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I'm not sure I would put Andean Abyss on the same level as VQ or HiS in terms of complexity. That game is dead simple.
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Aug 10, 2013 04:28
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Paper Mac posted:I dunno, Andean Abyss isn't totally straightforward. Weirdly, it could go in solitaire as easily as multiplayer.. Most of the tough stuff in that game is centered on the government player, who, with a good reading of the playbook and Propaganda phase rules can infer what they need to be doing, I think. The insurgent factions are fairly easy to play.
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Aug 10, 2013 12:30
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Jedit posted:Warning: Heresy may be committed in this post. Don't fret too much over this kind of stuff. As long as it's not a minis game we're not exactly the BGG wargame forum where we debate over and over what is and isn't a wargame.
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Aug 10, 2013 13:25
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ConorT posted:Crossposting from #Boardgoons: Come play Andean Abyss on Vassal this weekend with me and Tekopo, PM me or hit me on IRC. I might just have to drop in on this.
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Aug 14, 2013 05:03
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Keep in mind that there are two more prop cards to go, not one. Anyway, good writeup, though. I will say that as a FARC player, I want to keep AUC in the game because as long as AUC is in a position to win, the government will not hit my bases, at least not until AUC is weakened further, and a cash-strapped government has a lot fewer options than usual.
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Aug 18, 2013 19:56
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Paper Mac posted:Rough. Come to think of it, I don't think in the 9 or so plays my group has had of AA, we've had a Gov't victory. I don't know if that speaks to our failings or how difficult the gov't is to play compared to the insurgent factions. I think the Cartels are probably the likeliest faction to win in any given game of AA because they tend not to intersect heavily with other factions' goals and don't give a crap about pop at all. Government is hard to play, especially against a FARC player that's being aggressive. I feel like FARC is difficult to play, but it's the second likeliest faction to be able to win a game, then AUC, then government. One of the interesting thing about the next-gen COIN games is that the government's role is separated between support and control, which makes them a lot easier to play, IMO.
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Aug 19, 2013 21:30
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Paper Mac posted:Not sure I know what you mean, the gov't has two scoring tracks? Well, they have the Coalition/US side, and then the Afghan Govt/RVN side, which have different objectives, splitting the functions of the counterinsurgent side up a little bit.
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Aug 20, 2013 12:30
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Ithle01 posted:So, I've been reading the playbook and rules for Andean Abyss as a warm up to the arrival of Cuba Libre and so far I like what I see, but with one exception. Dice. Why are there dice in these games and more importantly is there a way to modify the games to take the dice out completely? I already have the card deck and player interaction to satisfy the 'random element' factor and I don't need dice luck playing a role in this. The dice are not very important at all in Andean Abyss. Dice are used for two things, conventional attacks(which you rarely do), and kidnapping, which can happen, but is also somewhat rare.
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Aug 25, 2013 23:35
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To explain a little better, because attacks reveal all your guerillas, you generally only do them when you're sure to be successful(thusly you have six guerillas in a province you don't even need to roll except to see if you roll a '1'). Ambushes use your special action but let you reveal just one guerilla to automatically succeed as if you rolled a '1'. The vast majority of attacks in this game are ambushes. Sometimes when FARC makes a big push it will do a conventional attack, but that'll generally be done in such a strength as to assure success. The other factions generally have better ways to remove pieces even without ambushes(bribes, assassination).
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Aug 25, 2013 23:52
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 So, uh, my first game of TK2 lead to this. Bizarre War 2 has involved Hungary joining the Allies in a coup d'etat, Sweden joining the allies, Germany invading the USSR first with the help of an allied Poland, Yugoslavia joining the Axis in a pact of steel. Blackmongoose is the Axis, i'm the Allies, and Tekopo is the Soviets.
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Aug 26, 2013 21:58
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 So the Russians got invaded, had to make peace, but they did knock out a few valuable tank steps and took a long time to get rocked. They'll lose their whole army and have to build it back up but they get the cards for it when Total War happens, which will likely be in 1942.  Also I decided to give the Swedes something to do so I shipped them to Egypt where they can quickly land in Greece if it's invaded.
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Aug 28, 2013 20:12
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  End point of my VQ game. It was a lot closer than it looked and basically everyone went into turn 5 with a chance to win but uh, HRE just ran away with it. I was the protestants, and if my hand hadn't been short two cards I probably could have gotten the autowin on keys. I do think my getting out way ahead early was my downfall, as I spent rounds 4 and 5 with a target on my back second only to France. I walked into turn 5 with a 40% chance to win off a calvinist zeal straight up, but a deal with Spain had me going for Paris is Worth a Mass instead, but I think it was still worthwhile. The lesson to be learned is not to allow the HRE successive turns of peace, especially not when they have extra keys because HRE is a VP generating monster on a France level, except unlike France no one is right in your grill taking all your keys. Panzeh fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Aug 29, 2013 |
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Aug 29, 2013 03:01
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Tekopo posted:I actually kind of like the card deck because of the flexibility that it allows you, but for the first few turns I was constantly asking what would be a good idea to play since there's so many irreversible decisions to make. It is difficult to understand but you just have to learn it. To be fair the Soviets are the side with the most Big Decisions with respect to the cards, particularly with Stalin Line/Military Purges/Tukhachevsky Reforms, though Collective Security/Political Purges is also a decision, but it's quite a bit easier because Collective Security is such a dicey choice(Franco-Russian entente is a lot better when the Allies play it because putting Allied Minors in the entente is way more important than putting the Soviet Minors in it). By the way, if anyone's interested, we're trying to get together a Labor Day game of TK2 on VASSAL, and if we get enough people we'll run Dai Senso too. Panzeh fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Aug 29, 2013 |
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Aug 29, 2013 14:08
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 So Total War is about to begin in the summer and France is about as strong as it will ever be without the partnership card being played(this is only available in total war). If France is still alive during the summer I might hit them with the partnership card but we'll see. Because he used his first invasion card in Russia, the only way to eliminate the French non-colonial units entirely will be to take each and every city in France. However I have the feeling that he wants to hit high tide once he finishes France and the enclaves I have with grey objective hexes(Hungary, Sweden). The idea for the Axis in both TK games is to try to get as high a VP count as they can and then play the card that sets that as the baseline that the Allies must exceed to win. The advantage to getting a country like Sweden and even Hungary is that holding these grey hexes counts against him but doesn't count for him. They just divert troops, although it won't really matter in France because the front is so narrow and he needs every single strength point possible to get decent odds on the attacks on the forts along the entirety of the front. Blitz markers will let him take two smacks at it before I plug any holes in the line but it will be very hard for him to do 6 steps of damage with 2-1 or 3-1 attacks. I do believe he'll be able to take France but it's gonna be a bit of a slog and a mess. 11 strength on the line is a magic number because it prevents him from starting with a 3-1 attack, instead shunting him to the less favorable 2-1 table, which makes him dependent on aircraft, which I can cancel.
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Sep 7, 2013 12:54
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 So France might fall within the year, maybe, all because the delay rolls went my way pretty heavily(I went with a risky front-loaded approach that paid off in spades). Without airpower, it's very difficult for the Germans to make a lot of progress in France quickly, though they'll eventually win under a huge weight of 3-step units. The longer it takes, the longer it takes for him to get to Axis Tide 2. The Maginot Line seems like the best approach over the long term, as opposed to modernization which only nets you an extra interceptor. The problem is, the French don't usually have a lot of time to build up every possible step.
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Sep 14, 2013 22:35
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Tekopo posted:On my side, it was the issue that it attempted to replicate how Twilight Struggle handled the Cold War, but without explicitly saying so. Twilight Struggle works on the assumption that Cold War theories and doctrine actually worked: this is reflected in the domino theory-like expansion of influence and the way that coups/realignments work. I think a lot of it has to do with more historical distance. It's a lot easier to stomach Allen Dulles fantasyland cold war(as it's a fun way to play the Cold War) with the events being over 20 years ago while Labyrinth's subject matter is something that's still very very recent and relevant.
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Sep 23, 2013 15:00
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Paper Mac posted:I voiced some reservations about ADP when talking about AA, and that's the sort of thing I was worried about. AA doesn't have much (any, really) historical distance between now and the conflict being represented. I played with a Colombian friend of mine who was interested in seeing the game, and although he was obviously a little weirded out by the whole thing (having lived through it), he felt that the general depiction of the factions and their interests was reasonable (although he noted that when Uribe gets elected, the level of violence should step way up above what removal of FARC zones usually creates, which I thought was interesting). Volko cites something like a dozen full length monographs on the conflict in his design notes, it's clear it was really well thought through. One advance I would say that's there in ADP is that they've made some events more appealing by letting the player be eligible next turn. One of the problems in the COIN games is that subtle or not-too-powerful events tend to get skipped every time because there are only so many actions available in the game, and taking an event that doesn't do a lot can really be painful.
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Sep 23, 2013 20:23
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Me and Tek are streaming boardgaming. https://www.twitch.tv/panzehTV
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Sep 30, 2013 19:50
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Blackmongoose and I are playing Dai Senso! On stream. http://www.twitch.tv/panzehtv
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Oct 2, 2013 00:14
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I'm thinking about teaching Bulge 20 on VASSAL sometime, let me know if you want to give it a try. It's got a similar amount of pieces on the board but a fairly different philosophy than the Fading Glory (Napoleonic 20s). It's an interesting take on the Battle of the Bulge for sure.
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Oct 30, 2013 20:42
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Oldstench posted:I'm interested. Vassal and Skype? Sure, sounds good. Let me know when you're up.
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Oct 30, 2013 22:37
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The advanced game of Maria is pretty much the game. The tutorial is just basic 'how to move pieces around'. Without the 3-player elements Maria loses most of what makes it good, imo.
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Nov 13, 2013 18:06
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Played about a year of TK again, after a long break. It was a lot of fun. France is probably going to hold out the whole game, and i've begun my first amphibious invasion in Norway, though progress will be slow until I get more British 3-step units available. The USSR is about to re-enter the war and I now have air supremacy so I can make offensives myself even in France.
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Dec 9, 2013 00:05
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 So, the TK game is near its end, it's pretty much over for the Germans. Narvik(off the map) is going to be taken during the spring and with that, Allied Crusade 1 happens. As long as V-E day hits with Allied Crusade 1, the Allies win unless the No Retreat marker is on the VP track at a spot above AC0, or I choose the card "Operation Galvanic" which trades a victory point for some useful fleet assets. I managed to spring the Balkans open by using Operation Torch to activate Turkey. A fortunate roll got them as an ally and allowed me to activate Bulgaria as an axis country. With that, the Germans are totally overstretched. Tekopo is also making slow progress in the East.
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Dec 15, 2013 15:47
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I can't wait for Fire in the Lake to come out, the increase in mechanics is gonna be sweet.
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Dec 27, 2013 00:24
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Fortress Europe is probably too big a game to be used as an introduction to anything, but it has some interesting things going on with it. There are other Western Front 1944 type games, but FE seems like the most sane of them all. The sudden death VCs seem actually quite interesting as well.
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Jan 28, 2014 20:16
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Tekopo posted:How does FE handle the reinforcement schedule? Does it attempt at all to constrict the fields of battle to be somewhat semi-historical? FE's reinforcements show up at historical dates in england/africa or in germany. You get an amount of steps determined by the turn, though Germany can in late 1944 trade all future armor replacement steps to get all the remaining panzer divisions up to full strength. There are a lot of benefits to the historical landing beaches, they don't activate the whole german army, they let you use mulberries, and put you near some of your sudden death objectives.
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Jan 29, 2014 01:21
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Tekopo posted:So, technically speaking, you could attempt a landing in Calais or even something crazier like the Netherlands? What's the victory condition for germany? Just survive for longer than historical? Yeah, you could try to land in Calais. It's a bit difficult because the landing combat is brutal. The Netherlands is also possible, but keep in mind that landing in the Netherlands activates the whole German army at once. Anywhere else, and German units only become active in a trickle(for the first month they have to trade units between military districts to make transfers). You can also land in the Bay of Biscay, but then you lose the benefit of the mulberry harbor. Also it's important to understand that the first landing has a lot more logistical support than the second. And, yeah, the VC for Germany is to hold a significant part of Germany itself at the end of the game, or get a sudden death victory.
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Jan 29, 2014 12:59
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blackmongoose posted:I'd post an AAR of my first solitaire attempt of Dark Valley, but so far I've only finished the setup... It's kinda weird because the Soviet setup is fairly restrictive to the point where it might as well not be free, while the Axis setup is totally free.
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Feb 7, 2014 16:56
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gradenko_2000 posted:Can I get a recommendation for a hex-and-counter wargame that's maybe a step up from Battle for Moscow? Something as simple as No Retreat!'s combat and supply rules but without the card-playing would be just about perfect. I was looking at Mark Simonitch's France 40 but I thought it was just a little too big and complex (hex-bond-ZOCs! ZOC Bonds aren't that difficult, honestly. France '40 isn't too bad a choice if you want to go in that direction. Two units that are exactly one hex apart make an impassable hex or hexside.
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Feb 25, 2014 12:49
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) for my inexperienced self.
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Tekopo posted:Isn't that really the same thing that No Retreat does with its sticky EZOCs or is there a reason why it's called differently? It means you have to be one hex apart to get that effect instead of two.
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Feb 26, 2014 13:46
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I have the playtest kit for Illusions of Glory and it's looking interesting. I'll probably try getting in some games on vassal.
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Apr 23, 2014 20:46
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blackmongoose posted:Nice. Looking for anyone to help you playtest? Sure, just hit me up on IRC and we can get a game going.
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Apr 23, 2014 21:59
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Tekopo posted:I really wouldn't recommend 'grand strategy' games to start in the hobby because along with combat rules they tend to have a lot more chrome (politics/production/etc). You really want something smaller scale that only focuses on combat first. I've never tried the 3rd Erich system however. Definitely in agreement. I won't dissuade you from getting 3R, but Third Reich is one of the first grand strategy wargames and it kinda shows. That being said, the good ones are pretty pricey so I can't exactly blame you.
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Apr 26, 2014 12:26
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Ropes4u posted:Anyone ever play "Angola" it sounds interesting and is being reprinted by MMP. Angola has some fairly interesting systems going on for it. It's not really like the COIN games, but instead it has a pre-planned turn structure. It's not really meaningfully 4-player though.
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May 30, 2014 17:51
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Taran_Wanderer posted:Browsing through my friend's wargames, I found a copy of Stalin's War. Looking it up on BGG, it apparently has some balance issues with early German wins. Is it still worth giving a try? The problem with Stalin's War is that it's fairly inelegant and I don't think the CDG structure works for a hex based game, unless you do something like Empire of the Sun where every card play for ops is a massive operation.
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Jun 11, 2014 15:16
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I think Reds! is probably easier to play than Triumph of Chaos, but it has less chrome.
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Jun 14, 2014 13:04
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Riso posted:La Grande Guerre? Riso, do you do anything with wargames other than watch calandale videos? Paths of Glory is the most broadly considered one. Tekopo likes Pursuit of Glory.
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Jul 12, 2014 16:31
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Tekopo posted:Alright well that's one, anyone else up for it? Ideally we want 3 players. Newbies welcome, but reading the rules prior to playing is a must. We won't finish it in a session, though. I'm game, but I will be on the road tomorrow and Wednesday.
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Jul 14, 2014 12:00
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Tekopo posted:Thinking about games and how great they could be if you just had enough players to play them is the best part of wargaming. At least FitL is a lot more playable with 2 than the other COIN games.
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Jul 18, 2014 16:58
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