Year Summary III

 

The other monster game during 2014 was Here I Stand. We have been playing this card-driven game about the Religion Wars in Europe during several sessions. With four players, two of them were forced to play two different Major powers. our impressions is that it makes too strong blocs.

First game was mainly devoted to smooth the rules and getting used to the different mechanisms. Papacy and Hapsburg joined efforts against Protestants and Ottoman and crushed the match. Second play was more equilibrated.

One real interesting thing about this game is that each Power has completely different goals, objectives and VPs routes thus making HiS a real roleplaying-wargame-historical simulation perfect hybrid.

We are looking forward to play its continuation, Virgin Queen.

Some pics (courtesy of Ramon, I lost my pics)

Year Summary - II

 

Main game of 2014 (in terms of commitment and time at the table) was It Never Snows.

This game belongs to Standard Combat Series by The Gamers and depicts the well-known Operation Market-Garden at WWII.

We have played with historical deployment. Initial turns rapidly marked the overall outcoming of the play as XXX Corps was rapidly stopped at the main road to Eindhoven. Allied spent a lot of turn to clear the road and advance towards the bridges. American paratroopers were well placed and in condition to secure the bridges as most of them were not blown by Germans. However British were quickly surrounded.

Although our feeling is that historical campaign is impossible for Allied we have enjoyed the game. Gameplay is fast and rules are easy. At the beginning we had some issues with road move that needs to be fully understood to correctly play.

Some of the initial jumps:

and first problems for British,

British airborne being surrounded and destroyed:

 

American paratroopers regrouping:

 

The main road:

Those small German units were at the village for three turns, disturbing Allied supply.

 

Year Summary

 

2014 saw many good games at the table.

In January we made a few plays of France 44 by GMT Games. This game features the initial German offensive in France.

Game components are beautiful, rules are clear and well written. Playing with both sides is challenging. It could seem that playing Germans is easy but a lot of crucial decisions need to be made, specially where to move those strong Pz Divisions. Will you be extremely aggressive and advance them without the support or your infantry? On the opposite Allied need to be careful with defense. They had some strong armored units (De Gaulle) to be used at the right moment. It is an interesting game.