Heights of Courage SCS

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November has been a hard month so far—no games at all until I was able to find some time with Josh C to get Heights of Courage on the table. The SCS game system is turning into a favorite of mine after three plays, but Josh has not played any hex-and-counter games for 20 or 30 years, so this would be a good experience for him. We picked Heights of Courage because he’d visited that area and he’d also watched a documentary, so he had some notion of the history of the battle that went on.

He took the Israeli side. I took the Syrian side and we commenced to push counters around as usual when learning a new game, especially with someone who is unfamiliar with the game system. It took us a while to get started. We also had to punch all the counters as well. Fortunately, this is a low counter density game, and in three or four hours, we managed to get through the end of Turn 2 with no clear victor.

This was a great game. We had a great time and we’re going to play it again. Here’s a picture of what it looks like at the end of Turn 2:

Heights of Courage, end of Turn 2

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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.