"I have been but little in," said Ninian hastily...

So, I had two dates and two gaming opportunities lined up for this weekend. One of the dates and one or the gaming opportunities fell through, but the ones that came off were good fun.

Gamingwise, today I headed up to Games and Stuff for some DBA against a new opponent, Jeff. We met up just as the store was opening and had a good game using my primeval DBA matched pair, Alexandrian Macedonians and Later Achemaenid Persians. Jeff took the Persians (with the scythed chariot option, no less) and did a champion job with them, nearly bagging Alexander several times before finally going down 4Sc-3.

Then we joined the Army of Central Maryland blokes, who had been setting up a World War One game for Force on Force. A platoon of French infantry had to consolidate and hold a position against a force of Germans who were trying to sweep past. The Germans moved one section off the board, but they did not move fast enough, and their other two sections were still engaged when the game ended. French victory! (More by luck than cleverness, as players don't know each others' goals, so we would have been perfectly happy, sitting on our positions comfortably, to let the rest of the Germans exit).

There was time for a second game, so we reset the forces and objectives. This time the French were attacking, trying to seize one or more prisoners for interrogation. We were able to get close to one German section, but every time we were about to come to grips with them, they lost their nerve and fled--very frustrating for the POW-less French! In the meantime, the Germans had seized their terrain objectives, so the game ended with a French loss.

As soon as I have time, I'll post more details and some photos on my gaming blog. Since I do like to support stores that let us game in them, I picked up an interesting-looking boardgame that had good ratings on Boardgamegeek, a light-hearted game, where ancient Roman citizens try to establish their social and economic position by claiming buildings in an ancient city. But the game is called Downfall of Pompeii! So the second half of each game features players trying to race out of the city before being covered by lava (yes, accounts now say the city was covered in ash, no lava, but, heck, it's just a game, right? :-) It's rated for 2-4 players, so hopefully we can give it a try on Wednesday...

Mmmph. The only time I mind living on the second (third) floor is when I have 3-4 loads of game supplies to carry up and down for a day out!

In other news, gr_c17 and Mr Invisible came over yesterday and we played Here I Stand, an awesome update of the old SPI A Mighty Fortress. The game covers the early to mid 16th century in Europe, a fascinating time. Four of the six players are monarchs of the (Holy Roman) Empire, France, England, and Ottoman Turkey. The fifth is the Papacy--a half-temporal, half-spiritual ruler who has both his own armies and also legions of scholars and churchmen, who set out to stem the tide of the heretical Reformation. The sixth player represents the Protestant movement, entirely spiritual until it gains enough ground for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League (a confederation of Protestant princes intended to protect their followers from the temporal forces of the Church of Rome).

All of the monarchs have their trials. The Ottomans are perhaps the most powerful; they have huge armies and can build great fleets of corsairs. But they face the bulwark formed by the Empire, Europe's most redoubtable military force. The Emperor, though, stands to lose control of much of Germany if Protestantism becomes powerful. And he can't rely on much support from his brother Christian monarchs, who seek to take advantage of his distraction to carve up his western boundaries.

The French are natural allies of the Ottomans, under the time-honoured "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" principle. But they also have the English to contend with, who will want at the least to crush plucky little Scotland, France's other natural ally. And France begins partway through its attempt to dominate Italy, a move that puts it at loggerheads with the Pope, who is trying to do the same thing. The Papacy wants to enlarge its temporal territory, but it can't spend too much time and energy on that or the Protestant menace will become too powerful. The English want the best of both worlds--they want to be Catholic but do as they please (as the king pleases) in "the Great Matter" of the king's marriage(s).

And the Protestants struggle to manage a multilingual effort at subversion and revolution that sometimes sees members of their active cadre of campaigners burned at the stake after losing out in theological debate with the Pope's picked scholars. Once the Protestants achieve status as a political power, you would think that their troubles would be eased, but in fact this just means they have two realms of conflict to defend in, with more or less the same resources as before.

Meanwhile the Empire, the French, and the English are working away to explore and exploit the New World so as to support their efforts in the old.

It's a very fun game. Bryan took the French and Ottomans, Eric the Papacy and the Empire, and I took the English and the Protestants. Eric had totally spanked me the week before when we played a simplified two-player version, in which I took the Papacy and he the Protestants. I was unable to repeat the deed, though, and Bryan's Turks were not able to overthrow the eastern fortresses of the Empire, so Eric ended up with a well deserved victory at the end. purple Papal banners flying.

Battlefront (the company that produces the game Flames of War (FOW), not to be mistaken for Fire & Fury Games, who produce the game Battlefront: World War Two (BF:WW2)) are such manipulators.

( Read more... )

Most of my friends know that I am a collector and a completist, which is probably something found in the DSM somewhere. I am also a wargamer, a military history aficionado, and an Anglophile.

The nexus of these traits resulted some years ago in my getting involved in a very complex, detailed, brain-hurting World War Two wargame called Advanced Squad Leader (ASL). It's practically a hobby in and of itself. It's also like a habit that you know isn't going to do you much good, but you can't give it up. :-) I think about selling all the bits I've acquired for the game from time to time, but I can't bear to, even though I don't play that often (and one needs to play often so as to keep one's understanding of the rules fresh).

Well, one particular module, a HASL or Historical ASL Module, has eluded me for many years. I got a copy when it first came out, but I then loaned it to a friend who somehow not only forgot he had it but forgot he had ever borrowed it. It's never been reprinted, so it's as rare as hen's teeth.

I finally got a line on a copy at a game reseller who helps me :-) recycle games I've played into ones I haven't (at a healthy markup of course). It took turning in all the Flames of War and all the Warhammer Historical army books I had (plus a little extra cash), but I now have a handsome, unpunched copy of A Bridge Too Far. And I seem to recall a certain friend of mine expressing some cautious interest in ASL recently. It didn't cost quite as much, but I think that finally punching out the counter on this baby will be even more satisfying than cracking open a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1870.

I saw this recently on the back cover of a game box.

For two years Britain and America have been locked in a spiteful war. Now, following the defeat of Napoleon, Canada's Governor-General George Prevost has been reinforced, and he sees a chance to strike a blow. His plan is to clear the British from Lake Champlain and seize the neighboring territory, perhaps as far south as Fort Ticonderoga. In that way he will drive a British wedge between the states of New York and Vermont, and thus gain leverage at the peace negotiations that will surely begin soon. In his path lies the little town of Plattsburgh.


(I didn't memorise it--I got the text from the company's website, where someone had corrected the egregious error that had been missed before the box art went to the printers.)

Unless you are interested in the topic ( don't click here. )

Hey, gr_c17, Ship of the Line arrived in the post today. Sixteen more scenarios for Flying Colors, which you liked, msot of the from the American Revolution! Including one where the British fight THE DUTCH! Huzzah!

Also a box from Noble Knight with the new 40K rules and codexes for my armies, because you and john_arundel held a gun to my head...

account of our two small battles of last Saturday in my wargaming blog