Shifting Sands - Sonnenblume Scenario

Greg Denysenko decided to resign after my first card play of turn 8 in our Shifting Sands, Sonnenblume Scenario cyberboard game. Rommel flank attacked (automatically successful do to the event card) a reduced Common Wealth division and battle group from El Agheila completely eliminating both units and then advanced into an empty Tobruk. Greg then resigned as he didn't think his hand would support gaining enough VPs by the turn end for an Allied victory. Never did I feel, as the Axis, that victory was a sure thing as I felt the Allies had plenty of units to cause grief for the Axis every where. I almost didn't open up the Middle East but was too tempted by the VPs available there and I thought that the Italians would not survive long in East Africa.

Empire of the Sun - Cyberboard

Mark Simonitch and I are on Turn 5 of our Empire of the Sun Cyberboard game. Mark just finished his round 4 card play shifting some ground, naval, and air forces closer to the Dutch East Indies. I've landed on Bandjermasin, Borneo and need three more landings to satisfy my Progress of War this turn.

Mark has 5 Japanese armies in Borneo. All my Allied forces can do is stall them if he decides to go on the offensive up there.

Turn 5 Japanese Round 4 Finished

Twilight Struggle - John (US) vs Brian Marrs (USSR)

After our Shifting Sands cyberboard game concluded Brian and I decided to give Twilight Struggle a go using the Vassal module for it. The Vassal module is a beautiful piece of work by Tim McCarron but be advised it requires a good PC to run it. I'm using a 733 MHz PC with 512 MB and it is very sluggish. Additionally the current version will not work with the current version 3 of the VASSAL engine. I was using VASSAL version 2.9 something.

Brian opened up the can of whup arse on me on turn 2 adding 16 VPs to his total ending the turn with the VP track at 18 USSR VPs. On the turn 3 Headline Phase a favorable Indo-Pakistani War gave the Soviets the final two VPs required for a Soviet Auto-Victory. All three Early War Scoring cards showed up in turn 2, Brian held the Middle East Scoring card and I held, too long it seemed, the Europe and Asia Scoring cards.

Soviet Auto-Victory, Headline Phase Turn 3!

Nice game Brian.

After the slaughter, Brian and I switched sides and started a new game. This time we are using the Cyberboard gamebox instead of the Vassal module. Much easier on the old PC.

Jeff Kuhn's War of the Ring Cyberboard Gamebox

I "met" Jeff Kuhn through his posts on the ConsimWorld website and Boardgamegeek. A little over a year ago I had the chance to play a game of War of the Ring with him using the Cyberboard gamebox he had created for the game. His gamebox, graphically, looked quite a bit better than the one I had previously found and was very pleased with his work.

After we finished our game, he won, we discussed what changes he could make to the gamebox to improve it. Version 5 was completed with larger pieces that were more easily distinguishable but Jeff was still looking for ways to improve the map at the time.

Jeff recently sent me his latest, version 6, gamebox incorporating the expansion and a newer map graphic.


He will soon be releasing it to the public, after removing the card text, and hopefully it could be used in the upcoming War of the Ring Tournament being talked up on Boardgamegeek here.

I've attached more pictures. Click on them to enlarge.

The Card Track

The Fellowship

The Hunt Tiles

Rivendell

The DEW Line

Orthanc and Rohan

I'm not sure if I will be in the tourney as I'm involved with other PBEM games now but if anyone wants to do a casual game using the gamebox drop me a line.

John

Shifting Sands - The Italians Rule in East Africa

The previous post begins here.

Turn 1 Axis Action 3 - Invasion of Greece for 3 OPs
In Libya, The 3 Italian Infantry divisions in Sidi Azeiz pull out, moving to El Adem (4th BS), Gazala (2nd Libyan), and Sidi Mufta (1st Libyan) to re-establish their defensive line.

In East Africa, the Italian Africa Divsion and Italian infantry battlegroup, in Jijiga attack the reduced British battlegroup in Berbera, eliminating it, but suffering a loss (1LF) themselves. After their victory, the reduced Italian battlegroup marches into Berbera (1VP) furthing the Axis cause. Also in East Africa, the Italian GDS Division supported by two Italian infantry battlegroups in Keren attack a British infantry battlegroup in Kassala destroying the British battlegroup with no loss to themselves and march victoriously into Kassala.

Turn 1 Allied Action 3 - Minefields for Redeployment (3 RD points)
Fearing the imminent fall of Khartoum (and another loss of 1VP) and the threat of an Egyptian Uprising, the Allies call on their Free French and Polish allies. A Free French and Polish battlegroup are redeployed (from the Allied reserve box) to Khartoum joining the reduced British battlegroup that redeployed to Khartoum from Gallabat first.

Turn 1 Axis Action 4 - Italian Reinforcements #7 for 3OPs
In Libya, the Italian command orders the 2nd BS Division, in Buerat, to Tengeder and the 1st BS Division to Agedabia.

In East Africa, the Italian Africa Division joins the Italian battlegroup in Kismayu preparing for an attack on Nairobi which is lightly defended by a reduced Commonwealth battlegroup. Concurrently, the Italian battlegroup in Gondar is ordered to Gallabat to support the attack on Khartoum.

Turn 1 Allied Action 4 - 1OPs
Wanting to conserve resources (cards) the allies can only move a Commonweath battlegroup to reinforce Nairobi preparing for the attack that is sure to come.

Turn 1 Axis Action 5 - Graziani for Redeployment (2 RD points)
The Italian battlegroup in Ghimbi, E. Africa, redeploys to Gallabat with an Italian Armor battlegroup, from the reserve box, bringing overwhelming force for the upcoming battle for Khartoum.

Turn 1 Allied Action 5 - Taranto Raid for 4OPs
The Allies, hoping their forces in E. Africa are sufficient to hold for at least a little while, concentrate their operations in Libya. The reduced 4th Indian Commonweath Division moves from Sidi Omar to the Southern Flank (via Sidi Azeiz, Sidi Omar, Southern Flank, Bir El Gubi, Southern Flank) protecting against a flanking movement into Egypt by the Italians. The emboldened (Victoria Cross combat card) Allied units in Halfaya (British Infantry and Armor battlegroups and a Commonweath battlegroup) attack Bardia fortress which is defended by the Italian 62nd and 63rd Infantry Divisions and an Italian Armor battlegroup. The Allies win a minor victory forcing the Italians to flee Bardia. The reduced Italian Armor battlegroup retreats to Gambut along with the reduce 63rd Infantry and 62nd Infantry divisions (3LF). Fearing a counter attack the Allies order the reduced Commonweath battlegroup into Bardia while the reduced British infantry and armor battlegroups remain in Halfaya (2LF).


The Axis have one action round left for turn 1. Can the Allies in East Africa hold? Will Bardia fall to an Italian counter attack?

To be continued....

Shifting Sands - Brian Mars (Axis), John Boone (Allies): In the Beginning

After my ignominious defeat, as the Allies, in my first game of Shifting Sands with Nevin Ball I decided to give it a go again with Brian Marrs using Cyberboard. In my first game I played defensively as the Allies at the Egyptian-Libyan border waiting for Rommel to appear. This time I decided to be more aggressive from the start.

North Africa Map, at Start

I had recently read posts on Consim World about the Tripoli or Bust gambit where the Allied player goes OPs heavy in North Africa trying to get to Tripoli (at least El Agheila) early in the game trying for an Auto Victory. Steven Hope on Consim World, post 6367 in the Shifting Sands folder, had outlined a few conditions on when not to try the Tripoli or Bust strategy some of which I list below.

1. Allies do not get a Reinforcement Card on Turn 1.
2. Drawing Matildas and Compass on Turn 1.

Allied Hand Revealed

TURN 1
I did not get a reinforcement card on turn 1 but I did draw Matildas. Brian also managed to play Code Book Stolen as his second action leading off with the Italian Africa Division Reinforcement card placing the division in Addis Ababa with the Italian GDS division. Brian had a little bad luck himself drawing all 3 Italian reinforcement cards in his first hand.

Eventhough I did not draw a reinforcement card, I decided I would still be very agressive in North Africa while still covering all VP spaces in Egypt to protect against an Egyptian Uprising.

My first play was "Orders from Rome" as a Redeployment card. I bought a British Armor Battlegroup and Commonwealth Infantry Battlegroup (BG) out of the Reserve box to Halfaya and moved the British Inf BG to Sidi Suleiman from Suez in order to get ready for the Italian push into Egypt.

Brian's Italians stole the British code book and decided to go on the offensive in East Africa moving the Africa Division to Jijiga, the GDS division to Keren, and an Italian battlegroup to Shasha Manna. My second card was "Naval Shore Bombardment" for 2OPs to move the 4th Indian Division (Mersa Matruh, reduced) and the British BG in Sidi Suleiman to Sidi Omar. Who would pull the trigger first and where?

Opposing Forces Line Up for Battle

To be continued...

Empire of the Sun - Cyberboard, End of '42 Turn

This is the end of the first turn, turn 2, of Mark Simonitch's and my Empire of the Sun game via Cyberboard.

Click Picture for larger view.

Mark is working on the Dutch East Indies after having taken Rangoon and made a landing on Biak Is, New Guinea. The allied units in the Philippines were isolated after the FE Air Force was destroyed along with what little US Naval strength that began in the theatre. ABDA HQ established itself on Timor. The 19th Air Force managed to survive a couple of attacks, both offensively and in reaction, and is currently based in Makassar. MacArthur, SW Pac HQ, evacuated the Philippines and will be redeploying at the start of turn 3.

What I'm playing now

Since I have my internet connection back up at home I thought I'd make a quick post. Currently I have two play by email (PBEM) games with Cyberboard, The first one is a re-match with Mark Simonitch of Empire of the Sun. In our first outing, and my first time playing, Mark's Japanese achieved victory at the end of turn 5 when Allied progress of war went to zero causing the allies to make peace with the Japanese. I'm playing the allies again in this game trying to make a better showing this time.

My second game is Bonaparte at Marengo with Brian Mullin. Brian by the way also helped design the cyberboard gamebox for Bonaparte at Marengo. We are playing in a ladder tourney. In this game I'm playing the Austrians against Brian's French. The game is half-way through the 5PM turn with 4 more turns to go after this one. This one looks like it will go down to the wire. I have 4 turns left to get 4 more hits on the French in order to drive their morale level down to zero for the victory. This is my sixth ladder game, the forth time as the Austrians, with a win I will be at 3 and 3.

I will get a chance to play something face to face this Saturday when Mervyn and I head on over to Mark Simonitch's house. We haven't decided what to play yet - maybe some Successors III playtest.