Michael Pankonien
United States
Dallas
Texas
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Before reading this, it may be helpful to read the description of the variant I'm using first here. Also I intended to take pictures but I only found my camera in the middle of turn 3 (the pictures themselves aren't that great to look at anyway).
Turn 1: July, Perfect Weather
Activations: Red II Corp, Red 1st Army Group, Red 1st Army, Blue 1st Army Group, Blue 1st Army
The Red II Corp moved out of its bivouac position and occupies the crossroads just east of C19-26. Red 1st Army Group (Infantry Divisions 21-25 and Armor Divisions 5 and 6) leave their bivouac area towards Red II Corp. Red 2nd Army (2nd Mountain, 2nd Amphibious, and 2nd Airborne divisions) is split up: the 2nd Mountain division is sent toward the mountains while the 2nd Amphibious and the 2nd Airborne head towards the southern red city. Blue 1st Army Group moves to occupy the blue captical and secure it from the threat posed by Red II Corp. Blue 1st Army (1st Mountain, 1st Amphibious, and 1st Airborne Divisions) moves to take Red's C3-26 city via the northern forest road.
Turn 2: August, Perfect Weather
Activations: Red 1st Army, Red I Corp, Red IV Corp, Red III Corp, Blue I Corp
Red 1st Army moved to garrison the Red capital and the red cities C13-16 and C8-16. Red I Corp moved out to guard the red left flank and stopped just outside the Great Forrest. Red IV Corp moved out towards the central plains and ends its march halfway there. Red III Corp takes up positions just east of C27-29, stopping just west of Blue III Corp's bivouac area. Blue I Corp moves straight west towards the forest road hoping to take advantage of the gap in Red's lines.
Turn 3: September, Perfect Weather
Activations: Blue II Corp, Blue III Corp, Blue 2nd Army, Blue IV Corp
Blue II Corp moves forward and engages Red's II Corp losing the 8th Infantry Division for Red's 7th Infantry Division. Other II Corp attacks went much better however as Red lost the 6th Infantry Division and the Red 2nd Armor Division in exchange for Blue's 9th Infantry Division. Blue III Corp side skirted it's bivouac position slightly to the north and moved forward and then moved to attack Red III Corp's exposed flank and forcing a Red division to fall back two squares. Blue 2nd Army units moved west to cover Blue III Corp's southern flank. The Blue IV Corp left its bivouac position and headed towards Blue III Corp and Blue 2nd Army. (I resolved all of the combats in this turn at the end of the turn, but after this turn I decided to resolve them at the end of the activated HQ's movement; I think the latter rule makes more sense.)
Photo taken before Turn 3 combats were resolved
Turn 4: October, High Winds
Activations: Red III Corp, Blue IV Corp, Red I Corp, Blue 1st Army Group, Blue I Corp
Red III Corp, besides reorganizing its previously ruffled division, holds place; Blue IV Corp moves in to the behind and to the right of Blue III Corp. Red I Corp moves into the woods and down the forest path to confront the unsupported Blue 1st Armor Division (Ex. Blue 1st Armor for Red 1st Armor). Blue 1s Army Group moves westward into the gap between Blue II Corp and Blue III Corp to attack the flanks of Red III Corp and Red II Corp (Red loses 13th Infantry Div and 10th Infantry Div while Blue loses 24th Infantry Div). Blue I Corp moves in line formation into the forest and attacks the forward elements of Red I Corp (Red 5th Infantry Div falls back 2).
End of Turn 4
Turn 5: November, Perfect Weather
Activations: Red 1st Army Group, Red 2nd Army, Blue 2nd Army, Red II Corp, Red IV Corp
Replacements:
Red - 1st Armor Div (II Corp Bivouac); 2nd Armor, 6th Infantry, 7th Infantry, and 10th infantry (III Corp Bivouac); 13th Infantry (2nd Army Bivouac).
Blue - 1st Armor Div at 1st Army Bivouac, 8th Infantry and 9th Infantry at II Corp Bivouac.
Activations - Red 1st Army Group, Red 2nd Army, Blue 2nd Army, Red II Corp, Red IV Corp
Red 1st Army Group arrives to shore up the remnants of Red II Corp. Armor units move to group's right to attack extended Blue Army Group Army (Red 5th and 6th Armor Divisions fall back 2). Blue 2nd Army furthers split: 2nd Mountain Division moves into the mountains while the 2nd Amphibious and 2nd Airborne move to Blue IV Corp's right. Red II Corp moves replacement units move up towards the rest of the formation; the two divisions currently emplace hold place; the replacement armor however is moved towards the southern bridges to guard against an encirclement movement by Blue. Red IV Corp moves to dig in around the Red 2nd Armor Division and the southern bridges.
End of Turn 5
Turn 6: December, Snow
Activations: Blue III Corp, Blue 1st Army, Red 1st Army, Blue II Corp
Blue's chance for a counter attack is stolen by the snow! Blue III Corp side skirts it's position to the north across the river while it's armor division attacks an exposed Red III Corp division (Blue 3rd Armor falls back 2). Blue 1st Army continues to follow the forest road and stops just short of C3-26. Red 1st Army is sea transferred to C3-26 and attacks the head of the Blue 1st Army column (Blue 1st Mountain Div falls back 2). Blue II Corp's forward divisions press Red's right flank near C19-26 while it's new replacement divisions move up from II Corp's bivouac point (Red 12th Inf. Division is lost and the 9th Inf. Division falls back; Blue 7th Inf. Division and 6th Inf. Division are destroyed).
End of Turn 6
Turn 7: January, Sub - Zero temperatures
Activations: Red I Corp, Blue 1st Army Group, Blue 1st Army, Blue I
Corp, Red II Corp
Red I Corp moves forward in a banzai charge (five battles at 1:1 odds) against Blue I Corp; results are mixed but end up with a slight blue advantage (Red loses the 3rd and 1st Inf. Divisions while the 4th Inf. Division is forced back two squares; Blue loses the 5th and the 3rd Inf. Divisions). Blue 1st Army Group forces its way north into the gap between Red's forces near C27-29 and C19-26 (Blue loses 25th Inf. Division, Blue 21st Inf. Division falls back 2 squares; Red loses 24th Inf. Division and the 25th Inf. Division falls back two squares). Blue 1st Army moves west and south to engage the Red 1st Army's flank and assist in mopping up Red I Corp (Red loses the 5th Inf. and the 1st Amphibious Divisions; Blue loses 4th Inf. Division). Blue I Corp moves towards the Great Forest road; infantry continue in Red I Corp mop up operations (Blue loses 2nd Inf. Division for Red's 2nd Inf. Division). Red II Corp armor moves up to rejoin the rest of the Corp; infantry attack lead Blue 1st Armor Group armor (Red 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th Inf. Divisions are force back two squares).
End of Turn 7
Turn 8: February, Fog and low temperatures
Replacements:
Red - 1st Armor Division (1st Army Bivouac); 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Inf. Divisions (II Corp Bivouac); 21st and 22nd Inf. Divisions (Replacement Bivouac)
Blue - 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Infantry Divisions (1st Army Bivouac)
Activations - Blue IV Corp, Blue 2nd Army, Red 1st Army Group, Red III Corp, Red IV Corp
Blue IV Corp moves southwest to outflank Red's southern front near C27-29 (Blue loses 18th and 19th Inf. Divisions for Red's 11th Inf. Divison). Blue 2nd Army moves to complete IV Corp's flanking maneuver and avenge the 18th and 19th Inf. Divisions (Red loses 15th Inf. Division). Red 1st Army Group moves it's replacements up; Infantry dig in around C19-26; armor attacks head of Blue 1st Army Group (Blue loses 6th Armor Division). Red III Corp falls back toward C27-29 and guards flanks; replacements move up. Red IV Corp moves to III Corp's left and connects the line between C27-29 and C19-26.
End of Turn 8
Turn 9: March, Perfect weather
Activations: Blue III Corp, Red 1st Army, Blue II Corp, Red 2nd Army
Blue III Corp throws its weight in a desperate attack against the southern portion of Red's line (Blue loses 3rd Armor and 14th Inf. Divisions; Red loses 4th Armor and 12th Infantry Divisions; Blue 11th and 12th Infantry Divisions fall back 2 squares). Red 1st Army moves forwards and attacks Blue's 1st Mountain Division (Red loses 1st Mountain Division; Blue loses 1st Mountain Division). Blue II Corp moves to attack Red's northern flank at the southern edge of the woods (Blue loses 2nd Armor and 9th Infantry Divisions for Red 22nd and 23rd Infantry Divisions). Red 2nd Army launches amphibious and airborne
assaults on Blue cities; takes C41-41 and C10-47.
End of Turn 9
Blue concedes.
Thoughts on the game: What a fun game! It may not have looked like the game moved much, but between Red I Corp's disastrous Banzai charge in the forest and Blue's desperate attacks on the southern front it was a tense game! Red got lucky on the second turn as its HQ activations allowed it to rush in troops to C27-29 and C19-26 and hold the area throughout the game. The reason Blue (me) conceded was off screen from the pictures Red had at least a Corp worth of divisions waiting to be activated and the dead pile was roughly 10 blue divisions to 4 red ones; Blue simply couldn't keep up industrially. Red's amphibious and airborne operations simply clinched it. In the future I think I'll make more use of the southern mountain road; also I'm sure I could've forced a breakthrough in the forest if I'd just had a corp's worth of divisions lying around. If only, if only…
Thoughts on the variant: I am both happy and disappointed with the variant; the variant brought more focus to individual Corp operations and brought more player interaction to the game. Turns were much shorter as there were only twenty or so units to move per turn and on average half of those belonged to the other player. Players had to focus on the repercussions of moving a Corp here or attacking units there; there might not be any immediate cover for an exposed flank or a gap in the line. However the variant also reduced the firepower available to a player at any given time. Once a two Corp's have settled into an objective, it is very tough to dig them out with just one Corp. And any progress made by that Corp might be immediately undone by a timely HQ activation. I think however that this can be fixed by changing the force organization slightly: instead of assigning the 1st and 2nd Army HQ's on both sides just the specialists divisions I'll assign them Corp HQ's as well (1st Army receives I and II Corp, 2nd Army III and IV Corp). The Corp HQ's will still be in the draw pile and can be activated separately; when an Army HQ is drawn however, even if one of the activated Corps have been activated, the Corp's under that HQ will be activated giving the offensive player the power he needs. The 1st Army Group HQ however will still only control the 21st through 25th Infantry Divisions and the 5th and 6th Armor Divisions. I will also look into other remedies for Blue's lack of industrial fortitude. I'm going to play another game with these changes although I probably won't write up another report like this.
(On another note, I need to get a better camera. I'm really disappointed on the resolution of these photos. If someone would like to suggest something cheap...)
Edit: Spelling
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Michael Pankonien
United States
Dallas
Texas
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I finished the second game and I think change to the Army HQ's helped. Now it's a more "moving" game because a player can applicate enough firepower in one activation to get something done. On a side note, one thing I noticed in this game is that the counter density shrunk severely by turn 5. I'd say that neither side had more than fifteen divisions by this point. Maybe this is just a normal part of the game? Or the result of my variant? Or maybe it's because I'm an idiot and I throw away all of my divisions on 2:1 attacks (such a scam). I guess I'll just have to practice being a little bit more conservative. For those who are curious by the way, Blue (me) won this time!
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This sounds interesting and now that I think about it I'd like to try something similar to this which is the activation system from the game Bravery in the Sand.
You have your HQ chits in a cup and only draw one at a time then move that division. When moved you can attack or mark it and the target as pinned for battle. Then draw the next chit, if it's one of yours you can add those units to the battle before resolving. The fun in this system is you can attack with the one division at lower odds or risk waiting and reinforcing the battle and hopefully not have the enemies reinforcements showing up before yours.
Thanks for looking into improving this old game 
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Michael Pankonien
United States
Dallas
Texas
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Quote: You have your HQ chits in a cup and only draw one at a time then move that division. When moved you can attack or mark it and the target as pinned for battle. Then draw the next chit, if it's one of yours you can add those units to the battle before resolving. The fun in this system is you can attack with the one division at lower odds or risk waiting and reinforcing the battle and hopefully not have the enemies reinforcements showing up before yours.
Ooo, I like that! 
Quote: Thanks for looking into improving this old game
One of the things I like most about Tactics II is that it's so simple; its simplicity makes the players focus on their individual strategy and (low and behold) tactics! This simplicity also makes the game easily modifiable to suit different play styles. I've never played a chit pull game but thanks to this I was able to "try" one out.
Plus Tactics II is such a fun game in it's own right. 
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Posted Sun Jul 11, 2010 2:02 am
