Jan13

Paladin

by Rindis on January 13, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, in parts, this is well-trodden fantasy ground. You have an order of warriors dedicated to fighting demons. You have a scrappy girl who prefers martial pursuits to marital ones. She joins the aforesaid order in disguise because girls aren’t supposed to fight.

So, some of the standard bits, needing to stay disguised, etc. And a bit of romance (which is nicely not straightforward, but does go a little overboard on a couple occasions). The world building is a bit sparse, but there’s hints of much more background than we see. Notably, demons nearly overran everything once, and were sealed away ages ago. There’s still minor ones around to cause occasional problems, but it’s not the world-ending catastrophe it was. The Paladins still keep an eye on things, and fight the occasional lone demons that are out there.

On the other hand, there only seems to be one country in the world (no others are mentioned), and the government is undefined. There’s the Paladins… and apparently no other fighting force. There is a king mentioned… but the main authority shown is the head master of the Paladins.

But, everything that happens is more-or-less internal to the Paladins, so there’s not much chance to see much else. In fact, the focus is fairly tight, with three major characters (who all get some time as the viewpoint), and a bare handful of other characters, most of which don’t have much screen time. (There’s maybe three important secondary characters for the book as a whole.)

But that is enough, as their characters and interactions drive things forward nicely. That is easily the best part of it all, though the writing does have a certain passion for the story it is telling that also carries you forward with it.

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Jan09

Storming the Kastelli

by Rindis on January 9, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark and I had some extra time off around the holidays, and we decided to have a couple of extra sessions to try out Operation Mercury, and start remembering the Grand Tactical System rules (which we’ve played years ago with No Question of Surrender).

To this end, we played the training scenario, “Storming the Kastelli”, which features a couple of Greek battalions holding Kastelli against four companies of the 5th Gibirgs Division (plus an AT battery). This is a simplified chit draw, as everything is considered ‘independent’ formations, so there’s no formation chits or dispatch points, and no random events, so there’s just the two division activation chits and direct command chits. Since I was currently attacking in two other games, I volunteered for the defending British/Greek force.

The first turn (of five) starts with the German Direct Command chit, and Mark spent three command points to send all three companies forward, with the first in column and heading around the line of Greek defenders, while the other two headed more directly for the defenders. The second chit was the German division activation (which also meant the arrival of the AT battery, and two airstrikes). One airstrike did nothing but the other caused a step loss on the Kastelli police unit, which is one of the better Greek units in the scenario (there are better ones, but there’s far worse too). The division got 7 CPs, and the lead unit charged towards Kastelli, and took a cohesion hit to get out of column, the next two moved up, and the AT battery mounted up and got into column. Then was the British direct command chit, and I moved two companies up into contact, and onto the road.

The British 2nd NZ Division (nominally in command of the Greeks) was the first chit for the second turn, which got three command points to go with the two left from the start of the game. I moved the western defenders up to Kastelli (putting one into Kastelli itself, along with the police unit). Then the German division activation came out again, but only got a minimal 3 CPs. He used a couple to automatically pass TQCs as units went on forced marches.

The next chit was the German direct command, and he spent CPs to move closer to Kastelli, and unmount the AT battery in 10.08 (which was a mistake we later figured out, as being on top of a slope seems to offer no LOS advantage).

That left my direct command for the start of the 13:00 (third) turn. I spent 3 of my 4 CPs to rally a cohesion hit, and move two more units into blocking positions of Kastelli. Then came the German direct command, and he assaulted the outlying company in 08.06 with a two-company stack. It went well for the Germans; I got two S?, which he paid command points to automatically pass TQC and avoid any consequences, while the 2 B/1 Inf took two suppression hits (one of which becomes a cohesion hit). They charged for the second round, and I spent my last command point to pass the TQC and not dissolve under pressure, and the Germans got a possible suppression (I passed), and then two cohesion hits (two 0s from the same unit!) to flip to the reduced side. After that, the 3rd company assaulted, with no result in the first round, but a second round charge eliminated the Greeks.

Next came my divisional activation, which got me 6 much-needed CP. I moved up a couple units (including the one who’d gotten bypassed).

That left the German division activation for the start of 15:00. They got 5 CP, and he assaulted the 3 B/1 Inf in 07.06 with the same pair that led off the last set. My fire in the first round got an S and C, which he took as a pair of cohesion hits on his best unit. They did a S?, which I spent CP to avoid, and the second unit did a cohesion hit to me. He charged for the second round, I spent CP to avoid coming apart, and I suppressed the good unit (otherwise, he’d lose a step), and then did a cohesion hit to the second (which was now at two, as it still had one from coming out of column in a hurry early on). After that, the Germans were unable to do any damage to the Greeks. Then the ‘clean-up crew’ from before assaulted, but failed the bravery check.

After that was the German direct command, and Mark rallied the suppression, and moved up the AT battery. My direct command was used to bring up the bypassed unit, and to pull my southern flank back into Kastelli itself.

This left my divisional activation for the start of the last (17:00) turn, and I received 6 CP. I spent two CP on fire attacks on the hurt 2nd company (2.Geb.Pi 95), and suppressed it again. Then the German division activation came up for 5 CPs, and the AT unit fired on the previous assault target to do another cohesion hit to them (converted from a suppression). Mark rallied his 2nd company, but then failed a bravery check to assault again. The final chit draw of the game was my direct command which ended the game with the Germans two hexes short of their goal of the Kastelli port.

Afterword

We’re still sorting out how to conduct an offensive in this system, so the result is not a big surprise. Some lessons learned: Catching low-quality troops in an assault will at the least force the use of a lot of command to keep them from just dissolving under pressure. Also, being suppressed can be deadly under those circumstances. Overall, only one unit was lost on either side, but two German and one Greek unit had taken two cohesion hits, and of course a step had been lost in the initial Luftwaffe attacks.

This scenario doesn’t prepare you for the effects of formation chits. Leaving that out does a lot to simplify things greatly, but formations can really change the tempo of operations, as they can do offensive operations that must otherwise be paid for (really, almost all offensive operations must be paid for in one manner or another here), and we’re still sorting that out in the middle of the first regular scenario.

Getting the AT into action earlier/more consistently would certainly help as the white dual-purpose row they use on the CRT is the best one, but LOS and transport defeated it getting much of a chance. A second go at this would probably see it getting used.

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Jan05

Gold Brick IV

by Rindis on January 5, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Comics

The fourth Gold Brick starts right in the middle of the action, with part two of Brianna and an attempt on the leprechauns’ gold. From there, we quickly go back to the big story line, as Gina gets invited to see the secrets of the shadow elves on Jade, and meets… herself.

Physically, this is the same as the previous volume. A collection of 25 color issues, weighing in somewhere around 450 pages. My personal copy also had the binding come lose from the cover, though it is otherwise physically intact. Thankfully, the lettering doesn’t get overly small as much as it did in Volume III.

With 25 issues, there’s time and room for a fair amount of different stories, such as yet another matchup between Ace and Night Flight, which again is very well done, especially from a story perspective. Generally speaking though, more things are tying to the Nomad Artificers, and projects they started when this universe was young…. There’s the usual bevy of new characters, as well as returning villains, and one of the more important stories deals with a return to Dreadwing’s lair, from the original short story.

On the other hand, Brittanny is found to be pregnant midway through, which has its own influence on the stories. Like with any other long-term series like this, life goes on, and the characters evolve. It feels a bit more integrated in Gold Digger, though, and certainly Tiffany Targét Gia is an important story point coming up.

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Jan01

2020 in Review

by Rindis on January 1, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Life

Well, it’s a good thing that I don’t generally talk about the world at large in these posts, because I could probably be here for most of a year talking about all the various kinds of crazy this last year has been for just about everybody.

The good news is that overall this household is doing well financially. Baron & Smudge are doing okay with SM-EW, and earnings are down a bit (especially with no convention sales to boost things), but the main Patreon is holding steady. Dave has had a good amount of work throughout most of the year, and seems to be doing well there. Working for a large corporation has the advantage that it stayed steady when everything went crazy with the initial lockdown. Our team was already working from home most of the time, so the change was no big deal for us.

However, as of the day this posts, I’m no longer at a large corporation. ViacomCBS sold CNET and a bunch of associated brands to a much smaller company, Red Ventures, a couple months ago, with us all ‘leased’ back to CBS for the remainder of the year, which has been great for making the transition smooth. The new company seems pretty good, but there’s no long-term track record to go by yet. Certainly, the layoff of my (former) direct boss, Karen, really hurts, but everything else is intact, and hopefully the rest of us will do well.

The second surge of Covid-19 also meant I canceled my annual trip to see my parents for Thanksgiving. I was planning on going until the numbers just kept getting worse every day for the lead up to it. As with many of us, I’ve spent most of the year indoors, which at least is not a big burden for me. Up until everything came apart, the gaming schedule was being fairly busy with at least two game days a month between multiplayer and Mark coming over. I’ve been helping keep Mark company by gaming with him on Vassal Sat & Sun mornings as well as Monday evening.

Thanks to that my gaming schedule is a little over-full. Monday evening is ASL with Mark, Wednesday is ASL with Patch, Friday is Stellaris with my Dad. Saturday morning is reserved for ‘big/learning’ games with Mark, and has mostly been Operation Dauntless as we worked through the tutorials, and are now working through the main ones. We’ve also put Operation Mercury into the mix and are now alternating between the two. Sunday morning is more for games we can get through quickly and did see a number of different things this year, such as A Victory Lost, Great War Commander, GEV, and Star Fleet Battles. And all of those days generally have time in Final Fantasy XIV with Smudge too.

This led to some burn out around July, and I dropped my two PBeM ASL games for a couple months, but have them actively going again. At the same time, it’s also been a busy year for getting games, starting with the new Deluxe ASL set at the start of the year, and a whole string of birthday games during June. It was also an expensive year, even though I got even more than I paid for.

Along with no gaming at the house, there hasn’t been much going out to do anything else, naturally. It makes me really glad that I spent a bunch of money to get us all to a Final Fantasy concert at the end of January. Definitely one of the highlights of the year.

Part of the burn-out has been with trying to keep on top of the blog. I had one point where I was scrambling for posts, as I hadn’t finished any books or games lately (part of the burnout was just a distinct lack of any ambition), but most of the year I’ve had a small backlog of things to write, which has not turned into a backlog of things written. So, a mere 95 posts for 2020 (compared to 102 in 2019).

Part of the change in schedule has been a rearrangement of reading time, and I didn’t get near as much reading done as I’d hoped, with the train reading time going out the window. I only read 50 books this year, and that’s with a bunch of short Osprey books helping out. That said, what I read was generally pretty good. On the fiction side of things, I finally got to Child of a Hidden Sea, which was the best all-new to me book I read, with The Heart of What Was Lost, Servant of the Empire, and Marque and Reprisal being very good returning series for me. Best history of the year goes to Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England, which was excellent, mostly on Henry V’s early carrier. Crucible of War was also an excellent account of the French and Indian War. About the only disappointment this year was The English Civil War: A People’s History, which had a good mission statement, but didn’t carry it out very well.

Osprey Publishing had a very nice giveaway of several books in electronic format early in the year, which got me back to them, and I’m filling out parts of the library with PDF versions of the books. Their recent Campaign book on the AD 717 siege of Constantinople was especially good.

Mechanical/electronic issues have been minimal this year, with the main problem being something giving out on Smudge’s graphics card (probably the oldest part of the current system) just a couple weeks ago. It still works, but is running hotter for less work than before, so presumably a fan gave out. I… hadn’t properly gotten her a present yet, so I got her a new graphics card. (I could still use one a bit more competent for my system.) Also, Amazon seems to have completely cut off their old Kindle app, which I find better than any of the ‘modern’ alternatives, the Edge-based plugin is tolerable. I’ll have to get used to it, but it does mean I’m slightly motivated to get an actual Kindle reader.

With 2020 finally at an end, I (like everyone else) am hoping for a much better New Year!

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Dec28

1 Nightmarish Crossroads

by Rindis on December 28, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

The first actual scenario of Operation Dauntless stands apart a bit. It’s the only one to take place on June 16, it is slightly ahistorical, as it supposes the 12th SS Division fought in place instead of withdrawing to a better line, and the map has a special boundary printed on it for this scenario, as its considered a good small scenario that will see a lot of play. (I note that this is congruent with ASL scenario AP33 “Second Cristot” in Action Pack #4; I wonder if it would be possible to do a a scenario on the first attempt to take Cristot on the 11th—but perhaps much of the action would be off the map.)

Overall, this is a nice scenario, with all the different parts of the rules working at the same time, including one part that none of the tutorial scenarios use: purchasing reinforcements. The British start with a full battalion, and a Sherman squadron, and a few extra MG sections, a 6-pdr battery, and some Centaur troops. They also get a lot of artillery. As of turn 3 (out of six), they can start purchasing reinforcements, with another battalion, and another Sherman squadon on offer (and the points are such that you can only get one or the other), as well as some Achilles and AVREs. The Germans get a slightly reduced battalion, plus an extra recon company, an independent 75mm AT battery, some off-board artillery, and three strongpoints. On turn 3 they also get to start buying reinforcements, with a couple infantry companies available, and individual Pz IV and Panther platoons.

The British are generally trying to take the six village hexes of Cristot, but also get double the normal VPs for German losses. The Germans can also get VPs for some of the western villiage hexes; mostly to make sure the British don’t leave their line open there. Mark followed the general strategic notes and put a strongpoint in 1205, with a 75mm, while the other (independent) one went in a strongpoint in 1102, and an empty strongpoint was back in 1504.

The first turn has special rules to simulate the effects of a very heavy British bombardment with a lot of smoke. There is a ‘light fog’ for the first (noon) turn, the Germans can’t move much, and can only conduct ranged fire and AT attacks. The British get an extra column shift in any of their attacks, but can’t use the road movement rate. With all of this, I set up for as many assaults as I could manage. My first move was to assault the 1101 woods (after a failed AT attack on my Centaurs), with -0 Tactical Advantage (D) which failed to make an impression on the Shermans and resulted in a 0/2. (The 75mm managed to reduce the Shermans in reaction to the advance.)

The second move was to assault 1202 itself (with another missed AT shot on the way in, and a DA Tactical Advantage for a barely missed shot against the Shermans) which got a 0/6 (rolled 12 on a 4:1) for the infantry to barely survive a retreat all the way back to Cristot (1 loss negated by the strongpoint, 1 loss to kill the AT, just barely down to the retreat limit). Then, I went to disassemble the German left flank.

The next group hit 0905, and being in close terrain myself, finally had a good Tactical Advantage number (+3; AAAA), and managed to eliminate a SP halftrack step, and drove him off with a 0/3. Finally, I took on 0906, and my best Tactical Advantage draw was an A, for one shot to reduce an armored car unit. However, the assault itself went bad with a ‘2’ for a 0/2 result, knocking out the infantry company accompanying the Shermans. Down to just vehicles on both sides, Mark withdrew out of the hex.


By special rule, 1602 is not a British supply source, and 1207 and 1604 are the German sources.
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Dec24

Year of the Unicorn

by Rindis on December 24, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is another Andre Norton that I’m sure I read ages ago, but don’t have any clear memories of anymore.

This is the first of the “High Hallack” Witch World novels, which I always generally enjoyed more than the Estcarp series.

One thing that struck me early was the initial locale of the dales, and the roll of named years (which is where the title of the novel actually comes from). The Dalelands and roll of years in the Forgotten Reams were most likely inspired by this novel (and it’d be the right time for Greenwood to be starting to figure out his world).

As usual with Andre Norton, the overall theme is growth and finding your place in the world. Gillan has a place and stable life at the start of the book, but it’s not one she wants. Looking forward to the ‘dry, dusty years’ stretching out ahead of her, she wants out.

And of course, the novel starts with a path out. Thirteen brides are to be given to the beastmen, shapeshifters who were hired for a war that has now ended. She switches with one of the designated brides, and goes straight into adventure.

The pacing is very good overall, though part of the middle stays in high-gear danger for quite a while before there’s much of a break. But flow passes between mystery and wonder and action several times seamlessly and keeps the momentum going all the way. Gillan is not the most distinct of main characters, but she is a good one, willing to continue on with what she started, and does a lot to carry the plot through to its conclusion on her own.

It is a complete stand-alone novel, so it’s also a good place to get into the world (there are better, notably to my mind, The Crystal Gryphon), so don’t let its ‘series’ nature stop you from giving it a read.

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Dec20

Two Breakthroughs

by Rindis on December 20, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After going through the last tutorial scenario for Operation Dauntless, Mark and I spent a little time with the classic pocket game GEV, and it’s initial “Breakthrough” scenario. I haven’t played it in decades, and while Mark is well aware of Ogre/GEV, he’s never played the series.

I took raiding Combine GEVs (12 for the basic scenario) for our first playthrough, while Mark took 2xheavy tanks, 2xmissile tanks, 2xlight tanks, and 2xlight GEVs for his six armor units (yes, we used the full range of ‘standard’ units, including Shockwave units, but not the more advanced bits like the GEV-PC and marine infantry). I came in with two groups, one of six GEVs unequally split between three hexes cruising up the river, and then three sets of two GEVs each headed through the gap in the forest nearby. Mark redeployed a little, but mostly hung near his initial posts as I got closer.

For my second turn, five of the GEVs continued up the river and then into the lake, while one went ashore to help the other set who advanced up to the stream before crossing it on the second move. Mark hurried a second heavy tank east, and sent a light tank and infantry that way, but other parts stayed put (including a missile and light tank in the west). I concentrated 6 GEVs against the heavies and killed one and disabled the other before scattering away from the infantry, while the group on the lake came ashore during the second move.


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Dec16

Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England

by Rindis on December 16, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This was recommended to me by someone who’s opinion I trust, so I expected a good book going in. It exceeded my expectations.

Despite the title, this is not just an examination of the Battle of Agincourt. It occupies a central place in book, but it is more than that. The book starts with a brief description of the fourteenth-century succession crisis that ended with Edward III claiming the throne of France. The first parts of the Hundred Years War are covered in a similar amount of clear brevity. Then we get to Henry IV and Henry V.

The first detailed part of the book goes into Henry of Monmouth’s (the future Henry V) campaigns in Wales, and how that shaped his future outlook on warfare. The campaign was generally underfunded, and Henry had to scrape together the resources to bring the rebellion in Wales to an end. This mostly happened after he figured out ways of better financing it on his own.

Much time is spent with the beginning of Henry V’s reign, and the various diplomatic maneuvers with France even as he secures funding from Parliament, and begins putting together an army. This forms a significant part of the book, and a nicely detailed one, using lots of examples of surviving registers and indentures to show how the army was hired and organized and paid.

Then there is a good section on the siege of Harfleur. It also goes into detail, and takes a look at was (and wasn’t) happening at the French court during all of this. The march towards Calais afterwords is also very well covered, including the fact that it had nearly reached its goal before having to turn aside to look for safe river crossings. Much appreciated is the look at how long this was expected to take, and why, and just how much of the march went off on schedule.

And then we get to the field of Agincourt, the day before, and the battle itself. In some ways, this isn’t as well-covered as the lead up to the battle, but that’s more the high bar the rest of the book set rather than an actual lack here.

After that, there is good examination of the aftermath. The main subject boils down to the prisoners taken, and their fates. This is harder to determine in detail, but Barker spends some time picking out examples. The political and military aftermath get less attention than the lead up.

It’s a well-written, and well-focused book, without being so focused as to lose some essential context. In fact, the context (especially Henry V’s early career) is the best part of the book. Highly recommended for anyone wanting to know more about this period.

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Dec12

Reflections in Crystal

by Rindis on December 12, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

By the time you read this, patch 5.4 will have come out for Final Fantasy XIV, and I’ll be starting down the road leading to the fourth (currently unannounced) expansion for the game. I’ve just come off a week of vacation, and I spent far more time in-game than I meant to (I meant to spend more time reading and in Stellaris and EU IV than I did; par for the course).

Last time I wrote on this, was just as 5.3 was getting ready to come out, so lets start with the big things. The content for that patch was mostly wrapping things up from the main Shadowbringers story, and taking care of the main dangling plot threads. And I can say that that was just as well handled as the rest of the story has been, and came to a solid stopping point.

(Things might get a little spoilery for a bit here.)

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Dec08

The Lost Fleet: Dauntless

by Rindis on December 8, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, military science-fiction is always a selling point for me, and I have taken too long to get to this series.

It is always presented as a series, and with good reason. While this is a complete story, structure-wise, the overall situation and problem won’t be resolved (presumably) until book six. The good news is that these are relatively short books by modern standards, coming in at ~300 pages each, so this isn’t a six-book series of bloated editing.

The overall set up fairly good, and quite space opera in nature. The Alliance fleet finds an old survival pod on its way to battle, and it happens to contain a near-legendary hero from the beginning of the war—one hundred years ago. This is before the start of the book, and the actual start is the top command of the fleet getting killed, leaving our Jack Geary the most senior captain available—by nearly a century.

The setup is actually handled fairly well, and a lot of the personality, and personality clashes are well done. It’s definitely one of the strong points of the writing. The military side can get into teeth-grating problems… but this is by design. It’s… also a case of making the main character look smarter by ‘dumbing down’ the other characters. However, here, Geary is a professional, well-trained for his job. After a century of taking heavy losses, institutional memory in the fleet is almost non-existent, and all the officers are much younger than they should be. And the characters are generally written as intelligent, they just don’t have a lot of military knowledge and habits they should.

This does also mean that the other characters can serve as a way to naturally bring up how things work and explain them for the reader. One unknown is just how much the Syndicate navy is suffering from the same problem, and I assume it’ll be explored in later books. Similarly, there’s a bit of setup here for the sequel series; Campbell was definitely thinking ahead.

There’s two real battles in this book, plus some other activities (taking down some light planetary defenses), and the action is well handled all the way. It’s also nicely paced. In many ways, this isn’t anything special, just a bunch of milSF tropes seen before, but it is all well crafted, with good writing, characters, plot, and pacing. That’s the real win here, there’s not much in the way of weak points. That makes it worth a look right there, and recommended even to people who may not normally go for this kind of thing.

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