On Tuesday night, we played the Surprise Attack scenario for Wizard Kings from Chris Farrell’s Wizard Kings site. I played Undead attacking Elven defenders.

We had not played Wizard Kings for months, so were very rusty with the rules and the game went slowly, but we enjoyed ourselves a lot. Every time I play Wizard Kings, I appreciate it more. The game mechanics are very solid. Some might dislike the dice rolling, but I find it a refreshing change after playing so many €uro games. Apart from the skilful manoeuvring you have to do to win a battle, I like how you have to think constantly about reinforcements from captured cities. I also enjoy how you are forced to adopt a strategy and stick to it.

This excellently designed and tested scenario requires the attacker to choose between throwing himself into the easily reinforced but more defended southern map or attacking the softer but more remote southern map. He has to take full advantage of his early numerical superiority and concentrated forces, or he is doomed – as I was. I learnt a lot about wargame tactics in this game and definitely want to play it again. I do not think I will play the comparatively very limited basic scenario of Wizard Kings again. It is such a pity Columbia did not include more scenarios in the basic rules.

I have added the Geek Journal RSS feed to my blogroll.

It’s suprising how much Geek Journals have exploded in activity in the last month or two. I put it down to two factors:

1. Geek Journal updates appearing on the Geek front page.
2. Spielfrieks becoming more difficult to join due its accidentally conversion to a private Yahoo Group.

Content on the Geek Journals is patchy. Lots of newbies and fools, but there are a few interesting posts. I hope RSS feeds for individual Geek Journals are introduced at some point, so I can focus on the most interesting writers.

I finished a game of Puerto Rico PBW last week. I really like the PBW interface. It’s not the prettiest or best organised, but it works very well. Puerto Rico certainly plays well PBW. Shipping goods can drag, but otherwise it is very good.

With the aid of the The Large Warehouse of Puerto Rico Knowledge and the factory/harbour/wharf strategy I managed to win. As one of my opponents had played a few games successfully and as it was a full five player game, I am now the top ranked Puerto Rico PBW player on the planet! It is definitely time to quit while I am ahead. I cannot see myself repeating that trick.