Tag: the grizzled

Consimworld 2018: Big Push, Flashpoint: South China Sea, Cataclysm, Mr. President

Consimworld 2018: Big Push, Flashpoint: South China Sea, Cataclysm, Mr. President

It’s been two weeks since Consimworld (I had an LA trip in between since so I apologize for the write-up delay), and all I want to do is play more wargames! Consimworld, short for conflict simulation, is a wargame convention that lasts for eight days in Tempe, Arizona. You need eight days, because some of those games take literally three days to play!

I was lucky enough to be a special guest at the convention, now in its 18th year. I went the entire first weekend, and each day after I got off of work for the rest of the week. I got a lot of gaming in, folks! And of course, it was great seeing out-of-town friends and hanging out.

The front of the gorgeous Tempe Mission Palms, my home away from home for a week.

The convention is super informal; there isn’t a sign-up sheet for gaming. Instead, there’s an Excel file online and you can contact people who have expressed interest in playing a specific game. The only events scheduled are the Mega Games, which require official participation since they take a few days to play. There are also nightly seminars, a large flea market and an auction at the end of the week. I got an excellent deal for Thurn and Taxis at $20!

Consimworld is held at the Tempe Mission Palms, which is right off Mill Avenue in downtown Tempe. That means plenty of food options within walking distance and convenient light-rail access. Pretty darn sweet.

It was great seeing Harold Buchanan (center), of the San Diego area, and Dan Bullock, who is from Milwaukee.

My buddy Dan Bullock, designer of No Motherland Without, came into town and we started the first day by playing Pax Porfiriana, Churchill and John Company. I ended up losing Churchill on the die roll because I was 17 points ahead. It was a fun experience though as we played all 10 rounds, which was my first time playing the long scenario.

I ALMOST won Churchill as FDR in our long scenario. Alas, that die roll.

Harold Buchanan, podcaster and game designer of Liberty of Death, taught us the John Company. I ended up playing this game twice during the convention — first as a 6P and then as a 5P. I liked the experience much more as a 5P. John Company is so bonkers! There’s a lot of randomness in the game, but I’ve come to appreciate that at its heart, it’s a negotiation game moreso than an economic game, which is what I had originally thought it was going into the first game. I ended up winning my second game with zero points. ZERO?!?

Should we let the company burn? But I need to retire first! And watch out for that elephant. John Company is all kinds of bonkers.

Day 2 of Consimworld started with Fire in the Lake, my favorite COIN game from GMT Games. I’m most familiar with this war compared with the other COINs I’ve played, and the board is just gorgeous.

I love using my giant tweezers to pick up cubes.

Dan then picked up a copy of The Big Push, a new game from Hollandspiele, and he cracked it open and learned how to play the game right on the spot! I don’t think I could ever do that; the pressure would be so huge that I’d completely mess up a first play.

The Big Push is the newest game from Hollandspiele, who were at the convention selling games and gave a presentation.

The Big Push is a 2P World War I strategic card game in which you program your cards along various battle areas on the board, and resolve them. The order by which you resolve battles matters, and depending on which cards you play, you can add to your attack or defense value with leftover cards in your hands. Lots of tough decisions about timing and card play in a game that played in about 90 minutes. I’m still kicking myself for not picking up a copy. I did purchase Supply Lines of the American Revolution though!

Lots of tough decisions about where card placement, and if that battle is attacking or defending. Crunchy!

Dan, Harold and I then finished Day 2 with a game of play Battlestar Galactica, my favorite! I ended up being a cylon this time. One guy was being super shifty, so Harold brigged him and I became the CagMiral (Cag and Admiral). I was able to just let resources die down for the cylons to cruise into victory. It was marvelous!

About 270 people attended Consimworld, held at the same hotel for the past 18 years. There were 54 newcomers this year. Some attendees even came in as far as New Zealand and Japan!

I arrived on Day 3 after getting off work. I attended the Welcome Reception, where I learned that the convention has been going strong for 18 years! Even more impressive was that there were a group of folks who had attended every single year. The organizer, John Krantz, is now based out of Texas but used to live in Phoenix when he first started the convention and has kept it at the same location since its inception. Which is awesome for me as a local gamer! The reception also raffled off a lot of games!

Here’s me with John Krantz, organizer extraordinaire of Consimworld.

Dan and I also got a chance to play Flashpoint: South China Sea, Harold’s new game. Flashpoint is a 2P card-driven game that pits China and the U.S. in the hotly-contested area of the South China Sea. The Chinese player works to influence countries while the U.S. is works to maintain influence in the region and keep China in check. Meanwhile, tensions between the two countries can escalate through events and actions that take place.

We’re about to play Harold’s Flashpoint: South China Sea. And Tom Russell hung out with us, too!

The game takes place over four rounds in under 60 minutes, and Dan and I had the chance to play the prototype. At the start of each round, a new crisis card is flipped and the text is triggered. Each player then draws up to a hand size of seven event cards and selects a card to bid for initiative. On each event card, there’s a number for action points as well as an event. When bidding for initiative, the event does not trigger, and the person with the higher number on the selected card is the winner. The winner then gets to decide who goes first.

Here’s the prototype board for Flashpoint: South China Sea.

Players then take turns going back and forth playing a card and taking actions based on the action points on the card. In this phase, no matter what, the event always triggers first, and the text is supposed to be taken literally. Dan and I had to get out of the mindset, a la Twilight Struggle, that the event will only affect you negatively. Some of the event cards will say something like “Chinese remove 1 Economic influence from Vietnam,” which means that the Chinese player can remove either the U.S. or Chinese influence cube from the board. (They will likely remove their opponent’s cube, unless there aren’t any left. In that case, then they have to remove one of their own cubes.)

A sampling of the event cards for Flashpoint. The event always triggers first for this game.

After the round ends, countries are scored based on majorities, and players have the option to add add cubes from the Political Warfare track to boost majority. I really enjoyed playing Flashpoint! There’s so much tension in a relatively short game, making hard decisions about the order to play your cards or forgoing an action you had originally planned to instead reduce the Tension track so you can put influence cubes back on the map. Plus, it plays so quickly in 60 minutes, so every majority and VP matter. I can’t wait until this game comes out!

On Day 4, I attended an evening seminar from Hollandspiele. Tom talked about how he and Mary started the company, and how using a print-on-demand business model allowed them to enter the board-game publishing company. Thus, in having their own company, they can publish the idiosyncratic wargames that they want to.

Here’s me with Tom and Mary Russell, who are Hollandspiele. It was lovely meeting them and seeing how they work so well together.

On Day 5, I played The Grizzled twice and learned how to play Cataclysm: A Second World War. It’s a recent release from GMT Games, and the “learning round” took 2 hours to play. The game uses a chit-pulling mechanism, in which your flags and operations are placed into a cup or put on an initiative track. Play is determined by which chit is pulled, or if you’d like to use an interrupt with your chit on an initiative track.

One of GMT Games’ latest releases is Cataclysm. It’s a very long game, my friends.

I then spent the next two nights playing this game, and we only got to Round 5. The first two rounds breezed by, but by Round 3, whenever you do an action that’s next to another power, they get a flag that’s placed into the cup. So then the length of these future rounds exponentially gets longer as more and more chits need to be pulled from the cup. The box says the game lasts for 90-600 minutes. I believe that!

The Cataclysm maps usually go side by side, but we placed them this way because we were on a round table. So many chits!

On Day 6, I stopped by the room where Mr. President was on display. I sat with Gene Billingsley, Rick and Tom as they playtested a scenario for the upcoming title from GMT Games. Mr. President is a ginormous solo game about being president for four years, about advancing your agenda, dealing with diplomatic and war crises, and keeping the U.S. safe.

This is Mr. President. Not shown is a board to the left that dictates the round sequence and tracks your Cabinet, bipartisan cooperation, scandals and a whole host of other things.

This board is a giant map with a bunch of tracks that tell the story of your diplomatic relations and threat levels in various regions across the world. There are events from Crisis cards that come into play, and at its core, it’s a resource management game. It was so inspiring and humbling to sit in on the playtesting process where they were tinkering with various track values. These guys know so much about that point in history! Mr. President aims to give a deep and immersive experience for the solo gamer. But man, it looks so intimidating!

It’s always great seeing Gene! I hope to make it back to GMT Weekend one year.

Lastly, Harold interviewed me for his awesome podcast, Harold on Games. If I’m being honest, it’s always nerve wracking being on the opposite side of the interview chair. I’m used to interviewing people and asking the questions. Check out the episode and listen to all his other interviews as well!

I first met Harold over a year ago at Strategicon in LA. He hosts his own convention in San Diego in November called SD Historical Con.

And then just like that, an entire week of gaming passed. I had a great time at Consimworld, playing both old and new-to-me games. If you love wargaming, then this is the convention to be at.  Next year’s dates are already set. Hope to see you there on June 22-29, 2019!

Thanks for having me, Consimworld! Can’t wait for next year!

BGG Con 2016: Friends, Team Geek and new games!

BGG Con 2016: Friends, Team Geek and new games!

Guys, I’m totally having BGG Con withdrawal!! I had such a fabulous time, and I just want to spend another 5 glorious days of just board gaming. This past BGG Con was my third one I’ve attended. I think back to how I went to BGG Con for the first time in 2014 ALL BY MYSELF and didn’t know a single soul, to how busy I was this year gaming and hanging out with people. I feel eternally grateful for finding great friends who are obsessed about this hobby as I am.

I remember telling local friends three years ago what I was going to do, and they were like, you’re going on vacation by yourself and doing what for how many days?!? Turns out, it was one of the best things I’ve ever did, as it allowed me to jump straight into the deep end of the hobby. And I can’t wait to see where this hobby takes me.

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The second-annual Friendship Con

The second-annual Friendship Con

My friends and I decided to host a second-annual Friendship Con last week, and I had so much fun. It was nice seeing friends who moved away from Phoenix and those friends I haven’t seen since last year’s event.

We played a lot of games, though sadly we didn’t get through all the games on our uber ambitious list. There were a couple sleepless nights for me (I am so not a morning person, and, not gonna lie, it was rough getting somewhere by 8:30 a.m.), but in the end, I got some good gaming in with fun folks!

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Recap of International Tabletop Day and other gaming

Recap of International Tabletop Day and other gaming

First off, I wanted to give a big thank you to friends and the folks of the Internet for voting for me in the Passport Game Studios International Table Top Photo Contest. I won a runner-up prize! Pretty sweet!! You guys are totally the best!

This past week has been a blur with work and, of course, lots of board gaming. Last Saturday was International Tabletop Day, which my friends and I took full advantage of. Our hosts at one of my gaming groups also had a raffle of board-game prizes and a cornhole tournament in which you could win $25 to Game Depot, our friendly local game store in Tempe.

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The Grizzled: Friends making difficult decisions

The Grizzled: Friends making difficult decisions

My one gaming group had a farewell game day for one of my close friends, who is leaving town with his wife and baby to be near family. It was a bittersweet day knowing that in over a week, they won’t all be in Phoenix anymore. The last game we played that night was The Grizzled, fitting for a game about friendship and making hard decisions. The game even asks: Can friendship be stronger than War?

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BGG Con 2015: Games, games and more games!

BGG Con 2015: Games, games and more games!

Wow, BGG Con came and went to so quickly! I arrived Dallas a day before the convention to attend Team Geek orientation, and immediately got into gaming that evening. I’m planning to write a follow-up post next on what it was like to be part of Team Geek, so this entry will be strictly about gaming and other activities.

BGG Con 2015 had sold out over 2,800 tickets and to make room for even more gaming, it had booked Room 25 on each floor so that folks had the option to game there instead of going down to the main ballroom in the convention floor. These rooms were pretty cool, each having about 6 tables each, complete with water stations and a bathroom inside. I met up with some friends on Tuesday night to play card games. The first one was a German set-collecting game from Essen that translated to 3 Is Too Much. The next one was Red 7, which is a hand-management player-elimination game. Both were fun, but now I realize I forgot to take photos of either one of them. I blame it on being tired from a travel day.

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