Sunday, September 27, 2020

Rapid Fire! Reloaded - a brief solo try

Having just obtained the new slim and trim Rapid Fire! Reloaded rules I thought I would give them a solo bash using the 'Mouen' Normandy scenario included.

Must say I wondered what they could streamline from Rapid Fire 2 as already a pretty bare-bones set of rules (designed that way and work as intended).

Infantry fire is simplified with a cut down fire table with adjustments now to dice rolls for cover and suchlike.

Biggest change is that Infantry based in multiples (ie 2 figures per base) are a tad more durable as 3 hits are rounded down to 2 hits with no carry overs to next turn.

This helps AT gun crews (usually 3 figs) as you must inflict at least 3 hits in a turn to destroy them otherwise hits ignored.

Anti-Tank fire is also simpler (hard to believe I know) with armour classes now being numerical and therefore a hit roll is adjusted by plus or minus to dice roll when comparing armour class to gun class.

You need 4+ to hit an AFV target so if -3 factors overall its a miss (say maybe -1 for armour vs gun, -1 for cover and -1 for movement)

Gone also is light and heavy damage with AFVs simply being damaged or destroyed with 2 x damage equaling a brew up.

Artillery is as per RF2 and any AFV is still susceptible to 'death by a 6' if artillery firing is medium or heavier.

Morale and Close Combat seems pretty much the same with just some minor tweaks to factors.  

Only a brief trial of RFR (so I likely missed some changes) but seems like a slightly faster playing version of standard RF which may or may not be necessary/suit as per ones tastes.



The table from direction of German lines around Mouen







Germans around Mouen as Panther troop arrives on Turn 1





Shermans brewed by Panthers as Infantry Companies advance







Firefly Troop has Routed off table (failed Morale after taking damage from a PzIV) also some Infantry casualties from Nebelwerfers and on board HE





British advance with 'brightness of their rightness' as Germans defend in 'the gloom of doom'




Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Field Of Glory: Napoleonic game - Prussian versus French Autumn 1813

Game with Stephen today and for a slight change of tack from MEG (V2) I chose to try FOGN (V2).

Selected Autumn 1813 and my Prussians so Stephen fielded French from same period.

Been just over a year since we played these last so a bit rusty but soon got into swing of things.

I had forgotten how inspired the set-up process is with the selection of 'stance' (as amended by enemy). 

As it was we both ended up selecting Flexible Defence for which I became attacker.

Both ended up keeping respective Dragoon Divisions off-table in Reserve.


Game however followed familiar format of my being out-diced at just about every juncture (my units shooting today was truly dreadful).

Things did not start well when 3 Units of Cavalry engaged 3 enemy units and all 3 lost.

Just no way to recover from that in FOGN as too few opportunities to try to recover, mitigated only by the French Cavalry all being Spent (just as well as I had an Infantry unit nearby that failed to form square 3 times).

Stephens shooting was awesome with above average hits on my units with little impact on him by my lot.

After 5 turns my Army was mostly disorganized or wavering (or worse !) and his still mainly intact.

FOGN has nice system for victory and defeat and with over 30% of my army damaged compared to less than 10% of Stephens the game ends (no point flogging a dead horse)

This is unforgiving (no chance of a Marengo here) but does mean games are decisive and playable in 3-4 hours.

Hope to get another outing with these rules but with Covid restrictions returning here in NI/UK that may not occur for a period. 

I am personally a bit less on board/undecided than back in March as it seems rather odd to not be allowed to meet in our houses but we could in a pub and whilst two cannot meet together in a home several can at other venues, will have to have a ponder about issue..............................














Saturday, September 19, 2020

No Retreat! The Russian Front again

Another session with this excellent game with my Dad.

I recently acquired (ie this week) the updated 3rd Edition Card Deck and so gave these a run out (along with 3rd Edition rules of course).

Some significant changes (more so to cards) but nothing too onerous to revise in brain.

We started campaign from Fall Blau scenario (second scenario in game) which starts in Turn 7 and played through to Turn 20.


Another great game it was too, with the Russians getting stronger and stronger as game progressed.

Germans were being pushed right back to the Reichs borders pretty much on schedule, with their southern 'Balkan' zone about to crumble but still in reasonable strength up in Poland/East Prussia.

When I got back into board Wargames about 10 or so years ago (after a hiatus following demise of Avalon Hill) this was one of my first purchases and one I keep coming back to as just such a good experience to play.

Is it the greatest game on Eastern Front ever ? probably not but its a damn fine one being so playable with low unit count and yet so much 'feel' of the campaign.









 

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Mortem Et Gloriam - Caesar in Gaul

 

Another game of MEG today at Stephens, this time with him using his Marian Romans against Gauls both circa '55ish' AD (I had however to use chariots for my commanders)

A cracking game it was too as I tried using Gauls in depth ie with a 'second line' of units as I knew the Marians are tough with lots of Superior Legionaries and an unit of Exceptional.

It kind of worked but Gauls lack hitting power against Romans.

The Gauls of this period are mainly Average although I did field three units of Superior Soldurii/Nobles (but these are limited to being 6 bases strong nd must be doled out amongst commanders).

I had 3 units of Cavalry of which one was Superior.

Strangely the Gallic cavalry in Marian list are Melee Expert which mine are not, although being not strictly Gallic but a potential mix of Iberians, Gauls and Germans may account for this.

The Superior Legionaries are tough to deal with and the Exceptional (Caesars 10th ?) are an unstoppable juggernaut.

I had them engaged in front and charged on rear by my Superior cavalry and they brushed them all off easily !

In fact this unit of Cavalry was my only successful unit destroying 2 units of Legionaries

Cannot fault my dice today as I managed 2 wounds with 3 black dice rolls (those Cavalry on a shoot and charge) but as in every game I had a command that got awful cards consistently (3 black in one turn, I mean honestly c'mon !) .

Stephens dice were not brilliant although he did get to roll a lot more yellow and red dice than me but his cards were generally better and being Professional and Drilled of course means more flexible with cards.

He also consistently seemed to have cards to recover wounds.

I won the initial impacts but not by sufficient margin to cause significant damage (7 hits with 4 kills vs 5 hits with 3 kills).

I had several Shatter results but failed to inflict hits on subsequent fights, and then the Romans just grind the Gauls (especially the Average types) to dust in ensuing melee phases.

Romans not required to do much beyond face up to my lot, absorb their charges then pummel the Gauls. 

Good fun though and good to see Romans being tough viable troops.












"Then we shall fight in the shade......."




 

Saturday, September 12, 2020

No Retreat! The Russian Front played

 

Game with my Dad of No Retreat! The Russian Front.

Such an excellent and playable game of....um...er....The Russian Front.

We started with the standard Op Barbarossa scenario and played through to Turn 12 (March -April 1943) just as Initiative turns to Soviets.

Great game and Dad close to an auto-win on Turn 3 being just 1 VP shy.

We saw Leningrad fall, Moscow threatened and roving Cauldron type battles around Moscow and Kharkov as Soviet strength grew.

Great stuff in a very playable format.

We used 1st Edition rules but will try updated 3rd edition rules at some point.

Poor pics as lighting not phone-camera friendly








Thursday, September 10, 2020

Several board wargames dabbled with..............

 Been a quiet sort of week gaming wise but did manage to get a few board wargames to table top to muck about with solo fashion.


First up was Paths of Glory a game I have neglected and trying to re-learn







Then it was No Retreat! The Russian Front 









And last but by no means least Colonial Twilight



Wednesday, September 02, 2020

Ligny solo action with Field Of Battle 3 completed.

Got stuck into solo game of FOB3 today and fought it to a conclusion (something FOB never fails to achieve).

The French were hammered (mainly by Prussian guns) despite taking several village sections.

The Prussian reserves managed to retake all but one village and were in throes of a counter-attack when French army yielded the field (Army Morale test failed).

Scenario needs a bit of tweaking for FOB purposes but nothing major beyond giving French a boost to some units.

Great fun with this ever excellent game system.

Compared to FOB2 the stand out is that there are less Routing units and more actually destroyed outright which makes for a yet more dynamic and speedy game without losing the narrative feel that FOB engenders.














Ligny action at St Amand - a solo game with Field of Battle 3

 

After so many games of MEG I decided to give FOB3 an outing albeit on solo basis (of course FOB is very solo friendly).

I am trying to adapt a Batallie Empire scenario I found on web set around St Amand during Battle of Ligny 1815.

Using small (2 base) units as I do not have enough Prussian Infantry for the OOB otherwise.

Initial action has seen French fail in assaults on St Amand but they are pressuring area around St-Amand-La-Haye in the centre.

However there are a lot of Prussian reserves still to appear...........