Monthly Archives: March 2026

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.

Back At It…..

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Home after three weeks in better weather.

Fired up my Vassal Panzergruppe Guderian (PGG) project.  Actually read the Simonsen article.  Discovered my initial efforts were all wrong.  According to Redmond, the Soviets were defending too far forward, and the Germans not moving east fast enough.

Chastened,  I finished up Game Turn 1 using (I hope) the proper courses of action.  Here’s some screen shots.  By the way, you have to rename the each Vassal photo with a .jpg suffix in order to view/upload.

Soviet forces have moved east from their initial positions at the west map edge(s), and are using rail movement to move reinforcements so as to build defensive positions west of Smolensk.  The Soviets initially placed in Smolensk rolled a six, and could not activate/move.

Germans moving at speed to the east, but attacking the Soviet rear guard threatening their supply lines.

Germans were able to ZOC kill the Soviets, but were lucky.  The blocking force (Soviet unit strengths not known until moment of combat) was strong – 13 total combat factors – but placed out of supply, so halved for combat.  The German armored divisions then exploited east, while the motorized divisions used their second movement phase of the turn to pin Soviet units posing a potential threat to the German right flank.

This is going to be interesting……