PanzerBlitz Situation 11 (& Hive 1)

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It has been almost a year since I've had any PanzerBlitz on the table, so I thought I'd get Situation #11 set up for some leisurely play over the next couple of weeks. I've also got Tonkin set up in the back room, but that's going very slowly as I'm teaching myself the rules.

The situation looks pretty interesting, another attempt to clear a 3 hex lane through Russian defenses, only this time with a lot of German armor. We'll see how it goes.

Turn 1

The German plan is to make a full-frontal massive attack directly at the Russian line. No idea how well this will work, but the Germans only have 8 turns to clear a lane, so they can't be dancing around.

Here's the positions after the German's first move.

End of Germans first turn move

Hard to say what the Russians will do. They will have to be careful not to lose to many units.

Turn 2

The Germans continue to rush into trouble, resulting in first blood to the Russians. Predictably, a Guards unit CATs a dispersed Panther for a kill. This Panther was dispersed on a previous 2:1 shot from the 76.2mm on the adjecant hilltop.

End of Turn 2

The Russian armor decides to fall back in attempt to get at least two shots off at the German armor. Without falling back, they would get only one shot each.

Turn 3

End of Turn 3

Turn 4

End of Turn 4

And the game is half over. The Germans are in pretty good position, but they can't waste any time, even if it costs a lot of Panthers to finish clearing a lane.

Turn 5

Germans push hard in the south. Russians attempt to fall back to set up a covering position further to the east.

End of Turn 5

Turn 6

Germans continue to box in the Russians such that they can be pushed to the north.

Russians don't have any direct fire opportunity this turn, go straight to movement.

End of Turn 6

Note that the German self-propelled artillery is on the west side of the playing area, not shown in the photo.

The game looks unwinnable for the Russians at this point. I actually went through shot calling phase for German Turn 7, and it pretty much would have wiped out the remaining Russians. No need to belabor the point.

AAR

This one of the few situations which feel lopsided in the German's favor rather than the Russian's favor. I think the Russians could do a lot better. The T-34s should be getting a good shot off at least every other turn. In this game, they didn't fire at all.

Game finished and logged on November 14.

Blunders

  • The Russian heavy mortar should have been on a central hilltop instead of off to the south side.

  • The Russian tanks could have been "held in reserve" to go threaten the German Hummel and Wespes which were set up on west side. This would have been a terrible distraction for the Germans. As it stood on Turn 6, the Russian tanks never got off a shot.

Also: Hive

I also played a solo game of Hive to work out how the pieces move. Putting that here for posterity.

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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.