Winter Wonderland Wargaming!

I finally took a long vacation of about 2+ weeks, and filled most of the first week with wargaming with all my good friends.

Monday - Maria (War of the Austrian Succession)

I haven't played Maria, but have played Frederick by the same company. Maria is a 3 player game with our games only including the basic rules and the Bohemian map.

Steven H was the French\Bavarian alliance.
Steven M was the Austrias (fair Maria)
I was Frederick the Great

Maria in her younger days

We played two games with me taking the first one by victory locations (Maria and her generals were off killing French, while I snuck in behind her and gathered 12 fortresses.

The second game we all had a better handle on the game and I was able to attack two Austrian armies who were in diamonds, while my 4 armies were in 3 different suites and included the Saxon army (which was destroyed in the process of burning through Maria's diamonds). Here is a photo of me before delivering the killing blow to Maria and her white clad army.

See the resemblance?

Tuesday - Command & Colors Ancients

I've been looking forward to a game day of C&C Ancients for years so Phil and I picked our top 5 battles from the Rome vs Barbarian expansion and began playing them on Tuesday morning around 10am. We played until about 3:30pm and we were able to finish five games in that timeframe (+ lunch).

Here is a chart of the games we played, along with the victory banner count and winner. "R-EB8" means Romans played by Eric with 8 victory banners.

C&C Ancients – Expansion #2 – Rome vs Barbarians
Battle	Date	Army	Army	Victor	Winner	Loser	Notes
Clusium	225 BC	Roman	Gauls	Gauls	R-EB8	G-PG0	Average
Aquae Sextiae	102 BC	Roman	German Tribes	Roman	R-EB6	G-PG2	Average
River Sabis	57 BC	Roman	Belgic Tribes	Roman	R-EB8	B-PG5	Excellent
Sotium	56 BC	Roman	Gauls	Roman	R-PG6	G-EB0	Poor
Invasion Britain	55 BC	Roman	Britons	Roman
River Stour	54 BC	Roman	Britons	Roman	B-EB6	R-PG1	Excellent – Chariots!

Some photos of the games. I really had fun when I got to play with all those Barbarian Light Chariots!

Nearly killed Caesar in the last battle!

Wednesday Day - Sekigahara

Steven M. and I played this game Wednesday morning and afternoon. I've never played this game before and was so busy with the game I forgot to take photos. This is a cool game! I love the period flavor with the blocks, clan symbols, and combat mechanism. Fairly unique with tons of replayability.

Wednesday Night - ACW Sharp Practice (miniatures)

Robert kindly ran an ACW skirmish game set in 1863 with the Yanks attacking the rear guard of the Confederate army. None of us had played this rules (except Robert) so there was a little bit of a learning curve, however we all enjoyed the game. Robert's figures are nicely painted and the sabot bases are great for moving the individually mounted figures.

That is Paul explaining to Phil how his Yankees were going to sweep in an destroy the Confederate lines. In the end, the Confederates successfully delayed the Yankees enough to keep the Army of
Northern Virginia safe and intact.

Thursday Day - Russo-Japanese War

Phil and I play tested a RJW game called "Bear Burned by the Sun" by Brian Asklev. This is a block game in the Fog of War series by Academy Games. Only Strike of the Eagle has been published in this series, but I have play tested several more games in addition to this Russo-Japanese land campaign.

First, I love the Fog of War game mechanics: card driven, with unit orders, and no dice. I love the card play interaction with the combat mechanics. The order system really allows you to bluff and apply strategic thinking to your game.

Here is a review of Strike of the Eagle by Marco if you want to understand how it all works.

Some photos from our two games, which turned out to be very close. These are all playtest graphics, and I made the block labels. I also have 15mm Japanese army for the period and have them on the table holding the playtest map down. Below is the Japan holding box, with Japanese infantry divisions and brigades awaiting transport to the Chinese mainland.

The first game was the introductory scenario that lasts 2 operations + the Replacement phase, which allowed Phil, who has never played a Fog of War game, to get a better grasp of the rules. This was a minor Japanese victory, and played in about 1.5 hours.

Monday December 26th - Game of Thrones

I had the pleasure of meeting some new gamers down at the Carolina Table Top hobby store in Pineville, NC (about 15 minutes away) and we played Game of Thrones. I had never played the game before, but certainly love the HBO series.

I was stuck with the Greyjoys, which appears to be one of the weaker factions, but the game is serious fun and there can be only one victor!

Mike, Ben, Peter, Wes, Steve (The Hammer), and I played this beautiful game.

We had a joke as Eddard Stark kept getting "assassinated" (card removed) by the Barathians nearly every turn after the Starks reshuffled their deck. Not sure Ben (Eddard) was too happy about it.

Victory face or constipation? You be the judge!

We managed to play 10 turns (entire game), without someone triggering sudden victory. In the end, my Greyjoys prevailed! Unbelievable. It came down to several tie breakers: total castles, total strongholds, total supply, and finally Power tokens. I had more power tokens than Mike!

So, that was my week of gaming adventure! Completely awesome time with great friends and I can't wait to get back to our weekly gaming sessions.