Daniel Brown  - Feb 2, 2007 5:58 pm (#17050 Total: 17114)  
Where many were, how few remain Of old Familiar things! But 
seeing to mind again, the lost and absent brings. - A Lincoln 
	 
Latest Magazine from "Against the Odds"

"Golden Horde: Kulikovo".

I just finished playing my first game of this (solitaire, as uaual, but
what are you gonna do? I'll try at the Local Games Shoppe this weekend
and see if there is any open gaming going on....sometimes it happens...)
and I absolutely love this game. It is a great system from Richard H
Berg, from his "Rough and Ready"/"Men of Iron"/Sulieman the Magnificent"
games. 

I had a great time playing it, even solo, and really 'got into it'. They
system is fairly simple and easy with the activation system meaning that
you activate a command of 5-10 units and battle with them. The enemy is
also in the activation by means of 'Reaction Fire' for bow and crossbow
troops and 'Counter-Charge' by Medium and Heavy Cavalry. The Combat
results are Disordered, Retired and Eliminated. A Unit starts out
normal, a bad result will "Disorder' it -flip it over to it's worse side
and then really bad things happen to "Disordered' units that suffer
another bad result. "Retired" means the unit flees to the "Standard" in
the rear of the army and is useless until 'rallied' to 'Disordered'. A
'Disordered' unit rallies to normal by just simply no doing anything
while not in an enemy ZOC for one activation. And an Eliminated unit is
eliminated. 

The action in the game is fast and the initiative swings make for a very
interesting and Never Boring 'ambiance'. I have one game under my belt
and even though I love the game I still KLNOW I dont really know how to
play it. Even though the mechanics of the game are simple and relatively
easy, the interplay and tactical nuances are tremendously complex. 

Take the Mongol Light Cavalry with Bow Firing ability. Now, you can move
the Cav unit and fire as well (firing costs 1 Movement Point, leaving a
ZOC costs +1MP as well) and thereby recreat the histoical Mongol tactic
of shooting and running away. .And that would be an awesome and really
annoying ability if it werent for the ability of Medium and Heavy
Cavalry to "Counter-Charge" if they are shot at. If you roll a 3 or
less, you can "Counter-CHARGE" (Emphasis on "CHARGE") which means you
can attack the Bow Light Cav on the CHARGE CRT. Which is a pretty good
chance of not just disordering the Lt Cav but also getting a "Continued
Shock' Result. 

And I had it happen in my game. As a Mongol I thought "Heh-Heh, I think
I'll just go a plink away at the big horsies with arrows"...yep, Okay,
sure!...but then the big damn horsies countercharged...got ehe continued
shock, slammed into the now-disordered Lt Cav, got even MORE favorable
DRMs, "CONTINUED SHOCK" MORE and slammed into some disordered units
behind the lines...and...well....the annoying little tactic back-fired
in a major way. 

BUT, I was having a GREAT TIME!!! Because this sort of thing happened
all over the place, to both sides at numerous times -giving me the feel
of a wild battle with the Mongol Hordes and Medieval cavalry 'Hack N
Slash' butchery!!! 

There are alot of little niggling rules that, as I was reading the
rules, made me think, "How Fiddly! I'm sure NOT going to remember these
little fiddly bits!" . But in play, the rules flowed logically,
wonderfully and excitingly. The back and forth flow of battle was
exciting. 

And because at any one point, I was only playing with 5 or 6 units, the
system was not overwhelming, you could concentrate and the rules were
NOT fiddly, but logical extensions of the situation. I could say to
myself: "Hmmm... THIS should happen" or "I would like to do this..." and
BINGO, yes the rules did say go ahead. And at no point did I think the
game was playing me, but rather that the game Worked!! 

One major thing that will be interesting me (and holding my interest) is
in trying to come up with optimum tactics. In Addition to trying
different strategies. I basically played the historical battle and ended
up with the historical results -a Russian win, but with even the winner
suffering massive losses. Now, I have to: 1) try and find a way to use
my infantry in more effective way; 2)discover the needed 'balance' of
Light Cavalry and Heavy or Medium Cavalry 3) the proper sequence of
shoot and scoot; and 4) how to maintain implementing a plan as opposed
to opportunistic spasms of slaughter. 

At one point in my game, I thought "WOW! I'm winning with the Mongols!!"
and three activations later, "Oh *&%$, No, nope, uh-uh, NOT a good
thing" It looked good as it was happening but as far as actually doing
anything good or furthering my objectives? Nope, Just over-extending
myself and setting myself up for a bloody beating. 

I definitely Love this game.