43 Into the Fray

by on July 23, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After a little casting about, Patch and I ended up going for an ASL scenario with the Allied Minors, playing “Into the Fray” from Doomed Battalions. It’s the first day of the invasion of Poland, and Germans are attacking with 16 1st-line squads with decent leadership, and some armor (2xPz II plus 3x PSW 221) coming in on turn 3. The Poles initially defend with 13 green squads with poor leadership, a MMG and two ATR, but get 13 elite cavalry squads with good leadership on turn 1. Both sides have a minimal SAN of 2. The Germans win by either exiting 30 VP off the far edge of boards 4 and 33 in seven turns, or by getting 20 more CVP than the Poles do.

Patch took the Poles, and when I got his setup, I saw three main possibilities. The first one that occurred to me was to advance near the west edge of board 4. I had a grainfield and a couple of woods hexes for cover, and would presumably push back the Poles with their 6+1 leader. The real problem was that there was actually a fair amount of terrain to fall back on, and I’d be pushing him back ~4 hexes at a time. The second, and a fairly interesting one was up the center. There was a group of four squads with no leadership with only light cover. If I could isolate them on the flanks (using my MGs) I should be able to defeat them in detail. But the cavalry would be in front of me after that, and everyone else on my flanks….

I ended up with the third option: Up the east side of board 33. There’s a large grainfield to cover the initial advance, and an initial knot of defenders in a two hex house to deal with, and then a lot of open space with only an orchard for cover. Trying to exit that way certainly had it’s own problems, but I had a range advantage, especially over the initial green squads, and the wide open spaces would allow me to use that.

As expected, my first turn was reasonably quiet. Between the grain, and long range, Patch didn’t have a lot of shots, but an upper-level squad managed to pin my MMG squad as it started forward, delaying that part of my plan. A shot by his other upper-level squad at my 8-1-led stack with my other MMG generated a PTC that was ineffective. A couple of DFPh shots did nothing, and then… my first AFPh roll was ‘2’, which generated a 1MC broke his squad even after cowering, my second shot was a 1MC that broke another squad, and a later shot was a NMC that reduced a brokie to a HS (it would have disrupted the last squad in the building, if I hadn’t been going for a double-break). Patch routed out of the large building into the stone building adjacent.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left. The Poles had a two-hex strip to set up in….
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Anime Spring 2018

by on July 19, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Anime

It’s been another light season of anime watching for me, mostly because of FF XIV, but I’ve managed to stabilize the schedule so that I am keeping up with a few things:

Cardcaptor Sakura — The new series is walking a fine line between being a sequel, and reworking ideas and plots from the original for people who haven’t seen it. Overall, it’s successful, and easily made the top of the ‘to watch’ list. Now, when’s the rest already?

My Hero Academia — Another very strong season. I wasn’t entirely happy with the school camp bit (I felt it dragged out a bit, and they didn’t do a good job of juggling all the different moving parts), but the follow up from that was very good. Oh, another weak part: not enough Uraraka and Froppy.

Pokemon Sun & Moon Ultra Adventures — The best thing here may be the new Roku app for the Pokemon Channel, since the listings are better, and the previews are finally showing up. But, really, the series is continuing to be very good, and I definitely liked the adventures with Nebby. The fight in Ultra Space, not as much, but at least it wasn’t dragged out.

Food Wars — Another surprisingly good season. I was merely okay with the Hokkaido tournament stuff for most of the season, but the ending parts helped pull it together, though it ended kind of in the middle of things. I am really liking the development on Erina, which has been one of the stronger parts of the last two seasons.

And that’s everything I’ve actually kept up with. The next two series are also of interest to Baron and Dave, but tying them down long enough to watch can be a problem…

Yamato 2202 — Unlike 2199, I’m not familiar with the plot of this one at all, so it’s being a real voyage. The quality is just as good, and this is my highest recommendation, even if we’re still at the point where the real plot is about to get going. There’s already been a lot of adventure, and some interesting revelations about the last three years….

Full Metal Panic: Invisible Victory — The fourth series has been another quality production. I really liked the mix of humor and serious military in the first series, so it always gives me a little disappointment to see it (understandably) moving more to the latter at the expense of the former, but I’m really liking the fact that the main characters have recognized the problem, and want to try and preserve their more ‘ordinary’ lives in the face of all this.

And then what I’ve seen just a bit more of:

March Comes in Like a Lion — Continuing to be a well-produced series, and I think I saw just about all of the third (production) season during this period. Smudge is saying that this is about where it gets really good….

Black Clover — Only saw a few episodes of this. I was recently commenting to AJ that it had villains I could generally respect (a bit rare in shonen fight-anime), but then the next arc has a crazy, ranting, trope-arrific villain. Argh. There’s a reason why this is nearly the bottom of the ‘to watch’ pile.

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Wolf’s Blood

by on July 15, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It is possible for there to be more Firekeeper novels after this (and the ending is an obvious lead-in for the ability to have more), but there wouldn’t be as much point. This one deals with the biggest Macguffin of the background: the Divine Retribution, or plague, or curse, that wiped out major spellcasters a hundred years ago. It also ends with a good declaration of just how comfortable with herself Firekeeper has grown. While there’s potentially a lot of world left, and some dangling threads to explore, it would be hard to feel like anything more could easily match the scope.

Wolf’s Blood features two completely separate storylines that collide for the climax. It’s obvious what the collision course is, and the alternating between the two adds a lot of tension to a book that takes a long while to really get going. Unfortunately, the payoff for this isn’t so well done, as the second storyline, with a completely new viewpoint character, basically disappears under the weight of the main one at the end. It does get a very abbreviated conclusion, but needed a bit more to really round it off and get a good feel of Bryessidan coming to understand just where things had gone wrong.

Meanwhile, the extensive cast of characters is very good, and move along the plot quite well. A few earlier characters are re-introduced at odd times, but I think this book would stand on its own quite well if you have not read the first five. While I recommend the series as a whole, this is one of the stronger entries and recommended separately.

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Konya wa Hurricane Coalition Turn 16

by on July 11, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

This took me a while to get started on. The Klingons have been pounded, and I wasn’t seeing anything useful they could do. Of course, this is the turn where 75% exhaustion kicks in, but I almost consider that the least of my worries, though with all the backlogged repairs finally hitting the system, money got tight real fast. Gross income was 417, down just 0.9 from last turn, though the Klingons had a ~6-point drop that was being made up by the other two. However, after exhaustion, this was a mere 312.75 EP. The Alliance’s recent income is ~360, so this has taken me from solidly ahead to solidly behind in real money.

Builds:
Klingon: 3xD7, D5W, 6xD5, AD5, F6, 3xF5, F5E, F5J
Romulan: NH, VHK, SP, SPC, 2xSPM, SK, 2xSKE, SEH, FAL, SNB, WE->KE, BH->BHF
Lyran: STL, CA, NCA, CW, CSV, CWE, 2xDW, DWE, 3xFF, CL->BC

Repairs were at an all-time high of 121.5 EP, nearly half of that being from the Klingons, who consequently had a very tight budget; but it doesn’t do a lot of good to build new ships if I can’t use the ones I’ve got.

For the first time the Klingons did not build any new fighter capacity this turn. I expect there won’t be any new carriers for a bit, but I should be converting the last D6V up to D6U next turn, and I hope to convert a D7V to D7U at some point soon; they’re expensive, but with how Byron’s been beating me up in the EW war, a scout carrier seems like a very handy item to have. Hopefully, I’ll get to see the Lyran CSV in action soon (also my first heavy fighters, something I’m sure we’ll see a bit more of).

This is the turn where the raid pools expand, but I didn’t want to pull a bunch of ships off the line to go raiding, so the only addition was the Romulan SHR, which I had retrograded into the capital last time specifically to be come the third Romulan raider. The Klingons and Lyrans each sent a raid into Kzinti space, disrupting a provinces now out of easy reach. There were five raids in Federation space, which disrupted three provinces, with one failure crippling a D5, while the last was a successful attempt to kill a Federation Tug (though a Prime Team was wounded in the process). The Romulans tried a similar raid on a Federation LTT on a supply mission just inside the Gorn border, but a DNL reacted to chase the SHR away, and the final Romulan raid in Gorn space also failed.

While the main Federation front was a series of problems with no solution, there was still room to maneuver elsewhere. The Gorn SB in 4206 was relatively lightly defended, and there were no reserves in range of it. First though, the Romulans worked on a plan for another offensive in Federation space, which led to a constant stream of move and counter-move as I tried to pin the 3rd Reserve in 3212, and elements of the 5th Fleet reacted in to keep some of it mobile.

Meanwhile, the Lyrans finally attacked 0416, a project that I’d been meaning to get to since Turn 11. With a large chunk of the Hydran fleet now on the capital, it wouldn’t be as punishing, and I had hoped it would draw some Hydran forces away from the capital, but nothing moved. They also pressed forward in Kzinti space, to help the Klingons regain their border from them. The Klingon North Fleet stayed inactive to block any access of the Kzinti reserves to planet 1407 (where the guard FF was assaulted by two ships), while larger forces challenged 1202 and 1506. A bunch of small fights developed in Federation space as I tried to clean things up a bit, and finally, I made an attempt on planet 2509, though there were enough non-reserve forces nearby to shut down some of my moves. The Romulans also sent their large West Fleet to 3509 again, which had had its last defenses knocked out last turn.


The Lyran’s turn in Hydran space.


Back into Kzinti space.


Activity, but not a lot else.


An important gap.

Naturally, the two Hydran reserves (four ships total) went to the only fight in Hydran space, while the Kzinti reserves went to 1202, though the DNLs that had been leading them stayed behind in the capital. The Gorn and Federation reserves on 2610 both went to the planet in 2509 (though he thought of sending the Gorns to 2011 to kill my crippled D6M in that combat). The Federation 2nd Reserve went to smash a small battle in 2207, and the rest were already pinned.

Battles:
4008: SSC: Gorn: dest POL
1611: SSC: Federation: crip FF; mutual retreat off of captured planet
1407: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingons recapture planet
1506: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon capture planet
2207: Klingon: dest E4
2110: SSC: Klingon retreat
2011: SSC: Federation retreat
2609: SSC: Gorn: crip LTT
3213: SSC: Federation: dest NCL; Romulan: crip SKF
4208: Gorn: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SK, K5S
3212: Federation: dest ECL, crip FF, FFE; Romulan: crip SP, SK
3509: Federation: dest CA, crip 2xNCL, FF, FFE; Romulan: dest FHF
4206: Gorn: dest SB, DN, HDS, 2xBD, 2xDD, 2xDDG, crip 2xBC, TG, 3xHD, 5xBD, 5xDD, SC, K5 captured and expended for combat bonus; Romulan: dest SUP, SKE, 4xSEH, 2xKR, KRM, K5L, K5, K4, 4xWE, FAL, 2xSN, SNB, crip CON, FH, R-CLE, 9xSP, 2xSPF, KR, K5, 4xKE, 2xWE, CE, 2xBHE, BHF
2509: Federation: crip 2xNCL; Klingon: dest MD5
2510: Federation: dest NCL; Klingon: dest D6D
0416: Hydran: dest 2xPDU, DWE; Lyran: dest CW, 2xDW, crip DN
1202: Retreat after denied approach

My offensive towards 2509 included an over-ambitious strike by two D6s at a Gorn LTT+TPOD by itself in 2609. Byron simply reacted a CM into the hex for a slightly better force with a size advantage. But the rolls were 12 to 3, for the D6s to cripple the LTT for no damage, though they then retreated to 2510 to keep from being alone and cut off. The captain in charge of the strike will be promoted to squadron command in a D7C.

The battle for the SB went longer and bloodier than I had hoped (as ever). The Gorn fleet had a natural firepower superiority the entire way, and started with a large EW advantage that I kept to a -1 shift by killing the HDS. The Romulan fleet on the Gorn border is light on carriers, which aided the carnage, and die rolling was relatively even, though I had a 6-2 split late in the battle that certainly helped. It took six rounds to wear out the Gorn fleet and get him to take 6 voluntary SIDS. I then directed the last two SIDS and the crippled base over the next three. Thankfully, he got a minimal roll in pursuit so he couldn’t do more than kill the two big maulers. The Romulans will be very thin until the repairs get processed, and still thinner than I’d like with all the ship losses. But the Gorn fleet there is smashed (9 uncrippled ships, including 2xSAS), and the one on the other SB doesn’t have a lot of things it can immediately do.

Things are still bad, and the fact is, I’m unlikely to ever have another chance at the 3rd Fleet SB, which is way too close to too much. But, even if a bit late, the Romulans have managed another step towards the goal of pushing Gorn bases far away from the original frontier. There’s one border BATS left, and now only two of the backup bases remain.

No doubt, there will be increased pressure on the Romulans after this. But that hopefully means less Gorn involvement in the Fed-Klingon theater.

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Battle for Empire

by on July 7, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Tom Pocock posits the Seven Years War as the first world war (an assertion that he’s not alone in, and that I can get behind), but his book on the subject doesn’t really develop this.

Instead, each chapter is about one of the various non-European campaigns of the war, and treats each one well, if almost purely from the British point of view. There is some discussion of the immediate planning behind these campaigns, but other than the simultaneous strikes at Havana and Manila, no discussion of how these fit into wider policy. In fact, there’s only a cursory amount of discussion of wider implications. There are some good discussions of immediate effects, but nothing overall.

As a series of small histories though, the book is very good. The writing is good, and the descriptions of the campaigns are fairly thorough considering the short format. Finally, there is some good tying together with thought as to how previous campaigns (most notably the failure at Minorca, and the subsequent execution of Admiral Byng for cowardice) affected later ones. This is a good introduction to the Seven Years War outside of Europe, and recommended for that, but it’s only an introduction, and a prior grounding the European side would help.

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