Session Report: Vijayanagara, Part Two (Solo - GMT Games)

Read part one here.

This article has been long delayed- my family has been hit by quite a number of illnesses over the last few months, which have been a huge drain on my energy, and even taking a few minutes a day to take a turn, and write it up, has been a challenge. This month, I have finally bounced back enough to get through the second Succession card and hope to keep the momentum through the rest of the game. Sadly, in addition to the delays, most of the turns are just going to be 'this happened', as opposed to any meaningful thoughts on them, but I will try to do better in the next article.

I did get a little bit of feedback about the previous session report, and the use of some extra graphics to highlight changes to the images was positively received, so I will try to do so going forward.

After the dynasty card, the game continues, with no change in eligibility. The next card drawn is Uprising in Daulatabad (card #15). The Delhi Sultanate bot once again ignores the event, and draws for Command + Decree, electing to Govern first. This places Governors on the map or allows such pieces already on the map to remove opposing pieces and build Qasbahs (which will allow them to Conscript more troops, or support attacks better in the future). For Govern, the bot makes the following plays:

In Gujarat, they remove a Raja, and add a Qasbah.

In Orissa, they remove an Amir, and add a Qasbah.

In Tamilakam, they remove two Rajas and add a Qasbah.

In Andhra, they remove two Amirs, and in Madhyadesh, they remove an Amir and a Raja. This Command costs them a total of five resources.

For the Decree, the bot chooses to Collect Tribute, gaining two cavalry markers, and eight more resources. I suspect we will see some more combat soon, so Delhi having more cavalry markers is certainly going to help them.

The Vijayanagara Empire bot looks through its choices and ends up doing a Limited Command (preserving its eligibility for next turn, but only affecting a single area). The bot chooses to Rebel in Karnataka, putting it under Vijayanagara control. This deprives the Delhi Sultanate of points, taxable resources, and gives the Vijayanagara two points.

Next card is a Mongol Invasion card, with me making the choices. I choose Amass, which adds one Mongol Invader to Mountain Pass, Punjab, and Delhi (technically, it adds three to Mountain Passes, they just overflow down to Delhi as they reach four Mongols in a space).

I then choose Attack and Plunder in Punjab. The Mongols roll 4, 3, 3, 1, scoring four hits, and Delhi rolls a 5 and a 3, generating two hits. Because there are remaining Mongols in Punjab, they remove two Delhi resources, and causes the Sultanate to remove troops from Jaunpur and Orissa.

Next up is another Mongol Invasion card (this time controlled by the Vijayanagara bot)! Rough timing for the Sultanate. They choose to Advance four cubes into Punjab, and then attack, with the result being the destruction of the Delhi piece, and the removal of six resources and six Troops (three from Andhra, two from Tamilakam, and one from Rajput). Just a disastrous two turns for the Sultanate, but it gives me and the Vijayanagara bot some space to play around!

Next card up is Capital Relocated, a 'Stay Eligible' event, which reads "Move up to four Delhi Sultanate Units from any Provinces to adjacent Provinces. -5 Delhi Sultanate resources". I choose to take the event, moving Governors from Andhra and Tamilakam into Karnataka (hoping to complicate the Vijayanagara situation), from Orissa into Andhra, and a Troop from Jaunpur into Malwa. I forget about the resource deduction for several turns, but eventually I do apply it correctly. Doing this piles onto the Sultanate player, which is great, and I stay Eligible, which is also great!

The Vijayanagara bot then chooses to draw for a Command & Decree, and proceeds to Build a Temple and then Rebel in Madhyadesh which falls under their control.

Next card up is Mongol Army Repelled (card #2). The reeling Sultanate bot choosing Command + Decree, starting with a Tribute Decree for seven resources, and then a Conscript command to add five Troops to Delhi, and two Troops each to their provinces with Qasbahs- Gujarat, Malwa, Orissa, Andhra, Tamilakam. With most of their Troops on the board, they can start pushing everyone around again.

I choose a Command, electing to Rally, adding an Amir to Bengal, and two Amirs to Gondwana and Maharashtra.

Next card is Hindu-Muslim Marriage (card #35). Only the Vijayanagara player is eligible, and they choose a Command + Decree, electing to Tax for five resources, bringing them to seven, and then they Rally, putting four Rajas in Karnataka, one in Maharashtra, and two in Madhyadesh, meaning every one of their Rajas is on the board. At this point, almost every piece is on the board, so some conflict feels imminent.

Next card up is Empire Building (card #25) with me and the Delhi Sultanate eligible, in order. I debate taking the Stay Eligible event, which would provide a free trade, but decide that I need to try to spread out, and choose a Command + Decree instead, starting with a Migrate. I move one Amir from Bengal into Jaunpur, one into Orissa from Gondwana, and two into Madhyadesh from Maharashtra, and then pay to shift the Deccan Influence one in my favor because I moved into a spot where Vijayanagara units existed. I am pretty poor at this point, so I Trade for six resources, and take two cavalry tokens from the Delhi Sultanate.

The Delhi Sultanate is limited in options, and elects to take the Event, which keeps them Eligible for next turn. The event ends up placing a Troop in Andhra and removes a Raja there.

Next card is Musunuri Nayakas (card #18), with Vijayanagara and Delhi as eligible. The Vijayanagara bot chooses a Command + Decree, building a Temple in Maharashtra, and then Attacking in Karnataka (removing two Governors, and losing two Rajas) and Madhyadesh (removing a Governor, but losing a Raja). Each of these attacks was supported from the neighboring province, replenishing some of the losses (although, I should mention, I did realize as I was writing this that I've done this incorrectly, and will need to fix at least the movement of Rajas from Maharashtra into one or both of these provinces- it will be fixed before I work on the next part).

The Delhi Sultanate elects to take a Limited Command, placing a Governor in Orissa.

Finally, for this blog post, the next Succession card, Rise of the Rebel Sultans comes up. This provides a special action for each player and helps identify how close we are through the game (about halfway through).

The Delhi Sultanate gets a free Campaign, and targeting my region with the fewest pieces, moves a Governor from Andhra into Jaunpur, and adds a Troop from Delhi to join it.

I get a free limited command, which I use to Rebel in Bengal, putting it under my control, and I gain three resources.

Vijayanagara moves three Rajas from Karnataka to Maharashtra, and gains three cavalry tokens (taking one from me). The migration also lets them shift the Deccan Influence one.

So, at the halfway point, our current scores:

Delhi Sultanate: 12 points

Vijayanagara: 7 points

Bahmani: 5 points

I am still losing to the two bots, but the gap is not too bad, and I am in good position to make a play for a few provinces on the eastern part of India pretty early. I need to get more Temples out, to make my Amirs a bit better defended, and to get more points. Delhi, to me, seems to be in a pretty rough situation, because they have a huge horde right on their doorstep, so even if they stay ahead of me in points, I can hope the Mongols drop them down at the end game.

Vijayanagara seems to be in an enviable position, with strong coverage in a few provinces and little Delhi interference. I am going to have to take the fight to them in order to get ahead of them. Something to keep in mind as I enter part three of this playthrough.

Session Report: Vijayanagara, Part One (Solo - GMT Games)

I have been very excited to get some wargames on the table, and Vijayanagara seemed like a great one to start with, because it looked to play very well solo (it includes solo bots, after all), and because it is about a section of history I basically know nothing about. After reading the background history included, and then reading up on assorted topics related to the game's subject matter, I set it up, and was ready to play.

A brief word about this game, some of which I may have already covered in the recent unboxing article. This is the first game in GMT's Irregular Combat Series, which shares a lot of bones with their COIN series. The game is driven by cards that provide turn order, but taking certain choices makes you ineligible to play the following turn. The provided playbook also provides additional historical information for each card, so I will be using the opportunity, as I play solo, to read up on the history of each card as it comes up.

Game at setup

I decided to play the Bahmani Kingdom (the blue pieces). Per the playbook, the Delhi Sultanate (grey and black) is the most difficult faction to play, followed by the Bahmani, so for my first game, I opted to play the 'mid-difficulty' faction. This also lets me interact with both of the (bot) factions, which will give me insight into how they play effectively- useful for when I manage to play this with friends.

As the Bahmani, I score victory points by adding my Deccan influence (track on the lower left) to the number of forts in play (blue circular pieces on the left) to the total Prosperity of provinces I control (which is zero at the start of the game). I win if I end with more points than the other two factions, only one of which starts with any- the Delhi Sultanate, starting with 18 points (their total will drop as we wrest control of provinces from them).

The first card flip was card #17, Sufi Shaikh Relocates. This card gave me the first choice for the turn, and I opted to take the event, which gives me one additional Deccan influence (bringing me to one victory point) and allows me to remove up to five Delhi Sultanate pieces wherever I have a Bahmani piece. At this point, the only provinces where we co-exist are Madhyadesh and Gujarat, so I remove what I can from there, a total of three pieces.

The Vijayanagara Empire (yellow pieces) gets the next choice, and after flipping through the bot system, chooses Command + Decree, spending down to 0 resources, if possible. The decree chosen is Compel, which adds two Rajas (yellow hexagons) to Gondwana.

Vijayanagara adds two Amirs

Moving further through the flowchart, Vijayanagara elects to Rally using Place Rajas. This ends up putting five more Rajas on the board, at a cost of four resources.

Vijayanagara spreads out

Seeing that makes me feel a little envious- maybe I should have spent my turn putting more pieces on the board, too. Ah well.

Moving on, with most of the choices taken, the Delhi bot elects to do a Limited Command (a command that can only affect a single location) and chooses Govern. They don't have great choices, with no Governors (black hexagons) co-existing with enemy pieces, so instead just place a Qasbah (black circle) in Malwa. This will make their ability to Conscript forces more effective later.

End of first turn

With the Vijayanagara bot and I ineligible the following turn, the Delhi Sultanate gets the only option of playing with the next card, Hindu Kush Mountains (#11). The Delhi bot almost never plays the event, and instead elects to do a Command + Decree, and after going through the selection process, ends up choosing to Collect Tribute as its Decree, generating nine resources, and following up with a Conscript Command in up to six spaces. Going through the selection process, on the handy chart, the Delhi bot adds Troops (grey cubes) to Delhi (five Troops), Andhra (two), Malwa (two), Punjab (one), Gujarat (one), and Tamilakam (one). With that, their turn is complete.

End of second turn

Next card up is Siege of Warangal (#6). The Vijayanagara bot is the first eligible faction listed, and rolls too high to take the event, so elects to do a Command + Decree. The Decree chosen is Build, and a temple is built in Karnataka.

The Command chosen is Migrate, and the bot elects to do it only once, moving three Rajas into Madhyadesh.

I am starting to add visual aids to show exactly what is going on, is that helpful?

As part of this, the Vij bot chooses to shift influence away from Bahmani, and end their turn at 2 VPs, dropping me down to 0.

On my turn, I see that the Event has the Stay Eligible description (meaning, obviously, I can stay eligible on the next card). I elect to take it, which removes the tributary marker in Gondwana, puts two Amirs there, and gives me control (putting me at 1 VP to end the turn).

Next card up is our first Mongol Invasion (Vij control). Even in a three-player game, the Mongols represent a non-player entity that threatens Delhi, and therefore specifically the Delhi Sultanate. Each time this card comes up, either the Bahmani or Vijayanagara player gets to control the Mongol (reddish-brown) pieces for two actions. In this case, Vijayanagara gets control, and elects to Amass twice (this results in six units placed into the Passes, with two of them overflowing into Punjab). If they activate again before Delhi can deal with them, this is going to be quite the blow to the Sultanate.

Next card is Bara Gazi Toph (#30). I have the first choice, and elect to do a Command + Decree, to get some more pieces on the board. My Command is to Rally, adding two pieces apiece into Maharashtra and Gondwana (costing me two resources), and then I use the Decree to build a fort in Gondwana (this gives me a victory point, and makes my units harder to take down in combat). I think I would have preferred to Migrate, in order to spread out, but I felt like more units on the table would give me more options on my next opportunity to play.

The Delhi Sultanate bot chooses the Event, as it is a Stay Eligible event that can change the board state. It provides a free attack (with no counterattack), which they perform in Punjab. They roll a one, two, three, and four, inflicting four hits, more than enough to clear Punjab of Mongol units.

Next card is The Hare and the Hounds (#32). The Vijayanagara bot goes first, and elect to take the event, going up by 1 Deccan influence, then replaces my Amirs in Maharashtra and Gujarat with Rajas, ending up at three total VPs, while remaining eligible for the next card.

The Delhi Sultanate chooses to do a Command + Decree, and elects to Govern, placing Governors (black hexagonal pieces) in Gujarat, Andhra, Tamilakam, and Madhyadesh, following up with the Collect Tribute decree, providing them eight resources and two more cavalry tokens.

Next card up is the second Mongol Invasion card of this Succession period, and it is under my control this time. I first choose to Amass, adding more Mongol cubes onto the board, and then I choose to Attack & Plunder in the Mountain Passes, hoping to remove some Delhi troops from the board, and cut into their resources.

The Mongols roll a five, three, three, and a one on their attack, and the Delhi Sultanate rolls a five and a three. The number of pieces in an area determines if you succeed, so currently, with four pieces in the Mountain Passes, the Mongols only have three successes (and the Sultanate has zero). However, each side has cavalry tokens that can be used to either modify an individual roll down one, or screen (remove) an opposing hit (unless the hit was a one on the dice). The Mongols use their (always present) cavalry token to convert a five to a four, providing four hits, and the Delhi Sultanate use their cavalry token to change a three to a two, resulting in one hit. The pieces are removed on each side, and with three Mongol pieces remaining, the Delhi Sultanate loses three resources to plunder.

Next card is The Raichur Doab (#31), and I am the only eligible player for this one. I choose to do a Command + Decree. My command is to Migrate, moving my pieces around. For the cost of four resources, I move two Amirs from Gondwana to Bengal, one from Madhyadesh to Orissa, and two from Maharashtra to Andhra. I also spend one additional resource to improve my Deccan influence by one (and drop the Vijayanagara's by one). I then choose the Trade decree, gaining six resources and two cavalry tokens. I'm feeling rather good about that turn, at least.

And finally, to end this article, the first Succession card comes up. These three cards come up in a specific order every game, provide an immediate benefit to each player, and help provide a good indication of the time remaining in the game (the game will end within two to eight cards after the third succession card comes up). This first card is the Zenith of the Delhi Sultanate. First thing to note, is that now both the Vijayanagara bot and I can start taking the Rebel command, fighting to take control of provinces from the Delhi Sultanate (the one I have results from an Event card, not a player choice). Then, each faction gets a brief boon:

- The Delhi Sultanate bot gets a free Campaign and moves a bunch of troops and a Governor into Orissa.

- I gain two cavalry tokens.

- The Vijayanagara bot gains two resources.

And with that, the first period of the game is over. The Delhi Sultanate is still clearly in command of the score, but with so many of our pieces on the board, the Vij bot and I are going to start making some noise in the next period, which I will cover in the next post.

Finally, a question for anyone who has read this far (and thank you!) - I started trying to provide some graphics in the image to show what was going on. Was that helpful? Distracting? Please let me know, so I can decide how best to present things in the next article. I realize that without knowing the game, a lot of the images will appear to be mostly a shape/color soup, of sorts, but presumably, people with some familiarity with the game will be able to more easily follow along (I know I could, if I read this again in the future).

Fall gaming retreat recap

I am out at my yearly gaming weekend with my friends, and wanted to write a bit about what I've been playing and doing here.  We are over in Deep Creek Lake, with a building full of boardgames, drinking, gaming, and having a blast.

A look at the building from the outside.

Pretty nice.

After we spent some time unpacking into the house, choosing our beds, getting groceries and alcohol, and getting ready, we set down and got to gaming.

Our first game was Quartermaster General.  This is a World War II game, and we had the following players: Matt as Germany, Dan as the UK, Scott as Japan, Mark as the USSR, myself as Italy, and Ben as the US.

The game uses different action decks for each player, meaning that, although I have plenty of options turn to turn, my overall capabilities are going to be somewhat limited to somewhat emulate what Italy actually did in WWII.

The game started with the UK and I getting into a brief sea war over the Mediterranean/North Sea section, as I tried to expand into Africa and eastward.

I was successful enough that I managed to gain a foothold, and started to look for options.  I decide to play Impero Italiano, which would give me additional victory points for either German or Italian armies in North Africa or the Middle East.  I make a few forays into the Balkans, but the USSR destroys every army I put there, and I decide to continue on.

I draw and play Italian East Africa, which gives me a way to spread out and start getting us some points.

The Italian high water mark.

I start contributing to the war in Southern Asia, killing the army in India, which puts a lot of pressure on the UK to rebuild it, or lose their entire foothold in the region.

I play Mare Nostrum, which gives me points for every Italian fleet on the board, and start getting some points.  The UK puts another fleet in the North Sea, and I try to destroy it, but he plays a response that saves it.  From there, he is able to destroy my fleet.  The USSR destroys more of my attempts to build an army, and I am pushed back further and further.

The Germans do their best to go after the USSR, but end up slowing down too.... and then it all falls apart.  Pushes from the USSR, US, and UK manage to basically destroy the Japanese pieces on the board, and then the UK and USSR manage to bottle Germany and I up in our own area.  A few turns later, the allies have 30 more victory points than the allies, and claim the sudden death victory.

Overall, I liked the game well enough- it was a nice quick (very abstract) treatment of World War II, and showcased, in a very general sense, the capabilities of each of the major powers of World War II.  Not a bad game at all.

I followed this by playing the new LCG from Fantasy Flight Games- Marvel Champions.  My brother and I bought this right before this retreat, and we were both excited to play.  We took a bunch of starter-ish decks, and played against the intro scenario- Rhino with the Bomb Threat.  I took Black Panther, my brother took Captain Marvel, Dan took Iron Man, and Ben took Spider-Man.

Back and forth the game went- we actually got off to a good start, and we all felt pretty good.  Over time though, various challenges presented themselves, and I faced setbacks that continually kept my board state less than ideal... but in the end, we won.  Re-reading the rules, we did get a few things wrong, but nothing that would've destroyed our experience, I think.

This is one that I really enjoyed- I can't wait for more releases to this system, and I can't wait for there to be enough cards for meaningful deck-building, and heck, more scenarios would be great (even though I haven't played the three included in the core set!).

My brother and I followed this with another card game- Star Trek Customizable Card Game- 2nd Edition.  We both whipped out a Borg deck (I was doing a mega-teaming, and he was doing... something a bit more flexible).  I actually got a pretty good start, using my dilemmas effectively to cut out his unique personnel, and start solving missions.  He concedes after a few turns of this, as I've set him back so far that he was going to have a hard time catching back up.

After this, we decided to head to bed, so we could get a nice early start on Saturday.

We woke up early, showered, ate, and got off to some light gaming with a game called Welcome To.... This game can play up to eighty (!?) apparently, and is a game where you are building a neighborhood, and getting points for accomplishing certain things, like building a lot of pools, park, neighborhoods, and so on.  I've never played it before, but it was quick, fun and I ended up in 3rd place with 47 points.  Scott won with 51, so I actually did pretty well!

My final neighborhood

Rob had brought a game that he was dying to play, and we ended up playing it off and on over the rest of the weekend- War Room.  This is game in the same vein as Axis & Allies (indeed, designed by the same guy), where you are playing the second World War, and attempting to do better than our historical counterparts did.  We managed to get six players, in two teams: Myself as the USSR, Rob as the US, Scott as the UK, Dan as Japan, Mark as Germany, and Ben as Italy.

This game is interesting in that you plot all your moves for the turn ahead of time (although you can cancel the moves when they are about to execute).  Combat is more interesting than Axis & Allies, as each individual unit can usually choose one of two ways to fight (either offensively or defensively, usually).

I didn't take notes for this one, but basically what happened was that the British fleets on the board got mauled on the first turn, putting us on the back foot.  We struck back, but not hard enough, and everywhere around the globe, the Axis made great advances, expelling the UK from Northern Africa and the Middle East, cleaning out China, and finally landing in Australia.  On my western border, Germany stalled a turn before attacking me, and when he did, he basically decimated the forces facing him.  We had a brief moment where we managed to make some progress, as we finally destroyed most of the German ships in the Atlantic ocean, and other allied units landed in Karelia to help me out... but it wasn't going to be enough- I was in trouble, as we were all over the map.  They accepted our surrender, and that was the game.

During some breaks, we did play other games.

First among these was Rising Sun, a game I own and backed on Kickstarter, but rarely play.  Dan had brought it, so we set up and started playing, with me choosing the Turtle Clan (who get moving strongholds who contribute to battles!).  Dan, Rob, and Scott also played, but I don't recall who was playing as which clan.

Normally, I'm really lousy at this game, but for some reason, this time playing went really well.  I had a moderately cohesive strategy (get Ronin, get things that give me money at the start of the war phase, focus on different provinces each time).

I ended up with 44 points, which I believe was my highest score ever.  It was good enough for 2nd place, which I know was my best placement.  Dan finished first, with well over 80 points.  Ouch!

From here, my brother wanted to try out Arkham Horror, 3rd Edition, by Fantasy Flight Games.  I had played the previous edition, and enjoyed it, but it was a bit long for my tastes, and really really clunky at times.  This version was played by Matt, myself, Rob, and Scott, and we were involved in dealing with a gang war in town.  I played Agnes Baker, focused on ward actions (removing doom tokens from the map), but I ended up being a very strong fighter by the end of the game, and used that to start killing monsters.  Unfortunately, the foes were too great for the rest of my team (aside form Scott, playing Jenny Barnes), and they managed to get two of us down.  We got in position to win on the following turn, but then spawned monsters who pinned us down, and we ended up losing.  Still, very close!

At this point, it was getting pretty late, so we broke out some lighter games.  The first one we went with was Hail Hydra, a Marvel themed game with hidden roles, villains, and super powers.  I don't remember who I chose, and it was a bit late by this point, but I'm pretty sure the heroes were narrowly defeated by the villains, coming down to the final boss, with us just narrowly unable to defeat him.  I think?  Probably should have written that down.

Next up was Goodcritters, a game which I also played once on Sunday, right before my brother and I left to come home.  This is a game where a bunch of animals are deciding how to distribute loot, with the boss (the one in charge of creating the loot piles, and then some backstabbing, negotiation, and so on.  Ended up being a really good time, both times we played, although I did not win either time.

Ben and I played a quick game of Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, the card game from Plaid Hat Games, which uses dice as its core resource mechanic.  We each played one of the deluxe expansions starters, with me taking the Music Magic, but I lost, sadly.  I did misread one of my summons, which may have helped keep me in the game longer, but I think long term I was going to lose, anyway.  Sigh :(.

The final game I ended up playing was Warhammer Underworlds.  I got into a three player game with Matt and Dan- I took the new Sylvaneth warband from the Beastgrave box, Matt took the Beastmen from it, and Dan took the Profiteers, I think they are called.  It was a three player free-for-all, with Dan in the middle, which was pretty brutal for him to start, but he managed to do enough each turn to stay alive, and actually ended up winning!

And that was basically it!  I played a bunch of games, had a good time, and came home.  I will say, I honestly could have brought nothing, and ended up playing the exact same games, which is a tad annoying (ie, why do I bring anything at all?), but that's my only (minor) complaint.  Otherwise, I had a great time, and I think everyone else did as well.

Playthrough of All or Nothing [Against the Odds Magazine]

My first wargame playthrough in my new house!

I wanted to start with something fairly small, but new to me, so I chose to play All or Nothing: The Fight for Fort Mercer - October 22, 1777, a bonus game that came with an issue of Against the Odds Magazine (issue 49, specifically).

The battle depicted in this game (the Battle of Red Bank) where a Hessian force under Colonel Donlop attempted to take Ft Mercer.  Outnumbered three to one, the Americans inflicted pretty heavily casualties, and ended up holding the fort until the Hessians retreated.  Let's see how the game plays!  I will be playing this one solo.

At the core of this game, activation is determined by flipping from a standard deck of cards, with the nines and tens removed.  Black cards allow Colonial troops to activate in better ways, red cards allow the Hessians to do so.  Higher number cards allow for more activations.  If the Joker is drawn, the turn ends, unless one side hasn't activated yet, in which case the turn ends when the deck runs out (ie, it'll be a long turn).  Winner is whoever holds the fort at the end of the game.

I want to apologize ahead of time- I feel that this report may feel a bit drag-gy.  I'm trying to work on how I format session reports for games like that- I'd love any feedback.

First, I set up the game, and made some initial rolls for the PA Naval Support (3), and a card flip to determine the Royal Navy Support for the turn.  I flipped a six of diamonds, giving the Hessian player three Naval Support points as well.  Naval Support points can always be used for Fire Combat, which is good to disrupt opposing units, and potentially reduce and kill them.  The Royal Navy can also use their points to go after the PA Navy, in an attempt to suppress it for the turn.  In the historical battle, two British ships ran around, and this reduced the naval support the Hessians received here.

Post setup

Turn 1 - The Hessian are guaranteed the first activation, as you draw until a red card comes up.  The first card is an Ace of Diamonds, activating one unit, which moves forward.  This is followed by a Four of Diamonds, along two more units to move up and get into position.

Initial moves

The next card draw is a Jack of Diamonds.  The face cards allow a player to activate all of the units in an area, or a random number of supports.  Here, given the large number of Hessian units still in their starting location, the movement to break everyone out seemed a lot more important, and the units in the South-East moved out and closed in on the fort.  A Queen of Hearts follows, and the artillery in the Wooded-1 section in the middle of the board take their first shots at units in the Stockades, but fail to hit anything.

A Joker was drawn next.  Because the defenders haven't had an activation, the turn doesn't end... and I will go through the entire deck (this was a loooooong turn).

Next draw- a King of Diamonds- I activate the Clear-8 area, near the right hand of the Stockades.  The Hessian attempt to fill the ditch by the Stockade, which will help make assaults easier, but fail to get their facines into place.  The Queen of Diamonds I draw next activates that area again, and they launch their first assault into the Stockades, and succeed in reducing the defending unit.

After seven red cards in a row, the first black card comes up- an Eight of Clubs.  The Defenders focus shooting into one of the attacking units, routing and reducing it.

The Defenders finally get some revenge

Three more black cards are drawn, I reposition a little behind in the walls, and shooting kills the routed Grenadier, removing the first piece from the board!

Another two black cards are drawn (I'm sure not every game starts with large runs of the same color, which has to skew things quite a bit), and shooting from the fort and the defending units ends up eliminating another attacker, and disrupts yet another unit.  The elimination results in the first drop of Morale for the game, which makes it more likely that Hessian units break under fire.

The center of the Hessian attack is removed.

This is followed by a Seven of Spades, which involves more shooting, but the only effect was the PA Navy disrupting the Jaegers.

Finally, the large American run ends, and a Five of Hearts is drawn, giving the Hessians a chance to assault (which doesn't accomplish anything), and move another unit up, to prepare for the next wave.  An Eight of Diamonds is drawn next, and the British Navy suppresses the PA Navy for the turn.  Another Assault accomplished nothing, and another attempt to fill the ditch fails.  The Jack of Hearts activates the Clear-1 space, and the infantry begin to move up, to try to get an attack going on the fort space itself.

In response, two black cards are drawn, the defenders shoot, and two more Hessians are disrupted.  A quick note- in this game, the first hit a unit receives from Fire Combat results in Disruption, which isn't too bad- the unit's shooting range is reduced to one, they have to take a Morale Check before launching an assault, and further shooting hits require Morale Checks- failure of which can reduce or rout the unit.

Not going great for the Hessians...

A Four of Hearts is drawn, activating two Hessian units, which attempt to Assault into the right-most Stockade space... and succeed!  The defending unit is eliminated, and the attackers get their first toe-hold into the defenses!  The American morale drops as well, likely making things more difficult in the future.

The Hessians are in!

Two black cards come up, and the Americans retreat one of the Stockade units back into the fort, and the shooting Disrupts the two Hessians that had made it in.

The Hessians advance units into the Abatis, hoping to Assault into the Fort space itself (shooting from the Abatis space is harder), and the big 2-0 Howitzer finally starts to shoot, disrupting a unit inside the Fort.  The next activation sees the Howitzer shoot again for no effect, but one of those units located in the Abatis succeeds in filling the ditch into the Fort!

A ditch is filled

That filled ditch makes Assaults a bit more likely to succeed when going through the border of those two areas.

A Six of Hearts is drawn next (followed by another red card), and this results in the first two assaults into the fort, which don't work out well- a failed Morale test and a roll modified to higher than a six (which deals a step loss to the attacking unit).  The Americans counter-assault on their next black card draw, dealing an additional step loss to the Hessian force.

A few more cards are drawn for some back and forth attacks, but for a bit, there is a lull, but the Americans move their last unit back into the Fort.

Preparing for their last stand

A Jack of Spades is drawn, activating the that full Fort space... and they get to work.  Some shooting, some assaulting, and when they are done, that Abatis space is clear... and a Hessian Leader is removed as a casualty, resulting in another Morale drop.  A brutal setback for the Hessians!

More cards are drawn- the Hessians move more of their forces up, to prepare for another offensive.  They manage to inflict a step loss on the routed unit in the Fort.  However, on the last card of the Turn, the defenders once again shoot well, routing and reducing a unit, and leaving the attacking force that much weaker.

End Turn 1

During the end step of the Turn, all the units attempt to recover morale, and all actually succeed- every disrupted unit lost its disruption, and the routed units became disrupted, instead.

Turn 2 - First, the flip for Royal Navy support was a King of Hearts, which, due to the face card, meant the Hessians would have no Navy support.  PA Navy Support was a four.

The first draw of the turn was an Eight of Diamonds, which allowed the Hessian to move forces into the Stockade-1 space, and prepare to assault the Fort.  The following Five of Hearts saw the first assault begin, but there was not effect.

Hessians prepare to assault!

A Queen of Hearts is drawn, but the assaults, once again, accomplish nothing.

However, two straight black cards (the Eight of Spades and the Jack of Clubs) see much more effective work done- their shooting disrupts the two units in the Stockade space, and their assaults see both units reduced.

The next draw... is a Joker!  As both sides have had at least one activation, this ends the turn.  Much shorter than Turn 1!  The Hessian units all recover their disruption, the American unit does not.

Turn 3 - The flip for the Royal Navy is an Eight of Clubs, meaning no support.  The PA Navy, however, gets a six.  Things aren't going well for the Hessian as is... having more fire support is sure to cause more challenges.

The first card of the turn is a Four of Diamonds, and with this, I finally do what I should've been smarter about doing all game- I move Lt Colonel Werner over to the Howitzer space, and use it to start shooting.  This increases the chances that the Howitzer hits, which can have beneficial effects to the Hessian morale... but I guess I was busy trying to get some early gains, and hadn't thought it through.  Something to consider if I play this again.  Anyway, the Howitzer DOES finally get a hit, but the defending unit masses its morale check.

A King of Spades is flipped, and the defenders lay into the Hessians, disrupting a unit with shooting, and killing it with an assault.

A lowly Ace of Hearts is flipped (activating a single unit, unfortunately).  I shoot with the Howitzer, disrupting another unit in the Fort.  I couldn't decided at this point whether I should be disrupting all of the defending units (easier to do, stops them from shooting more than a single space, and makes them a little easier to assault), or try to rout and reduce the already disrupted unit (much less likely to accomplish, but much more valuable if I can).  I opt to Disrupt as much as possible to try to get my final attack in place.

Next, a Five of Spades - a BRUTAL turn for the Hessians.  The American assault destroys another unit... and then the leader... and this results in TWO Morale drops for the Hessian player.  The Mercer artillery gets in on the action, and disrupts another unit.

The Hessian attack falters...

More cards are drawn.  The Hessian moves up.  The PA Navy disrupts one of them, and the Howitzer disrupts another defending unit.

Preparing for the last push.

A Six of Spades comes next, and shooting disrupts the Jaegers.  More cards come and go to no effect, than a later Jack of Spades is drawn, and more shooting disrupts the other Stockade Hessian, as reduces the Jaegers.  The following card, a Two of Spades, sees the Fusiliers reduced.  A Queen of Hearts is drawn, and the Howitzer disrupts the last un-disrupted unit in the Fort.

Several more cards get drawn, resulting in a lot of shoots, and a few assaults (plus many failed pre-assault Morale checks), but no change in board state.  Finally, a series of three black cards sees the Defenders shoot out... and kill all of the attacking infantry units.

The artillery can move... but it can't enter the Fort.  And with that, there's no way for the Hessians to get in, so the Americans win!

Thoughts on the game
So, this is a game about a siege, and given that sieges are kind of... dull, there are definitely some challenges for a game designer trying to put one into game form.  How can you make it so both sides have interesting things to do, as opposed to just getting bogged down in running through the system?

This game, I think makes a good effort, but only partially succeeds.  The Hessian player does have interesting things to do- trying to balance out using the artillery to keep the defender's heads down, then advance the infantry up into position to assault and carry the day.  Trying to fill the ditches gives something to influence their assault odds, and the artillery, especially with leadership, definitely has a role to play.  And heck, the Royal Navy, if it can be a factor, gives you another way to get some disruption on the defenders.

For the American player, there is really nothing to do.  Sure, they get two different types of support (the PA Navy and the Fort Mercer artillery), but that's just more static shooting.  They are definitely just reacting, and eventually stacking up the Fort space to make it tough for the Hessians.  There is an option to disembark infantry from the Navy, landing it off the eastern board edge, which may have made it more interesting, but having the consistent firepower feels more important and relevant, so I don't know how or why I'd take that option.

Overall, it was a fine game, and one that I think is probably best solo.  I may get it back on the table someday :).

Thoughts on my play
I will look at two sides to this- my American play, and my Hessian play.

For the Americans, I think I played just fine, but as I said above, I don't think there's much to it.  They are just there, shooting, and consolidating.  They won, so it's harder for me to critique my play objectively.  I think I probably would do the same, were I to play this again, even face to face.

For the Hessians... I have more ideas.  I should have set up and kept a leader in the area with the Howitzer- the extra +1 to hit would've made the Howitzer and the other artillery piece a lot more effective in their attacks.  Using those artillery pieces to disrupt the defenders would allow the Hessians to advance with near impunity (disrupted infantry can't shoot further than adjacent).  Once infantry is disrupted, they have a better chance to lose assaults, AND the Howitzer stands a chance of getting some more meaningful hits, which would keep the Hessian morale high.

I think not keeping a leader with the artillery was definitely my biggest mistake, as it meant I wasted a LOT of activations shooting for almost no effect.  I had time to correct this, but was too committed to the actual assaults to pull my guys out and reposition things.  When things started going bad, pulling my guys back a space (assuming I had disrupted the defenders, of course) would've kept the Hessian forces fresh, and able to really pound away with the assaults.  Time might get tight towards the end, but given how much time I wasted, I feel there probably was enough time to get the assault done.

So anyway, I do think if I play again, I'd be able to be a lot more effective as the Hessians, at least.