The new year started off strong with four games being played at the club. The game line-up included two World War II games, one late 19th century Colonial game, and Napoleonic era naval game. The two big names were NCO, which was put on by Walt Williams and The Men Who Would Be Kings, which was hosted by Dan Gurule. The other World War II game was Tank Duel, a card game put on by Bernie Santucci that pits different World War II tanks against each other. The naval game was Broadsides by American Heritage and was put on by Mark Wells.
Walt's game was a play-test of NCO, the small-unit, individual-man scale game based on the platoon scale game Bolt Action. The game's scenario was a beach landing by Soviet troops who were attempting to seize a German held island. Objectives for the Soviets included finding a Soviet unit already on the island, finding and killing the German commander, and ultimately taking control of the entire island. Several people who had never played the game before participated which allowed Walt to obtain several good ideas on how to improved upon the base NCO rules.
Dan Gurule's The Men Who Would Be Kings game scenario was set during the 1st French Indochina War that took place at the end of the 19th century. The scenario was the Tonkin Battle of 1898. The Black Flag pirates had been gaining strength and conducting raids all long the French Indochina delta. To stop the attacks, the French Admiralty sent forces to attack the provincial Black Flag stronghold. The objective of the game was for the French units to attack and capture three ammunition stores located in the Black Flag jungle base. Six players made up the combatants with three players on each side. The game included several tweaks to the rules by Dan to allow multi-player games. The game was quite fun with a lot action as the French colonial forces overwhelmed the Black Flag fighters with their superior firepower. Several Black Flag attacks were successfully repelled by the French as they marched to capture the stronghold and defeat the pirates. Thank you Dan for putting on such and enjoyable game!
Tank Duel and Broadsides rounded out the games played at the club and were smaller games with fewer players. Bernie and Mark have brought in several interesting smaller games, which allow club members an opportunity to try games not normally played here. Having diverse gaming interests at the club helps keep the club from focusing on only a few types of games that might affect membership. Thank you to members like Bernie and Mark who help keep the gaming fresh here at the club.
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