Nick Bradbeer
@nickbradbeer.bsky.social
Assoc. Professor of Naval Architecture @ UCL. Director, UCL Submarine Design Course. 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.
I mostly post about games I'm playing for fun and games I'm creating for work, with the odd diversion into submarine design.
Anatomy of a rapid student TTX.
One of my submarine design teams this year is working up a bombardment submarine, armed with their choice of rocket artillery (trading off range and capability with size, under a fixed procurement budget.)
Today they asked me to run them a TTX.
/1
One of my submarine design teams this year is working up a bombardment submarine, armed with their choice of rocket artillery (trading off range and capability with size, under a fixed procurement budget.)
Today they asked me to run them a TTX.
/1
November 4, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Anatomy of a rapid student TTX.
One of my submarine design teams this year is working up a bombardment submarine, armed with their choice of rocket artillery (trading off range and capability with size, under a fixed procurement budget.)
Today they asked me to run them a TTX.
/1
One of my submarine design teams this year is working up a bombardment submarine, armed with their choice of rocket artillery (trading off range and capability with size, under a fixed procurement budget.)
Today they asked me to run them a TTX.
/1
It's exactly like Harpoon, except with a mode that you'll basically never use that looks like this:
November 2, 2025 at 12:07 PM
It's exactly like Harpoon, except with a mode that you'll basically never use that looks like this:
Much patience later, plus three SeaSprites, a Sea King and a P-3 Orion, get rekt, Delta 3!
I'd got used to Charlies being really evasive, so this guy ended up eating eight Mk-46s.
I'd got used to Charlies being really evasive, so this guy ended up eating eight Mk-46s.
November 1, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Much patience later, plus three SeaSprites, a Sea King and a P-3 Orion, get rekt, Delta 3!
I'd got used to Charlies being really evasive, so this guy ended up eating eight Mk-46s.
I'd got used to Charlies being really evasive, so this guy ended up eating eight Mk-46s.
Quiet evening at home tonight and I thought I'd give Sea Power a go.
ASW is both a) very slow and b) basically littering. I must have relaid that barrier about four times.
ASW is both a) very slow and b) basically littering. I must have relaid that barrier about four times.
November 1, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Quiet evening at home tonight and I thought I'd give Sea Power a go.
ASW is both a) very slow and b) basically littering. I must have relaid that barrier about four times.
ASW is both a) very slow and b) basically littering. I must have relaid that barrier about four times.
DAYBREAK looks really interesting; a co-op game about fighting climate change.
Really keen to play it, interesting mechanics and I think it'll teach me useful things about climate.
This copy in Chance & Counters, in Bristol.
Really keen to play it, interesting mechanics and I think it'll teach me useful things about climate.
This copy in Chance & Counters, in Bristol.
October 31, 2025 at 5:11 PM
DAYBREAK looks really interesting; a co-op game about fighting climate change.
Really keen to play it, interesting mechanics and I think it'll teach me useful things about climate.
This copy in Chance & Counters, in Bristol.
Really keen to play it, interesting mechanics and I think it'll teach me useful things about climate.
This copy in Chance & Counters, in Bristol.
Netflix makes it really hard to screen capture these days so I'm forced to use my phone camera at the screen to highlight this egregious CGI.
That's the least American submarine I've seen in a while.
That's the least American submarine I've seen in a while.
October 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Netflix makes it really hard to screen capture these days so I'm forced to use my phone camera at the screen to highlight this egregious CGI.
That's the least American submarine I've seen in a while.
That's the least American submarine I've seen in a while.
October 27, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Interesting places on Earth - the Saida-Guba reactor storage facility.
Large concrete pan just west of Gadzhiyevo on the Kola Peninsula for the storage of reactor compartments cut out of nuclear submarines at their ends-of-life.
(IIRC partly funded by the USA and Norway to reduce env impact.)
Large concrete pan just west of Gadzhiyevo on the Kola Peninsula for the storage of reactor compartments cut out of nuclear submarines at their ends-of-life.
(IIRC partly funded by the USA and Norway to reduce env impact.)
October 22, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Interesting places on Earth - the Saida-Guba reactor storage facility.
Large concrete pan just west of Gadzhiyevo on the Kola Peninsula for the storage of reactor compartments cut out of nuclear submarines at their ends-of-life.
(IIRC partly funded by the USA and Norway to reduce env impact.)
Large concrete pan just west of Gadzhiyevo on the Kola Peninsula for the storage of reactor compartments cut out of nuclear submarines at their ends-of-life.
(IIRC partly funded by the USA and Norway to reduce env impact.)
It's "Computer Games with the Class" day again.
This year's cohort learned the importance of patience in ASW, in maintaining range advantage and firing from the baffles if you can.
(We enjoy the urgency of discussions when torpedoes are inbound and we're not pausing the game.)
This year's cohort learned the importance of patience in ASW, in maintaining range advantage and firing from the baffles if you can.
(We enjoy the urgency of discussions when torpedoes are inbound and we're not pausing the game.)
October 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM
It's "Computer Games with the Class" day again.
This year's cohort learned the importance of patience in ASW, in maintaining range advantage and firing from the baffles if you can.
(We enjoy the urgency of discussions when torpedoes are inbound and we're not pausing the game.)
This year's cohort learned the importance of patience in ASW, in maintaining range advantage and firing from the baffles if you can.
(We enjoy the urgency of discussions when torpedoes are inbound and we're not pausing the game.)
Yeah, definitely don't install that upside down.
October 16, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Yeah, definitely don't install that upside down.
It's that time of year again.
October 16, 2025 at 2:10 PM
It's that time of year again.
London looked pretty cool from tonight's date night.
October 15, 2025 at 11:09 PM
London looked pretty cool from tonight's date night.
There's a certain amount of discussion about that Russian SSK making a surfaced transit.
This is a screenshot from the EU Copernicus MyOcean viewer - dark blue water is deeper than 200m. Yellow water is shallower than 40m; very challenging to operate a submerged submarine at any speed.
This is a screenshot from the EU Copernicus MyOcean viewer - dark blue water is deeper than 200m. Yellow water is shallower than 40m; very challenging to operate a submerged submarine at any speed.
October 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
There's a certain amount of discussion about that Russian SSK making a surfaced transit.
This is a screenshot from the EU Copernicus MyOcean viewer - dark blue water is deeper than 200m. Yellow water is shallower than 40m; very challenging to operate a submerged submarine at any speed.
This is a screenshot from the EU Copernicus MyOcean viewer - dark blue water is deeper than 200m. Yellow water is shallower than 40m; very challenging to operate a submerged submarine at any speed.
I just told my students about this fantastic webtool yesterday and they're already making great use of it. Copernicus MyOcean Viewer - an EU ocean data project.
Incredible amount of data right there - we mostly want it for bathymetrics but that's just scratching the surface. (Pun not intended.)
Incredible amount of data right there - we mostly want it for bathymetrics but that's just scratching the surface. (Pun not intended.)
October 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
I just told my students about this fantastic webtool yesterday and they're already making great use of it. Copernicus MyOcean Viewer - an EU ocean data project.
Incredible amount of data right there - we mostly want it for bathymetrics but that's just scratching the surface. (Pun not intended.)
Incredible amount of data right there - we mostly want it for bathymetrics but that's just scratching the surface. (Pun not intended.)
Okay, so today I ran the dumbest concept LARP I've ever run (and I've run a space combat from the vestry of an old church.)
I built a tank in my garage and put five players into it for three hours while three GMs controlled a computer simulation they could drive through. This was "DuD: CHIMERA!"
I built a tank in my garage and put five players into it for three hours while three GMs controlled a computer simulation they could drive through. This was "DuD: CHIMERA!"
September 27, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Okay, so today I ran the dumbest concept LARP I've ever run (and I've run a space combat from the vestry of an old church.)
I built a tank in my garage and put five players into it for three hours while three GMs controlled a computer simulation they could drive through. This was "DuD: CHIMERA!"
I built a tank in my garage and put five players into it for three hours while three GMs controlled a computer simulation they could drive through. This was "DuD: CHIMERA!"
Ahhhh, my reward for surviving the last two weeks of crazy is a new, official, non-UNSUNG model for the OV-10 in ARMA3.
And it's beautiful! Much nicer (harder!) flight model, hi-res textures, working gauges. Truly, Bohemia Interactive, with this Bronco you are spoiling us (me.)
And it's beautiful! Much nicer (harder!) flight model, hi-res textures, working gauges. Truly, Bohemia Interactive, with this Bronco you are spoiling us (me.)
September 12, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Ahhhh, my reward for surviving the last two weeks of crazy is a new, official, non-UNSUNG model for the OV-10 in ARMA3.
And it's beautiful! Much nicer (harder!) flight model, hi-res textures, working gauges. Truly, Bohemia Interactive, with this Bronco you are spoiling us (me.)
And it's beautiful! Much nicer (harder!) flight model, hi-res textures, working gauges. Truly, Bohemia Interactive, with this Bronco you are spoiling us (me.)
Well, it's been a great week to be unplugged from the news.
Now I'm back at Brunel Uni for Connections UK, and it's demo game time :)
This time, a counterfactual game of Operational ABF, as Russia tries to reinforce bases in Syria and Libya.
Now I'm back at Brunel Uni for Connections UK, and it's demo game time :)
This time, a counterfactual game of Operational ABF, as Russia tries to reinforce bases in Syria and Libya.
September 11, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Well, it's been a great week to be unplugged from the news.
Now I'm back at Brunel Uni for Connections UK, and it's demo game time :)
This time, a counterfactual game of Operational ABF, as Russia tries to reinforce bases in Syria and Libya.
Now I'm back at Brunel Uni for Connections UK, and it's demo game time :)
This time, a counterfactual game of Operational ABF, as Russia tries to reinforce bases in Syria and Libya.
I may have lost militarily, but I take satisfaction in the Substantial Dollar Value of the impact my heroic FIAC crews had. Poshumous medals all round.
August 21, 2025 at 4:21 PM
I may have lost militarily, but I take satisfaction in the Substantial Dollar Value of the impact my heroic FIAC crews had. Poshumous medals all round.
The ending is expensive but inconclusive. SM-6 defeat my Kryptons and my Urans, and my frigates' Reduts shoot down the SM-6s lofted at them in surface-to-surface mode.
Blue lands marines; my frigates shoot them up a bit with 100mm before withdrawing in the face of the task force.
Blue lands marines; my frigates shoot them up a bit with 100mm before withdrawing in the face of the task force.
August 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
The ending is expensive but inconclusive. SM-6 defeat my Kryptons and my Urans, and my frigates' Reduts shoot down the SM-6s lofted at them in surface-to-surface mode.
Blue lands marines; my frigates shoot them up a bit with 100mm before withdrawing in the face of the task force.
Blue lands marines; my frigates shoot them up a bit with 100mm before withdrawing in the face of the task force.
The TF turns to engage the FIACs - an expensive decision. They do destroy all of them with gunfire, but the ULADS eats eight hits from Kornet ATGMs. Which take out about a billion dollars worth of ASAT equipment - launchers, X-Band radar, laser - but manage to leave the air defence system intact.
August 21, 2025 at 4:11 PM
The TF turns to engage the FIACs - an expensive decision. They do destroy all of them with gunfire, but the ULADS eats eight hits from Kornet ATGMs. Which take out about a billion dollars worth of ASAT equipment - launchers, X-Band radar, laser - but manage to leave the air defence system intact.
A Close Action! The OPV's sneak attack completely fails, its optically-guided 76mm gun wildly missing the expensive ULADS before it gets riddled by gunfire from the whole taskforce. A single 30mm round hits the 76mm magazine and the resulting fire knock out the whole ship with smoke.
August 21, 2025 at 4:07 PM
A Close Action! The OPV's sneak attack completely fails, its optically-guided 76mm gun wildly missing the expensive ULADS before it gets riddled by gunfire from the whole taskforce. A single 30mm round hits the 76mm magazine and the resulting fire knock out the whole ship with smoke.
And crunch point. The tattletail OPV moves in as close to the ULADS as it can while four FIACS race up from behind at 40 knots. A lurking SSK lines up for a torpedo attack, but it detected by patrolling XLUUVs and driven off. But the FIACS....
August 21, 2025 at 4:06 PM
And crunch point. The tattletail OPV moves in as close to the ULADS as it can while four FIACS race up from behind at 40 knots. A lurking SSK lines up for a torpedo attack, but it detected by patrolling XLUUVs and driven off. But the FIACS....
They didn't take no for an answer, and the task force pushed North into our territory.
This was the point right before shouting at them turned into shooting. We'd shifted the optical recce sat swaths west of the task force to avoid it being laser-dazzled by the ULADS.
This was the point right before shouting at them turned into shooting. We'd shifted the optical recce sat swaths west of the task force to avoid it being laser-dazzled by the ULADS.
August 21, 2025 at 4:03 PM
They didn't take no for an answer, and the task force pushed North into our territory.
This was the point right before shouting at them turned into shooting. We'd shifted the optical recce sat swaths west of the task force to avoid it being laser-dazzled by the ULADS.
This was the point right before shouting at them turned into shooting. We'd shifted the optical recce sat swaths west of the task force to avoid it being laser-dazzled by the ULADS.
Those islands? Fletcher and Clark are in the Dire Staits? 😉
August 21, 2025 at 3:08 PM
Those islands? Fletcher and Clark are in the Dire Staits? 😉
OH DEAR
They've parked a warship IN OUR TERRITORIAL WATERS.
Stern warnings issued. Let's see how stern we have to get.
They've parked a warship IN OUR TERRITORIAL WATERS.
Stern warnings issued. Let's see how stern we have to get.
August 21, 2025 at 1:27 PM
OH DEAR
They've parked a warship IN OUR TERRITORIAL WATERS.
Stern warnings issued. Let's see how stern we have to get.
They've parked a warship IN OUR TERRITORIAL WATERS.
Stern warnings issued. Let's see how stern we have to get.