Fun stuff from my dad
Apr. 26th, 2006 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexxkayEvery so often, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
russkay sends me something fun in email. The latest two are both worth sharing.
First, an impressive re-imagining of Pachelbel's Canon.
EDIT: a coworker informs me that this link is to the actual (re)arranger of the Pachelbel piece performing it himself. It is actually better than the first one I linked to.
Second (and behind a cut for length) a satiric take on current politics, imagined as a boardgame:
"Iraqi Freedom" Game Q&A
This is the Q&A support page for the wargame "Iraqi
Freedom" by its publisher:
Q: I've just started playing the game and have so far
enjoyed it, but I have a question about the Iraqi
Civilian pieces. The rules state that I get extra US
Domestic Support points when I take a city and an
Iraqi Civilian piece is flipped over and revealed to
be a "Cheering Crowd". So far, however, I haven't
found any of those: they've all either been "Hiding"
or else "Saddaam Fedayeen" - the latter being rather
nasty since one my units loses a turn and I take a
Domestic Support hit when I flip one of those. The
rules, however, gave the strong impression that I
should find a lot of "Cheering Crowds". It looks to me
like my copy may not be complete -- how many of
"Cheering Crowd" pieces are there in the game?
A: Zero.
Q: I had a support question. I've been playing the
game and I've been drawing cards from the WMD deck as
my units have taken the WMD sites marked on the map,
but so far I haven't actually found any WMD's. The
rules give a list of the WMD's that I need to find in
order to win the game (mustard gas, mobile biological
weapons labs, sarin nerve gas, enriched uraniam,
etc.), but I haven't drawn any of them. I know I
should have checked before I started play, but how
many of the WMD cards in the deck are blank?
A: Out of the 36 cards in the WMD deck, 36 of them are
blank.
Q: The rules state that it is unlikely to occur, but
my game has resulted in a Sunni insurgency. To put it
down, I need to destroy all insurgency pieces in the
game. However, I see that to attack an insurgency
piece in a city, I need to move a US army unit into
that city. However, the rules also state that when a
US army unit enters a city containing an insurgency
piece, that piece automatically moves to the nearest
empty city of the same sect. How can I destroy the
insurgency pieces?
A: Occupy all of the cities of that sect
simultaneously.
Q: Hi, I figured out that to defeat the Sunni
insurgency that broke out in my game, I need to occupy
all the Sunni cities. However, there are 18 such
cities and I only have 12 US units, so it doesn't seem
possible. Can you help with this?
A: Of course. You have three courses of action: by
draws from the Coalition of the Willing deck to get
more troops from Allies, or by submitting a Request
for More Troops to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, or
by raising Iraqi army units (which does require that
you first create an Iraqi Provisional Government or an
Iraqi Elected Government, if you haven't already done
so). Any of those can give you enough units to do what
you need to do to win.
Q: In my game, I decided I needed more units, so I
tried to get them by drawing from the Coalition of the
Willing Deck. By bad luck (I think) I didn't get any
good cards: they were either cards for small
impoverished countries that couldn't help (like
Micronesia and Eritrea), or I got refusal cards from
powerful countries that could (like France and
Germany) that cost me US Public Support. Is there
something I'm missing here?
A: No.
Q: My game resulted in a Sunni insurgency. I didn't
expect that and so I looked into the rule to submit a
Request for More Troops to Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld. I see, however that the only thing that will
happen if I do is that I will have to go back ten
steps on my Army Career Track. Is there any point to
such a request?
A: No.
Q: I instituted a Provisional Iraqi Government so that
I could raise an Iraqi army to help control the
country and put down an insurgency that started in my
game. As I understand it, I can occupy a city with
either an Iraqi army unit or a US unit, but the rules
state that an Iraqi army unit can only control a city
if accompanied by a US unit. Unless I'm missing
something, this rule means that raising an Iraqi army
won't solve my problem, so I just had to check -- is
this rule correct?
A: Yes.
Q: I've been playing the game, and I drew the "Sistani
Election Demand" event card. I decided to call for
elections, since I couldn't afford a Shiite insurgency
in addition to the Sunni insurgency that I've been
fighting since almost the start of the game. Anyway, I
spent some of my budget on the "Support Democratic
Parties" option to increase my chances of drawing
pro-western parliamentarians in the election (by the
way -- the rules sometimes refer to an option to
"Support Democratic Parties" and sometimes an option
to "Subvert Iraqi Democracy" -- are these different
options? [A: No.]). Anyway, so I drew the cards from
the Election Deck, and almost all of the Shiites I got
were from fundamentalist religious parties closely
linked to Iran. The rules state I get a big bonus in
Domestic Support if Ahmed Chalabi's party was elected,
which is what I was hoping for, but I didn't see his
pary's card in the deck. Since I'm obviously missing
it, could you please send me his card?
A: There is no such card: Chalabi's party can't be
elected.
Q: I've never felt so ripped off in my life. The game
was advertised for a price of $19.95, which I thought
an excellent price for a game with so many quality
components, but I keep seeing additional charges on my
credit card: one for $24.57, another for $47.19, yet
another for $38.46, and so on. If you add them all up,
it comes to over $300.00, and the bills ARE STILL
COMING! You're a liar and a thief and I can't believe
I was fool enough to buy anything from you.
A: That's "Iraqi Freedom!" You'll be glad to know that
I've also signed you up for a copy of "Iranian
Freedom!" (for just $14.95) when it comes out, which
should be soon!
russkay sends me something fun in email. The latest two are both worth sharing. First, an impressive re-imagining of Pachelbel's Canon.
EDIT: a coworker informs me that this link is to the actual (re)arranger of the Pachelbel piece performing it himself. It is actually better than the first one I linked to.
Second (and behind a cut for length) a satiric take on current politics, imagined as a boardgame:
"Iraqi Freedom" Game Q&A
This is the Q&A support page for the wargame "Iraqi
Freedom" by its publisher:
Q: I've just started playing the game and have so far
enjoyed it, but I have a question about the Iraqi
Civilian pieces. The rules state that I get extra US
Domestic Support points when I take a city and an
Iraqi Civilian piece is flipped over and revealed to
be a "Cheering Crowd". So far, however, I haven't
found any of those: they've all either been "Hiding"
or else "Saddaam Fedayeen" - the latter being rather
nasty since one my units loses a turn and I take a
Domestic Support hit when I flip one of those. The
rules, however, gave the strong impression that I
should find a lot of "Cheering Crowds". It looks to me
like my copy may not be complete -- how many of
"Cheering Crowd" pieces are there in the game?
A: Zero.
Q: I had a support question. I've been playing the
game and I've been drawing cards from the WMD deck as
my units have taken the WMD sites marked on the map,
but so far I haven't actually found any WMD's. The
rules give a list of the WMD's that I need to find in
order to win the game (mustard gas, mobile biological
weapons labs, sarin nerve gas, enriched uraniam,
etc.), but I haven't drawn any of them. I know I
should have checked before I started play, but how
many of the WMD cards in the deck are blank?
A: Out of the 36 cards in the WMD deck, 36 of them are
blank.
Q: The rules state that it is unlikely to occur, but
my game has resulted in a Sunni insurgency. To put it
down, I need to destroy all insurgency pieces in the
game. However, I see that to attack an insurgency
piece in a city, I need to move a US army unit into
that city. However, the rules also state that when a
US army unit enters a city containing an insurgency
piece, that piece automatically moves to the nearest
empty city of the same sect. How can I destroy the
insurgency pieces?
A: Occupy all of the cities of that sect
simultaneously.
Q: Hi, I figured out that to defeat the Sunni
insurgency that broke out in my game, I need to occupy
all the Sunni cities. However, there are 18 such
cities and I only have 12 US units, so it doesn't seem
possible. Can you help with this?
A: Of course. You have three courses of action: by
draws from the Coalition of the Willing deck to get
more troops from Allies, or by submitting a Request
for More Troops to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, or
by raising Iraqi army units (which does require that
you first create an Iraqi Provisional Government or an
Iraqi Elected Government, if you haven't already done
so). Any of those can give you enough units to do what
you need to do to win.
Q: In my game, I decided I needed more units, so I
tried to get them by drawing from the Coalition of the
Willing Deck. By bad luck (I think) I didn't get any
good cards: they were either cards for small
impoverished countries that couldn't help (like
Micronesia and Eritrea), or I got refusal cards from
powerful countries that could (like France and
Germany) that cost me US Public Support. Is there
something I'm missing here?
A: No.
Q: My game resulted in a Sunni insurgency. I didn't
expect that and so I looked into the rule to submit a
Request for More Troops to Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld. I see, however that the only thing that will
happen if I do is that I will have to go back ten
steps on my Army Career Track. Is there any point to
such a request?
A: No.
Q: I instituted a Provisional Iraqi Government so that
I could raise an Iraqi army to help control the
country and put down an insurgency that started in my
game. As I understand it, I can occupy a city with
either an Iraqi army unit or a US unit, but the rules
state that an Iraqi army unit can only control a city
if accompanied by a US unit. Unless I'm missing
something, this rule means that raising an Iraqi army
won't solve my problem, so I just had to check -- is
this rule correct?
A: Yes.
Q: I've been playing the game, and I drew the "Sistani
Election Demand" event card. I decided to call for
elections, since I couldn't afford a Shiite insurgency
in addition to the Sunni insurgency that I've been
fighting since almost the start of the game. Anyway, I
spent some of my budget on the "Support Democratic
Parties" option to increase my chances of drawing
pro-western parliamentarians in the election (by the
way -- the rules sometimes refer to an option to
"Support Democratic Parties" and sometimes an option
to "Subvert Iraqi Democracy" -- are these different
options? [A: No.]). Anyway, so I drew the cards from
the Election Deck, and almost all of the Shiites I got
were from fundamentalist religious parties closely
linked to Iran. The rules state I get a big bonus in
Domestic Support if Ahmed Chalabi's party was elected,
which is what I was hoping for, but I didn't see his
pary's card in the deck. Since I'm obviously missing
it, could you please send me his card?
A: There is no such card: Chalabi's party can't be
elected.
Q: I've never felt so ripped off in my life. The game
was advertised for a price of $19.95, which I thought
an excellent price for a game with so many quality
components, but I keep seeing additional charges on my
credit card: one for $24.57, another for $47.19, yet
another for $38.46, and so on. If you add them all up,
it comes to over $300.00, and the bills ARE STILL
COMING! You're a liar and a thief and I can't believe
I was fool enough to buy anything from you.
A: That's "Iraqi Freedom!" You'll be glad to know that
I've also signed you up for a copy of "Iranian
Freedom!" (for just $14.95) when it comes out, which
should be soon!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 04:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-04-26 04:28 pm (UTC)how many of "Cheering Crowd" pieces are there in the game?
A: Zero.
This is of course exacerbated by the fact that "Cheering Crowd" cards are clearly visible on the product box, next to the "Mission Accomplished" win-condition card; one has to assume they were removed from the game during playtesting.