PRC got their clock cleaned, not winning any points at all. Taipei is well-defended, and clearing operations went very poorly. While I’m very sure I did not play very well, it wasn’t even close, to the extent that the scenario doesn’t look even remotely...

Game 1.

The usual learning game, stumble through set up and rules. From 1979, the usual mix of bland counters and players aid with the garishness of the map did not lend itself to motivated entry. However, the rules are pretty easy to read, not overly...

Learning game which consisted mostly of stumbling around the counters and rules.

And we missed a lot of rules, even though it was a learning game with the simplest scenario.

We’ll get it back out later.

Disaster strikes! A horrible game, with horrible card draws and a Military strategy which never got off the ground. It took 8 rounds to get to 56 points. Sad. This was one of those games where “doing everything right” ended up in disaster.

The upshot...

An early morning game as I did not feel like getting deeply involved in programming this morning. The AI/Agent can suck down great gobs of time, and it can be difficult to keep work appropriately limited.

Games, however, have a start and a stop. Game...

Got a couple of games in this afternoon. I have been doing pretty well on scores and was hoping to increase my win rate. Sadly, this game was almost bad, and had I not gone for that single point card, it would have gone 8 rounds instead of the 50 points...

This was a win in 2 ways: I 56 points in 6 rounds, but even more important, I locked in a crazy combo: Replicant Robots following by Colony Convoy. That let me put down 2 Trendsetters on Turn 5 for total cost of 3 cards.

I need to look for more of...

Arab Israeli Wars, 49 years old now, and I believe I bought the game in high school. Interestingly, this would have been about 5 years after I bought PanzerBlitz. Since JC seems to be turning into a regular wargame opponent, and has cultural interest...

Another one from my list of 2026 targets. AS stopped by for a shorter than usual session. While Sisu was a new game for both of us, it was on my 2026 list and he had indicated he wanted to play it. So this was a good day for just that.

We decided...

JL for another foray into the Dreamchaser.

We have been playing Killer Core and Deeds of Dwarves, but this game we switched decks. I brought the Outlands, and JL returned to the tried and true Beorn/Galadriel deck.

And we beat it on the first attempt...

JL stopped by to continue our journey with The Dreamchaser Cycle with Raid on the Gray Havens. He used the Deeds of Dwarves deck, I took the Killer Core Extended deck. We bungled a couple of pretty important aspects, including drawing into staging...

South Caobang is on the table this time with Scenario 2, which features tanks. My usual opponent is over for more China versus Vietnam, the conflict of 1979.

The small, 3 turn scenario simulates a PLA surprise attack, with tanks, apparently targeting...

It’s been a while since I’ve played one of the Simonich WW2 “zoc bond” system games, and forgot how much fun they are. My usual hex and counter oopponent of many years came over and brought his copy of Salerno ‘43. This one has been on our radar screen...

JC dropped by for a couple of games of Star Realms.

Colony Wars (18) Neither of us really developed a strategy, just played what came out and bashed away with hits. JC squeaked a win.

Frontiers (9) This game started weird with 3 identical one cost...

Continuing with my goal to play through the Angmar Awakens cycle requires getting through The Weather Hills, a quest which should not be unduly difficult, but does have me a bit mystified on how best to approach it. Today’s deck is The Weather Hills...