The Games We Play

The Games We Play

A repository of reports on the Wednesday night sessions of the club and anything else related to the club or boardgaming in general, which may be of interest to anyone who may be passing by.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Session Report – 21 October 2009

2 comments

5 players for Battlestar Galactica with the Pegasus expansion. The players were myself (Helena Cain), Dave C (Starbuck), Ben (Gaius Baltar), Andy (Dee/Boomer), and Steve H (Laura Roslin).

The early going was uneventful and things looked good for the humans, there was no sign of any overt Cylon activity although I succeeded in casting a little suspicion on myself as I think did Steve by underplaying into a couple of skill checks, not wishing to overkill and we ended up failing the check. My motivation for this was genuine as I think was that of Steve (I think he was human at this stage).

The sleeper phase was reached at distance 5 and the new loyalty cards were handed out, it was beginning to look like a close game as all resources drifted to lower levels. At one stage we jumped at -3 on the track and lost the population. I would have preferred at this stage to use Cain's Blind Jump ability, so the loss came from Civilian ships, meaning there were fewer to evacuate when we reached New Caprica, but I did not receive an XO, possibly because I wasn't entirely trusted due to the reasons mentioned earlier in the game.

Reaching New Caprica (this was a first for us), I was cast in Detention through a crisis card, but was still Admiral, then morale hit 2 and Dee shot herself. Andy selected Boomer as his new character and I think it was her first act to execute Roslin (who was also in detention, due to playing a Quorum card on New Caprica); this confirmed what we had suspected (that Roslin was a Cylon).

As the game drew to a close, we were able to evacuate all the civilian ships that hadn't been destroyed by Occupation forces and it came to my turn with morale at 2 and population at 2, so I was left with the decision to jump the fleet away from the planet. All the other humans had already left the surface, but I remained in detention, so I had to sacrifice myself for the human victory. The other cylon was Starbuck, who never really had a chance to show her true colours

So the humans won in a very close game. We had agreed at the start not to use the cylon leaders, but I'm not convince that this was the difference, since those games were marked by serious losses of morale early on that I don't think the leader was responsible for. I'd previously thought not to use the leaders in 5 player games for fear of unbalancing what was the sweet spot of the base game, but I would like to try the leaders again with 6 (or possibly 7) players.

Note that although declaring a human victory on the night, I have entered this in the stats as a tie, the reason for this is that we (I) made a mistake when Boomer came into the game, she should have started in Detention so at the very least we would have had to get her (or me) out of there before we could jump. Bearing in mind the closeness of the game this could easily have tipped the balance the other way. Andy might have chosen another character of course, if we'd realised at the time, but to compound the issues, he had used Boomer's once per game ability to automatically pass a skill check, which would not then have been possible.

Battlestar Galactica 150 mins.

Posn.

Player

1=

Dave D

1=

Dave C

1=

Ben C

1=

Andy

1=

Steve H

Sunday 18 October 2009

Session Summary – 14 October 2009

4 comments

For the third week in a row, Combat Commander was on the table, although Steve and Donald have suggested that they will join the rest of us next week. They are obviously enjoying the game a lot. I got the impression when leaving on Wednesday that Steve was on for the win and I have included that in the records, I'm sure someone will chime in, if I've got this wrong.

Combat Commander: Europe 160 mins.

Posn.

Player

1

Steve H

2

Donald

That left Mike, me and Dave F and first we played San Marco. This is a game I have mixed feelings about, the card selection system is a wonderful idea and makes for some very hard decisions, the problem is that the cards to be selected from are totally random. I don't think this is such a problem with the action cards, but I think that the limit cards would be better if a fixed selection was available for allocation on each round eliminating the possibility of a mass of 3's appearing one round and a collection of 1's the next, both of which happened in this game we played. There is also the question of the random allocation of first chooser every turn, but my biggest issue is with banishments, which I find too potentially game breaking.

Despite my problems, this is a game I can probably be persuaded to play occasionally and I don't think anything happened in this one which would have changed the result.

San Marco 90 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Mike

65

2

Dave D

45+

3

Dave F

45

Next was Industrial Waste. I fell into a path of reducing the workforce early on and correspondingly used innovations (which seemed scarce in this game) to match those to allow me to produce orders. Unfortunately this meant I couldn't innovate on Waste production and had to take a risk when may waste snuck up to 9 (in the yellow) and then fell victim to an accident, this was immediately followed by another accident in the following turn, when I still hadn't been able to get the waste down.

Dave and Mike meanwhile pushed on with growth and the game ended quite quickly, although I somehow managed to stay with Mike and take second on the tie break for my second second place tie break of the evening.

Industrial Waste 55 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

49

2

Dave D

34+

3

Mike

34

Sunday 11 October 2009

Session Summary - 7 October Additional

2 comments
Another turn at CC:E, this time a late '44 bocage scenario, Germans and Americans. I shall present this report from my point of view as I remember things. Sorry if I miss anything Steve!

Steve played Germany again. This time the US had radios to call in artillery. The Germans had some decent leadership, but only Volksgrenadier and quite raw recruits as the main body of forces. There were heavy machine guns that Steve set up at pinch points, but the cover of bocage made it difficult to get LOS to my units.

The US had a couple of elite squads, plus mortars and less effective leadership.

As the Germans started with control of all the main objectives plus a 20VP lead (what!?!?), and in defensive formation, Steve's main strategy was to hold on to what he had (I should explain that VPs are counted on a through-zero track, therefore if one player has a positive VP count, the other player has negative). Because of this, he had little need of Move Orders which, as we discovered last time, are important if you're going to attack anything, and enemy movement is often a prerequisite for taking Actions (especially Fire Actions) on the other player's turn. As the attacker, and with a lot of ground to cover, much of it covered with the hinderance of bocage, I needed the moves. Steve was well entrenched after setup and could afford to spend his Move cards as Actions.

Using one leader as an artillery spotter, I divided my soldiers into two 'platoons', I guess I'll call them for simplicity, each led by one of my remaining leaders, and started by advancing my first platoon on a single farmhouse to my left. I took my second platoon through the bocage to attack the centre. Instantly, I was in trouble because I ran into the same problem as last week – namely, that my leadership 'sphere of influence' wasn't wide enough for me to order the whole platoon to advance equally (remember, squads or teams in the same hex as a leader get his benefits, those in his 'sphere' merely get to take the order). With a stacking limit of 7 men per hex, and with squads starting at 4 men and only splittable into teams of 2 by a card Event, I was left with two squads trailing behind, neither of which were effective for much of the following battle. I think in future I would rather limit my leader's movement than lose control of squads. The only time I'd want a squad without leadership would be when they're in defence and waiting to fight off the enemy. I'd realised this by the end of last week's game, but still I didn't seem to learn from it.

To begin, I was able to call in a lot of artillery because my hand allowed it. Artillery spotting works by playing a card turn dice roll and multiplying the two dice together. If the result is greater than the distance to target, the spot is successful. Another dice card turn gives drift, with an off-map hex displaying numbered faces, thus showing which hex direction is represented by which dice roll. A roll of 5-1 would mean that the mortar fire drifts one space in the 5 direction, then one space in the 1 direction. An unsuccessful spot takes one die as direction and the second die as the distance by which the call was off, so you can have some pretty huge errors if your spotter gets it wrong. My spotter was pretty accurate due to his close-to-mid proximity to his targets. In initial rounds, I was able to beat back one of the pinch point HMGs and break a few units taking refuge in one of the main objectives. When trying to press forward to attack this building, however, Steve was able to lay mines on me and make things difficult. I lost a squad, then shelled again and tried pressing the same objective from a different direction... with disastrous consequences. I lost one squad, Steve broke another and then routed them so that they almost retreated off the board. I did earn a Hero, who came and took one hex in a 3-hex objective, but as a single man he had little firepower and could only defend. In the end, though, he was taken out. Steve's hero came onto the board close to the game's end and hence wasn't much use. Not that it mattered: by the game's end, Steve was on 33VP with only three squads lost, whilst I'd lost 4 squads, 1 team, a hero and a leader (possibly two – I'm not quite sure), whilst also being very close to surrender. My remaining forces were in tatters, most disrupted if not suppressed, and it was not a glorious day for the US. Because of battlefield Events that required me to shuffle like Dominion, I went turn after turn without a Recover Order, therefore unit after unit was broken with no opportunity to rally. I'm not saying that this was my sole reason for such heavy losses as I was also, frankly, a bit reckless in my assaults, and Steve played his defence quite shrewdly. I think the only thing he'd play differently would be to try to take out my spotter much earlier.

Though my mortar fire was quite accurate through the game, ultimately it had little effect. I wonder how useful mortars really are as I feel they can be used to best effect on open ground or woodland, but I think they'll only work well if there is close infantry support to press the attack after the shells have fallen. The risk here is that close infantry can be shelled by friendly fire, even on an accurate spot, when drift is taken into account, and you run the risk of having your own forces broken or destroyed. If you keep your infantry at a safe distance you can't really take advantage of mortar fire unless a) you have some Move Orders to play; and b) your opponent doesn't have the chance to rally. As a choice, it seems a bit Hobsons to me.

So, what did I think?

Again, the three hours went very quickly. It's one of those games that takes a while to play (I think we're still learning and playing relatively slowly, though we're getting quicker) but feels like it's over in a flash. There's a lot to think about, but there's also a lot that's down to chance, so I don't feel particularly worn out at the end in the way I do when it's my choices that determine my success or otherwise.

It's fun, but it's not one to beat yourself up about losing because of all the randomness.

It's tactical, but not very strategic as the chaos of the cards in your hand dictating what you can do on your turn means it's hard to have a plan and stick to it. You can devise an attack with a Move Order, but you may not get another one for a while, so make sure it's the right thing to do. You are utterly reliant on what the cards give you, and must be efficient. You have to adapt as the opponent is against you and, often, so are your own Orders – the only upside is that the other player is in the same boat. It's over-simplifying to say that this is a bit like Memoir '44 in that you have to play the cards you're dealt, but the base mechanic is the same.

Do I like it? Well, I've ordered the CC: Med expansion which gives the Brits, French and Italians to play with, so I guess so. Not sure it merits its position on the 'Geek as No.1 wargame, though.

As I've said before, if you don't like wargames or randomness, AVOID!

Saturday 10 October 2009

Session Summary – 7 October 2009

5 comments

A 4 & 2 split as Donald and Steve had a rematch of Combat Commander Europe, Steve winning this one.

Combat Commander: Europe 150 mins.

Posn.

Player

1

Steve H

2

Donald

That left 4 of us to play Kremlin, which saw mass deaths in the politburo on the first turn, although Nestor was able to make it on to the podium at the end to wave for my faction. After that there were a couple of new party chiefs over the next turns, but none waved again until turn 4, when Mike was able to pick up a point. An interesting thing during the middle turns was the role of Anatol Mischif, who under Mike's control presided over 3 or 4 Funeral commissions, either as Foreign Minister or as a proxy, but never making it to the top job.

I got another wave on turn 6 with Niewitko, but he died the following turn. The funeral commission brought Ulan Putschnik to power, who had the dubious distinction of earlier being the only politician in the game to be sent to Siberia (on the first turn), despite the best efforts of various KGB heads and Defence ministers, I don't think I can recall a game when Siberia has been so quiet. Putschnik himself did not stay long as he had my 10 influence on him and I think it was Nestor himself who rehabilitated him.

Putschnik rose to power with the help of Andy and Dave F, who both had good influence in him and I was then able to jump in and take control, once he was in the top job to win the game on turn 7.

Kremlin 90 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave D

3

2

Mike

1

3=

Andy

0

3=

Dave F

0


After that we played Ra: The Dice game, the first time I have tried with 4 players. It was a very close game, with Andy taking victory by a point. He was able to inflict a drought disaster on his penultimate turn, causing the other 3 of us to lose our floods. We were each able to reflood but couldn't therefore do other things which might have earned us extra points.

Ra: The Dice Game 45 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Andy

52

2

Mike

51

3

Dave D

50

4

Dave F

45

Friday 2 October 2009

2 comments
30 September additional

I've put a summary of the Combat Commander: Europe game into the Comments page of Dave's post if anyone's interested. Apologies for mis-spelling 'morale' as 'moral'. I offend myself!

BTW, I should state that this in no way felt like a 3-hour game. Once experienced, we will play much faster, but the time really flew by for me. I hope it did for Steve, too.

Donald

Thursday 1 October 2009

Session Summary 30 September 2009

5 comments

This report is just a brief summary of the games played yesterday evening. I've been reluctant to do this sort of thing in the past, because I've always like to say something when I post, but in (not so) recent times, I've been, perhaps, suffering from a bit of writer's block, which has resulted in my sitting on things for weeks with the only result being that I've forgotten many of the details and end up not being able to write anything anyway. Anybody is welcome to comment on the games mentioned, so should you have a comment to make do so on this post or alternatively if you have posting privileges there is nothing stopping you making a post of your own. This was the original idea when this blog was set up. Note: anybody who attends regularly but can't post, send me an e-mail and I'll get you set up.

Anyway on to the games. Steve H and Donald have been waiting for a chance to play Combat Commander Europe, so split off to do that, I don't have any details of this so please let me know.

Dave D and Mike played Ra: The Dice game while waiting for Dave C to retrieve Ben from the fair up the road and then played Tinners' Trail for the rest of the evening.

That left Paul, Nigel, Steve Perkins and I to an evening of 3 games of Race for the Galaxy, where Steve showed his prowess by winning all three. The third game was very close and I think either Paul or I would have had him in game 2, if it hadn't been for his uncanny knack of finding Improved Logistics when he needed it.

The evening's scores

Ra: The Dice Game 25 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Dave F

68

2

Mike

64

Tinners' Trail 110 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Mike

111

2

Dave F

84

3

Dave C

82

4

Ben C

70

Race for the Galaxy 40 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve Pe

40

2

Dave D

29

3

Nigel

27

4

Paul

20

Race for the Galaxy 40 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve Pe

49

2

Paul

46

3

Dave D

42

4

Nigel

26

Race for the Galaxy 40 mins.

Posn.

Player

Score

1

Steve Pe

34

2

Dave D

32+

3

Paul

32

4

Nigel

19


Combat Commander: Europe 180 mins.

Posn.

Player

1

Donald

2

Steve H