Blast from the past: Congo

 Last week I dusted off a long neglected set of rules and figures for a game of Congo.  I had been about to write that I last played this a couple of years ago but when I checked I discovered it was actually waaay back in 2016... how did that happen!!?

Congo is/was a ruleset from Studio Tomahawk who also publish Muskets & Tomahawks and Saga.  When Congo was 1st published it generated a lot of interest and I had a couple of fun games but it then languished, unloved, in the loft.  I recently acquired some jungle terrain pieces at a very good price and this spurred me into digging out the rules and figures.  It's out of print now and, it seems, pretty tricky to track down.  Studio Tomahawk's other games are very successful so it's curious that this one seemed to burn brightly and then fail.  I guess it's maybe too niche a setting.

Action and Totem cards

There are some old posts about it here and here which give a bit of an explanation of the mechanics but, in a nutshell it's card activated with players selecting 3 cards from a hand of 7.  These determine initiative and actions.  You also acquire Totem cards each turn which give a range of bonuses.  Units use a range of dice to reflect quality, rolling from a D6 to D10 with 5's succeeding.  

Units acquire stress tokens which limit their actions and ultimately can cause them to flee if they acquire too many. A nice touch is that there are different types of stress token (drawn randomly) which affect melee, movement or shooting. Black powder weapons also cause a stress token even if they don't hit... all the smoke and bangs are intimidating for the natives. Units can also inflict terror attacks which cause more stress (the drums... the drums!!!)

The game is pretty fast-paced and very pulpy in it's approach to Darkest Africa... it's more "Carry on up the Jungle" than " Heart of Darkness".  As my son pointed out, no-one needs to accurately game the Belgian Congo!! The game comes with 8 pre-planned scenarios, nicely presented as newspaper articles... we played #1 which is the most straightforward.

In this scenario the evil explorers (played by Anthony) were making off with a valuable looted treasure with my African Kingdom warriors in hot pursuit.  The explorers pick up max points for escaping with the treasure and some minor VPs for wiping out units.  My objectives were the reverse but I could also pick up some points by exploring the huts where the explorers start to acquire more loot (although this never happened as I was too intent in going after the main prize.  

The huts are paper models from Peter's Paperboys

There was a frantic chase across the board with a final brave attempt by my Fanatical Warriors (who were pretty bloodthirsty) to wipe out the explorers.  Anthony played the game in true colonial style by sacrificing his natives and Askaris to protect the European explorers!  In the end the explorers were wiped out but the expedition leader slipped off table with the treasure safely tucked in his pocket.  I'm pretty sure Indiana Jones wouldn't have sacrificed his colleagues quite so ruthlessly!!

It's a fun game that neatly captures the pulpy feel of the setting.  There are quite a few 'special' rules for different units and scenarios which inevitably got forgotten although I'm not sure they would have had a huge impact on the outcome. It's also a game that relies on lots of on-table markers which isn't everyone's cup of tea. I really like the game but I suspect it's one that will only get an occasional outing... hopefully more than once every 9 years though!

A bargain at Waterstones

Popped into our local branch of Waterstones yesterday and had a quick browse of the boardgame section.  This has definitely grown in the last year or so... I know the last couple of games my son bought me (Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrel, and The White Castle) came from there.  Amongst the lighter games like Catan ,Ticket to Ride etc was a copy of Mosaic

I've played a lot of this at Eric the Shed's as Mark, a Shed regular, has a fancy deluxe version with all the bells and whistles added.  It's a great game, very reminiscent of the PC game Civilisation.  It's deceptively simple but has a multitude of ways to win (or not, in my case).

The game didn't have a price and was quite badly damaged so I asked the member of staff if they'd do a discount.  

Without seeing it he said they'd usually knock off 10% but when I showed home the box he did a double-take and immediately offered 50% off!  I guess he thought no one in their right mind is going to buy this, except for the idiot standing in front of him!!

So I'm now the proud owner of a very hefty, rather bashed, boardgame.  

Holiday boardgames

 

Since we were all home for a couple of weeks over the Xmas break, we took the opportunity to fit in a few boardgames.  My wife isn't the keenest gamer but even she agreed it was nice to be doing something that all 3 of us took part in for a change.  The common theme to all of these games is that I was soundly gubbed in each one!

First up was Carcassone with the addition of the Inns and Cathedrals set which was a xmas pressie from my son.  For some reason I didn't get enough meeples out on the board which is a fairly crucial tactic (!).  My son is a bit of a master of making the most of placing farmers: these only score at the end of the game but can reap (pun intended) pretty high scores.  And I came last...

 

Next up, my son and I had another game of the rather lovely White Castle boardgame.  I posted about it recently... it's a very nice worker placement type game.  In our last game we both seemed to quickly build up an 'engine' where one action generates several follow on actions automatically, but in this game for some reason, it didn't quite gel in the same way... I guess due to dice scores which determine actions.  Still great fun and, like Carcassone,  a game with a definite end point.  And I came last...

Kingmaker... optional rule, eat a Celebration whenever plague strikes!

Last up was a game of Kingmaker (the new edition which came out in 2023 (nearly said 'last year' but managed to stop myself in time!).  We've played a lot of 'old' Kingmaker and several games of the newer version but my wife hadn't tried KMII

In KM II the game can be won by accruing Prestige points as well as the traditional "kill all the other Royals" approach and initially I'd shot into the lead by seizing Henry VI but in the space of 2 turns the Event Cards struck and, I'd lost my most powerful noble to an outbreqk of plague in Oxford, and then Henry was summoned to Ravenspur to meet an emissary from the Emperor where he was jumped by a gang of my son's nobles, plunging me back into last place.  

My wife nearly ruined my sons schemes by capturing York, crowning a Yorkist as a rival, and lowering my sons Prestige points at a stroke.  Sadly the Event Cards struck again and he seize was delayed by bad weather, allowing my son's Northern heavies to sweep down and disperse their rivals and giving him the victory.  Great fun and very dynamic.  

And I came last... 

Battlesworn

 

Last game of 2024 was a trial of these rules by Ganesha Games, designed for small fantasy skirmishes.  Although they're fantasy themed, we went with a more historical setting, with Vikings and Saxons clashing over river crossings

The figures are Anthony's excellent 54mm miniatures which are a great scale for this type of game but the rules are very scale-agnostic.

Figures can move or shoot any distance (so in theory you could move the whole length of the table in a single move) but only in a straight line.  The key feature of the game is built around a bidding system... using a dice, players bid from 1-6 points to gain initiative with the lowest going first.  The catch is that the winning low score means you can only move that number of figures.  The losing player can then react with the number they bid minus the winnining bid (so, eg if player A bids 2 and B bids 5, A can activate 2 figures and B can respond with 3) but only in response to movement or shooting.

There's a similar system for shooting and melee.  Low bids win but have fewer chances to cause damage.  As figures take damage, their status changes (described in colours for some reason... white to green to yellow to red and then dead).  As the category shifts it limits the type of bid that you can make with that figure.

There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the gist of the system.  We didn't have any magic using figures but I think the same principles apply.  It's an interesting approach, meaning there's a lot of thinking and head-scratching about what to bid when, and how to manage the movement system to get people in the right place at the right time.

Once we got our heads round the mechanics it moved a bit faster but it did feel a bit stilted at times as you pause plan your moves and then to bid for each shot or melee.  We also found that we probably only activated half of our available figures as the bidding system means you'll tend to only be moving a couple of figures at a time.

In our scenario the opposing forces were faced with a river with 2 available fords and a bridge. Both of us moved our heavier armoured troops to the central bridge where they spent the rest of the game glowering at each other but didn't move.  Most of the action took place around one of the 2 fords.  My Viking Warlord led the charge against the Saxons who had dared to cross the river... casualties were pretty even by the end of turn 10 which marked the end of the game.  I had a slight advantage in terms of damage inflicted but the Saxons had a tenuous toe-hold on my side of the river, so I think it ended honours-even.

It's an interesting system... quite simple but requiring quite a lot of thought which is always a plus.  It did feel a bit like a thought-experiment though and I'm not sure it gives the kind of free flowing game that I'd want in a skirmish game.

Happy Hogmanay!!

 

The bells are almost here so Happy Hogmanay to everyone... frankly 2024 was a bit of a shitstorm in many ways, so here's hoping 2025 is marginally better!!!

Awra best!!

Merry Xmas Everyone!!!

 

Merry Xmas everyone... I hope you get some nice toys (assuming you've been good... hmmm....)

Rome: Total War

 Had a first trial run through of the new Rome: Total War boardgame courtesy of my friend Mark who's huge order had just arrived.

If you've played the PC game then you'll know what to expect and it looks like great fun although it could be a bit of a beast in terms of time.  We managed to get through 3 or 4 turns over an evening although we were fumbling our way through the rules (luckily, Mark was well prepared and had been studying!)... I suspect for the next game we'd be a lot faster.

In each turn you can raise funds via taxation, spend it all on raising troops, research technology, build roads, markets, barracks, etc, send your agents out to negotiate treaties and trade (or more nefarious skullduggery!) and then get down to the serious business of sending those armies out to conquer, or in my case, bring civilised Pax Romana to the world.

In our test game we had Rome fitted against Carthage and Greece.  The battle system is quick and fairly simple with different troop types and terrain all featuring, and gives a good.flavour of the grand strategy level of the game.  Players also have a hand of cards which can add to the battles or other phases and add a lot of flavour.  As an example a trade deal I'd negotiated with my Greek allies was raided by pirates and somehow some of the profits found their way into my pocket... nothing to do with Rome of course!  Just as my army was about face of against Carthage an enemy agent introduced plague or poison into the camp wipingnout half the army and critically killing off Scipio Africanus!  

Great fun and looking forward to more games of this!