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A Gaming Life
Combat Commander Tips for Beginners
Those of you who have spent any time following this blog (not just reading a post or two here and there) know that Combat Commander (from GMT Games) is one of my favourite games out there.
I’m even part of a monthly ladder tournament where we get to play once a month, and many people are open to pick-up games here and there.
This means that I’ve played Combat Commander: Europe a total of 56 times and Combat Commander: Pacific a total of 15 times.
So I do know a little bit about the game, but nowhere near as much as a lot of my friends.
While I don’t think I can really write an overall strategy guide, I can suggest some helpful tips for beginners to keep in mind as they are getting their feet wet in this marvelous tactical wargame system.
I’m not going to go into all the rules and how everything works.
If you’re not sure of that, there’s a rulebook as well as a number of video playthroughs that will teach the game.
I’m going to assume you know the basics, things like how you “roll dice”, how you play cards, how many cards you can play on your turn, what a Sniper or Event trigger is, how the game ends, that sort of thing.
Instead, once you have those down, here are some tips to take you to the next level.
Tier 2, you might say.
All of my pictures are going to be from the VASSAL module for the game, which I have used literally every month since July 2021.
Also, most pictures are staged just to illustrate my point.
They are mostly not from games I’ve played and thus some of the setup may not be optimum to actually win the game.
Also, if you want to see my good friend Zilla Blitz and I talk about these in a video, why not do that too!
With that, let’s begin.
Read MoreSkipping Through the Moors – Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor Review
It’s always interesting when good games are reimplemented.
Will the new one keep the same quality or charm as the previous game?
Will it make it better?
Is it being designed to correct mistakes from the original?
You get that with games like Dune Imperium and Dune Imperium: Uprising, which I can’t really comment on as I’ve only played Uprising once.
I’m a huge fan of the original Forest Shuffle, though it did have its problems with dominant strategies, such as wolves and deer.
The two expansions helped mitigate that immensely, but then Lookout Games came out with a new version of the base game: Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor.
Dartmoor was designed by Kosch with artwork by Toni Llobet and Judit Piella and was published in 2025.
There’s even an expansion coming out!
And yet another new implementation.
But we’re talking about Dartmoor here, and I have to say that they have achieved a solid result with it.
I’m going to try to avoid making this review nothing but comparisons to the original game, but some of that is definitely going to creep in here because for this iteration they apparently looked at the original game (without expansions) and said “yeah, let’s avoid this” regarding a number of different things.
Read MoreI’m Not Talking to You – Games Where You Can’t Communicate
Recently I was watching a boardgame Youtube video about the creator’s top 10 things that they don’t like in games (sorry, I don’t remember who it was or I would link to them).
One of these “things he avoids” was “limited communication in games.”
That got me to thinking about a lot of things. Mostly that I haven’t done a true opinion piece in a while!
But also just what is the limited communication mechanism and whether or not it is good for cooperative games (because it doesn’t come into play in competitive games)?
Cooperative games have a long and storied history of both being games where you can introduce non-gamers to the genre because you can help them out, as well as having the “alpha gamer” who takes control and dictates everybody’s move.
If you’re going to be that type of player, why not just play multi-handed solo?
In recent years, a new mechanism for cooperative games has come out that solves that problem, though that might not have been the intent of it.
What I’m talking about is the idea that you can’t communicate with your fellow players, either in total or about certain things.
In a lot of cooperative games, everything’s out in the open (like Pandemic) and it’s very easy to have one person make all of the suggestions and everybody go along with it.
Nowadays, many cooperative games have secret information, usually a hand of cards that you can’t communicate with your fellow players what you have.
You can’t say “I have a yellow 2, so let me play there.”
This kind of eliminates the “alpha gamer” problem, but it also makes it so that a lot of these games can actually exist.
What do I mean by that?
Let me explain.
Read MoreWyrmspan Coming to Digital – Soon
Wasn’t planning a post today, but saw some digital gaming news that excited me, so I thought I’d send a quick note out.
Monster Couch announced today that the Wingspan adjacent game, Wyrmspan, will be coming to Steam digital soon (and hopefully other platforms soon after).
Here’s the trailer for it, in case you’re interested.
This game has intrigued me, but I haven’t had the chance to play it yet.
(I’m pretty sure one of my friends has it, so soon maybe?)
I’ve heard good things about it, though!
It has some similarities to Wingspan, but enough differences that you’re not playing the same game.
Hopefully Finspan will be in the next year or so, because I love that one.
Anyway, not much information out there so far, but here’s what the Steam page says (which you can access and wishlist).
It will have solo with the Automa, solo against bot opponents, and both local and online multiplayer as well.
Wingspan’s online multiplayer has both synchronous and asynchronous options, so I’m hoping that this one will as well.
Here’s a screenshot from the Steam page.
Keep an eye out, wishlist it, and hopefully this one will arrive soon!
Are you as excited as me?
Or are you meh?
Let me know in the comments, and what you think of the game itself if you’ve played it!
Educate me…
BGG Top Games – 3001 – 3100
It’s Wednesday, the middle of the week, so how about a middle post about Boardgame Geek rankings?
I mentioned last week that I’ll keep doing these until I hit a week where I haven’t played anything.
That ain’t this week!
I should remind folks that, if I’ve played a number of the games in a century, I’m not going to talk about all of them.
That would make these posts way too long.
This came up last week when somebody thought I hadn’t played a game that I had but just hadn’t talked about.
Anyway, these posts are still sparking some good discussions, and maybe my friend Tavendale is still thinking of nicking my idea.
Hopefully!
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
As long as I enjoy doing them, they will get done.
In the meantime, here’s the century we’re looking at today.
Getting down a bit deeper in the BGG rankings, but still finding some interesting stuff!
This century, I’ve played 5 of the games and I own (or have owned) 2 of them.
Not a huge number, but still enough to talk about.
As usual, the rankings may change if you’re reading this a few weeks in the future.
I don’t have any more time travel jokes, so I’ll stop.
I still have a bunch of space left before my 300-word introduction limit, but maybe we’ll use some of that extra space on the back end.
Let’s begin!
Read MoreThe Silent Cockpit – Sky Team Review
One of the more recent tropes in cooperative games is the idea that players can’t talk to each other.
This removes the alpha gamer issue and also can make the game more interesting.
Sometimes, thematically, it makes no sense, but you can’t have everything.
Try landing a plane without talking!
That’s what Sky Team does, and actually does it fairly effectively.
Sky Team was designed by Luc Rémond with artwork by Eric Hibbeler and Adrien Rives. It was published by Le Scorpion Masque in 2023.
Sky Team is a 2-player game about, as I said, landing an airplane at a busy airport and sometimes in nasty conditions. It’s a dice-rolling and placement game with one added caveat.
Yes, that’s right. The two players can’t talk. At least not during the dice-placement phase.
You can talk plenty before rolling the dice.
Let’s take a look at it.
Read MoreViolent Conventions – Final Girl – Shriek Review
One of the cool things about how the whole Final Girl franchise (from Van Ryder Games) has come about is that each group of feature films is tied into a series, with the occasional vignette or special feature.
That appears to be coming to an end with the conclusion of Series 4 in August, meaning that future releases won’t be grouped together like they are now.
They haven’t really explained how they’re going to do it, but I’m sure we’ll find out more at the end of 2026.
In the meantime, there’s a final special feature, which totally has its tongue in its cheek even as it frustrates you to no end.
And I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way.
Shriek was published in 2025 by Van Ryder. It was designed by Evan Derrick and A. J. Porfirio with artwork by Tyler Johnson.
And it takes place at a boardgame convention!
How meta is that?
If you thought The Killer From Tomorrow was busy with stuff to keep track of, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Shriek has tons of miniatures for the killer, though you are (barely) able to keep everything in the package.
There are also multiple “clue” cards and a handy-dandy red plastic clue viewer as well.
I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid.
This is probably their most component-packed film yet, at least from the ones I’ve played.
And I’m here for it, though again it depends on how much work I want to do, because there is a lot of work involved in this one.
Let’s talk about what we get in this package.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 2901-3000
It’s another week, and another century of ranked boardgames from the Boardgame Geek rankings.
I figure I’m going to keep doing this until I run into a century where I have literally played none of the games (even then, if there’s something interesting in it, I might still do it) or until some of you start begging me to stop.
Think of it like the Gong Show.
Except I’m not wearing a paper bag over my head.
(Editor – “Wow, you have dated yourself before, but you’re really doing it hard this time”)
So far, I’m getting really good discussions from these posts, and they’re fun to write!
Even when they’re a bit lackluster, like last week, there was still some good stuff in there (like rediscovering that Amun-Re session report, from which I’m still laughing).
Speaking of the rankings, I have a Top 100 update, as I have now played 59 of them!
I’m slowly making progress, though there are some games that I will not be playing unless some major changes happen (like any of the legacy games).
Back to this century, though, we’ve finally hit the 3000 mark, and we’re still going strong.
Can we continue to 6000?
Who knows?
As usual, the list I’m getting this from is here, though it can change over time. These rankings are close!
This week, I’ve played 8 games and own (or previously owned) 5 of them. All of the owned ones I have played, so no Shelf of Opportunity here.
Let’s not blather any more about this, as I’m just about up to my 300 word introduction limit.
So let’s begin!
Read MoreIt’s All Greek to Me – Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends Review
It’s amazing how many times a company can go to the same well, bringing up a game with all of the same mechanics and some slight variations in how those mechanics are executed, and still come up with a fun game that (maybe) surpasses the original.
Though at least so far without the scoring app that actually makes the game easy to score.
After going the comics route and the Star Trek route, Wizkids has come out with a new version of the ultimate filler game, Fantasy Realms (which I reviewed some years ago).
Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends is a new variation on this theme of having a hand of cards and scoring what you ultimately have in hand.
Designed by Bruce Glassco with artwork by Darren Calvert, this version of the game was published in 2025.
Whenever game designers and companies come up on variations of the same game, they usually try to add one major mechanical difference along with other minor variations as well.
Greek Legends is no different in that respect, as it adds the concept of the Afterlife (I’d say that’s getting quite theological, if Greek mythology didn’t already heavily invest in that).
It’s an interesting addition to the game that adds a bit of “strategy” (I use quotes there because really, there aren’t many games that are more tactical than this one) to the whole thing.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 2801-2900
Doing these weekly posts about these centuries of “top games” on Boardgame Geek have often been interesting because of the conversations they’ve sparked with friends and fans.
But they’ve also been interesting because I’ve seen some unexpected movement in the games I’m seeing.
For instance, one of the games I talked about last week (Age of Comics) was at #2794 in the BGG rankings when I posted that.
It’s already down to where it could be on this list, at #2805 (and then #2801 when I came back to finish this post)!
I often say that there may not be a lot of movement down this deep in the rankings, but that’s a pretty far drop considering everything.
One of the other games I’m going to talk about today, I was actually going to talk about last week but decided not to include it.
It dropped into this century.
Now I can!
Because there isn’t really much to talk about in this segment, though there are some interesting games, or at least interesting topics of games, to mention.
As for what I’ve played and own?
Meh.
I’ve also noticed something that could explain what movement there is in these deep rankings.
The first 20 games in this century range in BGG rating from 6.070 to 6.067.
That means just one slight increase or decrease and rank and a game can move quite far!
That intrigued me a bit.
Anyway, enough blather about all of that.
This week’s rankings can be found here, though keep in mind (as I went on and on and on and on about above) that rankings can change if you’re coming to this post in the future.
Even if it’s just tomorrow!
I’m just under my 300-word intro limit, so let’s begin!
Read More