War In The East - A Paths Of Glory VASSAL Game Pt2

Our ongoing Paths Of Glory game on VASSAL. <Pt1>

Turn #2

Fighting along the A/H-Russia border

Turn two began with both sides reinforcing in the east around Austria/Hungary's (A/H) border with Russia and the two VP locations of Lemberg and Czernowitz. I was trying to put a lot of pressure on the Central Power's A/H forces by moping-up as many of their corp. units as I could. By the end of turn two they had re-grouped back into the mountains at Uzghorod, but still held the strong fortifications at Przemysl. Przemysl would prove to be a thorn in my side for quite a few turns to come...

Russian breakthrough!

Turn #3
The Central Powers pushed their war status to three, just one short of entering Limited War, which would give them access to some new cards. The Allies responded (trying to keep pace) by playing 'Blockade' which game them a war status of two and a -1VP during each subsequent War Status Phase during winter. Our fighting continued in the east and I continued to push the A/H forces back and out of the mountains ultimately taking VPs at Drebrecen and Cluj. VP track is at 7.

Even with the Russian land-grab on the eastern front, I still felt uneasy about my lines of supply. One wrong move could prove disastrous, but both sides kept pushing and jostling for position.
 

Pig-dog attack into Belfort

Turn #4
All had been quiet on the western front until the Central Powers initiated a sneak attack against the French fort at Belfort. The corp. unit there put up little resistance and in moved the Hun.

No respite either in the east as A/H forces moved to cut Russian supply lines. Was the earlier French feint a distraction tactic?

In response, I moved Russian and Serbian forces to cut A/H supplies around Debrecen only to see the German 9th army heading down the road from Breslau into Martin. Fight!

A/H (circled) have their supply lines cut

I'd been surprised (and happy) to have seen little German intervention on the eastern front up to this point. Dealing with loss factor 3 Germans instead of the weaker A/H (loss factor 2) forces would change my tactics in the east. Although at this point in turn four, I didn't quite realise this yet... 

The fighting at Martin left the German 9th and the Russia 3rd armies reduced. It was the Allied Serbian forces that took a pasting though. First from the German 9th and later from the re-supplied A/H 6th Army.

By the end of turn four my Russians had pushed as far as Budapest and Vienna. The German 9th army had moved into the fort at Cracow and left the recovering A/H 6th Army to take Belgrade in the south. As the Allies I had over-stretched with Vienna in my sights. My supply would be difficult, if not impossible to hold and now I'd also need to take Belgrade back. VP track is at 6.

Eastern front at the end of turn #4

As we move into spring 1915 I'm really enjoying this PoG game. Stay tuned for Pt3. The Germans are coming to save the east!

Archduke Ferdinand to the Starvation of Germany - A Paths of Glory VASSAL Game

Paths of Glory is epic. Our three-turn taster from TableTop day would never be enough, so we've jumped feet first into a full campaign over VASSAL. Stupid? Yes more than a little, but at this stage we can't get enough of a good thing.

The Campaign Scenario - 20 turns!!

The Campaign Scenario ends with any of the following:

• if a player achieves an Automatic Victory,
• at the end of the Winter 1919 turn (turn 20),
• as a result of an Armistice (16.2.1), or
• in a draw by a player accepting Peace Terms.

There are two Victory Levels for the Campaign scenario depending on whether or not the Central Powers player played the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk event. The space which the VP marker is in at the conclusion of this scenario is compared to the appropriate levels below to determine the winner.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Event Played Central Powers Victory: 11 or more Draw: 10 Allied Victory: 9 or fewer (the historical result).
 

Germans march into Sedan

No Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Event Central Powers Victory: 13 or more Draw: 10-12 Allied Victory: 9 or fewer.

In our first three-turn game I played the Germans, so this time we've switched it around with GaryB taking the (German led) Central Powers, leaving me with the Allied Powers. 

Turn #1 
The Germans select the Guns of August and power comfortably into Liege using it to brush aside the French 5th army at Sedan. The Allies respond by re-enforcing Brussels with the 1st Belgian army out of Antwerp and by assaulting with the Russian 3rd & 8th armies into Tarnopol on the Eastern Front.

Moving the Austria-Hungary (AH) 2nd army the Central Powers look to protect Czernowitz from the Russian advances. Instead the Russian 8th continues NW to take Lemberg. For a second action running (their 3rd of the turn) the Central Powers manoeuvre their forces, this time into Liege. Trying to tempt an Allied attack at Liege and open the opportunity of a flanking attack into Brussels?

Allies Stretching Their Lines Too Far Too Soon?

Resisting the Allies only move to back-up (Brussels) and maintain their momentum in the East by clearing an AH corp out of Stanislaw and putting pressure on the VP space at Czernowitz.

This was risky. The 3rd, 5th and 8th Russian armies now had very stretched supply lines.

Moving into the final few actions of Turn #1, a few corps are exchanged in Cambai, before a combined German and AH pincer movement besieges the forts at Lutsk and Dubno with some very light corp units.

I knew that I could prevent one of the forts from falling, but the other would be very likely to fall. This sat comfortably with me as I'd already made good aggressive progress in the East and would likely maintain my supply lines by re-securing Dubno.

End of Turn #1

By the end of Turn #1 the Central Powers had broken through at Liege-Sedan, but suffered significant losses to AH armies in the East.

Twilight Victory - Born In The USA

It's not often that we get an opportunity to play Twilight Struggle face-to-face, our games are normally VASSAL / Skype affairs that often run into the wee small hours. 

Manual Labour

In all honesty, that's made us a little lazy. Setting up, moving the influence counters and even dealing cards seems like a waste of valuable energy. Energy better spent in contemplating your opponent's downfall or even complaining about the shitty hand you've been dealt. :)

The VASSAL module for Twilight Struggle is excellent, but it's good to play in real life every now and then. 

The Game
It was Bingers' turn to play as the Soviets for last night's game at The Black Knight. a chance for him to avenge his recent online defeat? That seemed likely as the USSR player has won the lion's share of recent games, especially since our attention shifted to the hidden power of the realignment roll as an valuable option when using ops points.

NATO - US Relief

Indeed in the early game the Russians made good progress in Europe by effectively surrounding West Germany and putting France, Britain and Italy in danger. I was forced to play my Europe scoring card early to avoid potentially heavy VP losses in the first turn of the game.

Salvation came shortly afterwards through the NATO card, which effectively protected US influence in Europe from Soviet coup and realignment checks. Phew!

From turn three onwards the global balance of power shifted gradually towards the US as two key scoring cards (Asia and the Middle East) both landed in the Soviet hand at a critical time. We both knew who had them and I, as the US player, took good advantage from this swing in fate.

De Gaulle Leads France and later Willy Brandt gave the Russians hope in Europe as both France and West Germany were now no long protected by NATO.

De Gaulle / Brandt - Saving Russia?

An epic struggle for control of West Germany ensued, the Russians coming out of top. It all came too late for Bingers though as he had lost ground elsewhere in the world and was left to bemoan a late poor hand. :) In the end a full VP score in South-east Asia took me to 17VPs and shortly after a US victory.

White Stars Rising? Not great in a Soviet hand...

Final Thoughts
Twilight Struggle is an amazing game, made even better by having an excellent opponent. The gauntlet has been thrown down MrB!

VASSAL - Six Weeks On

We've being using VASSAL for just over six weeks now and played some fine games online, but how easy was it to set-up and use?

What is VASSAL?

Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. You can use Vassal to play in real time over the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software. (from the VASSAL site)

Setting Up VASSAL

The VASSAL site is fairly straight-forward to use and offers a good set of FAQs for users just starting up. Your first step is to download the VASSAL engine software for the operating system that you're using. This can combine with literally hundreds of different modules which cover many of the war gaming titles available today. Almost 1200 modules are listed and available for download, so there's a good chance that it has the game you're looking for.

The Games (or Modules)

VASL Map and Units

 









ASL - Modules can vary wildly in terms of quality and usability, but on the whole I've found those that we've tried excellent in their online representation of the games covered. To date I've tried Advanced Squad Leader, using the VASL system (VASSAL began as VASL for ASL players). It's slightly more complicated than most of the VASSAL modules as it has many different maps, units and scenarios to deal with, but the interface is strong and provides a useful online representation of the game.

The module provides counter and map artwork to match the physical game and a shared interface to allow players to track each other's line-of-sight (LOS) checks, dice rolls and counter changes. Set-up and movement are both straight-forward, but the system will not enforce rules, the players need to do that themselves.

FAB Sicily on VASSAL

FAB: Sicily - VASSAL provides a very nice online representation of this popular fast action battles system. I have yet to play the FAB Bulge version, but Sicily is a well put together module with great map and counter quality as well as simple programming to cover the random chit draws and the random untried Italian units. A first class job!

Twilight Struggle on VASSAL

Twilight Struggle - The VASSAL module for Twilight Struggle has a much higher degree of automation than that of either ASL or FAB Sicily. It handles the card shuffling and dealing, the staggering of the early, middle and late war cards, basic turn movement and scoring as well as some card effects. Initially I thought that the partial automation would prove problematic in understand when and where the players had to interact with the game, but this is not the case and it plays through each action and turn logically, taking the pain out of the constant influence movements.

As with FAB Sicily the artwork is excellent and in-line with the proper game art.

File Menu

The Interface (Using Twilight Struggle)

The file menu offers some basic game scenarios to play 

• "CCW - no optional cards" is the Chinese Civil War with no optional cards included.
• "CCW - with optional cards" is the Chinese Civil War with optional cards included.
• "Standard - no optional cards" is the Standard game with no optional cards included.
• "Standard - with optional cards" is the Standard game with optional cards included.

You also have the option to load, save or close your game, begin and end a logfile, edit some basic preferences or quit the VASSAL program. The logfile is especially useful as it record the game moves and can be loaded and walked through after completing the game.

Standard Button Options in Twilight Struggle Module

The standard toolbar options (above) allow you to control everything from the turn progress to your own hand of cards. As you can see from the screenshot below the American player during their turn can elect to play a card for OPs, the Event or on the Space Race by right clicking on a card and selecting the appropriate option from the menu. The module prevents you from completing an illegal or out-of-turn action.

Your hand of cards pop-up in a separate window

 In fact most things that can be automated in the game are automated and one of the few things that you will need to bookkeep outside of playing your cards is updating the influence on the board. This too is straight-forward and influence can be increased or decreased by right-clicking in the target country. (left)

Obviously the interface varies from game to game, but many of the popular games around today are well supported through their VASSAL module.

Overall, the VASSAL system takes a little getting use to, but after a game or two you'll quickly pick it up and future modules will appear very accessible. They do, from time-to-time, have some connectivity issues, although in the eight or nine games we've played recently, they have only proved to be a mild irritation and not disrupted our game-play for more than a few minutes.

VASSAL is run on a voluntary basis, it's documents and development work done most through community support. That being said the set-up is of a very high quality. Please support them if you can.

What's Up Next?

Probably a go at FAB: The Bulge or Shifting Sands.

FAB: The Bulge on VASSAL

AAR - FAB: Sicily (VASSAL) Part 3

Final write-up on our first VASSAL game for FAB: Sicily. (part 1 / part 2)





Session #4 (11/9/12) - Turns Seven, Eight and Nine

With three full turns left we were beginning to find our stride and play through the phases slightly more quickly, although some of this was certainly driven by a desire to finish the game in one more session.

Turn #7 saw a real push from the Allies as they advanced to push the Axis lines back, re-enforce their own central positions (U) and create battles at Enna (V) and Adrano (W). I thought at this point that GaryB had left it too late to assault on this scale across the board and that he would run out of time before capturing enough VPs/Objectives.

End of Turn #7

Adrano (V) put up much less resistance this time around and the Italian Aosta Infantry and Livorno Mobile Infantry were forced to retreat into Castelbuono (X) and Gangi respectively. My Italian Napoli Infantry units in Adrano (W) fared much better, forcing the Elite British 51st Infantry to abort their attack or suffer heavy losses.

During my Axis turn I re-enforced Randazzo (Z) and decided to assault Licato over the Salso River (Y). This was a big call from me as one of these armoured units may have served me better in a defensive position further north, even protecting the areas around Messina (top right of picture). I had a surplus of elite German assets to use and I piled into Licata hoping for at least 1VP from defeating units there. I rolled okay, but didn't do enough to destroy any single unit and the Axis managed to bring in additional support after the battle (in the form of step gains for their units in Licata). My main concern now was the road from Leonforte (U) through Nicosia ("35") and onto the northern coast giving access to the VPs in and around Messina. Maybe I should have re-enforced after all!

The VP marker still stood at Axis 3VPs An Axis sudden-death victory at the end of Turn #7 was 5VPs.

Turn #8 was the most action-packed turn we've played to date as the Axis forces dropped down a gear and advanced across the board. They began by cycling their units around Catania (AA) in an effort to surround the Elite 15th Panzer Units in there, finally cutting them off with the British 51st Infantry taking Mount Etna (AB). Not holding a unit at Mount Enta was a big mistake from my Axis perspective.

End of Turn #8

The British 50th Infantry, supported by the British 4th Armour, assaulted Catania directly (AC), but took heavy fire and had to abort their attack, their forces in disarray. More critically two Allied armoured units managed to punch a hole through the Axis lines at Nicosea (AD) and forged their way up the coast to Capo Di Orlando (AE). The single German 29th Panzer unit in Nicosea was then attacked by the U.S. Elite 45th Infantry and forced to flea all the way back to Termini Imerese (BD) or face being eliminated.

My forces were struggling to re-position and I elected to cut-off the U.S. armoured units in Capo Di Orlando (AE) by taking Sant' Agata Di Militello (BC) and fall back to protect Messina and it's neighbouring areas (BC). To the south at (AF) the U.S. 1st Infantry had moved across the Salso River to cut-off the two German armoured units in Licata, so I was forced to attack back across the (now blown) bridge their and I almost took the U.S. unit there, taking them down to one pip of strength.

In another counter attack, I assaulted Val Di Catania from Catania itself (BB) to move my Elite 15th Panzer units closer to a supply area. In this move I had given up 1VP in Catania and another airfield. Fortunately I managed to force the U.S. 50th Infantry unit in Val Di Catania to retreat and I took 1VP back for this area.

Axis - Weak around Messina

The VP marker still stood at Axis 3VPs (+1VP for Allies in Catania and +1VP for the Axis in Val Di Catania) An Axis sudden-death-victory at the end of Turn #8 was 4VPs. I was an agonising 1VP away at that point from a sudden-death-victory!

Moving into Turn #9 I was looking very weak in and around Messina and the NET 5VPs the U.S. could potentially capture there.






 In the final turn the Allies would make their last push for Messina and the VPs available in that area. Consolidating their position they reconnected their out-of-supply U.S. 2nd Armour units in Novara (CB) by moving Elite Infantry into Radazzo (CA). This would be too late to give the armoured units a full movement action this turn and they would have to settle for an assault on Novara (CA) and contest the VP objective marker there. Meanwhile the 1st Canadian and 1st British Armoured units assaulted Taormina (CC) just north of Mount Etna. I'd played a roadblock here during the admin phase and they couldn't press on to Messina itself. The final north-east coast battles would both fall short of the prized Messina.

These two attacks ultimately failed to clear out either the Italian Napoli Infantry in Novara (CA) or the Coastal Garrison troops in Taormina (CC) and both VP opportunities were lost to the Allies. Further south the British 78th Infantry invaded Val Di Catania and forced the out-of-supply German armour there to break and flee to Sortino, claiming the VP in that area for an effective 2VP swing to the Allies.

End of Game

I'd retreated the armour south in order to make a move for the beachhead VP at Augusta on the coast (DD). As we moved into the Axis turn, I held a 1VP lead but knew that these units would have to make morale checks and face being eliminated so I had to go for extra VPs myself.

I attacked one final time in Palma Di Montechiaro (DC) and brought the 1st U.S. Infantry down to one strength, but critically could not eliminate them. Moving my beleaguered German armour into (DD) was my final play. They successfully took the beachhead marker for a VP, but both failed their morale checks and were eliminated giving that Allies the 2VP required to tie the game. Agony!

Final Result = A Draw

Conclusions

Okay, so we just played through 4 sessions and 10+ hours for our 9 turns and ended up with a draw! Sounds like a wasted time? Well, no... :) This game ebbed and flowed and always kept the decisions both interesting and critical to your own success. I always felt that I was both on the edge of a victory or a loss, right up to that final morale roll.

Indeed during the last turn or so we had many points that could have swung the victory to either GaryB or myself:

• No air-power left resupply to his U.S. 2nd Armour (CB) prevented almost certain victory as he would have been able to assault Messina as wells as Novara (CA) and Taormina (CC).
• My engineer allowing me to roadblock Taormina (CC) and prevent him getting to Messina that way.
• Twice I almost wiped out the U.S. 1st Infantry at Palma Di Montechiaro (DC), the second time missing it by rolling a 7 on a target of 6 or less.
• I also failed both morale checks at the end when one success would have given me the single VP to make the difference.

We both had our share of good and bad luck and good and bad decisions. I could list ten more close call instances from the final few turns that would have changed the final result in the game. It literally was on a knife edge.

I must concede though that GaryB's strategy throughout was stronger than mine and that if he'd pushed harder perhaps even a turn earlier, he would have walked into Messina and won by 4/5 VPs. I did scramble well and could have had more success in my counter-attacks, this game almost forces you to track back over your moves and think about where and when you missed the opportunities to win.

A great experience all round!

Posted with Blogsy

AAR - FAB: Sicily (VASSAL) Part 2

Continuation of our first VASSAL game with FAB: Sicily. For Part 1 click here.




Session #3 (4/9/12) - Turns Three and Four

By the end of Turn #4 the Allies had removed one of the German HG Armoured units in Niscemi (G) and all of the Italian units around that area except a single Napoli unit who escaped by moving North (I). This earned the Allies a further VP. Elsewhere (H) two US 2nd Armoured Units repaired the blown bridges at Licata and pushed into Canicatti (H) through Palma Di Montechiaro earning one further VP by destroying a Livorno motorised unit there. As the Axis, I was scrambling a little here having failed to recover most of my isolated units in the shrinking out-of-supply pocket (G). My unit there and the additional VP for holding Niscemi and it's airfield would be gone by Turn #5.

End of Turn #4

 All was not lost for the Axis as they maintained a strong defensive line in good hilly terrain from Caltanissetta through Enna right to the coast at Catania (through J to I line on map).

The VP marker stands at Axis 4VPs (-2VP across turns 3 & 4) An Axis sudden-death victory at the end of Turn #4 was 8VPs.

Session #4 (5/9/12) - Turns Five and Six

In Turn #5 the breakaway Allied armour unit moved from point (H) above to take point (K) below. In other advances the British Elite 51st Infantry took control of Ramacca (O), preparing for the hilly Adrano point (I) above. The most crucial part of the Allied turn though was the capturing of the airfield and German unit at Niscemi (P), worth 2VPs.

End of Turn #5

In response, possibly desperation, I moved my German armoured units south into Agrigento (L) to cut the Allied supply lines. A battle in Canicatti saw the Italian Aosta Infantry defeat the US 1st Infantry gaining a (much needed) VP for me. These advances had to be taken from my centre and despite a reshuffle around line (N) and area (M) I was beginning to look a little weak there.

In Turn #6 the Allied forces advanced creating conflicts in Enna (Q) and Regalbuto (R). At Enna, two US 45th Elite Infantry engaged two Italian units, the Assietta and Livorno. I used a lot of assets to support the Italians and caused significant damage to the advancing us forces, but the area would remain contested moving into Turn #7. The British faired better in Regalbuto, forcing two Napoli infantry units to literally run for the hills. I was retreating my Axis lines for good defensive terrain.

End of Turn #6

My advancing German armour (S) forced the US to retreat back into a supplied area across the Salso River into Licata. I deployed a re-enforcing armoured unit, fresh from Messina, into the hills around Nicosea (T). This terrain would hopefully be a good position from which to hold-up any Allied advances over the last three turns. 

The VP marker stands at Axis 3VPs (-1VP across turns 5 & 6) An Axis sudden-death victory at the end of Turn #6 was 6VPs.

Scoring so far... (Axis began with 8VPs)

AAR - FAB: Sicily (VASSAL) Part 1

Having recently learned FAB: Sicily face-to-face we decided to give VASSAL a go and continue our play online. To make these AARs slightly more manageable I'm making them much briefer and hopeful more to the point whilst still giving a flavour of the play.

In this game I'm taking the Axis forces vs. GaryB's Allies for a full campaign scenario running through 9 turns.

The Axis player begins the game in full control of Sicily and therefore all of the available victory point areas (a total of 8VPs). A sudden death victory is available from the end of turn 4.

Session #1 (27/8/12) - Set-Up and Turn One

GaryB picked a Historical Landing Plan for his invasion of Sicily with his US forces assaulting beaches Joss (A1) through Cent South (A4) and his British forces assaulting beaches Bark South & East (B2) through Fustian (B6). A snapshot of the full set-up is pictured below.

Historical Landing Plan Selected By The Allies

 By the end of Turn #1 the Allies were comfortably ashore taking the port of Syracuse and the southern and eastern shorelines (A1 and A2). Syracuse and it's port give the Allies a VP and a "Fading Italian Morale" chit for the draw bag. During the Axis turn I moved forces into B1 and B2 to protect the airfields and VPs at Niscemi and Catania respectively. In B3 I placed the Elite 15th Armoured Infantry Div. to hold the intersection at Enna. I also blew the bridges south of Catania to slow any assault from the elite Allies in Lentini.

The VP marker stands at Axis 7VPs (-1VP this turn)

End of Turn #1

Session #2 (3/9/12) - Turn Two
Some really key passages of play in Turn #2 as the Allies cleverly dropped their 1st Airborne into Grammichele (C). My Axis forces did well in Val Di Catania but critically I chose to retreat them (D) from there to maintain some strength. I lost the VP there, but also cut my own supply to the units in the areas boxed in red (E). There is real benefit to be had by the Allies in releasing units from the restrictions of their starting zones of operation. In this case it enabled the Allies to drop their British airborne into Grammichele (C).

The VP marker stands at Axis 6VPs (-1VP this turn)

End of Turn #2

By the end of Turn #2 I had 4VPs locked in the red zone with limited hope of recovering them.