A final post for the year...

Just a quick post to say thank you to everyone who has visited, read and, in some cases, commented on the articles over the last year. I hope you have enjoyed this years tomfoolery and will join me again in 2023 for more of the same computer, videogames, wargaming and, in a return of that trusty Steed (a hint, perchance?), Was That Film Really That Bad malarkey. 

As I hate posts without at least one picture, the image above shows the publications (and some of their issues) that I have contributed to in the last year outside of this blog. It's been a bit of a learning curve but also a hoot, and looks to continue next year too. My thanks to the editors of these fine publications. I also continue to be a volunteer reviewer for The Book Dragon, so check them out if you are looking for a good read from independent and self-published authors.

All that remains for me to say is that I trust you will have a wonderful festive season, thank you very much for your time, and I hope you'll be back next year. See you in 2023!

The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes - Book Review

Hush-Kit.net describes itself as the alternative aviation magazine and, if you're familiar with its content, that's a pretty fair summation. With tongue definitely in cheek, the website provides a mix of features, interviews and top ten pieces. Following on from a successful funding campaign via Unbound, the Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes distills the best of the website's content along with a bunch of new stuff to give you a coffee-table style book that will inform, educate and entertain - sounds catchy. Someone should maybe use that...

As with all Unbound publications that I have reviewed, the physical quality cannot be criticised. This is a hefty hardback in full colour and extends to over 220 pages. Edited by Joe Coles and with a foreword by noted aviation journalist Bill Sweetman, the reader is quickly dropped in at the deep end when it comes to the style of Husk-Kit's content.

Top ten lists are a long running genre on the likes of YouTube and it's something that works well for the Hush-Kit website. In the book, there are lists for top fighters of World War 1, the worst British aircraft (what a smorgasbord that is!), incredible cancelled military aircraft (excluding the QI-worthy TSR2, Avro Arrow and Northrop F20), and the like. Not that the editor restricts himself to top tens - there's 11 (count 'em!) top Jump Jets and 7 (because the number is lucky and so were these aircraft) overrated warplanes. 

It's not just lists though. Oh no! There are features too, like the history of the Bang Seat (that's an ejector seat, not the funny chair you keep seeing at your weird uncle's house - you know, the one with the fluffy wrist rests...), a brief history of fighter cockpits and a Freudian guide to spy planes (and you thought I was pushing it with the pervy uncle line... Tsk!)

The aircraft in question totally deserves its place in this list.

Interviews take up a large part of the book too, and not just the usual suspects (are there such usual suspects in aviation literature?). Pilots of such diverse aircraft as the Sukhoi SU-15 Flagon interceptor (a personal favourite of mine), F-117 Nighthawk and JA-37 Viggen vie with others who flew the Mirage 2000, SR-71 and a rather excellent pair of interviews with Iranian pilots who flew the F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat in combat.

There is more, of course, but to find out, you'll have to buy the book. What really sells The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes is not just the information but the humour. From a gentle sarcasm suitable for polite tea parties to all out mockery worthy of a pub night out, the full gamut of jocularity is on display. If you're a fan of a particular manufacturer (Blackburn cough) or an aircraft (Lightning, Scimitar, Vulcan, Lerwick... wait, hold on! Someone is a fan of the Saro Lerwick? Probably the same individual with that bang seat...), be prepared to have some fun poked at the expense of said companies/aircraft. The captions are also a joy to read. My particular favourite is on page 51 and, whilst I'll not spoil it here, it had both my good lady and I in stitches and I am never watching The Death of Stalin in the same way ever again...

I would say think of your own caption but the one in the book is perfect.

Naturally, being a book on aircraft, there are plenty of photographs and artwork - it is always nice to see aircraft that never made it into production represented in hypothetical service, and these compliment the text perfectly.

In the spirit of Roy Walker, "It's close, but its not right..."

As you can probably tell, I really like this book. Yes, some of it will be familiar to long time readers of the website but there is enough new content here to make this a worthy purchase anyway. If you're not familiar with the website but have an interest in military aviation, it's a simple statement - buy this book! To do so, you can either do it via the Hush-Kit shop (which will take you to the Unbound website) or via the usual online and high street book retailers. 

Finally, if you like this volume, there is a second one in the funding stage at Unbound here. When funds permit, I shall be adding my support to it like I did with this volume, as the first is an excellent advert for Hush-Kit Hot Shots Part Deux.

Al-Hussein by Ali Altobchi (with Tom Cooper and Adrien Fontanellaz) - Book Review

AKA Iraq goes full Blue Peter. Not to besmirch the name of that fine show, but just like when Blue Peter fashioned a makeshift Tracy Island back in 1993 using a yogurt pot, toilet roll and a metric f**ktonne of papier-mâché (the clip is on YouTube if you search for it), the Iraqi effort to produce domestic weapons yielded some surprising results - pretty impressive from a technical point of view when you consider the effect of international sanctions and an empty bank account. 

As the talented Ms Andrews once sang, the beginning is a very good place to start and in this tale, it is the creation of the State Organisation for Technical Industries (SOTI) in 1970 that paved the way for the early steps Iraq took to work with arms producers overseas. Add in some international politics and shenanigans, stir, then simmer until war with Iran is declared. Now rename the SOTI into the Military Industrial Commission (MIC). Bring to the boil by adding Scud's, MiG-25's and a soupçon of anti-radar missiles, and thus begins the journey towards a domestic conventional weapons industrial base. A touch of in-flight refuelling may add a certain... je ne sais quoi...

It wasn't just the French (see what I did there) and the Soviets who were supporting the Iraqi regime. There were links to Brazil and Argentina, the latter of whom had a ballistic missile program that I had never heard of before, which certainly gave the impression that Iraq was serious about building up its war fighting capability. 

Of course, if you want to talk about Iraqi conventional weaponry, you need to mention Gerald Bull. When not keep Teesport's custom's officials busy, Bull also had a hand in long range 155mm artillery and was much more successful in that arena than any supergun design associated with him. 

Combined with the events of the Iran-Iraq War, that's about two thirds of this book. The rest concerns itself with the legacies of the principle characters, the 1991 Gulf War and the follow up period to the end of the decade. 

The writing is clear and concise throughout and the 68-page length is about right. What was quite surprising was how adept the Iraqi military were in fielding some rather "funky" designs, and by funky, I mean plain weird. Much like Iran stuck HAWK surface to air missiles on their fighters and Standard SAM's inplace of the HAWK's on their usual launchers, Iraq bolted Exocet missiles to a Dassault Falcon 50 business jet, and older AA-2 Atoll (R-3S and R-3R infra-red guided air to air missiles) were stuck on BMP chassis' because it filled a perceived need (and there was little choice but to improvise). Much like the fictional A-Team or MacGyver, the resultant weapons were, at least, functional, if not entirely practical - I mean, biz-jet with Exocets. What's next? Vulcan's with Sea Dart's as an interceptor? (And yes, gentle reader, there were plans and thoughts about that very thing...).

Check out Vulcan's Hammer by Chris Gibson pages 171-174. I prefer the AIM-54 Phoenix option myself...

And still there is more. Continued ballistic missile developments, ad-hoc Electronic Counter Measures aircraft, Airborne Early Warning aircraft, tankers and drones - the effort expended in being able to demonstrate any capability (no matter how asymmetric to the opponent's) is truly astounding. 

As befits the topic, there is a wealth of contemporary photography on display, as well as many screen grabs from video presentations of the time. Maps are detailed and the included artwork is of the usual high quality. As always, the bibliography is a cracking source of further reading.

This is another welcome tome from Helion & Co and will be of great benefit to those who have an interest in the period, the theatre or maybe want to put something on the table - there are quite a few "what-ifs" in capability this book offers that could liven up any hypothetical game. And, whilst there were no Blue Peter badges for the boffins who stuck these projects together, Ali Altobchi and company deserve a symbolic one for this fine volume. You can buy Al-Hussein direct from Helion & Co here or from their trade stands at various UK wargames shows - you can find out which ones they attend via their website and social media links. 

The Battle Of St. Marie Claire - Demo game report

It was the Battleground wargames show in Stockton a couple of weeks ago and the Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society were on hand to run a demo game. Making a change from the usual black powder (not the ruleset this time!) and horsey shenanigans, we were off to modern day Africa. Shaun provided the toys and I was running the game using Team Yankee (with amendments as used in previous games and a few specifically for this one). I apologise now for the terrible butchery of the French language that follows...

See that sign? That's us, that is.

The former French colony of Sans De Maquillage. Famed for many things (including its radio telescope, Le Cosmo), this former colony gained independence in the 1980's and was rather happily providing a steady stream of healthcare products to the international market. Sadly, rebel forces have been active in the interior (and we're not talking dodgy cuisine either!), and have occupied an industrial site near the town of St. Marie Claire, one run buy the ever-present Oyston Industrie. The hyaluronic acid ponds were also captured and an urgent email was sent by Andre L'Ponsonby Copiste (blame Google Translate for that one, Andy!) to the French Government to organise their recovery.

As it's Team Yankee, you have to have a line up of vehicles.

Before we begin, let me tell you that this was not your normal Team Yankee game. There were no points lists, just a "shove everything on the table" order, which meant the table was going to look rather busy as the game went on. Andy and Shaun led the French who had the bottom third of the table. Jim commanded the rebels in the top third (along with the facilities), whilst the middle third was left bare... or was it???

If you go down to the woods today...

The French started off with a dash to the (fordable) stream, a wise move as there was naff all cover on their side of the table. They didn't take long to reach it, at which point the sneakily hidden militia popped up with the chant of "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" En Français, naturellement.

Got to love a bit of self promotion.

This was where it started to go a tad wrong for our intrepid soldiers, as RPG fire quickly shredded a couple of VAB's belonging to the Marines and the left wing (the Parachute Hussars) found that their ERC-90's were armoured only in the sense that a potato gun couldn't destroy them... at least at the ranges Jim was firing from...

That bit at the top of the picture looks distinctly bare of soldiers... for now.

The rebel response was to push up their T55's and thus ensued a to-ing and a fro-ing. Saving rolls were very much in order as both sides had the guns, but not the armour. Still, weight of numbers began to tell and the militia were thinned out once Shaun had brought up his Mephisto anti-tank vehicles. HOT rounds ahoy as the remaining rebel T55's from the first batch were summarily dispatched. 

The local wildlife seemed distinctly unfazed by the events around them.

In the centre, things were more delicate, as the dug in militia were causing no little suffering to the Marines and Legion troops. Artillery and mortar fire came to the rescue and after several turns, the French had gained the heights and, more importantly, a base of fire. Of course, this just meant they were now face to face with a ton more militia in the grasslands to their front and in the wooded area to their right. The local fauna were quite dismissive of this. 

A herd of French reinforcements sweeping majestically across the plain.

On the French right, the advance to the stream was unhindered and they left it for Jim to approach. A rapid volley of rifle grenades from the centre and the right flank whittled down the rebel forces, as did some decent indirect fire from the mortars. It must be noted that to get to this point, the umpire did have to remind the French commanders that whilst you may wish to target counter battery fire against the (rather ineffectual) rebel guns, if the dudes right in front of you are shooting seven shades of merde out of you, a re-appraisal of your targeting priorities may be in order. So they did. And within a turn or two, the rebel forces discovered they needed a recruiting drive.

It got a bit dicey in the middle. Geddit? Dicey? Oh, why do I bother?

Additional French armour (I know, but they're not tanks and they're not 4-door sedans either) on their left supported the wavering Para Hussars, who by this point were down something like a third of their original force and had decided to call it a day. The appearance of a Shilka also persuaded them that it was getting a tad hot for the infantry even in cover. The additional HE and MG fire of these new troops (and those very handy Mephisto's) put paid to that brief fight back and despite moving the last of his heavy reserves to the centre, Jim decided to call it a day. 

It would have been even dicier here, but there was a zebra crossing...

It had been a hard fight and both sides took what each would consider serious losses. Such is the nature of the Team Yankee system and I did plan the game to ensure that it lasted more than an hour or so. 

They took the hill just to get a fantastic view of all those fresh-faced militia.

Some notes on the game rules and mechanics. 

Artillery, mortar and rifle grenade fire zones were ad-hoc - they had to be as TY only covers arty as far as I know and I wanted the effect to be uniform across all forms of arcing fire. Hit and save rolls were as per the rules. 

I probably made the militia too hard, making them equivalent to Warpac conscripts minus one on everything, and even then, they were bloody hard to shift. Maybe something to amend the next time we try this scenario. 

Points system - didn't use it as noted above. This was a demo game that had to last about four hours, and in previous playthroughs, Team Yankee is a very quick system of play. This was why the instructions to all players was: if you have it in the box, it can go on the table. They're your forces, you decide what you want and where to put them - within the limits already detailed. 

As for the scenario, if Jim hadn't taken note of the ability to flood the middle third of the table with (unseen and unplaced) militia, it could have been a very different game. Possibly the addition of some observation rules might be in order as I am not a fan of the way TY handles ambushes so ignored those for this game. There again, different theatre, different tactics. 

On the whole, this was a fun game to run and the participants said they enjoyed themselves, even if the umpire did live up to expectations and was a bit of a twat - tee hee hee! I would expect no less from them in the games they run! There were thoughts about changes and modifications to be made but, on the whole, it worked reasonably well. 

The Battleground Show itself was also rather good, and certainly seemed to be well-attended once the doors opened. No fault can be found with the organisation nor the venue, so well done to Pendraken for putting the show on. There are also internal TWAT discussions about attending next year for another demo if they'll have us. If I am running it again, then no doubt there will be a repeat of this TIT for TWATS production. 

Dice Men by Ian Livingstone with Steve Jackson - Book Review

Let\s clear this up straight away. This is not about Games Workshop. Well, it is, but not that Games Workshop. If you want a corporate history of the modern day vertically integrated (and occasionally litigious) sales machine, this is not the book for you - and I question how thrilling that would be... Nope, Dice Men is the story of the creation of Games Workshop by Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake up until the point where the company went public and the remaining two founders (Peake left in '76) sold their remaining stake in the company in 1991.

This is quite the autobiography from Livingstone, detailing as it does his childhood and early adult years before starting the business that would eventually evolve into the behemoth that is the current day Games Workshop. There are plenty of contributions from Jackson and others who have been invited to add their memories, creating the patchwork of stories that make up the company's early years. 

Amongst the anecdotes of board games being played, Dungeons and Dragons being discovered and a rather eventful US road trip, you will find out how these guys set up their board game retailer and snagged the UK and European distribution rights to D&D. There's the struggles of running a business, creating a newsletter and a magazine (the latter of which still exists to this day), the expansion of the company to cover the loss of D&D in the early 80's, creating their own figures, and both Livingstone's and Jackson's other projects, most notably the Fighting Fantasy book series - of which I have many a fond memory of reading/playing back in the mists of time. 

Along the way, there are personal conflicts, corporate shenanigans and many a funny tale to be told. As you'd expect from Unbound, this is a very well produced hardback and there is full colour throughout. There are numerous photographs, pieces of artwork, covers and illustrations to behold. This, almost as much as the author's recollections themselves, sells the title. If you're of a certain vintage, the sight of some of these will encourage the rose-tinted spectacles to engage for a more simple time. Note to readers - it wasn't simpler, it was just different. 

I can't find much to fault with either the writing or the presentation, but I would point out that, as with all histories, memory can play tricks, and Ian's description of playing several classic Amiga titles ini the late 1980's with just 256kb of RAM is the only one I can fault. Of the titles listed, only one is from the 1980's and the others all needed at least 512kb of RAM. Yeah, nit-picking, but there we are and it in no way spoils the overall book. 

Anyhoo, this is a fascinating tale, filled with detail and a ton of style and panache in the telling. The foundations of the modern day high street monster are revealed in a mostly warts and all manner and, whilst it wasn't all plain sailing, you can't fault the drive and passion demonstrated by those involved in the early days of GW. You can pick up a copy from the usual high street retailers (including Forbidden Planet which is where I got my copy from) or online, whichever is your preference. 

From Julietts to Yasens by Alejandro A. Vilches Alarcon - Book Review

From Julietts to Yasens is one of the latest titles from Helion & Co's superlative Europe@War range and covers the design, development and operational history of Soviet cruise missile submarines from 1958 to 2022. This may be considered a somewhat niche topic but as someone who grew up reading the likes of The Hunt For Red October and Red Storm Rising, I've always been fascinated by Cold War submarines and, in particular, those of the Soviet Navy.

Coming in at 88 pages (excluding the covers), From Julietts to Yasens takes the reader through the early days of the Soviet Navy's attempts to get a workable cruise missile submarine into service. The Whiskey-class were a worthy (if of dubious safety) first attempt, and the follow up Juliett-class something entirely more capable - although I do wonder exactly how loud these boats were with all of that flow noise! Function definitely dictated form. As for the nuclear-powered Echo-class, well, improvements abounded, in a technical sense if not in safety.

The follow-up Echo II was again more capable, before there was the slight detour with the Papa-class. I say class, it was just one boat, nicknamed the "Golden Fish" due to its cost. The Charlie-class were a return to common sense (and sensible budgeting) before the behemoths that were (and still are) the Oscar-class became the byword in cruise missile submarine design. Finally, there is a brief note on the current situation with the Yasen-class SSGN's.

For each class, there is a design history coupled with an operational history. Weapons and potential opponents are also discussed. Patrols are detailed as well as upgrades and, more tellingly, accidents. By any standards, the accident rate in the cruise missile sub fleet was disconcertingly high - the list for the Echo-class takes up a whole page. More serious incidents are given greater detail - the K431 incident in 1985 being the most serious Cold War event, but the loss of the Kursk (for entirely different reasons) is also included too. There is balance to the writing and I cannot find fault with the author's point of view.

I think that this is most pertinent takeaway from this book. Yes, the Soviet Union managed to field such vessels and with a variety of technological firsts, but the safety record of the fleet was a major concern. That should not take away the sense of achievement that should be rightly felt at the level of technological progress, but questions should have been asked (and should continue to be asked) about whether it was worth the price in cold hard coin, environmental damage and the effect on people's lives. That being said, the idea of a cruise missile submarine force to deal with enemy carrier fleets was a distinctly Soviet endeavour and thankfully, outside the realms of fiction or war-games, one that has never been tested in reality. 

This comment may seem like a cut and paste job from another Helion & Co review but once again there are plenty of contemporary photographs, as well as maps, diagrams, tables and the ever high quality plate section occupying the centre pages. Given the paucity of imagery in the numerous publications I already have on the subject of Soviet submarines, this book is a worthy addition to the library on that point alone.

As a fan of Cold War submarine warfare, From Julietts to Yasens is a fantastic guide to a uniquely Soviet technological enterprise and one that should be on your shelves if you are interested in Cold War naval history. There is also plenty of detail in here to add any amount of flavour to those who wish to game the use of these vessels. 

You can pick up a copy of From Julietts to Yasens directly from Helion & Co here or from their trade stand at various shows across the UK. Keep an eye on their social media links for future news about attendance.