Ambush at LZ Albany 2 (and more) at EGO

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Spent some time with AS at EGO yesterday playing through a game of LZ Albany. I think the game is probably pretty good, but I didn't get a lot of the rules (which seems to be the case for tactical games for me).

The primary issue was, once again, lack of clarity in the langauge, closely followed by "Wait, how does that make sense?" These stumbling blocks for me are worth going into more detail.

I don't like critizing, but my frustration with this game is pretty high. I'm fine with this reflecting more on me than on the game. Here are a few things which I stumbled over:

  1. The counters for each side look very similar, the color schemes are very close together being various shades of green. This is difficult for me to deal with in low light.
  2. The counters have Little Dudes instead of NATO symbols, which is confusing because the US combat units are platoons and sections, but I'm not sure what the PAVN units are. I think they're companies.

  3. Stacking limits make no sense to me. The limit is three, but if you overstack, you get less combat per unit on firing. The rules state one die is subtracted from combat roll for each unit over three, followed by an example stating that with four platoons in an area, only two could fire. Followup with the designer confirms: 6 platoons in an area, and no one can fire at all.

  4. The event table is unclear about which units, friendly or enemy are affected.

  5. The rules are also unclear about what, exactly, a "unit" means. Sometimes it seems to mean a counter, sometimes a platoon, sometimes a whole company, depending on context. It's very difficult to ascertain the designer's intent here.

My possibly final take on this game is that it seems to fall into a pattern I'm noticing is very common in tactical games: unclear rules. I suspect people who play a lot of tactical games wouldn't even notice. Not sure I want to play it again.

Here's the situation at the end of the game:

End of LZ Albany Game 2 on Turn 7

The PAVN were on their way to a crushing victory by the end of Turn 7.

Zombie Dice x 2

No expansions, just plain old dice. AS won the first 14:13, I won the second 13:7.

Star Realms (Colony Wars deck) x 2

AS is a big fan of the Colony Wars deck in Star Realms, which he brought. We played a couple of games. I lost won by 62 points, and won the second by 1 point. AS has a habit of going big on damage early on, and crushes me before I get a proper deck built. I'm wondering if we played to 100 points I might not be able to beat him more easily.

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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.