Had a interesting session with Mo and Gimpy last night. We got quickly of topic for the first 20 minutes!! LOL. But then talked about what we had played for the summer.
I was taken aback when I looked back over the preceding period from about June 1st through to today.
As many of you know my family and I had moved into a 90% complete ‘barn’ that is 1/5th the size of our residence that we had lived in for 17 years, and 1/3 the size of the temp rental we were just in. So the game cave/war room is no more for now. Saying playing space is at a premium is an understatement. Thankfully the Mrs has allocated half of our dining table to me and all the walls for bookcases [she is the best].
So imagine my delight and surprise when I went back over the games played and tabulated what I had covered in the preceding 11 weeks.
13 games /14 scenarios started. 11 finished, as 1914:Nach Paris I had put aside to come back to, and Vietnam is literally in phase 1 of turn 1 of a small scenario.
Of those games seven were new to me!
If you are a reader of the blog or follower on YouTube or social you know I did several videos and just finished up the last of the blog posts AAR of Korsun Pocket 2 play through of the upcoming release.
That took about two weeks to get through, especially given I was going back and forth over rule wording, and interpretation with the designer, a LOT.
I did take a brief break while playing KP2 and then put a tried and true game fast player on the table – Heroes of the Nam from Lock’n Load. Getting some 1965 action in.
As always so much rich narrative there.
While learning new systems like KP2 I decided to pull The Long Road back out and give it a run, and then also played with Moe and Mark Walker live. That was for sure one of the highlights of the summer. Really nice game system, that is very different from a lot of other platoon scale games I have played before.
While on a platoon scale kick I pivoted to some deep and crunchy TCS from The Gamers – Semper Fi. Boy had I missed that system, and Semper Fi was perfect with its array of ‘tiny maps’ that allowed for small format, small footprint game play.
Nothing like some arty on No Name Ridge to ruin a evil Commies day.
From there I played a rather dissatisfying MBT scenario, that really could have used some more thought in its design or a different Order of Battle. The Germans just smoked the older Soviet kit and it was over before it begun….Maybe it was “too” realistic. But I doubt it.
I barely took pics, and posted just the one video.
Still craving some modern boom and zoom, it was time to bring out the big boy! World at War ’85.
A rip roaring scenario ensued. Also a bit of a one sided affair, but it ‘felt closer’. With a thin line of US forces, holding off a LOT of bad buys.
Good fun and I cant wait…I just cant wait for the new WAW85 module to drop.
After all of the modern warfare, it was time to look back in history to Napoleon. On a whim, I purchase 2 modules from the OSG Napoleonic library. It was everything I expected and less, given my past exposure to the system.
While the rules have been cleaned up, and the art as always was great, I was left wanting. The French trounced the Coalition forces, and I found myself thinking gee, I better get the other Quartre Bras games out to compare. – Hopefully soon that will happen.
So much for staying off modern warfare – Deadly Northern Lights appeared on my door step. We jumped right into a 5 turn scenario and all its glory was revealed.
DNL, has the unique construct that at first glance you think its a land centric wargame but really its not. Its truly a requirement to use Naval forces and Air correctly to get ANYTHING done. In this scenario, the Invasion of Sweden, it was readily apparent. But you can read all about that here As well as check out the videos.
That sucker took two weeks of intermittent brain burning play!
I do have long term VASSAL games going also – SCS North Africa, and two Simonitch titles that are lagging due to my tardiness [I think I just no good at PBEM]. I just cant be bothered putting the min / max effort into a perfect turn. I owe turns to two players. The North Africa stuff is live on vassal and just a darn hoot. LOVING that game.
I also played an opposed session of Arracourt with a new friend who is in San Antonio, going to see about playing with him again soon.
Three new titles arrived and as I mentioned above Nach Paris just got me spun up, and I need to come back to it. I really found the rules to be annoying to grok, that is likely on me due to fatigue and lack of patience. So it will hit the table again shortly. Its a stunning looking game.
That leaves Caucasus Burning and Oak and Iron which were both surprise hits. The ’65 system from Flying Pig games works at the operational scale ok! Its a not often covered conflict and I think with some clean up on the rules its a very solid magazine title.
Oak and Iron was a surprise hit. Most of you know I’m ‘mini curious’ but very wary. These chaps clipped together just fine. The rules were straight forward while being set in a highly thematic environment where every component from measure stick to box are carefully crafted and designed for immersion. Nice.
I felt very Jack Sparrow.
So that was summer. I’m now going to kick off a few sessions of Karp’s opus – Vietnam. Small stuff, and get the system down with a goal to play F2F a smaller scenario in October at AAC Con.
Ok, peace out.
Really quite extraordinary that you managed to play (and post about) so much, especially in the midst of the relocation.
Given the eclectic choices made about the games you note having played during the summer, do you have any conscious criteria for choosing what you play when? Or is it mostly what moves you at that moment?
sleep is over rated. Plus, seriously, with more focus I could have done more. But its been challenging time in our collective household.
Good question.
A few things bump the interest needle: 1. Books read. 2. somewhat linked to #1 – Topics covered by titles. 3. Preview/Review copies. I generally feel an obligation to get it to the table quickly, so it bumps planned plays. This summer for some reason I was blessed with several titles to play gratis and indeed I have one I am yet to play.
I really want to try and do these new ones justice, so its a balancing act.
I agree on sleep being over rated. Skipping some of it is a way to get a lot more done. I never am in bed more than 6 hours a day, and frequently less.
But I am still in awe of the number of games you manage. For most of the summer we have done one a week with my gaming group, but most tend to be lighter stuff, that as strategy oriented Euros and such. So the rules will be 1/4 as much often, or even less. So you are really going through a huge amount of material.
smn