GAMING: 1rst Monthly Gaming Get-Together Was a Success!

Hi Guys,

The primary reason I moved was to be closer to a new job, but the secondary reason I moved was to...

Rent a bigger apartment in which I could host games!

This past Sunday I hosted my first Gaming Get-Together and it was a great success...

Despite the low count on guests.

My friends Eric and Jeff showed up and all the better for them as I bought a tremendous amount of victuals to provide for the guests... we had IBC rootbeer, chips, dips, salsa, hogie sandwiches for all and a variety of other goodies.

We'd intended to play the classic Avalon Hills Civilization, but because of the low attendance count, we played other games... five to be exact.

======

Game #1: Ticket to Ride Europe

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14996

Eric: 2
Jeff: 3
Maksim: 1

- I bought this game not that long ago and what better game could you find for a couple of train nuts! Jeff and Eric are both big fans and I enjoy the game even if I'm not the biggest railroad enthusiast. I'm starting to discover the pacing of TTRE... build several routes and then focus on building unneeded routes that extend your line and collect points. It was the eight-track line the runs from Russia to Scandinavia that won the game for me. As is usual for newbies to the TTR series, Jeff came in third and will have a better idea what to do enxt time.

======

Game #2: Rail Baron

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/420

Eric: 3
Jeff: 1
Maksim: 2

- I was Jones'ing for this classic Avalon Hills rail game and Jeff is a huge fan. Playing it again reminded me of the shortcomings of Rail Baron... It is a VICIOUS game! Poor Eric got cornered out of several lines that he needed and the dice were visibly working against him. Jeff pulled a victory out of his hat by dominating the Northeast and Southwest. While Eric was steered into the ground very early, he and Jeff had a great time talking "train talk"... I was utterly lost! Good game although I think due to RB's habit of cutting a palyer or so out of the game, I won't push to play it again for some time.

======

Game #3: Drakon

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1276

Eric: L
Jeff: W
Maksim: L

- This was my frist time playing this game and I enjoyed it a lot. Most Tom Jolly games are an amusing twist on the gaming genre and Drakon is no execption... imagine the typical dungeons & Dragons scenario spun on its head and you have Drakon... The dragon has already won! And the dungeon party has now been turned against each other as the dragon has decided to only let one adventurer out of the dungeon... the rest become dragon vittles. I borrowed this game from Jeff after Sunday and have been disappointed with it since. It's seems to be a little advanced for my nephews as of yet. It worked fine for several gaming adults, but it is too involved for nephews and my sister's fiance's children.

======

Game #4: Guillotine

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/116

Eric: 2
Jeff: 3
Maksim: 1

- Guillotine is a classic and we all enjoyed playing this game, which coincided with dinner. I bought a whole ton of cold cuts and cheeses from the local deli and we chowed down. I also had pickles, potato salad and a variety of other goodies. Surprisingly, Jeff didn't have me make him coffee... this from the guy who would probably have a coffee IV hooked up if it just wasn't so darned inconvenient.

======

Game #5: The Cities & Knights of Cataan

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/926

Eric: 2
Jeff: 3
Maksim: 1

- We ended the night with this classic that Eric loves. Mines were very common and we cycled through the blue card deck a very large number of times... possibly three or four times. What won the game for me is that we all had forgotten that I had longest road until the end and when I finally noticed, I declared victory and that was that. With all of the blue cards flying about, there was a lot of serious game plays occuring... tons of spies, defections, marriages and the like. Good game.

======

All had a good time and are looking to return to the next Gaming Get-Together!

And in retrospect, I didn't send invitations out early enough, it was a three-day weekend and the Dundracon gaming convention were all going on that weekend... I'll plan better for the next GGT at my place.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: C&C:A & Lake Trasimenus!

Hi Guys,

I have to say that the one game I have been repeatedly playing over the last few weeks has been:

Commands and Colors: Ancients (2006) By: Richard Borg

What a great game!

Link to the BGG (Board Game Geek) page for the game:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14105

I've played what must be nearly twenty games of C&C:A over the last few weeks... played the Cannae scenario about seven times to date, the Lake Trasimenus scenario twice, and several of the other scenarios.

C&C:A is described as:

From the designer:

"Commands & Colors: Ancients depicts warfare from the Dawn of Military History (3000 BC) to the opening of the Middle Ages (400 AD). Quite an ambitious undertaking for one game, yet Commands & Colors by design is a unique historical game system which allows players to effectively portray, stylized battles from this time in history. The 13 battles, showcased in the scenario booklet, although stylized, focus on important terrain features and the historical deployment of forces in scale with the game system. The battles include Bagradas, Cannae, and Zama."

"The scale of the game fluctuates from battle to battle. For some scenarios, an infantry unit may represent a legion of fighters, while in other scenarios a unit may represent just a few brave warriors. But the tactics you need to execute conform remarkably well to the advantages and limitations inherent to the various units, their weapons, terrain and time."

"Unlike its younger brother, Battle Cry by Hasbro/Avalon Hill, Commands & Colors: Ancients is moderately more complex and contains additional historical details without the battlefield clutter. Most scenarios will still play to a conclusion in less than an hour."

"The command card system, drives movement, creates a true fog of war and presents both challenges and opportunities. There are four types of command cards: Leadership cards, Section cards, Troop cards and Tactic cards."

"The battle dice system resolves all combat efficiently and quickly. Each battle die has one Light, one Medium, one Heavy, one Leader, one Flag and one Swords symbol."

"The game mechanics, although simplistic, will still require strategic card play, historical tactics, timely dice rolling, and an aggressive yet flexible battle plan, to achieve victory."

And here is a link to a post I wrote about the game here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/100537

If you're an Ancients lover then I highly recommend checking out this fun game.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
In other news related to BGG, someone gave me last few Geek Gold I needed to buy a Geek Badge! Yeah!

QUIZES: Blogger Tagging...

Hi Guys,

The somewhat infamous Zac "Pixelgeek" Belado tagged my with one of those "travel the blog" questionnaires and I'm in a good mood so I'll play along. Normally, I'm not much for chain letters and their like, but Zac is an OK guy and wants to see this thing move on. I mostly watch gaming blogs, rarely anything else and at that, I don't check out other blogs very consistently (usually once a week). Well, here goes:

Four Jobs I’ve Had:
- Chef For a Nice Italian Restaurant
(It takes work to make pasta by hand!)
- ESL Teacher
(Have taught numerous immigrants how to speak English)
- Illustrator
(Illustrated for books and magazines some time ago)
- Military Interpreter / Translator
(Spanish while in Cuba)

Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
- Aliens
(A classic... love the heart-pounding end)
- Gladiator
(Makes me feel heroic while I do mundane tasks like laundry!)
- The Thirteenth Warrior
(Love the flow on this film, better than the book)
- Zulu
(The Welsh songs really make the film)

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
- Lost
(I watch it with my sister... very cool X-files style mystery / drama)
- Battlestar Galactica
(Not too fond of the new Starbuck, but love the series overall)
- Invasion
(Who doesn't like sneaky invaders from space?)
- Just about anything on the History Channel
(I can flip to this channel just about anytime I want and catch something interesting)

I don't actually own a TV that has antenna, satellite or cable recption. Mine is hooked up to a VCR and a DVD players and that's it. I've always felt that too many people watch too much television alone... if I do it, I generally watch it at other folk's homes as a social activity. I don't ever want to let the boob tube dictate my schedule.

Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation:
- Suzdal, Russia
(The history in Suzdal is amazing, you can almost feel yourself back in time)
- Massada, Israel
(Another haunting place where you can feel the history...)
- Kiev, The Ukraine
(Kiev is an acient city and full of interesting historical sites...)
- Mexico City, Mexico
(Mexico has its own charm despite the crowding and filth)

Four Favorite Dishes:
- Mom's home-made Enchiladas
(My mother makes the best enchiladas hands-down of any I've ever tried... the trick is in the sauce... browned flour really makes it happen)
- Mom's Spanish rice
(She's a genius at this... the perfect mix of rice, tomato sauce and seasoning... I've been taught the recipe, but can't quite match her expertise with it)
- My blueberry polenta tort
(I used to experiment with polenta torts years ago and came up with this recipe which is scrumptious)
- My Scrambled eggs with the good mixed in them
(...a little pico de gallo seasoning, fresh veggies, left-overs, etc.)

If you couldn't tell, I enjoy cooking and baking...

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
- http://www.yahoo.com/
(I get my E-mail here...)
- http://6mm-minis.blogspot.com/
(This is my blog, I try to update once or twice a week...)
- http://www.epic40k.co.uk/
(The Epicomms community has been my homes for years upon years...)
- http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/6mmScienceFictionWarGames/
(I run a number of Yahoo E-groups and this is one of my favorites)

Four Places I’d Rather Be:
- Karmiel, Israel
(Israel is beautiful in a way that words can't capture... you can palpably feel the warmth of the people of Karmiel)
- At my home
(...rather than work!)
- At my parent's home visiting
(I love my folks and enjoy visiting them when I get the chance)
- Visiting friends just about anywhere
(My friend Vince, sister, Dick, Daniel "Dafrca" C., Kimbo, etc., etc.)

I really think that people make the place and not the other way around.

Four Bloggers I’m Tagging:
- Jeffro's Gaming Blog: Car Wars, Star Fleet Battles, Ogre, Battletech, and More!
http://jeffro.mindsay.com/
- Ty Beard and his FFOT blog
http://fftows.blogspot.com/
- Yehuda Berlinger & The Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club
http://jergames.blogspot.com/
- Zac Pixelgeek Belado at his blog Mini Crusade
http://crusades.blogspot.com/

I don't know if it's kosher to tag Zac back, but I do like to read what he writes.

Four of My Favourite Books:
- Any of the original Conan novels by Robert E. Howard
(Pulp adventure goodness at its best!)
- Duel for the Golan: The 100-Hour Battle That Saved Israel by Jerry Asher and Eric Hammel
(The story of the near miraculous defeat of the USSR through its proxy of Syria on the Golan Heights in 1973)
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
( I love almost every one of Card's novel... he is a genius at characterization)
- Any of the Hammer's Slammers novels by David Drake
(Gritty goodness!)

I'm an avid reader so this was a tough list to write.

Four of My Favorite Games:
- Command & Colors: Ancients by GMT Games
(I'm really starting to groove with this game)
- Dirtside II by GZG Games
(The run-away classic of sci-fi miniatures gaming...)
- HOTT by Phil Barker
(A fun, quick and simple way to relive those favorite scenes from Tolkien and other fantasy favorites...)
- Settlers of Canaan by Cactus Games
(Settlers is now a classic game and I really like this Biblical variant of the Cataan theme...)

This is a gaming blog community so it seems only appropriate to list games.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: The Shield Convention Report & More...

Hi Guys,

As many of you might know I attended The Shield gaming convention this past weekend and had a good time.

Here's a short encapsulation of the convention:

Hi Mike,

I attended (Saturday-only) and had a good time... definitely $10.00 USD worth, although not $20.00 USD worth.

I only played in two games:
1. Pirates Games hosted by Flagship Games guys.
2. DBA Tournament.

I felt that there was good vendor attendence for a smaller convention and ran into tons of friends that I've made over the years. I didn't see Ron's B-17 game (Avalon Hills B-17 Queen Of the Skies) although I did see him and his son.

One of the odder things I encountered was there being no registration when I arrived. I actually had to track down Manny (the convention director) to pay him!

If I had to capture the feel of The Shield, I would call it a slightly larger and more glorified MWS meeting... nothing fantastic, but there was plenty of good, clean and fun gaming.

I would go again.

=================

The big reason I attended the convention was to play in the DBA tournament with my friend Dick. Dick was kind enough to bring armies for both of us. He played a Roman army and I played an Indian army.

The DBA torunament rules can be found here at The Shield web site:

http://www.geocities.com/ancientconference2004/conference_002.htm

Northern California 15mm DBA Tournament
- (4) Rounds
- DBA Version 2.2
- Preset Terrain
- BUA's treated as bad going and all BUA rules ignored.
- No dismounting during the game by armies capable: must be dismounted at deployment.
- 2 Variations of army list may be used.
- Rounds will begin at 6pm on Sat.

I used the following Indian lists:

We were allowed two different variations of one list:

#1.
x1 Elephant general
x2 Elephants
x2 Chariots
x2 Cavalry
x5 Bow

#2.
x1 Elephant general
x2 Elephants
x2 Cavalry
x6 Bow
x1 Blade

I may be off a unit or two, but that's it or close to it off the top of my head.

The biggest news for me on a personal level was that I WON the torunament!

I really wasn't expecting to do well... let alone win.

I think I was out-maneauvered and out-strategized almost every match, but...

I wasn't out-fought!

Sometimes, that's enough...

==================

One of the bigger vendors there was Monday Knight Productions:

http://www.mondayknight.com/

I spent most of my "play money" with them and came out with quite a lot for my purchase... several stackable Battletech buildings, some small starfighters, some 6mm MAATAAC AFVs, a bunch of mini bases, and a 25mm resin vehicle.

The 25mm vehicle I ended up with was a big six-wheeled high-mobility affair. I couldn't find a link to it in 25mm, but I found its 6mm counterpart:

http://www.gtns.co.uk/store1....0.12070

It's product code and name are: DSM-115 STRIKER MMRAV rocket artillery vehicle (MRL)

The top hull comes in two pieces and I'll covert a flatbed cargo area for the rear of mine to take the place of the rocket launcher. I plan to make the rear flatbed module magnetic so that I can switch the rocket launcher and cargo module in and out.

I'll be using the 25mm vehicle as a "Salvage Dog" for the Star Mogul campaign that my friend Mark is running.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I almost forgot to share a link for the Pirates Game from Flagship games:

http://www.flagshipgames.com/

http://www.flagshipgames.com/Pirates!.htm

HUMOUR: A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Mullah meet at a conference about religion...

Hi Guys,

I just recently read this joke... and from this place among all others... in an article written by a Canadian Lesbian Muslim Moderate Reformer Refugee From Idi Amin's Repressive Dictatorship (...what a mouthful!):

A priest, a rabbi, and a mullah meet at a conference about religion, and afterward are sitting around discussing their different faiths. The conversation turns to the topic of taboos.

The priest says to the rabbi and the mullah, "You guys can't tell me that you've never eaten pork."

"Never!" intones the rabbi.

"Absolutely not!" insists the mullah.

But the priest is skeptical. "Come on, not even once? Maybe in a fit of rebellion when you were younger?"

"Okay," confesses the rabbi. "When I was young, I once nibbled on bacon."

"I admit it," the mullah laughs (not excessively). "In a fit of youthful arrogance, I sampled a pork chop."

Then the conversation turns to the priest's religious observances. "You can't tell me you've never had sex," says the mullah.

"Of course not!" the priest protests. "I took a vow of chastity."

The mullah and the rabbi roll their eyes.

"Maybe after a few drinks?" the rabbi teases.

"Perhaps, in a moment of temptation, your faith waned?" the mullah wonders.

"Okay," the priest confesses. "Once, when I was drunk in seminary school, I had sexual relations with a woman."

"Beats pork, huh?" say the rabbi and the mullah.

Here's a link to Irshad Manji's web site as well as the article in which I read her joke:

http://www.muslim-refusenik.com/

http://www.mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4045

I really enjoyed the article and was pleasanty surprised by her positive attitude even if I don't agree with 100% of her political thought. I'm still glad that someone can be so positive about such a serious dilemma facing our world. Good for her!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

WARGAMING: The Shield Gaming Conference & Starfleet Battles With Vince!

Hi Guys,

The apartment move is really coming along... most of my belongings are packed and the old aprtment is slowing being moved (scrubbing every surface, filling in holes with putty, repainting any off spots, etc.) although unpacking is nearly as daunting a task as the packing and shlepping itself! Ugh!

However, I am taking a break for most of this weekend and here are the plans:Tonight, my good friend Vince and I are heading down to Lodi (...about an hour or so away) to play Starfleet Battles with our friend Jeff. At least the last game he mentioned that he wanted to play was Starfleet Battles... who knows what we'll actually do when we reach destination. One things for sure though, I'm sure that we'll have a good time!

For those of you who don't recall Vince, he is an inveterate gamer and a great guy with a really varied interest in miniatures.

POLITICAL DISCLAIMER:
Be wary checking out Vince's site as he is decidedly NOT political correct. Warning given...

Here's a link to his web site:

http://www.recon-in-force.com/index.html

And since I know that there are a number of fans of Colonial and VSF games out there, here's a link to the VSF / Colonial section of Vince's site. As a side note, I've played in many of those games...

http://www.recon-in-force.com/Queen-and-Country/index.html

Eat your heart out, Tas and Vanvlak!

Tomorrow on Saturday, my friend Dick and I are heading down to The Shield Gaming Conference for the day. We'll be playing in the DBA tournament and generally having a good time.

Check out this link for more information about The Shield:

http://www.geocities.com/ancientconference2004/

And Sunday, Mark and Kurt as well as Dick have expressed an interest in playing a agme of Star Mogul. We are all three creating our salvage companies / Necromunda gangs and it should be fun!

I am organizing my company / gang around two combat squads and a third salvage team squad supported by some kind of truck for hauling the salvage. Dick had an old 28mm hover truck that I'll probably convert into a wheeled hauling truck for the campaign.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: Star Mogul Strikes Again!

Hi Guys,

I'm in the middle of a move, which has cramped my gaming style, but nevertheless have gotten a game of Star Mogul in. Last Saturday (4 February 2006), Kurt, Kurt's stepson Stephen, Mark and I met at Great Escape Games and gave a Star Mogul its trial run. I was very glad to take the break from moving. I've already had it with cleaning, packing and schlepping!

Kurt took his all-girl Necromunda gang and Mark played his scrap gang who all have a fetish for German names... something like "Shlieman & Sons" with every other guy named Gunter or some odd name from a television show like the Simpsons. Mark has a weird but delightful sense of humor. Stephen watched and I took ahold of a rule set and did my best to referee the game. One thing we discovered very quickly was that Star Mogul was written with the inspiration of Phil Barker... meaning that the rules are very cluttered and more often than not, difficult to understand... and that was with the errata sheet!

Stephen and I set up an urban sqaure with buildings and rubble strewn acorss the field as well as six salvage caches. Mark and Kurt were playing a salvage mission in which one of them had to either haul away the majority of the salvage (4 of 6 markers) or eliminate their opponent. It wasn't hard to guess which of the two victory conditions that the guys would be choosing... elimination of their opponents of course!

Both Mark and Kurt started out on opposite sides of the city and started out trying to find salvage. Mark's gang quickly hit paydirt while Kurt's gang struggled to dig through the choice piles to find archaotech and other goodies. Star Mogul is a pretty simple system in many ways and reminds me alot of Necromunda. Salvage rolls were made with 2d6 with the players needing to roll under their slavage ability which was modfied by the number and skill of the salvage techs as well as some other factors. It seemed like it was hard to get better than a 6 score, which made Mark's better salvage teams effective at finding treasure about half the time, while Kurt's lesser-skilled scrap techs had lower scores and failed a number of rolls.

Once Mark's gang found treasure, they prepared to drag it back to their drop site when we read the rules on hauling treasure back... Uggh! Four or more gangers are required to drag each pile of treasure at an average rate of two inches a turn! We all agreed that the slow treasure haul rate would make the game tedious so we're going to write some house rules to solve that problem... otherwise the majority of a game would be spent finding and shlepping treasure back and forth. My move between apartments is more exciting than that! Mark wants to have automated haulers so that the gangs can rumble.

Eventually the gangs came into contact and shots were exchanged. Urah!

We quickly discovered that Mark's gangers had the advantage... he specialized his gang into two squads, an infantry combat-specialized squad with a medic and a scrap squad led by a robot with a gatling gun. Both had impressive abilties and yet were effective in combat. Poor Kurt's ganf had a good mix of skills, most of which were useless since pilting or driving skills are only good if you have a vehicle! Kurt also took the grenade skill and I think he probably realized that grenades were pretty lame... only an 8 inch range with a 1 inch radius of explosion. You'd be lucky to hit two opponents let alone a higher number.

Kurt's gang was slaughtered. It wasn't pretty.

Kurt also tried using the infantry cannon, which didn't seem all that impressive. The gatling gun on Mark's robot was far more impressive. The game could use some more weapon variety. I plan to check out the sniper rifle with my gang. Some of the heavy support weapons seems not so useful.

All in all, it was a good session and I'm looking forwaqrd to building my gang / scrap company. And thanks to Dafrca's many generous trades / donations, I have enough 28mm sci-fi figures to do that. My squad is a motely assortment of figures though... GW, Void, Grenadier Colonial Marines, Metal Magic sci-fi and a few figures that I have no idea who manufactured them.

Star Mogul is a good game, but not a great one. It needs to be playtested and have the kinks worked out of it. A good editor could do wonders for the layout of the rules as well... make them far easier to understand. I'm looking forward to starting my own scrap company and playing ina linked campaign. I can't wait to see what Dick comes up with... I can envision him bringing GW Orkz into the fray.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: Warmaster Nice Updates the Epic Lounge!

Hi Guys,

Warmaster Nice in Denmark has updated his excellent Epic website: "the Epic Lounge" with even more beautiful pictures of his Epic miniatures.

His web site can be found here:

http://www.mustangsalling.dk/epiclounge.html

And one of his mostly recently upgraded galleries is of his "Blood Axe Orkz" here:

http://www.mustangsalling.dk/ork/bloodaxes.html

In related Epic news, one of my local gamers, Dick, is interested in playing Epic and brought his miniatures for me to look over yesterday. He wanted help putting together an army so I brought my copy of E-A and Swordwind and looked over what he had, which ended up beig a solid force of Imperial Guard and Space Marines and a sampler force of Tyranids and Orkz. Dick has decided to download the E-A rules and we'll see where he goes with them after that.

I didn't imagine that E-A may still have a chance in my area. I know that there are still several interested parties in the nearby Bay Area.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: The Tuesday and Wednesday Night Wrap-Ups!

Hi Guys,

Busy week! My old friend Eric Royer, known to many as Chern, is back in action. We met on Tuesday night at A-1 and got to exchange goodies and get a game in. He lent me "Babylon-5: Crusades" and I lent him the two "Star Wars: Clone War" disks and the second season of "Battlestar Galactica."

I was surprised to see so many guys at A-1 on Tuesday night, Apparently Tuesday night is the RPG night with at least four different games going. I was happy to see both Aaron McKinley and Aaron Morneau there among others. Fortunately for me, Eric was going to play the new boardgame "Descent" with Brecht, but Brecht flaked so Eric and I played my copy of "Ticket to Ride: Europe. " It was fun and Eric won handily.

A link to "Ticket to Ride: Europe":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14996

Yesterday on Wednesday is my regular night and I met Kimbo, Dick, Mark, Kurt and Mike O'Brien. Mark and Kurt already had a game of "Bloodbowl" (Fantasy Football featuring Dark Elves versus Lizardmen) going so Mike and I played a game of "Ticket to Ride: Europe" and I won this time around. Mike is not the sort that ordinarily goes for train games, but he enjoyed "TtR:Europe." Kurt pulled off a victory in the Bloodbowl game. Apparently Lizardmen win by pummeling the other team and Dark Elves win by being sneaky gits.

A link to "Bloodbowl":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/712

About that time, Kimbo and Dick showed up to fill out the gaming mini-party. Kimbo and Mike broke off to play "Twilight Struggle," which despite its somewhat boring sounding theme, The Cold War, is a great game. Mike played "The Evil Empire" (The former USSR) and Kimbo played "The Capitalist Cowboys" (The USA) and I observed the first five turns or so of the ten turn game. The game is card-driven and the cards really make the game, covered with period photographs and amusing captions with related events. They ended the game early of the ten-turn ending Mark with the Soviets ahead on the zero-sum scoring meter and called it a draw. The basic goal of the game is to lay down "influence points" to influence, dominate or control individual countries and entire regions. It was fun to watch Mike's "Commies" move on Asia rather than the Middle East and to see Kimbo's "Cowboys" concentrate on the Middle East. There were ony two Arab-Israeli wars in this "alternate universe" and the Israelis pushed Sadat to make peace after only two. It's almost like a world blessed witht he absence of the toothless and ineffectual United Nations. Iran and Iraq also had happier stories than exist in our "real" world. Very interesting game...

A link to "Twilight Struggle":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12333

Dick brought "Command and Colors: Ancients" and had devised a clever system to combine DBA with "C&C:A," which worked out very well. He and Mark played one or two games with Dick's new system and it worked out very well indeed. Dick has a point system worked out for "C&C:A" as well as a straight swap between "C&C:A" pieces and DBA army lists. Both Mark and Dick had a good time so I'm guessing it worked out well.

Mark graciously agreed to let me replay the Battle of Cannae as Varro and the Romans while he reprised his role as Cannibal's Carthaginians. This battle went very differently and I led the Romans toa very solid and possibly decisive victory over the Carthaginians in this game. In the real battle of Cannae, Hannibal let the Roman center advance and then swarmed them with his more numerous light infantry, which led to the Romans being overwhelmed. This is more or less what happended the first time I played the Battle of Cannae only I made a better showing with the Romans before losing to mighty Hannibal "Mark."

This time, I was determined to make a better showing and I did. I very carefully advanced the Roman center yesterday and wasn't averse to retreating if my position didn't look viable. Several of my front-line center auxilia took a real beating and I just barely had it retreat behind my second-line medium infantry. At that point, Hannibal "Mark" was clearly ahead, but the Romans had better position; both of their wings were even with the Roman center and the Roman center was in good position to regroup. At that point, Mark tried to bring in his wings to pincer me, but the Roman center regrouped with powerful medium and heavy infantry units and decisively broke the Carthaginian center. There were Roman heavy infantry units almost to the Carthaginian edge of the map when I won. However, it could easily have turned around had I not won when I did. The Carthaginians were pressing down hard on the Roman right and defeated Varro's cavalry before retreating under pressure by Roman auxilia. Hannibal "Mark" could easily have won if I had rolled a little poorer. It was a good game and I'm very impressed with the way "C&C:A" handles these well-known historical battles.

And the biggest news on the personal front for me is that my roommate and I have been approved for a new apartment and they're ready for us to move in this weekend so they'll be little to no gaming for me this upcoming weekend!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.