A Near Run Thing on Gallipoli

Richard and I played the second scenario that comes with this game.  It was indeed a near run thing with the game going to the last turn, last move, last combat and last card to give the Turk (Richard) a victory.

Richard provided the following commentary.

The Turkish Assault scenario was certainly a bloody affair.

The Turks certainly had some great cards in turn 1 which set them up for a chance at winning, despite which it all came down to card advantage in the final close combat, so a very close run thing, which is what the scenario is called.

On turn 1 the Turks definitely benefitted from having a Co-ordinated attack card and the Keep Moving card which allowed two Turkish rounds in a row. This allowed them to clear Russell's Top after a series of artillery bombardments which weakened the defenders who were then overwhelmed by a Turkish assault. Coupled with Night Attack played immediately after, this limited the British ships' ability to interfere with the assault on Turn 1.

On turn 2, with yet another Co-ordinated attack card to play, clearing out one of the British ships with the Submarines Attack card as well as pinching a card through play of espionage, turn 2 was also a good one for the Turks. The crucial element, however, was playing the Underground Mine card on Lone Pine and removing the wire. This allowed a steady flow of Turkish units to move directly to Lone Pine, something which couldn't be done with adjacent spaces which were all wired and meant the Turks were kept at bay or entered the spaces in insufficient strength.

Turn 3, was all about shooting it out and getting as many units into Lone Pine as possible.

A few gamey atrocities were committed by both sides, with the ANZACs stripping ANZAC Cove of defenders and the Turks responding in kind moving a couple of units out of Gabe Tepe.

All in all, a very intense game, which is what it's meant to be I guess.

The Game itself:

This campaign is quite difficult to game I think. They certainly did a better job than the GMT Game Gallipoli of a few years back. I had that and sold it before even punching out the counters. Very drab looking and just not inspiring to look at.

The only thing I really dislike is the limited number of remnant counters. I'm not sure of the rationale behind this. I am going to post a question on BGG to find out the designer's thoughts.

Also, it seems like the British naval firepower is overwhelming strong. I don't remember reading anything which emphasised this, but that might just mean I haven't read enough about the nitty gritty of the fighting to remember it.

Otherwise, it's a very entertaining game (if somewhat stressful), the counters and map are nice and it does play very quickly. The close combat card system adds a final nerve-wracking element to game play and almost nothing is ever really a done deal.

Post Script

The questions re British naval power and the use of remnants were quickly answered in Boardgame Geek  https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3525126/article/46192326#46192326