Saturday, March 27, 2010

Patton's Best Module & Gamebox

Solitaire game of tank command. You control your Sherman tank (17 variations) and crew. Move into a new territory and deal with what you encounter.

From the back of the box:
PATTON'S BEST is The Avalon Hill Game Company's new solitaire game that puts you in the commander's seat of a Sherman tank in George Patton's best fighting division, the 4th Armored. You can play through a short engagement, a complete day of movement and battle, or follow the day-by-day European campaign of the 4th Armored Division. THe success and survival of your tank depends on your decisions.
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Button up for the safety or fight from an open hatch for better visibility? What type of ammo to load and fire at which target? Move forward for a more deadly side short, fall back to a hull down position, or put down a smoke screen?

You control only your tank and crew. Each crew member is rated for skill at his position, and his rating will affect how well he performs. Your crew will start with relatively low ratings, but if they can survive to become veterans, their ratings and the efficiency of your tank can improve. You will start out in a basic M4 Sherman tank, but may later command any of 17 different Sherman variations. The solitaire game system controls the generation and action of the German units you will be facing, and the rest of the American task force of which you are part. Included are three types of scenarios: Advances, representing the breakthroughs and rapid movements through enemy territory; Battles, where the Division is attacking prepared enemy positions; and Counterattacks, where you defend against german attacks.

• Command any one of 17 different American Sherman tank variations or the British Sherman Firefly variant included for comparisons.
• Fight a single engagement, a day of battle, or the entire campaign of the 4th Armored Division.
• Win promotions and decorations for valor.
• Skill ratings for each crew member affect performance and may improve.


Patton's Best at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

Download mod (created by -E, expanded by BGGames01 – 2011-07-17):
http://www.mediafire.com/?cffdbd9gi5uwckl
v0.98 adds the East Front Campaign counters and charts
Download ztb (created by Gary Krockover):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tdynz45jm3w/Pattons Best.ztb
Download Rules:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dyduz5znygz/Pattons-Best-Rules.pdf
Download Charts:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jbiloonnymq/Pattons-Best-Charts.pdf

Screenshots:

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Afrika Korps Module & Gamebox

Easy and fun historical game of Rommel’s battles with the English in North Africa during WW2. One of the early Avalon Hill beginner war games.

From the back of the box:
Ever since men began making weapons they have used them to create legends: in early 1941, when his conquest of Europe was embarrassed by the rout of his Italian allies in Africa, Hitler dispatched General Erwin Rommel to forestall a seemingly inevitable Axis defeat. Reorganizing the forces under his command as the Deutsches Afrika Korps (DAK), Rommel immediately launched the first of his legendary desert offensives.
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Now, the legend of "The Desert Fox" is recreated. From April 1941 through the climatic battle at El Alamein in later 1942. Afrika Korps simulates the mobile conflict between Rommel's Panzerarmee Afrika and the British Eighth Army defending Egypt and the Suez Canal. During each monthly game-turn, the initiative may switch from the Germany to the Allied player as both come to understand why Rommel called North Africa "A tactician's paradise; a logistical officer's nightmare."

A 2 on Avalon Hill's complexity scale of 1(low) to 10(high). Playing time 2 to 4 hours.


Afrika Korps at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

Download vmod (created by Jeff Wise, Bill Thomson, Brent Easton):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1y2enzm1ndi/AFKv221.vmod
Download ztb (created by Maaaaax ):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/1y3dy2yaznq/Afrika_Korps.ztb
Download Rules (original):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ynwj2iwojwy/Afrika_Korps_3d_ed.pdf
Download Rules (reworked):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/yuyhfz0gjjm/AfrikaKorps_3d_Ed_Rules.doc

Screenshots:


B-17 Queen of the Skies Module

"B-17: Queen of the Skies" is a strategy game which re-creates the early bombing missions and aerial combat of the B-17 (F Model) bombers of the US Eighth Air Force over Europe between October 1942 and May 1943. Movement to targets is through zones. Die rolls and game tables determine appearance, type, and position of enemy fighters. Charts are used to determine if hits are made, where the damage is located, and how serious the damage is. Game tables and die rolls also determine everything from the bomber's target and formation position to weather, flak, and German fighter opposition as the B-17 makes its way over land and sea to its target.
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The game has a low complexity and typically, the playing time is generally less than one hour after your first few games.

B-17 is designed to be primarily a solitaire game. The player controls a B-17F Flying Fortress bomber, trying to survive German fighter attacks and drop its load of bombs on the selected target, then return home safely. Optionally, a second player can control the German fighters (to some degree; their appearance is determined randomly, but successive attacks are under the control of the German player). If each player has their own copy of B-17, then they can fly their bomber while playing the German fighters in their partner's game.


B-17 Queen of the Skies at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Download mod (created by -E, Craig68x):
B-17_QotS-v102.vmod Version 2.0 - 29-05-2012

Download Rules:
B-17 Queen of the Skies - Rules.pdf

Screenshots:

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Battle for Germany Module & Gamebox

This game is small, it only takes about three to four hours to play for players of normal skill and luck. The game starts in December of 1944 with the Ardennes Offensive (a variant allows the German player to skip this and save his strength). As a two-player game, it is interesting in that each player plays both an Allied army (Western Allies or Soviet Union) AND a German army (Western Front or Eastern Front). This forces each player to play offense and defense. The player playing the Western Allies and Eastern Germans has a very challenging task. The Western Germans have good defensive terrain (the Rhine river and Westwall defenses), while the Eastern Germans have weak units, a long front, very poor defensive terrain and they face a large Soviet and Yugoslav army. The only real advantage enjoyed by the East German player is the lack of victory points to be gained in the East, and the slow Soviet replacement rate. The Western Alllied units are very fast moving, but they don't usually get a chance to exploit this until the very end of the game (at best).
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The map is the same size as most SPI Quadrigames or folio games and has similar graphics. Cities are rated as 1 or 2 victory points, with Berlin worth 10. A line down the middle of Germany cannot be crossed (in the 2-player game), which makes Berlin the only city which can be captured by the Western Allies or the Soviets (ahistorical, but essential to the game's concept). Units are corps for the Germans and Western Allies and corps, armies, or fronts for the Soviet player. Each unit is rated for attack, defense and movement. Combat is decided by an odds-based combat results table and a die roll. Combat results include various combinations of retreat and elimination (there are no step losses, disruption or anything like this). Eliminated units can be replaced, but very slowly and (for some players) with the weakest available unit coming back first.

The game includes variants for 3- and 4-player versions where the Germans are played by 1 or 2 players, and a "red star/ white star" scenario where the Western Allies and Soviets fight it out with some help from the remnants of the German army.


Battle for Germany at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

UPDATED – New v1.1:
  • Destroyed Fortress counters
  • VP control counters
  • Improved Graphical Dice (VASSAL Only)
Download vmod (v1.1):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/gz0zu5mnint/BattleForGermany.vmod Download ztb (v1.1):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/xumgmkwztm3/BattleForGermany.ztb

Download Rules:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/r5ozg0y00dm/BfG-Rules.pdf

Screenshots:

Monday, March 22, 2010

Raid on St. Nazaire Module

In this solitaire wargame, the play simulates the British raid on the Nazi-occupied French port of St. Nazaire held on March 28, 1942.

In the first part of the game, you move the British boats and destroyer HMS Campbeltown (redressed to look like a German ship) to their landing areas while determining the results of many shots from the harbor defense guns. Upon landing, the remaining force tries to reach targets (Sub pens, caissons, docked ships, supply tanks, etc.) and destroy them.
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The German guards are handled by the system and arrive via random draw and placement and move by most direct route to the nearest British commando. As the game progresses, the units are better organized and tougher.

The game ends when all British units are killed or escape and they score for the targets destroyed.


Raid on St. Nazaire at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Download mod (created by -E): http://www.mediafire.com/file/mjmi5qbxgvm/Raid_On_St_Nazaire.mod
Download Rules:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/rmimzxtyjdm/Raid-on-St-Nazaire-Rules.pdf

Screenshots:


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Airships Gamebox

Airships is a very tactical dice-game. By cleverly combining the three-colored dice with the values on the cards, you take part in building zeppelins and finally the famous Hindenburg. From 2 to 4 players, 45-60 minutes.

Airships at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

Download ztb: http://www.mediafire.com/file/lozn2wmmzkm/Airships.ztb
Download Rules:
EN:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zzwhzjnwmoo/Spielregeln_Giganten_GB.pdf
Other languages:
http://www.queen-games.de/index.php?id=2514

Screenshots: