Rommel in the Desert Module

Rommel in the Desert is a pre-"Front" game touching on the conflict between the British and Germans in North Africa during WWII. A game of maneuver, each side has to move with precision and know when to strike, since a cut in supply spells disaster for either side. The supply system is card driven. The game comes with a well painted map of North Africa and 100 wooden blocks to represent the British and Germans.
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This title uses Columbia Games Block system. While there are variations in the rule sets for each of their games none the less all of their games are based on block system. Basically this means that rather than the traditional use of counters to represent units on the map the game instead uses wooden blocks that stand upright and with unit details only shown on one side of the blocks. This does two things: First it provides an easy way of producing a "fog of war" because your opponent can not tell, save through good memory, what type of unit a specific piece is and its current strength. Second, by having the blocks stand on end it provides a way to keep track of a units strength by rotating the block so the current strength is the top number. Most war games have some type of mechanism that lets units take steps in their overall strength. Counters normally have at most two steps because of they only have two sides, however blocks have four and so now you can easily keep track of twice the amount of detail that many other war games provide. With the use of blocks Columbia has provided a way of adding a good deal of depth to their war games without adding further complex layers of bookkeeping and thus allow for interesting and relatively short sessions of play.

Rommel in the Desert at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Downloads - VASSAL
Module: Rommel-Desert-v7.vmod (2012-02-16) – by Stan Hilinski, wag

Downloads - Rules
Rules: RITD-Rules.pdf (2012-02-16)

Screenshots

Tokyo Express Module

Tokyo Express is a solitaire and two-player simulation of the night naval battles off Guadalcanal. In the solitaire version, you command the US fleet, awaiting the emergence of the Tokyo Express from the darkness. You group your ships into formations, assigning them orders, and select the targets to attack with torpedoes and guns. Simple mechanisms control Japanese maneuvers and target assignments in a realistic manner. You never know when combat will occur until the explosion of torpedo salvos signals the presence of Japanese forces who detected you first and made their surprise attacks. The two-player version modifies the solitaire game and pits players against each other in an exciting recreation of World War II naval combat. Tokyo Express is graduated in complexity to help you learn the rules as you play.

Tokyo Express at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Downloads - VASSAL
Module: Tokyo_express_v.098.vmod (v0.98 - 2012-01-25) by rickbill, Tormenta

Downloads - Rules
Rules: TokyoExpress-Rules.zip (2012-01-25)

Includes:

• Tokyo-Express-Basic.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-Advanced.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-Japanese-Record-Pad.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-US-Record-Pad.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-Expansion-v1a.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-TG25.4-Introduction.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-TG28.5-Campaign.pdf
• Tokyo-Express-TG30.1-AdvancedCampaignRules.pdf

Screenshots

Paul Koenig's D-Day Module & Gamebox

Five games in one!

Juno: The Canadian Beach is the first game in the Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 – 9, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

Can the Canadian 3rd Division find sufficient air, naval, and artillery support to clear Juno Beach and advance inland through the bocage country to the south and link up with the British beaches to the east? Or will the German defenders of the 716th Division react in time, bringing up their anti-tank assets to stop the Canadians on the beaches as they did at Dieppe two years earlier? The German commander, Erwin Rommel, planned to stop the invasion on the beaches… and it nearly happened!
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Utah and Omaha: The American Beaches are the second and third games in Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 – 8, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

On the two western beachheads, the Americans faced problems galore and some of the worst terrain encountered by the Allies. It seemed that Murphy’s Law was in full effect: “Everything that can go wrong will go wrong – and at the worst possible moment.” Yet despite widely scattered air drops, confusion and stiff German resistance, an American victory was won and the beaches secured. However, the cost in lives of this close-fought campaign will see it always remembered as “Bloody Omaha.”

Sword and Gold: The British Beaches are the fourth and fifth games in Paul Koenig’s D-Day series of five titles covering the first three nail-biting days (June 6 - 8, 1944) of Allied landings in France to liberate Europe during World War 2. Using fluid and dynamic systems for integrating the fierce combat and rapid movements of the companies and battalions contesting the beaches, cliffs, swamps and bocage bordering the rough North Sea coast, players will find the easy rules to offer rich puzzles and surprising opportunities on the cross-map march to victory.

Bernard Law Montgomery led the Allied landings on the beaches closest to Germany, with the ambitious goal of moving inland and reaching the vital city of Caen within a day or two (dubbed "Operation Neptune"). But the German 716th Division, support by elements of the 21st Panzer Division, slowed the British advance down during these critical first few days and ultimately kept ‘Monty’ out of Caen until, after Allied offensives in June, July, and August, they cleared the area once and for all.


Complexity: 4 on a 9 scale
Solitaire Suitability: 8 on a 9 scale
Game Scale: Each unit is 1 company to regiment, each hex is 1 kilometer, and each turn is about 4.5 hours.

If you like these games, you can buy them from Victory Point Games.

PK D-Day at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com 1, BoardGameGeek.com 2, BoardGameGeek.com 3
VASSAL: vassalengine.org
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

Downloads - VASSAL
Module: PKDDay-1.0.vmod (v1.0 - 2012-01-21)

Downloads - Rules
Rules: PKDD-rules.pdf (2012-01-21)
Optional Rules: PKDD-optional-rules.pdf (2012-01-21)
Special Rules: PKDD-special-rules.pdf (2012-01-21)
Examples: PKDD-examples.pdf (2012-01-21)

Downloads - ZunTzu
Gamebox: PKDDay-ZunTzu.zip (2012-01-23) - by VPG; American and Canadian beaches only

Screenshots

Pocket Battle Game #1: Rattenkrieg Module

A solitaire postcard game of the intense fighting for the Tractor Factory in the Battle for Stalingrad. The player takes the roll of the Germans as he maneuvers panzers, infantry, and elite pioneers into the ruins to hunt down the Soviets. Ambushes, snipers, and tough decisions await the Germans as they push deeper into the city.

The longer the game lasts the more Soviet Reinforcements infiltrate through the ruins to surround and cut off the attackers. To win the player will have to master warfare in the most brutal of all WWII battlefields

Rattenkrieg is literally "War of the Rats" and is the name given to irregular and deadly city fighting. Brought published by Turning Point Simulations and designed by Steven Cunliffe who also made The Hell of Stalingrad.

Rattenkrieg at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Downloads - VASSAL (Rules inside)
Module: Rattenkrieg.vmod (v1.0 - 2011-05-05)

Screenshots

D-Day at Omaha Beach Module

Solitaire study of America's most bloody and heroic day in WWII. The player controls the US forces landing along the five mile stretch of Omaha Beach on D-Day and their desperate struggle to establish a viable beachhead. The game covers the entire first day at a time scale that varies from 15 minutes per turn (during the initial landings) to 30 minutes per turn later in the day. Units are companies and include assaulting infantry, engineers and amphibious tanks. The game system controls the hidden German defenders in their "Widerstandsnest" resistance points, revealing the defenders and their reserves as the American survivors of the first landing waves make their way up the bluffs. Rules cover amphibious landings, German fields of fire, artillery, tidal movement, and intangibles such as US leadership under fire and the initiative of the American GI. One map, two counter sheets, 55 cards.

D-Day at Omaha Beach at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Download vmod (created by Kevin Grande): http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzyno2mn4yh/DDOBv2.vmod
Download Rules (package):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/bzgog2rnet3/OmahaDocs.zip

• Rules (Printed, Living)
• Historic Booklet
• Charts/Tables
• Color Example Booklet
• Addenda
• Reference
• Illustrated Example of Play
• VASSAL Module User Guide

Download VASSAL Module User Guide v2 (package has v1):
http://www.mediafire.com/?gz0wdndcmjn

Screenshot:

Storm Over Arnhem Module

This is the first of the Area-Impulse games done by Avalon Hill which later included Thunder at Cassino, Turning Point: Stalingrad and Breakout Normandy. The game simulates the ferocious battle for the Arnhem Bridge on September 18-21, 1944.

The game begins with the British holding the area around the bridge, surrounded by the Germans. They try to hold out for as long as they can.
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Each full turn covers 8 hours and includes many mini-turns (or impulses). Each impulse, the player can move or fire a small number units. Once moved or fired, the units are "spent" and cannot move again until the next turn.

Combat is handled by calculating attack defense values and each side rolling 2 dice. The difference (if the attacker has the higher total) in final point values is the number of casualty points the defender must lose by spending or destroying units.

The games is of relatively low complexity for a wargame and rates 3 (out of 10) on AH's difficulty scale.

Storm Over Arnhem at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
VASSAL: vassalengine.org

Download mod (created by Steve Bishop): http://www.mediafire.com/file/ghtjztigyvi/StormOverArnhem.mod
Download Rules:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tnklmlzbdor/SOA-Rules.pdf
Rules are from the '93 Folio edition. The main difference is that these rules describe using numbered chits instead of 2d6.
Download The General articles (Vol. 19-1,19-2,21-1,25-3):
http://www.mediafire.com/file/igztz2htzxg/SOA-TheGeneral.pdf
Download Countersheets:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jjvmzoyinq5/Storm+Over+Arnhem+Countersheets.pdf
Countersheets are from the '81 Boxed edition. They include the variant counters for "The Crossing", not currently supported by the VASSAL module.

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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:

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:

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:

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:

Onslaught: D-Day to the Rhine Gamebox

Wargame based around the WW2 Western Allied campaign from just after the Normandy invasion to the crossing of the Rhine.

First significant mechanic is the unpredictable turn order - players dice for each turn, with the highest taking the turn. However, ties end that month's play (players draw fresh supply points each month, and the game ends after 20 months).
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Second significant mechanic is the use of (limited) supply points to activate stacks of units when it's your turn. Like games such as We the People/Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage/Rommel in the Desert/Napoleon, you don't have the resources to activate all of your units each turn, you need to decide what the current priority is in line with the current situation. Activation generally allows you to either move stacks or attack with stacks, but with an increased expenditure of supply points, you can take more powerful 'breakthrough' turns involving both movement and attack.

These mechanics (unpredictable turn order, limited ability to activate units each turn) create a game of fluid tactical situations, where your planning has to be flexible - you never know who will get the next turn.

The Allied player has to break out of the beach head and capture additional supply ports (which raise the number of supply points available to the Allies, and hence the number of activations possible) en route to Germany. The German player must contain the Allies in Normandy for as long as possible before falling back to the Rhine, while also denying the valuable supply ports to the Allies as long as possible. The Allies are up against a tight timetable; the Germans must work against as increasing disadvantage in supply points.

Victory is generally determined by the difference in numbers between German units West of the Rhine and Allied units East of the Rhine at game end. Allied paratroops, the German Bulge offensive, reinforcements/replacements and strategic movement add to the game. The big mounted map with large hexes and counters remove the 'fiddle factor' which can blight wargames with lower production values.

Onslaught at BGG: BoardGameGeek.com
ZunTzu: ZunTzu.com

Download ztb: http://www.mediafire.com/file/xtujfninuv3/Onslaught.ztb
Download Rules (incl Errata and Counter Manifest): http://www.mediafire.com/file/nztonzjtiym/Onslaught_Rules.pdf

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