GodStorm - A risky game

Well, had the guys over tonight, and after much discussion we broke out Doug's copy of Risk GodStorm. A couple of us had played it before, but it was a new one for me. A lot like Risk 2210AD, which I had played though.

Its interesting, it takes a while for me to forget why Risk is such a frustrating game and I have to sit down and play it again.

Doug got wiped out very early, and it looked like I was going to get nailed shortly thereafter. Drew looked good really early, then petered out nearer to the end. Bruce and Steve would probably have battled it out for the win, but I like to think I had a little chance after driving a huge force through Steve and Drews God Forces.

The game took a lot longer than I would have thought, as we had to cut it short due to time.

A great night though is just having friends over and hanging out, so thanks for that.

Hannibal - Third and final (for now) try

Bruce came over tonight and we broke out Hannibal for another go. This time, I played the Carthaginians. We played part of the first year, and I was already decimated so we reset the board and started again, this time, with me paying more attention to some minor details.

This flopped the other way, I could do no wrong. I had the Romans completely on the ropes by year 4, almost every battle, he lost his entire army! I had almost complete control of Italy, and Rome was working on overtaking Spain.

We eventually called it a night, it seems like an awesome game, but too heavily dependant on luck of the draw and such. Not one game seemed close, they were always slaughters for one side or the other.

Thanks Bruce for the games.

A Twilight Struggle into late evening.

Bruce came over tonight for our Wargames evening. We were going to play Round 2 of Hannibal, but instead we played a game of Twilight Struggle (Bruce slept in, so we thought that Struggle would be a shorter game, show's what we know).

This was a stressful game for me, but a lot of fun. At least three times, I was 10-15 points up and looking to finish the Yankees off when out of nowhere, I would lose 15 or so points in a single round!!!

I finally conceded the game to Bruce in the tenth round, when I realized that, although I would probably be ahead at the end of this round, the end-game scoring would definitely go in his favor.

All in all, I really enjoy this game. I think I have recorded 5 plays so far and each one has been very different, but all have been a great game.

Glory to Rome!!! (Abridged version)

Bruce and I got together on Sunday afternoon for a couple of hours of Hannibal - Rome vs. Carthage.

Neither of us had played this game before, but Bruce had read the rules and was up for it.

It took almost two hours just to cover off the rules to this Valley Games Classic. The game is absolutely beautiful and the rules are deceptively straight-forward. There are parts that feel a lot like Twilight Struggle, which is both good and bad (I tried to apply the same strategies, but the existence of the armies and generals, really seem to change the premise).

We played the first two years (in about a couple of hours) to get a feel for the rules. I still need to get a grasp on what exactly I should be doing. I read through some strategy guides after the fact and I hope that I do better on Wednesday (We have another game planned for then, where we hope to get through a full game.

It was a pretty short afternoon, but a good one.

Daiymos and more Monsterpocalypse

We started off the afternoon with Shogun. Well, sort of (See this week at home for more info on why I was two hours late ;).

I really need to focus more when I play games. I know this, really I do. Of course, you would never know that I am supposedly pretty smart, by the way I play games.

It was a really good game though, and I suspect that if I wasn't stuck in between both Steve and Bruces armies, I might have stood a chance. (Who am I kidding).

Saturday evening, I learned something very valuable. Don't play MPoc when your head really isnt in it. I am not really strong on Strategy in the first place, but even more so if I'm not paying attention.

Bruce and I played two rounds the first being Martians (Bruce) vs Sun Syndicate (me). This was almost close, but I just couldnt deal with all of the P-Dice that he kept generating.

The second round Bruce switched to my usual faction, the G.U.A.R.D. You would think that since I know something about the G.U.A.R.D. abilites, I would have fared better. Nope.

This would make 5 different games I have played, with a record of 2-3. Not bad all things considered. It did help me come up with a new tagline.

It's not about winning or losing, I just want to play.

Neroshima and Monsters!!

Sorry, these got posted out of order, I forgot to post Friday's notes before I posted Saturday's

Last night I got to play Neroshima Hex! with Alex while we were waiting for the rest of the group to show up for some MPOC.



I really want to like Neroshima, but I need a lot more practice seeing what could happen, as I always get caught with my pants down and beat up. I love the tightness of this game though and is a lot of fun.



MPoc was a lot of fun. Bruce (Martians) vs Steve (Terrasaurs) and Darren (G.U.A.R.D.) vs Alex (Planet Killers).

I beat Al, somehow, by just basically beating on his Monster with a Lightning Blast for 4 turns in a row. He was beating the crap out of my units and generating a tone of P-dice, but the repair vehicle was the key to my victory.

I think Bruce won his battle, but it was primarily due to the fact that we had misinterpreted that Monsters could walk over water without hassle. This missed fact, caused Steve to become very frustrated with the city layout.

All in all a good night was had by all and we planned for a return to the MPoc arena on Saturday night.

Monsterpocalypse thoughts

Well, I finally picked up some of the miniatures and I must say I am impressed with them. I got in a introductory game last week with Al, Steve and Doug and it was a lot of fun.

I think I will focus on the G.U.A.R.D. faction for now, mainly because that is the faction that I have the most in. I really like the Planet Killers faction as well, but I don't really have enough to field a decent amount.

I know that I can mix factions and such, but until I get a better grasp on the rules, I'd rather take advantage of the syngery gained within the faction/agenda.

We have another MPoc session tomorrow, I'll post more then.

Manouvre with Bruce

Round 2 of Manouvre with Bruce tonight. Started off playing the Russians (me) versus the Ottomans (Bruce). Bruce won this at the end the day phase, having more troops on my side than I had on his.

The second game had USA (Me) versus Spain (Bruce) where I did the same thing to him this time.

I really like this game, lots of replayability due to the 8 different armies and lots of terrain tiles. So long as I play patiently (this is a common theme to the deep-strategy games that I have seen), I can do pretty good.

I had a great time tonight. Thanks Bruce.