Monthly Summary for May, 2019

Another month, come and gone.  I had attempted to write more blog posts, but my time at home has been taken up by more working on my basement- we have a bunch of new shelves that I built, and I've been unpacking the basement.  Just part of the process.

Games Played

• Fight for Olympus - Seven games all against Jonas (one of my nephews).  He brought this game over after my sister-in-law bought it for him for Christmas, and he hadn't had a chance to play it yet.  I read the rules, taught the game, and we sat down and played, with me winning six of them.  The game does have at least some tactical depth, and the replay was actually pretty good.  Not the deepest game in the world, but definitely a fun one to play with an interested kid.
  
• Cataclysm - Four total plays for the month, all amounting to us playing through the full game.  I was the Democracies, Mark was the Fascists, and Rob was the Communists.  We all ended up ramping up pretty quickly, with Mark and Rob putting themselves into Total War status pretty quickly (about four turns, I think), which gave them significant force pools, and a lot more efficient builds. I gradually moved up to Mobilization after the Washington Naval Treaty and Status Quo ended, giving me a smaller force pool (but less danger of Home Front issues). Mark sneak attacked the Soviet Union, making decent progress... but the Soviet Union counterattack was a Triumph, and the Home Front marker that comes up soon after leads to Germany collapsing. This doesn’t end the game, however- Germany continues to fight, basically at the Mobilization level until the second to last turn when the USSR and I make it surrender.
  
  Japan is the second nation to collapse. After I enter the war, I focus on pushing back the Japanese in the Pacific pretty successfully. I end up holding the Philippines the entire game, kick the Japanese out of Java, have the UK push in from India, and start rolling up the Japanese forces through China. They collapse, but continue fighting for another two turns… until I successfully invade Japan, forcing them into surrender.
  
  Italy makes a surprise attack into France on the final turn, crushing a numerically superior land force (I rolled a lot of 1s on my last turn), and almost taking Paris before they are forced to deal with the USSR knocking on their doors.
  
  I also declare war on the USSR on the final turn, in an attempt to catch up on Victory Points (as he was winning). It took me two tries, and my initial attack ended with a tie, which didn’t gain me victory points.
  
  In the end, the USSR won with around 17 Victory Points, after they forced the surrender of Italy. I came in second with around 12, and the Fascists were in the negative.
  
  I had a lot of fun- this would be a great game to play again now that we know the rules a little better.
  
  Also, I’ve already realized some errors in my game play (as the Democracies). I really needed to build more land forces- by the end of the game, I had around 4-5 fleets around the map doing absolutely nothing (and maybe 4ish fleets who were actively fighting throughout the last two turns). The excess fleets may have helped curb Japanese aggression, maybe, but I think I would have been much more successful had I built a few more land units. In the final turn, as I was trying to get victory points, the lack of land forces was my biggest hurdle- I couldn’t get enough forces into useful positions to actually attack anywhere. My attempt to start gaining ground in the Middle East failed, first due to the failed Effectiveness check (twice), and then because I needed to move those ground forces elsewhere. The USSR ended up taking those countries, which could have been more points for me. This happened in Spain, as well (I managed to create an attack with a single land unit, that was destroyed on the tie- if I had a second unit, that tie still would have let me conquer Spain, for another point). I feel like I had just enough air units to accomplish what I needed.
  
  I really should have moved the United States (and maybe the UK) into Total War probably two turns before the game ended. I had excess resources I could’ve used, and this would’ve given me a chance to put a lot of land units in my Force Pool as well. I was very nervous about collapsing, though, having seen the effects of the Home Front check on Germany (and very nearly the USSR) when they were at Total War. Still, they have a good chance of making a Propaganda check to improve their Stability. I should’ve taken the risk and actually flooded the board with troops. Something to consider next time.
• ORIGINZ: The Superpowered Card Game - Played three games of this on my own, as it arrived from Kickstarter a bit ago, and I wanted to play some new games.  I took it to my part-time job, sleeved it, put it on the table, and played a few games, just to try it out.  Plays really quick, and the different decks seems actually different enough to create some variety.  I think it'll be a nice filler game.
• Fluxx: The Board Game - Two games against Christian, with each of us winning one.  I have to say, I absolutely hate Fluxx.  I really just don't find it a fun experience at all.  We just grabbed something randomly at the game store one night, and this ended up on the table... and it was okay.  I could see enjoying this, especially with three or four people.  Something I'd definitely play again.
• Warmachine/Hordes - Played twice.  Played a random person's Khador with my Rask WWFF list, and lost badly.  He literally was deep into my various objective zones after his first movement, so I felt like I was playing from behind immediately.  I then followed it with poor play... so not a good game for me.
  
  I then played against Joey's Kozlov list out of Armored Corps.  We play Standoff. I split my gators into three groups- a unit each going to the left and right circle zones, and two units coming up the middle. Mortality + GP + Boneswarm basically gives me the zone to my right (facing against a unit of Shocktroopers, Atanovich, two Tankers, and a Kovnik). On the left zone, a unit of Posse starts to lose the attrition battle to a unit of Shocktroopers + a Kovnik (plus occasional help from Kozlov). I meet his jacks on his side of the board, and start contesting the far zone. Mortality helps my posse put some damage on his jacks, and he rolls terribly, keeping me in the fight. In the end, I send the Wrastler into his objective, destroying it, and winning the game.
  
  Every other time I had a chance to play, something screwed me up, whether a power outage at the store, or various other things that were more important.  Hard to hit my goals when things keep pushing me away from achieving them!
• Leaps and Ledges - Two games against my wife at a random game store up near Gettysburg.  This game is about playing cards to move pieces up a tower, to safety.  I win both games.  Not too deep, and probably something I never play again.
• Magic the Gathering - Two games against Jonas, using his mono-black Commander deck against his... wizard deck, I think?  He made me use his decks, as my decks are 'too good'.  I win both games, regardless, and offer to sit with him next time and show him how to build good decks, and how to value cards properly.  Next time!
• Space Hulk: Death Angel the Card Game - Played this twice at work after teaching it to myself.  It's a game that plays well solo, which is always nice.  Both games ended up being very tense, as I got to the last room with light losses before really struggling with the final objective.  In my first game, I got overrun and lost.  The second game, I managed a narrow win with two marines remaining.  Go me!
• Splendor - Two games against Christian.  I win both of them, one being very close, the other being less so.
• Star Wars: Empire vs Rebellion - Two games at my part-time job to learn the rules and see if I enjoy it.  It kind of plays like blackjack with special card rules.  The Star Wars theme is super pasted on, but it's enjoyable enough that I kept it and will give it another try with another person some day.
• Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire - Two games against Matt, both wins, as he tried out the two newest warbands, the Thunderers and... whatever the Sylvaneth are called.  I used Garrek's Reavers both times.  Both seem like good warbands, although I could see the Thunderers being pretty good with a lot of practice.  Will have to grab them some day.
• Ascension: Deckbuilding Game - One game on my phone, which I win.  Yay
• Azul - I learned, taught, and played this with Christian, and ended up winning, 78-60ish.  I liked the game a lot, there seems to be a lot of strategy needed to win here, so I suspect repeated plays will make me better at this.  I look forward to playing again!
  
• Dark Legacy - The Rising - Tried this at work, as it had potential of being another interesting LCG-like game, but honestly, after one play, I threw this in the trash.  It has so many issues that I can't even figure out how I would fix it.  The die rolls for generating resources are bad enough, but coupling that with the fact the cards aren't actually balanced right by cost/level, and the defensive cards are significantly stronger than any offensive one... there are a lot of issues here.  First game I've thrown away this year.
• Star Trek Customizable Card Game (Second Edition) - Taught this to Matt, and played a game, with him beating my Romulan starter with his TNG Fed starter.  The starter decks for this game are actually realllllly boring, but it is a good, interesting game.  Hopefully he'll be interested enough to give it another try!

New Arrivals

• VS 2PCG: Black Order expansion.  I never play this, but I am still caught up with all the cards!
• Star Trek CCG (First Edition) cards - Boxes aren't super expensive, so I picked up a few.
• Targi -  My wife has enjoyed the Kosmos two player games she has tried so far, so I figured it was time to get a new one.  This one is highly regarded, so seemed like a good choice, so I picked it up!
• Various Warmachine/Hordes miniatures.  Usually stuff I got on sale.

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Didn't really get anything done this month.  Usually, I try to do minis on Mondays, but literally every single Monday this past month was taken by other things :(
  

Reading

• May issue of White Dwarf.  Excellent, as usual.
• The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation.  This was very interesting, as its not a topic I know a whole lot about.  Another book I received as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.  Overall, it was very interesting, and very informative.  I will say, however, that I thought the writer was trying too hard to compare the situation then to the situation now, in some places, and there were way too many places where the narrative was a bit hard to follow as she jumped around to various topics or threads of the story.  So good, but maybe not great.
• Mutants and Masterminds: Deluxe Hero's Handbook.  Jonas was interested in the system, so I figured I'd read it so that I could run the game.  Honestly, it seems like it would be fun, but I think it might be too complex a system for him to play in as his first RPG experience, and probably too complex for me to run as my first GMing experience.  I'll think about it.