2002 ARCHIVES

January 10, 2002 - No, we really haven't been that active lately, so there's not a whole lot of news to report. I do, however, have the following to report:

- We now have a digital camera at our disposal.

- We have added several new games to our collection: Wilderness War (GMT), History of the World (Hasbro AH) and Rome (GMT P500-Shipping March?).

- We are going to start turning our games in for AREA ratings again. We've gotten away from this, but we all agree that we should get back on track with this.

- There are murmurs about going to the BPA Convention this summer. I think we'll wait and take a look at the schedule before deciding one way or another. Most of our favorite games have made their "Century List."

January 27, 2002 - The group got together for the first time in weeks to try out the new version of "History of the World," brew some beer, and watch some football. Some of the group was weary about playing the game since their experience with the older version wasn't very memorable. After playing the game (with our usual first-game rules errors), the concensus was that the game was more balanced than the first one and a lot of fun.

Things were pretty close during the first three epochs, Al had a strong foothold in China and India, Tim in Eurasia and Steve in the Middle East. Tim and Steve fought back-and-forth for control of Europe. With control of the Middle East, Steve had a pretty good lead in the game, followed by Tim with Al in last.

During the fifth Epoch, Al got the lucky draw of the Mongols, took over Eurasia, Middle East and Europe and took the lead. Steve and Tim fought to catch him, but Tim drew some pretty bad civilizations and was unable to catch him. However, through a combination of Al being stuck with the Aztec/Mayans and Steve drawing some good cards, Steve was almost able to catch Al -- almost. Al eventually won with a score of 379, beating out Steve by a mere 11 points.

As is the case most of the time we play a game for the first time, there were a lot of rules errors. Please refer to Tim's recent posting in our newsgroup.

The beer was a porter and was bottled on Jan 30, 2002 -- might be ready in time for a late game night.

February 10, 2002 - Steve Erdmann went 2-0 in a sweep of the group's latest game day the other weekend. Steve's sweep began with a Settlers of Cataan victory in what the group agreed was one of their closest games ever -- and he didn't even have the Longest Road Card! He followed that by taking England and defeated both the French (Tim Sullivan) and Burgandians (Al White) in a Joan of Arc game that saw the rise and fall of more than one player.

The layout of the Settles game was an interesting one. Brick was rare (3-3-2) and metal clumped in one area. Al and Tim took advantages of that and settled in the mountainous areas rich in ore. The early game saw a steady development for all three players. Tim went for cities, Al roads, and Steve for whatever he could get. The first small 'victory' in the game went to Al, who beat Tim to the mineral port - just before his mines essentially dried up or were raided by robbers. Al also beat Steve (who declared at the beginning of the game that he would not get the Longest Road card in a call that was reminiscent of Ruth's famous "called shot" in the 1932 World Series) to the Longest Road card and seemed in a comfortable lead. At this point Al and Steve had 7 and Tim had 6.

While Al was building roads and Tim cities, Steve was quietly hoarding Development Cards. Before Long, Steve ended up with the Largest Army card (to give him 9) and a VP Card to give him the win.

It's been a while since the group has played Joan of Arc, but it was time to dust off the box (well, it wasn't really dusty since Steve brings it up every weekend we play games) and set up the game. Tim drew France (very pleased about that -- even broke out the incense and started praying to Joan), Al Burgandy and Steve England (much to his displeasure). Peace reigned the first six turns while the battle raged in Central France -- around Paris. Tours and Auxerre were the sites of several battles as Tim and Al fought for control of Auxerre and Tim and Steve battled back and forth for Tours. Tim finally secured his hold in Auxerre by taking Dijon from Al with the help of a traitor in Turn IV. Not even an 'Act of God' could save Dijon. In the same turn, Steve took Tours from Tim and was able to hold it until Turn VII - the games only turn of war. The turn after Al lost Dijon to Tim, Al was able to take Paris with a combination of a "Long Distance Attack" chit, "Traitor" card and an "Act of God." By the end of turn VI, Tim's might French empire had collapsed and the English were well in control of the country. The points at the end of turn VI were England (Steve) 36, Burgandy (Al) and France (Tim) tied with 28.

By Turn VII, Tim and Al were ready to go to war against Steve. Tim started by taking Tours, but failed in that turn to take Chartres or Reims. Al took Auch and Toulouse, but failed to take Leige and Grenoble from the raiders and poiters from Steve. Steve on his turn took Tours after 2 tries.

Turn VIII saw some luck on Steve's side. During Turn VII, the truce card was drawn meaning that Turn VIII would be a turn in peace. Al and Tim had to do something, and hope the game didn't end on this turn. Al managed to take Tours, which visibly worried Steve, who compensated by taking Paris from Al with a Traitor card. Tim tried to retake Paris, but failed (that's why the Americans had to go and bail them out a few times last century -- can't even take their own capitol back). Steve rolled a "1" to end the game with a win. Steve was 2-0 for the day.

See chart below for a "points by turn" breakdown of the game.

February 24, 2002 - Steve Erdmann, who won both games at the group's last get together, continued his winning ways by winning the groups annual Kingmaker game. It was an exciting game that went down to the wire.

The Deal: Al had Clifford and Fitzalan, Tim Percy (Dover), Pole (Ireland) and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Steve was dealt Stafford and Talbot.

Turns 1-6: As is typical with this game, the first few turns saw more than their fair share of action. Several heirs lost their heads and Tim flushed out the Vacillating Noble cards. In the first turn, Al took Edward of Lancaster, while Steve mustered his forces to take Coventry (Margaret) and Tim tried to figure out what to do with Pole, who vacillated twice in his first two turns. Tim was heard commenting "I love this game" and Pole was being fitted for a headless casket. Tim did manage to nab Edmond and George. Turns three and four saw the plague hit Al hard, taking Edward of Lancaster in Lancaster and Fitzalan in Leicster. Tim was able to regroup in Norwich and moved North while Steve gathered his strength in Coventry. The first break in the game for Tim came during turn five when the King was called to Preston. Tim nabbed Henry VI, but was then attacked by Steve. In order to thwart Steve's plans, Tim executed Henry VI and Steve moved on toward Caerneveron. Turn six ended with a plague in Norwich, taking the life of Edmond and Tim's forces taking York and their favorite son, Richard.

Turns 7-9: The next three turns saw a flourish of activity and combat. First, Tim moved against Al in the north and attacked him in Lancaster. Al managed to bargain his life for a boat and a treaty. Al then quickly sceddadled, leaving Cromwell behind who vacillated. While that was going on in the North, Steve sieged Plymouth in the South and took Edward of York. Tim then turned his attention south, taking Windsor and executing Stafford (Steve). With Tim on the offensive and Steve on the defensive, Al was scrambling around to muster his forces back together despite treachery, vacillation and summons.

Turns 10-12: Usually catastrophic rounds don't see a lot of action, the exception being this game. Tim drew the three round catastrophe card on turn 10, but by turn 12 had managed to seige London. The only casualties were Al and Steve's plans. Tim also managed to take Calais and Richard the Younger.

Turns 13-15: Tim once again moved against Al and once again, the two of them worked out a deal. Which was surprising since Al didn't have a whole lot to deal with. Tim's mercy did help Tim on turn 15 when Steve tried to seige London. Steve had enough, but thanks to Al, Tim was able to muster enough strength to keep London in his hands. There was one minor skirmish in the North when Clifford (Al) attacked Steve. Al also lost three more card to treachery.

Turns 16-22: Tim's luck wasn't to hold and Steve took London and Richard the next turn. Steve crowned Richard King of England, only to have him sent to Weymouth with the next draw. Steve sent him with Audley, who was attacked by Al immediately. Al won the battle, but not before Steve could execute King Richard. Turns 18-20 saw little action, but it was turn 21 that would turn the tide of battle. Tim was holed up in Bristol with Beaufort, who at that time was serving as heir. Al seiged Bristol, executed Beaufort and sent his card back to the deck. Margaret, controlled by Steve, was the only heir left in the game. On turn 22 Steve crowned her queen to win the game!

February 24, 2002 - The CSA continued its route of the US Army in Al and Steve's "Battle Cry!" Campaign by defeating it - twice - in the Battle of Kernstown.

The first battle saw Steve take the side of the South and Al the side of the North. Steve began by pushing in the center, eliminating one of Al's units. Al countered on Steve's left to capture his first flag, but Steve continued his push in the middle and took two more flags. Steve managed to pick another one up in the center while Al picked up two more on the flank. The action moved to Steve's right flank and after an all-out assault, Steve had five flags. he picked up a sixth with a coordinated attack to win the game.

The two combatants switched sides and once again the action started in the center. Each side picked up one flag in the initial assault, but Al managed to pick up three flags with a leadership card. The action moved to Al's left as Steve played another assault card and picked up his second flag. Steve continued to push his right and Al countered, but to no avail. Al played an all out offensive card, but managed to pick up only one flag, but bringing him one away from victory. Steve attacked Al's right again, Al countered, took another flag, and won the game!

June 10, 2002 - I got kind of burned out keeping track of all of our games, so I'm going to shift the focus of this website a bit. Instead of including detailed information about each game we'll play, I'll just summarize the games as best as I can. It'll be pretty much the same information you'll find on our Yahoo! Group. You should still bookmark this site as this'll remain the place to come for information on upcoming games, links to AREA ratings and our two Yahoo! Groups. I'll also keep house rules posted and continue to keep track of Steve and I's Battle Cry campain.

The group has been busy with a number of games lately including the new War! Age of Imperialism and a continuation of Al and Steve's Battle Cry! campaign.

To date, the group has played War! Age of Imperialsim twice -- the first time with the basic rules and the second time with the standard rules. Everyone really liked the game and it played well, although it got to be a lot of working keeping track of points toward the end of the game -- nothing like Pax Britanica, though! We'll probably be playing this one again soon with the standard rules. Those rules can be downloaded at http://www.eaglegames.net. You can also take a look at the map board.

After finishing up War!, we were able to squeeze in a game of Settlers, won by Steve "Long and Winding Road" Erdmann. This was the groups closest game -- probably ever -- as Al and Tim would have both reached 10 points themselves on their next turn after Steve's victory.

During the recent game streak, Al and Steve completed the next scenario of their Battle Cry! Campaign -- Shiloh. Steve won both games giving both him and the Confederacy a commanding lead.

Finally, on Monday June 10th, the group got together for a great game of History of the World. Tim got off to an early lead and led the first two Epochs. With the help of Rome, Al was able to catch him on Epoch III and passed him with the Goths on Epoch IV. Al managed to hold the lead until Epoch VII when Tim drew France and took advantage of that nation's naval power by grabbing a bunch of third world regions to take the lead and win the game. Steve got a bunch of bad draws that ended up confining him to China and SouthEast Asia.

June 30, 2002 - In the past few weeks, the group has gotten together a few times to play the new History of the World with Steve winning one game and Tim the other, giving each member of the group one win/each. Although AREA doesn't acknowledge that -- yet.

In the first game, the race was pretty even until Steve drew the Romans and Guptas back-to-back to run away with the game. The closest Tim and Al could come to Steve after that was 36 points. Timothy was able to join us for the second game which played during the most recent gamefest weekend. This time it was Tim's turn to run away with the game with his Epoch V empire (somewhere in China?) and going early in Epoch VI with a different empire. Tim ended up winning that game by 55 points over Al's second place.

The group also played the Cities and Knights variant of Settlers for the first time. In addition to Al, Tim and Steve, Timothy, his wife Karyn, and their friend Paul were able to join us for what turned out to be a really fun game. Tim sat this game out and instead opted to cut out his Napolean in Europe pieces. He did an ok job on them and only broke skin once. The game went well for everyone except Al who struggled like a third world nation before the Peace Corps. Paul and Timothy jumped out to the lead with Karyn and Steve close behind. Paul had to leave and left his country to Tim, who played it well and ended up winning the game.

The next day, Sunday, brought the premier of Napolean in Europe! Eagle Game's newest product and hot off the presses. We had five players and played the basic "Even Steven" game. Present were Al (France), Timothy (England), Jeff (Prussia), Steve (Austria) and Tim (Russia). Timothy didn't take long to get things going, starting the game with an across-the-channel attack on Al. Paris soon fell, but was quickly liberated by a freshly-invigorated French force. Meanwhile Tim, Jeff and Steve worked to expand their nations in the East. Tim (Russia) then turned on Steve and invaded Austria, forcing a truce that Jeff (Prussia) soon joined. Their reason for coming together was an apparent Anglo-French alliance that threatened the safety of Eastern Europe. Actually, Al (France) and Timothy (England) were just calling a temporary alliance to deploy troops more effectively and had no major intent to conquer Europe. That didn't stop the Triple-Alliance, though, as they invaded Iberia (held by France), Italy (held by England) and even France itself! An attempted invasion of England failed. After a while, the game was called for time and everyone -- especially Eagle Games -- was declared a winner!

September 09, 2002 - After a moderate haitus, Al and Steve resumed their Battle Cry Campaign with a split of the Gaine's Mill scenario. Al took the CSA in the first game which went back and forth to the final end. Steve finally outlasted duel bad die rolling to win that game. Al took the USA in the second game and got out to an early 5-2 but Steve quickly closed the gap with 3 quick hits, but Al managed an right-flank offensive to take his sixth flag

December 2002 - After getting off to a quick start, Tim squandered a significant lead to Steve in the group's latest "Joan of Arc" endeavor. Oh, and Al got to play too, and managed to come in a "respectable" third place. Tim, playing Burgandy, took Paris early in the game to score 12 points in the first two turns. Steve was in second at that point with 7 points and Al trailed with 3 points. In turn 3, Steve was able to take Paris and even things up. From that point on, it was neck-and-neck till the end with Steve winning the game by 1 point. The group also played a game of Settlers and again Tim jumped out to an early lead, but lost it to Steve who, without the Longest Road Card, pulled out a victory. This was a very close game.