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A Gaming Life
Combat Commander – After Action Report – Scenario 04 – Closed for Renovation
Sometimes life just hands you an impossible task and you have to do your best at it, even knowing that you’re probably screwed.
Sometimes wargames are like that!
Welcome to another tale from the Combat Commander ladder, that monthly tournament of one of the best games out there run by the top-notch Patrick Pence, he of Patrick’s Tactics & Tutorials fame.
Go check the channel out to see a monthly game from the ladder in action in addition to my wonderfully-done (but not video!) after action reports.
It’s what got me into the ladder!
June’s scenario is a really tough one from the original base game of Combat Commander: Europe.
A force of American elite units is trying to capture a large chateau in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge. The occupiers are some German elites of their own, with two Heavy Machine Guns.
The win-loss ratio in this one currently this month is something like one win for the Americans and a million wins for the Germans.
I could be exaggerating…but not by much!
(ok, a second American win was announced while I was editing this).
Anyway, my opponent this month was the veteran Larry S, who I haven’t had the pleasure of playing before.
(Don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)
See all that open ground with a few trees to hide behind for the Americans? And that long path down the left side that’s immune from fire from the chateau because of the stone wall?
Those will become very important.
The Germans (Larry – grey) set up first, except for the Infantry gun and crew, which can set up after the Americans.
They can set up 9 hexes deep (just before the Americans), but why would they do that?
Larry set up both of his HMGs in the chateau with decent lines of fire toward the Americans, along with a couple of token squads manning the right side of the board.
And wire all in front of the chateau, to make things even more difficult.
The Americans (Me – green) then set up one hex deep, so basically right on the edge of the board.
I set up in two groups to make sure I had everybody in command, with Lt. Wray tasked with attacking the chateau and Sgt. Buehler and his men tasked with forcing a path down the side of the board.
Maybe exiting, or maybe hitting the chateau from behind?
They also have a radio that can provide smoke.
Not many special rules in this one.
The wire must be placed next to a building hex because it represents rubble from earlier shelling.
The Americans get another leader with two squads and two flamethrowers on Time 3.
That can come in handy.
The only two objectives basically make holding the chateau a 30-point swing if the Americans can take it.
Is that possible?
Is the Pope Irish?
Let’s see how everything went.
Read MoreThe Uprising Will Be Televised – App Expansion Review – Dune Imperium: Uprising
Back in the early 2020s, Dire Wolf Digital had a huge hit with Paul Dennen’s Dune Imperium, a classic blending of deckbuilding mechanics and worker placement that quickly rose into the Boardgame Geek Top 100 and currently sits in the Top 10.
They came out with two excellent expansions, Rise of Ix, and Immortality that just seemed to make the game better.
For whatever reason, Dennen and Dire Wolf decided that this wasn’t enough.
Why not get two games into the Top 10?
Why not keep the same basic mechanics, even (mostly) the same starting cards, and just remake the board and add a bunch of fun stuff, like sandworms?
Thus was Dune Imperium: Uprising born in 2023, with wonderful artwork by a number of great artists.
Dire Wolf has also become kings of the digital boardgame world, so it was a no-brainer that they would bring all of this to Steam and mobile platforms.
Immortality came out last June and in June 2026, Uprising was released as an expansion to the Dune: Imperium app, rather than as its own app as happened with the actual boardgame.
I’ve played it once on the table, but now that I’ve put the app through its paces a bit, let’s talk about it.
It’s good!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots (Saturday Edition) – Long or Short Games at Cons?
It’s been almost a year since my last Friday Night Shots post (though yes, it is Saturday), but last weekend’s convention gave me a couple of ideas to explore.
Though sadly the bar is closed, the whiskey does keep flowing!
And producing boardgame thoughts to explore.
The first subject I wanted to talk about is conventions and long versus short games.
I know I’ve talked about game length before (in a Friday Night Shots post!), but this is specifically talking about at conventions or some other long-term gathering (not just a 6-hour game day).
I’ve mentioned in that post that my preference, even at conventions, is for shorter games.
Longer than maybe we play at our Sunday game days, but not super-long games that go on for 4+ hours.
I’ve always been a “play as many games as possible” guy rather than “play a long game that will keep us all together for hours and maybe require a dinner break” guy.
But something last weekend changed a bit, and it wasn’t by design!
There have been shades of this in the past (Dominant Species, anyone?), but for the most part, I’ve wanted to play roughly 2-hour games as a chance to get something played that doesn’t come out at our regular game days.
Or maybe something a bit more brain-burning than is usual.
The fact that it wasn’t by design is because I wasn’t planning on spending 3.5 hours on a game, or 5 hours on another one.
There was even a 3-hour game and a couple of 2.5 hour ones.
But it did happen, for various reasons.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 3301 – 3400
One of these days, I’m going to learn that doing these Boardgame Geek century posts too early is possibly going to cause a rip in the space-time continuum, like what’s happening right about now.
What, you didn’t feel that?
We’ve all traded places with our other selves from an alternate universe.
Just because I want to get posts in the can early so I can get ahead and actually rest!
(I’m sure you’re wondering where this beard I’m sporting came from)
Since we are getting deeper and deeper into the BGG rankings, I’m expecting fewer and fewer games to be on my played list.
But not today!
Instead, there are enough that I’m not going to talk about them all, or I wouldn’t actually end up talking about games I might be interested in.
Nobody brought out the gong after last week, so it’s time for another BGG century!
The list I’m taking these games from is here, and if you can’t get it through your head that the numbers could change if you’re reading this a year or so from now, then I can’t do anything.
This week, I’ve played seven of them and own three, but there’s that rip in the continuum that makes it so I’ve actually played eight and own four (I’ll get to that in a minute).
No games that I own but haven’t played this week, so that’s a good thing.
I’m getting close to my introduction word limit, so let’s begin!
Read MoreBottoscon Spring 2026 Retrospective
It’s June, so it must be time for the 2nd annual Bottoscon Spring convention!
Bottoscon is a convention created and run by (though the running of it is helped by numerous other people as well) Rob Bottos, a great guy who looks out for his friends and fellow gamers.
That’s because last year, when many Canadian gamers did not want to cross the border for American conventions and experience the shitshow that is the US right now, Rob created the first Bottoscon Spring.
This year, he went even further and did a Bottoscon Winter in February, which will also become an annual thing.
This year, Bottoscon Spring was once again held at the Royal City Curling Club in New Westminster, a nice, intimate venue for about 70-80 people to get their game on.
(I didn’t take any venue pictures this year, so these pics are from last year, but the location and layout are the same)
They also have a great bistro that opened up just for us on the weekend (they’re usually closed at this time).
Many thanks to them for that!
Finally, many thanks to Brendan and Michelle for being very cool friends but also for taking care of us, being amazing bartenders and just being all around awesome.
I even got to play some games with them!
It was also good to have a few beers during the weekend.
I know what you’re here for, though.
How were the games?
Surprisingly long!
But also very fun.
Yes, I had a number of long games so the quantity of games wasn’t as high as last year.
Which might make for a shorter post unless I keep blathering on like this.
But the quality was just as good as it always is.
Every game is going to be linked. Some will be to my review if I’ve done one. Others will be to Boardgame Geek.
Either way, if you want more information on it, click on the link.
Any new to me games will have a short description, but the full one will be on this month’s New to Me Games post in early July.
Finally, you can click on any picture (except game cover pictures) and blow it up if you want to see closer.
With that being said, let’s begin!
Read MoreTerror in the Abbey – Final Girl – A Demon in the Shadows Review
Don’t you hate it when you’re just minding your own business, sitting serenely in some kind of religious building, praying and all of that stuff, and then suddenly a demon comes in and possesses you, forcing you to do unspeakable things to all of your companions?
Is that just me?
Maybe it is.
The next Final Girl feature film that I have completed takes that scenario and runs with it, with your two final girl possibilities either being a fellow nun or, perhaps, the church organ player?
Or maybe she runs the church rummage sale?
A Demon in the Shadows was designed Mike Martins with artwork by Lars Krause.
It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2025.
The Series 4 feature films have been adding a bit of complexity to the killer, or sometimes having interesting ways to have to deal with them.
In this one, the demon Berith has possessed the body of a nun, Ursula, and you are having to try and kill him, all while trying to save Ursula.
That’s a lot harder than just wailing away at him/her with a crucifix.
How does this one shake out?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreReptilian Waves – Surfosaurus MAX Review
In what turned out to be a total coincidence, last week’s Boardgame Geek century post mentioned Surfosaurus MAX and the fact that I wouldn’t mind playing it again and then, four days later, it came out to our Sunday game day!
I asked my friend and he had not seen my post when he decided to bring it.
I love kismet.
But I don’t love that he hadn’t read my post…
I digress.
Surfosaurus MAX is a very quick card game designed by Ikhwan Kwon with artwork by Lisa Goldstein and Matthias Mödl and it plays 2-6 players.
It was published by Loosey Goosey Games in 2023.
This game is, in a way, a semi-cooperative game but in actuality it’s kind of cutthroat if you can get the right cards in your hand.
How does that work?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 3201 – 3300
A short turnaround time after the last post about this, mainly because that post was late!
We’re actually getting into sections of the Boardgame Geek rankings where there are some good games that don’t deserve to be this far back, and that is the case yet again in this century.
As long as people keep discussing these posts with me (either in the comments section or in other areas, like Discord), I’ll keep pumping these out.
At least until I get to a century where I have literally played nothing!
I did check last week and all the way up to 4000, I have played at least a couple in each century.
So you’re stuck with me now, unless you hit that big gong to make me stop.
We’ll keep the introduction short so I have more time to talk about the actual games, because there are a few I’d like to talk about.
Here’s the century this list is coming from.
Though please remember that these rankings are fluid, almost like my love/hate relationship with chocolate.
They could change!
(I kid…I will always love chocolate).
We’re getting deeper and deeper, but here are the numbers for this century.
In a switch from normal, I’ve actually played 5 of the games but I own 6.
That’s unusual. Usually it’s the other way around.
With all that under our belt, let’s begin!
Read MoreMama, She’s Craaazy – Final Girl – Madness in the Dark Review
(1,000,000 quatloos to whoever gets the title reference)
The Final Girl franchise has been doing a great job of covering different genres of horror movies, even including some that are more science fiction than horror.
With the advent of Madness in the Dark, however, they have moved to covering a film that’s not exactly horror, but instead more psychological suspense (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).
The killer in this feature film set is The Ratchet Lady and is clearly inspired by Nurse Ratched from the film, but in the film she’s not a killer, instead being more of an abusive, power-hungry force.
That doesn’t mean she’s not fun as a killer!
Let’s get the credits out of the way first.
Madness in the Dark was designed by A.J. Porfirio with art by Vladyslava Ladkova. It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2023 and is part of the Series 2 slate of feature films.
The Ratchet Lady is a really interesting killer with some cool effects, and Wolfe Asylum is a nice location (well, for playing in, I wouldn’t want to be staying there).
Let’s see what makes this feature film click.
Read MoreBGG Top Games – 3101 – 3200
It’s been over a week since the last Boardgame Geek century post, but last week was pretty full and I didn’t want to oversaturate the market.
I didn’t want my readers to be overwhelmed with awesomness.
But we’re back now, looking at another century of BGG rankings, this one getting further and further into the depths.
We’re below 3100 feet games and counting!
Be careful if you need to come up for air.
This week, we have a bit of a bonanza of played games.
I didn’t say good games, but definitely played games.
And one crime against nature, meaning there’s no way the game should be this low.
My overall stats for this century are six games played and two of those owned (or previously owned).
The list I’m taking these from can be found here, but keep in mind that a lot of things can change if you’re looking at this a year from now.
Or even a week.
Two cases in point!
After doing the last post, I looked ahead to this century and was thrilled that I’d be able to talk about Doomlings (the great evolutionary card game that’s just hilarious) because it was in the 3100s.
Lo and behold, I check back before doing this post, and it’s all the way up to #3008!
Which would have been on the last post.
So just go read the review, because it’s a good one.
The second case in point is also from last time.
9 Lives was at 3100 last time and I predicted that it would fall into this week’s post, but I was going to write about it anyway.
Sure enough, it fell to #3101.
It won’t be on this week’s post. You can read about it on the last one.
I’m still getting good discussions with these posts, so let’s get started!
Read More