A move, a return, a restart, and a resumption

Recently, the staff and adjutants at Gaming with Chuck HQ have undergone a move.  This is a return, in a way, back home.

Five years ago, upon completing my PhD, I went off into the world as a new professor, and after teaching for a few years, and serving as a research professor for a few years, Providence has brought us full circle, and we are now returning back to Newport News.

I will be teaching at a local university, and my daughter will be attending my alma mater, Christopher Newport University.  And, I have fallen back into step with my old wargaming club.  There is also talk of regular game days at GwC HQ, and also (gasp) rumors of regular roleplaying.  Where will all the time come from?  Still it is good to be coming home.

Soldier from the wars returning,

Spoiler of the taken town,

Here is ease that asks not earning;

Turn you in and sit you down.

Peace is come and wars are over,

Welcome you and welcome all,

While the charger crops the clover

And his bridle hangs in stall.

Now no more of winters biting,

Filth in trench from tall to spring,

Summers full of sweat and fighting

For the Kesar or the King.

Rest you, charger, rust you, bridle;

Kings and kesars, keep your pay;

Soldier, sit you down and idle

At the inn of night for aye.

      - A.E. Housman, 1922

I mentioned that I have fallen in with the old wargaming club, Old Dominion Military Society, which is now actively gaming again on a weekly basis.  Our summer convention (Guns of August) is being hosted at the Virginia War Museum.  We have plans underway for the new winter convention (Williamsburg Muster), returning to its regular February timeslot.  The local club is also talking about monthly game days (game nights?) where we rent out or acquire access to a large venue, for some big, serious, miniatures gaming.  Maybe at the Museum?  Maybe at a local community hall?  Still working the details.

Miniature gaming, so far, has been of the Thursday night variety.  Which means, typically, smallish games.  Some ODMS members have hosted great things - (The Rules with No Name, FrostGrave, Wings of Glory, DBA, etc etc), and this week we have some Ancients happening, and next week we have some Napoleonics happening.  All very good.

Boardgaming has been quite fun, and with our new game room (the den, or family room, in our new house is dedicated as a game room, with storage for all our board games, and a nice game table, some chairs, a couch, and a computer desk), we have been playing on a regular basis, as a family, and with some guests.   During the move, the inventory and packing/unpacking experience showed us that we have a lot of games that we really like, but haven't played in a while.  And some that we have never played.  To address those issues, we made a list of "games we have not played lately, but want to" and will be using that to schedule Wednesday night family game night. Several recent games of Fantastiqa have been quite fun, and looking forward to some Terra Mystica and maybe some Archon and/or Tempus.

Roleplaying has been discussed, especially with our return to the old stomping grounds, and so many of the players we love playing with from years ago.  There is talk of "getting the band back together" with some of the our old regulars, in an old fashioned roleplaying game (either fantasy, or maybe sci-fi).  Nothing yet, but details will appear in this fine publication.

Planned upcoming game activities -

Guns of August is going to be in a public place - so it will be a little bit different.  I am treating this as a recruiting and/or community outreach opportunity for both wargaming in general, and for the game club (ODMS).  I will be hosting four (introductory level) wargames, and am in the process of preparing handouts for each, to introduce some history, wargaming, and the rules being used.

1. Introduction to Medieval Wargames - very similar to the games I hosted at Guns of August 2016, with two games going on at once (maybe, Vikings/Saxons, and Crusaders/Saracens).  I'll be using the Neil Thomas introductory rules, and am working on a handout for this game.

2. Wargaming the Revolutionary War - I will probably use a smaller version of the scenario I ran at Thanksgiving 2015, which was a fictional Southern Campaign battle, set in South Carolina 1780.  I won't be using Black Powder for this, because I want it completely friendly to newcomers and kids.  Either some homebrew rules (Patriot's Blood) or Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules adapted for the purpose.

3. Introduction to Renaissance Wargaming - This one will be a lot like the first one, with two battles (four armies), and using the Neil Thomas rules.  One of the battles will most likely be French/Imperialist vs. Italians.  The other might be English Civil War.  Again, similar to the solo Renaissance game I did back in 2016.  The main feather here is the history of the period, and trying to get people interested, so I am working on a nice handout.

4. Introduction to Medieval Wargaming - This one is a conundrum for me.  I have a couple of ideas.  The first is to do the same thing I plan for number 1 above, but maybe with different armies.  The second is to do a 28mm scale game using Lion Rampant, to show what medieval games are like, at that weird mix between skirmish and full army battles (such as LR, but also Saga and some others).  The third idea is to use the Chainmail rules such as my recent games supporting the Lord of the Manor project, and use the handout session to show the connection between miniatures games and the later roleplaying game revolution.  Still deciding this one.

Lots more coming up, including finishing some of the projects here (dark ages wargaming, retro reviews, etc).  Watch this space.

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Medieval Periods - Middle Dark Ages (6th and 7th centuries)

Following on my first article about wargaming in the various sub periods of the Medieval Age, I would like to address what I am here referring to as the middle Dark Ages.  For me, this is roughly the 6th and 7th centuries, so definitely in a Post (Western) Roman setting, but one where the rise of new entities and the rise of Byzantium provide rich war gaming possibilities. As with the first article, I remain focused on Europe.

As far as I know, there is no common reference to this period, at least as a period distinct from either the earlier dark ages, or the later dark ages.  If anything, the earlier dark ages, and this period (I am thinking of approximately the 6th and 7th centuries) are part of what is usually referred to as Late Antiquity, although that really stretches back further than I wanted to (Late Antiquity is usually 300-700 AD).

But here I am talking about the 6th and 7th centuries.  In the early period (5th century, into the Age of Arthur.  To me that is the interesting activity going on in that period (from a European perspective) for wargaming.  In this period, there are really three things going on that provide for good wargaming.  As I see them these are:
beginning of the 6th), I covered the

1. Consolidation of the Barbarian/Germanic Kingdoms
2. Muslim Conquest (starting in the 7th century, but lasting into the 8th)
3. Byzantium Ascendency, starting with Justinian in the 6th century 

As with the other Medieval periods, although infantry is still a very common component of armies of this period, the strength of cavalry is one of the hallmarks of many Medieval military systems (at least for me). That was the reason why I thought of the Romano-British as an example of a very early Medieval army (even though, it is extremely Roman, and infantry heavy, in flavor).

So, from a wargaming perspective (although just the history of this period, leaving aside gaming for an instant, is itself completely fascinating) here is what I see for the three periods.  I think I might list things like miniatures rules, board games, and army lists for each in separate posts.

Barbarian Kingdoms

These are large groups of (mostly) Germanic people's, or confederacies of people's, that were occupying lands in or on the border of the (former) Western Roman territories. They either had been invited to settle and become feoderates by the Romans, or else migrated in on their own, or (as in the case of Theoderic) would be contracted to come in by the Eastern Emperors. Because there are lots of clashes, both with remnants of the Western empire, and with other barbarian kingdoms, there is a lot of wargaming potential here.  Some of the people's I am thinking of (although there are many, many others):

• Ostrogoths - the Eastern Goths, mostly in and around Italy
• Visigoths - the Western (or Bright) Goths, mostly in and around the Iberian lands, filling the space previously occupied by Vandals and Suevi
• Franks - Extremely successful on both sides of the Danube, and against other tribes/confederacies, this period includes the Merovingians.
• Saxons - As in the earlier period, this may also include related peoples such as the Jutes and Angles, both in Britain (which is now becoming, finally, Angle-land, or England) and back in Europe.  On the British Isles, the series of struggling Kingdoms form the Heptarchy, although rarely is it exactly seven kingdoms.
• And non-Germanics from the East - Alans, Avars, Huns, etc. 

There are a lot of miniature wargaming possibilities here, but also some board gaming titles as well.  Right away, I am reminded of Barbarian, Kingdom and Empire, as well as Catan: Struggle for Rome (a great game, but maybe not a wargame?).  Possibly Rise and Fall  but possibly not (and it is very similar to the already mentioned BKE).  A game I used to play quite a bit is the area control game, Attila.

Muslim Conquest

Starting in the early part of the seventh century, the armies of the Prophet and his successors provide a history that is ripe with opportunities for Wargamers who want to recreate the battles of this period.  This is divided up into an early expansion period, starting with the battle of Bedr, in 624 (two years after the flight of the Prophet to Medina) and ending in 661 when Muawiya Uthman had the Prophet's son in law (Ali) killed in the civil war for succession.  Muawiya then formed the first Caliphate.  

The armies of Islam, with roots in a popular religious undertaking, necessarily had a lot of simple (but effective) foot elements, but also (and increasingly as time went on) both a professional infantry core and large amounts of mounted troops developed.  The Arab cavalry favored the Lance, although there are some Persian elements that use the bow.  This is, tactically, a very interesting army.

It clashed, of course, with many of the other armies described in this article, so a Wargamer seeking to develop a collection for this period, would have a lot of scenario possibilities if he were to include the elements that make up this army. A very useful collection of essential troops, that would serve for representing this army over many centuries, would be a decent sized collection of Arab spear, Arab archers, and Lance armed Arab horse. As the conquest settles into an imperial mode in the later part of this period (starting with the establishment of the caliphate) other troops can be added in, representing absorbed people's. This includes horse archers among other things, and even extends to elephants.

One of the more interesting enemies of the Arab Conquest, of course, is the Sassanid Persians.  This fantastic army will be described in a later article on the Arab Conquest.

Board wargames about this period are rare, and I am only aware of a few. There was a Canadian Papercut games.  More recently, there was, in Freng from Griffon Games, a good looking design called Au Nom d'ALLAH that covers the expansion period from 632-732 AD.  Finally, and this is the one most accessible I think (from the preview material), is the title Apocalypse in the East  from Against the Odds magazine, to be published in 2017. It is about the ten year struggle between the first Caliphate and the Byzantines. Victory Point Games is working up an excellent solitaire, called The First Jihad which should be published soon.
Simulations game back in the early 1980s called Jihad, but I don't think it has a following any longer. More recently, three titles come to mind. There was a game in 2007 called Caliphate, that was never quite finished, but is available as a free print and play download from 

Byzantium

As the surviving successor to Rome, the empire in the east begins this period with an army very much in the tradition of the old Legion system of the Western army.  However, starting under Justinian, and coming full circle under Maurice, the army transforms into something different - the Byzantine army, which is very much more reliant on cavalry.  This will last throughout the period covered by this article, but will eventually give way to the feudal Thematic system (still cavalry dominant, but structured and supplied very differently).

A nice overview and description of the army under Maurice (the Maurikian Byzantine Army) is provided on this DBA page - it talks about DBA army elements for this army, but also gives a nice short history about the various components.  Some very interesting fighting by the Byzantines, in this period, takes place in the Balkan peninsula, as well as else where, and against some of the other armies described in this article.  Other enemies for the Byzantines exist as well.

Options for boardgame Wargamers might include a number of titles, such as Justinian from GMT or Byzantium from Martin Wallace. There are some other traditional wargames that touch on Byzantine warfare, but I'll mention them in a later article, as they cover later Byzantine history.  In addition to board wargames, there are even a number of other strategy games in this theme, that may or may not warrant the name "wargame".  Some examples might be Justinian from Mayfair (a Byzantine politics game) or Constantinopolis (Trade in Byzantium in the 7th century).

That is my start for this topic, but I think I will develop some information about army lists, and tactics, and possible scenarios/campaigns for each of these separately.  Each of these three focus areas has lots of great personalities, will have strong links to the previous and the succeeding historical periods (and armies), and present loads of interesting wargaming possibilities.

Note: Since writing this article, I started on a series of articles talking about wargaming the Barbarian Kingdoms.  Here they are, so far:
Ostrogoths
Visigoths

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The Thanksgiving That Was

Thanksgiving was celebrated with great joy and thankfulness at GwCHQ (i.e. - our family home).  We had plenty of feasting, and a good friend spent the weekend with us (rather than at home, alone) and we had a parcel of other friends join us on Saturday for a game day.  There was supposed to be (perhaps) an RPG session - never happened.  There was supposed to be some miniatures gaming (Frostgrave, Chainmail, and maybe Lion Rampant) - also never happened.  Did that pose a problem?  No, we had a great time anyway!

The guy in the hat kept asking about King of Tokyo

We played a number of board games over the weekend (standard fare - Dominion, Catan, Lanterns, Ticket to Ride, etc), and we played a bunch of Legends of Andor.  Fun game, and it really scratched that "we would like to play an RPG but can't get the whole band together" sort of desire to go adventuring, fight monsters, and complete quests.  I don't know what the German version of the game is like (published by Kosmos), but the version we have (the Fantasy Flight English version from 2012) was fantastic.  One of the best things about the game was that artist Michael Menzel (who paints really stunning maps and images used in a lot of boardgames) was also the game designer.

Board showing the above ground map of Andor (reverse shows below ground)

The basic mechanic is one of using time slices to perform tasks (usually movement and combat against monsters).  This is very similar to the mechanic used in a lot of other games, but immediately Tinner's Trail and (to a lesser extent) Thebes spring to mind.  Also, the many Kramer boardgames that use action points to limit your moves.  But in the other examples, and in Legends of Andor, everyone is doing their actions interspersed, instead of the whole pool of action points all at one time.  Very clever, really gives a feel for doing your actions during a day of adventuring, and it makes the game flow well, and introduce some nice decision making for the players.

To end this recap on gaming over Thanksgiving, I thought I would share a few other game boards that were painted by the talented Mr. Menzel.  Below are boards for Pillars of the Earth, Stone Age, and Castle for all Seasons.  Other than each of them being stunningly beautiful abstract landscapes (showing the country side, and other features important for the game, but illustrating scenes of local activity and inhabitants, albeit out of scale to the countryside), are all also very informative and intuitive in indicating play areas, and active spots, on the board/map.

Pillars of the Earth

 

Stone Age

A Castle for All Seasons

So it was a lovely Thanksgiving - with Family, Feasting, Friends, and a bit of Faith.  The year has been very good to us, and we had a great time forgetting about our toils and jobs and school and cares for a while, and enjoying each others company over a gaming table (also, plenty of pie and coffee helped).  Now, on to Christmas!

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Casual Game Day - March 12

We had some good friends visit this weekend, and decided to have a board game day.  Mostly we played casual games, and had some good conversations.

Started out with "the cow game" - that is, our nickname for the German card game 6 Nimmt!  If this game has a theme (and it really doesn't) it is the great cartoony art of the cow's heads on the cards.  It is the one time when at our house, multiple people will be talking about hornochsen and trying not to curse their bad luck!

This was followed up by another lightweight, the dice game that we always reach for as filler, whether with gamers or non gamers alike.  Zombie Dice!  This brilliant, but again simple, little dice game from Steve Jackson Games is much more fun than it should be.  And it always allows us to compare various levels of luckiness, and decry the ever-present factor of "kid dice" - that strange luck that accrues to the youngest gamer at the table in a dice game.

If there is a game that is less in need of expansion, or of dressing up with accessories, it is Zombie Dice.  And yet . . . we have both expansions (ZD:2 and ZD:3), but never play with them (well, we did when they first came out, but gentle readers - they are not favorites here at Gaming with Chuck HQ).  And the game does not need to be dressed up.  But I have been thinking of getting some brains for scoring.  Typically we will use a score pad, but the plastic Bag O'Brains option is pretty nice, as are some of the rubber brain pencil erasers.  Perhaps.

We followed up Zombie Dice with The Resistance.  A good game, pairing logic and deduction, with suspicion and hidden roles.  Fun, and of course, the Spy players were quite secretive and kept their cool until the end, when they finally persevered.  One of the few times I've seen the Spy players win, without taking the first round.  But we had a lot of new players on both sides.

Okay, so with a house full of experienced gamers (and two new comers), and a game collection with hundreds and hundreds of titles in it, why did we pick these three?  Simple - we had 7 players, and wanted to do something lightweight.  They were perfect for the mood and the number of players.  Sure, we like 7 Wonders, and have been wanting to try Between Two Cities, with a full table - but that wasn't the mood.  There was brief mention of Caverna, and also Formula D, but we decided to stick with the light stuff.


After The Resistance, we lost two players, and then with five there was a request for Ticket to Ride.  So we got out our 10th anniversary board, set it up, and proceeded to teach two new players how to play.  They left the game convinced that they had to get TtR and also check out some of these other games that we play.  Success.

We broke for dinner, and after dinner, a different subset of the group played Apples to Apples.  A much better, and much less offensive version of the game than that other one (which I won't name, but which actively engages players to lose their humanity).  They had a ton of fun (I did not partake in AtA).

 Were there other games we wanted to play?  Yes, definitely.  Some of the people who visited have been part of various D&D games we have played over the past few years (and one of them, I have played RPGs with since the late 1980s).  But not this time.  We have planned to play next time we get together.

The other thing we talked about playing was a miniatures game.  Several of us have been quite taken in by Frostgrave (from Osprey Games).  A very fun game.  But again, while we compared our recently painted figures (wizards and hirelings) we did not play this time.  Clearly another game day is needed, real soon.

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Diplomacy . . .

Ahh, Diplomacy.  I love it and I hate it.  It is a great game, elegant in its design, and really educational in what it shows about pre-WW1 Europe.

But, as any aficionado knows, you will have a hard time winning unless you lie.  And you may have to lie to all of the other players in the game, at least once each.  This, as they say, may cause some hurt feelings.  Especially among casual friends.  So, I have a rule with Diplomacy, either only play with complete strangers, or play with people who will shrug off the necessary bad behavior of the game.

Having said that - I came across a picture I had of a Diplomacy game that I hosted a number of years back, while working at a University research center (not the one I am at now).  It was a great game, for the few (game) years that it lasted.  Eventually people lost interest and stopped turning in orders, but it was good while it lasted . . .

If I recall, I was playing Russia in that game. Oh, those pesky Turks...

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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

So, the most excellent new gaming magazine from Flying Pig Games has recently come out with issue number 3.  The magazine is Yaah!, and it covers all manner of board games - many historical, but also science fiction and fantasy.

I will leave it to the readers of the blog to discover the goodness of the magazine (if you haven't, please do yourself a favor and purchase a copy - full color, excellent articles, and a game in every issue).  But I will toot my own horn by saying that in issue three I have had an article (actually two, but they are connected, as you will see) published. 

Yep - that X-Wing/IA mini-campaign mentioned on the cover is Me!

The first article is a mini-campaign for the Star Wars X-Wing miniatures game (from Fantasy Flight games).  The mini-campaign is actually fought as one battle, but as they resolve it, the players are also rolling dice to see how two concurrent battles are turning out.  If one side or the other wins one of those other battles, then they have the possibility of sending reinforcements to the main battle.  It is an interesting scenario, and one I borrowed from "Hey You in the Jail" (miniature rules by Martin Goddard, from Peter Pig).  The Star Wars article in Yaah! magazine, introduces some interesting features that will make it useful for other X-Wing mini-campaigns, other than the one presented in the article.

Now, I mention that I also had a second (but related) article, and that one is a Star Wars Imperial Assault mini campaign (a series of linked scenarios like the campaign that comes in the booklet with the main game).  This time it is related to the results of the X-Wing game (or you can play it alone).  It has to do with a small group of rebel commandos trying to capture a space station (that their starfighter squadron recently secured, or hopefully so, in the X-Wing scenario).  The starting conditions are necessarily different if the Imperial Forces won the X-Wing scenario, but internally many of the scenarios are similar.  Again, some unique stuff that is pertinent to this mini-campaign is presented as part of the article, I hope you get a chance to read it.

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Recent Gaming News

I have been doing a lot of travel for work lately, so haven't been able to game too much.  Some things to report, however.

First, Gaming with Chuck headquarters (GwCHQ) is due to relocate just after the middle of the month of July.  We will be decamping from Mossflower, our current location, to larger quarters at Bag End.  Early scouting reports have come back with this photo of the lane climbing up to the new quarters . . .

Approximate map of Andrew Chapel Road, leading to Bag End

Second, there has been a pair of acquisitions in the area of Miniatures for miniature wargaming.  The first of these is a collection of French and Indian War figures, in 15mm, from the Carl Scisio estate sale.  Carl was a member of ODMS, and had recently passed away.  There is a memorial page for him at the Guns of August 2015 website, and there is planned to be a large estate sell off of his (not small) miniatures collection at both Historicon 2015 and GoA 2015.  Prior to that, club members were able to make some donations to the family estate, through purchase of some miniatures.  I selected French & Indian War, which include a number of formed British and French units, and plenty of irregulars.  I plan to run some convention games over the next year, featuring the attack of, or defense of, Fort Carlhouse, and the Springdale settlements, in the forests between the Seneca and Shawnee in Pennsylvania.

Fierce fighting at Fort Carlhouse

The second miniatures acquisition has been the acquisition of a large (over 1000 pieces) collection of Mexican War (1846-1848) miniatures, in 15mm.  Recent sorting and rules reviews have been taking place, but a decent sized Mexican-American War Table Top Exercise (TTX) - meaning a wargame with map based planning, campaign work, and finally tabletop battle execution - is planned for the first serious wargame to take place at the new Bag End location of GwCHQ. 

Mexican American War gaming should be pretty exciting!

Third, several recent Boardgame purchases and acquisitions have taken place, more on that later, but recent board game plays have included some light fare such as Trekking the National Parks, and Dungeon Roll.  Just this evening, however, a game of Vikings took place at GwC, amidst the general chaos of bugging out the HQ and packing up the household.  Vikings is a great Michael Kiesling design, and plays well with 3 or 4 players.  We had a 3 player game, and I had the fun of introducing it to Anita and Heidi - everyone had a great time, in spite of it being a first for them.  I think I owe them a game of something more familiar (Catan or Carcassonne).

Vikings! (bgg image)

Fourth, some upcoming Science Fiction Roleplaying is imminent.  I have been preparing a Star Wars RPG (the WEG D6 version, using the second edition rulebook) session for an upcoming convention session, and simultaneously John D has been preparing a White Star RPG game, for online play (google Hangouts, most likely).  My Star Wars game will feature a band of adventurers on the YT-1300 light freighter "Tumbling Asteroid".  It is set between the battle of Yavin and the battle of Hoth, but the players are not necessarily part of the Rebellion (yet).  John's game will be set in the Solar System (as opposed to interstellar), and the players will be part of ASTRA - an organization dedicated to fighting pirates and smugglers.  Both sound great (as GM of Star Wars, and as player of White Star).

Tumbling Mermaid is a YT-1300FP - combining passenger and freight options

Fifth, in the upcoming (#3) issue of Yaah! Magazine, I should have a couple of Star Wars articles (one for X-Wing, and one for Imperial Assault).  I recently got to play Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures, with Jack H's excellent Monday night group at World's Best Comics, in Newport News.  I had a truly excellent time!  The articles coming up in Yaah are (1) a mini campaign for the Rebels and Imperials to fight over control of a space station, fighting it out using X-Wing Miniatures.  The second article is a fight (inside) for control of the station, once one side or the other projects space control of the area around the space station.  That second battle (inside the station) is fought using Imperial Assault.  I'm pretty excited about the articles, and have started working on several others, and a boardgame design.  Who knows?

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Board Game session - after RPG session

We had a fun board game night at the Gaming with Chuck secret headquarters location.

Admittedly, this followed a role playing session, which featured the intrepid adventurers in our World of Greyhawk campaign finally escaping the perils of Cannibal Island.  Of course, the means of escape (teleportation from the bowels of an evil castle on the rim of a fiery volcano) led them to a snowy pass in the Lortmil Mountains.  During a blizzard. With dire wolves and yetis closing in.  Oh, and Baba Yaga made an appearance (the first of many, in this campaign).  But they escaped from Cannibal Island.

Back to the board games - half of the group retired after the RPG session, and dinner from a local pizza and subs shop, but the rest of us were in the mood for some light, fun board games.  Here is our play list:
King of Tokyo (I didn't win)
Boss Monster (I didn't win)
Fandooble (I didn't win)
Tsuro (I didn't win)
Fandooble, again (I didn't win)
Web of Power (I didn't win)

There was a theme to those games.  But, of course, winning isn't so very important, especially here at GwC.   And besides, I got to run an RPG that featured octopus-men, yetis, a statue of Kali, and Baba Yaga, all in the same episode.  I really think I won, after all.

As an aside, check out the web site run by the Esoteric order of Gamers, with a list of all the fantastic quick reference sheets they make. Extremely useful.  Boardgame Reference Sheets

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New Train Titles - pt 1

So, a few new games were acquired late last year.  Some of these were discussed in the posting about Thanksgiving gaming, and some were mentioned in the post about the Christmas break gaming.  But, a few of the titles were train related, and as train related gaming is something of a high interest theme here at Gaming with Chuck, it felt right to do a short blog post about it.

First, a word about Train games.  These are not all what purists would call Railroad games.  To some, that includes the 18xx series.  To others, that includes the Martin Wallace masterpieces, Steam, Age of Steam, and the various derivative titles (Railroad Tycoon and Railways of the World).  Still others include railroad themed route building games (which tend to be lighter, such as Ticket to Ride, or TransAmerica).  To some it is the family of crayon based games, such as Empire Builder (and Dampfross, and many others).  It might include railroad theme games such as Russian Railroads.  And strange combinations of these, like Chicago Express.  Finally, to some it even includes games that have mechanics that are typically Railroad game mechanics, but for non-railroad themes like Elfenland, or Poseidon.

To me, all of those are Train games.  It can be a train related mechanic (pick up and deliver, stock manipulation, network building, travel), or it can be theme (Russian Railroads, Express).

So, what were some of the train titles acquired last year here at GwC headquarters?

• Boxcars
• Isle of Trains
• Continental Express
• Paris Connection
• Russian Railroads
• Ticket to Ride 10 Year Anniversary Set
• Trains: Rising Sun
• Yardmaster
• Yardmaster Express

A few words about these . . .

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Boxcars, of course, is the Rio Grande Games re-issue of the Avalon Hill classic, Rail Baron.  But wait!  Rail Baron was a reissue of the game Boxcars.  So we are now back to the original.  Except, it has a new board (the UK) and some adjusted rules.  This is a game of pick up and delivery.  The routes are all developed.  What players can do, other than receiving a constant stream of pickup and delivery points, is to purchase railroads, which are cheaper for them to run on, but more expensive for the competition. The game is a simple race to develop a pile of money ($200K) and then return to home base (starting position).  Very fun, and now made even better because the one tedious part of the game was using the charts to roll up cities for delivery.  This can be done, now, with a very nice App for iPad and iPhone - available for free from iTunes.  What a great thing!

---

Isle of Trains is a great little card game, from the Dice Hate Me games series of 54 card games called the Rabbits.  This was the result of a kickstarter, the ended up with six published titles.  The series includes:

• Diner by designer Matthew O'Malley
• Brew Crafters: The Travel Card Game by Ben Rosset
• Pie Factory by Byan Fischer
• Easy Breezy Travel Agency by J. Alex Kevern
• The Fittest by Graham Russell
• Isle of Trains by Dan Keltner and Seth Jaffee

Yep - Seth Jaffee of Eminent Domain fame is the (co) designer of this great little card game.  The game is one of building your train (using mechanisms familiar to deck builder game players - cars have costs, and you pay that cost with other cards from your hand), and then loading cargo on your own, and others', trains.  Why load on another player's train?  Well, because you are rewarded with special actions - and they make all the difference.  Once you have a train, and some cargo, you can complete contracts - of which there are six, each corresponding to one of the main cities on the Island of Sodor Isle that is the namesake of the game.  We have played this a few times, and the decision making and action planning is great - especially for a small format game.  It takes about an hour to play, and it is an hour well spent.  One of the best things about the game, is that the great card art (by Daniel Guidera and Christopher Kirkman) is fantastic, and very reminiscent of a Little Golden Book (especially The Train to Timbuctoo and The Little Red Caboose).

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Continental Express is also a small format card game. This one is from Asmodee, and is packed in a really nice tin box, similar to another of their titles, The Builders: Middle Ages.  They have several other titles in this same format of small tin box (Noah, Souk, Cardline: Animals, Cardline Dinosaurs, and Cardline: Globetrotter), however The Builders and Continental Express seem to be the most mature of these.  In this game, as in Isle of Trains, you are constructing a train.  However, that is the goal of this one - building the train.  You collect sets of cards, drawn from a pool of available cards each turn, and then turn them in for new cars on your train.  Each new car card has a train line symbol, and there are bonus point categories for those symbols.  Not a bad little game, and set collection is always a good mechanism.  The artwork is gorgeous, although closer to the Ticket to Ride artwork, than it is to other styles.

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More coming on other titles, but this is enough for now. . . .

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Assorted gaming projects and activities - an update

Several things have been going on lately, in the Gaming sphere of life at GwC headquarters.  Here is a rundown...

Cold Wars - I attended Cold Wars last month - it was a touch and go decision up until the last minute, and it wasn't helped by the fact that there was a dreadful blizzard on the day I was supposed to leave.  I left the next day, and still had a great time.
I met up with Chris and a bunch of the folks from Maryland, and further north, who game together at the HMGS shows - I have played with them a bunch in the past, but mostly it was Warhammer Ancients.  Patrick, of course, was there - as were Mike and Gil and some others.
I got to participate, as a viewer/heckler and Referee's assistant (glorified title for flipping a few initiative cards) in some really compelling games of Muskets and Tomahawks from Studio Tomahawk (the fine folks who publish SAGA).  I bought a copy of the rules, and the cards, etc, from Steve at Age of Glory- a great fellow to deal with.

Painting - I have begun collecting some new paints.  I have wanted, for some time, to experiment with using artist acrylics, entirely, for a project - and then assessing what the finished look is like, compared to using gamer paints (like Vallejo or Reaper), or craft paints (like Folk Art or Apple Barrel).  The brand I have selected is Liquitex.  I went with the Basics line, rather than the Heavy Pigment line.  I have used some of the colors from their Heavy Pigment artist line before - notably Titanium White and Cadmium Red (for 19th century Egyptians and British Red Coats, respectively, because I wanted bold bright colors, and I wasn't getting that from the craft paints I was using at the time).  The results for me were excellent, and so I wanted to follow up by purchasing a full palette of colors to use for an upcoming project.  I went ahead and got the 24 color starter set - the additional colors in the 36 color and 48 color sets did not really inspire me too much as being necessary for an experiment in a new medium.  I did wander outside of the Liquitex range for some other colors I will need - notably, I picked a light terracotta color from the Winsor & Newton line, to use as a basis for flesh.  I plan to try this out on a unit or two of Vikings, either for SAGA, or Lionheart, or both.

Boardgames - Many new card games and board games over the past few months, since Christmas, mostly from Kickstarter rewards and a few trades and purchases.  I have begun writing an article about new Train titles at GwC headquarters, and will publish that shortly.  Played a few titles on the week leading up to Tabletop Day, but did not participate in any activities this year (we were on a spring break trip, and returned too late to host a game day, or attend the activities at the local game shop).  Some of the titles played recently included Salmon Run, On the Underground, and Valley of the Kings.  Loads of boardgames on the iPad, but hey - that don't count.

Wargaming - There has been, of late, a resurgence in interest in Wargaming in the Department of Defense, and a number of professional developments for me are underway, where I am participating in wargaming design, the re-purposing of models and simulators for wargaming, and also teaching my Combat Modeling class.  Not really hobby oriented, but hey - steel sharpens steel.

Roleplaying - I have taken up the flung gauntlet from John, in following on his Village of Hommlet game, in the World of Greyhawk.  I have the players investigating the circumstances (which, of course, includes a DUNGEON) around the mysterious deaths of three brothers, who were Knights from Veluna, who came with Prince Thrommel to fight the army of evil at the battle of Emridy Meadows.  The Knights, distracted by the youngest one who fell in love with a Village girl near Nulb, disappeared before the battle of Emridy Meadows took place.  Now, ten years later, the players were traveling through the region, on their way north from Hommlet, and they came across tales and rumors.  The game so far has focused on the upper level of the Dungeon they uncovered in the forest glade where the Brothers were laid to rest - but who killed them?  What happened to the girl?  How come two of the three graves are empty?  The game is going well, although we only play about 1-2 times a month. 

Conventions - I have been helping, and will continue to help with the ODMS conventions in Williamsburg.  Some of the Staff have had medical problems and the remaining crew needs the help.  Also, I plan to attend Fall In next November (I can't wait).  I don't know about Historicon (family travel the week before, and the week after, will leave that weekend pretty tied up), but have been thinking about "The Weekend".  Does that event's name sound like an M Night Shyamalan movie to anyone but me?  Also, planning on attending Congregate in Greensboro NC this summer, working staff for the Con Suite.  Plan to do some heavy gaming while there, as well.

That is all, for now, will report back soon, and hopefully the Train Game article will come around quickly.

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The Twelve Plays of Christmas

Christmas is a wonderful, unique time of the year - centered around the modern interpretation of a Christian Holy festival.  At Gaming with Chuck headquarters, we do many of the things (both religious and non-religious) that others do - we decorate the house, celebrate with family time and food, immerse ourselves in medieval Carols, as well as Victorian and modern songs, and try to spend time with friends, as well as much more family time than the rest of the year. Celebrating the birth of Christ with as much joy as we can muster.

During this time, one of the ways we spend our relaxation time together is (of course) by playing games.  So, once the weeks of the Advent started ticking down, and vacation times started, we started having multiple opportunities for board game sessions.  I wanted to get at least twelve good plays in this year (the "Twelve Plays of Christmas"), and if you count everything (including card fillers, etc) between the Saturday of December 13 (the weekend when vacation time for me started), up through January 1, we had 28 games.

For a list, check out these Board Game Geek stats.

Now, granted, at least 8 of those plays were lightweight filler games, but that still leaves a respectable amount.  I didn't get to play some of the heavier Euros I like to play, and no wargames included, but this was Family time, and Friend time, and we did get in some pretty respectable titles, regardless.

Breaking it down by Title, here is the list (from most plays to least plays):

Shadows over Camelot (3)
Trans Europa (3)
Yardmaster (3)
Guillotine (2)
Power Grid: The First Sparks (2)
Sushi Go! (2)
Ticket to Ride: 10th Anniversary (2)
Carcassonne (1)
Category 5 (1)
Easy Breezy Travel Agency (1)
Flash Point: Fire Rescue (1)
Lords of Waterdeep (1)
Munchkin Adventure Time (1)
Pandemic: The Cure (1)
Salmon Run (1)
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries (1)
Trekking the National Parks (1)
Valley of the Kings (1)

This did not include iPad plays of Ticket to Ride, Agricola, Stone Age, and Lords of Waterdeep (of which there were many, especially of the first two).

Of this list, some of these titles were new.  Here is a brief comment on those that are new to the staff at Gaming with Chuck:

Yardmaster - We got this title recently, benefits of a Kickstarter campaign.  It is a great little card game, with a nice industrial age Train theme, and we like it a lot.  Also came with Yardmaster Express,which we have not tried yet, but also looks good (and even shorter time to play).  Played a three way game with myself and two other competitive card players - it was quite tight and close scoring. Very satisfying.

Power Grid: First Sparks - We have owned this for a few years, but with the move last year, and other things going on, this is one of those titles that has been waiting to be played.  We finally tried it, and we like it.  Compares well with Power Grid - simpler, less complex economy, but much shorter playing time.  A good trade off - makes both very attractive, for different reasons.

Sushi Go! - This one was a Christmas gift for a good friend, and as we all enjoy drafting games, we thought we would like it.  I think we liked it more than our friends did!  Lightweight, but plays in a few short moments, and would be a good "set the mood" game for something deeper.

Easy Breezy Travel Agency - This is the first of the six pack in Dice Hate Me's "54 Card Rabbits" series, that we received recently (again, compliments of a Kickstarter campaign).  This is a really fun little game.  There might be a strategy hidden here, but it seems like it is over too quick for someone to get bent out of shape over not finding it.  Fun, and fast.

Munchkin Adventure Time - We don't care for Munchkin too much at GwC headquarters, however we do love Adventure Time - so this was a good compromise.  The character cards seem to be just right, and the many, many references (some esoteric) to elements of the TV show had us all giggling.  Played with a youngster, a teenager, and several adults - all fans of the show - as well as an older friend who didn't know what it was.  All of us loved it, regardless, and had a great Munchkin game (Editor: is there such a thing?) in the process.

Pandemic: The Cure - The staff at Gaming with Chuck are split on Pandemic.  Actually we are split on cooperative games in general.  Meaning, I like them, and the Mrs does not.  However, given that this (the Pandemic dice game) plays fast, is very interesting, and isn't too terribly cooperative, it was quite fun, and still didn't feel like a bunch of individual solitaire games going on (like, say, the Catan dice game, or some others).

Trekking the National Parks - This one is pretty fun.  It is a draw cards and move game, with the goal of getting Park card by visiting parks on the map, and turning in sets of cards.  Or is it a move around and collect stones to have the largest amount of certain colors?  Or is it a collect post cards, and then turn them into VPs by playing sets of cards?  Any of these three things seem like a reasonable path to victory in this deceptively simple (but fun) game about our national park system.  Very fun - drew many comparisons to Ticket to Ride - I felt like it was of an older Alan Moon vintage - one of his Elfen games.

Valley of the Kings - We have played this one a few times now - during this recent Christmas period, and a few times back around Thanksgiving.  It is a great little deck builder, with some innovative mechanics.  We love it - the theme, the play, the length of time, all of it.  Some really neat ideas for different strategies, but the strongest seems to be concentration on a particular category or two.  Not sure about timing of the collection of scoring cards (unlike Dominion, etc - this one has you removing cards from play in order to have them count as final scoring artifacts).  Is it better to score all throughout, or to get some big stuff at the end?  Will have to play more to experiment.

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Thanksgiving Gaming pt 2

The holiday was fantastic!  Not only a great time of thanks, and fellowship - visiting friends, wonderful meals, relaxation and conversation - but also a great time for some gaming!

Of the original list from Part 1 of this article, three of the games (Pigpen, X-Wing, Age of War) were not played.  But the other three were, along with some other games that we played and tried out.

Trans-America was a lot of fun.  We played two times, one with four players, and one with six players.  Fun each and every time.  Originally a title from Winsome Games (as Iron Road), we have the printing from Rio Grande games (and Trans-Europa, along with the Vexation add-on).

There was a game of Valley of the Kings - all of the players were new to the game (including yours truly - my first time playing).  We picked up on it pretty well.  By the third or fourth time around the table, all four players had the hang of things, and had a grasp on the "entomb" focus of the game.  The end score, however, was a little spread out.  Top scorer had 45 points, two middle scorers had 26 and 27, and bottom scorer had 16.  Closer next time, I'm sure.

There was a seven player game of Elder Sign, where the intrepid adventurers ventured into the haunted museum One More Time to do battle with the minions of some outre, alien being.  Lots of dice rolling, tension, etc, and a win just in time.

There was a mad, mad round of Walk the Plank.  Further comment prohibited by the decency board.

A really good game (four player) of Lords of Waterdeep happened.  Great time.  We did not use the expansion, but probably could have, for more mayhem.

The game about the Justice League, defending the Watchtower, that is available only from Target - Justice League: Axis of Villains - was brought out.  It is a super hero themed Fortress Defense game, only this time four of the members of the Justice League (Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and the Flash) are working hard to keep a batch of DC Comics villains away.  Lots of fun, and I got to be Green Lantern, one of my favorites.  (why is there no Aquaman in the game?)

Finally, there was a game of Pandemic, to round out the board games.  As with Waterdeep and Elder Sign, none of the expansions available were used, but the base game (this time with four players) was quite good regardless. The roles we had were Dispatcher, Scientist, Medic and Researcher.  We played at the basic (Introductory) level, and we barely won.  The Player Deck was about to run out, even though we already suffered through the four Epidemics.

We also were treated to a short run through of Adventure Maximus - a (sort of) mix between a roleplaying game and a card driven strategy game (although in this case, it is fantasy adventure in a sort of Adventure Time type setting).  Very much fun.

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The power of Theme for Boardgames

So, just recently, I attended another session of the Fredericksburg Game Guild - this time it was a Sunday night meetup at the local game store - Game Vault.

First, a few kind words about Game Vault.  A very nice store.  I met the owner (Cathy) as well as some of the guys who work behind the counter.  Knowledgeable about games and gaming, certainly willing to entertain different opinions and interests, and eager to help a customer.  The store is clean, has all that a game store needs (drinks, bathroom, plenty of game space, lots of in-stock product, nice environment, and handfuls of gamers in the store doing what that tribe does...).  I enjoyed my time there, and will likely be back.

Second, the game we played - Stone Age.  Great game, from Rio Grande games (originally Hans Im Gluck, but I have the first English edition, from RGG, from 2009).  Worker placement, dice for tension, lots of win strategies - what's not to like?  And a ton of caveman jokes.

But playing Stone Age got me thinking.  Along the lines of the theme idea we had during our last gameday at the house - where we combined three games, to come up with a melded theme.  The games were Age of War, TransAmerica, and Trains - melding the themes of Japan (Age of War and Trains) with Railroad Building (TransAmerica and Trains).

Theme is separate from mechanics, but theme is important also.  At least to us here at Gaming With Chuck HQ, its important.  So I started thinking about picking a theme (as in the case of Stone Age - primitive man, prehistory, caveman - you choose one), and then trying to come up with three games (of different types of mechanics) to go along with that theme.

Sticking with Prehistory, lets go with:
1. Stone Age (worker placement)
2. Settlers of the Stone Age (civilization building)
3. Fossil (set collection)

Equally, just pulling from titles that either are currently, or used to be, part of the GwC library - these could have also been counted in:
4. Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers (tile laying)
5. Bitin' Off Hedz (roll and move, racing)
6. Neolithibum (dexterity)
7. Triassic Terror (area control)
8. Sticks & Stones (wargame)
9. Trias (area control)
10. Og (wargame)
11. Dino Hunt (dice push your luck)
 - probably some others I am forgetting...

Depending on the group, I might include Carcassonne: Hunters and Gathers in for Fossil.  If I wanted to shorten the session, I might include Dino Hunt instead of Settlers of the Stone Age.  All of these have a similar (or at least within the same family) theme - but very different mechanisms.  Even the similar ones - such as both Sticks & Stones and Og being hex-and-counter wargames - they are very different from each other.

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Boardgame Meetup - Fredericksburg Game Guild

I attended my first meetup with the Fredericksburg Game Guild last night, which met at the England Run Library, in Fredericksburg.  The Group gets together several times per week and per month, for different meetings in different venues - and the individuals I met last night seem like it is a very good group.

England Run Library - the meeting rooms are down the hallway you can see to the right.

The shortcoming of the weeknight meeting at the library, of course, is that it is time constrained.  They meet from 6-9, which isn't a bad length for a meeting, but about 1 hour too short, if you want to play two meaty games.  It is time, however, for a reasonable length game, and maybe a short filler or two.

Last night I played two different titles, one new to me, and one somewhat familiar.  The first was the new title - Room 25.  The folks in the game were really excited because the theme is evidently based on the very successful and very popular trilogy of Cube movies.  I don't know anything about them, sadly.  However, I get the gist of the game.

The people I played with were extremely friendly and fun to play with.  The guy who owned the game, and introduced it to us, was very pleasant and did a good job of introducing the rules.  The game, however, was one I probably won't play again.  As I mentioned in my notes on Board Game Geek, this was a perfect example of a game session where "I loved the group, and had a good time, but I wasn't really crazy about the game."

Components of the game Room 25 *

The components of the game were excellent, and the idea (using programmed movement to explore a maze that the players have to escape from, together) was pretty good.  I like how 1 or 2 of the group members might be working for the Prison Guards.  But overall, there just didn't feel like there was enough going on.  And it felt like the end game was decided a priori.  In both our sessions, there was little (or nothing) that one side or the other could do about changing the endgame situation, over the last 3 or 4 turns of the game.  And considering that once the endgame mechanism is triggered, there are 5 or fewer turns left, that is not so good in my opinion.  Maybe an expansion will come out that will change things, or a similar theme but different mechanics.  I hold out hope to become impressed enough to play again.

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The second game that I got to play was... Glass Road.  This is a great game by Uwe Rosenberg.  Unlike many of his other titles, this is one that could be played in as short as an hour or so, by experienced players.  There is a lot going on with this game, with a very large decision space, and a lot of potential strategies that the player could take, in order to try to win.  It has great components, terrific theme, and excellent mechanics (with some innovations too).

Layout of game, showing player map of countryside, with terrain tiles and building tiles *

The theme is basically, the players are all competing manufacturing interests in Medieval Germany, building up the facilities and resource sources to enable them to be profitable manufacturers of glass and bricks (similar processes with similar resources required).  Game play is in turn, selecting roles, and then carrying out actions related to those roles.  Actions involved either collecting resources, modifying the consist of your local countryside (filling in ponds, digging sand pits, harvesting forests), and then building facilities that benefit you in some way.  Great game, as always, and a bit lighter than other Rosenberg titles.

Setting up to play - from Game night at Moxie (Columbus, GA)

The very clever resource clocks - also from Game night at Moxie (Columbus, GA)

I had a great time playing, with three other players all of whom were new to me, and will always happily play this one again in the future.

Overall, the meetup was a great success for me.  I met some really nice local gamers - some of whom are also Roleplayers and Wargamers - and I plan to attend some more in the future!  Hopefully next time I'll get to teach a game or two to some people.  Nothing is better about the gaming hobby, than sharing with other fans.

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* = These images are from Board Game Geek

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