Lockdown HOTT

Some of our lockdown restrictions have been eased, and we can now meet up with people outside of our household so long as it's outdoors, in a public space and you're both double-vaccinated. So Caesar and I got together in a picnic shelter in one of our local parks this morning to play a couple of games of HOTT.

After a catch-up chat and exchange of news, we settled down to our first game. I used my Knights of Simba lion-centaurs - six knights and six warband - whilst Caesar used a Greek army consisting of a couple of knights, four spears, a god, a hero and two warband.

Caesar initially decided to hold his spears on a hill in order to prevent the massed knights opposing him riding them down. He pushed forward warband on one flank and the knights and hero on the other. I had covered my flanks with the warband and massed my knights in the centre.

The Greek knights (including their general) were after the vulnerable warband on my right flank, so I moved a group of my knights out to intercept them. This shaped the action on that flank.

The first combat - knights vs knights.

Caesar got the better of it, his chariots driving deep into Simba's line. He tried to organise Agamemnon, (his knight general), and Achilles (his hero) to exploit his advantage. But I was organising a line with my army as well.

There followed a series of to and fro combats. I had the advantage of numbers, but couldn't win the key fights to make use of it. Caesar's troops kept driving forward and then were pushed back.

However eventually my Knights of Simba managed to destroy one of the Greek chariots.

At this point Hermes turned up to assist the Greeks. However he took one look at the situation, decided that they were doing OK, and left.

More fighting as the spears joined the fray ...

... saw Agamemnon drive forward almost to the gates of the enemy stronghold.

However  Achilles was mobbed by warband and killed, breaking the Greek army.

We set up a second game. I used Simba again, whilst Caesar switched to the Army of Rama - a mix of heroes, warband, knights and beasts.

Caesar pushed his beasts forward and they engaged the warband on my right.

The action was concentrated on the flanks.

Rama's beasts suffered badly and were soon both destroyed.

On the other flank a confused fight broke out as Rama's chariot knights tried to engage Simba's warband allies, and the Knights of Simba fought to hold them off and drive them back.

In the centre Caesar had committed the heroes, but knights are actually OK against these. Rama was holding his own, but Hanuman the monkey-king was driven back onto the hill.

The Knights of Simba won the battle on their left, when Rama's chariots finally engaged the warband there. And lost badly. Accumulated casualties were too much and the army broke.

So we had two great games in the sunshine! It was nice to play face-to-face again, and simply get out of the house for something other than a walk as well. I think this is something we might do again.

2 Fast 2 Furious

I've played through 'Fast & Furious - Highway Heist' a few times now, running a couple of drivers and playing both the basic tank scenario and the intermediate truck heist one. I've had varying levels of success - I've beaten the tank a couple of times, but have yet to successfully rob the truck, even on the easiest mode.

Last night we played it as a proper cooperative game for the first time, with Catherine, Maya and myself running a driver each. We all picked drivers and cars that looked fun, and hoped the combination would be enough to take down the tank.

I ran Letty in the Exotic Supercar
Maya ran Han in the American Muscle car
Catherine ran Tej in the Import Racer

Here we are, ready to go.

The other two picked up the game very quickly, and we were soon setting up moves for each other like pros. Catherine and I zipped ahead and started wrecking enemy SUVs  in front of the tank, whilst Maya used Han's abilities and those of the Muscle Car to drive the SUVs behind the tank in our direction.

Unfortunately Maya got boxed in by the tank and some enemy vehicles, and ended up wrecked. You can see Han's black driver peg on the SUV in the centre of the picture.

We'd done a decent amount of damage to the tank by now, but they sent out someone to repair it, so Letty had to leave her vehicle to deal with him. That's her pink peg on the tank. Meanwhile an enemy goon was on her car.

To the front-left of the tank you can see an SUV with a black marker underneath it. That's Han, who hijacked himself a new vehicle. You can do that.

Tank Repair Man was no match for Letty, so the tank remained thoroughly damaged. More so when Han sacrificed his new car in a stunt that saw it go under the tracks and inflict another hit on the tank.

Our stunt options now included hijacking enemy SUVs and causing them to flip into the tank. Letty did this once, putting the tank on its last hit. As she did so her supercar was wrecked by an enemy driver. Then Catherine sent Tej in to do the same. He can take an extra action in his turn three time during the game, and this was a perfect use of it, as he zipped back behind the tank, leapt onto an enemy vehicle and then flipped it into the tank to give us the win.

We were playing this on the easiest possible setting. You can make scenarios harder by removing cards from the stunt deck which firstly limits some of your options (you have no idea if that killer stunt you relied on in the last game is in this one), but also reduces the number of turns you have available, since the stunt-deck determines the length of the game as well. Next time we'll play the standard difficulty level.

Tour De Covid - Part Four

Over the past couple of days Catherine and I finished off our twelve-stage Flamme Rouge Tour.

Stages 9, 10 and 11 all feature fewer (or no) ascents/descents and a lot of cobblestone sections. These are narrower (which causes blocking) and prevent slipstreaming (which can cause exhaustion). So a new challenge for our riders.

Stage Nine has two long sections of cobblestones, but no slopes. Seeing it as a straight flat race, both Catherine and I hung back, hoping to slipstream in the early stages and then cruise through the pack to victory.

OK. I did. Catherine pushed to the front.

I realised the error of my plan on the first cobblestone section, as the pack bunched up and we started to get blocked.

Basically I was playing decent cards trying to break through the pack, but not getting their full benefit, nor changing position much.

As we approached the second stretch, I was at the back and Catherine wasn't doing much better.

There was a final flat run to the finish, but we were both badly positioned to make use of it.

The 'bot teams got the top spots.

Catherine and I finished in the bottom half. 

Stage Ten had a couple of ascents and a single long stretch of cobblestones. We hoped this would be easier.

It wasn't. We got stymied by the hill ...

... which meant we were badly placed for the cobblestone section, and got blocked and slowed again.

Once again we found ourselves at the back of the pack on the run to the finish.

A small ascent before the finish line caused the pack to bunch up again.

Catherine and I finished a little better this time, but my lead was eroding and Catherine was now in fourth place.

Stage Eleven was now not one we were looking forward to, with three sections of  cobblestones and virtually no boost squares at all. 

Early breakaways. But this time we were closer to the front of the main pack going through the first cobblestone section.

It didn't help. We still got blocked going into the second section, and lost ground.

The riders broke up some more. Catherine managed to have one of hers in the front group.

And she exploited her advantage, forging ahead for ...

... a narrow win!

I finished mid-table.

This put Catherine into third place going into the final stage. My lead had eroded, but so long as I didn't do really badly I would still win.

Stage Twelve had one long ascent followed by a long flat to the finish. It looked pretty easy.

Some bunching at the foot of the ascent cost both of us some energy.

The short descent saw Catherine pushing a rider ahead.

The flat section saw lots of riding, but few slipstreaming opportunities, which meant that all of the riders were burning through their decks.

Approaching the final section.

Catherine broke away again, whilst I somehow ended up stuck in the main pack.

A second consecutive win for Catherine! But I picked up a third place which was enough to maintain my overall lead.

The final team scores:

Red (Me) - 170 points

Black - 166 points
Blue (Catherine) - 156 points
Green - 153 points
White - 151 points
Pink - 146 points

So it was actually fairly close.

Individual rider scores:

Red Rouleur - 108 points
White Rouleur - 105 points

Pink Rouleur - 102 points

Green Rouleur - 101 points

Blue Rouleur - 93 points
Black 1 - 92 points
Black 2 - 74 points
Red Sprinteur - 64 points

Blue Sprinteur - 63 points

Green Sprinteur - 52 points

White Sprinteur - 46 points

Pink Sprinteur - 44 points

This was a lot of fun to play, even if the 'bot teams are somewhat random. Maybe we need a third player for that extra challenge.