Remembering PRESTAGS

The true horror of wargames in storage!

No maps! No hexes! No counters or the week, or counters of any kind! Just fading memories and half forgotten glories. I imagine the time when we are sitting in the warm chair of the retirement village rocking back and forwards saying "I really must go and get those games out of storage", but by then one of our daughters will have trashed them!

No safe space without wargames! The is my safe space with a set up game, a crucifix, a chainsaw and a magazine on the war on ISIS. Perfect!

However, what of all those games in the attic? What if I break my back today while hugging the drummer during the kiss of peace? I'll never manage to reach them. I decided to take action. They all came down!

Here is $5000 invested to my retirement. Note the important Ottoman that Spetz introduced me to, so I can have wargames at hand and a footstool too! My wife may a preferred a trip to France, but these do not require a passport or a lengthy travel. But first, I must have piles.

Because they absolutely must be in order! For that I need brain food.

Note how I check my email throughout lest Spetz gets out of his warm chair and plays a turn. In the presence of absence I find solace.

Beautiful! Note how the magazines are getting thicker every few years. From a few year ago, they even have spines. I appear to have lost none (which is a bit amazing), except for the BORING Civil War ones that I give to a friend to have his daughters dispose of in 15 years.

Now I can relax and think of ways that the good King Phillipe might have used a chainsaw if he had one next to his crucifix!

Deary me, I look like my father!

He thought he was Jane Fonda!

Pathetic! Then again, a bit more interesting than the generals in EDEE.

Alea Jacta Est - First Experiences

The game is easy to play, but is tough to win at!

I had a go at the Sulla vs Marius vs Mithridates, most because Sulla has all the letters of Saul, a forerunner to Paul, and Marius sounds a bit like Python, if you say it quick. (Well, not really, but the regular reader will see the connection.) I also liked the historical period as the Roman army was transforming into a permanent, professional force and the power of the generals finally overwhelmed the power of the Senate.

Well, the game appears quite even from the broad strategic map. Marius owns Africa, bits of Spain and bits of Italy, Sulla owns bits if Italy and Greece, and Mithridates owns Asia Minor and bits of Greece. However, Sulla has a large veteran army. Once he gets rid of Mithridates, Marius had better watch out! In the meantime, Marius has four under-strength legions in Italy and a bit of time.

It did not start well for me on my first turn. I decided to clear some pirates from Sicily (as simple as dragging my fleet in Africa on top of them). This taught me the importance of planning - I discovered most of my fleet was transports. Doh! (Oh, in the graphics below, Marius leads the Populares - the assembly of the people should rule - and Sulla the Optimates - the best qualified should rule, where only rich landowners need apply.)

So, next turn I looked before I leaped, and sent Cinna into Rome with a large force of Italian Auxiliaries. Hurrah, I thought, the Eternal City is now mine!

Alas, not so. The following turn I moved off only to notice the Optimates flag was still flying. I only won a skirmish outside the walls. I had to fight my way into the city. Then I discover that the Italian allies are not so good at siege; Legions are the best. So I raised a legion in Pisae (as simple as clicking on the Eagle on the bottom left temple icon and dragging the legion 0n to my city). All good, except the legion needs to be trained, so really has to be left untouched for five turns. (You can move it after one, but it won't be very effective.) By the time it was ready, Cinna's army had run out of supplies (the green bars above your impedimenta units all turn red), and had to return to Capua. (I did take Rome the following year by co-ordinating the legion and the allies.)

So I had learned that siege was important. As a result, I sent Marius and his lieutenants off on a siege tour of Italy - one legion a piece. However, it is not a good idea to leave your legion out in the open without an impedimenta in winter time. Not only did I take some nasty attrition but....

Historically correct! Marius and Sulla never fought a battle because Marius died before Sulla returned to Italy. My foolishness just brought it forward. Anyway, Cinna accepted the acclamation of the legions, so I could play on.

Annoyingly, I completely underestimated what the Lusitanians (Spanish) were capable of. I had planned to just respond to deep incursions only, but then they destroyed my legion there and began to overrun the country.

With most of Italy conquered, I had the horrid surprise to see Sulla arrive having marched through Illyricum. I knew I was in trouble. I raised two new legions and collected the rest of my forces around Cinna - seven legions plus auxiliaries against four of Sulla's. No joy. Sulla was just too good. I wore his forces down somewhat, but then he reinforced (over the sea I think) and I found myself besieged in Roma. At this point the game crashed. (Annoying, but unlikely to impact a PBEM, and when I restarted, it was is the same position before the crash.)

Annoyingly, Sulla had left the back door in Greece wide open, so Mithridates was probably going to win the war.

Conclusions: Turns are quick and mobile. There are lots of opportunities to surprise your opponent. You do have to check before you attack that you will succeed- the army size is not a perfect predictor. There are lots of turns - 12 a year - so it will take a while to finish a game. Easy to make a move. Lots of interesting options to finesse the game. (I ignored economic growth this time was everything was too urgent.

Anyway, I surrender and will try again employing the lessons learned. Over to you, Paul and Thygs: throw the die if you dare!

Roman: Fair enough. All is lost. I surrender. The die is cast.
Asterix: Let this be a lesson for you. Now, return our bard and don't try anything like this again.

An Enjoyable Boys Weekend

I think the boys weekend ticked all the boxes, despite being restricted to the Grand Duchy.

There were plenty of trees to hug

Some decent birds

 

 

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And some time for prayer

I agree with Paul; the next one should be in a caravan!

First Experience of a "A World Divided"

Well as promised, I have had a look at "A World Divided", Thygo's choice for a PBEM. I think it would be a go-er.

Above you can see my second attempt at playing as Nazi Germany. (My second after reading the production rules, cos I totally stuffed those the first time around.) I have just formed Vichy France and have just found an unescorted convoy to attack. There has been a pro-Allied coup in Yugoslavia which troubles me greatly, but as it was announced with a cool video off the happy general who has deposed Prince Paul, I forgave it completely.

Combat is relatively straightforward - you move lots of your boys into their boys club house and roll a die. Well, although there actually are dice thrown in the game, you do not get to throw them, but you get told the bad news afterwards. (Note below that commander Brendan Mahoney was in charge of the air defence of the German infantry and could not do better than a two!)

The rules are complex on how combat is calculated, but it is inspired by scissor-paper-stone. Infantry is good against artillery which is good against armour which is good against infantry, and ditto for ships and planes. Getting certain combinations gives your bonuses, and I can see that this is where we will do a lot of learning as we play.

Your spies do help by giving your an overall view of what is happening to your entire armed services and your opponents:

You can see that with the Fall of France, although I took more losses in the battle above, I managed to destroy (second column) 25 infantry, 13 milita, 4 artillery, 3 flak, a fighter and two tactical bombers, although some of those were from Poland. The first column is interesting - these are damaged units. Effectively they lose a step, and then they run home and get repaired in the next production turn. So I can now see that for the first time in the game, the Wehrmacht is bigger than the allied forces:

(Well, except for the navy of course - the last row of air units represent carrier based aircraft.)

The second column in this display shows production, which is done as the standard spiral. Annoyingly, you do not just pay once to put a unit on the spiral and then happily wait for Christmas morning. You have to pay for it every turn it is on the spiral. This means that this turn, I will have to pause one of the goodies to pay for my various repairs.

You can see in window 1941 there is a paused armour and a heavy bomber. I think I have to pause the Bismark too, to get rid of the minus 1 next to the factory. The negative number next to the people symbol is not a problem (I think) as I have a big pool of young men willing to serve the fatherland. The little military icons at the bottom of each square shows when I would get something if I started building it now.

I can look at the value of each of my provinces from the province screen. Note that I have a bit of a partisan problem (right column) in Poland and the Low Countries, but as their race is inferior, it is not surprising that they do not know what is good for them.

The big trouble with this game is the huge number of options you have. If Paul were playing, it would be easier, I would just keep attacking him. As he is not, I am wonder what I need to do now to be able to deal with USSR and USA when they come knocking. So I am investing in my armed forces and in my airforce, so that I will at least be able to deal with the USSR.

As you can see, there are a lot more areas that I can research that I have the resources in research. The benefit of research is that it does not use manpower (in game terms) so once you have built your lot for the current recruiting pool, you put the rest into supplies and research. (Yes Paul, in this game you should buy supplies for your troops to fight with. However the game has a "ignore supplies" option just for you!)

Once interesting place you can spend your supplies on is intelligence and espionage.

The top row is your anti-espionage service, that keeps other spies at bay. Stalin's purge gives him a clear lead here. Next is the "SIGINT" rating, showing how much effort is going into knowing what the enemy will do, before they do it, giving you combat shifts. The remaining columns are just for espionage. Note Stalin's focus on what the Nazis are up to. These spies can steal research and can tell you what the other side is researching:

So what will I do next. Well, the great thing about the game rules (182 pages in PDF) is that 20 pages at the end is dedicated to what strategy each power might try. They suggest Germany can take Alexandria, if it really wants to, and if it does super research on torpedoes and subs, it can destroy the Western Alliance's shipping. Interesting.

This time, I am going to try my favourite WW2 Nazi strategy and take out Spain and then Gibraltar, to give me a Fascist Sea to play in. I look forward to Thygs coming on board so we can try different scenarios ourselves.

Storage in Caravans

Modern caravans have lots of storage options for essential items.

World in Flames - AAR - Part 2 - Fall of France

With the weather finally improved, in May 1940 the Battle of France commenced. It ran very much to history this time. Germany declared war on the Netherlands and Belgium taking the Allies by surprise. The Ju87's neutralised the defenders in the Low countries, (benefiting from the surprise).

Ground attack rules are simple and effective: You have to roll less than the half ground attack strength (on the button left corner of the bombers) rounded up, but not halved when you have surprise. This does not kill the defender, just disrupts them stopping any counter attack..

The German armour rolled through The Netherlands but the BEF reached Antwerp and Brussels first (fighting the previous war right this time). The French shifted defenders to the west. Note the German attackers have been disrupted by the attack, but general Manstein can flip them back up (flipping himself upside down to show he can do it only once).

The British respond by an air raid on the coal fields of Aachen. The escorting Spitfire manages to down the German interceptors (one of two serious air losses taken by the Germans this turn).

The Germans respond by an assault on Brussels, which hurts them more than it hurt the British. Next round though, they get clever and launch an armoured assault to the east between the BEF and the French with air support and paratroopers. The result was spectacular and unhinged the defence.

The French and British counter-attacked causing significant casualties in the invaders but were unable to the restore the line.

Then the unexpected happened: the turn ended. A turn has a number of impulses and you have to throw higher than the modified impulse rating to continue. To continue past the third impulse you had to not throw a 1 and that is what the Germans did. (It is quite an effective rule in general, as you do not know how far you can push your forces before the turn ends. Too hard and you are susceptible to counter-attack. Not hard enough and some units are unused.) How to interpret this odd event? I suggest that Hitler intervened to attempt to negotiate an early end to the war. The upshot was that the shattered Allies could recover and the French reinf0rcements had time to arrive.

The casualties at this point definitely favoured the allies, with some big units destroyed quite cheaply.

The French production was damaged by the loss of Lille. The Italians and British both got unlucky picks for fighters. This is the implication of the tea cups - you are not sure if what you get out of the factory is useful. Both these units will be scrapped upon production (ensuring they can never get picked again).

The next turn started with the Germans with the upper hand by the Allies able to counter attack. The Germans managed to win the initiative (another good system that means you are not sure who will go first each turn, but you can request a reroll if you have the ascendancy - you pay for it in the following roll. The Germans lost the first roll but went to the video referee and got the second roll.)

The Germans resumed with ground strikes against the Allies followed by an assault on the Rhiems and the Brussels pocket. The air forces where heavily engaged on both sides, but the bombers generally got through. The Germans took Rhiems but Brussels was a bloodbath.

The British responded bravely by landing two more corps in Dunkirk, putting their forces in Brussels back into supply. The French stripped troops of the Maginot line and counter-attacked towards Mons.

The Germans responded with a successful panzer action to Dunkirk and finally the Brussels salient surrendered.

With a ground strike preceding, the Germans finally entered Paris. Ahistorically, the French responded by abandoning the Maginot line and counter attacking. (French must surrender at the end of the turn where Paris falls and their armies mostly disband. In this game, there is no point holding onto the Maginot line in this case, but in reality, many French forts took months to surrender after Paris fell.) The attack caused casualties, but failed to dislodge the Germans.

The Germans stream through France as the turn comes to an end. Italy stays neutral for the present.

Casualties are high, but worth it for the Germans: They get most of the French resources next turn giving them 31 build points compared to British 18, the Soviet 8 and the Italian 4. (The British CV is not a casualty, it is on the resource track.) The Soviets will get more once they mobilise.

During the production phase, the Germans got two lucky draws - an SS Panzer Corp and a Fockwulf fighter squadron. The Russians were unlucky this time. The British had a mixed bag, but the elite Australian Corps will be very helpful in North Africa.

Next issue will be the operations in the Balkans and North Africa.

Related articles

World in Flames (5th Edition) - After Action Report - Part 1

Go Tell the Spartans

The emperor's hordes heep knocking at the gate but my brave lads have kept them at bay longer than would reasonable be expected.

Hope against hope they can turn the revolutionary hordes.

For whom the bell tolls?

at least the end of the dream or retaking Great Paul Island

My envoys will draw up peace terms soon.

Waiting for a turn of EDEE

Oh dear, another epic fail.

The alarmists have been none too pleased that Al Gore made a complete arse of himself with the failure of his apocalyptic predictions concerning Arctic ice. Scrambling to explain away the survival of the previously doomed polar bear, all manner of weird explanations have come forth (my favourite is that the oceans stole the global warming), in fact everything except the obvious: there is no global warming, or even, the global warming is less than predicted. Now over 100 failed climate models and the alarmists won't budge, not even an inch (or should I say, a degree) which is funny because this intransigence is the definition of a fanatic and not a scientist.

Every alarmist likes publicity, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) decided to use 2007 to predict the melting of antarctic ice by global warming along with the demise of - you guessed it - the penguin. In December 2007 the WWF predicted: "Global warming is threatening one of the most endearing symbols of Antarctica - the penguin. Four species of penguin are facing a dual threat from loss of nesting sites and a shortage of food. The environmental conservation group WWF is warning that rising temperatures and the resulting loss of sea ice is robbing the emblematic birds of the nesting grounds they need to breed successfully".

And it was not just the WWF. I found this August 2007 headline from National Wildlife - "The Shrinking World of Penguins". Note the prediction - the antarctic ice would melt beneath the penguins' feet.

And what happened?

There I am over the weekend waiting for a turn of EDEE from my slow comrades (Python is slow because he is losing, Thygs is slow ... well he is just slow) and the 2014 headline comes in: "Extent of Antarctic sea ice reaches record levels, scientists say".

Even the pro climate alarmist ABC had reported:

"Antarctic scientists have declared a new record has been set for the extent of Antarctic sea ice since records began. Satellite imagery reveals an area of about 20 million square kilometres covered by sea ice around the Antarctic continent. Jan Lieser from the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) said the discovery was made two days ago. This is an area covered by sea ice which we've never seen from space before, he said.

"Thirty-five years ago the first satellites went up which were reliably telling us what area, two dimensional area, of sea ice was covered and we've never seen that before, that much area. That is roughly double the size of the Antarctic continent and about three times the size of Australia".

Before Python races to the Lord Monckton card and makes an accusation of selective data, the antarctic ice has been measured over the last 35 years, basically since the beginning of satellite data. ‘NASA’s satellites have now been measuring global temperatures for a full 35 years (420 months through November 2013), including the Antarctic. The above chart documents the measured southern polar region temperatures. As can be seen, there has been a cooling trend – granted, a very tiny -0.04°C/century, but it remains far removed from the IPCC’s unicorn science of “amplified” and dangerous polar warming. And not only has it not warmed, the Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record amount.’

No doubt the fanatics will start rolling the 'warming dice' and we will get 50 different theories as to why there is still global warming even though the Antarctic ice has not melted. I predict that there will be a theory that global warming has actually caused the Antarctic ice to grow. Of course none of these new 'theories' will explain the C02 relationship in the above diagram. Even if there is climate change, it aint caused by man and his evil Co2.

Another failure for the alarmists and yet more exposure of the greatest fraud of this century.

[Please note that no nazis were used in the making of this post].

Highlights of the Boys Weekend (2)

The 2014 Boys Weekend marked a departure from the dominance of computer wargaming, specifically Empire Enhanced Deluxe Edition (EDEE), and a return to good old-fashioned board wargaming, in this case Space Empires.

Given that EDEE is played by email every week, the return to the 'romance of the map' with giant hexes and hundreds of counters, and lively conversation (with plenty of abuse) was a definite highlight.

The 10 Categories of Wargamer

As the Boys Weekend approaches, it is time to leave behind the icey winds of the climate change debate, and to post about important stuff: wargamers. It is a well established fact that wargamers share one or more of 10 basic characteristics, and it is possible to categorize wargamers using these characteristics. Let's look at them.

First, category N. The normal wargamer. All wargamers are normal.

Second, category A. The anonymous wargamer. Interestingly, the below photograph came up in google images with the search terms "super", "nerd" and "wargamer".

Third, category CA. The computer addict wargamer. There is always at least one wargamer who can't tear himself away from the laptop.

Fourth, category C. The calculating wargamer. These wargamers will never turn up without their trusty calculator, and will delay turns by calculating every permutation of their moves and battle odds.

Fifth, category W. The waiting wargamer. Has any wargamer not experienced the long wait (arms crossed in frustration) between turns while everyone else takes their time and peers endlessly at the map.

Sixth, category S. The sleeping wargamer. Sometimes the wait is just too long. But if you have a cool Alexander the Great t-shirt you can sleep whenever you want to.

Seventh, category M. The macho wargamer. No sleeves for anyone. Very macho.

Eighth, category V. The celebratory (V for victory) wargamer. Just can't resist shouting "Yes" and punching the air every time there is a good dice roll.

Ninth, category R. The check the rules wargamer. Who hasn't been here.

Tenth, category D. The drinking wargamer. Goes without saying really.

Back in the 1980s there existed an eleventh category, FW, which covered wargamers who randomly played the guitar while other players were having their turn. Thankfully this activity has now been outlawed. (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

So, where do the master editors of this great website belong? In my humble opinion:

Space Empires 4x

Ok, the Python and I have each done the double purchase: Hoplite and Space Empires!

 

10 reasons why Space Empires 4x looks like it could be one of Python's best ideas (since I'm taking all the credit for Hoplite):

1. A worthy successor to Outreach. I still have fond memories of the SPI classic - Outreach - and indeed I still have my own copy. Space Empires looks like a worthy successor.

2. The Russians have play tested the game and they love it. C3i magazine (GMT's mag) quotes Igor Luckyanov of Moscow on 10 April 2014: "The most popular wargame in our local club". And the Russian wargame geeks certainly look very happy.

3. If the Russians love the game then it must be highly compatible with alcohol.

4. And, if it is highly compatible with alcohol, it is perfect for the boys weekends.

5. Other uber geeks with a wargames collection as large as the Python just sit for hours in their man cave staring at the Space Empires 4x box.

6. No tweezers are required. Gone are the days of trying to organize stacks of counters in tiny hexes. Space Empires 4x has man sized hexes.

7. There is a death star. Actually, it's called a Doomsday Machine but same thing.

8. GMT are quite up to date with modern technology and it's possible to download e-copies of the rules. Even now, we can download the rules to read on the kindle (me) or android phone (PythonMagus) to read on the train home from work.

9. The games includes GMT's famous 'joke' counters. I have previously posted about some of the very humourous counters in Gettysburg. It looks like there are some in Space Empires 4x as well.

10. The game has been given the thumbs up. Space Empires 4x is in a reprint edition, there is one expansion pack, and another one is being prepared. It must be a good game.

I'm really looking forward to receiving it!

Hoplite: A New Game for PythonMagus

GMT have just published Hoplite, and it can only be especially for the PythonMagus. I must say it looks impressive and covers 11 battles, including Marathon. It is a bargain at $75 and includes three maps, four countersheets and other goodies listed on the Hoplite page at GMT. There is even a ten sided dice. When I think of the value of money today versus the 1970s, I don't think it is that much more than Spartan would have cost us back then. Until May 9 GMT also has a 50% off sale (!)

It may be that GMT's Great Battles of History series are a bit of a modern day PRESTAGS. While Hoplite covers some of the territory of Spartan, GMT's Chariots of Fire covers some of the territory of Chariot. And Chariots of Fire is on special at the moment and a steal at $40.

These games are designed by Richard Berg and Mark Herman. Both are wargame legends and go right back to SPI and the glory days of the mid 1970s. Richard Berg also designed SPI's ancient game The Conquerors  (I still have a copy) and countless ancient and American Civil War games.

Many other battles in PRESTAGS are covered in various of the Great Battles of History series, although unfortunately most of these games are out of print.

So the question is, will PythonMagus or I be the first to grab the spear ...

PS. I hate the BCE. It is BC. Before CHRIST. Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!

An Application of Game Theory

My post about dice has got me thinking about OX Blocks and Zombie Dice, and which of these games would involve the most tactics and less luck.

Zombie Zice is a multiplayer game, so the comparison could only be made between OX Blocks and two player Zombie Dice. I note that boardgamegeek.com categorises OX Blocks as 'abstract strategy' and Zombie Dice as 'party game'.

I have managed to secure the rules to both of these games, only a paragraph for each, which I have in pdf format: Download OX Blocks vs Zombie Dice

The challenge for PythonMagus is, which game has more strategy and tactics?

Of Dice, OX Blocks and Zombies

What is a wargame without dice. This simple ancient invention, that goes back to classical times, is a random number generator that requires no computer, no software and no electricity.

There are now dice for every occasion, and it seems, for every wargamer's personality.

For Thygocanberra, the howl at the moon dice.

 

 

For PythonMagus, the Roman dice.

 

 

 

For Paul, the alien dice.

 

 

 

There are entire games that only involve dice. Some of these are classics, like OX Blocks, which came out in 1973 not long before PRESTAGS. The Python and I have many fond memories of this game on the long 1980s train rides between Canberra and Sydney.

 

However, other pure dice games are distinctly suspect.

I thought "Zombie Dice" was a bit of a joke when I first came across it, but it is actually very popular and a classic to many admirers.

 

Apparently there are "Zombie Dice" parties, including where the players dress up. There is no reason why there cannot be PRESTAGS parties as well.

Alea iacta est!