With NATO Division Commander wrapped up my table in my office is clear! 

Now a first world problem. I am blessed with a plethora of games to choose from.

I have a few long term projects going right now, which is causing my pick a game tension level to rise and indecision motor to whir out of control!  What to play next?

A summary of the series of articles I’m writing would briefly be: Chronological Walk Thru of WWII, Comparisons of Napoleonic tactical systems, Operational Art of War, and regular thematic Ancients efforts (see here) are the four biggies with side projects for various items, such as LNL’s Modern play and experiencing all of the WWIII titles I own. Help me out here!

This year I have played:

Note: 17 sessions were from Feb at the Game On Con in Seattle.

Lets look at this in buckets to winnow things down.

The Chronological Walk Thru of WWII which is currently sitting sluggishly at Nov 12th 1941 is situated over in the Eastern Front with our monster play of Case Blue and Guderian’s Blitzkrieg II.

Slow going, so we must continue but move to the next phase of WWII if we are to do another title. Anew title in the next phase of the war  for me would likely be something in the December 6th time frame for the counter offensive and end of Op Barbarossa on the East Front. 

Having completed a few plays of Strategic level Eastern Front titles (The Russian Campaign, The Dark Valley and Hitler Turns East), I am wondering if one more is in order?

Most of the actions/events in the time line that are coming up are focused on the Eastern Front in any case. We could look at perhaps Blitzkrieg 1941 from Command Magazine  #1 (I finally found the rules summary and rules!). I do not own any operational medium to small sized games on Operation Typhoon or the Soviet Counter Offensive. Suggestions?

We played out the African Campaign segments in DAK II but not the discrete campaigns. I have funnily enough, very few titles on that theatre, so any gaming would likely be smaller scenarios played via Afrika II if at all? Does it even have smaller scenarios? Hmm.

I cannot attend to the war in the Pacific theatre yet as the only real conflicts that are playable are via War of the Suns for 1939 thru 1941. That rule book needs a re write, and as such it is not going on my table…yet. Which is a pity as on December 9th 1941 China declared war on Japan – Perfect timing.

While we are on WWII, if we took some of the titles I own out of Chronological sequence, there are a few I am keen to get to; Ukraine ’44 and the Victory in the West System – Battle for the Rhine. I also did not own Fallshirmjager from the SCS series when I started this Walk Thru. That title would slot back nicely into our run thru with the fall of Holland as a focus!?!

Heck as a filler we could crank out some more Panzer! I am digging that game face to face.

Napoleonic Era:

The examination of Aspern-Essling at the tactical level to understand which system I like the best at the Grand Tactical scale has been aborted as neither Vae Victus nor NLB from the OSG company work for me.  A chap on BGG suggested I use someone’s third party modifications, but the barrier to entry seem high.

So I am planning to play Talavera from Clash of Arms La Batielle  series and contrast it to NBS from The Gamers. The only hesitation in starting is the amount of work require to ‘uplift’ this CoA title to current standards.

While we are in Napoleonic era titles I have a yearning for a play of Prado’s Beyond Waterloo and Zuckers Le Guerre, for which I have skim read the rules.

American Revolution

In the same vein but a little further along the time line the Paper Wars magazine game Rockets Red Glare appears to be a fairly straight forward game, but some of the errors that have slipped thru are worrisome. This might be a good reason to check in and see what the latest is on that game as far as updates are concerned.

Strategic-Tactical Linkages:

Some of you may have seen the efforts to develop battles for GBoH from A Most Dangerous Time, and Hannibal Rome v Carthage and Hellenes, however with Hoplite out, I feel like a bit of a sinner NOT playing the scenarios given by it first! This project I think shall hit the back burner for a while.We have Hoplite which I would love to play again….maybe Plataea?

Modern Wars:

Last years top ten things to get done in 2014 also included playing all the Lock’n Load modern scenarios.  I have made a small start on that with ANZAC Attack, but need to get things in chronological order and make a commitment.

That said taking things out of order and playing the Day of Heroes campaign would be so awesome I might pee my pants. I just read Blackhawk Down for the first time this spring, and played a scenario recently.

Niggling in the background I have the climax of my Space Infantry campaign to do and re draft. It has been so much fun, I love having a consistent character to write about. So much so in fact that I think that I want to try doing the same thing with Ambush!  Perhaps a wrap up of SI and a start on Ambush! is in order?

Other WWIII themes:

FIFTH Corps/Hof Gap /BAOR combined? I have a rough grasp of the rules, and it would fulfill part of my desire to get thru some of the 30+ WWIII themed titles I have. I’m holding off on GDW’s classic as there maybe a chance to do that in a group setting.

As an aside I’m passing on the whole Next War Korea thing. A bust. The game is just not believable in how those bad ass Commie armies are so tough rifle for rifle.

AirLand Battle is unpunched on my shelf. Is this a crime? I have heard so many good things about it.  A new rule book though and likely some time before I could pop it on the table.

American Civil War:

Line of Battle would be a new system and is huge, but there are a couple of smaller scenarios that would allow me to get my feet wet in an era I have zero exposure to. This title is worth considering for some game play.

For that matter Victory Games Civil War sits unplayed also!  This title I am told is easy to pick up especially with the newer rules, but it would require a fresh start.

Musket and Pike Era?

Speaking of systems…. I have flirted with Musket & Pike twice, but not absorbed it or internalized it as much as I would like to. Surely it must figure somewhere in the next to play?

New Systems:

GTS beckons! I have been eyeing Ty’s videos as a fast start for me on Devils Cauldron. I really want to learn more about this series and work out if I want to make the investment. Perhaps I can do a learner scenario of this title to whet the appetite?

Unconditional Surrender is staring hard at me too, but I cant see my self punching and clipping it yet, no appetite for that bad boy just yet.

My bud Itinerant Hobbyist sent me a copy of GMT’s Caucus campaign, I’d love to do that, but its going to require a really good rule reading first. The game has lots of nuance here on movement modes, and a few other things, which surprised me.

The Campaign Commander Punic Isle; or Coral Sea look like really interesting thoughtful systems. That might be a nice novelty to try as it is out of the box thinking all around.

Well….shoot that was a core dump if ever I saw it.

I guess we could run a poll?