Originally, this was to be called "going Downtown", but since we only got about eight turns into the game for a variety of reasons, I figure we only made it to the inner burbs at best. Chris took on the wily Vietnamese, while I ran a USN raid on a target to be disclosed later.
Downtown is a wargame unlike any other I've played. There is a certain amount of pre-planning, but each side has much different choices to make. The US player randomly selects a target, which usually selects a branch of service that will attack, figures out what planes will be available for the attack, then plots the route to the target and back, although only a subset of the raid's aircraft will be bound by this path.
The DRV player, on the other hand, knows exactly what he has to work with, but not where. Given the potential targets and the political and doctrine limitations, he places SAM sites, upgrades or adds AAA, makes some of those AAA sites radar-enhanced with Fire Can units, and finally adds defensive aircraft. All of these elements have their role in the game, so just because the DRV player has to do a bit more planning doesn't mean that they have no choices during the game.
Because of other things interrupting gaming time, we only got about halfway into the scenario over around four hours. There was still a lot of lookup of rules as this was our first full-on raid (the previous games have been learning scenarios that add in SAMs or simple bombing runs). This was our first game with standoff jamming, with SEAD forces to go SAM hunting, and the first time we'd actually gone through the entire pre-raid process in it's entirety. As such, there are many little nuggets of rules that require you to look through the rules from time to time. For what it's worth, in general we've been able to find rules fairly quickly, although I have to admit I've made a study of them and feel pretty good about my grasp of the system (if not the practice).
My raid started out well enough. First out was the F-8C's whose job it was to provide protection from the MiGs that were sure to show up. It's an interesting rule that allows the DRV player to add points for aircraft in exchange for VP, so you never know what you're going to face when you get over the mainland. Also out early were the standoff jamming aircraft, which are providing mediocre but essential services - hey, 5% is 5%, and there is some potential for it creeping up to 10% or more in some cases. As they say in the service, any 'trons are good 'trons.
Chris put a lot of his SAMs in Haiphong, which spent quite a bit of time acquiring my MiG CAP to no good effect. Fewer missiles to go after me later on, I guess. I'm not sure how effective that strategy is - the MiG CAP can't really do much good against the SAMs, having no air-to-ground capability other than strafing, but it would be nice to have them out of the way so that the MiGs have an open route to the strike force. That's where the action really is - even if you don't actually hit a bomber, you might freak the entire mission out enough that they all abort, and that's as good as a mission kill in this game.
So it was that when Chris went after my MiG CAP aggressively, I wasn't going to complain. Seeing as MiGs can stick around on the deck and be virtually undetectable, I forced the issue by bringing my CAP down to the deck and going for visual ID. That worked well enough to goad him into attacking my CAP, with the effective result of one MiG-21 shot down and a MiG-17 crippled, with all other flights I'm aware of disordered and unable to attack the important aircraft, the bombers.
In the meantime, my SEAD forces entered the board, tasked with taking out SAMs and making the route in safe for the bombers. I'm not sure how you do this effectively, other than to shut down enemy radars with ARM launches (it takes them on average three turns to come back online), and to bomb the rest. The problem is, of course, that you only have four actual strikes you can make on the SAM locations with bombs or rockets, so you have to pick carefully and hold your ARMs back until you can force several of them to shut down at once. This may be the trickiest part of the system, as timing is as important as it gets.
As of the end of turn 8, I had managed to shut down three radars with a Shrike ARM, but they all came back online quickly (the better to miss their actual shots, as Chris says). I did nail one SAM with rockets from an Armed Escort F-8C, but now the plane is essentially useless for anything but strafing and risking getting hit by AAA fire. One A-4E has two Shrike remaining with the intent to try to shut down as many of the Haiphong SAMs as possible.
We were just starting turn 8 at this point, and Chris had to leave, but we intend to finish up this weekend if possible. My strike force arrives shortly, although I suspect at this point that it's all about SAMs and AAA and very little to do with air combat. I have at least four VP in the bank from shot down MiGs and SAMs, with potentially a couple more if his crippled MiG can't get home, but I've seen what dedicated AAA can do to a flight of aircraft, and it ain't pretty. Also, if I have a target hex with more than one target, it just makes things that much harder to achieve. On the plus side, it looks like my BDA will have a relatively easy time of it, assuming most of the SAMs are out of ammo or close to it.
Part two to come, when we break out of Subdivisions and head In The City.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
House Update
My gout has been bad enough over the past month that I'm not sleeping well, so that means I'm up and at the computer, and that means it's time for... a House From Hell Update!
Actually, my ranting had kind of died off until my friend Chuck told me that some of the funniest (in a dark humor kind of way) posts were the ones outlining my experiences in buying a money pit. While things have indeed gotten stable (to a point), and we don't have contractors in every day anymore, I'm amazed at the things that are still going wrong.
Right now, it's the kitchen. I'll say this now - we are running out of major appliances to have problems with. To make things worse, the "insurance" that the sellers bought that was supposed to ensure that all of the appliances (at the very least) worked correctly turns out to be barely worth the paper it was printed on. While the newly dripping garbage disposal appears to be headed for replacement (and it was less than six years old), the leaking refrigerator will *not* be serviced through First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation. It was a crap fridge anyway, but we were hoping to survive for a year before having to redo the kitchen. However, as the song says, I think the Lord is trying to tell me something. Given that my wife managed to come about as close to destroying the glass in the oven door as possible without actually requiring its removal (and I've heard five or six stories so far on exactly how *that* happened - I was in Eugene at the time), it looks like the only appliance that doesn't have a fork stuck in it is the dishwasher, and I'm sure that's just a matter of days.
I'd jump on the kitchen getting a complete remodel in the summer, except that we seem to already have a full plate of projects once the weather is better:
Replace the rotting back deck,
Repour the driveway (which looks to be getting pushed back),
Strip and recoat the garage - we may put in new storage units as well, as the garage is very tight - I managed to bump a vise and do $1000 of damage to Mel's RAV4 a month ago (this may be pushed back as well),
Put in drainage for the front walk, which turns into a lake right in front of our gate during moderate rain,
Replace at the very least the window in our bedroom and see if there isn't a major source of draft coming from the window seat area,
Shoot myself in the head. May be moved up.
I can't imagine how we would cope if we didn't have some decent resources to draw on. The bad news is that I'll be effectively cutting any gains I get over the next few years (and they were looking pretty good) just to manage what needs to be fixed *now*. I'm not even including major remodeling of the master suite, powder room, and upstairs bath. The list just seems to go on and on and on.
All things considered, I'm really a very fortunate man. Given some of the crazy stuff happening to people I know (kidney failure, loss of a child in the shooting in Illinois recently, various mystery diseases), I shouldn't really bitch. I'm told I'm entertaining, though, and if I'm not venting I'm just building up more stress that's manifesting in my month-old gout flare-up. Right now it's so bad that the Tylenol 3's aren't cutting the pain, the steroids are bringing down the swelling, and I don't see a specialist for ten days. It's days like this when I struggle to see past my own problems.
At least we've had nice weather.
Actually, my ranting had kind of died off until my friend Chuck told me that some of the funniest (in a dark humor kind of way) posts were the ones outlining my experiences in buying a money pit. While things have indeed gotten stable (to a point), and we don't have contractors in every day anymore, I'm amazed at the things that are still going wrong.
Right now, it's the kitchen. I'll say this now - we are running out of major appliances to have problems with. To make things worse, the "insurance" that the sellers bought that was supposed to ensure that all of the appliances (at the very least) worked correctly turns out to be barely worth the paper it was printed on. While the newly dripping garbage disposal appears to be headed for replacement (and it was less than six years old), the leaking refrigerator will *not* be serviced through First American Home Buyers Protection Corporation. It was a crap fridge anyway, but we were hoping to survive for a year before having to redo the kitchen. However, as the song says, I think the Lord is trying to tell me something. Given that my wife managed to come about as close to destroying the glass in the oven door as possible without actually requiring its removal (and I've heard five or six stories so far on exactly how *that* happened - I was in Eugene at the time), it looks like the only appliance that doesn't have a fork stuck in it is the dishwasher, and I'm sure that's just a matter of days.
I'd jump on the kitchen getting a complete remodel in the summer, except that we seem to already have a full plate of projects once the weather is better:
Replace the rotting back deck,
Repour the driveway (which looks to be getting pushed back),
Strip and recoat the garage - we may put in new storage units as well, as the garage is very tight - I managed to bump a vise and do $1000 of damage to Mel's RAV4 a month ago (this may be pushed back as well),
Put in drainage for the front walk, which turns into a lake right in front of our gate during moderate rain,
Replace at the very least the window in our bedroom and see if there isn't a major source of draft coming from the window seat area,
Shoot myself in the head. May be moved up.
I can't imagine how we would cope if we didn't have some decent resources to draw on. The bad news is that I'll be effectively cutting any gains I get over the next few years (and they were looking pretty good) just to manage what needs to be fixed *now*. I'm not even including major remodeling of the master suite, powder room, and upstairs bath. The list just seems to go on and on and on.
All things considered, I'm really a very fortunate man. Given some of the crazy stuff happening to people I know (kidney failure, loss of a child in the shooting in Illinois recently, various mystery diseases), I shouldn't really bitch. I'm told I'm entertaining, though, and if I'm not venting I'm just building up more stress that's manifesting in my month-old gout flare-up. Right now it's so bad that the Tylenol 3's aren't cutting the pain, the steroids are bringing down the swelling, and I don't see a specialist for ten days. It's days like this when I struggle to see past my own problems.
At least we've had nice weather.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The Colonies Strike Back
Mike wants to toss the gauntlet? Two can play that game, friend...
Here are my responses to Mike's Top 10 lists. He critiqued mine, and pleaded with me to have mercy. We shall see.
Agricola
Let me be clear. I do not dislike Agricola. I am simply concerned that the designer throws in wackiness mistaking it for replayability. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Bus
I have only played once, and the board looked like the artist was stuck in an airport with nothing to draw on but paper towels and the only pigments were from the condiment shelf at the McDonalds. There may even have been a good game there, had my migraine subsided long enough for me to recognize there were people in the room. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Carcassonne
Have not tried most of the micro expansions for this particular title, although I suspect I own most of them. Which is really stupid because the rest of my group tends to not play even the good versions of this title. I bow to Mike on this one, as he has experience with all three and I do not.
Crokinole
A really great and really expensive contemporary version of table hockey, popular in the 50's. I think all of us growing up with older siblings from a certain age have these things stuck up in their parent's attics with no playing pieces. The table hockey, not Crokinole. Fun, beautiful, and kind of doomed, and certainly not something I'm going to pay for a custom table. Although it would look good out at Sunriver - perhaps a Crokinole fund!
Die Sieben Siegel/Zing!
Still a game I like, but Tichu is the sentimental favorite for me just because it feels like Bridge without feeling like an idiot because you can't remember Stayman or how you respond when someone asks you for kings on the way to slam. I will say that there are few games that provide such priceless expressions when you know that someone is going down hard.
Imperial
Certainly more interesting than it's immediate predecessor, Antike. Hamburgum appears interesting. I love the fact that you get to be an armaments dealer, getting rich off of the spoils of the threat of war (and war, if it comes). Own your own Great Power! Woot!
Key Harvest
I've played Keytown once, and am pretty sure it's not in my collection again. Maybe its the cartoony back of a napkin graphics, or that we misplayed a rule. I think it's just that the games haven't come out when I'm around, and thus no opinion from me.
Shogun
Wallenstein got a bad rap in my group fairly early on, and this one has gotten very mixed reviews, both from con-goers and from the 'Geek. Mike says they've fixed some things, so I'll be willing to give it a shot someday.
"There are certainly several common themes in that list. Planning, action-based, low/no luck. Games that didn't quite make the list include Acquire, Age of Steam, Aquadukt, Brass, Caylus, Clippers, Drive, Ingenious, Perikles, Pueblo, Santiago, Tigris & Euphrates, Tichu."
OK, that's just cheating.
A Victory Lost
Check.
Barbarossa to Berlin
If you're going to pick a card driven game, BtB ain't it. Paths of Glory is a better design, but it's still Hannibal that wins this category for now. BtB should have been just an East Front game, and the upcoming Stalin's War will do just that.
Commands & Colors: Ancient
Check. The best of Borg's C&C designs in many ways, although I hear the Air Power expansion makes Memoir '44 playable.
Defiant Russia
One I have but have not played yet. The small counters and map may be a problem for me.
East Front
I chose a different block game not because this isn't a great game, just that the other is more accessible and thus I've played more. Funny how I seemed to be filling categories as I made my list - "Best Block Game," "Best CDG," etc.
FAB: The Bulge
Way too early to tell, but promising.
Glory
I am the only American in the country who is less than enthralled with the American Civil War. Growing up in Oregon, a state that wasn't terribly involved largely because we just didn't let those colored folk in. A state where the clan had to pick on Catholics in the 30's because that was as ethnic as it got. Battle sites? Try the corner where little Billy got hit by a rock. We have no history here. Nothing to see. Move on.
Hell's Highway
Even though I have learned to enjoy Market-Garden games, I am not sure I will ever understand why. The US had a relatively small roll (although arguably the most successful of the operation), while the object was never truly attainable given the environment surrounding it. You would hope that someone would say, "Hey, we went out for a picnic there in '37, boy was that ground soggy!"
This Accursed Civil War
I have this title, and will probably try to figure it out at some point. I know where to go for an opponent and a clinic. To be honest, I find anything from Ancients through to the early 20th Century as uninteresting wargaming topics. Which is funny, as most miniatures players like that era the best, especially toward the end, mostly because of the shiny uniforms. For this era, I tend to prefer my games strategic rather than battle-level.
"Bubbling under for wargames is Bar Lev, Breakout: Normandy, Hammer of the Scots, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, OCS (system), GCACW (system) and Twilight Struggle."
More cheating. Do you film your opponents workout sessions as well before Super Bowls? Well? Do ya?
Funny how close we are on the Euros and how different on the wargames, where I've played about half of the games Mike has listed compared to most of them.
Here are my responses to Mike's Top 10 lists. He critiqued mine, and pleaded with me to have mercy. We shall see.
Agricola
Let me be clear. I do not dislike Agricola. I am simply concerned that the designer throws in wackiness mistaking it for replayability. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Bus
I have only played once, and the board looked like the artist was stuck in an airport with nothing to draw on but paper towels and the only pigments were from the condiment shelf at the McDonalds. There may even have been a good game there, had my migraine subsided long enough for me to recognize there were people in the room. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Carcassonne
Have not tried most of the micro expansions for this particular title, although I suspect I own most of them. Which is really stupid because the rest of my group tends to not play even the good versions of this title. I bow to Mike on this one, as he has experience with all three and I do not.
Crokinole
A really great and really expensive contemporary version of table hockey, popular in the 50's. I think all of us growing up with older siblings from a certain age have these things stuck up in their parent's attics with no playing pieces. The table hockey, not Crokinole. Fun, beautiful, and kind of doomed, and certainly not something I'm going to pay for a custom table. Although it would look good out at Sunriver - perhaps a Crokinole fund!
Die Sieben Siegel/Zing!
Still a game I like, but Tichu is the sentimental favorite for me just because it feels like Bridge without feeling like an idiot because you can't remember Stayman or how you respond when someone asks you for kings on the way to slam. I will say that there are few games that provide such priceless expressions when you know that someone is going down hard.
Imperial
Certainly more interesting than it's immediate predecessor, Antike. Hamburgum appears interesting. I love the fact that you get to be an armaments dealer, getting rich off of the spoils of the threat of war (and war, if it comes). Own your own Great Power! Woot!
Key Harvest
I've played Keytown once, and am pretty sure it's not in my collection again. Maybe its the cartoony back of a napkin graphics, or that we misplayed a rule. I think it's just that the games haven't come out when I'm around, and thus no opinion from me.
Shogun
Wallenstein got a bad rap in my group fairly early on, and this one has gotten very mixed reviews, both from con-goers and from the 'Geek. Mike says they've fixed some things, so I'll be willing to give it a shot someday.
"There are certainly several common themes in that list. Planning, action-based, low/no luck. Games that didn't quite make the list include Acquire, Age of Steam, Aquadukt, Brass, Caylus, Clippers, Drive, Ingenious, Perikles, Pueblo, Santiago, Tigris & Euphrates, Tichu."
OK, that's just cheating.
A Victory Lost
Check.
Barbarossa to Berlin
If you're going to pick a card driven game, BtB ain't it. Paths of Glory is a better design, but it's still Hannibal that wins this category for now. BtB should have been just an East Front game, and the upcoming Stalin's War will do just that.
Commands & Colors: Ancient
Check. The best of Borg's C&C designs in many ways, although I hear the Air Power expansion makes Memoir '44 playable.
Defiant Russia
One I have but have not played yet. The small counters and map may be a problem for me.
East Front
I chose a different block game not because this isn't a great game, just that the other is more accessible and thus I've played more. Funny how I seemed to be filling categories as I made my list - "Best Block Game," "Best CDG," etc.
FAB: The Bulge
Way too early to tell, but promising.
Glory
I am the only American in the country who is less than enthralled with the American Civil War. Growing up in Oregon, a state that wasn't terribly involved largely because we just didn't let those colored folk in. A state where the clan had to pick on Catholics in the 30's because that was as ethnic as it got. Battle sites? Try the corner where little Billy got hit by a rock. We have no history here. Nothing to see. Move on.
Hell's Highway
Even though I have learned to enjoy Market-Garden games, I am not sure I will ever understand why. The US had a relatively small roll (although arguably the most successful of the operation), while the object was never truly attainable given the environment surrounding it. You would hope that someone would say, "Hey, we went out for a picnic there in '37, boy was that ground soggy!"
This Accursed Civil War
I have this title, and will probably try to figure it out at some point. I know where to go for an opponent and a clinic. To be honest, I find anything from Ancients through to the early 20th Century as uninteresting wargaming topics. Which is funny, as most miniatures players like that era the best, especially toward the end, mostly because of the shiny uniforms. For this era, I tend to prefer my games strategic rather than battle-level.
"Bubbling under for wargames is Bar Lev, Breakout: Normandy, Hammer of the Scots, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage, OCS (system), GCACW (system) and Twilight Struggle."
More cheating. Do you film your opponents workout sessions as well before Super Bowls? Well? Do ya?
Funny how close we are on the Euros and how different on the wargames, where I've played about half of the games Mike has listed compared to most of them.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Does This Game Make Me Look Fat?
Or - How To Lose That Bulge In Three Hours!
Mike was the only person to show for our regular Tuesday night gaming session, so we decided to go wild and try out the new Fast Action Battles - The Bulge from GMT Games. Mike had yet to receive his copy, and I had barely read the rules, so it is with a certain amount of amazement that I tell you that we were able to get through three turns.
FAB: Bulge (I will use FAB from here on out, although that refers to the game series, currently at one game and counting) follows what must be the first or second most revered topic in American wargaming - the German surprise offensive in the Ardennes at the very end of 1944 at the weakest point in the American lines. The battle has a huge place in American military folklore, being one of the three really major undertakings in Western Europe (the Normandy landings and subsequent breakout, and the ill-fated "Bridge Too Far" drive on Arnhem being the others, although arguably aside from the two Airborne divisions the US wasn't nearly as involved in the latter fiasco). The story is very American - poor planning and doctrine thought the Germans would never attempt a drive on Antwerp, the Allied supply source, and certainly never through the very same spot that they'd used to blindside the French for the second time in 25 years. And certainly never in bad weather when the Allied air cover advantage was negated.
Of course, the Americans were flattened early, but the timely intervention of Patton's 3rd army, the brave holdout of the 82nd Airborne in Bastogne, and the failure of the Germans to get beyond the Meuse river into the Allies backfield fits the concept of US exceptionalism to a T - take it on the chin, come back fighting, and win. Never mind that the German plan hinged on several unlikely events - taking a major fuel depot, quick advancement through the difficult terrain in the north of the Salient, and of course the holdout of Bastogne, the major road intersection of an area where control of the road network was key - this is a story that fits American's perceptions of themselves and so we game it over, and over, and over. Perhaps only the East Front holds more appeal to wargamers, and then only because it is the Bulge in a macrocosm taking place over 5 years and costing millions of lives.
The inherent problem with any Bulge game is that it's a pretty grim outing for the US in the early going. Little chance for counterattack until Patton shows up in force, so the US's job is that of plumber - patch every hole you can find, and do it for long enough until you can shut off the flow of German troops. It is not surprising that many Bulge games are more interesting solitaire unless you can find a US player with a masochistic streak.
So what does FAB bring to the table that differs from it's predecessors? Let's take a look:
o Limited Intelligence. The Germans had a pretty good idea of what they were facing, at least regarding the OOB. What they weren't sure of was how and when the reinforcing armies would arrive. While the Allies had some sense that the Germans were massing, they weren't expecting any trouble (other than Patton, who had his troops ready to come up and assist should the Germans get feisty) and certainly didn't have specific troop knowledge. The block mechanism allows the German to enjoy the same "I am *so* screwed!" attitude that the US player gets, because every lost step you have looks really small compared to two unknown blocks in a space you want to advance into. No other Bulge game does this as well, at least the handful I know of.
o Asset allocation. I suppose that other games have made stabs at this, but in FAB the combination of flexibility and really elegant basic mechanisms combine to take care of a lot of special cases. All of the crazy chrome that normally is de rigeur in a Bulge game (bridge blowing/repair, arty, concentration of force, air power, Greif), all of these things are handled by the assets. The assets you have available depend on the turn, what you've used in the past, what you've blown in the past, and what you think you'll need. However, since there is a pool of assets and you draw randomly from said pool up to twice a turn, you never know if the High Command will grant you what you want/need. Mike pulled all five of his engineers on turn 2, which isn't as bad as it seems. I had a horrible time getting the engineers for the two Panzer Armys back to repair several blown bridges in the north, but did get a good mix of arty elements to help me reach Bastogne on Turn 3. Even if the event is a dud, you can use it to corral a couple of assets you used in the prior turn for reuse without hoping the draw goes your way. Tie in the importance of what Higher Echelon the unit belongs to, and there's an awful lot of both flexibility but in a way that the combatants were forced to use historically. Even the German's fuel shortages are done using assets - it's brilliant.
o Breakthrough/Exploitation. Each side has some great ways to breakthrough and exploit their enemy's lines. You can mark units as "Reserve" during your movement phase, then move them once you've (hopefully) blow a hole in the enemy line. Even armor that fight in the Combat phase has a chance to advance a little further and fight a little longer if their attack overwhelms the defenders. As a last resort, if you've got a breakthrough but no one to exploit it, you can always use one of your Special Actions to allow breakthrough movement and combat. In other words, you can plan your breakthrough, but can also take advantage of battlefield opportunity if the conditions are right.
o Special Actions. Similar to the mechanism used in Europe Engulfed, each side gets Special Actions based on asset draws, but also through "reusable" SAs that come back each turn. If you don't use your reuseable SA in a turn, you get to bring an asset that has been eliminated back into the game, so you are almost never wasting them. Unlike EE, the range of actions is fairly small - breakthrough movement/combat, reinforce/retreat as defender, remove disruption markers (very useful for the US early on), and replacement of steps. The combination is very intriguing - do you blow the Event asset (they are permanently eliminated once used) so you can save your reusable SA to bring back an eliminated non-event asset, or do you save them up for when you really need them? Another simple mechanism that results in tough choices.
o Troop Quality. There are three troop quality levels in the game, and the differential between given forces gives you a bonus or penalty during combat. A couple of interesting elements to this mechanism - when you make an attack, you designate a point unit (as does the defender), and that unit determines your TQ when you are fired on. For example, if you have a veteran infantry as your lead unit but an elite tank in the space as well, and the defender has green infantry, the defender considers both units to be veteran during combat. Why not use the elite every time? First, many units change in quality as they face combat losses. In some cases, as for many of the SS Panzer units, troop quality will drop to veteran either after the first loss or not long after. In others, green infantry will "harden" as they take losses, gaining veteran status. Since artillery attacks before the actual units fight, it is not always the best idea to force your elite units to take the initial brunt of the attack (defender fires first in ground combat, too). In other words, if you lead with your best unit, sometimes by the time the arty is done with it it's not your best unit anymore.
o Play Time. Three hours to get through three turns may not sound great, especially if the campaign is nine turns long. Keep in mind that we were starting from scratch - I hadn't even gone through the examples of play (which I wanted to wait on until I'd finished the rules, a big mistake as they often cover the outline of the rules then give an example - they are quite well done). We should have made more use of the action matrix, which tells you exactly what units can do what in each phase. Had we looked a little closer, there would have been many more fieldworks placed and units in reserve. I would guess that we could get it down to about one turn per 30 minutes were we to play again within a reasonable amount of time, say, a couple of weeks. The tournament scenario (the first 5 turns) is playable in an evening, even shorter than my other favorite evening wargame, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage. Tigers in the Mist is the only other Bulge game that I feel moves along even that fast, but it doesn't have a longer campaign game. There is also a 9 turn game that only uses the north portion of the board, where 6th Panzer failed to advance along the lines hoped by the German command, lines that would have given the Germans considerably more fuel to work with. At present, this is included with the pre-orders of the game, but GMT frequently makes these available online after a suitable amount of time so taht the pre-orderers get to feel special.
Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of flaws in the overall presentation. As mentioned before, I really hate rulebooks that split up into the core rules and the game-specific rules. My biggest peeve is that they come in two separate books, so I'm always going back and forth to find the rule then the exception for the game. Once the errata has percolated through to one of GMTs excellent Living Rulebooks available online, I will print the whole thing, repaginate so that all of the rules are in one place, and be happy. Unfortunately, this happens *after* I get familiar with the game. I understand the commercial reasons for such a choice, but given that the series rules generally go through a revision every time the game system puts out a new title, it seems a bit specious to keep this separation. Once a revision comes out, you could do with the single rulebook what I do with the dual books in reverse - print out the pages with the core rules, then stick them into the old book. What makes this approach all the more galling is that the developer inserts references to the game-specific rules in the core rules. Should they use an identical rule numbering scheme in the future games, that's great. I doubt it will happen as the game evolves, but here's hoping.
The other problem I have is with the map. I fully understand that the production material is often different from the proof, often in subtle ways that the producers have little or no control over, even with today's sophisticated computer color matching tech. Still, did we need another area control game where it's difficult to figure out which area is which? The problem in this case is the road net, which probably should have been made more translucent so that it could be seen, but not as strongly as the white area boundaries. All of those straight lines get hard to distinguish into the second beer, you know.
These are really nits, however, compared to the game itself. Assuming the game lives up to it's name and is truly playable in an evening (even the 4-5 hour campaign game once both players are fully familiar with the system), this will definitely be a title that comes out with some regularity. Sure, we've got a million Bulge games. This one, however, definitely does *not* make my ass look fat.
Mike was the only person to show for our regular Tuesday night gaming session, so we decided to go wild and try out the new Fast Action Battles - The Bulge from GMT Games. Mike had yet to receive his copy, and I had barely read the rules, so it is with a certain amount of amazement that I tell you that we were able to get through three turns.
FAB: Bulge (I will use FAB from here on out, although that refers to the game series, currently at one game and counting) follows what must be the first or second most revered topic in American wargaming - the German surprise offensive in the Ardennes at the very end of 1944 at the weakest point in the American lines. The battle has a huge place in American military folklore, being one of the three really major undertakings in Western Europe (the Normandy landings and subsequent breakout, and the ill-fated "Bridge Too Far" drive on Arnhem being the others, although arguably aside from the two Airborne divisions the US wasn't nearly as involved in the latter fiasco). The story is very American - poor planning and doctrine thought the Germans would never attempt a drive on Antwerp, the Allied supply source, and certainly never through the very same spot that they'd used to blindside the French for the second time in 25 years. And certainly never in bad weather when the Allied air cover advantage was negated.
Of course, the Americans were flattened early, but the timely intervention of Patton's 3rd army, the brave holdout of the 82nd Airborne in Bastogne, and the failure of the Germans to get beyond the Meuse river into the Allies backfield fits the concept of US exceptionalism to a T - take it on the chin, come back fighting, and win. Never mind that the German plan hinged on several unlikely events - taking a major fuel depot, quick advancement through the difficult terrain in the north of the Salient, and of course the holdout of Bastogne, the major road intersection of an area where control of the road network was key - this is a story that fits American's perceptions of themselves and so we game it over, and over, and over. Perhaps only the East Front holds more appeal to wargamers, and then only because it is the Bulge in a macrocosm taking place over 5 years and costing millions of lives.
The inherent problem with any Bulge game is that it's a pretty grim outing for the US in the early going. Little chance for counterattack until Patton shows up in force, so the US's job is that of plumber - patch every hole you can find, and do it for long enough until you can shut off the flow of German troops. It is not surprising that many Bulge games are more interesting solitaire unless you can find a US player with a masochistic streak.
So what does FAB bring to the table that differs from it's predecessors? Let's take a look:
o Limited Intelligence. The Germans had a pretty good idea of what they were facing, at least regarding the OOB. What they weren't sure of was how and when the reinforcing armies would arrive. While the Allies had some sense that the Germans were massing, they weren't expecting any trouble (other than Patton, who had his troops ready to come up and assist should the Germans get feisty) and certainly didn't have specific troop knowledge. The block mechanism allows the German to enjoy the same "I am *so* screwed!" attitude that the US player gets, because every lost step you have looks really small compared to two unknown blocks in a space you want to advance into. No other Bulge game does this as well, at least the handful I know of.
o Asset allocation. I suppose that other games have made stabs at this, but in FAB the combination of flexibility and really elegant basic mechanisms combine to take care of a lot of special cases. All of the crazy chrome that normally is de rigeur in a Bulge game (bridge blowing/repair, arty, concentration of force, air power, Greif), all of these things are handled by the assets. The assets you have available depend on the turn, what you've used in the past, what you've blown in the past, and what you think you'll need. However, since there is a pool of assets and you draw randomly from said pool up to twice a turn, you never know if the High Command will grant you what you want/need. Mike pulled all five of his engineers on turn 2, which isn't as bad as it seems. I had a horrible time getting the engineers for the two Panzer Armys back to repair several blown bridges in the north, but did get a good mix of arty elements to help me reach Bastogne on Turn 3. Even if the event is a dud, you can use it to corral a couple of assets you used in the prior turn for reuse without hoping the draw goes your way. Tie in the importance of what Higher Echelon the unit belongs to, and there's an awful lot of both flexibility but in a way that the combatants were forced to use historically. Even the German's fuel shortages are done using assets - it's brilliant.
o Breakthrough/Exploitation. Each side has some great ways to breakthrough and exploit their enemy's lines. You can mark units as "Reserve" during your movement phase, then move them once you've (hopefully) blow a hole in the enemy line. Even armor that fight in the Combat phase has a chance to advance a little further and fight a little longer if their attack overwhelms the defenders. As a last resort, if you've got a breakthrough but no one to exploit it, you can always use one of your Special Actions to allow breakthrough movement and combat. In other words, you can plan your breakthrough, but can also take advantage of battlefield opportunity if the conditions are right.
o Special Actions. Similar to the mechanism used in Europe Engulfed, each side gets Special Actions based on asset draws, but also through "reusable" SAs that come back each turn. If you don't use your reuseable SA in a turn, you get to bring an asset that has been eliminated back into the game, so you are almost never wasting them. Unlike EE, the range of actions is fairly small - breakthrough movement/combat, reinforce/retreat as defender, remove disruption markers (very useful for the US early on), and replacement of steps. The combination is very intriguing - do you blow the Event asset (they are permanently eliminated once used) so you can save your reusable SA to bring back an eliminated non-event asset, or do you save them up for when you really need them? Another simple mechanism that results in tough choices.
o Troop Quality. There are three troop quality levels in the game, and the differential between given forces gives you a bonus or penalty during combat. A couple of interesting elements to this mechanism - when you make an attack, you designate a point unit (as does the defender), and that unit determines your TQ when you are fired on. For example, if you have a veteran infantry as your lead unit but an elite tank in the space as well, and the defender has green infantry, the defender considers both units to be veteran during combat. Why not use the elite every time? First, many units change in quality as they face combat losses. In some cases, as for many of the SS Panzer units, troop quality will drop to veteran either after the first loss or not long after. In others, green infantry will "harden" as they take losses, gaining veteran status. Since artillery attacks before the actual units fight, it is not always the best idea to force your elite units to take the initial brunt of the attack (defender fires first in ground combat, too). In other words, if you lead with your best unit, sometimes by the time the arty is done with it it's not your best unit anymore.
o Play Time. Three hours to get through three turns may not sound great, especially if the campaign is nine turns long. Keep in mind that we were starting from scratch - I hadn't even gone through the examples of play (which I wanted to wait on until I'd finished the rules, a big mistake as they often cover the outline of the rules then give an example - they are quite well done). We should have made more use of the action matrix, which tells you exactly what units can do what in each phase. Had we looked a little closer, there would have been many more fieldworks placed and units in reserve. I would guess that we could get it down to about one turn per 30 minutes were we to play again within a reasonable amount of time, say, a couple of weeks. The tournament scenario (the first 5 turns) is playable in an evening, even shorter than my other favorite evening wargame, Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage. Tigers in the Mist is the only other Bulge game that I feel moves along even that fast, but it doesn't have a longer campaign game. There is also a 9 turn game that only uses the north portion of the board, where 6th Panzer failed to advance along the lines hoped by the German command, lines that would have given the Germans considerably more fuel to work with. At present, this is included with the pre-orders of the game, but GMT frequently makes these available online after a suitable amount of time so taht the pre-orderers get to feel special.
Which is not to say that there aren't a couple of flaws in the overall presentation. As mentioned before, I really hate rulebooks that split up into the core rules and the game-specific rules. My biggest peeve is that they come in two separate books, so I'm always going back and forth to find the rule then the exception for the game. Once the errata has percolated through to one of GMTs excellent Living Rulebooks available online, I will print the whole thing, repaginate so that all of the rules are in one place, and be happy. Unfortunately, this happens *after* I get familiar with the game. I understand the commercial reasons for such a choice, but given that the series rules generally go through a revision every time the game system puts out a new title, it seems a bit specious to keep this separation. Once a revision comes out, you could do with the single rulebook what I do with the dual books in reverse - print out the pages with the core rules, then stick them into the old book. What makes this approach all the more galling is that the developer inserts references to the game-specific rules in the core rules. Should they use an identical rule numbering scheme in the future games, that's great. I doubt it will happen as the game evolves, but here's hoping.
The other problem I have is with the map. I fully understand that the production material is often different from the proof, often in subtle ways that the producers have little or no control over, even with today's sophisticated computer color matching tech. Still, did we need another area control game where it's difficult to figure out which area is which? The problem in this case is the road net, which probably should have been made more translucent so that it could be seen, but not as strongly as the white area boundaries. All of those straight lines get hard to distinguish into the second beer, you know.
These are really nits, however, compared to the game itself. Assuming the game lives up to it's name and is truly playable in an evening (even the 4-5 hour campaign game once both players are fully familiar with the system), this will definitely be a title that comes out with some regularity. Sure, we've got a million Bulge games. This one, however, definitely does *not* make my ass look fat.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Weekend Warriors
Chuck came over today to play Barbarossa to Berlin with me. At least, that was his intent. In fact, the game played him. This was Chuck's first time as the Germans, and history was not kind to him. In fact, we made it through about six turns before it became clear that things were not going to a point where he'd be able to get to 11 VP in time for Totaller Krieg, the only way the Germans have to really keep the game going if they don't get an auto victory in the early going.
The invasion of Russia started out well enough, but I was able to inflict step losses here and there on his armies fairly regularly. Despite his Panzer Refit, he was getting too many casualties, not bringing up his infantry quickly enough, and as such the Germans never really got past Kiev in any force. He had three VP spaces after the Winter of '41, which lost him two VP, but the crusher was leaving a hole big enough for three Sov Fronts to move through and cut off two foot and one panzer army in Leningrad (which fell fairly quickly). At that point, Chuck was down to eight VP, about to lose Tunis and Tripoli, and the Casablanca card coming right behind in my deck for another four points gone. Chuck felt he made a mistake in playing Hitler Declares War in Winter of '41, as it allowed me to play both US Build Up and Torch in the spring thaw of the next turn, but I think it would have been a bigger mistake to have waited a turn and had to deal with the delta of six Russian VP taken in the winter of '42 (plus the loss of the HDW point).
German play in the early going requires focus, skill in bringing up your slower units, and decent card draws. Our decks were a little weird (I didn't get Industrial Evac until Spring of '42, which hurts the Russian offensive options considerably, and got all of the reinforcement cards for the Blitzkrieg deck in one hand except card 24), but I think the biggest problem was just unfamiliarity with getting the Germans up into position and using the Panzers to dash around and exploit whatever holes the Russian leaves open for you. I know the Russians exploited the German hole up north quite badly - even with 10 points of LCUs, the best he could hope for was to knock a Sov front down to an army, then watch it flip with the No Retreat option in the forest, and no other units in the area to help out.
With a couple of hours left, we decided to give Combat Commander:Med a shot. Mike and Chuck played a game where the Italians were whupped rather nicely by the Americans, with Mike complaining that these scenarios were not terribly balanced, and I wanted to see how well I could do with the Allied Minor deck (which only allows a single discard per turn, and then only if you don't do anything else).
The French deck may move slowly, but those Timer events sure came up fast. In fact, at one point I would shuffle the deck repeatedly, cut repeatedly, only to draw the next card as a Timer event. Twice. And another time with the card coming up within five or six cards. Chuck couldn't compete with that, and I ended up holding my own quite well. We played the scenario with the Moroccan troops defending a sunken road during the invasion of France in 1940, and Chuck did graciously allow me to reset my units after I misunderstood how gullies worked. I suspect that had an effect on the game, but this one gives the Moroccans so many VP to start (31!) that it requires the Germans to wipe the board of the Moroccans and take all three objective hexes without losing a unit, plus whatever the Moroccans get from Timer events.
Kind of a bummer for Chuck, although watching those Timer events come out one after the other was quite a sight to behold. Kind of a bummer for me too, although I sure enjoyed finding out just how frustrating the French can be when you have three Rout cards and a Command Confusion in your hand and realize that it's going to take you four turns just to get a hand of decent cards. I must have discarded at least four cards only to draw the exact same card, same action, same order. If Chuck wasn't also discarding (although he could discard his whole hand at a time), I would have been in serious trouble. I did manage to get Recover cards most of the time when I needed them, though, although I never had a single Ambush to play on Chuck in any of the three Melees we had, while he always seemed to have at least one. No way to save those up for the French, I'm afraid.
I still love this game, but that's two Med scenarios that have been blowouts in a row, and that's just me. I'm glad they expanded the game, but I may try a random scenario next to see if it works any better than the drubbing that Chuck has taken in our two games. I still haven't played any of the paratrooper battle pack scenarios yet.
Hey, at least the game played within 90 minutes. With all of those Timer events coming out, that's not any sort of surprise.
Thanks to Chuck for coming all this way only to have two less than tense games (good tense, not bad tense).
The invasion of Russia started out well enough, but I was able to inflict step losses here and there on his armies fairly regularly. Despite his Panzer Refit, he was getting too many casualties, not bringing up his infantry quickly enough, and as such the Germans never really got past Kiev in any force. He had three VP spaces after the Winter of '41, which lost him two VP, but the crusher was leaving a hole big enough for three Sov Fronts to move through and cut off two foot and one panzer army in Leningrad (which fell fairly quickly). At that point, Chuck was down to eight VP, about to lose Tunis and Tripoli, and the Casablanca card coming right behind in my deck for another four points gone. Chuck felt he made a mistake in playing Hitler Declares War in Winter of '41, as it allowed me to play both US Build Up and Torch in the spring thaw of the next turn, but I think it would have been a bigger mistake to have waited a turn and had to deal with the delta of six Russian VP taken in the winter of '42 (plus the loss of the HDW point).
German play in the early going requires focus, skill in bringing up your slower units, and decent card draws. Our decks were a little weird (I didn't get Industrial Evac until Spring of '42, which hurts the Russian offensive options considerably, and got all of the reinforcement cards for the Blitzkrieg deck in one hand except card 24), but I think the biggest problem was just unfamiliarity with getting the Germans up into position and using the Panzers to dash around and exploit whatever holes the Russian leaves open for you. I know the Russians exploited the German hole up north quite badly - even with 10 points of LCUs, the best he could hope for was to knock a Sov front down to an army, then watch it flip with the No Retreat option in the forest, and no other units in the area to help out.
With a couple of hours left, we decided to give Combat Commander:Med a shot. Mike and Chuck played a game where the Italians were whupped rather nicely by the Americans, with Mike complaining that these scenarios were not terribly balanced, and I wanted to see how well I could do with the Allied Minor deck (which only allows a single discard per turn, and then only if you don't do anything else).
The French deck may move slowly, but those Timer events sure came up fast. In fact, at one point I would shuffle the deck repeatedly, cut repeatedly, only to draw the next card as a Timer event. Twice. And another time with the card coming up within five or six cards. Chuck couldn't compete with that, and I ended up holding my own quite well. We played the scenario with the Moroccan troops defending a sunken road during the invasion of France in 1940, and Chuck did graciously allow me to reset my units after I misunderstood how gullies worked. I suspect that had an effect on the game, but this one gives the Moroccans so many VP to start (31!) that it requires the Germans to wipe the board of the Moroccans and take all three objective hexes without losing a unit, plus whatever the Moroccans get from Timer events.
Kind of a bummer for Chuck, although watching those Timer events come out one after the other was quite a sight to behold. Kind of a bummer for me too, although I sure enjoyed finding out just how frustrating the French can be when you have three Rout cards and a Command Confusion in your hand and realize that it's going to take you four turns just to get a hand of decent cards. I must have discarded at least four cards only to draw the exact same card, same action, same order. If Chuck wasn't also discarding (although he could discard his whole hand at a time), I would have been in serious trouble. I did manage to get Recover cards most of the time when I needed them, though, although I never had a single Ambush to play on Chuck in any of the three Melees we had, while he always seemed to have at least one. No way to save those up for the French, I'm afraid.
I still love this game, but that's two Med scenarios that have been blowouts in a row, and that's just me. I'm glad they expanded the game, but I may try a random scenario next to see if it works any better than the drubbing that Chuck has taken in our two games. I still haven't played any of the paratrooper battle pack scenarios yet.
Hey, at least the game played within 90 minutes. With all of those Timer events coming out, that's not any sort of surprise.
Thanks to Chuck for coming all this way only to have two less than tense games (good tense, not bad tense).
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