I told you not to mention it...
May/June 1943 starts bright and sunny. With nothing better to do than await the onslaught on the Russian Front, the Unterseebooten are unleashed on the Imperialist's shipping. This met with mixed success, but the European High Command knows that the utility of these vessels is fast approaching its end of life.
Spoiling ground strikes just saw German planes needlessly shot down, something that was going to become a theme during this late spring.
As expected the Communists attacked Kirov Rog. The brave defenders just managed to hang on to this vital city (two losses to each side).
Most unexpectedly the Imperialists occupied the Baltic States and proceeded to attack Finland, which immediately collapsed. What just happened? Seems the US can freely land in the Baltic countries as they are a conquered minors, not Russian homeland. Having sailed into a port in the naval phase, a marine unit can hop over to Finland in the land phase which then allows more US troops to land on the newly "captured"space and launch and attack on Helsinki, where the protecting militia had been simultaneously ground struck by the Commonwealth, the aircraft of which had dodged the guarding Finish fighters. Sigh. Even though more Finish planes got through to aid the defence, a good role saw the city easily fall to the invaders.
As if that wasn't bad enough there were still plenty of Imperialists left to launch an airborne invasion of the Brest peninsula. The European airforce tried to stop this, or at least provide a challenge rather than allow a straight walk over, but only got shot down in flames, including the Condor and Heinkel Grief. So sad.
Back east German bombers had got through but failed miserably in their ground strike. The Russian riposte was the total reverse and they then launched a very successful attack breaking the German line on the Dnieper. Catastrophe!
Oh dear!
ReplyDeleteExactly! :-(
DeleteOne of the challenging things with WiF is that often things hang on a single die roll. In games were lots of die rolls are being made good and bad rolls average out, not so when there is just a single roll. However it does mean that games are different with each playing. That said a lot of effort goes into playing. This game has a level of stress not present in other games i play. However I am fortunate that the guys I play with are an excellent group and there is lots of camardrie and support.
The single die roll is the final attack roll, and with 2D10 you can roll 1.1 (very bad) to 0.0 (20 elation. Certainly there are other die rolls before you get to the final roll, Ground strikes - if they get cleared through can add a +5, air support from both sides can vary the odds, defenders get the better deal on that, as to get an odds shift (+2) the attackers have to get twice as any bombers through - it is mainly a defenders bonus if air get through. Lots of rolls on the air-2- air table as fighters fight through to attack bombers. The WIF air war for a land based game is excellent and variable.
ReplyDeleteYes, the air war is less abstract than in most stratgeic level boardgames and gives a good feel for the allocation of assets (kitchen sinks and all).
DeleteNaval seems very dependent on the search roll, but probably gives an accurate result given the historical lack of major fleet actions (we've discussed this before).
With land every plus helps :-)