Ghost Panzer: Band of Brothers Remastered

by

Worthington Publishing 

  The game series name is based upon the Saint Crispin's Day Speech, from Shakespeare's Henry V. These are some of the words that the bard puts in Henry's mouth the day of the battle. 

 "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

For he today that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition.

And gentlemen in England now abed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon."

 Sorry, I know everybody knows it, but it still puts a lump in my throat.

  This game follows the 11th Panzer division through four years of war on the East Front. The divisions first commander was Crüwell later of Afrika Korps fame. The original troops of the division came from Silesia in Germany. This is the part of Germany that Frederick The Great stole from the Hapsburgs, and fought two wars to keep (War of The Austrian Succession, Seven Years War). 

 The game is on a tactical and squad level. The system is meant to replicate reality on the World War II battlefield without burying the player in a ton of rules. The rule book is set up to give you all of the rules, but also tries to show and walk you through any instance that may appear in the game.

Player Aid/Terrain Chart

 This game is different than most tactical games in a few respects. First, instead of just a battle or campaign you get to follow the Ghost Panzer Division from the start of the War in the East until almost the end of it. Second, there are no leader counters. Leadership is added into the counters' stats already. Third, the game has no CRT. I will post a bit of the designer notes:

 "Based on years of research, the game system uses a unique suppression mechanic. There are no longer two unique states for a unit, but varying degrees of suppression. This allows suppression to accumulate from multiple fire sources and means that the unit will not take take a morale check until it is asked to do something. You will never know for sure how your units will respond until they are needed"

Scenario Booklet

 So the game focuses much more on the morale side of battle rather than focusing on just casualties.This also increases the fog of war. So not only do you have to guess what your opponent is doing, but also wonder if your troops will follow orders.

Map Section

 The game comes with seven double-sided geomorphic maps that are 8 1/2" by 11". The hexes are large and are meant to represent forty yards across. The maps can be joined in all different ways to represent the battlefield being played on at the moment. The unit counters are large, at 7/8 inch in size. The action counters are 1/2 inch in size. The illustrations on the counters are well done, and represent infantry, tanks, planes etc. The numbers and other info on the counters are also large and easy to read. 

Rule Book

 The game comes with two player aid cards that have the terrain charts and situations chart on the back. The rule book is twenty pages long. It has two pages of play examples in it. There is also a glossary and an index of the rules. The scenario booklet is just as nicely done. All of the booklets and the aid cards are in color and are relatively easy to read. It would have been nice to see the rule book in larger print, but it has so much in it that it would then end up to be thirty to forty pages long. I have seen people posting about how long rule books make them not look at the purchase of a game, even if the game might interest them. So, this might have been for the better. The rule book is this long because it is for the whole series of the 'Band of Brothers' games. So if you learn or have the rule book for one game you now know the whole series. The scenario booklet comes with fifteen scenarios. As mentioned, the scenarios cover most of the war so the player gets to use a plethora of equipment on both sides to experiment and play with. One good thing about the counters is there a lot of them. One bad thing about the counters is there are a lot of them. The counters are large and thick, which is nice, unless your are trying to cut them away from the cardboard sprue. You will definitely get a workout of your scissor hand.

Counters

 The sequence of play is as follows:

Command Points Phase: Each player receives a certain amount each turn
Operations Phase: This is the phase where most movement and fire takes place
 Movement
 Infantry Fire: This actually includes tanks and guns also
Suppression and Morale Checks; MC in the rule book
Opportunity Fire
Final Opportunity Fire: This is for units that are marked 'used'
Rout Phase
Melee Phase
Recovery Phase

 Their are also special rules for the following:

Special Anti-Tank Weapons: Piats, Panzerfausts etc.
Flamethrowers
Mortars
Fortifications
Smoke
Night Scenarios 
Along with many others

 So as you can see, the game has all of the bases covered as far as what could or did happen on the battlefield in World War II.

Introductory Infantry Scenario

 As I have mentioned before in another review, tactical wargames are the toughest to get right. One can know how far a man can walk or run with a pack or certain weight. One can also know how far a weapon can shoot reliably and accurately. It is the time and other variables that make or break a tactical game. I might also add that the designer of a tactical game is playing to a rough crowd. In my almost fifty years of gaming, and reading about gaming, and listening to gamers grumble (hence our title grognards), tactical games, especially World War II tactical games, for some reason bring out the fightin' words in gamers. Every designer has an idea in his head of how tactical combat works. They base it on Dupuy or any other number of pundits on the subject. It is almost like they are directors of a movie or a playwright. The question usually comes down to: is it believable? I think the more important question is: is it fun? Is this game something you want to spend a few hours or more of your precious life playing? To me Ghost Panzer answers both those questions as a resounding yes. I believe that the rules give you a good representation of the tactical battlefield of the time. It also plays quick and is really fun. So, to you grognards, take a chance on someone else's vision and check out the Band of Brothers line. I have reviewed a good number of Worthington Publishing games and have never been unsatisfied. Going by the other reviews and their scores on BGG, I am not the only one by far.

 The other games in the series are:

Band of Brothers: Screaming Eagles Remastered
Band of Brothers: Texas Arrows
Band of Brothers: Epic Battles Expansion

Robert



 

Hold The Line: The American Revolution
The French & Indian War Expansion Set

by

Worthington Publishing

 It is finally here, my boyhood dreams from fifty plus years ago have been fulfilled. We have a real wargame with plastic toy soldiers. Yes, there have been a few attempts before with this formula, but none have succeeded as well in my eyes as 'Hold The Line'.

 The maps is 21.5" by 34.5" across. It is a plain map, but the game comes with a ton of geomorphic hex tiles to represent pretty much any battle of the era. I like the artwork on the geomorphic hexes. To some they might seem plain, but to me they fit the period, and are highly functional. 

 Yes, these are plastic soldiers. So there will be some bayonets or flag standards that droop or bend the wrong way. As has been written, you can fix this by immersing them in hot water if you choose to. These were not, and are not, supposed to be fancy miniature toy soldiers. If they were, very few of us would be able to afford the game. These are the same plastic soldiers we played with fifty years ago. These soldiers work fine with the game, in my mind.  As you will see in the pictures, I did not bother fixing any drooping. 

 This is a remastered edition of the 'Hold The Line The American Revolution', so it comes with a whopping thirty-four scenarios. From the Minutemen to Yorktown, and from Quebec to South Carolina, and everywhere in between. These scenarios range from tiny to the largest battles of The American revolution. 

 The rule book is twelve pages long. Instead of cards or chit pulling, the game works off 'action points'. Each side has X amount of action points listed in the scenario notes to use each turn. At the start of each player turn, the player will roll a six sided die to see how many more points he will have to use.

1-2 Die Roll - 1 AP

3-4 Die Roll  - 2 AP

5-6 Die Roll  - 3 AP

 Every action of the player costs action points. Units move by the expenditure of one AP. As long as a leader is with a unit that is activated, the leader can move with the unit for no cost of APs. Infantry and dragoons accompanied by a leader can move one extra hex, for the cost of one AP. Fire combat costs one AP, and close combat costs two APs. 

 The game sequence is:

Player A rolls for extra action points

Player A performs his actions, movement, fire, etc.

Check for Victory

Player B rolls for extra action points

Player B performs his actions

Check for Victory

End Turn

 The line of sight rules are straight forward, and easy to understand. If something is in the way, there is no line of sight. There are rules for the Leaders to be able to rally troops, and the game also comes with some advanced/optional rules to enhance play. The player has the ability to play a campaign. These are linked scenarios, with as little as two battles, the largest being four battles. 

 One thing that has caused some players a problem is the amount of die to roll if a unit has sustained casualties. It is always three die no matter how many pieces the unit is missing. Most infantry start the game with four pieces per unit. The missing pieces represent mostly morale loss by the unit. 

 The following will be some pics of my Battle of Germantown playthrough.

 The game plays much faster than I expected. The regular infantry, which is usually most of each force, only moves one hex per turn, unless you have a leader present or are using the optional forced march rule. This, along with the low action points that each side has, made me think that it would be a few turns before the mayhem began. While the first turn was just movement on both sides' part, after that the the combat came fast and furious. The British were racking up a lot of Patriot morale losses with their die rolls, and it looked to be an easy victory for them. However, the next two turns the tables completely turned, and it was the Patriots who were rolling high numbers and causing large damage to the British units' morale. Here is the action on turn eight. The morale/unit losses are about equal right now.

The Hold The Line French & Indian War expansion set/add on comes with four sheets (two front and back) of added geomorphic hexes. The new tiles include boats and deep water hexes for playing out amphibious operations. The expansion set comes with, now wait for it, French and Indian plastic soldiers, but also includes green ranger soldiers. The French & Indian War expansion gives the player another thirteen scenarios to play. That means with both the base game and add on you get forty-seven scenarios. Most of the new scenarios are naturally during the French & Indian War, but you also get two from Pontiac's rebellion and another two from the American Revolution.

 I like the game and can easily recommend it to other gamers. The rules are easy to understand, and the game gives a good representation on the warfare of the American Revolution. The only rule I do not like is that dragoons cannot initiate close combat. I understand why the rule is in place. I just think that Banastre Tarleton would have an objection to it. With so many scenarios available, and the absolutely unlimited option to play out any scenario you can dream up, the game and its expansion set are worth every penny.

 Worthington Publishing also has Hessian and Highlander plastic soldiers for sale to add some historical flavor.



 Robert

Holdfast: EastFront 1941-45

by

Worthington Publishing

 We have another Worthington publishing game for review. The new game's area is more than a few thousand miles away and ninety years later than the American Civil war. This game takes you to the steppes of Russia in the Second World War. The game board is mounted, and it encompasses Berlin to Moscow and Stalingrad and a little beyond. The map is colorful, and it is easy to see the borders for the different scenarios and rivers etc. On first look, the map looks bunched up. This is because the furthest south the map goes is Sevastopol. There will be no fighting for the Caucasus in this game. This game, like the other Worthington games I have played, is a block one. The blocks represent armies on the German and Soviet side. The supply rules are also simple but effective. You must have a path of five hexes to a city controlled by your side or the west or east edge of the map. A Russian unit in a fortress city is always in supply.

 The rules take up only four pages with an extra page for the scenario setup and rules for the 1942,1943, and 1944 scenarios. The rulebook also comes with two pages of designer notes. This game system runs on 'Resource Points'. Everything a player does or can do revolves around his or her resource points. This is a list of what costs actions take in resource points:

Replace one Infantry Strength point - 1 RP

Replace one Armor SP  - 2 RP 

Replace one Eliminated Infantry Unit at 1 SP  - 2 RP

Replace on eliminated Armor Unit at 1 SP  - 3 RP

Activate a Unit for Movement - 1 RP

Activate a Unit for Rail Movement  - 2 RP

Activate Units for Combat  - 1 RP per hex Attacked

 This is a link to the rulebook:

 https://worthingtonpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/HOLDFAST_EASTFRONT_rules_WEB.pdf

 This is the turn sequence:

A full game turn is the sequence below. After the Russian player

finishes, the turn marker is advanced one space. At the end of the

January 1943 turn, the 1941 game ends and a victor is determined.

1.

Determine resource points for each player.

2.

Roll a die to determine the weather for the turn.

3.

German player places reinforcements and replacements.

4.

German player checks supply for movement, and activates units

for movement and combat.

5.

German player checks supply for unit elimination.

6.

Russian player places reinforcements and replacements.

7.

Russian player checks supply for movement, and activates units

for movement and combat.

8.

Russian player checks supply for unit elimination.

These are the player aid cards:

 This game fits right in with the other two games I have reviewed for Worthington games. All of them have a short rulebook, and very easy to understand rules. The player is left to concentrate on his strategy, and not on how many counters he can stack before the pile falls. That is not to say that the game play is simple. It is just easy to know what a player can do. On the other hand, it is not easy to figure out what a player should do. The mechanics of the resource points makes a player feel like a beggar or a sot. He always needs just one or two more resource points each turn. In Chess, there are nine million possible moves after each player has moved three times. So you can see that the possibilities in this 'simple game' are mind boggling. Again, like the other games, this one has a small amount of counters and the map is really not that large. So, it is perfect for people with limited space for playing. The quick action also means that you can play through 1941-45 in one sitting. 

 From my play-throughs, the 1941 scenario, like in history or other games, is the easiest for the German player. With each succeeding year's scenario, it becomes  more difficult. The weather is well represented in the rules, which is good considering that it played such an important part. The weather, just like in real life, can hamstring both players. The gradual improvement of the Soviet Army is shown by the reinforcement of Guard units, which are roughly twice as strong as the original Soviet units in 1941. The 1941 scenario ends in January 1943, and the German player has to hold two out of these three cities: Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad. If he doesn't, the game can continue until May 1945 and the Soviet player has to hold all three of these cities: Berlin, Warsaw, and Bucharest. 

  For gamers who want to delve into the tiniest minutae of the Eastern front, please look elsewhere. For game players who are looking for a good evening of fun, I can easily recommend this game. 

 This is the setup for the 1941 scenario:

Robert

Holdfast: Pacific from Worthington Publishing is their take on whole Pacific Theatre of Operations during World War II. It is a strategic block wargame and follows most of the previously tried and trusted mechanisms from the previous Holdfast line. I am disposed to like this game very much as it is set in the Theatre which interests me the most. 


All of the components are good. You get a full size mounted map board, lots of wooden blocks (many more than in the Atlantic game) in two colours, 6 nice chunky dice, a rulebook that consists of just 7 pages of rules and a chart of appearance for each player. I would have liked to have had a player aid with the Sequence of Play included or even printed onto the map-board itself. The graphic design on the board follows a simple and clean aesthetic and this simplicity flows into the rules as well. 

Simple and well-presented rules

In just 7 pages the totality of Holdfast system and the subtle variances each title has, is presented. There were a few edge cases which we couldn’t find in the rules but they were so ‘edge’ that I can’t remember them now. An application of common sense was sufficient to overcome my tendency to rules-lawyer.

The rule changes are what makes this Holdfast game different from Holdfast Atlantic (the only other Holdfast title I have played) and as a self-professed PTO aficionado, these game specific rules were really interesting: for example, in this game, submarines cannot be targeted. In my mind, this simple change models the relative effectiveness of submarines in the PTO compared to the infamous exploits of the U-Boat wolf-packs in the Atlantic.

Set up for the first turn

I also like the combat determination rule in this game. Prior to any combat taking place, players have to choose and simultaneously reveal whether they want air combat or surface combat first, in a contested sea zone. If the players desired combat differs each player rolls a dice, with modifiers, to determine whose goes first. In my mind, this is modelling the airborne radar and relatively poor fuel endurance (considering the size of the Pacific Ocean) of combat aircraft.  I may be stretching things here but in my mind it makes sense. 

Once combat starts in a sea zone be prepared to chuck a lot of dice. If you are familiar with most block wargames then you’ll know what I’m talking about. Individual battles often felt ‘swingy’ and sometimes after going in feeling like victory was certain, two battle rounds later you’re having to retreat, with the opponents forces largely unscathed. I don’t know how or why that happens, indeed my rational brain is telling me it didn’t happen; after all, it’s just probability. A few rounds of ‘bad’ dice can quickly curtail your plans. This swing does even out over the course of the game where you’ll have rolled the proverbial ‘buckets ‘o dice’.

Halfway through turn 5

Unusually for many combat games both the high and low dice results score. Results of 1, 5 and 6 are all good if you’ve rolled them. Normal hits that rotate a block down one strength point are 5 and 6. You disable an enemy unit on a roll of 1, forcing that unit to retreat to a friendly port at the end of a combat round. Because combat is simultaneous even ‘after’ being disabled that unit will still fire back, they just won't be firing in the next round. 

Another simple tweak to the Holdfast System in this game is asymmetric Repair Points. The Americans start slowly but receive extra RP each turn with which they can repair and replace damaged and lost units. In contrast, the Japanese player is limited to just 7 RP for the whole game. Their American player’s Order of Appearance also ramps up massively whereas the Japanese player dwindles into oblivion. As the Japanese, once a unit has been destroyed or damaged, it stays that way. 

American units sample (note the British carrier)

Japanese units sample

One thing that still baffles me about this theatre is that going into the war many senior Japanese military men believed they had no chance against the might of America. In the film Tora Tora Tora, Yamamoto delivers a famous and surely apocryphal quote:

 “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve”.

Any PTO game has a challenge to model the asymmetry between the powers and keep the game fun and challenging for both players. The asymmetry here is well modelled but in all but one of my games, the American player romped to victory. In other words, the balance is not quite right. Against two evenly matched players, the game favours the American player. However, if you like a challenge and are facing a relative Padawan in the war-gaming world, take the Japanese forces and try to eke out a victory.

 

American Order of Appearance and RP production

 

This game is a great opportunity fully explore a simple game system and be competitive without holding anything back against a newcomer, as long as they're the Americans. 

There are some optional rules which introduce Task Forces for Japanese player and Air raids on ports for both players. These rules I consider essential if the Japanese player is to be in with any chance of winning. The Task Force counters obfuscate your forces disposition and can even act as a dummy block. For me, these simple rules model the vastness of the Pacific and the relative difficulty of stumbling across your enemy (despite that happening on many occasions in real life).

 

Box Rear

I can’t separate Holdfast: Atlantic and Holdfast: Pacific in terms of my game-play enjoyment. They’re both good introductory wargames, although I think this a very small step in complexity up from Atlantic. I would choose this one over its Atlantic brother purely on theme alone.

"Pawn Takes Castle" - Tom Freeman

I can’t finish this review without talking about the box art. Pawn Takes Castle by Tom Freeman captures a brace of Dauntless SBD Bombers ripping into Akagi at the Battle of Midway. This piece dramatises the conceptual military shift, away from big battleships as the key weapon in maritime power and places it onto the tiny yet powerful aircraft.

This game is available from your Friendly Local Gaming Store, Holdfast Pacific has an RRP of $70 or £69.95 which feels a bit much considering the simplicity of the game but when you consider the amount of wood in the box that price is well justified.

Grant's Gamble

By

Worthington Publishing

 Worthington Publishing has graciously sent me a few of their games to review. I will start with the game Grant's Gamble. I picked this game because I have read everything I could find on the campaign, and have walked a lot of its battlefields. 

 After opening the box, I am pleasantly surprised. The game also comes with the units and an extra map piece to allow you to play McClellan's 1862 campaign. 

 The game uses small plastic blocks for the units. I have seen reviews about block games, but have never played one. The blocks need to have the stickers that represent the units attached to one of their sides. When seeing pictures of any block games before I couldn't help but think of 'Stratego'. I see now how this is just a simple and elegant way to simulate the 'fog of war'.

 The map is hardbound. It is not ablaze with colors or features, but at the scale we are playing it works just fine. The map is mostly of the state of Virginia with a bit of Maryland at the top. The game uses point to point movement to simulate the campaign. All of the components strike me as utilitarian instead of games where the developer tries to make  it a piece of artwork. There is nothing wrong with the artwork approach, but I have been playing games long enough to know it is the mechanics and rules that make a game and not the visuals. If the game is beautiful but sits on the shelf what good is it?

 After attaching all the stickers to the blocks, one thing becomes very clear. The Army of Northern Virginia and the other Confederate units are awash in a sea of blue units. I have played a good number of games about the 1864 Overland Campaign, but I do not remember the paucity of Confederate units being so visually brought home. It is probably because of the scale, which is for the most part Corps.

 The goal of the game is just as it was in history. For the Union, take Richmond or cut the railways to it. Richmond is worth ten victory points and Petersburg is worth five for both sides. The union player gets two victory points per turn if he can cut the railroad to both cities. For the Confederates, you must delay or as Lee said, 'strike them a blow'. Per Lee, if the campaign is turned into a siege of Richmond it is just a matter of time before the manpower and material of the Union wins.

 The rule book for the series is just eight pages long. The separate game rules for this game are just two pages. Worthington wanted the games in the series to be played, and not have the players debating the rules.

 The sequence of play is:

Weather roll

Check for replacements

Cap roll

First player movement

First player initiates battle

Check for victory for the second player

Second player movement

Second player initiates battle

Check for victory for the first player

End turn

 The weather roll sees if it is clear or rainy for this turn. If it is rainy all movement is reduced by one, unless it is the second rainy turn in a row, then movement is reduced by two.

 Supply in the game is rather abstract. When a unit is activated, it must trace a line to one of two points on the map without going through an enemy infantry or garrison unit for it to be in supply. Units that are out of supply lose one movement point, and may not receive replacement points. I think that cavalry should be able to block supply also. In actual fact raiding did not have a great impact in the eastern theater of war, but it did with the greater area of the western campaigns. When I am comfortable enough with the game system, I will look into supply a bit more.

The game setup for play

 Both the Confederate and union player receive one replacement point per turn.

 CAP (Command Action points)) are both at a three for each side normally. Both Grant and Lee are listed as having a command rating of seven. Using two die, if you roll a seven or above during the CAP roll you will receive one extra CAP point for your side. it takes one CAP to move a unit one point.

 Battles happen if both sides occupy a location. Battles take place on a battle board. Fortifications, mountains, and river crossings affect the odds in battle. There is a 'cavalry screening action' rule to simulate each sides cavalry ability to stop or slow enemy movement.

 There is an automatic victory rule for both sides. For the Union, it is if they occupy Richmond and Petersburg, or if the Confederate infantry strength points fall below fourteen. For the Confederates, it is if the Union infantry points fall below twenty-eight.

 Both leaders have a special ability in the game. Lee's is a reaction movement; any units stacked with the Lee piece can move to one adjacent location. Grant's ability is for the Union player to re-roll any one failed morale check during each round of battle.

 The Union player can also move one unit per turn, for two CAP points, from one friendly port to another. Thus, you can try McClellan's 1862 approach in the 1864 campaign. For the Confederates, there is a rail movement of two units per turn, at a price of two CAP points per unit. There is no rail movement allowed for the Union.

 The first battle has Grant and three corps (II,V,VI) attacking Lee in Chancellorsville with the Confederate III corps and a trench marker.

 The defender rolls six die, the number of rolls for attack are in the upper right hand corner of the unit. In this case a five, and one more die roll for the trench marker. Hits are achieved on a roll of six on each separate die. The three Union corps roll four die each (five normally, but one is subtracted for attacking across a river). The Confederates roll one six for a hit on the Union II corps, while the Union rolls two sixes for two hits on the Confederate III corps.

 After all hits are applied, the units involved must pass a morale check. You pass/fail the morale check by rolling one die per unit. If you roll a higher number than the number in the star in the upper left of the unit, you fail the check. The attacker checks his units first. In this case both sides' units all pass the checks. You can either voluntarily retreat from battle or be forced to. In this case, neither side wants to back down so we begin battle round two. The players then are able to roll two die to see if any reinforcements are available. The reinforcements can come from one movement point away. Two die are rolled and if they equal or are greater than the commander's rating, the unit can reinforce the battle. The Union player has no units near, and unfortunately for the Confederates both fail their reinforcement check rolls. The next battle has the Confederates rolling for two hits and the Union player for none. 

 After this round neither side retreats, and the Confederate II corps passes its reinforcement roll. The next battle round the Confederates make one hit roll and the Union three. On the subsequent morale check the Confederate II corps fails. 

  The Confederate player elects to retreat from battle. The side staying on the battlefield gets to roll one die for each of its units to see if they get a hit on the retreating forces. As it is during the battle rounds, you have to roll a six to get a hit. The retreating side can move one point away from the battle. If it were a forced retreat, the retreating force has to move two movement points.

 This is the situation after the Confederate move on turn one. The Confederate 1st corps has beat a retreat to be near Lee and the other two corps. If Grant attacks the isolated 1st corps, Lee's reaction move can bring the other two corps with him to the rescue. The only problem being is that because of the long movement of the 1st corps, and the retreat from battle of the other two, none of the Confederate corps are now in trenches. 

  To me, the game rules  make it feel like you are in Grant's or Lee's shoes. You want to do so much each turn, but are really hobbled by the amount of troops you can move, and actions you can take each turn. As the Union, you really want to get your corps fighting Lee's right away. On the other hand, you also want your other forces to start to put the squeeze on Richmond. As Lee you have to really pray your opponent makes a mistake that you can capitalize on. This game is a player's game. It is one that will sit on your table for a while with you playing game after game to try different strategies, and that is only the 1864 Campaign. After you are done with that campaign, you still have the 1862 one to try out. 


Robert

Holdfast Atlantic is one of two recent Kickstarter offerings from Worthington Games. They are both now available from your Friendly Local Gaming Store, Holdfast Atlantic has an RRP of $70 or £69.95 ...

Holdfast Atlantic is a fairly simple Block wargame that comes with just 8 pages of rules which includes several examples of play. I don't ever remember playing a wargame with so few rule pages. Even my very dusty and unloved version of Risk has 9 pages of rules. (Okay they're printed on a much smaller pamphlet than these are)

For the veteran gamers amongst us, HF Atlantic is a re-skin of a classic Avalon Hill title, War at Sea. Unfortunately, I can't compare the two as I have never played the older version. But what I can say about Holdfast Atlantic, is that it is an engaging and surprisingly strategic offering, considering the 20 minutes it's going to cost you to read and understand the majority of the rules.

Each turn follows the same sequence of steps, whereby first the Allies, then the Axis player, move their ships into regions adjacent or within 2 regions of the ship's port of origin. This mechanism allows the Axis player to calculate some of the risks prior to the battle which cleverly negates the effect of their dwindling resources through the game.

The game lasts for 8 turns, and the player with the most Victory Points, gained by controlling sea regions at the end of a turn, is the winner; ties to the Axis player. After I was comfortable with the rules I found each game with a new player lasting about 2 hours. If you're both familiar with the rules then just over an hour is a realistic time to complete a game. For a wargame that recreates the Battle of the Atlantic, that is no mean feat. 

September 1939 ...

Aside from the naval fleets available, the two sides have slightly different units available to them. The Allies have Convoys, which are another source of VPs, and they also get Task Force blocks, which can be used to replace other ship blocks and allow the Allies to create decoy blocks. The Axis player gets U-Boat blocks which can ignore all moment restrictions that surface units are subject to. 

Initially, this U-boat movement caused me a few concerns, but I realised that it is just an abstraction of the hidden/unknown threat of U-boats in the Atlantic, and it is not an attempt to simulate submarine movement. The Axis player gets to place all his units with full knowledge of where the Allies are. They are then free to target those areas where they think the more vulnerable units are. This is another clever, yet simple way, to recreate the risk that must have been present for any Allied naval commander facing the U-boat threat.

Different units and markers to play the game

The asymmetry between the players makes this game for me. I think I prefer to play the Allies because it feels like there is a little more jeopardy: if the Axis player doesn't win, then that's historically accurate; if the Allied player doesn't win then he's lost. I still enjoy playing the Axis side though, trying to manage your resources against the stronger Allied units is a fun challenge and this game still feels well balanced.

I enjoyed the fact that the designers had put in most of the major combatants into this game or at least the more well-known participants of the Battle of Atlantic. Although I should say that the Axis get the Graf Zeppelin which is used in the air combat rounds. I assume this is to provide a little balance against the stronger Allied forces although it is not historically accurate. As the Axis player, I wasn't complaining.

The only WWII German carrier. The Graf Zeppelin was never operational

If you're familiar with Block Wargames then the familiar tropes are all here: rotating blocks to indicate health, each side's blocks facing away from your opponent, simple rules etc. and it really works well in the naval sphere. I really appreciate the little design touches that make the game easy for new-comers to pick up, e.g. the attack strength of a unit, i.e. how many dice you roll in an attack, is shown in a square, dice-like symbol; also the to-hit number is in a circle, i.e. the same shape as the health pips.

The game comes with three optional rules, I would suggest you start playing with them all included. They are simple to implement and provide a much better strategic experience. Amongst other things, they allow you to try to reduce your opponents repair capacity so you could plan a crippling naval battle and also an air raid in the same turn to reduce their shipyard industry. 

Brave Bomber Command crippling German dockyards

However the best-laid plans are never assured in combat and like many wargames, you will be chucking buckets-o'-dice. A large engagement of 3 rounds of combat (submarine, air, naval, retreat) could see each side rolling 50 dice (not all at once, mind). If neither side retreats you'll be plunged into another round of naval combat, whereby you may have another 30 dice to roll each. I don't consider this a problem but if you are dice-shy then maybe it's not for you.

Any new player will be familiar with the turn structure after 4 turns or so, I would have appreciated an on-map sequence of play as an aide-memoir, there is enough real-estate on the map to even provide two, one orientated for each player as they sit facing each other.

Start of combat phase: game turn 5

This game is simple, I even played a few turns with my 8-year-old, he got hold of the combat and all the mechanisms immediately and asked to play it again, but he didn't want to finish the game after the third turn. The strategy aspects and historical interest in the topic was quite a bit beyond him. There is a good amount of strategy involved which should provide even a veteran wargamer just enough meat to sustain him in between his games of Europe Engulfed.

This game is perfect for me. I have used it and will to use it to introduce my more casual gamer friends into the simpler side of wargaming in the hope that we'll have another convert to our hex and counter religion and I can convince them to try some ASL...(that hasn't happened yet)

I should mention that the component quality is top notch, although a company that got this simple formula wrong would have to be trying pretty hard. Worthington Games has published a very good introductory wargame with high-quality components. The blocks and mounted map look and feel great. 

Come back soon for some Holdfast Pacific action ...