Chad Martinell
United States
Beaumont
California
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Every time I bring a game over and play with my in-laws my father-in-law invariably asks if I have ever played any Avalon Hill games. My answer is almost always "Just Axis and Allies."
This afternoon after some serious Black Friday shopping, we went over to the in-laws and there on the counter was Tactics II. It seems that my FIL has been searching high and low for a very specific game, and this was it. Through several bouts with eBay and incomplete games, he finally grabbed a copy from Troll and Toad. It was complete and in very, very good shape.
I sat down with the rule book and tried to digest it. It is a fairly short rule book, but has a lot of information. (To clarify the board had a copyright date of 1958, but the rule book stated 1961). Richard (FIL) started to set up the board. We made sure we had all of our units and off we went.
It seems that we stuck to the typical methods of spreading out the front and confronting each-other.
I found about half-way through the game that we were playing incorrectly (I always do this first, and second... and usually the 3rd time through a new game.) We were ignoring the rule that when you come in contact with an enemy unit you have to immediately stop movement. In ignoring this rule we found it very simple to surround enemy units and avoid things like attacking across rivers, etc... Next time we'll play with the correct rules and it should affect the game greatly.
So, at first Richard was whipping me, and was several units ahead of me, and I lost 2 Armor units early on... but then shortly after that the dice started to turn in my favor, especially when he attacked me 4 units to 1 unit and lost them all! That was a major tide changer. I started to take advantage of his dwindling units and push my HQ units into his abandoned cities, using the sea movement to bring more and more troops into his territory.
In the end Richard was down to just a few units and surrendered.
I enjoyed the game, and after reading a couple of reviews and session reports, I have some new ideas for when I play with Richard again.
It also seems that he has ordered Blitzkrieg for us to try out.
(Note: Richard has played these games in the past, though it has been quite a while since his last game.)
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Thomas H
United States
California
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What an excellent idea! I will have to start challenging my daughter's boyfriends to a game of Tactics II. That should thin the field pretty quick.
I would recommend the 1973 rules. Up until then the amphibious and paratrooper forces can do special movement without starting in a city. This allows an opening move where a paratrooper starts from the set up square and immediately is dropped adjacent to an empty enemy port city which is then promptly filled with units that are sea transported in. The first collection of Tactics II articles in The General revolve around using this tactic to isolate and destroy the Red forces on the NW island.
With the 1973 rules, amphibious and paratrooper forces have to start their turns in City-Port squares or City squares respectively. Sea transport forces also have to start their turn in a City-Port square to move by sea. This makes the first turn destruction much more managable.
Good luck with the FIL.
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Will Green
United States
Alameda
California
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ThomasH wrote: What an excellent idea! I will have to start challenging my daughter's boyfriends to a game of Tactics II. That should thin the field pretty quick.
You're onto something! If they survive that move on to The Russian Campaign, and if they're still in the hunt...well, they must run the gauntlet: The Longest Day.
If they have the staying power for that one, then odds are they have the staying power for a long-term relationship with your daughter.
(I am not, in any way, suggesting that being in a relationship with your daughter is like being in the trenches of war... rather, the young man in question would have the stick-to-itiveness to remain in a relationship ) ( and if he likes to play wargames, well, you'll have an opponent for the next 40+ years! )
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Thomas H
United States
California
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Actually I was thinking a game of Diplomacy with the rest of the family should fit in there somewhere. It would be interesting to see how he would handle that.
As it is, we play the card game "Bullsh!t" with her dates to see how good they are at lying...
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June Hwang Wah
Singapore
Singapore
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Never, ever play Diplomacy with family or people you'd like to see again.
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Thomas H
United States
California
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So you recommend the game with the boyfriend...
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Bill Eldard
United States
Burke
Virginia
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chadmart wrote: It also seems that he has ordered Blitzkrieg for us to try out.
Blitzkrieg can be considered an evolutionary decendent of Tactics II, employing a hexagonal grid instead of suqare grid, and adding aircraft.
One of the great characteristics of games like Tactics II and Blitzkrieg is that house rules can be readily applied. Players can experiment with rules adapted from other wargames; I like Blitzkrieg with the move-shoot-move mechanic of the early SPI WW2 games.
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Glenn Roberts
United States
Eaton
Ohio
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Your "mistake" in moving is actually similar to a house rule I've used to add a "blitz" element. Essentially, we allowed armor units (only) to move freely through squares adjacent to enemy non-armor units (infantry, mountian, amphib, and paratroop.) This allowed a player to use armor to infiltrate enemy infantry lines and attack from the flank and rear, supported by infantry attacking from the front. Combined with paratroop rules, this allowed some fairly large breakthroughs and added mobility to the game.
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Posted Sat Nov 28, 2009 5:02 am
