2024 Mastery Challenge

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It's that time again, Mastery Challenge for the upcoming year. Per the last couple of years, 2024 will be less on mastery and more on just getting some games played. That said, I'm sure I'll make progress on a few games.

Looking back over 2023, here's how it played out:

  • I got through all but The Morgul Vale in the Against the Shadow. Given it took me until June 13 to defeat Battle of Lake Town, this wasn't bad at all. I started the plays on July 4, 2023. Update: early evening Dec. 31, Morgul Vale is put to bed.

  • No plays of Year of the Rat, Winter War, or Phantom Leader.

  • No exotic games such as Chad or Liberia.

  • Did a considerable amount of work on several of the rebuilds, but nothing got finished.

This year, I'm committing to only one thing: playing through the entire Voice of Isengard/Ring-maker cycle. That is absolutely a doable acheivement. Some of these quests are difficult, so it might well take most of the year.

In co-op, We're at The Antlered Crown. The initial goal is getting through The Lost Realm Deluxe box by the end of April. I think it's doable, may depend on work schedules. I don't think in personal play I'll catch up with co-op, but I should be able to shorten the lag.

Summarizing, the main goal for 2024 is achieving the main goal, something I've not managed in any of the previous years. Having only a single goal will help maintain focus.

Updates

From time to time over the course of a year I like to post a few thoughts on how the year-in-games is progressing.

October 22, 2024

After quite a bit of thought, capped by crushing Nin-in-Eilph and Celebrimbor's Secret, here's how I want to proceed with LotR next year, which is The Lost Realm/Angmar Awakened. Since the cycle has 9 quests total, it makes sense to break it into 3 segments: 1. The Deluxe box The Lost Realm, 2. the first 3 APs, and 3. the last 3 APs. This will let me focus intensely on the game without being distracted by other games, while ensuring I get a bit of break from it. Also, I don't have any problem netdecking. At this point, I'm too close to non-retirement to spend the cognitive cycles to build decks from scratch for each quest. I may do it, but I'm not going to insist on it.

(Later) And I just beat The Antlered Crown with only a slight asterisk which probably had no final outcome effect. It was late in the game, I missed a surge. This may be the first year I actually met a goal. I'll have more to say about that at the end of year recap.

October 1, 2024

May, June, July and August saw a lot more walking in the East Bay hills than game playing, and I think that's probably a good thing. On September 10, I started into some contract work to build a greenfield Rails application in the pharmacy benefits space. This cramped my game play a bit as well, billing hours is exhausting!

For this year's intent on getting through Ringmaker, I have four more to go, with the next being Trouble in Tharbad. Not sure if I'm going to make it, and keep my billable hours high, and get the walking in which I really want to continue. We'll see how it goes. One thing which might help is I'm not bent on logging every round of every game at the moment. This should help speed up plays. If I'm serious about finishing this cycle, I need to devote a few full game days to knock it out.

In co-op play, we're cranking through Angmar Awakens, with only Carn Dum and The Dread Realm remaining. With a bit of luck we'll wrap it up in 2024.

June 28, 2024

Levels of Mastery:

  • In shrink. I tend to keep games I haven't played in shrink to keep the contents and box well-preserved. There is a risk that any defective components may be replaceable when I finally open the box, but so far this has not been a problem.
  • Unboxed. Open the box and fondle the components, check to ensure everything which is supposed to be in the box actually is in the box.
  • Read the rules. with PDF rules now widely available, there may not be any need to open the box to get to the rules. Nevertheless, taking time to read rules represents substantially more commitment than opening a box.
  • Pushed some counters, learn the basics of moving and fighting.
  • Learning game of one or a few turns, work through the complete turn sequence at least once. I typically take a lot of notes when going through a turn sequence, it's very convenient.
  • Completed one play, driving through to either the end of the game, or to a rationale stopping point. Could be solitaire or opposed.
  • Competent playing, a few to many plays, either solitaire or opposed.
  • Tactical competence, correctly moving and fighting within the bounds of the rules, getting predictable outcomes on a predictable basis.
  • Strategic competence, leveraging tactical competence to execute a game plan.
  • Strategic mastery, able to pursue any available strategy, and understand how to evolve strategy during game play.
  • Competitive playing, able to play in a competitive situation and if not lose, then understand the reasons for losing in any particular game.

April 6, 2024

Q1 went pretty well for games, but I've lost my job again. I have Phantom Leader game 9 in progress right now, and I think that's going to be the last game I play until I'm employed again. For someone who takes work as seriously as I do, it's ridiculous that I keep getting fired. Albeit these last two firings are quite cordial, they are still both very much "we don't want you any more." And this latest followed the usual pattern of "get a raise or promotion" then get fired.

It will be a relief not to play.

In a related note, I'm seriously considering getting rid of almost all of my outside plants, perhaps saving 3 or 4 which have sentimental value. But getting rid of the rest and all the associated paraphenalia such as potting soil, etc.

Mastery challenges

Here are the mastery challenges from previous years:

H-index and plays

2024-10-22 Current average plays for count of owned games: 1417 / 141 = 9.95

The list is a little shorter this year, and the accompanying text for each entry is greatly reduced to help focus on the single goal this year of finishing a complete cycle in LotR LCG.

  1. 361/304 Lord of the Rings LCG is the only goal for 2024, specifically to play through Voice of Isengard/The Ring-maker cycle. Nine quests. If I manage 1 per month, it's more than a done deal. This is doable, and worth my focused effort. Cooperatively, it would be nice to get through Angmar Awakened. Reached 50 plays for 2024 on September 21.

  2. 115/115 Absolutely Aces no plans, but will probably land on the table at some point.

  3. 79/71 Jump Drive will almost surely pass 100 games, and may pass Absolutely Aces. I don't have any specific plans to play, but the game plays so quickly I'm sure it will get seen.

  4. 64/64 Hive no plans.

  5. 55/55 High Frontier 4 All will probably wait until M4 Contracts ships in late Q2. We'll see. It's 2 years overdue already. 2024-02-21 M4 and Instellar delivered. Also, this number is a total plays number which includes HF3, and may in the future include HF2.

  6. 44/44 Ogre no plans.

  7. 35/35 Zombie Dice as opportunity presents.

  8. 27/27 PanzerBlitz no plans.

  9. 27/27 Star Realms Waiting until Kickstarter ships.

  10. 23/19 Fire in the Lake no initial plans, however, my usual Vietnam opponent is interested in The Fall of Saigon so it's likely coming out at some point. 2024-06-29 Fall of Saigon solitaire play. Also 2024-07-26 Sovereign of Discord

  11. 23/22 Silver Bayonet probably replay small scenarios. May play through the other half campaign.

  12. 22/20 6 Nimmt! is out of my collection. I play it in Ft Wayne.

  13. 21/21 Race for the Galaxy no plans.

  14. 20/20 Ogre: Objective 218 as opportunity presents.

  15. 16/16 Battle for Moscow no plans.

  16. 16/16 StarForce no plans.

  17. 16/13 Vietnam Solitaire attempting this as an after work game in the back (cold/hot) room for 1-2 turns per day. We'll see how it works.

  18. 16/13 GBOH War Galley is scheduled, then Samurai, then we'll see what hits the table.

  19. 14/13 Vietnam 1965-1975 possibly some small scenarios.

  20. 12/12 Hapsburg Eclipse no plans.

  21. 12/12 Objective Kiev no plans.

  22. 12/12 Pandemic might play in Ft. Wayne.

  23. 12/12 Soviet Dawn no plans.

  24. 12/12 Target Leningrad no plans.

  25. 11/11 Leaving Earth no plans.

  26. 11/10 OCS OCS Luzon hit the table within a couple of weeks of arriving. That's probably a new record!

  27. 9/5 Phantom Leader no plans, leaving here as a reminder. Definitely getting in a short campaign, and likely a medium campaign as well. For whatever reason, the game clicked for me in 2024.

  28. 7/7 France '40 possible develop a tactical puzzle at Sedan.

  29. 7/7 Pax Porfiriana I really want to play this more.

  30. 3/3 High Frontier 3rd Edition no plans, leaving it here as a reminder.

  31. 1/1 Other COIN Unlikely to play, based on last several years experience, but I'm leaving it here as a reminder.

Wargame-specific H-index

My wargame-specific H-index started 2019 at 10. Wargames are so much more time consuming that this index will increase much, much more slowly than the overall H-index. I do not expect much progress on this list in 2024.

  1. 44 Ogre
  2. 27 PanzerBlitz
  3. 23 Fire in the Lake
  4. 23 Silver Bayonet
  5. 16 Battle for Moscow
  6. 16 StarForce
  7. 16 GBOH collectively.
  8. 16 Vietnam Solitaire
  9. 13 Vietnam 1965-1975
  10. 12 Hapsburg Eclipse
  11. 12 Objective Kiev
  12. 12 Soviet Dawn
  13. 12 Target Leningrad
  14. 11 OCS collectively
  15. 9 Phantom Leader
  16. 7 France '40
  17. 4 Next War series
  18. 4 Ottoman Sunset
  19. 3 The Arduous Beginning
  20. 2 Winter War
  21. 1 COIN
  22. 1 Combat Commander
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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.