From: "Mike Galandiuk" Subject: [Consim-l] Buckeye Game Fest: After Action Report I think someone said there were over 100 gamers in Columbus for the BFG! The BFG is run by the Columbus Area Boardgamers Society (CABS), and they do a great job. I recomend this gaming event! With only a two and a half hour drive from Cleveland, it's a great time, and a "must attend" convention for gamers in Ohio. In a way, it's better than Origins, there's a lot less walking, but I LOVE Origins. When I arrived on Thursday, I played GMT's new American Revolution game: Savannah, and managed to survive to win as the British, outnumbered and besieged by French and Americans. Savannah is a unique game, as it covers a siege during the American Revolution, where historically, the British won. The next day I played an 8-year old Moments in History (MIH), World War-1 game, All Quiet on the Western Front. I played the Germans in their final 1918 offensives to win the war. I launched my "all out" offensive against the British, with the plan of destroying the British Army and capturing the Channel Ports. After a very poor start, I figured out the game, and began to push the British back. I released my strategic reserve in the North, verses the soon eliminated Belgium Army. The arrival of the Americans gave hope to the Allies, and French offensive and breakthrough in the South, gave the Germans concern, in the end the British morale broke when I captured the third channel port from a British, French and American force, and I won the game. I also played the new Fire in the Sky, by MMP. I played the Japanese in the World War-2 game in the Pacific. I launched a successfull Pearl Harbour raid, and there were many air-sea battles from Singapore to the Gilbert Islands, but in the end my Japanese Navy was sunk, and I surrendered to the huge U.S. naval armada. I played another new GMT game; Under the Lilly Banners. This game is about the French battles in the Thirty Years War. This is GMT's Musket and Pike (tactical) series game, that includes This Acursed Civil War (English Civil War) and Sweden Fights On (Thirty Years War). I played the French in the Battle of Rocroi. Though we did not finish, the game was enjoyable. There was a lot of cavalry action both flanks, with charge and counter-charge, but no clear advantage had been gained by either side. I latter played and won a Carthage verses Rome battle from Decisions Games' Battles of the Ancient World. This series is a simple, "attack everyone you're next to" game. It was fast and fun. During all this, James, RJ and Mark Novara were playing another new GMT game: CARTHAGE, about the First Punic War. RJ and James played Carthage and Mark, the Romans. There's politics on both sides that limit their armies and manuvere, which makes it rather unique. Armies have no movement alowance, and can move as far as they can, but suffer attrition, and when moving by sea, storms and other mishaps. This is not a simple game. There are plenty of charts and tables to reference during the game. Mark playtested it, and was very familiar with the rules. I stopped in a helped out whenever I could between the other games I played. I also played several eurogames, which are social and fun. The most enjoyable, and involving was Die Macher, which is a game about German elections. The game has several interlocking mechanics that determine the winner. I played the entire game not knowing how it would all work out in the end, but managed, to my suprise, come in second place! I met many new people, and had lots of laughs at the BGF. I must mention CABS and all the time and effort they put into this event just so I can have a good time. There's plenty of Eurogames at Origins too, but CABS also runs the WAR ROOM at Origins. I also recommend it to any wargamer. In the last few years Mark and I have played a monster game at Origins. We's played This Hallowed Ground, June 6th, Three Days of Gettysburg, Across the Rappahannock, and Stalingrad Pocket-2. If you're at Origins, check out the WAR ROOM and look for Mark and me holding twisers around some huge table with a map, and hundreds of counters. _______________________________________________ Consim-l mailing list Consim-l@mailman.halisp.net http://mailman.halisp.net/mailman/listinfo/consim-l Kevin Rohrer - Oct 8, 2005 6:45 pm (#10928 Total: 10970) Thoroughly satiated by the Buckeye Game Fest BGF VI AAR, part-1 Day-1 Thursday The best of all the small cons I have attended, the Columbus Area Boardgaming Society's Buckeye Game Fest started at Noon on Thursday, The BGF was held at the Worthington Radisson Hotel, which is located along the north edge of Columbus, Ohio. The BGF moved there last year after outgrowing the Holiday Inn Airport. The Raddison is nicer and the food is better, but the employees tend to be unprofessional and somewhat rude. I along with more than a half dozen members of my Cleveland-based club, the Northcoast Gamers Alliance (aka The Cleveland Mafia) made the 1.75 hour trek to Columbus because we know that any event CABS is involved with will be well run and fun. Each year the BGF has scheduled gaming events and tournaments as well as hundreds of unscheduled games. This past weekend between 150~200 gamers played board wargames, Euros, multi-player games, miniatures, and non-collectible wargames. I arrived at 1pm and gamed for ten hours this day, managing to get in one each game of Conquest of the Empire and Empires of the New World, as well as three games of Columbia's new block game, Crusader Rex. My fellow NGA members played Carthage (GMT), Fire in the Sky (MMP), The Napoleonic Wars (GMT), and many other wargames this weekend. Games I played Thursday: Conquest of the Empire: This was originally a Milton Bradley game in their big box, Command series. Eagle licensed the rights and did their usual excellent job of redrawing the map and improving the components. I saw both edition maps and the Eagle version is much bigger and better, although it it too bright for my taste. The cards and plastic figures also very well done, but as usual, there was not enough playtesting done on the rules. We played with the CotE II rules which are modeled after Warfrog's Struggle of Empires, a game I know well. Eagle copied the random setup, Influence marker placement, coalition auction, and amphibious movement mechanics from SoE, which are good things. Unfortunately, when using these rules, only a very few of the many areas on the map are worth fighting for as they are the only ones worth VPs. Yes, you can move through and garrison any area, but doing so gives you no benefit and detracts from what you need to do to win. Also, movement is unlimited and therefore unrealistic. In one turn you can move your foot-slogging legions by land all the way from Britain to Arabia. I wasn't aware that heavy lift aircraft were available in 3000BC. Although movement tries to speed things along and make the game chaotic, the few VP areas bog the game down. There is no incentive to do much beside garrison what few areas you start out with and slowly build up your forces until you can strike out against the nearest enemy province. Oh, and did I mention that the player who controls Italia has a HUGE advantage? With the rules as written, the player controlling Italia who builds a city there and properly garrisons it is almost guaranteed to win most of the Senate Votes and the game. Sorry Eagle, I hope you have done a better job of fixing the original rules that you did writing the new ones. I will try this one with the original rules. If they aren't any better written, this one will go to the Marketplace. My Geek Rating--6 Empires of the New World: A DTP game of the French and Indian War, it was well produced and well done. Mechanics are simple and the game only lasts one hour. The four of us who played it had fun and would play again. My Geek Rating--7 Crusader Rex: This is a Jerry Taylor block game that deals with the Third Crusade. The map looks nice and the blocks are big and colorful. I had high hopes for this one, but the playtesters failed to catch a sure-win Saracen strategy. If you want to win as the Saracens, just kill off as many of the starting Frank blocks as you can. They all permanently die while almost all your dead units go to the rebuild pile. By turn four, the Saracens will heavily outnumber the Franks. This little faux pas should have been caught. My Geek Rating--7 Friday Games I played Friday: Mare Nostrum: This superb, "Civ-lite", 5-player game of expansion, trade, and combat has a great map of the Mediterranean area and gorgeous cards. The playing pieces are Euro-style wooden figures representing legions, triremes, influence, and forts, along with somewhat confusing round counters for cities, temples, and caravans. The game moves quickly although it is a bit fiddly with all cards (13-types representing Taxes and Resources). In the basic game there are only three phases: Commerce (Resource and Tax allocation), Politics (construction and expansion), and Combat; each being controlled by the player who has the most possessions on the map of the appropriate type. A fourth phase and fourteenth Resource has been added with the just released Mythical expansion. In the Favor of the Gods phase, each player can pay three Resource or Tax cards to buy the favor from one of several Gods, the favor going away at the end of the turn. The expansion adds Spain, western North Africa, and Atlantis (the new 6th player) to the game. Now Carthage and Rome are no longer bottled up along the west edge of the map and have a new direction to expand. Atlantis has to move east, but has the room and Resources to do so. In the basic game, Greece was the whipping boy of the Med as it was bottled up by the other players. Eurogames fine-tuned the setup charts and made Greece stronger. The game also includes lots of heroes, wonders, and mythical monsters for purchase that provide needed assistance in building and combat. Combat is a simple affair where each attacking/defending piece (Legion, Trireme, Fort, or Monster) does one die with each series of five being a hit. In our 5-player game (the Greeks were neutral) there was no combat. Each player patiently expanded outward for four turns, laying Influence markers in new territories and buying caravans to gain Resource. Cities were founded to increase Tax income and Temples purchased to double that income. I as Atlantis expanded outward until my borders touched the Roman and Carthaginian empires. They both ignored me as I had no Legions or Triremes. I had Atlas as my beginning Hero and used his special ability to begin buying Triremes at one less than normal cost and planned on buying several Legions so increase my Lebensraum. Unfortunately, the Babylonian player suddenly had twelve unique resources and bought the Pyramids, which ended the game on turn-4. We all felt unsatisfied by the early, abrupt ending. Obviously, Eurogames made the low victory conditions due to them feeling that this was a "Euro" and not an American-style multi-player wargame. I discussed with everyone, and except for the winner, they all felt that the game ended much too early. Fortunately, the situation is easily fixed. I suggest that in all future games, the number of Resources needed to build the Pyramids be raised according to the following tables: Players Pyramid Resources/Tax Cards to Built # of Heroes/Wonders to Win Six 14 7 Five 15 8 Four 17 10 Three 19 11 Two 20 12 Kevin Rohrer - Oct 8, 2005 6:45 pm (#10929 Total: 10970) Thoroughly satiated by the Buckeye Game Fest BGF VI AAR, part-2 This adds at least three turns to the game and probably more, which gives opponents time to react to any threat. As it stands right now, everyone is too interested early-on to build any military. Anyone who does NOT win. By making the victory conditions more difficult to achieve, the other players will have built at least some military forces and can whittle down the leader's territories, thereby lengthening the game. Even with the too quick victory we all agreed that Mare Nostrum is truly excellent with the expansion. I had bought my copy of the base game when it was originally released, played it once, and sold it due to its card fiddliness. Now with the expansion, it is an entirely different game and really shines. Only the victory conditions keep it from being the perfect heir to Civilization. My Geek Rating--9 Kings & Things: This is Tom Wham's best wargame. It is a four player slugfest played out on a map of randomly created tiles of six terrain types. Four players try to outbuild each other and win by being the first to create a Citadel. My Geek Rating--7 Die Macher: A German game in every sense of the word except for its high complexity, DM is about the German national elections in the 1980s. The game is very playable even with in its native language. Five of us battled the game and each other for supremacy. I as the Green party came in third. The game is so complex that the three newbies came in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, while the two experience players came in last. My Geek Rating--8 Saturday The auction: CABS always runs a very good auction. Once you get past the old family crap games, there are some real bargains to be found. I picked up a new copy of the German Euro, Long Live the King for only $8, as well as an unpunched copy of the Derisive Games version of War Between the States for only $50. As it normally sells for $110, I got a real bargain. Games I played Saturday: Mare Nostrum: Next came a 6-player game of my new, favorite multi-player wargame. I again took Atlantis and made a pact with Rome. Four turns later I had my twelve Resources, built the Pyramids, and won. Yep, the victory conditions definitely need to be changed. Patrons of Venice: A new game by a Canadian Company called Toccata Games, PoV is a Puerto Rico clone where players build up their assets and trade in Venice. I don't know if I like the game, but it played quickly. With 4-players it lasted only one hour or so. My Geek Rating--6 Parthenon, Rise of the Aegean: We played this one with 5-players. This new cooperative trading game by Z-Man Games is excellent. The map and many cards are gorgeous, and it plays well. Each player takes on the role of one of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea by trading with each other and cities in both Greece and North Africa in an attempt to be the first to build 16-buildings. You start the game with two buildings (mine produced Olives and Wool) and one trading ship. Trade with each other or load your produce on your ship and sale to one of 6-ports to get items (Gold and Papyrus) not available elsewhere. Then use what you made/traded for to buy and erect more buildings. Each player builds different items and some buildings require one each item, so cooperation is a must. If you like cooperative trading games you will love this one. My Geek Rating—8.5 Arkham Horror: This 8-player FFG remake of the classic GW game is big, good looking, and plays well. Each player takes on the role of an investigator who moves around the Massachusetts town of Arkham, killing monsters and closing or permanently sealing gates before more monsters appear than we can deal with. Our 6-players managed to seal all the gates and collect 6-gate tokens, thereby winning the game before Chthulu reared its ugly head. My Geek Rating--8 Sunday Games I played Sunday: Crusader Rex: I played one more game and intend on playing many more. Tigris & Euphrates: Another excellent Euro, this 4-player game is not for faint-hearted. Although the mechanics aren't too difficult, the game strategy is extremely complex and difficult to master. This one is highly recommended for a deep Euro (which is contradiction in terms). My Geek Rating--9 The con officially ended at 5p. I left at 4:30p with >30 people still gaming away. I had lots of fun, playing ten games a total of 15-times. For those interested in coming to the BGF VII, it is scheduled for September 18~October 1, 2006. The con cost is quite reasonable when compared to the both the quantity and quality of gaming you will receive. Thos who stay at the hotel get a reduced rate of $70 ($81.25 after taxes). For more info on the BGF and CABS, see: www.buckeyeboardgamers.org www.radisson.com Kevin Rohrer NGA & CABS Member