The Four Vassal War Coalition Turn 5

by on May 18, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Four Vassal War

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

As the war drags into its third year, Klingon occupation of Kzinti space earns a VP (actually, 0.1 comes from a province disrupted by the Lyrans). The grand total of 5.6 VP earned for taking enemy territory (including one-time bonuses for capturing a planet at all) is still the smallest component of of the VP totals, showing that this isn’t really a war of conquest.

The Lyrans left a lot of repairs undone, but that was purely because of a lack of facilities. The Klingons had a fairly hefty bill, but managed to get almost everything repaired, and still had money to overbuild a D7 and F5.

Builds:
Klingons: 2xD7, TGB, F5L, F5, F5S, 3xE4, E3, PGB, BS->BATS, D6->D6S, D7->D7C
Lyrans: BCE, CA, CL, CLS, 2xDD, 2xFF

The first truly heavy scouts are introduced with the Klingon D6S and Lyran CLS at this point, which are going to be needed to counter the effect of all the Kzinti drone bombardment platforms.

The Lyrans raided the Hydrans with a new CA and destroyed a called up POL to disrupt the province, while the Klingons went deep into Kzinti space, hoping to pull a ship out of a Reserve. However, they pulled a BC out of a different nearby fleet, and destroyed the raiding D6, retreating back to the capital in process.

The Lyrans drove back across the Kzinti border, and Kzinti forces reacted into them generating a large fight in the neutral zone, and further forces pressed on to BS 0701. Meanwhile, Klingon forces probed into the same area, and after some initial indecision, I made a stab at the planet in 1001 instead of the SB next door.

The Lyrans didn’t do anything on the Hydran border. With both borders in bad shape, they wanted as little overall activity as possible. The Klingons raided the border, going after individual ships, and generated a few small fights.


The Kzinti front.


The Hydran front.

Combat:
0502: SSC: Lyran retreat
0701: Kzinti: dest BS, CC, BC; Lyran: dest CL, crip CA, 2xDD
0703: SSC: both sides retreat
0603: Kzinti: crip CC, CL; Lyran: dest 2xCL, crip DD
1001: Kzinti: crip CL, FF; Klingon: crip D6, F5, F5G
1002: Kzinti: dest CC; Klingon: crip E4
1004: Kzinti: dest FF, SF; Klingon: crip E3
1605: Kzinti: dest BS, FF; Klingon: crip D5, F5
0915: SSC: Hydran: crip CR, 2xCU, retreat
1216: SSC: Hydran: retreat
1217: SSC: Hydran: dest LN, HN
1317: SSC: Hydran: retreat
1217: SSC: Hydran: retreat

0502 was another annoyingly bad roll in SSC (2), which saw a CL retreat from a FF (which is a +2/-3 combat).

The BS at 0701 took three rounds, with the remaining Kzinti forces retreating out on round two after my DDG successfully scored a SIDS to cripple the base. I stayed in the hex, which has turned into a problem as the later retreat out of 0603 closed their retrograde path, and the hex is also out of supply range.

Even with the maneuvering I did, I didn’t have nearly enough to take out planet 1001. My ComPot was slightly lower, and I couldn’t keep up with Kzinti EW (boosted by the defenses) and then I rolled 3 under the Kzinti to take nearly twice as much damage. With good rolls, I was prepared to try and force the issue, but not the other way around.

0915 had a full hellbore-armed squadron against an F5 squadron, but this time the rolls were 10 vs 2 in my favor.

1217 continued good SSC rolls with a ’12’ to wipe out both Hydran ships. Later, the squadron from 1317 retreated into the hex, and both sides rolled average to merely force another retreat.

Despite problems, I still destroyed another two BS this turn. Combined with another eight ship kills and a slowly growing repair bill, my VPs are up to 104.4. Meanwhile, the my repairs have overcome last turn’s cripples to Alliance VPs to 94.6 (and another BS->BATS conversion is underway to reduce that total further). This is a Marginal Victory, down from a Minor Victory as of my previous turn, thanks to how bad Alliance Turn 4 was.

We seem to be solidly in the middle part of the war, with all the easy targets taken out, except for the Klingon border stations, which I have so far managed to protect, and three Hydran Lyran-border bases, which the Lyrans have been in no shape to get to.

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Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

by on May 14, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Over the years, and the course of well over a dozen novels, there’s been a number of different… ‘periods’ or groups in the Vorkosigan Saga. There’s the Cordelia books, the Admiral Naismith books, the Lord Auditor Vorkosigan books… as well as a number of little offbranches.

The series started with Cordelia, who has always been a favorite character of mine, so this return to her was overdue and welcome. From the other end of a fairly crowded timeline that is approaching 50 years, this is a mix of the familiar and the new. The past haunts this novel more directly than usual in this series. Surprisingly, the book that has the biggest impact is not earlier Cordelia books, but The Vor Game, from a view that Miles never had of the action.

I might suggest this is a less apt point to enter the series than usual as there is a fair amount of the past here. However, the real main part of the past present here is not in any of the other books anyway. So maybe you might as well get the new-old and old-old here with the same amount of weight. And that leads into the obvious problems here, with a relationship with a long history that there’s no signs of previously. It shocked me, and I was grumpy about it for a bit, but that passed; I have a feeling that for Bujold this is part of her own re-questioning of assumptions.

My actual disappointment stems from the fact that the book is a bit directionless. Bujold likes alternating between the viewpoints of the principles in a romance, and Jole has a real decision to make here. At the end, a firm decision is made, and the story comes to a natural close. But there was never any real tension here. It is too obvious where this is going, despite the other branch of the decision having its own obvious upsides, not even the inertia of that path carries through here. Cordelia’s side doesn’t even have that much tension; Cordelia has made her decisions and nothing really touches that bedrock. This feels like a transition, and I hope we see some interesting books emerge on the other side.

But in the end, don’t let any of this scare you off. This isn’t a great book, and doesn’t feature any of the action or tightly-wound plots that I like, and I associate Bujold with. But Bujold’s real strength as an author is the ability to do that and have wonderful characters and meditations on the human condition, and this is well worth reading just on that end.

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R vs B Coalition Turn 14 in Review

by on May 10, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Romulan economy continues to pick up steam with the last bit of on board survey, and some Federation provinces. However, the Klingon economy shrank by ~27 EP, to put the total Coaltion economy down by 21 EP.

The Klingons also canceled the bulk of their schedule in preference to maximizing repairs, and got about a third of the way through the cripple pile sitting on the capital. This technically is a problem for ship count, but many those cripples have been useless for turns now, and it means he returned a lot of heavier ships to active service (capital repairs were 2xD7C, 3xD7, 4xD6, D6M, 4xD5, 2xF5E). In addition, the Lyrans and Romulans had large repair bills, with the total Coalition repair spending hitting 78.5 EP.

Also, B10-1 Invincible rolled a ‘1’ this turn, putting it one point short of completion….

Naturally, the Hydran capital got a lot of attention, with most of the forces in the area going into the hex, and smaller forces into the surrounding space, trying to trap the Hydran fleet.

A substantial Klingon force moved onto the planet in 2715, and I send a couple ships from the 7th Fleet to reinforce the defenses, but then just about every Romulan ship in the area piled onto the SB. The 3rd Legion spread a number of small ships from 3415 over the region to interfere with sending reserves before the balance of the fleet joined in.

There was a fair amount of move-and-countermove along the Federation-Klingon border as Bel moved to kick me off various planets in Klingon space. In the north, moves were mostly confined to pulling more forces out from being cut off by Kzinti fleets. However, the Lyrans moved their Kzinti-front forces to re-take 1105.

Two of my reserves went to their obvious posts of reinforcing the Romulan-border SBs, but otherwise I largely avoided the big fights in order to provide a decisive advantage in certain small fights.


Near Kzinti space.


Move and counter-move.


The Romulans put more pressure on the border.


Piling into the Hydran capital.

Battles:
0617: Uncontested retreat
0518: Klingon: dest F5, F5S, crip F5; Lyran: dest FF
1105: Kzinti: dest CM; Lyran: dest DWE, capture planet
1003: Lyran: dest CWE, DWE
1007: Lyran: dest DW
1307: Klingon: crip D6V, AD5
1004: Lyran: crip FF
1210: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF; Klingon: capture planet
1209: unopposed withdrawal
2715: Klingon: dest D6M, D5V, AD5, F5E; Federation: dest CL, 2xFF, crip CL, 2xFF
2815: SSC: Federation: dest FF
2915: Federation: dest CL, 4xFF, crip CC, CA, TG, 2xNCL, 2xCL, DE, 6xFF; Romulan: dest KR, 2xSP, SPB, SPF, 3xSKE, 2xSNB, crip 2xFH, 3xSP, WE, BH, 2xWH, 2xBHE
3213: SSC: Romulan: dest SN
3114: SSC: both sides retreat
3014: SSC: Federation retreat; capture SN
3410: SSC: Federation: crip CL, retreat; Romulan: dest WE
3412: Federation: crip NCL
3611: Romulan: dest KRM, 2xKE, FAL, 5xSP, crip FH, FAL, SP; Federation: 3xSIDS, dest NCL, DE, FFE, crip DN+, NCL
3711: Federation: dest CA; Romulan: dest 2xSP, crip KRM, SP
3812: Federation: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SK
2414: Retreat after refused approach
2416: SSC: Federation: dest FF, crip DD, retreat
2216: SSC: Federation: dest FF; Klingon: crip D5, capture planet
1916: Klingon: dest F5
2214: Federation: dest DD, FF, planet captured
1812: SSC: Klingon: crip D5, retreat
2014: SSC: both sides retreat
1913: Federation: crip NCL; Klingon: dest F5E
1911: SSC: Klingon: dest FV
1713: unopposed withdrawal
1611: Federation: dest NCL, planet captured
1712: Federation: crip CC, FF; Klingon: dest D7, F5E, crip FV, F5S

0617 didn’t go anything like Bel had planned. To be honest, it didn’t work the way I thought it would either. A careful reading of the capital assault rules showed that with zero defenses in place, I could basically retreat out before combat. It seems odd, but it also seems pretty clear. Bel had abandoned the major planet in 0718 to force the Hydrans out of position, but there were two major problems with that idea. One, while it immediately reverts to my control, the planet doesn’t become a supply source until the next turn. Two, he only had a single line of pickets between the capital and the Old Colonies, so as soon as I retreated onto it, I was in supply.

Planet 2715 was a fight I was determined to win, but had doubts about. I accepted approach to kill the one mauler present so that Bel would have a hard time just killing the PDUs to make it easier to take next turn. Once over the planet, my ComPot was substantially higher, and Bel retreated out, self-killing ships to avoid pursuit. I don’t know why he killed his carrier….

Bel had a nice large fleet at the 7th Fleet SB in 2915, but it was thin on larger ships, meaning I mostly had to outlast the initial heavy line. This was aided by me rolling an average of two over Bel, and he retreated out after I killed a SKE to force the SUB group off the line, and then I got his SPB group in pursuit.

I could easily outlast the Romulans in 3611 against the 6th Fleet SB, except he brought three maulers and started directing SIDS. I killed two and then the third one shocked and he retreated out leaving the SB at 4xSIDS.

The obvious choice for the 2nd Federation Reserve was to send it to the NZ planet in 2214 and make a fight for it. However, I didn’t think the odds were good with the reserve, so I sent it into Klingon territory and planet 1916, where a Klingon squadron was picking on the garrison FF, and now I have a battle line central to several points of internal infrastructure.

My CVAs in Klingon space ended up in adjacent battles. Bel let me withdraw out of the first one in 1713 (I was tempted to stay and bleed him, but I want the forward carrier group in good shape for my turn), and probably should have retreated onto the other battle. Instead, I retreated into a position that would get cut off if I didn’t hold 1712. I had lots of fighter reserves (18 fighters on carrier tugs), but Bel had full carrier groups to shuffle through, and I retreated on the second round after we exchanged high-low rolls. (Thankfully, his retrogrades opened up supply.)

Overall, I’m happy with the continued chaos inside the Klingon Empire, but while I’m holding off the Romulans (I really did not think I’d manage to hold on to 2715, 2915, 3611 and 3711), they are starting to drive deeper into Federation territory.

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Mr. Selden’s Map

by on May 6, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

In 2009 a highly unusual map was found in the Bodlean Library archives. Unusual enough that it might have been considered a fake, if not for the fact that the records of the Library receiving the map in 1659 still exist. It’s an early 17th century map in Chinese of China and Indonesia and out to the Philippines and Japan, and it looks like no other known Chinese map.

Brook’s book is an idiosyncratic look at this map with lots of connected history included. It tours through a number of different subjects, such as the origins of modern international law, and really doesn’t come together as a cohesive whole.

That said, I really enjoyed the book. The various subjects are all interesting, especially as Brook tells it. Also, it’s not all that long, so nothing has a chance to outstay its welcome.

And, while a lot of the book is on the world around the map, there are little bits of tales of Brook figuring out things about it, and at the end he finally talks about what we can know about where it comes from. Most interestingly, the map started with defining the trade routes of the region, and then arranged the land masses around those.

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Rat’s Reputation

by on May 2, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Michael Payne’s latest book is a bit unusual. It’s broken into four uneven parts, each of which contains several short or very short stories, each of which is preceded by quote from some work from that world. These smaller stories are not titled, and the table of contents does not refer to them, but just gives a couple passages from each part, along with the page it appears on.

So it’s not really conceived and structured as a short story collection, even though it technically is one. The volume is a publication of a bunch of stories that has been available in in bits and pieces for decades, and has gone from being about the anthropomorphic town of Ottersgate to centering on Rat.

As a unified set of stories, it’s all told from Rat’s point of view, except for the first story, which details his mysterious rescue as a small child from some large fire by one of the Curials (gods). The later parts of the book answer the mystery raised here, and also goes some into the nature of the Curials, but largely the book is a ‘fish out of water’ story, with the orphaned Rat growing up among squirrels and mice, and not quite fitting in (somewhat literally; the animals here have human intelligence, but the same forms we know, and somehow have buildings, and clothes, and tea—it doesn’t bear thinking about too hard—so Rat is larger than many of the people he deals with), and faces persecution from many deeply prejudiced people.

There’s also a bit of travelogue to the book. Rat spends some years on the road at one point, and you get glimpses of plenty of other towns and societies. And just what is shown of Ottersgate itself is enough to make you realize the iceberg hiding beneath the surface of this book is massive indeed. Payne has an expansive world worked out, and we’re getting bare glimpses of it.

Its structure means Rat’s Reputation does not have the tightest writing you’ll see, but each story works on its own, and while building the whole. I recommend it, and if you wonder just where some of the secondary characters disappear to near the end, I also recommend Payne’s earlier book, The Blood Jaguar. Both are good furry fantasy novels.

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