No Useless Mouth

by on October 12, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

This was a difficult book for me. In general, an examination of food sources and consumption in the Revolutionary War era is a good topic. Personally, I found the treatment here not so good.

One problem, of course, is I want far more solid facts to go off of that could ever be available in that era. Another is consistent use of the word “hunger” (n. an uneasy sensation occasioned by the lack of food), used in ways which make me uneasy. Apparently the term has been redefined for the social sciences (“a condition in which a person cannot eat sufficient food to meet basic nutritional needs for a sustained period”), so I’m being something of a fuddy-duddy but that definition is never given in the book, either.

Herrman does define three other useful terms in her introduction however. Food diplomacy is the sharing of food, or lack thereof, in order cement alliances (or at least peace). Victual warfare is the usual scorched earth tactics (by either side), as well as hording or stealing food. And victual imperialism is using laws and institutions (price fixing, land use, food aid…) to transform power relationships (…she doesn’t put it that way, but the book would be better if she did).

I also sometimes wonder about Herrman’s knowledge of some of the era she’s writing about. The biggest trouble was where she points up changing attitudes towards Indian Affairs by the British by comparing two letters, one from Howe, and the other from Germain. From my knowledge of them, I’d say the letters are quite emblematic of the differences in how those two approached everything, not just Indian Affairs, and therefore is more administration change than policy change.

The better part of the book is where she tackles the idea of a ‘long American Revolution’, that is to say, a period centered on it, but in no way confined to it. She starts with the years leading up to the war (common enough in any subject in history), but as Herrman’s looking at how all this affected Native American and Black peoples, not only looks at what happened in the direct aftermath of the Revolution, but also at the Loyalist colony founded in Nova Scotia, and then in Sierra Leone, where a lot of the Black ex-slaves ended up after their power-base collapsed in Nova Scotia.

There’s some important things to look at there, but I think she misses the implications again. There is a nice discussion about whether the violence in 1800 Sierra Leone is better termed a “rebellion” or a “riot” (with some on-the-point mention of riot having more negative connotations today than then). Herrman also mention’s King Tom’s (Pa Kokelly) apparent overtures to both sides, and never seems to realize he was quite likely just waiting to see who came out on top before committing himself to anything.

I just can’t recommend this, despite some good pieces, as there’s just too many missed opportunities here.

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Knife Fight

by on October 8, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

A little bit ago, I got onto the Space Empires Discord server. The main person behind it (d_demon) is definitely a fan, and I have no idea just how many games he’s been involved in over Discord. Shortly after my arrival I was in a game with him that was strongly against type: He’d proposed the “Knife Fight” scenario.

I had to look that up; it’s a new scenario in the Close Encounters rulebook. Basically, take the standard 4×5 home area from a four-player game, and then the second player gets the same area directly adjacent to it. There is no deep space, and the area is insanely tiny. I prefer to develop out my economic engine before switching to a military, but it was obvious there’d be no time for that. In fact the scenario also says each player gets four SC and colony ships (instead of three each), and start with ship size 3 (CAs!) and Move 2 technologies. (Because of it saying ‘size 2 and 3’ split across a line, I didn’t realize we had access to CAs until shortly before seeing one….) We stuck with the base set rules through raiders and cloaking (those being new to me though I knew it was unlikely to get used).

The very start was the normal affair of finding out where everything is. I sent out civilians with the SCs on my first move, but then hung back, which was a good thing, as it turned out my home area black hole was two hexes from my homeworld, and I lost a SC to it on the second move. Demon sent his SCs out alone, but his black hole was adjacent to his homeworld and he lost a SC to it (and with only three hexes for four SCs, it was the hex he sent two SCs to, but the other survived). Fun fact, our homeworlds were on the same hexrow… and so were the black holes. By the time of the first economic turn, Demon had found three planets and colonized all three, while I had only found two, and gotten a colony ship to only one. Not a good start for a tiny game….

I built a new SC and colony ship (the planets were certainly out there… somewhere) and a pair of pipelines to connect the first colony. By the second economic turn, most of space was explored, though Demon had been a bit less efficient on his end (and he hadn’t built a new SC). This time I built another colony ship, a DD and two more pipelines, and had settled three more worlds. Demon had settled two more (putting us even in number of colonies), and built a pair of CAs.

Since exploration of my half was winding up, I actually started exploring the last bits of Demon’s half of the board while pressing my SCs towards his colonies and encouraging him to think reactively. In turn three, I used the beginning move 2 tech to get two of my SCs onto one of his groups next to his brand new colony. That of course was one of his SCs, and all three shots missed in the first round, so Demon retreated out of the 2:1 battle. …And immediately came back with a new group that turned out to be 2xCAs. Amazingly, bad rolls continued, so that at the end of round 2, I still had one SC to retreat out.


First contact. That’s the full board. I’m yellow, Demon is green.

Demon, as it turns out, took the opportunity to build infrastructure, building pipelines and shipyards. I built a pair of CAs of my own, and a forward shipyard (that I hoped looked more like a base for the moment…).

So far the action had been along the bottom of the map, and I had my main force (2xSC, 1xDD…) at the top, and Demon fell back in front of my three groups to his 2xCA. Worse, he had another group up there to menace my most recent colony. I headed down to protect the forward shipyard, his CAs went up… and on turn 3, the double-move let my main force attack the collection of groups that his CAs left behind. We had four groups each (my ships from before, plus a third SC), while he had a known SC, plus what turned out to be two more SCs and a decoy (I’d had suspicions, since he’d put out more groups than seemed possible to afford). Poor rolls continued for us both, so that there was only one hit (killing one of his SC) in the first round, and that was his only loss when he retreated on the second round.

The SCs moved back to his latest colony, the group along the north moved back (likely decoy…), and the CAs hit my colony up there, but missed on the bombardment. During the fourth econ he produced a base at his forward colony, 2xDD, and some more pipelines (and some tech?). I produced another pair of CAs, a base at my remaining top-side colony, and a pipeline to finish connecting all my lower-side colonies. Demon also bid on turn order so he could go first. His new ships moved forward… and his bombardment of my colony failed again. I went into his nearby colony, and found that he had indeed built a base there (it seemed likely, but I needed to know). The base killed my DD, and one of my SCs killed one of his, and everything else missed (including the base’s second round shot), so I retreated out.

In the third turn, Demon finally finished off my colony (holding him up for an entire economic cycle was a big win for me), and pursued my retreating fleet. Both of us had new groups present, and mine was my first pair of CAs, while his turned out to be two DDs. (He had obviously hoped for something lesser….) Bad rolls meant one hit per side in the first round, killing one of his DDs and one of my SCs. The second round finally saw good rolls, with the CAs getting the remaining DD, and my SCs getting his SC before it could retreat. The third round double-move got me to the next colony in line, and I traded a SC for a SY, miner, and pipeline, and wiped out the colony with three out of three hits.

With my navy victorious at the bottom, and my second pair of CAs and a base waiting for his CAs ans suspected decoy at the top, I figured he couldn’t get at anything important in a turn, and merely built a second base (at the forward shipyard), two decoys and a pipeline, while purchasing Attack 1. Demon seems to have produced three CAs… and three decoys.

My fleet pressed forward and was intercepted by the new CAs in E2, while the older ones got my two group force that was a decoy and my second pair of CAs in C8. In former battle, I lost my last SC, and retreated to D3 (technically closer to my homeworld…). The other battle went three rounds with all misses for the first two, and then I got lucky to kill a CA with a pair of hits, and Demon (wisely) retreated out.

I chased after the remaining CA, and my other force hit the colony I’d retreated next to, which thankfully had a pair of shipyards instead of a base. I took one hit before knocking out the shipyards and reducing the colony to a 3. My second set of CAs got lucky again (two 1s!) to knock out his CA before it could retreat.

Demon chased down my first CAs, we did a hit each… and then he realized I could retreat out and hit a colony ship that had just moved to settle Kronos/E4. He conceded at that point.

Afterword

For me, the critical point was when Demon pursued my fleet into the 2xCAs coming up behind, hoping the new group wasn’t anything too tough. Not a wise thought simply because I didn’t have much else out there, and nothing more than a single DD had shown up yet. The money had to be going somewhere…

I also knew at the start I was in trouble, as I think more in terms of long games, and I was most of a turn behind on getting the initial colonies set up. The initial battles were bad for both of us with almost all rolls being 8+. I had done some decent maneuvering to pick off ships, and it failed because of the bad dice. However, his two CAs being held up for several turns trying to bombard my colony and failing more than made up for it, as it gave me time. Then, hot dice allowed my two CAs to kill his two without taking damage. The rest fell apart from there; I was expecting it to go longer, and was looking forward to seeing how the +1/0 CAs would do. (With the dice in this game… maybe not so well.)

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Dreamhearth

by on October 4, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

It’s been a while since I read the initial Mindtouch/Mindline duology, but I had no problems getting back into this. I think the fact that it is a fairly unique story (on the dream-therapy end) well-done helped keep it fairly solid in my mind.

At any rate, we now tackle a new phase of Jahir and Vasiht’h’s lives: going into practice. They have graduated, have licenses… and now just need somewhere to stay, and set out their shingle. The interesting part is this is both handled, and left unresolved at the start of the book. The tension of this unresolved beginning is the driver of the main conflict of the story, as Vasiht’h struggles with an uncertain future, and a breed of impostor syndrome.

In fact, while we do get a fair amount of time from Jahir’s viewpoint, and he does have his own struggles, plot-wise the scales come down firmly on Vasiht’h’s side. An amusing side-bit that carries through the book is a stunningly awful novel that he reads during the course of the book. Better yet, it’s basically a pastiche/parody of Hogarth’s own teenage writing (her notes on the story at the end are not to be missed).

Overall, it’s a fairly light book (by page count, it’s not as long as either of the first two books, and the main story isn’t even the full book). The plot is decidedly on the slice-of-life side of things, with plenty of getting to know a new location. And that is one of the main attractions of the book (along with a pair of main characters who are well worth getting to know), as the community on Veta station is explored, and well depicted. The back of the book is a few miscellaneous things, mostly a set of ‘case notes’ from their next few years in practice. These are all short, a bit fragmentary, and hugely entertaining.

I don’t think this is as strong as the original duology, so if you haven’t read them, go do so. This is a sequel, and is a bit reliant on the others so I don’t recommend starting here if it can be helped. That said, it’s still a great place to end up.

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183 The Pouppeville Exit

by on September 30, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up “Stand Fast”, a look for shorter ASL scenarios led me to 183 “The Pouppeville Exit” from the current version of Yanks. It has quite a publishing history, originally presented in the General as ‘quick-play’ SL/COI scenario F, then becoming tournament scenario T5 for ASL about a decade later in the General, reprinted in ASL Classic, and now appearing in Yanks. It would fit in with the Paratrooper scenarios, taking place on June 6th as part of the 101st Airborne secure the town of Pouppeville, which lies at the end of one of the exits to Utah beach.

As a comparatively early scenario, it features a very rare fixed defensive setup (the only other one I can think of offhand is “Buchholz Station”, where both sides have a fixed setup). The Germans have seven squads (mixed conscripts and second line), plus a kubelwagen with AAMG and two 37mm AA guns. The Americans have six 747 squads, a MMG, BAZ, and DC, and need to take two (out of three) of the multi-hex stone buildings on board 3, and knock out the AA Guns (which can’t be moved, and merely breaking crew counts). Play ends at the end of any Player Turn where this is true, and the Americans have eight turns to work with.

All the action in on board 3, but but board 5 is also part of the scenario, and the Americans can either set up on the road leading to town on board three, or on the road on the other side of the gully on board 5. Mark took the board 3 option and headed for the hill overlooking the village.

This meant there was no contact, and I was free to move about to establish a defense on my first turn. It also meant that everyone gained concealment, as there was no LOS.


Situation, American Turn 1, showing the full board, and the American start areas. Also, my turn 1 moves are shown in paler arrows. Note that the east hills are swamps, and the building that would normally be in I10 is removed.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Medieval Scandinavian Armies (1) 1100-1300

by on September 26, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Osprey’s various medieval armies Men-At-Arms books are generally solid, and this one does not disappoint. It’s not spectacular, either.

The main thrust of the text is that Scandinavia lagged behind West European fashion/technology. Denmark of course, had lots of influence from Germany, and I didn’t get any solid sense of just how tightly coupled they were or weren’t (the subject is brought up, there’s just no solid conclusion). Sweden and Norway on the other hand, were more isolated, and generally adopted parts of European equipment well after all the cool kingdoms were doing it.

Part of the trouble is pointed up in the introduction, which points out that the post-viking period has gotten a lot less archaeological attention than the Ninth and Tenth Centuries, so evidence is relatively scarce. In fact, while there’s the usual bevy of good black-and-white photographs, there’s relatively few of actual artifacts, with plenty of photos of period carvings, embroideries, etc., instead. There are a few actual pieces photographed, and they appear across five pages.

An all-too-short section mentions that knightly tournaments made their way to Norway, and apparently the rest of Scandinavia in the mid-1200s (or earlier), and proper European heraldry made its way there in the same period. I would have appreciated seeing a couple example coats-of-arms, but none are given.

The strategy and tactics section has some interest, as it describes warfare as dominated by difficult terrain and few roads, so much of campaigning devolved upon seizing good blocking positions that could be easily defended. Stone castles end up as relatively rare, but there are some examples, and the last few pages go into them.

As ever, the late, great, Angus McBride illos are well done, though they’re “typical” group shots, without any of the more ambitious pieces that have sometimes shown up. Which is a fair summary of the book, as it serves as a decent introduction without turning up anything really special.

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