HMS Surprise

by on October 2, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The third Aubrey/Maturin novel takes does a good job getting the balls back in the air.

We start with Aubrey temporarily in command of a frigate watching Toulon as part of the Mediterranean blockade. Ordered back to Gibraltar, on the way he captures a French supply ship, and rendezvous with Maturin, who has continued his spying in Spain. He has been captured, and tortured, and is physically recovering for the bulk of the novel. But, the capture and the rescue of Maturin serve the needs of early action.

After that, we get a bit more on the social side. Aubrey is  in debt, again/still, which has his romance on hold. He escapes his creditors by getting command of HMS Surprise, and is ordered to deliver an ambassador to Kampong (on the Malay peninsula). This makes up the bulk of the book, with various nautical misadventures along the way. Of course ship-board life is a large part of this series, and O’Brian is not going to skimp on that. I appreciate this, but still find it a bit much.

Still, we get as far as India, and things bog down a bit again for various cross-purposes and social adventures there. In fact, it’s not long before heading home to England, and the action side of the plot suddenly comes to the fore again. As ever, this part is handled well, and after the carnage the novel slips into a steady current to the conclusion.

Now, don’t mistake me, all aspects of the novel work, and I enjoyed it. I do feel passage out towards the Indian Ocean drags on, but it’s also a good demonstration of the sorts of problems of sailing anywhere in the period. These books are good for giving a better appreciation of several aspects of the period at once. Also, HMS Surprise was a real ship (somewhat fictionalized here), and the ending action is based on the actual Battle of Pulo Aura (which I only know because I looked it up; but the outline was familiar to me).

└ Tags: , , ,
 Comment 

HF7 Gotta Get Out

by on September 28, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After seeing the SturmTiger in action, Patch and I returned to Hatten, with a morning American assault to retake the town. They get 4.5 turns to take a building and make sure there’s no GO Germans in four others. After a couple of defenses that just came apart at the end of the scenario, I went with the Americans.

The Germans get ten squads, “?”, MGs, one PSK, and a choice of ATG or 81mm MTR plus second PSK, and Patch took the former. On turn 2, they get a pair of Pz IVs. Patch rubbled U12 and X15, with the random rolls rubbling R10 and W14; the center two would change the action quite a bit. With a field of “?” facing me it was hard to tell just what the defense was geared around, since there were counters in all the obvious places, but three of the foxholes he got were around V12, and it is the obvious focus of a defense.

The Americans come on with eleven squads, two each MMG, MTR, BAZ, four Shermans, a M3A1 HT (w/BAZ on board) and a MMG HT (12FP of MGs, which only overlap to the rear, and a free—by SSR—667 squad). I set up with a decent group headed for the main victory building, while the majority of the troops were to get into a nearby hedged-off area. From there, they should head north towards further goals, and the second group likely converging on the V12 area, since there’s a lot of buildings and orchards to make progress difficult. The Americans get (effectively) dispersed OBA Smoke centered on two hexes picked before setup, and I went for fairly cautious close targets (looking at it in play, I think I should have gone a little further back). There is also a dawn low-light LV for the first two turns (which we remembered for once).

My first move was running a HS into AA18, which had a Dummy (very exposed, and therefore likely, but…). My second big move was an armored assault to the hedgeline, which finally drew fire, getting a 1MC to pin a 8-0 and break both squads. Thanks to the Smoke, I got next to Y18 and broke him with my first AFPh shot, giving me control of the hedged-off area.


Situation, American turn 1, showing the full active board. North is to the left.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , ,
1 Comment

Caliban’s War

by on September 24, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Book two of The Expanse has the same outline structure. Bad things happen, a man becomes very single-focused obsessed with finding a missing person, he runs into James Holden, mayhem ensues.

Structurally, it is different. We do change viewpoint characters, but instead of two characters operating in different in-novel genres, we have four different viewpoints. This varies things out, they’re all grounded in more regular SF, just with their own knowledge and worries. Even better, we’re not on a fixed rotation between them, and the story is allowed to bounce between them far more naturally.

The inciting event here is a creature suddenly appearing and wiping out nearly everyone in two marine units on Ganymede. One Martian, one Terran. This isn’t well or easily understood at first, and shooting starts between the two sides, largely wrecking infrastructure on Ganymede. Which is also the breadbasket of the outer colonies. This drives a lot of just-off-screen action, as things break down, but the overall crisis is still developing and is much slower moving than the book; which is to say the next couple of lean years have yet to play out.

The monster is definitely related to the protomolecule, the MacGuffin from the first book. Everything else about it is mysterious, and finding just who is up to nasty shenanigans this time is the main driver of the plot.

So, yes, anyone who wants to say this is something of a repeat of the first book has a real good point to make. But there’s plenty of differences outside of the highest-level concept, and I find the cast of characters much better balanced this time. So, it feels a bit familiar, but it does much better.

└ Tags: , , ,
 Comment 

Two Rounds of Loos (Hohenzollern Redoubt)

by on September 20, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After way too long, Mark and I returned to (C&C) The Great War, with the second scenario on the Battle of Loos. This is supposed to be the main attack, and the German trench setup is more compact, with a larger British back area. The British get an extra banner for each German trench they have units in, and the Germans can get an extra banner every time they play a Recon card.

Mark had the British for the first game, and the pre-game bombardment took out four hexes of wire, and put down a couple of shellholes in the approach. He led with Infantry Assault in the center, getting into the first trench, but with only a couple units that could attack. Good rolls nearly took both front-line German units out, but one fought back with Butt & Bayonet to do one block and force the unit back three hexes(!). I led with Attack Center, but used Counter Intelligence to get Butt & Bayonet back. I did two blocks each to two units, and Mark hit back with his own Butt & Bayonet to finish off a weak infantry.

Mark Attacked Right with a Box Barrage, with units running into the trenches, and a single hit to a mortar. I Attacked Center, and did a hit to each of two units. Mark did Recon in Force to run units forward, and did a hit to a MG. I used Orders From HQ to activate five (of seven) units to do two blocks each to two units (including the only one who’d made it to the second line), and finished off a weak infantry. Mark Attacked Right, and Physician recovered two hits on a bombadier. His main attack did a block to my bombadier, but his infantry took two in return from Butt & Bayonet. I Attacked Left to finish off that infantry, and Mark Attacked Center to Reposition his mortar and force my weak bombadier to retreat.

I Probed Left for no result, Mark Assaulted Left to nearly take out a MG, and Butt & Bayonet finished off the forward assaulting unit. I did Infantry Assault in the center to get at the two remaining British units in my trenches and destroyed the one in the front line, but left the one in the second line with one block. Mark used Storm of Fire to finish off my bombadier, and I countered with Forward, finishing off one unit, and doing two hits to his bombadier. Mark Infantry Assaulted on his left, taking out my MG. I Probed Left with a Machine Gun Barrage to finish off the bombadier. 6-5

My pre-game bombardment only took out two hexes of wire, but did give me four shellhole hexes right in front of my line, and a couple on my right past the wire. Probe Left let me move towards one of the gaps, and Mark used Recon Centre to take a free banner. Recon in Force got me into contact, and I did one block each to two units. Mark Assaulted Centre while I Held At All Costs, but Mark also used Short Supply to send my in-contact unit to my baseline, while he maneuvered.

I Probed Left to move up, and Mark took a block with a Probe Right. I Attacked Left with a Box Barrage, getting tripple-6 on targeting to blow a hole in the trenches and do two hits on his MG and make it retreat. His infantry took a hit and retreated three hexes. Mark did Artillery Bombard to hit a concentration in my trench, doing three blocks across two units. I Attacked Left to remove a hex of wire and force his retreating infantry back into the cover of the third line. Mark Probed Center to get a hit on two units. I Assaulted Center (using Tactician to shift from Left), moving forward through the gap in the wire. Mark Attacked Center to do a block to a weak infantry, and I Attacked Left to continue working my way in.

Mark used Storm of Fire and Mortar Barrage to eliminate two weak units, and do a block to another. Recon in Force got me a hit, and his weaker MG retreated to the baseline. Mark did Recon in Force (by this point we’d forgotten the banner rule) and got two hits on my lead unit. Mata Hari also took a pair of Direct From HQ out of my hand, and I’d been saving up points for them. Attack Center moved me up, but did no damage, and Probe Right forced a unit back. Infantry Assault got me into the second line and did two hits to a bombadier. Mark Probed Center to move him back, and Box Barrage weakened a infantry further while forcing another to retreat onto the wire. Out Flanked moved up my right, but I didn’t get anywhere on the left. Attack Right forced a unit out of the second line, but another Infantry Assault got me into the third line and eliminated three units (one through use of Lice while he was on the baseline; a hit and flag did for him). If I could survive to the next turn, I’d get credit for being in all three lines of trenches and win. Mark went for Whistles & Bugle Calls with Trench Raid, reducing my forward unit to one block, and Butt & Bayonet did two hits and two flags to his unit in the open, reducing him to a single block. His attacks over, I won at the start of my turn. 6-[4]

Afterword

One thing that is hard to get used to is that units aren’t as vulnerable in the open as it feels. While ranged combat is a much bigger worry, you generally only see three dice at a time, which is a big difference from the five dice heavies of CC:A. Also, if you want to get to a decision, you need to close to close combat. The skull side makes a real difference, and if you can get there with a bombadier, the fourth die is extremely important.

On the other hand, it feels like most of the deck is just section cards of various types. Tactic cards exist, and are really important when they come up, but they often don’t. The second round certainly saw me struggling to get good cards, until the double draw of recovering from Mata Hari broke that loose. I was having poor die luck as well at that point, but it suddenly turned around with the Infantry Assault, and that pretty well ended it.

└ Tags: , ,
 Comment 

Dreadnought

by on September 16, 2025 at 12:01 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a book where the subtitle is accurate and sums up the book far better than the title ever could: “Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War”.

This is also Robert Massie at his best. Typically, he does a very good job following the life of one (Romanov) person, and showing the world around them. Dreadnought follows a much larger crowd through about sixty years. He handles all of this extremely well, keeping everything flowing, giving dozens of mini-biographies, and keeping the reader from getting confused.

His starting point is that in 1914 the King of England and the Emperor of Germany were closely related, and the House of Windsor was German to begin with. In the mid-1800s relations between Queen Victoria and relations were quite close to the various parts of the region of Germany. In those circumstances, Britain and Germany were unlikely to go to war. And yet that happened in 1914.

So, this is the story of how two countries went from a very close relationship to mutual suspicion and being on opposite sides of The Great War.

We start with a quick biography of Queen Victoria, her son (the future Edward VII), her daughter (“Vicky”) and her husband Frederick III of Germany. In what has to be the most spectacular mis-diagnosis of history, early detection of throat cancer is missed in Frederick, and he is already dying when he succeeds his father, and reigns for a little over three months.

This leaves us with Kaiser Wilhelm II, who would rule Germany until the end of WWI. An admirer of Britain, and especially desirous of grandmotherly approval, he has plenty of troubles he inherited, as well as many of his own making, and he falls in with von Tirpitz and both want a great German fleet which can show the world just how thoroughly Germany has arrived as a Great Power.

Of course, before that, Bismark enters the scene, and adroitly engineers a number of crises which unite Germany under Prussian control. Having gotten what he wants, his politics become much more conservative, looking to preserve peace in Europe. Knowing that any sort of agreement with France is now impossible, his priorities are propping up Austria-Hungary and making agreements with Russia, which is tough because those two are opposed on many subjects. (An interesting bit is Massie shows how the Kaiser and other hawks forced through a harsher peace in the Franco-Prussian War than Bismark wanted. He wanted to be able to deal with France afterward, like with Austria-Hungary.)

Once Wilhelm II removes Bismark as Chancellor, things slowly come apart, and that is kind of the central theme of the book, hidden under so many other elements. Russia and France come into alignment. And then Britain and France come to an agreement over their colonial problems and start drifting closer together. Germany wants a closer relationship with Britain, but is now building a nice modern navy. This is stated as being so they can protect their own commerce and colonies in a war, but is largely short-ranged heavy ships. The only thing the German navy can fight is the Royal Navy.

As the German navy expands, naval matters become more and more important. Part three (of five) is the shortest section of the book, and one chapter in there is pretty much all the attention the titular HMS Dreadnought gets. Still, he presents it all well, and the coming of Dreadnought is important to everything after, especially as the arms race between Britain and Germany takes all the attention. On the British side, wrangling over the budget as the bill for the Royal Navy goes up causes its own brand of chaos, but naval supremacy is the only position the government can take.

The last section, which covers from Agadir (1911) to the start of WWI is exceptionally good. It covers the naval discussions around trying to halt/slow down the arms race, and the London Conference during Balkan Wars, and finally the July Crisis.

Overall, Dreadnought runs to a bit over 900 pages, and is packed. There’s dozens of mini-biography, friendships, government maneuvers, notes between governments, and crises. Changing naval technology and changing attitudes. If you want Europe before WWI wrapped up and presented to you, this will do it. The main thing is Britain and Germany are the main players here, and don’t see much of what doesn’t matter to them. There is some talk of the British army and its change to a force that could properly support a land war in Europe, but not a lot of detail is gone into there.

└ Tags: , , ,
 Comment