Last Saturday, several of us gathered to play some games. In attendance were Bob, Carol and Rachel Jones, Dave and Noreen Fair, Scott Percival, Eric Haas, Dan Korn and Rachel Silber, and Alex Ruvinsky.
Scott, Eric, Rachel, Dave, Alex and I started with our long-postponed follow up to last August’s Wooden Ships and Iron Men game. We scaled it back considerably to finish in a reasonable amount of time. The scenario was that three Spanish treasure ships had gotten separated from their escort and were making a run for a fortified spanish coastline in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for them, identical French and British fleets found them and raced to intercept before the Spanish ships could get under the protective cover of their coastal batteries. The goal of the French and British fleets was to capture (or sink) the treasure ships and do as much damage to the enemy fleet as possible. Both fleets had nine ships, four ships of the line and five frigates. Dave, Alex and I were the French while Scott, Eric and Rachel J. were the British.
On initial setup, neither fleet sent their faster frigates after the treasure fleet, instead choosing to slug it out in the middle of the map. After several turns, multiple ships had struck their colors with the British taking the heavier losses. After this initial (and largely fatal) engagement, Alex and then Dave peeled off a couple of frigates to intercept the treasure fleet which they did just before the ships entered the firing range of the coastal batteries. The British attempted a similar maneuver but had no frigates left by this point. When the treasure ships struck their colors under fire from the French frigates, the British had two ships of the line still engaged while the French had two ships of the line and two frigates. The remaining British ships fled the battle.
We played on a really big playing surface comprised of a blue/white cloth covered by a crystal megamat. There were two islands and the coastal area to add some obstacles. The ships were the miniatures I got from copies of the old Milton Bradley game, American Heritage Broadsides which I hand-painted over the last few months. In the pictures you can see that the British have lighter decks, red flags and white stripes compared to the French darker decks, blue flags and yellow stripes. All of these elements added a great deal of atmosphere to the game. From start to finish, we played for two hours and forty-five minutes and came to a conclusive end. With two plays under our belts, the French are now 2-0!
Some time ago, Glenn put together an excellent Excel spreadsheet with templates for the Turn Order Sheets. This made it very easy for me to print out customized, individual ship sheets for each player. Thanks, Glenn!
After WS&IM was over, Alex left for several hours while we were joined by Carol, Noreen, Dan and Rachel S.
Not sure when the next session will be. I’m thinking of hosting Texas Hold ’em sometime in December. Possible nights would be the 3rd or the 10th. I’ll send around an invitation when I know more.
Bob
Tote Board
- Wooden Ships & Iron Men French: Bob, Dave, Alex; British: Scott, Rachel J, Eric
- Dungeon Twister Eric, Dave
- Tsuro Dan, Bob
- Tsuro Dave, Bob, Dan, Eric
- Wings of War Dan, Bob, Rachel S, Dave, Carol, Noreen, Eric Bob: Ace of Aces without the book. A nice, fun, easy system of WWI dogfighting which can play large numbers of players.
- Cash’n Guns Bob $135,000, Carol $75,000, Noreen $70,000, Dan $50,000, Dave (killed), Eric (killed) Bob: Basically, “Reservoir Dogs, the Game.” Fun game of pulling guns on your opponents. Are you bluffing or will you really shoot?
- Poison Eric -14, Dan -18, Carol -28, Bob -32, Dan -47 Bob: Knizia card game where you’re trying not to take cards, especially the dreaded Poison cards.
- Edel, Stein & Reich Eric 64:11, Dave 64:6, Carol 48, Bob 35, Noreen 24 Bob: Eric won the tie-breaker with Dave.
- For Sale Bob 60, Carol 46, Alex 45, Eric 35, Dave 35, Noreen 13
- San Marco Bob 66, Dave 58, Eric 58 Bob: A really excellent game for three players. Should make it to the table much more often.
