Binh Dinh '69, a Train Game

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Binh Dinh '69 is the first of Brian Train's many titles I've played. Which is sort of crazy, as I apparently I already own the majority of his titles.

This particular game is publlished as a folio edition by One Small Step. It has a pretty small footprint with 17 x 22" map and a couple of point tracks, one for each player.

I played VC (as usual) against AS's FWA. Both sides need to get population on the map, which is represented by "little dudes" counters. These are guerrilla and RF/PF respectively. Neither can move or attack, but they provide a basis for emplacing forces, and can defend. We didn't get a good grip on Lines of Communication (LoC) other than the main roads. I believe we missed some details there, worth going into in more depth in the future.

We found scoring a bit confusing. Evidently, area control and population presence accumulate over turns, which makes sense as the game is somewhat open-ended with respect to victory score.

We will, however, play this again.

Target Leningrad

This time I took the Germans against AS's Soviets. The opening combat for the Germans didn't go quite as well as I had hoped, but AS wasn't able to exploit all the DR results he got to get behind my lines to cut off communication with the western edge.

I was able to drive the panzers onto the eastern edge, then infantry by the end of Turn 4, cutting off all Soviet reinforcements and replacements. Once the double air marker came in, I rolled a "2" and reduced the Soviet Fleet. As the Germans neglected to keep a strong unit in Leningrad, was able to surround it and capture it Turn 6, iirc.

It was a good game for AS to see how cutting off reinforcements and replacements is the key for the Germans to win in this series of games.

Zombie Dice

We finished up the day with some Zombie Dice. AS rolled 10 brains right out of the gate, and I shotgunned my first turn. His second resulted with 4 more brains, more shotguns for me. Score: AS 14, Dave 0. What a stupid game! So awesome!

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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.