Song of Ice & Fire

We had seven guys out at the club this week which was pretty good given how hot it was outside! Jonathan and Scott played a game of Commands and Colors Napoleonic. George hosted the rest of us in a game of Songs of Fire and Ice (a Game of Thrones miniature game).

Chen and Scott played tea red (Lannister?) while Terry and I played team blue (Stark?).

Basic alternating activation. Combat was reasonably straight forward: roll to hit, roll to save, roll of morale. Casualties by attrition with loss of ranks reducing dice.

The only complexity for new players is the modifiers and special rules: units have special rules, characters add rules, off-board strategy play can add modifiers, cards and objectives can affect play, and so can conditions placed on units. It is a lot of take in at first but therein lies the thematic chrome of the game.

There was a general advance to secure objectives markers to gain victory points. Then team Red's super unit killed our dog. And the rain charged my archers with predictable results.

Terry did some nice maneuvering to try and kill the opposing general but came just short and got rear-ended himself.

Back on my side of the time, flanks were getting turned and I could not roll worth crap.

Then, suddenly, I rolled an amazing 10 hits. But then Craig said them all. And we ran out of time about half way through the six turn game.

Lovely plastic miniatures: as nice as most metals due to multipart construction.

Overall, fun enough to play again. Thanks to Terry for bringing painted terrain and to George for hosting.

1754 and CCN at the club

 We had 10 guys out at the club last week with some GW 8th Edition, CCN, and 1754 on offer.

Dave ran a pair of 10mm CCN games. I didn't see how the second one turned out but there was a fair bit of moaning and swearing at the table during the first game.

I ended up running a game of 1754 after we discovered a pivotal piece of Terry's Lobotomy game was on his desk at home. Chen took the Brits and Terry played the French. Terry had really awful die rolls for the first half of the game, taking it very well.

Chen took advantage of this, pushing up the Ohio Valley (below, foreground) and into Nova Scotia (below, background). Not much happened in the middle of the map.

Eventually, the dice came around (or at least evened up) and Terry moved down the Niagara region.

Chen played both his truce cards but the random initiative mechanic gave Terry two impulses to garb territory and (I think) he squeaked out a win with a rapid drive south towards Boston.

Overall, a very nice game.

CCN

I popped out to Bruce's on Tuesday night for a bit of French v Russian Napoleonics action. This battle was a Russian holding action that preceded the largest cavalry battle of the wars.

The first game saw Bruce open with a cavalry charge against the Russian right that I never managed to recover from. Oh, I delayed defeat, but it was a decisive thrashing (7-1?). There just wasn't much to do: couldn't fall back, couldn't move up, couldn't roll worth beans.

We switched sides and I advanced on the French right. I managed to knock Bruce off the hill and finally get my traffic jam in the centre under control. Some lucky dice with a cavalry charge really helped.

Then there was the pause as I ran out of useful cards. We both rushed reinforcements forward and Bruce set up a solid defensive line while I was forced to fart around on the left flank to burn some cards.

Eventually I won (7-6?) a narrow victory. A much better game, although some of that was down to Bruce's luck turning on him.

Up next: Some metal 1/72-scale Italians and Russian cavalry are drying and I'm working on a second wave of Italians in plastic. Then some CCA epic at the club on Tuesday.

March 3 Club Night

We had about 15 guys to the club on Tuesday. There was a large game of RoboRally (which blogger keeps autocorrecting to "Rob orally").

Dave hosted a CCN game (French v Russians) which ad a lot of units!

I hauled out my 54mm AWI guys for a game of Clash for the Continent. Amazingly, I don't have enough trees yet!

I ran the Saratoga scenario with Benedict Arnold playing a big role in the American defines.

In the end it was a Rebel victory, in large part because the British command rolls were the pits. The Americans victory condition was to avoid the British winning, which meant not losing American units and protecting two valuable hills.

Fortunately, Benedict Arnold's abilities allowed me to run units forward in the centre (which forced the British to burn command points responding), get them shot up and then retreat them where Arnold could rally them ("yes, Virginia, there is actually a strategy..."). This held up the British advance on the right flank--which is likely where the British could win the game.

Up next: The last of the 54s and then onto to 25mm Star Trek and back to some 25mm superhero terrain.

CCN Prussians

Bruce hosted me in two games of CCN on Tuesday, pulling out the new Prussian expansion for CCN. The key Prussian difference is related to morale: multiple retreat flags has a cascading effect on how far the units must retreat but the Prussians can also use their iron will chits to ignore flags.

I don't recall the scenario, but it was a balanced one. Despite two French wins, the games were close. The Prussians (background) were reasonably well positions but the French could grab the two towns on the left or clear the woods on the right for victory banners.

You can see (above) that I managed to use each of my units to their fullest (lots of single blocks retreating). The Prussian player could also gain a victory banner for each pair of units he moved off his own board edge (fighting retreat). Almost saw that happen once but the cards were cruel to the Prussians.

Up next: A bunch more 54mm guys are finishing up and I am working on some 25mm Star Trek (???) figures. I hope to bring out some 54mm AWI to the club this week.

2014 Wrap-Up and 2015 Plans

Looking back at my blog, I had a busy 2014 gaming-wise. The game I played the most turned out to be Pandemic, mostly because Jessica really likes it and other folks (wife, Jessica's friends, guests) can all be roped into playing a cooperative game. After much mulling, I'm going to buy On the Brink to expand the game. I like Pandemic but could stand some new challenges and On the Brink seems to provide the most bang for our buck. 

The Borg games (including Commands & Colors Ancients, CCN, Battlelore and Memoir) came second in terms of gaming time. These got a fair bit of play at the club and I just picked up the second and third CCA expansion. I'm hoping to play through all of the scenarios starting against Bruce on Tuesday. I've spent a fair bit of time miniaturizing the game with 1/72-scale figures but I find that the blocks are much easier to manage.

A game that has really redeemed World War 2 and modern wargaming for me is the World at War series. Bruce has hosted maybe 10 battles and I have found each one engaging (and frustrating). I find it operates at about the same level of abstract as DBA but the hex grid takes gimmicky geometry out of the equation. I don't have any hankering to buy armies or the rules but they have made many a winter night pretty enjoyable.

A game I wish I played more of this year is A Few Acres of Snow. This is a card game about the French and English race to conquer the new world. What I like about it is the asymmetry and the fact that each player is basically playing against his own hand. There is some interaction, but it is not much of a "war" game. I may break down and buy this one. I have also kickstarted Worthington Games' Wilderness Empire which is the same genre.

A game that got a lot of play is Academy Games's 1775: Rebellion. This is a four-player game that uses similar mechanics to 1812: Invasion but to much better effect. I've had this out at the club several times and have never lacked for players. I like that you can play with 2, 3 or 4 and that the mechanics allow for the asymmetries of the actual conflict.

A game I hope to play more of in the New ear is 1776: New York. This is an under-represented campaign in gaming and have a sense of chasing about it, with hidden units and time pressure on the British. I also hope to do some 54mm AWI gaming in the New Year, either using All the King's Men or perhaps Hold the Line. And most of my spring painting is aimed at completing enough troops to game with. I also have a Memoir '40 project in 1/72-scale that had stalled (but will come back) and perhaps a 28mm superhero project that I will get moving again.

Another full club night

We had another full house at the club last night, with 20 guys out. There were three games of Warmachine, some CCN and some Tide of Iron.

It has been awhile since we've run short of games!

Bruce hosted some AK-47 in darkest Africa. Terry and Justin had pretty good luck with the few units they could bring onto the table. here you can see Andy's militia (backed by "Leader in a Caddy") pushing some technicals back.

Andy and I had bad luck with dice on the table but managed to run the clock quickly and get all of our troops on. I managed to lose our tanks at the end of the game and then discovered that I had reversed the value of the objectives in my head, giving the game to Justin and Terry. Arrrgh.

Up next: Some more 15mm WW2 are underway and I'm off to game with Bruce on Thursday night.

Hot dice and lucky cards...

...is how you win at CCN. Or it helps anyhow. Bruce hosted me Tuesday night for a French v Russians match up. The French have some traffic issues and the Russians are in reasonable defensive positions. A fairly quick Russian win in game one so we switched sides.

I was worried about playing the French. But I needn't have. I moved into position and then jumped forward at double time on the right.

Yes Bruce, that is the hill I'm going to take with no losses on a single roll. It pretty much went downhill after that for the Russians as the French mopped up the right flank and managed to grind away on the left.

Continued unbelievable dice rolling made up for a card hand that started to crap up. Cavalry charge? But I've got no horses left?!? Bruce was a pretty good sport about a pretty awful and unfair evening.

Up next: I have some more 15mm WW2 French finished and more on the way. And then it is the club on Tuesday.

Record attendance!

We had 21 (and at on point 22) guys out at the club last night, shattering the old attendance record of 18. It was quite show.

There were a number of board games, including Twilight Struggle and C&C Napoleonics. Dave ran something with Swords and Spears in 1/72 and there was also Warmachine.

A new game was Clay-o-rama which looked bizarre but the guys seemed to have a great time. It was from an old Dragon magazine, of all places.

Up next: Some 10mm scifi then onto some 1/1200-scae fantasy ships and I am expecting a large commission of 15mm WW2. Should be a busy autumn!

CCN and... Risk?!?!

With my vacation underway, Bruce popped over for an afternoon of gaming. I pulled out Commands and Colors Napoleonics and we played the Corunna scenario. This was a historic British victory in a fighting retreat. The French have it tough attacking across fordable streams into hills and towns.

Game one saw the French rush cavalry up the British right flank, crush it and then start to romp on behind the British lines (ack!).

But the british managed to hold off a frontal assault as well as hole up in a town on the river, thereby stalling a French attack on the left. Eventually, the French just ran out of gas and were forced into a gallant cavalry charge up a hill against guns and it was a tight 6-5 British win.

Game 2 developed differently with the French threatening the British right flank but making steady progress on the British left (including drifting part of the centre that way). Lousy British cards plus some dumb-ass luck saw a decisive French win (I don't recall the score but it was lopsided).

Bruce then kindly subjected himself to a game of Risk(!). This is variant from a couple of years back that I got on sale and is designed for two players (Balance of Power is the subtitle). Basically there are objectives and a neutral third power to break-up the usual Risk-for-two slogfest.

Some rules issues aside (doesn't say how you win, for example...), there are some nice ideas wrapped up in the usual Risk rules that advantages the attacker. Not sure I'd bother with this again unless Jessica wants to try it. The pieces are hard to pick up (despite lots of handling to drive some of the command mechanics) and the overall narrative of the the war (set in modern times) doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Tough to make a good variant when you are stuck with a game engine from the 1950s.

Nap board games night

With a break in the soccer schedule, I snuck out to Bruce's to try two Napoleonic board games. First up Bruce introduced me to Field Commander: Napoleon, a solo game where you battle your way through 11 campaigns. We played the first and I managed to beat the system (lucky, apparently!). Quite an interesting system.

Then Bruce hauled out a CCN scenario: French versus Russians with an interesting time pressure mechanic (Russian flanking maneuver driven by the cards played).

I felt good until Bruce vaporized my left flank in the first two moves (ouch). Then I only drew "right flank cards. Even good dice couldn't prevent Bruce from stomping me flat.

Up next: I have a battle report from Justin's MayDay game to post. Then a few more Romans underway on the painting table.