Dec09

The Galactic Whirlpool

by Rindis on December 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Gerrold writes an interesting story that feels a bit between a Star Trek story and a regular SF offering of it’s age. I think part of that is that it’s a ‘big dumb object’ story, with humans encountering a large structure traveling at about a third the speed of light. There’s not much in the story that demands it be a Star Trek story. But, the main characters are there, and without them it wouldn’t be quite the same story either.

There are places where it doesn’t quite ring true to the universe as it is known now, but back before any of the movies had been done, much less the later series he was in a position of deciding more things for himself. The most grating part for me was suddenly including a couple of auxiliary shuttle bays in the saucer section (really, drop bays, anticipating Enterprise by about 40 years), which just hadn’t been mentioned anywhere else…. It is actually somewhat logical, and I’d have been happier if these had been for smaller craft for external work than full shuttlecraft, but that idea doesn’t show up until The Motion Picture, so, oh well.

The investigation of the star-faring structure is well-done and interesting, and the problems that result are quite logical. I’m not so happy with a lot of character reactions. Most of the Enterprise crew should react better than they do for most of the novel, as they know what—generally—they’re getting into, but they don’t seem to take that knowledge into account. On the other side of things, the action and consequences are well handled, and really help sell the story.

Structurally the two real weak points are the fact that a lot of background info gets dumped on you in one large expository chapter. It’d be hard to avoid it, and its presented well, so I think Gerrold was trying to avoid the problem. The other problem is that the name of the novel doesn’t come up until about halfway through. A pair of black holes, with orbiting neutron stars, and associated other things falling into certainly qualifies as a ‘galactic whirlpool’, but it gets sprung on you a bit suddenly.

Past that, it is well done, and the second half of the novel, after everything is finally in place, really works well. The build up is a bit slower and piecemeal than I’d like, but it does come together, and is well worth the journey.

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Dec06

Two Rounds of Gabiene

by Rindis on December 6, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After finishing up Charging Chaumont, Patch and I did our usual between-things Command & Colors: Ancients scenario. This time was the Battle of Gabiene from Expansion #1. Another Successors battle = more elephants. This time, both sides have some, and the two armies are relatively even, with Eumenes having slightly better infantry (including the Silver Shields), three elephants to two, and Antigonus having more cavalry, an extra leader, and an extra card. The unusual bit is that Eumenes has a camp to his right rear, and Antigonus can get a banner for getting a unit into it.

I had Antigonus first, and started with Order Two Right, which brought a Light into range of his elephants for no effect. Patch countered with Three Left, and forced my Light back with a banner from ranged fire, and did a hit to my HC with his LBC. Coordinated Attack let me start ranged combat across the field for no effect. Patch Counterattacked to move all three Elephants before I could get any banners, though he only attacked (my center Light) with one of them for no effect. I Ordered Lights, and concentrated fire on his Elephants, and could only get one banner each on two Elephants. Order Three Center slammed two of the Elephants into my line. One forced my Elephants back two hexes, and then hit my Medium, who First Striked for one hit, and took two themselves; the other did two to an Aux who wiped out the Elephant.

Leadership any Section let me move my left around the surviving Elephant, eliminating it, and doing a ranged hit against his Light. Order Three Left moved his remaining Elephant to my line, who wiped out a Med (3 swords on the first roll), and did a hit on my Elephant on momentum, while the battle back did nothing, and he got a ranged hit on my Lights standing out in the middle. Not having much I could do about his Elephants, I called out I Am Spartacus to activate a Light and MC (and had three banners in the roll—pity this wasn’t Medieval), and did one hit to the Elephant with the Light, while the MC did two hits to an evading LBC. Patch Ordered Heavies, and the Elephant passed behind my line to hit a Heavy for three blocks, and I barely got him on the battle back, while my Lights evaded away from his HC.

I used Line Command to move up my entire center, and caused his HC to evade back to his line. Leadership Any Section moved up his HC, Aux, and Silver Shields, while his LBC did a block to my MC at range. His HC wiped out my Aux (three circles…) and then finished off my weak Heavy on momentum. Order Two Center allowed my Elephant to do a block to the HC as it evaded. Patch Ordered Lights to do another block to my MC at range, forced a LBC to my baseline, and forced a Light back to baseline, losing a block on two banners. I used Three Center to do a block to the Silver Shields, and force his HC to evade out of his line. Order Three Right caused me to evade a Light back, while he did a block to a Med, who did three blocks back, reducing both units to a block each.

Order Two Center let me take a shot at the Silver Shields to do a block, and then hit them with my Elephants to finish them off, and then do a block and banner to an Aux on momentum. Patch Ordered Four Right to reshuffle the line and press forward, knocking out a weak Med, forcing my MC to evade, and doing a block to an Aux, while taking one on battle back, while my forward Elephants were knocked out at range. Mounted Charge let me move forward, though half of them were too far away to engage the enemy, but my remaining Elephant unit knocked out a weak Aux, and then got a full-strength Heavy on momentum. My MC did a hit on his MC, and he accepted a banner instead of battling back, and momentum did three hits to an Aux.

Patch called I Am Spartacus to order a Heavy, HC, Med and MC (the last two on wildcards). The Heavy did two hits to my Elephants, while everything else moved into better positions. Out Flanked let me move up my right, but the left concentrated on Patch’s stranded Aux, and knocked him out. 7-6

For round two, Patch started with Order Two Right to move up his cavalry. I Ordered Two Left to bring my Elephants up to them, but did nothing as he evaded. Patch used Mounted Charge to get his Elephants all the way to my other Elephants, bring two units up to my forward Elephant, and his MC hit my line. This didn’t kill any units, but caused massive havoc, as he got a hit on one of my Elephants, and a banner on both of them. The rampage only caused one hit (to the Silver Shields), but the trample weakened four, while Patch took no damage. His MC did a hit to my HC, but took two blocks and a banner in return, while he did a hit to my forward Elephant which did a block to a HC on rampage and retreated back to my line. I used Move-Fire-Move to try and drive him off, and did a hit to a HC, and a banner to an Elephant, using the second move to move skirmishers up.

The Elephants moved up again as Patch played Order Two Center. The Silver Shields wiped out one with a First Strike, but the other wiped out a Heavy, but completely missed on momentum vs another Heavy, who killed them on battle back. Another Move-Fire-Move let me get lighter units out to the front, but did no damage. A second Mounted Charge from Patch let him get a LBC into the camp for a banner, and he picked off my MC plus Eumenes with a weak MC, who used momentum to attack the Silver Shields, who took no damage, and chased them off the board with three banners on battle back. Another MC picked off the left Elephant, and his HC did a block to evading LBC. On my right a MC wiped out an Aux, and then got the right Elephant on Momentum. 3-7

Afterword

The first battle took an hour and a half, and was a real slog the entire way. I compared getting rid of Patch’s Elephants to pulling teeth. The second round took about half an hour. I’m getting long-term concerned about how often the side that plays Mounted Charge is the side that wins. Back in the days of hoplite battles, I thought it was an artifact of a +1 die to most of the army for a turn, but it’s continued into the post-hoplite world. +1 die to mobile units is just really powerful, and really easy to use unless your cavalry is hopeless at melee (i.e., non-existent, or all lights).

Though I had problems in the second battle no matter what Patch did. My initial draw was two Move-Fire-Move, a couple of Order Lefts, and a First Strike. Not a really great hand, one one that was incapable of dealing with what Patch was doing. Thankfully, Elephant killing was a lot easier for me that time, or it could have been a shutout.

I thought about going after the camp during the middle of the first game, but was a little to busy to spare a LBC on one turn, and then it had to evade out of range.

At any rate, despite my collapse the second time, it’s another good scenario. With five Elephant units, they really dominate the thinking and action, but the rest of the line is far from unimportant with all the heavies and MC/HC running around.

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Dec03

In the Shadow of the Sword

by Rindis on December 3, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

At first glance, this is just a new history of the start of Islam, and how the Arabs came to dominate such a large area, one of those parts of history that often defies analysis. And Holland loops this book around that subject a couple of times just to show how and why this is traditionally a tough subject to tackle.

There’s a fair amount of myth surrounding the foundation of Islam. And it’s so well presented that even when an outsider looks at it, and starts wondering just how likely some of it is, the weight of evidence comes down on the side of that myth. General Western views of this period aren’t much more critical of the story than Islamic scholars are; that’s an amazing intellectual achievement right there.

At the same time, this also is a marker of the change from late Antiquity, where Middle East is dominated by the superpowers of Rome (/Byzantium) and Sassanid Persia, to the early Medieval period where its the Christian world vs the Islamic one. Looking at AD 500 and AD 800, things look very different, and the source of changes seems invisible in AD 500.

Of course, the Middle East was traditionally a bubbling cauldron of different religious beliefs. Things like the Dead Sea Scrolls are the merest tip of the iceberg of religious debate; a snapshot of one place and time. Other sources talk of various other cults, and groups, that were obviously stealing the better ideas from each other. I really wish Holland had gone into that a bit more, and maybe tried to trace some of the currents of religious thought in the area, the groups that were slowly pushed to the fringes by the state-backed power of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. He goes into some, and lists a few oddities from the 5th and 6th Centuries. Oddities that sound really familiar in a religion that was supposed to spring full-formed from the mouth of a person touched by God.

And looking into the history of the Quran and the haddith, things don’t look so clear. Despite the claims made, the earliest known examples, and the first biography of Mohammad, which codifies a lot of this story, date to nearly two centuries after his life. Now, these are based on earlier versions, but there’s a fair amount of drift possible in that time, and the early history of the Quran is not looking any clearer that the early history of the Gospels. Holland doesn’t go into it, but the later parts shows that there is something about the birth of a religion, possibly something forever unknowable. The codified institutions come later; events swept people along, caused a passionate belief… that doesn’t get written down in all the excitement.

After that, a closer look at what was actually going on with Rome and the Sassanians helps bring things into focus. The Islamic irruption into the world stage happened at the end of a long conflict between Rome and Persia, and Holland not only points out how this had drained available manpower on both sides, but he goes into a plague that swept through the region just recently, and like the better known Black Death, it was devastating to world population as a whole. He then goes into the current generation of Arab mercenaries, whose sources of money are drying up….

And from there, the rest of the book is a familiar story, but with the emphases changed. He posits, from what is in the Quran, and a few other places, that Mohamed, and his closest companions, were far more aware of the Roman world than is generally understood, and move on to the struggle to define just what had happened over the next few generations, as events of the 630s slipped out of memory, and into history.

Its a well-written book all the way through, and really shakes up the normal perception of this period. I’d say this is among the top ‘must reads’ for anyone interested in this part of history. Parts of it are a bit vague, and pro tem, but it does reference much more current research than you normally get to hear about.

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Nov30

J123 Charging Chaumont

by Rindis on November 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Way back in 2010, Patch and I decided to play another DASL scenario, and picked J123 “Charging Chaumont” from Journal #8 as our next game. Unfortunately, VASL didn’t properly support the DASL overlays at that point, and we ended up playing J124 Cobra Kings instead. A couple months ago, we finally remembered to get back to this, now that the overlay extension has no real problems with the setup.

Patton’s drive to relieve Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge runs into opposition, and a mixed force is sent to take the town of Chaumont. The Germans defend boards b and g with five 2nd Line squads, a crew, two MGs, a PSK and eight “?”. Two more squads, an 8-1 and LMG show up on turn three along with two of four vehicles. The Americans are trying to take the large E1 building on board b in six turns and have eight and a half squads (mix of 667 and 666), a HMG, two MMGs, three BAZ, a DC, two Stuarts, two halftracks and three of five vehicles.

The vehicles need a special mention. Both sides get to choose what they want before setup (and keep in mind the Germans don’t see theirs for three turns). The Americans have a choice between four Shermans (one with 9-1 AL, one with 76L, one ‘fast’ 15MP one, and one with a stabilizer), and a M16 halftrack. The Germans choose between a StuG III w/8-1 AL, a JgPz IV, a StuH 42, and a Hetzer. Also, conditions are muddy, and all hedges (which there’s a lot of) are barbed-wire fences from Kampfgruppe Peiper & Pegasus Bridge (mud = +0.5 for open ground, and crossing barbed wire is +1 MF, for not uncommon costs of 2.5 MF for an open ground hex!). The overlays add a four hex orchard (while clearing out some fences), and a two-hex woods near the second-largest building.

Patch took the defending Germans, and set up with a string of units in the north, and another in the south, with one set of three “?” in bH4 and a final set in bE2h2 in the victory building. It was a fairly solid-looking defense, especially as I didn’t really think about how much of it was liable to be Dummies with my off-board entry. I entered in roughly three groups: the smallest was to head down the H0 road and approach his forces in the bC4 building directly (if slowly) while the main force entered around the gE-G area with the stabilized Sherman (I wanted the on-the-move accuracy to try dodge his anti-tank capabilities), a Stuart and both HTs. The last group was two squads with toys and 8-0 along with the Sherman+AL and M16, entering in gA3, where they could immediately duck out of LOS in the sunken road and come up near the D4 stone building.

Reality wasn’t so kind. I sent in a scouting HS, and then a squad to hold down the wire in gF0/F1 to let another squad through. With all the mud, and wire, getting much of anywhere was a challenge. Armored Assault not only provided cover, but allowed for ready traversing of the barbed wire for a 7-0 and MMG squad. They got through the orchard and into the road where the MMG in bD4h2 opened fire to ELR the leader to 6+1, and pinned the squad. The MMG kept rate, and so fired at the next group as it entered at gA3 with Armored Assault for a NMC that pinned both entering squads, and Patch’s sniper went off to pin mine. The M16 entered behind them and stunned to a NMC from the residual.

The entire north force was stopped before it had a chance to get into the sunken road.

Thanks to the mud, the main group had a bit of a traffic jam, and I had some trouble figuring out where to park everyone, but ended up with fairly good positions for the main elements. Thanks to the earlier excitement, the southern Stuart and squad made it to the gK2 bridge without incident. Not at all to my surprise, bK4 was a PSK squad, who thankfully missed a shot at gE4, and couldn’t find a PF. Naturally, the hex got a couple of Acq markers in AFPh, but the gyro-equipped Sherman malfunctioned its MA trying to get a ranging shot on the MMG nest.


Situation, American Turn 1. North is to the left, EC are mud, orchards and grain are out of season, all roads are paved, and all hedges are barbed-wire fences.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Nov26

Tai-Pan

by Rindis on November 26, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is the second of Clavell’s ‘Asian Saga’, but doesn’t have any immediately obvious relation to Shogun (that comes in book three, apparently), other than being in that no-man’s land of historical novels that has characters based off of actual people without actually meaning to be them. This isn’t nearly as grating to me here, as I don’t really know anything about the founding of Hong Kong, and the people involved, while I was very aware of several of the not-quite principles of Shogun.

As before, Clavell’s writing style is quite good, but I think the structure suffers a bit. Straun has certain specific goals, that are repeatedly challenged through the book. These are generally taken care of one after another without them really piling on, or adding to, one another, making the plot a bit more of a series of connected incidents where targets are knocked down one after another in a shooting gallery. Worse, the one that generally feels the most intractable, immediate, and generates the main action scenes of the book is very early, leaving the rest feeling a little more limp.

While the broad strokes of history are certainly accurate (opium trade, and all the reasons why), are well presented at the beginning, he doesn’t spend a lot of time in a detailed delve into Chinese culture, so you don’t get the travelogue feel of Shogun. What you do get is a large cast of characters all with their own quirks and motivations moving across a somewhat compressed landscape. This is his main strength, and it pays off well, even if the desire to introduce them all at the start does give the book a slow start. The end… has it’s own brand of action, and brings things to good closing point, but feels a bit arbitrary, and hand of god author. It’s meant to be an epic, and so is mostly a slow burn all the way through, but is a very consistent and satisfying one. If the general subject is of interest, or you’ve liked his other books, certainly read this one.

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Nov23

Fix Bayonets

by Rindis on November 23, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark came over again on October 26th, and we returned to Great War Commander with the second scenario. I took the French again, who this time are on the attack. It’s still 1914, and the French are pulling back, but one unit goes forward with a counterattack, and delays the German army by confusing the line of communications.

We used the strategy cards this time, though I only used one during the game for a +1 bonus (both cards I had were otherwise unusable), though Mark cycled through three or four, also mostly for the roll bonus. The scenario also introduced us to the targeting rules, as the Germans have a mortar, and the French have off-board artillery. Also, the Germans get some foxholes, and there’s a chance of buildings being rubbled in a pre-game bombardment (and one was, suppressing a German platoon in it).

Mark mostly set up in the village, with the mortar in the rear, and a platoon in the quarry in the rear of the other side of the map. I started in three groups, mostly lined up on my edge of the map, but with my overall commander and machine gun off forward in the woods (where there’s a couple additional setup hexes). As I had been concerned, I didn’t see any Move cards for an attack. However, I did have a couple Advance cards, which I used to get a little motion on one flank.

But before I even got to that point, I also had a good string of Artillery Request cards, and started pounding the German positions. I generally used the observer hex, and got good results. An early event also gave me an extra leader with pair of platoons, who showed up in the middle of my line. The overstacking caused by that was cured by a time advance, giving me my only true loss of the day.

Time became my main concern. I was churning through cards pretty fast, and hit a time trigger about a third through my deck, churned through an entire deck, and then hit another three fairly early time triggers. Mark eventually hit a time trigger of his own most of the way through his own deck. His casualties were mounting, but for a while, advancing time was keeping it from meaning much.

I had at least two artillery draws that rolled ’12’ in empty hexes to cause a large number of shellholes in the map. After some early Advance, I finally saw a Move or two and headed for the first set of shellholes. My secret objective was, conveniently enough, extra VPs for the fountain in front of me (though the public one was 2 VP per victory location), so I concentrated on the town, and slowly ground up the forces there as I got in, and used Fire cards to get into a protracted fight in the center until I finally exhausted Mark’s luck and ability to keep rallied. Eventually, I ground his forces down, and forced a surrender while time was still a couple spaces away from checking for end of game.

Things certainly seemed to go my way the entire game, starting with a nice string of artillery attacks, which was generally fairly effective. Mark was low on Fire cards and couldn’t do much when I finally did start moving. My main problems came down to lack of ability to move, and time ticking down fairly fast for a bit. But I felt in control of events the entire way through. So far, I’m really wondering how to mount an effective defense here, and how often games don’t end with the surrender level being reached.

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Nov20

Sword-Bound

by Rindis on November 20, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Roberson’s latest Tiger & Del novel keeps up the high quality of the series. The pair are finally settled down and going off into ever-after land, when Neesha decides he wants more adventure. This doesn’t turn it into Neesha’s story. The viewpoint is still very solidly Tiger’s, and he is still the center that events move around.

Tiger is getting older, and certainly the tone is a lot different than where it began, but he truly has things he wants past his own ego now. It doesn’t seem like Tiger is slowing down, but the story itself is a bit slower than previous books, perhaps showing through plot that he is, just a bit mind you, past his prime.

The plot itself rambles a bit more than normal, with it going through several important bits that don’t necessarily tie directly to each other. But the beginning and end tie together very directly, and the middle does tie the various threads together.

Of course, this has always been a character-driven series, and the characters, as ever, make the book. I recommend the entire series, and while it actually wouldn’t too bad to start here, the other books are well worth reading, so go and read them.

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Nov17

Kingdom Hearts II

by Rindis on November 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Computer games

It is somewhat amazing that you can still easily pick up a new copy of Kingdom Hearts II for PS2 well after platform has been discontinued. I don’t know how long they kept producing Greatest Hits releases, but there’s still new stock out there. So, last year I picked up a copy after finishing KH for myself, and spent part of this year playing it. It feels like a bigger game, though my time to completion was a bit under the original game’s; I possibly did less work on the side content though (also, I went to slightly longer sessions, so there was less time spent getting going again each time).

The game is pretty much a direct sequel to the original, and entirely follows the same general format. A year has passed, partly covered by the side game Chain of Memories, which I have not played (and it apparently serves as more of a refresher on events of the first game, but it does introduce important elements of this one). The simple action RPG elements are the same, though I found I was button mashing my way through more things and tended to think less about, ‘go this way, hit him, turn…’, so the standard combats felt overall easier with less thinking. The interface definitely got cleaned up and improved a bit.

Naturally, new features were added. The most prominent is ‘reaction commands’, where you can do a special move based on situation and the enemy you’re fighting. It’s a neat idea, but they tend to go by really fast, so I ignored a decent number of them as just not worth the time of my slow reflexes. There are places where they’re important though, and generally needed to get through a fight; but at least it all feels nicely integrated to the game.

There are also ‘quick time events’, where you have to mash a button at the right time while you are otherwise effectively out of control of the game. This is the first time I’ve played a game with QTEs, and they generally worked for me, and I’m not going to join the vocal critics of them. That said, I don’t think I’d care for any game where they become prevalent, and here they make sense as an outgrowth of the reaction commands. However, the fights where QTE and reaction times were a big deal were about an equal split between reasonable, and the most aggravating parts of the game for me. It is a quick route to asking more from me than my reflexes can give.

There’s also drive forms, which are interesting, but I never got around to using them very much. And the usual bevy of small side games, including a rhythm game that was completely beyond my abilities past the most basic levels (which kept me from finishing Atlantica, as that’s all it is).

Plot

I’ll try not to spoil anything big here. The early part is interesting as it is definitely designed as introduction to people new to the series, and also has some reminders of key events of the first game if it’s been a while since playing (say, the three years of the original release dates). This turns into a much bigger and more elaborate prologue than the original’s, and has more than its fair share of aggravations. The biggest problem with this part is probably the fact that you’re anxious for the main plot to get going, and the main characters to show up. But, events here are important and have repercussions at the end of the game, though for most of the time it feels less important.

The main set of villains this time is Organization XIII, which you run into time and again throughout the game. An interesting bit is they really do have their own history, and some members are already gone when the game starts. This seems to be because of events in Chain of Memories, which takes some of the neatness out of it, since I like it when worlds have a history outside of the main character walking into them, and having had some infighting purely on their own would have been a nice touch.

The other addition are Nobodies, a counterpart to the Heartless. For most of the game, this is less of a deal than it could have been, as you’re still fighting Heartless the vast majority of the time, and only occasionally Nobodies. However, there are plot reasons for that, and some of the more important… personal events of the plot, and Nobodies, all tie together very neatly to events near the end of the first game. I was really impressed when that all tied together for me, and was very satisfying.

The game’s scope is enlarged in a couple of ways: there’s more worlds to visit than the first game (most, but not all, of the original set are back), and you go through them twice. Events as you start heading into the final acts open further events in the various Disney worlds, so you revisit with tougher enemies, and some really tough boss battles. A real nice touch is that the general plot idea of the relevant movies has moved along here, and events flow fairly naturally from there (also: everyone remembers events from the first game, instead of, ‘who are you again?’). An interesting bit is that the plots of the second part for each world tend to concentrate on lessons of friendship or relationships, with one of the NPCs learning something (like Iago in Aghrabah needing to understand that you don’t have to have something to give to be a friend, just being there and yourself is what you need).

The ending sequence is something of a Final Fantasy-typical mess. Action-wise it flows very well, but there’s a large section where the complications threaten to make the plot incomprehensible. On the other hand,  while playing the first game isn’t necessary, but I think you need the first one for the ending here to mean as much.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of little themes in a fairly large game, and the main story sometimes feels a bit lost in the shuffle, though it never really stops; but it doesn’t really come into focus until the ending sequence. But when it does, it’s well done.

Characters are another thing that get a little lost much of the time. Most of the time, things can be a little flat simply from not enough interaction with some prominent ones. But, when the game concentrates on bringing the characters forth, it really works well. There’s wonderful byplay between Squall and Cloud during a big fight sequence. In fact, the various Final Fantasy characters are generally really well done, and are the main ones to get to interact with the main plot, and several of them are of course as familiar to me as the Disney characters, so the job done with them was a treat (though, Aeris’ voice acting was horrible, compared to decent to good for the rest of the FF cast, and of course very good for the Disney characters).

But those problems aside, it’s direct sequel that lives up to, and just barely surpasses the original game. On the technical end, this is not a big surprise, but writing-wise they also keep everything going where it goes, and it wraps up with an excellent ending. You can play this by itself, but I really recommend playing both, and not letting too much time go between them.

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Nov13

Persian Fire

by Rindis on November 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The story of Persia vs the Greeks is one that has told many times over the centuries. Part of this is because we have some very good Greek sources about the conflict, so that we know more about these wars than nearly anything else before it (other parts are the high drama, and Ancient Greece’s place in the foundation of Western thought).

Tom Holland’s Persian Fire tries, and largely succeeds in expanding the Persian point of view. He starts out with the rise of Persia, and how it took over from Media and Assyria. This section is very well done, and well worth the price of admission if you already have all you need of the later parts with Darius and Xerxes. He then proceeds through the histories of Sparta and Athens in turn, showing just how they had evolved from somewhat typical Greek city-state beginnings to the distinctive forms that we are used to hearing about.

From there, discussions of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis are a bit more typical, but there is still effort to see just what was going on in the heads of the principles, especially Xerxes. However, the writing in the entire book is very good, so even if you’re very familiar with the subject, this telling is very well done. He also does a good job with Platea, though I thought it was lacking compared to other parts of the book. Also lacking is his analysis of what kept Persia from coming back for round three, though he does talk about it some.

Overall, I’m very happy to have picked up yet another book on this subject. Holland does a very good job at the overview, and widens the scope of his gaze just a bit more to make this the best ‘lighter’ book you’re likely to find on the two Persian invasions of Greece.

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Nov09

J103 Lenin’s Sons

by Rindis on November 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Mark came over on October 12th for another day of FtF gaming. He’s an old SL-series fan, and when we first started gaming, I was teaching him ASL. Then we got involved in SFB, and then in all the other great (and occasional not-so-great) wargames out there, so while I’ve had a decent ASL career with Patch and others over the last 15ish years, Mark hasn’t gotten back to it until now.

This means it’s back to teaching him all over again, and I stuck to a scenario I’d picked out some time ago for a session that had a last-minute cancellation. If I’d been going from scratch today, I’d probably pick something else, as I can find simple scenarios a bit more easily now. At any rate, J103 Lenin’s Sons from ASL Journal #7 is a somewhat typical German attack on a Russian village in late ’41 setup. The Germans get thirteen squads (mostly 468 SS, with some 548 SS assault engineers), good leadership, a pair of DCs, and a FT (and that last really hasn’t changed from original SL). The Russians are defending board 42 with a mix of seven squads + 2 HS (including 2 628 assault engineers) and a crew, with a 10-0 commissar, HMG, MMG, MTR, and two DCs. The Germans need to take eight out of ten buildings in seven turns, while avoiding a 16 CVP cap.

As usual with these, I set up a defense before Mark came over, and left him to figure out his setup. It was interesting to note that I had defended this board going the other way in 162 Armored Car Savikurki earlier this year. The MMG set up at the end of the long, straight, road, with hopes that I could drag it back along the road and then the path as needed, and most of the rest of the defense was centered around the paths. Enough was set up along the woods line to keep him from wanting to brave the open ground easily. The MTR was behind the hedge in M3, the HMG in reserve in K5 and my one HIP squad in U3 where it might have a chance to surprise someone. Mark set up mostly to to grind through the woods, but ~3 squads were set up along the south edge to base out of the V2 enclosure.


Initial setup, cropped down to the active board. Perimeter markers show setup limits, grain is out of season, and all buildings are wooden. Victory buildings are anything from K right.

He advanced in the woods large stacks for much of the day. Mark was well aware of the ‘don’t stack’ maxim, but wanted the leadership and movement. And it largely worked out for him. My attacks caused lots of pins, but very few breaks, forcing me to fall back in disorder as I was facing too much firepower, and poor CC odds.

On the first turn, his southern force ran into trouble from the MTR and air bursts in U1, forcing a retreat back to V1. Sadly, they immediately started rallying on my turn 1, keeping my HIP unit from moving in to start chasing them around. I pulled my squad out of U8, only to take a KIA for the first blood of the day.

My little ‘surprise’ was sprung on turn 2 as the rallied force moved up again, and I broke a squad, but got caught in CC. A couple other squads had gotten pinned, but one went berserk (Mark got several HOB results during the day, most of which caused him to go fanatic). I don’t quite remember how some of that happened, but may have been from me throwing a DC at his guys.

As mentioned, Mark did fairly well against the close-range firepower I was throwing at him, and around my turn 3 I didn’t secure the northern flank, and Mark went flooding around the end of my line through the pocket of open ground up there. I thought that might have been that right there, but I managed to start putting myself in the way again, even as he started advancing in the south as well.


Around the German 5th turn.

As part of the emergency, I shifted the HMG to J7, and that helped a lot, but of course it wouldn’t hold by itself. I moved it back, and established a line in buildings K5-J5-H5. A second problem is that he’d broken my MTR HS, leaving him free to move towards the southern buildings. About this time, it was getting late enough that Mark had to start thinking of leaving, but we managed to get through another full turn in a hurry, and figure out where it was going.

I had sent a squad away from my defenses to chase down and kill a broken German squad in CC (he was concealed the whole time, so there was nothing for him to run away from). On my last turn, he went after building J7, which was held by a hero with the FT. The FT got a ’10’ to run out of fuel and cause a passed PTC. I went in, and we both missed CC for a melee going into the final German turn.

We had to abandon ship before the final German turn, but Mark figured I had the win. And that was the entirely likely result, but like so often in ASL, I figure it may have actually come down to the last CC roll. He could reliably grab all the buildings I wasn’t sitting in, but the last four were a problem. He had eliminated my 8-1 for FTR on my turn, and now just needed to get someone to survive fire from the HMG to try and eliminate the crew in CC. He had a 7-0+squad that should have been able to take on K5 for an extra chance at a building, but now he was needed in J7, since me not winning a 4-1 CC was too unlikely. Actual play would have been tense with the desire to interfere with his moves, but needing to save for good point blank shots against his assaults. I figure he’d have gotten to CC with the crew, but a 2-1 CC isn’t great odds for an immediate result. Much the same would be true in J7, but I was the one in need of the immediate result to retake the building.

At any rate, we both had fun, even if it wasn’t the best play from either of us (I was fairly distracted with the number of subjects that came up). And hopefully the next game will be reasonably soon… in between all the other games.

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