We had a dozen players to start off the new year with a bevy of card games, wargames, and a co-op.

Natus and Jim dipped their toes into Wilderness War. They went with the tournament scenario, with Nate taking the French.


A becalmed Montcalm

Nate used his Indian allies to harass Jim along the frontier, but to little effect. Meanwhile, Jim pieced together a large expedition of regulars to hit Louisbourg. Nate barely fought him off, with heavy casualties on both sides. They then spent several cards picking up the pieces, and look forward to returning to action next week.


Action in the Adirondacks

Mitch, Manfred, and Renaud tried Star Trek: Ascendancy, with Mitch taking the Federation, Manfred the Klingons, and Renaud the Romulans. Contact was quickly established between the Federation and the Klingons, with the Romulans joining the party a little later.


Reaching toward the Romulans

A big fight between the Feds and the Klingons went Mitch's way as he pelted Manfred with photon dice. Renaud extended a helping hand to the Klingons in the form of a favorable trade deal. With his less-helpful hand he then choke-slammed Manfred's fleet, making good use of the Romulan first strike ability to sweep the field. With the evening drawing to a close they called it a win for Renaud's Romulans.


Heghlu'DI' mobbe'lu'chugh QaQpu' Hegh wanI'

All three enjoyed the game - the theming is strong and there was a good narrative to the action. Caveats include downtime (turns get longer as the game progresses) and the power of the build/move sequence (players build then move in sequence, rather than all build, then all move). The latter allows a player to ramp up and attack an unprepared opponent. This sounds less like a problem than something you simply have to keep in mind as you plan your own builds and dispositions. Overall, though, it is a strong new addition to the rotation.


Federation might

Smitch, Scott, Dr. Rob, and Campoverdi took Pax Renaissance for a spin. Dr. Rob, ever the experimenter, pushed for a religious win from the start but was working under a couple rules misapprehensions which led to some wasted moves. Campo had a more productive vision as he pursued dreams of empire. However, he couldn't quite close the deal as Smitch kept picking off pieces of Campoverdia until the deck ran out, with Smitch capturing a Patronage win.


Renaissance men

Players are starting to form opinions about strategy, some of which may even have merit. A suspicion is emerging that the Imperial strategy is easiest to prosecute and tends to shape the game. Rob is skeptical his ecclesiastical approach has legs, due to a lack of supporting cards, and Republic may have the same problem. Still, it's early days, and the safest advice so far is to let the board guide your choices and don't try to force a strategy against the card flow. I'm sure this will see a lot of late-night action at Winter Offensive this week.


Comet fever

They then followed with House of Borgia about which I know nothing beyond the fact Smitch notched another win.

Hawkeye, Bill, and I finally got to try the co-op Thunderbirds and had a blast, which is only natural since we were playing on our very own Tracy Island. Each player is one of the Tracy brothers or one of their daredevil colleagues, working together to combat crises around the globe while frustrating the plans of The Hood. The map is divided into land, sea, and space areas, and we get all the iconic Thunderbird vehicles (supersonic 1, cargo-carrying 2, space-faring 3, submersible 4, and space station 5), plus of course FAB 1, Lady Penelope's sweet pink amphibious Rolls-Royce. Each character gets a bonus if he or she is in their vehicle of choice (Virgil can draw a bonus token when piloting Thunderbird 2, for instance) but any character can fly/drive any vehicle.


Virgil drops off some gear

There are two clocks in the game. The Hood track has a series of events and schemes, and as The Hood moves down the track the events are revealed and applied. Events are generally Bad Things that make life hard for the FAB crew, but if The Hood reaches a scheme before it is defeated, it's game over. The current scheme is always revealed, so the players work to foil it before The Hood can kick it off. Along the opposite edge of the board is the Disaster track. This starts primed with three disasters, and at the end of each player turn a new one is drawn. If the eighth and last place on the track is filled, the team is defeated. If the team beats the last scheme before losing by disaster, the players win.


Picking our poison

A scheme card specifies the conditions for its defeat - once the conditions are met, it is discarded. Disaster cards are beaten by a die roll, with various conditions for die roll bonuses as well as rewards for success. So, you might get a +2 if Scott Tracy is involved and another +2 if Thunderbird 4 is in the neighborhood. Many schemes and disasters need the presence of one or more pods - these are specialized bits of equipment built on Tracy Island and transported to the scene by Thunderbird 2.


Back home for a refit

Players get three actions per turn - you may move, attempt a rescue (roll to overcome a disaster), plan (draw a special-power FAB card at the cost of advancing The Hood), or scan (push a disaster back down the track). You may also perform an unlimited amount of operations, which including building pods, defeating schemes, transferring characters between vehicles, or loading and unloading equipment. To optimize your turn you have to assess the threats and decide whether you're going to deal with a disaster yourself or set up your teammates. The rescue die roll is 2d6, but the dice have a Hood face that advances the villain, and some of the disasters have very high values so you really need the modifiers to have any confidence of success. So, burning a turn building the correct pods and/or positioning personnel may be necessary even though the disaster track is relentlessly advancing.


A popular brew in these parts

We proved to be horrible FABsters, losing five times in two games (yeah, we cheated, but it was in the name of Science and Discovery). I then learned I was a worse rules-reader than FABster - we had been adding disasters to the end of the queue, when by the rules you slide all current disasters one to the right (toward doom) and add the new one on the left. This was a major screwup, because the way we were playing it was very difficult to defeat the right-most disaster (i.e., the one that will ultimately defeat you) because by the time we optimized our deployment, a new disaster eclipsed it as the greatest threat. Playing correctly, we had a chance to plan and defeat the right-most disaster when we needed to, giving us a lot more flexibility. So, we played two more games, losing one and winning one - hurrah for humanity! 1-6 looks pretty good to this Browns' fan.


House party on Thunderbird 5

Even without our rules gaffe, the game is very challenging. We were playing at the basic level, facing only three schemes, but you can add more to increase the difficulty. We learned a lot in our desperate losses in terms of harnessing synergies and getting the most out of the bonus tokens. These are vital for defeating schemes but also have in-game effects (building pods, +2 DRMs, free FAB card draws, rerolls, and extra actions). We randomly drew characters, which are all useful, but some less so. John Tracy enjoys hanging out in orbit on Thunderbird 5, where he can negate Hood die rolls, but we found the space station to be the least-used bit of kit. If you're playing John, you are likely to head to Earth where you'll have plenty to do but without access to your special ability. On the other hand, Virgil in Thunderbird 2 is the hardest working man in International Rescue. Bill had a good run as Lady Penelope in one game, playing a hand in several key rescues.


Elegance...Charm...Deadly Danger

In general, I'm not a big fan of co-ops, but I had a lot of fun with this. All three of us were very familiar with the shows, which added immensely to our enjoyment. There are three expansions which add characters and cards, which should enhance replayability. As noted above, it's starts out hard and has a couple dials to increase difficulty if you start beating it consistently. I'm glad we finally got to try it - a handsome package, and a system that does justice to the elaborate presentation. Highly recommended to fans of the show, though it will resonate less with youngsters unfamiliar with the backstory. We will see more of this soon.

Mitch, Manfred, and Renaud tried Star Trek: Ascendancy, with Mitch taking the Federation, Manfred the Klingons...

Tell Manfred to quit screwing around with the Klingons and get cracking on our EOTS game! :-)

It's dangerous to tell a Klingon to quit screwing around.

They then followed with House of Borgia about which I know nothing beyond the fact Smitch notched another win.

It's an elaboration on Liar's Dice, with the players claiming powers that manipulate candidates for the papacy, in order to maneuver your secret fav to the top.

I only played Thunderbirds a couple of times and, while I enjoyed it, I found it to be the most brutal co-op I had ever played. I'm not sure how you win, and not sure how you win on any level other than easy ever.

I picked up the custom mat for Star Trek Ascendancy. Just waiting to get it back on the table.

I may be playing ST:A Friday night. Either that or Seafall. I'd rather try the former, and if we have 4, it won't work.

Thunderbirds is do-able, but you need a player as John, who pretty much stays in space and tries to keep the Hood in check.

That top THUNDERBIRDS photo looks like the annual penis re-supply drop in Eastern Europe.

Thunderbirds is do-able, but you need a player as John, who pretty much stays in space and tries to keep the Hood in check.

It was tough leaving him there as there were so many Earth-based disasters to avert. However, one game saw a lot of space adventures, for which he was crucial.

A suspicion is emerging that the Imperial strategy is easiest to prosecute and tends to shape the game. Rob is skeptical his ecclesiastical approach has legs, due to a lack of supporting cards, and Republic may have the same problem. Still, it's early days, and the safest advice so far is to let the board guide your choices and don't try to force a strategy against the card flow. I'm sure this will see a lot of late-night action at Winter Offensive this week.

The Imperial strategy is certainly a viable one, but, in my opinion, by no means the easiest to prosecute. If the players are finding that it is easy to accomplish, then they are not putting the roadblocks in the way of would-be conquerors they should be. Either by crippling would-be conquerors with conspiracies which kill the knights on board or raising levies in adjacent kingdoms via trade fairs/card play, I think players should be aware of the opportunities to stymie easy conquests.

Also, there is a significant change in the living rules that is often missed--"Vote" actions may target vassals or any king card that is not in the Empire stack. I've found that chaining Vote actions can lead to huge upheavals in the board where properly timed.

As for religious victory, it definitely is one of the trickier to establish, but also one of the more difficult to halt, I think. Bishops are scarce on the ground, so positioning yourself as the only one with bishops can be key to victory. I think the Reformist Religious victory is probably the hardest to achieve, though, due to the aforementioned lack of support cards and difficulty in getting a Reformed Theocracy going.

I will note that in fact an Imperial victory was not won in our game.

I did not know about the change to "Vote". I recall a change to Conspiracies being discussed that would allow them to flip map cards, but couldn't find an actual change.

We played with the expansion, which adds more variability, freezing out some strategies every game merely by omission in the card mix (and of course you don't know which ones will be weakened at outset).

I recall a change to Conspiracies being discussed that would allow them to flip map cards, but couldn't find an actual change.

J1, 3rd bullet:

Theocratic Conspiracy. If your conspiracy in a Theocracy is victorious, you can decide to flip its Map Card to its other side.

A subtle change, but very important for preventing some types of victory.

We played with the expansion, which adds more variability, freezing out some strategies every game merely by omission in the card mix (and of course you don't know which ones will be weakened at outset).

As posted upstream, flexibility is key. I've yet to play with the expansion, however (soon!), so I'm curious to see how significant the changes would be. :smile:

The Imperial strategy is certainly a viable one, but, in my opinion, by no means the easiest to prosecute. If the players are finding that it is easy to accomplish, then they are not putting the roadblocks in the way of would-be conquerors they should be.

This wasn't the problem in our game. In this particular session, there were no Coronations in the market until the late game (and none claimed, I believe), and Chris grabbed a low-hanging jihad in, I believe, the first move of the game. So until mid-game, the Ottomans and Hungary were literally the only the only Empires in play. Even at game end, I think we only had four Empires in play: Ottomans, Hungary, HRE, and Papacy. Our problem wasn't a runaway conqueror; it was that it was hard for anyone to do any conquering, making that initial conquest nearly decisive.

>>I recall a change to Conspiracies being discussed that would allow them to flip map cards, but couldn't find an actual change.

Theocratic Conspiracy. If your conspiracy in a Theocracy is victorious, you can decide to flip its Map Card to its other side.

A subtle change, but very important for preventing some types of victory.

Ah, may this have been the source of your confusion, Scott? This rule change would allow you to change the theocratic leanings of the Ottomans or the Papacy (i.e., the flip side doesn't have to be medieval), but it doesn't allow someone to flip from medieval to theocracy.

Our problem wasn't a runaway conqueror; it was that it was hard for anyone to do any conquering, making that initial conquest nearly decisive.

At least one of us consistently attacked Chris' concessions to keep him poor, while also reducing his knight population...

Ah, may this have been the source of your confusion, Scott? This rule change would allow you to change the theocratic leanings of the Ottomans or the Papacy (i.e., the flip side doesn't have to be medieval), but it doesn't allow someone to flip from medieval to theocracy.

Yup, that's it exactly.

At least one of us consistently attacked Chris' concessions to keep him poor, while also reducing his knight population...

Definitely the correct approach for stopping a monopoly on kingdoms!

It was tough leaving him there as there were so many Earth-based disasters to avert. However, one game saw a lot of space adventures, for which he was crucial.

In our last game we had a hella lot of space rescues. I was playing John, so I was pretty busy. We won, but it was tight, and that was because I had to move John off of T5 to complete a backlog of space rescues, about the time we started rolling Hoods right left and centre.

Thunderbirds and Star Trek are both excellent games. I have played a lot of Thunderbirds and still not got a win. I am running bish at it but it is great fun trying!

Josh,

Did you start with the German solo game in EA Ardennes or begin with the two player game as recommended? Starting to try to learn the system.

I'm not Josh, but I started with the short German solo scenario. Once you get the swing of things, all you'll need are the excellent player aids to keep you going.