Honor Blade

by on September 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Part two of Duane’s novel of the Rihannsu Empire picks up where the previous left off naturally enough. The rest of Star Fleet’s task force is finally on hand for tense negotiations as events continue to spiral out of control in Romulan space.

The viewpoint characters are all outside the primary negotiating teams, so the main thing we see are some of the more public posturing, and a reception or two. Duane’s cast is large enough to show a lot around this, and she introduces a new secondary character, Gurrhim, who turns into a plot-point, and is a great character on his own.

The final part of the novel dissolves down into action, which is well handled. Duane does a great job of showing a lot of what was going on, and yet when it’s all over, it becomes apparent that, yes, other things were happening too. There’s also a very well-done tense emergency surgery scene right at the end. She describes things well enough so you know what’s going on even as a lot of unfamiliar terminology is thrown around; a neat trick.

However, while this is definitely the end of the novel, it is still not the end of the series. Things have come to a real head, and ‘middle of trilogy’ conclusion, but its not over yet.

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185 Not Out of the Woods Yet

by on September 14, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch was wanting to see some regular American squads (as opposed to Elite 667 or 747s) in action for our next ASL game, so I looked through the new Yanks collection, and found 185 “Not Out of the Woods Yet”, which uses a mix of those and 2nd Line 546s. It originally appeared in Annual ’95W (as A73, and was in Rout Report before that), which I’ve also meant to play more from anyway.

It is July ’44, and American forces have recently taken a dominating hill, but the advance has been getting delayed by a reverse-slope defense, and attacks on the flanks. This turns into a board 39 setup with 13 squads (about evenly split between 666 and 546, and Lax to boot), 3 MMGs, and 4 M4A1s needing to take five of seven buildings on half of board 6 (with the manor replaced by grain) in 8 turns. The Germans get seven 548s (plus two HS), some “?”, two 50mm ATG, six foxholes and another two and a half squads enter from the side on turn 3. By SSR, the hill woods are level 2 obstacles which the Shermans can enter at 4 MP per hex, with no Bog (kind of a light pine woods; there’s still a lot of double-crest lines that vehicles can’t cross).

I had the defending Germans, and figured there was probably no way I was keeping Patch out of the forward four buildings for eight turns. The amount of firepower he’d be able to throw at the front line would make sure of that. But, if I slowed him down long enough, I should be able to keep him from the back three, R9 and P9 especially. Keeping him out of C10 could be a bigger problem, but if he went hard for that, I’d just have to hang on tight at K4.

I put the two HS (and two Dummies) on the part of the hill in my setup area to encourage some caution, and hopefully block a path for a turn. The real units got foxholes for better protection, while two more anchored the ends of my line. Another went in 6J2 to give covered access between adjacent woods, and the last went in K5 where it could give me another hex of cover near building K4. Also, with all the bocage around, those last two were going to need a lot of attention thanks to the lack of LOS they could cause. I figured I would be fighting to maintain the center as long as I could and possibly let him loose for hide-and-seek in the orchard in preference to giving up the K4 area.

Patch lined up on the crest of the hill at the limit of his setup, and started feeling his way down some really rough terrain. Searching revealed the two HS, but missed on some Dummies thanks to being Lax, while I completely missed on my casualties rolls. Defensive fire did manage to break a scouting HS, and reveal a concealed squad that had come up behind them in 36R6, but there wasn’t much for me to do past that.

Patch did some ranging shots with the Shermans, and my sniper went off to reduce his SAN to a 2. He found that W8 was a Dummy in CC, and eliminated R7 with no problems, but failed to eliminate Y8, and took a HS in casualties there.


Situation, American Turn 1, showing the entire board. Note that this is ‘mismatched’ halves of 36 and 6.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Swordhunt

by on September 11, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Published thirteen years after The Romulan Way, it takes place a couple of months after that novel. There’s a lot effectively unsettled after that, and this book picks up on all the threads, and even brings in K’s’t’lk from her novel The Wounded Sky.

Past all that, other forces are in motion. Duane’s Romulan (sorry, Rihannsu) Empire is struggling economically, and with recent events, the Klingons are preying on outer colonies. The government is tightening its grip on colonies, which are getting more restless, while concentrating on Ael, who took one of the most unimaginably priceless relics of the Empire, and the Federation, which is sheltering her.

It’s a big story, which Duane tells very well. There’s a lot going on, and sadly, it does take a while to start cohering into a solid shape. There’s a good mix of action and setup at the beginning, which then settles down to get the main plot going.

Unfortunately, the determination of Pocket to keep all its Star Trek novels short gets solidly in the way here, as this is literally the first half of the book, even though the full version would be ~400 pages, which is a merely moderate sized post-70s novel. The second part was the next one released (#96), and it picks up with chapter 6. So at the end, we’re still in the setup phase.

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Six Rounds of Decimum

by on September 8, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Jason came over on August 11th to try out Commands & Colors: Medieval. He’d been the biggest promoter of CC:A in our group when it was new, so I wanted him to get to try out the new game. Somewhat by accident, we ended up going through the three Decimum scenarios, with us taking each side once. This during Belisarius’ conquest of North Africa, and things are a little different than I’ve been used to. Generally, the Byzantines hold all the toys (including MBC, HBC, and SHBC, while the only Vandal ranged combat is from their light units), and both sides use the same set of Inspired Actions. There’s a couple hill groups with different placement, but otherwise identical in each scenario, though a separate one-hex hill disappears in the second scenario, and comes back in the third.

In the first phase, the Byzantines have a better army (though both sides have almost nothing in the center), more leaders, better Command, and more Inspired Actions. They can also exit units off the far side of their right to get banners, though that never happened in our playings.

I had the Vandals for the first play, and lost 2-5. As I finished set up, I noted my forward left HC and thought he was very vulnerable and exposed. And the first action of the game was Jason charging him, and wiping him out. And he steadily smashed the rest of my left from there. I eventually got my right moving enough to strike back there, but was completely helpless on the other flank, and Jason kept it moving to wrap things up.

The second round went even better for me. I didn’t get to knock out his forward HC straight off the bat, but I pressed forward on the Byzantine right and scattered the Vandals. I nearly exited a unit, but Jason shifted a unit from his right to counterattack, and destroyed the unit before it could happen. But he’d already been smashed, and while my left had been forced back, I still had a stable line. 5-1

I had the Vandals again for the first round of Phase 2, and lost 4-6. Things are much more even here, with even Command and Inspired Action, and the Vandals go first. They also have a bigger army, with a prime Byzantine asset, the only Cataphract, stuck in a corner. But, the entire Vandal army is on their baseline, and takes a bit to get moving. A dangerous special rule is that anyone who starts their turn alone on top of the big hill mass gets credited with three banners, making it a ‘sudden death’ condition as the battle goes on.

I don’t remember the action, but it ended with both armies nearly wiped out, with control of the hill weighing heavily on both sides. I lost most of my MC early, before striking back, and losing my HC in the process of running up the score.

I won the second round 6-4, after a similar amount of fighting for the hill. I got off to a strong start, but Jason did a good job keeping things together, and while I got the Cataphracts into play early, they didn’t last. But I managed to put together a solid force to finish up the scenario with.

The final phase brings in a proper Byzantine army, with infantry on their right, and three leaders. The Vandals move first, but start with 3 Command, and draw their way up to 5 over the first couple turns.

I had the Byantines the first time, and went down hard, 1-5. I was maneuvering to get a mounted charge off with my Cataphracts, and Jason did it first, completely smashing the rest of my center. I couldn’t get anything going before he finished me off.

I couldn’t replicate Jason’s accomplishment, but I did win the second go 5-4. I don’t really remember the action of this one either, but concentrated on my right and center, and the left barely moved at all.

It was a fun day for the both of us. Though, all the battles went to the same side, and only Jason’s 1-5 win as the Vandals in the Final Phase bucked the pattern at all (though, it looks like it should be a Byzantine win, so both games bucked that trend). The Inspired Actions are a nice addition, but over all my games so far, I’ve mostly seen Mounted Charge, with a couple of Foot Onslaughts, and a Move-Fire-Move. The bulk of the possible actions aren’t getting used; though it may just need more experience to get into the subtleties. But its really hard to see anything other than that Mounted Charge ability when looking them over.

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The Shield and the Sword

by on September 5, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, overall, it is by no means a bad overview of the history of the Hospitallers. And unlike Dan Jones’ The Templars, it has the bonus that you won’t find all of this in any one other place about a broader subject.

In fact, this book is very informative about their time on Rhodes. And while the centerpiece of the later history is what you’d expect the (the Siege of Malta in 1565), there’s a very useful discussion of how they came to Malta, and problems of time and money when applied to fortifying the island. Sadly, Rhodes does not get the same amount of attention on that subject, but there is some discussion.

The book stays with the ‘active’ part of the order, and doesn’t go much into the workings of its European connections, the properties they administered there (and how that changed over the centuries), and recruitment of new members. This isn’t too surprising, considering its a lighter book, and it has a long time span to cover, but is still slightly disappointing.

A very interesting bit is the fall of Malta to Napoleon. It reminds me very much of the end of Norwich’s Venice, where a proud, independent state just can’t manage much more than some hand-wringing in the face of a historical force of nature.

The Shield and the Sword was certainly written with the cooperation of the Order of St. John, and takes a positive view of their activities throughout. The Knights’ attacks on Muslim shipping are presented as part of the defense Europe instead of just part of a cycle of violence on the Mediterranean. There’s some justice to this view, thanks to the larger context of the time, but it is an example of where the blinders are.

Still, there’s going to be very little out there for a better one-volume history of the Order.

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