What War or Boardgame are you playing?

[stevemitchell]

Briefly noted from the last several weeks:

Triumph & Tragedy from GMT Games. An Axis victory.

The Nagorno-Karabakh War from Decision Games. An Azerbaijan victory.

30 Years War Battles: Lutter 1626 from Decision Games. A substantive victory for the Imperialists.

30 Years War Battles: Wittstock 1636 from Decision Games. A decisive victory for the Swedes and Allies.

Freezing Death: Finnish Winter War from Linden Lake Games. A Finnish victory.

Opaque War: Ukraine 2014 from Decision Games. A Rebel victory.

Plains Indian Wars from GMT Games. A U.S. victory.

[stevemitchell]

And another game of Plains Indian Wars. A major victory for the Indians this time.

[Flintlock]

I'm currently in a monthly TTS game of Republic of Rome. (I was doing well until my only statesman got assassinated for overly picking on two factions).

My wargame obsession at the moment is La Révolution française: La patrie en danger 1791-1795 but I've only managed to solo it so far. (It needs at least five so it's not easy to get to the table).

[stevemitchell]

Just finished a new release from Compass Games: War for America. This covers the American War for Independence from 1775 through 1782, with a map stretching from Canada to Florida, and including the Caribbean Islands that the British and French fought over doing the war. My game ended with an American victory.

[stevemitchell]

Huzzah! (Volume 1) from One Small Step features four Civil War battles, fought at a sub-regimental scale, with usually two or three units per regiment. I fought the Battle of Iuka, with Price and Rosecrans contending in northern Mississippi in late 1862. Both sides fought hard--to a tie.

[skars]

Playing The Russian Campaign 1974 edition recently reprinted by Compass Games tonight and looking forward to it.

[stevemitchell]

I received The Russian Campaign 74 edition from Compass a couple of days ago. I'd be playing it right now--except I already had their African Campaign 73 edition set up on the table! Banging away on that right now. Both games look really great.

[stevemitchell]

And. . .I finished The African Campaign. Rommel and Monty fought it out to a draw, but really, Rommel did better here than the historical outcome--he was still holding on to Tobruk, and the Allies (after falling back all the way to El Alamein) had not progressed in their counter-attack to the point of reaching Sidi Barrani.

[stevemitchell]

Next up: The Russian Campaign from Compass Games (based on the 1974 Jedko original). A long and bitter struggle, ending in--another draw.

[owlorbs]

On the table: Rise of the Roman Republic from GMT. My opponent and I are enjoying it so far, though we only finished the first two turns (Samnite War Scenario).

[rsdean]

A friend of mine and I had our second session of Rnagers of Shadowdeep yesterday, leaving us a total of three scenarios in …

[terrex]

Assault on Hoth. I won a rebel victory with the help of Luke and an early hotshot gunner card. Very good tactical game simulating the Imperial assault on Hoth from ESB.

[hamurai]

We played a lot of Summoners last weekend, a tabletop made by one of our local group (and spiced with great minis by another one of our group!), if you're interested: www.neverrealm.de (no affiliate link) (German)

It's interesting to be part of the balance check for the game after the collected feedback since its release!

[stevemitchell]

Another rash of battles: Malta Besieged from Worthington Publishing (two games, two Axis victories); Tarawa 1943 also from Worthington (two games, two Japanese victories); Bulge from Decision Games (Allied victory); Battle of Saratoga from The Historical Gaming Company (British victory); Battle of Yorktown also from THGC (Franco-American victory); and The Deadly Woods from Revolution Games (Allied victory).

[Flintlock]

Steve Jackson Games have re released all their 80s pocket games in a bundle. All in classic retro packaging, down to reproductions of their catalogue. So I've been playing through them with the missus.

Thoughts so far:

Awful Green Things from Outer Space. I suspect my avatar gives a hint how I feel about Tom Wham games. An absolute classic.

Raid on Iran. A nice little wargame with a focus on stealth and trickery. A lot more decision points then I expected. I really like this.

Kung Fu 2100. Kung fu in the distant future. It's like being in a very silly martial arts movie. A bit clunky, but still a lot of fun.

Necromancer. Solid enough fantasy wargame. Has some nice twists but nothing groundbreaking. I enjoyed it but I'm not sure how well it will stand up to repeated play.

One Page Bulge. Haven't played this yet. WW2 doesn't really excite me as a setting.

Undead. Looks excellent, but hard to get to the table. You really need both a GM and players willing to sit in the other room while the opposition takes their turn. But it's one of the most book faithful Dracula games I've seen.

[rsdean]

Well, yesterday being Father’s Day, I drove about two hours south to spend the day playing miniatures games with my elder son. The main attraction was a 40mm home cast 18th century imagi-nations game, using Charge! or How to Play Wargames (copyright 1968), complete with its fractions and written simultaneous orders. We then had a couple of quicker games, one with his 19th century 1/72 scale imagi-nations using rules from Neil Thomas’s Wargaming the 19th Century book, and a Mycenaean/Hittite match-up using DBA.

[rsdean]

Blog post with pictures of the 40mm game:

sharpbrush.blogspot.com/2022/06/battle-at-gaithersbruck-new-blog-post.html

[stevemitchell]

Two from GMT Games: Washington's War (a British victory) and Paths of Glory (a Central Powers victory).

[rsdean]

One of my fellow club members had a Saga (Dark Ages skirmish) meet on Sunday, so I got my Dark Ages figures out for a go. They haven’t been on the table since the Before Times, and I was glad to see them out.

[Punkrabbitt]

OK, so my wife Leticia offered to play a game with me. I immediately thought it would be great to have a living opponent instead of the AI for my first actual campaign battle of Five Leagues From The Borderlands, 3rd edition. So I excitedly set up a board of jungle terrain last night in anticipation of today's skirmish.



I then prepped the game, and determined the opposition force. Legion of the Wolverine! Seven armored guys with three crossbows amongst them. Now, I don't use crossbows in my Aztec Fantasy games, but I use those statistics when called for on the atlatls my models are equipped with.

As she and I were getting ready to play, there was a delay of game as my kid ate lunch. Thanks, Ellis!



Once we finally got underway, it turned out my wife is a pretty good tactician (which I have noticed in other games we have played) with a firm grasp of ranged vs. melee methods. I have always maintained that good rules will reward good tactics, and that was certainly the case today.



She held back her melee troops and positioned her ranged guys to shoot my warband as it was forced to advance to close the distance for melee. Her atlatls accounted for four of my guys, and she killed the other two in melee. My warband was annihilated!



Congratulations on your win, babe!

I'm not sure if I am going to pursue this warband further, or start over with this experience under my belt and build a more competetive team. I had intentionally held back a bit on this group based on my 2nd edition experiences, and as it turns out this newfangled 3rd edition is pretty brutal with some decent die rolls and intelligent direction for the opposition.

[rsdean]

Nice! I like the plastic plant jungle scenery; I’ve used a lot of that myself. You also illustrate the challenges of not having a dedicated space. Sharing with meals can be challenging.

I’ve got 3e in pdf and am awaiting the (someday) arrival of the print copy, but haven’t read too far into it yet.

[stevemitchell]

I played Salerno '43 from GMT Games. This covers the landings at Salerno and the following 3 weeks as the Allies attempt to break out of the bridgehead and push north toward Naples--through an endless succession of hills and mountains, and some dug-in, determined Germans. In my game, the Allies reached their victory point threshold on the very last turn; so, a very close game. One of the better games I have played recently.

[Parzival]

Well, not a wargame, but over the July 4 weekend I teamed up with my young great nephew (age 8) in a game of Ticket to Ride. With our clever strategy and some lucky card draws, the Greater Canada-Pacific RailRoad Company came out on top, defeating the teams of my wife and great niece (age 10), my father and adult niece— “Aunt Lala” to the children, my other niece (“Momma”- the only solely owned railroad company in the game), and my other great nephew (age 6) and his father.
Apparently Canadian passengers like a route from New York to Las Vegas by way of Winnipeg, Vancouver, Seattle, and Santa Fe. Who knew?
Fun game, though best with a full complement of players.

[flightcommander]

Picked up an Alien boardgame and played it with my daughter the other night. It's a coop game, which I've honestly never played before, so the players have to work together to defeat or escape the alien. It's a pretty clever design, hoping to play again this weekend — there are several different objectives (you draw one each game) that determine what the victory conditions are, and they will require different strategies, more coordination, more luck, etc.

[skars]

Playing Burma by Mark Herman out of the most recent c3i magazine.

[stevemitchell]

I played FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN from Legion Games. A new release from Legion, this covers the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. It’s at brigade level, with 300-yard hexes and hourly turns. The game mechanics are pretty straightforward, and it plays briskly.

In my game, Cox’s Union division advanced against the Rebs at Fox’s Gap, and eventually gained control there. D. H. Hill’s Confederate division was mostly destroyed in the process. In the meantime, two Union corps advanced further north against Turner’s Gap, but Longstreet was able to rush up some reinforcements just in time. Lots of back and forth fighting in the woods and hills, but the Rebs held on, with Hood’s division even leading a sharp counterattack.

It all ended in a draw (and presumably the Rebs retreated during the night to get ready for Antietam a few days later). A fun game.

[stevemitchell]

My second playing of IMPERIAL TIDE from Compass Games, and ending in an Allied victory. A very close game, though.

[soundchaser]

Heh, thanks for noticing those little details.
I sometimes wonder if folks know my sources:)

Feb 18, 2022 10:58:42 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

Feb 14, 2022 18:21:21 GMT -6 soundchaser said:

Currently Valiant Defense stuff. Played the simple level of Soldiers in Postmen’s Uniforms, two Polish wins, but the second was close call. Going to do few Undaunted Scenarios this evening.

Nice avatar & username, by the way!

Currently, my only gaming comes from playing occasional board games with my nephews (6th-11th grade) while visiting with the kids. We've played a bit of Heroquest, a bit of Talisman, a lot of Captain Sonar (great game!), a bit of Melee & Wizard, and a bit of the current Battletech Beginner Box.

The BT box is a great value, and the rulebook is laid out really well. The only issue is that it includes ZERO energy & heating rules, so there's very little tactical plany involved: just jump and shoot everything, every turn. We ended up coming up with our own overheating rules on the spot, which we add to a bit each time we play.

[hamurai]

I'll be playing a Warmachine demo game later today. I like the steampunk setting and I've played the Iron Kingdoms (not the recent 5E conversion) in the past for a while, so I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, now I wonder if I have the time and money and dedication to get into yet another game?

The new edition is on its way and the last one was really popular around here. It's kinda hard to tell if the new one will be embraced like the last one, though...

[stevemitchell]

I played a new title from Revolution Games, WARSAW 1920. It's the summer of 1920, and the Bolsheviks, having finally defeated their many foes during the Russian Civil War, have turned their attention on Poland. A fast and fun game, ending with a Bolshevik victory (they didn't capture Warsaw, but won on points for the other cities they took).