New Boardgame: Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East

    Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East by GMT games covers the same period as AH's Civilization

One of my presents to myself (used with Christmas money) was a new, multiplayer boardgame. Many years ago, we enjoyed extremely long-playing games such as Britannia, History of the World, and Civilization. No longer being able to play all night long, we slowly switched to more Euro style games. Some may still take a few hours to complete, but all in all, with streamlined mechanics they tend to play much faster than the old dinosaurs I remember fondly.

I saw Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East by GMT Games at the local game store and was intrigued. I read several reviews online and checked its Boardgamegeek rating (7.6 out of 10). I decided to pick it up and read through the rules. Streamlined yes, but there are a lot of steps and rules. Would it play well? Would it be the 21st century version of Civilization (considering it dealt with the same time period)? I convinced the Sunday evening gang to give it a try. On the day of the game, I re-read the rules, set out the board with initial placements for six civilizations and even dealt them their hand of Fate cards.

    My fellow "Ancient" players gathered around the board game table figuring out how to play

It took about a half hour or so to run through all the rules, and the guys were patient and asked clarification questions. So, we got started actually taking the first turn around 6:30pm. We had very few rules questions, actually, for a first play-through. We quickly found out that the Fate cards are nasty! A civilization can be gutted and lose half of its circular disks representing population on one card. One of the cruelest of the night was when I played the Biblical flood of "40 Days and 40 Nights" on my friend Allen controlling Assyria. I was stunned how badly it affected him. Of course, I got my comeuppance when his brother Joel hit me with a sea version of my river flood and then Keith hit me with a different river flood. 

Everyone enjoyed it, though. We resolved to play it again, but perhaps when we have more time allotted than a standard Sunday evening gaming time (3-4 hours). I like that the game has an irregular mechanism for how many turns an "Epoch" will last. Our first epoch ran long, and I timed it right to have a couple victory point lead at the end of it. We did the transition to Epoch 2, ran through most of our first turn of it, and then decided to call it at 10pm. Definitely an interesting game, and one that will see all player civilizations suffer the slings and arrows of Fate cards. 

    The starting positions for six civilizations all set up and waiting for my players to arrive

I look forward to our next game of it!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures purchased in 2024: 15
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 14

Sunday Night Gaming Group Back in Session!

    We had 8 players at the very first session of gaming at my house, so split into two games of Terraforming Mars

Missed somewhere in the traffic of all my posts on Saga is the fact my Sunday evening gaming group is back in session. We actually have been going on for a couple months, now. So far, it has been all board games. We almost did miniatures a couple times, but so far haven't pulled it off. I am working on an idea for a series of skirmish miniatures games (kind of like I did with the Fur-grave Ghost Archipelago games awhile back). Players would have the same warband over a number of games. I would love to do a post-Apocalyptic setting, but have to check if I have enough figures to pull it off. Plus, there would be the issue of which rules set to use. When it was all said and done, I simply didn't enjoy the Frostgrave combat system. I have purchased Burrows and Badgers, and like it's combat system even less. Maybe I will write my own set? Or use Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes...

    Close up of Terraforming Mars -- you need a decent amount of room to spread out all your cards

Probably one of the more popular board games we've been playing is Terraforming Mars. I really enjoy the game, and like it even more in an in-setting instead of just playing on the app against computer opponents. Somehow, it is less stressful and more fun when it is me and my friends than when I am trying to beat the A.I.! I taught it to them a month or so ago, and we've played it a couple times since then. It has helped that we've had really big turnouts -- an astounding 10 players last Sunday! Obviously, we split into two games going on simultaneously. Terraforming Mars takes a max five players.

    A 7-player game of Wingspan at my friend Mike W's house...or the Brewpub as we call it!

Another one of my favorite board games recently has been Wingspan. Jenny and I own both the European and Oceania expansions (haven't played that one yet, though). We have also found that you can do more than the five players that the game is supposedly limited to, though. We played a 7-player game once, and two six-player games. You simply need a second copy of the game for the additional player pieces and habitat boards. The game does change in multi, multiplayer mode. Those pink abilities (once between your turns) are much more valuable than they would be in a game with fewer players. I would have to say those are my two new favorite boardgames -- even more than Seven Wonders. Though honestly, we played the absolute heck out of Seven Wonders on our Covid-induced, online sessions on Board Game Arena.

Sunday Evening board games with Zeke

We eventually ended up with 10 players for Sunday night board games

We had a pleasant surprise and our old friend Zeke was able to make it again for Sunday Night gaming. He had a board game, Wingspan, that he wanted to introduce to use. I brought along some extra games, knowing we'd likely have more than its five-player maximum. With eight of us in attendance, we split into two groups of four. Zeke, Keith, Joel, and Mike W played Wingspan, while I trotted out Pandemic for Allen, Brian, and Mike S.

Looking at the thinking going on, it is tempting to make a "bird brains" comment, as Zeke teaches the Sunday evening crew how to play Wingspan...

Everyone seemed to be having a good time learning Wingspan, so much so that Keith planned to pick up the game soon. I told Zeke that made him 2-for-2 on introducing new games on our Sunday nights, as the last time he brought Imperial, two of the players ended up going out and buying it!
In our Pandemic game, we b-a-r-e-l-y squeaked out a win. Mike S found the fourth cure and we did not have enough cards to complete his two-card draw. So, we won by one card! I think having the Dispatcher, Researcher, and Scientist is a great combination. The Dispatcher regularly moved the Researcher to the Scientist so that he could give him cards, enabling us to find the cures with four cards rather than five. My role was the Medic, so I could bounce around the board tamping down the worst disease outbreaks. It was a tense ending to the game, because we did not have enough cards to win the original way we planned it, so we had to come up with an alternate idea.

The other group ended up playing three different games - Pandemic, Splendor, and finally Tsuro

As the birders were still birding with Wingspan, we broke out Splendor - an awesome four-player game. I am used to playing it on my ipad, though I hadn't in quite some time. As such, played my worst game of it in awhile, ending up vying for last place with Allen. Mike S stomped us on points, though it really looked like Brian was going to win the game for most of the later part of it. I feel Splendor is a completely different game head-to-head, as live players are so much better at spotting what cards you're gathering chips for than the A.I. can be.

My diabolical plan in the second game of Tsuro works out as four of my opponents crowd together, facing elimination!

Since the Wingspan game wasn't quite finished, we broke out Mike W's copy of Tsuro -- my all-time favorite "Introductory" game. Jenny and Mike's wife Tammy had been going for a walk while we were gaming earlier, so joined us on two quick games of Tsuro. Jenny and I ended up tying the first game, and I won the second outright.

All in all, a fun Sunday evening of board games. It was good to connect with Zeke, again. I hope to see him again, soon!

Labor Day (and night!) of Board Games

From left, Mike S, Jason, and Brian were my opponents in the venerable Avalon Hill board game, Britannia

Since Mike S drives over from Springfield nearly every Sunday, we thought it would be nice to return the favor and have the Sunday night gaming group visit him. We picked Labor Day afternoon for the occasion, with most of us arriving around 2pm. Most of the group made it, plus a nice handful of additions -- Mike's nephews Thomas and Daniel, his son Jason, and Jenny. We had planned on a cookout, but decided to do pizza instead, since it was supposed to storm.

Britannia was always one of my favorites, but needing exactly four players and a LONG time limited its playing

One of the main goals of the day was to "dust off" some of the old classic boardgames that take a long time to play. We figured we could start in the afternoon and finish at a reasonable time. As we had 10 of us total, I suggested a six-player History of the World and four-player Britannia. As it was, we decided to break out Secret Hitler, as it can play up to (exactly) 10 players. As usual, the Fascists won. I think every time I have played this game the Liberals have lost. Must be an accurate simulation!

This game is always a winner, and Jenny capitalized on her Sunday game night presence by winning it

Next, I polled everyone to see what they wanted to play. A number wanted to play Power Grid, so we did the six-player group as that, instead. Myself, Mike S, Brian, and Jason opted for Britannia. It took a good 20 minutes to go over the rules, as players were sorting their kingdom's pieces. For those that haven't played this Avalon Hill classic, it covers the history of Britain from the Roman invasions to the Norman attack. Players are given a series of nations or kingdoms to control. I drew Green, which meant I had the Welsh, Caledonians, Jutes, and Danes. Jason drew Purple, unfortunately for him, as it meant a newbie had to learn quickly playing the Roman invasions. Mike S was Red, and Brian -- the other new player -- was Blue.

Jason and Brian roll off as they struggle for control of Britain

It was great to play the game, again. I tried to give as many tactical hints as I could to the new players, but it takes awhile to get the flow of the game and understand ways to achieve your objectives. My goal with the Welsh was to survive the Roman onslaught, and Jason tried to make that VERY difficult for me, assaulting into my heartland. I had an incredible series of die rolls, though, and repulsed his attack. As a new player, he did not make a hard push north, which meant the Brigantes were barely touched, and the Picts were completely unmolested. The Picts, in turn, could then concentrate on the Caledones and the Scots when they arrived, pushing them back and marginalizing them.

It was a fun game - as Britannia always is, I feel. I had a comfortable lead the couple times we checked the scores. However, Brian made a surge at the end and overtook my by 2 points -- 119 to 117!

Night had fallen out on the screened-in porch where Daniel, Jenny, Keith, Thomas, and Joel gamed on

About halfway through our game, the Power Grid game ended with a Jenny win. They decided to set up Fortune and Glory, which surprised us, as we knew it was a long game. And so it proved, as they continued on for at least another hour after we had packed up Britannia. Fortune and Glory is fun, but there is just so much STUFF in the game. It takes forever to set up, and you constantly need to refer to the rules to see how to handle all the different situations that crop up.

We simply don't play Fortune and Glory often enough to be familiar with the rules to make it go quickly

As it was, we had a much longer day than we anticipated, and didn't finish till after 11pm (later than our normal Sunday evening gaming when we start at 7pm!). It was fun, though. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and it was a great way to wrap up summer.

Board Games at My Place

 With two of our regulars out, and a few others not replying to the email, it looked to be a small crowd for our regular Sunday evening gaming session. There are a lot of 4-player board games, but it is a rare thing when we have only four. So, I asked Allen to bring along Amazonas, which we had not played in a number of years.

Players take on the role of researchers in the Amazon, collecting specimens of five different types of flora and fauna. The board depicts a number of villages connected by jungle pathways and waterways. Each player has a secret objective to visit four of the villages and build a research hut there. Failure to do this results in negative victory points. Otherwise, players start receiving victory points when they collect three of any one of the five specimen types. Players receive additional victory bonuses for being the first to collect one of each of the five types, the first player getting 5 points, second 4 points, and so on.

The board, showing the jungle and water pathways between villages

I ended up winning the first game, barely building into my final, far-flung village on the last turn. I had at least 3 specimens in 4 categories -- foregoing the bonus for collecting all 5. It went quick enough, we set it up and played again. This time Joel won. It is a good game -- what other players do affects you, and the random order of special event cards also has a big effect.

Lots of board gaming lately

 

Our Sunday evening game crew has been playing a lot of board games, lately. I think everybody is in a lull phase on having a miniatures game ready to host, so we've been falling back on board games. Last Sunday, we were at Ptom's house and he pulled out a new purchase. There were seven of us in attendance, and that tends to limit what games we can play.
 

So, we decided to give Ptom's "Steampunk Rally" a try. Wow, what a complex game. Ptom read us the rules, and we were all confused at several points. Several times I quipped, "So, tell me again why we're not playing Seven Wonders right now?" Seven Wonders is my favorite multiplayer boardgame right now, but Steve said he dislikes it and had nixed it. Of course, he brought Munchkin...which to my thinking, is about as limited a game as you can play. Who draws the lucky cards? Who does everybody pick on? Whoopie...! So, I nixed that one in reply...ha, ha!

Anyway, back to Steampunk Rally. Players take on the role of famous inventors or scientists -- Tesla, Marconi, Einstein, Edison, and several others were in our game. They are constructing a steampunkish contraption from the cards they draw to race around a rocky track that tends to tear apart your machine. There are three different types of energy -- steam, electricity, and heat. Your contraption will probably specialize in one of them, but need all types eventually. There are a number of strange mechanics in the game. You place colored dice on your machine to represent you powering up your machine, but then you have to pay to take them off -- "venting" them -- before you can re-power it.

There is certainly a lot of variety, and we felt a lot more confident about the game after playing several rounds. However, not my favorite new game of the ones we've played.

The previous Sunday we had also been at Ptom's. We tried another recent purchase of his -- the inaptly named "Five Tribes," which seems to be quite popular. As often is the case with Eurogames, there is a "veneer" of history or setting thrown over game mechanics. This one seemed to have the thinnest of veneers. Tribes is a terrible English word for what in the game are five different castes or guilds that you try to utilize to earn the most victory points. They even call their pieces "meeples" at one point -- the generic gamer's term for the little wooden playing pieces that appear in most Eurogames. They couldn't think of another term that fit their Middle Eastern / South Asia motif and setting? 

All complaining about the veneer aside, this is an excellent game. There are so many paths to victory, so many strategies to utilize to win, that every game could be different. We played it twice and had two completely different strategies win the game. In the first game, Joel won by focusing on controlling tiles for victory points, while in the second game Ptom won ("Ptom's Winning!") by using the commodities. I look forward to playing this one again.

Finally, the previous week we got to try out a new purchase of mine. I had picked up a copy of Splendor at Barnes & Noble because they were having a sale to benefit my school's library. I run a weekly board game club at the school, and the kids were complaining I was bringing the same games over and over again. Earlier, I had posted on the Facebook page of the  Columbus Area Boardgaming Society (CABS), asking what game would be good for middle schoolers. Four or five of my 30 responses were for this game.
 

In Splendor, you are a gem merchant, picking up five different types of gems (or gold -- which is like a wild card). You use these gems to purchase cards, which give you a permanent bonus of one gem of a certain color. There are three tiers of cards, each costing progressively more gems. Some of the cards provide victory points, most of the lower tier ones do not. If you collect enough "bonus cards" you may acquire a noble as a customer, which provides you with more victory points.

Between the one time we played it at Joel's two Sundays ago, and the twice I've played it at the school board game club, I've yet to win this game. It is fun, fast, and a clever design. The kids loved it and picked it up quickly. So, it was a worthwhile purchase, and definitely a game I enjoy playing and look forward to trying again (and getting that elusive victory!).

Three weeks of Sundays, and three new board games!

"Fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory..."

    The massive board, piles of Fortune coins, and players off vying for artifacts stashed around the world

Our first post-Christmas, Sunday evening gaming sessions saw us trying out a mega board game that Mike S had received. It is Pulp-themed game called, "Fortune and Glory." The obvious reference is an Indiana Jones reply to Short Round in the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This is a big, expensive game with lots and lots of what our friend Zeke calles "fiddly-bits." We were testing out the Basic version, which saw about half of the bits not in use.

As players, each of us takes on the role of a Pulp explorer or personality. Mine was a French, tomb-raiding "scoundrel" named Jacques. Each explorer has a card with his abilities and a figure to be placed on the game board. The card lists your statistics in Fighting, Cunning, Agility, and Lore. These are what you will use to pass various tests, such as traps in tombs, fighting Nazi or other enemies, and figuring your way out of situations like being trapped in a plane with no pilot (or parachute). Your goal in the basic game is to attain 15 Fortune points (17 for Jacques, cause he's a greedy S.O.B.), which are represented by plastic, golden coins in two values. Plastic blue coins represent your "Glory," which you can spend to get equipment, allies (not Jacques, cause he doesn't share his fortune or glory -- because he's greedy), and even to get healed up.

    Jacques' card, loaded down with Glory coins and the wounds he suffered to obtain the fabled Gauntlet artifact

On the board, which is a colorful world map divided into areas, are placed 4 artifacts. Our goal was to be the first to reach those artifacts and pass the tests to solve and obtain them. Some artifacts need only 3 tests, others required 5. Each test takes the form of a random Danger card. Often these give you a choice of using your agility to avoid it, cunning to find your way around it, or (like Jacques) wade in and punch and shoot your way through it. Each test you pass earns you "Glory" points. Failing a test, forces you to try to pass the Cliffhanger on the back. If you pass, your turn is over, and you can pick up where you left off next turn. If you fail, you take a certain number of wounds or are even returned to your starting location minus 1d6 fortune, glory, equipment, allies, etc.

Jacques began the game in Alexandria and crossed the Mediterranean on the first turn and arrived in Venice, to find the long-lost magical "Gauntlet of...(um, I forget)".  At the end of any turn where an artifact was obtained by a player, a new one is drawn and randomly placed on the board using the game's cards. It is a clever system, with the first card saying "The Eye of...", "The Heart of...", or other such titles. The second card gives the name, "Pharrah," etc., and the third the location. Jacques was able to punch his way through all five tests, and I snagged my first artifact. The other four players were doing the same, with various degrees of success or failure.

Fortune and Glory is not a quick game, and where the designers get a 90 minute playing time from is a mystery to us. It took us about 3 hours to get to the point where Jacques made a delivery in San Francisco and earned his 17th Fortune point. Of course, I was forced by the other players to make two re-rolls with cards they'd accumulated, but my luck persevered. It was a fun game, and now that we've played it once, I can see it going a bit faster. Also, we now realize the value of equipment, Allies, and other things you can acquire to help you out along the way.

The best thing about it (besides the fact somebody else spent the $90 to get it -- not me...ha, ha!), is that it accommodates a large number of players (8, I think). We rarely have only four players, which so many board games seemed designed around. I can definitely see us playing this again and braving dangers to obtain more Fortune and Glory.

It's a Small World after all...

Sunday night board game at my place

This game probably wins the award for longevity in the "one I've been meaning to pick up..." category. I played it first a number of years ago, and liked it right away. Players control a series of fantasy races who invade and try to stake out as much territory as possible before playing themselves out, losing steam, and going into decline. Lots of player choices -- which race to choose from those available, where to arrive on the board, and how long to keep the race active before letting it go into decline so you can grab another one. Each game can be different because the races are randomly paired up with a special ability each game.

We were playing the Underground version, which Mike S owns. I began the game controlling the "Historian" Will O'Wisps. They get victory points each time another player race goes into decline. Since I took my turn last, I thought that would be a good way to pick up a few extra victory points. Next, I had the "Thieving" Mud-men, which others had shied away from because another race was in control of the muddy areas. As it turns out, their special ability -- to steal one victory point from any player with an active race adjacent to your tokens -- probably won me the game. I also briefly controlled a magic ring that did the exact same thing on one of my turns. I was adjacent to 3 of the other players, which meant they lost two points and I gained two points from each. That is a swing of four in my favor against three of the other four players (we had five total).

In the end, I was surprised I won the game. I never felt on any turn that I collected the most victory points. I guess I collected enough and avoided really low turns. The others accused me of "sand-bagging," by claiming I was losing. However, I could swear two or more players earned more victory points than me every turn. It was as great of a surprise to me that I won as it was to them!

Here's the boardgamegeek link for the game.

Board Games at my Place

With Allen and Mike S out for the evening, I offered to host board games at my place. I have a few more things to finish before I can run the climactic scenario of my Pulp games. So, board games were a good substitute since no one had a minis game ready.

First, we played Keith's newest version of Pandemic. It adds in a few new roles, including the Quarantine Specialist that Joel played and my Contingency Specialist. We cured three of the four diseases before the end of the game, but still ran out of the player deck before the fourth was cured. I honestly thought we did fairly well, but Pandemic is always tough. And the more players you have, the tougher it gets. Trying to win with five players is difficult.

Next, we did a blast (literally) from the past and played Nuclear War. Joel was the winner, and I was the big loser being the first taken out. Next was Keith, then Steve, then Ptom, leaving Joel the sole survivor. It was a brutal game, as expected, and was interesting flashback to our gaming days of yore!

Java by Request

We were down to four of us for Sunday evening's gaming, and Joel being the host, declared we would play a board game that we hadn't yet this year. Suggestions flew back and forth in the email conversations in the week leading up to Sunday. There are a lot of good board games out there that have a max of four players, so this was a chance to play them again. Our normal crew is 5-6, sometimes even 7 players. Java, by Rio Grande Games, is one of those four player games. It was requested by both Tom and Allen, so I dragged it and a few other games along.

After catching up on the not-so-good news of our friends (get well, soon, Mike S...hope your luck turns around soon, Steve!), we broke out Java and I explained the rules, again. I played my usual strategy of building up temple complexes as fast as possible, while trying to stay competitive on the points garnered from irrigation tiles. Joel maxed out on the irrigation tiles, as usual, but threw a new wrinkle in his strategy. He flooded the board with his developer pieces -- most of them lurking in the fields. Since he'd chosen red as his color, we laughed that he was the VC out in the rice paddies. Tom's strategy also focused on temples, while Allen played a middle ground between building and getting pieces on the board.

    Joel's contemplates his next move, while Allen and Tom look on...

I jumped out to an early lead, with Tom close on my heels. Once we ran out of space for new cities and temples, I started to run out of steam and Tom passed me up. On one crucial turn, I earned no points as I took back a temple from Allen that I'd already scored. Tom widened the gap. Joel closed his red army into the cities. Allen was also positioned thickly all over the board, but Tom and I had been very clever about maintaining position to control (or take over) cities. In the end, it was a race between Tom and I. He edged me out by about five points.

    Tom's secret weapon in Java: The sage advice of Brutus the Weimaraner

It was a great competitive game, and we had a good time, as usual. Lisa brought home a mixed six pack of beers in a variety of tempting flavors. So, it was good times, good drinks, and good snacks -- especially Joel's black bean dip which Allen practically licked the bowl to clean out. Joel and Lisa's Weimaraner Brutus kept us entertained for the price of mooching a snack or two. A good Sunday evening with friends!

Modern Africa Hostage Rescue

My buddy Joel hosted us at his house this past Sunday, and had set up a modern Africa hostage rescue game. He'd found a set of rules off the internet and used the miniatures we had for our own modern Africa games. Why he didn't use the same rules...well, we asked that afterwards...? Here is Joel's entertaining report, along with a couple pictures I took...

    20mm modern Africa hostage rescue game hosted by Joel using "Execute" rules

Battle Report: Streets of Raƙumi
Rules:  Execute execute execute!
Mike S, Keith, Allen, Mike D, Tom (each player controlled a fire team of 3)
GM: Joel

Sgt. Daba, situation commander, could not tell how many tribal separatist or hostages were in town.
It was 2000 hours and getting dark, South African advisers thought the terrorists could use the cover of darkness to escape with the hostages. So, Sgt. Daba order the security forces to surround the town and check every building.  The terrorist had exceptional fire control. Luckily, no sniper was set up in town.  As the troops moved through town, reports came in "Building clear, building clear!" Sgt. Daba moved to the local police station, bypassed the security lock, and was attacked by three Sellenduq tribalist with a grenade and holding one hostage.  In the 20-minute gun fight with the well-armed Sellenduqs, Sgt. Daba lost two men before clearing that police station.  (Mike S rescued 1
hostage)

Meanwhile, across town, Yoro -- a town elder -- led two of his sons in the warehouses east of town.  They stumbled across two Abanaban tribalists crouching over an IED. The terrorist fled and so did Yoro and his sons. "BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!" they shouted trying to warn the nearby soldiers. Within seven minutes, the warehouse was destroyed in the explosion.

The South African advisers worked the backside of a street with the local militia.  The militia marked a large building clear, but the South Africans double checked and ran into three hiding Abanaban
terrorists.  The Abanaban threw a pipe bomb that failed to go off, and a 15 minute gun battle inside the large building momentarily stopped the South Africans advance. The South Africans cleared the building and rescued three hostages.  (Mike D rescued the most hostages so "won" the game).

    More action from the game, and a closer look at the ceramic buildings Joel is creating in his art class. The tile street is ceramic, as well.

Regular army troops on Sgt. Daba left flank checked and cleared three dwellings as they cautiously approached the fire fight outside the police station.  They stumbled across three terrorists with one
bomb set to go off.  They shot one terrorist, threw a grenade at the other terrorist, rescued one hostage and got away from the building, which then blew up. (Keith rescued 1 hostage).

    Tom, Joel and Mike S decompress with a game of Strozzi -- kind of an alternate version of the board game Medici

The game went quickly, so we had time. So, we did a quick board game, Strozzi.   We taught Mike D how to play, he won (so we told him TOO much in my opinion). We also learned that Keith is a slooooow pirate.

Boardgames & Beer

    Wildlife is a fun, 6-player game that has multiple strategies to accrue victory points and win

So, Allen wanted to host the first Sunday in January so we could help him drink his leftover Christmas beer. In addition, he'd also received a "flight" of beer shot glasses -- essentially a wooden paddle with round slots for four glasses. Appropriately, there were four in attendance to sample the variety of beers from his fridge. I actually found a smoked porter that wasn't repulsive and did not taste like bacon. Despite universal acclaim for bacon's taste, when the main flavor in a beer it is gagging. Stone's Smoked Porter with Vanilla Bean was actually quite tasty.

On to the games! There were six of us in attendance, so we had a choice of about a half dozen board games to choose from. Allen was the only one with a preference, so we ended up playing Wildlife by Uberplay. This game is best with six players, and has each player taking on the role of a creature (Men, Crocodiles, Snakes, Eagles, Mammoths, Bears) trying to become the dominant one on the planet. I actually picked up this game years ago in the "swag party" after volunteering at Origins. It is a fun, interactive game -- your choices definitely affect the fortunes of the others. For some reason, both of the last two times we've played, I've ended up playing the Snakes. I am not sure what is says about me, but the others made no bones about what is said about my advice -- particularly when offered up to Joel (the Human player).

Steve V played the Eagles and cruised to an early lead. Allen (Bears) and Mike S (Mammoths) gave him a run towards the middle of the game, but he pulled away even more at the end. Allen was a distant second, while I ended up middle of the pack. That was better than last place, where I was most of the game. I didn't do a very good job of adjusting my strategy when others circumvented it early on. Although Keith (Crocodiles) and I -- while not actually cooperating -- did not interfere with each other overly, it still wasn't enough. I was unable to really dominate enough of the regions to score many victory points.

Next week, we are scheduled to give Mike S and his Star Wars skirmish another try. He uses Flying Lead rules, and we've played it once before and had a good time with it. My third running of Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures is scheduled for the last Sunday of the month -- Jan. 26th. That gives me extra time to finish up the last of the terrain pieces I need to for the scenario...

Ogre "Team Lift"

    Zeke displays casual disregard for the caution label: "We don't need any stinking 'team lift'!"

I’m way behind in getting this game report from last week written up. Our old gaming buddy, Zeke, had recently received his Ogre kickstarter from Steve Jackson Games. This mammoth box contains 25 pounds of gaming accessories. My favorite part of it is the caution label on the box advising you to “Team Lift” the box! Anyway, Keith and Jason had also joined the kickstarter promotion and all were eager to see how it played. So, Zeke made a reappearance at our Sunday night gaming to stage a game for us.

There were six players divided into three sides. Zeke’s scenario was two massive Ogres (Mark IV or V, I can’t remember -- I never really read up on the Ogre world mythos) were defending a compound that the other two sides wanted to take possession of. Allen and Joel were the defending Ogres. The other two sides also had two players. Tom and I were the European alliance, with Tom having a lesser Ogre (Mark III?) and myself controlling a mix of heavy, light, and missile tanks, as well as some GEVx. Keith and Mike Stelzer were the the American side, and their force mirrored ours.

    How far we've come in three decades! The original Ogre "mini-game" with a backdrop of the current mega-game...

Since Tom obviously remembered much more from playing Ogre more than 25 years ago than I did, I told him he was in charge. We advanced towards the defending Ogres in the center, hoping to be able to concentrate on one and avoid the other. On the other side, Keith turned tail and ran when Allen’s Ogre moved towards him. Allen reversed course and Keith was a non-factor in the first half of the battle. This gave us the chance to close in on Joel’s Ogre, though, and so we did. I made the mistake of bunching up my tanks along the road, which allowed Joel to run over way too many of them, grinding them up while taking minimal tread damage. Halfway through the game, I figured out the “stick and move” tactics I should have been employing all along.

    Tom and my forces at deployment. Note Ogre uses 3D counters for the larger Ogre tanks, and ordinary flat counters for infantry, tanks, and GEVs.

Meanwhile, Tom was valiantly ramming Joel’s Ogre, and then Allen’s when it rushed to help out his not-so-beleagured brother. It didn’t seem like we were doing a lot to the Ogres, but eventually we began to strip away their weapons. Once that was done, we began to attack their treads. It was here that my dice rolling started to kick in, as I sniped at the Ogres with the remaining one third of my force. Keith and Stelzer had finally weighed in, after letting us take the Sams’ brothers’ battering. After about two hours of play, the Ogres were immobilized and weaponless.

    Tom's smaller blue Ogre rams Joel's massive one, while Allen advances to help his brother. The black counters at the top are Mike Stelzer's. Keith's smaller ogre is frantically trying to make up ground and reach the battle.

Now, it became a struggle between my forces and the Americans for control of the compound (Tom had finally been battered to an immobilized hulk). Stelzer had more troops and a better pathway to the compound. Despite bravely forcing a one-turn tie, we were driven off on the subsequent turn. The Americans held the objective. Under Zeke’s point system, my force came in a distant dead last. I thought I was fairly effective late in the game, but I guess the numbers don’t lie. I lost too many tanks early on in the game. In hindsight, I would not have tried to mass for one attack. It might have been better to divide my forces into several waves, so that they were more spread out and less easy for the Ogres to counterattack.

    Outnumbered, outclassed, Tom chooses a glorious death and repeated reams the Sams brothers until his Ogre is immobilized and all but a smoking hulk

It was a fun game, though. Hopefully, we’ll see Zeke again soon -- and play his 25-pound boardgame once more...!

Catchup on what's been going on...

 

So, I didn't get a chance to update our board game night over here, last Sunday. There were five of us present, and we decided to give Steve V's "Atlantic Storm" card game a try. In this game, the players switch back and forth between playing Allies trying to protect North Atlantic convoys during World War II, or Germans trying to sink them. The idea is to get the most victory points (downing convoys or opponents' ships/aircraft). If you think you are better served playing Allied one turn and then Axis the next, you do so.

The most interesting aspect is that players have a hand of cards, but can only play ones that are in the correct theater (North Atlantic or Arctic), and the correct year (1939-45). So, you may have several cards to choose from, or possibly even no cards to play. In that case, you can discard a card and draw a new one, but you will not affect the outcome of the game. Whichever player does the most to protect or defeat the convoy wins the hand. Opposing card are sometimes worth victory points, which must be divvied out relatively equally to those who joined the winning side.

Steve V and Mike S jumped out to early leads and held on for most of the game. I was competitive early, but then fell out of contention quickly towards the end. There is a "rich get richer" component of the game that those with more victory points accumulated get a larger hand of cards (which of course gives them more cards to choose from to play to win still more hands). Luckily, we forgot about that until the very end of the game or it could have been even more lopsided! It was a fun game, though, and a nice, relatively-quick moving 5 player game. To be honest, I don't remember whether Steve or Mike won -- but I'm sure it was one of them!
Since Steve had to duck out after the game, we were down to 4 players. We decided it was time to give Pandemic another go. This is my favorite cooperative game, though it takes a maximum of only four players. Also, the more players, the harder it is to win as a group. Allen was hoping to score his first victory as a player. Myself, I think I've played where the group won less times than I have fingers on one hand! Our first game got off to a great start, and I was confidently predicting a victory for us. Then, we were hit with a round of cascading "outbreaks." Before we knew it, we'd gone from coasting to what looked like a comfortable victory to losing. D'oh!

Allen insisted we play again, as it is a quick game. This time we managed to win. Instead of staring off quickly, we seemed to be moving slowly. But the tortoise ended up being better than the hare, again. We picked up steam towards the end and won relatively easily. We were helped by having one of the four diseases (yellow -- Africa and South America) come up rarely. So, we were able to concentrate on smacking down black and red whenever it popped up. Also, our one missing occupation (5 possible roles, so each game the four players don't have one) was the "Researcher," who's special ability is to build new research stations. That is the weakest of the five, in my opinion. So, it ended up being a good scenario for Allen to notch his first group win.

Next week, rumor has it, we will be playing the new Ogre board game -- all 25 pounds and umpteen million counters of it...! Otherwise, I've been working on my cannibal cookpot terrain piece. It is fairly close to being done, so you should see an update on it soon. Mike S had mentioned electronic votive candles with flickering LED lights when I was talking about how it would be cool to "light up" terrain pieces with integral lights. So, this piece is designed to go over one and conceal all of it except the flickering light. So far, it looks great, and I can't wait to see it completed. I've also been working on pieces to uses as "plot points" for my 28mm Pulp Alley games. I did a selection of idols, supplies, books, secret maps, etc. Those are all but done, too.

So, look for more updates here soon...!

A Sinking Tribute to PT 109 and JFK

    Some would say we're getting a little old for crawling around on the floor doing WW II Naval miniatures! Here Mike S closes with the Japanese flotillas, while Allen, Joel, Keith and Steve look on.

So, Allen had been wanting to run a World War II General Quarters game with American PT boats against Japanese destroyers. Mike S, Joel, and I were all volunteered to follow in John F. Kennedy's shoes and face down a night convoy of Japanese destroyers and barges. Each of us was given a force of 4 PT boats and we waited in the dark waters for the Japanese fleet to sail by us, when we would attack.

We'd never played theses rules for such a small action, though. General Quarters is more designed for fleet actions with the bigger ships. How would it work for such small scale engagements? Well, according to us would-be JFKs, not very well! The rules' move/countermove system allowed the Japanese destroyers to ram us easily and at will, slicing through 1-2 boats every turn we were close enough. Our torpedoes had a range of only 12" and they had a movement of 13", which meant they could virtually outrun our torpedoes. Never mind the fact that I have always stunk at this aspect of the rules. With GQ, you guess whether your torpedo target will maintain course, go to port, starboard, or reverse course. To get within range of them to launch torpedoes, we had to weather the storm of their gunnery (and more dangerous) their ramming.

    Our target: A Japanese supply convoy headed towards Guadalcanal (1/2400 scale miniatures)

The game ended with all three American flotillas destroyed or fleeing off table, and not causing a single point of damage to the Japanese or their barges. Needless to say, we need a little re-working on this scenario before it is tried again! I pointed out the worst part is the PT boats are sitting ducks under the move/countermove system. Either the turn they close with the destroyers or the turn following, they will move first. That means the Japanese can slice them in two fairly easily.

    Tsuro: The Game of the Path is a quick, fun 15-minute board game

Since the game ended so quickly, we broke out the boardgame Tsuro. This tile-laying path game is always a fun, quick play. Keith and Steve V (who had played the Japanese in the naval miniatures game), ruled at this game as well. It was a night to be Asian, we decided! Steve won the first game and then he and Keith tied in the second game.

Next week, we will do the second scenario of my Pulp skirmish games. I'm busy finishing up the terrain for this game, as you can see on my post about my Jungle Hut.

Junta -- politically incorrect and hilarious

It was an easy sell when Joel suggested we break out the board game Junta after at least a year or two since the last time we've played. Before we even opened up the game, emails were flying around the group arguing over who should begin the game as El Presidente. Joel has the original West End Games version of this politically incorrect spoof of the shenanigans going on in an anonymous Latin American banana republic.

The players represent families vying to tap the most foreign influence money being channeled into the country from the America. Whoever can squirrel away the largest amount in their Swiss bank account is the winner. Players divide up positions -- such as Minister of Internal Security, President, various Generals, Admirals and Air Force Commanders. These become important when the frequent coups break out. Surprisingly, we had only two coups -- if I remember correctly -- during our game. One replaced Joel as President, and the other deposed his brother Allen and installed Ptom.

Another feature of the game is players sending out assassins to kill the other players -- particularly, when they decide to visit the bank! For some reason (perhaps the oft-repeated cries of "Mike's winning" on Sunday nights?), I was a frequent target of assassination attempts. I decided to hold off visiting the bank until I had two turns in a row of very low amounts funneled to me. Hoping it was out of players' mind that I had yet to visit the bank, I snuck off only to be gunned down by Mike S.

This caused a piranha frenzy over the money I'd been squirreling away all game waiting for a chance to visit the bank. Mike S and Ptom decided to split it up, which immediately made it a three-way race between them and Steve. I'd used my university faculty influence earlier in the game to peek at Steve's total in Switzerland and it was impressive. 

    Going into the final turn of the game, Brutus decides whether to throw his weight in behind Steve or Ptom. The dog made good choices because Steve eked out a victory over Ptom by a paltry 1 million pesos (the smallest number in the game!)...

On the final turn of the game, assassination attempts flew back and forth. I targeted Ptom at the bank (correctly), but he had a "Bribe Assassin" card. Joel used a Psychotic Assassin card on him at the bank, as well. Joel's committed suicide instead, and Ptom paid my amateur off. The 2 million pesos it cost him ended up costing him the game, though. Steve S squeaked out a victory over Ptom by 1 million pesos, and prevented Mike S from winning by assassinating him at the bank that turn. Junta is always a hilarious game, and it was fun even though I came in last.

Next week, Allen will be running a WW II Naval battle here at my place, and the following meeting will be the Battle of Manzikert. Soon after, I will run a second Pulp Alley game. So, stay tuned for more Sunday night gaming...!

Board games at Allen's

So, it is not miniatures, but four of us got together on our usual Sunday gaming evening for some board games. Our group readily substitutes in a board game evening when no one has anything prepared miniatures-wise for our entertainment. We hadn't been to Allen's for gaming in awhile, so it was nice to show up and relax there. It used to be our "go-to" spot when his children were younger and his wife worked evenings.

We began the evening with a game of Pandemic. I've always loved this cooperative game, and to this day, can still count on one hand the number of times we've won. We still play the "introductory level" version (read = easiest), and still don't win all that often. This time was one of the exceptions, and we b-a-r-e-l-y squeaked out a victory. If it had taken one player's turn longer, we would not have cured the last disease in time. I played the "Scientist" role, and oddly enough, cured no diseases. I kept drawing event cards or a variety and others were better at doubling or tripling up. So, I fed them the cards and they cured the diseases. It worked out, and we won...though I think Joel will insist we step it up to the next difficulty level when we break out this game again...!

In honor of the nostalgic location for our game, we broke out the venerable, old Empire Builder train game as a follow up. Mike S had never played it before, and was interested in giving it a whirl. Joel advised we play the "fast" version, but Allen was having none of that. It had been so long since we'd played it, we'd forgotten how long of a game it actually was. Needless to say, 11:30 pm rolled around and nobody had attained the $250 million victory conditions. We counted up our profits, and they declared me the winner since I had the most by a fairly comfortable margin. My routes between the southeast (New Orleans/Atlanta/Savannah) and the Canadian border were lucrative and seemed to come up often enough to cash in. Throw in my lines to the New York area and I always seemed to have two decent train loads on board.

I really want to get back in the groove of running some miniatures games, myself. The last couple years I've been a slacker and not staged much for the guys. I'm painting a decent amount, and building a lot of terrain, but I don't seem to be running much for the Sunday night guys. Hopefully, the reduced workload at school will allow me to do that soon. Stay tuned, and we'll see...!