A annoying week…

Well, this week was an ideal time to record lots of podcast material, as Angie and Josh were away for the week…

So it was most annoying to be struck down with Tonsilitis, which meant that for most of the week my throat has been far too painful to even eat, never mind record anything!

I have managed to record a couple of bits and pieces last night however, so look out for a couple of shorter shows in the near future.

Incoming! – Episode 12

After a short break for Manorcon, here is the latest edition of my vidcast which reviews the previous week’s historical miniature releases.

SOA Battle Day 2010 – Starting early

I’ve recently recorded an interview with Richard Lockwood of the Society of Ancients (soon to be heard on the podcast feed) and as part of that we chat about the SOA Battle Day.

Battle Day 2010, unusually, has already been decided upon – it will be the Battle of Zama in 202BC – the battle that saw the defeat of Hannibal by Scipio Africanus and the end of the 2nd Punic War.

I thought that I’d better get my research done early, so after scouring the internet, I also decided to by the book “Hannibal’s Last Battle“.

I’m hoping to use this book as a basis for building my force for the 2010 Battle Day.

And what will be my force?

Well, since it will be massed battle it will obviously be 6mm, and we will be using the Impetus Rules. However, rather than sticking to particular points limits, I’m going to use the historical sized forces, and split them according to the Impetus basing convention.

I’ve got several months before the armies need to be ready, so plenty of time to fail dismally!

Manorcon XXVII – Best and worst

So now that Manorcon has ended, what were my own highs and lows?

Well, my favourite games of the weekend both revolve around Feudal Japan, which is one of my favourite periods of history to game in. Both Senji and Shogun were great fun to play, but are very different games.

Shogun is very much a traditional area control game, and is a classic game of strategy and resource management. I haven’t played it for quite some time, but it still remains my all time favourite game.

Senji on the other hand, although including aspects of area control and resource management is actually primarily a game about diplomacy. Politics and Diplomacy went hand-in-hand with military conquest in Feudal Japan, so it’s great to have two games with the overall theme, but approach the subject from two completely different angles.

The worst – well, sorry to say that it has to be Tulipmaina 1637. Nice bits and board (though horrid paper money) but game play that I found to be somewhat dry and, for want of a better word, slightly boring. Painted on theme for a stock game – not impressed (sorry).

My greatest disappointment was not playing either Brass, Automobile or Perikles during the weekend. I wanted to play all three – and they all stayed firmly in the box (despite me seeing several games of both Brass and Automobile taking place during the weekend…I always just missed getting involved.) I have become a firm fan of Martin Wallace games in recent months, but many of the more involved ones definitely need a 3 hour window to play – something we don’t get that often at Scimitar.

Manorcon is a great place simply to meet up with fellow gamers. I think it’s a credit to the hobby that you can meet new people and have a great time playing games without ever seeing them before – a boardgame is always a great place for a social gathering, and I hope to keep in touch with the people I met this weekend.

If you’re in the East Midlands in the third weekend of July next year, why not schedule a day or two at Manorcon next year – I can assure you that you will not regret it.

Manorcon XXVII – Day 3

After two days of fairly intensive gaming, Sunday was a little more laid back – though we did manage to get several good games in.

We started off with a couple of game so of Dominion, just to get ourselves back into the swing of things (the game had worked it’s magic on the subconcious overnight and everyone now seemed to like it!)

Time for a new game (at least to me), so we decided to have a quick game of Moto GP. This game has some interesting pieces, and it comes with plastic motorbike pieces that actually lean over! Having said that, it’s basically a roll-and-move race game with several bells and whistles. OK for a quick blast.

Then a game I’d been looking forward to for ages. Before the con we had promised ourselves to have a game of Shogun – which is probably my all time favourite game. It was great to have time to spend to really think about what we were doing, rather than having to rush through turns. As a result, the game lasted almost 3 1/2 hours (including lunch) but was full of incident and the result (a win for me!) was in the balance and decided pretty much on the final two combats of the game. Awesome stuff, and I really hope we can get this out more often.

Following that marathon, everyone decided that they needed to give their brain a rest and get another Dominion fix.

Now the time was past 5pm, and people were starting to think about how long we had left in playing time. Dave had about 90 minutes, so we plumbed for a quick game of El Grande. I’ve only played this once before, but I was soon reminded of how much I liked it. A great, light area control game with enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. Several years old now, but still well worth a look if you have never played it.

Finally, with only a couple of hours of playing time left, I got another Martin Wallace game out on the table. It’s exactly a year since I last played Tinners’ Trail, and now that we’ve played it again I have remembered just how good a game this is. Simple, elegant mechanics with a great look and theme…and lots of wooden bits. Fantastic game to end the ‘Con with.

And that was that. 35 hours of gaming, 23 games played (16 different). I can’t think of too many better ways to spend the weekend.

Looking forward to Manorcon XXVIII already.

Manorcon XXVII – Day 2

Day 2 of Manorcon was a 15 hour gaming marathon…

It all started gently enough – another play of 2-player Race for the Galaxy whilst I was waiting for the rest of the Scimitar lads to turn up for the day. I was well beaten, but I’ve now remembered why I like this game so much.

Dave, Bob, Jere & Martin arrived and we continued our mild start to the day with a quick game of Bunte Runde. Now, this is a kids game, and the abundance of large coloured shapes on the board did invite some comment from those around us, but mention of Mr Kinizia sent those doubters away with a knowing look…a fun little game with a twist in scoring that makes it interesting.

After that it was time for something with a little more meat, and since I hadn’t played it before I suggested Small World. I’ve not played Vinci, so I cannot compare this game to that, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. A light, fun area control wargame with some depth and very nice production. Not sure if it’s worth being as high as it is on BGG as it is very light, but I’d happily play it again.

Time for a new game, and several of us were keen to play Senji – a game I’ve owned for a while but not managed to get out onto the table. This is quite a different game in some ways, and it took a while for us to get into the game mechanics – but the game wonderfully depicts the political and military double dealing of feudal Japan and I really enjoyed it. However, we did have a discussion at the end of the game about whether or not the game suffered some problems due to ‘run away leader’ issues and the fact that the end areas of the island won the game by a long way. Opinion was mixed, but I think that the discussion raised some of the subtleties of the game strategy, plus a flaw in our game as no-one used the option of putting to sea to attack people – were were all very land focused. I think a second play of the game will see a totally different playing experience and I must admit I am really looking forward to it.

Next up was Cosmic Encounter, which despite the fact that it’s been around for a while, I have never played. Mind you, by the time that the game was half way through I’d come to realise that I hadn’t missed much. I know many people like this game, but it really isn’t for me I’m afraid – still, you never know until you play these games…

You may be shocked to discover that there are several people in our gaming club that have yet to play Dominion, so I taught the guys the game at this point. Some differing opinions surrounded the game (not helped by Markus from JKLM heckling from beside me “Multi-player solitare!“) but this may be more popular than I first thought. Most people seemed to think that it was somewhat over-priced though.

Whilst most of the guys then disappeared off to play Age of Conan (a real game of endurance – 4 hours!) Dave & I decided to see if we could actually finish a game of Waterloo. This we duly did, and even completed the game in under 3 hours – though that was mainly because I (playing the French) got distracted by the arrival of the Prussians and lost several valuable units for no victory point gain (I gain no VPs for killing Prussians). This is still a great game, and I want to play this again soon – juts to avenge my loss, if nothing else!

I was keen to play several of my Martin Wallace games throughout the weekend – strange that the first one I did play was a 2 player game…

Since Age of Conan was still on-going, I thought I’d teach Dave Sumeria – unfortunately he didn’t like it, so we ended up finishing the day off with another game of Dominion.

9 different games in a day…wow. Very enjoyable, but my brain was starting to hurt, so decided to adjourn until Sunday.

Manorcon XXVII – Day 1

Well, Manorcon has started, and I attended Day 1 (Friday) for the first time – sliding myself gently into the convention with a mere 8 hours of gaming on the first day.

It was funny actually – looking around as I arrived it was funny just how many people were playing their first game…it was almost without fail either Dominion or Race For The Galaxy.

I started my convention off with a barnd new game – Tulipmania 1637, by Scott Nicholsen (he of Boardgames with Scott fame). This game was hot off the presses, and I got to play with Markus from JKLM games.

It is a stock trading game, with a theme of Tulip trading. To be honest, although tulips feature fairly heavily in the artwork and pieces, the theme is actually somewhat pasted on, as the game is all about trading stock – the commodity isn’t really important.

I wasn’t overly impressed by this game – I’m not sure if it was because the mechanics didn’t ‘click’, or the fact that I didn’t find the game mechanics and/or theme compelling enough to pull me in, but it didn’t do anything for me.

The second game was Stone Age. Now this is one of my favourite games of recent times, despite the fact that I haven’t been able to play it very often. We had a 4 player game, and it soon became apparent that I was in trouble, as I was playing with 3 veterans. Not surprisingly, I came last (though actually joint last) as my late charge on scoring cards did not make up for my lack of points scored during the game – however, this wasn’t helped by me making some fairly fundamental mistakes early in the game as I tried to remember how to play!

Next up, I finally got to get Sumeria to the table. As I’ve already said, this was my favourite game from the UK Games Expo, and it was great to finally play it again. It’s as good as I remember – loads of strategy with almost perfect information…and it still makes your head hurt! My only reservation at the moment is that the mechanic for determining the start player of each round does seem to favour whoever won that round – but that could be easily ‘fixed’ with a house rule if needed…more plays required first though.

Then, inevitably, I managed to get a game of Race for the Galaxy – another game which I really like, but have rarely got to play over recent months. A two player game, complete with both expansions (though we didn’t play the new takeover rules). Amazingly I won this one (not my usual RftG result) – but what was immediately apparent was how some of the new cards work. Thoroughly enjoyed this, and I’m hoping to play more games during the weekend.

Finally, I played Saint Petersburg. Now this a game that I have only played once before (on-line) and completely failed to grasp, so I had reservations about playing. However, playing this face to face with a group of players who were quite happy to explain exactly what was going on, and also what some of your strategies needed to be , was a completely different experience and not only did I enjoy the game – but I think I finally twigged how to play it. OK, I came last, but at least I saw why I came last and where some of my mistakes were made. I’m actually looking forward to playing this again.

That was the final game of the night, and I headed home at just after 10pm…early I know, but breaking myself in gently. Tomorrow will be more of a marathon!

Finally, what convention would be complete without a games store? JKLM were selling some games, and I happened to spot a copy of Steel Driver. Now, I promised myself that I wasn’t going to buy any games this weekend, but to spot this one – which is out of print – at 20% off, especially when I own all the other Treefrog games…well, the temptation was too much. Another game to play during my proposed ‘Wallace-a-thon’ sometime over the coming couple of days.

A great start to the weekend – looking forward to Saturday’s gaming!

Distractions too…

OK, so time to come clean about what I’ve been up to for the last week…

It all started with a conversation I had at work about 10 days ago. My work colleague (Who is a serious computer gaming geek) was telling me that he’s just bought a package of strategy games on STEAM, and was going through what it included. As he went down the list, he mentioned the X-COM series of games and I suddenly became seriously interested.

X-COM UFO Defense is my all time favourite computer game. It was produced in 1993, back in the days when a 486 processor was considered to be fast, but despite this it is still as good as ever.

You play the head of X-COM, an organisation which has been created and tasked to defend the Earth against increasing alien attack (a bit like S.H.A.D.O. in the Gerry Anderson TV Series UFO)

You do this in two different ways.

The first is at a strategic level. You manage the creation and maintenance of various bases throughout the world. You start with a single base, complete with a complement of a couple of Interceptors, a Troop Transport, some Troops, Engineers and Scientists and a bare minimum of equipment.

As the game progresses, you can build other facilities, research new technology (including alien tech) and manufacture new goods – anything from laser weapons through personal armour, heavy weapons platforms and even new fighter craft based on UFO technology.

However, the first role of your bases is to detect and intercept UFO’s entering Earth’s atmosphere. Once these have been intercepted and (hopefully) shot down, you can deploy your troop transport to the crash site in order to recover any alien artifacts.

This is where the second part of the game starts. When you land at a UFO crash site (or at a city that is being attacked – another type of encounter) the game become a tactical level, turn-based wargame.

You have a squad of troops, plus possibly a tank or 2 (Heavy Weapons Platform), and the aim of this part of the game is to kill or capture all the aliens in the area. The game area is an asymetric view of the landscape, and is varied depending on where the encounter takes place (city with buildings, desert, forest, farmland etc)

Each of your troops has several stats, which cover such things as shooting, throwing, morale, encumbrance and the number of Time Units (Action Points) that he has.  Every action (moving, shooting, reloading weapons etc) require the expenditure of TU’s – very much the equivalent of a tactical miniatures wargame where you use Action Points to order your troops.

In order to complete a successful mission, you must explore the area in which you are in, and as I’ve already said, kill or capture any aliens you encounter. There are several different types of alien, from the archetypal ‘grey’ (called a Sectoid) to such things as Snakemen and genetically enhance super-soldiers called Mutons.  This will usually mean that your squad will have to find and explore the UFO that you have previously shot down.

Tension during gameplay is usually quite high during this part of the game – full LOS and spotting rules are in place, so it’s quite possible to get surprised by aliens which ‘pop-up’ from behind cover to fire at you – and you never know what is around the next corner, or the other side of the door (although Motion Scanners help )  As I said, this part of play is turn-based, so leave your troops in vulnerable positions without sufficient TU’s to react to the enemy and you may find that they pay the ultimate price for your lack of judgement.

Once all the aliens have been killed/captured, you recover various artifacts from the UFO and take them back to your base. These can then be researched and subsequently used to build/upgrade your own equipment.

The aim of the game is to discover what the Alien plan is for Earth, and find a way to stop it.

So why is this game so good? Well, the theme is just fantastic, and the gameplay is easy and intuitive – that’s not to say the game is easy! Even on the easiest of 5 settings, it provides a decent challenge and on ‘Super-human’ it is a complete swine!

The music adds a tremendous atmosphere to the game too – creating a very tense undercurrent during the tactical play especially.

OK, the graphics aren’t much to write home about in this day and age – very much from the pixel & sprite generation of graphic design – but the quality of the game shows through in the fact that the graphics don’t make a tremendous amount of difference to the game experience…you are so immersed in the actual gameplay that you cease to notice the now-dated look.

In short, this game has got everything – especially for the tabletop wargamer. A great theme, an immersive (and addictive) environment (just one more mission) and buckets of atmosphere, along with a good tactical skirmish wargame at it’s heart.

And at a mere £2.99 to download from STEAM, it’s an absolute steal.

As if I needed more things to distract me from painting…

Distractions…

You may have noticed that I have fallen behind with my podcast releases…

Well, my only defence is that I’m getting distracted by too many other issues.

“But what can be more important that Ep 51?” I hear you ask  – a fair question.

First off, I have been trying to get out some more varied podcast content, so whilst you haven’t had the latest ‘monthly’ show, you at least have been treated to a couple of interviews and another VftV episode to keep your ears busy.

Secondly, I wanted to include an interview in show 51 with Richard Denning, as I wanted to talk about the UK Games Expo from June – it has been difficult to get recording time for this, so I might have to delay this to a future show.

Thirdly, real life (in the shape of work, courses and end of school term) has got in the way, which has led to me having very little free time over recent weeks.

Finally, I’ve been distracted in the last week by a computer game…more on this in a later post.

What can I say? Summer is always a little bit disruptive, and so I’ll probably try and get some ’snippet’ shows out in the next few weeks, rather than the single ‘big’ show – simply because they are quicker and easier to put together and my free time over the summer is going to be a little more limited than normal (unless Angie and Josh disappear off for a few days, which may be likely)

And as a warning, I’m away on this coming weekend at Manorcon, and I’m also away for a week at the end of August, so we are not likely to get back onto an even keel before the September show.

Sorry guys, but I’ll do the best I can to keep things coming…

Incoming! Episode 11

Episode 11 of ‘Incoming’, the weekly vidcast of my favourite historical miniature releases, has now been published.

This week has a decidedly Ancients feel to it, and I feature release from Miniature companies such as Baccus, Warlord, Crusader & Eureka amongst others.

I hope you enjoy the show…