Timeline
News: 2:43
Tom Russell from Hollandspiele: 11:32
The gifts that keep on coming: 39:54
Links to items mentioned
Hollandspiele’s Tom & Mary Show podcast
Hollandspiele’s Grunwald Swords
Mounted map boards from White Dog Games (and Hollandspiele)
Nightfighter thread on the Quarter to Three forums
Front Toward Enemy by Joe Chacon
Jack Greene’s Hitler Strikes North
Vesa Arponen’s All Bridges Burning
Brezhnev’s War by Ty Bomba from Compass Games
Land of Confusion by Paul Rohrbaugh from High Flying Dice Games
Napoleon’s Resurgence from OSG
Decision Games’ Wacht Am Rhein
Mrs. Thatcher’s War from White Dog Games
N: The Napoleonic Wars from White Dog Games
VentoNuovo’s Kickstarter for Stalingrad: Inferno on the Volga
Thank you Santa, you to Bruce.
Hello Bruce,
Merry Christmas! Your Wild Weasel episode wasn’t only a gift to yourself, but also to me, as I immensely enjoyed listening to it while doing some handywork I only find time for around christmas.
Question: Your mentioning the Compass Games website has coloured me interested and I was eyeing Enemy Action: Ardennes before, because believe it or not, there is not a single wargame about the Ardennes Offensive in my (puny) collection.
The shipping costs to Germany are pretty prohibitive though. So I thought “dream big” and get one or two more games so it won’t matter too much, but I have a hard time finding another title from Compass Game’s sale that piques my interest.
“Steel Wolves” covers an interesting topic, but the playing time will probably kill me: I struggle to find the time to get the Air Leader Games from DVG on my table every once in a while and they look a lot less complex than this beast.
On the other hand, the African front is my second favourite after the Pacific and I have heard about “The African campaign” as a wargaming classic, but I also already have No Retreat NA, which looks nicer and can be split into multiple smaller sessions more easily which is a factor for me. It’s similar with Proud Monster (I can hardly imagine playing it over NR:RF which I loved to bits the one time I managed to play it and I want to keep exploring that game).
I know, giving recommendations is stupid, because everyone is looking for something different and I’m not looking for an excuse to just buy stuff, but maybe you can point me in some direction. What might be interesting to look at for a wargaming neophyte? Are there gems in Compass’ catalog that I might have missed?
Happy to hear some impulses from others, as well, and I promise I’ll make responsible purchase choices afterwards like the adult human being I am now.
(well, haha, we know that last part is not going to happen though š ).
Hi Michael,
Enemy Action: Ardennes is a tremendous game. Recommending things is tough, but I do think The African Campaign is worth playing for someone with an interested in North Africa. If you are interested in World War I, I highly recommend John Gorkowski’s Balance of Powers. Back to WWWII, I like Ted Raicer’s Fall of the Third Reich for how quickly and smoothly it plays. And John Hill’s Yalu is a classic that I am glad they reprinted (although I only have the original 1977 version from Conflict Games.
Hope that helps!
–Bruce
Excellent episode as ever, thank you. The length, balance of content and most of all the insight in Wild Weasel never fails to impress.
Thank you again for the podcast!
There will soon be 3rd Finnish Civil War game, which will be kickstarted early next year (possibly on 100th anniversary of the civil war in January). BGG has entry for game and copy of living rules:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/234673/1918-brother-against-brother
It’s very traditional card driven war game, inspired e.g. Paths of Glory.
Disclaimer: I have read and commented cards and designer is friend of mine. Unfortunately I never had opportunity to playtest.
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I also liked a lot the end bit of the podcast where you discussed on how some of the elements from so called Eurogames have impacted Wargames etc. I assume that euros have brought a lot more people to tabletop gaming, and some of them, including me, have got to wargaming through euros. This might be even more so in Europe where we don’t have similar war gaming veterans from hex & counter era (with possible exception of UK). Thus, most wargamers in Finland are less than 50 years old and they also play euros in addition to wargames (with possible exception of active ASL community). As a result of this, I feel war gamers over here are maybe a bit more open to new mechanisms and ideas since gamers are used to all that in euros. Or at least we lack the resistance from veterans, since we donāt have any!
I know Iām late to the party, but I just watched all four videos in your analysis of Dien Bien Phu wargames (after reference in a response on BBG) and they were terrific. Analyzing games in this way really helps one understand the pluses and minuses of each approach and also whether all/some/none meet the readers criteria of what they are looking for in a game experience. While this effort took a huge investment in your time, it gave me a lot to think about in my own approach to wargames. It would be nice to see similar series on other wargame topics, although obviously it would be insane to try it for the most ābeaten to deathā topics that are represented by dozens of titles. Iāve also listened to all your Wild Weasel podcasts and look forward to more!
Thanks, Jerry! There is no “late to the party” – there are tons of people who still haven’t seen it! I am planning the next series right now, probably to cover Operation Market-Garden.
Hi Bruce: Really enjoy the insight you bring to the hobby.
I have a extra copy of Jim Day’s MBT expansion BOAR if your interested. Shoot me a email & I’ll send it to you. It’s a nice balance between rivet counting, chrome and a enjoying game experience.
Keep up the good work!