Great War Commander a solo try

Had a solo try with recently acquired Great War Commander board wargame.

Very nice indeed it was too despite the lack of British in initial release (German, French and johnny come lately Yanks are featured).

Same essential card based system as original Combat Commander but with a number of additions, such as units (re-branded as Formations) are now Platoons rather than Squads, several new terrain types including, of course, shellholes, trenches, nasty gas barrages and such like.

Lots of new actions and orders including the ability of a leader to activate sub-ordinates within his command range which combined with a new order such as Offensive can generate a sort of human wave (but with shooting) very WW1 in feel.

Artillery is handled slightly differently with each side having a 'free' FAO (if combined with a Telephone) on map edge in addition to using leaders and these can be standing (fire markers remain) or creeping (markers move 1 hex) barrages and any terrain can be changed to Shellholes if attack total is 18+.

Also a new mini-deck of 9 Strategy Cards per side with some one off actions or fire supplementing.

One change I struggled to remember is that at the end of each players turn you check unit Cohesion and any units out of command (barring one or two exceptions) are marked as Suppressed.

Air power is included (a variation of the CC Pacfic system) being able to strafe or bomb along a hex row.

Tanks are also now 'proper' pieces with several specific rules.

The maps and counters are excellent with the maps being more colourful than standard CC types (French flair) but marginally less clear on occasion.

All in all an excellent game (by Hexasim) that I look forward to trying in anger.

Panzer Grenadier Deluxe - Villers Bocage

Game of the ever excellent Panzer Grenadier Deluxe rules with Stephen today utilising the Villers Bocage scenario from the western scenarios booklet.

Great game with Stephen as Wittman & co against my floundering 22nd Armoured Brigade.

Tigers are really tough (only the Firefly really has a chance) and despite outflanking Wittman once or twice he managed to survive unscathed, only going low on ammo (no bloody wonder with all the shooting he conducted !).
I did get some artillery support (3 x 25pdr missions) from turn 5 but the British radios failed to make contact (is this Arnhem !?) and when they did the bleeding gunners questioned orders (ie throw of 3 equalling "Say again over ?).
The arrival of a further Tiger and PzIV unit along with more Grenadiers spelt the end as my hiding transports soon suffered giving Germans the win.

I really like these rules as they are an excellent balance of playability and flavour and at a nice level of simulation.








Pre German deployment with 22nd Armoured spread along the road to Hill 213

Wittman (on right) and friends deploy on dominating ridge south of Villers Bocage

Cromwells move to engage (Firefly already brewing)

Units on Hill 213 suffer as well

Despite ouflanking the Tigers 2 more Cromwells brewed up

Further losses in town

British reserves arrive from west

Even the Firefly failed to hit Tigers (long range)

Infantry deploys

German reserves appear on Hill 213 to seal the deal

I also managed a game of Combat Commander Pacific against John last week but forgot to take photos !

We played the first scenario in book which my Yanks managed to win mainly due to John erring in his Jap deployment leaving a key victory location unprotected.

Field Of Glory Napoleonic Version 2 - 1812 Russians versus French

Another go with FOGN today st Stephens.
I tried out an 1812 Russian Infantry Corps and Stephen used 1812 French with Cavalry support.
Another excellent game with only difficulty we had with working out the list limitation for attached Divisions (hopefully all will be clarified when (if?) new lists make an appearance).
I selected Positional Defence and French took Prepared Attack.
So I got great terrain selection including a large hill with Reverse Slope and Strongpoint as options.
However this meant I had to deploy army entirely on table and entirely before French and am semi-inert for first two turns (ie no advancing outside deployment zone).
With Frontal Assault French got 3 turns of Bombardment which I managed to mitigate somewhat with extended lines and hiding behind central large hill.
Still a unit of Grenadiers took a bit of a battering but were fortunately able to Rally.

Game hinged on encounter on my left between my 2 small Dragoon Brigades and 2 Large French Dragon units.
The 'dice demon' of course struck in these key combats rolling 6 hits with 7 dice compared to my 1 from 5 (cancelled by Large unit) instantly breaking one unit and causing a cohesion loss on the other (I uncannily rolled 1's on test)
He then gave my other unit 4 hits to 1 Disordering my unit.
This allowed him to roll for my General (we had both put our Generals into combat here) who promptly died causing a another cohesion test and inevitably another cohesion loss breaking my second Dragoon unit.

I did manage to form squares with my Grenadier Division (Veterans are great) nullifying his Cavalry but a further unit lost to his Light Cavalry on my right along with 2 units Wavered saw my army succumb to defeat as French only had 3 Spent Cavalry units.

We are really enjoying the smooth and fast game play, results are certainly quick and decisive (no doubt a boon for competition style games the rules support) but with plausible events and outcomes for this level of play.



Russians setup as French guns deploy to bombard.

French lines counter my deployment

Opposing Dragoon units ready themselves (French 3 deep)

Slow advance in center against my lines

My central command emerges from reverse slope

The big clash of sabers (both my units destroyed in one fell swoop)

Thankfully these Veteran Grenadiers were unfazed and formed squares

French center

Combat Commander three in a row

Three scenarios from the Tournament Pack played tonight against my Dad.

First up had Russians against Germans in an undulating plain with Ivans coming out on top after destroying a Fascist HMG nest.

Second had Cannucks versus a veritable Italian wall of barbed wire and soldiers ! Canadians pummeled in this one.

And third Ivans against Finns in winter tundra with Russkies coming out victors after several hard fought assaults forcing Finns to surrender.

Great stuff once more and we discovered (even after all the games we have played) that we have been using Leaders somewhat incorrectly.
We have been adding Leadership factor 'on top' of a single attack without realizing they can upgrade firepower of each unit they are stacked with both for fire and in melee, making them much more potent !

Hitler's Reich once more

Another game with my son of this highly addictive game.

A very different game from last outing with the Reich facing a war on 3 fronts by 1944 but still managing to hold onto Berlin, The Ruhr and Austria for a Survival win despite ending with only 3 cards at end of 1945.

We also played a scenario from Combat Commander which I won but forgot to take a pic.

Hitler's Reich with my boy

My son Steven home for a few days and we played Hitler's Reich with Steven as Axis.

Another excellent game with varied fortunes until 1944 when my Op Overlord was a virtual failure (only taking Normandy) and Op Bagration having to be used to retake Stalingrad and Moscow.

We went into 1945 but Axis won by having both London and Moscow and Allies failing to retake Moscow.

Great fun once again.

Hitler's Reich another fine outing

Game of Hitler's Reich with my Dad and another excellent game it was.
My Dad as Axis went with a new strategy by essentially ignoring Russia in early war and taking control of the UK and surrounding seas despite the despairing efforts of the Royal Navy !
He then defended gains once Russia entered war holding out for a Survival Win at end of 1945.
Not holding UK means Op Overlord is a bust (ie does not take place) and leaves Op Bagration as only Allied major offensive.
I was unable to knock Axis out of Africa so Italy was not a route to Reich I could access either.
Op Bagration was only marginally successful and what gains I made were lost keeping me away from Berlin.
Fun stuff with this highly abstract but hugely enjoyable game.

Field Of Glory Napoleonic 2nd try with 2nd Edition

Another game with new FOGN edition this time Stephen using an British force circa 1815 and I tried an Imperial Guard force from same time frame.

We both think the new Strategies and set-up rules are excellent (in fact may use for other rule sets) as they generate a nice scenario set up and plausible terrain.

Game saw first use of new Bombardment rules as with Prepared Attack against my Flexible Defence the Brits got 2 rounds of fire pre-game (which is really 3 round as they also get first turn).
French able to utilize the Strong Point and Reverse Slope rules with one Division off-table in Reserve whereas Brit all deployed on-table.

Another excellent game even though my Grenadier a Cheval Superior Guard Shock Heavy Cavalry succumbed in one turn when charged by two British heavy cavalry units.
I had 6 dice scoring an excellent 5 hits however the 'dice demon' managed 10 hits in 12 dice (two re-rolls helped) to destroy the Grenadiers.
My Dutch Lancers where then Disordered seeing their pals Rout and duly succumbed to the British heavy's (Light cavalry lose 1 dice to heavy's who also gain a dice vs lights)
This along with several other Wavering French units (mostly from Artillery fire) saw my army break as being small it has low break points.

Another fun decisive and indeed quick game with a much improved FOGN.
Whilst it lacks the 'chaos' factor I like it does what it aims to do and is great for a points based game that one can play to completion with reasonable sized armies.
Kudos to the Aussie developers.