Fighting Formations GD on the table

Managed to find a time slot to get this up on table for play through. Very nice game with interesting Order Matrix and Command System. Game reminds me of Conflict Of Heroes in several respects with Cards representing Assests mainly and a Chit Pull system for damage from hits on units. Counters very nice and good functional maps. I like the way units are Platoons but can be broken down into single Squads or AFVs. System leads to lots of decision points each turn as one decides which Order to use (costs differ for Soviets vs Germans) and how much Initiative to use or surrender.
Stacking is unlimited per hex but since a single shot affects everything in a hex I see dangers inherent in such a strategy albeit if one wants and effective Assault one needs numbers. Nice system of Reactive and Opportunity firing  limited by Rate Of Fire (ie rolling at or under Rof on a dice) I see this one gaining favour and hope the series expands in due course.

More Wargamy goodness on way..............

Just ordered these two items and looking forward to their arriving at Chez Steiner

Also getting BT Inifinity (ie superfast broadband) installed tomorrow so goodness knows how long I will be off-line (computers and new kit never runs smooth for me !!) 

RIP sgt.steiner@virgin.net and Hello sgt.steiner@btinternet.com

I dread to think of time I will spend trying to re-connect to sites/web-pages/groups etc !!!!

Fighting Formations: Grossdeutschland ordered

Just ordered this beastie from BoardGameGuru and awaiting its arrival.
Another tactical type game with some tactical asset cards and a rather interesting turn/initiative order system.
Looks comparable to the Conflict Of Heroes series but maybe a bit more specific and meatier.

I simply cannot help mineself !

Wilderness War (Vassal) 1757 ends

Norman and myself eventually finished 1757 turn of our Vassal Wilderness War game (delays due to work/holidays for us both throughout July/August).
An eventful year (ie I played too many bloody events !) with Johnston dying early on a dent in British ambitions.
French launched several unsuccessful raids in the West.
They did however take Fort William Henry and Montcalm came South down the Hudson to try to drive off my force under Loudon which was trying to recapture the Fort.
The illustrious French General failed and had to retreat but Loudon then failed to conduct a siege of the fort.
General Wolfe appeared early in British OOB (made up somewhat for loss of Johnston) and made an Amphibious Assault into Louisbourg Fortress space.
He managed to established a siege but failed in his Assault upon the fortress.
Attrition at years end is brutal in this game (especially if you don't read the rule !!) with any Drilled troops in wilderness areas or as in our case both besieged and besiegers suffering grieviously (you loss half reduced Drilled troops and Reduce all full strength Drilled troops !!).
After a fitfull start with this Vassal game I think we are both getting into it a tad more now and hopefully will flow a bit more steadily from now on.

Overall situation at end of 1757

Hudson river has seen a lot of activity

Stalemate in west regions

Bolt Action WWII

Huzzah !! these just arrived this morning.
Very quick skim through (and sniff of fresh ink....aaaahhhhh....) and usual high production values of these Osprey/Warlord publications with lots of nice illustrations and photos of figures.
These might just get me to resurrect my aged Airfix/Revell etc for an outing as last seen light of day back in 2006.
The spirit is indeed willing but time is non-existent however !

Shifting Sands another game hits the table.........

Obtained another board wargame from EBay (a very dangerous place for me to frequent !!) entitled 'Shifting Sands The Campaign For North Africa 1940-1943' from MMP.
A clear derivative of Paths Of Glory/Barbarossa To Berlin using essentially the exact same card driven system and point to point map.
Units are still big and small but now Divisions and Battlegroups rather than Armies and Corps.
Besides the usual special rules for various events/locations this makes learning the game rather easy and plying it similarly smooth.
Have played through first two turns (having this Public Holiday off) and enjoyable stuff so far.
Despite being primarily about the Desert War the game also covers Near East and East Africa (as sub-maps) which whilst side-shows as such can influence events in North Africa (mainly affecting reserves).
Cards decks are split into Axis and Allied and into 1940/1941/1942 with all the events one would expect for this theater of war (Rommel appears in 1941 up until then its the Italians only)
Much lower unit density than the other two games should make this one much quicker to play.
Of course I had planned to start a bit of figure painting today after a long hiatus (close to a year) with some Old Glory Prussian Napoleonic Grenadiers calling to me but they were shouted down by this one !

Overview

The cards decks 

The Near East and East Africa sub-map areas

Allied 1940 cards 

Axis 1940 counterparts

Panzer Blitz II Hill Of Death gets an outing

Played a game with my Father of this game which I have had for a bit but not actually played (one of a growing number !!).
Used the Carentan supplement (that I was very generously gifted by a chap from 'Oz'tralia).
Turned out to be a really good scenario and a rather good game system (similar to White Star Rising but with more depth and historical rather than generic scenarios) despite rather negative reviews it garnered.
We liked the chit pill system for Operations and the varied ranges of same.
Movement and shooting systems all fine.
The LOS rules took a bit of reading but fairly easy to work things out anyhow.
Only rules we had any real difficulty with was AA fire (were not sure what values to use but sorted in latest V2 edition of rules).
As per old PanzerBlitz Infantry are slow (1-2 hexes per turn) but most vehicles are not very fast compared to old game.
 Infantry generally only fire 1-2 hexes as well so main use is in Close Assaults (which with hexes being 250m or so is of course accurate).
This scenario had lots of kit with PzGrenadiers, Airborne, MGs. Mortars, Stugs, M10s, Off-board Artillery and Jabos all of which gave is good grounding in various unit types.
Several new rules (some of which were options in PzBlitz/Leader) such as PzBlitz Assault (Tank Desanti type), Reaction Fire (last gasp stuff vs CAT and Overrun attacks), Opportunity Fire, and suchlike.
Anti-personnel shooting is old odds ratio type but anti-tank is now a combat differential.
Biggest drawback to game (just as in WSR and indeed most tactical board wargames) is the counter clutter with lots of Disrupted, Spent, No Move markers on units.
These are smaller than the combat units in this game which can make things a bit fiddly but other than that the combat counters are little works of art with good functional layout, gone are the silhouettes of original game all now full colour graphics.
Overall we liked the game and keen to try some of the historical Hill 112 scenarios of the main game.

Overall view of the Carentan map

Germans pushing forward

Nice looking counters

Will be interesting to see in due course (ie who knows when) how this compares to my other recent, and as yet unused, Normandy tactical acquisition..................

Normandy 44 play

Normandy 44 up on table again for solo rule learning exercise.
Played Invasion turn and first two full turns thus far. Nice game with fairly intuitive mechanics, a bit more 'old fashioned' as such compared to some games I have been trying lately.
A few special unit types require a bit of memorising (Flak units. Armour, Restricted moves types) and some rule for Replacements/Reserves differ between Allies and Germans. Couple interesting rules such as being in Reserve Status (kind of delayed exploitation) and Determined Defence (attempt to cancel retreat outcomes).
Nothing too onerous. Allied Airbourne units units had fairly rough drop on D-Day with losses and several Scattered but the Germans too weak to fully exploit.
 British Armour also suffered on invasion but all beaches initially secured.
Standard German build up around Caen has started with 12SS Pz having just appeared to back up 21st Pz.
Hoping to get a few more turns in.


Overall view

Utah

British beach heads

Overall view at the end of the 7th of June

Friedrich an excellent game

Played this game at Stephens last night as a 4 player bash. Really excellent game with, fast gameplay, good tension in the card based battles, some very clever mechanics and beautiful components.
Whilst in the 'Euro' game mould it still retains a great wargame feel and good historical flavour.
I am tempted to purchase a copy despite it being a 3-4 player game.
We drew nations randomly and I got the French. Prussians have a lot of advantages in numbers of leaders and their card draws but they do need them as a 3 front war develops. The action is fast and furious and battles are a clever combination of card values and suits (only certain suits useable in specific areas of board).
Very very impressed with this game


Really piss poor iPhone pics which do not do the game justice at all.

Storm Over Stalingrad played

Played first proper game of Storm Over Stalingrad with my Dad tonight. Great game very quick and easy to play. Russians took massive losses but held out losing only two Victory Areas (five needed for German win). Only problem we had was with some of the card interactions as not too clear if any precedence of play order but nothing too onerous.









Using iPad app to publish this post so not sure how it will turn out
Postscript: bit limited compared to PC version re pics etc but easy to fix

Overall view of the game

Horrendous Ivan casualties but they held out overall to thwart the Nazis.