Tag Archives: Operational

Thunder in the East: A First-time Player’s Perspective

TITE first SPLASH1

Our guest author takes us to ConSimWorld Expo for a report on VPG’s upcoming east front mini-monster ~

Christian Snyder, 21 July 2018

I recently had the amazing opportunity to sit down with some good folks at ConsimWorld Expo’s Monster Conand play Frank Chadwick’s Thunder in the East for the first time; it was fantastic! Full disclosure: I am currently awaiting my Kickstarter copy of the game and had seen some Vassal play prior to arriving in Tempe, Arizona. Seeing the game on videos and reading the rulebook, however, are nothing compared to sitting down to play with the printer’s proof copy at the show. Since the game is not available, this is not a review, but a first impression focusing on what impressed me about seeing, playing, and meeting the development team for Frank Chadwick’s ETO Vol. I: Thunder in the East.

Frank Chadwicks ETO Vol I thunder in the east

Frank Chadwick’s ETO Vol I: Thunder in the East! Nice maps, charts and counters!

Thunder in the East is a dynamic, action packed game covering the entire Eastern Front of World War 2 in six scenarios starting with the German Operation Barbarossa and ending with the Soviet Operation Bagration. You can do each scenario singularly or start a full campaign from these points with incredible systems for morale, seasonal activities, economy and unit reorganization. My experience consisted of three playthroughs of Operation Barbarossa using the optional and campaign game rules. For each of our playthroughs, we were typically unconcerned with capturing Moscow. However, to capture Moscow, along with Stalin, would have been a scenario automatic victory.

Kriegsspiel That Would Never End™ – An AAR, part 2

The AAR takes waaaay less time than the game ~

Jim Owczarski, 16 May 2018

One of the great joys of the Kriegsspiel is the fog of war and command friction that results from any double-blind game.  The Jena-Auerstedt campaign’s fights over 13 and 14 October made this point eloquently — and I am not only discussing the fact (alluded to in the videos) that during this period Napoleon lost Bernadotte’s I Corps for a fair amount of time and Brunswick lost contact with Blucher and Ruchel for several days.

While Murat, Lannes, and Davout were barrelling nigh Hell-fot-leather Northward along their western line of advance, Napoleon I himself could never quite figure out where the Prussians were.  He kept punching forward hoping to hit something and never realized just how empty the battle space was.  In the early marches, he failed to catch the divisions guarding the Hof gap and then both Marshals Soult and Ney kept nudging forward along the eastern routes trying to make contact with Hohenlohe’s men who scampered as fast as they were able.

Kriegsspiel That Would Never End™ – An AAR, part 1

What happens when you cram 10 days of battle into 18 months of forum posts? ~

Jim Owczarski, 12 May 2018

It took nine game days rather than the postulated six.

It took a tiny bit over a year and a half of real time.

It resulted in 568 forum posts and 33,553 forum views (as I write this).

The umpire sent out 825 dispatches.

And it is over.

Jokes to the contrary notwithstanding, the Kriegsspiel That Would Never End™ actually ended on 5 May 2018.

But that would be to begin at the ending, and no one wants that.

In the beginning, I was planning a trip to the Jena-Auerstedt battlefields and I had always had a love of Dr. Didier Rouy’s “The Flight of the Eagle” Napooleonic campaign system.  I also enjoy the company of the crew from the GrogHeads forums and was delighted when a fair number of them responded to the idea of playing one of these Kriegsspiels with something other than derisive laughter or knowing dismissal.

RAF The Battle of Britain 1940 – The GrogHeads AAR, part 5 of 5

Will the climax of the AAR leave shots all over England? ~

Michael Eckenfels, 1 May 2018

 

0600 TIME SEGMENT

RAID ONE: HORNCHURCH (Airfield)

MAJOR RAID

This raid has the Decoy Raid card attached to it. I get to choose two Squadrons from the Enroute Sectors listed on the Target card and put them in the Inflight Box. I choose two of the three Spitfire Squadrons from 6/11 as we have a Major Raid coming in to take down the Radar Net at Foreness.

The two RAF Squadrons assigned by Fighter Command find that this was a Luftwaffe trick; the two Squadrons are now out of the picture for the time being, cursing their luck and good German ingenuity, no doubt.

RAF The Battle of Britain 1940 – The GrogHeads AAR, part 4 of 5

After a refractory pause, gearing up for the next load ~

Michael Eckenfels, 25 April 2018

INTERMISSION

PERSONAL DIARY ENTRY

AUGUST 13, 1940

A call from Berlin at near midnight on 12 August and suddenly I find sleep elusive. A drenching, sticky rain came in shortly after darkness fell, and my staff and I looked forward to a few miserable hours of sleep. Unfortunately, the call meant none would be had by me, except perhaps on one of the Fuhrer’s personal Ju-52 transport aircraft, which the call said would be arriving to fetch me in approximately 30 minutes, to take me to the Obersalzberg.

I’d rather be at a figher’s controls.

I hurriedly grabbed a few notes while my aide, Oberst Steinhoff, calmly packed a few items. True to form, the aircraft landed in the midst of the most drenching of rain, right when the phone said it would, and we boarded. No sooner had the ground crew topped off the tanks, and we were revving down the runway as water splotched on the fuselage like soft bullets. The interior was well appointed, the sound dampened somewhat by the extra work done inside, but it felt like a coffin. I’d rather be at a figher’s controls.

We arrived shortly before 0400 at the Obersalzberg field and were immediately met and driven to Hitler’s own home. He was well known for staying up until dawn, so I figured we’d be coming in at about the time when he was ready for bed. Hopefully, he was in a good mood.