Advanced Civilization: An Olden Goldie

During the 90s I was a heavy Advanced Civilization player. "Heavy" meaning we didn't hesitate to pull all-nighters to complete this beast, look up variants on the proto-internet etc. Our gaming group still fondly remembers those games. And yes, Crete was my favourite nation to play.

When I was recently thinning out the collection and bringing a couple of games to the local shop (which offers a nice 2nd hand selling service in exchange for store credit), I was pondering whether I should sell my copy of Advanced Civilization as well. But I just couldn't do it, mainly for nostalgic reasons, but also because apparantly it has become quite a collector's item fetching high prices. A gaming buddy of mine offered his copy (without doing some research first) for 20 euro. It was gone within minutes.

So, instead I decided to set up the game again after having been untouched in the box for nearly 20 years, and play solo. The result is shown in the pictures below. I quit when the first civilization started to collect a high number of trade cards. I considered continuing for a few more turns without trading (I even asked for opinions on BGG), but since trading is such an integral part of the game, I gave up and put everything in the box again. Perhaps 20 years from now I might take it out once more and repeat the exercise :-)

Tactics II, Replay (4, The End)

Let's continue with Turn 6.

Turn 6 (October)

The weather is again perfect, which is an ideal opportunity for the paratroopers to come back into action.

Red can continue its advance, also taking advantage of Blue's withdrawal along the Central Front.

Red Move 6

 Many of Red's attacks succeed, leaving Blue in a desperate position.

Red Turn 6, after combat resolution

The only option remaining for Blue is a series of desperate 2:1 attacks, in the hope of rolling 1's (D Elim), and avoiding 6's (A Elim).

Blue Move 6

Alas, the plan has failed. Blue is now left to a few scattered divisions, and must concede the game. Red is victorious!

Situation at the end of turn 6.

Debriefing

• In this solo-game, I played both sides, so the game probably wasn't as cut-throat as it would have been with 2 players. I also opted to try out some tactics that a more conservative player probably wouldn't have tried, such as trying a series of 2:1 attacks.
• The breakthrough for Red, which led to victory, was the assault on the Norther Front from which Blue never could fully recover. That's a large open area, without rivers to defend or any other natural boundaries, and that should benefit the attacker. If I remember correctly, that Northern plain was also often a decisive battlefield in our game over 30 years ago.
• The central river is an ideal frontline for a defender to hold, as long as you have enough units. In the end, Blue had to retreat to keep the illusion of a coherent defensive frontline, which was the nail in the coffin.
• The classic paratrooper/amphibuous landing tactic (which we also used a lot in our earlier days) proves to be very useful.
• Every 3 months, you get replacement units (1 point per friendly controlled city). Since Red has 7 cities and Blue 5, this should be an incentive for Blue to attack. As any Risk player (and real-world politician :-)) should know, in the long run a stronger production economy wins the war, so if you're outnumbered, try to take the production sites from the enemy.

Overall, I liked this replay, although the game feels a bit crude to modern standards. After all, there's not that much tactics you can use. It basically comes down to throwing as many units in the combats as possible. Roads make movement very generous (armoured units can move up to 21 squares), so any "mistakes" in deployment can easily be corrected.

I also briefly toyed with the idea of making an enlarged version of Tactics II as a convention game (3or 4 times the size), with 20 or 25mm miniatures for each unit, but since gameplay is a bit disappointing, perhaps that;s not such a good idea. But such a demo game will attract a lot of curious oldtimers!

Tactics II, Replay (3)

The game continues. We ended the previous past half-way through turn 4.

Turn 4 (August)

Blue still had to take his turn, and matters looked not so good on the Northern Front. So it was time for a counter-attack.

Blue Move 4

At least some of the attacks were succesful, an by gathering some more units, at least a front line could again be established.

Blue Turn 4 after combat resolution

Turn 5 (September)

Hurricanes are suddenly reported (weather roll). This means no airborne landings, no marine landings, no sea transfers. Luckily, Blue did a few sea tranfers during the last turn to establish something that looked like a frontline. As for paratroopers and marine units, most of them are eliminated anyway.

Since at the end of this month, friendly home cities will count vs replacement units, Red will try to take at elast Blue's besieged city.

Red Move 5

 Although perhaps not much was gained, the front is slowly being pushed forwards.

Red Turn 5 after combat resolution

Blue wants to regain control over its northernmost city, so tries to bring up as many units as possible, and tries to eliminate some of Red's panzer disvisions as well. However, this means retreating from the Central Front, in order to keep at least the illusion of a front line.

Blue Move 5

The attacks succeeded ... Blue gets 5 replacement points, Red gains 6 (its central city is not under Red's control). Both sides decides to invest in paratroopers, marine units, and armoured units. 

Situation at the end of Turn 5.

 Here's the overview of Red's losses vs Blue's losses. I think Blue is doomed :-)

Tactics II, Replay (2)

So, let's continue with turn 3. The weather is still perfect.

Turn 3 (July)

Red continues its drive on the Northern Front, with a renewed paratrooper & amphibuous landing in the back of Blue's defences.

Red Move 3

I don't have a picture of the combat outcomes, but below you can see Blue's desperate counterattacks. Seeing a major Red breakthrough, some 2-1 attacks are in order.

Blue Move 3, before combat resolution

 Alas, most of these attacks fail, leaving Blue in a dire situation on the Northern Front:

Blue Move 3, after combat resolution

Turn 4 (August)

The weather remains perfect (we're in August now), and Red continues its advance, trying to bring up more troops and attacking one of the remaining Blue's panzer divisions:

Red Move 4

 After combat resolution, the route to Blue's capital seems to be open. Can Blue recover?

Red Move 4, after combat resolution

Tactics II, Replay (1)

Over the years, I have done away with many of my old board wargames. However, I kept a few memorabilia. One of them is Tactics II, often labeled the game that started it all (at least for board wargaming). It was the very first board wargame I ever bought, somewhere in 1981 or 1982 (can't remember exactly). Combined with its iconic status, I could never part with it, although I haven't played the game in over 3 decades.

So, when cleaning up my game collection, I came across the old box again, and couldn't resist starting a little solo-game. It is amazing how well you can remember rules over the years.

But anyway, let's start the game.

Setup

Here's the initial setup. I followed the initial deployment as in the original game. I rolled for a starting month (May), and the weather, which was perfect. Another random die roll indicated Red would start.

Initial Setup

Turn 1 (May)

We always had a houserule, which stated that the first player could not invade the other territory - otherwise you could immediately take an enemy city and skew the game. So Red deployed its troops for an initial thrust, with the trusted moves of putting airborne troops in cities and marine units in harbours.

Red move 1

Next up is Blue. I decided to attack just north of the mountains, a matter of initiating the proceeedings!

Blue Move 1

 Here's a close-up of the attacking zone:

And here's the result after the combat resolution. I won;t go into the nitty gritty details of all attack rolls, but suffice to say I rolled a dreaded 6 (A elim)  in a 2-1 attack.

Turn 2 (June)

The month is now June, and the weather is again perfect. Red decided to execute a classic paradrop/beach landing assault to capture one of Red's cities (upper-right of board). This is followed up by a Red drive through the northern forests, and an attack south of the forest, in an overall attempt to conquer Blue's northern territory.

Red move 2

 After combat resolution, the situation on the Northern Front looked like this:

Blue needed a counter-attack, since the end of this month replacements would arrive. Red has 7 replacement points, Blue 5 (1 for each city), so Blue cannot afford to fall too much behind when it already has lost one city. So, Blue used its own paratroopers and marine units to quickly encircle the city in the upper-right corner of the country. (Note: I misread the rules that replacements would be at the end of June, they should be at the start of June, but the rulebook and the calendar sheet contradict each other on this matter ....)

Blue move 2

And after combat resolution, Blue has indeed recaptured its city, but it looks as if Red can renew its offensive during turn 3.

Situation at the end of turn 2, with placement of replacements (placed in cities or replacement areas).

To be continued ...

The General - Avalon Hill

As I recounted almost 10 years ago on this blog, I once was a heavy fan of Avalon Hill boardgames. This was when I was in high school (1978-1984), so budget was limited, but gaming time was not. I owned various AH games, most notably Tactics II, Afrika Korps, and Rise & Decline of the 3rd Reich. We played these to death.

More treasured even were a few issues of The General, Avalon Hill's magazine. I mostly picked these up when I visited the one wargaming shop in Belgium I was aware of, The Tin Soldier in Sint-Niklaas. I only had a few issues of the General, but they gave me a glimpse of the wider wargaming community that existed "out there".

I do not have these issues anymore - I probably tossed them all in the local "free for grabs" bin in the local gameshop when I moved to the US for a few years in 1998. But today I discovered that you can actually download all of them from the site View From The Trenches.

I already browsed through a few issues I remembered I once read as a teenager, and boy, does that bring back memories!