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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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Apr06

WO2 Failure to Communicate

by Rindis on April 6, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After Patch and I’s last SFB game, we returned to ASL, and decided to try “Failure to Communicate” from the first Winter Offensive pack, which I’d picked up during MMP’s Fall sale. It’s May ’40, and a miscommunication leads to an overwhelming force to take out a French garrison. The French have a mix of nine elite and 1st line squads with good leadership, a MMG, MTR, 25mm ATG, two AMR 33 ‘tanks’ (with 4FP MG MA), one AMD 35 armored car with a 25mm gun, all radioless, and 10 “?”. They get to choose between also getting either another AMD AC, another ATG, or a ATR (with HS) and some mines), and get another elite squad, 8-0, and DC on turn 5. The Germans have 6.5 turns to take five out of seven multi-hex buildings with fourteen squads, with a typical mix of leaders and support weapons. On turn three they get two Pz IIs and three Pz 38(t)s. The French can also win by getting 25 CVP.

The new board from WO1, 59, has a stream crossing it, and board 42 has a stream overlay, so the stream goes across the entire board, and only four multi-hex buildings are on the near side of the stream to the Germans. I took the French defenders and concentrated on two things in my defense: the main village (with four victory buildings), and defending the stream. Especially with my limited anti-tank ability and the fact that he’d need at least one building across the stream, I wanted to make that painful. The main weight of the defense went in and around the main village, with the MMG and MTR behind the stream, and 3.5 squads (with a lot of Dummies) around the board 42 crossing to keep him from just trying to seize that bridge early, drive on the two victory buildings across the stream on board 59 and then try and take the village from both sides. I took the ATR… and then stuck it in a corner that was less likely to see armor (42J1 might have been much better), with the mines going on the one board 42 building in case he went there. I used two “?” to look like a fourth vehicle in 42U1, so he’d think I took the extra AC instead. Sadly, I had forgotten that French tanks tend to have radio trouble, and didn’t consider setting up any platoons. The ATG was set up so it could cover the board 59 bridge, but facing down the road coming from board 42.

Patch setup entirely concentrated on the village. With a hill, and a bit of woods in the way, I couldn’t see anything, and many moves still didn’t give me a chance to see anything, but his 9-2 and a HMG squad moved through the grain to a clear shot of 59J2, which Patch had figured as a Dummy. However, he was part of my outer defensive line (with the Orchard to provide cover for his withdrawal later), and a K/2 wounded the leader while breaking the squad. (It would have been soo nice to get a fatal wound, ah well.) He did get two positions that could fire on J2, and broke the squad on his second attempt with a NMC in AFPh.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board and my HIP setup.
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Mar25

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 14

by Rindis on March 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Alliance survey rolls were strong this turn; especially the Kzinti who got 16 (+2 from a PT) on three dice, after rolling 15 last turn. Overall Alliance income was up, mostly from the Federation, which had regained a bit more control of their own territory.

Builds:
Federation: TG, NCA, 12xNCL, 4xDW, DWA, 11xFF, DN+->CVA, CW->F-CWE
Kzinti: TGC, 2xCM, LTT, 4xFFK, 1xFKE, 3xFF, CVL->CVD
Gorn: DNG, BC, CM, TG, HD, LTT, 2xBDE, 2xDD, FCR, CL->CV, CL->CLE, CL->CCH

The Alliance continued showing the signs of a cash crunch by subbing a lot of ships to smaller hulls, and much to my surprise, building no new carriers. Instead the Federation converted an existing DN+ into a CVA, while the Kzinti converted a CVL into a CVD. I’m used to seeing the Kzinti occasionally convert their CVLs into the larger CV, but not having played with CVDs before I hadn’t considered that conversion.

As usual, Alliance raids went well. The Hydrans raided province garrisons and the THR took out two Klingon ships for no losses, while the Lyrans fought off the raiding RN with three ships for no losses on either side beyond fighters and a wounded PT. (We recently realized that PTs get wounded much more often in SSC than we’d thought. Raiders with PTs on board is a good way to get a lot of them wounded.) The Kzinti raided two garrisons in their space, killing a DW, while forcing another to cripple and retreat. However, he’d meant to force my garrison off of planet 1202, and there was still a HDD there. The Federation hit two province garrisons in their own space as well as a G2 patrolling an ’empty’ province in the Empire, killing it, a DW, F5, and crippling a second F5. The Gorns hit a Romulan province garrison in Federation space and one in their own space; both ships missed their evasion rolls (again), and were destroyed.

Movement started with the expected every-other-turn Hydran move onto their capital, while also pinning down the Lyran reserve in the area. The Kzinti force in 1001 went after the Lyran SB on their border, leaving pinning forces on the BATS in front of it, and fighting the Lyran garrison in Kzinti space. Next, a force moved out of the Barony, picked up some extra ships over in 1802, and then headed back to the major planet in 1502.

And then everything turned into a disaster.

I had expected (for the last few turns) moves against the string of supply points from the Klingon border into Kzinti space. Certainly, a major move against 1504 was going to happen at some time soon. With how comparatively weak the North Fleet had gotten, I expected to see it last turn. This turn, I had some good reserves in the area, and expected to hold enough things to get the reshuffled FRD facilities into operation. But I had blinded myself to the fact that though I had forces blocking a direct move from the 7th Fleet on 2106, the 4th Fleet could easily pin all of that, allowing Byron to hit the Northern Reserve SB in in 1509, which is just what he did at this point.

Then the 3rd Fleet set out for 1611 again, diverting a few ships to claim NZ hexes and join the 4th Fleet along the way. If I had thought of it at the time, I could have reacted a ship into 2111 as he left, and then sent a reserve to that hex to win the fight, which could have blocked retrograde for the 3rd Fleet (he’d likely retreat off the planet to get in range). But I didn’t think of that until I was looking at reserves.

The western Gorn-Romulan border turned out to be less active than I thought as the Gorn 5th Fleet moved in towards the border, and then stopped to pick off a single SNB, while the Romulan navy stayed in place in case someone else went for the BATS later. Instead, he hit three of the four BATS further away from the Federation frontier.


Hydran offensives.


The Kzinti Strike Back


Further trouble in Klingon space.


Limited offensives.

Most of my reserves were pinned, but all three Romulan reserves were free to shore up defenses at three of the four spots he hit. The one free Lyran reserve was needed to save their starbase, and the one free Klingon reserve had two choices, but wasn’t sufficient for either one.

Battles:
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L, F5
0418: SSC: Klingon retreat
0718: SSC: Klingon: dest E4A
0716: SSC: Lyran: dest FF
0715: SSC: Hydran retreat
0703: SSC: Lyran retreat
1202: SSC: Lyran: dest HDD
1103: SSC: Lyran: dest cripDW
1503: SSC: Lyran: crip CW; Klingon: crip E4
1703: SSC: Klingon: dest E4
1907: SSC: Klingon: dest TGA
2308: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L
2407: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
4009: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
4808: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3313: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3314: SSC: Romulan: crip SNB
2810: SSC: both sides retreat
0617: Klingon: dest E4
0517: Klingon: dest D6M; Hydran: dest LN
0518: Klingon: dest F5E; Hydran: dest LN
0115: Lyran: dest 2xDW, FF, crip CW; Hydran: dest TR, crip CU
0404: Lyran: crip NCA; Kzinti: crip SF
0504: Retreat after denied approach
1407: Klingon: 2xPDU, MON; Kzinti: crip BC, capture planet
1506: Klingon: crip D5, F5; Lyran: dest cripDDG, FRD, crip STT; Kzinti: dest FFK, capture planet
1405: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1307: Klingon: dest BATS, crip D6, 2xF5W; Kzinti: crip 3xCM, 2xDD, SF
1504: Klingon: dest D6M, E4A, LAV, crip D7C, F5, FTL, FTS; Kzinti: crip LTT, SAD, dest CLD, SAD, capture planet
1502: Lyran: crip BC; Kzinti: dest FFK
1509: Klingon: dest F5J; Lyran: dest FRD; Federation: crip 2xFF
1708: Lyran: crip CW, DW; Federation: dest NCL
1611: Klingon: 2xPDU; Federation captures planet
2006: Klingon: dest F5E; Federation: dest NCL
2505: Klingon: crip D6; Federation: crip FF
2610: Klingon: dest MD5, F5L, crip D7C, D5; Gorn: dest CCH; Federation: crip 2xNCL, capture planet
3311: Romulan: dest SKE; Federation: SKE captured
3415: Romulan: crip FHF, KR; Federation: dest 2xNCL, crip FF
3315: Romulan dest cripSNB
4310: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD
4710: Retreat after declined approach
4910: Romulan: dest BATS, WE; Gorn: crip HD
4809: Romulan: dest SK

The small battles around Hydran space picked off a number of ships, but a poor roll in 0715 left the Lyran squadron there, though it couldn’t do more than force a retreat on a good roll. An E4A sacrificed itself over the planet in 0718 while the D5 retreated into the province proper, holding it for the next Coalition turn. The capital battle didn’t follow quite the same script as last time, with the Hydran force staying in place after taking it, even while retreating back to 0416 after the main pinning battle in front of the hex.

I had thought the HDD had survived the battle in 1202 (crippled), since he only had two ships to pursue with. However, he pursued with just a BF, and since the ‘entire force’ was fast, it could automatically catch the cripple and kill it.

The Kzinti had put just enough on 1001 to be able to kill a SB, and as I expected, they hit the Lyran SB in 0404, forcing me to send a reserve to save it. Since the retreat had to go over the BATS 0504, I retreated with him to save that base too, but it forced me to move my cripples off the repair facility as part of the retreat.

I expected Byron to make sure of the Klingon FRD in 1504, during slow retreat if nothing else. But instead he dropped damage at the planet (when it wasn’t even in form) and took out the LAV and its E4A escort during pursuit. This had been the major Klingon staging point for the front, but there was more than enough Kzintis to take the entire (reduced) North Fleet, with 96 fighter factors available.

The Federation had way more in 3311 than the Romulans, who still had too much to withdraw easily, so the left behind a KR as the flagship and two SKEs and K5S, and everything successfully evaded other than one SKE, which was promptly captured. Overall, not too bad for the odds involved, but the capture still stung.

I was surprised by the places Byron did and did not pull out of after combat. The Klingons are in a lot of trouble, with the Kzinti hanging on to the planet in Klingon space they’ve captured, and the Federation leaving a five-ship force on 1611. However, there’s no Gorn ships left in Romulan space. The good news is that the Kzinti reserves are two ships each, but the Federation has reserves full of NCLs and FFs. I’m going to have to find some way to break his momentum in Kzinti space….

Coalition: 436.6 EP (x2) + 575 (bases) + 811 ships (/5) = 1772.6
Alliance: 333.8 EP (x2) + 490 (bases) + 744 ships (/5) = 1455.2

We are solidly into Major Coalition Victory territory now, and I expect the VP slide will continue for a bit yet, and the question is where will it bottom out. Both sides are losing some bases (the Coalition more than the Alliance, naturally), which shows we’re still headed for the middle-war period where offensives are confined to the ‘dead zones’ that are mostly supported by captured planets as sources of supply. At least, I can hope so; this turn has shown that major Coalition offensives are probably over; we’ll see about Alliance offensives. The real worrisome part is that all three Coalition navies are down ships from a turn ago, and worse, about half the Lyran CWs and DWs are currently crippled, with little prospect of getting them all going soon. Meanwhile, the Kzinti stayed at 197 ships, while the other three Alliance navies grew, with the Federation (naturally) leading the way, growing by 15 ships. I’m generally maintaining quality, with new carriers and and FCRs ensuring longer-term survivability, but I’ve got to get them in use better.

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Mar17

A Place to Call Home

by Rindis on March 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I have spent much of the last couple weeks fiddling with player housing. This is something that most of our other MMOs have not had. Wildstar has a pretty good housing system, but I never got much into it, and Wildstar‘s UI problems meant that it was not a long-term game for us. I understand that WoW has a system now, but that was long after I left, and I don’t even know how it did.

In FF XIV, there’s effectively two and two halves types of housing. There’s apartments, which are effectively infinite, and purchasing one is permanent (other than giving it up so you can get a different one elsewhere), and there are houses, which can either be owned privately or by a Free Company. The housing lots are limited, and exist in one of four areas which have a number of instances (and the building which houses the apartments exist in this zone); a private lot will be demolished and reclaimed if your subscription ends, while a FC house will stay active as long as it is. FC houses can also have ‘private rooms’ for individual members (which will also go away if the subscription lapses, or the player leaves the FC), which is basically an instanced apartment inside the house.

Thayrin had bought an apartment some time back, and decorated it out as the Twin Adder Library. I’d been, for reasons I don’t really understand, resisting doing the same, but a couple weeks ago, Rylea finally paid out the 600K Gil and took an apartment near Thayrin’s (in the same instance). The basic furnishing is a small wooden square room with a single door out, and non-functioning windows along one wall.

Thayrin provided a futon and a basket of yarn as housewarming presents.


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Mar09

SM3 The Moray Eel of Space

by Rindis on March 9, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Since I was still in an SFB mood after finishing “Border Incident” with Patch, I soloed my way through the third monster scenario during January as part of my Y160 games. Having just played the Romulans in KRs, and realizing I hadn’t played as the Klingons in a while, I took the D7 for this scenario.

The Moray Eel is the first monster not directly inspired by a TOS episode, though it is definitely a graduate course for the Planet Crusher. While there is an optional variant to use information gathering, the scenario is geared around combat to defeat a monster that is headed for an inhabited planet. It doesn’t do nearly as much damage as the previous monsters (5-10 points per ‘bite’), but is much nastier as it ignores shields, meaning that every attack is doing internals, and suffering too many attacks will destroy the ship in short order. The real twist is that the Eel only attacks after being damaged. After any impulse where it receives damage, it moves to the offender’s hex (instantly, even if that’s several hexes away) and bites that unit. If there’s several ships, and they all do damage at the same time, it moves to each of these hexes, and bites them all, in a random order, in a ‘biting frenzy’.

The eel is 100 hexes from it’s goal, and moves straight towards it at speed 12 (making it the fastest monster so far), which not distracted by a ship. It apparently used to follow close-by ships, akin to the Planet Crusher, but that was removed in Captain’s Edition to keep the time pressure up. Defeating it is also a problem, as the ship has to do 200 points of damage (reduced to 193 here for BPV balance), after which there is a die roll for each separate volley (which will involve a bite) that does 10 points of damage (9 after balancing), and the Eel is killed on a ‘1’. And as usual with these scenarios, the monster can’t be fired on from outside a six-hex range, and it has MCIDS to deal with shuttles and drones.

The D7 started 15 hexes away from the Eel in the direction of the planet, and I overloaded all four disruptors as part of a turn 1 alpha strike overrun to do as much damage as possible. I lined up an oblique shot for maximum firepower, and launched a drone as it entered my hex, which was instantly shot down by MCIDS.

One of the tricks with the Eel is to fire at range, and force it to move away from the planet, which is hard to do with the initial approach, especially as I went for a range-0 shot. But I fired just as we were both scheduled to move, so that it moved a hex further away following me, and it gave up its normal move to do it. The phasers rolled a little under average for a total of 77 damage (with 4 disruptors auto-hitting to do 40 of that), and the eel did a minimal 5 points to destroy one phaser and two warp.

For turn 2, I reduced speed from 12 to 9, so that the Eel could get a little in front of me, and be drawn back by my next volley of fire. I fired on Impulse 21 at range 4, hitting with two disruptors and doing three points with the boom phasers (everything else being out of arc) for a running total of 96 damage. The next Impulse, the Eel moved to the D7 and bit for 9 damage, knocking out one drone rack, a phaser, two warp power, and one battery after finishing off the forward hull. The D7 launched a drone from the remaining rack, and MCIDS missed allowing it to hit for 12 more damage the next impulse to bring the total up to 108.


Turn 1, Impulse 24, showing movement from Impulse 23 through Turn 2, Impulse 22. The paler arrows are the Eel’s movement to bite.

The D7 repaired the first destroyed phaser as of the end of Turn 2, and increased speed to 13 to get another close-range oblique shot. The Eel was sideslipping back to its original course (part of the robot rules), which meant the D7 was drawing slightly ‘ahead’ of it to make this maneuver, but the low speed differential meant it took most of the turn to pull off. The D7 launched another drone as they met at range 0 again, but MCIDS shot it down. On Impulse 31, the D7 fired all bearing weapons to do 40 with overloaded disruptor auto-hits, and the maximum 30 points from 5 phaser-2s for a grand total of 178 damage. On 32, the D7 sideslipped away, and the Eel followed to do 8 damage to take out another phaser, the remaining drone rack, two more warp, the remaining two batteries, and a shuttle. At the end of the turn, the second damaged phaser was repaired.


Turn 3, Impulse 31, showing movement from 25 to 32.

With power continuously dropping, the D7 only went speed 8 for Turn 4, while it prepared to do the last 15 points needed before it started rolling for destroying the Eel. On Impulse 7, the phasers cleared, and the D7 fired four of them at range 1 to do 17 points on poor rolls (grand total 195). On Impulse 8 the bite did 10 points to destroy two phasers, two more warp power, the remaining shuttle, an impulse, and an APR. The D7 turned and moved back into the Eel’s hex after it sideslipped out, and fired an overloaded disruptor on 13 to do 10 points and force a roll to kill the Eel, which failed with a 5. The next impulse, the Eel bit instead of moving, doing 10 damage, which destroyed three phasers, 2 warp power, 1 impulse and 1 APR.

The D7 tried another disruptor on Impulse 15, rolling a ‘3’ for destruction. On 16 it slipped away from the planet, drawing the Eel after it, which did 7 points to take out a disruptor, one warp power, and two impulse. On 18 the D7 fired a boom and waist phaser at the Eel to do 10 points, and rolled a ‘1’ to destroy the Eel!

The 1/6 chance of killing the Eel each time probably makes the end of many plays of this a bit exciting. Certainly the D7 was well through a lot of padding, and was down to 23 power at the time the Eel expired, and that was only on the third attempt. I was very lucky that I didn’t take any ‘torpedo’ hits until the very end, and had two more of those left to try once the D7 was facing it again. In addition to the more important systems listed above, the D7 had lost its bridge (but not any other control spaces), most of the lab, one tractor, and one transporter. Damage was getting up to about column F of the DAC, and another couple of strong damage rolls from the Eel would have been big trouble, with 7’s headed for the ‘phaser’ and ‘any warp’ entries.

The purely deterministic movement makes it less of a maneuvering challenge, though the higher speed adds some interest back there. The tactics section in the rules mentions dragging it away from the planet by firing, but doesn’t mention the fact that you can scrub little bits of movement off just by timing shots around when you are about to move (so you can move even further away), or especially when the Moray Eel is about to move (so it doesn’t move closer to the planet). This is a more interesting and challenging scenario than the previous two simply because the ship will take internals every time it fires, and you have to figure out how to survive the consequences long enough to play the odds.

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Mar05

Defenders of the Maelstrom

by Rindis on March 5, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Over the last few weeks, Smudge and I have worked our way through the 2.2 and 2.3 storylines, which keep the idea of being self-contained while continuing other plot-threads as part of the introduction of Heavensward.

“Through the Maelstrom” dealt with a ship full of refugees arriving from the far east, including a number of continuing NPCs, and one major one.

She’s part of the introduction of Rogue/Ninja (which hadn’t happened yet when we were playing four years ago), and… is obviously an Au Ra, which is a new race made available in the recent expansion, Stormblood. We’re really wondering just how much of all this Square Enix figured out in advance. They’re certainly staying on target of their original ideas far better than WoW did. The primary attraction for a lot of people though was the introduction of the new Leviathan trial. It was suitably epic, and we’ve still only seen it once.


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Feb25

Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 14

by Rindis on February 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Lyrans and Romulans finally had good survey rolls this turn, though Klingon survey efforts are still stalled, which generated one extra province for the Lyrans, who were still down for the turn with loss of income from their southern space, and continued problems in Kzinti space. Overall, the Coalition economy was up by 7.2 EP, but that includes 4 EP that were trapped in the Klingon partial grid in NW Federation space.

Builds:
Klingon: C8V, D6M, TGA, D5W, 2xD5, 5xAD5, MD5, 2xF5W, 4xF5, 2xF5E, F5J, E4R, FRD, FTM, PDU, D6->D6D
Romulan: SUB, FHF, SP, 3xSPM, SK, 2xSKE, SEH, WE, SNB, FSD, CL->R-CLE, WB->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: DN, TGC, NCA, STJ, CVP, CWE, DW, 2xDWE, 2xFF, FCR, FRD, FTM, PDU

The Klingons have three captured Federation ships now, and scrapped the smallest (a FF) to make their slipping budget work, but are still hoping to convert over a CL and FFE. The Romulans eagerly converted over a captured Gorn CL to CLE as they’ve had no heavy escorts until now, and the CLE is actually more effective than the new SPM. They also activated a Fighter Supply Depot on the Fleet of the North SB, as there will probably be fighting in range of it for some time.

The Lyrans’ raids both targeted Federation provinces, disrupting both. The Klingons were down to one ship in the raid pool, the C5, which attempted to open up supply, but Byron just reacted a second ship into the hex, leaving it to pick on a FF, which retreated on a bad roll, while a new D5W was added to the raid pool, which picked off a patrolling POL. The Romulans sent the FFH to pick off a defending FF on 3210, and drove it off, while the two SPs evaded detection to disrupt a Federation and a Gorn province.

With forces still stuck on 2306 with no movement supply, making a second try at the 4th Fleet SB was a certain item for me. At the same time, it’s been four turns since the opening raid on the Kzinti capital, so it was time to go in and re-devastate everything. I had actually hoped to do that last turn, but there were other problems to take care of; but this time those would have to wait. The good news was that parts of the Kzinti fleet were still deployed outside the capital, so I could be sure the Kzinti reserves would stay there for defense, and not interfere with a small force re-taking 1202. Other Lyran activity was largely restricted to sending cripples home, and reshuffling after the fall of the Enemy’s Blood SB.

The Klingons re-occupied 2610, and considered sending Invulnerable to 2509, but sent it to help out at 4th Fleet instead, which will probably trap it in that region for the next few turns, though the move did get it to a spare admiral. The Romulans tried getting fancy and occupied 3210 with a SEH, while moving the out-of-supply IV Legion past it. They also struck at the SE Gorn SB with what was available, but that didn’t actually include any CR 10 ships (oops, I hadn’t noticed), while sending a very large force after the DNT at the SW corner of Gorn space, and picking off another border BATS.


Back to Kzintai.


Back to the 4th Fleet SB.


Back into supply.


And back across the Gorn border.

I hadn’t been at all sure where the Federation reserves would go. One went to help the 4th Fleet, while another went to help the largely pinning battle on 2106, dropping NCLs on a couple Klingon ships in the way who were making sure supply would stay open. He sent one after planet 3210, instead of the main force nearby, and the last went to help the main Gorn fleet in 4008. The Gorns sent reserves after a small pinning battle in Federation space (admittedly the only thing in range), and their SB (which was necessary; while the Romulan force had problems, it could handle the defending fleet by itself).

Battles:
3209: Romulan: dest WE
3210: Romulan: dest SEH
1202: SSC: Kzinti: crip FF; Lyrans capture planet
0414: SSC: Hydran retreat
2610: Federation: dest 2xcripFF; Klingons capture planet
4608: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip WE
3311: Federation: dest POL
2204: Federation: 2xSIDS, dest FFE, crip 2xNCL, 5xFF; Klingons: dest D7, D6S, F5L, 2xF5 crip D7C, 2xD5, F5
2307: SSC: Federation retreats; Klingon: dest F5
2107: SSC: Federation: dest FF
2006: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF
2007: Federation: dest POL
2106: Federation: dest CA, crip NCL, 4xFF; Klingon: dest D5 Lyran: dest STT
2005: Federation: dest cripFF
2206: SSC: Federation retreats; Klingon: dest E4
1401: Kzinti: Kuballus: 2xPDU, 2xSIDS, devastated; Keevarsh: devastated; Zabbottish: devastated; Vielsalm: devastated; Zaforma: devastated; Strikus: devastated; Vronkett: devastated; dest LAD, crip CC, CLD, DD, 3xFFK, FH; Lyran: dest STJ, 3xDW, 2xFF, FFE, crip BC, 3xCW, CWE, CWG; Klingon: dest D6, D5, AD5, F5L, crip 2xD7, D5, F5
4806: Gorn: dest BD, BDS; Romulan: dest SP, SNB, SN, crip KE, SP
4008: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: dest SPG, crip KE, SP

Trying to get fancy while pulling the IV Legion out cost me an extra ship, and a bigger one than I should have lost. Meanwhile, continued poor rolls in SSC kept the Lyrans from getting an easy kill of a FF in 1202, while a ‘7’ allowed a small Hydran force to retreat out of 0414 after sacrificing its fighters.

The 4th Fleet SB battle only went two rounds, with the natural superiority in Federation firepower and EW, and worse, the Federation rolled much better both times. I stayed on target and damaged the SB, but it will be a long time before this gets anywhere at this rate. I was worried that I’d be out of supply after combat in the area, but the F5 in 2307 came through to force an NCL to retreat, even though an even higher roll destroyed it in the process (10 vs 11), which guaranteed supply would get to 2304 even if the Federation controlled every other contested hex. (Later, an E4 outdid him (11) to force that same NCL and a second one to retreat. Byron might want to cashier that captain.)

Byron had what it took to win in 2005, and then the reserve dropped a bunch of extra NCL and FFs on the fight to make sure of it. For the first time this game, the Klingons had an ‘ideal Kzinti line’, with three carrier groups and a D5 in form, which he directed on, rather than see me take 35 points on 24 fighters and crippling an escort or two. (Even with the Fed high-quality fighters, 24 fighter factors (thanks to an oversized D6U squadron) should be a record that will stand until the Alliance puts up Fed fighters and a CVD.)

The Lyrans put up two lines in the capital, and the Klingons put up one, as I worked my way through the outer systems and tackled the minor in the home system. Since the Lyrans are increasingly homeless in Kzinti space, but their SAF survived slow pursuit from 1202, I sent it in here to hit the BATS over Kuballus, and rolled well after being disrupted to do two SIDS, but the G attack on it failed (he backed up the PDUs), and he backed it up on the second round when I caused a loss while mauling the planet to devastate it. It would be tempting to go back and finish the job next turn, but I’ll probably have bigger emergencies to handle.

Other than the Gorn SB, I hit my main goals for the turn, though I had meant to reclaim NZ planet 1910 again with a couple of ships, and it slipped my mind completely during movement. The raid on the Kzinti capital cost me a bit more than I had hoped, but it needed doing, as the Kzinti economy was set to go up 15 EP otherwise. A big problem has been the breakdown of the repair cycle, and no matter what, I should be getting some important ships back into service next turn, and the Romulans got through their backlog this turn. Now to see if I can keep from losing too much this coming turn….

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Feb17

A Wedding and Crafting

by Rindis on February 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

I mentioned recently that Smudge and I had ended up in a FC in FF XIV. The leader of our new FC, Jade Goddess got (in-game) married last weekend to Lukresias Scath. Square Enix went all-out on this feature, with a dedicated area that only opens up for people doing the ceremony (which has to be scheduled in advance), and everyone they specifically invite. I understand there’s three different ceremonies to choose between, but I may never see the others.

In true Square Enix style, the entire thing is very beautifully done. Both Smudge and I took lots of pictures, and you can see her shots here and here.

Of course, Rylea had to get properly dressed up for the occasion:


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Feb10

A Realm Resubscribed

by Rindis on February 10, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Last year was a year without MMOs as Smudge concentrated on other things and stayed away from Guild Wars 2 and Neverwinter. However, Square Enix ran a promotion to get old players back to Final Fantasy XIV in December and managed to hook us.

FF XIV has been one of my regrets as I enjoyed it, and especially enjoyed playing my main character, Rylea. Who I didn’t have any screenshots of. But while we talked about it, it seemed unlikely we’d get back to one of the few MMOs still wanting a monthly subscription. But we’re back, subscribed, have bought the expansions, and having the usual mix of frustration and fun.

As a game, FF XIV has a number of places where it’s… second best. But it manages at least that good on about everything.

It’s solidly in the old model of giving you lots of buttons to press, with every class having a bewildering variety of different abilities. This also includes dozens of different emotes (some of which you get from certain quests). And every class now has some form of gage or meter, many of which I’ve yet to get any idea of how they work. Combat abilities tend to feature a lot of shared cooldowns, and keep me too busy too look at the screen too often.

On the other hand, it uses a version of the Job System from other FFs, which means that every character can potentially be every class in the game. It used to be that halfway through you’d turn your primary class into a job by getting a few levels into a secondary class, but that has been dropped so it’s just by quest unlocks, and the job isn’t as special now. It’s streamlined, but it seems like the cross-class connections are weaker now.

Looks and music-wise, FF XIV is top-notch. The soundtrack is helped by borrowing themes from the previous thirteen games, but it’s a very extensive and well-done sountrack, and I think only the GW2 soundtrack is as big (and just as good thanks to Jeremy Soule, Maclaine Diemer, Lena Chappelle and Stan LePard). The visuals get the usual FF attention, and the models just look gorgeous, especially when you get a close-up on them.


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Feb02

Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 13

by Rindis on February 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

With the various problems Byron’s been handing me lately, the Alliance economy grew 20 points for this turn. That was mostly from the Federation, which is getting (devastated) income from two minor planets again, and controlled another 6 provinces than last turn. The Kzinti and Hydrans were up slightly, while the Gorns are suffering a couple contested provinces to make up for the NZ hexes they’re grabbing.

Builds:
Federation: DN+, 10xNCL, LTT, NSC, 14xFF, CP, NCL->NSC, DD->DE, 4xFF->FFE
Kzinti: 3xCM, LTT, 3xFFK, 5xFF, BC->CV, FFK->FKE
Hydran: TG, RN, 2xHR, LTT, 4xCU, 3xHN
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 2xHD, LTT, 2xBD, 3xDD, CP

That said, there’s still enough pressure on the Alliance to suppress expensive ship builds. The Kzinti didn’t build any of their large ships, and kept producing regular FFs and MCs despite having DWs and NCAs on the schedule, though they did convert a CV. The Hydrans finally have a shipyard again, and are spending their way through their stockpile.

The Hydrans did their usual two raids in the east end of their space, but I finally had things set up so that he couldn’t knock out my control of the provinces, and I forced a RN to retreat, maintaining full control over that province (crippling a F5 in the process). Both Kzinti raids were successful, and knocked the Lyrans out of a province again. The Federation only performed two raids, but knocked out the garrison of just recaptured 1910 to make that planet neutral again, as well as killing a province raider. The Gorn raids hit Romulan province holders, and again, both of them blew their cloaked evasion rolls, but he only crippled one in combat.

The Hydrans, possibly emboldened by having proper ship construction, came boiling out of their on-map planet, and pinned all the in-theater Lyran forces on the way to sending a large force to the Lyran SB in 0411. Actually, this is probably a consequence of not having any reserves in the area, but with how bad things are going elsewhere, there was too much need for the reserves elsewhere. The main Kzinti fleet also moved out (complete with auxiliaries) to retake 1202. Other elements stuck into Lyran space to take out a border BATS, and of course re-take 1802.

The latter included the Marquis’ Fleet, pulling the Kzinti back from their involvement in Federation space. The Federation struck at NE Klingon space again, attacking the Klingon supply tug for the area. A major portion of the 3rd Fleet headed to the interior of Federation space to confront various Klingon forces I’d left there, and I reacted onto the BATS that had been damaged last turn, which developed into a fairly major action. Forces in that area swept up other forces, and struck at the major Klingon staging point of 2715.

Offensives in the area of Romulan space were more subdued. The only major move was against the planet in 3711, though strikes were also made against the NZ planet in 3912 and two border BATS.


Hydran revenge.


Kzinti-Federation offensives.


Against the Klingons.


Strikes along the Romulan border.

My main central reserves on the Northern Reserve SB paid out, with one going to help the fight over the supply tug, and the B10 going to a small battle to get it as far into Federation space as I easily could. The Romulans sent a reserve to save the NZ planet, and everything else was pinned in place, with the exception of a Lyran reserve near the 3rd Fleet SB, which was out of range of everything.

Battles:
0211: SSC: Lyran: dest POL
0312: SSC: Lyran: dest CONV, POL
0317: SSC: Lyran: dest DW
0702: SSC: Lyran retreat
1708: Klingon: dest CONV
2008: Federation: dest CFF
3311: SSC: Romulan: dest SNB
3510: SSC: Romulan: crip K5L; Federation retreat
3809: SSC: Romulan: dest K5, crip SK; Federation retreat
3912: Federation: dest FF
5010: Romulan: dest BATS; Gorn: crip HCD
4808: SSC: Romulan retreat
0411: Lyran: dest SB, FF, SAV, FTS, FRD, crip 2xCW, 4xDW; Hydran: crip TR, 2xLNH, DDS
0116: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: dest HR
0415: Lyran: dest CA, DWE; Hydran: dest 2xLN, capture DWE
0412: SSC: Lyran: dest POL; Hydran retreat
0502: Lyran: dest BATS, POL; Kzinti: crip MEC, FKE
0602: Lyran: crip CL; Kzinti: crip FF
1202: Lyran: dest FF, LAV, SAV, FTS, crip 4xCW, 6xDW; Kzinti: dest 2xBC, crip MEC, capture planet
1802: Lyran: dest CWE, crip TCB, CV, CWE, FF; Kzinti: dest EFF, crip FKE, capture planet
1702: Kzinti: dest POL
1601: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1809: Lyran: dest STT; Federation: dest FFE
1907: Klingon: crip F5E; Federation: crip 2xFF
2705: Klingon: dest F5L; Federation: crip FF
2609: Klingon: crip D7C, 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: dest BATS
2712: SSC: dest F5
2810: Klingon: dest cripD6, cripD5, 2xcripF5; Federation: crip CFF
2715: Klingon: dest F5L, FRD, crip 3xD5, 2xF5; Federation: crip NCL, DE, 2xFF, 2xFFE
3207: Romulan: crip SUB, KE; Federation: crip CL, FF
3711: Romulan: dest KRM, SPC, crip SP, WE; Federation: dest SWAC, crip DN+, FFE; Gorn: dest BDE
4010: Romulan: dest KE; Gorn: dest BC, crip BD

4808 was an odd fight, as he pinned a province raiding SNB with a POL, giving me a slight edge in the battle. But I still rolled a ‘2’ to retreat while the POL was unharmed.

With just a few more ships the Lyrans could have held SB 0411. The Hydrans brought enough spare fighters for a couple rounds, and by the time they were out and losing fighter power on the line, nearly the entire Lyran fleet was already crippled. With some fresh ships, it would have started hurting.

I had a POL with the BATS in 0502, which I used to force an extra round of meaningful combat with the BATS, and he directed on the POL rather than let it retreat behind the base. He then did a fighting retreat over my province raiders from 0702 which had retreated into the NZ, but could only force a cripple on the CL, which I’ll try to get back into service as something bigger….

I had left too many big ships in the small garrison at 1802, so I had to fight it out a round, or throw away one of the big ones against a solid Kzinti fleet. The CV may get converted to a CVD, or just repaired and returned to the front. In the meantime, I did a fighting retreat over a POL and FF to destroy them for fighters, and ended up on 1502, which will allow the cripples to Strat back to real facilities.

As expected, Byron hit the supply tug in 1809 hard, but there was also a pinning battle in 1907, with a TAV3 (TGA+2xVP3) group, and I expected he’d retreat onto that. He didn’t, to stay in 1907, which allowed me an almost-even battle there (helped by having fighters to absorb damage).

I had reacted a bunch of ships onto BATS 2609, which I had damaged on my turn, and finished if off here. Byron wasn’t sure if he was happy that I’d had to fight the BATS twice, or upset that he’d let me take it out on his turn. The downside was it had meant abandoning a pile of cripples in 2810, which he wiped out.

2715 was another case of catching me with too few ships available, and he killed a forward FRD that I’ve been counting on. I was worried that he might try to take out the BATS there as well, but he would have completely wrecked his force in the attempt.

Byron more-or-less just pinned the trapped Romulan force in 3207, and realized later that he needed to pay more attention to it, as even out of supply it still had decent ComPot (26 to his 41). Crippling the SUB wasn’t what I really wanted, but it’s a single ship to repair, it’s buried in an intact group, and it was already out of fighters.

After discounting the 100 points my tenuous hold on the Hydran capital, the VPs for the turn show just how much my grip is slipping:

Coalition: 429.4 EP (x2) + 589 (bases) + 841 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1884.2
Alliance: 324.6 EP (x2) + 500 (bases) + 715 ships (/5) = 1435.2

That’s still a Decisive Victory, but it goes down to Major without the capital, which I probably won’t have next turn. The Alliance still has some major problems to overcome, but Byron is prying the strategic initiative from me all over the board. The Romulans are in many ways my best hope, and their navy is a bit fragile yet.

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