Alan Snider  - Sep 10, 2005 12:16 pm (#10759 Total: 10764)  
On the Playtest Table: Khyber Pass Games' "The Battle of the 
Little Bighorn"; and announcing the "Northern Knights Wargaming 
Group" in Vancouver, Canada with a retail store of it's own at 
http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ 	 

GAMENIGHT, Sept 9th: In attendance this evening were Rick White and
Terence Co who played Dai Sensuo from DG (playtest); and Brent Louie and
myself, who played S&T #229 Khan: Rise of the Mongols 

This was another "cold" session in which we played Khan without any prep
time whatsoever, but fortunately the rule set was such that we were able
to get through a few turns on this night... 

Brent took the Mongols, while I took the Kingdoms side. As one might
expect, the Mongols went sweeping into Xi Xia on the first turn
destroying all of her armies as none were able to retreat before combat.
As an army is able to fight-then move- then fight again; it took one
turn to all but eliminate all of my "active" armies (those within my
control).On the one occasion that I was able to retreat, the Mongols
simply followed up their attack and destroyed me on my second go round.
By the end of the first turn, I was left with one unit on the border of
Kara Khitai. This was only because the Mongols had run out of operations
points. The Mongols had also successfully used diplomacy to get the
Indies region into their control, even though I tried to contest it with
my only chit (of 2) that could influence this dieroll. 

On my turn, I had little to do. I levied my next batch of troops, which
essentially return many of the destroyed troops to the map within their
home region (full capacity of reinforcement levy if an enemy troop
occupies your home region). As the turns are 5 years in duration, this
tends to make good sense. It is just a little odd in game terms. I then
used all my treasury points to buy strategem chits, my 10 points got me
5 strategem chits. Surveying the board, I looked to be in a bit of
trouble, as they Mongols had a ton of chits (about 4 won in combat),
gained an abundance of treasury points through control of region; and
there did not seem any way out of the spiral downward for the Kingdoms'
side. 

Brent and I then launched into a series of discussions around the
balancing of scenario vs campaign game; and it may be the case that a
campaign game would offer a better view of the system. Even accounting
for VP's and victory conditions, it does not appear on first glance that
the Kingdoms' side has much of a chance. One thing we did think of was a
strategy of bluffing on the second turn when the Kingdoms player would
have the chits from turn 1 to play. A bluff to play diplomacy on 2
nations an with a bit of luck one would load up in the area that the
Mongols would not contest. This ability to swing another region to the
Kingdom side would only work if the diplomacy chits were done concealed
(then revealed) by each player, but I seems to remember that each player
puts forward their bids in plain view (though not the amount of the
influence). It looks like folly to expect the Kingdoms player to contest
Mongol diplomacy attempts, as this would simply bleed the Kingdoms'
player of his strategem chits. 

So, needless to say...the game is a bit of a mystery at this point; but
fortunately Terence Co is also anxious to give this game a go, and I am
not through with it yet either. I shall let you know if we discover some
additional details which shed light on this matter.