Gaming somewhere between Wargames and Boardgames

More and more games seem to be blurring the lines between tabletop war-games and traditional boardgames. A couple of case in points were the games we played Game Night and over the weekend.
I picked up Massive Darkness as a Kickstarter. One of those it took so long to fulfill I almost forgot about it. But it was well worth it! To start, the miniatures. like most CMON games, are fantastic. I got soooooooo many. The game itself is fantastic. Three turns in and most of my gaming club were on their phones preordering for the non-Kickstarter.

As a dungeon crawler, they pack a lot into a simple system. I imagine a a lot of replay, completing all the quests with different characters. You can play solo, too.
I played again this weekend with the Boy. We lost twice but had a lot of fun.

We then tried a little GW gladiator game that snuck in under the radar: GORECHOSEN. I'm not much for the goofy background, but the core mechanics are smooth, and nice. I picked them up purely to steal the mechanics for my project, the Great Goblin Games. I'll be replacing the skull encrusted, blood spattered Khorne champions for some goblin gladiators.

A light night of gaming

Just me an Bill last night. I don't get a lot of chances to play 1v1 games, so last night was actually a treat.
We started with a little gem called Eight Minute Empire. It comes with a tiny little map, some colored blocks and cards. A fun mix of resource collection and war.

We then played a couple of games of Rivet Wars. We traded victories. Once again, a great game. Can't wait for the new troops to come out.

Holiday Gaming

Belated Merry Christmas to all. In the never ending attempt to find that ruleset that combines the right balance in playability and fun for my collection of Mechwarrior minis, I picked up Battletech: Alpha Strike. LeadAddict and I played the original Battletech when it first came out many moons ago. We liked it mainly for it's concept of giant stumpy robots duking it out on the war ravaged battlefields of the future. Never mind that using giant, expensive (as in the GDP of most countries) in just plain dumb. A lowly grunt with a shoulder fired missile launcher could bring one down, and missing is almost impossible. Never mind that the original models were direct rip-offs of Robotech. We were 13!

Yes, the buildings need paint...

Infantry try to keep pace with the mech.

The original rules were a grind. Hundreds of little ovals to fill in every time you took damage. Keeping track of heat build up. So, when I read a several positive reviews of the new, improved quick rules, boasting of fielding several mechs at a time, I had to at least try.

Infantry disembark

They were worth it. The rules are split into introductory, standard, and advanced. The Intro rules are very basics and really only use mechs. As I have a ton of tanks and infantry, I used Standard.
Everyone had picked up the rules by turn 2, with the only reason to check the QRS, was for movement modifiers to hit. Where the game could real shine is with all the bells and whistles.
Now, I just need more mechs.

That was last week. Last night there were only a few of us. I've had some old boardgames around that needed dusting off. One was an old standard, Wizard Kings by Columbia Games. It's a "block game". Really, an upgrade of the old chit games of old. All the info on you troops is there on the wooden block. You get the added bonus of Fog of War as only you see what on the blocks by standing them on their sides. The was a titanic struggle between Orcs, Amazons, Elves and Undead. As the Undead player, I had cheap troops, but slow (Oh, zombies..) or really expensive highly class undead. My swift moving vampires captured two cities single handed. We played 10 turns, and my undead hordes pulled out a win. The geomorphic maps make replay endless. The would be a great campaign system for Mayhem.
That's it. One more week of freedom, then back to my job that lasts only tip February. Then the grey unknown.

Saturday AAR

The Baroness took a much deserved grand tour of the Kingdom this past Saturday which left me some time to paint and try out some games I've been wanting to try for awhile. I enjoy my problem of 6-8 regular players, but it doesn't allow for those smaller 1 v 1 games. So, with the help of Essjam, I tried Dux Bellorum and Richard III.

The Normans and their LPs

I gave a one read thru review a while back. The Early Dark ages or time of historic Arthur, has always been a favorite of mine. I've had, over the years several rule sets, but none felt quite right. Glutter of Ravens came close but still wasn't right for me. When I read Dux Bellorum was a refined version of Glutter, I knew the $12 purchase was worth it.

The forces face off. LPs have been assigned.

I don't actually have any Romano-Brit troops, so I pushed the limits of the rules to a Norman v Viking contest. You build forces using a small but effective troop list. Horses aren't very prevalent for the DB period, so a Norman force cost a lot, only giving me 10 stands of troops. In DB, a stand is a unit of around 50-ish men. It also uses basewidths as measurement. My 60mm x 60mm bases with 6-8 men looked just right. This isn't a army we're talking about, but a warband of a local warlord.

Red dice indicate Cohesion loss. Long term I would definitely use markers to limit battlefield clutter.

You purchase Leadership points for your forces. For this test, both sides got 8. LPs are the heart of the system and add tons of tactical depth, I'm sure me and my opponent only began to understand with our one play.
LPs are used to help move your troops, strengthen their attacks, reduce casualties, pre-empt movement, and bolster morale. You've only got so many each turn, and lots of troops. You lose LPs everytime you take losses. How to use them becomes the heart of the game.
The Vikings were the Aggressors. A normal game turn is: Place LPs, Simultaneous shooting, then move and fight.

The battle breaks up. I also used tags to list stats on each base. This isn't necessary in a real game, but thought it would save looking up stuff this first game.

Moves are further broken down to: Skirmishers first, Mounted second then your foot troops, with Aggressors always going first. My all foot Vikings limited my options to the end.
The game started with the Normans getting a pesky skirmish unit in the woods to my flank. Shooting has a hard time killing off units, but it can definitely weaken them. My troops were a mix of highly trained shieldwall (ok attack but tough on defense) and warriors (great on attack, not so much on defense and penchant for uncontrolled charges). The Warriors uncontrolled charges allowed me to attack without having to worry about Bravery Tests, which have to made to move troops around. Once the Normans got close, I just set them loose.
The fighting part became what Dark Age battles are, a shoving match. Terrain limited the abilities of the Norman horse to get around my flank, but they were tough and ended up breaking the flank they hit after 3-4 turns.
It was close. We finished within a few stands of each other with the Normans eeking out a victory. It took but an hour to play.
Can't wait to try these as a campaign. Speaking of which, yes I have read Dux Britainiarium. Like most of the Lardies rules, I liked the ideas presented, but found the actual play clunky and not to my taste. That being said, the campaign system could be lifted and use the combat from Bellorum.

We then played Richard III. I have a large Wars of the Roses collection, so a Columbia Games block game about the period was right down my alley.
I played the Lancastrians and Scott the invading forces of York. There are 3 game turns, each split into 7 sub turns. By end of round 2 I was dethroned and playing the Usurper, and in the end lost by 2 points. Again, a great game with lots of depth I barely scratched.
And on a final note, "Hey we made 200 Followers!" Welcome to the new guys and tahnks to the old, for sticking around.

A quiet Wednesday boardgaming

After RECRUITS and with a constant crazy schedule I thought it best to take it easy with some boardgames.
First we played Yggdrasil. It's a cooperative game where you become one of the Norse gods trying to stop Ragnarok. Players try to keep the forces of evil from crossing the board. Each time a card is drawn, the baddies like Surt and Loki advance. The game ends when too many cross and you lose (most often) or the cards run out.
Each god has a special power. As Thor, my job was to pummel the bad guys and giants. We almost won. It literally came down to the last card. Great game. Highly recommended.
Then, for a quickie we played a purely dice game called Las Vegas. A lot of fun. Could see it at parties.

Daddy's back

I missed you all. This will sort of be a good news.bad news thing. Let's start with the good.
The horde:

I love Amazon. They have a wish list. I put all this stuff on it, the Baroness can just hit "buy". I've been coveting Smallworld for awhile. I have played many times, but the $60 price tag always threw me off. Target had for $35.

Being a great fan of Lunch Money, Epic Spell Wars looked like the same thing with magic and great artwork, done deal.

"Maurice" I am still reading through but can't wait to try. So far, everything I dreamed of (Might and Reason meets Commands and Colors) and more. 

"Popular Front". Read good reviews on Boardgame Geek. We played last Thursday and it was a great little game. Simple but lots of strat-tee-gery.

"Dux Bellorum" and "A World Aflame" are Osprey game titles. Probably crap, but nice pictures. 

Same for "Condotierre". Frank Chadwick is pretty old school as far as rules go. Got mostly for the pictures and OOBs.

Had to get the Conan Collection book and another Renaissance title to get motivated to finish my Italian Wars armies.

Speaking of mins...

What I painted over the break:

For Pulp Alley. She just has to be named Natasha.

Famed archeologist/adventurer Arkansas Bob

Lady Virginia Dare

Spanish Pikes

Spanish Command

Those Pig Iron Fellas I been working on.

a Scientist suitable for numerous genres.

And finished the much promised library for the Baroness. She was pleased, and so much celebration in Unkerlant was had.

with it done I had time/space to organize the minis:

Now the bad. On Christmas Eve my Dad had a stroke. This pretty much put a damper on the rest of the time off. He is better, but it has been devastating to the family. Anyone who has dealt with this and the weight of a possible nursing home stay knows what I'm talking about. Parkinson's had already robbed a great man of much of his fire and this was the twisting of the knife. Thus, my lack of posting. Thanks for any thoughts/prayers in advance.

-Zee Baron

Next post: VSF mini-skirmish

Boardgame night

Only 5 of us last night. The perfect number for all those boardgames out there we never get to play. First off: 1812: Invasion of Canada by Academy Games

© Academy Games

This is one of those periods I've read about, think is cool, but will probably never game. This was the next best thing. With five, each took command of a different army: British, Canadian Militia, US regulars, US Militia and me commanding the Indians allied with the Brits.
For those not familiar with the game, turn order is drawn randomly from a bag. When its your turn, you must play a move card from your hand of 3. If you move where there is an enemy, a fight happens using the special dice for each army. The dice sides have blanks, retreats and bull's eyes (hits). Militia have more retreats, regulars have more hits. Simple?
Th team with the most captured enemy cities by turn 7 or when one side has played its Treaty cards, wins.
The game started with a lot of combat, quickly became a stalemate, and then in turn 4 the US captured 4 Canadian towns and played their Treaties. Over. Bang! Just like that.
A lot of fun, and replay value. Also could work good for a campaign game for miniatures.
Next up: TransAmerica.

© Winning Moves

No not a game of trans-genders crossing the US. It was a simpler, but at the same time more compelling version of Ticket to Ride. Same kind of railroad building premise, but I think a sleeker game. Again, highly recommended.
We finished the night with an old favorite of mine: Condotierre.

© Euro Games

A game of bluff and risk to capture Renaissance era Italian Cities. I have the older (cooler) set with the weird shaped cards. Each player gets 10 cards. Most are mercenaries that have numerical value. There are also special cards that played in conjunction with the Mercenaries enhance the played cards. The player may place a card or pass. If you pass, you are out of the bidding for that turn. The player with the highest numerical value at the end wins the city.
The strategy comes in when you have to decide to live to fight another day, or keep going. No new cards are dealt until one player is the only one left with cards.
# games in 3 hours, and a lot of fun between. No game next Thursday. THANKSGIVING!

Samurai Swords

Been really busy at work lately, and was kinda too exhausted to put on a full tabletop game. So, I dug out an oldie but goodie, "Samurai Swords".
 Originally released as "Shogun", I picked this up in 1986 and its still a great game. So good, I guess they are re-releasing as "Ikusa", but without the swords to pick order of play. That's one of the coolest parts!
There were 6 players last night, and only 5 spots, so I watched until it was time for the Boy to go to bed. Then I got stuck with his decimated army. The players finally caught on that this is a head hunting game. Take out the enemy Daimyos, and win the game. Armed with this info, the next game aught to be interesting.
On another note, I may not be running a game at RECRUITS this time. Just too much to do and too little time. Instead, I''ll probably assist Lead Addict with running his Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors games.

It is a Small World after all...

The Basement Generals took a break from our traditional wargames (I'm lazy) to play a little (pun!) boardgame called Small World. I've eyed it for some time purely for the art work. The players take on fantasy races, expanding over a small world. Your races expand, then decline ala "History of World" but with deeper game play. Each race has a special ability, like extra victory points for inhabiting farmlands and a separate randomly generated ability like "Berserker" or "Merchant" that is different every time you play. I got Flying Barbarians, which was fun.

The key to winning comes from using your races abilities to their best, and knowing when their time is up, going into decline and picking a new race. I will definitely be picking this up.
Next week: Play test of Black Powder.