May24

Before the Ice

by Rindis on May 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I recently got through the final two patches worth of A Realm Reborn content, and are now moving on to Heavensward. This took longer than I expected.

Some of that has been spending time on other projects, such as Palace of the Dead. As I had mentioned last time (at the bottom), we were stuck at floor 30 because of disconnects during the boss fight; a fellow guildie looked it up and found that there’s a bug with the five-headed hydra model that makes certain graphics cards roll over and die. Smudge and I put our graphics cards on minimum, and successfully, finally, got through the fight. After that we did the next two sets, and I was surprised (knowing that it goes a lot deeper) that floor 50 was basically the climax of a story line. Even better, it was an afterword/sequel to events that happened in another dungeon entirely. We happened to do that one just before hitting this, so we lucked into some very good timing.

This was also part of a project to get me a second level-50 class, as (mentioned before) I’ve been doing POTD as Scholar, so I have some healing experience. Sadly, I have yet to try healing for an actual party, but I’ve been getting somewhat comfortable with what needs doing. I’m really happy with the Scholar quest chain, that went into the background of Tonberries.

We also went through a series of side-quests with ‘Hildebrand Manderville, inspector extraordinaire’. These are all classic farce mysteries that started out decent, and only got funnier as the cast of characters expanded and developed. We dressed up (down?) for the second one, which was set in the resort at Costa del Sol. This pointed up a problem with the ‘glamor’ system in FF XIV. Since… early on, at the least, it’s been possible to make one clothing item look like another, so you can have a particular ‘look’. But you needed to keep the item you wanted it to look like on hand if you wanted the next item you got to look like it. They recently introduced a more comprehensive ‘dresser’ system where you can keep your glamor items out of your inventory, and do entire outfits with one button, but if you want to do something temporarily (for a special occasion), it’s still a pain to de-glamor everything afterwards.

At any rate, the mysteries are mostly about a series of heists of relics, but surprisingly took a turn into a murder mystery for the final part. I’m a bit annoyed with the ‘mystery’ side, as it’s largely not set up for you to try to figure out what’s going on. But the characters are silly enough to be worth it.

Meanwhile, the main story going into Heavensward was interesting, but featured some similar annoyances. (Warning: There’s about to be spoilers!) It started with tracking down an agent in the Grand Companies who was feeding info to the Garlean Empire, and while that investigation fingered (correctly) the second-in-command of the Immortal Flames, my suspicions had temporarily turned to Ilberd, the commander of the new Crystal Braves. The chase after Eline drew my suspicion away, but later events quickly convinced me that Ilberd was no good. …But there was nothing I could do with that knowledge. The plot is completely fixed, and there’s no reward for figuring out something ahead of time, especially something as important as this, and it really forces a ‘passive’ feel to your character, as I can’t push back on the plot at all.

This is why I still consider SW:TOR to have some of the best questing experience in an MMO; the extensive dialog trees at least help with the illusion of being able to push back on events, even though sometimes the direction of the plot, and the direction I want to push in, are so wildly at variance as to bring the problem abruptly to the fore again.

There was a lot of interesting bits in the more positive portions of the story. As is usual in a Final Fantasy world, there’s a lot going on around magic, and summoned creatures, and how that all works in the world. Here, they established some ground rules… and have been playing around with them. ‘Primals’ are giant monsters summoned with faith and a great deal of aether, and have a traditional form; now we have a couple new ones being made. In particular, someone managed to turn herself into a Primal, and survived being defeated in that form. Similarly, the ultimate bad guys of the story, the Ascians, have been shown to be using an exception clause to how aether and life work. Even better, a major NPC has her own take on manipulating it all.

Which brings up a smaller gripe. They decide to kill off a character from the main cast, and it’s the character most recently introduced. This goes into a ‘guest star of the week’ format that a non-episodic story like this should be able to avoid. The climax of everything abruptly tilts the story on its side and starts shaking, with pretty much everyone in the ‘presumed dead’ category… but they’ve done that trick once before already, and I have a feeling just about everyone will eventually show up again, no matter how dire it all seemed.

The entire sequence for the end of 2.5 showed off that this is a ‘story first’ MMO as we got a warning at the beginning of the sequence that there would be several cutscenes in a row, and to make sure we had adequate time for them before starting. And then, after all that, and a small bit of questing, we got that warning again.

The part that really surprised me, was when we got through everything for the final patch before Heavensward, and the credits rolled. Again. With the ‘continuous play’ mode of MMOs, it was surprising to get the credits at the end of the original story. Now Square Enix gave us a full credit sequence for all the work done on the game between release and the first expansion. Patch developers have to be among the least-appreciated people in the computer industry, so this is actually a pretty classy move.

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May20

Fortifications in Wessex

by Rindis on May 20, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Osprey’s book on fortifications in the Kingdom of Wessex is a well-done introduction, but didn’t quite dive into some detail I’d like. At the end, Lavelle admits that the book is even more limited in scope than it could be, but it does manage some interesting discussion.

There’s a good map of the known fortified locations from an administrative record known as the Burghal Hidage, and some discussion of the scholarly work on it. A bit more focused discussion of this (it gets spread out a little) would have been nice, and maybe a real breakdown of how many places are well known, how many the place is known, but the layout is questionable, and how many listed burhs are not identified.

But the real focus is on the more practical matters of considering some of the economy around them, and how these sites served as an actual defense of the area, including secondary (generally hilltop) sites, and signalling. There’s some good color illos of ‘typical’ fortifications, including the ‘generic’ burh on the cover, and there’s reconstructions of Winchester and Lydford shown.

I find myself wanting more with this book on almost everything. But at the same time, I don’t know that there’s much more to be done within the page count. Perhaps really focusing on one location and it’s layout would have helped.

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May16

Oath of Fealty

by Rindis on May 16, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The Paladin’s Legacy series picks up, surprisingly, immediately after the end of the original Paksenarrion trilogy. There are a number of things left unsettled by Duke Phelan’s elevation to king of a different kingdom, and that is pretty much the glue that holds what could be a disjointed book together.

Overall, there’s four different plot threads, with limited mobility between them, and Oath of Fealty swings through the set of them two or three times. The opening concentrates on part of Phelan’s mercenary company, and Arcolin who finds out he is now the pro tem head of the company at the start of the novel. This is the second biggest thread of the novel, and is very well done with the internal workings of the company sliding into the particulars of a contract. This is always a strong point for Moon, and it’s no different here.

The smallest arc deals with Phelan/Kieri himself, and has some very interesting moments, and I expect this will lead into much more important doings in later books. But at the moment, it’s mostly just there. It does spin off the fourth arc of the book, featuring Dorrin and the Verrakai family that has been a source of villains. This gets a lot of attention in the middle, and opens up some new cans of worms before merging with the second arc or the book. “Second” in that it is the second one you encounter reading the book, and deals with doings in the capital of Tsaia, and provides some of the initial ‘push’ of the plot.

Paksenarrion is barely present in this book at all. She does show up, and helps out at some important points, but this is really more of a history of the area that Deed of Paksenarrion takes place in (that is Tsaia, Lyonya, and parts of Aarenis), than any sort of work focused on one person as the original trilogy effectively was. Despite that, it’s tightly written enough to still work, and comes to a satisfactory ending. It has been just long enough since I read the original books that I needed a fair amount of mental prodding to remember many details, and therefore I feel some confidence in saying you can pick up the books at this point, though I definitely recommend reading Deed first.

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May12

Two Rounds of Chaeronea

by Rindis on May 12, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

There’s been some delays on getting something bigger going, so Patch and I did another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients a couple weeks ago. This time was the Battle of Chaeronea from Expansion #6. It confirms my comments on the previous battle, as it features an allied Greek army with a good number of MH blocks (with the Sacred Band as a special heavy), while the Macedonians are heavies with good leadership and two units of Companion Cavalry (MC that can ignore one flag and one sword).

I had the Macedonians in the first play, and led with Darken the Sky to kill one unit outright (two hits on the first roll, and a pair of banners, which forced the light to try to retreat through his solid line), while forcing another light back, and doing a block to a third. Patch Ordered Three Right to pull in that flank while I Ordered Light to move up some units and do more ranged fire, which drove back another light. Patch got his lights in motion with Move-Fire-Move which did no damage.

I firmed up my center, and Patch Out Flanked me to bring the Special Band in contact with my skirmishers, who evaded for no damage, while he drove off an Aux on the other flank. I moved up my right twice, while Patch skirmished some more and then used a Line Command to start the real engagement. Patch did two blocks to two heavies, and drove one off the line, but lost a MH outright, and took two blocks on an Aux in return.

I used Inspired Center Leadership to bring in the bulk of my unengaged line, and knocked out a MH and the wounded Aux, while taking two blocks in return (even with a muffed First Strike), while one of my Auxes did nothing and was driven back with one loss. Patch used another Line Command to move up the still-intact right half of the army; an Aux and LC traded blocks, while the Sacred Band did three blocks to a heavy and took two and two banners in return. He failed to take out a 1-block heavy, and lost two in return, and then lost an intact MH after doing one block to another heavy. I used Leadership any Section on my left to surround an isolated Aux and took him out on one hit and two banners. 6-0

For the second game, Patch started with Order Lights to establish a continuous line and knock one of my lights to the baseline on two banners. I Ordered Two Center to close up the gap between my right and center, and Patch moved closer across the front with Line Command. I Counterattacked, moving closer to a collision while linking up with my left flank. Patch rearranged a couple units, and I Out Flanked him, forcing a couple units to evade, and doing a block to a heavy while taking two in return, and doing three blocks to an Aux that knocked my left-flank MH back a hex.

Patch Ordered Mediums to bring up the Companions, knocking the Sacred Band back a hex, and taking out the weakened MH and attached leader. I Ordered Two Left to finish off the Aux, Patch attempted some archery to no effect, and I Ordered Four Left, doing two damage to a heavy, but lost MH completely, and a block on another. Patch Ordered Three Center to engage the center of the lines, knocking out an Aux, doing three hits on an MH and knocking another two hexes back, and taking two hits on each of two heavies in return.

I did a Coordinated Attack to finish off a heavy, do a block to a Companion, and do one hit on a two-block heavy. The battleback did three hits to eliminate the MH, and the leader went with him. 2-6

Afterword

The Macedonian heavies are certainly doing a great job dominating the Greek medium hoplites. It didn’t help that Order Mounted and Mounted Charge did not, for a change, come up in either battle. I had really hot dice in the first game, to knock Patch out before he could get going despite me having some card issues. My dice went cold during the second game, which kept me from taking out a couple more units, but the real problem was the leader losses. Without them, the right flank was still in good shape, and Patch was having trouble in the center, though overall the odds were still with him.

Again, this was a pretty fast pair of fights; most of the terrain just squeezes in the flanks, keeping things straightforward. Though the marshes may have become important if I’d done more on the right.

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May08

Designers & Dragons: Part 3

by Rindis on May 8, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The third volume of Shannon Appelcline’s history of the RPG industry maintains the same general format as before: about four hundred pages, separate chapters for each publisher, covering (essentially) a decade of time (1990-1999).

I tend to be fascinated by beginnings, and with 25 years since the first RPG when this book opens, the beginnings are over, leading to a slightly lower interest for me. Also, this is a time period where I wasn’t paying as much attention to RPGs, so there’s not a lot of personal connection. Reading through the ’10 things about the decade’ section in the back shows that maybe it was mutual. Trends in the ’90s angled away from my interests, which carried over into less interest in some company histories. Cyberpunk did well in the late ’80s, and urban fantasy did well throughout the ’90s, and they’re both genres that have never appealed to me.

But there’s still a lot of interest to me here. Most notably, part two of the book is a single chapter, a pattern that echoes TSR being the sole chapter of part one of the first book. In fact, it is called ‘The Other Half of the Story’, on the idea that the story of the RPG is still very much the story of D&D, and Wizards of the Coast is the other half of that. This was published in 2014, so actual end of 4th Edition D&D and the last few years of 5th are too recent to be covered, which is a shame (and great grist for a future update of this volume). Past that, AEG was interesting, as they kind of came out of left field on me with a few issues of Shadis being handed out for free at cons. The full stories of a few other companies I knew of (especially the train-wreck of Imperium Games) were very nice to see, though I found the history of Guardians of Order didn’t seem to dig in to what exactly happened to the company as much as I’d like.

There’s 21 company histories this time, plus four mini-histories, and a nice page on Ars Magica fanzines and how they helped keep that property going; an all too rare look at the fan side of the industry in these histories. There’s also a good section on early Swedish RPGs as the background to ’90s English-language publisher Metropolis. As much as I admire how wide-ranging these books generally are, it is a little annoying to not get any sense of what was going on outside the US, Canada and Britain (and I imagine far more than merely ‘annoying’ for anyone from outside those countries).

It’s another well-written book, and I doubt there’s any other wide-ranging source for RPGs in the ’90s, and so is recommended if you have any interest in that subject. I will note that the (necessarily) focused coverage on RPGs continues to hurt proper coverage of what exactly many of the companies were doing, but instead of the lack of wargame coverage, now it is the lack of CCG coverage that causes problems. However the overall CCG boom-and-bust cycle was so fast that what is given is sufficient in many, but not all, cases.

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May04

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 15

by Rindis on May 4, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

With the collapse of the Kzinti front, I had a lot of problems to address….

Coalition income was at its lowest ebb since the scenario began, with most of the loss coming from the Klingons, who also had poor survey rolls for the third turn in a row.

Builds:
Klingon: D7C, D7V, D6M, D5W, 7xD5, AD5, 3xF5W, 4xF5, 2xF5E, E4R, C8->C9A, D6->D6D, CL-K-CL, FFE->K-FFE
Romulan: CNV, FHF, SPC, 3xSPM, 2xSK, SKE, SEH, WE, SNB, WE->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: BC, STT, NCA, 2xCW, CWE, DW, 2xDWE, 2xFF, FCR, FRD, FTM, CV->CVD, 2xFF->DW, BS(F)->BTS(F)

Repairs also hit an all-time high, though I managed to miss a couple Lyran DWs waiting on BATS for repairs. The Klingons alone spent 48 EP on repairs, and still had some backlog. The Lyrans are still struggling to get their repair cycle going. Since I was repairing a C8 anyway, and had a spare SFG kit, I converted it to a C9A, who will presumably only use the SFGs in relatively low-density battles. The Klingons also converted two captured Federation ships to their service to help with ship count (especially since one was already a light escort, so I could build fewer of those), while the Lyrans converted their one CV up to a CVD.

The Lyran raids hit a HN blocking supply in Hydran space, and crippled it, and Kzinti POL, which drew a DN(!) in reaction (I didn’t think he’d burn the reaction on it), which crippled the Lyran DNL. The Klingons hit a Fedeation POL & crippled FF, which escaped, another POL, which died while crippling a D5W, and raided a province near the capital. The Romulans went after two Federation, and one Gorn province, only one of which worked (two cloaked evasion rolls failed, and the Roms accepted a battle against Gorn BATS fighters, but the fighters survived while forcing the FFH to retreat).

The big goal for the turn was one I’d looked at two turns previous, but had to reject. The 3rd Fleet SB is in range of the major planet I hold in 2306, but with that area semi-permanently out of supply, the forces there can’t make it back. But this time, the partial grid was able to spend 7 stored EPs to supply 35 ships to move down, and move against the forward reserve in 2509. I needed to be able to hit the other reserves in the area, but just couldn’t find a way to do it that wouldn’t divert too much away from the SB.

Meanwhile the Romulans mostly pressed on Federation space, sending large forces to 3210 and 3509 (I hoped that the former would draw a reserve to help the Klingons… but no), as well as taking on another Gorn BATS behind the east border. I decided to leave the small Federation force on 1611 alone, hoping to cut them off by putting a small force on 1910. The major forces still in Kzinti space hit 1504, while another force hit 1407 to pin it down. The Klingons moved in on the Hydran capital again, though the Hydrans were able to react reinforcements in, and still keep enough on 0416 to keep the Lyrans from trying it.


Stepping carefully around the Hydrans.


Limited goals against the Kzinti.


Taking on the 3rd Fleet.


Renewing the Romulan drive into Federation space.

The Gorn Reserve on the Federation capital went to 2509 to free up a few ships in the reserve there, which then went to take 1910. The other two Federation reserves in the area went to the 3rd Fleet SB, while the 4th moved out of Gorn space to help 3509, and the Gorn reserve went to pound a SNB vs POL battle. The two (two-ship) Kzinti reserves went to help 1407.

Battles:
1805: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon: crip F5
1806: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF
1808: SSC: Federation: dest FF; Lyran: crip JGP-C
1910: Federation capture planet; Klingon: dest F5
0519: SSC: Hydran retreat
0515: SSC: Hydran: dest cripHN
0212: SSC: Hydran: dest HN
3808: Romulan: dest SNB
5006: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip K5
3314: Federation: dest FF; Romulan: crip SNB
3313: SSC: Nothing
3210: Federation: dest NCL, crip NCL, FF; Romulan: crip KRM, SK, capture planet
3209: SSC: Federation retreat
3509: Federation: dest FFE, 2xPDU, MON, SWAC, crip 3xNCL, 3xFF, planet devastated; Romulan: dest SP, SPF, SE; crip: 2xKE, 4xSP, SPF, SK, SKG, K5, BHE
2509: Gorn: dest CCH; Klingon: crip 2xD5, 3xF5
2408: SSC: Federation: dest POL; Klingon retreat
2407: SSC: Both retreat
2211: Federation: 2xSIDS, dest BT, DE, 3xFF, FFE, 2xSWAC, crip 8xNCL, DD, 4xFF; Klingon: dest SAF, D6J, D6S, AD5, F5L, F5, crip B10, D7C, 2xD7, D6M, 6xD5, AD5, F5L, 2xF5E, F5S; Lyran: dest STT, 2xDW, crip STJ
2210: SSC: Federation: dest POL
2108: Federation: dest FFS, crip DN+; Klingon: dest cripF5, E4, crip AD5, D5S, F5S
2007: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF, POL
1407: Kzinti: dest cripBC, crip CC; Klingon: crip D7, D5
1504: Kzinti: dest EFF, crip MC, 2xMEC; Klingon: dest D6D, crip F5, capture planet
0617: Hydran: dest DG, DWE, CU, crip CU; Klingon: dest D7, LTG, E4A, crip 2xD6, capital captured

The Federation left a tug near the Romulan border, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. After a CL reacted in, it was just above SSC level, but the Feds lost a FF, and then did a Fighting Retreat over 3313, where low rolls kept anything from happening there.

The Federation went a round over 3210, in an unequal fight that still cost the Romulans a shocked KRM, while the fight for 3509 went four rounds, with two of those with a bad split on rolls, and one with a blown offensive cloak attempt. The Romulans chewed through ~60 fighters, and took a lot of cripples, and suffered more mauler shock. The good news is that the fixed defenses are gone (on the second attempt here), which makes the planet more vulnerable in the future.

We both knew the 3rd Fleet SB fight was going to be nasty going in. I had a decided advantage in number of ships, but the Federation could out-ComPot me even without the SB, mostly due to being willing to put up plenty of CAs, and three battle tugs (one of which I mauled). Despite using a CP against nothing for the Feds, I was taking a lot of damage, and 100+ fighters lessened the pain, but still melted away too fast. I made some errors, such as assuming he wouldn’t direct to cripple the B10 when it was up unprotected (and there were rounds when he might have killed it), so it wasn’t available on the round when the SAF went in. I figured to max out minus points, sacrifice the D6J, and send in the SAF while the B10 froze a few ships for cheap mauling. Well, that didn’t happen, the disrupted SAF did no damage, and my troop assaults (which I should have started earlier), didn’t get anywhere, despite there being no backup troops in the hex for him, and the maulers generally shocked on the first roll. I might have been able to force the assault, but I’d have nothing left at the end of it.

The battle for the Hydran capital went three rounds. I was willing to kill as many Hydran ships as I could even if it wore out the West Fleet, but generally couldn’t do the damage for the cruisers. I was a bit surprised when the Hydrans retreated with a number of spare fighters left. I guess they figured there’ll be another day to keep me busy, and Coalition forces aren’t likely to get much stronger.

The failure at the 3rd Fleet SB puts the Coalition in an even bigger hole than it already was. The large concentration in NW Federation space that I was bleeding with also made sure that the 4th Fleet was stuck near it’s SB. Now that’s largely evaporated, and no doubt I will lose that foothold completely. Finally knocking out the 3rd Fleet SB would have been worth it, and opened other opportunities. Now I have the worst of both worlds, as I can be sure that the SB will be much better protected next turn; the 3rd Fleet had been bleeding ships, as I wanted before doing this push. But I just couldn’t keep the reserves out/away, and the only positive results are that the Romulans are in range of Earth, and they finished stripping the defenses off a major planet in front of their advance (if they could afford to advance…).

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Apr30

Wolf Hunting

by Rindis on April 30, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The fifth Firekeeper book does an all-around good job of continuing the characters and exploring more of the world. It’s been a while since I’ve read the previous books, so I can say that this one doesn’t lean too heavily on them, though prior events get referenced a lot. In fact the biggest weak point here might be too much referencing of the previous background; in a couple places it felt repetitious.

After the sudden change of venue in the previous book, this one continues with exploring new lands, and ends up dealing with the foundational events of the setting: The ‘divine retribution’ plague that ravaged the old mage lord empire(s).

The politics and related plot lines of the first three books are completely gone, and more of the original characters effectively drop out of this book in favor of the new cast. However, the dangling threads from the fourth book are in force, and much of the action here revolves around the jaguar Truth, who lost her sanity at the end of that book. This ends up bringing in a few new characters, and pointers to the quest that underlies the bulk of the book.

And that quest manages to provide the mix of action, exploration, and the more complicated problems of power and how to use it that I enjoy in novels. So, while much of the series has been enjoyable for me, the, oh, say, second half of this novel has been my favorite part so far. I still think the change in direction was way too abrupt in the previous book, but this was more enjoyable on its own than the first three books. Better yet, Lindskold is digging into the backstory of the setting, and I’m sure there’ll be more of that in the next book.

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Apr26

Pursuit of Afghanistan

by Rindis on April 26, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Finally had some FtF gaming recently as Jason made it over for Pursuit of Glory. It was a bit tempting to try out Illusions of Glory, but we decided to stick with the game we knew better, since it had been quite a while since either of us had even played it, and we’d need a fair amount of refreshing.

I ended up with the Central Powers, and Jason went with the standard Russo-British Assault opening. I started with Pan-Turkism, and managed to move troops up to the Suez Canal before getting across with Liberate Suez. Both of us got to Limited War on schedule, though Jason didn’t do much in the way of RPs at first, allowing the Russians to get a bit exhausted while I rebuilt the Ottoman army, and more tellingly, he never played Churchill Prevails or Blockade (and Enver Goes East wasn’t as bad as it could be since I’d been largely maneuvering out of contact while he pressed in); neither of us violated Persian neutrality (despite temptations).

The next few turns saw things go very poorly for me. Jason continued being very OPS-aggressive, and eventually pushed aside the few troops I’d let sit in Mesopotamia (at start divisions and two Marsh Arabs). The ANZAC reinforcements made things too dense for me to get anywhere in Egypt, and then he pushed me back out, and the front didn’t shift down there again (Jason admitted after that he probably should have just taken the lumps and gone for it, as not doing it gave him lots of trouble), though I really should have spent the OPS to move back to the two-space chokepoint.

My main problem was Project Alexandria, which came ashore Adana, and with some help from Maude, knocked out my defense. This then turned into an extended hide-and-seek game with Adana and Alexandretta, as I tried to contain him, and he tried to break out into more valuable territory. With the collapse in Mesopotamia, he linked up from there, but it was still too easy for me to potentially cut off his forces from that and the ports. I did retake Adana early on and eliminate the beachhead, which helped.

I had largely felt helpless during this, with no real spare troops, no desire to denude the Russian front, and no reinforcements. I did distract us both with a Persian Push, that took Hamadan, and later Tehran and Qum, but only held Isfahan with the Bakhtiari. I spent too much time trying to keep supply semi-secure before realizing near the end of the day that Afghanistan had a partial supply that could at least keep everyone alive from that end.

I got Bulgaria on turn 3 and held on to it to play on 4. It ended up being a sadly neglected front for too long, but by the end of the day, I had Serbia on the verge of collapse (there were still two reduced armies in Serbia, which I would have probably soon eliminated), and Jason passed on playing Romania on 5. On turn 5, I finally got Parvus to Berlin, so I could start planning for a Russian shutdown (especially since they were far from getting 5+ VPs), and I finally started reacting better to the disasters elsewhere, if a bit too late to really do anything about it.

We went late, but were still in the middle of turn 8 when we broke up. VPs were at 16, and Jihad at 7. I’d just gotten into Afghanistan, and that was probably going to revolt to help take Central Asia with it (I forgot—again—about the immediate roll for entering the region). I had hit Total War at the end of 7, but Jason had barely made any progress, thanks to spending big cards as OPS, and being unwilling to downgrade Invasions to Reinforcements. I still had major military problems, but Jihad was about to go up again, it was likely that Romania would be forced to stay neutral (giving me two more VPs), and I had finally started seeing Reinforcement cards.

Neither of our performances were very good, showing how long its been. I have, yet again, failed to defend against an invasion as the CP. I thought I had him reasonably bottled up, but then he formed the 2nd Indian corps there, and used Maude before I could do anything. If I’d thought about the limited supply for Afghanistan, I could have been in there a turn or two sooner, which could have been interesting.

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Apr22

Two Rounds of Crocus Plain

by Rindis on April 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After some delays, Patch and I finally did our usual round of Commands & Colors: Ancients, with the Battle of Crocus Plain from Expansion #1. It feels a little odd going into a hoplite scenario that hasn’t been re-done in Expansion #6; the Macedonians are post-Phillip’s reforms (and have some medium and heavy cavalry), but the Phocians should be the same hopiltes we’ve been dealing with for the last dozen+ scenarios. The Macedonians definitely have the advantage, with the Phocians with their back to the wall (or, the sea), and with a noticeably lighter force.

I had the Macedonians the first time, and led off with Order Two Right, sending my MC forward to force a light and LB to evade back to the sea. Patch Ordered Three Left and did a block and forced one of the MC to retreat with archery. I used Leadership Any Section for Philip to get the middle in motion, with a light getting into archery range. Patch Ordered Three Left again, doing a block to my light, and forcing the other MC back on a banner, but did no damage with his LC, who advanced into range of the wounded MC.

I Ordered Three Right to surround his LC, and wiped it out on the first try. Patch Ordered Three Left to pick off a block on the second MC, and on the light. He also got a banner on my HC, but the leader kept them forward. I Counter Attacked to bring my cavalry into contact with his flank, and knocked out a light unit, and reduced an auxilia to 1 block (after a First Strike that missed), while losing a MC.

Patch used Leadership Any Section to pull the Aux out and advance two mediums, and he did one block on my HC… which killed my leader! I Ordered Two Center to finally bring my heavies to bear, and reduced a medium to one block while forcing it back, and wiped out another while taking no damage. Patch used a Line Command purely to shuffle over, and re-form. I used Coordinated Attack to move part of my detached flank, and send my remaining MC into his reduced units. I knocked out a 1-block medium, and since the leader was already against the bay, he lost him too, and then the MC momentum attacked to knock out the auxilia. 6-2

Patch opened the second game with a Line Command, and I responded with Order Two Right, which did one block to his left light through archery. I had been waiting for Patch to get a little closer, but he Double Timed his heavies and mediums right into my center-right, knocking out an Aux, nearly getting two mediums, while only taking one block in return. I used Line Command to shuffle over to my right, and did three blocks to a heavy, while nearly losing a medium, and taking one block on another—losing a leader in the process!

Patch followed up with Order Two Center, taking out two damaged mediums, along with the second leader (back was to the sea again), and a momentum attack did three damage to a medium (which should have wiped it out; somehow I managed not to take the hit on the unit that lost the first leader, and we never noticed), and knocked out his one-block heavy in return. I Ordered Four Center to get off the coast, and after some failed archery attacked the remaining heavy with a two-block medium because it beat letting Patch roll first. I did no damage, and Patch finished off the medium. 1-6

Afterword

The fact that the Phocians can barely retreat at all really dominates the scenario. The Macedonians are heavier, and have an extra leader, but it shouldn’t be quite this lopsided. The main thing that got me in the first play is that I had no center cards to speak of, delaying the use of the Heavy Infantry for a bit. My leader losses (on intact units) in both games hurt too.

It was still fun, and very fast; both goes took about an hour total, which is really fast for a six-banner scenario. The Double Time in the second game really sped things up, and caught me while I was still trying to maneuver.

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Apr18

Anime Winter 2018

by Rindis on April 18, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Anime

Smudge ended up getting us both involved in Final Fantasy XIV right as the current anime season started, and that’s been taking up much of our free time, so we only saw a few series this time:

A Place Further Than the Universe — The initial description for this series was completely incoherent, but this turned out to the the hit of the season. Four high-school age girls end up as part of an expedition to Antarctica. As usual with Japanese series of this type, it shows some real research and care with the subject, and the characterization is great, with everyone having good reasons for getting involved. The four primary characters grow, and are very good for each other. Highly recommended.

Last Man — Finally just saw the end of the series a few days ago. It comes to a very well done ending, but I hope we get a ‘part 2’ or something. So far as I know, we’re still not at where the graphic novels pick up.

Yamato 2199 — I wasn’t entirely sure on the dub at first, but it’s gotten good. The series itself, is of course, excellent. We really need more remakes like this.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride — This is continuing with a few different story arcs, and overall, I’m liking it better than the first season. It’s been well-produced all along, but the writing seems to have settled into its groove now.

Pokemon Sun and Moon — The current Pokemon series has continued to be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the streaming service of them reset to the beginning after the two Kanto episodes. So it’s going to be a while before I get to see more.

Garo: Vanishing Line — The second half of the series was largely ‘on the road’ and built up to a good climax sequence. Overall, a good story that hangs together all the way through. The mood and style are very good along with the characters, and the plot is solid if not exceptional.

Black Clover — The other continuing series from the previous season, we’re well behind on it now, having only taken the time for a few episodes. While it is in many ways a bog-standard fight-anime (and surprisingly low-budget at times), I’m enjoying it at the moment. The current plot lines have been much more interesting than the beginning (expanding the cast didn’t hurt), and as long as it can avoid dragging things out, I’ll continue to watch it.

Darling in the Franxx — I’ve only seen the first two episodes. Smudge had some problems with the… controls for the mechs, though coming from the people who did Kill la Kill…. We’ll probably give this more of a try, but feelings are decidedly mixed.

Also, Smudge started me on one continuing series:

March Comes in Like a Lion — Pure character drama centered around Shogi. I’ve only gotten through the initial (13-episode) season, and partway through the second (together being the first series), and am liking it quite a bit. The creator definitely gets people and animals, and the art style is nicely done in the series.

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