Berger update part 2

Unbowed by our late-night Twilight Struggle, Henry and I continued our mini game-a-thon on Monday morning, while the rest of the household gradually woke and brunched. Henry wanted a TS rematched, but graciously agreed to test out Hammer of the Scots with me, a block war-game based on the Scottish rebellion of the 1290s.

I had bought it when we were in Scotland on holiday, and it's previous outing is detailed elsewhere in this blog (or perhaps in the comments). Having now played it, I can see it wasn't going to work for Charlotte, but it is an excellent game. Each sides pieces face the player in question, so whilst you might be able to see forces amassing, you can't be really sure of how strong they are until you engage in battle. We played the Braveheart scenario, which is 9 turns, Henry as the Scots and me as Edward I, trying to pin down Wallace and the rebelling nobles.
Despite our inexperience, it's a very smooth playing game, and the ebb and flow of fortune was fascinating - at one point it looked as though the Scots would overwhelm the English - a turn later and the tables were well and truly turned.

The winner is the one with the majority of nobles on his side at the end, and the English win a tie if Wallace is dead or off the board. Sure enough we tied, and I was convinced Henry had won. In fact it turned out Wallace, who I'd been desperately trying to root out all game, had been taken off the board during a wintering round, and was languishing face down in the pool (the pool of available pieces, but the analogy holds), giving me the win.Great game, would love to play again - I'll bring it along to Septcon in case anyone fancies a bit of 2 player kilt-waving.

We squeezed in a quick game of Mr Jack (Henry's first - he won as Jack!), and then laid down sour gaming tools in order to be sociable and cook some food. But once the meal was over and the kids happily ensconced in The Incredible Hulk, more games hit the table. The four of us played two games of 10 Days in Africa, which feels quite different to its European counterpart. Charlotte won one I think, and I won one.
During those games, Henry had begun discussing an unholy idea: a couples game of Twilight Struggle. And more incredibly, Charlotte had assented. If it all sounds a bit pampas grass/bowl of car keys, it did feel a little bit like we'd strayed into odd territory. Luckily I had enough remaining faculties to realise that it would be impossible to explain the game to our respective spouses whilst trying to play against each other, and that, more importantly, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun as Lords of Vegas.

So we played Lords of Vegas again. I had some early luck, and it looked as though I would run away with the game. Charlotte looked to be in particularly poor shape, still waiting for a single point when the rest of us had got to the 10 point mark. But the great thing about Vegas is the reversals of fortune, and as the game came to a close it was a three horse race between Charlotte, Henry and me. In the end, Charlotte raced ahead by 6 points, with Henry and I joint second again - this time Rachel trailing in las place.

By this time it was nearly 1am, but Henry was hardly going to let the game-a-thon end without a Twilight Struggle rematch, so we made cups of tea, took neurone to fight off the encroaching hangovers, and waded in. This time I was the US, and had learnt from Henry's experience of the night before. I knew I needed to hold of the USSR until well into the mid-war, and I managed to do it. By turn six it was clear we were in for the long haul, and called it a night.

This morning  we returned to the board, and embarked on round seven. I looked at my hand and saw that I had the Europe scoring card, which can win you the game if you control Europe when it is played. I only needed to shore up Poland and East Germany before playing the card and I would, for the first time, win the game as the US. But surely Henry would see my plans and stop me. Fortunately for me, he was holding the Asia scoring card, which not only took his mind off things closer to home, but crucially had to be played at some point rather than playing an ops card. This meant that even when he spotted my plan, I was able, with the help of a couple of lucky high value ops point cards, to keep the pressure on. Before the round was out, I had complete control of Europe and won the game.

We both regretted not pushing on last night, since it turned out we were so close to the end, though I was so exhausted I may well have misplayed my hand, allowing the game to drift on in to the later rounds. Twilight Struggle is epic, awesome and deceptively simple - very very deserving of it's sometime number one ranking on the Geek.

We just had time to play a quick game of Manouevre before Henry and Rachel returned to London - Henry's Prussians beating my Spanish by a whisker, just a card away from nightfall.

A lovely weekend of gaming, more than making up for missing out on saturday's Shogunnigans and regular GNN games night tonight - and a special commendation for Charlotte for being such a good sport, given her natural antipathy for the gentle art of cubes and cardboard. I couldn't ask for more! JB