Panzerblitz II

Marko and I had a game of Panzerblitz II, based on the original Avalon Hill title of ages gone by.

We played "Situation HOD4:Take the Hill".  The Germans are in position the rear slope of a hill; the Brits start at the foot of the hill. The map edges are just off the sides of the hill, so there's no room to circle around and attack a flank--the Brits have to launch a frontal assault and push the Germans off the objective.

British forces include: 

• 21 mechanized infantry platoons with Bren carriers; 
• 3 machine gun infantry platoons with Bren carriers; 
• 6 Churchill VII platoons; 
• 4 17lb AT platoons towed by halftracks; 
• 2 Achilles platoons; 
• 2 Crocodile platoons
• offboard artillery

German forces: 

• 12 Panzergrenadier platoons; 
• 1 PzKw V G platoon
• 2 PzKw IV H platoons
• 3 75 Pak 40 platoons 
• 3 Stug III G Platoons
• 3 Tiger platoons
• 9 improved positions
• offboard rocket support.

Playing as the Brits, I put a couple of 17 pounders into the trees on the far right--probably a little too far right, in retrospect--and sent a couple of tanks along the left map edge, while I massed my main assault. Then I ran everything onto the hill and debarked ny infantry, losing a few to German fire as I drove in. On the right, my lead units got pinned down by fire and overrun by panzers. On the left, the Germans tried to stay under cover, but my 17 pounders managed to kill a StuG and my infantry cleared one or two of the German positions. In the center, I ran a kamikaze Bren carrier over the crown of the hill; the Germans brewed it up but that used their Reaction Fire opportunity, and my infantry could safely take the crest. We were halfway through turn 4 (of 7) and the Germans were celebrating the arrival of a couple of Tiger platoons when we had to call time.

Commentary:

The way initiative works is that you put chits into a cup and pull them one at a time. The chits are specified by the scenario and include scores of 0, 1 and 2 for Brits and Germans. If the first chit you pull is a Brit 1, the Brits can place the chit on a hex and activate everything in that space or within 1 hex of it (as long as it hasn't already activated). If the next chit is a Brit 0, then the Brits can activate a single hex worth. It's entirely possible to get two or more activations in a row. You have to choose with care where you're going to place your chits, to activate as many units as possible and to move them quickly, before the other side can react. The weird part about this is that you're putting down radius 0, 1 or 2 circles and units that are outside that circle don't move--even if the rest of their company is moving right past them. I guess that's a case of "there's always someone who doesn't get the word."

The stacking limits are a bit odd. You can have three Bren carriers in one hex, or three rifle platoons, but you can't bring in two loaded Brens into one hex and have the infantry dismount there, because that puts you at 4 units in a hex, which is over the stacking limit. Consequently, my infantry was spread over the whole width of the front at one platoon per hex, wherever I could find a space for them. Given the way the initiative chits work, this was bad--I should have had each companys compressed into the least space possible, so I could activate them with one chit pull. I think the intent was that a player should move a Bren three spaces, unload, and move backwards one. Then you can run a second Bren in and repeat the process, which at least gives you two platoons in a hex instead of one. That part felt more like "traffic engineer" than "assault commander"--although I suppose some staff officer basically is a traffic engineer, so to the extent that you want to simulate "the staff officer experience", the game does that. It did drive home the dilemma of "how far dare I run in my transports?" The infantry are horribly vulnerable while they're mounted, and you don't want to give the enemy any more Reaction Fire shots at them than you have to--but you also have time limits and dismounted infantry is slow. I decided to run the Brens onto the hill and dismount as they finished their turn, so they only had to survive one session of Reaction Fire but still got fairly close to the enemy. 

Speaking of Reaction Fire--each enemy unit gets to shoot at a single one of your units as they drive by. If you send a tank first, they can wait and hope something squishier comes along. Or if you send an unloaded Bren in first. the enemy can take the easy kill but miss the chance to shoot the infantry unit that came right after it. Perhaps it would make more sense for a unit doing Reaction Fire to have a chance to shoot more than once? Although that would slow the game down more.

The fire resolution process is a bit odd too. If you're shooting at a tank, what matters is the difference between your attack factor vs his armor factor. If you add another unit to your fire group, you merely get a +1 to that difference. However, if you're firing at infantry, what counts is not the difference between factors, but their ratio. Example: my firepower 12 tank fires at an enemy tank with a defense of 6, and I'm on the +6 table; if my tank fires on a defense 5 infantry unit, I roll on the 2:1 table. I assume that's because when you're firing at infantry, the more the merrier; but when you're firing at armor, it's the size of your biggest gun that determines whether you penetrate the armor, and adding an extra .30 machinegun doesn't really help you. 

Overall I had fun, although part of that was due to the nostalgia factor--the original Panzerblitz was one of my first wargames. Speed of play is the main problem, Admittedly it was a learning game, but it took four hours to go through three and a half turns--not because it's all that complicated, but because activating everything takes a lot of time. I had nearly 70 counters, plus status markers. I have to wonder if that scenario could be done with a third of the counters, maneuvering companies instead of platoons. 

Darkest Night

Just finished my first game of Darkest Night from Victory Point Games, played solo with the Prince, Seer, Wizard and Druid randomly selected to defend the kingdom against the power of the Necromancer. The Necromancer spent the first few turns wandering blindly from Ruins to Village and back; meanwhile, the heroes searched for keys to unlock a Holy Relic. As the tide of darkness rose, the prince and wizard moved to the ruins to to dispel the blights there, while the seer and druid kept searching. The druid, in raven form, finally unearthed the Relic. The prince and wizard went to meet him, with the Necromancer in hot pursuit. The wizard was badly wounded but had his most powerful magic available; so the druid handed him the Relic, the prince used his ability to Inspire, and the wizard attacked with an overwhelming blaze of flame. The game finished with the Shadow level at 13; 3 blights in the vilage, 2 each in forest and ruins, and 1 each in the remaining spaces; the wizard had 1 Grace point left and the others each had 3.
The game rules were written well and unambiguously, and it played pretty quickly once I had internalized them. It had good pacing, with a definite sense of scrambling to fight off Impending Doom. However, the tactical options felt limited; during fights, each character had only only a few choices and usually one choice was clearly the best.
Generally, for each character, one tactic is better. For example, in this game my seer could Fight with 1d6 or Evade with 3d6. For most monsters, you have to beat the same number to succeed whether you Fight or Evade, and a failure has the same consequences whether you Fight or Evade, so it's a no-brainer to choose the option where you have the bigger dice pool. Not always--one monster had different target numbers, so I had to decide whether to try for 1d6 needing 3+ or 3d6 needing 5+. Aside from that kind of situation, my Seer would always Evade, and my Prince would always Fight. Which is okay, to some extent, because it differentiates between them, but the tactical level is not as intriguing as it might have been. 

I think gameplay might be improved by adding a third resource--Mana, perhaps--and forcing the player to choose "do I spend it now, when I really need it, or do I hold on so I have it later, when I might really, REALLY need it?"

There is also a strategic level, where you have to choose between strengthening/repairing your character, searching for the McGuffin you need to win, or destroying monsters to keep their numbers down to manageable levels. I found that level to be better, because you have time limits and can't do everything you want. In my case, with the cards I had, it was fairly simple--Prince and Wizard fight, Seer and Druid search--but the pressure was still there.

Inventory

Wargames: 1805 Sea of Glory, Afrika Korps, Close Action, Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel, Darkest Night, D Day, Fading Glory (Napoleonic 20), Field Commander:Napoleon, France 1940, Holy Roman Empire, Infidel, Ironclads, Lion of the North, Mage Knight, Manoeuvre, Mound Builders, Napoleon at Bay, Navajo Wars, OGRE/GEV, Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, Soldier Raj, Stalingrad, Under the Lily Banners, Waterloo, Wellington, With God & Glorious Arms, Won by the Sword

Euro: Dominion, Forbidden Island, Settlers of Catan, Tsuro

RPGs: D&D4e and 5e, Champions/HERO System, Traveller, FATE, Savage Worlds, PDQ#, others

Miniatures Rules: StarGrunt, Full Thrust, In Her Majesty’s Name, Dragon Rampant, Field of Glory Renaissance, On the Seven Seas, Of Gods and Mortals, Striker, and more

Close Action: Haddock vs Allies

This was a hypothetical action in 1741, pitting 16 Royal Navy ships against 10 Spanish and 8 French. The Brits begin closehauled on the port tack at medium sail; the Spanish start parallel to leeward, at fighting sail; the French start broadreaching, in line with and facing the Spanish but far enough away that they can cut upwind to engage the Brits. That's what we expected to happen, in fact--the Spanish command conference decided the Brits would stay upwind, engage the French and ignore us. We would be too far away to shoot effectively and unable to close the range in any reasonable time.

The British, however, didn't know that. They immediately drove straight at us. Their plan, as it turned out, was to pass through our line and defeat us, and hope the French wouldn't be able to pass through our line to attack them.

Unfortunately, the 50 gun Brit who was trying to pass astern of me didn't quite judge it right, and rammed into my 108 gun Real Felipe. And he fouled, so I was stuck in place. And with an invitation like that, of course a Brit 74 sauntered over to park at my bow and rake me repeatedly. Fortunately Real Felipe is a monster and can withstand quite a bit of punishment. I fired half-broadside rakes at the 50 who had immobilized me, then...formed boarding parties! Both Brits hastily formed defensive boarding parties. I assaulted the 74, which barely repulsed me. The 50, knowing she couldn't withstand a boarding action, cut away the grappling lines and edged away.

Meanwhile, the French line had swept down on the British van and gotten embroiled in a furball there. The French admiral signaled me that he was going to keep his ships together at the van, which meant that my ship and the rest of the Spanish rear were not going to be rescued. That was probably the right decision overall, but that was cold comfort with my ship and her consort Brilliante fighting five Brits, and the rest of the Spanish rear equally outnumbered.

It was about this point that my consort exploded.

The Brits had sent four strong ships to attack the three weaker ships of the Spanish rear, but hadn't been effective as I would have expected--in fact, one of the three managed to escape, and another was  battered but still attacking at game end. The third, however--Brillante--had been reduced to floating scrap wood when she caught fire and blew up. Surrounding her were a knot of five ships--my Real Felipe and four Brits. The burning debris from the wreck caught all five of us on fire, but Real Felipe managed to extinguish hers quickly. Not all the Brits were as fortunate. I finally managed to turn (having been immobile since game turn 3) and put enough shot into that 50 to finish her off.

The game was called at that point with an Allied victory; the Brits hadn't managed to defeat our rear fast enough to prevent our winning at the van. I think the Brit plan was clever but flawed--it relied on their being able to get through a hostile line, and the French not being able to get through a friendly line. I am thankful not to have been selected for British admiral, since I don't know what would have been a winning strategy--there were several comments, from all three sides, to the effect the Brits were doomed from the start as they were facing a strength point disparity of about 20% .

Xia: Legends of a Drift System

Just finished a game of Xia with Joshua and Kelson. I took a ship with a good balance of offense, defense and movement; in retrospect, I should have been really good at one thing and then exploited that. I was firmly in last place when Josh blew up my ship for his last two points to win. It seems like an interesting game with several possible paths to win. Josh has it at the top of his "Must Buy" list.

Then we had a game of Yardmaster--which we call Soviet Trains, because whatever you need is what won't be available. The usual turn's activity was "Draw a card and say Argh". Kelson finally threw down enough bonus actions to complete his train and win. Soviet Trains is best played with three or more, so you can spend more time laughing at other players' misfortune than suffering your own.

Battle of Smolensk

We played the Battle of Smolensk, from the Napoleonic 20 series by Victory Point Games.

My French defeated Joshua's Russians, but it was a close run thing.

At game start, the city is protected only by one regular infantry corps and one militia unit, with the rest of Russian forces trickling in from the north as Napoleon's troops march from the south. My French veterans quickly took the southern suburbs and assaulted the bastion; I confidently expected to break the defenders and pour across the bridges to meet Barclay de Tolly's main body north of the city. Little did I realize that the paltry militia unit was actually--judging by its performance--the First Guards Shock Militia Hero Division! Despite repeated heavy French assaults, they simply would... not... budge. (Our theory is that they thought the Dneiper was vodka and they wouldn't retreat until they'd drunk all of it--Josh said that sounded enough like a Russian fairy tale to be likely).

 
By the time I finally destroyed them, Barclay de Tolly's troops were lining the northern bank. He forced a bridgehead, I pushed him back; I crossed the river, he pushed me back. The city burned and we were stalemated.

Meanwhile, I sent Joachim Murat east across the pontoon bridge to take Lubino by coup de main. However, Cossacks swept in just in time, delaying the French long enough for Bagration to block the attack. There was a sharp cavalry battle, but it proved indecisive.

For three days, the armies ground each other down. As dusk fell on the third day, Napoleon ordered a last attack, throwing the Imperial Guard against a Russian corps that had fought its way to the south bank. The Russians fled across the bridges, precipitating a collapse of the army's morale; Barclay withdrew during the night.

Problems with Conflict of Heroes

Josh and I had a game of Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel, using the State Farm 158 scenario that I played with Marco in January.  Josh took the Germans, and didn't lose any to the pre-battle attrition rolls; my Russians lost a couple of hilltop units.
I tried the same ploy I did last time, of sending an SMG over the hilltop into the German mortars, using a Free Action card to make it out of the balka and up onto the hill; however, Josh had a flamethrower card, so things didn't work out well for me. I also made the mistake of moving into close combat; the unit I was attacking had spent all its action points, but Josh pulled out a Free Action card of his own in order to have his unit take a shot, and his panzergrenadiers trounced my rifle squad. As I recall, he needed an 11 to hit their flank, and he had 2d6 +5 for his firepower and +4 for close combat.  Not hard to roll 11 or above when you have a +9 modifier. After that, I merely moved adjacent and fired from there, rather than get into close combat. And his artillery obliterated mine. I did get one turn of fire off, but between his direct fire and his 105mm mission, only one 81mm mortar survived to turn 2.
But despite all this, the Russians won. Partly this was because I got 2VP for each of his units, and he only got 1 for mine. Partly it was because he moved adjacent to the balka instead of using smoke and recon-by-fire; I could send a few squads to adjacent positions and overwhelm one of his units. Partly it was just because I had more units than he did, and could afford to stall until he'd used all his actions, after which I could attack and he couldn't respond.

There are a few things that bug me about this series.

• No leaders. Leadership functions are abstracted into command points, and those command points don't have any specific location. You can apply those command points to a mortar in the rear, and an infantry squad on the far right, and an SMG squad on the far left, with none of those being in communication or having Line of Sight to each other.
• Telepathic units. If your mortar squad is threatened in the rear, your troops on the right can turn, move, and take the threat under fire, with no communication and no time delay. They don't have a specific mission, or lane, or target they have to stick with, just instant response to whatever the commander's whim is.
• No differentiation of unit quality. One a unit is Unnerved, for instance, it doesn't matter whether it's veteran troops or raw conscripts, they still have the same roll to rally. In some scenarios, a unit may not be affected by a particular damage result at all, which partly mitigates this problem; however, it would be straightforward to say "this veteran unit is +1 to rally, these militia are -2". There are also no differences in training and doctrine--for example, when ambushed, a conscript might stand bewildered, a trained soldier might dive for cover, and an elite might assault through the ambush. CoH doesn't distinguish.
• Wound markers instantly make a unit a priority target, since a second wound will eliminate it. There may be times when you turn your attention to another, unwounded target because it's more of a threat, but in general, you want to finish off a wounded unit. That's how you reduce the enemy CAPs and you gain victory points.
• If you have more units than the enemy, you may be able to stall until the enemy has no action points left, then you move when he can't respond. You can always send one unit at a time to recon; there's no time pressure. That one's easy to fix, though. You get, say, five activations and have to get all your moves done with that, using group activations as needed.