Treading water..........

Not much wargaming action this month, as feel like I am treading water (actually more like treacle) awaiting lockdown restrictions to ease here in NI sufficiently to allow face to face gaming again (last game was back in early October !).

Just about managed a couple of COIN games solo play and of course ordered a couple of new  rule sets.

Fire In The Lake

Colonial Twilight

New edition due anytime soon (by end of April ?)

This one on pre-order a big battle set from Osprey

Division sized set from author of Honours of War (SYW Set)

Fire In The Lake - solo play of short scenario

Had a quick solo play of Fire In The Lake trying out the short (3 deck) scenario for first time.
Great game even solo as so many choices and events although again I did not use the 'Bots' as too time consuming.
Scenario covers 1965-1967 with only 24 cards (+3 Coup cards) from the 1965 portion (48 cards) of deck.
NVA have a larger initial presence than in other scenarios and indeed finished a close second to the US.
VC third with ARVN in last place as I continue to struggle to play them effectively.
COIN system is very addictive.

Fire In The Lake - or damn those damn VC !!

Another session with Fire In The Lake 2 player with my Dad (celebrating his 75th on Tuesday !).

Played the full scenario again with Dad as VC/NVA vs my US/ARVN.

I forgot how this scenario is fairly hard to lose with VC !
Just could not get their Active Opposition levels down quickly enough as it seemed every time I converted or neutralized the populace the VC popped up elsewhere turning the locals.
The wee buggers gained an auto-win on 3rd Coup card.

Great game as usual with I think maybe my favourite of the COIN games I have (by narrow margin however as all excellent).

Also set up the small Grainville scenario again with slightly 'dolled up' terrain for Rapid Fire, for Stephen and I for upcoming Thursday game.

Fire In The Lake

Another outing for this most excellent COIN game with Dad.
Tried the full scenario again as the last few times the VC have been easy auto winners early in game and I wanted to see if they could be thwarted.
What a ding dong game it proved to be !
I targeted the VC relentlessly with US and managed to keep them in check but almost opened the back door to the NVA as a consequence.
Judicious use of US Irregulars and ARVN Rangers managed to keep reducing their troop numbers and a couple of key events targeting their resources (including Linebacker pivotal event) helped heap pain on them as well and gave US/ARVN a narrow win eventually.
Really love this game.

COIN system 2 more games played.

At my Dads tonight and another two session of COIN magic.
Have both Liberty Or Death and Pendragon in my library now but not had any time to learn so it was Fire In The Lake and Colonial Twilight again.

First up was Fire In The Lake trying the full scenario again and once more Dad with the VC/NVA won an auto victory early in game.
Very hard to Pacify enough of VC Opposition areas or remove bases quickly enough to stop them achieving 35 VP (they start on 29).
A card we have not seen before 'Chairman Ho' proved very powerful giving 3 Free Limited Operations to VC and NVA.

Then it was onto Colonial Twilight again the full scenario this one was as ever much closer although my French twice were 1 VP short of an auto win.
However when last Propaganda card appeared I had just managed to reach 37 VP and win as FLN were still some 10 VP from their victory level. 

Fire In The Lake and A Distant Plain played

At my Dads last night (had to forgo Elimination Club as family Gets first dibs) and we played both Fire in the Lake and A Distant Plain !

Fire in the Lake was first up and despite using the long full war scenario Dads VC achieved an auto victory on 3rd Coup by 1 point.

Then it was A Distant Plain which we did not finish but all 4 factions were in very poor VP status.

Such great games these and never the same each play due the large variation of tactics, cards and events.

Field Of Battle and COIN system games played

A grand days gaming at chez Steiner yesterday with JB, RM, SP and later SB in attendance (ie usual suspects sans Le Duc who was awol) and a brief visit from Billy.
A good days craic and banter (and weirdly a bit of knee touching the 'culprit' remaining nameless although the "I thought that was the table" excuse was paltry at best !!)

I had set up the Battle Of Ramillies using my 10mm units for Field Of Battle 2.
74 units on table with both sides split into 2 wings with a CinC (so a mere 3 commanders per side).
Marlborough was a D12+1 with a Superior deck Villeroi a D10 with average deck and both sides sub- commanders were D10 types)
Both sides fielded a mix of Average Crack and Elite troops in fairly equal proportions (36 French units vs 38 Allied).
I approximated historical terrain and allowed players to split their forces as their nominated CinC saw fit (RM and JB)
Terrain sort of compels cavalry to be on open left/right wings but I was tad surprised that French  deployed  on their right with no gun support (these and all nearly all foot being on their left behind Petite Gheet)
Allies deployed with British on their right as per history but they essentially refused this flank rather than cross the Petite Gheet.
Billy temporarily commanded the Allied left (as did I) then S 'the dice demon' B to the chagrin of JB & SP, although Marlborough was none too shoddy with his dice.
The Dutch horse deployed on open left flank but with a good deal of foot in support with guns in a sort of 'massed battery' opposite Ramillies (which was garrisoned by Elite troops)
As anticipated (and as in history) a huge cavalry battle ensued between Taviers and Ramillies which could have gone either way but arrival of British Horse (as per history) helped swing things in Allies favour, also forcing however the French foot to surge across the Petite Gheete in response).
The French right was imploding as their foot emerged from the boggy area around the Petite Gheete and engaged the waiting British and Dutch infantry.
After several ineffectual volleys (one or two fall backs) the British managed a couple of morale sapping (I wont describe the reactions of the French for sake of propriety !) routs and by this time the French morale pool was empty and they 'noisily' yielded the field.
Game took just under 5 hours and reached a decisive and pretty much historical conclusion with pretty much no rules queries or problems a real strength of FOB in my experience.
I hope to introduce players to it at club which it should suit well with the 4hr time slot.



Cavalry about to clash

Initial advantage to Dutch as British horse arrive (near Ramillies)

French foot cross Gheet and engage Allied foot

Then after a local Indian takeout it was on to evening game with Fire In The Lake.
I had planned to referee this one as well in order to best teach the system and control things but sadly RM had to go so I took over the ARVN from him early in proceedings.
SB was  VC, SP theNVA and JB the good ol' USofA.
Played the 3 deck short scenario and a very good game it was too and pretty close in the end.
A different dynamic (obviously) when full (a couple were by this stage) complement playing game with a few dodgy deal/back stab moments.
Easy to teach the game mechanics but really down to players to digest the Op and Special Activities sheets and the interactions of choices/events/VP impact that this game presents in myriad fashion.
VC won on last Coup card (which was also very last card !) with score of 37 (+1) ARVN then on 48 (-2), NVA on 15 (-4) and US on 36 (-14) caused mainly by a massive 12 piece surge on first Coup card Commitment phase causing a 12VP drop US struggled to get back although they did fix a fairly large NVA army pretty much in place in Quang Tri.
Great game this and I hope the chaps got at least a little flavour of its playability and depth.

Fire In The Lake right down to the wire

Played a cracking game of this excellent game with my Dad.
Playing the ‘short’ scenario but it went right to very last card in deck as it was last Coup card.
Any earlier revealing of this Coup card and it would have been a win for Dad with VC as they were at -10, NVA at -6 with Yanks at -5 and ARVN at -11.
However I got lucky with last two action cards as both had US then ARVN as first and second eligible so I was able to pass on one card (as VC and NVA both ineligible) then use last card denying VC and NVA any actions.
After some head scratching I managed to restore a couple of areas to COIN control (+2 for ARVN) then set two areas with Active Opposition to Neutral pushing VC total further down (judicious use of US Airlift and Train followed by ARVN limited Train and accompanying Pacify actions)
Further Pacify actions in Coup round with only 1 area falling to Agitation  saw ARVN increase VPs and VC degrade theirs enough for me to win (using 2 player victory conditions)
Great game with a lot of swings of fortune and in the end a fortuitous last 3 cards for COIN factions.

Hoping to play a 4 player game this weekend which should be very interesting

Fire In The Lake and Undaunted Normandy played !

Managed a game of both Fire In The Lake (short scenario) and Undaunted Normandy (initial scenario) with my Dad tonight.

Fire In The Lake was its usual exciting self although for first time I used the NVA/VC combo narrowly losing with NVA being 1 VP behind US at game end.

Found the NVA hard to work out how best to use as whilst they can field lots of troops these can be swept away pretty handily by US/ARVN that Airlift then Assault (plus Dad acquired a pretty potent M48 capability event that killed off an extra 2 NVA per assault !).

VC more akin to FLN in Colonial Twilight.

Great stuff again

Then we had a quick run out with Undaunted Normandy which was extremely easy to teach.

Yanks lost as I neglected to use Hunker Down and suffered from some very good Kraut shooting that removed a Scout and a Rifle team ie half my force and seen my deck therefore overloaded with Fog Of War cards.

What a fun quick playing game which we shall play more of.

More Fire In The Lake excellence

Another run out of FITL with my Dad this time we tried the Full scenario (1964-1972) to try out several different events including Pivotal Events.

This means all 6 Coup cards in deck (we went with historical mix of cards so 12 from 1964, 24 from 1965 and 36 from 1968 decks.)

Another truly great superb gaming experience ensued with the COIN system once again shining for us.

We only managed to play through to 4th Coup card (shorter 1965 game definitely..um..shorter) and counted it as a draw as ARVN and NVA both on -8 Victory levels.

I do hope to get a bash with this with 4 players someday.