Korsun pocket no escape

Jun 15 2014

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Got in a game of PanzerBlitz with SK.

This is the first time I've played through Situation 8. It's brutal on the Germans when playing with standard spotting rules. With a proper Russian defense, there is very little opportunity to set up CPs for engaging the SPAs. I played the Germans and the SPAs never got off a single shot.

I made a couple of very large blunders right away. The first was moving a stack of Stus into a position where they could be spotted by the Russian CP. This called down 4:1 on the stack, producing 3 wreck on the road. Almost game over before even getting started. What I should have done was spread that stack out. Actually, I probably should have just not moved them with sighting of the heavy mortars. As it turned out, I didn't know where the heavy mortars were set up. Which is probably how it should be, imperfect information and whatnot.

A second blunder, which was more a calculated risk, resulted in a 3 stack of PzKfwg IV being taken out on a 1:2 CAT. S rolled a 1. That was Turn 2 or 3, and pretty much was the game at that point. I wasn't able to bring enough fire power to clear a lane before he was able to move his infantry into blocking positions by Turn 8 and 9.

I managed to eliminate 3 Russian units, and S got 16 Germans by the time I conceded on Turn 9.

I would have played it out, but AS was up for a game, so S decided to head home.

Rebalancing Situation #8

Some ideas:

As usual, once the Russian infantry get involved, it's really hard to dislodge them, so reduce the number of Guards units by 2 or 3.
Reduce the number of blocks and mines by half.
Play the optional rule allowing all German units to spot for indirect fire.
Allow the German player "perfect information" on where units are positioned. This would not have helped all that much, though.

Any one of these would help balance it out.

I suspect the optional rules allowing any German unit to call for fire would have made a huge difference.

Battle for Moscow

Also played a round of Battle for Moscow with AS. One of the infantry counters is missing from the game, it probably disappeared from the previous play at Endgame. It's gone now. Will see about getting it replaced.

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.