We Who Are About to Game, Salute You!

by on April 21, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Well, the gang got together for an afternoon of wargaming this Sunday. Patch, Mark and Jason came over for Commands & Colors: Ancients. It’s a short game, and we all managed 4 playings of it each.

The general format for the afternoon was for us to pair off (thankfully there were two sets available as both Mark and Jason have it), play a battle, swap sides and play again, and then swap opponents and do the same thing with a different battle. As victory is determined by ‘banners’ (victory points) awarded for unit eliminations, the total number banners from winning and loosing games can be added up for everyone to see who did the best.

First was the Battle of Akragas, in 406 BC between Syracuse and Carthage. It’s a fairly simple and light battle, and made a good introduction to the system for me (and, I hope, Patch). I had a good shot at winning my first game against Jason, as the Syracusans my right flank was heavily engaged at the beginning with the rest of the battle developing more slowly. I took a random leader casualty (effectively, boxcars) which handed Jason an extra banner. Without that I may have managed a win. Score: 4-5.

The second game didn’t go nearly as well. In part, my cards were not nearly as friendly as the first game, but I get a feeling I just don’t know how to handle Carthaginian troops. Score: 3-5.

For the second round we swapped partners, so I was facing Mark, and Jason was facing Patch, and we were fighting the Battle of Zama. This is a much bigger fight, and has a couple of the more complicated troop types, but still has no terrain. In the first go-round, I had the Carthaginians, who I still had trouble getting the most out of. I think I got more use out of my elephants than anyone else, but that’s not saying a lot. I was also fairly happy with the two units of warriors I had, but they got unsupported and died quickly, after chasing a Roman general all the way back to the rear, but not quite being able to kill him. Score 4-8.

The last round, as the Romans against Mark started off very well. I generally controlled things against the elephants, managed to keep from having too many problems with an overpacked line, and got off two line advance maneuvers in a row. That allows you to move any and all foot units that are in a single continuous line. In my case that was all my infantry. Mark was quickly getting pressed up against his own back line where retreats cause casualties. Despite this good start, and a very good early exchange, I just couldn’t capitalize on it, and Mark kept knocking out units with better rolls than I could get. When a pair of attacks that should have taken out one of his units instead merely took out 3/4s of two of my units, I just couldn’t find anything to do for a bit. I eventually recovered from my personal morale failure, and we ended up trading blows at 7-7 to try and get the final banner for the win. I got just lucky enough. Score 8-7.

This gave me 19 banners for the day and an overall 3rd place directly between Mark (20) and Patch (18). Patch had beaten Mark both times in the first pair, but went down 8-4 twice against Jason, who won every battle, and scored 26 banners for the day.

We talked over several possibilities for next month over lunch, but right now it looks like we’re going to do Onward Christian Soldiers four-player.

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Wargame News III: New MMP Preorders

by on April 7, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming, News

MMP has just put a few new things on preorder:

The star of the show is definitely ASL Action Pack 4: Normandy 1944. The fighting in Normandy is probably the most well-covered part of WWII in ASL, and this is going to add another 12 scenarios to the total. The good news is that a lot of the early coverage was purely centered around the paratroopers on and right after D-Day, while this is a bit more spread around. However, I’d say the really nice part is the three boards that will be included: 53 – a nice village surrounded by orchards; 54 – typical dense hedgerows and orchards, which we haven’t seen on a normal board before, and I like the wooded path at hexrow L; 55 – more hedges and orchards with low hills and some sunken roads that I understand a lot of hedgerow roads turned into. So, terrain-wise it looks interesting. Supposedly, MMP is trying to get all ASL materials into final proof before putting it on preorder, so it should be ready about 4 weeks after it hits the magic number (and that’ll take what, a week?).

Next is Bastogne, a game focusing on the actual defense of Bastogne behind the lines of the German advance during the Battle of the Bulge. I don’t know of any games done just on this subject, but I’d be surprised if it hasn’t been done before this.

And last is Kawaguchi’s Gamble: Edson’s Ridge, which is on the Japanese attack that tried to take Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, which would have been essential in defeating the U.S. invasion of the island. It sounds like it’s meant to be quick, with five turns and a playing time (once you’re used to the game) of about 3 hours.

Meanwhile, GMT has announced that Blackbeard is done, and should ship out to customers by the end of the month. ADB has had to push back its product schedule a bit due to problems with getting the die cutting for the counters done. Main upshot is that Distant Kingdoms (which I just recently realized is not a boxed set) is now scheduled for May 5th.

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Rule Britannia!

by on March 22, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

(It’s a pity that I wasn’t playing Britain.)

Me, Patch, Mark, and Jason (a friend of Mark’s, that I’ve seen in a while). Got together today for a game of Soldier Kings. It was planned as a five-player day, but continuing car-trouble means that can’t attend at the moment.

It’s been a while, so, despite everyone having the rules to look at ahead of time, there was some fumbling around at first, though it went far better than last time.

Mark got Britain, Patch got France (I was just as happy to leave the naval war to them), I got Prussia and Jason had Austria. The big discovery is that it’s just very hard to keep Britain from doing whatever it wants, navally speaking, without Spain in the game. Patch tried to get them as a minor ally at one point, but couldn’t quite do it. After the first year, Britain was almost half way to winning, and Patch had his hands full slowing him down, never mind stopping him.

I think the underdog in a fight can do more than Patch did in that situation. You have to stay flexible and keep the other guy off-balance. Not that I’m a good one to talk. I’m in the same boat as Prussia, have better means of doing it (a pair of good leaders), and didn’t do all that well.

Things started well enough with a couple of good rolls helping me win battles. Sadly, at the end of the first year, I had a couple of big reverses, which reduced my army, lost me a leader, and lost me Silesia. Even though I was able to immediately get a new (lesser-quality) leader, this definitely put me on more of a defensive footing. I did grab the Netherlands from Austria, but the French got it from me right afterwards.

The second year was slightly better. I managed to take Saxony that fall, which left that minor ally army with a single wounded army, and no way for it to repair. The third year again started out well, and I lost it all at the end, including the death of Fredric the Great, which really cut down my options.

Meanwhile, Mark slowly built up his dominion in the New World. He shipped his best army over early, and since France was in no position to send anything meaningful over, it just slowly battered everything else into submission.

So, we’re definitely wondering how to keep Britain in check without Spain in the war, and a little concerned that they have the fifth player be Russia instead of Spain. Still, it’d be good to try again, especially with 5-6 players.

Next time is up in flux. If we have three, we’re probably playing the SFB scenario Flashpoint Mantor again. Things could definitely have gone better, and Mark and Patch have been eager to give it a go. But, we’re checking to see when Jason is available again, and if it works out, Mark and Jason may bring their Command & Colors: Ancients sets over, and we’ll all try that.

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Gary, I Hardly Knew Ye

by on March 4, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Posted In: Gaming, News

Gary Gygax has passed away.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03/report-gary-gyg.html

He is, and will continue to be, known best as the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, three little books that became a whole new world of gaming. Like many fans, however, “I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else.”*

I don’t have many personal memories of Gary Gygax. I barely remember a time when I was very young and we stopped to see some friends during one of our summer convention roadtrips. It was late, dark already in fact, when we arrived. All I can remember is the meeting outside, and I’m not sure who was there, or even if he was there, but I seem to remember it was him and Tom Wham.

However, despite the one thing he’s remembered for, Gary did much more. In the ’60s he was involved in the International Federation of Wargamers, which my dad was also involved in. It’s during that time that a set of medieval miniatures rules took shape that my dad’s game company “Guidon Games” published as Chainmail, which sparked D&D. He also served as the miniatures editor for Panzerfaust magazine when my dad took it over from Don Greenwood (and possibly before then, I don’t know), as well as designing Alexander the Great which was reprinted by Avalon Hill, and several sets of miniatures rules, published by both my dad and Gary’s own company “Tactical Studies Rules” (TSR).

He of course kept active after D&D and TSR, but I’m not as aware of it, as it doesn’t impinge on my personal history and interests as much.

An old interview, republished: http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/03/04/dungeons-dragons-cre.html

Q. Thanks for taking the time for the interview, not to mention for creating Dungeons & Dragons.

A. Welcome, and my pleasure to oblige.

Thank you very much, Gary. For everything.

*From GameSpy: http://uk.pc.gamespy.com/articles/538/538817p3.html

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