Sunday, April 26, 2009

WBC West 2009 Prep - Part 4: Status Report

For some strange reason, this never posted the first time I entered it. Here we go again:

Here we are, two weeks from launch, and things are, well, things. 

Last time I laid down a list of games, here's where I am on them:

Kutuzov - I'm relying on others to have the details down, so I'm focusing on the sections of the game's documentation that are intended for Welly/Nappy Wars players as well as the play through section. I'll also run over the Attrition and the Morale sections, as these are big changes from the other games. Low priority, since others have experience, but it's also a small time hit. 

Flying Colors - Hopefully I'll get a play session in with Jesse on Wednesday, as we couldn't establish a weekend time with enough lead time for me to drop spousal aggro. If not, I'll just solo one of the scenarios with shore batteries or ships at anchor. Just enough to get the basics down.

War Galley - Starting the rules tomorrow. Not a lot of rules, but definitely more ramming. I'll need to get through a small scenario, and there's one recommended in the book. If I make this a priority I'll have it banged out before Saturday. 

Monty's Gamble - This will require at most a quick going over of the rules, which are now at v1.2. I will probably put this off until next week. 

Waterloo - The Wallace version, which we're hoping is in soon. Mike has given me the rules, and there's a lot to like. Again, I'll probably get this in next week.

Here I Stand - There's a great C3i article I stumbled across that I'll probably use as a refresher. However, having played twice in 2008 I feel pretty good about this one, especially as I'll be the Protestants and England, and know not to ally with the Habsburgs early. 

Case Blue - This is the reason so many things are pushed back to next week. Mike, Chuck, and myself are playing a practice game (with Mike coaching), probably the Chir River scenario from the old Enemy At The Gates package (the pieces and maps are all in the game, but the EatG scenarios were left out at times in CB). While I think I'm going to be pretty comfortable, at the same time I should have gone through the rules at least once. 

Sword of Rome - Not a game I'll be playing, but my nephew Alex will be and he has zero experience with CDGs. This is not a bad one as these go, but he'll need to have seen how the thing works in order to compete. I'm recommending he take the Gauls if he can possibly swing it. We're going to run a practice game for him on Monday the 3rd, and I may invite Matt R to come by as well (assuming that he can come at all) as he hasn't played either (Dave and George have both played). Not too much for me to prep for, but it will take up my table for a day.

Texas Glory - Latest Columbia block game, suppose to play pretty quickly and I think that's right. Playing the 1836 game takes 12 turns and a fairly limited number of actions. I've actually got this one finished, having played a few turns today while reading the rules.

The only other thing left are the evening games, and of those I expect only Age of Conan to be something that will require a certain amount of effort on my part. It's very difficult to solo, as there are a lot of things for each player to do, lots of cards, etc. Still, it looks very interesting so it will probably see table time early in the week, and there's nowhere near as much complexity as anything else that's going on the table.

Here's a summary of my study over the next two weeks:

This week:
OCS refresh, practice game on Saturday.
Flying Colors practice session on Wednesday early. 
War Galley rules read, solo session

Next week:
Here I Stand quick refresh
Waterloo rules read
Kutuzov playthrough and "new rules" sections read, as well as Attrition and Morale sections of rules. 
Sword of Rome rules refreshed, practice game with Alex on Monday
Monty's Gamble refresh

This week is actually the busiest, as I need to get through two sets of rules by Saturday. I should have the WG rules done and a practice game in by Friday, although that's still a pretty tight week for getting something like 60 pages of rules absorbed to the degree I'd like. WG may well end up having the solo runthrough pushed back to Sunday of next week, perhaps even later. 

On the plus side, I think I'm in excellent position for having everything taken care of by the time we leave on Sunday. It's always much nicer to have the games in my head to some extent when you play for seven days straight...

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