Dynasty

by on November 18, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

I haven’t read Tom Holland’s Rubicon, but I also know the civil wars period better than the Julio-Claudians (I have to admit that the BBC production of I, Claudius is still the bedrock of my knowledge of the period).

This is still very much popular history, but it’s a very good one. Holland spends one hefty chapter detailing the rise of Rome, up through the assassination of Julius Caesar, with the next going into the Second Triumverate though Octavian being awarded the title “Augustus”, and the third the rest of Augustus’ career. The second half of the book is a second part, with four chapters roughly for the rest of the dynasty (that’s Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero if you’re not quite up on your emperors).

Of course, there is much more here. The entire period is of power politics of the most personal kind. So, Holland does his best to introduce us to all the significant pieces, and trace them through to their various ends, often bloody.

There are also excursions to events away from Rome; we get a very good treatment of the Teutoburg Pass (and he thankfully give a footnote on the fact that Tacitus uses the word ‘saltus’, which can be ‘forest’ or ‘pass’, and the latter has been shown a correct by archaeology). And there’s a lot about how the Romans saw the world, virtue, and mores. All of which is needed to understand these figures.

There’s not a lot of hard detail, and away from the central player’s concerns, a lot is left out. But, this is history just about as thrilling as Robert Graves’ novels.

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SL60 Flight of the Audacity

by on November 14, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

After our Graveyard Shift, Patch and I went on to SFB, where we tried out “Flight of the Audacity” from Captain’s Log #3.

It’s certainly an interesting idea. A Klingon frigate (IKV Audacity, me) works through a large and dense asteroid field to get at a Federation force negotiating with a Neutral Zone planet, kidnaps the native’s diplomat, and then makes off through the same asteroid field. The Klingon is chased by a Fed CA (our friend, USS Kongo, seen in “Rescue the Hostages” and “Coming of the Meteor” and played by Patch), so there’s a vast difference in weight class, helped by the F5C having a better time maneuvering around the asteroids. However, it is an early scenario, never republished, so I had deep concerns about balance (I think much of the trouble it it was written before ‘speed is life’ really became a mantra). To keep you from going too fast, empty space is still considered to have dust, which will cause damage at the end of each turn (up to 7 at speed 31).

It took me a while to realize, but this is the ‘demo’ scenario for the new Klingon F5L introduced in the issue. Before Captain’s Edition, the F5L was a stand-alone command variant of the F5. Captain’s Edition took the separate -C and -L suffixes and made them a unified idea, with the -Ls being the equivalent to the -K refit. The original F5L SSD is pretty much the current F5C (the modern F5L gets improved phasers and drone racks).

Sadly, play of the scenario showed it did not live up to its promise. One of the troubles is that the F5C is an extremely energetic ship. It has a total of 22 power (compared to 34 on a Fed CA, which is twice as big), which turned into a steady speed 27, putting up 5 reinforcement (to counter 5 dust damage at that speed), and charge one phaser per turn. The CA can either go speed 26 and take a point per of dust damage/turn, or go 25 and have one point of power left for a phaser. It also starts at WS-0, and so has to spend the first turn warming up the phasers. (Otherwise, Kongo‘s best move may be to do a turn 1, impulse 1 fire of 6xPh-1s at range 20.) No chance for photon torpedoes as long as the action stays this fast.

So, the ‘special sauce’ of the scenario is that it is a scrolling asteroid field. Audacity must move at least ten hexes towards the upper left corner. Specifically, ‘direction F’. I mentally shorthanded that to just ‘left’, so I possibly violated that (depending on exactly how you want to measure it), though while trying to obey the spirit. Also, I don’t think this makes things any better. Any time a ship enters the topmost or bottommost row of hexes, you scroll everything six hexes away and place seven new asteroid counters, and then roll for a one-hex drift. If a ship enters the leftmost column of the board, you also shift everything six hexes, but place four new counters, and roll two dice each: the first is how many hexes down the column you move the counter, and then the second is a one-hex drift. Neither system really gives the density needed to really cause maneuvering, but the left-hand side version does get a lot more unpredictable (it also tends to clear out the upper left corner, making a purer direction F flight safer).

The large variation in where allows for some interesting dynamics in bunched clusters on the left edge, which did happen. Now, Patch did manage to catch up some during our play (thanks to my attempts to maneuver), but he expended his batteries (without being able to recharge), and was slowly losing the front shield, while I hadn’t taken any actual damage.

This scenario might also work better with a regular F5. It has two fewer APR, getting the power curve down to something less extreme, and has a 9-point #4 shield that it will need to be cautious with (the F5C has the equivalent of the B-refit built-in for a 16-point shield).

We called the scenario after just about four turns because it wasn’t working out. The scrolling asteroid map is still an interesting idea, and I’d like to tweak it some for re-use. Say roll d3 to move the counter from initial position, and then a drift roll. For this scenario, there also needs to be more of them; some way of gradually increasing the number of placements over the first few turns as you get deeper into the field would be nicely thematic, but a lot rougher mechanically.

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Lost Module of Calthonwey

by on November 10, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: RPGs

One of the lesser gaming hubs of early RPGs was Rockville, Maryland. Little Soldier Games started in a game store there, and Phoenix Games in a book store around the corner. Details are obscure, because there are contradictory statements, but publishing transferred from one to the other in 1979. Supposedly Phoenix was part of Little Soldier, but the title page of Lost Abbey of Calthonwey says Little Soldier is a division of Phoenix. As far as I know, this is R. Norman Carter’s only published work, but cover artist Bob Charette would do work for FGU.

Phoenix Games’ first (of two) adventure module is very early, and needs to be appreciated as such, being contemporary with, say, TSR’s T1 The Village of Homlet. Physically, it’s a great presentation: a 24-page booklet with a full-color cover, and a four-page two-color insert with all the maps. The last is meant to be pulled out for separate reference of the GM. Instead of a proper blurb, the back cover has a full player-facing background story, which is repeated (really, the other way around) at the start of the module, followed by the GM’s version.

The module says it’s for for any fantasy RPG, and lists six of them: D&D, Chivalry & Sorcery, RuneQuest, Tunnels & Trolls, The Fantasy Trip, and Legacy, which certainly covers the majority, if not all, of the systems available in 1979 (I had to look up Legacy myself—there’s a reason you’ve never heard of it). But don’t be fooled, the book is full of circumlocutions of D&D ideas (“a scroll that when read, will heal wounds that are considered serious”), but not ideas from elsewhere. There is a guide to terms that they use instead of various D&D-isms, some of which you wouldn’t need today, but Phoenix was obviously erring on the side of caution for various game terms. A final introductory piece is rather interesting: Each room description has a number next to the name, and that is keyed to a general description of what the walls, floor, and ceiling are made out of. It’s a neat idea, but not the most convenient I think, with eight different numbers to memorize. I think keying a color code on the maps directly (so you can see where the construction types change) would make that a great idea on modern maps, though that would have been a challenge on a two-tone map.

The room key is eleven pages, and generally gives good descriptions. Some places are just “empty”, but of course are keyed for the general construction type. More typical are things like “Bell Tower: The floor is covered with droppings. The rafters are 5 stories above the floor. Although the bells are still there, the ropes have rotted away. Ten large bats lair in the tower. These can deal but 1 point of damage, and will die if struck at all.” Some places could use reorganizing and separating into paragraphs (Chamber of the Head of Novices starts with talking about the ghost of such—important!—and then transitions to talking about the room, with no easy-to-find break to know where to start reading for that part).

There are creatures scattered about, and given short stat listings. However, before the room key, are about two-dozen people given descriptions (this is a bit over four pages). This is great, but also the point at which there are problems. There’s generally a particular place they should be encountered, but this is not attached to their descriptions, and therefore will only come out of the room key. While there are factions, which are nicely outlined, and relationships between people discussed, there’s nothing like an idea of if people venturing into the abbey will encounter them together or separate. Again, the room key helps, but reading through the personalities as prep work doesn’t give you enough.

In 1979 adventures are already starting to reach past dungeon crawls, and this module is no different. The background sets up three different factions in the abbey, and a few other things going on (a ‘pre-human temple’ has been found, with nothing more than a hook for GM expansion), but…. Problem number one: Two hundred years ago, evil got into the abbey, and the Bright Goddess eventually took it out of the world, and it has just returned, to a slightly different location. In one place you find out that there’s a 24:1 time compression going on, so (accounting for time before this happened) maybe five years have passed inside for all this. There’s no discussion of recent events—no sense of what’s happened just recently between the two primary factions. How/when did they notice they’re back in the normal world? How often are they encountering/fighting each other? How many have just been killed? How are they keeping their numbers up? When characters encounter some of these people, how/will they try and talk them into taking their side? It’s mentioned that they’ve reached an impasse, but not how or what has caused it.

In all, it tries to rise beyond the pure dungeon-crawl beginnings of D&D adventures, and doesn’t quite make it. It is, very much, a place like most early adventures. It is a place where things presumably have been happening, but haven’t. On the other hand, there is a page about what may be going on if some adventurers leave, and then come back. But it’s general, and more about moving encounters around.

Still, it’s good enough for a look, which makes it a shame that this has no current path to being republished. I have no idea where the rights to Phoenix Games’ materials ended up, or where the original author is.

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Clash of Ypres

by on November 6, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Many years ago now, Mark had me try Clash of Giants with the Galicia scenario from the second game, and I’ve been wanting to get back to it ever since. A bit ago, we started the First Ypres scenario (also from II) on Vassal.

A quick word – the Vassal module is in need of upgrades, since an attempt at marking the separate activation areas was made, and it ended up killing the hex grid. I managed to sort it out for our game. It should also have a supply of one-use markers out for the limited reinforcements and the offensive support markers (we used a grand total of one all game, because we generally forgot all about it).

I had the Germans, and after setting up the beginning reinforcements, the first chit draw was for my sector B (Menin and Hazebrouck). A good movement roll (this was a continuing theme) let me take both victory cities, and screen the Forest of Nieppe, which holds two French cavalry divisions at start. Next was Allied A (Bethune/Lille) where Mark kept the infantry back to protect Bethune and La Bassée, but the cavalry dashed forward to take Lille. Then my A went, and I occupied the other half of Lille while maneuvering on his southern flank to force a cavalry retreat from Loos. I had nothing in C (Ypres and Roulers), but Mark moved up to garrison Ypres.

Turn 2 sees the opening up of the northern flank as the Belgian army with British and French units retreat onto the map headed for the region of Nieuport. Meanwhile, the Germans get one division, in an area of their choice, which I put opposite of Roulers. Mark used rail movement to retake Hazebrouck, and I marched through Roulers with an early activation, and also set about forcing the French out of Lille (traded two cavalry divisions for one of his, thanks to poor rolls). British cavalry came in and tried to clear the way to the Forest of Nieppe, but only lost a unit in combat.

The German turn 3 reinforcements helped in ‘A’ (two divisions must come in there), and the French pulled back from Lille. Out near Fournes I swept away a cavalry division, but lost a step on an infantry division. On turn 4, Mark started taking apart my forward cordon near Hazebrouck, rescuing the French trapped there, though another bad roll cost him a step. I started putting a line together in front of the captured victory cities, and managed to take Ypres by surrounding it for a 2-1 attack (taking a step myself in the process). Mark swept back east in the south on turn 5, with me taking lots of cavalry retreats.

Mark pulled back in the north to defend the river line running SW of Nieuport as the four variable-quality German corps came on in turn 6 (in the end, three of them were TER 3 and one TER 2). Meanwhile, he had more and more to bring to bear just north of Bethune, and that area started turning into a problem for me. At this point, I just shored up my line, but I would have been better advised to fall back to a straighter line, though the main problem was a lack of good defensive terrain back there.

On turn 8, I had a British unit nicely surrounded on Mount Rouge (NE of Hazebrouck), but Mark was causing more and more trouble just south of there (then I shifted unwisely, letting him rescue the unit). The Belgians advanced up to my thin line in the north, and turned me out of Dixmunde. However, their units aren’t very good, and attacks started eroding them quickly.

I finally gave some divisions the direct purpose of securing Bruges from the French battalion that had stayed behind with some of the final large group of German reinforcements on turn 9. Much of the rest was at the south end of ‘B’ to try and shore up that problem. What turned out to be the big problem was the French snuck a cavalry division through a gap to retake Ypres. It would take far too much effort to pry out again. In the south he pried open my line again and pressed eastwards, while the Belgians looked for a better defense in the north.

I took Bruges, and pressed the Belgians, who ended up by holing up around Nieuport. This was a mistake, since all supply comes overland from the board edges, not through presumed ports. It still took a while, but there were no real challenges to the reduction of the Belgian army and that victory city after that. Meanwhile, the center was a confused mass of conflicting attempts at cutting each other off. I had something of an advantage, but I really wanted to be pressing south to rescue my position down there, and this was making it impossible.

In fact, Mark had cut off two of my units in the Forest of Nieppe, and I didn’t have much I could do about it. Worse, he railed his cavalry from Ypres to Menin and then snuck a second cavalry into Ypres. I managed to destroy the first one, but the second held out in Ypres, causing me a step loss. In front of Bethune, Mark destroyed two divisions who didn’t have a valid retreat (a third held on). Worse, my thinning line let him retake Lille the next turn, and knock out the last division on the south edge, with two cavalry divisions now stuck there, who’d been trying to rescue him.

I started cleaning up the center on turn 13, but still managed to lose steps for no progress against Ypres. On 14, the last reinforcements of the game came in to try and retake Lille. They got there, but then the French showed up with more to force a second combat if I wanted to take the city back, and took out my flanking cavalry division in the process. I lost a step on that, but did retake Lille, and got rid of three units in the center, including the cavalry holding Ypres.

Afterword

Mark conceded at that point. The game was dragging out, and I had five of the nine victory locations. I had also reduced the Belgians to three units in that combat phase, so I’d go to six in a couple turns of assaulting Nieuport. (They were going to need to keep rolling ‘1’s to survive.) Since victory is merely having the majority of victory cities, and while Mark might retake Lille, he wouldn’t get at anything else.

The chit draw system with only one combat phase per turn (special for this scenario) is an interesting bit; mostly we waited for things to line up, but especially later on, we were occasionally doing early combats to keep the other side from slipping away first.

Cavalry divisions constantly coming back makes them act like the screens they should be, but you’d think there’d be some exceptions for being cut off and then destroyed. There’s also special rules for cavalry transitioning away from this role as the front solidifies, but that never actually happened in our game. We got close mid-game, but then things broke up again.

My recollection of playing Galicia is of being stymied by poor movement rolls. That was largely not a concern here. I got a lot of 6s and 5s in the beginning portions, so when I had to worry about getting things into position, I had lots of movement to do it with.

My biggest frustration was spending lots of effort cutting off Allied units, but having Mark almost invariably get them back out, one way or another, before the two-turn out of supply could hit. (The real exception to that was the Belgian army, since it was hard to see that Nieuport wasn’t a port for supply to come through without an overland trail.)

Still, it’s a solid simple chit-pull system that works well. The combat being odds-based, but losses purely on unit quality is really interesting. I think my biggest problem there is just at this unit density you don’t see retreats, because that practically requires destroying the defender in the first place.

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The Book of Lost Tales (Part 2)

by on November 2, 2024 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Despite having its origin in the same writing project as the first part, this is a fairly separate section and the break helps emphasize that.

In-fiction, the bulk of the stories here all intertwine even more than the first part. Out-fiction this is the part where the Tolkien’s writing project came apart, and for the most part we get drafts from separate (but related) notebooks, and papers inserted into the manuscripts. Part six is a delve into the overall scheme for the stories both before and after The Book of Lost Tales (not that this isn’t gone into elsewhere).

We get glimpses of Tolkien’s original thoughts that link elves to fairies, with elves fading, becoming smaller, and less substantial as the power of Men waxes. At various points Eriol, or Ælfwine (elf-friend) as he is later named, is hooked into actual history, early on before the Dark Ages, and later in the Eleventh Century.

All of this disappears later on, after further revisions take him further into his own lore, and away from a mythology that might have historically grown up on its own. This is for the best on many levels. The world and its stories are allowed to grow organically as they must, but there is also a racial snobbery lurking in these early versions where only the English have any true knowledge of the fay folk. The growth of the world also broadened its outlook. (If not as much as some may wish, it’s still a long step up from the Edwardian provincialism it started with.)

Similarly, Eärendil reveals the early roots of the stories. He comes up earlier, but part five is the forever unfinished (in any form) “Tale of Eärendil” which has its earliest seeds, with Eärendil being a Quenya name, but deriving from the Anglo-Saxon éarendil, and his story is decidedly a mythological-mode explanation of the evening star.

All this makes the later parts of the book scholastically interesting, though much of it is so fragmented between various drafts and outlines that pulling anything else out is challenging. Thankfully, Christopher Tolkien is a valuable docent, and guides us through these parts, helping us understand the ideas behind the later First Age.

The earlier parts of the book are far more complete, and would reappear later, and later versions are generally in the eventual Silmarillion. On their own, I found “The Nauglafring” also close its sources, echoing ideas of the Nibelungenlied. Personally, I found “Turambar and the Foalókë” very rough going, and “The Fall of Gondolin” only somewhat better, leaving “The Tale of Tinuviel” as one of the more engaging parts, which makes sense; there’s a lot of The Silmarillion that does not stick in my brain, but parts of the equivalent section do, so it’s a tale that certainly appeals to me more.

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