My son asked me, “Dad, why do you like to play games with guys in grey jackets fighting guys in brown jackets?”
Which I thought was pretty observant for a 6 six year old. And I really didn’t have much of an answer. So I explained it that he likes to play trains, I like to play wargames. Simple enough I guess, but it kind of stuck with me.
Here we are! Turn three and our Panzer divisions are finally starting to show some wear and tear. Plus I have to define some cards, as my Aide de Camp is proud to remind me of.
Hello and welcome back to Turn 2 of our invasion of Russia. Our first turn had us encircling Brest-Litovsk and also making pocket big enough to trap a whole bunch of Soviet units around Bialystok. Up North things are heating up and on the Romanian front we are just getting moving. For the moment our supply situation is looking good. This will change quicker than an M5 Stuart crossing an open field.
First off we’ll set out some ground rules for the game. The first round will be a single turn. After that each of these posts will represent two (2) in game turns or eight days. If this pace seems too slow then we’ll bump it up and see how it feels.
As far as strategy I don’t intend to differ much from the game layout. But this will depend on what is my main objective. I may swap a Panzer Corp from one theater to the next if it’s necessary. Ideally I’ll make strong headway into Leningrad, Moscow, and Rostov. But if it comes down to it, I’ll focus on the main objective.
As far as political guidelines, I’ll try to focus on keeping everyone in supply and moving along happily. Since I’m not an expert by any means it’s likely I’ll support Hitler and get the extra political points. Pissing off the Train Nazi is to be avoided, the same with the Truck Nazi. In a perfect world one of the Panzer Corp Commanders will like me. Past experience tells me that no one will like me come October. But hey, that’s the fun of it.
The track is a monstrosity, each section is roughly three foot by three foot, dense MDF, routered lines and copper wires. At each joint is a meticulous melding of wood and slots. I’m staring at the largest slot car racing track I’ve ever seen. Sweat pours off of us as each piece is carefully positioned into a basement. The man overseeing it all, John, is in his early 60’s, a bit plump, and man, he’s really into slot cars.
I’m, well, not. We work side by side for hours but never really seem to click. This guy is into his slot cars, like REALLY into them. So after awhile we talk about the disconnect. Why am I not into them?
Video games.
Decisive Campaigns : Barbarossa is VRDesigns take on the War in the East. Actually, it’s not, it’s just Barbarossa. That’s a huge distinction we need to get out of the way right now.
This is not War in the East.
This is a different game on the Eastern Front. It models not only the movement of troops and supplies as we’d come to expect but more interestingly it models the political in-fighting and clash of personalities that nearly crippled the German Army in 1941. I recently read Brian Fugate’s book on Barbarossa and I was amazed at how often the Germans almost tantrumed themselves right out of the war. Literally like a bunch of angry school children. There were egos, prejudices, and of course rivalries.
After listening to Dan Carlin’s latest Hardcore History podcast on the Persian Empire I had a hankering for some phalanx’s and good old fashioned ancient battles. This is an era that gets overshadowed by, well, just about every other genre. How many games do we really need about World War 2 Tank Battles? The niche for ancient battles is pretty narrow, but luckily HexWar has a few offerings for those ancient gods of war.
Recently I’ve taken an interest in some board games made by a company called GMT Games. They specialize in niche, almost bespoke, historically accurate boardgames. This isn’t Settlers of Catan or Carcassonne but an attempt to model a conflict or situation in as accurate a way as possible.
I didn’t intend to make Jackie Fisher roll over in his grave. Sure, commonsense told me to make warships like, well, like they’re supposed to be made. Instead though I’ve been using Rule the Waves as a test bed for wacky ideas and horrible tactics. Did it work?
Absolutely.
There’s rose covered glasses, and then there’s DOS emulated screens. Memories tend be an odd thing, especially very fond memories of video games past. As we grow, and the games we’ve played grow, how do the old ones stack up?
One of the first war games I ever recall playing was V for Victory : Velikiye Luki. I was probably about 14 years old at the time and had no concept of the history behind the game. For me the Germans were some sort of parody from Hogans Heroes and the Russians just a generic bad guy. But man, I sunk some time into those scenarios.
