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Mar30

Charioteer Fury

by Rindis on March 30, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Had a four-player day this last Sunday. Mark and Jason came over, and with Dave and I we tried out GMT’s Charioteer. Circus Maximus has put in regular appearances at our game days, so I was interested to see what a different game had to say.

And it is different. Charioteer is a very abstracted, fairly Euroish take on the genre. Circus Maximus is more of a traditional look, with the ability of each horse in the team of four tracked, and you can attack the horses, or opposing drivers, and you pick what categories of things to be good at, which seems to be lifted from Speed Circuit. Charioteer abstracts many elements, with ‘damage’ being more of a handling modifier, skills advancing during the course of a single race, and matching of card symbols to determine speed. Even positioning is abstracted as when you catch up to another racer, you are automatically on the outside, and then you pay one movement per racer to go inside of them before finally being allowed to go to the next space on the track.

Overall, it’s a very streamlined design that does get to the heart of the matter very efficiently. On the other hand, its obvious all the game design decisions were made purely from a game-logic perspective. I like it a lot, but it scratches a very different itch for me than Circus Maxiumus does, and I couldn’t tell you at this point which I like more. Charioteer does need a reorg of the rulebook though, as it is very easy to miss sections when searching for them. A few crossreferences would be good, and while the number of illustrations is good, the layout tends to give it a cluttered look, making it easier to miss things.

At any rate, I burned two of the beginning bonus chits to build an early lead. I figured at the least everyone else would have to pay an extra move to get by me. That lasted about half a lap as we all sorted out and started doing better with the moves. We also forgot damage from the first attack move or two. One of the neat game-side ideas is you move by the combination of number of symbols you matched, and the number in that symbol, with sprint moves being the highest numbers, and cornering moves being the lowest, but getting you through the corners twice as fast. Even with a eight card hand, and a “shared” card, it’s harder to get the type of move you want than you’d think.

Jason ended up in the rear, and seemed to struggle through the first lap, but after that, he slowly worked his way forward. In fact, we were nicely bunched back up in a pack again as the first lap finished. Dave was the first one to get past me, and stayed there for a lap or so. Damage piled up a bunch during the mid-game, and attempts to git rid of it were of course time-consuming. Jason was slowed down quite a bit, but managed a full recovery thanks to a recover move with a recovery card. This helped him get into the lead for a nicely long win. I managed to get back into second during the final lap, with Mark and Dave ending up neck-and-neck. I’d had a fairly good sprint move coming that might have helped if there’d been one more turn. As it was, I was stuck with three red whips at the end, because I just hadn’t been able to burn through them (not enough attacks, and too many other red tokens).


Jason is the winning Yellow team, I was dark blue, Dave was grey, and Mark was pink.

One surprising bit is that the game needed more turns than any of us really expected from the structure.

After that we played a round of Braggart, which has become a favored short game of the group. I managed a couple of good boasts, and snuck in a couple of large single cards as part of hand-clearing two-card boasts when I knew I couldn’t win. However, I mostly struggled for a 43-point third place. Mark started with a good first-round boast, and got more later for second at 53, while Jason had a number of very strong boasts for 56 points and the win, with Dave having a couple of moderate winning boasts to end at 31.

Last, we tried Ramen Fury, which Dave had gotten as a present a while back. I personally find it okay, but everyone else was taken with it, so presumably we’ll see it again. Its a card game where you try to assemble and finish three sets of cards. The game ends when someone finishes (eats) all three, and you only score what is finished. Of course, the more complicated sets score better, and you get a limited amount of ability to mess with other people by putting in unwanted cards or spooning out a choice ingredient. It eventually occurred to me that finishing first can be all you need since you’ll be the only one to score on all three. (Mark actually realized this a bit ahead of me, and nudged my thought process down the path it was already heading towards.) So I won with 8, 10, and 9 point bowls, while Dave only had one eaten for 10, Mark had eaten a 10 and an 8, and Jason had one 14 point bowl eaten.

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Mar22

Falkirk of Iron

by Rindis on March 22, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Jason came over on Sunday for a FtF game. He introduced me to the Men of Iron system. Since I had a slightly shorter day than originally planned (went out to see a charity showing of Princess Mononoke that evening), we went with the Battle of Falkirk, with the non-historical options for the Scots (free setup, actual ability to activate, etc).

Jason took the Scots and lined everybody up in two lines, but while a shield wall/schiltron could be useful like that, he never went into it, preferring to keep tactical flexibility, which he used to the utmost. I led off with getting Durham’s Battle on the map while the mounted men-at-arms already near the front crossed the Burn and hit the flank of the first line. That went well, but naturally, they got overwhelmed by numbers with one retiring and the other eliminated.

As that was winding down, I sent in Lincoln to cross the Burn before the Scots could anchor their line on it while the foot came up. This turned into the major part of the fight that took the rest of the day. Naturally, Scottish numbers began to tell, even as good chunks of the line became disordered and needed reforming. My goal was to start my free activations with Lincoln to address my own problems, and then continue with Edward I to get his troops on board and put pressure back on the Scottish left. I blew a lot of continuation rolls, with the last of Edward I’s troops only getting on map after much had already been decided (in a negative fashion) on my left.

I did eventually get the second activation of Edward I, and then got a banner activation for Lincoln and got Surrey’s battle on board. This let me counter-attack and briefly advance again, but it didn’t last long, and I couldn’t get another activation of Surrey to bring him up to the rest of the line, and soon Lincoln was in trouble again.

That’s about as far as things got before we had to pack up. There was a lot of action, and I got to see a lot of useful examples of cavalry in good and bad situations, as well as extended infantry fights.

Afterword

I can definitely see the relationship between this and GBoH. While I like chit-pull mechanics in general, I thought it didn’t quite do what it seemed meant to in GBoH, and the continuation rules here work much better. I’d like to see an experiment with something more akin to BCS’s Second Activation rule instead. The Continued Attack rule sort of gets into this, and does a nice job with the local momentum of breaking through a line. Overall, it seems to show a bit more polish than the original GBoH, and the differences (in my limited experience with both systems) seem positive. I’d prefer a system where low or high is always better instead of the split we get here though.

We both had plenty of good and bad die luck in battle, but my dice tended to be pretty cold for continuations, while Jason had one round with about four activations (getting to really low numbers towards the end). With the (understandably) slightly friendly command rules that let him stay in charge of a flank that kept threatening to break up under pressure. This unity of command, compared to the English army is the root of a lot of my trouble.

Another trouble is I probably should have ordered the other battles more and then fixed up Lincoln if I got the continuation, but I figured if I got it half the time, they’d still come up in plenty of time, and Lincoln would last longer if I shifted the most endangered units. Now, if I’d just been anywhere near those odds….

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Mar14

33 Étrépilly

by Rindis on March 14, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark and I returned to Great War Commander with a September 1914 scenario from the Battle Pack. It’s an interesting setup, with the Germans holding a village with two platoons and MG team, while the French storm it with eleven platoons. The Germans get five platoons and another MG team as reinforcements as soon as the original force is wiped out or the French take an objective. Unfortunately, I don’t think it went the way the designers envisioned….

I had the Germans, who set up on a re-worked board 7. The marsh is made into a graveyard, the quarry is gone, the woods are gone, three objective locations change, two buildings off towards the edge are burning, and random draws rubble half the main village. An interesting idea is all Air Assault orders are instead treated as Advance (and using one will also cause the German reinforcements to enter). Annoyingly, the G4 fountain only has its terrain defined in the special rules of the original scenario using this map, and it is not repeated here. I set up in a line in front of it, with the MG in the center. Mark lined up on the left side of the map (this is new—to us at least—as while the idea of using left and right sides as the friendly edges was obvious, we’d only seen top and bottom before), and started with Aerial Reconnaissance, which is something of a pain in the Vassal module, as you have to set aside the next Strategy Cards, as he gets to peek at them.

The action started as Mark Moved to the outskirts of the village. As the north flank moved, I OpFired to break most of the platoons involved, and one of the leaders. Some of them did get much closer, and one German platoon was suppressed by an event. During further Fire, Recall Leader came up, removing Lochow to the time track. This also put everyone out of cohesion. The south flank Moved up, with OpFire unable to halt them. Then an Advance brought him into melee with all three German platoons defeated.

And that’s where the wheels came off. One of the conditions for bringing in the German reinforcements is if they have no units on the map. But, the first time trigger happened in the middle of the final melee, bringing on Lochow as the only German unit on the map… and preventing the German reinforcements from coming on.

There followed a long dead stretch as I passed time, and Mark maneuvered for position and cards without actually taking an objective and triggering the reinforcements. I contemplated trying to attack with Lochow in melee (and bonus actions), but Mark got three platoons and Grenier off the map for 9 VP before I could act on the plan, leaving me with too much open space to cross.

Mark finally Moved to take objectives, and I was in business… huddled in the cover of the graveyard, and the French safely ensconced in the remains of the village. An Offensive put me in slightly better positions, but three platoons broke during it, and two time triggers happened, followed by a third on the French turn.

Further French Fire didn’t manage any more effects, and I managed a Rally to get everyone in good order again. I Fired, breaking Lt Tignous, but that was because I rolled a 12, and then back-to-back 12s from Mark finished the game with 25 French VP.

Afterword

It’s an interesting idea for a situation, and the conditional German entry is good. I’m sure that no one anticipated that the Germans could be left with a single leader after losing the three starting platoons. Still, I would recommend changing the wording from ‘formations’ to ‘platoons’ in SSR 1. Also, repeat the SSR from Scenario 2 any time board 7 is used.

We’ve seen some rushes of time triggers before, but the end here was a new record with three in about four rolls. That said, I wasn’t likely to take location 5 (worth 12 VPs with our chits), nor do much else productive while heavily outnumbered, in worse terrain, and with a smaller hand size. So, I was just as happy to get it over with.

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Mar06

Two Rounds of Vercellae

by Rindis on March 6, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After a very short Endless Struggle, Patch and I did our usual round of Commands & Colors: Ancients. Up this time was the Battle of Vercellae from Expansion #2. This is the final wrap up of the Cimbrian War, and is pretty much the denouement of First Man in Rome, so I’m in generally familiar territory. It’s a large battle, with the Germanic army largely bunched up in the center (four deep in places!).

I had the Germans first, and did nothing with my opening ranged attacks, while Patch Ordered his Lights forward, and got one hit on an Aux. I Darkened the Sky, and got three hits, driving back an Aux. Patch moved up his left, and a Line Command got my entire mass moving, and finished off a Light, and drove off another. Patch Ordered Lights, and forced two units back with ranged fire. I Ordered Three Right to send in the cavalry, which had so far only avoided retreating off the map from ranged fire because of my leader. However, I merely traded two blocks on a LB for two on a MC.

Patch Ordered Two Left to send in his cavalry, knocking out the weak MC, doing two blocks to another, and forcing my leader back in return for one block. I came back with Order Two Right, and knocked out one MC and finished off his LB. Patch Ordered Mounted (all one MC…) and lost his last MC after driving off my weak one and doing a block to the one with my leader. Order Three Center let my main mass start getting into action, knocking out an Aux, and forcing a Light to evade with a loss. Leadership Any Section let Patch counterattack, nearly taking out two Warriors, but he lost a Med and took 3 hits on another in return. Order Three Center let me protect one of the Warriors (and Beorix) while finishing off his Medium. Then momentum finished off an evading Light. 8-1

For the second round, Patch opened with Two Units Left, which thankfully got no hits in ranged combat. He tried again with Three Units next turn, and got a hit on an Aux. I Ordered Mediums to deploy more of a line forward. Patch Out Flanked and wiped out a MC and did a block to a Med in return for one hit on a MC. I Double-Timed my right into the barbarian flank, forcing two LBs to evade after taking a block, and knocking out an Aux for one hit on my damaged Aux. Patch Counter Attacked, and wound Warriors through his packed formation, doing a block each to a Med and the damaged Aux, in return for two hits on a Warrior. I reshuffled the Aux out of the way with Leadership Any Section, and a First Strike kept one of my Mediums from doing anything after taking a hit, but I knocked out two Warriors while taking two hits on a Medium.

And then Patch used a Line Command for his big mass, which stayed out of contact, but finished off Sulla’s Medium and drove the remnants of my right back with banner hits. A Coordinated Attack got a hit on a Light and let me reposition slightly. Inspired Left Leadership deployed his flank a bit, but got no hits in all ranged combat. Order Three Right got my remaining Mediums and Sulla back to the barbarian line, and I knocked out a Warrior, forcing Beorix back, while momentum got a hit on a Light.

Another Line Command let Patch advance a bit more and cause ranged hits to two units while knocking out Sulla’s new Medium at a cost of two blocks each on two Warriors. Order Two Right let Sulla join the last Medium on the flank and force a Light to evade. Patch Ordered Lights, but did no more than force Sulla to retreat a hex. I Ordered Three Center, and knocked out an Aux, but lost one of mine in return. Patch Ordered Four Center, and knocked out a weak Medium, but took two blocks to a Warrior in the process. I Ordered Mediums, taking out a Warrior while taking one hit, and a pair of our MCs reduced each other to one block.

Patch then sent in a Mounted Charge, finishing off that MC, picked off a 3-block Medium and forced a LB to evade with a hit. I used Line Command on the remnants of my left flank, and reduced two units to one block each while taking a block on a Medium. Patch Ordered Three Right and finished off a Medium. 6-8

Afterword

The first battle started slow for me, but as soon as I got into close combat my dice were unbelievably good, and Patch went down before he could do much. The barbarians only get four cards, and by the end of the game two of them were basically junk, but the rest of my hand let me do what I wanted.

The second game dragged out a lot more, and is probably a lot more typical of the scenario.The Romans have good tools, including a six-card hand, though Patch’s two Line Commands and Mounted Charge helped him out a lot. We’re still getting used to Marian infantry, and I only remembered mid-turn at one point that one of my Mediums had a shot. All our leaders got a good workout in the second game, and Sulla especially gave better than he got.

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Feb26

UR1 Y77 Planets of Tripoli Region 2

by Rindis on February 26, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Last November, Mark and I played the final battle in the first year of our SFB campaign. This was our second open-space battle, and we stuck to the same terrain choices we’d had last time, but this time the dice came up with “Empty Space”, so we had a clear board to work with.

Our setup areas were both in the back center of our respective sides, and I set up as far forward as I could, while Mark set up on the edge of the map. Ironically, I ended up at WS-I while Mark was WS-III. Speeds started low, with the Carnivon WCL going 8, and everything else at 6. The two Carnivon ships put up 2 ECM each, but I, with photons to load, had no energy for such luxuries.

Naturally, at that speed and distance, nothing happened the first turn, and the second was similar, with the WCL dropping to speed 6, while it put up a point of ECCM. While we had opposite courses, closest pass was still going to be quite distant, so I turned to cut across his path on my first move of turn 2. Everyone boosted to speed 9 on turn 3 with the WCL dropping EW to 1/0, and my WRD put up 1/1. Courses stayed constant, and on impulse 29 WCL, Devastator (801) fired on my WOL USS Kayah (SF-93) for two damage at range 34, which I absorbed on batteries. After that, he turned in, putting us on courses 8 hexes off from each other. WRD USS Ravelin (SF-69) fired phasers on 32, doing 1 point which bounced off reinforcement.

My plot was the same for turn 4, while the Carnivons boosted to speed 10, and the Devastator dropped ECM. I turned left near the start of the turn, looking for more of a direct pass. Mark sideslipped the opposite way during the turn, and death bolts were launched on impulse 23. I turned back on 29, and both Carnivon ships fired phasers on 32, while Ravelin returned fire. Only one phaser out of all that hit, which bounced off of reinforcement.

My speeds scattered between 9 and 11 for turn 5, while the Carnivons went 12 (WFF) and 14 (WCL). EW was minimal, and the Carnivons turned away from the pass. This broke me up a bit as I turned to follow as turn modes cleared. On impulse 15, now in a stern-chase with the faster Carnivons, WRF USS Seeker (SF-86) fired its photon torpedo and a phaser at Devastator, missing with the former, and seeing two more damage from the phaser bounce off the rear shield. She then turned off to avoid the death bolts, which did turn out to be targeted on her. On 19, Kayah got onto Devastator‘s #4 shield and missed with a photon and all bearing phasers.


Missing all the shots. Turn 5, Impulse 19, showing movement from the start of turn 4.

Seeker ended up separated from the action thanks to the death bolts chasing it as the chase turned clockwise as turn 6 started. The Carnivons continued crowding the speed on and Ravelin manged to get up to speed 13, while Kayah was stuck at 10 as she reloaded the torpedo. Range opened up a bit during the turn, but the right edge of the map started looming again, and Mark turned down and dropped fire control for turn 7, getting to speeds 14 and 18(!). My speeds were largely the same, and Ravelin tried a range 7 photon shot, missing again on impulse 15.

At the end of the turn, the WFF turned across my path, and I sped up a bit on turn 8 (Ravelin didn’t bother to reload the torpedo, and got to speed 15). Devastator also turned to get out of the corner, and on impulse 9, Ravelin got a range 3 shot on her for 13 damage, which took out most of the armor. The next impulse, Kayah got one hit with two photons to finish off the armor and do seven internals, which took out one power and two weapons.

After that, Mark turned back to disengage off the edge of the map. Kayah fired her last phasers at the down shield, but missed. After that, I was basically dry, and both ships got off map by the end of the turn.

Afterword

With fairly minor ships, and the last fight of the year, I decided to press for a close engagement. For a moment, it looked like Mark was going to accept a fairly close-range pass, but then turned off.

This time, it happened right before the turn break, and I didn’t need to contemplate having anyone go slow in anticipation of that close pass. I was hoping to take out the WCL, even if I had to sacrifice something to do it. As it was, I didn’t get hurt, and while Devastator is out her four armor, everything else was repairable.

My rolls were way under par all game, and if my photon luck had been reversed, Devastator might have far more serious repairs to make. It’s possible I might have managed a kill, but I doubt I could have slowed it down enough for that.

Not that it would have been that big a loss. It sounds like Mark has found light cruiser slot just as lackluster as I have. They’re nicely bulky compared to a destroyer, but are power starved. YCLs should be a bit better, but I kind of doubt either of us will build any, and USS Texas (SF-1) is the only one in the campaign that can be converted up.

This finishes the first year of the campaign, and we’re tackling one of the ‘modern’ scenarios now before returning to the campaign for Y78. We’ll be on defense line 2, so there’s only six regions to worry about, plus the base that I skipped in region 7. Mark will have all his ships (minus whatever he decides to repair armor on), and a pair of YDKs. It’s going to be a fight.

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Feb18

A84 Endless Struggle

by Rindis on February 18, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While contemplating Patch and I’s next game, I remembered a scenario back in the ASL Annuals that featured Ukranian partisans after WWII. So, I proposed that, and Patch accepted, taking the NKVD forces. Looking at the record later, it turned out to be very pro-NKVD, so we went with the Partisan balance, not that it helped.

The scenario takes place in early 1946, as the Soviet Union continues to try and regain control of western territories. The UPA had fought against the Germans after realizing they didn’t even want a puppet government for the region, and then against the USSR as it advanced back west. One sweep across the area came across a training camp in a thickly wooded area. The scenario uses board 34 (cutting off rows A and GG, per errata), with the forest (B13.7) rules, which I think I’ve run into once before. The Russians set up fourteen squads of conscripts and ten elite HS along one side, and the UPA enters, trying to get across the short side of the board (10 hexes) in very dense terrain and break out with at least 14 EVP (12 with the balance). They get twelve partisan squads, 9-2, 8-0, 4 LMGs, and a MTR to do this in six turns.

Of course, the biggest wrinkle in this scenario is both sides are using Russian brown. In FtF play, I assume you just be very rigorous in making sure your counters (and “?” especially) are facing you. On VASL, if you see a stack of “?”, then it’s not yours, and the rest you tell by the type of unit. Still, we tried switching Chinese counters partway through, as they have a good match for the 337s. Annoyingly, their LMG(r) and 50mm MTR(r) have slightly different stats than the actual Russian LMG and MTR. (I had originally thought of it with the idea that the “?” would match, forgetting that Chinese “?” are two-tone just like their units, and don’t “borrow” “?” like the Hungarians—why do this?!? Though that does make using Chinese “?” with the Partisan counters a possible good idea in FtF play.)

Patch set up along the north side of the road, with no real obvious weak points (there’s more than enough units to scatter around, the question is where the good ones are). The wise idea is probably to go for one edge or the other and hug that, forcing the distant units on a long trek. I didn’t like some of the open ground there though, nor the fact that a pair of T-70s enter on either edge on turn 3, and could well be on top of me. So, I tried the next best thing: hugging a stream as an ‘edge’, and interdicting the bridge over the stream.

I worked my way into positions I wanted on turn 1, but I made a serious mistake in not hustling more. I could have gotten another hex in, and didn’t. I will say that I have not dealt much with extensive woods-roads, and was still struggling with LOS questions. (It felt like if you’re adjacent to a woods-road, you can see into it, and then see down the road itself, if it continues in a straight line. This is incorrect, but it took a while to adjust how I was “seeing” the terrain.)


Situation, Partisan Turn 1. “It’s the board 25 version of board 5.”
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Feb10

D The Hedgehog of Piepsk

by Rindis on February 10, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing off a first lesson with OBA, Mark and I turned to the classic Squad Leader scenario “The Hedgehog of Piepsk” (as updated for ASL). The last time I played the scenario was with my dad in the early ’90s in its Squad Leader form. The remake features even more Russian squads, but half of them are conscripts, and of course, defensive fire can be much more powerful in ASL.

The Russian force is brittle, since there’s only three leaders for thirty-two squads (this and “Hill 621” were the ‘mob of Russians rushing a small defense’ scenarios of the original game), while the Germans get seven squads with four leaders, five machine guns, and OBA. It uses all of the three original non-city boards, though in practice the rear thirds aren’t going to get used. With the winter of ’41 starting, the Germans are holing up in whatever shelter can be found, and the Russians are counterattacking to push them out by taking all the stone building Locations (so each Location must be claimed, not just the buildings themselves) in the board 3 village in ten turns.

Mark took the defending Germans, and set up with nothing visible, which meant they were all in concealment terrain (by SSR), and not on exposed hilltops with great fields of view. I organized the 32-squad horde into three rough groups, with the center being the largest, and the initial objective was to seize hill 522. The north flank was to work along the board 3/4 board seam, and the south was to work along the foot of the board 2 hill with some scouting further up the hill.

The first turn was occupied by getting onto the board, and no Germans revealed themselves as I started sorting myself out in movement. The only sound was some faint German cursing as a HIP leader failed to get contact with his OBA battery. I advanced the one MMG onto the top of hill 498 (3DD2), which stayed concealed thanks to the lack of anyone to reveal them, and they could see most of the local area.

The lack of contact continued on the German turn, and no movement left me to try a couple probing shots that did not get any results.

The second move of my second turn finally drew fire as a LMG nest turned up in 4N5. That was the only activity other than contact finally being made, with an AR in 3X2 with the SR landing in 4O1.


Situation, Russian Turn 2. The objective is to take all the stone building Locations.
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Feb02

Two Rounds of Aquae Sextiae

by Rindis on February 2, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Back in November, Patch and I went back to C&C:A after our latest SFB adventure. Up this time was the Battle of Aquae Sextiae from Expansion #2. This is the climatic battle of The First Man in Rome, so the situation was familiar to me. The Germanic tribes have an army stretching across the entire board, with plenty of Warriors and Auxilia, and filled out with some LC. The Romans are largely Mediums on a line of hills, with some LB in front. There’s also an ‘ambush’ force off board which can come in on the German base line with play of a Leadership or Order Lights card.

I had the Germans for the first game, and unfortunately I forgot to record a log. The game started as you might expect, and my initial archery was a bust. But once I got to close combat, really good dice quickly gave me a lead, and then finished off the game with one Roman flank and the center in big trouble. 6-2

Patch started the second game with Order One (Heavy), and gambled a LC against a MC (with a hill, and the MC being far back, not a bad gamble). I Ordered Three Left to surround and eliminate him. Order Two Right eliminated my MC on a lucky two-banner roll, and he still didn’t have the distance to take it. I Ordered Lights to bring in Marcellus on my left, but couldn’t do any damage.

Line Command split the German army in two, with his right going to confront the ambush while everything else moved up. Marcellus lost three blocks in two units, but did five in return. A second Order Lights let me start shuffling Marcellus out of the corner, and he lost his Lights to a bad retreat, but knocked out an Aux and MC in return for a block on an Aux. Patch Ordered Three Center and knocked out a Light trapped in front of the main line.

I Double Timed the bulk of the Mediums down the hill into his center, knocking out an Aux and doing two blocks to another, but took five blocks on two Mediums in the process. Then Patch Double Timed, and forced my (now) 1-block Med back onto the hills, losing a Warrior in the process. Worse, while he finished off the other wounded Medium, an attack on an intact one did two hits… and took four hits in return. 6-4

Afterword

Sadly, it’s been a little too long, and I don’t remember any detail of that first game. I do remember my dice went super hot any time I attacked in close combat, and the Romans just collapsed under that. The second go was not so uneven on the dice, but I still got quite lucky. I used a First Strike with the 1-block Medium, but it turned out not to be needed, as Patch couldn’t hit.

The scenario certainly has interest. The Romans are facing a large force, and the hills help and hinder them. On the other hand the Marius Legions rule give them some extra ranged ability, if they can get the chance to use it. As ever, the ‘ambush’ trope has trouble in this system, as they’re at least as likely to run into problems retreating. Two Order Lights in my hand helped here, but the Line Command ended with them largely cut off anyway.

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Jan21

Landing at Salerno

by Rindis on January 21, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

I got Salerno ’43 for Christmas, and I got to try it out that Friday when Jason came over. It’s a nicely compact game, with a smaller board than normal for GMT, and a single sheet of oversized counters. This was Jason’s first time with a “ZOC-bond” game, but I’ve previously played Ardennes and Normandy.

We did the short 8-turn scenario, and managed to finish it in good time, though the ending parts certainly suffered from a relative lack of action.


I’m afraid some glare took out the ‘in play’ shots I took. This is the opening setup.

Jason took the Axis, and I came ashore in pretty good order. (I’ll note that there’s little enough variation in Salerno’s landing tables that I think just sticking with the “tournament” results may do well to prevent a certain amount of boredom.)

Jason is not afraid to go in where more cautious people (me) would fear to tread, and had some good counterattacks on the beachhead. The Allies spend a couple of turns getting everything ashore, but then reinforcements dry up for a few turns, while more German units keep arriving. I kind of wonder if the flat transportation allowance is meant to allow the Allies to try shifting units in a hurry from one part of the perimeter to another. That still means heading back to a beach/port for the transit however, so it would be hard to pull off with the Allies having a notable lack of units after the first few turns.

I tried keeping pressure up around Salerno itself and driving north, but it came to nearly nothing. My first attempt was turned back by realizing how bad the supply situation to the west is, and we bottled each other up in the various passes, though I usually held the road to Avellino, and threatened it for a little while before the German line stiffened.

The south saw little action during the middle game, though I eventually started outflanking the Germans and pushed them back, and had managed to get across the Calore river in the hills. This presumably would have allowed me to press eastward towards Auletta, but this didn’t happen until the end of the scenario.

The middle see-sawed a bit at first, but mounting Allied pressure saw the Germans out of the bulk of the clear terrain, and I used the rivers to help hold the line as German units came up from the south. I then got held up at Eboli, and attempts to turn the north flank there got stymied as German reinforcements reached the area. The late-game crossing of the Calore threatened the southern flank of the position, and that, too, might have gone, short of counterattacks, but he just as likely would have anchored a line on the Sele.

Afterword

I missed getting a victory by one point, which I’m sure is fairly common for this scenario (either way). I see there’s a VP in Agropoli on the coast that I probably could have gotten if I’d seen it. There was an immobile garrison there that I didn’t bother to clean out because I was busy elsewhere. Jason had bad luck with the garrisons all day; I think they all came up ‘0’ for him.

The weather cycles from clear to stormy and then back again in a fairly consistent fashion instead of being purely random each turn. Seeing something like that ported back to Normandy ’44 would be interesting as there’s obviously some tension in that design for getting the ‘right’ number of storm turns.

I will certainly have to try this at least a couple more times as well as the campaign game. It doesn’t feel quite as replayable as the larger ZOC-bond games I’ve tried (mostly because of how tight the VP budget is), but that limitation could easily be an illusion. It is certainly a very good size for an afternoon’s FtF game.

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Jan13

WO3 Counterattack at Carentan

by Rindis on January 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch came over for the first time in way too long right after Christmas, and we got in a FtF game of ASL. Out of a few different possibilities, Patch stuck with “Counterattack at Carentan” from the second Winter Offensive pack, which would have been our previous Vassal game if I hadn’t gone for something more topical.

It’s a week after D-Day, and the 101st Airborne is defending the approaches to Carentan from a German counterattack. Half of boards 54 and 63 are used, with all hedges treated as bocage. The Americans are defending with five 747 paratrooper squads and a pair of 337s, a MMG, 2xBAZ and a 57mm AT. The Germans get nine squads (mix of SS and 548s), some LMGs, a DC, two StuGs, a StuH and a Marder III M. My first thought was the American force was completely inadequate, but then I realized the goal is for the Germans to exit off the opposite end of the map (20 hexes) in six turns. That made more sense, though Patch immediately realized with Germans only need 15 EVP, which means it’s not hard to do with just vehicles.

However, I mis-set up the scenario, going for the opposite halves of the two boards than what is intended. Which helps explain some of my difficulties. There is no good place for the ATG in my mis-done version. Worse, the east edge is relatively clear this way, and Patch was contemplating a sprint down the edge for a quick potential win. It’s remarkable how different the two halves of board 63 are in particular. The wrong half is much more congested, and there’s no place for a Gun to cover everything. I nearly set up the ATG in the I2 building, but then realized it wouldn’t see over bocage. Patch pointed out the level 2 I3 position. It can see to the left and right, but is blocked in front by the building. Also, not too hard to smoke in, once the position is known.

I ended up in the O4 building, which was pretty useless as it was away from Patch’s advance (E2, which I nearly went with, would have been much better). I kept it hidden for the entire game to keep Patch having to worry about it, but his post-game analysis that I would have been much better served to push it down the road to I1 is correct.

So, we had a fairly unbalanced contest as I redeployed against his edge-crawl, and Patch made fairly steady progress, capturing a couple of HS on the way. I occupied the orchard-road hexes for a bit, but Patch got through that, because there wasn’t enough there yet. However, the one bit that made him sweat a bit was when I revealed the MMG in there for a flank shot against the Marder, and he realized it had a meaningful chance of a kill. Sadly, it missed.

Naturally, my final defense ended up along the bocage line in D4/D5. Patch regretted not keeping me from getting there first, as I got there with more than he anticipated, but I couldn’t get good enough shots with the BAZ to kill anything, and he zoomed off the map for a win with plenty of time on the clock.

Afterword

Well, this is the second time I’ve muffed a physical scenario setup. But, it was great to see Patch again (it has been far too long), and to get to use all these physical ASL materials again. (Maybe if I did it more often, I’d stop mixing my left and my right.)

Got to chat, I got to show off some of the stuff I’ve gotten over the last couple of years, and had an altogether fun time. As a plus, an early finish meant he got on the road before the next rain storm started really moving in.

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