9 To the Square

by on January 29, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Martin and I went back to a mutual project to play through more of the initial Beyond Valor scenarios after I grabbed a hill in Italy from him in Regalbuto Ridge. This time was scenario 9, “To the Square” set during the Russian advance into Warsaw near the end of the war, and is a ten-turn slugfest on four boards, which took us nearly five months of PBEM to get through.

The Germans defend across three boards (1, 20, and 21) with fourteen squads (split between 467 and 447s), good leadership, two 50L ATGs, six hexes of wire, and a roadblock. He also gets 8 “?”, 2 squads can set up HIP, and he gets to place six rubble counters in the forward two boards, and then randomly generate two more hexes of fallen rubble. The Russians attack from board 8 with twenty 447 squads with adequate leadership (not too bad for Russian mixes, actually), four T-34/85s (w/9-1 AL), and a module of 80mm OBA. Oh, and both sides get a HMG, 2xMMG, and 3xLMG. The Russians have 10 turns to take building 20H3, or exit 30 VP off the opposite (west) edge.

Martin had the Germans, and set up a loose line on board 1, all at level 2. There was a noticeable gap in the I-O section, but it was backed up by a second line at the edge of board 21. There was also back up for the south half in 1Z9, 21L8, and 21J5h2. Invisibly, HIP squads went in on the north and south ends of the board 21 line, with the wire protecting the victory building from a front assault, the roadblock at the south edge of 20, and the ATGs near the north edge of 20.

I debated possible courses of action for a while (including rushing into that I-O gap, or setting up on the level 2 portions of board 8 for long-range 85mm, MG, and OBA spotting), but eventually decided to go hard against the south edge, looking for a board exit. Holding the flank with the board edge would be good for the start, but I figured a shift north to cross the board 21 graveyard would probably be a good way to go. In fact, if Martin built up too much in front of my south-edge drive, I would drive NW and assault the victory building. A functioning T-34/85 is worth 7 EVP, and with all four being 28, just shy of the 30 VP goal; the AL brings them up to 29. I hoped to keep them intact and use Riders to carry a squad off-map and bring me over 30, while they could also help with a quick shift in focus, and I set up with one tank having Riders.

I prepped a T-34 at 1X2, and naturally missed, but at least it should start forcing him out of there (Op Fire would have been smarter). Thinking the south gap was a bit large, I did some searching as I prepared to send tanks into unknown territory, and found nothing. I moved into 1Z2 to draw fire… and did, surviving a PTC. A second move to X2 got SFF in X1 for no effect, and another squad got into the building through Y3.

The T-34 with Riders dashed forward to BB6 with exactly enough MP to unload, and to my surprise Z9 did not fire. Presumably he didn’t want to come under accurate fire from the tank, but I felt keeping me out of building Z6 would be worth it. I showed Martin had the right I idea when the MA got a ‘2’ in AFPh, but didn’t manage an Unlikely Hit with a subsequent 5. Overall, the initial turn went very well, as I figured to have at least one broken squad from the rush on 1X2, but that didn’t happen. If only I knew where the AT and HIP were….


Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing the hidden parts of German setup. North is to the left, 20H3 is the one hex with a Level 3 Location. Two T-34 moves (which started in 8CC10 & DD9) are not shown for clarity. AL is with ‘C’ in 1Z3. My Sniper is out of position thanks to forgetting to move him after changing plans.
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Post Captain

by on January 26, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It’s been… wow, a decade? Since I read Master and Commander.

So, yes, I can say that you don’t need any detailed knowledge of the first book before reading this. In fact, while the climax of the first book gets brought up a lot, the only impact on this book is that these events happened. There’s no direct consequences.

This one wanders around a bit, establishing a slightly larger cast of characters, and looking deeper into the principle two, especially Maturin, who gets firmly established a spy and believer in Catalonian independence.

It starts with a promise of naval action (without Aubrey involved) that gets cut short. From there, we get a bit upper-class romance, which is undercut a bit by O’Brian’s habit of minimal presentation. There’s not a lot of descriptions given, and a lot of things are condensed down, with a paragraph starting with one conversation, and then flowing directly into a different one. It takes a bit of an attentive eye to follow the extremely stream-of-consciousness transitions, but there are enough hints to follow.

A good chunk of the beginning gets taken up the start of a knot of romance, and money problems that hang over the rest of the book. Of course, this is still a age of sail adventure series, so that can’t last, and Aubrey ends up with a ship that looks to be the inspiration for HMS Fearless in On Basilisk Station. Though in this case, its acknowledged as a failure before ever being put to sea.

From there, there’s usual fitting out, and poor crew dramas of these types of books (and as well done as ever), culminating with the main action scene, and then a secondary action as a denouement, and way to confirm Aubrey’s fortunes are rising. Overall, it’s well written, and obviously setting things up for the long haul of a longer series of books (I’ll have to get to book three is less than a decade…), but that does cause the plot to make almost as much leeway as the Polychrest (um… read the book to get that one).

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Egypt Redux

by on January 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

We got another session of Ancient Civiliztions of the Inner Sea in on December 15th. Patch couldn’t make this one, but Jason did, for another four-player day. I’m satisfied to say that Jason came in with the same misconception on the conflict rules that I’d had, it needs a rewrite and re-layout. You see all the ‘stop’ conditions and stop reading. Mark also brought his deck shuffler, which sounds like a rock grinder, but is needed with all the reshuffles the game wants.

We did random assignment of nations, which ended with me and Mark playing Egypt and Troy respectively… for our third game in a row. Dave shifted from Carthage to Gaul, and Jason had Carthage, with a set Epoch III ending, as after last time it was apparent that would work out about right (which it did).

The three ‘veterans’ got off to strong starts, and Jason trailed behind. I had another Egyptian strong start, and after the first epoch was starting to pull ahead for a bit of a lead.

Which, of course, helped doom me. I didn’t really want that kind of lead, but it naturally happened. And of course, with Jason permanently in last place, all the southern and eastern barbarians hit Egypt. (In two four-player games, we have seen those two far more often than the northern barbarians.) I managed to get two wonders built, but one got buried just after I built it, though it did get restored by The Gods Smile at the end of Epoch II.

Epoch III got interesting. Jason had got Carthage’s act together, and joined the pack at the start of the epoch. Lead VPs went to Dave and Mark for a bit, but there was a lot fluidity in the scoring, and cards were going all over the place.

Epoch III ended as of the third turn, and the final scoring parts of the end were tense. After everything was counted, Dave/Gaul won with 73 VPs. Everyone else tied at 72!

Again, it’s looking like a good game for everyone. A few things are missed from Civilization (I miss trade and advancements), and Patch has commented on the relative lack of civilizations shoving each other; I think a five-player day will fix that last.

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Shadowbringers

by on January 20, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Okay, since last I wrote here, Smudge and I have caught up with the story in Final Fantasy XIV, bringing us to a place we’ve never been before. This includes the latest major patch, 5.1, which I’ll get into another time. Right now, I’m just talking about the latest expansion, Shadowbringers.

First off, I have to say it’s excellent. FF XIV has gone from a ‘recommend, but remember it needs a subscription’ to ‘recommend, but the best parts are late in the game’, to ‘it doesn’t matter, you should see this’, and it’s all because the writing has gotten better each time.

I… was nervous about this expansion when it was announced. I don’t like ‘darker and grittier’, I don’t like anti-heroes, and didn’t want to be put in the role of one. Thankfully, that’s not what’s going on. In fact, it comes down to a semantic shuffling that ends up equating Astral aether/magic with darkness (instead of the assumed ‘light’ or ‘good’) and Umbral with light. (Urianger, I’m going to need that explanation again.) So the flood of light that got talked about waaay back in Patch 3.4, is Umbral in nature, and is a tendency to shut down all activity, producing stasis.

(Um, yes, I’m headed deep into spoiler territory from here on, keep reading, or even looking at the pretty pictures at your own risk! I’ll also note that Shadowbringers is much better without spoilers! Previous story didn’t have nearly as big events going on.)
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The Raven and the Reindeer

by on January 17, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It’s an odd enough title for a book, but it certainly fits. It’s apparently based on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen (I’m completely unknowledgeable about that), though my thoughts ran to Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, which is based off of a Norwegian folk tale. Makes me wonder if that’s where HCA got his ideas (not that they are the same story at all)….

At any rate, the writing is, as ever with T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon), witty and charming, and includes a strong cast of animal characters:

The raven fluffed its beard. “I am the Sound of Mouse Bones Crunching Under the Hooves of God.”
Gerta blinked a few times. “That’s…quite a name.”
“I made it myself,” said the raven preening. “I stole the very shiniest words and hoarded them up until they made something worth having.”

(Which tells you about the Raven part of the title; the Reindeer comes in much later, and from an unexpected direction.)

Gerta goes on quite a journey. As usual, the first steps are faltering, and she carries a lot of guilt for having managed to lose seven months of her life (I imagine we might all do well to lose so little), but even lost, it helps her, and powers much of the rest of the story (in a somewhat more literal way than it may sound). And like all well-done stories, this is because that beginning misadventure fits in with everything else, and there’d be quite a hole left without it.

All the way through, there’s actually a fair amount of self-growth and introspection, and it should certainly be on YA reading lists for that and a number of other topics that slide in at the edges. The end is satisfying, and says just what it needs to say… though I still wish it had carried through to Gerta talking to her grandmother, just because she’s such a wonderful character.

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