Wargaming round-up

Most of my hobby time over the last few weeks has been spent on wargames rather than RPGs.  I've rediscovered my usual poor form at Race for the Galaxy, dabbled in War Machine and had a first tilt at Rex.

I think I have a gaming hang-over.

Yesterday I played Eclipse very badly, scarcely remembering the rules let alone any of the game's strategy or tactics. The game also stretched out to five hours, a point that I wouldn't raise except for the fact that it took quite a lot longer to complete thanks to the number of complaints about the amount of time it was taking. You've probably been there, reader, and if you haven't – I envy you.

After a break to relocate, play recommenced with Race for the Galaxy. Historically, I've been pretty bad at Race. However, thanks to an obvious starting hand I mustered a good second-place finish, just a point or two behind the winner. As there was a bit more disruption among the available players – errands had to be run and there was no agreement about what serious game to play next – we then settled in for King of Tokyo with the expansion pack in play and the Panda-kai banned by mutual consent. I mustered a last-to-fall with my Kraken, with the winner only coming through by the skin of his teeth.

We finally settled in to play Avalon Hill's 1997 Princess Ryan's Star Marines, largely because most of us hadn't played it and therefore had nothing against it. Also it promised a 90 minute game, which seemed like a good idea as the time pushed towards midnight. Unfortunately, the people who had played it were trying to remember the game from ten years ago and the rules had a bad habit of ending up at the end of the table with the worst vision, leading to a number of early rules mistakes such as “<” being read as “greater than”.