Wargame Night 03-12

On March 10th Ross, Bob, Tim, Wayne, and myself got together for a Settlers Cataan: Knights and Cities 5-6 Player Expansion game. This particular Settler's map is pretty much one huge island and as it was randomly constructed the island was divided in the upper north of the map by two desert hexes side by side. Amazingly, no one placed their opening settlements in that part of the board and thus we were all concentrated in the relative center of the map.

As a big believer in the number "5", I convinced Tim to place a settlement on a "5" hex and foolishly he agreed! This prompted Tim to record every roll we were to make in the game to test whether or not certain numbers are indeed more likely to be rolled over others. Of course, I still placed my city and settlement on an "8" and "5" hex respectively to ensure maximum coverage.

After everyone placed their settlements it became evident that the cluster of buildings was centered along the middle of the island leaving only the outside coastline available for future development. Of course, the northern most desert area was also open to colonization.

There was a rule clarification by Bob in which if a city builds a wall and in the likely event the barbarians show up to pillage the island of Cataan then the wall itself does not protect your city. The city is still reduced to a settlement and the wall piece removed from the map board. So the ONLY advantage to building a wall for your city is to be able to hold 2 additional resource cards in your hand before pirates (will a roll of a 7) take half your deck if you hold more than 7 resource cards. Each wall built under each city thus increases the number of cards held in your hand by 2 for a grand total 13 cards before pirates rip you off. Still a good deal however, not as protective of the city as I would like! Change of rules anyone?

Well, as the game got going I kept scoring pretty well with my "5-8" combo and was able to build enough roads to claim the longest road. In all fairness, Bob did claim the longest-road mantle for awhile before I claimed it from him on a permanent basis for the duration of the game. Bob unfortunately was in the thick of things by being sandwiched between Tim and Wayne, thus boxing himself in and unable to truly breakout and claim more land with which to build additional cities.

Wayne made good by hiring the most powerful knight on the board and fending off the barbarians to claim "Defender Of Cataan" twice for 2 easy victory points. Bob unfortunately lost a city to barbarian pillaging as I believe Ross did as well. In addition, Wayne would have played additional "progress" cards however, all of us with the exception of Bob, labored under the delusion that we could only play one progress card at a time (not my fault). Actually, according to the official rules, we can play as many progress cards as we like! I think the mix-up occurred when I was reading the regular Settlers Of Cataan rule when I read outloud that only one "development" card could be played which is true if we were playing the original game. As it was, we were playing Cities & Knights and thus I was blamed for this misunderstanding. It really was Bob's responsibility since it was he who was in charge of keeping us informed, if you ask me (ha ha). At any rate, I don't think we truly missed out on any really big opportunities to screw over our fellow Cataan players with unsavory and detrimental progress cards as we discovered this anomaly midway through the game.

In the meantime, Ross as the Chicago-street agitator that he is, insisted on playing progress cards that tended to tax his neighbors by siphoning off resource cards from each player much to our collective chagrin especially for Bob since apparently he suffered the most by Ross's excesses. Tim on the other hand kept finding himself in economic dry spots as he kept on missing out on rolls that would have benefited him had he not listened to me earlier and placed his settlement on a different number.

As the game continued I found myself in the lead however, as we neared the end of the game I suddenly found myself in a dry spell as well and was coming up short on resource and commodity cards. On top of this, Bob insisted on placing the robber on my "8" hex thus for nearly 3 to 4 times was deprived of resource and commodity cards from that hex. Why he didn't try to screw Ross with the robber I'll never know but my hide has been thoroughly chapped, I must say. Finally, Tim surreptitiously moved into the lead and suddenly he won the game with 13 total points. I came in second with 10. Wayne got 8 points with Ross at 6. I believe Bob got 5 points for last place.

Everyone played tenaciously as it went longer than I thought it would. Great job everyone! As far as the rolls recorded by Tim it was realized that the number "7" and "8" came up the most each being rolled 12 times. The "6" was rolled 9 times and amazingly the "5" was only rolled 7 times. In other games, I swear to you, it comes up more often than it did this last game. A total of 67 rolls were made before end of game. Surprisingly, the "12" and "11" were each rolled 4 times which everyone has agreed would have to be considered an outlier.

With the 5-6 player expansion, I suspect we'll be seeing this game more often. See ya next month.

Wargame Night 02-12

On February 11th, Eric, Bob, Tim, Ross and myself got together for a Twilight Imperium Shattered Empire extravaganza! The following alien races were randomly drawn:

Bruce- Embers of Muaat
Ross- Brotherhood of Yin
Eric- Emirates of Hacan
Tim- Yassiril Tribes
Bob- The Mentak Coalition

We played the 5 player game in which players who are situated in the 1, 4 and 5 spots on the board are allocated a certain number of resources to compensate, allegedly, for the poor geographical location they find themselves in. For player number 5, he gets 6 trade goods to start which fell to Eric. Players 1 and 4 each got 4 trade goods which fell to Ross and Tim. Bob and I were in prime locations and did not receive any trade goods. We left out domain counters again but included the notorious wormhole nexus and leaders for each alien race. 

Ross was a little late getting to game night so we set up his part of the board for him by "committee". And I have to say the committee did a wonderful job in selecting the proper locations for each of his planet hexes.  We also used the new Shattered Empire agenda cards which hide the public objectives from view until you choose the #8 Bureaucracy Agenda card and after looking at two of the objectives then reveal the one that best suits your interests, thus claiming a victory point, if you can, for that public agenda from the moment it is revealed rather than waiting until the status phase to claim a victory point.

Both Bob and I were in a planet rich zone, a "Goldilocks" zone if you will, with which to reap the bounty of our good fortune. Interestingly enough, Mecatol Rex, the old regnal planet that once ruled the entire known galaxy, was ringed on 3 sides by asteroids, nebula and supernova. Of course, with 3 "SPLOCs" Space Lanes Of Communication going into MR, none of us would have any trouble taking this venerable but important planet.

As the Embers of Muaat, I get the fine distinction of being the player no one wants to be close to and no it has nothing to do with how hot I am! I get start to the game with a War Sun which is the most powerful capital ship in existence. It also is very difficult to develop and takes time and money that must be spent in order to lay the keel of this monstrosity of a warship. The Embers get it from the start and gosh it is such a good feeling. However, the Embers don't start off with any carriers and must therefore build those to transport troops and other material and this causes unnecessary delays as I came to find out later.

As the game got going we all settled in for the long haul of planet invasion and development. As a result, no one chose the #8 Bureaucracy Card that reveals public objective cards with which to gain valuable and necessary victory points. As such we found ourselves with very little to show, at least in victory points, after a couple of hours. I know, very painful. Even though I had a War Sun, I was just unable to capitalize on its strengths. Sadly, Tim was able to sneak into Mecatol Rex and seize it with nary a protest from the rest of the alien clans.

Again, only one public objective could be seen (blockade another players space dock) and thus we could not know what Tim's intentions were on MR, other than to fulfill a Secret Objective, but alas, no one including myself challenged Tim to Mecatol. I did have an opportunity to attack with my War Sun on Mecatol with 4 fighters assigned to "WS1" however, my secret objective did not include MR and since I was way behind in points I could score 1 victory point by attacking Bob's space dock which was dangerously exposed to my War Sun. Thus, I chose the latter and did indeed gain one victory point. However, that left Tim unmolested. Of course, Tim beefed up Mecatol in the meantime and laid space mines in the Mecatol system for good measure.

Well, as the game progressed Tim indeed did claim his secret objective by occupying MR with 8 capitol ships plus a space dock (I believe) and scored his precious 2 victory points. On top of that, for awhile the Bureaucracy card was not chosen and thus chits were placed on it. As you know, once that card is picked up and there are chits sitting on it then the number of chits equals the number of public objective cards to be revealed in addition to the one that is revealed by the player to the rest of us. Alas, wouldn't you know it, three public objective cards dealt with Mecatol Rex and Tim was able to immediately score 3 additional victory points on top of the 2 points he received for his secret objective. There was much nashing of teeth by the other alien races when this was revealed because there simply was no way for the rest of us to secure Mecatol without a major military conflagration that certainly would be costly if not prohibitive in the short amount of time that was then available. On top of that, Tim chose the Diplomacy card which insured that Mecatol would not be invaded that turn. The end was nigh and by hook and by crook, Tim secured 1st place. Is this the time where I say "when good men do nothing evil triumphs"?

The final score was:

Tim - 7 points (1st)
Ross - 5 points (2nd)
Bob - 3 points (3rd)
Eric - 1 points (4th)
Bruce- 1 points (4th)

Long Live Mecatol Rex!

Wargame Night 01-2012

On January 14th, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Ross and myself got together for a Risk:Godstorm game. After passing the territory cards out to everyone we slowly placed our armies down on the board three men at a time. As the army placement progressed, Tim ended up forming in Asia Minor with the bulk of his army. Bob ended up in Atlantis. Ross congealed in Europa. Wayne took up residence in Hykania north of Asia minor. I ended up in Africa. Germania lay open and virgin for either Bob, Ross or myself to take at will.

I went ahead and pretty much gobbled up all of Africa on epoch-1 hoping to be able to gain 3 additional faith tokens and armies at the beginning of the next epoch. However, Tim insisted on breaking my continent thus depriving me of my African hoplites. Tim, however, consolidated Asia minor and was poised to enter Hyperia to the north. Wayne took all of Hykania to himself although it was ringed with two plague territories that blocked invasion from Asia Minor and from Germania. Ross decided to invest in the much belabored Europa. It is the most difficult continent to conquer but certainly well worth the additional continental points and faith tokens totalling seven altogether. However, that would also depend on others not breaking his continent. Of course, Ross was never quite able to consolidate Europe.

As noted earlier, Germania as a whole lay ripe for the picking however, Tim tried to give it a go by initially placing about 9 men on the continent so as to perhaps finagle in without the rest of us knowing. Bob, however, had other plans. He swept all before him and ended up owning the entire locale without so much as a whimper or whine from Tim, Ross or myself. I would have marched in from Africa like the great Hannibal of Carthage but unfortunately all of Spain was a plague land! As you know, invading a plague land casts your gods out of the game and automatically kills up to half of your invading army. Thus, the losses would have too great and as result Bob consolidated Germania to himself.

Ross in the meantime was trying to wrap up Europe. And nearly came close were it not for the stubborn resistance of Tim's Norsemen sitting in Anatolia and the haranguing Babylonians of Wayne raiding into Dacia and Thrace. Eventually, Ross was pushed back onto the Italian peninsula where he sat licking his wounds. Of course, he was just a hop, skip and jump away from Carthage in Africa and had the troops to invade at the right time. Naturally, Ross summoned the death god and played a rather nasty death card which when played would destroy any army left by itself in a territory and thus the territory would be lost by the player who owned them. The continent would be randomly chosen (by a throw of the dice) and fortunately for me and everyone else, Bob was the unlucky recipient of Ross's wrath. Germania thus was struck down and Bob nearly lost half his provinces hence leaving him widely exposed to another invader. This is where I come in!

Thus, the temptation was just too great to allow Bob to go unmolested. I used a War card to remove a plague land of my choice from the map and naturally, I would remove it from Spain. My troops poured through led by my valiant gods...and I got as far as France! Which is to say I only moved two spaces before I was spent. I tried to move into England but was so completely wiped out by lousy rolling all I could do is remain holed up in Gaul. Then Ross decided to join in the great crusade and follow my invasion with his own through Carthage and he too ended up in Spain and wanted to break Bob's continent in Atlantis which he was able to do but just barely. Overall, Bob sustained 3 separate attacks on Germania and was able somehow to fend them off pretty successfully.

Wayne came very close to being crushed completely as he ended up being sandwiched between a powerful army of Bob in Germania and Tim's forces in Hykania. But alas, neither Bob nor Tim moved against Wayne and thus he was able to survive on the remnant territories in Hykania and Europa. Tim was pretty much boxed in and ended up trading territories with me in Egypt and Nubia over and over again throughout the entire game. As a result, see-sawed between battling on the outer fringes of Africa and Hykania and gaining nothing. However, he was able to hold his continent.

By epoch-5, the end was in sight and Bob was able to secure 1st place by retaking Germania and Atlantis. Tim came in second, with Wayne in a distant third. Ross ended up fourth and sadly, I had nothing to show for and ended up fifth. Overall, I thought it was another great game with lots of twists and turns.

The Kriegspiel Cup

I'm very excited to announce that this year, in 2012, wargame night will shift into high gear with a wargame tournament! The object of the tournament is to be the most consistent winner each month and at the end of the year the person with the lowest score will win the magnificent and highly sought after Kriegspiel Cup. The fortunate person will keep the prestigious Kriegspiel Cup in his domicile for an entire year and shall be known as the Kriegspiel Champion for 2012.

The tournament will begin anew in 2013 and at the end of that year the points will be tallied once more and the cup may or may not pass to another champion who will then take possession of it and keep it for one year in his home (hopefully on top of the fireplace mantel for all to see). It's quite possible but highly unlikely that a single person will be Kriegspiel Champion for more than one year in a row. But you never know.


Tournament points are awarded as follows in each game for each month:

First Place - 1 pt
Second Place - 2 pts
Third Place -  3 pts
Fourth Place - 4 pts
Fifth Place - 5 pts
Sixth Place - 6 pts
Seventh Place - 7pts
Eighth Place - 8pts

AWOK - 10 pts - "Absent With-Out Kriegspiel" - Best to show up and lose in an 8 player game than not show up at all and be "awarded" 10 points for being a no-show for wargame night.

So the perfect score is 12 points - First place each month for 12 months running. If at the end of the year there is a tie then a special wargame night will be held to determine who will be 2012's Kriegspiel Champion. There can only be one winner so time to put on your game face!

Let the tournament begin!

Wargame Night 11-11

Once again, Bob, Tim, Wayne, Denny and myself played Twilight Imperium. We were expecting Ross but unfortunately he was a no show. At any rate, when were setting up the map I decided to place an artifact worth one victory point in the wormhole nexus on the planet of Malice. Because of that one decision, nearly the entire universe came crashing down on the Wormhole Nexus and after the smoke had settled it was Wayne who was last man standing. In fact, I believe it was one of the most, if not the most, decisive win made by a TI3 player since we have playing Twilight and kudos should go out to Wayne for a magnificent win. Bob came in a distant second and the rest of us huddled around third place.

We'll get you next time Wayne!

Wargame Night 10-11

Not much to report but that we did play Twilight Imperium and it was a very close game between Bob and Tim. The rest of us, myself, Eric and Wayne battled for third, if I recall. But Tim somehow nudged Bob out of first place and won the game.

We'll get you next time Tim!

Wargame Night 09-11

On September 10th, Bob, Tim, Eric and myself got together for a rousing game of Settlers: Cities and Knights.

I'll cut to the chase.

I lost. Really bad. This was the worst game I've ever played.

Tim - 13pts
Bob - 12 pts
Eric - 11 pts
Bruce - 4 stinking points!!!!

Well, as we were deciding to place our settlements on the map, Bob came up with a brilliant plan that I should place my both of my settlements close to each other and on a port that traded 2 rocks for anything I wanted. It sounded like a great plan at the time. D'oh! It turned out that I was stuck in a depression of miserable rolling such that I went almost without commodities for the entire game. Pathetic!

That's pretty much it.