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Post 28 Aug 2015, 6:59 pm

For some reason I was just thinking about this game and recollected that I played on Vassal last year. I played the Russians and won on the sudden death rules. My secret choice was Kallinin, which I held, and my opponent, Brad (not a Redscape member), chose Dnepropetrovsk. As I held both coming out of winter, I earned the SD win. Thus, we only ended up playing five complete turns, through Jan-Feb, 1942. I had forgot how demoralizing it is for the Russians during the initial invasion. The German armor completely runs over your defenses while all you can do on your turn is backpedal into another - soon to be run over - defensive alignment. Stall him and pray for winter. Brad had made it to the gates of Moscow by Nov-Dec Fall '41 but was then forced to pull back when winter hit hard in Jan-Feb. Phew! You can see my failed attempt to knock out the Rumanians from the war with my armored invasion (!). The final map is posted.

I know you have this one Bauska. Don't sell it - I should be ready to play again in about a year (yes, a year). My wife will have to put up with another month or two of the board sitting on her sewing table!
Final.png
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Post 28 Aug 2015, 7:02 pm

I know it's hard to tell, but almost all of the Russian units shown are single units. Many of the German units are stacked. He's got a lot more firepower you can't see.
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Post 30 Aug 2015, 5:58 am

Looks so great. When the kids are grown and I've taken down the shingle, I hope this is how I spend much of my free time: Once a hex head, always a hex head.
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Post 30 Aug 2015, 10:04 am

geojanes wrote:Looks so great. When the kids are grown and I've taken down the shingle, I hope this is how I spend much of my free time: Once a hex head, always a hex head.

I totally agree with once a hexhead. At the message board for Federation & Empire (a Star Trek based campaign game), there are regular rounds of I'm addicted to cardboard comments.

I bemoan the moving away of all my wargaming friends and the rise of German games.
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Post 30 Aug 2015, 10:51 am

Archduke Russell John wrote:
geojanes wrote:Looks so great. When the kids are grown and I've taken down the shingle, I hope this is how I spend much of my free time: Once a hex head, always a hex head.

I totally agree with once a hexhead. At the message board for Federation & Empire (a Star Trek based campaign game), there are regular rounds of I'm addicted to cardboard comments.

I bemoan the moving away of all my wargaming friends and the rise of German games.


I'll add on to the quote-and-quote thread here by agreeing with you. I've got a closet full of old games (mostly AH), many of them traditional hex and wargames, and I miss playing them. On the other hand, when I pull one such game down and look at a rule book filled with 30 pages of tiny multi-columned text, I start to get light-headed.

Oh, you don't find that overkill on many of the "classic" games, such as Russian Campaign, Bulge, or Africa Korps. I think it all started getting crazy with Squad Leader, and its many rule books and revisions, culminating in the mind-numbing ASL. I do like SL, but did not like having to keep it suspended in the air so we could refer to it every 2 minutes. But I'd love to play Storm over Arnhem, Successors, Caesar at Alesia (and you think Diplomacy takes a long time!) or even WS&IM. And how about Republic of Rome! In fact, one of my gaming friends and I are soon to play "Byzantium", an old S&T game. I'm also working with JimHacker on reviving an online game of Republic of Rome in the near future.
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Post 31 Aug 2015, 6:06 am

I like many of the German games and they may have even helped keep the grognard hobby alive. You couldn't run a game store today catering only to the old guard wargamers. The stores now thrive on Euro's, Ameritrash, and miniatures like Warhammer. Besides, it's all I can get my daughters and (sometimes) my wife to play... so far. The closest I've gotten with my oldest (9 years) is Battle Cry.

If you want to play those old games, you can still do it via Vassal, like TRC above. Many of those games are still played at the WBC's as well, including TRC, WSIM, SL, AK, ROR & others. I just might go for the first time with the family next year. It's moving to Seven Springs resort (in PA) from Lancaster, PA. Although the Euro's get the most play, there's tons of stuff for those that don't like them.

George A., if you ever want a game of WSIM, there's a great place to play online. Here's the pertinent thread: http://www.redscape.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2917. Archduke & Bauska have played there.
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Post 04 Sep 2015, 7:31 pm

georgeatkins wrote:Oh, you don't find that overkill on many of the "classic" games, such as Russian Campaign, Bulge, or Africa Korps. I think it all started getting crazy with Squad Leader, and its many rule books and revisions, culminating in the mind-numbing ASL. I do like SL, but did not like having to keep it suspended in the air so we could refer to it every 2 minutes. But I'd love to play Storm over Arnhem, Successors, Caesar at Alesia (and you think Diplomacy takes a long time!) .


You want to talk big rule book, the aforementioned Federation and Empire rulebook is kept in a 2 inch three ring binder and the covers are not sloped.

As for long, the last game of that I played, it took us 5 years to complete playing once a month for 8 hours.
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Post 04 Sep 2015, 7:37 pm

SLOTerp wrote:If you want to play those old games, you can still do it via Vassal, like TRC above.

Brad and I regularly play Victory Games Civil War on Vassal.


SLOTerp wrote:It's moving to Seven Springs resort (in PA) from Lancaster, PA.

Well that sucks. Lancaster was an hour drive day trip for me. Seven Springs is the entire other side of the state. That like a freaking 7 hour drive.


SLOTerp wrote:George A., if you ever want a game of WSIM, there's a great place to play online. Here's the pertinent thread: http://www.redscape.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=2917. Archduke & Bauska have played there.


Absolutely join us George. It is a blast to play WS&IM again.
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Post 05 Sep 2015, 7:41 pm

Archduke Russell John wrote:Well that sucks. Lancaster was an hour drive day trip for me. Seven Springs is the entire other side of the state. That like a freaking 7 hour drive.

Seven Springs is 40 minutes longer for me than Lancaster. Since SS is 3 hours from Lancaster, me thinks you might be exaggerating your estimated drive :razz:.
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Post 05 Sep 2015, 7:49 pm

http://www.vassalengine.org/wiki/Module:The_Russian_Campaign

I am in...
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Post 05 Sep 2015, 9:10 pm

Archduke Russell John wrote:
georgeatkins wrote:Oh, you don't find that overkill on many of the "classic" games, such as Russian Campaign, Bulge, or Africa Korps. I think it all started getting crazy with Squad Leader, and its many rule books and revisions, culminating in the mind-numbing ASL. I do like SL, but did not like having to keep it suspended in the air so we could refer to it every 2 minutes. But I'd love to play Storm over Arnhem, Successors, Caesar at Alesia (and you think Diplomacy takes a long time!) .


You want to talk big rule book, the aforementioned Federation and Empire rulebook is kept in a 2 inch three ring binder and the covers are not sloped.

As for long, the last game of that I played, it took us 5 years to complete playing once a month for 8 hours.


Well, you got me there! I cannot imagine investing the time, especially these days. It sounds like the old AH "The Longest Day" monster game. Well, I don't get to play old war games much these days. Like most of you, I imagine, I play more recent stuff, such as Merchants & Marauders, Carcassone, History of the World, TIgris & Euphrates, Bang!, etc. Oh, we still trot out Circus Maximus and we like to play Conquest of Paradise, too.

I'll look at that online WS&IM. I saw the earlier thread when you guys talked about playing it. Just have not had the time. In fact, Colin and I have been trying to work up method for running a Republic of Rome game here on Redscape. But I've fallen behind because of monitor issues (finally resolved) and free time (not resolved). I think it would be nice to have it back on the web site again, though it still has rules issues.

George
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Post 06 Sep 2015, 7:12 am

SLOTerp wrote:Seven Springs is 40 minutes longer for me than Lancaster. Since SS is 3 hours from Lancaster, me thinks you might be exaggerating your estimated drive :razz:.

Possibly. I was basing it on the map location showed on the Wikipedia entry and how long it takes me to drive across the state.

I just google mapped it and it comes out to a 4 hour drive.
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Post 08 Sep 2015, 9:45 am

What about getting a 5 person 3rd Reich game? We can run it on Vassal.
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Post 09 Sep 2015, 6:00 pm

Unfortunately, I'm out of any serious war-gaming until next year.

Speaking of next year, if any of you are considering the WBC's in 2016 or beyond, we should put together a Redscape team. A team is four players where each member picks one game that counts towards your team score. I really think we might go next summer and it'd be nice to meet some of the gang.

There were 78 teams this year: http://www.boardgamers.org/wbc15/teams.htm

Apparently the most important thing is to pick a good name!