McGowan once wrote that his art is intended to highlight the human side of war. If you look at the images in @MikeOberly 's post above, they all feature portraits of one or more soldiers. His art speaks to me, and this human focus is one reason why.
I played some Old School Tactical yesterday, a mate brought the impressive looking boxes over and we had a go at the first of two linked scenarios of the US Para drop around St Mere Eglise. It’s a nice smooth system that has what I would consider to be some “rough edges” around terrain definitions and what can occasionally turn out to be a crippling impulse system which is similar in concept to Conflict of Heroes. I had something like 25 counters in this scenario each of which can do 2 “things” a turn. I had 5d6 to generate my impulse pool for each turn and in a 7 turn scenario I managed to roll precisely 8 on 5d6 for turn 4, effectively bringing my attack to a halt for one turn. It looks lovely and on opening the map it immediately evokes Squad Leader with the look of it.
It’s easy to get to grips with and learn and has enough of the “fix and flank” feel to it to give a reasonable approximation of the period. Leaders aren’t quite the killer units they are in Squad Leader but it still has the complete lack of any higher level organisation that most squad level games forgo (no platoon organisation for instance, no hierarchical leaders, just Cpt, Lt and Sergeants with better or worse stats) so morale punishments are purely as casualties pile up your impulse pool is slowly reduced. Next scenario has vehicles so it will be interesting to see how they get dealt with and how much extra complexity they add. I think it’s better than CoH though which I am regretting buying and I’d play it again but I’m not really busting to give it another go either and I’m certainly not itching to get my wallet out and buy my own copy…
Thanks for that, I’ve been curious about how OST plays but not enough to actually learn the rules and push it around any lol. My favorite tactical WWII game remains Arty Conliffe’s Crossfire rules but I still keep looking at other systems just because. Recently picked up the first three games in the Last Hundred Yard series but haven’t managed to get it on the table either. Look forward to seeing more from your OST experiences.
Just finished out the tutorials for Atlantic Chase and looking forward to getting into the game proper.
Playing both-handed, was actually able to get the Gneisenau and Scharnhorst (above) back to Wilhelmshaven unscathed, despite the swarm of British ships in the area. I think it will take a while for me to figure out enough tactics that I’m more of a factor than the dice. Or at least an equal partner.
Also been playing some SOVL, a fantasy tactics game highlighted by @Don_Quixote in another thread. It’s light but fun, and can be quite challenging - you need to select the right mixture of units (artillery, cavalry etc) to succeed. And it’s FREE; try it out!
GMT fall sale coming on on the 3rd. This year anyone gets one game at 50% off, and then the usual P500 thing as every year. Apparently last years counter sheet counts in the P500 game tally.
Had a great time with Atlantic Chase, but overdosed a little on it in a short period of time, so I have set it aside and will revisit next year. I have about 25% of the content (scenarios etc) completed. The solo scenarios I played were short and sweet, though some fell victim to the vagaries of the dice which meant they were sometimes a little one-sided, but I guess in that case you just play them again.
I found the two-player scenarios (playing both sides myself) were a bit more of a mental lift and decided to leave most of these until I was more familiar with the mechanics. My routing of almost every single convoy into the Norwegian Sea led to some confusion when trying to keep track of things once the battles kicked off 
I’ve been reading Dimbleby’s Battle of the Atlantic to go with it, which is a light read and a reasonable overview, though of course the game doesn’t really deal with submarine warfare, which is the focus there. I had read Donald McIntyre’s book previously, which was good on convoy duty etc.
Switching hemispheres and oceans, I’m gonna try and learn this game today - the snappily-titled, Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It only runs as far as 1944, thus avoiding the inexorable tide of history (a US win) and is supposed to have a lot of positives for a 2-hour strategy game:
That certainly does look snappy. Let us know how it plays.
I played about the same amount of Atlantic Chase. Good game, innovative design, but after a bit I needed a break too. But hey, that’s true of just about every game I play. :)
I had a great time but I found it more engrossing than compelling, if that makes sense. Loved the mechanics with the exception of the battles - I know what he was going for and he is 100% right given the reality plus the low ship count in the game - but they were so unsatisfying :) All that work finding the enemy to end up with peashooters at 2 miles…
I also had beef with the dice - basically the top half of each results table was unknown to me - it was affecting the decisions I made by the end and I actually changed them out for the last couple of games. I will (grudgingly) accept that’s cognitive bias or whatever on my end though!
Heh, “more engrossing than compelling” captures my experience, too. I love the core search mechanics; it’s like Schroedinger’s wargame. Plus the wooden pieces are neat. But I found myself hankering for more detail. It made me want to bust out Pacific War or Empire of the Sun, say.
If you’re interested in the convoys you should read Richard Woodman’s Arctic Convoys 1941-1945.
Yeah, those poor bastards on those runs paid a hell of a price for getting the goods through. Scary stuff.
Interesting, I’ve never seen this one before. Thanks for the thoughts on it as well.
Lots of work trips in August kept the heavy gaming on the low end but I did get a chance to play some Undaunted when making a trip by Noble Knight Games. I always imagined that I’d enjoy the game (to be fair, I enjoy most games), but that it wouldn’t really grab me. I was surprised by how much fun the gameplay was, it had more depth and subtlety to it than expected.
I’m also growing to appreciate the “single-sitting” wargames, where you can learn and play to completion a game in under 2 hours. I feel like when people get together there are always one or two people who don’t know the game, and the satisfaction of completing the game instead of abandoning it halfway through is real.
I can also recommend “Crisis Convoy” by Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Gretton. The story of HX231 written by the man who was in command of it. An absolutely compelling read, drawn from combat reports of both sides.
Haha, great stuff!
Thanks for the rec; I’ve picked it up and look forward to reading.
Wishlisted for now, thanks!
There’s a nice topic - two hour wargames.
Hope you enjoyed your trip to Noble Knight. I’ve had good experiences with them and their periodic ‘Free International Shipping’ offer is excellent.
Great sale on CMO
All the expensive DLCs, not the small scenario packs, for cheap.
I’ve been having a good time with Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere: War in Asia and the Pacific, 1939-1944, to give it its full title.
Here we have the main US task force ejecting Japan from Borneo, which simultaneously deals a blow to Japan’s Action Points (2 extra strategic moves per turn if they control the oilfields) while also putting a significant part of their fleet out of action with only two turns to go (minimum two turns to build a BB, three for a CV). Meanwhile the plucky Marines have taken Okinawa (more by opportunism than by intention) and are tying down what’s left of the home fleet. Japan control China but failed to take Calcutta before the Commonwealth reinforced, and now they’re staring down the barrel of a gun:
It’s very impressive for such a seemingly simple game; each side is given a certain amount of actions per turn and these are consumed by actions on cards (which are chosen freely, not randomly assigned). These actions cover land, naval and strategic movement (three different APs), new production, troop replenishment, bombing raids and so on. Commonwealth and Chinese forces can only be controlled with China, Burma, India Theater cards, which adds a wrinkle:
Japan start the game with 4 APs per turn, and can gain two extra Strategic Moves by holding Borneo. The US start with 6 APs per turn, but these increase on Declaration of War (if the US declares war, they have 8 for the rest of the game; if Japan DoWs the US, the US gets 10 APs per turn). Japan starts stronger, but has less production capacity than the US.
The key decision in the game is the Declaration of War. Japan starts at war with China, and can declare war (only once per game) on the either Commonwealth, the US, or both. The US can declare war on Japan, with an AP penalty on the turn it does (to signify wrangling the bill through Congress). On the DoW turn each side gets some very powerful surprise attacks. So a lot of it hinges on when Japan in particular declares war, if it does, on whom, and how soon.
Because of the low counter count, and the time it takes to get naval power back on the board, every decision is fraught with peril and each turn is impressively nail-biting. I’ve been really enjoying it and am working through various strategies. You can play it in an hour or 90 mins, and I’d imagine the two player game is even more fun.
Dunno if I could recommend it straight up as I don’t know if it would be everyone’s cup of tea, but it pushes all the right buttons and can be whipped out and set up (and played!) very quickly. There’s a second-hand (US only) copy on BGG at the moment for $31 and I couldn’t complain about that.
On the digital side Wargame Design Studio released Smolensk ‘43 for Panzer Campaigns today.
What I’m still waiting for though is one, the 4.05 update to the rest of the lineup, and the Certain Strike '87 new scenario for Danube Front. Those were supposed to be released along with Smolensk '43, though perhaps they just lag behind a bit.
I am aware of COIN games, so are there IN games? Games from the perspective of the insurgency? If so, good ones?