Battle for Moscow XII

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Once again, the Germans get completely stymied. I think I'm doing something really wrong, but I don't know what for sure. Some particualr things which are hurting me are:

  1. Pulling in 5 Soviet replacements during Mud turns instead of 4.

  2. Germans getting trapped on opposite ends by Russians doing low odds attack. On EX result, the winner doesn't have to lose anything if the loser is eliminated during retreat.

  3. I've been trying to trap Soviet units behind German lines so that they don't come in during replacements. This hasn't been working, as it slows the Germans down too much as the Soviets just move a single hex to ensure ZOC stoppage.

One good thing from playing this so many times is I knocked out Turns 2-6 along with the picture and this blog post in under an hour. I should be able to budget 2 hours for a complete game of this in the future, from setup to blog post, game logging and putting the game away, and be very comfortable. That's good to know.

Here's what the top of Turn 7 looked like when the Germans conceded:

Battle for Moscow game 12

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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.