Here I Stand....

For a second year in a row, I made it to Owlcon. This year I made it my goal to play a monster wargame: Here I Stand by GMT. Since I was a Gamemaster, I really had to know the rules well....and since the rulebook is 44 pages long, I ended up having to cancel my gaming for yesterday, so that I could make sure I knew how to run this game.

HiS recreates the realigious, and political struggles of the Renaissance (the Wars of the Reformation). The game includes 6 powers, all with unique abilities and goals: Papacy, Protestants, Hapsburgs (spain), English, French.

I was the Protestants (whose goal is to Reform europe), and started the game with Luther's 95 Thesis. Apparently no one was impressed because I did not reform a single territory (but the one automatically reformed when Luther shows up). After that, Charles V and the Pope implemented the Diet of Worms. At least we fared better at that trial, reforming another territory in Germany. From then on, the stage was set, and we officially started the game.

The first turn basically became a struggle for me to make up for a slow start. The Pope was distracted building up his forces, so he didn't try to counterreform most of the stuff I was doing. So I made translating the Germen New Testament my priority (which gives me 6 reformation attempts in one go). The masses enjoyed my translation and i was able to sway some more territories to my cause by turn 2.

Meanwhile, all the other powers were basically building up their armies (essentially just testing out the game mechanics, etc because it was their first game).

On Turn 2, the Hapsburg player and the Pope were impressed with how well my translations had worked in spreading my ideals accross Germany. So they started playing unrest cards in my cities to stop this spread. I also drew a card this turn that I had to play (as stated by the rules), that made me a 'normal' military power, opening Germany up to attack, and making spreading my influence a bit harder. So the Hapsburgs marched in after this, putting also military pressure on me. France and the Ottomans, after seeing this, and how well the Hapsburgs had done conquering the New World, started going after the Hapsburgs (leaving me with some room to breathe).

On turn 3, I completed the german Bible which allowed me to take even more territories in germany.... but I was still missing some key cities (The Electorates) that would have given me more VP's and military units. So I focused on building up my armies a bit to go and take those by force (since now I was a 'full-fledged military power').

The Ottomans continued to cause the Hapsburgs some grief by pirating in the mediterranean. England started moving on the Hapsburgs, and so did France. The Papacy, being completely ignored by France and the Ottomans, had more than enough time and resources to redirect their wrath my way. They counter reformed and debated with impunity (but were never able to burn my debaters at the stake).....

and then the game was over. Unfortunately 1 of the guys had to leave. Turn 4 sadly has some of the coolest cards and events in the game.....and I was mentally ready to 'hire' the Ottoman's or the French's with whatever it took (units? check. territories? check. cards? check...), to go after the Papacy.

It was a looooong game mainly because I was the only on who knew the rules (and as a "Convention Gamemaster", that is what is expected). But we have agreed to play again sometime soon in the future. We'll see.

When you spend 5-6hrs completely oblivious of how quickly time has gone by, you know you have played an awesome game. can't wait to try it again.