Random Thoughts & Links for 8/2/24

It's the end of the week, which means random stuff too small for its own post.

- Got 12 minutes? Then you can hear about how DF1 Monster's Leaping Leeches aren't fiction, but fact.

Leaping Leeches!

- I've played 9 turns of Third World War: Persian Gulf. So far . . . I'm a little underwhelmed. I chose to randomize the diplomacy cards for the pre-war phase using an optional rule. The results were . . . interesting, for sure. The usual suspects went Pact - Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Iranian Communist Party. The US got pretty much everyone else - the Saudis, Iraq, the Kurds, Jordan, Israel, the majority of the Iranian Army during a revolt. All fine. But because the diplomacy cards to alert the military forces (Alert the RDF for US/NATO, Mobilize the Southern Military Districts for the USSR) are held to the end, nothing much has happened. Some jockeying and movement, but no actual fighting, no air war, nothing. Everyone is just primed to go. And now that the end phase of diplomacy is coming, the US has the advantage. The RDF is small but powerful and arrives quickly. The Soviet reinforcements arrive slowly (6 weeks later!) and aren't as powerful. When I used to play face to face, generally as soon as someone could, they'd start the call up. Once things got along a bit soemone would intervene in Iran and the other side would invade, or vice-versa. You'd have fighting breaking out in Iran, followed by US/USSR conflict for a few weeks, and then you'd pull the trigger on general mobilization and war. Now . . . there is going to be 1-2 weeks of pre-war fighting before mobilization, and the Soviets will receive their main reservists before the ones called up by the special mobilization, which is both odd and kneecaps their ability to steamroll Iran (or in this case, the rebel army units in Iran.) They only have 8 weeks of war turns before the game automatically ends, so then what? It's really not that dynamic of an environment.

So I'm deciding between playing it out, and restarting, but allowing a free swap-in of the Alert/Mobilize cards as soon as they apply, and then go back to prewar diplomacy, allowing only for an Invade/Intervene swap-in as appropriate.

We'll see . . .

- Lots of grail history in the preface to this game discussion here - the Quest for the Holy Grail.

- This is me, explaining to my players why the tough monster placed to stop them isn't loaded with loot.

OOTS 1306 Out of Pocket