| Country | Spain |
Played a patrol in Skies Above Britain in preparation of playing a campaign. It was quick and fun, engaged with a formation of Stukas and two formations of escorts. Just for fun I sent a section to neutralize one of the escorts, and they did it!
That stroke of luck was compensated with the loss of one of the planes attacking the bombers formation in a collision. The rest of planes returned safely to base, only with a couple of hiccups.
It turns out that I have surprised myself choosing this scenario. I chose it because of the mixing of forces and the length, but besides that, is also a NATO counterattack. Go figure! I’m not sure if I’m gonna know how to handle it 😄.
Anyway, bridges have been burned (or mined), troops deployed and plans layed out. The fifth day of battle begins.
Setting up the Soviet Pact units for scenario four of ‘In a Dark Wood’, ‘Operation Marsh Harrier’. This is the initial setup and I’ll very likely have to do a general check of units’ positions and posture. Tomorrow I’ll finish the NATO setup and then things will get rolling.
I chose the scenario because it involves a couple of Czechoslovakian armies against US VII Corps, French forces and even some Canadian unit. Something different from the usual suspects. It starts some time after the hostilities broke up and all the divisions have a significant attrition level; interesting decisions to be made.
Another attempt to relieve Tango 2 in Operation Bøllebank, another failure. This time due a direct hit on one of the command vehicles by a tank shot.
The mission didn’t start with good vibrations because I was only drawing fire orders, one after another. That was useless for me while the Bosnians-Serbs were accumulating fire power.
After the initial games, with some rules blunders, now I think I got the procedure right and the game is actually quite easy to get to the table and play, so I guess I’ll be trying again in short time.
Lots of drama in the attempt to rescue an Afghan National Army garrison by a Canadian force. Canadians vehicles bogged down under multiple RPG attacks, close misses, hits without result, failed morter attacks, suicide bombers closing on the objectives…
It was a learning scenario so I spent some time looking for details of some rules and procedures, but I greatly enjoyed the game. Once you go through the procedures of the different situations the game flows easily, generating an engaging narrative.
I think I’ll replay this scenario because I made some blunders in the deployment and in some situations during the game play. Besides that, it’s a good one to play solo because it doesn’t have hidden info.
An Afghan outpost is under attack and a Canadian force is sent to drive off the insurgents. The insurgents are deployed in three groups; two of them will attack the ANA units while the other will try to delay de relief convoy —maybe, with some luck, they could cause some casualties— but the Canadians do have serious firepower to be fully stopped.
(I got the green light to start the game after passing inspection)
Playing some games of ‘Operation Bøllebank’. It’s not a complicated game by any means, but somehow I’m still missing some rules or steps. Maybe is because I’m not really focused on the game. Anyway, it’s an interesting take on the war in what-became-ex-Yugoslavia in the nineties.
In my last attempt I didn’t update the ROE marker correctly and forgot to execute some artillery fire over the NATO’s starting position (Sarači). Blunders aside, my leading tank received a direct impact from a Bosnian-Serb tank, blocking the road to the next contact point almost in the first engagement. A signal that it was better to leave the game and try later.
Well, it looks like I’ll be receiving the next game sooner than expected. I got a notification from Vuca Sims about Modern Tactics delivery.
It’s the Old School Tactical system in a modern set. This first volume is set in Afghanistan with Canadians/USA in one corner against the Taliban.
I’ll play this solo to learn the ropes, but I’ll try to find someone to play face to face with because there are several scenarios with hidden info, and that always deprives the game some fun.