Benny’s Weblog

ASL - Trial by Combat [U10]: Another excellent scenario. My first two turns went very, very well but things fell apart from there on. Heavily pro-German so I was disadvantaged from the start

Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers (2): First play left a good impression. I still prefer Carc with Inns & Cathedrals but still.. this one is fun.

Goa (2): Can’t get my head around this game, there’s a lot to take in. So hard to evaluate the different auction tiles. I’ll improve in time!

Starfarers of Catan (4): Always good fun, so much fun we played two games back-to-back.

Starfarers of Catan (4): See above.

Dungeon Twister (2): This game is pretty good, reminds me of Navia Dratp in a lot of ways although I’m concerned about the lack of character selection variety. Expansion should fix it, apparently quite a few are planned.

Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers (2): Second play of this one. Typical Carc, fast and fun!

ASL - The Yelna Bridge [J102]: A great little scenario. I’ve already played this as the attacker and was soundly hosed so was keen to give it another try. It came down to the wire pretty much. The Artillery piece did its job, the crew never broke. German infantry became bogged down in the Stream which didn’t help their cause. The medium machine gun was partially successful.
Played at Army Group South night.

Sword of Rome (4): Played on Sunday. Had fun, Rome eventually won at Turn 6. The game can come down to the alliances formed but overall each player needs to be aware of Rome’s ability to recruit troops with each city constructed.

War Of The Ring (2): Ripper of a game, can be quite long however. I would definitely play again.

Mesopotamia (2): Not bad, need to play more to come to some sort of final conclusion as to whether I like it or not.

San Juan (2): Good but the strategy is eluding me.

Age of Steam - Scotland Map (2): This map gets better with each consecutive play. Still tough decisions and some quite ferocious bidding wars. In fact bidding often comes down to who has the most cash at one time, in this way it could potentially be broken as losing a bid can cost the game. A few loose ends however… does the person who loses the bid pay nothing or the full amount of their last bid?

In the Shadow of the Emperor (2): There’s a good game here but not sure how long it’ll hold my interest. Two players is not recommended however. Just doesn’t work well, too hard to get Emperor control. Looking forward to trying with more.

Carcassonne - The City (2): Equally as good as the base game with Inns & Cathedrals expansion. Many decisions to be made regarding use of meeples and timing. Needs a few more plays to see if it’ll have any longevity.

Lord of the Rings (2): We beat it on 14.

Lord of the Rings (2): This time on 13, didn’t have much of a hope.

Lord Of The Rings - Friends & Foes (2): Much, much more difficult than the base game. Very good however!

Age of Steam (5): Still a killer game. The start plays are crucial, mess up the start and you wear it for the entire game.

Friedrich (4): Wow, this was a whole heap of fun! Can’t wait to play again.

Settlers - The Card Game (2): Played with the Traders & Barbarians expansion. Still have a lot to learn about this game.

Sword of Rome (4):

- Can Transalpine Gauls retreat into Gallic controlled spaces? No, they’re eliminated if they cannot retreat.
- Can Non-player powers take control of spaces? Yes!
- After battle, control may be flipped to the winner’s power for any adjacent space or walled city adjacent to the winner’s spaces.
- Can a tribal space have political control removed? No!
- What happens when city is reduced and becomes independent… is the siege still maintained? Yes, sieges are only lifted if the enemy leaves or allies.
- Etruscan/Samnite reinforcements may be combined.
- Only one action per non-player power is allowed per Action *Round*. Use the marker to indicate such.
- Pay particular attention to the isolation rules.

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- Reinforcements spaces only apply to the space’s original owner.
- The player who wins a tie decides in which order actions will be completed.

Card Play
- Each turn players may discard any or all cards remaining in hand before drawing. The Gallic player must discard all cards!
- Passing is allowed.
- Cards may only be played during the Action phase.
- A player with no cards can still propose/break alliances and/or move/place minor leaders during his turn.
- Remember the RESHUFFLE notation on cards.
- The active player plays response cards first followed by players in clockwise order.
- Neutral power cards may be played in addition to a normal card play!

Political Control
- Independent PC/City markers are never isolated. They represent unrest.
- The Gallic player does not gain VP for controlling VP spaces, he only loses VP for not controlling home spaces.
- Romans may remove a CU in a space to place a City marker if they have a PC marker there.
- Etruscans may bribe if mines not depleted. A bribe may also be used to move through spaces with enemy CU!
- Bribes must be done before card play.
- Support includes both PC markers and wlled city loyalty.
- Gallic cities have maximum loyalty of 1.
- You can always remove your own support regardless of any CU present.
- A city reduced to 0 loyalty is replaced with an Independent marker.
- Enemy loyalty cannot be reduced below the number of CU in the space.
- Each player has the option to play a Desperate Times card at the end of the 5th Action Phase.
- Greek leaders are permanently removed if their loyalty is not paid.
- Minor leaders can always be placed.
- Leaders are displaced when alone with enemy CU or if alone with no friendly CU.
- Minor leaders are not displaced but set aside to be placed in that player’s next action phase.

Movement
- The Samnites always treat rough as clear for all purposes.
- 10 CU max (plus any leaders) may move with a leader. (no limit for occupying a space)
- CU can only move with a leader.
- All leaders have 4MF except Gauls which have 3,4,5 MF for 1,2,3 value cards respectively.
- Transalpine Gauls have 5MF.
- No more than 3CU can be declared to be inside a walled city when an enemy force enters the space.
- Leaders and CU inside a city may not leave when enemy CU are present but may sortie.
- An army may attempt to refuse battle and move back a space if an enemy successfully intercepts.
- When a campaign card is played, each leader must complete actions. No CU or leader may spend more than 4MP during that card play.
- The only time you can activate an allies force is with a campaign card but you can only do so with permission.
- A Campaign event may be used to do a co-ordinated attack with two forces. One being the flanking force.
- Naval movement is allowed into or out of any Port space regardless of PC markers or enemy CU.
- Carthaginian units may use Naval movement with 10CUs.
- A Greek leader may move 3CUs with Naval movement or 6CUs if moving to/from Syracuse.
- A Roman leader may move with 3CUs or 10CUs if allied with Carthage.
- No intercept across rough terrain.
- All intercetion attempts must be declared before they are resolved.
- Moving force may only be intercepted by one power but as many armies as that one power likes.
- Avoid Battle is allowed across sea if the player plays the appropriate Naval Movement card.
- Avoid Battle can not be across Rough or Strait.
- Moving army may continue moving if it rolls le it’s tactics rating (Pursuit).
- Persuit is not allowed across Rough or Strait.

Combat
- Response events are played in clockwise order starting with active player.
- Ties in battle result in the defender winning.
- Any CU encountered during a retreat are swept up and join the retreating force. (unless outnumbered).
- Defending CU can retreat into a walled city in the battle space but only 3CU worth.
- A force which Sorties must retreat back into the city.
- Political support is half the defender’s losses FRU.
- Victorious Gallic or Transalpine forces may place Plunder markers instead of Political support.

Sieges/Subjugation
- A Siege/Subjugation may only be attempted if there are ge 3CUs present.
- Units inside a city may aid friendly units outside the city.
- No support points are gained by eliminating enemy CU inside a besieged city.

Gauls
- Gauls which have 3,4,5 MF for 1,2,3 value cards respectively.
- Gallic cities have maximum loyalty of 1.
- The Gallic player does not gain VP for controlling VP spaces, he only loses VP for not controlling home spaces.
- The Gallic player must discard all cards before drawing!
- Transalpine Gauls cannot go from the map back to their holding box.
- Gallic forces can only raid enemy PC markers for 1MP.
- Roll on the Siege table, any positive result is a successful plunder.
- Replace an enemy PC with independent. Place a plunder marker on the track.
- When Gauls successfully besiege a city they may loot instead of changing control to themselves.
- City goes to level 1 Independent, place 5 plunder markers!
- Plunder markers may also be placed as the result of winning battles.
- At any time the Gauls may remove plunder markers to remove enemy PC markers from home spaces (if no enemy CU present).

Alliances
- Alliances can only be proposed during a player’s Action phase.
- Negotiations may be held away from the table.
- Alliances are between powers not players.
- Allied forces may not stack together.
- A player may break an alliance during his action phase by removing 3 support for each alliance he breaks.
- Neutral Power activations can still be used against allies.

- Non-player power activations are generally controlled by the power with the fewest VP.
- The player activating the non-player power is allied to it while it is moving.
- Carthaginian Units/Leaders may not enter Italy.
- Volsci must end any movement, interception or avoid on Antium or in a Roman home space.
- Transalpine must end in a Gallic home space.

Bitter Woods (2): Not a bad little operational game this one. My only gripe is the board is too damn big! You almost need to stand up to move things at the other side. Still, it’s a great deal of fun. My opponent struggled to close gaps in the line. Once I had peeled through the holes I could encircle and kill.

Betrayal At House On The Hill (6): Good if you enjoy not thinking. Move along , there’s no game here.

Up Front (2): Up Front is kinda cool, I struggle to remember the rules however.

Lord of the Rings (2): Really been enjoying this lately. Just found out we had been playing a rule incorrectly. The new ring bearer gets to draw two cards at the end of each scenario.

Lord of the Rings (2): I enjoy this the more I play it. I think all players need to be enthusiastic and at the same level of play to make it work. Everyone needs to be involved in solving it. So far trying to beat it with 2 players and Sauron at 15… We will get there!

Starship Catan (2): Played the expansion mission “The Space Amoeba”. It was kinda fun but not as much so as the real game. We played incorrectly for the first few turns, this may or may not have had an effect on the game. We found it was too easy to build all upgrades and max-out.

The Napoleonic Wars (5): We got totally wiped by the French player, absolutely no hope of survival. Still, it was a fun learning experience. Great game, I much prefer it to Here I Stand. The seven card hand of the French player is hard to counter, working together against him is absolutely vital. Critical in all respects.
Once France is impotent players can then concentrate on each other.

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- Categories; Mechanized, Artillery, Leader Units, Non-Mechanized.
- For first 6 turns mech units of 5th, 6th, 7th Army must observe boundary limitations.
- 3 ground unit stacking limit except JPZ Panzer Brigade, Panzer Lehr Division.

ZOC
- ZOC does not extend across Meuse hexsides.
- Artillery units never exert ZOC.
- Units forced to retreat into enemy ZOC are eliminated.

Improved Positions
- negate attacker’s ER.
- build by mech/non-mech by not moving as long as not in enemy ZOC.
- removed if all friendly units vacate.

Fortifications
- negate attacker’s ER & ignore CA results.
- Only certain hexes may be fortified.
- Clervaux, Dinant, Namur, Liege ae considered Fortified.
- St Vith, Bastogne, Marche may be fortified as per Improved Position.
- Eliminated if enemy ground unit enters.

Clervaux Bottleneck
- Units advancing after combat halve the number of hexes FRU.
- Mech units cannot use road bonus in the advance.

Combat
- Max dieroll may not exceed -2/+2 or 2 shifts left or right.
- Minimum combat strength is always 1.
- Calculate ER different for DR modifier.
- Aircraft and Artillery may offer support for combat.
- Defending aircraft may cancel attacking aircraft.
- Defender applies combat results before attacker.
- No attack vs defender in forest or broken may exceed 6-1.

Retreat
- Head toward friendly supply road then continue toward supply source.
- Must retreat the indicated number of hexes.
- Allies units may retreat off the map (5.5).
- May not enter enemy ZOC.
- Panzer, Tiger or Jagdtiger forced to retreat across unbridged river are eliminated.

Advance After Combat
- Any number of the attacking units may advance after combat.
- Advance hexes are = to retreat hexes.
- If Attacker retreats, Defender my advance 1 hex max.
- Advance must observe movement allowance restrictions (unlike retreat).
- Mech units starting their advance on a road may move 1.5 times the CRT hexes providing it stays on the road.
- Artillery may never Advance after combat.
- Enemy ZOC may be ignored for first hex.
- May not cross unbridged hexside unless first hex of Advance and must stop unless they did not move in movement phase in which case they can advance the full distance. (EXC. Armored)

Artillery
- Artillery generally have a range of 4 hexes (unless marked).
- Rockets have a range of 1 hex.
- LOS does not apply.
- Armor may not advance into or out of a forest hex unless moving along a road.
- Allied artillery can fire once each player turn. Axis may fire only once each Turn.
- Flip artillery after it has fired.
- Artillery suffer penalties if adjacent to an enemy.
- German Corps artillery may not move and fire in the same turn.

Air Support
- Only one air unit of each side per hex.
- Number of air units of each side is indicated on the turn chart.
- Can commit to Ground Support or Interdiction.
- Provides 1 column shift.

Supply
- Trace to a road leading off a friendly board edge.
- Not affecvted by terrain or interdiction.
- Path from a unit to a road may not be more than 4 hexes. Supply my not be through enemy ZOC unless hex is friendly occupied.
- Supply may only be across intact bridge hexsides.
- German supply sources; Any road leading off eastern map edge. any Liege hex occupied by German combat unit.
- Allied supply sources; Any road leading off western/southern/northern (west of 1300) map edges. Any friendly controlled Liege hex.
- Attack and movement halved(FRU), ER reduced by 1. Artillery may not be fired.
- Air drops may be used by the allies for Supply.
- Beginning 20AM, German must roll for supply shortage.

Bridges
- Only one attempt allowed per bridge per friendly combat unit.
- No bridge blowing by Allies on Dec. 16AM and 16PM turns.
- May only be attempted if enemy adjacent to or within one hex of bridge. Friendly unit must be on bridge.
- 1424, 1129 and 0533 are blown at the start of play.
- Bridges may be rebuilt by either player.
- German may rebuild a maximum of 8 bridges.

Reserves
- Place a unit in reserve then move it during the exploitation phase.
- May not combat.
- Loses reserve status if enemy unit moves adjacent.

Initial Surprise
- All German attacks on 16AM turn receive a one column shift to the right.

Sword of Rome (4): This game was a total riot. Lots of fun, pretty long but well worth it.

The Napoleonic Wars (5): Good fun but it was over too soon, the random early ending is a little cruel for the Prussian player. The Prussian can do virtually nothing.

Consolidated Errata and Clarifications - 11/1/2006

1 ) All references in the rules to Lesbos should read Lemnos.

2 ) Crete is part of Europe.

3 ) A unit may never end any movement or retreat in a Transit Point.

4 ) Persian Armies may be created in Ecbatana, Babylon, Susa or Persepolis.

5 ) Newly raised Persian ASPs may be placed directly into any Army that is in the space they are raised in, or they may be used to create a new army (if one is available).

6 ) You cannot Avoid into the space the enemy Army entered your space from.

7 ) The Example of Combat should begin:

“It should say that the Macedonians cross from Byzantium into Nikaea, then move into Cyzicus to attack Memnon (4MPs - Perinthos-Byzantium (1) + Byzantium-Nikaea (2) + Nikaea-Cyzicus (1) ).”

and Memnon’s losses should be stated as 8, not 7.

8 ) If you enter an enemy-occupied space using Naval Movement, there is a -2 modifier to the combat, just as if you had attacked across a strait.

- You may not retreat into or through enemy-occupied Spaces.

- You can combine Land and Naval LOC’s so that it is possible to have a LOC of 18 MP’s . . .however, as per 7.3, you can only use a Naval LOC of more than 2 MP’s IF that LOC ends in a Treasure City . . .and the only City it can do that for is Pella.
So, if you are not using Pella as the end of your Naval LOC, the maximum would be 12 MP.

- “Can you trace a LOC of the form Naval-Land-Naval (or Land-Naval-Land) or is it strictly Land-Naval or Naval-Land like movement? Could trace a path of for example 4 Land LOC, 1 Naval LOC, 4 Land LOC, 1 Naval LOC?”
Yes, to both . . .

- [A LOC] may be traced through any unoccupied Space, and/or any Space that is occupied by a non-besieged friendly unit. Provincial control is not considered when tracing a LOC, only physical occupation of spaces. Neither Devastation nor Drought affect the tracing of a LOC.

- Fleet Movement; 4 MP max. May not be increased.

- Transport: No more than 15 ASPs can use sea connections in an impulse, IS Correct.

- “The Naval LOC rule and example seem to be at cross-purposes.”
Basic premise: when the rule and the example conflict, use the rule.

- “Recruiting: If I add ASPs to an army through 8.3, it appears this has no effect on the Elite Level, is that correct?”
YES, it is . . . However, if the number of new ASP (which have an Elite rating of ‘0′) is larger than that in the Army to which they are being added, the mechanics of 8.1 take effect.

- “New Armies: Is it true that the only way to create a new army is through the recruitment action (and therefore with an elite level of 0)?”
YES.

- “Drawn battles: who gets Battle Fatigue in a drawn battle wasn’t entirely clear to me.”
The Loser plus any player who gets an F with his dieroll . . .win lose or draw.

- “Are the moving units the fleet that actually moved to cause the combat, or the fleet of the current active player? I think it’s the former - so if you intercept and the result is a draw you have to retreat your intercepting force back to the port they started from, but this section makes me think I’m wrong:”
>>>The fleets that were involved in the actual combat, so you are correct.

- “If I intecept using 1 MP (maximum range for inteception is 2MP) and win
must I then continue to move, using the other 1MP?”
>>>>Interception is not Movement in the game sense, so you donm’t continuie to move.

- “Again does this mean the intercepting force returns and the active player can continue moving their fleet?”
>>>> If the Interception feels the Intercepting fleet returns to where ikt started, and the active player continues to move his Fleet.

- “Does this mean that you have to use the Armies or Garrisons or Fleets to control these starting provinces, or you control them until they are taken by the opponent (or revolt).”
Provinces controlled at the start remain so until the otherp layer satisfies the two provisions of 6.2. Such will immediately change control status.

- And there are two types of Control (somethign we shoulkd ahev noted with a Play Note):
Political Control, which is use for the 3 items listed at the beginnign of 6.2 and is effected by the 2 factors below that list.
Physical control: Used mostly for blocking LOC . . .and this requires a physical presence in thge Space, regardless hwo (politically) controls the province the Space is in.

- “I can’t see any reason why you’d bother as the Persians to have a new OC after Darius is killed.”
The 2nd bullet under Macedonian Victory #1 should say “Capture or Kill Darius III . . .or whoever is Persian Great King as per 5.3. Replacing Darius when he passes to his greater reward makes it more difficult for Alex to achieve that Victory Condition.

- “Does the Macedonian player roll for weariness for every Admin phase, or just the ‘APM generated Admin Phases’?”
Every Admin Phase . . .

- “If Alexander or Darius is commanding a useless army and it loses, do they die? It says all leaders in the useless army are removed when it loses. Or does Darius flee in that situation?”
Darius would Flee.

- “Example of a land battle on page 16. It shows Alexander’s army crossing from Chersonese to Ilium. That is a sea crossing. Rule 10.7 says that no more than 15 ASP may be transported by sea. Alexander has 33 ASP’s. Is this allowed?”
You are correct - the example is wrong. We added the restriction later, and just missed it in the example.

- “Is it forbidden to land by sea in a space occupied by the enemy?”
Yes.

- “Can a unit moving by sea move “through” a force in a port space (enter and leave by sea lanes)?”
Yes.

Attack Summary
1. Battle Avoidance.
2. Determine Battle Strengths.
3. Check for possible leader death.
4. Increase/Reduce Elite levels of each army.
5. Increase Macedonian Weariness.
6. Loser retreats.
7. Determine losses.
8. Apply Battle Fatigue as needed.
9. Roll for Alexander Injury.

- Playing a Resource is considered the playing of a “+” card.
- Only one “+” card may be played in an Impulse.
- If a Proxy is not in pact status then a card is drawn randomly from its hand.
- Attrition occurs before Control is changed.
- If insufficient forces are in the pool for Building, you may eliminate them elsewhere.
- Each unit costs 2 CPs to build.
- Leaders cost their Command Point Rating.
- Placement of a Flag costs 1 CP unless Flag Overrun, Attrition, Siege.

ASL - Hill 621 [E]: This is pretty much the biggest scenario possible without actually playing a full-blown campaign. It took roughly 5 hours today to play 2 complete turns. The scenario is 10 turns long.
The Russian player is attacking and needs to take 5 hexes of a hill. He has 48 squads and about 8 tanks, it’s very, very messy!

- If an MG establishes a FL it is marked with FirstFire and may fire again only in the DFPh.
- CX units are not able to Interdict nor can units who must halve their firepower (Pinned, Motion etc.)
- Do not forget to use special Ammo.
- If a unit can directly enter another building/woods hex it can continue routing.
- A unit may opt to retain its DM status provided it is not in a woods/building/pillbox/trench.
- Need to sacrifice ROF to leave residual.
- Whenever a unit uses Subsequent First Fire, it must use all MG/IFE in its possession (up to the unit’s normal operation capabilities; 7.35-.353) as Subsequent First Fire or forfeit their use for the remainder of that Player Turn (barring FPF).
- one SMC can add its IPC to that of any one Good Order Infantry unit to increase the IPC of the latter

- Look into Entrenchment attempts in the hill hexes.
- Look into getting HD Crest status for vehicles.

UPDATE: Finally over, I conceded at Turn 6.

Silent War: OK, I gave this one another chance by trying my hand at a Subron Mini-Campaign. After roughly 500 random chit draws (no kidding) and 100 dice rolls the conclusion I came to was the same as my initial impression… There are no meaningful decisions to be made. The entire game could be summed up by rolling a single d6. 1-3 you win, 4-6 you lose. The outcome just seems so out of control of the player. It’s a total crap shoot and a stupidly overrated game. The bits have officially gone back in the box to hopefully be sold to someone who may appreciate it more!

Ambush!: From the worst solitaire game ever to probably the best. Now this is more like it! Ambush is truly excellent although each of the 8 scenarios can realistically only be played once due to the predictability of events. The first playing of each will be memorable and add up to a lot of hours.