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March 2024 Gaming

Posted on April 3, 2024 by whovian223

February was a very slow month for gaming, but that was ok after a really fast January.

However, March actually beat January like a rented mule!

Ok, actually, there were fewer games played in January, but more plays (because I played a few games so many times in January).

March was an awesome month with the Terminal City Tabletop Convention garnering a number of plays, plus some lunchtime games at work and not missing a Sunday at all (except for the convention, which of course really added to the plays!).

Let’s take a look at what I actually played.

And here are the games in grid form!

Though I actually played 26 games, but only 25 fit on the grid.

The odd one out was Surfosaurus Max.

That’s right. Twenty-six games played in March!

That was amazing.

Not only that, but the quality of games played was really up there too.

Sure, some of the Terminal City games were a bit meh, but overall, I really loved most of the games I played in March.

Why don’t we take a look at some of those highlights?

New to Me – March 2024

Posted on April 1, 2024 by whovian223

3 Comments

Aloha! (Saying this for my friend who’s out on a cruise, even though she’s not technically going to Hawaii but somewhere just as warm).

You may be wondering.

“Dave, why are you wearing socks with sandals?”

I would say that you should just keep your damned opinions to yourself, you young whippersnapper.

You may also be wondering why it’s been almost 2 months since a “New to Me Games” post.

That’s because I played nothing new in February!

I did note that…were you paying attention?

Anyway, with a convention in March, I knew that things would take a drastic change for the better this month.

Lots of games to talk about!

While it wasn’t as bad as OrcaCon in regards to making this post super-long, it was still a great month for them.

So, without further ado (all of my ado was used to seal the joints of a Viking warship anyway), let’s begin!

Review – Shipwrights of the North Sea – Redux

Posted on March 26, 2024 by whovian223

1 Comment

What do you do if you love ships but you’re afraid of being out on the water so you can’t actually go sailing?

Especially if you’re a Viking?

You get a job building them instead of sailing them!

That’s the premise of Shipwrights of the North Sea – Redux (ok, maybe without the “I’m afraid to be out on the water” part; I might have extrapolated too much there).

Shipwrights of the North Sea - Redux box

Shipwrights of the North Sea – Redux (from now on, just assume I’m talking about the the new Redux version and not the original that has a really bad reputation, ok?) was designed by Shem Phillips way back in 2014, but the new updated (and supposedly much better) version came out in 2024.

It has art from Mihajlo Dimitrievski and was published by Garphill Games and Renegade Game Studios.

It’s a card-drafting, simultaneous action game that plays in an hour or so once players know what they are doing, which makes it a perfect lunchtime game, or “filler” game at the beginning or end of a game night, especially if you have 5 players.

We all know about 5 players, right?

But you can with Shipwrights!

Does it play well, though?

Let’s take a look.

Friday Night Shots – Player Aids

Posted on March 22, 2024 by whovian223

4 Comments

Welcome to another end-of-week social gathering where it’s just you and me!

I’d say I’m enough to make it social. Wouldn’t you?

Well, anyway, hop on a seat at the bar and let’s chat!

I do have to say first, though, that you are running up quite the bar tab here.

Are you going to pay it tonight?

You do have a week still…

I kid!!!

For you, everything’s free.

But only you. Don’t tell anybody else.

Let me turn the music down because it’s kind of echoing in the emptiness.

I apologize for whoever the heck remade that upbeat Beatles song into a dirge.

I will have to fire the jukebox guy.

What shall we talk about today?

How about player aids in games!

Are they necessary? Unnecessary? A murderable offense if they’re not included?

Terminal City Tabletop Convention Retrospective – 2024

Posted on March 21, 2024 by whovian223

2 Comments

It’s a few days after another great convention experience, so let’s talk a little bit about Terminal City Tabletop Convention – 2024.

This year, it was held at the Vancouver Convention Centre which is right on the water in downtown Vancouver. It’s a beautiful site, and also the same venue as SHUX was held in…I don’t remember the last one (hey, let’s link to a blog post that might refresh the memory).

They didn’t reserve as much space as SHUX, obviously, but it was still much better than 2023 where space was so much at a premium that we went to get food in shifts because we couldn’t afford to give up our tables.

They also avoided the Daylight Savings Time weekend, which meant that we didn’t lose an hour of sleep while trying to attend.

So a win-win!!!

The thing I like about the Convention Centre is that it’s a 20-minute walk for me. It gives me good exercise but it’s also not too far away.

Of course, I’m not taking my huge bag of games like I did last year, but they have a great library and I have friends who bring a bunch of games (they’re driving from further away) so that’s also a win-win!

And I still got one of my games played, so a win-win-win!

There are plenty of food options in the Waterfront Centre food court, which makes eating pretty easy. Though you technically can’t bring outside food and drink into the hall, which makes things difficult.

Didn’t mean others didn’t do it (and I think I brought the remains of a bottle of pop in on Saturday and maybe Friday night), but it’s policy apparently.

I don’t remember that being an issue with SHUX, but maybe it was?

(Edit: I’ve since been informed that it was a policy imposed by the Convention Centre)

Another new thing this year was that the convention was open from 3:00 on Friday until Sunday. Previously it was only Saturday & Sunday.

That was great!

There was some miscommunication about when it opened, though. They said that it opened at 3:00 pm, but then it came out that you could pick up your badge at 2:00.

A lot of people thought that meant that you could get in at 2:00.

Nope! You could line up to pick up your badge, but then you had to leave again and line up to get in at 3:00 pm.

Nothing too major, but a little annoying.

Overall, though, kudos to those volunteering and running the con, as (from my perspective, anyway), it went off without a hitch.

How were the games?

Let’s talk about Friday-Sunday games played!

I assume so!

Let’s get started, as there are a lot to talk about!

Book Series Recommendation – “Berlin Wartime Thriller” by Simon Scarrow

Posted on March 15, 2024 by whovian223

5 Comments

Simon Scarrow is a historical thriller author who’s best known (I think) for his novels set in Ancient Rome. His “Eagles of the Empire” series starring Quintus Licinius Cato, a former imperial slave, and centurion Lucius Cornelius Macro, is now at 25 books!

I’ve only read one of them, though I found another one in a thrift store and skimmed the first couple of chapters and was very impressed.

I wanted to start at (or near) the beginning, but I finally succumbed and read Book #19 (The Emperor’s Exile) just to see what I thought.

And it was good!

While I am still wanting to start near the beginning before reading further, I stumbled upon another small series of books by Scarrow, this time completely removed from Ancient Rome.

The Berlin Wartime Thriller series (what a weird title, but it is accurate!) just consists of two books right now, but both are really good.

The series takes place at the start of World War II and the main character is Horst Schenke, a Criminal Inspector for the Berlin police (Kripo) who has no sympathy for the Nazi regime but just wants to see justice done.

Let’s talk a little bit about them.

Review – Underwater Cities

Posted on March 13, 2024 by whovian223

4 Comments

It would be cool to live on the ocean.

Beachfront property, your back door opening right onto the beach, listening from your balcony to the ocean waves crash on the shore, watching the lightning from a storm out over the water.

That would be amazing!

How about living under the ocean, though?

That would be very wet and hard to breathe…unless you had domes!

That’s kind of the premise of Underwater Cities.

The game was designed by Vladimír Suchý with artwork by Uildrim and Milan Vavroň.

It was published by Delicious Games and Rio Grande Games in 2018.

With population booming on the surface, it’s decided to try and colonize the ocean depths to help ease the burden on the planet.

You’re essentially building a network of domed cities that is self-sustaining, earning victory points in the process.

Because you know victory points will save the world one day.

But I digress.

When the game first came out, some people called it a Terraforming Mars killer.

And in the sense that you are now going under water and foregoing actually terraforming Mars, that’s true.

But as a game?

I don’t really see a lot of similarities.

Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 93 – Foxtrot Uniform

Posted on March 11, 2024 by whovian223

2 Comments

After a really bad (and late!) February episode of Tales from the Combat Commander ladder, we’re getting to March’s almost as soon as I’m done playing it!

This was a much more satisfying game, and that’s whether or not I won (I’m not giving you any spoilers). The scenario was clean and it was just an amazingly fun time!

What’s the ladder?

It’s a tournament setting run by the beyond compare Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials Youtube fame.

Yes, I do mean fame. He’s got more followers than I do!

(Editor: “That’s not saying much”)

The March scenario is from the Sea Lion battle pack, a bunch of scenarios that portray action that might have happened if the Germans went ahead with their Operation Sea Lion plans to invade England.

Just adding to the “what if” nature of the scenarios, this month’s scenario pits the German invaders facing a counterattack on an airfield from…the Americans?

That’s right, apparently in this hypothetical invasion, the Americans either decided to join the war in 1940, or sent a contingent of troops to England even as they tried to remain neutral.

My opponent was Doug L, another guy in my time zone! So scheduling a play was pretty easy.

We did it on Saturday morning.

(As usual, you can click on a picture to enlarge it)

A joint task force of Americans and British troops are counterattacking, and the Americans (me: green) are tasked with recapturing the Upper Heyford RAF base from the Germans (Doug: grey).

As per the description, “Allied Commanders were reluctant to authorise air support from the tattered remnants of the RAF and as a result the Allied attack commenced without it.”

I have a question about that sentence, which I will address during the AAR below.

Anyway, there are a few special rules in this scenario, which actually make it quite tense.

First, those two tan heavy machine guns up there? Those represent anti-aircraft guns that were repurposed to fire at ground units. They start on a hill, and the Germans control them.

However, no matter what happens to the units possessing them, they stay in the hex. So technically anybody else can run into the hex and take possession of them, using them at will.

Even the Americans!

I thought about it…

Secondly, no fortifications can go on any of the hills. So the Germans can’t drop Wire into one of the HMG hexes when an American unit goes to capture one of them. And nobody can dig foxholes.

The multitude of grey hexes are airport tarmac, and they count as roads. Meaning that units on them might be in a lot of trouble.

Finally (and this didn’t come into play in our scenario), an American reinforcement event just brings in an American Line squad. No rolling, and no chance for a radio!

Damn it.

Anyway, how did I do after a losing streak in previous months?

Let’s take a look.