Risk 2210 AD Battle Report

My brother and I played our first game of Risk 2210 AD the other day. Although it is basically played like the classic Risk board game, Risk 2210 AD adds some complexity to the game play. In addition, the game board has been updated and there two other types of territories that players can strive for. One such includes its own game board. Like the main game board, the moon board is broken into sectors and territories.

What makes this edition unique is its inclusion of commanders and command cards. These cards, especially, add the complexity I had mentioned to the game; more about these cards in a later post.

Since I was the one who introduced the game and was the one who made sure that the rules were being followed, I did not have my whole focus on the goal of winning and my brother beat my soundly.

My brother quickly got the upper hand by establishing a presence on the moon and in the sea colonies, while I was strapped by the play of my brothers command cards which limited my actions

The Battle of Manila Bay Battle Report

The battle of Manila Bay was a battle fought between Spanish and American naval forces during the Spanish and American War. The goal of the American fleet was to destroy the Spanish pacific Fleet so that it could pose no threat to the US west coast. The game is played for fifteen rounds. The goal of the Spanish fleet is too survive the fifteen rounds without being totally destroyed.

It seems that the defensive and offence values of the American forces are superior to those of the Spanish fleet. After our fifth round, the Spanish fleet have been severally damaged the player controlling of the Spanish fleet capitulated.

Although I found the game interesting, the small counters and the stacking of damage counters made the game a bit bothersome to play.

Eight Minute Empire-Battle Report-#2

In a review I have read about the Eight Minute Empire game it was mentioned how there seemed to be an element of luck in the way the cards were drawn. I can’t say that I have found this to be true as of yet, but in our last match we did find that the drawn cards can have a stifling affect on game play.

On more than few rounds the cards that allowed for movement were not available, while other rounds these cards were available, however, if you wanted to advance your armies you were forced to pay more for these cards.

Six cards are arranged at the top of the board. Each position, in which the card is placed, has an assigned cost; the last few cards having the highest cost. This didn’t seem to impede the game, but did make expanding into other regions a bit more challenging.

Eight Minute Empire-Battle Report #1

My wife and I played our first game of Eight Minute Empire last night and contrary to the inference of the games title, it took us around thirty minutes to complete the game. Although the game is card driven you get to choose the card from the six cards that are always available. Cards indicate a good, a move action, acquiring or removing (your opponents) armies. Points are gained by controlling regions, continents, and goods. Our scores were close 17 to 19. I won by strategically acquiring goods cards that  were worth a bit more than the others.

This is a simple and quick game to play and is quite enjoyable. It is nice just to get to play an enjoyable game without having to reed through pages of complicated rules and scenarios. Good job Red Raven Games.

The Sword of Valhall, Battle Report

Although I might have misread the instructions for The Swordof Valhall, the game process seemed a bit redundant. To the best of my knowledge, here is how the game progresses. You start on the first hex and roll a die. Your roll is tied to the associated outcome under the correct table for the Rune you happened to be on.

For most of the Rune tables you must roll a two to move to the next Hex. The outcome, depend on the Rune symbol you are sitting on, you may be told to add an artifact to your inventory, or remove one from your inventory, ECT. There are five outcomes for each of the Runes.

What I found was that I was either adding an inventory point or losing one. This went on for several rolls until I rolled a two and was able to move on the next Hex. Although every table had its unique actions, the add one or remove one was constant on all of the tables.

Like I have already mentioned, perhaps I need to go back and revisit the instructions. I will give this game another go and perhaps if I added some miniatures to represent the explorers the game might be more interesting.

The Battle of Greenbier River-Battle Report

The Battle of Greenbrier River, also known as the Battle of Camp Bartow, took place on October 3, 1861 in Pocahontas County, Virginia between the Confederate and Union troops. The Battle of Greenbrier River is a game for two players. Each player sets-up their markers on the board in their historic positions.

It took us a considerable amount of time to set all the markers on their respective places on the game board. Most of the confederate forces are behind earth works which adds a 1 to their defense values and are on the opposite side of the river than the Union forces.

There are no dice being used in this game, but there is a Battle of Greenbier River points system. Unless you were able to mass your units it made making attacks for the confederate army impractical. In addition, if the confederate troops decide to stay behind their defensive positions the Union forces must cross the only bridge to attack the entrenched confederate forces. Union forces would be bottled necked on the bridge and open to artillery and infantry fire.

Combat Results Chart
Difference	Result
4>	The unit you are attacking disintegrates, remove it from the board.
3	The unit you are attacking runs at full speed behind them.
2	The unit you are attacking runs at full speed behind them.
1	The unit moves back one.
0	No Effect
-1	The attacking unit moves back one.
-2	The attacking unit runs at full speed back towards their HQ.
-3	The attacking unit runs at full speed back towards their HQ.
-4>	The unit attacking you disintegrates, remove it from the board.

We just did not care for the point system. We played two rounds and decided that we should come up with a better points system.

Pirates of Mysterious Islands-Battle Report

Two players controlled ten ships in the race to collect more gold pieces than their contestant. The nations and other combatants that took part in this battle were the United States, Great Britain, France, Spain, and Pirates.

While the gold was plentiful and the crews were able to fill their ships holds there were no contests, however when the gold became scarce the players turned their cannon on each other. Three ships made their way to Dave Jones Locker.

In the end one player had gained 69 gold points, but lost two ships, while the other player won by gaining 99 gold points and had only lost one ship.

Pirates of Mysterious Islands-Battle Report- #02

Over the weekend three of us that got together for a game night; the Pirates of Mysterious Islands strategy game was one of the games we decided to play.

My current fleet consists of ten ships. We decided to play a forty point game, which means we all were able to choose ships and crew that equaled up to forty points. That meant that we all had three ships and at least two crew members. Crew members usually take-up a cargo space, so unless the crew member has some pretty impressive attributes you may want to run without them.

Like I mentioned each of us had three ships and we all had a mixed fleet, meaning we might have had French, American, British, Spanish, or Pirate ships in the same fleet. This is permissible, but when using a mixed crew, the crew member can only use their special abilities on a flagged ship that they belong.

Besides our home islands we had a total six wild island in which to dispense the gold pieces. These wild islands are suppose to be set at least 4 Longs away from a home island.

Gold was dispensed evenly on all the islands and we rolled to see who would go first. After the first player completed an appropriate action we took turns going clock wise. I went last.

It seems that the two girls that took part were at odds with one another, that night and were in almost consistent conflict with one another and fired their cannons back and forth at one another. This severely hindering their ability to collect gold. Since this was the case I had ample opportunity to cruise to the wild islands without any mischief and pick-up as much gold that my ships could carry and ferry the booty back to my home island.

I ended up with more gold pieces and thus points than the girls and won the game. I have learned that unless you are able to completely destroy your opponent’s ship, that it is probably not worth the effort to attack another ship.

One option, that might prove profitable, but that no one pursued, was to ram another ship and board her. Depending on the roll of a die, you may eliminate one mast, capture a crew member, or take one gold piece from that ship.

Axis and Allies 1941 Battle Report-#01

Axis and Allies 1941 Game Board

I played my first game of Axis and Allies 1941 the other day. There were only two us and I won the best out of three in a coin toss and picked the axis powers. That left the three allies for my opponent. We played for four hours and had to quit; so much for a quick game.

Germany had the advantage of having a large force contained in a relatively small area and did not have to worry about supply lines as did Britain, US, and Japan. Coupled with the fact that Russia, although fields a large infantry, has nothing much of an air force or mechanized units, by the end of the second round Germany had sacked the Russian capital and Russia was basically out of the game.

Like I alluded to before, the game dragged on, and toward the end of the game the only countries that had any air units were Japan and the US. Japans navy was non-existent, Germany had no navy or air units, Britain did have a few transports, but little else. The only power that had substantial force was the US, but it had to transport units across the Atlantic and Pacific. Since neither Japan nor Germany had any way to bring the war to the US or England, I believe that the US would have eventually won the game.

I few things I would have done differently if I could have hit rerun. First of all I should have, after sacking Moscow and gaining one of Russia industrial complexes, built up my forces substantially here before moving on to take other territory. Secondly, after I had gained so many IPC points, I had at one time 21 IPC; I should have built up my forces not only in the territories I had just conquered, but also back in Germany’s original domains. Lastly, I should have made better use of my navy resources; I pretty much ignored these units.

Pirates of the Spanish Main-Battle Report #01

I played my first game of Pirates of the Spanish Main over the weekend. Just to get the feel for the game Fran and I decided to play a short game. We only used nine gold pieces instead of the total of twenty-seven. The basic plan for Pirates of the Spanish Main is to keep your opponent from getting to the “wild” Islands and collecting gold pieces, while trying, at the same time, to amass as many of these gold pieces yourself.
The rules for the game are rather on the simple side, but we still had some fun moving our two vessels around on the board (table-top), exploring islands and picking up gold pieces, and firing out cannons at one another’s ships. In the end, once the last gold piece had been taken from the island, the outcome was that we both had the exact number of points; a tie.

There are other rules for a full game and other house rule sets that are available online. These additional strategies should make the game a bit more interesting. I also have ideas that could make the game even more interesting and challenging. I just have to get these ideas down on paper, create the props, and implement them into our next game.

04

Risk Game #004

I participated in a game of Risk last weekend. There were three of us playing. We used the following colored pieces: yellow, blue, and green. The person playing blue was new to the game.

I was dealt four of territories in Africa and held the continent for some of the game. Yellow was dealt most of Australia and easily conquered the rest of this continent. She held on to this continent for the entire game. The Yellow player also was dealt quite a few territories in Asia and she took full advantage of this.

Most of the blue player’s territories were in close proximity to mine, so she considered me her greatest threat and pursued her attacks on my continents and territories. The blue player did conquer the hold South America for several turns, but chose to focus on my territories rather than on the Yellow player (she could have, if she chose to, put some pressure on Yellow), who took all of Asia.

With my constantly having to defend myself from the Blue player, and to recapture my territories I could not keep the pressure on the Yellow player effectively. Yellow had Australia, the whole of Asia, and Europe. With her other territories, continents and her card turn-in’s, she over whelmed us easily with her numerous armies and took the world.

Risk Game #003

This game of Hasbro’s Risk was played between my wife and I. My wife is playing red. As you can see I am still in control of North America, but for how long? My wife could have punched through my very inadequate defenses a few plays ago, but has decided to perform mop up operations and take control of the last few countries in Asia. I did control Asia for a few turns and was able to reap a large set of additional armies at the beginning of my turn.

The tide turned when I had mercy on my wife when she had started her conquest of Europe. My wife uses her feminine charms (psychological warfare) whenever I am about ready to retake a country that she had just taken from me. In addition, the dice would not corporate when it came time for me to counter attack.

I have realized that I cannot play a competitive game with my wife; I just cannot bring myself to show any form of aggression towards her very delicate disposition. My wife had the game won before we even started. Atlas, my playing Risk will have to be confined to playing with the guys.