Could be the quintessential Ameritrash game...and it rocks, unlike so many Euros that simply waddle. Seriously, the amount of dice rolled in this game is phenomenal. If you don't have fun tossing piles of dice into a box lid, go play Elfenland and push the little booties around. Monster slugathon indeed!

17...but 35 when the target was acquired!

I remember looking at the playtesting credits and the Charlottesville game club is there. They played a lot of Titan and 18xx when I was there. A few people played ASL, but I think the majority of the games played were Settlers, Princes of Florence, and Puerto Rico interspersed with the lighter fare.

I brought the prototype of Cluzzle there once and several people really liked it and asked me to bring it back on multiple occasions (Cluzzle, afterall, is the Ameritrash version of Barbarossa. It has no cubes, no auctions, no tile laying, and no weak theme (in fact, it has no theme at all)).

The Gorgonstar Edition of Titan was published in 1980 and the borderland expansion for it in 1981. The Bruce Shelly reworked Avalon Hill version was in 1982. see http://www.morgud.com/interests/titan/ for some PDFs with historic articles tracing the prototype beginning development in 1975.

As to where an 1980 add for Titan has you mail order from Gorgonstar in Joliet Illinois (which makes sense to me as I played in some early TitanWar conventions in Rockford,IL).

AmeriTrash, like Redneck, is not a geographic location, it's state of mind.

Oh, and Steve, as you say Tramp is very much missed, but no longer missing. He's driving a cab and doesn't want to talk abut fantasy art. Sad fur us, but the mans' gotta live his life the way he wants.

I'd say that violence, destruction, and chaos are the three metathemes in Ameritrash...much better than dancing ducks or hedgehogs, that's for damn sure.

Four words for you- ketchup flavored potato chips.

I would have thought that the idea that Canada was trivial would be offensive to most Canadians. I'm sure there are millions of Canadians who strongly believe that Canada matters.

Line of sight!

Well...at least we can still hang the guy responsible!

I can't imagine asking any over the age of 10 to play "Hey Where's My Fish".

I think of most games as "Euro" games or "Anglo-American" games (Read: German-style and Ameritrash). British and US mass market games are quite similar, culturally. For example if Milton-Bradley was British and Games Workshop was American you wouldn't really notice the difference.

EDITED TO ADD:

Yes, I don't mind Anglo-American games being described as "American"- we can do without the bad publicity!

no

american is an off shot of britain

*pshaw* upstart colonials donchaknow!

Oh, this made my day.

I love seeing comments when people are "concerned" about components...I grew up with cardboard chits and I still love 'em...sometimes you even had to cut them out yourself!

I know that my grandmother used to tell me to go chit in my hat.
So, I'd go to my room and play a wargame, using my hat for random chit draws.

And thank you very much for noticing.

Mmmm... chits...

I want it if only to hold and caress but my wife would never give it a go even though she loves Cthulhu-themed stuff. Because of the chits I reckon.

Unfortunately, this is one of the prejudices that many folks have against Ameritrash games. The thing is, the outline/hierarchical structure for presenting rules is a great way to organize and reference rules- if Fantasy Flight did their rules like this they'd be a lot easier to use but then all the Eurogamers would freak out because of percieved "complexity". Of course, if you're playing a Euro with one page of rules it's sort of irrelevant.

ASL =

27, Male, Arizona

What...did I miss something?

I completely Disagree.
Numerical numbering in a ruleset is no help at all. What helps is a good index for common and odd rules. Most good miniatures games don't use a numbering system.

INDEX FTW

ASL isn't/wasn't the only game to use numbered paragraphs. Most, if not all wargames from the '70's were structered that way. Again for reference. We're going out to read a rpg book,memorize it word for word then play. Hey I rather play than read!!!

That guy on the box looks just like you.

I love the "Sabotage Run" optional rule for TI3.

My favorite is the "Rise of the Messiah" card in TI:3...but it makes me wish I were playing Dune instead. Muad'Dib!

My gosh. Robert, I didn't know you were a Box Art Model. All this time I thought it was just your picture and you were about to play the winning card in a game of "Flinch."

Every time I see this picture I think that Dracula seems to be some sort of cyclops...

The concept of this game is so unbelieveably awesome...the US nukes the middle east and the world freaks out and invades. Do you think there's an auction in this one? HELL NO!

True. Having played Invasion: America (still have a copy) I can attest that MB decided that they wanted to develop a simpler, less rule-laden version of the game that would appeal to future EuroSnoots. So they reduced everything from actual supply lines to a vast array of vehicles down to Euro-style abstracts. Still, the game plays well enough.

As for Red Dawn... I believe that movie came out a few years after Fortress America was published, right about the time the mini-series Amerika was on TV.

This is one of my all time favorites. The suspense as your supply line stretches longer and as partisans pop up is nerve shattering! This was my first game which used something other than a D6, to boot! Gotta love those MB Gamemaster classics!!!

MB= M.Barnes. Coincidence?

This is what it is all about- lots of plastic, mayhem, and dice rolling-and there will only be one player left standing (or sitting).

MB Gamemaster rules!

According to BGG & IMDB, Fortress: America came out in 1986, Red Dawn in 1984.

And we were taking notes every time we watched it, too

I certainly don't demand miniatures, but they are _fun_...given a choice between a bag of brown wooden cubes that I could buy at a craft store or a pile of ogres, dragons, and other fantasy crap, guess what I'll pick?

Up to here, pretty much with you. But, damn the plastic figures. Give me cardboard, and I'm even happier.

"And miniature bits are NOT for sissies, let me tell you. Not when you walk across 'em in the dark in stocking feet."

You're not supposed to sharpen the swords.

Cubes do not come with the game. Some people use them to mark which countries are controlled. So the guy you played with must have added them himself. Now, I don't know if that changes you previous comment, but I just thought I'd pipe in.

Yeah, what Barry said, miniatures are definitely not for sissies...

Back in the days when I still was into miniature gaming - and mind you, we are now talking about real, neat, metal miniatures, not any heretical plastic trash! - I somehow managed to leave one of my warriors with a wicked, barbed, sharp spear standing on my bed. Then, when I was going to sleep, I sat on my bed full-weight, wearing nothing but boxers. Went straight through them like, it was like hot butter and knives or hot knives and butter, what ever.

Next thing I know, I'm crawling down the hallway with a maniacally grinning warrior hanging from my behind, with his spiky, long weapon stuck nicely couple of centimeters deep in my flesh... And my brother laughed at me. Hard. I tell you, it hurt pretty much pulling it out, with all the spikes in the spear and all that. I still have a scar back there.

Don't you dare to tell me that miniatures are for kids!

Cards add flavor and variety...things that scare Eurogamers.

But TI:3 is no Ameritrash. It´s best of both worlds:

A Game that has all charakteristics of an Ameritrash game (It really fulfills all from this list!) and has Eurogame mechanics (that was the initial idea for the game).

Oh yes it is - TI:3 is Ameritrash Supreme. By trying to Euro-fy the game, they made it orders of magnitude more complex and top-heavy. I like the game but it's about one step away from collapsing under its own weight.

Why does TI3 confuse people so? It's the Un-Eurogame. It's the Anti-Eurogame. But since it has Euro mechanics, players fall for it every time.

Of course, my games of PR don't go 8 hours without finishing, so I may be wrong...

The political cards are the best part of TI. One of our group members loves to read the cards in a stately voice, really over the top. Everyone gets a kick out of it.

Yeah the game is cheese but if you play along, it is incredibly fun.

This game has a ridiculously long set up time, but once you invest the time it's a fairly decent game.

Yes, and it can BE so "insithious" at times, I mean HOW can anybody take something like 'toilet paper' and then make this into a "tie-in" product? Well, here's one way then:
"Why is the Starship 'Enterprise' LIKE a roll of 'Charmin' bathroom tissue?"
"because it gets the 'Klingons' from around 'Uranus'!"
o-o-o-o-oh!

The plot was weak, Mannequin Skywalker was directed to act like a droid with low batteries, and Natalie Portman's monotone was as annoying as her lip stripe.

But this game is one of the best boardgame representations of a movie I've ever seen.

Worst thing about it is the constant tension level--especially the worries that the three-tiered Palace will topple any minute.

But it's fun to zap the bad guys in the field battle. Wise of the designer not to represent Jar Jar, whose destruction would probably have become the chief goal of both sides.

oh yeah, grognads?

what did spock find in kirk's toilet?




the captain's log.

I'm still waiting for the game to come out based on the movie "My Dinner with Andre". Given the theme, though, it would probably be best represented with Euro mechanics.

Ohmigosh, I know this thread is three years old....but reading this post made me spew coffee through my nose.

You could not have chosen a better game for this, aside from Nuclear War. I don't think I've ever played a game of Supremacy that didn't end in nuclear winter!

No, no, you've all missed it. "Nuke: the Last Game on Earth" has round nuclear-contamination markers that actually do glow in the dark.

Better still, "Nuclear Armageddon" has mushroom clouds twice the size of those in "Supremacy." 3-D mushroom clouds. White, billowy clouds. With a stalk painted in lurid orange and green flames. Dozens and dozens of 'em. Along with nuclear power plants and other lovely bits.

Dear Nuclear Armageddon-

I saw you on BGG. You look pretty awesome, what with all those missles and mushroom clouds and all. I know that 20 other people want you, but will you go with me? Check yes ___ or no ___

MB

It doesn't get any better than plastic mushroom clouds. Every time I introduce this game to a new person they'll spend at least 20 minutes putting little mushroom clouds on things and getting really excited over the thought that it's been nuked... and really... who can blame them?

OMG...MB...that comment just made me shoot milk out my nose at about 400 psi...which is weird, because I'm drinking 7-Up.

They do have the Cube Tower.

more accurately, that's the "Euro" 'Battle' tower! `cause everybody KNOWS that it was the preferred 'mechanic' of "Warfare" huh?
"mon dieu! zhat Wellington hast 'out-gravitized' moi Left Flank with his 'troop droppings'! I curse YOU Sir Isaac Newton and where were OUR 'gravitaciously' endowed scholars in ALL of zhis!?!"

<--Feld Marchel NAY

Newton and Einstein. Double envelopment.

Fantasy, Military and Horror themes---I think that makes 3 themes you mentioned, but I can't be sure.

You mean metal themes.

And you've forgotten the Capitalism theme, so far in my reading. Special Ameritrash points if a game makes you shuffle around a lot of play money.

I bought a toy helicopter just for this game!

I admire you.

"Conservativism" is an understatement...I'd much rather play a game with the garish, dayglo pallet of Nexus Ops than the brown-on-darker-brown mush or pastels that so many Euros seem to favor. I swear, Euros tend to be either the same colors as dirty dishwater or Precious Moments figurines. Give me BAROQUE!

Aww man, the cover art for Risk: 2210 is cool!! Yeah, some of the country names are kinda goofy, but the art is cool. You got mechs firing missiles and guns, a gigantic full moon, a ruined city, an UNDERWATER city, a couple of futurewar bada$$es with envirosuits reminiscent of Imperial Sardaukar, a big honkin' assault rifle, a battleline of opposing mechs, and a DOLPHIN!!! What more can you possibly say about such a great cover!!??

Funny, I was under the impression that Sardaukar wore chef hats...

Heheh. I was leaning more in the direction of the David Lynch interpration... plus, any chance I get to reference Dune in any way, shape, or form makes me happy.

Euros generally have brightly coloured pieces and boards. When I think of Anglo-American games, I think of monochrome hex and counter maps.