And so to the whole reason (for me) of the Sunriver WBC-W week, the OCS Case Blue game. Eric had suggested the Drive for Oil scenario, as it starts small and builds up, and we were planning on playing as teams, Eric and Doug taking the Russians, Chuck and I as the Axis. Of course, this plan was screwed up when Chuck had to leave on business, and he didn't get back until after lunchtime on the Friday.

So, I was on my own to start with, and it quickly became apparent that this wasn't a good scenario for multi-player play. There was no real obvious demarcation line to split the forces, either geographically or nationally, and it wasn't big enough to have one player operate the supply, even though that's a pretty boring job. In the end, Doug gave up, and when Chuck arrived they went off and did their own thing.



The general overview is that it's July 1942, and the Axis forces are pushing further into the south east, heading for the oil fields around Krasnodar and Grozny, which are two of the objectives. The third objective is Tuapse, on the Black Sea coast, looking just like a small village, it assumes large importance here. The scenario opens just after the fall of Rostov, with only a couple of units having crossed the Don. The aim for the Axis is to break out and (ahem) drive for the oil. (All the pictures are taken from my perspective on the game, which is looking from the north. So all references to east and west are reversed, with east being to the left.)





So, what are the objectives? Short term, I need to get across the bridge from Rostov, and drive to Pavloskaya. From there I need to decide where my focus will be in the short term. I'm sure he's going to try build up in Krasnodar, so that will be my first target, trying to cut it off before it gets too strong. From there I plan to move on Tuapse and Grozny. Secondary plans are to get 23Pz and GD across the bridge over the Manych in front of them and advance on Sal'sk. (At the bottom left corner in the previous picture.) It's got an air field, and whilst it's not a great base for me, it's a very good one for him to threaten my supply line, and it will prevent him railing in supplies and reinforcements from the north edge of the map.

Once again, however (which seems to be the MO for my OCS games), things started out disastrously. 23Pz and GD started with an attack to the bridge to the south, as planned, guarded by the lone russian division. In the first roll of the game, for the air hip shoot, Doug rolled an '11' for the flak and I lost a step and missed the resulting barrage. In the overrun I rolled like crap, and lost an armored battalion for no effect on the defender. On the other side I also suffered a reverse, and so far 23Pz is down a couple of units and the attack is totally stalled. In Rostov it goes equally badly as my attacks also bounce off the defenders. Over the 4 attacks I don't roll anything higher than a '6' for surprise and combat. I've consumed about half the supply I started with, got nowhere and lost a few units.

In the next turn or two I do finally break through at Rostov, creating a pocket, and driving forward to Pavloskaya and beyond. To the east (left), the attacks by 23Pz and GD continue as before as they fail attack after attack. 23Pz has now lost 3 units and is close to ineffective. This is the position at the end of turn 3:



The next couple of turns sees me tail catch up to the lead units, as I've reached the end of my supply tether. I continue to push forward to Sal'sk, but my attempt to cut it off with 23Pz goes awry as I find out that Sal'sk is also a supply source. Read through section 1.6, Supply Sources, and you'll see the various map edges listed, but that isn't the whole story. Some of the locations mentioned in 1.8 Reinforcement Entry are also identified as supply sources. Sure, there's a little pointer in 1.6 to 1.8, but heck, if it's a supply source, mention it in the proper place. So, despite being cut off from the outside world, SPs and reinforcements keep popping up in Sal'sk, and just to add to the oversight, the 23Pz unit also fails its attrition roll (needed <=7 to pass) and dies.

In the south I've penetrated as far as Kropotkin, and I'm starting to look dangerous. However, that's as far as my supply can go, and I need to get some HQs forward, but I'm seriously lacking in SPs. The position at end of turn 5:



The next couple of turns sees me drive forward to the edge of Krasnodar with my lead units. Those Motorized units can sure move a long way when they have an open path. And fuel. However, in turn 7 I miss doing my reinforcement segment, so pick it up at the end of my move when I realize my mistake. To my shock and horror, I find that many units get removed, including the entire GD Mtr Div, which leaves a gaping hole in my line to the south of Sal'sk. Even more importantly, the cavalry battalion holding Kropotkin is one of the units removed. I've got units available, and could have replaced it, but Eric dives forward in his turn, hoping to get the initiative next turn. Of all the units on the entire map to have chosen as my point unit, I've chosen the one unit that gets removed. On the other side of the map I've spent a lot of time preventing 17th Cav from joining up with the main line.



Eric wins the initiative, to recapture and reinforce Kropotkin. It will take me several turns to recapture Kropotkin, delaying my advance again. Still, I'm pushing forward and starting to put pressure on Krasnodar's supply line with Eric fighting to keep it open. Kropotkin is, once more, isolated. Sal'sk is cut off from the rail lines as I isolate Peschnokopskoye, and the troops all fall to attrition in the first turn.







In the next few turns I recapture Kropotin and start pressuring Armovir. I try an attack, but it rolls poorly. It's going to be a slow process to get to Grozny. At Krasnodar I attack and capture the airfield, and quickly move fighter units there, simultaneously protecting my own units from air barrage and stopping any air resupply. I try an attack on the city, but roll weakly (despite a large AR superiority) and don't get better than parity on losses. I'm finally starting to put pressure on Sal'sk, but my attack there also rolls poorly. (Anyone spotting a trend?) Eric counter attacks at Sal'sk and roll straight 9s for surprise and combat. Here's the position at the end of turn 12:







In the next couple of turns Eric reinforces the Sal'sk area heavily, including the 4th Gds Cav Corps and several independent Gds cavalry units. I fear that front collapsing and putting pressure on Rostov and my supply lines, so reinforce heavily, moving 3Pz and 13Pz, which had been sitting in the back (mostly through lack of fuel to move them forwards). A few judicious attacks later and the threat has been removed, and my lines look a bit more solid. At Krasnodar I have another go at reducing the city defenses, but once more roll weakly. Armovir continues to weaken through attrition. Here's the position at the end of turn 14:







By this time we're getting into the afternoon on the second day, and it's clear we're not going to get through the whole game. The tempo starts to increase as we try to get through as much of it as possible. Eric removes any focus from the Sal'sk area, as we concentrate on the main drive for Grozny and Tuapse. I start rolling units off from Krasnodar, capturing the Maikop oil fields, which gives me extra SPs, and pressing towards Tuapse. I meet with some good success, finally rolling some good dice on combats. However, I get right to the edge of Tuapse, and am in a position to cut it off, but my hip shoot rolls too well, and removes the one step protecting it's supply line! (I roll 12, for a full step loss.) This means that I can't attack, and, therefore, can't advance and cut it off. Well, poop. Now I choose to roll like a demon, just when I don't want it. The empty hex means he can move more units into Tuapse, and there's nothing I can do about it. Over in the south east, I keep pressing, leap-frogging units around his defenses. I get as far as Mineral'nyye Vody, but still several turns from Grozny, let alone attacking or forcing attrition.

By this time it's late on Saturday evening, we've reached the end of turn 21 and we have to stop. We agree that Krasnodar is going to fall, it's possible that Tuapse will be captured, but no sure thing, and that Grozny is a definite 'no chance'.









So, what were the critical points in the game? Obviously the first turn was a disaster, putting me a whole turn behind schedule, as absolutely nothing went even remotely average. Losing Kropotkin to a withdrawn unit lost me another couple of turns, as it blocked the supply line going forward. This came from me trying to speed up my rate of play as Eric was concerned that we were moving too slowly. In rushing, I started to miss things, like an element of 13Pz hiding under another counter being missed when the rest of the division gets fueled and moves out, so being stranded for the rest of the game, or a gaggle of units and/or replacements not being moved.

However, my two biggest mistakes were attacking into Krasnodar and being slow in switching my line of attack from Krasnodar to Grozny, with the second being an outcome of the first. Having surrounded and cut off Krasnodar, and then having captured the airfield to give me a patrol zone to prevent air resupply, I should have just left it to run out of supply and face attrition. I wasted around 8 SPs (possibly more) attacking, plus a few replacement units to rebuild lost steps.

This also left many strong units sitting around Krasnodar doing nothing, when they would have been better used driving on towards Grozny, and I was too slow in recognizing this and switching focus.

Eric felt that my putting any emphasis on Sal'sk was a mistake, but I don't agree. With it being a supply source and reinforcement point it can become a thorn in the Axis side very quickly. Perhaps trying to capture it was a bit hopeful, keeping it neutralized was important. It certainly had me worried (with a capital 'wor') when Eric brought all those reinforcements into that area.

Overall, this was the highlight of the WBC-W week, by a long shot. OCS continues to impress me as a gaming system and Case Blue as a game. Yes, it's big, but the quality of play is worth every minute. And then some. Last year, on the return journey from WBC-W, I said that I'd be happy to play OCS for the whole week, rather than just the one day. This year I managed to mek it to two days. Next year I'd like to fulfill that original thought.

After the EotS, I had another go at the CC:S campaign. Another fun game, as Doug drew an Advance and 2 Ambush cards in the first hand, with my unit adjacent, and it was downhill from there. (I was under the mistaken belief that the attacker set up only 2 hexes deep, not 3. Even then I almost asked for an adjustment, but I reckoned the likelihood of it biting me was remote. Ha ha.) Later, I decided to gamble on Doug not having an Advance card in his hand with only a handful of cards left in his deck, but he'd been keeping one in hand. Bit desperate really, but being down several VPs already, smoke everywhere and the Russians about to break through the line for mega points (doubled for an open objective) it was already over.

After the week, I sat down and actually read the rules for the DYO and CC:S scenarios, and I now understand how it works. One of the downsides of just being guided through the setup in a 'do this/do that' manner is that I wasn't understanding the consequences of the decisions. Even after the third game I had no clue as to how/why one player got to use a radio (i.e. artillery) and the other didn't. Or even that it would be available.

Of course, all this is rather moot as I still played like crap. I'm of the opinion that I'm a very weak CC player. I hold cards when I should discard, and discard when I should hold. I forget the rules rather easily, so miss a lot of opportunities. Perhaps if I didn't treat the game so lightly I'd do better, but I regard CC as a filler, something to play when there isn't time or inclination to play a 'real' game.

When Alex and Matt arrived I joined them in a hand of Dominion. The evening I took off again, and spent it relaxing, listening to music and reading, getting ready for the main event of the week, the OCS game from Case Blue.

On the table today was Empire of the Sun (BGG entry) with Dave. Another game that turned out to be a poor gaming experience due to the way the cards came out. We played the 1942-1943 scenario, which starts in turn 2, only dropping the initial Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor and into SE Asia.

My first card play saw me use a Inter-Service Rivalry (ISR) counter as an Operations Card, and I swiftly found out how stupid that was as Dave played ISR and I read the rules on the impact. ISR means that naval and army units cannot be activated together, meaning no protected amphibious operations. As any amphibious landing that ends up with an enemy naval unit reacting into the same hex automatically is repulsed with a step loss to the infantry, that makes performing amphibious operations anywhere in range of enemy naval units very risky.

I performed some land operations in Burma, and I was able to counteract ISR on the last play of the turn when I fortunately drew a counter when required to draw an extra card. However, Dave's first turn of the next turn was a card that allowed him to draw a card from his played cards, so he selected Inter-Service Rivalry again, which he played in his next turn. And so it was that I didn't get anywhere near Guadalcanal, or most of the resources in the SW, and only got one unit onto New Guinea. I tried a couple of unsupported amphibious operations, but Dave aced his reaction rolls both times, so gave up on that. In the last turn of 1942 Dave was running rampant, retaking Rabaul, and my resource hex in New Guinea. I managed to resist his return to Borneo, sinking an unsupported carrier in the process, but that was my last hurrah, and

The highlight of the game (from my perspective, I'm sure Dave would have a different view) was a large naval fight near Wake Island, with heavy losses to the US carriers. Other than that, I made it to Singapore, forced the Philippines to surrender, but that was the high water mark. By the end of 1942 the Allies were starting to push the Japanese back, and even at that time it was a decisive Allied victory. Just to help matters, Dave also rolled spectacularly on the Submarine Warfare, pulling a card from the Japanese hand each of the possible turns (needed a roll of ≤ 2 on the 3rd turn, and ≤ 3 on the 4th), and the combination was a killer.

There are some great mechanisms in the game, and lots of things to think about. However, if the Allied player gets ISR in play early and the Japanese player can't counter it, the game is almost over for the Japanese player. In fact, with no way to counter ISR except through random draw, I'd even go so far as to declare the game broken. The game comes down to whether the Allied player draws ISR early and the Japanese player doesn't draw a counter, and it's a shame to have an otherwise great game come down to a random draw.

With only 3 of us, we split the day in 2-player games, with Dave and Doug playing Flying colors in the morning, while I set up Empire of the Sun ready for tomorrow.

After lunch Doug and I played Monty's Gamble:Market Garden. We'd played this once before with my Allies imploding against Doug's Axis (Pre-game, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4), so this time we turned it around. Doug started well, taking out most of my flak towers, and landing with no losses at all. However, his initial attacks with XXX Corps in Zone F were less than totally successful, and I managed to hang out with a fresh unit. At Arnhem he dashed forward with 4 battalions, consequently his attack on the supply drop area was weak and I held onto it easily.

Day 2 saw Doug continue to push in Zone F, but was only making very slow progress, barely making it into Eindhoven, as it seemed I was blowing every bridge ever built in Holland. I brought in my big reinforcements and immediately attacked Doug's supply base, driving him out.

Day 3, overcast weather, so no air drops, and Doug is driving over the bridges, heading for Nijmegen. I try to nip at the edges, but although I suck in a few units, it's no great impact. In Arnhem I move 9ss and 10ss to attack the city, and put all 4 units to D2 status. I follow up with another 2 armored units and managed to kill one of the four. In the supply phase Doug's units in Arnhem are all isolated, and loses all 3 in the city, and nothing else. At this point it's looking really bad for the Allies.

Day 4 sees more bad weather, and any chance for Doug has evaporated. He pushes forward into Nijmegen, but can't roll well enough to kick me out. The turn ends pretty quickly, and Doug has 6 VPs to end, well short of the 10 required to win.

This turned out pretty much like the previous game, with the Allied player rolling weakly. I don't think I did anything big in the fancy moves or strategies that caused the win. I'm not entirely sure that there's anything the Axis player can do. Nor the Allied player, to a large extent. That said, we played the whole game in 3.5 hours, including set up and quite a lot of rules referencing, so not bad length. The right amount of time for the game play, so it will hit the table again.

After dinner, and Eric's arrival, we played China - The Middle Kingdom, a game using the Britannia system. This wasn't a game that we expected to play, so we hadn't really read the rules, and we truly screwed up pretty much every rule in the book. So badly, in fact, that we agreed to restart. In the restart, everyone immediately attacked my 2 units on the board, so that my one faction was dead before their turn had come. Yay! I then had to wait a full turn and a bit before I got my first play.

The game is full of wacky rebellions and faction placements, where you have little control over the placement of your troops, and the previous faction's success (or, more importantly, lack thereof) can seriously hamper your faction's options. The rules about preventing units from moving out of China once moved or placed inside have the odd effect of making people keep their units outside China.

And talking of rules, they are very poorly written with holes everywhere, requiring lengthy corrections and clarifications. And even then we still had several questions. The graphics choices for the counters are even worse, with it being very hard to tell which faction is which, with the faction name in an almost unreadable font size and very close to the background color. Truly one of the worst sets of graphics I've seen in any game.

This is supposed to be the history of China, but it felt more like a bunch of wacky semi-random placements. Everyone was unsatisfied with the game and the odd nature dictated by the rules, feeling there were still some rules missing. It's unlikely to see more table time.

Well, eventually settled on Through the Ages, as being pretty much the only 3-player game we had available, that Dave was willing to play. He's played this extensively, I've played twice, and Doug only once more, so it was no great surprise that Doug and I got spanked by about 50 points, and that despite much agonizing by Dave about how bad his situation was, and how he was getting screwed by the cards. Yeah, right.

After that fun adventure I went off for a nap. A long nap.

Afterwards Doug and I tried the new Martin Wallace Waterloo game, and got spanked at that as well, with Doug winning an automatic victory as the French before the Prussians had even entered play. Some interesting mechanisms, but I couldn't roll worth a crap, drew all the high activation chits for Doug (I drew 3-5-5-5-4-5-2-3-5, with 2 each of 2, 3, 4, and 5, activation chits in the bag), and he rolled like a tiger in the final turn for skirmish fire and artillery.

After dinner I tried some more CC:Stalingrad with Doug, with the same, predictable result. The big VP objective was on his side of the board, as in the 2 previous games, and he got the first Move card in play, to grab the other big VP objective in the middle. I then imploded in trying to take the VP points in the middle, losing 3 melees, including one where I was up by 4 points. (Yes, he drew 8, I drew 4, for mutual destruction, and a net +2 VPs for him. And he had a Move card to move straight back in.)

After I'd lost another squad to another Time trigger, I quit, giving Doug a 30+ point win, with 4 of 6 turns done. Whee! That was fun.

Well, no plan survives contact with the enemy, as they say. In this case Chuck has had to depart for a couple of days on company business, which has impacted our schedule considerably. Out goes my Gringo! game with Chuck, as well as Doug and Dave's War Galley (BGG entry) and Flying Colors (BGG entry). As we didn't expect to have 3 players, we brought very few 3-P options, so it looks like we'll play Through the Ages today. It's a reasonably decent game, but not the sort of game I was wanting to play at WBC-W, which I prefer to use as time to focus on wargames.

Tomorrow we'll probably split the day up with Doug and Dave doing War Galley/Flying Colors in the morning, and Doug and I will do either MG:MG or Waterloo (BGG entry) in the afternoon. Eric is planned to arrive in the evening, and Chuck is expecting to be back late that evening, so Thursday's schedule may yet survive intact, but who knows.

Major bummer all round.

Day 2 started bright and early, and we were onto Kutuzov (BGG entry)before 0900. I'd played Wellington (BGG entry)a couple of times, and I was interested in trying this one. I was given the Imperial northern troops, including Napoleon, Doug was my partner in the south, with Chuck taking the Russian north, and Dave the south.



The initial moves were rather slow as we were feeling our way, but they mostly went successfully. However, things started to bog down as several combats went weakly, and a couple were reversals. doug didn't make much progress in the south, and I was only slowly grinding Chuck down. Eventually the weight of numbers told, and Chuck withdrew to Smolensk, and a couple of actions later I had kicked him out, and secured a tenuous line back to my home areas. This was done at some cost, as between us we had moved the Attrition status down two full levels, due to all the losses we'd taken.

In the interphase our luck was beginning to turn, as Chuck rolled really poorly with his Cossacks, leaving a good chain of French controlled areas back to home areas.



In the card deal, both Doug and I received cards that raised the Attrition status by a level, and we worked hard to maintain that status. I started driving along the north coast, attacking Riga and winning the siege in one turn. (That required 4 '6's in 12 dice, but fortunately Chuck rolled poorly and it went into a second round, allowing me to win the siege.) Judicious use of cards also forced a rout, gaining me more loot from sacking the city. I was converting a lot of ports in the north, which count for VPs, and was closing in on St. Petersburg. Another big win gave me another roll to end the game in favor of the French, but Doug reckoned I need to get a modified '9' with a +3 modifier, and I rolled a '5'. So near. A lot further than we thought, because Chuck pointed out that we still needed to control Moscow or St. Petersburg to win.

Right at the end of the turn, I made a dash for St. Petersburg with Napoleon, but despite rolling 13 dice to Chuck's 9 I suffered a large reverse. I thought that we'd lost our chance to win, but Doug was reading through the game end rules again (there are 4 pages of victory conditions) and found that the requirement to control Moscow or St. Petersburg only applied at the turn-end victory check, not during the mid-turn check, and we'd also missed another +1 modifier. So, we'd actually made our winning roll. We decided to stop there, and on counting the VPs I had a substantial victory. (Once deciding which side has won, the two players count VPs to decided which of them is the winner.)



Whilst there was a lot to like in the game, the game ending conditions are tedious to follow, being way too convoluted. I'd play it again, as it's really hard to fully explore options after just a single playing, but I think Wellington is more likely to hit the table. Kutuzov has the opponents aligned more in a linear format, so you end up always fighting the same person, but Wellington has them more crossed, so you fight both opponents.

That finished around 1400, so Doug and I picked up the Combat Commander: Stalingrad campaign that Chuck and I started the previous evening. I chose the Russian, and wanted to move more onto the attack, so chose a couple of extra squads. We ended up on a Recon scenario, but with large forces and playing up the map long ways, things were very busy and tight.

I quickly was in trouble, as Doug was able to move forward into strong positions, and with no width available I got shot to smithereens trying to force the action. Part of the reason for was that, as in the previous session, the major VP objective was on Doug's side of the board. I was hoping to sneak some squads off the board for the double VPs (the other open objective) but with no width that really wasn't an option. In the end Doug won comfortably by 20-30 points.

Here's the position near the start, I've made my initial move up the right hand side. That was the last movement card I received for some time, and Doug brought all his troops forward into a solid line from the woods on the left to the right, with lots of LMGs. And with plenty of Snipers and Fire cards he controlled the board. You can see objective #5, worth 8 VPs) in the woods to the right.



The biggest lesson learned is that when you're fighting up the length of the map, make sure you're on the defensive, especially if you have a decent number of support weapons. There really isn't the room to do anything except take casualties. That, and draw decent cards, and make sure the high-scoring objectives are on your side of the board.

It was around dinner time, so Doug showed me a small solo game from Victory Point Games, Soviet Dawn, of the Russian revolution. You turn over acard and react to that card on various tracks. Do this, and that card comes out and you lose. Do that, and this card comes out, you lose. And any way the cards come out, if you roll like crap, you lose.

It reminds me very much of Pandemic, a 'cooperative' game where you do almost meaningless stuff in the hope that the cards come out in the right order so that you guessed right on the meaningless stuff to do. At least Soviet Dawn doesn't last long.

And that was the end of day 2, as I've decided to take things easy in the evenings. So Monday saw me watch House, do a little reading, and catch up on the blog entry.

Incidentally, I've recently acquired a new camera, another Canon Elph, this time the SD1200 10 megapixel model to replace my previous SD200 4 megapixel model. So far it seems to be good, but it does produce some rather large pictures. Hey, everyone has broadband, right?

And so, here we are, back in Sunriver for WBC-W, our gaming nan-con, whimsically entitled for the big World Boardgaming Championships that occurs out east every year. We're here for a full week's gaming, and this year I'm scheduled to play Kutuzov (BGG entry), Gringo! (BGG entry), (Monty's Gamble:Market Garden), Waterloo (the new Martin Wallace Treefrog game) (BGG entry), Empire of the Sun (BGG entry), and a large scenario from the OCS Case Blue (BGG entry). And those are just the day games. I'm sure there will be lots of other stuff going on as well.

The drive out was mostly uneventful, apart from a serious slowdown on getting into downtown Portland to pick up Chuck, after picking up Dave in hillsboro. This put us around 30-45 minutes behind schedule for getting to Bend to meet up with Doug, who had traveled out by himself. (What a big boy!) Dinner was eaten at the Deschutes Brewery pub, and after a stop at Albertsons and Papa Murphy's to pick up some groceries for the week, it was out to Sunriver, to decant and get started.

Chuck and I kicked the week off by starting a Combat Commander:Stalingrad campaign. Doug guided us through the set up, and we were off. I was the Russians, and immediately things didn't look good as the objectives gave 6 VPs for objective #4, which was right on Chuck's side of the board. I protected it best I could, adding in some foxholes, knowing that Chuck was lining up to attack it with a strong force. Here's the starting position (objective #4 is the one to the right):



Initially things went well, as I scored a large attack on Chuck's leading units, but things swiftly petered out. He quickly overran objective #4, taking out my best leader at the same time with lots of Advances to Melee combat with Ambush cards in hand. I did manage to take out his best leader and squad when he Advanced into my space, by playing a couple of Ambush cards of my own, and we swapped the Initiative back and fore several times before Chuck accepted a tie and we both died. At one point Chuck vacated objective #4, but I never had the required cards in hand (or the units) to do much about it.

I did get my leader back as a Walking Wounded, who appeared right on Chuck's map edge and was able to Advance off the map. However, that was the only bright spot, as my mortar jammed (straight snake-eyes draw) then was eliminated (although the only shell it managed to land for effect (out of 4 efforts) was one that only impacted my own guys), I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn door, didn't see a recover card for a whole Deck, so lost any chance of regaining objective #4, then drew a 9 to suppress my squad in objective #5, just as Chuck was about to advance into it. I drew lots of Sniper cards, but could never get them to affect Chuck's hexes, and with no-one able to Fire I couldn't even take advantage of the Urban Sniper +4 modifier (everyone out of range, and with no weapons left).

Time ended when Chuck was faced with losing objective #5 back to me on a Time! draw, which would lose him a couple points for the squad, but may end the game and give him the victory. He chose to end it, and I couldn't draw higher than a 6 to keep it going. In the final tally Chuck won by 8 VPs. Here's the ending position:



It was good to get this started, even though it didn't go too well. I'm sure I'll get more chance over the week to exact some revenge.

Last weekend was the annual Portland area gaming event, Gamestorm, the 11th incarnation. Once more I ran some games, played some games, and chatted with a variety of people.

Once again it was held in Vancouver, this time the Hilton, another new venue for the event. Like most venues, it was a mixture of good and not so good. The gaming facilities were fine, mostly lots of tables, the hotel had a food cart around meal times (although I did not use it). The less good, was the parking, and, well, that was it, really. I'm not overly fond of this location, but I'd prefer facilities over the free parking at the Red Lion form last year. The hotel from Gamestorm 9 is still the best location I've attended Gamestorm, with the best balance of facilities. (I believe some people had problems finding parking, but I never had any issues at all.) The parking, which cost just over $20 for all 4 days, was a pain, but not too much of one. At least the garage had plenty of space, even on the week days. Getting up to Vancouver can be an issue at times, and I'd prefer it was further south, but as I'm mostly going up and coming back at off peak hours, the traffic isn't too bad for me, and even the Friday morning journey only takes 40 minutes.

Organization of the con itself was the usual mix of decent and OMG bad. Having the office upstairs was a pain. Having it closed at lunchtime is just stoopid. Although it never caused a problem for me, having the game library in the main gaming room, and so having to close down to whole room to secure it at closing time, has had several negative comments.

Once again they did the 'Gamestorm Bucks' for those running events/helping, and for the second year running I gave away mine, as there was nothing on the table worth looking at. A whole bunch of pre-owned books, D&D style comics and other stuff is a total waste of time. I gave mine to KC, who at least got some Magic decks (pre-owned I think, they appeared to be opened), and he gave me some vouchers for Dutch Bros coffee instead.

However, the biggest thing I'm going to mention is the hotel's no food policy. Not the actual policy itself, which is perfectly fair and reasonable, but when sitting in the con lobby on Friday I saw several people carrying Subway sandwich bags into the con. One of them with a 'Gamestorm Staff' badge. That person needs to be kicked off the organizing team, as a great deal was made ahead of time about no outside food at the event, so for one of their own team to so flagrantly and openly flout their own rules is unforgivable.

OK, enough about the logistics of the event. Over the few days I had a good time. I played 22 games over the 4 days, although it didn't start until 2pm on the Tuesday, and I took Saturday evening off. I ran Big Kini, Zooloretto, Tribune, Byzantium, and Mordred. My Steel Driver session was screwed up when it was put on the schedule at the wrong time. Other than that I played 18Scan (and sucked big time against a couple of sharks), the 2-player tournament, Fjords, Mr. Jack, Cities, Royal Palace, Le Havre, Blue Moon City, and Blokus. Once again in the 2-P tournament I lost in the first round,

From what I hear Gamestorm will be back at the same place next year, and I'm planning to attend and run a bunch of games. I'll do a whole bunch of Martin Wallace games again. Byzantium certainly, probably After the Flood, and some of the ones to come out this year, including Waterloo. Who knows what else, but I want to get some 18xx played.

Roll on next year.

Although I've been playing wargames (or conflict simulations, the more PC term) for many years (with a brief hiatus in the middle) it's only comparatively recently that I came across corner clipping. Most wargames feature small pieces of cardboard (counters) to represent the units, formations, and markers required to play the games, which have to be punched out from the die-cut sheets that they come on. Just folding and tearing at the cuts leave messy cardboard 'ears', so most gamers I knew, myself included, used a sharp hobby knife/scalpel to neatly separate the pieces.

And then I cam across clipping. This is where the corner is cut to remove some of the square angle, either with the afore-mentioned hobby knife, or with a pair of clippers. For the longest time I wasn't convinced about clipping, but after playing OCS Sicily with Eric's copy, I was sold, and started clipping all my games. Yes, it's a slow and tedious task, but the games are more playable when trying to move the counters on the map, as the edges catch less, leading to fewer counters moved accidentally on the map.

I came across the C4 Counter Clipper on BGG, and thought it interesting, but at $20 (+shipping) I wasn't ready to indulge. However, I finally broke down and purchased one from eBay. Initial usage was a very positive experience. Slicing through whole stacks of counters in one go, whole sheets of counters had their corners clipped in the twinkling of an eye. Wow, what a revelation!

However, after using it for some time, the base is beginning to get seriously grooved, as the knife is stronger than the material used, which means the bottom counter is left either mis-cut or has to be recut. One solution is to use a 'dummy' counter at the bottom to take the mis-cut, but there aren't enough dummies around for continual use. And using a dummy for a second time doesn't help, as the counter about it doesn't get cut cleanly, instead.

So, after an initial two thumbs up rating, I'm reducing the rating to one thumb kinda sideways. Of course, I could buy another, but they're a bit too spendy to buy one per 4-5 games (around 20 counter sheets).