Village Games' Blog

THIS TIME IT IS IN THE EAST…

Lately I have been getting in a lot of games of WWII miniatures. I don’t know if we are just having a renewed interest, it’s a phase, or the period just feels fresh and different right now. Whatever it is, the games have been fun and our enthusiasm for them growing.

This time the scenario was set on the eastern front, in the Ukraine, sometime in late 1943. Mark was playing the Russians, and I the hard pressed Germans. We were again testing out a new set of rules – the card based ones I have mentioned previously.

The Russians were attacking German positions which had been prepared along a pair of large, low hills. The Russians had an under strength tank regiment with some accompanying infantry, while the Germans essentially had a heavily reinforced infantry company with some armor. The Russians had far more tanks, and of better quality, than the Germans, but both had similar amounts of infantry. The Germans were then forced to employ some self-propelled, but mostly towed anti-tank weapons in addition to their paltry tank allotment (only a platoon of Pz III’s) to have any hope of stemming the red tide.

The North End of the Battlefield

The Russians were trying to achieve a breakthrough in the German lines, so their mission was to punch a hole and then get as much stuff through and towards the German rear as possible (specifically, past a mission “Phase Line”). The Germans were tasked with simply killing, or taking out of action, as much Russian stuff as possible.

The Russian tank hordes came on in an impressive area of metal might which looked as if they would walk right through the German positions. That is until some AWESOME interdiction fire by the German artillery guns laid down a barrage that knocked out a platoon and a half of T34/76’s (of course that was the pinnacle of their success for balance of the game, but it was gladly accepted).

This changed the Russian strategy significantly. They now moved into a pincer action, trying to expose and crumble one or both of the German flanks. While they did have some minor early success with these two attacks, both eventually bogged down due to Russian command issues…er, I mean brilliant German generalship… and turned into wars of attrition.

From the North, Looking Southward; Note the Fearsome Looking Russian Tank "Arrows"

Unfortunately for the Germans, attrition was the one game they couldn’t afford to play. However, in the end the Germans managed to prevent enough Russian units from crossing the designated “Phase Line” for the assault, while still inflicting sufficient Russian casualties to carry the day.

This was a very fun game, with lots of back and forth momentum, heavy firefights and a good dose of “stick-it-to-your-opponent” with the card-play. I am really coming to enjoy these rules. They allow a reasonable simulation of the tactics and equipment of the period, in a framework of game play that is fast-paced and engaging at all times – if your aren’t desperately trying to play your next turn, you are scanning your cards for what you can do to thwart your opponent’s efforts during his turn. We will next have to try them in 15mm to see if the same fun can be had in a different scale.

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

PREPARE TO BE BOARDED…

We have been seeing a lot more board games being played around the shop lately, which is really great. I think there is a definite renaissance of interest in the board game genre, at least in our neck of the wood, as we get more and more questions and inquiries about board games everyday.

Recently there were a couple of games being played on what is normally a miniatures night at the shop (For shame!), so I snapped a couple of pics as I was shooting the other games.

Carcassone

The first game was a rather sizeable Carcassone layout (I believe using several expansions), while the other was a rousing game of the relatively new Fantasy Flight game Tanhauser.

Tanhauser

Everybody seemed to be having a good time, so hopefully we will be see more of these types of games being played at the shop (just not on the sacred miniatures night…J)

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

PUTTING THE “BLITZ” BACK INTO BLITZKRIEG   

Last week I got a chance to play another game of Blitzkrieg Commander in 6mm micro armor. Chris L. brought his Americans up, and Mark and I were my Germans (Mark is still working on his 6mm army…J).

The scenario was an American assault against hastily prepared German positions, somewhere in western France, c. 1944. There were a couple of small villages and hills for major terrain features, but none that the Germans could effectively use to their advantage.

The Americans got off to a great start with rapid forward movement right into and through the gaps in the German’s fields of fire. The Germans on the other hand, were hamstrung by the fact that they a) wanted to hold their fire until the Americans were in optimum range, so as to not give away their positions to early, and b) the Germans couldn’t roll to get an order off to save their lives (quite literally in some cases).

Eventually, as the Americans were poised to run roughshod through the well-prepared, but paralyzed by fear, German positions the American command became woefully overconfident and cocky, taunting the Germans with their smoke breaks and extended delays for meals and power naps  (i.e. they stopped being able to make their command rolls). The Germans, while only barely managing to get off a few precious orders, were able to now put some hurt on the attackers.

With their losses mounting, and very few units attempting to do anything, the American commander began to press too hard. He tried to maneuver units in ways that weren’t tactically sound, but as they were the only units actually activating he had to try. This only led to even more casualties for the attackers, and an eventual admission that this particular attack was a lost cause. The brave (if rather timid) German defenders managed to carry the day!

All-in-all it was a fun game, and we all had some laughs at the rather pathetic dice rolling. Hopefully in the future the fates won’t be so cruel.

Until next time…

Dan

THOSE DARN THERIANS…

We had a relatively new player come up to the shop and join one of our regulars in a game of AT-43 the other day. I got a couple of pictures of their game since it looked really interesting as the center of the outpost was filled with Dragon’s Teeth that actually prevented the striders from crossing through, as well as four fortified bunkers!

The guys seemed like they had fun though, especially since they made a table reservation for the next week as soon as they were done.

Well, until next time…

Cheers!

Dan