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Messages - British_Mike

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1
Hi there,

sorry for being away. A lot of my work is in and on Iraq, so I got kinda busy summer 2014 onwards.

 I am now in the midst of staging and moving house a-gain (just a short-range shuffle) but I'll try to get some stuff up about the Napoleonic game in late summer.

Maybe even get a autumn or late summer game of War of Liberation. The one and only multi-player playtest saw us whip through most of 1809-1810 in a single day - largely because the ASE&A players quickly rolled with the similarities in the game system. I think we could do 1809-1811 (18 turns) in a weekend for sure.

War of Liberation will get more visible. I just have to deal with some little guerrillas first.

Mike (Outremer)

2
Citadel - sorry but no more playtest reports - time got too short and we started processing a lot of turns.

But the basic end to the story was that the situation reversed in India (literally) because we lost all India but re-invaded into Calcutta.

China began a slow painful breakout from its mountain redoubt.

The US won a string of air-sea victories but never quite eliminated the Imperial fleet due to energetic Japanese ship-building.

The US liberation of various islands - New Guinea, Philippines, Rabaul, etc, got up a great head of steam but just too late to avoid a victory point defeat. One or two nasty failed amphibs put us fatally off-schedule.

3
And here is the late Spring 1809 turn report. This turn ends with double supply being drawn from the map areas,  the so-called"Green Forage" effect.

John is getting to grips with my defences but I managed to beat him back from all the main fortresses on the Portuguese border. First big British win against a French field army where I smashed his covering force at Ciudad Rodrigo. Ten thousand french dead is good news to slap on the walls of Piccadilly!

He has concluded the sieges of Saragossa and Gerona, so now has big forces freed up to send west to central Spain and Portugal. I need to get busy distracting him with little sieges, guerrilla warfare and naval landings along the coast.

The defensive lines of Torres Vedras outside Lisbon are almost ready - I'm aiming to hold off an assault on Portugal till the winter. We'll see what we can manage.

Cheers

Mike

[attachment deleted by admin]

4
And here is the first after-action report (AAR), covering Winter 1808/1809 and early Spring 1809 turns (each turn is two months).

Each piece is a brigade.

John and I are just learning the rules but so far they hang together nicely. The sieges have been especially fun.

Cheers

Mike

[attachment deleted by admin]

5
Dear all,

well, I have finally got the prototype of my slow burn game up and running. The game simulates the Spanish / Anglo-Portuguese struggle to evict the French Empire from Spain, 1808-1813. 

See the attached for the first of three playtest PDFs from the first turns I have been playing with John D.

This was started in 1994, and later had llfe breathed back into it by playing AsfE and seeing what was possible. Thanks Mark, John and the gang.

Thanks to all who fed into this: have a look and tell me what you think.

Cheers

Mike

6
Well we played Winter 42/43 and I am still hanging on in India. We had a helluva dingdong in the Bay of Bengal. Two carrier battles, Japanese and US airborne drops. The result: John succeeded in keeping his forces in India in supply. We have another tough fighting season ahead of us with the Allies defending Bengal and both sides pumping masses of forces into the Indian theatre.

Took out a Jap fleet carrier and got their production down to 40 with the first serious economic damage of the war. That's a start...

Turn report to come once we get the non-com finished.

Mike

7
Guys,

here are the Spring, Summer, Autumn turn reports. Much happened but it condensed down into a few key themes. The main one being, holy crap, John invaded India and has gotten to the gates of Bombay.

Have a look. I am hanging on by my fingernails on mainland Asia and he is about to bring out the Yamato and a new fleet carrier at the end of Winter 42/43. I need to land a hit somewhere soon as he is still building with 50PP a turn.

The subs are coming.

Cheers

Mike

8
Dear all,

John and I are a good few turns into a Pacific theatre playtest. House rules being tried include:

First Strike: One rule we are playtesitng is a prototype addition to the rules called the "First Strike" rule. This is basically an extension of the idea that ships shoot in order of precedence - Battleship, Cruiser, Destroyer - and rules that the side whose air struck first in an air-sea combat get to apply their effects to the enemy before receiving retaliatory air strikes back. Hence, score a Return or a Damage/Sink on an enemy carrier with a First Strike, they can't shoot back at your fleet with any embarked planes. The First Strike does not apply to attacks on targets in port. The idea of this is to give some advantage to mounting the first strike offensive actions that characterized the Pacific. I'm trying to tweak the naval comb at so that it more accurately resembles the nimble cut and thrust rather than two huge lumpy fleets shadowing each other.

Starting oil: We're playing with both sides starting with 13 points of "free" pre-war oil chits - in Japan and at Pearl. We are also letting these oil reserves be attacked just the same way that Strat Warfare / Port Interdiction damage is done. I figure that this gives the Jap the ability to split his air between the ships and the oil at Pearl if they want to think longer term. It opens up new targeting options for both sides as the war goes on, more flex opening moves by both sides, etc.

Jap Replenisher Fueling from Dutch East Indies: This is fun: we're going to test only allowing the Japs to load replenishers (except for the initial pre-war reserve) from the Dutch East Indies oil spots, up to the max value of those spots. The replenisher can load up from all three areas at the same time by sitting in the sea space between them. This represents the critical naval role at Dutch East Indies oil played in Jap naval fuelling situation.

Destroyers also have Initiative of 4. This makes a lot of sense and might be fun. Think about it: if air and subs are Initiative 4, why not destroyers? This would let destroyers move with aircraft to do anti-sub snapfire. Likewise would let destroyers take up their screening functions around fleets, and thus complicate carrier raids (to get within launching distance you need to take on the destroyer screen first). This rule does not apply to Jap destroyers working as Transports.

Counting aircraft as well as ships against port supply limit. Take a breath: this is not as crazy as it sounds. First logically - if you put an aircraft unit on an island it counts towards supply, but if you put 1-2 of them on a carrier they are suddenly free?  Second in terms of shaping the game to be more historical and fun: one of the reason we get the stupid-big lumpy fleets (which are boring) is that you can plant a dozen-plus ships plus aircraft on the big ports. But in reality, one of the reasons naval battles of the Pacific were often small, involving only parts of each fleet, is that the fleets were dispersed across multiple bases. This is certainly why it was hard to mass the equivalent of five fleet carrier groups in one place. If we had to split our forces out to get them back on a port during NCM, the following turns would be way more fun - to pul together a big fleet action would require good commanders, good initiative rolls, etc.

OK, that's the house rules. Find attached the first turn(s) reportm taking us all the way up to the end of Pearl Harbour.

We're halfway through Spring 42 turn. More updates to come.

Cheers

British Mike

9
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: World 1941 Game!
« on: March 27, 2012, 01:23:35 PM »
So I have a ton of questions, having just got a taste of the game before having to shoot off ...

1. What turn did you get to?

2. Was there ever a cross-Channel invasion into France?

3. How did you fight your way up Italy - it looked pretty tough to me.

4. How did the Kriegsmarine fare at the end?

5. Does Dire Bear get a Heavy Save?

I kinda feel like a jerk buying V weapons now, as the Axis really didn't have anything to be vengeful about. Maybe we can change them to "Victory" weapons?

Cheers

British Mike

10
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Partial rules playtest - Worcester MA
« on: September 27, 2011, 12:42:23 PM »
Dear all,

John and I started a short 1941 scenario playtest of some prototype rules. We tested the following:

 - land forces may non-combat move into any adjacent empty space, regardles of who owns it (though this rule does not affect any air or naval transportation of units)

 - naval "return" combat results end a unit's participation in a battle, just as air "returns" knock air units out of a battle.

 - all battles - air, land and sea, have a maximum 4-combat round limit.

Our Spring 41 turn - me as Axis, John as Allies - was a lot of fun.

The rules worked REALLY well.

 - the new NCM forced us to screen a lot of areas with infantry. We maintained contiguous front lines, and generally it felt "right". Let's see how it handles the coming summer double-mech move,

 - the naval combat was GREAT (I launched a big Italian-on Royal Navy attack, on a whim and got my ass kicked). The battle was much cleaner, simpler and easier to follow. My superior numbers looked like they might turn the battle my way, but Cunningham's re-rolls turned it around for John. We'll keep testing.

 - the time limit on battles was not really much of a factor in the Barbarossa battles as John weas getting out of dodge as soon as possible to salvage troops. But I did an impromptu two-division Falschirmjaeger drop on Athens that became a real nail-biter, in part due to the 4-turn limit. Think of it - if I had not destroyed the two Commonwealth divisons in Athens (I did, just!), my paras (as the attackers) would have automatrically been forced to retreat. But as they couldn't physically retreat, they would have been destroyed. An unanticipated side effect of the rule and a good one. Againm we'll  keep testing.

In terms of game turn events, here's a quick summary:

WEST:
 - John mounts close blockade of Brest to keep my battle cruiser bottled up.
 - first major RAF raide on Berlin ends with COMPLETE success for AAA. UK bomber fleet destroyed.

MED:
 - Hasty Regia Marina attempt to seize waters off Crete ends with Italian battleship destroyed, two cruisers damaged and sub sunk. Brits take just one cruiser hit.
 - Rommel smashes three-division UK force and UK abandons Tobruk.

BALKANS:
 - Axis tries to take Balkans at same time as Barbarossa. Slow going. Italians get trounced bt the Serbs.
 - Crazy German para drop on Athens succeeds, destroying two UK divisions.
 - Italian cruiser cuts off Balkans from reinforcement.

RUSSIA:
 - Soviet spoiling attack mauls Romanian army in Bessarabia.
 - Nazi tank columns capture Minsk and Zhitomir (very light German armour losses)
 - Russian Air Force puts up unusually stout resistance.
 - Soviets position major armoured forces far back in Kharkov/Kiev area ahead of summer blitz.

More next week!

British Mike

11
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: PACIFIC PLAYTEST!
« on: November 24, 2010, 05:28:28 AM »
Banzai banzai banzai!!!

A good result for the Axis.

Offsetting John's experience, Brian (and me for the sessions I was there) had some luck in terms of rules glitches. For instance, we all failed to correctly read that Chinese forces CAN enter Burma if Stillwell is present. Hence for quite a while the Burmese/China border was a secure flank for the Japs despite being completely unguarded; this made resourcing India a little easier.

My only observation on game balance - this was my first Pacific outing - is that it is probably much too easy to supply forces in the jungle. Might be worth making a "truck" piece (cost of 2) and saying that units in jungle areas can only be in-supply if they can draw line of supply AND (1) are in a space that also contains a port or (2) have a truck unit with them.  This simulates, in a simple way, the added cost and planning required to sustain jungle offensives.

It would also make for great "Chindit" / Merill's Marauders pieces that could be supplied in jungle as long as there was an Allied transport aircraft within range during the check supply phase.

Oh, and the US needs a weak/cheap paratroop piece - maybe a 2/3 (3 offensive value on first round) to represent regimental not divisional strength.

Cheers

Mike

PS. Lesson #1: Never ever Banzai counter-offensive!!

12
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: PACIFIC PLAYTEST!
« on: November 02, 2010, 01:27:07 PM »
[quote author=Mark link=topic=340.msg3914#msg3914 date=1288733231

I guess we could investigate a 3 air to air value and your suggestion of a +1 modifer for attacks made against them if you guys think it wors better.
Quote

As a mainly Allied player, I can see the appeal of keeping hvy bombers as tough as they are. They really perk you up as the force builds in 1942.

In terms of accuracy though, I think our current rules reflects the myth of the self-defending bomber.

I agree with Brian that a rule fix is needed to prevent so many fighters from getting killed by bomber defensive fire. That is the gist of his suggested fix, I believe. There is probably a history buff reading this (Joe? James?)  who has stats on German fighter losses to B-17 defensive fire. 

It is just plain silly that some fighters can pin a B-17, in theory as it sits on its base, and then have to battle it out at -1 air-to-air value. Maybe that's a broader problem with the issue of airbase attacks.

Cheers

Mike

13
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: PACIFIC PLAYTEST!
« on: November 02, 2010, 12:13:24 PM »
I am sure Slim is being as unhelpful as possible and spending plenty of time in the cooler, Alec Guiness-style.

We made very effective use of paratroops in India, where there has been no Allied air power until just now. This, along with an amphib, allowed for a very rapid break-in to a depth of two Indian spaces. The tank we brought along has helped by meching into empty spots. And Yamashita was made for this kind of fighting.

Unfortunately - imagine the groans coming from Brian and I - our 2x paratroop assault on Bombay was defeated on the first turn - freshly-graduated Indian infantry, fighting from their training bases, destroyed both paras in round 1. Ouch!!

Cheers

Mike

14
After Action Reports / Playtesting / Re: PACIFIC PLAYTEST!
« on: November 01, 2010, 02:37:51 PM »
The position at the moment (start Autumn 43), from the Japanese perspective, is:

 - MacArthur is fighting one hell of a defence of Bombay - it is very tight. If the US had lost the last initiative roll, India would have been unlikely to survive. In fact they won, so MacArthur can at least hold on with another pinning attack.

 - The Allies are ashore on Papua New Guinea but will have to march up the island to the other end where the Japs are building a redoubt.

 - The Japanese have a lot of airpower spread across PNG and the Phillippines. The Japanese fleet is spread between the Carolinas and Japan, with a secondary fleet off India.

 - The Japanese were doing very well until the Summer of 43 - all carriers intact, all carrier air intact - then we lost two carriers to subs, one fully looaded with all air. We're now using islands as carriers (they seem to be harder to sink).

 - China is getting ugly - we lost Shanghai due to force dispersal and being passive. Things are fairly balanced but the Chinese keep multiplying.

It is a WILD ride witrh all these carriers and rerolls.

The Japs have enjoyed a lot of PP - we have nice air, decent sub force, still lots of capital ships. Unfortunately the US have more: 2-hit carriers, 6 AA-value fighters, heavy bombers on the way, and our best naval commanders are gone now.

Banzai Banzai Banzai!!!!

Mike

15
Mark,

you're betting double or nothing that the Allies can win? Bad bet, man!

I wish you luck though.  My feel - reinforced by the last game - is that the Allied player must ruthlessly stick to their build plan, no matter what the Axis are doing.  Only then can the amphib sets roll off the production lines at the right time to begin their journey to their assembly points by the right dates. For me, the most critical assets are:

 - ASW sets = destroyers, bombers
 - Africa set = Australian inf/forts and arty, British tanks, maxed from the outset until the end of 1940.
 - Amphib sets = transports (at least 12 by end 1942), landing craft built throughout war, DD tanks, and a Mulberry on the shelf from 1942 onwards.
 - Airborne sets = must have 1-2 in position by Torch; 3-4 by Husky; 5-6 by Overlord

Air superiority is trickier. I think that a baseline RAF home defence fighter force of 3 Hurricanes and 3 Spits may worthwhile, but it is not essential. Heavy AA and a stronger UK land force would vouchsafe against invasion of Great Britain. As long as there are enough Spits to fill three carriers, I would still argue that strong fighter builds do not need to commence until the latter parts of 1942. American power, mixed with consistent strong Soviet air builds, can easily create the fighter force needed for cross-Channel air supremacy by the end of 1943.

Heavy bombers are so versatile that they are a must from Winter 41/42 onwards, surged early in both the US and UK to have the baseline force available for use at the earliest moment.

Really wish I could be there right now for the rematch ... especially as I am in Baghdad. Heading to arse-end of Anbar tomorrow for a recce. Sleeping bags, bug spray, the lot ...

Cheers

Mike

PS. An idea I heard mentioned was partial secrecy for naval forces. How about being allowed to use a number of fleet markers instead of models, and keeping the models themselves on the fleet cards behind a screen. Maybe two German, two Italian, and four Allied? Worth trying.


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