All posts by Ralph

Speaking of Vortexes – Pt 2, or Dancing on the Head of a Pin

Aircraft & Vehicles, World War II

So much for the master plan cited in my last post.

Had some extra cash, found the Zvezda models cheap, with low shipping, at The War Store.  Couldn’t resist.

Continued my research on how to paint the tanks, and ran into this and this.  With the cheap tank savings, I paid a premium to get the “right” paints.

More research on painting led me to not only the FOW website, but also Warlord Games.  The Warlord site was really helpful with articles on painting the Sherman, and German tanks.

Started painting the Shermans.  There is literally no difference in the colors so hotly debated in my research.  Jeez, what am I trying to do?  All of this shading, washing, dry brushing etc?  Does it really matter?  Nice coat of olive drab, light dry brush, paint the tools, get some dirt on the damn thing and DONE.  Are the “right” paints really going to make a difference?

The right and left sides of my brain are screaming at each other.

Speaking of Vortexes….

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures, World War II

Last post I described the descent into ASL.  Not content to stop there, am in a controlled free-fall into another gaming vortex.

Just like the aircraft fetish described earlier, I have developed one about armor skirmish games using interwar/early WW2 tanks. This has been about 6-12 months in the making.  First thought about ASL, but that was too complicated.  The Infernal Machines module for Landships has interwar armor, but it is also a complicated board game.  The old SPI Kampfpanzer has flaws and can be spendy.  I really wanted miniatures, not cardboard.

Then I started messing around looking at  Shapeways’ 3D models, which come in a variety vehicles and scales, but are not cheap.  Here’s a link to one provider. Lots of possibilities, but I was having trouble finding rules that were fast, fun and in no-way -shape-or-form like Tobruk.

Somehow, someway I found Tanks.  The game is a late war, 15mm,  skirmish-game offshoot of Flames of War (FOW), but uses plastic models that are easy to assemble.  The starter pack is relatively inexpensive, and you can even read download the rules from their website. Also, the scale (more about that later) is compatible with all the FOW stuff that’s out there.  Here’s the Boardgamegeek page with reviews. I’d summarize it as a miniatures, tank skirmish, version of Heroes of Normandie (HON), without some of the hyperbole.

Each tank has a capabilities card, which can be augmented by crew-members with varying skills.  The components are first class, and even include some good quality (again, think HON) 2D terrain pieces.  As earlier mentioned, I found assembly very easy, with plenty of painting guides at the Tanks homepage.   You can even build different versions of each tank.  The Sherman was a little more problematic.  I wound up going over to the FOW website for more , especially when in comes to peripheral items.  The basic instructions are, well, basic.

For earlier tanks it will be a matter of making up my own cards.

My initial purchase included the Starter Set, which has two Shermans and a Panther, as well as a M10 Tank Destroyer and PZ IV. The individual tanks (which come with cards) are about $10.00 each.  The folks at Amazon offered Zvezda PV IVs at $4.95 each, so I grabbed a couple.

I discovered that Zvezda offers a number of early war British, German and Russian tanks and at a lower price than their FOW counterparts.  Fantastic!  Ahhhhhh…..but there’s scale. The Zvezda tanks are 1/100, which is a little over 16mm.  The Tanks models are supposedly 15mm.  OK, not very much difference, right?  Take it from me, the Tanks models are noticeably larger than the Zvezdas, and they should be smaller!

Now to the controlled descent part of the post……..

Step 1:  Finish up Starter Set and the two Tanks models.  Start play in a late-war mode. Gauge enjoyment (it’s not a simulation).

Step 1a:  Download paper building models and/or use HON terrain buildings.  If all of this is fun, go to Step 2.

Step 2:  Buy Zvezda models.  BTW, they are “snap fit”, with few pieces, good fit, and detail enough for me.  Mess around with cards and enjoy France 1940 and Russia 1941 skirmishes.

Step 3:  Shapeways for Japanese tanks (vs. Russians 1939 or Chinese), as well as fictional interwar fights using early British tanks/tankettes.

Hope to finish up assembly/prime/black base coat  of all Step 1 models this weekend.

Geek, Dweeb or Spazz?

Boardgames, Uncategorized

Sucked into the vortex that is Advanced Squad Leader.  Feel like one of the characters in the classic SNL skit when  organizing counters in plastic containers.

The slippery slope began with Starter Kit #1.  The slide accelerated with the decision to play a couple of scenarios from Partisan. Why Partisan?  It’s been sitting on the shelf for about 4 million years, is infantry only, with low counter density.  The deal was closed when I read this review in Boardgamegeek.  It’s my fondness for un/semi-loved games.

The GDSpazz-iness started because the partisan counters aren’t in the Partisan game.  Huh?  Yes, this predecessor to Armies of Oblivion only contains generic axis allies counters.  The partisan counters are in Beyond Valor.  I bought Beyond Valor loose, bagged and without a box about 4 million years ago.  So, started separating Russians to get the Partisans.  Since I was involved in the process, it seemed logical to take care of the German infantry, too.

Now that I have them organized, might as well get some of the play-aide and marker counters organized.   Why play when you can while always the hours fiddling with cardboard?  Croix de Guerre beckons.

Tim’s Take

Boardgames, Sessions,

Tim sent me his (always trenchant) comments.  Here they are:

    • I was curious about how much population is contained in city spaces (14).  In light of this weekend’s games, a good strategy for the US is to focus on pacifying the cities (14 x 2= 28) and keeping the commitment low (you had 22 available troops), as it is hard for the insurgent player to counter.  I had trouble moving guerrillas into the cities and keeping them alive…
    • A good counter to the above strategy is to kill off US troops.  I didn’t do a very good job of hunting them down (and you were good about not putting them in exposed positions).  I had hoped to run some bombardment operations but either my troops were in the wrong place or I had to do something else…
    • Another possible counter is the one I stumbled upon in the last game: the VC wins the hearts and minds of the countryside and just enough of the cities to get the win.
    • I was surprised at how the lack of resources really hampers the insurgent player.  I got a little frustrated during the first game because it seemed just when the NVA was ready to intervene, you would play an event card to either reduce or eliminate their resources.
    • The ARVN and VC were much more active in this weekend’s games than in our earlier games, which were dominated by the US and the NVA.  The VC ability to subvert enemy troops makes them fun to play (you showed admirable forbearance in the face of my constant cries of ‘terror and subvert’….).  The ARVN troops gave me trouble in the second game and played a big role in holding the line until you could bring your airstrikes to bear.
    • I missed a trick when I didn’t move the NVA troops into provinces that supported you.  I know you would have bombed them anyway, but the price would have been higher.
    • Did you know that NVA troops can be used for terror operations?  I didn’t notice that until midway through the second game (there is a lot of nuance in this game).  I wonder if it would be a good idea for the NVA to send in small groups of troops for terror ops and maybe picking off the occasional enemy unit.
    • Did you know that NVA guerrillas can set up in the south?  For some reason, I’d gotten it in my head that they couldn’t.
    • I kept too many units back to defend bases.  I probably should have pushed more units forward into the fray…I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put more than one base in area so as to cut down on the numbers of defenders.

 

Maximum Effort

Boardgames, Sessions,

Tim came over the mountain last Saturday for a weekend of wargaming.   Spent Saturday afternoon/evening catching up and turned to on Sunday.  Many Private Reserves and Blue Boars were consumed.

Completed two (yes, two!) games of the two-player version of Fire in the Lake.  Finished up at 2310.  How?  We actually stayed on task (no football, especially if you count The Pro-Bowl), and the Coup Cards popped up sooner rather than later.  Coup Cards determine the end of a turn and also the an accounting for determining victory points.

There were three consistent threads in our talks during the games.  The first was how different the character of each game was, and the accompanying re-playability.  It’s a spendy game, but sure worth it.

The second was how tough it was to play.  Not the rules, how the card flow created the decisions that had to be made under less than ideal operational conditions.  There never seemed to be a direct path to accomplishing mission goals.  Who was that, Wolfe?  “War is an option of difficulties.”

The third focused on how each of the four sides had conflicting goals, and the impact on operations and results.  This is a great four player game.  The problem is finding four players.

US strategy emphasized pacification (with accompanying support), using air strikes and irregulars to attrit communists.  This was accomplished using a minimum of US troops.  ARVN troops would sweep to locate enemy guerrillas, so they could be bombed, with ARVN Rangers raiding provinces to destroy guerrillas.  In both games, the South Vietnamese were used to attain US victory points.

Both communist factions are hampered by a lack of resources.  As a result, their operations featured taxes, but also using terror to reduce support.  Infiltration was another favorite tactic since ARVN troops or police could be eliminated or “flipped”.

Both games followed the historical pattern of the US/ARVN forces controlling cities and VC controlling the countryside.  The first game was a US victory, the second was a tie between  the US and VC.

Great weekend of gaming with a great game.  Here’s photo of the end-game for game number 2.

Entry Level And On A Budget

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures

The Dollar Store is my favorite place to buy fun Christmas Stocking Stuffers.

Had an aerial combat fixation last December.  Don’t know how many hits on Tumbling Dice’s 1/600 aircraft fantasizing about a early WW2 campaign with all the obsolete/obsolescent planes of the late 1930’s.  Then became fixated on Wings of Glory/War for WW1 action.  Lots of time and lots of expense for a questionable solo gaming project.

Back to The Dollar Store….  While rooting around for goodies found (Yes, for $1 each) five piece bags of each of these whacked beauties.

The orange critter does look like a modern jet, while the “Blue Thing” reminded me of SuperCar.

“What the hell, it’s only $2, and it might be fun”.

Well, it was, and while not to everyone’s taste, the results are shown below.

I used an index card to fabricate horizontal and vertical stabilizers for “The Thing”, and then channeled an SS officer who was a Pointillist to come up with the modern jet’s camouflage.  Picked up a tip on the net (forget where) and used light blue with blue Vallejo wash for the canopies.  Works OK.

The next problem is toy-like jet aircraft rules to fit the models.  Cannot be serious with these guys.  Will mess around with that while painting up two more.

Not For The Faint Of Heart

Boardgames, Sessions

Been hacking away at D-Day At Omaha Beach by Decision Games.  Highly regarded over at Boardgamegeek.

Since it’s solitaire, several charts and card draws used each turn.  No dice, however.  Reminds me of RAF, and it should since it has the same designer.  Also reminds me of In Magnificent Style, as you take a beating, only this time on the beaches.  I’m just trying to keep all  the graphic Saving Private Ryan scenes out of my head (no, won’t insert a link to that).

Right now, the hacking part is playing through the rules, with little regard to tactics/beating the system.  Reading them is always the easy part.

The development team did everyone a favor by creating an introductory scenario using only the 1st Division and half the map.  While the separate color examples of play pamphlet is very helpful, it would be better to get the full GMT-Type Playbook treatment when beginning to play.

Seems to deserve all of the praise it’s received.  Will continue to split board game time with this and ASLSK.

Food For Thought

Boardgames, General

Recently purchased “Custer’s Luck”.  Found out it could be played solitaire.  Very reasonable price, just slightly more expensive than a pint of beer.

While researching the game, I came across an interesting article by Charles Vasey over at Boardgamegeek.  I also read the posted comments about the game.   People either love it or (mostly) hate it.  Actually sounds best (now) as a multi-player game.

Vasey’s perspective is an interesting one, despite his caricature of an Ordered Gamer’s personal life.   Today, Experience Gamers might be characterized as interested in narrative flow.  Both Ordered and Experienced Gamers enjoy games that closely follow historical outcomes or their personal bias toward narrative/outcome.  Any uncertainty is limited to replayability, and often this categorization is predicated on the number of variety of scenarios, not the replay of the same scenario.

Chaos Gamers want nothing of it.  Any historical setting must be basic in the extreme, with limited constraints.  Game flow is unpredictable with outcomes varied in both impact and timing.  To me, this involves a level of impartiality that is difficult if not impossible to attain.  I know I have favorite units, sides, and the need for one side to attain an outcome.  It takes discipline not to re-roll for an event that shouldn’t have happened.

The upshot of this is that I’ll try to categorize my gaming experience, starting a game with the pre-condition that it meets one (and only one) of Vasey’s categories.  Good Luck with that, Ralph.

 

 

Command Decision

Medieval, Miniatures

Took down the Irregular Wars battlefield over the weekend,  opening up table space.  Nature abhors a vacuum, so I set up D-Day At Omaha Beach (still thrashing through the rules), and DBA (De Bellis Antiquitatis) to go along with my latest ASLSK scenario.

I have the DBA 2.0 rules, along with the wonderful 2.2 play-aide published some years ago by the Washington Area DBA Gamers.

It’s been awhile, so I started poking around about DBA 3.0.  The cost at $38.00 was just too much.  So, I did a little more digging and came up with this.    What the hell, I downloaded the Kindle version and started reading.

It’s a nice little book, and a good introduction to the significant changes to the system.  It even includes a series of army lists based on time period and potential adversaries/allies.

But…….no diagrams to illustrate the always interesting Barker narrative style.  For diagrams, you pay $38.00, and I need the diagrams.  Sixteen of them, and by all accounts very informative.   Reviewers also laud the extensive (500) army lists, many of them revisions that change not only an army’s troop type but also basing.

If I was playing in tournaments, or had a crew that played DBA, I’d go all-in.  But for solo play, it just isn’t worth it.  I’ll putz along with 2.2.  Can use the time/money on other projects.

Picked late medieval armies for a mini-campaign.  Late Swiss, Imperial German, and two Condottiere armies.  The Swiss are pike of course,  and the Imperial Germans have war-wagons.  One Condottiere army’s knights will fight dismounted, the other mounted.

So,  some variety and the prospect of quick and entertaining fights.

Taking A Breather

East African Renaissance Campaign, Miniatures, Renaissance, Sessions

Putting Irregular Wars away for awhile.  Good stopping point, with a need to determine the outcomes after the Battle At The Oasis Of Olufunke.

What happens to Lord Renaldo’s army?

1) Disintegrates/Retreats to coast; 2) Alliance with Natives; 3) Fight Natives; 4)Alliance with Bey Mahir to fight Sultan Efe.

What happens to the victorious Bey Mahir?

1) No further action; 2) Attacks Natives; 3) Alliance with Natives and/or 4) Attacks Sultan Efe:

What happens to Sultan Efe?

1) Decided after Lord Renaldo/Bey Mahir outcome(s).

Do Ming Chinese become involved?

1)  Yes/No; 2)  If Yes, how?

Do Natives become involved?

1) Decided after Lord Renaldo/Bey Mahir outcomes(s).

We’ll see…..