Category Archives: Solitaire

TSATF – Last Move

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

Rolled for Boxer resistance on the last two ridges.  None on one ridge, and one, passive, unit -with only four riflemen, on the other.

Don’t need to play this out.  Marines will simply engage at a distance, and force them off.

This game turned out well.  I’m fairly satisfied with my solo adjustments for Boxer placement, strength and aggressiveness.

I did roll for Marine casualties.  Four of the eleven lightly wounded are now considered seriously wounded.  Add those to the four KIA and other three seriously wounded, and the Marines took roughly 1/3 casualties.  High price.

Well, time to put them back in their cabinet and start playing Husaria.

TSATF Skirmish Continues

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

Well, maybe not that interesting at first, but later the situation became too interesting for the Marines.

The Boxers failed the morale check needed to charge the Marines occupying the west ridge line;  ran off the ridge and went prone/pinned.  Elsewhere the firefight continued, with both sides sustaining casualties.  Surprisingly, the retreating Boxer unit rallied on a die roll of “1”.

Here’s photo of the situation.

The riflemen of the rallied Boxers turned to engage the Marines moving through the saddle, while the remainder charged and closed with the Marines to their front.  The Marines moving through the saddle, in turn, charged the detached riflemen.

Both Marine units were pushed back!  In TSATF, hand-to-hand combat is simply a comparison of die rolls, and the Boxers were rolling well.  Despite losses, the Boxers  held the west hill.

However, the Boxers unit losses were now greater than fifty percent.  The detachment on the hill failed the required morale check and fled (final turn phase after shooting). The riflemen, however,  passed their check and remained in place.

In the following turn, the two Marine squads rallied and moved back towards the west ridge, staying in defilade. The Boxer riflemen focused on the remaining Marine unit, but their fire was ineffective.  Here’s a photo of the situation at the end of this turn.

Quick Note:  I’m keeping the casualty cubes in-place for an end-of-game count.  Red indicates a serious wound, pink a light wound, and black for death

The Marines regained the crest of the west ridge and engaged the Boxers to their front.  The Boxers literally fought to the last man.  The Boxers holding the east ridge drew an event card reducing their effective firing range to only 12 inches, or not far enough to engage the Marines to their front.  They wisely withdrew to the reverse slope.

The Marines advanced through the open ground to take the east ridge.  Here, the  Boxers emerged from defilade, but retreated after taking casualties and failing  their morale check.

While this action was taking place, Marines occupied the west ridge.  Here’s a photo of the current situation.

Lots of wristage before next turn’s action.  Have to determine who and what will be on the final two ridges.  I will also inventory all losses, clean up the casualty cubes, and maybe die to see which of the lightly wounded Marines can no longer continue.

Skirmish Mission

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish, Solitaire

Rhonda’s enjoying Palm Springs weather, so I’ve set up The Sword And The Flame (TSATF) on the dining room table.

The scenario calls for the Marines to clear a series of ridges.

I’m considering all ground to be rough ground for shooting, so there is a -1 DRM for all firing.  However, the ground will be considered clear for movement, so without penalty.

Visibility is twelve (12) inches from ground to crest, unlimited from crest to crest, and crest to base of next hill.

The challenge is coming up with some solo-friendly randomness.  Here’s a quick and sketchy overview.

My initial stab at this problem is to use the Action, Event and Terrain cards published by The Virtual Armchair General.

An Event will be triggered by a die roll of six (6), and confirmed by a Yes/Maybe die roll.

Whether or not a terrain feature is occupied will be determined by a 10 sided  die.  A roll of four (4) or less means the feature is unoccupied.  A roll of five (5) to eight (8) means a Boxer force is occupying the crest.  A roll higher means the Boxers are on the reverse slope.

Another percentage die roll determines force composition.  A roll of four (4) or less means Regulars.  Another outcome results in a Boxer force.  For the Boxers, another roll gives the number of figures with firearms.  All Regulars carry rifles.

Terrain cards will be drawn when Marines enter a “new” terrain feature – either a slope or the “new” ground beyond a ridge line.  These cards will indicate if movement is slowed.

Any casualties are considered to be out of this game.  Wounded figures will be diced for at the end of the game, anticipating a follow up contest.

Islamic State – Libya War

Boardgames, Post World War II, Review + Session Report, Solitaire

This  game is published by One Small Step Games (OSS) in  Counterfact Magazine.  I downloaded it from Wargame Vault.  It is solitaire, the contemporary topic is of some interest, and the format seemed to lend itself to download and DTP construction. The forum section of the game’s  Boardgamegeek page is essential reading as are the revised rules found at OSS’s game page.

The map printed out fine and looks good.  The counters were difficult to cut because the colors of the various factions’ units are similar shades of drab and lack visible guide lines.  The result was a grotesque lack of uniformity.  I decided to use Risk blocks in lieu of some of the counters/chits.  This improved appearances.

The game’s topic is the war against Daesh in Libya.  Allied forces are tasked with controlling key cities and oil fields as portrayed on the point-to-point map.   Each of the game’s eight turns is broken down into five (or six based on a turn-end roll), IGO-UGO action rounds.  Victory is determined by how many areas Daesh controls, number of active leaders, negative press coverage (due to collateral damage) received by the Allies, and hostages and downed pilots executed.

Allied forces can perform any one of several actions during their phase.  These are conventional unit movement into a Daesh controlled hex which triggers combat, “snatch and grab” operations using special forces to seize Daesh leaders for interrogation  or hostages, landing (amphibious) operations, heli-borne assault, reconnaissance, and strike missions with aircraft.

Daesh actions are generated using a table listing ten possible actions including kidnapping, terrorist attacks, and sabotage.

Combat is performed on a display arraying  Allied units against a Daesh counterpart randomly drawn from the Daesh force pool.   Each Allied unit can be supported by aviation, drone or artillery assets.  Allied forces never eliminate their opponents.  A positive combat result will have the Daesh unit ineligible to be activated again during the current turn, or unable to return to the Daesh unit pool until after the next game turn.  Intelligence concerning the whereabouts of hostages or Daesh leaders can also  result from combat.  Any Daesh force that survives an attack  “fires back” at their opponent and, in certain situations there is a combat modifier due to special weaponry. These units are returned to the force pool.

Here’s an imaginatively framed shot of the game in-progress.

I used traditional blue and red blocks to identify friendly and Daesh controlled areas instead of counters.  At bottom right is the combat display.  Both types of Allied units (combat on top and support at bottom) can fire at Daesh units.  The Allied force pools are located above the combat display.  The red lozenges are for Daesh leaders.  I substituted pink blocks for the hostage counters, blue lozenges for pilots and a yellow block for media.  These were placed on a hand scribbled holding area card, which also had the turn phase track.  Daesh victory points were tracked by a red block, allied casualties by a blue block and collateral damage by a black block.  Turns were marked with another green block, along with stacks of destroyed Daesh counters by a result calling for their re-entry to the force pool sometime later in the game.   The containers were used to hold conventional Allied units not on the map, and the Daesh force pool.  Support units can be used only once per game turn.  In the absence of specific guidance I treated parachute and special forces units as support units since it would take some time to re-brief, re-organize these types of specialized units.

The rules were criticized in a now-deleted post over at Boardgamegeek.  I would say that the layout could be better, perhaps more along the lines of the solitaire Destruction of Force Z, which presented the rules and, most importantly, charts in  game turn sequence.  After flipping back and forth between Islamic State’s eight pages, I did a cut-and-paste to reduce the rules to a manageable, more sequential  and flippable four pages.  Unlike the redacted reviewer, I cannot see playing the game in 60 minutes or less.  Not a bad thing, but there are  too many moving parts. Still, the pace is brisk with plenty of decisions and actions in every turn.

In my game the  Allies lost by Turn 5, probably due to my misreading of the collateral damage rules.  The Combat rules section indicates that collateral damage should be checked after combat – but is that individual combat or turn phase combat?  The Collateral Damage table indicates after all turn phase combats have been completed.  The latter significantly reduces the potential point gain for Daesh.

I enjoyed the game, and don’t regret the cost of purchase, time taken to construct the components, and understand the rules.  It is an intriguing system.  For me, on a cost-benefit basis, the returns on investment seem marginal.  I don’t imagine replaying it right now, or in the near future.  For someone else, this might be a go-to game, but not for me.

Destruction of Force Z – Session Report

Boardgames, Naval, Sessions, Solitaire, World War II

The game set up, along with the initial dispositions of both forces, is shown in the following photo.  The Japanese flag represents the amphibious landing at Kota Bharu.  Placement of the Japanese convoy, battleship and cruiser squadrons is determined during the Random Events Phase.  Force Z is represented by the British flag in Singapore.   The index card and colored blocks are used to keep track of weather and ship damage.

For the first three turns, Force Z moved east of the Anamba Islands,  then turning north towards the landing.  The Japanese were unable to locate Force Z, which was maintaining radio silence in the overcast weather, until it attacked the Japanese battleships (7 VPs) at night (Turn 4).  I couldn’t find anything specific in the rules, so I decided  Japanese surface units appearing during a turn couldn’t move, also.  Despite hitting the Japanese ships, no damage was inflicted.

After this inconclusive encounter, the British sailed at flank speed towards Kota Bharu to bombard the the landings.  The Japanese were still unable to locate Force Z, and could not prevent the destruction of  their offshore convoy which had appeared off Kota Bharu during the Random Events Phase (Turn 5).

After this success, the British steamed south towards Singapore, breaking radio silence to request RAF air cover (Turn 6).

At this point, the Force Z commander decided take advantage of darkness (Turn 7),  steaming north to again engage the  VP-rich Japanese battleships.  The Japanese cruisers entered the northern part of the map during the Random Events Phase.

Force Z moved into the Japanese square, forcing a surface engagement.  It was here that British luck ran out, as the Japanese search was a success, and no RAF fighter cover appeared to help fight off a massive level bomber and torpedo bomber attack.

The following photo shows how I handled the “tactical” aspect of the game.

Both British ships were in the square, so each can be attacked by bombers.   D6 rolls determine the number of attackers and what ship(s) they attack.  The rolls indicated a mixed force of 12 torpedo and 25 level bombers, all of which  concentrated on the Prince of Wales.  The first attack was by the level bombers.  Each ship has a maximum of 10 d6 anti-aircraft rolls.  These rolls either eliminate attackers, or are indicate to hit modifiers.  Bombers need a modified roll of 10 to score a hit.  A further damage die roll is made for each hit.  The rolls are shown below.  I use the dice, rather than the tally sheet included with the game to record rolls, and then use the result to determine hits.  A die that “hits” is then placed above the “tactical display”, as a reminder of the rolls needed for determine damage.

The torpedo bombers were handled in a separate series of rolls.

The Prince of Wales somehow survived, taking five hits, two less than the number to sink. Five hits reduced its movement rate to one square per turn.  After this mayhem, a surface action occurred.  The Japanese battleships and Prince of Wales were unaffected, but the Repulse took one damage hit.

The Repulse was ordered back to Singapore, while the stricken Prince of Wales could only hope for a failed Japanese search, or the intervention of the RAF.  The ship was located and the RAF again failed to provide air cover.  The level bombers did not find the Prince of Wales, but the torpedo bombers did.   An attack by 27 aircraft sank the ship.

The Repulse continued south during the night (Turn 10), while the Japanese made another landing at Singora.

Repulse was able to return to Singapore before the Japanese Turn 11 Search Phase.  This ended the game.

The Japanese victory point total breakdown was:

  • +8 Points for sinking Prince of Wales
  • +1 Point for one hit on the Repulse
  • +1 Point for each Japanese landing
  •  -2 Points for the sunk convoy

The net is  9 Japanese victory points.  The historical total was 18 points.

Wrap-up in the next post.

Destruction of Force Z – Overview

Boardgames, Naval, Review + Session Report, Solitaire, World War II

Downloaded this  awhile ago over at Wargame Vault, based on reviews at Boardgame Geek.  It’s a Minden Games solitaire offering  originally published in Panzerschreck Magazine #16.

As is the case with most solitaire games, there are  lots of charts and wristage.  I skimmed the rules and decided to just start playing.  The rules are laid out in turn phase sequence, so I just set up the IPad beside the game and went at it.

Each turn consists of up to eleven phases.  These are:

  1. Weather – Roll 1d6 for either clear or overcast conditions.  Overcast is a +1 modifier for Japanese Search.
  2. Radio – British player can break radio silence.  In doing so loses a -2 drm during Japanese Search.  But, gains possibility of Air Cover to help attrit attackers.
  3. British Ship Movement – Can move up to 4 squares (cannot move diagonally) three times a game, or one-three squares.  Damage reduces movement.  During movement British ships can be attacked by minefields and/or submarines if in same hex.
  4. Random Events – Dictates appearance of Japanese transports, cruiser or battleship units.  Can also effect movement of Japanese submarines, shore landings or allow “shadowing” which is a -1 drm for Japanese Search.
  5. Japanese Ship Movements – Ships on map roll 2d6 for random one to two square movement.
  6. Japanese Search – Rolls 1d6 (3 or less) to sight British ship(s).
  7. British Air Cover – If Radio silence is broken, presence of air cover over British ships determined by die roll.  If present, roll 3d6 for number of fighters.
  8. Japanese Bomber – Includes both level bombers and torpedo bombers.  Roll 1d6 for contact.  If contact make separate 1d6 roll for number of level and torpedo bombers.
  9. Combat Phase – Roll 1d6 for individual attacks by Air Cover, then 1d6 Anti-Aircraft fire to eliminate/abort/or effect aim of bombers.  Then roll 1d6 for success by individual level bombers and torpedo bombers.
  10. Surface Battle – Takes place when opposing force ships in same square.  Roll 2d6 for hits and then 2d6 for effect(s).
  11. Bombardment – British in same hex can shell Japanese landing sites, automatically gaining victory points.

There are 18 different situations where wristage and charts are involved,  in addition to  Air Cover attacks, Anti-Aircraft, and Bombing attacks handled on an individual aircraft basis.

Having Second Front air phase flashbacks and may need this to get through a session.

In A Rut

Boardgames, Review, Solitaire, World War II

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.

Ready To Grind

 

Too Fun To Solo?

Boardgames, Review, Solitaire

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 .

 

What Was I Thinking?

Boardgames, Review + Session Report, Solitaire

Fortify Montreal……Fortify Montreal.  The object of the game is to prevent Montreal from being captured…………

If you ever play this game, please, please, please fortify Montreal.  Here’s why…….

The British have the strategic advantage, with the ability to advance on five fronts simultaneously . However, the French have the operational advantage in that they can attack both during their phase and the British Advance phase . Tactically, it’s a push. Both sides have special tactical cards which influence not only tactical advantage but also the total number of battalions used in the battle.

Tactical advantage is critical . The side with this advantage toss their “bucket of dice” (one die per battalion in the fight) first with any enemy casualties (battalions) removed immediately . In many cases the side without tactical advantage is simply wiped out before being able to inflict casualties of their own. While this system has its shortcomings, it is appropriate in a game of this scope and size .

During my first real play thru the British were hampered by a lack of leaders, advancing on two fronts and making it easy for the French to use their action points not only to stop any advances, but also construct Forts and Trading Posts .

Trading Posts provide the French with valuable replacements each turn. While Forts prevent the use of light troops for tactical advantage and offer an advantage themselves.
Once there were British leaders for each of their five axes of advance towards Montréal, the French were hard-pressed.

Just as the British were ready to enter Montréal , and end the game, I drew the Montcalm Leader Card.

Montcalm has extraordinary capabilities , and almost turned the tide for the French. But the simultaneous advance of the British armies , combined with some less than favorable die rolls, resulted in the eventual removal of Montcalm and two other French leaders. This re-opened the door to Montréal. And, of course I made it just that much easier by not placing a fort there.

Game Play was relatively smooth . It took a while to figure out which cards to trash and which to discard, rather than place back in the recycle deck . It also took two turns to figure out that the recycle deck is shuffled into the active deck at the end of each turn , or in what is called the Housekeeping Phase.

This is fine addition to the States of Siege series . While the playing time is extended compared to other offering, this trade off is well worth it in terms of depth of play .

Getting It

Boardgames, Solitaire

Worked my way through several turns of Empires In America.  Getting the hang of it.

Once again, the only way to learn the rules is to play the rules.  Only way to see the method in the early-play-madness.

The French player is stretched thin, especially if the British can conjure up leaders for each theater and apply constant pressure from each of the tracks leading to Montreal.

Going to re-set and have another go.  This time I’ll get the play of fortresses and auxiliary troops right.