UBoater658 Wargaming

 In honor of the following message I received today from TRL Games: re: 1985:Sacred Oil SITUATION At 19850628 0500 ZT Soviet troops crossed the USSR – Iran border At 19850628 0611 ZT, CV-63 BG was attacked by SS-N-12 Sandbox vampires presumed launched by Soviet Echo II class Panther. CJCS declared DEFCON 1 at 19850628 0732 ZT. Below is a partial AAR of the Intro Scenario of the first game of the series 1985: Under an Iron Sky I posted on grogheads.com in 2018: This is an AAR of the intro scenario Checkpoint Charlie from 1985: Under an Iron Sky - the hypothetical Next Next War occurring in the mid-'80s. I am doing this AAR to illustrate the basic movement/combat systems - but also to check that I am doing it correctly. The scenario itself is straightforward - the WP Player has to use the forces surrounding Berlin to remove the NATO presence from West Berlin - and do it in 1.5 turns. It is ground combat w/air support only - no reinforcements, replacements, WMD, Air Superiority. ...

German turn 3 and the Germans are starting to hit some solid resistance. In the north Stugs to extend and go around the US flank - but they run into the rest of the Greyhound recon unit. The I/294 Bn mauls a US HQ unit but does not get across the stream/river. The II/294 Bn runs into 2 US Inf Bns and gets disrupted - not good. Looking at the 3 US Inf Bn and Recon units it does not look like the Germans will be able to drive down the diagonal center road. Maybe the Stugs can make a dash to the road to the north next turn and make a dash for the US VP hexes… In the center, the 295th Reg units move forward and continue to keep the US Inf Reg units engaged. In the south, with the arrival of the US Inf Bn last turn, it means the Germans will have to assault the town instead of a quick outflanking maneuver. One Inf Bn assaults the exposed US Art Bn and causes it to break and retreat setting up the Ger Bn for the assault on Blejaf next turn. The other Inf and Eng Bn move up next to the town f...

An AAR I posted on the grogheads.com forum in 2017. This hopefully begins a series of AARs starting at the beginning of the Starfire Universe. Starfire is a starship combat game that started as a Task Force Games pocket game in the late 70's - which matches with my early years of gaming. It was around the same time as the Metagaming Pocket games (Orge, GEV, etc.) and GDW SciFigames based on their Traveler Universe (Imperium, Mayday, Snapshot, etc.). I was also into the bread and butter games of the time from AH and SPI - but SciFi Movies/books/games were/continue to be a major focus of mine. The Starfire system has evolved over time - Task Force Games published a boxed 2nd Edition updating the Tactical and Strategic/Campaign systems before they went out of business. The game was picked up by the Starfire Design Studio (SDS) which continues to evolve the system - initially with Galactic then Ultra Starfire. The latest version called Solar Starfire came out in 2012. It is a very deta...

 Some initial lessons learned, both old and new: Travel mode - This is a basic guideline written into the rules - only use travel mode for your units behind the lines. If they are fired on/attacked while in travel mode they are more vulnerable to casualties. Use deployed units to screen units in travel mode from the enemy. The problem with this specific scenario is there are a lot of streams with bridges (only crossable in travel mode) and traveling on forest/road/snow hexes can only be done at more than 1 hex per turn in travel mode. This scenario has only 9 turns so speed is of the essence. So at least for the starting terrain (forest/roads/snow), the Germans need to stay in travel mode as long as possible - even to contact with the enemy.  Unit Movement - Somewhat new lesson, especially in the congested terrain/roads - only move one unit at a time and try to avoid moving thru other units. Otherwise depending on the stacking limit of the terrain in the hex you end up with tr...

 Now for the last test - the IJN First and Second waves attack the Nimitz. In the movie, the Nimitz captured one of the Zero pilots and brought him back to the ship with the yacht survivors. Later during questioning, he overpowered his guard and held the survivors' hostage. His demand was to radio his fleet but he became distracted when the CAG thru an interpreter described in detail the upcoming IJN attack. A marine tried to take advantage and gunfire was exchanged - 1 Marine and 1 Japanese pilot dead. Now instead the pilot gets his demands, they let him radio his fleet, and he warns them and maybe somehow relays the lat/long of the Nimitz secretly. The IJN Admiral agrees to call off the Pearl attack, but as the Hawkeye monitors the first wave instead of seeing them return to the IJN carriers they turn west. Adm Nagumo recognizes the Nimitz as the greater threat and unleashes the already airborne First Wave on her… In response, the Nimitz launches all available F-14s and redirects...

 Here goes the 2nd test. This time the strategy is to wait until the Japanese actually start attacking Pearl before declaring hostilities. But that doesn't mean the Nimitz won't be "locked and loaded" at that point - just like in the movie. Below is the initial detection of the IJN fleet on December 6th. During most of the day on the 6th the Nimitz steams NNE at 25kts to close the IJN Fleet for a strike the next morning. Later in the night she turns East to split the range equally between the IJN Fleet and Pearl. Dawn slowly breaks over Pearl and Battleship Row… 0600 Dec 7th - over the next 2hrs history will be dramatically changed (so much for my Histrionics). At 0600 the IJN starts launching their First Wave. In anticipation, the Nimitz launches an air group (9 F-14's, 1 A-6D Tanker, 1 E-2C) to patrol off of Oahu to the west. Their mission is to watch the IJN First Wave and then attack it after the first bomb/torpedo is dropped. Below is an image at 0646. The IJ...

Let's explore option 1 first. The CO of the Nimitz decides to be proactive and attempt to preempt the Japanese attack the next morning by launching the strike AC available before the sun goes down. The strike group consists of: X12 A-7E's with Mk82s X12 A-6E's with AGM-62 Walleye's X12 F-14A's with Phoenixes/Sidewinders for escort and Strike CAP The IJN Fleet is approx 500nm away which means the F-14 fuel situation will be tight so I plan on launching KA-6D tankers to be available to refuel on the return trip. Also I will make this first strike as automated as possible. I setup an ASuW strike mission, made the targets only the 4 (so far) identified CVs, and then assigned all 3 squadrons with the F-14's set to escort. The A-7Es and A-6E's launched within 15min but for some reason the F-14's took longer to get airborne. Because the F-14's were tight on fuel I did not feel comfortable kicking up their speed to try to catch up - instead I just bumped it ...

This is an oldie but a goodie I posted in 2014 on the Matrix Games forums. Poking around the CMO database I found ships and aircraft of the IJN circa the '40s. This meant I could try to change the ending of a movie from the '80s called... Back in college they piled all of us NROTC students into the auditorium and gave us a private showing of "The Final Countdown" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/ Everyone roared when the Tomcats went head to head with the Zeroes halfway thru the movie. But in the end, we were a bit disappointed that the strike against the Japanese Fleet had to be called off because of the return of the strange time-traveling storm. We all thought the Nimitz would kick butt - but were not really sure. Now, thanks to Command, that question can finally be explored and answered… I realized I could even build the IJN First Air Fleet - all the ships and AC were there. Some of the escorts were later models with radar (Japanese Mk 1 Mod 1 radar was created...

This is my first attempt at new content. I have been purchasing JTS/HPS/WDS games since way back in the CD days. About a decade ago I played numerous  PBEM games through The Blitz Club I have always wanted to return and deep dive many of the series - Panzer Campaigns/Battles, Modern War, Squad Battles, American Civil War, Napoleonic's, Early American Wars, and even Strategic WW2. In addition, with the recent tragic death of Dr. Tiller, I looked again at all his series and am totally amazed at what he produced. He was a giant in the wargaming industry and his absence will be sorely missed. But I am heartened that it will all continue now under WDS.  So this post is an attempt to begin the process of reacquainting myself with these many amazing series,  starting with the anchor series Panzer Campaigns. And considering the time of year, what better place to start than with the Bulge '44 starter scenario: Date: Dec 16th, 1944  -  Size: Small  -  Location: ...

 The last  turn - roll for weather first: West: 3 - clear - nowhere to hide for the Yankees Mid: 5 - clear East: 1 - clear North - 9 - still stormy let's see where… 1, 9, 10 Bad weather in the Bastion - cover for the Allied SSNs from the TF as they get their last shot… Set Soviets and US to 7 ops and the Soviets are up first. The IL38 from Kola flies to the Bastion in the midst of bad weather to help the TF ASW ops.

End of Turn 1 amongst other things roll for weather for next turn: West: 4 - Clear - nothing for the Yankees to take advantage of. Mid: 4 - Clear East: 3 - Clear North: 10 - very stormy and 3 dice - 3, 5, 7 - but all areas not really in play anymore (N. Sea, Norwegian, and East of Iceland). Both sides reset to 7 Ops and Soviets go first… What to do? The Soviets spend 1 op deploying the IL-38 back to the Bastion to go On Patrol and assist TF Borodino with ASW Operations. Next per the rules since the 7 Ops on the track is marked SHIP the TF phase occurs immediately after the first ops expended.