More Aggressive Attitudes

by

Hollandspiele

 Our review today is about this little known gem by Hollandspiele. This game is about the 1862 campaign in northern Virginia that climaxed with the Second Battle of Bull Run. It starred John Pope, and a little known general Robert E. Lee. Contrary to his usual stoic behavior, Lee seemed to have a large dislike or even hatred toward this one opponent. Pope had put in place some draconian measures to be used against the southern population and sympathizers. This would be the first step of the total war that the Civil War became. Pope was made famous by his quote that his "headquarters would be in the saddle", which led to the bon mot that his headquarters were where his hindquarters should be. The quote was well intended, but not too thought out.

 The game map is supposed to be 11" X 17"(my ruler say it is closer to 13"X19"), and there are only 88 counters to worry about. You play the commanding general of either side. One nice touch, and a fly in the soup, is that that the officers below you might or might not follow your orders. So every game that you play even if you use exactly the same strategy will never play out the same. As the Confederate general, you will have to dispose of Pope and his soldiers before too many of "Little Mac's" Federal soldiers from the Peninsula campaign can intervene. As the Federals you can either try to trap and annihilate Jackson before more Confederates show up, or back pedal and fight Lee's Army defensively. The length of the campaign is from August 9th to September 2nd. The game is played in daily turns.

 The map was produced to look like it is on old paper. There are not many points of interest on it besides some towns, cities, and rivers. However, if you look closely you will see a ton of details and place names. It is just a paper map, so do not do what I did and get too aggressive trying to straighten it out. Mine now has a crumpled portion right at the junction of the folds in the middle of the map. 

 As mentioned, the game comes with 88 counters. These are not elaborately designed, but are fully functional. They are thick counters, and to take them off the sprue is not a hassle at all. The amount of actual troop counters on the map, even when all the forces are present, is minuscule. The counters are of the step variety, meaning that if you lose troops, the counter is flipped or exchanged for another counter. As you can see there are very few units on the board on turn one. To add to the Federals' problems is that Jackson's Confederates must be attacked by Bank's troops on the first turn. Many might see heresy on the Jackson counter. He is given a '2' for attack and a '3' for defense, whilst Longstreet is a '3'. I am not a big fan of 'Tom Fool', and would certainly not have liked him as a teacher. So I really think his counter could have had a variable number with a die roll, just as Pope's is. You have a one in six chance with the some of the Union units that even your good commanders will not attack when ordered, unless they are stacked with Pope. The drawback to that is that the Pope counter is a '1' on a die roll of 1-3, and a '2' with a die roll of 4-6. This puts him at a great disadvantage against Lee (who is a '3'), as it should be. These represent negative shifts on the CRT when pitted against one another.

 The rules are only five pages long, with designer notes on the sixth. The seventh page is for the CRT, Casualty Table, and the Terrain Effects Chart.

 The victory conditions are easy to remember. The Federal player only gains points by winning battles and causing casualties. The Confederate player can also do the above, with added victory points for destroying federal depots, and occupying several hexes. Both sides can put into play 'special events chits'. There are also several other rules that add to the game. Infantry units can try to retreat before battle, cavalry and leaders can do so automatically. Jackson does get one rule in his favor: his units can recover from disruption on a die roll of 1-4. All other units have to make a 1-3 roll. Forced march, night march, and other special event chits add to the flavor and immersion.

Turn one

   Unlike many games that try to bolster or skew a campaign to make it more gamey, MAA gives the Federal player a rough hand of cards to play. The designer has added some rules/innovations that to me truly help represent 19th century battles. It costs an extra movement point to stack with friendly units. Attack coordination is also not a gimme, you have to roll to see if two or more stacks can add their numbers to the original stack numbers. So a three stack to one attack could quickly become just three separate one to one stack attacks. The nuances in the rules etc. leave the player always thinking, and mulling over the different options he has. In my play- throughs I wouldn't say that the Confederates are a juggernaut fast approaching Pope and his saddle, but some good play as the Federal player is required. You cannot afford to just auto play even one turn.

 I like the game and can recommend it to anyone who is interested in the campaign. It is not a campaign that has too many games that represent just this small part of the Eastern campaign in 1862. So for that thanks Hollandspiele.  

 These are two optional rules posted by the designer, John Theissen, to help with the use of Pope as the Federal player:

" What to do with a lowly rated leader in wargames? A leader with a poor rating might be historically accurate, but then a game player might not want to use him. For this game, here are two optional rules that give incentives to use the leader Pope more and get him into the action.

A. To reflect Union command and control problems in the absence of the overall commander, Pope, the following rule is used:

If two or more US units (both of McDowell's units in the same hex are considered to be one unit for all purposes in this rule) are stacked in a hex and attempt to attack, they must roll for Attack Coordination. If a 1 or 2 is rolled, at least one US must attack, Union player's choice. After that, the Union player may continue to attack with one unit at a time or cancel any further attacks, at the US player's choice. If a 6 is rolled, the rightward CRT shift is ignored and not used.

If the leader Pope is stacked in a hex the above is negated. The units stacked with Pope may automatically attack with one combat strength.

B. To moderate Pope's leader rating, use the following:

Roll for Pope's Leadership rating as in the rules when required. Modify the results of a roll of 2-6 so that the indicated rating is used, but instead of the rating negating all others in the hex, that rating is averaged with all other ratings in the hex. Count Pope as one unit for the calculation. Example- Pope is stacked with Union Corps Reno and Sigel, and they participate in a combat. Roll for Pope's leadership. A 3 is rolled. Pope's rating is 1. Now calculate average leadership. 1+3+2 (Pope + Reno + Sigel) = 6 . Divide by 3 (three units) = average leader rating for this battle is 2.
If a 1 is rolled for Pope Leadership Rating, his overconfidence and unwillingness to accept intelligence reports give a result as the original rule. That is, the rating for the stack is 1."

Robert

Tally Ho

by

Minden Games 

 Tally Ho by Gary Graber of Minden Games is another study in minimalism  by  Minden Games. It is either a solo or two player game of air battles in WW II during the early years of 1939-1942. Tally Ho is actually a compilation of four other earlier games by Minden. The game comes with 119 different planes, fighters, bombers, and also transport aircraft. Tally Ho gives you the following:

Flying Tigers - Far East

Faith, Hope, and Charity - Malta and North Africa

Battle over the Pacific - Pacific

Battle over Britain  - Blitz and into 1942

+ more added planes

 You can buy just the game rule book, which contains all of the items needed for play, and then print them off. Your other choice is to buy the 'dogfight display' and combat results table along with the plane counters from Minden. You will have to supply a regular deck of cards, and a six-sided die. Did I mention minimalism? The game rules take up just sixteen pages, and this includes scenario information for the various campaigns you can fight through. Just like the other Minden games I have played, there are advanced and optional rules to make the game closer to a simulation. There are also rules for playing a campaign. This is like many other game campaigns where the player or players play X amount of scenarios and add up the points from each scenario to determine the winner.

Dogfight Display

 At heart, the game is meant to to be a quick playing game with relatively simple rules for the players' quick foray into air combat. The advanced and optional rules enhance the game for a bit more  immersion. This is my third Minden game that I have played, and just as with the other two, I am impressed. Not only for what gaming you get for such a small price, but just the games themselves. Of course it is not a detailed simulation, and it was not meant to be. However, the game mechanics seem to represent the differences between aircraft quite well. In this fast paced world of ours the inclusion of solo rules is a great free add on.

CRT

 The following will be a play through of a scenario that occurred many times over Malta. It will feature an Italian MC (Macchi) 200 against a Hurricane. I will be using the normal rules, and playing solo against the Hurricane. I am a sucker for Italian planes.

 On the first card draw no one has the advantage.

 On the second card draw the Hurricane does, but fire is not allowed from the Spades to the Diamonds hex row. If the  Hurricane were in the Hearts or Clubs hexes he could try for a hit.

  On the next draw the Hurricane has pulled off a three and the MC200 a jack of Clubs. To check to if you can open a fire, an ace   is equal to1 and and all numbered cards up to and including 10 are their stated number. A Jack, Queen, or King are all 0. So long as one number minus the other is more than 0 the plane with the advantage can open fire. The Hurricane rolls on the 3 column of the CRT, and rolls a 1 for no hit.

  
 The MC200 now has the advantage, but cannot fire because the difference of the cards is -1. 

 The Hurricane now has the advantage, and can open fire because the difference of the cards is a +5. The Hurricane drew a 10 of Hearts, and the MC200 drew a 5 of Clubs. Rolling a 5 on the CRT the Hurricane gets 5 hits on the MC200, but also gets to roll on the critical hit table. The Hurricane rolls a 5 again for engine damage. 

 This reduces the hand/speed of the MC200 by 1. We could continue, but just as in real life over Malta the MC200 really stands no chance. It is destroyed two rounds later. The game is quick, fun, and easy to learn. As mentioned, you can add the optional and advanced rules to put more of a kick into the game. 


Robert

Aces of The Luftwaffe

The Jagdflieger In The Second World War 

by

Peter Jacobs

 Adolf Galland, Werner Molders, Erich Hartmann, Gordon Gollob, and possibly the best of them, Hans Joachim Marseille, are all here. All of the above, and nine more fighter pilots, were awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (Brillanten). Many other pilots are in the book also. Gunther Rall was the greatest deflection shooter in the Luftwaffe (deflection shooting is shooting where the enemy will be, instead of from straight behind etc). This book shows the titanic struggle in the air over the East front. It also shows the almost suicidal courage of the Luftwaffe pilots when they flew against the massive bomber streams in the west.

 The book is 200 pages long, and it has twenty-four pages of black and white photos of the pilots and war. Some of these are posed propaganda pictures, but most are candid shots from the pilots' lives.

 The author does not get involved with the argument of the German fighter pilots' claims of 'kills'. He states his case in the introduction and then leaves the matter to the reader. If we take one fighter pilot and compare his 'kills' to his sorties, I believe it will clear up the issue. Erich 'bubi' Hartmann is credited with 352 'kills'. The number of sorties that he flew was 1,404. He was in air combat over 800 times. There were many instances where he notched up more than one 'kill' on a sortie. So roughly he is credited with one kill for every four sorties. The East front was an environment full of Soviet airplanes of all types. Also, as the writer points out, German fighter pilots flew until they were killed, wounded too much to fly, or the war ended. If the Allied pilots were given the same number of sorties and a rich target environment I believe they too would have tallied up impressive scores.

 Mr. Jacobs was in the Royal Air Force for over thirty years. So if anyone is qualified to write this book, it is him. He manages to tell the story of the war, and weave in the different pilots' lives and actions into it. It is true they fought for a horrible cause, but many of the people we history lovers read about would be listed in that way also. I congratulate Mr. Jacobs for this excellent volume on the German Jagdflieger. It is a great book for the novice and the expert alike on German WW II fighter pilots. The book not only describes the day fighters, but also the Reich's night fighters.As the author points out, many of these men were in their very early twenties when the war took place. At the same time that many people are just finding their way in the world, these men were in a life and death struggle with other young men and women (at least on the Soviet side). The appendices list the top scorers and their medals. 

Robert

Book: Aces of The Luftwaffe
Author: Peter Jacobs
Publisher: Frontline Books
Distributor: Casemate Publishers

 

1500 THE NEW WORLD

DVG are renowned for their high quality series of solitaire wargames featuring conflict on land, sea and air.  So, 1500 The New World is a major departure for them: a light-weight Euro-game with multi-player focus!  The title immediately pinpoints the theme - the competitive exploration and exploitation of the Americas.  Christopher Columbus and all that jazz!

A simple, but attractive board presents a deliberately crude depiction of the Americas and the Caribbean.  For game play purposes these lands have been divided into five Regions labelled North America, Central America, Caribbean, Amazon and Cape Horn.  You'll need to look quite carefully at these areas as the colours that distinguish them are very muted and very similar and the dividing lines between the three regions that constitute the western coast of South America easily disappear into the representation of mountain terrain.  Also printed on the map are icons for five different types of goods, each of which appears in three different areas.

All necessary tracks are on the map board as is a thorough outline of the Turn sequence, End of game resolution and Scoring for each turn.  There are only six turns, game play is very simple and easy and, even with the maximum of 6 players, each game turn passes very quickly.  This is a game at the ultra-light, intro-level end of the gaming spectrum.

If you've struggled, as I did many, many years ago with the complexities of the early S&T magazine game Conquistadores [my solo initiation into board wargames], this is a stroll in the park.  The contents can be swiftly enumerated: an attractive board, two sheets of solid but very plain, basic and functional counters, 112 very pleasing cards and the easiest of brief rule books. 

Serviceable, but very plain counters

Ten pages of rules are so lavishly set out in large font and background illustrations that the fact that they aren't numbered is no problem at all.  In the bygone era of cramped rules, minimal examples and no pictures, I suspect that this would have fit easily into two sides of an average rule book.

In addition there are two pages illustrating a turn of play and four pages reprinting the 22 different types of card with even an example of how to play 8 of them.  With the excellent summary of a Player Turn printed on the game board and 10 minutes explanation, you should be up and running in lightning fast time.

Basic game play can be summed up as, by the play of cards from your hand, placing colonies on their Successful side [i.e. face-up], flipping other players' colonies to the side marked "Struggling" and scoring a point for each one and eliminating colonies that are already on their Struggling side.  Each player then scores points at the end of their turn for each of their face-up colonies.  There is also a bonus for having a Regional Monopoly [i.e. having a successful colony in each of  the three areas that make up one Region] and a bonus for an Export Monopoly [i.e. having a Successful colony in each of the three areas showing the same goods icon].  Add in a limited number of Reaction cards which you can interrupt another player's card play with and that really is it in a nut shell!

A few of the very attractive cards

So, fast, easy, simple to grasp, with fairly limited strategy.  1500 The New World makes a good intro game or light family game.  For more experienced gamers it may serve as a prelude to a more intense, prolonged gaming session or a wind-down after such a session.  It's a fascinating departure for DVG and will, I hope, be a successful new avenue.

Clearly DVG have spent time preparing this product as five companion expansions have been released simultaneously with the core game.  Each Expansion allows you to play as one of the five key nations in that early colonial drive: England, France, Spain,  Portugal and the Netherlands.  

Each Expansion gives you a customised nation deck and an A.I. deck.  Though each nation's deck does have small individualities they primarily contain identical cards to those in the core deck.  A brief rules sheet explains that each person playing as a Nation uses use their own individual deck while others use the core deck.  This in itself may lead to an imbalance, since the core deck is not reduced in any way.  The A.I. deck is played as an extra player following its own set of rules after all human players have had their turn.

England: A.I. Deck on left, English Player Deck on right

I quite like what the A.I. decks bring to the game, but feel that that the National player cards purely make a minor augmentation to game play without any significant changes.  If you kickstarted the whole package then you'll probably feel satisfied, but I wouldn't recommend investing in the significant extra cost of buying all five expansions.  Nor do I think that the ability to play totally solo with a set of several A.I decks is worth the cost.  Play is so straightforward that a solo session immediately made me wish for a much more complex game!

So, with that final thought in my head, it's off to open up DVG's long awaited Sherman Leader for just that more complex and satisfying solo experience.  No surprise that you'll be hearing more about that at a future date on this site!

But before then, it will be off to Rome for some whipping and ramming!  Yes, it's chariot racing Ben Hur style in ancient Rome's Circus Maximus.

 As always, many thanks to DVG for the review copies.