The General posted:

Are there any good wargames for android?

COOL CORN posted:

A buddy of mine created Wartime Cronies, which is free and pretty entertaining. I enjoy it a lot.

Lichtenstein posted:

tomdidiot posted:

broken tables

MikeCrotch posted:

timg those images, bro

COOL CORN posted:

My wife was always complaining about how I take up the dining room table to play my games, so gosh darn it I decided to make a table with a removable top so she can have her dinner table and I can have my gaming table.

I'm pretty excited to build it!

wins32767 posted:

I like that it's third reich in there.

COOL CORN posted:

A3R may or may not be the reason I'm building the table... :X

Jobbo_Fett posted:

Are you working off a template or are you're designing it yourself?

tomdidiot posted:

This was my second play of Empire of the Sun. The first time, Tekopo won a Political Will victory on turn 8 or so after he wiped my carriers when I did a foolhardy raid on Rabaul, and stopped me making progress of war because I had no carriers to support any offensive actions. I wanted to have another go at the allies and see if I could do better this time than the last.

Turn 2: The Japanese got a very good start; they had lots of high Activation cards. He opened with I-Go to wipe out every allied Air Unit in Malaya and the Phillipines, followed it up with West Force, that allowed them to quickly take over much of Sumatra, land troops in force on Java, and take Borneo. I played Acadia conference early at Kendari, just to try to give me the opportunity to react in the East Indies, but he responded by using his next OC card to wipe ABDA off the map, and then taking Biak and Guadalcanal. To top it all off, he knocked my War in Europe status down into the Amber range as well! By the end of turn 2, the Japanese had all the Allied troops in Southeast Asia on lockdown, and established a good blocking position in the Solomons.

My hand was weird – I had a lot of high op/offensive cards but could do little more than withdraw Macarthur, build the Jarhat road and ping his carriers with submarines.

Turn 3:
My turn 3 hand was perhaps incredible - I had 3 of the 6 surprise cards in the Allied Deck; Galvanic, watchtower and Brewer! These would have been excellent on Turn 4, but was quite annoying turn 3, as I had very few units to exploit them with. Tekopo started turn 3 by grabbing Wewak and Vogelkop, then proceeding to continue clearing the British and Dutch out of Malaya and the East Indies. Fortunately for me, he had to spend so many of his activations clearing out the remnants of the Dutch, British and Filipinos that I could actually use my hand. I shoved Watchtower into the Future Offensives queue, used Galvanic to take Kwajalein with a marine brigade and the US Pacific Fleet, then had to send the fleet back to Funfafuti as the Kido Butai came roaring back east. In retrospect, I should have pulled the fleet back even further, as he then sent the entire might of the Kido Butai at the US Fleet in Funafuti! Luckily for me, we both round one quarter results, which saved the US Pacific Fleet from serious damage. As he had played first, I also actually managed to sneak the Marines from Kwajalein plus a small Task Force to surprise the Japanese Fleet at Rabaul with Operation Brewer.

Turn 4 was dicey. With my new naval base at Rabaul, I was in a great position to threaten the Japanese South Seas HQ in Truk. I decided to start by striking at the Kido Butai directly; I pulled Galvanic out of my Future Offensives queue and sent the entirety of the US Pacific Fleet at the Kido Butai, hoping there would be no reaction card, as I had already seen 2 code change cards on Turns 2 and 3, The fleets were at relatively parity, and I had an emergency repairs in hand to back it up, so I decided the risk was worth it. It paid off handsomely. He had no surprise cards in hand, and I was able to inflict 7 step losses, including 4 on the Fleet Carriers of the Kido Butai, for the loss of 2 step losses of my own. I then managed to waste half of my advantage by seperatating my 2 fleet carriers and sending them to a rear area port on their own. However, Tekopo then retaliated by attacking my damaged fleet carriers in Port Moresby. He pinned my main fleet at Rabaul with Fighters, and then sent the remnants of the Kido Butai, plus several air wings at my damaged carriers. Unfortunately for him, I had Commander Rochefort in hand, and was able to reinforce the fleet enough to deal serious damage to his attack air wings and even more damage to the escorts of the Carrier Fleet.

With much of the Kido Butai defanged, I then retrieved Galvanic with an ISR-ending card, struck again at the remnants, pretty much destroying them. I am then able to spend the rest of the turn pushing around New Guinea. Unfortunately, my attack on Wewak with 3 US Corps against 2 full strength Japanese Armies ended with him rolling a 9 and wiping out my entire attacking force, losing me a political will point, and forcing me to spend important Amphibious shipping points shipping the Australians in afterwards to prevent further Japanese reinforcements.

Meanwhile, in the China-Burma-India Theatre, the first serious Japanese attempt to invade India is rebuffed at Rangoon, with him suffering casualties similar to the ones I suffered at Wewak. With his last card, however, he manages to push my War in Europe down to the Red Zone!

Progress of War: Admiralty Islands, Kaiveng, Wewak.

5 – This is an uneventful turn. Progress of War for the next few turns is trivial; I have around 8 or so Islands in the Solomons left to milk for PoW, so I spend the rest of this turn setting up my continued offensive. I set the Australians up for an advance on Hollandia, use woodlark islands invasion to grab Green, and hence the other 3, unoccupied locations surrounding it, put a good card into the Future Offensive Queue, and keep harassing Japanese ships and planes while I can with my airforces.

Tekopo takes another punt at Burma, but that is again rebuffed in Rangoon.

Progress of the War: Green/Bougianville/Bajka/Woodlark

6 -
Now that my position has stabilised, I begin planning for my big push to blockade the Home Islands. I move up to Hollandia on the New Guinea coast, strike at a weakly defended Palau, and then I use a 1 Op card to bomb the Remanats of the Kido Butai at Saipan and Tinian without giving the nasty-looking Japanese fleet that had recently arrived at Leyte the time to react. I get my first taste of Kamikaze cards (one of four that would be played against me this game!), but still manage to clear Saipan and Tinian, and land Marines to secure my B29 base. In the meantime, I keep milking the Solomons for Progress by taking New Georgia, and throwing an air unit into it to knock the Japanese Army there out of supply. Tekopo is slowly consolidating his forces, and building up for another big push into the CBI.

Progress of the War: Hollandia, Palau, Saipan/Tinian, New Georgia

7 -
My initial plans for this turn were incredibly ambitious; to strike at Davao and Leyte in order to clear out the Kongo and the remaining pre-war Japanese units. Unfortunately, this was not to be. He plays Halsey’s Typhoon on me, and I have no other multi-activation card that would allow me to deploy safely. I therefore have to content myself with grabbing otherwise useless one hex islands for progress of war.
In the CBI, Tekopo continues pushing at Rangoon, but is again rebuffed by the British.

Finally, I finish the turn by milking the rest of Solomons for Progress of War after Tekopo pulls a Corps back to defend the home islands with Tokyo Express.

Progress of the War: Ponape, Guadalcanal, Gasmata

8 –
Sensing blood, I try again to land on Leyte and Mindanao in one go with S-Day, but this is rebuffed by yet another Typhoon card. I play Halsey to move SOPAC HQ to Palau, but the 7 activations means I can only deploy safely on Leyte, and have to waste another card to activate other units for the invasion of Davao. I am able to keep pounding at his ships and planes in the meantime to pave my way for the invasion of Formosa.
The Japanese Burma Offensive finally succeeds in driving the British out of Rangoon, with heavy casualties on both sides, and this is followed up by a Ghandi card to prevent British reinforcements. However, this happens quite late in the turn, and the British are able to stabilise in Mandalay to prevent a political will loss.

Progress of the War: Samar/Leyte, Davao, Ulithi,

9 -
Because of Japanese success in the CBI, and because the Japanese are off the New Guinea Mainland, the are Allies forced to divert Aussie IV corps to Dhaka to stem further Japanese advances. I finally see my 2nd war in Europe card. And my 3rd. And my 4th, which is not ideal; I wanted one to break my Red lock, but I also wanted some offensive cards to keep the pressure on Tekopo.

I try an ambitious amphibious invasion, with landings on Formosa and Okinawa at the same time. While the Okinawa invasion goes through, the remaining Japanese Air and Naval Forces are able to present enough of a threat to force the lightly escorted invasion fleet to retreat, though, luckily, the escorts were unharmed. With only an amphibious shipping point wasted, to make progress of war, I have to land on Luzon itself, something I was trying to avoid, as it would involve fighting a Japanese 18/12. However, smothering attacks, as well as supply problems first knock it down to a 9/12, then prevent it from reacting when I land in North Luzon.

With Okinawa, North Luzon and Clark under my control, I now have a complete ZOI lock on Japan. Unfortunately, Tek drops the Tinian air unit into Shanghai, I am unable to kill it, and with his last activation manages to pull no less than 5 ground and air units out of the CBI to send to defend the Home Islands to the last. Perhaps most tellingly, none of them were despatched to Pusan, leaving only the Korean army on the peninsula.
Progress of War: Okinawa, Clark airfield, North Luzon

10 – My first 7 card hand since Turn 4! By this point Tekopo has almost no air or naval assets on the board. I am able to smother his air units with US carrier aircraft and liberate Manila. I follow this up by invading the Korean Peninsula at Pusan, and pinning/bombarding the Korean Army in Seoul. With Pusan, Okinawa, Luzon, Leyte, Mindanao and Port Moresby under my control, the Japanese Empire is now cut completely in half, and with no air units or naval units left (bar two small and very vulnerable units still holding out in Truk), the rest of the war is academic – japan will inevitably surrender to a Blockade on Turn 12 (having previously been strategically bombed), even without the Atomic Bomb. Tekopo graciously concedes.
Progress of war: Manila, Pusan, Prospectively Seoul, Jolo

Here are some lovely pics of the game at the Japanese concession, with the US in South Korea and the home Islands under blockade



THis game went a lot better than my previous game - I was able to keep my fleet concentrated, and out of the battle until the ideal situation (Surprise attack with around 100 attack factors against the Kido Butai, and with a low chance of an intercept card in Tek's hand) materialised. I think playing the Allies is all about managing Turns 4 and 5 - these are probably the most difficult turns, as you are expected to mount an offensive, while you still do not have overwhelming numerical superiority, and more importantly, are still short on ASPs. Running offensives while short on ASPs is an *incredibly* dicey proposition, as you are both 1. Risking PW loss from losing Marine units and 2. Risking PW loss from not actually making Progress of War! This was OK while I still had hexes in New Guinea to take, but was becoming quite problematic after clearing the Japanese off the Mainland. I would love the chance to be able to play EOTS with an American player with 8 or 9 ASP points to muscle around at some point!

Other Key points I learnt as the Allies:
- You can't win the war in the CBI, so don't even try. Hold the line and let the Japanese attack you; the only place probably worth taking the offensive for is Rangoon. Rangoon is a natural defensive position because Japanese army air fights at half strength from Bangkok
- Use air for everything. Use air for naval battles. Use air for land battles. Use air to pin. I never used all 5 of my air replacement steps during any of my turns.
- Australians dying don't cause Congress to panic. Use Aussies for your battles in New Guinea if you can. or you'll end up losing 72 steps of Yankees like me!
- Strat Redeploying Air and having them come back next turn
- Essex-class carriers are not invincible.
- Bypassing strong points is a good thing. Bypassing strong points then leaving the units behind trapped under Air ZOi is even better.

COOL CORN posted:

I got the idea off of some blog that I can't find anymore, but then planned it out from memory. It's a pretty straightforward design.

Do Not Resuscitate posted:

RIP FitL?!

attackmole posted:

Looked at the GMT newsletter and got tempted to get in on the P500 for second printing of Churchill. A) I hope it takes a month or two to get the orders because I really don't have money this month and B) I'm gonna put it right beside my copy of Cuba Libre that I've yet to convince anyone in real life to play with me.

I can tell my autism is acting up whenever I feel the need to buy a wargame because they mostly go into a pile of games that I play less than once a year. But urrrrggggh they look good.

e: I just realized that mentioning my unplayed copy of Cuba Libre while several posters in the thread are waiting on a P500 reprint of it is wonderfully smug!

Lord Frisk posted:

Combat Commander at half price looks pretty tempting. Should I get it? I have no other squad level games

COOL CORN posted:

Probably just knocked the pieces around.

I hope

INinja132 posted:

Are there any good relatively simple strategic level wargames on PC focusing on the Pacific theatre? I don't really want to learn War in the Pacific, but don't know of any other games that cover the Pacific at that sort of level. Something akin to Empire of the Sun but in computer game version would be good (and preferably somewhat easier).

COOL CORN posted:

They might as well have just called this mission "Fields of Fire" cause it's all that most people ever see of the game.