Urges...

No, not that kind!

I'm actually really thinking about putting some ideas to paper and seeing what happens. I've been fiddling around with a euro game for some time, and I think I hit upon a novel way to prevent leader "break-outs." I've gotta put a prototype together one of these days and get folks to try it out.

One of these days.

And in the, "If that idiot can do it, so can I" files, the urge to design a wargame is really biting again. Mainly because I love wargaming so much, yet I think most games of this genre, well, aren't much fun. Over on Consimworld, I've asked on Ron Wuerth's blog what games folks would like to see that haven't been done.

I answered my own question with a CDG of the Tet Offensive. 2 other answers were a multi-player CDG on the Crimean War (strategic scale, involving land grabs in Turkey), and the mid-1600s naval competition between England and Holland on a strategic scale. Any other good ideas out there? Preferably something you'd love to do research on, LOL!

Seriously, I have put out this "offer" before, on a game in the Eastern Theater in the ACW. That is still possible, but the research offers dried up, so I haven't moved ahead. Besides, the ACW seems to have been so overdone. Frankly, I think I have some real good ideas on how to implement card play into wargames (taking random events out of players' hands while encouraging play of "non-random" events). The problem I have is that I'm not real interested in undertaking all the order of battle research a game needs. Laziness plays a part, but lack of interest in this kind of detail work is the big reason.

I have watched Jason Matthews collaborate on 2 big hits -- Twilight Struggle and 1960: Making of a President -- and believe this is the way I should be headed.

Serious inquiries only. :-)

(Yes, time to do work for nothing, and if a game ever gets published, earn a few pesos! LOL!)

Short Week...

Woo-hoo, about time we got this short week! I'm not overly excited about Thanksgiving, but I am about the 5 days off. It looks like I'll be playing Hannibal with Mike Cardwell and Combat Commander with Bob Titran over the break. Combat Commander is one of those games I don't think I'll ever tire of...

Being the nice guy I am, I suggested to Mike that we play Sicily: The Race for Messina as our next game, since it's WWII and hexes (2 of Mike's favorite things -- I will remain silent...). Besides, this game gets good ratings, and it's part of the "Victory in the West" system, with hidden unit strengths via chit draws. Mike thought I was suggesting a different Sicily game, the one by John "My Games Are No" Schletter, Sicily: the Italian Campaign. Luckily for us both, Mike stopped by last week to watch the game Bill Peeck and I were playing (written up a few posts ago under "Bessarabia"), and spotted my Sicily (or, should we say, the good Sicily!). He now needs to get a copy of this one off of eBay.

As for the Schletter "design," this comment on BGG says it all:

"Map is a 10 - one of the best I have ever seen. Everything else SUCKED - the rules are a disaster, the counters boring, gameplay almost non-existant [sic], even with revised (and re-revised) rulebook. I can't even remember how many hours I spent trying to get this turkey to fly. I even tried other systems, like OCS (exactly the same scale!) but in the end all the beautiful maps in the world couldn't get me to keep it so I gave it away. What a waste!"

Yuck!

Now that that's taken care of, I can rest easily...

Happy Sunday...

I usually don't get here on the weekends, but just popped in to check something.

As I'm listening to music right now, I'll leave you with what I'm listening to -- Collective Soul:



Gonna go take Cheyenne out for some fun, then watch a little football.

Have a great day, y'all!

Into Bessarabia...

Bill Peeck stopped by last evening for a game of Combat Commander. I decided to pick the scenario and have the pieces ready before he stopped by. I thought it would be fun to play one I hadn't experienced before, so I settled on Scenario 15 from the Med expansion. This scenario has hordes of Romanians approaching a lightly held Russian village in Bessarabia (Moldova?), on the road to Moghilev. The Romanians have 20 squads (6 decent ones, 14 poor ones), 4 leaders, 2 medium machine guns (MMG), 3 light machine guns (LMG), and 1 light mortar. The Soviets are a mixed bunch, with a smattering of squads ranging from quite good (Guards rifles) to pretty poor (Militia), 2 leaders, 2 MMGs, and 2 LMGs. This scenario postulates that the Romanians are approaching the town without having properly scouted it, for it's July 7, 1941, and Barbarossa has been going on for 2 weeks -- the Soviets are reeling and the Axis armies are confident. Due to this, the Soviets can withhold up to 6 units and their weapons, popping them up on Turn 1 (game start is Turn 0) in any hex they could originally set up on (which is 80% of the board), as long as they're in cover (which means one of the many buildings or wood hexes). The Romanians can withhold units as well (I believe 8 is the max), entering them later as normal reinforcements. An interesting puzzle, beginning with the set-up!

And I almost forgot to mention victory points... There is an open objective that makes all 5 board objectives worth 3 points. We each picked a secret objective, and mine made objective 5 worth an additional 5 VPs -- this would drive my mid-game strategy, as I really felt I'd need to control objective 5 (right smack in the middle of the village!) to win the game.

Well, Bill arrived, with a six-pack of Sam Adams in tow, and we headed down to the game room, Cheyenne, with rawhide, following. He had played 3 times before, all scenarios that pitted Americans against Germans. I offered him choice of sides, and he took the Soviets. Bill utilized a forward set up, giving the 2 MMGs as many fire lanes as he could. Other squads were scattered across the board (up forward), ready to met the Romanians who had dared enter their soil... Bill did hold off 5 squads, a leader, and 2 LMGs, ready to "pop them up" where needed on Turn 1.

I withheld 7 Romanian squads, a leader, and 2 LMGs myself, opting to enter them on Turn 2, once I had a turn to see/deal with the hidden Ruskies. I opted to send in all 6 of my "good" squads at this time. For initial set up, I could hide 5 squads in the woods (along with both MMGs), give some a tiny bit of help in a wheat field, while leaving several guys out in the open (no choice -- damn Romanians needed to scout this situation a little better...).

Then we were off!

I began by moving 5 squads on my right flank toward the building cover. A forward Soviet MMG opened fire and hit my guys pretty hard with sustained fire. A couple squads made the building line, while 3 cowered broken among the shattered wheat stalks. I fired (mostly ineffectively) my MMGs on the left flank, trying to get the Soviets there out of the woods, but to no avail. Luckily, I was able to rally 2 of the 3 broken squads before Bill could take his turn. He did hit me back hard, killing my broken squad, and I was thinking this might be a short game. But the Romanian surrender level is 17, so I had a ways to go...

I was able to move into the buildings on my right flank, and push his defenders back (not to mention get some cover against the MMG). Having several "Move" cards, I decided to rush 3 squads and a leader across open terrain, to try and exit them. No MMGs could see them, behind the buildings, so I was able to get them off the board, as they only had to withstand a few shots from Russian squads. No problem! I did make the mistake of having a close combat (CC) with a "4" strength Romanian -- we both had "Ambush" cards, and not only did I lose the CC by rolling poorly, I lost the Initiative, as well. D'oh!!! This mistake allowed Bill to send one of his squads toward my board edge, when we had our first "Time" event.

Bill was then able to prop up his defenses with the hidden Ruskies, and he created a nice fire lane on my right flank, which would make it tough for me to make another end run. He also beefed up his center (where most of the objective hexes were), and only put 1 extra unit on my left flank, as a blaze over on that side of the board was limiting my options somewhat (it would spread into a huge, 6-hex fire shortly!). The VPs were firmly "Pro-Soviet," and I didn't have a right flank anymore!

Lady Luck was with me, though, as I had a sniper attack which broke the Soviet squad trying to edge off the board, then we had another quick "Time" event, which let me enter my reinforcements, plus my exited units, and I went to the Wheatfield (as much as I could) to try and kill the broken Ruskie. But Bill had an advance card, so he did exit...

The Soviets began to fall back toward the center of town, as my once again strong right flank advanced through the buildings, heading to the town center. My left flank did clear some weak Russian militia out of the woods, and I advanced a MMG up to a woods hex which had excellent fire zones. Of course, the first time it opened fire, it jammed, then a sniper check eliminated it. Good idea, poor Romanian execution...

We had several more time checks, and VPs remained around Soviet 10-12. An event drew an additional objective chit that made all 5 objectives worth an additional 2 points -- I really had to take as many as I could... By Turn 6 (7 is Sudden Death), I was able to make a big advance into CC, with 2 Ambush cards as well as a Light Wounds. We both ambushed each other (my light wounds helping me), and I took the BIG objective hex in the village center. I raced another squad toward the board edge to take another objective, and with 3 of the 5 under my control, and several dead Soviets, VPs edged into my column. At this point, Bill conceded, though, if I had been in his shoes, I would have continued -- if he was able to win a CC against me, things would have quickly turned around, for VPs were only at about 5 Romanian.

All in all, this scenario showed how hard it is to advance less than stellar troops into defended (even lightly) terrain. And even harder when most of the Romanian units can't even drop some smoke to screen their movements! I really enjoyed the attack here, as frustrating as it was using the Axis Minor deck. The differentiation this game makes, using unit values combined with the specific card decks is brilliant. I hadn't played for a few months, and I was able to get right back in, with a quick skim of the rules. I really love Combat Commander, and will certainly play it whenever given the chance. I really need to start experiencing it on Vassal...

Snow!!!

Finally, winter has truly arrived. About 3" of snow in my driveway when I headed to work. The 7-day forecast has us staying cold, so I imagine what's down will stay, and we will probably get more. Snow day? One can hope...

Cheyenne really loves the snow. Last winter was (probably) her first winter with snow, as I don't think she got any in her first year (she was a Nashville pup). I've gotta get out and play with her today -- she loves catching snowballs.

The Sabres are on tonight vs. Boston, and this is turning into a huge early season game. If the Bruins win, they really begin to open up space. If Barfalo wins, the race becomes tight again. They (the Sabres) have not played well lately. I'm hoping they can shake out of their funk...

Tomorrow (Thursday), Bill Peeck is coming by for some Combat Commander. As much as I love this game, I haven't played for a couple months, at least! I've really got to be more on the ball about this. Also have to get the rules down for Sicily: Race for Messina, as I think Mike and I will be tackling that next week. Maybe I should just play more Combat Commander!

4 more workdays, then onto Thanksgiving break. Yee-ha!

Life Rolls On...

Got some fun gaming in on Saturday at the Rochester Gamers monthly meet. Played 2 games of Conflict of Heroes, 2 games of Hold the Line, and 2 games of Objective Tobruk (a North African game currently in playtest). Had fun, even though I lost more than I won...

The CoH games were both the learning scenario, a German sweep through lightly forested terrain to hunt down Soviet Partisans. This is a tough one for the Soviets, especially when the Pioneer unit (an SS "Tracker" unit) enters the fray. I enjoyed the game, and look forward to getting into the more "meaty" scenarios.

For HtL, we played Hobkirk's Hill and King's Mountain, both battles from the southern campaign. In Hobkirk's Hill, a methodical British advance pushed the Rebels back and gave them the victory. In King's Mountain, the Loyalists took a pounding from Rebel militia, as they retreated and tried to regroup. This game came right down to the end, and the side that killed the next unit would win. When a loyalist leader died, the game ended. Great fun, as always.

Objective Tobruk is a neat little "box-to-box" game Peter Bogdasarian is designing. It has a lot in common with Quebec 1759 (written orders), and shows off sweeping desert warfare, quite well. Each side won a game, so, as of now, the balance is perfect!

I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving break, just gotta get through these next 7 days. Things are dragging in my life right now, and I really need a break. I was looking forward to taking a nice trip with Deanna over February break, but it looks like that won't be possible, due to her daughter living with us (she doesn't trust her home alone for a week). Oh well, maybe I'll head somewhere by my lonesome, as I used to. All that's old is new again, or something like that...

The Red Poppy...

I am off work today, but I'll be working most of the day, nonetheless. I have to finish my grading and submit grades and comments for the 1st Quarter report cards. We (meaning Deanna and me) also have to clean out the garage, which is still full of leftovers and junk from our July garage sale and all the home repairs we've been undertaking. Ugh... But gotta do it, so we can get our vehicles sheltered before the snow comes.

Of course, the real meaning of today can't get lost in grades and cleaning. All the brave men and women who have risked, and in many cases given their lives, so that we may remain free. Thank you, all.



Before I forget, I want to mention that I finished Stephen King's Duma Key this morning. An excellent book. King has always, to me, been a great storyteller. Folks can debate his writing talents, but I don't think there's any debate about his storytelling abilities. So it struck me that Duma Key was very well written. As someone who has read most of his books over the years (for pure enjoyment), I can definitely see a trend lately, where he's matured as a writer, while not losing any of his storytelling magic. Duma Key is highly recommended.

Grading, Grading...

Spent a good portion of the weekend grading and getting grades into the electronic gradebook, as they're due by Wednesday. Most of my kids are doing well, but there are 3 that are falling through the cracks (and not just in my classes). Parents of these 3 kids have already canceled SEVEN parent-teacher conferences. Kinda hard to get through to a kid whose parent doesn't give a shit.

Not much gaming going on, though I received a nice (and cheap!) copy of Sicily: Race for Messina in the mail on Friday (from an eBarf win). I know, I know -- it has hexes. But it also has those neat strength chits that give excellent "fog of war," and this is something I can play with Mike Cardwell, as I need to throw him some WWII bones every once in a while. I have been interested in both the Sicilian/Italian campaigns in WWII lately, as well as the Spanish Civil War. 2 interesting theaters in what I find to be an otherwise boring war (certainly boring to game, especially Eastern Front dreck...).

American cargo ship carrying munitions hit off Gela, Sicily, July 1943

Cheyenne's cyst is still about the same. I just want the damn thing to go away. Soon.

I never got my birthday pedicure this year, so I'm thinking of bringing my crusty feet to a spa this week. Make those cute little high school drop-outs work for their money.

These 5 Day Weeks are Killing Me...

Luckily, next week we get Tuesday off for Veteran's Day, then a full week starting on the 17th, then a 2-day week beginning on the 24th, due to Thanksgiving. Then a long Christmas break in December, whew! How's that for whiny?

There are times during the year that teachers tend to get "burned out. November and March seem to be two of the "biggies," and I know I ain't the only only one dragging at my school.

I can't remember the last time I listened to the radio in my vehicle, as I constantly have a book on CD going. Right now, I'm listening to Duma Key, by Stephen King. I've always enjoyed his books, and the writing here is really quite good -- in addition to being a good storyteller, he is turning into a better (imo) writer as the years go by. His book before this (which I read, not listened to!), Lisey's Story, demonstrated the same. Unfortunately, at 130,000 miles plus, things in a vehicle start to fall apart. The CD player is beginning to act up, and I'm worried that when the really cold weather gets here, it'll die. That would suck...

On the gaming front, Bill Peeck is stopping by tonight to playtest Washington's War, Mark Herman's remake of We the People. Game is similar to its predecessor, but there are no battle cards and opponent's events are no longer completely useless. looking forward to giving the new version a spin. I'm also starting a pbem Successors soon, as I can't seem to get enough of that game right now!

I'll leave y'all with a game you might want to try:

Busen Memo

You really should check the link out, LOL!

Stuff...

Well, Cheyenne's blood test came back clean -- no clotting problems, which is a relief. The stupid cyst looks smaller one day, then bigger the next. It just needs to go away, as I'm hoping we don't have to take the surgery route. I just need a good break one of these days...


Played Successors this past Sunday at Greg Denyshenko's (sp?) house. One of the guys, Carl, was a bit of a hard-ass ("Can't take that move back" kind of guy), which took a little of the fun away. But it was fun overall, and Jeff Burdett won a Turn 2 victory via VPs, after taking Greece. Funny thing was, we all had a chance to win that turn -- the other 3 of us via Legitimacy, as Alexander's body was racing to Pella for burial, and getting battled over. Overall, a good time, though I'll know in the future to get it straight, up front, that in friendly games we don't act like hard-asses. It ain't a chess tourney. I really do like Successors, and am about to get in a pbem game of it. Mark Simonitch and John Firer did a good job in making this a fun game.

I picked up Clash of Monarchs and Pursuit of Glory in GMT's P500 Customer Appreciation Sale. I'm looking at the CoM rules, and I'm pretty sure the game isn't for me. Too damn fiddly and procedural. I'm hoping PuoG will be more for my tastes, even though the rulebook is way too long. Damn, people, what's with all this needless complexity we're getting into games today? Feh...

Time for me to really buckle down and actually design the kind of games I want. I have a nice little euro rattling around, and some real good ideas for a card-driven game, though I have no stomach for doing all the OOB research. I need a research assistant for that... One of these days...

In the sporting world, the Buffalo Sabres are still playing real good hockey. I love watching the Sabres, but I'm not an NHL fan (if the Sabres aren't playing, I don't watch the game). I think this is a big problem for the NHL (at least in the U.S.), as folks like to follow "their" teams, but don't really care about the rest of the league. It'll be interesting to see where this takes the NHL, down the road -- especially because it's getting so freakin' expensive to go to games. I'm going to the Buffalo/Toronto game on December 12th, and 2 tickets cost $300. Man...

70F forecast today, global warming is back, after disappearing this last year, LOL!

News...

Well, it doesn't look like Cheyenne has a bone problem (including cancer), so that's good.

But she has a big, hard cyst building up on her skull. We're waiting to hear (mid next week) if there's a blood clotting problem, which would certainly complicate things.

Assuming her clotting is normal, we need to hop the cyst goes away by itself, or else an operation will be necessary, for it continues to exert pressure on the skull.

We're still hopeful things will work out without having to put her under the knife.

Thanks for listening -- she's my girl, I love her, and I need her to be well. She's young (2 1/2 years), happy, and otherwise healthy. I want her to be around with me a long time...