Gringogamer

Summer in the southern hemisphere and we are trying to escape the heat in Rio de Janeiro. The plan is to relax at this B&B just a couple of hours outside of the city. So far it’s working very well. But between playing in the pool, bodyboarding and running on the local trails my brain is suffering from zero load. I’m wondering if I should have brought my copy of Battles of the Bulge: Celles. With its low counter density and small table footprint it might be my only game that’s suitable for traveling. Any recommendations for other travel size wargames?

Anyway, I did bring the rulebook of Hurtgen: Hell’s Forest along. It’s the second game in Decision Games‘ Grand Operational Simulation Series (GOSS), designed by Joe Youst.

For month I had been circling around this game. The more I read about it, the more I was oscillating between being absolutely intimidated and truly intrigued. End of December I finally pulled the trigger and asked a friend to look for a copy for me while being abroad.

And now I’m curious. Did I bite off more than I can chew? What will it take to get this game to the table?

I started reading the rules. And during the next weeks (months?) I’ll post here my progress. So, in a sense I’ll try to cover what happens between unboxing and writing a review, hoping that this might be of interest for some of you. Don’t worry, I’ll talk about other topics as well. But I think that a recurring theme might help me getting into the habit of sharing my thoughts here. Plus, while there are some resources out there concerning GOSS (check out The War Gamer’s thorough introductory series on youtube Hurtgen: Hell’s Forest), another point of view on things never hurts.

Ok, but now I have to go back to the beach. Looks like some thunderstorms will be rolling through later.

Abraços,
Carsten