Developer Volko Explains the Game
This past Saturday we held an extended session, the star feature of which was a playtest of "Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain," a new COIN title designed by Marc Gouyon-Rety. Pendragon, which will be Volume VIII in the uber-popular COIN Series, will soon be on the GMT P500 preorder list (http://www.gmtgames.com/s-2-p500.aspx).
Pendragon uses the COIN system to depict asymmetric warfare between barbarian raiding and settlement of Britannia on the one hand and the Romans and Britons seeking to hold Roman Britain together as the Imperium collapses on the other. Volko is the developer for the design, and our Saturday session was a pivotal alpha playtest of new rules for garrisoning and assaulting strongholds and for amplifying the military punch of the Civitates faction (the nobility of the Romanized Britons).
Playtest Version of Pendragon Board
There was a lot of excitement at the table as the Falls Church crew playtested this hot-off-the-designer’s-table version of the game. Volko acted as game master, while Paul D. played the Dux/Romans, Mark the Civitates, Adrian the dreaded Saxons, and the team of Phil and Del, the fearsome Scotti. This playtest featured a number of significant tweaks to the game’s card set and combat procedures. Paul had played an earlier version of the game at WBC; everybody else was a newbie.
They played roughly halfway through the game, three out of six epochs (think coups in Fire in the Lake). Things were going rapidly south for the Dux, as the shoreline defenses in the east and west were mostly down, allowing black (Saxon) and green (Scotti) warbands to mass on the shores. The barbarians arrive in waves of “raiders,” which can plop down anywhere along the many miles of coastline in search of plunder and weakly defended towns to sack for treasure. Pendragon is really a form of D-Day invasion game!
The raiders are poor fighters, up against deadly units of Dux cavalry, which sally forth along the excellent Roman road network to nip threats in the bud. But sometimes things go wrong. Raiders may evade interception attempts, and the sheer size and volume of the raiding makes defense a daunting task.
Playtest Version of Faction Sheet
While the Dux tried to fend off barbarians, the Civitates hunkered down behind the Roman shield and tried to accumulate a hoard of treasure for personal gain. The Civitates are hamstrung in the early game with a weak army composed of so-so militia units that move slowly and fight poorly -- there aren’t enough of them either.
In our test, we demonstrated a problematic weakness in the Civitates initial defense and a tendency for the Dux’s prestige to sink rapidly, if not fatally, out of sight. But what remarkably great fun it was for everybody, and especially for the Saxons and Scotti. We had fun and Marc and Volko have fresh data for another round of tweaks. COINheads aka numismaniacs will be looking forward to this next chapter in the series.
Strings of Words
At the other table, Alex, Tom G., Jason, and I warmed up with Codenames, a new and really fun little filler. Twenty-five cards each bearing a single word are laid out in a tableau. One player then tells his partner one word and one number, the number being the number of cards the one-word clue refers to. For example, if "rose,""carnation," and "daffodil" are among the cards in the tableau, the clue could be "flowers-3" or if "mouth" and "music" are clues then the clue could be "singing-2." The simplicity is deceptive; stretching for the harder three or four card clues can be (pleasantly) brain burning.
Note Cthulhu Has Defeated Superman; Captured Fortress of Solitude
We then moved on to Cthulhu Wars, which was new to me. I played the King in Yellow/Hastur Great Old One, Tom G. took Cthulhu himself, Alex was the Shub-Niggurath, and Jason was the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep. The most conspicuous thing about the game are the huge and well-sculpted miniatures, but there's real substance under the sexy exterior. Starting positions and faction abilities are asymmetric. Board position quickly becomes crowded and diplomacy and warfare start early. Perhaps most crucial to the game is planning the steps required to unlock the six spell books needed to win and which give new special abilities) and timing the emergence of one's own Great Old One. Often players can generate a sort of Dominion-like chain reaction of new abilities with proper timing.
Alex Bravely Confronts Cthulhu
In our game, I tried to avoid conflict and concentrated on forming a happy band of creatures that unkind people call undead. Then using the King in Yellow's special ability, I began to spread "desecration" (I preferred to think of it as "blessings") around the world. Unfortunately, my lightly guarded Gates (which are portals for mustering new units and worth VPs) were easy picking for the Nyarlathotep forces. Tom G. however well used his ability to wreak havoc in ocean spaces and in the end won though i was close behind.
ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
After Cthulhu Wars, Phil defected from Pendragon and joined us as we continued the Cthulhu theme with game of A Study in Emerald. Like Android, A Study in Emerald is rococo gaming, with complicated multi-colored, and intertwined mechanics and theme. I was a loyalist but obscured my identity for a while by blocking Alex's attempt to acquire a Hide Royalty card. However, it was not long before the outline of our struggle became clear: Tom and Jason were malcontent Restorationists who could not understand that our tentacled overseers were really doing the best they could. Alex, Phil, and I sought to protect them.
There are many paths to victory in ASiE and this was an interesting, bloody game ripe with assassinations. Jason and I bided our time and acquired deck management cards while remaining unknown to the authorities. Phil sprinted to the front with a string of middle-ranked cities, while also pushing the War track relentlessly forward. Alex was doing well with Paris and London, but telegraphed his identity early. Tom G. and Jason both were foiled assassination attempts by double agents and found it hard to generate the hands to get further attempts.
In the end, my deck preparation paid off as I plucked a city from Jason and a city from Phil to push to 23 points. Phil and Alex were just a little bit behind
Long Live Our Tentacled Rulers
I love games with chrome and so much going on that you can't possibly wrap your head around it all: ASiE, Android, and Triumph of Chaos all come to mind. ASiE is pretty much the exemplar of such a game with at least a dozen paths to victory, a beautiful mixed theme, great artwork, and a clever mechanic that rewards deception, backstabbing, and subtle diplomacy.
Every game I resolve to be more disciplined in concealing my identity. Jason pointed out intros game how devastating it could have been had I maintained my false persona as a restorationist.
We wound things up with a game of The Grizzled, a cooperative with cute art and a darkly humorous theme. I think I must have missed something either in the explanation or in my own understanding of the play. I just couldn't see how it might be possible to win.
We had a little bit of a light turnout on December 3 and agreed on Fury of Dracula. I played the Count and dodged Dell, Adrian, Paul D., and Mark for a while. Unfortunately, my "clever" move to Ireland backfired when Adrian played hypnosis to strip me of my trail. I ended up in the rare circumstance of having no legal move. I managed to escape again to see. My blood was dripping copiously. However, i managed to run right through my pursuers back on the content and was far away from their search when I matured a new vampire for the win.
I enjoy Fury of Dracula but the combat is a bit fiddly and hard to intuit well. Letters of White Chapel seems like a cleaner implementation of the search mechanic but the theme, of course, pales next to the Count.
Way back on November 19, Eric S., Mark, and I tried our hand at Rune Wars again, the second time in just a few weeks. I thought I had a distinct advantage after set up when I had a nice chunk of fertile land to myself while mark and Eric set up close to one another. I apparently frittered away this advantage, however, as Eric pulled out the win.
There's a lot to like about Rune Wars. The artwork and components are first rate. The set-up mechanic and various hex shapes are clever and ensure a fresh game each time. The cards work well with the theme and seem relatively balanced. My mixed feelings about the game center around the hero mechanism. As a mechanic the way the hero system overlays the army battles is elegant and works well with little confusion or . So, I like this part of the game. however, it is this same mechanic that it sometimes seems that Runewars can't decide what game it wants to be: dungeon crawl or army battle.
Certainly a Lot of Moving Pieces
Cristina Counts Out Her VPs
At the other end of the table, Dell, Cristina, and Adrian tried Suburbia. i have not played this game and did not get a detailed report, but from the snatches of table talk I could hear, it sounded like Dell set up a "winning" position only to be overtaken by Cristina in the end of game scoring, which had happened to Del once before a few weeks ago.
Telestrating
The Thanksgiving Holiday and a trip to San Francisco also gave me chance to do some other gaming. I played Telestrations with a friend and his family. My crude Neanderthal scribblings gave them a lot of laughs though not me.
We followed up with Love letter. This is a perfect family game. Compact and easy to play. Not too serious. Kids can compete with adult. Not more than a filler though.
On Thanksgiving Day weekend, my sister took an opportunity to THUMP us all again at Monopoly. I am not quite sure how she does it but this is now twice in a row that she has ended up controlling half the board by mid-game.
I had recently bought the new Combat Commander Tournament Scenario Pack so after Monopoly, Daniel and settled in for the "One Steppe Beyond" scenario. As the advancing Russians, I set up two forces. One fired, while the other advanced and after a bit of leapfrog had gotten within a move of the Germans. I had taken some losses and can't say I was doing well, but I'd also noted that I had gone through half the deck without seeing a single advance card. With a few ambush cards in my hand, I gambled that the remaining deck must be loaded with advance cards and wrapped nearly all my forces around the Germans in a big bear hug. Naturally, I took a few losses in the advance but as i had hoped I got two advance cards in my next draw. The resulting close combats broke my way (Daniel actually rolled a "4" in the only close one. With the Germans largely surrounded and the dead lying everywhere, we called it.