The Battle of the Tagus River 220B.C. Part 1

All had gone well thought the 25 year old Hannibal. The men were swapping booty from Arbocala, his losses had been light during the siege, and now it was time to head to New Carthage and re provision, let the men spend their money and he would plan his campaign against the Carpentani. The Tagus River lay ahead it would be a slow crossing and a slow return to New Carthage weighted down as they…

Mixing it Up [LNLT]

This will be the last play for the year. Reading the Rommel papers has me inspired to get some carboard out and see how the Kiwis do in 1942 attacking an 88mm position. What could go wrong? Each location of an 88mm has a occupation random event paragraph. So no doubt bad things will happen upon capture! As we can see the penetration rate of 8 out to 7 hexes with a 10 or less to hit is pretty…

American Tank Ace AAR

By Daniel Niemi: I have reached December 1944 in Gregory Smith’s “American Tank Ace”, using the optional rule for “Increased Threat Targeting” which makes life a lot more dangerous.. The last mission in November ended with our M4A1 getting knocked out by a Panther that we were engaging. Patterson, our Loader, didn’t make it.. Everyone else only got a few bruises and scratches.. He was 19 and…

July 15th 1944. Operation Bagration pushes west with a fury. units from 14th SS and 1st Panzer Divisions are isolated in a section of Brody. The Germans are battle hardened but are running low on supplies. The Russian 4th Tank army moves in for the kill. This scenario uses the Stalingrad map from OST, Old School Tactical. It uses the bombed out buildings for a defensive situation set in 1944 for…

Stalingrad 42 reboot /1

One of the side benefits of having to start over three times, is we get to refine or reassess our ‘opening gambit’.. a LOT. I’ve attacked two or three primary areas each time, and added a few lower odds attacks in the opening to spice things up. Partly out of frustration with FUBAR-ing this game play for my opponent. Dude is super patient. I’d of fired me by now. The other thing we now know is…

Join the fun, help me select one or more titles to focus on in Q1 of 2023. In this poll you may select more than one, or even add your own selection based on titles I currently own. LIST HERE on BGG   I hope the Christmas Season is wonderful, relaxing and fun. Please take a minute to invest in family, be present. Recall the reason for the season. THEN #rolldice Don’t delay play today!  

Everyday Heroes is a relatively new RPG system which I will go into in a little bit and in some subsequent posts. The things that are most cool about it to me is not that ‘its another’ RPG system to learn, as it is not. Everyday Heroes [EH] is built upon a d20 system set in the modern era built upon a “well known well loved” but clearly unnameable system [ Would you care to guess which one?…

TBL Scenario 6.2 Part 2 Turns 1, and 2

Salerno ’43- 3

Salerno ’43 Game play continues: The Commonwealth press home, but have done a poor job defending beach heads and almost lose their footing! Goring tanks arrive too late to save Salerno. But press their counter attacks anyway in the hills and near Nocera Interiore. Top of Turn 5. Yanks slowly bring more force to bear, and are really feeling the lack of Column shift benefits when attacking.…

Salerno ’43-2

We pick up Salerno ’43 from the German Turn 1. Where they aggressively counter attack Allied forces on the landing beaches. Fighting is bloody and the 16Pz takes losses too. The Brits fare a little better holding onto their gains and are not constrained by ZOC bonds in the North! Germans pick up an air unit for a turn! 16th Panzer fights its way into Salerno. The new Mountain rules allow…

Salerno ’43 Landings and background of play

GMT Games partner and game developer Mark Simonitch has done it again. After releasing now the sixth game using the ZOC bond system [was France 1940 one as well, I have not played so I can’t say definitively, unless I go quickly read the rules! ] So, let’s call it six plus an expansion for Stalingrad 42. Nice, oh and one on the way with Africa ’41 on P500 though my understanding is this may not…

This year was a bit of a wild one. Coming off the back of the lock downs, suppressed economy, high prices for games and crazy shipping stories we are finally at the tail end of 2022. I had a pretty tumultuous personal year, starting with our youngest graduating from High School, who we then booted out of the temporary accommodations we were in, as they were sold from underneath us.  We had…

North Africa October 41 Aug/Sept/Oct

Unknown to the Brits and Aussies the supply landed in August was the last. After two months of rebuild and re supply in August and September both sides are ready to rumble. Unfortunately to kick off September Supplies fail to enter Tobruk. The defence literally collapses. Rommel immediately pivots East. Surrender rolls leave us with a huge pile of dead and captured. Counter Attacks further…

Prelude to Empire – Japan

Japan Japan arose to conquer the largest area on the globe of any nation ever. While predominately ocean the square miles controlled at the height of Japanese Imperialism dwarfed all other empires in history. Before we get to that, lets see more information about the run up to empire creation. Japan joined the Allies almost at the onset of the War (August 23, 1914). It seems surprising that…

Pearl Harbor 81st Anniversary

World War II came to the United States of America on Sunday morning, 7 December 1941, with a massive surprise attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy.   “Like a thunderclap from a clear sky,” Japanese carrier attack planes (in both torpedo and high-level bombing roles) and bombers, supported by fighters, numbering 353 aircraft from six aircraft carriers, attacked the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl…

One Hundred Unorthodox Strategies – 15. Rewards

One Hundred Unorthodox Strategies – 15. Rewards (Shang, 賞) In general, if despite high walls, deep moats, and a hail of stones and arrows the officers and troops are to compete with each other to ascend the walls, or when the naked blades first clash they are to contend with each other in rushing forth, they must be enticed with heavy rewards. Then every enemy will be conquered. A tactical…

North Africa June/July 1941 _2

North Africa June/July 1941 We are reeling from the random event from the last session. The Allies are thin on the ground and need to hold on until July/ August. We hunker down, realizing we cannot break out of Tobruk, and cannot reinforce it. We execute a limited activation to remove a key DG near Halfway House. Then pass and hope the Germans also pass. July comes around and I’ll cut to…