Anime Fall 2018

by on February 18, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Anime

Yeah, I know we’re practically halfway through the Winter 2019 season by now, but I have a two week viewing gap in November, and I’ve been trying to catch up on some things ever since, and I’m not convinced that I’ve gotten through everything from the previous season, though I know I’m also well into the current season on a few things.

Sword Art Online: Alicization — This has been one of the stronger stories, and is now the longest, with it going straight into the second season with no signs of stopping. A few troubling problems from before have been addressed, notably Kirito and Azuna have flat out stated they’re a couple, which starts cutting the knot of all the harem-stuff that was wanting to build up. On the other hand, there’s still not a lot of Azuna here, as Kirito is effectively in a coma having an adventure in a VR world, while she takes action on the outside with a time differential that means Kirito is doing lots more. That said, the actual plot has been good, the action has been good, and we’ll see where we end up.

Golden Kamuy — Continuing to be a very good, if (more than) occasionally gorey. I think there’s one sane person in the cast.

Pokemon Sun & Moon Ultra Adventures —This is one that I keep trailing slightly behind on. Still very good and fun. At this point, it’s mostly more of the same, with some very good episodes.

Fairy Tail — I have no idea how caught up I am to this one. It’s been good to see the series back, and I think the writing has improved. The gear-up for the final story line seems to have added some much needed focus, and it’s not feeling padded.

A Certain Magical Index III — … sigh … The ideas in these series have been good all along, but usually let down by various annoying problems. Here, they’ve gone beyond annoying. The villains talk way too much, and me and Smudge have the distinct feeling that they’re rushing through all the plot lines. My guess is that they’re trying to get through everything that’s been written since the last series aired.

And a couple older things I watched last year (and into this one):

Children of the Whale — I think this came out early in the year; anyway Smudge introduced me to it around November. Generally good, it spent all its points on the world building, though the plot certainly works too. To my surprise, it’s not really complete, and kind of ends just as a second plotline is picking up. I do hope we see a second season.

Kerub’s Bazaar — We finally finished off watching this and it was fun all the way through. Most episodes being stories Kerub is telling Joris allow for them to do lots of different types of episodes, and (usually) tie it together with the framing. I hope we get another series (or at least Dofus Book II) soon.

Konosuba — Been re-watching this with Baron, and got through the first season. It really is a fun series. The first episode has the usual, ‘we need to get this going’ problem. But it really is hilarious once it does start going.

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Maria Theresa

by on February 14, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Kudos to Bloomsbury for making worthwhile older books available in e-format with good editing. No kudos for spending zero effort on the cover, but… the text’s the thing anyway.

Crankshaw’s biography of Empress Maria Theresa is certainly well done, within certain limits. He’s not afraid to be quite opinionated, which I generally find a good thing for a non-technical biography, as long as you get a good idea of what the opinions are. It’s obvious that he admires Maria Theresa, and there is certainly a lot to admire about anyone who can survive the attempted dismemberment of her inheritance as she took the throne. More surprising was his low opinion of Catherine the Great.

At any rate, this is not a ‘technical’ history by any means, and there’s only general descriptions of what happened, that tend to go through one subject at a time. Without prior knowledge of the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, those sections may be difficult to follow. But of course, he’s only concerned about their effects on Maria Theresa and Austria as a whole, and his discussion of the diplomacy that ended up touching off the Seven Years War is interesting.

There is discussion of her inner circle, which is the most developed and most interesting part of the book. There’s also a couple chapters on what was going on in the arts (this is, after all, when Vienna starts becoming a cultural center), which was rough going since my Art History knowledge is severely lacking. The two main themes are politics and personal life. There’s talk of the government and reforms that were made, but no real detail. Sadly, while her two prominent children (Joseph II and Marie Antoinette) are discussed at length, but the other eleven children who survived infancy remain near non-entities.

So it’s a decent general book on the period, and a decent biography. I got some things out of it, but I did feel like there wasn’t enough detail to really get an understanding of much of what was going on. There’s generally not enough on Central Europe in English, so I’m still happy I read it.

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Two Rounds of Gaugamela

by on February 10, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch did our usual between-big-projects game of C&C: Ancients recently. This time out it was one of Alexander the Great’s big victories: the Battle of Gaugamela from Expansion #1. The Persians definitely have a bigger army, and have two heavy chariots plus one Elephant. But, they only have four cards to the Macedonian six, and are completely lined up on the base line. As last time, Alex grants an extra die in combat, and the Companions ignore one sword hit, though unlike last time, Persian leadership operates normally.

I had Alex for the first game, and led off with Out Flanked to bring up a couple Heavies while LC advanced to archery range. Patch used Order Three Left to move a Chariot up, and do a block each to a Heavy and LC with ranged combat. Order Lights let me move a couple Auxes up, as well as ranged combat that took a block off the Chariots. Patch decided to use them before he lost them with Order Three Center, but they did no damage (other than a sword and banner that were both ignored by the Companions) while battle back finished them off.

Order Three Center brought out the Companions and a MC along with moving up a Med, and his other Chariot did two blocks to the MC on a First Strike before going down to the cavalry. Order Two Center sent the Elephants into the middle of my units, but only did one hit against a heavy who knocked it out with three hits, while Darius and the HC finished off my MC. Momentum brought him up to the Companions, and did a hit to them, but the battle back wiped out the HC, and sent Darius running back to a Med on the base line.

Move-Fire-Move did nothing but force a LC to safely retreat to the Persian line. Order Three Right allowed him to swarm over a detached flank, where a pair of banners wiped out my LB, and then his MC forced an Aux back losing two blocks, Momentum followed up with another block loss, but the Aux wiped them out on battle back. Line Command allowed me to pull them back a little while moving other units forward. Coordinated Attack finished off a LC with a pair of ranged hits, and another MC caught up to the Aux to finish it off. Momentum allowed him to do a block to my remaining MC, but it knocked him out in battle back, sending Mazeus fleeing into the middle of the field.

Order Two Right allowed a hit on his LBC, who activated as part of Order Lights. None of his archery did anything, but a LC did move to pick up Mazeus. Another Two Right forced his a LC to evade, and did another hit to his LBC. Leadership Any Section activated Patch’s left, and he forced a Heavy back with a loss. I Counterattacked to activate Alexander and the right/center of my line, and he drove an Aux off the map. 7-4

Patch also led with Out Flanked in our second game, bringing up the same Heavies, a LC and MC. I used Order Mounted to get the Chariots and some light cavalry in motion, and drove off his LC with a loss. Order Three Left brought up a Heavy, Aux, and LC. Line Command shifted half my forces from the baseline (I’d forgot Darius was on a HC in the center to keep it from being as good as it looked). Patch Ordered Two Right to do a block to a LC with ranged fire, and I Double Timed the other half of my line to bring it into range.

Patch Ordered Mediums to bring the Companions and two MC into contact. His first attack wiped out a MC, and then Momentum did nothing (other than an ignored banner), and that MC did two hits to him on battle back. His next attack knocked out a Chariot, and Momentum knocked an Aux back a hex. Alexander did one block to the other Chariot, which then drove him off with two banners (he could have ignored both, but chose to only ignore one). Coordinated Attack let me do two blocks to an evading MC, and finish off a MC, leaving Parmenio to evade back to a LC. Patch Out Flanked to do a block with ranged fire and move Parmenio over to a Heavy.

We each spent a turn or two moving up or reorganizing a little with minimal losses from ranged fire, except for one of my LCs going to one block from a banner result. Patch had retired a couple one-block units behind his lines, and I used Inspired Right Leadership to finally get back in contact, but only forced an evade. Patch Ordered Two Left, and did two blocks to my MC, in return for one on an Aux. I Ordered Three Center to get units in motion, and Patch cried I Am Spartacus for two heavy, one light, and two wildcards. A Heavy did three blocks to an Aux and took one in return, while his LC killed one of mine, and used momentum to do a block to a LB who did one back; his Aux caused my MC to evade to a blocking position on his LC.

I used Order Three Center to bring a Medium and the Elephants into his line while Darius went after the LC. Darius picked off his target, but the Elephant only did one hit to a Heavy, who did one hit and three banners in return, the trample did a second hit to the Heavy, but also wiped out a 1-block Aux of mine that was in the way, and then the Heavies First Striked the Medium to knock it out (I had actually rolled before Patch could react; I would have gotten them if I lived). A Line Command got most of Patch’s army moving, and he finished off the Elephants and drove off my LB with losses. I Ordered Mediums, doing to blocks to an evading Light before my gamble backfired: my one-block MC did one block to a 2-block Aux, who got me on the battle back. 3-7

Afterword

I had some really hot dice in the first game, and still came out behind Patch’s performance in the second game. The three two-block units in the Persian army are hard to keep alive, especially when the rest of the army has to go around them to do anything. I certainly tried to take it more cautiously than Patch did, but it doesn’t seem to have helped much. Of course, Patch managed to get a couple weak units out of my reach, which certainly helped.

At any rate, as expected, this is a fairly lopsided battle, but it mostly has to do with quality of units and the 6-card hand. Overall, its still pretty interesting, as the Persians have a few things to work with. It would be nice to see a battle that features more heavy chariots.

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The Tethered Mage

by on February 6, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, first off, this was decidedly enjoyable. The main character is intelligent and sympathetic. She’s spent her time following interests away from politics, which has bored her. But, now it’s impinging on things she cares about. There’s rebellion brewing in a city that’s practically a second home for her, and the Raverran Empire could destroy a large chunk of it as an example if it goes too far. Worse, she may be the one ordered to do it (which is a result of the book’s first complication).

That said, there are problems. Even as complications are introduced, it always feels like the politics and intrigue are too simple and straightforward to feel real. Some of this may be intentional, as we’re seeing it through the eyes of someone who’s unused to intrigue. …But I think the author is too (not that I’d do much better).

The strong point of the novel is the number of ‘no good answer’ questions that are presented. People who can use magic are clearly marked (a colored ring appears in the iris), and they are ‘jessed’, with their magic bound, and made wards of the state, and also work at it’s direction, for the more powerful types, often with the military. There’s a fair number objections to this in the book, but considering some magic is likely to run out of control without the binding, and before this system, the common reaction was to kill anyone who was mage-marked… how bad is it really?

A little more mixed is the use of Venice as the prototype of Raverra. It generally feels right, and the rest of the setting (what little we see this time) fits with it, but Raverra has a large land empire, as opposed to the Stato da Mar (okay, so this is more based off Renaissance Venice, while I tend to think of Medieval Venice, but the island trade empire is a lot of what makes Venice interesting to me). At the moment, Vaskandar is a bit one-note, but hopefully that’ll get a bit filled out too.

But the main character is good, the cast around her is believable, and the action is well done. While there are dangling threads for a trilogy, the immediate plot wraps up well, and overall, it’s a very solid fantasy novel, especially for a first novel from the author, and the reviews I’ve seen indicate the quality stays high for the entire trilogy.

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81 Fratricidal Fighting

by on February 2, 2019 at 12:49 pm
Posted In: ASL

There’s a few things that Patch and I keep coming back to for more of in ASL, and looking through the Croix de Guerre scenarios, I spotted one with Vichy French versus Free French in the desert, which hit three of them (desert, French, and Brits), so went for that for our next game. It’s actually set in Syria, which makes it related to “Dayan to Meet You”, which was an interesting scenario as well.

In this case the Vichy are defending boards 25, 28, and 29 with 10 1st line squads and 3 HS, plus 5 green squads, a HMG, MMG, 37mm INF (so small it’s a SW), a MTR, and two 25mm AT guns. There’s some Dummies available, and a good number of sangars and foxholes for the relatively open terrain. The Free French have 12 elite squads and 5 HS, a couple MMGs, MTRs, and four H39s. Additionally, there’s three British squads (648s) with their own leader, an ATR, and a DC. The Free French need to take the top of the north end of the hill (25BB5) and one of a nearby crag hex (BB8), or a stone building at the bottom of the hill (Y2), in 8.5 turns, while avoiding a 30-point CVP cap, though that can be avoided with more than 25 points of Vichy casualties. Since this is Syria instead of North Africa, while there are some hillocks scattered about, broken terrain (F13.1) is effect, which is a first for me. Sadly, what this does to the boards is affected by the overlays, so we had to tweak the Vassal setup a bit.

Patch took the Vichy French, and set up a very solid network of entrenchments, and used the wadi for more protection. There was some flank protection, and a solid group around the board 25 stone buildings. As the Allied forces can only set up on boards 25 and 29, I didn’t do anything with board 28, since getting the armor onto that board would be painful. I set up with two small platoons of armor; one on the hilltop to provide covering fire, and cover to a MMG position, while the other was prepared to provide an armored assault to the British troops as they advanced into range of the stone buildings. Everything else was a fairly solid line at the limit of my setup, with plans to creep forward, and keep the Vichy busy while I flanked and took the buildings before heading up the hill.

…The next time board 25 is involved, Patch gets to attack. It’s just a nasty bit of ground to negotiate, and I’ve attacked it twice now. (Patch suggested “Hill 625” with this in place of board 2. It’s a scary thought.)

I had a little prep fire, and revealed a squad in 25X6, but they passed the MC. One hilltop tank Op Fired to observe who revealed himself down below. I had meant to use spotted MTR fire on the area, but I forgot about it as we got going. My second move was over the bridge in 25R1, and Patch revealed his MMG in V2 for a K/1 that broke the survivors. …Patch though started worrying that he’d set up the MMG way too far forward. On the next move, the MMG broke a squad as it moved behind a hedge, and the next the squad passed a NMC as the MMG finally ran out of rate.

Things didn’t go much better on top of the hill either. An early move saw a squad break, and another saw a 3KIA from Patch’s HMG. The good news was that activated my sniper, who revealed and pinned the squad in Y2, and the HMG’s second shot malfunctioned it. However, the armored assault went well with two squads getting closer while, the third 648 and 8-1 worked their way around the hillock. Thankfully, DFPh didn’t do anything more, though I found out the INF had a nice position in 25AA2. Advancing Fire started zeroing in on V2, but had no immediate effect, but a lucky shot did break the squad in 29W10.


Situation, Free French Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left. The ‘orchards’ are further broken ground, and some extras are covered up on board 28.
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