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Nick Bradbeer

@nickbradbeer.bsky.social
753 followers 322 following 1.6K posts

Assoc. Professor of Submarine Design @ UCL. Nerd, maker, gamer, wargame builder. He/him. I mostly post about games I'm playing for fun and games I'm creating for work, with the odd diversion into submarine design.

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Reposted by Nick Bradbeer
Emily @emilydawn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
@hockeyviz.com I found some beautiful data viz for you
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
A comedic error in #ARMA3 tonight as the precision paradrop using steerable parachutes runs into the C-47's (admittedly very cool) paratrooper scripting, which strips your chute off and turns it into a static line. So I dropped 12 marines over about 2km of jungle with no radios or maps.
A screenshot from #ARMA3 out the window of a C-47 transport plane - twelve very small and very round parachutes describe a long line in the sky, over mountainous jungled terrain.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
When I need to set an alarm on my phone I usually just repurpose an old one that I've switched off. I just reused one called Sola Fidei, which was originally for marking the orbital fire support transits of an Imperial cruiser during last year's Chimera! LARP. That made me smile.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
This is the level of media critique I am here for. Incisive.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I left this tanker model too near a sunny window, it would seem. Posting here because @r-p-one.bsky.social made me.
A 3d printed model supertanker seen from above. It's visibly bent to the left.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
My mind is blown that only 4%ish of Americans are atheists.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Tonight I am angry about Horizon Parking, whose business model seems particularly predatory. Earlier this year I stayed in a Premier Inn. The room came with free parking. Hurray. Booked. Drove up, got there in the evening.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
I must say, this feels like the most civilised was possible to dip my toes back into WH40K. On a day like this, playing outside with a gentle breeze and cold slightly al oholic fruity drinks? Sold.
A table set up in a sunny garden for a small game of Warhammer 40K Combat Patrol.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Aaaaaaand we're back to CheltNam, the best campaign setting ever. #ARMA3
Screenshot from ARMA3, as two marines run for an H-34 Seahorse transport helicopter.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Today is UCL MSc Ship Design presentations day, so I'm sitting in a mercifully air conditioned basement about to hear about what for design teams have spent the last three months working up. This is @r-p-one.bsky.social 's course not mine but she usually live blogs my pres day so it's my turn to.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
[sigh] I guess I'm installing Visual Studio again....
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 03/05/2026
It's a bank holiday weekend so obviously I have spent my afternoon writing what amounts to a research paper about the theology of a fictional religion. Oh, Empire LRP, just when I thought I'd gotten away from you...
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
I have just discovered the acknowledgements page for Children of Strife, and let's just say I am incredibly happy to be characterised so by @aptshadow.bsky.social
Acknowledgements page in a book, reading: "A lot of this book is informed by the enormous body of research conducted by Roy L Caldwell and his many co-authors into the cognition and other aspects of Stomatopods. Further thanks are due to Nick Bradbeer, my long-time advisor, for assisting me with various engineering questions over the course of the book."
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
I maintain that if you want to run wargames professionally there is, quite seriously, no better preparation than running D&D* recreationally for several years. Hits all the key skills you need. (*Other RPGs are available, try Traveller.)
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
The Artemis II mission has been inspiring to watch, but:
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Does the US have war goals here? Or are we just throwing Marines, Rangers and the 82nd at the wall and hoping something works out?
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
"Hey, let's colonise Mars" "Hey, let's make out own Straits of Hormuz with nuclear demolition charges" Torn between despair and morbid curiosity about what the American Right will next decide is a sensible megaengineering project.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Ironically I can't help but think PME is the missing piece that would have helped Pete Hegseth think like a senior leader rather than a company grade officer myopically fixating on tactical-scale problems while running the world's most powerful military.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
There's the pithy old adage that amateurs study tactics and professionals study logistics. I guess it turns out we were wrong about that all this time.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
I see the FAFO cycle continues. Who could have foreseen, etc etc
edition.cnn.com
Trump administration underestimated Iran war’s impact on Strait of Hormuz | CNN Politics
The Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz in response to US military strikes while planning the ongoing operation, accord...
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
WHAT :D Well, this is the best news all year!
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Reposted by Nick Bradbeer
Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
“One of the great weaknesses of our era is we get lone superhero movies that suggest that our big problems are solved by muscly guys in spandex, when actually the world mostly gets changed through collective effort, more like caregiving than it is like war.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/07/m...
nytimes.com
Rebecca Solnit Says the Left’s Next Hero Is Already Here
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
It's really hard for me not to read this as "We're not going to do the bit that takes hard thinking and gives long-term results, we're just going to do the exciting manly whooshy-bangy part."
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
It's time to start on 2026's Glorious Stupid Project: Starship At Home.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
I do love an evening of rotary-wing logistics. Turns out the Bo-105 is a lovely agile platform for (relatively light) sling loading.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
#ARMA3 Jon's experiments on me continue by way of Wildcats and Merlins. And then tonight's ride, the UH-60M Blackhawk. (Which actually was a pretty nice flying experience - even sling loading over trees...)
A screenshot from ARMA3; troops in arctic camouflage load up into a UH-60M Blackhawk helicopter.
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Reposted by Nick Bradbeer
Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
Peacehammer 40K: Paintinge litel miniatures of gardeneres, sculptors, academics. Detailed scale dioramas of museums, kiosks, cafés. Trimminge hedges. Makinge friendes. Yn the cozye glowe of the far future ther ys onlye WARMTH.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I'll be genuinely heartbroken if the US does any of the crazy alliance-shattering stuff the current administration seems to be contemplating. I can't understand why the administration wants to throw away so much for so little.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
#ARMA3 - Jon is amusing himself by giving me a wildly different aircraft to fly, from cold, each game session. Which is entertaining for me, if requiring a lot of patience from the rest of the group...
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
I FINALLY made myself learn to do Data Merges in Affinity, and it's SO EASY and SO POWERFUL but learning new things is hard and I am very tired. So now I feel like I am some sort of wizard and I'm going to use this for everything.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
Wake up babe new foreign policy just dropped.
Cover art for David Weber's "The Short Victorious War"
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Reposted by Nick Bradbeer
pheadtony.bsky.social @pheadtony.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
The US hasn't invaded Venezuela. This is merely a special military operation.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 29/12/2025
Last night was my first #ARMA3 game back with TAC-D after three months off. By the two hour mark I was raiding the Captain's desk in the FOB to fly a handful of petty cash out to the ground team so they could buy fuel at a local petrol station after their truck took a fuel hit. <3 this dumb game.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 25/12/2025
Happy Christmas everyone! Here's a teaser for a potential future project with @sapperstudio.bsky.social - a more playable spinoff of my analytical naval wargame A Balanced Fleet. Still a great deal of development and testing to do in the new year but the core is taking shape!
A ship card describing the systems of a Chinese PLAN Type 055 destroyer.A ship card describing the systems of a Chinese PLAN Type 054A frigateA ship card describing the systems of a US Navy Zumwalt class destroyerA ship card describing the systems of a US Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyer
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
This is a low percentage joke and I am that percentage.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
Okay, when not distracted by Stupid Battleships, I've been tinkering with @norsehound.bsky.social 's Trek Captains prototype release quite a bit this week. I made a quick Let's Play video to run through a game turn and show how it plays. Also hello everyone! www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIpb...
youtube.com
Let's Play Trek Captains
YouTube video by justamaninahat
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Reposted by Nick Bradbeer
Your Internet Friend Tom Tomorrow @tomtomorrow.bsky.social · 23/10/2023
this is just to say I have loosed  the blood-dimmed tide that you were probably saving for the ceremony of innocence forgive me the best lack all conviction while the worst are so passionate and so intense
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 23/12/2025
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 22/12/2025
Having made it to the print shop, it's time to test a two-ship game of @norsehound.bsky.social 's Trek Captains. Now that I've realised I was using Challenges all wrong, let's a how the Monitor (NCC-1713) and the Savannah (NCC-1893) fare on their patrols.
A game of Trek Captains set up ready to play, with sector maps on the left of the table, the two starship and their crews on the right.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
It's that time again! I'm too busy MC-ing to liveskeet the day, but Rachel will! Go read her thread, vote (with Likes) for your favourite designs!
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 29/11/2025
Birthday Pathfinder! I'll be okay if I've got the high ground, right?
Battlemap from a game of the tabletop RPG Pathfinder. A lone swordsman stands atop a pillar while enemies approach from all sides.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Must be birthday week.
Handicrafts in progress: a speedsquare, knife, glue gun and foam sit on a cuttung board
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
More Shell Game as another tranche of students gets introduced to naval warfare through ABF. Today their procurement decisions slanted towards "more missiles, please. No, more than that."
A game of A Balanced Fleet in progress; two Naval forces clash over an archepelago.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
It's nearly time....
Cutaway model of a submarine
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
I realise it's a bit Rimmer "and then I rolled a five and a six and invaded Russia" but three nat 20s in a row?!?
Three dice roll cards from FoundryVTT, with three consecutive d20 rolls coming up a 20.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Ahhh, the final two weeks of the sub design course. I always forget how manic it's going to be until we get here again.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Okay, I'm innately a bit suspicious of being followed by accounts who follow like five thousand people but have few posts or followers of their own. But what's in it for them?
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
SDAC Film Night. The students have voted correctly this year.
The opening screen from Hunt For Red October on a classroom projector screen.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 16/11/2025
Finally dismantled the tank simulator from the garage this weekend. Which is a little sad because no more tank simulator. But on the other hand I was really missing my workshop and it was completely full of plywood tank.
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Nick Bradbeer @nickbradbeer.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
It's taken me about a month to do it (the SDAC gets kind of busy) but finally have a tool students can use to assess whether they have passive range advantage over [choice of other submarine]. Sonar remains witchcraft but I think I found an appropriate compromise between realism and usability.
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