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We were in the store for the first time in months, but there was plenty of room. There were 37 people signed so one of our better turn outs. Kevin, Bob Titran, Dallas, Tom D, Frank, and a friend of Dallas's made it in from the Buffalo area. Al Bargender made it from Oswego. Kevin Jaekley made it up from the Southern Tier. Commands and Colors: Ancients (Bill O'Neil) Rob and I played the battle of Bagradas. Rob chose the Carthaginians and I was the Romans. We did not use the bidding system that will be employed at the WBC tourney this year (bid # of re-rolls for the side you want), so we played it straight up. After an initial mild cavalry engagement on the Roman left, the pace slowed down a bit as the opposing armies
made a slow calculated advance towards each other. The Romans grew weary of this and launched an assault in the center which amounted to alot of nothing. Rob countered in the center with his "efelumps". I played the first strike card in hopes of saving my medium infantry, but the dice were frigid and only yeilded retreats in the midst of all my infantry. Rampages ran wild turn after turn along with multiple battle hits against my infantry. The mighty beasts held on for quite sometime and gave Carthage an early lead. Finally, my Roman infantry with a leader penetrated deep into his center to gain back a couple victory
banners and held the line after being surrounded, and inflicted more losses on the Carthaginian attackers. With victory within the Roman's grasp, they looked
for a quick banner to end it by defeating a Carthaginian warrior unit on the Roman left with an envelopment and attack by light infantry and cavalry units. Final tally was Rome 7 Carthage 4. Including the result of this battle, from the results I've been seeing, Rome seems to win it the majority of the time even
though historically Carthage won. For those playing this at WBC, keep this in mind when bidding. Commands and Colors: Ancients (Jack Morrell) The evening saw 4 games of CC: Ancients with Rob W. and Steve C. In all these plays we used the new bid system but sometimes forgot we had opportunities for
rerolls. Rob and I tried the second tournament scenario, Trebbia, where Carthaginians under Hannibal set a trap for the Romans. I got the Carthaginians for a 3 bid but that didn't help. Both of us had good hands but Rob struck
first, pinning and wrecking my lights up against my line,killing Hannibal and devasting my right in a quick 7-0 win. It was so fast I couldn't even spring the trap with forces to his rear. This was the type of game you hope doesn't happen to you at tournaments but gladly accept if it benefits you and shortens play time. We played with same sides again but lowered bid to 2. This play went longer since we didn't have powerful starting hands. His Romans pressed forward quickly and again the chance for an early trap was denied. Rob moved to attack the wings and was ahead until a repost stymied him. Hannibal's forces were breaking up when a Rally card recreated forces at critical positions and destroyed Romans to bring things even at 6-6. The next turn brought Roman defeat in a close hard fought 7-6 game for a victory split. Steve C took up the next 2 games. We chose the 3rd tournament choice, Gabiene between two of Alexander's would be successors. A 2 bid gave Steve his preferred side Antigonus. We both had large elephant forces. Steve proceeded to concentrate on killing mine and soon they were gone and my side was being pressed, even 2 rerolls didn't suffice and my side went down 7-3. We reset for another play with same side and same bid. In the 1st play Steve's cavalry had seized my camp to gain the winning medal, I tried to prevent that this play. We engaged in much ranged fire both manuvering to gain shots at the others tuskers. A couple of mine charged in and created hits but no kills. After Steve's early success my worthies brought the score back to a 5-5 tie. Destruction of one of his cavalry PLUS the accompanying General ended with a 7-5 win and another split on the battle. I don't know if this series of tournament plays resolved any issues of favored side or best bids. The best course remains draw good cards and roll good dice. Warriors of God (Bill O'Neal) Rob and I played a game of "Warriors of God" by MMP. It deals with the 100 years war. I was the French and Rob the English. This was only the second time I've played this so I can't help much on what is or isn't a good strategy. Nevertheless, we worked our way through an entire game, while making mistakes and learning as we went along. The English got off to an early lead in victory points, but on the second turn England rallied to the aid of Scotland leaving England unattended. French units took advantage of this by moving into the vacated area and held England for the remainder of the game, making it tough for
England to make up the victory points lost there each turn. In the end the French had enough victory points to claim victory. Will need to play this game more in order to get the flow of the game down a bit and to develop some sound startegies for each side. All in all a decent game. Flying Colors (Bill O'Neal) Steve ran me through some single ship to single ship combat in the game "Flying Colors" by GMT, since I mentioned to him I may want to play this at WBC. We played long enough to get in a short battle and learn some of the mechanics of the game. Alot of "page flipping" going from rules to charts. We agreed it would be a good idea to print a flow chart out,
separate from the rules, to avoid down time due to the flipping around in the rule manual. I forget the exact name of the scenario we chose but it pitted two equally matched ships against each other. SAC - The scenario was Bec du Raz, HMS Mars against the French Hercule. Both are 3rd rate ships (In sailing terms, rate refers to the amount of guns and ship size, with 1st rate being the largest and most powerful. The USS Constitution is a 5th rate ship in this scale). I commanded a French ship (Hercule) and Steve a
British (HMS Mars). After a series of near point blank broadsides, rakes, drifting, and other mishaps, the French struck their colors giving the British the victory. The two battered hulks could battle no more. The British ship was completely dismasted, and the French ship was listing at 26 degrees to port with only one
hull damage box to spare. Looks like I'll have to study this one a little more
before WBC :-) Lost Cities (Bill Peeck) Kevin and I dusted off a Lost Cities. This is a quick (30 min or less) game where you have a deck of 5 colored cards valued 1 to 10. You have to build up sets of cards in order. You score only if a set has 20 points or more face value. If you have to discard you can play it in the middle but then your opponent can pick it up. There are also cards that double, triple or quadruple the value of the stack of cards. Fun quick game. I managed my only win of the day because Kevin forgot to play the 10 card on his largest pile. This game is certainly easy to learn. Rob Winslow taught it to me at the bar at WBC and I went off to play in the tournament beer in hand. Won the first round then ran in to a shark.
Battleline (Bill Peeck) The second game Kevin and I dusted off was Battle line. Again there is a deck
of numbered and colored cards with numbers on them that the two player share. The suits are soldiers, modeled from Alexander the Great's army. Elephants, Phalanx etc. There are also 10 special cards placed face up on the board available for both players. A player can pickup on of the special cards but once he has played one he can't play another until his opponent uses one. You trying to build hands like poker hands, 3 of kind, flush (3 cards of the same color), etc. There a 9 flags placed on the board, and the highest hand captures a flag. Of course since your sharing a deck, the other player might have the card you needed. There are no discards so you have to play. So some times you might lay down something not optimal. Taking 5 of the 9 or 3 in a row wins the game. Kevin managed to get 3 in a row on me. |