Will start playing Thunderbolt/Apache Leader tonight. Decided to stay with solo aviation games. I’ve messed around with this one before, but never quite got comfortable with it. Time for another try. BTW, this is the original, not the updated version that came out a couple of years ago. This will be a time-filler until Tim shows up Friday night for our long-awaited Wavell’s War East Africa Campaign game.
Category Archives: Solitaire
RAF – Latest Scenario Played
Sanity prevailed and I played The Thin Blue Line scenario, rather than the entire campaign. At my rate of play, which is one day per session, it would have been too lengthy a proposition.
The Thin Blue Line begins on August 27 and ends on September 11th. This represents the longest period of sustained German raids.
I was able to attrit the Luftwaffe, but not enough to gain a victory. However, the RAF was in good shape at game’s end with a fairly deep pool of experienced replacement pilots and plenty of replacement aircraft. At the rate things were going, an operational victory was probably two days (of game turns) away.
The hour and day card draws tended to favor the British player. What the British player cannot stand is successive German raids over the period of one game hour, or during the course of a day. The quicker the clock and calendar moves, the better for the RAF.
One thing I started doing a little too late was making sure there were enough British fighters scrambled to attack the bombers, and not just the Me-109 hunter groups. This involved massing planes and taking some risks about subsequent coverage if there were followup raids, or another series of attacks. My warning levels were consistently high which helped, and, once again, the card draw kept the clock moving. It was so similar to historical “Big Wing” theory.
Once bombers are disrupted, aborted or placed in the damage box by a fighter attack, the effectiveness of a raid is greatly diminished. Again, fate did not favor the Germans, with many raids reduced to a low factor attacks, and resulting low levels of damage and victory points.
A great game, and worthy of all the praise it has gathered over the past twenty years. My only complaint is that a couple of charts are buried in the rules, especially the Airfield Operations summary. I will copy this onto a separate sheet the next time I play.
New Dice
As part of the ongoing grappling with solo gaming, I purchased several types of dice over the past few weeks.
The top die is for points of the compass. Could be used for entries for opposing forces, reinforcements, etc.
The row below is to be used for decision making. Which course of action to take?
The big die have various body parts labeled. Great for solo gaming, especially with these guys…..my Warhammer Renaissance Skirmishers. This should eliminate the drudgery of chart reading for “hits”.
The bottom two rows are directional. Useful for creating some type of AI for your opposition force/forces.
All the dice are manufactured by Koplow Games.
Looking forward to coming up with creative ways of using them.
RAF – End Of Scenario Thoughts
Finished up “The Hardest Days” scenario. Lots of fun.
Like many solitaire games, RAF is process oriented. The turn sequence mechanics are the crux of the game, with player decisions taking far less time than in a typical multi-player game.
The obvious reasons are the low counter density, and the player’s active involvement with counter movement is limited to the RAF. Another reason is that many of the mechanics are card driven, without the usual wristage.
The lessons learned during this play through were to take full advantage of the ability of adjacent sectors to patrol in those sectors most threatened, that at least once a day you just have to take a beating, and use everything you can on the last raid of the day.
Squadrons in adjacent sectors can augment patrols. This is a far better use of these assets than waiting for a favorable warning situation which allows the employment of adjacent squadrons in the target sector,.
With followup raids and limited time advances, the RAF will have at least one turn when most of its assets are either landing or rearming. Sending up a single squadron to contest a raid is suicide, so it is best to just sit back, get bombed, and wait until your grounded aircraft become operational.
By the 1800 turn (last of the day), the Luftwaffe has few assets remaining. This can be especially true for fighters. That last raid may comprise only a couple of escorts. If the RAF commander places all of his available assets on patrol, the chances are that he can achieve air superiority for that interception and really do some damage to the bombers. This tactic is so effective that there is actually a rule limiting the number of patrolling squadrons for the 1800 turn.
My game ended in a draw. I might just try the campaign scenario which adds several layers of chrome. Why not?
Renaissance Wargame – The Action Pt 3
What a dog fight! The Poles right wing is shattered, with Tartars enveloping that flank. However, the Dvor Sipahis’ attempts to repulse the Polish Haiduks threatening the Russia rear failed.
The Polish cavalry are now a beaten command, with only the Hussars having a reasonable chance of being steadied. The left flank Pancerni have been attrited and the light cavalry is incapable of any real resistance.
With all that, I still might play a couple more turns to see how the doughty Haiduks fare.
Solo DBR (De Bellis Renationis) Tweaks
Been thinking about my solo play of DBR and ways to artificially interject some variety. By artificially I mean using random generators for a scenario, rather than just pre determining scenario inputs.
I won’t bore you with the overall thought process. What thinking that did take place was random and unfocused, flitting about with all types of tables and charts to reflect temperment, efficiency, and morale by CinC, sub-general, troop type and unit. After messing around with various and increasingly arcane methodologies, it dawned on me that I had to work “inside” the rules, not outside of them.
Let’s assume that Phil Barker is a superior game designer. If that assumption is made, then the parts are connected to the whole and his system, at the very least, abstracts many considerations that are presented in a far more granular manner in other rule sets. Think Gush’s (very good) Renaissance rules.
When this series of assumptions is made, then any changes reflecting my three criteria (temperment, competency, morale) must be inside, or within Rules as Written (RAW).
If the objective is to add variety, but directly and without undue complications, then some general assumptions have to be made.
First and foremost is that the army will reflect the temperment of their general. I’m playing games with about 150-200 points, so only need a CinC. There’s no way I want to get into the business of creating an AI to guide the behaviors of various types of generals. However, I can directly, and within, DBR’s rules guide how the army will behave.
The three categories for the CinC are rash, steady and cautious. Elements or groups in a “rash” army will always followup and pursue, regardless of troop type. A “steady” army will follow RAW, since Barker has built in typical behaviors into his troop types. A “cautious” army will not followup or pursue in any situation.
Individual unit competency will be reflected in their (as Barker puts it) “efficiency”. Units can be up or down graded from the “Superior”, “Ordinary”, and “Inferior” ratings contained in RAW. I did not mess with “Fast” since this seems to be heavily dependent on fighting style. A change in ratings effects combat outcomes, and for shooters, a decrease in effective range. I decided not to downgrade movement for “Inferior” shot units to that of a “Horde”, or from 150 paces to 100.
As with my CinC ratings and effects, morale will be army-wide.
Morale is reflected by changing the criteria for a “Beaten Command”, as well as the rallying and steadying units of a Beaten Command. RAW has an army becoming beaten when casualties exceed one-third of its individual element strength. When this threshold is crossed, groups of elements can be steadied (in that turn, only), if not steadied, the units rout, but can be rallied element by element during subsequent turns. All of this takes Player Initiative Points (PIPs), which are generated by a D6 roll for that turn.
An army with good morale will use the RAW over one-third element criteria. An army with high morale will become beaten with a threshold over forty percent, and an army with low morale will have its threshold drop to over twenty-five percent.
An army with high morale takes one PIP to rally an element or steady a group. An army with good morale takes the RAW two PIPs per, and an army with bad morale takes three PIPs per.
How all of this works in a campaign is another question. I’ll try this out once I finish the current Pole vs. Russian game.
RAF – Initial Thoughts
Finally comfortable enough with the rules to start the “Hardest Days” scenario. This is a highly regarded solitaire game with great reviews. I started out with “Lion”, playing the British.
For a solitaire game, it has a relatively low level of wristage. The game process and progress is, to a large degree, driven by cards; for targets, raid size, raid strength, approach events, target events and passage of time during a raid “day”. Dice rolling is limited to combat results, bombing results, British ability to respond to attacks and weather.
Unlike many other games, the end of a raid does not mean the time clock advances. There can be raid somewhere else over England, or a followup raid on the target just attacked. Have a couple of “0” time advance results, and it makes for a damn long turn, and day.
As a result, the RAF is stretched thin and beat up from the get-go. Their warning system is not good, and this restricts the ability of the RAF to respond in any strength – from adjacent sectors – to a raid. Even a minor raid can leave the RAF out-manned, especially when a sector has been attacked several times during the day. In most instances, the RAF cannot even get to the bombers, having all their assets engaged by German “Hunter” gruppen.
The instructions advertise that the 5-Day, “Hardest” scenario can be played in three hours. Don’t think so. One day takes about an hour, and that’s now that I can play without my nose buried in the rules.
Gonna keeping hacking at it, and see if the game play speeds up. Keep hoping for those “2 Hour” time advance cards. Both the Brits and I need them!
Soviet Dawn
With an increasing focus on Red Actions! this month, it made sense to try out Soviet Dawn. This is a solitaire game I picked up on EBay for a very reasonable price. Originally published by Victory Games, this version was included in GMT’s C3i magazine Issue No. 27.
Was able to play four (!) games this Saturday afternoon. The back story as to why I was able to/did this would bore even the most avid reader.
This is a nice card-driven solitaire game. Easy to set up, with simple rules and plenty of replay value. A good review of the game can be found over at Web Grognards.
Game play is a real juggling act, holding off Germans, Finns, White Russians, Poles and Western Allies while trying to build international political credibility. During the first game, I lost track of the Eastern Front, and allowed Moscow to be captured in just 12 turns (cards).
The next two games featured the blitzkrieg generated by the “Denikin Unstoppable? Objective Moscow!” card. This punisher allows the White Southern Army to advance towards Moscow until defeated. A couple of bad rolls, and you are out of business, especially if you allow the Czar to be rescued when the “Czar’s Fate Decided in Ekaterinburg!” card is played. This gives the Soviets a -1 DRM on all offensive roles. Not good!
The fourth time was the charm. I was able to shut down the Poles, Southern Whites and Finns, while getting some nice rolls on the Soviet Army Reorganization Table, and Political Level Track. Was I lucky?….Sure, but it was nice to beat a very enjoyable and accessible game system.
Game play time is about 20-30 minutes, so with the easy set up, a fun game can be played very quickly in a small space. I also liked the map. Here’s an indifferent IPhone photo.
Highly recommended!