Slingshot 289

Slingshot 289 arrived this morning, which was a nice surprise. Now I have something juicy to read over the Christmas holidays

Game on the table - Crusader by Decision Games (Folio)

Normally, once I start playing a game, I will pick out the next game I want to play and read the rules (normally on the way to work), as this gives me plenty of time to read and understand them, and hunt down any errata whilst playing another game.
However, I failed to do this when playing Cheren, so the game I wanted to play next is still in the "rule reading" stage, meaning I had nothing on the table to play. Which is why I dug out this game, as the rules are pretty standard issue and were quick to read and learn, so it made for an ideal time filler.

Here is a description from the DG website:

The port-town of Tobruk was the key to Libya. The Axis had been besieging it since April 1941, threatening to push the Allies back into Egypt. The Afrikakorps, commanded by Irwin Rommel, had already defeated the Allies’ previous attempt to relieve Tobruk, Operation Battleaxe, but a new, surprise Allied offensive in November 1941, Operation Crusader, would evolve into one of the most chaotic and near-run battles of the entire North African campaign. 

Crusader utilizes the new Fire & Movement combat system that’s designed so players can augment their units with “support fire” during the course of the battle. From mortars to tanks, units can receive support assets to engage enemy positions and formations, allowing combat to develop at all levels. A single recon battalion, for example — perhaps supported by air cover — could be tasked to assault a lone enemy infantry regiment defending a key hilltop. As that attack gets underway, the recon battalion may find itself under the guns of enemy artillery. So more support fire will be necessary to take the hill, but assets are limited.

In Crusader, the attritional design of the new Combat Results Table simulates the true nature of battles in North Africa. Units are typically two-sided formations that can incur casualties, accurately replicating the realities of combat and the high losses sustained by both sides during the actual fighting around Tobruk. Winning the battle is thus a matter of maneuver, firepower and asset management.

Game Contents:

• 17 x 22” (43 x 56 cm) terrain map
• 100 die-cut counters
• One Standard Rules booklet for this series
• One Exclusive Rules booklet for this title

It sounds and interesting game to play, and judging by the rules set, a quick paced game, with quite a few interesting aspects to it!

I have cut the counters out, set it up, and I will get playing tomorrow. I will post a game report as soon as I can.
Note: green post-its are for keeping the map fixed to my board. They work quite well and do no damage to the map. They are also handy for writing quick notes down - oddly enough ha ha ha

The Road to Cheren (Revolution Games) - Game Report

The Road to Cheren by Kim Kanger

I bought this game direct from Revolution Games for $15 (this was a special offer price, normal price is $21 - still a good price!), and was shipped to me in the UK for $6, which was really good value. The game comes in a ziplock bag and contains the following:

11 x 17" map
113 doublesided die-cut counters
4 page rule book
1 Information sheet which is on the reverse of the front cover of the game.


The components for this game are good quality. 

The map is printed on sturdy card (probably around 200gsm thick) and has a glossy finish. The detail on the map is really nicely done. The terrain is well defined and has no obvious ambiguous areas, and the charts and turn track are well positioned, especially for solo play, even though it is a game for 1-2 players.

The counters are of good quality, back printed, clearly printed and functional (just how I like counters to be - elaborate and over the top designed counters I feel are messy and ruin the ability of being able to identify units quickly). 
They have been covered in a glossy film, which may give them a bit more protection, though I did find it a little irritating with light reflection, but that is a minor issue.

The rule book is well laid out and indexed and cross-referenced well. I did download the Living Rules and use them, but from what I can gather, there has been very little errata for this game, so playing the game without the Living Rules would not be a problem.

All in all, a neat little package.  

Game Report.

From Revolutions website:
The road to Cheren is our new game covering the Eritrea campaign in East Africa in 1941. The campaign featured British and French forces versus the Italians in a wild and mountainous country. The game was designed by Kim Kanger who also designed Ici, c’est la France, Tonkin, and the soon to be released Dien Bien Phu, all by Legion Wargames.

Cheren is a game where the movement of each piece is critical. After movement your opponent may react but with only a few units, making player decisions difficult; do I go to the aid of a unit likely to be attacked or use my reaction to push troops forward in an area where I am on the offensive. After combat there is exploitation movement. Only motorized infantry, tanks and cavalry may exploit and are scarce in this campaign. In addition there is a very nice chit pull system to give both sides some special abilities and keep the enemy guessing as to what comes next. Finally some Italian native units may decide to join the Allies, or they may stay loyal, which creates extra tension in the game.

The game lasts for 12 turns, with the Allies having the first turn. The Allies need at least 22 Victory Points to win, and this is achieved by capturing various towns and villages.

At the start of the game, the Allies all start in Kassala, and the Italians are spread over various towns and villages. Here is a view of the setup from the Vassal mod. Various reinforcements come on for both sides on certain turns, and the Allies also get some Air Support from turn 3

The Allies started off with a two prong attack: one to the South to capture Om Ager, and the other to the East  to capture the center towns. Both attacks went really well, as the Allies start off with some quite powerful units, and can easily force back the Italians.

By the end of Turn 2, all was going well for the Allies and are achieving their goals. 

The Italians have two Garrison areas, where the Native units (Black & Green units) and the small Italian units are inactive, and become activated once an Allied unit enters the Garrison area or adjacent to a Garrison unit. The neat bit about this is that the Italian player has to roll to see which side the Natives will join (they start on the Italian side) once they become active. By this turn, the Wolkait Garrison has been activated and the natives have stayed with the Italians.

By the end of Turn 6, the Allies are really putting pressure on the Italians. However, the Italians did give them a hard time over the towns of Barentu and Agordat, and even though the Allies eventually took these towns, it did delay the Allied advance. By Turn 6, the Allies are also starting to have reinforcements arrive from the North, which adds concern to the Italians.

As the Allies keep pushing the Italians back to gain the VP's they need to win, the Italians are putting up a good job of holding them off.

The last turns are a worry for the Italians, as the Allies have captured the town of Cheren and have the superior strength to capture the all important and highly prized town of Asmara, as capturing this town would give the Allies victory.

To the South, the Italians have halted the Allied advance, as they have a stronger force their and control the higher ground.

Unfortunately, it was all to much for the Allies, as the Italians were able to hold them off long enough to deny the Allies victory.

My Opinion

The game turns are reasonably quick, and as the turns progress, it does get rather tense. In the game I played, it was clear by turn 10 that the Allies would not reach their goal, but it could so easily have gone to the final turn, and I think that could be quite typical of this game as there are so many different towns and villages which can give the Allies valuable Victory Points.

The Allies also do have quite a few options available to them, in respect to what objectives to go for. This gives the Italian player a dilemma as to where to move his reinforcements, as he has to make sure he has enough to contain the Allies.

Natives which become activated are also a problem for the Italians, as it is on the dice as to whether or not they stay loyal or join the Allies

Both sides have chits which allow them to perform certain actions, but these can be limited and have to be used carefully, which adds a nice variable to the game.

Units can have supply problems if they stray too far from their supply routes - or get cut off from them, a tactic the Italians can use to great effect to slow down the Allies! If they remain out of supply, this could be disastrous for the unit concerned, as it will end up having to suffer step losses.

There is a nice concept of soft and hard ZOC in this game (never seen this before), as this is determined by the stacking points

I did enjoy enjoy playing this game a lot. There are a lot of neat little touches to this game which makes it stand out from the normal run-of-the-mill wargame and it has enough about it to be highly replayable, even from a solo point of view.

This game will definitely be hitting the table again soon!

10/10

Blogging on Blogger

A while ago I decided I wanted to bring my experiences of wargaming to the internet, and so I decided to experiment using websites and blogging platforms.

After trying different sites and formats, I have decided to go with Blogger. This is because I can easily post items on my PC or my smart phone, any pictures I take on my phone go straight to my Google account and I can use easily on Blogger. Plus, it is easy to navigate and control.

I do not imagine for one minute I will get a big audience, and even if I only get an odd visit every month, it will be enough for me, as using Blogger is more of a way to record my progress and experiences in wargaming, so I can look back on my own history of playing these games.

My first dozen posts on here were pretty plain and uniteresting affairs, where I just posted a picture with a small amount of text as this was during my time of experimenting with various platforms.
Now that Blogger is my chosen platform, my posts will be more substantial, similar to my last post (Road to Cheren) and a previous post on Teutenburger Wald game I played.

Road to Cheren by Revolution Games

This is  the next Game on the Table.

I bought this game direct from Revolution Games in America for $21 (including postage!), and it arrived in a week, which is really good.

It was designed by a relative newcomer to the wargame scene, Kim Kanger, who has a few other games being published by Legion Wargames.

Here is the description of the game from the website:

The road to Cheren is our new game covering the Eritrea campaign in East Africa in 1941. The campaign featured British and French forces versus the Italians in a wild and mountainous country. Cheren is a game where the movement of each piece is critical. After movement your opponent may react but with only a few units, making player decisions difficult; do I go to the aid of a unit likely to be attacked or use my reaction to push troops forward in an area where I am on the offensive. After combat there is exploitation movement. Only motorized infantry, tanks and cavalry may exploit and are scarce in this campaign. In addition there is a very nice chit pull system to give both sides some special abilities and keep the enemy guessing as to what comes next. Finally some Italian native units may decide to join the Allies, or they may stay loyal, which creates extra tension in the game

Components for this games consist of:
11 x 17" map
113 doublesided die-cut counters
4 page rule book

I have cut out the counters, and I am ready to play!

Napoleon's First Battles - Decision Games

Things are hotting up at Marengo

New game - I have now nearly got the complete Royalist & Roundheads collection

English Civil War Campaign

I have decided to start a campaign playing all the battles that are in the three volumes of Royalist & Roundheads by World Wide Wargamers, in chronological order (12 battles in total).
The first battle is Edgehill, and I have set up the battle all ready to go, I am reading some material on the battle so I can gain some historical feel to it.

I will not play all 12 battles in one go, as I will play other  games in between just to use as a break, but I will keep a record of who wins what and compare it against the historical outcomes.
I will be posting some brief AAR's and a general review of the system.

Viceroys by Task Force Games

I bought this game from Ebay.
It seemed an interesting game to buy, and a slight change from straight forward conflict games.

Here is the description from BGG:

This wargame details the worldwide European explorations and colonizations of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The map is directly based on a "wrong" historical map. Event cards seem to cover just about every dimension of the period. The underlying game system also offers opportunity for strategy and negotiation as well as chaos. The seagoing players, Portugal, Spain, England, France, and the Dutch, each have national differences and advantages/disadvantages. This is also true for Russia and Turkey which can colonize overland. There is also provision for general European war. Multiple scenarios are provided. Also included are rules for 1 or 2 players which permit Spain and Portugal to participate as non-players.

One interesting dimension of the game is the idea that each player also has a "job" within the game, from which he occasionally earns a little income. One of them was even The Rules Lawyer, in charge of resolving any disputes!

It also has rules for solo play, which is a winner for me!

Panzer Grenadier Eastern Front

I have been playing a few scenarios of Panzer Grenadier Eastern Front. I am just about done with it now and all set to start my big campaign of playing battles from the English Civil War

Greater war in East Asia-the beginning

Japanese have just made their first move....and so the war begins.....

World at War issue 20

Just arrived from Heron Games. Bought it for only £15 new as Heron is closing down. Should have been about £30. Looks a beast of a game, with four battles involving four famous German Divisions.

War in East Asia - World at War magazine game

This is what I am setting up at the moment

Sword and Shield by 3W

Finally secured a copy of this game.
I now have only 4 games left to get in the Royalist & Roundheads system.

Rome at War - Hannibal at Bay

This is a game I bought from a member from BGG. I like Roman wargames, so this title was a must. It looks really good and resembles Panzer Grenadier but in Roman times.

Teutoburger Wald from Battles of the Ancient World by Decision Games

Teutoburger Wald depicts the battle which took place between three Roman Legions under the command of Govenor Varus, and a confederation of Germanic tribes.

Varus was en-route to winter quarters when he and his three Legions were caught in a cunning trap. Surrounded on all sides, this was to be a battle of pure survival.

The outcome for Varus was not good. He and his three Legions were destroyed, leaving this to be the worst (or very close to) defeat for Rome.

In this game, the victory conditions are quite simple. The Germanic tribes win if they destroy all Roman units by the end of turn 6. Rome wins if there is at least 1 unit left on the map by the end of turn 6 or if at least one unit manages to exit the West side of the map by turn 6.

Romans set up first, then the Germanic tribes, and this is my setup:

White, Yellow, Red and Black units are the Romans. The Germanic tribe start the game.

The biggest tactical issue the Romans faced was space. Their units needed to keep a certain amount of space free behind them to allow for retreat results, as there is no stacking allowed or retreating into EZOC (they would be eliminated otherwise). So counter-attacks were needed even if it just meant forcing the enemy to retreat, as the Romans needed the breathing space.

For the Germanic tribe, it was just a case of "get in tae them" (sorry, my old Scottish phrases coming out) or "get into the bastards!". They just had to attack every Roman unit. Force them back, make them retreat, and hopefully eliminate them when they could not retreat. They also had to make sure no gaps appeared, which would allow any Roman units to make a run for it.

I started the battle, and really, the Romans held their own pretty well for the first two turns, even though they were taking losses.However, the break through for the Germanic tribe came when they more or less destroyed the white XIX Legion, which exposed the Yellow XVIII, causing the Romans to be squeezed into an ever decreasing battle area.

From here on in, the Romans were stuffed. Maybe.

To cut a long AAR short (I like short AAR's), a chink appeared in the Germanic lines, and on the second last turn, after the Germanic tribe had made their moves and attacks, there remained one Roman unit, which decided to make a run for it. And run it did.

In the last turn, the Germanic units which were left were unable to destroy this unit and the Roman unit survived, and snatched victory out of the hands of the Germanic tribe. 

And if that was not an odd twist of fate, the unit that survived was bloody Varus himself! Ha ha ha ha haaaaa.

My Opinion of the game.

I thought it was a good game to play, as it did give you that sense of it was a battle of survival for the Romans, but also it is not a walk in the park for the Germanic tribe either.

Basic standard type rules (move, attack and rally), clean and well presented map, the counters are clean and pretty standard, and the rules were well written and quite clear to understand without having any question marks or queries.

This is classed as a low level of complexity Quad game, and it is, which is nice, as it played really well, and I really enjoyed it. I have no gripes about this game, i played it for what it is and got my enjoyment out of it!

Print & Play Ancients

I downloaded and printed off Ancients from Relative Range , which is the famous Bill Banks game which has several A4 maps and dozens and dozens of battles. RR have redesigned the counters and maps but everything else is the same.
This is a really good collection to have as the game has small maps which helps if you are limited for space, the rules are easy to learn and very well suited for solo play.