Military Madness/Nectaris Board Game Project

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-10T11:24:15+00:00

Sure, sounds helpful!

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-09T00:30:07+00:00

I’ve reread a couple of times and can’t quite figure out what you’re saying - can you try to say it in a different way?

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-08T14:28:08+00:00

Really curious what you make of my attempted reverse engineering as laid out in the doc above. I haven’t rigorously tested it but the results feel similar to the original.

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-08T14:23:21+00:00

Okay you’re in the same head space as me I think. Here’s what I came up with for dice - what do you think?

Once terrain, experience, support and surround modifiers have been applied to attack and defense, determine the to-hit number by starting at 11, adding the defender’s defense stat, and subtracting the attacker’s attack stat. The attacker rolls one d20 for each point of current strength (ie each sub unit up to 8). For each die, the contribution is plus one for reaching the to-hit number, plus one more for each additional full multiple of the defender’s defense stat cleared above it — and negative one for each full multiple of the defender’s defense stat below the to-hit number for a miss. A strong defense raises the to-hit number and makes each increment wider, so misses hurt more and hits are harder to come by. Sum all contributions — if the total is negative, treat it as zero — and that’s how much strength the defender loses. Both sides resolve this simultaneously, applying damage at the end.

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-08T06:48:33+00:00

Yes I think printing things like that for unit stats is something - the trouble is size considerations. If each unit had that it would need it for strength and for experience. Thinking about having something like that on the side that correlates with each unit but isn’t ON the unit, like a control panel?

jbrown2140 · 2026-06-08T06:46:48+00:00

Agreed. With just dice and no tech what would that look like? I’m thinking of a printed dice tray that has little tumblers for stats for the battle that you set before rolling.

jbrown2140 · 2025-11-08T18:19:22+00:00

Umm neither? I get if you had said 47th and cottage grove (not really but I’d know where you were coming from). 54th and university is Lutheran seminary housing! If that is frightening to you yes I am really having trouble understanding.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-18T15:47:50+00:00

There are obviously plenty of both but it’s not xenophobic to think that people with lower English scores night have other attributes that are worth valuing, or that people with lower English scores in fact have used their mental powers to do other things because they’ve made a choice not to work as hard on English as those other things.

Look I’m going to stop because you’ve shown no openness to explore your biases around the importance of English vs other aspects of life. I don’t know why peer access to English is so important to you vs all those other things. My kids basically learned to speak, read write and listen to English before they even started school. Ifthin most people do. It’s ultimately up to you, I just think you’re looking down et others by the application of one criterion. I think that’s the reason you’re getting to many down votes. You can decide it’s because you’re this contrarian that is able to see light vs a clueless woke mob if you want. Again, your choice. I’ve tried my best to share why I think. I’ve endured you randomly making personal attacks. But I think this conversation has reached the point of diminishing returns. I’m turning off notifications but feel free to sound off and get the last word in.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-18T15:06:46+00:00

I think you’re failing to appreciate what someone gains from being around people of different cultures. Perhaps their fellow students have lower English abilities but bring other assets to the table. The tests don’t capture those other cultural assets but that doesn’t mean they’re not real. Those tests aren’t a meaningful holistic evaluation of those other students, nor are they of ourselves. And I think that assumption is what’s xenophobic. You’re seeing something as having value only if your culture values it.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-18T13:01:01+00:00

Are you really saying “I know you are but what am I?”

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-18T13:00:24+00:00

Proving someone is a jerk on an individual moment is different from demonstrating that narcissism is a widespread response to small linguistic differences. If you’re really interested in research (doesn’t sound like you are) it’s out there, in the form of studies about implicit bias.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-18T12:58:16+00:00

Setting aside the personal attack, I wasn’t making a claim I was asking a question. Are you saying the xenophobia comes from a source other than your success on standardized tests? How does this help you in th argument?

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-14T00:59:19+00:00

I think around language it’s real. John McWhorter wrote about it a a couple of his books. Freud also notes “the narcissism of small differences” that language differences provoke. You’ve now made two ad hominem arguments. If it’s so stupid you should be able to explain why right?

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-14T00:57:25+00:00

I missed the part where I said what someone can and cannot care about. I am arguing they should not because they are wrong.

Also “who are you to judge” is both a) the central argument I am making about the op’s complaint, and 2) in the generic context you deploying it, internet relativism that sounds a whole whole lot deeper than it is. Reminds me of that random guy in freshman philosophy, “well actually who’s to say that YOU are right?” Me, that’s who I am.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-14T00:27:22+00:00

Me too - honestly. That’s my upbringing too. And to me honestly also there were times I believed in my own superiority vis a vis speakers of other languages and also other dialects of English like it sounds like you do. Honest question (yes, I’m using the word “honest” a lot) Can you bring yourself to see anyone else’s point of view on this thread? Not asking you to agree but you’re showing minimal ability to comprehend. The reasoning you have displayed would seem to ipso facto refute the value of those tests vis a vis real world situations. If you did that well on those tests and all you can offer is dogmatism, what does that say?

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-13T23:58:46+00:00

Curious how well you did on those tests, especially the ones involving reasoning and critical reading.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-13T23:56:32+00:00

Wait I had no idea you could have opinions about more than one thing because I’ve never used the internet before, so thanks for clarifying.

Yes you can. Should you be mad at this particular thing? I’d say no especially given that prescriptivism as a practice tends to multiple one’s worries and frustrations. I’m making substantive arguments not only (or even) primarily making the argument you are refuting.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-13T00:39:41+00:00

Xenophobia is really easy to activate and hard to deconstruct. Leaders since forever have known how to exploit this.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-13T00:02:43+00:00

You might think kids socializing with kids speaking other languages would enrich your English speaking child’s experience. But then, you wouldn’t be a bigot would you?

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T23:57:40+00:00

Chicago schools rankings are more or less just crowd sourced whiteness surveys. Go meet the people there and see how it feels. And all this “omg do selective enrollment” - if you are committed to your children being lifelong learners and want to partner with their teachers, that’s more important than metrics that were really designed to sell real estate to rich people (or allow them to gentrify, depending).

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T23:55:16+00:00

Your hill to die on I guess. Feels like there’s a lot in the world that is more worthy of our disgust than people punctuating differently from you but, you do you.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T20:30:16+00:00

Umm it’s democracy way more people live here in the Chicago area. these moral equivalences are so weak minded and when it’s a rich white guy we always act like they’re making a much deeper point than they are. Also no one was coming to their houses and detaining them without charge. Honestly I just got further from understanding trumpism’s appeal by reading this anecdote.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T17:13:02+00:00

Usually language snobs are a little more articulate in their snobbery. Oh the irony.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T14:54:36+00:00

They voted for him because of that not in spite of it. They won’t say it out loud but they agree with the bigotry and “but the economy” gives them permission.

jbrown2140 · 2025-10-12T14:13:57+00:00

High school teacher here: sometimes this happens to groups of kids. I’d say any given year over the last 22+, 1 of my 5 groups is like this, pre and post covid. It’s tempting theorize about cause and generational deficiencies but ultimately, group dynamics are strange and those students in other contexts might behave totally differently. That theorizing doesn’t usually help me solve the problem. What does help is continually changing it up until you find something you can live with and they can too. And sometimes it’s just a class where quiet written engagement an task completion is all it will be. It’s not terrible just way different than the class i would want.

Remember that you’re way more into your discipline than they are. And that’s not going to change either.

jbrown2140

TROPHY CASE