Barnes on Games- Empires in America in Review, SW: Rebellion, some DVG stuff, Greenland

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Yes, TAL is the best Leader game, by far. Still, I prefer Warfighter over any of the Leader games.

You don't have the Footlocker do you? There's a manual in there with pre-designed special missions that alter setup and give you soldiers and a loadout so you don't have to mess around with picking any. It's really nice when you don't want to spend time prepping before the mission.

"and it looks quite interesting"

well thats glowing praise. Get off the fence, you know its shit. Or at least if you bother to play it a few more times you will realise it.

No, I don't know it's shit Lee. It looks really cool- but it also looks like it's typical Phil Eklund, which means that it's difficult to grasp and it requires a little more work than most games. I've never played any of his games that I thought were shit...and that includes some REALLY dodgy ones from the early days when he had more ideas than sense. Which is kind of still the case, really...not on the fence about it at al, enthusiastic and interested, whaddya want from me? :;P

No, I don't have the footlocker...just the base game. But I've got the first three expansion packs coming because I do think you need them to get a better sense of possible loadouts and tactical options. I didn't know about the scenario book, I will definitely have to look into that.

I soloed it last night, it was crazy. Just tore through four locations worth of insurgents. But then we hit this side street and they started piling on, hitting every reinforcement draw and blocking progression with freakin' +6 to entry. Suddenly it was like Blackhawk Down or something. Four turns of being in a meatgrinder, finally broke through (with an NPS dude getting killed) but it was too late, time's up. Abort!

Really enjoying it...the game it reminds me the most of is actually Warhammer Quest ACG. But some of it is more complex, some of it is simpler.

Actually LOVE the reloading mechanic...very tense when you're just burning through clips and you're not halfway through the mission.

Yeah that's classic Warfighter. WHQACQ didn't grab me for some reason and I ditched it when it was between printings. I didn't get the same sense of narrative from WHQ because the battlefield didn't seem as dynamic. Part of that is because enemies don't regularly spawn so you lose that tension and sense of change, part of it was because the locations in WHQACG didn't feel as solid to me. They are more abstract and have less of an influence. The entry costs and how you can go back and forth between different locations, combined with the reinforcement values really makes a market or village center feel different than open ground, say.

I really like the card play of Warfighter too and think it's much more interesting than WHQ. The hand management and paying the entry cost to get into locations really adds oomph.

I can't remember if there are any vehicles in the core, but wait until you hit a Technical or even a BMP which is in one of the expansions. I also think some of the expansion missions are fantastic. I love the Escape ones personally where you run through the locations backwards.

Greenland is pretty cool. The rules aren't really that difficult; they're just written Eklund-style. If you want more of a flow-of-play style rules get 'em here . Formatted narrow so you can cut 'em and fold 'em and stick 'em in the box.

I really like how after every game of Greenland you've made a little story about your scrappy little tribe and their attempts to survive. It really plays best with 3, but it's fun with two as well.

I'm probably going to be stuck on solo with it...games like this are tough to get my less enlightened friends to play.

But yeah, I saw some of that "We hunted a whale...but Sven was eaten. Then his son married Peepeelee. And we made a spear."

Now I really want to play Greenland!

Maybe I'll host an Eklund Day. We'll all watch Atlas Shrugged Part One, jerk off to a pic of Margaret Thatcher, and then be in a Phil Eklund mindset all day to play Pax Porf, Pax Pam, and Greenland.

We had a great "Eklund Weekend" not too long ago where we managed back-to-back games of Greenland and Neanderthal — fun because you can string them together and watch as your tribe goes from stone age to iron age — and then managed a couple games of Pax Pamir. I can understand why Greenland/Neanderthal turn so many people off, but they're possibly my favorite dice games.

Legomancer wrote: Now I really want to play Greenland!

Maybe I'll host an Eklund Day. We'll all watch Atlas Shrugged Part One, jerk off to a pic of Margaret Thatcher, and then be in a Phil Eklund mindset all day to play Pax Porf, Pax Pam, and Greenland.

You'll need to let your car engines run outside since climate change is no big deal.

What's Pax Pamir all about? I'm still waiting for the High Frontier deluxe kickstarter.

ThirstyMan wrote: What's Pax Pamir all about? I'm still waiting for the High Frontier deluxe kickstarter.

It's set during the "Great Game" in Afghanistan. Everyone plays as an Afghan tribe and curries favor with one of three empires — the Afghans, the British, or the Russians — and in order to win you need to be the most influential tribe within the empire that you prop up to supremacy. It flows better than Pax Porfiriana, but its victory conditions can seem a bit opaque until you've got a few games under your belt, largely because victory rests on any number of factors. First, you need to help your chosen empire beat the others, which in of itself is rather difficult, and then you need to be the premier tribe within that empire. Most actions aren't available until you add them to your tableau via purchased cards, so you're balancing your political, military, economic, and espionage fields with things like tableau size, a healthy hand, bullying the cash on the table, etc. It's complex, multilayered, excellent stuff, but it requires a dedicated group willing to see it through those first couple plays.

I just got Worthington's "Boots On The Ground" and it reminds me a bit of games like Apache Leader. The production is HORRIBLE though and it's way too much of a "war games for beginners" type game.

Not sure why I posted this, felt appropriate to the discussion though.

Great review! I really really appreciate Warfighter for the way its difficulty can be offset by refining your strategy. I didn't feel effed by a random card flip (Shadowrun: Crossfire). Over the course of several plays, you get a better sense of how many should be in your squad and how best to equip them. I'd love to see the dungeon crawl version.

Oh sure, now that I've just traded off Greenland for a box of Netrunner, you're turning it into Game of the Year. Now I have to buy Pax Pamir and pretend that I can find a group that will play it. I love the theme.