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A Gaming Life
Combat Commander News from GMT Games
(Edit – 2/25/23) – Kai Jensen confirmed on Boardgame Geek that the Minor Nations battle pack will just have updated scenarios with the new Minor Nations artwork on them. I’ve asked whether or not the Minor Nations counters will be the same as the Italian/French counters but with updated artwork, names, and leader names. I’m assuming that they will be or the scenarios would be really changed. But I’ll update here if that’s different
I was taking the week off (both from work and blogging) but then the GMT monthly newsletter came out and I had to share this excitement.
Remember from previous GMT updates the stuff about some news regarding Combat Commander?
Well, this news is big!
If you’re a fan of the game.
Even better if you’ve become interested in the game because of my ladder posts and couldn’t find the game to get started!
Both the base Combat Commander: Europe game and the two expansions for it (Mediterranean and Resistance) have been languishing on the P500 reprint list for quite a while. They’ve been impossible to find.
But now GMT Games has announced that they are issuing Combat Commander: Europe as it was always planned: both in the same master set!
Yes, now you can order off the P500 list the new Combat Commander: Europe/Med. Master Edition for $99 US.
Read MoreExpansion Review – Viscounts of the West Kingdom – Gates of Gold
With the last Viscounts of the West Kingdom Kickstarter (way back in…I can’t remember when!), Garphill Games decided that rather than release expansions for this great games in dribs and drabs, as well as then finally releasing a Deluxe box for the entire game, they would release both expansions and the Deluxe box all in one go!
That was one expensive Kickstarter.
But it was fun!
Now that I’ve reviewed Keeper of Keys, let’s go ahead and review the other expansion, and the one that I think is better (even if only slightly), Gates of Gold.
This expansion, along with the base game and other expansion, was designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald with art by Mihajlo Dimitrievski (commonly known as “the Mico”). It was released by Garphill Games and Renegade Games Studios.
And it is sooooooo good!
I guess that might be considered a spoiler, but really.
You know me, right?
Let’s take a look at this one.
Read MoreFirst Look – Undaunted: Normandy app on Steam
Undaunted: Normandy is a wargame/card game combination designed by the excellent designers David Thompson and Trevor Benjamin. It was published in 2019 by Osprey Games and I actually wrote about how excited I was when it was first announced.
Then I never bought it. I think it was mostly the lack of opponents.
During the pandemic lockdown, I went ahead and bought the second iteration, Undaunted: North Africa but have yet to get it to the table.
But I was excited to hear that Undaunted: Normandy was coming to Steam!
Now Bookmark Games, the developer of the digital edition (and developer of the excellent Pavlov’s House app), has given me access to the game in its current Alpha state.
(You can click on each picture to enlarge it)
I repeat, just to emphasize things, that this first look is about the game in alpha, so there will be bugs, there will be things that need to be improved, and there will be changes.
This isn’t even in Early Access yet.
However, even in Alpha state, it’s actually pretty good!
Let’s take a look at it.
Read MoreExpansion Review – Viscounts of the West Kingdom – Keeper of Keys
Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald of Garphill Games fame, seem to have a side job in addition to designing great games.
They are the Adepts of Alliteration!
That’s why all of their expansions have brilliant alliteration.
Works of Wonder, Age of Artisans, and now the Viscounts of the West Kingdom expansions, the first of which (at least the first of which I’m reviewing) is Keeper of Keys.
That has to be intentional!
Both of the expansions, Keeper of Keys and Gates of Gold shipped with the same Kickstarter, though I’m going to review them separately.
Because that’s how I roll.
That and it would be kind of pointless to review both at the same time.
Keeper of Keys adds chests to the game, as well as the ability to have more than one Hero in your deck and Public Buildings.
It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t.
So with that all being said, let’s take a look!
Read MoreCombat Commander After Action Report – Scenario #82 – Hidden Guns Lash Out
It’s the second week of the month and I’m already posting about my monthly Combat Commander ladder game?
Yes, my February opponent and I managed to get our game in early this month over two lunchtime sessions.
In fact, we finished on Tuesday though due to other posts being scheduled, it’s not going live until today (note to self: if you say “today” then it doesn’t matter what day it is!).
What the hell am I talking about?
The Combat Commander ladder tournament, of course!
This ladder, run by the brilliant Patrick Pence of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame, is where we get our monthly fix of one of the best wargames out there (ok, my favourite, anyway).
The February scenario comes from the Fall of the West battle pack using the French forces (so it does require Combat Commander: Mediterranean if you are playing on the table). This battle pack has a bunch of scenarios taking place during the German invasion of France.
It also has a couple of scenarios (including this one, #82, Hidden Guns Lash Out) that have tanks in them!
Tanks are a bit beyond the scope of Combat Commander, but in these scenarios the tanks basically consist of a leader, 1-2 crews/teams, a couple of machine guns, and perhaps a gun or two, along with an entrenchment for “armor” (i.e. cover for morale checks).
My opponent this month was Nathan F, a guy after my own heart because he actually finds it easier to play on lunch than at night too!
We played the scenario over a couple of lunches earlier in the week (thankfully on VASSAL you can save the game state and just pick up where you left off).
The scenario has a number of French forces (light blue – Nathan) facing off against a German (grey – Me) attack force heading toward the railway line, with a couple of tanks thrown into the mix.
Here’s our set up.
A couple of interesting special rules, though.
First, the French guns (circled in red above) aren’t set up at the start.
Instead, the French can place them during the game in any hex with at least one Cover between the railway and the French (south) side of the board. They can then fire them!
Which brings us to special rule number two.
Read MoreClank in Space – Storage Solution From Folded Space
I know I’ve done quite a few posts about storage solutions from Rails on Board/Cube4Me, but they’re not the only game in town.
For some games, what they offer isn’t quite sufficient, because there is literally a shit-ton of cards in them and big pieces (that’s a word…go look it up).
Games like one of my favourites, Clank in Space (no, no exclamation marks!), have too many cards and lots of bigger tokens.
My box was a literal mess when I was just having things in baggies.
Sure, I could hand baggies out to people with their stuff and then we could pile a whole bunch of other stuff on the table, in piles…sorry, too many piles in that sentence, which is what I have always said when trying to put this on the table!
I’ve always been leery of storage solutions that you need to assemble, mainly because I have the craftsmanship of an elephant.
After watching the “how to assemble our inserts” video from Folded Space, however, it looked remarkably easy.
Could this be beyond even my ability to fuck it up?
I decided to give it a try.
Did it work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreJanuary 2023 Gaming
January 2023 was a great month for gaming, especially with OrcaCon and everything.
I’ve already told you about the new games I played, but here’s my month in review.
(Many thanks to BG Stats for the ability to do stuff like this!)
For me, 29 plays of 20 games in a month is much better than usual.
There are definitely some highlights for the month, in addition to the new to me ones (which since I talked about them in the earlier post, I won’t really mention them here, for the most part).
Read MoreNew to Me – January 2023
It’s a brand new year and hopefully it will be better than last year.
Though last year wasn’t too bad, compared to the two before.
It’s January (or February, but we’re talking about January) and that means a new beginning where we’re not sure what all we’re going to play for the year.
Last year I played 111 games. When January came around, I had no idea what games those would be!
I do have some new year’s resolutions.
I do want to get Time of Crisis played again, especially now that I have a nice storage solution for it.
January put 2023 off to a good start as far as “new to me” games go. Going to a convention definitely helped with that one, though I got some old favourites played as well (that post will go up Monday!)
Given the fact that I have games from 2006, 2015, and 2011 on this list, not to mention some newer games, the Cult of the New to Me was actually very happy!
That was them listening to my New Year’s speech.
Anyway, there are nine new to me games on this month’s list. Quite the impressive showing!
Maybe there will be enough during the year for me to do a Top 25 games played series in 2024?
That would be nice.
I doubt February will have as many new to me games, but March has another convention so we’ll see!
Anyway, without further ado (all of my ado was adopted by a Roman Emperor anyway, so I guess it will be the new Emperor some day!), let’s begin!
Read MoreAlmoravid – Storage Solution from Rails on Board
I promised at the end of last year that there would be one more of these storage solution posts coming, with me buying Almoravid from GMT Games but not having actually picking it up from our US post box.
I finally did, and while it’s taken me a little while to actually open, punch, and sticker the damned thing (damn, that’s a heavy box), I finally did it!
I had bought many game storage solutions from Cube4Me (Rails on Board) and I bought the Almoravid one because I knew I would be buying the game.
Thus, this time you’re not going to get a “before and after” picture because there was never a “before!”
I put this in the awesome storage solution straight out of the punch and sticker phase.
And it fits amazingly!
Read MoreScholars of the South Tigris from Garphill Games Coming to Kickstarter March 7
(Edit 3/1/23: And it’s now live!)
(Edit 2/16/23: It’s coming 6 days earlier! The new Kickstarter date is March 1)
(Edit 2/2/23: Get notified when it goes live by going here!)
Two posts in a day, but this announcement is worth it!
Today on Twitter, Shem Phillips of Garphill Games announced that the latest edition to the South Tigris trilogy, Scholars of the South Tigris, will be hitting Kickstarter on March 7.
I just received Wayfarers of the South Tigris about a month ago, so this is amazing news.
Now I have to actually play that one! I just missed playing it at OrcaCon earlier this month.
The game is once again designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald with art by the Mico.
Given the Garphill Games track record, a Kickstarter in March means that we’ll probably have it by the end of the year.
Here’s the blurb from Boardgame Geek about this one:
”Scholars of the South Tigris is set during the height of the Abbasid Caliphate, circa 830 AD. The Caliph has called upon the keenest minds to acquire scientific manuscripts from all over the known world. Players will need to increase their influence in the House of Wisdom, and hire skilled linguists to translate the foreign scrolls into Arabic. In this Golden Age of wisdom and knowledge, be mindful not to neglect one in pursuit of the other.”
We’ll see if it’s amazing as the other Garphill games that I have played.
I’m looking forward to this one!
What about you?
Dude! Take Your Turn! 