Posted on

MacArthur did not return… (Labor Day Churchill Playthrough)

by

mark-herman1I 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

Post Conference 1 situation

Posted on

Talon Tuesday Issue #1 – Dice Tower Convention 2015

by

talontuesdays

“Talon Tuesdays” is an article series appearing on InsideGMT periodically on Tuesdays.  It features articles from the Talon development team regarding the game’s design, development and upcoming release.

————

Issue #1 – Dice Tower Convention 2015

I had the pleasure of taking Talon to Dice Tower Con 2015 in Orlando, FL this past June. It was my second trip to the convention, having gone in 2014 as well. It’s a fantastic convention and really well run (kudos to Heather Mann and Patrick Havert, the chief organizers). They predominantly have “mainstream” gamers there with only a few traditional war gamers peppered in. This was exactly the reason I’ve brought Talon to the convention for the last two years.

tt1

I believe that Talon, like Jim Krohn’s other GMT product “Space Empires: 4x”, has broad appeal. It’s a really accessible, easy to pick up but difficult to master tactical war game.  Demo-ing the game countless times at Dice Tower has proven this to be true.

Patrick Barely, my right-hand man on the development team, and I printed and cut 4 prototype copies of the game.  Our goal at this year’s convention was to hold a tournament.  You would think it would be hard to hold a tournament for a game that has not yet been released, but Talon is very easy to pick up. The Dice Tower folks were kind enough to give us prime real estate in the main gaming room for our booth. This let us teach and demo the game to all passers-by for the first few days of the con. Eight of the people we taught felt confident enough to attend the tournament held on the Friday of the convention.  

Posted on

A Turn in a Nutshell: A Closer Look at “Welcome to Centerville”

by

centervillebanner3

You came back! What – you have a couple of simple questions? No worries, make yourself comfortable and ask away. “What does a turn look like in WtC?” No, that’s not a simple question but I’ll tackle it. This may take a few minutes – grab yourself a snack and a drink from the kitchen and I’ll set the board up to walk you through it. Ready?

Hey, just a reminder – this is PLAYTEST artwork. We’ll get the final art later on, this is just to get us through testing and examples like this. So you can follow along, here are the player colors:

  • Chad: white
  • Mark: tan
  • Bob: gray
  • Kai: dark brown

So here’s what we have:

Turn-pic1

Posted on

Wing Leader Scenario V24 Replay – Part 2

by

Wing Leader Cover

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

pg26pic1

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.

Posted on

Liberty or Death: The American Insurrection and the Event Cards (Part 1)

by

LOD Components2 for HB

The depth of the history around the American Revolution is captured in the Liberty or Death Event Cards.  Below is a sample of the Patriot Faction first Event cards with a brief discussion of the history.

Card Number 4. The Penobscot Expedition

LoD4The largest American naval expedition of the war, a flotilla of 19 warships mounted by the Provincial Congress of the Province of Massachusetts Bay sailed from Boston in July of 1779 for the upper Penobscot Bay in the District of Maine (then a part of Massachusetts colony.) The flotilla also included a ground force of more than 1,000 colonial troops as well as a 100-man artillery detachment under the command of Lt. Colonel Paul Revere. The goal was to reclaim control of what is now mid-coast Maine from the British who had seized it a month earlier, renaming it New Ireland. The Patriots paid a heavy price in the fighting over three weeks in July and August of 1779. As the British were reinforced the Patriot fleet was destroyed as it fled up the Penobscot River. It was one of Britain’s greatest victories of the war. The Expedition was also the United States’ worst naval defeat until Pearl Harbor 162 years later in 1941.

 

Posted on

Wing Leader Scenario V24 Replay – Part 1

by

WingLeaderBanner

Lee Brimmicombe-Wood’s newest design, Wing Leader: Victories 1940-1942, has been one of several big hits for us this summer. For you guys who don’t own or haven’t yet had a chance to play the game, we’re presenting here  (in several parts) Brett Dedrick’s terrific set of After Action Reports for a couple of the free scenarios that Lee has made available online. We hope you enjoy this detailed look inside the the game! – Gene

————

pg1pic1

Posted on

The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble – “The First World War”, 1756-1762 – Part 2

by

Here’s a link to Part 1 of this article.

1758 7YW:FG Turn Two: Beginning 1758, the strategic initiative still lay with the Prussians and their superb hard marching professional infantry. With the victory at Rossbach, the appreciative for Prussian support British felt that continuing the fight in Hanover was now feasible. Imagine how a British Player would react to such aid from their Coalition Camp Partner in a game of 7YW:FG  since complete enemy capture of all four Hanover’s Keys at the end of a year will automatically end the game.   

Rossbach

Posted on

Liberty or Death – Addressing Open Questions

by

As a historical boardgamer, my greatest hope in trying out a new game is that it will reveal to me something about some other time or place that I did not already understand.  Harold Buchanan’s Liberty or Death does that for me, even on the should-be familiar topic of the American Revolution.  Let me tell you how so…

A Puzzle

In 1994, my wife and I took a wonderful driving vacation through the Empire State—wonderful for me, at least, as we endeavored to visit all New York’s colonial-era historical exhibits that we could reach.  Our last stop before the drive back south to Virginia was Newtown Battlefield.

LoD 1

Posted on

Churchill Strategy Primer #3: Asymmetric Staff Abilities

by

Iron&Oakbn1(RBM)

Here are links to my first two strategy primers for InsideGMT:

Churchill Strategy and Tactics Tips

Churchill Strategy Primer #2: Defeating the Axis

mark-herman1My topic for this strategy discussion is to focus on the asymmetric staff abilities of each side and highlight strategy themes that I have not seen yet in the general discussions on BGG.

First here is a general analysis of the each sides asymmetric capabilities. The decks were constructed to align each sides capabilities with my view of how they operated during the conferences. If you were to do an analysis of the staff with values and attributes assumed to always be played on the proper attribute you would find that the total strength of the decks lays out as follows:

US: 99
UK:92
USSR: 83**

**=Nyet national characteristic situationally adds 1 to Soviet staff cards.

In each case I assigned the CoS as a 1 value plus their attribute, so there is some variation based on the strength die roll. Clearly this is not exactly how it would ever play out, but it demonstrates each staff’s strength if played efficiently to maximize a cards value.

Now on the surface you would think that the Soviets are way outclassed, so I will begin my analysis with Stalin.

Posted on

The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble – “The First World War”, 1756-1762 – Part 1

by

Readers interested in learning more detail about the play of 7YW:FG should read the our earlier article, The 7 Years War: Frederick’s Gamble – Playtest Report.

7YWFG Map

Designer Greg Ticer’s hand-drawn 7YW:FG playtest map.

Theaters of Operation and General Introductory Overview

The fighting depicted in The Seven Years War: Frederick’s Gamble game (7YW: FG) can in historical terms be divided into distinct theaters of operation. The naval conflict, abstracted in the game, was chiefly between the British and the French, as were the conflicts in India, North America, the Caribbean and elsewhere which, when including the broader European stage, result in many deeming this conflict “The First World War”. 

Fredericks Gamble NA Theatre copyMINI-MAP NORTH AMERICA: On the North American frontier, the British suffered early defeats because their army was not effectively trained nor equipped for wilderness fighting. By 1758 these deficits had been remedied and the tide turned in favor of the British. During 1759, known to history as the “Anno Mirabilis” (Year of Miracles), the British launched a three-pronged offensive against the last French controlled territory and, by end of that year, achieved their aim of destroying France’s North American colonial presence.  In 7YW:FG  terms, that colonial theater of operations would be considered “Dominated” and the British enabled to annually transfer troops, e.g. strength points (SP’s), out of North America.