November update
Some of the other stuff I’ve been up to over the last few weeks:
Wizard Kings
We played dwarves and orcs on the Revolt scenario from Chris Farrell’s website using the v1.6 rules which I think was a mistake. I have not analysed it, but this ruleset seems to reduce the punch of attackers, making it impossible for the convicts to make headway in this scenario, as there is so little room on a single map. I will stick to v1.5 in future, especially on Chris’ maps, which are the only way I want to play the game anyway.
Santiago
This went down very well with the full complement of five players. I am not entirely sure it is a classic, as there are so many finely tuned auction games out there. Time will tell, but it is certainly very good.
San Juan
Still excellent. An inexperienced gamer among us struggled with the concepts quite a bit. I can see how it would be disconcerting for a newbie.
Age of Steam France Expansion
John Bohrer recently recommended this as a gentle introductory map, as you cannot go bust, but I disagree. With four players things still managed to get pretty cutthroat in a rush to connect Paris with the south, and one guy would have gone bust with the regular rules. Rather than being freed to go home, he was sentenced to another 45 minutes of waiting around for the game to end. It is a tough choice. Some people might prefer to be eliminated and save time, but others would prefer to stay in the game anyway.
Target: Arnhem
I have now played this three times, and enjoyed it very much every time. The Allies have not won with a regular historical setup and I am starting to think it would be very difficult for that to happen. Next time I play the allies I will try putting two sets of paras north of the Rhine and one next to Nijmegen. XXX Corps will struggle more in the early game, but at least the paras will have a chance of holding out until they can be relieved. Getting over the final bridge is just too hard without a bridgehead.
I really need to find another game at this level, as I now have a very pleasant partner for light wargames. The main problem is keeping the duration down as T:A takes us 3 hours and that is the absolute limit for us right now. Any suggestions? Here are my current thoughts:
The last two are too long and are only in because they are in Chris’ Introductory Wargame List and because my new wargaming partner is Dutch.
Update
I should have emphasised that we are ideally after a Western Front WWII game, probably Battle of the Bulge or D-Day.
Autumn Mist might be a contender, but it does not have a single rating at the Geek.
I think Victory at Waterloo, by Attactix, is also worth a look. I’d go with Columbia’s Napoleon over RitD, but that’s just me. We The People, certainly, if the subject is of interest. Of these, VaW is the lighter/shorter hex-and-counter wargame.
I also want to try One Page Bulge again. I recently re-read the rules, was a little underwhelmed, but remember enjoying my one play of it. The lack of explicit arty units bugged me.
Oh, and though I’ll take some heat for it, I still think A&A:D-Day is a very fun wargame. There’s another Attactix hex-and-counter light wargame on the same subject, if that’s what you’d prefer.
Gettysburg ‘88 is another simple favorite. The 2 and especially 1-day scenarios are easily playable in 3 hours, but the first time through the entire battle will bust that limit by an hour or something.
-Mark
Mark Johnson
2 Dec 05 at 21:42
Welcome Mark.
After playing T:A last night I looked up your podcast on wargaming href=”http://boardgamestogo.com/2005/09/bgtg-37-september-25-2005-marks.html” rel=”nofollow”>podcast on wargaming href=”http://boardgamestogo.com/2005/09/bgtg-37-september-25-2005-marks.html” rel=”nofollow”>http://boardgamestogo.com/2005/09/bgtg-37-september-25-2005-marks.html. Your shownotes have a lot of recommendations for quick wargames that sound ideal. Of the ones that looked interesting, only Napoleon at Waterloo is available on eBay.
I should have said as well that my friend is a big fan of WWII. Napoleonics or the American Civil War don’t really do it for him (or me).
I’ll still check your other recommendations over though.
Iain
2 Dec 05 at 22:28
Regarding AoS; I’ve not had the pleasure of the France map yet, and this will probably have to wait until next year. Even playing the regular map, or indeed any map at all, we have one player who has gone near-bankrupt a few times (with the one exception when he actually did go bankrupt). There are a number of house-rules you can use to keep such a player in the game.
But your point about making a mistake near the beginning and not being able to grasp back a chance of victory may be quite close to the truth. I have elsewhere denied a player is truly out of the game when they make a mistake near the start, but it does depend on both that player and who he is playing with. My friend always ends up last (or near-last when he does well) after making initial mistakes. Whether he feels he is just marking time for ninety minutes I am unsure; but if he is I know how he feels after playing Caylus recently. That’s perhaps the only direct comparison I can make between these two almost completely different games. Having said that, I still don’t see AoS being as unforgiving as Caylus for an early mistake.
Elimination or not in such circumstances is a tough choice, after Caylus I have to agree. On the other hand, I suppose this also applies to most games – it just seems less apparent in those.
fellonmyhead
5 Dec 05 at 12:24
You’re right. It’s an absolutely vicious game. There’s always someone getting a beating. Maybe that’s party of the reason why we love it? There’s always a good chance it’s going to be you, so that keeps you sharp. I think I forgive AoS for it because it is significantly shorter. Having said that, I got slaughtered in my first game of AoS, disliked it and now it’s one of my only perfect 10s, so I’m just being shallow…
Iain
5 Dec 05 at 14:29