What boardgames have you played recently?

Blackcloud6

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I just played the old AH Stalingrad. I never played it before. Nothing like the old standard AH CRT and the trepidation of rolling an Exchange. The Germans were in Stalingrad for the win in August 1942. This one is supposed to be be somewhat in favor of the Russians as one can supposedly consistently make lines that prohibit attacks better tha 2-1; I don't yet see it so it is time to break out the old General magazines. I'm going thorugh a retro-gaming phase right now and am seeing how good these old games are.
 

rdw5150

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good, simple, not a ton of rules overhead...... all good things

Peace

Roger
 

Paul_RS

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Thanks tor the info...I've never played a strategic level airwar game before. This could be just the right medicine for my next bout of ASL 'burn-out'.
Maybe not strategic. The game tackles one or two raids per gaming session. Lee Brimmicome-wood has a good rep. for designing air games with a good feel for historical simulation and this game is no exception. Not too complex either. For the tactical element of night fighting over Europe I'd recommend 'Nightfighter' from the same designer. There was some discussion about some optional linking rules to switch from operation to tactical between the 2 games, but nothing has appeared so far.

Cheers

Paul
 

Yuri0352

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Maybe not strategic. The game tackles one or two raids per gaming session. Lee Brimmicome-wood has a good rep. for designing air games with a good feel for historical simulation and this game is no exception. Not too complex either. For the tactical element of night fighting over Europe I'd recommend 'Nightfighter' from the same designer. There was some discussion about some optional linking rules to switch from operation to tactical between the 2 games, but nothing has appeared so far.

Cheers

Paul
These sound very interesting. I've been very reluctant to try an air war-based board game after having played AH's Air Force back in the 80's...too cumbersome and a stagnant sequence of gameplay. I decided to limit my airwar simulations to IL2 on the PC. Of course, with IL2, it is impossible to simulate the the higher levels of aviation strategy outside of the cockpit. These games are just what I've been missing.

If only I could find a WWII naval war 'tactical' simulation, something along the lines of 'Jutland', with individual ship to ship combat and something approaching the Chapter H level of detail for the various vessels. I've been doing a lot of reading recently about the actions around the Solomons and Guadalcanal, which has peaked my interest.

I am grateful for your posts since I had all but given up on finding a decent airwar board game.
 

HansK

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Paul,

if you like Lee B-W's air games, you might want to take a look at his upcoming Wing Leader vol.1 game by GMT.
 

RobZagnut

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I just played the old AH Stalingrad. I never played it before. Nothing like the old standard AH CRT and the trepidation of rolling an Exchange. The Germans were in Stalingrad for the win in August 1942. This one is supposed to be be somewhat in favor of the Russians as one can supposedly consistently make lines that prohibit attacks better tha 2-1; I don't yet see it so it is time to break out the old General magazines. I'm going thorugh a retro-gaming phase right now and am seeing how good these old games are.

Stalingrad was okay. The Russian Campaign is awesome. You can usually find a copy for around $10. I just found a shrinkwrapped copy at a Memorial Day weekend game convention for $5.

It still my favorite non-ASL Avalon Hill wargame.
 

HansK

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I remember seeing it too many years ago. Held it in my hand, but did not buy it in the end.

Sometimes you wish that you could turn back the clock...
 

Paul M. Weir

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If only I could find a WWII naval war 'tactical' simulation, something along the lines of 'Jutland', with individual ship to ship combat and something approaching the Chapter H level of detail for the various vessels. I've been doing a lot of reading recently about the actions around the Solomons and Guadalcanal, which has peaked my interest.
I still very regularly play "Fighting Steel" an old (1999?) SSI surface combat PC sim. The graphics are crude by today's standard but you should get it for almost nothing. It plays fine on my Vista laptop. Though limited to gun and torpedo without aircraft or submarines, it does the job and has a scenario editor as well as a few ships planned but never completed. There are a small number of patches to download and extra scenarios on the web. I got mine as a cheap reissue and despite the dated graphics it plays well or at least what I expect of a naval combat simulator. I have sunk Yamato with a single torpedo (magazine hit, an ASL CH) but usually it takes a dozen plus, a destroyer or cruiser only needs one or occasionally two. The details are mainly under the hood but still there.

As an alternative to a PC game there is AP's Great War At Sea and Second World War At Sea series board games. While the guns are a bit fudged, the damage model is reasonably detailed. The GWAS series includes a module called "Jutland" but I don't know if it is the same game that you are referring to. BGG lists 10 games with Jutland as the name or in the name.
 

Yuri0352

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The 'Jutland' which I was referring to was the Avalon Hill game from the 60's. I used to play it several decades ago, however the scale of the game reqiured that it be played on the floor of an entire room and it did not include a board of any kind. This wasn't a problem in my old Midwestern basement though I am certain that such a playing area would not be tolerated in my current home!

I still loved that game and I'm thinking about buying a used copy just for old time's sake. Something similar with a board, set in the Pacific or the Mediterranean would be right up my alley.

Thanks for your input Paul, I'll check out those titles which you mentioned.
 

Paul M. Weir

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Thanks Yuri352, that's what I suspected. The GWAS & SWAS system uses a combination of campaign and 'battle' paper maps. In a campaign game when two fleets move into the same rectangle (they are arranged alternately almost the same way as hexes) and spotted they transfer into the plain battle/tactical hex map. If ships are about to go off one side of the tactical map then everybody is slid to the opposite side by one or more hexes. While you would need more space than an ASL scenario, a reasonably sized table should do. The series games include both tactical and campaign scenarios, only the campaigns need the campaign maps like the Mediterranean or North Sea.

As I said, while the damage model seems good (but I am no ship expert), the speed, armour and gunnery factors are a bit fudged, but work. Neither system is as detailed as ASL in that respect, more akin to MMP's PanzerBlitz 2, but still, I believe, a great improvement over the early AH or SPI efforts. If you want to try both systems at once then AP's "Cone Of Fire" is your best choice as it has both rules variations and has ships for combat around the lower part of S. America, someone might have a stock of that. Between the two systems they cover everything from Spanish-American War to WW2.
 

RobZagnut

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The 'Jutland' which I was referring to was the Avalon Hill game from the 60's. I used to play it several decades ago, however the scale of the game reqiured that it be played on the floor of an entire room and it did not include a board of any kind. This wasn't a problem in my old Midwestern basement though I am certain that such a playing area would not be tolerated in my current home!

I still loved that game and I'm thinking about buying a used copy just for old time's sake. Something similar with a board, set in the Pacific or the Mediterranean would be right up my alley.

Thanks for your input Paul, I'll check out those titles which you mentioned.

Ah yes Jutland. A great game when I was younger and could play on the floor on my knees. No way I could do it these days. :)
 

witchbottles

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Ah yes Jutland. A great game when I was younger and could play on the floor on my knees. No way I could do it these days. :)
we used to have a gigantic yankee rug in the living room when I was a teenager- it doubled so very well for parts of the North Sea......

I always liked to do the similar event with the battles for Bismarck as well.

best part - that folded up gigantic ruler " range marker" tool.
 

rdw5150

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we used to have a gigantic yankee rug in the living room when I was a teenager- it doubled so very well for parts of the North Sea......

I always liked to do the similar event with the battles for Bismarck as well.

best part - that folded up gigantic ruler " range marker" tool.
Bismarck was my first game......

Summer of 1980

Roger
 

JimWhite

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B-17 Queen of the Skies, B-29 Superfortress and Dan Verssen´s Phantom Leader... pretty solitaire all of them I must admit!!
Anybody else still flying missions in the B-17?

I'm looking to set up some Skype-based multi-player missions with an interesting twist...:D
 

Blackcloud6

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I just finished the old AH France 1940 using the variable Orders of Battle. The French OB used was a more developed armored force. They were able to react well tot he German moves and stopped them cold at Sedan fro a French victory.
 

Robin Reeve

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I just finished the old AH France 1940 using the variable Orders of Battle. The French OB used was a more developed armored force. They were able to react well tot he German moves and stopped them cold at Sedan fro a French victory.
I liked that game.
Unfortunately, it was destroyed by mould in my cellar...
 

C Casten

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Got back into ASL two years ago after a break since High School. I grabbed a copy of Panzerblitz....have not played yet however, cant wait to play a game were it all started for me.
 

RobZagnut

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I just finished the old AH France 1940 using the variable Orders of Battle. The French OB used was a more developed armored force. They were able to react well tot he German moves and stopped them cold at Sedan fro a French victory.
I still own France 1940. Played it to death when I was a teenager. Tried everything as the French to just try and keep the Germans to a minimal victory. What variable OB did you use?
 
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