Goodreads' Reviewers Like Princess Ryan's Star Marines!

Goodreads' Reviewers Like Princess Ryan's Star Marines!

Two of Goodreads’ top sci-fi reviewers (rated numbers 1 and 2) reviewed Princess Ryan’s Star Marines. David Wilson sums up what he and his brother, Johnny, thought of the novel with this simple single line: “We both liked it and found the humor to be its greatest redeeming quality as well as some of the action scenes.” He also noted that there were “A lot of clever jokes and what appears to be a few nods to old movies and actors. Lol”

Link to David’s Review
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/702129842
Link to Johnny’s Review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/700403454

...and a PS:  They both also like the original board and miniatures games AND Johnny Wilson sent me a note saying how he also likes Rebel Raiders on the High Seas!  What a coincidence!

...and here is the opening from David Wilson's review....

a review of Princess Ryan's Star Marines: Save the Princess!
www.goodreads.com
This quality space opera sneaks in a whole lot of humor and attempts to be a parody without seeming like a parody. What I mean is that this is more a nod at something like Star Wars than an out and out parody like Spaceballs.

USS Housatonic: First Warship to be Sunk by a Submarine

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’ War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships. 

USS Housatonic:  First Warship to be Sunk by a Submarine

 The mighty USS Housatonic (USN Card 27)  was the first warship to be sunk by a submarine  (falling victim to the  CSS Hunley – CSN Card 73 in Rebel Raiders).  Before that fateful encounter that night in February 1864, however, the USS Housatonic earned other honors, most of them while blockading the very harbor, Charleston, in which she would be sunk.

Launched at the Boston Navy Yard in November 1861, USS Housatonic was one in a class of four powerful screw sloops, each capable of moving under sail or steam, and each carrying 11 guns – including a 100-pounder Parrot rifle, three 30-pouner Parrot rifles, and an 11-inch Dahlgren along with a mix of other rifles, guns and howitzers. 

Assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston, her first capture came in January 1863 when, working with the gunboat USS Unadilla (USN Card 17) she cornered and then sent boarding parties to seize the Princess Royal.  The blockade runner was carrying engines, armor and ordnance meant to equip a pair of rebel ironclads.  At the time USS Housatonic was hailed for having been responsible for capturing “the war’s most important single cargo of contraband.”

The South knew this as well, and sent two ironclad rams out of Charleston to try to recover the Princess Royal, which USS Housatonic was attempting to refloat after having driven her aground.  Initially successful in driving back Union gunboats, the two ironclads could not contend with the massive broadsides of the mighty screw sloop – and soon retired under the protection of Charleston’s guns, leaving USS Housatonic with her prize.  

USS Housatonic took many other prizes off Charleston, bombarded her forts and frequently sent landing parties ashore to harry the Rebels, seize prisoners and conduct raids. 

No wonder  that  when the Confederates launched their first submarine, USS Housatonic was chosen as the target for the CSS Hunley.

USS New Ironsides: U.S. Navy’s First Armored Steam Frigate

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’ War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

USS New Ironsides:  U.S. Navy’s First Armored Steam Frigate

The first of a new breed of modern warships, the USS New Ironsides (USN Card 26) was an ocean-going, wooden-hulled, armored man-o-war; a true battleship, with plenty of big guns, powerful steam engines – and even a ram, just in case.

Protected by 4.5 inches of belt armor, the USS New Ironsides would be hit many, many times by the Confederate guns she dueled with at Charleston and Fort Fisher – but like her namesake, the original “Old Ironsides” (USS Constitution) most shots seemed to bounce off; she was never seriously damaged by enemy fire.  USS New Ironsides, however, did have the dubious distinction of being the first victim of a submarine (technically a “semi-submersible torpedo boat”)– when the CSS David (CSN Card 65) set off a spar torpedo on October 5, 1863.  Damage, however, was minor – USS New Ironsides remained on station.

 (In Rebel Raiders, if the Confederate player declared an attack with the CSS David card on a Union warship, say the USS New Ironsides, each side would roll one die, with the Confederate player adding one to his die if his target is the only warship in the port or blockade space.  If the Confederate die roll is higher, the Union ship is sunk.)

USS New Ironsides was the flagship for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont (USN Card 54) during the April 1863 naval attack on Fort Sumter and the other defenses of Charleston harbor, and went back into the harbor for the second attack on Charleston.  She also supported the abortive assault by the gallant 54^th Massachusetts (as depicted in the movie, Glory) on Fort Wagner, and took part in the two bombardments of Fort Fisher, the second of which resulted in a Union victory in January 1865.  

Decommissioned and laid up in Philadelphia after the war, she was the victim of an accidental fire, allegedly caused by a watchman’s unattended stove, and burned and sank in December 1866.

Rebel Raiders Updated on VASSAL

Rebel Raiders Updated on VASSAL

A big Rebel Raiders' thanks to Joel Toppen, for making Rebel Raiders available on VASSAL and for once again updating it!

This is his announcement today of the update:

Version 1.3 of the Rebel Raiders VASSAL module is available:http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:Rebel_Raiders_on_the_High_Seas

Modifications include:
1. Made cargo counters smaller so they don't obscure MPs when stacked on ships.
2. Added Load/Unload functionality to Blockade Runners. Load will dispatch a cargo piece.
3. Added individual "Draw Cards" buttons to each hand window.
4. Added mouse-over zoom to hand windows.

Module:Rebel Raiders on the High Seas - VASSAL

www.vassalengine.org

2. Some Confederate cards say to reshuffle into deck at the end of the next turn. I've created two "deck" spaces to aid in staging these cards back into the deck.

USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) “Largest Ship in the U.S. Navy”- Perry’s Flagship

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) “Largest Ship in the U.S. Navy”- Perry’s Flagship

......and the bane of Confederate Coffee Drinkers!

When Commodore Matthew Perry went to Japan he wanted to make a big impression – and so he chose the biggest vessel he could find for his flagship.  At over 3,300 long tons, in 1861 the USS Mississippi (USN Card 23) was easily the largest ship in the fleet.  Having served in the Mexican War, she was also already a veteran combatant. 

As the Civil War broke out, USS Mississippi was sent to blockade Key West, and within less than a week on station, captured an inbound blockade runner packed with Brazilian coffee (a highly-prized commodity the South would do without for four years). The massive warship was then sent to the mouth of the river whose name she bore -  and while on blockade duty captured another coffee ship, thus depriving the Confederacy of much-needed caffeine.

When David Glasgow Farragut took on Forts Jackson and St. Phillip in April 1862, USS Mississippi was with him – and it was two massive broadsides from her huge Paixhans Guns that wrecked the Confederate ironclad ram, CSS Manassas. (CSN Card 71).  (Farragut is a leader counter in the game and appears on three cards – giving strategic and tactical advantages on USN Cards 33 and 1, respectively, and with his presence on the map allowing play of the card marking his flagship, USS Hartford – USN Card 37).

Despite protestations by Captain Melancton Smith that her displacement and length made her unsuited for operations upriver, in March 1863 Farragut sent her to support the attack on Port Hudson. As Smith feared, she grounded while under enemy fire.  Smith and his exec, George Dewey (of Manila Bay fame over 40 years later), struggled mightily to refloat her – but Confederate gunners could not miss this huge, immobilized target.  Smith finally gave the order to scuttle her – and when the fires he set reached her magazine, the largest ship in the U.S. Navy became a part of the river with which she shared her name.

USS Powhattan: From Porter to Dahlgren, From First Shots to Last

The Ships of Rebel Raiders    - The Men o’War

Rebel Raiders on the High Seas is a strategic game of the Civil War which focuses on the role of the navies on the rivers, along the coasts and on the oceans.  While most ships are represented by generic counters for Ironclads, Blockade Runners, Gunboats, Screw Sloops and, of course Raiders, there are cards and corresponding counters for many individual vessels.  This series presents those cards and offers a glimpse into the history of these storied ships.

USS Powhattan: From Porter to Dahlgren, From First Shots to Last

When Fort Pickens in Florida was threatened by Secessionists in early April, it was the powerful USS Powhattan (USN Card 21)  which was dispatched to ward them off.  President Lincoln tried to recall her from that mission and send her instead to show the flag at Fort Sumter, but Lt. David Dixon Porter set sail before the change in orders could reach him.   That was probably fortunate for him and his ship,  for although this modern sidewheel steam frigate 16 guns – including ten 9-inch and one 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores, and five 12-pounders – it would have been no match for the massed batteries in Charleston Harbor – guns which would pulverize Sumter that month and ward off fleets of ironclads over the next four years.

Porter (USN Card 2) went on to other fronts (notably commanding the mortar boats at New Orleans, as depicted on his card for Rebel Raiders),  while USS Powhattan went on without him to Charleston, where she chased down blockade runners (catching several prizes) and battered the defenses of Fort Fisher over Christmas, 1864.  Her guns later supported the landing and assault which led to Fisher’s capture three weeks later.

After the war, USS Powhattan took on another Dahlgren – Rear Admiral John Dahlgren, the designer of the guns she carried.  He chose her as his flagship for the South Pacific Squadron, and sailed aboard her to Valparaiso to guard American shipping and interests during the Chincha Islands War.  Dahlgren appears in Rebel Raiders twice – once on a card with his name (USN 31) and as the inspiration for USN Card 3 “Yankee Guns.”

How Patrick Kairns Won and Bob Kasabian ALMOST Won as the Union

Two Games, Two Condensed Replays of Rebel Raiders…and a compliment from Hong Kong.

“Rebel Raiders is a really great game” says Alfred Wong of Hong Kong.  “My friend and I enjoy every game we play.”

Bob Kasabian’s “Almost” Union Victory (“Both of us love this game”)

-This from Bob Kasbian:

Just finished our second game of Rebel Raiders. This time I had a much more coordinated Union strategy, and with the aid of the card that extends the game one turn, came within a whisker of winning. On the final turn, I took Atlanta and Richmond, despite there being three batteries in each, but Farragut, with an eight sloop Grand Fleet, could not defeat the Rebs in New Orleans. The CSA VP total was negative, but since I had only 12 CSA cities/ports, I needed all three of the above (already had Memphis and Vicksburg) to get the win. We used no optional rules. The one change in Union strategy I would make would be a wolfpack of Screw Sloops to hunt down Raiders. They roamed free much of the game, and earned lots of VPs. Both of us love this game.

Patrick Kairn’s “Emotional Rollercoaster” – or when the Union is down, the only way is back up…to victory

-This from Patrick Kairns in Montreal

An emotional roller-coaster

My nephew and I played Rebel Raiders last night for the first time face-to-face. We had played a couple of times using the Vassal module. We started with the 1862 scenario with no optional rules, although the play book advised using some optionals. We wanted to see how differently the 1862 scenario would play from the Basic Game (1861). Did we EVER find out!! I was the Union and he was the CSA.

The game was an amazing roller-coaster ride! All the way through 1862 and half way through 1863 the Union could do NOTHING right and the CSA could do NOTHING wrong! My dice rolling was atrocious through that period or if I did get a good roll my nephew would get an exact same roll, therefore winning the assaults, speed rolls, etc. If I remember correctly I must have unsuccessfully assaulted New Orleans (the only city I needed to capture the Mississippi) about 5 times!! I had an amazingly difficult time (dice again) capturing coastal cities as well. So I turned my attention to destroying his Blockade Runners, and Raiders and was quite successful (at last). I had to. He topped-out many times at 50 VPs. He was on top of the world and I was about to burn the game...literally!

Then finally in mid-1863 the cards AND dice finally turned. His inability to accumulate VPs by sea and my capturing of Atlanta started to bite into his VP total during the CSA supply phase (rolling two dice & subtracting that result from his VPs.) When I did capture New Orleans and he was to roll 3 negative dice in his supply phase, and I had him discard R.E. Lee from his hand hurting his chances of defending Richmond, he surrendered in April 1864. Now the roles reversed completely. I was elated and he was crushed.....emotionally.

The game play was very exciting, at times very frustrating, but immensely entertaining. As the Union I learned to be patient, forget my bad dice rolling and concentrate on my plan, which was more or less trying to implement "The Anaconda Plan". To my relief it worked.

This was not a complete game, but very close to being one. As stated we played until April 1864 when we both agreed a Union victory was inevitable. I had whittled his VPs down to low 20's, and would have smashed through to Richmond in the 3-4 turns we had remaining. I was building 2 extra Cannon Pawns/turn availing me of 4 assaults/turn plus his Supply rolls would have done the CSA in.

It was a tremendous game. An exciting time was had by all. If I may add a bit of advice, do not get too high or discouraged with your play. the tables can turn extremely quickly.

Have fun, and if you don't own Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, it is worth the price of admission and belongs in your game collection.

…and then he added:

Thanks to both you and Fred for creating such a great game!