Okay, so Diana Hsieh of Noodlefood fame has this really cool offer up on her blog. Basically, she wants some paying to do a podcast on finding romantic prospects. (Everyone please go and pledge cause you know it will be good and I want to hear it.) Aside from being a nice business idea, I am really interested in what she has to say. I even pledged a little bit of cash so I could see it, even though I am happily coupled. I'm interested partly I love all psychology, romance, and people talk, partly cause almost everything Diana writes or podcasts about is interesting to me, and partly because I don't understand why so many Oists find it so hard to get either a significant other or at least some play.
Since her offer went up, I have been thinking about finding romantic partners, about friends who have had real trouble with this, and about my own experiences. I have never had any trouble finding people to date, screw, love, etc, and I am not sure why my experiences are so different from other peoples'.
So full disclosure: I am not especially pretty and am usually at least a little bit overweight. I am not rich or likely ever to be unless I marry me a sugar daddy. I am a lot of fun, but I can be a real bitch. Being close to me is kind of a roller coaster ride of highs and lows. I am smarter than your average bear, but also kind of a know-it-all. I tell you all these things so that it is clear that I am not the super hot, successful, Dagny kind of girl or that super sweet nice girl that men are supposed to want to marry.
And yet, my life has been filled up to the brim with romance. Since my first rocking great boyfriend at age 16, I have had a string of fabulous men and women, some amazing lovers, some short-term quick burn-out romances, and a few deep and meaningful long term relationships. My heart has been broken a few times, but even those unrequited loves had the kind of emotinal value I can't regret and wouldn't undo.
So, why have I had such good luck, if it is luck? I'm not really sure. I'm going to name the things I do differently in pursuing relationships than most people I know, but I'm not writing the list as advice. Some of the things may just be things about me that would not work well for everyone. Some may not even be good things. This is just an exploratory list.
1. I am frank to a fault, and I tend to just tell people what I am thinking and feeling. "Wow, I really like you a lot." and "Wanna go home with me?" are hard to put out there if you are thinking ahead about what they answer is likely to be. But if you just hear them coming out of your mouth before you can contemplate the possibility of rejection, it's not too hard. :) And they often get good results. Of course, some people don't want to hear your real feelings, but those people hurt my feelings a little and then move out of my life. The ones who like frankness stay put and are the kind who will enjoy me in the long run. And rejection hurts, but not for that long.
2. I like what I can get. I don't know if it is a coincidence or if I have automatized it, but I don't pine after people whose qualities put them out of my league. I can be very attracted to a guy who isn't super good looking. I don't need lots of wealth or super intelligence or a perfect body. Which is a good thing cause I am not that perfect myself. I probably couldn't get Brad Pitt with the brains of Einstein and the money of Buffet. So, whether I have learned to like the kind of guys I can pull or whether it's just a fluke that I don't need those qualities, it serves to make me happy, I think. Achievable goals and all that.
3. I have not always been on the search for my one true love and soul-mate. First, I think all that soul-mate jazz is a bunch of malarkey, and second, I have stuff to do. I get busy living my life, and when an attractive person comes along, I leap. And I don't try to figure out if a person is a life long potential before I enjoy hanging out, hop into the sack, and get emotionally involved. It hurts when things don't work out, but it hurts more to never get to live that initially exciting part of relationships. The perfect is the enemy of the good, and sometimes waiting for the perfect relationship means passing up some really good ones and being alone.
4. I have a real big range of people I can like. I only get at all serious with Oists (because I gotta have that rationality, dude), but other than that, people in the world are neat-o in so many different ways, and sometimes I find out that I like things I ever thought I would have liked. I can be into people of different physical types, different personality types, different interests, different backgrounds. There are certain things that match well for me, but I don't stick too closely to my list. Lists are so limiting, if you don't veer off of them for a cool, but unexpected, person.
5. I don't worry about getting hurt. It happens and it sucks, but it's worth it. So much better for me to be the kind of person who leaps in, head first. Sometimes I whack my head on the bottom of the pool, but mostly I find really awesome deep pools. Yay metaphors that go too long.
6. I don't play games, though I wish I could. I have often wanted to be mysterious, be the femme fatal type, but I just don't think I have it in me. The guys who want that don't want me, and that's okay. There are plenty of folks who love openness and full disclosure. I don't totally agree with Darcy when he said, "Disguise of every sort is my abhorrence," but I do think that disguising oneself in relationships leads to partners who aren't right for us and to feelings of being psychologically invisible.
I'd love some feedback from my readers on this. Why is it hard for Oists to find romantic prospects? Why are so many that I know so lonely? What made it different for me? What has your experience been?
5/29/10
Books I Read This Month
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K.Rowling
Read this out loud to Livy this month. She loved it, and I loved re-reading it for the 407th time. She had seen the movies before, and it was a lot of fun to discuss the differences. I think she "got" the plot better from the book than the movie.
The New Nation by Joy Hakim
The next installment of my beloved US history series. This covers the time between the signing of the constitution until 1850. I learned so much, as I was very ignorant about that time. Who knew that the War of 1812 was kind of a revolution part II? Well, probably everyone but me, but I know it now! Every Objectivist needs to read these books!
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
This is the book Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, wrote for adults. It is sort of Firefly meets alien bodysnatchers meets Montana militiamen meets romance novel. I actually really liked it. The characters are better than Twilight and I thought the plot was a tad more original, but the writing is about on the same level. A pulpy, quick, fun read. The most interesting conflict in the book, and the main one, is between two consciousnesses in one body. Very weird.
Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L. Nelson
A throw-away Pride and Prejudice sequel. Not the best and not the worst I've ever read. Biggest complaint: Since when does Darcy burst into tears? When did he become this ginormous drama queen? Biggest compliment: Cool portrayal of Darcy's family. I liked Lady Anne Darcy as a Lady Catherine-like figure and Darcy's dad as a nice but over-tolerant husband.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamont
Another reread for me. I really enjoy this one each time I read it. It is the story of Jacob (son of Isaac) and his wives, sons, and daughter from that daughter's perspective. Dinah, his only daughter, tells the familiar Bible stories, but we see everything as the women see it and think of it. Very interesting. Sort of like The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which also shows a familiar story (Arthur) from the perspective of women. The Red Tent will be particularly interesting to people who like to hear about midwifery, women's health, and the other gods in circulation at the time of Jacob and El.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I really wanted to like this because I liked so many of his other books, but I just couldn't. The plot was a repeat of The DaVinci Code, except set in D.C. and with Masons instead of the Illuminati. Also, it was filled with so much crappy new age mysticism masquerading as modern science that I wanted to cut my own heart out with either a ritual knife or a laser. Skip this one, even if you liked Dan Brown's other books.
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Book 10 in the Southern Vampire series. They are getting weaker, as every long series does, but they are still super fun and should be read by all! Charlaine Harris has a wicked sense of humor, and her vampires do not sparkle. They can mainstream and not kill people and still be sexy and dangerous.
As an aside, Aaron surprised me with this book for Mother's Day. I didn't even know it was coming out, and then, suddenly, there it was on the bed. Such a good present!!!!
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Another reread, but I don't reread it often enough. This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is the first book of the trilogy His Dark Materials, and the whole trilogy is absolutely stunning. It is original, well-written, peopled with numerous fascinating characters who inspire love and hate and every other emotion, pro-science, anti-religion, rich with imagery, and set in a beautifully crafted whole world (a la Tolkein). But fear not. It is more fun and flows better than Tolkein and is a million times more readable. I won't give away anything about the plot because you should discover this gem for yourself. If you have not read it, this should be the next book on your list. Yes, I said it, even before the Jane Austen novels you may not have read. It is practically Objectivist fiction, except unlike most of that, it is well written and not preachy. READ IT NOW! And that means you, Jenn.
These are the books I finished this month. I am also in progress on:
Read this out loud to Livy this month. She loved it, and I loved re-reading it for the 407th time. She had seen the movies before, and it was a lot of fun to discuss the differences. I think she "got" the plot better from the book than the movie.
The New Nation by Joy Hakim
The next installment of my beloved US history series. This covers the time between the signing of the constitution until 1850. I learned so much, as I was very ignorant about that time. Who knew that the War of 1812 was kind of a revolution part II? Well, probably everyone but me, but I know it now! Every Objectivist needs to read these books!
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
This is the book Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, wrote for adults. It is sort of Firefly meets alien bodysnatchers meets Montana militiamen meets romance novel. I actually really liked it. The characters are better than Twilight and I thought the plot was a tad more original, but the writing is about on the same level. A pulpy, quick, fun read. The most interesting conflict in the book, and the main one, is between two consciousnesses in one body. Very weird.
Pemberley Manor by Kathryn L. Nelson
A throw-away Pride and Prejudice sequel. Not the best and not the worst I've ever read. Biggest complaint: Since when does Darcy burst into tears? When did he become this ginormous drama queen? Biggest compliment: Cool portrayal of Darcy's family. I liked Lady Anne Darcy as a Lady Catherine-like figure and Darcy's dad as a nice but over-tolerant husband.
The Red Tent by Anita Diamont
Another reread for me. I really enjoy this one each time I read it. It is the story of Jacob (son of Isaac) and his wives, sons, and daughter from that daughter's perspective. Dinah, his only daughter, tells the familiar Bible stories, but we see everything as the women see it and think of it. Very interesting. Sort of like The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, which also shows a familiar story (Arthur) from the perspective of women. The Red Tent will be particularly interesting to people who like to hear about midwifery, women's health, and the other gods in circulation at the time of Jacob and El.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I really wanted to like this because I liked so many of his other books, but I just couldn't. The plot was a repeat of The DaVinci Code, except set in D.C. and with Masons instead of the Illuminati. Also, it was filled with so much crappy new age mysticism masquerading as modern science that I wanted to cut my own heart out with either a ritual knife or a laser. Skip this one, even if you liked Dan Brown's other books.
Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris
Book 10 in the Southern Vampire series. They are getting weaker, as every long series does, but they are still super fun and should be read by all! Charlaine Harris has a wicked sense of humor, and her vampires do not sparkle. They can mainstream and not kill people and still be sexy and dangerous.
As an aside, Aaron surprised me with this book for Mother's Day. I didn't even know it was coming out, and then, suddenly, there it was on the bed. Such a good present!!!!
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Another reread, but I don't reread it often enough. This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is the first book of the trilogy His Dark Materials, and the whole trilogy is absolutely stunning. It is original, well-written, peopled with numerous fascinating characters who inspire love and hate and every other emotion, pro-science, anti-religion, rich with imagery, and set in a beautifully crafted whole world (a la Tolkein). But fear not. It is more fun and flows better than Tolkein and is a million times more readable. I won't give away anything about the plot because you should discover this gem for yourself. If you have not read it, this should be the next book on your list. Yes, I said it, even before the Jane Austen novels you may not have read. It is practically Objectivist fiction, except unlike most of that, it is well written and not preachy. READ IT NOW! And that means you, Jenn.
These are the books I finished this month. I am also in progress on:
- Guns, Germs, and Steel -- I may die in progress with that book.
- Liberty for All -- the next Joy Hakim
- Dead and Gone -- the Charlaine Harris novel that precedes the one I just read
- For A New Liberty by Rothbard -- I was enjoying the first half where he laid out his principles, but I have gotten bogged down in the politics of his day in the second half. Will probably only finish it as a read aloud for Aaron on a long trip
- The Truth Universally Acknowledged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen -- fun essays that I read every now and again
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets -- read aloud for Livy
What are you reading?
5/27/10
US Battle Report - If At First You Don't Succeed
Another day, another battle. EV and I were back at it today, battling across the waves with our dual flavors of stunties. In our continuing attempts to get a handle on what ships really cost, EV's list changed one more time. Mine remained the same: everything that comes in the starter fleet box.
Iron Dwarves:
Battleship - 120
3 Cruisers - 150
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
480 total
Shroud Mages:
Battleship - 110
Battleship - 110
3 Cruisers - 165
3 Frigates - 90
475 total
The point has been made a couple times on the Spartan forums that battleships are 1 for each complete 400 point increment (meaning 1 at 400-799, 2 at 800-1199 and so forth), and as such EV's list isn't exactly kosher. I'm ok with that. You can't always pick your battles, and I figure if I can cope with being at a "disadvantage" then when the field is level I'll have that much easier of a time with it. Plus I like a challenge from time to time. EV has committed to fitting into the guidelines in our first expansion, so it'll be a non-issue in the future anyway. For now, the battle at hand. Setups are as such:
Attentive readers will notice that my forces are on the left in these pictures. I told EV I wanted to see how the other half lives, so we swapped sides. I had a vague plan of rounding the large island and trying to split up EV's ships in the process, trying to keep my fleet together this time and covering my rear with some frigates. Not too much happened in the first turn, as is the usual. I had a frigate get pinged and did some ineffectual long-range shooting of my own, resulting in this:
Now the fury builds. I lose the already damaged frigate to a battleship. This battle saw a lot of long ranged fire, a definite change from our past battles.
There are some other pings. I try, unsuccessfully, to keep some room for maneuvering between my ships. I love creating a traffic jam, and this game was no exception. After turn two:
I'm already doubting my plan at this point. My frigates are way out in the open and have quite a run to get behind cover. It's too early for despair though, and things soon turn a little brighter for me. EV brings his frigates into the space where I plan to run my whole fleet, and I take one out with my cruisers.
Then I take another out with some frigates.
Unfortunately, my other frigate squadron is caught in the open, with predictable results.
I'm starting to feel a little better here. Our fleets are getting ready to circle each other around the island, or so I think. EV will have a time trying to swing his battleships around to get in front of my fleet, though he could get lucky with his extra speed rolls and run around faster than I can. In any case, most of my fleet is under cover, or close enough. End of turn three:
EV rams his frigate into mine, the first ramming action of many. We do no damage in ramming, and my crew wipes his out with no loss. I prize his frigate, a first for either of us. We cast about for a prize marker for a minute before I figure yellow looks something like gold, which is prize worthy, and employ a yellow die as a marker.
Outside of the prizing, not much happens. EV begins pouring fire into the lone frigate, but its small size saves it from most of the harm. This, along with the ramming, will set the pattern for the fight. Of note, EV drops anchor on his northern battleship, the first time either of us has used this technique. He's setting up shop, waiting for me to come around the island in future turns. End of turn four:
Here I figure I'm being clever, maneuvering so that I can get a broadside off on a cruiser with my battleship as I head behind the island. I reason that because the ship is in my firing arc, but I can't draw a center to center line, I'll get half dice on my shot. We later figure out that you have to have LoS from the center of the firing ship to some part of the target, which clearly isn't the case here. Unfortunately for the Shroud cruiser, we figure this out after it is blown away.
I'm starting to worry again. EV is pursuing quickly and once again I've managed to have my battleship lag behind. I do have a frigate for cover, but it's just the one and it's already damaged. I'm very much worried about taking a ram, or multiple rams, from behind. I hope to power ahead with the battleship while creeping along with my cruisers to try and correct this problem, but that will take a while to come to fruition. I'm also worried about the frigates with the prize, who are making a dash for cover in an attempt to come up behind the Shrouds and start raking. I hope their small size saves them. A randomly rotated end of turn five shot:
And here it comes. My cover frigate gets rammed into oblivion. My plan to bring the cruisers behind the battleship is obviously going awry and I've managed to create one amazing traffic jam with them. I'm staring down a battleship and two cruisers just itching, I'm sure, to start ramming my battleship from behind. Not looking good. On the plus side, my frigates are back in ball-nipping mode, dropping anchor and setting up shop behind (where the Shroud battleship has no guns) to rake and rake until there's nothing left to rake.
Here's the turning point of the battle. EV follows his ramming success with another ram, his battleship on my cruiser. He crits it in the ram, which is unsurprising, and decrews it in the boarding action, which is also expected. My dwarves do themselves proud though, and leave a single crew alive on the Shroud battleship. EV prizes my cruiser, but at what cost? Of cold comfort to me, but comfort all the same, the loss of one of my cruisers helps to alleviate the traffic jam somewhat. Why is this shot rotated? Because it is. I really need to look into why this is happening.
I'm feeling better here. The anchored battleship has been waiting for me to break cover for two turns now, but with the frigates parked behind EV pulls the anchor up before my battleship comes out from behind the island. I've succeeded in splitting his battleships up by going around the island, which pleases me greatly. His other battleship is perilously under-dwarved, but he still has two cruisers closing in on the tempted aft of my battleship. Things are looking up, but they can still go south in a hurry. End of turn 6:
EV wanted me to note that after he nearly decrewed his battleship, he started ramming on general principle. He drives a cruiser into my battleship's flank, but the collisons crits it, which sends it to the bottom. The other cruiser had been reduced to half speed some turns before and we'd misapplied the repair rules. I thought there was no repair option, having managed to miss the repair column of the crit chart entirely. EV noticed this after his cruiser smashed itself on my battleship. Since he'd missed out on previous opportunities, he rolled two dice to see if it would repair, which it did. Another rotated shot, this time of the impact:
This is the other big turning point of the battle. EV rolls his battleship out after being anchored...and turns away from my battleship. I'm gobsmacked, figuring I'm about to have a battleship cutting off my line of advance. EV later explained that he would have run aground on the island, which he probably would have. He said he checked with the template a few times, but I must have missed them, or thought he was checking his field of fire for when my battleship came into view. Either way, he turns the opposite way of what I had expected and takes out a frigate, but exposes his rear in the process.
Now the end of one battleship. My cruisers fire on it, hoping to decrew it. I get a crit and get a crew damage result, leaving the ship adrift. I'm very pleased at this point, though the rotation of the picture leaves me unhappy now.
I'm very confident at this point. My battleship is undamaged, I have two cruisers and a frigate left. EV is down to a damaged battleship and a damaged cruiser. Still, his cruiser could conceivably run down my battleship and ram it in the rear, and I'm all too aware of how poorly a boarding action could go. Still, I'm more concerned about getting to his deserted battleship to prize it. I look at the prizing rules and don't see anything about impact hits, so I assume EV will get there first with his cruiser. We figure it out later, and I'm wrong, but that's what I'm thinking at this point. End of turn 7:
I clear my battleship out and do nothing, despite throwing down a shooting card, while raking EV's battleship with my own. He responds in the manner most appropriate: ramming. He damages my cruiser pretty good, but in the ensuing boarding action I again wipe out his crew with no loss of my own. I've read a bunch on the forums about how it's a good idea to put two damage on a cruiser so they have a chance of sinking themselves in a ramming action, and now I'm seeing just how effective that is, if only in theory.
The still operational Shroud ship blows up my last frigate, depriving me of one prize.
I take it right back though, and in spades. I nearly destroy my own cruiser in the process, critting it and wrecking the setting it adrift. EV concedes at this point, then immediately thinks better of it and we press on. I'm concerned about my cruiser drifting off the board, but am hopeful of repairing the damage next turn.
End of turn 8. The final showdown is in the works.
I miss a turn 9 shot, but you can infer what happens. I shoot at his battleship, doing some damage, while trying to keep my distance. He closes on my battleship. Next turn EV wins the initiative and rams me, but the collision sends his ship to the bottom. It was a fitting end of the game.
My survivors and their prizes.
After the decimation of my battleship in a boarding action in our last game, I had been very worried about being boarded again and tried to stay at range to avoid it if at all possible. Obviously it wasn't possible to avoid, but this time things worked out better for me. My initiative rolls were consistently horrible, 1 or 2 in all cases except for a single 4, but the good rolls came out on collisions and boarding actions. I'd like to credit the victory to my tactics of splitting up his battleships, but luck played a large part as well. A highly entertaining game, one which left us both smiling, which is always nice.
Plans are in place for the reinforcements, which will be on Tuesday. I may try to get the Warstore order in sooner than that, to account for shipping, but with the holiday things likely won't arrive before Tuesday as it is. I know what I'm going to get, baring a last minute change of mind, but I think EV is still considering. Better news is that we have a third, and therefore a fourth, player in what I can now call our mini-league. Scheduling never works like you'd hope, but hopefully I'll get some games in with the others, and I'd like to get a big four way game in at some point.
Iron Dwarves:
Battleship - 120
3 Cruisers - 150
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
480 total
Shroud Mages:
Battleship - 110
Battleship - 110
3 Cruisers - 165
3 Frigates - 90
475 total
The point has been made a couple times on the Spartan forums that battleships are 1 for each complete 400 point increment (meaning 1 at 400-799, 2 at 800-1199 and so forth), and as such EV's list isn't exactly kosher. I'm ok with that. You can't always pick your battles, and I figure if I can cope with being at a "disadvantage" then when the field is level I'll have that much easier of a time with it. Plus I like a challenge from time to time. EV has committed to fitting into the guidelines in our first expansion, so it'll be a non-issue in the future anyway. For now, the battle at hand. Setups are as such:
Attentive readers will notice that my forces are on the left in these pictures. I told EV I wanted to see how the other half lives, so we swapped sides. I had a vague plan of rounding the large island and trying to split up EV's ships in the process, trying to keep my fleet together this time and covering my rear with some frigates. Not too much happened in the first turn, as is the usual. I had a frigate get pinged and did some ineffectual long-range shooting of my own, resulting in this:
Now the fury builds. I lose the already damaged frigate to a battleship. This battle saw a lot of long ranged fire, a definite change from our past battles.
There are some other pings. I try, unsuccessfully, to keep some room for maneuvering between my ships. I love creating a traffic jam, and this game was no exception. After turn two:
I'm already doubting my plan at this point. My frigates are way out in the open and have quite a run to get behind cover. It's too early for despair though, and things soon turn a little brighter for me. EV brings his frigates into the space where I plan to run my whole fleet, and I take one out with my cruisers.
Then I take another out with some frigates.
Unfortunately, my other frigate squadron is caught in the open, with predictable results.
I'm starting to feel a little better here. Our fleets are getting ready to circle each other around the island, or so I think. EV will have a time trying to swing his battleships around to get in front of my fleet, though he could get lucky with his extra speed rolls and run around faster than I can. In any case, most of my fleet is under cover, or close enough. End of turn three:
EV rams his frigate into mine, the first ramming action of many. We do no damage in ramming, and my crew wipes his out with no loss. I prize his frigate, a first for either of us. We cast about for a prize marker for a minute before I figure yellow looks something like gold, which is prize worthy, and employ a yellow die as a marker.
Outside of the prizing, not much happens. EV begins pouring fire into the lone frigate, but its small size saves it from most of the harm. This, along with the ramming, will set the pattern for the fight. Of note, EV drops anchor on his northern battleship, the first time either of us has used this technique. He's setting up shop, waiting for me to come around the island in future turns. End of turn four:
Here I figure I'm being clever, maneuvering so that I can get a broadside off on a cruiser with my battleship as I head behind the island. I reason that because the ship is in my firing arc, but I can't draw a center to center line, I'll get half dice on my shot. We later figure out that you have to have LoS from the center of the firing ship to some part of the target, which clearly isn't the case here. Unfortunately for the Shroud cruiser, we figure this out after it is blown away.
I'm starting to worry again. EV is pursuing quickly and once again I've managed to have my battleship lag behind. I do have a frigate for cover, but it's just the one and it's already damaged. I'm very much worried about taking a ram, or multiple rams, from behind. I hope to power ahead with the battleship while creeping along with my cruisers to try and correct this problem, but that will take a while to come to fruition. I'm also worried about the frigates with the prize, who are making a dash for cover in an attempt to come up behind the Shrouds and start raking. I hope their small size saves them. A randomly rotated end of turn five shot:
And here it comes. My cover frigate gets rammed into oblivion. My plan to bring the cruisers behind the battleship is obviously going awry and I've managed to create one amazing traffic jam with them. I'm staring down a battleship and two cruisers just itching, I'm sure, to start ramming my battleship from behind. Not looking good. On the plus side, my frigates are back in ball-nipping mode, dropping anchor and setting up shop behind (where the Shroud battleship has no guns) to rake and rake until there's nothing left to rake.
Here's the turning point of the battle. EV follows his ramming success with another ram, his battleship on my cruiser. He crits it in the ram, which is unsurprising, and decrews it in the boarding action, which is also expected. My dwarves do themselves proud though, and leave a single crew alive on the Shroud battleship. EV prizes my cruiser, but at what cost? Of cold comfort to me, but comfort all the same, the loss of one of my cruisers helps to alleviate the traffic jam somewhat. Why is this shot rotated? Because it is. I really need to look into why this is happening.
I'm feeling better here. The anchored battleship has been waiting for me to break cover for two turns now, but with the frigates parked behind EV pulls the anchor up before my battleship comes out from behind the island. I've succeeded in splitting his battleships up by going around the island, which pleases me greatly. His other battleship is perilously under-dwarved, but he still has two cruisers closing in on the tempted aft of my battleship. Things are looking up, but they can still go south in a hurry. End of turn 6:
EV wanted me to note that after he nearly decrewed his battleship, he started ramming on general principle. He drives a cruiser into my battleship's flank, but the collisons crits it, which sends it to the bottom. The other cruiser had been reduced to half speed some turns before and we'd misapplied the repair rules. I thought there was no repair option, having managed to miss the repair column of the crit chart entirely. EV noticed this after his cruiser smashed itself on my battleship. Since he'd missed out on previous opportunities, he rolled two dice to see if it would repair, which it did. Another rotated shot, this time of the impact:
This is the other big turning point of the battle. EV rolls his battleship out after being anchored...and turns away from my battleship. I'm gobsmacked, figuring I'm about to have a battleship cutting off my line of advance. EV later explained that he would have run aground on the island, which he probably would have. He said he checked with the template a few times, but I must have missed them, or thought he was checking his field of fire for when my battleship came into view. Either way, he turns the opposite way of what I had expected and takes out a frigate, but exposes his rear in the process.
Now the end of one battleship. My cruisers fire on it, hoping to decrew it. I get a crit and get a crew damage result, leaving the ship adrift. I'm very pleased at this point, though the rotation of the picture leaves me unhappy now.
I'm very confident at this point. My battleship is undamaged, I have two cruisers and a frigate left. EV is down to a damaged battleship and a damaged cruiser. Still, his cruiser could conceivably run down my battleship and ram it in the rear, and I'm all too aware of how poorly a boarding action could go. Still, I'm more concerned about getting to his deserted battleship to prize it. I look at the prizing rules and don't see anything about impact hits, so I assume EV will get there first with his cruiser. We figure it out later, and I'm wrong, but that's what I'm thinking at this point. End of turn 7:
I clear my battleship out and do nothing, despite throwing down a shooting card, while raking EV's battleship with my own. He responds in the manner most appropriate: ramming. He damages my cruiser pretty good, but in the ensuing boarding action I again wipe out his crew with no loss of my own. I've read a bunch on the forums about how it's a good idea to put two damage on a cruiser so they have a chance of sinking themselves in a ramming action, and now I'm seeing just how effective that is, if only in theory.
The still operational Shroud ship blows up my last frigate, depriving me of one prize.
I take it right back though, and in spades. I nearly destroy my own cruiser in the process, critting it and wrecking the setting it adrift. EV concedes at this point, then immediately thinks better of it and we press on. I'm concerned about my cruiser drifting off the board, but am hopeful of repairing the damage next turn.
End of turn 8. The final showdown is in the works.
I miss a turn 9 shot, but you can infer what happens. I shoot at his battleship, doing some damage, while trying to keep my distance. He closes on my battleship. Next turn EV wins the initiative and rams me, but the collision sends his ship to the bottom. It was a fitting end of the game.
My survivors and their prizes.
After the decimation of my battleship in a boarding action in our last game, I had been very worried about being boarded again and tried to stay at range to avoid it if at all possible. Obviously it wasn't possible to avoid, but this time things worked out better for me. My initiative rolls were consistently horrible, 1 or 2 in all cases except for a single 4, but the good rolls came out on collisions and boarding actions. I'd like to credit the victory to my tactics of splitting up his battleships, but luck played a large part as well. A highly entertaining game, one which left us both smiling, which is always nice.
Plans are in place for the reinforcements, which will be on Tuesday. I may try to get the Warstore order in sooner than that, to account for shipping, but with the holiday things likely won't arrive before Tuesday as it is. I know what I'm going to get, baring a last minute change of mind, but I think EV is still considering. Better news is that we have a third, and therefore a fourth, player in what I can now call our mini-league. Scheduling never works like you'd hope, but hopefully I'll get some games in with the others, and I'd like to get a big four way game in at some point.
New podcast is up!
Check out our newest podcast at http://cultivatingthevirtues.blogspot.com/2010/05/podcast-5-free-range-parenting.html.
The topic is Free Range Parenting, and you know that you either love it or think it's nuts, so either way, go click!
The topic is Free Range Parenting, and you know that you either love it or think it's nuts, so either way, go click!
5/26/10
A brief respite
Unsurprisingly, gaming time has approached zero with the advent of summer classes. My ID battleship still languishes in its grey primer. My Khadoran forces haven't seen the light of day in weeks. I'll get a brief change of pace this Memorial Day weekend though, as I won't have class for a week after tonight. As such, I'm planning on getting a US game in tomorrow and possibly some Warmachine on Friday if I'm not working. I'm also going to paint the battleship before the end of the week. Note there's no planning or possibly in there, it will get done. I've made a pact with myself to finish all my US models before the next wave of reinforcements comes in, and since that wave is less than a week off I don't have time to dither. This holiday is a golden opportunity to finish off the last ship, so I'm going to capitalize on it.
That wave of reinforcements means that the fabled Warstore order will be going in soon. I'm been looking over the Khadoran stuff and I'm torn between getting the stuff that's never at my FLGS, like Strakhov or Rocketeers or Battle Mechanics, or going for the bigger-ticket, and therefore deeper discount, things like the Great Bears or a Spriggan. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment, but I'll probably mix the two options together. It will all depend on whether or not I get the FLGS to order up a Strakhov for me before the Warstore order goes in. I'm trying to keep the Warmachine portion to around $100, which is just enough for a Spriggan, Great Bears and a Kayazy box, which would leave the blisters to order through the FLGS. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, back to the academic salt mines.
That wave of reinforcements means that the fabled Warstore order will be going in soon. I'm been looking over the Khadoran stuff and I'm torn between getting the stuff that's never at my FLGS, like Strakhov or Rocketeers or Battle Mechanics, or going for the bigger-ticket, and therefore deeper discount, things like the Great Bears or a Spriggan. I'm leaning towards the latter at the moment, but I'll probably mix the two options together. It will all depend on whether or not I get the FLGS to order up a Strakhov for me before the Warstore order goes in. I'm trying to keep the Warmachine portion to around $100, which is just enough for a Spriggan, Great Bears and a Kayazy box, which would leave the blisters to order through the FLGS. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, back to the academic salt mines.
5/22/10
Angel of Contrition?
Okay, so I totally over-reacted. I may have lots of bad qualities (which you guys have seen plenty of lately), but I hope being unable to say when I am wrong is not one of them. So, I wrote an email to the injured party, and since I injured in public, I thought it seemed only fair to apologize in public as well. Here's my email:
Dear person of the allergy comments,
I wanted to write to you because now that I have cooled off, I can see that I really overreacted. I should not have gone off on you in such a vitriolic way, even couched humorously, especially so publicly. I am sorry that I lost my temper and vented that anger on you. Here is what I should have said, hopefully written in the mature way I should have said it, instead of behaving like a child. And it should have been private, cause that would be a ton less trailer trash.
"I was upset by your refusal to look at facts and to reevaluate your claims. But, the more important part was how insensitive you were to the mom's feelings. Can you imagine the terror of living every day worried that your child might eat something perfectly normal and then die? Can you imagine the guilt a mom might feel for the time before she was aware of the child's allergy when she ate peanuts? Even though there is no reason to believe that a mom can CAUSE an allergy by eating peanuts, she almost certainly made her child's babyhood more difficult by doing that, though she didn't know. The sorrow for that, coupled with knowing the limitations the child will always face, is immense. So when approaching that mom, one that you know to be passionately devoted to the care of her children and especially that allergy, you should take her feelings into account. You should have made it clear that you were not attacking her personally, and you should have been more willing to listen to the things she was telling you. It makes me incredibly angry to see a person holding onto wrongheaded ideas in the face of facts, but especially to see that person hurting someone I hold very dear with his insensitivity."
That would have expressed my anger without being so mean. That would have been a better thing to do, both for making you understand my point better and for my own character. I would rather be a kinder person who gives people the benefit of the doubt, or at least the respect of criticizing privately and without over-harshness. I wish I had handled it that way from the beginning and found something else to be funny about.
I wanted to tell you why your comments made me so mad, just so you understand better where all that anger came from. Not to excuse what I did at all, since emotionalism can have no excuse. Since being friends with that mom, I have seen people blame her and other allergy moms for their children's illnesses so many times. "You ate peanuts." "Your house is too clean." "You shouldn't have used anti-bacterial soap." I have seen the allergy science that we have completely dismissed. "You have made this all up to get attention." "You are just trying to keep your child close to you with this fake allergy thing." "If he had been exposed to peanuts, he might not be allergic." "If you had kept him away from peanuts, he might not be allergic." This illness is not treated like other illnesses. If a child gets cancer, people say how sorry they are and are interested in new research and treatments. If a child has a life threatening allergy, people are annoyed and believe it's fake and use old wives' tales to talk about the way it should be handled. I have seen people who actually know peanut allergic children be unwilling to forgo bringing unsafe food to the child's house; I have seen moms who are pissed because they can't send peanut butter to their child's school. It kills me how little support these families get and how ready uninformed people are to tell them why it happened and what they should do about it.
None of those things were your fault. In once conversation you said things that I considered ignorant and insensitive. All the other stuff was not your fault at all, and I should not have let my huge amount of anger toward the whole situation be vented on you. I don't expect you to actually answer any of the things I said above. I'm sure you are ready to be done with this and to not hear from me again. But I wanted you to know that I regret losing my temper and I regret not telling you what I thought in a more mature and respectful way. I want you to know that I sincerely apologize, and I will use what I learned from this debacle to keep my temper in better check in the future. I'm making this public on my blog as well, since it seems only fair that since I freaked out on you in public, I should apologize in public too.
I'm sorry.
Kelly
Dear person of the allergy comments,
I wanted to write to you because now that I have cooled off, I can see that I really overreacted. I should not have gone off on you in such a vitriolic way, even couched humorously, especially so publicly. I am sorry that I lost my temper and vented that anger on you. Here is what I should have said, hopefully written in the mature way I should have said it, instead of behaving like a child. And it should have been private, cause that would be a ton less trailer trash.
"I was upset by your refusal to look at facts and to reevaluate your claims. But, the more important part was how insensitive you were to the mom's feelings. Can you imagine the terror of living every day worried that your child might eat something perfectly normal and then die? Can you imagine the guilt a mom might feel for the time before she was aware of the child's allergy when she ate peanuts? Even though there is no reason to believe that a mom can CAUSE an allergy by eating peanuts, she almost certainly made her child's babyhood more difficult by doing that, though she didn't know. The sorrow for that, coupled with knowing the limitations the child will always face, is immense. So when approaching that mom, one that you know to be passionately devoted to the care of her children and especially that allergy, you should take her feelings into account. You should have made it clear that you were not attacking her personally, and you should have been more willing to listen to the things she was telling you. It makes me incredibly angry to see a person holding onto wrongheaded ideas in the face of facts, but especially to see that person hurting someone I hold very dear with his insensitivity."
That would have expressed my anger without being so mean. That would have been a better thing to do, both for making you understand my point better and for my own character. I would rather be a kinder person who gives people the benefit of the doubt, or at least the respect of criticizing privately and without over-harshness. I wish I had handled it that way from the beginning and found something else to be funny about.
I wanted to tell you why your comments made me so mad, just so you understand better where all that anger came from. Not to excuse what I did at all, since emotionalism can have no excuse. Since being friends with that mom, I have seen people blame her and other allergy moms for their children's illnesses so many times. "You ate peanuts." "Your house is too clean." "You shouldn't have used anti-bacterial soap." I have seen the allergy science that we have completely dismissed. "You have made this all up to get attention." "You are just trying to keep your child close to you with this fake allergy thing." "If he had been exposed to peanuts, he might not be allergic." "If you had kept him away from peanuts, he might not be allergic." This illness is not treated like other illnesses. If a child gets cancer, people say how sorry they are and are interested in new research and treatments. If a child has a life threatening allergy, people are annoyed and believe it's fake and use old wives' tales to talk about the way it should be handled. I have seen people who actually know peanut allergic children be unwilling to forgo bringing unsafe food to the child's house; I have seen moms who are pissed because they can't send peanut butter to their child's school. It kills me how little support these families get and how ready uninformed people are to tell them why it happened and what they should do about it.
None of those things were your fault. In once conversation you said things that I considered ignorant and insensitive. All the other stuff was not your fault at all, and I should not have let my huge amount of anger toward the whole situation be vented on you. I don't expect you to actually answer any of the things I said above. I'm sure you are ready to be done with this and to not hear from me again. But I wanted you to know that I regret losing my temper and I regret not telling you what I thought in a more mature and respectful way. I want you to know that I sincerely apologize, and I will use what I learned from this debacle to keep my temper in better check in the future. I'm making this public on my blog as well, since it seems only fair that since I freaked out on you in public, I should apologize in public too.
I'm sorry.
Kelly
5/21/10
The Angel of Vengeance Quits
Dude, it's hard to be an angel of vengeance. Some people love you; some people hate you!
Anyway, first a retraction: The second part of the email about Mini-Con needs to be formally taken back. The persons who annoyed me so very much have made some explanations, and I, being the delightfully flexible angel of vengeance that I am, choose to believe them. The conversation which seemed to be attacking both Mini-Con for not being OCON (which we never claimed to be) and the love of my life for being Stephen Speicher (who he definitely is not) has been explained as just promoting our Mini-Con and asking for some clarification. I am perfectly willing to believe this is the case. So, the persons involved in that conversation need not worry about peanut butter jar bludgeoning.
As for the main accusations of the angel of vengeance toward food allergy conversation, they still stand. However, in the interest of world peace and people chilling the freak out, I am removing said ripping from the blog. Turns out that I don't have the stomach for vengeance after all. Just short living white hot anger flashes that burn down to an attitude of not wanting to make people all mad.
So, I officially retire. The Angel of Vengeance is going to go have some nummy breakfast and try not to say anything inflammatory for a whole 30 minutes.
Anyway, first a retraction: The second part of the email about Mini-Con needs to be formally taken back. The persons who annoyed me so very much have made some explanations, and I, being the delightfully flexible angel of vengeance that I am, choose to believe them. The conversation which seemed to be attacking both Mini-Con for not being OCON (which we never claimed to be) and the love of my life for being Stephen Speicher (who he definitely is not) has been explained as just promoting our Mini-Con and asking for some clarification. I am perfectly willing to believe this is the case. So, the persons involved in that conversation need not worry about peanut butter jar bludgeoning.
As for the main accusations of the angel of vengeance toward food allergy conversation, they still stand. However, in the interest of world peace and people chilling the freak out, I am removing said ripping from the blog. Turns out that I don't have the stomach for vengeance after all. Just short living white hot anger flashes that burn down to an attitude of not wanting to make people all mad.
So, I officially retire. The Angel of Vengeance is going to go have some nummy breakfast and try not to say anything inflammatory for a whole 30 minutes.
Podcast 4 . . .
has been up for quite a long time. Sorry. Vacations and obsessive book reading marathons and all that.
http://cultivatingthevirtues.blogspot.com/2010/05/podcast-4-independence.html
http://cultivatingthevirtues.blogspot.com/2010/05/podcast-4-independence.html
5/18/10
US Battle Report - How many battleships?!
First off, I co-opted EV's camera after our battle to take some quick shots of my ID ships. First the cruisers, who just need a dull coat.
And the frigates, who still need a wash and varnish. Maybe some more highlights.
These aren't the best shots, but they're better than what I had, which was nothing. The other frigate squad looks the same except that the black and white on the turrets are reversed. Hopefully the camera turns up eventually, though I doubt it, and I can get some better pictures later. Now on to the fighting.
EV has jumped the gun a bit and added to his fleet already. He traded two frigates and a cruiser for a second battleship. While this all adds up points-wise, it seems a bit off in terms of tabletop effectiveness. You can't pick all your battles though, so I soldiered on all the same. Lists were as such:
Iron Dwarves:
Battleship - 120
3 Cruisers - 150
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
480 total
Shroud Mages:
Battleship - 110
Battleship - 110
2 Cruisers - 110
4 Frigates - 120
470 total
Sharp-eyed future readers may notice a points discrepancy between the ID list in this post and the last battle report. They're the same models in the same configuration, but this time I'm going off an online document instead of the book. By my best understanding, this is the most current list. That said, the battle. Our setup:
The two battleships worried me. I figured to send everything except the northern frigates south around the middle island to gang up on the battleships, hopefully sinking on quickly before they both pounded me to matchsticks. The northern frigates would hopefully draw fire and do something effective, like screening my rear. While I think the plan was solid, my setup was flawed in hindsight, but more on that to come. After turn one:
Two fleets on stunties means no shooting as ships creep forward. As usual, I've created a bottleneck for my ships and forced my hand on activations. This is something I need to correct in the future. The first exchange:
Some fire between my frigates and one of the battleships. The cruisers also joined in, but I managed only two points on the battleship.
In return EV cuts down one of my northern frigates. I have my revenge though. My battleship unloads a broadside into the cruisers and...
Kaboom! Magazine explosion on one of the Shroud cruisers. This didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped. It dinged EV's other cruisers and battleship, and also took out another of my northern frigates, but I had hoped for more. After the second turn:
At this point I'm starting to see the flaw in my setup. My battleship, the slowest ship in my fleet, is at the end of the line. All the escorts, save the one remaining northern frigate, are ahead of the battleship and steaming on further ahead. I'm still hopeful at this point, thinking I might be able to take out the cruisers and some frigates before the battleship engages with the Shroud battleships.
My northern frigates bite the dust. You'll notice the lack of damage on the Shroud cruisers. EV drew a repair card, something I failed to do all game long, and fixed up most of the damage the magazine explosion did. Very disappointing. My battleship crits a cruiser in return, stopping it from shooting in the next turn.
The Shroud battleships join the fight. One of my cruisers goes down as a result.
End turn three
I win initiative and move my battleship first. I had a bit of a decision about what to do against the cruisers. In the end I decided to focus on the undamaged one in an attempt to blow it up, ignoring the second cruiser because it couldn't fire this turn and wouldn't get close enough to ram.
My tactic works and the Shroud cruiser squadron is down to one model. I'm hoping to be able to keep trucking my battleship along in the next turn, clearing enough of the island to broadside the battleships while finishing off the remaining cruiser with the aft guns.
The other Shroud battleship moves up and takes out a frigate. I hatch a mad plan at this point and launch a daring maneuver.
My frigates thread the needle between the battleships and do...nothing. The left battleship was down to two hull points, so I was hoping for a crit to take it out.
Instead that battleship "accidentally" turns into one of my frigates, with predictable results, and does a point to one of my cruisers. End of turn four:
I'm not feeling good about my chances here. My plot to take out one of the battleships quickly hasn't gone to plan, and worse my battleship is stranded in the middle of the board with no support. I'm down to a single frigate, a banged-up battleship, and two mostly intact cruisers. I'm facing a heavily damaged battleship, a dinged battleship, a damaged cruiser and a full frigate squadron. I hope to win initiative so I can move my battleship out, wishing I'd saved the +3 to initiative roll card I played the turn before. I don't win initiative, leading to...
This is the end of the game. I kept on playing, but this was it. EV rams my battleship and both vessels de-crew each other in the resulting boarding action. Now I'm down to a frigate and two cruisers, all of which are perilously close to two battleships.
A brief moment of victory. I played the Full Broadside card here and shot a cruiser at each battleship. This is the roll against the damaged one, which blew up spectacularly. The other cruiser was not as successful.
EV takes revenge for his destroyed battleship by taking out a cruiser. I'm done at this point, but I have a rake lined up on the battleship and want to see how it plays out. End of turn five, rotated because it happens sometimes:
I win initiative and snake my cruiser in behind the battleship. I do a single point of damage and in return EV sinks my cruiser. I concede at this point, with the final result looking like this:
I think my plan was sound. If I had swapped the battleship and the southern frigates in my setup, I think it might have worked. As it was, my battleship got left behind and picked apart. Because my battleship never got to fire on EV's battleships, I didn't get the early damage in I needed to make up the difference, and his two battleships did away with my cruisers and single frigate squadron like you'd imagine. Even had my plan worked, I think it would have been an uphill battle. The battleships are tough, have a ton of guns, and are a bargain compared to smaller ships. The forum chatter is that you build a fleet by making out on battleships and then filling points, and I think they're probably right. I'm hoping not, as I want to expand with something other than a battleship, but I don't want to put myself behind the 8-ball until the second round of reinforcements by not clubbing up. Effectiveness or flavor? The constant struggle.
Reinforcements in mind, I think we're going to go up to 650 points in June, which gives me about 150 points to play with. I'd like to add either heavy cruisers or submarines, but I'll have to give a long look at a battleship/flagship or an airship. I'd rather not double up on battleships, and I'd like to go with a relative horde of smaller ships instead of loading up on big ships, but it looks like that may not be a valid tactic. I want to get in at least a game per week in general, so I'll have at least one more before it's time for reinforcements and hopefully more, though school will have a big say in that.
And the frigates, who still need a wash and varnish. Maybe some more highlights.
These aren't the best shots, but they're better than what I had, which was nothing. The other frigate squad looks the same except that the black and white on the turrets are reversed. Hopefully the camera turns up eventually, though I doubt it, and I can get some better pictures later. Now on to the fighting.
EV has jumped the gun a bit and added to his fleet already. He traded two frigates and a cruiser for a second battleship. While this all adds up points-wise, it seems a bit off in terms of tabletop effectiveness. You can't pick all your battles though, so I soldiered on all the same. Lists were as such:
Iron Dwarves:
Battleship - 120
3 Cruisers - 150
3 Frigates - 105
3 Frigates - 105
480 total
Shroud Mages:
Battleship - 110
Battleship - 110
2 Cruisers - 110
4 Frigates - 120
470 total
Sharp-eyed future readers may notice a points discrepancy between the ID list in this post and the last battle report. They're the same models in the same configuration, but this time I'm going off an online document instead of the book. By my best understanding, this is the most current list. That said, the battle. Our setup:
The two battleships worried me. I figured to send everything except the northern frigates south around the middle island to gang up on the battleships, hopefully sinking on quickly before they both pounded me to matchsticks. The northern frigates would hopefully draw fire and do something effective, like screening my rear. While I think the plan was solid, my setup was flawed in hindsight, but more on that to come. After turn one:
Two fleets on stunties means no shooting as ships creep forward. As usual, I've created a bottleneck for my ships and forced my hand on activations. This is something I need to correct in the future. The first exchange:
Some fire between my frigates and one of the battleships. The cruisers also joined in, but I managed only two points on the battleship.
In return EV cuts down one of my northern frigates. I have my revenge though. My battleship unloads a broadside into the cruisers and...
Kaboom! Magazine explosion on one of the Shroud cruisers. This didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped. It dinged EV's other cruisers and battleship, and also took out another of my northern frigates, but I had hoped for more. After the second turn:
At this point I'm starting to see the flaw in my setup. My battleship, the slowest ship in my fleet, is at the end of the line. All the escorts, save the one remaining northern frigate, are ahead of the battleship and steaming on further ahead. I'm still hopeful at this point, thinking I might be able to take out the cruisers and some frigates before the battleship engages with the Shroud battleships.
My northern frigates bite the dust. You'll notice the lack of damage on the Shroud cruisers. EV drew a repair card, something I failed to do all game long, and fixed up most of the damage the magazine explosion did. Very disappointing. My battleship crits a cruiser in return, stopping it from shooting in the next turn.
The Shroud battleships join the fight. One of my cruisers goes down as a result.
End turn three
I win initiative and move my battleship first. I had a bit of a decision about what to do against the cruisers. In the end I decided to focus on the undamaged one in an attempt to blow it up, ignoring the second cruiser because it couldn't fire this turn and wouldn't get close enough to ram.
My tactic works and the Shroud cruiser squadron is down to one model. I'm hoping to be able to keep trucking my battleship along in the next turn, clearing enough of the island to broadside the battleships while finishing off the remaining cruiser with the aft guns.
The other Shroud battleship moves up and takes out a frigate. I hatch a mad plan at this point and launch a daring maneuver.
My frigates thread the needle between the battleships and do...nothing. The left battleship was down to two hull points, so I was hoping for a crit to take it out.
Instead that battleship "accidentally" turns into one of my frigates, with predictable results, and does a point to one of my cruisers. End of turn four:
I'm not feeling good about my chances here. My plot to take out one of the battleships quickly hasn't gone to plan, and worse my battleship is stranded in the middle of the board with no support. I'm down to a single frigate, a banged-up battleship, and two mostly intact cruisers. I'm facing a heavily damaged battleship, a dinged battleship, a damaged cruiser and a full frigate squadron. I hope to win initiative so I can move my battleship out, wishing I'd saved the +3 to initiative roll card I played the turn before. I don't win initiative, leading to...
This is the end of the game. I kept on playing, but this was it. EV rams my battleship and both vessels de-crew each other in the resulting boarding action. Now I'm down to a frigate and two cruisers, all of which are perilously close to two battleships.
A brief moment of victory. I played the Full Broadside card here and shot a cruiser at each battleship. This is the roll against the damaged one, which blew up spectacularly. The other cruiser was not as successful.
EV takes revenge for his destroyed battleship by taking out a cruiser. I'm done at this point, but I have a rake lined up on the battleship and want to see how it plays out. End of turn five, rotated because it happens sometimes:
I win initiative and snake my cruiser in behind the battleship. I do a single point of damage and in return EV sinks my cruiser. I concede at this point, with the final result looking like this:
I think my plan was sound. If I had swapped the battleship and the southern frigates in my setup, I think it might have worked. As it was, my battleship got left behind and picked apart. Because my battleship never got to fire on EV's battleships, I didn't get the early damage in I needed to make up the difference, and his two battleships did away with my cruisers and single frigate squadron like you'd imagine. Even had my plan worked, I think it would have been an uphill battle. The battleships are tough, have a ton of guns, and are a bargain compared to smaller ships. The forum chatter is that you build a fleet by making out on battleships and then filling points, and I think they're probably right. I'm hoping not, as I want to expand with something other than a battleship, but I don't want to put myself behind the 8-ball until the second round of reinforcements by not clubbing up. Effectiveness or flavor? The constant struggle.
Reinforcements in mind, I think we're going to go up to 650 points in June, which gives me about 150 points to play with. I'd like to add either heavy cruisers or submarines, but I'll have to give a long look at a battleship/flagship or an airship. I'd rather not double up on battleships, and I'd like to go with a relative horde of smaller ships instead of loading up on big ships, but it looks like that may not be a valid tactic. I want to get in at least a game per week in general, so I'll have at least one more before it's time for reinforcements and hopefully more, though school will have a big say in that.
5/17/10
Another shortie
Still no camera, so still no pictures. Got some work in on the frigates. Not as much as I wanted, which would have meant finishing them, but good progress all the same. I have highlights, metals, washing and some details left to do. That sounds like a lot now that I look at it, but it's not so much. I'd say the squadron(s) are 75% finished. Still no work on the battleship, though I have started to gaze at it and imagine paint schemes.
My big concern is a game tomorrow with EV. Not the game itself, but transporting my fleet. The cruisers just need a dull coat, so they'll be fine, but the frigates are in midstream and I'd hate to have paint rub off. This is an issue with Vallejo that I'm aware of and haven't really gotten burned by yet, one WGI shoulder notwithstanding, but I have a bad feeling all the same.
I'm trying to keep RL natterings out of this blog, but a batch cropped up that have an impact on gaming, and thus this blog. I've had to scramble to fit in classes to be able to graduate on time (ha!) including courses over the summer. Those have also been problematic and through various twisting paths I've ended up in a class that started tonight, which I didn't realize until about an hour before class began. As such I don't have the time off that I thought I did, though I may have a gap between the two summer courses I'll be taking, even if I'm not sure which two they will end up being. The TL;DR for that is I have less time than anticipated for gaming/painting, which will affect how much I get done for Warmachine and Uncharted Seas. I'm still sticking to the "Not adding anything until everything is painted" principle for the stunties, and I don't anticipate that being a problem, but the Khador forces may get moved further back on the burner than I'd like. This will, in turn, affect the eventual War Store order, which will itself be affected by my new lack of time. So much shuffling...
My big concern is a game tomorrow with EV. Not the game itself, but transporting my fleet. The cruisers just need a dull coat, so they'll be fine, but the frigates are in midstream and I'd hate to have paint rub off. This is an issue with Vallejo that I'm aware of and haven't really gotten burned by yet, one WGI shoulder notwithstanding, but I have a bad feeling all the same.
I'm trying to keep RL natterings out of this blog, but a batch cropped up that have an impact on gaming, and thus this blog. I've had to scramble to fit in classes to be able to graduate on time (ha!) including courses over the summer. Those have also been problematic and through various twisting paths I've ended up in a class that started tonight, which I didn't realize until about an hour before class began. As such I don't have the time off that I thought I did, though I may have a gap between the two summer courses I'll be taking, even if I'm not sure which two they will end up being. The TL;DR for that is I have less time than anticipated for gaming/painting, which will affect how much I get done for Warmachine and Uncharted Seas. I'm still sticking to the "Not adding anything until everything is painted" principle for the stunties, and I don't anticipate that being a problem, but the Khador forces may get moved further back on the burner than I'd like. This will, in turn, affect the eventual War Store order, which will itself be affected by my new lack of time. So much shuffling...
5/16/10
Short update
Short because it's about dwarves, get it? Cruiser squadron is finished and in the process of being varnished. Frigates are 35% done or so, and the battleship is still just primed. I know what I'll be doing with the frigates, still pondering with the battleship. I would have pictures, but the camera has gone missing on me. Hopefully frigates will be done tomorrow or Tuesday and the battleship by the end of the week. This time I really intend to stick to the "No new purchases until everything is painted" maxim, and the "Tale of X Gamers" format should help with that. That format may be undergoing some changes, but I'll stay with it all the same. I'm looking over stats for the other ships and am torn between Heavy Cruisers (nice models) and some flavor of submarine (for sneaky goodness). More games to come this week, hopefully the camera turns up by then.
5/14/10
Battle Report Backlog part 3: Uncharted Seas starter fleets
Last bit of backlog cleanup here. EV and I had our first full-fledged Uncharted Seas game on Tuesday, his Shroud Mages against my Iron Dwarves. We found that the starter boxes aren't balanced points-wise, even if they are in terms of number of ships, but EV sucked it up and played a couple points down all the same. We played the game right this time, as opposed to our ghetto intro battle, but we did have a couple outstanding questions that I still want to look into. Fleet lists were as such:
Iron Dwarves
1 Battleship - 115
3 Cruiser squadron - 180
3 Frigate squadron - 105
3 Frigate squadron - 105
505 total
Shroud Mages
1 Battleship - 110
3 Cruiser squadron - 165
3 Frigate squadron - 90
3 Frigate squadron - 90
455 total
Writing this list just now brings me to one big complaint about the game. The website has tons of downloadable rules updates, which is a good thing in theory. What isn't so good is that they're not terribly current. I went to use the online Fleet Composition point values, but they're not as current as the printed version I have. How is this possible? I have no idea. My other big complaint about the game is the horrible grammar in the book. This is both a minor thing and a major thing at the same time. The rules themselves are solid and the occasional tense shift or subject-verb disagreement don't impact the rules. However the lapses do affect the credibility of the company in my eyes. I'm an English major, so I put more emphasis on these things than most people, but if a company can't be bothered to have someone who knows what they're doing proof-read their only printed release to date, it makes me wonder what other kinds of quality control are absent. But enough complaining, on to the fight. Our setup:
EV's (painted) fleet on the left, my (not even primed) fleet on the right. I planned on using the island complex in the middle to maneuver around as best possible. Both our fleets are dwarven, which means they aren't exactly fast. the Shrouds have engines that might go faster (on a 5 or 6), but despite his best efforts EV managed to get the extra juice out of them exactly once all game.
US works on a alternate moving system, so one player moves a squadron, then the other player moves a squadron, then back to the first and so on. This provides for more photographing opportunities, but sadly my composition still needs work. I also forgot some end of turns shots. Having room to improve isn't a bad thing, and I have plenty of room there. A couple moves in EV's cruisers engaged my cruisers, with unfortunate results.
EV has these smoke markers which we employed to show the destruction of a ship. A little bit of verisimilitude. On the flank, my frigates began their reign of terror, starting with an opposing frigates squadron.
After the first turn.
You can see the blue dice that I used to track damage as well as the counters that EV used. Despite having two of the slowest, if not the two slowest, fleets in the game, we still managed to get fairly close in the first turn, which is nice. While one squadron of frigates worked wonderfully for me, the other didn't do quite so well. Their destruction begins in earnest here.
Their fellows get some revenge in short order.
You can see the prow of one of my cruisers in the bottom right of the shot. Beyond that squadron is the still-forming capital ship melee in the center. My plan for the frigates was to wrap around the island and take the Shrouds from behind. You hit on 3s instead of 4s when shooting from the rear, which I planned to exploit ruthlessly. On the other side, the destruction of my other frigate squadron progresses.
And is completed in spectacular fashion.
EV's cruiser destroys the remaining frigate in a ramming action. Ramming is pretty brutal, with both parties potentially taking damage. It works out pretty good for the rammer as long as they're bigger than the ship being rammed, as was the case here. What follows is his unengaged cruisers shooting up mine, continuing their slow destruction.
You can see my heroic frigates in the background, waiting on their activation to start the wrap-around. End of turn two shot.
Things were looking pretty grim for me here. EV had a two frigate advantage over me at this point, but his battleship was sailing away from the fight and my frigates were getting ready to start tearing things up from behind, so all was not lost. The fleets drew together a bit and I moved my battleship up, ready to unleash the front guns on his cruisers while broadsiding his frigates to kindling.
As you can see, that didn't really happen. Capital ships hit frigates on a 5+ instead of a 4+, so I managed to do no damage to the frigates despite having 15 dice to split among them. I did a point or two on the cruisers, which was slightly better but still disappointing. It was the beginning of a trend of disappointment from the battleship. This is the section where I forgot end of turn pictures, so we're into turn 3 here. Random picture rotation strikes again.
The destruction of my cruisers is complete. At this point I'm really worried as I'm down to a battleship that can't hit anything and a single, though effective, squadron of frigates. EV meantime has lost a single squadron of frigates. As you can see below, my battleship is in a bad place, surrounded by foes.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't avoid ramming EV's cruiser. This worked out in a way, because I blew it up, but I didn't get to shoot as a result. This is one of the things I want to look into. I'm fairly sure once you ram you don't get to shoot, but I've seen some forum chatter that makes me think it might be otherwise. Things started to turn around here with the battleship accomplishing something and the frigates finishing their island tour. We pass now into turn four, where the battleship continues to be competent.
The battleship takes out a cruiser, this time with it's guns. I'm starting to feel better here as the numbers equalize. The difference is only a single cruiser for EV now and his battleship is floundering around behind the central island. My frigates swoop in here.
They manage to set the Shroud cruiser on fire and leave it burning, sailing away from the fight, and with a single hull point remaining. On a 4+ the ship would burn away, so I left it to it's own devices and considered the frigates in the middle. End of turn 5 (I think) here.
You can see EV's battleship off on it's own, LoS blocked to most of my fleet. My frigates zoom into the middle and unleash more randomly rotated doom.
Not only did I take five of six hull points from the enemy frigates, I also blocked up the path to my battleship. I really love these frigates. My battleship wheels around and finishes the squadron off.
At this point I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. I've gone from being down a cruiser squadron to being up a frigate squadron. My battleship is in a position to go to either side of the central islands, while EV is more or less locked into his path. End of turn 6.
We got into a bit of repositioning here as I organized my fleet for the final showdown. End of turn 7.
I forgot about that burning cruiser just now, much like I did in the game. EV pulled a card that let him put out the fires, so the cruiser didn't burn to the waterline. It was following the same route my frigates took, so those same frigates turned around to finish the cruiser off, but not before it had shot up my battleship a little.
End of turn 8. Our battleships are slowly, slowly making their way towards the corner where they'll meet. This is the height of EV's super-charged engine frustration.
His engine frustration over, EV shoots up my battleship real good. He sets it on fire, but my frigates have closed the gap.
This is also the end of turn 9. EV moves in and continues pounding my battleship. Because damaged ships have their firepower reduced, this match-up becomes more imbalanced with each volley.
My frigates are plinking away at his battleship, but it's looking grim for my own. This is turn 10.
Now into turn 11, my battleship finally goes down in another randomly rotated picture. I'll give my battleship credit, it took a lot of punishment before it sank, which gave my frigates time to work. By now I had a big hill to climb, with only my heroic frigates facing off against EV's battleship. I had superior maneuverability on my side, but he had a massive frakking ship on his. That ship lacked aft guns though, so my I began thinking of my frigates as the Ballnippers and started using them as such. Following is the end of turn 11 shot.
Our ships did a spiraling dance for the rest of the game, the Ballnippers coming up behind the battleship and linking into it's rear and the battleship turning as tight as possible to hit the frigates with a broadside. It was around here that our second rule question came up of what happens when you link on rear shots and not all the linkers are behind. We'd been playing it that everyone shot from the rear up to that point, so we kept on with it, but I think we later found that it should work a bit differently. Another thing to look up.
You can see the counters in the shot here showing that I'd done five points of hull damage, which only left three on the battleship. That damage reduced his firepower and that combined with needing 5s to hit meant my frigates made it through the firestorm largely unscathed. This is turn 12.
Turn 13 here. We've both done a point of damage, and I'm feeling good about my chances. He only has two points left on his battleship, which means a crit will take it out.
Finally in turn 14 the dance is done. After taking another point of damage, the Ballnippers come in for the kill.
Man of the match here is clearly the Ballnippers, who took out the vast majority of EV's fleet. The combination of speed, tight turning radius and guns on turrets is amazing. In our ghetto introduction game I'd been put off by their five dice guns because when you link shots, each additional ship adds half dice rounded down, which meant each frigate only added two dice. I thought it would have been nicer if they'd had six dice, so they'd add three, and of course it would have been nicer to have more dice. The advantage I didn't realize at the time was that even when my frigates are damaged, they still add two dice when linking. EV's frigates only have four dice, so when I damage them they only add a single die when linking.
In our discussions about fleet expansion and evening up points, EV said he wanted to add another battleship, which is understandable. They're big, imposing, and have lots of guns. I think I might go the other way though and add more frigates, or maybe some submarines. We'll have a couple weeks and some more games to consider.
On the painting front, I got some work done on my ships. I have a cruiser that's 95% done, though I'm not too happy with the highlighting. I'm painting the hulls red, which has never been my strongest color, though it's the one I use the most. I'm considering going back and repainting the hull and leaving it mostly unhighlighted. I also got a bit of paint on a frigate. Pictures to come.
Iron Dwarves
1 Battleship - 115
3 Cruiser squadron - 180
3 Frigate squadron - 105
3 Frigate squadron - 105
505 total
Shroud Mages
1 Battleship - 110
3 Cruiser squadron - 165
3 Frigate squadron - 90
3 Frigate squadron - 90
455 total
Writing this list just now brings me to one big complaint about the game. The website has tons of downloadable rules updates, which is a good thing in theory. What isn't so good is that they're not terribly current. I went to use the online Fleet Composition point values, but they're not as current as the printed version I have. How is this possible? I have no idea. My other big complaint about the game is the horrible grammar in the book. This is both a minor thing and a major thing at the same time. The rules themselves are solid and the occasional tense shift or subject-verb disagreement don't impact the rules. However the lapses do affect the credibility of the company in my eyes. I'm an English major, so I put more emphasis on these things than most people, but if a company can't be bothered to have someone who knows what they're doing proof-read their only printed release to date, it makes me wonder what other kinds of quality control are absent. But enough complaining, on to the fight. Our setup:
EV's (painted) fleet on the left, my (not even primed) fleet on the right. I planned on using the island complex in the middle to maneuver around as best possible. Both our fleets are dwarven, which means they aren't exactly fast. the Shrouds have engines that might go faster (on a 5 or 6), but despite his best efforts EV managed to get the extra juice out of them exactly once all game.
US works on a alternate moving system, so one player moves a squadron, then the other player moves a squadron, then back to the first and so on. This provides for more photographing opportunities, but sadly my composition still needs work. I also forgot some end of turns shots. Having room to improve isn't a bad thing, and I have plenty of room there. A couple moves in EV's cruisers engaged my cruisers, with unfortunate results.
EV has these smoke markers which we employed to show the destruction of a ship. A little bit of verisimilitude. On the flank, my frigates began their reign of terror, starting with an opposing frigates squadron.
After the first turn.
You can see the blue dice that I used to track damage as well as the counters that EV used. Despite having two of the slowest, if not the two slowest, fleets in the game, we still managed to get fairly close in the first turn, which is nice. While one squadron of frigates worked wonderfully for me, the other didn't do quite so well. Their destruction begins in earnest here.
Their fellows get some revenge in short order.
You can see the prow of one of my cruisers in the bottom right of the shot. Beyond that squadron is the still-forming capital ship melee in the center. My plan for the frigates was to wrap around the island and take the Shrouds from behind. You hit on 3s instead of 4s when shooting from the rear, which I planned to exploit ruthlessly. On the other side, the destruction of my other frigate squadron progresses.
And is completed in spectacular fashion.
EV's cruiser destroys the remaining frigate in a ramming action. Ramming is pretty brutal, with both parties potentially taking damage. It works out pretty good for the rammer as long as they're bigger than the ship being rammed, as was the case here. What follows is his unengaged cruisers shooting up mine, continuing their slow destruction.
You can see my heroic frigates in the background, waiting on their activation to start the wrap-around. End of turn two shot.
Things were looking pretty grim for me here. EV had a two frigate advantage over me at this point, but his battleship was sailing away from the fight and my frigates were getting ready to start tearing things up from behind, so all was not lost. The fleets drew together a bit and I moved my battleship up, ready to unleash the front guns on his cruisers while broadsiding his frigates to kindling.
As you can see, that didn't really happen. Capital ships hit frigates on a 5+ instead of a 4+, so I managed to do no damage to the frigates despite having 15 dice to split among them. I did a point or two on the cruisers, which was slightly better but still disappointing. It was the beginning of a trend of disappointment from the battleship. This is the section where I forgot end of turn pictures, so we're into turn 3 here. Random picture rotation strikes again.
The destruction of my cruisers is complete. At this point I'm really worried as I'm down to a battleship that can't hit anything and a single, though effective, squadron of frigates. EV meantime has lost a single squadron of frigates. As you can see below, my battleship is in a bad place, surrounded by foes.
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't avoid ramming EV's cruiser. This worked out in a way, because I blew it up, but I didn't get to shoot as a result. This is one of the things I want to look into. I'm fairly sure once you ram you don't get to shoot, but I've seen some forum chatter that makes me think it might be otherwise. Things started to turn around here with the battleship accomplishing something and the frigates finishing their island tour. We pass now into turn four, where the battleship continues to be competent.
The battleship takes out a cruiser, this time with it's guns. I'm starting to feel better here as the numbers equalize. The difference is only a single cruiser for EV now and his battleship is floundering around behind the central island. My frigates swoop in here.
They manage to set the Shroud cruiser on fire and leave it burning, sailing away from the fight, and with a single hull point remaining. On a 4+ the ship would burn away, so I left it to it's own devices and considered the frigates in the middle. End of turn 5 (I think) here.
You can see EV's battleship off on it's own, LoS blocked to most of my fleet. My frigates zoom into the middle and unleash more randomly rotated doom.
Not only did I take five of six hull points from the enemy frigates, I also blocked up the path to my battleship. I really love these frigates. My battleship wheels around and finishes the squadron off.
At this point I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. I've gone from being down a cruiser squadron to being up a frigate squadron. My battleship is in a position to go to either side of the central islands, while EV is more or less locked into his path. End of turn 6.
We got into a bit of repositioning here as I organized my fleet for the final showdown. End of turn 7.
I forgot about that burning cruiser just now, much like I did in the game. EV pulled a card that let him put out the fires, so the cruiser didn't burn to the waterline. It was following the same route my frigates took, so those same frigates turned around to finish the cruiser off, but not before it had shot up my battleship a little.
End of turn 8. Our battleships are slowly, slowly making their way towards the corner where they'll meet. This is the height of EV's super-charged engine frustration.
His engine frustration over, EV shoots up my battleship real good. He sets it on fire, but my frigates have closed the gap.
This is also the end of turn 9. EV moves in and continues pounding my battleship. Because damaged ships have their firepower reduced, this match-up becomes more imbalanced with each volley.
My frigates are plinking away at his battleship, but it's looking grim for my own. This is turn 10.
Now into turn 11, my battleship finally goes down in another randomly rotated picture. I'll give my battleship credit, it took a lot of punishment before it sank, which gave my frigates time to work. By now I had a big hill to climb, with only my heroic frigates facing off against EV's battleship. I had superior maneuverability on my side, but he had a massive frakking ship on his. That ship lacked aft guns though, so my I began thinking of my frigates as the Ballnippers and started using them as such. Following is the end of turn 11 shot.
Our ships did a spiraling dance for the rest of the game, the Ballnippers coming up behind the battleship and linking into it's rear and the battleship turning as tight as possible to hit the frigates with a broadside. It was around here that our second rule question came up of what happens when you link on rear shots and not all the linkers are behind. We'd been playing it that everyone shot from the rear up to that point, so we kept on with it, but I think we later found that it should work a bit differently. Another thing to look up.
You can see the counters in the shot here showing that I'd done five points of hull damage, which only left three on the battleship. That damage reduced his firepower and that combined with needing 5s to hit meant my frigates made it through the firestorm largely unscathed. This is turn 12.
Turn 13 here. We've both done a point of damage, and I'm feeling good about my chances. He only has two points left on his battleship, which means a crit will take it out.
Finally in turn 14 the dance is done. After taking another point of damage, the Ballnippers come in for the kill.
Man of the match here is clearly the Ballnippers, who took out the vast majority of EV's fleet. The combination of speed, tight turning radius and guns on turrets is amazing. In our ghetto introduction game I'd been put off by their five dice guns because when you link shots, each additional ship adds half dice rounded down, which meant each frigate only added two dice. I thought it would have been nicer if they'd had six dice, so they'd add three, and of course it would have been nicer to have more dice. The advantage I didn't realize at the time was that even when my frigates are damaged, they still add two dice when linking. EV's frigates only have four dice, so when I damage them they only add a single die when linking.
In our discussions about fleet expansion and evening up points, EV said he wanted to add another battleship, which is understandable. They're big, imposing, and have lots of guns. I think I might go the other way though and add more frigates, or maybe some submarines. We'll have a couple weeks and some more games to consider.
On the painting front, I got some work done on my ships. I have a cruiser that's 95% done, though I'm not too happy with the highlighting. I'm painting the hulls red, which has never been my strongest color, though it's the one I use the most. I'm considering going back and repainting the hull and leaving it mostly unhighlighted. I also got a bit of paint on a frigate. Pictures to come.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
