Washington: American Martyr

So... after suffering two terrible defeats at the hands of the Master Deceiver (making my lifetime record for the game 0-3), I managed to salvage a very ugly victory today in GMT's Washington's War.

American superhero George Washington (under my command) led a bold early war assault against Cornwallis in Delaware, triumphantly watching the tattered British army retreat Dunkirk style out to sea. Then... General Washington turned around. At his back was Clinton (I think... or perhaps it was Howe) marching down the one-way street onto the Delaware peninsula. Unfortunately, the American Navy apparently hadn't yet been invented, and the French were still frolicking in Paris with Benjamin Franklin. So... no American Dunkirk. Washington rolled the dice, lost, and was summarily executed with the rest of his surviving troops. The horror!

This was all on turn 2 of 12, so we decided to play on. Jon was one pesky American army overrun away from auto-victory, so I thought we'd be having an early lunch. Pretty much the entire British Army, almost completely intact, roamed and pillaged the countryside. Congress was disbanded and dispersed nearly every turn. Somehow, though I managed to get enough military and political control on the board to stay alive.

Time marched on and the people continued to turn to the light side of the Force. Jon had stormtroopers in every colony, but he couldn't quite snuff me out. In the end, I think the final tally was three British "colonies" (counting Canada) to my 8 or 9 (we may have had a neutral or two). USA! USA!

Wow, what a tough and closely fought game. Washington's War is a deep and fascinating game, with mechanics elegantly depicting the asymmetry of military power vs. guerrilla agility and grassroots support. This one is a keeper.


So... next on the agenda (besides anything else that I'm able to squeeze in) is to finally get Paths of Glory to the table! The Master of Deception and I are committed to making this happen.

Other news:

-- 100 Rogues on the I-whatever is tons of fun. A great brain diversion during long meetings where you're able to sit at the back of the room.

-- Speaking of Rogue-likes, I just downloaded the latest builds of Stone Soup, Angband, AliensRL (i.e., set in the Aliens movie universe); and DoomRL (yep, set in the Doom universe). I have a few trips coming up, so this should keep me busy on the work laptop.

-- Probably late to the game, but I just read Old Man's War by John Scalzi. Good, old-fashioned military Sci-Fi.

-- Next up in my board game shopping cart: Rommel in the Desert (finally), Talisman: Highland expansion; Memoir '44 Breakthrough expansion; and something else that I haven't yet decided upon that will get me $100+ in the cart. Recommendations?

-- I'm still alive in the Great Battles of the American Revolution World Board Gaming Championship PBEM tourney. I'm slightly up on my opponent, but one bad roll could send me to the locker room.

Alright.... fading back into the woodwork....