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Tekopo posted:i had really bad experiences with the Labyrinth AI hence why I'm a bit skeptical of the one for AA: I dislike having to go through resolution flowchart in order to find out what to do and frankly the diplomacy aspect of AA seems to be the real focus of the game. I find that I can get someone engaged in a game as long as they have an interest in the history represented within it. Case in point, two weeks ago a friend of mine endured (and seemed to like!) a learning game of Guns of Gettysburg, which I expected to be too complex for him (he does not play wargames). He stuck with it because of his interest in the ACW and ended up enjoying himself. I don't think he would have had as good an experience had I thrown him into a comparatively simpler game, like C&C ancients, which depicts a period of history he does not care about.
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Aug 11, 2013 23:38
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 20:20 |
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Crossposting from #Boardgoons: Come play Andean Abyss on Vassal this weekend with me and Tekopo, PM me or hit me on IRC. edit: or just post in the thread I guess. ConorT fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Aug 14, 2013 |
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Aug 14, 2013 00:55
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Lichtenstein posted:
I love these writeups. Slow and steady loses the race, I vote you take that island. Tekopo posted:Let me know if people are free either on the saturday or sunday: I'd prefer saturday since I can stay on longer but sunday should be fine too if it isn't too late. I don't mind teaching either. Also, who wants to take Government forces? I'm free both days. I think the Government faction should go to the player with the most experience. Of the two of us, that's you, since I've never completed a 4-player game. I'm willing to take it if no one else will.
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Aug 14, 2013 17:06
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Red Winter: The Soviet Attack at Tolvajärvi, Finland: 8-12 December 1939
) Dumb poo poo like storming lakes is what lost the battle in real life. We stay on ground, push along the road, perhaps deploy reinforcements in position to cross the big Tolvajärvi lake to stretch the enemy thinner. Take it slow and sensible, with plenty of time to prepare for the night, when we're at our weakest and get aggressive tomorrow, when the eavy artillery arrives.
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Andean Abyss Myself and 3 other goons played most of a game of AA yesterday on Vassal, here's a brief rundown on how it went:  Here's the board the start of the game. We have: ConorT: The Government (dark blue & light blue) The faction leading the counterinsurgency campaign. To win, the government has to earn the popular support of Colombia. The government starts with 50 support(see the support/resources track on the board's periphery) from each of the cities and areas that it has passive or active support (blue tiles) on. At the start of the game, this is every city but Cali (the only city with Cartel presence, representing the influence the Cali Cartel has on the city's population) Plus Santander-Boyaca, where government troops (dark blue cubes) and police (light blue cubes) train at the lone government base (dark blue disk) to root out the guerrillas hiding in the mountains. To create support in neutral (no tile) or opposition (red tiles) areas, the government needs the presence of both troops and police in that area, and more cubes than the combined pieces of all other factions in that area. They can then spend resources to shift the population of that region to active support, at which point the population of that area contributes to to the government's total support. If the government has >60 support when 1 of the 4 propaganda cards in the event deck comes into play, they win. Panzeh: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia - FARC (red) The FARC is here to lead a revolution against the corrupt and ineffectual government that has failed the people of Colombia. To win, they need to incite opposition in the population of Colombia and establish themselves as an armed force capable of overthrowing the government. They win when their combined number of bases (red disks) and opposition (which works just like government support, the opposition (red tiles) on the board show which parts of Colombia contribute opposition for the FARC) exceeds 25 (when a propaganda card comes up). They'll spend most of the game in a tug-of-war with the government trying to generate opposition for their cause while reducing the government's support. They start with bases established in the rural areas of Colombia, but they won't be there for long: expect the FARC to build up their army of guerrillas in the jungle and mountains (where the government has a hard time finding them) then march into cities and LoCs (lines of communication, the numbered roads and pipelines connecting the cities, which the government needs to protect in order to keep its resources high), where they can commit acts of terror and kidnapping to cripple the government's economy and generate opposition. Dre2Dee2: Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia - AUC (yellow) Believe it or not, terrorism and kidnapping does not convince everyone to take your side. The AUC represent the people living in the rural parts of Colombia that are sick of the FARC's presence in their homes. They have lost faith in a government that seemingly won't lift a finger to help them, so they've taken taken up arms themselves to fight the FARC where the Government can't. The AUC win the game by establishing themselves as a superior force to the FARC. They win when their total number of bases exceed the FARC's (when a propaganda card comes up). Easier said then done: look at the board at the start of the game. Yup, the AUC have 1 measly base compared to the FARC's 6, and the AUC can only have a maximum of 6 bases on the board, while the FARC can have up to 9! Clearly the AUC have their work cut out for them, but that's okay, because they have no qualms extorting, terrorizing, assassinating, or massacring anyone they perceive as a FARC sympathizer. Tekopo: Cartels (green) What's the number 1 export of Colombia? Probably coffee, but the cartels would prefer if it was cocaine. The cartels win by establishing a drug empire in Colombia and raking the cash in. They win when they have >10 bases on the board and have >40 resources (when a propaganda card comes up). Easier said than done: the cartels have the smallest pool of guerrillas of any faction, which makes protecting its bases (and its primary source of income) pretty difficult. Worse still, the government is being given aid (see the resource track) from the USA to help its "war on drugs". Aid increases whenever the government eradicates a plantation using airborne chemicals. Fortunately, resources can be transferred between all factions as non-binding agreements. The politics of this game allow a smart cartels player to bribe other players into ignoring him. There's also an in-game bribe ability which allows the cartels to spend resources to remove hostile pieces from the board that threaten their bases. Tl;dr: Government needs to protect its cities and roads while pushing out and flipping more areas to active support. FARC need to build an army, push onto the cities, roads, and mountains and establish presence there to flip areas to active opposition. They also need to watch out for AUC troops. AUC need to destroy FARC bases and build their own. Cartels need to build a lot of bases and make lots of money. Let's rock:  Here we are a few turns in. The government has put most of its troops and police on the board, spreading them out among its cities in case of a FARC or cartel incursion. Two areas of note: there is now a huge police and troop presence in Cali, allowing the government to perform civic actions there to bring active support back to Cali, giving it 3pop x2(active support) = 6 support, for a total of 56. The police presence also keeps the cartel player wary of expanding there. The other area of note is Huila-Tolima, the mountain region east of Cali. The government got a great event card that let them put a base and 3 troops anywhere on the board, allowing them to establish themselves in Huila before the FARC could create a strong presence there. The base will make it much easier to put police there, making it easier to flip Huila to active support. But first, the FARC need to be eliminated there! Even though the government has an overwhelming force, its still difficult to eliminate guerrillas from these areas. Troops can only assault and eliminate guerrillas that are active(i.e. their star side is pointing up, all of the guerrillas in Huila are active right, now, for example). If the star side is down, they are underground and the troops can't find them. The government can perform a sweep operation first to turn underground guerrillas active, then on their next turn they can assault. Unfortunately, the nature of the game makes this difficult to pull off: the event cards give priority on who can act, but if you have acted off an event card you are ineligible for the next one, and only two players max can act off one event card. This means that after a sweep, the insurgents have a chance to perform rallys and go underground again. Sigh. All government operations are also extremely expensive: a few troops placed on the board and a couple of sweep operations have left the government with only 16 resources of its original 40, because it costs the government 3 times as many resources to do anything in this game compared to the insurgents (redtape  ). They get this money back during the propaganda phase, but only if their LoCs haven't been sabotaged.The FARC are having a rough time right now. The government got an event card that allowed them to build a base in Huila, and this is stymieing the FARC's attempts to establish opposition in this valuable 2pop zone. The AUC also wiped out their base in Arauca (we missed a rule here, the AUC can't rally in areas that have opposition). It's not all bad: they're positioned in Meta-East, Meta-West, Putumayo-Caqueta and Guaviare to perform kidnap operations to steal resources from the cartels here, but they're waiting for now because the Cartels start the game out relatively poor. The AUC are doing what they do best: building bases and eliminating FARC. The government has ignored them completely allowing them to rally in Antioquia-Bolivar and Atlantico-Magdalena, and they've got a good presence in Arauca as well. The Cartels are taking it slow and steady, building their bases up while trying to be ignored by the other players. They got a nice event card early on that let them build bases in the deep forest areas of Amazonas, Vaupes, and Guainia. These areas have 0 population and cannot contribute support or opposition to the Government/FACR player, which makes them good to have bases in. The Government player eradicated the base in Guainia already (war on drugs ), increasing its aid by 4, but pissing off the locals and giving the FARC a free guerrilla there. The cartel player has no chance of winning the game on the first propaganda card (look at its resources: it has 4 and needs 40 to win) but each propaganda card gives it 3 resources per base, so if it can keep its base count high it will be in good shape going into round two. The first propaganda round! The government to control Huila, but the FARC was on the move: first onto LOCs connecting the government's cities. The government responded by patrolling its police and troops onto these LOCs, activating the guerillas before they could sabotage them, but this let the FARC player march into the relatively undefended cities of Ibague and Pasto. Since a propaganda card was coming next, the FARC player took control of these cities, which sabotages all connecting LoCs during the propaganda round and let it convert them to active opposition! The sabotaged LoCs meant that the government player only got 17 of its 30 resources that propaganda round, and because the active el presidente was Samper, all foreign aid was rejected. At the end of the round, government support is less than 60, so Samper loses the election to the next guy (pastrana) who will accept government aid, but takes a more passive approach to the combating the FARC by declaring a FARC zone on Guaviare: the government cannot do anything here whatsoever as long as that FARC zone token remains there. AUC now have two bases in Antioquia and are moving into choco to eliminate the FARC base here. Through shipments and bases, the cartels player was able to wrangle 39 resources together, combine with its 10 bases, this means the that cartels placer has the smallest margin to victory, a distinction that is only important on the final propaganda card (assuming no one has won outright).  About halfway through the 2nd round of the game: This is where all the other players agreed that the AUC was probably getting out of control. I sent some police after them in Arauca (off an event card) but that just let the Cartels player establish a base in Cucuta, the city adjacent to my most valuable pipelines  . I've done sweeps in Arauca, Ibague, Pasto, and Cali in the hopes of Assaulting there when I next get an action, with my primary target being Cali, where the cartels player has built another base and a shipment of cocaine, mocking my inability to stop him. Look at the current event card and next event card: the cartels player has priority on both of those, he uses one of them to rally and get his guys in Cali underground, making me look like an idiot.The FARC tried to elimate my cubes in Ibague and Pasto using attack rolls (if 1d6 < # of your guerrillas, inflict 2 casualties) but he whiffed both because dice rolls are bullshit. Meanwhile, his forces in Meta-East, Meta-West, and Cesar are ready to march into my cities at a moment's notice. He's also committed acts of terror in meta east and guaviare in order to kidnap and extort the cartels for resources. The AUC player wiped out the FARC base in Choco and is ready to build his own there, which will tie his bases with FARC's. Sigh. The rest of the round happens in a blur as I become absorbed in the game and all 4 of us become swept up in its politics. Up until this point we were mostly acting in our own interests, but with all of the insurgents closing in on their victory conditions, opposing factions began helping each other. FARC did not trigger an event preventing the government from using air lifts, air strikes, or eradications for the rest of the round under the agreement that I use these strictly on the AUC. The AUC offered me resources to move my troops out of Arauca. The cartels demanded resources from me or they would trigger an event card that permanently crippled my ability to perform civic actions. Negotiations were, um, heated:   Here's how the game looked at the end of round 2. FARC pulled the ole' city LoC siwtcheroo again, landing on LoCs this time, giving the government only 11 resources + 8 aid for this round. They also act first on the next card, so things are looking a bit rough for the government. The AUC are in a pretty nice position: they marched a ton of guerrillas to Cesar, and with >6 of them can auto-succeed on attacks. They're tied with FARCS for bases now, can they pull ahead? The Cartels are also sitting pretty: they used an event card giving them 4 times their bases instead of resources for this prop. round instead of 3, and are now floating 67 resources. Can they find room for just two more bases before the final prop card comes up? Next time: the last two rounds, which I will try to document better than the previous ones. ConorT fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 19:34
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Paper Mac posted:Ballsy FARC play, imo. Taking control of those cities prior to the prop card looks like it really knocked Gov't off its stride. Looking forward to seeing the outcome. What's happening with Gov't capabilities, anyway? Just no opportunities to take them or have those cards not been coming up? Looks like Govt really needs the discounts. Only 2 came up and I opted not to use them.
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Aug 18, 2013 20:11
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Tekopo posted:No update for Guns of Gettysburg, but I did play a game IRL so here's the end result (me as the confederates). Very messy fight, lines got broken after I managed to bag Sedgewick's Corps. Union never really withdrew to recreate his lines, which was probably his biggest problem. It looks like someone sneezed on the board.
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Aug 18, 2013 22:09
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Tekopo posted:Panzeh/ConorT/Dre2Dee2, let me know if you are free this weekend to finish our AA game I have to move this weekend. Next week I'm free.
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Aug 28, 2013 19:35
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I finally have the free time to play this weekend, so if you both wanted to finish that AA game, then, well, we could.
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Nov 13, 2013 04:35
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Oldstench posted:We're putting together a COIN Goon Group for running COIN games on Vassal. Please slide by and sign up if you're interested. If we get enough people on the list, games might actually happen! COIN rules, let's do this.
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Nov 19, 2013 05:55
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Tekopo posted:Okay so we have 4 signups already, who's up for a game of any of the three this saturday starting from 1PM EST? I have to play real boardgames this Saturday so Sunday is better for me.
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Nov 20, 2013 05:32
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Tekopo posted:I don't have a problem playing CL again as long as someone takes up the Govt (and reads how to play Govt in the playbook if you have access to it). Dibs, that way when I lose I can save face by claiming I was going for historical accuracy.
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Nov 21, 2013 05:19
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Tekopo posted:I'm almost always up for something and we have several people that usually play on #boardgoons on SYNIRC. We have been attempting to get people to play COIN games in the weekends and although it slowed down for the holidays, we should be back up to speed shortly. Anyone for A Distant Plain this weekend? I'm free on either day. Tekopo posted:Saturday at 1 PM EST? edit: Scratch that, I'm busy that weekend. ConorT fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Jan 8, 2014 |
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Jan 7, 2014 03:47
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Tekopo posted:Oh hey, Fire in the Lake Vassal. Sign up here. I wanna play.
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Aug 8, 2014 04:38
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| # ¿ May 3, 2024 20:20 |
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I received a shipping notification for it today. They've been going out since yesterday, I think.
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Aug 16, 2014 05:26
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