Okie Dokie; Quiz Mrk II

Here goes after such a ridiculously hard question last week i thought i would make this weeks question somewhat easier (at least one that a guess could quite easily be attempted). Now as before i am going to be trusting and ask you to have a go without looking it up online, as that's no fun. Pretend your at the pub in the middle of a quiz there (maybe drink several beers beforehand to really further this illusion). Nice and tipsy? OK here goes...

How many English Monarchs (after the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066) have been assassinated?

A silver goblin will go to the first person to get the right answer, and a golden goblin will act as a bonus for the first person to both get it correct as well as name and date at least one of the monarchs or assassins.

Astartes Ultra – A Complete Ultramarines Chapter

Do you love Space Marines?

Have you ever wanted to own an entire chapter?

Would you like too?

Well you can... for $20,000

I kid you not, games workshop today posted their Astartes Ultra- A Complete Ultramarines Chapter to their online store. A set listed at a WHOPPING $20,685 NZ. I would be surprised (but actually not shocked, i know some 40k players with more money than sense) if they even managed to shift one in New Zealand. Good luck Games Workshop, you have set a high bar to beat for biggest one off blowout for miniature producers everywhere.

Oh Dear...

Well that attempt to start a novel new distraction flopped a bit. To be fair the question was going to be almost impossible even if you knew exactly what it was you were talking about.

the calculation (5×4×3)×(26³)×(26!/6!10!2¹⁰)= was first used in the 1930's to describe what possibility?

Well let me transport you back 90 years or so to the dawn of Arthur Scherbius's new invention. An electro-mechanical rotor cipher that came to be known as.... ENIGMA.

a military issue ENIGMA machine, with plugboard

It was a wonder in its complexity. Used in the twenties by business's looking to keep their internal communications private, it was adopted by many countries like Germany and Poland. By the Thirties the German military had improved immeasurably on the original making a coding machine that was believed to be unbreakable. Typing in a letter sent an electrical signal through three of five possible rotors (of which the first moves every time a letter was plugged in, the second every 26 times the first moves and the third every 26 times the second moves), then back through them the other way to light up a new letter that the coder can write into an incoherent and completely random order. If that wasn't hard to follow, the military issue device also had a plug board that took the final letter and swapped it with another letter, of which their were ten possible pairs and six left over that didn't swap with anything...

Here is where the calculation fits in. It states the chance of working out the possible set up position of the ENIGMA machine on any ONE day! Here is the break down.

(WARNING: This next section contains some pretty heavy maths, of which I fail alot at. I have tried to explain it in as Leymanish a way as possible, but if fiddly numbers give you a headache look away now.)

OK, here goes...

(5×4×3) Was the chance that any three of the five rotors were used, as once one is fitted their is one less to chose from each time.

(26³) Since each of the three rotors had 26 connectors it could have possibly been routed through, their is 26 possibilities for each rotors start position. Hence their are 26×26×26 possible setups for the rotors, or 26³.

(26!/6!×10!×2¹⁰) This is the tricky one depicting the switchboard. So their are 26 letters in the alphabet. How many ways can you arrange them? Well 26 ways×25 ways×24 ways×23 ways×22.... you get the picture. This is written as 26 factorial, or 26!.

Now because we only need 10 pairs of these letters we don't need to use them all. So we take the 6 possible letter combinations that will not swap. Since their are less each time we remove one this is once more a factorial number, or 6!.

Then we want to pair up the rest of the numbers, not caring what the two pairs are just that they are paired. Again the number dwindles after each one is set so this is 10!.

When two letters are in a pair, they are always going to swap, so they form a stable set. hence 2¹⁰ represents the 10 pairs of 2. Lastly we divide all these possible switchboard combinations with the original 26! to get the possible switch board combos for one days setup...

So what was the possible number of setup options per day you may ask, well. it was a whopping

158,962,555,217,826,360,000

Over one hundred and fifty eight quin-trillion ways it could be set!

Does that not blow your mind! it does not even factor in the three more rotors that the German navy where issued with for their ENIGMA's. How the Polish cryptologists Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski managed to break the computation and reverse engineer a rudimentary computer to work out possible combinations is far beyond me, and my hat therefore goes off to them.

Maybe this weeks question should be easier. we will see.

Lets Start a Weekly Quiz?

As i have been working on top secret thingummy whatsits for the past week (and uni has left me with little time for that) i thought why not add a little weekly quiz to see what my friends general knowledge is like. This first weeks question is going to be a real dozzy and i will be so impressed with the first person to get it without looking it up on the internet that i will give them a precursor to the golden goblins i will be bringing to the next tournament (ohhhh exciting). So with out further adieu here it is.

the calculation (5×4×3)×(26³)×(26!/6!10!2¹⁰)= was first used in the 1930's to describe what possibility?

what in the worl... WHAT IS THAT!

And a bonus point if you can answer the equation

Happy hunting, I will post the correct answer and winner in the next few days

Just another reason i do not play 40K

What is it with GW and their arms races at the moment. in warhammer they are able to easily justify most of the stuff that they bring out (except possibly the Luminark, why did they think a sun laser was a good bit of fluff) but in 40K the arms race is frankly getting ridiculous.

Im not talking about marineception

lets put a marine within a marine

Im not talking about flying shoe-box's

this will DEFINITELY fly

Im here to talk about the final nail in the ridiculous space marine's coffin. that is...

THE SPACE MARINE CENTURION

OMG ITS A SPACE MARINE IN A DREADNOUGHT IN A TERMINATOR!

Honestly how ridiculous does that look! What was their thought process for this! 

"We want the impression of an unbreachable suit of armour. So put armour plates on ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. Oh but leave a small head, small heads are cool."

does this suit make my head look big?

I honestly don't know what they were doing, unless their meant to be the precursors to obliterators i can see no point for these travesties. 

Giants, no better than babys?

I love the smack talk that all war gamers seem to focus on when talking about monsters in their lists. "It will die straight away", "its got no saves/ too few wounds/ too random" or "its not worth its points compared to other monsters" are all things i have heard in regard to the oldest monster in warhammer, the giant.

"world, why do you no longer love me!"

I have not seen a giant on the other side of the field for over two years. I have run them once or twice, as i think they are a really hilarious addition that can cause utter bedlam in units it hits, if it doesn't roll a 1 (damn that yell and bawl).

Essentially the often pointed out faults of these behemoths are really racking up, those being...

• Not tough enough to survive long into the battle
• No form of saves (unless he's a painted orc giant)
• Too easy to spot under true line of sight rules
• Other monsters of roughly the same points are better
• Takes too long to break an infantry block
• Too random, and can hurt itself

However being the oldest monster i feel that they are the benchmark for other monsters. I often feel that the brainstorms for monsters in the GW studios go thus...

"We need a new monster for Dark Elves/ Wood Elves/ Brettonians/ Dwarves"

"How big?"

"Oh, ya know, giant sized"

"Why not make them the 4th army to be able to use them"

"NO, THEIR TERRIBLE NOW, give it giant stats but with wings and regen and armour and..."

Poor poor giants, losing the monster arms race. Being relagated to a fluffy little (well, not really) niche unit to be tromped out only when whole armies are being fielded.

What needs to happen to bring them back into a useful unit in the eyes of the general public. I have a solution which i doubt will make it broken, but will make it a feared opponent once more on the battlefield. and that is...

Titan: the thunder stomp of a monster with the titan special rule affects cavalry, chariots, monstrous infantry, monstrous beasts and monstrous cavalry, rather than just infantry, war beasts and swarms.

Ouch, i know, maybe a 20 point increase and slap that on him. Now you have to think twice before slagging him off. I dunno, what do you, the warhammer smack talkers, think?

Yaargh, here comes me' first mate...

all uz deck 'andz listen up. Dis is da Admiral here. 

We'ez been waiting too long ta land and come kick some of dem 'Ummie bastards in da clangerz. but me new first mate's joined our rankz and is ready to walk over all dem who thinkz that Orks are an easy pickingz.

Might=right, and boy iz dis boy mighty. without further adiu.. adew.. small chat, meet Hullk

wez met Hullk Smashit off Dat jungle land, hes was smashing shipz at Skegi and was right keen to go smashing bigger boyz dan dem dragon boatz. not many az big az him though...

Hur Hur, Dis is gonna be good. WAAAAAAGH!