For those of you who have been following Mark’s “What Was Old is New Again” seriescovering Peloponnesian War design and strategy, please enjoy another selection from the years ago published Volume 28 #1 of The General. This four part article series is a replay of Peloponnesian War featuring Kevin Boylan as the Athenian Player, Doug Whatley as the Spartan Player, and Mark Herman as the Neutral Commentator. To read parts one and two, follow the links here and here. Enjoy! -Rachel
For those of you who have been following Mark’s “What Was Old is New Again” series covering Peloponnesian War design and strategy, please enjoy another selection from the years ago published Volume 28 #1 of The General. This four part article series is a replay of Peloponnesian War featuring Kevin Boylan as the Athenian Player, Doug Whatley as the Spartan Player, and Mark Herman as the Neutral Commentator. To read part one, follow the link here. Enjoy! -Rachel
For those of you who have been following Mark’s “What Was Old is New Again” series covering Peloponnesian War design and strategy, please enjoy another selection from the years ago published Volume 28 #1 of The General. This four part article series is a replay of Peloponnesian War featuring Kevin Boylan as the Athenian Player, Doug Whatley as the Spartan Player, and Mark Herman as the Neutral Commentator. Enjoy! -Rachel
In Part I of Joel’s video AAR of Next War: Poland, he covered the action during turns 1 and 2 of the campaign game. In this article, he’ll take us into the action during turns 3 and 4. Enjoy! – Gene
Designer Joel Toppen is well known among our customers for his outstanding solitaire designs Navajo Wars and Comancheria, as well as his amazing work in creating so many of the VASSAL modules for our games. Recently, Joel took a break to actually play someone else’s game, and in the process gave all of us players a gift, in the form of a bunch of short video clips that combine to create an AAR of his play of the advanced game (with some optional rules) of Next War: Poland. It’s not often that we get to see the advanced campaign laid out in all its glory, much less get a thoughtful video overview of strategy and processes by someone with Joel’s understanding of games and systems. And given that this is a theatre of potential war that is of great interest to many on both sides of the Atlantic right now, we thought you all would enjoy getting a look at how Joel’s game played out.
Note that the videos below all link to Joel’s Twitter account (follow him!), but we wanted to archive them all here on InsideGMT, in order, so that you could all access them easily whenever you pull out your Next War: Poland to play on your game table.
With many thanks to Joel for creating such an excellent group of videos to help us all understand both the game and the current and potential situation in Eastern Europe and the Baltic, we heartily present and endorse these videos, which we will present in several parts (grouped to cover a turn or two at a time). We hope they bring you much enjoyment and instruction as you learn and enjoy your game. – Gene
Pakistan started it. It was supposed to be a short, sharp push over the border into the disputed territory. Pakistan had prepared well, both militarily and diplomatically. Initially, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (IROP) gained tactical surprise over the armed forces of the Republic of India (ROI). Diplomatically, Pakistan secured the support of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
That was three weeks ago. Now? Well, it’s all over now. As radioactive clouds still hover over the war zone, a new regime is being established in Islamabad. Beijing is facing the most severe diplomatic pressure it has faced since the Korean War, and an international team of soldiers and specialists are preparing to move into the region to help with the ecological disaster now unfolding.
How did it come to this?
The following is a replay of Wing Leader Scenario V25 “Singapore Sling” which is one of the supplemental scenarios provided by Lee B-W online..
In order to win this scenario you will definitely need to bomb the airfield and at least take it out (6 hits). The Sally’s you are using have a bomb value of 20 so you will need at least 25% of the bombs from both bombers hit. That means that when you bomb you will need to roll an 8 or higher each time you bomb (before modifiers). So you will want to be sure to keep the negative modifiers to a minimum.
There are three paths that the Japanese can take to the target.
1. Dive down as soon as possible to altitude 0 and head straight for the Airfield and bomb. Then RTB (Return to Base).
Here is Part 3 of the Wing Leader Scenario V24 Replay. If you missed Part 1 and Part 2, go here and here to read them first.
Turn 7 Setup Phase
None.
Turn 7 Tally Phase
Kittyhawk D will try to Tally SM.79 X which is 1 square away. He needs to roll a 1 or higher. He rolls a 4-2 (Behind Kittyhawk D) = 2. SM.79 X is tallied.
Spitfire P will try to Tally SM.79 X which is 2 squares away. He needs to roll a 2 or higher. He rolls a 5+1 (Veteran) =6. SM.79 X is tallied.
Here is the map after the Tally Phase:
I just had the best Labor Day weekend with my whole family hanging out, eating, drinking, swimming, and playing Churchill plus a little MechWarrior. My boys and I played a campaign game with my son Grant (Stalin), son-in-law Dan (Roosevelt) and I was Churchill. Grant and Dan were play testers and both of them are very skilled at the game, so I had to play very well or lose. In fact the last time I played two games with them at Monster Con in Arizona they each won one game, to my none, which they have not let me forget. The trash talk indicated that they were confident of a repeat performance.
Conference 1
Now when I play with the boys it always works out in the beginning that they are not going to let the old man have any leverage, so at the end of the first conference I actually won no issues. Stalin won the conference and managed to gain sufficient offensive support to advance against stiff German opposition. During play testing Grant specialized as Stalin and he invented most of the known Soviet strategies. New players and those who have not had success as Uncle Joe need to remember that the Soviets are locked in a titanic struggle on the Eastern front. They need to focus on gaining offensive support in excess of 5 to advance. It is important that they advance at least once during the first two conferences to keep pace with the Western front.
This takes winning Western Allied directed offensives and production. The issue choices based on which cards you are holding determining whether you pick two directed offensive issues or a one of each. Grant’s performance was a primer in how to dominate scoring with the Soviets. As it turned out he was just a little too good at it this time.
Once D-Day has occurred continuing this strategy should result in at least one breakthrough, there were two in this game, giving the Soviets military leverage. With all concerned focused on Europe and the US early focus on political moves there were no advances in the Pacific.
Post Conference 1 situation
Here is Part 2 of the Wing Leader Scenario V24 Replay. If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.
Turn 4 Setup Phase
None.
Turn 4 Tally Phase
Spitfire A will try to Tally SM.79 X which is 3 squares away. He needs to roll a 3 or higher. He rolls a 3 +1 (Veteran) = 4. SM.79 X is tallied.
