Boots on the Ground

A while ago I picked up Boots on the Ground by Worthington Games in a trade. It had been sitting in a trunk for the best part of 2024, but while I was searching for something quick-ish to play in order to test out my new plexiglass sheet, I wondered if it might be a good time to give it a try.

The rules are about six pages long, which is always a good start when you are looking for 'quick-ish'.

The game is designed to be played solitaire against a card-activated opponent, co-operatively against the same, or competitively, but I have not properly digested how the latter format works.

The system is simple: set up map of generic city; cover with your new plexiglass; populate map with markers (civilians, vehicles, items, insurgents) as per scenario instructions. Deploy your squad; activate the whole squad with limited action possibilities or activate an individual to use their special abilities; draw card for instructions on insurgent actions, perform actions. Repeat.

I chose the first scenario, requiring my squad of six to navigate their way down a long street to reach their objective, and to do so with at least four of the squad still alive. It's a 30 card (30 turns, in effect) scenario.

The first thing you notice is that the game's components are not especially appealing. The map has a sort of grainy 'satellite view' aesthetic with superimposed square grid. The counters are functional rather than artistic. But my set has already been clipped tidily by the previous owner, so that is an improvement on my own irregular clipping habits!

Game flow is similar to a first-person shooter. Insurgents suddenly appear in doors and windows to shoot at your team. You respond. You move close to a vehicle; you can't avoid it. Is it useful cover, or does it contain an IED? You approach civilians - are they harmless or insurgents in disguise? You flip the counter and see. There are lockboxes. Do you want to risk opening it? If yes, flip the counter and see.

And this one is an IED! Fortunately, our demolitions expert was able limit its effect. Can't say the same about the insurgent who appeared in the window; he has wounded the squad leader.

A wider view of the map. 

Player input is mainly about positioning your team so that they can respond to threats while also looking to work towards the objective. Combat odds favour the player - your soldiers are elite - but with opposed die rolls and situational modifiers the advantage is not certain. It is only my first game but tactics here were not particularly sophisticated. Move towards the objective, shoot anyone in the way, keep your medic close by to treat wounds. 

The card pull is the fun part. What will it be? Will it be an insurgents move and shoot card? Will it be an insurgents appear and shoot card? Will it be an insurgents take cover card? Will it be something else? 

Two thirds of the team wounded and still two blocks from the objective. Do we halt and patch wounds,  hoping for a lull in insurgent activity, or do we press on? 

In this scenario there seemed little need to use individual counter abilities. We wanted to keep everyone together and move then as a group if we could. The only one I activated individually was the medic,  who was called upon to deal with the wounded and get them back on their feet.  

At times it is brutal.

Another ambush. Our sniper killed!

At this juncture we are fortunate enough to get some air support (two card-pulls in a row) which forces the insurgents to keep their heads down long enough for our medic to get around the rest of the team.

We keep moving. We have killed or wounded the visable insurgents, but then find the civilian in front of us is not a civilian after all. Oh dear!

Insurgent revealed.  Another man wounded; we are lucky it wasn't worse. 

As we approach our objective the tension rises. Just half a block to go. We leave one of our wounded behind and press on with the four who can move as a group. Metres from safety disaster strikes.

An insurgent appears in the last doorway and shoots our demolition expert dead. 

The leader. medic and scout move to the objective; they call to the wounded heavy weapons expert to join them. He is wounded again in the sprint; the medic has to go and carry him to safety. 

They make it, but only just.

Four survivors at the objective. 

The long road travelled. 

So what of the game? It is light and a little cartoonish. But that is good for me. I prefer it to be non-specific and based on generic situations rather than real events. I don't want to play a serious game on this topic; it is still too close and too many people are still affected. 

As mentioned earlier, the play in this scenario was not sophisticated. The other scenarios will add complexity and no doubt the special abilities of the various squad members will come to the fore when there are different objectives and problems to surmount. 

On the whole, it was a nice little diversion, and a great way to start two weeks off work.

I will look to play it again and will try the next scenario and see how it goes. 

As for the plexiglass sheet, it really did the business!

And the year is almost done.

 It has rushed by like a freight train, hasn't it? 

At the stage of life I'm in the successes that count tend to be those of our children rather than my own. On that score I could not be happier. The children are now all into their teenage years and I am very proud of them. The effort they have made in adapting to a new country, new language and new way of life has been immense. They lost a grandmother who was very dear to them this year, but despite that shock they have worked hard and done exceptionally well in their studies. 

Having turned 50 this year myself I am acutely aware that the years I will be around to guide them are limited. There is a strong sense of wanting to do what I can while I can.

It has been a good year for gaming-related matters. Painting has started again; blogging - while still sporadic - has picked up. Rather more money has been spent on games this year than had been for quite some time. 

The things I can remember buying are:

• Memoir '44 (and something like seven expansions)
• The Lamps are Going Out
• Boots on the Ground
• Fields of Fire
• 300: Earth and Water
• Strength and Honour and the new expansion

There has also been a reasonably steady diet of games played. Some solo battles or solo boardgames, and I would guess monthly meet-ups with SP for games of one sort or another. It has been good.

I had hoped to put together a multiplayer game this year, but I have not been organised enough to do that yet. I do miss the end of year games that I used to put on in Japan for assorted ex-pats: there is not quite as much of a captive audience here, and there is also a slight shying-away from larger gatherings on my part. When I was teaching I was starved of adult company and was therefore more motivated to ensure there was some of it around. Now, dealing daily with people while working in an intense service role, I am less inclined to want to be around others on my days off. The batteries need to be recharged!

And what for the year ahead? I think there will be more Memoir '44. I would also like to write some articles again for Slingshot. I realised recently that I have not written one since 2019! That is too long.

Purchases should drop off. Being a little more judicious about what I buy is important. I almost grabbed a couple of other games last week, but had to ask myself if I would ever play them. The answer was maybe, but probably not. The truth was that I was only thinking about them because they were available. We shall see if this being more sensible lasts!

To close, I'd like to wish everyone who has found their way to this blog this a wonderful Christmas and New Year, along with success and good fortune for 2025.

300: Earth and Water

Between purchases on Amazon for Memoir '44 expansions (yes, I have gone deep down the rabbit hole - free shipping to New Zealand is a big draw!) and picking up various books and things I came across a little game on the Persian invasions of Greece called 300: Earth and Water. 

I have always been interested in these campaigns, right from when I was a youngster reading about Leonidas at the Hot Gates, or Themistocles at Salamis. I think I borrowed the Peter Green book from the library when I was at Intermediate school, and even wrote a poem in an 'epic' style for English class, which amusingly enough relied entirely on a (mis)pronunciation of Thermopylae (Therm-o-PY-lae) for its meter. 

It is a nice package. An attractive mounted map which extends to a little over A4 size, well-produced cards, and coloured wooden cubes and rounds representing armies and fleets make up the playing area and pieces. The rules are only a few pages long, supplemented by some historical commentary.

The cards - just sixteen of them - drive the game and are used either as events or to activate armies or fleets for movement and/or combat. 

There are five campaigns (or turns if you like) during which players purchase armies, fleets and cards to play, play them, and then score points for areas occupied at turn's end. The Persians have greater purchasing power and a larger stock of armies, but the Greeks have advantages in combat and more efficient lines of supply.

The object of the game is to occupy the two enemy home cities or else win on points at the end of the five campaigns. The rules are simple, but offer wide scope for different strategies to be employed by both sides. 

I have played one test game so far, which was won by the Persians. I was just learning the rules and the cards rather than playing optimally, so I wouldn't read anything into the result. 

Once you know what you are doing I think you could easily finish a game in half an hour. If you had the armies in miniature it could work well as a campaign game battle-generator. 

The board at end of my learning game.

I'm quite pleased with it. It is compact, clever, and will require thoughtful play. I hope that the system will be used for other campaigns as well, and it could be used to generate home-made scenarios with a bit of tweaking. 

Now I just have to convince someone to play it with me!

Playing Phil Sabin's Phalanx

It's not a secret that Phil Sabin is one of my favourite game designers. The evolution of my 15mm Ancients figure collection, for example, has been directed primarily by a desire to play Lost Battles. But sometimes it is good to try something different from the norm, and I decided to have a go at one of Phil's earlier designs, Phalanx, published in the Society of Ancients's Journal, Slingshot.

My original plan had been to combine Phalanx with the combat system from another of Phil's games, Legion II, but after setting up thought it was probably best to play Phalanx as-is first: if I'm going to muddle something, it's just as well to have a baseline to allow comparisons.

The first thing you notice is that Phalanx has quite a good selection of scenarios. I hummed and harrred a little, then settled on Heraclea. Pyrrhus would be perfect for my purposes. 

For the terrain I am using the Memoir '44 battle board, and for figures I rummaged through the collection. It looks a little cramped, but is not entirely displeasing to the eye (and certainly better than my attempt at making an offset squares mat a few weeks ago!). 

In Phalanx the armies deploy from a camp on their baseline, with the Romans moving first in this scenario.

Rome has six units of heavy infantry, two units of light infantry, two units of heavy cavalry and a leader (Publius Valerius Laevinus). Pyrrhus has himself as leader, five units of heavy infantry, two of light infantry, two of heavy cavalry, and an elephant unit.

Once an army has had four or more of its units routed (the general's unit counts as two) at the end of its turn it loses - unless it has fewer units routed than its opponent.  

The battlefield is an elongated hex (marked on my board by terrain pieces to indicate the boundary) and the only terrain in play is a river. Both armies deploy out of their camp, so it takes a little time for the armies to close. 

The battlefield from the Roman side after two turns. 

Movement is one hex per turn for most units, but cavalry get to move two. Light infantry and elephants can move two at certain times. There are rules around facing, when units change facing, and whether units can attack after performing a particular move. This all combines to give different units different limitations and give each troop type its own characteristics. 

Of course, it takes a little time to assimilate all these characteristics, and while I did not realise it at the time, there were several weaknesses in the Pyrrhic deployment

Pyrrhus's deployment is not ideal, but he hasn't realised that yet.

Enjoy the view while you may, horsemen!

As with most Phil Sabin games, the nuances of the combat system come out in modifiers. Phalanx is deceptively simple - three units versus an infantry or elephant unit will kill it, while two units versus cavalry will kill it. But there are exceptions: some circumstances add an extra attack unit equivalent; some disregard one. Again, it all takes time and experience to assimilate.

The lines clash - Rome is about to launch attacks.

In two more turns it is all over. Rome kills off a unit of cavalry on their left, exposing Pyrrhus. The Epirote army kills a Roman light infantry in its turn; Rome then has the numbers to kill the elephant and Pyrrhus's unit, taking them to four units lost. The Pyrrhus-less Epirotes can only pull back one on their own turn, so Rome wins 4 units to 2, which counts as a sweeping victory. 

Rome has cracked the Pyrrhic centre left, has superiority on the Pyrrhic right, and has killed Pyrrhus. Game over!

Phalanx is an interesting game. I played this solo, and it was very much a learning experience. The combat system is largley deterministic, which makes it difficult to solo satisfactorily, in much the same way that chess is difficult to solo satisfactorily. 

Next step will be to try it with the Legion combat system ported on. 

Commands and Colors: Ancients mat. The jury is out

After the disaster that attended my attempts to get the Commands & Colors game mat I ordered from Tiny Wargames delivered, I gave up and decided to make one myself, using a ground-coloured curtain I'd brought back from Japan. 

I decided to go with offset squares rather than hexes so that I could use cork coasters for hills without needing to do any cutting. Fine in theory, but I did not properly consider the way that hexes use space more efficiently, and that the height-to-width ratio of hexes vs offset squares therefore makes the battlefield look more populated. 

What I have now is this (Ilipa scenario): 

As opposed to what I'd made before in Japan (Ipsus scenario): 

And what didn't arrive from Tiny Wargames:

I am not finding my new version very appealing in its current state.  The question is what to do. My choices are to beautify the mat with some spray paint and bulk up the number of figures used in each unit to give a heftier appearance, or to scrap it and either make or buy a new hex mat. 

It does look a little better when you get in a bit closer (and with better light!), as below:

And it will certainly be handier for representing terrain, which is a problem I never properly overcame with the hex mat I made in Japan.

Terrain concepts - cork hills (to be flocked), woods, streams (to be cut from desktop mats).

The other thing to think about is that I used hexes 88mm across in Japan; here I am using squares 100mm across, so even on a proper hex mat that extra width would affect the look of the battlelines.

Decisions, decisions!

The March of Father Time

Sadly, the house of Prufrock had a recent birthday, which forced the painful realisation that I am not as young as I once was. 

One bonus though was that workmates kindly put the hat around to get a prezzy card for me, accompanied by the stern directive to 'get something for yourself'. 

Needing not to be told a second time, I promptly ordered some Memoir '44 materials - the Breakthrough kit and the Winter Wars expansion, to be exact.

SP came over today (Labour Day) and we tried out the Sword Beach Breakthrough scenario. What a good game it was.

As the Allies I took an immediate pounding from a well directed air attack on my left. We had some hard fighting for the 6th Airborne to do around the Orne and Caen canal bridges while also trying to get off the beach. 

We took a beating, I have to say. Despite some fortunate dice, the Airborne were first ousted from the bridges and then destroyed as SP got reinforcements to where they needed to be.

We made heavy weather of it on the beaches. Fierce counter-attacks held up progress and took heavy toll on our men before looming reinforcements eliminated them. 

We were crushed. Thrown back into the sea, even.

Not far advanced from where we had started, but with significantly fewer troops, and about the same number of those damned Jerries!

Well played SP. We both thought it was a cracking scenario, and breakthrough a superior game to vanilla Memoir '44. 

You could almost call it...

The Lamps are Going Out - learning game

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to pick up a used copy of the The Lamps are Going Out, produced by Compass Games. I'd been keeping an eye out for it for a while after reading a review that struck a chord.

I set it up on Monday, have slowly worked through the sample game which takes you through the first two turns, and am carrying on from there myself to learn the rules and try to get a sense of how the game flows. It can be played solo, two-handed or four-handed. I think it will be a good one to get down: there is promise of replayability!

The map is pleasing. I like area maps for solo play, and it reminds of the Diplomacy board, which gives me the warm fuzzies. 

The game play is interesting. You have a fresh/spent model - familiar to me from Phil Sabin games - with a production model which allows replenishment of spent units, but production points are at a premium, and must also be used to do other things. 

Attacking units automatically become spent, but if they score equal or higher to the defender (with a few modifiers here and there as you would expect) the defender will also become spent. When all defenders in an area are spent, further successful attacks will either force retreats or cause casualties. 

You can probably imagine how the Western Front might go under such a system!

Alongside this you have event cards drawn each player turn which change the board situation in some way, and technology cards, which may introduce new types of units, or leave you with no advances at all, depending on what card your faction pulls.

There is 'chrome' to keep things interesting (trench rules, air rules, artillery rules, naval rules, U-boat rules, collapse-of-Russia rules, amphibious operation rules, a 'USA entry' track and so on) and allow players to put some Baldrickianly cunning plans into action.

I'm pleased with it so far and enjoying pottering around with it. It is satisfyingly large in scope, but without so many moving parts and so many decision points that you burn out playing it. 

The Schlieffen Plan - Germans in the Somme!

It has started well. Let's hope it continues that way!