Wondercon 2011

by on April 5, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Posted In: Conventions

I’m going to have to rate this con two out of three… days.

Smudge and I attended the 25th Wondercon this weekend (which is really scary when you realize that it started just a couple years before we started attending Comic Con). We cruised through most of the main floor on Friday, and managed to look at it all in some detail on Saturday.

Friday was the main panel day, with about 5 panels we wanted to attend. Naturally, the most important one was the last one of the day, and was hit by an unannounced room change.

The main dealer’s hall was something of a step back in time. None of the manga or anime companies were present, and while there were booths that had translated manga graphic novels, it was not a focus at any booth, and anime was next to non-existent. However, I’d say booths selling just Japanese figures outnumbered booths selling just American figures (action and non) by a fair amount, though there were a fair number with both with an emphasis on the American side.

Most telling by its absence was webcomics. Looking for Group was there, and so was Shortpacked/Dumbing of Age, and Lackadaisy. That was pretty much it.

The only sign of any gaming industry was the large Nintendo booth.

Smudge and I certainly managed a fair amount of loot. I went straight for volume 3(A) of Age of Bronze, which gets me caught up to the graphic novels. I hope that Betrayal Part 2 (3B) comes out soon…. Thanks to the ubiquitous 50% off boxes, I also finally got a copy of Marvels; pretty good, but it just stops instead of really ending. My main ‘surprise’ purchase was Star Trek: Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor, since I liked the high concept of following McCoy around during the period immediately before the first movie, I gave it a try. Not great, but certainly not bad.

Smudge got a Winry (Fullmetal Alchemist) figure that she’s been meaning to get for years, and a very nicely done Mikuru (Haruhi) figure as well as a few of the small random-pack figures that have gotten popular (I also ended up with a small Yoko from Guren Lagan). Book-wise she got a graphic novel adaptation of The Last Unicorn (and got it signed by Peter Beagle), very pretty, but rushes through the story quite a bit; Bilile the Unicorn, a sweet children’s book, that has a supporting unicorn character named “Smudge” (instant sell!), and a nicely produced art-book for Serial Experiment Lain (1/4 price).

Sadly, while we were walking to the con on Sunday, Smudge tripped in a pothole, and banged herself up pretty good. Thankfully, we were still only a block away from the train station at the time, so it wasn’t too hard to go home, and then check into a hospital. A couple of lightly banged up knees, hands… a badly sprained ankle, and a broken bone in her right elbow. We got back to Sunnyvale around 2, but between the Emergency Room, and getting shuffled elsewhere, they weren’t done with her until around 1 in the morning.

*sigh*

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R vs B Alliance Turn 3 in Review

by on April 5, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Coalition turn left Kzinti space in a real mess. There were plenty of lightly-defended targets, but at the same time, the Hegemony Navy was not in the best of shape itself. I resolved to limit myself to a few important goals and concentrate on them.

Sadly, I didn’t take proper stock of the situation on the Hydran border. I ended up wasting any opportunities by spreading the fleet out too much, and not concentrating enough to actually achieve anything. Complicating matters was the fact that the reserves were almost universally in range of the Hydran border.

One error that thankfully only had minor consequences: Belirahc has been towing around some unassembled Mobile Bases for the past couple turns. He asked me about the timing of setting them up late in his turn. It was pretty obvious he wanted to set something up, but then nothing happened, but I forgot to double-check with him until a decent chunk of my movement was done. It turned out the Klingons were setting up a MB in 1304.

My goals on the Kzinti Front were clear: Keep the MB from setting up, kick the Coalition off of as many planets as possible, evacuate my cripples off the map, and hunker down to defend the remaining SB and the homeworlds. The Hydran front never got a clear goal, other than trying to raid a few BATS, and good maneuvering kept me from getting any freebies.


Activity on the Kzinti front.


Activity on the Hydran front.

All this led to a few fights where I’d had to pin him away from the real action, but neither of us really wanted to take casualties.

Combats:
1503: Klingon unopposed withdrawal to 1504
1203: Klingon unopposed withdrawal to 1303
1304: Klingon: crip D5, F5, 5xE4; dest D6D, MB abandoned
1004: Lyran unopposed withdrawal to 0905
1202: Kzinti: capture planet; Klingon: dest E4
1001: Kzinti: capture planet; Lyran: dest 2xCW
0413: Hydran: dest 2xCU; Lyran: crip 2xCA, FF
1112: Hydran: retreat to 1012
1013: Hydran: dest LM; Klingon: crip D6M, D6
1214: Klingon: crip D7
1014: Hydran: crip HN, Klingon: crip D5, F5

Things went well on the Kzinti front. After a couple rounds, he was forced to abandon the MB, though I was unable to generate enough damage to actually Direct Damage kill the tug responsible. I also forced him off of 1001 and 1202, pushing the Coalition further away from the capital.

The Hydran front did not go as well. Again, I was too spread out, keeping the Hydrans from getting good lines up, and not allowing any fighter reserves. Worse, I got forgetful, and forgot to put the command ship in formation in 1013, allowing the Klingons to kill a Lord Marshal command cruiser.

Everything retrograded back to defensive positions after combat. I used field repair on a couple of Kzinti escorts that had been damaged during the Coalition half of the turn and stranded away from repair facilities. This was part of the plan, but the Kzinti budget is stretched really thin right now. I’m likely to be canceling builds as it is, and this will make it harder. But I wanted the extra operational carrier group. Meanwhile, the Hydrans are setting up a MB in the capital, and have hauled one FRD to safety in the off-map area.

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Pressing an Advantage

by on March 29, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Posted In: SFB

Mark and Patch made it over on Sunday, and we had our first SFB game for nearly a year. (And that one was nearly a year after the previous one. We either need to get more of the rest of the group hooked, or find some way of getting the three of us together more regularly.)

The agenda for the day was SH125 Pressing an Advantage from Module S2. It’s kind of a sequel to the previous scenario we played, happening just afterwards, but with different forces involved. It’s also a very different battle. Captain Koda of a Klingon D6J (penal ship), is determined to get out of disgrace, figures it is now open season on the LDR, goes hunting for an LDR force to win some glory. He starts with a convoy of armed freighters (which are part of the LDR defense forces), and then a significant task force of regular navy vessels shows up….

The opening part of the battle (3 turns) is a distinctly uneven fight between an LDR POL and three armed freighters (two small and one large) and a Klingon force with a D6J, F5C, F5, and E4. After that is a fight with the survivors and a LDR (Lyran—no gatlings) CA, 2xFF and PSC. To encourage things from just being maneuvering with zero combat, the LDR gets VPs for turns 2 & 3 if the Klingons aren’t close enough, and the Klingons get VPs if the LDR forces aren’t close enough (they are there to defend the LDR after all). Within 15 hexes and everything’s fine. Outside of 22 hexes, both sides are getting 4 VP per impulse. The seven hexes in between gives only the LDR VPs. Lastly, the Klingons cannot disengage until the D6J is crippled or one of the reinforcing LDR ships is destroyed.

With three of us, we split the Klingons for the first two turns between Patch and Mark, since they had a bit more to do, with Mark taking over the LDR reinforcements on turn 4.

I took a look at the relative forces and ran. I would have been just as happy if we were both getting VPs because of distance on turn 2, but as it happened, we ended the first turn right in the ‘sweet spot’. The Klingon force pushed itself to speed 30 for turn 2, while I maintained speed 18, which was about as good as the small armed freighters could manage. I kept running for the first quarter of the turn, building up some VPs, and then as the Klingons got into range, a bit off the right side, I turned in.

I had hoped to turn in quick and speed past the Klingon force on a turn where they were obviously giving up weapons for speed. With a closing speed of nearly 50, I could blow by and get back to moderate ranges before even nimble Klingon ships could get turned around. Then it’d be a turn of running flat out while waiting for the regular navy ships to arrive.

Not so much.

While I was generally right, and only about half the disruptors were even armed, the firepower available at that range was more than I could really take, even with some bad rolls. Worse, the Klingons were ready with tractors powered. The POL and one of the small freighters got grabbed. I even aided the process by tractoring the E4 myself. The plan was to hold it for a few impulses so a suicide shuttle had a chance to hit. The F-AS that did that was in turn tractored by the F5C an impulse or two later, leading to the first situation we’ve had where three ships were all tractored together. The D6 tractored the shuttle (quickly destroying it) and and the POL. The other F-AS took the brunt of the damage, and the F-AL took light damage (killing all three ph-2s) as it alone made it through the Klingon formation.

There was a short tractor auction at the end of the turn 2, but my ships weren’t nearly big enough to put up much resistance. All energy went into weapons and shields. It took most of the turn to completely finish off all three ships (cargo pods make great padding), while the F-AL clawed for distance.

Damage to the Klingons was mostly shield damage, but the #1 on the F5 was nearly down, the #6 half down, and the E4 had taken internals.

Turn four was fairly boring, as the LDR forces came in at speed 24, hitting moderate range to the Klingons, who spent the turn regrouping from a scattered position, by the end of the turn. Since so little of the initial force was left, I’m in charge of the F-AL and the CA, while Mark is handling the two FFs and the PSC. A volley of disruptor fire seriously eroded the F5s #2 shield near the end of the turn, leaving it with no strong shields whatsoever. The PSC is hanging several hexes back from the rest of the force, ready to lend EW, and the F-AL has intercepted and is now escorting it.

We had to pack it up for the day at that point. Four turns for something this big is pretty good for us, and we have the setup saved to continue in the near future. Right now, the Klingons have a Substantive Victory (~220%), but it is not likely to stay that way. The situation is still very interesting, and we want to see where it goes from here.

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SH124: Kroal’s Illegitimate War – Part 2

by on March 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

[See Part 1.]

The two F5s took the blast on the #2 shields without taking internals, but the E4J was hit on the weak #3, and took 7 internals (after blowing a battery) losing one power and the #2 and #4 phasers.

The E4J moved into the F-AS’ hex the next impulse, which fired into the front shield, dinging it. On impulse 16, the E4J moved adjacent to the CivBS and fired, doing 6 damage to the #6 shield through a 2 shift (ECM and poor crew penalty).

By impulse 21, the F5P and F5I-2 had moved adjacent to the base, and everything opened up. The two F5s launched a drone and a shuttle apiece, while the F-AL fired on the F5I. The CivBS fired ph-3s at the F5I and ph-2s at the F5P. The POL tried for point defense, firing one ph-3 at each drone, a disruptor at a shuttle, and 2xph-2s at the other shuttle. The F5s poured everything they had (5xph-2 and 2x overloaded disruptors each) at the CivBS.


Situation when everyone opened fire.

F5I-2 took 45 damage, punching 31 internals through the #6 shield, knocking out 9 power, both disruptors, 2 phasers and all controls spaces (other than security). The F5P took 32 damage on #6, causing 8 internals, knocking out one disruptor and the #1 and #4 phasers.

Poor rolls from the POL let both drones live while killing both shuttles.

Bad rolls, and a +1 shift caused 2 of the four disruptors fired at the CivBS to miss, and total damage was 62, causing 39 internals through the #1 shield. While only three phasers (#3, #8 & #9) were hit, so was one tractor, and it ripped through the hull and destroyed 13 repair boxes (out of 22).

The next impulse, the drones were knocked down by the Agro Station and a previously-launched shuttle, while further shuttles were launched from the E4J and E4I-1. The impulse after that, the CivBS launched two drones. (…all CivBS have drones, even if it belongs to a race that never uses them, it seems.)

On impulse 24, the two E4Is, having made it across the main line of TBs, slip in to range 4 on the oblique and fire. +1 for ECM combines with bad rolls so that no disruptors hit, and only six damage was taken from 8xph-2s. This knocked out another 2 phasers and four repair.

On Impulse 26, F5I-2, following behind the E4Is, slips in and fires. Again the disruptors miss at range 4 with a +1 shift. The 5xph-2 manage better, scoring 6 damage (instead of 6 damage across 8xph-2…). This knocks out a drone rack, and another two phasers, leaving the CivBS with 4 phasers total.

As the Klingons started maneuvering past the base, one of the drones took out one of the shuttles on impulse 28. On impulse 30, the one launched from E4I-1, from further away, turns out to be a scatterpack, and releases its drones while the drone from the CivBS is still 2 hexes away.

On impulse 32, the second wave of bombardment drone reach the line of transporter bombs. M7 does not detonate, but M3 does, wiping them out.

This is the critical turn. In the original game, things were very bad because the base was crippled, and all the tractors on it were destroyed, forcing it to drop all three Orion ships. This time is only slightly better. Two of the tractors are intact, so only LR-2 gets dropped at this point. However, weapons are running out, and so is Repair. Since there’s not much Hull on the CivBS, and hull hits turn into repair hits, the CivBS is down to 4 repair boxes. This frees up some power, but means getting the Orions underway is nearly impossible.

LR-1 still needs another two repair points to turn on a DamCon box so that it can start activating systems on its own. That leaves two repair points left over to do… I’m not sure what.

The Klingon force has become scattered, and may still get in trouble the the defending ships and the FF that is about to show up. However, now they can afford to spend more effort on achieving the mission of destroying the Orions, rather than reducing the base. There’s not much worry that the base will get them operational any time soon.

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R vs B Coalition Turn 3 in Review

by on March 23, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

I started Turn 3 with a fair amount of confidence. Both halves of Turn 2 went well for me, and short of Belirahc slipping a large force into the capital, I was pretty sure I could hold what I wanted.

After some fencing with his initial attempts to reach targets, I started getting worried. He was getting much more aggressive on what he was targeting, and I was looking at losing interior planets. 1001 and 1504 were unsurprising; those are common Turn 2 targets for me. However, he hit 1202; first he moved some Lyrans towards it, which I intercepted, and then a force of Klingons, which I couldn’t stop. He also moved in a force against the major planet in 1502.

I had only one Reserve force available, as I had established one in 1604. I didn’t have enough ships eligible to form Reserves otherwise after my heavy raids last turn, and figured they’d do the job of distracting ships from other targets to pin them. That worked, and because he neglected to send a high enough command rating ship, I was still able to send out a CV to the starbase fight in 1304. The other one was forced to save 1502 instead of helping with an SB fight.


Situation at end of movement, showing major moves, reactions, reserves, and retreats.

The biggest mistake was forgetting to reinforce 1105 after a FF was pinned there by the defense fighters. So, that’s one planet he had no chance at this turn.

All of this led to a large number of battles, as well as the two large fights for the SBs.

Combats:
0802 – no casualties – Kzinti retreat to 0903
0906 – Kzinti: crip FF
1004 – Kzinti: dest BATS; Lyran: crip DD, dest FF
1805 – Kzinti: dest BATS; Klingon: crip F5
1105 – Lyran: crip FF, retreat to 1004
1504 – Kzinti: 2xPDU; Klingon: crip F5, E4, capture planet
1506 – Neutral: 2xPDU; Klingon: crip F5, capture planet
1202 – Kzinti: 2xPDU; Klingon: crip 2xF5, capture planet
1604 – Klingon: crip 3xF5
1502 – Kzinti: crip CC, MEC, EFF; Klingon: crip CVT, D6V, F5, 4xE4A
1103 – Kzinti: crip DD; Lyran: crip DD
1001 – Kzinti: 2xPDU; Lyran: crip DW, FF, dest DW, capture planet
0902 – Kzinti: 4 SIDS, crip CC, BC, CVL, CLE, 3xDD, 2xEFF, dest CLE, EFF, FF; Lyran: crip 2xCA, 6xCW, 3xCL, 2xDW, dest BC, 3xCL, 3xDD
1304 – Kzinti: dest SB, crip CC, 2xBC, CL, CLE, FF, EFF, dest DD, 2xFF, SF; Klingon: crip 2xD7C, D6M, D5, 2xF5 dest D7, 2xD6, 6xD5, F5L, 4xF5, FV, E4A, D5 captured

Belirahc went pretty methodically from the small battles to the big ones. The order of resolution can be important, but it worked out well for him. I was able to retreat my force on 1001 intact to the SB, so he had to face it twice, but he avoided a worse trap. I was considering giving up the SB in 0902 and retreating onto 1001 so that he couldn’t take it. But once he had taken it, there was little point, since it still wouldn’t produce income for me.

Surprisingly, everything stayed in supply after combat, other than the FF that had been province raiding in Klingon space, and managed to retreat into 1005 after merely being crippled by a CA.

The first SB battle, on the Lyran border, went well. I crippled more than I liked, but forcing him to fight the SB again with my fighters replenished will still cause a good amount of hurt.

The Duke’s SB (Klingon border) turned into a long, bloody affair, with both of us refusing to blink. Three rounds in, he used directed damage. In a close battle, this is often a mistake, as the inefficiency of directed damage puts you behind the curve on wrecking the enemy’s ability to resist. However, here, it was a good choice. He killed all my fighters on the line, and I had already burned through all my spares. This lowered my ComPot substantially and allowed him to stick it out much longer. Later I returned the favor by direct destroying an FV group. But that wasn’t done to lower his ComPot, but to permanently kill a carrier and its free fighter reloads.

It certainly hurt my chances to keep the SB. It came very close, with the Klingons only with about an extra six uncrippled ships left in reserve (small ones at that). But I had already wrecked too much of my fleet, and left a couple of rounds past when I should have.

My biggest disappointment was actually in the fight for 1502. It wasn’t to hard to drive him off. But, when he retreated, I had a choice: retreat myself, pulling back to the repair facilities of the capital, and allowing all the damage to be made good, or pursue and try to take out a few ships permanently. With two crippled Klingon carrier groups retreating, I chose pursuit. I, naturally, rolled another ‘6’ for pursuit, giving me neither option.

So, both sides forces are a mess. The carriers are generally intact, but the escorts took a pounding, and the Kzinti treasury is drained by all the drone bombardment I paid for. Another turn of this will see the end of Kzinti resistance outside the capital and the Marquis region (if he enters that area, the Federation will intervene). Belirahc did a very good job this turn, especially in having the fortitude to stick out the second SB assault, never an easy task. The main problem is that he left the supply grid intact, so there’s no partial grids splitting up the money, and making ship construction more difficult.

So, will he continue against the Kzinti, or turn his main attention to the Hydrans?

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