Wed, 10 Mar 2004

“When Will the Waves Come Back?” Surf Report

As the title implies, today was another really small day of surf for our lunch time Encinitas beach break. I took out my long board, which has gone unridden over the past year, and didn't do too well. Hopefully we'll get some decent swell in the next few days...

posted at: 14:33 | path: /surf | permanent link to this entry

Downtown Replay: D1 - Here, There and Everywhere

I have just started a game of Downtown against another playtester (Allan Cannamore) after going through the final rules review before they were all shipped out to GMT Games for final production. To order the game, see GMT's P500 page.

This scenario features a well dispersed SAM defence network going up against a USAF Strike targeting an unknown (for the DRV player) target. As I am the DRV player for this game, the pre-game planning stages saw me placing 7 SAM and 2 dummy SAM batallions in the hexes specified by the scenario. The 7 possible target hexes have been outlined in red, and the map which illustrates what my defense network looks like at the end of the pre-raid sequence of play. I then purchased my AAA emplacements using the # of AAA points specified in the scenario, and placed those along with the 4 Fire Can units alloted to me. Unfortunately for me, with 7 potential target, my AAA and Fire Can defense network is a bit sparse, but maybe I'll get lucky.

Finally, I purchased one flight of 2 Mig-17Fs. The scenario allows for me to have 2 dummy flights, so I place the three generic flight counters on the map (flights A and B are the dummies - flight C is {2}xMig-17F).

I did receive some advance warning of the incoming raid, with an estimate of 14 flights in the raid (+ or - 4 flihts). Also, all US flights at medium or high altitude enter the map detected. Furthermore, the main strike portion of the raid will be entering around entry arrow 4.

At the end of the pre-raid sequence of play, I elect to not fire up any of my radars, as I am going to try and concentrate on the strike force, which will most likely enter after CAP and Jamming flights enter at the start of the game.

posted at: 14:12 | path: /games/board/downtown | permanent link to this entry