Drowning in the Sea Peoples

by on December 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Finally had another multiplayer day on November 17th, and we tried out Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea with the basic 4-player setup. We had hoped for five, but Jason had to drop out, leaving us with me, Dave, Mark and Patch. Thanks to the long skinny board, I had to put both leaves into the table, which usually isn’t needed for four.

We’d generally sat down before getting to things, and so just took the nearest power to where we ended up. Mark and I had tried it out once before, but as a whole we were unused to things and had a fair number of rules flubs which we slowly started working through as the game went on. Patch and Dave ended up out west as Gaul and Carthage respectively, and started spreading out. Patch had some over-ambitious plans on Greece at the beginning, which slowly trimmed back as he got a better grasp of his token limits. Dave spread out more slowly, but dominated the western Mediterranean, and started island hopping. Patch was the first one to build a wonder as I recall, and we all followed suit right afterward.

Mark and I reprised our earlier roles as Troy and Egypt, and I got off to the strongest start (followed by Patch). The north-edge barbarians showed up early, and swamped Asia Minor, hampering Mark as I got going. I then got swamped with Sea Peoples, and the east-edge barbarians which came up a couple of times (and helped by the fact that Egypt does touch the east edge of the map). Mark and Dave got things moving, and the scores tightened up again at the end of Epoch I, and our break for lunch.

Things may look odd there. One rules problem we never did sort through that day was competition. The main cycle is a huge over-explained paragraph, followed by three bullet points. We (mostly ‘I’) repeatedly missed the separate step right below the bullet points that says you repeat the main cycle if it’s still contested. The ‘stop’ conditions in the bullets took all the attention. So, we had lots of unresolved contests with barbarians all day, with the full set of black disks in play, and plenty of shuffling them around for the next wave of barbarians. Next time, things are going to play a lot different, though the ‘stop when everyone’s lost a token’ had interesting interactions with some of the cards which prevent token loss.

We saw a lot of the east and south-edge barbarians in the later parts of the game. Since Dave was trailing behind in score the entire time, all the south-edge barbarians were Nubians boiling into Egypt. One of his problems is that he had a fairly stable and settled position, so he had very little in the way of tokens to redeploy (sure, he could have pulled some into supply/ready to re-do, but there was little motivation to). Towards the end of the game though, he did work up a high number of cities and started making great gains in VPs (not necessarily a bad strategy…).

Time ran short, and we stopped partway through Epoch III. (We let the standard method chose if it ended on turn 2. Next time we’ll aim for a straight three-epoch game.) The last turn saw a lot of maneuvering for VPs of course, and I thought I’d done well with building up cities… and still was on the short end.

Final scores were: Patch/Gaul 57, Mark/Troy 54, Rindis/Egypt 52, Dave/Carthage 50. Everyone had a good time with the game, and I’m sure we’ll get a few repeat playings fairly soon.

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The Galactic Whirlpool

by on December 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Gerrold writes an interesting story that feels a bit between a Star Trek story and a regular SF offering of it’s age. I think part of that is that it’s a ‘big dumb object’ story, with humans encountering a large structure traveling at about a third the speed of light. There’s not much in the story that demands it be a Star Trek story. But, the main characters are there, and without them it wouldn’t be quite the same story either.

There are places where it doesn’t quite ring true to the universe as it is known now, but back before any of the movies had been done, much less the later series he was in a position of deciding more things for himself. The most grating part for me was suddenly including a couple of auxiliary shuttle bays in the saucer section (really, drop bays, anticipating Enterprise by about 40 years), which just hadn’t been mentioned anywhere else…. It is actually somewhat logical, and I’d have been happier if these had been for smaller craft for external work than full shuttlecraft, but that idea doesn’t show up until The Motion Picture, so, oh well.

The investigation of the star-faring structure is well-done and interesting, and the problems that result are quite logical. I’m not so happy with a lot of character reactions. Most of the Enterprise crew should react better than they do for most of the novel, as they know what—generally—they’re getting into, but they don’t seem to take that knowledge into account. On the other side of things, the action and consequences are well handled, and really help sell the story.

Structurally the two real weak points are the fact that a lot of background info gets dumped on you in one large expository chapter. It’d be hard to avoid it, and its presented well, so I think Gerrold was trying to avoid the problem. The other problem is that the name of the novel doesn’t come up until about halfway through. A pair of black holes, with orbiting neutron stars, and associated other things falling into certainly qualifies as a ‘galactic whirlpool’, but it gets sprung on you a bit suddenly.

Past that, it is well done, and the second half of the novel, after everything is finally in place, really works well. The build up is a bit slower and piecemeal than I’d like, but it does come together, and is well worth the journey.

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Two Rounds of Gabiene

by on December 6, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After finishing up Charging Chaumont, Patch and I did our usual between-things Command & Colors: Ancients scenario. This time was the Battle of Gabiene from Expansion #1. Another Successors battle = more elephants. This time, both sides have some, and the two armies are relatively even, with Eumenes having slightly better infantry (including the Silver Shields), three elephants to two, and Antigonus having more cavalry, an extra leader, and an extra card. The unusual bit is that Eumenes has a camp to his right rear, and Antigonus can get a banner for getting a unit into it.

I had Antigonus first, and started with Order Two Right, which brought a Light into range of his elephants for no effect. Patch countered with Three Left, and forced my Light back with a banner from ranged fire, and did a hit to my HC with his LBC. Coordinated Attack let me start ranged combat across the field for no effect. Patch Counterattacked to move all three Elephants before I could get any banners, though he only attacked (my center Light) with one of them for no effect. I Ordered Lights, and concentrated fire on his Elephants, and could only get one banner each on two Elephants. Order Three Center slammed two of the Elephants into my line. One forced my Elephants back two hexes, and then hit my Medium, who First Striked for one hit, and took two themselves; the other did two to an Aux who wiped out the Elephant.

Leadership any Section let me move my left around the surviving Elephant, eliminating it, and doing a ranged hit against his Light. Order Three Left moved his remaining Elephant to my line, who wiped out a Med (3 swords on the first roll), and did a hit on my Elephant on momentum, while the battle back did nothing, and he got a ranged hit on my Lights standing out in the middle. Not having much I could do about his Elephants, I called out I Am Spartacus to activate a Light and MC (and had three banners in the roll—pity this wasn’t Medieval), and did one hit to the Elephant with the Light, while the MC did two hits to an evading LBC. Patch Ordered Heavies, and the Elephant passed behind my line to hit a Heavy for three blocks, and I barely got him on the battle back, while my Lights evaded away from his HC.

I used Line Command to move up my entire center, and caused his HC to evade back to his line. Leadership Any Section moved up his HC, Aux, and Silver Shields, while his LBC did a block to my MC at range. His HC wiped out my Aux (three circles…) and then finished off my weak Heavy on momentum. Order Two Center allowed my Elephant to do a block to the HC as it evaded. Patch Ordered Lights to do another block to my MC at range, forced a LBC to my baseline, and forced a Light back to baseline, losing a block on two banners. I used Three Center to do a block to the Silver Shields, and force his HC to evade out of his line. Order Three Right caused me to evade a Light back, while he did a block to a Med, who did three blocks back, reducing both units to a block each.

Order Two Center let me take a shot at the Silver Shields to do a block, and then hit them with my Elephants to finish them off, and then do a block and banner to an Aux on momentum. Patch Ordered Four Right to reshuffle the line and press forward, knocking out a weak Med, forcing my MC to evade, and doing a block to an Aux, while taking one on battle back, while my forward Elephants were knocked out at range. Mounted Charge let me move forward, though half of them were too far away to engage the enemy, but my remaining Elephant unit knocked out a weak Aux, and then got a full-strength Heavy on momentum. My MC did a hit on his MC, and he accepted a banner instead of battling back, and momentum did three hits to an Aux.

Patch called I Am Spartacus to order a Heavy, HC, Med and MC (the last two on wildcards). The Heavy did two hits to my Elephants, while everything else moved into better positions. Out Flanked let me move up my right, but the left concentrated on Patch’s stranded Aux, and knocked him out. 7-6

For round two, Patch started with Order Two Right to move up his cavalry. I Ordered Two Left to bring my Elephants up to them, but did nothing as he evaded. Patch used Mounted Charge to get his Elephants all the way to my other Elephants, bring two units up to my forward Elephant, and his MC hit my line. This didn’t kill any units, but caused massive havoc, as he got a hit on one of my Elephants, and a banner on both of them. The rampage only caused one hit (to the Silver Shields), but the trample weakened four, while Patch took no damage. His MC did a hit to my HC, but took two blocks and a banner in return, while he did a hit to my forward Elephant which did a block to a HC on rampage and retreated back to my line. I used Move-Fire-Move to try and drive him off, and did a hit to a HC, and a banner to an Elephant, using the second move to move skirmishers up.

The Elephants moved up again as Patch played Order Two Center. The Silver Shields wiped out one with a First Strike, but the other wiped out a Heavy, but completely missed on momentum vs another Heavy, who killed them on battle back. Another Move-Fire-Move let me get lighter units out to the front, but did no damage. A second Mounted Charge from Patch let him get a LBC into the camp for a banner, and he picked off my MC plus Eumenes with a weak MC, who used momentum to attack the Silver Shields, who took no damage, and chased them off the board with three banners on battle back. Another MC picked off the left Elephant, and his HC did a block to evading LBC. On my right a MC wiped out an Aux, and then got the right Elephant on Momentum. 3-7

Afterword

The first battle took an hour and a half, and was a real slog the entire way. I compared getting rid of Patch’s Elephants to pulling teeth. The second round took about half an hour. I’m getting long-term concerned about how often the side that plays Mounted Charge is the side that wins. Back in the days of hoplite battles, I thought it was an artifact of a +1 die to most of the army for a turn, but it’s continued into the post-hoplite world. +1 die to mobile units is just really powerful, and really easy to use unless your cavalry is hopeless at melee (i.e., non-existent, or all lights).

Though I had problems in the second battle no matter what Patch did. My initial draw was two Move-Fire-Move, a couple of Order Lefts, and a First Strike. Not a really great hand, one one that was incapable of dealing with what Patch was doing. Thankfully, Elephant killing was a lot easier for me that time, or it could have been a shutout.

I thought about going after the camp during the middle of the first game, but was a little to busy to spare a LBC on one turn, and then it had to evade out of range.

At any rate, despite my collapse the second time, it’s another good scenario. With five Elephant units, they really dominate the thinking and action, but the rest of the line is far from unimportant with all the heavies and MC/HC running around.

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In the Shadow of the Sword

by on December 3, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

At first glance, this is just a new history of the start of Islam, and how the Arabs came to dominate such a large area, one of those parts of history that often defies analysis. And Holland loops this book around that subject a couple of times just to show how and why this is traditionally a tough subject to tackle.

There’s a fair amount of myth surrounding the foundation of Islam. And it’s so well presented that even when an outsider looks at it, and starts wondering just how likely some of it is, the weight of evidence comes down on the side of that myth. General Western views of this period aren’t much more critical of the story than Islamic scholars are; that’s an amazing intellectual achievement right there.

At the same time, this also is a marker of the change from late Antiquity, where Middle East is dominated by the superpowers of Rome (/Byzantium) and Sassanid Persia, to the early Medieval period where its the Christian world vs the Islamic one. Looking at AD 500 and AD 800, things look very different, and the source of changes seems invisible in AD 500.

Of course, the Middle East was traditionally a bubbling cauldron of different religious beliefs. Things like the Dead Sea Scrolls are the merest tip of the iceberg of religious debate; a snapshot of one place and time. Other sources talk of various other cults, and groups, that were obviously stealing the better ideas from each other. I really wish Holland had gone into that a bit more, and maybe tried to trace some of the currents of religious thought in the area, the groups that were slowly pushed to the fringes by the state-backed power of Christianity and Zoroastrianism. He goes into some, and lists a few oddities from the 5th and 6th Centuries. Oddities that sound really familiar in a religion that was supposed to spring full-formed from the mouth of a person touched by God.

And looking into the history of the Quran and the haddith, things don’t look so clear. Despite the claims made, the earliest known examples, and the first biography of Mohammad, which codifies a lot of this story, date to nearly two centuries after his life. Now, these are based on earlier versions, but there’s a fair amount of drift possible in that time, and the early history of the Quran is not looking any clearer that the early history of the Gospels. Holland doesn’t go into it, but the later parts shows that there is something about the birth of a religion, possibly something forever unknowable. The codified institutions come later; events swept people along, caused a passionate belief… that doesn’t get written down in all the excitement.

After that, a closer look at what was actually going on with Rome and the Sassanians helps bring things into focus. The Islamic irruption into the world stage happened at the end of a long conflict between Rome and Persia, and Holland not only points out how this had drained available manpower on both sides, but he goes into a plague that swept through the region just recently, and like the better known Black Death, it was devastating to world population as a whole. He then goes into the current generation of Arab mercenaries, whose sources of money are drying up….

And from there, the rest of the book is a familiar story, but with the emphases changed. He posits, from what is in the Quran, and a few other places, that Mohamed, and his closest companions, were far more aware of the Roman world than is generally understood, and move on to the struggle to define just what had happened over the next few generations, as events of the 630s slipped out of memory, and into history.

Its a well-written book all the way through, and really shakes up the normal perception of this period. I’d say this is among the top ‘must reads’ for anyone interested in this part of history. Parts of it are a bit vague, and pro tem, but it does reference much more current research than you normally get to hear about.

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J123 Charging Chaumont

by on November 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Way back in 2010, Patch and I decided to play another DASL scenario, and picked J123 “Charging Chaumont” from Journal #8 as our next game. Unfortunately, VASL didn’t properly support the DASL overlays at that point, and we ended up playing J124 Cobra Kings instead. A couple months ago, we finally remembered to get back to this, now that the overlay extension has no real problems with the setup.

Patton’s drive to relieve Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge runs into opposition, and a mixed force is sent to take the town of Chaumont. The Germans defend boards b and g with five 2nd Line squads, a crew, two MGs, a PSK and eight “?”. Two more squads, an 8-1 and LMG show up on turn three along with two of four vehicles. The Americans are trying to take the large E1 building on board b in six turns and have eight and a half squads (mix of 667 and 666), a HMG, two MMGs, three BAZ, a DC, two Stuarts, two halftracks and three of five vehicles.

The vehicles need a special mention. Both sides get to choose what they want before setup (and keep in mind the Germans don’t see theirs for three turns). The Americans have a choice between four Shermans (one with 9-1 AL, one with 76L, one ‘fast’ 15MP one, and one with a stabilizer), and a M16 halftrack. The Germans choose between a StuG III w/8-1 AL, a JgPz IV, a StuH 42, and a Hetzer. Also, conditions are muddy, and all hedges (which there’s a lot of) are barbed-wire fences from Kampfgruppe Peiper & Pegasus Bridge (mud = +0.5 for open ground, and crossing barbed wire is +1 MF, for not uncommon costs of 2.5 MF for an open ground hex!). The overlays add a four hex orchard (while clearing out some fences), and a two-hex woods near the second-largest building.

Patch took the defending Germans, and set up with a string of units in the north, and another in the south, with one set of three “?” in bH4 and a final set in bE2h2 in the victory building. It was a fairly solid-looking defense, especially as I didn’t really think about how much of it was liable to be Dummies with my off-board entry. I entered in roughly three groups: the smallest was to head down the H0 road and approach his forces in the bC4 building directly (if slowly) while the main force entered around the gE-G area with the stabilized Sherman (I wanted the on-the-move accuracy to try dodge his anti-tank capabilities), a Stuart and both HTs. The last group was two squads with toys and 8-0 along with the Sherman+AL and M16, entering in gA3, where they could immediately duck out of LOS in the sunken road and come up near the D4 stone building.

Reality wasn’t so kind. I sent in a scouting HS, and then a squad to hold down the wire in gF0/F1 to let another squad through. With all the mud, and wire, getting much of anywhere was a challenge. Armored Assault not only provided cover, but allowed for ready traversing of the barbed wire for a 7-0 and MMG squad. They got through the orchard and into the road where the MMG in bD4h2 opened fire to ELR the leader to 6+1, and pinned the squad. The MMG kept rate, and so fired at the next group as it entered at gA3 with Armored Assault for a NMC that pinned both entering squads, and Patch’s sniper went off to pin mine. The M16 entered behind them and stunned to a NMC from the residual.

The entire north force was stopped before it had a chance to get into the sunken road.

Thanks to the mud, the main group had a bit of a traffic jam, and I had some trouble figuring out where to park everyone, but ended up with fairly good positions for the main elements. Thanks to the earlier excitement, the southern Stuart and squad made it to the gK2 bridge without incident. Not at all to my surprise, bK4 was a PSK squad, who thankfully missed a shot at gE4, and couldn’t find a PF. Naturally, the hex got a couple of Acq markers in AFPh, but the gyro-equipped Sherman malfunctioned its MA trying to get a ranging shot on the MMG nest.


Situation, American Turn 1. North is to the left, EC are mud, orchards and grain are out of season, all roads are paved, and all hedges are barbed-wire fences.
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