Racing for Tunis

Previous:
Next:
Tags

Playing Germans against CC Allies.

I established a pretty good line early on, then took a bit of a risk by briefly taking Le Ket. Unfortunately, this thinned out my line a liitle too much and Allies took a couple of my units off the board. A fast regroup wasn't enough to firm up the line, had to start retreating by Nov 30.

Dec. 2 Germans could be in a lot of trouble really soon. The line forward of Bizerta needs to be pulled back.

Dec. 6, Germans breaking out to retake lost ground. Operationally, some of the Allied units are enveloped to the east.

Dec. 8, some break out by the Germans to recapture lost ground, but conceded as a decisive Allied Victory. The Germans just gave up too much ground early on attempt to maintain a defense of Tunis, and the Aliies had to catch a train back to Berkeley.

Here's what it looks like set up:

Race for Tunis set up

A few units may be a hex out of place as I had bumped the table attempting the first picture. But the overall deployment shows the general idea: the Germans in a defensive line around Tunis and Bizerta to control the ports and airfields.

Turn length and timing

The standard game has 18 turns. Given 10 minutes per side, that's a game length of 6 hours. However, as noted above, the game ended at roughly 15 turns as some of our middle turns went longer than shorter.

We went closer to 7.5 hours, having started around 3 pm, ending around 11:30, with an hour off for dinner. It felt like a lot longer. Two immediate reasons for this are 1. 11:30 pm is later than I usually like to stay up, and 7.5 hours is longer than I usually play. Writing this the following morning, I recall having to suck it up during the last few turns.

How to win as Germans

In short, I don't know. I'm pretty sure the Germans have to be played a lot more agressively than I was playing them though. We didn't play with the optional supply rules, and I think that would have made a difference in both side's play. Certainly the Germans would have attempted to cut off extreme eastern Allied advancement.

Previous:
Next:
Tags

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.