Sitrep Podcast: Historical Gaming (and Register for Upcoming Gaming Event)!

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Part 2 of the AirWar C21 game between myself (Vietnamese People’s Air Force) and @elessar2590 (US Navy, Squadron VF-51) – Operation Rolling  Thunder, North Vietnam (Dong Hoi, just north of the DMZ), late 1968.

Hope you check it out and enjoy some of the funny bits.  😀

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

So in preparation for an imminent project launched by myself and @yavasa – we’re going to be doing wargames commemorating the upcoming 80th Anniversary of the “official” start of World War II.

September 1, 2019 will mark the 80th Anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland.

Accordingly, I’ve been building counters for Panzer Leader so these games can start being run through August and into early September.

The Polish I had to start more or oless from scratch.  The German counters I’ve had by and large for years, but they included a mid-war German camo scheme in their graphics … so wasn’t really appropriate for 1939.  Also, they needed a facelift anyway.  Also also, some game values had to be tweaked to mesh with new updates (some of which are more or less universally adopted from the Arab-Israeli Wars rules engine, and some of them I wrote myself as part of the PanzerBlitz: Liberation update).

But anyway, this counter set should do us good service.  Now just to draw some maps.  @yavasa , meanwhile, is researching many of the battles and picking out the historical touch-points we feel will make the best scenarios.

 

[cbrennerMember 1245xp 1]

Hi Jim. Looking forward to this one.

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Thanks @cbrenner .  Our first game is with these Panzer Leader counters (myself and @yavasa ) is set up for Sunday at 3PM US ETZ, 5PM UK Time.  😀

[cbrennerMember 1245xp 1]

Totally missed that one. How did it go?

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Not too bad. We did have an audio issue that forced me to split the stream into two segments (crashed the audio, so I had to reboot OBS). But other than that @yavasa and I got through five turns and I think he did very well, especially since this was his first game of Panzer Leader, a game that does NOT “lay down for you” on the first try if you know what I mean. 😀

A few snapshots here:

Poland 1939 – 80th Anniversary Prep

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

More battle reports – this one is from the game @elessar2590 and I had last week.
Valor & Victory: Vietnam Expansion
Australians vs. Viet Cong
Phuoc Tuy Province, II Field Force – 1969

[oriskany 60771xp 2]

Conclusion of the game @elessar2590 and I had last week.
Valor & Victory: Vietnam Expansion
Australians vs. Viet Cong
Phuoc Tuy Province, II Field Force – 1969

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Had a great demo game of Panzer Leader, updated to 1991 Gulf War, using Toscach Miniatures’ Tactical Combat Middle East as a beginning guide.

Made some counters for the US, including M1A1 Abrams, M2 Bradley APCs, AH-64 Apache gunships, UH-60 Blackhawks, rifle platoons, and HMMWVs, and sent them up against a rag-tag collection of Medina Division Republican Guards (T-72s / BMPs) and remnants of a shattered Iraqi mechanized army division (T-55s / BTRs).

Just a few turns to try out the new counters, again, most of them make up just this morning.

We stream hobby every Thursday, and live games on the web every Sunday!  I you haven’t already, check us out!

SITREP PODCAST TWITCH

SITREP PODCAST YOUTUBE 

 

[templar007 52370xp 1]

Enjoyed the stream Jim (@oriskany)

 

It would appear that you are correct in your statement that Panzer Leader is very adaptable.

[oriskany 60771xp 0]

Thanks very much, @templar007 – yeah, the game was of course originally designed for 1943-44 Eastern Front (PanzerBlitz), then expanded to 1944-45 Western Front (Panzer Leader), and then 1956, 67, and 73 (Arab-Israeli Wars).  Expanding into the 1990s+ is doable, but the firepower, defense, range, and other factors are now so huge that great care has to be taken in the design of the counters and scenario.

There are whole groups that do little else, NE Atlanta Gaming Club is a good example.  And of course Tosasch Miniatures who came up with Tactical Combat: Middle East expansion … which I used as a starting point for some of these counters.

What really makes it wonky is, predictably, technology.

Defense used to  be easy to figure out.  Thickness of armor, throw in some +/- for size of the unit (the bigger, the worse the defense), armor slope, training, etc.

Now you have to account whether it’s homogeneous steel, laminate, chobham, or reactive (blazer, etc).   Holy headache, batman.

Firepower is even worse.  New weapons classes like “G” – “I” class weapons that can attack armor at 2 hexes (RPGs, LAWs, Javelins, etc).  AA has to be broken out between AA and SAMs.  And forget tank guns.  What used to be a formula based on (size of the weapon) x (caliber of the weapon … yes, that’s something different) x (rate of fire) +/- some windage for how it’s mounted (fixed, turret), optics, crew training, etc … is now massively complicated by ammunition type, which is a MONSTROUSLY huge factor.  Discarding Sabot is said to easily double the armor penetration properties, compared to a standard AT round fired from the same weapon … at  most ranges.

So yes … it’s adaptable and flexible.  But like most games, the further you take them from “home” so to speak, the more care must be taken by the expansion / scenario designer so the game plays “hands free” and it “looks simple” for the players.  😀

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Shipping away at some more counters:

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Part One of a highlights live stream where we playtested counters and rules for a 1991 Gulf War Edition of Panzer Leader, using Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and Tactical Combat Middle East (Tosach Miniatures) as a baseline.

Just HOW POWERFUL are American armored units compared to their Iraqi counterparts? And just HOW DEMANDING are the American victory requirements? Wargaming doesn’t get much more asymmetrical than this.

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

Part Two of a highlights live stream where we playtested counters and rules for a 1991 Gulf War Edition of Panzer Leader, using Avalon Hill’s Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and Tactical Combat Middle East (Tosach Miniatures) as a baseline.

Just HOW POWERFUL are American armored units compared to their Iraqi counterparts? And just HOW DEMANDING are the American victory requirements? Wargaming doesn’t get much more asymmetrical than this.

[gladesrunnerParticipant 2608xp 0]

Looking forward to today’s Twitch Stream…Not sure if it will be Gulf War or Vietnam, but I know it will look good.

[Author]

Posts