Oath of Fealty

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

The Paladin’s Legacy series picks up, surprisingly, immediately after the end of the original Paksenarrion trilogy. There are a number of things left unsettled by Duke Phelan’s elevation to king of a different kingdom, and that is pretty much the glue that holds what could be a disjointed book together.

Overall, there’s four different plot threads, with limited mobility between them, and Oath of Fealty swings through the set of them two or three times. The opening concentrates on part of Phelan’s mercenary company, and Arcolin who finds out he is now the pro tem head of the company at the start of the novel. This is the second biggest thread of the novel, and is very well done with the internal workings of the company sliding into the particulars of a contract. This is always a strong point for Moon, and it’s no different here.

The smallest arc deals with Phelan/Kieri himself, and has some very interesting moments, and I expect this will lead into much more important doings in later books. But at the moment, it’s mostly just there. It does spin off the fourth arc of the book, featuring Dorrin and the Verrakai family that has been a source of villains. This gets a lot of attention in the middle, and opens up some new cans of worms before merging with the second arc or the book. “Second” in that it is the second one you encounter reading the book, and deals with doings in the capital of Tsaia, and provides some of the initial ‘push’ of the plot.

Paksenarrion is barely present in this book at all. She does show up, and helps out at some important points, but this is really more of a history of the area that Deed of Paksenarrion takes place in (that is Tsaia, Lyonya, and parts of Aarenis), than any sort of work focused on one person as the original trilogy effectively was. Despite that, it’s tightly written enough to still work, and comes to a satisfactory ending. It has been just long enough since I read the original books that I needed a fair amount of mental prodding to remember many details, and therefore I feel some confidence in saying you can pick up the books at this point, though I definitely recommend reading Deed first.

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Two Rounds of Chaeronea

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

There’s been some delays on getting something bigger going, so Patch and I did another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients a couple weeks ago. This time was the Battle of Chaeronea from Expansion #6. It confirms my comments on the previous battle, as it features an allied Greek army with a good number of MH blocks (with the Sacred Band as a special heavy), while the Macedonians are heavies with good leadership and two units of Companion Cavalry (MC that can ignore one flag and one sword).

I had the Macedonians in the first play, and led with Darken the Sky to kill one unit outright (two hits on the first roll, and a pair of banners, which forced the light to try to retreat through his solid line), while forcing another light back, and doing a block to a third. Patch Ordered Three Right to pull in that flank while I Ordered Light to move up some units and do more ranged fire, which drove back another light. Patch got his lights in motion with Move-Fire-Move which did no damage.

I firmed up my center, and Patch Out Flanked me to bring the Special Band in contact with my skirmishers, who evaded for no damage, while he drove off an Aux on the other flank. I moved up my right twice, while Patch skirmished some more and then used a Line Command to start the real engagement. Patch did two blocks to two heavies, and drove one off the line, but lost a MH outright, and took two blocks on an Aux in return.

I used Inspired Center Leadership to bring in the bulk of my unengaged line, and knocked out a MH and the wounded Aux, while taking two blocks in return (even with a muffed First Strike), while one of my Auxes did nothing and was driven back with one loss. Patch used another Line Command to move up the still-intact right half of the army; an Aux and LC traded blocks, while the Sacred Band did three blocks to a heavy and took two and two banners in return. He failed to take out a 1-block heavy, and lost two in return, and then lost an intact MH after doing one block to another heavy. I used Leadership any Section on my left to surround an isolated Aux and took him out on one hit and two banners. 6-0

For the second game, Patch started with Order Lights to establish a continuous line and knock one of my lights to the baseline on two banners. I Ordered Two Center to close up the gap between my right and center, and Patch moved closer across the front with Line Command. I Counterattacked, moving closer to a collision while linking up with my left flank. Patch rearranged a couple units, and I Out Flanked him, forcing a couple units to evade, and doing a block to a heavy while taking two in return, and doing three blocks to an Aux that knocked my left-flank MH back a hex.

Patch Ordered Mediums to bring up the Companions, knocking the Sacred Band back a hex, and taking out the weakened MH and attached leader. I Ordered Two Left to finish off the Aux, Patch attempted some archery to no effect, and I Ordered Four Left, doing two damage to a heavy, but lost MH completely, and a block on another. Patch Ordered Three Center to engage the center of the lines, knocking out an Aux, doing three hits on an MH and knocking another two hexes back, and taking two hits on each of two heavies in return.

I did a Coordinated Attack to finish off a heavy, do a block to a Companion, and do one hit on a two-block heavy. The battleback did three hits to eliminate the MH, and the leader went with him. 2-6

Afterword

The Macedonian heavies are certainly doing a great job dominating the Greek medium hoplites. It didn’t help that Order Mounted and Mounted Charge did not, for a change, come up in either battle. I had really hot dice in the first game, to knock Patch out before he could get going despite me having some card issues. My dice went cold during the second game, which kept me from taking out a couple more units, but the real problem was the leader losses. Without them, the right flank was still in good shape, and Patch was having trouble in the center, though overall the odds were still with him.

Again, this was a pretty fast pair of fights; most of the terrain just squeezes in the flanks, keeping things straightforward. Though the marshes may have become important if I’d done more on the right.

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Designers & Dragons: Part 3

by on May 8, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The third volume of Shannon Appelcline’s history of the RPG industry maintains the same general format as before: about four hundred pages, separate chapters for each publisher, covering (essentially) a decade of time (1990-1999).

I tend to be fascinated by beginnings, and with 25 years since the first RPG when this book opens, the beginnings are over, leading to a slightly lower interest for me. Also, this is a time period where I wasn’t paying as much attention to RPGs, so there’s not a lot of personal connection. Reading through the ’10 things about the decade’ section in the back shows that maybe it was mutual. Trends in the ’90s angled away from my interests, which carried over into less interest in some company histories. Cyberpunk did well in the late ’80s, and urban fantasy did well throughout the ’90s, and they’re both genres that have never appealed to me.

But there’s still a lot of interest to me here. Most notably, part two of the book is a single chapter, a pattern that echoes TSR being the sole chapter of part one of the first book. In fact, it is called ‘The Other Half of the Story’, on the idea that the story of the RPG is still very much the story of D&D, and Wizards of the Coast is the other half of that. This was published in 2014, so actual end of 4th Edition D&D and the last few years of 5th are too recent to be covered, which is a shame (and great grist for a future update of this volume). Past that, AEG was interesting, as they kind of came out of left field on me with a few issues of Shadis being handed out for free at cons. The full stories of a few other companies I knew of (especially the train-wreck of Imperium Games) were very nice to see, though I found the history of Guardians of Order didn’t seem to dig in to what exactly happened to the company as much as I’d like.

There’s 21 company histories this time, plus four mini-histories, and a nice page on Ars Magica fanzines and how they helped keep that property going; an all too rare look at the fan side of the industry in these histories. There’s also a good section on early Swedish RPGs as the background to ’90s English-language publisher Metropolis. As much as I admire how wide-ranging these books generally are, it is a little annoying to not get any sense of what was going on outside the US, Canada and Britain (and I imagine far more than merely ‘annoying’ for anyone from outside those countries).

It’s another well-written book, and I doubt there’s any other wide-ranging source for RPGs in the ’90s, and so is recommended if you have any interest in that subject. I will note that the (necessarily) focused coverage on RPGs continues to hurt proper coverage of what exactly many of the companies were doing, but instead of the lack of wargame coverage, now it is the lack of CCG coverage that causes problems. However the overall CCG boom-and-bust cycle was so fast that what is given is sufficient in many, but not all, cases.

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Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 15

by on May 4, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

With the collapse of the Kzinti front, I had a lot of problems to address….

Coalition income was at its lowest ebb since the scenario began, with most of the loss coming from the Klingons, who also had poor survey rolls for the third turn in a row.

Builds:
Klingon: D7C, D7V, D6M, D5W, 7xD5, AD5, 3xF5W, 4xF5, 2xF5E, E4R, C8->C9A, D6->D6D, CL-K-CL, FFE->K-FFE
Romulan: CNV, FHF, SPC, 3xSPM, 2xSK, SKE, SEH, WE, SNB, WE->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: BC, STT, NCA, 2xCW, CWE, DW, 2xDWE, 2xFF, FCR, FRD, FTM, CV->CVD, 2xFF->DW, BS(F)->BTS(F)

Repairs also hit an all-time high, though I managed to miss a couple Lyran DWs waiting on BATS for repairs. The Klingons alone spent 48 EP on repairs, and still had some backlog. The Lyrans are still struggling to get their repair cycle going. Since I was repairing a C8 anyway, and had a spare SFG kit, I converted it to a C9A, who will presumably only use the SFGs in relatively low-density battles. The Klingons also converted two captured Federation ships to their service to help with ship count (especially since one was already a light escort, so I could build fewer of those), while the Lyrans converted their one CV up to a CVD.

The Lyran raids hit a HN blocking supply in Hydran space, and crippled it, and Kzinti POL, which drew a DN(!) in reaction (I didn’t think he’d burn the reaction on it), which crippled the Lyran DNL. The Klingons hit a Fedeation POL & crippled FF, which escaped, another POL, which died while crippling a D5W, and raided a province near the capital. The Romulans went after two Federation, and one Gorn province, only one of which worked (two cloaked evasion rolls failed, and the Roms accepted a battle against Gorn BATS fighters, but the fighters survived while forcing the FFH to retreat).

The big goal for the turn was one I’d looked at two turns previous, but had to reject. The 3rd Fleet SB is in range of the major planet I hold in 2306, but with that area semi-permanently out of supply, the forces there can’t make it back. But this time, the partial grid was able to spend 7 stored EPs to supply 35 ships to move down, and move against the forward reserve in 2509. I needed to be able to hit the other reserves in the area, but just couldn’t find a way to do it that wouldn’t divert too much away from the SB.

Meanwhile the Romulans mostly pressed on Federation space, sending large forces to 3210 and 3509 (I hoped that the former would draw a reserve to help the Klingons… but no), as well as taking on another Gorn BATS behind the east border. I decided to leave the small Federation force on 1611 alone, hoping to cut them off by putting a small force on 1910. The major forces still in Kzinti space hit 1504, while another force hit 1407 to pin it down. The Klingons moved in on the Hydran capital again, though the Hydrans were able to react reinforcements in, and still keep enough on 0416 to keep the Lyrans from trying it.


Stepping carefully around the Hydrans.


Limited goals against the Kzinti.


Taking on the 3rd Fleet.


Renewing the Romulan drive into Federation space.

The Gorn Reserve on the Federation capital went to 2509 to free up a few ships in the reserve there, which then went to take 1910. The other two Federation reserves in the area went to the 3rd Fleet SB, while the 4th moved out of Gorn space to help 3509, and the Gorn reserve went to pound a SNB vs POL battle. The two (two-ship) Kzinti reserves went to help 1407.

Battles:
1805: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon: crip F5
1806: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF
1808: SSC: Federation: dest FF; Lyran: crip JGP-C
1910: Federation capture planet; Klingon: dest F5
0519: SSC: Hydran retreat
0515: SSC: Hydran: dest cripHN
0212: SSC: Hydran: dest HN
3808: Romulan: dest SNB
5006: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip K5
3314: Federation: dest FF; Romulan: crip SNB
3313: SSC: Nothing
3210: Federation: dest NCL, crip NCL, FF; Romulan: crip KRM, SK, capture planet
3209: SSC: Federation retreat
3509: Federation: dest FFE, 2xPDU, MON, SWAC, crip 3xNCL, 3xFF, planet devastated; Romulan: dest SP, SPF, SE; crip: 2xKE, 4xSP, SPF, SK, SKG, K5, BHE
2509: Gorn: dest CCH; Klingon: crip 2xD5, 3xF5
2408: SSC: Federation: dest POL; Klingon retreat
2407: SSC: Both retreat
2211: Federation: 2xSIDS, dest BT, DE, 3xFF, FFE, 2xSWAC, crip 8xNCL, DD, 4xFF; Klingon: dest SAF, D6J, D6S, AD5, F5L, F5, crip B10, D7C, 2xD7, D6M, 6xD5, AD5, F5L, 2xF5E, F5S; Lyran: dest STT, 2xDW, crip STJ
2210: SSC: Federation: dest POL
2108: Federation: dest FFS, crip DN+; Klingon: dest cripF5, E4, crip AD5, D5S, F5S
2007: SSC: Federation: dest cripFF, POL
1407: Kzinti: dest cripBC, crip CC; Klingon: crip D7, D5
1504: Kzinti: dest EFF, crip MC, 2xMEC; Klingon: dest D6D, crip F5, capture planet
0617: Hydran: dest DG, DWE, CU, crip CU; Klingon: dest D7, LTG, E4A, crip 2xD6, capital captured

The Federation left a tug near the Romulan border, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. After a CL reacted in, it was just above SSC level, but the Feds lost a FF, and then did a Fighting Retreat over 3313, where low rolls kept anything from happening there.

The Federation went a round over 3210, in an unequal fight that still cost the Romulans a shocked KRM, while the fight for 3509 went four rounds, with two of those with a bad split on rolls, and one with a blown offensive cloak attempt. The Romulans chewed through ~60 fighters, and took a lot of cripples, and suffered more mauler shock. The good news is that the fixed defenses are gone (on the second attempt here), which makes the planet more vulnerable in the future.

We both knew the 3rd Fleet SB fight was going to be nasty going in. I had a decided advantage in number of ships, but the Federation could out-ComPot me even without the SB, mostly due to being willing to put up plenty of CAs, and three battle tugs (one of which I mauled). Despite using a CP against nothing for the Feds, I was taking a lot of damage, and 100+ fighters lessened the pain, but still melted away too fast. I made some errors, such as assuming he wouldn’t direct to cripple the B10 when it was up unprotected (and there were rounds when he might have killed it), so it wasn’t available on the round when the SAF went in. I figured to max out minus points, sacrifice the D6J, and send in the SAF while the B10 froze a few ships for cheap mauling. Well, that didn’t happen, the disrupted SAF did no damage, and my troop assaults (which I should have started earlier), didn’t get anywhere, despite there being no backup troops in the hex for him, and the maulers generally shocked on the first roll. I might have been able to force the assault, but I’d have nothing left at the end of it.

The battle for the Hydran capital went three rounds. I was willing to kill as many Hydran ships as I could even if it wore out the West Fleet, but generally couldn’t do the damage for the cruisers. I was a bit surprised when the Hydrans retreated with a number of spare fighters left. I guess they figured there’ll be another day to keep me busy, and Coalition forces aren’t likely to get much stronger.

The failure at the 3rd Fleet SB puts the Coalition in an even bigger hole than it already was. The large concentration in NW Federation space that I was bleeding with also made sure that the 4th Fleet was stuck near it’s SB. Now that’s largely evaporated, and no doubt I will lose that foothold completely. Finally knocking out the 3rd Fleet SB would have been worth it, and opened other opportunities. Now I have the worst of both worlds, as I can be sure that the SB will be much better protected next turn; the 3rd Fleet had been bleeding ships, as I wanted before doing this push. But I just couldn’t keep the reserves out/away, and the only positive results are that the Romulans are in range of Earth, and they finished stripping the defenses off a major planet in front of their advance (if they could afford to advance…).

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Wolf Hunting

by on April 30, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The fifth Firekeeper book does an all-around good job of continuing the characters and exploring more of the world. It’s been a while since I’ve read the previous books, so I can say that this one doesn’t lean too heavily on them, though prior events get referenced a lot. In fact the biggest weak point here might be too much referencing of the previous background; in a couple places it felt repetitious.

After the sudden change of venue in the previous book, this one continues with exploring new lands, and ends up dealing with the foundational events of the setting: The ‘divine retribution’ plague that ravaged the old mage lord empire(s).

The politics and related plot lines of the first three books are completely gone, and more of the original characters effectively drop out of this book in favor of the new cast. However, the dangling threads from the fourth book are in force, and much of the action here revolves around the jaguar Truth, who lost her sanity at the end of that book. This ends up bringing in a few new characters, and pointers to the quest that underlies the bulk of the book.

And that quest manages to provide the mix of action, exploration, and the more complicated problems of power and how to use it that I enjoy in novels. So, while much of the series has been enjoyable for me, the, oh, say, second half of this novel has been my favorite part so far. I still think the change in direction was way too abrupt in the previous book, but this was more enjoyable on its own than the first three books. Better yet, Lindskold is digging into the backstory of the setting, and I’m sure there’ll be more of that in the next book.

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