Category Archives: Solitaire

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East African Renaissance Campaign, Miniatures, Renaissance, Sessions, Solitaire

Used the cards shown in my Zapped! post to get the East African Renaissance Campaign off dead center.

Worked fairly well, but the results were mundane.  Had been hoping for a civil war situation, which is the result of both colonial powers being supported by the Zanj or Inland Natives.

Here’s the results:

Ming Chinese

Natives are helpful neutrals, and will provide access to their cities and supplies.  The Zanj are neutral but open to other offers.  Government support is weak, and their initial troop strength is 10 bases.  Their primary objective is a port, with inland towns as their secondary and tertiary objectives.

Portuguese

The Natives are neutral, but open to others.  The Zanj are uncooperative and will fight if attacked or territory occupied.  The Portuguese also have weak government support, and only 10 bases.  Their primary and tertiary objectives are ports, with an inland town a secondary objective.

I’ll start using the Irregular Wars rules to set up some operational parameters.

 

Raid on St. Nazaire

Boardgames, Sessions, Solitaire

Finally started playing this one.  Read about it over at Boardgamegeek.   I also downloaded the indispensable  Avalon Hill General V0l 24, Issue 4, for explanations and a very helpful replay.

Just getting started is one of the toughest aspects of wargaming.  Sometimes, reading the rules (or just skimming them) seems to be an end in-and-of itself.  What a trap!  No, you have to play the damn thing, and the first two turns will be laborious with the rules in one hand, and charts in the other,  but, if it is a good game, you’ll start looking forward to playing it.  If it’s not good…..either another try sometime in the future, or recycle it.

Had one very abortive half-turn, and then finally figured a few things out.  Again, the replay really helped.

Took relatively few casualties on Turn 1 (and this game goes for undetermined period of time – until the last British unit is eliminated and/or withdrawn).  This is part to two luck hits on German defenses.  The Campbeltown is burning (inevitable), a few boats had turn-away results, but only the Falconar is on fire.  The Boyd badly hurt the German defenses by  managing to sink the flak ship Sperrbrecher, with its two cannon batteries.  I’ve got four boats, and the Campbeltown moving towards their landing areas.

Not a bad start.  Will start Turn 2 after today’s ballgames.

Zapped!

East African Renaissance Campaign, Miniatures, Renaissance, Solitaire

Finally back at the Pine Cone Lodge, and have spent the past few days setting up projects for the Fall gaming season.

My IPad locked up over the trip and required drastic measures to return to operational condition.  And yes, I had not backed it up.  Stupid.  In a flash, I lost all my back issues of Miniature Wargaming and lots of other stuff.

Stung and motivated, decided to plow ahead with my Renaissance East Africa campaign game without notes and resources.  Set up a solo-decision making chain for the initial scenario.

The overarching concept is that the Ming Dynasty continued their ocean going voyages when proposed in 1477.  They encounter the Portuguese as far north as Malindi, Kenya circa 1510.  The Chinese had visited this city back in 1417, with the Portuguese arriving in 1498.  I don’t have Kenyan native figures, but I’ll make my other Sub-Saharan forces do.

The rough/beta decision making chain shown here involves the reaction of Inland Native and Coastal Arab Zanj trading cities.  Will they ally themselves with one group, cooperate, or remain strictly neutral?  OK, it’s backwards, but the scanner is cranky.

Other considerations to be worked on are levels of government support, and reactions of groups that might lead to a civil war.

More to follow.

 

Patton’s Best Pt 2

Boardgames, Solitaire

On the road again and this is a late post.

Started the campaign game, which didn’t last long.  An 88mm anti-tank gun blew “Ripper” up on the second day of combat.  All unspotted AT guns are treated as 88s until spotted.  This one wasn’t, I didn’t use smoke and get the hell out of there, so (in Tim’s words) “Blammo”!

Definitely hooked on the game.  Fairly comfortable with the rules and sequence of play.  It’s heading back to Central Oregon, and will be set up on return.

Patton’s Best

Boardgames, Solitaire, Uncategorized

 

Patton’s Best (PB) lies somewhere near the other end of the solo spectrum from In Magnificent Style. I would characterize it as “accessibly granular”. An excellent review can be found here.

 I received this game as a gift in the late 90s. It has languished since then, even exiled to The Lake. However, the continuing bad weather was enough motivation to get it on the table and start punching counters.

 The rules are organized, but lack a play-thru to help synthesize an understanding of the many steps involved. While an outline of the daily sequence is printed on the mounted map (along with several charts and Battle Board), one has to jump around between three other charts and brief explanations in the rules to gain a rudimentary understanding of game flow. It took several hesitant steps to get semi-comfortable with how to proceed.

 Like its cousin, B-17, PB is best played as a mini or full campaign and not a one-off, although the rules allow for interesting daily missions. The elusive (it’s appended to the back of the After Action Report Pad, and took an internet search to locate) Combat Calendar breaks the Northwest European Campaign down into operational segments with differing tempos of operations, weather and missions.

 PB has a great deal of replay value. The wide variety of German weapons, areas for combat, and types of Shermans (18!!!), make for any number of trials and tribulations for the crew. The After Action Report allows for good narrative and character development. A fine example of this is the “Spring Chicken” saga over at Web Grognards.

 I’ll be digging into this one over the next several days. Might even bring it back to Central Oregon.

In Magnificent Style

Boardgames, Solitaire

Never been much of a video game player. However, a long time ago I developed a serious addiction to Space Invaders. After school I’d head home, fire up the Atari, and hammer away at those lock-stepping aliens. After a month or so, I was slaughtering them at the cyclic rate.

 Now the shoe’s on the other foot….I’ve been playing “In Magnificent Style”, Victory Games’ treatment of Pickett’s Charge. And, the slaughter has been immense.

 This is a well received game, as indicated by the reviews Boardgamegeek.  And, rightly so. But, to play it, one needs to be a glutton for punishment.

Confederate fortunes can change in an instant. A once orderly advance will deteriorate into a tactical shambles if the die rolls go wrong, or there is a series of unfortunate chit pulls. And, those instances will happen. The best considered prudent, or wild and audacious, advance will crumble given the time, distance and firepower challenges facing Longstreet’s Corps.

Still, the game has as strange allure. Part of it is the easy set-up, nice components, quick playing time, uncertainty, and need for only one chart sheet. And, as stated earlier, it is an elegant design.

 I think it would make a great tournament game. Get about six players, and have them play three games each. Have plenty of beer available, and watch the players implode and explode when things start “going south”. It would be theatre.

Renaissance Skirmish Rules – Resolution?

Miniatures, Renaissance, Solitaire

Out on the road for the past week. Long drives. Had some time to think about the skirmish rules.

Will stick with RAW’s basic framework but will rely on the dice to determine the probability of actions not covered, but intuitively needed.

The “Yes, No” dice will take care of questions such as “Can he fire this turn or must he reload?”, or “Is there a modification for this moving target?”, or “Can he add pistol to melee strength”.

Don’t want to bogged down in charts and modifiers. Will add gallop (walk, then trot, then gallop), but other than that.  Just play the game and rely on common sense.  Will see how it works.

ADD or Schizo?

Boardgames, Solitaire

Don’t answer that…….

Had to take both games down Monday morning.  Reasons aren’t worth going into.

Put Thunderbolt/Apache Leader back up and made it through one turn.  Limited myself to cannons & rockeyes in order to simply things concerning line of sight rules.  Just grinding without any regard for results, just grasping the rules.

Speaking of rules, plowing through Dambuster’s flight rules.  Will get that up on the table again.

Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid

Boardgames, Sessions, Solitaire

Finally put down the rules and started to play last night.  Heavy lifting.  The download mentioned in the previous post was absolutely necessary.  Do not start playing this game without it.  Why?

When I went through my teacher training early in the millenium the rage was about learning styles.  There were seven of them.  Each learning style was to be used (if possible) in the lesson plan because each student has different ways of accessing the material presented in the lesson.

Well, my learning style(s) certainly did not mesh with the RAW for Enemy Coast Ahead.  I’ve been cutting back on the booze, so I think I have my wits about me, but  discerning game flow was damn near impossible.

It took a few days to figure out that the BACK of the scenario contained important set up information, especially as to where on the map to place critical counters.

The game-aid cards (with one each for the planning, flight and attack portions of the game), have all kinds of information not accessible (at least to me) in the rules.

As a result, the first play through involved juggling the rules, scenario, attack player aid card, and the download on my IPad.  Again, get the damn download!!!

I think I have it now, and it is fun once you struggle through it.

What a difference from the Thunderbolt/Apache rules.  With these rules, you can start reading and play right up to the primary attack phase.  There things get a little stickier, but the introduction is easy and painless.

Hoping my next session is easier.

 

 

On Deck – Revisited

Boardgames, Solitaire,

Earlier this month I set up Thunderbolt/Apache Leader.  Made it through part of one turn before it came down for the Wavell’s War East African Campaign.

Set it back up the other day and started going through the rules.  Short term memory is shot.

However, competition arrived in the form of Enemy Coast Ahead: The Dambuster Raid.  This is a solitaire, GMT game, with great looking components and programmed rules.  I am working on Scenario 5, which is the “newbie’s” scenario.

The Errata and Scenario 5 Replay download is extremely helpful.

Will work on both over the next few days.  Should be fun with two well considered solo games on the table.