The view of the Imperial Japanese army has always been a bit skewed in the US, driven by the interaction in the second world war. A group of fanatically loyal, brutal and suicidal warriors is the current vision most folks have of the Imperial Army. Edward J Drea though has written an excellent book detailing how through a concerted effort at all levels of government, the Japanese Army leadership was able to craft a force that was distinctly loyal.
The book is very well written, tracing the origins of the Imperial army to the Boshin war and the long lasting effects of the Choshu leadership stemming form that. Its a thorough book, using diaries, news articles, and other primary sources to fill in all of the details of the various re-organizations the army endured in its first 20 years. Drea traces the armies movement to embed itself inside Japanese society at every level, based on a deep duty to the Emperor. It also sought to separate itself from civilian leadership and keep a direct line to the Emperor, to make sure it could not be touched by political parties and changes in leadership. He documents the long road the army took and the constant internal strife as to what direction the army should take. For instance, in its found the army was divided on whether to follow French military doctrine or align itself with a more Prussian style set up. He also recounts the first two wars the Imperial army fought, against China and Russia respectively and how the differing choices of leadership affected the army performance. Constant throughout are the themes of sacrifice and Imperial duty. The book holds nothing back, detailing field commanders distinct lack of concern for high casualty counts (the Human Bullets) despite the trouble it caused back in Japan for Army leadership. It also shows the constant friction between the Army and the Navy, and the lack of control that was able to be brought upon both services in creating a unifying National strategy.
The book is well written, with an ability to keep from becoming a slog at any point despite the vast amount of facts and figures presented. Only in a few instances did I think the author should have reorganized chapters to better illustrate a theme. The book does keep its focus on the Army's leadership issues and challenges, rather than any true tactical issues encountered in any of the Army's conflicts. Specific issues are discussed (the taking of Port Arthur, defense along the Mongolian-Soviet border) to help illustrate some force structure decisions, but if you're looking for tactical discussions this is not it.
Overall I really enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone looking to gain further insight into the Imperial Army.
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Thursday, December 28, 2017
NFL PRedictions Week 17
With the final regular season game, its tough to ever make good predictions because of all the potential players sitting. THe Rams are key point, resting Goff, Gurley and Donald. Teams that have things to play for, like the Titans and Chargers, will have a better shot at being accurate.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
NFL Power Ranking Week 17 2017
The last week of the regular season sees the Saints hold onto the top spot after a clear dismantling of the Atlanta Falcons. The Pats remain on the top of the AFC, but did not exactly play lights out against the Bills. The Eagles fell a bit further back this week, and the offense is going to have to shore up things to make sure Nick Foles can take them anywhere in the playoffs.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Denver Broncos Potential Yards Gained 2017
Just as with the Buffs, I'm going to go ahead and track the potential yards the Broncos are able to gain. The Broncos were pretty much all or nothing, either gained more than 90% of their potential yards against the Chargers, or under 25% on all but one drive.
Updated: Denver throttled the Cowboys this week, thanks in large part to the defense stopping the best two cowboys drives on downs and an interception. On offense the last few drives of the game were a bit of a let down, gaining only 20% of their potential yards just once.
Updated: The Broncos actually moved the ball better than the Bills did, but couldn't finish drives. That drive with the Miller penalty was a killer since it flipped from being a 25% yards gained to more than 80%.
Update: Denver really sputtered out on offense this week. The second half didn't have a drive gain more than 35% of its yards, and only had 3 go over 50%. Luckily this week the defense did its job and forced Oakland to look even worse.
Update: The offense sputtered again, posting just 4 of 12 drives to gain over 70% of their yards, and with just another 2 gaining more than 50%. The defense did its job most of the night, but in short fields they allowed the Giants to drive at least 45% of their yards, leading to 3 field goal attempts.
Update: Possibly the worst offensive and special teams performance I've ever seen. The Broncos gained 50% of potential yards just twice. The Chargers punter kept them pinned back all game, and several failed returns didn't help.
Update: When you think you've hit rock bottom, sometimes you start digging. The offensive gameplan was to come out and attack the Chiefs on the ground. It worked for the most part. But an over-reliance on too many drives for Trevor to throw into tight windows and bad route running killed any chance of a win. The defense played well for the most part, but lucked out on at least three would be TDs (Stewart Intercepton, Hill overthrown after beating Harris and Marshal/Stewart tipping away a drop in the end zone).
Update: The mistakes from last week hit this week for the defense. Poor tackling, poor coverage, and an inability to shed blocks. The offense continued to drag everything down, posting more drives with negative yardage than drives that gain over 50% of potential yards.
Update: Offense bad and defense bad. Thats about all that can be said here. Ugh.
Update: The defense showed up for almost all of the game, but got beat on a couple of must have drives and again failed to generate any turnovers. The offense had one good driving and fantastic field position all day but failed in numerous ways. Thank goodness Mike Mccoy is gone. He's a trainwreck that failed to adapt his system to the players we have.
Update: Two in a row! The offense moved the ball well on the first two drives, but Trevor threw a pick and McManus missed another easy field goal. Brock came in and kept the offense rolling. The Defense as well tightened up after the first drive
Update: The same woes that plagued this team all year showed up here. Bad turnovers and defensive miscues doomed any hope of a third win in a row. One game to go.
Updated: Denver throttled the Cowboys this week, thanks in large part to the defense stopping the best two cowboys drives on downs and an interception. On offense the last few drives of the game were a bit of a let down, gaining only 20% of their potential yards just once.
Updated: The Broncos actually moved the ball better than the Bills did, but couldn't finish drives. That drive with the Miller penalty was a killer since it flipped from being a 25% yards gained to more than 80%.
Update: Denver really sputtered out on offense this week. The second half didn't have a drive gain more than 35% of its yards, and only had 3 go over 50%. Luckily this week the defense did its job and forced Oakland to look even worse.
Update: The offense sputtered again, posting just 4 of 12 drives to gain over 70% of their yards, and with just another 2 gaining more than 50%. The defense did its job most of the night, but in short fields they allowed the Giants to drive at least 45% of their yards, leading to 3 field goal attempts.
Update: Possibly the worst offensive and special teams performance I've ever seen. The Broncos gained 50% of potential yards just twice. The Chargers punter kept them pinned back all game, and several failed returns didn't help.
Update: When you think you've hit rock bottom, sometimes you start digging. The offensive gameplan was to come out and attack the Chiefs on the ground. It worked for the most part. But an over-reliance on too many drives for Trevor to throw into tight windows and bad route running killed any chance of a win. The defense played well for the most part, but lucked out on at least three would be TDs (Stewart Intercepton, Hill overthrown after beating Harris and Marshal/Stewart tipping away a drop in the end zone).
Update: The mistakes from last week hit this week for the defense. Poor tackling, poor coverage, and an inability to shed blocks. The offense continued to drag everything down, posting more drives with negative yardage than drives that gain over 50% of potential yards.
Update: Offense bad and defense bad. Thats about all that can be said here. Ugh.
Update: The defense showed up for almost all of the game, but got beat on a couple of must have drives and again failed to generate any turnovers. The offense had one good driving and fantastic field position all day but failed in numerous ways. Thank goodness Mike Mccoy is gone. He's a trainwreck that failed to adapt his system to the players we have.
Update: The defense was not particularly sharp, but the offense was brutally bad. Only two TD drives
by Trevor redeemed what was probably the worst offensive output of the
season.
Update: The Denver offense is a
limitless Augur. It just continues to dig deeper and deeper. 2 drives
over 50%, one a field goal and one a whatever at the end of the game.
The defense did its part for the day, with only 5 drives over 50%.
Update: A Win! A dominating win! The defense held the Jets to just 2 drives of over 40%, everything else was under 10%. The offense moved the ball efficiently as well, with 5 drives of over 50% yards needed gained.
Update: A Win! A dominating win! The defense held the Jets to just 2 drives of over 40%, everything else was under 10%. The offense moved the ball efficiently as well, with 5 drives of over 50% yards needed gained.
Update: Two in a row! The offense moved the ball well on the first two drives, but Trevor threw a pick and McManus missed another easy field goal. Brock came in and kept the offense rolling. The Defense as well tightened up after the first drive
Update: The same woes that plagued this team all year showed up here. Bad turnovers and defensive miscues doomed any hope of a third win in a row. One game to go.
Monday, December 25, 2017
NBA Power Rankings Dec. 25th 2017
A short update on this Christmas holiday. Still a lot of movement going on here, but its nice to see the Nuggets into the top 10. The Rockets maintain the top spot, but the Warriors on right on their heels.
Thursday, December 21, 2017
Restaurant Review: Fuji Japanese Grill & Sushi
One of the best parts about where we live in town is the abundance of restaurant choices. We've got locally owned favorites, fast food, and sit down chains all within easy travel distances for when we want to splurge a little bit. One spot we've been meaning to try for almost a year is Fuji Grill. It's a locally owned little shop that does a ton of different Japanese foods. They had originally been a sushi spot, but closed the fall for a couple months to re-tune to focus on ramen.
We decided to pick up a to go order. The wait was fairly short, about 20 minutes for a rather large order (I've mentioned before my wife's live of appetizers). The short delay helped secure in my mind we were getting a pretty fresh meal. They have an online ordering system as well, but the ramen dishes weren't active for ordering.
Our appetizers consisted of the Crunch Spicy Crab roll sushi (5 pieces) and an order of gyoza (also 5 pieces). The crab roll was good, with an orange spicy sauce that had just a good zing to it. My wife loved the gyoza. She's always makes sure we order some of available, and she loved the sweetness of the dipping sauce. I would heartily recommend either for folks.
 |
| Gyoza |
 |
| Crunchy Crab |
 |
| A good amount of Broth |
 |
| Ramen with all the toppings in it |
For dessert we got a set of fried donuts, which were well prepared and were tasty. I wish I would have thought to melt some chocolate (or for Fuji to provide some) because it would have taken this to another level.
 |
| 10 Donuts |
Overall the meal was very good. The ramen is well priced I think for both the quality and quantity. I don't think we would order the Miso again though due to the odd smoky flavor. We will definitely be adding Fuji to our list of places to visit again.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
NFL Week 16 Predictions
Not a lot of close looking games this weekend, but we'll see if there are a few games that aren't closer. The Browns have been resilient all season, and the Niners have turned things up a bit since Jimmy G took over at QB.
NFL Week 16 Power Rankings
The top of the NFL is still a big muddled group, but there's a new clearer delineation with the top 6 teams. The Pats were able to win a closely contested, controversial game in Pittsburgh. The Saints continue rolling, and the Eagles were able to keep the momentum going with Nick Foles starting. The Jaguars also have a chance, as Blake Bortles has been one of the most solid QBs the last 3 weeks.
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
New Armada FAQ thoughts
FFG surprised the Armada crowd yesterday with a quick release of a new FAQ PDF with some new goodies for us. I'll break it down into major and minor updates.
Major Updates
- Raddus Bomb: In a nice preemptive move, FFG cleared up the questions surrounding the upcoming General Raddus and Profundity upgrades. The gist of the Raddus bomb had been if you could deploy all your ships into Hyperspace Assault and then pop them all in using the new upgrades to really surprise an enemy and limit your losses significantly. The answer is no, you must have at least a ship on the table. Things can still work though if you have just a single GR75 hanging around and then pop everyone else out.
- Thrawn Preemption: Another preemptive update for Wave 7, FFG rules that you won't be able to use Thrawn's dial plus a matching dial from your command stack. So no 10 squad activation from an Expanded Hangar Bay Quasar.
- Commanders Work if not Deployed: This had been a question before, and FFG has cleared it up. Commanders and upgrades work outside the game, as long as they aren't missing their timing window. So an Interdictor with Grav Well Projector wouldn't work in hyperspace since its missing its window.
- Sloane Defense Token Clarification: There had been some question as to whether or not Sloane still allowed a player to spend the defense token she targets with the accuracy result. The answer is no, you cannot.
Minor Updates
- Targeting Beacons Nerf: I have only played this objective once, and I'm unlikely to ever play it again now. The ruling made it so you could only resolve one token on an attack, making it not even worthwhile to stack the tokens nearby to get multiple re-rolls.
- Armed Station: The Armed Station cannot obstruct itself, so it can actually shoot ships and fighters that are overlapping it.
- Leia Tokens: In a not surprise move FFG also reiterated that you cannot spend a physical token in addition to using Leia's token while resolving a command.
- Jendon Attacks: In what isn't a surprise, FFG ruled the extra attack a fighter can get from Col. Jendon does not receive any boosts from Flight Controllers or future upgrades.
- Admiral Screed: In what could become a major rule change with the right upgrades, Screed was ruled to be able to use his ability during any activation. Currently the only case of this would be if you used Quad Laser Turrets. But it does open up the space for a potential Overwatch type effect.
- RLB and token: Rapid Launch bays can only set up as many squads as you can activate, so using a token lets you do 1, not your whole squad value
- Luke Skywalker: Someone must have tried some dumb shenanigans, since this ruling really wasn't needed. If a crit effect like Shield Failure occurs, Luke's ability in RAW could mean you wouldn't take any damage.
- Flechette Torpedos: This question stemmed from a dumb argument months ago. Flechette Torpedos toggle you activation status, but they do not just end your activation (another Quad Laser Turrets issue).
- CC Commaders: Geneal Dodonna received a slight nerf to his ability in the all out offensive, where you need to pick one opponent to use his ability against. Admiral Konstatine got a slight boost though in that both players can use his ability.
Monday, December 18, 2017
NBA Power Rankings December 18th 2017
The First NBA Power Rankings of the year are now here! I'm currently working on some further measures to help account for injuries and playing time for each team, but this is a first ass through for the season so far. The Rockets and Warriors are a fair bit ahead of the pack, while despite a lot of folks being down on them the Thunder are in solid position currently.
Thursday, December 14, 2017
Star Wars Armada: Governor Pryce thoughts
With football season winding down, my focus has started to move back towards my gaming group and actually getting to enjoy some of the games (Do not fear, NBA and NCAA Rankings are forthcoming shortly).
IN Armada, we've finally started to see a slow drip of news, this week with the coming form of Governor Pryce. The wookiepedia article linked gives a basic overview of her character form the Rebels TV show, noting how determined she is to get revenge at some points and how well she plays the polticial game. This I think fits her ability quite well:
She forces a medium or large ship to activate last in a pre-named round. This is a truly huge possibility for making sure your BT Avenger gets to first last its target, or that your Quasar gets in a late alpha strike against your opponents fighters or a careless flotilla. She is also good for either pushing back the engagement by forcing your opponent's typical first last ships to wait an extra turn on their attack run or risk getting stuck in a double arc. Your opponents will have to play around that moment in the game. This could be very good for contested outpost or salvage run where you can grab an extra turn of objectives by threatening a specific area.
I think a few Victory builds might want her, where she might help battle carrier Vic 1s make an alpha strike and wait for that opposing ship to jump into close range. A pumped up Vic 2 might also want her for a bit of a surprise on turn 2 if your opponent plays an aggressive list or to help deter them from rushing an objective. But I do think the ISD is going to be the one that really wants her.
The ISD platform also helps to make up for the drawback Pryce presents for a player, namely that your opponent knows in which round that ship must activate last. This means they know they can set up an attack run from Demolisher or Admonition and get away without you necessarily getting a shot. Luckily an ISD is a tough nut to crack, so that helps. I also believe it is going to be key to pair your ISD with some escort ships that can take advantage of ships trying to jump in til near the end. Victories can punish ships trying to skirt around and out-wait the ISDs activation. The Interdictor can bring in a targeting scrambler and keep the ISD up, especially if you are first player. It also might help to bring back some of the Rogue units the empire has, specifically the Decimator. Any ship getting close enough might be eating a few three blue dice attacks.
I think Pryce is going to be one of the high skill use cards. Her exact usage is going to take the right combination of objectives and builds to make work. I'm excited though to test her out a bit, and see what she can do to help battle the activation advantage.
IN Armada, we've finally started to see a slow drip of news, this week with the coming form of Governor Pryce. The wookiepedia article linked gives a basic overview of her character form the Rebels TV show, noting how determined she is to get revenge at some points and how well she plays the polticial game. This I think fits her ability quite well:
I think a few Victory builds might want her, where she might help battle carrier Vic 1s make an alpha strike and wait for that opposing ship to jump into close range. A pumped up Vic 2 might also want her for a bit of a surprise on turn 2 if your opponent plays an aggressive list or to help deter them from rushing an objective. But I do think the ISD is going to be the one that really wants her.
The ISD platform also helps to make up for the drawback Pryce presents for a player, namely that your opponent knows in which round that ship must activate last. This means they know they can set up an attack run from Demolisher or Admonition and get away without you necessarily getting a shot. Luckily an ISD is a tough nut to crack, so that helps. I also believe it is going to be key to pair your ISD with some escort ships that can take advantage of ships trying to jump in til near the end. Victories can punish ships trying to skirt around and out-wait the ISDs activation. The Interdictor can bring in a targeting scrambler and keep the ISD up, especially if you are first player. It also might help to bring back some of the Rogue units the empire has, specifically the Decimator. Any ship getting close enough might be eating a few three blue dice attacks.
I think Pryce is going to be one of the high skill use cards. Her exact usage is going to take the right combination of objectives and builds to make work. I'm excited though to test her out a bit, and see what she can do to help battle the activation advantage.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
NFL Week 15 Predictions
An interesting week with a lot of games set to be tight throughout. The NFC West battle could easily be the best game of the weekend, and will determine a lot about the NFC playoffs. It will also be interesting to see if the Nick Foles Eagles can continue the momentum. In the AFC we get the Steelers and the Pats matching up in what could be the deciding factor for home field advantage in January.
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
NFL Week 15 Power Rankings
The regular season is quickly drawing to a close, but there is still a lot of room for shake ups. Every team in the top 7 is less than a field goal apart, and the Eagles might shift dramatically with the loss of Carson Wentz. The Saints I think are still the best team in the NFC, but they have some injuries that have bitten them. The Pats looked very mortal against the Dolphins, and it will be interesting to see if the O Line can figure out the protections against a dysfunctional but effective Steelers team this week.
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