My 2010 gaming wishlist #1: 2009 back at ya!

Something I prepared earlier...
Last December I wrote my 2009 gaming wishlist. Looking back at my 3 wishes I can say that 2 were granted:

• Playing Chad Jensen's second big GMT game, Combat Commander: Pacific.
• Getting my teeth into Battlestar Galactica, and all that entailed.

Unfulfilled was my hope of moving beyond tactical games into the realm of WW2 operations with Corps Command: Totensonntag.

Combat Commander: Pacific
Played a mere 7 times after the 2-year onslaught that was Combat Commander: Europe, CC:P is a game whose surface I've barely scratched. What I've seen so far was great:

• 5 games of Scenario A. Grassy Knoll, the highlight of which had to be the 4-game 'Rumble in the Jungle' with 'Uncle' Martin.
• 1 banzai at 'Gator Creek, Guadalcanal.
• 1 visit to the sweltering depths of the Burmese jungle.

Of the various rules changes major and minor, just 3 can be said to be revisions to the core system:

• Stacking and cover.
• Instant kill.
• Night rules.

Treatment of national differences aside, the remaining significant rules changes strike me as having a lot to do with:

• Rewriting the way that firepower works differently in the dense jungle terrain.
• Representing the effects of an Allied technical and logistical superiority quantitatively and qualitatively way ahead of any such advantages enjoyed by either side on the western fronts; something I believe underpins, eg. the design rationale of the oft-queried Asset Denied order.

All I can add here is this: Xmas being and/or having been upon us by the time you read here -

festive greetings- dear readers, to everyone whose interest and support has encouraged me here at RD/KA!; who and wherever you are, I knew you were there and really appreciated that, naturally enough

- means that I'll be pressing Badger to play CC:P. More ASAP. :0)

Battlestar Galactica
Writing last December, I hoped that Battlestar Galactica would "get a few plays in 2009." The mere 8 BSG plays that my BGG records show might suggest the barest fulfilment of this hope, but regular readers will already be aware that BSG was the highlight of 2009's multiplayer gaming, at the table and here @RD/KA! both.

Those highlights were:

• That first moment when I rediscovered myself as a Cylon: this was priceless, a psychological twist profoundly expressive of the paranoid tone of the TV show; and proof positive that the art in games is a quotidian reality and not some highfalutin' diversion from the fun.
• The series of write-ups as I grappled with the highs and lows of our games.
• New insight into the cross-media adaptions that epitomise our culture of the fantastic as I caught up with the TV show after experiencing the game into which it had been distilled.

Getting BSG to the table will be a mission of mine in 2010 as it was in 2009. I've added the Pegasus Expansion to my set, so I'm hoping that 2009's BSG highlights will be carried forward into the new year. :-)

Corps Command: Totensonntag
Corps Command: Totensonntag is only the simplest of several other as yet unplayed WW2 tactical and operational wargames that I've added to my collection in the past year. Regular readers'll probably already've noticed that my diet of WW2 gaming was a bit sparse in 2009. Why? Simple enough: Badger's no longer living the deil tak' the hindmost lifestyle of the bachelor. In fact only a couple of weeks ago he whisked his lady off to Berlin for a long weekend and proposed to her. How cool is that? {}

Badger's not about to become some kind of monastic ex-gamer, but it looks like yours truly will have to find a new opponent or two to maintain that regular WW2 tacsim fix familiar here @RD/KA! in recent years. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
My 2009 gaming wishlist:
- #1:- Combat Commander: Pacific
- #2:- Battlestar Galactica
- #3:- Corps Command: Totensonntag
My 2010 gaming wishlist:
- #2: Boardgames
- #3: Roleplaying