EPGS Heroics - September 2003

*** GARBAGE ALERT ***
*** This is an urgent request to all EPGS members. ***

PLEASE clean up the garbage, especially at the end of the night. We have had a complaint that the room is being left messy. If this continues it could jeopardize our standing with the Mall management. This would be extremely bad. All EPGS members have been empowered by the Mall management to knock on the Security Office door down the hall to request maintenance to empty the trash whenever it gets full. That way, we should not have to worry about overflowing garbage. It would be a great help if each of us pitches in to put all the trash off the tables and in the bins by the time we leave.

PLEASE do all you can to make EPGS a good customer. We can either be good tenants, pay $5 annual dues, and enjoy the excellent food court; OR, we can be careless, desperately look for another location that will accept a monthly group, and pay at least $10 per meeting. The choice is ours.

We must play and work together or there may be no EPGS.

Thank you for your consideration, Bob Hranek.

Philcon Announcement

From Lorenzo Harmon

Greeting
I am the game Coordinator of Philcon 2003, i was wondering if some of your
memebers would like to run games for the Con. I would love to add The EPGS
to the events for that weekend. Let me know if some of your members are
interested.

Here are the general Admission for Philcon 2003.
1st if you Attended last year PhilCon and price for weekend attendance
If you pay before
8/31/03 the cost is $40
11/30/03 the cost is $45
after 12/01/03 you might as well wait to pay at the door..cost $50.

group rate are available if they are bundle together and is before the
11/30/03 date. I think its $5 off, but its must be bundle together to
get the group rate.

for those who attended last year, and also Volunteer, of course will
receive a rollover for this year. I hope that those member would also
volunteer this year to continue the benefit for next year.

The volunteers are those who work last year or paid to attend this
year and join the Team of GM, room monitor and Panelist this Year.
Now for the new Teams that are coming on board this year, If you are
serving on two or more Panels (more on that 8-28-03)then you can be
a guest of the Con or (Program Participant).

If you are running two or more games then you can be classified as
Staff member.

Neither Staff members or Program Participant have to pay members
attendance fee. Both have to submit the games or panel they will be
serving or running.

For those who may be on the fence about attending, due to some day
time shopping, the Game room is open from the start to the end of
the Con. we never close, last year some Page members came late night
just to run some game for the all nighters. most of the discussion
were occurring after the con had official shut down for the evening.
So If you want to come to run a Game at midnight to four AM this is
one convention where the players would be available.

This year we are revisiting something that we ran a while ago at PhilCon,
Panels. A Panel is where a group of three or four people speak on a
subject in front of a Live Audience. This year Gaming have eight (8) 1
hour session. We are Looking for those who can speak well, have a opinion
on the topic, and can pull the audience in to the conversation.
If You Run Two Panels then, as stated in Philcon Info A, The you are
admitted as a guest, (Program participant), of the Con.

At this Time the panels are;

1. Gaming 101 (some of the Topics that we wished to covered;)
What is Role playing?
How to role play?
What is a LARP?
Game term glossary
Game news on-line
Yes, we have a dealer room.

2. Miniature 102
What is a miniature Game?
The tactics of playing?
To paint or not to paint
Cost of admittance into miniature playing
What systems do I use, and how complex is it?
What system do the panelist play with?

3. What new in gaming?
what was new in 2003
what games won awards in 2003
Up coming gaming products

4. Gaming in the Media
Art in gaming
Books to games & Games to TV
Religion & gaming
Aren't you to old for that game, The greying of games & gamers
The myth of the anti social Gamer

5. Career in Gaming,
How to license a game
how to market a game
a hour with a local professional
the future of RPG and gaming in general
The open source Pros & Cons

7. Gaming as a educational tools

8. Local Gaming resource
meet the local groups
what's going on in each group
what campaigns are currently running.
Membership policy

Game Review

By Bob Hranek

Winter Fury (Avalanche Press, 2001) is an innovative game simulating an often overlooked portion of World War 2. It recreates the Finnish upset of the Soviet invasion near TolvajŠrvi from 30 Nov 1939 to 25 Dec 1939. In the following review, I will make several suggestions for those more interested in play balance than historical accuracy. The scale is an 86 x 82 kilometer board (2 Km hexes) with company/battalion level units moving and/or fighting during 3-6 "impulses" per day. Price: $30. Solitaire Suitability: Low. Complexity: Low/Medium. 12-page rule book. 140 counters. Play time: 1 or 2 hours.

Rules
The impulse system is the most interesting game mechanic of Winter Fury, but does not favor those looking for historical accuracy. When 80% of the day's actions can be solely one-sided, you would have a hard time rationalizing why the other side is frozen. Each of the three Russian divisions will rarely get more than one impulse per day, whereas when one Finn moves, all Finns move. The impulse system is ostensibly to simulate weather, but this is flawed in that the Finns would not remain idle when the weather got good enough for the Russians to maneuver. Even given Soviet bureaucracy it's hard to imagine 2 out of 3 Russian divisions remaining idle while the Finns enjoy a day of cross-country skiing and fort-building. There is an added excitement however, from not knowing who will have the next impulse and having to plan your defenses that much farther ahead because of it.

The step/stacking point differentiation is unnecessarily confusing. The text of paragraphs 2.2, 5.1, and 14.15 are in direct conflict with each other. Simply realize that most of the Soviet units have one-too-many dots on their counters and the game will run much better. The intended number of steps per unit is defined on page 11 and the [14.22] Soviet Set Up for Hex 3208 is not valid unless the units' stacking points equals their number of steps (one each).

The ZOC Costs paralyze the Soviet's ability to advance even one hex and still attack on that impulse. I recommend adding one to all Russian units' movement as the easiest fix for playability.

Out-Of-Supply Effects really only cripple Soviet attacks, so both sides should feel free to let their skiers perform cross-country racing in search of Victory Points (VPs).

There are Soviet Air Attacks in this game, but only in conjunction with trying to get a lucky step reduction on the mainly ineffective Bombardment Table [page 12].

The Ski-Capable Units rules [12.4] excellently depict how elusive the Finns could be in frustrating Russian attacks. By evading attacks and staying just one hex too far away to attack (hex movement + ZOC cost + 1 to make the actual assault), the Finns have a nearly unbeatable delaying action tactic. Combine this with the Fog of War rules [12.7] (only Finnish artillery and captured Soviet units are usually observable by the Soviet commander) and you can begin to understand the Russian difficulties in this game.

Playing with the optional rules [13.0] is highly recommended:
[13.1] Consecutive Impulse Limits. Anything to limit the prospect of an all-but-one Finnish impulse turn is a good idea. I'd even suggest changing this from three to two consecutive turns as the limit to help prevent unrealistic battlefield possibilities.
[13.2] Random Impulse Selection. NOT for the Russians since their chits are so limited to begin with that they MUST have the "FULL" chits included. Doing this with the Finnish chits may help play balance however.
[13.3] Poison Gas. The Russians will even pray for the Finns to use it in order to receive the 10 VPs!
[13.4] Brother Against Brother. I would recommend making the wording even stronger in that the defending Finns must attack the adjacent Red Finns even if no other attack was in progress.

Components
You'll need to add "Hill" to the "Forest" row on the Combat Results Table, since it isn't listed elsewhere and has the same stacking limit as Forest. I found the board to be slightly irritating. The vast majority of the map is forest, and the forest graphic is so pronounced that it actually obscures the readability of the hex numbers. Peculiarly, the map doesn't fit into the game's box. If the board were to be resized, I would ask for larger hexes, since the units could not practically be made any smaller and most of the time you will need tweezers in order to move the Russian units massed within one hex of the roads. You'll also need to add a "Dec 24" and "Dec 25" to the board's Turn Record.

Scenarios
[14.1] Liberation Mission. With average impulse draws and conservative play by the Finns, there is little hope for the Russians to achieve even marginal victory. It takes 11 impulses of unopposed road movement (in 9 turns!) to even reach TolvajŠrvi or Ilomantsi for the Russian 6-5-6 and all-important HQ units. The Russian motorized units are insufficient to achieve a breakthrough alone versus any organized Finnish opposition. So the likelihood of obtaining even half the suggested VPs for any level of victory is extremely remote. In short, this scenario requires a major overhaul if you're looking for a fair game. It has interesting game mechanics and historical significance, but the Russians will always lose to the Finns as it was written.

[14.2] Finnish Offensive. Delete the confusing text for hex 3312 "but not in any hex adjacent to TolvajŠrvi (3409)" since this violation is not possible. Presume the first three "one tank co." references refer to the 139th's and the rest of the tank deployments will make sense. As mentioned earlier, the set up of hex 3208 either violates stacking or indicates that most of the Russian counters have the wrong number of stacking dots. Having the 354th artillery regiment set up alone in hex 3209 naked to first impulse annihilation by the Finns is unbelievable. I suggest allowing the units assigned to 3208 and 3209 be freely set up (within stacking limits) between those two hexes. Since there is no explicit mention of the 2nd Red Finns, the 8th Army's Arty, HQ, or 1st Ski battalion, they are presumed dead before set up (no VPs). Since the 155th units around hex 2930 start out of supply, I would recommend resurrecting the 8th Army HQ and setting it up with them. I also highly recommend changing the Finnish Set Up text of "Within seven hexes of Ilomantsi" to six or even five hexes to prevent unrealistic set up of Finnish units behind the Russian advance.

[14.3] Campaign Game. Not reviewed, but I would recommend playing it first, then setting up realistic victory levels based on how well the Soviets can actually be expected to perform.

[14.4] Conquest of Finland. Not reviewed since I do not have a copy of the Blood On The Snow companion game.

Conclusion
Winter Fury isn't perfect, and the scenarios require modification to give the Russians a fair chance of victory, but it will allow you recreate the battle of TolvajŠrvi, understand the opposing perspectives, and test those "what-if" strategies to your heart's content. The game accurately depicts the Russians vastly outnumbering the Finns, but since the CRT requires 4:1 attacking odds just to break even and the objective Soviet VPs are based on movement, the Finns have the advantage in every scenario. If you're interested in this historical action or willing to do some serious play-balance tweaking, then this game is for you.

Games People Played

Here is a nearly-complete list of games played at the July 19th meeting:

Game (Publisher) Number of plays

Alhambra (Queen) 1
Attack! (Eagle) 1
Battle Ball (MB) 1
Bohnanza (Amigo) 1
Can't Stop (Parker Brothers) 1
Carcassonne (Rio Grande) 1
Carcassonne - Hunters and Gatherers (Rio Grande) 1
Chrononauts (Looney Labs) 2
Domaine (Mayfair) 1
Evo (Descartes/Eurogames) 1
Fette Autos (Erlkonig) 1
Fightball (Cheapass) 1
Granada (Avalanche Press) 1
Guilford Courthouse (GMT) 1
Hellas (Rio Grande) 1
Illuminati (Steve Jackson) 1
Lord of the Rings CCG (Decipher) 1
Lunar Rails (Mayfair) 1
Mammoth Hunters (Rio Grande) 1
Market Garden - Monty's Gamble (MMP) 1
Odin's Ravens (Rio Grande) 1
Paths of Glory (GMT) 1
Princes of Florence (Rio Grande) 1
Puerto Rico (Rio Grande) 3
Ra (Rio Grande) 1
The Bucket King (Rio Grande) 1
Thirty Years War (GMT) 1
Tigris and Euphrates (Mayfair) 1
Transamerica (Rio Grande) 1
Vanished Planet (Vanished Planet) 2
Waterloo (Phalanx) 1
Web of Power (Rio Grande) 1
Winter Fury (Avalanche Press) 1
You're Bluffing (Ravensberger) 1
Zendo (Icehouse) 1