Jim, Lee and I continued with our adventures in Middle Earth… We played chapter 9 – 12 … apparently we are getting better at it… Jim lost the first chapter but Lee and I managed to win the rest… Lee got bored last week and decided to try painting the miniatures that came with the game… he did a great job in spite of the orcs and trolls having no uniforms 🙂 …
We played Fantasy Flight’s LOR: Journey in Middle Earth. the game is computer driven and hybrid miniature board game. It uses an app to GM the game. The rules are fairly easy to learn and the game is based on a campaign sequence. The individual quests are interlinked.
Saturday morning led off with a large WWII game using Battleground WWII rules. Reinforced American and British platoons, supported by almost a dozen AFVs were charged with pushing through an urban area of governmental buildings to seize a V-1 site. Richard Wheet built an outstanding V-1 diorama, which you can see below. With 10 players, most new to the rules, the game was not as fast as I’d hoped, but the inclusion of one gamer experienced in WGWWII, Brian Cottrell, saved our bacon.
Raphia finally hit the table. While I was still 5 units short of my full OOB, the game played very well and balanced. Games were played in both the afternoon and evening sessions on Saturday. The GMT Simple GBoH rules worked perfect, and we were able to play both games to completion (5 players per side) in just over 2 hours despite everyone learning the rules as we went along.
The first session ended with a virtual mirror of the historical battle. Each side turned the other’s left flank, and the final result was determined by the heavier Ptolemaic foot on the eastern portion of the field.
The second game saw the phalanx’s meet much earlier in the game, and the inability of Antiochus to turn the Egyptian left quickly enough resulted in a Seleucid defeat.
A light bit of tweaking of the Egyptian Levy Phalanx ratings will be used in the next game. But overall the game was remarkably balanced from the start. Setup and take down was very quick.
