Game: Free At Last

Thread: Re: How combat works

atimrogers — 2008-04-20T15:55:26+00:00

The CRT is a classic wargame mechanic, but it doesn't always show up in CDGs like Free at Last. Your summary of which types of modifiers create column shifts and which create drms is a useful mnemonic and shows a nice thematic unity in the designer's construction of modifiers.

Thread: How combat works

fractaloon — 2008-04-19T12:40:23+00:00

I've played this game a couple of times now, but haven't been able to finish either game. I think the two plays where about a year apart so both times I came into the game fresh. Each time, I found the rules regarding combat confusing, but after playing a bit, they are pretty straight forward.

Each player rolls his die to see how many of his opponent's units he eliminates. When you roll the die, find the number of your units are involved in the confrontation, the cross reference it with the # rolled on the die and that's how many units you eliminate. Whoever eliminates the most units, wins the confrontation.

There are two types of modifiers, column shifting and drm modifiers. Each works a bit differently.

Column shift modifiers change what column you are looking at, effectively modifying the number of units you have in the confrontation. Entrenchment & media attention will cause both players to shift columns, one to the the left and the other to the right. For example, if a city is entrenched and during a confrontation the Segregationist player has 5 units, he'll actually look at column 6 (shift 1 right). If th Civil Rights player has 7 units, he'll look at column 6 (shift 1 left). Media attention works the same way, but can benefit either player depending on the die roll.

The drm modifier is a Die Roll Modifier (hence drm). It changes the number you rolled. So if you have a drm of -1 and roll a 4, your net die roll is a 3. Several things cause a drm including, Political Climate and confrontation cards.

Also, Civil Rights leaders can be lost if K units are in that state. A roll of a 6, before the drm is applied means a check has to be made.

Summary:
1. Each player counts the number of units they have involved in the confrontation.
2. Column shift for entrenchment if applicable (Segregationist +1, Civil Rights -1).
3. If Media attention is rolled apply a column shift as follows:
A roll of 1 or 2 Segregationist +1, Civil Rights -1
A roll of 5 or 6 Segregationist -1, Civil Rights +1
4. Roll the dice.
5. If a 6 was rolled, then check for an assassination attempt.
6. Apply all drm to the result rolled to get a net die roll.
7. Reference the table to see how many units are removed from your opponents units.
8. Decide winner.

Thread: VASSAL?

mattius — 2008-04-17T20:04:39+00:00

When a Vassal module?

Thread: rewievs, sessions?

mattius — 2008-03-07T13:47:29+00:00

no reviews?
no sessions?
no comments?
i want to know how it works?
how it smells? (the flavour of history)

Thread: Re: Printing tips?

FNH1 — 2007-10-05T20:39:23+00:00

I bought a lightweight cardstock that can fit through my printer. I just printed straight to that. They dont shuffle well, but I can live with that because it was quick and easy to produce.

Thread: Re: 7.1 in version 2.0?

timstellmach — 2007-05-11T15:31:10+00:00

Hmmm. Also, looking at it more closely, there needs to be some clarification about how the civil rights player treats free cities (there could be reasons to still want to stage a confrontation there, for example to achieve a Freedom Event). Maybe that was here as well.

Thread: Re: 7.1 in version 2.0?

timstellmach — 2007-05-09T18:13:01+00:00

Since section 7.1 pertains to the stage where the attacker declares a target city, and since the game has "free cities" where the segregationist player is not allowed to attack, I'm assuming that "If there is already a fr" was meant to be a cross reference to section 10.0 (where the rules for free cities appear).

Thread: Re: New Leader Labels available (PDF)

ibn_ul_khattab — 2007-05-08T02:39:29+00:00

I can't wait for them to be uploaded. This game is really cool and is a great print and play. I hope more people try it out.

Thread: Re: New Leader Labels available (PDF)

fractaloon — 2007-05-08T02:21:17+00:00

uploaded the card back, it took a week to get approved. I submitted a new game a week or two ago and it was approved within half an hour. It just seems to vary a lot.

Still, I'm looking forward to downloading the file.

Albert

Thread: Re: New Leader Labels available (PDF)

theaney — 2007-05-07T21:27:22+00:00

Hum, I guess Aldie's busy . . . my PDF is still waiting for approval 3 days later . . .

Thread: New Leader Labels available (PDF)

theaney — 2007-05-06T00:18:30+00:00

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I've uploaded (finally . . . ) the Leader labels I made last year for Free at Last. (I had a long fight to create a version in Freehand that Adobe Acrobat Reader would accept.) [Although, they have not yet been approved as of 5:00pm 5-5-07.]

You can print out the labels on to the same adhesive labels that has Ted suggested. I printed two copies, and applied mine to both sides of some wooden blocks that I had to recreate the old We the People leader effect.

You can also print them and make counters for them of course.

[On a personal note, this is the first history game in which I can say I've had some interaction with some of the Leaders (and even some of the cards). I've given John Lewis a hug, met Rev. Shuttlesworth and sang civil rights songs with him, and I sat on the porch where Medgar Evers died. And I've met 2 of the Little Rock Nine. (Minni Jean's an awesome person.) So these "game pieces" have a special place in my heart.]

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fractaloon — 2007-04-22T22:07:52+00:00

The counters have been mounted on matte board and now getting seperated with a sharp knife.

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fractaloon — 2007-04-18T22:12:56+00:00

The front side of my home made rules cover.

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fractaloon — 2007-04-18T22:12:16+00:00

I combined the rules & scenario PDF into one file and printed it in booklet form. Then, I made a cover on cardstock with the box cover picture from BGG on the front. On the back I put the combat table and counter reference. Now, I just need to find a st

Thread: The presidential candidates

fractaloon — 2007-04-13T23:19:06+00:00

The candidate counters look great. Unfortunately for me, I don't really know who half of those folks are, so I went through Time magazine's archives and identified the covers

From left to right and top to bottom they are:

1. Nelson Rockefeller (with Ronald Reagan) (Oct 20, 1967)
2. Hubert H. Humphrey (Feb 1, 1960)
3. Robert F. Kennedy (Jun 21, 1963)
4. John F. Kennedy (Nov 7, 1960)
5. Richard M. Nixon (Oct 31, 1960)
6. Barry Goldwater (Jun 12, 1964)
7. Adlai Stevenson (Oct 27, 1952)
8. Dwight D Eisenhower (Nov 3, 1952)
9. Lyndon B Johnson (Apr 25, 1960)

Thread: Re: The Draw Decks

fractaloon — 2007-04-13T02:07:13+00:00

Never mind. I completely missed the Player Aid and scenario download that answers that question.

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fractaloon — 2007-04-13T01:03:13+00:00

My own custom card backs made for the game. They are designed to fit in a standard card sleeve.

Thread: The Draw Decks

fractaloon — 2007-04-12T23:39:22+00:00

I've been working on printing out the game this week. I just printed the board last night and saw that it has 3 draw piles. The rules never mention anything about this? How do they work?

I assume, that red cards go on the Civil Rights draw pile, the Blue cards on the Segregationist pile, and the black cards on the shared pile. But how do you draw from them? Can you draw as many card from the shared pile & your side's pile as long as you end up with eight cards total? Or is there some other process?

Thread: Re: Map download link

red_gamster — 2007-04-05T05:04:44+00:00

OK, downloaded using "save as". Worked well, but work's going to kill me for downloading 22MB! (wer're a not for profit).

Now, how on earth can I print it all onto multiple A4 sticker sheets...I'll have to play around with it. Any tips?

Thanks Mark.

Thread: Re: Map download link

West2 — 2007-04-03T12:38:47+00:00

Well, my server is pretty slow, but I didn't think it was THAT slow. But the file's definitely up. Try right clicking and "save target as" rather than opening it in your browser.

Thread: Re: Map download link

red_gamster — 2007-04-03T08:38:05+00:00

Great map, but when I download it as a PDF, the screen is blank. Nothing, and I've let it go for 10 -15 mins. Should I be waiting longer? Really looking forward to getting this onto the table. Please help!

Thread: Map download link

West2 — 2007-03-15T18:55:17+00:00

Here's the link for the map download page. Click on the map picture to get a printable PDF...

http://www.west2productions.com/Mapology/E2.htm

Thread: Re: Looks Great! Suggestions please...

ibn_ul_khattab — 2007-03-08T00:52:51+00:00

Awesome. Looking forward to playing! I love lots CDG and you just can't go past the theme. Rules seem simple enough and my girlfriend is really looking forward to it aswell. Fortunately she is a much better sport than me so I don't have to let her win, she is the opposite of competitive. Thanks for the advice.

Thread: Looks Great! Suggestions please...

ibn_ul_khattab — 2007-03-07T07:57:31+00:00

I down loaded the files for this a few weeks ago and I finally got around to reading the rules and printing off the cards (unfortunately I don't have a colour printer). I'll print the map and counters off in colour though at a shop (by the way I love the look of the board). I'm planning on playing this with my girlfriend this weekend, any suggestions for first time players, for both sides in terms of strategy or things to look out for?

Thread: "1 Ops action without playing a card"

elcapclimber2001 — 2007-03-06T19:31:38+00:00

I'm confused by this sentence in section 5.2 - "A player may always take a 1 Ops as an action without playing a card".

We've been allowing a player to recruit one unit or activate one city without playing a card, but not to do the first activation of a leader without playing a card (i.e we're saying that he still has to play a card with an Ops value of one or more to do the first activation of a leader for the turn).

Also, a question about Free Cities. We've been playing as if the sentence in 10.0.1 which reads "These may be used any time" instead read as "These may be used at any time, but only once each during the game".

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Thread: Re: Card file corrupt?

sumo — 2007-02-18T03:55:22+00:00

Got them. Thanks Ted.

Thread: Card file corrupt?

sumo — 2007-02-15T09:54:36+00:00

I am getting a corrupt file error on the card deck. Everything else okay.

Any ideas? Anyone else have this problem?

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theaney — 2006-11-14T07:04:52+00:00

BGG 2006: Free at Last on display with its inspiration in the background.

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theaney — 2006-11-14T07:04:47+00:00

BGG 2006: Laying out my display-copy of the game with Mark's map supplied by Ted.

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theaney — 2006-11-09T06:29:16+00:00

The cards printed out on lables ready for application.

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theaney — 2006-11-06T07:34:05+00:00

My initial attempt at creating Leader units.

Thread: Printing tips?

sbszine — 2006-10-30T02:45:45+00:00

Does anyone have any tips for printing this out? I'm thinking sticker paper for the cards, then stick 'em on a stanrd deck and sleeve them.

Thread: 7.1 in version 2.0?

kuhrusty — 2006-10-29T09:48:58+00:00

In 7.1, step 1 ends with, "If there is already a fr"

As you might imagine, I am somewhat confu

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2006-10-15T00:41:13+00:00

Showdown in Birmingham, Alabama

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West2 — 2006-06-11T02:33:59+00:00

Map I whipped up tonight