AAR: Pirates (blood & Plunder) 24Nov19

I had not played an opposed game in the last couple of months, but on Sunday I met with Ian to give my pirates an outing using Blood & Plunder (Firelock Games). We used a 4’x4’ table with a cluster of houses (barricaded) in the middle, surrounded by a scattering of woods and miscellaneous crates to provide cover. Not the most inspiring of terrain set ups but I wanted to keep this game simple as it was a first outing for the rules. We randomly selected forces; Ian got a French militia force and I got Spanish militia (not a pirate is sight!), and deployed 12” in from opposite corners.

It was a bit disappointing that both sides consisted primarily of ‘regular’ musket-armed militias, so there was a tendency for both to move into cover and simply blast away at each other. I did have a small group of ‘Lanceros’ who did try to get into close quarters, but they were beaten back by French defensive fire and then destroyed by subsequent volleys. I grossly mishandled my group of bow-armed ‘Indios’ by letting them get caught in the open and be blown away. I should have kept them in cover, popping out each turn to deliver rapid volleys of arrows! I did manage to occupy the village square and destroy a unit of Frenchies, but this was only temporary and a French counter-attack threw me back. I finally conceded when I was left with only 1 viable unit left and no obvious means to get at Ian’s more numerous militia ensconced behind a barricade of crates.

The rules worked well. We both liked the decisions concerning the activation cards; do you want to go first with fewer actions, or latter with more actions? When the forces are in close proximity these choices are key. The use of the leaders command points can also be important. The core mechanics of firing/saves/resolve are all simple and quick to calculate, as are the basic actions available. We did not get many close combat situations but I think these would work equally easily. The main difficulty, at least for me, was remembering the unit/leader specific rules. As a result I totally failed to perceive the strengths of my ‘Indios’ unit, which resulted in their premature and unnecessary demise. I also had ‘poorly equiped’ militia, so firing using a club card gained an extra reload marker (I think I forgot this in the early turns). Also, Ian’s leader had a ‘high profile’ characteristic which we forgot negated some rules (e.g. ‘elusive’) of the unit he was attached to. The fatigue points worked well, limiting the actions of shaken units and routing those annoying small (1-2 figure) remnant units. The game played at a fast and intense pace, so much so that I forgot to take any photos! I therefore have posted a photo of some of my pirate figures below.

Show Report: Warfare 2019

The local Reading show, Warfare, was held over the weekend. For me this is the last show of the year and I generally top up on figures to keep my painting table filled over the long winter months.

I find Warfare to be an excellent ‘retail’ show with a good range of traders and a busy B&B. The demo games are OK but not eye-candy, and there is a large competitive gaming hall. I have pretty much finished my lead pile, so I was looking for inspiration and had a pocketful of money to burn. I therefore was disappointed to find nothing ‘new’ to inspire me! Maybe I’m just jaded, or I have reached the point when I have all the figures I could possibly need, but normally this does not prevent me from making spur-of-the-moment purchases. The main ‘new’ items seemed to be the Warlord Games Black Seas offerings, but I already have some 1/1200^th ships so I don’t want/need to switch scales. A brief look at the rules did not impress; too simplistic. Simulating the sailing of square-rigged ships does necessitate a more detailed approach, and the tactical handling of a squadron of such ships in a time of signalling flags etc. must have been a difficult process. Reducing the experience to a few simple dice rolls and wind angles does little to bring the period to life. I must concede the plastic models do look good, especially when fully rigged, and if I was starting from scratch I would happily invest in a few ships. The B&B at Warfare is usually good, but this year the range of merchandise seemed less and bargains rarer. I normally find at least a boardgame or two, but those on offer were over-priced and not particularly interesting.

After a couple of hours browsing, I came away from the show with a Warbase mdf Western Saloon as my only significant purchase! It took a morning to construct and I’m pretty pleased with the result. It is not the same quality as the 4Ground saloon, but only cost £15. It will require some painting and tarting up, and the interior space is empty. I will have to construct a bar, stairs, interior walls etc. but this should be fairly easy, and I’m quite looking forward to doing this.

A disappointing show for me from a purchasing perspective. I did not return on the Sunday (for the first time in years).

Boardgame Session; 3Nov2019

It has been a while since I last reported a boardgame session. Elaine and I have been playing weekly at a local games group, but I have decided not to write any posts on these evenings. Elaine also plays Mah-Jong at another group each week.

Val and Chris have not been around for a couple of months so it was good to get together again. We played a couple of ‘old’ Reiner Knizia games that were ‘new’ to us. We started with High Society, a simple bidding game that is a short (10-15 minute) filler. The rules are simple and easy to teach, but the beauty of the game lies in the twist at the end, where the player(s) with the least remaining money are automatically eliminated. Therefore as a player you are trying to get the most status points by out-bidding opponents, whilst ensuring you do not spend the most in doing so. The presence of negative cards also works by introducing the occasional rounds of ‘reverse’ bidding, and triggering a variable game end-point. This is not game that should be the focus of a game session, but it does provide an excellent filler for those spare moments that can arise and it can accommodate 4-5 players easily. I don’t think it would work with fewer than 4 players.

Next we tried Palazzo, a game I bought about a year ago from a charity shop and have not got round to playing. Players are trying to construct palaces of 3 or more floors, with as many windows as possible, and in a single building material if possible. Each turn a player can either get more money, obtain a new floor tile, or remodel one of their existing palaces. Each floor can either be bought from a central pool, or acquired by auction from one of 4 quarries. I am personally not keen on auction games (maybe why this game had not made it to the table), but Palazzo works well because the auction option is not dominant and other choices are available. I was surprised how much I enjoyed this game, and can see it appearing fairly regularly from now on. Val won both games we played; the margins were tight and I did not spot any clear tactical reasons that ensured her victory.