Sandwiched

I'm red - the turkey in the middle between a slice of green and tan bread!

It's easy in a war game, especially in a three-player session, to feel like the turkey in a turkey sandwich.  My boys seem to have a knack of setting up a game to put the old man in the middle!  Fighting a two-front war is nigh impossible - in a game or in life!

Our recent session of Warlords of Europe serves as another fine example.  Cory started in Spain, while Brendon took the Latin Empire at the other far end.  That left me in between them, to the north, in Denmark.  Cory first spread out east into France, while I marched south on Germany, and Brendon moved into Hungary just to his north.  I guess I could have built up and stayed put until the two boys met each other in Germany.  But the problem with using that strategy in Warlords is that this title rewards you when you have territory - a not at all uncommon feature in conquest gaming.  So if I had temporarily turtled, the two boys would have just been all the more richer and powerful by the time swords crossed.  Plus we play our war games more like General Custer, rather than General McClellan.  And Brendon got out to a fast start.

Another rewarding aspect in Warlords are bonuses for controlling all of the fiefs (individual territories) in an entire kingdom (a larger political region comprised of 6-7 fiefs).  Unfortunately, I was reduced to attacking piecemeal into France and Hungary just to keep Cory and Brendon from earning those bonuses.  I was holding my own against Cory, but large clashes with Brendon slowly ate away at my defenses.  Pretty soon, I could not prevent him from taking all of Hungary and the fight against his treasury became more lopsided than the one on the field.  Despite all of that, I actually did have one chance at victory - a card allowed me to slip some soldiers through an enemy fief and attack a castle on the other side, which I did successfully.  However, since Cory was last in turn order (randomly assigned), he was able to recapture it.

In the end, in this situation, it boils down to choosing your fights, because you cannot commit to all of them.  After all, I think it was Napoleon who said, "He who tries to defend everything, defends nothing."