Fantasy Flight Filled Sunday

I inadvertently had a game-filled Sunday, and not with the typical hockey and football, which was OK, given the pathetic start to the season for the Flyers.

I went to my buddy Pete's for some Strange Aeons but when I got there his family was still playing a Warhammer Historicals Western game, Legends of the Old West... cowboys vs lawmen. The lawmen managed to rustle off the cowboy's herd to a great extent. Interesting to see scatter dice controlling livestock on the board... steering steers? Awesome game, added it to the punchlist.

So, more skirmish through Strange Aeons didn't seem to our collective liking and we tried a board game instead.

Mansions of Madness! (Image courtesy of BGG)

I finally played Mansions of Madness! It was great and we actually won! This is a big deal, because I've owned a copy for a year and never played it, intimidated by the set up and rules but dying to play it at the same time.

Pete controlled the bad guys, running a maniac around the mansion as the house reacted to our heroic presence... but instead of attacking us the maniac just took samples of hair or whatever maniacs take, and kept running back to the basement. The heroes chased after him and explored the mansion at the same time, solving puzzles, picking up items while detecting clues all while slowly going crazy in the dark.

At one point we swear Mcginn tommy-gunned a maniac to death at the top of the main stairs only to have the maniac reappear later, snatching another lock of hair from the heroes. Pete managed to get the maniac's two offerings to the elder gods and a Shoggoth appeared in the cellar and rampaged up to the first floor, trying to escape the mansion. We stopped it at a choke point on the grand staircase, bullets flying everywhere, but most of the damage was done by the old professor's magic spell Shrivel. Since we had discovered the right clue in time, the heroes were able to win the game. It was just great.

Then I go home for awhile and my cousin Patrick calls, asking me to come over. I went to his place and I showed him Star Wars X Wing for about 30 minutes, which he did not seem enthused about at all, which was odd, given we fledged together in the same Star Wars nest as kids. That, and most of the miniature-game tactile overhead that boardgamers resist in mini games seems missing from this game. Perhaps he is better at staying conservative with a few games instead of being promiscuous, game-wise, as I seem to be these days. I think he isn't convinced about the fact it's just dog fighting.

A short but legit session done, I packed it up and we discussed Memoir '44, some of the missions from the new Equipment Pack (which is awesome) but Pat and his wife Colleen got Elder Sign for Christmas so we stopped fooling ourselves.

After their sons went to bed we played Elder Sign.

After being behind the Doom Track for most of the game, we finally caught up with 8 Eldar Signs at the 11th hour. We then managed to seal Yig away before it awoke but it was a close, hard-fought win. Nobody died either! That was some kind of record for me, for this game and the number of different games in 24 hours.

So in one day, three Fantasy Flight Games were played, which means something, just not sure what.

I've been saying for the last few months how impressed I've been with Fantasy Flight games, as Elder Sign & X Wing managed to displace a long-established habit of steady Memoir '44, 40k and Warmachine. Perhaps it was due? Perhaps it is part of this complete breakfast.

Anyway, it was a blast and maybe I'll have a review of X Wing up soon.

Memoir '44: Hill 112

After "Capturing the Crossing", Patrick and I continued along the first leg of the Memoir '44 Campaign chapter, The Battle of Normandy, which spans from June 25th through July 11th. To date, my Allies have not won any of the 4 missions in this chapter.

The 3rd mission of the 4 was Withdrawing from Hill 112, which we played a few months ago. I didn't bother with a write-up since it was a total drubbing, the Allies being trounced and routed before Patrick's Germans in short order. I'd like to say that our fight could've gone both ways but it just seems like Patrick's Axis had some strategy and paired tactics in mind that were executable, while I did not. Thus ends 3/4 of the chapter and the end to Operation Epsom.

At the time in 1944 when Hill 112 happened, Monty was trudging through Operation Epsom, The British 11th Armored division meeting the German 9th as well as 2 SS formations of the 10th and Das Reich. In real life this battle and the following were gains of attrition over real estate, that swapped land owners more times than can be told and saw thousands upon thousands of casualties (which recreates itself in our fight, given that figures are percentages of unit strength at map scale).

While my Allies never won a mission so far, and ended up low on the medal counts as proof, the feeling of expensive victory came through; my performance was certainly the example of how bad things could have went for the Allies as they fought inland.

 After Withdrawing from Hill 112 we were set for a return to the Cornwall Wood, Hill 112 and the opening fight of Operation Jupiter, a 6 medal game.

So, following the campaign tree, the Allies have one more chance to shore up their French countryside before the next chapter in the campaign. On to Hill 112...

Board at game start

Victory Event Rolls: PG 6 of Memoir '44 Campaign Book 1

·         Axis Results: Remove 2 Allied figures of Axis choice, Pat took one tank and an artillery unit from my British units.

·         Allied Results: I removed 1 figure from the 102nd heavy panzer battalion at Maltot, one less Axis command card to start.

 Play Reserve Tokens:

·         Axis player results: Special Reserve Rolls, Star and Tank=Elite Panzer unit for Reserves.

·         Allied player results: Make one unit an Elite British unit.

Allied Turn 1: Played Barrage card, took out half artillery unit

Axis Turn 1: Played Dig In card. Added 3 Sandbags, 3 infantry and 1 tank. Draw two cards after play.

Allied Turn 2: Played Recon in Force card. Tanks advanced, attacked Fontaine, Hill 112, no casualties

Axis Turn 2: Played Attack card, 3 units his right flank. Infantry close assaults tanks, down to 2. Artillery takes out remainder.

Axis Armored Assault

Allied Turn 3: Played Assault card, all units Allied Right flank. Armored attack up onto Hill 112, take Temporary Objective medal, ¼ of Axis infantry unit KO’d

Axis Turn 3: Played Armored Assault card. Attacking uphill 112 minus die for hill, gained die back for Armored assault, Shermans safe. Allied Shermans Left flank totally destroyed.

Allies: Probe, elite Panzergrenadiers redueced to half strength, retreat.

Allied Turn 4: Played Probe card, 2 units Allied left flank. Infantry flanked West, Armor East. Attacked Elite Panzer grenadier unit, reduced from 4 to two, German retreat.

Axis turn 4: Played Close Assault card. Axis Right flank infantry assaulted, destroyed Sherman, rest fled, one flag.

Axis Turn 4: Dug-in German infantry repel Sherman attack on Hill 112, 1/3 Shermans retreat, lose Medal objective

MEDAL COUNT: Axis 2, Allied 0

Board view turn 5

Allied Turn 5: Played Attack card, 3 units center, envelop Panzer unit, destroyed for medal.

Axis Turn 5: Played Attack card, 3 units center. Panzer unit sweeps up remaining Sherman unit, armor overruns into infantry for 1 hit.

Axis: Panzers overrun Sherman unit and attack field infantry. The Allies tried for the Hill objective medal many times and drove the Axis medal count up as a result.

Allies advance, combined arms attack and destroy a Panzer unit in one go. Infantry hesitate to leave the safety of the treeline and fail to advance towards Hill 112.

Allied Turn 6: Played Attack card, 2 units center, tank from woods and infantry unit. Infantry advances up the hill, tanks roll from woods. Eliminated panzers for point. Forgot to take ground with troops into vacant square towards Hill 112.

Axis Turn 6: Played Counter Attack card, 2 units center. Panzer Corp eliminates Sherm unit, Armored overrun, 2 hits on Allied infantry. Panzers center reduce Shermans by 1 on three dice. Whew.

Axis Turn 6: German armor advances against Allies across center

Allied turn 7: Played Recon card, 1 unit left flank. Infantry flanked Panzers, one hit, 1 flag. Drew two cards and then discarded Armor Assault since I have 1 tank on board, kept Probe 2 Center.

Axis Turn 7: Played Recon card, 3 dice on sole Sherman, retreat. Panzers armored advanced, attacked again, gained medal.

Allied Turn 8: YO JOE!!!!

 Allied turn 8: Played Behind Enemy Lines card, flanked Panzers, eliminated 2 on hit and flag (no retreat) Advanced again to Hill 112, took temporary objective medal. 2^nd time in game.

Axis turn 8: Played Recon card, 1 center… 1 hit, flag, Allied retreat off hill. Panzers take hill regain temp objective medal again.

Axis Turn 8: Hill 112 is ours... again.

Allied Turn 9: Played Probe card, 2 in center. Messed up activation. Artillery fired on Hill 112 panzer retreat. Sole infantry 2 flags on panzers.

Axis Turn 9: Played Recon in Force card, 1-1-1. Sole infantry wiped out for Axis win.

Allied Turn 9: Damn it. That understrength British infantry unit valiantly repels the Panzers amidst a danger-close Allied barrage on their position (which drove back the elite Panzergrenadiers too) but their fate was inevitable. Axis win.

End of Chapter: Decisive Victory, Allied surrender.

Grand Campaign Results: Move on to The Breakout mission in next chapter, encompassing Battle for Saint Lo, Operation Cobra & Unternehemen Luttich (pg. 24 of Campaign Book Volume 1).

Well, the Allies didn't win one game (of 4) through the "Flanking Caen" chapter. Although the Reserves and Victory Events rolls coupled with the Grand Campaign rules really added some depth to the standard Memoir '44 game, it still came down to execution, as is true for all things.

As the Allied player I am comforted by the fact that historically, Allied victories over this historical time period (which I missed repeating here) saw victory on a knife's edge for both sides. While Pat essentially floored the Allies, he didn't roll over me. A combo of bad Allied luck offset by good Allied strategy (but bad tactics) plus German determination (Degermanation?) resulted with the both of us empathizing with the slog both sides saw in Europe over the summer of '44, which I think is a goal with this game. All-in-all, great games so far!

Stay tuned for the next chapter, the Allied push to Saint Lo, July 11th 1944!

Pat takes the spent M1 Garand brass as a trophy. Jerk.

Super Dungeon Explore WIP: Assembly and WTF

Good Lord. Okay, got my kids Super Dungeon Explore for Christmas (shhhhhhhh), nonchalant about getting the minis together and painted before December 25^th.

What the hell was I thinking.

So, two nights of assembly down… all-in-all, not bad on that front but damn that’s a lot of figs. I needed 2 tubes of super glue and a thumb-sized cake of greenstuff to get it all together, which isn't bad... a testimony to how well engineered this figs are, which is REALLY awesome. Total assembly time: 4 hours. 

I had to dip some models in boiling water to bend them into position: Ember Mage, some Kobold spears, Barbarian axe, Palidan sword and parts of the dragon. Total correction time: less than 15 minutes.

I’ll be using my own modified dip method for this, it’s the only shot at getting it all done.

Over the next few nights, cleaning, some gap filling, soap and water then  prep for priming.

Christmas: Games for the Kids?

 I have a 10 year old daughter and an 8 year old son. We like playing games together and naturally, the boardgames and cardgames are a big part of solid quality time, way more than what the Wii can manage.

My son in particular enjoys modified Memoir '44 and Space Hulk. My daughter will play anything.

So, with Christmas coming I have 2 frontrunners for game ideas. I realize that some adaptation may be required for either.

Super Dungeon Explore (SDE) may be really fun given the simple goals and familiar aesthetics of the game.  My brother-in-law and cousin are also coordinating with me on getting the same game for their kids of similar age, the idea being they can all play when they get together. SDE seems to appeal to all the parents involved.

My #2 pick is the new Mice and Mystics game. It seems a more playful game that delivers story at the expense of the boss battles of the usual crawl; this is perhaps more risky as it may make it a ridiculous hit or still-enjoyable miss. My kids are readers and would probably enjoy acting out the story... so I give points to the experiential mechanic of the game while wondering if the replay is really any different than SDE. The other parents in on this plan may not be cut out for a rodent dungeon master, as far as shepherding their kids through this game.

Anybody have any practical opinions on these games for family night? Other options?

Memoir ’44 Campaign: Capturing the Crossing

Start of turn 1, Allies in the south, Axis to the North. Note the Allied temporary medal objective on the Odon bridge.

My cousin Pat and I met over the Memorial Day weekend to continue our Battle of Normandy campaign from the Memoir ’44 Campaign book, Volume 1.

History buffs will be familiar with Operation Epsom, the backdrop for this second battle in the four game chapter of “Flanking Caen”.

 

Patrick won the first battle in this chapter as the Germans, with the mission“Securing the Flank”, scoring 5 VP’s to my 3. As the Allies, had I won that battle I would have had been able to remove his artillery battery on his Eastern flank this mission. As it was, that battery did not factor into the game, so while the loss by VP’s hurt me overall, missing the campaign perk did not.

Vicious fighting hand-to-hand and house-to house

As the 15^th Scottish Division approached the town of Cheux and the Odon river bridge from the south, German resistance responded by centralizing in and around Cheux, where Patrick’s infantry and my own fought most of the day. My 31^st tank brigade pushed north, attempting to break past the bottleneck to the southwest of Cheux but it was not to be. I played the majority of my turns with Center flank cards and activated at least 3 units a turn but did not get the combat results needed to sustain a confident advance. Patrick’s Germans pulled ahead on VP’s as my attack met his lines and luck was not with me. I even cashed in one of my Campaign Reserve Tokens to keep another Sherman unit ready to deploy onto the board. It did arrive towards the end of the game, engaging Panzers south of the Odon bridge but failed to wipe out fleeing German leftovers.

Reserve units use casualites from matching units to build to full strength and then they can deploy from the Reserve staging area, which is the Center and Right flank only.

 True-to-life, unfortunate Allied infantry assaults on Cheux and strong attacks by Patrick’s 12^th SS and 21^st Panzers blunted my Allied advance, with German Armor Overruns and Taking Ground a theme along my advance.

Patrick’s Germans swept up my fully committed and floundering infantry company, which happened in real life, forcing the actual soldiers to admit their situation, bed down overnight within sight of the river crossing and struggle to establish a fulcrum to drive across the river. Patrick, like German General Dollman in the flesh, played the field as a straight up defensive line and it worked.

We both agreed that I literally played all of my cards correctly and I attacked as well as I could but the rolls were not with me. I staged my cards to feed a center advance over the game, positioned units in center/flank hexes to deny flanks and generally took risks that were the right level of aggression and caution. 2 of my 4 attacking infantry units to the Southeast of Cheux assaulted the town all day and did not inflict any casualties at all. If that were not the case, then I would most likely have gained a better, swifter foothold that would allow me to contest North across the bridge, allowing an early game attack on the elite panzer unit guarding the bridge, maybe forcing casualties from flags as well as grenade and tank rolls with its back to the board edge. At very least, the medal track would be closer, which favors the Allies as they attack but punishes them if they stall. A Barrage card would have been really, really handy. The only card I sat on as insurance was a Counter Attack card, in case Pat played Barrage, Air Power or the dreaded Behind Enemy Lines.

Well played, cousin.

The board at game's end.

So, the Allies are down two games in this chapter, me having lost this game 2 VP’s to Patrick’s 6 VP’s.

Though this series is a best of 4, I have to win the next battle “Withdraw from Hill 112” by two VP’s. If I do not, the Axis win this chapter outright in three. I have one more Reserve token that I will cash in for a unit next game, it’s do-or-die! If I win “Withdraw from Hill 112” we end this chapter with “Hill 112” and then we move to the next Campaign Chapter, “The Breakout”.

Stay tuned for more Memoir '44! What a great game.

Pat, celebrating the win by holding up some brass fired from a real M1 Garand, proving to the world somehow that he won and I did not. It feels right.

Losing Loser

YOU COCKY COCK!!!

So I lost my Battlefleet Gothic game Wednesday night (12 vp’s to 7) and I lost my Memoir ’44 game Thursday night (5 medals to 3), the former being my first BFG game in about a year and the latter the start of the Normandy Campaign from the Memoir Campaign book.

The trend here is obviously about losing, not actually playing games two nights in a row, a different trend that is easily explained for the rarity it is: my whole family is on vacation without me. BFG is what it is but the Memoir loss is actually something like my 12th straight loss in a game that I’ve played regularly over the past few months.

It is easy to laugh off a Battlefleet victory that detonated like the reactor of my Carnage class cruiser, leaving only super-heated sadness and frozen chunks of hope burning up in the high atmosphere of my dreams.

But the Memoir’ loss cuts deep.

I’m so mad at the losing streak that I’ve started to ding the mechanics of the game I love, to growl about card distribution, random chance or even, God help me, the pathetic cry of the heartless gamer: I’m too stupid to play this game. Worst of all I thought, I now own every item of the game line except the breakthough map expansion. That’s a lot of loss on many levels, which equals a lot of regret, almost like realizing I didn't marry the girl of my dreams but I actually married a drag queen who carries a fast-wielding folding tanto and has both night terrors and narcolepsy. As ugly as that all is, I have to admit that it isn't working out and it isn't you baby, it's me.

So after the emotion has ebbed and the Maker’s Mark has been put away I sat and started looking at win/loss ratios, random chance and tactics to improve my game. Also, I reflected and realized that yes, my record is dismal. But many of those games I count have been teaching games and in effect I played myself through the majority of them (since many victories come down to who breaks a stalemate by making just one mistake.)

So this isn’t about making excuses about your play, your record or what the game owes me. This is about finding reasons for why my game went the way it did and what lessons the game taught me.

I’m still figuring that all out but the process is cathartic.

How do you handle losing streaks?

My Nurgle Daemonship noticed my Facebook status was changed to "single." Awkward!

Memoir '44: Breakout at Klin

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WWII's most famous Russian, videogame Gary Oldman.

Memoir '44: Breakout at Klin

Those that play Memoir ’44 are familiar with 2 things already about the Eastern Front expansion featured in this write up: Eastern Front is probably the best army expansion to date and many people have already reviewed how the army works (so I’ll avoid a run down, better supplied by better reviews like this one: http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11710.phtml

Instead, I’ll just share my impressions of how it went for me as a desperate Russian force in a holding action, trying to stem the tide of advancing 1st Panzer Division looking to break out from their faltered offensive against Moscow in early December, 1941 (aka, the first time I played with these new rules.)

My cousin Patrick played the Germans in this scenario. Pre-game I presented him with some brass actually fired from an M1 Garand. I thought he’d take it easy on me because of that, but no such luck.

Set Up: The interwebs seem to peg this scenario as an average 80% chance to win for the Germans. I agreed with that before I even played the scenario. See the mission here, page 12: http://cdn0.daysofwonder.com/memoir44/en/img/mm_eastern_en.pdf

The Eastern Front has an interesting mechanic meant to demonstrate the political influence on Rooskie forces in the field. For those versed in Memoir, you are used to the cards in your hand simply being played turn-to-turn. Not so with the Russians. Basically Russians have to decide which card to play one turn ahead, putting the selected card under a “Commissar” chip next to your hand, signifying the infinite wisdom and stubborn inflexibility of a paranoid, dysfunctional Russian military machine (read: inflexible and slow to adapt but win by attrition.)

A few exceptions to the harshness of Russian card rules aside, it did bring awesome depth to the play, I felt like I was a frustrated Russian officer at disadvantage, just not getting the support I needed as I marshal a fighting stop, and counting on a lot of luck for my men.

I suppose this is great for fluff players and frustrating for power players, if such a thing exists amongst Memoir players.

Russian Pre-Game Prediction and Tactics: Russian loss. Looking at the mission I figured it made the most sense to play left flank cards as priority from the start to abandon the vulnerable positions the 2 infantry units held North of Golyadi. The town itself gave two medals for German occupation in a 6 medal game, so why feed two unit medals into that inevitable attack, lead by elite German armor of all things. I could almost loose the game on that left flank (which is historically accurate) and that is pretty much what ended up happening in real life.

Assuming I could disarm the ticking West flank, I would then try to consolidate enough of my back line to absorb a German push down the center and a German flank to the Northeast of Nekrasino. I counted on mob tactics, pincer assaults. From there I would get a feel for the Russian Command Rules and also try to adapt to the German’s wealthier card play as best I could.

Game Highlights: Unfortunately for Russia, Patrick rolled with 6 command cards to my four, went first and early-turn trounced my Golyadi pickets almost immediately, not even giving me a chance to redeploy them to the woods in the South.

Ouch. 2 medals early game and the elite 1st Panzers sped into the Western outskirts of Golyadi.

To their credit, my infantry bled the Germans well in terms of the time it took to give up Russian medals (the second squad stuck to a man and ignored retreat flags, stubbornly.) But it didn’t look good.

CRACK. THUD. BOOM.

Still standing.

By turn 3 or so Patrick had 4 medals out of 6 by holding Golyadi and inflicting casualties.

I had played 2 or 3 hands with the Russian Command rules and already felt the stress of holding “good” cards for the predicted enemy movements and mulling when to get them under the Commissar chip to play next turn. In this scenario, Russians held 4 cards, which meant that card management flubs were extremely unforgiving.

With my one Air Power card essentially committed ahead of time (reducing its effectiveness when played too) and a Recon 1 card held as a wild card (see Russian Command Rules on pg. 3 of the PDF) that left 2 cards to consider and have as options. Through the game I held mostly left flank cards which didn’t do me much good after Patrick wrapped up Golyadi. I also found I didn’t have much time to “burn” useless cards from my deck on a weak play but I may have to try that in the future more. I did have one particularly stubbon squad of infantry in trenches hold off combat engineers (who ignore dice modifiers for terrain.)

This guy right here... this is the guy

Mid-to-End Game: I was able to play the Counter Attack card once which helped ultimately get a medal and my Air Power card did thin his artillery and reserve tank units a bit but the Commissar chip delayed the opportunity for a strong Allied air attack (I almost never get to roll two dice in a section!) A German thrust down the center sealed the deal for Patrick. At one point the Luftwaffe sent Stukas against the Westernmost T-34’s, forcing them to retreat into the frozen river near Nekrasino and then loose a tank to the thin ice.

Conclusion: 7 turns, 6 Germans medals, 2 for the Russians.

I love this expansion so far. I need more games under my belt to internalize how the average Russian card play will be influenced by the Russian Command Rules. This mission seems a German certainty (Germainty?) from the start but that’s why the Russian flavor imbued in the rules works so well… you like playing the missions despite the plodding feeling the army has, or at least, I did.

You may be Great Partriots or from The Fatherland but ya'll made in China, beyotches.