#gmtgames

GMT Games Downfallのキャンペーンシナリオの東部戦線の初期配置。ソ連軍のウラヌス作戦(スターリングラード包囲戦)の開始から始まる。独第6軍はスターリングラードを占領しているが、ソ連軍は強大な部隊をその周辺のイタリア軍・ルーマニア軍に差し向ける。もしロストフまでソ連軍の手に落ちれば、独A軍集団は袋のネズミ。それを避けつつ戦線を構築できるかがカギだろう。

The end of the Afrika Korps in No Retreat: North Africa. I really thought I had pushed far sand hard enough to have a defensible line East of El Alamein, but when things go south for the Axis they go south *fast*. The Commonwealth had a run of good cards and good dice and then after Torch the wheels just came completely off. These defensive positions look strong, but with the grind of attrition and with the Axis replacement rate so low, hanging on is tough at the end. Not quite sure how I’d play this as the Axis next time, but I’d look strongly at a) figuring out how to take Malta, and b) making sure I have as large a supply reserve as possible before entering the death zone of the final two boards and the paltry 4 SP resupply. I would also try to roll better. Man, clicking the Vassal button for a die roll and then instantaneously seeing what’s in the log is so emotionally unsatisfying. I was some doubt and excitement as the die tumbles through the air! Anyway. Having now completed my first campaign game of this is a number of years, I’d say revisiting it exceeded expectations and I quite enjoyed it, but nonetheless it doesn’t quite match the total awesomeness of The Russian Front or France. Still a lot of fun though. We’re going to try Crete next. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #gmtgames #virtualgamenight https://www.instagram.com/p/CBt6XnLB-e_/?igshid=1fay5zf5628hn

Another day, another Jihadi win in Labyrinth: The War on Terror. Like the digital version of Twilight Struggle really laid bare that game’s crushing balance problems by a) making it easy to play and b) keeping detailed statistics, I’m starting to worry Labyrinth is just as lopsided. I can win as the US by invading Afghanistan on turn 1 and just playing a very close and sharp game, but it’s hard, and there are number of event combos that can cripple you by shifting your posture to Soft and making it extremely difficult or impossible to counteract Jihads (I think if you *don’t invade Afghanistan on turn 1, or can’t due to a really unfortunate Opium card, you basically can’t win against competent opposition). As the US I’m about 50-50 in my recent online plays but I’ve never lost as the Jihadi and it’s rarely even been that close. What do you all think on this? I always play the 3-deck game so one side or the other can get a clean victory and avoid some weird end-of-deck gameyness, but I think the shorter games would probably be even worse for the US. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #labyrinththewaronterror #gmtgames https://www.instagram.com/p/CBrbv8khm3y/?igshid=170mzmimdn726

Another round of Labyrinth on Steam. Wow, re-exploring Labyrinth has been such a roller coaster. There are times when I think hey, this is pretty cool - especially highly streamlined by PlayDeck - I’m not sure why I gave up on it? But then I remember why it’s frustrating. This time I was reminded of how process-heavy Labyrinth is, like so many Volko games are. Doing the major jihad or regime change or whatever requires this and that precondition so you’ve got to get everything set up and doing 4 turns of War of Ideas blowing a bunch of 1-in-3 die rolls just to flip Germany to Hard or whatever, unlike in say Hannibal where you just *do* stuff. I know some people get annoyed by all the high-stakes 50-50 and 1-in-3 die rolls where if you can ride a single hot streak to victory, but this doesn’t bother me so much; like a lot of risk-taking games it’s crucial to not get tunnel vision and know when a risk you took a moment ago is no longer worth taking. I dunno. I know I say this each time, but I feel like this game would be so much more worth it if it had embraced a wider range of possibilities - if the Hard/Soft posture dynamics had been really developed, if it hadn’t gotten so obsessed with capturing superficial headlines in cards and had instead gone a little deeper. Who knows. I keep being torn between genuine enjoyment and mild irritation. I feel like the much more aggressive play style I’ve recently adopted for both sides does make the game way more fun. But ultimately because it’s just an action point game, like Twilight Struggle it just depends a lot on cars flow for engagement and balance, which isn’t great. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #gmtgames #virtualgamenight https://www.instagram.com/p/CBXKphQBGBA/?igshid=1otuc5m95ofr8

No Retreat: North Africa on #vassal. The Germans have given up on the auto-victory and fortified in front of El Alamein to try for the long win, after a swirling battle which saw both sides flirting with disaster. We’ve been doing this is short chunks (2hr) live, which has been kind of interesting and for which NR2 is uniquely well-suited. We’ll almost certainly go the full 18 turns and down to the wire, which will have taken us about 7hr - actually not bad (you could finish a scenario in under 2hr depending, and Vassal does add a non-trivial amount of friction). Anyway, quite enjoying and looking forward to playing in-person after this whole thing is done. Also want to play the Crete mini(-ish)-game. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #bgg #boardgamegeek #gmtgames #tabletopgames https://www.instagram.com/p/CBXIU5ZhfNA/?igshid=248ecykzvtgt

No Retreat: North Africa heats up as both sides escalate. Rommel arrives at El Alamein well ahead of schedule, but the supply situation is crazy with the lousy Axis supply infrastructure and he has to halt. We’ve now reached probably the decisive point in the campaign, where the Axis has the auto-victory just barely possible, but the British also are in a position to decisively turn the tide. I haven’t played this a ton so I haven’t figured out the whole Malta thing; it seems like invading is a crap shoot, but the upside of clearing your backfield might be worth it. The very early period of this campaign I don’t find that interesting, but starting with Crusader things heat up a lot. We’ve been using Vassal for this, but if I were to play again I’d probably use Tabletop Simulator. The way Vassal uses a million windows but then gives you no decent window management tools is just awful. Information is never where you want it, situational awareness is often bad, charts are inaccessible. And I also have to say, I’m not sure if I trust their random number generator for dice rolls. Plus rolling a virtual die and watching it tumble is just more satisfying anyway. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #gmtgames #virtualgamenight https://www.instagram.com/p/CBNOEMFhHNM/?igshid=1i2i84i0d8mfl

Couple shots from an online game of Labyrinth. This was a cool game; one of the reasons Labyrinth dropped off for me in FtF play was because the play got a bit stereotyped, devolving into parallel races with the US trying to consolidate good governance in Saudi/Emirates/Pakistan and the Jihadis trying to get a couple Islamic Rule countries around Iraq or Egypt. But this game was a dogfight, with the players slugging it out in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, although I would eventually prevail in East Africa. I like the 3-deck game because it avoids some nasty end-of-the-world issues and lets the game come to a natural endpoint, but this game ended up being long, 3 hours and almost 2 full decks. I’m curious if this will hold up now; while I feel like my opponent made some early errors that gave me an opening in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, I also feel like my play wasn’t super-tight either as I’m getting back into it. My advice for the Jihadi player is to write off the victory condition of setting off a WMD in the US early unless it absolutely falls in your lap; I think you’ve got to block Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States from getting to good governance if you can, and look for card combos to break them if they do; those War of Ideas bonuses are brutal. Plus the game is just a lot more interesting if you don’t worry about cracking the US border and instead focus on the near enemy. For the US: um, roll well. It’s funny, in 2020 the propagandistic worldview of the game didn’t bug me; it’s just a weird artifact of the mid-2000s. It is unfortunate though that the game is so obsessed with Iraq; a lot of cards are keyed to it and so the game can feel a bit flat if it doesn’t go there (in most cases it should because the game‘s perspective seems to be that Dick Cheney was totally honest and right about everything, but sometimes it doesn’t). A missed opportunity to do something more interesting. Still, bottom line, this has been more fun than I expected to revisit. Steam app is still a touch rough though. #gaminginthetimeofcovid19 #bgg #boardgamegeek #gmtgames #tabletopgames #labyrinththewaronterror https://www.instagram.com/p/CAZKGo5AtOs/?igshid=1k4o8f779wk44

Livin’ the neocon dream, knocking over countries, installing new friendly governments, takes like 15 minutes and nobody of note gets hurt. Labyrinth on Steam for #gaminginthetimeofcovid19. This isn’t quite peak PlayDeck, but still a very nice implementation with just a few rough edges. Get a copy of the player aid to look at though, otherwise the game is pretty mystifying if you haven’t played the board game. I wearied of this a bit in its IRL version because at some point the games mostly played out the same way - the US and Jihadi engage in a parallel race for Good Governance/Islamic Rule - but it was fun to play again, and we did have a bit of direct confrontation in Afghanistan and Europe as the Jihadi tried to smuggle WMDs into the US. Enjoyed despite the game’s limitations. Would be nice if they could do the expansion at some point. #bgg #boardgamegeek #gmtgames #tabletopgames #labyrinththewaronterror https://www.instagram.com/p/CAOXfIrh4Pk/?igshid=xpzg52ujusr2