Front Toward Enemy & more

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Another successful game day with my usual hex and counter opponent. We haven't met up in around a month due to my traveling in mid-September, then being busy and tired after I got back.

We got three different games played, all fairly short plays, with the hex and counter Front Toward Enemy being the new entry. It's always good to get a new game on the table, even better when it's a new Vietnam game, and best when the new Vietnam game turns out to be a good one!

Front Toward Enemy

A surprise hit! While the map sheets, counters, rules, and player aids are all top notch, what matters most is game play, and Front Toward Enemy seems to nail that as well.

We only played the easy Escape and Evade scenario, which goes for 12 turns max. That seems long, and in other games it might well be. In our game the turns went pretty fast once we got going.

I took the US, opponent the NVA. The win condition for US is exiting from west edge within 12 turns, for the NVA preventing that. As the US, I stacked all my units together, then did a double time along the trail with the weakest defense. Opponent was not able to get around me to slow me down. Double Time is almost twice movement speed but requires an exhaustion effect and cannot double time twice in a row.

This is going back on the table!

1955 The War of Esponiage

Our second play, I'm just not a fan. I just played the whole thing as straight as possible for the numeric values of the cards, only using "Special Actions" when it drove me forward or allowed me to increase hand size or swap hands. I don't think it's a bad game per se, it's just too abstract for the theme of spy vs spy which it's attempting. For example, the game seems perfectly balanced with the same cards and abilities for each faction. For an East vs. West game, there is so much more which could have been done. Twighlight Struggle is probably the end member here, but there ought to be something between this game and Twighlight Stuggle.

Hive

This was a fast demo game as my usual opponent hadn't ever heard of it. I showed him how to set it up and we played it, despite me not actually wanting to play it. I won which is not a surprise. Hive is one of those games I've stopped playing as I want to get really good at it, and I don't have time to spend on it like I want. So I don't play it.

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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.