Maurice Campaign - Round 2

JohnP and I finally managed to get together an play our outstanding Maurice campaign game last night. It was a cobbled together affair; John doesn't own an army, but uses figures borrowed from Caesar. Caesar couldn't make it, so dropped off the figures at my place during the afternoon. Neither of us own a deck of cards, so Peter provided those. And I have a fast turnaround on a Thursday evening these days, and am prone to forgetting things. Which, in this case, meant my army list and my phone. I managed to reconstruct my list (and the casualties from the previous game) from memory, and John obligingly took a few photos on his phone.

Still, on with the game.

The war didn't end after the first round, something both I (The Electorate of Haapasaard-Skando) and John (The Irish mercenaries of Cearbhall's Cataphracts) had hoped for. Both of our armies had mauled each other badly in their first encounter, and consisted mostly of conscript troops. The old enemies faced each other the plains of En y Bold, with the Irish defending this time.

As I said above, there aren't many photos. John concentrated his force on his left flank, where the objective was, so I massed my cavalry, put them in column and swung them around his right, with my Cossacks lurking in some woods. The infantry were to pin the Irish from the front. 

It was a good plan. John responded by bringing his heavily outnumbered cavalry over, and most of the photos are of that getting a thorough beating. 

One Irish unit did break through the Swedish cavalry line, but the Cossacks dealt with it. Unfortunately this cost me time and cards, and I ended up badly coordinating my strong cavalry presence with the infantry, who were now too far back from the battle to be useful.

In a bold move, John pulled his infantry right back, turning it to face the Swedish horse, and their musketry steadily annihilated them. My attention was focused on pushing the infantry up in support, whilst replenishing my cards which had been depleted by the cavalry action. As my cavalry slowly disappeared the Swedish infantry engaged first the Irish artillery and then their infantry rearguard. The damage was done though; the two wings of the Swedish army were too far apart to support each other, and casualties were mounting quickly. The Cossacks attacked an exposed Irish infantry flank, but two charges failed to break the line. One round of shooting saw the Swedes pull back; the Irish failed to inflict any serious casualties, whilst the Swedes routed the centre of the Irish infantry line and came close to breaking one of the Guard units as well. Both armies were teetering on the brink, but it was the Irish who broke one more Swedish cavalry unit to win the battle.

Neither army saw much in the way of post-battle promotions. In fact the Swedes saw nothing. But this battle saw the Ottoman/Swedish/Austrian alliance sue for peace, ending the first war. This means, I believe, that all of our conscript troops (the bulk of the Swedish army now) get to be trained for the next battle.

It was unfortunate that I hadn't brought my phone; there were three other games on the go whist John and I were playing. Dave and Geoff played HOTT, Peter and Ralph played Black Powder Napoleonics with 15mm figures and, finally, Ian and Gary had another go with the WRG 1685-1845 rules (another Napoleonics game)

Fairy Tale In My Pocket

Fairy Tale In My Pocket is a re-skin of Zombie In My Pocket, although it does change the rules around a little bit as well. In this game the you are a hero in a fairy-tale kingdom. The Princess is about to marry the Prince. Except only you know the truth; the Princess has been replaced by an evil impostor, and the real Princess is under an enchantment, asleep in a hidden cottage in the forest. You must find the Princess, wake her with a magic rose from the rose-garden then travel with her back to the kingdom and present her at the castle before the wedding takes place at sunset. Easy.

The mechanisms are the same as ZimP - you move from tile to tile in the first area (in this case the Forest), and on each draw a card to see what you encounter. When the card deck runs out you reshuffle it and time advances. The game runs  for three passes through the deck. You start at a lake, and must find the Rose garden and Cottage tiles in order to wake the Princess. Then you must find and/or travel to the Forest/kingdom Path tiles, enter the Kingdom and find the castle where you can stop the wedding.

Here's the game set up. The art is charming, although I think the location tiles are a little murky and hard to read.

Here I am on my quest. I used a spare 15mm figure as a marker.

I found the rose fairly quickly, and even managed to acquire a shield. One change in this game is that you don't just stumble across items; you encounter a peddler instead, who has a random selection of items for you to purchase. The game adds a Gold attribute which you use to buy the items. Gold can be gained by opting to help people in some of the encounters (which costs you time).

Here's the end of the first stage of the game; I had awoken the Princess (who joins you and adds to your combat score), acquired a cat wearing boots (another increase in my combat score) and even helped Snow White find the cottage of the seven dwarves (for a generous cash reward). And I was now on the path out of the forest and into the Kingdom with a reasonable amount of time to spare.

A good first game. I walked straight into the castle and stopped the wedding before the second deck had ended.

My second game went less well. I wandered the forest for ages finding both the path out and the sleeping Princess, but unable to track down the Rose Garden, which was at the bottom of the deck. Fortunately I started the game with some Seven League Boots - you start with one of three magical items - which meant that I could teleport to any other tile on the board.

I used the boots to get me back to the Cottage and wake the Princess, but then we spent forever crossing the Kingdom, and failed to get to the castle before the wedding took place. Like the Rose Garden, it was also at the bottom of the deck.

So, one win and one loss.

This is a fun little game; the look of it instantly gives it a different feel to the Zombie version, and the slight rule changes add to the character and make for some slightly different decisions. I do like games that re-skin like this; it allows you to enjoy a game for the mechanisms whilst setting it in a background in which you can have an investment. BGG has a number of versions, ranging from the original Zombie setup, to Aliens, this Fairy Tale one, and even one where you are a paratrooper knocking out a German bunker on D-Day. They're all worth a look.

Did I say the art was charming?

HOTT!

I played HOTT last night for the first time in what seems like ages. Just a couple of games, but they really hit the spot in what's been a bit of a rough, stressful week.

Peter was my opponent in both games, and went for the 'Try a Dragon' option in both of them.

In the first game I used Prester John, attacking Daenerys Targaryen's ex-slaves and mercenaries. And dragons. Peter ended up with a couple of woods in his deployment area, which made his setup and command quite tricky.

The cream of both armies was on one flank. I attacked; knights and elephants led the assault, whilst wild warriors rushed to secure the woods.

The battle swung back and forth, but the Targaryen army got the worst of it, with mobs of freed slaves being cut down in the woods, and Prester John's knights riding down the Dothraki and the Unsullied. Then the dragons arrived.

Unfortunately they were too late to turn the tide of battle; another charge by the knights saw Daenerys's bodyguard cut down, forcing her to mount a dragon and abandon what was left of her army.

A rare win for Prester John (who actually took no part in the fighting).

In the second game Peter decided to give my Hawaiians a try. They are a tricky army, that only start with 14AP on the table - a total of six elements. The rest of the army consists of a god, a dragon and some lurkers, so the army relies on luck to get the best troops into play. I used my Fishmen - a force of spears supported by artillery, missile troops and a mighty sea-troll.

The core of the Hawaiian army - spears backed up by their hero king. In the woods are the rank and file warriors, classed as warband.

Pele the volcano goddess put in an early appearance. She watched the battle for a couple of turns, then got bored and went away.

The Fishmen closed on the Hawaiian centre whilst their missile-troops engaged the warband in the woods.

The Fishmen had dragged their artillery right across the battlefield, ready to take a pop at the Hawaiian general. Just as they got it into position the Mo'o (dragon) appeared and destroyed it.

The climax of the battle. The Mo'o attacked the flank of the Fishman army, whilst their troll attacked the Hawaiian stronghold. The troll died, but the spears held, and eventually ground down the Hawaiian troops to pick up a win.

Also on show last night was an AWI game put on by Ian, featuring 25mm figures and using the old WRG 1685-1845 rules.

American troops tried to hold a hamlet full of supplies against marauding British and Loyalist troops somewhere in South Carolina.

There were plenty of players, who were apparently obliged to communicate with each other by courier. Eventually the British prevailed in what looked like a very entertaining game.

Desolate

Last week I downloaded another print and play solo game - Desolate - but I only put it together in order to play it yesterday. It's a trickier one to assemble than Zombie In My Pocket because the backs of the cards are useful for identifying the decks, and double-sided cards are harder to do (or I find them so).

Anyway, in Desolate you are the pilot of a spaceship which has crashed on a small moon with an abandoned research station on it. You enter the research station looking for power cells with which to charge up the shuttle in which you can escape. You have limited oxygen, so are working against the clock. Oh, and the station is swarming with hostile alien life-forms. You're armed, but your ammo is limited. Good luck.

Exploring the station is done by turning over Exploration cards, which can either be an area of the station (like a storage area, sickbay and so on) or an alien attack. The areas allow you to pick up objects - medi-kits, more ammo, oxygen and (in the engineering section) the vital power cells you need to escape. You need five such cells. Each time you burn through the deck you expend oxygen, shuffle it, and continue exploring.

Conflict is quick and simple. Each alien attack has a strength which is determined partially from the card itself and partially from a randomly drawn Conflict card. These cards also dictate how much damage the alien attacks to to you, and each attack automatically hits you first; these aliens always get the drop on you. You decided how much ammo to expend, and roll 1D6 per unit expended. If your total beats that of the aliens, then you kill them, otherwise they take damage and you fight another round. If you defeat an alien then you get a reward in the form of extra ammo, oxygen or health.

The game runs very smoothly and is fairly entertaining. It's all about managing your limited resources, and risking whether to grab more of one resource hoping to replenish another in the next chamber. However either I'm playing it wrong, or it's not actually that difficult to beat. As in, I've played five games, and found the five power-cells in all of them. Yes, you get a 'score' based on how much health, ammo and oxygen you have left, but part of the fun with games like this is the fact that they are a challenge to beat. I haven't found it so yet. yes, in one game I ran out of ammo and had to beat an alien to death with my fists, nearly dying in the process, but I was one cell off winning at that stage, and found it in the next draw. It was close, but not too close.

I shall give it some more tries and see if I can spot where I'm going wrong or, I hope, lose a few games and be sure that my victories were a fluke.

The files for the print and play are HERE

Update: I played three more games. In the first I won it, but was on my last health point. I lost the other two - killed by aliens in the first and ran out of oxygen in the second ;)

Zombies!

You'll have noticed that I've not been as active on this blog as I normally am. I'll confess that my gaming mojo has temporarily deserted me, denying me a source of useful posts. On top of that it's been a busy week generally, with work, a major family medical issue and (on a positive note) my starting some dancing lessons. Hopefully things will calm down in a week or so and some form of normality will be restored.

Anyway, I have downloaded a couple of print and play solo games and thought I'd run through one here - Zombie In My Pocket. I think that this has been around for a while, but I'd not come across it before, so it's new to me. It looks like there's a simple solo version (which I have) and a more involved co-operative version for 1-8 players. The Boardgame Geek entry can be found HERE.

And here it is. Three decks of cards, and a neat folding-up rules booklet; it all prints out on three sheets of A4, so is very compact:

So what is the objective? Well, the Zombie Apocalypse is upon us, and only you can stop it! You must enter a house in search of the Evil Temple therein, find teh Zombie Totem, then bury it in the Graveyard that's in the garden. Obviously zombies will be swarming around trying to stop you. Oh, and you have to do it against the clock.

Exploring the house is done via drawing tiles from a deck as you move from room to room. You are hping to find not only the Temple tile, but also the Dining Room, as this offers egress to the garden. You then switch to the garden deck, and are then hoping to draw the Graveyard. As you enter each tile you draw an event card and resolve it. When the deck runs out you reshuffle it and the clock advances one hour. You have three hours to complete the task; 9pm to Midnight!

So let's go! I start in the Foyer. You can only exit a room through a doorway; you can see one just beyond the token.

It leads into a bedroom were I slip on a strange goo, and take damage. Not a good start.

Fortunately I then wander into the dining room, so at least know where I have to go in order to reach the garden. Unfortunately that's my first encounter with zombies, and I take some more hits. There is an option to take a breather (cower) and heal damage. This costs time, but I felt I was doing well at this stage, so I took the opportunity to rest. I moved on through the family room and then into the adjoining Evil Temple. Needless to say there were zombies there.

Defeating the zombies I searched for the totem, and found not only it, but a Mars Bar as well, which restored a little of my lost health.

I moved back through the house as the clock struck 10pm, finding a board with nails through it in the family room (don't we all have one of those?). I got to use it in the dining room, taking on more zombies. And then I was off into the garden. On the patio I found a machete. I was now a formidable zombie-killing machine - I hoped.

I got to try out my weaponry as I explored the yard, slicing my way through more zombies. Again, with an hour to spare, I chose to have a rest.

The clock struck eleven, and I found the garden after fighting my way through more zombies. Ending the turn here normally restores a point of health, but the lettuce I picked had caterpillars on it and I lost a point as well. Oh well. I had another rest, them moved on. And found the Graveyard!

And that was it. Yes, it was swarming with zombies, but I fought them off and, despite being on my last point of health, was able to bury the totem without further incident, ending the Apocalypse.

I think I had it relatively easy in this game, finding the temple and exit fairly quickly, as well as some useful weaponry. I'd played two games previously, dying in one, and running out of time in the other (where the temple and the graveyard were both at the bottom of their respective decks).

This is a nice-looking game, and reasonably fun. Not one you'd play again and again, but very portable, which is a big plus.

Next up, if I can get the cards to print and align properly, is a similar game called Desolate.