A Hundred Yards to Hatten

by on December 28, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After way too long, I finally had some FtF gaming on Thursday. Jason came over for another session of The Last Hundred Yards. Jason was generally sticking with the early materials, and we did replay a scenario I’ve played before. But first, we went with Mission #5 “Counterattack at Hatten”, which caught my eye as I’ve been going through Hatten in Flames with Patch.

I can’t say it resembles the more detailed look at all, being an all-armor battle with the board 12 village presumably standing in for Hatten itself. That said, it’s an interesting scenario, as the Americans have twice as many tanks as the Germans, some of which are M4A3(76), and are trying to clear out the German armor, which starts hidden on the north side of the river (…there is a river about a kilometer north of there, this is a bit close). It could be interesting to see some of the HF scenarios translated over.

I had the Americans, and swept through open board 2, before sending the 76s up the board 12 hill, while the 75s ended up going west and looking to cross the ford that Jason hadn’t originally noticed (distracted by the two bridges). He revealed to start dueling with my forces, and tried to stand and fight, which ended very poorly for the Germans, as I could just mass fire and take care of targets one or two at a time.

Jason decided he wanted another go at that, and set up a different defense, and practiced much better fire discipline, generally taking potshots and immediately pulling out of line of sight. I went with the same basic plan, but the 75s initially headed towards the eastern bridge, and forced Jason to pull back further in there before switching to the middle bridge. Unfortunately, Jason had good dice, and I lost three tanks immediately despite him taking ‘shoot and scoot’ penalties and occasional “hull down” penalties. (It is worth noting this doesn’t work nearly so well in ASL since this would all be unacquired shots in the 7-12 bracket—not that bad—which would then get a return volley from the rest of the platoon as it started and reversed out of LOS—that’s actually a bit unreasonable. If you applied Case J2 for 1 MP in LOS (due to being HIP before the shot), that’d probably be appropriate, but that’s not how the rules are written.) I was still trying to force him out into the open where I could properly smother him in fire, when he managed more kills, and pushed me over my casualty limit.

After that, we went to Mission #4 “Chance Encounter”, which is a nice even meeting engagement. Jason got initial initiative, and I picked the Germans, hoping to get a chance at the 80mm mortar support (though that 20% chance makes it quite unlikely). As it happened, the scenario didn’t go long enough for it to come up, as you can only start checking on that after ten minutes of game time.

We both moved up, and Jason managed to get into the central pair of buildings right before I could get there. I assaulted through the other one to get to him, and a mediocre roll sent me retreating back out again. My big mistake was sticking it out and only retreating to the other buildings instead of pulling back to the woods mass to regroup. Jason got initiative, recovered from the assault, and counter-attacked, causing losses and forcing me out.

This started a collapse there that eventually pushed me over the casualty limit. There were a good number of fate rolls during the game, one of which shot Jason’s third platoon leader, and I would have assaulted them if I could get initiative again, and hopefully cause real problems there.

We broke up for the day after that. There was still a decent amount of time, but didn’t have anything in mind, and a real danger that the next scenario could go too long. Still, we got three enjoyable scenarios in, and I re-familiarized with the system.

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The Fall of Rome

by on December 24, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Holmes’ second book covers from the recovery of the Roman Empire from the Crisis of the Third Century to the sacking of Rome in 410.

Well, mostly. While the second book in a series, it is meant to be a stand-alone read as well. This means there’s some lead-in summary introduction. This is generally fine, but a lot of it is copy-and-pasted from book one, which makes it rough going if you read one directly after another. I can’t blame him, but some sort of guidepost to where that stops would have been good in my case.

But the main action is tracing the events that brought Alaric to Rome, three times, and led him to sack it.

Along the way, we see various people come and go, decisions made, and the slow crumbling away of authority in the western Empire, until the government is in northern Italy (Ravenna), and unable/unwilling to do anything for Rome when Alaric threatens it.

Holmes also sees this as the ‘true’ end of the Western Empire, rather than the later ending of central authority there. He’s not alone in that assessment, and you could make a very good argument (he doesn’t, really) that it is the end of the west’s reputation, and that the next fifty years were government without respect. Personally, I go with the “official” end of government, but that is entirely a personal preference.

So, this is the tale of the years leading up to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, well-told at a high level, with attention paid to more modern works, especially dealing with climate change. I think he missed another opportunity here. He does reference Peter Heather’s The Fall of the Roman Empire, but I think Holmes would have been better served to pay attention to his Empires and Barbarians, which looks at the Germanic migrations through the lens of modern migration studies.

So, another readable, informative book. If you have an interest in the later Roman Empire, but are not already well-read on it, this is a great place to start. But… maybe don’t read this right after the first book.

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The Battle of Lagos

by on December 20, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After Demonlord, Mark and I made a long-overdue return to Flying Colors. We went to an early battle (Seven Years War) from the Deluxe set, which meant ginning up some new counters, as the Vassal module still hasn’t incorporated those. (Also, the British commanders you’ll see are wrong, but they have the right stats.)

The Battle of Lagos starts with a British line bearing down on the French fleet, and a second British force will arrive a few (variable) turns in. The French are already outnumbered, but have the only first-rate ship in the battle, everything else is third or fourth-rate. (I wish I had appreciated this much earlier.) The scenario notes that the French are outmatched, and offers a variant with five more French ships, but the second British force is guaranteed to come in on turn 2. Looks interesting, and I think it’s worth a try, but we stuck with the historical version. (I will note the French are already deep in a corner of the map, and the extra ships will probably give even more maneuvering headaches.)

I volunteered to take the French, and Mark got going since the British start with the initiative. We tried the optional defensive fire rule (i.e., firing at movement), and I opened up as HMS Culloden approached to do 2H, and she fired on Téméraire for 3HR. Then HMS America did 3H to Centaure.


After British movement. Wind is from the top of the map.

The immediate French problem is that they are beating against the wind, and are practically immobile with 2 MPs. I wanted to run the French line up, and then turn to parallel the British line reaching with the wind, and so declared a ‘turn in succession’ order with the lead Modeste. (I might have been better served to just turn everyone for a running battle as is, and used sideslips to tighten up the windward side of the fleet.) Téméraire and Centaure returned fire during my activation, doing 4R to Culloden and 3R to America respectively.

Mark kept the initiative for turn 2, and Culloden and Téméraire fired on each other during a range 0 pass-through, doing three hits to each other (rigging to Culloden, and hull to Téméraire). Redoubtable fired the off-side at her, doing 5HR. America took 3R from Centaure, and did 2HR to her in return. Portland could only manage a partial broadside (the British line was backing up…) for 2HR on Centaure. Téméraire tried a rake during her activation, but rolled a 9, still doing 6H to Culloden, flipping her to damaged and setting her on fire. Centaure had nowhere to go (with 2 MP and America directly in front), so she tacked through the wind, getting off a fresh broadside for 2R on Portland, but breaking the turn in succession.


At the end of turn 2.

The British reinforcements showed up for turn 3, but there’s no great instructions for their arrival (just the east edge of the map), so Mark worked out a sailing order for them to start arriving in a compact line ahead under full sails. My lead two ships and Centaure were out of command for turn 3, while La Clue kept control of that part of the line that hadn’t turned yet. Mark retained initiative (on tied rolls), with Culloden firing on Redoubtable for H, and being reaction fired on by Téméraire for HR, and later movement reaction from Redoubtable for 2H. America raked Téméraire (our first successful rake attempt—mine had been hampered by being largely bow rakes) for 4H, while America raked Centaure for 4H (flipping to damaged) and fired on Téméraire for 2HR. Then Guernsey and Warspite fired on Centaure for 5HR, and 6H, sinking her (max hull damage, and sunk when we got to the end of turn check), while Guernsey also did 3H to Téméraire.

There was no more fire for the rest of the turn, but I turned my existing formation to get in line with the parts that turned early, and tried to get ready for a more formal pair of lines hitting each other. I caused myself trouble, but we didn’t realize it until a little later. I’m not sure just when we noticed, but there is a provision for masking a friendly ship, that keeps them from firing that broadside for the entire turn. This affected Océan, the first-rater, at a time when she was finally getting a chance to get into action (though still a bit far out, and I probably wouldn’t have fired that turn anyway). It also affected some of Mark’s ships, as his formation had gotten pretty muddled.

The British kept the initiative for turn 4. Redoubtable and Portland exchanged broadsides, taking 1H and 2R respectively. Guernsey raked Téméraire for 4HR, Namur did another 6H, and Swiftsure and Warspite both did R, leaving Téméraire four hull left.


After British movement. Fired counters are to show masked broadsides; as showing it directly on counters would interfere with ‘first broadside’ tracking.

The French turned due south for my activation, hoping to cross the British “T”, though I did underestimate just how long it would take to accomplish. I was able to separate everyone out during the maneuver though.

The British still had initiative for 5, and they jockeyed for better positioning, with the only fire being Warspite into Téméraire for R and Culloden at Redoubtable for no effect. In my activation, Modeste did R, Guerier 2R, Souverain 2RH, and Ocean 3RH to Portland (leaving her at 12 rigging hits), while Redoubtable was unable to harm Culloden. Culloden finally extinguished her fire, just as the French fleet broke and ran.

With one ship sunk, and another damaged, the British had 7 VPs. Having only damaged one ship, the French had 2.5 (doubled for British Audacity, and halved again for breaking).

Afterword

The best thing about the game was the reminder that we need to play Flying Colors more often. The game is a lot of fun, and boils things down for fleet actions pretty nicely. The scenario’s lopsided, but this is mentioned in the description, and the real problem the French have is the lack of maneuvering that beating into the wind causes.

If things had gone another turn or two, Portland would have been in trouble, as a likely continued focus of French fire; at least until dismasted. After that would be Guernsey or America‘s turn, the latter having taken 6 rigging hits already. That said, Redoubtable would have taken a beating in turn, possibly along with Océan. It would certainly have been interesting to see a first-rate in the middle of all those third and fourth-raters. The second British fleet was still at least two turns away, and this is under full sail. Their real contribution was causing the ‘outnumbered by at least two to one’ modifier for the break check.

The turn in succession rules still need a lot of work. They assume everyone is in a very consistent straight line, and the French, as can be seen, aren’t set up like that here. The ships can’t get as close to the ‘turn’ counter as the rules stipulate. We worked with the idea that they would all turn as they hit the proper column, which seems to fit things fairly well here. The bigger problem is that the entire maneuver gets called null and void as soon as one ship fails it. When Centaure was forced to turn (one way or the other) because of imminent collision, all the ships ahead of her in line suddenly had no formation, which is just nonsense. Sure, if there had been ships after Centaure, they should be out of the command, but not all the ones still in an unbroken line to the turn in succession marker.

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Return of the Thief

by on December 16, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The final book of the Queen’s Thief series features another change in viewpoint. This time, we get Pheris, who is new for this book, instead of a returning secondary character.

Pheris is physically deformed, and is the grandson of Baron Erondites, who we have seen before. Pheris is viewed with suspicion as a ‘monster’ by the superstitious, and his nurse has taught him to play this up so that is all that is thought of him, even though he’s actually quite clever and cunning. The inciting incident of the novel is his uncomfortable stable life coming to an end when he is sent to the court of the new high king, Eugenides.

The idea was to get the heir of Erondites away from the current baron. Pheris isn’t expected to inherit anything, but he is the older brother. Gen, as ever, doesn’t take long to see there is more here than anyone else has realized, and Pheris is given a chance to be more than his cramped little life has allowed him.

As he starts realizing his own potential, internal and external politics heat up, and we are treated to the war that has threatened for some time. This is the final book, and many arcs from the rest of the series come to rest here. It can be hard to bring a series of books that can all be read independently to a proper conclusion, but Turner does it here. There are more things that could be said, and I would dearly like to see more of this world, but that would be as a separate series, different in place and time. For here, we have a good ending to a great series. I recommend people start with the first book, but also be aware that the themes of the series largely start with the second one.

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A Most Dangerous Saturday

by on December 12, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After trying out Wing Leader, our next Saturday game (for more complicated games) was trying out the short scenario for A Most Dangerous Time, which I got a couple years ago. It’s a Japanese design on the later part of the Warring States period, with Oda Nobunaga already in control of much of central Japan.

I had the Anti-Oda faction, which is a collection of various factions with one thing in common: Stopping Oda Nobunaga. In the game’s chit pull system, this is three different chits (with more that come in later), and you can only act with the active chit’s troops, even if you have other units present in a place.

Oda automatically goes first on the first turn. With an ongoing campaign in the north, he put a small force into Mt. Hiei and moved the big at-start army south to Odani, one of the castles needed for Oda’s victory (well, they need six castles larger than the base size, and this is one of them), and the Azai army there hid in the castle with a 4-14 fight looming. Sieges are expensive to prosecute, since the defenders roll first, and are the only ones to get bonuses, when everyone needs to roll ‘6’s to hit. Four units did three hits, and took one in return.

The second chit was ‘End Turn’, allowing Mark to draw a card (for controlling Kyo), and taking us to turn 2 after Mark regrouped his lost units. Turn 2 starts with a small event where the monks of Enrakyu-Ji on Mt. Hiei seize control of the castle there, putting the recently arrived troops into a siege. This maintains a line of communications through, which was what Mark wanted, as pressing the siege (rolling dice) causes the three neutral powers to each move closer to entering the fight against Oda (Takeda, Uesugi, and Mori all have fixed entry dates that move up 1d6 turns if this happens). And the first chit of turn 2 was End Turn. (Yes, this does end the turn, with another card draw for Mark.)

Turn 3 saw Nobunaga go first (some factions—including Oda—get two chits, one for the clan/alliance, and one for the daimyo in charge), and Mark moved a large army into Sawayama; the south end of Azai’s lands, from the north, he sent one unit to Yokoyama, reestablishing communications through Azai lands. He besieged Sawayama, knocking out my two-unit garrison for no losses, and took out two units in Odani (just leaving samurai Azai Nagamasa there), while losing three units. Next up were the ‘Anti-Oda minors’; five clans in all, but only Miyoshi is at all prominent, and they moved to attack Ibaraki just south of Kyo, with the plan that the Ikko-Ikki forces in the area could clean up what was left if they didn’t win.

Mark had in fact, just reinforced that space, and we had our first field battle, with me having more troops than I could command (which is fine, other than the fact they don’t get a leadership bonus, and again, you want 6s or better on d6 per unit). We tied initiative and both got two hits. Mark retreated, and I got one more hit, leaving Akechi Mitsuhide and Hosokawa Fujitaka to take shelter inside the castle. Azai/Asakura went next and Asakura Ashikage headed south to retake Kanagasaki, and hope to be able to break the siege of Odani next time (units can go time after time, but do permanently stop if they enter a unbesieged unfriendly space.

Oda got the next chit, and Mark pulled out of Mt. Hiei while sending a new army into Ibaraki and activating Odani (if anything moves into a space with a siege, you can press it, but otherwise you have to activate a space already under siege to actually do anything). The battle went poorly for Mark, with me winning initiative (each round you compare die rolls, and if the totals are too far off, only one side attacks that round), and causing two losses, and he retreated the one surviving unit out. In Odani, I caused one hit, while Mark got nothing.

This was critical, because next the turn ended, and the first chit of turn 4 was Azai/Asakura. Asakura Ashikage arrived in Odani with an 8-unit army (including himself, but not the besieged Azai), while Nobunaga’s was down to 7. The first round, we did three hits to each other, and Mark retreated out, but lost all four units in the retreat, with Araki Murashige being killed and Nobunaga being wounded until next turn. (I thought he should have stuck around one more round, but the odds were slightly against him; as it was, he might have killed another couple of units.)

That ended the turn, and now Azai was able to start regrouping, since there was now a space for their troops to show up in. Ikko-Ikki got their first draw as the first action of turn 5, and they sent an army into to besiege Ibaraki (You can only use the active chit’s units, but you can do a siege someone else started—though there are problems.), and knocked out the garrison, killing both Samurai. After that was Oda, and most of the army that had taken the southern part of Azai moved towards Nagashima, but no offensive action was actually taken. Then the Anti-Oda Minors went… and I realized that with Ikko in charge of Ibaraki, Miyoshi couldn’t go anywhere without going out of communication/supply. (They could go by sea to the west, but that’s just neutral territory right now.) So, they did nothing, and Azai/Asakura was up. Their combined army went south and retook Yokoyama, after which the turn ended.

Ikko-Ikki went first on turn 6, and spent their time maneuvering. And then the turn was over. However, part of the reinforcement phase is that Takeda comes into the war, getting their troops set up, and now they get two chits for the cup (regular and daimyo).

Ikko-Ikki went first again, and Saika plus an Ikko force went to besiege Mt. Shigi, with both sides taking a hit to leave Matsunaga Hisahide trapped in the castle. Anti-Oda was next, and merely sent a unit forward to help guard Ibaraki from the large Oda army gathering nearby. Then Azai/Asakura continued south to retake Sawayama.

Then Nobunaga went, and Mark finally got a negotiation to work, converting the minor clan in Totomi, now that Takeda was active. Mark spent three movement putting forces into Nagashima, and then moved another large army into Ibaraki. Nagashima being a large castle (and therefore a victory space), the four units there retreated into the castle, doing only one hit (think I got the modifier wrong, and there should have been a second hit), while Oda did three. The battle in Ibaraki was even with the first round being 5 hits each. I pulled out the stump of my army (two Ikko-Ikki units staying in the castle), with thankfully, no pursuit (failed initiative). The siege did one hit, while Mark failed to get any 6s. This was followed by Oda, giving Mark a valuable double turn, putting more into the sieges and preparing some blocking forces on the route from Takeda lands. He took both castles in return for three more losses.

Takeda went next, advancing into Kakegawa on the coast and taking the castle, but taking two hits inland at Iwamura, and only reducing the defenders to a single unit. That finally ended the turn (only the other Takeda chit was left).

Ikko-Ikki was the first chit for the fourth time in a row, spending their time failing to take Mt. Shigi, then Takeda regrouped a little and took Iwamura. Then Azai/Asakura went, and I had a decision to make. Azai lands are a string of three spaces along the east shore of Lake Biwa, with only the ends having extra connections. Now having recovered the south end, do I go east, west, or sit tight. Both lead to valuable areas, with Kyo being three spaces west, and Nagashima three east. I went both directions, to protect the routes (I hoped), leaving the big army in a siege of Kannon-ji (south of Lake Biwa) while taking Ogaki. Oda went next, converting the minor clan in Tanba Kameyama next to Kyo, and sending the Nagashima army around to fight Asakura Yoshikage in Kannon-ji. This was a disaster, as initiative gave the first round to Oda, and my army was knocked out retreating in the second round, with Yoshikage scheduled to return at the end of turn 10 (effectively after it was over). He also pressed the siege of Mt. Hiei, doing nothing, but the rolls for earlier entry of Uesugi and Mori still put them after the game end (Mori shifted from turn 13 to 12…). Takeda went again, and besieged Toki. Nobunaga went, taking Sawayama, and cutting off the Azai army, while reducing the garrison in Mt. Hiei.

That ended turn 8, and turn 9 started with Nobunaga, who took Yokoyama. Asakura/Azai were next, and four Asakura units (with no leader) went to relieve Mt. Hiei, getting a surprise initiative to kill two units in the first round, after which Mark retreated. (I can’t blame Mark for not wanting to risk Nobunaga here, but given my lack of leadership, the battle could go very wrong for me, and he needed that siege.) Takeda was next, and the coastal force moved inland to take Futumata, while the main army finally took Toki.

This spelled Mark’s doom. The side without Kyo gets a card for every space they take, but we’d largely been getting cards that didn’t do much (having the card that will flip a leader on your side to your side isn’t very playable, though it is good piece of mind). I drew Brilliant Maneuver, which lets you choose between four possibilities as the next chit, including ‘End Turn’. I played it to do just that.

Takeda was the first chit of turn 10, and I took Komaki, bringing me up to the line of small armies between Takeda and Nagashima and Azai’s army. At the end of my impulse, I played Master of Tactics, which lets me take a card out of the discards. I took Brilliant Maneuver, which I used to force and End Turn draw.

Afterword

The Oda goal in this scenario is to have control of six castles larger than size 1. They have three in their own area, and the “Good Fortune” (mulligan) chit counts as a fourth (never used…). Nagashima was number five. That is why I was desperate to break up the siege of Mt. Hiei, and I was concerned about the developing offensive into Azai to Odani.

Overall, the game plays well, and feels like it’s bringing forth the later Warring States period. Sieges are highly annoying though, with the attacker’s only option to throw dice until enough 6s come up. Given turns are roughly six months, some sort of passive starving out the garrison seems like it should be possible. (Admittedly, troops under siege are more vulnerable to negotiations, but samurai and daimyos are immune to that.)

As mentioned, the cards were largely non-starters for a long time. I did get an Ikko-Ikki Riot… just after the last time their chit was drawn, and it has to be done during their turn. The game-ending combination was a complete surprise. I assume normally you see it used for forcing one of the daimyo draws next. Or when you know all your useful chits have been drawn already.

Seeing the war expand with Mori and Uesugi getting involved later would definitely be an interesting experience. Oda is going to take a lot of losses with sieges, so the four regroup/turn is really handy, and the ability to expand that to eight needed, and probably largely likely in a longer game. Mark nearly got Azai as it was, and destroying that clan (taking the main castle) expands the regroup limit.

Overall, its a good game, with very good graphics. The rules are a bit of a mess. There’s a summary sheet on BGG that is essential, as it straightens out a lot of confusion on DRMs.

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