[Consim-l] My playings, purchases, and discards in 2006

[Markus Stumptner]

On Tue, 23 Jan 2007, Dave Kohr wrote:
> Command & Colors: Ancients : Definitely the best of the C&C historical
> games thus far (I haven't yet tried the fantasy game BattleLore). C&C
> works well for the linear battles that characterized ancient tactical
> warfare, and this version differentiates the various arms (heavy
> infantry, skirmishers, missile troops, heavy and light cavalry) in
> ways that feel right yet remain rules-light. I am less enamored of
> using blocks--I think the system would fare better with Euro-style
> thick tiles for unit counters, and smaller "hit" markers on top.

I would agree, although, since GMT is thoroughly wedded to the notion of 
having full-sized soldier icons on every game piece, this is the first 
time they've managed to actually get them on the map in the right 
orientation. :-)  (Apart from the leader pieces in some of the card driven 
games.)

> leads to "turtling". As a consim, its focus is unclear, rendering some
> mechanics nonsensical--why bother with winter attrition if each turn
> represents several years?

This is one thing that I always found irritating about the VG 
Peloponnesian War game (which is otherwise very clever and generally 
acclaimed). The system makes it appears as if turns were campaign seasons 
with forces largely going back home at the end of a turn, yet one turn is 
three years.

> Against the Odds #16 with Vallee de la Morte : I purged all my other
> ATO titles (see below), but bought this one because I am interested in
> the subject (the siege of Dien Bien Phu), and I thought the game might
> be decent. My reasoning was that it had reached a second edition,
> which implies that that the first edition (DTP'd by Microgame Design
> Group) was actually worth re-publishing. After reading the rules, the
> system seems rather fiddly, and the main scenario is much longer than
> I had been expecting (though there are lots of short scenarios), so
> the jury is still out.

Haven't played this but having looked in the game's folder, apparently
they made a major mechanism change over the DTP version during development
which essentially wrecked the game.  (The change concerns "defensive fire"
which apparently the Vietnamese can use to shimmy up to a trench and then
defensively flush out the troops in the trench.)  Don't know if a fix came
out. Like many ATO games, it has a wonderful map.

> Quick disposal of magazine games (ATO, S&T) I know I'll never play, as
> opposed to the space-intensive hoarding in which I used to indulge.

An interesting comment since magazine games are IMO the most space
efficient form of game (apart from pure card games).

Markus

Last 3 games played: Abensberg/Eckmuehl, Star Viking, WW I
--------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ ---------------
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