The Dark Sands and 1955 The War of Espionage

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Last year, my usual hex and counter opponent sent a superb color copy of the rules and playbook for The Dark Sands, Raicer's North Africa chit pull game. I've heard about it, and at one point had it on the publisher's pre-order list (GMT P500). For whatever reason, I decided not to back the game. In any case, he has it and brought it over today so we could get some hex and counter goodness. Between the 'rona, work, and other games, we haven't had hex and counter on the table in quite a while.

After spending an hour going over various games, new or otherwise unplayed (show and tell), we set it up. It took about 90 minutes for the first set up, this is from a cold start. Our mission was to complete the first scenario, that being the 2 turn Operation Compass, whereby the Commonwealth kicks the Italians out of Egypt.

I took the Italians, he took the Commonwealth. Since I've played Operation Compass twice in OCS, I already knew what I needed to do, which was to pull back as fast as possible to set up a defense in depth around Tobruk, and let the ZOCs act as speed bumps while his CW chewed away. I was successful, and managed to keep a couple of units in Egypt to win.

After that he introduced a small card game called 1955 The War of Espionage, and proceeded to trounce me! He left the game with so I could learn the rules better, we'll play it again. It's nice to have a game I don't own. It goes away on it's own!

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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.