Messages

76

After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 03, 2015, 05:37:22 AM »

Autumn 1940

France fell in the Autumn ( finally ) and the Germans took many more casualties than I had hoped.  The initial victories in the Autumn and Winter of 1939 taking out the low countries early has ended in a very luke-warm victory over France late in 1940.  At least Norway fell and was occupied without a hitch.  Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have joined the Germans as the Axis gaze turns East.

77

After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 03, 2015, 05:29:43 AM »

The Axis (well, me) made their first major mistake in the Summer of 1940 by giving away the initiative. . .I think I wanted to react and be last with my planes - which I will not do again in this situation.  The Allies took advantage of getting the initiative by attacking Guderian's panzers (and winning), forcing him to retreat and unable to attack on the double mech phases.  While the Germans were able to take 4 French territories, France did not surrender and continued to fight into the Autumn.

The silver lining I suppose is that the Italians were able to defeat Grecce by themselves with relatively light casualties.

78

After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 03, 2015, 02:30:40 AM »

Yes - should be a communist there - good catch

79

After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 01, 2015, 12:35:20 PM »

In the Spring of 1940, the Italians invaded Crete and took Northern Greece.  The Allies defended Paris too well for a lightning strike right for the capitol, but contented themselves with taking most of Eastern France and cutting the Maginot Line out of supply.  The plan will be to mop up France in the Summer.  The Japanese continued to push the Chinese back into the hinterlands of mainland China, suffering only light casualties.

80

After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 01, 2015, 12:25:36 PM »

The game started pretty well for the Axis.  The chits fell in the Autumn of 1939 in a way that enabled the Germans to conduct a surprise assault on the Ardennes very early and drive the Belgian army back into Flanders.  The Japanese took and consolidated ground in China.
In the Winter, the Germans invaded Holland and took the rest of Belgium and were poised for a lightning strike into France in the Spring.

81

After Action Reports / Playtesting / October 2015 "Struggle-Con" game

« on: December 01, 2015, 12:17:18 PM »

Finally getting around to posting pics of the big game John hosted in October!  We had 9+ players gather for a big WW game that we played over 3.5 days.  The pic below shows all of the players - going counter-clockwise from the bottom left, we had Jeff and James as the Allies in the Pacific, George as the West Front Axis, Dave and John as the Western Allies, Ron as the Soviets, Craig and Mike as the Japanese and then me (taking the picture) as the East Front Axis. . . . Always fun when you have this many people involved in a single big game!

82

Rules Questions & Clarifications / Re: Questions on newest Rulebook (2015)

« on: November 28, 2015, 02:26:58 AM »

I'll change the purchase sheet to 8.  You should only have to print all the counter sheets once to have enough pieces for the game.

For my game, I only have 6 FW units and it is usually enough (though we did run out at ConSimWorld last year).  I would say 8 is enough.  There are always chips and other creative ways to cover if you end up in 1944, max build your Focke-Wulfs and none of them have been shot down.

Mark

83

Game Design / Re: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver & TBF Avenger

« on: November 25, 2015, 01:59:59 PM »

If players would like to use different / other miniatures for variety, I think that is fine.  For the Americans, they have one naval bomber unit representing all of their different types of naval attack aircraft.  For the British, the Swordfish unit represents their naval bombers (including the barracuda).   We could introduce a late war British naval tactical bomber.  Would the values be very different from the swordfish unit? 

I typically see the British put Typhoon units on their carriers late in the war.  While typhoons were not on carriers, the unit represents a good mix of air-to-air value and naval combat value (therefore representing a half group of corsairs and a half group of barracudas for example).

The challenge of introducing more units is that the spaces get increasingly crowded with many different types of unique units.

84

Rules Questions & Clarifications / Re: Questions on newest Rulebook (2015)

« on: November 21, 2015, 01:23:28 PM »

For the first question, the U.S. naval leader can use his air re-roll for any battle planes launched off of his carrier are in - either the Japanese attack against his fleet or the battle his planes are in in the adjacent space.  If he chooses not to use his leader in the Japanese attack against his fleet, he can use his re-rolls in the battle his planes are in attacking the Japanese - per rule 1.5.6

For the second question, you must assign your planes first and then AA is rolled per rule 13.1.  Rule 7.0.11 refers to snap fire - but I will change it to reflect the process in 13.1.  Air units are always assigned before AA is rolled.

85

Rules Questions & Clarifications / Re: Questions on newest Rulebook (2015)

« on: November 16, 2015, 10:53:07 AM »

All planes on a carrier get sunk with it if the carrier is moving while it is snap fired against (i.e. - if a British carrier with a swordfish onboard is moving strategically through a sea zone with an enemy sub & the sub snap fires and scores a hit when the carrier moves out of the sea zone - the swordfish would go down with the carrier.

In your harbor attack scenario, the US carrier in Port Moresby could launch its planes before it attempts to move out of the harbor, so the planes would not be on deck when the carrier moves.

Attacking Japanese planes would get the -2 drm on the first round of combat prior to the surface combat phase in the Japanese surprise Port Moresby attack you describe above. . .best not to leave your carriers in tactical range of the enemy.

Mark

86

Game Design / Re: Curtiss SB2C Helldiver & TBF Avenger

« on: November 16, 2015, 10:46:12 AM »

The Naval TAC Bomber unit represents all of these aircraft (Dauntless, Devastator, Avenger, etc.). . .just like medium bombers represent all the different types of medium bombers, not just B-25s

87

Game Design / Re: Doolittle Raid

« on: November 11, 2015, 08:00:30 AM »

Would need to start the US with that medium bomber unit I was considering.  Perhaps instead of the heavy bomber? 

I'm not sure how it would work game mechanics wise. . .On the Winter NCM phase after Pearl Harbor, a replenishment ship with the carrier and a medium bomber wold need to be moved somewhere near Midway.  If all of the Japanese carriers and planes were out of range of Japan, it could maybe be pulled off.

Mark

88

Game Design / Re: Doolittle Raid

« on: November 11, 2015, 01:51:56 AM »

I think this could be a fun house rule.  I don't see how it would break the game in any way. 

I think it is too much of a small scale operation though for a game that is more strategic in scope and not sure it needs to be included in the standard rules, but for an optional or house rule, why not?

I would say that on the 'land planes' phase, that bombers should not be allowed to land on the carriers - they can only be placed on the carriers on the non-combat movement phase.

Mark

89

Rules questions from first edition / Re: Optional airbase attacks clarification

« on: November 05, 2015, 05:13:41 AM »

Hi Fuji - yes - this is the case both in the original game and in the second edition. You can land back in the space where the 1 round airbase attack took place.

90

Rules Questions & Clarifications / Re: Pacific Setup & Rules

« on: November 03, 2015, 02:03:08 AM »

OK - this is all fixed and updated in the Drop Box files.

Mark