It’s a point-and-shoot. Part of the appeal. Germans barely stoppable, and the Soviet body count just grows and grows. But they just keep coming…..and that changes the German commander’s view about four turns in. How In The Hell do I stop them? So you keep looking at the table twice a day.
That’s the other part of the appeal. You appreciate Heinz G’s Quandry.
Here’s an excellent link. I wish they had kept at it.
https://grognard.com/zines/sr/spi_no1.pdf
Want to take a minute to extoll the virtures of this ruleset. Is it the greatest ever……well, no. But, it is what it is and an excellent value.
The rules are just a part of what you get. There is a whole series of stand-alone scenarios, characters to develop, diagrams of buildings, and another set of scenarios that can be combined in a campaign game.
Everyone has there preferences, but I have no desire to try another of western skirmish rules.
TAD at The Sunfish Capitol Of The World. It’s a holding area for some of my older AH games. Never know when there will be a couple of boring rainy days.
Set up The Arab-Israeli Wars, the final iteration of the Panzer Blitz Series. When I opened the box, I discovered three old envelopes containing the counters for Situations (they didn’t call them Scenarios back then) 2, 3 and 4. Have no idea when I last played. So….start at the beginning.
Before all of that, I read the rules. Three levels; Beginning, Standard and Advanced. Each layers on unit capabilities and additional types of units, even including fixed wing and rotary aircraft. The usual foodgroups for tactical armor games; direct fire, indirect fire, overrrun, and close assault.
Scenarios reflect increasing complexity and number of units. Counters are large and easy to read, maps are bland, but functional. On the other hand, what can you do with the desert? Well, someone did get creative with Bar Lev.
(In)Famously Psychadelic!
In short, what’s not to like for a reasonable armored combat simulation that doesn’t bog you down?
My only gripe is that the charts are on a double-faced fold out requiring all kinds of fiddling to work with…..and some genius included the turn track. But, the genius did add dotted lines so the track can be cut away from the charts.
It’s sunny now, but will still get in a few plays. Here’s a photo of the whole shooting match. Excuse the E-Bay Listing Approach.
Opened up a box and it jumped right out at me! “It” is an old S&T magaizine game, Saipan.
Why not? It’s solitaire and is the first game I’ve ever played that has any of my old units in it (2/24 and HQ 24th Marines).
It’s another slog. Wristage and more wristage; have to reduce 88 (yes 88!), Japanese fortifications, plus the chance of encountering Japanese troops every hex you move into (except destroyed fortifications). Lots of rolling to do. I can handle that, but what’s vexing is the step losses. Yes, one has to use numbered chits to designate losses. Ugh.
All that griping aside, the system seems viable, with NGF, Air support, Japanese coastal defenses, and reasonable command and control (called Lines Of Communication) rules for Division and Regimental HQs. All in all, the game seems a reasonable representation of a meat grinder of a campaign.
I have Bloody Buna on the table and now this damn thing. It is a rut! Need to get an East Front game out (and not Stalingrad) next!
Mangled Turn 1, forgetting Japanese reactions to Marine movement. But, it was an easy re-set. Will try it again tonight.
Been playing another small game. It’s a game with a war theme, so I guess it is a war game. Realism…….not so much. Entertainment and Fun……so much.
It’s Pocket Landship, a PNP game I stumbled across over at Boardgamegeek.
The link is for the updated version, with more options and better graphics. The original looks like this when set up.
Game is simple and elegant. In the basic game, you control one Landship, with three components – Hull, Sponson, and Gun. The enemy has six random elements, including infantry, artillery and other land ships. Only the front three are in play at any one time. Roll three die for the enemy. Assign lowest die to the left unit, and other two in ascending order. See what happens. For your Landship, roll three die and allocate as best you can. If you destroy one enemy element, another moves up. Last Man Standing wins.
Fun and compact. As the say, a great “filler” game. Just like TAC, buy this one before it gets snapped up, pimped up, and priced up!
Undertook a mini project when TAD. It was TAC – Table Air Combat.
This is a simple, fun, inexpensive WWII aerial combat game with a wide variety of aircraft types. It can be found over at Wargamevault.
You get a PDF copy of the rules with each aircraft type. The PDF is very well done. Other help is available for free download.
The aircraft maneuvering card includes all the information you need to fly the aircraft, so after a few plays, and familiar with the general rules, you can seamlessly transition to any aircraft you like.
The counters show a single aircraft on one side, and two aircraft on the other I’m thinking about mounting 1/700 aircraft on a counter for a 3-D effect.
Speaking of 3-D, the system incorporates “energy” as a means of simulating vertical maneuver. The concept is simple, an aircraft can gain energy by climbing (reducing linear movement), which allows it to gain speed in a dive.
The footprint is very small, making it a great travel game.
For what it is…..it’s great!
Snow and sickness can lead to some desperate measures. After FAB I opened a shrink wrapped time capsule…..The Alamo: Victory In Death.
It’s not like my recent games. Yes, there is a lot of wristage, but with counters and a map that contains all of the charts. So 1980’s, and so appreciated.
Here’s a great overview at Boardgamegeek.
This game is well-suited for solitaire. I used a die to determine where the Mexicans were to attack.
But, it can be tedious, with many die rolls for shooting and melee combat. However, the tension factor is excellent, especially when the defenders have to fall back from the walls to defend the interior of the mission.
I still am badly confused by the rules concerning Mexican losses that result in an immediate Texas victory during the first five turns.
Here’s a picture of the setup
Really enjoying Supply Lines Of The American Revolution .
Bought it with some Christmas money after having read the excellent reviews and perusing the Hollandspiele website . That site is a fun place with several intriguing titles .
It’s a real puzzler of the game and a departure from a card-driven or hex and counter game .
The map is attractive with the counters more than serviceable. I do like the wooden cubes. The rules are well organized, but what really makes things work is the online example of play posted by the designer to the game’s Boardgamegeek page. Invaluable.
However, by the time I was well into the first turn I started getting uncomfortable . A great game, but it’s solo playability, for me, is marginal . It’s a cat and mouse affair begging for two players, not one trying to outguess himself .
I’ll set it up again and try a scenario in which the British focus on a specific course of action ie. attack down the Hudson Valley…..just like Gentleman Johnny B. We’ll see how that goes .
Set up and have started playing another Brian Train post-WW1 game, Finnish Civil War. Good game.
It’s a smaller scale game, focusing on companies and battalions. There is a separate set of rules for regiments/brigades, but the former best fits the conflict. While it follows the rules template used in Konarmiya and Freikorps, there is conflict-specific chrome.
The Events Phase not only has a die roll for random events, but also a determination for peace talk progress between the Soviets and Germans. The progress of these talks can trigger German intervention, or Russian withdrawl.
The Operations Phase uses chit pulls, rather than I-Go, U-Go based on highest morale initiative. Each side gets three operations segments. Units may either move overland, use rail movement, or conduct combat. Overland movement is very, very slow given weather and terrain. Zones of control only effect rail movement.
As with the other games, Political Rules effect morale which, in turn, effects operations and combat.
The companies have low combat strengths. So far, developing high odds attacks has been difficult. The Finns can use replacement points to build battalions. This should be a real advantage, and one I am looking forward to seeing in action.
Victory is determined by which side controls the most cities and towns.
Here’s a picture depicting the start of Turn 3.
Title reminds me of…….
Enjoying another session with Warfighter.
Started thinking about one of its modern tactical mission predecessors, Ranger.
What a difference, and not just the programmed text aspect of Ranger, but in the treatment of mission planning and execution.
Warfighter focuses on team selection. Sure, Ranger has that planning aspect also, but it goes into greater depth as the soldiers literally “acquire” skills during their pre-mission refresher training. In Warfighter, they come with their skills.
Ranger’s planning phase also involves route selection, and not simply blind movement to contact. Warfighter’s card allocation and flow allows little in the way of route planning. You can avoid a certain piece of terrain or place, but at the cost of time loss. That’s an acceptable abstraction, but Ranger focuses more on avoiding contact. After all its subtitle is “Modern Patrolling Operations.”
Warfighter is all about combat. As one reviewer over at Boardgame Geek put it, and I quote rather loosely, it’s “the analog version of Call To Duty”. Ranger’s combat is not as involved or relentless.
The tension in Ranger is “what might I run into next”. The tension in Warfighter is “how many of these bastards am I going to have to shoot next”.
Apples and Oranges. But, wouldn’t it be nice to combine the two?