Battle for the the Baltic Islands

Triumph Of the Imperial German Navy

by

Gary Staff

  

  

 The usual story told in history books is that after Jutland the German High Seas fleet ran home with it's tail between it's legs. Then it did nothing until 1918 when the staff had decided that it would go down in glory in a last ditch suicide sortie. At that time the sailors mutinied much like the Russian sailors had at Kronstadt. It seems like the real story because it has been told so many times. Unfortunately it is nowhere near the truth, and thankfully Gary Staff has written this book to put the story straight. This is the story of the 1917 German attack on the Islands, which are near the Gulf of Riga.

 This history of the German combined arms attack on the Baltic Islands should be a blueprint for other military history books. The book itself is less than 200 pages, but it is filled with maps (14) and has sixteen pages of photos (40 photos). The maps are some of the best I have seen in military books that were not an atlas. The author tells the story of the campaign from the smallest mine sweeper to the various battleships involved. The land fighting and the forces used there have not forgotten by the author. It is a tale of a very well planned and executed amphibious operation on the Germans' part.

 This book should put paid to the idea that the German fleet sat like a cur for the last two years of the war. Thank you Mr. Staff for writing this book. Your attention to detail in your books is much appreciated. I look forward to any other books you have planned. This book should be on anyone's shelf who has the slightest interest in the naval warfare or WWI.

Robert 

Book: Battle for the Baltic Islands: Triumph of the Imperial German Navy

Author: Gary Staff

Publisher: Pen & Sword

Distributor: Casemate Publishers

 Azul probably needs no introduction. Since its release in 2017, it has proven to be one of those unicorn-games that has managed to cross over, from hobby games, into more mainstream gaming.  Last Christmas my Sister, who is not a gamer and who I haven't seen in years (she lives in a different continent), called me up to talk about Azul which she had just played.

It is a competitive abstract game that is quick to teach and has a surprising amount of depth and it will give gamers and non-gamers alike plenty to chew on. It also looks beautiful on the table and if anything, plays too quickly, i.e. it is over before I want it to be over, two or three more rounds would always be welcome. 

You can watch my quick unboxing of Azul below:

Gameplay

All players are building a mosaic on their own player board from a collective pool of tiles in the centre of the table.  Available tiles all start in a number of 'factories' that are placed in between all players.  You must take all tiles of the same pattern from a factory, any tiles that didn't match your pattern are discarded to the centre of the table to form a common pool of tiles. 

You could just play this game concentrating on your own board, but the tile draw mechanism also allows you to jeopardise your opponent's best choices in a deliciously mean fashion.  Of course, a casual gamer is probably not going to look for those 'take that' opportunities and will have a lovely time building their own mosaic on their own player board, albeit having to work through some unexpectedly tough decisions. 

Those tough decisions, in all likelihood, have come from the experienced gamer or keen Azul-player at the table who may be looking for as many opportunities to minimise their opponents' choices.

This game rewards either play style, if not through an abundance of victories (I've not figured out a consistently good strategy) but in playing experience and fun. And after all, why do we play and obsess over these cardboard and plastic pieces whose intrinsic value is so little? I know for me, it's because of the experiences and fun that I have when playing with a friend or group of friends, the memories that are made and recalled...

When you've taken one pattern of tile from a factory or the centre, you place them on a pattern line, which has one to five spaces available. Tiles can only be placed on empty lines, or lines that have the same tile in already and empty spaces available.  If you can't place them on a free pattern line, then they drop to the floor line. Any tiles on your floor line will cause negative points at the end of a round.

Any abstract game is always going to struggle with theme, but Azul probably has more of a theme than any abstract I've played. It's still fairly loose, but your actions and the overall look of the game reflect the process of building a mosaic work of art nicely.

Scoring happens after all tiles have been taken from the centre. It is simply a matter of taking a tile from a complete pattern line and placing it into your mosaic. When you do this you add up how many orthogonally contiguous tiles are touching it, and you count the placed tile in both the horizontal and vertical direction. If the placed tile is not adjacent to any other tile, it will score 1 point; if it is at the centre of a row and column then it will score a maximum of 10 points. ( I have never managed this)

The end of the game is triggered when one person has one complete row.  During my first game of this, my casual game group and I all raced to be the first to complete a row thinking that was a good thing. We did not appreciate that the end game scoring doesn't reward finishing the game. Players get far more bonus points from completing rows and using 5 tiles of the same colour in their mosaic.  end thinking that was a good thing... However, after their 2nd and third consecutive plays of it, we were all a bit savvier and trying to score more points, over finishing the game.

This endgame condition balances the gameplay nicely. When you're in the lead, you're pushing to finish the game as quickly as possible, which will probably cause you to lose scoring opportunities making you lose points relative to the other players. If you're trailing, you are able to engineer, at least if there are three other savvy players around the table much harder tile draw decisions for the leading player whilst maximising your own score. The player interaction, despite all playing to their own board, is high.

Components

The tiles are glorious and the art, although simple geometric patterns are again, evocative of the theme. The box looks and feels fantastic and it comes with a well-though-out insert. Unfortunately, my player boards are bowed which helps them to spin round like a record very easily.

Criticisms

A complete game is anywhere from five complete rounds to an average of six to eight rounds. For me, the game is over just a little too soon. I know this is normally the sign of a tight and balanced game and in general this a good thing. However, I find I am enjoying myself so much that I don't necessarily care that I may not be winning and just want to build a nicer pattern and have more turns in which to do so... I think I may be an artist at heart.

Conclusion

Azul is a heart-warming game, in the same vein as Patchwork and fully deserves its place as a modern 'classic', or at least, a soon-to-be modern classic. It is accessible for any type of gamer and although there's no direct conflict, there are certainly opportunities to mess with your opponents and it's this trait, being able to accommodate different play styles, that makes it appeal to any type of gamer. For me, it sits firmly in the filler category, taking about 40 minutes to play.  I could see this easily becoming a firm family-favourite at holiday gatherings.

I think I am correct in saying that every single game store will have a copy of this game on their shelves and you can use this link http://www.findyourgamestore.co.uk/ to find your nearest store in the UK.

Publisher: Plan B Games

Website: https://www.planbgames.com/azul
Players: 2 - 4

Designer: Michal Kiesling

Playing time: 30 - 45 mins

SHERMAN LEADER

from

DAN VERSSEN GAMES

A good starting point would be with my earlier review of Tiger Leader, as clearly there is much in common!  Identical size and quality of box...identical... identical.  As Sherman Leader is almost the mirror image of its predecessor, this is all to be expected.  Certainly no slipping of quality control - all my usual praise for the physical components can be echoed here.

The map board on which virtually everything takes place is identical[give or take about 1 cm!], except that rather than German field-grey, the overall colour is American olive drab.  [Note that "drab" is not a criticism, but the technical colour palette name]. 

The terrain overlays are slightly less glossy;  marginally, I think that I prefer them, yet prefer the older terrain art work for the snow-bound tiles of the Bulge Campaign.  By historical necessity, some of the campaigns included in the previous game cannot be part of this package when focusing on the American side of WWII.  North Africa, Italy, the Normandy Campaign and Germany obviously feature, but in come three Pacific campaigns: the Philippines 1942, Saipan 1944 and Okinawa 1945.  To accompany the new Pacific Campaigns, we have new jungle terrain and a separate Battalion Deck for the Japanese.  These are identified on the front of the cards by appropriate symbols and pictures.

The Leader cards feature artwork in muted colours, while the illustrations on the cards with scenes and equipment from WWII remain the black and white type found in Tiger Leader.  We already know that some people liked them and some didn't - I did.  So, presumably there's still the difference in taste now  - and I still like them.  No surprises there!

As before, oodles of high quality counters and cards, all very familiar, as is the whole sequence of play.  So, for those of you familiar with the Leader series and especially with Tiger Leader you may wish to skip over the next sections.

First choose a Campaign and then select an Objective card.   These will determine the range of units that will be involved.  This particularly affects the range of tanks that you will be up against.  I like this attention to detail, as equipment for a campaign can only be chosen from the historical period during which they were operational.  At least with the Germans I had become familiar with what to expect, but the Japanese forces, especially their tanks have been a whole new learning experience.  Obviously the location of a Campaign affects the dominant terrain, again the jungle of the Pacific Campaigns is the new element for me personally to familiarise myself with. 

In game terms, the combination of Campaign and Objective is most significant in producing SO [Special Option] points, which are the purchasing power for the troops you stock your campaign with and to buy a few sundry benefits.  Your units range from basic infantry, including machine gun and mortar teams, through armour and light armour to anti-tank, half-tracks and artillery.  You can also buy trucks and scouts, but these don't appear as counters on your map.  Instead, trucks help in reducing the SO cost of attacking enemy battalions in specific locations on the Tactical Display Sheet, while scouts allow you to extend the standard number of 5 turns in a battle.  Both can be absolutely essential buys at times.

Before purchasing your units, you must randomly draw Enemy Battalion Cards up to the Campaign’s value. There are three types of battalion: Assault, Supply and Command and you must always select them in the order to 2 Assault, 1 Supply and 1 Command.  I’ve often thought it might be a good idea if some Campaigns had modifiers to the Objective Cards to reflect special historical circumstances.

These will be the total number of enemy Battalions that you will face over the course of a typical campaign which will last from 3 to 5 weeks.  Each week, you will make the choice of which of these Battalions you will fight and the number of them that you destroy by the end of the campaign will determine your level of success.  

Next you buy [using your OPs points] your unit cards and then you choose the correct type of Commander card for each type of Unit card (from the four basic categories: Infantry, Armour, Light Armour and Artillery). The Skill Level from Recruit to Ace and the number of each that you are allowed is given on the Campaign card. The earlier the Campaign, the less likely that you will be able to choose any Veteran or Ace Commanders, while gaining Experience points as the Campaign progresses will allow you to upgrade their Skill levels.

There is a photocopyable Roster Sheet to fill in all the essential

details and then it’s off to choose which enemy Battalion you’re going to fight in your first week and which of your units you decide to assign to combat each Battalion.  

Here is the typical layout for an encounter in one of the pacific campaigns.. At top right you can see the display on which the enemy battalion counters will be displayed, showing the various locations from Enemy Breakthrough to Friendly Staging area.  The nearer these are to your own troops, the fewer Ops points you will need to spend in order to engage with the enemy.

Once you've made your choice of Battalion to fight, you place your own units on the map and then draw the appropriate types of enemy units as shown on the Battalion card and according to random dice rolls place them on the map.   As mentioned earlier, most battles last 5 turns with the ability to extend the length is you've purchased scout cars.

In a turn, each enemy unit will activate according to dice rolls on the Tactical Movement chart printed on the bottom right of the play board.  Those of your units that have a Fast Commander will move and fire first, while those which have a Slow Commander will move and fire after the enemy units!   The earlier in the war a Campaign is the more likely that your Commanders will be Slow.  Again, as the Skill of a Commander is upgraded the change to becoming a Fast Commander will tend to occur.

A few tweaks have improved the game play, but only in what I would consider very minor ways.   For those who found fault with Tiger Leader, I do not think that they will find any changes that will significantly change their view.  Personally, I was well pleased with all elements of the former game and considered the rule book to be even easier to digest than those for the many Leader series games that concentrated solely on air warfare.  Sherman Leader maintains that clarity and ease of reading with continued excellence in graphical layout and consistent high quality illustrations, as seen in just a couple of examples laid out below.

One of the major features of these two games that I like is the marrying of Commander cards to unit cards, with the reality that a unit may lose its Commander in battle or that the unit may be destroyed while the Commander survives.  Obviously, for many the delight of Sherman Leader is the fact that this game places you in the role of directing the Allied forces that previously you could only fight against.

For those of you already owning Tiger Leader, there is the added value that the Tiger Leader Upgrade Kit comes as part of the package and a lovely substantial addition it is with 4 full sheets of counters, 6 supplemental sets of cards and a complete new rule book. Personally, I was fortunate to receive a bonus of the WWII Tank Leader Commander cards expansion pack.  These cards add a superb new element to both games giving you a set of enemy Commanders who will be randomly drawn and allocated to each enemy Battalion.   These cards give your enemy units bonuses and abilities.  For those of you who like a tough fight, the going just got tougher!  Though it's intended that these be randomly drawn, who can't be enticed by the thought of coming up against Erwin Rommel or Heinz Guderian or even, when playing the Germans, encountering Bernard Montgomery.  My only complaint is that, amazingly, I cannot take on General George Patton!! 

So, all in all, a total thumbs up to this latest addition to the many great Leader games.

Thanks again to DVG for providing the review copies.

 

Commands & Colors Ancients Expansions 2-3 Reprint

by

GMT Games

 Commands & Colors Ancients was designed by Richard Borg and first took the wargaming world by storm in 2006. This GMT game has exploded into all of these eras:

Samurai

Medieval

American Revolution

Napoleonics

 As you can see, the wargamer has a smorgasbord of eras, battles, and armies to choose from.

 For those of you who have not read about or delved into the Commands & Colors world, here is a a simplified breakdown of the game. The mapboard is generic with extremely large hexes. The player adds tiles to the board per the scenario instructions. The game itself is of medium complexity, and is a perfect segue to add new Wargamers to the fold. The game is card driven, so the player is always forced to think ahead. Each scenario lists the amount of Command Cards each player starts with. The player's opponent may make a mistake that the player is just dying to take advantage of. Unfortunately, the player only has a Command Card that only allows him to move or attack on a completely different part of the field or other troops. The rules are now up to the 3rd edition. The rules have been tweaked down through the years to rid them of any ambiguities, etc. This is the sequence of play:

1. Play a Command Card

2. Order units and leaders

3. Move

4. Battle ( combat between units)

5. Draw a new Command Card

This is actually a picture of the first printing. The only thing different on the newer box is that it says "Second Reprint"

 Much to the gaming community's relief, an anonymous donor was kind enough to bankroll the re-release of the game and all of the expansions for it. May he be blessed by the wargaming Gods. The base game, Commands & Colors Ancients, is needed to play all of the expansions. This review is of the new combined expansions 2-3. The expansion does not come with a mapboard as they originally did. This was to cut down on both shipping costs and the overall price of the expansions. 

 This is what comes with the combined expansion:

• 3" Box
• 457 red, green, gray and black blocks
• 1 sheet of terrain tiles
• 7 sheets of labels
• 2 reference cards
• 1 combined rule and scenario book 

 Expansion #2 covers battles that feature Roma versus various Barbarians. The battles range in time from the Battle of Closium in 225 BC, to the Battle of Cefn Carnedd in 51 AD. There are seven battles alone that deal with the revolt of Spartacus. The next, Expansion #3, deals with the various Roman Civil Wars. These go from the Sullan Battle of the Colline Gate, to the last battle that was fought in the civil war between Pompey and Caesar, the Battle of Munda.

 The game components are ones you typically see in GMT Games, meaning that the production values are extremely high. The blocks are of four different sizes. The largest is for elephants, the next size is for leaders, and the medium size is for cavalry. The smallest blocks are for your Infantry forces. About the blocks, there are a ton of them to be stickered, and I mean a ton. For those of us who have arthritis or some other problem (I have a mashed right-hand thumb), it might be worth your while to pay someone to do it. Other than that, for those of you who are lucky, or unlucky, enough to have kids living with you, corral them into helping. The stickers themselves are very nicely done. It is easy to distinguish between the forces by the size and their colorful picture. The two expansion rule books are well written and done in full color. This makes it extremely easy to setup the battles. Both expansion booklets have special rules for the battles listed.

 There is not much else to add. The game system is tried and true and has continually been upgraded. This expansion is a must for an ancients wargamer. The game itself brings the color and feel of ancient battles with shorter game times compared to other ancients games. One addition that I tremendously appreciate is the number of battles of Sertorius that have been included. A big thank you to GMT Games for letting me review these two expansions. GMT has also posted that there will be another expansion coming up dealing with early ancient warfare and chariots. These are links to the main game and all of the expansions:

Link to the downloads for Living Rules:

https://www.gmtgames.com/topic.aspx?name=GMTLivingRules#cca

Commands & Colors Ancients main Game:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-627-commands-colors-ancients-6th-printing.aspx

Commands & Colors Expansion 1:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-628-c-c-ancients-exp-1-greece-eastern-kingdoms-3rd-printing.aspx

Command & Colors Expansion 4:

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-482-c-c-ancients-exp-4-imperial-rome.aspx

Commands & Colors Expansion 6

https://www.gmtgames.com/p-483-c-c-ancients-exp-6-the-spartan-army.aspx 

Robert