Had some fun games on this day, most of them are of my request.
First up, Galaxy Trucker! Fun game of building spaceship and then watch it being blast to pieces by space pirates and meteor swarms!
The spatial element in this game is the strategic key. The tiny astronauts and energy gems add to the charm.
The rest is up to luck! Do you need more lasers? Shields? More storage space? It’s all in the cards! Fun, Frantic, Funkiness.
Next up, Bang! Full on, 7 player mayhem.
The deputies in this game went FULL ON on the outlaws, no chance to survive. Even the Renegade got shot in the way. One Sheriff and both Deputies survive! One up for the law.
Next we went to Santiago.
Pepe in this game is a harsh servant. twice he diss the bribes to lay his canals nowhere! maximum screwage. Crabzai got tricked by the first few cooperative overtures. At the end of game, everyman for himself!
Lastly, 18TN. Finally a heavy thinky game, which isn’t saying that it’s a bad thing. On the contrary, thinky tension fun!
Some incompetent engineers from jack208&co caused screwage to competitors.
Train rush not too bad and lim just manage to survive by the skin of his teeth! To hit table again soon!
Introduction
After reading numerous session reports on this game, jack208 and myself’s interest were pique and upon jack208 mentioning that he owns the 2004 revised ed, we planned and arranged a session to play this game. As there was no preference for any sides, I took the Allies side while jack208 took the Axis side. After a lengthy setup, we begin the game.
Allied Command Strategic Overview
“The Allied starting army assets are worse than what I had thought it should be. I had known the economic might of the Allies will be offset by less starting units but was surprised at how few the naval assets are, one which I thought the Allies should have superiority on. Russia seems to have enough ground troops to temporarily keep Germany at bay. However UK’s fleet was split between the English Channel, the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The fleet at Atlantic and Mediterranean seems to be barely able to contain the battleship and subs Germany commanded. The Indian Ocean fleet seems to be sitting ducks for the Imperial Japanese fleet to prey upon. Worse, numbers by numbers comparison seem to show that Japan have an advantage over the US fleet as well.
It seems to me that the first order of the day is to spam out ground defense for Russia and naval defense for UK and US. With control of the seas, UK can then think about helping Russia counteract Germany’s economic might. Russia is about 2/3s of Germany’s production and numbers wise they can’t stand up to Germany. UK will have to find a way to open up a 2nd front against Germany. US on the other hand will have to keep Japan’s Navy busy while seeking opportunity to send troops to help UK start D-day. As Japan will likely take the opportunity to attack Allied assets in India, China and Soviet Far East, the US should also position itself to take advantage of openings presented in the South East Asian islands.Final strategy of the Allies will be to pound Germany into submission through the concentrated might of Russia and UK while US runs interference with Japan.”
Round 1
RUSSIA
- Western Army attacks German West Russia
- Sub moves out off East Coast of Norway
- Far East Army moves to consolidate frontier against Japan
Allies Comment
“I know Russia should be defending as much as possible with its limited production capability, but West Russia presents too much of a temptation to invade considering that I am able to consolidate Archangel’s and Russia’s defense into a single front. The single sub does nothing at the back and is moved front to hopefully thin out Germany’s ships. The Far East is a serious concern but at this point, not much can be done other than moving troops to consolidate the front and present a deterrent to Japanese ambitions.”
GERMANY
- Eastern Army attacks Russian Karelia SSR
- Baltic Sea Navy attacks Russian sub off East Coast of Norway
- Desert army moves to stage troops in Libya
Allies Comment
“The German counterattack is to be expected and the sheer number of troops overwhelms the Russian defense easily. German troop movement away from Norway presented an interesting front for UK to invade in the future. Surprisingly, Germany did not play aggressively and try to take Caucasus as well. With the IPC there, the place would have been a valuable staging ground for Germany to launch attacks into Russia. Perhaps the troops I amassed at the end of Russia’s turn proved to be a big enough deterrent. Another point of relief would be Germany’s decision not to send their Battleship to engage the lone Destroyer at the Suez Canal. With the Battleship being able to take two hits and some form of fighter cover, UK’s position in the Mediterranean would have been lost. As it stands however, Germany’s alternate decision to use their transport to beef up their Afrika Korps spells certain doom for UK’s holdings in Africa.”
UNITED KINGDOM
- Atlantic Navy and UK air assets attacks German Navy off East Coast of Norway
- Mediterranean and Indian Ocean air assets engage German Navy off Italian Coast
- Indian Ocean Navy moves to Mediterranean
- Australian Navy repositions to West Coast Australia
Allies Comment
“The first two high risk moves is important to the overall strategy of UK engaging Germany and maintaining sea supremacy on the European Front. India and Australia is too far to be able to reinforce effectively and thus Gandhi was abandoned to the Japs. With the help of air assets, what seems like equal fights between navies ended with UK emerging victorious with minimal loss. UK’s concentration on sea assets sees multiple subs and destroyers entering commission on the English channel. Thus sea supremacy was established for the first part of the Allied strategy.”
JAPAN
- Army attacks American China
- Army attacks British India
Allies Comment
“As expected, China and India was conquered easily, helped in part by the lack of naval assets in India. What’s surprising was Japan’s lack of action on the Pacific front. It’s contentment to sit back on its existing defenses could be an advantage for the Allied sea supremacy strategy. Granted that sea zones do not provide any production points but in the war of attrition, control of the waves could prove to be crucial in allowing flexibility in troop movement later.“
UNITED STATES
- Pacific Navy attacks Japanese sub off Solomon islands
- Atlantic Navy and air assets attacks German sub in Atlantic
- Chinese Army withdraws to Russian Kazakh SSR
Allies Comment
“As per Allied sea supremacy objective, US brought superior numbers to attrite the Axis subs. US also concentrated on raising an Aircraft Carrier. The Carriers carry fighters which allow greater reach and the ability to amass large numbers of attackers to attrite the Japanese warships efficiently. A number of US troops and a transport was also left on the US Eastern Coast to potentially threaten the German Western Front.”
Round 2
RUSSIA
- Army counter-offensive into German Karelia SSR
- Army offensive into German Belorussia
Allies Comment
“It’s hard to refuse an offensive when the enemy is at your doorstep and you know that your two planes can tip the scales in your favour. Better to hit him first than to have him hit you with his air fleet supporting him later.”
GERMANY
- Eastern Army counter-offensive into Russian Belorussia
- Desert Army advance into British Anglo-Egypt
“The offensive into Belorussia is to be expected. The victory the previous turn left it quite barren. Anglo-Egypt gave up without much of a fight and Germany now has unchecked access to Africa. This will be bad for UK.”
UNITED KINGDOM
- Australian Navy attacks unescorted Japanese Carrier off East Indies
- UK Army amphibious assaults German Norway
Allies Comment
“The remains of the Australian Navy, which consists of a sub and two transports found an undefended carrier off the coasts of East Indies and pounced on the chance to destroy it. One less Carrier for US to worry about. With Russia covering the Europe East Front well, the time came for UK to launch its British Expeditionary Force. The first strike seizing lightly defended Norway. The path is paved for future landings.”
JAPAN
- Army amphibious assaults Russian Soviet Far East
- Army attacks American Sinkiang
- Army attacks British Persia
- Navy attacks British Navy off East Indies
Allies Comment
“Japan retaliated the sinking of their Carrier with excessive force, as they attacked Russian, American and British assets in Asia all at the same time. The clock is starting to tick for Russia with these offensives. The silver lining is that Japan had spread out her forces to take those provinces and it’ll be awhile before they can regroup to assault Russia effectively. The buoyant Australian Navy also met its end under the guns of another Japanese Task Force. So ends the British Naval sojourn in the Pacific. Hopefully the US can capitalize on these brave sacrifices.”
UNITED STATES
- Pacific Navy stages one space off Japanese Homeland Coast
- Solomon Island Navy invades Japanese Borneo
- Atlantic Army amphibious assaults into German Algeria
Allies Comment
“With all Japanese naval assets out of strike range, US had to content herself with minor assaults and amphibious landings. Borneo was taken in the Pacific for a production boost while Operation torch commence in Africa against lightly defended Algeria. Rommel better watch out! Meanwhile the Fleet from US coast sailed to Japanese offshore to prepare for the final destruction of the Imperial Navy next round.”
Round 3
RUSSIA
- Western Army attacks German Belorussia & Ukraine SSR
Allies Comment
“With UK securing Norway, Russia can now push against Germany, attacking into Belorussia and Ukraine SSR. If the Reich strikes back, UK can easily punch through other areas of defense later.”
GERMANY
- Desert Army invades British French Equatorial Africa, blitzes British Belgian Congo, Italian East Africa, Rhodesia
- Eastern Army counter-offensive into Russian Karelia SSR, Ukraine SSR
Allies Comment
“Africa falls under Rommel’s blitz. Hopefully the US landing in Algeria can help somewhat with that later. Europe East Front seems to be still see-sawing with German offensives and counter-offensives.”
UNITED KINGDOM
- Norway Army invades German Karelia SSR
- UK Army amphibious assaults German Eastern Europe
- UK Air Army repositions to Norway
Allies Comment
“UK’s Norweigian troops now moved out against Karelia SSR while another amphibious invasion takes Eastern Europe. The pressure on Russia is now being relieved.”
JAPAN
- Indian Army invades British Trans-Jordan
- Chinese Army invades Russian Kazakh SSR
- Manchurian Army invades Russian Buryatia SSR
Allies Comment
“The Japanese Army marches on. They are at Russia’s doorstep. Russia will now have to turn and fight this foe, leaving the Germans to the Brits.”
UNITED STATES
- Algerian Army attacks German Libya
- Pacific Navy destroys Japanese Navy off Japanese Homeland Coast
- Borneo Navy picks off Japanese Navy off Kwantung Coast
- Third Aircraft Carrier brought in off Western USA Coast
Allies Comment
“Africa campaign marches on with the invasion of Libya. Both Japanese Navies off the Japan and Kwantung are utterly destroyed. A third Aircraft Carrier is bought to make sure Japan Navy never sails again.”
Round 4
RUSSIA
- Caucasian Army attacks Japanese Kazakh SSR, Sinkiang and Persia
Allies Comment
“Russia takes a break and takes care of the encroaching Japs from the backdoor. That will set the Japs back a bit.”
GERMANY
- Eastern Army attacks British Eastern Europe, Russian Belorussia
- Desert Army invades British French West Africa, Union of South Africa
Allies Comment
Germany is being gradually worn down. Rommel still have his field day in Africa. Where’s that US contingent?!?”
UNITED KINGDOM
- Karelian Army attacks German Eastern Europe
- UK Army amphibious assaults German Western Europe
Allies Comment
“Western Front opens even as the assault is renewed on the Eastern Front 6IPCs from Paris is sweet!”
JAPAN
- Indian Army retakes Russian Persia
- Chinese Army stages in China
- East Indies Navy retakes Borneo
- Kwantung Navy stages off the coast
Allies Comment
“Not much action here as Japan retakes her territories. Japan desperately raises some ships to counter the Allied threat but the next turn will be US’s.”
UNITED STATES
- Kwantung Navy attacks Japanese Borneo Navy
- Pacific Navy attacks Japanese Navy off coast of Kwantung
- Libyan Army attacks German Anglo-Egypt
- Infantry transport stages off Western USA coast
Allies Comment
“The US Navy shatters the remains of the Japanese Navy at Kwantung and Borneo. Air superiority ensures US naval assets are well protected. US starts to raise transports and armies to take back the Pacific, all subsequent Japanese ships raised will be crushed mercilessly by the combined might of three Aircraft Carriers!”
Post Game Analysis
Allies Comment
“Unfortunately the game ends here as it was late. In total we spent about half an hour setting up and about 4 hours play time for 4 turns. This game takes longer than I thought. Both jack208 and I are quite newbies to this game and took longer than expected to make our moves.
Air assets seem to be quite important in this game as they can be assigned to battlefields to get a dice that hit on 3, and then withdraw once the battle is over. This way the Fighters gets to retreat to a safe distance whereas the Tanks will be left defending against a potentially huge counterattack. Aircrafts are also important in the Seas where they can be deployed quickly to various sea zones to bring the numbers and odds up against opponents.
Research is quite useless as jack208 did it twice with nothing to show. I understand that this feature was ‘fixed’ in the Anniversary Edition where each 5 IPCs bought a researcher who will contribute a dice roll to the research every turn until he succeeds and then discarded. This is a better balancing factor and luck still plays a role in deciding whether the research will succeed this turn or later. At least then the flavor of technologies will be realized.
Another problem I see is that Russia was nowhere near collapse as I thought it would be. Even after 4 turns, it is still solid and looking at the IPC spread, UK’s 30 IPCs combined with Russia’s 24 IPCs still trumps Germany’s 40 IPCs. Even US’s 42 IPCs by itself already trumped Japan’s 30 IPCs. Hopefully the Anniversary Edition can fix this problem by introducing Italy as the third Axis faction. Also, the Introduction of Italy shifts the initiative back to the Axis as they get to start first.
The illogical but fun invasion of Russia by Japanese will also be neutered by the Anniversary Edition. The introduction of Chinese forces as a separate fighting force will slow down the Japanese advance on that front. In our game, it seems too easy for Japan to fight its way to Kazakh SSR.
Overall a fun experience, but one that I think will take a long time to play till completion. Perhaps it is going to be a play once a year game. I am quite keen to try the Anniversary Edition after playing this Revised Edition but the US100 price tag is very expensive. In the meantime, there’s the online implementation at Gametableonline to help scratch that itch.