Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Combat Commander Europe – #6 Paralyzed from the West Down
I’ve been remiss in reblogging these excellent Combat Commander session reports written by Michal!
This is Scenario 6, and it was a really fun game. We did discover after the fact that the Objective R is supposed to be an Open objective even if it’s drawn by a player, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise.
But what a tense game and I’ve discovered that I’m a much better attacker than defender.
I will be reblogging Scenario #7’s AAR soon!
Thanks, Michal, for doing such a great job posting these.
With great pleasure I would like to invite you guys to already 6th installment in our ambitious project – playing with Dave all twelve Combat Commander Europe Base Game scenarios. With every game we learn more and more about that fantastic system, we refine our tactics and approaches, we learn cards and what the opponent can do should we decide to pursuit some particular path. Today I am presenting scenario number six – #06 Paralyzed from the West Down. As always, let me invite you to picture-rich session report!
Other Combat Commander camping with Dave:#1 Fat Lipki#2 Hedgroves and Hand Grenades#3 Bonfire of the NKVD#4 Closed for Renovation#5 Cold Front
It is June 7th, 1944. Overlord – The largest amphibious operation ever conducted – has just started. The German soldiers (Michal, defender) were completely surprised by the speed and ferocity of Allied (Dave, attacker)…
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Concordia Digital Edition in Beta Soon!
Just saw a tweet and received an email today from Acram Digital, the brilliant programmers behind Istanbul and many other great boardgame apps.
Remember I mentioned that Concordia is the new game from them?
They just released a trailer for it and the beta for it is now open!
The beta sign-up is on the tweet, and I jumped on it as soon as I saw it.
It looks like it’s coming out this Autumn and I for one can’t wait.
It’s not a huge favourite of mine but it is a game I quite enjoy and having a lot of the fiddly stuff taken care of by the app will really help it, I think.
Hopefully I’ll be able to bring you a review of it when it comes out and, if I make it into the beta, I’ll have some first impressions for you.
Until then, get signed up yourself and maybe we can play a game!
Boardgame Geek Top 300 – Play or Played – #270-261
I know it’s been a while (my last post was May 28), but here were finally are with another entry in the COVID-long series of posts about games on Boardgame Geek and whether or not I’ve played them.
Thankfully, it looks like the main issues with the pandemic will be over before I have to go to the Top 300.
In fact, I have my first shot and should be getting my second one sometime in July. Maybe I’ll be back at our Sunday Fun Day in August!
I sincerely hope so.
Seriously, this is me begging you. If you’re reluctant to get your shot for whatever reason, know that it’s worth it. Whatever side effects *might* happen, the risk and the results of getting COVID are far worse.
It’s been almost 2 months since I did the last of this series of postings. My apologies for that. Things have been…not good around here lately and it’s been hard to muster the energy for it.
But I am persevering and I finally got this one done!
Let’s hope this continues.
Just a reminder that this is the list as of February 8, when I downloaded it from BGG. I’ve made note of changes in position since then, of course.
Yes, it’s taken me that long.
So let’s get this party started!
And when I say “party,” I mean a polite social gathering of no more than 10 people (until at least July 1).
Read MoreDominion App From Temple Gates Games – Beta First Impressions
It’s really cool to be involved with something that not everybody else has access to.
Hell, that’s why I started this blog!
Not that this has really manifested too much, but I did manage to get into the beta version of the Dominion app that Temple Gates Games is releasing, as I mentioned last week.
So far, the beta has been pretty interesting and I can already see that there is a lot of polish with the game.
Sure, there are a bunch of bugs, but this is a beta so of course there’s going to be.
You know what this beta has mostly taught me?
That I suck at Dominion.
However, the app itself seems very cool.
Read MoreReview – Raiders of the North Sea Big Box
One of the first posts I did on this blog talked about how board game box inserts can be so important.
The problem with even good inserts has always been “what about the expansion(s)?”
That’s a viable point. I’ve seen many games where the insert is awesome, but as soon as an expansion is released, the insert has to go away because it’s not designed to fit anything other than what came in the base game.
That’s why the latest “Big Box” phenomenon is so intriguing, because it’s basically releasing a box, with some extra content (maybe a few extra cards, maybe some card sleeves), and that’s it. No new game play, maybe some deluxe versions of tiles and such (like the Terrforming Mars big box that’s also a deluxe version of the game with awesome tiles and plastic in addition to being a Big Box).
Or you could do what Garphill Games (and Renegade Games Studios) is doing with some of their games.
Yes, this is a review of my recently acquired Raiders of the North Sea Big Box, and I have to say it is awesome. (see my review of the game here)
Read MoreClassic Dominion Coming Digitally by Temple Gates Games
Boardgame Twitter was all abuzz this morning with the final announcement that the classic deck-building game Dominion, the game that started it all, will be coming out later this year as a digital app!
The card game was designed by Donald X. Vaccarino and published by Rio Grande Games.
Noted app company Temple Gates Games is behind this beautiful production and, given their track record (app versions of Shards of Infinity, Roll for the Galaxy and Race for the Galaxy), could Dominion finally be done right after a history of terrible apps from other companies?
I have every faith that it will be.
For a number of reasons.
Read MoreReview – Speakeasy Blues
There have been a few games published recently about Prohibition and various alcohol-related activites.
I fully endorse more of that! *hic*
One of the ones that looked really cool but I never pulled the trigger on buying it was Speakeasy Blues.
When the pandemic hit and I was looking for stuff to play with my wife, this popped up on one of my boardgame store sites and I took a second look, finally deciding to pick it up.
Speakeasy Blues was designed by Adrian Adamescu and Daryl Andrews with art by Heiko Günther, Don Whitson. It was published in 2018 by Artana Games.
I’ve always wanted to run a speakeasy. So what’s held me back?
A couple of things.
First, my business sense is horrendous.
And secondly, booze isn’t, you know, illegal anymore.
Does the game make you feel like you are, though?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreCombat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario #112 – Sonnenwende
You may have noticed that I’m kind of obsessed with Combat Commander right now.
If not, I don’t know how you could have missed it.
Patrick Pence, of Patrick’s Tactics and Tutorials Youtube fame, runs a Combat Commander ladder on Boardgame Geek where players play one scenario a month against others on the ladder.
Essentially, it’s a ranking system and you (usually) play the player that’s above you or below you on the ladder.
After playing some PBEM games with Michal from the Boardgame Chronicle, I decided to join the Ladder and get some real-time games in against multiple opponents.
My first game was last night, and it was a hell of a lot of fun! Steve C from the ladder volunteered to play against me since the guy I would normally play couldn’t play this month.
This month’s scenario was called Sonnenwende, a struggle between German troops and Soviet troops in the streets of Berlin in 1945.
I was assigned the Germans and Steve the Soviets.
The Soviets have a ton of Assault troops and SMG troops as well as flamethrowers and satchel charges designed to take out bunkers. They also have powerful artillery.
The Germans have elite SS troops as well as conscripts, as well as a couple of heavy machine guns, a number of bunkers and trenches, wire and mines that will fortify the defense of the main building (Objective 5 in the north of the map).
Here’s the initial setup.
One bunker behind all that wire in the north, and then one each in the street in the south covering crossroads. There are also trenches in and next to the objective building too.
Read MoreCombat Commander Europe – #5 Cold Front
Another amazing write-up by Michal of our continuing series of Combat Commander games. In this one, I am trying to make it across the board with the Germans standing in my way. I’m not the most aggressive player, but I ended up having to take some chances and it ended up working out!
A narrow win, and another great game. Again, thanks, Michal, for writing these up and for introducing me to this world!
I also encourage you to go to his blog and read up on his other wargaming goodness.
Our campaign with Dave continues. Combat Commander Europe – Base Game – all scenarios played consecutively, one by one, using Play be Email Method. Actually, this is Discord for files exchange and quick consultations whenever there is some question / uncertainty. Today I am presenting scenario number five – #5 Cold Front. As always, let me invite you to picture-rich session report!
Other Combat Commander camping with Dave:#1 Fat Lipki#2 Hedgroves and Hand Grenades#3 Bonfire of the NKVD#4 Closed for Renovation
Cold Frontis kind of attacker (USSR, Dave) vs defender (Germans, Michal) type of scenario. This time it is very cold – end of December 1941 – to the extent that no fortifications of any type can be placed during the game (which hinders defender a lot). Soviet forces just got influx of Siberian troops and are executing another counter-offensive. They are all equipped…
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New to Me – April 2021
April was not a good month of gaming for me.
In March, I played a bunch of live games on Boardgame Arena to really pad my stats and it was a lot of fun.
In April, however, I didn’t even really do that.
I did play 7 games, though, including revisiting some games that I haven’t played in ages.
The BGA edition of Alhambra, for example, is exquisite! But I first played that about 8 years ago, so it’s not a New to Me game.
Same goes for Tokaido and Sushi Go, which also have very good implementations there.
I do plan on doing something more in May, mainly because my fellow Cult of the New to Me members are starting to give me a bit of the side-eye.
But then I point out that I’m the one that’s paying the rent for Cult Headquarters, and they back off.
However, I then bring out cookies because I’m a benevolent cult leader.
Anyway, this is the first post in almost two weeks so let’s get to it!
Without further adieu (all of my adieu became T-Rex food anyway, and that was certainly a blow to the self-esteem), here we go!
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Dude! Take Your Turn! 