StanleyWheeler

Thus began the game of Combat Infantry Western Front by Columbia Games. This was the second playing of the first scenario. The first time through, the Americans smote the Germans with a great smiting. The first reason for that was that the dice favored the GIs and disfavored the Germans. The other reason was that the latter had been mistakenly deprived of three of their assets. This time, the Germans had their full complement of blocks and the dice evenly mistreated both sides.   The Americans had limited placement options. The Germans have more options. In the first run through they crowded near the beach to try to prevent the Americans off the sand. This time, they spread out because the rules place limits on how many units can fire through a hexside. Here they are at turn three. Although the American left and right were making progress, the center couldn't get any momentum.    By the end of turn 4, the Germans have been forced back on the American right, and the GIs we...

I finished reading Fred Saberhagen's Ardneh's Sword a few days ago. As with the earlier work in the series, Empire of the East , I stopped about 75 percent of the way through to read another book. I needed the palate cleansed before I could go on, because the pacing was off for me. The slow build to the conclusion was a steady diet of the same bland questions. I did give it 4 stars because it began and ended well--sort of. The story takes place a thousand years after the events of EotE. Chance, Rolf's heir is off with an expedition to find the titular item. Under the direction of a scholar, he cares for an owl that may have the capacity for speech, but the speech is a dialect of gibberish. The owl is wounded mysteriously while bringing Chance Ardneh's Key; this item comes and goes from around Chance's neck at will. Chance meets a young, redheaded boy and as well as a girl, the boy's twin, and a grandmotherly figure. Turns out that these three are the same entit...

  Speaking of Accidental Pirates , I was on The Spaceman and the Hafling podcast/show Saturday. We recorded yesterday; the show should go up on youtube in a couple weeks. Naturally, I will post a link when I get it. I finished reading Sharpe's Sword . The end made up for the slow middle. The end reflects the ending of the first book in the series with the hero slaying and taking the overalls of the French Imperial Guard cavalry colonel. -- Foreshadowing Sharpe fighting at Waterloo as a colonel? I don't know. I can't remember if he was a colonel at Waterloo, but I think he was. I used to have a very nice matched set of the original series but parted with them during one of our moves when I thought I would never read them again--that was 20 years ago. Now I read them in ebook if I find one that's an exceptionally good price and I feel the yearn to revisit Sharpe and the light company. Fun Fact History: During the summer of 1111, a Muslim coalition under Mawdud, atabeg of ...

  Again, one of my stories in Cirsova Magazine made the Tangent Online Recommended Reading List - for 2025 this time:  Reviewed by Seraph “ Drown Melancholy” by Stanley Wheeler It is unclear whether this is a case of inspiration being found anywhere, or the result of a dare, but if you challenged someone to write a story purely on the basis of several recently popular sea shanties, it might look something like this. Don’t let that sound like criticism, it came out fantastic, and I confess to greatly enjoying the aforementioned songs. The speaker is a cabin boy on Captain Edwards ship at the height of the transatlantic era of exploration, and heard some things he wasn’t meant to. Like any good pirate tale, superstition and the supernatural abound, bordering cleanly upon madness, and even an accursed treasure is too difficult to resist. The concept that sins committed above the waves are punished beneath them is classic, but the author does a great job of cleverly ...