J207 Unhorsed

by on August 17, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

As we finished up with a supernova, I had Patch look over the list of scenarios from ASL Journal 13, and he picked a Normandy action among the hedgerows. It’s a month after D-Day, and the Iowa National Guard Cavalry is just being committed to the front, attacking between Carentan and Saint-Lô.

The Germans defend half of board 54 with eight SS squads, six “?” and an AT Gun. Patch set up a line across the board at the limit of his setup area, with a second line in the center. The Americans enter from off-board with thirteen squads (in the common mix of 667 and 666), decent support equipment, two M8 armored cars and Stuart. These last are handy thanks to canister rounds, but the ACs can’t cross bocage hexsides, which really limits where they (and the American force overall) can go. There’s only one road through the initial belt of bocage; it’s possible to bypass some woods into that area, but it will eventually dead-end. So I concentrated in the north to seize the initial road. The terrain is dense with a lot of bocage (this board was originally from AP #4; this is at least the second time we’ve used one of it’s hedge-heavy boards, though we still need to get to the Action Pack itself), but the Americans do have seven turns to exit 10 EVP (vehicles don’t count, sadly) off a sixteen hex board.

The immediate goal was to get firm control over the first hedgerow and try to scare Patch off the second. My first unit saw Patch try to put a FL down the entry road, but failed with doubles that still broke my HS. My second move drew fire that pinned me. After that, things calmed down, and he only had one more shot for no effect. Final Fire broke another HS, however. My return fire was largely ineffective, with nothing more than a single pinned result.


Situation, American Turn 1, showing the full board. There is a mild breeze from the northeast.
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Engaging the Enemy

by on August 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

The third Vatta’s War book picks up where the second left off, but keeps itself largely on immediate concerns, instead of doing a lot with the big McGuffin-related issued that dominate the second book.

Mostly, that’s because there’s other issues that need addressing. But the ISC fades into the background including Rafe, who gets less screen-time and sent out of the plot at the end (actually, he’ll probably get to be a separate plot line viewpoint character next time). Instead, we’re concentrating on the fact that a near-scrapping merchant hauler has been joined by a larger, more powerful ship that has been seized from pirates.

The legality of that last (it was originally registered to Vatta Transport) is one of the low-powered engines of the book. Among the more legal problems, it also splits up Kylara and her cousin Stella, so that distance can start adding to misunderstandings between them. This is potentially interesting, and the instinct here is good, but it’s not handled that well, which helps the book underperform.

Aside from those two, we get some spy-thriller action back on Slotter Key. The action was well done, but I have my problems with this plot line, because the principles involved are too perfect. It also resolves out too perfectly with clandestine action. I think leaning over to the political side a bit, and presenting some turmoil as people in the government start wondering if perhaps they’ve got people who have aided and abetted a vicious attack on civilian targets on their own planet, and how to get them out of power…. Of course, that’d be a far more complicated plot line, and perhaps a far more unrealistic one to get the plot where it needs to go.

Meanwhile, bigger events are happening. We slowly get to see this is a larger conspiracy between a lot of pirates, and whoever is behind the new ansible system. A system is invaded and taken over mid-way through, with word rapidly leaking out, and all the fear reactions that follow from that. And that helps propel the part of the book that is it’s main contribution to the overall plot. Kylara Vatta has a Letter of Marque from Slotter Key, and she now has a ship that can actually fight. But what’s going on is far bigger than any one ship is able to handle. She’s going to have to find a way to motivate a larger force into taking this on.

So, in many ways, this is slower burn all the way through. However, the tension does ratchet up through the novel, and we have a nice action scene at the end. All the previous strengths are here: we have a good lead character, an interesting situation, and good writing. As a middle book, it serves it purpose in the larger narrative well, and keeps things moving enough that it doesn’t feel like the plot is bogging down, though there’s only partial resolution here.

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Adaptation Corps

by on August 9, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark got Space Corp a bit ago, and we tried it out ahead of a future group game. The is about the exploration and exploitation of space, and goes through three ‘eras’, starting with the exploration of the inner solar system. I think we’ll be able to squeeze in a full game in FtF with a little practice, but our first time out, will probably struggle to make it through the second era. Mark and I didn’t have any time constraints though.

I had the first turn, and blew my starting time card to immediately get a team to the Moon. I found abundant ores and set up a refinery. Mark did much the same, with an extra boost take him out to Sisyphus to find exotic elements and eventually build a refinery out there.

In the meantime he’d done some infrastructure upgrades, and I built a spaceport at Solar L2. That opened up possibilities for movement and I produced with the Lunar refinery to claim the first contract of the game. Another spaceport was built by me at L4, while Mark landed a team on Mars, and I used a near space probe to discover water there for him (claiming the bounty for the discovery), and Mark placed an industrial park there. I used intercept to get two turns, and sucked up all the offers with salvage, moving out to Solar L4 and building a research station there.

Mark moved to North Mars, and I took that discovery from him with another near space probe (exotic elements). I moved to Halley’s Comet to also find exotic elements, and then sent my second team out to the asteroid belt. Mark got the second beyond marker while I headed back to L5 and built another spaceport there (getting me a contract).

The deck had run out at this point, ending the era with me having a slight lead (adding in the bonuses as if the game had ended at this point came to 16T to 13T). Mark had gotten his genetics cube two spaces around the progress wheel (one of those from poaching a card I used for research), which turned out to be very important.


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Imperial Sunset

by on August 5, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

R.F. Delderfield is mostly known for fiction, but this book shows he was quite good at popular non-history as well (his fiction was mostly historical, so the two do go together).

In this case, he’s looking at Napoleon from after the retreat from Russia to his first abdication. He starts (very effectively) with the experience of Hamburg in this period. As exaggerated reports of the vast Russian army swarming into Germany sweep Europe, disaffected areas enter a period of instability. Not fans of the Continental System, the leading citizens wanted out, and the local Cossack commander seemed to offer just that. But the number of actual Cossacks in the area was small, the cities of the Baltic coast weren’t really willing to put up with the pillaging and requisitions needed to support them, and a brief moment of independence ends with Davout garrisoning Hamburg after about a month and a half.

Much of Europe went through the same emotional journey as Napoleon seemed entirely beaten at the end of 1812, but it would be another two years of desperate fighting before the true dissolution of Napoleon’s empire would happen.

Overall, on this subject, I would recommend Lieven’s Russia Against Napoleon, but it’s not a replacement for this book. Imperial Sunset is a bit more focused, and more looks at the French side of what was happening, whereas Lieven’s book naturally focuses on the Coalition side, and mostly Russia, so the two complement each other too. I’d give this book a slight edge in prose, though Delderfield doesn’t do as good a job with helping you mentally juggle where everybody is, and where they’re going. Either book is a good popular history that cover two years that often get left out of the Napoleonic myth.

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Agnadello

by on August 1, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After dealing with some space dragons, Mark introduced me to Arquebus. I actually had a session of Men of Iron with Jason earlier, but just enough time passed for me to need to re-learn much of it. Mark was also wanting to try out the new set, and we eventually settled on the Battle of Agnadello as a relatively quick battle. The French are heavily favored here, and Mark volunteered to take the Venetians. Both sides have two battles (the French have a third as a reinforcement, and the Venetians can have a reinforcing battle in a non-historical variant), with the French artillery already set up on one flank, and the other with a lot of crossbows and pikemen. The Venetians have the advantage of being behind a series of ditches, and their right flank goes well beyond the French left.

The game opens with French activation, which I took on Louis XII, with an initial artillery volley that rolled either low or high and disordered two of the Venetians behind the primary ditch. The pikemen came in on the angle of the ditch, while the sword-and-bucker formations came through the artillery and engaged the rest of the line. One pike unit (on the far right) refused to engage, which helped lead to that entire flank ending engaged, but the two units at the end of the Venetian line retired, getting me across the ditch.

I successfully continued with Charles in the other wing, which mostly involved maneuvering the slower pikes up to the initial irrigation ditch, though the crossbows managed to disorder some light cav, and eliminate the sakers stationed with them.

Louis XII managed a second continue, and the flank extended to cover some of where Alviano’s second line was waiting, while I maneuvered to flank the mounted men-at-arms waiting on the flank of the Venetian line, and disordered them with fire from the French light cavalry/archers. This time pikes that refused to engage last time ended up retreating in disorder, while the rest of the Venetian line retired or retreated along with the men-at-arms. One unit crossed the ditch and continued with momentum taking them into the one Venetian unit that had done well so far and the one that retreated, becoming disordered and engaged with both of them.


Full map, right before shock combat on Louis XII’s second activation.
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