Work craziness & an exciting game of “We Must Tell the Emperor!”

Hello!  Sorry to have been away for so long.  Well, I am currently working in Kansas after working in Virginia for a week.  Needless to say, I have been crazy with work and I have not been doing much fun stuff for the last several weeks…well, that and having an allergic reaction to a spoonful of seafood soup.  I thought it was vegetable soup, so I didn’t sniff it or do a test taste of it on the tip of a finger.  Anyways, it caused some swelling of the hands, but luckily nowhere near as bad as my first allergic reaction to seafood about a year and a half ago.  From what I read, 60%+ of everyone allergic to shellfish, develops their allergy during adulthood.  Oh lucky, me!

So, because of my screwy work hours Virginia (sort of a split 1^st & 2^nd shift), and my night shift in Kansas, I didn't get to do much sightseeing, but in VA, I did see the Civil War Center Museum and Edgar Allan Poe's Musuem.  I was not able to pack my personal computer when I went to VA, but I had some room in my bag to pack a solitaire board game to give me something to do on my time off when there was nothing to do in VA.  I got to play a game of Victory Point Games’ ‘We Must Tell the Emperor!’, which is an Out-Of-Print game from their ‘State of Siege’ line.  It is a fun game and challenging.  You are the Japanese in WWII and must fight five armies (Chinese, British, ABDA, US Army under MacArthur, and the US Navy under Nimitz.)  Only one army, ABDA, can be destroyed and never return, but the other four could be knocked-out for a short period.  The game is broken down into three epochs, Early (Pearl Harbor to Midway), Middle (1942-43), and Late (1944 -45).

This game I did pretty well as Japan and it literary went down to the last die roll!  But, I was not able to end the war with favorable conditions, but forced into an unconditional surrender (historical ending).  Below are the several pictures from key points of the game.  In the first picture is the set up of the board where the Chinese, British, ABDA, MacArthur, and Nimitz forces begin.

This next picture is from the end of the Early War era.  As you can see, the ABDA army has been destroyed and both the British and MacArthur’s forces have been driven far back.  The Chinese are in their original start position after several advances and retreats, while Nimitz has made some head way.

Now the next picture is from the end of the Mid-War era.  Nimitz was driven back and I garrison the Solomon’s with a fortress unit at the beginning of the Mid-War era and held him there until the last turn of the Mid-War in which Nimitz finally took the Solomon’s back.  The Chinese where kept in check, but both the British & MacArthur were making a comeback.

This last picture is the end game.  This is also the last card of the deck and had I beaten of the allies from landing on the Home Islands, I would have won.  The Chinese where breathing at the doorstep, but they couldn’t make to for the final assault on the Home Islands.  It seem fitting that the last card was for the “Battle of Okinawa”.  So the final Allied advance was the British, MacArthur, & Nimitz!  The Home Island defenses stopped the British advance, but not MacArthur’s or Nimitz’s.  So with my actions for the turn, I attacked Nimitz’s first and drove him back on the first try (Yea, I got three more attempts to drive MacArthur back to win!)  Then I failed the next three dice rolls (Crap!), but realized that I still had one Kamikaze token for a free attack (Yea!) Then failed that roll (Sumofabit…) Then I remember that I get one free ‘Banzai!’ roll to defend the Home Islands, so this was it…either push MacArthur back to the sea or lose face from the Emperor…failed!   So close to winning…sigh, maybe next time I can place the Emperor in his rightful position as the Sun King.  It is a great little game for the grand strategy for the war. 

Finally, I ordered some more of the ‘State of Siege’ games from Victory Point Games, which I am eagerly wait:  “Cruel Necessity” where you play the role of the Parliamentarians in the English Civil Wars; “Hapsburg Eclipse” where you play the role of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in WW1; and finally, “Mound Builders” where you play the role of the Mound Indians trying to keep your culture from collapsing in the North Americas.  I am especially interested in Mound Builders as the hub of their culture which was in Cahokia and I live within spitting distance of there! (Well, not really, but less than 20 miles for a crow to fly.)

Well, as of now, I have not had much time off in Kansas other than tonight, but I don't feel like trying to pay a solitaire game tonight.  But I am spending some time to catch back up on my emails, blogs that I follow, and some other sites that I try to keep up with periodically.

Be seeing you

Sapper