Patch and I finally got back to Festung Budapest for our latest ASL game. FB has a lot of unusual scenarios, and that’s definitely true here, as there’s a four-hexrow overlap in the opposing setup areas, and anyone who sets up in the same Location starts in Melee (setup is simultaneous and secret). This is probably easier in VASL than FtF. Right after that is worked out, a die is rolled to see who goes first, and is effectively on the attack, as they will have to Control five out of nine ground-level victory Locations at the end of five turns, and both sides have a limit of 35 CVP.
Pre-game rubble checks knocked down most of building YY30, but did nothing to four other buildings. I had the Russians, who start with nine squads (three each 628, 458, 527), a MMG, DC, a 75mm INF, and three T-34/85s. There’s also six OB-given “?”. I mostly used those to conceal the bulk of my forces, but also put a Dummy in EEE27. My main concentrations went on the VC Locations of ZZ27 and CCC28, but the MMG went further out in XX26, where it could cover most of the north side. I put two squads across the main north-south road, with a 628 on the VC Location in ZZ25, and a 527 + 7-0 next to a VC Location in EEE25. Most of my concentration was in the south, and I hoped to take and keep DDD25. The INF was in AAA29, where it was out of the Axis setup area, and could cover most of the area being fought over, especially to the south.
The Axis has three SS squads (two normal 658s and a 468), three regular elite squads (a 548 and pair of 468s), and three Hungarian 526 squads. They’re at Ammo Shortage 4, and only have two LMGs, but also have a DC, 75L AT, Pz IV H, StuG III G(L), and a SdKfz 251/9 (with a short 75mm gun), as well as six OB-given “?” and initial Control of all victory Locations. On the west-side of the main street, he had what turned out to be a dummy in YY27, and two Hungarian squads in building CCC28, one of which was instantly in Melee with my main stack with a 9-1 and 628 (the remaining Hungarians were in BBB26, with the leader in BBB24), while the ATG was in ZZ24. The rest of his squads were in a line along the east side of the street, with two of them in cellars. In one case, this meant we were in the same hex, but not in Melee, but my force in EEE25 did end up in Melee with a 468. His Pz IV was in bypass of FFF24, adjacent to the Melee, though actually out of my setup area, the StuG was in CCC24 looking down the street, while the SdKfz 251/9 was in ZZ23, where it could cover the central building.
The scenario also has purchasable reinforcements, where each side gets three points every turn, and there’s a schedule of what you can buy, from leaders and squads, a few tanks, or even eliminate the next player turn. (You just go through your turn and then do your next turn right after, costs 8 points.) The start went to the Axis, and Patch skipped buying anything, and went straight to Prep. He only fired his group in YY25 at my guys next door in ZZ25, getting a MC that I passed. Movement consisted of skulking in the center and preparing to rush into EEE25.
I didn’t want to reveal too many “?” for fear of making them vulnerable, but I did reveal the INF, which missed a shot at DDD25, but behind-the-lines fire at DDD28 broke that squad. Patch had forgotten his squad in ZZ25/c, and I pounded it, eventually breaking it with a shot from a T-34. Patch declined to advance into CC in ZZ25, though he would have had an edge in leadership and FP (he’d still be attacking at 1:1 -1, unless he could get the Ambush; too chancy). But CC went poorly for me, with the Hungarians wiping out a 628, 9-1 and DC in CCC28 while taking no losses, and he CRed my 527 in EEE25 for no losses.
Situation, German Turn 1 showing the full playing area. The red hexes are the Russian entry area, and the blue hexes are the Axis entry area. North is to the left. German setup was xx28 and above, Russian setup xx25 and below, but not in/adjacent to building BBB26. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
The second book of Honsinger’s military-SF series delivers pretty much everything you’d expect after the first book. Unfortunately, the beginning parts of the novel have some problems. I think he felt too much of a need to re-introduce things with an in media res opening designed to show off Robicheaux’s tactical cunning and generating suspense through use of off-screen actions.
That wouldn’t be too bad as a first-chapter prologue (though I still think there’s better ways to do it), but we’re treated to exactly the same kind of spectacle right afterwards, just a bit more elaborate this time. However, after that the central plot of the story starts taking over and the remaining 70%+ of the book goes a lot smoother.
There’s a good number of familiar tropes again, but as usual they’re well-handled, and they’re not allowed to sidetrack the book. (For instance, we get the ‘snubs from an incompetent superior officer’ this time, but it doesn’t occupy half the book the way it has in some cases.) There’s also a brief lampshade of this series’ relationship to the Aubrey-Maturin series at one point. We also get to see Admiral Hornmeyer a couple times again, and I have to admit the writing for him always makes me laugh.
Overall, its pretty much exactly what you’d expect after the first book: straightforward military SF. It shouldn’t be essential to read the first book before this, but I would highly recommend it.
Given how much trouble I ran into with my (unfocused) offensives, I faced the Alliance half of the turn with a fair amount of trepidation. The good news is any fighting would be away from his defenses, but there’s still a fair number of places I wanted to protect, and I was well aware I couldn’t cover them all.
The strain on the Alliance economies showed with the Federation cancelling their ECL and two DE builds, even as they converted two DDs to DEs, and three CLs to other duties. Sure, they’re inefficient to build, but they’ll run out someday. …Or so I tell myself. Meanwhile, the Kzinti did minimal repairs, and downgraded two CMs to FFs, though they did build a full number of hulls. They could have repaired slightly more, but both of us forgot about the two ships they captured (and salvaged) at first.
Overall, raids went very well for the Alliance. He hit several LTC province garrisons, allowing me to call up a POL to fight him two on one, but the quality of his raiders and rolls made up for it. The Hydrans raided with a RN and THR, while the Kzinti used their two DNLs, and the Federation used a DNL, CF, and a newly-built CF. I forced a couple of retreats, but did no damage to the raiders, lost three small ships, and the Lyrans had three LTC provinces disrupted.
Hydran movement started with a large force apparently heading around the capital hex, and I reacted out to generate a fairly large pinning battle in 0518. However, the Lyrans were unable to take part in any of this (all movement was away from them), and with all the fighters, the Klingons couldn’t even begin to match Hydran SEs or firepower, and the Hydran fleet ended up running over everything, and hitting every notable point in (former) Hydran space, including where a TGB had started setting up a MB in 1017. I had contemplated setting up a reserve in Klingon space that could reach that, or a very few targets in Federation space. But I hadn’t liked the opportunity cost of the reserve potentially being stranded far away from the action.
Meanwhile, the Kzintis sent the Marquis’ Fleet into the Fed-Kzinti neutral zone to pick on a small Klingon force there, and were joined by an even larger Federation force. I avoided reacting anything into the area, and did not react to a decent-sized force that picked on a province-raiding E4 in 2206 as I was afraid of moving away various picket forces from where they could interfere with any attempt on Klingon bases and captured planets. And the 3rd Fleet came out for a fight against the Klingon East Fleet in 2212.
On the Romulan border, the only activity was a couple ships sent out to pick on a pair of F5s that survived the raids intact, a pair of POL picking on a K4, and the remnants of the 5th Fleet shifting from the Gorn border to nearer the Fed capital.
The Hydran Ulcer
Activity in the Kzinti neutral zone.
The Klingon-Federation border.
5th Fleet, 2nd line of defense.
Many reserves were out of range of all combats, and one was pinned in the Hydran capital. Of those that were left, one Klingon reserve aided the East Fleet, while another two and a weak Lyran reserve went to 2206 to put a decent force into NW Federation space.
Battles:
3116: SSC: Romulan: dest K4
0418: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5
0718: SSC: Klingon: dest cripF5, FRD; Hydran recover planet
1017: Klingon: dest E4, abandon setting up MB
0519: Klingon: crip F5L; Hydran recover planet
0617: Hydrax I: dest PDU; Hydrax II: dest PDU; Klingon: dest E4, crip D7, D6, 2xD5, 2xF5, E4; Hydran: dest LB, DDS
0518: Klingon: crip F5; Hydran: dest PGS
1905: Klingon: dest F5L
2212: Klingon: dest D6D; Federation: dest FFE
2206: Klingon: crip D5; Lyran: crip DW; Federation: dest DD
The last turn me and Bel got to in our main game, Bel blew several cloaked evasion rolls, and followed it up with poor SSC rolls. The shoe was on the other foot this time as I blew my only cloaked evasion roll of the turn in 3116, and then did poorly in SSC to lose a K4 without even forcing a pair of POLs to retreat.
Byron’s raids left a pair of F5s crippled in 0418, and then he sent a pair of crippled HR plus a POL to finish them off. One covered the escape of the other, but it is now 0419, well away from the last friendly house.
I had established the repair pool with the FRD on the major planet in 0718, figuring I could probably pin out most attempts to get past the major base in the capital. This is supposed to be a backwater….
Byron seems to have thought I was going to attempt to stand up to a major combined Fed/Kzinti force in 1905, but I just withdrew the LV3 (LTT+VP3) group and then sacrificed a F5L to get a D7C and F5S out.
Everyone largely retrograded back to their start positions; the Hydrans ensconced themselves on 0416 without even attempting to leave any garrisons on their reclaimed systems (despite my problems, they don’t really have the ability to protect two places at once), the Federation 7th Fleet ended up back in 2609, on the direct path to the capital. However, the Marquis’ Fleet went to the Kzinti capital, leaving no garrison in place for 1802.
The Federation naturally transferred 15 EPs to the Kzinti, but thanks to Coalition forces in the area, it had to be delivered to the off-map area, where it will probably maximize repairs next turn. Both Kzinti reserves are in the capital, and Federation reserves are all centrally located within three hexes of their capital, while a secondary force was sent to guard 3509.
Looking ahead, it’s pretty obvious the VP setup isn’t really meant for this early in the scenario:
This is considered a Decisive Victory, which the Coalition is actually some ways from achieving, and it does not count the Gorns, who come in on turn 12, and right now the Coalition is expending ships trying lower the Alliance economy and base infrastructure. I did do that, but the cost in ships was a bit high, and most of the easy targets are gone. At least the Romulan economy is still expanding thanks to needing to explore part of their own space.
Dragon’s Egg is a story assembled out of a few disparate parts. There’s the formation of a neutron star from a supernova, the discovery of said star by astronomers in 2020, an expedition to said star… and then there’s what’s happening on the surface of the neutron star, which proceeds through several different arcs.
That last, of course, is where the main imaginative elements of the novel come from. Incredibly, this is an exercise in hard SF, with the main speculative part dealing with the idea of the surface of the star hasn’t quite collapsed all the way to neutronium, allowing for complex interactions (and the evolution of life) utilizing the strong nuclear force. The resulting (very) alien ecology is never explored in any detail, but there’s plenty of details given in the chula’s (the intelligent life that evolves) biology(?) to drive home just how different everything is.
Since strong nuclear reactions are much faster than familiar chemical ones, it is posited that everything happens on the Egg at an accelerated pace, and this is continually driven home by each section being given a timestamp down to the second, with not a lot of time passing for entire generations of chula. The rise of an advanced civilization takes a few hours. This leads to a cast of characters that, in one part, is constantly shifting (“These fifteen-minute lifetime relationships are hard on the emotions.”), but are generally well-drawn.
This is ‘idea’ SF at it’s best. A suitably strange-seeming idea is proposed (what would life on a neutron star look like?), and then a story explores the ramifications of the idea. In this case, both the science and the plot are very good, and the novel is an overall fascinating read.
I’ve been meaning to get some more PBeM gaming in this year, and at the time I happened to be in a real F&E mood, a new player asked for a teaching game on the ADB forums. I accepted.
As usual when I do something like this, I ended up with two games. The second one with a fairly experienced player. I had been wanting to try out the revised Hurricane scenario, which starts the action as the Romulans invade the Federation in support of the Klingons who invaded three turns earlier. In addition to getting the Romulans into the action early, it also gets us to the introduction of later carrier types and some new mid-war ship types that I haven’t seen in action.
So, despite saying ‘turn 10’ in the title, this is the start of the game. With the title of the scenario being “The Hurricane”, calling this game “Konya wa Hurricane” (There’s a Hurricane Tonight) seemed obvious. But for those who need the reference:
I’m playing the Coalition, and Byron Sinor is playing the Alliance, and we’re using what I consider the ‘main three’ expansions, Fighter Operations, Combined Operations, and Advanced Operations (short of the optional rules), which is about what I think I can remember in terms of new rules. We also adjusted the OoB slightly to account for older ships that show up in Gale Force (which was revised last year, and starts after this scenario):
Also, we’re testing out a bunch of new Auxilaries that have been added to the on-line SITs but have yet to be published. At least in theory; we’ll see if either of us does much with them. Guidelines:
1) Auxes generally use the FO2016 unified rule.
2) All Aux production (and conversion) takes ‘pods’ as well as EPs. Federation & Klingons get 8/year, Tholians get 4/year, everyone else gets 6/year.
3) The existing limits for particular types of Auxes still limits them. (Probably just count the jumbo and heavy auxes as part of the large limit.)
4) Auxiliary combatants are not tied to provinces as in CL43 playtest rule, but they don’t exist for activation either. Only built Auxes are available.
As a large scenario, setup is actually complicated, as certain ‘strategic reserves’ are set up after most everything else, and can be shifted between fronts, while most forces are assigned to a particular region. I started ignoring my own plans there, not concentrating them in a few places as I had meant to as I worried about various problems. Production was certainly nice, as the Coalition has the luxury of occupying most of Hydran and Kzinti space to swell their economies.
The Lyrans raided the Kzinti capital province (most everything else was likely to be disrupted anyway), while the remaining six hit Fed space (the Romulans only put two ships into the Raid Pool this turn). Only three raids succeeded, but only one raiding D5 was crippled, and no raiders were lost. In addition, the BATS in 2308 lost its fighters fighting off an adjacent raid.
With everything in good shape (the scenario decrees a number of ships crippled at start, but you can easily set them up on bases to repair them), I did offensives across the board. The Hydrans somewhat inexplicably have an intact planet after everything else is wiped out, and I sent in the fleets to there, including some of the Aux CVs, which was a mistake. I went after the Kzinti capital as it has several planets that have recovered from devastation, but still have no defenses. In NW Federation space, I tried going after several planets and BATS, but blew my sequencing so the 4th Fleet could react to save 2306 (Cygnus) as all the other major fleets in range of the SB had moved. I actually saw the problem, but just didn’t want to go back and re-record a long log I was in the middle of. The Romulans naturally poured over the border to take out the border BATS and threaten the 6th Fleet SB and adjacent planets, with the Home Fleet coming up to set up shop on one the NZ planets.
[Green arrows are movement; light blue are reactions, and darker blue is Reserve movement.]
Kzinti space and the Federation border.
The Klingon-Federation border.
Day of the Eagle
Out of the capital, but not off the map.
Battles:
0217: SSC: Hydran: retreat
0218: SSC: Hydran: dest POL; Klingon: crip F5
0416: Hydran: dest NSC, DDS, crip 2xHR; Lyran: dest STJ; crip 2xCW, DW; Klingon: dest D6M, 2xE4A, SAV, crip D6G, F5
1702: SSC: Kzinti: retreat
1902: Kzinti: dest BATS, CLD, SDF; Klingon: dest D6J, F5L, crip D7C, D5, F5
1802: Kzinti: dest FKE, crip CVE, DDE; Klingon: dest D5, E4, crip 2xD7, F5E
2006: Federation: dest BATS
1702: Klingon: dest F5
1401: Keevarsh I: devastated; Keevarsh II: devastated; Vielsalm I: devastated; Vielsalm II: devastated; Vielsalm III: devastated; Vronkett: devastated; Kzinti: dest CLD, 2xFKE, SDF, SAD, crip CL, CLD, 2xSF, capture DWG, E4A; Lyran: dest CWS, 2xDW, DWE, crip CA, 4xCW, CWE, STJ, DW, DDE; Klingon: dest F5, crip F5, E4A
2004: Federation: dest BATS; Klingon: crip F5
2106: Klingon: dest 2xF5
2308: Federation: dest BATS; Klingon: crip D6
2311: SSC: Federation retreats
2306: Federation: dest 3xPDU, DD, crip DD, SWAC; Klingon: dest MD5,F5L, 2xF5, F5E crip D7, D5, F5; Lyran: crip BC, 2xCW
2211: Retreat after declined approach
2312: Klingon: dest F5L
2509: Federation: dest FF; Klingon: dest D5A, crip F5
3212: Federation: dest BATS; Klingon: crip F5
3215: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip WE, SNB
3415: Neutral: dest 2xPDU; Romulan: crip WE, capture planet
3414: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip BH
3613: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip K5L, K5
3812: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SK, SNB
3912: Neutral: dest 2xPDU; Romulan captures planet
3612: Romulan: dest KE
3711: Federation: dest 2xPDU, crip 3xFF; Romulan: crip K7R, capture planet
3611: Federation: dest CC, DD, crip DD, FF, 2xFFE; Romulan: dest SUP, K4, crip SP, 2xSN
Tackling the main Hydran fleet turned out to be a lot tougher than I had anticipated. Not only does the IC allow for high ComPot (even for Hydrans!), but they were able to force a -2 shift with relative ease. (I started chipping away at that.) I decided to pull out before I exhausted all the fighter reserves, and left a large Hydran fleet loose with a lot of Coalition cripples around. I had anticipated pushing him off the last intact Hydran planet, and so brought along the Klingon SAV, which I promptly lost in the slow unit battle.
A D6 and F5 vs 2xPOL rolled a ‘2’, allowing one to retreat after the other withdrew to 1802. Meanwhile, a decent force took out the last Kzinti BATS, and both sides then retreated onto 1802 (further talks about the meaning of ‘units’ in retreat says I may not have been able to do that; it would have been close though). Sadly, a successful ground assault took out a defending ‘G’, but couldn’t do more on a second roll. Both sides then retreated off the planet, with the Kzinti going to 1702 to kill the F5, and re-open the supply grid to 1802.
The raid on the Kzinti capital went well, since I was fighting his ships without defenses backing them up in the outer systems. I re-devastated everything outside the main system and managed to pick off a few valuable ships. However, the we finally saw good capture rolls for the retreat and the slow unit retreat, letting the Kzinti get two poor ships: a DWG and an E4A. The slow unit retreat tripped me up again, with Byron able to bring extra ships to balance the non-slow escorts I was using. Still, I have a number of spare E4As at the moment, and nothing bigger went.
I went in for a round at the major planet at 2306, and regretted it when the Feds rolled a ‘6’ with a larger line than I had expected. I mauled half the the PDUs, and then got an approach round to burn off most of the resulting involuntary minus points before retreating. He killed the MD5 in form, so at least it saved killing the BC.
Having already taken more damage for less gain on the Klingons than I wanted, I retreated out after a declined approach battle with the 3rd Fleet SB. The Federation also retreated off, hitting a little two-ship holding force in 2312, and reestablishing main grid supply.
Byron was understandably surprised when I put the D5A on the line in 2509, but I wanted the extra ComPot, and wasn’t expecting to be facing yet another -2 EW shift, which canceled my plans for actually using the SFG. And, I’m not a fan of the marginal abilities of the D5A, so I’m not too unhappy at losing it.
About half of the Federation 4th Reserve went to 3612, which was still far better than what the Romulans had in the hex. I didn’t want to kill a KE, but it was that or cripple 3xWE, and probably lose them all in pursuit.
Overall, I can’t help but be disappointed with the results, though I wasn’t really expecting to take planet 3711. I knew there would be some problems, as I’m stepping into a big war in progress without a great idea of what shape everyone is in. There’s no immediate ‘history’ to provide momentum. In addition, I made a number of mistakes, and did not really focus on just a few goals. Over our years of play, Bel has been playing catch-up to me, and now I’m facing someone who knows the game much better than I. In retrospect, I needed to pay a bit more attention to mauler and scout builds, as the Alliance EW situation is a lot better than I expected.
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