Siege Warfare in the Roman World

by on May 3, 2015 at 10:33 am
Posted In: Books

I’ve generally been liking Osprey’s turn towards specialized subjects in their Elite line, and this is no exception. The book takes a look at what is known of Roman sieges from the fall of Carthage to the siege of Cremna (no, I hadn’t heard of it either). The bulk of the book is taken up with recounting what sieges we know something of, and points out the large number of cases where the Romans simply stormed the town as fast as possible (as opposed to the usual impression that every Roman siege was a big, lengthy production such as at Alesia). Along the way, there is some reconsideration of the archaeology at Numantia and Dura Europos.

There’s no strong theme to the book, but it makes a good survey of the subject. I wish more attention had been given to Dura Europos, as only a couple parts of the fortifications are shown in diagrams and illustrations. On the other hand, apparently there’s no good theories as to just what happened (and in what order) there, and it is a large site, so presumably a detailed look could take up most of the book without saying anything conclusive. There’s also reproductions of some older (18th and 19th century) diagrams of some of the sites with short critiques.

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FB9 The Shooting Gallery

by on April 27, 2015 at 10:41 pm
Posted In: ASL

After freezing in the great white north, it was time for Patch and I to return to Budpest for FB9 “The Shooting Gallery”, where it’s early February and there’s also still snow on the ground. I don’t recall how we decided, but I ended up with the Russians who are attacking into the Ganz Works that was on the periphery of the action in “Red Banner Days“.

The Germans get a fairly nice defending force, with 8 1/2 squads, including a pair of 838 Assault Engineers and otherwise split between 468/467s, all from Pz Div 13, with the usual support weapons, with some concealment/Dummies, Wire, mines, a Hungarian Bofors AA, an 88… and a Panther. However, the Panther is Out of Gas, and therefore Immobile, and the Axis troops are at Ammo Shortage Level 4, the worst we’ve seen, and the second-worst possible in FB.

The Russians enter with 11 squads and 4 T-34/85s, plus three squads (and 8-0 leader) of the Buda Volunteer Regiment. These are Hungarians who have joined up with the Russians, and use the standard Hungarian/Axis Minor stats, except with counters bordered with Russian brown instead of German blue. The primary goal is to take ten stone buildings in the central area of the map in seven turns, but both sides have a CVP cap of 35.

The Russians enter in the west, but can also enter along most of the north edge if they wait until turn 2. Both sides get six ‘purchase points’ of reinforcements for each of the first three turns, with the Russians entering in the north and west and the Axis entering in the east and some of the south. Oh, and the Axis gets a couple squads of conscript Hungarians and a 7-0 when/if the Panther dies.

My general plan was to enter everything immediately, and try to drive for the far end of the victory area, where there’s more, smaller buildings. I would buy all the BVR troops available on the second turn, and enter them in the rear of the German lines; if they got lucky, they might get into the area. If not, they would keep Patch’s attention divided, and the BVR units do not count against my CVP cap, so a lone platoon getting cut off and killed was not a real worry, so long as it kept Germans busy. Since all the BVR troops together cost seven points, I needed to save one from the first turn, and I decided to go for the 100+mm OBA module… partly to get the 8-0 leader with it. This meant my other goal was to find an observation post for him as soon as possible. My setup was a little hurried, which lead to two of the T-34s being a hex further out than needed (J18 & K19 instead of I18 & J18), but they didn’t have far to go the first turn anyway.

The bulk of Patch’s setup was within the victory area, but the first thing I had to deal with was a pair of “?” in H13h2, but Patch didn’t force me to strip concealment on anyone approaching him. Until the last move, when he opened fire from F11h1, who had also been quiescent until that point. The resulting 8 -4 shot broke my squad, but it also malfunctioned Patch’s HMG.

FB9-1R
Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing full playing area; north is to the left. Red hexes are the Russian entry area, blue hexes are the German entry area, the blue dashed lines define the victory area. Patch’s hidden mines and pair of HS are also shown.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Two Rounds of Delium

by on April 22, 2015 at 8:40 am
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Having recently finished of another adventure in Budapest (still writing that up), Patch and I did a round of CC:A last night. This time was more action from the Peloponnesian War with the Battle of Delium. Boeotia uses the orange set, and has one 5-block MH ‘special’ Sacred Band unit (using the ‘usual’ special unit rule of always acting like it has a leader attached—ignore one flag and generates hits on leader rolls). And in the first time in a while there’s cavalry involved as well as lots of MH. Still no heavy units though.

Patch had the Boeotians the first time and started moving parts of his left flank into the main line. I used a couple turns assembling my forces into a single line, when Patch slammed into my left, and lost seven blocks across three units to two for me. I had been planning on starting a general engagement with a Line Command, but went straight to the planned follow-up at this point: Mounted Charge.

I started with the combat between our two weakened leader-units (was contemplating an entirely different order), and Patch used First Strike to kill mine. I still killed his 1-block unit on the next attack, and then weakened three others, and drove them back with banner hits, but lost two blocks when the Sacred Band held its ground.

Patch then followed up with a Counter Attack which wiped out three of my units and killed a leader. I also got five blocks on him, and killed a leader. I used a Coordinated Attack to move up a stranded leader and tried to pick off a couple weak units, but only drove them back. Patch Double Timed his weakened center back into action, and picked off a MH for the win. 2-6

Delium-1

For the second round, I lead off with Out Flanked to tighten up both sides, and managed a very lucky two-hit shot with my slingers. After a turn or two of other small moves, I Ordered Two Right to bring a couple units into contact. We did about equal damage, and Patch used Leadership to reshuffle that end of the line and finish off an Auxilia. I Ordered Mounted to engage the line he had just moved forward, and knocked out a unit and leader, and forced another three hexes back, for a cost of three blocks.

Patch countered with Mounted Charge, which finished off a weak MH, and forced two others back, one with heavy losses. I Out Flanked, and picked off an Aux that Patch had gotten out of the way earlier. He used Order Medium to kill a three-block MH, but only drove a one-block unit back two hexes. I reformed my center, while Patch Ordered Two Left, and tried to cut off my LC, who only took one damage, and then did two banners to rout his LC off the map. I used Leadership on my Left, and a lucky shot from my slingers sent his other LC routing off the map. The main line did three damage to an Aux, and sent him back two hexes while taking a hit on my MC from a First Strike.

Patch Ordered Mediums to engage on the left and right sides of the center, and eliminated a MC while the other evaded away. Patch got my Sacred Band down to one block, but they did heavy damage in return, reducing to units to one block apiece. I tried I Am Spartacus, and got one light and one wild. The Aux I activated moved up finished off one of the weakened units for the win. 6-4

Delium-2

Afterword: Patch got this one on banners, but the first fight was much closer than the score indicates, since the bulk of Patch’s army was in bad shape; I just needed the opportunity to finish them off. I was very happy to finally draw the Mounted Charge instead of Patch in one of these hoplite battles, but the Counter Attack from Patch is what wrecked me. Probably should have used the Line Command first; I was certainly in no shape to use it later. I thought Patch had me for a while in the second battle, but a couple timely banner hits on his LC made things much easier. Patch was holding a Clash of Shields at the end and was looking for a good chance to use it.

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Iron Kingdom

by on April 19, 2015 at 10:38 pm
Posted In: Books

Prussia weighed heavily on the collective mind of Europe during the 19th and 20th Centuries. My history classes generally blamed the formation of Germany for throwing off the structure of international power in Europe and causing two World Wars. And at the end of WWII, the Western Allies also felt that ‘Prussia’ was behind Germany’s warlike ways and redrew the map of Germany to get rid of the name. Nearly sixty years later, ‘Prussia’ still brings up stereotypes that lie at the root of current German stereotypes.

Christopher Munro Clark’s Iron Kingdom traces the history of Prussia from about 1600 (or, of Brandenburg, just before it acquired Prussia, later known as ‘East Prussia’), though its official dissolution in 1947. Along the way, he takes a good look at the institutions as well as the events and people that shaped the Prussian state. I found the last parts of the book very interesting as he traces some very familiar events from the point of view of Prussia instead of Germany. Since the German Empire did not fully absorb its member states, but Prussia was by far the dominant member, there were some odd administrative fits.

Despite this, much of the lead up and progress of WWI is barely glossed over. It is one of several places where having some idea of the regular history is needed as Clark does not hash it out for you. But one of the most fascinating sections is the interwar years, where he shows that the Prussian administration was a bit more willing to curb the rise of the Nazi party than the German administration. Otto Braun (Prussian Prime Minister) and Albert Grzesinski (Police Chief of Berlin) nearly had Hitler arrested and ejected from the country, but would have been blocked by Heinrich Brüning (Chancellor of Germany). This sort of tension is played up throughout the entire section, before moving on to how various people (including both Hitler and Churchill) played upon the idea of ‘Prussianism’ to try and promote their idea of the character of ‘Germany’.

In all, it is a very good overview of a bit more than three centuries of history. I think it gets a little too dependent on the reader knowing some details of the Napoleonic Wars, and WWI, and so on, but the type of person interested in this book will probably already have the bare essentials needed already.

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Darwath

by on April 17, 2015 at 1:24 pm
Posted In: Books

Barbara Hambly is a name I saw a fair amount of when I was haunting SF&F bookshelves as stores as a teenager, but I never got around to trying any of her books. I later found that I indeed had been missing out, and have been slowly going back and reading her books. In this case, I got a Kindle edition of her first work, The Darwath Trilogy,  on sale; in all, the book was well put together, and I did not notice any glitches, though the few maps seem to be a bit extra small, and not well cleaned up from a scan.

The Time of the Dark starts as something of a standard Visitation Fantasy. Gil Patterson is a post-graduate student at UCLA, who keeps having disturbing dreams of a world under siege by creatures just known as The Dark. These become more than dreams when a wizard from that world, Ingold Inglorion, crosses over to visit her, hoping to find a temporary refuge, or short cut, for an escape plan. Things go wrong, Gil and Rudy Solis (who happened by) end up trapped in the fantasy world, as going home could lead to the Dark invading Earth.

Past the beginning of the first book, Gil and Rudy share viewpoint status for the rest of the series, which is a bit awkward at first, as the viewpoint shifts between the two inside the same chapter, which gets a little confusing. Past the first book, any viewpoint changes happen at chapter breaks, which works much better.

Rudy, a mechanic and artist in a biker crowd, discovers magic, and Gil… moves from scholar to swordswoman. This actually works well, and puts the two on different paths as the narrative grows in the second book. The two make their way through vastly changed circumstances, and stay central to, but not the mainsprings of, the plot.

That, of course, is the coming of the nightmare creatures of the Dark, and the destruction of the kingdom of Renwrath, with the ensuing fight for survival of the remnants of the human population. Things get creepy, things get scary, things get political, and things get tragic, and it all keeps up over the rest of the trilogy.

The series does get a good and satisfactory ending (though there are further books in the world written years later), and while all the central mysteries are brought to light, there is a small number of dropped threads. There are a very few places where I could see something the characters couldn’t (most notably in the final climax, alas), but they were fairly beat up and tired by that point, and most of the time, the action stayed ahead of me. Well recommended; partly traditional epic fantasy trilogy, partly bucks the trends.

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