December 8, 200817 yr Evidence suggests I don't have the patience, friends, or time to play any involved paper wargames. As it was, playing War at Sea solo I had a jeering section. Anyway, I'm learning the ropes. See: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1431 for background Here we go... Turn 1 Ships left in port Italy Giulio Cesare, Andrea Doria, Pola, Gorizia Unit Positions Barents Sea Germany U-Boat, Blucher North Atlantic England Nelson, Rodney, Eagle, Revenge, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Hood, Ark Royal, Suffolk, Sussex North Sea England Queen Elizabeth, Valiant, Royal Oak, Kent, Norfolk Germany U-Boat, Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Lutzoh, Admiral Scheer, Admiral Hipper Baltic Germany Graf Spee South Atlantic England Barham, Malaya, Royal Sovereign, Cumberland, Exeter Mediterranean England Warspite, Resolution, Ramilies, Renown, Respulse, Courageous, Glorious Germany U-Boat Italy Littorio, Vittorio Veneto, Caio Duilio, Conte di Cavour, Zara, Fiume ASW North Sea England gets 5 rolls (one for each ship), U-Boat disabled by a roll of 5, returns to Germany Mediterranean U-Boat disabled, then sunk Air England strikes from Malta to Giulio Cesare rolled 3, 2, 4 all misses Germany strikes from Italy to Courageous rolled 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Courageous sinks at end of turn Germany strikes from Italy to Glorious rolled 3, 2 both misses England strikes from Carriers in Med Littorio - rolled 3, 5-disabled, return to Italy at end of round Vittorio Veneto - rolled 6 (hit) then 4 (damage), sunk at end of turn more to come...
December 8, 200817 yr Author Still Turn 1 Turn 1 Surface Combat North Sea Round 1 Kent vs Hipper rolled 2 (miss) Norfolk vs Hipper rolled 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Hipper sinks at end of round Royal Oak vs Lutzow rolled 4, 2, 2, 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Lutzow sinks at end of round Queen Elizabeth vs Scharnhorst rolled 4, 1, 4, 5 (disabled) so Scharnhorst returns to port at end of round Valiant vs Scharnhorst rolled 5, 5, 2, 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Lutzow has one defense point left Hipper vs Kent rolled 6 (hit) then 6 (damage) so Kent sinks at end of round Lutzow vs Norfolk rolled 1, 5 (disabled) so Norfolk returns to port at end of round. Here the rule is cloudy for me, undamaged German ships get +1 added to the die roll. Does that mean coming into the round damaged or also this case where Lutzow was damaged in the same round? I played it as no +1 since Lutzow was already damaged in this round. Scheer vs Royal Oak rolled 1, 6 (hit) then 2 (damage) so Royal Oak has 2 defense points left Gneisenau vs Queen Elizabeth rolled 6 (hit) then 6 (damage) so Queen Elizabeth sinks at end of round Scharnhorst vs Valiant rolled 3, 5 (disabled), 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Valiant has 0 defense points left and returns to port at end of round Here I messed up, the 5 roll should have been a 6 which would have meant more damage and Valiant should have sunk. Then again Scharnhorst was disabled with no damage done, so was it damaged and I played it right? More to come...
December 9, 200817 yr I had a shelf full of old A-H games, hoping I would find someone to sit across the table. I still have a bunch of them for my Commodore 64 at the old family homestead that I drag out ever now and then. I always wondered about a one player version of War At Sea and Victory In The Pacific and had taken steps to working one up until I lost interest. How does this version you're playing work?
December 9, 200817 yr Author The rules for War at Sea don't include much secrecy (at most the first turn the Allies can place their counters on the map face down so the Axis has a partially blind first move) so I don't see single player taking anything huge away from the game. I expected the Allies to smash the Axis but was surprised in Turn 1 that the Germans wiped the English from the North Sea (which you'll see as I type up more of my 7 pages of notes from turns 1, 2, and setup for 3). In a more involved game including more tactics I think a single player approach is difficult (like Pete playing H4.1 solo) but for War at Sea imho little is lost.
December 9, 200817 yr Author Turn 1 Surface Combat North Sea Round 2 Royal Oak vs Gneisenau rolled 1 (miss), 3 (miss), 4 (miss), 4 (miss) Gneisenau vs Royal Oak rolled 6 (hit) then 3 (damage) so Royal Oak sinks leaving the North Sea undefended... Mediterranean Round 1 Renown vs Zara rolled 3, 2, 6 (hit) then 4 (damage) so Zara sinks at end of round Resolution vs Fiume rolled 3, 2, 2, 2 (stupid die) Ramilies vs Conte di Cavour 2, 6 (hit) then 3 (damage), 5 (disabled), 2 so Conte di Cavour will RTB at end of round Warspite vs Vittorio Veneto 3, 6 (hit) then 5 (damage) so Vittori Veneto sinks at end of round Repulse vs Vittorio Veneto un-needed but we have to fire at the planned target Zara vs Renown rolled 2 Fiume vs Renown rolled 4 Conti di Cavour vs Warspite rolled 5 (disabled), 1, 4, 2 so Warspite will RTB at end of round Vittorio Veneto vs Ramilies rolled 1, 4, 4, 2 The Italians opt to disenage Fiume to Italy. It cannot be challenged since the Brits have nothing fast enough to chase it down. Units Sunk during Turn 1 England (09 attack, 09 defense) Queen Elizabeth, Royal Oak, Kent Germany U-Boat Italy (09 attack, 10 defense) Vittorio Veneto, Caio Duilio, Zara Units Damaged during Turn 1 England Valiant 4 of 4 damage @ England Germany Scharnhorst 4 of 5 damage @ Germany Italy Conti di Cavour 3 of 3 damage @ Italy At the end of Turn 1 the Axis leads with 3 points of control POC=3 The photo shows the setup before the battles of Turn 1. The box top shows the reinforcements for each side to appear in following turns.
December 19, 200817 yr Author Skipping ahead to the end, the Allies win with 10POC after each of the last three turns (6, 7, 8). At the end of the War Germany had a severly damaged Graf Spee (funny, she is my favorite WWII German ship) and three U-Boats in port. Italy would have had a battleship (Roma) but she was scuttled on a die roll of 3. Russia lost one of the two ships in play when the Graf Spee sheltered in the Baltic. Lessons learned: 1. I treated air attacks incorrectly. Tonight I read that each opposing ship can only be attacked from the air once per turn, I was using every available air attack, hitting a single ship with multiple attacks. 2. Ships need a turn in the repair yards to do the repairs. The first few turns I was sending them right back out again the turn after they were damaged. The last number of turns I properly left them in port a full turn to undergo repairs. 3. Italy is really strong in this game! Overall it was fun, if time permits I'll bore you with pages more of notes (17 pages of hand-written notes for the whole war ).
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