Wargamer's Corner

As for recommendations, this is solitaire, right? I'd strongly recommend DVG's "Pavlov's House" and the follow-on in the system, "Castle Itter". Fantastic system, exciting games, and very good tactical sims.

If you're into Ancients, check out GMT's "Falling Sky", and "Pendragon". The first is the Gallic revolt against Caesar in 54BC, and the second is the fall of Roman Britain starting in the 4th century AD. Both are part of the COIN system, and so have up to 4 sides, and they both have paper AI opponents if you need them.

I've been having urges to play a tabletop wargame lately. I blame Robear. His playing of LOGistICAL got me to want to do two 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles, and that in turn has given me the itch to do a solitaire wargame (same table). Go figure.

I have Sherman Leader on my shelf from last Christmas. Might have to break it out this weekend.

Or... And I'm just brainstorming here... Armoured Commander 2 is a solitaire combination of Patton's Best and Sherman/Tiger Leader, for pc. Same sort of crew and weapon and movement stuff as in PB, but you function as part of a armored unit with attached supporting units. So you might have a platoon of your Pz38t and 3 PzIIs, in the early war, that sort of thing. You don't control the supporting tanks directly, except by targeting, but they do fight by your side. And it's on pc so no setup/teardown. And it's a Roguelike, so it is very realistic in the effects of combat. It's in Early Access, but already has a good number of campaigns and hundreds of individual units. It's a fully featured game at this point and still about 9 months from having all the initial campaigns done. If it sells well, the dev wants to add in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and eventually Korea, Vietnam, and further. It is an absolute gem.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm definitely a fan of the COIN system (and its solo options) and have several of the series on my shelf, including Pendragon. (You'll definitely see some AARs for those in the timeline I shared) Liberty or Death seems to get the most play and I like to use Cuba Libre to teach the COIN system.

Speaking of Steam, I do have copies of both Twilight Struggle and Labyrinth there and have played a ton of both against the AIs but not enough against human opponents. If anyone wants to give either a try, I'd definitely like to.

Twilight Struggle against a human terrifies me. I'd need a lot more practice before I tried that...

GioClark wrote:

Next five will be:

- Catalunian Plains
- Tours
- Hastings
- Siege of Orleans
- Spanish Armada

Your plan with Catalunian Plains is fantastic (I've played those scenarios...scenarii?) and for Tours there's at least a Richard H. Berg magazine game and fo0r Hastings there's a few, notably Invasion 1066: The Battle of Hastings (both of which I own), but the others are more difficult to find. Sieges are always more difficult to game.

Robear wrote:

Twilight Struggle against a human terrifies me. I'd need a lot more practice before I tried that...

Wait...you haven't memorized the entire deck and the rules minutiae associated with them?

My legendary weakness is rote memorization. I'm *terrible* at it, so I need to play *a lot* to get enough experience with a game. That's part of why it's intimidating.

Robear wrote:

My legendary weakness is rote memorization. I'm *terrible* at it, so I need to play *a lot* to get enough experience with a game. That's part of why it's intimidating.

I have 2-5 games ongoing of Twilight Struggle all the time and it's still intimidating. It's a fantastic design, but the decisions aren't fun to make, they're painful. Imperial Struggle by the same designers (no app version yet) is much less painful.

I think that's what makes the game so popular. There's no pause turns where what you do doesn't matter. The game is a constant shift of push and pull, act and react, and control changes frequently. It *is* nerve-wracking.

I've also dusted off the boardgames since lockdown. I stopped playing them around 2005 for a lack of opponents and time. I found they are a nice switch after sitting at my desk working on my computer from home all day, computer games were just more sitting in the same chair I'd been in all day.

I picked up and played a number of new solitaire games:

The Hunters series by GMT: The Hunters, The Hunted and Beneath the Med - great games, Uboats! Watch Das Boot while playing!

Target for Today, Target for Tonight by Legion Games- great fun, B-17 Queen of the Skies modernizations. B-17's, B-24's, Lancasters, Wellies what's not to love!

Warfighter Modern by DVG - Card based squad fights, unique, quick, fun, almost infinitely replayable.

More solitaire games I recently bought but haven't had a chance to put on the table:

Fields of Fire by GMT - seems to have a passionate following, but complex.

B-17 Leader by DVG - Squadron based Eighth Air Force command.

The Peloponnesian War by GMT - A remake of the classic solitaire game from the early 1990's.

It's 1983, and mysterious dark areas have appeared in the US. Military forces are emerging from them... Forces that are apparently American in origin! What's going on?

Zachtronics has a new game, folks. It's called Möbius Front, and it resembles Advanced Wars with puzzle interludes. Out November 5th on Steam!

Robear wrote:

It's 1983, and mysterious dark areas have appeared in the US. Military forces are emerging from them... Forces that are apparently American in origin! What's going on?

Zachtronics has a new game, folks. It's called Möbius Front, and it resembles Advanced Wars with puzzle interludes. Out November 5th on Steam!

Nice! Wishlisted! I wonder how much it will be. I don't see the price on Steam yet.

I picked up Imperiums Greek Wars this week, mainly to support the developers.

I'm in, it looks like fun. Thanks GB for suggesting it!

Robear wrote:

I'm in, it looks like fun. Thanks GB for suggesting it!

Yeah, I thought it looked quite good as well. It's put out by the same people who did Aggressors: Ancient Rome. Something went sideways with their arrangement with Slitherine, and so they set out on their own.

Supposedly they've made a lot of improvements to the Ancient Rome engine, and I thought that was quite good already.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Robear wrote:

It's 1983, and mysterious dark areas have appeared in the US. Military forces are emerging from them... Forces that are apparently American in origin! What's going on?

Zachtronics has a new game, folks. It's called Möbius Front, and it resembles Advanced Wars with puzzle interludes. Out November 5th on Steam!

Nice! Wishlisted! I wonder how much it will be. I don't see the price on Steam yet.

I picked up Imperiums Greek Wars this week, mainly to support the developers.

Same! Looks like fun!

I did not realize Imperium Greek Wars was out, for some reason I thought it was out next year. Aggressors was a very good game, the devs seemed very engaged and active. Thanks for the heads up GB!

I installed Imperiums Greek Wars last night and hope to give it a looksee soon.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I installed Imperiums Greek Wars last night and hope to give it a looksee soon.

Very interested in your thoughts on it.

I just played the tutorial (Macedonia), took about an hour in all. Really just scratches the surface, I'd say I'm intrigued.

Random thoughts...

There is a lot of depth to the game from what I can tell so far. It feels very much like a 4x game, but you're starting with set city states. The tutorial did a good job of explaining the basics, and I feel like there is a lot more to learn to be good at the game. Lots of city production and unit customization, and all of the big pieces (trade, research, etc.) are in the game, with what appears to be solid depth.

In places, the game reminds me of Civilization in Ancient Greece. Combat in particular, where it's one unit vs. one unit.

The diplomacy model is eye-opening. You can propose joint military campaigns with specific targets and promises. In the tutorial, you propose a joint attack on Athens, where you promise to capture two specific cities and ask that your ally capture a third city. Looks quite robust and cool.

Can't comment on the AI yet.

Mood and music are quite good. I "feel" like it's ancient Greece.

Graphics are functional, but nothing particularly strong.

So yeah, initial impressions are good here.

EDIT: I should add that there looks to be a lot of replayability here. Lots of starting city state options with good variety and a random option for random maps and random starts.

I played some more with Macedonia in Imperiums Greek Wars after the tutorial ended.

I'm really enjoying it. There is a ton I don't quite understand, and I feel like it's got some UI and visual quirks, but the gameplay feels really solid. I feel like it's hard to make a judgement after only a couple of hours with it, but on a "fun so far" metric I'm in a good place.

JTS Winter Sale starts Dec 11 and goes to the end of the month, so save your pennies! Anything that has been out for a year or more on Dec 11 will be just $29.99.

Robear wrote:

JTS Winter Sale starts Dec 11 and goes to the end of the month, so save your pennies! Anything that has been out for a year or more on Dec 11 will be just $29.99. :-)

Do you have any recommendations?

Panzer Campaigns - France 40, Normandy, and Japan '45 (I assume '46 will be up to the same standards, but I have not tried it.) All of these are Operational level.

Panzer Battles - Normandy is excellent. Grand Tactical, I guess I'd call it - Company level stuff iirc.

Civil War - I can vouch for Campaign Petersburg and Campaign Gettysburg, but they are likely all good.

Napoleonics - I have Campaign Waterloo and that has the full range of scenario sizes and types. Very nice.

BTW, I'd put the France 40 game after PzC Normandy, but otherwise that list is in order of preference for me.

Boxes for my next three battles arrived, so I'll be spending some time stickering the blocks for C&C:Medieval. In the meantime, I did playthrough of GMT's Cataclysm this weekend, focusing on The Great Patriotic War scenario.

It's a bit easier to manage this one solo rather than try and mock up the economic and political pieces playing multi-handed. The chit pull system definitely lends itself to strategic compartmentalization of the different sides as well as building in substantial chance.

Spoiler:

By the end of 1943, the upgraded Soviet war machine dies on the vine as the Germans take all Soviet industrial centers before any meaningful production is completed. (That pile of tokens is what was left in the cup yet to be played) Despite a functional government in exile, Stalin has yet to grasp the reality of the situation. With Allied planning of the invasion of Italy still in its early stages, Germany has many years to redeploy from the East and consolidate its holdings prior to any invasion.

Ukraine:

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/2yZ66NK/20201030-115731.jpg)

Siege of Moscow:

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/0VcDp9s/20201030-164527.jpg)

Final Scoring:

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/wSFV7Ts/20201030-165322.jpg)

Full AAR - Cataclysm

I spent a good few sessions playtesting Cataclysm (the designers are friends) that concluded in a similar fashion to your luckless Soviets. In fact, they might have named the game after my abysmal campaigns. I remember a very successful Sealion against my Brits that haunts me to this day.

I was shocked that it was so one sided, honestly. But your experience raises my side eye about feeling like this scenario was unbalanced against the Soviets. There are literally two game turns with which the Soviets have to make up an entire campaign's worth of a VP deficit. (Starting position is 7-1) Germany has more resources to throw into production and time is on their side without a VP threshold to maintain.

Germany used its reserve flag to strike Ukraine and then the Soviets used theirs for a commitment raise. After both sides go to Total War, most flags end up going to Propoganda to offset home front pulls which leaves no space to try and break allies diplomatically. Austria did plunge into civil war and there was a failed communist coup in Finland, which might have helped tip the scales. Other than that, the dice just seemed to hate the Soviets right out of combat while conversely refusing to allow stability drops.

What's your recommended strategic approach for a Soviet victory?

Train up a few Siberian armies and march them through Moscow as the Germans approach.

GioClark wrote:

What's your recommended strategic approach for a Soviet victory?

I don't have one, sadly. Getting out of the initial rolls is rough, but once you do, things get a lot easier.

Also, beware of overstacking. I don't have my copy at hand, but you may be overstacking Germans in Russia which would solve some of your problems.