We decided to play another game, and Robin picked Scenario 22 from CC:Med, the Scots vs. the Germans I had played the other day against Marty. Not wanting to play the same side in a scenario twice, I picked the Germans, hoping for a better fate. Well, guess what? Lady Luck continued to smile on me, helping me roll high for my attacks while denying Robin the "Recover" orders he needed. I was able to break several Scottish squads on my left flank, where I had set up my trench line. My HMG position was eventually diluted via all the smoke Robin's mortar crew was laying down, but they had already done their damage. A last valiant attempt by the Scots to run up the German line fell a little bit short, and the Germans held the field as night fell with a 37 point victory. I figured that would be my last CC game of NBW, though who knows...
I soon got into another Dominion game with Bill Peeck, Pete Lipson, and Chris Taylor. I was able to pull ahead with a lot of treasure, getting the victory at 33-26-25-15. Have I mentioned how much fun this game is?
Next up was a Pacific Typhoon game in the "shark pool." It was me, Marty, Robin, Jeromey, Jeff H., and "The Kid." This was the game at its finest, as everyone ensured that we'd "screw the leader" each turn. We did have a disagreement about the placement of "Gremlins" while "Fog" was in play, and it turns out I was wrong -- no gloating, Jeff! Anyway, when the waves settled and Japan was nuked, the scores were: 29-29-28-26-20-11. Wow! That was a close one. I had 28, while Marty won the tiebreaker over Robin, having won more battle points. A great game, all around.
After a late lunch/early dinner, I headed back to the hotel and Marc G. and I finally hooked up for a game! We had talked online about playing Warriors of God, so we decided to do it. I offered Marc his choice of sides, and being of good French heritage he chose...the English! (He later informed me that his background also included Irish, so it all began to make sense!) We played the 100 Years War scenario -- I had played the game many times, this was Marc's first go-round. Marc got off well early on, and had English VPs up to 15 (30 is an auto victory) 3 turns into the game. Then he was hit with a nasty "die off" of most of his leaders, and this gave me the opening I needed to crawl back into the game. By Turn 6 or 7, we were hovering around 0 VPs, but my board position was good. I was able to consolidate large tracts of land the next 2 turns -- including when Joan of Arc (or is that Jeanne d'Arc?) won a big battle for me in Normandy. We ended after Turn 9, as the French were up over 20 VPs. It was a very fun game, and, as always, it's the friends one meets in this hobby that makes it so much fun, not the winning or losing. I am sincerely happy that Marc and I finally got to play a game!
JoanEnding the night was a game of Dominion with Robin, Don, and Michael. I didn't write down the score (I had 0, Don and Michael were both in negatives, and Robin had >10), but Robin won handily, brutally cursing us with his witches, over and over again. Lesson learned -- when there's a witch in the game, get in on that action ASAP!!! Off to bed, then homeward bound tomorrow. The saddest time of NBW, the ending...
6 comments:
It's always nice to put a face to those CSW 'names' that we see so often. ;-)
It definitely is. :-)
One of these days I'll actually win a game of Pacific Typhoon or Atlantic Storm! Came close enough in two games this time....I just don't have the hang of maximizing results in those games....
Rob is being far too kind in the CC AARs...he handed my head to me twice. One thing playing Rob in CC: he doesn't miss an opportunity -- if there's a hidden wire card, any action that can have even a small impact, he plays it at just the right time....means you have to be close to perfect to have a chance. There was no luck in the wins in those games, it was Rob's good play that did it.
I learned a great lesson from the second game: if you need to lay down smoke, don't be tempted to take other shots with your machine guns, just lay down the damned smoke. There'll be time and opportunity to do harm later, so long as you get your smoke down fast enough to keep your troops alive. I'll be remembering that one, but I think it'll be some time before I can manage the cards in CC as well as you do Rob.
That was a fun Dominion game (at least for me!): what did the real damage was the combination of Witch and Throne Room: being able to lay down double curse whammies on everyone was brutal. One of the things I watch for in Dominion is that certain card sets are *guaranteed* to produce extremely low VP scores, with no (or very few) 6 VP cards being bought. This was one of those sets. My final score was only 9, but to be above zero given the Witch, other attack cards, no moat and Throne Room was about all you could hope for.....
Robin
That Toaster Guenette has Irish in him somewhere? Man, we have closer heritage than you can tell by the names. If he says some relative of his is Swedish, I'm declaring him my Twin Brother!
Rob - the reports are great. I'm positive that I would have had a fantastic time there. Sounds perfect.
Combat Commander is one of those games where things can turn quickly. In my first game against Robin, I thought I was toast early on, but a few quick time changes and good events, and things turned around. Robin is an excellent player, and I feel fortunate that I was able to pull some of these games out. On the other hand, I even enjoy CC when I don't win, so the fun is definitely in the playing!
The thing I love about CC is that even when you're getting absolutely pasted, you're laughing and joking through all the mounting losses and destruction....
Robin
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