPs, I gained a dozen new recruits in a year that came from cable TV.) You could also buy a cheap want ad in the newspaper or the free advertising newspaper (America's Want Ads or whatever yours is called) found in quickie marts.

The quickest result, probably, is Starlist. Go to our Legacy site and look for the button that says Player Resources. Under that menu is a link for Starlist. Enter your data in the form, and you'll get a list of local players back. (This may take a day or two as it is done by hand.) Starlist is the most effective hunt for new players because the database has some five thousand players in it, far more than all of the other sources combined. The only drawback is that Starlist works with full information (name and address) and those who are seriously concerned about identity theft often find this uncomfortable. In all reality, however, Starlist would not give an identity thief any more information than your local phone book would, and if that's enough for those criminals to operate, they would be vastly more likely to use the phone book than to request a copy of Starlist.

The original website has a bulletin board system and the 8th item on the main menu is "seeking opponents". You can post a notice there (and search the previous postings). Again, you can post as much or as little information as you are comfortable with.

Many of those on Starlist and StarFleetGames.com/discus will be players of STAR FLEET BATTLES, but most of those can be convinced to play FEDERATION COMMANDER. Indeed, over half of the names on Starlist are people who quit playing STAR FLEET BATTLES for lack of opponents (or because SFB was too complex for them or their opponents) and most of those are ready recruits for the faster cleaner FEDERATION COMMANDER game system.

With more effort, you can post opponents wanted notices in a whole lot of boardgame sites (see the links list on our site).

If there is a game convention within driving distance, it's worth a trip to see if you might find someone who is also within driving distance. If there is a game club in your home town, or a store with a gaming area, go there and set up the game and wait for somebody to ask what it is. (Even better, take a friend who will play the game with you so you won't be bored.) If there is a star trek club in your home town, show them FEDERATION COMMANDER or Star Fleet Battle Force. There are people who have printed a card with the logo of one of our games and their Email address and left these in the windows of their cars who got Emails from other gamers in their home towns who were seeking opponents.

You can always go to SFB Online and play FEDERATION COMMANDER on-line with live opponents from around the world for the princely sum of $4 per month. You might even stumble into somebody local.

There are probably more ways than this to find opponents, but unless you live in a cave somewhere, you can almost certainly find a new friend within a short while by trying these methods.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Do Not Assume Your Opponent is Being Stupid

This is Steven Petrick posting.

One of the lessons that we can learn from playing tactical games is that, just because the other guy is doing something that you think is stupid, it does not mean that it is.

An example.

A Hydran Tournament ship was facing off with a Klingon Tournament ship.

The Klingon suddenly announced a speed of zero while sitting in the middle of the map.

The Hydran knew what this meant. The stupid Klingon was "starcastling", going to use tactical maneuvers and otherwise dump his power into shield reinforcement. The Hydran knew such a tactic was suicide against his ship. A pointblank overrun would wreck the Klingon even if he had heavily reinforced his shields.

The Hydran screamed in for the overrun, reaching range three, when the Klingon, obviously realizing his error, attempted a tractor link.

The Hydran snarled, using a point of battery to break the three points of battery power the Klingon had obviously used to establish the link.

The Klingon countered.

The Hydran, now a little startled, put up another point of battery (okay, so the Klingon probably also allocated a point of power to tractor, he thought).

The Klingon countered again.

The Hydran was now concerned, and allocated a third point of battery, then a fourth (as panic began to take hold) and finally his fifth and last. (What is this Klingon doing?)

Held at range three, he fired his alpha strike, but noting the Klingon had yet to launch any drones, he held back one phaser-G for drone defense. The Klingon was hurt, but Fusions lose much of their bite at range three, and the Klingon was not too terribly hurt, even though his shields were not reinforced.

Withholding his fire, the Klingon now launched two drones. As the Hydran expected, they were both type-IVs, and easily destroyed by the Phaser-G.

Then the Klingon sprang the final trap, launching a shuttle.

It was only then that the Hydran realized that it was still the middle of the turn. The Scatter-Pack would release before the end of the turn, and its cargo of drones would impact before any of his weapons could recycle. Once the drones impacted, the Klingon would then fire his own Alpha strike (though slightly reduced by the Hydrans previous fire) through the same shield.

Had the Hydran launched his fighters before he was tractored, they would have at least done more damage to the Klingon ship, or distracted some of its fire. Now they too were trapped aboard the ship by the tractor link.

The Klingon had offered the Hydran what seemed an easy kill, caught in a trap he had not anticipated, the Hydran panicked and failed to realize that the there was still time for a scatter pack shuttle to deploy before the end of the turn, a reaction the Klingon had anticipated.

While his ship died that day, the Hydran Player learned a valuable lesson: Never assume that just because your opponent is doing something you think is stupid that it really is. Doing so can make you the stupid (and dead) one.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

A note to Walmart

You guys are the world's biggest retailer. If you don't have it, I probably don't need it.

Here's a chance to make even more money. Put up a sign where any highway enters any city with a note that says "Walmart: Exit 33, north 3 blocks on Crawford Ave." Travelers are always forgetting something, and Walmart is the perfect place to pick it up.

Stephen & Leanna on honeymoon

Sunday night, 6pm: We are in Las Vegas, at the Luxor. A note for those going to Vegas, these pirates charge $12.95 per day extra (on top of $200 a day for a room) for internet access. Staying in touch with you guys better be worth it. We have a huge luxury room with a big tub for two, but the only dataport for the computer is next to the bed. What dim bulb thought that one up? No only will the ethernet cord not reach the desk, the only place you can use the computer is where it would keep the other person in the room from sleeping or watching TV. Bad design, guys. At least when I am done on line, I can move to the "sitting room" and work on files. Last night in Flagstaff, I did five pages of CL36.

We left Flagstaff late (slept in, and Leanna had to go to Walmart to get something for her hair). Quiet drive to Kingman and then north to Las Vegas. Security at the dam was not a hassle; we spent more time for them to turn around two semi-trucks that couldn't read the 47 signs saying "no trucks over the dam" than we spent getting searched. Really aggravating was the slow speeds and huge crowds; when we leave here to go to the tiger place south of Flagstaff, we may go out via Needles.

Leanna is feeling... well, no worse, so she's hopeful that she'll be over it by tomorrow. I have come down with it, but other than the feeling in my throat that says "you caught something" I hardly notice; a fairly mild case, I guess (and hope). Leanna drove an hour today, spelling me from the five hours from Flagstaff to the wedding place. Final wedding arrangements were easy, took about 20 minutes. Tomorrow is the big day.

We went to Sizzler steak house, the first time we have been to one in three years, and it was just like last time, mediocre food for double the price. For what I paid for an 8oz steak in Vegas, I could have had a 12oz steak plus a superior salad bar in my home town.

Someday, somebody who knows how to run things is going to put all these morons out of business.

Writing rules

Steven Paul Petrick writes:

Game design has many aspects. One aspect is the conversion of a module sin one game system to another game system. A recent example was an effort to convert Module C5 to Federation Commander stats made by one of our customers. I will not name him, or her, because I wish the effort to continue and see no reason to create any undue embarrassment.

The first thing to understand is that writing rules is not a simple thing. You have to try to make them, much like a lady's dress, short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject.

That means reading the rules you want to convert, and reading carefully the rules you are converting to. Then ask yourself every question you can think of.

an example is Magellanic Shields in Module C5 and Shield Burn Through in Federation Commander. If you were converting the former, you would need to decide how the Volley Resolution Factor applied, of course, but since the Magellanics have double layer shields, there are other problems.

You have to plainly state that if ten points of damage hits the outer shield, does the burn through point skip the inner shield, or strike the inner shield? While the answer seems obvious, if you do not state it, there will be people who will take both views.

But that is the EASY Question with the Easy Answer.

Here are harder ones: Does the ten points needed for burn through accumulate? By this, if the outer shield had eight boxes, does the 10th internal (the second that is hitting the inner shield) burn through, or do you not get burn through until the inner shield takes ten points of damage?

If the outer shield had more than ten boxes, does a burn through point that hit the inner shield (assuming that is the resolution of the first burn through point, which I think it must be) count as the first box of the ten needed to burn through the inner shield, or does the inner shield only begin counting the ten damage points needed for burn through of itself when the first normal damage point is applied to it?

As Burn through is part of the normal function of Federation Commander damage, it is not something that can be ignored in converting the Magellanics. It must be covered in any such conversion rules.

There are, of course, other aspects. Like different shield repair costs for inner and outer shields, whether or not inner shields can transfer boxes to outer shields and vice versa (I would think not, but would allow transfers between the outer shields and between the inner shields, but not between inner and outer shields), not to mention "preemptive shield repairs (a Magellanic rule).

Writing rules is simply not as easy as it seems.

Stephen and Leanna on the road

14 Sept: Left Amarillo 4pm, had supper at Boot Hill in Vega. Got to Albuquerque at 10pm (9pm New Mexico time), far late due to construction delays, traffic, and the fact that Leanna came down with a bad cold and could not drive, and SVC had to keep stopping to work out cramps in hands and legs. The plan for the first day was nothing but a long drive to give us time to do things the second day.

15 Sept: Set out from Albuquerque,went to Grants. From there, it's an hour to Gallup on I40, but we took a side road (53/102) to visit a wolf sanctuary and howl with the wild wolves. It was fun seeing the wolves. (We plan to see Tigers on Wednesday in Arizona.) There were cats at the wolf sanctuary who played around the wolf cages, driving the wolves crazy. One cat actually tried to climb under the gate INTO the wolf pen but was pulled to safety by the guide not a second too soon.

Should have been one extra hour of driving plus an hour of wolfhowling, total delay two hours. Instead, it was a five-hour delay. The roads are good (roads that good in Texas are 70mph) but the speed limits varied (for no apparent reason) from 55pm down to 15mph. Yes, FIFTEEN miles per hour. Sheesh. Not only took more driving time, we missed the wolf tour and had to wait 90 minutes for another one, as they only do them at certain times. We used the down time to visit a nearby national monument, where spanish explorers carved their names in the rocks starting in 1605.

The detour reminded us of our first honeymoon, where we took a side trip around Sandia Mountain that was supposed to add an hour to our trip but instead added four hours. On that detour, we also saw a random national monument we hadn't known was there, and we were trapped (in the car) be a herd of wild horses who decided to stand on the road and just mill around for an hour.

Leanna still suffering from cold but did two hours of driving to relieve Stephen who had to drive five hours. We stopped in Flagstaff, too tired to reach our goal of Kingman, putting us more than two hours late into Vegas tomorrow, complicating the schedule for pre-wedding arrangements. But we will get it done.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Free stuff for FEDERATION COMMANDER players!

STEVE COLE WRITES: Some people do not realize that you can download what amounts to a free copy of the FEDERATION COMMANDER game (well, enough of the game to play a few battles). Go to www.StarFleetGames.com/fc and you will find a lot of stuff you can download. Some of those downloads include:

o The free First Missions packet (demo version of FEDERATION COMMANDER).

o Turn gauges and firing arcs for the tabletop rules.

o Sample Ship Cards.

o Wallpapers of game covers.

o Frequently asked questions.

o Information for retailers.

o The original theatrical trailer (ok, not that, but it WAS the original flyer handed out at trade shows).

o Notes from the game designer (Steve Cole) on what parts of the older game STAR FLEET BATTLES we decided to include in FEDERATION COMMANDER.

But that's just a start. If you join the Commander's Circle, which is free, you can download the monthly Communiqué which includes scenarios, tactics, and new ships. You can also access a database of FEDERATION COMMANDER players looking for new opponents (you!).

Friday, September 14, 2007

Romantic Getaway

This afternoon, Stephen and Leanna Cole will leave (in the new car Stephen bought her) for Las Vegas. Monday will be their 30th wedding anniversary, and they will be married (again, well, they still are married, but they're getting married again) at the Mon Bel Ami chapel that afternoon. It's apparently very popular to get married again to the same woman on your anniversary. Lots of the wedding places have "vow renewal" ceremonies which are simpler because you don't need a marriage license.

Leanna bought a spectacular wedding dress for the event. Photos should be posted by the 18th.

The couple plan to honeymoon in the same places they visited on the first honeymoon 30 years ago, including the Grand Canyon.

While Stephen bought Leanna a new car, Leanna bought Stephen a new laptop so he can do email and this blog from the road, not to mention work on PDFeds, PD20M, and CL36.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

ADB Storefront Is Back!

Did you try to order something yesterday and have difficulties? If you did, please try again. The Storefront should be up and you should have no difficulty placing an order. The problem was a glitch in an Email between us and the host. We knew we had renewed the domain but they didn't get the second confirmation.

If you ever have difficulty reaching http://store.starfleetstore.com/merchant2/ then give it about five minutes and try again. If you still have problems, contact Leanna Cole through Sales@StarFleetGames.com. Only if you haven't heard from her in a reasonable amount of time should you contact Steve Cole at Design@StarFleetGames.com. Be sure to tell him that you tried to contact Leanna, but haven't heard back from her in an hour or so. (Only Leanna can fix the cart, but it could be that Leanna is busy or running errands and hasn't received your Email.)

This lets Steve do what he does best--design more things for ADB, Inc. and not have to try to deal with the shopping cart that is not really his balliwick. Besides, the only think Steve Cole can do is ask Leanna to go fix the cart; he couldn't fix it himself if his life depended on it.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Cafe Press

Graphics Director Matthew Cooper writes:

Have you ever heard of Cafe Press? Cafe Press is a website where you can open up a free online shop and promote products on your website. Cafe Press creates and sells products with designs provided by various companies. So upon learning about Cafe Press, Leanna set up an account and we have uploaded several designs for T-shirts, coffee mugs, Christmas ornaments, mousepads, etc.

See www.CafePress.com/starfleetuniv for these items. And take a look at our new I-heart-Klingons T-shirt!

If you have any questions or comments or would like to see something on Cafe Press, let me know and I will set it up for you! Email me at: graphics@StarFleetGames.com

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Hidden Enemy

This is Steven Petrick Posting.

By now, I am sure all of you are aware that it has been six years since the reality that modern technology makes the commission of atrocity on a mass scale far easier than in times past.

What you may not be aware of, or have given much thought to, is that the hidden enemy is our own complacency.

Six years have passed, and many of us increasingly take the view that there is no real danger. We have not again been attacked on our own soil, or had our own technology used against us, so we are again safe.

The continued conflict is increasingly seen as merely an annoyance to our daily lives.

Many of us hear the siren calls of leaders that all we need do is withdraw from the fight, and we as a nation can return to our slumbers. This siren call, which preys on our need to believe that we are safe in a world in which another attack needs only a further reduction in our national vigilance is not a new thing, needs to be resisted.

If you listen to these voices, if you accept the sirens call, then our nation will find itself on the rocky shore of disaster.

The truth is, as has been said, we are engaged in a generational conflict. It will not end just because we turn our backs on it. Indeed, the concept that we will do so is the very basis of our enemy's long term strategy. That Democracies and Republics can only wage war so long as the people are willing to do so, and the people do not have the strength of will to maintain a conflict on the long haul. They would rather pretend that there is no danger, until they are again confronted with.

We are the people. We must remain committed to winning the fight over the long haul, or by "declaring victory" short of a final one, find ourselves accepting a chain of small defeats. A chain of events that future historians will say "here is where they lost the will to win and their decline began."

We must bear the burden of the long war, we must out-last our enemy, or we may as well surrender now.

The hidden enemy is ourselves, we the people. We must keep our vision fixed on victory and not allow ourselves to lose heart. The enemy cannot defeat us on the field of battle, but the hidden enemy in our own hearts can destroy us.

FLY YOUR FLAG

Fly your flag, and take your sword out,
it's a whole new kind of war.
Against a different kind of Evil,
then we ever fought before.

Fly your flag and wave it proudly,
cause we're marching off to war.
Wave it like you know they fear it,
like they feared it once before.

From the center of Ground Zero
to the midst of the raging crowd.
This will never be forgotten,
say it long and sing it proud.

Come, fly your flag.

With the lightning and the thunder,
that we used in Desert Storm.
We will send that bearded monster,
to a place that's much too warm.

For he taught us more about terror,
than we ever dared to know.
But we vowed to bring him justice,
and we'll never let him go.

For it's more than being soldiers,
though it's less than being gods.
Join the list of freedom's heroes,
those who fought the highest odds.

And come, fly your flag.

(musical interlude)

Come, fly your flag.

copyright 2002 S V Cole with apologies to Neil Diamond

Remember

Do you remember where you were six years ago? Usually you would be unable to say where you were with any degree of accuracy. But September 11, 2001 is a day that we remember.

I was at my desk at work when I heard. My brother was up and watching the morning news when he called my parents and told them there was no way this was an accident. My parents called me.

Do you remember how you felt? Were you worried about the other planes? Did you feel rage because you could not act? Did you feel fear because loved ones and friends were in danger? Did you watch in sick horror as you realized that what you were seeing was not debris falling from the Towers, but people choosing to jump? Did you feel pride and thankfulness that on one plane the passengers realized what was going on and acted?

On this day, we should remember that we didn't choose to start this war. One side cannot unilaterally end a war, except by surrendering.

On this day, take time to remember those who died in the attacks, those who died preventing another plane from being used as a weapon, and those who died trying to save lives. On this day, we should take time to remember all those who have died trying to prevent another attack upon this country. On this day, we should take time to thank someone who now voluntarily stands between us and harm's way.

Remember 9/11.

Jean Sexton, Director of Proofreading and Product Professionalization, ADB, Inc.

Monday, September 10, 2007

A battle at the end of nowhere

Today in 1813, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie. This is the one where the report read: "We have met the enemy and he is ours." (That "he is ours" part means "we captured those ships we did not sink.")

It was an important battle, on a key body of water. It was virtually at the end of the Earth (in those days), a place where the huge British ocean-going fleet could not reach and the only ships handy were those built in the lake. Ships (on both sides) built mostly by hand, without power tools, out of trees cut down locally, using cannon hauled in from elsewhere by ox cart over dirt roads that were anything but level.

It's hard to grasp just how "wilderness" that area was 200 years ago. (Well, 197 years ago.) There were no railroads (they hadn't been invented) and the most efficient transportation was by boat. Having a warship with cannons meant you got to decide who got to use boats to bring in supplies and ship out production (farm goods and animal pelts and maybe died fish). The lake was on the back end of nowhere, almost impossible to get to, but controlling vast areas of real estate which would be worth a lot, or worth almost nothing, depending on who could get there.

And we won. And only a decade later, the US and Britain/Canada were the best of friends, a friendship born of common heritage, common interest, common experiences, and profound mutual respect.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

FEDERATION COMMANDER Wallpaper

Graphics Director Matt Cooper writes:

Many do not know that we have a page where you can download FEDERATION COMMANDER wallpaper.

Klingon Border, Romulan Border, Klingon Attack, and Romulan Attack are currently available in the following sizes : 800x600, 1024x768, and 1280x1024.

http://www.StarFleetGames.com/wallpaper

If there are any other sizes or any other images that you would like to see turned into wallpaper, please feel free to write me at graphics@StarFleetGames.com and I will get it set up for you.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

And on this day, everything changed

Forty-one years ago today, 8 September 1966, the first episode of STAR TREK appeared on television. Funny how everything changed in that moment.

Star Trek changed the world. It inspired cell phones and made computers a comfortable part of everyday life. It showed us a world where the military could do a lot of good for the nation, at a time when the military was almost despised. In its own way, Star Trek taught us that there were stranger things out there than people who had a different skin color, and that we humans had better stick together and then, collectively, open our minds.

Star Trek died after two years and got a third season only because, for the first time in television history, a wave of mail convinced the network (if only for one brief year) that network executives knew a lot less about what people wanted to watch than they thought they did. And when those network executives had their way a year later and buried Star Trek forever, they found out again that they were wrong and that the people watching television would bloody well decide what was going to be on the air. Star Trek refused to die. It was the most popular "afternoon rerun" and became the staple of college campuses (the people who most watched TV at that time, people who had money to spend). Because of the fanbase demand for Star Trek, you saw a torrent of "alternative ways to get the content to the viewer" including comics, paperbacks, and cartoons. The fact that you have 100 cable channels to pick from today is due, in no small part, to the fact that Star Trek showed that you could find a way to serve the market without letting the big networks tell you what you were allowed to present.

And of course, Star Trek certainly changed my life. I had been a wargamer for about three years by that point (I first played D-Day in 1963) and began to wonder if there might be a game. I read (and didn't much care for) Zocchi's Star Fleet Battle Manual when it came out. And of course, one day in 1975, I was playing Jutland while watching Star Trek reruns and (grabbing some graph paper left over from my homework at engineering school) invented Star Fleet Battles.

Like the original, SFB became a game that would not die (even before it was published in 1979). My gaming group was so enthralled with it, that whenever we got together to play AH or SPI games, somebody inevitably asked "where is that star trek thing you did?" and we played that instead. I did a dozen versions over those four years, and nobody minded much that the rules were mostly in my head (even after we published it, the rules were still mostly in my head). When JagdPanther (the WW2 wargame magazine I ran) was a running business with an office and a whopping $100 in mail order sales every week, any time in the office not actually working on games like "Poland-1939" and "Anvil-Dragoon" and "March on India" and "Airborne" was spent playing SFB using a set of hand-typed and photocopied rules (with two separate lists of typed rules changes, one matching the green marks in the original, and the other matching the magenta marks) and photocopies of SSDs. The gang thought it was a major improvement when I started using a ruler to draw straight lines on the graph paper, and rolled the graph paper through a typewriter to put labels on the boxes.

Then there was the day when Lou Zocchi, who did the first Trek game (which I didn't like) was so impressed with SFB that he gave me the phone number for the guy who gave us our first license.

SFB died and came back to life more times than I can remember, just like Star Trek itself. When my original TFG partner and I split up the company, he found he couldn't keep in business without SFB sales (even if it meant dealing with me) and I found I couldn't get anybody else to print it. When he sold out and the new owners decided to drop SFB, they found out they had nothing else anybody wanted and had to bring SFB back. And when another set of new TFG owners went broke, the wholesalers screamed for me to "save it" from the wreckage. And, two years ago, SFB was reborn again (without actually dying) as Federation Commander.

Friday, September 07, 2007

My Visit to ADB, Inc

Hello all,
My name is Robert and I am from Phoenix, AZ. I have been playing Star Fleet Battles since the original 'pocket box' edition in the early '80's. I have wanted to visit ADB, Inc. and the 'Steve's' for some time now. Well, that has come to fruition! I have just completed a tour of the ADB, Inc. office/warehouse and met the crew responsible for the Star Fleet Universe. They are a very hospitable group of hardworking people. They gave me the tour of the facility and spent several hours with me chit-chatting about the Star Fleeet Universe. They were interested to get my input and opinions about their company (Which, by-the-way, I rate VERY high, especially the customer service) and game systems. It was a very enjoyable and rewarding experience. How did this come about? Easy, I Emailed Steve Cole with my request and he said 'Sure, when would you like to come by?' and the rest, as they say, is history. So, kudos to ADB, Inc. and the 'Steve's' (and Leanna and Mike, too) for making themselves available for a public visit.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

ADB, Inc., brings you ... FEDERATION COMMANDER MySpace!

Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., has a MySpace page! Be our friend and find us! Make comments, and see what's going on with Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., from another side! Our MySpace page is run by Matthew (the Graphics Director) so you will get different interaction with Amarillo Design Bureau, Inc., than you get elsewhere.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

A Commander's Will

This is Steven Petrick writing.

During the American Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee won what is considered to be his tactical masterpiece, the Battle of Chancellorsville early in 1863.

Lee won the battle by taking what, by any standards, appeared to be (and were) a number of insane gambles. He divided his army in the face of a superior force not once (leaving a blocking force at Fredricksburg), but twice (sending over half the forces he had with him at Chancellorsville on a march with General Jackson to attack the exposed Union Flank).

The result of this audacious maneuvering was the retreat of the numerically and logistically superior Army of the Potomac back across the Rappahannok river.

All of it is easy to see, but what gets missed is that Lee did not defeat the Army of the Potomac. Most of that Army's soldiers and its generals, despite the rough handling Jackson' flank attack had given them, were still willing to fight.

What Lee defeated was Union General Hooker, the man then in command of the Army of the Potomac. Even though his corps commanders voted in favor of continuing the fight, Hooker retreated. To that point, Lee had inflicted about 1.5 Union casualties for every one he suffered, but this amounted to only 13% of the Union Army while his own losses amounted to 21% of his army.

The Army of the Potomac was not defeated. But Hooker's will was, and that is the same thing. Had Hooker simply adhered to his original plan and attacked himself, Lee would probably have been defeated since his Army was outside of its well developed works at Fredricksburg.

But from the first contact with the Army of Northern Virginia, Hooker not only abandoned what had been a brilliantly executed flank march of his own to get there, he called for reinforcements.

Hooker's performance can be seen as excellent up until the moment he realized that he was the man whose will would guide the Army of the Potomac in battle, and then he lacked the resolve to carry it forward.

An Army of Lions led by a Sheep is not to be feared, but beware an Army of Sheep led by Lion.

When it really counted, Hooker was a Sheep rather than a Lion, and Lee had the advantage of being a Lion leading an Army of Lions.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Steve Cole's day

Got here: Got here at 9:20am.
==============
STEP ONE: ROUTINE FUNCTIONS
This is stuff I do every day.
- - - - -
Going through Email. The usual spam. Actual Emails:
1. Adam Turner says he uploaded the Romulan Space cover to our FTP site. I asked Leanna to get it. Turns out, it's too dark to use. (Adam has a propensity for "realistic" lighting and space IS dark, but this isn't realism, this is sales excitement, so we told him to brighten it and re-send it. He has to do this in the original render by adding more light sources; we cannot adjust the image enough to fix the problem. He fixed it later but we haven't downloaded the new one yet.
2. John Berry asked about the fiction story he sent in a few months ago, but didn't include enough info for me to find the file. I asked for more. He got me better info, and I was able to identify the story.
3. GPA discussion of a hosting company some of them use that went out of business, leaving their websites dead.
4. Neocon said the graphic I sent them was fine but wanted a link to some other graphics.
5. Hydran MSSB reports from Ryan Opel, George Duffy, Jean Sexton.
6. Somebody suggested (again, sigh) that we should do pre-painted plastic ships. If we had $50,000 to spare, we would.
7. Board Game Geek has gotten exclusivity agreements from two of the three retailers and is talking to the third. When they agree, we'll schedule going to this convention.
8. Reports on PDFeds Colonization from Jean Sexton.
9. Nuke-Con wants box of door prizes for printing ad.
10. The guys from China cannot do plastic ships like we want.
11. Reaper sent the invoice for the last batch of minis just minutes before I was going to have to call and ask for it.
12. GPA discussing royalty rates for licensing movies and stuff. Hooboy can I tell them stories. Helped somebody in GPA get a sales tax certificate.
- - - - -
Checked the BBS. No problems. Guys, seriously, it helps me get things done when I don't have to go put out flamewars.
- - - - -
Daily web crawl. Astronomy picture of the day. DVD rentals. Ebay auctions. Copyright violations. Server. Boardgame and sci-fi websites. Fed Commander Forum. Post Blog.
- - - - -
This step was completed at: 11:09am
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STEP TWO: IMPORTANT "EXTRA" TASKS
- - - - -
Pending Mail on hand: Too much.
- - -
Worthwhile tasks: Not any, really.
- - - - -
FYEO: Read today's file, so I'm still caught up.
- - - - -
THE HOT LIST: Stuff I cannot avoid.
1. Ad for Fictional Reality. They want it Tuesday. Decided to use the convention ad. Downloaded it and gave it to Matt to update and send to them. Matt contacted them regarding file transfer protocols.
2. Kyocera contract. Tuesday meeting. Started on draft on Monday. Asked to delay meeting and to get Email copy of contract terms. Spent most of my time working on this.
3. Star Fleet Alert for Graduation. Put on Petrick's desk 2 Sept. He read it and gave it to Leanna. Jean had no problems, and Leanna had some spacing and comma issues. Fixed it and sent it to the media, retailers, and wholesalers. END ITEM.
4. Star Fleet Alert for Romulan Space (once we have art). Put on Petrick's desk on 2 Sept. He read it and gave it to Leanna. Jean had one fix, and Leanna found one gigantic mistake. Got the art on 4 September and did the alert so it will be ready to send Wednesday.
5. Essen Inventory: Waiting for information from Ulysses.
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LUNCH: Taco Salad. Yummy, nutritious, and low-carb.
SUPPER: with Mike Sparks and his darling wife Kila, lots of meat.
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INTERRUPTION #1: Reviewed list of new fall TV shows Leanna sent to help decide what we will try. The fall TV season is starting during our honeymoon (well, a few shows), requiring some crazy Tivo tricks.
INTERRUPTION #2: Leanna bought a new cam corder and a new wireless laptop so we had to stop and play with the new toys.
INTERRUPTION #3: Unable to find a new marketing director, we decided to move half of Mike Sparks from Warehouse Manager to Customer Service Director and hire another college kid to work for Mike in the warehouse.
==============
STEP 3: PRIMARY WORK
The whole point of actually being at my desk is to "put finished pages on the clipboard", not to answer Email, police the BBS, or do special projects only a few people want.
- - - - -
Prime Directive Federation: Nothing done today.
- - - - -
Captain's Log #36: Petrick was working on some stuff.
- - - - -
Omega Five: Petrick was working on some stuff.
- - - - -
Federation Commander Briefing #1: Nothing done today.
- - - - -
Starline 2400: Wrote instructions and told Petrick to ship the sculpting for the Seltorians to Reaper.
- - - - -
Other products: Worked with Matt to finish cover for FC: Graduation.
==============

Monday, September 03, 2007

FEDERATION COMMANDER: PLAY IT ON-LINE

Many people do not know that you can play FEDERATION COMMANDER on-line in real time against live opponents, any time you like, 24 hours per day.

Eight years ago, www.SFBonline.com was created to provide players of STAR FLEET BATTLES with an on-line gaming experience. It was a smash hit as hundreds of gamers joined the battles. Tournaments and other competitions, plus general opening gaming, have gone on around the clock since then.

This successful operation has now been expanded to include FEDERATION COMMANDER!

Now you can play with real live human (not to mention Klingon, Romulan, Kzinti, Gorn, Tholian, Orion, and other) opponents all over the world in real time 24 hours a day! The computer automates many functions and acts as a friendly assistant for mundane chores.

For the modest subscription fee of less than $4 a month, you have access to all of the ships in the FEDERATION COMMANDER game system as well as new ships still in playtest and development. The Java Runtime system is compatible with Windows and Macintosh systems.

Never worry about a lack of opponents. Never worry about opponents who don't show up for games day because of silly reasons like family reunions or their own weddings. Don't be cut off from your regular gaming group while on vacations or business trips.

Even better, you can join in on-line tournaments and campaigns, and your victories will add up to a higher and higher average score!

The system also allows you to chat with friends, taunt your enemies, and watch other players fight their own savage battles. (Why learn from your own mistakes when you can learn from someone else's?) This "observer" system allows players of either game to learn the ins and outs of the other game before deciding to invest time and money in it.

So come to www.SFBonline.com right away. You can even fly the Federation CA or Klingon D7 as a free trial, or watch any game in play. Legendary SFB aces and new FEDERATION COMMANDER aces strut their stuff in combat arenas all the time, and you can learn from the best.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Steve Cole's Sunday

MY DAY: 2 Sept
Got here: Got here at 1:45 for my Sunday afternoon session.
==============
STEP ONE: ROUTINE FUNCTIONS
This is stuff I do every day.
- - - - -
Going through Email. The usual spam.
Actual Emails: More spam (and more real mail) than usual due to having gone home early yesterday.
1. Nice chat with retailer who is learning how to sell Fed Commander.
2. Note from a contest entrant that his photos will be along when the clear coat dries.
3. Discussion of metaphysics with creationists. Why do I bother?
4. Some freelance demo group wants some free games, but it's a bulk email to 200 manufacturers. I put it into pending and will deal with it when I have time to find out what they're up to. Some such groups only focus on one or two kinds of games.
5. Proposed article for CL36 put in that folder to read later.
6. Proposed addition to the PDFed article on colonization by Loren Knight with comments by Andy Palmer and Gary Plana and answers by Loren Knight. Put in report folder.
7. Email from John Schneder asking if we liked the Seltorian CA sculpture. We hadn't seen it, but in confirming that it was not here, we figured out that nobody had actually gone to the post office on Saturday. Petrick ran over to the post office, found the CA, pronounced it good. The nine Seltorian ships will go to the casting house on Tuesday.
8. Another note from BGG convention about resolving exclusivity issues so we can go.
9. Another older Email from John S, resolved a couple of issues.
10. Note from Leanna about something I need to do in the warehouse.
11. Contest entry, posted.
- - - - -
Checked the BBS. No problems. Created food topic.
- - - - -
Daily web crawl. Astronomy picture of the day. DVD rentals. Ebay auctions. Copyright violations. Server. Boardgame and sci-fi websites. Fed Commander Forum.
- - - - -
This step was completed at: 3pm.
==============
STEP TWO: IMPORTANT "EXTRA" TASKS
- - - - -
Pending Mail on hand:
1. A convention we are sponsoring (we do a lot of that) asked for a graphic to put on their web site, and I made them one. I think Matt could do a better job; maybe he will do it over on Tuesday.
2. No luck identifying a strange miniature Aaron found.
3. Sent Starmada an apology for not getting back to them earlier; made a note to try to reply tomorrow.
4. Reviewed the work of an artist looking for a job. All he does is fantasy and horror. Doesn't seem to know sci-fi gaming exists.
5. Reviewed the work of another artist, one who does sci-fi. Sent him our art guidelines (which is polite for "the legal basis on which we buy are, and we don't negotiate as we have too many artists begging for work") and said we'd give him a try if he wanted to do business with us.
- - - - -
Worthwhile tasks: Sent pages 21-30 of the Hydran MSSB chapter to the team.
- - - - -
FYEO: Read the file for today (2 Sept) so I am staying caught up. (FYEO is a real world military intelligence report I read so that I can understand modern military technology and apply it to the games.)
- - - - -
THE HOT LIST: Stuff I cannot avoid, has to be done, but isn't my "real" job. But nobody else can do it, at least until I hire another Vanessa.
1. Ad for Fictional Reality. They want it Tuesday.
2. Kyocera contract. Tuesday meeting.
3. Star Fleet Alert for Graduation. Put on Petrick's desk 2 Sept. He read it and gave it to Leanna.
4. Star Fleet Alert for Romulan Space (once we have art). Put on Petrick's desk on 2 Sept. He read it and gave it to Leanna.
==============
LUNCH: Leanna cooked hamburgers at home. Nobody does it better. Added some shredded mozzarella left over from improving frozen pizzas.
==============
INTERRUPTION #1: Go out to warehouse and pack bags of Zocchi parts.
INTERRUPTION #2: Go out to warehouse and pack bags of factory seconds.
INTERRUPTION #3: Go visit my mother.
(I haven't actually done these three yet, but I'm going to shut down the computer now, go do the first two, then go see mumsie.)
==============
STEP 3: PRIMARY WORK
The whole point of actually being at my desk is to "put finished pages on the clipboard", not to answer Email, police the BBS, or do special projects only a few people want.
- - - - -
Prime Directive Federation: Nothing done today.
- - - - -
Captain's Log #36: Petrick was working on some stuff.
- - - - -
Omega Five: Petrick was working on some stuff.
- - - - -
Federation Commander Briefing #1: Nothing done today.
- - - - -
Starline 2400: got the Seltorian CA and it's great, so we will send all of the new minis we have (the Seltorians, the shuttlecraft, the hive ship, and the King Condor) down to Reaper on Tuesday.
- - - - -
Other products: When I was at Walmart last night, I bought some new clip boards to keep track of this stuff.
==============

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Tank Destroyers: Well, it sounded like a cool idea

Steve Cole writes: I have known about tank destroyers for a long time, but recently happened to pick up a cheap leftover book at the local book store and had fun re-reading the subject.

For those who don't know, tank destroyers were a unique American invention, created at the dawn of WW2 and quietly forgotten very shortly after it was over.

In 1940 and 1941, the German panzer blitzkrieg was running crazy all over Europe. Nobody could stop the German tanks when they got moving. So, the US decided to create a new weapon, the tank destroyer. The basic idea was (conceptually) to take a tank design, remove half of the armor (to make it faster), give it a bigger gun, and have it kill the German tanks by virtue of the bigger gun and the ability to move around faster. It sounded like a good idea, but didn't work. What made the German tanks unstoppable was not the tank, but the trained crews and the combined arms team. By the time the US figured this out, it already had 60 battalions of tank destroyers. It would have been better off with another 60 battalions of tanks (hopefully better tanks than the Sherman, but that's another rant for another day).

When tank destroyers finally went into combat (in Tunisia) they were basically used as substitute-tanks, and the tank officers always used the tank destroyers as the lead element in an attack and the rear guard in a retreat (supposedly because they were more maneuverable, but I wonder if they did this to avoid getting their own units shot up until they saw which way the battle was going to go). The experience of Tunisia (a flat open desert) convinced the US Army to replace half of the armored mobile tank destroyers with towed anti-tank guns, which turned out to be pretty stupid for fighting in Italy, France, and Germany (which had these things called "trees").

The tank destroyers ended up being used more as mobile artillery (light artillery, as their 75mm guns were smaller than the standard 105mm guns used by real artillery units). This was ironic, since the German assault guns (tank chassis with bigger guns and extra armor but a non-rotating turret) were designed to support infantry attacks and ended up being used as mobile anti-tank guns. The Germans would have been better off with real tanks instead of assault guns.

This doesn't really apply to Federation Commander or Star Fleet Battles. The dynamic of space combat doesn't really accept translations from tank combat very well. (See the Qaris in Module C4.) But it is interesting to note that even the US Army (today, the best in the world) had a period of time when it had no clue what real war was about, and when they met it head on, learned the wrong lessons because they hadn't learned how to learn the lessons. In a general sense, that applies to any business, or anything else. What sounds like a good idea sometimes is and sometimes isn't, and you don't know until you try it for real. And even then, if you haven't learned how to learn and apply the lessons you get, you can make even bigger mistakes.