Riding through the glen

 

I got this much anticipated game for my delayed birthday gift from Louise last year although we didn't play it until the New Year.  It combines wargaming-style measuring sticks for movement, a Fighting Fantasy-style book for revealing the story, Advent Calendar opening doors for removable/flippable tiles which are built into the beautifully illustrated game board, a bit of roleplaying and silly voices, and uniquely a single bag for all the various bits that need to be drawn out during the game.

The development of characters and flipping of tiles within the game board means it is a legacy game - but one that can be completely reset and played through again.  Encounters are different depending on whether you are playing for the first or subsequent times through, and there is a branching narrative so there are two pairs of scenarios within the nine that are encountered by a different decision at some point.

It is really clever and a lot of fun.  Kieron, Stuart, David and I had played the first two chapters ("Escape" and "A Safe Hiding Place") a couple of months ago, and last night, Andy took over the Will Scarlet character from David (slightly reluctantly as Andy wanted the green figures of my Robin Hood character!).

The game doesn't have a rulebook as such with additional rules being introduced as players progress through the scenarios.  This works well for getting you stuck into the game straightaway and letting the depth of the game emerge but it does rely on a bit of memory between game sessions.

Consequently, we had a bit of a challenge with scenario 3 "Gold for King Richard".  We ran out of time but we also had collected objects we didn't know how to use which would have helped immensely, so we decided to treat our concluding the game in the one further round we played as a success.

For next time:

• The objects we collected can be used to get extra turns, extra movement and other bonuses as outlined on the inside cover of the book.  They are not carried over to future scenarios at this stage.
• The "Hope" counter drops rapidly during the game and we need the Bard to sing our praises - so it's important to defeat Guards and (especially) rob Nobles to ensure the Hope is regularly topped up, allowing more time to complete the scenario.

With the above in mind, I think we shouldn't feel under quite so much pressure in our next game.

Ancient Battles

 Andy and I got a few more DBA battles under our belts.  Last week we played Early Neo-Assyrian (I/25b) versus Early Achaeminid Persian (I/60c).

Andy lined up his Persians near the river I put down and advanced to the bank.  Leaving my horde behind to keep an eye on Andy's element in the fort on my side of the battlefield, I made my way towards the river.

As I reached it, I rolled a 6 revealing that the river slowed crossing, banks aided defence and only single elements or columns could cross.  As if that wasn't bad enough, Andy's 6s against my 1s saw his bow kill two heavy chariots before I even got a chance to cross.  And his superhuman horde even managed to push back another chariot despite being double-outflanked.

I soon lost my Psiloi and Blade on the right flank giving Andy a 4-0 victory.  I couldn't even kill one of the three hordes although as Andy informed as I was leaving, they don't count towards breakpoints anyway!

Yesterday we played Classical Indian (II/3a) against Graeco-Bactrian (II/36a).

I took another risk with the river and this time the river roll was a 4, slightly better but still reducing my Graeco-Bactrian knights to a feeble 1BW move as we waded through, and they never got in to the fight.

In the centre, battle was met but I didn't have the PIP dice to engage enough elements at the same time.  My elephant trampled one of Andy's bow but his Indian elephants did more damage.  Final score 5-1 to Andy.

We swapped sides for a rematch and I dispensed with the river this time.

My bow pushed up and killed a light horse.  There was a big battle in the centre with losses on both sides but elephants being able to quick kill knights gave me the edge, and after taking out Andy's general, I finally won a game with a score of 5-3.