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Well, Jason came over this last Sunday, eager for another game of Pursuit of Glory. Forewarned, I had it all set up by the time he got here. After my long, long, game with Mark, most of my experience is with the Allied Powers, and I took the Central Powers this time.

Play was fairly smooth for me, since I’m somewhat familiar with all the Mobilization and Limited War cards by now. Jason is still learning and had to do a fair amount of head-scratching at various points as to how he was going to proceed. In spite of that, we got through 6 turns in one afternoon, which is the best I’ve seen so far.

Jason started with the standard Russo-British Assault, and I led off with Pan-Turkism, hoping to get a Jihad victory rolling later. Jason mostly ignored Egypt at first, but when I moved up through the Sinai with several units, he very quickly SRed in several units and played Anzac Reinforcements into Egypt before I was ready. I played Liberate Suez anyway, and took heavy losses in the best attack I could swing.

Meanwhile, things were typically busy on the Russian front, trading a couple spaces back and forth on the West side, and I moved into Ermia during turn two. Jason refused to play Secret Treaty for the event. I only played six cards in the first turn (can’t remember if I had a CC card or not), and the one card I didn’t draw on turn 2 was… Persian Push.

Both of us went to Limited War on schedule at the end of turn 2, and I gave him a nasty problem. I played Goeben on turn 2 right after he had played for RPs (and that reduced the RU RPs back to 0), and my first play of turn 3 was Gorlice-Tarnow, keeping him from getting any RU RPs that turn either. I then put down German Subs in the Med keeping him away from Invasions also on that turn, and limiting his Balkan options.

Overall, I undid most of the benefit by being too aggressive. He mounted a large attack which I saved with Reserves to the Front, counterattacked later during turn 4 (darn MOs) and left the elite III Corps out front. Jason knows how to put together strong attacks, and I lost the best TU corps way too easily.

Turn 4 was lead off with Lawrence and Djemal Crushes Secret Societies. I can’t really remember turns 4 and 5 separately at all. However, I was getting nervous, there was no sign of Parvus by turn 5, and both turns hands were pretty junky all around (some decent CC cards, but the average OPS/card was below 3). Kitchner’s Invasion landed at Adana followed by Maude and Galipolli Invasion (the next turn) and Salonika Invasion (as reinforcements straight to Cyprus). I attempted to block the beaches, but Maude forced his way inland, destroying the I Corps in the process. While I tried to patch together the next line, the reinforcements streamed in, forcing me out of Eregli and Mamure Station. He sped across Anatolia, taking Antyla the long way around, by way of Afyon.

He was finally starting to spread out a little too much, and had to pause some in turn 6. (A turn 5 I Order You to Die! in Kayseri helped.) However, the east wing kept going, turning me out of Aleppo, and would soon push me into the mountains Riyaq, while I formed a TU-A corps in Damascus. Parvus finally showed up for turn 6, along with Bulgaria.

Also, Persian Push showed up. I still had units in position to take advantage of it, and went over the plan in my head a few times in my turn. Towards the end of the turn, I noted that Jason had left his flank open as he advanced past Aleppo and Alexandretta. Of course my flank was wide open in there and there was no one to take advantage of the hole. As the sixth round came around, and I played Persian Push I suddenly realized I had the answer. The new TU-A division came in at Rakka (on the west edge of Mesopotamia) and activated, moving through Aleppo and Mamure Station, ending in Alexandretta. This cut his flank off and eliminated two divisions and a BR corps.

We had to call it a day there. I meant to save the position for future reference/use, but I’m afraid I didn’t have the time, and had to pack the game away (the problems of only having a dining room table to game upon). VPs were at 12, Jihad was stuck at 5. I’d say that it was looking towards an Allied win, but that last play could have been the beginning of some serious problems for him. My RPs were still healthy, though I needed to get some replacements soon. The Russian army was reasonably beaten up.

Oh, and I hit Total War at the end of turn 6, while the Allies had 3 points to go.

So far, invasions are the bane of my life as the CP. I have yet to successfully defend against an invasion, with all my efforts being too little too late. Some of that was an unwillingness to pull troops off the Russian front, which I should have done sooner than I did. I didn’t think I really had much to spare there, but when things started going from bad to worse in Anatolia, I found some spares.

Things would have been much simpler with an early Parvus to Berlin. It would have helped convince me to pull troops out, as the Russians were stuck at -1 VP, and it would have taken a lot of effort to get the 5 VPs they needed. Effort that I would have much rather seen than the invasion at this point. The Persian Gulf and Suez fronts were stable, though if I had ever stabilized Anatolia, I’m sure the push he’d built up for in Mesopotamia would have started.

I think I also need to play German Military Mission when it first comes up. I have generally ignored it for a late-game play, if needed (which I did on turn 6 this time). But now that I’ve actually defended in Anatolia, I have some idea of where to put the trenches (which I’ve always been unsure of).

Had Zjonni over Sunday for some gaming and dinner.

That is, he came over and cooked dinner; he usually stays over for dinner with us on game days. Like my roommate Barron, he enjoys cooking, so this time he returned the favor by fixing us a dinner. As he’s between semesters at school, I’m the limiting factor on available free time right now, and there was a nice long day to spend on both gaming and cooking.

Important things first. It was delicious.

Zjonni decided when he came over that he was in a mood for something that had more than just a couple units on the board, which left out the usual SFB. He was also feeling somewhat out of it, and so didn’t want to go into the brain-burn of ASL. So, we settled on Pursuit of Glory, which I had at least introduced him to before. He decided to take the Allied Powers, which seemed easier to get going with (I agree), and I refreshed him on the basics as we set up.

The day went fairly well, with us getting to about turn 5, which is the most I’ve managed in a single session so far, and with someone who hasn’t really played before, yet.

The opening moves were pretty standard, I ended up with no real Combat Cards on turn 1, so I only spent 6 cards, and missed drawing one on turn 2 (I try to avoid that). Naturally, the missing card was Reserves to the Front and I got clobbered pretty hard by Enver Goes East. I did get the jump on neutral Persia, and it was only towards the end that he started pressing into there. However, I was slow in Palestine, and he occupied the Sinai before I did much there. In fact, I never really paid that front the attention it needed, and spent too much effort with Russia.

The Russians front was reasonably active, with me having to patch several holes. In fact, at the end, I missed one and he started a grand flanking maneuver. While I was preventing that from going any further, Kitchner’s Invasion landed hear Homs.

At the end of things, the numbers looked good for me: 17 VP, 8 Jihad. But I was in deep trouble in Palestine. Elsewhere, things were better, and in fact, I was doing a good job sweeping up in Serbia.

Oh, I should mention that Churchill Prevails hit on turn 2, and the British navy destroyed everything in sight, including the Bosporus forts. First time I’ve seen it get past the second or third fort.