Lector over at Men of the West recently posted on Stupid Teachers [https://www.menofthewest.net/stupid-teachers/], and his experience getting placed in a remedial reading class. The highlight was the total inability of the school administration to believe their own eyes about his ability to read but instead believe a failed multiple choice standardized test that he had obviously answered one-off. I've generally avoided tooting my own horn, but it echoed all too many experiences I had. That sai…
After years - I've tried demos of this every year or so since 1999 or so - I finally picked up Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy [https://www.battlefront.com/battle-for-normandy/] by Battlefront. And had my butt handed to me. OK, I'm used to being in the odd situation of doing better against people than the AI, but in this case it was both a combination of my ignorance of the UI - fixed by reading the manual - and the ins and outs of operations at a squad level vice more abstracted wargames…
I've mentioned the Dwimmermount / ACKs campain we run before [https://thelastredoubt.com/for-every-action/], and in both cases I mentioned the cleric Three Steps [https://thelastredoubt.com/something-funny-happened-on-the-way-to-the-dungeon/]. What follows is a perfect example of both how players can gloriously throw total monkey wrenches into a beautifully configured set piece, and how this is made possible by a rules structure that encourages players to tell the GM what they're actually goin…
There's more than enough things that are obviously, from a fit, finish, design, etc. standpoint simply not built to last. These days, you'll often see them referred do as "cheap plastic crap from China", or something similar. Similarly, the lifespan of clothes washers and similar appliances these days are not what they used to be either, even in the more expensive brands. Even with more expensive brands where the fit and finish is good, it's usually cutting material amounts to save weight and…
Just like "literary fiction," is just as much of a genre as Westerns, there is of course a meta-genre of "Oscar bait." My previous posts on guessing the winner were utterly based on the fact that, with a large number of films being competently acted, directed, erdited, etc., the only real question to winning an Oscar was "does it fit the current woke zeitgeist"? Over at rt, someone else noticed this [https://www.rt.com/op-ed/478360-jojo-rabbit-oscar-holocaust/]: > It goes like this: if you wan…