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The U-Boat War: A Global History 1939-45. An episode of WW2 Podcast.
A Deep Dive into the Tiger I, by the Chieftain (Youtube video)
Science: Effects of Tabletop Games on Cognition in Older Adults: 11-study Systematic Review and 10-study Meta-Analysis.
In older adults with intact cognition, tabletop games had positive effects on their global cognition (standardized mean differences [SMD]=1.36, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 0.37-2.34, P < 0.001) and executive function (SMD=0.47, 95% CI: 0.12-0.83, P<0.001). In older adults with cognitive impairment, significant differences were found in global cognition (SMD=0.53, 95% CI: 0.09-0.98, P=0.02). pub-med source
Troop movement animation of WWII in Estonia by Eastory Youtube channel
Juno & Sword game seems to be, once again, mysteriously, available on the Play Store. You know, after being removed for almost a year for 'being an exact clone of Utah & Omaha' due to having completely different units, map, AI, etc. I just simply love love love trying to run a serious business on top of such a blindingly random platform. Obviously, I never heard back from Google about most of my appeals.
The next round of updates, after getting a new game out, will bring forth a handful of AI fixes, reducing the 'getting stuck over a hospital' type issues caused by priorities interlocking the unit at one spot.
Landing in The First Wave on Omaha Beach on D-Day, A Regiment's Last Survivor Remembers (American Veterans Center channel on Youtube)
Yes, I'm working on new games, nope, it's not progressing very quickly.
Hall of Fame bug: After receiving a report of a score not showing in the HOF, and after doing a lot of digging, I finally managed to find an edge case which might prevent the score from being included in the database. Fortunately, a hash of these 'unaccepted' scores was made, so if you lost an epic score, email me the details, and I can confirm that from the hash, and add it manually. Apologies.
First Time Watching: Full Metal Jacket (Brandon). Here is something a little bit less stressing, I have recently watched some 'First Time Watching' videos on Youtube, it's interesting to see how wildly differently various people react to war films, and on what aspects they chose to focus on.
It's a tough time to be an independent developer located in the Eastern part of Europe at the moment, so I would appreciate any help, from purchasing a game to any likes, ratings, or shares possible. Simply trying to get into a productive frame of mind for a longer periods of time is challening, when people I personally know have volunteered to serve and are seeing action, and there exists so many aspects of life to worry about and get distracted by. Not just my own, but my elderly parent, who is also located near the border to Russia. Strange times we live in.
Features rolling out: Adding options to (1) turn sending your scores to the online database ON/OFF (2) turn developer alerts of major events ON/OFF. Both of these can be found from the Settings View (Main=Dice) once they have been added.
Zeppelin Warfare. At the start of hostilities, the German military had two airship fleets: one for the navy and one for the army. As the war progressed it was the navy Zeppelins that pursued the air war against Britain with the greatest conviction. Throughout 1915, German airships encountered little in the way of serious opposition when they appeared over Britain. The nation had trailed in aviation development prior to the outbreak of war and had also given little consideration to creating an aerial defense plan.
Russian Invasion of Finland - The Winter War 1939-40 video by Mark Felton
Apologies for the lower-than-usual rate of updates on this log, but since I'm located adjacent to a country involved in a major land war in Europe, I have been a little bit pre-occupied with refugees, preparations, and watching readings in gamma-radiation meters increase as heavy combat vehicles rumble the ground and rise Chernobyl-dust into the air from the shaking soil... It's still hard to truly comprehend that a major land war is once again ongoing in Europe - and we might be heading into the Cold War II. Hoping for the best - preparing for the worst.
Features rolling out: Minefields won't be arriving automatically, but need to be requested by Generals (assuming minefields are not requested from Depots/Battleships/Engineers), HP replacements can be assigned to a unit which has up to 3 enemy controlled hexagons adjacent to it (on normal Difficulty Level), HOF located to web, AI artillery may escape just like AI generals do, unit resting in hospital won't be interrupted by storms/enemy-artillery/strafing/cold/fatigue, add more military history quotations.
Tank Angling: Historical or Stupid Game Mechanic? video on Military History not Visualized Youtube channel.
'Lost' blueprint discovered for world's first tank built by the Brits to win WWI
The fascinating design document is the only known blueprint for the British-made Mark I tank that exists. The highly-detailed, large scale technical plan is like an 'X-ray' for the tracked vehicle that helped change the course of the First World War. The 44ins by 28ins blueprint, that is dated May 1916, has come from a private vendor whose family have owned it for some considerable time.
DIEPPE: HOF had excess test-conditions filtereing out many scores, fixed now. Also, seems that at least one player has found to way to 'beat' the game and conquer the whole map, so a lot of tweaks coming in the next update. I'm also considering adding a rule which would LIMIT the number of the evacuated units to one per evacuation location per turn.
Eastern Front: Version 6261 rolling out, fixes the resource assignment issue on some devices.
NEW GAME: DIEPPE RAID 1942 is starting to roll out. The harrowing Canadian-British Commando raid on the port town of Dieppe in 1942 to practice the D-Day landings. Play Store or Amazon or Free at Amazon. Exceptionally your final score will be cumulative Victory Points multiplied by the number of combat units evacuated.
HOF: Viewing the Hall of Fame will be relocated from the app to the server. The app will simply include a link to the HOF webpage (opened in your default browser). The online HOF will not make an effort to remove multiple scores by the same username (as the app did). There are multiple reasons for the change: (1) Older budget devices are are often short on space and processing power, which creates various issues. (2) Downloading and processing and sorting and viewing thousands of entries made of various data types is error prone. (3) The web listing will always be up-to-date. (4) The smaller application size never hurt anyone. (5) High score data is just once transferred to the server, the end of story - instead of moving the new scores back and forth between the device and the server and the other devices updating their Hall of Fame.
What changes and features are generally being rolled out (early 2022): Assigning replacements (+1 HP) to a unit will be a bit easier (3 adjacent enemy hexagons allowed, but the severity of enemy-blocks-replacements depends on the Difficulty Level. AI artillery might escape capture (just like the AI generals do). AI will be better at holding a coherent front line (instead of accidentally sending all the units in one specific area away to carry out various tactical/strategic acts). The Hall of Fame (HOF) will be updated (see the separate segment about HOF on this page).
Privacy Policy. It is now a little bit more detailed.
Airships of the American Civil War: The Bizarre Story of the Union Army's Experimental Balloon Corps. It was because of the daring accomplishments of men like Lowe and La Mountain that the brief, but spectacular experiment known as the Union Army Balloon Corps came to exist.
The oldest Android API to be supported in the latest versions of the apps will be 19 (4.4 Kitkat).
The Absurd Rules-of-Engagement GIs Had to Follow During the Vietnam War. One of the more curious locations fought over during Vietnam was Michelin's rubber tree plantation - yes, Michelin the tire company. This plantation was a major headache for US troops, as they were forbidden from calling in artillery on enemies inside of it.
Working on the Hall-of-Fame databases, which have not been properly updated in ages...
Obscure Military Ranks That No Longer Exist And What They Meant
If the zoom in/out buttons stop responding, reduce the size of the minimap on the upper left corner, as the cause very likely is some type of rounding issue where the minimap is assumed to cover the zoom buttons.
Melting Alpine glacier reveals hidden WW1 tunnels and bunker. Military historian Giovanni Cadioli wriggles in backwards, his head torch revealing an extraordinary scene that has literally been frozen in time. It is a First World War bunker constructed from timber, scattered with the possessions of its past inhabitants - rusted tins of food, bullet casings and metal cooking implements.
Battle of the Bulge fix: HOF database was stuck after the latest update.
Mark Felton has an interesting theory about an 'unknown' Japanese torpedo attack on San Francisco in 1941 : Golden Gate Torpedo Attack - Japanese Assault on San Francisco 1941
Renaming First World War: Western Front to World War I: Western Front since Google Play Store no longer allows words like 'first' or 'great'.
Operation Barbarossa: The Lost Diaries of Lt. Friedrich Sander (History Hit Podcast) what was it really like to serve on the front lines of the Eastern Front? The historian Rob Schäfer has given History Hit exclusive access to the diaries of Lt. Friedrich Sander, a Panzer officer and one of the 3 million German troops involved in Operation Barbarossa. The diaries are brutal in their honesty
New super """"""""""brilliant"""""""""" Google Play Store policy, no more numbers in the title or app name, so which Battle of Berlin is my app, who knows, because I can't use the year... *sigh*
The Kettering Bug: America's First Foray Into Unmanned Drone Technology Started During WWI. The development of such a machine began in WWI, when the US Army asked American inventor Charles Kettering to design a flying bomb, one that could fly without a pilot. Kettering was tasked with designing a flying bomb capable of hitting a target 40 miles away. Orville Wright, the man credited with taking to the skies for the first time, was a consultant for the project. The Kettering Bug looks like a relatively conventional aircraft, but it's actually a flying bomb, a precursor to the modern-day cruise missile.
George Patton bought supplies from Sears because the US was so unprepared for WWII. Petton was born into an affluent family and married the daughter of an extremely wealthy businessman, whose family was also worth a fortune. With these funds, Patton was able to personally finance the equipping of an armored division.
Air force unit can land on out-of-supply airfields from now on. The during-the-tap check for supply route has been too much work for the old budget devices.
That thing when you start to make a quick 8 minute fix and are still figuring that app out 8 hours later...
Battle of Medina Ridge 1991: One of the Largest Tank Battles in US History. By the 27th of February, the Gulf War coalition had already made huge progress through Iraq... the US 1st Armored Division arrived at the seven-mile-long Medina Ridge. Unbeknownst to them, the ridge was hiding an enormous force from the elite Medina Republican Guard Division, that had a mix of T-72 and T-62 tanks...
In order to reduce the massive amount of processing the creation of a new game takes, I have started a long-term process to relocate creation of some of the (non-front-line) units from new game creation to the turn number two. This should not change anything at all, but if you start a new game and suddenly an ememy unit emerges over your unit at the start of the turn 2, let me know, this is theoretically possible with when a higher amount of variation is turned on from the settings.
The First Air Raid Happened When Austria Dropped Bombs on Venice from Pilotless Hot-Air Balloons (1849). It was possible to launch a fleet of hot air balloons loaded with explosives from a ship and send them in the general direction of a target. That's what the Austrian army did - twice - over Venice, in a campaign to recapture the city when its citizens rebelled against imperial rule and built their own republic.
History Hit Podcast: The Unheard Tapes of Bomber Command
Little Willie: The World's Oldest Preserved Tank Prototype
Seems like WWII bunkers are the latest thing:
1) Unique Islington flat with refurbished WW2 bunker goes on the market
2) Bunker L479: World War II bunker turned into an Airbnb in France
After re-capturing the city of Vyborg in August 1941, the Finns discovered time-ignited and radio-triggered mines left by the Russians. The mines exploded after a certain part of their machinery resonated with a certain radio frequency. A group of pioneers led by Lieutenant Lauri Sutela found special launch devices in Antrea from an explosive placed under the bridge. The equipment was studied and the frequency reserved for blasting was blocked by playing the song Säkkijärven Polkka nonstop on the radio for 6 months until the batteries of the mine-launchers were calculated to be exhausted.
WW2 Podcast: Luftwaffe Special Weapons (aviation historian Robert Forsyth). As the course of the second world war turned against the Third Reich some radical proposals and inventive designs, were put forward by armaments manufacturers, scientists, technicians, aircrew and even private individuals to the German Air Ministry for consideration as weapons to be utilised by the Luftwaffe. Some proposals were destined never to leave the drawing board, while others not only underwent trials but were issued to operational units and used in action.
Slowly updating the "Italian Trilogy": Sicily, Anzio-Cassino, Italian Campaign...
This episode the History Hit podcast changed my views on Gallipoli campaign Gallipoli: What Led to Britain's WW1 Disaster?.
Article: Little Willie: The World's Oldest Preserved Tank Prototype. Britain's Little Willie claims the title of the world's oldest tank, being assembled and driven over a century ago. It is a prototype that was pivotal in the eventual creation of the famous rhomboid tanks that rolled across WWI battlefields.
Article: The Bovington Tank Museum has hosted its first wedding after one couple said their vows in front of a World War Two tank.
Article: Submarine USS R-14 (SS-91) Made it Home with a Sail Made of Blankets
I will be renaming "Second Battle of El Alamein: German Defense" to "Panzer Army Africa: 2nd El Alamein" or something similar to avoid crazy bans based on apps sharing a word or two in the title.
Video: Secret Allied Panther Tank Factory
Inflatable 3-ton dummy lorry
Video link: Blackadder answers: How did World War I Begin?
Background image-pattern setting will be turned OFF (using yellow-green-color) by default on new installations from now on.
News: An elderly German man is facing a suspended prison sentence for storing a WWII tank in his basement. According to man's lawyer, a US museum is keen to buy the 1943 Panther tank. Central to the case is whether the man broke Germany's War Weapons Control Act by holding the tank as the legislation controls the manufacture, sale, and transport of weapons of war.
Oh, how I love to hate settings and options... Yes, it's great as a user to be able to tweak everything so that everything works and looks pleasant on your particular display technology and brightness settings. However, as a developer, it's so much work to keep all the various settings from conflicting with each other, at least tragically. Some city icons are transparent, some are not, so some cover adjacent rivers, some do not. Add on top of this the changes in the size of the icons for units, and now everything starts to be drawn over each other a lot with certain combinations of settings. Now multiply this with hundreds of settings, each with a handful of possible values. As a developer, you might check all those 50,000 combinations when you're creating the very first game or game engine, but checking everything after each and every tiny change and addition is not humanly possible if you want to keep progressing. Let's say 50,000 combinations of various settings and options exist per app; some are quick to test, some are not (for example, if you need to create a specific stack of various types of units); let's say it takes on average 5 minutes to see if something creates problems or not. If you spent 12 hours per day carrying out those checks, you'd be finished in a year. If you want to check everything, a year of checks after every new change would completely kill all progress. This is why (even the biggest) companies either avoid settings like poison or keep simplifying the options they offer, or they simply check the new changes and the most popular combinations and hope for the best for the rare combinations. Over the years, you will of course inevitably create setting combinations that will screw something up; all you can do is rely on players taking their time to report them or using common sense to not get stuck using that particular combination out of the tens of thousands possible. You can automate some checks, but drawing 20 things on top of each other is not one of them.
I have been asked what Youtube channels I recommend for WWII related content. I definitely praise these three channels mentioned below. Both are awe-inspiring because of their in-depth coverage of a topic is based on countless different books/sources, instead of just one or two. If you're a history buff, I'm certain you are aware how distorted and varying sources are in each country vs the next, and the view of WWII changes per decade, add on top of that the tensions of the Cold War, nationalistic pride, translation errors, etc, and it's no wonder some topics might be outright incorrect even in some eminent WWII books.
(1) Mark Felton Productions - Pretty much the only channel I have came across that didn't get confused by the shady politically motivated documentation East Germany produced about some post-war events, you gotta respect that.
(2) TIK History - His detailed mega-series on the battle of Stalingrad is relying in-depth Soviet and Western sources, even laying out the most likely answers to some of the decades long arguments about what happened at place Z on day X.
(3) World War Two week by week in realtime by Indy Neidell & Spartacus Olsson
Article: Operation Unthinkable - Churchill's Plan to Drive the Red Army From Eastern Europe in 1945 ... Churchill had long held that Stalin represented the greatest threat to the security of post-war Europe... The strategic architect of his proposed land offensive was Brigadier Geoffrey Thompson... Operation Unthinkable was to involve more than 8,000 tanks and would use 47 American, British, Canadian and Polish forces push the Red Army back to the Oder and Neisse rivers...
Added six Play-through documents by various players with screenshots and commentary (shared from Google Drive) to the FAQ-page.
Excerpt from the book 'Moves East' by Paul Carell:
The Soviets tried to break through the barrier again to restore communications with their 9 cut-off divisions which had made the penetration. That had to be prevented. For this task Model chose the best man. "Hold on at all costs," had been Model's order to Obersturmbannführer Otto Kumm and his 650-strong regiment from the 2nd WSS Division. "At all costs," the general had repeated emphatically.
The Russians attacked ceaselessly. Day after day their formations grew more numerous. They were intent on getting through, on restoring contact with the cut-off divisions. It was at that point that the battle of Rzhev was being decided. The Russians kept up their charge ceaselessly - by day and by night, throughout 3 weeks. They flung in battalion after battalion, then regiment after regiment, and eventually brigade after brigade.
On the sixth day the Russians appeared in front of 10th Company with 30 light tanks. They advanced to within 50 yards of the positions. They halted. And then the whole armada opened fire at the infantry dug-outs and machine-gun posts. They continued blasting them from all barrels for a full 30 minutes. Then they drove back into the forest. Silence and brittle cold hung over the plain. Two hours later a man crawled out of the shattered position of 10th Company back to battalion HQs. He was helped in. He was Rottenführer Wagner. Seriously wounded, with frost-bitten hands, he tried to stand up in front of Bollert, the battalion commander, to make his report. But he collapsed, and reported lying on the floor: "Hauptsturmführer, I'm the only one left from the company." A tremor ran through him. A moment later there was no survivor of 10th Company.
There was now a gap in the front two-thirds of a mile wide. The VI Army Corps rushed 120 men into the line-drivers, cooks, bootmakers, and tailors. Paymasters were in charge of platoons. Fine men, but wholly inexperienced in this kind of fighting. They moved into the positions of 10th Company.
When dusk fell the Soviets were within 50 yards of Kumm's regimental HQ at Klepenino. The small village had 30 houses, but only 8 were left. Hauptsturmführer Holzer, the regiment's adjutant, had cut deep holes under the floor and sawn firing slits into the lower beams which formed the wall. From the regimental commander down to the drivers each man stood in his firing-pit, with carbine, machine-pistol or machine-gun. No matter how often they attacked, the Soviets never got closer than 15 yards. Kumm's front on the northern edge of the great pocket held firmly. Relief brigades of the Soviet 39th Army did not succeed.
German casualties, too, had been heavy. On 18th February, when Kumm reported at his divisional HQ, Model happened to be there. He said to Kumm, "I know what your regiment has been through - but I still can't do without it. What is its present strength?"
Kumm gestured towards the window. "Herr Generaloberst, my regiment is on parade outside." Model glanced through the window: there were 35 men left standing of the 650.
The difficulty level is slowly affecting more and more elements (tiny things like getting certain types of resources a bit earlier on easy level, etc.).
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