SH3 The Coming of the Meteor

by on December 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Patch and I recently finished off a try at this old scenario (I think it’s from the original pocket edition) in the Basic Set. It has some of the ‘feel’ of the Original Series adventures, and is a neat premise:

In Y160 a massive meteor was spotted headed for the industrial colony on Pollux IX. The Federation heavy cruiser Kongo, under the command of Captain Phillip Kosnett, was dispatched to avert the disaster. When Kongo arrived on the scene, however, Kosnett discovered that a Klingon frigate was shepherding the meteor.

The meteor starts 10 hexes away from the planet (and moves on the first impulse of every turn, so it’s about nine turns away), with the F5 Khedive next to it, and Kongo 22 hexes from them. The asteroid can be towed by a ship facing away from it and tractoring it for 16 impulses (…speed does not matter). Victory is purely by how close to the planet the asteroid gets to the planet, with even two hexes being a danger as small fragments will still hit the colony, killing a tenth of the inhabitants, and causing a draw. The asteroid can be ‘destroyed’ (broken up into pieces by 400 points of damage), which does not affect the ability to tow it, and does make it less dangerous to the planet.

We had to have a bit of discussion about the MacGuffin, as while the scenario quite clearly calls it a ‘large asteroid’, it doesn’t call out that section of the rules (which I hadn’t known of, I remembered the general asteroid field rules, and the small moon rules…), and defines that it will destroy any unit in a hex the asteroid enters. Large asteroids don’t prevent ships from entering its hex (and they can even land on it), or block fire, or anything you might expect of something large enough to crush whatever is in a hex 10,000 kilometers across. We did go with the large asteroid rules, and drop the normal asteroid ‘dodge’ rules as it is supposed to be a singular object instead of a debris field. It’s one place where clearer instructions would help.

Patch volunteered to take the F5, and a few impulses in realized just what he was in for. (I had expected he’d stick me with figuring it out.) He went a reasonable speed of 16, while I went 18 to get near the asteroid on the first turn. The CA is at WS-2, or the second turn of arming of photons, and I fully overloaded one, while keeping the others standard, while the F5 is at WS-1 and had to charge up phasers, and it also put up 2 points of ECM to discourage longer-range shots.

On the first impulse, the asteroid moved, and Patch lowered shield #1 to put a transporter bomb in front of the meteor. This did change my initial approach plan, but we both commented later that while a great opener, a second mine behind the asteroid would have been much better, and forced more maneuvering from me (as it was, I just sideslipped enough to bring me around behind the meteor). As I headed in, the F5 got underway, and did a clockwise loop that ended with the disruptors out of arc until he turned directly in on Impulse 26, with the range 15 and closing. Patch fired at that point, hitting with one disruptor on shield #1, and we finished the turn at range 11.

Only being three hexes from the meteor, I slowed to speed 10, charged up a tractor beam, partially overloaded a second torpedo, set one for proximity fuse, and held a HET in reserve in case Patch got too close. Patch stayed at 16, and dropped all EW while I put up 6 ECM. Patch turned away on Impulse 2, and on Impulse 4, with him about to go out of arc, I hit him with the prox photon on the #3 shield. Patch then increased his ECM to 1, presumably to discourage any more of that….

On Impulse 13, I slipped in ahead of the asteroid, and attached the tractor beam. On 16 Patch started coming back in for a run at my rear, and I launched a shuttle to provide some cover and/or drone defense. On 20, Patch fired his overloaded disruptors at range 8 as he was about to go out of arc again; thanks to my ECM shift, only one hit on shield #3, partially countered by the one point of reinforcement I’d afforded there. On 26, he turned directly in, launched a drone the following impulse, and my towing took effect on 29 to get it out of line of a direct impact with the planet.


Turn 2, Impulse 4, showing movement throughout the turn.

For the third turn, I kept up the tractor while still paying for speed 10 and an HET, and 5 ECM with 1 ECCM which left very little power for everything else. I finished overloading the second photon, and started reloading tube D, and had to pay a half point out of batteries to balance it all. Meanwhile, Patch’s F5 dropped to speed 14 and didn’t bother with EW.

I launched a second covering shuttle on Impulse 4 as Patch continued to come in. The first shuttle fired at the drone, but only did three points on a bad shot. Patch came in with a second drone following, and the second shuttle fired at him on 14, doing 2 points to #4 on another bad roll at range 2. On 16, the F5 passed directly behind the CA on the oblique, and unloaded it’s best shot at range 1: with the +2 shift, one disruptor missed, and the five phasers did 18 damage, I blew the remaining batteries to take five internals, which knocked out two phasers and one power. I had fired back with two of the side phasers to do 11 to his #2, and the other two were used to shoot down the second drone and finish off the first one; which thankfully weren’t Type-Vs. (Patch pointed out that it’s really rough to take two-space drones when you only have one four-space rack.)

I seriously contemplated cutting the tractor as he came out of his pass, and burning the HET to pump three photons (two overloads) and two phaser 1s into a rear shield at point blank range (it was, after all, the general plan of all those expenditures), but I’d already had the second towing move, and the third one would come up before the end of the turn, and the F5 was empty. So, I stuck it out, got the third hex, which pulls the asteroid completely out of range on Impulse 29, and Patch basically conceded at the end of the turn.

Afterword

With the asteroid out of the way, I could basically go slow near it, and keep myself pointed at the F5. It would get pounded if it tried to tow the asteroid back into range. I could have pounded him during turn 3, but sticking with the asteroid meant I didn’t need to go back to it later.

There were a few more options that Patch had: He could have put another TB into where I’d go when I towed, he could have powered up a suicide shuttle (though he was probably a bit thin on power) and launched it during his pass. I wasn’t going anywhere, and it’d absorb even more of my fire. A scatterpack could have been interesting… but Patch still needs to get Advanced Missions.

I knew it was going to be an odd match, and wasn’t sure how it would play out. One thing I finally realized is that it was written back when plotted movement was the norm, and that could give the F5 the edge it needs here. Even with plotting, the F5 knows where the CA is going eventually; the CA has fewer guarantees about the F5.

Suggestions:

There seems to be a habit of not going back and really reexamining older scenarios when republished in later editions. Along with plotting, it looks like this was written before ‘speed is life’ became a real mantra, and it’s expected that things will proceed more slowly. Also, the asteroid really needs more clarifications in the rules. I’ve got a few ideas on how this scenario could be refitted, though I don’t have any idea how balanced any of it might be.

First, I think the variation in SH3.62 might work a lot better. Adding a CL and D6 to the mix could be very interesting. It evens the firepower out a lot, and more importantly, the D6 and F5 can threaten to try and dodge around one Federation ship to get at whichever one’s towing.

Second, it’s too easy for the CA to park next to the asteroid and just put everything into reinforcement for a turn or two. I deliberately didn’t do this, and kept to speed 10, but there was no reason go even that fast on Turn 3. It gets even worse if you use mid-turn speed changes to slow down right as you get to the asteroid, and speed up when it’s time to break the tractor. My thought is instead of spending sixteen impulses towing, you must spend so many movement points (calculated off of Practical Speed) to move the asteroid one hex. This could allow faster towing, though getting a CA to go really fast takes some doing, and possibly means cutting power elsewhere. Eight movement seems like a likely base figure to try, since that means speed 16 for the same rate as the original, though if you’re using mid-turn speed changes, it should definitely be something like 10 movement. (This could also be translated into energy expended if you want to make it harder for the F5 to tow back, or to make the CA and D6 the obvious towing candidates in the four-ship version.)

Lastly, this seems like a perfect situation to give the Federation some firing restrictions. Chasing down the F5, blowing it up, and then towing the asteroid out shouldn’t be too hard (it is a fixed map), but it’s not very Star Fleet. There’s already a rule that the Klingon captain can claim “it was all a horrible mistake”, and all combat halts. A simple solution would just be to use the Non-Violent Combat system (D6.4), which would allow the F5 to feel safer about losing a shield or two. (We’ve had a scenario where it was used once, and small ships can generally not worry about the big CA too much.) A more custom rule could be interesting though: Don’t fire unless the Klingon has. Don’t fire anything that could cause internals (on best rolls) unless the Klingon has done internals.

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Tales of the Zodiac Braves

by on November 28, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I finished off Heavensward a bit more than three months ago now, and you might expect that we’ve been getting well into the post-Heavensward content of FF XIV….

Not so much.

There are a few things from before the expansion that we had not finished up, and our efforts have been going to that. So not only have we not gone into Patch 3.1 yet, but we haven’t seen a lot of the newer zones lately either.

First off, we’ve been working on the Postmoogle quests, generally doing one per week. We’d probably just work on that while also doing 3.1 content, but the main thing we’re holding back for is getting our main-class relic weapons through all the stages they went through before Heavensward. Technically, you can just skip ahead to the beginning of the post-expansion versions, but Smudge has been determined to see it through (and it does get some extra achievements, along with some background and story for NPCs who won’t be going away any time soon). As expected for something originally designed to keep people busy when all the current story is done, every step along the way has its own brand of frustration, and takes a fair amount of time.

Possibly the most frustrating part was the Animus Zodiac weapons, which have you go through nine books, each of which has certain monsters, FATEs, Levequests, and dungeons to do. This was time consuming, and quite repetitive by the end, as there were only so many places of the right level range for them to draw from. After that, attaching 75 materia to a star scroll took some time and organization due to getting the materials, but we generally had the materia to hand. And then the next step of gathering light points took a bit simply because it was a big job, and we didn’t burn out on it. One of the most efficient ways of doing it was the three ARR+ raids, which we went through for a few weekends in a row, so we finally got familiar with them after also skipping by that on our way to Heavensward.

After that, the plan cooked up by the NPCs is to create an all-new weapon with better potential, and pour all the soul-energy of the old one into the new weapon. This required a fair amount of running around for more materials, and some things needed to be crafted. Luckily, between the two of us we have all the crafting classes in good shape… but part of it is taking apart (or desynthesizing) relatively expensive vendor items to get materials that only exist that way. Most of our desynth skills were not already up to the task, so that took some extra effort. I have gotten a better idea of how those skills work as a result, and why getting them into Heavensward levels is such a pain….

And once everything is ready, and you’re about to sacrifice your old weapon, the game warns you, twice:

Maybe I needed more soulbonding with it?
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Catseye

by on November 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Catseye features Norton’s usual broader theme of the main character finding his place in the world, but isn’t really a coming-of-age story like many of her books. In fact, Troy Horan doesn’t need to be exiled or otherwise lost to find his place; he had it, on the plains of Norden, but he was evacuated for a war, and the planet of Norden is lost, no longer part of of the Council.

Troy is stuck on Korwar, a gathering place of the rich and powerful, and with a chronic job shortage. A temporary job using his rusty animal handling skills starts to lever him out of the slums, but it is quickly apparent that his employer is engaged in something outside the law, and involving exotic animals imported from Terra. The action moves quickly and smoothly, with a lot of twists and turns. The story stays focused on Troy, and his struggles against a restricted society, so that you never quite find out exactly what happened in a couple of critical places.

Technically, those missing parts are outside the plot, and aren’t really needed. Indeed, the lack doesn’t actually detract from the book, as Troy (and the reader) gets just enough knowledge to be getting on with.

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Two Rounds of Issus

by on November 20, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch and I are continuing our between-larger-games sets of Commands & Colors: Ancients, and we are continuing our current tour through Alexander the Great’s career with Issus from Expansion 1. It’s a large battle, with both armies having more units than could fit in a single line, and going to eight banners. Alexander has a distinct edge in quality, and gets six cards to the Persian four. Hills on one side, coast on the other, but the Pinarus river is not only fordable down the entire length, it doesn’t even limit the number of dice rolled, so its only effect is to stop movement. Alexander adds a die to any unit he’s attached to, the Companions can ignore a banner and a sword, and the Immortals are medium infantry that can used ranged combat.

I had Alexander for the first round, and led off with Order Lights to bring a couple Auxilia up, and pepper the advanced Persian units with sling and bow fire, forcing a Persian LS to retreat, doing a block to a second one, and two blocks to a Med. Patch Counter Attacked to bring up Auxes on his left, and I used a Line Command to start engaging them in the hills, driving off the lead unit, and doing a block to another. Order Three Left brought the Auxes up again, and drove back one of mine, while we did a block to each other. I moved up a little, and another Order Three Left did one block to each of two units of my Auxes, while I did two to one of his, and he got solid control of the hills. Order Three Right brought my Heavies into contact, where they knocked out a weakened Auxilia, and I did a block to another for no damage.

Patch used Order Mediums to organize his center, while MCs moved on the flanks, doing a block to a LC for no damage. I Ordered Heavies to bring up a couple units in the center, send a Heavy to hit his MC, and the one from my right advanced to the river to engage an Aux, doing a block, and driving it off. Patch used Line Command to get his center past the Pinarus and engage my leading Heavy and wipe it out, but took three blocks in return. Darius used Momentum to hit the second Heavy, doing three blocks to it, and taking three in return. I used Mounted Charge to bring Alexander through a gap in my line and pick off a weakened Med, and then do a block and three banners to a second one on Momentum, another MC picked off the remnants of the Immortals, and drove Darius off to his HC; Momentum bagged the other Med from the assault, and drove off a leader to a LC.

Patch Counter Attacked again, reducing the right Heavies to one block for no loss, while my left Heavies took two hits and did a hit and two banners to reduce a MC to one block. Inspired Center Leadership started moving up some spare Mediums, while my MC did two blocks to an Aux while taking two, and I did a hit to the HC. Clash of Shields activated five units for Patch, which knocked out the right Heavy, an Aux, and a MC, as well as doing a block to a LB, and nearly forced an Aux off the board. I used Leadership to engage his right flank, driving off a LS and LC, and eliminating a weak Aux. Darken the Sky finished off an Aux, and did two blocks to a LB. I used Order Lights to re-dress the line a little, and knocked out an Aux as well as driving off the HC.

Order Four Left gave Patch several shots at the one unit left on my right (a one-block LB), but he couldn’t connect. Order Two Center sent Alexander over to the right, where he did a block to a MC for no damage, while a Med moved forward. Order Three Left finished off the LB, and did two blocks to the Companions, while they did one to a MC, which I then finished off with an Inspired Right Leadership. Order Two Center forced my Med back with ranged fire, but Double Time got my right in contact, and wiped out an evading LC. 8-6

For the second round, Patch led off with Order Four Center, and started forming a more solid line, while doing a block to a LS with ranged fire. I Ordered Three Left, and brought up units while doing a block to the center Heavy. Patch moved up a couple units, and then a Order Four Right eliminated a LC by forcing it off the board and my MC did a couple hits to a LB that was blocked from evading. Patch Out Flanked to bring up the wings and drive off my two cav units with a loss apiece, and followed that up with Darken the Sky which did two blocks each to to LS.

Line Command allowed me to get one of the LSes out of the way, and move up most everything else, driving back an Aux, and doing a block to a MC with ranged fire. Patch Ordered Lights, and mostly stood in place, doing three hits to one Med with fire from three units. Line Command got me into contact with much of his line, driving back his right flank Aux with a loss, but only after he’d done three blocks to an Aux of mine, and took out his center heavy at a cost of three hits on a Med; a Momentum attack did hits to a blocked Light, but he hit back for a block, while I got another Light for three blocks between an Aux and missile fire. Inspired Center Leadership let Patch rework his right and pick off an Aux and Med, while doing a block to an Aux in return for three on a Heavy; my forward Med took two blocks and three banners to retreat to the main line. A third Line Command allowed me to engage parts of his line again and pick off the Heavy and a Light, while driving back an Aux and another Light, one of my Auxes was driven back, and a Momentum against another Heavy did two damage in return for me taking three.

Order Two Center brought in Alexander who finished off a Medium, and eliminated Darius, doing two blocks to an Aux on momentum, then Craterus took out a Med, and finished off the Aux on Momentum. Coordinated Attack allowed some ranged combat, doing a block to a LB and the Companions, while I moved my HC into position for next turn. Inspired Left Leadership brought that flank into contact, and took out a LS and Med. 4-8

Afterword

Both battles saw a lot of carnage and both sides trying to figure out what to do with smashed units. These are large well equipped armies, and eight banners gives lots of time to see them in action. Four cards is a heck of a handicap for the Persians, but they got strong cards both times to put up a stubborn fight. I was about to use a Mounted Charge card, who knows how much it would have done, but the HC had a good shot at Craterus, and then Momentum into the Companions and Alexander.

And there’s some interesting wrinkles here too. I had to give up on the Macedonian right flank the first game because I couldn’t afford to be fighting uphill. The initial deployments take a little working with to get a real line going, which was what my first few turns as the Persians was all about.

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Alas, Babylon

by on November 16, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Another book from the ‘Dad always recommended it, and I should have gotten to it faster pile’. This generally gets classified as science fiction, though I have trouble doing that. It is a novel of ‘tomorrow’ (that tomorrow being 1959 at the time), like a lot of good science fiction, but really, it doesn’t feature anything that was not known at the time, it’s just events that could have happened and thankfully didn’t. As a book featuring military hardware, and WWIII, you could consider it a technothriller 30 years ahead of its time, but it isn’t that at all. The scenes dealing with military goings on are short, and are there merely to give you a real idea of how all this came to pass, and just how easy it can be to stumble into a war.

I’m not convinced on some of what is presented of the course of the war, but some of the problems do stem from it being written in the middle of the ‘missile gap’, a period where we thought we were significantly behind the Soviet Union’s ability to cause nuclear devastation from afar. A perception, that like so many in the Cold War proved to be illusory. I did have to look up Conelrad, which turns out to be the predecessor of the Emergency Broadcast System, which also dates things, as the Conelrad system worked fairly differently to its successors.

But never mind all of that, that’s not what the novel’s about. Welcome to Fort Repose, Florida, a small town that is about to be cut off and thrown on only its own resources when all else around it is destroyed, and the winds keep the fallout away during the critical first few days. Much of the point of the novel is certainly pointing up just how dependent on the rest of the world even a small town is, and this is merely in the electrical age; it’s all even more true is the electronic and internet age, though I think we might be a little more aware of that fact today, even if we’re just as used to everything else being there for us.

It’s a book that wants to make you think, and it does, though many of the things it wants to present have been picked up and done as well later. But this is one of (if not the) first serious literary look at what a post-holocaust world would look like, and does it very well, Pat Frank had definitely spent a fair amount of time thinking through the consequences. It also has one of the more balanced perspectives on the aftermath. Order breaks down, there is looting, gangs attacking people… and there are people who come together to take care of each other, conserve resources, and form a small community of their own.

Part of the accurate depiction of 1959 America involves, of course, the attitudes of the time. It’s obvious that Frank thinks well of blacks, and the main character does as well inside his cultural box as he can (and far better than most everyone else), there’s no equivalent progressivism for women here. It’s quite understandable, though a shame. Its a decided weakness, though the ‘thought experiment’ model of the book weakens more it from today’s perspective as it means that it doesn’t have a very strong, cohesive plot, and is somewhat episodic in its structure.

Sadly, this is yet another book converted to ebook format that needs another pass through edit. The bulk of it is in good shape, but the text starts coming apart near the end with a good number of errors that still need cleaning up.

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