Target For Today

Started by Nefaro, September 26, 2015, 01:43:08 AM

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Nefaro


LongBlade

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

GJK

$55 is pretty steep- doesn't even come with a mapboard.  A PnP kit for $15 maybe.  I have a copy of B-17QotS but haven't played it in years because it never held my interest...there's no decision making....none at all.  Patton's Best is so much the better solitaire game; I'd love to see a remake of that one with updated graphics.

I do wish them luck on this one though, the artwork looks great (those aren't the final counters for enemy fighters, they ditched the front/angled look for a pure top-down):

Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Rekim

I feel the same way. I bought B29 Superfortress a couple of year ago (same system - different A/C) and did not enjoy it at all due to lack of interaction...and yet it is so popular!?

Nefaro

B-29 had two issues:

1) The strengths of the B-29 in the Pacific War made navigation and random equipment failures the biggest statistical problem.  That translates to a less exciting narrative when you're spending more time navigating and watching your fuel level than being threatened with gunfire.  I read that the Korea expansion helps in this department since the enemy interceptors are far more capable, and the bomb runs more harrowing in most respects.

2) The multiple rolls creating modifiers for further rolls, in the Navigation part of every turn, was just an annoyance.  It needed to be trimmed down.  I'm sure the designer wanted to place extra emphasis on how stretched the fuel situation was in every run, and how the difficult navigation could cause problems with it, but who wants to spend so much time using so many charts to figure out if you're still on course or got separated from your raid?  I'd be inclined to simplify this bit myself.  Not sure if Korea expansion makes this less cumbersome.

I would expect that running B-17 & B-24 campaigns over Europe would get rid of these problems.  Especially #1. 

I don't play these narrative games all the time but they're an amusing alternative and don't have huge setup times, piece counts, or table sprawl.  They obviously sell pretty well.  Hell.. The Hunters quickly sold out it's first two print runs and that game is pretty bare bones in comparison to others of this type.

Rekim

Just as Gary mentioned, I was expecting something akin to Patton's Best from B29. Instead I found a linear story telling game with a couple of dice rolls to randomly determine whether I'd won or lost. The only decision points that I can recall were to change altitude (hi/med/low) or to depressurize the cabin. A wargame without strategy is sacrilege!

Jack Nastyface

IMHO...while I freely admit that B-17 QoTS and now T4T lack key decision points or triggers, they are admittedly designed as "experience" games.  In these examples, that essentially means "hang on for the ride", which I think what it may have been like for the air crew of a WWII bomber (only with real bullets and flak and sh-t and not dice and pencils and charts) who also made few if any strategic decisions.
While some eschew this type of game-play, I would argue that managing the crew of a single bomber breeds a kind of emotional connection that is not found in larger scale strategic games.  Perhaps it's just me...but I'm never "moved" by the loss of an entire division of the 2nd Panzer Lehr or battalion of the Grande Armee.  However, if ball-turret gunner Smith who has survived 17 missions with 4 confirmed kills gets whacked by a 20mm cannon shell from a ME-110, I kinda get all misty about it.  For a moment, anyways.
In a different time and a different place and different circumstances, I could have been ball-turret gunner Smith.  I could NEVER have been the 2nd Brigade, 28e Regiment de ligne at Waterloo. 
"The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic."

Yours in gaming,

Jack Nastyface
Now, the problem is, how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over.

GJK

That makes perfect sense Jack and for sure the immersion factor is a HUGE part of the appeal with these type of solitaire games.  That said however, losing a crew member on his 17th mission just because of a bad roll during a random attack is a "wow, bummer" moment but losing a crew member that you've had on your tank since just after D-Day because you failed to command your tank to face that PAK38 that popped up is a "damn, I feel like shit" moment.  :)
Clip your freaking corners!
----------------------
Blood Bowl on VASSAL - Ask me about it! http://garykrockover.com/BB/
----------------------
"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

-Dean Vernon Wormer

Nefaro

Well.. it's established then.  We all like to feel bad on occasion, even if we have to force it on ourselves.

;D

DennisS

OK...time to resurrect a dead thread.

I played B-17: Queen of the Skies, a lot. So much, in fact, that I am not sure you would believe the number of missions I have documented.

I finally got around to purchasing this one, and got it in the mail a couple of days ago.

First impressions are very good. Here is my very mini-review of what I like, and what I don't like. Bear in mind I am three missions in.

LIKES:
Better and more fleshed out than B-17. More campaigns, more plane types, just more content. Longer missions, and 570 different target types.

Dislikes:
Too easy to kill enemy fighters through FCA/FBOA cumulative damage. I killed 13! fighters the second mission, and for that, I had one aileron busted, and oxy out for two crew members. That's it.

Medal awards is very weak. If you feel that a crewmember deserves a medal, roll 1D10. Half the time no medal, and for the Airman's Medal, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, and Congressional Medal of Honor - EACH gets the same chance!!! This is crazy stupid. I develop my own set of criteria, and each great action (shoot down, landing with busted equipment, etc.) gets a DRM. Add 1-100 to this DRM to see what you can get.

My second mission had an extreme result. I roll 99% for bomb run damage...yeah, second highest of ALL time, on the second run! Rolled box cards, then an 11. Anyway, 99%, one light wound, AND two shot down for my bombadier, AND a 1-100 roll of 93. Three extreme results in one mission, bomb damage, aircraft shot down, and the bonus roll.

I took all four books, pulled out staples, put them in plastic sleeves, and put the entire bunch in a binder. I did this for D100 dungeon, and The Hunters. This is SO much better than trying to keep track of four separate books.

Anyway, this is a great game. You are the Great Dice Roller in the Sky..making limited decisions.

Oh...your waist gunners, in this version, are now allowed to shoot at 10:30 and 1:30 position fighters.

Also..3, 6, 9 o'clock, and verticle dives all have a big plus to hit.

An ace port waist gunner, shooting at a Green ME-110 at 3 o'clock level can hit with a 2d6 of 4 or better. This is 33/36, or a 91.5% chance to hit. Add the same chance for the ball turret, and top turret gunner. With two hits, if ONE is a 6+ (on 2d6), then this fighter will be destroyed.

An ace tail gunner pilot, shooting a vertical climb green piloted ME-110 will hit 97% of the time. This is just too high.

In my first campaign, after three missions, I have two aces, and four others with two or three kills. EVERYONE will be an ace by the tenth mission or so.