Replay iBattle Academy – Western Desert Campaign 1

The Western Desert Campaign is the first one available in Battle Academy for iPad. One will argue that this game is not the most realistic simulation one can find about WWII at tactical level, and that’s fair enough. But what an awesome lot of fun to move troops across the dunes and villages on a tablet!

Mission #1 is titled “Capture the fort”, and it is some sort of tutorial set up involving just 3 AFVs and a couple of squads, whose mission is to take control of an isolated Italian fort. I love these briefing screens:

The interest here will be to tick the 3 proposed achievements:

1. Do not lose any units (probably the hardest one)
2. Kill at least 10 enemy units
3. Capture all victory points in 12 turns

So let’s get started! No option to configure your army here, you’re just offered the default 3 “Queens of the desert” aka Matilda tanks. A couple of Bren carriers full of tommies will come along a bit later, to help securing the buildings.

 

 

I launch my platoon of reco tanks at full speed along the trail, and on turn two they spot their first column of italian tankette, which turn out to be CV33 or L3. The Matildas easily deflect the rounds of machine-guns, and in a snap I have blasted the first two in the column down to hamburgers. The 3rd one will face the same doom minutes after, hammered by my off-board artillery.

 

Pushing forward, I encounter some opposition in the rugged terrain around the road, where italian footmen have taken cover during my artillery barrage. These crags are indeed the ideal cover in barren lands, I should be mindful of them later on.

But resistance is futile and I bypass the obstacle to meet another column of brazilian tankettes. Meanwhile, my infantry is catching up, riding fast on the priceless Bren carriers. Stupid me! There was another italian squad hidden on the opposite slope of the valley. They were quiet so far because suppressed, but now they show up for a last hurrah. The tommies have to disembark for a surgical cleanup, while the Matildas teach english to their italian counterparts. In the bloody battle, I loose one of my squad, which is taking one achievement away, damn!

 

Finally, we are reaching the settlement and the fort, which looks dangerously quiet. No doubts there are some machine guns ready for an opportunity fire behind these dark windows.

Using Assault movement, I scout around the buildings, to spot some jerrys entrenched in the building on the outskirts. The tommies carry out a merciless assault and take ground. Good surprise, more reinforcement are coming, 3 more squads to support the final assault. Although they’ll take 3 turns to reach the settlement, in the absence of proper transport.(And now I realise I should have sent my empty Bren carrier to accelerate deployment). As there’s no signs of life, I decide to call for another artillery barrage, hopefully to suppress the last defenders.

 

My AFVs circle around, with a hope to take them aback, while infantry comes closer to the city wall, and capture another outpost.

 

 

We finally spot the last defenders and HQ officers trying to flee from the back of the fort. They are snared in a snap, and we claim victory on Turn 11!

 

PocketTactics: Battle of the Bulge announced

Battle of the Bulge is one of these legendary titles that have founded modern wargaming and changed the life of the young boardgamer I was in the 80′s.

Initially published by Avalon Hill in 1965, it has been then replicated, duplicated, and reissued countless times by the most prestigious publishers, both on cardboard and on PC screens.

There were certainly some serious opus along the way, and any serious wargamer should have in his library Bulge released by SPI in 1979.

And when you hear that one of the grognards from SPI, Eric Lee Smith, decides to start a new venture named Shenandoah Studio to port the game on tablets, starting with iPad, you can start believing again in Santa!

The game should be available on the appstore this September 2012, so keep an eye on the developer’s diary. We’ve been able to grasp some screens and game arts here and there on the web, and it just looks awesome, nothing clumsy or clunky anywhere, this is all beautiful and polished and we just need now to assess the gameplay!

This is great news for all grown up pocket gamers. Add on top of it that the next battle using the system is already planned for 2013-Q1: Get ready to fly to North Africa, to meet Rommel at El Alamein. That will be Volume 2 of this new game series titled “Crisis in Command”. It’s a wonderful world.

Project’s video inspirational pitch by Eric himself: http://kck.st/I5cHzt

Eric Lee Smith is a game designer and software development specialist. He worked for both Avalon Hill and SPI (Simulations Publications, Inc.). Most of his games were published by Victory Games (I), a subsidiary of Avalon Hill formed around ex-SPI employees. In 2005, he became Vice President of Product Direction for Investor Force Incorporated.

Battle of the Bulge – Very early interface preview

Start Small: Rattenkrieg

Rattenkrieg is a postcard game published by Turning Point Simulations, the new venture by LPS Inc, publishers of Against the Odds Magazine. It has been designed by Steven Cunliffe who also made The Hell of Stalingrad. It’s a solitaire simulation 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.

Note that you’ll get the game for free, including die cut counters, with your next order at LPS Inc., go for it!

The system proposed here by Steven Cunliffe is lean, smart and highly scalable for any sort of area control game. It’s about a dozen blocks in 1942 Stalingrad here at a tactical level, but it could be as well about provinces in North Vietnam at an operational level, or galaxy sectors in a sci-fi strategy game.

5 dices, well balanced double sided counters to define opposing forces, a couple of resource scales, and a beautiful game board is what it will take you to create your own solitaire entertainment. This might also easily become the next viral tablet game for digital wargamers.

Gameturn sample

I start the game with 4 balanced squads, each of my leader leading armor in the North and in the South. My objective is to quickly take control of well defended zones 3 and 10. I push westward and start cleaning the sewer system of the iconic soviet city …

A bit of luck on this first round:

• Soviet roll a die and add a new counter in zone 5. But I do not change my plans, I’ll address that with Infantry on halftracks (2MP). Damn! This is one of these platoons of T34! They pin down my assault and suppress my infantry. Air support is more than welcome to balance the odds and to finally get rid of the reds.
• North squad enters 3 and reveal an ambush by Molotov cocktails, depleting infantry.
• Grenadiers enter zone 12 and spot a sniper who retreats, as there is no German leader in the area.
• In the southern part of the industrial complex, grenadiers secure area #11, while my armour push forward with Colonel Baess. We meet strong opposition there and call for Stukas, but the assault fails and outcome remains uncertain.

That concludes Turn #1 and I realise a couple of mistakes: I forgot to promote Khol in the North, that’s an easy one to fix, giving me an extra iron cross for upcoming battles. As turn 2 begins and soviets are going to roll dice to infiltrate new troops, I bite my fingers and think I should have sent an infantry counter in zone#2 to cover my back. Luckily enough, the soviet rolls 5, and there’s no infiltration as the area is under control. The assault can continue. Good fun!

Europa Universalis IV development started

Paradox Development Studio have started to share their Developer’s diary with the fan community, about what will be the 4 opus of the blockbuster series Europa Universalis.

As you well know, the empire building game Europa Universalis IV gives you control of a nation to guide it through the years and create a dominant global empire and will provide you unprecedented freedom in how you want to rule your nation and is cutting edge in its depth and historical accuracy. The game covers a period starting on November 11, 1444 A.D. and expanding until late in the 18th century.

Europa Universalis 4′s multiplayer will allow up to 32 players to battle each other or to join forces and cooperate as a single nation in a timeline encompassing thousands of historical events over 300 years.

Players will choose from more than 4,000 historical monarchs from over 250 countries. With a new system called “monarch power,” a nation’s leader influences the personality of the nation under his or her control. “Do you have a warrior King? Then it is time to make war,” Paradox said in a press release.

The game will also include a new trade system, which players can exploit by honing a nation’s trading prowess or through brute force by conquering key shipping ports. It is due for 2013-Q3, too long a time to wait. Stay tuned: http://www.facebook.com/EuropaUniversalis

European Indies: AGEOD is back!

AGEOD stands for AGE Online Distribution, and it is a French venture formed in 2005 by 2 good friends but also remarkable characters of the gaming industry. Philippe THIBAUT was the brain behind blockbusters like Europa Universalis and Pax Romana. And Philippe MALACHER is the creator of a 3D engine called AGE, now probably outdated and obsolete, compared to products like Unity3D.

Anyway, this looks like a fertile union if to consider the vast catalogue these gentlemen have produced, out of their office in the French Alps, near Grenoble! To be fully honest, we haven’t tried out any of them yet, as we are just discovering the studio, but there are certainly appealing titles, such as Pride of Nations (Colonial Era in 19th century) or Revolution Under Siege (Russian Civil War 1917-23).

The company has been a joint venture with Paradox for some time, maybe a couple of years, trading as Paradox France, but it seems  they have just bought back their independence this August 2012, or have been kicked out from the mammoth organisation.

The next big release is “Alea Jacta Est“, an ambitious simulation covering various conflicts of the Roman Era. Serious competition to Rome Total War 2 (2013) ? You never know, wait and see! The game is available for preorder, and if you’re looking for your 15 minutes of glory, you can select the Praetor or Proconsul editions, in which you can have so extra goodies and your name included in the product and in credits, nice trick guys! We’ll keep a caring eye on you from now on.

European indies: Europa Simulazioni

Europe can be surprising, particularly in such times troubled by the GFC, and you can see cute, lean and smart game studios popping up from the most unexpected places … like Piacenza, a medium sized city in Northern Italy! That’s where “Europa Simulazioni” was born in 2006, a small company devoted to publish simulation boardgames in unusual historical periods. And their logo is a vibrant reminder of their city’s coat of arms

The first of them was All is lost save Honour, Campaigns of the Italian Wars in the north of Italy between 1509 and 1525 (from Agnadello to Pavia). Then  they have released Guelphs and Ghibellines in 2009, a nice simulation of the traditional clashes between 13th century armies (3 battles covered). And in 2011 they came with Strafexpedition, a title covering the Italian Wars during WWI in 1916, using battalion level units, and coming with a brand-new impulse system, which allows a remarkable level of interaction between the two players.

They are now preparing an opus on the First War of Independence: “Custoza, Fields of Doom“. In July 1848, the battle between the Piedmomtese Army under King Carlo Alberto and the Austro-Hungarian Army under Field Marshall Radetzky signed the turning point of the First Independence War, and the defeat of the Piedmontese dream of an Italian Crusade against Austro-Hungary.

Good luck to our Italian fellows, keep up the good job!
To Know More: http://italianwars.net

 

Black Cross / Blue Sky add-on out … and sold out!

Black Cross / Blue Sky is a reference for Air Combat during WWII. The game is published by Blue Sky Enterprises and covers the battle for Britain at a tactical level with focus on air units, but also involving naval and terrestrial objectives. Find out more about the game here.

John F. Stanoch strikes again by publishing the add-on “Lost Squadron“, first seen this August 2012 at the World Boardgaming Championships held in Lancaster PA, USA. The game seems to have been well received as all of the stock was sold out at the show. Players are now able to expand their gaming experience with “Black Cross/Blue Sky” by adding the French, Polish and Dutch air forces. Ships are also introduced including the French battleship ‘Richelieu’.

The Pitch of Lost Squadron: Months before the commencement of the Battle of Britain, the skies over Europe witnessed intense aerial battles of obsolete and outnumbered Allied aircraft fighting desperately for survival against incredible odds and widely superior aircraft of the German Luftwaffe. This was the stage upon which the Lost Squadrons flew. The Polish, French, Dutch and ubiquitous British air forces tried valiantly but in vaint to blunt Germany’s invasion of Europe from the air. Now you can fly as these desperate and brave pilots to see if you can change the course of history!

But you’ll have to wait for a reprint of Lost Squadrons, stay tuned.
(Although it has been seen on eBay)

An enthusiast review by Marco Arnaudo