Year Summary III

 

The other monster game during 2014 was Here I Stand. We have been playing this card-driven game about the Religion Wars in Europe during several sessions. With four players, two of them were forced to play two different Major powers. our impressions is that it makes too strong blocs.

First game was mainly devoted to smooth the rules and getting used to the different mechanisms. Papacy and Hapsburg joined efforts against Protestants and Ottoman and crushed the match. Second play was more equilibrated.

One real interesting thing about this game is that each Power has completely different goals, objectives and VPs routes thus making HiS a real roleplaying-wargame-historical simulation perfect hybrid.

We are looking forward to play its continuation, Virgin Queen.

Some pics (courtesy of Ramon, I lost my pics)

Year Summary - II

 

Main game of 2014 (in terms of commitment and time at the table) was It Never Snows.

This game belongs to Standard Combat Series by The Gamers and depicts the well-known Operation Market-Garden at WWII.

We have played with historical deployment. Initial turns rapidly marked the overall outcoming of the play as XXX Corps was rapidly stopped at the main road to Eindhoven. Allied spent a lot of turn to clear the road and advance towards the bridges. American paratroopers were well placed and in condition to secure the bridges as most of them were not blown by Germans. However British were quickly surrounded.

Although our feeling is that historical campaign is impossible for Allied we have enjoyed the game. Gameplay is fast and rules are easy. At the beginning we had some issues with road move that needs to be fully understood to correctly play.

Some of the initial jumps:

and first problems for British,

British airborne being surrounded and destroyed:

 

American paratroopers regrouping:

 

The main road:

Those small German units were at the village for three turns, disturbing Allied supply.

 

Year Summary

 

2014 saw many good games at the table.

In January we made a few plays of France 44 by GMT Games. This game features the initial German offensive in France.

Game components are beautiful, rules are clear and well written. Playing with both sides is challenging. It could seem that playing Germans is easy but a lot of crucial decisions need to be made, specially where to move those strong Pz Divisions. Will you be extremely aggressive and advance them without the support or your infantry? On the opposite Allied need to be careful with defense. They had some strong armored units (De Gaulle) to be used at the right moment. It is an interesting game.

The Blitzkrieg Legend

 

Unfortunately, I was very busy last times and I could not report on this game. Almost I only could play every two sessions.

In summary, German rapidly destroyed the initial front line and deeply penetrate in France with their mobile units. French and British did not defend properly in depth and gaps were used to attack the supply allied lines. Most of the Belgium units were lost out of supply. Overall a bad play of Allied commanders and good play by Germans.

A few pics:

 

The Blitzkrieg Legend

 

Our last session was devoted to the setup of the Campaign scenario with Holland of The Blitzkrieg Legend.

This game of the OCS series depicts the German campaign against France in 1940. The scenario we are planning to play is the full campaign, including the conquest of Holland. Four players, two by side.

Here are some pics of the map after set-up.

 

 

 

And some perspective view before deploying the French …

Ending Reluctant Enemies

 

On the following turns, I tried to advance towards Damascus. However, the strong Armor units of Vichy France were too menacing and I was extremely cautious. I need to fully understand how to move infantry untis in this Desertic terrain. I was also worried about that nasty bombers and artillery so, to avoid density penalties i was only stacking two counters per hex. I do not know if this is a good tactic but my feeling is that i needed to be more aggresive and concentrate in the road.

Two pics of the situation:

Note also that Vichy France was retreating towards better defensive positions.

Too late i decide to spend some supply to build an advanced airfield and try to stop the bombing.

We put all our effort (and supply) into break the positions at the road coast. Unsucessfully.

More attacks continued on the coast and, after some advancements, there was a heavy counterattack of Vichy that destroyed CW line.

Initial CW attack

Vichy counterattack

At Damascus sector, an effort to pass the river turned into disaster for the CW, and the following attack of Armor units (after a double Vichy turn), completely outflanked the Free French units and arrived up to their HQs.

CW approaching river

Cavalry attack turned into big defeat (4-column surprise shift for the defender)

 

Collapse of CW position

No advances in the middle

And CW surrendered. Final map

Conclusion: this was a trial game of Reluctant Enemies. More of the time I was learning the supply mechanics and getting a feeling of how the game flows. It is a very interesting campaign that deserves to be played a few more times. In overall we have played in four sessions so it is not very demanding for a replay.

Now we are ready to move to a team play of a bigger OCS title: Blitkrieg’s Legend, the campaign of France’40.

And I should remember, this is a game about supply network and managing reserves.

Operational Combat Series

 

Operational Combat Series games are usually big monsters where you must deal with hundreds of counters while carefully planning your supply network in order to perform movement, barrages, attacks, …

They are not for the beginner wargamer who may get overwhelmed just during the setup. Fortunately, this year it has appeared the last game in the series, Reluctant Enemies. This is not a monster game, just one map, low counter density and it should be an introductory game for the whole series. So, I have decided to give it a try and, introduced by my colleague Alberto, to learn rules, and get a feeling of how to deal with operational problems.

Reluctant Enemies depicts the fight between British and Free French troops against Vichy France for the control of Syria en the summer of 1941. There is a really nice Starter Guide  here that you should read before playing this game. This is how our game was with me playing the Commonwealth side.

 

Initial setup: At the beginning CW player must secretly note where his Commando units will disembark. These units will be in supply for the first turn. My goal was to sacrifice the units to mainly disturb the supply line that goes along the road in the coast. So my landing was close to Damour.

Then I will try to advance towards Damascus from Amman in one side and from Lake Tiberias in the other side. Unfortunately, I was out of Naval Barrage for the first three or four days, so my commandos died slowly. And I missed the attacks against the unit at

Rest of Commando surviving against Vichy French

Missing the attacks at Fiq I could not connect the whole railroad until 14th June

In the open side of the map (right side), I was advancing without opposition as Vichy French troops were retreating slowly just to prepare a counterattack in time…

During this time, there was a few skirmished at the open terrain south of Mt Hermon with both sides trying to put units out of supply.

On June 19th, CW troops achieved to establish a position close to Kuneitra where they were stopped by  Vichy France. In Syria two battalions were destroyed after being surprised by French Armored Units. This nasty maneuver will be repeated three more times during the fight: releasing armor units, rolling for surprise, getting a +6 columns in the attack and destroying CW units. A tough lesson to be learned for a beginner.

World in Flames, Figurines…

A brief report on the ongoing World in Flames game.
Playing now at July/august 1940.
France has fallen in Axis hands. There is no Vichy France so Brits and French cooperate and French Navy can be used by CW. What will be the next Axis movement? Will they align Spain to their side?

In Asia, Japan has taken most of their goals in China. It will hardly progress more there and now it will shift his focus onto new objectives.


And now some pictures of a few models and figurines:
(I know, I forgot to place a coin for the scale, sorry…) Size is about 2 in for figures.

Painted by Jordi:

Italian Tank Crew

Warrior

Made by Mateo:

Churchill & Sherman Tanks	Valentine Tank
6pd AT Gun	17 pd AT Gun
	Another Valentine

Made by Carles:

M3 Lee/Grant Tank

I need to report on Normandy’44 and The Caucasus Campaign but today I have no more time…