What War or Boardgame are you playing?

[Deleted]

Not playing, yet, but studying Chainmail and Swords & Spells on and off. Looking forward to getting a sand box table and making some terrain sometime over the next couple of years.

[Parzival]

In the Age of Covid, none.
BUT
Sometimes I solo play various things:
3 dimensional chess, Star Trek style (made my own board and rules, based on other concepts out there: parzivalsplace.blogspot.com/2018/05/queen-to-queens-level-two-mr-spock.html
Warmaster/Battle of the Five Armies — my favorite 10mm mass battle game
Dungeon Saga
Ogre
Space Hulk
The Awful Green Things From Outer Space (Space Hulk’s funnier grandpa)
Battle Cry/Memoir ‘44
Wings of War/Glory
Battle Masters (less so these days, as crawling around on the floor has lost some appeal...)

AND
When I do get to play with others, those are all in the mix, as are
D&D: The Conquest of Nerath (an Axis & Allies fantasy board game, and exceptionally good)
Conquest of the Empire
Risk: 2210 AD, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Godstorm, Legacy, Europe and the original
Star Wars X-Wing (1st ed)
878 AD Vikings Invasions of England (yes, that’s one game with an absurdly long title. But it’s a fantastic game!)
King of Tokyo
Betrayal at the House on the Hill
Frag!

PLUS
I have some new acquisitions I’m itching to try:
Godzilla: Tokyo Clash
Dune (re-issue of the classic original with new art and updated rules)
Junta (current edition)
Kings-N-Things (GW/West End Games edition)
Duel in the Dark
[EDIT] And I almost forgot a TSR product— Buck Rogers: Battle for the 25th Century Game

Some of the above have reviews and play throughs on my blog; click around and see what you find. parzivalsplace.blogspot.com/

[stevemitchell]

The Great Crisis of Frederick the Great from VUCA Simulations. This covers the Seven Years War in Europe, with Prussia surrounded by enemies--Sweden, Russia, Saxony, Austria, the Holy Roman Empire, and France. Prussia's only allies are Great Britain and Hanover. After much marching and countermarching, battles and sieges, the game ended in--a draw! (Peace broke out at the end of 1762 thanks to a random die roll.)

[stevemitchell]

A World War II trilogy:

War in the Pacific 1941-1945 from White Dog Games. This is a high-level treatment of the PTO, with a strong emphasis on supply networks. The Japanese won--they were still going to lose the war, but the Allies couldn't wrap it up by the end of 1945.

Holdfast: North Africa 1941-1942 from Worthington Publishing. Rommel rides again! He didn't make it into Egypt this time, but then, Monty never pushed him back as far as happened historically by the end of 1942. So, only a marginal victory for the British.

Operation Jupiter from Decision Games. This is an interesting hypothetical situation--what if the Allies invaded the far north of Scandinavia to break the German ability to interfere with the Russian convoys? There was some actual planning for this campaign, but the Allies ultimately decided to head south for North Africa with Operation Torch instead. In my game, the Americans got bottled up after establishing their landing at Banak, but the British, arriving at Petsamo, were able to drive overland and capture the big German naval and supply base at Kirkenes, giving the Allies a sudden-death victory.

[stevemitchell]

Delete--didn't realize I posted this twice.

[stevemitchell]

The French and Indian War Game from The Historical Gaming Company. This is an interesting small game using a point-to-point map and half-yearly turns. You attack, not with cardboard counters representing your armies, but rather with a variable number of special dice. If you win, you can place a control marker on the conquered space. My game ended with a British victory.

Atlantic Wolves from Canvas Temple Publishing. In this solitaire game, you take on the role of Admiral Doenitz, commanding the Reich's submarine forces for the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942-1943. I played twice, lost to the system twice, and decided to send the Herr Admiral to the Russian Front.

[Parzival]

This past weekend I played Wings of Glory (originally Wings of War). Great light miniatures game.
Also played The Battle of Five Armies, a variant of GW’s Warmaster fantasy 10mm game.

If you like strategic level light war games, I’ll highly recommend 878: Vikings: Invasions of England (horrible title, but great game). It’s a very elegant system that pulls of a complexity of action without being at all complicated to play. And the components are gorgeous!

[owlorbs]

Lately I've been doing some miniatures gaming. Sellswords & Spellslingers and Rangers of Shadow Deep. Both get a thumbs up from me.

[arkansan]

Currently I'm looking at creating some armies out of knitting mesh, which can be used to make cheap 6mm figures.

This link contains an excellent example.

Googling around will show some really interesting examples of what people have accomplished this way.

[stevemitchell]

Something new for Ancients warfare--Dawn of Battle from Worthington Publishing. This is a generic battle system, covering the period from 1,500 BC up to 1,500 AD. In its original form, it was known as Ancients, and was published by Good Industries, then by 3W, and then by One Small Step. Later it passed into the hands of Victory Points Games and became Deluxe Ancients. Now, considerably revised and changed, it returns as Dawn of Battle from Worthington. The initial set has rules, counters, and scenarios for 20 battles, with expansions planned.

I played the Battle of Asculum (Romans vs. Epirotes) to get a feel for the mechanics--this is a modest-sized battle, with only a couple of missile units and one "exotic" piece--an Epirote elephant unit. Contrary to history, the Romans won a decisive victory. Now I've set up and stated a much larger battle, Magnesia, with the Romans vs. the Seleucids. More unit types, and more things to consider on the battlefield. I'd rate the system as being about on the level of complexity as GMT's Commands and Colors: Ancients series, and nowhere near as complex as GMT's Great Battles of History series. I'm enjoying it so far.

[skars]

Apr 10, 2021 13:21:15 GMT -6 stevemitchell said:

Something new for Ancients warfare--Dawn of Battle from Worthington Publishing. This is a generic battle system, covering the period from 1,500 BC up to 1,500 AD. In its original form, it was known as Ancients, and was published by Good Industries, then by 3W, and then by One Small Step. Later it passed into the hands of Victory Points Games and became Deluxe Ancients. Now, considerably revised and changed, it returns as Dawn of Battle from Worthington. The initial set has rules, counters, and scenarios for 20 battles, with expansions planned.

I played the Battle of Asculum (Romans vs. Epirotes) to get a feel for the mechanics--this is a modest-sized battle, with only a couple of missile units and one "exotic" piece--an Epirote elephant unit. Contrary to history, the Romans won a decisive victory. Now I've set up and stated a much larger battle, Magnesia, with the Romans vs. the Seleucids. More unit types, and more things to consider on the battlefield. I'd rate the system as being about on the level of complexity as GMT's Commands and Colors: Ancients series, and nowhere near as complex as GMT's Great Battles of History series. I'm enjoying it so far.

I have ancients 1&2 combined edition from 3W and will need to grab it off the shelf as it has been a while. Has much changed over the years and across editions?

[stevemitchell]

For Dawn of Battle, yes, a lot has changed. Each army will have a variable number of action points each turn, to use to activate formations (any units within range of a specified commander), to buy extra event cards, to contest initiative, to modify dice rolls, etc. And despite the mention of dice rolls, there are no dice in the game; instead you turn over event cards to get a number there, similar to the mechanic in GMT's Combat Commander. The event cards also contain actual events, some possible random events for the end of the turn, and a different combat result table on each card! (So when I make a melee attack, for example, I turn over a card and check the result for my combat superiority, or inferiority, which can be further modified by a possible morale check; then the defender does the same thing.) None of this is especially complex, particularly once you have run through your first couple of battles, but is definitely a step up, and a ways removed, from the earlier versions of Ancients.

My Magnesia game ended in another decisive victory for the Romans. I've got Ad Decimum (Byzantines vs. Vandals) ready to go for my next fight.

[Parzival]

Back in March I got together with a friend for a game of GW’s Battle of Five Armies (Warmaster variant). Read (and see) all about it: parzivalsplace.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-return-of-hobbit-good-friend-fights.html

[owlorbs]

I've been a long time of fan of Ancients. I have the 1986 edition and the campaign system King of Kings. A really great, rules light system for playing a ton of battles across a wide swath of history.

[stevemitchell]

A couple of more scenarios from Dawn of Battle. The Byzantines got roughly handled by the Vandals at Ad Decimum, then Caesar crushed the Senatorials at Thapsus--a three-turn blowout!

[Parzival]

I found the 2018 edition of Blitz Bowl on deep clearance at my local Barnes & Noble— $9 for a $45 game. Though I’m not big into many GW games, as a Southerner, I love football (American), and I couldn’t pass up a deal like that.

Quick review: Blitz Bowl is sort of an “arena football” version of Blood Bowl. Each team has six players with varying abilities, both by player type and team “race”. The boxed set comes with an Orc team and a Human team. The Orcs are big, slow, brutes. The Humans are weaker, but faster. You gain points by scoring touchdowns (getting the ball into the other team’s end zone in the hands of one of your players), and by collecting “Challenge Cards” which list different actions you might pull off on your turn— such as completing a pass, completing a long or obstructed pass, blocking three opponents, injuring an opponent, etc.. Three Challenge Cards are available to collect in each player’s turn, and one card is discarded at the end of a turn if none are collected. The Challenge Cards also have special actions on the back which can be used to alter what happens in play.
Each team has 3 actions per turn, which can be divided among up to three of the active teammembers (“players’). The Actions depend on player situation— an Open player (not adjacent to an opponent) can Run (move full speed) OR Mark (move two spaces and end adjacent to an opposing player) OR Throw the ball to another open player on his team. Marked players can Block (possibly push back or knock down an adjacent opponent) or Sidestep (move one space away from an adjacent opponent to become Open).

Does it play like American football? Well, sorta. Not all players can be moved on a turn, and there’s no line of scrimmage or downs or yardage or play formations or penalties, no field goals or safeties, or anything like that. But you are using players to block and open paths for the man with the ball, fumbles are a frequent occurrence, and passing plays are key. So it has a “feel” like football even if it’s not really football. The cards provide a decent clock, but the game feels a little long to me, but I’m playing solo, so that’s harder to judge.

Figs are typical GW— slightly over done in the GW way, but fitting to the theme and flavor of the game. They’re supposed to be snap together models, but a few of the Orc figures have parts that don’t really fit well and will require gluing. Rules are clear, and components are excellent. The game includes an easy-to-follow series of “Drill cards” that serve as a tutorial system, which is nice.

Just to pick a nit, a note to the Brits at GW: He’s not a “thrower,” he’s a “passer.” He’s not a “catcher,” he’s a “receiver.” It’s more often called a “pass” than a “throw.” Other than that, nice stab at an American football game.

Will I buy more teams or the 2020 “Season Two” boxed set? Probably not— but a good sale might get me.

[rsdean]

My son came up for the first post-vaccination visit this weekend, and the game of choice was DBA. He’s painted 5 or 6 new armies during the lockdown and wanted to give them a test drive. We started with an 8-army single elimination bracket campaign for the late Bronze Age, and ended up with the Sea Peoples mopping the floor with the chariot empires. Then it was on to Meso-america, with Mayans and Aztecs. Aztecs took the Mayans down 2 for 2...

[hamurai]

I've picked up Kill Team again (found some cheap Space Marines sprues on eBay and building and painting them got my interest back) and hope to find someone who still plays with the basic rules, but most folks here seem to have moved over to One Page Rules, playing Grimdark Future and GF Firefight instead of the original games.

I also found a cheap starter set for Bolt Action, which I still have to build. So far, the Germans and all bases are done, the US Airborne are still on sprues. I quite like the rules from what I've read and hope to find myself playing with some local players soon.

Also, during the lockdown I've tinkered with my own very rules-light set of "skirmish" game I played with my 5-year old daughter. When I played with her, it was called Snowball Arena. I'll be polishing the rules a bit and hope to share it with the public in a while.

[stevemitchell]

The Dark Summer from GMT Games is a new release from designer Ted Raicer. It follows, and adapts mechanics from, his earlier World War II games The Dark Valley (Russian Front) and The Dark Sands (North Africa). The Dark Summer covers the D-Day landings and the subsequent battle for Normandy in ten turns, from June through August 1944. Most units are at the regimental/brigade level, along with some heavy tank battalions for the Germans.

In my game, the Allies did well at first, taking all their beach hexes on Turn 1, followed by Cherbourg on Turn 3 and Caen on Turn 4. But things slowed down a bit after that, and the Americans didn’t break into Brittany until Turn 8. That only gave them the last 2 turns to make their big right hook up from the south.

But the Germans had been playing a pretty good defensive game, slowly falling back all along the front, and once the American entered Brittany, sharply pulling back on their left flank to preclude any kind of Falaise Pocket moment. On Turns 9 and 10, they carefully screened their east edge exit hexes, while withdrawing many of their armored formations along with some infantry. The Allied got close to, but never through, any of the east edge exit hexes. So, final result, a Germany victory—even though they lost way more troops, they still got enough of their army out of Normandy in good order to thwart any “Home by Christmas” hopes the Allies may have had.

A really good game, with plenty of replay value.

[stevemitchell]

And then I played History of the World from Avalon-Hill, rescued after long captivity out in my storage unit. There are seven “Epochs” in the game, starting with Sumeria; in each one, you will draw randomly for one empire to control. You score points for that empire by controlling territories and regions (variable by Epoch) and by controlling seas/oceans, capitals, cities, and monuments. At the end of the seventh Epoch, the player with the most cumulative points for his seven empires wins. So, you might play the Egyptians or the Babylonians in the first Epoch, the Romans in the second, etc.—or possibly one of the Chinese dynasties or Indian (subcontinent) kingdoms. Eventually, by the sixth and seventh Epochs, you have a chance to colonize the Americas and Australasia, or drive off the invaders.

I set up a game with six factions, the maximum, and played it out solitaire. The final winner was the mighty Green faction, consisting, in order, of the empires of Babylonia-Vedic City States-Romans-T'ang Dynasty-Chola-Spain-Britain. Lots of fun, and you don’t have to follow any particular script for your empires—for example, in my game, during the fifth Epoch, the (Black faction) Mongols drove south into India and reached Ceylon! Partly for fun, partly to try to break up the Green faction, which was in the lead and also dominant in southern India.

[rsdean]

The wargames club is back to face to face meetings; this week the game was WWI naval action using the General Quartes rules. I need to get set up for a remote game of 18th century home rules later today, but that’s at least one more cup of coffee and several chores away.

[stevemitchell]

I've used the General Quarters rules for World War II scenarios--as an introduction for some non-gamers, and they seemed to enjoy it. Many years ago, sadly.

[stevemitchell]

Holdfast: Tunisia 1942-43 from Worthington Publications.

This covers the Tunisian campaign in 2-week turns from November 42 through May 43. Most units are divisions, with some armor/panzer divisions split between an “A” and “B” unit. Everything in governed by Resource Points, not variable, but fixed allotment by turn. You pay RPs to bring units back from the dead, to build up units on the map that have taken step losses, to move units, and to fight.

The Allies have to take both Tunis and Bizerte to win, which they failed to do here—they were not aggressive enough in the north, and spent more time and energy than they should have trying to turn or break through the Axis lines further south. So, Tunisia falls a month or more behind the historical schedule, and the dates for Anzio and Salerno slip accordingly.

[makofan]

Played a really close game of SPI's Antietam the other night - for such a simple game system, does a good job with the battle

[owlorbs]

I played a session of Starguard! Second Edition (1975) with my Dreenoi vs. a Ralnai scout party. Great fun. The game went pretty smoothly after I typed up a sequence of play (the threaded turns tripped me up a bit at first). Later editions (4th and later) switched to a percentile system and a simpler turn sequence which is not to my preference.

[stevemitchell]

Beneath the Med is the fourth entry in a series of solitaire submarine games from GMT. Here the focus is on the Italian submarine fleet, which operated not only in the Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic and adjoining areas as well. The player takes the role of the commander of an individual Italian submarine, while the "system" handles the Allied ships and planes trying to hunt him down--even as he hunts down Allied shipping.

In my game, Capitano Massimo Scarlatti survived the entire campaign period, from June 1940 through August 1943. He won a substantial victory, with 16 total patrols (14 in a Perla-class sub, 2 in a Calvi-class sub), 15 ships sunk, and a total tonnage sunk of 86,200. His most significant victory was sinking the CV Indomitable, but he also sank DD Defender, DD Gurkha, and SS Upright.

[Parzival]

Recent games played:
5 Minute Dungeon— a very fast, timed cooperative card game— defeat 7 boss monsters and their minion hordes (and traps) by playing cards from your hand— but watch out; you’re not only running out of time, you’re running out of cards… Fast and frenetic, a good light filler game.

Rock, Paper, Wizard— WizKids licensed the D&D name and imagery for this silly game reminiscent of the classic WizWar. The dragon is dead, and now the wizards each want more than their fair share of the loot. Using hand gestures and the well-known “Rock, Paper, Scissors” motif, players “cast spells” on each other to push their opponents away from the horde and move themselves close enough to snatch the gold. Yes, it’s as silly as it sounds. But it’s fun.

Horrified— a light co-op game based on the classic Universal movie monsters from the 1930s-40’s. The monsters are terrorizing the town, and our intrepid heroes must complete various tasks to stop them. Meanwhile, with each monster attack, the level of terror inches relentlessly forward; if it gets too high, the monsters have the victory and the town is doomed. Very evocative with excellent artwork, it’s on the simpler side as far as rules go— but the suspense is quite effective, victory is not easily achieved, and defeat is very much a growing danger in the game. I’ve played this twice— won once, lost once. It’s got the advantage of being very easy to do online— I set up a camera over the board and revealed the cards when drawn, then moved and acted according to the verbal instructions of the distant players. Since it’s co-op, there’s not secrecy involved; everything is always known by all players. It’s my online gaming group’s goto if someone can’t make our regular RPG session.

[stevemitchell]

I recently bought the Tri-Pack with the first three games in GMT's “Men of Iron” series: Men of Iron, Infidel, and Blood and Roses. I have the original editions, but the Tri-Pack version includes an updated and standardized series rule book for all three titles, all errata incorporated, some minor tweaks in the battle scenarios, and a brand-new battle for Men of Iron: Agincourt. So, 20 battles total in one big box—a pretty good value, I think.

I decided to head back to the Crusades, so I played the first battle from Infidel—Dorylaeum. It’s 1096, and the Crusaders are marching south across Anatolia, with their army somewhat strung out, when they run into a large blocking forces of Seljuk Turks. The Seljuks have scads of light cavalry and medium cavalry, most of it bow-armed, while the Crusaders have a vanguard of knights, some infantry (mostly pikes), and some camp followers. They also have, off-map, several reinforcement groups with more knights, but it takes time for them to get organized and reach the battlefield.

Though, as it turns out, they were hardly needed. The two leading bands of knights, under Bohemund of Taranto and Robert of Normandy, kept the Seljuks (mostly) at bay and away from the more vulnerable infantry. The occasional Seljuk raider that slipped past the knights was usually dealt with harshly by the pikemen under Stephen of Blois and Tancred of Taranto. The Seljuks simply didn’t have anything that can do serious damage to knights, short of surrounding a knight unit and killing it by forcing it to retreat (and I think that happened only once). The knight charges are deadly, and they can also counter-charge any missile unit that fires on them. Anyway, very powerful, and the Crusaders ended up winning quite handily. Deus lo vult!

[stevemitchell]

I played two more battles from Infidel, with the Crusaders winning both: Antioch and Ascalon. Much tougher fights for the Crusaders than Dorylaeum, though.

[acodispo]

We tried the 2 player 300: Earth & Water last night. Fun, quick! I guess you'd call it a strategic board game? The game took about an hour, as we were learning the rules. Persia massed huge armies & marched them across a pontoon bridge over the Hellespont (Greece had blockaded the Persian ports). As the final "campaign" began (there are only 5 campaigns in a game), it seemed certain that Greece would fall, but then random card draw indicated that Darius I had died. This draw ends the current campaign, but if it happens during the final campaign, the game is over & points are tallied! Greece ended up winning due to points accumulated before the massive Persian offensive in the 4th campaign.

Surprisingly fun & deep for such a quick game! We're definitely going to play it again, to switch sides & see if we can uncover alternate strategies.