Designers & Dragons Appendix

by on June 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This was created as a Kickstarter stretch goal, and while good, is smaller and much more limited than the main four books.

The first part is a collection of four essays done as a result of the Kickstarter that funded the publication of the main series. One is on women in the industry, and starts off reasonably interesting, but falls into a wall of names for the end, which is a common problem with things like that. The other three are about different fan groups that had an influence on the industry. The last of these is somewhat autobiographical, as its the group Appelcline was (and is) part of, while one is a group that had an impact on the tournament scene and helped the popularity of the Hero System, and the first one is about the group that generated the thief class in D&D.

And all of them do a lot to shore up weaknesses in coverage of main volumes. Fan communities have had some profound effects on the history of RPGs, but much of that gets lost in the focus on companies, so that fans that started companies become the only glimpse into that world we get. In addition, the look at women in the RPG industry is the only place where Appelcline tries to take a look at overall trends, instead of focusing on what was going on in a particular place. With a few more chapters like these (perhaps some that at least summarize what has happened in non-English speaking countries), the entire work will be much more complete.

The last part of the book is a reprint of a series of yearly ‘year in review’ essays that Appelcline has been writing since 2008. Since it’s the entire industry, a year at a time, it has a different perspective than the main text, and since this volume came slightly later, it includes the 2014 essay. There’s also some nice asides included where he comments on his own comments.

This is about a quarter of the size of the main volumes, and not as packed with info, due to the format, but still well worth a read.

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Mercenaries and Their Masters

by on June 21, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Originally written in English in 1974, this is apparently still one of the basic studies of Italian Renaissance warfare in English or Italian. Mallett spent some time studying the original sources and came to what were at the time non-traditional conclusions.

It’s a moderately-sized book split up into nine massive chapters. (Plus a very short tenth chapter that might as well be an afterword.) The relatively ‘flat’ presentation seems like it would be hard to use as reference to look up particular points later, but just reading through it is fine. Individual battles aren’t given a lot of attention, though every once in a while one comes up for discussion, and a couple campaigns are discussed when he looks at just how mobile Italian armies were.

The fact is, this is a very general book that looks at a bit of everything, mercenaries and militia, pay rates, the changes towards more permanent contracts/standing armies, and much more. So there’s no room for any one thing to be concentrated on. It is a very good introduction to the period, though having some minimal knowledge of the period going in would probably help.

I’m very glad that Pen and Sword has brought this to ebook format, and the text was in very good shape. (There were a few errors scattered about, but over this is one of the best conversions I’ve seen.)

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The Road to Erzurum

by on June 17, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Jason was over again on Thursday, and we tried out the Caucasus 1916 scenario from Osmani Harbi. I contemplated trying one of the other maps in the set, but decided to keep it simple by sticking with the area and sides we’d seen already. We kept the same sides (i.e., me as the Ottomans), which meant that Jason got to be on the attack this time.

This scenario starts in early January 1916 and runs to the beginning of May, and a special rule ensures that all but the final turn are in Winter conditions. The front has advanced back into Turkey, and the Ottoman forces are exhausted, with all but a couple infantry divisions down to one strength point, and the others still down to their 2-4 side. The Russians are generally at full strength, and have 40 supply split between four HQ. Victory this time depends on taking Erzurum and keeping demoralization down.


All those -1 markers are hiding Ottoman divisions that are down to 1-4.

Jason moved up methodically while I did some minimal reworking of the line, and late in the month he did two sharp attacks that killed depleted divisions and blew holes in the line. Worse, the division between the two attacks was stuck in place. (Der Weltkrieg features a number of places where familiar rules have an interesting twist. It has the usual ‘1 hex minimum move’, but forbids it if you’re going from enemy ZOC to enemy ZOC and the terrain cost is 4 or more, so mountains can really stick you). Isolated, he ended up surrendering.

I anchored the center part of my line in relatively clear ground, with a hex that was nearly surrounded by rivers. Jason second another round of attacks as January came to a close, eliminating an independent regiment near the flank, and drove me out of that position. But he was gobbling up 4-5 supplies per attack, and taking pretty noticeable losses himself.

I disbanded my three lost divisions (special rule for the Ottomans) to get an extra replacement point at the start of February. I used it to rebuild the destroyed regiment, and the normal two I got headed north to rebuild a division on the line. I also started building a trench in the next hex down the valley. I wasn’t sure I’d use it even if I completed it, since trenches and mountains don’t work together, and the hex could generally get mountain terrain against an attack. But better to have it than not.

Jason spent a decent amount of February getting new supplies and troops to the front while lining up his next attack, and I strengthened my position with a new fresh division and rebuilt another to full. He hit the next hex in the valley, driving me out of it before the trench completed, and getting him within two hexes of his goal.

The Russians get a lot of replacements in March (9 points above the usual monthly two), while I got a couple of HQs (only one with actual supplies) and another fresh division (the Ottoman reinforcements trickle in while the 11 Russian replacement points all arrive at the beginning of the turn). I naturally started entrenching in the final hex before Erzurum.

Of course, Jason didn’t really want to take that approach anyway. Erzurum is a very limited fortress. The strength of it is fine, but it only works against one hexside: the one that faces up the valley that the Russian advance had been moving up. So Jason’s next target was the north flank of my line, which had a full-strength 3-4 division in it. Towards the end of the month, he forced me out of the hex with losses, but the trench in the other hex completed.

Meanwhile, I’d been using the latest round of reinforcements and replacements to try and cause trouble on the southern flank. It had ground to a halt early (in fact, I think all activity was from me pulling back to keep pace with the rest of the line), and was held by a series of 1-strength units on both sides. While some strength did go to shoring up the position in front of Erzurum, I did end up with a pair of 3-4s slooowly moving into position on the weak flank.

Jason’s activity in April was partially consumed with reorganizing the very limited supplies left to him, which culminated on an attack north of Erzurum which failed to dislodge me. There wasn’t much left, but he was exhausted too, and there wasn’t enough time for one turn in May to make a difference. Meanwhile, I’d hit his flank three times, using up much of my available supplies. Since he wasn’t supplied the counter attacks were at strength 1, and he rolled horribly (1s) to not do any damage to me in the first two combats. I returned the favor by merely rolling poorly to do nothing to him. On the third try we finally hurt each other, knocking out a brigade and giving him a potential problem on that flank… if I had anything to follow it up with.

The game technically ended with an Ottoman Decisive Victory, but late in the day, we finally realized our major rules muff of the day. We’d forgotten that retreating defenders are only double strength instead of tripled. It’s hard to say exactly how much difference that made, the results chart is fairly flat in the numbers I was dealing with all day (especially with the mountain and winter +4 mods making the max result likely in most combats). Certainly the first few combats, I would have gone from strength 3 to 2, and that wouldn’t have affected anything. In the middle it’s hard to say. As it was, we were really close to 2:1 on Demorilization (~15 to ~32 by memory), so I count this as a Substantial Victory.

It’s hard to say how the Russians can do much better though. No matter what, it’s just really awful terrain to do anything but defend, and with the occasional movement problems, not always the best for that either. Even if he’d gotten that last hex, he was about out of supply, so attacking Erzurum itself was going to be a major problem.

I have to say, I’m starting to think these smaller scenarios are probably only good for 2-3 plays before being fairly exhausted (I could be missing something), but the next step up is generally a one-map ‘duration’ scenario that would be way too long. I wish I was seeing something more intermediate, like a full year.

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Designers & Dragons: Part 4

by on June 13, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The fourth (and kind-of final) volume of Shannon Appelcline’s massive history of the RPG industry finishes up the project well. However, I can’t help a feeling that this one is less important, and unpolished.

Some of this is my prejudices, but some is caused by the nature of how the books are put together. Since each chapter is a look at the full history of a company, instead of being confined to the decade under study, earlier volumes had histories that covered multiple decades in long histories with a lot of context. Here, all the histories are relatively short, since no company could have more than thirteen years of existence at the time of writing. This is shown by the coverage of 26 companies in this volume, plus thirteen company mini-histories, a quick look at OSR, a short look at Glorantha fanzines, and finally two asides talking about his conception of ‘story games’ (which have been brought up since the first volume).

The format also ill-serves overall industry trends, which was a minor problem before, but really damages coverage of the d20 years. I know it was a big thing, and it comes up a lot as a driving force in a lot of chapters, but I still don’t have a clear picture of how it operated because of the fragmentary coverage. Short of the creation of the RPG itself, it’s probably the biggest industry-wide force there’s been, and I have no idea just how many companies (large and small) published during it (and how that compares to, say, the ’80s boom), and so on.

There’s some good coverage of the indie movement, and trends in it (including a much better picture of how it got going than I’ve seen elsewhere), and some lesser coverage of OSR. Of course, the real problem with all of this, is that with it all being so recent (/ongoing), it’s harder to judge what’s going to be of lasting importance at this point. Moreover, the book was written as D&D 5E was preparing to come out, so current events are still playing havoc with important subjects here, notably Paizo.

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Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 15

by on June 9, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

The erosion of the Coalition position led to a hefty 30-point jump in the Alliance’s economy, with the Kzinti getting the most with a 12 EP jump, powered by the recovery of most of their provinces. This allowed for more robust shipbuilding, but specialty ships are still restricted to scouts and some replacement escorts.

Builds:
Federation: DNG, NCA, 12xNCL, 3xDW, 2xDWA, FFB, 11xFF, NCL->NSC, 2xFF->FFS, 2xDD->DE
Kzinti: NCA, 2xCM, LTT, DW, 3xFKE, FF, CM->MEC, EFF->FKE
Gorn: CCH, BC, CM, 3xHD, 2xBD, BDS, DD, FCR, 3xCC->CCH, CL->CCH
Hydran: TG, 2xTR, DWE, 4xCU, 2xHN

They Hydrans raided east Hydran space, picking off an F5, and crippling another, and also hit Lyran space to pick off a POL and disrupt the province. The Kzintis sent two raiders into Lyran space and disrupted provinces, while the Feds picked off an F5 in Kzinti space. A Fed DNL tried to pick off a couple out-of-supply Klingons in western Fed space, but a D6 joined them, and the DNL was only able to cripple an F5. Another DNL tried to take out a patrolling E4, and got a D7C in response, which fought it off (poor roll). The Gorns hit a couple Romulans patrolling Gorn space, and picked off a K4 while a SNB evaded.

The Hydrans did their standard move on the homeworld while pinning down the Lyran reserve force, and the Kzinti made another move against the Lyran border SB. The Federation naturally send the 4th Fleet against the remnant of the Klingon NE Fleet that was holding the major planet in Federation space. Further south, efforts were made to pin most Klingon forces, and send a good combined fleet against the fortified planet in 2715. The group holding the Klingon planet in 1611 mostly bugged out, and attempted to take NZ planet 1910. Byron apparently didn’t realize that the Lyran Fire Squadron was nearby and had no other business, so it reacted onto the planet, along with an adjacent D6, giving him a fight he was not equipped to win.

Early activity on the Romulan front concentrated on taking 3210 back, but a decent force moved on 3711 later, generating a series of separate fights, as various detached forces intercepted pieces of the move. Finally, the Gorns tried a thrust against the SB in 4812, but the 3rd Star Legion intercepted and pinned most of it, and the Gorns halted just inside the border.


The same old dance.


Kzinti expansion.


Throwing the Klingons back across the border.


Gnawing on the flanks.

The Lyran reserves naturally went to save the Kzinti border SB again, while the Klingons sent a reserve each to help 1105 and 2715. The 1st Reserve in 1312 was positioned so as to help in Hydran space if they started trying do more near the old border, and so merely sent two ships to fight on the Federation border. The Romulans sent two reserves to save 3711 from a combined Federation-Gorn force, and sent the third to BATS 4010.

Battles:
0918: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5; Hydran: crip CU
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5, crip D6
1809: SSC: Federation: crip FF
0703: SSC: mutual retreat
0214: Lyran: dest CW; Hydran: crip 2xHN
0617: Klingon: dest F5V, E4A; Hydran: dest LN, capture capital
0404: Retreat after declined approach
0504: Lyran: dest DW; Kzinti: crip CM, cap DW
1105: Lyran: dest STL, crip DW; Klingon: dest C9A, FRD, crip D6M; Kzinti: dest MSC, 2xFKE, crip MEC, 2xCL
1404: Klingon: dest F5E, crip D5, AD5, F5; Kzinti: dest FKE, SAD, crip CM
2006: Klingon: crip 2xF5; Federation: crip CL
2307: Klingon: dest cripD6; Federation capture D6
2306: Klingon: dest F5L, E4V, E4A
1910: Lyran: dest DWE, DDG; Federation: dest CA, DW, crip NCL, FF
2010: Klingon: crip F5L; Federation: crip FF
2409: Klingon: dest D5, E4A, crip D6M; Federation: dest DE, crip CC
2711: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
2511: Klingon: dest 2xF5, F5J, crip D7C, AD5; Federation: dest NCL, FFE
2715: Klingon: dest BATS, E4, crip 4xD5, 3xF5; Federation: dest DE, SWAC, crip NCL, planet captured; Gorn: dest BC; crip 2xCM, CLE, 2xLTT, BDE
2814: Klingon: dest E4
3210: Romulan: dest KE, WE, crip FH; Federation: dest CA, crip 3xFF, capture planet
3711: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD, crip 3xBD
3710: Romulan: dest SN
3610: Federation: crip FF
3609: Romulan: dest SNB
4010: Romulan: dest SKE; Gorn: dest BDS, crip BD
4810: Romulan: dest K4, crip K7R, KE, WE; Gorn: dest HD, crip DDG

My surviving F5 from Hydran raids was picked off by a CU+POL pair, but he rolled a 12 to get some revenge and cripple the CU. Meanwhile, he’d sent a PGV and an independent fighter squadron (launched from 6xPOL…) against the garrison of 0519, and they rolled high to nearly get both ships there.

The battle over 1105 was extremely painful. Byron’s real goal was to kill the Klingon FRD sheltering there, but even with 12 points of Kzinti DB, I had a higher ComPot, though the Kzintis could shift me. All the Lyrans had to do was roll equal to the Kzinti to prevent the Kzintis from getting to the planet (and FRD), but rolled one less instead. Worse, the Kzinti did 36 to exactly kill the STL. For the second round, I brought out the C9A, in the hopes of lowering his ComPot enough that he couldn’t kill it and get the FRD. On three attempts the C9A rolled ‘6’ each time, doing absolutely nothing for its efforts. VBIR went down, and the Kzinti did 18 exactly to kill the C9A. And then the mauler shocked, and I lost a PT on a capture attempt. After he killed the FRD, I attempted to pursue to kill a couple of cripples, but failed on that. This was a battle that could have been really painful for the Kzinti (holding him to approach for three rounds would have put him dangerously low on fighters), but instead I lost the FRD and two specialty dreadnoughts for nearly no return.

Planet 2715 needed more defenses, so I had finally gotten around to putting a PDU there to supplement the BATS. I knew this would probably generate an attack to stop it, but failed to shift as many units over there as I had intended (I’m just short everywhere, and got cold feet on weakening the East Fleet over by the 3rd SB). So it got hit by a larger Fed/Gorn force than I had expected, and I didn’t really have a hope of defending it. Except that the first two rounds were 1-6 and 2-6, allowing me to drop a lot of damage on a fleet without any real backup fighters.

Coalition: 417.9 EP (x2) + 570 (bases) + 809 ships (/5) = 1729.4
Alliance: 363 EP (x2) + 485 (bases) + 770 ships (/5) = 1519

The Klingons have been having one disaster after another, and now the Coalition is in the low range for a Major Victory, with no end of the slide in sight. Next turn the entire Coalition goes to 75% economy, on top of the contraction caused by successful Alliance offensives. The Kzinti and Hydrans will also go down to 75%, but their economies are expanding, and the Federation, the real problem will still be at 100% for some time yet.

Worse, the Alliance is nearly at ship parity (…it sure doesn’t feel like it, he has more ships than I do at any point that’s important), and all fleets are continuing to get bigger, with the exception of the Klingons who have net lost ~10/turn for the last two turns.

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