Happy Christmas

I've not seen this Far Side cartoon before, but it plays to my wargames interests, so I thought I'd share it today.

It's just turned midnight, so it's Christmas day here. I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, and hope you get all the gaming goodies you wished for, even if they do get delivered by a Mexican general.

Christmas Meetup

In lieu of our normal club meeting last night we had a pre-Christmas meetup at a local club for a meal and some drinks. 

Following on from last year we had a military history quiz which I somehow found myself volunteering to set and run. So twenty questions on a random assortment of (military) subjects it was. Surprisingly a couple stumped everyone at the table. I also put together a trophy from some spare 3D print bits - the prestigious Golden KV2

It was a fierce contest, but Ralph eventually got far enough ahead that no-one else could catch him, and claimed the prizes - in addition to the trophy, Drew from Slave2Gaming donated some dice. Ralph gets to keep the trophy for one year, but will have to defend his title next year (or maybe we should have him set the next quiz).

Towards the end of the evening, when the venue had quietened down a little, we played a few rounds of One Night Werewolf.

Most people involved hadn't played a hidden role game like this before, but Caesar kept it all moving and, aside from a few hiccups, it all went fairly smoothly. Honours were about even between villagers and werewolves, which was good.

So that's it for Wollongong Wargamers for this year. In theory our venue is free next Thursday, but I'm not sure anyone is going to avail themselves of it. But first week of the New Year? Maybe.

52 Games - Game 70

Elk Fest

Two elk (Jule and Ole) stare at each other across a river. Longing for the greener grass where the other elk is, they set out to beat each other to the opposite bank! In Elk Fest, move your elk to the other bank by flicking wooden disks across the table and balancing your elk on them. Can your elk get to the greener grass across the river? Good grazing is just a stone's flick away!

Catherine and I needed something quick and silly to play last night after tea, so we pulled ot this classic, fast dexterity game. It has lovely chunky wooden pieces.

The game is as described above. Each turn you can flick two disks and, at any time, move your elk from one connected pair of disks to another trying to cross the river and stop your opponent from doing the same.

It is traditional to both make moose noises when you pass in the middle.

You also get to make a triumphant moose noise when you win.

Balance can sometimes be precarious. You are penalised if you knock either of the elk off their stones, however - your turn ends and the other player gets an extra shot on their turn.

Anyway, we played three games, and I won 2-1. 

52 Games - Game 69

Atteint Skills

Back in the day, when I put together Atteint, someone who took it upon themselves to play it suggested that the knights needed some kind of skills to add a little variety to each joust.

To be honest I agree with this; it would make things more interesting if each one had something that set them apart from their opponent. Obviously what you're looking at is giving each knight an ability that allows them to change, tweak or ignore a particular rule. And that's always a tricky thing, because you don't want to make any of them too powerful so that they dominate or break the game. Skills have to sit nicely within the granularity of the rules and act like spices; add flavour without overpowering it.

Anyway, I've given it some thought and come up with a few ideas which, I stress, I have not played or tested at all:

Gallant - The knight starts the joust with a Favour from the Ladies' Court

Chivalrous - The knight starts the joust with one Marshal point.

Master of the Lance - The knight may start a pass with his focus on Aim

Quick-Witted - Once per pass the knight may change his focus without having rolled a double, so long as one of his dice shows a '6'.

Fierce - When rolling to unhorse their opponent, the knight may reroll one of the D6

Horsemanship - Once per pass, when rolling for movement at the start of the turn, the knight may reroll the die

Unflinching - The knight's opponent may not reduce this knight's Aim score when rolling against their Balance

Milady's Favourite - When rerolling the dice after spending a Favour, if the dice score a double then you do not lose the Favour.

I'm sure there are other possibilities (and if you have any ideas I'd be glad to hear them). I have eight knight figures, so I can run one knight with each skill in some test games and see how they play out. 

Cold War Gone HOTT

I had to put the Haunted Tank back into its box with the rest of my Weird WWII Americans yesterday. What actually happened is that I got the whole of the army out, as well as the Soviets that share the box. And then I played some HOTT.

So here are the two armies, ready to go. The Soviets defended and are on the left, broken up into three groups by the terrain. The Americans massed the majority of their troops for a flanking move around the Soviet left, and put their heavy-hitters in the middle.

Early advances. With no opponents the Soviets swung their ghostly Heroes Of Old Russia around the American left. But the Americans were advancing rapidly on the Soviet centre.

A clash of the mightiest troops on both sides - Sgt Rock faced Stalin himself, whilst Captain America fought the Hero Of The Soviet Union. Meanwhile the Soviet's genetically-modified apemen faced ... Lassie.

The Soviet Hero (actually a paladin, just to confuse things), was eliminated by Captain America (also a paladin). Stalin was also pushed back. And Lassie drove back the apemen.

The ghost-knights threatened Lassie, but she stood her ground and routed the apemen.

This left the Americans with a golden opportunity - Captain America attacked Stalin, whilst Lassie distracted him from the flank. It was all to much for Uncle Joe, who fled, causing the Soviet morale to collapse. This was a 10g-0 win for the Americans

I set up a second game. This time the terrain was kinder to the Soviets, who were able to set up the hordes in a solid line to face the American attack, with their better troops behind and to the flanks. The Americans matched them. 

On the very first turn, General Winter appeared for the Soviets.

He swing into the American flank, disrupting their advance.

Then disordered their centre.

The American charge went in piecemeal - on their right the Haunted Tank was the first into combat, supported by the American general and some infantry. A to and fro battle developed with the Heroes Of Old Russia.

On the other flank Lassie faced the apemen again.

General Winter was now in the American rear, and seemed to have no plans to go elsewhere at this stage. The American general was now under threat ...

... but fought back, and forced his opponents to retreat.

Captain America was now rushing to the general's aid.

The American centre had still not managed to close with the enemy.

Calamity! Lassie fell to the apemen.

In order to take the pressure off the American general, Captain America engaged General Winter. This was a hopeless fight; although equal in combat factors, General Winter only had to win in order to destroy Captain America, whereas all Captain America could do was hold General Winter in place. But it bought time for the Soviets to roll that critical '1' that would see their god flee the table.

The American centre finally went in, and the Soviet hordes gave ground, despite their uphill advantage.

Stalin left his centre flighting - his hordes could be replaced - and turned his attention to the American general. 

Meanwhile, against the odds, Captain America held off General Winter.

Stalin lumbered through some American infantry covering their general's flank.

And the Hero Of The Soviet Union fell again, this time to Sergeant Rock.

The American general was no hard-pressed, pushed up against General Winter with nowhere to go. His loss would be fatal unless ...

... his GIs could rout the Soviet hordes at the top of this hill, which would even the losses and keep the Americans in the fight.

They failed ...

... and a charge by the Heroes Of Old Russia saw the American general defeated and with him the American army.

This was an epic fight that swung too and fro in a suitably dramatic manner. Captain America holding off General Winter was a highlight, of course. The Soviets won 8g-7. To be fair, had the scores been evened up, the Soviets could have brought back hordes on the next bound to break the tie.