27 The Liberation of Tulle

by on February 26, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While looking over shorter, simpler, ASL scenarios for me and Mark to go through, I came across the Partisan set (now in Armies of Oblivion), and we went for the first of those (we’ll need to get back to them; this is the first one I’ve played from that set). It’s set in central France as news of D-Day fires up all the Resistance groups to come out and to get rid of the occupying Germans.

Mark had the defending Germans who have eleven squads (mix of 2nd line and conscript) and poor leadership (three leaders is good enough, but one’s a 6+1). The partisans get twelve squads (three 527s, the rest are regular 337s) at the edge of board 22, and another eight in locations away from the fighting on board 2. They have a few LMGs, a German 50mm MTR and two PSKs. They have seven turns in which to gain and keep control of four out of six multihex buildings on the active half of board 22.

I set up for three thrusts. The initial main one was aimed at the V2 building on the south side, and would continue towards U6 and X7. The secondary one was to grab building Z2 and then help the others, while the third was more vestigial, and would get the support of most of the board 2 troops in taking CC6 and possibly DD7. The first two buildings would be fairly straightforward, the rest needed getting at through other terrain, and would be harder to do.

My first moves were to get at the garrison in S3, and get a flanking position on V2. S3 turned out to be the 6+1 with LMG, based off an idea in an article Mark had been reading. It’s not a bad idea, but this wasn’t really the place for it as he was alone and couldn’t keep me from getting a squad across and adjacent. Still, a K/1 from U3 meant I had to make two attempts on it. I also lost another HS to a 12 MC while dashing across the road, but he achieved the immediate goal of making the German squad reveal. I also tried a Dash to OVR the 6+1, but couldn’t make the TC.

His sniper had pinned a PSK I had put in OpFire, but he still hit V2 for a 1MC that Mark passed. But, my sniper went off (our third successful SAN check of the game was during my first AFPh, think about that for a moment…) to wound his 7-0. I got into CC with the 6+1 and killed him with no trouble while also advancing on U3 and into Z2.


Situation, Partisan turn 1. North is to the left, and the board 2 hill mass has been replaced by woods.
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Endwalker

by on February 22, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: MMO

Well, a bit ago, Smudge and I got through the main story of FF XIV: Endwalker.

It… was quite a ride.

Overall, I’d say Shadowbringers is still the best the story has been, but this came really close, and largely falls down on a couple of smaller bits. The story, if anything is bigger (in content) than the massive epic that the previous expansion was. So big, it’s really easy to get caught up in later portions and forget just where the story started. Which is a really successful bit of immersion, but also, the story is just too big for your head without really stepping back to try and look at it again.

[Massive spoilers of the entire expansion plot ahead!]

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Silver Scales

by on February 18, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

So, a fantasy book from a generally unknown author and a niche publisher. Immediate question: was it worthwhile. Answer: yes.

The biggest problem is one of setting. This appears to an alternate-universe setting stuck in the Victorian era. There’s no political or geographical names that bear any resemblance to identifiable places on Earth, and there’s no map to tell yea or nay if this is meant to be an alternate Earth. On the other hand, we have Christianity, and King Arthur gets name dropped near the end. I had figured that the Mark Isles were the British Isles in general and Dumagh was Ireland, but from the ending we find out that the sun rises earlier in Dumagh than the Mark Isles, which would be the wrong way around. I’d love a map.

Calendar dates would imply this is mid-twentieth century (and it at least would be Christian Era calendar), but part of the novel is a very Victorian style romance of manners. And don’t get me wrong, unlike the above, it’s not a complaint, and frankly it does a lot to add some charm to the story.

The main story isn’t fully explained until some while into the book, and actually reading the blurb helps with getting through that portion. Short of that, it flows easily and well, and the plot is very well structured, with pretty much everything tying in to the main plot at one point or another.

A few notes: This a full Christian-mythology universe, with demons, some glimpses of Hell, and the church having power against them. Generally speaking, supernatural interference has apparently been on the wane for some time; enough that its possible to be an atheist in this universe, and more devout people have ‘that still happens?’ reactions to elements of the plot. There is a rape scene, that, some other reviews aside, doesn’t really pull punches. The victim is decidedly still dealing with the emotional wreckage of it afterwards, and the rapist isn’t forgiven. He does end up helping, for his own reasons, but the main character is appropriately thankful, but that’s as far as it goes.

At any rate, it’s a good, well paced story, with a conclusion that has all the excitement one could wish for. The conclusion has a fresh unresolved problem for the sequel but the story at hand is conclusively finished.

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Two Trains

by on February 14, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

As a part of Mark and I’s cycle of lighter game playing, we went back to GEV last November, and tried out the scenario “The Train”. I don’t think it held enough interest for me to try it back in the day, though I remember some of the others in the group mentioning they tried it; I can’t remember what they said about it. The main goal is to stop a train from crossing from the west side of the GEV map to the other, with it arriving sometime between turns 4 to 8, while superior Combine forces start on the ‘island’. That’s  in addition to the normal VPs, and you can sacrifice armor units to arm the train (which neither of us did), and the Paneurope defender can loose points for blowing the main river bridge.

I got the first go with the attacking Combine forces, and took ten GEVs, plus four light tanks, two heavies and a mobile howitzer, plus two more GEVs and a superheavy as the turn 2 reinforcements. Mark set up a light screen of infantry, with six GEVs on the road network, backed up by a couple light GEVs, a missile tank, and two howitzers. The first turn was occupied simply with getting across the river and establishing a proper bridgehead, taking out a pair of infantry squads in the process. Mark split up his infantry for dispersed defense and reshuffled his armor.

I went up to the limits of howizter range, knocked out two more squads, and disabled a GEV with the mobile howitzer. Mark reshuffled the infantry, and the GEVs largely pulled back to the area between the two howitzers. I moved forward, leading with a heavy tank overrun in the central city to kill the one infantry there. Then I stacked everything else I could in the city hex, while moving up the GEVs. I picked off another four squads of infantry and the disabled GEV. Sadly, the spillover wrecked the 1508 city hex, cutting the road there.


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Lords of the Horizon

by on February 10, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

I’m a little surprised at my copy of Goodwin’s book. While it is twenty years old now, by this point publishers were generally aware of the problems of using paper that was too acidic, and using largely acid-free paper. This book’s pages are distinctly discolored, with that slightly brittle feel. It makes the book feel a older than it is, because most books contemporary with it don’t have that trouble.

Goodwin’s writing however is quite good, if a bit scatterbrained. This is very much readable popular history, and pours forth a lot of interesting facts and tidbits that are thematically linked as much as chronologically so. Within the space of a few pages, he’ll bounce back and forth between centuries to illustrate a point. (I’ll leave you to decide if that’s really an appropriate technique.)

There’s color and commentary, and wars, and sultans, and viziers, colorful quotes from travelers. This is all well done, but neither does it rise above this. Near to six centuries is a lot of time, so there’s lots of tidbits to share, but while the hopping around allows you to see things change, there’s no defined sense of time passing. There’s much in here that, even with knowledge of the subject, you won’t already know (there’s a number of illustrations that help with that), but not a lot of structure to organize it in and hook into other bits.

In all, this is a good place to start learning about the Ottoman Empire. But it would be a horrible place to stop. I also recommend Lord Kinross’ The Ottoman Centuries as a good second stop, which isn’t nearly as energetically written, but much more traditionally structured, and is allowed to take about twice the length on a very broad subject.

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