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Wow - what a great turnout! At one point I counted 26 people seated at the tables staring intently at thier opponents (more than double the usual turnout BTW). Bill made a short speech, and the sub platter and cupcakes were a definate hit - (all 6 dozen of the cupcakes went).
Special thanks go to the staff at Millenium, especially Jim, who
donated our door prizes. Many of the members and guests failed to
sign up or fill out a raffle card, so they were not eligible to win,
but that did not stop us from having fun anyway. The three $5 gift tokens went to Jim Lee, Dean Smith, and Brian Thorpe. Congrats to the winners!
We had gamers join us for the day from as far away as Virginia and New Jersey. USAF Major Mike Pietrucha (our visitor from Va.) brought along a vidoe tape of combat footage that you won't see outside a military briefing (not even on CNN!) that we got a chance to watch (again thanks to Millennium). It was very entertaining to see HARM missiles taking out Fan Song and Low Blow Fire Control radars, we could see GOA SAM missiles launching after Predator aircraft, and had some great shots of guided munitions flying through open windows and doors. Mike remarked over pizza later that night that it was a great time and well worth the trip.
What was played? Tonneschalge (playtest), Atlantic Storm, Transamerica, Ticket to Ride, Guillotine, Formula Motor Racing, Memoir '44, Axis and Allies, War the Age of Imperialism, Undercover, Elfer Raus, Carcassone, Puerto Rico, Bar-Lev, For the People, Enemy in Sight, and 3rd Fleet. There are probably others that I missed too.
Thanks to everyone for coming out and helping to make our 4th
Anniversary such a smashing success.
Tonneshlage Playtest (from S.A. Cuyler) Special thanks go out to Frank and Mike, who tested my lastest revision of Tonneschlage. They went 10 turns, finding a few minor glitches and helping me refine some tactics ideas. Frank took the role of Donitz and ran the U-boats, while Mike set himself up to make convoy runs.
The Germans started off with thier U-boats in large groups, while the Allies found themselves short on escorts. Frank sent three wolfpacks against a convoy that turned out to be a decoy, but the second group of Uboats and Condors from France and Norway made short work of several Eastbound convoys. This put the Germans up by 4 VP around turn 5 after he picked up additional U-boat reinforcements.
Several convoys made it into port, but it did not help matters for the Allies, as they were decoys to begin with. This seemed to be a bad starting draw for convoys for the Allies, as real convoys would have yielded VP for Mike (and allowing him to get more reinforcements). I'll be fixing that in the revision.
Weather proved to be a boon for the Allies with respect to hiding the convoys, but was a problem for both sides - Newfoundland's airfield was weathered in by Fog or by Storms most of the time. The situation wasn't much better for the Germans, as a storm front moved over the Bay of Biscay and stalled late game. This left the Condors in France inaccessible for the latter part of the game. And Frank controlled that die roll for it to move away. All he needed was anything besides a 1 or a 6....
Turn ten saw us end the game after about 3 hours of testing with the Germans with 13 VP and the Allies with 4 VP, for a German Strategic Victory. I'm looking forward to making a few changes and giving it another try in the near future. Thanks again to Frank and Mike for letting me use them as guinea pigs!
3rd Fleet (from Stuart Smart) This was such an extraordinary session that even Hugh got to play a game. He and I played the 2nd scenario of 3rd Fleet, with his Russky subs commandeering my NATO bases in the Aleutians. Five turns of cat and mouse left all four bases in Commie hands at the cost of one Sov sub sunk, for a marginal Sov win. One highlight for me was sending a P-3 on tactical coordination and rolling exactly the number needed to damage the target. Hugh was consistently outrolling me on the detection rolls. Anyway, it reminded me how much I like the Fleet series. Enemy in Sight (from Stuart Smart) I played a game of Enemy in Sight with a fellow whose name evades me. He was at the Memoir 44 table with Bob Reed much of the day. Sadly, it was too one-sided. I kept catching boarding partiy cards that worked while his often back-fired when I played heavy grape cards. He did take a prize that then caught fire which I promptly retook since I was holding the card to put out the fire. I did spot him playing EiS against another player later; hope he had better luck. Bar-Lev (from Stuart Smart) Bill and I played one turn of CGC's Bar Lev near the end of the day. The Egyptians made it across the Suez in a couple of places and the Syrians tromped forward despite having their air force crunched. Bill's looking it over for a rematch, possibly next session. For the People (from Robert Titran) Bill and I played For the People. Bill's rebel luck was all bad as Lincoln freed the slaves and began tightening theblockade in '61. Though Confederate raiders romped through Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio and a rebel army kept Kentucky neutral for several years, eventually the weight of Federal men and arms turned the tide.
Two US armies (three, if you count the one that was destroyed along the way) subdued KY and TN while Union gunboats pushed up from New Orleans. Losses were huge on both sides as McClellan lead a series of costly assaults against Lee's army in the Confederate fort at Manassas. When Jackson failed a crucial retreat roll (anything but a 6. . .) in TN, his small army was dispersed and the South was opened up to the ravages of Grant and Sherman. Seeing the wrting on the wall, the south capitulated in 1865.
For the People (from Bill Peeck) Bob Titran and I played For the People, the civil war card based game. It took us almost 7 hours to complete as we are not nearly as good at the rules as Rob. The Confederates (Me) lost to Bob's union in April 1865.
I think one of the highlights of the game at least from my stand point was the fact that I managed to have Lee command the Army of Northern VA, which is normal, but Jackson was in charge of the Army
of the Mississippi which ended up in Dalton Ga defending Atlanta and
Longstreet in charge of the Army of the Tennessess. Longstreet's defeat outside Jackson Mississippi triggered the Confederate doom in 1865. I Could not find enough reinforcements to keep his army alive although he actually "won" the final battle. Just you loose if your entire army is dead even if they caused more losses to the enemy. The second stand out event was my dice rolling. The armies above can avoid combat on a 1-5 and I think I tried to run with them 4 times and rolled a 6, including the last battle of the war.
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