Sunday 7 August 2016

In the pursuit of (wargaming) happiness.

In an attempt to speed up finding the right balance of playing interesting, quick rules and a visually appealing table, I've been looking at some existing boardgames to use. I've owned for some years the boardgame 'Panzer Grenadier' by Avalanche Press. The system has been supported by many expansions, however the reviews of the system have been somewhat mixed; too light, with not enough detail or meat.

My hope is that the system is robust enough to bolt on the command system from the ACW miniatures rules, Altar of Freedom. Myself and Stew had a go with the actual boardgame on Wednesday which seemed to go okay. But would it convert to miniatures? Here's the initial set-ups:

I wanted a mix of unit types without the game being overly complicated. The Soviets had 12 platoons of infantry, a couple of supporting MG platoons, a towed 45mm AT gun and field gun, all supported by 2 T70s. The Germans were similar but on a smaller scale, with mortar support. I didn't include German tanks, but thought I could add them in as reinforcements.

I've only played two turns, but the game went along very quickly. The Soviet infantry attack in the centre quickly stalled as it was bombarded by mortars, and softened by close quarter shooting. The Russian right flank slowly entered the woods, with the T70s making a wide wheeling flanking manouvre ready to pounce.

So far, it seems to work well to what I had hoped. My new basing helped as I could use different coloured dice to represent their status (white for disrupted, red for demoralized). The playing surface looked clean without the normal levels of clutter that I have felt with games played with other systems. I have also recently modified some of my hexon blank, city boards into wood/brush areas which I am quite pleased with. I'll play a few more turns and see what happens.

 

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