What Livy and I Have Been Reading

I haven't posted much lately cause Mini-Con is making me crazy. But now almost everything is done, so I thought I would post a reading update. (Those are my favorite kinds of posts.) This time instead of what I have been reading, I thought I'd update you guys on what Livy and I have been reading together.

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling: Enough said. Wonderful, even for me, reading it for about the 15th time. Gotta love the book where she plants the seeds of the whole series.

Bob Books: A set of phonics readers that she can read to herself. We have done the first three packs, but we are going back through the first three again. She was starting to get frustrated with the harder books, so we are doing an easy read-through from the beginning again. I really like these books because the stories and pictures are actually funny, unlike the boring stuff usually made for beginning reading.

Arthur's New Pup: I hate these stupid Arthur books. But Livy LOVES them. I think they are poorly written and boring. She thinks they are hilarious. I have a limit; I will only read two on each trip to the library. Stupid aardvark.

Ben Franklin and the Magic Squares by Frank Murphy: A story about Ben Franklin, mostly focusing on his inventions and his mathematical puzzles (magic squares).

What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin? by Jean Fritz: A great, great, GREAT children's bio. Lots more in this awesome series. We have, but haven't read, her book on Plymouth colony, Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and George Washington. The Ben Franklin bio was so awesome that I cannot wait to read the others. Livy wants to do Paul Revere next cause there is a picture of a horse, duh.

A Picture Book of Benjamin Franklin by David Adler: Yes, we are currently obsessed. This was not my favorite, but I think it would be great for a younger child. It has fabulous pictures, but was a little sparse on facts for us. (Livy is nearly 7). We also have A Picture Book of Robert E. Lee but haven't read it yet. Won't it be fun to try and explain the Civil War?

Pompeii: Buried Alive by Edith Kunhardt: Loved this one. Since Livy wants to be an archeologist or a paleontologist, I have been trying to find books that show the real work those people do. I've been to Pompeii, so we had a wonderful time talking about what we learned in the book and planning a future trip to visit the site. Plus, what kid doesn't like natural disasters?
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol: Did you guys read these as a kid? SO AWESOME. The main character solves cases, and you get to try to figure them out before he tells you how he knew. Livy has trouble understanding some of the cases but has great fun anyway.

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Cave of Time by Edward Packer: This is Livy's first choose your own adventure book, and she loves it. We spend a lot of time backtracking and trying out other options. So far, we have ended up being hanged, owning a Philadelphia printing shop, and living out our lives with prehistoric people.
If You Traveled on The Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine: I love this series. It includes books on different time periods and different people's lives. We also have, but haven't read yet, If you Lived During the American Revolution, If You Grew Up With George Washington, If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620, If You Lived at the Time of the Civil War, If You Lived 100 Years Ago, and If You Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln. The Underground Railroad book was particularly interesting to us because we recently visited a museum about it in Cincinnati, Ohio. We saw the area of the Ohio River where many slaves crossed into the North. So it was neat to read about places we had just seen.

George Washington and the General's Dog by Frank Murphy: Revolutionary War heros, beloved pets, Martha Washington chasing a dog called Vulcan who just stole a ham off the table at Mt. Vernon, a mule from the King of Spain - seriously, don't you all want to read this book?

Ant at the Picnic by Michael Dahl: A story about counting by tens as your whole picnic and Aunt Helen are carried away by ants. Math and hilarity. Yippee.

Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins: I cannot recommend this book more. It is a collection of facts about dinosaurs, protozoans, early mammals, and early amphibians, all accompanied by pictures of them in actual size. Awesome.

What Killed the Dinosaurs? by Issac Asimov: Trying out an Asimov children's book since Aaron loves them so much. I think it's a little above Livy's head, but we aren't done. And she still wants to read more about meteorites. We saw one at the Tellus Science Center that had crashed through someone's roof not far from here in 2006. How cool is that? I hope we don't get a big one though. Don't really want to go extinct.

It's Not the Stork: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Families and Friends by Robie H. Harris: We have only covered the anatomy of children's bodies so far, but Livy is hooked. There are these crazy cartoons (a bird and bee) that say funny things throughout the book. I love how frank and clear and well-illustrated this book is. Describes body parts, explains sex, explains baby development and birth, talks about appropriate touching, and does it all with humor and without making it seem at all taboo.

The Great History Search: A kind of Where's Waldo, except that instead of Waldo, you are looking for a pharaoh, a gladiator, a Viking drinking mead, an alpaca in an Incan villiage, a steam engine, a covered wagon, or a harpsichord in very busy two-page spreads about different time periods. Super fun. Unless you hate details which I do. So super fun for Livy.

several back issues of My Big Backyard, a kids magazine from the National Wildlife Federation: Livy is outgrowing this, and then we will have to stop, cause the next magazine up in age is full of environmentalist crap. This one is just focused on facts about animals and games and puzzles about them. We love the pictures!

As usual, I would love to hear about what you are reading and what you are reading with your kids. And, I would like to thank the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church Used Book Sale, where home-schoolers sold their barely used history books for 50 cents each.

US Battle Report - I Put a Spell on You

Today was the last battle at 650 before we bump up to 900 in July (provided that EV's Rippers show up by then of course).  The last couple games have been a real turkey shoot that haven't been good for either of us, but today's battle was tightly contested and entertaining throughout.  We also only had one or two rules questions, so we're learning the game better as well.  This is also the last battle on a 4'x4' board; we'll be going to 6'x4' for 900 points.  There should also be a new, blue "table" for next time as well.  So much change in the future.  In the present, things stayed the same on the list front.  Next time I'll post updated lists.

We did a variation on random terrain this time.  We still rolled for each island, but placed them by hand, alternating placers between pieces.  We ended up with 4 islands again, which I thought was rather sparse.  I asked EV if he didn't want to put more out, thinking more terrain might work better for him, but he declined.  We both ended up setting our pieces in the other's half of the table, which I didn't realize until just now.  It's a little hard to see in the picture, but I set up with an eye towards the middle.  I figured EV would shoot the gap between the two southern-most islands, so I deployed to try and bring the bulk of my fleet west across the table so I could broadside him as he turned to come after me.  I put one cruiser squadron at the northern end of my line to loop around the island there and come over the top, hoping to get some rakes in when the fleets had engaged.  The top sub marker is the real one.

As usual, not a lot going on in turn 1.  As has become my custom, I tried to hide as much stuff as possible behind terrain to avoid RB4 shots on the first turn, and I did pretty well.  EV nearly had a shot with his heavies on my southern cruisers, but he was just out of range.  End of turn 1.

EV moved his northern frigates up to take a potshot at me, so I responded by sending my own frigates in.  This advanced them a little further than I normally would have liked, but they had enough support that I wasn't too worried about it.  I sent one to the bottom.

EV moved his other frigates up for more potshots.  This time I sent some cruisers after them and managed to sink another.

I fired on the same frigates with the airship as well, but only did a point to one.  It's a bit of a trick to just damage a frigate, as it doesn't take much to crit, and therefore destroy, one of them.  EV is sending his heavy cruisers on a wide flanking maneuver again.  It can be effective when it works, but it takes them out of the fight for a few turns, which is a good trade for me.  I've been careful to activate my battleship before my southern cruisers so it can get a shot off before the cruisers come in to screen it.  End of turn 2.

My frigates put an end to EV's northern frigates.  When I make lists, I tend to take the big ships, then add cruisers, then fill whatever is left with frigates.  I should reconsider, as ID frigates are terribly effective.  The 4 ship squadron that I'm running can potentially pump 11 AD into something at RB1, which is nothing to sneeze at.  I've split my fire here, linking pairs of ships to make sure I finish off the Shroud frigates.

EV brings his remaining frigates around for some vengeance, but only does a point to one of them.  My flanking cruisers destroy one in return.

EV succeeds in taking out one of my ships, blasting a poor frigate apart with his mean, stinky flagship.

He follows that up by hitting a heavy cruiser with his foreguns, giving it a Hard Pounding.  His flagship can be an absolute monster at times.  I can't wait until mine hits the seas.

I change approaches with my battleship and turn it to the south.  I'm hoping to broadside the center, then start shooting the heavy cruisers as the round the southern island.  I land a crit on EV's flagship, knocking out 5 AD worth of guns from his port broadsides.  Things are going well for me at this point and I hope that my plan will work out.  End of turn 3.

I make my first blunder at the start of turn 4.  I win initiative, which never happens.  Moreso, I do it by playing Upper Hand and then rolling well when I've played a card, which really never happens.  I blame this amazing turn of fortune for what happened.   I noticed my airship was in striking distance of EV's cruisers and flagship.  I did some measuring and figured I was just barely in range of the flagship, so I pounce.  I would have liked to have caught the cruisers as well, but I'll take 10 AD on his flagship.  When I move the model and get ready to drop the bomb, I find I'm now out of range of everything.  I managed to place my model in such a way that the shot I thought I had, I didn't actually have.  So the airship gets shot up for no real effect.  I probably ding a cruiser, and maybe the flagship, but I take 2 hull damage in return.  Not a good trade.  I'm so distraught, I don't take a picture of this blunder.

EV crits my damaged heavy again, taking it down to 1 remaining hull.  I consider ramming the frigate, but I don't think I can quite swing it, so I send in my southern cruisers to blast the flagship, then follow that up with some fire from my battleship.  I don't crit it, but I am whittling it down. 

EV's frigates, or frigate at this point, finally does something useful, raking my heavy cruiser and finishing it off.

My flanking cruiser get some revenge and finish the frigate off.  I'm starting to turn them now, though the threat in the center has yet to materialize.  I'm sticking to that part of my plan though, so they're coming around over the top.

Looking at this picture, I should have kept my battleship in more.  It's off by itself on the eastern edge.  Granted most of the Shroud fleet would have to run quite the fire corridor, over a couple turns, to get to my battleship, but the undamaged heavy cruisers are coming around the island and getting ready to rejoin the fight.  Things are going well enough in the middle, and I'm pouring fire into the flagship, but none of EV's cruisers are damaged.  I still feel good about my prospects here, but I recognize the threat waiting for me and know that things could turn on me quickly.  End of turn 4.

EV actually helped me drop the bomb in a better place.  I had figured he would have focused on the airship when he had the golden opportunity to do so, but instead it lingered around and the Shrouds didn't really maneuver out of its way.  With those circumstances in place, I couldn't do anything but drop the bomb on them.  I got the whole cruiser squadron and the flagship as a result.  I didn't sink anything, but I damaged all the cruisers (and set one on fire), and also took the flagship down to 1 hull remaining.  Since we figured out I could, I shoot things up as well.  I do love that airship.  For some reason, I don't get a picture of the bomb.  Probably because nothing sank.

Of note, I had figured up a list that would have taken out the airship.  It has given EV fits in every game, and I think it demoralizes him a bit just by being on the table.  I offered to run this airship-less list, but he said he would have to learn how to deal with it sooner or later, so it might as well be sooner.  I couldn't agree more.

In response to the bomb dropping, EV sent his flagship after some frigates.  I had hoped to do a point of impact damage and sink it, but it didn't work out.  EV sank my frigate, then finished off the cruiser that had already been softened up by his own cruisers.

The middle is pretty open now, so my plan to dominate the center hasn't worked out so well.  You'll also notice the template in front of my cruisers in the last pic, and under one in this pic.  I didn't have any counters this turn, and didn't have any the previous turn either, so EV actually got to cast some spells.  I forget what this one was exactly, but as you can see it damaged my heavy as it went through the template.  The squadron did its job all the same, finishing off the Shroud flagship.

After having had the bomb dropped and losing his flagship, EV would have started on a downward spiral previously.  This time though, he remained chipper and ready for battle.  It's easy to see why.  I've managed to isolate my battleship.  While it has only suffered a single point of crew damage, it's sitting in a place where it can be rammed by two different cruiser squadrons.  I moved it up past the heavy cruisers to avoid a ram, or so I hoped, and the regular cruisers were dinged from the bomb, but it was still a bad place to be in.  I'm confident all the same, since I still have my big ship.  End of turn 5.

And then disaster strikers.  I thought I had moved far enough past the Shroud heavies to avoid taking a ram, but apparently I didn't move far enough.  I get double rammed and, as expected, decrewed.  I'm significantly less confident now.

Sitting and worrying never helped anyone, so I send my cruisers after the Shroud cruisers in the middle.  I link to take out the middle one and manage a triple crit on 12 AD, rolling a total of 21 hits.  I'm hoping for a Magazine Explosion here, and even played Well-Aimed Shot to try and get that double 1, but to no avail.  The ship is just very, very dead.

My glee is short lived, as I have once again mis-judged ramming distance.  The Shroud cruisers ram mine, thankfully one-on-one this time.  I hope I get an impact crit and sink one or both, but no luck there.  My heavy and her dance partner mutually decrew each other, while the other boarding action is inconclusive.

At this point I wonder if I can shoot at a model that's engaged in a boarding action, and a quick look at the rules tells me I can.  I send the airship in and finish off the cruiser.  I also fire on one of the heavies because I can and do some damage to it as well.  I forget to take a picture of this for some reason.

My now-freed cruiser moves out, turning around to try and draw the Shrouds on for as long as possible.  I forget that my cruiser has a missing crew, so I discard the crew repair card at the end of my turn.  Things looked grim after I lost my battleship, but they're back under control now.  My airship is undamaged, my cruiser is nearly undamaged, and I have 2 frigates left.  EV is down to two heavy cruisers, each with a single hull point remaining.  Still, things can go wrong, so I don't start celebrating yet.  End of turn 6.

The Shrouds give chase, attempting to run up the rear of my cruiser, but I've thought of that and made sure it was out of range.  Since EV is down to one squad and I lost initiative like always, I have my whole fleet to move.  The Kraken finally does something useful and sinks the rear heavy cruiser, denying the Shrouds their prize.

My airship drifts forward a bit and finishes off the other heavy.

I had considered sending in a frigate to try and prize the adrift Shroud cruiser, but I'm content with just sinking all EV's ships.  The board at the end of the game:

EV looked at VPs for the game and we figured this came out to a "Minor Victory," or something of the sort.  I called it entertaining.  Our games have been pretty lopsided lately, so to have a good contest was a welcome change.  While my plan didn't exactly work like I wanted, I still managed to turn the center into a shooting gallery.  My flanking cruisers didn't work quite like I expected either, but they also got the job done.  For his part, EV seemed to manage the whole "Stay spread out, but keep close together" balancing act much better this time around.  He also seemed like he enjoyed the whole game, which has been far too rare of late.  I think he's coming to grips with his fleet better now.  His rams were timed better and appropriate for the situation, taking them when they came instead of over-extending to set one up. 

I'll be adding a flagship and a pair of destroyers in the expansion, while EV will be adding two Rippers and (I presume) a battleship.  I'm not looking forward to those Rippers, but I've had a monopoly on the air and below the waves for a while now, so it'll be interesting to see what it's like to deal with a sub. 

Terrain, part 2

After a break for lunch and to let glue dry, I went back at it.  I'm trying to think of a good way to get the corner halves to join up into a single piece.  Dowels seem like a good choice, but I don't want a big hole in the side.  Magnets could work, but that seems like a lot of trouble to go to.  I'll continue to ponder.  In the meantime, I covered the first island in Elmer's to see how it would work out.  Like a lot of these glue pics, the picture doesn't really do a lot to convey what the piece actually looks like, but it's better than nothing I think

The glue didn't adhere too well to the top.  It kept running off like water on waxed paper.  In the future I'll scuff up any untouched edges to try and avoid this.  I had expected a noticeable layer of glue to form, but on further inspection it's kinda hard to tell that there was glue on it in the first place.  Obviously I have no idea whether this is normal or not.  As noted the tops were troubling, but the sides and edges all took a good layer.  I even made sure to work the glue into the crevices for maximum coverage.  I'd be hesitant to spray the piece down as it is for fear of melting it with the paint, but that's still a ways off.  I have to texture it still, and how I'll do that is also under consideration. 

In the meantime, I decided to make use of some of the scraps I had made in constructing the first island.  I put together a lonely rock.  I thought a frame of reference would be good, so I took a pic of the rock with the island and an ID cruiser.

The island is going to be fairly large, about as large as the largest island we currently use.  I want to do some real big islands with room for settlements and fortifications, maybe even a harbor, but I'm worried they'd take up too much table space.  Something 4-5 times the size of this island would be big enough for the scope of building I want, but it would also take up 1/4 of the table which seems like a bad thing.  Guess I'll add size considerations to the list.

I wanted to try out a two-tier island, so that's what I did.  I had originally thought about making an island with two peaks on it, but I thought it would be a little cluttered, so I went with a single peak.  The constituent pieces:

I trimmed down a toothpick, then ran it through the bottom tier.  I put some Liquid Nails on the peak, then stuck it onto the toothpick and squeezed the two together.  Then I glued the base and the island together.  This is the result/

I decided to do a little bluff on the island, so I rant he file around the back of it to create a harder edge.  I'm thinking of doing most of these as forested islands, so the bluff on this one would be a bare stone.  I took a picture of the bluff in particular, though looking at them now I think the above picture gives a better look at it.  Still, options never hurt.

I wanted to leave more room on the base for this one.  The base is a bit irregular though, so I'll keep that in mind for the next one.  The jigsaw doesn't really like to cut in curves, which leads to some of the irregularity.  All the same, I think I'll try a standard circular one next, or maybe a nice kidney shaped one.  I want to fit a lighthouse in somewhere, plus an island with a built-in wind direction tracker for when we actually have to worry about wind.  Plenty of ideas and lots of materials.

First crack at terrain

I scouted out Home Depot with EV yesterday and found they had both reasonably sized pieces of hardboard and pink insulation.  I went back this morning to get some supplies.  I got a 2'x4' piece of hardboard, a 2'x8' piece of pink insulation, some Liquid Nails, and an extendable utility knife.  I had been planning on getting a hot wire foam cutter, but after having watched a couple videos on Youtube I decided to give a knife a shot.  While not going bargain basement on this project, I do want to save money where possible, and a $3 knife instead of a $20 (at least I'd expect) hot wire cutter fits that bill. 


Costs incurred so far, with rounding for nice numbers:
$8 - pink insulation
$6 - hardboard
$3 - knife
$4 - Liquid Nails

$21 total

EV had been skeptical that I'd be able to fit the hardboard into my car.  I pointed out that I have a Matrix and can fold the seats down, but he told me he had issues with a station wagon.  We agreed to have a difference of opinions.  Much to my delight, not only did the hardboard fit easily, the pink foam fit all in once piece.  A bit of photographic evidence.

I have access to a jigsaw, so I picked that up on the way home.  My assembled materials:

I knew there was a folding work table hiding somewhere.  A bit of rummaging produced it, and a bit of head scratching got it set up.  There are these plastic clips that fit into holes around the top of the table to hold materials.  Unfortunately the holes were spaced in such a way that I couldn't hold down both sides of the hardboard, so I made do as best possible. 

There was a lot of vibration when cutting, but it went well enough.  I drew a line on the hardboard, then attempted to cur it out as best possible.  My first attempt:

I had this idea to make two corner islands that could fit together to make a side island.  With that in mind, I cut the other half of the island.  I must have flipped the first island when marking where to start the cut because the two halves didn't match up properly.  I had to flip one over, hence the different textures.

I didn't want to start with too many since this is my first attempt at making terrain, so I cut a final base in a standard anywhere-on-the-board style.

The edges were fuzzy and a little rough, so I took a file to them to smooth them out.  I rounded the edges a bit while I was at it.  It doesn't show so much in this picture, but they're a lot smoother and less jaggedy after the filing.

I decided to do the standard island first.  I traced the base onto the pink foam, then went at it with the knife.  I cut the rough shape from the larger sheet, then trimmed it down once I had that piece free.

I wanted to have a sloping beach side and a cliff side on this one, so I started working it with that in mind.  I made the long curving edge into the beach, while the more wavy side became the cliffs.  I cut the foam on an angle, taking out small slices and trying to keep the cuts as neat as possible.  Despite my best efforts, the piece quickly became somewhat ragged, so I took the file to it too.  I would have used sandpaper, but I didn't have any and didn't want to go out to get some.  The smoothed islands, plus tools.

A shot of the front, beach side on the base.  I wanted to have a ring of base around this side to have some water on the base, or maybe a more gradual transition to from island to beach to water.

And one of the back.  I ran the file vertically along the back here to put some erosion style cuts into the piece, which again don't show up so well.  I wanted this side of the island to come closer to the edge of the base to reinforce the sheer cliffs.

I was surprised to find that Liquid Nails packs their product like potato chips: half the package is air.  Once I got past that, I ran a bead around the edge and scribbled it across the middle, smearing it here and there.

Then I put the foam on the base and pressed.  It felt a little springy, so I put a weight on it.

That's a mostly empty can, but it still added some nice weight.  I left the piece to dry, and it has been for an hour or so now.  EV was advocating covering the whole thing in Elmer's glue, and I've seen other recommendations of drywall spackle (which I checked out at Home Depot, but the smallest one was a 12 pound tub), texture paint, and Polyfilla from the UK.  I have no idea what the American equivalent of Polyfilla is, and I don't really want to get a huge thing of spackle, so I'm considering either glue or texture paint.  I saw a similarly huge container of texture paint at Home Depot, but I'm wondering if I can't find it in more reasonable sizes at Michaels or AC Moore. 

Pre-F1 update

Been a quiet couple hobby days.  Played Monsterpocalypse and (the non-Xbox Live version of) Settlers of Catan for the first time on Friday.  Also got the next wave of reinforcements, or at least proxies for them.  It's a couple days early, but I was at the FLGS.  Finally got a set of Warmachine templates so I can stop relying on my opponent having them.  Went out today to take a look at hardboard and pink foam insulation to get an idea of what I'd be spending and what I'd be getting if I go in for making some islands.  Lowe's had ginormous sheets of hardboard, but I couldn't find the pink foam.  I'll try Home Depot on Monday and compare.  Looks like costs will be reasonable(ish) and I'll be able to scratch the terrain itch.  In worse news, a week and half is all I have before my next class starts.  Haven't made any progress on the Khador, but I've gotten a bit of reading in.  The new ships will get painted soon enough, then we'll see about WM or terrain.

Not Completely Typical Day in the Life, but What Day is Typical Around Here?

I've decided to jump on the bandwagon! I love "Day in the Life" posts, and recently really enjoyed Amy's and Lynne's. I love them because I am so nosy about what other people are doing, how they live, what's important to them. I love these posts for the same reason that I love to look at other people's bookshelves and read formspring questions. Anyway, here's my day on Wednesday:

• Woke up and immediately remembered how it rained in my Jeep last night. Went outside in pajamas to take the top down so that it can dry all day in the sun. Used 8 towels to mop the water out of the floorboards.



• Helped Livy with a technical difficulty in her morning video game.



• Checked email, blogs, facebook, twitter. Switched computers in the middle with Livy so that she could do her math, reclining like a pampered queen in my bed.



• Talked on the phone with a friend about potty training. Glad that stage is behind me.



• Read a chapter of The Subtle Knife.
  



• Chatted with my friend Shea and on Enright House (an Objectivist chat room).



• Ordered some Vitamin D online.
  



• Read out loud to Livy from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, a book on Pompeii, and a choose your own adventure book.



• Had a difficult and ear splitting hair brushing experience. Why can't girls have buzz cuts again?
  



• Walked with Livy to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Chatted while we were there about going to Pompeii, going to Egypt, riding a camel, and how much money J.K. Rowling made by writing the Harry Potter series.
  



• Chatted with Shea some more (about giftedness, learning styles, and careers for different temperaments) - very neat-o stuff.
  



• Miranda came for a surprise visit, and we caught up on what's been going on this summer while I folded clothes and put them away and did the dishes. That doesn't sound like a lot, but every piece of clothing and every towel in our house was lying across the couches. It was a big job and deserves more than this little bullet point to celebrate it.
  



• Mowed the grass in higher than 90 deg heat with breaks to get water and not get heat exhaustion. Ran over a bell pepper which had drooped close to the ground. Cursed really loud, but was drowned out by the mower.
  



• Read another chapter of The Subtle Knife out on the porch, since the air is a little cooler in the evening. Smoked my last few cigarettes, since I usually don't smoke when Aaron is here (he is on a business trip). He hates the way it smells and doesn't want me to die. Go figure.



• Took a nice long bath during which I watched an episode of Angel.



• Chatted some more with Shea. It sounds like I spend much of my life doing this, and while that is sort of true, it's also true that we hadn't talked in a while, so we had a lot to catch up on. :)



• Cuddled up with Livy and watched part of the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie. Poked her often so she wouldn't fall asleep before we had to leave for the airport.
  



• Drove to the airport ridiculously late at night to pick up Aaron. He had been on a business trip for 3 days, and his flight got delayed, and we got back from the airport after midnight.



• Tried to put pajamas on a completely passed out child who weighs more than 50 lbs.



• Went to bed super happy that Aaron is home and sleeping beside me.
  

US Battle Report - Big Badaboom

In the new light of morning, the airship isn't so bad after all.  I may try and touch it up some, which would be easier and less demoralizing than stripping it and starting over again.  I got in varnished in time to game with as planned.  EV did a random terrain setup again.  He took 7-8 islands and rolled for each of them, including them on a 4+.  He rolled 4d6 for inches and a scarrer die for directiion then placed the island from center accordingly,  Fleets were the same as the last two games.


The terrain we ended up with was sparse and didn't really affect play much.  I bunched my fleet on the far southern edger while EV was in the center.  I used the island as cover to avoid first turn shots from the flagship.  I wanted to bring the island into play.  I had a vague notion of splitting my fleet around the island for raking shots, but nothing firm.  The real token is on the extreme north edge.  I wanted to bring it around behind EV's fleet to pick on frigates or cruisers when the opportunity arose.  Setup:

Nothing much happened on the first turn, only movement.  I had no counter cards, but EV didn't play any spells so it didn't affect the game.  I want to bring the frigates around behind the larger ships, so I send them north,  End of turn 1:

The Shroud heavy cruisers crit one of my cruisers, then the flagship came along and finished it off.

I considered sending the southern frigates around the island while I send the battleship and heavy frigate around in front of the Shroud fleet.  End of turn 2:

We exchanged fire and dinged ships here and there.  Of note, one of my heavy cruisers gets shot up, causing a smashed rudder.  It'll be close whether or not I hit the island if I can turn; if I'm stuck drifting forward 2" there s no hope.  At least I learned about how ships can get back to sea if they run aground.  I decide to keep my fleet together and draw alongside the Shroud ships.  On reflection this could have been disastrous as it would surely have opened lots of ramming opportunities.  Considering EV's recent luck with ramming of late, maybe it wouldn't have been so bad anyway.  End of turn 2.

As we're starting turn 3, I notice how close my airship is to the Shroud cruisers, and how bunched the fleet is there in general.  I do a bit of perfectly legal premeasuring and send it in on a bombing run.  EV uses his western frigates for DF, but not the cruisers or eastern frigates.  I was holding Elite Gunners and noticed it said it would boost AD on any attack, but didn't specify a gunnery attack as do other cards.  We decided the card would work with the bomb.

All the cruisers took damage.  The rear cruiser's magazine exploded, starting another 8 AD explosion that hit the cruisers (again) and the frigates.  I wondered aloud whether the airship could also fire its broadsides.  I didn't think it would, but EV did, so we went to check the rules that I still need to print out.   There was nothing in them that said you could only drop the bomb, so the airship opened fire.  Another cruiser was destroyed along with a frigate.  It was a crippling blow to the Shroud center.

After the airship, I activate the damaged heavy cruiser.  I pass the repair roll and narrowly avoid the island, then follow up into the rear of a Shroud frigate.  My ram roll is poor, so we go to a boarding action.  EV kills two stout dwarven sailors, while I decrew and prize his ship.

I decide to move my frigates west to clear the center for the cruisers and battleship, but inexplicably move them between the Shroud flagship and my own cruisers,  I scramble to accommodate this change of plan and trade shots on the heavy cruisers and flagship for taking out most of a squadron of frigates.

This turn was brutal for the Shrouds.  Their center just evaporated, leaving the heavies and flagship to face a nearly full strength Iron Dwarf fleet.  End of turn 4,

I play Red Hot Shot on my battleship, then hammer the Shroud flagship with a broadside.  I do damage with the attack and set the flagship ablaze.

EV sends a heavy cruiser in to ram my battleship.  I hits, but doesn't crit, with the ram for no damage in return.  The boarding action saw my dwarves kill all the Shrouds and suffer two damage themselves.

This is mop up, and has been for a turn.  I thought EV would concede here, but he followed through to the end.  End of turn 5.

I decide to send my airship in first.  I blame this on winning initiative, a situation I'm unfamiliar with.  The Shroud flagship gets a rake on my battleship as a result, but is too damaged to crit it.  It takes my battleship and some cruisers to finish off the Shroud flagship.  Endgame:

The airship continues to give EV fits.  This time the bomb was devastating, taking out half the Shroud fleet.  I only lost a single cruiser the whole game, plus bits of damage on a handful of ships.  I'm starting to wonder if the airship is particularly effective against EV, or if it's just a very powerful ship on its own. With one being as effective as it is, I can't help but imagine how effective a full squadron of them would be.