Tag: WWII

10/10/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 2)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 10 October 2015

Turn 3

Axis Air Commander

On Turns 2 and 3 I provided Stuka Ground Attacks on enemy concentrations until Fatigue and Low Morale forced me to ground the Stukas to recover.  At this point my goal switched to keeping the enemy aircraft away from our Ground Forces by flying Air Superiority Missions over the most dangerous part of our Front, which was in the Center.  I believe this was also quite successful although I was not able to see the Air Battles raging during the Ground Phase.

Axis Ground Commander

The battle continues to rage to the north of Sdid Bouzid but the Allies are unable to exploit forward.

Torch-017-screenshot

I take this turn quietly and ensure that I take easy chances to push back units that have over extended. I bide my time as I don’t want to exhaust my combat power and open myself to being caught by a counter attack.

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10/9/15

Bonus AAR! Rommel Attacks, ’43 (part 1)

What does a 4-player throwdown look like in Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch?  The gang at Matrix Games shows us ~

Matrix Games, 9 October 2015

This is an AAR of a 4 player game of the Rommel Attacks 43 scenario from Gary Grigsby’s War in the West: Operation Torch. Rommel Attacks is a short 5 turn scenario that covers the Axis counter-attack that led to the Battle of the Kasserine Pass. In the actual battle, after initial success, the Axis attack was halted and the German command withdraw some of the forces to focus on the British 8th Army arriving from Libya. In this scenario, the German forces are retained by the Axis player for the duration of the scenario, so the Axis side is expected to seize critical objectives and hold them.

Operation Torch allows each side to be split in two for true multiplayer play, with one player commanding the air forces and the other the ground forces. The players in this game, all from the Torch development team, were:

  • Axis Air Commander – Randy Seger (scenario designer)
  • Axis Ground Commander – John Young (scenario designer)
  • Allied Air Commander – Erik Rutins (producer)
  • Allied Ground Commander – Joel Billings (game developer)

This AAR will mix in comments from the different players. This was John’s first play through the scenario, while Joel had the advantage of having played an earlier version of the scenario as the German ground commander in a 4 player test game.

Torch-001-screenshot

There are 7 territorial objectives in this scenario, with various victory points awarded, each turn and at the end of the game, for control of these objectives. In addition, victory points are awarded for causing casualties, but the bulk of the victory points in the scenario stem from control of the objectives.

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10/2/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #78

Oh so much GARPA goodness for you this week…

Brant Guillory, 2 October 2015

Bear’s Claw 1941 (GMT Games / Consim Press)
P550 – not there yet

What the world really needs – just needs! – is another East front wargame, huh? Well, it’s printed by GMT and designed by CP, so it’s going to be a solid, quality production. And unlike those massive drive-to-the-Urals-at-company-level monster games, these battles are bite-sized games of specific actions. Over-runs, morale, unknown Soviet unit strengths, and air support all contribute to a solid level of detail. The counters are a little busy, but still gorgeous, so don’t hesitate to march off to GMT’s pledge site and get on board.

C&CNapoleonicsbn1(RBM)

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09/30/15

L’n’L Heroes of the Pacific – First Look!

What’s inside the highly-anticipated new box?  Doug fills us in ~

Doug Miller, 30 September 2015

click images to enlarge

I’ve only ever played enough of the Lock ‘N Load Publishing Tactical Series games to know that I’d really like to play more of them. For too long these games have been too difficult to get except through the aftermarket and buying from other gamers. Having said that, one of my closest gaming-related friendships (Hi Bawb!) came about primarily due to my buying a copy of Heroes of the Blitzkrieg from a fellow Grogheads gamer, so I suppose that’s not all bad.

Much to my delight Lock N’ Load is about to make all of the older games available and has started producing new games. It’s icing on the cake that the first of these Heroes of the Pacific arrived on the scene just as I’ve conceived a rekindled interest in the Pacific Theatre of WWII. Knowing the quality that Lock N’ Load has always been famous for in terms of components, I was really looking forward to getting the game in hand and taking a look. I received a copy of the Premier Support Edition to review. Here’s what I found when I opened the box.

HOTP-Unbox-IMAG0130

The box cover art is nicely done and very evocative of the theatre.

 

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09/4/15

GrogHeads Advanced Research on Projects Advisory #76

OK, so we’ve got something completely different for you this week.

Brant Guillory, 4 September 2015

 

Hawk The Hunter (Terry Marcel)
$19k of $500k, ends 1 OCT 2015

Remember the old fantasy flick Hawk the Slayer?  Of course you do.  You totally plundered it for campaign ideas for your early no-prefix D&D games.  Jack Palance chewing scenery.  The hokey rapid-fire elf-archer effects.  The cross-necklace-of-course-it’s-a-hidden-knife saving the day at the end.  Well it’s taken them 30 years, but they finally got around to trying to make the sequel, and they’re kickstarting it.  You can start at $5, and score the RiffTrax quip-along, and top out at a couple of grand that gets you a part in the movie.  Why are you still here instead of pledging the campaign?  Oh right, you’re here to watch the movie.


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