The next game night was on the 27th, and it was at Mike and Melissa’s.  Polly came along and was introduced to their dogs with mixed results.  They aren’t best friends yet, but at least she’s learning to socialize.  As for the games, we tried out GMT’s Pacific Typhoon first.  This is basically an updated version of Avalon Hill’s Arctic Storm card game set in the Pacific during WWII.  It’s a fun multi-play card game that revolves around winning high point value tricks.  It has one or two new cards that were not present in Arctic Storm, but the play is nearly identical.  Over all, a good, light multi-player wargame.

After Pacific Typhoon, we played a five player game of Settlers of Cataan.  In the five player game you can build in between other people’s turns, but you can only trade-in cards during your turn.  As soon as it was my turn I was going to win the game, but right before my turn, someone else made a play and won.  C’est la vie.

Jon Noyes came over to my house last Sunday, and we played out east front scenario 3 from the rule book.  I was the Germans and Jon was the Soviets.  I detailed my troop deployments on a sketch map, and then Jon deployed his troops, followed by my troops as I had them marked on the map.   My objective was to take both villages.  Jon split his reinforced battalion between Step’ to the West, and Druzhovetskii to the East.  I deployed my reinforced battalion almost entirely to the East to attack Druzhovetskii first, and then swing around and take Step’.

Deployments

German

Soviet

Turn 1 – The German advance on Druzhovetskii begins (white pipe cleaners denote suppressed).

Turn 2 – The assault continues

Turn 3 – Soviet defenses begin to give

Turn 4- Soviet Dirty Tricks – For some reason (FOW card) my 150mm artillery barrage fell short and hit the company preparing to assault the village, and to top it all off the battery then ran out of ammunition.  Afterwards the Germans vowed that would be the last chuckle heard from the Soviet command, because…

Turn 5 – The German reinforcements arrive!

Who’s laughing now?

Turn 6-Soviet reinforcements arrive!  The Soviets received a tank brigade as reinforcements.  They deployed the infantry into the woods South of Druzhovetskii, and hoped to get their tanks deployed on the high ground just north of the two villages.  Unfortunately the Germans got the jump on them (FOW card) and got their first.  A swirling tank melee resulted.

Meanwhile to the East, the Germans regrouped to assault Druzhovetskii.

Turn 7- The tank melee is resolved.  Results – Soviets: two platoons of T-34’s shaken in the rear, remaining tanks in brigade destroyed.  Germans – One PzIIIn platoon out of ammo, one Tiger platoon forced back, and one Tiger platoon destroyed (by some posthumous winners of the “Hero of the Soviet Union” T-70 tankers)

To the East the final assualt on Druzhovetskii took place.

Turn 8 – The German’s consolidate their hold on Druzhovetskii, and begin to direct fire artillery into the Soviet motorized infantry battalion in the woods.  Meanwhile the Tigers are recovering.

Turn 9 – The final turn.  Everyone is regrouping infantry.  German direct fire artillery basically destroys the Soviet motorized infantry battalion.

Results – Draw

Although the Soviets were in pretty bad shape, the German infantry was also severally depleted.  It would have taken at least two more turns for the Germans to organize an attack, and then they would have had to clear the woods to the south of Druzhovetskii first before turning their attention to Step’.  From what I understand the game turned out pretty historically.  Jon provided all the Soviet units, and his excellent Tigers, and and I provided the remaining Germans and terrain.

Thursday, March 13th, the regulars came by for our weekly game night.  We had four players and started out with a few warm up games of 10 Days in the USA.  I lost each game by 1 tile.  10 Days is a quick, fun game and each game only lasts about 10 minutes.  We then decided to play a game of Empire Builder (one of the crayon train games).  Usually Empire Builder will kill off the rest of the night, and even though we played with fast trains, this game was no exception.  We finally decided to give Melissa the game at about 10:00 pm.  Also, Polly, my new dog, was introduced to the gaming group, and enjoyed playing several games that night, including, hide the ball, toss the ball, fetch the ball (her favorite), and “how long do I have to look up at you before you scratch me”.  She should prove to be a valuable asset to game night.