Game: Angola

Thread: Re: Angola Pictoral Session Report

garysax — 2008-11-16T22:38:43+00:00

Good point, I forgot to post that.

Thread: Re: Angola Pictoral Session Report

citizen k — 2008-11-16T03:14:30+00:00

Fantastic ! Thanks for the cross post.

FYI MMP's site for this game:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=6...

Thread: Angola Pictoral Session Report

garysax — 2008-11-15T22:38:46+00:00

On CSW, Leigh Toms posted a very nice AAR of this game. With his permission, I am reposting it here along with his pictures. I don't know the game very well so I can't answer any questions about it but his comments follow each picture of the turn's situation.

Also, my ulterior motive is simple: I'd love a MMP quality version of this game on my table. Please preorder this game with MMP on their P500! The MMP components would look nothing like the lower quality components that the game currently has which is in the pictures here. There are pictures of the MMP quality components like this

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It's fully developed and designed already by the Ragnar Brothers and is supposed to be a wonderful game; Adam Starkweather and others have said that it is a game that truly feels like an irregular war rather than a WWII system rammed into an irregular war situation.

On to the report, it starts on turn 4:

_________________________________________________________________________

Game turn 4

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We started the game in March but, were unable to get back to it unit May.

You can see it' game turn 4. Unita (blue) controls most of the south/ south central area.

Up at the very top edge of the map the FNLA (green) are still fighting to capture Cabinda.

Game turn 5

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Unita has control of almost half the map.

However, the FAPLA (red) hold all the clear terrain areas northward along the coast.

Also, if anyone noticed, the FAPLA/MPLA are ahead in victory points.

Game turn 6

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The FNLA (green) have taken Cabinda. The victory points are now even.

The MPLA (yellow) has finally begun asserting some pressure and are becoming a factor in the game. They have accumulated a hugh airforce now, that's causing a good bit of restraint on the Unita side.

Still, overall, the FNLA/Unita guys are starting to feel confident at this point in the game.

UNITA mismanaged too many actions over the turns while maneuvering around crushing the smaller enemy forces in the South and consolidating control of the area. A lot of time was wasted before they got reinforcements up to support the FNLA at Novo Redondo.

Game turn 7

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The FAPLA/MPLA strike back!

The MPLA player (who had not played this before) is finally into the flow of the game and suddenly becomes the lion of the jungle and pounces! It's not like the UNITA player wasn't concerned about over exposing his forces; he was just hoping the MPLA's attention would be focused on the FNLA instead.

MPLA's column B moves from Lucala and takes control of Luso from the UNITA.

I think it was on the MPLA's next action, they then moved column C and attacked the UNITA force in Texeira de Sousa (lower right), gaining control of it.

The MPLA/FAPLA went ahead in victory points.

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Here's another view (sorry for the lousy pictures) of the same situation.

You can see how the UNITA (blue) have moved units out of their controlled towns and cities in the bottom part of the map. The MPLA/FAPLA couldn't get to them during that turn and they could be used closer to the action.

UNITA column A (upper right) suddenly looks very vulnerable.

I forgot to mention the other dramtic action that took place during turn 7, and that was when FNLA column D (in Lobito with UNITA column C) attacked the FAPLA column in Novo Redondo. The attackers were totally eliminated by the defending force. The combat odds were bad to begin with for FNLA and after first being decimated from the the FAPLA rocket battery fire results, all the FAPLA combat dice bonuses simply overwhelmed the attacking force. It was a devastating combination of events for the FNLA/UNITA side.

The FPLA/MPLA players were beaming, bragging and high-fiving. The FNLA player was whining and wanting to quit the game right then and there, conceding defeat and bemoaning crappy die rolls and lack of offensive backbone the UNITA were displaying.

(UNITA was suppose to have attacked the FAPLA column D also, as part of a suggested, but not formlly agreed upon, attempt to coordinate actions against the FAPLA force but, was reluctant to do so when his player turn came up first and didn't know for sure what the FNLA was going to do.)

The UNITA assured the FNLA that they would indeed act and not to abandon all hope just yet.

The situation did look desperate though.

For you guys taking notes, both UNITA and FNLA players learned early on to skip the Set Recruitment, (in S. Africa and Zaire respectively), if there's a shortage of infantry units available, and to bring them in during the Variable Recruitment instead. That way, they can be placed directly in controlled towns and cities and not need a column marker spent getting them on the map.

Game turn 8

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UNITA believe!

After the disaster that befell their ally the previous turn, the UNITA are real concerned that FAPLA column A will now attack him in Lobito. The FAPLA column has a ton of combat bonuses, from all it's armor units, and they have the powerful rocket battery. This force would probably have a great shot at taking the city. However, the FAPLA know they would be going up against a pile of AT and AA units that the UNITA column has amassed. There is also now a large FNLA column (green) in Lucala - just a short distance from the vital FAPLA capital city of Luanda, to cause concern. This FNLA column C had pushed back a MPLA force that was in Cambatela last game turn and was now at Lucala. The FAPLA decide they don't have enough infantry companies in their column A to support an attack against Lobito and choose not to take any undue risks.

You can also see that the "great UNITA offensive of the war" has finally begun. During this turn, the UNITA have moved Column B to Novoa Lisboa and has also attacked the MPLA (yellow) in Luso and taken back that town.

The UNITA player also used a 5th column on a stack of units to move them individually along the roads and use them as speed bumps, in order to stall anymore MPLA counterattacks. Some have also created potential support/retreat zones, for any future attacks.

Lastly, the UNITA has attacked and cleared out the FAPLA units in the jungle area just before Portugalia, at the top right of the map (under Victory Track).

As if the FNLA hadn't already had a bad, he then, inexplicably, bid 'high' on receiving Major reinforcements. On the turn before, both the MPLA and FAPLA had bid low and I thought it should have been rather obvious to everyone they would do so again. I mean, it's down to the last two game turns and victory point given up makes it easier to win a decisive victory, so you really don't want to give an easy one away. Well, that's what happen. The FNLA bid 3, while everyone else bid 2. So, the FAPLA/MPLA won the turn on victory tokens and wound up getting a Propaganda victory point to boot. They went from one point behind to one point ahead going into game turn 9. There was rejoicing yet again in Luanda.

Game turns 9 and 10

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The FNLA / UNITA on the offensive.

Throughout turns 6-7, the MPLA and FAPLA had been relatively aggressive in their moves, making attacks and exploiting mistakes made by the either the FNLA/UNITA side. The affect of their play style, along with their superiority in air and armor, certainly made UNITA play more cautiously. However, in the last couple of turns, they seemed to change gears, and more or less hunker down, content to stay on the defensive. Of course, this is all skewed from my perspective but, I thought it was a mistake at the time on their part. It allowed the both the FNLA and UNITA sides organize and regroup for the final turns.

In this first pic, the UNITA peeled off another small stack of infantry companies with a 5th column, along the roads before attacking the MPLA column in Texeira de Sousa. - You can see how this allowed the UNITA columns to attacked without fear of reprisal from the MPLA column C, in Malanje. Even if the MPLA played two column C cards for the turn, they wouldn't be able to attack either UNITA column or capture any towns from them.- I believe it was just a 1-1 attack (though it may have been 1-2?) but the UNITA had the edge in combat dice, greatly helped by those Support regions. The MPLA lost the battle and had nowhere to retreat to. Column destroyed.

The UNITA column A attacked the FAPLA force in Portugalia (top right of map), inflicting a 1/2 loss result and capturing the town. The remnants of the FAPLA force retreated into the adjacent jungle region.

The FNLA had columns A and D push back the FAPLA in Ambrizere, along the coast, while their column B threated the MPLA in Caxito.

The climatic and game winning battle took place on the last turn. UNITA column B, in Lobito, attacked FAPLA column A, in Novo Redondo. It was a showdown fight that went to the wire.

The airwar segment saw each side have to abort one unit, then UNITA AA destroyed another FAPLA unit. The FAPLA remaining air unit did get in an airstrike, destroying a UNITA unit.

The FAPLA rocket battery then only managed to score one suppression result (out of 5 dice) against the UNITA ground units. UNITA artillery fire also caused a suppression.

Then in what was probably the unbelievable turning point of the battle, and ultimately the game, the UNITA player rolled 3 sixes for 4 AT units to kill three of the FAPLA armor units (and their combat dice bonuses). Another was suppressed by the fourth die roll. That left the FAPLA with just one combat die bonus for his remaining armor unit still in the battle, along with the one for the town.

The first time in a major battle, the UNITA player had the net combat dice bonus. The attack odds wound up at only 1-1 and incredibly, both players chose to continue combat for 4 straight rounds. The UNITA player wasn't about to voluntarily retreat and the FAPLA player was sure the game was lost if they retreated. The FAPLA player kept hoping he could win a die roll on the Adjustment Table, that would push the combat odds down to 1-2, forcing the UNITA to retreat. The UNITA player with the dice bonus though, was able to win each of the 4 times, keeping the odds at 1-1 and the "combat continues" result. Each side of course had to eliminate a unit each round. UNITA had one more units than the FAPLA and won the battle (and game!) with one unit left.

It really was a dramatic finale to the game. The FNLA/UNITA won the turn by four points and got the decisive victory.

Post Game

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In the last pick, the UNITA player is gloating, showing off all his victory tokens for the turn.

Sorry the color got distorted in some of the images.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Jim Marshall — 2008-10-09T12:09:58+00:00

I was tempted ... but the shipping charge to the UK pushes the cost to over $80

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

baditude — 2008-10-07T23:24:43+00:00

Okay twist my arm. Pre-ordered.

(Have I really pre-ordered 3 MMP games in the last 5 or 6 days?!?)

-E

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

tppytel — 2008-10-07T23:01:56+00:00

Hegel wrote:
Has anybody an idea how long MMP keeps games open for pre-ordering before they cancel it when there is not enough interest?
AFAIK, they've only ever cancelled three games. Two of those - Samurai Lords and Barren Victory II - had situations a bit more complicated than just lack of numbers. So there's not much of a record to work with. But from what I've seen, if a game looks stalled beyond about 9 months or so then they start getting anxious. But if the game is still slowly picking up orders, they'll let it run quite a bit longer.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Hegel — 2008-10-07T22:44:25+00:00

*bump* pre-order is currently stalled at 229

Has anybody an idea how long MMP keeps games open for pre-ordering before they cancel it when there is not enough interest?

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rsolow — 2008-10-07T04:12:27+00:00

Angola Box Logo

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rsolow — 2008-10-07T04:11:32+00:00

Angola

Thread: Campaign for AK47

tinpot — 2008-09-24T14:13:07+00:00

This game would do well as a campaign map with AK47 by peter pig.

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SgtShellback — 2008-09-22T03:27:02+00:00

New Counters

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SgtShellback — 2008-09-22T03:25:50+00:00

New Map

Thread: Meet Angola Women!

Mad Malthus — 2008-09-08T03:30:50+00:00

Pre-order the game, meet the women while you wait.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Mad Malthus — 2008-09-08T02:55:12+00:00

OK I pre-ordered. Never played it but the games looks great, good subject, good reviews, and I'm always looking for light wargames in the 3-6 player range...

I only hope it will not take years to see it released...

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Emile — 2008-08-29T18:25:30+00:00

Well, I'm in - number 209. I don't think there is anyone tracking MMP pre-orders is there? In the same way GMT's are geeklisted?

I'm not really a fan of pre-ordering, but I was just lamenting to myself the paucity of new games outside 18xx and WWII that are properly long and deep. So I'm in, but I can't say it feels optimistic that I'm ever going to get charged.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

pronoblem — 2008-08-27T20:42:10+00:00

OK, call me anxious. I probably should not expect to see this game until 2012... I noticed that the pre-orders have stalled at 208!

Order two copies, call your friends and family, get your local game store to pre-order... do what you can!!!

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

nhojput — 2008-08-05T13:36:09+00:00

FlatWorm wrote:
adamant wrote:
--- snip ---
Look for it with updated and professional graphics on MMP's prepub page towards the end of the year.

I just checked the MMP pre-Order Page,

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/preorder.php

... and didn't see Angola listed. Is that an oversight, or is there a development I missed?

it's there but no picture

Thread: Re: How does Angola play with three?

pmiles — 2008-07-24T01:47:39+00:00

Thanks. I took a look at the CSW Angola thread. It seemed that almost all of the games were 4 player, and that seems to be the optimal way to play, but there was one report of a 3 player game and it is apparently fine. I'm still not sure which side each person plays. It looked as though as one played the Communists, another UNITA, and the 3rd the FNLA?

Thread: Re: How does Angola play with three?

citizen k — 2008-07-23T14:12:51+00:00

For actually info on how well Angola plays with 1,2, or 3 see the consimworld thread:

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?50@542.QZuuemoudbX.3@.1dd08...

Thread: Re: How does Angola play with three?

pmiles — 2008-07-23T04:14:43+00:00

Well, I'll bite. Does Agricola play well with 3?

Thread: Re: How does Angola play with three?

Mateui — 2008-07-23T03:27:18+00:00

I must have Agricolitis because I could have sworned you were asking about AGRICOLA instead of ANGOLA. Yup, I'm losing my mind...

Thread: How does Angola play with three?

pmiles — 2008-07-23T02:30:26+00:00

I've been circling MMP like a buzzard thinking about preordering Angola but I have a question. The reviews I've seen all are for 4 player games. Does it play well with only 3? Also, who is each side playing when you do it that way?

Thread: Re: Raising Angola awareness!

pronoblem — 2008-05-20T18:05:56+00:00

Nice work!

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

JoshBot — 2008-05-16T13:29:25+00:00

Pre-ordered- sounds fascinating, and an interesting setting: "Cuba's Vietnam."

Thread: Re: Raising Angola awareness!

pronoblem — 2008-05-15T15:18:50+00:00

42 owners... you could email the ones that own the game, have logged in recently and have not rated it.

Thread: Re: Raising Angola awareness!

Devon Harmon — 2008-05-15T13:11:01+00:00

Thanks for the tip. That's one more preorder.

I realize MMP is a very small company with a very small budget, but I wish they would better publicize when new items get added to their preorder page. I was just on their preorder page a week ago, and Angola wasn't there. I check their main page every couple of days, but there is no notice that Angola was added to preorder.

I wouldn't mind if they sent out an email.

Thread: Raising Angola awareness!

Epee — 2008-05-15T12:14:08+00:00

There are currently 24 user ratings for this game, and my understanding is that once it reaches 30, it will make it to the User Ranking lists, and show up in the Wargames top 100 - a great way to give this obscure gem some visibility, hopefully garnering MMP pre-orders from gamers who would otherwise never even know about its existence.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

pronoblem — 2008-05-12T16:28:21+00:00

chaddyboy_2000 wrote:
I've never preordered from MMP... do they charge now or when the game ships?

Charged when the game ships.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

chaddyboy_2000 — 2008-05-12T16:11:23+00:00

I've never preordered from MMP... do they charge now or when the game ships?

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

garysax — 2008-05-12T02:28:55+00:00

Only 65, we gotta pick it up! heh.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

oi_you_nutter — 2008-05-09T18:33:04+00:00

i signed up for the pre-order, a fast and tense multi-player wargame on an interesting subject is not common

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Epee — 2008-05-09T08:25:08+00:00

This game is just too awesome. If you haven't had the chance to play it, don't miss preordering.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

nexttothemoon — 2008-05-09T07:08:30+00:00

I read this thread as Agricola instead of Angola and clicked the thread thinking to myself... what the hell? MMP doing a wargamers version of Agricola? I need my meds I think.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

garysax — 2008-05-08T18:34:30+00:00

haha, thanks pronoblem!

Gotta start writing more of these here session reports.

To add to the content: curious if they're going with a straight reprint with different components or making changes. It looks pretty close to the original from what I can see from the old/new boards and counters.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

garysax — 2008-05-08T17:38:02+00:00

Finally!

edit: Now I just need to scrape up the GG for a geekbadge so I can whore for Angola P500.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Bulwyf — 2008-05-08T17:30:11+00:00

Excellent! This game looks like a must have.

-Will

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

pronoblem — 2008-05-08T17:20:34+00:00

No way, man... it is all we can do besides making the order. Spread the word!

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

trawlerman — 2008-05-08T16:36:58+00:00

pronoblem wrote:
Yes! Let's get this to 500+ quick.

pronoblem, i hope you don't mind the flattery; you're inspirational.

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

pronoblem — 2008-05-08T16:22:37+00:00

Here it is!

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=6...

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

Simon Mueller — 2008-05-08T16:03:53+00:00

Finally. Awesome!

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

pronoblem — 2008-05-08T14:13:01+00:00

Yes! Let's get this to 500+ quick.

Thread: Re: Now an MMP Pre-order

ibn_ul_khattab — 2008-05-08T14:04:04+00:00

Wow, I can't believe I missed this was on preorder, can't wait!

Thread: Now an MMP Pre-order

Bill Romaniecki — 2008-05-08T05:38:18+00:00

Angola is now available for pre-order at:

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=6...

I have heard only good things about the game. The only negative comment is that due to the highly interactive game play PBEM would be tedious.

MMP ships by order number. Order early if you want to avoid waiting a few weeks to receive the game once shipping begins.

Thread: Re: Angola variants

Epee — 2008-05-07T08:40:28+00:00

Thanks for the reply, Adam. I've crossposted this to CSW. I'll later post some ideas improving playtime.

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

mboschbo — 2008-05-07T02:59:49+00:00

Great reaview that gives you an accurate idea about the mechanics and the intesity of the game. I lived in Angola for more than one year and I had the oportunity to be there during the last year of the war and the beginning of the peace process. I still have some friends there and I know very well how hard were those times for the people there. I will buy the reprint from MMP for sure although I'm not sure if I will have the strenght to put it on the table.

Thread: Re: Angola variants

adamant — 2008-05-06T12:37:09+00:00

Oh, and if you want, what I am most interested in regarding changes are ways to make the game faster to play - either a short game variant or optionals (or not so optionals) that offer a quicker playtime.

Just mentioning it if you want to give a hand there...

Thread: Re: Angola variants

adamant — 2008-05-06T12:35:27+00:00

The game was supposed to be up for prepub with the other three that just went up but Brian ran out of steam and it got left out...I would expect it any time though. You will get map and counter samples to have a peek at and I think you will be pleased to see where it is going graphically.

Also, I am very open to making the game better in any way possible. I look forward to looking into your changes - but I will depend on test results and such from playtesters to check them out - and that means, help from your group.

I can't do much on this right now - depends on the prepub response how quickly I get to the game but I recommend we talk about this on consimworld and we can get feedback from lots of people (and the majority of prepubbers).

So keep an eye out and we can talk lots more about this in the months to come.

Adam

Thread: Angola variants

Epee — 2008-05-06T12:21:49+00:00

Hi Adam (Starkweather),

First of all, I can say our gaming group in Melbourne (Australia) is very much looking forward to the MMP reprint of Angola. It is a favourite with the wargaming crew, and we have played four 4-player games in the last few months, and we are always looking for opportunities to play it again - if it weren't for the length of time required, we'd be playing even more.

I am curious to know if you will be doing a straight reprint of the original game, without substantial changes to the rules, or if you are looking into changing any existing rules. Angola is a game with many ingenious ideas (such as the use of activation/action cards, the Direct Aid system, the bidding for reinforcements); and the only downside our gaming group sees to it is the play time. Most of time spent stems from the overwrought combat system - rolling dice for planes, missiles, artillery, checking odds, adding modifiers, flipping engineers, etc. The chrome is awesome, but I wish it could be present without bogging down the combat system so much.

That been said, our gaming group have been discussing house rules and variants to speed up game time, or streamline some of the more fiddly rules (such as the various combat systems, and the reinforcements/recruiting/direct aid portions of the game), or just for plain variety.

TIMED ACTIVATION CARD SELECTION HOUSE RULE
During the planning of activation cards phase, once one side completes their selection, the other side has 1min (use a sand timer) to complete their activations. If more time is spent, the side at fault has one random (non-blank) activation card removed from the ones he has selected for the turn. [this is a simple house rule to speed up the planning phase - other penalties can be thought off, such as the non-offending side getting the choice of moving the current first place marker forwards, without rolling a die.]

RANDOM PLAYER CHIT DRAW VARIANT
- Players choose their activation cards as normal, but instead of rolling for the first player, each player has a number of chits equal to the number of activation cards for that turn. All chits are placed in a cup, and a random one is drawn to determine who next has an activation (borrowed from GMT's 'PAX ROMANA).

[this variant would not really speed up the game, but just add a bit more uncertainty as to who is moving next]

RANDOM ACTIVATION CHIT DRAW
- Instead of picking activation cards, and the order they are to come up, players choose the all activation cards they want, and these are placed in a cup to be randomly drawn (ideally instead of cards, we would have activation 'chits').

- There are 3 types of activation chits:
= Column (A, B, C, etc)
= 5th Column
= Blank

A Column chit can be used as a normal column activation, or be used as a command (same as the command action in normal rules).

Blanks need to be added to the cup just the same as they would have to be part of your activation cards.
[this rule would save some time in the planning stage of the game - we frequently have players struck by AP in deciding what cards and what order they are going to be used]

(inspired from activation chit games such as 'A Victory Lost')

I'll save our ideas of reworks of the combat system / reinforcement systems for another post.

BTW, any chance we can get a sneak peak of the new version of the Angola map?

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jangonzalo — 2008-03-04T21:11:32+00:00

Angola in Lo Sometent 2008

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jangonzalo — 2008-03-04T21:08:16+00:00

Counters for 21th century in Lo Sometent 2008

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jangonzalo — 2008-03-04T21:07:01+00:00

Game in Lo Sometent 2008

Thread: Re: Finally got to play it - worth a reprint

pronoblem — 2008-02-22T15:05:31+00:00

rafial wrote:
No question that it is more attractive. Combine that with better organized rules and it'll be a reprint worth having!

Combine all that with the fact that more people will get to play it if there is a reprint and a reprint is worth having. I am on p500 day one for this one...

Thread: Finally got to play it - worth a reprint

rafial — 2008-02-21T21:00:43+00:00

I picked up my copy of Angola as one of the last one Ragnar Bros had in stock several years back and have sought for opportunities to get it on the table ever since. Finally, at Conquest NW 2008, all the pieces (literally and figuratively) came together.

We randomly handed out factions based on where people happened to sit down, sorted bits, and started setup. We paused when we got hidden deployment to have a quick overview of the movement and combat rules. Movement is quite simple, and combat, while a bit fiddly, actually runs quite smoothly once you've been through the sequence a few times and come to grips with what's what.

The biggest trouble we had was with the organization of the rulebook, with numerous special rules separated out from from the core systems in different sections of the rule book, or in some cases on reference cards. For example understanding how artillery and missiles fit into the basic combat sequence requires cross referencing between the basic combat rules, the combat reference sheet, the air power rules, and the "equipment" section. We were also never able to determine if there was an option for allied airgroups to fly cover for for their allies (e.g. UNITA air supporting FNLA troops, or mixed UNITA/FNLA with FNLA in command). We decided not for expediencies sake.

Excellent features of the game are the command cards, which provide an nice combination of planning and uncertainty, and the bidding for reinforcement cards, which provides great brinkmanship not to mention a level of tension between allies. The entry of major units when a faction suffers a bad turn provides a nice balancing feature.

Our game featured a quick strike at an uncovered Luanda by UNITA forces in the early turns, followed by an immediate recapture on the following turn. Things then settled down into a UNITA/MPLA slugging match over the coastal towns below Luanda, while menacing FNLA stacks kept FAPLA forces pinned down in the north. The battle for Cabinda slogged on for turn after turn with little result other than being a manpower and command sink. There was lite skirmishing in the countryside, with MPLA stacks gathering towns early, and a FNLA column that was built up moving in to take them back.

We broke for lunch around turn 3, and then came back and played to a final UNITA/FNLA victory around turn 7. Subtracting our lunch break, we probably had a play time of 6 1/2 to 7 hours. Long, yes; but I never felt bored, and the structure of the game avoids extended periods of downtime for any one player. Even during combats you are not directly involved in, you are usually invested enough in the outcome to want to pay attention.

The reinforcement mechanics plus the victory conditions really emphasizes that this struggle was as much about political posturing as military objectives. The Bulgarian cultural attaché made his appearance, and at some point I commented "next time you casually slap down a point of influence in Twilight Struggle, think of this".

All the players seemed to enjoy the game, and while it is not something that will see the table often due to time and the four player requirement, it's definitely something I'd like to play again. We had a treat as Adam Starkweather, who was a guest at the con, stopped by our table and showed us a image of the redesigned map for the reprint. No question that it is more attractive Combine that with better organized rules and it'll be a reprint worth having!

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

Roger Greenwood — 2008-01-31T21:30:25+00:00

Just got round to reading the review at the top of this list. I worked with Phil Kendall, the designer, on developing Angola. Hard to believe it was twenty yeas ago.

The card play system was a brilliant idea of Phil's. You plan what you want to do, but then have to react to what the enemy (and sometimes your ally) is doing. Big campaigns can be foiled by quick strikes of smaller forces. Quick strikes that don't clear out enemy pockets first can come to grief from counter attacks. All the confusion and surprise in a very simple mechanism.

True, Angola is a bit long. However, as everyone plans their card order together, there is not much waiting time. When your card is turned, it is usually pretty obvious what moves need to be made. Once you get the hang of the combat system it is quick to play. Really glad that people are still enjoying it.

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

peacmyer — 2007-12-11T20:52:35+00:00

As is common in this industry, the schedule seems to have slipped somewhat, but no adverse developments that I've heard of.

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

FlatWorm — 2007-12-11T20:41:48+00:00

adamant wrote:
--- snip ---
Look for it with updated and professional graphics on MMP's prepub page towards the end of the year.

I just checked the MMP pre-Order Page,

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/preorder.php

... and didn't see Angola listed. Is that an oversight, or is there a development I missed?

Thread: Re: The Best Game You've Never Played?

hvddrift — 2007-12-06T00:46:27+00:00

aforandy wrote:
There should be a free copy for the first Geek on this thread to name a Bulgarian cultural attache.

I found 3 Bulgarian Cultural Attache's....

Boyan Papazov

Ms. Aglika Markova

Mr. Nikolov

Thanks

Hans

Image

Oersted — 2007-07-28T19:22:13+00:00

The reds controlling the coast

Image

Oersted — 2007-07-28T19:20:09+00:00

UNITA and FNLA pressing hard on Luanda... to no avail

Image

Oersted — 2007-07-28T19:19:13+00:00

Setting up an exciting game