Eisenhower: First game impressions

Surrounded German lorried infantry

Although I hadn't expected to be able to play it so soon, my good friend Ian agreed to give Eisenhower a try. Although it's too big for a first game, I wanted to play the Operation Epsom scenario as I have the appropriate kit. We didn't use the advanced rules.

Terrain is very simple at this scale and straightforward to lay out on a grid. I got some pan scourers to represent  bocage but hadn't had time to finish them properly. The felt rivers didn't bend along the 4" squares and will need to be rethought. If using a 6" grid I have rubber rivers which should fit, but I'll keep the bocage to 4" squares so everything fits in.

I grabbed some wooden blocks to act as ‘Prepared’ markers but they were much too big and clumsy and need to be replaced with something more discrete matching the unit base frontage, probably a little row of sandbags.

The 4" grid worked fine, kept the game compact and left room round the edges of the playing area for game paraphernalia, which was convenient but unsightly. A 6" grid would look less like a car park, something that always struck me about playing Tim Gow's Megablitz with 1/72 models. I am, however,  indebted to Tim for the original inspiration to game at the 1 base = 1 battalion scale.

Anyway, we diced for sides. I got the British/Canadians and Ian the Germans. Epsom is a very crowded battlefield and Ian's deployment was well considered, pretty much wall to wall and reinforced by utilising bocage and rivers. The Germans are veteran and the British only trained except for the Canadians (which I could and should have used more aggressively).

I had plenty of mediocre infantry to attack the German infantry in the bocage, but as the Germans were all Prepared that would allow them to fire first rather than simultaneously.  Worse still was the prospect of attacking the Superior German armour in the open, some behind a river. When attacking across a river, you have to throw for Friction which means some units may drop out or even suffer a step loss.

Given the daunting prospect of trying to break through, I placed the 11th Armoured Division - my only decent armoured formation  - on the right flank, and they succeeded in sweeping around that flank. By the end of the first day I had eliminated three German infanty battalions and taken two objectives. The German lorried infantry in the bocage (top photo, ringed) lost a combat and were exhausted, but their mandatory retreat was blocked so they effectively surrendered.

On the second day I surrounded two Panzer battalions that would have been isolated by the close of that day and suffered damage (ringed units in the lower photo). I decided to attack them as well using the Shermans behind them but this just resulted in all the units becoming worn.

Surrounded German Panzers

However, attacking anywhere else looked suicidal. At the very least it is would have required successive waves of fresh troops and would  have been very attritional. The Germans also had strong forces in reserve, so although I was pleased with the initial British success, I think the game would have turned in the Germans' favour if we had continued. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has played this scenario.

Anyway, the important thing was not so much the detail of this particular game, but to see how the rules worked and what the game felt like. In about two-and-a-half hours, including setup, we got into the second day. This slow progress was mainly down to unfamiliarity, procrastination (especially mine) and the size of the game. We both felt the game worked well and enjoyed it. The mechanisms were simple and elegant especially the use of artillery and we didn't encounter any unresolved issues.

With regard to the absence of reconnaisance functions, raised by Neil Patterson in the comments on the last blog post, we felt that this didn't matter in a game where everything is apparent and there are no hidden units to be discovered. Recce units, if represented, become just another battalion. The vast majority of tabletop games I’ve ever played have shared this Godlike visibility, while the small number featuring hidden deployment have often proved unsatisfying. There is no point in using model soldiers if they are not actually placed on the table. At the end of the day it’s a game not a simulation.

Eisenhower: reviews, toys, basing and grid sizes

My 10mm WW2 armies may yet get an outing.

I was expecting a little more reaction to Sam Mustafa's Eisenhower, but perhaps it's early days. The most significant coverage I've seen to date is this excellent Storm of Steel walkthrough on YouTube.

Eisenhower is such a high level game that model playing pieces are token in the extreme. But toys do add a bit of atmosphere and attract other players.

Discounting my 28mm Ardennes and 15mm Stalingrad armies (which have few AFVs), I have two potential sets of toys.

I have painted (but never used) 10mm Normandy armies, and I have the 3mm Battle of France armies I bought for Sam Mustafa's Rommel but which are still in their packets.

The 10mm Normandy vehicles are on 30mm x 60mm bases and the infantry on 30mm x 30mm bases which will fit 3-abreast in 4" squares.

If I get round to the 3mm armies, I'll put the AFVs 3-up on 40mm x 30mm bases, which will also fit 4" squares (2-up and 1-back). I thought about mounting them singly and using even smaller squares, but 3mm doesn't have a lot going for it unless based dioramically.

As regards scenery, I'll take a similar approach to what I did for Blucher. That is very flat scenery which the bases can sit on. It will be more-or-less in scale for 3mm but not for 10mm!

Not being a great hardware expert or rivet counter, I have to say it's very refreshing to be sorting out 'basic' armour and infantry without having to go into too much organizational detail.

Painting 3mm gear will also be quicker and easier than larger scales, and probably my preferred way forward were I to expand into other campaigns.

Eisenhower vs Rommel

I haven't had time to keep up this blog or to do any painting, but I am still gaming reasonably regularly. I may summarise my activities at the end of the year.

The reason for breaking radio silence now is that I've just purchased Sam Mustafa's Eisenhower, a high-level (1 base = 1 battalion) WW2 game. This looks like the game Rommel was supposed to be before it was (allegedly) hijacked by playtesters and pushed in a more tactical direction.

Notwithstanding my huge respect for Sam as an imaginative game-designer and eloquent rule-writer, I was hugely disappointed with Rommel. I've written enough about that, so I won't say anything more.

It may be a few months before I get to play Eisenhower, so I'm not going to review it. Sam's explanatory videos  capture the main character of the game. It's described as a miniatures game but that's abstract in the extreme. I quite like using models even at this very token level but I'm probably going to approach it as a boardgame so as not to raise any false expectations amongst potential fellow players.

Some will feel that this level of game lacks flavour. For me the flavour lies in historical scenarios. I wouldn't use it for pickup games, except as a learning exercise.

I've already expressed, in relation to Rommel, the reasons for favouring this sort of game. They still apply, so getting the game was a no brainer. 

 I might have had reservations about possible lack of scenarios and needing to write my own, but at this level it should be much easier than for Rommel.

Cavalier 2024

Chris of Tonbridge Wargames Club (my local club) put on a participation game of DAK Attack at the Cavalier show with support from other members.

The nicely painted models attracted a steady stream of visitors who came to chat. We are hopeful that a couple of new club recruits will take the King's shilling.

It's hard to judge the overall footfall at the show, but there seemed to be less games and definitely less traders than in previous years.

My only purchases were three little bottles of paint for my 28mm Russian Civil War project and some ball bearings for paint shaking.

My main achievement of the day was shifting over £90 worth of books on the very efficiently run bring-and-buy stand. This has cleared some more shelf space, allowing me to spread out my figures and scenery so I can find them a little more easily.

2023 in review

FoG II Medieval: Rise of the Swiss

In the first half of the year I managed to play a few games of Xenos Rampant and Blucher and produced the Blucher low-relief scenery. 

Towards the close of the year I filled some hours of insomnia by playing through the 100YW English, Burgundian, Swiss, Timurid and Matthias Corvinus campaigns in Field of Glory II Medieval. I've always found computer games to be a good way of easing myself back into tabletop gaming.

Finally, I pulled my finger out to write the last four posts for this blog before year end. Occasionally I find time to read and comment on other wargaming blogs.

Some games of Blucher

I fought another three games of Blucher in 2023 but seem to have photos only of the first two. They all utilised my new, flat scenery, and were all played against fellow club member, Simon, who kindly introduced me to Blucher.

French vs British

This was very much a fight to take and hold the central, urban objectives. I commanded the British. AFAICR I may have achieved some initial success but was beaten back on my left flank.

 Russian vs Ottoman

This game was loosely based on an historical battle. I took the Russians and attacked uphill turning the Ottoman right flank.

Ultra-low relief scenery for Blucher

As planned I developed some light, very low relief scenery for use with the Blucher unit cards which sit on top of the terrain pieces. The aesthetic idea was that the table should resemble an aerial view and be as convincing as possible at first glance, at least from a distance.

As my wargame club is in walking distance, I usually load my stuff into a shopping trolley. I always have that option, but my idea for this project was to keep things as light as possible so the game could be carried in a bag. Given that the armies are just cards, burdening myself with heavy and bulky 3D scenery seemed disproportionate, and, indeed, rather odd in comparison to the flatness of the units.

Anyway, here is the scenery I made or utilised in the order of table placement:

HILLS

As the hills are placed under the game mat, there are no aesthetic requirements and they can be very rough and ready. I’d accumulated a lot of foamboard offcuts, so I sandwiched these between hill templates cut from new card and trimmed with a scalpel.

The templates were sized and shaped to maximise storage in Really Useful Boxes, and the templates and offcuts were stuck with a Pritt stick, a huge bonus as Mrs Phalanx is particularly averse to glue fumes.

I've nearly exhausted my supply of offcuts so if I need more hills or other shapes and sizes I'll revert to my initial plan which was to make hills from card and plastic milk bottle tops.

Alternatively, I can also use any of my existing hills, most of which are reasonably light. Once under the game mat, they will all look the same!

GAME MAT

This is an old felt cloth and not my best game mat, but it's light and soft, and shapes itself over hills put underneath. Think of the creases as natural folds in the ground!

ROADS, RIVERS, MARSH, PLOUGHED FIELDS

These had already been made or bought for previous games. A small metal bridge is my one concession to conventional wargame scenery.

FOREST

These are made by applying a diverse mixture of Woodland Scenics Underbrush Clump-Foliage to leatherette templates using Hob-E-Tac glue. They bend to fit hill contours. They have been fixed with a spray of Scenic Cement. As suggested in the rules they are mostly 3-base widths long which is also a nice fit for storage in RUBs.

ROCKY GROUND

I didn't want anything heavy, tall or messy. I eventually hit on the idea of using broken up cork floor tiles.

BUILT UP AREAS

The village or town areas are 100mm (4") squares so they can be conveniently occupied by a single unit card with a little space to spare to remind players that attackers are entering rough ground. The buildings are from old Monopoly games picked up in charity shops. Some are finished as city areas, the rest as villages. Making the BUAs was fun.

FORTIFICATIONS

Flat lolly sticks with matchsticks. I added Tetrion Filler to one side to create revetments.

The terrain pieces are stylised but convincing enough. More pictures of the scenery will be featured in game use in my next post.
 

Two more games of Xenos Rampant

I played two more games of Xenos Rampant early in the year but my memory of them is now a little hazy. The first was against my friend Ian and utilized my still unpainted 15mm Near Future armies. I was wondering if more cover would overcome the tendency to get bogged down in firefights. There was more movement in this game until the forces converged at the centre where mine were convincingly ground down.

The second was against Ian's house guest, Ivan, utilising some of Ian's 28 mm 40K armies in a crowded urban environment. Some of the units had only a hand-to-hand capability and this also helped to induce movement. It was an aesthetically attractive and fun game which I marginally won, shooters having some advantage over those trying to close.

Since playing these games my attention has been drawn to the 'Stabilised Weaponry' attribute which allows infantry to move and shoot as an ordered activation in the same way as vehicles. I will try this in the future in another attempt to avoid shooty games.

My forces on this side. Ian's in the distance.

 

In the first of these two games, the progression to the centre is pretty obvious in these overview photos.

My heroic humans move forward...

...backed up by mortars.

The monstrous opposition was beaten back.

Crossfiregrad on overdrive

Steven Thomas' 'cool' Stalingradesque ruins

My commitment to wargaming tends to get elbowed out during the Summer months, but the obsession usually returns at some point. I did, in fact, play a few games up till June, but my posts here ended in February. If time permits I will at least dig up some photos of the games (Xenos Rampant and Blucher) and take some photos of the semi-flat scenery I made for Blucher.

I haven't actually yet returned to gaming and painting/modelling, but my interest has been stirred by the magnificent collection of Stalingradesque ruins that Steven Thomas of Balagan has recently completed to play the Crossfiregrad and Ponyri Crossfire scenarios.

Originally inspired by Steven's '2 foot city' Crossfire scenario, I turned out some foamboard buildings in 2011. They involved a lot of cutting! But technology has moved on, and this allowed Steven to design and commission customised MDF kits from Warbases. Please read all about it on Balagan!

Steven is a phenomenal gamer, modeller and blogger, and Balagan is probably the most useful wargaming website I have ever encountered.