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Vivian Darkbloom
Jul 14, 2004


Ubik_Lives posted:

That's a pretty exposed supply situation. The Germans could flood through Sedan and cut off the entire French front line. Similarly, the Belgians could be cut off if the British are forced to retreat. I recommend playing it so you can't cut supply without warning the other player first, like calling check in Chess, because if that game went for another turn, someone is in for a rude shock. While it may seem odd to warn your opponent about supply constantly, making one mistake can be crippling and unsatisfying for a full evening game. But because the threat of the supply situation is still there, you need to respond to it. If the Germans pushed into Sedan, the French would need to stretch their line out further to cover their supply lines.

Wouldn't the Germans have to move a bunch of armies in to cut off all the supply routes to the French front line? I guess that's doable but it seems like you'd get shredded in the counterattack. While I took Sedan initially I was shy about pushing any more units in there, because my initial force was taking nasty flanking attacks and got pushed back to Germany. Maybe the supply rules are more restrictive than we realized?

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Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord
I've got the next two weeks off of work, and I want to learn OCS. Would someone want to play a learning game with me on VASSAL?

I'm in EST and available during day hours for our British friends. HINT HINT.

tomdidiot
Apr 23, 2014

Stupid Grognard
I mean, I'm happy to, but I've got some crap to do after work. Should definitely be up for soemthing next weekend though.

Also, I just played a VQ game - my second one, with 4 experienced players and a newbie. I was the Protestants, and did a great job of spreading my religion to cover most of Western France and the Northern/Central Netherlands. Launched loads and loads of revolts and took a butt-ton of territory that way. Made huge progress in the Spanish netherlands thanks to a very busy Spanish-Ottoman War, and thanks to the collapse of the Spanish Pay system. On the final turn (Turn 4), the Catholic League had just formed, and France was pretty sparse - but the French and HRE players were also clearly very far ahead (both with about 22 VPs each while I was 3rd in 19VP), so me, the Ottomans, the English and the Habsburgs joined in a grand coalition to stop them. I converted/flipped Marseilles with a revolt, and got my last key by flipping Paris with Paris is Worth a Mass. Whew!

Ubik_Lives
Nov 16, 2012

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

Wouldn't the Germans have to move a bunch of armies in to cut off all the supply routes to the French front line? I guess that's doable but it seems like you'd get shredded in the counterattack. While I took Sedan initially I was shy about pushing any more units in there, because my initial force was taking nasty flanking attacks and got pushed back to Germany. Maybe the supply rules are more restrictive than we realized?

You can't activate units that are OOS, so the entire French fort line would useless and need to be bailed out before the end of the turn.

You really only need armies in Sedan and Chateau Thierry at the moment. The last two spots can be occupied by corps for now, because they aren't under any immediate threat. Melun can be attacked, but the unit in Paris is wounded and alone, so it can't advance after combat, and even if it could, it would leave Paris empty and in turn probably be cut off.

Putting armies into Chateau Thierry sound dangerous because you could be attacked at Sedan and then they would be cut off. However Sedan is a forest, so the units there can take an extra flip after combat to ignore a retreat result. Also because the British and French stacks can't co-ordinate unless they have a 'command' stack where both nationalities are present, two armies in Sedan would present an uphill battle.

The other danger is the units in Chateau Thierry could be attacked, potentially flanked, lose the fight and have to withdraw a single space. If you go in heavily, this could create a problem with where to withdraw because Sedan can't take much more (and you don't want to retreat into an area being attacked if the British are hitting Sedan at the same time), so the units would need to retreat forward and probably be put OOS themselves. That said, it's unlikely that they would lose, or that any French units pushing into Chateau Thierry could survive a German counter-attack from Sedan (the armies are wounded, so it would just be some corps).

Alternatively you could put a single army into Chateau Thierry, three into Sedan, and then just trade armies for the rest of the turn. You have far more strength available for an attrition war against what remains. Or even put the fort line out of supply, then attack it, because armies that die while OOS are removed from the game (not the best option here, but just another reason to never let armies get OOS).

To fix this, the French need to plug that line with anything really, so the French units on the fort line can either withdraw or attack backwards. But because the OOS threat is so significant, just a moderate threat to their supply could result in the forts being abandoned, rather than fighting to keep them and pinning the outcome of the war onto a single battle.

Tekopo
Oct 24, 2008

When you see it, you'll shit yourself.


COOL CORN posted:

I've got the next two weeks off of work, and I want to learn OCS. Would someone want to play a learning game with me on VASSAL?

I'm in EST and available during day hours for our British friends. HINT HINT.
I'm available from 1:30 pm GMT most of the days of this week, drop me a line when you want to give it a go. Do you want to start with RE? Or Tunisia II?

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


Ubik_Lives posted:

You can't activate units that are OOS, so the entire French fort line would useless and need to be bailed out before the end of the turn.

You really only need armies in Sedan and Chateau Thierry at the moment. The last two spots can be occupied by corps for now, because they aren't under any immediate threat. Melun can be attacked, but the unit in Paris is wounded and alone, so it can't advance after combat, and even if it could, it would leave Paris empty and in turn probably be cut off.

Putting armies into Chateau Thierry sound dangerous because you could be attacked at Sedan and then they would be cut off. However Sedan is a forest, so the units there can take an extra flip after combat to ignore a retreat result. Also because the British and French stacks can't co-ordinate unless they have a 'command' stack where both nationalities are present, two armies in Sedan would present an uphill battle.

The other danger is the units in Chateau Thierry could be attacked, potentially flanked, lose the fight and have to withdraw a single space. If you go in heavily, this could create a problem with where to withdraw because Sedan can't take much more (and you don't want to retreat into an area being attacked if the British are hitting Sedan at the same time), so the units would need to retreat forward and probably be put OOS themselves. That said, it's unlikely that they would lose, or that any French units pushing into Chateau Thierry could survive a German counter-attack from Sedan (the armies are wounded, so it would just be some corps).

Alternatively you could put a single army into Chateau Thierry, three into Sedan, and then just trade armies for the rest of the turn. You have far more strength available for an attrition war against what remains. [b]Or even put the fort line out of supply[b], then attack it, because armies that die while OOS are removed from the game (not the best option here, but just another reason to never let armies get OOS).

To fix this, the French need to plug that line with anything really, so the French units on the fort line can either withdraw or attack backwards. But because the OOS threat is so significant, just a moderate threat to their supply could result in the forts being abandoned, rather than fighting to keep them and pinning the outcome of the war onto a single battle.

If I'm reading supply correctly you'd need to completely isolate the trench line which would mean taking Melun and Nevers. I can see the need to hold Sedan but Chateau-Thierry seems like a bullet magnet. The British seem to have a longer road to trigger a similar situation if they go through Liege. But if they take Liege now they threaten Aachen. Though I suppose then the armies in Sedan can just shitstomp the weakened units in Liege.



I totally missed the multi-national thing before. I wish there was more combat examples in the handbook. So much going on in some cases. poo poo will go quick for us then we'll run into something new and whammo, back to the rulebook.

quote:

12.1.11 Multi-national Attack: Units of different nations on
the same side may participate in the same Combat if they are
all stacked together, or qualify for a multi-space, multi-national
attack (12.1.11.1).
NOTE: Although several special cases exist for multi-national
activation (see 9.2.3), these cases do not supercede the requirements
of multi-national attacks. E.g. while BR and BE units
can be activated together at a lower cost in Antwerp, Ostend,
Calais, and Amiens, the BE units do not count as BR units for
multi-national attacks.
12.1.11.1 Multi-national Attacks from Two or More Spaces:
Multi-national Attacks can occur from more than one space if
one of the spaces in the attack contains units of all involved
nationalities. Any other space(s) involved in the same Combat
may contain units from any of the nationalities in the common
space. Each participating nation must have a unit in the common
space participating in the attack. Due to this restriction
and stacking limits, no Combat may involve more than three
nationalities on each side.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord

Tekopo posted:

I'm available from 1:30 pm GMT most of the days of this week, drop me a line when you want to give it a go. Do you want to start with RE? Or Tunisia II?

Cool. We can plan on maybe 3pm GMT tomorrow? That'll give me time to wake up a bit and eat breakfast.

It's been a while since I've read through the RE rules, I can't remember the difference in chrome between it and Tunisia. But I like Tunisia better thematically.

Tekopo
Oct 24, 2008

When you see it, you'll shit yourself.


COOL CORN posted:

Cool. We can plan on maybe 3pm GMT tomorrow? That'll give me time to wake up a bit and eat breakfast.

It's been a while since I've read through the RE rules, I can't remember the difference in chrome between it and Tunisia. But I like Tunisia better thematically.
Won't make it tomorrow or Wednesday, thursday?

Vivian Darkbloom
Jul 14, 2004


On the topic of Paths of Glory: A little too much chrome for my tastes, but I appreciate that there have been many simplifications compared to the "realism" in other wargames I've seen. For instance, a nation's units have all the same stats (with several exceptions that generally make sense) even though armies are all named. The game could have gone into a lot more depth about the internal politics of each bloc and country, but it avoids this in favor of a "Mandated Offensive" that the home front demands each turn. I did find it hard to understand the relationship between replacement, strategic redeployment, and reinforcements, and other fiddly stuff like that though I was getting the hang of it by the end of the introductory scenario. And we forgot Turkey existed at all until it was too late. :v:

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord

Tekopo posted:

Won't make it tomorrow or Wednesday, thursday?

Works for me.

Yooper
Apr 30, 2012


Vivian Darkbloom posted:

On the topic of Paths of Glory: A little too much chrome for my tastes, but I appreciate that there have been many simplifications compared to the "realism" in other wargames I've seen. For instance, a nation's units have all the same stats (with several exceptions that generally make sense) even though armies are all named. The game could have gone into a lot more depth about the internal politics of each bloc and country, but it avoids this in favor of a "Mandated Offensive" that the home front demands each turn. I did find it hard to understand the relationship between replacement, strategic redeployment, and reinforcements, and other fiddly stuff like that though I was getting the hang of it by the end of the introductory scenario. And we forgot Turkey existed at all until it was too late. :v:

We've left the East out of the first couple of intro games. I'm not sure I'm ready for the rules exception extravaganza that is the Near East map. It looks like a lot of loving around for not much added value.

CaptainRightful
Jan 11, 2005

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

On the topic of Paths of Glory: A little too much chrome for my tastes, but I appreciate that there have been many simplifications compared to the "realism" in other wargames I've seen. For instance, a nation's units have all the same stats (with several exceptions that generally make sense) even though armies are all named. The game could have gone into a lot more depth about the internal politics of each bloc and country, but it avoids this in favor of a "Mandated Offensive" that the home front demands each turn. I did find it hard to understand the relationship between replacement, strategic redeployment, and reinforcements, and other fiddly stuff like that though I was getting the hang of it by the end of the introductory scenario. And we forgot Turkey existed at all until it was too late. :v:

The Middle Eastern front seems like a sideshow most of the time. I can imagine someone using it as a distraction to draw resources away from the main theaters, but I don't know how well that would work in practice.


You may find this guide helpful. It summarizes the key concepts in a more concise and usable format than the official rules.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/26514/paths-of-glory-guidedoc

Ubik_Lives
Nov 16, 2012
The problem the British have is they need another army with them to advance. Once you have six strength in a fight (after modifiers) it's a guaranteed flip. Even if the British win the fight at Liege, they'll be damaged and unable to advance after combat. The Germans will walk back into Liege the next turn. Before the British can attack, they really need the Belgians to join them, just to eat the damage, or some spare corps if they are available. And as you pointed out, even then the forces in Sedan will attack either Brussels or Liege or both (units in a stack can attack different locations), likely wiping out everything there for minimal losses.

You're right that the army going into Chateau Thierry is just there to get the crap kicked out of him, hopefully taking down a French army in the process. But at the moment the Germans only have two corps available and four spots to cover, so some are going to need to be armies. But with the French fort line down, you have fifteen army steps to five, and wiping out those armies will be a game winning move, so time to throw some bodies into the meatgrinder.

Just as a thought exercise, lets play out the next turn where the Germans have only 2 and 3 OP cards, and all the combat results are as bad as they can possibly be for the Germans.

CP1, 3OPs, [Leige - Move - Corps to Nevers, 2 Armies remain], [Strasbourg - Move, Corps to Melun, Army to Sedan], [Koblenz - Move - Full Army to Sedan, wounded to CT].
AP1 4OPs, [Antwerp - Move - Army to Ostend], [Cambrai - Attack CT, 3LF / 1LF, French flips one corps, GE army destroyed and retreats to Metz], [Paris - Attack Melun, 3/-, destroys GE corps and can't advance], [Brussels - Attack Sedan, 4/3, BR flip, GE flip and destroyed to remain in Sedan and replaced by corps]
CP2, 3OPs, [Metz - Move all to CT], [Leige - Attack Brussels, AP plays withdraw, 3/4, BR flip negated by withdraw and GE flipped, retreat to Ostend, no advance], [Sedan - Attack Cambrai - 3/4, GE army and corps flip, FR corps destroyed]
AP2, 3OPs, [Ostend - Move - BR and BE to Amiens], [Cambrai - Move - FR army to Orleans], [Grenoble - Move - FR corps to Lyon]
CP3, 3OPs, [Leige - Move - Move to Melun], [Mulhouse - Move - Army to Sedan], [Sedan - Move - corps to Dijon and army to Melun]
AP3, Event - FR 7th Army
CP4, 3OPs, [CT and Melun - Attack, 8 (army + flipped) against Orleans, 16 against Paris (down to 15 because of the trench). Orleans 3/4, FR army destroyed, GE army destroyed and corps flipped. Paris - 4/7, GE loses one army and replacement corp from Melun and one corp from CT, FR army destroyed and replacement corps flipped], [Nevers - Move to Dijon].
AP4, 3OPs, [Amiens - Move - BR to Orleans], [Lyon - Attack Nevers, 1/-, kill GE corps and advance], [Paris - Attack Melun, 4/3, FR army flipped, GE army and corps destroyed, FR can't advance]
CP5, 2OPs, [CT - Attack - Bar le Duc, 4/3, wounded GE army destroyed and replaced by corps, FR army removed from game (destroyed while OOS), replaced by corps, corps retreats to Nancy, no advance]
AP5, 3OPs, [Nevers - Attack Dijon, 1/-, GE corps eliminated and FR corps advance], [Paris - Attack CT, 4/3, GE army flipped and corps destroyed, retreat to Cambrai, FR army destroyed, replaced by corps, corps advances]
CP6, yep, got nothing

Man, undone by one corps. I thought the CP might be able to pull it off for a bit there, but the French 7th army was the backbreaker. But still, that required them losing every fight in the worst possible way, with the worst possible hand, and it was still pretty close. If they weren't losing every single fight by rolling 1's while the AP got nothing but 6's. Even having a single 4 OPs card at the start would probably have ended it right there with 15 strength in both Sedan and Liege. Also I apologise if I've messed anything up; I wasn't properly keeping track of everything.

The Near East is a sideshow theatre. It exists just to draw the CP player's attention away from the main board, and give the AP player some VPs to grab if they are pushed back on the main board. Then Italy will come along and return the favour. Feel free to ignore it until you think you're ready.

edit: Okay, there were mistakes in there, trying to fix them up

Ubik_Lives fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Mar 20, 2017

Taran_Wanderer
Nov 4, 2013

Vivian Darkbloom posted:

On the topic of Paths of Glory: A little too much chrome for my tastes, but I appreciate that there have been many simplifications compared to the "realism" in other wargames I've seen. For instance, a nation's units have all the same stats (with several exceptions that generally make sense) even though armies are all named. The game could have gone into a lot more depth about the internal politics of each bloc and country, but it avoids this in favor of a "Mandated Offensive" that the home front demands each turn. I did find it hard to understand the relationship between replacement, strategic redeployment, and reinforcements, and other fiddly stuff like that though I was getting the hang of it by the end of the introductory scenario. And we forgot Turkey existed at all until it was too late. :v:

Yooper posted:

We've left the East out of the first couple of intro games. I'm not sure I'm ready for the rules exception extravaganza that is the Near East map. It looks like a lot of loving around for not much added value.

It's been a while since I was messing around with Paths of Glory, but I believe the Near East is irrelevant to the Introductory Scenario, as Turkey does not enter play until the Central Power's War Commitment Level is at Limited War and a player's War Commitment Level cannot increase during the Introductory Scenario.

CaptainRightful posted:

The Middle Eastern front seems like a sideshow most of the time. I can imagine someone using it as a distraction to draw resources away from the main theaters, but I don't know how well that would work in practice.


You may find this guide helpful. It summarizes the key concepts in a more concise and usable format than the official rules.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/26514/paths-of-glory-guidedoc

While it can feel like a sideshow, the game can often be decided in the Near East, from what I remember. The situation is very fragile, and if either player gains an advantage, they can often leverage that into taking a number of VPs before the other player can recover. Really, this is true of most of the game, but is especially true of the fronts involving Russia.

That guide is fairly nice, too.

For those learning how to play POG, I recommend playing with the optional corps setup (4.2.4) and eight card hand. For those willing to play online, Wargameroom has a digital version that enforces the rules, making it much easier to not forget anything.

nomadotto
Oct 25, 2010

Body of a Penguin
Soul of a Hero
Mind of a Lazy, Easily Distracted, Waste of Space

Ubik_Lives posted:

Lots of playing through a scenario in which in any reasonable case I'm completely hosed

After his initial breakthrough in the Sedan, I was pretty sure that was some way he could exploit the hole, but neither of us understood the rules or the game well enough to be able to figure out if it was a safe play. I'm not sure the time/value ratio on the game is great, and I've gotta say that I felt like some very important rules are kind of hidden in the book, but it was a lot of fun.

Rockman Reserve
Oct 2, 2007

"Carbons? Purge? What are you talking about?!"


I am insanely, stupidly busy at work right now and probably for the rest of the month. I need something to look forward to. How is the Vassal module for A Distant Plain? Would anyone be up for a game of that sometime soon? I've been reading the rules in my downtime and really want to give it a shot sooner than later.

Huskalator
Mar 17, 2009

Proud fascist
anti-anti-fascist

food court bailiff posted:

I am insanely, stupidly busy at work right now and probably for the rest of the month. I need something to look forward to. How is the Vassal module for A Distant Plain? Would anyone be up for a game of that sometime soon? I've been reading the rules in my downtime and really want to give it a shot sooner than later.

I'd be interested

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord
I'm off work for the next two weeks so I'm up for it.

Tekopo
Oct 24, 2008

When you see it, you'll shit yourself.


I won a Cuba Libre game as the government...

...on the last propaganda card game end scoring :shepface:

Panzeh
Nov 27, 2006

"..The high ground"
God drat the NT map is massive.

Vivian Darkbloom
Jul 14, 2004


food court bailiff posted:

I am insanely, stupidly busy at work right now and probably for the rest of the month. I need something to look forward to. How is the Vassal module for A Distant Plain? Would anyone be up for a game of that sometime soon? I've been reading the rules in my downtime and really want to give it a shot sooner than later.

I'll play if there's a live game going. ADP is my favorite of the COINs, at least at the moment.

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Panzeh posted:

God drat the NT map is massive.

Yeah it is; the width is the main problem, not the length, many tables that fit most every game won't fit NT quite, so a little bit hangs off the edge.

Dr. Lunchables
Dec 27, 2012

IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD



What are the dimensions of NT? Would it require special cut plexi to cover it?

Dr. Lunchables
Dec 27, 2012

IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD



Tekopo posted:

I won a Cuba Libre game as the government...

...on the last propaganda card game end scoring :shepface:

This is... this must be a lie.

silvergoose
Mar 18, 2006

IT IS SAID THE TEARS OF THE BWEENIX CAN HEAL ALL WOUNDS




Lord Frisk posted:

What are the dimensions of NT? Would it require special cut plexi to cover it?

Mounted board, you don't need plexi.

Vivian Darkbloom
Jul 14, 2004


food court bailiff posted:

I am insanely, stupidly busy at work right now and probably for the rest of the month. I need something to look forward to. How is the Vassal module for A Distant Plain? Would anyone be up for a game of that sometime soon? I've been reading the rules in my downtime and really want to give it a shot sooner than later.

Huskalator posted:

I'd be interested

COOL CORN posted:

I'm off work for the next two weeks so I'm up for it.

Cool, are you all free on say, Monday evening? I'm in PST but can stay up late. Also buy plat already, Huskalator.

Count Thrashula
Jun 1, 2003

Death is nothing compared to vindication.
Buglord
I can keep Monday evening free.

tomdidiot
Apr 23, 2014

Stupid Grognard
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Empire-of-the-Sun-board-game-2nd-Edition-by-GMT-Games-/142320088774?hash=item2122f036c6:g:nekAAOSwWxNY0BuA

Anyone in the UK who wants EOTS - one on ebay. (not mine)

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


New GMT update. Nothing too exciting in it, at least from my PoV. But what this means is that it has been a full month since we had the Fields of Fire discussion, and I'm still thinking about signing up for the reprint P500.

So tell me a bit more about FoF:

1) How much table space does it take up? Is it a game that will colonize my table if I set it up for a "chip away at it here and there" kind of solo play? That's how I do COIN games - I put the leaf in my table and leave the game out. When I play I sit down and play 3-4 cards. Can I even realistically play FoF that way?

2) How suitable is it for informal team co-op play? Someone here had remarked that it can be possible to divide control of individual characters between players and have a good time. I have some friends who love co-op games and RPG-style interactions, particularly realistic ones, and who have some unfortunately groggy tendencies. How many people could play FoF together? How well does this work?

3) Someone made a comment which made me think that the game has some continuity to it. Is it possible to have multiple "campaigns" going from the same box? Or did I misunderstand the post about your mans gaining equipment and stuff?

CommonShore fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Mar 24, 2017

Fat Samurai
Feb 16, 2011

To go quickly is foolish. To go slowly is prudent. Not to go; that is wisdom.

CommonShore posted:

New GMT update. Nothing too exciting in it, at least from my PoV. But what this means is that it has been a full month since we had the Fields of Fire discussion, and I'm still thinking about signing up for the reprint P500.

So tell me a bit more about FoF:

1) How much table space does it take up? Is it a game that will colonize my table if I set it up for a "chip away at it here and there" kind of solo play? That's how I do COIN games - I put the leaf in my table and leave the game out. When I play I sit down and play 3-4 cards. Can I even realistically play FoF that way?

2) How suitable is it for informal team co-op play? Someone here had remarked that it can be possible to divide control of individual characters between players and have a good time. I have some friends who love co-op games and RPG-style interactions, particularly realistic ones, and who have some unfortunately groggy tendencies. How many people could play FoF together? How well does this work?

3) Someone made a comment which made me think that the game has some continuity to it. Is it possible to have multiple "campaigns" going from the same box? Or did I misunderstand the post about your mans gaining equipment and stuff?

1) Not much. you'll have, say, 20 cards on the table making the "map" plus some booklets, decks and what have you. Less than a COIN game.

2) Problem you have here is that you need to have a clear chain of command, because the leader decides who activates down the chain, and activated chits get more actions. Co-op with each player controlling different chits means that someone is the boss, and that may not fly as a co-op. Unless, of course, one player plays exclusively as the higher ups and there are several equal ranked people that bully the brass for APs.

3) A "save state" is a sheet with some numbers on it, so you can have several going on at the same time.

4) Don't

Kazzah
Jul 15, 2011

Formerly known as
Krazyface
Hair Elf
I am shocked, just astonished, to see Mr President pushed back to 2018.

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.

CommonShore posted:

1) How much table space does it take up? Is it a game that will colonize my table if I set it up for a "chip away at it here and there" kind of solo play? That's how I do COIN games - I put the leaf in my table and leave the game out. When I play I sit down and play 3-4 cards. Can I even realistically play FoF that way?
If you can spare the room for a COIN board, you'll do fine. It's space for like a 5x5 card grid, an A4 inventory sheet and a counter tray.

quote:

2) How suitable is it for informal team co-op play? Someone here had remarked that it can be possible to divide control of individual characters between players and have a good time. I have some friends who love co-op games and RPG-style interactions, particularly realistic ones, and who have some unfortunately groggy tendencies. How many people could play FoF together? How well does this work?
In the game you follow the chain of command to activate units. So it's company CO who gives out activation points to other officers and 5 of them (three platoon leaders and two staff members) who multiply these points to efficiently spend on the grunts. So you just assign officers to different people and have the CO cover minor miscellainy, like the pittance of points you get for out of command units. I'd say with 2-3 people everone still would have a lot to do.

quote:

3) Someone made a comment which made me think that the game has some continuity to it. Is it possible to have multiple "campaigns" going from the same box? Or did I misunderstand the post about your mans gaining equipment and stuff?
There are four campaigns (three in the box and one as a downloadable mini), each consisting of a series of like 8-10 (IIRC) consecutive semi-randomized missions. The continuity between them is the state of your company - essentially boiling down do casualties, replacements and retained experience of each counter. You just keep track of it on a sheet. So yeah, no problem at all.

Dr. Lunchables
Dec 27, 2012

IRL DEBUFFED KOBOLD



I played Polis: Fight for the Hegemony for the first time last night. Super impressed by this. Relatively small footprint, gorgeous looking game.

I played as Athens and my buddy as Sparta. We were a little intimidated at first, because it looks like a lot to manage, but all the moving pieces fit together seamlessly. Economy, politics, foreign market manipulation, great projects and war all seem to flow into each other without making it seem like different systems at disparate odds. Honestly, once it got rolling, we were both surprised at how simple the game was. Two actions per turn (out of 12 possible actions) kept me on the edge of my seat, as grand, board changing actions must be done incrementally.

The events were really cool and game-defining as well, even though they are single static effects for the round. The game opened with an earthquake in Sparta. Then the Persian king was assassinated, as was his successor, offering our Hoplites a silly amount of prestige to fight in the succession wars. Finally, there was a lunar eclipse that caused great superstition in our generals.

We were constantly agonizing over feeding our populace, which is essentially the core of the game. Sparta ended up controlling Sicily while I made the most work of foreign trade markets. Neither of us failed to feed our populations, but it was close for a while there. We forced a bunch of hoplites on the board to keep the Polis populations manageable. Eventually I ran out of cubes to increase my population, which kind of screwed me on the Megalopolis bonus. (I should have been besieging and battling more to keep them in my supply).

We made a few mistakes, one regarding battles our first time (waited till the end of the round, not end of turn) and the other was not spending extra resources once your opponent has passed. We also didn't blockade foreign markets enough, and generally played pretty "hands off". I think that will change next time though.

All in all this is an excellent game with a crazy amount of depth. It has a small amount of randomness (d4 for besieging Polis, battle cards for resolution) but it's all very manageable. Every decision is tied to other choices and makes the whole situation dynamic. I really recommend this as a hybrid euro consim.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Fat Samurai posted:

1) Not much. you'll have, say, 20 cards on the table making the "map" plus some booklets, decks and what have you. Less than a COIN game.

2) Problem you have here is that you need to have a clear chain of command, because the leader decides who activates down the chain, and activated chits get more actions. Co-op with each player controlling different chits means that someone is the boss, and that may not fly as a co-op. Unless, of course, one player plays exclusively as the higher ups and there are several equal ranked people that bully the brass for APs.

3) A "save state" is a sheet with some numbers on it, so you can have several going on at the same time.

Sounds fun actually...

quote:

4) Don't

we need :wargames: which would be :smithicide: but wearing some kind of officer's cap. Why not, anyway? Is this a "Here be dragons" situation?

Lichtenstein posted:

In the game you follow the chain of command to activate units. So it's company CO who gives out activation points to other officers and 5 of them (three platoon leaders and two staff members) who multiply these points to efficiently spend on the grunts. So you just assign officers to different people and have the CO cover minor miscellainy, like the pittance of points you get for out of command units. I'd say with 2-3 people everone still would have a lot to do.

I'm imagining taking an approach in which each player is responsible for certain parts of the chain of command and distributes resources down the line. It might end up playing a bit like X-COM.

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.

CommonShore posted:

I'm imagining taking an approach in which each player is responsible for certain parts of the chain of command and distributes resources down the line. It might end up playing a bit like X-COM.

Yeah, that's the exact idea. While there may be some overlap where two players want to activate the same unit differently, well, it's a co-op, talk it out or have the CO decide.

CommonShore
Jun 6, 2014

A true renaissance man


Lichtenstein posted:

Yeah, that's the exact idea. While there may be some overlap where two players want to activate the same unit differently, well, it's a co-op, talk it out or have the CO decide.

Completely off topic... is your av a Donald Bartheleme bit?

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.
It's a Malevich painting and an impromptu comment that I felt summarizes both his art and my posting.

It's what passes for amusing in my head.

StashAugustine
Mar 24, 2013

Do not trust in hope- it will betray you! Only faith and hatred sustain.

Krazyface posted:

I am shocked, just astonished, to see Mr President pushed back to 2018.

We need to know if the presidency will still exist by then

CommonShore posted:

we need :wargames: which would be :smithicide: but wearing some kind of officer's cap. Why not, anyway? Is this a "Here be dragons" situation?

A little bit of thread meme at this point, but FoF has a famously incoherent ruleset- I remember Lichtenstein posted a partial playthrough where rules as written a bunker they were supposed to assault ran away from them and ended offmap, and there's a bunch of similar unintuitive, complicated, and possibly contradictory stuff going on

Lichtenstein
May 31, 2012

It'll make sense, eventually.
Usually solo games have a disclaimer that no matter how many cases had been foreseen, weird interactions might happen nevertheless and in such case player's should follow their common sense.

FoF made it its main design principle.

PS. CommonShore, the game is basically playable on Vassal and so I'd advise checking it out there before embarking on this journey to the heart of dorkness.

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CaptainRightful
Jan 11, 2005

Lord Frisk posted:

I played Polis: Fight for the Hegemony for the first time last night. Super impressed by this. Relatively small footprint, gorgeous looking game.

...

All in all this is an excellent game with a crazy amount of depth. It has a small amount of randomness (d4 for besieging Polis, battle cards for resolution) but it's all very manageable. Every decision is tied to other choices and makes the whole situation dynamic. I really recommend this as a hybrid euro consim.

Did you know that Mark Herman's Pericles is coming out in a few weeks or is this purely coincidental? I look forward to someone comparing the two games since they seem to target the exact same niche.

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