RETROSPECTIVE: Afrika Korps

Lately, I have been perusing old posts on the Grognardia blog. One series he did was RETROSPECTIVE, where he looked back on old games. I was particularly intrigued by his reminisces about his experiences with the game in question and its influence on him. I decided that I am going to look back on the games that have had the greatest impact on my gaming history.

First in the series is one the first "real" wargames (in contrast to Risk or army men on the floor) I ever played - Afrika Korps by the much-lamented Avalon Hill.

My father was a closet wargamer. By that I mean I never saw him play with other people, but he had a small stack of Avalon Hill wargames stacked on the bookshelf (along with a copy of Wargame Campaigns!). I was probably around 10 or so when I got him to teach me how to play. We battled over the fields of Waterloo and Gettysburg (he also had Blitzkrieg but we never tried it). My favorite at the time, however, was Afrika Korps.

Being one of the early Avalon Hill games, the mechanics were quite simple. The counters represented military units and each has a movement factor and strength factor listed on it. Combat was a simple affair of adding up the strengths of the units involved, determining the odds, and rolling on a results chart. Simple stuff that even a 10-year-old could grasp.

Perusing on boardgamegeek, I noticed some complaints about balance and that was certainly my experience (the allies always won, but that could have been the result of my poor generalship). I always played the Germans and I was determined to break through to Alexandria. I would race my troops along the coastal road as rapidly as possible, but I kept getting stymied by Tobruk. Again and again, my attack would grind to a halt there. I think I may have taken it once, but I never got to Alexandria.

North Afrika.
Germans start on the left and have to take Alexandria on the right.

I may have gone down in defeat numerous times, but this game was a revelation as it opened up the world of adult wargaming to me. I realized that you could grow up and still play with soldiers in some fashion. To this day, wargaming has remained a source of intellectual exercise and an inspiration to my imagination. It is probably one of the greatest gifts my father gave to me. Thanks Dad!

On Holiday!

I am off work all next week and I'm not going anywhere so I'll have more time to post. However, I'm not sure if I'll get in much mini gaming. You see, I've developed a tradition of playing a video game hard core during my holiday down time. Over the past few Christmases, I restored the Twilight Princess to her realm, helped stave off the Oblivion Crisis, defeated Alduin the World_Eater, and brought down the Enclave (i.e. I completed Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Fallout 3). So what's in store for this year?

Yeah, it's an old game, but it's one I never finished. There's been a lot of buzz lately about the Dragon Age: Inquisition, the latest game in the series. I kept saying to myself that I should complete the first game (which I started in 2011) so I decided to make it my holiday game of 2014.

I do plan to make regular posts. I have a year-end review in the works (it's pretty wordy so it will end up 2 parts) and my predictions for 2015. In addition, I am starting a new series of posts called RETROSPECTIVE.

Attack on Selenia

Battle 3 of the Artemesia Campaign

Despite the rebel's raid that drove off the battleship Crusader, Federation forces landed on the planet Artemesia and advanced toward the city Selenia. Their goal was to capture the rebel headquarters.

Contending forces
I am using the scratch-built units I created a week or so ago.

• Federation - 2 infantry battalions, 1 battalion of power infantry, 2 regiments of armor, and an artillery regiment (missile launchers). Federation forces have control of the skies and can call on air support.
• Rebels - 4 infantry battalions, 1 regiment of armor, and 1 artillery regiment (missile launchers)

The Rules

I am using my homegrown rules set, which is a mash-up of Song of Blades and Heroes and Memoir '44. I'll add commentary about the rules as I go.

The Battlefield

I painted my unit bases a shade of dark orange. I envisioned them duking it out on an alien planet. To match this, I cut out a 12" x 18" piece of orange cloth and divided it into 2" squares. The purple "woods" are made from a sponge. I don't yet have any alien hills so I used my standard hills. A couple blocks serve as buildings. The purple space ship (furthest row) represents the rebel HQ.

The Battle
This will primarily be a pictorial account, with occasional, additional comments.

Federation forces land outside Selenia and advance on the rebel HQ,
Federation air attacks wipe out rebel infantry on the right.

The rules borrow the activation system from Song of Blades and Heroes, where you roll 1 to 3 dice. Each success allows the unit to take one action (such as moving or attacking). One possible action is to call in an air strike (although an army will have a limit on the number of air strikes it can use).

Note that I am using orange buttons to represent hits. I think I will paint the tops black so they look like explosions (and will stand out against the orange background).

Federation forces pound the rebel armor (center).
The Federation elite armor swing along the left flank.

So far in this battle, the rebels had horrible activation rolls. In the first four turns, the rebels turn ended on the first unit. As a result, it looked like the Federation would win an easy victory. But the tides of battle can change quickly.

But a rebel ambush and the accurate gunnery of the rebel armor drive off the Federation tanks.

Another possible action is to launch a guerrilla ambush. A unit will appear out of nowhere (the black stand on the left) and launch a surprise attack. It will then disappear at the end of the turn. In this battle, the rebels had the ability to launch 3 attacks.

Federation armor continues their advances.

The Federation attacks seem to be paying off,
The rebel armor retreats from the hills.

Rebel counterattacks wipe out the elite Federation armor.

The rebel counterattacks (including an ambush) continue.
The Federation armor is destroyed.

Then the rebels begin pounding the Federation power infantry on the hill.

The power infantry deploys force shields.
The Federation infantry now takes the brunt of the rebel attacks.

And another possible activation is to raise force shields (represented by a half circle of translucent plastic). Essentially, these work like sandbags in Memoir '44.

At this point, it seemed unlikely that the Federation could secure its goal. However, I had no set conditions for a rebel victory so I decided to press on and see what the Federation forces could achieve.

The battle is interrupted when Catzilla demands attention.

Finally, missile and armor attacks rout the rest of the Federation infantry

With only one unit left, it became clear that the Federation had failed, so I ended the game.

During this battle, the rebel armor regiment (afterwards known as the Devil's Own) won renown due to its devastating attacks on Federation forces. One reason for its success was judicious use of the Rally activation. If successful, Rally allowed a unit to remove one hit. The DO rallied a few times during the game, keeping them alive long enough to strike deadly blows on the Federation.

Now repulsed, the Federation forces will need to regroup, and the campaign will continue!

Some RPG Thoughts

Over at my Tales of the Templars blog I have completed one Space Templar adventure and have begun a new one.

Early this year I mentioned that one of my goals for my RPGs was to illustrate my adventures. I haven't made a ton of progress on this, although I have been pulling monster illustrations from the internet for use in my posts, such as this one.

So far, I have not illustrated the space battles that feature prominently in Tales of the Space Princess adventures (you have to escape the "dark lord's" lair in a spaceship while pursued by his minions - kind of like the Millennium Falcon's escape). For my latest session, I put together this virtual board designed to look like a sensor screen.

It should suffice until I put together some minis and a board.

In other news, I was perusing old posts on Grognardia and came across a review of X-plorers, an old-school sci fi rpg. I liked what I read so I picked up a copy. Silly me; I paid for it and then found out that there is a free, no-art PDF version available. (I prefer no-art PDFs because they are cheaper than print and take up less disk space). Oh well, it was still money well spent. Definitely some good ideas that will be borrowed for my games.

An Orbital Battle

Battle 2 of the Artemesia Campaign

With the rebel fleet out of the way, elements of the Federation Navy descend upon the planet Artemesia. Federation capital ships assumed orbit around the planet preparing to bombard rebel military facilities. As one of these ships, the Federation battleship Crusader, neared orbit, rebel forces consisting of a destroyer and 3 fighter squadrons sortied to discourage the invaders.

Below is a pictorial account of the battle.

Crusader's sensors detect approaching enemy ships

A rebel fighter squadron and destroyer surge ahead

The Federation destroyer draw first blood.
The battleship has launched fighters which are vectored onto an intercept course.

Dogfight!
Meanwhile, the rest of the rebels move up

The Crusader's long range guns pummel the rebel destroyer.

The Federation fighters win the dogfight.
The rebel fighters make torpedo passes at the Crusader.

Battle swirls around the Crusader.

Torpedoes slam into the Crusader and her escort!

The Federation fighter squadron is defeated.

The Federation destroyer is crippled.
The Crusader suffers more torpedo damage.

Severely damaged, the Crusader jumps into hyperwarp.

After the engagement, the Federation fleet converged but by then the rebels had fled. Nevertheless, they performed stellar duty for their cause. Without an orbital bombardment, more rebels will be ready to meet the invaders.

The Artemesia Campaign

As I mentioned earlier this week, I have been building up forces for a series of linked sci-fi battles. Below are the scenarios that I jotted down. I used the generic moniker of Galactic Authority vs. Rebels. In my Artemesia campaign the Galactic Authority is the Federation and the rebels are backers of a dictatorial coup. The situation could easily be reversed - an evil Empire against freedom fighters.

Galactic Authority vs. Rebels

Background

Rebels have overthrown the rulers of the planet and have installed their own government. They have marshalled their ground and space forces to repulse any attempt by the galactic authority (GA) to re-instate the old rulers.

Scenarios

Clear a path (space battle) – the GA space navy must defeat the rebel forces, opening a path to invading the planet

• Give the GA a set number of attempts to clear a path
• GA forces return at full strength. Rebels retain losses to ships (although damages may be repaired and fighters return)
• This represents the greater resources of the GA
• Failure ends the campaign with a rebel victory
• Success allows the campaign to proceed

This was the scenario for my battle last Sunday.

Desperate defense (space battle) – As GA ships move into orbit around the planet, a sortie by rebel ships (especially fighters) tries to knock out GA ships

•  If rebels win, reduce the size of the GA forces in the next battle

Assault (ground battle) – GA land forces try to take the rebel HQ

• Victory by the GA will end the campaign

Blockade runners (space battle) – rebels are trying to sneak supplies to the planet. The GA navy must prevent it.

• If rebels succeed, increase or improve their army for the next scenario

Counterattack (ground battle) – rebel forces try to drive off the GA

• If rebels succeed, they win the campaign
• Otherwise, replay the scenarios beginning with Assault

On My Worktable

I've was off work yesterday while workmen were fixing my bathroom. With nothing else to do, I pondered Sunday's starship battle. A number of ideas popped into my head for a series of linked battles (including ground battles) for the control of Artemesia. Alas, I don't have the figures for sci-fi ground battles. I thought about placing an order with Silver Eagle for some Irregular 2mm but I was feeling impatient. Once again, The Stronghold Rebuilt provided an answer - scratch-built forces, like the ones Kaptain Kobold did for his Giant Monster Rampage games - such as these and these.

I had today scheduled off as well in case the workmen needed more time, but fortunately they finished yesterday. So I started some work of my own. Here is my worktable as of a few minutes ago.

Sci-Fi Forces in Progress

Here is the list of items, generally from top left to bottom

• A missile launcher and 4 tanks - it is hard to see them in this photo. They are made from various bits of craft wood. I need to get some pins for the guns.
• 2 stands of infantry - made of bits of toothpicks. It was very fiddly gluing them to the bases. I'm going to shop for hair curlers to make up the rest of the infantry. I think these stands will represent infantry in battle suits.
• Air support fighter/bomber - made from one of the oval pieces I used for destroyer hulls, with wings and tail made from halves of craft wood squares, and a lentil cockpit
• 3 damage markers - made from wood buttons painted orange. I made add some gray on the tops to look like smoke.
• Another missile launcher and 2 tanks - these tanks have lentil turrets
• A battleship - to bombard the planet on one of the scenarios.
• 3 squadrons of saucer-shaped fighters - made of lentils.

I still have some painting to do. I think I goofed up by painting the bases first. It is how I do 2mm figure blocks, but I paint the blocks before mounting them to their bases. I expect that I will get some paint on the bases and will have to touch them up. Oh well.

On another note, we played Elder Sign on Saturday. My wife and I were devoured by the Ancient One but my brother-in-law managed to banish it back to its own dimension. I just wanted to show off our "monster cup" (where we keep the unplayed monsters during the game).

Our "monster cup" aloing with the Elder Sign game