Stepping Down as Historical Editor

[bobcockayne 20723xp 1]

@oriskany understand your reluctance on Battletech content after we talked about it at the Bolt Action boot camp, remember saying you had more flak on that than over any of your historic content, based on players entrenched thoughts on favourite factions. I use to be a bit of an expert on it, though lost ground with it a bit after Fasa retired, kept up during the Fedcom civil war, but found the Jihad era a bit of a minefield, they did the updates in the style of the Battletechnology mag, as a mercs magazine, which worked well when you had it as a bi-monthly mag (if lucky) but fell apart a bit when does as yearly updates. Not helped by the fact you knew the eventual ending due the Mechwarrior incarntation from the Mage knight created.
When it 1st started their may have been around 50-60 mechs, now ……..got to be far off the equivalent of Space Marine factions.

[dynarod1164 1142xp 1]

Sorry to hear you are stepping down @oriskany. Thanks for all the great content and for a fantastic job as historical editor. You have left some very big shoes for your replacement to fill! All the best with sitrep and all your other projects.

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

@torros – certainly true.  I just don’t know if I see the application.  I mean, why recreate Kasserine Pass or Prokhorovka or Tarawa in sci-fi?  Historical players will be miffed, sci-fi players won’t get the reference …  Unless you’re talking about the system.  Sure, just put different artwork on the counters and color the boards a different shade to make it look “alien.”  😀

@puyzen – thanks very much.  The position was “created” more or less for me, so I don’t know if they will try to get a replacement.  Maybe @avernos in an unofficial capacity?   😀

@buggeroff – thanks so much for all the support over the years.  Yeah, I’m switching over to the Sitrep full time, so still focusing on historical and ‘real world’ based wargaming, just tightening to a post-1945 focus with a new team.

@bobcockayne – yeah, the response to the Battletech series was phenomenal.  I would love to do another series or campaign or some such, I just honestly don’t feel qualified.  No false modesty there, I mean it.  The people who would be consuming the content would seriously know the material batter than I do.  That’s not a situation with which I’m familiar or terribly comfortable.  I meant what I said though, if we could get some kind of collaborator, with more mech photos, and a more solid understanding of the lore, I would be onboard very quickly.

I mean, as you remember from the series, I have a passable, conversational level of knowledge.  Who the eras are, what the Inner Sphere is, who the five houses were, Kerenksy’s story, who the Clans are, their schtick, how to play the game (both minis and hex based), and so on.  I even had access to the database where you can redesign your own mechs (the database is literally over 3000 mechs, vehicles, aeromechs, drop ships, etc).

But to stand up and present content, especially for this community, you really gotta know your shit.

[olliepMember 6011xp 0]

Thanks for all the effort you’ve put in @oriskany , has been a pleasure to follow 🙂

[evilstu 15298xp 1]

@oriskany just wanted to add my name to the list of people saying thanks and wishing you the best of luck with the SitRep side of things. Your articles have always been well written and engaging. And if you have any doubt with regard to the reach or impact you have had on the community, please know that I presently have half a dozen historical projects queued up and awaiting attention that but for your articles I otherwise probably wouldn’t have considered looking at (and I’d be really keen to grab some FIW stuff to add to the list too but for the fact I’m embarrassed at how long the present backlog is going to take to work through…).

Best of luck moving forward and sincerely hope we’ll see you about the forums when you have the time. Thanks again!

[silverfox8 3936xp 1]

@oriskany. You’ll be missed but as you say you will still be part of the community.

Hey now that I’m back in Fayetteville NC we may have to get together some time.  Where in FL are you?

Do you ever go to any of the HMGS historic on events?

if so maybe we could carpool!

[oriskany 60771xp 2]

@dynarod1164 – Thanks very much, sir.  Not sure if they’ll try “filling any shoes” exactly, but if they do, I certainly wish that person all the best!  Meanwhile, I’ll be working much more closely with the Sitrep (Situation Report) team, putting a sharp focus on reality-based, modern-era wargaming.

Our latest podcast here on OTT – with plenty more to come!

Future Projects, Rule Systems & Our Wish List Plus Give Away Winners!

 

@olliep – Thanks very much, sir!

 

@evilstu – Thanks very much, and I sincerely apologize if I have inadvertently contributed to the size of your “lead mountain” of pending projects! 😀 😀 😀  It really is the b est genre I feel, however, so in the end … I regret nothing!  😀 (evil laugh)

@silverfox8 – Welcome “back in the world” as  they say.  😀  I’m in Fort Lauderdale, in South Florida – but also tranel north to Orlando / Daytona often (family there).  One of these years I really have to get to Historicon in Virginia.

[aztecjaguarParticipant 1568xp 2]

I check OTT / BoW every morning and evening… and somehow I totally missed
this BREAKING NEWS (as well as the first two episodes of INDIE THURSDAY).

Anyway… I seem to be somewhat late to the farewell party…

@oriskany – Thank you so much for all your hard work over the years!
Wishing you every success with SITREP Podcast and your other projects!

@bothi – I’ll see your excellent Albert Einstein quote and raise you a
military-based pre-Socratic Greek philosopher quote:

“Out of every one hundred men, ten shouldn’t even be there, eighty are just targets,
nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle.
Ah, but the one, one is a warrior, and he will bring the others back.”
Heraclitus

[limburger 21731xp 1]

@oriskany : it has been said that ‘the lion king’ is a Disney animated version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Some people may need a re-skinned variant of actual historic events to let them get over the ‘history is boring’ prejuidice.

The battle at Rorke’s drift (sp?) is more heroic when you realise it was British vs Zulus instead space marines fighting an orc horde. However part of the fun of wargaming is in the tactics as well as the history.

In a way it can be like teaching kids to eat their vegetables …

besides … when you manage to convince the owner of a ‘Nachtwulfen’ army to get an interest in the Napeolonic era warfare then you must realise there is hope for all of us 😉

[oriskany 60771xp 2]

Well, @aztecjaguar – who can blame you?  😀  No worries.  Thanks for the warm wishes, I hope you enjoy the content we have coming out for Sitrep, whether it’s featured here on OTT or over on our YouTube / Podbean / Facebook platforms.

Okay, @limburger – I wouldn’t say @warzan ever “got into” Napoleonics – at least in a gaming sense.  The big exception to this was the command-tactical level Waterloo game he had as Bonaparte vs. “Lord Justington” with Alessio Cavatore as referee.  I cannot take any credit for that. 😀  That was Alessio all the way.

[jax78 1654xp 1]

Massive thanks for all your hard work @oriskany . I’m not a Historical gamer at all but always enjoyed listening to your segments and learnt far more from you than all my years in education. Good luck with your new project.

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

No worries at all, @jax78 – I’m very glad you liked the segments.  More are coming as part of the Sitrep, a new series called the Operations Center – which I believe are also being rolled out on the OTT / BoW site.

[jamjarst 4011xp 1]

@oriskany selfishly I am sad to see you step down as historical editor, your contributions have made this a great place and I am sure your continued involvement with Sitrep will be awesome. All the best mate.

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Thanks very much, @jamjarst – but never fear!  @stvitusdancern (Gianna) is keeping our Sitrep team in close coordination with BoW / OTT.  Our podcasts go up here as well as on Podbean, Facebook, Twitch, and Twitter, and Episode 01 of our new Ops Center show is up as well:

Ops Center Episode 01

Give a watch and a comment if you like it!  😀

Thanks again for the support.

[Author]

Posts