I thought I'd post an AAR for this great game in the hopes of drumming up more opponents to play.
The AI is OK but it is really aimed at new wargamers.... not crusty old Grogs like me. The game really does shine when played against other people. The turns are quick and if you both happen to be sitting near yer Pad then you can play almost in real time.
Anyway.... let's get this started.....
First up is the scenario/opponent selection screen. The different AI's are not listed as "easy"/"hard" but as having different play "styles". I'll play against Monty in this game.
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At the start of each turn you are presented with the Daily Briefing. Here you can check out various sets of information.
Since it's the first day you can see I have no victory points yet, red bar graph near the top, and I'm looking at my objectives for this game.
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Ooh this is gonna be good. You've got a potential partner here. Looking forward to this AAR to help sway me.
Next is the special rules for the start of the scenario. The Germans get 3 unanswered moves before the game switches to alternating moves.
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Quote from: W8taminute on January 06, 2013, 04:27:00 PM
Ooh this is gonna be good. You've got a potential partner here. Looking forward to this AAR to help sway me.
Good to hear! Just go buy it... it's only $10 and even if you only play each scenario once from each side against each AI opponent that's .. ummm... 8 games, 8 to 10 hours maybe.
Next is the supply view. The Germans must trace supply to the east edge of the map. Allies can trace supply to any to the other sides of the map. The striped areas are shown contested areas.
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This next page shows the extent of German artillery coverage. This helps the Germans when they are fighting in these areas.
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Next is the Victory Point calculation screen. Here you can see how the Germans can accumulate VP's. Allied victory comes from limiting German VP collection. The amount of VP's needed to win changes as the scenario progresses.
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And last is the History page. Here you can read a nice write up of the battle. Very nice for people new to the battle. Several screens long.
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and already some strategic plunders were made.
damn this looks too good. but why would i buy
a tablet if i have a computer?
Quote from: Keunert on January 06, 2013, 04:58:45 PM
and already some strategic plunders were made.
damn this looks too good. but why would i buy
a tablet if i have a computer?
'cause I can't haul my PC down to the beach with me. :P
I got a tablet for the calander, note taking, email, web surfing, and game playing while I was on the move.... I fly alot for work.
Alright let's get to to the fun bits.
Here's a full zoomed out shot of the entire map. As you can see this is a area control/movement game. Up in the top left corner you see some areas with small arrows. These are the places that will let the Germas leave the map for VP's. Cities with large labels are worth 2 VP's per turn to the Germans, medium labels are worth 1 VP/turn and small labels are just for flavour.
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This is a full zoomed in shot. Here you can see some details of the units.
The German armour units with what looks like a unit creat in the right of the counter are elite units. They get extras in combat.
The small white bars on the bottom of each unit is how many steps that unit has.
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Select a unit my touching it. This active that entire area. Here I've actived the 5 FJ unit, the 2 Pz unit can't be activated in the Surprise phase of the first turn.
Activating a unit the map changes to show where it can move to. Non-mech units can only move 1 area at a time. Mech units can move up to 3 (using strategic movement).
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Since I want to advance quickly I'll try to destroy or retreat the US 110 Inf unit. Here you can see that I have 8 steps attacking his 1 step.
The small red symbol showing means that my unit crossed a river to make the attack. Only 1 unit can cross a river area side in an activation.
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To see what the combat might result is, I just touch the down arrow on the combat box to see the possible results.
This will show you all the modifiers to the combat and the likely outcome.
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To see what the combat modifers mean just touch the spot where they are shown and this handy table appears in the bottom left.
Cities, towns, woods and forests absorb hits, so you need to make lots of hits to actually kill something there.
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This is a shot during the comabt it self. Each unit gets 1 shot per step. At this point you can see that the US 110 Inf has taken his shot and missed, while the 5 FJ has taken 1 shot and the 26 VG is currently shooting it's 3rd of 4 shots. The Germans have gotton 1 hit so far but it was absorbed by the forest. I eventually destroy the US unit and capture the area.
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This is the result after my second attack, I destroyed the US Scout unit just north of St. Vith.
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After my third surprise attack the Allies get their first activation. They move the CCB/1 Arm unit from Lullange to Longvilly. Then it's my activation again. You can see that the Allied move took 60 minutes. We'll trade activations unti the time reaches 18:00 or there are 2 passes in a row.
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Time passage for each activation is a variable number based on this table. This is a shot from the embedded rule book. LOTS of info in here on how the game works. Very well written.
You can see as the days go by the activation time usage gets shorter and shorter, resulting in more activations per day. This will help the Allies toward the end of the scenario as they will have many more units to move/activate.
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Moves are done. Here you can see that the 1SS Pz has moved 3 areas in the rush for the Meuse.
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Trying a large coordinated attack. My 10 steps against his 3. But His is infantry in woods and a town so it's going to be hard fighting. The prediction shows I will likely only cause him to retreat. I want him dead though. If you completely kill the nemy units in an area you attack with armour, the armour gets to advance after combat!
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ARGH! The fortunes of war! His unit takes 2 hits (of his 3 steps), 2 others being absorbed by the town and the forest, and gets to retreat. :P
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Here is a good picture showing the variable activation length near the end of the first day....
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Awesome step by step AAR Barthheart. I'm sold. Guess what I will be purchasing later on this evening!
Quote from: W8taminute on January 07, 2013, 03:18:23 PM
Awesome step by step AAR Barthheart. I'm sold. Guess what I will be purchasing later on this evening!
Thanks! Let me know when you want a game. 8)
Is this only for iPads?
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 07, 2013, 07:17:18 PM
Is this only for iPads?
Yep..... Although there is a rumour that they will release an actual board game somtime.....
Quote from: Barthheart on January 07, 2013, 09:03:39 PM
Quote from: TheCommandTent on January 07, 2013, 07:17:18 PM
Is this only for iPads?
Yep..... Although there is a rumour that they will release an actual board game somtime.....
I ask because my wife has an Android based tablet and it needs to be christened with a wargame. ;D
Alright, start of Dec. 17. Here's the progress I've made so far... not bad but a long way to go. You can see the out of supply US troops at teh start of the day. They will stay out of supply for the entire day even if reconnected during the day. They can's activate when out of supply but they can fight back.
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The US gets some reinforcements this turn too. Reinforcements for either side can be delayed and re-routed if their entry area is in enemy hands.
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When out in the main map screen there is a menu button. Touch that and you get some options to look at other info like this screen. It's a calender showing when you can expect new troops and replacement points. Also shows VP levels for victory for each side for that day.
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You can also get a full map supply overlay view from that menu.
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Now it's time to attack and take Bastogne!
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Even electronic dice hate me!!!! >:(
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This shot shows me looking at a potential attack. It's across a river and into the woods so not great. The "Likely Hits" show I'll probably take more damge then the US so I'll use the UnDo button in the upper left to cancel the attack. Attacks don't happen until you touch the Commit button in teh top right.
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Here I've selected the 1 SS Pz to move. It can go lots of places by I want it to take the town of Spa, it's worth 1 VP/turn. I'm given 2 choices of paths to get there. One is straight over the river and the other is to take the road west then north. This will give me control of both of those areas. So I touch the left most symbol, bridge crossing, to chose.
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The US responds by moving the Armour in Verviers to Ouffet.
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I counter by attacking Eupen and killing a scout unit and forcing an infantry to retreat.
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More moves by both sides and here I'm making a sceond attack trying to dislodge this damn tank! It works!
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Start of a new day, Dec. 18, and more Allied unit pour onto the map. At leaset we get a little help. Also note at teh top that I have only 9 VP's of the 37 needed to win the game on this day.... not much hope of that... but at least it is equally as hard for the Allies to drive teh VP total bleow 0 so they can win.
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Supply situation at the start of the 18th. Those US units have now been isolated (cutoff for 2 days in a row) and can't even fight back now. It still takes an activation of mine to attack them so unless everything gets down that I really need to do, these will just sit here. Also not that the US unit near the top right of the map are still in supply. This is because the Allies get to draw supply from the north, west and south edges of the map.
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A look at where my VP's are coming from. 3 from occupying St. Vith and Spa and 6 from eliminated Allied strength points (steps). You only get these last VP's when you actually destroy a unit not just reduce a step. So the name of the game is to capture VP locations and advance across the Meuse, not destroying Allied units.
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Second assault on Bastogne...... by the way the Germans alway get first activation each day until Dec. 23 when the skies clear then the Allies always activate first.
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Success... of sorts.... would have been better to destroy the US unit then my amrour could have advanced... oh well, Bastogne is worth 2 VP's/turn!
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Quote from: Barthheart on January 07, 2013, 04:58:36 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 07, 2013, 03:18:23 PM
Awesome step by step AAR Barthheart. I'm sold. Guess what I will be purchasing later on this evening!
Thanks! Let me know when you want a game. 8)
Got the game last night. Haven't fired it up yet but here is my Gamecenter ID so we can hook up for some action. Strangely enough, it's W8taminute. Friend me! :)
this game looks very attractive, damn
Quote from: W8taminute on January 08, 2013, 01:41:50 PM
Quote from: Barthheart on January 07, 2013, 04:58:36 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 07, 2013, 03:18:23 PM
Awesome step by step AAR Barthheart. I'm sold. Guess what I will be purchasing later on this evening!
Thanks! Let me know when you want a game. 8)
Got the game last night. Haven't fired it up yet but here is my Gamecenter ID so we can hook up for some action. Strangely enough, it's W8taminute. Friend me! :)
Friend request sent. 8)
Quote from: Keunert on January 08, 2013, 01:52:03 PM
this game looks very attractive, damn
It is very attractive, and additive, and tons of fun to play.
8)
Quote from: Barthheart on January 08, 2013, 04:38:34 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 08, 2013, 01:41:50 PM
Quote from: Barthheart on January 07, 2013, 04:58:36 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 07, 2013, 03:18:23 PM
Awesome step by step AAR Barthheart. I'm sold. Guess what I will be purchasing later on this evening!
Thanks! Let me know when you want a game. 8)
Got the game last night. Haven't fired it up yet but here is my Gamecenter ID so we can hook up for some action. Strangely enough, it's W8taminute. Friend me! :)
Friend request sent. 8)
Friend request received and accepted. I played through the tutorial and then spent 45 minutes reading up on the history background provided with the game. These guys did a lot of research and there is even a section in there that discusses the question, "Was it worth it?". Great stuff. I'll probably play the first scenario next and get a feel for the game. Seems pretty straightforward, but like chess, you must think several moves ahead. After that let's give this puppy a whirl in multiplayer!
EDIT: If this game comes in a physical board version I think I would buy it.
Ok I won in the long campaign playing both sides on the first try. Interesting game.
Problem with the allied AI is that it neglected defending important cities making me capture them early and score a lot points.
But both games were very tense and I had the feeling of losing if the battle raged on. Maybe the scoring system needs tweaking for experienced wargamers
Sorry the AAR's done fer now. Game was updated and I restarted.
After som more plays I hope to get a PvP game AAR'd.
We should probably do a joint AAR. I'm really enjoying how much this game shines when playing a human opponent.
GG last night btw.
Quote from: W8taminute on January 17, 2013, 02:18:24 PM
We should probably do a joint AAR. I'm really enjoying how much this game shines when playing a human opponent.
GG last night btw.
Yer on!
Yeah that was fun.... and partly becuase we could complete it in an evening.
^That's the beauty of this game, completing it in an evening. Shall we try the full Bulge scenario next?
^Sure, you want the Gerries or the Yanks?
May I have ze Germans bitte?
Blast away when yer ready. 8)
Cool, working from home today too so I should be able to fit in a few turns during the day. Just don't tell my boss!
Cool! I'm at work but will try to sneak a few turns in too.
Shall we do two separate AAR threads to keep our strategies secret? We won't read the other's thread until the game is ended.
That is a good idea with keeping the threads separate. We can both make disclaimers at the beginning of our threads to tell the guys not to discuss strategies in the opposite thread lest they want to be branded a spy.
And yes, I agree. We will not read each others' thread until the game ends.