A few games recently

Each year Comrade James and I generally find ourselves together in Sydney at some stage and get together for some gaming fun after hours. This year we christened the new Sydney 'Man Pad' while sampling my Barmy Bishop Bitter! And an extensive sampling it was...

Death Angel - played a couple of games and tried out the Deathwing and Space Marine expansion sets.   The first game saw us take two combat pairs of Terminators each and ended horribly with all Marines KIA barely half way through the mission.  The second game we took three pairs of Marines each (using the commensurately increased number of 'Stealers of course) and fought our way through to a down to the wire Victory with four Marines remaining - a mere 66% casualties sustained!  Good fun.

Spearpoint 1943 - the first game saw me playing Germans against James's US Forces in a head to head encounter.  I started off with a pair of Panthers bearing down on a remarkably resilient Sherman and some screening troops, before I committed a wave of Infantry, support weapons and a Tiger I.  James established an effective artillery support line which did some real damage and I was fortunate to sabotage his P-38 Lightning so it never got on the table.  He managed to kill off the crews of the Tiger and one of the Panthers, but in the end I was able to overwhelm his infantry line with mortars and MG43 teams and claim the Victory.

We then played with James's newly acquired Village/Defensive Line expansion set - the additional terrain really increases the straying power and survivability of infantry units, who really get chewed up quickly in the standard game.  The components are beautifully done and are double sided so you can play in either summer or winter (with snow).  I took and infantry and artillery heavy force which did well in the terrain and cleaned up James's Combined Arms force in the rubble nicely!

 

Apparently the Russian Front expansion for Spearpoint will be a Kickstarter project later this year and I will definitely be pledging up for it. 

Patton's Best - we dragged out this classic Avalon Hill hame from the 80s.  If you aren't familiar with it, its a solitaire game in which you command a single M4 Sherman and its crew from the US 4th Armoured Division as it breaks out of the Normandy area, crosses France, relieves Bastogne and drives on the Rhine.  The game was new to me and we played some introductory engagements to get me ready for a proper campaign to start shortly.  The game mechanics are very similar in nature to B-17 Queen of the Skies and you can read a BGG review on it  One of the unique aspects of the game is the fog of war and "Tiger shock" effect - essentially the Pz VI Tiger tank caused great consternation to US tank crews.  Accordingly, EVERY German AFV is a Tiger and every anti-tank gun an '88' (and they hit like one too) until proven otherwise, so its very much in your best interests to scout well and identify enemy units as soon as possible!

Duel of the Giants - ended up not getting time to play this unfortunately but we dragged it out and looked at the awesome components anyway.

Munchkin Booty.  Another recent addition to James's collection, he managed to beat me soundly in two games - love the theme of this game!

Kittens in a Blender.  My own new game - who could resist?  Essentially the curious cats are exploring the kitchen - save your own cats and make the others pay!  Yes, its a twisted and fun as that sounds.  James smashed me senseless and we both had a great laugh with it.  

Being a game for 2-4 players, I took it home to the family.  After the initial outrage and horrified comments we got into it and they were blending the kittens with great enthusiasm!  Indeed the Lad showed a particular penchant for sacrificing his own kittens to get everybody else's' - a tactic reminiscent of General Douglas Haig in my opinion and that eventually won him the game.  Nice!

Spear Point 1943 Map Expansion

About a year ago I discovered this nifty card based game of tactical World War 2 combat courtesy of Paul's blog posts.  Since then I was excited to see that the developer planned on releasing a Map Expansion to the game which looks like it will greatly enhance the feel of the game and gameplay overall. The project is being funded through Kickstarter.com, and needs more supporters by 8th January 2012 to go ahead. There are a range of pledge sizes with varying extra goodies available for both US and international (like me) supporters.

So this is a shared plug from two gamers who would love to see this expansion published, and are putting the call out to our fellow Mancavers! Check out the link below for more details. Happy New Year!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cewargames/frontline-general-spearpoint-1943-map-expansion

New FREE Situation for Spearpoint 1943

News from Collins Epic Wargames:

Situation IX - German Airfield

We've updated the Spearpoint 1943 Downloads section of our website to include a new FREE Situation.

In Situation IX, the Germans control an Italian airfield and use it to their advantage to scramble fighters and fend off advancing US forces. They must hold the airfield and the US must take it from them. Special rules include some cool new mechanics that force both players to make some tough decisions. The airfield is represented by four face-down Command Cards which double as 'staging areas' for German Airfield Reserves, separate from the normal German Reserves Deck.  An illustrated German setup is shown below (also in the PDF):

Spearpoint 1943 Situation IX German Setup Illustration

Direct Download Link (PDF, 4mb) - SP43 Situation IX

Spearpoint Stout

Man Cave Brewery is now the official beer sponsor for Collins Epic Wargames!
This is the first release, based on their Spearpoint 1943 game's box art.

You can find Collins Epic Wargames, and their online store, here http://www.frontlinegeneral.com/

Spearpoint 1943 Expansion announced

The first of many I'm sure:

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943
Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion

Expand your copy of Spearpoint 1943 with the new Village and Defensive Line Map Expansion!  This expansion uses the cards in the base game of Spearpoint 1943 and adds new depth to the system, 4 new situations with fictional intros by Mark H. Walker, beautiful Marc von Martial artwork, large die-cut 1” general counters and 4” obstacle and building tiles, printed rules/situation booklet, and a gorgeous two-sided 12.5”x36.5” Village / Defensive Line map inspired by 1943 Italian terrain.

More previews of this expansion will follow, but for now, take a look at a portion of the Village side of the map by Marc von Martial (Left). Note that each square zone is 4” x 4”!. The preview to the left shows two of the eighteen overlay tiles- one is an intact building, the other is a minefield.

Features

1st SPEARPOINT 1943 1 Night Tournament

Read all about the recent Spearpoint 1943 tourney here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/560188/spearpoint-1943-1st-one-nicht-tournament


I'm really enjoing this game, just need to find a regular opponent!

Free Spearpoint 43 shipping

Collins Epic Wargames have made an offer of FREE worldwide shipping, so now you have no excuse!

FREE Worldwide Shipping - Spearpoint 1943

We're pleased to offer free worldwide shipping for direct Spearpoint 1943 orders placed between now and 9/3/2010.  Enter coupon code 43FREESHIP upon checkout through our online store with any shipping method selected.  The game will be shipped via Priority Mail or Priority Mail International.  Offer good until 9/3/2010.

Review of Spearpoint 43

BGG has posted a review for Spearpoint 43 - thanks for the heads up Comrade James!


Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943
A game for 2 players designed by Byron Collins

Introduction

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is a two player card game from Collins Epic Wargames. It is a simple deck building game that plays quickly and is a lot of fun.

Components

This game comes in a very compact package! The box is a mere 6.25" x 4.25" x 1.5", so it's easy to tuck into your game bag or inside another wargame box that you're taking to gaming night.

Photo by Andrew Tullsen

The game comes with 175 cards of excellent quality and thickness. They're nice and sturdy, and should stand up nicely to the repeated plays they'll be getting. The cards come in four decks: a 50-card American unit deck, a 50-card German unit deck, a 50-card command deck, and a 25 card damage deck. The latter two decks are shared.

The game also comes with four d10, two grey for the Germans, and two blue for the Americans. The dice are particularly nice looking and are an attractive addition to the package.

Rules & Game Play

The game is actually quite simple to set up and play. Each player decides which side they want to take. Then they select between 80-100 points worth of infantry, armor, aircraft, and crews to make up their battle deck. The rest of the cards are set aside and not used. Each deck has 284 points worth of units, ranging in value from 2 for a tank crew to 21 for a Tiger tank.

Iconography on the cards will tell you if the card you've picked needs a crew, and if so of what kind, and also has other icons on it to show how effective they are against other kinds of units.

Force selection

Photos by Byron Collins

Once you have constructed your deck, you pick 4 cards to keep as your starting hand, draw 3 command cards, and you're set to begin.

The flow of play is in three phases:
- the commitment phase
- the combat phase
- the draw phase

In the commitment phase, both players secretly select which units (if any!) to deploy. Then both simultaneously reveal what they've deployed, along with any command cards that can only be played in this phase. Units requiring a crew can only be deployed with a crew, and vice versa!

Deployment occurs in two lines - the line closest to you is your rear line, the line closest to your opponent is the front line. Front line units can only fire at other front line units and aircraft, while rear line units (usually but not always artillery) can target opposing front and rear line units, as well as aircraft.

Once the units are revealed, the combat phase begins. Again, players simultaneously decide which units will be attacking which opposing units by slightly turning the cards to "face the enemy". There is some element of "Oh yeah? Well then take that!" to this phase, which makes it quite fun and entertaining. Once both players are satisfied they've got the best options down for their cards, command cards usable in this phase are played and combat begins. Initiative is determined by a die roll, and then players alternate firing their units at their opponents. Command cards usable in this phase are also played at this time.

Photos by Byron Collins

Combat is, again, simple. Your unit card will have a number next to the weapon of choice (the main gun on your Sherman tank, say) which shows what you need to roll on 2d10 to hit the unit you're firing at (infantry, say). If you roll that number or higher, you hit! The amount of damage you do is the intensity of the weapon you used, minus the target's defense, plus the roll of a d10. If you did at least half damage to the unit, you draw a damage card for it. If you inflict more than its total hit value in damage, the unit is destroyed. Important to note, damage is cumulative in the same round, so you need to keep track of multiple units are firing at a single target, but once a turn is over, all intensity points are lost and the unit is either damaged (with a damage card under it and considered to be at their damage threshold) or full up again. There are also rules for critical hits and critical misses.

A Sherman tank's damage card results in its capture!

The captured Sherman is redeployed by the enemy!

An interesting note about the damage cards is that they're carefully structured to be usable against any kind of unit. Some of the damage results are nasty, such as the vehicle capture above, so you never quite know what you'll get out of the deck.

Once all combat is resolved, both players draw one command card, and then draw two additional cards from either or both the command card deck or their unit deck.

Victory in the base game is simple: you either capture/destroy 51 points of enemy units (captured units count double!) or be unopposed (i.e. no land units facing you) for three turns.

Conclusions

This is a light card game that you can easily play over your lunch hour, and it's fully meant to be fun and quick. This is not to say there isn't a lot of detail and research here - there clearly is, and that's reflected both in the information on the cards and in the point values of various units.

I had two minor complaints with the game. First, the game can be unbalanced if players build antithetical decks. If you build a deck with lots of infantry and your opponent goes with all tanks and a few aircraft, then it can quickly become a one sided romp. Second, the basic game with the deck building and "first to 51 points wins" criteria can quickly begin to feel, well, like a generic card game.

However, fear not! The website for Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 has an answer for exactly those two items. There are currently eight scenarios (called situations) for the game plus one in development; I expect more will come in time. Then there are suggested starting decks with commentary about the advantages and disadvantages of each. If you're not sure about how to pick your deck, any of these mixes will get you pointed in the right direction and you can always make your own tweaks to the base suggestions.

If you like card games, and in particular if you like both card games and deck building games, then Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 will give you a lot of play value for the money

More Spearpoint 1943 goodies

More updates from Collns Epic Wargames - thanks guys!:

New - Spearpoint 1943 Quick Reference Cards by d bro

New in the Spearpoint 1943 Downloads Area (also available on the game's Boadgamegeek (BGG) Page under Files), Quick Reference Cards summarize key rules of Spearpoint 1943 for easy reference during games.  BGG user "d bro" created the cards and we were happy to review them and support their creation.  Special thanks to d bro for creating the Quick Reference Cards and allowing us to host the file.  Each sheet is designed to fit inside the existing game box and looks great when laminated!  Download the PDF (Direct Link).

New - Spearpoint 1943 Tuck Boxes by Dustin Boggs

Dustin Boggs recently finished designing Tuck Boxes for each card deck included with Spearpoint 1943.  You may download them, print them out, cut and fold them, and add a great and attractive tuck box for each of the card decks in Spearpoint.  Special thanks to Dustin for creating these great looking boxes.  As with the Quick Reference Cards, the tuck boxes are available in the Spearpoint downloads area or on the BGG Page under Files.  Download the PDF (Direct Link).

Update - Spearpoint 1943 "Situation I" updated to Version 1.1

 Situation I is now Version 1.1.  The updated PDF along with a Change Summary is now available in the Spearpoint downloads area.  The update clarifies the use of "two" German frontlines.  Be sure to use version 1.1 for all future plays of Situation I.  Download the PDF (Direct Link).

Playtest Invitation - New Situation "Man vs. Beast"

A new Situation for Spearpoint 1943 is now undergoing external playtesting.  Man vs. Beast pits an all-infantry (and one AT Gun) US force against a Tiger tank and supporting German Infantry as they enter a partially ruined village.  This challenging situation features intact and ruined buildings, an upcoming map accessory with large flip-tiles representing the buildings/ruins, movement, line of sight, and more.  I'm happy to be working with artist Marc von Martial (All Things Zombie, Lock N' Load, and other titles) on the artwork for the Village Map Supplement, which I'm planning to offer professionally-printed as an optional add-on for this and other Spearpoint 1943 situations.  Please let me know if this add-on sounds interesting to you!  Click here to see Marc's game art portfolio.

I invite you to follow along with the playtest process on Boardgamegeek.  There, you can read the current DRAFT situation, playtest session reports, and more.  You are also welcome to join the external teams testing it and/or comment on the draft.  Session Reports are added as test games are completed, and if necessary, the draft is updated with any changes.  I thought it would be interesting to expose the playtest process I use and to invite all players to comment on the upcoming addition to Spearpoint 1943.  Click here to see the DRAFT situation in its current form.

Spearpoint 43 Arrives

Yep - its here and its as lovely as the preview pics showed.
A great little card game that takes up hardly any space - the Italian campaign in your pocket!

An errata pdf is now available here:
http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=7289932&msgid=15273&act=PUDC&c=735412&destination=http%3A%2F%2Ffrontlinegeneral.com%2FErrata_Ver1-0.pdf

And some deck suggestions ae available here:
http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=7289932&msgid=15273&act=PUDC&c=735412&destination=http%3A%2F%2Ffrontlinegeneral.com%2FSuggestedDecks.pdf

and finally there is a BGG entry here;
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56320/frontline-general-spearpoint-1943

Spearhead 1943 released!

Pre-orders start shipping this week, so it should arrive for for my Birthday! Read about it at Byron's blog here:
http://publisherperspective.blogspot.com/

And if you are as excited as me you can d/l the rules and 8 situations (scenarios) here:
http://www.frontlinegeneral.com/html/sp_downloads.html

First production copy of Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 (plus an extra box cover), taken at the printers (from Byron's Facebook page):

Spearpoint 1943

I pre-ordered this WW2 card based game by Collins Epic Wargames some time ago and understand its now at the publishers. There are a few reviews of the demo version out now and it sounds just awesome- cant wait to get my copy delivered in a month or two!

http://www.frontlinegeneral.com/html/spearpoint_1943.html

http://www.mataka.org/wp/?p=101

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56320/frontline-general-spearpoint-1943