Sunday Summary – Winter…departing #wargame #boardgame #TravellerRPG #book @gmtgames @compassgamesllc @Ardwulf

It seems that we finally have turned the corner meteorologically and Winter is in full retreat. Which means Spring is upon us. Which means yardwork. Which could mean less gaming. Sigh.

Wargames

This week I dug into Antony Beevor’s The Battle of Arnhem: The Deadliest Airborne Operation of World War II (Viking, 2018). I combined my reading of the book with a play of Holland ’44: Operation Market-Garden, September 1944 (GMT Games, 2017). The Allies did better in the game than the historical result thanks to a good start but the mid-game was a real slugfest. This will be the subject of a future post.

After playing and really enjoying Mark Simonitch’s Holland ’44 system I broke down and ordered “‘just a few” other titles. My GMT Games P500 is now heavier with France ’40 (2nd Printing), Normandy ’44 (Third Printing), and Salerno ’43. Just to show I don’t play favorites I also preordered North Africa: Afrika Korps vs Desert Rats, 1940-42, a Standard Combat Series (SCS) title from Multi-Man Publishing. Oh yeah, and a few others too (insert innocent whistling here).

So…the last update on the Kickstarter campaign for South China Sea: Indian Ocean Region from Compass Games said the game would ship in early March. I was a preorder and I haven’t been charged yet AND the game does not appear on the Compass Games webpage as either a “Recent Release” nor an “Upcoming Title” through May 2021. Hmm??

Boardgames/Kickstarter

Shipping congestion at Port Long Beach is slowing delivery of Supercharged (Dietz Games, 2021), one of my few Kickstarter campaigns. Maybe, maybe by the end of the month?

After much soul-searching I changed my pledge in the Root: The Marauder Expansion (Leder Games) Kickstarter campaign from the $110 everything level to the base $50. I may still add in the Clockwork 2 Expansion in the BackerKit but I’m not really sure. My deliberations about Root highlighted for me deeper perspectives on “Why I Game.” That topic is maybe worthy of further discussion…later.

Role-Playing Games

If you are a Traveller RPG player and haven’t watched Ardwulf of Ardwulf’s Lair with his Traveller Tuesday videos give them a shot. I especially like his Universal World Profile (UWP) episode.

Alas, Ardwulf seems to favor using Mongoose Traveller 2E (which I avoid for “legal” reasons) backed by a heavy dose of Traveller 5 (T5). I’ll just point out one can do everything he does using Cepheus Engine and not pay exorbitant costs to Mongoose…nor run the risk of Mongoose grabbing your IP either.

Which makes me wonder. In Traveller, Earth has always been considered a “Standard” (UWP-6) atmosphere. What would the rating for our planet be in Traveller UWP terms given all the COVID mask wearing? The Classic Traveller Book 3 Worlds and Adventures definition of a tainted atmosphere is, “Tainted atmospheres are artificially or naturally polluted, and require filter masks in addition to any other required apparatus.” So…I guess that makes Earth’s atmosphere UWP-7 “Standard, tainted”…at least according to the CDC.

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Feature image courtesy holland.com