Hammering the Scots

I got in no less than two new sessions of Hammer of the Scots yesterday! They were both against the same opponent, the first game being his first game. He has played Columbia games like Crusader Rex before and picked up the rules quickly, but the first game ended up being quick and brutal nonetheless.

Wallace is again forced into Selkirk because of overstacking and is surrounded by the English.

I took the role of the English this time. The first game was over in a couple of game years, a combination of the Scots not yet knowing how to effectively use their forces and the English getting nasty cards which, for example, made Bruce ally with the English right from the start. I quickly moved in for the kill so we had some time for another gane.

The game ends quickly with oddly the Scots making their last stand in the south while the north is in English control.

"Ah, so this is how its supposed to play!", exclaimed my opponent and we went for another round. We didn't switch sides and played the Braveheart scenario again. This time around the Scots got off to a much better start and the fights were much more evenly matched. My opponent spearheaded his attacks properly with Wallace and gained control of much of the map. A couple of good yearly offensives from England started to turn the tide and after some brutal fighting between large stacks of troops, the Scottish resistance collapsed in the year before the last. Somehow I neglected to take a picture mid-game.

The last round of combat.

I'll have to go on record though that we forgot to use the rule which gives the nobles a home turf bonus in fights. I'm not sure who gets the most benefits from this as both players get their chance at invading the nobles' homes. Now that I think of it, we didn't follow the border limit rule either. That one I seem to have missed in every game I have played. The Border limit would definitely had an impact late in the game. Both of these rules favour the player being on the defensive and I think the latter one hurts the English doom stacks most. Oh, well. Maybe we will get it right the next time.

I've also played a game of Metro and of Archaeology: the card game this week. A good week of gaming, as there's also a LAN weekend I'm going to next!

Metro in progress.