New Boardgames

After playing yet another enjoyable game of Commands & Colo(u)rs: Ancients with Lenin during our last wargame weekend, I decided it was time to upgrade the weakest part of the game - the board. Unfortunately, GMT Games decided to include their usual thin card board with the original game and it does let it down a bit - not least by not laying flat.

Fortunately both Expansions 2 and 3 both contain the thicker board and so you do have some options in this regard. I did consider getting Expansion 3, which at £15 is the cheaper of the two, on its own but as the scenarios in it need the blocks from Expansion 2 it seemed a bit of a false economy; however, Expansion 3 does contain the epic rules and four epic scenarios which needs two board put together. Another dilemma.

In the end I decided to throw caution to the winds and bought both. Possibly a little extravagant but it does give me the better board I wanted and the option to play epic games, with up to 8 players, as well as all the new scenarios which can be found in both sets.

Expansion 2, Rome vs the Barbarians, has the new thicker board, around 330 new blocks, some additional terrain tiles, a couple of quick reference sheets and a rule book with 23 new scenarios including several with Spartacus and also a couple in Britain.

I have to say I don't relish having to apply the stickers to the blocks, one to each side, and decided to start on the smalle number of blocks in Expansion 3 first.

As with all the Expansions you need a copy of the original game to play as you don't get the dice, cards or sufficient terrain tiles in these ones in order to play the scenarios.

Expansion 3, Roman Civil Wars, has somewhat less in it than number 2 which probably shouldn't be a surprise as it is half the price. It still comes in the same sized and very good quality box though.

This one has the new thicker board, an additional 120 or so blocks, 19 scenarios for the traditional game, the epic rules and four epic scenarios along with another two quick reference sheets.

The epic rules allow you to place two board together (they have one side as the traditional board and one designed to marry up with another board to make a new wider, 26 x 9 hex layout needed). This allows you to play with up to 8 players, three field commanderS (left, centre and right) and an army commander per side. The rules are the same as the original game with the exception that the army commander can select three cards and distribute them to the field commanders to use. In addition, some of the cards are designated as army cards and so can only be played by the army commander. You don't need 8 players and could play with just two if you wanted though.

I'm really looking forward to getting an epic game arranged but, in the meantime, the new board and scenarios will make a big difference.

Whilst I was ordering the C&C expansions I decided to pick up a copy of the new Days of Wonder game, Small World. This is their version of the game Vinci but with slightly simpler rules and a fantasy theme.

Scott Nicholson has done one of his excellent reviews on Board Games with Scott and it was this which persuaded me that Small World would be worth getting. The game is essentially a land grab but with some difficult decisions to be made as to which race to take (each has their own strengths) and with special powers which change each game. You also need to decide when to put a race into decline and move onto a new one. Scott has a very through run through of the game play if you would like more detail.

We've only had one game so far but it was a lot of fun.

Gaming Weekend - March 08

Lenin paid a visit this weekend and we managed to get plenty of gaming in. It might not have gone quite as planned (no change there!) but it was excellent fun none the less!

Before "discovering" the benefits of the .45 Adventure system we had tried one or two of the scenarios from the Dragon Bones supplement using Savage Worlds (another of our favourite rule sets). We decided to try them using the rules they were made for and the two games went very well. Strangely enough the results were the same as when we played using Savage Worlds!

We also gave my eBay copy of Quebec 1759 a go. It was the first of the Columbia Games block games and certainly has a pretty simple set of rules; however, the game gives you plenty of things to think about. I took command of the French and was utterly trounced by Lenin playing the British - obviously my usual dice luck had some effect but it was more down to some poor deployment on my part and a well co-ordinated two fronted attack on his! Now that I have some idea what I'm doing I'd certainly like to give it another go.

Next we improvised a Back of Beyond game using Lenin's superbly painted Copplestone figures (along with a couple of Pulp Figures) using Savage Worlds as the rules. More than anything it was a test to see if Savage Worlds could be used for a game of this type and size. Lenin has a very sizeable collection of figures for this period and we have tried a few other sets of rules but haven't been happy with them. The result was a Russian victory - having repulsed the Chinese attack on the Russian dig site - and a decision to use Savage Worlds for future games of this type.

Having majored on 28mm we swapped down to 20mm for the next game, a WW2 scenario using Nuts! A simple take the bridge and hold until reinforced for a small Para jeep mounted unit facing a unit of German engineers (who had been ordered to destroy the bridge) - with a few pesky refugees to get in the way! It was an object example of taking and holding the initiative taking the day with the Paras having it pretty much their own way (it also demonstrated the power of automatic weapons to keep people's heads down under Nuts! - the "outgunned" rules).

Our final tabletop game was another improved Savage Worlds game - this time using 28mm Gripping Beast Normans/Crusaders/El Cid figures. Having seen that Savage Worlds could handle a large 20th Century game, we really wanted to see if Savage Worlds could cope with a melee heavy scenario. We probably didn't have enough variety in the troop qualities and so melee did tend to bog down a little (but this wasn't entirely unexpected or a-historical) but overall SW proved that it could manage to cope. With properly prepared unit cards and a little more unit variety I think we're on to a winner again.

We finished the weekend off with a couple of board games - the Crimissos River (341BC) scenario for Commands and Colors: Ancients and the first two player scenario for Friedrich (The War in the West - France vs Hanover with a little help from Prussia). The C&C:A game was a pretty close run thing but finally going to Syracruse (though not by anything like the margin they enjoyed historically). Friedrich turned out to be a lot of fun with plenty of challenging decisions for both sides. The French were doing well but the Hanoverians managed to cut their supply lines; however the French recovered and went on to capture their objectives just in time. An excellent game that I can't wait to play 3 or 4 player.

I've posted a few photos from the weekend below:

Gaming Weekend - Mar 08

Wargames Weekend Update

Managed to get quite a few games in when Lenin visited last weekend including Troops, Weapons and Tactics, Metal Storm, Renaissance Raiders, Savage Worlds and Commands and Colors: Ancients Expansion #1.

Troops, Weapons and Tactics is heavily based on the Too Fat Lardies previous rules I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (IABSM) and that is very apparent. As the rules are lower level, with the tactical unit being a fire team rather than the IABSM section, a few additional mechanics have been added. This was only the first try out but our initial impression was that, whilst they did provide an interesting game, the additional chrome didn't produce a result which was a pleasing as Nuts! in terms of the "feel". Obviously this is highly subjective but I think the additional mechanics confuse and complicate the basic IABSM approach but don't deliver proportional added value - which is a shame as I am a big fan of IABSM and use them as my preferred rules for the next level up.

Metal Storm was another first outing. The rules appear to be heavily based on Peter Pig's AK47 Republic rules with the addition of different dice sizes and rules for more modern weaponry. As with all rules which use up and downgrading using different dice sizes (d4, d6, d8, d10 etc.) the statistics are a little iffy but the overall result was a fun game (though we're reserving judgement on the realism element) and I expect these will see another outing (though possibly with some tweaks).

For oue first go at Renaissance Raiders from the Antwerp Fusiliers, we pulled out my 28mm Vendel Border Reivers, Grand Manner Bastle House and Gripping Beast livestock for a little sheep and cattle rustling on the borders. The rules are heavily influenced by the Commands and Colors system and are intended to be hex based. Since I don't have any hex terrain I chose to restructure them slightly to allow them to be used on a normal tabletop. Again they gave a fun game but in my view the card and average dice initiative mechanic was a little too involved for the type of game we were trying and the cards needed to pop up more often (and be a little more varied) to add flavour. The core approach is sound but a few changes are what's needed for it to become ideal for a Reivers game rather than a more traditional Renaissance battle.

Savage Worlds once again proved it is a versatile ruleset allowing you to meld various genres successfully. Lenin presented an excellent Pulp meets Call of Cthulhu game which was tremendous fun.

And having spent ages putting the stickers on my Greek and Eastern Kingdom expansion for Commands and Colors: Ancients (CC:A), I was determined to actually use it - so we set up and played the Gaugamela scenario. CC:A is still a favourite and the card system provides some real challenges for each commander.

C&C:A - The Battle of Akragas

I broke out Commands and Colors: Ancients in order to teach myself the rules, so I gave the first scenario, the Battle of Akragas (406BC), between Syracuse and Carthage, a go solo.

The rules are very easy to pick up (especially to someone used to miniature wargames) and give a quick game. The command card system certainly gives you plenty of challenges as the commander on each side. The combat system is pretty straightforward but with a few little "exceptions" that you need to keep an eye out for.

The blocks work well and the cards are made from good stock. The game board sits reasonably flat if you back fold it but is certainly a weak point if viewed from a boardgamer perspective. All round it's fine if compared to board wargames but doesn't compare well to the higher production values of other Commands and Colors games such as Memoir '44 or Battlelore.

Victory went to Syracuse, not least due to them having one more command card than Carthage. I am looking forward to getting the game in front of a real opponent!

Commands and Colors Ancients: Custom Dice

I ordered a set of custom dice from Valley Games in Canada for my copy of GMT's Commands and Colors Ancients (C&C:A) a week last Monday and they arrived yesterday. That's not bad from across the pond.

They are lighter than the dice included in second edition C&C:A (the ones in the first edition weren't up to much I hear) but have the symbols etched into the surface rather than using stickers like the originals. Very nice and not too expensive too even accounting for the postage.

First Look: Commands and Colors Ancients

Commands and Colors Ancients by GMT Games is a light board wargame recreating battles between the Romans and Carthaginians. The rules system by Richard Borg appears in his earlier ACW game Battle Cry and more recently in Battlelore by Days of Wonder. Whilst it doesn't have the production quality of the Days of Wonder product, with blocks and a rather thin board, it has been said to be the best implementation of the Commands and Colors system (BTW when will our colonial cousins learn that "color" has a "u" in it?). Not having played it I can't comment but with games taking around an hour I should be able to get a few in and post a proper review in the not too distant future. I have just finished applying the stickers to each side of each block which, whilst a bit of a chore, is strangely satisfying when you have finished. I'm not entirely convinced by the sticker approach to the battle dice but I understand they are considerably better than those supplied in the first edition. I am looking forward to giving this one some table time.