Burning Troubridges - Naval Thunder AAR

The usual crew gathered a Ted's place this past weekend for a change of scenery. Instead of the usual scenery, we found ourselves on the high seas; in the Mediterranean, to be specific, and about 40 years in the past. 

The scenario was a refight of what, historically, ended up as the debacle of a pursuit of the Goeben and Breslau, the two ships that Germany gave to the Ottomans to coax them into World War 1. In reality, the British let the German ships slip by, refusing to engage. We would play the engagement out and see if the outdated armored cruisers of the British could defeat the heavier armed and armored Goeben. 

For this scenario, I was controlling the Goeben and Breslau. I could either gain a tactical victory by escaping off the far board edge, or a major victory by sinking three of the four British ships. John, Ted, Chip, and Steve commanded the Defence, Warrior, Duke of Edinburgh, and the Black Prince, respectively. 

Unfortunately, I missed the first couple turns of movement as we were working out the rules. The British ships stayed in a single line of battle, moving at an angle to intercept the Goeben and Breslau. 

I decided to stay on that course for a couple turns, then had the Goeben break to port as the Breslau continued onwards, hoping that the British ships would have to take a turn or two to regain their bearing. 

Unfortunately, I didn't account for how freely ships can move in Naval Thunder (although this does mean less hassle when actually playing, so I see why it's done). 

The British ships split into two separate divisions, with the Duke and Black Prince splitting off to intercept the Goeben, and the Defence and Warrior moving to intercept the Breslau. The light cruiser didn't last long against the two British ships, and was quickly sunk before it was able to fire a shot. 

Now it was a 4-on-1 fight, that that might have been what kept the Goeben alive for so long. Each British ship that fired on the Goeben added a splash marker to the combat, representing the ships calibrating their ranges by the splashes of missed shells into the ocean. With four ships firing at the Goeben, it became exceeding difficult for them to actually hit. 

The Goeben, on the other hand, didn't have this problem, and her massive 11" guns could really do some damage if they managed to hit (if being the operative word. John's Defence lasted for most of the game thanks to some well-done maneuvering and my poor dice rolls). 

I was going to have to go through the gauntlet to get the Goeben off the table, so I ended up splitting the difference between the Duke and Black Prince.

While the Goeben could deal out some nasty damage with its 11" main guns, I quickly learned that the secondary batteries on the British ships were something to be feared. They ignored the splash markers that the main batteries had to deal with and their rate of fire at closer ranges made it far easier to hit their target, i.e., me. It seemed like the Goeben was going to face a death of a thousand cuts if I couldn't make it off the table. 

And then, disaster! For the Germans, at least. A lucky critical on the Goeben meant that she had a stuck rudder, which was likely to spell disaster if it didn't get stuck in the forward position. It also didn't help that another critical hit started a fire, which increased the damage that was slowly being chipped away bit by bit.

The Goeben's rudder ending up forcing me to turn to port for at least a turn, which left me facing the oncoming British ships. At that point, I decided to skip the tactical victory and go the major victory, or sink trying. Steve's Black Prince took a broadside dead-on, and ended up being the first British ship to sink. 

And as luck would have it, the British scored another rudder hit on the Goeben! 

Forced to turn again, the Goeben found herself surrounded by British ships. John's Defence, the main target of most of the Goeben's firing throughout the game, took another broadside and was sunk. But she wasn't going alone, and the combined weight of fire from the Duke of Edinburgh and Warrior was enough to finally sink the Goeben. Admiral Troubridge himself was likely dead with the sinking of the Defence, but instead of a court-martialed disgrace, he was going to get a hero's funeral. 

Most of my naval gaming experience has been with General Quarter's 3, but I found Naval Thunder to be a fun set of quick-play rules. I could easily see each player operating with a division of 3-5 ships in a relatively fast game, all things considered. Expect to see more posts about it in the upcoming weeks. 

War in the Air - Wings of War AAR

Wanting something lighter to put together for this past weekend's game night, Ted brought out his sizable Wings of War collection for some lightning-fast engagements. 

And it has been a while since I've seen a "Wings of" game! The last time I can recalling playing was way back in 2014!

Our first game saw Steve and I piloting a pair of Fokker Dr.1s while Chip and Ted flew in a pair of Sopwith Camels.

To start, we only played with the Jamming rules in the damage decks, to get a feel for how the maneuver decks worked.

Unfortunately, Steve's conspicuous red plane ended up being the main target of the British pilots and was shot down first.

Steve ended up flying off the table by accident, so Ted and I ended up dueling to see who would control the skies. Luckily, that ended up being me!

For the second game, we played using most of the damage deck conditions (jammed steering rudders, fire, smoke, etc). 

With a better handle on the maneuver decks, both sides were learning how to keep themselves alive for longer. 

Immelmann turns were a favorite, since the slower-yet-nimble biplanes could spin around and fire at an enemy plane that was closing in from behind. 

Like last game, Steve and Chip had the bad luck of being shot down first, which gave Ted the opportunity to take his revenge and shoot down my plane. 

For our third game, we switched up the planes. Steve and I moved over to a pair of Fokker D.VIIIs while Ted and Chip piloted a RAF S.E.5a and a Sopwith Snipe.

Ted's S.E.5a was lightning fast compared to the rest of the planes, while the D.VIIIs and Snipe had some absolutely mind-boggling maneuver cards (like the D.VIII's ability to use two stall cards in a row, or being able to use stalling turns for quick turnarounds). 

While I chased Ted for a few turns, Steve and Chip went at it like a pair of bare-knuckle boxers.

Which, despite the more 'robust' builds of these later-war planes, ended in somewhat predictable results. 

And then led to what Steve called the "Ted and Brian Show." While my Fokker was less damage, I had suffered a broken steering rudder and could no longer turn left. Ted's S.E.5a had a bunch of damage cards. It came down to who could get the right angle, and that ended up being me (thanks again to the Fokker's tiny turn radius). 

Three games in as many hours! Wings of War makes for a fast-past but still complex game. The pre-programming of the planes actions makes for some fun guessing games and brilliant moments of tactical foresight (or coincidence, depending on who's firing at who!). 

It's a shame I wasn't around for WoW back in it's glory days. I believe that Wings of Glory is almost completely compatible, but the game doesn't seem as popular as it did a few years back (after Fantasy Flight Games dropped it). 

The Battle of Charleroi - Contemptible Little Armies AAR

This past weekend was the SJGA's monthly meeting, and the featured game was Contemptible Little Armies being run by John. 

The scenario was based on the Battle of Charleroi. After a supposedly "devastating" artillery barrage, the French were to advance in force against a depleted German defensive position. While outnumbered, the Germans were in good cover and started in concealment. The French would have to advance across the open ground before being able to assault the Germans and take hold of the buildings.  

Most of the French force consisted of regular infantry, with a couple units of marines to prop up the assault. Also included in the attackers were a unit of cavalry, an heavy machine gun, and a 75mm field gun.

For the first few turns, the French moved unopposed towards the town.

It wasn't until the French had entered into small arms range that the Germans revealed themselves, firing into the closest opposing infantry squad and causing casualties.

Still, the solid wave of red-pantsed Frenchmen continued onwards.

The rest of the German defenders revealed themselves as the French approached the road. A defending HMG opened fire and another German squad moved forward to the edge of the woods they occupied.

However, the press of Frenchmen was enough to put the Germans on the back foot. The HMG was assaulted and defeated, and the German squad in the woods tried to retreat to a building, only to be left out in the open.

The French continued the assault into the ruined town. The squad of Germans on the right tried to fall back into the building to their rear, but the random roll for movement left them just short of reaching cover. This left they vulnerable to an assault from the French marines. The squad on the right was forced to assault the building that had been taken by the French, and were rebuffed.

However, since the French had finally occupied a building, German reinforcements began to show up. The first units to arrive were two squads of infantry and a small squad of cavalry that assaulted a dawdling French infantry squad.

With most of the German defenders out of the way, the French began to occupy the defenses with the anticipation of having to hold on to the territory they had taken.

The next set of German reinforcements to arrive were two more infantry squads and an HMG, to the unfortunate surprise of the French infantrymen that were holding the walled garden on the edge of town.

With the enemy reinforcements approaching, the French began to move their mauled units back towards their support units, which had been left vulnerable during the attack.

The French commander watched on as his men prepared to defend the town from the encircling German units. 

Unfortunately the game had to end at that point as we had run out of time! But the French would likely have been able to hold the town long enough to ensure a strategic victory had we continued. 

While we got some very important rules wrong (like not needing to roll to activate units, and the choice of either moving or shooting) the group enjoyed the game. John's considering a rematch with the actual rules in use, and I may get a copy of the rules for myself if I can find them at a convention. I've never been a big fan of WW1 rules, but I do find the early part of the war where engagements were more about fire and maneuver to make for great games. 

Jousting in the Skies - Wings of War AAR

I'm back again with another community game. With the coming of the 100th Anniversary of the first World World, or the Great War, there has also been a mini-renaissance of the same era in the wargaming community. Our own group at 7th Dimension Games has been similarly affected, most visibly with the revival of Wings of War/Wings of Glory, the card-driven WWI biplane combat game. The main backer behind this effort has been Gary, whose games I've written about before, and whose massive WoW/G collection was made available for the events he has been organizing. 

This event was a 9-person game played across 3 of the WoW/G play-mats, so an area a little larger than 3'x6'. On one side were the Allies - 2 single-seat fighters, a two-seat fighter, and two bombers. I was the pilot of the Sopwith Camel with the two hearts on the top wing. 

On the other side were the Germans, all in single-seat fighters. You can also see the three trenchline cards, which represented the objectives for the game. The Allies had to escort their bombers across the table and destroy the trenches, and the Germans had to keep their trenches protected. 

With both sides being so far apart, it took several turns to close the gap, and so almost all of our cards took us straight forward at max speed. You'll notice that both sides basically flew in formation for the beginning of the game - once combat was joined, however, orders were damned and pilots flew at their own discretion. 

The first pass! Shots were exchanged, cards were drawn, and several pilots just gave each other a grim wave as both sides flew past one another. At this point, however, the Allies had a slight advantage, since three out of their five planes were two-seaters with machine guns able to fire out of a rear arc. 

The Germans didn't waste any time, however, and quickly came about to pursue the Allies, who were now flying at high-speed for the trenches. Thinking myself clever, I planned to come about at give the chasing Huns a bloody nose. 

Unfortunately, these three colorful fellows foiled my plan. While I managed to fire at the purple, green and yellow biplane, my own Camel was promptly shot down. I wasn't the only casualty, however - Russ, the pilot of one of the bombers, also pulled some high value cards and nose-dived into enemy territory. The game had just started, and the Allies were already down two planes, including one of the all-important bombers!

Not yet deterred, the remaining Allies fighter pilots came back around as the remaining bomber stayed on target - the rightmost trench card!

Amazingly, even with air superiority, the Germans couldn't manage to take down the bomber, whose gunner happily sighted in and wiped one of the trenches off the table. 

And then incredibly destroyed the second trench! With all of its bombs gone, the bomber turned away and started to retreat back to the Allies lines, covered by the two remaining fighters.

It was at this point that Russ and I started to suspect we had drawn all the high value cards from the damage decks - it certainly seemed like our fellow players were drawing plenty of zeroes!

The unfortunate bomber was eventually shot down, having drawn enough cards from the fusillade of bullets fired from the following Germans. 

And so went the last Allied single-seat fighter. By the now Germans had taken quite a few blows of their own, and had been reduced from six fighters down to three. 

Now the game turned into a cat-and-mouse chase between the two-seater Allied fighter and the remaining Germans.

But even with a pile of damage cards with plenty of zeroes and ones, the last Allied fighter was taking too many shots from too many angles, and eventually went down.

The end result was a 30-26 win for the Germans - if the Allies had managed to shoot down just one more plane, they would have won!

It was another fun, big community game. I'm looking forward to playing WoW/G again, and Gary's still working away on his 20mm terrain for a game of Through the Mud and the Blood.