Hammered Scots!

 Ooops.  Didn't give Wallace a retreat path and he died.  King buttstomper then went on a killing spree.  Have to try this again and play a bit more conservatively with Wallace.

Hammer of the Scots!

 Played a few hours of Hammer of the Scots.  Then the power went out.  Luckily my opponent has a save of it but I have nothing to show.  King butt-kicker went North in the second year and stayed for the third which we are in the middle of.  Hoping to continue the game on the 21st.

Hammer of the Scots!

Lawrence and I (virtually) pulled out Hammer of the Scots yesterday.  The last time we played (FTF) was years ago.  My Scots got creamed both of those games but this time things are going a bit different (and I noticed some rules we got wrong that may be helping that...)

The start of the Braveheart scenario.  Nothing exciting here - all the games start this way...

The situation at the start of 1301.  The Scots got all 2 and 3 activation cards in 1297.  1298 went well and 1299 was ended early when we both used event cards in the second card play.  The English attempts to invade have been pushed back each time.  So far so good. 

The war continues next week!

Bobby Lee Game 2

Lawrence and I played our second game of Bobby Lee, the Civil War in the east.

End of Turn 1

The early fighting goes pretty normally.  CSA holds to the west while the USA manuevers the CSA out of Manassas.  The CSA called for a draft which is why the VP space is on 2.

End of turn 2

The USA is kicked out of Mannassas but manuevers to take Aquia Station and the adjacent area.  The CSA was out of activations to take it back.

End of game on Turn 3 (Forgot to take a picture, reused the last turn one with notes added to show moves) .  The CSA took back the VP in the west but lost a general's pip in the battle (lucky USA roll, 2 hits out of 3 shots with a 1 in 6 chance for each shot to hit).  This runs the CSA units out of steam.  Near DC the CSA moved out of Mannassas to the spot where the USA army currently is (forgot to draw it in).  The USA retreated (routed) and moved units from the west in.  The CSA did not have enough activations left to take DC or the space next to it since they would have had to take the space next to THAT in order to get enough troops in the area since it was mud they could only get two units directly into the battle space and the USA had three, barring really bad luck the CSA would lose any battle for the space.  The USA naval assaults in Norfolk taking it and send a lone unit to take the VP space in the middle of the map.  The Emancipation Decleration is made and the Civil War ends in less then one year.

Made a couple of mistakes, combined a naval assualt with a land attack - NO NO.  Without that taking the space next to Fort Monroe would be much harder.  Only two units can go from Fort Monroe to the adjacent space by land and only two by sea and in order to win a skirmish you have to have more blocks in the space after one battle round - only hitting on a 1.  Second mistake is using units other than infantry to invade but that was minor, could have moved other units around.

We really wanted to like the game but the lack of chrome with regard to leaders is a problem for us.  McClellan can have up to 4 pips - in effect making him just as good as Grant when it comes to manuever  - add in that a unit in a port space can get 6 reinforcement points it means that McClellan can activate 3 times and still be back at full next turn where no CSA leader can do so.  As the USA commander I certainly had no qualms with having him on the board.  I think Grant has a longer command range which can certainly be handy and a better combat rating (I think) but putting a leader in the front line is a desperation move.  When it comes to operational Tempo the little Napoleon really IS the little Napoleon. 

After seeing the oops on the naval assault I'm thinking of playing it again, yesterday we had decided to give the first version a try (Lawrence owns both).  Units are not named in that version and perhaps that will make the early movement not seem strange.

Bobby Lee

Lawrence and I played Bobby Lee as a learning game and we are not sure of this one.  We made some mistakes (first game) that favored the Union but it seems like it would be harder on the CSA.   We still have to play it again now that we looked up the items we missed the first time however.

The setup for the game.  We are playing the full campaign so it is Summer 1861.

End of the first turn.

The CSA fell back from the city near the top of the picture.  Near DC (bottom middle of picture) the CSA stayed south of the river the USA stayed north.  The only fighting was the skirmish along the Potomac where the CSA fell back.

End of Autumn 1861  (Johnston was defeated in battle and removed but can come back)

The USA flanks the CSA army with a naval landing, fearing the loss of Richmond if they don't react the main CSA army crushes the landing forces.  The CSA also takes back the VP city.  With the CSA army forced out of position the USA crosses the Potomac, they also lost a unit or two in battles after crossing the river. 

Winter 1862

Mud slows things down but a large battle is fought between the main CSA and USA armies and the USA comes out the winner.  The USA also retakes the VP city near the top of the picture.

End of Spring 1862 and the game.

Forgot to take a picture before post game talk began - which is why the counters are showing all the leaders at the bottom.  Yorktown fell to a combined naval and land attack while the main CSA army was beaten again (down to just a couple of blocks anyway now).  The CSA player conceeded since the USA could skirmish to Richmond this turn and that would net the VP needed to win the game.

On the plus side - unlike other Civil War games the CSA has no real chance of taking DC if the USA defends it and the CSA ability to raid into the north is very limited since they can not supply themselves up there.  On the negative side the USA was quite content with McClellan in command since the game gives him no negatives (slow he is not) and the ability for the USA to supply Lincoln (the supreme commander which allows strategic movement) and McClellan (by putting him in a port) by 6 points each turn gives them the ability to outmanuever the CSA which can only bring 4 supply to each of their generals.  The CSA can make their units stronger (4 steps per infantry vs 3 for the USA usually) but the USA can easily counter that with more units and a larger build total each turn.

We are going to give this another playing in October with some rules that we got incorrect before and hopefully find it a more challenging contest for the USA.

Commands and Colors

Played Command and Color Napoleonics.  Sadly I had to leave early due to work the next morning.  I was the center dudes attacking the Brits and Portuguese with my second rate (Napoleon was not there) French.  My guys on the left made a sweep through the British lines while the cavalry and others held back due to cards.  Still iffy at that point but I had to go... 

Commands and Colors Epic: Mockern

Played this one today with Ken, Danny, and Kinley.  Kinley and I were the French, Danny was the Russians, and Ken was the Prussians.  I did not know anything in particular of the battle other than it was part of Leipzig.

The setup.  My French are in the lower right corner, Kinley's on the left, the Russians top right and the Prussians top left.  The Prussians and Russians get points for moving units off the lower edge of the table and capturing the towns - one in the center, and other near the river, and the big one off to the left about the bottom left of the picture.

End of the game is a resounding victory for French arms!  The Prussians had just taken the town in the center when the French play an Elan! card and manage to activate almost every possible unit on the left flank.  The town was retaken and a Prussian unit or two eliminated while the cavalry (up top with the die next to it) goes on a rampage and eliminates a couple more units.  This puts the French well over the Victory Point cap to win the game.

East Front Columbia Games

Lawrence and I finished up our game of East Front back in August - yup behind the times again on blogging.  This would be our next to last Face to Face game before he moves away and I'm going to miss a good friend.

Start of October 41 and CLEAR.  The Germans get lucky on this first activation.

Germans make a lunge for Leningrad!  The bombardment unit would go there as well to help things along.

Near Sevastopol the Germans are moving to cut off the city.

Another shot of the board at the end of the Russian Activation.

November Starts with mud.  Don't remember if second impulse was snow or not.

Situation at end of turn, Russians went first each time since it was snow or Mud.  Leningrad still holding out since getting reinforcements there is a real bear.

December 41.  Russians go first again.  Slow going now since the Germans are hoarding activations and the Russians are tending their wounds.

Slow movement does not matter near Leningrad since the swamp would limit movement to one hex anyway.  The reinforcements for the siege have arrived.

January 42. 

Leningrad Falls!  The winter slows down operations due to high costs of replacing HQ steps and the slightly slower movement.  Due to this only the Leningrad operation is pushed, other HQs are rested for the month - sparing Sevastopol for now.

February 42

The attack on Sevastopol begins and the German siege unit is sent there by train.  Another move order is spent to move the forces at Leningrad forward.  The Moscow front is static due to lack of supplies.

March 42, Spring (and mud) is in the air - but first more snow...

The front is pretty static this turn.  Both sides are low on supply.

April 42 and General Mud is out in full force.

Mud forces the line to stay static, except for Sevastopol where the railed in Siege unit along with the other units that were adjacent move their one allowed space and attack in each impulse.  Sevastopol folds up like a wet book freeing up a LOT of combat power in that sector.  Just in time for Summer of 42.

Second impulse of May 42 is clear - don't remember if first was mud or not.  Next game I'll use two dice to mark this.

The troops in Leningrad sector move forward, Moscow troops plug a whole in the line and the Sevastopol troops clear up the line to allow making a defensive spot at the straight.  The Russians can only move one unit across an impulse and it could be repulsed so now the Germans can send the bulk of their force the other way.

End of June 42.

The Leningrad front is now combined with the Moscow front and as can be seen the Russians are being folded back on themselves.  Another turn would have seen the Germans bagging Moscow or rampaging the Russian rear and we called it a game.  

The Russians are hard pressed in this game.  The winter was not much of a reprieve though the Russians did miss a chance to put some Germans Out of Supply which would have forced a German response and thus the use of an activation.  The Russians may not have had an activation to spare without facing their own disaster though.  The need to use HQ activations to get troops to move or fight with support (you can fight without support but not nearly as well) and the ability to only replace one HQ step a month means that offensives can lurch, so can retreats for that matter.  It is possible to use up four steps of an HQ in a turn (and thus eliminate from the board) if doing two blitz actions.  That would be a desperation move.  More normal is two activations a turn for a couple turns in a row followed by a pause.

Looking forward to playing this one again via vassal or if I find a new FTF opponent.  It is a reasonably quick playing game, Lawrence and I managed a year a day after learning it, and has enough depth to be interesting.  So my list of Russian Campaign games that I like is now Russian Campaign, No Retreat: The Russian Front, and East Front.  I've also purchase West Front to go along with it and may pick up Eurofront someday to try the whole war in block form, well, vassal block form...

East Front (Block Game)

Started a second game of East Front, the Columbia block game, last Saturday.  We got through all of the summer with a couple of rules oops that were cleaned up.  The one I remember is that HQs could move two spaces if they did not get used for combat support - I thought it was just one, this allowed the Russians to run away more quickly.  Another one I noticed later (not really a goof, just did not think of the implications till later) is that a unit can only disengage to a friendly hex, that could make a very big difference in my opening moves for the next time.

Opening Setup - Hey that looks familiar...

End of German June 41, A Blitz in the middle threatens to encircle a large Russian force.  Should have done two blitz moves!  Another one in the North would have bagged them!  Last game the first battles did not go as well...

End of Russian turn June 41, The forces that can retreat do so, others stay in place since leaving would allow parting shots by the Germans and this way the Germans forces are slowed up a little bit.

July 41

End of German first Impulse.  Pushing further on.   A number of Russians die from lack of supply.

End of Russian first impulse.

End of German second Impulse.  No big breakthroughs since the Russians are trading space for time.  It is using up German supply too.

Russian second impulse.

August 41

German first impulse, pushing forward and trying to hoard supply.  Odessa is in trouble.

Russian first impulse.  Odessa is left a token defender (can only supply one unit when hex is contested - which it soon will be).  The rest of the line pulls back where it can.

German second impulse, the advance continues  and Odessa falls.

Russian second impulse, trading more space for more time.

September 41

German first impulse, a blitz attack to get near Lenningrad (leaving that HQ only 0 supply).  Elsewhere the Germans move out from Odessa and on to Moscow!  (still two hexes away).

Hardly any changes in the Russian impulse, supplies are minimal and space is gone.

German second impulse, supplies for them are minimal as well. 

End of Russian second impulse.  The Germans are just within striking distance of both Moscow and Leningrad but supplies are minimal and a couple drops of rain fell in the last couple days, and the temperature has started to fall...