Totally Accurate Battle Simulator (TABS)
Open Alpha 0.3.617 Review
TABS are a fun, tongue in cheek, fighting simulator that can cover the single warrior to company sized units using a humorous cartoon style physics engine. The units run from the unarmed peasant to the M-16 armed militia, with many strange units like the Chicken Man, Trump, and Hillary thrown in for good measure.
However, this game does simulate incompetence, goldbricking, apathy, and confusion quite well, better than any other tactical game on the market and doing a very amusing job at that. However, the units always fight to the death every time except when they chase each other in an endless circle.
In this game, each unit has a point cost, then you buy your units, place your units, and then you fight it out. So far, I am having a blast. I rate this Alpha 7 out of ten. Now for the tactical spoilers:
All units have a purpose; however, I have favorites mostly based on my biases. I prefer to field a line of melee troops that is slightly wider than my computer opponent is, so that the line wraps around and flanks my enemy when my troops impact the enemy’s line. If I have more points I generally I use the points to thicken my line.
Therefore, I prefer to spend my points on cheap units for the bulk of my army such as farmers, and if that fails, barbarians. Oh, and I love headbutters (yes that's one of the unit types) to rush ranged units. Sometimes I place one or more ranks of peasants in front to soak ranged attacks, especially chickens...
On the flanks, generally I get 0-6 archers on each wing to finish off broken troops since they do not include cavalry in this game, just chariots, and I do not like chariots. However, for the final battle, I use a line of spear throwers instead of archers; to slow down their "tank" so that my farmers can finish it off, though I do not get a reliable victory, I need to polish up my final level 20 battle tactics.
Gaming with a friend, we found a new tactic that works even better. Archers in single file on the wings with nothing in front of them since their middle name is friendly fire, with peasants in the middle.
And since this is an alpha, a lot more changes are coming, and I am looking forward to it.
Bonus Feature for use in sandbox play:
10 chicken men vs. super peasant (chicken fountain)
10 cannon (packed close together) verses 300 peasants (cannon fodder)
Spear throwers (equal points) verses any of the big units (Thar she blows)
Thursday, January 26, 2017
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The James Bond Vodka Martini Shaken, Not Stirred Controversy.
In my experience most experts have said to get your martini stirred, not shaken. Sure, sounds reasonable, but everyone is not the same and I sometimes disagree with the experts and to some extent common sense and good judgment. So, it's testing time. Going down to Buffalo Wild Wings, I conducted my taste test there.
Both drinks look identical. The shaken: It was noticeably colder, which I like, and smoother because of the melted ice. The stirred: Was thicker and had a lot better flavor.
I like cold and smooth over flavor. Huh. I guess that I'm a barbarian and am going to side with James Bond. Bond had it right in my humble option. So, always try things especially when it comes to taste, you may find out that you may disagree with the experts.
In my experience most experts have said to get your martini stirred, not shaken. Sure, sounds reasonable, but everyone is not the same and I sometimes disagree with the experts and to some extent common sense and good judgment. So, it's testing time. Going down to Buffalo Wild Wings, I conducted my taste test there.
Both drinks look identical. The shaken: It was noticeably colder, which I like, and smoother because of the melted ice. The stirred: Was thicker and had a lot better flavor.
I like cold and smooth over flavor. Huh. I guess that I'm a barbarian and am going to side with James Bond. Bond had it right in my humble option. So, always try things especially when it comes to taste, you may find out that you may disagree with the experts.
Sunday, December 25, 2016
20th level Rogue or Shot Placement Matters
In 2010Angel Alvarez was shot 21 times and lived. Which means that shot placement is very important or that he was a 20th level rogue.
Source;
http://lossyourweightnow.com/?u=gvdkd0x&o=5ewr3qv&t=tgdt#
http://www.news.com.au/world/angel-alvarez-shot-21-times-by-police-survives/story-e6frfkyi-1225904171330
https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/upshot/harlem-man-survives-being-shot-21-times-nypd-155125248.html
And Merry Christmas!
In 2010Angel Alvarez was shot 21 times and lived. Which means that shot placement is very important or that he was a 20th level rogue.
Source;
http://lossyourweightnow.com/?u=gvdkd0x&o=5ewr3qv&t=tgdt#
http://www.news.com.au/world/angel-alvarez-shot-21-times-by-police-survives/story-e6frfkyi-1225904171330
https://www.yahoo.com/news/blogs/upshot/harlem-man-survives-being-shot-21-times-nypd-155125248.html
And Merry Christmas!
Friday, December 23, 2016
Three Easy Three Recipe Dishes
Here are three recopies that you can do when you are really lazy. This is ease of preparation, not quality.
Tuna Over Rice:
Ingredients: Canned tuna, shoyu, rice
Mix canned tuna and soy sauce in a bowl then put rice over it.
Okinawan Lettuce Salad:
Ingredients: Lettuce, mayo, shoyu:
Mix mayo and soy sauce slightly and add to chopped lettuce.
Rice Pot Meal
Ingredients: Rice, dried shrimp, dried wakame
Add rice, dried shrimp and dried wakame to a rice cooker with water. The next step is to turn on the rice cooker. For extra laziness points eat out of the rice pot with disposable chopsticks.
Here are three recopies that you can do when you are really lazy. This is ease of preparation, not quality.
Tuna Over Rice:
Ingredients: Canned tuna, shoyu, rice
Mix canned tuna and soy sauce in a bowl then put rice over it.
Okinawan Lettuce Salad:
Ingredients: Lettuce, mayo, shoyu:
Mix mayo and soy sauce slightly and add to chopped lettuce.
Rice Pot Meal
Ingredients: Rice, dried shrimp, dried wakame
Add rice, dried shrimp and dried wakame to a rice cooker with water. The next step is to turn on the rice cooker. For extra laziness points eat out of the rice pot with disposable chopsticks.
Monday, July 4, 2016
Opinion/Speculation
How did the Neanderthals go extinct?
Some people theorize that modern humans out-competed or replaced Neanderthals and this is how I think modern humans got into Europe and Asia.
Modern humans have been existence for 200,000 years and only in the last 50,000 years or so made it into Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. How did we do it? To do so, let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Neanderthals and make some guesses.
First, the Neanderthal has a brain bigger than ours. Males tend to be five feet six inches (166 cm-ish) with females being ten percent shorter. Therefore, they did not have a big body so we cannot use the big body big brain explanation. Their stone tool kit is mostly the same throughout their 300,000-year existence, they show no trade links, their burial rites were simpler than ours, and their frontal lobes were smaller.
So what were their bigger brains doing? Well, Neanderthals have bigger eyes than we do. I am thinking that they use that extra gray matter to see well better than we can. I am going to go out on the limb and hypothesize that they have excellent night vision and superior sense of smell.
In addition, they had bigger muscles and a more robust physique. More muscles mean that they need more food. Oh, and Neanderthals are stocky so that they could easily retain heat.
Therefore, I am thinking that they hunted at night. They speared our early ancestors at night when they were sleeping and that kept the modern humans out of Europe for tens of thousands of years. Ambush hunting and night stalking were key tactics that put meat on the spit for the Neanderthals.
So how did we beat them and get into Europe? Technology, tactics, and numbers. The bow invented over 60,000 years ago, and most likely used against the Neanderthals. I predict evidence of bow and arrow will be found in the same period during the decline of the Neanderthals, or at the very least spear throwers, slings, or javelins. Modern humans used ranged weapons to counter the Neanderthal’s brawn.
Modern humans can more efficiently use the environment to get more food out of it than the Neanderthals and use less food so we can outnumber the Neanderthals. In addition, with our larger social network, we can call in allies to increase the warriors attacking the Neanderthals.
Let us put this into an example. There was peace with the Neanderthals. Then a group of young hunters and their families ventured into a place that the Neanderthals called theirs, due to wanting their own hunting grounds, or maybe because the lands they were on was over hunted and game was sparse, or ignorance or…
The Neanderthals decide to kill the intruders as they did for tens of thousands of years in the past. They pull a night raid. The night terrors come. Both groups fight, and the modern human tribe loses. However, a few moderns get away. They go to several nearby tribes and tell a tale of terror. Humans organize a war party composing of several tribes attacking the Neanderthal’s one tribe. They sleep outside of the Neanderthal’s territory and head out in the morning.
The war party would find the Neanderthal tribe with tracking or scouting or even attack just the closest Neanderthal tribe. They start the fight at range from ambush or assault. Outnumbered, and facing a blizzard of ranged projectiles, they may counterattack, become confused or retreat.
Then the moderns fight outnumbering the Neanderthals or do hit and run attacks. In addition, when you outnumber your opponents, attacking from the side or back becomes viable, while defending against multiple attacks becomes increasingly hard. In addition, if the moderns win, they will probably run down the rest of the Neanderthals because of our modern runner’s physique.
Or not. This is one tactic among hundreds maybe thousands, some more than others dependent on terrain, weather, and other variables.
Now modern humans can drive the Neanderthals off prime hunting grounds, enter Europe and North Asia, steal prey from them, and occupy resources such as flint deposits. Now groups of Neanderthals are cut off. The Neanderthals start to suffer from inbreeding and other problems of small populations, plus disease.
So prediction: Evidence will be found that modern humans expand from the grasslands (where their throwing spears, slings, and bow rule) to forests with prime hunting grounds pushing back Neanderthals.
Ah, but we have not covered logistics, so let us start. Modern humans use lands more efficiently than Neanderthals, so when bad seasons come or catastrophes occur, moderns will survive better and would have a lower infant mortality rate due to finding more food, and because of that will repopulate areas more quickly.
And the key catastrophe that happened is Toba. The supervolcano, which nearly killed us off some 75,000 years ago, was the linchpin. After that event, humans showed more creativity and better stone tools and perhaps weakened the Neanderthals.
Modern humans also have better gear. The needle gives fitted clothing, which reduces the loss of body heat, so modern humans do not need to eat as much. Other tools, such as better tents, nets, hafted tools, better uses of fire, make life easier and more efficient. Also, better tools mean better morale.
We are talking about tens of thousands of people over thousands of years, in different environments, so not every encounter was violent, or as I think happened, and (ahem) some of us carry some Neanderthal genes. On a tangent, funny we have not found Neanderthal Mitochondria in our modern populations, though we have not looked for it.
Killing, driving them out of lands (habitat loss), and being better at survival ended their 300,000-year reign as well as several other hominin species. Tech and tactics.
Links
Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/early-bow-and-arrows-offer-insight-into-origins-of-human-intellect-112922281/
BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11086110
How did the Neanderthals go extinct?
Some people theorize that modern humans out-competed or replaced Neanderthals and this is how I think modern humans got into Europe and Asia.
Modern humans have been existence for 200,000 years and only in the last 50,000 years or so made it into Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia. How did we do it? To do so, let us look at the advantages and disadvantages of the Neanderthals and make some guesses.
First, the Neanderthal has a brain bigger than ours. Males tend to be five feet six inches (166 cm-ish) with females being ten percent shorter. Therefore, they did not have a big body so we cannot use the big body big brain explanation. Their stone tool kit is mostly the same throughout their 300,000-year existence, they show no trade links, their burial rites were simpler than ours, and their frontal lobes were smaller.
So what were their bigger brains doing? Well, Neanderthals have bigger eyes than we do. I am thinking that they use that extra gray matter to see well better than we can. I am going to go out on the limb and hypothesize that they have excellent night vision and superior sense of smell.
In addition, they had bigger muscles and a more robust physique. More muscles mean that they need more food. Oh, and Neanderthals are stocky so that they could easily retain heat.
Therefore, I am thinking that they hunted at night. They speared our early ancestors at night when they were sleeping and that kept the modern humans out of Europe for tens of thousands of years. Ambush hunting and night stalking were key tactics that put meat on the spit for the Neanderthals.
So how did we beat them and get into Europe? Technology, tactics, and numbers. The bow invented over 60,000 years ago, and most likely used against the Neanderthals. I predict evidence of bow and arrow will be found in the same period during the decline of the Neanderthals, or at the very least spear throwers, slings, or javelins. Modern humans used ranged weapons to counter the Neanderthal’s brawn.
Modern humans can more efficiently use the environment to get more food out of it than the Neanderthals and use less food so we can outnumber the Neanderthals. In addition, with our larger social network, we can call in allies to increase the warriors attacking the Neanderthals.
Let us put this into an example. There was peace with the Neanderthals. Then a group of young hunters and their families ventured into a place that the Neanderthals called theirs, due to wanting their own hunting grounds, or maybe because the lands they were on was over hunted and game was sparse, or ignorance or…
The Neanderthals decide to kill the intruders as they did for tens of thousands of years in the past. They pull a night raid. The night terrors come. Both groups fight, and the modern human tribe loses. However, a few moderns get away. They go to several nearby tribes and tell a tale of terror. Humans organize a war party composing of several tribes attacking the Neanderthal’s one tribe. They sleep outside of the Neanderthal’s territory and head out in the morning.
The war party would find the Neanderthal tribe with tracking or scouting or even attack just the closest Neanderthal tribe. They start the fight at range from ambush or assault. Outnumbered, and facing a blizzard of ranged projectiles, they may counterattack, become confused or retreat.
Then the moderns fight outnumbering the Neanderthals or do hit and run attacks. In addition, when you outnumber your opponents, attacking from the side or back becomes viable, while defending against multiple attacks becomes increasingly hard. In addition, if the moderns win, they will probably run down the rest of the Neanderthals because of our modern runner’s physique.
Or not. This is one tactic among hundreds maybe thousands, some more than others dependent on terrain, weather, and other variables.
Now modern humans can drive the Neanderthals off prime hunting grounds, enter Europe and North Asia, steal prey from them, and occupy resources such as flint deposits. Now groups of Neanderthals are cut off. The Neanderthals start to suffer from inbreeding and other problems of small populations, plus disease.
So prediction: Evidence will be found that modern humans expand from the grasslands (where their throwing spears, slings, and bow rule) to forests with prime hunting grounds pushing back Neanderthals.
Ah, but we have not covered logistics, so let us start. Modern humans use lands more efficiently than Neanderthals, so when bad seasons come or catastrophes occur, moderns will survive better and would have a lower infant mortality rate due to finding more food, and because of that will repopulate areas more quickly.
And the key catastrophe that happened is Toba. The supervolcano, which nearly killed us off some 75,000 years ago, was the linchpin. After that event, humans showed more creativity and better stone tools and perhaps weakened the Neanderthals.
Modern humans also have better gear. The needle gives fitted clothing, which reduces the loss of body heat, so modern humans do not need to eat as much. Other tools, such as better tents, nets, hafted tools, better uses of fire, make life easier and more efficient. Also, better tools mean better morale.
We are talking about tens of thousands of people over thousands of years, in different environments, so not every encounter was violent, or as I think happened, and (ahem) some of us carry some Neanderthal genes. On a tangent, funny we have not found Neanderthal Mitochondria in our modern populations, though we have not looked for it.
Killing, driving them out of lands (habitat loss), and being better at survival ended their 300,000-year reign as well as several other hominin species. Tech and tactics.
Links
Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/early-bow-and-arrows-offer-insight-into-origins-of-human-intellect-112922281/
BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11086110
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)