Isolation Through the Ages

Tried Through the Ages again.  I got a scoring combo that pushed me to an unbeatable lead.  Note to self -- there are some subtle combos all through this game -- exploiting them can be amazing!

Isolation Terra Mystica

Played Terra Mystica on Boardgamearena.  I still don't grok this game.

Strategy & Tactics 002

Well, an interesting read.  Much the same as the first issue, there were a lot of discussions of Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg.  And there was an interesting letters column, with letters that were praising the content, and letters that were critical.  And James Dunnigan had an interesting article on tanks of WWII -- I am not sure if this was his first article, but it was interesting to see his thoughts from 50 years on!

Isolation Modder Fokkers

See Jim's report.  https://campcromwell.blogspot.com/2020/04/zooming-modder-fokkers.html

Strategy &Tactics 051 - World War 1

I still have my old copy of the magazine!  The Schlieffen plan almost worked.  At the end of turn 1 the Germans are almost in Paris, the Belgians are pushed back, the BEF are almost surrounded, and the French have lost a fortified position!

S&T solo.  Solo leaves a lot to be desired -- not the least being the ability to totally stuff up the rules.  On the other hand, you have the luxury of being able to read the rules and go back and query them. 

In the end the German offensive in the West stalled, and this was a problem.  They had units tied up on the Western front.  Which meant they didn't commit enough to the East.  Which meant that Russia survived.  I quit the game in 1917 -- Russia was no where near collapsing.  And while Serbia had been knocked out, that was the only central powers victory.  Austria was still strong -- it was propping up Germany.  But the USA had arrived, and next turn the French tank corps would appear.  There was no meaningful advance to be done by the Central Powers.  A major victory to the Allies.

Strategy & Tactics 001

A fascinating read.  I did not realize the first issue was printed in Japan!  And the magazine had miniatures articles!

Force on Force scenario #1

It took me a year, but finally played Scenario #1 of Force on Force solo.  The terrain was 3D printed, from 3Dprintterrain.de.  The figs were 15mm.

The game started out with a quick little firefight that would have been uneventful, except that the US lost the reaction test with a '1' and had to draw a Fog of War card.  The result -- a predator appeared overhead to support them.  I had a 3D file for a predator somewhere -- so I stopped the game while I printed off and painted up the predator -- 3D printers are a wargamers best friend!

The predator removed the 'Hidden' status from the insurgents, allowing the US troops to advance with no fear of an ambush.  But on turn 2 disaster struck -- a pile of insurgents fired at one US fireteam and got 5 sixes out of 6 dice.  The US defensive dice were low, and suddenly there was a dead soldier and another seriously wounded soldier.  The US started to get troops in position to recover from this, and it happened again -- another US soldier!  Meanwhile, the US return fire had mown down a lot of troops.  But at this point the US lost the initiative test and became slow to move.  The predator fired its hellfire missile, but it proved to be a squib.  After 4 turns I called the game -- the US wasn't going to get to their objective.  But the insurgents couldn't advance without being mown down.  It turned into a minor insurgent win.

Isolation Games #3

A fun game of Carcassone, followed by 'For Sale'.  Both on boardgamearena.com

Isolation Games #2

Peuto Rico over Boardgamearena.