Verrat! and Ulysses - 30 September 2009

With the welcome return of Stuart to games night, we finally got round to trying a couple of the games I bought at the Bring-and-Buy at Birmingham's Games Expo earlier this year.

The first was Verrat!, a four player palace intrigue game, meaning "Betrayal" in English. Uniquely in all our games nights, here was a game where the reading of the rules lasted longer than the game itself. As we stepped through the rules, we were increasingly excited about the clever game mechanisms but as we played, we very quickly realised that if everyone clubbed together and thought about it, they could make it impossible for the leading player to complete their objectives and win (and so the game would last forever). Alternatively, they might not spot one option, and that leading player could quickly and easily (but unsatisfyingly) achieve victory. So a win for David but a new eBay item for me.

The second game was Ulysses, a 3-5 player exploration/influencing game. Sadly the influencing turned out to be very limited and victory was assured by collecting enough cards to crush your opponents. Again not a very fun game to play - a view shared by the others even though they didn't do as dismally as I did. A win for Stuart and yet another eBay item for me.

Still, it was a much more fun evening than the games reports might suggest!

Battle of Arnhem - 19-20 September 2009

[Click on photos for larger pictures]

Last weekend I met up for two game sessions with Jonathan, who has previously joined us for Shako, to wargame the Battle of Arnhem.  Jonathan originally planned for a larger group of players and had done lots of prep including air recce photos...

...and mailing us updates, but circumstances meant that it was just the two of us in the end.  Jonathan had set up a 10x8 feet table representing Arnhem north of the river, with the railway and road bridges at one edge.  The board was full of buildings and the room full of figures awaiting deployment.

I hadn't played the Rapid Fire ruleset before but it was really quick to pick up, and apart from checking the rulebook every now and then, we were able to play pretty fluidly just using the two page easy reference tables.  The game was a tactical one, essentially trying to make the best of the original British plan.  The paratroopers have to attack and hold Arnhem bridge long enough for the Allied troops to arrive, whilst being counter-attacked by increasing numbers of German infantry, artillery and armour.

I played the Brits and entered my first three battalions along the Western roads, "Leopard" and "Tiger" routes into Oosterbeek, and "Lion" route pass the gasworks along the river bank.

The game played out pretty much like history.  The British made a strong push for the bridge and took many of the buildings around the ramp as they were lightly defended.   They managed to prevent the Germans coming over the bridge from the South but as the German tanks arrived on the second day, the Brits started to get pushed out of the buildings they had occupied, having recognised the power of the flamethrowers too late in the game.

There was a real slog and high casualties in the Oosterbeek pocket, compounded later in the game when the Germans entered the map from the West.  We played 29 turns over the course of a Saturday afternoon, evening and Sunday, and concluded that at that point, the tide had turned for the Brits.  They had no more reinforcements, had lost the gasworks, and although they still held the southern "Lion" road, they were under significant pressure around the bridge.  It was time to get out the white handkerchiefs, and let the wounded receive treatment.

It was a great-looking game that was lots of fun to play.  Some of the highlights of the game are illustrated below.

One company made it all the way to the railway station in the North East corner in the first few hours of the battle.  They didn't last long but they slowed Jonathan's advance of troops who had to deal with them before deploying around Oosterbeek.

The early occupation of buildings around the ramp leading up to the bridge.  The bridge was 650m long in reality, so about 9 metres in 20mm scale, so Jonathan had understandably just modelled the Northern ramp!

Jeeps speeding along "Lion" route.

Using handheld anti-tank weapons, a couple of brave chaps managed to take out the lead German armoured vehicles as they came over the bridge - one of the first uses of copious amounts of cotton wool in the game.

Artillery played a big part in the game, and Jonathan's 88 was the most devastating.

I had four figures representing PAN, the Dutch resistance.  One pair were usefully spotting for artillery near the bridge but the other pair had taken up residence in the church tower.  Their single but significant contribution to the battle was the silent throat-slitting of the German observer who later also thought the tower would be a good vantage point.

German tanks approaching from the north whilst the armoured cars burn on the bridge ramp.

The wonders of a double-six!  James' anti-tank crew admire their handiwork whilst a Tiger I burns in the distance.

Arriving from the West, the Germans assault the gasworks...

...where the fight gets up-close and personal.  The British lose an entire battalion in a couple of turns here, marking the beginning of the end for the Battle of Arnhem.

Finally, here's some footage of the battlefield accompanied, of course, by the March from "A Bridge Too Far".

Hamburgum - 16 September 2009

Three of us tackled Hamburgum again this evening. Well Londinium anyway, the English annotated side of the game board. A complex game that feels quite simple when you're playing. Each turn is quick and works with the rondel mechanism from Antike, so the game flows really well. Kieron played well at trading and building but didn't make as many church donations as James and Orhan, who ended the game just one point apart. Final score was Orhan 104, James 103 and Kieron 89 (ish). A really good game we should aim to play relatively soon before we've forgotten the rules again.

Colours - 12 September 2009

Andy and I spent six happy hours at the Colours games show at Newbury Racecourse. There were some nice demo games, notably a big Zulu game (with players wearing pith helmets or fur headbands), a Cops and Robbers game based on The Sweeney, and Ghostbusters UK - complete with amended Ghostbusters logo with top hat and monocle, and an ungrammatical but amusing Anglicised slogan - "Whom is One Going to Call?".

Andy bought terrain and 10mm scale tanks for use with a ruleset called Blitzkreig Commander. I got a chapel and bridge in resin for 25mm skirmish games, and completing my set of Railway Rivals variants, I bought the German version Dampfross. It was only a fiver in the otherwise disappointing Bring & Buy and provides us with 8 new hardboard maps - Eastern USA, Western USA, France and Germany from Dampfross, and Southern Italy, Northern Italy, Switzerland and Austria from Dampfross 2 - the later version which also introduced the leap-frog rule, or "Laubfroschvariante" as I think I may call it from now on!

I also bought a cardboard case containing four pre-cut foam layers for storing my 25mm figures, from a company called KR Multicase. Definitely a good day.

Java - 9 September 2009

After a trip to Andoversford to discover Orhan was away in Paris, James, David and Kieron returned to James' house. A visit to the loft uncovered an old 2-4 player game we hadn't played for a long time - Java. This is a tile development game building up cities and palaces. Lots of fun and head-scratching trying to work out the best set of actions each turn. The King of Optimisation trounced James and Kieron. Final scores: David 129, James 107, Kieron 87.

Medici - 2 September 2009

A gang of 6 descended upon K's house this week for a catch up after a summer of holidaying (well for some of us!). Luckily, James had predicted the large turnout and had brought another favourite, Medici. Unluckily for the rest of us, Andy was playing so the evening's result was written in the stars. Everyone else went for the sensible option of opting for perhaps two strong strands whilst keeping an eye on the big points available at the end of each round. Andy went for his tactic of bidding on seemingly odd combinations and won. I must avoid saying here that it must have been luck as Andy seems to know something about this game that the rest of us don't! The blog has only recorded 2 other games of Medici, both won by Adrian. Surely this can't be true?
Final points: Andy 80, Adrian 78, Orhan 68, Kieron 63, David 58, James 57 (yes 6th place for James)

Field of Glory, 20 August

This week Orhan travelled to Mesopotamia (oh alright, Adrian's house) with a different Graeco-Bactrian list to take on Adrian and David's Seleucids - now all finished. Orhan won the initiative and the battle was fought in reasonably open terrain with only some uneven ground in the centre and a bit on the wings. Orhan deployed with a very heavy cavalry, light horse and cataphract right wing, a phalanx in the centre, light foot screening the whole front and some more reserve cataphracts at the rear. Adrian and David kept their cataphracts back, with 2 groups of foot (phalanx, blades and medium foot) in their centre and on their right, and again a light foot screen.

The battle was one of manoeuvre. The Seleucids redeployed their mounted to counter Orhan's right wing attack. The lines of light in the centre shot lots at each other. Orhan's Cretan archers and one lot of elephants got shot up and retreated and Adrian was lapping round his left flank and encircling his phalanx when time was called. A big clash on the left saw both sides' elephants attack each others' cataphracts, other cataphracts hit medium foot bowmen (ouch) and cavalry and light horse slug it out. It was a good and thoughtful game. Orhan suffered some unlucky dice rolls and his army never quite (in his words) got it together. Although at the end I think the Seleucids were only up by 1 GB unit fragged, it was pretty clear that with another 30 mins play the Seleucids would have racked up a few more points.

Lessons? On our side the key learning point was that, when engaging in shooting and being shot at, it is really crucial to have a general in command range plus rear support - to give a fantastic +2 on the cohesion rolls. Orhan's Field Commander really came into his own here, his 8" command range allowing him to stop several units from going disrupted by his +1 bonus. Where Orhan's units broke from shooting it was in each case because they didn't get the +2 factor. Adrian, who had this bonus on all his light foot units didn't suffer a single one disrupted. (Cleary being lucky on the dice helps, but +2 is a big deal). Given also that Orhan noted that in many ways he had too many good units and not enough filler, we concluded that our future army design will probably have a Field General and be based around groupings of units that can provide each other rear support. But we won't mess with the Seleucids now that I've just finished painting them all....