Trying to set up a VASSAL game...

Hmm, not since last weeks Memoir game have I had an opportunity to play a game with anyone - and I'm still trying to set up a remote M44 game with Matt via Vassal. He should be downloading the files today and hopefully we'll be able to set up some games in the near future.

Breakthrough at Kiln! Memoir '44 star player Roshni wins again!

Breakthrough at Kiln - December 1941, after the German attack on Moscow had ground to a freezing halt, Russian forces tried to cut them off; in this scenario Roshni as the Germans had to break through the heavy defensive Russian lines to a frozen river in the south. They also had to make a feint to the left to draw Russian forces off, aware from the breakthrough.

The start, heavily entrenched Russians prepare to hold off the 

German drive to the frozen river to the South

A push is made for the Russian trenches - badly hit Germans 

still manage to force the Russians to retreat 

Flee!! Out of the blinding snow, German tanks rumble on!

The German troops, biding their time, then push out 

of the city ruins and charge the trenches

With the right hand Russian defences broken and the centre tank forces 

destroyed, there is nothing stopping the German forces successfully making for 

the river as History dictated.

Quick lunch time play of Niagara

Whilst working at home today and the girls being off for Dwali, we thought we'd snatch a quick game of something at lunch time. Seeing as Kavita hadn't played Niagara yet, we thought we'd settle for that, although Anita was tired and opted for a snooze instead. Kavita quickly picked up the rules and we were all dashing about picking up gems. But before I knew it, Roshni had formulated a strategy and had grabbed 5 purple gems and won in a double canoe dash for the finish line! We were just about to start a new turn when I thought Hang on - has she won?! and it turned out she had! lol

Gaming day jolly!!

Yay! Monday was a day of getting together with my best mate Matt at his place whilst he had the place to himself for a few days to play games, eat pizza and drink beer! It was also an opportunity to introduce him and his game-aspiring daughter to Euro gaming :) I had brought most of the games with me to try and squeeze in as much as possible.

Firstly we played Diamant as a good introduction. This went down a storm - very popular as it is very easy to learn but difficult to master - Hannah, Matts daughter, got the idea straight away and loved it - eventually winning the game.

Next out of the bag was Zooloretto - obviously it took a bit to explain the rules, but the game proceeded quite well, with only a few references to the rules - this game has a great system where although it is a fairly complex game, say compared to Diamant, there is no text in the game to get confused with; no cards to read or text to ponder over. Again highly enjoyed by all - and again won by Hannah. :)

It was time then to drop off Hannah to her grandparents; after which Matt and I explored the contents of 7th Fleet and Gunslinger, just to get an idea of what ye olde '80s punch counter games were like - actually Gunslinger looked quite attractive to play and if I'd known the rules we'd have given it a go.

So we had a go at Back to the Future the card game - I've played this a few times solo play, so this was a good chance to test out the rules with two of us. The concept of how to play took a bit to understand (even for me and I'd played a few times!) but after getting into the swing of it, it was a great game - won by Matt in the end.

Next was Niagara - Matt loved the idea of the plastic discs acting as the flowing river and there was much merriment in pseudo-Mexican voices. The ending was full of tension as we both had our fill of gems, me 5 different coloured gems, Matt his mixed collection of 7. We just needed to get one more gem each to the finishing line. With our last paddle cards and the end in sight, we raced for him - Matt pipping me to the post!! Another game lost! :)

Next was Memoir '44 - actually two games of Memoir as it was so popular with Matt. The only unfortunate thing I found was that set up took too long and was actually a bit confusing with two people on opposite sides of the table whilst looking at the map in the book. Something to consider in the future. But the games went off really well - the first an American attack against heavily entrenched German positions - including several elite German tank platoons; leading to a win by Germany that followed the course of History. Then it was another try at an Omaha beach landing, this time with Matt as the Americans. This turned into an unmitigated disaster for the Yanks as one after another unit and platoon were destroyed or mown down on the beaches of France.  Notch one up for me! this would turn out to be my only win of the day...

Finally we had a game of Last Night on Earth - and as I'd not played this before, game play proceeded a little slowly at first as Matt read the rules, counters were punched and cards were shuffled. The scenario we took was Get Petrol and Keys for the Truck! or something like that. This involved my humans searching for petrol and keys whilst fending off the undead! Unfortunately one character after another died and then the Sun set and it was game over man game over! A good game, if not 100% my cup of tea in its mechanics. Perhaps another couple of games will win me over.

In all, a hugely successful gaming day/night! Cannot wait to do it again!

The gaming jolly is on!

Excellent news for me - not so good for the rest of the family gaming wise, but still they'll be having fun (girlie night in for them). I'm going to be meeting up at my oldest friends place after not seeing him for about 2 or 3 years and having an enormous gaming jolly all day; introducing him to as many Euro type games as possible! Doing as much gaming as can be physically fitted in from Monday morning to into the early hours!

Gaming at last!

After 3 weeks of virtually no gaming at all, due to spending a lot of time in the loft clearing it out, making room for a work desk, storage etc, we finally managed to play a couple of games - Maya, Anita and I played a good game of Niagara, where Anita won by a deft little steal of a gem from me, then a quick pick up of another gem on the next turn. Then we played Zooloretto and Maya and I came joint 1st as I used the last of my coins to remove an animal from my barn, hence saving me from an extra -2 points at the end of the game!

It was nice to be back in the boxes and playing again after so long.

No gaming for 3 weeks!!

It has been now 3 weekends without any board gaming! We've been up in the loft mostly, clearing it out and getting rid of the 90% junk up there, empty boxes, old unwanted toys and clothes etc. The aim is to have it re-insulated, have proper boarding put down, put in a loft ladder and hopefully some windows and finally desk space for the girls to study. Also it will provide some much needed storage space, especially for the board games we have! Also we found our copy of Man o'War and Warmaster, plus a boxed copy of Plague Fleet and Sea of Blood which I had forgotten about.