Thomas Gunn: New Releases 'Stand To' for inspection!

 

 

This is the second review of Thomas Gunn miniatures and this time I present their most recent releases. We have a collection of Roman Legionnaires, Fallschirmjager and two sets that make a great little diorama of WW2 Aussies!  I was extremely impressed last time round. So had high hopes for this second collection sent to me for review. Read on to see if they lived up to my expectations..

 

First we have to go back to the days of the Roman Empire as we inspect the latest additions to join the ranks of Thomas Gunns Legionnaires.

 

 

 



 

ROM010A\B - Bulls Eye - Red Shield\30th Legion

 

As you can see from the pictures it's very doubtful this Legionnaire is going to aid you in any future battle soon. The poor chap has done a 'Harold' and taken an arrow to the eye. Typical of Thomas Gunns attention detail is that the Pilum is separate, as the unlucky Roman would have dropped it when the arrow hit. For the review I received both the Red Shield and the 30th Legion variant as seen in the pictures above. There is also a 9th Legion variant with the black shield and bull motif. The 30th Legion and 9th Legion versions are limited edition, so if your after one of those I'd be quick! The quality of the miniatures is excellent. The posture looks natural and the sculpting from head to toe can't be faulted. The painting is up to Thomas Gunns high standards, with all the details picked out perfectly and not even a spot of paint where it shouldn't be. Shading is well done as is skin tone. This is a rather gruesome miniature, but I love it! Top marks all round. He comes in a silver box and great care has gone into padding so he doesn't get damaged in transit. I'm sure he is happy about that, I expect even the slightest knock on the arrow is going to cause even more pain than he is already in.  He retails at £32.50

 

 

 

ROM012A\C - Kneeling Legionnaire - Red Shield\9th Legion

 

Here the Legionnaire is kneeling with Pilum raised all ready for the order to go into battle. For the review I received both the standard Red Shield variant as well as the black shield 9th Legion variant. It also comes in a 30th Legion version. You can see both the 9th Legion and Red Shield in the pictures above (the picture at the bottom shows all versions lined up). The figures posture is well sculpted and natural. The uniform, from Helmet to Sandals, is superbly detailed and not just the front but attention is given to all sides of the figure. Paintwork is of the usual high quality, shading is well done as is skin tone. What I've noticed is the uniformity in colour across all the Legionnaire miniatures which is important when dealing with uniforms. What else can I say? He is typical of Thomas Gunns extreme attention to detail across all aspects of the miniature. As usual 9th Legion and 30th Legion are limited editions so be quick if it's one of those you have your eye on. Would look great in any Roman diorama. He comes in a silver box and as usual great care has gone into the padding. To really appreciate how much care and attention Thomas Gunn go into their miniatures all you really need to do is look at the padding in a box. He retails at £32.50

 

 

 

 

 

 

ROM013A\B - Standing in Reserve - Red Shield\30th Legion

 

The last Roman Legionnaire to be inspected today is a Legionnaire who can either be seen as in reserve waiting to go into battle or on sentry duty. The shield comes as a separate piece so you can use it or not as you see fit. For the review I received both the Red Shield and the 30th Legion miniatures. Like other Roman Legionnaires he also comes in a 9th Legion version. The pictures above show both the Red Shield and the 30th Legion miniatures. The last picture shows the miniature in with ROM002 and ROM003 figures to show how the look good as a collection and would be an excellent choice for a Roman Diorama. Like all the other figures there is no drop in standard in both the sculpt and the paintwork. Thomas Gunn figures are ones you just can't stop looking at with a big smile on your face. Care and attention is given to all sides of the miniature which goes without saying for Thomas Gunn. Remember if you want the 30th Legion or 9th Legion they are limited editions!He comes in a silver box and is very well padded. He retails at £32.50

 

 Now we jump forward in time to WWII so we can review the next set of miniatures...

 

 

FJ020D - Anniversary Set

 

This is a special anniversary set of FJ020A - HMG Set (Normandy) that came in three different versions and is now sold out. As demand was great Thomas Gunn have decided to make another variant in a limited edition set of 100. I have to say this, if you only ever buy one Toy Soldier in your life I have no qualms at all in saying this is the one to buy, oh and be quick as it wont be around for long. We have two FJ manning a heavy MG 42, one FJ firing and the other  loading. It's hard to find words that do this miniature justice. The sculpt right down to the tiniest detail is perfect and the paint work is a triumph. Even the FJ shooting has one eye closed and the other open! They also come with their separate small arms weapon for you to place where you see fit. It's a miniature I'll always treasure and one that will be the first to get shown to anyone interested (or not). You wont find anyone that isn't impressed even if they have no real interest in Toy Soldiers. Seriously be quick and snap this one up before it's gone for good. It comes in a silver box and the usual care as gone into padding. This little marvel retails at £70.

 

 

 

FJ028A - MG42 with crew (winter)

 

This along with it's variant summer version is the last FJ set Thomas Gunn is going to make this year. Not until next year will we see anything new with regards to the FJ and apparently in a format not previously released by Thomas Gunn which sounds very interesting, however that's for another time. For the review I received the winter version which you can see in the pictures above. The winter version is a limited edition of 100 and the summer version limited to 80. They are wearing winter smocks\trousers and are taking aim. Shell casings are scattered on the floor after being ejected whilst firing. It's the detail I love from Thomas Gunn. The sculpt and paintwork are of the highest quality. I love how Thomas Gunn manage to get personality into the faces of their miniatures, no standard look here. They have also got across the feeling of cold especially with the frost effect on their helmets. Another superb miniature from Thomas Gunn. If your after FJ in winter uniform firing a HMG for your diorama, then look no further. Or if you just love collecting Toy Soldiers you can't go wrong putting this in your collection. He comes in a silver box and is very well padded as we have come to expect. He retails at £69.

 

 

 

 

 

 

RS042A - 8cm Mortar with crew (combat)

 

Here we have two Aussies who are laying down  an intense mortar barrage to help out a patrol deep in the jungle. This A version are dressed in fatigues worn in the 1940's during jungle warfare. There will be a B version that will be in early war battledress worn during desert fighting or the fighting in Greece early on in the war. The A version is limited to 100 and the B version will be limited to just 80. The posture of the two figures is alive and full of animation as the sculpture has done a first class job in capturing this intense and frantic moment. The faces of the two Aussies show not only the situation they are in but also the personalities of these two men. Just like the sculpt the paintwork can't be faulted and believe me I do try! The figures are separate as is the mortar. As you'll soon see the next set I review go hand in hand with this one to create a dynamic little diorama. They come in a silver box with the usual first rate padding. This excellent set retails at £75 and is well worth every penny.

 

 

 

 

 

RS043 - Command Set

 

The final set I get to review is another Aussie two piece set. Here we have an Officer desperately trying to hear what's being said on the radio as the cacophony of battle sounds all around in the hot steamy jungle. Whilst his  No2 sits patiently, all ready to write down the orders as and when they get relayed to him from his  Officer, when he finally manages to hear them! The set comes with two separate weapons an M1 and a Owen MG to enhance any diorama you put them in. Now talking about a diorama, have you noticed yet? We have the perfect companion piece to make an excellent little diorama, yes that's right the Mortar set reviewed above! As you can see in the last picture they all look wonderful together. Getting back to the set, just like the mortar set above the sculpture has captured the moment exquisitely. Each figure tells a story! The paint work is fantastic as you now come to expect from Thomas Gunn. They also wear the same jungle fatigues as the Mortar set above. A Japanese tank will also be released soon for the RS series and then like the FJ series the RS series comes to an end.

This set is limited to 100 pieces. Comes in a silver box and is fully padded. The set retails £75

 

 

 Being able to review Thomas Gunn miniatures is becoming the highlight for me with regards to running the blog. Opening each box is like a mini Christmas morning for me:) I really can't get  over enough how impressed I am with their miniatures. I honestly do try to find something to fault, but so far no matter how hard I've tried I can't find anything. So until the next set of Thomas Gunn miniatures that come in for review I bid you good bye! (Oh and if you like any of the miniatures above and they are limited edition, then be quick, you've been warned)



13 DAYS

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS

FROM ULTRA PRO via JOLLY ROGER GAMES

I would love to be able to write this review without referring to Twilight Struggle, but as the designers themselves heralded it as Twilight Struggle [hereafter TS] in 45 minutes that's not going to be likely.

There are plenty of other reasons too.  Victory determined by who has gained most Prestige at game end, a Defcon track and the possibility of a player losing by triggering nuclear war; playing a hand of cards each turn and each card playable for either its events or placing influence; an abstract board to represent the areas to be influenced.  The Cuban Missile Crisis - one card in TS : a whole game in 13 Days. Nuff said - mini-TS or TS-lite?  Thankfully, it's better and worse than that.

To start with, it has a much smaller footprint.  The board is a mere 11 x 16 inches and though a map of the world hides mutedly in the background, the superimposed, large, rectangular boxes where the fight for influence takes place transforms the experience into a much more abstract form, especially  as three of the boxes aren't countries, but Television, United Nations and Alliances.  Calling these battlegrounds [however metaphorically true that might be] stretches my ability to sink myself into the atmosphere.

To be honest, atmosphere is what I think the board lacks and in that respect is much inferior to TS, but, like most CDGs, the cards are the main creators of the ambience.  In this case, a deck of 39 Strategy cards, 13 Agenda cards and one card titled Personal Letter [in effect the classic Advantage card which gives a bonus of one cube, when played alongside a Strategy card] which the US player possesses at the beginning of the game.  The Strategy cards are the key ones being illustrated with photos taken from the period, some of which I distinctly remember from T.V. news broadcasts and newspapers of the time, such as the meeting between JFK and Kruschev and most disturbing of all the shot of the ship carrying the said "Cuban Missiles".

By comparison the Agenda cards are disappointingly bland with either icons from the Defcon track or representations of faded map pictures.  Overall the quality of all the cards is adequate, but of a distinct thinness that does need sleeving, especially if, as a quick-playing game, it does get many plays.

The rest of the contents are a set of 17 small wooden cubes for each player in their respective colours of blue and red to mark influence in the battlegrounds, six wooden discs to chart Defcon status,  a yellow disc to mark the score on the  Prestige Track and a black disc to mark the turn and finally six small cardboard flag counters to be used each turn to indicate each player's Agendas drawn.

The rules are a small booklet of 9 pages for the rules themselves and 12 pages of a complete play through of a whole game.  That can be achieved as the game lasts a mere 3 Rounds with 4 card plays in each Round.  Yes, that's it; 12 Strategy cards are played by each side in the game.  In this respect, it is TS very, very, very lite!  But, more about those Strategy cards later.

Below is a picture of the board set up at the beginning of the game.

It shows the playing board with the 9 Battlegrounds: 3 Political [green], 3 Military [orange] and 3 World Opinion [purple] and the Defcon track [seen in greater detail below].

Unlike TS, the Defcon track has three columns to indicate how placing influence in the battlegrounds affects the respective Political, Military and World Opinion status.

The bottom of the Defcon track is printed with the starting positions of each players 3 coloured discs and if the resolution was good enough you'd see that they all start in the Defcon 3 zone.  Things have already hotted up before the 13 Days start.  If any single disc is still in the Defcon 1 zone in Phase 7 : Check Nuclear War that player loses, but what's worse a player can also lose, if all three of his/her discs are in the Defcon 2 zone in Phase 7 : Check Nuclear War.  This is a game that is very easy to lose, as each Round all discs move up one square on the table and every time you place cubes in one of the Battlegrounds on the map the relevant marker on the Defcon track moves up the number of cubes placed minus 1.  So, place three influence and you shoot up two squares on the appropriate track..

For me this is one of the best and well crafted mechanisms in the game.  It places you on the horns of a huge dilemma.  A major way to gain Prestige to win the game is from tallying the difference between the number of each player's cubes in a Battleground or the difference between the number of spaces of each player's discs on the Defcon track.  You have to place cubes in order to gain winning Prestige, but at the same time you are pushing yourself up the Defcon track towards potential defeat!  Lovely twist.

However, there is another twist that relates to the three Agenda cards [yellow-backed] each player draws at the beginning of each Turn.

just two of the Agenda cards

First the player uses his/her flags to mark on the board the  areas the three Agendas relate to, but only one of those three will be secretly chosen by each player and only the chosen ones will score Prestige points.  Again this feature of the game is a major one; it signals where a player's interests may be focused for this turn and allows for some degree of bluffing to try to misdirect your opponent from your target agenda.  Also, it is perfectly possible that your opponent ends the Round having been the more successful in fulfilling the conditions of the Agenda card and so gains the Prestige points instead of you.  Best of all you have to take that decision before you know what five Strategy cards you will be using to implement your choice.

This may not be to everyone's liking.  I can imagine some gamers, especially those who prefer absolute control to the vagaries of fate, would have preferred to make their choice of which Agenda card to be their chosen goal after seeing what cards they had to work with.  For myself, I love having to craft a plan out of what the draw has dealt me and in that respect 13 Days seems closest here to what I enjoy in TS.

three of the leading protagonists in the drama of history

First of all, in the deck of 39 strategy cards, each player has 13 in his colour and there are 13 United Nations cards.  With so few cards played, every single one is crucial and many of the dilemmas familiar in TS will be yours in 13 Days.  Each card has an Event and the number of cubes you can place or remove. These work in identical fashion to the War cards in TS.  If you play a card that is of your own colour, you have the choice of playing the Event or placing or removing from one Battleground on the map up to the number of influence cubes shown on the card.  If it is a United Nations card, you have exactly the same choice.  But if the card has your opponent's Event on it, your opponent has the choice of playing the Event [notice he/she can decline to play the Event] and then you place or remove up to the number of Influence cubes.

If you have been doing your maths, five Strategy cards drawn each turn and four played, what happens to the fifth card each turn?   This is the last of the important, innovative elements in the design.  That last card is placed face down in the Aftermath Location at the bottom of the board and provides the final whammy at game end.  The six cards are a final additional Prestige scoring - if the card is a Russian red one,  the number of cubes on it are added to the Russian player's score, if a blue  American card the number of cubes on it are added to the American player's Prestige, if a United Nations card nobody gets any Prestige points. 

You're probably thinking why on earth would a player not put a card of his colour in the Aftermath pile.  Well, it's a bit like the Space Race in TS, perhaps you had a card with an opponent's Event that at a critical point you just did not dare to play.  What can you do with it?   Bury it in the Aftermath pile and cross your fingers.

Obviously the decisions are more limited because, if you do not choose to play the card for its Event, there are only two things you can do either [1] add your cubes to a Battleground  or [2] remove them from a Battleground and there will be many occasions when you must simply take that negative choice of taking them away.  Why? Because it is the only way you can move one of your Defcon markers down the track and away from possible defeat!  However, you will find the action allowed by many of the Events to be especially useful, as they often modify basic rules in advantageous ways.

Before giving you my conclusions on this game, I need to mention the last item in the game box, namely the historical booklet which provides a concise  picture of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the significance of Berlin, Italy and Turkey which explains why all three are battlegrounds in the game, as well as a good explanation of the history behind all the Strategy cards.  For such a small game, this is an elegant addition and one I much appreciated.

So, fewer choices, fewer cards, fewer Rounds than TS, but always, always difficult, critical decisions and enjoyable absorbing play.  It may be a fairly quick game to play, but it is no filler, as I first thought it might be before I played the game.  Every game has been tense with all our attention focused unremittingly on the situation on the board.  Every card play is like a subtle fencing match with genuine opportunities for misdirecting your opponent

I have no hesitation in urging you get this in your collection.  It is an excellent design and exciting gaming experience that I know I shall play over and over again.

To find your nearest retailer in the UK or Europe who stocks 13 Days please click HERE

13 Days: Cuban Missile Crises

Kickstarter Campaign

RRP £34.99

Naval Warfare Simulations Steam and Iron and campaign expansion review

  Some people are into heavy metal, meaning armored vehicles. Then a smaller subset is into heavier metal trains. Once more we cut the group down to those who are obsessed with the heaviest metal battleships and battlecruisers. To me, they are elegant and stately in their deadly beauty. It is no wonder that for a hundred years or so the guns and armor of these behemoths were the epitome of weapons, and also a nation's ego. To send your mighty ships across the globe was a hallmark of a nation's place in the sun. Even the most backwater nations would strain their economies to own at least one battleship.

 The world in WWI waited with baited breath for the clash of the German, and British titans. In what should have been a Wagnerian finale in 1916 off the coast of Jutland, the German fleet twice sailed into the blazing guns of their more numerous cousins. Due to their greater durability, and a Valkyrie like death ride of the German battle cruisers into the hell of British 15" guns, the German navy survived, but not to fight another day. The Kaiser hadn't wanted to risk his pretties anyway. I beg your indulgence for this paean to these marvelous gods of the sea. Now to the matter at hand.

 Naval Warfare Simulations have tried to give the wargamer the chance to experience WWI from a captain, admiral, and naval high command seat. Have they succeeded, and if so how well?

  The game comes with several well written manuals to help you in your quest for maritime dominance. These are:

Campaign Manual
Players Manual
Scenario Editor Manual
Tutorial 

 The first absolutely amazing fact about the game is its size. the entire game with the expansion is less than fifty MB. The size brings us back almost to the days of floppy disks. True, it is in 2D and has minimal colors, but what they have stuffed into this bag of goodies would make Santa proud. 

              

                                THE HIGH SEAS FLEET AT THE BEGINNING OF THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND

 The game itself can be played out in scenarios that are tactical in size, and an hour of game time. To operational scale ones that can last several days. The nations that can be played are as follows:
US, Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia, Austria Hungary, Turkey, and France.

 You have the ability to fight anywhere in the world. It comes with a scenario, a ship editor, and a battle generator with multiple options. There are thirty two scenarios. Here is a small list:

The Goeben
Heligoland Bight
Coronel
The Emden
The Falklands
Scarborough
Dogger Bank
The Bosporus
Jutland
Otranto 

                       

                                                       CLOSE-UP OF THE BATTLE OF DOGGER BANK

 The scenarios range from simply duking it out or laying mines and bombardment, to even launching primitive airstrikes.


 
                                                           HERE IS THE PREFERENCE SCREEN

 The game models weather, night and day, and various visibility. One thing that the game models, which is truly annoying but historically accurate, is mechanical breakdowns on the ships. You will sometimes be all set for your next foray, and then when halfway there find one or two ships have had to turn back. It adds to the 'what if' nature of the game.

 The campaign expansion adds a total of four campaigns:
Baltic
North Sea
North Sea 1916
Germany Stronger 1916 

 The North Sea campaign gives an armchair admiral the chance of playing 200 weekly turns. It includes over 800 ships of all types and sizes. You not only have to battle it out with the enemy admiral. Your countries entire naval program is in your hands. Training, organization, and maintenance are all up to you.

 The campaigns add immensely to the game and immersion. Every turn of the campaign you are given a mission or a choice of missions to accomplish. The missions are assigned a point value toward victory if they are completed. This adds a cat and mouse feeling to the game. Unlike the scenarios which are usually ingrained already in players' heads from reading about them  (although the scenarios do not always play out the same and there are alternative history ones). With the missions in the campaign game you have absolutely no idea of what is over the horizon. The Grand Fleet may be out for target practice at the precise spot your mission wants you to be. Juggling the need to complete the missions, and also deal with regular maintenance and the chance of mechanical breakdowns is nail biting. Add this to the already very up in the air nature of naval warfare and it becomes a bit maddening. A few, or even one hit on your ships can completely turn the situation around at any second.

  

                                                         TURN DURING THE 1916 CAMPAIGN

 Submarines, although in their infancy, were a major part of the war at sea. A quick look at the reason for ship losses in WWI will show that many more were torpedoed than actually sunk by gunfire. 

  Submarines have their own patrol area, and can attack ships that enter it. Always keep destroyers near your capital ships. They make it harder for a submarine to attack, and increase the chance of the submarine being spotted. Of all your ships, weather affects your submarines the most. Calm seas make them easy to spot, and in rough seas it is hard for them to stay at attack depth. Per the manual, "a sea state of 2 to 5 is optimal for subs".

 Although both sides used submarines in their operational planning, they never really fulfilled their role. The navies tried to use them as spotting forces, but the game shows their historical failings in that role. In the game, their reports are only correct about 50% of the time. The game also shows the fear that navies had at the time of submarine attack. This is shown by having false reports of submarine, and torpedo wake sightings.

 You will also have to worry about anti-submarine warfare or ASW. Some destroyers will always need to be held back and unassigned to carry out this function.      
                        

                                  BRITISH AND GERMAN FIXED MINEFIELDS

  The other weapon that caused a large amount of ship losses and damage was mines. The game has two distinct types of minefields. most scenarios, and campaign turns show the fixed minefields that both used in the war.

 The player can also make his own minefield, either by having it as an objective to fulfill or as his own decision. Player laid minefields do disperse as time goes by. Enemy laid minefields can be detected and will then show on the map. The different countries took a dissimilar  approach to laying and removing mines. The British used specially built minelaying ships, while in other navies some of their other classes of ships could also lay mines. 

 The navies at the time had two main fears never realized in the war: that a retreating fleet would lure the attacker onto a minefield or into a waiting group of submarines. This never happened with submarines because of the infancy of the ships themselves and their communications. While mines at the time were the ultimate dumb bomb, it really would have been the height of folly to attempt to lure another fleet onto a newly placed minefield. The chance of mines floating free was a very real hazard, and more than a few ships were struck by their own side's loose mines.

  Your crew's training and ship maintenance cannot be overlooked. For many days of the war, ships (especially capital ships) were in their bases, and not at sea. You will see your crew's training level drop during the campaign due to rustiness. Your ships will also need to be refitted every twelves months. Letting your ships get close to or go over the one year mark increases the chance of mechanical failure. The game does come equipped with a 'Fleet Engineer' button. Clicking that will show you all ships that need refitting.

  Some ships will also be able to be upgraded during your time as admiral. This will show up in the turn events.

   The AI in this dwarf sized game is non-pareil. You will need all of your wits about you to even play the British side with all of their built in advantages. Things will seem slow and calm. The next minute it is full steam ahead. Then you realize that a few of your best ships are still in dry dock for maintenance. Shiver me timbers, the electronic Scheer has humbugged you.

 As far as other games like Steam and Iron, the games it brings to mind are Warship and Battlecruiser from thirty years ago, and The Great Naval Battles series from twenty years ago. This is not a knock on the game whatsoever . I spent hours playing those games, and will spend plenty more playing this one. 

 Once you have picked up this little gem, continue on in your naval adventures and pick up Steam and Iron The Russo-Japanese War, and see if you can outwit Togo.

Robert

Game: Steam and Iron with Campaign Expansion
Developer: Naval Warfare Simulations
Software Publisher: Naval Warfare Simulations
Review Date: 7/30/16

 

Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm AAR by Michael Capobianco

 

 

AAR by J Petho

John Tiller's Panzer Battles of Normandy Review

 

 The name John Tiller is well known to any wargamer during the last quarter century. His litany of games include the series 'Squad Battles', 'Panzer Campaigns', 'Napoleonic Battles', 'Civil War Battles', ' The Campaign Series', and even more. The game companies he has worked with are 'Talonsoft' and 'HPS Simulations'. For a few years now he has been on his own with 'John Tiller Software'. One of the more amazing things about this litany of games is that is is continually being updated all through the years. I just started playing a WWI mod for the Campaign series that was just released. This shows the longevity his games have. So we should expect the highest quality and gaming from a release of his. Let's see how his newest release 'Panzer Battles Normandy' stacks up. See, we are wargamers and I used the word stacks, I know, I know, sorry.


  Panzer, the word invokes a picture now, probably of a Tiger tank. Once it used to invoke fear. The word is short for 'Panzerkampfwagen'. All compound German words have to have an acronym. If they didn't you'd have a stroke trying to pronounce them; just look up the actual German word for FLAK,which stands for fliegerabwehrkanone, gesundheit. Mark Twain in his essay 'The Awful German Language' poked fun at their words with "some German words are so long that they have perspective".


 Panzer Battles Normandy is the younger brother of Panzer Battles Kursk. This new series is meant to allow the player to indulge in scenarios as counter heavy as the Panzer Campaign series or much less with it's smaller scale. The scale is 250 meters per hex and thirty minutes time per turn, where the Panzer Campaign scale was 1 Km per hex and two hour turns. Squad battles scale is 40 meters per hex and ten minute turn times. It has mouse wheel zooming for ease of use and eyesight.


  The master map has almost 400,000 hexes. The full Normandy map that comes with the game is so large I cannot do it justice with this image. Scrolling the entire map is only recommended for people who are looking forward to carpal tunnel syndrome. The stacking limit for a hex can be found when right clicking on the hex info area of the screen, by default it is on the upper left of the screen. There is a maximum stacking limit along with a road movement stacking limit.

 It comes with two campaigns and a total of ninety-three scenarios. The scenarios range from small battalion size to large where you are in charge of an entire corps.

•June 6th; D-Day Landings 14 scenarios
•June 7th; Hitlerjugend's counterattack 2 scenarios
•June 11th; Operation Perch 3 scenarios
•June 13th; Villers Bocage 2 scenarios
•June 13th to June 14th; Carentan 2 scenario
•June 22nd; Cherbourg 3 scenarios
•June 25th; Operation Martlet 2 scenarios
•June 26th to June 29th; Operation Epsom 4 scenarios
•July 4th; Operation Windsor 1 scenario
•July 11th; St Lo 4 scenarios
•July 18th to July 19th; Operation Goodwood 6 scenarios
•July 25th; Operation Spring 2 scenarios
•July 26th to July 29th; Operation Cobra 3 scenarios
•July 30th to August 5th; Operation Bluecoat 7 scenarios
•August 7th to August 8th; Operation Lüttich 3 scenarios
•August 8th to August 9th; Operation Totalize 4 scenarios
•August 11th to August 12th; US 3rd Army breakout 2 scenarios
•August 19th; Falaise gap 1 scenario
•4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards Campaign 5 scenarios
•2nd Armored Division (US) Campaign 18 scenarios

 For those of you who like to mod, you can use the unit components, order-of-battle, and scenario editors.

 There is even a campaign editor added to the game. I will post from the campaign editor 'Help File'.
 "A Campaign consists of a series of Situations. Each Situation offers each side in the Campaign a list of Choices. Each side picks one of these Choices not knowing what the other side has decided. After each side has selected their Choice, then the selections are cross referenced to arrive at an Outcome. An Outcome consists of a Scenario in a Module and 5 other Situations associated with the 5 possible victory conditions that can result from a battle: Major Defeat, Minor Defeat, Draw, Minor Victory, and Major Victory. In addition, an Expected Value is associated with each Outcome for use by the A/I (Artificial Intelligence). The Scenario is fought by the two sides and the Allied victory condition resulting from this battle is used to determine the next Situation according to the 5 Situations associated with the Outcome. This process is repeated and continues until a Terminal Situation is reached which represents the resolution of the Campaign."

 It sounds rather over the top, but the help file walks you through it step by step, and the way that the editor has been setup with its drop down menus is much more intuitive in reality.

  With the amount of editing that can be done, and the fact that you can chop up the huge master map into any size bits you want, we should be inundated with used made scenarios. I wouldn't be surprised to see a William the Conqueror or Viking raid scenario (just kidding). In reality you can edit pretty much anything you want. In this day and age of computer wargaming, it's like a breath of fresh air. To be more precise it's like a breath of older air. The modding capabilities remind me of games from twenty years ago.


  You can play against the AI, PBEM, and LAN and internet live play, along with two player hot seat. PBEM is not my cup of tea, but I have read all about the process and the comments from users and it seems pretty seamless.

  Besides the user manual download, there are five other excellent downloads for your use. This is the list.

•Designer Notes (149 page 15MB PDF file)
•Planning Maps (88 page 203MB PDF file)
•Getting Started Guide (42 page 9MB PDF file)
•User Manual (102 page 2MB PDF file)
•Summer Map (190MB PNG file)
•Visual Order of Battle (136 page 68MB PDF file)


  The game itself is pretty much what you would expect from a John Tiller wargame. You can see that their pedigree stretches back to board wargames. The Tiller system for most of his games revolves around a unit quality system that grades a unit from 'A' to 'E', with 'A' being the best. Movement, casualties, and combat lower the unit on the scale. Just as in real warfare, resting your units at times is essential for your cyber troops.


  Engineering units can do the following: Bridge operations, clear mines or rubble, lay mines, and damage bridges or anti-tank ditches.


  Air units are either combat or recon. You can call in airstrikes against a particular enemy unit, and you can also use heavy bombers to carpet bomb an entire hex, as was used by the Allies at several times during the campaign.


  Playing as the Germans, be prepared to keep your head down and learn to deal with the overwhelming power of the Allied air forces, land, and naval gunfire. When playing as the Allies use the same, and use your preponderance of material compared to wasting your troops.


  The smaller scenarios are perfect for the John Tiller neophyte to sink his teeth into. All of the John Tiller wargames are higher on the complexity scale. The Panzer Battles games with their smaller scenarios and counter count are tailor made for the tyro who wants to get further into our hobby than 'Axis and Allies', etc. To help newbies and to also speed up your turns, you can turn on the 'firing AI' for your forces and leave the shooting to them.

 
 Do not expect to have your way against the AI as the Allies or Germans. I have tried numerous times to replicate Michael Wittmannn's achievement in the battle of Villars-Bocage. For those who have forgotten, it was Wittmann and six other Tiger tanks and a handful of other forces against an entire British Armored division. The British had found the German left flank hanging in the wind and might nave been able to end the Normandy campaign much sooner. The British had stopped on the road for a 'spot of tea'. Wittman's gunner Bobby Woll made the comment,"they are acting as if they've won the war already." Followed by Wittmann's retort "we're going to prove them wrong." The Germans attacked and stopped the 7th armored (the desert rats) cold.   


 Whilst I admit I am not a lady of the evening concerning graphics, I am getting on in years and the prescription for my glasses is not getting any better. The newer map graphics that have been touted by JTS, and the graphics overall are much improved from the earlier games. It is much easier to distinguish elevation just as advertised.There have been some great visual mods done for the older Tiller games, and no doubt some more will be made for this one. It would depend on your personal likes and dislikes. For me, the graphics are their best yet, and I really don't see any need for improvement, but this is of course just my personal take on the matter.


 The only addition I would like to see is a campaign for some of the German forces. A campaign based on the book 'Grenadiers' would be a great way to understand the amount of material and forces that the Allies needed to use to pry the Germans out of Caen would be excellent. Thankfully, with all the editing ability that JTS put into the game, I think we will see that sooner rather than later.


  If this game is to your liking, and it will be if you are a wargamer, then head back online and buy Normandy's older brother 'Panzer Battles Kursk'. While there, take a gander at the rest of the excellent wargames for sale.  


 For anyone who has not looked at the John Tiller games for a while, the original DRM is long gone and it is a much simpler system of just adding your serial.

  Now for my pet peeve. Who else gets annoyed at an announcer when they read off 'Panzer tank'. Congratulations, you just made yourself sound like a three year old by saying 'tank tank'.

Robert

Game: Panzer Battles Normandy
Developer: John TillerSoftware
Software Publisher: John Tiller Software
Review Date: 7/24/16

2GM TACTICS

from Draco Ideas

 

First of all what's with the title 2GM TACTICS?  Well, if you saw WWII TACTICS, you wouldn't be asking the question and that's exactly what the title of this game means.  Instead of our English adherence to the good old-fashioned Roman numerals II, Spanish uses 2 and Guerra Mundial [World War or technically War World].  If this were French, it would be La Deuxieme Guerre Mondiale.  However, that leads me to my main problem, namely that this is in some ways an anticipatory review, as 2GM TACTICS is currently only available in its original 2015 Spanish edition.  So, my comments will be based on the latter's physical components and the current English translation of only the basic rules.

Though the company have said that the latter will be improved for the final published edition, I've got to say that language-wise there is very little to fault either grammatically or idiomatically.  In fact, I've read plenty of professional rule books, where English is the native language  that are far less accurate in spelling and punctuation!  Oh, those dreaded apostrophes! [And I'm not just talking about the fact that Brits and Americans don't always see eye to eye on spelling the same word.]

When I received the package from the delivery service, my initial reaction was what a heavy weight for such a comparatively small parcel.

If you've watched the Kickstarter video, you should have a very good idea of the essential contents:  approx. 220 cards, of which 18 are terrain cards, while all the rest are split between two decks, one for the German side and one for the American.  What gave the game box its heft though were the 16 oblong, double-sided map tiles.  This is a feature that I really like, as virtually all previous card-based attempts to simulate part of WWII, such as The Last Crusade or Nuts! have simply relied on cards for everything - units, equipment and terrain.  Instead Draco Ideas have included a modular board that is assembled into a 4 x 3 grid oftiles that creates a playing area that is slightly larger than 27 x 18 inches.  so, a final map board is created that is larger than the standard 22 x 17 inches of a typical folio game and capable of considerable variation in its permutations of terrain.  This is an excellent design feature, especially for the basic game which the company have chosen to call Battle Royal and this basic game will have to be the main focus of my review, as this is the only section of the rule book as yet translated into English.

But, before I explore those basics in more depth,  I want to bring to your attention the rest of the extremely attractive, substantial and well produced rule book, albeit in Spanish.  though of small format, it is from front to back cover a substantial 60 pages.. All the rules for playing the game come in just the first 20 of these pages.  So, what remains in the other 40 pages?  How I wish my education had taken place in more recent years, when Spanish is as often offered as a foreign language option as French in our schools!  Why? Because those pages contain all the scenarios. [Grinding of teeth and suppressed sighs.]  First of all comes a set of eleven individual stereotypical ones such as Blitzkreig, Supplies, The Village and The Rescue to tantalise and whet my appetite, followed by two historically based ones, Arracourt and Monte Cassino.  Then - and these are what make me wish my life away until 2017, when the full English edition of this game will appear [thank goodness that the Kickstarter has already reached double the necessary amount or I might be out in the streets rounding you up to sign up]  -   there are a series of Campaigns, beginning with the Normandy landings through to The Battle of The Bulge.  In all, four Campaigns: Operation Overlord, Operation Cobra, Operation Market-garden and The Ardennes, with each campaign containing from five to seven scenarios.  Here is just the first Campaign.

To use the famous quote "I'll be back", hopefully to provide a more extensive review next year of this aspect of the English edition.

So, what does the basic game give you?  Essentially, a point-based system similar to several other card versions of warfare in WWII and in the basic game your sole objective is always to reach your opponent's HQ and destroy it.  As already mentioned, I like the fact of a modular board created from tiles .  To my surprise the boards are connected by figure of 8 shaped pieces to stop them moving about.  Here are just four of the sixteen tiles with their connecting pieces

Once assembled, they look like this.

Don't worry, if you are wondering whether the outer edge of the final layout has unsightly holes.  There are pieces provided to fill them.  Just don't be like me and in my haste to get started, didn't realise their purpose and threw some of them away.  Fortunately, there are an excess number of the connecting pieces which when cut in half exactly do the job.  Anyway, I've only got to wait till next year and I'll have a completely new English set!!

Personally, I would have preferred the tiles to have been simply straight-edged.  But, as I always go for laying plexi-glass over modular terrain to prevent shifting, that's largely an aesthetical point.  My other minor concern is how well the cardboard connectors will stand up to the wear and tear from assembling the map.  Apart from the few games I've played, I've also tested them out by simply assembling the tiles repeatedly.  The indications are that they do stand up well to the job.

However, for many gamers a more significant decision point will be the choice of graphics for the many cards that are the essence of the game, as Draco Ideas has gone solidly for a comic book look in its inspiration.  If you've watched the Kickstarter promotional video you will know what I'm talking about.  If not, the cover of the illustration of the game box at the start of my review and the samples included below should help you get a good idea.

As you can see the infantry cards are graphically the closest to cartoon style.  Though there is a small amount of necessary text [just visible on the Bomber card], as you can see they are largely icon driven for game play and these are succinctly and clearly explained in the rules.

My personal taste is for the use of historical pictures, as used in The Last Crusade [1995] or Panzer General : Assault [2010].  On the other hand the latter game proved a huge disappointment when I bought it, because of its bland and simplistic play and it cost me nearly three times the price of 2GM Tactics.  So, just as I heavily invested in Heroes of Normandie despite its graphic style not being my personal favourite, so 2GM Tactics offers more than a superficial look at the cards provides.

To return to the rule book, I've already commented on the accuracy of the current draft, but what I'm even happier about is the clarity of the rules.  They are well organised and well sequenced taking you through the essentials of the game in logical order and above all make sense at a first reading.

Though a few more illustrations would have been nice, as the text is quite dense to fit so much in, there is a good balance of examples for each important point and so far I've not picked up an example that seems to contradict the rules.  Now that is something that happens all too often in far more expensive products.  If the extensive scenario section, referred to earlier, that makes up two thirds of the rule book is as tight as this, I shall be very satisfied next year when I get my hands on the completed English edition.  [By the way, if the rule book is not yet set in stone, one small language point I would love to change is Shooting; please, please, please, could we have Combat or at least Firing instead?]

To give you some idea of what seems original for a game at this level, I'd like to list just a few instances that I particularly like:-

Supply: instead of the normal rule governing what a unit can or cannot do when it is in supply or out of supply, here the distance your troops have advanced towards the enemy HQ and the continuity of the supply line determines how many extra Action Points you get to operate with that turn.  A neat touch! 

Suppression: not the result of a die roll, but the fact that more than one unit has targeted the same unit.

Covered Movement: just the fact that, in an essentially easy and fast playing game, such things as infantry gaining cover from moving with vehicles gets included.

Additional Equipment: the combination of both cards and counters to represent additional equipment along with a distinction between equipment that is deactivated or not deactivated when used. 

Specific cards for historical Generals: including good ole George Patton and Erwin Rommel - another reason for me to long for the translation of the Campaign material!

Terrain: integral terrain on the map tiles plus additional cards such as trenches, bridges, bunkers and landing craft [for the existing Operation Overlord Campaign and The Sword Campaign that is one of the unlocked Stretch Goals], buildings.

These to me are some of the bells and whistles on a very solid set of rules that take this game beyond previous games of this scale.

All in all, this is a well designed package that in the Spanish version got things right and so, perhaps not surprisingly, has almost doubled its Kickstarter funding, with 20 days to go.  Expansion packs that bring in the British, Italians and Russians are already underway and form part of the varying  pledge levels on Kickstarter.

Even if you just buy the simple English edition, you're getting not just a basic generic fast playing tactical card game of WWII with lots of flavour and colour, but a surprisingly varied set of rules for its small footprint and the potential for a much more extended experience through the wealth of Campaigns.

Hasta La Vista!

[Pardon the cheesy ending, but I really do hope to see you later, when I return next year with a review to take in all that my typical English lack of foreign language ability has not been able to cover.]

Kickstarter Link click HERE