A Clash of Arms!
Session Report, 28 Dec 2005The sun glinted off the speartips of my noble phalanxes as they flawlessly assembled in perfect formation to face the onslaught of the rabble hordes of the dread barbarian Chieftan Kendahl. As the barbarian throng hurtled across the desert floor towards my disciplined legions, I knew Kendahl's berserker tribe, now in full blood rage, would be a worthy opponent, one which could only be defeated by skillfully controlling the Battle Line.
Sorry... I just couldn't resist getting in to the spirit of the game. Kendahl and I tried out Battle Line this afternoon. What a great game! We had a close fought battle where the apparent lead exchanged hands several times. Darius joined my side to nearly bring me victory, then cowardly fled the battle at the critical moment! Mud and fog then descended on the battle as the final troops were committed to the melee. Finally, as the dust settled, I barely managed a pyrrhic 5 to 4 victory. This one will definitely hit the table again sometime soon.
In a slightly related note, I just clued in to the upcoming Command and Colors: Ancients game about to be released. Its by Richard Borg of Memoir '44 fame, and its essentially Memoir '44 with spears, sandals, and elephants instead of rifles, boots, and tanks. Sign me up!
posted by Ben @ 7:52 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
C&C: Ancients should ship in the next few days (more likely few weeks), I think. I don't play Battle Cry or Memoir '44 as often as I'd like, but I still bought this.
GMT just cashed in my pre-order for C&C: Ancients, so it should be on the way... Hurray!
I'm tired of playing Omaha Beach... I really want to try some of the other scenarios for M44.
BTW, I noticed something interesting for Battle Line with my third game. The game gets pretty hectic towards the end because it is A LOT harder to make strong combos. Of course this is expected, but it caught me by suprise how those crucial last rounds can be key in deciding who wins. In the last rounds it's a lot harder to get strong Wedges.
In a way it's interesting that you end up deciding the last battles with whatever "last forces" you have left after using your "best men" for the beginning of the battle. It's up to the savvy player to come up with a plan to still make strong combos with limited cards. I definitively plan to keep playing this one for a while.
Another Battle Line strategy that seems feasible is to stock up on powerful cards and then try to quickly win three adjacent flags before your opponent knows what's up.
I almost succeeded in this against Kendahl, however we were playing with the advanced rules where you can't claim a flag until the beginning of your next turn. He retaliated by playing the card that made my Darius card flee the battlefield, spoiling my gambit!
Memoir '44: I'm totally up for playing more of this!
Let's get some Eastern Front action going: Stalingrad, Kursk, Finland...
I can probably squeeze in 2-3 hours on Saturday afternoon...
C&C:Ancients pictures just appeared on the geek (via Consimworld) and apparently it will ship in early Feb. It's on the boat now.
I can't this Sat... will work til 6pm.
I also play with the advanced rules, and it's way cooler.
Okay, perhaps sometime next week then...
The Eastern Front rules add lots of cool things like mine fields, snipers, ski troops, etc.
Jon and I had a 5 turn long sniper battle on one of the scenarios (can't remember which one). I do recall it was quite frivolous though since snipers don't count as medals toward VP if KIA'ed.
...What can I say? We get bored occasionally.
-But I think it's quite clear, big guns (heavy artillery) are where it's at.
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