Empire Total War - 2017-03-26

I am at the point of conquering all of the Indian subcontinent but in Europe Hungary has declared war on me.  So I have to divert troops to deal with them from my war with Poland/Lithuania and Russia.

The Hitler Options: Alternate decisions of World War 2 - A review

I have finished reading 'The Hitler Options: Alternate decisions of World War 2' by Kenneth Macksey. A very interesting alternate history book, which explores the usual 'what ifs' - Nazi invasion of Britain, D-day failure for the allies and Axis victory in the battle of britain, but it also looks at ways in which the allies could have shortened the war by attacking from southern France rather than through Normandy and also a strategic bombing campaign bringing the Wehrmacht to sue for peace.  The scenarios and possible options are quite plausible and I recommend this for any alternate history buff.

Empire Total War 2017-03-11

Tonight I have achieved a significant milestone on my campaign as I have just captured Warsaw.  My next target is Moscow therefore going one better than Napoleon and Hitler.

The Hitler Options: Alternate Decisions of World War II by Kenneth Macksey

Today, I bought The Hitler Options: Alternate Decisions of World War II by Kenneth Macksey on Amazon Kindle and just started reading it on the journey to work.  It is another alternate history book containing essays by different military historians on the different decisions that Hitler could have taken at key points during WWII and the effect of those decisions.

I will write a review when I have finished it.

In praise of.......... Sports Champions on Playstation 3

I only own a handful of PS3 games and one that I keep playing over and over again is Sports Champions, a sports sim with a twist.  It uses the Playstation Move capability so it feels like you are playing the sport for real to an extent.  The sports featured include table tennis, disc golf (frisbee), archery, gladiator duel(sword fighting) and my favourite, bocce, which is a variant of the French game boules or bowls.  I like the realism of the game and the fact it can be enjoyed as a single or multiplayer.  In each sport there is the 'campaign' mode where you take on players of ever increasing difficulty or free play.  Sports Champions was the flagship game of the PS Move but Sony has not made great use of the Move technology with only a limited range of games.  Both the Move and the PS3 are now defunct but the enjoyableness of this game prevents me from investing in a PS4.

Barbara Ntumy and Jack Buckby

In the past week, there was a notorious Channel 4 News debate featuring right wing activist Jack Buckby and Momentum member,Farage confronter and student activist Barbara Ntumy.  It was notorious because Buckby pulled out a sheet of paper and asked Ntumy whether she would fill it in and accept refugees into her home.  He then followed up with the comment 'I hope you don't get raped' which made him come out looking rather bad even though he had a reasoned argument in that piece.  To her credit Ntumy did say that she accept refugees into her home if she had the means.

During the discussion, Ntumy said that Buckby objected to her existence several times and which he denied strenuosly.  What Buckby objected to were those who were a drain on society which in closer analysis is actually a reasonable point.  He also said he hated Ntumy's politics rather than Ntumy personally, in particular her faux outrage when IS are committing atrocities. Ntumy then brings up the British colonialism that happened in her birth country - Ghana.  Its strange Arab colonialism is ignored and black on black colonialism is also ignored.  It is clear that Buckby cannot be defined as a racist in this instance.  Instead he is making very reasonable points about immigration and also cultural differences between the hosts and newcomers.  Time and again the left has failed to deal with this and any discussion of this is set within narrow limits lest one is accused of being a racist.

On a later Youtube video, Ntumy supports the idea of 'no platforming' whereby those whose views are not acceptable to Guardian readers are not allowed to speak in public. In the age of social media, the no platform is being rendered obsolete.

Empire Total War - 2017-02-12

I've have been rather quiet on the ETW over the past weeks due to the Chinese New Year and various other family commitments.  I have moved on to 1824 on my game calendar and the conquest of Poland-Lithuania and the Maratha Confederacy is in full steam.  The Marathas should capitulate in a few more turns and one of its regions(Punjab) has already rebelled against its rule.  However I have lost a region, Wurtenburg, to a rebellion but I shall get that back in due course.  Once Poland-Lithuania has fallen I am considering a campaign against Russia.