Mark Herman's Churchill - a first look

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This is a brand new one which came last week or so. It's getting a lot of really good press, and I'm on a drive to play some newer games instead of focusing on vintages, so I cracked it open for a first look following the playthrough tutorial.

I realize I'll be excoriated for the following, but I didn't the rules initially very easy to get into. I'm more used to a more classis wargame style rulebook. That said, the game doesn't appear to be that difficult, and as usual, I have to play it to get it.

The playthrough is stream of conscious starting from the tutorial scenario, and I had some difficulty figuring out what to do. It turns out the Staff Cards are chosen randomly at the beginning of each conference, but the playthrough assume this is known and has been done.

To make it easier for the future, here's the staff card list for the playthrough:

  • US: Morgenthau, Crowly, Donovan, Hopkins, Harriman, Walker and Embrick.
  • USSR: Malenkov, Molotov, Budyonny, Kuznetsov, Zhukov, Voznesensky, Merkulov.
  • UK: Atlee, Menzies, Bevin, Cunningham, Beaverbrook, Portal and Pound.

The conference phase was pretty easy to get through, the ensuing military (war) phase not so much. This requires (me) some close reading of the rules, starting from Section 7.0 War Phase. And it turns out these are pretty straightforward.

Let's try the next conference, #9.

Conference 9

First, reset all the issues. Then draw staff cards:

  • US: Knox, Stimson, Hull, Marshall, Hopkins, Arnold and Perkins.
  • USSR: Meretskov, Zhdanov, Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Mikoyan and Vasilevsky.
  • UK: Pound, Lyttleton, Anderson, Cripps, Eden, Wilson and Tovey.

I'll play this hand as US.

And now I'm getting sucked in. I just finished the Agenda round for the 9th conference, and I'm already thinking about how I want to write it up. This wasn't the goal for this game! The goal was to just play through it without worrying over much about the details.

2 hands is enough for today. This is not a particularly difficult game compared to Fire in the Lake, or even Arab Israeli Wars.

Victory points

US

  1. Political alignment: 6 x 3 = 18.
  2. Country space with clandestine: 0.
  3. Global issue win: 5.
  4. Conferences won: 2 x 3 = 6
  5. N/A
  6. N/A
  7. N/A
  8. N/A
  9. N/A
  10. N/A
  11. N/A
  12. N/A
  13. N/A
  14. N/A
  15. US reaches Western Germany: 5.
  16. N/A
  17. Japan surrenders: N/A
  18. N/A.
  19. N/A
  20. Okinawa captured: 5.
  21. Kyushu captured: 0.
  22. Formasa captured: 0.
  23. Korea is captured: 0.
  24. N/A.
  25. US or UK in Trinity space: 0
  26. N/A

US total: 39.

UK

  1. Political alignment: 1 x 3 = 3.
  2. Country space with clandestine: 1.
  3. Global issue win: 0.
  4. Conferences won: 0 x 3 = 0
  5. N/A
  6. Colony with no clandestine or political: 0.
  7. N/A
  8. UK in Central Italy: 2.
  9. N/A
  10. N/A
  11. Central Italy entered before D-Day: 0.
  12. N/A
  13. N/A
  14. N/A
  15. US reaches Western Germany: 5.
  16. N/A
  17. Japan surrenders: N/A
  18. US not entered Phillipines: 3.
  19. US Central and South Pacific more than 1 space further from Japan: 5.
  20. Okinawa captured: 5.
  21. Kyushu captured: 0.
  22. Formasa captured: 0.
  23. Korea is captured: 0.
  24. N/A.
  25. US or UK in Trinity space: 0
  26. N/A

UK total: 24

USSR

  1. Political alignment: 4 x 3 = 12.
  2. Country space with clandestine: 2.
  3. Global issue win: 0.
  4. Conferences won by US or UK: 0 x 3 = 0
  5. Conferences won by USSR: 0
  6. Colony with no clandestine or political: 0.
  7. N/A
  8. UK in Central Italy: 0.
  9. N/A
  10. N/A
  11. Central Italy entered before D-Day: 0.
  12. N/A
  13. N/A
  14. USSR reaches Eastern Germany: 5.
  15. US reaches Western Germany: N/A.
  16. 1 VP per German Technology marker: N/A.
  17. Japan surrenders: N/A
  18. US not entered Phillipines: 3.
  19. US Central and South Pacific more than 1 space further from Japan: 5.
  20. Okinawa captured: 5.
  21. Kyushu captured: 0.
  22. Formasa captured: 0.
  23. Korea is captured: 0.
  24. 3 VP for USSR for each Atomic space entered: 3.
  25. US or UK in Trinity space: 0
  26. 3 VP for USSR if US doesn't have A Bomb: 3.

USSR total: 38.

Since Germany and Japan have not surrendered, we do a die roll:

  • US rolls 4, 39 - 4 = 35.
  • USSR rolls 2, 38 + 1 = 39.
  • UK rolls 4, 24 + 4 = 28.

Cool game, looking forward to playing it with a group.

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.