Dunkirk Movie Trailer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Introduction

Regular readers will be aware by now of our new team member Marc whose Bio is published in the GHQ section (hello Marc), however we also have two other talented chaps who have joined the AWNT ranks. First is Joe who will help out with PC game reviews mainly during busier periods and next is Mike who will be our main man over at the Model making section. The aim is to grow this section of the website and hopefully be able to review model kits sometime in the future...fingers crossed. Bio's for all members will be published ASAP on the GHQ page!

So I'd like to say a big hello to you all and I'm sure the website will be much better for all your future contributions!

It's good to see the page growing, the busier we are and the more articles we publish the better it is for our readership and for future growth. However we wont go for quantity over quality:)

Any suggestions from our readers are more than welcome. We want this website to be one of your must check pages when you log onto the net! So we are totally open to your ideas and suggestions on how we can grow the page and make it a first class website! Please use Contact Us over on top right.

2016: AWNT Year in review

Jason Rimmer

Top Five Games

1. Wings Over Flanders Fields UE

2. Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg

3. Graviteam Tactics: Muis Front

4. Warfighter WW2 by DVG Games

5. Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa with latest patch

 

My book of the year

Iron Cross Brigade by C Bauermeister and Jason Mark (eds.) 

 

Worthy of mention..

'Till Trumpets Sound Again Vol 1 and Vol 2 by R Nicol

This year I discovered and fell in love with military LEGO and was extremely impressed with Thomas Gunns miniatures. I also made some great new friends running this blog!

Also my top five are in no particular order:)

Looking forward to next year, we already have lots of  new games lined up for review when released and I hope the blog continues to grow:)

Happy New Year to you all!


Robert Peterson

Top Five Games

 Old School Tactical (Flying Pig Games)

 Decisive Campaigns Barbarossa (Matrix/Slitherine)

 Panzer Battles Kursk/Normandy (Wargame Design Studio)

 Gary Grigsby's War in the West (Matrix/Slitherine)

 Thirty Years War (Ageod)

My book of the year

 Sulla (by Lynda Telford)

 Operation Barbarossa 

Worthy of mention..

 I was extremely lucky this year in that it was very hard to pick between the games and books I played and read this year. Thank you Jason, and all of our readers for making this a splendid year. 

 

 

Mike Wall 

Top Five Games

Scythe designer Jamey Stegmaier [pub. Stonemaier Games]

Hands In The Sea designer Daniel Berger [pub. Knight Works]

Mare Nostrum:Empires designer Serge Laget [pub Academy Games]

Deadzone 2nd Ed. designer Jale Thornton [pub. Mantic Games]

Terraforming Mars designer Jacob Fryxelius [pub. FryxGames]

My book of the year
 
Operation Sealion by Leo McKinstry

[Rather Be The Devil by Ian Rankin - if we're stepping outside war.]

Worthy of mention..

Fief 1429 [if only it had been published a year later!]

Brilliant year for what's been published and starting to review for AWNT.  One great game after another.  Wading my way through piles of crime fiction too and seeing Ian Rankin talking about his latest Rebus novel!

Have a great Christmas and keep your eyes peeled for lots more games and lots more reviews in the New Year!




Marc Hanna

Top Five Games

Europa Universalis IV (Paradox Interactive)

Panzer Corps Gold (publisher - Slitherine)

Axis Empires / Dai Senso board game (update playtest ongoing) - Decision Games

Advanced Squad Leader board game series (new modules 2016) - MMP and other third party publishers

Drive on Moscow  (Shenandoah Studios) -- reviewed

My book of the year

Hitler's Arctic War: The German Campaigns in Norway, Finland and the USSR 1940-1945 by Chris Mann and Christer Jorgensen -- review pending.

Worthy of mention..


PC game: Tigers on the Hunt (publisher Matrix Games) -- review pending.

Board game: Runewars (publisher FFG). Simply one of the best game designs of the Century.

Book: 21 Days in Normandy: Maj. Gen. George Kitching and the 4th Canadian Armoured Division by Angelo Caravaggio -- review pending.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!

Joe Beard

Top Five Games

1. Squad

2. Falling Sky: The Gallic Revolt Against Caeser

3. Total War: Warhammer

4. Order of Battle:WW2

5. Overwatch

My book of the year

Way of Kings by B Sanderson

Worthy of mention..


Command Modern Air\Naval Operations. For the continued support and dvelopment of the game, and the dozens of community created scenarios. I only wish I had time to play them all.

My 2016 was relatively light on wargaming, as my wife and I had our first child in March. Finding the time and mental energy to delve into a monster wargame just wasn't there for much of the year. As the free time in my schedule has become more predictable recently, I plan to get back deeper into wargames in 2017.

Merry Christmas to all, may you have a wonderful end to the year.

Editors Note: Please excuse the grey and black text when it should be all black. Blogger can be a real pain at times, when we look at this article in blogger to edit it it all looks black! See you all next year!

Panzer Battles Kursk Southern Flank

By

Wargame Design Studio 

  As I am typing, I am playing the Prokhorovka Finale July 12th scenario. The only thing that is missing is the smell of cordite. The artillery, rocket, and other battleground noise is slightly deafening, and this is with the sound turned low. Visually and audibly stunning, let's see how the rest of the game has turned out.

 This is a review of 'Panzer Battles Kursk Southern Flank' with the new 1.02 patch installed. I will post the 1.02 update changes at the bottom of the review. A game about Kursk has some big shoes to fill. Arguably one of the most important battles of WWII, even if not really the largest tank battle, its place in the history of WWII is gigantic, just like the eastern front it was fought on. It had all of the makings of an epic clash: the immovable object pitted against the irresistible force. In the beginning, it was the Russians that were the immovable object. On July 12th at Prokhorovka, the tide had turned and the Soviet Fifth Guards Tank Army army was trying to blast the three SS panzer grenadier divisions off the map. 

 The scale of the new 'Panzer Battles' series is 1 hex equals 250 meters. The master map covers 102,000 hexes covering all of the action  on the southern front of the battle of Kursk. The order of battle includes over 15,800  units from this list:
Wehrmacht
SS
Luftwaffe
Red Army
Red Guards

 Just like 'Panzer Battles Normandy', Kursk comes with unit component, order of battle, and scenario editors. To let you tinker to your hearts content. The maps can be "chopped" into smaller segments for making custom scenarios.

 There are 60 scenarios to choose from. They range from 5 to 38 turns in length.

• July 4th; XXXXVIII Panzer Korp's preliminary attacks – 2 scenarios
• July 5th; II SS Panzer Korp's – 4 scenarios
• July 5th; III Panzer Korp – 4 scenarios
• July 5th; XXXXVIII Panzer Korp – 6 scenarios
• July 6th; II SS Panzer Korp – 7 scenarios
• July 7th; III Panzer Korp – 6 scenarios
• July 7th; XXXXVIII Panzer Korp – 1 scenarios
• July 8th; Voronezh Front – 9 scenarios
• July 9th; XXXXVIII Panzer Korp – 7 scenarios
• July 10th; II SS Panzer Korp – 6 scenarios
• July 11th; II SS Panzer Korp – 4 scenarios
• July 12th; Voronezh & Steppe Fronts – 4 scenarios 

 Almost half of the scenarios are 15 turns or less, and are meant to be playable in roughly one hour. There are some scenarios that are especially made for head-to-head gaming, but we solo players have not been forgotten. Other scenarios are meant for playing against the AI. The modes of play available are:

Against the AI
Play by email (PBEM)
Lan and internet live
Two player hotseat

The game comes  with copious amounts of documentation. Here are a few examples:

• Designer Notes (PDF file)
• Planning Maps (PDF file)
• Getting Started (PDF file)
• User Manual (PDF file)
• Summer Map (JPG file)
• Summer Map with Units (JPG file)
• Visual Order of Battle Guide (PDF File)  

 The laundry list of updates and improvements just keep getting longer. As of now, 'Panzer Battles Kursk' is at version 1.02. There is no reason to assume that Wargame Design Studio won't continue with the practice of John Tiller Software, and keep releasing updates, etc. John Tiller games are still updating some of their games from fifteen years ago. I know for a fact that play testing is a long and nit picking process, and that no matter how many scenarios one of their games comes with, all of the scenarios are tested before the game ends up on your computer.

 The game play, like all Tiller based games, is meant to provide the player with the most realistic battle situations, and command options available. This does make their games more mentally labor intensive than most. Like most cerebral games, the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. The scenarios with their smaller size, compared to 'Panzer Campaigns', are meant to be nail biters, and they succeed in this admirably. You cannot afford to leisurely play 'Panzer Battles', and decide to just go through the motions for this turn. The AI or your opponent will pounce on your mistakes and teach you a lesson very quickly. Playing as the Russian, you will need all of your powers and the strength of your units to stop the German juggernaut. A little good luck is also helpful. Playing as the Germans, you cannot afford to make any mistakes if you are to see the onion spires of Kursk.

 The 'Panzer Battles' games fill a void in the wargaming world. The scenarios included in both the games are either small enough to get in a game before dinner, or large enough to keep you occupied for much longer. Rarely do you find so many scenarios in a game now, and probably never of such diversity. These games, especially with their modding options, should be a big hit with the wargaming crowd. That would be excellent, because then they could afford to branch out into less known and more arcane battles of the period. Some battles have never had games about them, or very rarely. I see on the Wargame Design Studio website there is already a 'Panzer Battles 3' listed. There is also a write up about the creation of a Maleme scenario.

  I am going to button my hatch now and get back to the maelstrom that was the battle of Kursk. Happy holidays to all and I hope you have a great new year ahead of you. Please also look at my 'Panzer Battles Normandy' review.

 http://www.awargamersneedfulthings.co.uk/2016/07/john-tillers-panzer-battles-of-normandy.html



 Robert

Game: Panzer Battle's Kursk Southern Flank
Developer: Wargame Design Studio
Distributor: John Tiller Software
Date of Review: 12/5/16




These features include improved user interface, new terrain graphics and simplified folder structures. The full list of changes is below;

Kursk Patch 1.02 Changelog

Bug Fixes

• Adjusted reporting for air attacks
• Corrected hex stack reporting when a wreck is in the hex   
• Corrected a crash bug when the last man/gun/vehicle is destroyed by defensive fire
• Corrected a fog of war bug when right clicking
• Included a check that all off board artillery is not placed on the map.
• Any fixed unit that is fired on will now instantly un-fix
• Units could use a bridge while in travel mode to enter an obstacle and then exit the hex, rather than lose their whole movement allowance. This has been corrected and units will now lose all their movement points if they move into an obstacle hex
• Engineer units were in some cases isolated when in a minefield - this should no longer occur
• Engineer units will not clear a minefield in a turn that they recover from disruption
• Adjacent engineers no longer remove isolation for units in minefields
• Off map artillery was not firing during the defensive fire phase - this will now occur at the same frequency as on map artillery
• Engineers that attempt to damage a bridge or AT ditch will reveal themselves if currently concealed
• Units can no longer combine if in mismatched travel modes
• File mismatch due to different encryption setting during PBEM - fixed
• Campaign auto-advance on wrong password entry – fixed

 

Enhancements

• Newly implemented:  View > Map Elevations, View > Map Coordinates, View > Map Combat Modifiers.
• Optional Zoom to hotspot – Settings > Center Zoom on Hot Spot
• New parameter file entry - Fatigue factor. Used for scaling fatigue accumulation. Set at 2.0 for Normandy & Kursk. Will be 3.0 for future titles to match the fatigue calculations in Panzer Campaigns. 3.0 is the more appropriate value to use, but none of the Kursk & Normandy scenarios were tested with the higher value
• New on counter broken and disrupted markings - visible when stacked and unstacked.
• New Getting Started documentation, including Campaign Primer and Terrain & Combat tables
• Updated General Help guide with a revised layout and additional information.
• Updated User guide with a revised layout and additional information. All manuals are a work in progress and will continue to be rationalised over time.

 

Order of Battle

• Corrected Soviet 27 76mm Gun btty (hs) causing scenario crash

 

Graphics Changes

• New -small- terrain features. All files are under \Maps\ Terrain Small. Copy all the 8 files into the map directory and overwrite the existing. To revert to the graphics released in Patch 1.01, copy the files out of \Maps\ Terrain - Default directory back into the Map directory. To revert to the graphics released in the original game, copy the files out of \Maps\ Terrain - Original directory back into the Map directory
• New Cover art. Various versions available in the \Screen directory

 

Map Changes

• Alternate small map graphics included

 

User Interface Changes

• New Shortcut keys
• New Toolbar Icons in traditional and standard configuration. Small, Medium and Large versions also available for each.
• File/folder reorganization, with creation of the following new folders:  Data (.oob & .pdt files), Logs (.log files), Manuals (.pdf files), Saves (.bt? files), Scenarios (.scn, .map files etc.), Screens (various game .bmp files).
• New logging system (with various .log files in the new Logs folder), to assist in game testing, and identifying and fixing bugs.