The Arduous Beginning 3

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I never learn. I have two games set up and ready to play: The Arduous Beginning and High Frontier. As usual, I'm not making progress on either, in part because I'm having trouble figuring out which one I want to play.

High Frontier has the advantage of being new and interesting, coming at the cost of requiring my full attention to learn the rules. The Arduous Beginning is in its third game with a system I know fairly well, which is not as interesting. On the other hand, I can break The Arduous Beginning into turns, and do stuff like chores between turns, which is much more difficult to do with High Frontier.

I don't have my creds at hand, so this report gets tacked on here and moved later.

Because this is getting copied over from elsewhere, it won't be a full report, I'm just going to hit the highlights.

Turn 1

The Germans need to break through, this is critical just as it is in the other three games in this series.

  • Attack the mechanized units first to allow an advance after combat, hopefully forcing an elimination of the big army units on the next combat.

  • Then do infantry with the intent of reducing steps by forcing retreats through ezocs.

Soviets attempt to build a line.

Turn 2

Germans don't quite break through, but it's close.

Turn 3

German breakthrough

Soviets attempt to make a line around Veliki Luki and Smolensk and protect the eastern edge for replacements.

Turn 4

Germans have majority control of eastern edge, will be hard for Soviets to maintain control.

Turn 5

Germans have complete control of eastern edge, no more Soviet replacements will arrive.

The Soviets are in a bad way, the line around Smolensk is crumbling. The Germans now do not need to worry about replacements.

Soviets concede at this point, the Germans have too much control over the board, and with no replacements, the line won't hold.

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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.