Exploration: Great Expeditions - AARs and Map Reveal

[Aeschines]

Thank you all for playing! Congratulations to EpicDim for their solo victory and a hearty thank you to NanooktheEskimo for his invaluable help designing and running the game.

The brave explorers of the Society of Obstacle Succumbing finally get the radio message they've been waiting for. Their papers on Antarctica have been accepted for publication in the National Journal for the Sciences. They've done it. Each of them returns home to claim tenured professorships at universities renowned across the world. Yet, despite their jubilation, they never return to the continent. Each of them saw things not fit for human eyes and no matter what level of professional success they achieve, whenever they close their eyes, they see the horrifying architecture of the City of Az and the sounds of the monster ripping men head-from-limb. Some find solace in drink, others in family. But for a select few,
who begin to meet once every year at the Autumnal Equinox, they find comfort in one phrase:
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn.



Thank you all again for playing! I've posted the final total view map here, but since it was pretty much all explored anyway it won't be a shock. Please post your questions about the game and/or your AARs, so we can see what everyone was thinking!

I also love constructive criticism, so feel free to lay it on me.

Great Expeditions F 1911 (FULL MAP).png (74.39 KiB) Viewed 3640 times

[Aeschines]

Also, special thank you to JonS for stepping in as our horrifying monster. I'm sorry your tenure was so brief, but I was very happy you were available to take it on!

Monster
5.1 - The monster unit always moves at 2.5 strength. It supports at 1 strength (as normal).
5.2 - Units dislodged by the monster as "eaten" and destroyed, they may not retreat.
5.3 - The monster cannot capture SCs. However, any SC it occupies at the end of the fall turn is returned to its neutral state.
5.4 - Mountains do not affect the movement of the monster (it may occupy mountain spaces in the fall without the need of a camp). The monster may only move on and between land spaces. The monster also cannot activate or use "discoveries" (question marks) present on the board.
5.5 - The monster player wins the game as a solo if: a) the monster unit still exists; b) there are three or fewer players; ANDc) all three city spaces (Cto, Az, and Yr) are neutral at the end of any fall phase.
5.6 - The monster player is eliminated if the monster unit is destroyed. However, the monster unit does not require SCs to exist and the monster player may not build additional units.
5.7 - The monster player may not communicate with other players nor reveal their participation in the game.
5.8 - While the monster player may reject draws until they are eliminated, they are encouraged not to attempt to "break the game" by refusing reasonable draw requests if they have no real expectation of satisfying their win conditions. The monster player votes on draws by secret PM to the GM(s).
5.9 - Only a portion of these rules (5.1 through 5.4) will be posting publicly. A statement on the vague "importance" of the cities will be the only public post regarding the monster's win condition.

[Don Juan of Austria]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn.

....creepy. I was seriously wondering if Cto would turn volcanic under me! Congrats EpicDim! Twas fun playing with you, and the others.
Hopefully a more complete AAR later.

[Don Juan of Austria]

And I'm almost holding a grudge against JonS for eating my army. But then he ate EpicDim's...

[Aeschines]

And I'm almost holding a grudge against JonS for eating my army. But then he ate EpicDim's...

I'm

Hey, at least he distributed his Cthulian might somewhat evenly!

[JonS]

Had fun guest starring in the final act of what looks like a great game. Only wish I could have ravaged a little longer!

Congrats on the Solo.

[UsernamePending]

Y'know what, I'm proud just *surviving* this long. WP by all.

[EpicDim]

It's too late, but I would like to point out that I didn't legally take Atwood Mtn. That being said, It's probably just a matter of time before I captured a win now that I know what the win conditions were. I actually wasn't sure and was going to ask this winter.

At the start of the game my plan was to take an edge and then rush north and publish as much as possible. I succeeded pretty well and then took advantage of Orange's poor luck and eliminted him as soon as his home funding dried up. That left me pretty much alone on the west side of the board. At that point I continued to push north while turning my units on Green. Soon thereafter I came across Purple in the north. That scared me since it seemed as if he had grown through the entire continent and was already in control of the entire thing. It was at that point I made a truce with Green giving him one of my centers and turned completely on what appeared to be a Purple/Yellow alliance.

As it turns out I wasn't the only one people weren't talking with. There was very little communication in this game. With everyone focused on exploring we just didn't bother communicating in the early game and then mid game when there is usually a lull anyway it just got worse. All of that lack of communication caused me to assume the worst.

I also later found out that Purple didn't own the entire continent but had jumped north and had two separate bases which made him more vulnerable than I had assumed.

Yellow's attack on Green and my holdings in the southwest which at first I assumed meant he and Purple were in cahoots turned out to be a last ditch effort to find centers and it didn't take much convincing from me to get him to turn back around against Purple once he knew that it was now 3 of us against Purple.

From that point on it was just a slow slog to continue to make progress against Purple in the north and the south.

Thanks everyone for an entertaining if not terrifying game.

[Don Juan of Austria]

So...better late than never, right? I'm just proud of myself that it's still February, and not March yet.

So let's start with the very beginning. I was Violet. It's a nice color...and this is where I had about the most communication of the game. Confirming with people, and reconfirming that I was violet, and that I was building in violet, (as opposed to building in pink and bouncing).

Things quieted down...and for good reason. There wasn't a ton to talk about. I mean, there is, but nothing much you can hold someone too.

I was expanding nicely, reached the "mainland", and then stepped on Blow Mountain. The whole exploring, and revealing when you want to (with reward) was tremendous fun.
I was leading in centers for awhile, but I think I made a tactical error by publishing so many zones around 1906ish...it kinda revealed what was going on, and the center I got from it didn't pay off.

Anyway, I really enjoyed playing it. And I especially liked the tactics of building/destroying/converting all in the winter. As well as, of course, publishing zones to the rest of the players.

Congratulations EpicDim, for the Solo.

And thanks for GMing this Aeschines! (And Nanook!)