​On 03 AUG, we met at King’s Head Pub and remembered the Battle of Savo Island (75th Anniversary fought 08 AUG 1942).  This is the first of several Guadalcanal sea battles (Iron Bottom Sound) that we were playtesting a new ruleset for use at this year’s Texas BROADSIDE!
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There was a great turnout and many were catching up.  The game would have played better with more participants each in command of a small group of vessels.

Casualties were higher than the original battle and the Americans fired many more shots than in the original battle. The Japanese mission to sink transports was achieved and the Americans would have suffered greatly as a result.  The Japanese lost their cruiser fleet (much different outcome than the original battle).

​Lots of input from the Houston Beer and Pretzel gamers and as a result the rule system will be adjusted slightly and gaming aids will be updated for ease of play.

Several of the attendees have already remarked to me that the past gaming session at Steve’s was one of their most enjoyable ever!   Rather than an “AAR”, here I humbly submit a “Before Action” Report:

The line-up was (not) as follows:

Daniel, Mark, and Tom were NOT the Allies.  They had no designated Team Captain.
Barry and Rob were NOT the Japanese; Edward was NOT their Team Captain. 
Steve was NOT the GM. 

To begin, we gathered at Steve’s place, where he showed us his fabulous gaming set-up.  Here we beheld his enormous Guadalcanal Map, plus his extensive set of air, naval, and land miniatures available with which to play out the entire campaign.  He supplied us all with a large selection of cold drinks.  His wife, a gracious hostess, brought us tasty tidbits to nibble on while the (later, full) meal was prepared.   It was then revealed a unique opportunity: we got to help design the game! 

Rob asked the group some excellent game-design questions: Who are the Players?  How much time do we have?  Barry proposed an excellent schema for land movement.  Many good ideas were tossed around.  The discussions went on for a while, and we ultimately decided to postpone actual play until ”Texas Broadside” later this year.

See the accompanying images of:

1. Barry (NOT) moving his ships;
2. Rob and Tom (NOT) moving their planes; and
3. Several more pics of the fabulous gaming equipment. 

When the (plentiful) food was announced as ready, we retired to the downstairs dining room for some serious conversation.  Accompanied by copious amounts of adult beverages, this overly well-read group of gamers discussed all of the greatest of historical military strategists:  

1. Sun-Tzu;
2. Churchill;
3. Gilligan; and,
4. The definitive “Re-enactment of Pearl Harbor” by Monty Python. 

This nonsense continued with the greatest of merriment until all the bottles were empty.  Of course when that happened, everyone promptly left. 

Great Thanks to Steve for hosting!  And sorry for all the mess!  (I’m sure those stains will come out eventually by using just a little bit of bleach).   It was a great time!