I started my day with a visit to the dentist. Luckily what was scheduled to take 90 minutes only took 60. I had five crowns put into my mouth today. One of my teeth, Number 6 he is not a tooth he is a free man, was particularly sensitive and Dr Rhodes was forced to numb half of my mouth. The new teeth look great and it good to be back to regular eating. I had pizza to celebrate.

After that I had chores around the house to do. I cleaned out some old storage containers with old manuscripts in them. Then it was odd to see ,my sinus surgeon for my six-month follow-up. I did not see Dr. Weeks but rather his physician’s assistant. Still my sinuses look great and I have been throttled back to annual check-up now,

I had a headache — I always seem to get them after getting numbed at the Dentist, so their will be no further blogging tonight.

So todayI relaxed with my friend ‘Bear’ playing a game of Federation Commander. Bear has a theory that two ships of the same point value are superior to a single ship of the same point value. For for example two ships with a combat value of 75 should best a single ship of 150. Today’s game was to test that theory.

Alas I screwed up my Erratic Maneuvering and allowed him some close in shots I really shouldn’t have, but that was my largest mistake. No, my big mistake was in ready the point values of the ships. Federation Commander has two scales, fleet and squadron. Fleet scale the points are cut in half and the ships are half as armed and powered. When I picked out his ships for the encounter I looked at the fleet scale, not the correct scale of squadron.

He out pointed me by 2 – 1. It’s no surprise then that he won easily.

We will try again.

Today was a fairly low-key Sunday for the sweetie-wife and myself. We visited a married couple who are good friend but do to the hustle and bustle of life we had not seen recently. It was a very good visit and time flew by more rapidly than we had anticipated. Afterward we drive to Pacific Beach had lunch at The Broken Yolk, (because the Sweetie-wife had seen a  bumpersticker and had misread it as The DrunkenYak what a great name for a D&D tavern.) I had chili as I still need to avoid food that require me to tear with my front teeth. (Until my permeant crowns are in place I have a limited diet with lots of cut up food plans.)

She shopped at Trader Joe’s and I played gamed on my iPhone, then it was back home to finish watching the pilot episode of the BBC’s series SHERLOCK. Man I really really like that show. I think they have nailed the Sherlock Holmes character rather well. I hope that they do not lose as the series progresses.

TTYA

Well this afternoon my friend Bear is coming over and we’re doing another round of Federation Commander. Todays battle will be a Federation vs Romulan battle. For those who care it is a Federation Battle Cruiser (185 pts) vs A Romulan Snip (75 pts) & a Romulan War Eagle (103 pts) for a total of 185 vs 178.

This will be our first game with the Feration and it’s photon torpedos and also the first game withe the Romulans and their cloaking device.

Should be fun.

I had a visit to my dentist today. A better than 4 hours in the chair. Luckily my kind and very talented dentists has a video monitor in the ceiling for his patients. I brought a copy of LOTR THe TWo Tower- extended cut, and that kept my mind off the drilling and filing going in my mouth.

After the pain killers had worn off a terrible headache – tension type not migraine — decended upon me and that has been the state of my day.

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.