Work Bad, XCOM good

I did get the XCOM Board Game in the mail yesterday.  I haven't really looked at it yet.  But, I had to have it, because XCOM!


I'm spending entirely too much time playing XCOM: Long War.


I'm on game #4.   Game #1 was more or less a test game, trying things out.   Games #2 and #3 I ending up quitting at about the same spot.   The game begins in March and those games I ended up quitting at the end of September when I just got overwhelmed.


It's now the end of July in Game #4.   This time I've kept my barracks staffed to a higher level, so hopefully I won't get into a position where all my guys are fatigued or in the hospital and I can't win any missions anymore.   My air-war interceptions still suck, and my research is about the same.


However, this game I am finally working on MEC cybernetic troopers, so hopefully that will help stiffen my squads by the time the bad guys toughen up even more in September.




Video Let's Play:   I've been watching 2 different Let's Play series for XCOM long war.  The first is a Canadian guy called Northern Lion.  He's more entertaining, but his skill level is actually a little worse than mine.  He quit both his campaigns earlier than I did.   The second is an Australian called Beagle Rush.   He is super-duper good at this game.   This is probably because he dithers constantly.  His episodes take forever and sometimes I want to scream---I would have taken the shot, lost the mission and been on to the next one hours ago, just SHOOT.

A competitive campaign

 Although I don't see the current ACKS game ending in the near future, I am thinking about what is next.   I thought it might be fun to divide the players into 2 opposing teams and have them work at cross purposes.


The wrangling and resource management would be handled like a board game between sessions with the referee choosing the best confrontation to work up as the game for the session.


It could be another medieval sort of game, or a sci-fi or even a gangster or pulp-era game.


Whatever we do, I think I'd like to have less huge magic effects and a flatter power curve over all in the next game.   Maybe even a little less than Savage Worlds.