What price survival?

Throwdown round up
I've been under the cosh of the annual D.I. (Depressive Incommunicado) in recent weeks, hence the bloglag. There's been a healthy diet of gaming all the same, as site-visiting readers attentitive to my 'Recently played games' sidebar gadget already know. I won't be revisiting all those games but, for the record (naturally enough):

• Badger and I played 3 games of Memoir'44:

1. Sainte-Mère-Église x2.
2. Utah Beach.

• Andy, Donald, Gav and I played 6 games:

1. Chaos in the Old World (unfinished).
2. Carcassonne x3.
3. Battlestar Galactica.
4. Settlers.

Score
Andy Erm, no.
Badger Nope.
Donald Nada.
Gav 3 (2x Carcassonne and 1 Settlers).
Me 5 (BSG, Carcassonne and 3x M44).
:0)

Gav's double record-breaking Settlers win deserves special mention; on 5VP with just 3 settlements and the Longest Road he:

• Swept to victory with a 5VP play; less a sprint than a frackin' teleport- record #1, formerly held by Dave on 4VP.
• Won by laying down 4 Development cards- Soldier for Largest Army and 3 VP; record #2, newly minted.

What a stunner! I suggested back in July that Gav is the Settlers player to watch. Nice of him to paint a big shiny target on his forehead, don't you think? :-7

No future aboard Galactica?
I continue to have mixed feelings about BSG, which I fear is on the verge of outstaying its welcome at the table to boot. These came together after last Sunday's session to cast doubt on my expected purchase of the Pegasus Expansion; and that despite my last-minute sneak to victory as Cylon from the get-go William Adama. I'm going to look at the whys and wherefores of my blowing hot and cold over BSG, but first...

What went down
I really enjoyed the role this time:

• Nuking the at-start basestar straight off I was a touch unlucky to draw the 2-hit damage to destroy it outright, so that I couldn't fire off the 2nd nuke next turn; this sent a pretty big signal round the table.
• I was able a couple of times to throw in a negative skill card which passed without alerting definite suspicions thanks to fortunate Destiny draws.
• Aware of the growing realisation and deepening certainy around me, I filled my hand of skill cards using Adama's Command Authority; made my position clear with a big negative play into a skill check as the turn sat on my immediate right; then hit the Galactica for a couple of damage when I revealed myself as a Cylon before someone decided that I really ought to be in the Brig after all.

I love it when a plan comes together. Heh. :>

My satisfaction was shortlived: getting the crucial Sleeper Agent Phase ass backwards, I'd deluded myself that I had to push a resource dial into the redzone to win over my sympathiser; I should've been keeping all the dials blue, naturally enough. I was so disgusted with myself that I almost threw in the towel. Pulling myself together I plugged away. My tactics were simple enough: whack the humans with crisis after crisis to exhaust a resource. It was Andy's bad call on Laura Roslin's choice of Crisis cards that clinched it for me in the end. Why he set up a possible loss with that crisis escapes me. Pity? The fool.

So, if I had fun playing Adama the Cylon and won a cheesy victory, why am I still talking about mixed feelings, to the extent that I fear the game's a bogey?

The good: sweet villainous orchestration
Donald should know what I'm talking about here because he won our first game without even having to reveal himself as Cylon. BSG combines quiet subversion and outright betrayal with the midgame dramatic turning point used to such good effect by Richard Halliwell in Rogue Trooper. The strength of these mechanics shouldn't be underestimated:

• Whether potential or actual, hidden or open, the conflict between human and Cylon gives BSG the competitive edge utterly lacking in Arkham Horror because it is a conflict between the players.
• The Loyalty cards and the Sleeper Agent Phase neatly distribute the determination of the lineup of these essential conflicts so that:

1. The discovery and/or revelation of the contending sides is simultaneoulsy dramatic- ie. creates uncertainty and tension; and gamable- ie. is the basis of strategies.
2. The Cylons enjoy a surprisingly wide range of strategic options in respect of the timing of their reveal.

The net effect of all this is a game dynamic offering the sense of executing an unfolding master plan, which is a very satisfying gaming experience indeed. Unfortunately this experience appears to be open only to Cylons, as witness Gav's complaint Sunday last that he's not played the Cylons yet.

It could be argued that this was more or less inevitable, since the burden of the design is to make the Cylons real in a way that the Cthulhoid threat simply wasn't under the auspices of Arkham Horror's solitaire engine. Speculation aside though, it behooves us to be at least quizzical when confronted by a game whose systems put so much effort into creating a particular mood- with great success; only then to ration and render utterly random players' access to the genuinely exciting depths of the psychology so enabled.

The bad: limits of proceduralism?
Regular readers might remember that the proceduralism of BSG concerned me right from the start and that it has haunted me ever since. I was forcefully reminded of this Sunday last, restricted as I was to the mere 4 locations available to revealed Cylon players. The simplicity of my strategy furthermore left me making pretty much the same play for more than half of the game.

This simultaneously is and is not an extreme case:

• Is: it reflects the limited options available to a lone Cylon and is therefore not representative of the gameplay players will typically experience.
• Is not: it is a situation that will arise in all 3-player and some 4-player games, so it is representative of nearly half of the games Cylons will typically experience.

That is to say: this example distills into its most striking form the problems inherent in playing out the same relatively limited decisions over and over again. My concerns about this procedural gameplay remain twofold:

• As ever: it creates a gamespace intrinsically limited so that gameplay quickly becomes stereotyped and unchallenging so mitigating against repeated play; ie. the game lacks depth.
• The by-the-numbers turn sequence gives rise to plodding gameplay whose effect is to undermine the psychology the various mechanics work so hard to create; that is to say, the game ends up less than the sum of its parts.

BSG's saving grace here is that I believe Corey Konieczka's design approach is about as good any alternative because it serves to focus the game on its essential theme, namely character interaction as the Cylons seek to foil humanity's drive to survive. I mean to say, if Konieczka had provided a conventional map and playing pieces- so immediately creating a more open gamespace, the game would likely've become one of tactical micromanagement; a game which could've achieved many things, but which would've made it difficult for players to play the diverse cast of BSG.

Likewise, for all its possible proceduralist limitations the crisis system works both both mechanistically- by focusing gameplay so that the game moves at a nice clip; and thematically- by generating a key narrative dynamic of the TV show.

The indifferent: market-rationed product development
I must here note in passing that I believe Konieczka's design is labouring under the burden of FFG's business model in a way which will be familiar to GW fans. Not to labour the point, there are several conditions which can bear down upon the design and development process with less than felicitious consequences:

• The deadline pressures of a remarkably full production schedule: this has obvious implications for testing and development.
• Top of the line production values: these will clearly restrict content one way or another, so constraining the gamespace by sheer virtue of there being less stuff than there might be in games whose systems are typically built around a heavy reliance on all sorts of stuff.
• FFG is in the business of selling not just games per se, but games and expansions: which is to suggest that games released in some real sense 'incomplete'- even if that only means relatively limited replay value, are in the company's self interest (this strikes me as a straightforward enough variant of the planned obsolesence analysed as long ago as 1960 by Vance Packard).

I leave it to my readers to imagine how these conditions might've made their impact felt according to my preceding remarks.

The antidote: opening up the playspace?
Even if perhaps 'unfinished' in the terms outlined above BSG is still a successful design, because the gamespace it creates is interesting if not unique. The Pegasus Expansion is going to expand this in respect of characters, locations and cardplay, which I expect will breath new life into the game. I find myself wondering if this will be enough.

I'm thinking it'd be interesting if the rules were developed in 2 particular directions:

• Give every player individual victory condition; eg. a card dealt to each player specifying conditions which would determine whether or not players can win an individual victory according to the outcome of the essential human/Cylon conflict.
• Open up the treachery with rules allowing more Cylon/Sympathiser cards to the loyalty deck; the individual victory conditions above could make this work when the humans are heavily outnumbered.

The aim of these would be to expand on and ramp up mechanics crucial to the paranoia and villainous psychology the generation of which is the strength of the design. Also, they could be implemented as homebrews because any new components would stand alone and so wouldn't have to match up to FFG's production values.

Would this work? I don't know. Will we find out? Only time will tell. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
Battlestar Galactica boardgame:
- My 2009 gaming wishlist #2
- Done down by dastardly Donald's devious duplicity!
- The fickle finger of fate
- Toasters, toasters, everywhere!
- A moment to marvel at...
- The end is nigh?
- Again, the toasters' offensive

Getting down to business?

I'm still working on my setup for that game of TS@VASSAL. This isn't because the rules are particularly difficult- they're not, as is evidenced by the mere 8 pages of actual rules in the 28-page rulebook, a whole page of which furthermore is devoted to components and setup; no, what's holding me up is the complexity of the gameplay resulting from the essentially simple elements. In other words, there is a lot to think about! For the benefit of readers, let me explain how the game works.

The world of Twilight Struggle
The world that was the superpowers' playground during the Cold War is depicted in Twilight Struggle on a map which divides the globe into 6 regions, each showing the most important countries in that region. The mapboard also features various information panels and record tracks as you can see.

Structure of gameplay
Nuclear apocalypse (DefCon 1) or outright ideological hegemony (20VP) aside, Twilight Struggle is played through 10 turns, each turn comprising 6, 7 or 8 Action Rounds. All the action in the game is driven by cardplay; each action round first the Soviet player then the US player plays a card from their hand. A sample card is shown left:

• Operations points: spent to conduct the crucial influence-peddling operations.
• Period: the game is divided into 3 periods; early, mid and late war:

1. There is a section of the card deck for each period, to be added to the deck at the start of each period.
2. There are 7 action rounds in the mid/late war instead of the 6 in the early war.

• Event: the events translate into game terms significant happenings and personalities from the actual history of the Cold War; some will benefit only the USSR or the US, while others can benefit either side.

Core systems of gameplay
There are 3 core systems of gameplay in Twilight Struggle:

• Influence.
• Operations.
• Events.
  

Influence
The essential currency of the game, influence is represented by markers used to track each side's influence (no!) over the countries across which the 2 behemoths of the Cold War waged their struggle for supremacy. Sample US/USSR influence markers- right, show:

• Coloured backgrounds (LHS): Control.
• White backgrounds (RHS): Influence.

The function of the influence markers is straightforward and is based on the Stability Values, key indicators present in each country represented on the game map. The sample U.K. map space- left, shows the stability value of 5, which determines when influence becomes control and vice versa according to the varying fortunes of both sides in each country; the higher a country's stability value, the more influence is needed to control that country.

Their regimes thus weak and unstable or strong and enduring, countries in Twilight Struggle come in 2 additional flavours:

• Ordinary countries: yellow name/Stability Value background, eg. Czechoslovakia.
• Battleground countries: purple/red backgrounds, eg. Poland.

Control of battleground countries is crucial to high scoring so players will be competing strongly over these territories; while excessively heavy handed interventions can heat the Cold War to the point of conflagration (DefCon 1 again), so players have to temper aggression with caution.

Operations
Operations are the most important way in which players vie for influence over the countries that are their pawns in Twilight Struggle. There are 4 kinds of operation:

• Gaining influence: Ops pts are spent to add influence markers to countries on a 1-for-1 basis (2 Ops pts/influence in an enemy controlled country).
• Realignment: realignment reduces enemy influence in a country; realignment attempts' success or failure are based on a contested 1d6 roll; each Ops pt allows 1 realignment attempt.
  
• Coups: coups reduce enemy influence and might increase your own if they are sufficiently successful; each card played allows 1 coup attempt; coups attempts' success or failure are based on a 1d6 roll- modified by the card's Ops pts value, against a country's stability value x2.

• The Space Race: attempts to move up the space race track; these ops don't affect influence, but advancing up the space race track brings VP and other advantages; in addition space race operations don't cause events, a very important consideration.

Events
"Events dear boy, events."
Harold Macmillan

Cards from each period with pro-Soviet, neutral and pro-American events

The events enter play in 3 different ways:

• Headlines: before the action rounds begin each player secretly selects a card; these are then revealed and their events are executed.
• Cards played for events: during action rounds a player may play a card for its event instead of for operations.
• Cards played for operations: cards played for operations which also contain the opposing superpower's event still trigger that event.

This last point is perhaps the single most fiendish feature of the entire game (it certainly felt that way during my first play last year), meaning as it does that most turns you will be unable to avoid giving your opponent something to their advantage; unless of course you can dump it into the space race. The net effect is that each turn becomes an exercise in damage limitation even before you've seen what your opponent does.

Onwards to victory?
As in many games of its ilk Twilight Struggle can be lost by the klutz who provokes the outbreak of nuclear war: if one battleground state coup attempt too many or the untimely play of an event reduces the DefCon to 1, then the phasing player loses immediately. Otherwise victory, instant or not, is dependant on scoring controlled regions.

Like everything else in the game, scoring in Twilight Struggle is based on cardplay: a region is scored when its scoring card is played- see above for sample Europe scoring card (NB. the instant victory condition for Europe is unique). As you might expect, there is a twist: you can't hold on to scoring cards; meaning that scoring must take place the turn you are dealt the card. I'll leave readers to imagine for themselves the tensions this adds to those already generated by juggling operations and events.

Early postwar Europe in some unknown alternity...
The map below shows the core of the situation over which I've been puzzling:

• I have 6 influence to place in Eastern Europe.
• The US player then places 7 in Western Europe.
• We'll each choose our Headline events.
• And then I'll take my first action round.

Afterthoughts
After all this I think I know where I want to set up. It turns out that the VASSAL interface for adding influence is so simple to use that I sent my setup off in no time at all after completing the rest of this. Now I've just got to wait for my opponent to get back in front of a computer, and we'll be off! In the meantime, I wonder how VASSAL and/or ACTS handle simultaneous card selection? ;)

Just filler... No, really!

My network of Kremlin-directed infiltration cells intended to exploit the immediate postwar instablity at the heart of Europe is not yet fully in place- curse those petit-bourgeois prevaricators! (AKA. I haven't worked out my TS@VASSAL setup.) Meanwhile let me share a real life culinary 'adventure'.

Food, glorious food!
For all its run down and impoverished realities, Glasgow remains the truly cosmopolitan city it was in the heyday of its imperial splendour (although why tourists visit it in such numbers still perplexes me I have to confess). A food lover living in the West End, I'm particularly fortunate: the cuisine of the world is pretty much on my doorstep; between delis and ethnic grocers, there is a frankly bewildering variety of exotic foodstuffs to intrigue the eye and tantalise the palate.

Before
(Yes, a pic of the actual gourd, not some random internet trawl)

And so it was at the weekend my routine shopping trip took me, a bit down in the dumps, to my local Asian grocer. My list-shopping complete, I found myself looking at all the unknown vegetables which I'd passed by so often before. Not to labour the point, I ended up buying something whose various names I either couldn't pronounce, or promptly forgot. Thank goodness then for the web, upon which I'd planned to rely in the first place!

Web, glorious web!
The mysterious comestible turned out to be a bottle gourd or calabash (Latin, Lageneria siceraria). Pinning down the identity of my mysterious vegetable I was particularly pleased to read of its "delicate nutty flavor", that being what I like most about one of my favourite pulses- chick peas. Some searching later I found a simple recipie which I plan on cooking tonight: Bottle Gourd Curry with Moong Dal & Yogurt.

After?
(Perhaps, this is from the web!)

Finally, before I go I just must pass on a tip: if you live near a Lidl store then look out for their 1L tubs of greek yoghurt, especially if you like Indian cooking. Rich, creamy and delicious, this stuff is great for cooking because it doesn't separate into truly ugly maggotlike solids and dirty water when you add it to a hot oily pan; and it keeps for weeks on end, even after opening. The best natural yoghurt ever! ;)

Purposive random interjections

So, following the recommendation of RD/KA!'s first fan the Gnome, I recently took to using the social bookmarking site StumbleUpon. I like it. I don't expect it to replace well organised bookmarks, but I find it much better than email for swapping links and Donald and I are already using it regularly for that purpose. Here are a couple of neat sites I've Stumble[d]Upon.

Drawtoy
DRAWTOY VS. BYOKAL, to present the full title as it appears on the app, is a simple way to make interesting patterns. If you like kaleidoscopes (and who doesn't?) then you can easily enjoy literal minutes of amusement with this before it wings its way past you leaving perhaps the lightest of touches (or more?) on your memory (or not!).

Screenshot samples showing how the patterns build up

This is just one of many toys and other items of interest hosted by Ze Frank, a US comedian. Here for example, he writes about tweeting for invites to adopt people's fB ID's for a week. As a roleplayer familiar with a real-life example of someone adopting a false ID on a gaming forum- and getting away with it for quite some time, I find this intriguing. So I'd say ze's page is definitely worth an idle browse.

Multicolr Search Lab
For more harmless internet hijinks you could visit the Multicolr Search Lab. This is one of several apps using the image-search technology of Idée Inc.; in this case to search for images corresponding to a colour or colours you choose using the simplest of point-and-click interfaces. Again, simple and strangely appealing.

Here are a couple of samples showing how the image selections change as you add different colours. No prizes for guessing why I chose that shade of green first, although (big geek confession imminent) for readers who are new here, or who maybe just didn't get it: yes, RD/KA! really is its lurid green because it's the colour of my beloved Penumbra's Talons; and why not? Any complaints, take them to Brother Elias...

...because if a genetically-engineered supersoldier all but dead and encased for centuries in a cybernetic sarcophagus controlling a walking tank can't deal with customer service, then who can?

I tried out more colours, naturally enough; as many colours as possible, as you'd expect...

...and was pleasantly entertained by the friendly message ("The Computer is your friend!") whose gentle chiding brought me back to the maximum 10 colours:


"And your point is, blogger?"
Passing amusement these pages certainly offer, but are the apps here previewed actually of any use, eg. to gamers? Perhaps.

The Drawtoy for example makes me think of some kind of control panel- on a spaceship maybe, suggesting images grabbed from the Drawtoy could be used to show players in an SF RPG some peculiar scanner effect. The strong visuals would have an obvious appeal, and a creative GM should be able to create an interesting puzzle about the what's, why's and wherefore's of the technology behind the imagery. Photos themed by colour could have some use in, eg. WFRP with its chromatic Wind of Magic sorcery system.

I've no idea how these suggestions would pan out in practice, but I do know that my roleplayer's mind found worthwhile the simple exercise of trying to think of useful applications of these toys. So Drawtoy and Multicolr have already proved useful just by stirring the creative stew of the subconcious that every good roleplayer needs to keep a-simmering so that they can bring as much as possible to their own and their fellow players' games.

PS. This post will be timestamped:- 09:00, 09/09/09. Heh! ;)

Getting cyber on yer ass!

CC@VASSAL?-: not yet
Site-visiting readers alert to the sidebar content might already be asking themselves what and why questions about the new links recently added under the cybergaming heading:

• ACTS.
• VASSAL.

Cybergaming? Not computer gaming as such, cybergaming uses ICT to faciliate playing boardgames via the web, using apps typically requiring ownership of the boxed game. Regular readers might remember VASSAL, where an fB friend and fellow BGGer and I last January played what was my first turn of transatlantic Combat Commander.

TS@VASSAL
That first turn of CC@VASSAL is my last to this day, but cybergaming remains on the horizon: fB/BGG pal Rob Bottos and I are embarking on a game of Twilight Struggle. You might remember that I played and lost my first game of Twilight Struggle against Web-Grognards' grognard John Poulter at DiceConWest last year. I suspect this might be the game which weans me off my peculiar aversion to cybergaming, which has been one of the 'big things' in boardgaming in recent years:

• A game I've long wanted to play more of, TS doesn't fit with the steady FTF diet the lack of which is what most drives the appetite for cybergaming.
• And a game suitable for play by email instead of in the hotseat, which makes learning the interface more relaxing since there isn't someone sitting at the other end staring at their game waiting for your moves to pop up.

Cast as the Soviets by Rob I drew my hand using ACTS (Automated Card Tracking System), so I know what I've got to play with in those early postwar years of turn 1 (with up to 10 turns covering at most 50 years, turns represent 3-5 years each). I'm in the process of deciding where to place my discretionary 6pts of influence in Eastern Europe. And then I'll play my first card- the Headline Card, and we'll be off.

The confused newb in me wishes that I didn't have to start the game @VASSAL while juggling the peculiar combination of ACTS and VASSAL we're using, but the Soviets always go first so that makes sense really. And the USSR really is the side recommended for a Twilight Struggle newb, as I learned so painfully in that first game; not an accident, as this thread on TS@BGG shows.

More after I've sent off my setup. ;)

Space Hulk - The 3rd Wave #1. "In the beginning was the Hulk..."

Unparalleled enthusiasm untrammelled?
Andy 'ported in Friday to deliver the preorder perk- two 3rd Edition Space Hulks over which to gloat while the shelves were being filled for Saturday's store launch: my own Hulk the 5th; and another for that friend who's been waiting long enough for his promised set to've had time to abandon all hope at least twice already. Now it's finally a blip on his radar!

Another big box brimful of brilliant bits and bobs!

Confession time

In the- "eh'm, you've only got yourself to blame" department: I must confess that my confidence in my freehand and greenstuff skills was simply overwhelmed at the prospect of a set of Legion of the Damned terminators; the craft required- above left, remains beyond me. I just couldn't face those flames and bones.

I mean to say, I'm not even 'rusty' as such; it's more like I'm 'still in the packing case'. Here right is serving Chapter Master Ezekiel Cromwell ("also known as 'Zeke', but never to his face"). The happy accident that brought the Talons' founding and subsequent tradtions into sharp relief by virtue of that Nemesis Force Halberd- the big blue blade for the uninitiated; Zeke here has therefore been awaiting the finishing touch of crackling tongues of flame- on that red Storm Shield, for more years than I care to remember (this might just be my oldest unfinished mini).

Fortunately then, the revamped Blood Angels from the 1st wave's The Sin of Damnation are rich in detail luxuriant enough to enthuse the most jaded miniaturists to exercise their finest brushes. I've seen the WIP's in my local GW and the production pieces really are as exquisite as the 'Eavy Metal pictures show. The blood red's going to be a nice change of tone; but I'm wondering, naturally enough, what will these masterpieces of the injection moulding process look like under Scorpion Green?

Waxing nostalgic
More than just the heart and soul of my 40K gaming experience, Space Hulk was also the subject of 'Talons of Death', published in GW's old semiprozine The Citadel Journal #36 in March 2000. The article featured a 4-scenario campaign into which I threw as many bells and whistles as I could pull together; and a conversion piece: the terminator Techmarine- a Golden Demon UK 2001 also-ran with his Techguard, from which I took the Tactical Techmarines unique to the Talons both online and at GW events under 3rd and 4th editions of 40K.

The Techmaster and his original Techguard

These models and others featured in a WIP megathread at The Bolter and Chainsword (a good 2 or 3 incarnations ago); so the work I put into 'Talons of Death' proved productive and rewarding to this DIY Chapter Master (notice again the surprising image quality from my old scanner).

The Sin of Damnation @RD/KA!
Old hands familiar with the length and breadth of my enthusiasms for Space Hulk might've been wondering at the downbeat note struck at the top of this post. I was.

So make no mistake about it dear readers: the hype is entirely justified and kudos is due to all involved in putting the project together. The production values show that GW at the top of its form remains peerless; and the comforting familiarity of the game reminds us what the old design studio is capable of when it's not driven by the imperatives of getting ever more miniatures onto the increasingly cramped 6x4 tabletop.

Approximately 1 square metre of debossed cardboard!

It was ultimately in the writing of this that the weight of my past with the game was reflected in the recognition that this is the 3rd edition of Space Hulk to mark my return to GW's corner of the adventure gaming hobby; the geek fanboy in me cherished this so that I could not help but warm to the simple pride and sheer enthusiasm of Jervis and the rest of the crew in this month's White Dwarf coverage of the release; and the irksome in my grognard was comforted by the thought.

I hope to be seeing Space Hulk back on the gaming table soon and regularly; so, dear readers, you can expect in the weeks and months to come:

• A full review: there're surprisingly many rules changes, and the 2nd edition grognard in me isn't sure what to think of them all.
• Workbench: WIPs of the Blood Angels and the Stealers.
• Revamps of some of my own favourite contributions to hulking.
• Special projects as I work on new material.

Whew! Yes; it's back, it's big, and it's bristling with bogies! ;)

Related @RD/KA!
- Part 1. In the beginning was the hulk
- Part 2. The timer rule and player point-of-view
- Part 3. Tactics, tactics, tactics!

Mounting anticipation

Another downswing is upon me painfully suddenly, so my recent gaming has gone unreported. Meanwhile, here is the latest update on the game currently at the top of my 'must buy' list.

GMT Games' August update last week confirmed my speculations about the possible release date for Chad Jensen's new WW2 tacsim Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland Infantry Division: there is no sign of the game as far ahead as February 2010. Grognards eagerly anticipating this new release were recently consoled by series developer John Foley's announcement that the playtest rules are available for download.

Old hands might remember that I was first alerted to Combat Commander when I happened by accident across playtest rules while browsing GMT's site (where I'd gone in search of info about a reprint of Ivanhoe IIRC). As I write the FF P500 stands at 535 preorders; I wonder if the availability of the rules will mark a significant increase in those numbers? In the meantime, I'm looking forward to see the new game's systems laid more bare. ;)

Related@RD/KA!
- Fighting Formations preview #1: Some background
- Fighting Formations preview #2: The frakkin' game!