War on Terror Blog
Thursday 5th January 2006
Game Report: Andy S, Jenn & Fiona - part 1
A simple three-player game with a new recruit. Fiona is lured with the promise of free booze and is indoctrinated to a world of pain, anger and paranoia. Except, it turns out to be a very reasonable and rational game, with barely a scratch being sustained. What's happening?
For some reason or other, everyone is incredibly - suspiciously - polite and far too involved in concentrating on the building of their own empires, rather than the wanton destruction of others'.
Not Andy S though - he tries to nuke Jenn. Twice in a row... only to find she has both the nuclear bunkers. Bugger. Then the Axis of Evil gets spun and it's Jenn, fated to be evil. But despite the obvious provocation and the extra resource of terrorist cards, she goes easy on Andy S and builds more cities instead.
Fiona is visibly feeling her way through the game and tries a tentative terrorist strike, but worries too much about the repercussions to sustain the fight. Plus she's having some of the worst dice-rolling luck in the history of the game and every attack fails embarrassingly. She decides war is too expensive for her and tries grabbing the remaining land instead, which is - again, unluckily for Fiona - worryingly barren of oil.
It's all over in under two hours and was so sudden, we decide to play again...With Jenn having a TONNE of money and cards, Andy S can see where this is heading and continues to lay into Jenn, inciting terrorist attacks in her cities and even resorting to WMDs. However, being the only aggressive player, Andy S just looks like a nasty piece of work.
And it's all for nothing anyway. On her next go, Jenn storms into Africa, takes the whole continent and wins with a healthy slice of the globe and many cities.
It's all over in under two hours and was so sudden, we decide to play again...
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 5 January 2006 - 0 comments
Thursday 15th December 2005
Game Report: Andy S, Adam & Jenn
We have fresh meat! Adam is new to WoT. He also isn't too keen on boardgames and would rather be playing Championship Manager. He's going to be a tough nut to crack.
Right from the off, however, Adam reveals his capitalistic, global-dominating side as his nicely-placed cities keep turning up vast amounts of oil. Each note passed from the bank to his grubby hands makes him chuckle and before long, thanks to a jammy treble-weighted oil gush, he's rich enough to buy the planet if he so wanted.
To cap it all, the Axis of Evil decides Adam is evil and he adds a handy complement of terrorist cards to his hand. Because Jenn isn't doing too badly either and doesn't want to fire Adam's evil wrath, they both decide to pick on Andy S, who tries to retaliate with a nuke in Adam's "heartland" of Africa, almost wiping out all four cities - but then Jenn steps in and sells Adam a nuclear bunker at the last second. Nuclear war thwarted and a couple more pops sees Andy S turn terrorist, no longer able to run with the super-powers. In fact, in a final twist of irony, it's a nuke in North America which hammers the final nail in the coffin for Andy S's ailing empire.
Not having much money, Andy S isn't a very effective terrorist player and has little effect on the Jenn-Adam race for glory. In the end, it's tight up to the finish line, but Adam snags it building one more city than he needs even to prove his dominance over the globe.
The Championship Manager addict wins in just over two hours. Incidentally, it's bad form to play someone else's game for the first time and win it. Just so you know, Adam, ok?
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 15 December 2005 - 0 comments
Wednesday 7th December 2005
Game Report: Andy T, Andy S, Jenn & French Thomas
First game in a while. Actually, there was a five player game sometime in November that's been buried in the sands of time because an hour in it broke down in drunken confusion and upset over a misreading of the "terrorist movement" rule. Such is the power of the War on Terror.
Everyone starts out with a good spread across the globe. Andy S tries to claim the entire southern hemisphere in his first turn, which was probably a tad too ambitious since Andy T already has a score to settle from previous games.
Three hours after starting, the world is a flat-level anarchic wasteland.This score is levelled about half-way through the game when an Andy T-delivered nuke drops on the Andy S homeland of Africa, followed up by a devastating terrorist attack on the cities of Nowhere. Prior to this, no one had barely fired a shot. Still, it's a nasty old game sometimes. Andy S fights back for a bit, but to no avail. He soon decides to quit the empire race and turn terrorist, after a well-timed Global Jihad card.
French Tom and Jenn both keep their heads down during all this. Jenn's hoping her budding Pan-American empire will go unnoticed (which it does for the next couple of turns) while French Tom does one of the best impressions of a pacifist so far seen in this game, but the amount of terrorists now covering Asia and Europe makes him nervous and he tries to keep Andy T in check with the Kyoto protocol. Andy T worms his way out of it however, but promising to pay Tom not to play the card - and then refuses to pay up. Shame!
It looks like Andy T's might and money are unstoppable when just a turn later he picks up the card inspector, fishes through the cards and retrieves a nuke, which he drops on French Tom. Followed by another one. And that's how Tom turns to the dark side. In a frankly psychotic twist of fate, Andy T then declares himself terrorist, leaving Jenn alone to face a radioactive, terrorist playground.
Jenn does her best to defend America, but the sudden influx of cards and cash to Andy S's terrorist army are devastating. Despite sneakily robbing the bank for 100m, Jenn crumbles under the terrorist ire.
Three hours after starting, the world is a flat-level anarchic wasteland. Hurrah!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 7 December 2005 - 0 comments
Monday 31st October 2005
Game Report: Andy T, Helen, Hamish, Nadja, Nadja's Sister & Friend.
So it's not often you get the chance of playing the War on Terror with two German 17 year olds... But here we go! After some rule explaining we kick off with our first six player game for a while...
As ever, it starts off peaceful (well, there is a 'no attacking in the first turn' rule), but with six players the world soon starts to feel cramped. So cities are built and Nadja starts to look strong, with several cities and a good chunk of the Americas. Secret messages are flying around and then the war starts for real. Nukes are dropped, terrorists funded and Nadja takes the full front of the attack... and takes quite a beating. Hamish gets caught between the 17 year olds and they soon crush his empire, Hamish is the first to turn terrorist.
The Empires back off a little, taking advantage of the new space on the board. Helen takes the bull by the horns, wipes all the terrorists from the board and suggests world peace. No one else is ready to finish just yet and peace isn't declared. So Helen chucks in her cards and joins Hamish as the terrorist player, quite a move... From world peace to terrorism in one turn.
Four terrorists against two empires, it's not looking pretty.Before long the remaining empires are wishing they took Helen up on the offer of world peace, Nadja's Empire is the next to crumble and then the 'sisters friend' caves in to the terrorist propaganda... Four terrorists against two empires, it's not looking pretty.
The two remaining empires still have trouble working together against the 'common enemy' (mainly because Andy T fancies his chances at a victory)... But his plans are foiled as the game is called off due to people needed to sleep and keep hold of their sanity. The game is halted and everyone goes home giggling about suicide bombers and weapons of mass destruction...
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 31 October 2005 - 0 comments
Wednesday 12th October 2005
Game Report: Andy T, Andy S, Tom L & Ilaria
Four players, a late start for a weekday and we're off! Andy S lays his three villages first and tries to cut off the south, Ilaria takes Italy, Africa and the States, Tom Asia and that leaves Andy T split over several continents, playing what Andy S labelled an aggressive move by taking Argentina.
Aggressive from the start, Ilaria strikes out at Tom at the first opportunity, Andy T turns evil early, hangs back for a short while but sees an opportunity and also takes pop at Tom. Secret Messages are already in full flow, even though most of them just mention birthday presents. Tom pulls off a beautiful 'Weapon's Inspector' and manages to steal a nuke from Andy S, but uses it on Andy T who has a bunker.
She learns a new phrase 'Let's tear them a new arsehole'Tom is starting to feel put upon when Ila drops two nukes on him in a single turn, nasty. Again Andy T spots an opportunity and cleans up Tom's remaining outposts with a few terrorists. Andy S takes the balaclava of evil and we have ourselves a terrorist player.
Some kind of evil pact between the two Andy's means Ila starts to feel the wrath of Andy T, whilst Andy S concentrates on the terrorists throughout Asia. Ilaria's paranoia is running high, excitement as she pulls the 'Double Agent' card and steals of all Andy T's secret messages, she learns a new phrase 'Let's tear them a new arsehole'...
All hell breaks loose (and the pack between the Andy's disappears quite quickly) and at the end of it Ila joins Tom as the terrorist player... Andy S is about to turn himself, Global Terrorism' card in hand but Andy T beats him to it, jacking it in as he doesn't want to fight terrorism alone. A straight rumble between the terrorist and Andy S last a couple of rounds before the double-crossing-bastard manages to pull off another victory for his Empire!
- posted by TerrorBull Games on 12 October 2005 - 0 comments
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