Train's Green Beret at EGO

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Spent a nice afternoon working through an initial game of Brian Train's Green Beret, covering the war in the Central Highlands in 1964, 1965 before the events kicking off Silver Bayonet transpired. It's interesting to see the evolution, the narrative of the war is starting to take shape for me.

It's also interesting to see the popular support ("hearts and minds"?) being an important part of the victory conditions for both sides.

We had some trouble getting into the rules for the first part of the game. The rules formatting is in a narrow sans-serif font, which is difficult for me to read. Also, the counter diagrams are not very clear. It requires reading various parts of the rules fairly closely to understand the counters. This matters, because recruiting is a critical part of the game, and only certain units can recruit.

We finished up with some Star Realms, playing the Colony Wars deck. It's a cool deck. I lost by 4 points. I'm getting better against AS.

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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.