Mid February Update, Part 2

As mentioned in my previous post, I've been a busy little gamer this past month and have been having a lot of fun. In addition to the annual MLK Day gaming, I was able to play a session of Pathfinder and several other "lite" games this past weekend, mostly with my son and others.

Pathfinder
I actually made it through a gaming session this year with my character in tact, a Bard. I've had a lot of fun playing my halfing and have been pretty potent with my sling staff which, with my high dexterity, makes me a deadly shot. I've also been able to sing my companions to victory over an assortment of beasts.

This last session was rather uneventful as we had to meet our new companions and explore a simple dungeon. It was a nice break from the massacres we've faced recently.

I may write a different post on my Bard, Luten, later.

Gaming Weekend
This past weekend, a holiday weekend, I was able to play three games in three days.

First, Star Trek Catan. As you can imagine, Star Trek Catan is Settlers of Catan in space, with the addition of some specialist cards that we opted not to use the first time we played--especially since those we played with were new to the Catan world. I found Star Trek Catan a refreshing take on a game that, frankly, really never gets old. The components were nice--little starships were roads, outposts settlements, and starbases cities. Outposts were converted to starbases by the addition of what they call a "habitation ring." A nice mechanic.

Star Trek Catan (toward the end of the game)

Instead of the usually supply of wheat, bricks, etc, players went after resources such as dilithium, tritanium, water, oxygen, and food. Surprisingly though, food didn't correspond to wheat, but instead corresponded to sheep. Still, it was an easy game to pick up on and easily transition from standard Catan. Maybe next time we'll play with the specialist cards.

I liked it,except that the starships were too high and bulky for the game and it was hard to see what was going on with the game and the map. Also, the dark hexes made it difficult to see the entirety of the game. Still, it was fun and a nice variant on this now-classic game.

Next up was a game of War of the Ring with my youngest son. We had been wanting to play this for a while, but never found the time (due to the rules and set up) until this weekend. We had fun. We played the introductory game.

Frodo and Sam are forced to take the long way

He played the Shadow Forces and I played the Free Peoples. I immediately attacked north for a quick victory, but he was able to shore up his defenses and whittle down my forces. I could only take one Shadow city. He quickly moved in on Gondor and rolled them up rather quickly. I was hoping to hold in Rohan but he activated Isengard and pressed the attack there and in Lorien. it was a quick victory for the Shadow Forces. In hindsight, my inattention to the ringbearers and to Gondor/Rohan cost me the game. Had I pressed the ringbearers more, he would have devoted more dice to the hunt pool (as it was, by the end of the game he was only putting up one die in the hunt box and when he did role, he rolled well.

He also blocked my middle path, forcing Frodo and Sam to take the long way around Middle Earth) and worked to activate my nations more. I was counting on him to attack and push my political track toward war, but by the time he did (and I did spend a few musters to move them down) it was too late to mount an effective defense.

Victory for the Shadow Forces

The last game of the weekend was a quick Settlers game with my mom, youngest, and old son. It was fun and close, but my youngest was able to score four quick points (largest army, VP, and city upgrade) to win his third game of the weekend. After that, I took him to buy some lottery tickets. Not really, since he's only 13, but it was a good thought.

That's it for now. Next blog entry will be a "meet Luten" post about my new Halfling Bard and the joys of playing that race and class.

Roll well and live!
Al

Mid Feburary Update, Part 1

Been a while since I've updated this blog and I have been playing quite a bit of games (for me at least).

First, I've not been able to start my 1944 APBA replay of the Cardinals, but hope to start soon.

Other than that, I've played several games during the past 30 days or so since my last update.

Martin Luther King Day

My group has a tradition of gaming on MLK Day. It started a few years back when we realized we were all off on that day, and with it being a holiday, our schedules were rather flexible. We've had some great game days over the years and usually have a pretty good turnout. Usually, we play one of those "if only we had the time" type of games (for example, Sword of Rome or Napoleonic Wars, or Twilight Imperium). This year we decided to do something different--two things actually. First, we decided on a "light" game--Formula De--and decided to play at the local game shop. It was fun.

Formula De

MLK Formula De Race Near End of First Lap

There were five of us there (AW, DMW, PS, TS and SE) and it was a good race. We raced Monte Carlo since it was the track we were most familiar with and only raced two laps. We've done three laps before but honestly, most of us get bored after two laps. The only plus side to three laps is the need to pit (for almost all of us) which really factors into the strategies employed. We never play with weather or tires (or should I say "tyres"?).

Well, two of us, AW (me) and PS got off to a good start, while DMW struggled. Toward the end of the first lap we were split into two groups: AW and PS out in front, TS, DMW and SE taking up the rear. And that was it for pretty much the rest of the way, although TS managed to close the gap a bit and finish in a solid 3rd.

Castle Panic
After that we grabbed Castle Panic off the shelf and played that. It's a fun coop game we've played before. Basically, players work together to fend off creatures and protect the castle. Sometimes it's an easy go, and at other times the creatures/monsters can overwhelm the castle. The game is always close, but this time we had a good handle on affairs throughout the game.

Victory is Ours!

The next posting I will update you on the life of my Bard (yes, I did say life--he is still alive), my first play of Star Trek Catan, and my first game of War of the Ring in many years.

Thanks for reading. Roll well and live!

Al

New APBA Quest

I'm a big fan of APBA Baseball. By printing sets of cards for every baseball season since 1901, the possibilities are endless. But where does one start? I know some who have started a replay of the entire history of baseball since 1901. Others replay seasons here and there, in no particular order, or will replay the season for one particular team. I knew I wanted to do something, but couldn't decide what.

Then Stan Musial died.

Stan "The Man" Musial was indeed one of the greatest players of all-time and the best player to ever don the redbirds uniform. What does this have to do with APBA? Well, while I've never met Musial, I did send him an APBA box score to autograph for me back in the early 1990s, which he did and at no cost. I can't remember the details of the game, only that it was between the Cardinals "Original Franchise All-Stars" team and some other team. I believe he went 3-4 with 2 HRs and several RBIs. I figured it fitting that he sign it, which he did. It was my prized autograph until I was forced to sell it for financial reasons. Think Curt Schilling's "Bloody Sock." Still, it is one of my fondest memories and my "Stan Musial" story.
 
While reflecting on this man's career, his contributions to baseball, and his connection to APBA in my mind and in my heart, it dawned on me -- why not replay his entire career? I'm a Cardinals fan, so it's not like I'd be replaying a team I didn't like and frankly, they had some good years in the 40s. The 50s were a dark time in Cardinal history but maybe with me at the helm things will turn out differently?

Then I got to thinking...who else was a great player of that same time? Ted Williams of course! And since the Red Sox are another of my favorite teams I figured it I was going to replay Musial's career, I might as replay Williams's too! So that's what I decided to do: replay the careers of two baseball greats: Ted Williams and Stan Musial. Here are my guidelines:

1) I will start with 1939 (Ted Williams's rookie year) and replay the Red Sox. All 162 games. From there I'll play 1940 (Sox) again, and for 1941 I'll pick up both teams. However, since I currently have a few years in their careers, I probably won't necessarily play them in chronological order. I know. Bad, huh? And I think I'll start with 1944. Williams was off to war, but Musial was home and that was the year the Cardinals played the Browns in the World Series.

2) Unlike some fans (or fanatics), I am not going to look up the details of every game. Instead, I'll just use the lineups provided by APBA. I will, however, limit Williams and Musial to the number of games they played during the regular year--or at least come close. As for the war years, if they did not play during that season, I won't do a replay. Also, I'll probably play all the games against each team at the same time, instead of trying to follow the regular season schedule.

3) As for the playoffs and World Series, I plan to implement a playoff system. The 2nd place team will play the 3rd place team in a best-of-three series and the winner of that will play the pennant winner in a best-of-five series. World Series will be a best-of-seven affair. I will use the regular season records for all teams other than those I am replaying. For those I'm replaying (and I will replay even the non-Williams and non-Musial games) I will substitute my record for their actual season record and see where they would place.
 

So, that's it. We'll see how far I get :).

Happy gaming! Roll well and live!

Al

Happy New Year!

Well, Happy New Year! Albeit a few weeks late. I've had quite a busy year so far this year, mostly related to work and the job hunt, so I haven't been gaming very much. I do hope to turn that around in the coming weeks.

I have been playing quite a bit of Pathfinder -- at least two sessions this year. Both of which were fun, but neither of which went well for my characters. Yes, that's right, characters plural.

For the past year I have been playing a fighter. Not a very good one I should add, but I did enjoy mixing it up during combat and wielding my two-handed magic sword with only one hand. I was building up quite a bit of wealth as well and had already reached third level, on the verge of leveling up to fourth level. I was even studying to be a cleric. Life was good. Then we were attacked by some creatures and one of them scored a double 20 against me. Yeah, my head came off. That was early in the session so I rolled up a new character, a cleric of Desna.

I was ready to go with Varion. I had my spells, my figure, and my backstory--I was the step brother of my fighter who was killed. I quickly proved my worth by dispensing luck and healing the injured. But during our second session of the year, I tried to hide myself in some rock outcroppings, tripped, and was killed and eaten by an orc's lizard mount. Not a pleasant way to go. So, figuring I was doomed to death, I decided to roll up a bard.

I had never played a bard before, but it always seemed like a lot of fun. My instrument of choice would be a crude self-invented harmonica, in honor of the Stan "The Man" Musial, who had died just the day before. Once again I had my spells ready and my figure in place. My first chance to prove myself came when we encountered an orc patrol. My group was hidden in a rock outcropping (a different one from where my cleric was killed) and I mesmerized the patrol with my harmonic and brought them past the rock outcropping where my group laid in wait to pick them off one at a time.

Things went downhill after that. We tried to infiltrate an orc camp to liberate some ant-people who had been taken as slaves but we were discovered and a mass of orcs pretty much slew our party. Our rogue had a magic deck which helped to some extent, but ended up drawing the "magic sword of death" card and was killed and turned into an evil sword, but not before he could liberal the ant-people slaves to help us fight. Yeah, they were pretty much slaughtered by did serve as speed bumps.

Our one fighter was killed and replaced by a barbarian, who was also killed. Our wizard and druid fought bravely, but the druid tried to escape by casting a disguise spell to hide as an orc, but one orc wasn't fooled and he slew the druid. The wizard, who killed a total of--get this--16 orcs, managed to cast a spell that helped him escape while my halfing bard was able to sneak past the battle and make his own escape.

It was a bloodbath, but it was a fun bloodbath.

On another note, I ended up buying Britannia for myself for Christmas and have only one game left on my wish list -- Guildford -- which I may soon buy from a friend. After that, I'm done for a while.

I write this on Martin Luther King Day, a day where I and many of my fellow gamers have the day off. As is tradition, we are getting together to play games. We usually play an all-day wargame (yeah, I know, ironic since the day is to celebrate the life of a man of peace) but with the inauguration today and busy schedules, we are getting together for a quick game of Formula De. It's a fun game and we will have about 1/2 dozen or so--maybe more.

Happy gaming! Roll well and live!

Al

New Game Purchases

With the holidays fast approaching, some great movies out (including a 12+ hour Lord of the Rings marathon) and having started graduated school, my gaming has dried up somewhat. However, as is tradition, I bought myself a little Christmas present -- Mr. Madison's War (GMT) and ASL Starter Expansion Pack #1.

I almost bought Crown of Roses, but with it being December 2012, I really wanted to buy an 1812 game during the war's 200th anniversary year, and Mr. Madison's War looked like the best of the bunch. The components looked good and honestly, I've never played a GMT card-driven game I didn't like, although there was one--the name escapes me now--that struck me as "more work than it's worth."

The other game I bought was the ASL Starter Expansion Kit #1. I used to really be into ASL, but when I needed to raise some cash, it was the first game that went ($300). I miss it, and when I saw this game on the shelf ("Everything thing you need to play ASL") I figured it would be a good way to get back into the game without plunking down a lot of money. ASL can be expensive.

Other than that, I've been playing Magic with my son and Pathfinder. I played DM for the first time in a long time and enjoyed it, although it is definitely more work than playing a character, that's for sure.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday season and I'll see you in 2013!

A New Game and a Reunion

Haven't posted in a while, but I am hoping to get on a regular schedule with my updates.  Been doing some work with my other blogs (mainly just shutting them down for now) and cleaning up my BBG profile. Also worked on a new microbadge for AvalonCon attendees.  I've designed about a dozen or so microbadges to date.  I enjoy it, and it provides a steady stream of geek gold income.

As for gaming, I've played two games this past month (three if you count the aborted Kingmaker game with my youngest son) -- one a new game (Conquest of Paradise), the other an update of an old favorite (Britannia). 

Conquest of Paradise 

Box Cover

This game reminded me a lot of Twilight Imperium. According to the blurb on BBG, Conquest of Paradise is "a game of empire building in the "Polynesian Triangle" of the central Pacific Ocean for two, three, or four players. Players explore the unknown ocean around them, hoping to discover the most lucrative island groups, and colonize them. They build canoes and train warriors to create a force to defend their empire, while forging lines of communication with their developing discoveries. Resources are scarce; using them wisely is a key to victory. Investing in exploration widens your empire. Building warriors strengthens your empire. Investing resources into cultural innovations can yield unexpected dividends, like tattooing, hula dancing, surfing, or even the giant moai statues of Easter Island fame."

I can't really say it better myself.  This is the first (and probably only) game I've ever played of that theme.  At first I thought it was European conquest of the Polynesia region, but soon found out it was the original conquest of the area by natives.  I thought that was an interesting take.  The components are top notch and I really enjoyed the game mechanics.

My Position at the End of the Game

Like Twilight Imperium, players have to make some tough decisions -- the old "bread or guns" question -- do you spend resources to expand, settle, and progress, or spend it to defend, or maybe even attack?  The cultural innovations, in addition to rewarding VPs, gives the player certain perks.  I can't recall the details, but the "stop an invasion" helped me win my first game.

Another reason I won is because I "discovered" New Zealand (rich and lucrative) right next to my home island, and my opponents waited until the last turn to mount an attack on me, which failed due to the defenses I had built up and my "stop an invasion" card.

Overall, it was a fun game--although I'm not sure how often I'll play it.  It's definitely not an "I have to get this game," but if someone suggests it I'll play.

Britannia

Avalon Hill Edition

I played this game quite a bit in the 90s, and a few times at AvalonCon. It's like "History of the World" but with a focus on Great Britain.  Players play a particular color and different invading groups based on that color.  For example, I played green and played the Welsh, the Caledonians, the Danes and the Jutes.  Each play takes turn playing his group based on the history of the group.  The game started with my Caledonians and Welsh and the Jutes and Danes came in later -- the Danes in force.  Historically, the game begins with the Roman invasion and encompasses the time period up to the Norman invasion (and then some).  Civilizations ebb and flow and great leaders (including Arthur, Harold, William, and Cnut) live and die.  Victory points are earned in various ways (occupying, holding, being voted Bretwald or King, or killing specific enemies), again according to the player's civilization and reflected the objectives of that particular group (for example, the Welsh gain victory points by destroying Roman forts or occupying York during a specified game turn).  The player with the most points at the end of the game wins.

The Welsh Resurgence (Fantasy Flight)

It's a fun game, despite the fact I came in last place.  I got pounded early and, while my Welsh enjoyed a resurgence, I couldn't do what I needed to do with the Jutes and the Danes to make a difference.

The version I played was the updated Fantasy Flight version.  The rules and game played just about the same, but the components were given the "Fantasy Flight" treatment (better graphics, more color, etc).

Unlike Conquest of Paradise, this is a game I will likely buy in the near future.

Walk Off Single Wins 1933 All-Star Game for the NL

I've long been a fan of APBA Baseball.  I started playing in a league during college (where my California Medflys beat the Newark Neanderthals one year for the title) and after graduating, played a few replays.  I wouldn't replay the entire season, but would replay the playoffs using a system similar to today's playoffs.

APBA Game box as it appeared when I started playing in the 1980s

After a while the game took a back shelf to raising kids but was renewed last year after my son and I traveled through Lancaster, PA and I paid homage to the home of APBA -- a few months before it relocated to Atlanta.  There, I bought the basic game and the 2010 season and my son and I had fun during the rest of our trip playing Red Sox vs. Cardinals.  When I returned home to St Louis I ordered a few past seasons, but my writing business spiraled downward after that and I spent most of my time job hunting.

Me in front of APBA office (Lancaster, PA)

 Then, I received the 1933 All-Star team via email and decided to replay that game.  Well, two months later, I finally got around to playing the game and what a nail biter it was!  Here is my summary of the game:

Philadelphia, PA (AP) - September 5, 1933 - After months of delay and change in location due to striking workers in Chicago, the inaugural all-star game was finally played at Shribe Park in Philadelphia and the all-star game tradition could not have gotten off to a better start, with the NL team beating out the AL team with a bottom-of-the-ninth walk off single by the Red's Chick Hafey.

Yankee teammates Ruth and Gehrig pose before the 1933 All-Star Game. 
They would disappoint fans by going a combined 1-for-6, though
Lou Gehrig would record the first-ever all star game hit.

The AL struck early in the second after NL starter "Wild Bill" Hallahan earned his nickname by loading the bases with a single, a walk, and a hit batsman.  Joe Cronin hit in Al Simmons with a fielder's choice, but Hallahan settled down and the AL was not able to score any more runs that inning.

The NL tied the game in the bottom of the second with an RBI double by Giant's first-baseman Bill Terry.   An RBI double by Philadelphia shortstop Dick Bartell scored Pepper Martin to give the NL the lead.  An RBI single by Al Simmons, who lead the AL All-Stars by going 4-for-5, tied the game in the top of the ninth, setting up and exciting showdown between Lefty Gomez and the best the NL had to offer.

Wally Berger led off the bottom-of-the-ninth with a fly out to right field.  Bill Terry then doubled to right and Gomez walked Jimmie Wilson to set up the double play.  Dick Bartell spoiled that plan with a sacrifice bunt that sent the runners to second and third.  With two outs, all-star game MVP "Chick" Hafey stepped up to the plate.  Hafey had already singled off Gomez and with Terry on third and Wilson on second, Hafey smacked the ball hard to right, scoring Terry and winning the game for the Nationals.

Al Simmons definitely had the best game, going 4-for-5 with an RBI and run scored, but played for the losing team.  While Bill Terry had a great game, I decided to award Chick Hafey the MVP for his walk-off single.

The St Louis Cardinal's contingent to the inaugural All-Star Game posing with former teammate Chick Hafey. 
The Cardinals accounted for four starters in all, including winning pitcher Bill Hallahan.

One of the great things about APBA is that it's more than playing a game - it's like your actually watching the game.  The flavor of the game (especially the master game) lends itself to a lot of enjoyable replay moments, like this 1933 All-Star Game.  Kudos to the new owners of APBA for sending out these free sample sets on occasion, it really helps to build and create loyal customers.

PS.  I know the actually game was played in Cominsky Park,  but I didn't think about looking up the exact location until midway through the game.  Oops.  I promise to do better research ahead of time :).