Frisco Library Game Day - Dec 19th, 2009

I've been delinquent with posts here. Hopefully, I can catch up on some recent gaming activities over the holidays.

We had our last game day at the Frisco Public Library this Saturday, Dec 19th, 2009. Here is a slideshow with some pictures from the event.



Some highlights:
GMT Games donated a copy of Command & Colors: Ancients to be given away. Tod Wolf was the lucky winner.

From 2009_12_19: Frisco Library Game Day

We also had a White Elephant Game Exchange. You can see many of the games on the table in the background of this picture.

From 2009_12_19: Frisco Library Game Day

We also had the largest turn out for a library game day this year - 20+ people showed up for gaming!

Boardgamegeek Con Wargame Meetup List

A geeklist thread has been started to help in coordinating meeting to play wargames at BGG Con this November.

D-Day, June 6th, Game Day at Frisco Public Library

On Saturday, June 6th, we had our third game day at the Frisco Public Library. Thirteen people split up into five groups and played the following games:

FOR THE PEOPLE
Joseph Acker and Sean Harris managed to get in two games of FTP.

Sean: I got schooled in the ways of how the south lost the war.

JUNTA
The group of Al Hay, Mark Bausman, John Boone, Nevin Ball, and Mark Simonitch played Junta.

The game was very fun and the the table was loud with the trash talking. I believe the government changed 5 different times during the game. Nevin and Mark ended up tied for first place followed by Al, myself, and Mark.

Al left after the game finished so that left the remaining four for a game of Small World.


SMALL WORLD
Nevin, Mark S, Mark B, and I then played Small World. Small World is based on the earlier game Vinci.

Where Vinci had nameless empires, Small World adds a little flavor by using fantasy races each with their own special power mated with randomly drawn additional special ability. Some of the combinations that came up were Commando Hobbits, Berserk Humans, and Diplomatic Skeletons.

I owned Vinci before and traded it away as too dry so I was surprised by how much I liked Small World. It played quickly and the race/power combination's that turned up were fun. This must have been Nevin's day as he came in first again followed by Mark Bausman, myself, and Mark Simonitch.


HAMMER OF THE SCOTS
Steve Gallob and Tom first played Hammer of Scots where Tom's English defeated Steve's Scots.


TWILIGHT STRUGGLE
They then played a game of Twilight Struggle. I'm not sure how that one turned out.



WATERLOO
Mick Mickelsen brought the new Waterloo game by Martin Wallace and he and David Harrod gave it a try. I believe they played it twice both games ending in Mick's French being defeated.

Mick: The first game of Waterloo was a learning game. The British cavalry broke through the French columns causing great chaos. We rebooted. I continued as the French. They did better but still had made no significant progress when the Prussians started to arrive. Neither David nor I could see a clear path to victory for the French. Plan to double check the rules to make sure we were playing correctly. We then played Twilight Struggle. I played the USSR and David had the worse luck on the card draw. USSR seemed to control most of the map most of the game.

TWILIGHT STRUGGLE
Afterwards, they played Twilight Struggle.



UNHAPPY KING CHARLES
Brian Marrs, as the Royalists, took on Steven Sheasby's Parliamentarians in Unhappy King Charles.In the end the King got to keep his head by surviving till game end for the victory.

Brian: I had the Royalists versus Steven's Parliament. For most of the game, we fought over the Midlands and South regions. I briefly laid siege to London but the dreaded 1-6 die split went against me and I had to retreat.

The Scots made a brief appearance in the North, but Newcastle, with 3 brigades of Veterans won the first battle, and then I hit him with a card that not only drained 2 cards from his hand, but also 2 brigades from the Scots. That left them easy prey for Newcastle to finish him off.

The New Model Army(NMA) became available during the final two turns of the game. Steven received relatively few Operations cards and was unable to get the NMA into action. Cromwell spent some time chasing after Hopton in the South but could never quite catch him. Meanwhile, Byron was running amok in the East region converting spaces as he went.

In the end, Parliament controlled the South and Midlands, while the Royalists controlled Wales, North and East. I think Parliament controlled 3 resource areas and the Royalists controlled 5. Charles was happy and got to keep his head.

Plenty of tables at the Frisco Public Library McCallum Meeting Room.

Catching up with recent gaming activities

On Saturday, May 2nd, the North Texas Wargamers had our second meeting at the Frisco Public Library. Twelve people showed up for some boardgaming goodness.

Nevin Ball and Erik Nicely were going to play Panzerblitz: Hill of Death but Erik had bad directions and didn't make it so Nevin took off early after playing a single game of Neuroshima Hex! with Sean Harris. Sean's report on Neuroshima Hex!:

This is a great little wargame. Each game is different. I was blue and Nevin was green. Nevin had some early good draws and hit my HQ pretty good. I came back in the late game but I could not catch up. This is a great short wargame and can play up to four players. The randomness of the draws just adds to the strategy.

Other games played that day included:
1. For the People

• Joseph Acker - CSA
• Al Hay - USA

A brief synopsis by Joseph:

In summer of 1861 there was Foreign Intervention in favor of the C.S.A. Robert E. Lee captured Washington D.C. in the spring of 1862, giving the C.S.A. a sudden death victory due to Strategic Will.

2. For the People

• Brian Marrs
• Sean Harris

Sean Harris' report:

This was a learning game for me. so I basically got stomped, but I did learn alot. And apparently Brian is one of the really good players of For the people. So it is always good to get stomped by the best. I just hope he does not get tired of playing with rookies like me.

Brian and Sean had planned on playing a different game, Bloody Roads South, and in fact had set it up but there was some confusion of trying to play the game with a newer version of the rules so they decided to play For the People instead. For the People was the most popular game at this meeting; it was played three times Saturday.

3. Age of Conan

• Ken Mikolaj
• Mark Bausman
• David Harrod

I'm not sure how the factions were divided up but Mark said Ken won this one. This is one of my current favorites.

4. Fall Blau playtest

• Greg Blanchett
• Mark Simonitch

This is Greg's WW II Eastern Front game he has been working on. What better way to work out the kinks than playtest it with game designer Mark Simonitch!

5. Unhappy King Charles

• John Boone - Parliament Player
• Steven Sheasby - Royalist Player

My thoughts:

This was the first game for both of us so there was a lot of rulebook page flipping for the first couple of turns and I'm sure we still got a few things wrong and missed others - just like every game you play for the first time.

We had one and half turns left to go but called it after Steven lost a general in the midlands( I intercepted and he accepted battle) leaving only King Charles on the map in the North region facing off with the Lord General with his 6+ brigade army. At this point, we agreed it was time for the Fat Lady to come out and sing. In the previous turn, Oliver Cromwell decisively defeated Prince Rupert in the South which allowed Parliament to clean up down there taking all South areas except one.

The early pattern was that Parliament controlled the South West (East and most of the South Region) while the Royalist controlled the North West (Most of the West and North Regions) and we split in the Midlands Region.



Most of the fighting occurred in the line from the South-Midland-North Region. There is a possibility for auto victory for each side. The Royalist player automatically loses if King Charles surrenders but he was hard to run down up in the North in our game and bringing in a large enough army to have a chance to do anything requires 3 OPs cards or Minor/Major Campaigns. The Parliament player can lose of the Royalists manage to take London and hold it for two turns but I would think this would be hard to do.

Battles end up bring indecisive affairs for the most part, either not occurring at all because one side disperses leaving the field of battle or in battles that do actually happen resulting in "draws" with loses of one or two brigades at most. Even Major and Decisive victories only result in the loss of two brigades at most but they also allow drawing strategy cards from the deck (Major -1 card, Decisive - 2 cards) which the victor must either discard or play immediately to finish off their turn.



I had fun playing it and want to play it again.

ps - Steven thinks my Alien Dice are loaded. I rolled a few opportune sixes in the game but, I also rolled consecutive ones on the siege I was doing up North too Steven.

Some groups finished their first game and started another.
6. For the People

• Joseph Acker - USA
  
• Al Hay - CSA
  

Joseph and Al switched sides and played FtP again they enjoyed the game so much!
Again, Joseph's thoughts:

By end of spring of 1862 the Union had taken West Virginia and Missouri. There was a small Union force in Columbus, GA and another one in Little Rock, AK. The Union also had taken much of Virginia; the C.S.A. still held Richmond, but prospects were very grim, and the C.S.A. conceded.

7. Warriors of God

• Brian Marrs
• Sean Harris

Brian's thoughts:

We had to end this early due to time. I was really impressed with this game. The leaders mortality adds another dimension to this lite wargame. It insures each game is different. I lost on points but I would play this again in a heartbeat.

8. Twilight Struggle

• Ken Mikolaj
• David Harrod

This one seems to be a popular game with wargamers and eurogamers alike.

So ended another good gaming session at the library with plans for another sometime in June.

North Texas Wargamers at Frisco Library - 3/14/2009

On Saturday, March 14th, twelve of us showed up at the Frisco Public Library for a meeting of the North Texas Wargamers. The Vivian Stark McCallum meeting room was the place to be from 10 AM to 3 PM for some boardgaming goodness.

The meeting room is quite nice with plenty of space and enough tables and chairs to hold a dozen more gamers comfortably. After a half hour of catching up, since we haven't had a meeting in a while, we divided up into four separate games:

1. Successors (GMT Games edition) - John Boone, Mervyn Dejecacion, Nevin Ball, Steven Sheasby
2. Storm Over Stalingrad (Multiman Publishing) - Al Hay, Greg Blanchett
3. The Napoleonic Wars (GMT Games) - Joseph Acker, David Harrod, Ken Mikolaj
4. Twilight Struggle (GMT Games) - Sean Harris, Steve Gallob

With the exception of Successors, the other games finished early allowing another round of games which included:
1. 1960: The Making of the President (Z-Man Games) - Joseph Acker, Ken Mikolaj
2. Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! - Russia 1941-1942 (Phalanx/Academy Games) - David Harrod, David MacAlpine
3. Manoeuvre (GMT Games) - Sean Harris, Steve Gallob

As you can see games by GMT Games were in the majority which is expected given the group's interest in historical board wargaming and the proliferation of games put out by GMT Games since their founding in 1990.

Sometime during the gaming festivities, John Kranz, founder of the ConsimWorld website, showed up to meet the guys. John relocated to the Dallas area from Arizona where he has hosted the annual ConsimWorld Expo for board wargamers in Tempe, AZ.; this was his first time to show up at one of our gatherings and hopefully not the last. Below are some after action reports (AARs) on some of the games played.

1. Twilight Struggle - A card driven game (CDG) simulation of the 40 year Cold War between the two Super Powers, the United States and the former USSR. I did a more exhaustive write up of the mechanics of game play in an earlier post here for those interested.

From Sean Harris' point of view:
"[The] U.S. was behind throughout most of the game. Every major area was very chaotic but the Russian got some key [victory points] in the Early war and Mid war. The U.S. did not make any headway in the Middle East until it did not matter. The U.S. got hit with Quagmire [an Event Card] and that made Russia's progress in Central America fairly easy. The late war began and Russia won on turn 8."

2. 1960: the Making of the President - Yes, a boardgame about the 1960 Presidential Election between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. Why play a game on a subject when you already know the outcome? So you can see if you can do better of course! This game is from one of the designers who designed Twilight Struggle, Jason Matthews.

Joseph Acker's perspective:
"[The game] went the full distance. Nixon took the lead in the early rounds, pursuing a strategy of ignoring the East and focusing on the South and the Midwest. Kennedy was fortunate to win two of the three debate rounds and was then able to dominate the last two rounds, especially the last round with a final whistle stop campaign. The final result was fairly close but a definite win for Kennedy."

3. The Napoleonic Wars - Another card driven wargame - this time in the Napoleonic era when all of Europe tried to stop the steam roller of France under its greatest general Napoleon Bonaparte.

Joseph Acker's perspective:
"Nappy lasted one turn. France had the Capitulation card, so he gambled and made too strong [a move] on Vienna which was defended by a combined Austro-Russian grand army. Kutuzov routed Napoleon in both attacks, and Russia gained a resource each time. England and France both conceded the game [Russian victory?] at the end of the turn since France was badly weakened and had no hope of gaining an ally since it was a three player game."

4. Storm Over Stalingrad - World War II epic battle for Stalingrad. Not a card driven wargame but uses the same Area-Impulse system made popular in the games Breakout Normandy, Storm Over Arnhem, and Monty's Gamble Market Garden.

Greg Blanchett's perspective
"It was Al's first time playing so we did a standard bid of three [victory points?] and let him play the Soviets. I had hot dice on the first turn but things turned sour. Cards were not shuffled enough and I didn't take Mamayev Kurgan [an important objective] as I should have. He had four VP areas left and I was closing to take take two more on the last turn... If I had drawn an Overrun card it would have been possible. Al played a good game, exploiting the system to its gamey reaches..."

5. Successors - My favorite multi-player card driven wargame, recently redone by GMT Games. I have both the new edition and the original Avalon Hill Game Company edition. This is a multi-player game covering the wars of Alexander the Great's Successors after he died unexpectedly in Babylon leaving no direction and no apparent heir. My past entries about Successors are here. A random distribution of generals resulted in the following assignments:

Mervyn - Antipater(2L,2R,Macedonia - Pella); Lysimachus(2L,2M,Thrace)
Nevin - Antigonus(2L, 2M, Phrygia - Celaenae); Leonnatus(2L,2M, Hellspontine)
John - Craterus(2L, 2R, Cilicia); Peithon(2L, 2M, Media - Ecbatana)
Steven - Perdiccus(4R,2E, Babylonia - Babylon); Ptolemy(2L,2M, Egypt - Memphis)

Note: Numbers are the number of combat units (CU), L = Loyal Macedonians, M = Mercenary troops, R = Royal Macedonians, E = Elephant troops. Names in parenthesis are starting Province - starting location.

My perspective:
Turn 1- The usual first turn card play to place Political Control (PC) markers to expand everyone's holdings and no battles except Mervyn's run in with the Independent Army in Greece. I grab one of Alexander's heirs, Heracles, in Damascus.

Turn 2 - Steven buries Alexander in Babylon instead of trying to run the gauntlet to Pella. This effectively makes this a "crown the Regent" or "try to get the most territory, i.e. victory points, game". Mervyn spends most of the early turn capturing Greece and goes in to the lead in victory points (VPs). Mervyn also cashes in VPs for most fleets with control of the Macedonian and Athens fleets. Nevin raises a force in Persis province and builds a Loyal Macedonian there trying to be a pain in my backside threatening possible move against me in Media or against Steven in Susiana and eventually Babylonia. Mervyn then grabs Olympias from under Nevin's nose and marries her to one of his Generals strengthening his legitimacy bid as the rightful heir of Alexander's empire. Nevin is greatly disturbed Mervyn is messing around in his provinces. Nevin, in the later half of the turn, combines units from both of his Generals and defeats both of Mervyn's Generals piecemeal sending them to the Dispersed box. Now Macedonia lays completely open to Nevin. Nevin marches victoriously in to Pella but doesn't have time to take it by turn end. Steve is content not moving his Generals most of the turn but instead sends a small force to try to take the West African province of Cyrene. I gain control of the Phoenician and Cypriot fleets trying not to fall too far behind Mervyn's naval supremacy in the Med. Peithon hangs out in his own province of Media for most of the turn eyeing Nevin's force south in Persis but then heads west to Mesopotamia to attempt to break the PC marker stalemate there. Craterus ends up in Cyprus, gaining the Cypriot fleet, then goes to Rhodes thinking either to attempt to get the fleet in Rhodes or move against Nevin or Steven. When I'm in Rhodes, Ptolemy(Steve) starts invading Phonecia for easy pickings and I eventually lose the Phoenician fleet. Perdiccus(Steven) defeats Peithon(me) in Mesopotamia (Arbela), kills Peithon and sends my 3 Loyals to dispersed box; this is when I definitely decide to go against Steven and march to Egypt. In this battle, since I had more Legitimacy than Steven his 4 Royal Macedonian CUs (8 combat strength) would sit out the battle; this would give me an advantage in combat strength provided Steven rolled average for his Elephants. Steven rolls a twelve giving him 8 combat strength of elephants and I end up losing the battle. Moving into Rhodes in the first place was part of the possible circle back and head to Egypt plan but since Nevin had so thoroughly spanked Mervyn in Thrace I was having second thoughts about our alliance. Once Steven hit me in Mesopotamia and Cyprus I decided to continue with my first choice and go after Steven - 6 VPs in an undefended Egypt is just to good to pass up. At the end of the turn, I'm still low man on the totem pole for VPs so make Steven go first again. I believe Nevin is now the Usurper.

Turn 3 - Ptolemy (Steven) starts moving back toward Egypt. Mervyn spanks Nevin's big force in Pella (Antigonus) sending it to dispersed box and Nevin captures the rest of Hellespontine for 2 more VPs. I successfully seige Egypt's capital, Memphis, denying Steven the 6 VPs for Egypt. We have to call the game after first round of cards of turn 3 as our time for the room is up.

The game is pretty close at this point, Nevin leads in VPs but he and Steve are low in legitimacy, after giving up their Champion status, and are now Successors. Mervyn and I keep our Champion status since we are such nice guys! Since I had higher legitimacy than Steven I think I could have defeated Ptolemy this turn (he's not going to roll double sixes for elephants again is he?). With my combine legit and VPs I think I would have had a chance for a Regent victory at the start of turn 4. I definitely want to play this one again.

Game Day at Mark Woodson's House, Saturday Feb 28, 2009

News spreads quickly throughout the Empire that the Emperor has died. The circumstances are still unclear but he was involved in an "accident" leaving a power vacuum in the Empire. Now the nobles of the various houses have begun their struggle to position themselves to become the Galactic Emperor.

From 2009_02_28 - Galactic Emperor

Of all the noble houses, only four have a real chance to gain the throne, House Woodson, House Dejecacion, House Bausman, and House Boone. All factions have established their power bases on Omega Sector systems to use as jumping off points for further exploration and expansion into the newly discovered Omega Sector.

It's Hard to Conquer the Galaxy on $5 a Day!

From 2009_02_28 - Galactic Emperor

Another game of Galactic Emperor at Mark Woodson's house. We had played before at Mark Bausman's  place back in November of 2008. This was my second time playing and the game ended up pretty close in the final scoring. Mark Bausman pulled out the win, his first he remarked, with 51 points followed by Mervyn and I tied at 49 points, and Mark Woodson in 4th place with 47 points. Mark B was able to score 13 points in the final scoring round for a come from behind win.

From 2009_02_28 - Galactic Emperor

After Galactic Emperor ended, we played a quick 4-player team game of Neuroshima Hex!, Humans (Outpost and Hegemony) vs. Mutants (Moloch and Borgo). Mervyn (Moloch) and I (Borgo) ganged up on Mark B's Hegemony HQ and destroyed it for the team win. Mark Woodson's Outpost HQ was undamaged at game end. At one point, Mervyn and I were scoring a combined 7 hits on Mark's HQ every battle. At that rate, it didn't take long to knock it down to 0 damage points!

Saturday, Feb 21, 2009 - Hammer of the Scots

Nevin called me on Thursday evening and asked if I had 3 hours to spare on Saturday for a quick game. After confirming with Dana that I did, 8^) , we agreed to meet at his house, at noon, for a game of Hammer of the Scots. I had not played the game in about 2 years but the rules are short so I gave them a quick read through Friday evening. When I arrived we rolled for sides and I drew the English against Nevin's Scots. For those unfamiliar with the game, Hammer of the Scots falls into the block wargame category made popular by Colombia Games. Block wargames use blocks, surprise surprise, to add an element of the fog of war to the game. During the game the blocks are faced such that only the owner of the unit can see the units current stats. The block's current stats are revealed, in the case of Hammer, only when a battle is resolved. Hammer of the Scots is a game about the Scottish rebellion, think Mel Gibson and Braveheart, against the English in the 13th century. The game has two scenarios, "Braveheart" and "The Bruce", and a campaign game,  where both scenarios are played back to back. The "Braveheart" scenario is the first, chronologically, of the two and occurs while William Wallace is still alive while "The Bruce" takes place after Wallace's execution when Robert the Bruce takes up the mantle for Scottish independence.

Braveheart - FREEDOM!
Nevin and I decided to play the first scenario and setup according to the rules. We made our first mistake when both of us left off one of our starting nobles from the map. Nevin forgot the Bruce noble and I forgot to place Dunbar I believe. After setup, Nevin dealt out the first hand of 5 cards each and we were off. Each turn of Hammer represents the passing of 1 year which is divided up into 5 game turns that consists of the play of one card face down from each players hand, in the Card Phase, and then revealed simultaneously. Each card in the deck will either be a number card, numbered from 1 to 3, or an event. The person who plays the higher valued number card or event card goes first with the English player winning ties; although, I don't know if "winning" is the correct term as oftentimes it is a disadvantage having to move first. The revealed cards are then resolved in the Movement Phase. If an event card was played, read the event and resolve it as instructed on the card. If a number card was played then you may move some or none of your units on the map possibly initiating battles. Before explaining movement I will have to talk about the map for a bit.

From On Board Wargaming

The Map and Movement - the Scottish Highlands are a B*$!#h to Take!
The map is a representation of Scotland and the Northern part of England that borders Scotland. Scotland itself is divided up into areas with either a red or black border. Most of the areas are marked with a heraldic shield indicating which noble controlled this area; this is the Noble's home area that they will return to during the Winter phase. All areas have a stacking limit indicated by a number in a black castle icon withing the area. The stacking limit is the number of blocks that may remain in an area during the Winter phase. Lastly, some areas also contain a major Scottish Cathedral indicated by a white cross in a blue circle; these areas increase Scottish stacking limits by one. Areas sharing a common border are adjacent for movement purposes. All blocks within an area's boundary, within Scotland, are considered one "group". On a numbered move card, the number indicates how many "groups" of units a player may move in that game turn. For example, If I played a "2" card I could move units from two separate areas during my game turn. All units, except the Norse unit, have a movement rating printed on their block either a 2 or 3. This is the maximum number of areas a unit may move when activated to move. Moving into enemy occupied areas and crossing red borders causes a unit to immediately end its movement. Units starting in England have special movement rules in that they are treated as "groups" individually so a "1" movement card would allow only one unit to move across the border into Scotland. Black and Red borders also regulate the number of units that can cross that border in a game turn. Six units may cross a black border in a game turn while only two units may cross a red border. The red borders represent the more difficult mountainous terrain limiting the number of units that may cross it and how far they can move. If your units are moved into an area containing enemy units a battle will be initiated. The battle is resolved after both players have resolved their cards for the Movement Phase of the game turn.

Battles - How William Got His Groove Back
Eventually hostilities will occur between the players; these battles are resolved in the Battle Phase of the game turn. It is one of the ways to get Nobles to switch to your side. If multiple Battles need to be resolved the first player designates the order. Battles last for three rounds. If the attacker has not eliminated the defender after three rounds the attacker must retreat and the battle ends. All units have a combat rating and a current strength. Combat ratings are a letter number combination such as A3 or C2. The number is the number that must be rolled less than or equal to on a six-sided die (d6) to "hit" the opponent and the letter is when it fires. "A" blocks fire before "B" which fire before "C" rated blocks. Withing the same letter rating the defender fires before the attacker. So a typical round would go as follows, Defender "A" blocks fire first, the attacker assigns hits, Attacker "A" blocks fire, the defender assigns hits and it continues with the "B" and "C" rated blocks; that completes one round of combat. When it is a block's turn to fire it may instead chose to retreat. Blocks must retreat to friendly or empty areas obeying border crossing limits in a combat round and they may not retreat across a border last used by the enemy to enter the battle area. A block's strength can range from 1 to 4 "pips". As a unit takes damage it is rotated so the number of "pips" uppermost represents its present strength. A one pip unit taking one more hit is eliminated and removed from the map. If the unit is a Noble it switches sides at strength "1" and comes back into the battle as a reserve unit. If the unit is not a Noble block it will either be permanently eliminated or be returned to the players draw pool depending on the rule for that unit, i.e. if the William Wallace block is eliminated it is gone for the rest of the game. If multiple groups of blocks on a player side enter an area across different borders one of those groups will be designated the main force and the rest will be reserves which enter the battle in the next round. After a battle has been resolved, the victor may "regroup" his surviving units. Regrouping allows the player to move any number of his surviving units to any adjacent friendly or empty areas within the border crossing limits. Regrouping is optional. After all battles have been resolved in the Battle Phase a special Winter Turn occurs.

From On Board Wargaming

Winter Turn - All Good Things Must Come to an End
In the Winter Turn, all nobles return to their home areas on the map, armies are checked for over stacking in all areas in Scotland, players may then receive replacements, and a new hand of five cards are dealt out for the next year turn if no one has won and the game has not ended. At the beginning of the Winter Turn, all English controlled nobles are returned to their home areas. If a home area is enemy occupied the noble switches over to the Scottish side, at current strength. All Scottish nobles are then returned to their home areas and likewise if their home area is enemy occupied the noble switches sides. If there is a Scottish King on the map he may withdraw to any friendly or neutral (empty) area on the map with a Cathedral, disband, or remain where he is. The English player may then disband some of his units (except nobles). English Archers, Knights, and Hobelars must disband; English Infantry have the option of disbanding or remaining in Scotland within an area's castle limits. If Edward I is in Scotland he may "winter" there; if he does all red blocks stacked with him, except nobles, may remain in Scotland regardless of the castle limit of the area. Edward I may not winter in Scotland in back to back turns. If Edward does not winter in Scotland he must disband. The Scots player now winters his remaining units. If Wallace is on the map he may remain where he is or move to Selkirk forest where he may gain up to 2 replacement points. The Scottish player now disbands all of his units that exceed an area's castle limits. Both sides may now use replacement points on existing units (both sides) or to bring on new units (Scottish only). After replacements, the English player conducts his feudal levy of troops in England, provided Edward I is not wintering in Scotland. Finally a new hand of cards for next turn are dealt out to both players.

Highlights and Mistakes - William Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Unfortunately, we did not get to finish the scenario; we had one more year turn to play through but we ran out of time and I had to leave. When we stopped, we both controlled 7 nobles apiece. William Wallace had been eliminated but Nevin had crowned John Balliol King so it was still a close game and could have gone either way. For some reason Galloway just did not want to switch over to the English. He always managed to survive the battles and finally switched sides after a successful play of the Herald Event. Edward wintered twice in Scotland with a good size force but in both instances the year ended on the first game turn due to event cards being played by both sides. The army must have thought they were on holiday. There was only one big, at least 6 blocks on a side, battle, initiated by the English. It occurred in Fife on the next to last year turn; I was hoping to kill some nobles so they would defect to my side but it ended in a stalemate with both sides units badly injured and the English retreating back to Mentieth.

As usual with games we haven't played in a while, or in new games we play for the first time, we missed some rules. Here are the ones I, as the English player, played incorrectly and some that may have been played wrong.

1. Units can not winter in England. They must disband at the end of the turn.

2. The English King must disband at the end of the turn if he does not winter in Scotland.

3. If Edward I winters in Scotland the English player does not get a levy in England for the next turn.

4. Losses due to the Pillage Event Card are distributed exactly like combat losses, i.e. they must be applied to the strongest units.

5. English levy units entering Scotland from England do not have to stop when crossing the black border lines. They only have to stop moving when they cross the Red Dotted border line. I played this wrong the whole game and it slowed down my levies moving into Scotland.

Thoughts for the English - What John Would Do Next Time
I think the only thing I did right as the English in this game was maintaining control of Mentieth. Mentieth is the gateway to the North or South of Scotland depending which way you are going. Of course Fife is another nice area to control. 

1. I would try to convert Bruce and Galloway quicker next time as the English. They were a constant thorn in the English side. Once they are converted, I would move them out of their home areas and combine them with other English blocks. I think Nevin drew the Herald Event at least three times in our game and Galloway or Bruce seem to be his favorite target; fortunately for me he failed all his rolls but if he was successful and they were stacked with other English at least there would be a chance to convert them back in the ensuing combat.

2. I did not bring infantry out of England quick enough early in the game. Of course I was playing the movement rule for crossing the Scot/English Border incorrectly but I was still too slow. You need these guys to occupy enemy noble areas so the Scottish nobles will convert during the winter turn. I never really got a chance to use them in this capacity. Most of the time they moved into Dunbar and then moved into Mentieth.

3. I would put up more of a fight when the Scots go after the English nobles starting in Argyll and Atholl. Once they are converted it is tough to get back in there with sufficient strength to battle them do to the red borders. 

It was a fun game and I hope to pull it out more often than every 2 years.

What Wargames I'm Interested In for 2009

Happy New Year and may your 2009 gaming be better than 2008! After perusing the latest new releases and pre-release offerings from the various wargame companies I thought I'd list the new titles that interest me. In 2008 my interest in pre-WW2 games was re-awakened so I will list those titles first but in no particular order of preference and save the WW2 offerings for last.

1. Unhappy King Charles (GMT Games): A two player card driven game (CDG) on the English Civil Wars. From what I've read and seen my first impression is that it is a return to the concepts, shorter rules and quicker play times, of the earlier CDGs like We the People and Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. This is what I find attractive about the game along with its subject matter. As I get older, I prefer face to face games and hence games that can be finished in one sitting preferable in 3-4 hours. This one looks like it will satisfy that itch. The game is designed by Charles Vasey.

2. Washington's War (GMT Games): Another two-player CDG in fact a remake of one of my favorites, We the People, and thus, must be on my must buy games of 2009. Not just a reprint but a revamping by the original designer, Mark Herman, one of the top wargame designers in my opinion. As you can deduce from the titles of the game it covers the American Revolutionary War. The original, We the People, introduced a couple of new systems one of them the concept of Battle Cards to resolve combat instead of rolling dice on a combat results table (CRT). From posts on both Boardgamegeek and ConsimWorld, people either love Battle Cards or hate them. Washington's War will not use Battle Cards; instead using competitive die rolls with a multitude of die roll modifiers (DRMs) based on army strength, leadership, naval support, etc., to determine a winner and then another set of die rolls to determine losses. It will be interesting to see how this works but I was in the "love it" camp of the old Battle Cards system.

3. Great Campaigns of the Thirty Years War (GMT Games): A two-player game of operational warfare in the 17th century taking place on a point to point map of southern Germany. Turns represent a month made up of a number of impulses representing about a week each. The playing time is listed as 5-6 hours (full campaign?) so it may not see the table that often but it is another low complexity game. The listing for it does show some battle games will be included so hopefully it may have some good quicker battle games to play when you don't have time for the full campaign. The designer is Ben Hull famous for his Musket and Pike battle series which is another set of games, taking place in the same time period but on the tactical scale, I like but haven't had the opportunity to play in a while.

4. Sekigahara: Unification of Japan (GMT Games): This is a two-player block game of campaigns to unite Japan in the 1600s. The designer is Matt Calkins a fairly new game designer I'm guessing as I've haven't heard of him before. I really don't know a lot about the game but its pluses are it's a wargame, it's supposed to play in 3 hours, it's a block game, the components look very nice, and it's about feudal Japan. What more do you want? Ok, good game play would be nice so I hope this one doesn't disappoint. The combat system uses cards for resolution instead of dice.

5. Spartacus (Compass Games): Finally, a game not being produced by GMT Games; although there is nothing wrong with that! GMT Games seem to be the most prolific of the wargame publishers and what is great about them is that their quality of output doesn't seem to be affected by the quantity of games they put out each year. Bravo to them! It will be interesting to see if the current economic situation will put a damper on their output. Anyway, back to Spartacus. Spartacus almost flew under the radar for me, mainly because it is being published by Compass Games. Compass is a fairly new wargame publisher who's most successful title seems to be the solitaire game of the WWII allied submarine campaign in the Pacific, Silent War. Spartacus is a two player CDG (I must like CDGs) pitting the Sertorians against the might of Republican Rome around 80 BC. The Sertorian player's goal is to conquer Rome itself or simply break up the Roman Empire while the Roman player tries to hold the empire together both militarily and politically. The game designer, John B. Firer, worked with Mark Simonitch on the second edition rules for Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage and the third edition of Successors both favorites of mine. On the strength alone of that pedigree, Spartacus deserves a look from me. The point to point map covers Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Asia and the combat system can use either Battle Cards (optional) or conventional die rolling.

Finally, we come to the offerings covering World War 2. I have three games each one covering a different theatre of the war, purely by chance, the Pacific, the Eastern Front, and the Western Front.

6. Kawaguchi's Gamble: Edson's Ridge (Multiman Publishing, MMP): MMP's claim to fame is getting the rights to continue publishing Advanced Squad Leader modules and supplements after the old Avalon Hill Game company folded and was bought by Hasbro. Within the last 4 or 5 years they have also started publishing both new games and reprinting games from both the Gamer's line, which merged with MMP, and the International Gamer's Series which is the brain child of Adam Starkweather, whom I had the privilege of meeting back in 2004 at ConsimWorld Expo when he was still play testing his monster baby, Devil's Cauldron: The Battles for Arnhem and Nijmegen. Kawaguchi's Gamble is a two-player game of the battle for Edson's Ridge on the island of Guadalcanal during WW2 1942 designed by Ken Dunn. Ken Dunn is also the designer of the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits which have helped to introduce new players to the ASL series of games. Kawaguichi's Gamble uses the area-impulse mechanic first introduced by Avalon Hill in the game Storm Over Arnhem and continued with great success in Breakout Normandy and most recently in Storm Over Stalingrad published by MMP. The area map depicts Edson's ridge and the area surrounding the jungle south of Henderson Airfield. The 5-turn game playing time is listed between 2.5 to 3 hours and pits 3 battalions (3000 men) of Japanese attempting to retake Henderson Airfield but first they must get through the 800 US Marines, on Edson's ridge, in their way.

My last two games on my list are both designed by Mark Simonitch. Mark wears many hats being one of the principles of GMT Games, their lead artist, and a game designer. Other designs by Mark include Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage which was reprinted in 2007 by Valley Games, Successors which was reprinted in 2008 by GMT Games, Ukraine '43(GMT Games), and Ardennes '44(GMT Games).

7. Caucasus Campaign: The German-Russian War in the Caucasus, 1942 (GMT Games): The Caucasus Campaign covers the German-Russian war in the Caucasus in 1942 when Hitler sent two German armies to seize the desperately needed oil fields in the Caucasus to support the German war machine. It is a standard hex and counter wargame that will include both a tournament scenario listed as taking 2 hrs along with the full 14-turn game that is listed as taking 5 hrs to complete.

8. Normandy '44 (GMT Games): As you can guess by the title Normandy '44 covers the allied invasion of Normandy France in 1944. The 2-player, hex and counter game covers the first 21-days of the invasion at the regimental scale using a simplified rule system from Ardennes '44.

Well that's my list for now. Maybe later I can think of a couple more games to round out my list to ten.

Saturday, Dec 13th - Senji and Citadels

The day started off with a trip to Madness Comics and Games down in Plano. They are having a buy 2 get one free sale so I met Mervyn Dejecacion and Nevin Ball down there. Since we always usually play each other we coordinated our purchases so as not to get duplicates. I bought Kingsburg, having never played it but Nevin said it is good, Mervyn got Android, and Nevin picked up Neuroshima Hex!. Merv and Nevin then followed me back to my house where we waited on Mark Simonitch to arrive to play a 4-player game of Senji.

Mervyn and I had played a three player game with Mick Mickelsen at BGG Con 2008 and decided it would play better with more people. BGG Con was our first time playing it so we played a couple things wrong but still were willing to give the game another go. After today I can say that it does definitely play better with more people. A random draw of the factions resulted in Mark being Purple, Nevin being Black, Mervyn Red and I Green.

The object of the game is to be designated the daimyo by the emperor at the end of the game. The daimyo is the person with the most honor at game end which ends once someone achieves or exceeds 60 honor points. Mark started off with an 8 honor Samurai so had first crack of hosting the emperor. In Senji, the player hosting the emperor decides the turn order of many phases so it is a powerful position and the rules even state "you must not let a player host the emperor several times in a row or he will soon be victorious. You have been warned!"

Mark soon added on to his lead and was able to host the emperor for 3 turns. I had tied him for honor at the end of turn 2 but the hosting family gets to decide the tie breaker. Around turn 3, one could see how the players were going to try to achieve their goals. Mark and Mervyn were heavy into collecting Hanafuda cards which are basically the resources in the game. Nevin was pursuing a balanced strategy of collecting resources and building up to attack, and I was going for a military strategy forgetting about collecting resources. In the first turn, I lost one of my initial provinces and being sandwiched between the other three players on the map I had to build up my forces, forced into forgoing collecting resources.

At the end of turn 3, I had claimed the right to host the emperor and I kept it until the end of the game. By this time I had honor somewhere in the forties with the other players in the twenties and lower. My fear was that Mark or Mervyn would make a big jump in the end with their Hanafuda card resource strategy if I couldn't end the game quickly by military victories. As the game went on my forces were slowly depleted and Mervyn moved up to a close second place with Mark and Nevin taking 3rd and 4th, 25-30+ honor points behind.

On the final turn, I was at 57 points but did not seen any good attacking prospects. Merv made a last ditch attack on Mark and closed in to around 53 points. During the Autumn phase Mark made his move turning in resources (Hanafuda cards)worth 26 points and some family members for another 6 or 7 points to jump to 69 honor points. Mervyn could only turn in a set worth 4 honor, ending up with 57 honor, and I could only muster up 4 honor with family members to end at 61 honor. I believe Nevin ended up somewhere in the forty range.

It was a great game and a nice come from behind win by Mark. I definitely want to play this one again.

As Nevin had only and hour left to kill, we played Citadels to end the evening. I completed my 8 buildings first and managed to score enough for the win with Mark a close second.

Boardgamegeek Con 2008

Nov 20-23rd was the 4th year of Boardgamegeek Con. I've attended, since it is here in the DFW area, for all 4yrs and it keeps getting bigger and better every year. This year it seemed that the number of wargames played took a large leap from the previous years past, which is a good thing in my opinion.

I like to play the longer games at the con and try to make a geeklist after the con every year. Here is this years BGG Con 2008 geeklist and links to the past 3 years geeklists too, 2007 (Kuhrusty took up the mantle that year),2006, and 2005.

Mark Woodson, a local in our game group, created a geeklist this year too, BGG.CON@WAR geeklist.

The other two non-wargames I played at the con were Ghost Stories and Dominion. Both seemed to be popular games at the con. I liked Dominion but did not like Ghost Stories; it seemed boring to me.

I was so busy playing games that I didn't browse the vendor boths until Saturday afternoon. I bought, Senji, Formula D, Caledea, and a used copy of Mustangs in the Saturday morning flea market.

Galactic Emperor - Saturday 11/15/08

Played Galactic Emperor (GE) at Mark Bausman's house today with Mark Bausman, Mark Simonitch, Mark Woodson, and Robert(Bob) Woodson. Mark had hosted GE before but this was the first time I was able to make it to his house.

Galactic Emperor is a space exploration and conquest game from CrossCut Games and their first foray into boardgames. I give their first attempt two thumbs up.

On first playing, it reminds me of Twilight Imperium III (TI3) "light". This isn't a bad thing in my opinion as is seemed to play faster and I don't think the turtling that seemed to be more apt in TI3 is present. I have not played TI3 with the Shattered Empire expansion, but I heard it fixes some of the problems with turtling in TI3.

Being the newbie to the game I consistently came in last in the scoring rounds through most of the middle game so lucked out by not being a threat. In the turn before last I was able to score 3 points for destroying 3 Empire tokens and then scored 9 more VPs in the final turn scoring round to come in second, 1 point behind Bob's 39VPs.

Half way through the game, it appeared to me that having a good supply of Food producing planets is a good idea as Bob was never strapped for money. In the end this was the margin of victory as the player with the most money at the end of the game is awarded 2VPs.

RISK again on Saturday - with Cody, Claire, and Catherine

The kids wanted to play Risk again today. Dad was almost knocked out early after my victory Friday but managed to stay in the game. We called it after Catherine knocked off Claire in her last redoubt in Australia. After taking Claire's cards Catherine was entitled to place 95 armies!

Early on in the game, Claire managed to take Australia, while Cody grabbed South America. Catherine was Queen of Asia for a turn and I took North America for a couple of turns. North and South America changed hands quite a few times before Catherine finally took control of Africa and South America at the end before knocking off Claire.

RISK - With Cody and Claire

Claire wanted to play Risk last night so we pulled out Cody's copy and had a 3-player slugfest. My Red Army came out victorious launching their attacks from South America and Australia.

Saturday, June 15, 2008: Successors III Playtest and a little bit of Fury of Dracula

Mark Simonitch has been putting the final touches on Successors III which is expected to come out this summer (July according to Mark, I think). I hosted the final playtest at my house on Saturday. To feed the brave army commanders, Nevin Ball, Mervyn Dejecacion, Mark Simonitch, and myself we had a Chick-fil-A chicken wrap platter, a chicken nugget platter, M&Ms, Chips, Pretzels, bottled water, sodas, tea, and beer.

We played the first two turns taking notes as this would be the example of play in the Successors III rulebook. Nevin provided some great combat examples illustrating how one's fortune can turn with the roll of a die and the play of an event card in two separate battles! Way to go Nevin!

We then played a few turns of Fury of Dracula. Since I and Mervyn had not played it in a while and Nevin and Mark had not played it at all we stumbled through the turns and decided to quit while we were ahead. I did manage, as Dracula, to move such that I had no legal move at one point! I thought we had broke the game, but later found out, after re-reading the rules, that there is a rule that covers that, the "cheating rule".

What is this cheating rule you ask? In the rulebook on page 13:

Crossing His Own Trail
In the unlikely event that
Dracula maneuvers himself into a position
where he has no legal move, he is punished as
though he were caught cheating (see
“Cheating,” on page 25) and then takes his
turn as normal (assuming he didn’t lose the
game).

And then the cheating rule itself on page 25:

Cheating
Hopefully, the Dracula player will never cheat
on purpose. But if he makes a move and later
finds out that he accidentally moved along a
rail route or made a similarly illegal move, it’s
important to undo the damage and get the
game underway again. However, Dracula also
needs to suffer a penalty to make up for the
Hunters’ lost time. We suggest the following
penalty for a Dracula player who catches himself
(or is caught) cheating. Although it may
seem severe, the hope is that the Dracula player
will quickly learn to be more careful in the
future.
• Dracula immediately clears his Trail down
to one card and reveals his current location.
• Additionally, Dracula loses Blood as
though he had just suffered a “Killed”
result in combat. However, if this would
reduce him to 0 Blood, it only reduces
him to 1 Blood instead.

I would still like to give this game another go in the future.

Vikings and Germans and Brits, Oh my!

Nevin came over on Sunday, 5/18, and we played his copy of Fire and Axe: A Viking Saga. Something is just not right with a Viking game when the winner, Nevin, is the Viking player who does more settling and trading than raiding! And you call yourself a Viking!

Nevin came in first with 200+ something points; I squeaked by Cody for second place by 1 point with 184 points to his 183. Both Nevin and Cody did more of the trading/settling actions while I concentrated on trading and raiding. I really thought Cody was doing well as he was the king of completing Sagas. Mid-game it looked like he had 6-7 Sagas to my 2 and Nevin's 2-3. I successfully raided 9 of the 12? towns on the map including both Paris(8VP) and Constantinople(12VP) but Nevin cashed in on Rome for 20VP with a Rune card that doubled its VPs. As far as settling, my son, Cody concentrated on the North West part of the map while Nevin controlled the North East map section. I had a toe hold in South Britain but Nevin eventually stole two of my settlements in England through Rune card play. At game end, I had a mere 3 settlements. In the end, it just didn't seem like it was worth pursuing a raiding heavy strategy but I had fun. Aand it was in true Viking spirit!

As always, after a first playing I like to go through the rulebook and see what we played wrong. Unfortunately, the rulebook is not available for download so I had to settle for the various rules summaries available on Boardgamegeek. Some of the items I noticed are as follows:
1. When you return to the Wintering space, your ship can only keep 1 crewman. All other crewman and goods must be removed from the ship.
2. I'm thinking you may only play Runes during your turn.
3. Plus, Runes may not be played while your ship is in one of the home ports.
4. The Difficult Sailing penalties must be assessed at the end of each days movement, not at the end of the total move.
5. A player may not settle a port in a region until the town in that region has been successfully raided.

On Saturday, 5/17, Mervyn and I played "A Veritable Bloodbath" scenario from Combat Commander: Mediterranean. My Brits were on the attack against Mervyn's Germans (conscripts and Volksgrenadiers with wire and trenches defending a few buildings) It came down to whether or not Merv could make the the Sudden Death die roll, end the scenario and win by VPs. He had two chances (he had the initiative card) but missed both rolls and on my first card play of the next turn my British advanced into melee against a lone German squad and eliminated him for the Surrender win. The only thing that kept me in the game was the damage I was doing with my Heavy Machine Gun on my left flank. I believe it accounted for 5 of the 6 casualties I needed for the Surrender win.

We then played a quick game of Wings of War: Dawn of War. This is the WWII version, with a German and Italian plane (me) against Merv's Spitfire and Hurricane. The Spitfire, especially the naval version can put out some firepower. I decided I was going to keep my planes together and gang up on one of Merv's planes. Merv had the same idea but his formation split after the first pass so I was able to concentrate both planes firepower on one if his and shot it down with 22 damage points.

Happenings for the past 3 months

Not much gaming going on lately, other than some light games with the family. The last face to face wargame I played was a 3-player playtest of Successors III with Nevin Ball and Mark Simonitch back on March 15th. Mark said we would do it again once he has his new map and counters ready. Mark has been posting his map and counter work recently on consimword and it is looking very nice. Prior to that we did a 5-player game of Age of Empires III at Mark Bausman's house,on March 1st, but that is about it for face to face. Oh we did get in two back to back games of Antike back on February 17th. The first one was 5-player and the second 4-player. I enjoyed the game and ended up picking up a copy but haven't played it since.

I did finish off the last novel of the main series of David Weber's Honorverse, At All Costs about a month ago. I didn't know if I wanted to start reading his sub-series works but decided to pickup one of his newer novels, Off Armageddon Reef, the first book in his Safehold series. The next book in the series isn't due out till later this year; I'm looking forward to it.

I then read 1632 by Eric Flint and Von Neumann's War by John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor.

Since I didn't have a chance to get to the bookstore my wife brought me a couple of books from her workout place; I guess they have some sort of paperback loan library. I ended up reading one of them, Deep Fire Rising, by Jack Du Brul. I enjoyed it and may look for more of his books in the future but for now I just picked up 1633, the second book in Eric Flint's Ring of Fire series.

Bonaparte at Marengo: Ladder Round 9, 4/21/2008

In Round 9 of the BaM Ladder Nick Avtges accepted my bid for the French at Morale 16. I have played as the Austrians 5 times before on the Ladder but this would be only my third play as the French. The game ended at the end of the French turn 14 with the Austrians resigning after thinking there was not enough time left to either capture two victory locations or demoralize the French.

French At Start:
Ladder Game 9 had me with the French this time at 16 morale. The initial French deployment had two of the French cavalry camped out in the rear areas in locales 23 and 64. The third cavalry unit was in Marengo.



French 6 AM End:
The Austrians need to push hard from the very beginning in order to have a chance to win. Seeing that I had only 1 French cavalry unit up front I figured it would be best to try to delay the Austrian push so I could start moving my other cavalry units forward by attacking into locale 2 with my lone cavalry unit in Marengo.



French 8 AM Start - Pretty Horsies All In a Row:
I didn't delay them much and my straggler cavalry units are still sound asleep. Nick pushed forward with 5 calvary units all along the Fontanone. This was the first time I had seen this and the French were worried about a quick Austrian breakout.



French 9 AM - the Battle of Marengo:
The French pulled back from the Fontanone except in locale 9, while the straggling cavalry began to move forward. The Austrians advanced across the river with 4 of their cavalry units with two going into Marengo. I believe this was one of the most important turns as the French infantry unit cleared the Austrian cavalry from Marengo with an assault. The lone French infantry would hold Marengo for quite some time afterwards.



French Noon Start - Austrian Bulge:
The French cavalry have finally made it to the front lines, or is it that the front lines finally made it to the cavalry. It looks like the cowboys (French cav) are herding the cows (Austrians) down the middle. I like the fact the Austrians are pushing down the middle as it takes up a lot of command points but I don't like the fact that there are only single units forming the line for the French. The saving grace is that they are cavalry.
ps. The Austrian guns have not fired in the game yet.



French 1 PM End - Expanding the Bulge:
I finally had a couple of spare commands to pull the infantry back into reserve in locale 9. Hopefully they can catch up with their bretheren. French fall back slowly, what else can they do?



French 4 PM Start - The Final French Fade Begins:
Up to this point I was trying to hold as much as possible and the line had stabilized by 4 PM. At this time, with reinforcements coming in the next two hours, I think it is time for the French to head for the hills.



French 5 PM Start - Austrian Cavalry Machine:
Down south Nick has set up his Cavalry Steam Roller. In the remaining turns all I can do is block, fallback, and retreat with my cavalry unit down south. I looks like I'll be giving up a blue start location. Hopefully I can hold the other two. It has been quiet up on the North road so far but I can see an end around coming up if I don't get more troops up there. At this point I'm unsure about where I want to send my artillery unit so he camps out in locale 63.



French 6 PM End:
I decide to give up the south end of the map and send all my 3 strength infantry units up North to help cover the green and red stars.



French 7 PM End: - the Austrians Resign:
At this point, Nick resigns seeing that he doesn't have enough commands and time left.



Another enjoyable game for me. As always different from all the other games I've played. The 5 cavalry line was quite a surprise and shock and I look forward to using it myself in the future.

Shifting Sands - Sonnenblume Scenario

Greg Denysenko decided to resign after my first card play of turn 8 in our Shifting Sands, Sonnenblume Scenario cyberboard game. Rommel flank attacked (automatically successful do to the event card) a reduced Common Wealth division and battle group from El Agheila completely eliminating both units and then advanced into an empty Tobruk. Greg then resigned as he didn't think his hand would support gaining enough VPs by the turn end for an Allied victory. Never did I feel, as the Axis, that victory was a sure thing as I felt the Allies had plenty of units to cause grief for the Axis every where. I almost didn't open up the Middle East but was too tempted by the VPs available there and I thought that the Italians would not survive long in East Africa.

Saturday, Jan 19, 2008 - Battles of the Third Age, Rohan Battle

Before Meryvn came over for our Conquest of Paradise game Nevin and I played the Rohan Battle scenario from War of the Ring: Battles of the Third Age. Nevin took command of Saruman's forces and I took Rohan. The game went to position 12 or 13 of the Fate Track when Saruman cried uncle after his forces attempting to take Helm's Deep were decimated by the Ents storming out of Derndingle (Fangorn) and then regrouping in the Deeping Coomb forming a defensive barrier to future Shadow attacks. Before the Ent attack the Shadow forces were making good progress first eliminating Eomer and his forces on their way to Helm's Deep and overrunning the forces in the Fords of Isen and the East Fords. Theoden appeared in Edoras and Aragorn in the East Entwade both prepared to march to relieve the siege of Helm's Deep before the Ents appeared.

Posts on Boardgamegeek say that the Rohan player has little chance if the Saruman player chooses the third position exclusively, The Pits, on Shadow Box after the first few turns. I'd like to play this one again to test this out.

Saturday, Jan 19, 2008 - Conquest of Paradise

We were supposed to go out of town this weekend but our plans changed Friday. I gave Nevin and Mervyn a last minute invite for some gaming on Saturday and they both accepted. We decided to play Nevin's recent game acquisition, Conquest of Paradise (GMT Games.

Conquest of Paradise (CoP) is a game of Polynesian empire building around 500 AD in the central Pacific Ocean for 2-4 players. Each player represents one of four starting Home Island Groups, the Tonga, Samoa, Hiva, and Raiatea and attempt to expand their empires by exploration, colonization of island groups, and cultural advancements represented by the purchase of the Arts and Culture cards.

How to Win
Victory is measured by the accumulation of victory points by controlling Villages, Island Groups, and Cultural advancements at the end of each game turn which represent a span about 5 years. The game ends once a player or players meet or exceed the victory point goal for the game. In a three player game the victory point goal is 25 victory points.

The Map and Player Home Islands
In our game, Mervyn controlled Hiva, Nevin controlled Tonga, and I ruled Samoa. The map is divided up in hexes that represent ~600 nautical miles of the Pacific Ocean with some already known island groups printed on the map and the remaining hexes where explorations are possible marked with a light blue squares. The map location of the starting home island for each player marked on the map. Samoa and Tonga start adjacent to each other with Hiva 5 hexes (3000 nm) East. In addition to the players starting home islands, the map is printed with known pre-existing Independent Polynesian empires. These island group empires may be conquered by the players. All of these known independent island groups are West of the players; the closest one being Fiji which is adjacent to both Samoa and Tonga.

The Turn Sequence
A turn in CoP represents the passage of 5 years and consists of the following steps.
1. Turn Order Step
During the Turn Order Step the player with the lowest Victory Point score becomes the first player. The rest of the turn's steps are then resolved starting with the first player and rotating clockwise. [OOPs] Looks like we did this wrong. The player with the lowest VP score gets to do the following: (1) Chose who will be the first player this turn and (2) what direction the turn order rotates, clockwise or counter-clockwise. [/OOPs]

2. Exploration Step
During the exploration step, in turn order, and if the player's Explorer canoe was not lost last turn, a player can explore the ocean to discover new islands to colonize using their Explorer canoe. The explorer canoe can pre-move to any one of the player's controlled island groups. From that island group the explorer may move into an unknown hex, draw a Discovery marker randomly and place it in the hex with the Knot side up. If the tile drawn is an Off Course marker then the player to your left picks an adjacent, unknown hex, where the actual exploration takes place. The player then draws a new Discovery marker. If the cumulative knot total is 1-4 then the player may move into another unexplored hex. If the total is 5 then the exploration is over and the players Explorer canoe is placed in front of the player off map. If the total is 6 or more then the exploration is over, and the Explorer canoe is placed in the Lost Box. Lost explorer canoes are not recovered until the end of the next Exploration Step so you effectively will not be able to do exploration the turn after you are lost. After the player has finished exploring the tiles are flipped to reveal what they were, Open Ocean or an Island. [OOPs] We did this wrong too. If the player drew an island Discovery marker they immediately draw from the Island Group pool, look at the island and decide if they will place it face up or face down, then place the Discovery marker, knot side up, on top of the island tile. [TIP] There is a bit of strategy here deciding whether or not to reveal an island group immediately after discovery or to keep it hidden. If it is left on its hidden side, where it is still Unknow to players who don't have their Discovery Marker on it, a player can't not move his Transport or War Canoes on to or through that hex so it is effectively a barrier to their movement.[/TIP]If an Off Course marker was picked, after the new hex is determined the Off Course marker is removed from play to allow the player to try to explore that hex again if they wish.[/OOPs]

3. Movement and Battle Step
In turn order, each player may move their units on the map. There are two types of movement in this step, Transits and Movement. A Transit is a pre-move of units within the sphere of a player's empire connected by Transport Canoes. What are Transport Canoes you ask? Regular canoes can be used in two modes. If used as part of the Transport Canoe Chain is it turned face up in the island group hex it occupies. In this mode it represents the transportation infrastructure of your empire. All of your island groups connected within the Transport Canoe Chain can be moved to during the Transit pre-move portion of the Movement & Battle Step. Canoes part of the Transport Canoe Chain can not themselves move in the Movement & Battle Step. Any of your unit types, Colonies, Warrrior Bands, Transport Canoes (not part of the Transport Canoe chain), War Canoes, and Rumors can be moved using Transit. [OOPs] I don't know if Mervyn or Nevin did this wrong but I did. I thought I needed Transport/War canoes to move my Colony and War Band units during the Transit move.[/OOPs] After the Transit pre-move regular Movement takes place. Regular Movement is used to move units beyond the boundaries of your empire. In Movement only Transport canoes, War Canoes, and Rumors can move by themselves; Colonies and Warrior Bands are required to be carried by a canoe. A canoe can transport one unit. A Transport canoe can carry a single Colony or War Band while a War Canoe can carry a single War Band.

Ok now to the important part for us wargamers, how do you attack? Transport canoes, with or without a War Band can not enter another players Island Group hex or a hex containing another players War Canoe; they must be escorted by at least one War Canoe to enter. So after all your Movement is complete and you have at least one War Canoe in a hex with another players units or Island Group hex a battle takes place. Yes! Battles are really simple although we managed to do the first one incorrectly. 8^) Basically the attacker rolls a D6 and looks up the result on a table. The result is either an Attacker retreat or eliminated or a Defender retreat or eliminated. The attacker keeps rolling until one side has no more front line units; that side loses and the other side wins the battle. If the attacker loses he retreats from the hex otherwise the defender retreats his forces from the hex and the attacker remains in the island group. In addition the attacker has an option of either eliminating all the defender's villages from the island group or eliminating all but one village by eliminating one of his surviving front line fighting units. This village then becomes his and the island group is then controlled by him.

4. Building Step
During the Building Step, all players simultaneously purchase new units, using the Build Points (BPs) they have for the turn, and place them on their island groups that paid for them. They may also purchace one Arts and Culture card (two BPs) which may grant them additional VPs, when revealed, a special benefit either one time or for the whole game, or both.[OOPs]We were reading the text to determine if the benefit was one time or lasting but we should have been looking at the color of the VP bonus text. If it is blue it is a one time bonus and if it is red it is an effect that lasts for the remainder of the game.[/OOPs] Each island group you own generates one BP for each village on that island group. If an island group is connected to another island group(s), via your Transport Canoe chain, the player can pool the build points from the islands to build units on one island group or more connected island groups. Oh there is one important fact I have yet to mention; there is a Fog of War element in the game in that all player's units are placed on the map with their back side facing up so the other players don't know what they are until revealed.

5. Victory Step
At the end of the turn, each player adjusts their victory point marker to indicate the victory points they currently have; note that VPs are not cummulative. Victory points are gained for controlled island groups, villages, atolls in your transport canoe chain, and revealed Arts and Culture cards that award VPs. If one or more persons has reached the VP goal for the game the game ends if not a new turn is started at step 1.

Our Game
Since Nevin and I were practically on top of each other at start I decided to build War Bands in my home island when ever possible to dissuade Nevin from attacking and I imagine Nevin's large stack was composed similarly. Nevin was the first to go on the war path attacking Mervyn with two War Canoes carrying a War Band apiece. Mervyn repelled the Nevin's invaders with no losses to either side and a few turns of peaceful expansion followed. [OOPs] It seems we interpreted the combat explanation incorrectly as Nevin had only two units in his front line instead of four.[/OOPs] Each of us started off exploring towards each player's side of the board so as not to intrude into enemy territory early on and both Nevin and I avoided going East towards the independent island groups. Toward middle game Mervyn's luck with the exploration tile draw gave him a slight lead in VPs with me in second and Nevin third. To prevent us from gaining more VPs Nevin played Severe Deforestation on us removing the village counter on the brown box of both Mervyn and my home island group. [OOPs] Severe Deforestation doesn't also remove the Improved Agriculture marker. In fact, no event can remove Improved Agriculture from a space once it has been purchased. [/OOPs]

As mentioned earlier, Mervyn was very lucky during his exploration and by game end he had constructed a contiguous island group of ~11 islands (no atolls) and Nevin added another 2 islands to that group in his exploration! While the game progressed Nevin remarked that the Hiva lived on Pangea. And so came to be the founding of the great Pangean Empire.

Nevin's exploration eventually forced him to explore towards Mervyn's Hiva Pangean Empire leading to two or three more battles between them. Fortunately for me I managed to stayed away from Pangea for most of the game and decided to expand Westward, late in the game when I could go no where else, into the Independent Island Groups first conquering Kiribati and then Pohnpei via Nauru (last turn of game). Mervyn looked like he may expansionist ideas toward my Samoan Empire so I stuck a War Canoe in the closest approach between him and I as a sort of destroyer picket while I headed East [TIP]This is another tactic to be aware of since War Canoes must stop when entering a hex with enemy War Canoes you can place them in enemy avenues of approach to your empire to give you at least an extra turn to prepare for the attack.[/TIP]. I had kept the majority of my Arts and Culture cards unrevealed so I figured I could end and win the game when I conquered Pohnpei but after the tally Mervyn's Hiva Pangean Empire claimed victory by 1 VP at 29VPs. Incidentally even if we had tied Mervyn would have still won the tie breaker by the large overwhelming number of island groups he controlled.

A lot of comments, on Boardgamegeek, have been made about the component quality of the game but as a wargamer the game is of typical good GMT wargame quality. I enjoyed the game and would like to play it again.