Blast from the Past (5): Tactics II

A few more images from the home-made Tactics II game shown yesterday. Eddy told me he also penciled in names of city, inspired by names of cities in The Lord of The Rings, but these are hardly visible ...

 

Blast from the Past (4): Tactics II

Back in the early 80s, when I just started into wargaming, it was very hard for a teenager without a significant budget to acquire a lot of board wargames. Belgium wasn't exactly in the centre of wargaming activity at the time, although they were a few shops were you could buy wargames. Availability was one thing, price another.

One of the solutions was to copy wargames. Copying the rulebook was easy in a copyshop (which were plentiful at the time), but counters had to be made, and maps either photocopied and coloured in, or drawn from scratch. I remember making copies of the famous Rise and Decline of the Third Reich, using a lot of cardboard, letraset and coloured paint. Sadly, I threw all these handmade games out when I had enough money to buy all those games myself.

My longtime wargaming friend Eddy S., didn't throw them out so easily, so I was pleasantly surprised when he showed his handmade copy of Tactics II (copied from my original game), dating back to our high school days.

Another interesting fact showed up, as can be seen from the photographs above. For some reason, he always assumed the game had to be played with Red and Blue rotated 90 degrees on the board. This was one of those weird consequences of copying the game, but not having a faithful 100% copy - some labels or indications on the map were forgotten. It never occurred to me one could play Tactics II in this manner (I did play other variants, such as placing the sea borders next to each other for an invasion-style game), but it does look like an interesting variant.

Blast from the Past (3)

Here's an article recovered by Eddy S from our fanzine Eddy and I put together during our high school days (80s).

The article below (in Dutch) is written by me, but typed by Eddy. I owned Tactics 2 (still have that same copy), and so coming up with scenarios for Tactics 2 seemed like a given.

The first scenario, "Beachhead" was supposed to be an amphibious invasion. Only half of the map was used (the homecountry to be invaded). 10 infantry units were upgraded to marine units. Units could land anywhere on a coastal square. I see that we were very bloodthirsty at the time. Units had to roll for survival after landing (section 2). We also proposed the use of mulberries (the blank counters in the box). Nukes were not allowed, otherwise the mulberries could be destroyed immediately. We also had a special rule for amphibuous tank units!

The second scenario is similar, but was an airborne invasion.

I can't remember we play-tested these scenarios. But that's ok. We were aspiring professional wargames designers after all!

 

 

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 ...