Fifth Corps

Boardgames, Post World War II, Review

I have each of the four games comprising SPI’s Central Front Series covering a hypothetical Warsaw Pact versus NATO conflict in the 1980s.

The system has a following, and has evolved.  Here’s a link to some downloads.

Finally set this up after some 40 years of procrastination.  And then, procrastinated another two months before I sat down to actually do more than stare.  Plenty of rules reading during the interim – isn’t that a good substitute for action? – but no pushing of cardboard.

I would characterize the game as operational, but a far, far more granular approach then, let’s say, The Third World War.  So, Grand Tactical?

This thread at BGG does a great job of describing the game’s characteristics, warts (with that emphasized) and all.  Each of the perspectives is valid.

The thought that really resonated with me is Jason Cawley’s comments about “Analysis Paralysis”.

On a macro level, my entire involvement with this game reflects this.  I intended to use the updated and comprehensive rules.  Too much of a slog.  My compromise was to use the rules as updated after the publication of BAOR.  Too much of slog, especially given my manic habit of having about three games set up at any one time (yes, any vacant horizontal space is at risk at The Pine Cone Lodge).  Finally decided “Just use the original rules and play the damn game.  It’s a helluva lot easier to flip through five pages of rules than thirty.”

Sage Self Advice.

After getting on it, I discovered  I couldn’t manage all of the map and so focused on one section and its units. This reduced scope allowed me to play out the initial turn and grasp the rules.

Yes, the friction points mechanic is a bitch.  Yes, the Combat Results Table (CRT) is a bitch.  Yes, the stacking limits and pesky NATO “Ants” are a bitch.

The turns do seem endless. There are any number of courses of action for the Soviets.

But that’s all part of the system’s charm.

After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

But, it isn’t love and I don’t know if I will finish the game much less play the other ones in the series.  Who knows, maybe I’ll put them up for sale, or consign them to even more time in Box Purgatory.

But, the process has not been a waste of time.

Another Try

Boardgames, Sessions, World War I

Back to Portland for a long-awaited replay of the new version of Red Star/White Eagle (RSWE).  This  Deluxe Edition  is published by Compass Games.

Tim and I played the old GDW version several times (follow the tag) and always enjoyed it, despite some serious rules screw ups.  We started playing the  new version back in early February, but ran afoul of the Super Bowl and some accompanying wackiness.

The Compass edition of this classic Polish-Soviet War game is improved in every way, with a better map, thicker and larger counters (too large for our tweezers), as well as very functional set-up and reinforcement displays.  These displays, combined with  counters that include campaign set up designations, really help the set-up.

One aspect that hasn’t changed is the very bloody Combat Results Table (CRT).  The CRT also allows the attacker to advance multiple hexes after combat.  With good die rolls, an aggressive attacker can generate plenty of operational movement with opportunities for deep and wide envelopments.

But, these envelopments  must be judiciously evaluated, since they also provide an opponent with opportunities to sever exposed supply lines or cutoff extended units.

Another game element that hasn’t changed, and one that significantly effects (maybe “shapes” would be a better term) play is how zones of control (ZOC) are treated.  In RSWE, passing through the ZOCs costs additional movement points. The exact costs are shown on the unit’s counter.  Also, enemy ZOCs cut supply lines, and the presence of friendly units doesn’t offset the effects of enemy ZOCs.

The attractive and functional map is divided into Soviet South and Southwest Fronts.  The central area is heavily wooded, while the  topography to each side is  both sides is open, but with river barriers, especially in the South Front.   Soviet units must remain in their respective fronts, and cannot be transferred from one front to another.

The game abstracts concurrent Soviet operations against White Russian forces.  The primary tool for this is a mandatory  “stand down” for the South Front units.  During this stand down, these units cannot attack Polish forces unless Polish attacks occur, and then, only on a one-for-one basis.  There are also mandatory unit withdrawals representing other developments during the Russian Civil War.

April IV (1920) the first of the weekly campaign turns.  The Soviet player conducts his reinforcement/replacements, movement and combat first (except for the April IV turn!).

The Polish player has the initiative for the first few turns.  The Soviet player must initially cover each hex along both fronts with either a unit or a ZOC;  a very real  Thin Red Line.  The Poles set up last and can pick and choose where to attack.  This creates several opportunities, especially around Kiev in the Southwest.  Taking Kiev produces victory points as well as Ukrainian reinforcements.  But any advance beyond Kiev faces  a flood of Soviet replacements and reinforcements.

The management and placement of these replacements (within their assigned Front) is a critical aspect of the game, allowing the Soviet player to not only stabilize the Southwest Front, but also counterattack, especially after the arrival of the First Cavalry Army (Konarmia).

Replacements arrive as generic units placed either on the map, to rebuild reduced (divisions and some brigades have full strength and reduced combat values) units, or held off map to recreate eliminated units during the next turn.

Here is a quick visual summary of our game.

End May 3 Turn

The Poles are in Kiev (lower right hand corner), with the Soviets cobbling together a cordon defense.

End May 3 Turn – Southwest Front Only

Armored trains cannot be rebuilt and are kept out of harm’s way until they can be productively used.

End June 1 Turn

The Poles have pulled back from Kiev, anticipating the arrival of the First Cavalry Army.

End June 3 Soviet Turn

Fighting now taking place along the river lines.  The Soviet player now has the First Cavalry Army on the map.

A big meal and a tendency to bullshit led to an early end of play.  A rematch is scheduled for the second week in June.

Showdown!

Miniatures, Renaissance, Sessions

Decided enough is enough with my Husaria contest between Poles and Muscovites.

Just “guided” units to set up cavalry confrontations in the center.  Guiding is my polite term for “to hell with the rules, let’s get these units into position.”  Yes, to do so would have involved finagling figures through expansion/contraction of frontage gyrations, as well as the timing of said moves.  Said finaglings would have expanded my deeper knowledge of the rules, but in my current bloody mood, it would have just been another experience tantamount to a telephone hold (thank goodness for the speaker setting on cellphones).

Now that the units are in general position, I can pick up the game using Rules As Written (RAW), and see what happens with cavalry combat.  To this point, all combats have involved infantry units.

Here’s the overall situation:

Poles to the right, Muscovites to the left.  The flanks are secure for both sides.  The Polish Pancerni are moving into attack position, as are the Muscovite heavy cavalry and Ratjars.  The center area is narrow and becoming congested for the Muscovites.  Since both sides are now within charge distance (28 cm), the Muscovites may not be able to expand their frontage before first contact.   In this rule set, only the front rank of Cavalry fights in melee.  However, rear ranks can overlap after the initial melee turn.

This photo gives  little better view of the Muscovite situation.  The cavalry in the foreground is retreating (not routing) and will pass through, and disrupt, the Streltsy infantry.

The Polish objectives are the two villages.  With that in mind, the Muscovite CinC (single figure top center)  has moved to rally the withdrawing cavalry units and direct the reorganization of  each village’s defenses.

I’ll pick this one up with the usual turn sequence, starting with declaration of charges for whichever side wins the initiative die roll.

 

And The Answer Is: Two Certainties

Uncategorized

What happened over the past two months?  Well,  Death and Taxes.  Difficult to summon up the wherewithal to post when the daily grind involves form after form, and interminable holds (up to 2 hours!) to straighten out/resolve situations.

Been able to make some progress with the sale of various miniatures, painting of medieval 15mm Essex figures, and continued desultory stabs at the  Husaria rules.  Things have calmed down (for the moment), so I’ll start posting again.

Culling The Herd

Miniatures

Just about finished homogenizing my miniatures collection.

The ongoing subtractions and anticipated additions are all related to scale.  As we all know, not all 15mm and (especially) 25mm figures are the same size.  I’ve whined about this in the past.

And, as we all know, the selection and quality of castings has dramatically improved over the past (gulp) 35 years.

I attempted to take advantage of that while expanding my existing forces and creating new ones.  But, what I wound up with was a hodgepodge of units.  25mm Hinchcliffe, Essex and Ral Partha figures just don’t look right on the same table.   Old Glory 25mm figures vary dramatically in size, with some not 25mm but large 28mm figures (looking at you Wars of Religion and Persian lines).  15mm Alternative Armies  (Tabletop) medieval and ancients do not work with 15mm Essex.

The only solution was to add and subtract.   I have purchased some new Essex 15mm Late Medieval/Early Renaissance figures, and will be purchasing some new Old Glory Italian Wars figures.  The results will be:

15mm WRG Ancients  –  Alternative Armies

15mm Late Medieval/Early Renaissance  – Essex

15mm Age of Exploration – Essex and Eureka

15mm Colonial – Miniature Figurines augmented by the Age of Exploration figures

25mm Italian Wars – Old Glory, with very few smaller Essex

25mm Eastern Europe – Hinchcliffe, with very few smaller Essex

25mm The Sword And The Flame – Miniature Figurines

I’ve been selling outliers this month, and will apply those funds to the 120 or so Old Glory additions necessary for the Italian Wars.  Those and the 100 or so Essex 15mms purchased late last year should just about do it.  I will have enough armies for enough periods to keep me busy for quite awhile.

But,  I am committed to painting up some strays before I embark on painting up the new arrivals.  Boring, but necessary.

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.

A New Mess

Boardgames, World War II

Getting close to covering all household horizontal surfaces with wargame related items.

Europa Purists may not want to read any further.

The  is the resource hodge podge assembled for my latest foray into out of kilter Europa scenarios, following in the steps of Fall Gertrude and the “Switzerland Must Be Swallowed” scenario pre-dating this blog.

As with any catastrophe, this one has several causes.  They are, in no particular order, an email exchange with Tim Davis, the publisher of Fall Grun and Empire Reborn, a chance encounter with The Europa Magazine (TEM) #57, and glance at my copy of East Central Europe Between The Two World Wars.

Empire Reborn posits a Romanian-Hungarian conflict in the wake of the Munich Pact.  TEM #57 contains a Macedonian War scenario developed by Frank Watson, portraying a 1940 Bulgarian invasion of Yugoslavia.

Both scenarios are based on ethnic/cultural/geographic grievances which (although centuries old) were the immediate products of the Balkan Wars and World War I.   It is a long and twisted story resulting – as best I can figure – in the following.

Hungary wanted to regain Transylvania from Roumania, and the Backa and Prekmurje regions from newly created Yugoslavia.  Bulgaria wanted much,if not all, of Macedonia from Yugoslavia, and to regain Dobruja from Roumania.

Hungarian revanchism was a result of the Treaty of Trianon (1920), which stripped the country of  land, ethnic Hungarians and resources.  This desire to regain what was lost led  to the creation of the Little Entente between Czechoslovakia, Yugoslovia and Roumania.

Greece, Turkey, Roumania and Yugoslavia reacted to Bulgaria’s territorial grievances by signing the Balkan Pact (1934).  The Pact was intended to maintain the region’s territorial status quo and peacefully solve any differences.

So, I am now ready to begin what Mr. Watson characterized  as “wandering in the Balkan darkness….” in explaining why he limited the scope of his Macedonian scenario.

I will, however, take his guidance and set my scenario in 1940, as “(it) provides a convenient way to do away with great power meddling.”

The shortest distance between two points is to assume a Hungarian and Bulgarian alliance (whatever form that might take) aimed at Yugoslavia and Roumania, all that was left of the Little Entente.

Most available order of battle information begins in 1941, but there are enough  fragmentary sources to take a pretty good guess at 1940.  In each case, the combatants were modernizing and reorganizing their armed forces.

What the hell….it’s worth a try.

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.

Two Ring Circus

Miniatures, Renaissance, Sessions

High winds with rain turning to snow.  Focus at a time like this?  Just TSATF?  Why not get the Husaria re-set going?

I have the roster sheets filled out, and the armies deployed.  All I need to do is annotate each unit’s initial orders.

Very curious to see the impact of the additional generals,  new light horse units, and a  morale upgrade  to veteran status for selected units will have on the game.

A couple of marginal photos to document preparations.

This marginal shot is looking north.

The Muscovites now have Cossack infantry instead of Dragoons in the woods, with Kalmuck light horse in support.  Ratjars will support the Cossack infantry deployed on the east hill.  Also, there are two medium guns emplaced on the hill between the villages.  Streltsy infantry, supported by cavalry, hold the center.

The Poles have fewer dragoons facing the woods, only one heavy gun (instead of the multiple batteries in the previous game), and Cossack cavalry – supported by Ratjars – on their right flank.  Again, the Hussars are off-table and situated to the rear of the Pancerni (now upgraded to Veteran status) supporting the Haiduks in the center.

Skirmish Adjustments

Colonials, Miniatures, Sessions, Skirmish

Making adjustments in my search for appropriate solo randomness  for The Sword And The Flame (TSATF).

The most pressing problem was the reaction of Chinese forces placed on reverse slopes.  After playing through a couple of turns decided to go with dicing for passive, aggressive and fanatic designations for all Chinese units when placed on the table.

Passive will hold in place until enemy is  no more than six (6) inches away.  Aggressive units will move as the situation dictates, and Fanatics will move to contact towards the nearest enemy unit regardless of situation, distance, etc.  A percentage die roll of 10 or less (0 =0) results in a passive designation, with 20-70 creating an aggressive unit, and fanatics at a higher roll.

Given the high number of Boxer riflemen  (probably higher than historical), any lightly wounded Marine casualties are recorded, but the figure stays in the fight.

The Marines encountered resistance while approaching the ridge to the west.  The ridge to the east was unoccupied.

The passive Boxers emerged from the reverse slope, and engaged the Marines with firearms.  Their next move will be into melee.

The other two Marine squads continued to advance, occupying the east hill and advancing through the saddle between ridgelines.

Force composition die rolls were made as  both units were within twelve (12) inches of the next two ridges.  The results were not pretty, with two aggressive units, each equipped with a high number of firearms,  are now situated on each ridge crest.

Tomorrow’s  turns should prove interesting.