So my plan for yesterday evening was a first solo game of Valor & Victory. There's a nice little scenario that plays in about an hour including setup. Instead I ended up making chits.

This is a print & play squad-level wargame with about 12 pages of rules. Nothing too complicated in the actual gameplay but some of the scenarios are pretty big in the number of units and size of the maps. Like most games at this level of detail, you can pick the playtime by picking the scenario.

The first one I had in mind plays on a single map and has about six squads total. If I can figure out the basics on that one I'd bring it to my buddy Paul's place for the next step up against an opponent.

I got this thing in a trade. The guy on the other side of it got Zooloretto with four or five of the mini-expansions and I got V&V and Target Arnhem: Across 6 Bridges which I was ecstatic about because one of them would require me to expend actual effort to have and the other is out of print and hard to find. So he thought he really got a deal but for me it was just a nice set.

But the V&V was printed on thick paper and nothing else. Whisper-thin from a chit perspective.  That's par for the course, and the real value in the package was the plush rulebook and the cheat cards printed in full color. The other value was that it got me off my butt and trying to improve on it. I printed the chits for the British Infantry and the heavy vehicles onto basic paper and then affixed it to that flexible foam stuff that you can buy at Michael's. It's adhesive on one side so it's just a peel and stick maneuver and it cuts easily enough with scissors.

For me it's a nice step up because I need the thickness to pick up the pieces. Euros have few enough pieces on the board so I can generally just slide whatever card I need to the edge to pick it up (except for the new Alhambra board with the score wrapped around the cards -- bad idea) but on a map with three-dozen chits or more that's often not an option. I worried they'd be too light, but they have a nice feel to them and they don't seem to cling to each other. The flexiness of them feels a bit out of the ordinary, but nothing to worry about. Nice and thick.

The foam sheets are 99 cents each and are 9x12 so they hold a lot of chit. I'm guessing about 35 cents per printed page on my printer, so for about six dollars I'm getting the entire western front, and the maps (I won't mount those) are 45 cents apiece on legal size paper, maybe a dozen total. Let's say five dollars for all the maps I will ever use. All the rules and quick-refs are already done, so I'll likely spend $11 on it and have a pretty plush version of a well-respected squad-level game. 

Valor & Victory is definitely worth a look -- ASL style game with a very-well-illustrated 12 page rule book.

S.

Dr. Finn’s Games

A friend of mine brought over a little card game to the last Grand Rapids Area Boardgamers game day. It came in a VHS video case. You know the old big bulky ones?  The cover proclaimed “Scripts and Scribes A medieval Game of Strategy and Intrigue.”

I was, well, intrigued. I love card games. They are my first love in gaming. I have spent countless hours playing Spades, Euchre, Hearts and Rummy. I was eager to give it a whirl. It turns out that it really is a wonderful game. After really enjoying Scripts and Scribes I looked up Dr. Finn’s games. 

It turns out he is an interesting cat. The blurb on his web site reads: “Games should be a good time: easy to understand, quick to learn, and fun to play. Games have come a long way since Monopoly thanks to some great strategy games that have broken the mold like Settlers of Catan and Carcassone. Dr Finn's Games are a perfect "gateway" to this new world of games, easy to understand, exciting to play and straight from the designer.” He has self published these games in “limited runs of 100-200 games. If the game is well received, we may make additional runs.”

I picked up Slush Fund from him directly and signed up for his email list. Being on the list I was lucky enough to be among the group of people who were able to order his most recent game “The Trial of Socrates.”

Manipulating victory points is a common element in all three games I have played by the good doctor. All three are short, easy to learn, have a nice flow of play and most importantly are (as advertised) fun. The type of game you want to play a couple of times in a row, once you grok what is going on. I would call them Super-Fillers. If you are looking for some games to have on hand while you are waiting for the entire gang to get to game night, these are perfect!

In S&S VPs are dice – value starts off at 3 and during game play cards (Bishops) come up that allow you to add or subtract from the VPs. There are two phases of the game. Both phase are different hand drafting mechanisms. In the first you are building your hand by picking cards off the deck. You have 3 choices. Put the card in your hand, put it in an “auction pile” for the next phase, or put the cards face up (enough for every other player in the game). The face up cards are then drafted by the other players. Play goes round and round until the deck is depleted. Then the auction phase! Yes, I can hear you groan, but fear not friends! It is quick and is just another hand drafting mechanism for this game. Cards come face up one at a time, and you bid gold for cards that aren’t gold, and some number of cards for gold cards. In the end each player has a hand built consisting of various suits.  The player with the most points in a suit gets the die, i.e., the VPs.  Most VPs wins!  

Slush Fund is billed as “An exciting game of bribery, scandal, and politics”. It has VP cards that are added to the politicians you are trying to bribe, scandal cards that subtract VPs, and Thief cards that can steal bribes from other players bribe piles. You play your cards on your side of the politician card and after all the machinations are done, the player with the most money in his bribe pile wins the politician. Base point of politicians is 7 plus and/or minus any VP or scandal cards in that player’s pile.

The Trial of Socrates is a light worker placement filler game. This is a very homespun affair. It has almost a prototype feel to it, production wise.   The components are simple but perfectly functional.  You place follower tokens of various value face down in various areas of the “board” and are vying for the VPs in each house. The worker (cube) placement mechanism allows you reveal tokens values so you assess where players are in the race to control the houses. A second cube allows you to choose between playing cards, drawing cards, or adjusting your tokens around the board. Most points wins the house VPs and most VPs wins the game.

Some may be turned off by the low production quality, particularly The Trial of Socrates. Much like Winsome games, it actually is part of the charm of the games in my opinion. In the two card games, the cards are fine quality and I rather like the art. Some of the folks I have played with complain that the cards in S&S are a bit hard to differentiate. That is a fair criticism. I would put it down as a minor gripe rather than a reason to not try out the game. It is also perfectly fair to note, that theme in all of these games is utterly superfluous. It is there for ambiance only. It works for me just fine, but may be a disappointment for fans of theme heavy games.

These may sound like the stuff of any usual dreary Euro game, but these games are absolutely a blast. Each of them play in about thirty minutes. While the game play is quick, there is a fair amount of strategy hidden in the simple rules.

If you are looking for a nice filler game (or two) I would highly recommend you check these out.  I would note that Scripts and Scribes and Trial of Socrates may be hard to purchase right now. I understand that S&S will be re-released by a professional publisher, hopefully in 2010, albeit under a new name.  So keep your eyes open and if you get a chance to support a small publisher I think you will be well pleased with these games.

About 2 years ago, Avalon Hill (Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro) released a collectible miniatures game called "War At Sea".  Being a Naval geek and having wanted to play a Naval Miniatures game in forever, I bought quite a few of the minis (The Complete US Set, the Complete Japanese Set, quite a few Germans and Brits) and played the game hot and heavy for a few months.  The game is fun, but it is lacking.  There isn't quite the depth of strategy that you can get from other games I've played.  My biggest complaint is that Destroyers are pretty much easy pickings almost to the point of uselessness.  Planes are nice but once the carrier gets in gun range of the battleship, it gets chewed up.  Submarines are next to impossible to kill because once the destroyers are gone, they can not be hit by anything else (unless the planes survive).  So while the game is fun, it is hardly a good Naval game.

At Gen Con, one of my friends ended up picking up a copy of "Victory at Sea" because we have been eying this game for a while.  Everything I've read about it seems to indicate that it is closer to what I am looking for (although one of these years I would like to play a game he and another friend have been talking about called "Fletcher Pratt").

So last night, we got a chance to play it.  For our first battle, we did the Graf Spee against a Southampton class Cruiser.  According to the rules these should have been evenly matched which looking at the stats, they should have been.  He had the Graf Spee with better guns and I had the Southampton with better aiming.  It turned out to be a pretty lopsided affair as the Graf Spee sent the Southampton to the bottom.

So then we played the Bismarck vs. the Missouri.  Again according to the rules this should have been a fairly even match.  I had the Missouri and ended up smoking the Bismarck.

Anyways, even though we ended up steaming our ships towards each other, the battles still felt about right.  You could tell the difference in speed between the ships (In Axis and Allies the ships either move 1 or 2 spaces, so there's not really all that much difference between a destroyer and battleship in speed) and I have a feeling had we done one more with destroyers, that would have been even more apparent.  There's also different target numbers depending on the silouette of the ships (battleships have a lower target number than the cruisers, I didn't see destroyers), so smaller ships get harder to hit (although throwing 9 dice at one will hurt it, I think).

I think if we had did a bigger engagement with Destroyers, it would have been a nice donnybrook as the Destroyers could lay smoke (something that not all destroyers can do in Axis and Allies) and I think the differences in the ships would have become even more apparent as the Destroyers would have been able to turn tighter and move faster.  All in all, the game seems pretty fun and I can't wait to play it again.

Handing a new player the Vagabond is simultaneously the best and worst introduction to Root.

So Victory Point Games just announced they have purchased a laser cutting machine and are making counters so thick that they can be stood on  edge.  [VPG announcement]

Given that VPG recently had GMT release the de-luxe version of No Retreat!, I wonder if they decided to keep that money in the family.  The new, fancier games are called "Gold Banner" and for now they won't cost any more.  I plan to snap up as many as I can afford before they raise their prices.  It sounds like they will upgrade their existing quiver of games to the Gold Banner standard starting with their best sellers and games that are expecting expansions.  I'm personally hoping for Nemo's War, Dawn of the Zeds and Zulus on the Ramparts.

They also announced their plans for broader distribution, including Amazon fulfillment.  I'm looking forward to seeing Forlorn Hope with chunky counters for sale by Amazon for $25 with free shipping.  My overdraft account is trembling in fear.

Alan Emrich is doing something that I think is really kind of special. He's running a small games business and apparently doing extremely well since he was able to cut a $1000 royalty check to one of his designers. He's also teaching classes on game design and encouraging folks to get out there and make games, not just play them. And the games he's publishing are well worth your time and money, covering some unusual subject matter and providing some very fresh gameplay ideas that are sorely lacking in the "majors".

In this article over at Gameshark, I'm reviewing three of VPG's multiplayer games- CIRCUS TRAIN (which Ubarose reviewed a while back and got me interested in), LOOT & SCOOT, and FORLORN: HOPE.  In a future column, I'm going to be covering a couple of their solitaire games including SOVIET DAWN, ZULUS ON THE RAMPARTS, TOE-TO-TOE NUK'LR COMBAT, and NEMO'S WAR. NEMO'S WAR is one of the best games of the year, it's _outstanding_ and hugely thematic.

It really amazes me how much narrative, detail, historicity, and gameplay these guys are packing into really small footprints. TOE TO TOE has like 20 counters and it feels more thematic than games I've paid five times as much for and that have hundreds more components.

They've got a new one out that I wish that I could have covered, it's called FINAL FRONTIER and it's very obviously a Star Trek game. It looks fun. Anybody play it yet?

 Pictured is James Mason as Captain Nemo. He's PISSED. That is a stern look of disapproval if ever I saw one.

Why is "Jehmz Mehhhzohn" pissed? Because you're not playing NEMO'S WAR enough. It's one of the best games of 2010, and it along with PHANTOM LEADER rank as two of the very best solitaire games I've ever played. So quit laying out four character, one player games of ARKHAM HORROR that take all day to set up, play, and put away and give the ol' Nautilus a whirl. I think you'll be surprised at how much game this inexpensive, low profile game will give you. And the them is BAD ASS.

This week at Cracked LCD I'm looking at NEMO'S WAR along with three other Victory Point Games solitaire titles. They're all really good ones. That's seven total games that I've covered from their catalog, and I have yet to play a bad one. Can't wait to see what these guys do next.

This 12+ minute screencast is primarily for aspiring designers, not for professionals.

This is a followup to "10 'need to knows' about game design" http://gamasutra.com/blogs/LewisPulsipher/20141020/228137/Video_screencast_10_quotNeed_to_Knowsquot_about_Game_Design.php

The text of the slides follows.  Of course, there's a lot more to the screencast than this text.

11 MORE “need to knows” about Game Design

Dr. Lewis Pulsipher

Pulsiphergames.com

“Game Design” channel on YouTube

Original 10 Wasn’t Enough

I started with 10 “ntk”

But I thought of more than 10, so here some more.  Keep in mind, the first 10, taken as a whole, are the most important

But these 11 are also important

The List

Focus on the essence

Professionals design for other people, not for themselves

Professional game design is about discipline, not self-indulgence

Game Design is not Mind Control

There is no perfect game

You probably won’t be good at game design, at first

Games are not just Mechanics

Making a good game takes a LOT of time

Piracy is everywhere (for “digital” goods)

You’re an Entertainer, or a teacher, not a gift to the world

“Fail Faster”

Focus on the Essence

My motto: "A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."  (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Another form, about Japanese gardening, is "Your garden is not complete until there is nothing else that you can remove."

If you’re making a puzzle, complexity might be a goal; If you’re making “an experience”, simplicity may not be a goal.  For most games, the goal is to keep only what you absolutely need

Professionals design for other people, not for themselves

 [As this has been misunderstood by someone who didn't listen to the screencast, I interject the following: Your primary goal (for most games, recognizing there are specialized such as educational) is to entertain other people, not yourself.  The goal is to entertain, the design is for other people.  As such, any list of features that you think will make your game a surefire hit will likely turn into a soul-less mess.  So perhaps I could have worded the slide, "Professionals work to entertain other people, not themselves".]

Your job is to entertain or enlighten other people

You are not typical, or you wouldn’t be designing games!

So what you like, may not be typical of what large groups like

Don’t rely solely on your own opinions about the worth of a game

I recently had a game published that I didn’t think was a Big Deal, just a nice little game – but others had different opinions

And I have had games I thought were outstanding, but have not been published

Professional game design is about discipline, not self-indulgence

Many designers are self-indulgent, often thinking of themselves as “artists” who are blessing the world with their brilliance – so they do whatever they want

POPPYCOCK! (Though you can do this if you’re not interested in selling any games . . .)

Do player-centric, not designer-centric (or art-centric) design

Game design is compromise.  It’s never “perfect”

Game Design is not Mind Control

Some designers want to, in effect, control all that the player is doing and thinking

And if you think about it, a novel can be approached in this way

Though most novelists want to influence, not control

Linear video games can approach this ideal

But most game players want to have the ability to control the outcome of the game (and want “agency” as well)

Better to think of game design as offering players opportunities, not forcing anything on the players

There is no perfect game

There are dozens of genres for a reason

Tastes of game players vary as much as tastes of music-lovers.  (I dislike rap.  I like classical.  Some people love rap.  Some hate classical.  And so on.)

And there’s no room for perfectionism in professional design

You need to get games DONE.  Especially in video games

The Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns sets in quickly for professionals, less so for hobbyist designers

So at some point, you have to finish even though the game isn’t perfect

You probably won’t be good at it, at first

How often do you start to do something complex, requiring a lot of critical thinking, and yet you’re immediately good at it?  Never!

Most complex things worth doing, take a long time to do well

Even playing a game well can take a long time to master

Some theorize that you need a great many opportunities to fail/succeed before you can become good at something

And there’s the “10,000 hours” notion, too, though I don’t take the quantification seriously

Games are not just Mechanics

What matters is the impression you make on the player(s)

MDA: Mechanics, Dynamics, “Aesthetics” (I prefer “Impressions” for the last)

Collections of mechanics can feel soul-less

If you choose mechanics based on a model, they tend to fit together; if they’re just collections, they’ll often not fit together

Making a good game takes a LOT of time

Most of what happens in game design takes place in the mind – of the designer, and of the players

Outsiders/non-practitioners tend to minimize the difficulty because they don’t see it happening

Moreover, it’s easy to get a game to 80%, it’s the last 20% that takes most of the game design time and effort

And then, if it’s a tabletop game, scheduling and manufacturing can take many months

Mayfair recently published a game they’d had for 8 years

I have a game that may be published in 2015, publisher accepted it in 2005 [sic]

Piracy

Piracy of “digitally”-produced games is rampant

And there’s practically nothing you can do about it

Free-to-play helps (in video games), but even the in-app purchases in F2P are pirated regularly

Fortunately, not much piracy in tabletop games (unless it’s primarily a rulebook, such as RPGs)

You’re an Entertainer or a Teacher, not a "gift to the world”

That is, if you want to be a commercial game designer

Publishers are in business to make money (mostly, but especially in video games)

Yes, you can self-publish

But a lot more people want games to entertain or enlighten them, than want games to be “art”

“We want to entertain people by surprising them, so I really don’t think we are psychologists – we are nothing but entertainers.” -Shigeru Miyamoto (Zelda, Donkey Kong, Wii Fit, etc. )

Reiner Knizia (over 500 [sic] published games) also says his purpose is entertainment

“Fail Faster”

You want to find all the ways your game can fail, and eliminate or fix them

So the faster you fail, the quicker you can eliminate or fix the failures

Or start over!

Get a playable prototype done as soon as possible – there is NO Substitute

If you’re doing a video game, try to make a paper prototype first, to try things out

About a week ago, I posted up a Video Game Music contest here on F:AT.

Here's the link to it

The Results: everybody who participated won! I'd like to send out a special thanks to Jeb, Rocketwiki, and mjl1783 for actually participating. Rocketwiki had 4 correct answers. Mjl1783 had 3 correct answers, and Jeb 2 correct answers and 2 instances of getting the series right, but not the specific game.

The answers, with associated youtube links of the songs in-game and info blurbs about the games for the interested:

1 - AXELAY for SNES

A SHMUP in the same vein as Radiant Silvergun and other Shmups where you don't get powerups and stuff. You have several different guns you can switch between. Like Radiant Silvergun, has a high learning curve for a shmup and I was never very good at it. This game also features the worst abuse of mode 7 I have ever seen. EDIT: That is not to say that the game wasn't awesome.

2 - Civilization IV for PC

I'm surprised that only Rocketwiki got this one. No one else here has played or plays Civ 4? I have thoroughly enjoyed every Civilization PC game thus far, but this one is definitely my favorite.

3 - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for NES

The tune is "Bloody Tears", which made its first appearance in this game and then became a recurring theme in the Castevania series because of its awesomeness.

4 - X-COM: UFO Defense for PC/PSX

aka. X-COM: Enemy Unknown in other parts of the world. :p This was one of the few actual tunes in the game that was more than an amalgamation of atmospheric sound effects. The tune in the contest video is actually from the PSX version of the game, but besides the quality in sound (PSX is better sound quality, PC had a midi version), they are the same song. Probably my favorite game of all time.

5 - PERFECT DARK for N64

This tune from the game features the Pefect Dark "theme" prominently. One of the best games for the N64. If you can get past the polygons, the gameplay has aged surprisingly well.

6 - TYRIAN for PC

A classic SHMUP that has more variety than I've ever seen in a game in the genre. You can play "arcade" mode, where you pick up powerups from enemies and you don't get much plot. Or you can play the "full game" mode, where there are little to no powerups and you buy stuff between levels and there's actually a plot. Maybe not a very deep plot, but The story/data cubes are, for the most part, hilarious. The game has a very "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"-esque sense of humor. Many of the planets have guidebook entries on them in-game. There's also "Super Tyrian" mode, which is in the vein of Radiant Silvergun, only the button combos to pull off certain attacks are sometimes really tricky (like complicated Street Fighter II moves or something). There's a TON of levels, and 6 difficulty settings. It's awesome (and free to download)!

7 - HOMEWORLD for PC

After putting the contest up, I sort of realized that this entry was way too hard for anyone to figure out. The tune is the "Turanic Raiders battle music".  Unfortunately, the track cuts off before the main instruments come in. I know I've heard the game mentioned around here, but I know it would be difficult to get even if you've played the game before. As far as the game goes, no other RTS I've ever played can match the amount of atmosphere in Homeworld. Playing the game is truly a unique experience. The only thing I don't like about it is that it's fairly slow-paced, but in a way even that adds to the atmosphere.

8 - METROID for NES

What a classic game. This was the one tune that all 3 people identified.

9 - AGE OF EMPIRES II for PC

The soundtrack of this game is basically one 30 minute tune. This is the beginning of it.

10 - WOLFENSTEIN 3D for PC

One of the pioneers in the FPS genre, and it's still great! It's the original "run and gun" FPS distilled to its essence, pure and undefiled, with good old fashioned Nazi killing. The way to play it nowadays is with the Wolfenstein 3D mod for the ZDoom engine. It's the same as the original, only with modern controls and stuff (its also free).

11 - FINAL FANTASY TACTICS for PSX

A highly regarded classic tactical RPG. It had a lot of depth, a convoluted plot, and a great soundtrack. I picked this tune because it features the FFT "theme" that permeates much of the game's music.

So, is there any/much interest in another one of these? I have another video put together of just NES music; it seems like there's not too many PC gamers here, is there?

Anyway, thanks to the three participants. Now feel free to discuss the games, the contest, whatever, or even give suggestions for possible future contests.

My head is full of half-baked, unverified facts and statistics.  I recall reading somewhere that sometime in the last 5 years, the videogame industry overtook Hollywood as the leading form of visual entertainment in the western world.  To me, that is a huge milestone in the development of an industry that has only been available to the mainstream for the last 35 years.

When I was 10, the two major milestones that entered my life were Starwars and the Space Invadersarcade game.  Soon, I had a rudimentary console that played pong and 3 other similar ball and bat games.  I played it so much over the summer holidays that I could kick anyones arse at the Hockey game, with my crafty angled goal shots from my forward player.

With my buddies, I used to dream about a videogame that offered the exact cinematic quality of the crop of SF movies around at the time.  These were the days before even VHS and Beta, and I was of the view that this was an impossible dream.

Fastforwarding 30 years, our wildest dreams have come true, along with things we never could have dreamed about (such as online multi-player gaming).

Now, each new month seems to bring at least 6 quality videogame releases.  That is, at least 6 new titles that most gamers would enjoy playing.  Average playing time for seasoned gamers seems to be about 20 hours per title.  Therefore, each new month gives us about 120 hours of new games worth playing.  That's 30 hours a week, almost the equivalent of a full time job.

To afford these new titles, you need a job.  Having a job means you have limited gaming time.  We seem to have become a generation of gaming grazers.  We eagerly pick up new releases, put a few hours of playtime on them, and then move on to the next new thing.

What sparked this blog was some recent drama in my life.  Last week, I came home from a short holiday to find my house had been burgled.  My Xbox360 and over 20 games were taken.  In a way, I was kind of glad, as the insurance money allowed me to replace my dying 20 gig model with a brand spanking new 250 gig machine.

However, I have had a suprising reaction to replacing my game collection.  Amongst my games were a number of unfinished quality titles: Arkham Asylum, GOW2, Halo 3, Saints Row 2, GTA 4 and several more.  So far, the only titles that I have felt motivated enough to replace were the 2 Cave multi-region shmups Mushihime Futariand Espgaluda II.  With both of these titles, I have completed them numerous times by credit feeding, and the replay value comes in improving my skills, hoping for that elusive 1 credit clear.  I have no desire whatsoever to pick up any of the other unfinished top rating titles in my collection.

In a way, my enjoyment of these shmups seems to go back to my days mastering the earliest videogames released.

It has really made me rethink my future game purchases, and my profile as a gamer.  The new XBox came with Final Fantsy XIII.  I have clocked up about 4 hours of this game.  I am enjoying the game - I'm treating it as no more than an RPG on rails.  The enjoyment in the gameplay is coming from making snap assessments of battle tactics, pressing a couple of buttons, and watching a pre-generated battle sequence where I have no direct control over the timing of individual attacks and defensive moves.  Other than that, I am sitting back and enjoying the cinematic spectacular of the game, which I have to say is pretty damn good.

I'm going to try and play nothing else except this title until it is finished.  I am then going to carefully consider my next game purchase.  I know that this will mean that I am only likely to play around 6 new titles a year.  I will try very hard not to be distracted by the next new shiny title that catches my eye.

Is there too much gaming these days?  Have we reached the point of over-saturation of releases?

I first learned of "Fluch der Mumie" from a post by Frank Branham. Branham is an enigma. A gamer floating back and forth from AT to Euro with the grace of a Victorian Banshee. However, since Branham calls himself the Anti-Greg (a reference to Greg Schloesser The King of Euros) I am inclined to listen to him.

At first glance I thought "Fluch der Mumie" to be a gimmick game, its vertical board and hidden magnet movement are certainly unique and the game falls into the kid game arena but I find myself enjoying the game. I recently pulled it out after a long hiatus and found that it is quite solid.

"Fluch der Mumie"  played with high stakes can be quite tense. Slowly moving the Mummy while staring your opponent in the eye and then hearing the "click" is one of the great moments in gaming akin with Shooting down the Nazgul in "Lord of the Rings:The Confrontation" or playing the St Valentines day  card in "Family Business" with a wall full of gangsters.

On January 29, 2010, I went to my first hard core card driven war game convention "WAM" or the Winter Activation Meeting in Maryland.   The website about the tournament seemed inviting.  The cover had a picture of Dr. Strangelove.

i haven't posted as much on this website recently as i have no idea about any of the stuff being posted about, except for larry levy jokes. so i figured i would make a post about war games, because i do that stuff. i am not really any good at it, but i like writing, i like war games, and here is an opportunity to combine the two...

last week i played a game (wait, make that a turn) of europa. europa, if you are not familiar, appears to be some insane monster game series made by lunatics, for lunatics. we played a case white scenario. that gives you some idea as to whether we fit in the lunatic category. it was a 3 player situation. how? because i played the french, revising history, i got to invade germany in 1939. sweet. 

we played approximately one and a half turns in 4 hours. much of this was spent thumbing through the rulebook, scratching heads, laughing at the awful dice rolling of the luftwaffe and watching the frankly inevitable demise of poland. it made me ponder about the type of person who plays these games. what would your average euro gamer have made of it? THIS IS SO IMBALANCED! THE DOWN TIME! YOU SAT THERE FOR FOUR HOURS AND MOVED ABOUT 15 STACKS. I COULD HAVE PLAYED 8 GAMES OF DOMINION! they are right of course. all of those are valid criticisms, but shit, i got some kind of perverse fun out of it. i really have no interest in alt-history WWII, and normally would be much more at home with a wargame that ends in 5-8 hours. but the evening wasn't so much about the game but actually about sitting around chatting, enjoying a beer, pushing counters around and rolling lots and lots of dice.

i think we were playing quite a stripped down version of the game, i wasn't formally taught the rules but germany and poland took their turns before me so i had two hours to learn the rules by watching. this worked pretty well. europa appears to be a generic "GRUMPY OLD MAN" wargame. it is extremely old fashioned, in every single aspect. it works exactly how you'd expect, but with a couple of extra rules for flavour. germany was absolutely crushing poland in those two hours, i felt very sorry for my comrade. finally france gets to have a go. in the rules there is a bit that says french stacks have their combat factor HALVED if they move. fuck me. this game is clearly designed for masochists. anyway, on the first turn this rule does not apply. i ran roughshod over the southern part of the incomplete west wall and into the black forest. my one decent stack of mechanised / motorised / armour even got to 'exploit' one extra hex. i was two hexes into germany! i looked across the board. poland was probably 40 hexes away. and they were going to get wiped out on the next turn. and then the luftwaffe, who i had brutalised on my turn, took their revenge on my feeble advance, blowing to bits my crappy bombers (i had a bomber called a 'fairy', so macho) on their own runways. oh shit. it was dawning on me. europa eschews all idea of fun at the expense of utter, relentless, miserable realism. and this is was why it was fun. if you see.

we will reconvene this thursday, apparently poland and germany made it through to the german combat phase vs poland post me leaving, so i should get to push a little further into the black forest, although it looked far too late for the poles already... so we will roll more dice, hopefully have another beer, i will learn a ridiculous amount of facts from two knowledgable wwII historians, and maybe an alternative history will be created. i will have one turn. maybe two if things go well. and it will be an evening well spent.