Mayblog 2024

Wandering around the UK

Returning from the ancestral Sussex pile along the south coast by rail, my dilapidated and delayed train left me with an hours wait at Portsmouth and an opportunity to wander around the Naval Dockyard. One of our new aircraft carriers had as many scaffoldings, tarpaulins, and cranes on it as Nelson’s old 1805 flagship HMS Victory. That seemed to say a lot about Britain – a place with a glorious past and an uncertain future, where few things seem to work very well anymore. Perhaps we should concentrate on fixing The Victory first – at least we know it works. It has fantastic damage resistance, and the addition of some missile launchers would give it a longer reach. Okay it’s a bit slow, but its totally green, requiring no fuel at all.

I had a delightful visit to the Scottish Highlands to visit family and enjoy two thing in particular that Scotland does better than England. Firstly, awesome Steak Pies that put the ghastly Cornish pasties of my adopted homeland in the Southwest to shame. A business opportunity must lay there. Secondly, huge expanses of a much more spectacular species of gorse bush which often lines the highland highways with a psychedelically vibrant and almost hallucinogenic yellow glory when the sun shines on it. Best of all, the damnable Scottish Nationalist Party went into a probably terminal nosedive during my stay, justifying my many years of polemic and cursing.

Endorsement for Baphomet - History, Ritual, and Magic of the World’s Most Famous Occult Icon, by Michael Osiris Snuffin.

Michael Osiris Snuffin has written a definitive Theometry of Baphomet. He shows us exactly how and why this deity-form arose and developed into a major occult meme that has inspired many of the leading magicians, romantics, and rebels of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first centuries.

Impressive research and scholarship has gone into this book.

If we define magic as the use of imaginary phenomena to create real effects, then the magical creation and evolution of the Baphomet concept has certainly had a profound effect on the ideas and actions of several generations of occultists, sexual non-conformists, and rebel mystics.

The author gradually reveals a deep personal relationship with Baphomet and provides practical meditations and rituals through which the reader may approach and invoke the deity-form. By his magic he has made himself a High Priest of Baphomet.

Back down on the Welsh shores, a sweep of the beach yielded a few more sea-worn pieces of aerated autoclaved concrete block. The surf has remained poor and the sea cold, so the vape accessories recycled and saved over the winter have found a use in the space-yards in the construction of a couple of destroyers for the Skaron fleet.

This month’s esoteric musings on Quantum Ontology.

The diagram shows 5 of the six dimensions, two of space and three of time with the plane of imaginary time superimposed on the spatial plane as it acts as a pseudo-space. The cones show retarded and advanced quantum waves spreading out from, and converging at, the origin. In a fully 6 dimensional representation the circles would appear as spheres. This representation implies that deeper symmetries underlie superposition and entanglement.

Frontier Space War, version 8.

FSW8 represents the latest upgrade to this interstellar conflict system. I have used some high quality metallic spray paints on the card discs showing the star systems and the all-metal ships made out of nuts and bolts, ball bearings, plumbing fittings, masonry and plaster anchors, and some two-part epoxy resin as adhesive.

The five factions here represent: -

Imperials (I), Aquarians (A), Goths (G), Capitalists (C), Soviets (S).

Yet they can represent anything from Neo-Feudal Noble Houses to a variety of Alien Races.

The combat powers of units in attack A or defence D, appear as the type of dice used for such attacks or defences. Icosahedron 20, Dodecahedron 12, Pentagonal bipyramid 10, Octahedron 8, Cube 6, Tetrahedron 4. The system requires 3 sets of attack dice and two of defence dice.

b/3 means best of 3 dice rolls. (1/tn) means only one shot per player turn. (8*) means Destroyers engaged in rounds of combat with  Capital Ships denoted *, attack or defend at 8. # means craft may jump past enemy craft during movement, but not enemy # craft, otherise all other pieces must halt on encountering enemy pieces.

Unit.                        ATTACK    DEFENCE            COST     MOVE    

Capital City*                  -                  20                          -               0

Fortress*                         -                  20                         5               1 NR       

Battleship*                    12                 12                         5               2                              

Battlecruiser*               10                 10                         4               2                                               

Cruiser/Carrier             8                    8                         3              3#                               

Destroyer                       6     (8*)        6                          2              3#                                              

Frigate                           4                    4                          1              3#             

Fort                                -                     4                          -               0

Monitor*                       4                   20                         3               1 NR

Devastator(I)                12   (1/tn)     4                           2               3                    

Fighter(I)                       6                   6                         ¹/₃              0¹     

Attack Cruiser(G)        10                  6                          3               3

Heavy Gunship*(ACS) 20                 4                          5               2                           

Katusha (S)           b/3   10  (1/tn)       6                         2               3

Flagships*  as below

(I)(S) As for Battleship, but attack at 20 and add  +1 to all dice in flotilla A or D.

(C) As for Battleship, but may deploy its 2 fighters in addition to standard attack or defence 3:2 lineup.             

(G) As for Battleship, but b/3 to self and one other ship in flotilla, A or D.

(A) As for Destroyer, but b/3 to self and two other ships in flotilla, A or D.

All worlds must be occupied by a Fort for income. Any Fortress can produce units up to a total cost of 5 per turn. Unused income cannot be saved.  Any ship costing 3 or more may place a Fort on a world cleared of opposing forces at no cost.

Player turn: - INCOME(connected systems), PRODUCTION(at Fortresses), MOVEMENT, COMBAT(retreat, out of combat), (PLACE FORTS)

COMBAT – Risk Protocols, up to 3 Attack dice and 2 Defence dice. Attacker deploys first in each round, up to 3 pieces if available, defender deploys second, must place 2 pieces if available. Compare highest two dice throws in order, defender wins draws. Each side removes one casualty of choice for each loss. After one or more rounds of combat either side may elect to retreat 1 jump from the territory, if possible. NR means no retreat option for unit.

0¹ Fighters can only move in Carriers. Only one active producing fortress per system.

Start – 2 Player game - All pieces on board, at least one ship and a fort per system. Imperials pick 1 ally. Remaining 3 factions ally as Rebels. Alternate All Imperials then All Rebels. Combined ops in attack or defence.

3 Player game. Imperials versus 2 alliances of 2 others. No combined operations.

4 Player game. Imperials inactive due to internal collapse, no production, or movement, defence only. 4 other factions fight for supremacy.

5 Player game. All five factions strive for supremacy. Alliances may form and break but no combined operations except for conquered factions.

Victory Conditions. Eliminate enemy Capitals. Any remaining forces then become subsumed into an alliance with combined operations.

Income from star systems, Large 3, Medium 2, Small 1.    

Starting incomes. (I) 19   (A) 15   (G) 15   (C) 16   (S) 14

Optional extra:  Psi Weapon Tournament Rules.  

Psi weapons run on strange esoteric, AI, and quantum principles to modify material and psychological realities. Factions may purchase them during their production phases at a cost denoted by C. Any faction may hold up to one of each type of the eight Psi weapons. The black and red Psi weapons can attack enemy Psi weapons (or other enemy units) at any distance with an attack denoted by A. All Psi weapons have a defence denoted by D. Any vessel may transport or hold a Psi weapon, but if all available vessels become destroyed, so does the weapon.

Local effect weapons. (Within systems only.)

(6) Yellow – Command Enhancement. Confers  +2, A or D on a Flotilla. C4 D6

(8) Orange - Navigation – Allows all mobile vessels in a flotilla to move 3, ignoring # pickets. C5 D4

(1) White – Prescience – Allows a vessel or flotilla to move and make an attack but to completely cancel the entire action if it fails, at the cost of the loss of the Psi weapon. Alternatively, an attacking flotilla with Prescience may require a defending flotilla without Prescience to deploy first in each combat round. C4 D6

(7) Green - Diplomacy – Allows a flotilla to delay its move for a combined operation with another faction. C3 D8

Non-Local effect weapons. (Effects anywhere.)

(4)  Blue - Production Bonus -  increases production of fortresses to 8. C3 D6

(2) Purple - Fecundity Bonus – increases income from all systems by 1. C5 D4

(5) Red – Attack Magic - attack any Psi weapon. C3 A6 D6

(3) Black – Dark Arts – attack any Psi weapon or may attack any unit. C5 A8 D8

The following chart shows the ideological relationships of the five example factions.

                       (Individualist)

                                  l

         Goths               l              Capitalists

                                  l

(Mystical) ---------Imperials ------------(Rationalist)

                                  l                     

         Aquarians       l                 Soviets

                                  l

                         (Collectivist)