The NEW New Boardgames Thread

[Ed Anger]

Ordered:

Mercury / Market Garden (A Rinella game just for tha haters)
VC II (DAMMIT SEEDY)

About fucking time too. 10 days ship time? WHAT IS THIS, THE 70's?

[CountDeMoney]

Heh, Worthington does have its snailness.  I think I waited for 3 weeks for them to ship me Boots on The Ground, and that was when it was in stock.

[CountDeMoney]

Hey Habs, you've played a ton of drops of AFAS, and you follow the BGG debates:  what's your opinion on all the HH bullshit?

[Habbaku]

Though the game is still fun if the British go about some method other than gunning straight for HH, HH makes the game rather completely broken.  The scores of British players floating around on Yucata that have mastered the method have yet to hammer (hyuk hyuk) out a proper counter to it when playing the French, even when they know it's coming and even when focusing entirely on defending against it.

It's a shame to have happened to an otherwise excellent game, but these things happen.  Wallace will learn his lesson and hopefully so will all the deck-building designers out there.

[CountDeMoney]

No hop for a revamp to rescue the mechanics?

I mean, I can understand and accept game play issues in much larger, more complex products where playtesting can sometimes be limited in both time and scope, but for a game like AFAS, which can be played with soooo much more repetition during playtesting, it's just interesting that something so crippling could be noticed so quickly after release.

[Habbaku]

If the game were reworked with the same basic concepts but a change in how sieges work and the disparity between troops available (one of the reasons HH works is because the British are so efficient at producing money and have a larger force-pool, overall, than the French), it could potentially work.  What are the odds of that, though?  Wallace released some patch-not...er, errata, but those don't significantly change the basic imbalance between the two sides in the military sphere.

I am likewise surprised that something so 'basic' was missed in playtesting despite a similar tactic being seen in, for example, Stalin's War and Barbarossa to Berlin shortly after release.  I am not completely surprised, though, because I've found that the majority of playtesters don't really play enough to discover holes like that.  A developer/designer would seem to need to consciously urge his players to try extreme tactics to prevent such pitfalls.

[CountDeMoney]

In short:  it's a great game, as long as both opponents haven't figured out the HH strategy. 

[Habbaku]

Lots of games are great until they're broken.  Look at For the People.

[CountDeMoney]

Quick question for Habs and everyone else:

Was talking to my buddy, and we were reminiscing about AH's old Gladiator, good, old-fashioned individual combat, which I played the shit out of growing up.  I was doing some surfing on BGG, and really didn't find too many alternatives for pseudo-miniature type individual combat, regardless of era.  Anybody know of any titles?

I know AH once had Gunslinger, and one of the other companies out there has a similar Wild West gunfight game, but I haven't found much else out there.  You guys know of anything else?

[Habbaku]

Gunslinger would have been my sole stab at it, aside from Gladiator.  I can't recall any off the top of my head.  I'm headed to Montreal tomorrow, though, for a nerd-gasm so I'll poll the people there and see if they can come up with something.

I do think that Legion of Honour (Clash of Arms) that's due out some time around WBC this year is going to have personal duels in it, though I don't think they'll be all that involved.

[CountDeMoney]

I sorta count AH's Firepower, although that's a title I never played.

[Ed Anger]

I sorta count AH's Firepower, although that's a title I never played.

Awesome game. Would make my head explode these days though.

[CountDeMoney]

I sorta count AH's Firepower, although that's a title I never played.

Awesome game. Would make my head explode these days though.

Yeah, a bit meticulous and over-engineered I suspect.

Boots On The Ground isn't really similar, but as far as small-unit individual action goes, it's a fast and furious play.

I was cruising through DriveThruRPG.net, and there are tons of miniatures rules for small-unit, individual combat.

Alas, I was sorta pining for something similar to Gladiator, for some reason.   

[Ed Anger]

There also used to be a game with medieval man to man combat. Cry Havoc I think.

[Ed Anger]

Hey. They are reprinting Dungeon!

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/dungeonbg

I'll have to get one to play with my sons.