General Caruthers becomes indisposed

To the Honourable Gentlemen of Horseguards
Sirs, I have the honour to report to you that following our work to sweep aside the piratical hordes of Guayabo, we advanced into the depths of the misty jungles. On the second day, our advance brought us onto a swampy plain on the far side of which was a host the like of which we have never seen in our times. For there arrayed before us were savage tribesmen of a particularly horrid demeanour alongside beasts that we would have thought to be solely the product of a deranged artist in a child's book.

They came at us at a trot, the roar of beasts a terrifying accompaniment to the horrific cries of the wild men (if men they proved to be).

The Lost Worlds forces advance against the British line.  Incantations rose abocve the cry of battle as the tribesmen hoped to raise the Ape God to come to their aid.

Sirs, I sent Lord Chelting of Cheam deep behind the enemy line in his fantastical flying machine, in the hope that an assault from behind would be enough to unseat the cursed foe.

Chelting and his flyer (aerial hero) can be see top left as the lines approach

The line clash, the warband are thrown back. Chelting has attacked the pterodactyl flyer, sending it plummeting to the ground

Chelting ... good man, that!!

The enemy came at us again, and at this point I fear that I must report a most unfortunate event in which the glorious boys of my very own bodyguard were brought down around me. To their credit their dying act was to throw their bodies atop me protecting m form the ravages of the horrendous barbarian horde.

The warband general hits Caruthers (blade).. a 1 rarely ends well against a 6, Caruthers blade stand is eliminated

The giant dinosaur behemoth batters against another blade unit, 

Lieutenant Winstanley ( a damned fine hero, that boy) pushes past the behemoth to allow a shooter unit to take the behemoth in the flank, but the behemoth beats them back

They go in again, and a second blade until is eliminated, again on a 1 and a 6

In the next turn Winstanley attacks the behemoth, and again the British are cursed with a 1:6 die result against them

A warband unit attacks Doctor Morgenstein and his amazing machine- he has been hurling his magic wherever he can

The warband is driven off

Lord Chelting swoops in to attack a band of enemy magicians who have been trying to cast their own spells over the British troops

Chelting is driven off, and the magicians try to bespell him again, without success. Winstanley goes into the behemoth once more

Once more the curs eof the 1vs6.. Chelting is brought down by the magicians

The warband are driven off again by Dr Morgenstein

Magic courses through the air, 

A unit of British blade sweep onto the flank of the warrior magicians, supported by a unit of British shooters...

There's nothing quite like British steel to do the business.. they certainly don't like it up 'em, the magicians are eliminated, and the battle is won

Despite my own inconvenience I can report that we finally broke the spirit of these cursed men and beasts. I can assure your Lordships that I am well recovered from my own regrettable indisposition, but mourn the loss of so. many of our brave lads. We plan to push forward into the very interior of this place on the 'morrow.

I remain, Sirs, your obedient servant
Major General Sir Chelmswood Reginald Augustus Piers Caruthers

Dismal Dwarven disaster

First Kings of war game for a long time, and it was the Dwarfs against Adrian's Orcs .... again.

Initial deployment, with obligatory bottle of Porter on the table edge.

I pushed forward with the Brockriders (hey, I know they are spider riders, but .. it's my fantasy army LOL) on my right wing. They were supported by a steel behemoth. The unit of Orc Gore riders was destroyed in one turn, such were the casualties, and the high roll in the nerve test

On my left a unit of Ironwatch confronts three Troll.. oh dear.

A unit of Orc Ax push past the Ironwatch and towards the army standard bearer

Adrian pushes his second unit of Gore Riders forward, supported by a Krudger on a winged slasher .. ooo , might not end well.

The Dwarf Shieldbreakers wait in the centre

The centre from the dwarven side. The Dwarf cannon had performed well, scoring  a hit on the Orc Ax Horde (on the right of the photo) every turn for three turns. Eventually enough casuallties to break the unit.

The Brockriders taking severe casualties. The Krudger attacked the steel behemoth. The Orcs won both combats, eliminating the Dwarf right wing .. the turning point of the game.

The Orc horde wavering

The Dwarf left wing Ironwatch survived two turns of combat against the trolls,

The view of the Orc centre with the Horde gone. At this stage things still looked pretty good for the Dwarfs.

Orc Ax get around behind the Dwarf left. The unit of Ironclad manage to turn to meet the threat.

Finally the Ax and GreatAx make contact in the centre

The Shieldbreakers  .. well, they 'break'.. oo damn!!!

The Krudger attacks the Dwarf King.

The Ironguard are hit from the front and the side, as the Orc right wing Gore Riders break through.

The Dwarf left.. almost all that is left of the Dwarf army.

The King and the Krudger battle it out .. the Krudger won.. sigh

The Ironguard are lost

The standard bearer faces of against the Trolls ....

... wavering, but thank goodness it was the last turn.

So that was out first Kings of ear game in certainly a year, maybe longer. I had pulled the dwarf centre back remaining just out of charge reach, while maximising firepower on the Orcs. This worked, but once my right wing went, I decided to attack in the centre. This was the turning point of the game.

From the perspective of winning the game, I should have continued to pull back. However, the game was a lot of fun.

Economics and World War 2...

Reading Richard Overy's book "Why the allies won", I was fascinated with his analysis of some of the economic issues behind the war. Strangely to some, questions of relative efficiency of resource use are quite fascinating to me.

A teaching colleague by coincidence popped his head around my study door late in the term to ask about some aspects of the economy of Nazi Germany after one of his senior classes had engaged in quite vigourous debate of some of these issues. We did a quick Google search for some information on the nazi economy and I found this fascinating paper "Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany" written by Germa Bel.

By the 1930s public ownership of business had become quite widespread amongst western nations as a government repsonse to the Great Depression. However wihtin the first four years of its rule the nazi government had reversed much of this privatisation, well in advance of similar moves by other western governments.

Many scholars have pointed out that the Great Depression spurred State ownership in Western capitalist countries (e.g. Aharoni, 1986, pp. 72 and ff.; Clifton, Comín and Díaz Fuentes, 2003, p. 16; Megginson, 2005, pp. 9-10), and Germany was no exception. But Germany was alone in developing a policy of privatization in the 1930s. Therefore a central question remains: Why did the Nazi regime depart from the mainstream policies regarding State ownership of firms? Why did Germany’s government transfer firms and public functions to the private sector while the other Western countries did not?

Perhaps the most obvious rationale for this re-privatisation programme was the creation of fiscal revenue for the government.

Estimates presented in table 1 show that between the fiscal years 1934/35 and 1937/38 privatization was an important source of revenue for Germany’s Treasury. In the period as a whole, privatization proceeds represented almost 1.4 per cent of total fiscal revenues.

Actual figures are hard to come by as after 1935 the nazi government stopped publishing detailed financial information.

As mentioned, the German budget for the fiscal year 1934/35 was the last one for which detailed information was published (Pollock, 1938, p. 121) and no detailed information on financial operations was published thereafter.

While the author acknowledges the importance of revenue from privatisation as  a proportion of total fiscal revenue, making comparisons with the 1990s privatisations in the EU (a necessary comparison since there was little that was comparable in the 1930s and 40s), he also notes that this was done against a background of increasing state control of the economy in nazi Germany, while the EU experiences of the 1990s took place against a background of increasing liberalisation and reduction in government control.

This doesn't however fully explain the story, for it is one riddles with political expediency, as Hitler's nazi party sought to grant favours in exchange for political support. Indeed, it is my reading that cronyism is the most significant explanation for this privatisation, as the nazi party's philosophy was not one that actually supported private ownership, The compromise was to allow private ownership and control at the micro level, while maintaining strong market control.

It is worth quoting the author's conclusions in full:

"VII. Conclusions

Although modern economic literature usually ignores the fact, the Nazi government in 1930s Germany undertook a wide scale privatization policy. The government sold public ownership in several State-owned firms in different sectors. In addition, delivery of some public services previously produced by the public sector was transferred to the private sector, mainly to organizations within the Nazi Party.
Ideological motivations do not explain Nazi privatization. However, political motivations were important. The Nazi government may have used privatization as a tool to improve its relationship with big industrialists and to increase support among this group for its policies. Privatization was also likely used to foster more widespread political support for the party.

Finally, financial motivations played a central role in Nazi privatization. The proceeds from privatization in 1934-37 had relevant fiscal significance: No less than 1.37 per cent of total fiscal revenues were obtained from selling shares in public firms. Moreover, the government avoided including a huge expenditure in the budget by using outside-of-the-budget tools to finance the public services franchised to Nazi organizations."

So how does this all link with Overy's book? It is my contention, with little or no other evidence, that this cronyism created the very inefficiencies that Overy refers to.

This has, interestingly, fitted in very well with some junior economics I have been teaching this year in which we have been investigating the market as a tool for resource allocation. We see in the case of nazi Germany an example of corruption usurping the power of the market, resulting in poor resource allocation.

Others' thoughts would be welcome if there's anyone out there reading this. Of course as usual I could just be talking to myself, but I really am interested in this stuff about Economics and world war 2.