Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario A – Grassy Knoll
Another month and another great game of Combat Commander, this time of the Pacific variety!
Once a month, those of us on the Combat Commander ladder led by the illustrious Patrick Pence are able to immerse themselves in vicious combat against a very capable opponent.
If you have any interest in Combat Commander at all, I suggest you join the ladder. You might even get to play me!
September’s game was from the Combat Commander: Pacific game so it was a bit different than previous outings.
New rules, new cards, and forces from the Japanese, United States, and Commonwealth countries add some interesting things to the mix. Some of the Combat Commander: Europe stuff is completely changed.
It took a little getting used to (though I actually own Pacific, so that is nice at least).
(Incidentally, you can click on or tap each picture for a bigger view of it)
My opponent for September’s ladder game was Bill Simoni. He was the attacking American forces (green) and I was the Japanese (white), determined to defend the Grassy Knoll (no, this didn’t take place in Dallas).
This is how we set up.
The hex between two of my stacks of units, Objective 5, is worth 10 victory points. Very juicy! I control it at start, so if the Americans take it, that’s a 20-point swing (I lose 10 VP and then the US gains 10 VP).
As you can see, quite important!
The Americans are hiding in the jungle, determined to advance along the south. The north is not a consideration, but they do have reinforcements that could come in on the north edge, so I had to be wary of that.
I set up the main bunker and the only Japanese leader next to the objective hex with the other units in Foxholes or a Trench within command radius so they could all be activated at the same time.
I also have one team, one squad, a light machine gun, and some foxholes that can infiltrate somewhere on the map (where the “Sighting” marker is, which can change with each random hex draw) sometime during the game.
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #230-221
It was a close one this week.
Yes, I almost didn’t get this post done so that it would post this week at all.
That would break my streak and we know that we can’t have that.
But here it is!
We’re three episodes away from finishing the series, and my plan is to have it done by early October at the latest.
Let’s see if we can keep it up.
Am I going to do the Top 400?
Hell no!
I admit that these list posts were a way, during the pandemic, to actually get some content on here and keep me writing, or else this would have been a dead blog many months ago.
Now that I’m actually gaming again, I hope not to have to rely on stuff like this.
Hopefully, the next “Top 10” will be my Top 10 (or 5 if I haven’t played that many) games played this year.
And also, I think I’ve played enough games now and by the end of the year that I can do an updated Top 25 games played of all time.
Yes!
That will be fun.
Anyway, let’s get to this week’s list.
Read MoreCombat Commander Europe – #11 Hold the Line
Here we are with Scenario #11 in the Combat Commander: Europe playthrough that Michal and I did.
Yes, that’s right. Did. Because we just finished scenario #12 today! He’ll be doing the write-up of that as well.
This was a great scenario, though marred by my horrible placement of the broken-down tank. What was I thinking?
Still, I almost pulled it out when a heroic broken squad advanced into a hex with a 9-2 leader, SS squad, and weapon team. And then Ambushed them to the point where we had mutual annihilation! But in the melee roll, he rolled another 9-2 leader as a reinforcement.
Oof.
Anyway, enjoy this awesome write-up. Thanks, Michal!
With the great pleasure let me invite you to already our 11th Combat Commander Europe scenario which we played with Dave in our epic goal to have all Base-Game covered in a sequence. That particular battle is very interesting and I had already chance to play it couple of times in the past. So the expectation was that it will bring so much fun as previously. And believe me, we were not disappointed!
Other Combat Commander scenarios in our camping with Dave:#1 FatLipki#2 Hedgroves and HandGrenades#3 Bonfire of theNKVD#4 Closed forRenovation#5 Cold Front#6 Paralyzed from the West Down#7 Bessarabian Nights#8 Breakoutdance#9 Rush tocontact#10 CommandoSchools
Time to provide some more details about the scenario. #11 Hold the Line is one more Attacker-Defender set-up, but with a very intriguing twist – a broken tank! It is July 8th 1944 in France; US…
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Boardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #240 – 231
Three weeks.
Yes, that’s three weeks.
Three weeks in a row where I’ve done an entry for the Top 300 games on BGG!
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
I know, right? I don’t believe it either!
Anyway, this is the next entry in the Top 300 ranked games on Boardgame Geek.
We’re looking at even more games I haven’t played (though this time I’ve played a few!) and seeing whether or not I even want to play them.
Since I’m kind of a loser and have been remiss in posting these entries, I have to remind you that the list I’m taking these from was downloaded on February 8, 2021 (a long time ago), so many rankings have changed.
I have made note of that when it happened.
I know I’m making light of it, but after the Summer I’ve had, I’m actually very proud that I’ve been pretty consistent with the posting over the last few weeks.
Maybe I’m finally coming out of this.
With that being said, let’s get to the list!
Read MoreExpansion Review – Roll Player: Monsters & Minions
One of the biggest hits for me during the beginning of the pandemic (when I bought way too many games than I really should have) was Roll Player. I had played it once before, was intrigued by it, but never actually got to play it again.
So when we were all locked down and I was looking for stuff to play with the wife, Roll Player jumped out at me for some reason.
And it was a smashing success!
The one thing that was lacking in the game, though, was the fact that once you have this character created, the game ends. It almost seems abrupt.
That’s where the Monsters & Minions expansion comes in.
Designed by Keith Matejka with artwork by JJ Ariosa, Luis Francisco, and Lucas Ribeiro and published by Thunderworks Games, this expansion really adds some meat to the character-building bone.
Using this expansion, players are trying to build up to the goal of using their character to fight an end-game monster. Also, during the game, you can deal with the monster’s minions that will give you an idea of what bonuses you can get when fighting the monster.
You know the most important thing it adds?
A First Player token!!
Ok, maybe not the most important, but the easiest way to remove an annoyance from the base game.
How does the expansion work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreNew To Me – August 2021
What’s this, out of the wild? Cue Marlin Perkins!
Yes, it’s a “New to Me” games post!
For the first time in a few months, I’ve actually played some new games, so I get to tell you about them!
Yes, it’s been 4 months since the last one! It’s been a really tough Summer, at least emotionally.
Apologies for that.
It’s been so good to get out to organized game days again.
Especially because it got me two new to me games!
The Cult of the New to Me has been pretty gracious this last year. They know this COVID thing sucks. They haven’t even tried to revolt, instead being pretty chill about things.
In addition to a couple of new to me games, one of the first games I got played was an old favourite!
Not a new to me game, but I played one of my favourite games, Terraforming Mars, on the table for the first time in a year and a half in August. With the blinged-out Big Box components!
That was a blast.
So, without further adieu (all of my adieu was taken in a Goblin raid anyway), let’s get this party started!
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #250 – 241
What? Two editions of this list in two weeks?
Could Dave be back?
I wouldn’t count on it, but this is a welcome thing to see!
My editor is very happy (Editor: Yeah, so happy I could almost not speak in a monotone)
It’s been a tough Summer, but I feel I’m coming out of it a little bit, which is a really nice feeling.
Not to mention that we’re back to Sunday game days! That’s always a good thing too (A “New to Me” post is coming later this week!)
Should we celebrate?
Let’s all dance.
I won’t be finishing this list by the time I get back to work (that’s next week) but hopefully by the end of the year!
We’ll see.
Anyway, just to let you know, this list was downloaded on February 8, 2021.
So yeah, there are lots of changes.
Let’s begin!
Read MoreFounders of Teotihuacan Coming from Board & Dice in May 2022
Sometimes it pays to be on email lists.
And sometimes it doesn’t (I’m looking at you, you US Special Forces operative who keeps promising me a fortune in stolen loot but never answers my email responses!).
But this time it did!
Today’s Inbox contained the formal announcement of a new game from Board & Dice which has the spirit of the awesome Teotihuacan without being a sequel.
Founders of Teotihuacan is a tile-laying game designed by Filip Głowacz with artwork by Chuy de Leon, Odysseas Stamoglou and Aleksander Zawada.
This looks really interesting! The artwork looks amazing, definitely keeping the feel of Teotihuacan and yet being fairly different.
Read MoreBoardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #260-251
Wow, has it been 2 months since I last posted an entry in this series looking at the top-ranked games on BGG, #300-201?
Yes, yes it has.
A lot of personal stuff has been going on and I just didn’t feel up to blogging during June and July.
I did some reblogging of Combat Commander posts from Michal, which gave this blog a little bit of activity.
But actively writing something?
It was beyond me.
Thankfully, that’s all changed now, at least for the most part.
While COVID is not over, it is possible to get together with fellow vaccinated friends and actually get some games in.
In fact, I’ll be writing a “New to Me Games” post for August, the first one in a couple of months!
Really, people. With the Delta Variant running rampant, get the shot!
Don’t be a loser.
I want to go to conventions again, and this current situation ain’t helping!
But that’s not the point of this post.
We are looking at the Top 300 games on BGG, counting down from #300 to #201, and we are finally half-way done.
It’s only taken 3 or 4 months.
Yes, the list I’m basing this on was downloaded on February 8, 2021 and it’s really outdated!
Especially with our first entry.
So let’s get started before all of these game move even further away from what I’m actually talking about.
Read MoreLegendary Marvel – New Expansions Cover Art
This was a pretty cool find over the weekend.
The massive delays in the release of Marvel Legendary: Annihilation have made Upper Deck indicate that they are going to be releasing all of the scheduled 2021 expansions even though the first one isn’t coming out until maybe September (if that).
Can they do that?
I have trouble seeing it, but maybe?
Anyway, one of the announced expansions for 2021 is Messiah Complex, based apparently on one of the mutant storylines from years past (can you tell I haven’t followed the comics much?)
Bageltop Games posted on Boardgame Geek that he found the cover artwork on Cardhaus Games’ site.
This, of course, does seem to indicate at least some of the mutant heroes that will be in the expansion (hopefully they wouldn’t mislead on that).
Looks pretty cool, eh?
Here’s the solicit for it, which also may give you some ideas.
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 