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Typhoon Over Moscow by T Broderick

and

Death on the Volga by T Broderick



 

 

Again my book of the week visits WW2 and the East Front fiction genre. Typhoon is the first book, Death on the Volga the second, not sure if there will be any  more in the series but I do hope so. They are both rather pricey in paperback (though I say worth it) however Kindle format are easily affordable and great value. The author is obviously a very keen historian and his research is impeccable. Nothing can ruin historical fiction more dramatically than historical errors and I have to say this is flawless. I can't find anything to raise even an eyebrow. Unlike my previous recommendation which followed a squad of Axis soldiers, here we have a whole host of characters, from both sides of the conflict, with no bias shown to either side.

 

Character development is very good, as is the narrative, for example battle scenes are exciting and you are there in the action and there is nothing that pulls you out from your imagination like some glaring historical error. Again this reads like a book written by an experienced author and a very good one at that. It's not stilted and flows well, conversations feel natural and not contrived to move the story along. There is no sign of an amateur author here like you can get with this type of novel. To be perfectly honest, if this had been an old war classic like say Life and Death I wouldn't have been surprised, it's written that well.

 

So if you have an interest in WW2 and fancy a great novel buy them! If you have an interest in the East front then definitely get them.

 

Highly recommended!

 

Jason

 


Edit: Sadly it's unlikely to be anymore, just noticed the publication dates!

FINAL ACT

The Dials!  The Dials!

Ok, I've got your attention.  Now, can the game hold it?  Well, this certainly is something different.  On one [many?] levels, it appears a very simple, almost child-like tank game.  Simple in physical components, simple in the rules and simple in number of pieces.  Just seven tanks per side, a bare map of 12 x 12 square grid, a few pieces of terrain, oh ... and two control panels with THE DIALS!

Contributing most to the impression that Final Act is a youngster's game are the tanks - very basic wooden-block tanks that could easily come out of my two-year old daughter's play box.

As you can see, a wooden body, a wooden turret and a wooden gun.  The few pieces of terrain and obstacles are equally simple and blocky: three berms [earthen mounds] and a cardboard swamp and minefield.  That's virtually it.  The few other components are also wooden: these are the red flame markers to indicate a hit on the tank [that's the reason for the groove on the tank's rear, namely to slot the hit marker in] and black shell markers to place on the map to indicate where your shots land.

But there in the back ground of the picture is without doubt the star component: one of the Control panels with its celebrated set of dials. As you can see the quality of nearly everything is superlative.
Only the cardboard swamp and minefield look rather ordinary  among such well finished pieces.  Once again, I can't help drawing you back to the dials. 

Admittedly, dials have become something of an in-thing in the gaming world, from Glass House's production wheels to Tzolkin 's gears and, perhaps most recently Scythe's Combat dials.  But these really are the piece de la resistance. Though the pointers are made of plastic, they are solider than any others I've come across and, most important, already assembled and secured in quality machined,  metal units.

The map too is an attractive production with strong, vibrant earthen colours that are echoed in the orange and brown shading of the berms. 

It is very physically appealing, but an appeal to a fairly young age group rather than an adult market.  This seems a little at odds with the background of one of the designer's being a former Israeli tank commander.  Though he views the game as light to medium, I've found it to be ultra-light in depth and game play.

The rules do an excellent, clear job of explaining play, but are barely more than four pages long.  As you can see below, text is fairly brief, well-laid out and attractively illustrated.

But basically, it is a question of setting your upper row of dials to program each tank's movement, which is always one square into any of the three front or rear squares.  You cannot move directly to the squares to your immediate left or right.  At the same time, you program each tank's lower dial if you want to make a 90 degree turn.

Before you reveal and move your tanks, you place each tank's wooden shell in one of the square's of the tank's fire arc. In  the photo above, you can see several images of how terrain affects that fire display.  You then reveal your control panels and move your tanks.

If an enemy tank moves into a square that contains one of your shells, your opponent places a red hit marker in the groove at the rear of the tank.  If that tank later in the game takes a second hit, you place the marker on top of the tank's turret and it is killed.  In the basic game, the tank is removed from the map board, as an advanced rule the wrecked tank remains on the board as an obstacle.  Again, the fact that the latter is one of the four very simple "advanced rules" indicates the strongly introductory nature of this game.  The other three extra rules allow once per game for one tank to fire two shells, for one tank to repair by removing a shell hit and for a reduction in the number of tanks that can fire if specific tanks have been destroyed.

So, combat boils down to a game of "guesstimate".  You work out which squares your opponent's tanks can potentially enter and your shells can hit and then try to guess which ones he/she has chosen.  This factor alone [reinforced by the ultimate goal of the game being to get one of your tanks into the enemy's area designated Last Line of Defense] has led me to struggle to find players among my gaming circle, both of Euro gamers and wargamers, willing to give Final Act a try.  

Though the initial secret placing of terrain and tanks lends variety to each game and there is no doubt of the physical quality of the game's production, ultimately I've found reactions have uniformly been that this is a delightful product and excellent for introducing children to the fascinating world of wargaming, but with very limited appeal to an adult market.


Final Act is published by Tyto Games and can be pre-ordered on their website tytogames.com

Afghanistan '11, developed by Every Single Soldier and published by Slitherine, is the sequel to Vietnam '65. This new title takes the established formula of fighting an insurgency, while winning over the hearts and minds of civilians, and adds several new layers to it. The game is scheduled for release later this month on March 23rd, so I thought I would do a preview consisting of an AAR (After Action Report) to give you an idea of how the game plays. 

Scenario Selection Screen

In Vietnam '65, there were no distinct scenarios, only a randomly generated map which always asked you to complete the same set of general victory conditions. Afghanistan '11 includes an 18 mission campaign in which you must complete specific objectives in addition to the normal gameplay loop.

Scenario Briefing

For this AAR, I will be attempting the first mission after the tutorial, loosely based on the Battle of Lashkagar. Although the game is titled Afghanistan '11, the campaign begins at the start of the conflict. These scenarios are not detailed recreations of the events described, but the map design and objectives take their inspiration from the same type of challenges faced in reality. 

The Strategic Map View

 Above you see the strategic map, which includes tabs for a lot of useful information, and icons showing everything of importance in the field.  My objective for the scenario is to resupply the FOB (Forward Operating Base) in the middle of the map, with my main base of operations located at the star in the lower right corner. I must then keep the FOB intact and keep the hearts and minds score at 50 or better. (This score can usually be seen in the top-middle of the screen, on the left.) The other icons are villages spread across the area which I must try to keep friendly. The initial obstacle here is that my HQ is really far away from everything else. My plan is to greatly reinforce FOB Bravo and use it as a jumping off point to control the villages around it. 

The road from HQ (bottom right) to FOB Bravo (upper left).

I expect that a lot of IEDs will have been placed along the lengthy stretch of highway between my starting point and FOB Bravo. Luckily, the US forces can call in a Husky mine clearing vehicle to lead the way. The only downside is that it is a bit slow compared to the other vehicles. However, the rest of the convoy would get blown up without it, so we must make do.

The convoy sets out.

 I have a ton of political points available, so I deploy a fairly substantial force right off the bat. A large convoy carrying supplies, infantry, special forces, and an engineering unit, the Buffalo. I also send a Chinook ahead with heavy artillery for the FOB and send some Blackhawk-borne troops to visit the nearest village.

Political points are used for pretty much everything you do. Requesting reinforcements, building new FOBs or roads, and even moving units around costs political points. You have to balance between using enough to get the job done (so you can generate more points) and overstretching yourself to the point that your forces become ineffective, as you cannot do as much once you run out of points. This number can even go negative, so you have to be careful. 

Trouble ahead.

Before going any further, I use one of my special abilities, the UAV, to scout ahead. It spots three militia units on or near our planned route.  Militia spawn in undetectable caves in the mountains and proceed to place IEDs along roads and around villages. Although you can't stop them from spawning, if you attack them they will flee and abandon their bomb planting mission. Taliban units are much nastier and more aggressive, they will flee when attacked, but then regroup and continue their mission. Initially Taliban will only appear along the east map edge, representing the Pakistan border, but if you let the allegiance of a village slip away the Taliban will start spawning deeper into the area of operations.

An Apache attack generates mixed results.

 I take out the militia along the road with a powerful airstrike, another of my abilities which has a three turn cooldown. It also costs political points to use, if you run out it is no longer an option.  I request an Apache to help me take out the other militia units. While engaging the first group the Apache suffers some damage. This costs political points as the folks back home don't like to see American forces damaged or defeated. Being a rookie commander, I didn't notice that the Apache can make a long range attack, which would have been far safer.

Heavy Artillery. Look at that range!

 The rest of the journey to FOB Bravo is uneventful. The Husky clears several more IEDs, but no enemy infantry are spotted. Back at HQ, a special forces unit has finished training a new artillery company for the Afghan National Army (ANA). Your Special Forces units are not good in direct combat, and can't make village visits, but they do have several special abilities, which includes training ANA units. This saves you from calling in more expensive American units. At the HQ you can train artillery and APC units, and at FOBs they can train ANA infantry companies. The ANA troops are better for visiting villages, but aren't quite as good in a fight compared to the American infantry.  In some scenarios you will need to build up a sizable ANA force before reaching a certain turn when the US forces will leave and the ANA will have to fend for itself.

The FOB artillery can now cover the central region of the AO.

 Once my Buffalo engineer unit reached the FOB I had it build an artillery pit and maintenance yard. These upgrades are fairly expensive, but will be needed to make the FOB a hub for my activities here.

An opium field spotted north of the right village.

 While the ground convoy moved to the FOB, I had my Blackhawk continue carrying an infantry unit to the villages furthest north. The one on the right, up in the mountains, proved uncooperative and is leaning towards the local militia. The people in the village on the left were more helpful, and told us about the location of an opium farm back near the first village. Helicopters are much more expensive to operate than ground transports, but can get your troops around the map in a hurry. I was able to visit both of these villages in a single turn.

The Taliban shows up.

 Back at FOB Bravo, things become a touch hotter as Taliban and Militia forces move in. Some rapid artillery strikes send them running. I also send an infantry company south to the contact the nearby village, sweeping for IED's along the way. Clearing these explosives always makes the closest village favor you more.

More Taliban!

 Up north, my troopers take care of the opium field, and also spot a Taliban technical on their way in. The Taliban unit fled, but my UAV spotted them again. Another airstrike and the world is a safer place. Removing the opium fields helps you by cutting off funds for the Taliban, but also makes the associated village dislike you, since your forces just took away their only cash crop.

An ideal sight!

 On the next turn I send my Buffalo engineer unit south from FOB Bravo to build waterworks in the village there. These people are very appreciative and now fully support us. After re-supplying the Buffalo I will send it back to connect the road to this village. Building up the infrastructure of local villages like this will help you win the hearts and minds campaign, but also costs political points to build, and creates new targets for your foes.

Cast your vote.

 Election time eventually comes, and I must choose who the Coalition will support for President. The candidates will have various positions that make your life easier or harder. You can spend some political points here to ensure a victory, or just try to maintain order on the battlefield. The Taliban will also step up its efforts right before an election.

My second convoy runs into trouble.

 Several turns later, things have gone against me to some degree. Although I have won over a couple of villages, others have swung against me. I decide to send a second, smaller convoy out to the FOB in preparation for an expedition into the western half of the map. Another FOB there will give me a strong point to work from in that region. Unfortunately, my Husky stumbles into a Taliban unit and suffers some damage. The Taliban forces flee and the infantry patrol I send out to find them has no luck. My UAV is already engaged elsewhere.

My Chinook bites the dust.

 On the next turn, disaster strikes. My Chinook had just completed a mission to supply a village with U.N. aid (which pushes favor in your direction, and of course is all warm and fuzzy). On the way home it flew right over a Taliban squad that damaged it. Then, just out of reach of the HQ, it ran into another Taliban squad, which was able to shoot it down. This gave me a pretty severe political point loss, and now my options become more limited for the time being. I hadn't realized that the helicopters were so vulnerable when moving. My movements must be much more careful in the future.

The situation as it stands on Turn 11.

At the end of 11 turns, my situation is a mixed bag. I have lost political support at home, but not everything is bad in the field. I have the full support of two villages, and have a very strong position in the middle of the map. Several enemy units have been destroyed, and numerous IED's cleared. My planned move into the west should net me one more village there. I must work to win over the village between my FOB and HQ, since it is now spawning Taliban units, and they are throwing serious wrenches in my plans.

The elections will conclude next turn. Hopefully the Coalition friendly candidate will win, and the momentum will shift back to us.

Look for Part 2 very soon!

- Joe Beard

LEGEND : WINDS OF WAR 1934 - 1940

Though the title Winds of War may have deceived you into thinking that this will be a review of the latest WWII game that I've received to cover, the true topic as you can see from the box art is far different.  Instead of battling Germans in the early war years, you're going to be battling your way round the many stages of the fabled Mille Miglia race or some of the most famous and legendary Grand Prix circuits, like Monza.

Billed as an expansion to Legend : History of 1000 Miglia, it can be played as a stand-alone game with its new, modified rules or by referring back to the original game.  The key difference is the newer, easier rules which I gather from a friend who owned the original were highly mathematical and considerably slowed the "game" down.  By this I really mean that the original was a finely tuned simulation perhaps more enjoyable to afficianados of the racing world than those just wanting a racing game.

At this point, I think it's appropriate to introduce you to the designer, Carlo Amaddeo, and his background.  It is as a games designer and founder of WBS Games that I first learnt of him, but his background as a graduate of UNCC as a Mechanical Engineer  with a major in Motorsports may tell you more about where this game is coming from. 

After watching him talk about all that he has designed on the Mille Miglia, you go away knowing that this is the passion of his life and a topic of which he has an encyclopaedic knowledge.  As someone who knows no more and possibly even less about the car racing world of today than the most average "man in the street", I wondered how I would fare with this new product.  One thing from my very early childhood I did remember was the name Mille Miglia and the glamour associated with that race and my fascination with the racing driver, Sterling Moss, and his astounding win in 1955 of the Mille Miglia.

My familiarity with car racing games is equally ordinary, starting in 1962 with a Christmas present of Waddington's Formula 1 and then leaping forward many years to a limited experience of formula De, then more recently Thunder Alley and just a few weeks ago Rallyman.

So, without more ado, let's peer under the bonnet of Legend : Winds of War.  The game comes in the size and type of box that I associate with Columbia Games and has the same sort of slip cover too.  The artwork on the front is stylised with a surprising pastel background predominating, though as a result the red racing car does surge out of the picture even more strongly.  On the back is a series of headlined informative paragraphs about features of the contents, one column in English, the other in Italian, while down the centre runs a series of pictures of the different types of cards contained inside.

Opening the box reveals what you see below on my dining room table!

The contents are dominated by the nineteen, magnificent, double-sided tiles that are used to from the many complete racing circuits or the various stages of the Mille Miglia itself.  These hexagonal tiles are beautiful, substantial in thickness and measure just under 16cm from side to side.  An amazing detail is that each is based on the real landscape of the race.

About half the track tiles are piled here!

And here's the rest.

Equally impressive though the card is much thinner, are the eighteen [again double-sided] car dashboards, allowing a choice from thirty-six famous models to race in - not surprisingly there are several Alfa Romeos, along with Aston Martin, Lancia, Bugatti, Maserati and  many more.

Apologies if I've left out mentioning your favourite.  What enhances these are the pictures of each car and that the background colour matches the original car's dashboard.  The final card of the same size as these is what's called the Race Chronograph, in other words the two dials that log the minutes and hours of each race.

By comparison the small cards are slightly disappointing in quality.  Of fairly thin card, they are matt finished and definitely benefit in appearance and durability from being sleeved.  What I do greatly like about them is the use of black & white photos from the era and that the Spare Part cards [for such things as water - no, not for the driver, for the radiator - tires, spark plugs etc] are reproductions of vintage advertising posters of the time.

Of the other types of card, there are five named, historical drivers featuring photos of each in his car [seen below]

and their corresponding stats cards, a deck of Event cards, a number of Mechanical Failure cards to help you remember what is currently faulty or damaged on your car and a small number of Tuning cards. 

So, though physical quality is a little under par, these cards score top quality for period and thematic style.

The cars are simple, small wooden models and, I'm sure that, like, others,  I'll invest in a few more realistic replacements and the final items are two sets of customised dice and twenty plastic, tyre-like discs on to which you have to [easily] apply a series of lettered stickers - these are the important Curve markers that will be explained shortly in more detail as I move on now to the rule book.

Love the customised dice - recognise the symbols!

Before doing that, there is one other item and task that needs to be mentioned.  This is a sheet of adhesive stickers that have to be peeled off and applied to the map tiles that have curves on them.  This is a fairly lengthy process and needs a little care and patience, following attentively at the accompanying sheet of diagrams that show you exactly where to place them on each relevant tile.  I assume that this is necessary either because the company had large stocks of the existing tiles or setting up new templates for printing the tiles with the brake lines on was too costly.  They do detract ever so slightly from the otherwise impressive appearance and quality of the tiles, but are a key development in the design of the game.

So, to the rule book.   It's a good product of glossy A4 apges that takes you though everything in a sensible order from components to game play to how to run the various different races, including a page of Racing Classes and a page for the 1000 Miglia Yearbook. 

It's worth noting that the picture is not of the rule book held on one of my clipboards, but a deliberate trompe l' oiel effect created for that page of the rule book!

It concludes with six and a half pages of very clear colour diagrams of each of the thirteen stages of the Mille Miglia, two diagrams of single complete circuit Mille Miglia races and then diagrams for eleven Italian circuits for famous races including Monza, Roma, Tripoli and a whole range of Coppa [Cup] races.  Each diagram lists the board tiles necessary to build the circuit and the relevant Curve markers for each individual curve. 

As I said at the beginning, this really is a labour of love and it shows, even down to the provision of the 1940 Mille Miglia circuit, as opposed to stages, as the race was run under somewhat different circumstances because of WWII. 

Text is fairly small and quite densely presented, but well-illustrated in full colour.  The opening Component section is clear and easy, explaining first the dashboards and the many items that they monitor [starting with speed in km/h and then engine, temperature, barkes, bodywork and tires].  The course tiles come next and the basic road identifiers; white dots for flat sections, red dots for uphill and black dots for downhill and finally those black lines that you've carefully applied turn out to indicate the beginning and end of the curves [i.e. bends].  All the cards and the Race Chronograph and how to use them are similarly straightforward. 

A good example of the well-illustrated text.

Moving on to what is called the Driving Academy, here we're introduced to the main body of rules and they will take all your concentration.  They are for the most part clear and backed up with very thorough examples, but there is a lot to take in and every word matters.  Though the final page of the rule book does contain the necessary charts, a separate Play Aid card with additional notes would make the eventual races that you run easier to deal with.

Initially simple movement, acceleration and braking get you off to a smooth beginning.  Standing Starts, Great Starts, Slipstreaming and Slopes aren't bad to follow, but the substantial and important section on Curves, which also covers Accidents, need nearly as much care to negotiate as the real thing.  I must admit that I felt just as I did when I started to learn to drive and thought," I'll never manage to remember all that's in the Highway Code and the things I've got to coordinate in driving the car will never become second nature."  Well, I've been a happy, confident driverfor many years now, but the details of Exceeding the Turning Speed and the ramifications of Head Straight, Emergency Braking and Hard Braking, Fast Exits and then Collisions and Accidents are not yet second nature.

Making my own Play Aid has greatly helped in starting to fix things in my head, but for me this is not a game I can take down and play without substantially refreshing my memory.  The essential actions are very simple: adjust speed, move your car accordingly, roll the dice, if necessary, and mark appropriate consequences on your dashboard display.  However, the complexities and sometimes confusion arise from the potential
choices of how you may affect, either to enhance or try to avoid dangerous consequences resulting from, those simple actions. All add to the focus on simulation rather than game that I feel this product aims for.

The final section of the rules explains the procedures for setting up each type of race and here there is an interesting variety of options to suit a variety of needs.  First and foremost, there is time.  for the shortest play time, the advice is to select a Grand Prix circuit.  Most of these are three-lap races, but obviously fewer or more laps can further temper your game to the time slot you have available.

The famous Monza circuit.

A closer look at this circuit's start and finish line.

Symbols on the game map and on the car that you are racing produce a provisional set of starting grid positions, with players able to vie to improve their position by rolling Challenge dice.  Such elements influence the atmosphere of the game and I like the ability to set up a Championship by choosing a series of circuits to be run in sequence.  Points are awarded for placing and prize money awarded too that can be spent on spare parts. tuning abilities and even such things as selling your car to buy another or bargaining with other players to buy drivers or cars.  If you wish to follow this idea, there is even a Championship Form that you can download from the WBSGames site.

Whatever type of race you prefer, you can choose between what the designer calls simulation or arcade mode.  The latter choice naturally tends to give you a quicker game, while the former gives a more detailed and historical experience.  Using the 1000 Miglia Yearbook page, you can decide on a year which gives you a range of cars to choose from and a maximum budget of lira that you can spend on creating your racing team. 

Cars are auctioned one at a time and the person who pays the least for his/her car then gets first choice of which driver they can hire to drive it.  If you know my liking for branching choices, then you'll appreciate my positive vote for this system.  Do you bid for a top quality car and end up having to race with a very average driver or aim for aim for a less powerful car with potentially a much better driver?  You then move on to buying tuning cards, followed by buying spare parts, again the priority of choice always goes from the person who has currently spent least to the one who has spent most.

However, if you go for the full Mille Miglia, then each car will be setting off at eight minute intervals and your opponent is going to be the clock.  Each stage of the race is run in sequence, with your time the crucial factor, as the winner is the driver who clocks up the fastest time to complete all the stages of the race.

I know the intention is hopefully to work through the years with new expansions and though Race games are not my chosen field of interest, I truly hope that Carlo Amaddeo is successful in his intention.  If so, I look forward to one day being able to emulate my childhood hero, Stirling Moss, as well as race with the likes of Fangio and Nuvolari!

My final conclusion is that Legend : Winds of War is definitely for the lover of car racing games and especially for those who want to learn about and experience a detailed simulation of this legendary race.  Though this may have introduced some simplifications to the original, it still remains simulation more than game.

So, if, like me, you favour a simpler and more dramatic form of racing then this may be not your best choice.



[Talking about simpler.  Next time, I shall be reviewing a game at the opposite end of the complexity spectrum.  In Meerkat terms, folks, "It's simples!"]