WAM - The Card Driven War Game Con

KingPut wrote:

Dogmatix if you, Sag, Flim, etc come down I'm planning on blowing off the tournment to play some open card driven games with hacks like me. My first choice would be Here I Stand if we can get 6. If not we can just play some 2 player game. Maybe have Sword of Rome, Wellington or Succesors ready to go if we end up with a odd number of people.

I think Washington War will have a good range of talent. I didn't think it was as scripted as TS and PoG.

I'd make the trip for HIS.

Not too much experience with the games, but if you need a body i am close have a desire to learn HiS amoung others.

First the bad news: I'm now kind of unsure if we'll be able to pull off playing Here I Stand next weekend. I'm only counting 4-5 players.

Now the good news from Volko Ruhnke - I can bring my prototype to WAM. I'll be there just for Saturday to offer an informal LABYRINTH event (with giveaways!), but I'll bring my new prototype ANDEAN ABYSS along as well.

Andrean Abyss - Write up on TOS:

Colombia: Nation at the Edge of Abyss

Colombia in the 1990s hosted one of the world’s last Marxist guerrilla armies, brutal drug lords, and right-wing death squads and appeared close to failing as a state. A decade later, its Marxists had lost their top leaders and rural sanctuary, its big drug bosses were dead or in prison, and its paramilitaries were negotiating demobilization. The Government had extended its writ to most of the countryside, restored its popularity, and improved the economy and respect for human rights.

Andean Abyss takes 1 to 4 players into this multifaceted campaign for control of Colombia: guerrillas and police, kidnapping and drug war, military sweeps and terror. Each of four factions deploys distinct capabilities and tactics to influence Colombian affairs and achieve differing goals. Players place and maneuver 160 wooden pieces across a colorful map and exploit event cards that cannot be fully predicted. Accessible mechanics and components put the emphasis on game play, but Andean Abyss also provides an engrossing model of insurgency and counterinsurgency in Colombia—smoothly accounting for population control, lines of communication, terrain, intelligence, foreign aid, sanctuaries, and a host of other political, military, and economic factors.

A New Kind of Card-Assisted Wargame

From the award-winning designer of Wilderness War and Labyrinth, Andean Abyss features unique mechanics relating events and operations that guarantee difficult player decisions with each card flip. Most of the game’s 72 events are dual-use, representing alternative historical paths: players can choose either version of the event or from an array of operations and special faction activities. Every choice has implications for how the next card will be played. There is no hand management: the focus is on the map and on planning for the foreseeable—and the unforeseeable. Die rolls are only a small part of game: the key to victory is not luck but the ability to organize the most effective campaign.

Multiplayer, 2-Player, Solitaire

Andean Abyss provides up to 4 players with contrasting roles and overlapping victory conditions for rich diplomatic interaction. For 2- or 3-player games, players can represent alliances of factions, or the game system can control non-player factions . Or a single player as the Colombian Government can take on the leftist FARC, the right-wing AUC, and the narco-trafficking cartels. The non-player insurgents will fight one another as well as the players, but too much power in the hands of any one of them will mean player defeat.

COIN Series, Volume I

Andean Abyss presents a game system on modern insurgency readily adaptable to other conflicts, particularly those featuring the interaction of many sides (thus our new COunterINsurgency series). A rich and under-represented history of 20th-Century guerrilla warfare beckons. Next up for Volume II: BUSH WAR—Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Southern Africa.

I think I have one other player interested in HiS, Justin Rice - he knows the game very well and will be attending, if that helps get us to the magic 6 person mark.

Msample wrote:

I think I have one other player interested in HiS, Justin Rice - he knows the game very well and will be attending, if that helps get us to the magic 6 person mark.

That'll help. How about a noon start time?

Msample wrote:

I think I have one other player interested in HiS, Justin Rice - he knows the game very well and will be attending, if that helps get us to the magic 6 person mark.

Rice is one of Ed Beach's playtest crew and a thorough HIS (and GCACW) shark. I've played a few F2F and PBEM games with him. He's a truly good dude but I strongly suggest we spike his drink early to keep the game competitive

So, noon on Saturday for HIS? I'm going to make it an up-n-back 1-day run so I want to be sure I know what's going on

I'll be there on Friday and Saturday.

Primary focus will be the rounds of Combat Commander. Looking forward to pickup games of Hearts and Minds, C&C: Napoleonics, Washington's War, and to trying out Wilderness War (must finish reading the rules today!).

Chad

Friday was my first day at WAM. Overall, it seemed like a pretty good turn out despite the snow. I had a choice between playing 2 games of Washington's War or 1 game of Hannibal during the day. I decided to sign up for WWr. Unfortunately, I ended up matched up against James Pei, who has won a huge number of card driven war game tournaments. He's probably won more tournaments than I've played games. Luckily, we randomly rolled for sides and I ended up with the British (the side I better at playing). The first 2 years were going great. I sacked the Continental Congress, I played the Penn-line mutiny, I really had him on the ropes. Than he ended up playing the Declaration of Independence in 1777 and the game got a lot tougher after getting a couple years with totally crappy hands. He ended up pulling out the victory in 1780 (9 - 4) but I was within 1 PC marker of taking 3 states.

I redeemed myself by winning as the Americans in the 2nd game of WWr.

Friday night I ended up blowing off the Hannibal tournment to play Labyrinth. As the Jihadist I ended up getting a nuke into the US. The US player only had 1 card, luck for him it was 3 ops so he was able to foil my plot.

I think were all set for playing HIS Saturday at noon.

Wow, that is a tough player. He wins TONS of CDG tourneys.

grimnir wrote:

I'll be there on Friday and Saturday.

Primary focus will be the rounds of Combat Commander. Looking forward to pickup games of Hearts and Minds, C&C: Napoleonics, Washington's War, and to trying out Wilderness War (must finish reading the rules today!).

Chad

Did you have a copy of Bonaparte @ Marengo for sale? If so, I'm the guy with the ponytail and glasses that bought it from you Saturday night. Nice to meet you

That was indeed me selling Bonaparte at Marengo. Nice to meet you as well.

My WAM gaming on Fri-Sat in a nutshell:

2 pickup games of Washington's War

1 game of Manoeuvre

4 games of C&C: Napoleonics

1 game of Innovation (thumbs down)

4 games in the Combat Commander tourney -- lost in the final