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A Gaming Life
Combat Commander After Action Report – Scenario LoM #8 – Codes in the Sunrise
It’s weird, but I feel funny not having posted about a GMT game in almost 6 days.
But here I go again!
It’s time for another adventure from the Combat Commander ladder. The ladder is a monthly tournament run by the supreme Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame. Check out the channel not just for the monthly Combat Commander games, but also all of the Commands & Colors goodness!
Don’t get a big head, Patrick.
(But he’s rocking that shirt…)
Anyway, this month’s scenario comes from the Leader of Men battle pack of tournament scenarios.
Codes in the Sunrise tells the story of a team of British commandos, just after the Fall of France, doing reconnaissance and collecting information from German units.
This unit was scouting a local hotel seeking to capture prisoners.
My opponent this month was Matthew V, who was playing the British. I had the German defenders.
One bonus for the Germans in this scenario is that the British are in Recon posture, which means they only get 5 cards and not the attacking 6 cards in their hand.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
Objectives 3 & 4 (circled) are worth 2 points each. Otherwise, points just come from killing units and exiting your own off the board. And the German secret objective, of course.
The Germans (grey) set up first and can start up to 9 hexes from the right side of the board. The British set up last and start up to 2 hexes from the left side of the board.
Read MoreTwilight Struggle: South Asian Monsoon Coming From GMT in 2024
(Edit: 4/18/23) This was not announced in this month’s newsletter, so I’m assuming it will be in the May one. Interesting that it’s already on BGG and a blogger is talking about it, though (not me, the blogger that GMT RT’d)
Lots of GMT Games news this weekend!
As I was looking up yesterday’s Time of Crisis post on Twitter, I saw another tweet that GMT RT’d talking about a new Twilight Struggle game coming out in 2024.
Twilight Struggle: South Asian Monsoon is another game designed by Jason Carr and Jason Matthews that will make Twilight Struggle fans catch their breath.
Unlike the recently-released Twilight Struggle: Red Sea, though, this is not a lunchtime game!
It’s kind of in the middle.
Read MoreTime of Crisis from GMT Getting a Deluxe Edition & Mini-Expansion
Even though I haven’t been able to get it to the table for quite a long time, GMT’s Time of Crisis (designed by Brad Johnson and Wray Ferrell) is still one of my favourite games.
I was just browsing Boardgame Geek this morning when I saw somebody post the exciting news that the game is getting a new Deluxe Edition with a mini-expansion to boot!
I’m assuming this will be officially announced in GMT’s April newsletter, so I’m sure I will be mentioning it again, but I wanted to do a quick post on it.
The deluxe edition will contain a consolidated rulebook which includes the expansion rules, as well as any known errata and a few minor rules changes as well.
It will also include updated Amphitheater tokens and Foederati cards (I’m not sure what that update would be, though I guess that could be one of the minor rules changes).
What’s really exciting is that there’s also going to be a new mini-expansion that includes 3 new types of improvements that you can build in your provinces.
(Sadly there are no pictures of the updated stuff yet)
So far there’s the Limes (slows down barbarian invasions), the Amphitheater (prevents Mobs in the province) and the Basilica (roll one extra die for each province you govern when you you’re attempting to place a governor in Italia).
What could these three new ones be and what strategies will they aid?
I can’t wait to find out!
In typical GMT fashion, they are looking after their customers.
For those of you (like me) who already have the game and both expansions, there will be an upgrade pack available on the P500 which will include the mini-expansion, updated rules, and updated counters/cards.
Every time I hear about this game, I want to get it to the table again.
I should look at doing that in the next few weeks.
It’s time to become emperor again!
Friday Night Shots – My Take on Game Storage Solutions
(Edit: 4/15/23) – I completely forgot one of my big annoyances regarding storage solutions: never being sure if the game’s going to get an expansion that makes the solution obsolete! Right now, my Dune Imperium box has a hodgepodge of baggies and stuff in it from both expansions. So far, however, the Folded Space insert appears to be only made for the first expansion. If I had bought that before Immortality came out, my storage solution would be out of date. Thankfully, wargames don’t generally get many expansions, so the Cube4Me ones don’t really have this problem, at least not as much
Now back to the original post)
I’ve done a few posts on game storage solutions and I’m a big fan of them.
I’ve even created a couple of sets for Cube4Me.
The Folded Space inserts that I’ve bought have also made setting up those games so much easier.
I’ve even bought and used a few inserts from Insert Here, a great site which makes each insert by hand and then ships them to you, already put together!
Finally, I did invest in some GMT counter trays in their last P500 customer sale. Just for those games that need function but don’t really need beauty.
The full function of a game insert that makes a gamer’s life easier is just so great.
But looking at some of the newer offerings out there on the various sites made me stop and think a moment.
Does every game need an insert?
What type of games do I think need one, and which ones don’t?
Keep in mind, of course, that this is just my opinion. This isn’t an attack on anybody who wants to buy these inserts, or even on the sellers for creating them.
It’s just my take.
Read MoreEarth – Card Game Review
(I put “card game” review in the title so you don’t think it’s a review of the planet we live on, or maybe a good gardening company)
Nature seems to be the in thing for games right now. If I had a penny for every nature-based game that has come out in the last couple of years, I’d have…nothing…because pennies don’t exist anymore!
At least in Canada, anyway.
What was I saying?
Oh yeah, nature-based games.
One of my most-beloved nature-based games is Wingspan, a card game where you are playing bird cards to your bird sanctuary board.
I do really enjoy it.
When I heard about the new nature-based card game from Inside Up Games, Earth, I was really enthused.
Earth was designed by Maxime Tardif with artwork by M81 Studio, Conor McGoey, Yulia Sozonik and Kenneth Spond. It plays 1-5 players, though I haven’t tried the solo mode.
It’s a tableau-building card game combining many different elements from some great games.
It reminds me most of Wingspan, but there’s also the Terraforming Mars icon extravaganza as well as the Puerto Rico “one player takes an action and each other player takes a lesser version of that action” mechanic.
How does this thing work?
And how it is it so phenomenal?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreFirefly – 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition Coming from Gale Force Nine
I’m on vacation this week, so posting was going to be sparse this week anyway (hush, you in the back…), but I had to post about this when I saw it.
I’m a big fan of the Firefly game from Gale Force Nine, though I haven’t played it in a while.
When you’ve registered 25 plays of a game that can take quite a while and take up your whole table and then some, that’s dedication!
The game has been very hard to find recently and some posters on BGG have said that inquiries to Gale Force Nine have received vague replies about a reprint.
Could it be because of this?
Maybe!
Yes, Gale Force Nine is producing a 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition that will be coming to Gamefound sometime soon.
No word on when exactly or what is all going to be in it, besides…
And maybe more to boot!
The rotating picture on Gamefound does say “everything and more,” so who knows what that will be?
More cards to shop for?
More ships?
More leaders?
The sky’s the limit!
Or at least GF9’s imagination.
Anyway, I will be keeping my eye on this one to see just what all will be in there.
I’ll update this post when it launches, but you can follow it on Gamefound too so you can see for yourself.
Are you excited about this?
Let me know in the comments.
Viscounts of the West Kingdom – Storage Solution from Folded Space
If you’ve read this blog for more than five minutes, then you know that I’m a huge fan of Garphill Games and especially the West Kingdom trilogy of games.
I’ve reviewed two of them (Architects of the West Kingdom and Viscounts of the West Kingdom) and those are both high up in my Top 25 games played.
I love them so much that when the Collector’s Boxes for each became available on Kickstarter, I was there immediately.
And their storage system is great! Everything fits into the box really well.
Except when you try to set the game up.
Here’s a picture from above of the Viscounts of the West Kingdom Collector’s box.
See all of the player colours around the castle?
You have to pass the box around and have each player dig their pieces out of it.
The same with all of the resources and silver coins!
It’s really annoying.
Not to mention trying to put them away. You almost had to be a brilliant Tetris player in order to fit everything in snugly so that nothing was sticking up.
Thankfully, Folded Space (that great insert company whose Clank in Space insert I rated very highly) has now come out with inserts for all three West Kingdom Collector’s Boxes.
This will be a review of the Viscounts of the West Kingdom insert, and spoiler alert…it’s amazing!
Read MoreNew to Me – March 2023
March was a good month for gaming, with a convention and numerous lunch time plays at work as well as some hefty Sunday game days as well.
As noted in my March gaming post, I played 21 games!
Seven of them were even new to me, which made my fellow Cult of the New to Me members very happy.
But then they looked at the publication years of all these games and they went from happy to furious.
I tried to mollify them with the 2018 game I played, but they weren’t having any of it.
Way too many 2023 games!
They actually accused me of being part of the Cult of the New.
I promised I’d do better next month (and I’m already starting, playing a 2015 game yesterday).
So, without further ado (all of my ado was shot down over the trenches anyway), let’s begin!
Read MoreMarch 2023 Gaming
March was definitely a great month of gaming. I managed to play 21 games (32 plays) in 31 days! And 15 days worth of gaming is always good. Fifteen out of thirty-one?
Woo!
Many thanks to Boardgame Stats for the wonderful app that lets us keep track of our games.
It helps that there was a convention in there, but that only accounted for 10 plays out of 32.
Here’s the games played on a grid!
I’m not going to talk about the new to me games since that will happen in next week’s post, but let’s talk a little bit about the other games!
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report – Scenario #91 – The Battle of Trafalgar
After being early last month (it was almost like time travel!), this month’s game from the Combat Commander ladder came in just in the nick of time.
We played our game on Monday, March 27, mainly due to life stuff happening.
Combined with the early February, that was a long time away from one of my favourite games!
But it was worth it.
What an incredible game.
Oh yeah, I suppose I should introduce things in case this is your first visit (and really, does anybody read these anyway? I’m not so sure…)
Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of my favourite games of all time.
The ladder is run by the well-mannered Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame (you really need to go check that Youtube channel out).
This month’s scenario is from the alternate history battle pack Sea Lion, where the Germans actually did invade Great Britain.
The scenario is called The Battle of Trafalgar and it basically involves the German wave washing over Trafalgar Square where Admiral Nelson’s statue is. Taking over the square and the statue would have beaucoup status effects for Hitler’s minions (Editor: “Look at you, trying to use the big words).
My opponent this month was Bill D, he from that faraway and exotic place called “The Eastern Time Zone,” and coordinating was a bit more of a challenge than usual.
But we persevered and got it done.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to make it bigger)
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 