Strategy and tactics on the Eastern Front

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Yesterday, May 31, 2014, I found myself at the local tabletop venue a bit early, so I set up Situation #6 classic PanzerBlitz for some solo play. My partner for the day was running very late, and didn't show up until I was 5 turns in. At that point, I narrated the remainder of the game to him as I finished it out solitaire. He's still learning the rules, so it wasn't a big deal.

That was the tactical side.

On the strategic side, we set up Battle for Moscow. I played Russians.

I've played this game a couple of times solo, and had a pretty hard time making a breakthrough as Germans. What my opponent did in this game is pursue a number of 1:1 battles to break open a hole in my line, which I did not anticipate. Hence, I did not pull any units back for zone control. On his second turn, after combat, he had a straight shot to Moscow! And he took it!

I managed to recapture Moscow (twice!) and was holding it at the end of the game. Since I had another city as well, it was a win for me.

And a lesson that while 1:1 odds aren't that great for the attacker, it can still be useful to attack at 1:1.

Today I got in a couple of games of Soviet Dawn. My goal was to use the Reorganization Table, which I had not yet used in previous games. The first game I lost on the political track pretty fast. I didn't score it.

The second game I was able to get the Reorg table into play, and managed to score 27 points on a political victory, "Proud Soviet State."

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What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.