J167 Hart Attack

by on May 7, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While looking through the ASL Journal 11 scenarios back in January, Patch saw that J167 “Hart Attack”, featured some Grants, and wanted to have a go at it. We’ve actually used them before (or at least some Lees), but I got to drive them that time, so I took the Germans defending against Allied forces in Tunisia. This is technically a re-release of the early ’90s scenario ASLUG7, but frankly, it’s a completely new scenario from the same designer. The German forces are about the same, the British have been cut down, it’s two turns shorter, and gone from a three-map area with overlays to just needing board 7a. The VCs and SSRs have also gotten a lot simpler. That said, someone could probably talk me into trying it for comparison’s sake.

The Germans have 8 squads and 3 HS of 548 elites, with MGs, a pair of 50mm MTR, an ATR, DC, and a 40mm squeezebore ATG, and then get three Pz IIIs with a 9-1 AL on turn 3. The Allies enter from the west with thirteen British squads (mostly first line, with some elites), good leadership (four leaders with -4 in leadership mods between them), HMG, MMG, a couple 51mm MTR, an ATR, and five American M3 Grants. The Allies have six turns to get 7 VP; getting one VP per building they control (there are seven on the board), one per every other tank they exit off the east side (i.e., 1 for exiting one, 2 for exiting three, 3 for exiting all five), and a VP per German tank they kill. The Tunisian setting means that orchards are olive groves, and hedges are cactus hedges. The Germans are considered Elite for Ammo Depletion (…I think I forgot that), and the British get to use ATMM to represent Gammon bombs.

There’s one building at the west edge, and then two widely separated clusters of three buildings on the board. This gives the Allies two general approaches depending on which cluster they want to go for first. One set is tucked way back, and is hard to get at unless it’s the primary target, while the other is much more central (and nearer the odd, ‘close’ building), but is made of stone in fairly dense terrain with walls, olive groves, and a couple hills, and features the only two-hex building in the lot. I set up blocking positions on both western roads, one MMG overlooking the further buildings, the other in the two-hex building, with a MTR adjacent that it could spot for (which was bore-sighted on the hill overlooking the compound). The ATG went on a hill where it could boresight a woods-road that Patch would almost have to use if he went north. I figured if he went south, he’d still come for the final buildings anyway, and I’d push the gun down to where it could trade shots from either side of the walls. The ATR went in the center, where it’d have a chance at an underbelly shot at a tank going over the wall that lines the area; about the only good shot I figured he’d let me have with the thing.

Patch took the northern route. In fact, more northern than I’d figured. I’d kind of mentally shrugged off the most-northern section of the board, which would require going around a fair amount of terrain before getting anywhere. So naturally, half his force went there, and made me wonder if he’d be trying to overrun my ATG before it got a shot at a tank. I didn’t have any fire against most of that, but the rest of his forces lined up at the wall, with a large stack headed for the close building just across the wall, and a lucky shot broke his 9-2 as he entered, and the resulting LLTC pinned the two squads with him. Two of his tanks went over the wall, but my ATR shot went wild (Final 12), while one of them stopped long enough to reduce my forward squad with a BFF K/2, and three of his tanks parked around a concealed HS in D5. His AFPh scattered a number of acquisition markers about, with no other effect, despite a NMC against the squad in E4.


Situation, British Turn 1, showing the full board with my boresighting and ATG.
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Kismet

by on May 3, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Set an unspecified time in the future, humanity has spread through the inner Solar System, and established a large number of bases and arcologies in the asteroid belt in the vicinity of Ceres. (This allows a certain ‘spread out’ feel between some major locations in the book, but travel times are in hours instead of days or months.) Gail, the main character, is something of a loner, with a small ship named Kismet that she uses for a salvage business. A tip off on a wreck turns into trouble that keeps getting bigger at every turn and drives the plot to a surprisingly high-stakes climax.

Along the way, Gail is pushed back into the unfinished business of her own life, and the novel does a great job driving the action forward, expanding the scope of the mystery, and making the situation matter more and more to Gail herself. I actually have some trouble with some of the early ‘pushes’ into the plot, but that fades fast.

An interesting major theme is transhumanism-as-furry. “Totemics”, people who have undergone a combination of surgical and genetic alterations to take on anthropomorphic traits, are a major part of the background. There are some minor improvements to senses and the like available, as well as much more capable (and tempermental) bio-mechanical options, but most modifications are more cosmetic. There’s a number of examples of more individual forms of self-expression with these mods, but the totemics are the most cohesive group, even though their own motivations behind their modifications vary. There’s a number of fragments of interesting philosophical arguments along the way, and one that caught at my attention towards the end dealt with the choice of form inherent in the modifying process.

It all makes for a satisfying and well-rounded SF novel. Action, mystery, philosophy, and a glimpse of a possible future all coexist gracefully between two covers.

Finally, I’ll note that FurPlanet’s hardcopy version has an elementary formatting mistake. The body text margins are weighted on the fore edge of the page instead instead of the spine, pushing the text towards the spine. Thankfully, there’s still room enough that there’s no real reading problem, but it gets uncomfortably close. It’s like they got their left/right templates reversed.

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Terrier

by on April 29, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Having previously read some of Tamora Pierce’s earliest works, I’ve now read one of her more recent. To a certain extent, not a lot has changed: female-centric YA fantasy (in fact, it’s in the same world as those earlier books).

There are some important differences though. The Alanna series felt predictable to me, whereas Terrier had a more solid and cohesive plot that never telegraphed more than broad outlines to me. Less importantly, but more obviously, the book is written as a series of first-person journal entries, a device that generally works for the story, though elements of it are repetitive and grating. (I’m mystified by the blurb making such a big deal about it; stories that are better told in first-person are, those that aren’t aren’t.)

On the similarities side, it sticks to the formula of a strong young female, with magic as an important, but not central, part of the world and plot. Beka is more rough-and-tumble than other main characters, having a lower-class background, though she has moved up.

There’s an indication that the tension between her desires and that of her immediate family could get more treatment in a later book; it’s a theme that gets a couple scenes here, but is otherwise ignored. Pierce is not a favorite author of mine, but she’s always more than good enough to return to, and I want to get the next two books.

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Stilicho

by on April 25, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The end of the Western Roman Empire is a hard subject to get a real grasp on. Ian Huges’ book about one of the final magister militums of the western empire does a lot to explain conditions during the beginning of the 5th Century.

Stilicho has generally been a controversial figure, either vilified or celebrated by most histories (this book’s subtitle, “The Vandal Who Saved Rome” is a direct reference to that latter tradition), and Huges’ intent is to do a more evenhanded account (which I think ends up giving him more credit than is due in a few places).

The story starts with Theodosius defeating a western ‘pretender’, Eugenius, reuniting the Roman Empire, and then dying a few months later, leaving the Empire to his two children, who were both underage. Stilicho was one of Theodosius’ generals, and was married to his (adopted) daughter, and claimed authority over the Empire as… legal guardian (parens principum) of both emperors. This was never accepted in the East, and led to a strained relationship between the two imperial courts for the duration of his rule. In the West, Stilicho followed the arc of so many regencies, starting with a good amount of power, then falling into political power struggles with the court and the maturing Emperor, and in this case executed.

The book provides a very good overall study of his thirteen years in power (which is a pretty impressive amount of time for someone at the top of Roman politics in an unstable reign), maintaining a mostly chronological account, but dividing things up into specific subjects which are each examined in turn (sometimes round-robin style; coming back to previous subjects in the next year, etc.). I would have much preferred that a few things were handled in greater detail (like his relationship with the Gothic general Alaric), but presumably there isn’t enough in the sources to say more. At the same time, there are ideas introduced (like the attitude of the Senate in Rome) that I’d like a better idea of where he’s pulling it from, of if it is all assumption.

The good news for the Kindle version of this book, is that there’s a lot of maps scattered throughout the book, generally close to where they’re needed; I could wish for better quality or focus on some, but they are there. The bad news is that it seems the formatting did not entirely make it into the Kindle version. All the section headers are presented in normal text, with no bolding, extra space around them, or anything else to set them apart from the text.

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J32 Panzer Graveyard

by on April 21, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up Lagus Assault Guns, Tom suggested trying out J32 “Panzer Graveyard” from Journal 2, and we got going at the beginning of March. A January ’44 scenario in Italy, it has a worn-out German force with a lot of tanks assaulting a stiff British defense in the board 46 town. The Germans attack with twelve squads (ranging from first line to conscripts), a few MGs and four Pz IV Hs with a 9-1 AL and four Pz III Ns. The British are defending with ten first-line squads, a HMG and a MMG, two PIATs (who are assigned to 1-2-7 crews), a 6 pdr AT gun, a Churchill IV and a Sherman III, and some concealment markers. There’s a small cluster of buildings added across the street from the main town that serves as a possible jumping-off point for the Germans.

This ordinarily should be a 1/2 map scenario. But instead, it uses all of board 46 and 18 (including an overlay with another level 2 hill). This is for the use of the Pz IIIs, which set up on the various hills, ready to shell the defenders, or smoke them in. The Germans have six turns and need to control 20 buildings (out of 30) in the British setup area at the end of the game. While they have lots of armor support, they have problems; all German MMC are Lax, and their ELR is only 2. Finally, there is a +1 LV on the final turn.

I took the British defense, and spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to do. There’s three main ways for the Germans to approach this, the main obvious one is the center area, jumping off from the built up area. I figured an approach from the east had a lot of open ground to go through before reaching the first buildings, and then tended to hit the least-dense parts of the town, with the graveyard, woods, and orchards, though all of that was harder to defend. Meanwhile, the west side had some open ground as well, including an extra small hill, but with some cover just on the other side of the road that forms the setup areas. I put some light forces (including a Dummy in 46W7) to slow down an east-side assault slightly, while defending the west more heavily with the HMG in EE4 and a PIAT in the brush in DD2. Another HS was in the brush in EE1, which was as far forward as I dared to go there (and there was no concealment terrain forward of there anyway). LMGs were in Y5 and W5 to provide Fire Lanes against advances in the center area, with the HMG centrally located in BB5. I had a hard time figuring out where to put the tanks and ATG, since anywhere exposed could lead to them getting easily swarmed, with eight German tanks out there (though the Pz IIIs would struggle to kill either of mine even with a rear shot with a Final TK of 3; 5 with HEAT on a 9 or less), and a good number of PFs available. The Churchill anchored the main line of defense in the northeast in Z7, with help from a PIAT in Z9 (with a crucial error that I’ll get to later), and a 7-0 Z6 to act as a preliminary rally point. The Sherman was in CC7 to cover the central street, and possibly anchor the defense once the first line of buildings had fallen. The ATG went in GG7 facing SE, in case armor tried to go around the west flank and cut off my defenders (and I had problems finding anyplace that could see terrain I wanted to cover).

Tom’s setup surprised me, with the bulk of his forces in the center, but largely a hex back, and out of sight from my line, and three squads (and two HS, with his HMG & MMG) on the eastern flank backed up by two of his Pz IVs. He had figured my ATG was around EE2 (exactly the type of forward position I avoided) and stayed away from the brush. Most of his Pz IIIs were behind them on the board 46 hill, but one was backing up the main force in 18Q2. One Pz III fired, placing Smoke in V5, while the eastern Pz IV first pinned my HS in U7, which then ELRed to fire from his MGs. Most of his center forces fired on my other visible unit in AA2, forcing a 1MC which they passed. The last Pz IV fired on W7, but missed.

Tom then started showing off aggressive armor tactics my moving the second eastern Pz IV into Motion VBM of V8. I attempted CCRF, but pinned instead. Having locked up my primary defense, he advanced two squads and a 9-1 towards the building, but a good roll from W5 managed a 1MC that pinned the leader and broke a squad. This activated his Sniper, who broke the squad that had been the target of all his fire earlier. Past that, there was little left to move, other than some of the Pz IIIs advancing up to the rest of his troops.

My LMG squad Final Fired on his MG stack, and with another low roll, broke both HSes with MGs. Not only that, but my Sniper activated, and hit the same hex, with a three-way tie (out of four units), to fatally wound the 8-1 and then break the squad in the hex. The only CC was with the VBM Pz IV in V8, and my squad only missed because of being pinned.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full scenario area, and my HIP Gun. The blue ribbon is the dividing line between the British and German setup areas.
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