Latest Wargaming Acquisitions

[GJK]

Received my copy of Hold the Line by Worthington and have been playing it against my son the past couple of nights.  Simple game along the lines of Memoir and Commands and Colors et al but without cards and dice with little symbols on them (thankfully in this case).  Fun game!  We've been enjoying an hour of The Revolutionary War History Channel series before play and feel that the game really captures the feel of the style of combat employed at that time.  My son - the wargame whiz - put a pounding on me in our first play of the Long Island scenario but this go around I wised up and have my Americans pulling back into defensive positions while protecting the flimsy miltia (who I lost too quickly and gave up VP's for in the first game).  The game was $15 on sale from Worthington - well worth the purchase as it's a very nice looking game with excellent components.

[TheCommandTent]

Received my copy of Hold the Line by Worthington and have been playing it against my son the past couple of nights.  Simple game along the lines of Memoir and Commands and Colors et al but without cards and dice with little symbols on them (thankfully in this case).  Fun game!  We've been enjoying an hour of The Revolutionary War History Channel series before play and feel that the game really captures the feel of the style of combat employed at that time.  My son - the wargame whiz - put a pounding on me in our first play of the Long Island scenario but this go around I wised up and have my Americans pulling back into defensive positions while protecting the flimsy miltia (who I lost too quickly and gave up VP's for in the first game).  The game was $15 on sale from Worthington - well worth the purchase as it's a very nice looking game with excellent components.

It is a fun game, glad you are liking it.

[bayonetbrant]

I might finally break down and get a copy at Gamer's Armory for me to play with Bayonet Jr

[TheCommandTent]

I might finally break down and get a copy at Gamer's Armory for me to play with Bayonet Jr

You should its not to complicated to learn.  I even talked my wife into play one time and she almost beat me, and I only helped her out a little.  :o

[GJK]

I'll admit, I am enjoying HTL and I'm not a fan of Memoir'44 (it's ok for what it is).  HTL seems similar in some ways but it plays very differently though it is a resource management gamet.  You have a variable number of Action Points that you can spend each turn and it's never enough for what you want to get accomplished.  Memoir does that by use of the cards that you have in your hand and whom you can activate.  In HTL, the choice is yours on who to activate and then with what you will do with them.  I think the big appeal for my son is it plays fast - very fast - and that's huge when most kids attention spans are almost non-existent.  My son has played ASL with me and he likes it but I can almost sense the tedium that he forsees that he will endure while playing.  In HTL, the turns play so quickly that it's his turn again almost as soon as his previous turn ended.  Up Front is like that and he enjoys that game as well.  So I think HTL is a perfect game to introduce non-wargamers to or to play with someone that otherwise wouldn't normally play a strategy game.
I've yet to play Commands and Colors and I understand that this system is similar.  For you C&C players, is game play quite rapid as well or is there more to each turn than moving or firing a few pieces at a time?

[GroggyGrognard]

GJK,

A wargaming buddy and I played the heck out of C&C: Napoleonics earlier this year. I think we played it for four or five weeks straight. If you ever played the Battlelore game, the C&C system is a very close cousin. I have not played Memoir '44, but from what I hear, the system is also similar to C&C's. The C&C rules are easy and straightforward, so it will take no time to learn and have the sequence of play down pat. After that, of course, player turns go quickly. By the time my buddy and I played the last scenario in the C&C: Napoleonics game--Waterloo--we had the rules and sequence of play pretty much memorized. We played the Waterloo scenario five or six times in one evening--trading sides each time. Hope that helps.

Now I'm intrigued to buy a copy of HTL!

Groggy

[Toonces]

The guy I share an office with is super heavy into boardgaming and he took me to one of the FLGSs here on Oahu yesterday. Oh man, you guys simply would not believe it.  This was, without doubt, the best game/hobby store I have ever personally visited in my adult life.  Seriously, I didn't know stores like this still existed.

The first notable thing about the store is that it is a complete disaster on the inside.  Just a mess.  It kind of looks like horders or one of those pickers shows where they scrounge through garages for toys and antiques.  Obviously that can be a turn-off, but I found that I absolutely loved it.

You go it the front and are immediately faced with just tons of various minis and paints, books, etc.  Stuff like HeroClix and a few games I don't really play.  You go into a room a bit further back and this guy has just got more model airplanes, ships, etc than you can imagine.  Wall to wall, stacked to the ceiling, and in many cases two or three deep.  Amazing.  Then you go back even further and enter another room and it is all of the minis you can even think of.  I mean a whole wall of Flames of War, but then another wall with tons of obscure minis, fantasy stuff, medieval, whatever.  I look up at the top of this shelf and he has this whole huge box on it that just says "Harpoon"...another bunch of boxes have various ships, planes, vehicles in all sorts of scales.  On the table I see a game called Federation Commander which I think LB played not too long ago, an open box stuffed full of all sorts of Star Trek space ships, a huge Hobbit boardgame box that I'd never even heard of...just stuff everywhere.

At this point I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm thinking I've seen everything, but we go back into yet another room (how far back are we now in this store?) and it's the board game room.  Stacks and stacks and stacks of boardgames.  So I get on my hands and knees and start pawing through these piles of games.  A lot of stuff I've been looking for for a while now like a boardgame called Silver Bayonet, but I don't want to go crazy.  Anyway, I found a sealed copy of a game called Norsemen by Simulations Canada that sounded interesting, and buried under about 50 other games an unpunched copy of a game called Dark Emperor by AH.  I love the old AH bookcase games so I had to get it. 

There was a final room even further back that was about every RPG system you can think of, shelves and shelves of books, modules, minis, maps, boards, gosh who even knows what else. 

So, my acquisitions actually came out light due to Xmas being right around the corner with two games, but if I'd had $1,000 I could have spent it without even trying.

I loved the unorganized aspect of the store.  It just made the whole experience like a big garage sale because you never knew what was going to be behind the next box.  I can't wait to go back!

Oh, and I also got Chainmail in the mail today.  Really nice components and I'm looking forward to giving it a go soon.

See ya,
Toonces

[TheCommandTent]

^Sounds like a great experience Toonces!

I got Chainmail as well in the mail yesterday but my wife is wrapping it and putting it under the tree.  She won't let me open it until Christmas.    :'(

[MengJiao]

The guy I share an office with is super heavy into boardgaming and he took me to one of the FLGSs here on Oahu yesterday. Oh man, you guys simply would not believe it.  This was, without doubt, the best game/hobby store I have ever personally visited in my adult life.  Seriously, I didn't know stores like this still existed.

The first notable thing about the store is that it is a complete disaster on the inside.  Just a mess.  It kind of looks like horders or one of those pickers shows where they scrounge through garages for toys and antiques.  Obviously that can be a turn-off, but I found that I absolutely loved it.

You go it the front and are immediately faced with just tons of various minis and paints, books, etc.  Stuff like HeroClix and a few games I don't really play.  You go into a room a bit further back and this guy has just got more model airplanes, ships, etc than you can imagine.  Wall to wall, stacked to the ceiling, and in many cases two or three deep.  Amazing.  Then you go back even further and enter another room and it is all of the minis you can even think of.  I mean a whole wall of Flames of War, but then another wall with tons of obscure minis, fantasy stuff, medieval, whatever.  I look up at the top of this shelf and he has this whole huge box on it that just says "Harpoon"...another bunch of boxes have various ships, planes, vehicles in all sorts of scales.  On the table I see a game called Federation Commander which I think LB played not too long ago, an open box stuffed full of all sorts of Star Trek space ships, a huge Hobbit boardgame box that I'd never even heard of...just stuff everywhere.

At this point I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm thinking I've seen everything, but we go back into yet another room (how far back are we now in this store?) and it's the board game room.  Stacks and stacks and stacks of boardgames.  So I get on my hands and knees and start pawing through these piles of games.  A lot of stuff I've been looking for for a while now like a boardgame called Silver Bayonet, but I don't want to go crazy.  Anyway, I found a sealed copy of a game called Norsemen by Simulations Canada that sounded interesting, and buried under about 50 other games an unpunched copy of a game called Dark Emperor by AH.  I love the old AH bookcase games so I had to get it. 

There was a final room even further back that was about every RPG system you can think of, shelves and shelves of books, modules, minis, maps, boards, gosh who even knows what else. 

So, my acquisitions actually came out light due to Xmas being right around the corner with two games, but if I'd had $1,000 I could have spent it without even trying.

I loved the unorganized aspect of the store.  It just made the whole experience like a big garage sale because you never knew what was going to be behind the next box.  I can't wait to go back!

Oh, and I also got Chainmail in the mail today.  Really nice components and I'm looking forward to giving it a go soon.

See ya,
Toonces

Wow!  Perfect.  I ordered Saints in Armor.  Will do Fleurus 1622 first.   Save Bergen-op-Zoom!  The Mad Halberstadter ist Mad!  As well as being the Secular Bishop of Paderborn!

I meant der Tolle Halberstadter ist Tolle!

[Barthheart]

Early Christmas presents to me!  8)

[bayonetbrant]

^^ You suck.  I'd love one of the solo air combat games, but stuck in that "just started a new job and lots of bills to catch up on first" world.

[LongBlade]

Wowsers. Nice loot, Barth!

[Toonces]

Bloody April has some absolutely beautiful components.

The rules, though...oh man, what a bear.  I haven't played it yet.

[LongBlade]

Bloody April has some absolutely beautiful components.

The rules, though...oh man, what a bear.  I haven't played it yet.

Was just looking at it. The "moderate complexity" rating caused me to hesitate. I assume they would consider the decomissioning of a nuke plant to be slightly more difficult.

[Barthheart]

^^ You suck.  I'd love one of the solo air combat games, but stuck in that "just started a new job and lots of bills to catch up on first" world.

All ordered from NWS at a fraction of the original sites price. Plus sent to friends in FLA that we visited on our way to the Keys to save on shipping and Canada Customs. Total cost about $180 and still missing the minis expansion fer TAL... Hope it shows up before we drive home....

Bloody April is not for the faint of heart but it doesn't look that bad.... so far... haven't actually played yet just first read of the rules...