Monday, September 02, 2013
Commands & Colors: Ancients Expansion Pack #1: Greece & Eastern Kingdoms
Over five years ago I wrote about the game Commands and Colors: Ancients. The next game on my random walk through my collection is the first expansion pack, Greece and Eastern Kingdoms. This game doesn't come with any new rules (just some clarifications on the original rulebook), or any new terrain tiles, or command cards. What it does come with is two new armies (Greeks and "Eastern" forces, which usually means 'Persians')., and 21 new scenarios. The new scenarios are the real meat of this expansion pack, as the base game only had 10 scenarios. Thus, buying just this one expansion pack more than triples the published scenarios for your game. As you can probably guess from the title, the battles in this set involve either Greeks or "Eastern" forces, and usually both. Some of the scenarios do make use of blocks from the base game, but you can really use whatever block sets you want, as long as you have enough blocks of each unit type. Everything that I wrote about the base game still applies to this expansion, you just have a lot more scenarios to try with this expansion pack. If you like the game, it is really worth it to get the expansion for the extra scenarios.
Critical IF
As you may or may not be aware, I used to curate a website dealing with gamebooks, those books that were all the rage for a few years in the 1980s, where the reader helped direct the flow of the story by making choices for the protagonist. Things were dark on that front for a 16 years or so but recently more and more of those books are making comebacks, often in digital editions (iPad apps, eBook files, etc.). Some of the old guard of gamebooks are also getting back into the swing of things, re-releasing a number of their old titles for a new age. Dave Morris, of Golden Dragon and Virtual Reality fame, has started a venture called Critical IF that is reprinting many of these old books. He was nice enough to send me a PDF version of the book Heart of Ice, so don't be surprised if I write a review of it in the not too distant future.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Mr. Madison's War
Long time no write. That is primarily due to how long it took me to actually play the next random game from my collection, Mr. Madison's War. This is a Card Drive Game (CDG) published in 2012 by GMT Games, which purports to cover the War of 1812. Back in 2012 I had the opportunity to play a couple games of Amateurs to Arms, a different CDG of the War of 1812, and it was very interesting to me to see the differences in the games. I will be comparing the two a bit at the end of this writeup.
If you have experience with gaming other wars, the War of 1812 is quite strange. There are a few reasons for this, but for game purposes there are two primary reasons. First, the entire front of the war in Canada IS the British supply lines. If the US forces capture any Canadian territory, usually everything further West has their supply cut off. Second, the US declares war before it is even ready to fight, which is quite bizarre (and funny/sad to read about how it happened in real life). The strangeness of the start of the war is handled nicely through the way that the deck of cards is set up. First, each year of the war has its own deck of cards, to keep historical events happening at least within a few months of when they actually did. For the year 1812, the Declaration of War card is randomly shuffled into the top part of the deck, so that it will show up during the first turn, but nobody knows when. Individual cards are dealt to the players in turn order, and they can either use them to move forces around (but not attack) or hold them, until war is declared. At that point the rest of the cards for the turn are dealt and play proceeds as normal.
There is no dallying in this game, as there are a total of nine game turns, three of which are "winter" turns where almost nothing happens (players can hold a maximum of two "winter event" cards at the end of the autumn turn every year). Thus, you only really have six turns to move forces and engage in combat to take enemy terrain and score victory points. Unfortunately, since this is a CDG, you are limited in how many forces you can use each turn. Thus, the players have to have specific strategies and use their cards properly to execute their strategies successfully. The fact that there are only nine turns, and three of those are brief, means that this game can be played relatively quickly. The designer says that it can be played within four hours, and if both players are experienced with the rules I believe it.
The games does have a good historical feel. All units, whether land units or naval ships, are all named based on the historical Order of Battle. Real historical events, like the British burning of the District of Columbia, are handled through Event cards, many of which directly score victory points. This provides some historical flavor, while not bogging down game play too much.
So how does this game compare to Amateurs to Arms (ATA)? Mr. Madison's War (MMW) is focused strictly on the Canadian front, while in ATA there is also the Eastern sea board and British attacks thereupon, as well as battles against Indian forces in the Southern US as well as west and south of Detroit. Basically, ATA tries to cover the entire geographic scope of the war, where MMW focuses on Canada and the bordering US areas. ATA is also a more involved game, with more turns and more going on. This makes it a deeper strategic game, but also one that takes longer (I've played ATA for over 8 hours at a sitting and not finished it). On the whole, I think I prefer MMW from the sole standpoint of it being a simpler game that is shorter to play. I like ATA, and will happily play someone else's copy if I have the time, but I don't think I need it as long as I have MMW, which nicely fills the "War of 1812" slot in my collection.
If you have experience with gaming other wars, the War of 1812 is quite strange. There are a few reasons for this, but for game purposes there are two primary reasons. First, the entire front of the war in Canada IS the British supply lines. If the US forces capture any Canadian territory, usually everything further West has their supply cut off. Second, the US declares war before it is even ready to fight, which is quite bizarre (and funny/sad to read about how it happened in real life). The strangeness of the start of the war is handled nicely through the way that the deck of cards is set up. First, each year of the war has its own deck of cards, to keep historical events happening at least within a few months of when they actually did. For the year 1812, the Declaration of War card is randomly shuffled into the top part of the deck, so that it will show up during the first turn, but nobody knows when. Individual cards are dealt to the players in turn order, and they can either use them to move forces around (but not attack) or hold them, until war is declared. At that point the rest of the cards for the turn are dealt and play proceeds as normal.
There is no dallying in this game, as there are a total of nine game turns, three of which are "winter" turns where almost nothing happens (players can hold a maximum of two "winter event" cards at the end of the autumn turn every year). Thus, you only really have six turns to move forces and engage in combat to take enemy terrain and score victory points. Unfortunately, since this is a CDG, you are limited in how many forces you can use each turn. Thus, the players have to have specific strategies and use their cards properly to execute their strategies successfully. The fact that there are only nine turns, and three of those are brief, means that this game can be played relatively quickly. The designer says that it can be played within four hours, and if both players are experienced with the rules I believe it.
The games does have a good historical feel. All units, whether land units or naval ships, are all named based on the historical Order of Battle. Real historical events, like the British burning of the District of Columbia, are handled through Event cards, many of which directly score victory points. This provides some historical flavor, while not bogging down game play too much.
So how does this game compare to Amateurs to Arms (ATA)? Mr. Madison's War (MMW) is focused strictly on the Canadian front, while in ATA there is also the Eastern sea board and British attacks thereupon, as well as battles against Indian forces in the Southern US as well as west and south of Detroit. Basically, ATA tries to cover the entire geographic scope of the war, where MMW focuses on Canada and the bordering US areas. ATA is also a more involved game, with more turns and more going on. This makes it a deeper strategic game, but also one that takes longer (I've played ATA for over 8 hours at a sitting and not finished it). On the whole, I think I prefer MMW from the sole standpoint of it being a simpler game that is shorter to play. I like ATA, and will happily play someone else's copy if I have the time, but I don't think I need it as long as I have MMW, which nicely fills the "War of 1812" slot in my collection.
Saturday, July 06, 2013
Mid-year update on new year's resolutions
At the beginning of the year I wanted to read 20 books in the coming year, get back to playing my guitar, and be more intentional with how I spend my free time to help meet the above goals. So how am I doing?
1. I am happy to say that I have finished 11 books so far this year, putting me basically right on pace to complete 20 by the end of the year.
2. I have been playing my guitar more, and have got most of my skill back. As of this writing it has been over a week since I played, but I had an emergency operation seven days ago, so I'm totally giving myself an out with that.
3. Not so great on the use of free time. Some days I am pretty good with getting done what should get done, and other days I play Football Manager on my computer most of the day and get hardly anything else done. That game is so addicting it is ridiculous.
1. I am happy to say that I have finished 11 books so far this year, putting me basically right on pace to complete 20 by the end of the year.
2. I have been playing my guitar more, and have got most of my skill back. As of this writing it has been over a week since I played, but I had an emergency operation seven days ago, so I'm totally giving myself an out with that.
3. Not so great on the use of free time. Some days I am pretty good with getting done what should get done, and other days I play Football Manager on my computer most of the day and get hardly anything else done. That game is so addicting it is ridiculous.
Hot Spot
The next random game from my collection is another MicroGame from Metagaming, Hot Spot. This game is a sci-fi wargame with the unique feature that the game map represents molten lava, and the only way to safely move your soldiers, tanks, and hovercraft around is to keep them on "crustals" (for the defender) or "attack platforms" (for the attacker). These can safely move around the map, kind of. At the beginning of the game the defender gets 18 hexes worth of crustals (they come in different sizes, and you can pick what you want), along with some infantry and hovercraft to put on them, along with the central crustal on the map that never moves. The attackers get infantry, tanks, and engineers, and five attack platforms to put them on.
The crustals have restricted movement rules, and they and the attack platforms are not invincible. In fact, if crustals and/or attack platforms move next to each other they have a 1-in-6 chance of taking damage. If a crustal or attack platform takes too much damage, it breaks up and sinks into the lava, along with all units on it. However, to attack the enemy you have to move next to whatever they are on, so there is lot of banging going on. Another interesting feature is the fact that all crustals are under the defender's control until an attacking engineer unit takes control. This means that even if the attackers destroy all defending units on a crustal, the crustal could totally be moving all over the place and they have no control over it until their engineer takes it over, which is a 1-in-3 chance per engineer.
The combat system is mostly standard, with the usual Combat Results Table used in games during the '70s and '80s, however it is impossible for the attacker to ever take damage, even when outnumbered. So, you should always attack, no matter what, because you always have a minor chance of doing damage to the other side's infantry.
This game is more enjoyable than some of the Metagaming games I have played over the years, but it really has to rely on its one unique rules feature for its enjoyment. Once players have played the game a few times, they will likely run out of interest in this little title.
The crustals have restricted movement rules, and they and the attack platforms are not invincible. In fact, if crustals and/or attack platforms move next to each other they have a 1-in-6 chance of taking damage. If a crustal or attack platform takes too much damage, it breaks up and sinks into the lava, along with all units on it. However, to attack the enemy you have to move next to whatever they are on, so there is lot of banging going on. Another interesting feature is the fact that all crustals are under the defender's control until an attacking engineer unit takes control. This means that even if the attackers destroy all defending units on a crustal, the crustal could totally be moving all over the place and they have no control over it until their engineer takes it over, which is a 1-in-3 chance per engineer.
The combat system is mostly standard, with the usual Combat Results Table used in games during the '70s and '80s, however it is impossible for the attacker to ever take damage, even when outnumbered. So, you should always attack, no matter what, because you always have a minor chance of doing damage to the other side's infantry.
This game is more enjoyable than some of the Metagaming games I have played over the years, but it really has to rely on its one unique rules feature for its enjoyment. Once players have played the game a few times, they will likely run out of interest in this little title.
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