Grognard Wargamer Thread!

I can’t imagine them doing something as complex as re-balancing the game. I am sure they are the same.

If you think Moscow is pro-Axis, just let @Brian_Reynolds play the Soviets.

Oh but I have! …he beat me harder as the Axis!

That is a well-controlled experiment!

I’ll definitely get the Imperium Romanum reprint. Apparently there will be no rule changes from Imperium Romanum II, just some extra scenarios added and a bigger map (which granted, might be an issue).

I just got hold of a complete Trajan: Ancient Wars Series for $90, and I really enjoyed the intro scenario a lot, so I’m looking forward to see how it compares with Imperium Romanum.

It sounds like there might be some minor changes with how supply works (going back to how it is done in 1st edition? looking at csw thread), but for the most part they are sticking new things in as optional rules if I’m reading it right.

If I ever become Worldwide Justiceman of The Laws, putting optional rules into a game will become a Class X Felony. If people really want them, they can distribute them underground, like samizdat.

OK, got my copy today, set it up, and played one mission of the U-Boat Focus campaign. Before playing I perused the original rules that came with the game and then set them aside. Agree completely with your assessment above.

However the latest pdf rules version at BGG is good IMHO. It’s written by Dean Brown who is the designer. While only being about a dozen pages longer they are much denser and much better written. I was able to play through my first mission without any show stoppers and felt like I followed the sequence and did pretty much everything correctly. I probably messed up something minor but I never felt lost. Having section numbers makes it pretty easy to find the details quickly when you are following the sequence of play. I’ll have to print them out as walking from my game table to the computer and back to check things isn’t going to cut it.

Now if only my green and rookie B-17 groups had been able to hit the broad side of a U-boat pen at St. Nazaire we might have a chance at winning the war! Two lousy hits which was not even enough to count as light damage. At least my Spitfire escort shot down some Me 109’s. I found the first mission quite fun. My second mission this week is a bombing raid on the aircraft factory at Gotha, Germany. We’re making that run without the benefit of any escorts. gulp

As an aside I’m reading Raiding the Reich by Freeman again too. A good overview of the air war with lots of great pictures as well.

I demand a full AAR! :)

Have you read Masters of the Air?

Nope, but I’ll check it out.

Edit - Forgot to mention that the Fat Man himself is handling the German air response this week. They were on high aleart for our first mission but their response is poor for my second mission and there are no squadrons in the target hex so our bombers might get a free ride to and from Gotha. Fingers crossed.

Edit - Spoke too soon. Forgot there is a hex with two German squadrons along the path. The event card raised their alert from Poor to Average but that has no effect in this case.

Well, the Hitlerbot is doing crazy good right now with the 2nd and Lehr, got a corps activation and a double-division activation one right after the other. Oof. At least Peiper’s been quiet, he just wrecked one of the regiments instead of moving around with his infantry. End of the 16th.

Our raid on Gotha dodged a couple of bullets and managed a limited result. As the 91st and 97th Bomber Groups crossed the coast they started reporting bandits. None actually appeared (pulled two No Bandit chits!) so I’m chalking it up to the fact that one unit is green and the other is recruit level. The 97th lined up on the aircraft factory first and weathered the flak with no losses. They got four hits on the target plus set it on fire with incendiaries. Following them was the 91st who took 3 losses to flak. They managed one additional hit which brought the damage to Light. Unfortunately the Germans put out the fires before they could cause enough damage to increase the overall result. The return trip to England was equally uneventful so that ends the first week of the campaign.

Edit - Light damage to Gotha and no damage to St. Nazaire. We will need to improve significantly on that in the coming weeks.

As mentioned above it was possible I slipped up on a couple of things, and I did. Commander Wray, 91st Bomber Group, was AWOL for the mission. Probably drunk in a pub in London. I’d court martial him, but it was a major malfunction in the chain of command and not his fault. I did not see the very fine print on the card indicating he is the default commander and therefore he can be used without spending any SO (strategic operations) points. His evasion skill might have saved some aircraft that were hit by flak, but it also gives a negative die roll modifier to the bomb run die roll and that might have meant less damage at Gotha. I also did not see the very fine print of the 301st BG card saying they get a +1 die roll modifier when bombing U-boat pens. That might have made a difference at St. Nazaire.

Aircraft losses for the first week were 15 Spitfires and 15 B-17’s (10 strength points total). For week two I’m going to spend 5 of my 18 SO points to bring all units back to full strength (1 SO = 2 SP’s replaced). With this short campaign it’s not practical to rest them to replenish for free.

We’re changing plans for week two. I’m going to run one mission with all groups against the U-boat pen at Lorient, France. The pens give double victory points in this campaign so we’ll focus on them. That means the damage at Gotha will be repaired this week, but it’s just not worth the effort to split forces and hit it again. Stay tuned… :)

Edit - I also just noticed the pens are hardened targets which negates one point of damage from every bomb hit. Ouch. We need some bunker busters! All the things I missed above were clear in the revised manual, I just missed them.

Hitlerbot is freaking tuff. TUFF.

See? The rules will mess you up not just because they are poorly written, but because stuff like that is not in the rules - just on the cards!

I edited my post above. Just to clarify, all those things are listed in the rules. I jumped in to start playing and did not read all the rules yet and so I missed those things.

Never mind, I had that wrong.

As mentioned above we were targeting the U-boat pen at Lorient, France for the second week of August. The Fat Man (Goering) must have started in early on the schnapps the day of our raid because the Luftwaffe response was Poor. That meant unless an event card changed things we would not have to deal with any Luftwaffe squadrons for the raid because none were stationed directly in our flight path.

Cmdr. Wray’s 91st BG was first over the target. The flak was not a factor and his group managed two hits on the target. It would have been double that if it weren’t a hardened target. Next up was the 97th BG who took 3 aircraft losses to flak but still managed two more bomb hits. The 92nd BG was third in line and took 9 aircraft losses to flak. That might have affected their bombing run as they scored no hits. Last was Cmdr. Raper’s 301st BG who took no flak losses and scored three hits, due to the commanders air to ground skill. Final result was 7 hits which was light damage to the target. The return flight was uneventful.

We’re going to hit the same target again next week because you only get victory points for destroyed targets, and to make sure no damage is repaired if we switched targets. The repair is not automatic but we’re going to hit it again to make sure nothing is repaired.

Fun fact: German radar was on par with British radar. It was the supporting ground control system that pushed RAF interception rates during the Battle of Britain up to 90%+, and the lack of it that kept the Germans from reaching similar numbers later on.

I did see an event card saying the German radar is down which reduced the response level for that mission. There may also be comparable cards giving a response bonus from better radar. I should also mention that for this beginner campaign that the response rate has a -2 die roll modifier making it more likely the Luftwaffe will not engage. An “All Out” response could trigger 5+ Luftwaffe squadrons so having none on some of these learning missions is just fine with me! :)

Halfway through Dec 17 and Hitlerbot is still wrecking me. This northern approach is tough to deal with. I couldn’t get into Verviers in time because Peiper got to double-activate and I thought I needed to put my armor in front of Lehr and 2.Panzer. I’m hoping the next few activations are 7th army stuff so I can recover and maybe get Peiper out of Verviers so I don’t lose supply on V Corps.