Monthly Archives: April 2015
GrogHeads Reviews Battle Academy 2 – Eastern Front expansion Kursk
The first expansion for BA2 Eastern Front is here. How does Kursk stack up?
Lloyd Sabin – April 20, 2015
Largess
Here in the West we tend to be a bit short-sighted when it comes to history. Take a look at the majority of American movies and books on World War II and the Western Front will almost always be the main focus. The Eastern Front, if discussed at all, is framed as a distant, alien component of World War II, not more than a sideshow because of its foreign nature to Americans.
As grogs, we know this is a huge mistake. World War II’s Eastern Front was the central land combat theater of the entire war, far larger and certainly more pivotal than the Western Front, dwarfing land combat operations anywhere else on the globe during World War II. It was on the Eastern Front that Adolf Hitler attempted to establish his concept of lebensraum for the Third Reich, where the Reich’s logistics and supply systems were severely tested by distance and weather, and, ultimately, where World War II was decided in a massive, bloody, total war to the death between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union.
And within this bloody total war, the central, deciding push was The Battle of Kursk (German offensive Operation Citadel), begun in July, 1943. It pitted almost 800,000 German troops under the command of Generals von Manstein, Kluge, Hoth, and Model (among others) against almost 2,000,000 Soviet troops led by General Zhukov and a cabal of other generals. In 2015 it’s almost impossible to conceive of these gigantic numbers of men, not including the thousands of tanks and heavy guns arrayed on both sides. In the end, The Battle of Kursk would further evolve beyond just being the most colossal battle on the most pivotal front of the war – it would also morph into the most gigantic clash of armor the world has ever seen.
Hard to resist the Kursk campaign now that is available, especially playing as the Germans.
The First Four Steps: Designer’s Notes For The New Line Of OSS Folio Games
Brian Train, 22 April 2015
Game Theorist and Designer Brian Train joins us for a look inside the design of his new folio games with One Small Step games.
Ed Note: We’ve already reviewed Shining Path here at GrogHeads.
At the beginning of 2015, One Small Step Games began to publish a series of new “folio games,” small format wargames on a variety of subjects at a reasonable price. At least eight will be released during this year: four by me, two Civil War titles by Richard Dengel (Lone Jack, Middle Creek) that use the Rebel Yell! tactical system, and two strategic World War Two games by Gary Graber (Battle of the Atlantic, Fall of Berlin).
The four titles by me are all modern-era, from 1956 Budapest to 2010 Afghanistan. Most of the game designs (I’ve published (30+ and counting) are post World War Two: for me, this is an area full of ungamed topics, grimy and nasty irregular wars which inform and shape the world we live in today. I was always interested in guerilla war/ irregular war/ low-intensity conflict, whatever it was being called at the time. I’ve been designing for about 25 years, and near the beginning of my career I was one of a very few people “ploughing in the COINfield”, as it were (I’m happy to say I have more company now).
Brother Against Brother – The AAR, Part 4
Matrix Games just released their new game of the American Civil War, Brother Against Brother. Here’s a play-by-email AAR of the First Battle of Bull Run.
by kwhitehead (of the Matrix Forums), 17 April 2015
Turn 34c – 1620
And even better opportunity presents itself on the Ball’s Ford side of the line. One of those greased pigs didn’t quite make it far enough. I have an opportunity to surround the 29th NY.
Brother Against Brother – The AAR, Part 3
Matrix Games just released their new game of the American Civil War, Brother Against Brother. Here’s a play-by-email AAR of the First Battle of Bull Run.
by kwhitehead (of the Matrix Forums), 17 April 2015
Turn 27c – 1400
On the other flank, Ball’s Ford, it looks like the Union had some truly bad luck. A number of key regiments which need to move to get them out of the pocket failed to activate as indicated by the red circles. And Longstreet’s 11th Va regiment managed to hold his ground right in the middle of them. They are almost surrounded. And I move all my regiments to make it a solid wall of enemy on three sides. Things are probably going to go badly for them. Key regiments I give charge orders too.
Brother Against Brother – The AAR, Part 2
Matrix Games just released their new game of the American Civil War, Brother Against Brother. Here’s a play-by-email AAR of the First Battle of Bull Run.
by kwhitehead (of the Matrix Forums), 17 April 2015
Turn 16 – 1020
For a change I did more damage to the Yankees (213) than they to me (142). Hopefully a trend.
I finally got enough of my troops moving toward the enemy to expand the fight at Ball’s Ford to include their rear guard line. Longstreet is trying to get around their left flank and Holmes plus a couple of Longstreet’s regiments are striking their right. This should take some of the pressure off my defense of Ball’s Ford.
