Lost Weekend?

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

The bad news came on Thursday.  Tim couldn’t make it to our annual Labor Day Weekend wargaming/college football blow-out.  His pup, Crater, was not doing well and putting her in a kennel was out of the question.

Had just finished setting up the maps and sorting the counters for Storm Over Scandanavia’s Campaign for Sweden Scenario.  Might as well make the best of it.

This is a hypothetical German attack after the Fall of Fance.  The timeframe is July-September 1940.

An infantry affair, with very limited armored resources for both sides.  The Germans do have air superiority and a wealth of General Support air assets.  This advantage is mitigated by wooded/lake terrain.  To make things even more challenging, much of the German commander’s combat power is in the extreme north of Norway, and will have to work its way south, or be railed to a more central position.

The Swedish set-up is mandated by their mobilization region (MR).  There are also garrisons in each region.  They are immediately activated once Germans enter the area, or activiated during the initial phase if the Germans are adjacent to the region.

All victory point calculations aside, the Germans must take Stockholm.  The Swedish deployment has made an amphibious attack (using rail ferries!), implausible.  As mentioned, a northern axis of advance will take too much time.  So the main effort, using three corps, will be through west-central Sweden with axes of advance channelized by lakes and terrain.

Should be interesting.  Here’s a quick photo of the setup.

 

Building Boom

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings

While procrastinating about Panzergruppe Guderian,  managed to work on additional buildings for Fistful of Lead.

Decided to keep with the Southwest locale.  It fits my lack of skill and precision.  Adobe buildings require the roughest of construction skills, complemented by healthy applications of spackling paste.  

Throw in layers of textured spray paint, random dry-brushing with earth colors, finish with white/gray, and there it is.

The results aren’t pretty, but functional.  A topic I’m working myself into a rant about.

PGG – Another Thought.

Boardgames, Review

It’s a point-and-shoot.  Part of the appeal.  Germans barely stoppable, and the Soviet body count just grows and grows.  But they just keep coming…..and that changes the German commander’s view about four turns in.  How In The Hell do I stop them?  So you keep looking at the table twice a day.

That’s the other part of the appeal.  You appreciate Heinz G’s Quandry.

Here’s an excellent link.  I wish they had kept at it.

https://grognard.com/zines/sr/spi_no1.pdf

 

Finally…….

Boardgames, Review + Session Report

Finished off a long and torturous session with the venerable and highly rated Panzergruppe Guderian.

Getting it on the table was a lengthy process.    Purchased on E-Bay eons ago.  Arrived in fetid condition, probably stored in a basement in Missouri for the past 20 years.  No slur on The Show Me State, as  I lived there for 10 years, and had a number of games go bad in the humidity.

Game spent about 6 months in a car freshener laced garbage bag along with some really smelly Osprey Men At Arms books.  Rules had to be copied since the originals were falling apart.  Lucky the copier didn’t succumb.

It is a fun play, until the German player has to get involved in (I think unavoidable) attritional showdowns at or east of Smolensk.  

Opening

 

The unknown Soviet unit strengths make it a very good solo game.  The Soviets keep throwing units into hasty defensive lines, while the Germans try their best to outflank them, and wait for their infantry to appear,  sew up the pockets, and get the ZOC kills.  Unfortunately, the infantry units are a little late in getting on the map. 

My mistake was to leave armored units to seize Smolensk, rather than push them east.  Again, if I’d been more patient, the infantry would  eventually  have arrived.  But, time is of the essence in this game.

Also, once a unit is in contact, it is committed and  can only  leave its opponent’s ZOC through victory or an unfavorable combat outcome.  Panzer losses reduce the ability to attack at doubled strength.

So, why long and torturous?  Just couldn’t bring myself to get muddy and bloody east of Smolensk once the Soviet defenses had really coalesced.  Kept looking at the game table and finding beer to drink and/or  chores to do.

The key to this last defensive line was using Soviet commanders – who have a command radius allowing units to use full movement – as “shepherds” to help units into action quickly.  Rail movement is limited, and the German interdictions drastically reduce rail movement.  So, getting everyone moving west is a Soviet priority.

The Soviets also have a limited interdiction capability.  This is limited to twice a game, but given the German line of communications bottleneck, an interdiction  reduce literally all German units east of Smolensk to half strength during that turn.  Timing here is critical for Soviet success.  

By Turn 8, it was coming down to one turn of die rolls for the Germans.  Without a breakthrough, stalemate.  Rolled them, and the Germans remained locked up, with only a limited reserve  too weak to continue east.  

End Game

A marginal victory for the Germans.

Another Fistful

Miniatures, Review

Want to take a minute to extoll the virtures of this ruleset.  Is it the greatest ever……well, no.  But, it is what it is and an excellent value.

The rules are just a part of what you get.  There is a whole series of stand-alone scenarios, characters to develop, diagrams of buildings, and another set of scenarios that can be combined in a campaign game.

Everyone has there preferences, but I have no desire to try another of western skirmish rules.

Wild Wild West With Fistful of Lead

Miniatures, Review + Session Report

Finally played a game after my earlier in the month misadventures with scale.

Scenario borrowed from the Butch & Sundance final fight.  Had four figures each for the “Blue” Gang and “Brown” Posse.  Blue Gang hiding in small ranch complex, when Posse approaches and dismounts.

First random actions were to determine if the Blue’s sentry spotted the Posse before the first turn started and at what distance.  He did, at a distance of 12 inches.  There’s no running in the Rules As Written (RAW), only walk (5″) and crawl (2″).  I use a run move of 7 inches.

A card is dealt for each figure.  The card values (face etc) are called out in sequence with the highest card going first.  For solo play, I just lay them out, and then pick in the appropriate order.

Turn 1:  The outlaws are warned and get the first three plays.  The sentry runs to the house to give the warning.   One gets out of the building, rushing to the gate, and another moves to the corral wall.   The posse shoots down the cowboy at the gate, and takes cover behind the ranch wall.

Turn 2:  One outlaw runs out of ammunition (firing roll of “1”).  The posse’s rifleman shoots down the outlaw at the corral.  The remaining outlaws are now in the building.

Turn 3:  The outlaws have the first two turns and both miss aimed fire (one action to aim and one action to fire).  One of the outlaws is then pinned by gunfire.  A posse member moves next to the house, anticipating a rush.

Turn 4: The two posse shooters at the corral run out of ammunition.  A bold attempt to rush the building leaves the one posse member wounded.

Turn 5:  The outlaws manage to kill two posse members despite partial cover.

At this point, I had to shut the game down.

As advertised, Fistful of Lead is “fast and furious”.  You can nitpick the rules, particularly the inability to shoot at a moving target, but you can’t dispute this is a fun skirmish game.

Posse shoots down one of the outlaws at the front gate. Another outlaw is outside the house using the corral wall’s partial cover.
Two outlaws down!
One member of the posse ready to rush the house.

Weekend At Tim’s

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Real pleasant couple of days in Portland.  Hotter than Hell, but we stayed refreshed and hydrated.

Maybe that’s one reason not a lot of gaming took place.  Also a perceived need to view a few action films outweighed the desire to push cardboard.

We played “Operation Exporter” from  War In The Desert.  This is an operational simulation of the  Allied invasion of Syria.  Not exactly Tim’s cup of tea – low counter density, only a small portion of the map used and….gasp…..no real tanks (only a couple of Vichy light tank units with attack strengths of 1).  The Allies will win, it’s just a matter of time.  However, the victory point schedule makes time of the essence

Nonetheless, Tim did a great job as Allied Commander.  He used his one motorized asset to harass the Vichy flanks and optimized the use of his limited air assets and naval gunfire.  He also quickly assembled the two divisions available to him, with their enhanced combat power and zones of control.  The regiments and brigades that make up all the Vichy forces cannot be formed into divisions.

I played my part by having a (typical) cavalier approach to victory conditions.  While Tim didn’t win on VIPS, he certainly won the game.

I didn’t fare as well when we switched sides.

This is a good little scenario.  It’s viewed as excellent starter game as it has all of the Europa food groups, but without the counter density to make the experience overwhelming.

He’ll be out at The Pinecone Lodge around Labor Day for Storm Over Scandanavia’s hypothetical scenarios involving the invasion of Sweden.

Old Itch Scratched

Boardgames, Review + Session Report, Sessions

One of the lost games that I have fond memories of is SPI’s Oil War.  Don’t know where it went, but probably in a late 70’s purge along with the also lamented World War I.

Been looking for both on E-Bay but the high prices were off-putting.  Recently found a reasonably priced folio game and snapped it up.

Fairly quick to set up, moves along at a brisk pace, but there is one problem.  The Western nations have to really screw it up to lose.  Why?  Airpower.  Air attacks simply crush the combined Arab forces.  It will take time….but  victory conditions will be attained.

My approach was to establish airheads in southern Saudi Arabia, reducing logistical demands, snap up the Saudi oil fields, then gradually move north.  Yes, Kuwait has to be captured to assure a substantial victory, but that is an eventuality.

Arab forces need to defend airbases to deny the West their logistics benefits, and to give ground grudgingly, hoping that the game will end before losing the 25 oil fields signifying a substantial Western victory.

At the time, it was a challenging and fun game, dealing with a very current topic.  Now…..not so much, but I enjoyed playing it, and that’s the main thing.  Here’s a couple of photos.

First Time Through: Aggressiveairlanding  on the coast. Air units staged to savage Saudis defending oil fields. Significant assets attacking Qatar.
First Time Through: Too aggressive. Coastal unit just before ZOC kill.
Second Time Through: Slow and Steady.  No distractions and no sudden moves.

 

Never Say Never Reconsidered

Miniatures,

Thought I’d made a comittment to DBA 3.  Now I’ve reneged.  Played a couple of games and it just doesn’t work solo.  Need an opponent.  Tired of the lack of manuever and reliance on melee.

With all that lead, I had to come up with alternative uses.  So, in keeping with my new focus on the old, I inventoried all my 15mm Dark Age and Medieval figures – which involved several DBA armies – and came up with workable lists for WRG Ancients.

I have the basic units for Byzantines vs. Arabs using my old Tabletop (now distributed by Alternative Armies), as well as Condotta vs. Ottomans using Essex figures.  The odd troops out are my Essex Central Asian Cavalry.  With some touch-up painting they should sell on E-Bay.

How Retro is WRG 5th Edition.  Should be fun, but that fun will have to wait until Winter.  Need time and money……isn’t that always the case?

Frontburner Re-Boot

Terrain and Buildings

After my scaling disaster, I tried to cobble together something fast and workable.

Went with the familiar gleaned from an old Miniature Wargames Magazine (No. 39) article on Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’s final 1909 shoot-out in Bolivia.  As a matter of fact, I used the layout of the San Vincente barrio using Scrabble tiles for a quick workup with the Fistful of Lead rules back in early June.  Was giggling the whole time I put this together.   Perfect reaction for a child-like game.

Here’s the nearly completed successor that will be finished this evening.  At least it is in scale, and the psychadelic table cloth is back in The Sunfish Capital Of The World.