Chandragupta 1 - Pataliputra (1)

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So, an apparently very young Chandragupta Maurya managed made his way to the Punjab, where he managed to meet, and piss off Alexander. His next stop seems to have been Pataliputra, the capital city of the Nanda empire, where he showed up with a relatively small force commanded by an older, more experienced commander. He seems to have been defeated hwre. However, Pataliputra being a relatively small scenario, and the first one in the Playbook, we chose it as our entry point.

We got a really slow start today as I had not clipped any counters, nor chosen a scenario and dug out the order of battle. Since this is a new game, we were not familiar with either the factions or the counters. which added more time. Pressing through, we got it set up as shown here after the first two initiations (the flankers) from Chandragupta's Mauryan faction facing off on the north (left) below:

Start of game

Here's the end of Turn 1. Not a lot is going on, but both sides are well-positioned to smash into each other in the following turn.

Start of game

Here's the end of Turn 2 where we called it an evening. It's not quite chaos, but it would be in a Turn 3.

Start of game

Great Battles of History! Great Battles of Chandragupta Maurya!

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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.