R vs B Coalition Turn 13 in Review

by on February 4, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Bel surprised me by cancelling a number of smaller hulls across all three empires on his turn. The Klingons are struggling with a massive cripple backlog, but there was spare money left in all three treasuries.

My stat tracking shows this is the highest amount of stored EPs the Coalition has had since turn 2, and Bel’s comments indicate that he’s looking forward to the shift to 75% economy on turn 16.

Bel naturally leaped on the out of supply Hydran fleet, and swiftly reclaimed planet 0518, while the Lyrans sent a tug over to the Hydran capital and started setting up a MB at Hydramax.

After that, the next goal of Bel’s movement was to engage Federation forces in the central Klingon Empire, and force them off of the two planets I’d captured. Notably, he pulled the five ships (including a C8 and D7C) still administratively marked as the North Fleet out of Sector C to help deal with this. There was very little movement near Kzinti space, only picking on a couple ships outside the range of all my reserves.

The Romulans continued their invasion, heavily hitting everything around the 7th Fleet and 6th Fleet SBs. They did not drive further into Federation space, instead aiming to widen the gap in the frontier.


The kicked anthill


Activity in the central Klingon Empire


The Romulan invasion continues

Battles:
0519: Planet captured
0418: SSC: Hydran: dest KN
0317: Hydran: dest LN; Klingon: crip D5
0908: SSC: Kzinti: retreat; Lyran: retreat
0705: SSC: Kzinti: dest FF
2518: Fed: dest CL, FF; Klingon: dest D5, recapture planet
2214: SSC: Fed: retreat; Klingon: retreat; planet goes neutral
1714: Fed: dest NCD; Klingon: crip D7C, D6, D6M, F5E, capture NCD & planet
1815: SSC: Fed: dest FF
1715: SSC: Fed: dest FF
1713: Fed: crip NCL, CL, FF; Klingon: crip 3xF5
1514: SSC: Fed: crip FF, retreat; Klingon: crip F5, recapture planet
3613: Fed: dest BATS, CL; Romulan: crip SP
2816: Fed: dest BATS, crip 2xNCL, FF, FFS; Romulan: crip SP, SPB, SK, 2xSKE, 2xBH
3016: Fed: dest BATS; Romulan: crip SP, SN
2915: Retreat after refused approach
3611: Retreat after refused approach
3711: Fed: crip FF; Romulan: crip KRC, FH, SP
3612: Fed: crip CC, CA, FF, dest FF, 2xPDU; Rom: dest SKB, SKE, K4, crip KE, WE, capture planet

I would have loved to re-open supply to the main Hydran fleet with the Hydran reserve, but I realized that combat supply is only re-evaluated at the moment that battle hex is resolved. If I picked a fight to re-open supply, and that hex was evaluated first, I’d have to win the fight so as not to retreat back off map, and the reserve wasn’t that big. So I reinforced the fight with a few ships that were at full combat power, and luckily only lost a DD this time, and have retreated into supply.

1714 was our first fight between CVAs (USS Napoleon and C8V Vindicator), but the Klingons had about a half-line of reserves, while the Federation was a ship short of a full line. As it was, I had a slightly higher ComPot, and rolled one less to do the same damage. Bel’s second ship capture in as many turns is annoying, but is still a long ways from the seven ships I’ve captured.

Bel ended up retreating out of both SB battles without fighting. In one case, I had no fighters to take damage on, and in the other, he had a fairly heavy line he could put up. I expected him to come in for at least a round on both, so held out for the extra firepower of the SB. In the second one, he was thinking of overrunning an adjacent planet, but since there was an alternate hex free of my forces, he had to go there or do a fighting retreat. Since the planet was where my second reserve had gone, that wouldn’t have worked out.

BATS 3612 had minor forces from both of us, and dragged out across five rounds of largely crippled lines as it could go either way. He had a bit more in the hex, but I took my damage to preserve ComPot, and had the bigger line for a couple rounds. Damage rolls were even until ComPot was too low for it to matter much. In the end, I had to retreat, but the three survivors are on the 6th Fleet SB, where they can be repaired.

While I can’t be happy about losing more border regions to the Romulan navy, the invasion is going much slower than I feared. I figured there’d be a major fights over both SBs this turn, leaving them with a lot of damage and cripples to try and make good.

In Klingon space, I’ll say that I had held onto things longer than I expected, and Bel is having to focus a lot of attention in the central empire to kick me out, while Kzinti and Federation forces continue to strip the northern empire of bases.

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The Four Vassal War Alliance Turn 3

by on January 31, 2016 at 12:16 pm
Posted In: Four Vassal War

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

While the Kzinti are having a hard time, with the Klingons having occupied the planet in 1105, they still hold the neutral zone planet in 1506, and the Hydrans were still disrupting three Lyran provinces and holding another at the start of their turn (worth 0.5 permanent VP) while only one of their provinces are held by he Klingons.

Both economies are in good shape and could absorb the modest number of cripples to repair with no trouble. I was surprised that Bel had no conversions this turn, but both empires paid to activate an extra Prime Team.

Builds:
Kzintis: BC, CL, CLD, CLG, 3xFF, MB, PT
Hydrans: DG, 2xKN, CR, 2xCU, Convoy, MB, PT

Both raids were against Lyran territory. The Hydran one easily fought off the called up POL that responded, and disrupted a province, while the raiding Kzinti CS fought a CA that responded from the adjacent SB and was crippled, while the CA merely retreated.

I had done my best to set up so as to be able to respond to most attempts to assault my border bases, and especially the more valuable BATS, but Bel quickly defeated all of that by sending a Hydran force around the edge of the Klingon border, and hitting 1011. Late in the turn, all the major forces in Lyran space headed east, I assume towards the relatively unprotected depot in 0810. I reacted off the Enemy’s Blood SB, and didn’t have enough to completely pin either move, but Bel stopped and fought there.

The Kzintis meanwhile struck near the Lyran-Klingon border, and finally sent a force beyond the border to hit 0707. Everything else was well enough in hand that I sent a reserve there, though I’d had to send a Klingon reserve to make a fight of the BATS at 1013, instead of trying to save 1011.


The Kzinti offensive


Hydran moves in Lyran space


Hydran offensive into Klingon space

Combat:
0209: SSC: Lyran: dest POL
0410: Lyran: dest FF
0502: Retreat on refused approach battle
0511: Lyran: crip 4xFF; Hydran: crip RN
1219: SSC: Klingon retreat
0512: Lyran: dest DD
0915: SSC: Hydran retreat
1013: Klingon: crip F5; Hydran: dest LN
1011: Klingon: dest BS
0707: Lyran: crip CA, DD; Kzinti: crip BC, 2xFF
0504: Lyran: crip CL, DD; Kzinti: dest CL, 2xFF
0906: Retreat on refused approach battle
0705: Retreat on refused approach battle
1105: Klingon: crip F5L; Kzinti: dest 3xFF
0803: Lyran: crip DD; Kzinti: crip FF

0511 was the large pinning battle. I went in for a round with my heaviest line with a TGC+BP, DNE, BCE, 2xCA, and then a battle group, and was still fighting 9 ComPot down thanks to how scary Hydran cruisers are. Low rolls kept anything meaningful from happening, especially as I was just short of killing a LN. He didn’t bother to pursue the heavy line when I retreated, and the cripples are now at the Enemy’s Blood SB for repairs.

Bel wanted no part of 1013 after my reserve showed up, but I challenged him to the initial approach battle. This is one of a few times lately where he’s tried to preserve his forces with a minimal line where it doesn’t make a lot of sense. He still had to put up about five ships, which is more than my force can destroy in a round, so he might as well put up a full line and do as much damage as possible in return.

0504 was a second case of this, and I ended up killing his cripples in pursuit. With a full line, I might have needed a much lighter line for pursuit (CLs to FFs) after taking the extra damage.

1105 was third time he did this. I don’t blame him for wanting out, as most of his force was FFs. I didn’t think to increase my BIR to 4, and let him off a bit easy.

Much to my surprise, Bel retrograded all but a handful of ships, leaving the Lyrans free to pick off Hydran province raiders for the first time in the game. They’ve been having to maneuver around large, aggressive Hydran fleets in their space all this time. Like me, he used almost all his forces in offensive operations this turn, and the Hydrans only have five ships in reserve, but the Kzinti Barony fleet just arrived from off-map, and formed the basis of two healthy Kzinti reserves on their capital.

The Alliance is up to 79.6 VPs, with 3.8 permanent VPs this turn, while my repairs also continue to pile up. Meanwhile, my VPs are also up slightly, to 64.75, thanks to all the ships I managed to kill. Overall, this is a Minor Alliance Victory, but that’s still eroding.

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Two Rounds of Phyle

by on January 27, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Patch and I did our irregular ‘between bigger games’ set of Commands & Colors: Ancients last night, with the fastest scenario I’ve seen: Phyle 404 BC from Expansion #6. Set after the Pelopennsian War, Athenian exiles attack a Spartan camp in the middle of the night. The battle goes to four banners (I’ve never seen below five before), the Spartans only start with two cards, but draw their way up to four over two turns, while the Athenians get six. The Athenian line starts practically on top of the Spartans who begin scattered, and mostly in fortified camps, which, along with the five-block Spartan hoplite units, gives them some staying power, though their leader starts unattached.

I had the Athenians on the first go-round, and I started off with Inspired Center Leadership, and followed up with Leadership any Section to get much of my line in motion and assaulting Patch’s camps. I knocked out the MH supported by his leader in two attacks, and momentum advanced to try and pick off the leader, but only caused him to evade into a unit on the back row. I also drove him out of a camp with no damage on the first card, and attacked another camp with the second, reducing a unit to 1 block while taking two blocks myself, and enough banners to shatter my line. Patch had Ordered One to put his leader back in a camp, adjacent to my leader, and despite the similar odds attacks with him having an extra block, I tried pushing on him only to take a block and a banner to retreat to the rest of my line.

Patch Ordered Two Right to assault the left end of my line, only pushing back two units with no damage. I Ordered Two Right to finish off the one-block unit. Patch Ordered One to get back into a camp and did two damage to a unit in return for being pushed back out of the camp. I used a Coordinated Attack to mostly get at his right flank and reduced another of his MH to one block and pushed it back, but one of my units took three hits in return. Patch used an Order Three Right (only had two) to get the 1-block out of danger while eliminating my one-block unit.

I Ordered Two Right to get at his leader, but lost a unit and two blocks on another to battle backs while only doing two damage to him. Patch responded with another Order One (too many dead cards with only medium units in this scenario) to hit my weakened unit again, and send it back two hexes. I used Mounted Charge (finally drew one in these hoplite scenarios!) to send my entire remaining force forward and picked off his leader unit, and then the leader himself died on the loss check. 4-2

Phyle-1

Patch led off the second round with Order Four Center in an assault that cost him three blocks across three units, and reduced my center unit to one block as he got driven back into my leader, while doing two blocks to another unit. Patch continued this with Order Two Center to knock out the leader’s unit and drive him out of the camps to the unit on the back row. He tried a Momentum combat with his leader, but only took two damage himself.

I used Coordinated Attack to bring up one of the MC in the corner and activate the leader’s new unit to knock out Patch’s reduced unit and form a small line, while hitting the left end of Patch’s line to do one block apiece. Patch used Mounted Charge (I had just drawn the other one!) to hit the entire line, wiping out one unit, and hitting the MC with three banners, which routed it off the board. Finally, he attacked my left-end MH in camp, first trading one block apiece, and then getting four hits to end the game. 1-4

Phyle-2

Afterword:

All told, two games over Vassal took us fifty minutes to play; a normal scenario takes us about an hour per play. With only four banners needed things can collapse fast, though it dragged out a little in the first game as I had a hard time getting a decisive turn. Both times, the game ended with the appearance of Mounted Charge. The camps block one sword and/or one banner per combat, and they absorbed a good number of hits in the first game. I thought I was getting somewhere when I managed to bring in the MC that had been ignored in the first game, but three banners is just something that cavalry can’t take. Anyway, it is a very fast scenario that offers just enough hope to the disadvantaged Spartans to stay exciting.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 12 in Review

by on January 21, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The financial strain on the Federation is already showing this turn, as the reduction in economy combined with the number of repairs exhausted the reserves, and there was no money left to send the Kzintis this turn. Meanwhile, the Kzinti had to cancel a few ships to pay for all their repairs.

(This was from a mistake; I noticed late that I hadn’t used the Kzinti free fighters on the previous turn. >.< )

There’s a few Kzinti cripples piling up in the Barony again, but things are under control. Most of the Federation cripples were handled, with a notable exception at the 6th Fleet SB, but two SIDS there were repaired by the TG.

The Federation continues to put out a fantastic number of ships, including the fourth CVA, USS Julius Caesar. The Kzinti produced their second CVA (Olympus), and converted the captured F5 converted to Kzinti service last turn to a Z-F5E as its outer escort (I haven’t heard any commentary from Bel on this yet). The Hydrans continue working on the new shipyard, and converted an NCV carrier group from their small stock of war cruisers.

The Hydrans saw a chance, and pinned one group of the Coalition fleets guarding the Old Colonies before sending out a fleet to 0416 to try and reduce the heavy defenses there. Meanwhile, the Federation was not feeling up to challenging the Romulans with the forces available, and avoided combat while moving up the bulk of the 5th Fleet to 3808.

The Kzinti pulled back from 1001, and assaulted 1202 without interference while heavy fighting continued near the Kzinti/Federation/Klingon border area. For the first time, Kzinti forces entered Lyran space, as they pinned a reserve by assaulting BATS 0705. Further forces hit the Klingon planet in 1407 and BATS 0908.

Part of the Federation 7th Fleet moved to take out BATS 2519, and Bel was smart enough not to react and let on 2518 take out other targets unhindered. Other forces hit several targets in Klingon space, including a strong force that piled onto the Southern Reserve SB, and forced his main reserves to go there, instead of saving other targets. I also sent ships to take major planet 1611, prematurely activating the 3rd IWR squadron (I had carefully avoided doing any such thing last turn since I didn’t want to release it and the 2nd IWR early).


A short-lived offensive.


Kzinti offensives.


Operation “Great Attractor”

Battles:
0519: SSC: Klingon: dest E4; Hydran: retreat; planet reverts to Hydran.
0416: Lyran: dest 2xPGB; Hydran: dest DG
0119: Lyran: dest STT; Hydran: dest RN
2519: Klingon: dest BATS; Federation: crip NCL, FF
2214: SSC: Klingon: crip D7, retreat; Federation: capture planet
1514: SSC: Klingon: dest F5L; Federation: crip FF, capture planet
1712: SSC: Klingon: dest cripD5; Federation: retreat
1716: Klingon: 2xSIDS, crip AD5, F5E, 2xE4A, dest FRD; Federation: crip DN+, 2xNCL, dest ECL
2014: Klingon: crip D7, dest BATS; Federation: crip 2xFF
1916: Klingon: crip D6; Federation: crip CC, CL, FF
1611: Klingon: crip D7, F5S, dest 3xPDU; Federation: crip 2xNCL, CL, 2xDD, dest FF
2009: SSC: Klingon retreat
1910: Klingon: crip D6, D5, F5L, dest 2xF5, E4A; Federation: crip CA, DD, 5xFF, dest 2xCL, capture planet
1808: Klingon: dest F5
1705: Klingon: dest D6
1708: Klingon: dest F5
1304: SSC: Klingon: crip E4, retreat; Kzinti: retreat
1205: SSC: Klingon: retreat
1107: SSC: crip D5, dest E4, retreat; Kzinti: crip CL, retreat
1407: Klingon: crip F5E, dest 2xPDU; Kzinti: capture planet
0908: Klingon: dest BATS, cripE4
0705: Lyran: crip STT, dest BATS; Kzinti: crip, 2xCM, SF
1202: Lyran: dest PDU; Kzinti: capture planet

The Hydrans saw a chance and took it, but it isn’t working out. The bulk of the navy is now cut off and out of supply, since I didn’t leave enough at the border to force a Coalition retreat. I also wasn’t considering just how nasty the defenses over 0416 have become. A low Lyran roll helped, but a low roll from me kept me from getting rid of all the PGBs, and there’s still a spare MB and FRD at the SB. I’m thinking it would have been best to wait a turn or two for the major push and see if the Federation can manage to disrupt Klingon supply into the area first.

With all the defenders, I wasn’t going to kill the Southern Reserve SB, but I went in for a round anyway and killed the FRD to restrict future repairs there. I was a little surprised by the self-inflicted SIDS, but considering our high rolls (5-5), we were both scrambling for things to take damage on. I think with about a dozen more ships, I could have forced the SB, but this was really a diversion. If he didn’t send the reserves here, I’d have taken it out, and Bel can’t really afford that.

I would have liked to take the planet at 1916 as well, but that was to tie down the other Klingon reserve, and I didn’t bring nearly enough to take on the C8V Vindicator. (I am glad I wasn’t facing that over the SB.)

Good Klingon rolls in rounds 2 and 3 probably saved 1611. I had hoped to take the planet, but had to retreat out with a lot of cripples and no fighters. The good news is that 3/4 of the defenses are gone, so it will need a lot more ships to defend in the future. Of course, being in reaction range of the capital, this may be the only chance to take it on the cheap I’ll see….

I expected a much tougher fight for 0705. Bel could have stuck it out a few rounds and burned through some of my forces since I had no spare fighters, but decided to avoid taking much damage himself.

Star Fleet is feeling pretty battered at the moment, with a lot of cripples, and didn’t make some its goals in Klingon space. I’m not sure just how much I’m going to be able to do next turn. On the other hand, Klingon supply points are disappearing fast to the north. It’s probably time to put a little pressure on the Lyrans, though actually consolidating and garrisoning northern Klingon space to reduce income has to become a priority.

Turn 12 scoring:
Coalition: 380.6 EP (x2) + 545 (bases) + 564 ships (/5) + 100 (Hydran Capital) = 1535
Alliance: 324.4 EP (x2) + 495 (bases) + 501 ships (/5) = 1244

Difference = 291 Major Coalition Victory

Adding in the Romulans makes a big difference in the war. More disturbing to the Coalition is that the Alliance gained 24 ships this turn (mostly Federation) while the Romulans and Klingons lost ships. Only the Lyrans came out 10 ahead, and the overall difference isn’t that big. If this keeps up the Alliance will soon overall have more ships just as the western economies start faltering.

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Champion of Orr

by on January 17, 2016 at 12:39 pm
Posted In: MMO

Smudge and I are still playing and enjoying Guild Wars 2 these many months later. Just last week we hit a big milestone in the form of the end of the original story.

Of course, we hit the level maximum of 80 quite some time ago, but we’ve been slowly exploring the world, and advancing the story as we go. For about a month now, we’ve been working through the stronghold of the enemy, the ruined nation of Orr. I have to say that was handled quite well; it’s a creepy, dangerous place, without being at all cliche about it.

The story itself was a little more standard, with a number of different missions as the Pact works it’s way across the landscape of Orr, introducing important people, and killing a number of those off. There’s not a lot of real plot twists here, but the progression is well done. This all leads up to a mission/dungeon dealing with the Big Bad Guy, the elder dragon of death and darkness: Zaitan.

Who has a bad case of ‘someone started drawing and never stopped’.

I’m not so happy with the dungeon. A number of cliches pop up in this one, and there’s not a lot of real fighting. Given that this is the only dungeon required for the storyline, it makes sense that it is easier, as it may get a lot of people unused to them. But I’m unhappy with the amount of… non-fighting fighting (manning cannons, which I would like better if this wasn’t just a wait for the target to become available, and mash the button, unlike every other time GW2 does something like this), and the pacing, which is too rushed to talk to the NPCs in places, and leaves you just waiting around in others. I imagine the explorable mode will more than make up for it….

I was also less than happy with the immediately preceding mission, which was a lot easier than I felt something that climatic should be. On the other hand, the ending sequence when you win was very good. Also, the final epilogue of the story is… huge. Pretty much every surviving NPC of the story is there and talkable. The requisite celebration is there, and you can join in, and they remind you that Zaitan is not the only world-ending problem out there.

Smudge and I have since gone through the summary of the first part of the Living World (season 1) both in-game, and the extensive one on the wiki. It’s a pity we can’t go through it directly, but at least ArenaNet caught on and made season 2 playable after the fact.

I also think that the continuing story is another area where GW2 has been doing better than most of the other MMOs we’ve encountered. When World of Warcraft was released, there were plans for a number of areas that weren’t in the game yet, and a number of hooks were in the storyline. Most prominent were the nagas and murlocks which were noted as having just arrived from the deeper oceans in the places where they were encountered. The implications were that something was up, and the Maelstrom was a planned area of expansion. All of this got pretty much paved over and permanently ignored in Cataclysm. Neverwinter starts with the siege of the city by the forces of Valendra, but much of the plotline in the game barely touches on it. It’s pretty obvious that ArenaNet is still following, in some form, their original vision for the narrative arc of GW2. I kind of wonder what they’ll do as the number of elder dragons available diminishes, but so far, they’re nicely focused.

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