Sunday, October 19, 2008

First Aussie Maths Trade Retrospective

As we head into the Second Aussie Maths Trade, let's take a look back at what happened in the first - in particular, how successful have the games I received been? We can assume I only traded away things I didn't expect to play, so if I played what I did get, I've won. N'est-ce pas?

Architekton - played once with Scrabblette. She wasn't impressed. I'd play it again but may not have that choice.

Clans - played five times so far, I think. This was a very successful trade.

Attribute - played four times so far. I don't like it so much, but my kid refuses to let me give it to my sister. So, I guess that was successful.

Terrace - played once, and I'd be happy to be rid of it, but the kid likes it and won't let me. Apparently my game collection is a democracy now.

Blackbeard (old edition) - I received two copies, and played one of them solitaire. It was a fairly sucky game but I will probably do it again one day. I'm trying to trade off the second (better) copy.

Warhamster Rally - One play. I like it, but the kid says it's like Roborally but too hard. OK, the hex map is confusing. I'm keeping it for the moment.

Keythedral - unplayed so far, but I really really want to. It's the sort of game I like. After playing Key Harvest I'm really getting into Richard Breese.

Scotland Yard - unplayed so far. I'll have to remember to start taking it out with me.

Cabale - only one play, and it was alright. It will really be up to Scrabblette whether it hits the table again or not.

Stonehenge - I haven't played this yet though I'm interested in playing the Faidutti game. Some of the others stink. It's a bit of a disappointment.

Meridian - played twice so far. Scrabblette seemed to like it, but we haven't played again, and it went over OK at Critical Mass despite a massive rules screw-up.

Hacienda - I love this game! It has become one of my hits for the year, and I'm amazed to find out I've only played it 3 times. I must get it out more!

Overall, 19 plays, and Hacienda, Clans and Meridian (and Attribute, I guess) have found homes where they're very much appreciated. I guess it's not such a brilliant success rate, but it's better than paying full price for games on spec.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

If You Drink Then BGG You're a Bloody Idiot

Had a glass of wine with dinner, visited BGG, now I'm running a Maths Trade.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/35609

Fair enough, I did trade the second-most games last time. I'll see if I can get Gomez on the hook for next time.

Ooh! Ooh! I Have an Idea!

I was just pondering the futility of being sick and staying home and still not having an opponent to play games against. So it occurred to me that if I was really smart I'd get a medical degree and work part-time. I'd still be immensely rich AND I'd be able to write doctor's certificates for my game buddies like CyberKev and Ozvortex, and they'd be able to stay away from work and play games with me. Ooh! Isn't that cunning?

Then it dawned on me... Mikey and Dupytren have already done this...

Friday, October 10, 2008

O'Brien Loses!

I was sick yet again today - Scrabblette and I have been plagued with colds all winter long. At least this time I felt well enough to have another bash at ASL. I had unfinished business with the first scenario and wanted to know what would happen if the Germans played better. Of course, for old times' sake I used Sgt O'Brien as the American commander in the middle of Vierville. He did a very good job there last time when the Americans won, but I was rooting for the Germans this time.

As a quick aside, I have played games with a fellow who always plays Germany. I thought that was just a forgivable quirk, but have since got the feeling he's a white supremacist of some sort. Apparently they're just misunderstood patriots... anyway, rest assured I'm nothing like that. It really disturbs me that such people still exist.

Anyway, the Germans brought on their first two squads - Baumann to oppose O'Brien in the town, and Harpe to the intersection to guard the road in from the north where the American forces were. Praun brought reinforcements through the forest to the south of the town.

This plan worked well for a while, as Harpe's control of the road prevented the Americans from entering the town. Eventually however a detachment of O'Briens squad and the reinforcements forced Harpe out of his shelter.

In the town, O'Brien had had some success in fighting off Baumann, but Weiss arrived with more reinforcements. Praun had no success at dislodging O'Brien.

With Harpe's forces scattered, American reinforcements under Dunn swept into town. Baumann was killed, but his troops were rallied by Weiss who advanced again to face O'Brien.

Weiss's reformed squad attacked O'Brien with everything they had. Suddenly, Praun and his men made a run for the building at L3, the only victory point they had any chance of reaching. The Americans, now abandoned by the scaredy-cat O'Brien, were unable to bring sufficient firepower to bear to stop Praun, and he reached the safety of the building.

It was now the last turn of the game, and the Americans needed to dislodge Praun from L3 to win the game. Dunn's stack had 36 fire power, so they stormed the building to destroy the German forces.

Dunn was pinned by the defensive fire, and without his leadership the Germans' 15 fire power forced all of the Americans to flee for cover. When the game ended, Praun controlled L3 and the Germans won.

It might sound like the Germans got lucky, and indeed they did. The Americans didn't make a mistake in not covering L3 - O'Brien just didn't have the fire power to look after it, and Dunn had been held off by Harpe for so long he was unable to arrive in time to save the day. The unluckiness for the Americans was that Dunn got pinned in the final attack - he missed his morale check by 1, and that prevented his -2 DRM from being applied for the rest of the stack. Anything from that stack that didn't break would have gone into L3 during the advance phase, and the game would have been decided by Close Combat.

I was very impressed by the way Harpe's squad was able to control the road enough to hold back the Americans' overwhelming force. Harpe's guns had 6 range which meant they could shoot to the very west side of the map in normal range. It was impossible to sneak past them. I was also impressed by how long O'Brien hung on - Praun and Baumann initially intended to drive him out of his building and occupy N6 and N5, but he just wouldn't go.

I do like this game, it's a pity there are so many rules. I forgot to use CX counters this time, and I even forget why you would. The next scenario has machine guns which come with a whole lot more rules. Oh dear.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Life Intrudes

Loyal readers, please excuse me for my recent lack of postings! I've been very busy not playing games, and it's shown in the number of interesting things I can think of to tell you. I'm now on my third cold for the season. Scrabblette is as well, except she hasn't had any obvious breaks between them, so she's been constantly sick since the beginning of July.

Yesterday was the second anniversary of Scrabblette and I meeting (and also her birthday), so I asked her to marry me. And she said yes. The first person she told was the kid, who'd suspected something like that might happen although he had no inside knowledge whatsoever. I think he's been nagging her about it for a while. I guess he approves.

Anyway, I had a very good day of gaming on Saturday... let's see if I get back here soon to write about it.