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A decent turnout this month, and a good day of gaming. Unfortunately, not everyone signed in, so we have no real estimate on numbers. I know that at one point there were 14 names on the page, but 21 people actually in the room playing. Please, if you see someone come in and not sign in, and they join a game you're in - remind them to sign in. Its the only way we know how many people show up and is the only hard figure we have to take to Millennium to say "See how many people came in because of us?" Games played: Chrononauts, TransAmerica, Tonneschlage, Tsaro, Buffy, Chenault's First Flight, Atlantic Storm, Ticket to Ride Europe, Struggle of Empires, Mag-Blast, Age of Mythology, Friedrich, Monsters Ravage America, Bang, Lost Cities, Settlers of Catan - Cities and Nights, Memoir '44 - Eastern Front, Alhambra, Magic Kingdom, and Crown of Roses. Millennium has been very accommodating of late, and I look forward to continued cooperation from them. But to keep this cooperation, we need to pull our weight - which means helping them when they approach us for help - and they have. As many of you have been hearing from Mitchel, National Games Week starts the day after our next meet (Nov 19). Millennium has signed up to promote this event and try to move some of their games (and generate income to help them stay open), and has asked us to help them out. So if anyone has a few free hours during that week in the evening or
on the weekend and can demo for them, please contact me directly so
we can coordinate scheduling. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Mark Gartland) Today, the Big Bad threat to the world was the mayor of Sunnydale, played by Jennifer. She fought Buffy and her Scooby gang. Brian played Oz. Mark played Willow. Mitch played Buffy. Stu played Zander. Jennifer obtained the arcane box she needed and turned the Mayor into a really really big monster snake. (You may remember, that in the TV show, Buffy had to blow up the entire high school to kill this thing.) Mitch didn't bring any dynamite with him to Millennium's, so Buffy had to look for a different strategy this time. Fortunately for the world, Jennifer's new hit point total made her confident of a quick victory. She rushed the Scooby gang alone, leaving her evil minions at home. This gave Mitch, Brian, and Mark an opportunity to surround her. (Stu was playing a very realistic Zander, so he didn't do much in the final battle except to get chased by evil minions.) The moon was full; so Oz's fighting prowess was in were form that night. Willow wielded an arcane claw that translated magic power directly into giant-snake-raking damage. Buffy, of course, always kicks grass snake. The outcome was never in doubt; Buffy saved the world. Again. Does this ever get old? Since Steve arrived at 10 AM for the first time in a long time, and Bob Reed wanted to play Transamerica, we did that first. Steve won in 3 round losing only 1 point, I was the one that went out. Bob Reed and I think Mark Gartland or Jeff Aronson was tied for 2nd. Struggle of Empires (Bill Peeck) I played Struggle of Empires for the first time. Its is a mix of Euro game, diplomacy, and war game. Chris McDermott, Jennifer Thomas, Mark Gartland, Nick Anner and I played. I figured that Chris, Jennifer, or Nick would kill us both Mark and I, as we had never played the game. An interesting game, I may try it again. Basically the game represents the struggle for colony control in the 17th or 18th century. You randomly get a country that participated in the colonization such as Prussia, France, Spain England etc. The areas to control are the Americas, Africa, India, the Far east, the German states, the Italian states, and the Baltic. Starting the game there is a phase where you propose starting order and a player in the opposite alliance and bid for how much you are willing to pay for the turn order and alliance. Basically the game has two alliances each turn, established by bid. You can't attack the players in your alliance. After the bidding there is a placement of some of your tokens on the map like risk. There is a random draw to distribute some target tokens on the map such as slaves, natives, minor powers. These tokens can be attacked to turn them into your control markers. Players get victory points by having tokens in an area. For example, the German states are worth 8/6/4. The player with the most control markers gets 8, second most 6 etc. If two players are tied both get the top level and the next guy down gets the next lower amount. In theory all 6 players could be in an area and all get the maximum points. After the setup you take turns in order taking two actions. An action can be buy armies/navies, attack (which costs money) take chits that improve your army, or navy, improve your colonies or give you other benefits. Each player takes his two actions in turn. Once every one takes a turn, that completes a round. There are 5 rounds in a turn. There are 3 turns in the game. During the inter-phase between turns, more population tokens are randomly placed, and a new proposal of who is first and who is in the opposing alliance. Another round of random objective tokens is deployed, and you start the 5 rounds over. We only got 2 of the 3 turns in. Mark Gartland won by establishing control of the Americas, both North and South and the Caribbean. Jennifer was tied for first until we deducted 7 VP for her being the country with the most unrest, I was 3rd until I took the 4 points for being the 2nd worst at unrest, so Nick and Chris passed me for 3rd and 4th. I think Jennifer hung on to 2nd. It was close among the 4 trailing players. I played Atlantic storm with Jack Morell, Steve C, and Jeff, and I can't remember who else. Jack complained about the futility of the game and then managed to run away with it nearly doubling the 2nd place total with 38 points. I was tied for next to last. Steve C was tied for 2nd with 23 points. Again an interesting game with a strange end. Rob Winslow was the Prussians, I was the Russians, Jeff Aronson was the Austrians and Frank Mestre the French. Since this is the 5th game we have played some of us know the drill, Frank and Jeff did not, but Jeff caught on faster than Frank. The Russians started after East Prussia and lost a couple of close battles. Rob has learned his lesson vs the Russians and put more troops in the area than last time. The Austrians pushed
quickly across their border and grabbed 10 of the 14 required locations for victory. Rob's Prussians danced around the other 4 keeping the Austrians from taking them. Jeff also lost a couple of close battles and so was managing to control the Prussian level of victory well. Frank's French engaged the Hanovarians and lost a big battle losing 8 strength points. Rob retreated Franks army almost to Sweden. Frank spent the next few turns getting the army back in supply and getting whacked a couple of more times, loosing a supply train. The Swedes and Prussians fought and the Swedes' army got eliminated. The French and Swedes started rebuilding while the Russians and Austrians danced around the Prussians. As we entered the 6th turn and started drawing cards, the situation started to deteriorate for the Prussians. While the French and Swedes were still rebuilding taking some pressure off Rob, the Russians and Austrians started to close in. A card eliminating the Swedes from the game was drawn, then a card that reduced the Prussian Cards to 5 from 7. The Russians captured East Prussia and moved on toward Berlin, while the Austrians advanced and also were with in 1 objective of winning. Rob repulsed the Austrians by surrounding them and winning the battle, eliminating, I think, 16 Austrians. Unfortunately for Rob the combination of some poor draws earlier in the game and the reduction from 7 to 5 cards was really beginning to hurt. After repulsing the Austrians Rob moved his forces back toward the Russians and French. The Russians got to within 1 objective and eliminated a couple of Prussian Armies. On the other side of the Map Frank's French had been rebuilt and began crushing the Hanoverians. Eventually Frank managed to get all of his objectives for the second French victory. Guess it pays to get whacked early in that game. Crown of Roses (Stephen A. Cuyler) Jeff Aaronson agreed to take on the crown as Henry VI for a playtest of the block game of the War of the Roses. I took the role of the usurper, Richard of York. Early on in the game, Jeff took Percy north across the Cheviots to drum up support in the form of Scottish Archers while Richard of York and supporter Neville ("The Kingmaker") began to coerce the local populace to support thier cause. After the Archers returned it becam apparent that they are very powerful for such a small unit, being able to attack first. Fortunately, I drew the "Scots Archers go home" card, and they returned to the highlands, leaving the King and I on a more or less equal footing. Both sides began recruiting nobles and knights as fast as possible in the south, while the King and his forces began to reduce Yorkist support in the north. After a particulary bold strike into Yorkshire, Edward of March (the eldest son of Richard of York) was left on his own and on the run - Neville and his forces had been eliminated in combat. Jeff then turned his attention to the city of York itself, demanding it's surrender. The City refused and combat followed. Unfortunately for Jeff, the battle with the Yorkist army had taken too much of his force and he failed to subdue the city. While this was going on, Richard had moved south to recruit more of the Barons to his cause. In this he was very successful. Only when he tried to recruit the leading Beaufort (a close relative of the King) did he finally fail (spent lots of gold and still rolled snake-eyes - Twice!). We ended the game after about 2 hours (it was 9 PM already), not bad for a test with new players, even though it was only 1 year that was played. At the end both sides had 35 influence points - so the game is pretty balanced. All in all I was pleased with the way it played, except the speed. Jeff and I discussed ways to fix that issue, and I think I'll have some good changes for the next time. Chennaults First Fight (Cory Wells) I got there around 10:00 AM to set up a ATO magazine game "Chennaults First Fight" (Flying Tigers). I set up the game so not to waist time doing that when Bob T arrived. This was mainly a learning game for Bob (who does not have the game) and myself. It was slow going with he and I referred to the rules almost every move. I also kept forgetting what Phase we were in and what to do. I think it's a simple game but long worded (winded) with a lot of little detail. After 2 hours or so it started to flow and he and I got locked in on it with just a few questions we need to ask the game company. Bob and I did not really read the Victory conditions or the score would have been a little more in Bob's favor. I was real lucky he didn't read those rules because it would have been him 4 VP as oppose to me getting them. Bob flew in Bombers and Fighters on the first air mission and pounded the Troops with bombs and Strafing. My fighters could not get off the ground so they just sat there. His second mission he came at the Airbase. I tried a tactic that Chennault never thought of - I intercepted his Bombers with my Bombers???????? What a dumb a_ _ I was. I guess your supposed to read the counters to see if they are fighters or Bombers, Duh!!! He began to pound the hell out of it and sent it into Disruption. The third mission Bob came in with bombers, and a few Oscars and a Nick as escorts. I managed to shoot down the Nick and one of the Bombers but not until he shot down two of my British Hurricanes (now a total of 4) and he Eliminated the Base which meant that he destroyed the AVG A/C on the ground. After his three initial moves, I won the initiative (I think) and sent out my bombers to his Base and lost one bomber and the other bomber got to the Target and missed. We kind of gave up at this point and just wanted finish the first turn and move to the ground troops. He did move into "YE" a base not occupied and took it over plus some other things like landing Disrupted planes and losing steps if they crashed and then finished the turn. We started counting up the VP's and that's when we found out that he picked the wrong Target for VP's but he did weaken me badly. This game takes a loooong! time to play, But I think Bob and I will try it one more time now that we have the flow down. This might be one of those games you leave set-up and play every few weeks. |