Wargaming

Last week I appeared on the Circuit Podcast, describing the benefits of wargaming in all forms of security practice. I had a sales call that meant I didn’t get the work, just due to me not being the right fit. However the customer thanked me for being “candid”; which is now my favourite descriptive term for my approach behind “external security brain”. I attended some of another CTG Intelligence conference, always interesting to hear what a different aspect of the security industry has to say. I attended the second set of 44Con talks; I was disappointed that this game was cancelled but I’m seeing more and more signals that there’s a strong future in cyber wargaming. It was a particularly busy week, so I combined a business meeting with James Bore’s open office - I like to think that worked out well, and useful conversations were had. I was one of the members of the Control Team for “Last People on Earth”, a megagame set in the 1st century, working with Stone Paper Scissors. I enjoyed watching the third week of the NFL season, although my team were disappointing.

Last week I attended two days of the profesional wargaming conference Connections UK. This was well done, very interactive, with the team figuring out online problems as they went. More engaging than I expected, with some useful and interesting contacts made to take forward. I attended the Fourth Annual Managed Security Services Forum London MSS London. An interesting event to dip in and out of, especially with the reoccuring theme of building relationships and trust between all the parties involved. Also, as cliched as it might be, that the evolution of Managed Security Services is a journey in developing those “soft skills”, rather tnan focussing on technical ability. I also spoke at MSS London, that panel might be online in future. But if you’re in Cyber Security and have limited time, I have to suggest you check out Megan Gooch’s presentation instead, she made many excellent points based on her experience in counter-terrorism. Me looking thoughtful at MSS London I enjoyed watching the second week of the NFL season, although my team managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. After falling down a “gas lift” hole last week, this week I spent far too much time trying to find a piece of hardware that will support quad displays for VGA over DB15 on a single monitor, more to follow…

Last week Enjoyed watching the first week of the NFL season, my team had a relatively calm beginning. Helped a friend think through their new PC options, details here. Lots of moving around cables and computers, to basically try and fit more objects in the same amount of physical space. Reasonably successful, so depending on the state of the world I should update talk on my home setup at some point. More work than usual coming up, so some time spent on getting up to speed on the project, and planning on the best way to deal with it. Having to learn far too much about the different types of gas lifts available for office chairs, after an organisation I bought a new chair from was a little “optimistic” about seat height. This and this were useful.

Thanks to Phil Huggins for putting me onto this episode of Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Dan discusses his background in miniature wargaming and then talks to one of the architects of a popular Second World War themed video game about the genre, its development, growth and challenges. Do listen if you: Just want to listen to someone with a great podcast/radio voice. I’ve not listened to Dan Carlin before, but within 30 seconds I knew he was a professional. ( I’m reminded of meeting Dave Lewis a few years ago at BSides London ) If you want to learn more about the new WW2 video game Hell Let Loose that I mentioned a little while ago. It’s an interesting idea, especially that players are attacted to such a constrained environment compared to the popular Battle Royale format Right now I can’t justify the time the game appears to demand, and don’t have the computer power - if you can’t either this is a really good insight. The highlights for me: Kriegsspiel being described as the Germans’ secret weapon in the 19th century; echos of Matt Caffrey's theories Carlin made a good point on modern gaming taking the arguing out of miniatures, it being much better to let the computer figure it out Maximillian Rea, the lead developer of Hell Let Loose, made a great point on modern computing finally being good enough to have massed players, and a more realistic size for the battlefield. As fun as that format this, this isn’t CoD's Nuketown It’s the briefest of mentions, but what you can discern from the naming schemes of militaries involved in WW2. Rea’s point that the infliction of pain isn’t the appeal for the majority of players, it’s more about strategy and tactics and out-playing an opponent. Unfortunately this interview ended just as they were getting into expanding this idea… imagine a game where your battle could be won through logistics

Last week Did my fantasy football draft for the year. I have less time than I’d like for following the NFL, so I find fantasy football a good way to stay in touch with the league as a whole James Bore’s open office on Thursday morning was interesting and useful. If you want to keep an eye on future meetings the best way is to follow James on LinkedIn I attended a meeting about a thing that is bad. That’ll go public this week. What do you call an APT that’s more A, more P, and more T than all the other APTs? Took part in a regular informal meeting that’s kind of a podcast, but with only hosts and no listeners I got over-excited at a potential customer, but I’m less worried about leaning into that these days. As I said at that “podcast with no audience”, if you want 20 ideas I can give you 20, if you want 3, I’ll also give you 20. It’s probably inadvisable commercially, but also “standard issue” consultancy appears to be devoid of any enthusiasm or joy, so my attitude is a market differentiator too Attended a hybrid ( online and remote ) meeting of the Chestnut Lodge Wargames Group. It went reasonably well, but I think the benefits and the issues around hybrid meetings are still being explored; and the participants’ enthusiasm and familiarity with each other made a huge difference. I was reminded once again of all the benefits of the format, especially the remote side :- being able to chat afterwards with two contacts, who had to be several hundred and several thousand miles away on the day. Thanks to Andrew Hadley for this picture he took on the day at the location; but due to some of the kit being used our remote impression wasn’t far off this level of clarity: The Normans besiege Winchester and London after the Battle of Hastings This week Probably stop doing weeknotes with a “this week” header, they’re increasingly optimistic On that, this article by Oliver Burkeman is worth your time. I particularly liked: ...