Lock N Load Tactical: Heroes of the Motherland: Rattenkrieg

Played my second game of Lock 'N Load tactical with Bill, this time Arty is added into the mix.

A simple scenario when it comes to VC, the Russians must control both of the circled building hexes at the end of the game.  The game is six turns and in a big twist on the normal procedure initiative is rolled for EVERY impulse so it is very possible that one side never gets to act in a turn.

First Blood!  Lt Koch (the decisive guy) shakes the Russian first move units.

End of turn 1.  I think the 12.7mm MG also fired at Lt. Koch's stake to no effect.

End of Turn 2.  Lt Koch keeps pouring fire onto the Guards stack.  

Turn 3 and the Russian Artillery falls!  Luckily for the Russians it is right on target, luckily for the Germans it has very little effect (in what should have been a disaster for the German defense).  The turn also ended with not much else happening.

End of turn 4.  Lt. Koch keeps up the fire on the wounded Russian leader and his stack, he is fired upon by the 12.7mm MG to no effect.  The Germans get initiative enough times in a fow to finish off the turn without the Russians getting any other moves.

End of turn 5.  The Germans move two squads back to the VC building and then get the initiative 3 times in a row to end the turn.  Since the Russians now have no chance of even getting to the VC building the game ends there.  As the German I was extremely lucky this game, suffering only one shaken unit the entire game and getting the initiative three times in a row on a couple of game turns - allowing me to end the turn before the Russian could move all his troops and they NEED to move in order to win. 

As I mentioned this is my second time playing the game and I really like it (besides being a lucky bastard to boot).  The turns flow nicely, each player has choices to make, there are multiple tactics that can work (I hate "puzzle" games or games where there is obviously one best way to handle each situation), and the rules are easy to read and understand without being simplistic.  Looking forward to my next game on Monday - this time featuring tanks!  Speaking of easy to read and understand rules, I read the tank/vehicle rules and understood them the first time through.  I'm looking forward to moving onto the Pacific and Desert (not to mention modern and Vietnam) titles.

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.

Lock N Load Tactical Starter Kit Scenario 1: Assault on Vierville

Played my first Lock N Load Tactical game back on the September 8th but only got round to blogging it till now (lazy and busy, bad combination).  Tomorrow night Bill and I will be playing again.

The setup.  The winner is whichever side controls 4+ buildings at the end of turn 6.  The US starts in control of them.

First Blood!  a US MMG fires on moving Germans shaking them (which in ASL speak - I'm an old ASLer - is equivalent to breaking)

End of turn 1.  The US sniper does very little and then is eliminated in Melee.  I'll know better next time.  Major Tom comes on board (we made a mistake, reinforcements were placed onboard instead of entering - will take care of that next time too)

End of Turn 2.  A little bit of movement and Major Tom fires again.

First Melee!  Although the Germans were eliminated they kept Major Tom occupied.

End of turn 3.  Not much else happening for the turn.  The Germans want to rally before moving forward.

End of Turn 4.  Still not a lot of movement as the Germans are trying to recover and Major Tom did not want to move in the open.

Another Melee!  This time things go Jerry's way.  The victory is now in site for Germany.

End of turn 5.  We called the game after this, both players thinking the other had it won.  The Germans needed one more VP building but had 4 squads left while the US only had 3 left.  The Germans could activate 4 in sequence and the US would have run out of shots.  On the other hand the US could have help off, and reinforced a melee or perhaps retaken a building via melee and won that way.  

Had a lot of fun with the system and the ease of reading the rules.  I've played ASL since it came out and this system captures a lot of the tactical feel that ASL does with much less rules overhead.  There are some things I miss like MG firelanes and Residual Fire but the clean system easily makes up for those items.  Looking forward to tomorrow's game (the 24th as I am writing this on the 23rd) where we add in Artillery.  The game after that is armored combat.

Fireball Forward: Brigade Box Tiger Variant

Fourth time playing or Umpiring this scenario and every time has been a UK win.  Each time the German Tigers were too aggresive and paid the price.

The setup.  All of the chits are hidden UK units, most of them are dummies.  I do this instead of hidden units since hidden units are a pain and the end result is almost exactly the same.  I forgot my orchards so blue tape filled in.  There is also a bit of blue tape for a stream that can be crossed (it is labeled).  the trees denote wooded areas and the brush is hedgerow.  The Germans have to capture the command post (top of map) or get 12vp to win.  The Germans get 1vp for each UK unit destroyed or 2vp for each tank or squad exited off the far side of the map.

End of turn 1!  (out of 8 possible turns)

The highlight is the Tigers moving forward and getting side shotted by the 17lber AT gun.  The first shot was the 17lber reaction fire and the second was when the 17lber activated.  Two Tigers down.  The Morale roll caused the other tigers to become broken and one of them (above) had to run off the board.

And the rest of the table.  Even though there are 6 German squads (or leaders) that broke for awhile it seemed like the German player would never fail a Morale Check.  In response the UK troops failed at a high rate.

End of Turn 2!

Highlights.  Two German 251/9 halftracks (with 75mm guns) tried to rush forward and were destroyed by the Sextons in the back line.  The Tiger had run for the hills and been destroyed by another 17lber hiding on the road.

The end of the Game.  German infantry fire did fairly well up top, forcing two UK squads to fall back but the middle to bottom was mostly a UK shooting gallery.  It had taken a few hours to get to this point so we called it a game since the German player was out of vehicles and his infantry was getting chewed up badly.

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... 

Stonewall Jackson's Way two scenario 1 (GCACW)

My friend Lawrence was away for 9 months and so I've had no FTF gaming for awhile.  Finally put that to an end today.  Our last game nine months ago was Stonewall Jackson's Way 2 and so was our first first game now that he is back.

The setup for the game.  Stonewall has to take Culpepper and has three days to do it.  The first day no unit can go past 2 fatigue (normally you can go as high as 4) and no force march allowed.

End of turn 1.  The CSA gets the first Victory Point - they need 13+ to win and Culpepper is worth 9 if the CSA owns it, 16 if no US units are adjacent.

The map at the end of turn 1.  Sorry for the glare.  Jackson's forces push aside the US cavalry screen but lose precious time doing so.  Meanwhile the CSA Cavalry kills off the US cavalry.  Other US units move to slow down Jackson's march tomorrow.  The unit just above Culpepper had a special rule - unable to do anything on turn 1.

End of Turn 2.  CSA now has 7VP, the US took a beating this turn.

Jackson Marched into Culpepper on the second activation.  The CSA won the first two so the US did not get to move.  On the first activation the screening forces were destroyed and on the second he marched into Culpepper pushing out the US forces in the city.  With losses as they are the US has to cause CSA losses to bring the VP total back down, if they can win a couple battles they can get a minor victory.

End of the game.  Jackson won the initiative and attacked Banks and failed!  All CSA forces went to fatigue 4 AND the CSA had lost 3VP in the attack.  The USA is in striking distance of winning now.  Pope tries a grand assault twice and fails each time.  Banks tries a Corps assault and also fails.  The game ends with a minor CSA victory.

It was good to get a game back on the game table after 9 months.  Looking forward to the next game in September!

MBT Learning scenario 1

Played a learning scenario of MBT with Charles via Vassal.  Looking forward to more of this and Panzer as well.  A solid game system but when the shooting starts things get ugly quickly.

The setup.  The US at the top and the Soviets at the bottom.  The 4VP hexes (circled) are each worth roughly one tank loss.  So if one side takes them and the other does nothing that side wins.  Normally it boils down to whoever gets the most kills.

End of turn 1, both sides heading for the leftmost two VP hexes.

The US gets off the first shots (they won the initiative roll).  Next game I will suggest using the alternate Initiative procedure where you only activate a platoon at a time - it makes losing that first roll less catastrophic.  In this case 7 US tanks destroy 3 Soviet tanks before the Soviets get a chance to fire.  If I had noticed the LOS to the other Soviet tanks it would have been worse for them.

End of turn 2.  Like I said it is deadly once combat is joined.  The soviets take out 2 US tanks while the US Take out 2 move Soviets and damage a third.

Skipping to the end now.  Things broke the US way the next turn when they won initiative again.  At the end of turn 5 all of the Russian tanks are destroyed with the US losing 4.  

Looking forward to more of this game, adding in the advanced rules for tanks along with Infantry (and AT Missiles of course) which will also make spotting more important (in this one everyone spotted everyone once we were in range).