tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post1924346156799218753..comments2024-03-26T14:19:33.332-07:00Comments on Bench Grass: From Now On, No More Defeats: The Siege, 4: The Black GangErik Lundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-80293780292098296122013-06-13T17:38:34.803-07:002013-06-13T17:38:34.803-07:00Per blog policy, spambots that advertise cool indu...Per blog policy, spambots that advertise cool industrial machinery are allowed, and I, for one, welcome yada yada.Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-43983101281759798162013-05-28T13:48:50.645-07:002013-05-28T13:48:50.645-07:00Oh, and I think that I've played Agricola but ...Oh, and I <i>think</i> that I've played <i>Agricola</i> but not <i>Through the Ages</i>. I'm out of the game collecting racket, and usually play what my more avid buddies bring out on Fridays. So, recently, <i>Seven Wonders</i> and <i>Seven Sisters</i>, both somewhat in the <i>Puerto Rico</i> "moments to learn, lifetime to master" spirit of making my brains hurt on a Friday night. Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-77715697414787702262013-05-28T13:46:04.701-07:002013-05-28T13:46:04.701-07:00Hedgehog was the only ahead-firing weapon availabl...Hedgehog was the only ahead-firing weapon available for fitting on many ships to exploit "sword"-style range-and-depth reporting sonar equipments.<br /><br />That makes it "effective" in the key sense that it could go to sea on many escorts, and greatly enhanced their submarine-killing ability.<br /><br />The key question is whether those escorts were an effective use of human resources compared with alternate cases. That is, should you lay up or not complete ships that cannot carry Squid to free up sea-going and dockyard support for ships that can?<br /><br />By 1943, the incredible surge in early war escort production had put the Allies in a position where they had more hulls than means to field them. At this point, industrial strategy calls for a close evaluation of both the existing force and the future force, looking down alternate production paths into the future. <br /><br />In the United States, the yards are on track to build over 500 destroyer escorts, and plans to build a thousand. Is that still a good use of labour? If it is not, in strategic terms, is it still a good idea in political terms? Can the Administration get away with a major cut in ship production, or is it better, going into a Presidential election year, to keep hands in the yards and put the ships to the best use they can be put?<br /><br />In Britain, 151 "River" class frigates are set to be built. They can carry Hedgehog, but not "Squid." The follow on "Lochs" can carry "Squid," but are bigger (1435t SD vs 1370), and require 7 more personnel. There appears to have been a production delay. The first "Loch" class commissioned in April 1944, the last British "River" in February 1943.<br /><br />This is a general question across war production programmes, 70 years ago today (cue a "liveblogging 1943" series?). Produce for volume, or push ahead into new technologies, perhaps at the expense of giving up fighting power before the Axis is ready to stop fighting? The end of WWI saw a fatal failure to manage this transition. Production, often of complete crap, was under way at full volume at the close of hostilities, putting governments into an impossible situation as they tried to close out war industries without causing mass unemployment and screwing up demobilisation. <br /><br />This is one of the things that WWII planners were determined to do differently. As we now know, war industries emerged from the far side of the peace as consumer industries, often producing products that people had no idea would even be consumer goods in 1945. Microwaves, hi-fis, bean bag chairs. . . The question is, how was this transition managed? <br /><br />My theory going into the "liveblogging 1943" project is that we did not get the post-WWII consumer bloom as a windfall of the war effort. The Atlantic economies got there by a positive effort --although in part one driven from below. But we'll see. Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-75597693824275727422013-05-28T02:54:01.373-07:002013-05-28T02:54:01.373-07:00I thought hedgehogs worked pretty well. They didn&...I thought hedgehogs worked pretty well. They didn't? Off to google.<br />You like Through the Ages or Agricola? Just back from Kublacon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-66544769883210793192013-05-22T12:39:47.851-07:002013-05-22T12:39:47.851-07:00That sounds like it would involve learning to use ...That sounds like it would involve learning to use some software. My brain hurts already. <br /><br />That being said, if I can learn how to play <i>Puerto Rico</i>, I can probably figure out a chart-making function.Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-9910952666174264182013-05-21T15:04:03.570-07:002013-05-21T15:04:03.570-07:00Have you ever thought of pulling some of your data...Have you ever thought of pulling some of your datasets into charts?Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.com