And Now For Something Completely Different

Over the weekend 12 –13th June  Elaine & I visited Warsaw for the wedding of our friends Matt & Karina. 

A great time was had by all.  If you ever get an invitation to a Polish wedding I recommend you go.  The reception started just after 6:00 pm, we left at 3:00 am and the party was still going.  I thought we did well to last 9 hours.

On the Sunday, after too little sleep we tried to do some site seeing.  This is the Palace of Culture.  Apparently there is a viewing gallery in there somewhere but we could not figure out the signs.  I like the photo though.

Finally, this statue was a few hundred yards away from our hotel. 

I was surprised to see the statue and when in Warsaw I couldn’t figure out the connection.  A little web research provided this explanation:

“Charles de Gaulle is the subject of Warsaw’s newest monument. Striding away from what was once the Commie party HQ the monument is a gift from the French government. A resident of Warsaw in the 1920s, de Gaulle is a bit of a hero in these parts for the role he played in The Battle of Warsaw in 1920. With Europe in turmoil following the aftermath of WWI the Red Army launched a huge military strike, aimed at enslaving the rest of Europe. The Bolsheviks expected an easy march to Paris, but the Poles has other ideas. With the Red Army just 23km from Warsaw Marshal Piłsudski launched a deft action to split the Bolshevik forces in two and encircle them. The battle raged from August 13-August 25, 1920, with the Poles claiming a historic victory in what Woodrow Wilson went on to describe as the ‘seventh most important battle in history’. The Bolshevik forces were decimated, and Europe saved. De Gaulle fought with distinction and was awarded the highest military honour in the country, the Virtuti Militari.”

DBMMlist In A Tizzy

Like many wargamers I subscribe to numerous Yahoo! groups and they are often helpful and a source of interesting snippets and news. I  moderate one such group for the Lance & Longbow Society. 

Occasionally, the lists can be chaotic, frustrating and uncomfortable places but in the last week the Yahoo! DBMMlist appears to have gone into meltdown. The catalyst for all this was the “resignations” of Peter Haines and Chris Robinson; both well known members of the UK DBMM community. 

On Tuesday, 16th June Peter announced his withdrawal from the UK open tournament circuit in his final post to the DBMMlist: 

“I was just in the middle of fashioning a reply to Mr [X’s] latest bit of smug argumentative ignorance when I realised that I really couldn't be bothered ...”

“I have enjoyed the tournaments ... However I have decided that my time is better spent elsewhere.”

“The last straw for me was expending a lot of time on a test at the behest of a designer who lacks the basic manners to respond to the findings. I find this inexcusably rude.”

“I have tried to be friendly and positive since returning to competitive wargaming but this forum has consistently sucked the fun and hope out of it.”

“It will be interesting to see where the prognosticator's wisdom leads the game … to pick a good route you need to be able to read a map, many of the [DBMMlist members] … seem to think they can just make one up.”

Chris announced his decision the following day:

“… after Ascot earlier this year I … decided that Derby 09 would be my last DBMM competition.”

“The fact is that DBMM will never be more than a minority set of ancient wargaming rules because those responsible for its development DO NOT really care for it to become anything else. Furthermore, this forum has directly contributed to this situation and on balance has probably done more harm than good.”

I’ve pointed out the limitations of the DBMMlist before. Judging from the 100+ posts that followed Chris & Peter’s posts it looks like lots of other people are reaching similar conclusions.

On the positive side it has provided some wonderful comments which, despite the circumstances, are really entertaining if only in a perverse way. Here are a few of my favourites:

“Mr Barker does not respond much to me either, I usually frame the responses and mark the calendar.” William Coughlan

“For me, of our two mainstream games, FOG is like McDonalds, slickly presented but ultimately unfulfilling while DBMM is like a form of extreme dining, initially exciting but after a while you wonder why it has to be so hard and [whether] is it truly worth the effort.” Andrew Bennett

“Better still, how about everyone just leav[ing] all the abuse out. When people start picking up their toy (soldiers) and stomping home things have got way out of hand.” John Edmundson

If I come across any more gems I’ll add them later.