WO2 Failure to Communicate

by on April 6, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After Patch and I’s last SFB game, we returned to ASL, and decided to try “Failure to Communicate” from the first Winter Offensive pack, which I’d picked up during MMP’s Fall sale. It’s May ’40, and a miscommunication leads to an overwhelming force to take out a French garrison. The French have a mix of nine elite and 1st line squads with good leadership, a MMG, MTR, 25mm ATG, two AMR 33 ‘tanks’ (with 4FP MG MA), one AMD 35 armored car with a 25mm gun, all radioless, and 10 “?”. They get to choose between also getting either another AMD AC, another ATG, or a ATR (with HS) and some mines), and get another elite squad, 8-0, and DC on turn 5. The Germans have 6.5 turns to take five out of seven multi-hex buildings with fourteen squads, with a typical mix of leaders and support weapons. On turn three they get two Pz IIs and three Pz 38(t)s. The French can also win by getting 25 CVP.

The new board from WO1, 59, has a stream crossing it, and board 42 has a stream overlay, so the stream goes across the entire board, and only four multi-hex buildings are on the near side of the stream to the Germans. I took the French defenders and concentrated on two things in my defense: the main village (with four victory buildings), and defending the stream. Especially with my limited anti-tank ability and the fact that he’d need at least one building across the stream, I wanted to make that painful. The main weight of the defense went in and around the main village, with the MMG and MTR behind the stream, and 3.5 squads (with a lot of Dummies) around the board 42 crossing to keep him from just trying to seize that bridge early, drive on the two victory buildings across the stream on board 59 and then try and take the village from both sides. I took the ATR… and then stuck it in a corner that was less likely to see armor (42J1 might have been much better), with the mines going on the one board 42 building in case he went there. I used two “?” to look like a fourth vehicle in 42U1, so he’d think I took the extra AC instead. Sadly, I had forgotten that French tanks tend to have radio trouble, and didn’t consider setting up any platoons. The ATG was set up so it could cover the board 59 bridge, but facing down the road coming from board 42.

Patch setup entirely concentrated on the village. With a hill, and a bit of woods in the way, I couldn’t see anything, and many moves still didn’t give me a chance to see anything, but his 9-2 and a HMG squad moved through the grain to a clear shot of 59J2, which Patch had figured as a Dummy. However, he was part of my outer defensive line (with the Orchard to provide cover for his withdrawal later), and a K/2 wounded the leader while breaking the squad. (It would have been soo nice to get a fatal wound, ah well.) He did get two positions that could fire on J2, and broke the squad on his second attempt with a NMC in AFPh.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board and my HIP setup.
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Page

by on April 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The second book of Protector of the Small picks up directly, and predictably, from the first. Kel is now a page, and no longer on any sort of probation. It also moves more into the usual tropes growing up, and dealing with the world. Hazing an bullying aren’t absent by any means, but is not the major running theme.

There is some action early on, as well as for the conclusion, and we find that Keladry has a good head for basic tactics, and maintaining awareness under stress. Outside of these sections, about three years pass, told in a few significant parts. The training continues to be tough, but she has an established network of friends now, and takes on a servant at the beginning of the book. Lalasa is interesting as she seems determined to stay as inoffensive as possible, but later shows that Kel has had a real effect on her.

Compared to the Alanna quartet, this book comes off very well, as it feels like a complete book, instead of a mere ‘part two’ that In the Hand of the Goddess did. Both Alanna and Kel are good characters that I enjoy reading about, but so far this series is a bit better structured.

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Designers & Dragons: Part 1

by on March 29, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Shannon Appelcline’s Designer’s & Dragons is a truly massive undertaking: A history of the entire roleplaying game industry from its beginnings to about 2010. Just the first volume, covering six years (1974–79), is 400 pages.

However, the structure is such that he is covering a lot more than those six years. Each chapter is a complete history of a single company, running to when they closed down, and many of the companies here are still running in one form or another today (and certainly, none of them ended in the ’70s). This volume covers thirteen companies who had an impact on the RPG industry during the ’70s, plus three ‘mini-histories’ of more peripheral companies, and one ‘magazine history’ (annoyingly, these last do not show up in the table of contents).

This does fracture a lot of subjects, notably how the industry and market was evolving, and how one company’s releases were affecting the others. This is present, but because it bridges chapters, is not well served. And the the history of RPGs outside the companies is under-served. There is a nice bit of background on the Bay Area gaming scene (as the background of Arduin), but no similar coverage of the Los Angeles area, which was an important early center of RPG fandom (most surprising is that Alarums & Excursions doesn’t even rate a mini-history box, even if it is a completely amateur production). Appelcline keeps solidly focused on his general subject, only touching on non-RPG products from a company where they impinge on the company and its RPG side as a whole, making several of those chapters noticeably incomplete on their subject.

And… the book is still 400 pages with all those omissions, and only covers the first corner of the industry. I want more, but I have to admit my interests are further reaching than most, and I would really like to see a good history that tackles wargaming, and frankly also ‘adventure gaming’ in general. It breaks these six years into four parts, with TSR and the genesis of the form being part one (which is available as a very generous free trial here), part two covering the first four major companies to leap onto RPGs, part three consisting of wargame publishers who moved into RPGs in the early days (though GDW is rightfully part of part two), and the fourth talking about the rise of ‘universal’ (as in ‘for any game system’, even when you which which game they really mean…) publishers.

Several of these companies I kind of consider ‘childhood friends’ of mine, having grown up around products by GDW, Flying Buffalo, and of course, TSR. Others, like GW, are less familiar. It is a little depressing seeing just how many ways a company can run into financial trouble, but it is nice to find out just what happened to a fair number of people who, from my fairly limited viewpoint, just disappeared along the way. Finding out more about games I saw ads for, but never knew anyone who had a copy was also a plus. The book was entertaining and informative, with just a few small editing issues. And I’m already most of the way through devouring the second book.

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Konya wa Hurricane Alliance Turn 14

by on March 25, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Konya wa Hurricane

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Alliance survey rolls were strong this turn; especially the Kzinti who got 16 (+2 from a PT) on three dice, after rolling 15 last turn. Overall Alliance income was up, mostly from the Federation, which had regained a bit more control of their own territory.

Builds:
Federation: TG, NCA, 12xNCL, 4xDW, DWA, 11xFF, DN+->CVA, CW->F-CWE
Kzinti: TGC, 2xCM, LTT, 4xFFK, 1xFKE, 3xFF, CVL->CVD
Gorn: DNG, BC, CM, TG, HD, LTT, 2xBDE, 2xDD, FCR, CL->CV, CL->CLE, CL->CCH

The Alliance continued showing the signs of a cash crunch by subbing a lot of ships to smaller hulls, and much to my surprise, building no new carriers. Instead the Federation converted an existing DN+ into a CVA, while the Kzinti converted a CVL into a CVD. I’m used to seeing the Kzinti occasionally convert their CVLs into the larger CV, but not having played with CVDs before I hadn’t considered that conversion.

As usual, Alliance raids went well. The Hydrans raided province garrisons and the THR took out two Klingon ships for no losses, while the Lyrans fought off the raiding RN with three ships for no losses on either side beyond fighters and a wounded PT. (We recently realized that PTs get wounded much more often in SSC than we’d thought. Raiders with PTs on board is a good way to get a lot of them wounded.) The Kzinti raided two garrisons in their space, killing a DW, while forcing another to cripple and retreat. However, he’d meant to force my garrison off of planet 1202, and there was still a HDD there. The Federation hit two province garrisons in their own space as well as a G2 patrolling an ’empty’ province in the Empire, killing it, a DW, F5, and crippling a second F5. The Gorns hit a Romulan province garrison in Federation space and one in their own space; both ships missed their evasion rolls (again), and were destroyed.

Movement started with the expected every-other-turn Hydran move onto their capital, while also pinning down the Lyran reserve in the area. The Kzinti force in 1001 went after the Lyran SB on their border, leaving pinning forces on the BATS in front of it, and fighting the Lyran garrison in Kzinti space. Next, a force moved out of the Barony, picked up some extra ships over in 1802, and then headed back to the major planet in 1502.

And then everything turned into a disaster.

I had expected (for the last few turns) moves against the string of supply points from the Klingon border into Kzinti space. Certainly, a major move against 1504 was going to happen at some time soon. With how comparatively weak the North Fleet had gotten, I expected to see it last turn. This turn, I had some good reserves in the area, and expected to hold enough things to get the reshuffled FRD facilities into operation. But I had blinded myself to the fact that though I had forces blocking a direct move from the 7th Fleet on 2106, the 4th Fleet could easily pin all of that, allowing Byron to hit the Northern Reserve SB in in 1509, which is just what he did at this point.

Then the 3rd Fleet set out for 1611 again, diverting a few ships to claim NZ hexes and join the 4th Fleet along the way. If I had thought of it at the time, I could have reacted a ship into 2111 as he left, and then sent a reserve to that hex to win the fight, which could have blocked retrograde for the 3rd Fleet (he’d likely retreat off the planet to get in range). But I didn’t think of that until I was looking at reserves.

The western Gorn-Romulan border turned out to be less active than I thought as the Gorn 5th Fleet moved in towards the border, and then stopped to pick off a single SNB, while the Romulan navy stayed in place in case someone else went for the BATS later. Instead, he hit three of the four BATS further away from the Federation frontier.


Hydran offensives.


The Kzinti Strike Back


Further trouble in Klingon space.


Limited offensives.

Most of my reserves were pinned, but all three Romulan reserves were free to shore up defenses at three of the four spots he hit. The one free Lyran reserve was needed to save their starbase, and the one free Klingon reserve had two choices, but wasn’t sufficient for either one.

Battles:
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L, F5
0418: SSC: Klingon retreat
0718: SSC: Klingon: dest E4A
0716: SSC: Lyran: dest FF
0715: SSC: Hydran retreat
0703: SSC: Lyran retreat
1202: SSC: Lyran: dest HDD
1103: SSC: Lyran: dest cripDW
1503: SSC: Lyran: crip CW; Klingon: crip E4
1703: SSC: Klingon: dest E4
1907: SSC: Klingon: dest TGA
2308: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L
2407: SSC: Klingon: dest F5
4009: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
4808: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3313: SSC: Romulan cloaked evasion
3314: SSC: Romulan: crip SNB
2810: SSC: both sides retreat
0617: Klingon: dest E4
0517: Klingon: dest D6M; Hydran: dest LN
0518: Klingon: dest F5E; Hydran: dest LN
0115: Lyran: dest 2xDW, FF, crip CW; Hydran: dest TR, crip CU
0404: Lyran: crip NCA; Kzinti: crip SF
0504: Retreat after denied approach
1407: Klingon: 2xPDU, MON; Kzinti: crip BC, capture planet
1506: Klingon: crip D5, F5; Lyran: dest cripDDG, FRD, crip STT; Kzinti: dest FFK, capture planet
1405: Kzinti: dest cripFF
1307: Klingon: dest BATS, crip D6, 2xF5W; Kzinti: crip 3xCM, 2xDD, SF
1504: Klingon: dest D6M, E4A, LAV, crip D7C, F5, FTL, FTS; Kzinti: crip LTT, SAD, dest CLD, SAD, capture planet
1502: Lyran: crip BC; Kzinti: dest FFK
1509: Klingon: dest F5J; Lyran: dest FRD; Federation: crip 2xFF
1708: Lyran: crip CW, DW; Federation: dest NCL
1611: Klingon: 2xPDU; Federation captures planet
2006: Klingon: dest F5E; Federation: dest NCL
2505: Klingon: crip D6; Federation: crip FF
2610: Klingon: dest MD5, F5L, crip D7C, D5; Gorn: dest CCH; Federation: crip 2xNCL, capture planet
3311: Romulan: dest SKE; Federation: SKE captured
3415: Romulan: crip FHF, KR; Federation: dest 2xNCL, crip FF
3315: Romulan dest cripSNB
4310: Romulan: dest FHF; Gorn: dest HD
4710: Retreat after declined approach
4910: Romulan: dest BATS, WE; Gorn: crip HD
4809: Romulan: dest SK

The small battles around Hydran space picked off a number of ships, but a poor roll in 0715 left the Lyran squadron there, though it couldn’t do more than force a retreat on a good roll. An E4A sacrificed itself over the planet in 0718 while the D5 retreated into the province proper, holding it for the next Coalition turn. The capital battle didn’t follow quite the same script as last time, with the Hydran force staying in place after taking it, even while retreating back to 0416 after the main pinning battle in front of the hex.

I had thought the HDD had survived the battle in 1202 (crippled), since he only had two ships to pursue with. However, he pursued with just a BF, and since the ‘entire force’ was fast, it could automatically catch the cripple and kill it.

The Kzinti had put just enough on 1001 to be able to kill a SB, and as I expected, they hit the Lyran SB in 0404, forcing me to send a reserve to save it. Since the retreat had to go over the BATS 0504, I retreated with him to save that base too, but it forced me to move my cripples off the repair facility as part of the retreat.

I expected Byron to make sure of the Klingon FRD in 1504, during slow retreat if nothing else. But instead he dropped damage at the planet (when it wasn’t even in form) and took out the LAV and its E4A escort during pursuit. This had been the major Klingon staging point for the front, but there was more than enough Kzintis to take the entire (reduced) North Fleet, with 96 fighter factors available.

The Federation had way more in 3311 than the Romulans, who still had too much to withdraw easily, so the left behind a KR as the flagship and two SKEs and K5S, and everything successfully evaded other than one SKE, which was promptly captured. Overall, not too bad for the odds involved, but the capture still stung.

I was surprised by the places Byron did and did not pull out of after combat. The Klingons are in a lot of trouble, with the Kzinti hanging on to the planet in Klingon space they’ve captured, and the Federation leaving a five-ship force on 1611. However, there’s no Gorn ships left in Romulan space. The good news is that the Kzinti reserves are two ships each, but the Federation has reserves full of NCLs and FFs. I’m going to have to find some way to break his momentum in Kzinti space….

Coalition: 436.6 EP (x2) + 575 (bases) + 811 ships (/5) = 1772.6
Alliance: 333.8 EP (x2) + 490 (bases) + 744 ships (/5) = 1455.2

We are solidly into Major Coalition Victory territory now, and I expect the VP slide will continue for a bit yet, and the question is where will it bottom out. Both sides are losing some bases (the Coalition more than the Alliance, naturally), which shows we’re still headed for the middle-war period where offensives are confined to the ‘dead zones’ that are mostly supported by captured planets as sources of supply. At least, I can hope so; this turn has shown that major Coalition offensives are probably over; we’ll see about Alliance offensives. The real worrisome part is that all three Coalition navies are down ships from a turn ago, and worse, about half the Lyran CWs and DWs are currently crippled, with little prospect of getting them all going soon. Meanwhile, the Kzinti stayed at 197 ships, while the other three Alliance navies grew, with the Federation (naturally) leading the way, growing by 15 ships. I’m generally maintaining quality, with new carriers and and FCRs ensuring longer-term survivability, but I’ve got to get them in use better.

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1453

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

Crowley’s book on the fall of Constantinople doesn’t disappoint. He leads off by giving a good overview of the rise of Islam, and various failed sieges of the city over the centuries, showing how it became something of a recurring ambition that was eventually absorbed by the Turks when they converted to Islam.

From there, the focus moves in to the decade or so before the siege, detailing Murat, and then Mehmet II, before giving Constantine XI’s background. The construction of the Throat-Cutter (an Ottoman castle built to cut Constantinople off from the Black Sea), and the final attempts to heal the Great Schism between Orthodox and Catholic rites are detailed before moving on to the siege itself.

Like Crowley’s Empires of the Sea, this is primarily a readable account of the siege, and not any sort of detailed analysis, but he does provide good information on walls of Constantinople, and just how they were outmoded by the coming of gunpowder and siege artillery. He also goes into the ability to take rubble and earth and create improvised fortifications that serve just as well (though perhaps being less imposing looking) while being much harder for artillery to deal with. The book also talks a bit about two weak points in the walls, which were particular targets for the siege. On the other hand, some details, such as the system of locked gates in the main wall, behind the forward wall where most of the siege was conducted, only come up when dramatically important, and not in the general description of how things were working (which, with a lighter book like this, are a bit lacking as extraneous technical detail anyway).

Crowley freely acknowledges that there’s a number of uncertainties that he cuts through to provide the best version he can. And that may be the best reason for keeping to a very readable format here. There’s enough contradictory legend here to weigh down a narrative so that the events are never seen through the maze of arguments. He does give several of the more prominent alternatives, and admits there’s really no reliable knowledge as to what happened to Constantine XI when the city fell.

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