May Games

Another round-up of the gaming shenanigans I got up to this past month...  

Friday, 3 May 2024

Got things started off on the first Friday of the month with some Stone Age! 

I have to admit... I don't LOVE Stone Age... I don't hate it or anything... but it's not my favourite game and there are dozens of 4-player games I'd have rather played... 

So I wasn't trying all that hard... But somehow I won... by, like, quite a bit!? I'm not entirely sure how that happened...!? 

Friday, 10 May 2024

I'd arranged to play a game of Warhammer Underworlds at the Warhammer Store on Friday with a fellow named Dan that had contacted me through Board Game Geek, after finding this blog... I showed up really early and ended up starting a game with John the manager of the store, thinking we might get through it really quick before Dan showed up...

He played with his Sons of Velmorn and I played Skabbik's Plaguepack.

We were only part way through when Dan showed up... but Orion was also there and offered to walk Dan through a game (which, honsetly, was probably for the best, as Orion is SO GOOD at keeping track of everything that is going on in a game... I can barely figure out what I'm trying to do most of the time!) 

In the end there wasn't enough time for a second game, so we agreed to try again some other time. 

There are a few more pictures of this game, along with a brief description, here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store

Sunday, 12 May 2024

Sunday Orion and Nic were back to play Warhammer Underworlds again. 

For out first game we played in the Deathgorge. I brought out Skabbik's Plaguepack again. Nic tried out the freshly-painted Skinnerkin (which I had just finished the day before). Amanda wanted to try something totally new and selected Mollog's Mob. Orion played the Chosen Axes with a Rimelocked Relics Nemesis deck! 

For out second game we played in the Mirrored City and everyone kept the same warbands, except Orion who switched out the Chosen Axes for Hexbane's Hunters.

There are a few more pictures of this game, along with a brief descriptionof the games here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Back on Sundays

Tuesday, 14 May 2024

I've been wanting to play some MORE Warhammer Underworlds - and more two-player games! I love the four-player games Amanda and I play with Nic and Orion most Sundays... but it's really meant to be a two-player game and you can get away with stuff in four-player games that just won't work in a two-player game. 

Orion had been talking about getting a regular game night going at the Dragon's Den on Tuesdays again and now that the weather's nice, I really have no excuse, so we agreed to play on Tuesday night and try to make it a regular thing and get other people out to play. 

I showed up a bit later than I'd hoped and only Orion was there, so we started a game. I played Skabbik's Plaguepack against Orion's Crimson Court. She beat me 14-4... 

Later Dan and Sean showed up and they played a game. 

After their game I played against Sean. He pulled out Ironsoul'd Condemnors, so I dug out Magore's fiends - BOTH of us had nemesis deck built around Tooth & Claw... except Sean knew how to play his warband with that deck and just beat down the fiends 19-4!? 

(In my defence, I will point out there were THIRTY people in that back room playing games - most were playing some card game... and it was REALLY loud... so loud I could barely think, let alone read cards and figure out how to use them together to do something useful in the game!) 

There is a bit more of a description of the game and a few more pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Tuesday at The Den

Friday, 17 May 2024

In the late afternoon I rolled out to the Warhammer Store to play some Warhammer Underworlds.

I got in two games with Sean with my freshly painted Zondara's Gravebreakers. The first I played against a Void-Cursed Garrek's Reavers. The Second I played against his Hungering Parasitic Mollog's Mob! Both were VERY close games (and SUPER FUN!)... and I was just playing with a Rivals deck against some very-well-thought-out nemesis decks! 

Orion was also there and got in a game with John.

There are a couple more pictures and a bit more description at:

Warhammer Underworlds - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store AGAIN

Afterwards I hurried home for Game Night at our place! Normally it takes 40 minutes to ride to or from the Warhammer store... this trip took an HOUR!! SO MUCH WIND!!!

Shannon and Kevin couldn't make it, but Other Tim and Treena stopped by and ran us through a game of Wrymspan - which is kind of like Wingspan... but with Dragons... 

I had some RIDICULOUS luck - in the third round I ended up gaining SO MANY extra turn coins, that I basically played a whole extra round... and a half!? By the end of that round, I'd filled my board and there was a  whole other round to play!?

so I mostly did exploring to gain more eggs and tuck more cards and cache more food... 

It also just happened to work out that I won most of the round end goals... 

So, I won... by quite a bit (but not by as much as I imagined when I'd filled the board by the end of the third round...) There was no masterful strategy involved, I just got insanely lucky with some of the draws and stuff... 

Afterwards, Other Tim showed me how to play a very-quick-playing game called Lacuna. 

Sunday, 19 May 2024

We didn't get to play our regular Warhammer Underworlds games on Sunday  because Keiran was in a musical! They played Jason in a production of Falsettos, put on by a local company called Stand Out Productions. They have been working very hard on this for the last few months! It was really exciting to finally see!!!

Friday, 24 May 2024

No Warhammer Underworlds this week as we were out at a show at the Persephone Theatre! (a drag show - that Nic was in!) 

Sunday, 19 May 2024

AGAIN, no Warhammer Underworlds - because Nic and Orion were busy... and... Amanda and I just didn't get to playing a game, I guess...? 

Friday, 31 May 2024

Finally made it back out the the Warhammer Store for some Warhammer Underworlds! 

My first game was against John, the manager of the store. He was trying out his freshly painted Daggok's Stab-Ladz and I played Grombrindal

Afterwards, I finally got in a game with Dan against his Skinnerkin, which, I think, he was trying out for the first time..? Despite not even LOOKING at the cards since I last played two weeks earlier, I won... but... lots... because Zondara's Gravebreakers are just nasty. I love them. You can just concentrate on doing your own thing and can score a LOT of points, just digging holes with the Zombies.  

I may or may not do a brief game report of the evenings shenanigans... Maybe tomorrow... 

Was definitely fun to see more people coming out to play Warhammer Underworlds! There were three games going on at one point! 

Afterwards I rushed home for Game Night a my place! Keiran had been asking about playing Mysterium for a while. It's a cooperative mystery-solving game. 

One player is a ghost who gives clues to the rest of the players (who are psychic mediums), in the form of cards with bizarre art on them, to help them solve the ghosts murder... 

This is the end game - the players trying to figure out who the murderer is from the selection of suspects, locations, and possible murder weapons they'd already successfully deduced.... the failed... we lost... 

We've apparently played the game five times now. The last time was 2019. 

And that's it... 

It kind of felt like it was ramping up to be a busy month... gaming-wise... then it ended up being busy with other things... 

Maybe next month... 

December Games

In December, we played GAMES!!!

It gets cold out. we're less inclined to go out... so... 

Also I severly strained my hamstring at the end of November so there were a few weeks I didn't even leave the house... 

Saturday, 3 December 2022

Saturday afternoon we played a game of Carcassonne, while Finnegan was out at work and Keiran was at an all-day dress rehearsal for the musical they were in the following week. 

Sunday, 4 December 2022

Sunday afternoon, Amanda wanted to try Stone Age as a two-player game. So we did. It was okay. Amanda soared ahead of my in points DURING the game, but I went whizzing past in the end-game scoring. It was still pretty close when all was counted up, though. 

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Tuesday evening Finnegan was recording upstairs after work, so Amanda and I hid in the basement for a bit and played another game of Stone Age. I think the game ended up playing faster (and was a bit lower scoring) because we had a clearer idea of what we were trying to do and do it faster than the other... and that brought the game to a conclusion quicker, but with fewer points scored all around.  Amanda won this one. 

Wednesday, 7 December 2022

Wednesday evening we played Terraforming Mars. Mostly because I'd given up on the idea of getting any sort of challenge finished. Amanda had suggested Stone Age again, but I felt like playing something different. I like Stone Age... but not enough to play it three times in a row. 

Mars after 14 generations of Terraforming. 

I was playing Helion with Ecology Experts and Early Settlement. Amanda played Valley Trust with Biofuels, Aquifer Turbines, and Galilean Mining - she took Generalist and Tychoon milestones and Celebrity, Desert Settler, and Benefactor Awards. I got the Ecologist Milestone... 

Amanda won, obviously... 

Sunday, 11 December 2022

Stone Age. Again. 

Amanda won. 

By LOTS! 

Saturday, 17 December 2022

ON Sunday we were supposed to be playing another session of Finnegan's RPG - the first session of the new Dresden Files Accelerated RPG campaign he was going to run for me and my friends Neil and Jasper. As we got closer to the day, I checked in with Finnegan to see if he was ready and still interested to run the game - from the get-go I realized this was a bit of an imposition on him, being busy with his first year of University, running his two weekly D&D games, his part-time job an the library AND his side-passion-projects... and he admitted it was starting to cause him some stress having to come up with and investigative, mystery-solving campaign... 

So talking to the guys, we decided maybe I could take over and GM a game... though there was little chance I'd have anything ready by Sunday... so I suggested we try out Hellboy: The Boardgame. Everyone seemed keen on that, so it became a plan. 

Unfortunately it's been over two and a half YEARS since I last played, and, though it isn't a terribly complicated game, I thought maybe I should try playing through one of the scenarios to remind myself how to play. I can TOTALLY be played as a solo game, and I would have done so, but Amanda graciously volunteered to try playing through a game with me the night before. 

We just played the easy introductory scenario... It's kind of a cake-walk - designed to learn the important basic rules. Everytime I've run it the players win... 

It did NOT go well for us... Yikes. teh Boss monster - the Giant Frog Monster appeared and just kicked our asses. I was playing Abe Sapien... this is him about to be knocked out... 

Amanda was playing Johann Kraus... Here is Kraus, surrounded by Frog Monsters, a GIANT FROG MONSTER bearing down on him, and the room is ON FIRE.. this is where we called it. The writing was on the wall (which was on fire...)

It occurred to me afterwards, I think this might be the first time we played it WITHOUT Hellboy! 

Sunday, 18 December 2022

The next day Jasper and Neil came by and Finnegan, though he just didn't have time to PREPARE a role-playing adventure, figured he did have enough time to play the boardgame with us. He may even join the game that I run for Neil and Jasper. He only has to show up and role-play one afternoon a month, seems doable. 

Neil played Hellboy, Jasper played Johann Kraus and Finnegan played Abe Sapien. I kind of just ran the show and pushed around the frog monsters. 

They had a MUCH easier time of it... 

Especially with Finnegan making attack rolls like this, when Abe was shooting the Giant Frog Monster!? BLAM!! (because they'd acquired two insight tokens, the Giant Frog monsters Resilience was reduced from 4 to 2, I think...? or maybe the insight tokens are what upgraded the dice...? I don't remember... so this dealt NINE - or 7? - damage... the poor creature only HAD 20 wounds.. Abe shot him twice and then Hellboy PUNCHED him and... that was about it...). 

Fun times. Looking forward to trying running a role-playing game for these guys next month. 

Saturday, 31 December 2022

Amanda AND Keiran said they's play a game, and Keiran suggested Splendor.

I totally crushed it - ending the game with 17, Amanda took a final turn and got to 15... Keiran suggested we play again. I was very lucky... I couldn't POSSIBLY have that kind of luck again!? 

Ummm... apparently lightening DOES strike twice!? I won this game with EIGHTEEN points?! Amanda didn't even make it to 15. Keiran scored higher in the second game so they were pleased enough... They really like the game, but have only even won it on two occasions! 

Aaaaaaand... that's it... 

We played next to NO GAMES over the holidaze (compared to previous years!)... Which was kind of a major bummer... for the last decade and a half, that's kind of what we DID over the Holidaze between Xmas and New Year - pay lots and LOTS of games... I had really thought those last two weeks might be filled with gaming!? 

Part of the problem was Amanda got roped into cat sitting for almost three weeks!? Initially, there was an understanding that Keiran would help out... but then didn't... and then this last week we had CrAzY amounts of SNOW!? Which made it harder to get back and forth to the house and the snow had to be cleared off sidewalks and I couldn't even help out because I've strained my hamstring during the first snowfall in November and it just gets worse every time I try to shovel snow or walk over any kind of uneven ground - like across all the uncleared sidewalks all around our neighbourhood... So Amanda's just been exhausted and the kids are kind of into their own things... so...   

Ah well... maybe next year... 

Still to come this evening - Looking Back at 2022 and maybe Game Plan 2023 - Q1...?

August Games

Bit busier on the blog this month... mostly because I decided to participate in RPGaDAY again this year... and painted a thing or two...

RPGaDay did get me thinking about Role-playing again and I've organize THREE new games to start this fall!? 

Thursday, 2 August 2022

Kurtis and Tania came over and played Stone Age! 

Wednesday, 10 August 2022

Amanda and I finally got back to playing Warhammer Underworlds. There is a brief game report of the action here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven vs Drepur's Wraithcreepers

Monday, 15 August 2022

Our friends Ryan and Andy came over to try out Terraforming Mars. 

Andy took a beginner corporation and totally won the game (they start with 42 megacredits and just get to keep all ten projects cards without having to pay for them! AND we gave him to Prelude cards; Supply Drop and Supplier... that might have been a bit much... ah, well... all had fun!). He took the Gardener and Mayor Milestones and won the Landlord Award and ended the game with 89 points! 

Ryan, despite it being his first game ever and being a little overwhelmed, opted for a real corporation and played Interplanetary Cinematics! He took the Society Support and Mining Operations prelude cards and took 1st place for Thermalist and 2nd for Scientist, ending the game with 62 points! 

Amanda played Helion with Self-Sufficient Settlement and Io Research Outpost. She took Builder Milestone and 1st place for Scientist Award and 2nd place for Thermalist and ended the game with 69 points! Nice!

I played Point Luna with Ecological Experts and Metal Rich Asteroid and kind of floundered all game... I took 2nd place for Landlord and ended the game with 52 points... 

The board at the end of the game. Andy was Yellow, I was Red, Amanda was Blue and Ryan was Green. 

Wednesday, 17 August 2022

It seems like Wednesday is becoming our Warhammer Underworlds night - Warhammer Wednesdays! There is a brief report and a few more pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven vs The Wurmspat

Wednesday, 24August 2022

Warhammer Wednesday!  

Having just finished up Hrothgorn's Mantrappers the day before, I thought I'd try them out against Amanda's Blade-Coven... I don't know, maybe the paint was a little too fresh or something... or maybe the MANtrappers were just out of their element against the all female wych-aelves... regardless, it was a SLAUGHTER. You can read all about it on the separate game report:

Warhammer Underworlds: Morgwarth's versus Hrothgorn's

yikes... 

Sunday, 28 August 2022

Wrath & Glory - Session 0.5 - I'm planning on running TWO Wrath & Glory campaigns this fall, but both of them are only going to be ONCE a MONTH! The hope is that, if everyone consults their schedules and calendars, and we agree on ONE NIGHT to play the game, everyone should show up and play the game! One will be online for friends not living in Saskatoon. The other will be an in-person game for locals! Effectively I will be running the same adventures for both groups - to save on prep time! 

Wednesday, 31 August 2022

Warhammer Wednesday! 

We had hoped to play one more game of Warhammer underworlds on the 31st, but I just didn't get that next warband done in time... 

Mollog's Mob! Work-in-progress... 

Hopefully I'll have this finished up by Friday and we'll still get in a game this WEEK! 

What we've played so far this Quarter:

• Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x4
• Stone Age x2
• Terraforming Mars x2
• Angola x1
• Five Tribes x1
• Kingdom Builder x1
• Space Base x1
• Wrath & Glory x1

Looking back at the suggested challenges for the rest of the year, and taking into consideration what I've ACTUALLY been playing... I think I might have to change up the remaining challenges for this year... might look something like this:

Q3 5x5 Challenge

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - 4 
2. Warhammer Underworlds: HarrowDeep - 0 
3. Stone Age - 2
4. Kill Team - 0
5. Wrath & Glory - 1

Seems rather hopeful to think I might get in FIVE games of Kill Team or Wrath & Glory... I kind of thought with a new Kill Team box coming out might stir up some interest again..? But maybe I'm just dreaming... Things are already getting busy - Finnegan is starting university TOMORROW!? Might just swap one or both out for a quick and easy game... Like, Azul? 

Q4 5x5 Challenge?

1. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep
2. Carcassonne 
3. Wrath & Glory
4. Kill Team
5. Stone Age

10x10 Challenge

1. Wingspan - 11
2. Terraforming Mars - 10
3. Five Tribes - 8
4. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm - 9
5. Azul - 6
6. Carcassonne - 5
7. Stone Age - 2
8. Wrath & Glory - 2
9. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep - 0
10. Kill Team - 0

in addition to the 5x5 challenge games, we still need to play 2 games of Five Tribes and four games of Azul... 

I've dropped the GMT games and Hammer of the Scots. Desperately clinging to the idea that I WILL STILL get in some games of Kill Team before this year is out... AND that the two planned Wrath & Glory games will get going and stay going! 

July Games

Another slow to start month. Despite a SUPER-LONG weekend to kick off the month we didn't get playing games until the 10th! This was partly because we all took turns being sick starting with Amanda and Keiran on the 4th, Finnegan was sick the next day, and, just after I thought I'd somehow dodged it, I got sick on the weekend!? Sunday I was feeling well enough to play a game, so we got back to playing some Warhammer Underworlds. 

Sunday, 10 July 2022

We played in Beastgrave, with Amanda fielding her Murder Grrrlz and I tried out Ironsoul's Condemnors. I thought maybe I hadn't tried them before, but when I went to log the play on BGG, I realized I had played them ONCE before. As with the previous time, I played with their standard deck, as-is... and... it wasn't awful. 

I have NOT had good luck with ANY of the Stormcast warbands... like... EVER. The DAughters of Khaine (that are my usual opponents) somehow just dance circles around them and cut them to ribbons!? I don't remember a single game where they weren't absolutely WIPED OUT!? 

The last time I played THIS particular warband, Amanda won 15-1... 

FIFTEEN to ONE!?

The first Round didn't go great... I was playing kind of "stow and steady" and letting them come to me... which COULD backfire as Amanda has all sorts of objective cards that can gain her points just... being in different places and surviving... I think I did take out Khamyss... who CAN be BRUTAL, but is a bit of a glass cannon...

The second round went better... I took out Kyrae in my first activation and then kind of surrounded Morgwaeth. By the end of Amanda's first activation on Round Three looked like... Amazingly, Morgwaeth survived TWO rounds standing there... the first Gwynne Ironsoul hammered on her - three dice - with two helpers and a smash attack, only one in six is a failure (the flury side), I rolled three regular hits and Amanda rolled a crit (which trumps everything!?) Ironsoul also had an upgrade which allowed her a reroll of one attack die on the first attack made each turn - and rolled another regular hit... 

For some reason, Morgwaeth stuck around!? She was not so lucky the next activation... 

Here's how things looked at the end of Round Three... Kyrssa, the last one standing, made a run for it, as there was NOTHING she could do and sticking around to get SMASHED by the Stormcast would just give me more points!? 

So... I FINALLY won a game with Stormcast Eternals! The final tally was 11-5!? Probably a combination of me being exceedingly lucky and Amanda being out of practice and/or just having an off day... I think with a bit of deck editing Ironsoul's Condemnors could be pretty brutal, though! 

Tuesday, 10 July 2022

It got brutally hot here as the week went on. So Tuesday evening we decided to hide in the cool basement Games Room and play Terraforming Mars. 

It was a LONG game - went for SIXTEEN turns (I feel like that's probably a record for us - NEITHER of us were producing heat. I'm sure by the end HALF of the raising of temperature was done by Standard Projects. We had all the oceans out before the mean temperature rose above -20°C!? (Not sure how THAT worked!?) 

Mars was definitely looking well and terraformed by the end of it, though!

Tim played Tharsis Republic with Business Empire and Donation (two prelude cards I've never used before) I took Builder milestone and the Landlord and Banker Awards

Amanda Played Eco line with Research Network and UNMI contractor - took Gardener and Planner milestones and Scientist awards.

She won. 

Monday, 24 July 2022

Our friend Kurtis came over and played a few games on this rainy Monday evening. We played Kingdom Builder (which I forgot to take a picture of) 

Then we played FIve Tribes (with the Whims of the Sultan expansion) 

In both games Kurtis and I were pretty close... and Amanda won by a BUNCH!? 

Wednesday, 27 July 2022

Didn't play a game this day, but I bought one. I kind of HOPED we'd try it out in the evening, but didn't end up getting to it... Kill Team boxes aside, I can't remember the last time I bought a game...? I have bought two expansions for Five Tribes in the last year...? Other than that, I think the last games bought were Century Golem and Wingspan for Amanda's birthday last year!? 

Amanda's played Stone Age a few times at ToonCon and I played it once. It's been a game that Amanda thought would be okay to get, but out FLGS hasn't had any in for YEARS!? Z-Man games just wasn't reprinting it or something!? A week or so ago, I saw on their Facebook page that they finally got in copies!

I was pretty excited to see it was only $66 - I kind of expected it to be $80+ as most other games seem to be these days!? 

Thursday, 28 July

Thursday Other Tim and Treena came over to play games! I can't remember the last time we saw each other...!? I feel like the last time we played games was the ToonCon just before the pandemic shut everything down!? 

We did get to try out Stone Age! Treena and Other Tim have played it a bit, so Other Tim just crushed it. 

Afterwards we tried out a game they brought called Space Base which was interesting enough. I kind of won... largely because I was lucky early in the game and got a few really good ships... also I had a total brain fart and for a turn or two was taking more for rewards when others rolled dice than maybe I should have... which might have changed things a little bit... I always ended up with waaaaaaay more credits than I needed to purchase any of the ships I did before I realized I ha made some mistakes, so it might not have affected things...? 

Sunday, 31 July 2022

This past Sunday, Brent, Kurtis and John came over to play Angola! 

We haven't played this in about four years... but for a while it seemed like we played it every six months - in July or December - and it seemed to coincide with Kurtis changing jobs!? Kurtis sort of changed jobs again this summer (sort of... he was just made the permanent University Veterinarian - a position he'd been holding as "ACTING University Veterinarian for a few years now) - but it WAS an official change of position, so I suggested we should probably play Angola. 

The game is played with four and those are divided into two teams of two. One team play the MPLA/FAPLA, the soviet-backed communist forces controlling Angola at the outset of the war, and the other team plays UNITA/FNLA, the western backed opponents. 

The previous four times we've played, Brent and I have played the MPLA/FAPLA with me playing the FAPLA three of those times all but one of those times we had randomly determined  who would play which faction. We joked a lot before that it would probalby be the same teams and when Brent rolled MPLA for his faction, it looked like it might happen again. 

It didn't, though. I ended up playing UNITA, John played the FAPLA, 

...and Kurtis was my partner this time with the FNLA

Now, I've never read the rules, I just bumble along as best I can.. I just move stuff around and when battles happen, they tell me what to roll and when. It has a fairly simple and abstract combat system and the activation system is fascinating leaving you always wondering what your opponents might do next... and sometimes wondering what YOU might be doing next, if you forget what you put in your activation deck and in what order!? 

Each turn you build a deck of a set number of cards (4-7 depending on what turn it is - starts at 4 cards, goes up to 7 by the end of the game) each represents one of the columns you have or "fifth column" which allows you to move a group of units not in a column and there are command cards which can allow you to swap column markers of two columns that have not yet moved (I've never used those) and one or two pass cards that MUST go into a deck (UNITA has two pass cards, everyone else has one). Once the deck has been made and the turn started you are not allowed to look at what's in your deck. A start player is determined somewhat randomly (d6, 1-4 corresponds to a player, 5-6 is the player to the left of the previous turn's start player) that player starts by revealing a card from their activation deck and activating that column or passing as indicated on card and then play continues clockwise with each other player revealing one card at a time... 

It's pretty intense. You can't move ALL of your forces. Your opponent can't move ALL of their forces. There is a lot of guessing and gambling based on what MIGHT be remaining in your opponents decks (and what's in YOURS, if you've forgotten!) 

Every faction gets one home base at one side of the board. UNITA starts in Southwest Africa, MPLA starts in Luanda, FNLA starts in Zaire, and the FAPLA starts in a town in Eastern Angloa... then three others are drawn at random... 

So the intital set up was CrAzY - UNITA and FNLA had control of four towns surrounding Luanda! One of the game-ending-goals is for UNITA or FNLA to capture Luanda. I don't think it's happened in any game so far but it looked pretty perilous!

Nothing really happened there because there was a LOT of troops and equipment in Luanda and making a move on Luanda would mean giving up your position in whatever town (which one of the columns of FAPLA troops that were also in teh area could swoop in and seize. 

Looking back, maybe we SHOULD have put more pressure on Luanda with direct attacks

As it was, for most of the game these just stayed as heavily armed enclaves that grew to massive sizes, just staring each other down. One of the UNITA columns made it's way up the coast clearing communist forces out of ports along the way... only to be pushed back a bit in later turns... 

In the end UNITA and FNLA won, AGAIN! I think it was turn nine after six hours of play. 

That's it for July. Didn't get in as much gaming as I'd hoped... Or painting as that last burst of painting energy ended up being very short-lived. Very little has been finished since then. WEll, very little MINIATURE painting has been happening... I HAVE been VERY BUSY with other sorts of painting in July!!

Might have to rethink those 5x/10x Challenges, too...