Category Archives: Skirmish

Warfighter – France Expansion: Weapons & Missions

Boardgames, Post World War II, Review, Skirmish, Solitaire

Another day, another post.  Cold mornings with temps in 20s keep from engaging with the Work Farm, and I have the looming tax returns at arm’s length.  So, might as well post up.

The French come with a number of weapons/weapon systems not found in the basic game.  Different personal weapons with similar capabilities of those used by US forces, but crew served machine guns.  The French do have a number of explosive firing options.  The Eryx launcher is intriguing.

The missions are intriguing also, with low load-out limits and a nice mix of small and large resource points to spend.  I’ve included the African Warlords Expansion #32 locations in the following photo

 

Warfighter – France Expansion: Equipment & Skills

Boardgames, Post World War II, Review, Skirmish, Solitaire

Some time ago, I purchased the African Warlords Expansion #32.  Never opened the box.  But, after my more recent plays of Warfighter 2nd Edition, I decided to go all-in and purchase Warlords Expansion #33, as well as France #51.  These sets open any number of new play possibilities.

The France expansion contains a number of new (at least to me) skills and equipment options.  The set also includes an entirely new complement of weapons.  I’ll hold off on discussing the weapons until I’ve used some of the expansion’s unique systems.

The Local Translator card looks to be of some value.  Notice that only one card is for French soldiers, only.  Two of the cards involve hydration and acclimitization.

The African Location Cards add environmental considerations to the game.  Many locations require a D10 roll to determine if the individual soldier or squad is affected by the heat.  If the player must roll equal to or higher than the environmental number to avoid being suppressed or wounded (player’s choice).  The only way to avoid this is to play a “Hardy” token.  This token is contained in later basic game expansions, and covered in the DV Games on-line rules compendium.

The new equipment cards provide a number of options to obtain/expend Hardy tokens and avoid heat effects.  It looks like individual loadouts will involve a maximum use of canteens and hydration packs.  I’ll have to think through cooler placement.

Looking forward to setting this one up.

Good Decision(?)

Boardgames, Post World War II, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

It worked out…..barely.  The Hostile Turn was interesting.

Since  no soldiers were in the location occupied by the hostiles, no reinforcements were drawn.  The still active Leader’s “Inspired” trait allowed each hostile to discard one suppressed marker, so the RPG Team took a shot at Minyard.  The result was two wounds to both him and Sietz.  Fortunately, Minyard’s hand contained a “Take Cover” card  cancelling the attack.  Whew!   The Martyr moved to the location occupied by the other hostiles, leaving the Objective card unoccupied.  Again, no reinforcements were drawn for the Objective because it was unoccupied.  The screen shielding the target had left.

The Team now had one 40mm round  left, so one chance to kill the VIP.  Since this would take a single action by Seitz, both soldiers refreshed/augmented their hand, hoping to draw a card or cards to enhance the attack.  No luck, so only a single Combined Fire card could be used, adding two to the attack role.

In Warfighter, any weapon attack involves both a six-sided and ten-sided die (D6 & D10).  The D6 determines whether the attack “defeats” the target’s cover, while the D10 determines if the target is killed or suppressed.

The Objective has a cover rating of four, with the M203 having a kill number of eight.  higher (the “0” on the D10 counts as a “10”).  A roll of four or more is required to defeat the cover, and eight or more to kill.  If only one number is rolled, then the target is suppressed.  If neither rolled, the target is unaffected.

I rolled a 3D6, and 8D10.  No kill!  Ugh and Oh Well, My My……But, walking away I remembered the M203 has a penetration rating of one.  This is added to the defeat cover roll.  Success!

Next…..On to Africa!

Tough Decision

Boardgames, Post World War II, Skirmish, Solitaire

Had left my Warfighter scenario set up on the dining room table, so I  picked up where I left off….with a tough decision to make.

The decision was whether or not to play the “Stronghold” card as my fourth location, and the last card before activating and engaging the scenario’s objective.

Here’s a photograph with lots of information….along with a semi-coherent account of what happened.

The team’s mission is to  eliminate a VIP from Range 2.  But, in order to do this, the objective has to be activated, and this requires a soldier entering the adjacent location (card).

The team consists of Minyard (action cards to left of play aid, weapons and equipment above his personality card to the right of the play aid) with a M4 carbine, and Seitz (action, personality, weapons and equipment to the right of Minyard)  with an M203 carbine (M4 plus grenade launcher).  The plan is to use Seitz’s grenade launcher to eliminate the VIP.  In Warfighter, each soldier gets two actions per Soldier Turn.  Some cards allow the soldier to perform without using an action.

There is plenty of time left, and good cards to play.  No reason to discard in order to discard and draw for an alternate location card…..or was there?  I decided to go for it, even though activating the Stronghold location triggers the placement of at least seven points of hostiles.

Minyard held the card and used one action to place it.

Well, I drew what you see at the top of the photo.  Two Gunmen, a Radioman, a Leader and an RPG team. The Gunmen have to be killed first as they screen the other bad guys.  Yikes!!  I considered calling it quits, but decided to give the cards a chance.

So…..I used a Move Out  card (no action) for Seitz to enter the Stronghold  location.  This activated the Objective, which calls for a hostile fighter card draw.  My reward was a Martyr Bomber!  That dark cloud did have a silver lining.  A Martyr must move towards the nearest soldier during the Hostile Turn.  So, he would leave the objective ocation, and not serve as a screen for the VIP.  Well, that’s my interpretation.  And, in desperate times, researching Rules As Written (RAW) is not necessarily a priority.

Seitz then engaged one set of gunmen with a hand grenade, using a Snap Shot (again no action) card, killed them both, and moved back – using another Move Out  card – to his previous location.  Seitz engaged the Gunmen  with his M203, and after they were eliminated, suppressed the RPG team with another M40 grenade.  Minyard then suppressed the Radioman, but couldn’t harm the Leader.

Suppressed Hostiles will not be able to attack or move during the upcoming Hostile Turn.  However, the Leader can take action.

Will finish the turn tonight, and hopefully write up the outcome tomorrow.

Kids!

Boardgames, Post World War II, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

Now  playing this great solitaire game.  I had forgotten just how good it is.

Went over to its Boardgamegeek page and downloaded this mini-mat.  Saves so much space!  Now I can comfortably play it at my desk, with the Soldier Player cards and loadout on a small side table.

The usual re-entry fits-and-starts with the rules.  This narrative discussion really helped.  So, with this, the 2nd Edition rulebook, downloaded key terms and universal rules, I had all the resources required to play.

Here’s a quick snap of the first mission of my campaign game.

Notice the Refugee Card?  That ruined everything.  Damn Kids!!!  No auto bursts or explosives.  My M-203 – which I’m counting on to kill the mission’s VIP target and to kill multiple bad guys, is useless.  So, I became bogged down in a gunfight characterized by my die rolls that suppressed, but did not kill.  After one Player-Soldier was wounded twice and  my Mission Timer clicking down, I went into abort mode.

Granted, it is a tough mission with low (41) resource points. But, I’m sure an experienced player would have figured things out.  I’ll use this as a negative score, and do my usual reset.

Lots of fun, though.

Vaporized

Sessions, Skirmish, World War II

Over to Tim’s earlier this week for Up Front.

We’d played it once before a long time ago.  Was surprised, but happy,  when he suggested this for my July visit; especially since I had played it recently.

We set up the first scenario.  Since it does use all of the infantry rules it was perfect for our levels of (in) aptitude.

Since we weren’t using the Flanking Fire or Melee rules, the game became a lengthy positional gunfight.  The only incentive for moving forward was to increase each group’s firepower.

It took over two and one-half decks (scenario ends after the card deck has been played three times) for Tim to break my Americans with fifty percent casualties.

Emboldened by our “success” (which I define as an enjoyable experience without the mind aching turmoil that accompanies, let’s say, Pursuit Of Glory), we set up the same scenario with the  French fighting Italians somewhere in The Alps.  Both these crews have some real limitations when it comes to card draw and discard.  However, I didn’t realize my Italians also have some real weapon deficiencies.  They have to get to Relative Range 2 before their bolt-action rifles have any effect.

It was a short and violent.  I dutifully advanced, he fired, and my two groups were vaporized.  It took only three “hands” and the Italians (who will break at 40 percent casualties) were done.  Here’s a bad pic of the battlefield after it was over.  Notice the Italian casualties (cards) at the bottom left of the photo.

The cards with figures were those that panicked.  The others were KIA.

Regardless, it was a lot of fun and should be more fun using the advanced infantry rules.  Despite my focus on ASLSK, I think Up Front will be on the table quite a few times in the upcoming months.

Old Friend – Up Front

Boardgames, Skirmish, World War II

Tired, frayed, torn and stained……took out Up Front to get reacquainted before my annual sojourn to The Sunfish Capital Of The World.

I hadn’t opened the battered box for quite a while.  Everything was there, including the rules and cards for the Desert War variant.  I’m starting a serious hunt for Banzai later today.

I bought the core game and variants back in the 80’s and from the look of the components, I must have either  a messy pig, or just played the hell out of them.  I want to think it’s the latter.

The reason for the reunion is  I need some quick set-up and play games during my stay.  Gaming space is limited, and there will be visitors.  The dining room table will be for eating, not for board gaming.

Up Front fills that requirement.  It plays in about an hour, with soldier card deployment, action deck shuffling, and marker setup taking about ten minutes maximum.

One problem…..the rules.  They are more involved than I remembered.  But, the time spent reacquainting myself with them, as well as discovering how much I do not remember, has been enjoyable.  After all of these years it’s still a unique system.

Started a quick play of the first scenario, and rediscovered how you don’t learn the rules by reading them, but by playing.

The game is not particularly solitaire friendly.  Solo systems are out there, but I just keep it simple.  Two reasons…. because my memory is shot, and I never look at a discard draw (last action of a player turn) at the time of draw, but wait until it is that side’s turn again.  I’ll call it “limited intelligence”.

Even More Heroes

Boardgames, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, World War II

Set up another DIY scenario for Heroes of Normandie (HoN).

A meeting engagement between two reconnaissance forces attempting to secure a crossroads.

Both sides had a mix of reconnaissance sections, along with infantry support in two halftracks.  The Germans had a motorcycle/sidecar/machine gun , and panzerschreck section.  The US had a Greyhound armored car and Jeep with .50 caliber machine gun.

The scenario length was 8 turns, with turn initiative alternating between sides.  Each side entered on opposite sides (east and west) of the map.  I used event cards, but did not remove any inappropriate ones from the draw decks.  This was a conscious attempt to incorporate them in gameplay, but reduce their possible impact.

It was quite the slugfest both times I played.

If I had set this scenario up in Advanced Squad Leader, my play would be far more constrained, with concerns about doctrine and realism.  Not with HoN.  The cartoonishness that is off-putting for some, seems liberating to me.  I feel encouraged to take more chances; that is within tactical reason.  Maybe it’s the straightforward vehicle rules…….

Here’s a photo of what was left after eight turns.  Most of the vehicles are wrecks, with units huddled in the hedgerows, or in the house at the crossroads.  North at top of photo.

More Heroes

Boardgames, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, World War II

Still having lots of fun with Heroes of Normandie (HoN).

Set up a quick scenario the other night.  Simple objective for the Americans; Get your armor across two boards.  Six turns, but Germans already in  ambush positions.  Same basic forces for both sides, except each now has a tank.

Played it through a few times.  It all boiled down to the last turn or two.  That’s when the German Pz IV and panzerschreck each get a shot  at the US M4 Sherman.  However, the US advance sequence during the preceding turns is critical in order to get infantry in position to support.  To make things even more difficult, I ran a scenario where the US had to also get an infantry unit off-board.

Did not use cards.  Drew them, though.  What wild outcomes they could have produced!  Need to reconcile my need for order with even more possible fun and confusion.  I’m not in a hurry to resolve this psychological conundrum.  I think a reading of the solitaire rules published on Boardgamegeek may be in order.

Simple, but interesting and fun.  Here’s a bad pic taken before the final game turn, with the Germans having initiative and Americans hoping to get to their turn with the tank still operational.  Cell phone is holding down a non-compliant map corner.

Not Bad

Boardgames, Miniatures, Skirmish, World War II

Back from a fun 2+ week trip to (and recovery from) Joshua Tree NP and Organ Pipe NM.  Weather could have been better.

Have started playing Heroes of Normandie (HON)again.  I like this game, and I stress the word “game”.  Not a simulation, but still a challenge.  Beautiful components.  Just follow the Tag for my earlier impressions.

I realized during this latest play iteration that understanding the game’s rules and flow was all about the symbols.  In a typical hex and counter game, counter symbols are sparse, and aside from attack/defense/movement, provide little information concerning the  connection with the rules.  In HON, the unit counter is loaded with symbols involving literally every action that unit can take.  Understand the symbols, and you just play.  Very similar to Kriegsspiel, and makes for a far different  learning curve.

I’m using the updated, and cleaned up, rules found in the HON Compendium, as well as the Action Cards.  Need to read up on the solitaire guidance concerning the cards as how to handle them has been a little problematic.

Going to enjoy this for another week and then probably shift over to WW2 coastal naval combat.