Empire Total War 2016-12-30

The Maratha Confederacy unit has this annoying habit of appearing from nowhere to invade your regions, and this happened again when it decided to attack my Spanish region.  Luckily I had my army stationed in the fortress in Madrid.  After losing my first siege battle to them, I reloaded the save file and took them on again but this time using different tactics.  My failed tactic involved placing my troops on the walls which does not work well when the enemy has artillery of any sort even light cannons.  The destruction of the walls led to the destruction of army units and once the artillery was done the Indian infantry moved in to destroy my remaining troops.

On my second attempt, I placed my army on the ground inside the walls and placed my cannons at the points where the cannons were likely to breach the walls.  My infantry would be placed behind my cannons.  Sure enough the Indian artillery created breaches but failed to kill any of my soldiers.  However, when the Maratha infantry attacked the fortifications they were mown down by cannon and gunfire. Although I won, my army still suffered a 35% casualty rate, this was victory Stalingrad style.

George Michael and Carrie Fisher

Right up to the end, 2016 is taking its toll on the famous and in particular my childhood heroes.  The last few days has seen the passing of first George Michael and later Carrie Fisher.  As a primary school pupil I remember Wham bursting on the scene and even then I saw great talent and personality in him.  As expected George went on to bigger and better things.  This is how I remember him best.

As for Carrie Fisher, like most people I remember her best for being Princess Leia in the Star Wars franchise.

These two legends are at one with the force and will not wake up before I go go.

Rick Parfitt

I woke to hear the sad news that Rick Parfitt of Status Quo passed away at the age of 68. In a year which saw the passing of many of my childhood heroes Bowie, Prince and Ronnie Corbett in particular, God seems to be assembling an entertainment troupe upstairs.  Merry Christmas to everyone and Rick, rest in peace and thanks for the memories.

Empire Total War 2016-12-14

My Grand Campaign has now reached year 1782, it is still a challenge and I still enjoy the game despite work and home priorities have often kept me away from playing it.  Conquering more regions does not translate into greater tax revenue.  In fact it brings in more costs such as construction projects, replenishment of armies, and also the cost of putting done rebellions that always occur early on.  The trick is find the right balance without over-stretching resources, on that note the Total War franchise has mapped historical realities very well.  The only immediate gain from capturing regions is that you can have a quick technological advance by capturing universities.

Simon Singh: the Code book

I have just bought Simon Singh's "the code book: The Secret History of Codes and Code-breaking".  This was recommended to me on a Youtube video about Alan Turing and the breaking of the Nazi Enigma codes.