Steam - 6 February 2014

We hadn't played Steam for over three years and re-learning the rules confused us a little as we had played both the Base and Standard (for which read "Advanced") games in the past.  This time we played the Base game which simplifies things by having the bank always open for loans when needed, rather than having to raise capital as a single step each round.

David established a very neat self-contained circuit in the south of the board, Adrian had a block in the north, with Kieron, Andy & James a bit more spread out - and thus sharing the deliveries (and profits) a bit more.  James was first to start banking points for victory but David and Adrian established stronger credit positions and then started collecting big victory points.  Andy and Kieron had a bit of fun with building around each other and from old junctions, and with James the battle to avoid last place was fiercely fought.

In the scoring David inched away from Adrian to win 38 to 36, with the final income positions establishing the rest of the positions for James, Andy and Kieron who had all achieved 27 points.

Village - 30 January 2014

Another game of Village with the 5 person extension of brewery and pub.  Again, lots of different strategies - Kieron and Stuart picked up a range of unsavoury characters from the pub, and Stuart also built up carriages and resources for a big burst of travel in the second half of the game; James and David took holy orders amongst other things; and Andy played a blinder collecting almost every trade card in the game.  As always, it's not clear who has won until the final reckoning - James 64, Stuart 59, David 55, Andy 54, Kieron 46.

Thebes - 22 January 2014

We dusted off a four-player game we hadn't played for a long time, the archeological dig game Thebes.  Great theme, a fair bit of luck, and lots of sniggering opportunities watching each other (mostly me) pull token after token of sand from the excavation bags instead of artifacts.  Final score: Kieron 55, David 49, Andy 46, James languishing far behind on 30.

City Tycoon, 15 January 2014

Five at Adrian's on Wednesday for a go at City Tycoon, the clever tile placement, set chaining, cube moving optimisation game.  It took us a while to get back into the rules and remember the variant strategies.  Kieron managed to snooker himself a couple of times early on by having to place water tiles that blocked off his districts from each other.  Adrian was very grateful to be reminded by Andy and James of the chaining tactic that he'd employed the previous time he'd played (a good while ago).  Everyone apart from James kept missing the free resource cubes in the central zone and then kicking ourselves later.  After two and a half hours of intense play it was clear that, despite a last round surge from Stu, the chaining tactics were not to be beaten. Final scores:  Adrian 48; Stu 41; James 39; Kieron 36; Andy 32.

Tzolk'in - 8 January 2014

Kieron brought along his new game Tzolk'in (subtitled The Mayan Calendar, which is helpfully a good indication of the game's theme as well as being more pronounceable!).

This is a worker placement game but with a great mechanism of interlocking gears that move your workers around as time progresses.  Lots of different ways to earn victory points so a variety of strategies to try, and the "Pelopennes civilization" type starting tiles encourage players in different directions from the start.

After going through the rules, we played in a couple of hours.  A great theme and good fun, with the added benefit of who's in the lead not being completely clear until the end.  The game has won a number of international prizes and there are already a few expansion packs.

David perfected his optimisation with a winning 58 points, Kieron and James joint second (or last...) on 50.

Show and Tell, 5 January - Polish Fusilier Battalion

Time off work over Xmas has allowed me to paint up another Shako battalion and some 28mm figures (to be reported separately).  This is a Polish line infantry (fusilier) battalion in the colours of the 6th infantry regiment.

Shako, Enconter at Grub - 2 January 2014

The first figures game of 2014 played out at Adrian's with a small-scale Shako engagement between Kieron, playing the Austrians, and Orhan as the French.  The scenario was an encounter battle set during the 1809 campaign with lead elements of Berthier's French Corps racing for the town of Adensberg and bumping into Austrian forces that the Archduke Charles had dispatched from the South with the same idea.  Both sides' aim was to seize the key river crossings around the village of Grub (or should that be Gruss?..).

With Adrian as umpire, each player mapped out their initial march orders, noting that enemy forces were to their front.  They were invited to specify whether their formations would advance with all possible speed (and hence be at risk of being in march formation upon encountering the enemy) or more cautiously.  The first two turns thus played out at speed with the formations represented by card markers (and with some extra markers moved by the umpire to represent the fog of war).  As units came into visual range they were put on the table.  This set up allowed a rapid move to action and, as it turned out, an asymmetric deployment.

As the French, (General Friant) Orhan's plan was to race his forces onto the heights above Grub, using his light and heavy cavalry to screen the northern flank, his light infantry regiment to occupy the lower town and guard the eastern ford, and to deploy his guns covering the main bridge and the approach to the upper town.  Orhan expected Kieron's Austrians also to seek the highest ground so determined to be there first.

Kieron's plan though did not conform to Orhan's expectations.  General Keller sent a sole unit of heavy cavalry up to the northern heights, raced his light cavalry through the upper town and marched his infantry determinedly straight through the upper town to take the bridge.

T'he Austrian infantry cross the western ford to enter the upper town unopposed

Austrian Kurassiers reach the northern heights, beat off the first attack of the French cavalry and are confronted by the deploying infantry division.

The initial cavalry clash was a victory for the Austrian heavies forcing the French cavalry back.  Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield, the Austrian hussars raced around the town and scouted the eastern ford, finding it blocked by deployed French light infantry in square.

The Austrian hussar brigade races for the eastern ford...

Not wanting to allow the Austrian Kurassiers to threaten his flank Orhan again threw all his cavalry units into an attack, only for Kieron's roll of double six to see all the French thrown off again.  But as skirmishers started to take a toll and a gun battery positioned itself to fire at the Austrian horse from the heights, they retired to screen the Austrian right for the rest of the game tying up all the French cavalry on that side of the board.

The Kurassiers 'Matrix moment' when a double six allowed them to beat off three attacking French units

In the centre, General Keller ordered his main infantry division to storm the bridge from the upper to the lower town.  In the teeth of punishing French cannon fire from the heights, the fusilier battalions charged across.

As General Keller and his staff look on from the North-Western bank, Kurstein's Division charge across the bridge...

... and encounter fierce resistance from the French 8th Light Infantry regiment whose volley fire throws the first attacking battalion back, but breaks as the second comes on undaunted (in a classic DBM-style 6 v 1 dice throw).

The tough Austrian line infantry pushed across the bridge and into the lower town, routing a Polish line infantry battalion and occupying the buildings there.

As more line infantry descends from the heights to try to stem the Austrian tide, the first Polish battalion is pursued through the streets of lower Grub.

Kieron now felt the time was right to unleash his light cavalry across the eastern ford.  One French hasty infantry square was crushed, the second held up a unit of hussars.  By now though the battle was won.  With the upper town, both fords and the bridge firmly in Austrian hands, and the French only just hanging on in the lower town Friant ceded victory to Keller and withdrew the remaining French troops.

The Austrian light cavalry charge across the eastern ford

An aerial view shows the Austrians crossing into the lower town, with French defenders disrupted

The view from Keller's position - Grub is taken.

We found that an engagement such as this with 9 infantry battalions, 3 cavalry regiments, 2 gun batteries and a couple of skirmish stands per side was both easily completed in an evening (the playing time was just over 2.5 hours) and gave the players a meaty enough command to keep them profitably occupied.  I'll look to organise more of the same in 2014.