Benny’s Weblog

31/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:22 am

ASL - Surrender Or Die[OA16]: Lots of fun, came down to the last turn. Desperate Bazooka shots, an active sniper. A few things conspired to give the Americans the game. The Sniper got lucky and broke a MMG squad. A last-minute Deploy move meant two unlikely CC rolls were required to succeed. Only took around 3.5 hours of play.

ASL - Commando Schenke[126]: Excellent scenario. Lots of crazy hardware, so much fun. Surprisingly, 4.5 hours to play.

28/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:52 am

Blue Moon (2): Fist time play in a very very long time and it shows. Standard decks and a Vulca win :)

Blue Moon (2): And again, Vulca wins.

Here I Stand (3): This one has a learning curve and it’s a steep one. We will get the hang of it eventually but it’s going to be a grind. Took us 7 hours to setup and complete a single turn!

Struggle of Empires (6): Our first play was more or less a learning game but *wow* this is awesome. This game will make El Grande obsolete for me. The same thing happened to Power Grid after I played the monolithic Age Of Steam.
Wallace takes great games and turns them into something us hardcore gamers can sink our teeth into. My only worry at this point is with replayability. After a few more plays I may try my hand at designing a map and variant to keep it fresh.

24/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 11:59 pm

Doom (3): A fun game if you play quickly. You need to keep it moving and make sure everyone makes quick decisions. It’s probably a little easy on the GM.

Blue Moon City (3): This, to me, feels like classic Reiner genius. Tower of Babel was OK, Beowulf is barely scraping through but this seemed good from start to finish. Card management, area control, interesting scoring. It’s a great game.

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:23 am

ASL - Gavin Take[T1]: I think I’ve played this scenario 3-4 times now. It’s great as a primer for getting back into ASL. Lots of fun, very few squads, easy to teach.

21/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 12:14 am

Age of Steam - Germany (4): Love this map, especially for four. The game was tight and fun, not a great deal of screwage. I lost the game due to issuing one share too many and upping my loco one turn too late. Still, I was only beaten by three points. Close!

Caylus (3): I really like Caylus with three players, there just seem like more options, it requires a different strategy because all players have so many choices of good buildings. Still, I was beaten by only three points. It was an excellent and tight game!

20/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:24 am

ASL - Clearing Coleville[S1]: Played with Anna and got through exactly one turn before it became too much :) It’s still on the table as I write this, hopefully soon I can get her to play turn 2!

ASL - Lenin’s Sons[J103]: A fun little scenario from the newly released Journal 7. I played against a very experienced player and got soundly beaten. Every time I play someone of higher skill I learn so much. I gave my two half squads a DC each, my opponent then managed to kill both squads thus stealing the DCs and subsequently using them to blow me to kingdom come.
He effectively protected his flamethrower by making sure it was the last thing to move. The way he maneuvered a ton of squads around before risking his DC carrying units was amazing. His use of leaders was entirely effective, anything which broke always had a perfect rout path which not only led to a good leader but also protected the routed units from enemy fire and movement. At times I thought he may have been taking too many risks… but after what I thought was a stupid move, he would follow it up with 3 really great moves which would not have been possible without making that initial sacrifice.

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:18 am

Thurn un Taxis (2): Not bad for two but still not my kind of game, there’s not much happening and not many decisions to make.

Carcassonne + Inns & Cathedrals (2): I’ll never turn this down for two players.

J103 - Scenario Notes

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 1:02 am

- HIP all units before start (VASL).
- conceal all except the top unit (VASL).
- can recombine squads.
- can transfer weapons to confuse opponent.
- if a unit is KIA, roll for SW survival.
- always place your SAN counter if you have lower SAN than opponent in +0 TEM and as close to enemy SAN as possible. This can divert the enemy sniper from your units.
- if targets are at equal dist from sniper then it attacks the unit in the lowest TEM.
- ASL is a game of maneuver. Even on defence you should always adjust your defense and move to keep the attacker guessing.
- units carrying a FT get -1 penalty when fired upon.
- remember that MTR and MMG cannot fire in AFPh if they move in MPh.
- Heros cannot rally squads or prevent cower.
- Broken units in CC must withdraw.

18/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 10:08 pm

El Grande (5): El Grande continues to grow on me, it’s still not up there just yet, probably hanging in at around 7/10.

Sleuth (4): Damn good game. I hated Clue but this is so much better, I had a lot of fun trying to decypher my own notes. I really enjoy trying to come up with a good notation/deduction system.

Beowulf (5): Hmm this one is fun but I feel there is better stuff out there. I’ll give it a few more plays before reaching a final conclusion. At the end of the day I would never turn it down so that may be saying something!

17/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 4:31 am

ASL - 88s At Zon[S14]: It’s the second time I’ve played this scenario but it was great fun. Set those HIP 88s up then attempt to channel the American paratroops into them before they get near the exit. I enjoy the Starter Kits but it’s just not ASL, we’re ready to get back into the full deal.

14/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 5:30 pm

Titan (3): Not a bad game, lots of strategy to uncover. Never… ever… disclose the location of your Titan!! My only qualm is it’s a little fiddly.

Caylus (5): I’m getting worse, came last.

Caylus (5): Same, came last in a five player game. Need to practice!

12/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — SiteAdmin @ 3:07 pm

Poker (100): Played with the Australian Poker League on Wednesday night. Great fun but ended up knocked out early!

A Game of Thrones: A Storm of Swords (4): Pretty good fun, feels a little more elegant to me than the original game. I like that the blind bidding for Fiefdoms happens less often and juggling power vs victory points is also fun. Overall I feel the four player map is a better game, it feels more balanced than the original and a little more “Euro”. There is less chrome and more room for tactical maneuver. Christian Peterson is learning, not a bad effort for an American :)

Caylus (4): Played Friday night. Interesting tactical game, need to play more as it’s still a voyage of discovery of sorts. At the moment it’s great fun but we will see after 10 plays if it still holds up.

Caylus (4): One player got a huge lead, there are certainly many strategies we are missing. Still, it’s great fun to play. Not up there with Age of Steam for replayability.

7/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — bennyb @ 8:27 pm

Revolution: The Dutch Revolt (4): The more I play the more I like it. Very fun trying to hide your intentions from the other players. The money mangement is very interesting.

Intrigue (4): I love getting this one out. It’s brutal and unforgiving, forcing players to screw each other. It’s not for everyone but I’ve played twice and I love the game. The clincher was when one player gave me $25,000 to get into my $10,000 slot and the other player gave me $6,000 to stay there. I rejected the player who gave me $25k :)

Caylus (5): We will get a few weeks of play out of this one. I quite like the game and feel it will be good for at least 5-10 plays.

5/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — bennyb @ 5:33 pm

Was Sticht (4): Not a bad little trick taking game but I’ve never really been a huge fan of the genre.

Intrigue (4): Loved this game, has the potential to bring the worst out of people. Can’t wait to play again.

Werewolf (9): It’s a party game, we were all beginners so not a great deal happening. Good fun all the same, may become a standard opening game for our game club.

Die Dolmengötter (5): A pretty good game marred by ugly components. The board looks like crap. You’ll have to twist my arm to get another play out of me. Thankfully it’s nice and short so it’s not gonna burn out the back of my eyes.

2/8/2006

Games Played

Filed under: — bennyb @ 9:20 pm

ASL Starter Kit S2 (2): This one came down to the last die roll! My opponent needed to roll less than 7 on two dice to win the game and he rolled a 5. Severely ripped off :( I always lose at ASL, that’s 7 games in a row I have lost now! (including the Cancon tournament).

Wizard Kings (2): Comments here: BGG Discussion

Carcassonne with Inns & Cathedrals (2): Reminded me why I love this combination. One huge city with both Cathedrals was built, only one tile needed to complete it for my opponent to win the game by a super large margin… sure enough she drew the second last tile and it was exactly the one!

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