Millennium Game Day, No Car...

Yesterday was our monthly meet at Millennium, and our 8th anniversary of the club's founding -- something I started when I moved back to Rochester from the DC area. Bill Peeck and Steve Cuyler mostly run things now, and they got sub platters, pop (soda for the rest of y'all!), and a cake (believe Jack Morrell did this) to celebrate. Most people gave Bill 5-10 dollars for his efforts (and he paid Steve and Jack), though some slackers didn't contribute. Bill was too nice to demand payment for food, but I was ready to call several folks out who wolfed down "free" food (one woman had 2 sub sections, 2 pieces of cake, and a plateful of chips, yet didn't pay...), but Bill told me not to. Oh well, just geeks being losers...

Anyway, I played 2 games of Traders of Carthage, and 1 each of Alhambra, Pacific Typhoon, and Iwo Jima. We had intended to play Kutuzov, but only Jeff Burdett knew the rules, so we decided to push this back until we all knew.

I had fun, and I especially like Iwo Jima's mechanics, though I'm thinking the Japanese almost can't win. I posted the following on CSW, and will be interested to see what the answers are:

Come on, this is a fun little game, and with all the clamor and whining about the handling of the Operations issue it was in, I'd suspect 100s of folks, at least, would have been playing by now. Well, you should be!

Anyway, played again yesterday. My Japanese held on well, and jumped off to a big lead (23-2 at one point), but then the inevitable "wearing down" began, and the final score after Turn 8 was Marines 46, Japanese 25.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get the Japanese to win...

Some observations on why it's so hard for them:

1. The cave/safe to land/beachhead reduction. While Adam's clarification that 1 hit (not 1 damage number) makes it easier for the Japanese to get rid of "safe to land" markers (for a couple turns, anyway), it also makes it easier for the U.S. player to go "cave hunting." Send a plane (or target an artillery) to each area you want to expose/destroy a cave, and odds say you'll get at least 1 hit on 4 dice, destroying a cave. In two turns, all caves in the area are collapsed -- bad news for the Japanese!

***My opponent and I discussed how a nice balancing factor (especially given the confusion I had with this in the initial rules) might be to let the Japanese remove beachheads/safe to lands with just 1 HIT will the U.S. would need to inflict 1 DAMAGE FACTOR to remove a cave***

Thoughts?

2. U.S. Tanks are almost impossible to stop. The only way is to get them with anti-tank defensive fire -- after that, they're pretty much invulnerable. The tanks really only need be concerned with the 4 airfield areas, so infantry can go in first and find out where the anti-tank units are. Once these are no longer a worry, the tanks can pretty much act without regard to their safety, as it takes a Herculean effort for the Japanese to inflict even one hit on 2 or 3 tanks stacked together.

3. U.S. bombardment is the game winner -- the infantry can take 30-35 step losses, if need be, in order to expose the areas the U.S. needs to bombard. Find an area with juicy targets, roll 20+ dice, and the Japanese no longer have a "happy area!" When artillery exposes itself to fire (as it needs to do vs. airfields/beachheads), boom, instant target!

4. The game is a grind, and there just don't seem to be enough Japanese steps to hang on for 9 turns, especially with the "easy" cave reduction. By turn 6 or 7, things get critical for the Japanese, and this gives the U.S.3 turns (at least) of 10 VPs for all 4 airfields.

I imagine the Japanese could win early, by rolling really well and crushing the initial invasion, but once things get going, I'll be damned if I know how to stop them. I think the rue change we talked about above might help, and I'll try it the next time I get to play. This is a real "neat" little game, and I just want to see folks playing and enjoying it, as well as seeing the Japanese winning.

Thoughts?

Right now, I'd bid 10-15 VPs for the Marines -- way too much for balance in a game where 40 VPs wins. Hope to get some "official" help...

Wish me luck getting my vehicle tomorrow (Monday). If I can't, it'll be there all week, as Deanna has school training Tuesday-Thursday, so she can't take me. Any of you want to drive me down? ;-)

WBC, Day 5...

First off, after coffee (of course!) was the semi-finals of Santa Fe Rails. I was seated at a table with Kevin W. from Buffalo, Laurel Stokes (the wife of the "no table talk" guy), and Andy Lewis. A tough bunch, it would seem! Kevin, and I jumped out as the early leaders, but neither of us could stop the game early, as Andy Lewis kept buying branch lines. By drawing a lot of "7" cards, Laurel pulled up with the leaders. We laid a lot of track, and most cities were connected -- something that doesn't often happen at a table with 4 experienced SFR players. I drew both Bismarcks, and there were already 2 tracks heading there, with another track coming back east from Spokane. I didn't play "white" quickly enough, and the track never made it, "cheating" me out of 10 points. I also should have convinced Laurel to take the blue track through Salt Lake to Las Vegas, instead of Sacramento -- she and I owned Las Vegas, and there was NO way I was letting it go to Sacramento, which she and Andy owned. So, my 2 errors cost me 16 points in the end. As it was, after a recount, Kevin had 155, Laurel had 152, I had 144, and Andy had 120. I'm glad Kevin won (if I couldn't!), and Kevin went on to win the finals -- meaning Western New York guys have won this tourney 3 out of the 6 years it's been going!

I walked around for a while and checked out the open gaming tent that had been set up. 3 guys were learning Traders of Carthage, including Steve (?), one of Ron Wuerth's friends, and a fun guy to game with. Not to mention Steve has the rules to about 1,000 games in his head! I was invited to join them, so I did. The game was fun, as you picked up 4 different commodities and tried to deliver them to Carthage, avoiding pirates. Actually, the game play for this card-game was pretty deep. It took me a few turns to figure out what best to do, and in the end I finished 2nd with the scores at 14-13-10-8.

Off to the last Pacific Typhoon heat -- if I don't win this one, no advancing for me, a former champion, 3 years in a row. Well, guess what? 39 points won the game. I had 11. Grrr... Maybe I have to practice more. Wait, I practice all the time...

Hanging my head in shame, I ambled off to the Alhambra semi-finals. I felt like I had a decent shot here to advance, since, for some reason, Alhambra has always been a game I've done well in, luck factor and all. The semis were a 5-player affair, and Nate Hoam of the Cabbies jumped out to an early (~4 or 5 point) lead. After the 2nd scoring round, it was obvious that it was a 2-man game between Nate and me. A white tower for 13 came up, and I had the exact amount -- that would put me into the tower lead and, most likely, win the game for me. Nate was sitting to my right, and he bought it out from under me, preventing my lead in towers! Excellent move on his part, as this proved to be the swing that gave Nate the win, 92-84. An excellent game that went right down to the wire. Oh yeah, another 2nd...

Of course, after that disappointment, I went back out to the open gaming tent and ran into a bunch of Western NY guys. We decided to play, wait for it, Alhambra! LOL! I should have said no, but I wanted to do something. I ended up in, guess what place? 2nd, that's right. The scores were: Grant-92, Rob-86, Bob Titran-72, Bill O'Neal-63, Dave W.-51, Bill Place-46. Another Alhambra game, another 2nd to a guy that scored 92...

I stayed out in the tent and started reading the rules to Iwo Jima: Rage Against the Marines, the game in the special issue of Operations Magazine. Several people came by to chat about it, and Jim Winslow asked if I'd like to try a game. We went for it, muddling our way through the rules, with me taking the Japanese and Jim taking the Marines. By the time the game ended, we had the rules down, and we both saw the mistakes we had made. Jim won (2nd for me again!), and I really want to try this one again, soon.

As I was packing up the game, Bob Wicks and a friend came by asking if I'd like to play Race for the Galaxy. As I love this game, but couldn't enter any heats (conflicts), I readily agreed. They grabbed a fourth, and we were off. Now, I'm not one to whine about my luck, but this was ridiculous -- I didn't see a resource producing planet for the first FIVE hands, sticking me squarely behind the 8-ball. So, I played a development heavy game, and though I finished 4th, my 23 points was only 6 behind the winner's 29. At least it wasn't another 2nd, LOL!

11:00 PM saw me headed back to Ballroom B for Liar's Dice. I sat at a table with Forrest Speck and his son John. 6 of us "lied" it out, and soon enough the only 3 left were Forrest, John, and me. Soon I got booted, and Forrest had a 3 dice to 1 advantage over his son -- but John played great, and ended up winning. A fun game that plays better when the alcohol levels rise. OK, maybe I should be happy with 2nds, as I seem to be slipping...

Late at night. Much beer consumed. Another "friendly" game of Pacific Typhoon begins... 6 of us fight it out. The final scores are 35-25-23-18-15-11. I had 18. Steve Cuyler wins, but whines through the whole game, something negatively commented on by the other players. Steve is an excellent player, but the constant complaining about his cards has gotten real old. Stopped being fun about 1/2 way through, though, mercifully, the game was reasonably quick -- I just wanted to head to bed. It was too late for this...