Author Archives: Bob Evans

Federation Commander: After Action Report

I don’t have notes for turn by turn but here’s how that battle settled out.
The Gorns came in at high speed under EM to close on the Kzinti. The Kiznti came in at medium speed, both forces were obliquely closing on the planet. The lead Kzin element launched drones and the second kizni followed suit. Deformations in space/time lead to an increased efficiency in warp drive for a brief moment. (everyone got some extra hexes of movement from my misreading of the sub-impulse chart.) The Kziniti turned to passed ‘north’ of the planet while the Gorn continued to pass south with plans to sweep around, deal with the drones, and pursue.
realizing that the drones wee going to reach their target (all drones were targeted on the following Gorn element) before the next firing window the Gorns panicked and used the Emergency Decel to stop the task force. (the Gorn had not yet fully internalized the concept of defensive fire stages. bad Gorns) From their now stopped condition the Gorns fired and destroyed most of the approaching drones.
The lead Gorn fired a plasma S as a bolt at the following Kziniti (who had turned much slower than the lead.) at a range of about 10 hexes and missed. The second Gorn fired and hit. The two forces closed and with plasma-F’s the shield of the second kzinti were dropped and some internals scored. The Second Gorn also fired a plasma-S as a torp at the lead Kzinti who upped to maxed speed and continued North.
Noe the battle is fairly tight and close to the planet. The lead Gorn fires his remaing S at the second, slower and closer, Kzinti, who responds with a brace of drones. (the lead also fired a brace of drone at the lead Gorn, but from much longer range.) Of the 4 drones two were destroyed one tractored and one hit.
The second kzinti failed to pay for his high-enegery turn at the start of the impulse and quickly found he could not use the planet as a shield. Another S was launched from the second Gorn and both caught the Kizin, but on separate shields. Shields were dropped and internals scored. Returned fire scored internal on the lead Gorn destroying the tractor beam.
Next round five drone hit the lead the Gorn, both down open shields. While the lead gon had some spaces not open to vacuum there weren’t very many and no weapons. The lead kzinit, having shed his plasma-S buddy, turned to re-enter the fight.
At this juncture the Gorn retired.
player impressions:
Very favorable. There were mistakes on both sides as our brains tried to load old SFB programs that did not match to FedCom, but we expected that sort of thing in a learning game. The game itself played fast and fun. Best of all even with frequent stops to read and understand the rules we were able to finished the game with enough time for a brace of board and card games w my wife afterwards.

Share

Happy New Year

Well, 2010 has been officially put to bed and we have now started the road with Mr. 2011.

Personally I am optimistic about my life for 2011. I am working on a new and improved version of Cawdor which I hope to have completed by my birthday. (Mid-May and gifts are not expected.) I still have a story out that seem to be getting serious consideration from a professional pay (SWFA certified) market for publication, I am happily married and working at a job with good people doing good deeds for people desperately in need of good deeds. All in all, life is good and I am happy.

Oh and I have lost weight. (Well, it’s not really lost I know exactly what happened to it, i transformed it into waste heat and radiated it away.) I went from a high weight in 2010 of about 245 pounds to end the year at 215. I plan to continue to lose weight in 2011 until I am around 200 lbs.

To all my family and friends and causal readers, Happy New Year and may your year be a joyous and productive one.

Share

Feeling Better

Well, the headaches from Sunday night have passed away and I am feeling better. Sadly it still meant that there was no Sunday Night Movie this week, but what the hell it’s a holiday week anyway.

My boxed set of Federation Commander: Klingon Boarder arrived Friday at work, but as we did not work friday I did not get it until yesterday. Federation Commander is a board game of starship combat in the Star Trek universe. It is very similar and can be compared to a cut down and simplified Starfleet Battles.

To comare the two look at one stat, Starfleet Battles has a rule book that is 400 pages longs, while Federation Commander has a rule book that is 60 pages long.

I used to play Starfleet Battles quite a lot, before it grew to the monstrous size it is now. It was a game that brought lots of enjoyment before the session stretched to teach its players the meaning of infinity. Serious it would take hours to resolve a single turn of combat, and trust me a single turn did not decide a game. Eventually me and my friends stopped playing and I disposed of all my material.

There was a brief flirtation Babylon 5 Wars, a board game of ship combat in the Babylon 5 universe, but I did not enjoy that game as much as I did SFB.

Federation Commander promises a return to the ship combat I truly did enjoy. I will find out for certain on Saturday. I have arranged a small game, 4 ships, 2 on each side fighting for possession of a planet.

We shall see, we shall see.

Share

brief post

Had dinner tonight out with my sweetie-wife to celebrate her birthday and our anniversary. Sadly the gravy at the pub we went to was a mushroom gravy so I had to steer clear of the steak, but it was a good meal all the same.

We exchanged gifts, and then watched bonus material from Inception.

good night all

Share

Bad weather and bad head

Well, it has been raining for several days straight here in San Diego. This is not something that couthern Californioa drivers handle well. Not at all.

In addition to that my head has been pounding today. It did not progress to a  full migraine but man it threatened to do just that. However I still managed nearly a thousand words on Cawdor so I feel pretty good about that.

Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow as it is both my Sweetie-wife Birthday and our wedding anniversary.

Three happy years.

Share

Sunday Night Movie:The Caine Mutiny

Yesterday when I was bumming around town and playing videos games with my pal Bear he asked me what was my Sunday Night Movie feature going to be and I replied that I was thinking of re-watching Robocop.

After my sweetie-wife went to bed and it was time to start up a feature I realized that I was in the mood for something meatier that Robocop. I wanted a dramatic film, not a genre piece. I scanned my collection and my eyes fell on The Cain Mutiny.

I can’t remember the first time I saw The Cain Mutiny. I know it was television during the 80s’, before the dreaded infomercials had pushed movies out as the low-budget local tv station fare. I remember tripping across the film fairly close to the start and I was pulled in at once by the riveting writing, characters, and performances.

If you only know Humphrey Bogart as the cool always in control detective then this film is one you really should see. It’s a film he did after he escaped the studio system and could be in the kind of roles that would stretch him as an actor.

The central character of the film is Willis Seward Keith, a young 90-day wonder of an Ensign. Willie has problems, mainly he’s too attached to his mother still and has not learned to be his own man. He’s got an on-again/off-again relations with a lovely signer, May Wynn, and has been assigned to a worn out, rusted hulk of a ship, the DMS Caine. Willie saw himself making an important contribution to the war effort, (the setting is WWII), but instead he’s on an ‘outcast ship, manned by outcasts, and named after the greatest outcast of them all.’ Or so Communications officer Lt. Keefer informs him.  Things seem to take a turn for the better when a new captain is assigned to the Caine, Lt. Commander Phillip Francis Queeg. Queeg is old navy, a life-long naval officer and a by the book man. When the new captain makes it clear that the Caine is going to become a new ship and taunt ship Willie couldn’t be more pleased.

However, Queeg has his own demons  and the drama of the story is rich with loyalty, betrayal, and cowardice.

This is a movie that every time it came on TV and I caught even a portion I stopped and I would always end up watching it to the end. I eventually copied off the air on a VHS tape, and then later got it on laserdisc. Now it’s one of my favorite DVDs. When it comes out on blu-ray I will replace it without qualms or any need for additional bonus material.

I tracked down a library copy of the Pulitzer prize winning novel a  few years ago. This film is a pretty good adaptation of half the novel. I don’t begrudge them that they only told half the story. Even at that the running time was 2 hours 5 minutes. There is little that is in the film that was’t in the book. Contrary to popular myth, Bogart did not invent the bit with Queeg and the ball-bearings, that was in the book.

If you get a chance see this movie and read the book.

Share