Stephen Rochelle
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stephen.rochelle.name
Stephen Rochelle
@stephen.rochelle.name
43 followers 120 following 100 posts
Board games. Hockey. Reticulating splines.
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stephen.rochelle.name
Between youth hockey games and under a winter storm, I'm playing around with how to crack open the line in Frank Chadwick's "Battle for Moscow"
"Battle for Moscow" board game, after the initial combats on turn 1. 3 attacks in the middle have opened a gap for armored forces to exploit.
December 14, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
kentremendous.bsky.social
Woman: The baby is mine
Woman #2: No it's mine
King Solomon: Both of you say this baby is yours. Hang on a sec
*types*
ChatGPT: Cutting the baby in half is your best move
Solomon: Someone get me a sword
ChatGPT: Also pre-heat the oven so it's nice and hot when you cook the juicier half of the baby
moreperfectunion.bsky.social More Perfect Union @moreperfectunion.bsky.social · 7d
Jimmy Fallon: "And do you use ChatGPT when raising your baby?"

Sam Altman: "I cannot imagine figuring out how to raise a newborn without ChatGPT."
December 9, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
adamweinstein.bsky.social
'Four cones wins, but in order to get a cone you have to build a civilization. Which is where the spirit cards come in'
Adam Scott meets the Chicago Pope
November 15, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
docrevan.bsky.social
Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...
And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.
November 2, 2025 at 2:22 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
Initial setup for @gmtgames.bsky.social Army Group North, kicking off Barbarossa toward the Baltic States and eventually Leningrad. #furloughgaming #boardwargames
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.
October 12, 2025 at 12:36 AM
stephen.rochelle.name
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
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.
October 6, 2025 at 9:04 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
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.
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.
September 1, 2025 at 10:30 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
@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
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.
August 25, 2025 at 2:48 AM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
gengelstein.bsky.social
EMERGENCY GAMETEK POST

open.substack.com/pub/gametek/...
EMERGENCY GAMETEK POST
New Study Just Dropped
open.substack.com
August 17, 2025 at 7:46 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
@markherman54.bsky.social Mark. Mark. *10 maps??!?*
(just listened to your conversation with @playersaidblog.bsky.social )
August 18, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
maudineormsby.bsky.social
6 player Multiverse with @meeplelady.bsky.social!! @gmtgames.bsky.social
June 21, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
bubbaprog.xyz
you're welcome
May 8, 2025 at 5:52 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
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.
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.
March 22, 2025 at 2:39 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
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
Aftermath of Operation Watchtower in board game "South Pacific"; Japanese player response was badly done. Wargame on a table at hockey practice
March 8, 2025 at 4:47 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
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
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).
February 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
As an East TN native, @djackthompson.bsky.social's Rebels Against Rebellion with @beyondsolitaire.bsky.social was the highlight of my @sdhistcon.bsky.social online - great asymmetric push-pull on a corner of the ACW. #boardwargames
February 9, 2025 at 3:34 AM
stephen.rochelle.name
4P Shikoku 1889 today. I went and made a space to drop a station token to open a productive route and then forgot to place the station - next player blocked it. 4th place 🫠 #boardgames
Final board state for the 18xx train game 1889 set in Shikoku, Japan. Tiles with train tracks are placed around the island. Final scores were in the 5000s except for me at 3900-some.
February 2, 2025 at 4:03 AM
stephen.rochelle.name
Longstreet takes Missionary Ridge at the Battle of Chickamauga in @markherman54.bsky.social @gmtgames.bsky.social Rebel Fury. CSA VP win #boardwargames
Board position at the end of the Chickamauga scenario of Rebel Fury. The Confederate army has pressed the Union back into Chattanooga.
February 1, 2025 at 1:44 AM
stephen.rochelle.name
Study time for a teaching game this weekend. Gotta make sure I'm conversant with how it works in *this* one. #boardgames
Box, contents, and rulebook for the board game Shikoku 1889, a game about building trains, trading stocks, and stabbing the other players in the back via corporate shenanigans. The rulebook is opened to a page titled "The Game Begins" and describes the prices for the initial auction of minor private companies. These auctions are conducted differently across games in the 18xx family.
January 26, 2025 at 2:41 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
Playing introductory scenarios of @leebwood.bsky.social Wing Leader from @gmtgames.bsky.social tonight #boardwargames
End of Wing Leader scenario V03. Broken Soviet fighter squadrons withdraw from the battle.
January 14, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
tkingfisher.com
I was NOT prepared.
January 6, 2025 at 6:00 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
Played Chris Handy's FAR, which has 137% of the meanness of Carcassonne in the tiniest package. #boardgames
Final tableau for FAR, showing a varied landscape. Score is Right/Green 26, Left/Red 22, Bottom/Blue 10.
January 3, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by Stephen Rochelle
mtsw.bsky.social
December 30, 2024 at 2:56 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
Very excited about this pair!
playersaidalex.bsky.social Alexander @playersaidalex.bsky.social · Dec 24
Happy Christmas, and also, 2025 is the year to get into BCS. MMP is reprinting Arracourt (one map/west front), and releasing another Late Dean Essig title Inflection Point (two+ maps/east front) both for great value pre-order prices.
December 24, 2024 at 11:36 PM
stephen.rochelle.name
Welp, guess we're doing this just in time for Christmas
youtu.be/S5ZSDCvUwN8
Shut it Down! Shut it Down Forever!
YouTube video by dustmop
youtu.be
December 20, 2024 at 4:41 PM