Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Gaines Mill #5
Ok, this was a can't win for the confederates from the word go. No surprise that I won 6-2. Bad rolls on Jason's part didn't help his cause either. The Union is now ahead in the war 25-22.

**UPDATE - ok, I jumped the gun and had mis-played my turn. One additional turn later, the outcome ended up being the same. I'm not sure its even possible to get a Confederate win, let alone score more than 3 pts on that field.

Games Played October 2006

My summary for the month can be found on the BGG in geeklist form. In addition to all of that, I've been playing a LOAD of Battle Cry and Memoir 44 with Jason and Dion through Vassal and the occassional game of Samurai on Mabiweb.com

So, what am I hoping to get in for November? Antike would be nice to get out, Game of Thrones (either the Storm of Swords 4-player or a full 6-player). I also want to try and get a game of Manifest Destiny in, but I doubt that's going to happen.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

Operation Luttish #9
Well, this one didn't go as well. Jason was up 3-2, so I gambled and put a tank in the kill zone, trying for the overrun attack. I got good hits on an infantry unit, but no kill and no flag. Jason finished things the next round, as I expected he was going to. 4-2 Axis, 33-27 for the war.

Oct Update on Unplayed in My Collection

At the start of the month, I mentioned 10 games I want to get played by the end of the year - I knocked off these four:

1. Acquire - Noah, Bobby and Jason S played with me and even let me win!
   
2. Quandary - Its a Knizia, which means my first playing I was terrible.
   
3. Vinci - Ok, didn't play my version, but I got to lay it. Its fun, but the end isn't terribly interesting.
   
4. Age of Steam: Germany - This map was not as bad as we thought it would be. I actually liked it quite a bit.
   

Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Shilloh #4
Well, things went much better for me that time out - I was able to come away with a resounding 6-2 victory. The war is much closer now with the Confederacy still ahead, but only by a point 20-19. I started with a sharpshooter taking out a general and had good cards throughout. On maps with tough terrain, the right cards make all the difference.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

Operation Cobra #8
Go Joe! The Allied squad was able to run Operation cobra with some measure of success (and a little bit of luck in their favor on Jason's last turn). Allies win 5-3, bringing the total for the war to 29-24 in favor of the Axis.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

VASSIEUX, VERCORS #7
Well, the French resistance played well, but in the end lost a close one 4-3. Current score now 26-19 in favor of the bad guys! I may be getting a little greedy still as I often spend a turn or two trying to setup for massive moves (like being able to move all infantry in on section, so I try and get as many infantry there first, rather than just going after Jason).

Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Kernstown - #3
Well, things were looking good for me up 4-3, but Jason and his rebel scum came roaring back to win 6-4. He took out my cavalry before I could get use out of my hit and run card, and then I really needed a right flank card and couldn't get one to make use of my advanced infantry. The War Between the States now stands at 18-13 in favor of the Confederate army.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Dion

Sword Beach (#3)
I had a good run and and managed a 5-3 victory. I'm not real sure if Dion is just having a bad run (like I was against Jason), or if I have a slight advantage due to having just played each scenario prior to running against Dion. At any rate, the Dion-Charles series is now 12-7 in favor of the Allies (good guys).

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

#6 MONT MOUCHET

Well, this one was a quicky that seemed to favor the French resistance. For a change to the real world, the French did not surrender immediately and I pulled out a nice 3-1 victory. The next scenario also looks to favor the French, so it may be time to try and even things up a bit. Current score 22-16 in favor of the bad guys!

Battle Cry - A game log in serial part III

My Dearest Stephanie,
  I'm afraid that this may be the last letter you receive from me for a while. General Curtis has sounded the retreat and we are going to be on the move. The confederate infantry was able to eliminate another battery of artilery on our Eastern flank, and that was more than enough losses for the day.

Bah - Jason won 6-4. It was close - I was very likely in a position to win my next turn if he didn't on this one.

Battle Cry - A game log in serial part II

My dearest Stephanie,
  I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to write. As I was drafting my last letter to you, word came in that General Dodge had ridden off with a section of cavalry and was killed. We were all relieved beyond words when his horse came back with the good general still alive. I fear though that the Southerners took General Dodge's defeat as a sign of weakness as they began to push through our eastern flank and then began an all out assault from the north. Their troops came down like a flood of crazed barbarians shredding our infantry and destroying a battalion of artillery. Moral was indeed low, however General Carr refused to be defeated. He called for infantry from the rear to lay down fire and demolished what was left of a cavalry regiment. His other cavalry and additional skirmishers managed to eliminate a group of southern infantry that were foolish enough to try and advance up the hills to the west of Elkhorn Tavern. The troops feel quite relieved and are now optimistic about our chances.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M Omaha Beach

Jason continues the slaughter with a 6-3 romp. I was lucky to make it that close. I may need to cut back on the agressiveness to try and slow down the bleeding. Axis is now ahead 21-13. The next scenario is only 4 pts, so I'd be lucky to get up two more points.

Too much Age of Steam?

Ted Alspach's Board2Pieces gave me a good laugh today.




I counted on Friday night the number of Age of Steam maps I now have and I'm at 14.

1. Rust Belt (default)
   
2. Ireland (copy)
   
3. Germany/Western US
   
4. Korea/Scandinavia
   
5. France/Italy
   
6. 1800 Penn/Northern California
   
7. Disco Inferno/Soul Train
   
8. Scotland (2 player)
   
9. Northern England (fan made)
   

In addition, I'm planning to get the fan maps for Spain and India done up. For once, I said no to a couple other maps - JC Lawrence's The Sun/London. I've also been hesitant to get the Steam Brother's maps, due to the price and I don't really know if I want a rolled up laminated set of maps. Now, The completionist in me really wants to have a full set, but the realist in me doesn't care that much. Ireland and England is the only ones I REALLY want, but I'm not paying $80 for them. A lot of the others are also so limited as to not make it worth my effort. I like having a variety of maps, I just wish my group wasn't so uptight about playing some of the alternate maps.

Game Night Oct 21, 2006

Friday Oct. 21, 2006 - Gamer's Inn

We had another overlord game of Memoir planned this evening, so when I arrived at the Inn, we spent a little time trying to decide what to get started with. In the end, Noah and Miles Antwiller, Jason Sato, Matt Cullinan, Rich Frangiamore, and I played a game of Liar's Dice to start the night. Unfortunately for Rich, I forced him into a bad call and he got booted the first round. After that, Jason continued to manipulate me into making bad calls. Still, Liar's dice is a load of fun. Next I pulled out Downtown a lesser known German game. Noah, Jason, and Matt joined me. In Downtown, players are trying to make money by "investing" in real estate while planning/zoning areas. Areas make money depending on the areas that have been developed around them and the number of players who have invested. The game is ok and plays up to six players, though is best with 4. About halfway through, Matt remembered that he hates this game (he hates everything), but I can see what annoys him about the game - too much speculation. Its probably a twice a year game - maybe I'll try and trade this one away. Next we split up a bit and Steve Bauer, Mike Gingold and Jason S joined me for a game of Knizia's Samurai. I really enjoy this game a lot, though like every single Knizia game I play, its taken me a few playings to get comfortable with it. Jason and Mike and I have been playing a bit online and I was happy to get this to the table again. Steve looked like he was going to jump out to an early lead and there was plenty of screwage between Mike and me as the game ran on, but in the end Jason was the only player to hold any majority and walked off with the win.
After a short dinner break, we sat down for our game of Memoir Overlord. Jason Sato was the General for the Russian team of Rob Smolka, myself, and Matthew Frederick. The Germans were lead by Jason Maxwell and were played by Bobby Warren, Mike Gingold, and Matt Cullinan. We were able to get a comfortable lead, and Jason S kept a good suppy of cards coming my way. As general of the middle section, I had plenty of tanks as well as the only two artillery batteries in the game. We won easily 12-5. Sadly, the highlight might have been that we forced the Jasons to wear Burger King crowns the whole time.
As we broke up into new games, I pulled out Age of Steam. I was hoping to play my new Disco Inferno maps, but settled for Germany which I hadn't played yet. Jason Maxwell, Noah and Matthew and I settled down to lay some tracks. Of course, within three turns it was apparent that Noah was going to win. He stopped issuing shares at 8 and we played the game out to play for second place. The four of us then finished the night by playing Pirates Cove. This one was new to me and turned out to be a light pirate sail and fight and get treasure type game - arrrrrrrrgh. I managed to jump out to an early lead that allowed me to grab a lot of treasure and stay out of trouble early on. I was able to then carry that through to the end of the game. At least I finished with a win.

Battle Cry - A game log in serial...

March 7th, 1862
My dearest Stephanie,
  General Curtis has taken control of the Union Army of the Southwest. We have recently become awary of the Confederate army attempting to outflank us to the north of Elkhorn Tavern. General Dodge has joined with my commander, General Carr, and we have regrouped in order to try and hold of their approach. General Dodge's forces were the first to be engaged, as the confederate cavalry swept in and surprise one of our cavalry units. The fighting was mild and we sustained only light casualties. General Dodge immediately called up a unit of artillery and they began to rain down destruction. In an effort to see for himself what was happening, the General joined the cavalry units and helped them to finish of the southern riders as the artilery continued their rain of destruction to units further north. The general is calling for his aide, so I must go. I will write more to you later.

My dearest Stephanie,
  Though this appears to pick up immediately, the last hour has been very exciting. General Curtis ordered our units into small skirmishes. Our brave General Carr has himself rode out to join with a section of our cavalry in order to put eyes on our enemy. However, a report of Confederate skirmishers and cavalry advancing on our position in the west has just come in. It sounds like our troops are giving back as good as we are taking, though I fear for our generals.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Dion round 2

I approached this game a bit differently than when Jason and I played, and that combined with a very good run of cards allowed me to shut Dion out 4-0. That puts the Allies ahead 7-4 going into the third scenario - Sword Beach.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M round 4

Well, after a slight pause due to my being fairly busy as of late, we resumed our war. I had forgotten how poorly things were going for me. If I had to do it over, I'd probably have gone at this one a bit differently. The allies really have to get guys to the forest - everything else is really hard to try and get to and kill. Jason won with a commanding 4-1 slaughter. Axis still ahead 15-10 now.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Dion round 1

I realized I didn't post anything about my adventures in VASSAL against Dion. Dion and I also started a campaign of Memoir 44. I'm also playing the Allied side here. The first scenario started out quite promising for me as I jumped out to a very early 3-1 lead and looked like I was going to be able to grab a lightning fast lead in the series. But, it was not to be. Dion kept hammering away at me ended up with a stunning reversal of fortune. In the end, he pulled out the comeback and walked off with a 4-3 win. I could have put the game away, but couldn't get any cards on my right flank to kill off that last unit that was hiding.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M round 3

Sword Beach
Well, things went a bit better for me in the third scenario. I pulled out a two point win and am now down 11-9 overall. I had a good run of cards and that made all the difference.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M round 2

Jason waxed me again. He's now up 8-4. I ended up with all my cards being the one flank I didn't want to fight in and could never get aggressive in any other areas. I was hoping to make it a one point game as it didn't look like a good scenario for me from the get go, but the dice kept me from making an impact and Jason pretty much had his way with me. I made about 30 rules mistakes while playing - hopefully the next scenario goes better from a victory and rules standpoint.

Game Night Oct 6, 2006

Friday Oct. 6, 2006 - Gamer's Inn
This night of gaming turned out to be quite enjoyable as I got in a couple games I really enjoy in addition to playing three new ones. I arrived at the Inn at nearly the same time as Jason Sato and Bobby Warren. We were joined shortly after that by Jerry, so I pulled out Quandary for the four of us. This is the Milton Bradley production of the Knizia card game Flinke Pinke/Loco. I had purchased this one off EBay a while back and finally got it to the table. Standard Knizia stuff here and Bobby pulled out a win and I was very much in last place. For some reason, it takes me about 3-4 play before I figure out Knizia games regardless of how simple the game.

Noah and Miles Antwiller had arrived along with some others, so Noah joined us for Acquire. This is another game that I've never played, even though I had "acquired" the game back in February from Bobby for making him Atolla Modulus. I had read the rules before, so just needed a bit of a reminder and off we went. Despite playing with a bunch of sharks, I managed to pull out a commanding win.

As we finished Acquire, Matthew Frederick showed up with his newly revised Ants of Steam map for Age of Steam he had done a few minor tweaks to the map and redone all the graphics - it looked really good. We played another five player game (Matt Cullinan joined Noah, Jason, Matthew and I) and it played exceptionally well. Sounds like it'll be going to some other groups for playtesting, though I think its probably pretty close.

Next up on the plate was another game that was new to me. Jason had brought Vinci, as Matthew had put together an alternate map for him. He got it out as the five of us all sat down to play. With a brief explanation of the various civ powers, I found Vinci quite easy to pick up. It was pretty interesting, but I could definitely see how there is a kingmaker problem at the end of the game.

Our last game of the night is one I think is often overlooked due to its bright colors and dice combat - Nexus Ops. Looking back, I was surprised to discover this was my only play of this so far this year. The game is quickly played and has enough interesting tactical decisions to make we want to play again and again. For this game it was Matthew, Jason, Steve Bauer and I. I jumped out to an early lead with 4pts in mission cards after two quick fights. Jason and Matthew each score 3pts shortly after leaving Steve to lament his slow start. It didn't take long for Steve to make a move and roar into first place. Matthew left me an opening and I was able to score 4 more pts with one fight. At the end of that turn, I pulled a 4pt mission card! Of course the mission was more than impossible - take two dragons from the monolith and move them to an opponents home base and win a fight for a 3 mine. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I was able to score two more pts in an easy fight, but by then Steve had walked away with the win.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M round 1

Well, Jason Maxwell and I have started a "campaign" of Memoir 44. While I suspect that most of the action will occur over VASSAL, its not unlikely we may get a game or two in face to face. We are actually going to play through with me playing the Allied side and Jason on the Axis.

After a few mistakes on my side, we got through the first scenario with the Axis winning 4-2. I couldn't get any cards on my left flank and so mostly took a pounding over there. Ah well.

VASSAL

I've discovered VASSAL. VASSAL is an engine that allows users to create mods that allow for the playing of boardgames over the internet (live or PBEM). My friend Dion is going to be out of town for a while, so we are going to try and play some Memoir and possibly some Battle Cry.

I'm also playing against Jason Maxwell. Jason and are are currently working through the first Memoir game. We'll see how long this lasts. The C&C games are fairly light and fun face to face, though I'm not sure how interesting it'll be over the long term playing by email.

There is also a VASSAL module for AoS (three maps - France, Scandinavia, Ireland), though I can't figure out how to seed the goods. AoS might be a bit of a pain though to play by email. The bidding and then choosing actions might make the game too long.

Unplayed games in my collection

I recently created a geek list of the unplayed games in my collection. There were 29 items on the list. That does not include the four new games I have coming or just acquired. That doesn't include the new games I'm likely to get by the end of the year. October, November, December. Three months. Three new games a month makes nine games. Ok so the list of games I think I can reasonable get played by the end of the year:

1. A Game of Thrones: Storm of Swords - I really like this game. Noah Antwiller is the only other person I know that really loves this game. Typically my desire to play seems to drive our actually playing AGoT. I'm pretty sure I can get this in.
   
2. Liberté - I just got this, but Wallace is fairly popular in my group, so this shouldn't be too hard.
   
3. Acquire - Bobby has said that I just need to get it out to get it played...
   
4. Quandary - This is pretty light (its the early version of Loco!), so it shouldn't be hard to get played.
   
5. Terra Nova - This doesn't look terribly difficult to understand and not terribly long, so I can see this hitting the table.
   
6. Vinci - I'm pretty sure I'll have no trouble getting everyone to play with my winky.
   
7. Age of Steam: Germany - Despite Noah's complaints, I really want to see what Germany is like.
   
8. Manifest Destiny - I haven't received this yet, but I want to play this. I enjoyed Age of Renaissance, but didn't care for how long it was (and the book keeping), I'm hoping this scratches the right itch.
   
9. Command and Colors: Ancients - ok, I don't own this yet. I'm waiting for the reprint to come out. I still want to play it.
   

Games Played Sept 2006

My summary for the month can be found on the BGG in geeklist form.

I've had a jonesing for some wargame like action, so I'm going to be bringing Nexus Ops, Antike, Game of Thrones and so on during the next month. I also have my new games coming, so I expect I'll try and get Manifest Destiny to the table. Finally, I'd like to get around to playing Vinci. Vinci is popular with my group, so I don't know how I've managed to not play this yet.