Hexsides and Hand Grenades

I've just played Mark Mitchell's scenario, "Hot in the City" from the new Line of Fire 13 and it was pretty great.  The scenario uses the Day of Heroes map and the Heroes of the Gap counters to showcase a battle between the Americans and Soviets in a small Libyan city just after a sandstorm passes through town. There's a semi-random setup in the scenario, which is great for replayability and it's really exciting as both sides scramble for prime real estate on the Day of Heroes map, the entirety of which is available for play.  To add to the tension, each side has a Mobile Reserve Force consisting of some armor and an additional squad.  These forces might come on at any time during the game so there's a lot of tension here. The battle gets deadly very quickly, especially with the addition of tanks and the paltry terrain values on the map.  The lighter construction buildings only offer a defensive value of 1 while the rubble hexes offer the...

Red Backer One is a scenario from LnLP's  Heroes of the Gap which centers on a tank battle between the Soviets and Americans.  The Russians get a relatively large number of tanks to start out with.  They have 9 T-72s and a couple of ATGM vehicles perched on the hillside to the east of Eisenbach and they have to capture the city from the Americans in only six turns.  The Americans have only 3 tanks but these are M1 Abrams, deadly and highly effective at long range killing.  They also get an ATGM vehicle and a platoon of infantry for defense. I've played this scenario a few times with opponents and, each time, I have lost badly as the Soviets.  After a few turns, my T-72s wrecks litter the battlefield around Eisenbach, perhaps getting a successful kill on an M1 before declaring game over.  After playing around with the scenario solo many times, I think I *may* have found the key to Soviet victory.  I'd like to look now at some possible opening mo...

The latest issue of Line of Fire 13 has a bunch of pretty cool scenarios.  I decided to try out Matt Lohse's scenario "Come As You Are", which features an attempt by the US 82nd Airborne to capture the bridge at Nijmegen during Operation Market Garden.  The Germans hastily assemble a reaction force of whomever is around and try to stop them.  The scenario lasts 12 turns and each side checks for reinforcements to arrive at the start of each turn. Here's our play area on boards B and C. The Americans enter from the east and the Germans are in the west. The US sets up with a couple of meager infantry platoons and a bazooka along with an officer and advance towards the city.  They're trying to capture the bridge in the middle of the city.  The other bridges don't exist. The Germans have the option of basically setting up in a concealed area after the US has moved, which they do.  Not a very exciting first turn. The US infantry advanced ...

I've long been a fan of LnL Publishing's "Line of Fire" magazine.  The writing is crisp and the content is always a grab bag of fun.  In the words of a fabled Vietnam veteran, "You never know what you're gonna get."  Another great thing about LoF is that you always find new scenarios in there that breathe new life into any LnLP products you've bought so it's nice to see the company supporting its published products. Line of Fire 13 is at the printers as of this writing and, in my opinion, it's probably the best one yet.  Here's why: 1.)   Blood on the Alma Blood on the Alma is a complete new game that depicts division-level combat between the Russians the Allies near the River Alma in 1854 during the Crimean War.  It's a refreshing take on the ZOC wargame combined with chit pull.  Historical events and situations are taken into account, such as the Minié rifle and its extended range, the training and discipline of the Jaeger...

I've been playing quite a bit of Firepower lately (and badly, I might add - I still don't have a great grasp of the advanced rules) and it's been a lot of fun.  After my first few forays into the game with the Soviet-Sino border clashes, I decided to have a good series of matches between the Soviets and NATO set in LnLP's "World at War" universe. If you're familiar at all with "Heroes of the Gap", you'll know of a nice little scenario called "First Probe", which features a mostly infantry fight between the Americans and Russians in the tiny West German town of Bergengipfel.  After playing the LnL game earlier today for some inspiration, I decided to set a Firepower scenario in the same battle, zoomed in on the actions of just two squads and a handful of buildings on the outskirts of the town. I had actually played through this scenario a few times, with wildly varying results.  This is just one of those sessions which I think wi...