Combat Mission II

Sometimes you find yourself playing an old computer game that you once loved many years ago. Marc rediscovered Combat Mission and with no prodding at all I found myself back in the commander's seat - setting waypoints and seeking hull-down positions!

We've been playing head-to-head when we are both free (my sleeping patterns make this difficult) and otherwise indulging in a few concurrent email battles - I'd also forgotten the delight of finding fresh turns in my inbox :)

King Tiger puts a shot into a nearby lend-lease halftrack
and against all odds it survives! Marc's halftracks have
been doing surprisingly well this match

Jagdtiger puts a round into the side of an IS-2 and knocks it out

Plans are still floating around for our painting and terrain-making session for non-computer WW2 gaming. My nightshift work/sleep pattern makes it tricky to find a time that suits both of us but we are both enthusiastic about the period and I am amused by the idea of having three different WW2 games on the boil at once (Combat Mission, War at Sea and Flames of War).

Friday night firefight

Tonight was our "World War 2 in miniature" gaming night; a War at Sea engagement with our new ships and a craft session for Flames of War to get the ball rolling for future mini-games.

~ War at Sea ~
The shipment of boosters ordered after Christmas arrived a few days ago and tonight we set out our combined collection on the table and drooled.

War at Sea: The collection

Sadly the allies pulled no battleships from our boosters (getting aircraft carriers instead) so we decided to leave battleships out of the axis roster in an effort to keep things fairer for the good guys.

Staying true to stereotype I chose to play the bad guys and after lengthy consideration settled on a Japanese carrier (the very impressive Akagi) and the German cruiser Graf Spee supported by some aircraft, a submarine and a tiny destroyer.

Marc went with the British Ajax, two British submarines, a US carrier and the cruiser USS Baltimore. Oh, and a whole mess of planes too.

War at Sea: Fleets face off against each other

Things went well for the axis at the start of the game. I used my aircraft defensively to protect my fleet while Graf Spee knocked out Ajax in the first exchange of fire! Driving Marc's fleet back I was able to seize an objective counter. The mid-game saw things begin to settle as the British submarines managed to endure depth charges and fling torpedoes around, slowly but surely whittling the axis down. By the end of the match the only surface ship remaining was Marc's carrier which was able to repeatedly fend off axis aircraft (lingering on the land base after Akagi went down) to grab another objective counter before falling prey to my Japanese sub. Deciding not to bother playing out a lengthy end with no surface ships and frustratingly blunt anti-submarine weapons we decided to call it; victory for the allies!

I would like to play more games of War at Sea. I enjoy it's simplicity and the rock-paper-scissors aspect of fleet building is pleasing. Marc loves torpedoes but I think I prefer very large gun and bomb rolls. We have a few singles coming in from eBay but I don't think we will need to spend any more money on the game ~ other than a battleship or two for the allies of course.


~ Flames of War: Mid-War Monsters ~
This morning I picked up a box of Soviet KV-5's for Marc. These are very large experimental tanks for use in the Flames of War expansion "Mid-war Monsters". The idea is that it allows players to use experimental tanks that were never actually fielded during the war, but which had been designed or proposed and could have seen production if circumstance had been different. Essentially, a "what if..." or "alternate history" scenario - models that cannot be used in usual games of Flames of War and certainly not at standard tournaments, but a bit of fun for casual games at home.

Marc jumped at the chance to field a platoon of three massive multi-turreted Soviet heavy tanks although we were both surprised to see just how big they were when we opened the box!

Construction: KV-5 vs Tiger I

As a player of Germans I'm used to having a small force of powerful troops or tanks... however looking down the barrels of three KV-5's I can see that my comfort zone is about to be rocked!

I picked up a halftrack for my unfinished Panzergrenadiers although they will need many more of these transports before they can deploy to tabletop (taking them in trucks just doesn't feel right, they need halftracks!). Much of my stuff for Flames of War is only partially constructed and the small amount that is painted could benefit from a little extra attention. I do have a ground-action Fallschirmjager force although I find them to be a little boring as they move so slowly across the table... ultimatley the 88's and Tiger taken as support choices do most of the work!

Given that we are suspending the usual army building rules so Marc can use KV-5's without needing to fork out extra cash I'll have to see what I can fudge into an 800 point force. I want to resist the urge to take nothing but anti-tank technology because it feels unsporting, but they are big tanks and I'll need big guns to stop them!