The Road to Culloden Moor

by on July 26, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Preston’s book on the last Jacobite Rebellion is an interesting volume. It looks for balance not by stripping away all romanticism or propaganda, but by embracing them. What papers and people were saying on both sides is looked at, not necessarily to arrive at a middle ground, but to show what they were concerned about.

The 1745 rebellion was the passing of an era, and like any such, a large number of stories and legends sprung up around it. And while The Road to Culloden Moor spends a good amount of time talking about them, and how they compare to the events they’re based on, this ignorant American could have used a better grounding in just what these myths are.

As a popular history, the descriptions of the battles are somewhat cursory, but then most of them were extremely brief affairs, on the other hand, it is hard to keep a great sense of the maneuvering going on (maps, as always, would help). But beyond that, the narrative of the entire rebellion, from Charles’… ‘escape’ from Rome to France, to the aftermath, is well done, and overall the book is very informative.

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Two Rounds of Cronium

by on July 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch and I did our usual pair of Commands & Colors: Ancients games between bigger things recently. This time was the Battle of Cronium from the second bonus pack from GMT. Set during the Tyrany of Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, it’s very different from the Greek/Spartan contests we’ve gotten used to lately. There’s no hoplites (possibly this should get an Ex6 update), but there is a wide variety of everything else. Both sides have light, medium, and heavy units in both infantry and cavalry, and both have a unit of Warriors, and the Carthaginians have a Heavy Chariot unit. There’s a lot of units, and the goal is seven banners, so its a pretty big scenario as well.

I had the Carthaginians in the first game, so Patch went first with Order Three Left. Both of us then used cards that could order units all over to bring things up and dress the line. I used Move-Fire-Move to move light units up, and got my LC into archery range before pulling them back a bit, but did no damage. Patch used Coordinated Attack to move forward two Heavies, and got a LB into range who then did a block to an Aux on his first die roll. I used a second Move-Fire-Move to do a block to a Heavy, and forced his LB to retreat, taking a block in the process. Patch moved forward with a Line Command, burying his LB behind the rest of his line in the process. I then Darkened the Sky to do two more blocks to the same Heavy, a block to another Heavy, and two hits to a Medium.

Our armies finally came into contact as Patch Ordered Four Left, wiping out a Light and reducing a Heavy to two blocks, while I was only able to take a block off a Warrior and force them to retreat. I Ordered Four Right in turn, knocking out the weak Heavy and forcing his LS to evade out of line. Patch continued with Order Three Left, doing a block to my HCH who forced his MC back to the baseline in turn. He also did two blocks to an Aux, but they did two in return to his Warriors. And I continued the action with an Order Three Right, finally getting my leader on that flank in play, but my weakened heavies muffed their roll, and were wiped out by battle back from the Syracusan Warriors. The Leader-led Heavy forced an Aux to take a block and retreat, and used Momentum to finally knock out the Warriors. Patch used Order Lights to order two of his remaining four units on the flank, and moved his LB over there. An attempt on my HCH backfired with them wiping out a LC, but then they were eliminated by the LB. While his Aux did two damage to my remaining Heavy, they in turn the Aux out, forcing his leader to run back to the MC still on the baseline (and that leader’s third change of command). On his right, he did two blocks to my LC, who forced one of his to run back to the baseline. I continued the main confrontation with Order Two Right to use my LC to pick on his LS, but but while I forced an evade to the baseline on the first, the only damage from the second battle was a hit to my LC.

Patch used Out Flanked to continue switching the action to both flanks. He knocked out the Heavy and the Aux left on my Right, forcing my leader to run towards the baseline alone, but couldn’t finish off the wounded LC on the other flank. I used Order Three Right to move the leader up the remaining center line, and my LC made another attempt to knock out units, but only managed to take a banner in battle back with one of them. Patch Ordered Mediums to make his center active, and did two hits to my newly-led Aux, and forced them back two hexes, though they did do a hit to a Medium in the first combat. I then used Double Time to get most of the center in action, forcing his MC to evade, and knocking out two Mediums, while one of my units was forced back a hex. Patch then mopped up with Mounted Charge, knocking out my weak LC, and then using momentum to take out my HC. 7-6

In contrast to the first game, when I started as Syracuse I had no Left Flank cards in my hand at all, started with Order Four Center and took a pot shot at his HCH to no effect. Patch Ordered Lights to start bringing up units, and picked on my LC with his to no effect. I Ordered Four Right to do a block to his LC (they evaded in the face of Heavies, and then lost a block to a banner from archery). Patch moved up with Order Three Left, and I did the same with Order Two Center. Patch Ordered Two Left, and did a block to my LC as they evaded. I used Line Command to bring up everything other than my left flank, but scattered archery had no effect; Patch Ordered Two Center with similar results.

I Ordered Three Center to finally get us in contact, and knocked out an Aux in return for taking two blocks. Patch used Coordinated Attack to dress his line a bit, and I Ordered Mediums; on the right, we traded three blocks each on Mediums, and Patch knocked out my weakened Medium in the center with a First Strike. Patch Ordered Two Left to knock out the weak Medium and do a block to the Heavy next in line. I Ordered Three Right and knocked out his weak Medium, and on momentum did two blocks to his Warriors, who also lost a third block on a two-banner retreat. Patch Out Flanked me, and got his leader up to his HC to knock my HC down to a block and force it to retreat, using momentum to take my Heavies down to a block and force them to retreat. I used Leadership Any Section to move up the remaining right flank, and made his LS and HC evade away.

Patch then did a Mounted Charge, which allowed his HC to finish off my Heavies and HC on my right, and did a block to my Warriors on my left by making them retreat, and did two blocks to my remaining Heavy in the center, though they then knocked out his HCH. I Ordered Light to drive off his HC and do a block to a LC with archery. Patch Double Timed to bring parts of his right flank up the rest of his line, while I used Inspired Left Leadership to finally get that flank in motion, and drove off his LC, though I couldn’t do any damage, and I lost mine on a two-banner battle back. Patch used Line Command to move his entire center and knocked out my heavies, killing Dionysius for the win. 3-7

Afterword

With the variety of units all mixed together, this is a much more chaotic battle than most, and the lopsidedness of where the action happened only added to it. The first game had us trading units constantly after a slow start, and I thought I had it until that Mounted Charge. The second game was much more uncertain, though we started trading ranged attacks a lot earlier, but again, Mounted Charge came up for Patch, and smashed me. I had plenty of things I could do after that, but I just couldn’t get the time for them. Especially for moving my left flank up which had been abandoned by the cards for most of the game. Interestingly, we were both holding a Counterattack at the end of the first game.

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Uprooted

by on July 18, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Uprooted is big, sprawling, epic fantasy-type of book that really benefits from not being done as a trilogy the way so many in the genre tend to be. Not that it would take a lot to structure it as such, as a good chunk of the middle features major change in locale and secondary characters. But that would straightjacket the pacing, and draw things out needlessly.

There’s a lot of great things going on here, but I do think there’s a couple of places where it didn’t quite come together, though much of that was expecting revelations about the big bad and the main character that didn’t quite happen. There’s a few places where the first-person viewpoint gets in the way; notably, we get a lot of Agnieszka’s initial outrage at her prickly mentor, and while she later comes to better understand him, this isn’t really shown so much, and we just get her responding to him with a better idea of his actual meaning, so you have to be aware of that on your own to catch it.

People seem to talk about magic systems a lot in fantasy these days, and thankfully Uprooted avoids really tying things down on that route. At the same time it does a great job of providing the general feel of magic. Magic is definitely an inborn ability, and most mages work by rigidly worked-out formulae and spells, and usually have personalities to match. Agnieszka works on a completely different system that is very improvisational and organic in nature, which is shown to be something that has shown up in some very powerful witches in the past, but isn’t widely known or understood. I felt that this should have led into a deeper theme regarding the nature of the Wood, and the inhabitants of the valley, but despite being acknowledged, it didn’t actually get developed.

But these flaws are small and a matter of direction. For the rest, it’s a great book, with some very good action, and some truly varied action. Large parts of the book are unpredictable simply because it avoids doing the same thing twice when it can help it.

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A96 In Rommel’s Wake

by on July 14, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Having fallen into playing a couple scenarios from a set of four SL-conversions/tournament scenarios in ASL Annual ’96, I arranged for a third and advertised for a game of the last one in the set, A96 “In Rommel’s Wake”, and got a game with Pierce. In May ’40, Rommel has crossed the Meuse, but the French are still holding other crossings, and the German army is trying to seize another one from a small defending force.

There’s a number of interesting things going on here. It’s a three-board scenario with board 7 and two bridges in the middle. The Germans enter from board 5 with nine 1st line squads of bicycle troops (with an errata SSR that allows them to carry four LMGs) and two PSW 222 armored cars. The basic French defense is six 1st line squads, two 8-0 leaders, a MMG, two LMG, and two DCs on board 2 and the south bank of the river, all but one squad HIP as long as they’re in concealment terrain. However, they secretly draw a chit before the game that determines the length of the game, and their exact troops. With a draw of ‘1’, it’s the basic troops and 5 turns; a ‘2’ is 6 turns, and adds a squad, an 8-1 and a MMG; ‘3’ is 8 turns and one of the DC is already secretly Set on a bridge hex; and a ‘4’ is 10 turns, and adds an eighth squad, and promotes an 8-0 to an 8-1. The Germans need to have 12 VP south of the river at the end of the game (including broken units!), and at least one of the bridges needs to be intact.

The scenario has a lopsided record on ROAR, so we went with the French balance, which gives them a pair of foxholes, and Pierce volunteered for the French. He (unknown to me) drew chit 1, and set up the foxholes at the exit to both bridges, which now that I think of it should have been HIP until I came  into view, though the non-HIP troops in them would have been something of a giveaway, and it wouldn’t have take long to see them. I decided to go for the far, wooden, bridge as it was much shorter, and I didn’t want to be stuck on a single clear hexrow forever. I gave some consideration to sending some forces to the nearer, longer, bridge, so that both were threatened, but decided I would need concentration of force more than the French.

Bicycles are fast. They count as Infantry movement, so there’s no changing CA, and CX and leader and road bonus still count, but each road hex costs 0.5 MF, so I made 16 hexes this turn (+1 in APh). Also, there’s no MF cost for getting on/off them. The two ACs went down the middle, one of them to 7Q3 so it could try to interdict any shift of troops to the targeted bridge, and try and keep the French from hurrying onto the bridge to Set a DC on it, and the other to a more sheltered position that could see near the exit of the stone bridge.

To my surprise, there was no French response at all, and the second half of the first turn passed quietly. I had figured there’d be at least one squad covering the main bridge who’d rush towards my attack.


Situation, Turn 1, showing the full map.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Anime Spring 2017

by on July 10, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Anime

This was a really good season for anime. I watched 7 new series, and liked them all. As usual, this is technically in order of preference, but the top four all tangled in a roughly co-equal ball.:

My Hero Academia — It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the first series came out. I wasn’t too happy with the very beginning of the first series, and a giant tournament didn’t seem that appealing this time. But it actually worked out well, showcasing some real character development, and laying the groundwork for the next round of storylines.

Akashic Records of Bastard Magical Instructor — You know, if the girl’s school uniforms weren’t woven of fanservice, this might have been my favorite series of the season. That’s really the only thing holding this down. The characters all have troubles, but they round out the characters instead of being excuses for overblown emo-drama, and the writing is really smart. If you missed this (and especially if you missed this because it looked like fanservice all the way down), check this one out.

The Eccentric Family 2 — I was a bit worried that this would suffer from sequelitis as a new story after the first series, but it turned out to be very strong. While it does introduce new characters at the beginning, threads from the first story continue here, and I’d recommend watching the first series before picking this up.

WorldEnd — I’m not even going to bother with the full overblown subtitle (yeah, the one that takes up an entire screen). Bring kleenex. Another really well-done world that’s looking at a slow-grind apocalypse, focused on a love story (admittedly, while we see a decent number of those in anime, there’s only been one other I’ve been aware of recently).

Alice & Zoroku — I somewhat randomly spotted this this and said ‘let’s try it!’. I… should do that more often, it turned out to be very good. The ending wasn’t really final, but it’s quite satisfactory, and anything more would probably be an anticlimax.

Natsume’s Book of Friends 6 — I was a lot happier with the latest season of Nastume than the previous one, as it spent a lot more time on character development. Not a lot happened in the various continuing threads, but those never proceed very fast, and they were present this time.

Granblue Fantasy — At almost any other time, this would have been a pretty strong series, but this season was so good it’s the bottom of the pack. Another videogame adaptation, its weakened a bit by a rapidly growing cast, and an over reliance on a few tropes (go to place, have trouble, defeat boss monster), but the art is good, and it doesn’t feel like it’s taking itself too seriously like Zestiria did. I have a feeling we won’t see any more of this, but I’d like to be proven wrong.

I also watched a few things from the previous season or two:

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju — One of the nice things about anime is the occasional series that exists to show off a love for a particular subject, in this case rakugo, a traditional type of comedy native to Japan. The full series covers a period from the early ’30s to ~2016, focused on the impact of a couple of performers, and is an excellent trip.

ACCA-13: Territory Inspection Department — Supposedly this was a seinen series, but by look and feel it is oh so shojo. In either case, it’s very smartly done and stylish throughout and a great political drama (not quite in thriller territory).

The Saga of Tanya the Evil — So… ‘god’ decides to shock a bastard out of a heartless, materialist, viewpoint by getting him reborn in an alternate timeline that’s going through something of a mix of WWI and WWII in the ’20s. Smudge wasn’t sure I’d like this with good reason, as I generally don’t go for anti-hero stories, but this was very well done. Tanya is horrible, and what she’s fighting against isn’t any better. Even with ‘divine’ intervention, I’m not buying a lot of the technology seen in the later parts of the series, as its springing up with no antecedents or problems, and that really drags down the later parts for me, but ignoring that part, this was a really strong story.

Voltron: Legendary Defender — Finally caught to the second season of this. It continues to be very good, and got a lot more climatic than I was willing to give it credit for going in. Now I’m anxiously awaiting season three. I have to wonder what this series’ version of Prince Lotor will be like….

Akiba’s Trip — Um, yeah. If you’ve heard anything about the pervy/parody game, this is about what it says on the tin. But, it’s really an Excel Saga-style parody series, tackling a different fan subject each episode. The quality of the humor went slowly downhill over the series, but at least the overall story stayed to help make up for it. Someone was really getting something off his chest for episode 2. If you’ve looked at this and thought ‘could be good, could be awful’, its on the ‘good’ side.

And between other things, I’ve gotten around to re-watching Mushishi and Girls und Panzer; I consider both of them in the top five of the last several years (or longer), and I really need to see them more often, I’d certainly forgotten too much of Mushishi.

And finally, some more Pokemon:

Sun and Moon — This has finally started updating on the Pokemon Channel, so I’ve only seen a few episodes. But, the new style has been good, and the larger constant cast will give it a nice dynamic if they start leveraging it more. (I really liked the middle part of X and Y where all the secondary characters were there most of the time.)

Master Quest — After a long delay getting the set from Amazon, we’re about a third of the way through the last section of second generation. It’s the usual mix, with some really clunky episodes, but we still giggle over “Pudgy Pidgey Island”.

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