Render Unto Ceasar

by on September 24, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Augustan Rome, without Augustus. That is, he is conveniently out of town for the entirety of the novel, which involves portions of Roman high society and government. And we do have a number of historical people here, I think including all the three people of power we see in the book. (The entire bit with the lampreys is from history.)

Money matters, as presented here, are entirely from history as well. High ranking men needed to give expensive entertainments and do expensive public projects. They also got involved in private projects that could easily go wrong. The land speculation that ends up driving part of the plot of the book is also fairly typical.

Rome itself is shown well, and you get to see bits of life there, comfortable homes, run-down insulae, traffic with rules keeping big cargo wagons out during daylight, temples, small shrines. It’s a good mix, all in service to the plot, which itself goes many places.

Enter an Alexandrian. Our main character is in the business of money, investing in shipping concerns and the such, helping good flow through the interconnected world of the Ancient Mediterranean. He has recently inherited a fairly large debt that he could absorb if needed, but the money is owed, and he journeys to Rome to collect. And that simple fact sets off a novel full of intrigue, violence, and romance.

It is also worth looking at at Hermogenes through a non-neurotypical light. His bedrock motivation is that the Romans should be following the rules they themselves espouse, or else the Empire is built on nothing more than the fiat that Augustus is determined to sweep away. Along the way, he manages to be friends with many people, because he does care, and is practiced at observing people. Rules are not the end-all of a bureaucrat, but rather what gives structure to business and politics so they may be fair.

I’ve yet to be disappointed with a Gillian Bradshaw book, and this is no exception. There is so much more here than I have touched upon. This isn’t pages of empty prose and happenings, it is a very dense book with a lot going on at different levels.

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UR1 Federation vs Empire Y163

by on September 20, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

After the one fight on the border in Y162 it was time to advance the campaign clock to Y163. I think both sides will end up with nearly everything available in a second campaign round, and there’s two of the better defensive bases to deal with, so I expect these rules will naturally have heavy fighting at this point. It certainly proved so here.

There’s one new design available: The Federation FFL can be prototyped (regular service in Y165). This is a plasma-F version of the FF. Since the charging pattern is 1-1-3 and holding cost is 0, it should be a bit faster than the normal FF/FFG—except on the final turn of arming. It loses the long-range firepower of the proximity torpedo, but should be a good knife-fighter for fleet battles. I’ve never used one, but now may be the time.

The Klingons went for two options I had considered earlier: an F5S and F5C in place of the normal builds for a ‘heavy’ slot and an extra scout. I worked up a real loadout for the D6D, which required another 10 EPV for the drone fund, and speed-12/20 drone funds were allocated to all the command ships:

Caryover                                               3    1
Income                                               380   38
Item                  Hull #   Name                  EPV  OPV
New Ship   E4         E4-12    IKV Adamant            55

New Ship   E4         E4-13    IKV Keeper             55

New Ship   F5C        F5C-7    IKV Fire Keeper        89
P Supplies Drone Fund                                  4
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                         8

New Ship   F5S        F5S-34   IKV Scorn              80
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                         8

P Supplies Drone Fund C6-1     IKV Victory             8
P Supplies Drone Fund C6-3     IKV Atrocity            8
P Supplies Drone Fund D7C-4    IKV Devilslayer         4
P Supplies Drone Fund D7C-11   IKV Dawnslayer          4
P Supplies Drone Fund F5C-4    IKV Doom Leader         4
P Supplies Drone Fund F5C-5    IKV Doom King           4
P Supplies Drone Fund F5C-6    IKV Doom Lord           4
P Supplies Drone Fund E4C-1    IKV Sworn               4
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb                                         8
P Supplies Drone Fund D6D-14   IKV Stormcloud         10
T Supplies 2xT-Bomb   F5S-8    IKV Deceiver                 8
Remaining                                             50    7

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Finding Serendipity

by on September 16, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a bit of a meta children’s book, as it is also about writing itself.

Even at the surface level, this is true as our main character’s mom is a world-famous children’s author. But also at an allegorical level, as here writing literally takes you away to a magical realm where what you’re writing about is really happening, and you experience it as inspiration for your story.

It’s a children’s book, so the entire thing is kept simple, but much of the writing experience is in there. Getting stuck, not knowing what to do, leaving for a bit, and coming back with new inspiration is handled on the allegorical side, but the underlying advice of “it happens to everyone” is a good point to see. Even better, it’s a completely natural plot beat within the story.

At any rate, it’s a lot of fun, and a nice celebration of writing, instead of just reading. Give it to a budding artist, and follow with 50ccs of The Cartoonist’s Club….

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SH56 Surprise Package

by on September 12, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

After finishing up in Hatten, Patch and I swung around to Star Fleet Battles, moving to Y165. He looked over the scenarios, and picked the Klingons in “Surprise Package”. The original version of the scenario (back in Captain’s Log #1) was something of a mean trick. You propose a Fed DD vs D6 duel, and don’t tell your opponent that the DD actually has a pair of plasma torpedoes until you launch them. The current version forgoes literal surprise, and gives a light “idiot rule” to the Klingon (no wild weasels charged until after a seeking weapon launch), as well as options to secretly sub in other destroyer variants, regaining some sense of “surprise”.

Weapon status is 2 for both sides, so phasers are charged, but DDL Kublai is on the final turn of arming on all weapons, leading to maximum power draw. I also held a suicide shuttle in case D6 Devastation should try to overrun me, and only managed speed 9. Patch went speed 20 with EW up (all I could afford was one point of ECM, hopefully I could count on the plasma torpedo’s native ECCM) and started charging in. On impulse 13, we hit range 15, and Patch fired, hitting with all four disruptors to take out half of the #1 shield, and then turned off. I turned to intercept, and he launched a speed-12 drone, which I had to shoot down early in turn 2.

Patch stayed at the same speed, and I boosted to 19 for turn 2 (it would have been 23, but for acceleration limits). Midway through the turn, Patch turned right, and I paralleled him until he started turning in to intercept. On Impulse 29 I launched two plasmas (one real, one pseudo) at range 12, and turned in for a face-off on 32. Patch fired for another four disruptor hits, exactly knocking down the #1 shield.

I stayed at speed 20 for turn three, while Devastation went up to 26. Patch fired phasers on Impulse 1 of turn three to do two internals (both hull). And on Impulse 2, he HETed, keeping out of close range, and able to keep speed 32 plasmas off of him for most of a turn (and way too long for the tiny plasma-F).

That basically put me out of options, and I fired phasers on Impulse 3 at range 9 to do 6 damage to the #5 shield. I tried bolting the remaining plasma and firing one photon torpedo and missed (both 6s…).

Afterword

We continued maneuvering, but that was the end of any actual combat. The scenario stipulates that Patch needs to disengage “by turn 5”, which is a little unclear as to the beginning or end of turn 5. But either way, he was trying to avoid eating my close-range firepower, and I was trying to keep him off my #1, and possibly take crippling damage with no shield.

So, final score: D6 disengaged = 28.25, 8 × speed-12 drones (I assume; with 4-5 turns, paying for 4 might be better) = 4 vs DDL damaged = 9.4, 2 × T-bombs (I don’t know if Patch took any) = 8; not doing at least 10 damage with plasma torpedoes (a special rule to force me to be aggressive, and why letting Patch control the ranges was bad) = 30. 47.4 ÷ 32.25 = 147% or just at the very top end of a Marginal Victory for Patch.

Partly, my problem was that Patch got very lucky, hitting eight times out of eight in the 2/3rds bracket. Minor problems on my side included going too slow on turn 1 to receive a charge, which limited me on turn 2, when I really needed the speed, and forgetting that I had swivel mounts. I could have fired the seeking plasmas right at him, but was stuck thinking of fixed mount launchers, and launched 60º off.

But, he outplayed me. Notably, the HET caught me flatfooted, just when I thought I could pincer him between me and two sets of plasmas. Patch was surprised by the low endurance of the plasma-F, and thought he was in bigger trouble.

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Pax

by on September 8, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Tom Holland’s third book on the history of Rome picks up with the end of Nero’s reign (65 CE). This is the start of four chapters labeled “War”. Now, there’s various problems, certainly including Nero himself, but there’s no war. This of course does not last long, with the Empire dissolving into political infighting, Nero commits suicide, his earlier efforts at finding a suitable heir gone well before him, all before the close of the first chapter.

The next eighteen months take two plus chapters, or perhaps 150 pages. This takes us through the infamous Year of the Four Emperors, but Holland too busy immersing us in the world as the Romans saw it to call it that. It’s a small problem if you’re wanting some modern guideposts to fit with what else you know, but he’s not here for concessions to modern periodization. While this is indeed a general audience history, the main point is to introduce you the Roman view of the world. If that introduction is still shadowy and incomplete, that is merely because of the size of the gap he is bridging, instead of any lack of effort or ability on his part.

Part two, “Peace”, starts with tales of Hercules visiting Italy. There he had defeated a race of giants and held a triumphal procession—pompe—and founded two cities. From here we start spending a fair amount of time examining contemporary (to Vespasian) local politics, and the character of the entire Bay of Naples as the resort and tourist center for the rich and famous in Rome.

Holland doesn’t need to say a word for the modern reader to realize that we are on a countdown to a detonation that will destroy Hercules’ two cities, Pompeii and Herculaneum. Of course, this conversely preserved much of those cities and is a large part of what is allowing him to go into all this detail that we aren’t given about the rest of the Roman world.

Outside of this, there is plenty of other things going on. These “peaceful” years, 70–138 CE, have plenty of their own trials, though the fact he can cover nearly seventy years in four chapters instead of five years in three does show the pace of events has slowed. Still, there is always the concern that the Roman world is in danger, and plenty of wars with death and destruction waiting in the wings. It looks very stable to us, but not only was that stability fragile, there are always the memories of the last crisis to provoke fear about the next one.

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