AAR - FAB Sicily 19-Aug-12

FAB Sicily

Sunday was our second run at the 5-turn tournament scenario covering July 10, 1943 through to July 19, 1943. I took on the Axis forces against the combined efforts of GaryB (US forces) and AndyA (British forces).

Axis Setup

I knew that I'd be handing the Axis defence this week and read-up a little on some play-testing set-ups conscious that the Allies may elect to try the Alternate Landings instead of the Historical Landings used in Game #1. Unfortunately I was running late on the night and much of what I'd read was forgotten in my rush to get the game started. :)

There was however some method in my madness as I expected the British to deploy in the B2 through B6 landing areas (line A) to put pressure on the Port at Syracuse and the Port at Catania through Lentini, so I left Modica (point E) unpopulated. Elsewhere I constructed my own "Maginot line" (point I) as a strong fallback position should the Allies go for the Historical Landings.

(1) Axis Setup

Otherwise the random untried Italians were on coastal defence (to gain Field Works markers) and fairly spread out along some of line B as well as lines C and D. Looking back, I can see some clear weaknesses, especially around the Port of Palermo from points G and H, but the Allies didn't choose to exploit those in their set-up.

I also didn't consider placing any units around Messina (red area F in the picture). There are a lot of potential victory points here for the Allied player, but I felt that I could route the more mobile armoured units there if I needed to.

Allied Setup

Having considered my Axis setup the Allies chose the Alternate Landings option and placed their British forces in A4 and B1 through B4, with their US forces in D10 through D13 as pictured below.

(2) Allied Invasion Setup

From an Axis point-of-view I was quite pleased with their choices and felt that I could manage my forces well enough to cope. Turn one would be a bit of a wake-up call for this early optimism.

Turn #1

The Allied landings were an almost complete success and only one untried Italian unit survived the beach assaults vs. the US 1st Infantry in Monti Sicani (point A below). The Allies claimed an undamaged Port Syracuse and claimed their first Fading Italian Morale chit for the draw bag.

View after Allied turn #1

My untried units mostly failed their morale checks and generally rolled poorly against the mighty invasion forces, in fact my only success was to eliminate the US 82nd Airborne who dropped straight into combat with the two Livorno Mobile Infantry units at Canicatti (point B above). This airborne unit was worth 1VP to the Axis.

During the Admin Phase of my Axis turn I damaged the Port at Catania (point A below), blew bridges on the Simeto River (point B below) and built defensive field works in Val Di Catania, Vizzini and Caltanissetta (orange dots below). Meanwhile the Allies were using the British 3rd Commando asset to perform a flanking invasion at Lentini (point C below). These commandos survived and would remain awaiting Allied reinforcements.

View after Axis turn #1

A Panzer IV

During movement I brought the HG Armoured Panzer Division forward to Sortino to try and halt the Allied advance (movement D above).

The beleaguered green Italian unit in Monti Sicani was also reinforced by a strong Assietta Mountain Infantry unit (movement E above) and I reserve moved the Elite 15th Panzer Grenadier to the centre of the island in order to support the VP in Caltanissetta (movement F above). +7 NET VPs to Axis

Turn #2

Could the Allies exploit a gap in the Axis lines?

As we entered turn #2 I was sure that I'd made a mistake and opened the door for the Allies by leaving a gap in my lines at Mussomeli. To protect the VP at Caltanissetta I blew bridges across the Platani and Salso Rivers.

Allied infantry did indeed move through the Mussomeli Gap (movements A and B below) and re-engaged the strengthened Italians at Monti Sicani (point D below). These advances and assaults would prove a devastating failure for the US forces.

A critical passage of play.

Firstly their assault at Monti Sicani met with stiff resistance from the Assietta Mountain Infantry and the US 1st Infantry sustain heavy losses with both units reducing down to one strength each.

Worse was to come however as their drive to exploit the gap in the Axis lines had created one in their own between Canicatti and Agrigento (Axis movement D in the picture to the left). My Livorno Mobile Infantry units moved in picking up 2 VPs from the unprotected beachheads.


I felt pretty bad for not warning them during their Movement Phase, but it was something that we'd covered in our first game. This is WAR after all! :)

Victory Points by turn.

These turn #2 losses, combined with another lost airborne unit saw the Axis forces move into a +10 NET VP lead moving into turn #3. A sudden death victory could be called after 4 turns if the Allies were on +2 NET VPs or the Axis were on +8 NET VPs, so my position was beginning to look almost comfortable.

Turn #3

Stung by the events of Turn #2, the Allies had to respond choosing to complete their breakthrough on the Axis lines and threaten both Termini Imerese (point B) and halving the distance to Messina itself (point C) with the Elite 45th Infantry.

The Allied Fightback

The US also withdrew two units back to the coast and assaulted the brave Livorno Mobile Infantry cutting off the Axis supply line in to them in the process (point A).

Meanwhile the British forces were struggling to make huge progress, but still threatening to capture the airfield at Niscemi. Generally the Allied battles were more successful in Turn #3, but they didn't manage to capture either Termini Imerese or Cattolica Eraclea despite significant Axis losses.

Allied 45th caught and destroyed at Nicosea

In the responding Axis turn I reinforced Termini Imerese (point B below) and sent an elite PG armoured division to deal with the breakaway US 45th Infantry unit at Nicosea, en route to Messina (point A below and in right-hand picture).

Axis Clean-up.

Our evening was drawing to a close and Turn #3 ended with the Allies losing their breakaway unit to give the Axis a +11 NET VP total. The Allies conceded defeat at this point.




Final Thoughts

Tonight's game really brought the game to life for me and although we are still getting the odd rule wrong, our pace has picked up considerably and we better understand the general flow of play. I was a little fortunate this evening, turning a genuine mistake into an opportunity to score two VPs from the US beachhead markers, but generally I was happy with how I handled the Axis forces.

I'd like to give the original fast action battles game "FAB Bulge" a try now and hope to pick-up FAB: Golan '73 when it comes out.

Next up is the full 9 turn campaign game via VASSAL.

Posted with Blogsy

GamesReport 12-Aug-12: Memoir '44

Memoir '44

KoffeeKlub this evening had a couple of extra faces so we put FAB: Sicily on the back-burner and went for a slightly more accessible Memoir '44, through one of their Overlord scenarios "Sword of Stalingrad".

Memoir '44 has been one of my favourites for many years now, but hasn't had much table time over the past few years as I turned my attention to more meaty wargames. That being said it's fairly straight-forward to teach and almost immediately accessible for the new player.

Tonight, given that we had 4-players, I brought along the "Sword of Stalingrad" double-sized map/scenario covering the harrowing battle for Stalingrad between the Germans (TrevH and Neil) and the Russians (AndyA and myself).

Sword of Stalingrad

By the end of August 1942, German troops had reached the Volga, north of Stalingrad. In a matter of days, 4^th Panzer Army, headed for the river south of the city, effectively trapping many of the men and women of the Soviet 62^nd Army. Stalin's order of July 27 - "Not a step back!" - was no longer just an obligation but a necessity, and its slogan "There is no land behind the Volga!" the harsh reality that now faced all of the city's inhabitants.
Having witnessed first-hand on the Russian steppe the devastating effectiveness of German Blitzkrieg tactics, Lt. General Chuikov turned the carpet-bombing of the city to his advantage. Anchoring his defense lines in bombed-out buildings that overlooked strategically important streets and squares, he ordered Soviet troops to "hug the enemy". Always keeping the front lines as close to the Germans as physically possible, often a mere floor or door frame away, he successfully negated much of the Germans' firepower and combined arms superiority.

Sword of Stalingrad Map

Order #227 - Not A Step Back!

Russian forces fight to hold the centre

Early German pressure came through the centre as both Axis players pushed to take victory points be claiming the Mamiev Koragan hills. Russian resistance was fierce and turn after turn the Germans were depleted in the area with the Allies taking only a few significant hits.

Devastation from the Luftwaffe

Army Group South were having more success along the Russian right flank, decimating the Red Army with brutal attacks from the Luftwaffe, reinforcing their gains with armoured units and a drive towards the Red Barricades Factory.

By mid-game however the Axis centre had almost broken completely, the losses there outweighing their gains on the Russian right in terms of victory points. Further Luftwaffe successes were not enough to save the battle and the Russians ran out winners by 17 medals to 12 medals.

Final Thoughts

Memoir is heavily luck driven and in my opinion works best with short 2-player scenarios and not in the Overlord format we tried this evening. Whilst a lot of fun tonight, the shear volume of troops to move and medals to win left us with a 2-3hr game which had in the end outstayed it's welcome.

Blitzkrieg!

Stick to the shorter scenarios and if you need a meatier experience try one (or both) of the fine campaign books available.

An enjoyable evening and great to meet Neil who was visiting Trevor from the U.S. Thanks go out to TrevorH for hosting our gaming evening and to AndyA for some great pictures. 

GaryG and AndyA are awarded 5 beans each for the win.

Elsewhere...

Ponte Del Diavolo

Our final board position

Other other game this evening was Ponte Del Diavolo, by Hans Im Gluck games. This is a neat little tile laying/area control strategy game. 

Each turn players play two of their tiles or one bridging piece, the goal is to score points by creating and linking sets of four tiles (islands) without "sand-banking" (coming too close to) your other islands. 

GaryG is awarded 2 beans for the win.  

GamesReport 01-Aug-12: Carcassonne

A few last minute emails and our lost evening of gaming was back on, roleplaying replaced with a few Euro games.

First up was Auf Heller Und Pfennig from Hans Im Gluck games. Auf Heller is a simple tile laying game by Reiner Knizia and is perhaps more commonly known as Kingdoms from it's English release.

It has a loose medieval market theme with players taking on the role of market traders attempting to maximise the profits from their stalls over three rounds of play. In each round players place tiles or stalls until every space in the marketplace is full.

1st Rnd - Blue had a few too many shady customers

Tiles represent positive or negative customers which multiply with the stall value to give the player a profit or loss (calculated at the end of each round). There are also a number of special tiles which can influence the board in other ways, so you can never be completely certain of success until most/all of the pieces have been played.

Our match saw Black (AndyA) and Red (TrevH) take an early lead as Blue (GaryG) got caught out with some hefty negatives on the centre vertical line.

Round 1 Scores:
Black (AndyA) 91
Red (TrevH) 84
Blue (GaryG) 25

Blue (GaryG) fought back in rounds two and three, but had lost too much ground in the first round to close the gap.

Round 2 Scores:
Black (AndyA) 51 [142]
Red (TrevH) 49 [133]
Blue (GaryG)108 [133]
 
Red (TrevH) had looked strongest going into the final round, but risked his last "3" value stall on a line with doubled values. Unfortunately the negatives won through and he took some losses in the end.

Round 3 Scores:
Black (AndyA) 49 [191]
Red (TrevH) 21 [154]
Blue (GaryG) 56 [188]

AndyA was awarded 3 beans and GaryG was awarded 1 bean.

Hunters & Gatherers

Next we played Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers another tile laying game, this time from Rio Grande Games.

In Carcassonne: H&G players build a prehistoric landscape with tiles depicting forests, rivers, lakes and grasslands. They then send out members of their tribe to hunt, gather, fish and establish fishing camps.

A prehistoric view of Carcassonne.

Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers
Black (AndyA) 106
Green (TrevH) 115 
Blue (GaryG) 122

GaryG was awarded 3 beans and TrevH was awarded 1 bean. 

Roll Through the Ages

Our final game of the evening was Roll Through The Ages from Gryphon Games. We covered this briefly in our GamesReport 08-Jul-12.

Roll Through The Ages

AndyA 27

TrevH 26

GaryG 22

AndyA was awarded 3 beans and TrevH was awarded 1 bean.

Posted with Blogsy

GamesReport 22-Jul-12: Caylus Magna Carta

AndyA - Holiday Snaps

With AndyA (aka "Captain Pugwash") back-from-sea, we opened up with Caylus Magna Carta, a light Eurogame from Ystari Games. I've been a big fan of Euro-style games ever since I picked up a German version of Settlers of Catan back in the late 90s. Indeed for a number of years during my time with BGA, a local gaming group currently based in Bangor (County Down), I collected few other types of games and added the likes of Notre Dame, Auf Heller Und Pfennig, El Grande, Euphrat & Tigris, Ra, Thurn Und Taxis, Lost Cities, 6 Nimmt! and many more to my collection.

It all started in Catan

Great gaming years, but ones that drifted as board gaming became more mainstream again and so-called Ameri-trash titles caught my eye. I still have most of my old Euros and hope to continue drip-feeding them into KoffeeKlub's line-up in the coming weeks and months.

Caylus Magna Carta

Caylus Magna Carta (CMC), set in 1289 and themed around building a new castle for King Philip "The Fair" and is a lighter version of the Caylus board game. Whilst the theme and mechanics are similar CMC uses cards to represent the master builder's (players) progress in creating infrastructure along the road to support the castle being built. Like many Euros, CMC distills the actual building of the castle into a player drive for prestige points which can be gained from constructing new buildings, providing "batches" (1 stone + 1 food + 1 wood = 1 batch) of goods to build the castle and using effects from buildings already in play.

CMC: Food, Wood and Stone

Players begin with the same deck of buildings, drawing three random cards at the beginning of the game. Actions can be used to place workers on existing buildings, draw new cards, build new buildings from your hand (adding them to the road), building prestige buildings or passing out of that round. Once all players have passed they can pay to move the "Provost" (in pass turn order) up to 3 spaces along the road in either direction. A worker on any building beyond the Provost does not have an action this turn, so this can be a nice little way to mess with your opponents. Nice!

CMC: The Road

End-game is triggered once the last prestige point token has been claimed and the final prestige point totals are calculated for each layer to establish a winner. Careful resource, buildings and worker management are necessary for victory.

CMC: Player's Buildings

Our game went very smoothly and after a 20 minute rules walkthrough we kicked-off picking up the flow of play pretty quickly. In the end the final scores were pretty close...



Caylus Magna Carta: GaryG scored 48 points and was awarded 3 beans. AndyA scored 46 points and was awarded 1 bean. GaryB scored 39 points.

I like CMC, but feeling that it's play-time is a little too long for what is essentially a light Euro. Great to get it played again after so many years on the shelf.

For our last hour we drank coffee, chatted and played Bluff, which always raises a laugh or two.

Bluff: GaryG had two wins and three second places scoring 7 beans. GaryB had 3 wins and 1 second place scoring 7 beans. AndyA had two wins and 3 second places scoring 7 beans. Honours even.

Great gaming guys cheers!

Posted with Blogsy

GamesReport 18-Jul-12: Buccaneer

Buccaneer

Our regular RPG night was postponed this week, so Wednesday evening saw an impromptu meeting of the KoffeeKlub. On the table were Race For The Galaxy (RFTG), by Rio Grande Games and Buccaneer, by Queen Games.

Race For The Galaxy

We opened the evening up with RFTG, which has already seen a number of plays in July. if you want to see a little more detail on this game check out our 8-Jul-12 Gamesreport. This was Trev's first game of RFTG which is always a steep learning curve for the new player. Hopefully we covered the rules well enough to smooth out that experience.

In the end GaryB's game engine was a little more matured than either Trev's or my own and he ended up being the only one to build a "6" cost development for bonus end-of-game scoring. I really like the different strategies that RFTG offers and hope that Trev enjoyed it enough to want to pl;ay again at some stage.

Stacking Pirates? Ooh ARRR!

Our second and final game was Buccaneer, a lighter offering from Queen Games. In Buccaneer each player controls a number of different pirate counters and uses them to create a pirate crews strong enough to take on the ships on offer.

Ship Ahoy!

Each crew is generally made up of pirates from different players and once a ship has been taken players get booty depending of where their pirates sit in the stack.

Buccaneer comes across as a very light, almost play-it-with-your-kids type of game, but there is definitely enough strategy in there and for adults to enjoy as well.

Thanks to Trev and GaryB for a fun night's gaming.

KoffeeKlub League:
Race For The Galaxy - GaryB was awarded 3 beans and GaryG was awarded 1 bean.
Buccaneer - GaryB was awarded 3 beans and GaryG was awarded 1 bean.

Off The Shelf - Hammer of the Scots

Every so often KoffeeKlub looks at a game that's gathered a little too much dust on the gaming shelf. Through it's components, rules and general play we'll decide if it should have stayed there.

#1 Hammer of the Scots

Designers: Jerry Taylor / Tom Dalgliesh

Publisher: Columbia Games (2002)

Players: 2

Playing Time: 2-4 hours

Type: Block / Wargame

Ranked: 26th in the wargames category on (BGG)

Overview

Hammer of the Scots, now in it's 3rd Edition, is a block-based wargame that brings the War of Scottish Independence (1297-1314) to life. As the English player you seek to subdue a rebellion led by the Braveheart, William Wallace, and Robert the Bruce. As the Scottish player you must defeat the invading armies of Edward I and Edward II to win freedom.

In The Box

>A Full-color (22" x 25") map board of Scotland and Northern England with heraldry of the important noble families. This 3rd Edition features new artwork for the map and is shown below.
>58 wooden block counters including leaders, nobles, archers, knights, and infantrymen.

>Stickers for the wooden blocks.
>25 Event Cards.

>4 D6 dice

>An 8-page rulebook including two scenarios "Braveheart" and "The Bruce".

What's In The Box?

The Map

Generally the components are fine, especially the wooden block counters which have a nice feel to them. The stickers do need to be applied to the blocks before your first play, but this only takes ten or fifteen minutes.

Ol' Blue Face

The event cards are of average quality, so you may wish to consider sleeves to protect them during repeat plays.

My main gripe would be that the map board is not a mounted map and therefore requires some reverse bending to get it to sit properly on the table.

The Rules & Learning To Play

The 8-page rulebook is not too taxing and fairly straight-forward to follow. In fact I'm wondering why I haven't made the effort to tackle this one before now...

Beginning with "Braveheart" the first scenario, I was coming to terms with the fourteen nobles in the game. Each side has there own copy of each noble counter apart from the Moray counter, which comes only in blue (Scottish). These counters are switched in and out of the game as the nobles change allegiance, with only one version on the board at any given time.


I found a very useful example-of-play document on the geek to guide me through a staged opening to "Braveheart". I won't breakdown the rules here, but if you don't own the game already you can find a downloadable copy of the 3rd Edition rules at the Columbia Games site. (PDF Download of the rules)


Having now played a solo-game to walk-through the rules, I felt confident enough to set-up a game to teach a friend how to play. The best way to learn any game is to have someone who has played it before teach you. We didn't quite have that in this case, so I hoped that my preparation work would be enough to see us both through a full scenario successfully.

First Play AAR

Following a brief run-through on the rules, we dived right into the first scenario "Braveheart", with GaryB taking control of the Scottish vs. my English invaders.This particular scenario runs from 1297-1305 incl. a total of nine game years, but we only managed to get to 1300 in the time we had available.

"Braveheart" starting position (English Viewpoint)

Braveheart has a preset board position with little for either player to play around with in terms of set-up. A random element of this set-up was the four English unit selected randomly from the pool to begin the game in Northern England. The picture here shows my starting position in our game from the English viewpoint.


I had mostly Irish and Welsh units, which need to roll 1-4 when heading into battle or run off! 
 

(S) = Scottish Unit (E) = English Unit

1297 - The Scottish noble Moray (S) headed North for some easy pickings in Ross (E), but the local Lord sent him packing, nose bloodied and tail between his legs. The not-so-hardy Angus (E) switches to the Scots before our first major conflict in the game, "The Battle of the Scone". Wallace (S) & co manage to push the English back from Fife, but Angus (S) switches back to the English, demonstrating how fickle some of these Scottish Lords can be. Further south Galloway (S) is lost near Glasgow and towards the end of the year, having already engaged with the English once, chooses the easier target in Atholl. The Noble at Atholl (E) briefly rebels, but this is quashed quickly by Wallace (S).

1298 - Following a harsh Winter turn, the English attempt to take back some of the ground lost last year. Indeed, the now Scottish noble Atholl (S) is almost defeated, but instead finds shelter in the nearby Lochaber. A surprising "Truce" (event card) is played by the Scottish player, delaying the English advances. The year ends in quiet unease.

The English prepare for total war in 1299.

1299 - Frustrated by the Scottish political manoeuvres, the English amass a large force on the Anglo-Scots border. 

A large 5-unit (E) invasion of Annan, targeting "The Bruce" (S) is almost foiled by Wallace. Entering round three of battle it becomes clear that all will be lost for the Scottish due to some fine English dice rolling :). 

The Bruce is taken!

Wallace (S) preserves himself and flees to Carrick. The Bruce (S) is not so fortunate and the man who would be King switches over to English control. 

Elsewhere the Scots have more luck in Ross (E), taking control of the noble there and in late 1299, Wallace (S) recovers to take and unprotected Lanark (E) nobleman. 

Honours are close to being even for the year, but surely the loss of the Bruce will have an impact on the Scottish strategy!

1300 - A quieter year for both sides as they recuperate from the heavy fighting in 1299. Moray (S),  trying to cause trouble in the Grampians, is pushed back by some stern English resistance. Lanark is retaken by the English and Wallace sees a little action chasing the Dunbar noble out from his homestead. 

We retired this "learning game" at the end of the year 1300, the English perhaps slightly ahead having taken The Bruce.

Closing Impressions

Moka Pot

A tricky one for me as I really want to enjoy Hammer of the Scots. The game-play is quite straight-forward, but we needed to refer back and forth to the book to check on the numerous exceptions to various rules and this ultimately slowed us down a little. My main concern would be the timings. We tried to motor through the turns, but only got 4 from 9 turns completed in just under 3-hours.

I do like the battle system and the fog of war elements, but I feel that we need to get to grips with some English/Scottish strategy options in order to get the most out of the game. I just hope that the play-time doesn't prevent this from getting to our table on a fairly regular basis.

Conclusion

I need a couple more plays to iron out my concerns.

Online Play?

Instructions for Online Play via VASSAL. Be warned though, this is only for the really committed as the interface takes a more than a little set-up work.

Posted with Blogsy