Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Friday Night Shots – Expansions: Yea or Nay?
It’s Friday.
A long week is finished and it’s time to sit back, relax, have some good food and a drink of some kind (whatever kind you like).
There’s plenty of soft music in the background too.
This isn’t so much of an issue with wargames (so sorry to the usual readers of this post), but my topic of discussion today is expansions.
Are they good? Are they bad? Are they unnecessary? Or are they must-haves?
Like I said, wargames don’t have this very often, though some games are starting to dip their toes in the expansion pool.
I think it’s mainly COIN games that are doing that, right?
And Combat Commander, of course, though really only two.
I don’t count Battle Packs as expansions, though some may beg to differ.
This is different from “series,” which wargames do in abundance.
Hell, The Last Hundred Yards is up to four volumes in the series now!
Or will be when The Russian Front finally releases.
Anyway, where was I?
Oh yeah, expansions.
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report Supplemental – Scenario #28 – No Ingouf Around
Last month’s Combat Commander ladder game against Ted W was a barn-burner, very intense and exciting.
After the game, we agreed that we would play again at some point, and we arranged to play a scenario of my choosing on Monday night.
After looking through the Battle Packs I own, I chose scenario #28 from the Paratrooper Battle Pack, a scenario weirdly-called “No Ingouf Around”.
In the scenario, American paratroopers (Ted, green) on June 10, 1944 (4 days after D-Day) are holding an abandoned farmhouse in the Carentan area. They were going to be facing a counterattack by some elite German paratroopers (me, grey).
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to make it bigger)
Both sides have a radio, but the American radio won’t come into play until at least Round 2. It starts on the “2” space of the Time Track and each Time trigger, the American has to roll. If they roll less than or equal to the Time Track number, they get the radio. Otherwise, it bumps to the next space for the next trigger.
The German radio is available from the beginning.
Both sides have a random objective and five open objectives are already out. Basically all of the objectives hexes are worth points, with the farmhouse (Objective 5) worth 5 points.
The other special rule is that there are no exit VP. Any unit that exits the board is eliminated, no matter where from.
It’s a cage match!
The Americans set up first, 7 hexes deep. The Germans then set up, 2 hexes deep except they can also set up in Objective 4.
Germans move first.
After chatting a bit (and our leader Patrick joining us for a little while), we began!
I ended up getting Ted to give me the Initiative twice during the game, so I would consider it a win no matter who ended up ahead.
Read MoreNew to Me – May 2023
It’s June.
I’m amazed that we’re almost half-way through the year already.
But it’s also time to look back at May and the gaming that I did (which I did in general already)
With Mother’s Day taking up one Sunday, it was another sparse month for new to me games, which didn’t make the Cult of the New to Me happy.
What did make them happy is that one of my two new games was from 2011!
They gave me a lot of these.
Which made me feel good (Ted always makes me feel good)
Hopefully June will be better, though we do have Father’s Day coming up.
So, without further ado (all of my ado was eaten by some feral Beast anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Stuck in the Middle of a Bad Game
Welcome back!
I hope that you had a good week.
Belly up to the bar and let me get you a drink. Whatever you like.
Let me turn the music down so we can chat a bit.
Ok, perhaps I shouldn’t say a “bad” game, but maybe a game that you find yourself just not enjoying at all.
This question is more about playing a new to you game rather than just having a bad experience with a game that you otherwise like. For example, ending up at a convention playing with an asshole.
No, the question I’m asking is this.
You’re trying a new game, maybe one that you’ve heard good things about? Or maybe just one that your friend wants to try and has convinced you to.
There’s nothing inherent to the game that gives you a red flag (like I talked about three weeks ago), so you decide to give it a whirl.
And then something happens.
Maybe you discover the game is terrible, or definitely not what you thought.
Or maybe one of the other players made a move that just totally tanked your enjoyment of the game.
Ok, so maybe I am also kind of talking about if you wind up playing with an asshole.
Read MoreMay 2023 Gaming
It’s been another slower month of gaming this last May, again because one of our Sundays was cancelled (this month due to Mother’s Day…stupid moms!)
This month, I had the same number of plays (19) as April but only 11 games instead of 13.
But they were still fun!
Here’s that information in picture grid form.
Eleven games, and only two new to me ones!
I’ll talk about those in my cult post.
But hopefully next month will be better for that (though we’ll lose another Sunday game day, with Father’s Day…stupid dads!)
Read MoreThe Last Hundred Yards – Storage Solution With Rails on Boards
It’s time for another storage solution using the Cube4Me trays provided to me by Rails on Boards.
These plastic trays are pretty cool because, if you want to (which my good friend Zilla doesn’t seem to want to), you can actually nest them together to minimize their footprint in the box!
Anyway, enough ranting about friends.
Previously I had put together a tray set for The Last Hundred Yards – Airborne Over Europe because that was the only module in the series I had at the time.
However, a few weeks ago, the first one, reprinted edition, arrived on my door step and I had a few remaining trays left over.
Once again, this game is published by GMT Games and designed by Mike Denson.
And one of these days, it will be coming to the table!
It was time to see if the same (or similar) solution would work!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – What’s Your Go-To Game When You’re Down?
It’s Friday night!
You know what time it is, then.
Pull up a stool and listen to the music for a bit.
Given my post last week about games and my mental health, I was just curious what your thoughts were on this topic.
Say you’re feeling a bit down in the dumps. Nothing super bad, but just a little depressed.
What’s your go-to game when you’re feeling like that?
Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for a game, no matter what it is, and that’s ok too.
But as I said in that post, playing games can often improve my mood, or at least be an indicator that I’m not doing as well as I thought I might be.
I think we probably all have different types of go-to games in this situation, almost as many types as there are people.
Some people, taxing their brains and making them work to figure out things like Gaia Project or a big complex wargame are what they need.
They’re in their element when they have to work, and it brings them out of the doldrums.
That’s not me, though.
For me, I need something relatively simple and not involving a lot of setup.
Read MoreReview – Subastral
Ain’t nature grand?
I think it is. All of the beautiful landscapes that are out there. Nature photography is some of the best photography out there.
And nature games, too!
There’s been a bit of a renaissance in nature-themed games in the last few years.
I just reviewed the new card game Earth that’s all about the flora on this wonderful planet.
What about biomes?
Do you even know what a biome is?
I know you do. I was just testing.
(I have faith in you).
Subastral is a card game about the biomes that make up the Earth and is a fitting companion to that other game.
Some might think that I planned this! (They may or may not be right, I will never tell).
(Editor – “That might be giving you too much credit”)
Subastral was published in 2021 by Renegade Games and was designed by Ben Pinchback and Matt Riddle. The gorgeous artwork was done by the incomparable Beth Sobel.
It plays 2-5 players and is a great go-to game for a lunch or starting/ending a game night.
Especially because it plays 5 players, meaning it can work for those awkward times when you have too many players but not enough to split up into two games!
How does Subastral work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreArchitects of the West Kingdom – Storage Solution from Folded Space
I’ve already talked about the Viscounts of the West Kingdom storage solution from Folded Space, and how much better it is than the actual Collector’s Edition insert.
For some reason, the Garphill Games inserts that came with the Collector’s Editions are just terrible as far as gameplay goes.
They’re great for storage!
But if you want to actually get the game on the table, they’re pretty rubbish.
Enter Folded Space, and their solutions for all of the West Kingdom games.
I recently put together the Architects of the West Kingdom storage solution and it is amazing.
So easy to get the game to the table!
I will be testing that out this today, possibly.
Let’s take a look at it.
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Let’s Talk Music
Hi, there!
C’mon in and have a seat at the bar.
I’ll pour you the drink of your choice (something non-alcoholic for Brian).
Some Canadian Club and Diet Pepsi for me (on my second one now).
What’s that?
Yes, that is Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 coming out through the speakers above the bar.
How did you guess?
Let’s talk music while you’re sitting here relaxing.
How did I get started listening to old American Top 40 shows from the 1970s and 80s?
Why am I inflicting it on you?
And what music do I like now?
Hopefully you’ll tell me yours too.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 