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You know what's a hard topic? Russian Civil War. 
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Dec 29, 2014 23:48
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Lichtenstein posted:You know what's a hard topic? Russian Civil War. What are the contenders in this arena? The topic is extremely my poo poo right now.
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Dec 29, 2014 23:50
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Lord Frisk posted:What are the contenders in this arena? The topic is extremely my poo poo right now.
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Dec 29, 2014 23:53
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Lichtenstein posted:You know what's a hard topic? Russian Civil War. Triumph of Chaos and Reds! are a thing. EDIT: f;b
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Dec 29, 2014 23:54
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I got Reds! for Christmas and it is really good. It's a chit pull game that involves all of the factions (Siberian front, Southern front, the Islamic republics, the West, etc) and manages to make it a very straightforward game while still being strategic and unpredictable. Highly recommended.
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Dec 30, 2014 00:03
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Lichtenstein posted:You know what's a hard topic? Russian Civil War. Get back to work, then!
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Dec 30, 2014 00:07
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Lord Frisk posted:What are the contenders in this arena? The topic is extremely my poo poo right now. My own heartbreaker, which will probably get to a playable stage somewhere near 2070, but it'll be THE BEST. I won't talk about general misrepresentation at length (well, I'd love to, but it'd be a long semi-masturbatory  post). Still, in no particular order:Reds! The Russian Civil War 1918-1921 is the least sucking one. It's got some really nice ideas and it's a decent operational counter-pusher if you don't mind (inevitable) heavy force disproportion. A bit heavy on chrome rules exceptions, as Raicer's games tend to be. Sadly, it's laughable as a simulation - it's purely operational affair, which doesn't really touch the politics (which I believe was super-critical to both capabilities and behaviour of opposing armies), the OOB is REALLY hosed up, and I don't really feel the event table works well in practice. Some stuff that's not worth mentioning, as it'd involve boring explanations of particular mechanics. Triumph of Chaos is pretty much a horrible kitchen sink design. I strongly encourage you to read the rulebook just to have a laugh. Like, really. It's some bunch of random ideas slapped together in a horrible, bloated mess. For example, the game has involved system of players bidding for control of like 20 factions, which in most cases give you like one corps. loving Astrakhan is a separate faction. I think the faction infighting tables were also really hilarious in their bloat? IIRC the game does the same OOB sin of Reds! of giving a new army counter full of troops pulled out of one's rear end whenever a historical army simply reorganized under another name. Soviet Dawn is a States of Siege game, so yeah. Not much more one can say about it. For Bloody Honor: The Russian Civil War and Red Russia I don't remember very well, but I think they were very light and lame in general. Strike of the Eagle/Eagle and the Star has gotten some good rep, but I can't get my hand on it, since in  only the original version is available, without the input of Academy Games developers and gently caress that. Similarly, I can't really comment on Rossyïa 1917
Lichtenstein fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Dec 30, 2014 |
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Dec 30, 2014 00:37
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Lichtenstein posted:I won't talk about general misrepresentation at length (well, I'd love to, but it'd be a long semi-masturbatory That's pretty much what this thread is here for, so... 
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Dec 30, 2014 01:14
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Yeah, I'd also love to hear about any attempts to incorporate the politics of the revolution as well, as I was imagining the interplay between factions would dominate the gameplay. It sounds like most lean toward only showing the combat, and my understanding of the revolution was a series of heavily skewed battles involving slaughter and repercussions. As an aside, would a COIN game in the style of Cuba Libre fit the bill, or am I cramming a giant red peg into a COIN shaped hole?
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Dec 30, 2014 01:26
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So on the topic of Columbia block wargames, is it just me or does it exemplify the "roll to hit" rather than "roll to see how well you did" problem I've heard leveled at, say, Virgin Queen? I mean, a whole lot of blocks literally only hit on a one, and most hit on a one or a two.
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Dec 30, 2014 04:07
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Somebody put up an unpunched copy of Thunderbolt Apache Leader for $35 on BGG today and I snatched it up so fast I think my mouse caught fire. Can't wait to play that, I've been dying to try the Leader series for a while now.
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Dec 30, 2014 16:48
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Lord Frisk posted:Yeah, I'd also love to hear about any attempts to incorporate the politics of the revolution as well, as I was imagining the interplay between factions would dominate the gameplay. It sounds like most lean toward only showing the combat, and my understanding of the revolution was a series of heavily skewed battles involving slaughter and repercussions. I honestly don't think it would, because it's supposed to model fighting against insurgencies, and the period when the Reds were an insurgency is perhaps the most boring one of the entire war. Then again, I never thought I'd see the system used to run the bloody Gallic War, so what do I know.
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Dec 30, 2014 17:01
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Ilthe and I played Up Front tonight and spent altogether too much time looking stuff up for what should be about a one hour game. I hadn't played in two years. It's a fun game though unlike Combat Commander it has a combined deck so occasionally you run into one player getting all the fire cards and the other player getting all the rally cards so you just sort of spin your wheels for a while. Vassal screenshot where I will fail to eliminate Ilthe's Squad B and we neglect to put the relative range counter in the provided spots: 
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Dec 31, 2014 04:55
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branching out slightly, does anybody get into wargames on mobile? I just picked up battle of the bulge for iOS which is pretty slick. Depending on how much mileage i get out of it i will probably end up buying the followup, Drive on Moscow. I've heard good things about panzercorps too, but haven't looked into it much yet.
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Dec 31, 2014 05:18
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John Tiller's Panzer Campaigns or Modern Campaigns. More like computer wargames than board wargames, but really excellent. Didn't play any of the Shenandoah games as I don't have iThings, but I heard the second title is bad in that it's essentially decided by weather rolls and goes on for too long. e: You may want to ask in the grog thread Morholt fucked around with this message at 08:42 on Dec 31, 2014 |
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Dec 31, 2014 08:26
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I've been using my new Oregon 2mm corner rounder on Guderian's Blitzkrieg II's counters. I started using the corner rounder instead of nail clippers halfway through this counter tray (around the 12 2 pieces): Here's all three filled and sorted counter trays of GD2's pieces:  Whew! That was a lot of work. Now for seven Advanced Squad Leader modules:  
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Dec 31, 2014 20:46
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I have a rounder coming to me on Monday, and will break it in with Unconditional Surrender, Fields of Fire, Reds!, and Thunderbolt Apache Leader. I'm unreasonably excited. I wish there were a place to get counter trays with overnight shipping... I'm sure I'll order some from GMT eventually but... eh, effort.
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Dec 31, 2014 20:56
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What's with the rounding?
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Jan 1, 2015 12:55
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Paper Mac posted:Counter-clipping has both an esoteric and exoteric significance. Upon inquiry, many initiates will claim that counter-clipping "reduces wear" or "stops counters from snagging on one another in adjacent hexes". Some insist that corner fluff has anticancer properties, others that removing it prevents the accumulation of disease and removes the otherworldly handles by which ghosts or djinn monkey with the counters between sessions. The inner meaning of counter-clipping, however, is related to the experience of war. Orderly, together, in their natal frame, the counters are physically attached to one another. Here they are happy, beautiful, impotent. It is only when punched, then clipped, shorn of their umbilical corner fluff and thus all memories of the womb-frame, that they can descend into the madness of the battlefield and deal death. There are deeper levels of meaning, but they are inarticulable and available only to the high-level counter-clipper.
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Jan 1, 2015 13:00
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So what do you do with the clipped parts? Build pyramids to honour the victors or snort off hex maps? Also, could you recommend a Scifi game with spaceship battles, orbital bombardment and planetary warfare? In exchange I'll give you the best counter:  Motorized Soviet brass band.
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Jan 1, 2015 14:44
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COOL CORN posted:Somebody put up an unpunched copy of Thunderbolt Apache Leader for $35 on BGG today and I snatched it up so fast I think my mouse caught fire. What a steal, I'm quite happy with mine at $70. I'd suggest looking at some alternate record sheets from BGG, there's a few there that seem nicer than the default - not sure exactly which I prefer yet.
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Jan 1, 2015 18:32
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Hogge Wild posted:So what do you do with the clipped parts? Build pyramids to honour the victors or snort off hex maps? Chit dust is offered up as a burnt offering to the gods What the hell game is that agitprop counter from??
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Jan 1, 2015 18:43
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COOL CORN posted:Chit dust is offered up as a burnt offering to the gods Blood on the Snow: The Battle of Suomussalmi I've seen some of that band's instruments in a museum. Soviet player can get points if he can exit units from the Finnish player's side of the map and a shitload if he can exit that counter. Fun game, horrible looking map. Soviet side has heavy artillery, motorized units and tanks, but moves slowly outside of roads and has a hard time supplying his troops, while Finnish side has mobile and good quality ski-infantry, but only a few and bad artillery units.
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Jan 1, 2015 19:08
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Hogge Wild posted:So what do you do with the clipped parts? Build pyramids to honour the victors or snort off hex maps? Some people collect them in jars for reasons I find unfathomable so there's that option!  The only thing I can think of that fits your requirements is Space Empires with its first expansion Space Empires Close Encounters. Be warned, while it certainly does have spaceship battles, orbital bombardment, and planetary warfare it is a space game and the planetary warfare isn't tactical or anything. Marine counters on worlds all the way.
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Jan 1, 2015 21:13
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Now, I haven't played World in Flames, but I just read the following quote on BGG:quote:I had a friend [whose] wife filed for divorce and one of her claims was his games (and opponents) were more important to him. ...I have to play this now.
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Jan 2, 2015 15:57
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WiF is a bloated mess with a zillion expansions. Its main claim to fame is being better than A3R(it's A World at War now). Modern offerings provide better gameplay.
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Jan 2, 2015 16:09
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COOL CORN posted:Now, I haven't played World in Flames, but I just read the following quote on BGG: Well that's just depressing 
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Jan 2, 2015 16:36
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Panzeh posted:WiF is a bloated mess with a zillion expansions. Its main claim to fame is being better than A3R(it's A World at War now). Modern offerings provide better gameplay. That's interesting because I've been wanting to try Third Reich (classic). I didn't know AWaW was the reimplemention of that. Then again, USE is basically my #1 loved game at the moment so I guess I don't need another European theater strategy game. Also, I've been dabbling in Fields of Fire and its really not that bad after reading some tutorials. It's a shame the rules are a convoluted mess, because it's an amazing solitaire system. Same with Thunderbolt Apache Leader, which I also just got. But man, DVG makes awesome rule books. I just wish I could get the VASSAL module without paying $25 so I could play at work, ugh.
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Jan 5, 2015 05:44
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COOL CORN posted:That's interesting because I've been wanting to try Third Reich (classic). I didn't know AWaW was the reimplemention of that. Then again, USE is basically my #1 loved game at the moment so I guess I don't need another European theater strategy game. There's Corsair Leader ostensibly free print n play. It's $15 for the full vassal module, but the rules are free and the vassal demo is free. This is analogous to free crack.
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Jan 5, 2015 13:34
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I was just struck by a cool COIN setting that'd interest no-one, perhaps except Tevery Best. COIN: Operation Tempest. Leading actors: Wehrmacht, Home Army as well as Red Army and Polish People Army in a love/hate relationship.
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Jan 7, 2015 09:37
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Lichtenstein posted:I was just struck by a cool COIN setting that'd interest no-one, perhaps except Tevery Best. COIN: Operation Tempest. Leading actors: Wehrmacht, Home Army as well as Red Army and Polish People Army in a love/hate relationship. Make it, post it.
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Jan 7, 2015 11:06
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I had to sit out a very boring meeting today, so I gave some further thought to how this poo poo could work. While obvious axes of conflict would be Germany - Soviets and Home Army - People's Army, it would be supremely boring and severely lacking in terms of nuance and I believe I have a much better idea. Support/Opposition should be renamed to something akin to Polish/Soviet Political Recognition, but I'll keep using the word "Support" for ease of reading. Germany would be the quintessential "waning influence COIN" faction. Its primary concern would be the Soviets and ending the war favourably. Its victory condition would involve struggling to control territory (only the COIN factions would care about control) and perhaps some bonus for directly hurting the Red Army. The exact VP requirements should probably scale down each Propaganda phase, as they're meant to be slowing down inevitable downfall. In theory, this faction would care little about the insurgents, if only it wasn't constantly trolled by them. The other COIN faction, Soviets, would actually primarily fight the Home Army - with the more local focus of the game, Red Army's goal would be to secure political control over the country, or in other words, farming Support. Pushing Wehrmacht away would obviously remain rather important, as 1) it's primarily Soviet's job to stop them from winning 2) the Red Army would have little to no counter-insurgency or support-building power in uncontrolled territory. Those split objectives would slow it down a bit and require People's Army support, as they can go around rampaging on Home Army pieces with much more flexibility. The Home Army/Underground State would primarily target Wehrmacht and win via accumulating Support. The tricky twist would be that, instead of simply spending resources or whatever to flip the counter, the actual recognition would be by built by (yet undefined) actions directly hurting the occupants and therefore pissing them off. A tricky thing would be, as much as they want to repeatedly punch their sworn enemy, they don't actually want him to lose too fast and simply pave way for red armymen. See, the Home Army was quite cautious not to gently caress with the Red Army for various political reasons, so they need the Germans to farm the aforementioned Support before Soviets turn more and more areas into a de facto no-limit zone. Finally, People's Army would win by having more bases than the Home Army. Yes, it's an AUC rip-off, but with a twist! This would be a smaller insurgent faction out for Home Army's blood. It would be somewhat more adept at straight-up piece elimination, but small and dependent on Soviet supply. It would have little interest in trolling the German player directly other than indirectly helping their Soviet buddy, mostly by intercepting LoCs (mainly major railways). This faction would go into light collaboration territory with a "denunciation" special action that reveals Home Army pieces in areas where Gestapo (German police cubes) is present. The teased-at twist would be actually Soviet action(/s) similar to NVA's Infiltration. Soviets could both paradrop cadres and supplies to recruit PPA units (it'd be pretty cool and unique to have it be the only way for PPA to get more units) or to take over local structures and convert them into Support in controlled territory (again, no straight "pay resources for support" stuff available). It could also be gained by gobbling Home Army bases by NKVD (Soviet police cubes). This would serve several purposes: 0) Flavor. 1) Make room for cracks in generally symbiotic relationship. 2) Keep PPA migrating west whenever Soviets take the territory and there's little to do anymore, as was the case historically. 3) Since there's little option for drawing the Soviets away when they take the territory, other than perhaps a rapid German counterattack when they get sloppy and overextend, there has to be some limit on Soviet Support-building so that it doesn't simply turn into race for territory followed by just sitting down and farming Support. 4) The more political maneuvering Soviets need to do, the slower they can crush the Germany, which is good for gameplay purposes. 5) Giving chance for the "I can't recruit my own units" gimmick to possibly work. Lichtenstein fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 14:07
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I used to think that my counter-clipping was a weird overly-groggy thing to do. After all, I just spent the past few evenings clipping all of the 900+ counters for Fields of Fire (which owns so much by the way. I'm thinking about doing an AAR/LP to show everyone what this game is about). But sometimes, someone comes along to put me to shame. I present: Sam. http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?92556-Sam-s-Master-Project-Thread-LOGISTICS-NIGHTMARE I especially would like to point out the scenario project. Holy poo poo.
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Jan 7, 2015 21:16
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Ilthe and I played two games of Up Front tonight. He won the first game in which the Vassal deck shuffling was inadequate and we kept getting runs of the same card type over and over again. I shot up his Germans quite a bit but I run out of fire cards and he waltzes to range chit 4 and drops beneficial terrain to win. Here are my Americans in game one using all the drat smoke because I can't find a decent rally card.  We made sure to shuffle the deck more for the second game. Things getting a bit bloody with three men KIA in each group A and one in the German group B.  The end of game two where we spent 20 minutes reading the  CLOSE COMBAT RULES where the game really shows its 80s vintage. I win by double teaming his broken squad leader. I'm only two away from surrender with two men pinned so it was still close.  It's a good game and plays relatively quickly once you have the rules down. cenotaph fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Jan 9, 2015 |
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Jan 9, 2015 05:27
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That's cool to see. The guy I bought FOF from emailed me to ask if I wanted to play Up Front on VASSAL, which I've never played. It looks really cool, being a card-driven squad-based tactical game(?)... I think I'll give it a go.
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Jan 9, 2015 14:11
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Live anywhere near central Illinois? Free on February 6-8? Want to play some games and maybe win some auction items? Why not stop by Winter War 42? $15 for the weekend plus $2 per event you play in. A bunch of wargames are on the schedule. If you are a Advanced Squad Leader fan, "Winter War is even home to one of the area's premier Advanced Squad Leader tournaments." It runs the whole weekend long almost like it's own mini-con. As well as a bunch of Role Playing and Board Game events. If enough of us come out I'll toss together a goonmeet at the convention.
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Jan 9, 2015 17:01
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There hasn't been an AAR/LP post in a while, so I wanted to make an one for Fields of Fire. I've been totally immersed in it for about a week now and am completely head over heels for it. Is it convoluted? Hell yeah. Does it have more of a learning cliff than a learning curve? Well, yes. But once you read the rules a couple times, and watch a few playthrough videos, everything starts to click, and this is hands down one of the most interesting and elegant solitaire games I've played. So, strap in, prepare for heartbreak, because this is: FIELDS OF FIRE -or- HOW TO COMPLETELY MISMANAGE A COMPANY OF OUR COUNTRY'S FINEST Who are we? We are a company in the 9th Infantry Regiment ("Manchus") during the Normandy invasion of WW2. The first mission of our Normandy campaign is an offensive on Trevieres, which will be our company's first battle with the German Army. The following mission takes place between June 8th and 10th. The mission lasts 10 turns, so that breaks down to about 5 turns = 1 day, so accounting for sleep time, 1 turn = ~3 hours, give or take. The campaign book gives the breakdown of our Company and the assets we have to work with, in addition to specific attachments that we get per mission. Aside from the attachments, these men will be with us for the entire campaign. CO HQ (Company Headquarters) - CAP Zachary Z. Sargent CO XO (Company Executive Officer) - 1LT Ross J. Whitman CO 1st SGT (Company First Seargent) - 1SG Jason L. Ashford In addition, the Company has a Jeep unit, a 60mm Mortar unit, and a .50cal Heavy Machine Gun unit. 1st PLT HQ (First Platoon HQ) - 2LT Steven C. Massey 2nd PLT HQ - 2LT Reginald V. Riordan 3rd PLT HQ - 2LT James L. Webb In addition, each Platoon has 3 squads (e.g. 1/1st, 2/1st, 3/1st in the 1st platoon). 1st and 2nd platoon each have a Light Machine Gun unit and a Bazooka unit. 3rd platoon has only a Bazooka unit. Finally, the Company has assigned to it for just this mission, an Artillery Forward Observer attachment (ARTY FO). Since there's a good chance that little of these makes sense, here is a visual depiction of the Order of Battle, awkwardly drawn by myself:  As far as experience goes, most everybody is "line" - that is to say, average experience. Unfortunately, due to various Army factors, the company was given a "green" CO HQ, CO XO, and all three PLT HQs. This will affect their ability to command. Now, each officer receives certain "assets" per campaign mission. This is a mix of communications equipment and pyrotechnics, with which to give signals to units across the battle area. You "key" certain pyro signals to certain commands - whatever you want them to be. Much like the real battle, an officer would have to say, "okay, when I throw a red smoke, everybody cease fire," or something to that effect. Same deal here. Here's a picture of the assets:  The CO HQ has a Batallion phone, to receive orders from BN HQ, a CO phone, to speak with his officers, and two Runners that he can send across the battlefield, if any of his officers get out of communication. The CO XO and CO 1st SGT both have CO phones, to send and receive orders. The Platoon HQ officers each have CO phones as well as phone line to lay down. As they move across the battlefield, they'll be dropping phone line to stay in touch with CO HQ. They also have a number of different pyrotechnic devices - Red/Green Star Parachutes and Star Clusters (RSP/RSC/GSP/GSC), High Concentrate Smoke (HC), White Phosphorous Smoke (WP), as colored Smokes (Purple/Yellow/Green/Red, PS/YS/GS/RS). The men know to respond to pyro signals in the following ways: - RSC/RSP/RS: Cease Fire - GSC/GSP/GS: Seek Cover - PS: Shift Fire Where are we?  Let's get into the mission at hand. Every mission is a grid of terrain cards, which will vary by mission. Some will be big, some will be small, some will be random, some won't. This first mission is a grid of 3 rows by 4 columns, with a 1-row staging area at the bottom. Each card has different attributes regarding its terrain, which I'll get into as it's required. There are markers on the board for "Line of Departure", "Line of Advance", "Left Boundary" and "Right Boundary". These form a box outside of which your men cannot go. That is NOT to say that there will be no enemy outside of that box. It is very probable that we will have to add terrain in order for new enemies to pop out, but can't move into that terrain. Per this mission's instructions, we are to clear the first two rows, clear the Attack Position (AP), and clear both Objectives on the 3rd row. I've selected as the Objectives, the Village and the Farm in the last row. Being able to get into a building will help me defend those positions after I take them. For the attack position, I've selected the Hedgerow - it's on a hill, which gives me uninterrupted line of sight (LOS) to almost the whole battlefield. So, if I park a mortar and/or a HMG up there, I can blast away anybody I need to. That's the plan, at least. What does "clearing" mean, in the context of this game? You'll notice "Potential Contact" markers on each card. Each time one of my men moves into a card with a PC marker, there is a chance that a random enemy unit will appear at a random location in sight of that card. 'A' has the most chance of appearing, with 'C' having the least chance. If there is no PC marker on a card, and no enemy unit on a card, it is considered clear. So, we have to explore and clean out the first row, second row, and the Village and Farm in the third row. If we do that, the mission is a success. If we don't within 10 turns, we fail. What's my plan? I plan to take the 1st Platoon up the left two column, and the 2nd Platoon up the right two columns. I want to bring in the 3rd Platoon behind them as support/sweeping. Along with 3rd Platoon, I want to bring my ARTY FO, mortar, and .50cal teams up to that hill, so that I can rain down death upon the Objectives, and take them. LET'S GET GOING ALREADY Each turn is played out in a series of phases. I'll walk through each phase and explain what I'm doing, and you get to watch the disappointment flow like water as I march my men into the jaws of death. TURN 1 3.1 Friendly HQ Phase - Does not occur on Turn 1. Normally, there would be a chance for a random event to happen that would give us either a bonus or a hindrance. Maybe we'll see that next turn. 3.3.1a BN HQ Activation - If the BN HQ were on the map, he would get 6 action points to do with what he wants. But, the BN HQ is not on the map, so he automatically activates the CO HQ. When a unit is activated, an Action card is drawn (see below), and the unit gets a number of action points equal to the number in the little Army helmet on the card. Since my CO HQ is Green, he gets -1. Since we have not made contact with the enemy, he gets +1. So, per the card I drew, he gets a net action point gain of 4 (modified by +0). Pretty good, but kind of useless on my first turn, since I'm just going to do a little scouting.  3.3.1b CO HQ Activation - So my CO HQ has 4 action points. I'm going to spend 1 to activate 1st Platoon, and 1 to activate 2nd Platoon. As a Green Officer, I can save a maximum of 3 actions per day. So I bank the last 2. I draw for the two Platoons - 1st PLT gets 2 action points, 2nd PLT gets 4. 3.3.1c PLT HQ Activation - Now I actually get to do some stuff. 1st PLT: I want to scout a little bit, so I spend 1 AP to order my 1/1st squad to move northeast to the Hedgerow. It's not as good for cover as the Farm, but has LOS to more of the central cards. I'm going with that. One a unit moves, he becomes exposed, so I place that marker on him. The terrain gives him a +2 defense, but being exposed gives him -2. Hope nothing bad happens. I bank the last action point, since I don't want to move any other units until I know the coast is clear. 2nd PLT: Same deal, I want to move one unit. I spent 1 AP to move 1/2nd squad north into that Hedgerow. Again, the unit is exposed due to moving. I bank the last 3 action points, in hopes that I can do a good amount of stuff next turn. Since only 2 PLTs were activated by the CO HQ, we move on to the next phase. Here's our moved and exposed men:  3.3.2b PLT Initiative - Any PLT HQ that was not activated gets to draw for action points anyway. Thing is, they use the smaller number (in the star) below the bigger number (in the helmet). So, they'll get to order people around either way, but they'll get MORE orders if it comes down the pipe from CO HQ. Makes sense. 3rd PLT: Drew 3 APs, which is pretty great for an initiative draw. Banked all 3, since 3rd PLT is my backup. 3.3.2c CO Staff Initiative - The CO XO and CO 1st SGT each get 1 AP per turn, they don't draw a card. I bank them. 3.3.2d General Initiative - This is how you get stuff done. You draw a card, and use the initiative (smaller) value, don't modify it, and use it to command ANYONE. Normally, CO HQ has to be within phone contact to activate the PLT HQs, and PLT HQs have to be on the SAME CARD as squads in order to command them. That creates a lot of difficult later on, if people get too scattered. But General Initiative can be used on anyone. So, I order 1/1st squad and 1/2nd squad each to search for cover. The number in the bottom middle of the card is how many action cards I draw to see if I find cover. The number in the bottom left is how many cover/microterrain elements can exist in a given card. If it's a building, that means I can do a further check to see if I get into a strong building. Anyway, this is what i'm looking for:  Even though I found it for each of my squads on the first card, I still draw all 4 for each, to keep the RNG working correctly. So, I found cover with both units, and put a +1 cover marker on them. So, they're still "exposed" in the sense that the enemy knows they're there, but they're found some shrubberies to hide behind to provide a little cover. I forgot to get a snapshot of it, but you'll see in a minute. 3.4.1 Enemy HQ Phase - Does not occur on Turn 1. Same deal as 3.1, but for the enemy. 3.4.2 Enemy Activity - No enemies on the board yet, so doesn't happen. 3.5 Mutual Capture Phase - No casualties or prisoners yet, so doesn't happen. 3.6 Mutual Vehicle - I didn't activate my Jeep, so there's no vehicle phase. 3.7.1 Update Fire Missions - There was no mortar/artillery activity, so doesn't happen. 3.7.1b Evaluate PC Markers - Yay something's happening! Now the fun starts. There are so many cool mechanics in this, here we go. We have two PCs to check, since I have friendly units on two cards with PC markers. They're both C. First, I check the player aid to see how many cards to draw for each.  Next, I randomly decide which PC to check first - but how to do we do that with no dice? With cards, of course! I have two PCs, so I want a number between 1-2. I draw a card, and at the bottom, look at the column labeled "2". That's my random number. I got a 2, so I'm going to eval the second (right) PC first.  To do this, sort of like how we checked for cover, I'm going to draw 4 cards (since we're at "No Contact" right now) and look for "Contact" at the top of one of them.  And there it is. So now, we find a random number from 1-10 to figure out what is going to attack us. 9. Let's see...  9 is a "LMG Nest". Let's see what exactly that is.  (I snapshotted this wrong) Well, it's a Light Machine Gun unit, in Foxholes, that is unspotted, and firing on us. Great. So next we pick another random 1-10 number to find out where it goes. 10. "Front right at max LOS". Okay, time to talk about LOS. A unit can always see into an adjacent card, no matter what. If the adjacent card has white borders, the unit can see through it, if not, it can't. So, the Marsh to our front-right has dark green borders, blocking LOS - that's our "max LOS". Hopefully that makes sense. So, we place our LMG unit north-east of us, under Foxholes, unspotted (marked with a PC ? marker), and firing on us.  Now we get to talk about combat a little. I'll get to the meat of it later, but you need to understand that this is not a tactical game per se. It's an operations game. Your squads are smart enough to know when to fire on the enemy. The enemy is smart enough to know when to fire on you. As soon as a squad spots another squad, they're going to open fire. The "PDF" marker shows the primary direction of fire that the unit is shooting in. Obviously, you can't cross another squad's PDF, or your units will be shot. The destination for the fire gets a VOF (volume of fire) marker, depending on what kind of fire is going into it: small arms, automatic fire, heavy fire, grenades, snipers, etc. So, since he sees me and has a machine gun (an automatic weapon), he has a PDF pointing at me, and puts an automatic VOF in my terrain card. I don't put anything toward/on him, since he's unspotted at this time. Not good. Alright, let's evaluate the other one. Since we're now at "CONTACT", we draw 3 cards instead of four. And, yes, I made contact. Draw for what it is annnnnd... a 3. gently caress. Incoming Mortar Strike. An enemy mortar spotter shows up, and all of a sudden, mortar shells are exploding in my terrain. So, I place an "Incoming!" marker in my terrain card (per the Enemy package listing). I draw a 10 and the German spotter gets placed at front left max LOS. Since the default cover for this mission (per the mission book) is "Trenches", I place him under Trenches, unspotted, with a PDF marker pointing toward me. I will say, I don't think the PDF is required here, since the spotter doesn't actually have any weapons and can't shoot me per se, but only calls for artillery fire on a certain terrain. But, it's a mnemonic to help me remember where to apply combat results, so I'm doing it.  Wow, two enemies and I can't see either one, and I'm getting fired on. This is turning out just as good as I hoped. 3.7.2 Combat Effects - this happens mutually, so it doesn't matter what order I resolve them in. I usually go top-to-bottom, left-to-right, but it doesn't really matter. I have two squads with VOF markers that I need to resolve, and no enemies with VOF markers. 1/1st Squad: +2 for the terrain (number in the upper left); +1 for cover; -2 for being exposed; -3 for the incoming mortar fire (I know it says -1 on the marker, but that's only for vehicles. For every else, you use the number on the Spotter's counter, which is -3). That gives us a net combat modifier (NCM) of -2. Not great. So, another stroke of brilliance, you draw a card and look on the left side for the NCM value you figured out.  It's a hit. A "pin" is just marked with a pin marker, but for a "hit" we have to go one step further and draw another card, looking at the hit results near the bottom.  Since this squad is "line" experience level, the result is "FC". In this game, units are just reduced by steps outright. They have various "limited action teams" they can become, so that they're limited in their use, but not always straight-up dead. The 1/1st Squad is a three step unit. "FC" means that I turn on of those steps into a Fire Team (useless except for really basic firing), and one of those steps into a Casualty (completely useless, just lies on the field). I flip the Squad over to it's 2-step side and add a Fire Team to the card. Then I reduce the 2-step squad into a 1-step Fire Team, and add a Casualty to the card. When a squad is reduced from 2-steps to 1, it becomes a Fire Team. So... now I have 2 Fire Teams and a Casualty on the card, thanks to the incoming mortar fire.  (I usually keep things stacked, but I separated it out to show better.) 1/2nd Squad: +2 for the terrain; +1 for cover; -2 for being exposed; -1 for automatic fire. That gives us a NCM of 0, which I can live with. I draw a card, and....... MISS. I think I actually let out a sigh of relief when I saw that. So, the enemy missed this round. But never fear, the enemy doesn't stop shooting! Another interesting thing about FOF is that PDFs and VOFs don't move or stop just because the destination unit moves away. When the enemy moves, you may not know about it, so you're still unloading ammo into that Hedgerow or whatever. They don't stop firing until you order them to Cease Fire, and they don't fire in a different direction until you order them to Shift Fire (that's a generalization, but if any exceptions come up I'll mention it). 3.8 Clean Up Phase - The only things we have to do are remove the "Exposed" markers, since my units are done running around. L And here is our map after turn 1. Not a whole lot happened, but at the same time, a lot of action happened.  If you guys enjoyed this, let me know and I'll keep it going. If not, I'll stop. Either way, just wanted to share the fun.
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Jan 9, 2015 23:20
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I've never actually seen one of these go past the first turn or so, so it'd be nice for you to keep going. 
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Jan 9, 2015 23:31
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My tips: 1) That way madness lies. 2) Open the vassal module with winrar and substitute some monochromatic background for this dumb default photo that I hate. I also found it useful to remove unit stacking away in the module, for purposes of pretty pictures. 3) I don't see no bitching about the sequel's release date. Davin Valkri posted:I've never actually seen one of these go past the first turn or so, so it'd be nice for you to keep going. Hey, I think it was like three. [edit] COOL CORN posted:elegant Lichtenstein fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Jan 10, 2015 |
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Jan 10, 2015 00:12
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| # ? May 21, 2024 04:29 |
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I'd definitely like to see more. I'm unlikely to be picking Fields of Fire up if it's reprinted this year (COIN games instead) so this way I can live vicariously through you.
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Jan 10, 2015 00:37
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