What's on your table right now?

Started by bayonetbrant, January 27, 2012, 09:51:52 PM

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bob48

Now playing 'Canadian Crucible - Brigade Fortress at Norrey' another one of the TCS games from MMP.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

trailrunner




I got this game from my daughters for father's day a couple of weeks ago.  My wife and I spent a couple of days at a cabin this past week, which gave me a chance to break it out and play it.  So far I'm 0-2, but I think this will be a very hard game to ever win.


BanzaiCat

^ Trailrunner, that IS a very challenging and unforgiving game. I have yet to beat it myself.

BanzaiCat

Got home at about 1am this morning and of course the first thing I do is go right to the box that Dan at DVG sent to me - Pavlov's House. Youse palookas have posted a lot about this on FB and I really look forward to this one. I will be doing a first look article on it at some point this week. I haven't broken the wrap on it yet - I want to wait until I have time to take the proper pics (and get my game table set up again).

Silent Disapproval Robot

I picked up Pendragon.  I have no idea why.   I didn't really take to the few COIN games I've tried so far and the period doesn't hold any special interest for me but for some reason, I'm excited to play it.




bayonetbrant

cool!  let us know what you think :)
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

ComradeP

I've been wondering why those COIN games are so popular. Maybe it's the Eurogame appeal combined with part of a wargame's complexity, but I don't find any of the COIN games released thus far particularly appealing. Nice looking maps/boards and some interesting ideas, but the way the ones I've read about simplify complexity is not my cup (or Holy Chalice, to stick with the Arthurian theme) of tea.

Even with the numerous delays and the release schedule still being a bit inconsistent, GMT is keen on releasing new COIN editions/games as they sell like hot cakes.

Some other wargaming bestsellers, like Twilight Struggle also don't interest me all that much. I can see why they sell well, but to me hex and counter is the bread and butter of wargaming.
The fact that these people drew inspiration...and then became chicken farmers - Cyrano, Dragon' Up The Past #45

Pinetree

The good thing about GMT is that they use the proceeds from those big sellers to help fund the grognard games.
Gen. Montgomery: "Your men don't salute much."
Gen. Freyberg: "Well, if you wave at them they'll usually wave back."

bayonetbrant

Quote from: ComradeP on July 17, 2018, 06:26:02 AM
I've been wondering why those COIN games are so popular. Maybe it's the Eurogame appeal combined with part of a wargame's complexity, but I don't find any of the COIN games released thus far particularly appealing.

I think it's a combination of the multi-player interactions along with the very high-strategic overview of the game that appeals. 
It's nice to have a game where you're not trying to min/max every possible math factor for every attack out there and have a much more narrative game.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Silent Disapproval Robot

Combat in Pendragon is a lot more involved than other COIN games and is very mathy.

ComradeP

Incidentally, though I also try to get the best possible odds, I find board wargames to offer less opportunities for min/maxing than digital wargames due to having a separate movement and combat phase.

It's  difficult to make the kind of deadly breakthrough/exploitation moves that digital wargames allow you to make. There might be an advance after combat mechanic of some sort, but it's usually not as effective as simply being able to move and attack per unit instead of per phase for all moving/attacking units.
The fact that these people drew inspiration...and then became chicken farmers - Cyrano, Dragon' Up The Past #45

Silent Disapproval Robot

#2501
We tried out a 4-player game of Pendragon last night.  It was SLOOWWWWW.  The introductory scenario is only supposed to take an hour to play.  We played for 3 and didn't finish.  Not sure what I think but I wasn't really enjoying it at the time.  A lot of that was due to the fact that none of the other players had played a COIN game before and were unsure of how the commands available to the different factions were meant to function (I still have trouble working out how to achieve my goals using the commands and feats available to me) and that bogged things down quite a bit. 

I'll give it a few more plays but I think, like the other COIN games, I want to like it because it looks like it should have a lot of theme coming through from the components as well as from emergent gameplay but that theme never seems to really develop so playing it feels like a bit of a slog.  Most of my COIN sessions seem to devolve into the more experienced players using very gamey tactics to achieve their victory conditions in ways that completely break immersion.  Usually, the promised interaction between the 4 players ends up being very limited on the board itself and mostly just seems to be about jockeying for initiative and making sure that you block the other players from getting the good event cards.  To me, that doesn't make for an especially enjoyable or rewarding experience.




bayonetbrant

The best thing you can do for a new COIN player is to give them the 'bot' flowcharts.  For the first 2-3 turns, have them follow the flowchart to get a sense of the options and processes during the turn.

The bots won't always guide you to the best possible move in any given turn, but they'll keep you from making a dumb move, and in a learning game, they're a good guide through the different processes each turn.

Once you get a sense of the options available based on where you acted in the turn sequence, you can kick the training wheels out from under them and let the turns roll.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Silent Disapproval Robot

We played a 4-player game of Star Trek Ascendancy tonight.  Klingons, Federation, Romulans, and Cardassians.  Great fun!  We drew random factions and I started with the Klingons which was a challenge as they don't suit my play style at all.  The Borg showed up fairly early in the game and forced us to team up to try and wipe them out.  The Romulans were able to knock out the one assimilated Borg world and then a combined Klingon & Federation fleet fought off a Borg cube (well the Klingons did.  The Federation cowards cut and run after the 3rd round of combat.) 

It was a long game that culminated in a 3-way fight between the Feds, the Romulans, and the Klingons (the Cardassian player was new to the game and so was pretty far behind by the end of it).  The fighting stalemated in the middle of the map but thanks to the Klingon's special ability to amass culture from inflicting losses in space battles, I was able to gain an Ascendancy victory a turn before the Federation would have done so.  Never seen the Klingons score a cultural win before.



bbmike

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

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