Nov. 30, 2006 - Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason

ST. VITH, ARDENNES - #15
This one was interesting and I got a few good rolls when I needed them allowing me to push Jason back a bit. I ground him down for a good 6-4 win. Its now 61-56 Axis for the war.

Nov. 30, 2006 - Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Murfreesboro
This one was a little back and forth - I pounded against Jason's left flank early and built a good lead, then the dice went against me and I could not put him away, even though the cards I needed were always around. Turned out that right after I eliminated Jason on the left, he had 3 of 4 cards that were no longer of any use. I won 6-4 and we are now tied up at 43-43 for the war.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

ARRACOURT #14
Well, this one is loaded with units and it didn't look good early, as I wasn't eliminating units, just grinding down on Jason a bit. After he went up by a good amount, I managed to hammer him on two turns to tie things up 5-5. Unfortunately, he was able to quickly score the last point, winning 6-5. The Axis is extending their lead 57-50 for the war.

Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Fredericksburg #8
I managed to get out to a very fast lead on Jason, destroying most of his right flank. Unfortunately for me that meant that my remaining choices for attack were all his forces barricaded behind field works. Combined with a hand of three cards that weren't helping me do what I needed, Jason came back for a 6-5 win. 39-37 for the Confederates for the war.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Bobby

[RUSSO-FINNISH WAR] SUOMUSSALMI #38

This was a fun and interesting one. Bobby took the Finnish and started skiing around killing my guys, but I had a really decent turn where I killed a number of units and went up 5-4. Bobby then tried to escape over the river, but apparently all his running over the ice was too much as the river broke and killed the last man of one of his infantry units. He really had no choice, as I had nearly surrounded that unit and it was toast if he didn't move. That, or he needed to be able to wipe two of my guys out quickly, which he wasn't in position to do.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

Arnhem Bridge #13
Well, this one looked like it was going to be tough for Jason, but once he eliminated my artillery, I had a hard time holding any ground. It was close, but Jason pulled out a nice 5-4 win. Its now 51-45 for the Axis.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Dion

Omaha Beach - #5
Well, I really hated this one and Dion didn't do anything to change that. Rather, he took out two tanks in the first turn and then pretty much had his way with me in something like 4 turns, 6-1. At least its over. Totals now stand at 17-15 in my favor.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Dion

POINTE-DU-HOC #4

Well, I did better in this one vs Dion than the one against Jason, winning this 4-2. This makes the overall score 16-9 in my favor (Allies). Of course, the next up is Omaha Beach, one of the ones I really really disliked.

Game Night - Nov. 17, 2006

Friday Nov. 17, 2006 - Gamers Inn
I arrived at the Inn this week and there were already a few guys there, so I brought out Colloretto. I've been playing this a bit online and wanted to see how different it was against live folks, instead of bots that I beat all the time. Noah and Miles Antwiller, Jason Sato, Jerry George and I were all playing. We only played 1 round as a number of folks were piling in while we were playing. I finished in second I believe. Next I broke out Power Grid and we decided on the Italy map. I was joined by Noah, Miles, Jerry and Matt Cullinan. As usual, I hated my starting spot the second I picked it and it turned out to be as bad as I thought. Now, about six months ago, I vowed not to play Power Grid with Jerry anymore. He doesn't seem to "get" it, and usually spends the mid and end game just annoying everyone by spending all his cash buying out the resources, rather than keeping up with everyone. This game was more of the same - at least he wasn't slowing down the game. Miles pulled out a good win.
The main event for the night ended up being the planned game of Manifest Destiny. Jason, Noah and I were joined by Rob Smolka and Dion Garner. Manifest Destiny is a game which is very similar to Age of Renaissance - its something of an empire builder with technologies and a whole lot of "raping the leader". What it doesn't have is anywhere near as much book keeping and its about a 3 hour game instead of 8. I enjoyed the game quite a bit, but made the mistake of moving up too quickly near the end of the game. Dion then played 3-4 cards that easily took me right out of the running. Overall, I really liked this game and would play again, but its probably not something that would come out more than once a month.

Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) #7.
Well, this didn't look promising for the Union to start. Too many units trapped in the left by the river and the back end of the board. I also had a very poor set of three cards for the game and I ended up throwing out a desperation attack to score a single point and the Rebels won 6-1. 33-32 for the Confederates in the war.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

MONTELIMAR - #12
Well, this was one of the more interesting ones we've played - I really liked the unpassable hills. It was pretty even until the end. I took a chance with a singe tank rush and tried to grab 2 quick points when we were at 4-4. Instead, I only got one (the one for being next to the river). Jason killed that tank and won 6-4. That puts the bad guys ahead 46-41 for the war.

Samurai on Mabiweb

Jason Sato, Mike Gingold and I played another in our never-ending series of Samurai games. This time we played with the new "hidden" scores (though technically, all you have to do is look at the game log to figure them out). At any rate, I started out about as I always do, but some bad draws in the middle of the game didn't let me make a couple crucial placements when I needed to and Mike gobbled a ton of pieces up in the mid-game. By the end of the game, I had to choose between increasing my general stock, but ensuring I had no majority, or grabbing a majority, but knowing I had no chance at winning. Mike won pretty handily.

Battle Cry Charles vs Jason

Brawner's Farm #6
The Union pulled out a closely fought battle 6-5. Jason played aggressively which might have put him in a vulnerable spot towards the end of the game. Of course, if I hadn't won, he would have likely taken care of the game on the next turn. 31-27 Union for the war! Next up is Antietam -

The Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South), fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with almost 23,000 casualties.

After pursuing Confederate General Robert E. Lee into Maryland, Union Army Major General George B. McClellan launched attacks against Lee's army, in defensive positions behind Antietam Creek. Despite having superiority of numbers, McClellan's attack failed to achieve concentration of mass, resulting in a three-phase battle that Lee was able to counter by shifting forces to meet each challenge. Despite ample reserve forces that could have been deployed to exploit localized successes, McClellan failed to destroy Lee's army. Nevertheless, Lee's invasion of Maryland was ended and he was able to withdraw his army back to Virginia without interference from the cautious McClellan. Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, it had unique significance as enough of a victory to give President Abraham Lincoln the confidence to announce his Emancipation Proclamation.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Bobby

Bobby asked me to play the desert Knightsbridge scenario with him (he planned to take three of us on to see how it played out). I managed a 5-3 victory with the help of a couple cards that let me take good advantage of moving a lot of tanks at once. This one may be a bit luck driven, because a handful of move 1 unit "recon" cards would probably hose you.

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

The Liberation of Paris #11
Well, this one ended up being a good old fashion ass kicking - with the Allies doing the kicking for a change. I managed to break through a couple tanks and get a couple of the tokens for Paris cities and then had a nice set of rolls on the last turn to grab the last 3 pts I needed for the win. Jason had a string of bad rolls, and I think a lousy set of cards that hamstrung him most of the game. This let me win 5-1 and brings the totals much closer with 40-37 (Axis) for the war. Viva Paris!

Memoir 44 Charles vs Jason M

Toulon #10
Bah, we finished, then the kids got sick and I forgot what even happened - it was a close one though 6-5, 39-32 for the war.

Game Night - Nov 3, 2006

Friday Nov. 3, 2006 - My House
I hosted game night this eveing and as usual, Noah and Miles Antwiller were the first to arrive and so I pulled out my new game - Hey! That's My Fish. this is a shorter light game, but does offer a few tactical choices as you try and cut off other players, while carving out a large number of fish for yourself. It can also get nasty, but is short so not too nasty. Jason Sato and Matt Cullinan had arrived, so I then pulled out Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 - the new expansion for the original game. This game adds new and modified destination tickets as well as a couple new ways to play based on the destination tickets. I somehow seemed to be the only one that managed to complete all my tickets and won with a decent margin. We were still waiting for some others to show, but Jason and Hope Maxwell had arrived, so we agreed to play some Bang! with the Fistful of Cards expansion. Bang! is one of those games that takes zero skill, but is short and decently fun most of the time. I drew the renegade (which sucks as far as I'm concerned). It was down to the Sherrif (Jason S) and Deputy Hope, and they finished me off in short notice. Erik Von Burg had arrived and had wanted to try out the new expansion for Descent - The Well of Darkness. Erik, Matt and I sat down to battle it out against Miles. We ended up with a couple tanks (Matt and I) and no ranged attackers. That might have been an issue given this dungeon's special trick - the dungeon was collapsing, forcing us to run through it. Each turn, the farthest back part of the dungeon was taken off the map. We did ok, but eventually, the dungeon caught up to us and Miles won. It was fun though, and I'd play again. After that, nobody could decide on a game, so we settled for playing one of Matt's favorites - Can't Stop! Of course, Erik and I never made it on the board at all and Matt rolled (groan) to an easy win. Most everyone took off, so Jason and Hope and Jason S and I finished the night playing Ave Caesar. I hadn't played it before, but found it to be pretty fun - its too bad the word out on the new version is that it sucks. I'd like a copy, but the older version is pretty hard to come by.