Game: Desert War

Thread: Re: Scenario U: Armor – France, 1940

IKerensky — 2008-07-17T08:20:09+00:00

the HORROR !!!

Germans with panzerfaust against a B1 bis in 1940 oO

Why not give them Antitank missile ? Germans should have been given an ATR and the ability to discover that the B1 is impervious to anything but 88...

And the Char B1-Bis is a very recent model in the French army of this time. It is slow and clumsy but that is because it is a Bunker buster and not a main battle tank, the reason why he got the 75 "en casemate", right about the good height to fire through bunker opperture...

And winning a scenario this scale with french heavy armor should be the norm, not the extension. German panzers where heavily out-gunned and out-armored agains french modern tank at 1 on 1...

Thread: Re: Review of Desert War - Up Front Expansion

stroar — 2008-06-15T10:31:38+00:00

"Desert War" was indeed only released in that white envelope.
I also think the Italians and the French are pretty lousy to play and we rarely use them, but if you're looking for a challenge, they're the right choise. I would recommend using the elite variants when playing with these nations. Particularily the French become a whole other ballgame to play when they play as the "Legionaires". And for the Italians, try the "Bersiglieri" versus the russians. The Italians still suck then, but not nearly as hard as normally.

R.

Thread: Re: Review of Desert War - Up Front Expansion

Ichirou — 2008-04-19T06:14:34+00:00

Yikes!!! $100-$200 for this expansion on eBay? Wow, I am very glad that I already have this expansion from way back when. And yes, mine is also in that same white AH envelope that's in the pics. It seems that if you want to get the Up Front game now with both of the expansions that it would likely cost over $300. What a shame that MMP still hasn't re-published this title.

Thread: Re: Scenario X: Surrounded – Barbarossa, 1941

goldenboat — 2008-01-21T02:21:37+00:00

Yep, the Relative Range anthology has been on my "buy" list for awhile ... probably time to pull the trigger ...

Thread: Re: Scenario X: Surrounded – Barbarossa, 1941

fusag — 2008-01-21T00:53:13+00:00

There's always the scenarios in the Relative Range zine. Some of them have a large number of special scenario rules to simulate a particular action though (e.g. amphibious assaults, fighting over bridges), but there's many interesting ideas in there.

Thread: Scenario X: Surrounded – Barbarossa, 1941

goldenboat — 2008-01-17T22:45:49+00:00

Soviet infantry are surrounded by advancing Italians early in the war in Russia …

For the last two years or so I’ve been making a dedicated effort to play through all the scenarios of Up Front and Banzai, and last night we came to the end of the road with Scenario X. And our campaign came to an end not with a bang, but with a whimper.

To be fair, there are few scenarios that are improved by including Up Front’s Italians and Russians, but we wanted something unusual to mark the end of our odyssey, and so we imagined a pocket of Soviet riflemen encircled by Italian infantry flush with confidence in the opening days of Barbarossa. The Italians are notoriously screwed in Up Front, and only those looking for punishment or a huge challenge take them in the first place … but if you are going to field them at all, it is best to put them up against Russians, as this relieves the Italians of their low squad break threshold and the odious surrender rule. Plus, this scenario affords them twenty-four soldiers at start – who can resist putting half a platoon on the board? And the Russians aren’t any great shakes, either, with about half as many men, and “encircled” on top of that.

Well, sort of. The Russians aren’t “encircled” in the rules sense, awarding a firepower advantage to their foes. Instead the scenario see them set up in the middle of two sections of enemy troops who are trying to close like a vise on their position. Like many of these final Up Front scenarios, this situation relies on a novel setup to provide variation, in this case splitting the attacking troops into a minimum of four groups, two of which must start behind the defenders, at the confusing position of “Range Chit 10.”

It took us awhile to puzzle out exactly how that was supposed to work (the Relative Range rules are kind of funky to begin with), but without too much ado we were at it, shooting away at long range, breaking, and rallying. Actually, I did the shooting and the rallying, and the Italians did the breaking, mostly. Details are hazy but I remember a big Italian group in a stream that shortly became a small Italian group, and I remember my opponent cursing as he powered through the deck looking for rally cards. Not only do the Italians have a crippling discard rate, but they also treat all split cards as cowers. Like I said, they are just screwed in this game.

The game went the distance, and the Russians won by running out the deck. By the end of the game the Russians were nicely ensconced in buildings and there were dead Italians all over the place. I think we lost one guy to a mortar burst, but otherwise, it was a pathetic end to what has been an excellent run of Up Front play these past two years.

I’d like to play this one again, with the Japanese on the attack, who would benefit from their extra movement capabilities and jungle terrain to cover their advance.

And so Operation Up Front winds to an end. I will certainly continue playing this game, but this will be my last session report on BGG, at least until I dig up additional scenarios worthy of comment. Thanks to everyone who read all the way through this series. I may post a summary in the future.

Thread: Re: Scenario U: Armor – France, 1940

cleonhard — 2007-09-26T04:05:35+00:00

goldenboat wrote:
The more I play it, the more I think it is pretty clearly the best wargaming experience I've ever had.
I completely agree.

Thread: Re: Scenario U: Armor – France, 1940

goldenboat — 2007-09-26T03:18:04+00:00

garysax wrote:
God I need Up Front.

The more I play it, the more I think it is pretty clearly the best wargaming experience I've ever had.

Thread: Re: Scenario U: Armor – France, 1940

garysax — 2007-09-26T02:53:37+00:00

God I need Up Front.

Thread: Scenario U: Armor – France, 1940

goldenboat — 2007-09-26T01:24:25+00:00

A local French armored counterattack during the German invasion of the West …

My opponent and I have been playing through these scenarios for a long time, now, and my pal has been pretty patient. He’s a closeted tread-head. Even knowing that Up Front isn’t really an armor system hasn’t deterred him from wanting to get into some tank battles with this game. While we’ll probably do some heavy-metal all-tank DYO stuff eventually, I’ve been keeping pretty narrowly focused on getting through the original, official scenarios, just to say I’ve finally played them all.

So our last two games, “Armor Patrol” and “Armor,” would seem to offer us the best of both worlds. Finally, some more tanks in Up Front. But “Armor” failed to deliver in that it offered up a mere Russian halftrack, and this afternoon’s scenario, “Armor Patrol,” looked like more of the same. I was intrigued by the prospect of funky armored cars or Japanese tankettes, but my opponent wanted something that looked like a tank. He wanted it so bad that he consented to play the French, because this scenario affords them the Char B1-bis, which does definitely look like a tank (of the WWI variety, but that’s beside the point).

I’m delighted to see the French on the table and decide to take the Germans, and that this will be a French armored spoiling attack sometime in the 1940 campaign. We don’t play the French all that often so we had to dive into the Desert War rules for nationality restrictions, and here I find the wonderful rule 51.6, which offers a paragraph of special details for the French Char B1 tank. It has a 47mm turret gun, and a heavier 75mm gun in the hull, but the hull gun has assault gun penalties, and can’t fire when the tank goes hull-down behind a wall. Wonderful stuff, finding this kind of obsessive rivet-counting in such an abstract game as Up Front. I figured these were details I’d never need to consult again.

How wrong I was.

The French came on in three groups, with the tank in the middle. I had my LMG group in the middle, and a maneuver group on my right. I thought my LMG crew would work their usual magic against the advancing French, while my maneuver group moved up a range band in search of good terrain. If my rabbits were able to advance without taking significant losses then I’d be in position to rush forward to range chit 4 or 5 and steal a scenario win; otherwise my rifles would be in decent terrain to check the French who were trying to do the same thing. I gave both my Panzerfausts to the maneuver group, figuring they’d be more likely to get close to the tank than my LMG.

Things started off according to plan. The French stumbled along, having a hard time working around their discard limit, and I took every opportunity to shoot at them as they crossed the open ground. But a funny thing happened on the way to the massacre – my LMG malfunctioned on the first shot. Hmm. That’s not a good sign at all. The French go to ground while I entrench and unpin some guys and remove wire – the usual Up Front housekeeping – and then I find the bandwidth to repair the LMG. And pull a Red 6 – permanently removed.

Suddenly I don’t have the firepower to stop the infantry, let alone the armor, which is now in good range and decides to greet my now-useless LMG group with a little bit of 47mm main ordnance fire. But the French pull a Red 5 to shoot! Ha! Malfunction! That should even things up.

But the canny French remember those Char B1 special rules. They have a second gun … that hull-mounted 75mm. It’s a little less accurate, but at least it’s working. So already, those crazy tank rules have come into play. Amazing.

What was more amazing was seeing the Char B1’s 75mm malfunction on the very next shot. I figure the crew must have gotten confused, and rammed the wrong shells into each gun. Here I’ve been playing Up Front since 1983 and have only rarely seen tanks, and in that time may never have seen an AFV main ordnance malfunction. And now I’m seeing two malf chits on the same tank. It’s always something new with this game.

I need to take advantage of the French misfortune, but the cards just aren’t coming to me. My firepower is anemic in two groups without an LMG, but at the same time I’m not pulling any terrain. I finally get my maneuver group moving, but they run into a stream. In the meantime, the French have seven men into a building at Range Chit 3, and they’ve repaired the 75mm on their Char B1. My maneuver group is still stuck on the stream and they narrowly missed their first Panzerfaust shot trying to take out the tank. This is looking bad.

But the French outfox themselves. They go hull down behind a wall … only to remember that being hull down behind a wall forbids use of that hull-mounted 75mm gun! So, now we’ve used all the rules of that obscure paragraph 51.6. If I can just pull some decent cards maybe I can get into good terrain before the French, or at least pin his infantry before the tank can recover.

I should have been so lucky. The French repaired their 47mm, and with that gun’s more accurate fire quickly bracketed my maneuver group. Two or three shots and there was nothing left over there. Nothing. Everyone, dead or fled.

OK, I’m down to one group, and my LMG is broken, but we fight on. My “firebase” is entrenched in brush and we start trading shots with the French across the way. I’ll at least have a pretty secure base of fire if they try to sprint out to Range Chit 4 for the win.

Except that those French have finally figured out how to make their big guns go “boom.” Their fire against my entrenched group is even more accurate, and before I knew it, all my guys were dead. Well, all of them except Pvt. Beck. And he was broken.

And so the French enjoy a glorious victory, with only one man lost, largely thanks to an indefatigable armor crew that refused to let their equipment let them down. We can only hope they’ll escape to England to continue the fight, because this armored counter-attack would have just been a sideshow to the larger story of 1940. But you take your victories where you find them, and anytime you win a scenario with French armor you’ve earned some bragging rights. Heck, I was happy to see it, and I was on the losing side. Vive la France.

Thread: Scenario P: Evacuation – South of the Pripet Marshes, 1941

goldenboat — 2007-07-02T20:27:40+00:00

The opening hours of Operation Barbarossa …

My Italian infantry certainly wondered at what strange twist of politics and ideology put them at the point of the spear for a Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia. Whatever obscure rationale they were offered was certainly made no more compelling by finding themselves with four wounded soldiers and about to be overrun by a Russian counter-attack. Word came to pull out, and my boys had no trouble with that … but the scenario prevented us from just running for home, because if the Russians can get to Range Chit 5, they’d win.

So, a firebase to cover our retreat seemed the best plan. I put high morale riflemen in Groups A and D with the idea that they would run for the rear with any movement cards that came my way, and then piled everyone else into two big firebases in Groups B and C.

The action starts fast in this one, as the Italians line up at Range Chit 2, something my Squad Leader Ferraro found out the hard way, when a volley of Russian rifle fire from a nearby hill killed him with nary a wimper. So I was down a Squad Leader and saddled with four wounded soldiers practically before the scenario began, and I was the Italians, the most famously screwed nationality in all of Up Front. But at least I was facing Russians, which meant I wasn’t subject to the surrender or 40% squad break rules. I did still have to deal with a firepower disadvantage, low morale across the board, and crap hand and discard limits, but heck, no one forced me to pick the Italians for this one. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.

But then … an amazing thing happened. Something actually went according to plan. My firebases poured it on the Russian middle, and scored some pins, while my two wing groups retrograded like rabbits. The Russians couldn’t pull a rally to save their lives. They did eventually shoot one of my firebases to bits, but I had a second base to keep the pressure on the Russians while my wingers kept streaking for the rear. When the Russians got moving I hit them with a marsh, and by the middle of the second deck, my middle was pretty much shredded, but my wings had gotten away with their wounded, and were hunkered down in buildings and gullies.

Victory … Italia? Now I’ve seen it all. Bravo!

Thread: Scenario I: Partisans – Outside Paris, 1943

goldenboat — 2007-03-12T07:12:51+00:00

In the dark days of German occupation …

My Germans were charged with clearing a wooded area of partisans – a grim duty with no glory to be had, and very real chance of danger, given that the partisans can be deadly when fighting from the woods, knowing the local terrain as they do, and having access to booby traps. So, too, were ambushes a real threat, to say nothing of sniper fire …

… the first shot of which claimed Pvt. Beck, drilled him right in the old third eye, which might even has elicited some snickers from his squad mates (Beck never having been a popular fellow), were they not silenced by a venomous glare from Cpl Hessel. Returning to his duties as loader for the MG34, Hessel tapped PFC Schussel on the top of the helmet, and pointed toward the distant tree line. Schussel started spraying the woods with LMG fire …

… and sprayed …

… and sprayed …

… and after a seeming eternity the woods were motionless but for drifting foliage, and silent but for the cries of the hapless partisans who simply could not withstand continued fire. It might have been worse but for an LMG malfunction (the barrel must have overheated).

My maneuver group took advantage of the French suppression to advance to hand-to-hand range, finishing off the pinned partisans over two turns, first killing one man and capturing his rifle, then killing another, and capturing Villenueve, the partisan leader. This was the first time I’d ever captured anyone in close combat in playing this game for over twenty years, and it was a fitting way to end a one-sided scenario, but the role-playing ended on the spot, as the fate of a partisan leader captured by the Germans was not pleasant to contemplate.

The partisan scenario is kind of all-or-nothing in Up Front … it has plenty of flavor, but the partisans really do need a favorable draw to take advantage of all the terrain and ambush benefits afforded by the rules. Aside from a blizzard of sniper attacks (the first of which claimed Beck), the French were unable to put up much of a fight. The French discard limit, when combined with the reduced action limit of partisans, really puts the French behind the eight ball in this one.

So, nothing to be proud of, but as I hadn’t won a game of Up Front in several weeks, I was happy to take the victory, however easily it may have come.

Thread: Scenario B: City Fight – France, 1940

goldenboat — 2006-12-14T21:41:38+00:00

The streets of Sedan …

The French initial hand was clogged with high value fire cards, and with their limited discard ability, options were limited. According to the Desert War rules, the French discard rate “… reflects the outmoded French tactical doctrine emphasizing static defense and discouragement of individual initiative.” Well, it’s sure is discouraging, let me tell you. But somehow we avoided surrendering on the spot and gamely tried to construct a decent hand, one card at a time.

The Germans, fortunately, were little better off, though they did manage to occupy decent terrain at RR1, while the French were consigned to entrenching in the open. The moment of the game came mid-way through the first deck, when an innocuous advance by the German center ran into some genuinely heroic shooting from French PFC LaRue. With a hero card doubling the firepower of LaRue’s Chatellarault mle 24/29, and with an accompanying volley of rifle fire from his squad mates in the middle, the French threw a Fire-6 attack against the German middle. The German center was shattered and would never fully recover. They did gain the cover of buildings, though, and so the Germans were still in the fight.

With the German firebase down for the count (yes, the German LMG was in that center group), the French moved out. The right side entrenched on a hill and kept the pressure on with a series of desultory attacks that seemingly always lucked into drawing pins. The center group themselves came under fire as they advanced, but managed to dive into buildings where they took a long time recovering.

The high-morale group on the French left, temporarily delayed by a stream, managed to close to RR5, but were surprised by a bold counterattack from the two Germans remaining in the center buildings. They forgot that the Germans have demo charges, too, losing a man and seeing two others pinned. Yet another hero card saw the French demo charge man instantly rally, then infiltrate the German position and return the favor of a demo charge … which fizzled, effectively doing no damage.

A ripple of dismay went through the French lines, but after all the Germans were still one casualty away from a squad break … which followed shortly, when consecutive fire from the French middle and right took out the last German required to secure French victory. It would have been more cinematic to end things with that heroic French demo charge rush, but I’ll take a rare French victory when I can get it. In the end, the result had as much to do with poor German card luck as with any French élan, but for a day, at least, my French were able to shed the label of “emphasizing the static defense” and failing to show “individual initiative.” Vive la France!

(The French get a bad rap in this game, but I still like to play them every now and then. They’re a challenge, but at least they don’t feel doomed-out-of-the-box the way the Italians do …).

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Offa — 2006-10-08T01:02:29+00:00

Thread: Re: Missing some cards - GG for scans

LibertyToad — 2006-09-09T13:39:29+00:00

Contact me at duensingtc@gmail.com--I can supply the scans if you were not able to get them.

Thread: Re: Review of Desert War - Up Front Expansion

LibertyToad — 2006-09-09T13:37:28+00:00

Yes, I'm pretty sure it only released in an envelope. I ordered it just a few months after it was released and that is how it was packaged when I got it.

I remember that I stumbled on it when I saw it in one of those white Avalon Hill order sheets with the game catalog listed on it. I was a little shocked as I hadn't heard of it.

The Italians and French make for a somewhat interesting game, but they feel a little "odd" when compared to the other nations in the game.

Thread: Missing some cards - GG for scans

kamawell — 2006-04-06T06:58:34+00:00

I'm missing the AFV cards for this expansion - I believe there should be 5 each for the French and Italians. My GG balance currently stands at 19, which I'm happy to offer for scans of the cards.

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Badgeroonie — 2006-03-12T21:24:40+00:00

All the game contents

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Badgeroonie — 2006-03-08T18:44:10+00:00

rule book

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shawn_low — 2006-02-14T06:49:20+00:00

Counter Sheet Back

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shawn_low — 2006-02-14T06:15:37+00:00

Counter sheet Front

Thread: Re: Review of Desert War - Up Front Expansion

sdiberar — 2006-02-09T17:21:35+00:00

If I recall correctly, the game was never released in a box, but only in an envelope directly from Avalon Hill.

For the most part the general consensus agrees with your opinion: in Up Front at least, the Italians are mostly useless, and the French marginally less so.

Of note is the list of forces to use for every nationality matchup in every scenario. Handy.

Thread: Review of Desert War - Up Front Expansion

TnT! — 2006-02-08T22:56:56+00:00

I see that this rarest (and currently most expensive on ebay) expansion to Up Front is in need of a review. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy many years ago - though I almost did not as it does not come in a box, but rather a plain white manila envelope.

I remember looking at it in the store and thinking "They want how much for this - a plain envelope?" I am glad I have it, cause I am a bit of a completist - but really - it adds little to the Up Front series.

What you get

Well, besides the plain white envelope, you get the French and Italian forces and rules for playing them. The small rules booklet (2 pages of rules, 6 pages of charts) also includes a complete summary of all the various scenarios - now adding the French and/or Italians. I must admit that for me, this is probably the most used part of the package. However, it still does not show the starting forces for the Brits in the City Fight scenario (nor does it add any new scenarios. It just adds the French and Italians to existing scenarios.

In addition to rules on the French and Italians, there is a short section on Desert rules (thus the title... Desert War).

We find that we usually only play the French or Italians when we are looking for something strange or different to try. They are very weak when compared to the other nationalities in the Up Front series.

For example, the French start scenario A with 12 men, a six card hand and a maximum discard of one card if they take no other actions.

The Italians start with 18 men, a four card hand, and a maximum discard of two cards if they take no other action. And they surrender when they lose 40% of their force.

Like the rest of the series, I find that playing these forces gives a great feel for the "gamer percieved capabilities" of these nationalities. You can feel the futility of fighting against better equipped and more motivated troops. But that doesn't mean that their opponent should get overconfident. It is possible to win with these forces. Just a lot harder.

If you are a completist like myself - get this expansion. But really, you won't find yourself deciding to play the French or Italians that often. But they do look nice in the box with everything else.

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magicm — 2004-04-18T15:57:13+00:00

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nerotora — 2003-11-28T21:30:37+00:00

French and Italian troops