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Stephen Rochelle

@stephen.rochelle.name

Board games. Hockey. Reticulating splines.

41 Followers  |  115 Following  |  95 Posts  |  Joined: 08.11.2023  |  2.1487

Latest posts by stephen.rochelle.name on Bluesky

Initial setup for Army Group North. The German army is in the foreground with tall stacks of counters. Leningrad is in the far distant corner of the map.

Initial setup for Army Group North. The German army is in the foreground with tall stacks of counters. Leningrad is in the far distant corner of the map.

Initial setup for @gmtgames.bsky.social Army Group North, kicking off Barbarossa toward the Baltic States and eventually Leningrad. #furloughgaming #boardwargames

12.10.2025 00:36 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Final situation in the Chir Short scenario of BCS Inflection Point. Soviet 5th Mech has cleared all resistance up to the last VP hex (marked with arrow) but traffic from fierce fighting precludes an advance into the hex before the scenario ends.

Final situation in the Chir Short scenario of BCS Inflection Point. Soviet 5th Mech has cleared all resistance up to the last VP hex (marked with arrow) but traffic from fierce fighting precludes an advance into the hex before the scenario ends.

Inflection Point by @calvinboy24.bsky.social @multimanpublishing.bsky.social finishes with a narrow German win when 5th Mech can't advance one last empty hex and all the other SNAFU rolls come up bust #furloughgaming #wargames

06.10.2025 21:04 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Final play of Ruins - a 10+6+9 x2 with a pair of wild x2s for a set of six 25s. On a deck that starts valued at 1-10.

Final play of Ruins - a 10+6+9 x2 with a pair of wild x2s for a set of six 25s. On a deck that starts valued at 1-10.

Thanks for suggesting @allplay.bsky.social Ruins, @maudineormsby.bsky.social - you should have heard my son's yell when I dropped six 25s to win the game.

01.09.2025 22:30 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Something I thought of later is that I have no idea if the new print has this error - I only bought All Good Things in this batch since I had the others

25.08.2025 16:49 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Counters from Space Empires 4X: Close Encounters expansion with named fleet markers for the four factions. The front and back of each counter should match (e.g. "Battle Fleet" on both sides of counter A, and "Frontier Fleet" on both sides of counter B). Instead, each name appears once on each counter (e.g. "Battle Fleet" on side 1 and "Frontier Fleet" on side 2 of both counters). This increases the chances of confusion if a counter is accidentally flipped.

Counters from Space Empires 4X: Close Encounters expansion with named fleet markers for the four factions. The front and back of each counter should match (e.g. "Battle Fleet" on both sides of counter A, and "Frontier Fleet" on both sides of counter B). Instead, each name appears once on each counter (e.g. "Battle Fleet" on side 1 and "Frontier Fleet" on side 2 of both counters). This increases the chances of confusion if a counter is accidentally flipped.

@gmtgames.bsky.social proposal for 2025 counter errata sheet for Space Empires. These are actually from way back at the Close Encounters expansion but they've never been fixed. Labels didn't get left-right reversed on the sheet and so front/back doesn't match

25.08.2025 02:48 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
EMERGENCY GAMETEK POST New Study Just Dropped

EMERGENCY GAMETEK POST

open.substack.com/pub/gametek/...

17.08.2025 19:46 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 3

I call Rock *specifically* to make the Simpsons reference

18.08.2025 21:46 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@markherman54.bsky.social Mark. Mark. *10 maps??!?*
(just listened to your conversation with @playersaidblog.bsky.social )

18.08.2025 19:09 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Substantially more productive content than my featured thread last year, a piece on "kingmaking isn't real" that served double duty as a massive troll job

08.08.2025 01:19 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image Post image

6 player Multiverse with @meeplelady.bsky.social!! @gmtgames.bsky.social

21.06.2025 23:10 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Video thumbnail

you're welcome

08.05.2025 17:52 β€” πŸ‘ 5991    πŸ” 941    πŸ’¬ 132    πŸ“Œ 68

I am terrified of sorting my played-as-a-kid dumped-all-the-pieces-loose-in-the-box yes-the-expansions-too set into any sort of order #boardgamenightmares

24.04.2025 00:32 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Oh, JDA. Yep, that's good and sufficient context right there.

20.04.2025 13:46 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Baseball scoreboard showing a 7-5 game where the winning team had no hits

Baseball scoreboard showing a 7-5 game where the winning team had no hits

Craziest I've seen:

19.04.2025 00:06 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Map for This Terrible Sound, Battle of Chickamauga

Map for This Terrible Sound, Battle of Chickamauga

Have that art on my table currently. Hate that I couldn't make the event, given that it's just up the road.

05.04.2025 23:52 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Best way to find errors is to post - next up, properly account for ISR.

22.03.2025 20:26 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Conclusion so far is that any side efforts for Watchtower are likely to be defeated in detail, so go with just the one battle hex and make sure Guad is taken, and attrit whatever comes along. Not sure that Japan wants to bother playing Savo in response if a single USN hammer. #boardwargames

22.03.2025 14:57 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US fleet concentrates at Guad, allowing Japanese force from Rabaul to respond. The Japanese "Savo Island" card only allows either air or naval response, but not joint. In this version, Japanese surface naval concentrates to contest the landings. USN casualties at Guad match the full air-only response (1 hit each on BB and CA), but Japanese take 3 step losses due to lower defense numbers on APD and CL (comparable attack factors lost).
US 1st Mar Div likely to succeed in landing.
Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US fleet concentrates at Guad, allowing Japanese force from Rabaul to respond. The Japanese "Savo Island" card only allows either air or naval response, but not joint. In this version, Japanese surface naval concentrates to contest the landings. USN casualties at Guad match the full air-only response (1 hit each on BB and CA), but Japanese take 3 step losses due to lower defense numbers on APD and CL (comparable attack factors lost). US 1st Mar Div likely to succeed in landing. Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Attempt #4: Japanese naval response. Savo Island card boosts Japanese surface strength, so what does that look like? Everybody converges on Guad. Japanese carry fewer combat factors here, so the US is more likely to win the engagement, plus lower defense #s Protects Japanese air strength for later?

22.03.2025 14:54 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US fleet concentrates at Guad, allowing Japanese force from Rabaul to respond. The Japanese "Savo Island" card only allows either air or naval response, but not joint. In this version, Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. USN casualties at Guad are heavier than previous attempts, but lighter overall by not sacrificing the CAs interdicting Rabaul. US likely to prevail, two hits each way, and US 1st Mar Div likely to succeed in landing.
Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US fleet concentrates at Guad, allowing Japanese force from Rabaul to respond. The Japanese "Savo Island" card only allows either air or naval response, but not joint. In this version, Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. USN casualties at Guad are heavier than previous attempts, but lighter overall by not sacrificing the CAs interdicting Rabaul. US likely to prevail, two hits each way, and US 1st Mar Div likely to succeed in landing. Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Attempt #3: Heck with screening Rabaul. The US fleet concentrates at Guad and all 5 Japanese air can respond. Japanese air is now properly positioned on the board. Average rolls trade two hits each way, damaging US naval screen but hitting a better Japanese air unit (and not sacrificing the CA)

22.03.2025 14:50 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US cruisers screen the Japanese surface fleet at Rabaul (representing historical Savo Island); that unit will be eliminated. Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. With the US carrier fleet directly supporting the landing hex, the US is likely to win the air/naval battle by trading a battleship hit for a pair of hits on Japanese air.
US 1st Mar Div overwhelmingly likely to prevail in ground combat.
Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US cruisers screen the Japanese surface fleet at Rabaul (representing historical Savo Island); that unit will be eliminated. Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. With the US carrier fleet directly supporting the landing hex, the US is likely to win the air/naval battle by trading a battleship hit for a pair of hits on Japanese air. US 1st Mar Div overwhelmingly likely to prevail in ground combat. Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Attempt #2: US fleet, sans CAs, in Guad hex. CA in Rabaul forces the Japanese to contest via air. Extra strength from BB units gives the US an edge, but the CA will die without accomplishing much if anything in Rabaul. Please assume JP air is better positioned; I learned as I went.

22.03.2025 14:43 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US cruisers screen the Japanese surface fleet at Rabaul (representing historical Savo Island); that unit will be eliminated. Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. With the US carrier fleet in standoff position, the Japanese are likely to win the air/naval battle and prevent US 1st Mar Div from landing. 
Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Opening move of board game South Pacific, attempting the 1942 invasion of Guadalcanal. US cruisers screen the Japanese surface fleet at Rabaul (representing historical Savo Island); that unit will be eliminated. Japanese air concentrates to contest the landings. With the US carrier fleet in standoff position, the Japanese are likely to win the air/naval battle and prevent US 1st Mar Div from landing. Assuming both players roll 5s in combat.

Operation Watchtower studies learning @markherman54.bsky.social South Pacific at the hockey rink - CA screen of Rabaul plus CV standoff doesn't carry enough power to force the landing.

22.03.2025 14:39 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

It's nice when people affirm that you've made the right decision

14.03.2025 17:35 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Aftermath of Operation Watchtower in board game "South Pacific"; Japanese player response was badly done.

Aftermath of Operation Watchtower in board game "South Pacific"; Japanese player response was badly done.

Wargame on a table at hockey practice

Wargame on a table at hockey practice

First stab at an EotS offensive, executed badly. Savo Is. counterattack should commit naval even if the carriers hold offshore. Best way to learn is playing badly and then asking why history didn't work like that. #boardwargames #hockeyrinkgaming

08.03.2025 16:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I keep hoping they'll update their news feed to be all the updates they give Pete to post everywhere else. Stop me from dredging BGG history, etc, to look things up again

02.03.2025 13:43 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, that comparison makes sense

01.03.2025 00:08 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

1) Pathfinder is *4*? I've never looked closely but I always thought it was 3-era

2) is "PF1" something new or are we in a causality loop here? I'm interested but confused. Afraid Captain Kelsey Grammer will be ramming my ship any moment. Why are all these 3s in this poker game?

01.03.2025 00:03 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Yes, I was looking at swinging I Corps around after pushing out the detachment downriver of Fredericksburg. For the moment, pulling Rodes out of the trenches to hold in the open seems preferable to holding Colston to stretch the line.

24.02.2025 20:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Opening CSA moves at Chancellorsville. Two d10s show "19" for a moves counter. "Ghost detachment" markers show the limits of command range. Colston follows the Mine Road behind the entrenchments, while Hill countermarches past the widow Alsop. Hill finishes in column on the Orange Turnpike with Colston south on a minor road. Anderson's brigades behind Marye's Heights can either lead Colston's column or reinforce their division near Bank's Ford (latter option shown, but "Must Attack" markers show the alternatives).

Opening CSA moves at Chancellorsville. Two d10s show "19" for a moves counter. "Ghost detachment" markers show the limits of command range. Colston follows the Mine Road behind the entrenchments, while Hill countermarches past the widow Alsop. Hill finishes in column on the Orange Turnpike with Colston south on a minor road. Anderson's brigades behind Marye's Heights can either lead Colston's column or reinforce their division near Bank's Ford (latter option shown, but "Must Attack" markers show the alternatives).

Checking the road network for opening moves at Chancellorsville in Rebel Fury by @markherman54.bsky.social @gmtgames.bsky.social . 19 moves to get Hill and Colston to the far edge of command range. Gotta fill time at youth hockey practice somehow #boardwargames

23.02.2025 18:48 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

I mean, I sure wouldn't let the Moopsy any closer to my bones than I can help, but maybe that's just me.

23.02.2025 02:02 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I just skipped to "the self-driving car would run over the guy"

16.02.2025 18:44 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@stephen.rochelle.name is following 20 prominent accounts