T3 The Lone Gray Wolf Y160 S1-S2

by on September 11, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

“The Lone Gray Wolf” is an interesting mini campaign for SFB that I’ve had some desire to play ever since the days of Commander’s Edition. Back in Captain’s Log #41, there was an ‘update’ to it, positing that this situation could have happened before, maybe an early version was even the reason why it was tried at the height of the General War. This provided for alternate versions of the campaign in each Klingo-Kzinti conflict, which works out to a W-era, Y-era, two ‘middle years’, and late-GW variants of it. The fourth one happens to be set in Y160, our group’s current scenario date, so with our expanded Vassal playing time, I talked Mark into playing through it with me.

A Klingon dreadnought goes alone to the Kzinti capital to negotiate a peace. The talks break down, and the dreadnought is forced to make its lonely way back to Klingon lines, with Kzinti forces hunting for it. There are six Kzinti groups hunting for it, and the dreadnought must survive six scenarios to win through. But, this is not ‘face each force in turn’. Instead, each scenario starts with a die roll to determine which force finds the dreadnought this time. Repeated rolls of the same number will bring up the same ships (worse for wear from the previous scenarios, just like the dreadnought, and if the Kzinti ship(s) were destroyed before, this becomes a ‘free pass’ for the Klingons). The Klingons must conserve fuel, and must stay to speed 20 or below most of the time, and can only disengage by acceleration once in the entire campaign.

Mark volunteered to take the Kzinti, and after some pondering over drone choices (especially for me, as they have to last for six battles), and deciding to try MRS shuttles (which added more drones to the mix), we started in mid-August. The first roll was a ‘6’… the weakest Kzinti group, a single FA-L (drone-armed freighter; also about the only ship unchanged from the original version). Against a C6 early dreadnought (this is the second time I’ve piloted one), Mark’s main hope was to force me to at least expend consumables, either launching drones, or using T-bombs.

Setup is always with the Kzinti a half-map behind the C6, and Mark set up about six hexes off to one side. Initial speeds were 17 for me and 18 for the FA-L. I spent on 4 ECM and 1 ECCM while Mark didn’t spend anything on EW. I spent half the turn getting turned around, while the FA-L first turned to parallel my initial turn, and then turned in. As I started setting up for an oblique attack, Mark fired his two bearing ph-2s at range 7 with a +2 shift to do one point of shield damage, and then turned off. Three impulses later, just short of the oblique, I fired all bearing weapons (4xph-1, 2xph-2, 4xdisruptors overloaded off of batteries) to do 11 internals through shield #5 with below average rolls (phasers never rolled under a 3, and two disruptors hit on a 2/3s chance). Internals were all over, taking out two of three control spaces, and reducing the sensor rating to ‘3’ (making drones a really chancy weapon, as he had a 50-50 chance of losing lockons and all drone tracking next turn), but not taking out any weapons.


Turn 1, Impulse 23, showing movement from Impulse 17 through 32.

Two impulses later, the left waist phasers were in arc, and better rolls did three points through the down shield, for two hull, and one sensor hit, reducing it to ‘0’. By the end of the turn I was six hexes away in a stern chase, and it was obvious that Mark would be trying to disengage by acceleration. I went down to speed 12, overloading the disruptors and recharging the phasers and batteries, while the FA-L went its maximum of 23 (…okay, 31, we forgot about the freighter’s acceleration limits).

I immediately volleyed everything I had, trying to get it down to less than half its original warp power, and unable to disengage by acceleration. The phasers were a bit more mixed (with a 2 in the mix, but also two 6s), but all the disruptors hit, to do 17 internals through the #3 shield. This took out the last control space, two phasers, both impulse, and left just enough warp to disengage with. On impulse 4, I turned to get the right boom phasers into arc, and did two more points to take out the shuttle and a third phaser. After that, the distance opened up, and Mark got me off the down shields, so that I couldn’t do any internals, even if I got the waist phasers to bear, and he disengaged.

We checked what the next group would be after that. And it was… 6! again!

We set up and did a half turn in a short session, just to see if I could get internals before it fled. Between scenarios, all shields are regenerated, and limited repairs can be made (he repaired the sensors, a couple warp, and I don’t recall what else). However, he set up smartly in a far corner, and I couldn’t manage more than about two greater speed than him, and couldn’t do more than dent a shield.

We’ve started scenario 3, which should be much more of a challenge. (Spoiler: he got his second-best group.)

Mark was just too aggressive given the disparity in power between the ships. Of course, group #6 is probably best to see towards the end of the campaign, hopefully after something has done some real damage, and the Klingons have to be a lot more cautious. Catching me with a scatterpack could have been bad, but even that is unlikely to scare an intact C6 much (partially because of drone speeds, and partially because it doesn’t have to give much credence to the FA-L’s pop-guns).

The real goal would be to drag things out. It’s unlikely to go anywhere near twenty turns (at which point he rolls again for another group to show up), but if he can get me thinking about it, I might make a mistake. And of course, short of hoping for that, the goal should be to get me to use T-bombs or drones, but with a fresh C6, the FA-L just couldn’t force that either.

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Child of a Hidden Sea

by on September 7, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

In one sense, you could see this as a somewhat typical visitation fantasy. Person gets transported from our world to fantasy land, gets in trouble, has adventures, comes back home.

As ever, the secret is in the details. Stormwrack has some apparent relationship with Earth, as both the stars and the moon are the same. But, it is a water world, with little land, that doesn’t seem to bear any relation to our landmasses. What exactly is going on is discussed early, but never resolved, as the main plot overcomes these explorations.

But the main character, Sophie, and her brother, do look into it. She also looks at all the marine life around her (she is a post-graduate in marine biology), some familiar, and some less so. In fact, a major theme of the book is the exploration of this new world, and trying to figure out what’s going on. The fact that parts of it get dropped just shows an intent for sequel books.

Parallel to this is the fact that it is quickly made clear that this is not a one-off thing, and there is semi-regular travel between Earth and Stormwrack. The bulk of both worlds are unaware of this, but some people do know, and most of the population of Stormwrack carefully doesn’t ask many questions about ‘mummer technology’. Just where and how this attitude comes from isn’t gone into (yet), but it is made obvious that the people at the top in the Fleet on Stormwrack are doing everything they can to keep knowledge from leaking out.

And one of the decidedly good points is just what we do see of the power structures here. There is a tenuous peace that has been held together by the threat of force for about a hundred years, and the types of schemes that brings out are well thought out. At the same time, the mainspring of all the action are extremely personal motivations on Sophie’s part. There’s a fair amount of action and adventure along the way, but it should say a lot that the climax is more in the nature of a trial. Overall, it’s a good book, and very well plotted.

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3 Chateau Fury

by on September 3, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

One of the games Mark and I were enjoying right before FtF games got cut off was Great War Commander. So, as part of our regular weekend rotation, we recently played scenario three “Chateau Fury”, with me reprising my role as the French. The French are counterattacking near the end of the Battle of the Marne, and have a mixed force of regulars and zouaves to attack a four-hex chateau in the middle of the map.

The Germans have less than half as many men, but have the only machine gun on the board, while the French get a 75mm gun as reinforcements. Both sides have the usual hidden VP chit, while the known common one is 3 VPs for the chateau. Mark set up spread in a loose line through the village on his side of the map, with one platoon in the chateau (he would have had a second in there, but he’d be out of command range, and we hadn’t yet picked up the fact that being in an objective would keep him in cohesion). I set up one big group with three leaders to go through the walled grove and rush the chateau, with a second group ready to try for a flanking action later. (I had got lucky, and my secret objective was another VP for the chateau.) Artillery support was extremely confused in the actual fight, and here there’s a a SSR that has any artillery request just draw a random hex, move to the nearest occupied hex to that, and automatically break everyone there.

For once, I started with a move cards, and advanced directly on the main objective. Mark had an artillery request… which came down next to Lt Hertzler (his commanding officer) to break him and the MG squad! (The odds were that I’d be closer to any random location on the map, but it hit his most important units….) I then moved up into the chateau, breaking off two platoons to take cover behind a wall and put pressure on his flank. Mark discarded, and I had ineffective fire, while moving up to the edge of the woods on the left. The Germans finally opened fire, getting some high command meddling, and doing reconnaissance to find out my objective, but failed to affect me, other than a sniper breaking a platoon.

I fired again to no effect, and my platoon recovered. (I worried that I should wait a while before doing that, and was proven right.) The Germans fired again, and I counterattacked to supress the platoon in the chateau (illegally; he hadn’t been activated). The Germans moved a platoon closer to the center, and I fired (on my turn) still getting no result, but Cne Fleury (my commanding officer) was broken by a sniper. The Germans advanced into his position, ambushing and breaking my platoon there, though elan and a charge gave me some hope (along with a strong roll), while the Germans were feeling unternehmungslustig, and just missed tying the melee, losing their platoon and control of the chateau.

I tried causing Hertzler to rout, but instead he and his platoon recovered, and a new German platoon moved into the chateau. Fleury recovered (along with all the men left out of cohesion by his break), but the platoon with him merely became suppressed. My right flank went on the offensive, with one platoon breaking to enemy fire (we hadn’t caught that an fire action gives a lot of potential opportunities to fire), but my ending fire broke one of his platoons, and a sniper broke Hertzler. Further fire did nothing, but activated German air support, which suppressed a platoon.

Further German fire still did nothing, but another artillery request broke Ltn Lehas (a ‘1’ leader still back in the grove) and the platoon with him. I recovered all my broken units, and advanced into K3, eliminating the broken platoon there, and more fire finally broke the German platoon in H4. German fire suppressed G5, my fire did nothing, but German sappers placed wire in J2. Mark tried recovering, but while Hertzler did, the platoon in H4 merely became suppressed. Hertzler tried moving across the road, to back up the chateau, but my fire broke the platoon he was with, and Hertzler opted to stay with him, and a sniper broke Ltn Antoine (my second leader, in charge of the left flank). I advanced into H4, and finally took out the second German platoon in the chateau.


Situation just as the first time trigger goes off. (VPs are slightly off, we didn’t catch the actual VPs for unit elimination until very late.)

During the melee, both our decks finally depleted, setting off two time triggers, and reconnaissance revealed Mark’s objective chit as +1 VP for objective 1 (A3). Mark discarded again, and I recovered, getting Antoine back, who then moved his force out into the field. Defensive fire was mostly ineffective, but Antoine was suppressed (with a really bad roll; I used my strategy card to boost it to the suppress). Some fire from the center suppressed Hertzler. Mark went on the offensive to get Hertzler out of the road, and broke a platoon of zouaves with fire from E3, and then used advance to get the broken MG platoon out of the road. I moved up on the left, but some hidden wire kept me from getting quite as far as I wanted. Mark recovered, and fired to eliminate my broken platoon, while a sniper broke Tignous (my right-flank officer).

We both discarded for a turn, and Mark advanced into K3. I used bayonets and two charges, while Mark was unternehmungslustig again, and beat me out by one point to win the melee. I had almost no hand, and therefore no turn, while Mark fired, breaking G4, and setting off a time trigger. Hptm Waldau moved back to face the chateau, and I fired with no effect only because Mark used concealment. I used artillery denied while Mark discarded, and then I used a second one to remove his phone permanently. I tried to recover, but my broken platoon in G4 only became suppressed. I then moved, getting my left into the village.

Mark fired a couple times, eliminating the broken platoon in G4. I advanced in to E3 and killed the platoon there in melee. Mark fired and broke the victorious Antoine and platoon. He then placed a runner, and I called an air assault, which suppressed Waldau in J3. That allowed an offensive to surround the building, and broke the leader and platoon despite concealment. Mark advanced Hertzler into Antoine’s hex (and the runner towards the board edge), for a melee that was closer than it should have been on a good roll for me, and we passed the initiative back and forth a bit until it settled with Mark as he got a second good roll. I then fired, and wiped out Waldau and platoon on a double-break.

Hertzler fired on G4, with no effect, but a sniper broke my platoon in C2. I tried moving up to get a big combined shot against Hertzler, but fire from him and the MG broke three platoons and Lehas, and one platoon was eliminated as it was forced to stop (by breaking) on top of another broken unit. Mark discarded for his turn, which was just enough respite, as I’d drawn a recover at the end of my turn, which rallied all my remaining units, and a sniper broke the fusiliers with Hertzler. I then fired, and double-broke the fusiliers to put the Germans to their surrender limit. (The attack was not quite legal, I forgot the ‘chained together’ bit of a firegroup—which should be second-nature to me—and the lowered amount wouldn’t have done it. On the other hand, I had an Advance to follow up with, for a 9:6 melee, so I’d probably have won that way.)

Afterword

So far, we’ve seen a turn around in fortune in the middle of each game. In this case, I had a strong start, getting into the chateau without trouble. The problem was, despite a strong start, sitting out the clock was at best, iffy from a VP standpoint. And once Hertzler got back into action the MG he commanded started causing all sorts of problems, as an 11-point attack (MG=8, +2 command rating, +1 for the platoon firing with it) was too hard to survive.

I managed to keep pressure up, and got really lucky with the air support suppressing Waldau, giving me the opportunity to get rid of him. But after that, I was afraid my struggles to get further would just wear me away until I couldn’t win. Certainly, my last move had me despairing, but thankfully Mark was out of useful cards, and thankfully, I drew a Recover just when I needed it. In fact, that entire last draw was stellar, with the Fire and Advance cards coming with it.

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Independence

by on August 30, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

As of February, 1775, Massachusetts was declared to be in a state of rebellion to the British government. Just under a year and a half later, the Thirteen Colonies jointly declared themselves independent.

This was an event that was by no means obvious or considered likely in February 1775, and John Ferling takes a deep dive into the political process that led to the Declaration of Independence in his book. It is fairly focused, keeping all the attention on the activities of the two Continental Congresses. That’s still more than enough people to be impossible to get an entire cast of characters. But he does bring in all the prominent people on both sides of the argument, and mentions the fates of many of the signers at the end.

Naturally, one of the main themes is just how events propelled Congress from a solidly reconciliationist stand (that is, most everyone just wanted this over—on their terms) to being convinced that Great Britain would never give them what was desired, and that staying in the empire would be more harmful than enjoying its trade and protection (notably from other European powers).

The book moves well, and while it often felt like to me that there was no clear picture, that is the problem with trying to trace the separate thoughts of a good number of people. Subjects are tackled in a largely chronological framework, which is essential as Ferling is trying to show the shift in opinion. The main shortcoming I see is there’s lots of attention on the extremes (those, like the Adamses who felt independence was essential from early on, or before the Revolution—and showing just where this conviction came from would have been nice, but presumably impossible—and those who steadfastly supported reconciliation), but not so much on those who truly changed their minds.

There is a good look at the apparent shift in public mood, and the political revolution that followed Congress’ advice to the colonies to move away from the pre-war colonial charters. This did a lot to shift the political climate in the state legislatures, and prompted a change in instructions to the delegates to Congress to allow for independence. I could wish for a bit more on some of those politics, though Pennsylvania’s internal struggles (the most bitter) are talked about.

Naturally, he spends some time time time on the Declaration itself, as well as the drafting of it, and the voting to adopt it. He spends a little less time on the first paragraph (which he dismisses as ‘usually forgotten’, but I remember from school) than I’d like, but of course talks about the sources for the main part of the second paragraph (which is what it largely remembered and referred to today), and gives a nice accounting of the various charges leveled at George III in it, without rehashing what is today generally a tedious list of general complaints, and talks about what they generally referred to.

I had actually picked this up a few years ago, but reading it right after Atkinson’s The British Are Coming was a good pairing as each is focused on what the other largely avoids, across much the same time period.

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Two Rounds of Heraclea

by on August 26, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After finishing off “Happy Valley“, Patch and I went for our usual round of Commands & Colors: Ancients on July 22 and 29. Up this time was the Battle of Heraclea from Expansion #1, the first of two battles that made Pyrrhus of Epirus exclaim ‘one more victory such as this and I am undone!’

The Roman army (the first time it’s come up since we started going through them in order) is a bit tougher, but is back on the baseline. Epirus’ army isn’t poor though, and has plenty of light bows on one flank, and elephants on the other. An interesting special rule is that Roman infantry can’t ignore banners from elephants. If there’s a banner result, they will be retreating.

I had Pyrrhus first, and led off with Order Lights to move up the LB, and picked off one medium block. Patch engaged them with Order Two Right, and I evaded, and hit back with Order Four Left, and drove them off again with one block loss. Inspired Right Leadership brought his MC into contact, while the rest of the flank moved forward, but he just lost another block. Order Three Center reestablished my line, and got Patch’s Light down to one block.

Patch used Order Mediums to get both flanks in motion, though all the action was on his right, where he drove a LB back to hills on the baseline, and did two blocks to an Aux… who then got three triangles to wipe out the damaged Medium. I moved up my center, and Patch used Order Three Right to reduce a LB to one block, do a block to an Aux, which forced a Light back on a banner. Darken the Sky reduced a MC to one block, and did a block to a Heavy. Line Command only put one unit in contact, but he finished off an Aux, and then did three blocks to another before retreating.

I Ordered Two Right to bring up the elephants, and Patch used Inspired Center Leadership to smash in to the forward part of my line, finishing off the Aux, and wiping out a Med. Mounted Charge sent my Elephants towards his center, and my cavalry against his, knocking out a MC, reducing another to one block, and forcing the third to evade while I lost one block. Order Mediums activated a MC on each flank, while his center pushed forward. He finally drove off my LB, and and knocked out a heavy (taking two blocks in the process), eliminated an Elephant, and drove off a MC, but failed a momentum attack, causing him to take two hits and retreat.

Order Heavies allowed my smashed center to engage his strung out forces, knocking out two Mediums and Cassius, forcing another to retreat with two losses, while the remaining Elephant caused a block and two retreats to an Aux. Patch Ordered Three Left, trying to pick off my Elephants with smashed units, and did a block to them with archery, but his one-block MCs couldn’t get a hit, and the Elephants did on battle back. 7-6

Patch led off the second game by moving some of his Heavies up, and we went a couple turns after that trying to get our armies in shape, ending with me using a Line Command to get forward. Patch Out Flanked me to reduce two MC for no losses, and did a hit on a Heavy with archery. I Ordered Mounted, but only drove off one MC in return for taking a block. Patch Ordered Four Right, and knocked out two MC, and forced the last one back to the baseline with one block.

I Ordered Mediums, and moved the remnant MC out of the way, while forcing two LB to evade. Patch Ordered Two Center, doing a block to a Med, while I did a block back to an Aux (on a double banner into his line). Leadership any Section moved up my right, and I knocked out an Aux, taking a hit in the process. Patch Ordered Four Center to do six blocks across three units, taking five blocks in return. I Counterattacked, knocking out two Heavies, but losing one in return. Patch Ordered Three Center, knocking out three Mediums, and taking two blocks in return. I Counterattacked again, and did three blocks to a Heavy, who retreated out of range of my second attack. Patch Ordered Three Center again, and knocked out another Heavy. 3-7

Afterword

The first play was very… Pyrrhic, with both armies thoroughly smashed. Patch had done fairly well, but just couldn’t bring it to a close. The second game, my hand was very uncooperative. I started with cards that would all be good a couple turns in, but I needed to deploy a bit first or lose about half of it.

The Romans have what it takes to win this battle, but they are in a hard position, and managing to fight while working out of it is rough. Even with Patch’s fairly convincing win as Pyrrhus, he’d nearly run out of heavier units, and more action on the flanks instead of the center may have caused a very different result.

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