Streaming Panzer Battles North Aftrica

Jim and I played the Mersa Brega scenario last night from upcoming John Tiller Software game Panzer Battles North African Campaign 1941 last night. Here's my recorded version of the live stream.

Post-Origins Hangover

It always seems like it takes me awhile to get back to the blog after Origins. In the past this has been due to a bit of a "gaming hangover" where I didn't play much for a month or so after the convention. This year has been the opposite: I've been playing so much I really haven't had much time to blog!

Panzer Battles Demo

The new demo of Panzer Battles is out from John Tiller Software, and you should go download it now!

2/Worcestershire at Gheluvelt

I think that the late 19th and early 20th Centuries are a particularly interesting period of warfare. Then, as now, rapid technological changes drove development of weapons systems that were far more effective than those of the past - but too often the thinking of the officers tasked with using those weapons was mired in the past. Frequently such thinking led to horrendous casualties and, by 1915, a stalemated war of attrition in the trenches that wouldn't be resolved until the invention of new tactics and new weapons like tanks.

2/Worcestershire preparing to advance from Polygon Woods toward Gheluvelt, near Ypres - 31 October 1914

Canadian Armour: Le Mesnil-Patry

I’m finding the Battles of Normandy from John Tiller Software quite engaging. The combination of late war combined arms, the Normandy terrain, and the company-level Grand Tactical scale is really drawing me in.

Squad Battles: Always Enjoyable

I don't always feel a desire to play a squad-level, purely tactical game...

Before (much) modding

After modding

...but when I do, more often than not it'll be JTS Squad Battles.

Linz-Urfar 17 May 1809

During the Spring of 1809, the Austrians rose against Napoleon in a somewhat over-optimistic attempt to throw off French dominance and reverse the defeat of 1805. The initial Austrian invasion of Bavaria took the French off-guard, but Napoleon reacted quickly, concentrating his army and defeating the Austrians under Archduke Charles at Eckmuhl on 21-22 April.

As Charles withdrew towards Vienna Napoleon and his Saxon and Württemberg allies chased after them along the Danube. Not quite a month after the defeat at Eckmuhl, Charles dispatched Kolowrat's Austrian III Corps to attack Napoleon's extended lines of communication at the town of Linz, where the Wurttemberg troops and Saxons under Vandamme and Bernadotte respectively had established a bridgehead across the Danube.

JTS scenario background. I am playing the historical variant of the scenario.

Tal Division at Rafah - June 5, 1967

Continuing my study of the Arab-Israeli conflicts of the last half of the 20th century, I picked up Middle East '67 from John Tiller Software. I've actually had this title for my Android tablet for awhile, but hadn't played it much. I think the PC versions are superior in any case.

For a first try, I decided to play scenario 67_05: Gaza and Beyond. This scenario depicts the attack of the Tal Division on the fortified area of Gaza around Rafah Junction on June 5th, 1967. This attack was a necessary prelude to the attack into the Sinai.

Jump-off positions of Tal Division. All of the 202 Parachute Brigade is fixed at the start, as is Baron Force (blue symbol backgrounds) 

Assaulting Jenin

After an extended excursion into 16th through 19th century warfare over the past couple of months, nearly all of which I played PBEM, I woke up one morning last week with a burning desire to return to the world of armored warfare. It might have been triggered by the extended Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue PBEM game I'm engaged in, but whatever the cause, I needed tanks.

Not just any tanks would do, however. I coerced my frequent PBEM opponent Jim into playing Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm and that's a ton of fun, but what I really wanted was to learn more about the greatest armored clashes of the post-WWII era: the Arab-Israeli Wars.

My armored task force at the Line of Departure near Jenin in 1967. The triangles mark the path half the force will take during the initial advance on the town. 

The Renaissance Art of War

My current obsession is warfare during the Renaissance, specifically the 16th and 17th centuries. In particular I've been focused lately on the Italian Wars, though I've also been gaming some of the English-Scots battles and some of the fights in France during the first half of the 16th century.

The French arrive to relieve the siege of St. Quentin

Not blogging, but still busy

I've fallen woefully behind in my blogging duties here, but haven't been completely absent from the wargaming interwebs:

Final positions at Vimeiro

Why I took up Play By Email

Last night I played scenario "1914_0823_01s: The Creeping Tide" concerning a holding action by the German 37th Infantry Division at the villages of Lahna and Orlau in the JTS game East Prussia '14. I played the German side this time, and here was the result:

Gumbinnen - August 20, 1914 : A Review of East Prussia '14

A little over 100 years ago, the advancing troops of the Russian 1st Army met Maximilian von Prittwitz's 8.Armee at the town of Gumbinnen in East Prussia. It was the first German offensive of the the war in the east. Strategically, the battle was a German defeat. Tactically the Russians certainly didn't shine, but they held long enough, and did enough damage to the German XVII Corps to make von Prittzwitz lose his nerve and retreat. His corps commanders did not generally agree that they had been beaten.

Courtesy of the new World War I Campaigns game from John Tiller Software. East Prussia '14, I'm going to try my hand at managing a better outcome for 8.Armee.

8.Armee positions the morning of August 20th, 1914. IArmeekorps and XVII.Armeekorps are already in contact

Frustration at Wertingen

In between work, my week has been filled with the command of vast 19th century armies in Germany. Chris and I have been enjoying a PBEM game of the battle of Gross Beeren in 1813, which is speeding toward what looks to be a climactic clash after half a game of maneuver.

I've also been playing a great deal of solo Napoleonic goodness, set mostly during Napoleon's Ulm Campaign of 1805, during the War of the Third Coalition. This is the campaign that led eventually to the Battle of Austerlitz, probably Napoleon's greatest victory.

The battlefield at the start of the action.  The lead elements of Beaumont's 3rd Dragoon Division are entering along the road from Frauenstetten. The game is John Tiller's Campaign Austerlitz.

Vorwärts meine kinder!

I've been bitten by a Napoleonic bug. Recent posts by JC and Chris prompted me to take a more serious look at this era than I have for several years.

16e Division of the V Corps defending the village of Ludwigsdorf during the action at Lowenberg. My defense has smashed a Prussian cavalry brigade and is preparing for the attack of a Prussian infantry brigade.

Smoke Stains the Sky

Chris and I have been playing a fair bit of John Tiller's Campaign Series PBEM the last week or so, and it has been a lot of fun!

The battlefield for the scenario Tanker's Holiday. My tank battalion moves up from the south toward the objectives and Gotha.

(Not) Being Heinz Guderian

This weekend I tried my first full scenario of John Tiller's Campaign Series beyond the tutorials. To give my operational foray of Fall Weiss a bit of tactical spice, I selected a scenario representing an attack by the 5th Panzer Regiment of the 3rd Panzer Division against the Polish defenders of the village of Gross-Klonia. The action takes place early in the operation, on September 2nd, 1939.

The only Tiller game that I prefer the 3D map to 2D. The boxy truck in the woods to the lower left is the recon battalion HQ. These are fragile but must be kept within a certain range of your units to provide supply.

Turn 2 and my recon company has discovered, at the cost of an armored car, Polish improved positions around the village of Waldowo. I have a company of armor up, support from an infantry gun, and some dismounted motorcycle infantry.  From the horses I suspect the village is held by cavalry. I decide to put in a hasty attack with the assets in hand to clear the way for the remainder of the regiment.

John Tiller's Campaign Series

John Tiller's Campaign Series is one of those games, another old Talonsoft creation, that even today has a large and faithful following. I've heard about it for years, but was always slightly put off by the look of it. Given that John Tiller designed this game I should have known better.

My Soviet Ski Infantry battalion prepares to assault a German held village during the winter offensive of 1942

Hill 228.6 - Bunkers and Mines at Kursk

Kursk is famous for the tank battle at Prokhorovka, but I think the real story of most of Operation Zitadelle boils down to Soviet strong points and bunkers. That certainly seems to be the case in every scenario I've played in John Tiller's Battles of Kursk - Southern Front.

Scenario description

I've not played this game as much as it deserves. Probably because it does depict Kursk, and I find Kursk such a slog that it just isn't engaging. I really like the game system, I just wish it was a different operation.

Anyway, in this scenario I'm again indulging my interest in small unit-scale actions. The scenario represents a battalion action to clear Hill 228.6 of the artillery observation positions overlooking the assembly areas of II SS Panzer Korps on July 4th, 1943. The action begins at 0100 and visibility is very limited due to darkness.

Shumilino: The Long Left Flank - Planning

For me wargaming is a bit like eating chips - when I get interested in a battle or campaign, one game is just not enough. Today I picked up Minsk '44 from John Tiller Software, the JTS depiction of Operation Bagration.

I'm starting with a scenario called "The Long Left Flank" which depicts the attack of the 6th Guards Army and the 43rd Army towards Shumolino north of Vitebsk.