Nubia versus Palmyra

My cobbled together Nubians were expecting to face Karl's Egyptians but ended up fighting Palmyrans (on loan from John as the Egyptians stayed home in the belief that it was to be Stalingrad again).

Deployed on the club's fancy terrain with a wood on the left and some broken ground in the centre.

The Palmyran cavalry advance, while the Nubians spread out.

The Palmyran cavalry quickly come under a telling fire.

The Nubians might only be armed with sticks,

but they know how to make them fly.

The Palmyran left is in trouble and their right is in somewhat of a disorder.

The Palmyran cavalry bravely press on.

It is not going well for them.

The minor success against the Nubian left flank is totally offset by the disaster on the right.

The Nubian warriors charge but fail to make contact.

The destruction of the remaining Palmyran cataphracts causes their morale to break.

The Nubian warriors had finally come to blows with the Palymran centre

but didn't do as well as the Nubian archers.

1989 Dawn of Freedom

Another week and another new game, although the system was familiar.

I was the Communists trying to hold onto power in various Eastern European countries in 1989.

Unlike the Europe in Turmoil games this one loses a bit of momentum when you lose power in a country: once they have freedom there is no going back.  A Power Struggle occurs before scoring and can be quiet volatile.  If the Communists lose the struggle that's it for that country.

We stopped after the Communists lost power in all six countries, but with a better understanding of the rules we should have kept on playing, although I was under some misconceptions about a few things which had crimped my play plus I made one or two mistakes.

Will be interesting to play again.

Qugong

New and delightful game today: "Gùgōng. Exchange gifts, send servants, and visit the Emperor in a luscious 1570 China".  (That description is from here and is a good summary of what the game is about.)

Not even going to try and pronounce it,

I just hope I have the orientation right.

The game at start.

I am the red player.

Aim is to get an audience with the emperor (central track)

and amass Victory Points (outer track).

Thinking back red is a lucky colour for the Chinese I believe,

it certainly worked for me.

Stalingrad - Practice

It has been my intention to at least play this scenario once a year around this time.  I know I missed last year, but it is rather embarrassing to find the last time I played was five years ago!  

This session was very much a practice game to get Karl up to speed with the rule's mechanics.  We played without hidden setup, and I think that takes all the magic out of the game.  

The setup.

Knowing where and where not the Soviets are enabled the Nazis to mop them up with some ease especially given some excellent die rolling on my part.

Great Western Trails - Argentina

New game built on Great Western Trails which I had enjoyed playing last year.

Beautiful game and the introduction of farmers makes it different from its predecessor and although they present hazards, they can become very valuable works.  Also new are ships and ports which offer additional and alternative ways of obtaining VPs.

Pax Pamir

A post lost during the chaos of the festive season.

Very attractive name.  The key is remembering that you are playing for yourself (family or tribe) not the nation (Afghanistan) or foreign power (England or Russia).

Played with Richard, Russell and Stefan.

You need to keep nimble with your allegiances as once a player gets ahead it can be hard to catch up.

Nemesis

Perhaps more family friendly than Diplomacy, but not without its domestic challenges.  Karen and I played with our daughter and her boyfriend.  

Not sure this game is going to photograph well.

Play really tells a story and it will be hard to capture all the excitement.

There are fifteen turns in which to fulfil our individual objectives...

We awake and start exploring the ship.

I'm the captain (blue).

Karen is the mechanic (orange)

Zoe is the scout (purple)

Tom is the soldier (red)

I have gone off the check the engines are okay.

The others are searching rooms for gear and information as to function.

The supplied miniatures are exquisite, but crying out to be painted.

Four turns have now elapsed..

Fires have broken out in some rooms

and there is a lot of disturbing noise,

but no aliens.

The mechanic is keen to find where the ship is heading.  Earth, I hope.

All engines are functional.

But there are some extraterrestrial lifeforms in the hibernation chamber.

Nasty!

It's not easy to know what to do.

I'm just trying to keep my crew alive.

The aliens are attacking the crew in multiple locations

and fires are still out of control.

I've made it to the fire control room and trying to help the mechanic battle the alien

Time is running out.

At least the fires have been supressed.

The soldier should be able to deal with that alien in the door control room.

The soldier has trapped me in a room with an alien,

but karma sees an alien take a fancy to him.

The mechanic has been infected and is trying some self-medication

but is being hampered by another alien.

The scout is busy collecting samples.

In an exciting finish, the mechanic made it to hibernation.

The scout, after successfully researching some alien corpses (aided by the captain)

has also gone into hibernation.

The soldier tried to get to hibernation but triggered an alien.

The captain fought off the alien, but it was too late for them to go into hibernation.

So the captain and solider perished and the mechanic and scout escaped, but both had been infected.  In a dramatic bit of card drawing the infection proved to be nonfatal and they lived.

The ship returned to earth fulfilling the mechanic's objective.

The scout had researched the aliens thus fulfilling her objective.

In a Pyrrhic victory the soldier had made sure Player One did not survive.

And the poor old captain, me, Player One, died trying to save himself and at least one of his crew.

Lots of fun, which is important as it is a long game (took us six hours).

Each player starts with two possible objectives and has to choose one when the first alien appears.  I had a choice between eliminate Player 2 or save myself and at least one other crew member.  I went for the latter objective obviously as Karen was Player Two.  Tom on the other hand had a dilemma: eliminate Player One or Player Two.  He made the right move in selecting the former.