The Download Munkey : Tracking the Treasure Down …

An enhanced shareware version of Battleship, the classic turn-based game for two in which each player attempts to be the first to sink all his/her opponent’s ships, Strategy Lights Series’ Battleship WW2 Gold Edition is an innovative PC-based version that adds substantial depth to the original game with a selection of well-thought out features.

Don’t judge Battleship WW2 by the archaic in-game graphics because under those utilitarian visuals lies a solid, engaging naval strategy game – or a wargame-lite if you will. Definitely more realistic than pencil-and-paper Battleship, Battleship WW2 is no hardcore naval stimulation by any means though – lightly-armed corvettes aren’t likely to sink a battleship, not in this modern age and definitely not back then in WWII, but they do in this game.

Loads of stuff to play with … if you buy the full version, of course

If you can overlook this slight lapse in realism, you’ll find Battleship WW2 perfect as a simple introductory naval strategy/wargame. With 50 types of ships, submarines, planes and coastal artillery and a larger fleet that can move around on a significantly larger playing area, you can simulate historical scenarios with ease – something you definitely cannot do with the original Battleship game.

Since ships have different radar ranges to detect enemy ships and planes and in addition, only select classes have sonar to detect those nasty submarines, there’s loads of strategy involved in tailoring your battle fleet before starting each mission and when manuevering during the actual mission – a battlefleet comprising only the mightiest battleships may look good on paper but will quickly succumb to enemy submarines which can approach undetected and then make quick work of the entire fleet of behemoths without any fear of retaliation.

Sure, you’ll still need battleships, heavy cruisers and their heavy firepower to destroy enemy capital ships and/or aircraft carriers with fighters to defend against marauding torpedo-bombers and bombers to attack coastal fortifications but a combined fleet with corvettes/destroyers steaming farther ahead to screen these larger ships from prowling enemy submarines stands a much better chance of completing the mission successfully. Other essential ships to reinforce your fleet include unarmed auxiliary ships to repair damaged warships and of course, submarines to hunt for unwary targets.

Battleship WW2 uses attributes like movement range, firing range, radar/sight range, number of shots per turn (simulating the number of guns/torpedoes on each ship) and armour (hitpoints) to represent the different classes of ships available. It does a very good job differentiating the various ships, but the fact that hits from a cruiser and a corvette both cause exactly the same amount of damage does jar the realism somewhat.

Hunting the Bismarck

Different mission objectives call for different fleet configurations and range from the direct annihilation of enemy shipping to liberation of enemy ports or the defense of friendly ports in the area of operations.

More missions! … if you buy, buy, buy

The full version of Battleship WW2 contains a total of 110 missions, 4 campaigns of 10 to 15 missions each and allows the construction of all 50 types of units to equip your forces. The shareware version lacks the campaigns and most of the missions and ships. Still, there’s a lot of fun to be had experimenting with the optimum fleet build and testing them out in battle

Download Battleship WW2 Gold Edition.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel Fleet
Sea Victory Tugboats
WWII Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical Lessons from BBC
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Turning Point – Fall of Liberty Trailer

I recently read about supercavitating torpedoes being used in fictional near future global conflicts in Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One and thought that it was a too much of a coincidence to be a fictional weapon so I went Googling and well, this stuff really exists!

The white area depicts the gas bubble surrounding the moving black object. Water resistance against the moving object is redirected away by the gas bubble.

Simply put, supercavitating torpedoes are rocket-propelled torpedoes which create a envelope of gas around the body of the torpedo to significantly reduce water resistance and drag, thus enabling incredible speeds of over 200 knots per hour – nearly 5 or 6(!) times faster than most warships, even new ships like the futuristic-looking USS Independence designed by General Dynamics.

There isn’t much information on the Internet about these ingenious weapons though since the only two types of supercavitating torpedoes in active service seem to be the Shkval/Shkval-II (above) developed by the Russians in the 1970s and an alleged Iranian copy of the Shkval-II.

Surprisingly, the Russians did not intend to use these weapons in the anti-ship role as depicted in the abovementioned novels but only as defense against enemy torpedoes instead. The Shkval probably wouldn’t be practical for attacking enemy warships in real life due to the limited maximum range of around 13 km (the American Mark 48 torpedo while slower, has a more useful maximum range of around 50 km) and the significant noise signature created by the ignition of the rocket motor which would have greatly compromised the launching submarine.

More information about the Shkval at Military Periscope, Articles Extra, World Affairs Board and of course Wikipedia. Or read the novels : Dragon’s Fury and Shotgun One

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
WWII Anti-Submarine Warfare Tactical Lessons from BBC
Visby Class Stealth Corvette
Sea Victory Tugboats
Renders of WWII Battleships from Navyfield : Resurrection of the Steel Fleet
Kyoshi Harada’s 3D Renders of WWII War Machines

Fished out this old US handbook on WWI artillery from The Internet Archive while mucking around in the WWI towed artillery category of Wikimedia Commons, particularly on the French C17S howitzer (below). Always thought that Project Gutenberg was the only major source for public domain books but I guess I was wrong there

This book titled Handbook of Artillery : Including Mobile, Anti-Aircraft and Trench Matériel was published by the US Ordnance Department in 1920 and a digital copy scanned for the University of California was graciously uploaded to the Internet Archive in 2007.

The first section presents the workings of the firing and recoil mechanisms of modern artillery pieces as well as brief descriptions of the various vehicles that accompanied the guns in the era of towed artillery from carriage limbers to caissons for ammunition storage and battery, forge and store wagons.

What follows after is a whole load of technical details on the major artillery systems in service with the US armed forces during the Great War and the post-war years, presented with very thorough descriptions and specifications of each gun and their specialized support vehicles with a generous sprinkling of scale diagrams.

A 37mm infantry gun

A 7-inch naval rifle

A Vickers 9.2 inch heavy howitzer

Pieces ranging from the 37mm infantry gun, the 75mm light field gun to heavy artillery like the British 60 pounders and French 155mm howitzers e.g the C17S are covered together with monstrous 7-inch naval rifles and 9.2-inch Vickers heavy howitzers thrown in for good measure.

There’s a short section on anti aircraft guns still in their infancy with an interesting truck-mounted 75mm field gun (above), together with a brief coverage on trench mortars.

But the most interesting bit would be photos of probably the world’s first self propelled artillery, the Mark II (below) in which a 155mm gun was mated to a treaded chassis. Only 8 were delivered which suggested that it was probably constructed for evaluation trials but not adopted for front-line service.

Download the Handbook of Artillery : Including Mobile, Anti-Aircraft and Trench Matériel (that’s the actual title) or browse through other Ordnance Department books and manuals. On a related note, check out www.cannonartillery.com’s Cannon Walk feature for a glimpse at the history of US artillery from past to present.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
A Simulation of Trench Warfare : Warfare 1917
ACE Armoured Vehicle Scale Model Boxart
British Commemorative Booklets for World War II
MINDEF Commemorative Books – Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks
Test-Driving a T-72 in Iron Warriors

A look at several booklets of weapon factsheets accompanying Kerry Plowright‘s military novel Shotgun One. This rather engaging novel about a fictional conflict pitting Australia and the US against new military powerhouses China and Russia after the discovery of oil near Vostok Station in Antarctica, has yet to find a publisher but the 600+ pages PDF version of Shotgun One can be freely downloaded from the book’s official site at www.vostokstation.com.au.

© Kerry Plowright

These supporting booklets provide more in-depth information on the weapons and equipment featured in Shotgun One together with details on a few fictional near-future weapons like the highly capable F-111S flown by Squadron Leader Lance Hamilton in the book. Some information are taken directly from Wikipedia but at least it’s consolidated together for handy reference.

© Kerry Plowright

Nothing new in Australian Army Weapons and Systems since most of the Australian military equipment are similiar to that used by the US or her NATO Allies. The Long Range Patrol Vehicles (LRPVs) used by the Australian SASR (yes, the Aussies have their own equivalent of the famous British Special Air Service) are rather interesting modifications of the original Land Rovers though.

© Kerry Plowright

The RAAF Aircraft and Weapons and Systems follows in a similiar vein as the first booklet with details on the aircraft in service with the Royal Australian Air Force.

© Kerry Plowright

The next couple of booklets deal with the ships serving with Chinese PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Navy) and the Royal Australian Navy. There’s quite a few good-looking ships and boats in these two booklets, two of my favourites being the Australian Armidale class of patrol boats (above) and the Chinese Houbei class of missile boats (below).

© Kerry Plowright

The last booklet contains information on the TNI-AD, the Indonesian National Army which is equipped with an interesting mix of arms from both Western and Soviet/Russian suppliers. Not much information on the operational use of these weapons by the TNI-AD though.

Download Shotgun One and its accompanying resources from the official site @ www.vostokstation.com.au.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Future War Machines from Tom Clancy’s EndWar
Army of Two : Dirty Money Graphic Novel
PEO Soldier Portfolio 2009
Read Books on Your Mobile Phone with TequilaCat BookReader
Desider Magazine

Just completed reading all the freely downloadable issue #1s (and assorted sample issues) for the comics / graphic novels published under DC Comics’s Vertigo imprint. I’m not a comics person and I don’t understand what gets categorized under graphic novels when both appear to be the same to me, so for simplicity’s sake, I’ll just refer to everything as comics here

Do note that Vertigo caters to adults so graphically violent and/or sexual images are to be expected together in these comics together with usually generous helpings of coarse language. Then again, given the nature of today’s movies and pop culture, it doesn’t really mean a big difference, does it?

Below I feature some of the comics that I particulary enjoyed.

© Vertigo Comics

My absolute favourite has to be The Losers : Ante Up written by Andy Diggle – a gang of ex-Special Forces personnel pull off some of the most outrageous heists I’ve ever seen in comics (or books … or even movies ).

© Vertigo Comics

V for Vendetta written by Alan Moore – the first comic / graphic novel that sparked my interest in Vertigo’s stuff after watching the movie adaptation. Only a four-page preview of the first issue is available though.

© Vertigo Comics

The Sandman : Precludes Nocturnes written by Neil Gaiman – Volume 1 of the Sandman series in which Roderick Burgess, a self-appointed Lord Magus and his cult attempt to summon and bind Death to their whims but captures Death’s younger brother Dream instead. Without Dream, people around the world sleep and never wake up and eventually the tables are turned on his captors themselves as they become increasingly fearful and tormented from lack of sleep. Meanwhile their captive bides his time waiting for the perfect opportunity to exact his vengeance…

© Vertigo Comics

DMZ Volume 1 : On the Ground written by Brian Wood – Intern Matthew Roth accompanies award-winning journalist Viktor Ferguson into the dangerous Manhattan DMZ where a ceasefire is being arranged between American troops and Free Army rebels, and gets into the thick of the action on his first day at work.

© Vertigo Comics

Northlanders Volume 1 : Sven the Returned written by Brian Wood – bloodthirsty Vikings make bloody good comic material

© Vertigo Comics

The Books Of Magic written by Neil Gaiman – Tim Hunter, a bespectacled boy who looks quite a bit like Harry Potter, is shown the ways of magic by characters from the Vertigo universe. Note the distinctive, almost photorealistic art style by John Bolton.

© DC Comics

Watchmen written by Alan Moore – I like this mainly for Rorschach, a masked vigilante equipped with good old fashioned brawling and zero superpowers,. I had absolutely no idea how closely the Watchmen movie matched the comic, cell for cell until I read this first issue.

Check out the above comics / graphics novels (click on the titles for the download pages) and others at Vertigo Comics (those indicated with #1 have the first issue free for download).

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Watchmen Wallpapers (Movie, Comics & Game)
Watchmen : The End is Nigh Demo Impressions
Marvel Official Wallpapers
Marvelous Papercraft – Boxpunx by Harlancore + Friends
The Darkness & Other Top Cow Comics Wallpapers