Fighting Up and Down the Nakasendo Road

by on December 30, 2011 at 10:23 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Well, after way too long, finally had Mark over yesterday for a day of face-to-face gaming. The meeting was only arranged the night before, so there was the last-second hemming and hawing about what to play. I finally decided upon Sekigahara, which I got a few months ago, but hadn’t gotten a chance to play. In fact, while I had stickered the blocks for it, I hadn’t even looked at the rules.

However, it’s supposed to be a very short game, and I’d recently seen comments on BGG that even first time players shouldn’t take more than three hours with it. So, I decided we should have plenty of time to go through the rules and get in a game.

It went very well. The rules are short and mostly very clear. The rulebook is about the standard size for a simple wargame… and then you realize about half of that is designer’s notes, and a history of the actual campaign.

I ended up taking Ishida, with no idea what to do. ^_^;

Actually, I managed to tailor my armies to suit my current hand of cards, and used that to force several battles over the first few turns that I handily won. I was generally eliminating about three blocks of his per battle, so he was getting extra cards from his losses. Meanwhile, I took a castle, and started getting an extra card every turn from that. I still ended up about one card shy of his total at the beginning of every turn.

With all this activity, I had gotten a pretty strong position by the end of turn 4, having seized three castles, and several resource locations. I’d also managed to get a number of new units recruited onto the board, and maybe about half of them moved into decent positions. Meanwhile, a very sizable force had been building up in Edo, and moved north along the main highway at the end of the turn.

I managed to get the initiative for turn 5 and went first. With a large enemy force in Takasaki, between two of my forces, I knew I needed to either retreat out of range, or put together a force from both of my armies and try to win the biggest battle yet.

Sadly, unlike the previous two turns, my hand wasn’t agreeing with me, and I couldn’t tailor my force as well I would have liked. It turned out that Mark did have what he needed, a hand full of almost entirely Tokugawa cards. A homogenous army with the cards to back it up is a truly scary thing in this game, as each block of the same clan gets extra value from the previously deployed units. I ended up losing six blocks of the eight in my army. That didn’t even the score in losses, but it sure made it a lot closer.

Thankfully, I was able to pull back a little way down the highway to Osaka, and rush up reinforcements from there to form another decent-sized army to block the path. On turn six, the tables really had turned, as Mark aggressively went after that army with the Tokugawa super-army. And again, he had the cards to back it up, and I lost six out of eight blocks in the new army.

That really did make the losses roughly even between us, and I had to scramble to pull in troops from detached duty to make any kind of blocking force. I even sacrificed a couple cards (I had plenty after those two drubbings) to bring a couple of Mori blocks on board at Osaka.

While all this fighting had been happening back and forth down the main highway between Kyoto and Edo, there had been other events. I had taken Miyazu and Tsuruga in the northwest early, and then gotten into a staring contest with the forces in Kanazawa. The garrison holding down Miyazu castle was part of what I pulled  in to create a new army on the highway. The Uesugi clan had been successful, having routed out the Date blocks with another card-calculated battle, and temporarily holding the recruiting center there. (And then I forgot, moved off, and had to do it all over again.) After the early successful battles near Kiso, I had also managed to send a force south to grab and hold Anotsu, Kiyosu, and Okazaki.

During turn 7A, Mark sent a second force out of Edo along the southern highway to do something about this, and I had to move to collect my scattered forces before they were destroyed piecemeal.

In fact, what I did for my 7B (going first) was for the only time in the game (for either of us), spend two cards to move everything, and try to put myself in the best possible position to win on VPs, despite his victorious armies. Uesugi swept down to take Edo (now empty after two armies had departed from it). My southern forces retreated to Anotsu (to hold the VPs, and get off the highway). And my main army withdrew to Osaka, which I figured as being out of range of his full army.

As it turned out, after two turns of lots of Tokugawa cards, Mark was pretty much out of them. He sent the southern force through Kuwana to Kyoto to take those two resource points (a good move I hadn’t seen), and sent most of his good army north to Tsuruga, where they were joined by his forces in the north from Kanazawa.

The battle started at six to three against me, and ended at four to two against me. I had actually won since I was able to bring my entire force to bear, while Mark did indeed have little he could do.

By our tally the game ended with a score of 15 to 10 for Ishida. A fairly convincing win for me, though I’m glad there wasn’t an eigth turn, because after the disastrous defeats of turns 5 and 6, maintaining my position had become a lot trickier.

At any rate, we both had a lot of fun, and the game lived up to its promise of a quick playing time. It is going to have to get to the table again soon.

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Second Wind Alliance Turn 1

by on December 24, 2011 at 10:19 am
Posted In: Second Wind

Faced with the Lyran navy solidly packed behind it’s defenses, and the Klingons massing on the border, Belirahc didn’t make any attacks on his half of the first turn, making it very fast to go through.

At least his raids went better than mine. He picked on little out of the way places with no defenders, and handily defeated the police ships that I called up to defend myself. As a result, two Lyran provinces are disrupted for the next turn (lowering their economic output).

And now a few words about new toys:

The Kzinti are the primary carrier-using race. They start off with more carriers than anyone else, and can be counted on to build at least one carrier per turn. So, they rely on using fighters to take (free!) damage on, as well as to keep their offensive potential up. Once the fighters are gone for the turn, the Kzinti navy isn’t nearly so much of a threat.

The problem is, even with all those carriers to operate as spares, it only takes a round or two to start running out of fighters.

So, Advanced Operations introduces the FCR, Fast Carrier Resupply ship, which can carry, but not operate a squadron of fighters. These provide reloads, allowing carrier forces to operate longer, and the Kzinti to fight longer while only burning fighters which are replaced for free after combat is over.

Of course, the Kzinti aren’t the only ones to get them. The Klingons find them every bit as useful, for instance, though it takes longer for the Klingon carrier force to really become worthwhile.

I was slightly surprised at Belirahc’s actual builds:
Kzinti: CV, CLD, DD, FFE, FCR, MON, 4xPDU

The CV and the FCR are there, but he didn’t bother building a full escort group for the carrier. The Kzintis start the game without enough heavy escorts to go around, and this is putting himself further behind. I’m guessing he’s planning on just putting everything on MECs as fast as he can after they start showing up next turn, but it takes a while to get enough medium cruisers to go around. In the mean time, I’m going to have to lean on his escorts as hard as I can.

On the other hand, his only light cruiser was built as a CLD, which is about as good of a EW platform as he’s got right now. It’s still only 2 EW points, but he just doesn’t have anything better at the moment.

(I should also note that he didn’t get any new heavy cruisers either.)

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Second Wind Coalition Turn 1

by on December 16, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Second Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

Well, not satisfied with one game slowly grinding forward, Belirahc and I have started a second full General War game. It is the second game, which means when it comes to a choice, we work on the original game first and let this one sit. (And it has done a fair amount of sitting while I work on the Vassal module.)

We’ve swapped sides, so now I get to show Bel how the Coalition offensive should be done… or embarrass myself trying. ^_^; In addition, we’re using the CO, AO, and FO rules for this one. I’ll go into some of the extra toys available in another entry soon.

Along with other things Module R5 introduced the “New Heavy Cruiser”, a response to the fact that F&E was showing that by the middle of the General War, the major empires were going to be running out of heavy cruisers. While F&E isn’t as centered on the CA as SFB is, they are still an important part of the fleet, being the biggest units that aren’t commonly set aside as being the command element of a battle force.

The reason that this is so can be seen in my turn one Coalition builds. Including mothball activations, the Coalition has six new heavy cruiser-sized ships, but the number of actual heavy cruisers in service is technically lower than they started. Here’s my first turn production:

Lyran: BC, TGC, 4xCW, 2xDW, DWS, 3xFF, MB, PDU, KSP, CA->DN, 3FF->3DW
Klingon: D7C, TGA, D6M, 8xD5, D5S, F5L, 4xF5, [FV+E4A], E4, E4R, Activate 2xD6, 2xF5, 3xE5, D6->D6S, D6->D6D

The Lyrans only have one CA build slot per turn (which has been the subject of much moaning from Lyran fans over the years), and their need for tugs (thanks to needing to build a wide-ranging infrastructure, and the ability to use a large number of good tug pods and pallets) is not to be underestimated. Technically, a Cougar tug is just as good in combat as a regular CA, but a tug can’t really be treated the same as a CA, because their flexibility will take them into other roles, and that makes them a valuable target if seen unprotected on the battleline. At the same time, an existing CA was converted to a dreadnought, a uniquely Lyran ability, which does allow them to start treating their heavy units as a way of constructing very dense lines, instead of task force leaders, but there is still plenty of things for extra command ships to do.

Meanwhile, the Klingons construct a command cruiser (fall turns only), two heavy cruisers (/battlecruisers), and activate two more D6s (for as long as the mothball reserves hold out). However, they have lots of different roles to turn these ships to. One CA is substituted to a TG, as there certainly aren’t enough of them for my plans (though the LTT will help soon). The other is substituted to a mauler, which will be desperately needed to force ship kills on the fighter-heavy Alliance. One of the activations is converted to a scout, because the D6S is an excellent heavy scout, and the EW war is something that the early Alliance has trouble with, so I want to push that advantage as far as I can. The other D6 activated is converted to a D6D, the most versatile non-tug in the game. It can do drone bombardment, it can be the free scout, and it can go on the battleline and be just as effective as a regular D6, while also still contributing EW. (It should be mentioned that that last can be a good way to lose a D6D as an aggressive Alliance player will likely kill any D6Ds he can get at, though the scout self-defense bonus will make this slightly more expensive to do than killing a normal D6 as well.)

One of the major new rules in the game is Raids. Each power gets to put a small number of ships into a “Raid Pool” which each get to go behind enemy lines and attack single weak targets (like an unguarded FRD) or disrupt a province. The enemy gets to either react a nearby ship, or call up a free police ship to try to deal with it.

My two raids technically didn’t get what they were going after, and I got a crippled BC to boot, but I did manage to kill a Kzinti BC that reacted to one of the raids. That is a nice result.

The first turn tends to be fairly boring. Some Coalition players don’t even bother attacking, figuring that it just makes it easier for the Kzinti to do an effective counterstrike on their turn. Even with aggressive play, there’s only three targets that can be taken down on the first turn, and the Kzinti will be able to defend them pretty well.

I went across the border and hit all three BATS. I didn’t try anything fancy like pinning forces on the SB, or going after the fourth BATS in 1004 (on the Klingon border, but technically in range).

Combats:
0701: Lyran: crip CA, 2xCL; Kzinti: crip 2xBC
0703: Lyran: crip SC; Kzinti: dest EFF
0803: Lyran: crip 3xDW, DD; Kzinti: dest BATS

So I got one BATS and took more cripples than he did. Pretty much par for the course. I did take out a EFF with direct damage, and if I’d thought about it, I probably would have take out a second one in the third battle.

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R vs B Alliance Turn 6 in Review

by on December 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: BvR - The Wind

Crossposted from the SFU blog on BGG.

The Kzinti economy has stabilized at 60 EP. I seriously contemplated going for a DN this year, but 16 EP was just too much to sink into one ship. Instead I built a new CV group, a BC, 3 CMs, and repaired a full CV group as well as 4xBC, CC, CM and FF.

Economically, things have continued to go from bad to worse for the Hydrans. With my failure to be able to hit all of the blockading line, the Old Colonies were cut off from the capital. Total income was about the same as turn 5, but it was split between the capital and the off-map. This limited Hydran builds to RN, HR, CU (off-map) and a PDU on the capital. On the other hand, it meant I had a free hand to repair all the cripples that were piled up in the Old Colonies, and convert a captured D7 to Hydran technology.

For the Hydrans, the plan was simple: Hit as many targets of opportunity as possible, send the fleet in to 0416, and see if I could kill a tug or base before running out of fighters. The Kzinti contemplated something similar, but like last turn, ended up pinning a reserve on 1504 and hit another pair of Klingon border BATS.


Kzinti front.


Hydran front.

Combats:
1701: Klingon: dest D7
1307: Klingon: dest BATS, dest cripD5, cripF5, cripE4A captured
1302: SSC – Klingon retreat
1703: SSC – Klingon retreat
1602: SSC – Klingon retreat
1707: Klingon: dest BATS, F5
1504: Klingon: crip 3xD5; Lyran: crip CW; Kzinti: crip MEC, Z-D5
0117: Lyran: dest CW, DW
0118: Klingon: dest E4
0319: SSC – Hydran retreat
0416: Lyran: crip DN, BC; Klingon: crip 2xC8; Hydran: dest PAL
0417: Klingon: crip E4; Hydran: dest PAL

Things continue to go poorly for the Hydrans. Many of my attempts at ‘gaming’ Small Scale Combat on that front went awry, the worst case being ambushing a couple Lyran cripples in open space with a Paladin DN, and forgetting that he had plenty of spare Reserves to hit it with.

Worse than that gaffe, the Hydrans push at 0416 again had two rounds of bad rolls and ran out of fighters without getting past the approach battle. Not only that, but he killed the other PAL (a battle tug was in formation), leaving battle tugs as the only CR-10 ships in the Hydran navy. That is going to come back to haunt me.

The Kzinti did much better, with no dead ships and minimal cripples. In exchange they took down another two Klingon BATS, delayed repairs on a crippled D6V (driven off one of the BATS), and captured… an E4A.

That last will get turned in for EPs. If there’s anything the Kzinti don’t need, it’s another 2-4 escort frigate. Now an F5E, on the other hand… that would be worth something. (In fact, if I ever manage to capture an F5, or Lyran DW it’ll be converted to an escort; the Kzinti just don’t get any good light escorts in the base game.)

The Hydrans have pulled back to protect the capital again, but the Kzinit have put a chunk of the navy on the starbase in 1704. It controls the on-map connection between the Kzinti and the Federation, and it is for the first time a legal target. He might force it, but with a Federation Reserve in range, I can make it hurt. On the other hand, a major push against the Hydrans may see the capital fall.

This is the end of Turn 6, and the end of the initial scenario, “The Wind”. I believe Belirahc is going to do a review of the full six turns, but in the mean time, this is how the Victory Conditions break down (by my count, which is… mostly accurate. :p):

For any level of victory, the Coaliation must:
A) have more total ships than the Alliance: 333 vs 191. Check.
B) have more total attack factors on those ships: 1909 vs 1223. Check.

For a Tactical victory:
A) the Alliance must have a total economy of 90 or less: 99 EP. X
B) the Coalition must destroy 20 Alliance Battle stations (SBs count as 3, and subtract out any Coalition ones destroyed): 17 BATS + 6 SB – 4 BATS + 1 BATS built in Kzinti space = 29. Check.

So he managed the overall check quite well, and killed enough bases (and qualified for a major victory there, which wants 25 BATS). The problem is the economy, which is a really tough one to manage. The Kzinti are currently managing 60 income on their own, and the Hydrans are already down to about their minimum without actually taking the capital. If he had managed his turn 4 push on the Kzinti capital better, I think he could have devastated more planets, but he really needed to devastate everything other than the capital itself (like he did in the Hydran capital). That would have barely gotten him the tactical victory.

A major victory requires getting the Alliance economy down to 75, which would seem to require actually taking one of the capitals. Possible, but not easy. “Historically”, I believe the Hydran capital actually fell on Turn 7. …which could still happen here. :shake:

And yes, we are continuing. Belirahc and I agreed to go as long as we can take it on this game, so keep watching for Coalition Turn 7 to show up soon. I’m pretty sure we won’t see an invasion of the Federation, but it will be able to send the 4th Fleet in to help the Kzintis.

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Stalled in Crimea

by on December 5, 2011 at 5:09 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

After our previous exploits, the next thing we went for was the simplest full-map scenario from Crimea: “The Road to Sevastopol”. My dad again took the Russians, leaving me to batter my head against the defenses leading out of the Perekop isthmus and into the interior of Crimea.

Well, my head hurts, and I hadn’t gotten very far after 9 turns (sadly, that is as far as we got in the vacation time I had). Considering the track record of the offense in every East Front Series game I’ve played so far, I’m starting to wonder if there’s something I’m missing.

Now, I will point out that the weather has not helped. Mud and storms on turn 2 (GT 61), mud on turns 3, 5, 7. In fact, now that we’re in the Mud Climate, we’ve only now had two dry turns in a row (GT 67 & 68).

I have realized (too late) that my biggest mistake has not been pushing on the Naval Interdiction, to cause alarm and dismay over shipping losses. The rules talk about the range limitations on various aircraft, but there’s nothing said about how far away the Naval Interdiction box really is. So, thinking purely in terms of the single-engine Bf109s, I avoided worrying about Naval Interdiction, and stuck to Interdicting the 51st Army Headquarters and making sure there was plenty of air support for my attacks.

I eventually realized that the two-engined Ju88s were a good choice for the job. With six He111s available, I had a good amount of CAS ability, and the ‘3’ air rating of the Ju88 meant that it could go out alone, and probably come back all right. This had an immediate and dramatic effect, as several ships took damage from poor Naval Loss rolls on the Air Interdiction column. Two turns after I finally realized this, most of my aircraft were recalled to the Kiev to Rostov theater.

Meanwhile, my dad got the most out of the shipping rules. Without the immediate need to use the warships as artillery platforms to protect the ports, he used them not only to transfer supplies from Map T, but to ship units across the bay from Sevastopol to Yevpatoriya and Saki. This got the troops considerably closer to the action at the entrance to Crimea, and helped the defense stiffen admirably. Using the anchorage at Saki might have been a mistake, as the +2 modifier to readiness rolls makes getting out again hard, especially for an R4 unit.

As for the actual action on the ground…

The main drive is naturally in the west, and has been slow going, with me never gaining more than one hex per turn. Since the Soviets already have prepared defenses, and build a new strongpoint a turn, I have yet to have a combat that wasn’t against a strongpoint. For most of the time, I was shutting down the headquarters with interdiction, but near the end the other two headquarters showed up, most of the Luftwaffe left, and I’ve had had to start facing No Retreat orders too.

That said, the breakout is always tantalizingly close. The Soviet line is solid, and on the west end anchored by a minor river. The east end, at the edge of the lakes is more thinly held, and I’ve been hoping for a breakout there. I didn’t realize until now, looking over the map again, that I could attack the end of the Soviet line and not have to attack anywhere else because of an intervening lake. Despite the slow progress, I did finally get out of range of the super-heavy artillery, and just got it available again after moving it up.

Over in the east, I’ve been trying to make a go of it, pouring in an extra division, and all of the Romanians. Sadly, the results have been very costly for me, and I’ve lost the initial German division (since half-way rebuilt with replacements), and all of the small Romanian units. Since the motorized infantry takes two points to get back of the Cadre Box, they’re not coming back, and I decided to take all the Romanian replacement points as RSUs, and use them to replace losses in the 1st Mountain Brigade if needed. I’ve really tried to push on this side, hoping that the pressure would attract enough attention to cause the Soviets problems on the main front. However, I’ve moved up about two hexes and stalled, have not gotten more than one truly good combat result over there.

Here’s a look at where we had to leave off:

In all, it was good, and I think being aggressive against Soviet shipping from the beginning would be a big help (or at least slow down the initial pace of reinforcements). But I do wonder about the combat in EFS. It seems to be very hard to get over about 3-1 odds against any sort of prepared position, and that column can be very punishing with a bad roll or two. Getting better modifiers would help, but the main method for that seems to be air power, with air combat and AA fire, that can’t be counted on at the best of times.

What I’m trying to get at is, there have been combats where I have been surprised by how bad it was for me, but not really any where I was surprised by how bad it was for the defender. I really do wonder if I’m missing something, between the slog here, the slog in “Odessa”, and 0-5 record “The Tartar Ditch” has for the Germans in my experience.

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