Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 18

by on December 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

After the disaster and near-ending of the game last turn, this has slipped far down the priority list, but the game does continue. Bryon (and I, to be honest) is hoping we can get this to the introduction of PFs, which is getting close.

Income took a fairly deep cut this time, with the Klingons losing about 25 EP, and the Romulans down another 6. The Lyrans were up 1.3 EP due to a lack of raids into their space, for a total contraction of 30.7 EP (all before exhaustion), for a total income of 285.975 EP after exhaustion. Unlike last turn, I actually mostly prioritized new ships, planning to return to an emphasis on repairs next time.

Builds:
Klingon: B10, C7, D7, D5W, 5xD5, 2xAD5, F6, 2xFWE, 3xF5, F5J, B10->B10V
Romulan: NH, FHF, 4xSP, SPM, 3xSK, SEH, WE, [BC]->G-BC, WE->KE, SP->SPM, SK->SKE
Lyran: DN, TGP, NCA, CW, CSV, CWE, DW, 3xDWE, 3xFF, FRD, FTM

The Klingons cancelled their C8 for an extra roll on B10-3 (which got 5 & 1…) and it is now a couple turns from completion (34 points), while B10-2 Insatiable finished, and was converted to a B10V. Meanwhile, a D7 was substituted out for the first C7, starting the overall trend to bigger cruisers with CR 10. The Lyrans built a second scout-carrier, but the Romulans still need to find hulls and budget for their free fighters (another CNV would be nice, if expensive).

Both the Klingons and Romulans put a war cruiser into the the Raid Pool. Overall, raids did not go well. No raiders were damaged, much less destroyed, but called up POLs still managed to cause most of them to retreat. The Lyrans hit Kzinti space with both of their raids, and succeeded with one. All four Klingon raiders and three Romulans went for Federation space, and destroyed one FF, while disrupting three provinces. The SHR went after the Fed LTT in Gorn space again, along with another raider in Gorn space, but neither got anywhere.

The Klingons have a major cripple backlog to take care of, and the Romulans have a few more cripples than I’d like, so it was decided to keep their operations fairly minimal. The Lyrans meanwhile have worked through just about all their cripples, and went on the offensive, working to take a decent chunk of Kzinti space to force them off of an offensive deeper into Klingon space. Elsewhere, the Lyrans were limited to moving back towards supply, now that their grid in Klingon space had collapsed. The Romulans did a limited offensive, pinning a Federation reserve, while trying to retake some of their captured planets.


Lyran offensives.


Romulan counteroffensives.

The Federation only could move two reserves, and only used a couple ships from them, keeping me from taking 2106, and interfering with a Romulan sweep of ships out their space (I’d lost track of the fact that there was a reserve in range), while the Kzinti reserves went to the small fight in 1505.

Battles:
3318: SSC: Federation: crip FF
1410: SSC: Federation dest cripFF
2106: SSC: Klingon: dest 2xF5
1202: Kzinti: dest POL
1101: Kzinti: dest POL
0801: SSC: Kzinti: dest POL
1003: SSC: Kzinti: dest POL
1504: Retreat after denied approach
1505: Kzinti: dest CM, 2xDW; Klingon: dest E4A
3415: Federation: dest DWA, DE; Romulan: dest 2xSK, crip KE
3612: Romulan: crip WE, capture planet
3509: Federation: crip NCL, FF; Gorn: dest BDE; Romulan: dest VUL, K7R, crip 2xSK

Byron had left a single crippled Federation FF next to the Klingon capital, and I sent out a couple of cripples to finish it off, and retrograde back home. About a day later I remembered that the Federation 2nd Reserve was in range of the fight if he wanted to give me a big problem (…and himself a logistical problem), but the 2nd sent a CA and FFS to save 2106 instead, and my F5Ls took care of the intruder with no problem. The latter fight rolled 4 vs 11 in SSC, and I figure the Fed squadron just did a textbook Kaufman Retrograde to the poor F5s.

Part of the plan was to get the Kzinti Earl’s and Duke’s fleets on 1407 out of supply, and limit his options next turn. The reserves into 1505 threatened that, but I managed to retreat off of there (taking the planet, even temporarily would have been a good bonus, but not why I was there) onto the reserves, which weren’t very big, and took losses trying to stand up to a full line.

Sadly, after all of this, the main plan failed, as I hadn’t realized the Kzinti had one more POL to call up, which can restore supply to 1407 after a lot of effort to cut it off. If I’d actually taken 1504, it would have still worked, and I might have been able to do that, at a cost of notably more casualties, and probably fewer Kzinti casualties.

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High Sorcery

by on December 18, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This old Ace collection of Andre Norton stories is not aptly named. There’s not a lot of sorcery to be had, high or otherwise, and certainly, it’s never called such. As usual for a collection, it is bookended by the two strongest (and in this case, longest) stories, which also happen to be the ones to have been previously published elsewhere.

In between, we get three shorter pieces, one of which, “Through the Needle’s Eye” is more what I consider a ‘mood piece’. It has a limited plot, which is almost geared around what doesn’t happen (it’s a good example of resolution through what the character learns, though). “By a Hair” is decidedly more developed, though ‘mood’ is still the primary aim, and both range closer to the horror side of the aisle.

“Ully the Piper” is effectively the second High Hallack Witch World story (which is where the WW stories I like better tend to come from). It’s the most lighthearted and fun of the stories, and for the WW completist, it’s in Tales from High Hallack Volume 1.

The first story is “Wizard’s World”, and has a quick introduction of a post-apocalyptic world where psionic mutants have appeared before moving to an alternate world where what may be magic or might simply be a different form of psionics is used. The main character has the moral high ground on just about everyone else, and while dealing with unknown powers, the his powers are just as unknown to everyone else. It’s got a lot of good action, and is good… right up until that ending. It’s… yeah, I don’t think I can easily say anything intelligent there.

The last is “Toys of Tamisan”, which is the longest of the set, and has a fair amount of world-building going on, including diving into the alternate history of a world that is already fictitious. It’s the most ambitious story, and is fairly good. It also forms the first section of the slightly later book Perilous Dreams from DAW. All of that deals with the general concepts of this original story, but only the second part is a direct sequel.

Overall, it’s not a bad collection, but the best part is found in Perious Dreams (and isn’t even the best part of that book). The other stories also apparently got reprinted in various places, none of which are likely to be easy to find today either. Overall, the situation points up the need for some large collections of all of Andre Norton’s works.

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Two Rounds of Megalopolis

by on December 14, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch and I have just finished off another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients between our bigger games. This time was the Battle of Megalopolis from Expansion #6. A Spartan rebellion while Alexander is off campaigning in the east, it features a hoplite army versus Macedonians with heavy infantry. The Macedonian army is a bit bigger, with some reserve Auxilia, and slightly better in cavalry. There’s notable hills on both sides of the board, which the Macedonians have a better position in.

I had the Macedonians for the first round, and moved up my right while Patch Ordered Light to do two hits on a Med with ranged combat, while his LC came in contact, and was driven off by battle back from my LS. I moved up my left, and Patch Ordered Four Left to drive off my Med with one block left. I Ordered Four Center to bring a Heavy and fresh Med into play, while filling holes in the line with Auxes, and destroyed one of his Auxes while taking one hit on each of the two units after a First Strike. Patch Out Flanked to drive off a LC and do a block to my other Heavy, while he reduced the weak Heavy to one block, losing five blocks across two units in return.

Line Command allowed me to shelter the weak Heavy while moving everything up and engaging the weakened units. I drove a LB off the hills, and reduced another unit to one block, but lost an Aux in the process. On the other flank, I lost two blocks on a LS, and drove off an Aux. Patch used Leadership Any Section on his shattered left to pull one unit back, while an Aux stayed on the hills and engaged at range. I Counterattacked to follow up on that flank, and forced that Aux back. Patch Ordered Three Left to move the Aux back onto the hills, and tightened up the line, transferring Agis III to an intact MH. He reduced a Med to one block, but it finished off that Aux on battle back. I Ordered Three Right to occupy the hills, and finished off a weak MH at range. Patch Ordered Two Center to move to his right, and did two blocks (uphill) to the Heavy there, who drove the Spartan MH off with a loss on battle back. Move-Fire-Move allowed me to bring up the third reserve Aux, and do a block each to a MH and LB.

A Mounted Charge allowed Patch to order half of his remaining army, forcing my MC to retreat off map, finishing off a Heavy, and its leader, killing the Aux I’d just brought up, and doing a block to a second one, who did a block back. I used Coordinated Attack to shift a leader from a wrecked Heavy to the damaged Aux while two units fired at a Spartan MH without effect. Clash of Shields ordered Patch’s MC and two MH, the latter of which each wiped out an Aux. 3-7

Patch led off with Order Three Left for the second game, driving me back in the hills there. I moved up with a Line Command, and drove off his MC. Patch Counterattacked, bringing us much closer together than I had planned. Move-Fire-Move got my LS and LC forward, and a lucky banner caused his LC to retreat off the board, but no other damage was done. Leadership Any Section let Patch engage on my left, killing an Aux and MH, with Agis III fleeing for the baseline (I should have taken two banners on the MH to get him out of range of a Momentum follow-up, but didn’t think of it in time), with another MH taking two blocks, and doing one in return.

With my line thoroughly shattered, I used Leadership Any Section to engage near the center, and pull back the weakened MH, destroying a Med, and driving back an Aux to the baseline with one loss while taking one block. Patch Ordered Two Center, engaging a couple of separated units, finishing off the weak MH, but taking three hits on a Med. Order Three Right drove his Heavy back a hex, but nothing else happened. Patch Double Timed three Aux from the baseline, doing a block to a Spartan MH, and taking three blocks in return.

I Ordered Two Center to bring Agis III up to command my remaining MH there, and finished off a 1-block Med. Patch Out Flanked to trade blocks between a Med and MH, drive off an Aux, and knock out a Spartan MH, and do two blocks to a second, taking two blocks in return. Mounted Charge ordered four remaining units (two of which were hoplites). I blocked a LS’s retreat with LC, but while they took two hits from a banner, they did a banner in battle back, to wipe out the LC. My MC drove off the LS with another loss, but I wiped out his Warriors, and Momentum bagged his weakened Heavy and leader, and then another attack got a 3-block Aux. 7-5

Afterword

The most surprising thing about both games is that it looked like the Macedonians had it until a surprise upset. It was less certain in the first game, as many Macedonian units had been smashed, but I’d pried a small edge out, and had a good position until Mounted Charge and Clash of Shields suddenly changed things. In the second game, I was struggling with a poor hand (two Order Two Right, and a need to do everything else), but good cards kept coming up.

I think the Macedonians do have the advantage here, but as you can see it’s a fairly even fight.

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Bridge of Birds

by on December 10, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

If you’re looking for a good historical novel, don’t look for it here. There’s a bit of history that shows up (the specific year it takes place in is specified), but that’s just some basic grounding for a story rooted in Chinese myth.

Some of those myths are quite real, including the ‘Duke of Ch’in’, or Qin Shi Huang, who is a figure of great renown, accomplishments… and occasional bogeyman of China.

The writing itself is wonderful, and part of what makes the somewhat surreal setting that incorporates many legends and tales, and keeps anything from jarring out of place. This also allows all sorts of fun, over-the-top action… in something of the best pulp traditions, though it doesn’t have that feel at all. Its hard to properly recommend this enough, it’s a very fun book, that is actually a bit longer than I remembered, but the action goes at a smooth clip that keeps the pages turning.

For me (and, it would seem, a lot of westerners) it feels exactly as the blurb says: ‘an ancient China that never was’, but I can’t help wondering how someone with a lot more knowledge (say, a native…) would feel about the book. Hughart apparently has studied China fairly extensively, so I hope it would hold up there as well.

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Kiln People

by on December 6, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Okay, I have some problems with the basic premises here. Technology for scanning your personality, your soul, and imprinting it on a disposable clay-like… ‘golem’ who is effectively a mental duplicate of you, is so cheap that sending it out to do a classic 9-to-5 job for you will earn noticeably more than the cost of the ‘ditto’. This is complicated by the fact that these dittoes are good for about a day, so doing the above job means a new ditto every day.

All this has profound social implications, which are already in the novel’s past: apparently most of the population is effectively out of work; out-competed by people who can do a few things well enough to be the ‘specialist’ in various mundane tasks and send as many dittoes out as needed to get it all done. There’s still localism, as you can’t do any of this by remote, and in some places they hire a bunch of different people, and in some all the same person. This is discussed some, but not really seen, as the characters involved are all in the realm of the Gainfully Employed.

So, the world building is really what happens to society after this happens, and short of the fact that these golems would have to be impossibly cheap, works well. Meanwhile, the actual plot follows the adventures of Albert Morris, a private eye, over about a four-day period. All the story is told through his viewpoint, or his various dittos’, and uses the device that he habitually records notes of everything as he goes, and everything is pulled from there, or from his own memories. If something happens that those can’t be recovered, then that viewpoint isn’t there.

A hidden question that the book slowly goes into the quality of these duplicates. The bodies range from very cheap and basic, to expensive, with all five senses, better brains, and even being specialized in concentration and the like. But… what if there’s some parts of your personality that just don’t make it over, or only do so sometimes? Albert actually produces very good dittoes, which helps with his work, and so this wrinkle doesn’t show up at first, but becomes gradually more important later.

As a mystery… well, I’m not as much of an expert, but I’d call it good, as things hang together well, and all the twists make sense. The action gets fairly confused during the second half, and especially so at the climax, where there’s a lot going on at once, presented through three different viewpoints (…and things take a turn for the strange). I had stopped paying as much attention to Brin after a couple books didn’t impress me a lot, but this one’s action has me back to wanting to catch up with his writing.

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