Patreon

by on February 18, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Gaming

I am now a ‘creator’ on Patreon.

If you don’t know, Patreon is a website for creators to keep in touch with their fans, and the fans can support artists by offering money. There’s a variety of ways this can work, with flat monthly charges, per-piece of work done, etc. This is meant as something of a ‘grass-roots’ version of the art patronage system that existed through much of history in Western civilization; though today it might be easier to see as a variation of the Kickstarter idea. Two of my roommates, Smudge and Baron, are currently partially earning a living through Patreon.

What am I doing on Patreon? I’ve been aware for a while that I have a few people following my various detailed game AARs. Which is very heartening; it’s always nice to be appreciated. But, doing those reports isn’t easy or quick. Not only do I spend a good amount of time writing up the description (I’m not a very fast writer), but I’m stepping through the entire set of Vassal logs to generate that description, and I’m going into Photoshop to create all the maps that show how everything went each turn. It takes a few hours to put together one of those AARs for a short game.

So, I am hoping that a few people like my writing enough to compensate me for my time and give me a buck or two every time I post one of the big, detailed ones.

What does this mean for this blog, and BGG (where I also post these)? Nothing.

Nothing will change. Nothing will be held back, or held behind a pay wall, or delayed. Game posts will still be here, and be cross-posted to BGG, and to Patreon. I am just hoping for some purely voluntary encouragement for me to keep doing this (and possibly do it more) by means of a financial ‘thank you’. Consider this: if you bought a magazine with an article like one of my AARs in it, would you think that was a good buy? If so, then consider funding my posts.

My hope would have been that I could charge people by category, so the ASL fans could just pay for the ASL reports, and the SFB fans for SFB, but Patreon isn’t set up for that. So, if you decide to subscribe, keep in mind that the bulk of the reports will be for ASL, with occasional charges for SFB, and Up Front (and hopefully a few other games), and set your rate accordingly (which I believe can go as low as $0.05 per post).

Finally, I will note that if you have a login at Patreon, you can just ‘Follow’ me for no money, and still get an email every time I post there (from what I’ve seen, the images don’t come through in the email, but at least there’ll be a link to follow, and you’ll know there’s something to see). I will be putting my face-to-face and other adventures in there, so they’ll be part of the email feed though no one will get charged money for them.

So, come see what’s happening over at Patreon!

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Two Rounds of Nemea

by on February 14, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Having finished up a big game, Patch and I did another round of Commands & Colors: Ancients, this time being the Battle of Nemea from Expansion #6. After some of the more interesting battles we’ve been doing, this is a return to basics: There’s no terrain, no special rules beyond the use of hoplites, and it only requires five banners. The Spartans are down a couple units compared to the Athenian/Boeotian army, but have some of the five-block Spartan hoplites, one more card in their hand, and go first.

Patch had the Spartans the first time, and the action led off on his left, and I made contact on my turn, but did no damage (archery and an evaded combat). Patch then used Leadership Any Section to move up more of his left, but didn’t do any damage to my evading cav. I Ordered Center to bring up more of my line, and Patch Ordered Medium to bring up his right, and press the attack on his left, doing a block to the the MC on my left, and doing three blocks to the unit with my right-side leader, who died in the first attack. I did nothing back, with all the dice being the wrong symbols or leaders! (I would have given as good as I got if the leader had lived.)

I Mounted Charged into the part of the line in contact, and wiped out two units while doing a block to a third, but lost the other MC and took three blocks on a unit in return. Patch Ordered Three Center to knock out both of the 1-block units I had, and did two damage to another, driving it off with a banner (which also saved him, as it drove it out of contact with Patch’s third unit). I Double Timed to bring my intact left units into the fight, and did good damage to two units, but I was now engaging the heavier Spartan hoplites. Patch Ordered Two Center to engage a weakened unit and knocked it out without trouble (though I finally realized I’d just drawn a First Strike card just as he rolled the dice). 2-5

As the Spartans, I led off with Order Two Right, Order Two Center, and Inspired Left Leadership to start closing with most of my line, sticking one MH in front of the line (if I’d been smart, I’d have angled it differently for leader support). Patch had Ordered Center twice, so my forward unit made contact, and took two blocks after having only done a single banner. To my surprise, Patch used I Am Spartacus and rolled a sword and four banners. He could have wiped out my forward unit from a blocked retreat, but instead had no turn at all.

I used Mounted Charge to bring our lines into contact. This wiped out three of his units, and weakened two others at the cost of 6 blocks across three units. Patch Ordered Mounted, which knocked out one unit (after a First Strike took out a couple extra blocks) on each side. I Ordered Three Center to continue the drive, but a two-banner hit allowed one unit to get away with one hit when I had another attack lined up. I did one damage to another unit, and took two in return. Patch Ordered Three Left to bring up a flank, and did two hits to one.

I then activated the bulk of my line again with Order Medium, but couldn’t really come to grips. I drove off his left-flank Light with a hit, and did a hit on a hoplite while a banner drove it out of range. Patch countered with his own Order Medium, and charged in with everything, including a couple units that were down to one block. Of course, my units were pretty beat up, and Patch started eliminating my units. The only unit that survived was driven off by a banner, so there still was no battle back. Similar to my earlier charge, he wiped out four units in one turn. 4-5

Afterword:

We’ve gotten used to the 6-7 banner battles with some terrain. This one was very short and direct. I’ve complained that Patch keeps getting the Mounted Charge cards, which are often decisive in these hoplite battles. I got it both times, and I still lost. Though it certainly was huge in the second game. We both thought I had it at that point, and my inability to finish him off in the next turn gave him the chance for the upset.

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The March of Folly

by on February 10, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Barbara Tuchman was a journalist before becoming a history author, and despite The March of Folly being a book about certain historical incidents, it is more a work of journalism than history. It is an investigation into the process by which governments embark on self-destructive courses (‘folly’), despite recognition of the problem, and alternative courses being available. As such, it is more of a screed against certain practices, rather than a real attempt at balanced or impartial history.

The good news is that we’re not treated to the faint sound of axes grinding. Instead, we’re given front-row seats to the grinding wheel.

The book is split into four parts (with each one being longer than the last) on the Trojan Horse, the (start of) Reformation, the American Revolution, and Vietnam. Each is well written, but are effectively a completely separate work, since they just serve to try to illustrate her point, instead of having any inherent connection to each other.

The Trojan Horse section is purely illustrative of her point, since it’s a discussion of myth, with little idea of what really happened. But it is a powerful story, and not a bad way to bring up themes, though I don’t know that it’s overly successful here.

The Reformation is really about the ten major Popes in the run up to Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. As such, it paints a picture of the excesses and temporal politics of the office while calls for ecclesiastical reform go unheeded. The main problem is that it ignores that high office was seen as a means of self- (or family-) aggrandizement. The idea of the point of office being something bigger than the self is a more modern idea (this is briefly addressed in the epilogue).

The American Revolution chapter mostly deals with events before the outbreak of fighting. Tuchman considers the end result of the conflict to be fairly inevitable (and right or wrong, this assumption helps keep her on-topic), and concentrates on how British policy ended up alienating people who wanted to be part of the empire into rebelling. As such, it is a very good Britain-centric analysis of British policy and government.

Similarly, the Vietnam chapter is at its best before American troops get directly involved there. Starting with the French, and the unresolved difference in goals between them and our aid to them, it traces through the entire tragedy to the American pullout. The fighting isn’t covered in any real sense, but the demands of rabid anti-communism with its fears of all communists everywhere working in concert with Moscow are well pointed out (though not as well developed as I’d like; though that’d probably be going off her topic).

An unaddressed theme that comes out of the last two parts is the fact that these crises often grow out of situations that just weren’t seen as very important at the time. They were low-priority, low-impact items that only increased in importance after missteps had caused the situation to blow up. The real ‘folly’ may belong more to being unable to prioritize correctly, but even that is an exercise in hindsight.

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Destroyer Demolition Derby

by on February 6, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG

Somewhat to my surprise, after Patch and I finished up “Arctic Crossroads” he suggested an SFB game. He wanted smaller ships, and something other than Klingons, so I looked to a Kzinti-Lyran fight (appropriate as they’re also involved in the Four Powers War right now) with squadrons using ships smaller than CAs.

The Kzinti produce their first Destroyer in Y159 (our current playing date), and I certainly wanted to show it off, as I don’t think it appears in many scenarios. It’s mostly known as an ‘also ran’ ship, as production is halted in favor of the later Medium Cruiser, and it is relegated to second-line duty during the General War. But right now, it is brand new, and effectively the one of the most advanced designs around, and certainly the best ship the Kzinti have for the tonnage. At a Move Cost of 1/2, it has 24 power, 2xdisruptors, 4xph-1, 2xph-3, and 4xdrone racks. This is more power and firepower than the larger Light Cruiser class, which it is effectively replacing (the CL will be refitted to have more power, more disruptors, and bring its drone racks up to 4, but that’s a few years away still). It shows a shift from ph-3 to ph-1s, and an increase in drone throw weight (eventually, just about all Kzinti ships have at least four drone racks, but until now, that’s only been true on the much larger CS/CA/CC hull as well as the seven racks on the much larger DNE).

Then I chose a Lyran Light Cruiser to lead the opposite squadron. It has the exact same BPV as the DD (after adjusting for the lack of ESG capacitors), and while larger with more internals, and it has slightly better phasers (4xph-1, 4xph-3), coverage isn’t quite as good, and its shields are slightly weaker than the DD’s.

Both sides’ squadrons were rounded out by a pair of frigates, which also happen to have the exact same BPV, and fairly similar characteristics. Patch, as it turned out, went for a full load of Type-II (speed 12) drones, with no larger Type-Vs, for a total cost of 16 BPV. I vaguely contemplated taking some transporter bombs, and I should have, but neither of us took any.

We set up, and rolled randomly for Weapon Status (with a +1 for a war zone), and ended up with WS III. That was to my advantage, as the Kzinti don’t have any multi-turn weapons, and it meant my ESGs were already fully charged. I also had a suicide shuttle pre-charged on the CL. The Kzinti squadron went speed 15 for the first turn, as did my CL, while my FFs went 16. We simply closed the range for the first half of the turn, but the DD turned off at about range 25. During impulses 28-30, we fired as ships hit range 15. I stuck to disruptors, which all missed with six straight 5s. Patch launched half his drones on each ship, and volleyed all his disruptors, which all missed with three 6s and a 4, while four phasers he fired also missed on “better” rolls (two 3s and two 4s). On impulse 32, I turned towards the Kzinti FFs to see if could engage them separately from the DD.

With ranges coming down fast, I decided to put power into overloads on CL, and EW on the FFs, and went speed 9 for the CL and speed 13 on the FFs. Meanwhile, Patch sped up to 19 on his FFs while the DD stayed 15. Patch was surprised I hadn’t boosted speed as well, which I had considered, but I wanted to be prepared for a close-range pass (and the FFs stayed on regular disruptors in case something like this happened). Sadly, I only had slightly better EW than Patch, but it meant I would have even shots at his FFs while everyone else was at a +1 to fire at each other.

Patch’s FFs turned off on Impulse 4, confirming my fears that he would just dance around my slower-moving squadron this turn. On Impulse 10, I turned towards the gap between Patch’s forces and starting warming up an ESG to tackle the wave of drones that was in there. To my surprise, Patch turned his DD in shortly after, allowing me to get closer to it. Things started coming to a head on Impulse 15, when my FF-1 started sweeping the drones with its ESG, and my FF-2 and the DD traded shots. Both ships hit with one disruptor, and missed with the other, and had similar phaser rolls, though the ph-2s on my FF led to less damage being done.

On Impulse 18, I turned towards the DD, as it turned back away, launching its last two drones for the turn (the other racks had staggered fire over the previous few impulses). The DD scored another 4 points on the front shield of FF-2 with the 360-phasers, while the CL did 15 points to shield #3 of the DD, hitting with both disruptors and one good phaser roll (a second phaser missed entirely…). The next impulse, FF-2 announced its ESG, and I fired another three phasers at the DD. FF-1’s phaser missed, but the remaining ph-1s on the CL both rolled 1s to knock down the shield and do 5 internals, including a ph-3 and two power. That was pretty much it for the turn, though on Impulse 28, the two Kzinti FFs fired disruptors at my FF-1, with one hitting, and on the next couple impulses, they launched drones.


Turn 2, Impulse 18, showing movement throughout the turn.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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The Tyrants of Syracuse: Part 2

by on February 2, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The second half of Jeff Champion’s history of Syracuse picks up right where the the first left off: The death of Dionysius the Elder and the ascension of his son, Dionysius the Younger as Tyrant of Syracuse. He uses this split as a convenient excuse to avoid using ‘the Elder’ and ‘the Younger’ while each is actually in office, since the change in ‘default’ occurs across the books. And it actually works.

From there, the book details the next two decades in Syracuse dealing trying to get rid of Dionysius the Younger. The careers of Timoleon and Agathocles are also well covered, as well as Pyrrhus’ campaigns in Sicily, Hiero II, and the fighting in Sicily during the first two Punic Wars. Champion points out the shift in Syracuse’s fortunes when the expansion of Rome into southern Italy and Sicily puts the city between two much larger powers. Until that point, Syracuse consistently held sway over most of Sicily, and could successfully fight off Carthage, even though neither side could ever truly conquer the other. Once Rome was on the scene, Syracuse became distant third to the two major powers in Sicily. The book’s epilogue wraps up with a quick overview of Syracuse’s history since being conquered by Rome, including the shift of power in Sicily from Syracuse to Palermo.

For some reason, the editing in this volume broke up for a few chapters in the final third of the book, with some missing words, and sentences that had been incompletely rewritten. But then the problems went away again at the end, and I didn’t see any problems for the bulk of the book. Other than those hiccups, it’s a good book on an interesting subject that doesn’t get a lot of attention, just like the first volume of the series.

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