At Dawn We Ate Sugar Smacks
December 15, 2024 8:29 AM Subscribe
“At Dawn We Ate Sugar Smacks" begins as possibly the funniest wargaming session report ever written. It ends as something more.
I commenced to slog on and off through the first section or two of the rules, not even thinking about getting into Production, Diplomacy, or Research for now, focusing instead on introductory concepts like Look at the Pretty Pretty Maps and Hey! I Recognize This D6 From Outdoor Survival! The subtleties of the Ultra codebreaking program and getting the Dutch to align with the Allies would have to wait until I understood such basic menu items as zones of control, attrition rolls, and what strategic re-deployment was. I was even unfamiliar with the types of air and naval units I would be dealing with. Interceptors? Bridgeheads? Wha?
It wasn’t long before I felt lost, frightened, and itchy. Rules in the core book are repeated often to make them easier to access later, but for me this made it rough to know what I should be focusing on right now in any given section and what I could safely wait till later to comprehend. The sheer number of exceptions to exceptions I would be dealing with also threatened to leave my cerebellum by the side of a long dirt road, and because I was not even an amateur historian, the reasons for all the loopholes and modifiers would never be clear until I seriously hit the books. Worst of all, I wasn’t even close to getting a sense of the order of things: what came first, what came next, what phases could suddenly pop up between two others.
Yeah, Campaign for North Africa is just silly nonsense. Richard Berg though, so, sure.
Am playing a Vassal game of Bayonets & Tomahawks currently, (French and Indian War, 1756), and it has broken my brain. We are on our third campaign game, after we messed up the rules badly in games 1 and 2, I think we've got a handle on it. And, as the Brits, I have finally built the killer stack of units, and have taken them to Montreal to destroy things. And have decided to go for Louisbourg, we will see how that works out.
Just saw that epic session report recently, haven't made it through yet, but pretty great.
posted by Windopaene at 9:27 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Am playing a Vassal game of Bayonets & Tomahawks currently, (French and Indian War, 1756), and it has broken my brain. We are on our third campaign game, after we messed up the rules badly in games 1 and 2, I think we've got a handle on it. And, as the Brits, I have finally built the killer stack of units, and have taken them to Montreal to destroy things. And have decided to go for Louisbourg, we will see how that works out.
Just saw that epic session report recently, haven't made it through yet, but pretty great.
posted by Windopaene at 9:27 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Louisbourg worked out, poorly...
Have hopes for Montreal though. My supply lines are sketchy though.
posted by Windopaene at 10:58 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
Have hopes for Montreal though. My supply lines are sketchy though.
posted by Windopaene at 10:58 AM on December 15 [3 favorites]
This was a very entertaining read. Thank you for posting.
At this point in the narrative I started imagining the pair as Withnail & I. They’d gone wargaming by mistake.
—
Well, we shall see,” he replied. “There’s already stuff in here that’s utterly baffling. But I’d definitely drive to Lancaster and eat at this weird diner I remember and stare down some dudes with big beards.” Here he was echoing a reference I’d made before to the World Boardgaming Championships and its annual beckoning of AWAW’s heavy hitters, whose big-beardedness I could not actually confirm.
“If we’re gonna do this, you know, we must forsake the pleasures of the flesh for weeks, perhaps months,” I intoned gravely.
“This of course I cannot promise,” he said. “But I need something to do, as cinema is beginning to inexplicably bore me. I mean, this can’t be that hard to figure out.”
posted by Aznable at 2:08 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
At this point in the narrative I started imagining the pair as Withnail & I. They’d gone wargaming by mistake.
—
Well, we shall see,” he replied. “There’s already stuff in here that’s utterly baffling. But I’d definitely drive to Lancaster and eat at this weird diner I remember and stare down some dudes with big beards.” Here he was echoing a reference I’d made before to the World Boardgaming Championships and its annual beckoning of AWAW’s heavy hitters, whose big-beardedness I could not actually confirm.
“If we’re gonna do this, you know, we must forsake the pleasures of the flesh for weeks, perhaps months,” I intoned gravely.
“This of course I cannot promise,” he said. “But I need something to do, as cinema is beginning to inexplicably bore me. I mean, this can’t be that hard to figure out.”
posted by Aznable at 2:08 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
Oh, this brings back so many memories! I never played this one, but played SPI's War in Europe multiple times (the challenge was to find a room big enough for a 7' by 7' map that would also be at our disposal for about three months).
posted by Mogur at 3:03 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
posted by Mogur at 3:03 PM on December 15 [5 favorites]
This reminds me strongly of the works of Bavitz. While I have never managed to finish a Bavitz novel, I did finish and enjoy this.
posted by novalis_dt at 3:09 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
posted by novalis_dt at 3:09 PM on December 15 [1 favorite]
he called me only about four days later and suggested lunch at the cathedral, which was our code word for the Old Country Buffet
This guy reminds me of all my favorite people from college.
posted by hototogisu at 6:20 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
This guy reminds me of all my favorite people from college.
posted by hototogisu at 6:20 PM on December 15 [3 favorites]
oh this is one of my favorite pieces of writing about games. maybe one of my favorite pieces of writing, period. i really recommend anyone with even a passing interest in games of any kind, but especially analog games, give it a read. i also recommend listening to New Players Welcome Here by the same author
posted by okonomichiyaki at 2:34 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
posted by okonomichiyaki at 2:34 PM on December 16 [1 favorite]
It's a well written and engaging story. The two guys it focuses on are trying to navigate masculinity and are somewhat successful in forging a different path for themselves, but it doesn't always bring them much joy. Troy especially seems like he could fall into the extremist/manosphere pipeline. People need community to thrive, and that can be hard for introverts to figure out. I hope they are doing better than the story made them sound.
I understand the impulse to tackle something you know will not be worth the effort, like Proust or Finnegan's Wake. But I've mostly succeeded in dodging those bullets.
posted by rikschell at 6:27 PM on December 16
I understand the impulse to tackle something you know will not be worth the effort, like Proust or Finnegan's Wake. But I've mostly succeeded in dodging those bullets.
posted by rikschell at 6:27 PM on December 16
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posted by Lemkin at 8:31 AM on December 15 [1 favorite]