(no subject)
Had a sublime game of Memoir '44 this evening. Played two games, actually, against a fellow at dougo's house who was familiar with the game and thus let me choose more complicated, less newbie-friendly scenarios. This is a rare treat, since I often find myself teaching people to play this and therefore obligated to choose a less involved battle setup.
First, we tried Pointe-du-Hoc, where I played the Allies and dominated the whole battle, giving up no VPs. It's actually kind of a silly scenario, with every single Allied unit being fleetfooted Rangers, and the Germans' one artillery unit way over on the edge of the board and easy to avoid, with the Allies having no particular reason to go there. There are two victory medals up for grabs within the guns' range, but it's easier for the Allies to just use their Rangers to swarm over the Germans' bunkers for a fast win.
Hmm... I wonder if the best German strategy for that one involves the right flank's units willfully abandoning their bunkers to rally around the artillery in the left flank. I'd like to try it again like that, sometime.
The really good battle was Toulon - Campaign for Southern France, a long scenario that also favors the Allies, but I managed to pull an Axis victory out of it with some cleverness and a lot of luck. (For instance: twice, in two consecutive turns, I rolled double-grenades against my opponents' armor units.) The final score was 6-5, and almost got down to a them-or-us sudden-death roll-off between two units, one of the things about this game that I both love and hate. Instead, it ended with me using the Barrage card to suddenly squish a one-figure Infantry napping in the corner. This is another maneuver that I have mixed feelings about, as it's kind of a cheap way to end the game. But, you take what you can get.
Also played Dr. Knizia's "Beowulf". It was OK; I don't think I'll rush out to buy it, but I'd play it again.
The theme is actually pretty neat: the title character, yes-that-Beowulf, is a plastic pawn that wanders around a track which represents his whole saga, from his first meeting with Hrothgar to his final battle with the Dragon. Unlike LotR, where (through bad play) Middle Earth can fall to Sauron long before the book is supposed to end, Beowulf's course is fated and inerrant; the players are simply along for the ride.
But that, oddly, is where all the fun lay, because the point of the game is not to overcome all of Beowulf's legendary trials, but rather to win his favor by outclassing all of your opponents while helping him out. The winner is named king after Big B kicks the bucket at the end. I think that's delightful.
I didn't find the core mechanic all that engaging, though: like LotR, it involves scanning the road ahead and trying to build a hand of cards that will help you do your best, but it lacks both the cooperative spirit and the tension of the earlier game. I want to try it again because I picked up on a whole-game strategy when we were about halfway done, and I'd like to see how well it works. But I'm not impatient for whenever that will happen.
First, we tried Pointe-du-Hoc, where I played the Allies and dominated the whole battle, giving up no VPs. It's actually kind of a silly scenario, with every single Allied unit being fleetfooted Rangers, and the Germans' one artillery unit way over on the edge of the board and easy to avoid, with the Allies having no particular reason to go there. There are two victory medals up for grabs within the guns' range, but it's easier for the Allies to just use their Rangers to swarm over the Germans' bunkers for a fast win.
Hmm... I wonder if the best German strategy for that one involves the right flank's units willfully abandoning their bunkers to rally around the artillery in the left flank. I'd like to try it again like that, sometime.
The really good battle was Toulon - Campaign for Southern France, a long scenario that also favors the Allies, but I managed to pull an Axis victory out of it with some cleverness and a lot of luck. (For instance: twice, in two consecutive turns, I rolled double-grenades against my opponents' armor units.) The final score was 6-5, and almost got down to a them-or-us sudden-death roll-off between two units, one of the things about this game that I both love and hate. Instead, it ended with me using the Barrage card to suddenly squish a one-figure Infantry napping in the corner. This is another maneuver that I have mixed feelings about, as it's kind of a cheap way to end the game. But, you take what you can get.
Also played Dr. Knizia's "Beowulf". It was OK; I don't think I'll rush out to buy it, but I'd play it again.
The theme is actually pretty neat: the title character, yes-that-Beowulf, is a plastic pawn that wanders around a track which represents his whole saga, from his first meeting with Hrothgar to his final battle with the Dragon. Unlike LotR, where (through bad play) Middle Earth can fall to Sauron long before the book is supposed to end, Beowulf's course is fated and inerrant; the players are simply along for the ride.
But that, oddly, is where all the fun lay, because the point of the game is not to overcome all of Beowulf's legendary trials, but rather to win his favor by outclassing all of your opponents while helping him out. The winner is named king after Big B kicks the bucket at the end. I think that's delightful.
I didn't find the core mechanic all that engaging, though: like LotR, it involves scanning the road ahead and trying to build a hand of cards that will help you do your best, but it lacks both the cooperative spirit and the tension of the earlier game. I want to try it again because I picked up on a whole-game strategy when we were about halfway done, and I'd like to see how well it works. But I'm not impatient for whenever that will happen.