They Blowed Up Real Good!

The theme for this week was explosions – and the happenings of the evening fit the theme. Starting with our explosive meal of chilli and “Caramel Explosion” ice cream, we dove right into Zero!

Having played this game in several different sessions now, we’re finally getting the hang of it. We decided to go with match play, with one element each of a P-40E and a P-40D vs. two elements of Zeroes for the first fight, then switching sides for the second. On one team was Easy and Kozure (IJN), on the other was Shemp and Hapi (USAF). The battle was spread over the skies, with elements pairing off against each other at High and Low altitudes. Eventually both pairs met up at middle altitude, and both sides lost two aircraft each, tying the game.

With Easy and Kozure now sitting in the American planes, the second battle started with both of the Yanks at medium altitude, but the Japanese were spread out at Very High and Low. The four Warhawks dove down on Hapi’s hapless Zekes, Hapi losing one aircraft to Kozure’s fire before managing to climb out of the fight to meet up with Shemp diving from above. In the swirling furball which followed, Shemp first lost an aircraft to a fuel tank explosion, and Hapi lost his second paper kite to another sniper shot fuel tank explosion by Easy.

Shemp managed to stay alive to the end of the fight, but the match was decided… three aircraft down vs. none. In match play, the Kozure/Easy team took the ring.

The second game(s) of the night was the Battle Cry/Memoir ’44 system – both essentially the same system with minor cosmetic tweaks suitable to the time period; both rulesets were designed by Richard Borg. Battle Cry was the earlier offering from the Hasbro/Avalon Hill line in 2000, with Memoir ’44 coming out from Days of Wonder in 2004.

The system used by both games works on a very simple turn order. Play a command card, order the units indicated by the card, move the ordered units, battle with the ordered units, then draw a new card. Each player can have a command/control advantage if he or she has more or less command cards as dictated by the scenario. The board is divided into three sections, the left flank, the right flank and the centre. Command cards refer to those sections or combinations thereof. Some cards allow special effects to occur, and in Memoir ’44, the “Ambush” card allows an “interrupt” of sorts. Movement is simple – three hexes for tanks and cavalry, one hex and battle for infantry (two if they don’t battle in Memoir ’44) and move one or battle for artillery. The generals, unique to Battle Cry, move three hexes. Terrain affects movement in a variety of ways, typically making it impossible to fire after moving into most terrains except hills.

Battling is the simple case of rolling a number of dice, modified by range, and trying to roll the silhouette of the targeted unit. Some results (crossed swords in Battle Cry and a grenade in Memoir ’44) are wild-card hits. Memoir has the addition die-face result of “star” which has a special effect for some cards.

Having played several game sessions on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, my recollection of the battles were hazy, but a few quick e-mails pointed me back in the right direction. I played Easy at Memoir ’44 as the dilatory Germans in the introductory “Pegasus Bridge” scenario and lost 4 flags to 6. Playing as the Union, Shemp crushed Hapi in the First Bull Run scenario in Battle Cry, 6 medals to 2. Everyone seemed to enjoy the games, so I think they’ll make another appearance.

The last game of the evening was the admittedly silly Unexploded Cow. France has too much unexploded ordinance left over from WWII. England has too many cows infected with mad-cow disease. The solution? Start a business using cows to detonate the bombs! Yes, this has to be one of the more politically incorrect games we can play (along with Puerto Rico’s brown “colonists”) but it is fun.

The game is more or less an investment vs. risk system, wherein each player “invests” a portion of his stake every turn (buying various ranks and types of cows), then rolls a die to see if it pays off (they set off a bomb). Strategy enters the game in the form of certain cows with special abilities, and the ability to play cows with negative payoffs into opposing players’ fields. It’s quick and dirty, and the illustrations are fun. We tried two styles: the basic version, where the point value of the city being rescued is random, and the “strategic version”, where the point value of the city increases by one each turn. Strangely, the group preferred the random version, as it seemed to fit the random nature of the game. Hapi won both games, and Shemp finished last. Easy and I switched places, I believe, for second and third place in the two games.

EDIT: The correct sequence was Game 1: Hapi, Kozure, Shemp, Easy; Game 2: Easy, Hapi, Kozure, Shemp

Unexploded Cow is pretty light – almost too light - but it is entertaining, and that’s the key.

All in keeping with the theme, everything blowed up real good.

In The Name Of Catching Up.

Well, we've fallen behind on the blogging front, and I imagine that generalized WAGS-wide real world business is to blame. No matter, we'll just get caught up here.

TWO Wednesdays ago we tried out Mystery of the Abbey which seems to be influenced in roughly equal parts by Umberto Eco's The Name of The Rose (later made into a film) and the board game Clue (also later made into a film). There was, I believe, a game of Zero afterwards, but I had to jet a little early, so I'll leave that part of the evening for someone else to fill in.

Our first round was with 5 players, and I found that it went a little bit slow, as the first time with new games often do. The game consists of passing cards and asking questions to eliminate possible suspects in a murder. There are a few forms of bonus cards, but for the most part, things are pretty straightforward. Points are scored for revealing information about the killer (hooded or not hooded, bearded or cleanshaven, order, rank, etc., etc.), or for revealing their identity. When the killer's identity is revealed, the game ends. In round one Kozure won, by deducing that Father Galbraith was the murderer. Please note: Tili played, and Shemp did not win.

Round two went much more quickly, with me, Shemp, winning by deducing that the killer was once again Father Galbraith (nefarious Franciscans~!~). Please note that this was a 4 player game, with Tili sitting out.

Thoughts:

1) Our games went very quickly, with most people knowing most of the information. I think that in future hands all players would be trying harder to keep things to themselves, either by holding cards back, or by declining to answer questions, as allowed by the rules. I think if that happened, things would be a bit more, say, Intriguing.

2) I like the extent of the different questions possible, and wonder about making things even more difficult by adding characteristics to the existing monks (something that could be done by printing new suspect sheets). I know that Wearing Pants/Pantsless was suggested during our games, and I'm sure there could be others.

3) Fun, slightly strategic game - I actually think it would work well as a party game, much as Clue does, but it does keep things more interesting. Not a knockout in my opinion, but quite solid. Methinks a 6.5, subject to upward revision.

I'm out.

PS - Eco wrote the essay "Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt". I come back to it from time to time, and recommend it as worth reading. I'll let y'all fill in the blanks as to why I think that.

Fondues, Flaming Zeros and Freezing Death is a Harsh Mistress

Observations on last night's session:


1. Fondues, while extremely yummy, are very non-condusive to rapid starts to the evening.

2. Mmmmmmmm. Fried bread.

3. Never try to explain game rules over sizzling fondue.

4. Zeros tend to make short work of F4F Wildcats.

5. It's a lot more fun to turn Zeros into flaming paper kites.

6. Shemp likes calling things by strange, masculine first names, i.e. "Zeke", "Jimmy". He finds this very humourous.

7. Captain Park is a harsh mistress.

8. Elabourate stories about heroic adventures in far-away lands are best told in a really bad accent.

9. Used fondue pot oil is not for drinking.


The games for the evening were: Zero! The Rise of the Imperial Japanese Air Force by GMT Games and Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition by Cheapass Games.

Zero! The Rise of the Imperial Japanese Air Force is a stand-alone, non-collectible card game of air-to-air combat in the early years of the Pacific theatre in WWII. Up to six players can fight, each controlling one or more aircraft. Using a fairly simple "attack-response" combat system which has added layers of complexity built onto it with the addition of wingmen and altitude, the game does a really decent job of simulating quick and deadly aerial combat in 15-30 minutes.

Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition is a game for up to six players. Having witnessed the fame and attention accorded to Captain Park for a completely fabricated story told to the Adventurer's Club of London, you set out into London to acquire photographs, anecdotes, "facts" and biographies of "heroes" to embroider your own elabourate tale of daring-do. Unfortunately, Captain Park doesn't want his thunder stolen and will report you to the club as a fraud if he catches you. A simple game mechanic with many "Kill Dr. Lucky" undertones, Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition plays in about 60 - 75 minutes.

I really enjoyed playing Zero!, but I fear it may suffer from "wargame trying to be a simpler card game syndrome" that many of today's 'new and improved' wargames suffer from - the basic system is quite simple and elegant, but a number of fussy exceptions make it difficult for non-wargamers to penetrate... which is basically a general critique of all the "real" wargames I played prior to 1998 or so. I fear that Zero! may not get many repeat playings for this reason. I enjoyed it, however, and rate Zero! a 7.

As with many Cheapass Games, Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition was hard to judge in advance. Like Deadwood and Kill Doctor Lucky, the rules are pretty basic. Fortunately for the late start of the game, the rules of Captain Park's Imaginary Polar Expedition are simpler than even most Cheapass Games, with even fewer fiddles. Overall, I didn't find the gameplay as engaging as Deadwood, but more fun than Kill Doctor Lucky. I can't really see it improving with multiple sessions, but it's not all that bad. I rate it 6.5, sliding halfway between Deadwood and Kill Doctor Lucky.