This rainy, gloomy Sunday is a quiet one here in the Duchy. Herself is off to New York City with some friends to see a show. I have no idea, except either a friend of a friend or one of her former students is in the thing. Meh. I have trouble keeping track of me these days...
Last week the RAP gamers played a second night of "Six Empires", a boardgame set in post-War of Spanish Succession Europe. The six empires are thus: The French, Spanish, Russian, Austrian, British and Ottomans.
I was not there last week, so I took over for Michael who could not make it this week. This gave me the Ottoman Empire. Never having played the game before, Garth gave me a quick tutorial, but honestly, it wasn't that difficult to catch up and it was quite fun to play.
From L to R; Garth, Phil, Bruce (our host), Steve, and John
We played several turns in three hours and decided to leave the board up in Bruce's basement for another round. This coming Wednesday we are back at the Sloan Clubhouse, but we'll be playing "Jaws" (yes, it's a game about THAT movie...) since two of our stalwarts will be on holiday.
Thursday I was off work and puttered around the house, but Friday and yesterday I went down to Harve de Grace, Maryland to the BARRAGE show put on by the HAWKS club. This is always an excellent show with a terrific mix of games. It's a much smaller show than the big HMGS ones, but its an excellent example of how to run a solid regional event.
I played in two regular games on Friday, the Battle of Puebla 1862 and the postscript to the Battle of Navarino Bay 1827. On Saturday, I entered into the Art De La Guerre tournament pitting my Golden Horde Mongols against whomever I would draw, since it was an Open Tournament.
Puebla, from the Mexican position
A drone's eye view of the French behind their blue pipe cleaner Start Line
The French may have had wine and better food, but we had a Mariachi Band!
Mid game, the French still hadn't managed to take either fort and, despite our losses, the Mexican commanders held doggedly on.
End game for the French. They came on in the same old way, and we saw them off in the same old way!
Viva Mexico!
Tm, Jim, and Josh ran this game at OttoDotCon and I was not able to play it then, but fortunately I was able to sign up at BARRAGE. These guys run excellent games. Tried and true The Sword and the Flame rules were used with the appropriate modifications for the Maximillian Adventure. Six turns and we held by great shooting and lucky dice rolls.
Keith W. and his Navarino Bay game using Form on the Admiral's Wake rules
My third of the Turkish fleet. Last in line.
Oh dearie me. I seem to be on fire. As per usual...
End game for the Turks.
The Allied goal was to sink five Turkish vessels and we had to do the same to the Allied fleet. It was a bit of a slugfest, but the Allied ships were a bit bigger and in the end, that made the difference. But I enjoy these rules and they are currently undergoing a re-write by the author.
Saturday saw my Mongols ready to go against....well....nobody actually.
There were an odd number of players signed up for the tourney, so Walt, the organizer, asked for a volunteer to take the first round off. After a moment, I raised my hand and said I'd be happy to help. Walt very kindly offered to play his Tamil Indians against me as a learning game, since he knows I'm a newer player to this system.
The tournament room
Playing The Man Himself, Walt L., The Jedi Master of ADLG
While Walt did take it easy on me, in terms of making suggestions and pointing out when I was making truly silly errors (Mongols are NOT a new player army, as I have found out) eventually, I did beat him fair and square with some clutch die rolling.
Walt's Ellies are a pesky lot. But he showed me how to play against them.
In the end, I managed to outlast Walt and finally get some CP hits to send him over his limit.
Walt is one of the true gentlemen in this hobby and I am very lucky to have been able to have spent some time with him learning the game and just talking about things in general.
There were quite a few other games that interested me, but I was not able to play, due to my participation in the tournament. But that did not preclude me from picking up a couple of things from the dealer area and the flea market. The number of vendors is quite small, maybe six or so, and the balance of the tables, which surround the perimeter of the playing area, are for the HAWKS version of the flea market, which is a bit like a bring and buy and a bit like a traditional flea market.
I did pick up one very, very nice deal....
A complete painted Roman army, ADLG List #83, with fortifications for a camp.
For $100 USD. Yes, that's correct. One hundred US dollars. One Roman army, ready to go.
Now, to find some Gauls to paint to give it an opponent.
More anon.
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