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Subject: Fort Worth Gamers: gaming session 09/23/17
From: Michael Ward <mward258@gmail.com>
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Saturday, 09/23/17 2 t 8:20 PM at the Hulen Mall food court, at 4800 South Hulen Street, in southwest Fort Worth, TX.

We had two gamers at one table this afternoon.

First up, my Quartermaster General, which we hadn't played in two years. For the most part this is a multi-player game (2-6). But Dave and I wanted to see how it fared two-player. My fear was each of us having to run three factions would burn our brains out. Dave took the Allies and I ran the Axis powers. The six powers play in this order: Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Soviet Union, Italy, United States.

My initial hand of German cards were good, but I had no Build Army cards! So my
Nazis agonized their first five turns as they couldn't get out of Germany to save their lives. The only thing that kept this from being a disaster was apparently the Ruskies were having the same problem. For they too built no new armies. If they had been able, within three turns they would have been invading
the Reich. As it turned out we both finally began drawing Build Army cards at the same time; about turn 5 or 6.

As to the Brits, they quickly expanded out from England and were soon whacking my Italians that had taken Western Europe. Then they had the temerity to invade
Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea. Next, The perfidious Englishmen directly attacked Deutschland. Hitler was apoplectic! Fortunately by then I'd had Germany throw down three Status cards. Then a freshly drawn Build Army card allowed me to recover. First I rebuilt my army in Germany. Then I began whacking the Russians, who now had three armies on the board (due in large part
to Dave playing a Status card that allowed him to, when he used a Build Army card was used, to then put it back on the top of his draw stack, instead of discarding it. Well, the only way to overcome that is to destroy Commie armies faster than they can be rebuilt. Ah, that's were my three Status cards helped immensely. So I was able to not only build more German armies and move into Soviet territory, but eliminate the Ruskie armies already on the board. Within two turns I'd killed all three *and* built a German army in Moscow. I guess Stalin evacuated. For the next couple of turns there were no Russians on the board and they were making zero points.

Now to the far east... My Japanese built a fleet in the Sea of Japan, and an army in China, then seemed to vegetate. They had a hand full of response cards,
but no more Build Army or Navy cards, which they needed to expand. So they were making 4 points per turn, but no more.

My Italian took the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa, then ran out of steam. And every time they re-took Western Europe the Brits would swat them again. So they were relegated to playing Event and Status cards. So most turns they were only pulling in 2 points.

And what was the Arsenal of Democracy, the USA, doing all this time? Almost nothing. They built an army in the Eastern US, so they were raking in 4 points per turn. But that was about it. I assume they had no Build Navy cards for the longest. Or they would have thrust into the Atlantic and Pacific. Nope. For about 5 turns they just sat on their hands in the lower 48 and played the occasional Economic Warfare card on my Italians or Japanese, making them each deplete their already small draw decks (to dangerous levels for the Nipponese).


Before my Germans knocked the Russians for a loop, the Allies were making two more points per turn over my Axis powers. Then in turn 4 this jumped up. At the
end of turn five the Allies had 54 points and my Axis had 44; a ten point lead. And it kept getting worse. The end of turn 6 saw the Allies with 66 VPs to my 52 (a 14 point lead). Would this continue? If it did at this rate within three turns I'd be toast.

The turning point began on turn seven, when my Italians and Japanese kicked into high gear (after *finally* drawing some Build cards. My Italians entered the Bay of Bengal and eliminated the British army in India. On their next turn they took India and never gave it back. Concurrently my Japanese expanded south
and took vacant Australia. Not only that, they played a Status card that gave them points for SE Asia and the Philippines. Suddenly instead of them raking in
a mere 4 points, they were making 6, then 8 points per turn. My Italians also increased their take, from 2-4 points per turn to 6, then 9. Gadzooks!

Score-wise on turn seven Dave's point lead fell from 14 to 12. On turn 8 it fell to 10. Then on turn 9 it fell to zero. Parity; we both had 86 points.

Could Dave recover? Well, basically the Russians were effectively out of the game. So he was now fighting a 2 vs 3 uphill battle. And the US and Britain couldn't make up the deficit. Their only hope were the lethargic Americans (as the Brits were already overextended). Finally the Americans timidly ventured into the Northern Pacific. And... were quickly eliminated by my Japanese. I expected them to re-build. Nope. I guess they had no more Build Navy cards in hand.

By the end of turn ten my Axis factions had 101 points to the Allies' 92; a 9 point lead for me. The worm had turned. Oh it got much worse on turn 11. At turn end the Axis had 122 points to the Allies 92; a 24 points lead. The game would end if one side gained at least a 30 point lead.

On turn 12 Germany played a card that gave it points for all Nazi armies outside the Fatherland (an additional 4 points). They made 8 points, while my Japanese made 8, and my Italians 9. Meanwhile the Brits made 2 VPs (as they had
the last 3-4 turns, since losing India). The Russians were still making zero points (even after playing a card that allowed them to ignore supply, they only
had one army on the board, in Siberia or Vladivostok - useless). Dave tried dumping their whole hand, but it didn't help much, as the new Russian cards were of no immediate value. It all came down to would the USA launch some major
offensive to turn the tide on the last turn? Nope. They only raked in the same
4 points they made every turn. They never once conquered any enemy territory. Game over, dude, game over! As The Axis now had a not just a 30 point lead, but
was 43 points ahead.

Final scores, after 12 turns: Michael W / Axis 147, Dave C / Allies 104. Duration: one hour and 43 minutes. We both enjoyed playing the game two-player.
But it was a bit mentally taxing having to keep up with three factions each.


The final irony was when I told Dave what would have completely unraveled my German strategy was when I played the best German status card on turn one, "Bias for Action", if he'd soon countered/eliminated it by playing the Brit's Enigma event card. Arrg! he cried. He knew this, and had just drawn it on the last turn.




Our next game was Dave's Test of Fire: First Bull Run 1861, which was new to me.

Here's it blurb from BGG: "July 21, 1861: the raw untried armies of North and South meet for the first battle of the American Civil War. Will you take the part of General Beauregard of the Confederate States of America defending Virginia or the part of Union General Irvin McDowell seeking to stop the rebellion of the south and re-unite the nation?

Test of Fire: Bull Run 1861 commemorates the sesquicentennial of the first land
battle of the American Civil War and is the first game in a series of American
Civil War themed games scheduled to be released by Mayfair Games and designed by Martin Wallace.

Command opportunities are determined by dice and action cards. To achieve victory the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia must seize Manassas Junction or
rout the Southern Army to achieve victory. The Confederate Army of the Potomac
& Confederate Army of the Shenandoah win by routing the Union army, avoiding rout, by seizing the Northern town of Centreville, or simply denying the Union victory."

Here's a photo of the bare board (from the Confederate perspective ) https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1090419/test-fire-bull-run-1861 . And here are what the (Union) units look like https://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/1637137/test-fire-bull-run-1861 . As you can see the field of battle is divided into irregularly shaped areas. Passage from area to area is restricted to moving zero to three units across a border per turn. The main feature of the board is the stream Bull Run. It has several places it can be forded. But except for one bridge, its either uncrossable or only allows one unit across per turn. That's what the 0's and 1's in blue circles mean. The Confederates begin on one side of the stream and the Union forces started on the other.

There are two artillery batteries per side and only they can fire from one area
into another (adjacent) area. Infantry (95% of the units) can only grapple with the enemy if they move into the same area. Each side also has 1-2 general counters.

The main victory conditions are: The Union must control at least 2 of the 3 starred objective areas mid-board at game end (basically when one of the player's card deck runs out). The Confederates only have to avoid this. All three objectives begin in Confederate hands. So their job is easier in that respect. Yet they do have one deficit. They only roll three dice per turn while
the Yankees roll four.

The dice each player rolls at the beginning of their turns are allocated to different tasks. Rolling a 1 allows a card draw. Rolling a 2 or 3 allows a side
to fire their artillery. Rolling a 4 or 5 lets a player move units. And rolling a 6 ostensibly allows leader movement. But can also be used to move troops (with a leader) or draw a card.


I took command of the attacking Federals, leaving Dave to run the Confederate defenders.

I decided to begin the battle by attacking across Stone Bridge into the objective area of Henry House Hill. I began softening it up with artillery fire, wounding a CSA unit. Meanwhile I began moving some of my Union troops around the western edge of the battlefield to eventually strike the Rebels in the side on Henry House Hill. This area was the focus of both our efforts for the fist ten or so game turns.

Eventually I was able to occupy the adjacent Buck Hill and then Henry House Hill from two different areas. (Though several of my units were decimated in the process - for attacking is costly, as defenders get to fire first.) It soon
fell to my infantry assaults. I then reinforced it so that Dave would have a hard time taking this objective back. Dave countered by taking an adjacent ridge. I just ignored these troops.

Ah, but I then realized Henry House Hill had been the easier objective to take.
Wresting control of one of the other two from the Rebels would be more difficult. What I needed was more umpff! So I moved the artillery battery that had pounded Henry House Hill northeast down the main road to my rear, then south towards Balls Ford, and eventually adjacent to it, so that it could help my other battery (that was already in place) soften up the Confederate defenders. I then pounded the hell out of the Rebels, Not only was I using two batteries (to their one), but I was also playing cards that allowed my artillery to double their rate of fire.

My double artillery barrage was doing damage, but it could not clear the enemy form the objective are alone. Four other factors made significant contributions. First, Dave's dice, which had been hot the whole first half of the game, went stone cold. Suddenly he now couldn't roll a hit on my soldiers to save his life. Second, my dice were now on fire, inflicting hit after hit. But even that wasn't quite enough. The third factor was Dave was mostly unable to roll 4's and 5's, so he was having a devil of a time moving reinforcing units into the area I was attacking. Factor four: I then lowered the boom, playing a card I'd been saving for 45 minutes. It was the "discovery" of a secret ford across Bull Run. Basically it increased the number of units that could cross by one. I played the card on Balls Ford. Now I could shove two units across it instead of one at a time.

All that meant I soon retreated all 4-5 of Dave's units in the area out. And then I began shifting mine in (mainly across the ford but also occasionally from an adjacent area.

Dave tried to expel me for about three turns via artillery fire. Then he cried uncle and quit. He said my blue bellies were now too strongly ensconced to force out. True, for I now had five infantry holding the objective. So.... game
over. Although technically since neither of us had run out of cards (Dave had about 3 left in his deck and I had 7). Note: I never bothered to attack the center objective, Lewis Ford.

In summary: victory to Michael W / Union over Dave C / Confederate, by taking and holding two of the three main objective areas. Duration: two hours.


My thoughts on the game: The box says 45 minutes. Pffft! If we'd played it out until one of us had run out of cards it would have taken about 2.5 hours. As to
the components (cards, board, units, dice) generally they were fine. Although I question why they made the infantry units twice the size they needed to be. There was no reason they needed to be two times the size of the artillery units. I didn't read the whole ruleset, but my impression was it generally seemed adequate. Yet I did look up a couple of the cards in it for further info
and sometimes all it did was repeat what was on the card.. Overall Test of Fire is a nice low complexity intro level wargame of reasonable price, that's good for a few plays. I'd play it again, but I wouldn't buy it. On BGG I would have rated it a "7" if it had really played in 45 minutes. As it took thrice that long I rated it a "5".



See BoardgameGeek http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for more information on the games mentioned above. And if you're in the area on a Tuesday night feel
free to join us for a game.

--
Michael Ward
Fort Worth Gamers
And check out our MeetUp page http://www.meetup.com/FortWorthGamers/ .
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