Whats on Your Table?

[Staggerwing]

^ I remember using some 'splatter' spray paints years ago that would give you a texture but they were monochromatic. Are there also ones now that get the multicolored effect shown in those wall segments?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

You can use stuff like Citadel's Agrellan Earth and Armageddon Dust to get multicoloured texture effects.

[Bison]

Krylon makes stone textured spray paints and it comes natural and brighter colors. I am sure other counties have something similar if Krylon is not availible.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I set up Enemy Coast Ahead: The Doolittle Raid in remembrance of the 80th anniversary.  I've just finished the planning segment of the game and it's not off to a good start.  Lots of security leaks even before Task Force-16 is set to leave port (and it's delayed).

[judgedredd]

It's the PM turn of the second day (18th September)

30 Corps is south of Eindoven
101st has a decent Premier but lost the bridge at Son
82nd is under pressure from the 406th Div near Groesbeek and the bridge at Nijmegen is going to be a tough nut to crack
The 1st Airborne are holding the perimeter but Frost is battered. Help is coming in but it might be too late

Very exciting

[bbmike]

Do those blocks come with the game or did you add them?

[judgedredd]

I bought a load of different colours...helps with "book keeping"

[bbmike]

 

[judgedredd]

Pic 1
30 Corps have taken Eindhoven and are waiting at the Son for the bridge to be built
The 101st have secured what they could and have also created a buffer between any approaching Germans and Hell's Highway going forward to the bridge at Grave
We're also making decent ground up the right flank - but the Germans have fortified the bridges across the Eindhovensche Canal

Pic 2
The 82nd have secured the Grave bridge and the bridges over the Mass Waal Canal. They've also secured the rail bridge at Nijmegen but there's a touch couple of units (doubled in defence) holding onto Nijmegen
Out of all the airborne outfits, they seem to have the least resources - though I think they get a load of reinforcements from Turn 6 (though they could be delayed due to weather die modifiers making it more likely to be overcast (and no airborne units being dropped)

Pic 3
As happened in real life, the British are getting squeezed into Oosterbeek. Frost took a battering but 1st Bn 1 Para managed to get through and bolster his defence.

All rather exciting. Made some mistakes with the rules, but overall, I think I've kept it relatively clean.

[thecommandtent]

Looks like its shaping up to be a great game.

[judgedredd]

I have to say it's really very exciting.

I've been lucky with Traffic Markers. On the first turn, the Germans get to put down 2 and thereafter they get to put down 1...and every time I've placed a traffic marker, I've been able to remove 1 so there's never been more than 2 on there. In the last turn I laid number 6 which I promptly laid up near Eindhoven - and then rolled a 6 to remove it. So 30 Corps haven't really been slowed down much.

I may not be playing it right in certain areas - but - it's my game 

I'm definitely going to have another game of this before it's packed away. Maybe afterwards I'll get one of the other 'xx games I've got to the table

[judgedredd]

So - I have made some mistakes. Little things - but I think defo things that could've changed the course of the battle as is - from both perspectives actually.

As the Germans, I think I've been a bit lack lustre in understanding I should be looking to blockade Hell's Highway. Things like in the second pic, I eventually worked out the German Engineer unit could get to Grave and prevent a crossing for a period of time. I overlooked that option because I'd forgotten about the 1/3rd 1/2 movement values for Engineer units.

Again in the second pic, I have a an strong Armour unit heading up to support the Engineers. They aren't crossing - just preventing a crossing.

I've also forgot at times about the no armour shift out of woods...the 1st Airborne suffered that one. Same with no doubling of armour in cities (and towns?).

Also - more importantly for the Allies, I've been reluctant to engage. Particularly with 30 Corps...but also with the 1st Airborne and the 82nd at Nijmegen...so they've taken a bit of a battering because German pressure just keeps building. I've not been engaging on 2:1 odds which - actually - aren't horrible. Not great and you want more, but 2:1 can work in your favour.

Anyway - here's the situation on turn 7 - September 19th (PM)

The time line states the German 107th attacks the Son crossing. I've actually got it heading to Grave.

30 Corps are over the Wilhelmina Canal at Son and the crossing at Veghel and heading towards Grave. I've also made ground over the Zuid Wilhems Canal (after I remembered about making crossings over canals using tactical movement).

The 82nd have shrunk it's perimeter to take account of stronger holding positions. They've also grabbed the bridge at Nijmegen...using 2:1 odds. They are being squeezed mind. Also they have an Issue at Grave but one unit is holding out until 30 Corp arrive to assist.

As for the 1st Airborne. They really are being squeezed. There were no air drops the last two turns (the entirety of September 19th) due to cloud. So they're desperately holding space for the 1st Polish Brigade in the hope they turn up on September 20th. They will be able to land in DZ-X and LZ-Y (seemingly according to the rules) which is why I've made my perimeter bigger than I'm comfortable with. Landing in trees and town hexes is bad. Clear being best and Polder next best.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Three of us tried out BOIS: Origins today.  It's basically a Civ-type game where the players start out as a species of predator ape.  We played with Homo sapiens, the Neanderthals, and Homo floresiensis in our game.  There are also options to play with non humans species like cephalopod people and Triffids but we went with the standard game. 

The Sapiens player took an early lead in brain development, adding vocabulary and free will which allowed him to retain more ideas and inventions than the other players.  He quickly expanded his knowledge of fire use and was able to spread out from Zimbabwe into the rest of Africa, parts of the Middle East, and even Southern Europe.

The Neanderthals (me) got cut off from much of the rest of the world by re-glaciation and had to be content with hanging around in Northern Europe.  We managed to figure out pointy sticks but not how to effectively use them in combat.  The game swung back and forth in the early stages with the Sapiens player spreading all over the map due of his development of navigation and effective use of animals for mounts.  The Neanderthals were trapped but developed a high degreed of immunity from disease due to various practices such as burying the dead and child swaddling.  This did end up helping them ride out some catastrophic diseases like tuberculosis that ravaged the other two players.  The Hobbits were the first to spread into North America but they never did manage to fully develop their cognitive functions and so had a weak culture.  He easily fell prey to the Sapiens player.  Once the Sapiens player developed monotheism and converted to Islam (very rough event that utter destroyed the civilization that he had managed to build up until that point), he was able to spread his religion via fire and sword and pretty much ran away with the game.  I did try to stop him later on by limiting the power of religion through various acts of the Enlightenment but he was just too powerful by that point.

Very interesting title.  There are just so many options available to choose from that it's easy to get brain lock.  It's also frustrating than in any given game, you're only going to see a small number of ideas, inventions, and events so that you can't rely on any single strategy to win.  Looking forward to playing again.

If you're a fan of Civ type games, this one's worth a look.  The rulebook makes it seem very overwhelming but once you start playing, the actions are actually pretty intuitive and easy to pick up.

The game also wins a prize for worst box art I've seen in ages.














So many delightful events to enjoy!



And friendly ways to interact with your neighbours.

[Bison]

Good lord SDR that game looks intense!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

The way the rulebook was written made it difficult to learn but after going through it a couple of times and watching a few Let's Play videos, it started to click.  The mechanics are actually pretty simple, there's just a lot of iconography to decipher and a lot of choices available each turn.  Fun game.  It's the third in the trilogy and I like it the best, I think.  BIOS: Megafauna is also quite fun and educational as well.  I don't enjoy BIOS: Genesis as much.  The idea is interesting (assemble the building blocks of life, try to create single called organisms and have them survive long enough to mutate into multicellular organisms) but the gameplay relies far too much on random chance.  There's a ton of cool science presented in the game and I get that the designer's intent was to present the formation of life as very chaotic and based largely on chance, but it doesn't translate into compelling game play, IMO. 

I do think it's neat that you can play all 3 games in sequence as a campaign and take your sea sponge from Genesis into Megafauna, evolve it into a cephalopod capable of language  and then bring that into Origins and yes it to destroy all the naked apes for the Cthulhu gods.