Weimar Take 2

We lined up for another go at this game. We went for a random allocation and I again was the SPD.  Peter also was the DNVP again while Russel was Zentrum and Richard the KPD.

Things to note:

Seven Brown Shirts are in Parliament

Communists have control of Essen and Hamburg,

they are close to taking Berlin which would give them the game.

The DNVP (black) have control of Koln and Königsberg,

they need Berlin or two other cities to win out right.

The Nazis are just two steps away from crashing the system.

Top left shows all the pressures on the state that tipped it into anarchy.

The following is adapted from comments provided by Richard.

It was a great game where everyone had chances to win.

The game ended when Mark deliberately pushed the Reich into anarchy to win the game. This cost
him  (and Russell) 8 VPs, but he was able to absorb the 8 VP penalty to finish in front. Mark has the totals. I believe Russell came second and Peter and I were tied for third.

SPD 26, Zentrum 23, KPD and DNVP 18 each.

It could still have gone to either myself as KPD with better die rolls in the last impulse. Pete did also roll for a 4th Regime marker and possible victory. On reflection, I'm not entirely sure the second
attempt at a Regime was allowed, as the rules state you can only make a single coup attempt per impulse, i.e. per card play. The card Pete used allowed him to do 2 sets of actions, but they all occurred in his "impulse". There was no net game effect to this, however, as the attempt failed.

It was certainly a valid way for Mark to win and ironically Mark was the major beneficiary of all the threat markers that appeared in the Deutsche Reich as a result of the NSDAP plays. Somewhat of a hollow victory as a government party plunging the country into anarchy, but a game victory nonetheless.

It is certainly an example of how careful you need to be in the choices made. There certainly was short term gain for the parties which took the NSDAP trade off, however, with a commanding lead in VPs this then allowed Mark to exploit the end of game anarchy rule.

It looks like this is a 7 hour game, if it goes the full 6 turns. We were playing quite briskly and it worked out to roughly 1 hour per turn which also included rules questions.

A lot of the moral dilemmas (although there didn't seem to be a lot of qualms on show) regarding the NSDAP only appear in turns 5 and 6 so there would be a lot of difficult and interesting choices to explore without the stress of tiredness and/or time constraints.

I have posted 2 questions on the BGG forum regarding what happens in the case of a tie on play of the Altona Bloody Sunday card (who suffers NSDAP penalty) and also the All Quiet on the Western Front card where we weren't sure on how many seats and VPs to award for a "majority".

To the two questions the consensus is the Chancellor decides ties and the All Quiet card just provides 1 VP and 1 seat (which is how we played it after initially distributing 7 VPs and seats and after a short delay saying "Wait a minute...")

Huns versus Illyrians - The Semi Final

The Club's Basic Impetus League competition is coming to a close.  I faced Simon's Illyrians (lots of men with javelins) with my Huns (men on horses with bows).

Things started out very badly for the Illyrians.

Not only out scouted (no surprises there)

but no terrain to speak of.

Just one patch of boggy ground where the Huns must have corralled their horses overnight.

Both sides advance, refusing their right wings.

The Hun skirmishers get pinned (they have the same base colour as their opponents unfortunately,

but one Hunnic cavalry unit makes a charge down the Illyrian centre,

giving time for the rest of the Huns to get into position.

That charge went onto to heroic glory,

allowing the main body of the Huns to start to close in on the Illyrian right flank

 which has become separated and seriously exposed.

The Illyrian commander's unit is almost wiped out...

And with its demise, victory to the Huns

and on to the final.

Will it be against Dave's Egyptians

or Phil's 100 Year War English?

Homer's Iliad

Not sure whose other Iliad it might be, but this was a retelling by Vitezslav Kocourek, translated by Vladimir Varecha and beautifully illustrated by Jiri Behounek.  From around 1993/4 and I reckon I have had it since then as well.  Finally read (and enjoyed).

I've had an interest in Greek mythology for a long time, probably inspired by movies such as Jason and the Argonauts and the cartoon series Hercules.  I note both of these date from 1963 and would have been running in Australia probably into the early 70s.  My first ancient army was WRG's Later Hoplite Greek based on the Tin Soldier Hellenistic range, an army I am still using and still adding to.

Renewed interest in Greek mythology was spurred by watching Kaos on Netflix, which got me to read Gods, Heroes and Men of Ancient Greece by W. H. D. Rouse, followed most recently by watching The Return (a movie based on Odysseus and the Suitors).  By happenstance I came across my copy of The Odyssey as well as this book on the Iliad.  Rather than start at the end, I thought I should start at the beginning.

Now, and more relevant to this blog, I have the boardgame Troy by Donald A Dupont published in 1977. It has five scenarios in ascending complexity.   The first two have been played a few times long ago and I am hoping to revisit the game soon.

More information can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy (game)

The Flight of the Terrier

Time to set sail again in Renaissance galleys using the Skull and Crown rules at the club's Saturday games day (which provides time for bigger games).

The terrier stands out with its distinctive blue sail.

The engagement started well for the combined Papal and Venetian fleets,

aided by some Spanish and Maltese ships including the English Terrier.

But the Venetians had trouble reloading and the Turks were upon them before they knew it!

The Terrier makes a getaway

Seljuk Turks versus Later Crusaders

This time I went Seljuk Turks and Mark B started with the Crusaders.

Not surprised at being out scouted, the Crusaders hide behind some boggy ground.

The dark green patch on the top right-hand corner is the impassable edge of the table.

It becomes important later.

The Turks surge forward and the Crusaders start to redeploy

their crossbowmen becoming disordered in the bog.

The shooting starts.

It is going to require luck and patience to get results.

The Crusaders' Syrian archers are run down,

but their crossbowmen have control of the bog.

The shooting is yet to take effect,

but more Crusaders are entering the bog.

Finally Turkish missile fire gets some results.

At this stage the Crusader commander flees the field.

Simon de Not Monfort takes over.

Counters are replaced showing the damage that has occurred to the Crusaders.

The Crusaders start to advance.

The knights rundown one unit of Turkish light cavalry that failed to evade.

The Crusader attempts to seize the initiative.

The reroll was another tie,

but on the third attempt they made it.

The knights charge again, but while they won, they didn't manage to eliminate the Turkish cavalry.

More knights come up while the other Crusaders are variously pinned or locked in combat.

The pinning, inconclusive combats and evading continues,

however it is backs to the edge of the table time for the Seljuks.

The knights are getting worn down and two units of Crusader sergeants have been routed.

Time to call it a night.

Weimar

A first play is always a learning exercise, but this game based on the politics of the Weimar republic played well and gave a good feel for the political challenges of that period in history.

It's a four player game.  Richard was Zentrum (centre right), Peter DNVP (right), Russell KPD (left) and I was the SPD (centre left).  The two centre parties start as the Government  alliance.

Each player has a stylised counter, distinguished by colour and hats.

My guys wore bowlers or perhaps more correctly, Homberg's.

Not a great image, but the debating track (top left), social issues (top right),

 zones of influence (cities) and the seats in parliament can all be seen,

along with the unique player cards for Zentrum and SPD.

After three turns (about halfway through, although there are numerous sudden death and automatic victory conditions that can occur) we called an end as our time was running out.  At that stage I had 28 VPs, Zentrum 23 and the "fringe" parties 15 each.  We had just gone through an election and change of Chancellor and so had worked through most if not all of the game's mechanics.

Turning Point Stalingrad - Concluded

Took another two sessions to complete, but I feel our game was just a learning exercise as we made some serious errors around rubble and groups taking casualties.  Still a very challenging game and I am looking forward to playing it again.

Unfortunately the disruption markers make it hard to see who is who.

The disruption system (which occurs as a result of combat or just from moving)

is a good and the associated counter works well once you adjust to it.

However it does spoil the visual effect of what otherwise is a very attractive map.

Soviet reinforcements keep arriving, but they are best just building up their strength.

The day and night impulses are also effective in portraying the fighting.

But as this game went, the Axis did not have enough VPs to take the game into the next stage.