Fix Bayonets

by on November 23, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark came over again on October 26th, and we returned to Great War Commander with the second scenario. I took the French again, who this time are on the attack. It’s still 1914, and the French are pulling back, but one unit goes forward with a counterattack, and delays the German army by confusing the line of communications.

We used the strategy cards this time, though I only used one during the game for a +1 bonus (both cards I had were otherwise unusable), though Mark cycled through three or four, also mostly for the roll bonus. The scenario also introduced us to the targeting rules, as the Germans have a mortar, and the French have off-board artillery. Also, the Germans get some foxholes, and there’s a chance of buildings being rubbled in a pre-game bombardment (and one was, suppressing a German platoon in it).

Mark mostly set up in the village, with the mortar in the rear, and a platoon in the quarry in the rear of the other side of the map. I started in three groups, mostly lined up on my edge of the map, but with my overall commander and machine gun off forward in the woods (where there’s a couple additional setup hexes). As I had been concerned, I didn’t see any Move cards for an attack. However, I did have a couple Advance cards, which I used to get a little motion on one flank.

But before I even got to that point, I also had a good string of Artillery Request cards, and started pounding the German positions. I generally used the observer hex, and got good results. An early event also gave me an extra leader with pair of platoons, who showed up in the middle of my line. The overstacking caused by that was cured by a time advance, giving me my only true loss of the day.

Time became my main concern. I was churning through cards pretty fast, and hit a time trigger about a third through my deck, churned through an entire deck, and then hit another three fairly early time triggers. Mark eventually hit a time trigger of his own most of the way through his own deck. His casualties were mounting, but for a while, advancing time was keeping it from meaning much.

I had at least two artillery draws that rolled ’12’ in empty hexes to cause a large number of shellholes in the map. After some early Advance, I finally saw a Move or two and headed for the first set of shellholes. My secret objective was, conveniently enough, extra VPs for the fountain in front of me (though the public one was 2 VP per victory location), so I concentrated on the town, and slowly ground up the forces there as I got in, and used Fire cards to get into a protracted fight in the center until I finally exhausted Mark’s luck and ability to keep rallied. Eventually, I ground his forces down, and forced a surrender while time was still a couple spaces away from checking for end of game.

Things certainly seemed to go my way the entire game, starting with a nice string of artillery attacks, which was generally fairly effective. Mark was low on Fire cards and couldn’t do much when I finally did start moving. My main problems came down to lack of ability to move, and time ticking down fairly fast for a bit. But I felt in control of events the entire way through. So far, I’m really wondering how to mount an effective defense here, and how often games don’t end with the surrender level being reached.

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Sword-Bound

by on November 20, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Roberson’s latest Tiger & Del novel keeps up the high quality of the series. The pair are finally settled down and going off into ever-after land, when Neesha decides he wants more adventure. This doesn’t turn it into Neesha’s story. The viewpoint is still very solidly Tiger’s, and he is still the center that events move around.

Tiger is getting older, and certainly the tone is a lot different than where it began, but he truly has things he wants past his own ego now. It doesn’t seem like Tiger is slowing down, but the story itself is a bit slower than previous books, perhaps showing through plot that he is, just a bit mind you, past his prime.

The plot itself rambles a bit more than normal, with it going through several important bits that don’t necessarily tie directly to each other. But the beginning and end tie together very directly, and the middle does tie the various threads together.

Of course, this has always been a character-driven series, and the characters, as ever, make the book. I recommend the entire series, and while it actually wouldn’t too bad to start here, the other books are well worth reading, so go and read them.

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Kingdom Hearts II

by on November 17, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Computer games

It is somewhat amazing that you can still easily pick up a new copy of Kingdom Hearts II for PS2 well after platform has been discontinued. I don’t know how long they kept producing Greatest Hits releases, but there’s still new stock out there. So, last year I picked up a copy after finishing KH for myself, and spent part of this year playing it. It feels like a bigger game, though my time to completion was a bit under the original game’s; I possibly did less work on the side content though (also, I went to slightly longer sessions, so there was less time spent getting going again each time).

The game is pretty much a direct sequel to the original, and entirely follows the same general format. A year has passed, partly covered by the side game Chain of Memories, which I have not played (and it apparently serves as more of a refresher on events of the first game, but it does introduce important elements of this one). The simple action RPG elements are the same, though I found I was button mashing my way through more things and tended to think less about, ‘go this way, hit him, turn…’, so the standard combats felt overall easier with less thinking. The interface definitely got cleaned up and improved a bit.

Naturally, new features were added. The most prominent is ‘reaction commands’, where you can do a special move based on situation and the enemy you’re fighting. It’s a neat idea, but they tend to go by really fast, so I ignored a decent number of them as just not worth the time of my slow reflexes. There are places where they’re important though, and generally needed to get through a fight; but at least it all feels nicely integrated to the game.

There are also ‘quick time events’, where you have to mash a button at the right time while you are otherwise effectively out of control of the game. This is the first time I’ve played a game with QTEs, and they generally worked for me, and I’m not going to join the vocal critics of them. That said, I don’t think I’d care for any game where they become prevalent, and here they make sense as an outgrowth of the reaction commands. However, the fights where QTE and reaction times were a big deal were about an equal split between reasonable, and the most aggravating parts of the game for me. It is a quick route to asking more from me than my reflexes can give.

There’s also drive forms, which are interesting, but I never got around to using them very much. And the usual bevy of small side games, including a rhythm game that was completely beyond my abilities past the most basic levels (which kept me from finishing Atlantica, as that’s all it is).

Plot

I’ll try not to spoil anything big here. The early part is interesting as it is definitely designed as introduction to people new to the series, and also has some reminders of key events of the first game if it’s been a while since playing (say, the three years of the original release dates). This turns into a much bigger and more elaborate prologue than the original’s, and has more than its fair share of aggravations. The biggest problem with this part is probably the fact that you’re anxious for the main plot to get going, and the main characters to show up. But, events here are important and have repercussions at the end of the game, though for most of the time it feels less important.

The main set of villains this time is Organization XIII, which you run into time and again throughout the game. An interesting bit is they really do have their own history, and some members are already gone when the game starts. This seems to be because of events in Chain of Memories, which takes some of the neatness out of it, since I like it when worlds have a history outside of the main character walking into them, and having had some infighting purely on their own would have been a nice touch.

The other addition are Nobodies, a counterpart to the Heartless. For most of the game, this is less of a deal than it could have been, as you’re still fighting Heartless the vast majority of the time, and only occasionally Nobodies. However, there are plot reasons for that, and some of the more important… personal events of the plot, and Nobodies, all tie together very neatly to events near the end of the first game. I was really impressed when that all tied together for me, and was very satisfying.

The game’s scope is enlarged in a couple of ways: there’s more worlds to visit than the first game (most, but not all, of the original set are back), and you go through them twice. Events as you start heading into the final acts open further events in the various Disney worlds, so you revisit with tougher enemies, and some really tough boss battles. A real nice touch is that the general plot idea of the relevant movies has moved along here, and events flow fairly naturally from there (also: everyone remembers events from the first game, instead of, ‘who are you again?’). An interesting bit is that the plots of the second part for each world tend to concentrate on lessons of friendship or relationships, with one of the NPCs learning something (like Iago in Aghrabah needing to understand that you don’t have to have something to give to be a friend, just being there and yourself is what you need).

The ending sequence is something of a Final Fantasy-typical mess. Action-wise it flows very well, but there’s a large section where the complications threaten to make the plot incomprehensible. On the other hand,  while playing the first game isn’t necessary, but I think you need the first one for the ending here to mean as much.

Conclusion

There’s a lot of little themes in a fairly large game, and the main story sometimes feels a bit lost in the shuffle, though it never really stops; but it doesn’t really come into focus until the ending sequence. But when it does, it’s well done.

Characters are another thing that get a little lost much of the time. Most of the time, things can be a little flat simply from not enough interaction with some prominent ones. But, when the game concentrates on bringing the characters forth, it really works well. There’s wonderful byplay between Squall and Cloud during a big fight sequence. In fact, the various Final Fantasy characters are generally really well done, and are the main ones to get to interact with the main plot, and several of them are of course as familiar to me as the Disney characters, so the job done with them was a treat (though, Aeris’ voice acting was horrible, compared to decent to good for the rest of the FF cast, and of course very good for the Disney characters).

But those problems aside, it’s direct sequel that lives up to, and just barely surpasses the original game. On the technical end, this is not a big surprise, but writing-wise they also keep everything going where it goes, and it wraps up with an excellent ending. You can play this by itself, but I really recommend playing both, and not letting too much time go between them.

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Persian Fire

by on November 13, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The story of Persia vs the Greeks is one that has told many times over the centuries. Part of this is because we have some very good Greek sources about the conflict, so that we know more about these wars than nearly anything else before it (other parts are the high drama, and Ancient Greece’s place in the foundation of Western thought).

Tom Holland’s Persian Fire tries, and largely succeeds in expanding the Persian point of view. He starts out with the rise of Persia, and how it took over from Media and Assyria. This section is very well done, and well worth the price of admission if you already have all you need of the later parts with Darius and Xerxes. He then proceeds through the histories of Sparta and Athens in turn, showing just how they had evolved from somewhat typical Greek city-state beginnings to the distinctive forms that we are used to hearing about.

From there, discussions of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis are a bit more typical, but there is still effort to see just what was going on in the heads of the principles, especially Xerxes. However, the writing in the entire book is very good, so even if you’re very familiar with the subject, this telling is very well done. He also does a good job with Platea, though I thought it was lacking compared to other parts of the book. Also lacking is his analysis of what kept Persia from coming back for round three, though he does talk about it some.

Overall, I’m very happy to have picked up yet another book on this subject. Holland does a very good job at the overview, and widens the scope of his gaze just a bit more to make this the best ‘lighter’ book you’re likely to find on the two Persian invasions of Greece.

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J103 Lenin’s Sons

by on November 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Mark came over on October 12th for another day of FtF gaming. He’s an old SL-series fan, and when we first started gaming, I was teaching him ASL. Then we got involved in SFB, and then in all the other great (and occasional not-so-great) wargames out there, so while I’ve had a decent ASL career with Patch and others over the last 15ish years, Mark hasn’t gotten back to it until now.

This means it’s back to teaching him all over again, and I stuck to a scenario I’d picked out some time ago for a session that had a last-minute cancellation. If I’d been going from scratch today, I’d probably pick something else, as I can find simple scenarios a bit more easily now. At any rate, J103 Lenin’s Sons from ASL Journal #7 is a somewhat typical German attack on a Russian village in late ’41 setup. The Germans get thirteen squads (mostly 468 SS, with some 548 SS assault engineers), good leadership, a pair of DCs, and a FT (and that last really hasn’t changed from original SL). The Russians are defending board 42 with a mix of seven squads + 2 HS (including 2 628 assault engineers) and a crew, with a 10-0 commissar, HMG, MMG, MTR, and two DCs. The Germans need to take eight out of ten buildings in seven turns, while avoiding a 16 CVP cap.

As usual with these, I set up a defense before Mark came over, and left him to figure out his setup. It was interesting to note that I had defended this board going the other way in 162 Armored Car Savikurki earlier this year. The MMG set up at the end of the long, straight, road, with hopes that I could drag it back along the road and then the path as needed, and most of the rest of the defense was centered around the paths. Enough was set up along the woods line to keep him from wanting to brave the open ground easily. The MTR was behind the hedge in M3, the HMG in reserve in K5 and my one HIP squad in U3 where it might have a chance to surprise someone. Mark set up mostly to to grind through the woods, but ~3 squads were set up along the south edge to base out of the V2 enclosure.


Initial setup, cropped down to the active board. Perimeter markers show setup limits, grain is out of season, and all buildings are wooden. Victory buildings are anything from K right.

He advanced in the woods large stacks for much of the day. Mark was well aware of the ‘don’t stack’ maxim, but wanted the leadership and movement. And it largely worked out for him. My attacks caused lots of pins, but very few breaks, forcing me to fall back in disorder as I was facing too much firepower, and poor CC odds.

On the first turn, his southern force ran into trouble from the MTR and air bursts in U1, forcing a retreat back to V1. Sadly, they immediately started rallying on my turn 1, keeping my HIP unit from moving in to start chasing them around. I pulled my squad out of U8, only to take a KIA for the first blood of the day.

My little ‘surprise’ was sprung on turn 2 as the rallied force moved up again, and I broke a squad, but got caught in CC. A couple other squads had gotten pinned, but one went berserk (Mark got several HOB results during the day, most of which caused him to go fanatic). I don’t quite remember how some of that happened, but may have been from me throwing a DC at his guys.

As mentioned, Mark did fairly well against the close-range firepower I was throwing at him, and around my turn 3 I didn’t secure the northern flank, and Mark went flooding around the end of my line through the pocket of open ground up there. I thought that might have been that right there, but I managed to start putting myself in the way again, even as he started advancing in the south as well.


Around the German 5th turn.

As part of the emergency, I shifted the HMG to J7, and that helped a lot, but of course it wouldn’t hold by itself. I moved it back, and established a line in buildings K5-J5-H5. A second problem is that he’d broken my MTR HS, leaving him free to move towards the southern buildings. About this time, it was getting late enough that Mark had to start thinking of leaving, but we managed to get through another full turn in a hurry, and figure out where it was going.

I had sent a squad away from my defenses to chase down and kill a broken German squad in CC (he was concealed the whole time, so there was nothing for him to run away from). On my last turn, he went after building J7, which was held by a hero with the FT. The FT got a ’10’ to run out of fuel and cause a passed PTC. I went in, and we both missed CC for a melee going into the final German turn.

We had to abandon ship before the final German turn, but Mark figured I had the win. And that was the entirely likely result, but like so often in ASL, I figure it may have actually come down to the last CC roll. He could reliably grab all the buildings I wasn’t sitting in, but the last four were a problem. He had eliminated my 8-1 for FTR on my turn, and now just needed to get someone to survive fire from the HMG to try and eliminate the crew in CC. He had a 7-0+squad that should have been able to take on K5 for an extra chance at a building, but now he was needed in J7, since me not winning a 4-1 CC was too unlikely. Actual play would have been tense with the desire to interfere with his moves, but needing to save for good point blank shots against his assaults. I figure he’d have gotten to CC with the crew, but a 2-1 CC isn’t great odds for an immediate result. Much the same would be true in J7, but I was the one in need of the immediate result to retake the building.

At any rate, we both had fun, even if it wasn’t the best play from either of us (I was fairly distracted with the number of subjects that came up). And hopefully the next game will be reasonably soon… in between all the other games.

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