American Husky

by on July 18, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After our dogfight excursion, Mark and I returned to BCS, in the form of Danger Forward, the game included with the new Battalion S3 magazine. Having played BCS once, I found the magazine of limited use, as much of it is aimed more at first-time players, answering questions that I’d already had to work out. The more Danger Forward oriented parts were better, since I of course hadn’t played that yet. I certainly think the intro combat article could have been better done, as it didn’t answer questions in a really useful way. The article on blobs on the other hand was better, since it explained some of the thinking around a concept that is hard to write ironclad rules for. The charts in the back aren’t bad, but (I think) already existed, and could still use some layout improvements. The spare player aid card is a big help, even when you’re playing on Vassal.

But the real point is the game itself, which is nicely small with a single poster map, one sheet of counters, and all done at a 5/8″ counter size. I’d kind of like to see the British landings on Sicily at this scale, since I’ve played Primosole Bridge ages ago, but the American landing does make for a good situation. There’s a few wrinkles; we had to do an extra lookup that the garrison units do have a ZOC (they generally have the characteristics of “unready” no AV and no assault arrow), the 82nd Airborne is exempted from a lot of usual supply and command details, and the Americans have a decent amount of naval support to assist their attack. We did use the HQ Orders optional rule, though it is probably about as much trouble as it is worth here.

Mark had the Americans and won the initiative. However, he tried for the 82nd Airborne, which starts with its second activation (the first presumably is the drop itself), and he failed the roll for the second activation, leaving them all unready. I activated PG KG and got a partial activation, and no second, advancing to the ridges north of Acate, and taking fatigue since I mistakenly put down an objective (an article on how and when to use objectives could be a good idea).

The 45th Infantry went next, with a double objective on 25.10. The attack on the garrison there went well, with a follow-up battalion getting adjacent to Biscari Station. (Other elements got too far out and around the 27.07 garrison as we didn’t think it had a ZOC at this point.) Pz KG had two companies of the 82nd to deal with (in 31.26 and on the road in 27.27). With a full activation, I put an objective on each, and eliminated them both with barrage or attack by fire, leaving the division scattered about the north edge. The 1st Infantry took two attacks to clear the 16.16 garrison (we missed that you can only have one regular attack on a hex per activation), and then went inland to grab Gela-Farello Landing Ground. Livorno got a partial activation and moved the two elements of Groupo Mobile (the mechanized infantry) onto the plains. Finally, Force X managed to clear both hexes of Gela and get a second activation, which let them reduce, but not eliminate, the third Italian garrison.


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Anime Spring 2026

by on July 14, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Anime

Once again, I’m well behind on talking about what I’ve watched over the last threeish months. It’s been another good season of anime, and there’s nothing here I wouldn’t recommend. As usual, this is in declining order of recommendation, and the first three are all on my ‘everyone should see this’ list.

One Piece — Saw the second season of the live action series, and it is just as good as the first. It goes through Drum Island and Tony Tony Chopper; they did a good job on the CG for him. In some ways it’s not quite as solid because the first season did a good job with everyone’s background arcs, but that leaves more room for Chopper, and the main plot definitely works. Looking forward to season three!

The Owl House — We were at the end of the second season last time, so the watching here was just going through the three parts of “season three”. It feels like each episode is a summary of what could have been an entire season. I’m certainly glad there was a chance to wrap everything up, but I’d really like to see a more fleshed out version of it all.

Frieren — We’ve just now gotten to starting second season, and am only a couple episodes in. So far, a solid start to the season, but we haven’t had time to see much more than the reintroduction get established.

The Amazing Digital Circus — I started watching this just before the last episode came out. I’m… uncertain. I did like it, I think the overall arc was interesting, and there is a lot going on. It didn’t engage me as much as I’d kind of like, but it has a lot to think about.

To Your Eternity — We’re just shy of the end of the third and final season. I was very uncertain about the entire shift to a modern-style world, but it has actually worked out. The new environment has helped with bringing certain philosophical elements to the fore, though I have to say the exploration of that has been very uneven. A lot of it is that Fushi continues to be a very impulse character, and just doesn’t sit down to try and figure out what some of this means….

Shadows House — We’re well into the second half of the (released) series. It has long since lived up to my initial reaction of being something everyone would be interested in. It has certainly been nice to see a lot of sub-elements branch out and become their own little mysteries, and we’ve gotten the basic explanation of just what is the main mechanism of the shadows themselves.

Gamoverse — Saw the pilot of this shortly after it came out. I had been totally unaware of Glitch until about six months ago, and they are doing a lot of good stuff. This had a feel of ‘the pilot is still shaking things out’, but it was still a good setup, and I want to see more.

100 Meters — Just saw this with Smudge. A very good sports anime movie. As such, it invites comparison with First Slam Dunk, and suffers since that one was decidedly better. This one is more focused, and more internal character focused, which it does well. Pretty much everything is rotoscoped… which is fine; but different portions are done by different people, and the main character wildly shifts body language a couple times. There’s some really well done scenes such as a track meet in pouring rain.

Primal — Only seen the first two episodes so far: In every respect this is an excellently done series. It’s not exactly my genre, but I respect it a lot. This would be higher up a lot of people’s lists than mine simply because the ‘ahistorical caveman + dinosaurs’ genre doesn’t do much for me.

Campfire Cooking in Another World — So, the Japanese food fetish meets the hyperfixation on isekai (technically, this seems to be a portal fantasy). There’s a lot of bad attempts at doing off-beat subjects in the genre. But, this one works. Mukohda is an ordinary enough guy with a passion for cooking, and gets to really dive into it after getting called to another world. He’s competent to scrape by making it all work on his own, which is great to establish. And then his delicious food comes to the attention of some powerful monsters….

Dr Stone — Just finished off the latest arc of this, which looks like the next part could wrap it all up. Good science, bonkers engineering, but at least there was some real acknowledgement of needing several tries to get things right with rockets (this should have been true all along, with this just being worse…).

That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime — Currently near the end of part 4(?). As usual, this lives off its characters, though there’s enough now that the series has a hard time juggling them all. Still, the overarching plot has continued—Remeru has gotten Tempest recognized by the human world, and the various big powers, and people who want to influence them try to shift the ground under him.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? — Any time me and Smudge are a bit short on our viewing schedule, this gets left behind, so we’re still just exiting the first half of series five. Certainly, things we’ve had bits of have escalated to new heights… on the harem front, instead of the nature of the dungeon front. It’s good, but not about the part I enjoy the most.

Pokemon: Horizons — We’ve recently started part three, Rising Hope, which has been an interesting shift. It’s a year later, so our main kids are a little older (in a Pokemon anime?! gasp), and the nature of the series has shifted a bit with the big past mystery solved, and now working through the consequences. Ult feels like he’s more there to be annoying, but I’m sure his character arc will underpin a good chunk of the action.

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HF8 Fahrenheit 352

by on July 10, 2026 at 12:42 pm
Posted In: ASL

After Patch retook a hill in North Africa, we returned to Hatten in Flames. Up this time was the final scenario of the set, “Fahrenheit 352”, featuring an American attack on the village and a couple Flam Hetzers. I decided to take the defense in this one to try them out.

The main goal is a little unusual; there are two victory buildings, and all the Americans need is to have one non-crew Good Order MMC in each at the end of six turns. The Germans get eleven 467 squads, plus the usual other assortment of goodies, six foxholes, and four pre-game rubble Locations (plus the HF standard matching locations). On turn 3, three 548 squads (each with an LMG) come in with a 9-2, DC, two Flam Hetzers and two Pz IVs. The Americans are coming from the south, and there’s enough room to come at the victory area from either direction. Setup is along X11-N26 road, which means the distance to the road the victory buildings is on varies from four to nine hexes.

This last bit had an effect on a setup I was never happy with. I had a big dispersed zone in the east, and then a smaller one in the west. The general idea wasn’t bad, but I just couldn’t adequately defend the west end with all the resources the east gobbled up, and I didn’t see where the problem was in time.

The Americans get thirteen squads with good leadership, three each MMG, BAZ 45, a couple light mortars, and three Shermans. On turn 2 they get another three Shermans, with a 9-1 AL. Patch logically set up on the west side of the line, facing was suddenly a too-thin defense at two-hex range.

Things led off nicely with both of Patch’s MTRs running out of WP immediately (and this with an SSRed depletion of 9 on the first turn). The only other result of initial prep fire was breaking my PSK squad in N25 (which was more exposed than they should have been, but I certainly wanted to contest that area and keep tanks out; M27 and M25 might have been better locations, though the former is still vulnerable—it just has a building right behind it).

I didn’t have any defensive fire, and AFPh revealed L28 to be dummies after a failed search in movement (a ‘6’…).


Situation, American turn 1, showing the full area of the map. North is to the left.
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The Killing Moon

by on July 4, 2026 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This is a good book… but also one that’s hard to get into. This is a fantasy that’s more than nonstandard enough to need guideposts, and they’re a bit slow in coming.

Also, while the plot is technically running from the start, it takes a while to figure out what is and isn’t important.

It’s also, obviously, another in the line of fantasy novels that have romanticized assassins over the last several decades, which is a trope I could easily see and end of. At least this one is a new twist, at least for me, since the Gatherers are in religious service, and are more than just assassins. They are simultaneously in the service of ensuring a peaceful passage to the afterlife, easing the pain of the infirm, and rooting out “corruption”. There is a good moral debate on the former halfway through the novel, which adds a good nuance there. While there is some definition of what constitutes corruption, the definition is spread out a bit instead of made accessible, and there’s never any real talk about who decides all this. (At first I thought there was a metaphysical element to it, but seemingly not.)

Now, the slide towards the conclusion does show that the very structures that support all this are themselves corrupt, and that has been powering the plot all along. But, there’s also people who honestly work towards the ideals of the system, and other than one outsider, they make up the cast of viewpoint characters. (One of these is something of a surprise, as he gets a couple partial chapters as the main characters and action have moved elsewhere. He was actually the best character of the lot.)

I guess the best word for this novel is ponderous. There’s a lot here, including some big, weighty ideas, and therefore the writing has to overcome a lot of momentum to get the entire thing moving. Once it does get moving, it is good, but it takes a lot of time getting there, and the writing isn’t entirely up to the task. Overall, I enjoyed it, but it’s not a big recommendation for me.

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Crusader Castles of the Teutonic Knights (1)

by on June 6, 2026 at 1:37 pm
Posted In: Books

As a crusading force moving into hostile lands, castles were essential for the Teutonic Order’s survival in Prussia. Undeveloped and swampy, there was only a limited amount of stone available, which all went to building foundations. Naturally, early castles were constructed of wood, and this gets a little description, and one art plate reconstruction. More sturdy structures were all made of of red brick, which lends them a very different look, and make it an interesting field of study.

The overall history is presented well in a short format, as is usual for Osprey books. We get a quick look a life in the order, and some of the more prominent campaigns, starting with the initial invasion of Prussia to the fall of the Order to Poland.

One lack is any sort of description of a “typical” castle of this type. The Teutonic Order had learned all about siege warfare in the Holy Land, so these are fairly advanced, but we only get oblique discussion of what this means. Indirect approachways and machicolations are mentioned, but not discussed. The typical arrangement of gatehouses is not discussed, nor normal thicknesses of walls and the like. It is implicitly assumed that you already know something of Medieval siege engineering. Which, for a short book on a rare subject in English, is not a bad assumption, but I’d still like some more technical details.

On the other hand, we have a map showing where all the castles were, and plenty of photographs. This is from a transitional period for Osprey; they no longer need to confine the color to one signature partway through the book, but much of it is still in black-and-white, so there is mix of color and B/W photographs. All of them are clear and reproduced well, though size can be an issue for details.

The Order’s main headquarters, Marienburg (currently Malbork), gets a two page spread art plate detailing its layout (shown on the cover), and two color photographs showing views across the river. There are are also five B/W photographs and two color showing further details, such a a covered well, and another long shot.

Lochstadt (which is completely ruined today) gets a color plate, which doesn’t quite match to the two floor plans reproduced for it. Those show one corner as having a projection at one corner for a watchtower that also squeezes the path inside the outer wall into a natural choke point, while the art doesn’t have that, and instead has a wall and gate set back from that corner.

Thorn (Torun) has a color plate showing the several layers of defenses, plus a small color shot of a model of the town around it, and color long shot of the site, a detail B/W photo of the dansk, or sewage tower, which is still preserved, and a (dark) color shot of the ‘leaning tower’, which was part of the defenses and is now a pub.

One color plate depicts a large riverside granary at Graudenz (Grudziadz). This particular place still has twenty-six granaries, and a color photograph shows the main line of them going down to the river.

There’s a couple of plates depicting sieges, which are good looks at what that was like, and well executed. Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) has a color photograph of a model of the old castle, plus three B/W and one color photo. Some fourteen other locations have one or more photos showing them (mostly one, Neidenburg—Nidzica—has three photos). There’s also a couple of details of old illustrations showing castles that no longer exist.

Overall, it’s about as useful a book as you’re going to get in this format. I’d like some more detail to chew over, that would need concentrating on one or two locations and diving deep into that. For an introduction which is needed for almost any native English-speaker, it covers things very well if you already know something about siege warfare.

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