Welcome back for another Daily Debrief write up for our 3rd day here at Buckeye Game Fest. As we awoke this morning, the alarms went off at 7:00am and immediately felt exhausted. Having gone to sleep around 12:30am last night, 6 1/2 hours just wasn’t enough and I was dragging. But, I was excited about our planned activities and games on this last full day of the convention.

First thing we started a full 6-player game of Here I Stand from GMT Games. Alexander (Protestants) and I (Papacy) were joined by Bill Simoni (England), Cullen (France), Russ (Hapsburgs) and Joel (Ottomans). We were a bit tardy to the War Room arriving at about 8:30am and to our surprise the group had already nearly finished setup.

We discussed the basics of the game and were off and running by 9:00am. The action was hot and heavy and France and the Papacy were carving up northern Italy for the keys and access to more cards. The religious war kind of sputtered for Alexander as he just couldn’t ever really get things going. Meanwhile, the Ottomans took out Hungary and built a massive pirate fleet with the play of the Barbary Pirates in Turn 1. The coastal towns were on fire as he dined on the fruits of his piracy. Also Cullen’s Hapsburgs was very skilled with his exploration and conquest in the new world as on Turn 1 Magellan circumnavigated the globe and also defeated the Incas. Amazing dice rolling and he was rewarded and gained several cards over the course of the game.

Overall it was going very well for the Pope as I was a winner in a few debates and was able to humiliate Bucer and burn him at the stake for 2VP. I also was making good progress on building St. Peter’s Basilica and milked several VP with good plays of cards. Here is a look at the player board for the Papacy and Italy at the end of Turn 2.

In Turn 3, Rome fell to the French and the Pope was furious and was forced to sue for peace. The VP situation at the end of Turn 3 was Papacy 24, French 21, Hapsburgs 20, England 16, Ottomans 15 and Protestants 4. As you can see the holy war was not going well for the Protestants. Ultimately the Papacy won 5 total Theological Debates and ended up burning 3 debaters at the stake.

Ultimately, Rome would fall to the Hapsburgs early in Turn 4 but I was able to fight back and retake the city only to lose it again at the end of the Turn. But at that point it was too late for the others as at the end of Turn 4 the Papacy claimed victory with 26VP after destroying Bullinger and burning him at the stake. What a game! I’ve never won Here I Stand until now and in my opinion it is one of the greatest experiential wargames I’ve ever played. Always a blast!

The game overall took about 5 1/2 hours to play a full 4 Turns. Not too shabby and I am proud of our group for their fast playing and tidy negotiations that kept the game on pace.

After this rousing experience, I was a bit exhausted and really began to feel the last 3 days of gaming and lack of sleep catching up to me. We went to dinner and then at around 7:00pm we played a 4-player game of Burning Banners from Compass Games.

Alexander and I were joined by Cullen and Bill Simoni. Burning Banners is a tabletop fantasy board game for 2-6 players that is set in the fantasy world of Kalar and is a hex and counter wargame with the players controlling one of 6 different unique and assymetric factions. The game is absolutely gorgeous and is one of the best produced games I’ve ever seen with fantastic art, an amazing board drawn by Christopher Moeller who also designed the game and has great things like recessed player boards.

Alexander and I were the forces of evil as I played the Orcs and Alexander the Army of Night and Cullen played the Oathborn who are Dwarven warriors and Bill the mighty Eastern Empire. This one was a blast and we absolutely loved what we were doing moving about the board doing combats and taking over towns and cities for plunder while also attacking monster lairs for gold and extra treasures that would grant temporary or one shot special abilities.

One of my favorite parts was that there are a number of elements that make playing each Kingdom a unique experience as every kingdom has its own armies, heroes and special rules. For example, the Empire played by Bill have a significantly larger economic base than the other kingdoms, but it has special rules that cause its settlements to revolt during the game, harming their economy. The Empire can ignore the revolts, but if they accumulate unaddressed, they will wreak more and more havoc with the Empire’s income.

On the other hand, the Orcs are unique in that they have no economy at all! They must loot enemy towns and cities in order to get money, so their posture must be one of constant expansion. They must literally conquer or die. The Army of the Night played by Alexander was small and stealthy. It can establish secret covens in enemy settlements, making them vulnerable to attack and giving the vampires additional income. Just really a great and unique gaming experience. We can’t wait to play it again soon!

If you want to learn more about Burning Banners, you can check out our interview with the designer on the blog at the following link: https://theplayersaid.com/2023/06/13/interview-with-christopher-moeller-designer-of-burning-banners-rage-of-the-witch-queen-from-compass-games-currently-on-kickstarter/

At this point it was late, nearly 9:30pm and we quickly chatted with Wes Crawford and looked at his new game called The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth from Blue Panther coming to Kickstarter soon. Wes is just a great guy whom we met in 2022 at WBC. This one looks pretty interesting and is sure to be one you should keep an eye out for. The board in the picture below is just for playtest purposes at this point but it will be gussied up.

Well all good things come to an end and we leave tomorrow morning at around 9:00am. We are very much pleased with the fantastic experiences we had this week and the great games we were able to play. We were able to play Dutch Resistance: Orange Shall Overcome! from Liberation Game Design, A More Perfect Union from Catastrophe Games, The Plumb Island Horror from GMT Games, John Company 2nd Edition from Wehrlegig Games, The Struggle for Zorn: The Red Blight from Blue Panther, Alpha Zeds from Trick or Treat Studios, Fire in the Lake from GMT Games, Andean Abyss from GMT Games, Nations & Cannons RPG from Flagbearer Games, Here I Stand from GMT Games and Burning Banners from Compass Games. That’s a total of 11 games. Amazing!

But as is usual the best part is the fellowship and friendships we make and nurture at these conventions. We really consider all of you to be our dearest friends and look forward to playing more in the future!

Thank you for reading along!

-Grant