Sunday, December 28, 2014

Borodino

Picked up a cheap copy of Borodino by GMT Games and a Richard Berg design. I was not able to score Triumph and Glory so I had to settle for this Napoleonic title. 

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10986/borodino-battle-moskova-1812




5 hours in War in the East is a slugfest

For the most part I still don't know what I am doing in War in the East. Despite some tutorials I scrounged up online some of the mechanics elude me in the hidden background that is PC programming. However the game offers enough AI help with air and supply that I am able to get on.

Not being one to settle for small scenarios I decided to refight the entire war on the Eastern Front and after playing 5 hours straight I am hooked. Not sure I could it again but it is worth a shot if I learn it better.

I started off fairly disorganized and my fear is that I learn as I go and realize I can't adjust certain mistakes. 

It is early September 1941 and I have just taken Kiev. I did not use enough blitzkrieg tactics and I am afraid I have given the Soviets plenty of time to regroup. I am also no where near Leningrad. Still breakthroughs may still be possible but I think I overused my units.

Here are some screens of where it stands in order from top to bottom. The Soviets just topped 1 million casualties.

I have War in the West but don't want to touch it until I feel I have exhausted the East Front game.








Saturday, December 27, 2014

West Front Campaign Series AAR: Gabr Saleh Debut of the Honey

Campaign Series AAR with West Front 

I was playing the Afrika Korp in this one. This is a short 10 turn scenario

The situation: 19 November, 1941 5km N of Gabr Saleh, 35km SW of Sollum, Libya: 

The 8th Army's attacks on the 18th during the battle of Operation Crusader had created a very murky and confused situation.On the 19th, in an effort to take control of the battle, Rommel ordered the 21st Panzer south to probe for the enemy armor. At about 4:00 PM the tanks of the 5th Panzer Regiment, with some artillery and AA guns, led by Col. Stephan ran into two regiments of the 4th Armoured Brigade north of Gabr Saleh. 5th RTR and 8th Hussars had been recently equipped with the new American M3 Stuart,nicknamed the "Honey" by British tankers. A sharp clash ensued with the Germans getting the upper hand before moving off to the east, toward Sollum.

On the first few turns I split my units into two groups each going for a separate objective area. I rolled into Gabr Slima early and encountered little resistance. I also took Gabr-Siaghi and poised my tanks on the hills overlooking the valley below waiting for the British. We started to exchange fire by turn 3. I had already locked down the first two objectives however.


I had a lot of trouble at first with bouncing shots off the Stuart armor. I began to move around to get side shots as I play this game with armor facing rules turned on. I continued to exchange shots with the British tanks.  


Meanwhile on my left flank I moved on Bir Giof. There turns out to be a lot of British armor there and some reinforcements rolling in. I use artillery and air strikes on the hex but nothing really causes any damage. I finally mop up the first two objectives and on turn 9 out of 10 I make a mad dash for the last town of Bir Giof and bring all my armor to bear. I take the town barely and prepare for the British counter attack. Tank after tank exchanges long range fire and smoking vehicles are starting to litter the area. 


The Brits are severely weakened after the gamut of fire they had to move through to approach the town and are unable to make a decent counter attack to take the town. I now hold all 3 objectives and the game ends on turn 10 with a decisive Axis victory.



Dien Bien Phu component look

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Heroes of Normandie Commonwealth Army look see

Heroes of Normandie Commonwealth Army Box Unboxing:

http://youtu.be/u2wrhQ2Tgok


Gaming plans over Christmas

Few things I want to knock out. Among them are:

The Hunters


Thunderbolt Apache Leader


And Gary Grigsby War in the East (re-learning this one)


If I can get at least two of these done it will be a good holiday.

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Europa Universalis 4 decent start finally

So last night I FINALLY got off to a good start in Europa Universalis IV as Portugal. I have completed about 3 missions and restaked my claim in North Africa by enlisting Castile (through royal marriage) in a war against Morocco. It did cost the bank quite a bit so I had to reduce my naval strength

I managed to also upgrade my technology and I went economic. I had a slight problem with a revolt in one province but Castile came in to help me crush it. 

I eventually sued for peace with Morocco and now I can sit back and recover a bit since my foothold on North Africa is a little more stable






Monday, December 22, 2014

PC / Digital Wargaming Community on Google +

The communities on Google + are pretty well set as far as historical wargaming go as well as miniature gaming. However the PC wargaming area seem relegated to a few individuals posting things and it was hard to round up information in one spot (and no the shit that is World of Tanks, RTS games or first person shooters is not what I am talking about)

I created a PC / Digital Wargaming community just for electronic wargaming. The other types (miniature and board wargaming) are best left to others. 

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109548788372735358849

The link is above ^


Sunday, December 21, 2014

Yup I went there. No selfies though: Instagram account

Instagram account is up and running. I promise no selfies or pics of duck lips or private parts. That costs extra. 

Just kidding...maybe

At any rate the Instagram site is up and rolling and will be filled with random gaming pics if you are into that sort of thing. Along with those a few random shots of a cat or some "soccer" dude may make it in there. As well as booze. For the most part it will be all gaming though. You can also click the handy "Instagram" button on the right of this blog. We spare no expense here. 

http://instagram.com/pvthudson01




Saturday, December 20, 2014

Fire in the Lake tutorial done

Fire in the Lake tutorial. Things are getting heavy outside Hue 1964. A US sweep reveals two underground VC cells and in turn the VC rally next operation to increase their presence in Quan Tri province.

I dont want to say the game is hard to learn. It is pretty pre programmed. However the hard part is the fiddly bits. You have to remember to adjust things EVERYTIME you do something and it puts a lot of pressure on the solo player to not miss out on updating the victory track for fear of screwing the game up. The sequence summary cards are nice but use a lot of shorthand making the rules confusing or leaving some things off.

There are a wealth of options to undertake each turn and that makes the game wide open. It will take a bit to figure out WHAT I want to do to win. I have not approached the programmed AI yet. The flowcharts terrify and haunt my dreams. So at first I think I will simply play each side and try to master the rules.

Still the game captures the ebb and flow of Vietnam in the turbulent war years. I will be setting it up now on Vassal to give it a go solo using that module to avoid kitty cat devastation in case I have to leave the board up.



Monday, December 15, 2014

Learning KSP all over again

Man it has been a while but I am finally back in orbit in . I had forgotten most of the basics. I am doing the career mode and collecting science to get used to the game again. I found sandbox a little too overwhelming. 

Almost had a slight disaster when I did an EVA and forgot how to pilot with the suit retro thrusters on but managed to get back to the capsule for some great shots from orbit.

I have never made it to Mun, the moon of Kerbin. I shall this time attempt it once I get orbiting down and memorized again. 






Sunday, December 7, 2014

Warfighter game ends in total mission op failure

So my game of #Warfighter  ended pretty badly. Both soldiers got about 3 objective locations in. Then I got two cartel lookouts and they in turned spawned about 2 tangos each. Before I knew it the situation had gotten out of control and Sgt. Holte had been shot twice while Pvt. Thomas was suppressed so badly he could only use his actions to try and get out of being pinned.

The spec op was pretty bad and by turn 5 I gave up. Those drug huts would have to wait. Mission was a jungle sweep for Drug Cartel huts. I only took two soldiers. I know one thing the Agility ability is pretty much a great skill. A lot of the Jungle hostiles increase the entrance cost of a location so I had to keep discarding to get far into the missions.

I had accumulated a lot of XP, so I used that to call in a Sniper unit. He popped two bad guys but then I had burned through all my XP and he had had enough and pulled out. Rather than sit and watch my troops get shot up I called it. 

I also took a lot of bad gear. I didn't even spend all my resource points thinking it would be a cake walk. I was wrong. Although my shotgun worked well I rolled a ton of reloads with it. I had really bad dice too. I found the canteen to be worthless as well. I was under fire so much (and no action cards to clear the suppress for free) I basically got stuck in a loop of clearing Suppress markers and not being able to do anything


I ordered two boxes of 1/72 scale plastic models. One insurgents and one US Troops (Iraq) I figure I will put one insurgent figure on each card next time (per reticle) to make it look cool.










Saturday, December 6, 2014

Combat Mission Red Thunder

So far the latest Combat Mission has been a blast. Still waiting for Black Sea but it is not out yet. Red Thunder is the "remake" of the older Eastern Front game but on a smaller scale for now. 

For the stock graphics I think the game looks great. However I am running it wide open all maxed on a good computer. In short...if you have a crappy system don't complain. It's 2015 basically and you can get a decent video card and gaming machine for about 500-600 bucks. 

First scenario I played was a quick battle as I rarely do scenarios. I had a STUG III platoon and had to root out Soviet anti tank guns. It did not go so well and I had to stop it short since I had to log off my PC. But I dont think I would have been able to defeat what I saw the computer have once the map was revealed. It was a terrible slog fest type of battle that took all my armor and men near the end.








New games in

Warfighter, Phantom Leader Deluxe, Fire in the Lake, Heroes of Normandie and several expansions on the way in. Needless to say I am ramping up the boardgaming once more. Starting with a ton of solitaire games first then moving on.

Also getting back into Battletech so picked up the Introductory Boxed Set

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Shadows of Brimstone is here

Not sure when I will have time to assemble and read the rules but my boxed sets are in.

A complete shopping list of miniatures will be coming for me in wave 2 as well.

I started a Google + Community for the game here

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105590771298183122326

So feel free to drop by and check it out if you have the game