You know, Flying Frog really missed out on the marketing potential of a zombie Alan Thicke by calling Last Night On Earth’s first expansion Growing Hunger and not Growing Pains. Maybe next time.

Growing Hunger hit the table last weekend and much carnage ensued. The poor folks of Woodinvale were once again devoured, torn apart, bludgeoned, and in one case blown up into tiny flaming chunks. For the most part the zombies fared slightly better.

As an expansion you’d expect the usual laundry list of expansiony bullet points and Growing Hunger delivers each one like a shot to the brainpan. Two new map expansions (and unfortunately the weakest aspect of the expansion, as the coloration is off along with the size—they’re cut about one or two millimeters off where they should be to fit properly with the center section), four new heroes, seven red zombies (same as prior sculpts), fifty new cards, three new scenarios, and a ton of counters that are mostly there for DIY scenarios.

The most interesting aspect of the expansion is that essentially all the new rules are variants. Using a point cost system as represented by a scale of one to four dots players can freely pick and choose from the expansion special scenario rules to modify any existing scenario or in crafting their own. The three new scenarios in the game already take into account the special rules and need no modification (although there’s nothing to stop you from swapping out what rules the new scenarios use).

Some of these rules include allowing the heroes to add to their numbers when one hero bites the dust (although the zombie player still wins at the elimination of four heroes over the course of the game), auto spawning zombies, heroes starting off with more cards, and more. The best new rules are the Free Search Markers and the Zombie Grave Dead.

Free Search Markers are placed in buildings and when a hero moves into the building it can be discarded to allow the hero to search the building immediately. This is especially a boon in scenarios where the heroes have to locate special objects such as fuel to set blazes, increasing the odds slightly that you’ll get whatever you need much more quickly.

Similar to Free Search Markers are Exploration Markers. They function pretty much the same except that they are two-sided and have a special effect when flipped that range from a surprise zombie spawn and attack to a free search to adding a fifth hero.

Zombie Grave Dead are more powerful undead than the regular ghoulies. Prior to commencing play the zombie player rolls on a table to see what type of Grave Dead they are. Results can by ‘Very Rotten’, allowing them to ignore any non-explosive wound on a 4+, ‘Ravenous’, allowing an extra fight die, ‘Freshly Dead’, which allows them to move d3 spaces, and more. The Grave Dead are always represented by the red zombies and are brought in on a cost of using two zombie spawns to bring one Grave Dead spawn into play.

The new heroes aren’t bad additions, although as can be expected some are better than others. In order of what I feel is the most powerful to least we have…

Sam (The Diner Cook). A bad ass fighting machine, he can take a whopping four wounds before going down and can cancel a Zombie Fight card used on him on a roll of 4+. And as we found out in our game, he makes one helluva a zombie hero. One of the new zombie cards is ‘Bitten’. You play it on a hero once they kill a zombie. Next time they are wounded they transform, regardless of damage, into a zombie hero. I played it on Sam and my opponent got so nervous with a four wound zombie that could move d3 spaces he ended up sacrificing Jake with an exploding gas can just to kill undead Sam.

Amanda (Prom Queen). Youth, which means not many hits, but she can hide and cancel any fight on a 4+ before fight dice are rolled, and any male hero in her space gains an extra fight die from her beauty.

Rachelle (Detective Winters). Starts the game with a flashlight and pistol and has the ability to ignore any wound by rolling a 6 when taking the hit.

Kenny (Super Market Bag Boy). Has the ability to kill any zombie beaten in a fight (no doubles needed) by discarding an item or taking a wound. As a youth he of course only has two wound boxes so that’s not exactly going to be of much use. And that’s it. Definitely the weakest of the new crew but at least when he gets his guts ripped out you get to say, “You bastards, you killed Kenny!”

The new cards are pretty good. As mentioned the zombie card ‘Bitten’ is great, as is ‘Let’s Split Up’ which causes a hero to take a wound if they end their move action in the same space or building as another hero. Some nice hero cards include ‘T.J. Thoroughbred’, discard at any point to move the hero d6 spaces or six if played by Jenny. Doesn’t restrict it to outdoors so I guess you can go charging through the supermarket with the horse. ‘Against All Odds’ gives one hero for the turn an extra fight die and best of all, that hero cannot be killed in any way for the turn.

Growing Hunger also introduces two-handed weapons. Taking up both weapon slots they provide some sort of special bonus that makes having to wade into melee worth it. For example, ‘Garden Shears’ gives the hero an extra fight die but also allows an instant zombie kill if any of the dice rolled end up as a six—no doubles needed.

The new scenarios are pretty tough but then again, the core scenarios are tough. Your mileage may vary, but in our experience the heroes always have an uphill battle to victory. One scenario we played this weekend in which the heroes must burn four zombie spawning pits in the mansion came down to the wire. If the heroes had one more turn they could have won, but alas, they didn’t. I will say that I thought my opponent made a tactical error in panicking early in the game and using one of his gas canisters to explode zombie Sam (yeah, it was that game) so maybe in the hands of someone else the heroes would have fared better.

The challenge the heroes face is good though. After all, how many zombie movies ever end on a happy note? Besides, it makes for some great cinematic gameplay and even losing is usually fun in Last Night On Earth.

Continuing the tradition started in the core game Growing Hunger adds a lot of new counters that aren’t used for any official scenario but are there for your own designing pleasure. Toxic waste barrels and puddles, a meteor, motorcycle, and more are included and at least one or two things should spark your imagination. One such item for myself was a pile of money. How about a scenario pitting all four heroes against one another in a bid to find the loot and escape while battling the legions of Hell? The one thing that still hasn’t found its way into the game? Sharks.

Growing Hunger is a great expansion. I’m not sure how much further Flying Frog can go in terms of expansions, although new heroes, cards, and map sections would always be welcome. But even if they don’t expand the game right now with all the variant rules and potential scenarios it will be quite a long time before the game becomes stiff and cold.

Wings Of War (Distributed in the US by Fantasy Flight Games)

Back in the day one of the most clever and innovative games on World War One aerial combat I played was the Ace of Aces series by Nova. Ace of Aces was a deathmatch flight sim between two fighters without the need of a computer.

Each game came with two books, one for each aircraft, that through line art depicted what the pilots saw. At the bottom of the page were a variety of maneuvers that could be performed, with page numbers for each one. Each player would choose a maneuver and tell his opponent the page number. You’d then go to that page and then find the maneuver again and this time turn to the page yourself (it’s been awhile since I’ve played so it’s possible that I’ve gotten this backwards). When you were in position to shoot the art would show your aircraft firing. In the basic game you had to shoot your opponent X number of times to down him. Advanced rules adding more complexity to the game, including specific hit locations and airframe stress.

Since you only needed two books to play besides the portability of the game, it had no set up time. “Here, take this book and open it up to page…” Factor in the basic game could be learned in about two minutes, and you had a perfect game to suck even non-gamers into the world of dog fighting.

The series eventually moved away from World War One into World War Two, the jet age, and even an Old West gunfight! Needless to say, the further away from the days of canvas and wood the more the game suffered (it definitely failed as a game of modern fighter combat). It did also inspire the development of the Lost Worlds fantasy fighting books, which are still being published today, and a Battletech combat series.

The Wings of War series of games reminds me a lot of Ace of Aces. Like Ace of Aces its roots are in the daring deadly aerial ballet of combat over the war torn fields of Europe in the First World War. And like Ace of Aces it’s clever, fresh, and innovative. The basic game is also dirt simple to learn, and while not quite as portable as Ace of Aces there is very minimal set up and break down time.

At its core Wings of War is a miniatures aerial combat game that instead of miniatures (although you can now buy nicely crafted plastic minis) uses cards. Ideally each player controls one aircraft, although more than one is entirely possible.

The aircraft is depicted from a top down view on a small card. Each aircraft is rated for the number of hit points, the type of damage it does, and a maneuverability rating. This rating is tied into a deck of cards that players will use to decide how their plane is moving. The top of the card has a small line dead center of it, and the bottom of the card has a small arrow, also dead center. Both of these will become important when the discussion of movement comes up. Additionally, the firing arc for weapons is shown.

A turn consists of the players choosing three maneuver cards from their maneuver deck and placing them face down on the table in the order they will be performed. There are a few simple rules here; some moves cannot be performed back to back, and there is a specific move order one must perform to make an Immelman Turn. The game is also considered to be running continuously, so while you choose three cards at a time the next set is considered to be performed right after your third card, meaning you must adhere to the special movement situations as you go into the next turn.

Once everyone has chosen their cards the turn proper begins. Players reveal the first card and perform the move.

Maneuver cards physically show, by way of an arrow originating from the base of the card, where the plane is moving. A player takes the card and matches the bottom of the card to the top notch on their fighter card. Holding the maneuver card in place you then take your fighter card and match the bottom arrow to the end arrow on the maneuver card. Remove the card, and presto, your fighter has moved. This continues for two more cards, after which three more are chosen. Play then goes on and on like this until the chosen victory conditions have been met.

After each player moves there is always a combat phase if anyone is within firing range. Firing consists of taking a small measuring stick (included with the game) and connecting it from the firing dot at (usually) the center of your plane, and seeing if it can reach any part of your target while falling within your firing arc. If you’ve ever played a game in which you needed to check LOS with a string you’ll feel right at home. If all the parameters are met then damage is dealt out.

Damage type is decided by two factors. First, the stick is divided by a line in the middle. If the target falls beyond this line then it will only suffer one attack. If the target falls within this line then it suffers two attacks. Next, there can be a variation in the type of damage suffered due to the attacking aircraft type. In the first games of the series there isn’t a great deal of variation in damage type, but there is when the series moves into the Second World War.

The targeted player then draws from a damage deck one or two cards, depending on where they fell on the targeting guide. Damage is expressed by a numerical rating, a symbol that represents specific damage (i.e. engine fire), or an insta-kill explosion. The most common damage cards are the numbered cards, representing loss of hit points.

Players who take damage keep the effects secret from their opponents, unless the effects are something that must be revealed, like a thick plume of black smoke now trailing from their fighter. Since players keep the damage secret there is never any way to tell exactly how much damage someone has taken, although the number of cards they’ve accumulated can give some idea. At the same time there are a number of zero rated damage cards, so looks can be deceiving. When the damage points equals or exceeds the plane’s hit points, the aircraft is shot down.

That’s the system in a nutshell. Choose how you want to move, move, and hopefully get some shots in.

Advanced and optional rules can be layered onto the basic system, such as altitude and ground attacks, although in our experience these rules come at the expense of taking more time with not enough return in enjoyment. Usually just throwing the gauntlet down and having a melee in the sky is entertaining enough, although purists may balk at the 2D world.

Recently the series moved into the early days of World War Two. Pretty much the gameplay has stayed the same, although to represent both the better responsiveness of plane and pilot players don’t choose three cards, but rather only have two cards at a time out. New cards are chosen after each move, so players are constantly cycling between these two cards. Speed changes are also introduced in the World War Two version, which impacts an aircraft’s maneuvers, and damage is no longer done by cards but rather by counters. Oh, there are also a number of new optional rules, such as pilot qualities and fuel consumption. Again, while they sound good in theory we’ve just always found the optional rules to bog the game down without an appreciable return.

There are a couple of minor issues with the game series. While the game can be played by two players expect it to be a turning duel. You really need at least four or more players to make it interesting. Unfortunately those four players cannot choose the same type of aircraft, as there are not enough maneuver card decks in a base set.

If you’re interested in aerial combat gaming, but have no interest in the complexities of earlier air combat games, the Wings of War series of games is a good place to look for your needs. It’s easy to learn, easy to teach, and offers up plenty of tabletop goodness in a small package.

Now all we need is for someone to take the system and convert it into ancient naval warfare…

Balkan Storm (Pacific Rim Publishing)

With the recent troubles in the Balkans Army Group Kitchen Table this time visits Pacific Rim’s Balkan Storm.

Balkan Storm is a consim about a major conflict in the early 21st century over Central and Eastern European territory. As one would guess from the name the map only covers the eastern half of Germany to the western edges of Russia (only major Russian cities are Smolensk, Kursk, Voronezh, and Rostov-na-Donu). In the north Lithuania is the northernmost territory, while in the south Constanta of Romania represents the southernmost city. Italy shows up as a few hexes (and has no military forces represented).

And oh, as you can tell by the photo, the map tends to be somewhat…hmm…garish. At least there’s never a question of where a border resides, though.

The game takes an interesting open ended approach to the conflict. One player plays the Aggressors kicking off the conflict, which can either be Germany or Russia, the other the forces of the US, UK, and whatever allies they pick up. Instead of a set scenario the game is driven entirely by the Aggressor force, and depending on how the players play, a session could play out entirely as a limited war or it could evolve into a major conflagration with nukes being thrown around left and right.

Balkan Storm begins by the Aggressor player setting up all German and Russian military units that begin the game on map. The Western player then sets up all the European units, which all begin neutral. Additionally, there are a couple of UN units that are deployed in Kalinigrad and Sarajevo. They won’t ally with anyone, and they can’t attack but only defend. So yeah, they’re as useless as the UN is in real life.

For the Western player he receives an initial starting force of one ground unit and a couple of air units. All other units will come on as reinforcements, with Marines and Airborne units appearing first followed by heavy units. British units arrive slightly faster due to their proximity to the continent. The heavier units are also dependent on sea control, which is simply a function of rolling randomly to see when that takes place.

Each turn represents one week, with a standard game potentially lasting sixteen turns. Units are mostly divisions, with a few battalions thrown into the mix. Air unit size is never specified.

As the game begins the Aggressor player doesn’t know yet who he will be playing! A die is rolled, determining if it will be Russia (1-5 on a d6) or Germany (6). While Germany seems an unlikey choice, during the nineties when the game was originally published (it is still in print) the idea of a resurgent unified Germany that would once again threaten Europe’s stability was a fun scenario to contemplate. Larry Bond’s novel Cauldron explored a Franco-German alliance, and Harold Coyle’s The Ten Thousand features a Germany, that while not expansionistic, does create much grief for the US as an American force sent to the Ukraine must then fight its way across Germany.

Whatever nation is not the chosen Aggressor than becomes yet another neutral, ripe for conquest. Play then begins with the Aggressor side as the first phasing player, then the Western player. The turn order is fairly straightforward, although reinforcements come in before movement and combat, which is slightly unusual.

The meat of the game should be familiar to anyone who has played a wargame before. Units exert ZOCs, advance after combat is possible along with armor exploitation as a second move, armor and infantry stacked together get a bonus for combined arms, supply lines must be maintained, and so on. Air units can either interdict hexes to slow advancing units, or provide air support on the battlefield by way of die roll modifiers.

Combat is an odds based CRT, and like many wargames focusing on modern conflicts units have a quality rating that will modify the die roll. Of the main combatants the US has the highest quality ratings, followed by the UK and Germany, and then Russia. Germany and Russia though have the most units (Russia has 24 total ground units to a total of 6 US ground units), so quantity can have a quality all of its own.

Where Balkan Storm shines is in the way it gives players a chance to create their own story. This is a game that can play differently every session, with plenty of options to explore, and never forces the players down a narrowly defined path that many strategy games sometimes fall into. This is achieved by the way alliances are handled, along with the optional (but personally recommended) political track.

Neutral nations can be swayed to one side or the other during the alliance phase of each turn. The phase occurs twice in a turn, once during the Aggressor’s phase and once during the Western phase.

To attempt to bring a nation into your fold you must first use an Alliance Bid marker. There are a total of fourteen and at the beginning of the game only the Western player controls them. The Aggressor player can only gain Alliance Bid markers by taking them from the Western player. This is done by earning victory points, and for each victory point gained the Western player must surrender on Alliance marker to the Aggressor.

To make an alliance the counter is expended and a die is rolled. Every country on the map has a listing for what the player making the alliance must roll equal to or below to bring that country into the war on their side. Some countries are so pro one side or the other that they will never allow themselves to be aligned with the opposing side. For example, Poland, Ukraine, and Belorus will never entertain an offer from the Aggressor side, while Slovakia and Serbia will never cooperate with the Western player.

If an Alliance Bid is successful that nation then belongs to whatever side made the bid. Its units are fully under control of that player, other friendly units can base there, and supply can be traced through the nation. If the bid fails then a marker is consumed but another try can be attempted in a subsequent turn.

Neutral nations that are attacked by a side are then played by the opponent of the attacker, and while he will control that nation’s military, it will still be considered a neutral nation for all other purposes. It will not go out of its borders, will not allow other units to base there, and supply cannot be traced through it. There is a bonus though to the Alliance Bid roll due to being attacked.

The optional political rules, if used, also occur during the Alliance phase. The way they work is quite simple. There is a political track that goes from zero to four. During the Alliance phase a player may select one political option to perform. Some options are open to both players, others are restricted to one side or the other. A sample option would be ‘Build A Coalition’, which possibly allows the advancement of the political track based on how many allies that player has.

Every time the political track hits four for a side that side earns a victory point, or in the case of the Western player, it subtracts one victory point from the Aggressor. The track is then reset to zero and the process begins anew.

Victory in Balkan Storm is based solely on victory points. Only the Aggressor side earns points, although the Western player can cause the Aggressor to lose points. If the Aggressor ever earns fifteen victory points the game is immediately over, with the Aggressor as the victor. If at any time the Aggressor is at zero victory points, the Western player immediately wins. If at the end of the game the Aggressor has any victory points at all, he wins.

Since the Aggressor player must always have a positive victory point total the player must truly be the aggressor. Right from the gate the Aggressor needs to secure victory points, otherwise it’s game over. He wins the points by controlling cities, and possibly through the political track. The Western player can reduce the Aggressor’s total by either the political track, or by destruction of Aggressor ground forces. For every two German or Russian units destroyed one victory point is lost. Obviously elimination of enemy units becomes quite important, but the danger of suffering losses to the few resources the Western player has is something that must be kept in mind.

It’s an interesting situation for both sides. The Aggressor player begins with a large number of forces and time on his side, since the strongest Western units will not arrive immediately after the balloon goes up. He must quickly secure victory points, which besides giving him breathing room to possibly lose some in the future, also grants him the ability to start trying to bring other nations into the war. Allies can then either create a sideshow someplace else, act as a buffer, or help with the dirty work.

The Western player faces an uphill battle. To truly secure victory alliances must be made, but they must be carefully chosen as to not waste a precious Alliance Bid. Neutral forces may be inferior to US and UK forces, but there are many more of them. At the worst the nation can act as a speedbump until US forces arrive in country, at the best they can become a thorn in the side of the Aggressor. After all, it doesn’t matter who eliminated Aggressor units when reducing victory points, just that they are eliminated.

Balkan Storm is a wonderful little title that manages to deliver an extremely interesting and challenging game in a small package. The rules are only twelve pages long, and the entire game can be had for less than the cost of a large pizza, but that doesn’t mean it’s not jam packed with value. By keeping the core rules tight and not bogging the system down with a lot of chrome, players can concentrate on what’s truly important: the grand strategy of the game.

Balkan Storm plays quick enough that you can play it in a single session, and provides enough possibilities to explore that players will want to keep coming back to try out new strategies. What if I had brought Hungary in earlier? Should the Marines have landed in the north or in the south? Is a Declaration of War by congress worth seeking out? Any game that keeps playing out in your mind long after the last die falls is a definite winner.

Tannhaüser (Take On You/Fantasy Flight Games)

[Note: Apologies for the less than stellar photo. Unfortunately being without a digital camera I am dependent on others, and in this case I ended up having to use a friend’s crummy webcam since he couldn’t find his camera. One day I will get around to picking up a camera for myself to avoid such situations, but that day is not today.]

In the old days it wasn’t that uncommon for board games to become ported to computer games, especially wargames, since they were perfect for the mundane housekeeping chores such games created. Relatively recent (past ten years or so) there’s been an interesting desire to port computer games to the board game world. Unlike board to computer games though the impetus is usually not to help ease the mechanics, but rather provide the essence of a particular computer game (or genre), and bring it to the table top.

Tannhaüser from Take On You (published in the United States by Fantasy Flight Games) brings the world of first person shooters to your game room by way of plastic miniatures, handfuls of dice, and lots of cardboard.

At first blush the genre of first person shooters seems to be an odd choice to jump from digital to cardboard, until you consider that skirmish miniature gaming has been around in one form or another since the early days of the twentieth century. In fact, this isn’t even the first attempt at taking shooters and turning them into board games. Steve Jackson first did it with Frag!, and while a somewhat enjoyable romp it was marred by the usual overpriced poor production that Steve Jackson is famous for. Fantasy Flight Games fared better when they released the DOOM board game based on DOOM 3. While the computer game blew chunks, the board game was actually pretty good and paved the way for the much better Descent (a dungeon crawl game with no association with the old computer game).

Tannhaüser’s shooter influence is immediately apparent when you and your opponent (up to ten players can play, although it seems to work best with two) begin to set up a game. First, you choose the difficulty level of easy, normal, or hard. And yes, they actually call it a difficulty level. Sides always consist of heroes and troopers (lackeys), and the difficulty level impacts how many times your lackeys can respaw—err, reinforce.

Next, players decide on what type of game they wish to play: objective based story mode, death match, capture the flag, or domination. Assuming that you’ve at least played one first person shooter in your life, there’s no real need to delve into what the modes mean. What they sound like is exactly how they play.

And just in case even after all that someone is still wondering what Tannhaüser is supposed to play like the game even includes crates filled with goodies. Crates! Old Man Murray would be proud.

After all that players choose sides, playing either the forces of the evil Reich that traffic in things That Man Was Not Meant To Know, or the alien tech fetish Army of the Union. The game takes place in 1949 (the Union got their technology from the Roswell crash of ’47) and at this point you’re probably thinking it sounds like some sort of Return to Castle Wolfenstein/Weird War type game. Well mister, you’re wrong!

See, the Reich portrayed in Tannhaüser isn’t the Third Reich. No, rather it’s the Kaiser’s Reich, and the world is still fighting the Great War. Apparently everyone has a really, really good economy to continue fighting a world war for thirty five years. Why they went this route is anyone’s guess.

“Hey, let’s make a game with Nazis controlling magical forces.”

“Naw, that’s been done to death.”

“But Schmeissers are cool.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, what if World War One never ended? Then we can have Schmeissers and evil Germans, but they’re not Nazis.”

“Dude, no one would see that twist! Let’s do it!”

Snarkiness aside, the designers do a decent enough job with flavor text to make a subject that has been done to death somewhat interesting. But like the majority of shooters you’ve ever played, the storyline isn’t what’s important, it’s killing people, and thankfully here Tannhaüser does quite well.

Each game, barring special scenarios, always involve a team of five characters per side (the ability to play with ten people derives from everyone playing a single character) consisting of heroes and troopers. Heroes have better stats and can take more hits than troopers. Heroes also cannot come back into play after being killed, while troopers may depending on the difficulty level chosen.

Gameplay is very straightforward. Before each turn an initiative roll is made, and then play passes between players as individual characters are activated. During a character’s activation they may move and perform one action phase, the action phase consisting of things such as attacking, attempting to push through an enemy unit’s space, gathering equipment, opening crates, and so on.

When combat occurs it is an opposed dice pool mechanic. The attacker rolls a handful of d10s, looking for a target number, and then the defender rolls a number of d10s to cancel out the attacker’s successes. Any attacking succeeding dice that aren’t negated are then taken as wounds by the defender. As someone takes wounds their stats change, much like the Clix-style games. Take too many wounds and the character is eliminated.

And that’s about it. One player activates a unit, moving and possibly attacking with it. The other player then does the same. Go back and forth until all units have moved, then repeat.

While the core gameplay is kept very streamlined Tannhaüser actually manages to layer quite a bit of strategy on top thanks to the equipment that every character equips before a game. Each character gets four pieces of equipment, although that’s really a misnomer as some “equipment” represents special skills. The possible equipment is tied into the character, with heroes having a choice between three different sets while troopers choose between two.

Sample pieces include the Mauser C96 that provides a bonus to every die rolled in combat, frag and smoke grenades, a heavy machine gun capable of instant kill, flak jackets, and skills that negate movement penalties and magical influences that can bring the fallen back to life. While there are many crossovers (e.g. grenades tend to show up across multiple equipment sets for the same character), there are still plenty of unique choices that will influence your strategy. Furthermore, one must not only think about what the best equipment for the character is, but how will it help the rest of the team.

While the turn unfolds with one unit moving, then another, knowing what unit to move when becomes quite important. Do you lead off with a character that can pop a smoke grenade, or try for the insta-kill with one of your heroes?

In keeping with the first person shooter theme many mechanics that are normally found in skirmish/tactical gaming are absent from Tannhaüser. There is no overwatch fire, nor different stances. In fact, for the most part cover doesn’t even exist. This may seem strange, but it definitely keeps the game moving, and really you don’t end up missing such mechanics. Besides, players usually have their hands full just trying to remember exactly what their units are capable of performing.

That’s probably the biggest issue with Tannhaüser. Until you learn all the equipment you can expect to spend quite a bit of time looking at the reference sheet, and even once you feel that you’ve learned everything you’ll discover that you forgot some game-changing effect of equipment Y that would have won the game for you in turn five.

One other issue lies in the map. Tannhaüser uses a mechanic dubbed the “Pathfinding System”. It’s somewhat clever. Instead of hexes, squares, or freeform movement measured with rulers, the double-sided map is marked off with colored circles. If one color matches another color the figures have line of sight. In practice it does what it’s supposed to do—eliminate the usual debates that crop up in tactical gaming—but at the expense of fixed maps. While attractive (though with a computer rendered feel) the maps will never change. Same entry points, same special terrain, same everything. Then again, maybe we’ve been spoiled by variable terrain maps. After all, it’s not like when playing a strategic game of World War II Europe changes.

Even with the fixed maps Tannhaüser will provide you with plenty of diversity. Each type of game plays out differently, with different strategies that need to be taken into account depending on the game type. The variations with equipment adds another layer of strategy and variety. By keeping the core mechanics simple, the game moves at a rapid pace, but expect the pre-game team build to take almost as long as the game itself (at least in the beginning).

If you’re looking for some run-and-gun gameplay on your tabletop Tannhaüser is a welcome addition to your library. With deceptively simple gameplay, the game actually boasts a fairly deep amount of strategy, and with the designer’s intent to continue to add new units, maps, and equipment, this strategy should only increase over time.

Duel in the Dark (Z-Man Games)

“…aerial warfare admits of no defense, only offense. We must therefore resign ourselves to the offensives the enemy inflicts upon us, while striving to put all our resources to work to inflict even heavier ones on him. This is the basic principle which must govern the development of aerial warfare.”

So wrote Italian aviator and World War One veteran Giulio Douhet in The Command of the Air, his collection of essays during the twenties arguing that in the next war the strategic bomber would be the key to victory. In his mind a fleet of self-protected bombers, penetrating deep into the enemy’s homeland, would be able to wreak havoc on military, industrial, and civilian targets and bring the enemy to the surrender table far quicker than any land or naval offensive.

While members of his home nation never took his theories to heart they were well received by the United States and Great Britain, giving rise to the strategic air war that was waged against the Axis during the Second World War. During the aerial bombardment campaign on the Third Reich the United States advocated daylight raids against military targets, while the British initial modus operandi was to attack civilian targets at night. One air force wanted to break the Germans militarily, the other hoped to shatter the populace. Together, these disciples of Douhet had hoped that the combination would win the war from the air. In hindsight it had little effect on either the industrial output of Germany, or in breaking the morale of the population.

Duel in the Dark, published by Z-Man Games and developed by Pilot Games, is a light game on a heavy topic: the British air war against Germany during 1943. While ostensibly manifesting itself as a wargame with hexes and nightfighter and flak pieces, in reality Duel in the Dark (henceforth referred to as Duel) is a pure strategy game wrapped with a consim shell. There are no combat result tables, or even the dice that would be used to determine victory on the CRT. In Duel victory or defeat, determined by a victory point track, rests solely on how well the players have planned their actions

Each session of Duel represents a single night of Bomber Command bombing a German city. While the box states an average play time of a hour, in practice once both players have grasped the strategic nuances of the game thirty minutes (or even less) is a more realistic time frame. Because of this Duel lends itself well to playing it as a ‘campaign’ game, with players battling it out over several nights.

A game begins with the German player placing his four fighter squadrons consisting of three ME-110 groups and one DO-217 unit on the map, a stylized depiction of the eastern half of Great Britain and the northern reaches of Germany. The fighters function exactly the same with the exception that the Dornier has better endurance, making it very useful for laying in wait for returning bombers.

Once the German player bases his air force the British player draws a weather card which dictates the phase of the moon, wind direction, cloud and fog cover, and possibly whether it will be a summer night. Using a set of thick, die-cut clouds attached to plastic stands the weather is distributed on the map, creating a nice visual effect that’s a lot more exciting than if a bunch of counters were simply dropped down.

The moon, clouds, and summer all affect how victory points are scored. A full moon makes target location much easier, and thus increases how the Brits are awarded victory points when they bomb. At the same time it also makes it easier for the Germans to intercept the bombers, and in turn increases interception points. Clouds can make interception more difficult, but also alters the bomb run. Summer is a timed event, and careful British planning can avoid the problems when dealing with summer. As the British player examines the weather to plot his raid he needs to take all the above into consideration, but there are also three other factors that he needs to look at.

First, how is the weather at the German airfields? Squadrons having to take off or land in fog or a thunderstorm award victory points to the Brits. Will the night begin with the German player giving up points from the get-go? If so, does the British player use these points as a safety net buffer or as a bonus?

Second, will the weather change? An advanced rule, this allows for possible shifts in wind (and thus clouds) at certain points during the game. When the weather changes the way it is altered is randomly determined; the weather may remain unchanged or there may be a shift. Is your target at risk to becoming hidden?

Third, which way does the wind blow? While having no effect on the way the British player conducts his moves, wind has a tremendous impact on the Germans. Normally a fighter squadron consumes two units of fuel per move, but flying into a headwind increases this to three units. Flying with a tailwind allows fighters to either move their normal one hex distance but at a cost of only one unit, or move two hexes for two units of fuel consumed. Obviously Bomber Command is better served trying to take a route that will force the Germans to consume as much fuel as possible.

With all those factors to take into consideration the British player also faces the unknown, as he will not know the disposition of the ground defenses until take off. So as carefully as the route is planned, and every potential victory point mentally tallied, there still is a X factor that can totally change how the raid unfolds.

The actual planning of the raid is fairly simple. The British player has a deck of cards that he uses to program his flight path, with one card drawn for each hex the raid is moving through. There is a limitation of fourteen total cards to get there and back. In the event it is summer the seasonal effects take place after the eighth card, allowing players to avoid the situation by planning a shorter route.

After the raid route is determined the German player places his ground defenses consisting of flak, searchlights, radar, fuel trucks, smoke screens, civil bunkers, balloon barriers, and fire departments. These defenses are represented by forty double-sided counters, with an inherent mix limitation of what can be placed. Flak is the only active defense, while the rest either work in concert with other defenses (radar works with interception, searchlights help with flak, interceptions, and by blinding the bombers) or interacting with scoring. For example, fire departments lessen the number of points scored by the Brits when they bomb the target city.

Once all defenses are placed the British player places his units (one bomber fleet and one Mosquito squadron) on their starting airfields in England which he chose while planning the night’s raid. After that it’s chocks away!

At this point Duel shifts into a traditional sequence of play. The British player moves and performs actions with his Mossie squadron, the German moves his interceptors, and then finally the bombers move. These three steps are then repeated until the end of the raid.

The Mossie can move one or two hexes and can drop target marking flares or bombs. The British player has six of these markers, with one side being a bomb and the other a target marker. Bombs neutralize ground defenses and impact airfields, while marking flares provide bonuses during the bomb run on the target city. The Mossie can also combat German fighters, although this only occurs when a German squadron moves into the Mossie’s hex.

Deciding the Mossie’s path is an interesting dilemma for the British player. If the Mossie sticks close to the bombing stream it can provide escort. If it loiters at German airfields this gives the Brits points, but may place the Mossie out of position. Bombing ground defenses can be useful, especially to negate tough hexes that the bombers will have to fly over, but boosting target victory points by marking it can be good. And what about marking a false target in order to trick the Germans? A good option, but at the expense of using those markers for real. Resources are limited, and the Mossie can’t do everything, everywhere. What will have the greatest impact?

With the Mossie moved and actions performed the German player can then maneuver his fighter squadrons. Just like the British player with his Mosquito squadron, the German player faces a number of possibilities each turn. When is the right time to launch? Are the squadrons in the right place? What will the wind do for fuel? Is the Mossie acting as a pathfinder or a spoof? What are the ideal sites for making contact (e.g. ones with plenty of radar and searchlights)? For the German player it’s not enough to think in the present, they must plan at least two moves ahead. There’s nothing worse than realizing that the perfect interception plan is about to fail because the squadron will have exhausted its fuel.

The bombers, being on a programmed course, don’t face any decisions. They just move along their path, a path the controlling player hopes is a fairly risk-free one. There is one initial decision with the bombing group, that being the choice of whether they will fly at low altitude or high. Once chosen the flight is locked into that altitude for the night. Low altitude provides some nice bonuses when bombing, while at the same time making it easier for flak. High altitude is safer, but sometimes you just need to go for those extra points.

Speaking of points as previously mentioned Duel is a game that is purely about earning victory points though the player’s actions. Sometimes these actions are active, other times passive. Every time the bomber fleet moves into a hex containing German squadrons points are awarded to the German player. When those same squadrons move into a hex with a Mossie points are awarded to the British player. When a German squadron takes off from a fog shrouded field points are awarded to the Brits, while every civil bunker in a target city subtracts from the target’s total victory point amount.

Since there are no random elements to how points are calculated players need to always seek out how to best nullify their opponent’s take during a phase. The British player knows that they will be crossing a hex with two flak units and they’re flying at low altitude during a full moon. This will give the German player six points. The Mossie could bomb the flak and eliminate the points, or it could bomb one, reducing the points to three, and then dropping four flares on the target city for four points, allowing the British side a net gain of one point.

Surprisingly, instead of reducing the game to feeling mechanical the way it plays is very organic. Each player essentially exerts control on how their opponent will react, with one poke leading to a reaction of events that in turn dovetails back into more reactions. This is a game of bluff and counterbluff, of action and reaction, of foresight and daring.

Because the game is only simulating nightly raids there are no rules for the technological and doctrinal changes that occurred as the war progressed. Simulating later periods and the changes would be fairly easy to add as house rules, although one would assume that chances are there will be expansions that will officially change the game. Already there are some new pieces for sale, such as rail flak and acoustic mirrors.

The only real issue with Duel is with the manual. Translated from German to English there are a few rough sections, but nothing that can’t be figured out by taking into account the overall context. It also helps that there is a play-by-play session transcribed in the manual, along with accompanying diagrams.

Duel in the Dark is a fascinating title. While by no means a simulation, it does accurately abstract the British bombing campaign and the problems the Germans faced defending against it in a manner that wargamers will appreciate. Strategy gamers of all kinds though will enjoy the duel of wits between opponents. From the moment the game begins players are faced with choices, choices, choices, all of which have the potential to create a ripple effect through the game. What a great system.

Multi-Night House Rule Suggestions: If playing a multi-night session game there are two things we’ve experimented with that I wanted to share. These house rules should be considered works in progress.

(1) To represent damage to a city each time it is bombed reduce its total potential victory points by 10%, rounded down.

(2) Instead of the German player being allowed to move all his defenses around each day the German player rolls 1d6 and adds the current German VP total (0 if the track is currently British positive) to the result. That is how many defenses he can reposition.

We’ve also considered if playing with the medal rules use medals in conjunction with the above rule. Each medal spent could move two defensive pieces, in addition to the number rolled. Another thought we’ve had but haven’t tried is a formula of the German player can reposition up to 20 pieces minus the current British victory point level.

Added an ‘Army Group Kitchen Table’ category tag to facilitate finding the posts.

If you’ve missed any in the past here’s what we have so far:

Operation Weserubung: The Invasion Of Norway

Blackshirt: The Italian Invasion Of Egypt 1940

Cowboys - The Way Of The Gun

Last Night On Earth

Panzer Tactics DS

Panzer Tactics DS

Innovation is obviously severely overrated. Consider the buzz generated in the grog community when news of Panzer Tactics for the Nintendo DS first hit many moons ago. “It looks like Panzer General!” And then a few bits of actual gameplay information leaked, leading to a chorus of “It seems to play like Panzer General!” Suddenly forty year old gamers who previously wouldn’t have been caught dead with a system that could also play Pokemon were taking an active interest, entirely due to the fact that someone was reimagining a decade-old classic beer and pretzels wargame.

It would be nice to say that Panzer Tactics is really not Panzer General 2007. There’s something annoying about the fact that if a light wargame features hexes and strength points then it must be like Panzer General. Why can’t they be like The Perfect General? But for gamers all over the world Panzer General has been forever burned into their consciousness as digital BAP personified, and thus every other digital BAP since then must be compared to it.

And in this case…well, yeah, it is pretty much Panzer General 2007. But it’s not simply an exact copy ported to a handheld system for on the go wargaming. Remember when John Travolta’s character in Pulp Fiction was talking to Samuel Jackson’s hitman about the differences between Europe and the United States? The little differences? That’s what you’ll notice between Panzer Tactics and Panzer General. The little differences.

No question at first glance any veteran of the original Panzer General series will feel right at home. You command a core army that gains experience and carries through the campaign, while auxiliary units (read: cannon fodder) are provided to you on a per scenario basis. What the units actually represent (Divisions? Corps? Companies?) is never provided, and while the size of the maps will vary in terms of what they represent, unit statistics remain constant providing no hints. Units are rated for various combat roles, experience, movement, fuel, and ammo. Staying power is the familiar strength/hit point scheme.

Controlling these units is as easy as tapping on the unit (you can pretty much play entirely by using the stylus, which is quite nice), which highlights hexes the unit can reach. Tap or drag to move your units, and then if there are any targets in range after movement (you can move and then fight, but cannot fight and then move) make an attack. Other possible actions during a turn include resupply, purchasing new units, and rebuilding damaged units. All of these consume fame points; fame points are earned at the end of a victorious scenario based on your performance and within scenarios by taking objective hexes.

So far Panzer Tactics sounds like an exact clone of Panzer General, right? Well, let’s talk about the little differences now.

Like Panzer General the ultimate enemy is time. Each scenario has a turn limit, usually quite ample unless the player purposely turns it into a recreation of the Somme, and how quickly the player wins the scenario impacts the fame points added to his running tally. Unlike Panzer General the player is also faced with another loss trigger besides running out of time, that being the loss of core units. Scenarios will dictate how many core units you’re allowed to lose, and regardless of how well you’re pushing your panzers forward, lose that many core units and you’re kaput.

In Panzer Tactics each scenario will have a primary objective and a secondary objective. In a nice change of pace these objectives are not always simply taking certain hexes, but can include such conditions as destroying certain enemy units. Completing primary objectives will win the scenario, but secondary objectives usually provide some sort of bonus, although what the bonus will be is never spelled out until the objective has been achieved. You may immediately earn fame points, or find that in the next scenario your supply costs are cut in half. Secondary objectives are almost always worthwhile to pursue.

Units are the usual suspects of a ETO game, and are impressively diverse. Panzer Tactics definitely doesn’t cheapen your experience by providing only a handful of unit types to command or go up against. Two interesting units added to the mix are Officers and Commandos.

Officers are not units per se, but attachments to core units that provide the unit they are attached to, and units within a certain radius, a unique boost to certain characteristics. While extremely expensive to purchase, Officers in the proper location at the proper time can make a huge difference.

Countering Officers are Commandos. Commandos are able to assassinate enemy Officers. Additionally, they can demoralize a target, reducing their combat effectiveness, or sabotage a unit immediately causing that unit to be out of supply. While sounding like great units to wreak havoc with there is a catch to them. They can only perform one of those three missions each time they leave your headquarter hex, and in order to ready their next action they must return to HQ. Like Officers, the appropriate use of a Commando unit at the suitable time can easily turn the tide of battle.

Oh, another neat unit idea are special abilities and attacks, which are earned through experience. These allow units to break the game rules, adding a little more chaotic flavor to the unit mix.

The meat of Panzer Tactics are the campaigns. There are three campaigns (German, Soviet, Western Allied) that can be played in any order, although each one is progressively more difficult. The first campaign, the German, takes the player through the Heer’s high water mark, while the Soviet and Allied campaigns begin soon after. Besides the campaign there are tutorial training scenarios, multiplayer scenarios (untried), and also individual campaign scenarios that are unlocked for single play by campaign progression. What’s unfortunately missing is a skirmish/random scenario generator.

Scenario maps look nice, and within the confines of what the game has to work with, are fairly representative of the battlefields they’re supposed to be. By no means is this Google Earth, but cities and terrain can be found in the proper places, so it’s not like you’re battling over some generic mishmash of terrain that’s supposed to Belgium.

Overall Panzer Tactics looks and sounds good. Since the developer is European players are spared crap like big eyed tank crewmen and exaggerated units for a more realistic approach. There are some problems with differentiating between types of similar units due to the tiny screen, but there’s no easy way around that. Music is appropriately martial in nature, and thankfully there are a few tunes so you’re not stuck listening to an endless loop (hello Puzzle Quest!).

The scenarios that make up the game are an interesting lot, with plenty of challenge to be found thanks to the varied objectives each one brings to the table. For example, in the Crete scenario the player begins with a set auxiliary force and no core units. Until the Germans are able to take their first objective, the Maleme airfield, your core units (and in fact, additional units in general) cannot be brought into the scenario. So, just like a game of chess, the fate of the entire scenario hinges on how well the player performs their initial moves. Can the airfield be secured with a handful of paratroops and support units before the British mount a counteroffensive?

The AI in Panzer Tactics is pleasantly intelligent. It will pick appropriate targets, particularly favoring low hanging fruit such as your helpless trucks moving infantry and artillery. The AI will pull injured units out of the fight to rebuild their strength, and will recapture lost objective hexes if they are left open. That’s not to say it won’t pull a boneheaded move at times, such as advancing a unit out of a objective hex and leaving it wide open. Although to be fair this only seems to happen with secondary objectives, and never primary.

A typical scenario provides quite a bit of gameplay, with some scenarios lasting a good two hours or more, depending on how carefully you enjoy strategizing. Even when replaying a scenario and having a plan of action in place don’t expect to breeze through it on a coffee break. In an era of five hour first person shooters Panzer Tactics provides welcome gaming longevity at the expense of battery power. Expect to charge your unit on a daily basis while Panzer Tactics is nestled inside.

Besides sucking the battery dry the problems of Panzer Tactics are rather negligible. It’s a little too easy to accidentally complete a unit’s turn when in reality you were still deciding who to attack. While no fan of constant pop-ups, in this case having a pop-up to verify if you’re done with a unit would save some grief. It would also be nice to have a little more information on some of the mechanics. As it stands when you resupply or rebuild it costs a number of fame points, although there is no way of knowing how much it will cost. Having this more transparent would be helpful, particularly since the manual can only be described as adequate. Finally, there is no advance after combat (nor does it appear that anyone ever retreats due to combat). Since each turn counts against the player it’s rather annoying to clear out an objective hex but have to wait another turn to actually move into the space.

Panzer Tactics is a great addition to any strategy gamer’s library. Is it enough of a killer app to pick up a DS if you don’t already own one? Depends on how much you like the Panzer General style of play. Of course there are also many other excellent DS strategy games out there, and more on the way. You can find a discussion on this over at Troy Goodfellow’s blog. And hey, portable strategy gaming that can fit in your pocket should be a train everyone would want to ride.

Hopefully Panzer Tactics will do well and we’re looking at the start of a brand new series. But hey, next time, how about something we haven’t seen before? Ancient Tactics or Napoleon Tactics sound intriguing to anyone else?