Saturday 9 December 2017

Those Sassy Sassanids

The semi-regular Time Of Crisis crew met up on a chilly Friday evening with one change to the usual line-up: Sam replaced the otherwise engaged Ian. He’d played on the very first game of Time Of Crisis, back in July, but not since so he needed the occasional pointer and rule-refresher in the early stages of the game.


In round one, everyone played the usual hand of three blue and two red, to get a second province. Everyone except me. I played two blue and three red to buy an expensive governor and build a new army. “How odd,” said Martin.

Before the game, I had decided that my previous failings had been due to me treating ToC like a war game, building up a base from which to attack others. But, after last time when Martin went from almost no presence on the board to Emperor of Rome in one turn, I decided to be less concerned with defending my governors. Thus, when I had to place one, I didn’t put it next to my starting province of Thracia, I put it in Brittania.

This annoyed Martin, since he was about to go in there. Oh well, I thought, he can do that and I’ll get my governor back to put somewhere else. Thus I filled my hand with blue cards for voting purposes. Unfortunately, although Martin tried to unseat me, he failed by rolling two ones. This meant he didn’t get Britannia and I didn’t get my governor back. Suddenly all my blue cards were looking pretty useless.

Sam, in North Africa, was about to attack Zinobi in Egypt when he drew an Event card that gave both sides in a battle one extra hit. Since Zinobi already has three dice of her own to roll against any opponents, she suddenly became too powerful and Sam turned his attention elsewhere for now. Egypt, meanwhile, attracted more Nomads and, in time, fell from Sam’s control back into neutrality.

Joe occupied Asia and Galatia and sent an army into the Sassanids to attack the barbarian hordes slowly building up. But he could only manage a draw, and came away with no points. He continued to do this for the next round, again with no joy.

At 9.25pm, almost ninety minutes into the game, Martin become Emperor of Rome.

Sam then drew an event card that removed all active Sassanids from the board, leaving Joe’s army alone in the Golan Heights looking for someone to fight. Then Sam finally did away with Zinobi (much to Martin’s relief, too, since she reduced support in Rome).

Joe, deprived of enemies, headed into Sam’s Syria to attack some Nomads there. His dice-rolling was haphazard enough that the dice kept bouncing out of the dice tray, and had to be rerolled. After all that, he could only manage another draw.

I, meanwhile, had a quiet game, picking up points for my improvements and going from not being able to buy cards at all in the first two rounds, to being able to buy 3-value cards. Luckily for me, everyone else had terrible luck with the dice, so that many of their plans were ruined. In this way, I remained either first or second for the first half of the game.

Sam killed off those pesky nomads in Egypt and, by 9.50pm, Egypt was finally free of barbarians. In Syria, Sam used a Foederati card to recruit a lone battalion of Nomads into his army there. Alas, those were the Nomads that Joe wanted to kill for points. Once again, his hapless red army was left fruitlessly scanning the horizon for people to fight. Instead, he built a Basilica in Asia. Something for his exhausted armies to admire when they finally returned home.

The Nomad tribe recruited by Sam before Joe had
a chance to kill it

Martin and I fought in Gallia, since I was keen to reduce his presence on the board before I stood for election in Rome. Sam failed to become Emperor, so he took out his frustration on some Nomads instead. Joe finally got a kill in far off Brittania.

I then attacked Martin’s army in Rome. I did’t wipe it out, but I did win the battle, forcing him out of the capital. I now needed just two votes and I had eight dice to do it. I considered splitting my dice for other purposes, but finally decided against it. I wanted to be Emperor, and nothing else really appealed. Eight dice for two votes might look like overkill but I was glad I did it when I saw that, among those eight dice, I rolled four ones. I so easily could’ve failed. I am crowned Emperor at 10.25pm.

My Empire!

Martin took my now-undefended Pannonia and then, on a whim, tried to take Asia from Joe. He needed four votes and, with exploding sixes, quickly got three. He rolled his last die: it was a one. Martin failed, much to Joe’s self-righteous relief. After all the bad luck he’d had until then, he said it was only fair that he get a bit of good fortune.

Sam then swept aside two Sassanids and their leader, and was looking very strong all along the coast of Africa. He then announced that his next hand was “the crappest hand I’ve had all night.”

Barbarians swept into Galatia, bypassing Joe’s army still camped in their homelands. His army now looked like someone who’d turned up at the wrong place for a party and was stuck on its own, painfully aware that all the action was happening somewhere else.

Martin failed to unseat me as Emperor. “Well, fucking fuck,” he said in disgust. Sam, though, used a Pretorian Guard to take over in Rome and at 11.05pm, the third Emperor was crowned!

Joe mobilised two armies to fight the barbarians who had now reached Asia, but neither won. At this stage of the game I was on 59 points and desperate to become Emperor and trigger the end of the game before my bloated deck of cards could slow me down even more. Alas, my hand was not suited to a quick counter-coup against Sam.

"Endless manoeuvres in East Asia," says Martin.
"Sounds like a Genesis album," remarks Sam.

On his next turn Joe decided to go for all out war, but he triggered an event: Bad Auguries. This reduced all Roman dice rolls in battle by one pip. More bad luck for Joe. He had more luck, politically, when he went for election in Pannonia and won. This weakened Sam in Rome and I was able to become Emperor again! Since I was starting player, my three opponents all have one turn each before the game ended.

Martin won elections in Thracia and Rome, but Sam had no blue cards in his hand. Instead he went fighting Sassanids and Nomads before building an improvement. A high scoring turn and enough to keep him ahead of me and Martin even after our bonuses for being Emperor.

Near the end of the game

Joe said he could see little point in taking his turn since he couldn’t improve on his position in fourth. We chided him into action and he won a fight against barbarians before making an attempt at being Emperor. He needed eleven votes and he had two dice. “My luck has to change,” he said hopefully. It didn’t.

Sam 73
Martin 70
Andrew 70
Joe 45

What a game! What a night! Congrats to Sam on his win, and commiserations to Joe on his constant misfortune. We’ve yet to have a game where there wasn’t one player in a distant last. Maybe that’s part of the fun?

Having fun.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks guys and sorry for coughing all over north Africa all night.

    I'm not sure how I managed a win but I know how Joe didn't. I have never seen such appalling bad luck over such an extended period!

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  2. That was excellent! I keep worrying that it will get samey and it keeps not doing. I think I suffered a bit from being far away from all the barbarian action - they're a good source of points if the dice cooperate...

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  3. Yeah - if the dice cooperate...
    I dithered over my choice of Galatia to start with - it feels very far from the action around Italia, in that you need a lot more red to mobilise your armies to soften up provinces prior to a vote.

    And I did find that, but only because my early build up of armies got so waylaid by the Sassanids. And being far from the med didn’t stop Sam.

    Not my greatest game - my worst in fact - but great fun nonetheless. Thanks guys - and thanks for a terrific write up Andrew.

    What’s your opinion in the cold light of day Sam? I think you said last night that you remained ambivalent - wondered if ‘morning after syndrome’, and your win had given you a different perspective.

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    1. Well I enjoyed it far more than last time. The refresher course during the day was key though so thanks for that Joe. It’s a good game and I’d play again for sure. Four hours is quite an undertaking for a waif like me though, but as Martin and I were saying last night on the way back it didn’t drag.

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    2. And I think we could probably pick up the pace in the first half a bit with practice. It gets understandably crunchy later on.

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  4. Oh and I finished off the evening making a hot water bottle for Bea and repeating my trick of pouring boiling water on my hand - onto the previous burn in fact.
    A fitting tribute to my performance in Galatia.

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  5. Andrew's unexpected sortie into Britannia had an amazing ripple effect through my entire game. I'd intended to take Gallia, Hispania and Britannia, improve and fortify them and eventually establish a Pretender empire. But when I rolled that 1, suddenly Italia became a tempting target for the 'spare' governor instead and so I ended up becoming first Emperor. I definitely suffered from never being able to buy a 4 card in the entire game - very different from previous games!

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  6. That sounds like another great game of Time of Crisis! Slightly jealous I have to admit...

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