Thursday, March 22, 2018

I post a lot more on Instagram and so do many board wargamers

Crazy I know right? But for boardgaming and games in general it is an easy outlet for me to take short vids, gaming shots and more. Plus I mix in a little movies and video games. 

It may sound crazy but Instagram, when used properly and not in some Kardashian makeup promotion method, can be used to quickly get the word out a lot faster than boring over drawn blog posts.

And lets face it...blogging is so 2004. I prefer my info fast...mobile an with less pontification.

My blog is good for a mass story or AAR recap, but I have done that on Instagram as well. 

At any rate give me a follow and check it out. You may be surprised. Some other good war boardgamers (notice I said WAR boardgamers) on Instagram are:

Mewww.instagram.com/gamer.hudson
Ted Stanfillwww.instagram.com/tedstanfill
GMT Games account : www.instagram.com/gmtgames
Kyle Travels: www.instagram.com/kyletravels
Wargamer John: www.instagram.com/wargamerjohn
Stanley Gaming Guild: www.instagram.com/stanleygamingguild
Cardboard Horde: www.instagram.com/cardboardhorde
Matt Kantor: www.instagram.com/eddievanshatner 
Jonas Multing: www.instagram.com/multingames  

IF I MISSED ONE LET ME KNOW

My Instagram has a little of everything but the people above really do wargaming well. So get out of your ANTI Instagram philosophy and check them out






Sunday, March 18, 2018

Liberty or Death: Short Sprint Scenario Turns 1-2

This special scenario in the back of the LoD rulebook has only 20 event cards and no brilliant strokes. I will be playing the Patriots and French.

The opening card is "British Prison Ships", and the first faction is the British and they play the card.

"More Patriots died through neglect as prisoners of war on British prison ships than died in every battle of the war combined"

Shift two Cities one level each toward Passive Support. Charlestown and Norfolk get shifted randomly.


The Patriots are up next and they decide, with George Washington, to move on New York state. The amount of forces they have staged in Pennsylvania allow them to move in force on New York and they plan to skirmish with the next ability. As they enter New York state they discover an Indian War Party. In the skirmish phase they eliminate two units of British regulars and lose a Colonial unit in the process.


The Patriots had moved in 5 colonials and George Washington. Perhaps overkill perhaps not. Now that the Patriots out number the British (by 1... 7-6 total, including the Indians there) they seize control of the province. The casualties are added to the box and the casualties amount is raised on the record track.


At the end of that card the Brits and the Patriots go to ineligible. The next card flipped favors the rebellion and its Comte d’Orvilliers Builds a Fleet at Brest. The French play the shaded event and raise the FNI, taking three resources from the British and blockading New York City. This also takes 3 precious resource points from the British.



"In 1777 D’Orvilliers was appointed Lieutenant-General of the Navy and worked to prepare the navy for conflict with the British including the preparation of a fleet in Brest"


Play goes next to the Native Indians, and per the flowchart they gather to raise forces. South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia are the targets. Per the flowchart they then trade ONE with the British (who didnt have to trade at all but were nice), this exposes a war party in South Carolina (one MUST be exposed when trading) and that part of the turn ends. 

The British fall to 2 resources and the Indians raise to 1.  More to come..



Thursday, March 15, 2018

Gramaje

 The first card I pull in my learning game is this one. That puts the FARC as the first faction to go and then probably will take the unshaded event as the rulebook mentions the left most first faction will always do the event. Talk about getting taxed.

FARC protection rejected: All Cartels Guerrillas in spaces with FARC free Attack FARC.
 Schedule of fees: Cartels transfers 3 Resources to FARC for each space with Cartels Base and FARC   Guerrilla

The FARC had a precise schedule of fees, gramaje, that it charged to drug producers and smugglers for protection and other services. Though imposed by the guerrillas, these taxes served as a US argument that the FARC and the drug lords were in cahoots.

Odd first card here in my game as you see two potential "allies" going at it. Obviously the FARC player will pick an action that does not allow the next faction to play that unshaded event. Part of the mind game of a COIN series is thinking ahead and screwing your opponent over. This card refers to weight or fees that the FARC would impose.

 

Monday, March 12, 2018

Andean Abyss begins? Maybe

I managed to get it set up and take a few pics to chronicle my journey as the Government of Colombia attempts to take on the drug cartels that rule the land outside the cities. 

Medellin looks quiet and secure at the start of a #AndeanAbyss game... but communist #FARC forces loom in the jungles of Choco-Cordoba. The National Police of Colombia (Spanish: PolicĂ­a Nacional de Colombia) is the national police force of Colombia. Although the National Police is not part of the Military Forces of Colombia (Army, Navy, and Air Force), it constitutes along with them the "Public Force" and is also controlled by the Ministry of Defense. 


Cali on the other hand is not in the control of the police. In the picture below green is a cartel guerrilla and a cartel base.

The Cali Cartel was based in southern Colombia, around the city of Cali and the Valle del Cauca Department. Its founders were the RodrĂ­guez Orejuela brothers, Gilberto and Miguel, and JosĂ© Santacruz Londoño, also known as "Chepe". They broke away from Pablo Escobar and his Medellin associates in the late 1980s when HĂ©lmer Herrera, also known as "Pacho", joined what became a four-man executive board that ran the cartel.
With connections to British and Israeli mercenaries, allies among countries, countless spies and informants in the government, and its vast intelligence and surveillance network throughout the city of Santiago de Cali, the cartel was once renowned and compared to the Soviet KGB by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which called it, "One of the most powerful crime syndicates in history", later dubbed "The Cali KGB".



Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Having fun with price jacking Ebay asshat sellers

This is actually more fun than some of the games they are selling. I love this guy's response. No remorse whatsoever.

They are very intricate DONT YA KNOW JEEZ. My question to him is at the bottom, his answer up top.


Monday, March 5, 2018

A RANT to Ebay Boardgame hoarders

 I got two more COIN games this weekend.

One was Andean Abyss and one was Falling Sky. At first I was rather shocked at the prices people wanted on Ebay so I just went to Boardgame Geek Market. Problem solved.

Why do Ebay hoarders insist on listing this stuff for 120 dollars and up when people will just go to Board Game Geek and find them from people that don't jack up the prices?

Noble Knight games is a prime offender in this category. (https://www.ebay.com/usr/nobleknightgames?_trksid=p2047675.l2559)

Then there are people like this douche selling Falling Sky for 174 dollars

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Falling-Sky-Gallic-Revolt-Against-Caesar/302625348172?hash=item4675e05a4c:g:O6wAAOSwXMZadHh9


I mean seriously no one SANE of mind is going to pay for your bullshit garbage listing. Give me a break. 

How about this fine seller clocking in at 180 dollars? REALLY?


How about this one. A MAGAZINE (granted it includes a paper fold out game by Chadwick) for a $139 bucks. YES...A FUCKING MAGAZINE. Does it come with 2 kilo's of Colombian blow? Or how about blow and prostitutes? IT BETTER!


These are the same people giving credence that its "cool" to pay $400 + dollars for some over hyped Advanced Squad Leader module. FUCK OFF


On the way are Andean Abyss and Falling Sky (just because its out of print doesnt mean you need to list it for $120 dollars give me a fucking break. Its a boardgame not some rare porcelain vase from a Chinese temple)

Of course there are also people that buy 5-6 copies of a game and spine them on the shelf just perfectly posed for that ever so annoying Board Game Shelfie photo. I don't know what's worse...Keeping up with the Kardashians or board gamers that constantly spam shelfie photos of some rare foreign version of Tokaido they go that has stainless steels bamboo rods instead of whatever plastic the original components are made of.

Is this image necessary....are THIS MANY GAMES NEEDED?  Why? I suppose we all have our collection issues sure. But a boardgame is wasted money and useless just sitting there if its been rotated out of your play schedule or generally disliked. If you think you will not use it or it is a poor single player or co op game why do people do this to themselves? Sentimental value perhaps? Why do I see some wargamers with 8 copies of Holland 44? WHY?  I mean I don't even know 8 people in real life that play that game.

I guess in the end you cant complain. I mean they technically fetch better money on the market than baseball cards. Unless of course you get the on introverted weirdo that hates highlighting in his rulebook and refuses to pay you or wants a refund when he spots it after he gets his near pristine game in record 2 day shipping time. I mean you HAVE heard of this thing called a PDF right GMT gamers? You can just download the most updated rulebook you asshat.

SERIOUSLY WTF. MAN O WAR REALLY? I play GW games and haven't seen anyone play that fucking thing since 1993 for shits sake

Coupled with the snarky YouTube comments on my channel with the likes of "Well...obviously you don't know what you're doing because a unit 4 miles behind a supply truck only operates at 1/4 fuel supply" and you will quickly understand why I got out of wargaming and boardgaming in general.

But needless to say I got my COIN games coming and I will continue to post BLATANTLY labelled tutorial videos just to fuck with your heads. If you want to explain to me in a nice manner how the FUCK to play some of these games with shitty non indexed rules written for a nuclear scientist that is fine. Until then I will continue to play at MY PACE and learn the game the best I can with what I got at my disposal.