Pandemic and Aurelian

Nice weather draws me out of the house and into the yard. But spring, being what it is, means there are still days when gaming is the only option!

At home, we've playing Pandemic Legacy. We're in May and faced our first loss. I had under-estimated the effect of the faded and had a hard time thinking strategy while remembering all of the new rules that have emerged. We need to play more often was our conclusion.

We managed to win our second game and make a number of roadblocks permanent in order to contain the mutating virus to North America (which is now deeply messed up). I think we also have a better selection of characters to help keep stuff under control.

Tuesday, I was out at Bruce's to conclude our Aurelian/Punic Wars campaign. This was a big battle in Gail between Hannibal and Scipio. I was the attacker and had to capture two objectives (the sheep) in order to win.

I decided my best play was to try to push around the right flank and then get my horses moving to bag both objectives. That meant refusing my left flank.

 I had good luck pushing around on the right. I had less luck containing Bruce push agains my left.

Some good (or lucky) card play allows me to get around behind Bruce before he ran my hand down by capturing my baggage.

Campaign-wise, this put Carthage in a bad economic position. Coupled with a political defection of an African province last time, we decided it was likely unwinnable for Carthage and called it.

Aurelian and Punic Wars

I dropped in on Bruce Tuesday to continue our Aurelian/Punic Wars campaign. The battle we had to fight was a botched invasion of Sicily by Carthage (thanks Poseidon!). Bruce was significantly outnumbered and the game was quick.

I pinned his light cavalry as best I could and moved forward with my legions. He tried to swing around with his cavalry but that came to nothing.

It was valiant but hopeless for Carthage. The casualties here transferred back to the board game and compounded his naval losses.

The upshot was a revolt by a province in North Africa and Rome finally came approximately even in production. I then made a naval attack in Sicily and lost a lot of boats (which, strategically, was the goal because maintaining the boats as hamstringing my ground game). Bruce the consolidated in southern France and I moved to occupy my new possession in North Africa.

We stopped the game with a huge Scipio v Hannibal battle in Gaul pending. When we reoslve that via miniatures next time, I'll then come back to finish my board game turn and build up forces to threaten him in Carthage. This week, though, we have a club night with Bruce bringing out Pulp Alley. I've pointed up some preliminary Batman leagues that I'd like to try out at home.

Aurelian and Punic Wars

It has been a busy week, including a fairly spectacular fall on the ice that has left me hobbled (nothing major just a swollen knee so I can neither pedal nor clutch). But before that happened, I managed to get out to Bruce's to continue our Aurelian/Punic Wars campaign.

I knew this battle was going to be bad as Bruce had 50% more troops that I had. He also had good move cards at the beginning and pressured me on both sides. Nothing much came of the right flank--all of the real action was on the left.

Someinitial skirmishing gave way to a closing of the heavies. I managed to do a lot of damage bt not enough to stop Bruce so I switched tactics and tried to run myself out of cards as fast as I could to limit my own losses.

In the end, Carthage clearly held the field and I lost a lot of troops. Oh well!

We then switched back to the board game. Bruce continued to pressure in the north and I decided to let myself be besieged. Bruce also decided to cross from Carthage to Sicily in the south. Unfortunately, a naval battle went poorly for him and our next battle will be in the south where I will have a numerical advantage.

Campaign wise, the losses may also really affect the event roll and possibly cause some Carthaginian provinces to defect. But I could could still lose spectacularly on the field of battle so I'm not counting those chickens.

Win the battle, lose the Punic Wars

Bruce and I continued our Punic Wars campaign this week. First up was a battle before the gates of Rome. The Carthaginians must put a stand on top of the sheep marker within 10 turns in order to win.

The scenario required the Roman baggage train to be forward (ambush!) meaning I needed to screen it. But the set-up area was such that I had to refuse both wings to protect my forward troops' flanks. Only good news was I got to place the woods.

Given the time and card constraints, Bruce mostly advanced on the Roman left. We had quite the cavalry battle as we waited for the elephants to get into contact.

In the end, I managed to make some lucky card plays and broke enough of his units on the table top that he ran out of time. So back to the campaign map we went.

Here, things went less well. I had made an early economic error (too many boats!) in the hope of a quick siege of Carthage and could never quite match Bruce's ability to field troops and wander through Italy.

I ended up taking some chances with my troops to try and undermine his economy. Then southern Italy revolted and I had to go clean that up and Hannibal snuck in and sacked Rome. What a horror show.

I'd totally play this again and we're going to. Great campaign engine. Truly a strategic take on the Punic Wars.

Aurelian campaign continued

Bruce and I continued our Aureleian campaign this week with the first large battle between the dastardly Romans and the British freedom fighters.

Bruce had 10 turns to march across the board and seize two objectives. I managed to drop some nasty terrain (light green oval) in his way early on. I then moved to try and jam up his legions in bad terrain. Tactically this was right (bad terrain levels the playing field for the Brits) but strategically this was an error (burned too many cards).

I knew I was in real card trouble just about the moment when the armies collided. The first skirmishes were pretty indecisive.

Then this started to happen....

...and now everyone has party hats and I'm low on cards and Bruce is also working horse around my flank.

I tried a hail Mary attack to run him out of cards through unit loss but he had a special card that negated the flank benefits for one turn and that was all she wrote. I should have just waited him out.

We then returned to Druid to move the campaign along We played another 5 turns (so we're 50% of the way done). Bruce has supply problems but I have not rallied enough tribes. We stopped when we got another big battle result and we'll game that out.

Aurelian and Druid

I didn't get to the club this week but I did get a few gams in. Jess and I have been continuing to play through Red November, trying to get a win against the mechanics. Sheesh.

Last week, Bruce hosted a game of Aurelian (Rome v Hairys). The scenario was an ambush where the Hairys had 15 hands of play to control a base of sheep. We're still learning the system and I think I got lucky with the terrain placement.

My plan to face down his screaming hordes was to close and minimize his ability to maneuver while running out the turn clock.

My heavies moved through the skirmishers (who became the reserve and last line of defence) wile my cavalry moved to refuse the flank against his cavalry.

The eventual clash in the centre was a bit of a slog. The right-hand part of the lines because a bit of a FUBAR as Bruce cagily sought to turn flanks and try to get a break through.

Fortunately, that game works both way and managed to delay his advance and run his cards down.

In the end, he just ran out of time (15 turns in insanely tight!). Also tangling head on with Romans is a rough business. I suspect I will face some terrain woes in future engagements.

Bruce then broke out a copy of Druid and we played a few turns to get the hang of it. His thought is to use it as a campaign mechanic for Aurelian. It seemed simply enough and I'm looking forward to it

Up next: I have been doing a bit of painting as I move a bunch of 54mm British AWI off of the painting table. Not sure what comes next!

End of the Longstreet Campaign

Bruce and I brought out ACW Longstreet campaign to an end on Tuesday, Bruce drew a meeting engagement and I was the defender. 

Alas, I did not listen to the set-up instructions and, once the terrain was laid, I had to march the length of my baseline to get into position while Bruce rushed to catch me out (with the help of some unexpected bad going)!

Eventually I got into position on the right side of the board and managed to more of less hold Bruce off. I was greatly added by Bruce rolling so badly that I wanted to shout "Great Scott". But that would be a mean thing to remind Scott about...

As things went poorly for Bruce on the right, I pushed forward on the left and bagged three units, which basically won the game.

Bruce then charged on the left and I managed to inflict enough damage that his troops fled the field. It was a glorious victory for the southerners, marred only by discovering that we had lost the war (arse!). Oh well, these things happen. I would certainly play this again!

Up next: More Battlelore.

EDBAG HoTT Campaign Night 2

Last night was the second night of the EDBAG king of the mountain HoTT campaign. In turn 1, both Dave and Terry managed to grab mountains, joining Dennis with one mountain each. I joined Bruce as an allied contingent in game one, facing down Dave's Winter Queen army.

You can see me way over on the left (three bases of storm troopers) trying to join the fray across the river before Dave bagged Bruce's camp. No joy for me--I almost made it to the river before the game was over.

In game 2, I was also unable to be an attacker or a defender so I again sent an allied contingent (otherwise I would have just sat around). The way the geography in my part of the campaign map works, it looks like there is only about a 50% chance I can be an attacker or a defender in a fight each turn (otherwise I'm an allied contingent) and the chip draw means that I will only be the attacker 50% of the time that I'm a major combatant. And attackers will almost always face a defender and ally!

So, some strategizing was required. With that in mind, I decided to try and even up the odds for the next time I get to play attacker. I decided to join Dave defending a mountain against Dennis' imperialist ambitions (errr... sorry, desire to restore his historical territorial integrity). Stopping Dennis is in my interests. But I also decided to be minimally helpful in the hope that Dave would lose some elements and be weaker next game.

This didn't work out exactly to plan, with Dennis being down four bases before I even really got on the board. Yes, Dennis would get stopped, but Dave was looking like he'd have no losses at all! So Lord Vader maneuvered in behind his "ally" at a funky angle, causing some recoil woes (and general outrage). And then Dave's dice went south (way south) and suddenly it was an even game.

Eventually, Dave and I managed to take a base from Dennis and we called it a night. Dave rolled back all of his losses (drat) but Dennis did not get the mountain square. I'll be sure to wear my teflon gaming short next night... . I don't think any other attackers were successful that turn so Dave, Terry and Dennis remain tied at one mountain each.

Up next: Some 15mm foot are underway and I finished building and priming some 15mm winged hussars. Next Tuesday I'm playing some Dux Bellorum at the club with Will.

First night of EDBAG HoTT Campaign

The first night of the newest EDBAG HoTT campaign started last night in Dennis' loft. There are 10 guys playing. It is a map campaign (very abstract) with the goal being to take four of the six mountain hexes. We had time for two turns last night and the theme is "fantasy" so armies are a real mix.

The first turn I ended up fighting Bruce's Imperial Romans with my Imperial Stormtroopers. Dave's Winter Witch army sent Bruce a contingent which showed up in my rear. Based on the mechanics, the attacker will almost always face a defender AND allied contingent and that contingent has a 50% chance of arriving in the attacker's rear. Some diplomacy will be required to make this work!

I felt like I had Bruce on the ropes but the dice didn't work out and then I lost. My efforts to use the force to choke him were unsuccessful. I managed to get all of my troops back (replacement mechanic is pretty generous so a loss is more of a set-back in the strategic game than anything). In the second game, I faced Dennis' potpourri barbarian army with Stu as my contingent. Dennis is the only one to capture a mountain hex in the first game so we needed to stop his ...errr... imperialist ambitions.

Things went pretty well for me. Stu's arrival in the rear distracted Dennis' general and Dennis' pips were terrible so he took quite the beating before breaking. I'm not sure my lightsabre sound effects were appreciated. But he got all but one stand back. As far as I recall, no one got a mountain hex is the second campaign turn. Getting four hexes is going to be tricky!

Up next: I have a building underway and some ring wraiths but things will be slow for a bit yet.