Julblog 2021

Covid Strategies. I keep a close eye on the Worldometer report,

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

particularly on the Deaths per Million of population column to see how various strategies or lack of strategies tried by various governments affects mortality outcomes.

For a relatively wealthy country with a very high population density, an old population and massive connectivity to the rest of the world, the UK has not done too badly in the rankings.

Here we have just embarked on a gamble to achieve something like herd immunity through vaccinating most adults and now allowing children to acquire immunity through mild infection. Boris Johnson gambled on Brexit and then gambled on throwing vast resources at the vaccine effort and he won both times. Let us hope he has got this right. In the absence of another new variant that can jump the vaccine barrier with impunity, he probably has.

Magical News. Work continues apace on the upgrade for the Classic Edition of Liber Null & Psychonaut. From more recent anthropological and ethnographic research it has become apparent that Animism provides the wellspring from which most magical traditions arise and that Shamanism constitutes just one manifestation of animist ideas, in contradistinction to the theories of Mircea Eliade. The forthcoming classic edition will also contain  upgrades to modern Chaos Magic rituals.

Conversations with a Wizard, a mega-interview with an esoteric journalist, now begins to approach book length.

The microcosm chapters of the Occultaris gradually evolve. The mutual dependency of the microcosm and the macrocosm becomes increasingly apparent. The quest for a theory of quantum gravity seems doomed within the current framework of quantum field theory and the standard cosmological model. Rather it seems that quanta and fields must have a co-fundamental mutually dependent existence and a similar higher dimensional geometry to the entire universe as in Hypersphere Cosmology. Moreover, fields must act non-locally even if waves in them only propagate at lightspeed or less. The properties of the apparent parts depend upon the whole and everything lies far more intimately connected than conventionally thought. This seems to go way beyond Mach’s Principle, Entanglement, Quantum Handshakes, and so called Morphic Fields. 

Amazing Cosmology News just in: -

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01380-6

The filaments of galaxies that stretch across the cosmic voids have measurable spins that the Standard Cosmological Model cannot explain.

Hypersphere Cosmology uses the Godel metric W = 2sqrt(piGd) in which ‘Matter everywhere rotates relative to the compass of inertia with an angular velocity of twice the square root of pi times the gravitational constant times the density’.

https://www.specularium.org/component/k2/item/323-equation-5

This seems highly likely to supply an explanation for the new observation of the largest spinning structures ever seen.

Frontier Space War 2. Multiplayer or Solitaire.

Outline. This strategy game models a possible future in which various groups have colonised the nearest habitable star systems and then started to dispute territory, economics, ideology, and alliances. It can accommodate up to five players or alternatively a single player can play each faction in turn to evolve a narrative and perhaps put names to all the star systems and major warships.

The structure of the game can support a variety of backstories. Backstory ‘A’ relates a geopolitical expansion of various human factions into space. Alternative backstories appear at the end.    

Backstory A. In AD 2050 humans discover a warp-drive mechanism that can enable ships to travel to star systems within 20 light years in about 3 months. This fortuitous discovery came at a time when ecological, climatic, population, and political crises on Earth had almost reached breaking point. European backed missions settled large numbers of people on habitable planets in six nearby star systems forming what became known as the Terran Sphere governed according to Synarchist principles by a vast self-perpetuating bureaucracy.   

Over the following decades various factions dissatisfied with the philosophy and politics of the Terran Sphere of seven worlds ventured further into space to colonise other worlds.

Eurasian backed colonists established Vostok on Soviet Neo-Communist principles where hierarchies of endless committees decide everything.

Colonists backed by the Americas established Kalifornia on Darwinian and Capitalist principles where wealth and power and a certain amount of democracy decides everything.

Various mystically and religiously inclined groups, particularly the New-Age-Ecumenicists backed the establishment of Nirvana which operates as an Aquarian Theocracy run by those considered the most enlightened.

Exactly who initially conspired to back the establishment of R’lyeh remains a matter of ongoing debate, but it attracted a mixed consortium of misfits, occultists, illuminati, anarchists, rebels, devils, and chaoists who eventually settled for the collective name of Goths. R’lyeh operates as a Magiocracy run by those considered to have the most magical charisma by popular acclaim.

Within a century the four splinter factions based on Vostok, Kalifornia, Nirvana, and R’lyeh colonised secondary systems in their vicinities and developed increasingly distinct cultures and slightly divergent technologies. Despite interstellar trade and commerce, tensions over resources and the control of unaligned worlds led first to the Treaty of Terra which recognised spheres of influence and neutral worlds, and then to its breakdown as diplomacy failed and factions started building warships and interstellar struggles began.

The conflict plays out with each faction using limited numbers of huge and expensive vessels. Factions can also employ specialised command vessels denoted as Flagships which add to the combat capabilities of flotillas of ships and which factions can exchange in alliances. Some backstories attribute the enhancements conferred by flagships to AI computers, others to genetically enhanced human capabilities.

Factions.      Philosophy     Colour         Capital World      Flagship AI Capability

Imperials      Synarchists     Silver          Terra                    Tactical Attack and Defence

Soviets         Communists    Red             Vostok                 Tactical Defence

Capitalists    Darwinians     Bronze        Kalifornia             Tactical Attack

Aquarians     Mystics          Green           Nirvana                Psychic Defence

Goths           Occultists        Purple          R’lyeh                  Psychic Attack

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

                       Individualist

                                  l

                                  l

       (Goths)               l              (Capitalists)

                                  l

                                  l

Magical -----------------(Imperials)----- Rationalist

                                  l

                                  l

      (Aquarians)         l               (Soviets)

                                  l

                                  l

                         Collectivist

Types of Vessel.

Cost   Type                                                                    Dice             Number available/Faction

5       Fortress                                                           – Icosahedron D20.           4 (all)

5       Battleship                                                       – Dodecahedron D12         2 (1A, 4I)

4       B-Cruiser/H-Cruiser/P-Battleship/Monitor.  – Octahedron D8         (2G, 2A, 2C, 2S)

3       Cruiser (Frigate/Fortress Carrier).                 – Cube D6                           4 (6I) 2I 1

2       Destroyer                                                       – Tetrahedron D4                6 (all)

1      Frigate                                                            – Tetrahedron D4                 (10I)                                            

5      Flagship                                                           – Tetrahedron D4               3 (4I)

Star systems have production values 1, or 2, or 3, or (5, Earth), shown by relative size.

Sequential turns. Throw for first turn.

1) Count production from all occupied systems. Purchase extra vessels if possible and place at a Fortress. If no Fortress, purchase one if possible and place on a home system. Factions may store unused production as markers at a Fortress. The number of ship pieces provided reflects the maximum that a faction can maintain.

* Occupied means either a system held by a ship or fortress or a home territory not occupied by a rival.

2) Move any number of vessels from any star system to any adjoining one connected by a jump route. Frigates and Fortresses can only move if carried in a Frigate or Fortress carrier.

3) Black holes act as long-range jump ports, 1 turn to move directly from one to any other one.

4) Settle any conflicts arising. Risk protocols – up to 3 attack dice against up to 2 defence dice. Players may advance chosen ships into a round of combat in a concealed fashion and then mutually reveal them if desired.

Flagships. Act as combat modifiers to a whole flotilla, (all of a Faction’s vessels at a system).

Tactical AI, Supercomputer using massive parallel calculation. Attack or Defence.

Dice                          Tetrahedron   Cube   Octahedron     Dodecahedron     Icosahedron

Attack or Defence          +1              +2           +3                      +4                       +5

Psychic AI, Quantum computers with a mysterious degree of prescience. Attack or Defence. Roll each dice thrice. Use the highest of 3 rolls.

Initial dispositions, numbers and production values of star systems, and total.

7 Imperials     53 222 11 (16)

8 Aquarians    3 2 111111 (11)

6 Goths           3 22 111 (10)

8 Capitalists   3 22 11111 (12)

8 Soviets        3 22 11111 (12)   

14 Neutrals    222 11111111111 (17)         (Total systems, 51)

Combat Resolution, in each round attacker and defender must put forward at least one piece.

Attacker puts forward up to 3 units. Defender puts forward up to 2 units. Roll appropriate dice. (Adjust for flagships if present.) Pair off dice, attacker highest against defender highest, defender second highest against defender second highest, to determine casualty numbers, defender wins draws. Each side removes the appropriate number of casualties at will, (irrespective of the ship’s dice scores).

Flagships do not need to participate in a round of combat to lend their enhancement to all vessels (including themselves) in a flotilla. A flotilla can only use one flagship to enhance it.

Rounds of combat continue until either all attacking, or all defending forces become eliminated. Or by mutual agreement participants can decline combat. Any non-home territory with more than one faction occupying it does not contribute production.

Treaties.

Any Faction may send a Flagship to assist an allied Faction. It then acts under the control of the receiving Faction. However, the Faction which gave it retains two options: -

a) In its own turn the donating Faction can reclaim it and order it to move.

b) At any point during combat involving the Flagship, the donating Faction can order it to change sides.

Special heavy vessels, dice modifications: -

(Aquarians) Dreadnought – D20 attack or defence, cost 6. (Instead of a second battleship.)

(Aquarians) Heavy Cruiser - D12 defence

(Capitalists) Pocket Battleship, (Goths) Battlecruiser - D12 attack

(Soviets) Monitor – D20 attack, D4 defence.

(All) Fortress in Carrier – D20 in attack or defence. Fortress Carriers can be scrapped to allow rebuilding elsewhere.

Starting Positions.

Each Faction places a Fortress at their capital, and one turns worth of produced ships anywhere on their home-worlds. A second round then begins, and conflict can occur.

Ships may remain on black holes, but no production can occur there.

Victory Points. – Control of Earth +1. Control of another Faction’s Capitol +1. Loss of own Capital -1. Ending with more territory +1. Ending with less territory -1.

The Imperials start with more territory and productive capacity, but rival factions surround them. Alliances prove crucial to the outcome.

Alternative Backstories.

B, Alien Powers. The five factions represent Humans plus four other Alien species with advanced technology that all acquired interstellar capability at about the same time.

C, Neo-Feudalism. The factions represent the five ‘Great Houses’ that developed the biotech that gave them personal dominance over humanity and the ability to devise warp-drive. Flagships represent the personal command ships of senior family members and/or their clones.