Tank on Tank Digital: A Dice Rolling Festival

I bought Tank on Tank Digital: West Front and East Front (DLC) yesterday. I loaded it up last night and tried a few battles.

The proposition is attractive. A fast moving wargame on World War II low level combat, akin to the old Squad Leader. The units are single vehicles, single anti-tank guns and also squads or sections. At least I think they are because the vehicles and units have facing. In other words, their frontal aspect would be the strongest while their flanks and rear would give a small modifier to enemies attacking from that direction. Each units would have a range, defence value (soft or hard), a movement factor. Strangely enough there is no attack value. In other words, your Puma would roll the same two dice as your Tiger I in an attack. Your M26 would roll the same two dice as your M4. With the exception of infantry having a -1 when attacking into woods, town or improved positions, this is rather puzzling. With larger units, one could claim that this would be an aggregate of the unit and more. In this rather low level depiction, it seems odd.

The wargame attempts to depict the issues of limited command with a small amount of command points available each turn and also the usage of the HQ units. However this restraint can mean that for a unit to reach a victory point across the map, the expenditure of command points would be prodigous, leaving very little room for anything else. This could be an issue of scenario design, this could be that of the system as well.

I tried several scenarios. The scenarios are tight, leaving little room for error. They often degenerate onto a dice rolling festival as it is difficult to launch a combined attack without the expenditure of several turns of command points thus increasing the odds for success in an attack. It usually boils down to a dice rolling contest. A lucky shot or two will change the complexion of the scenario.

In one game, the AI knocked out six or seven of my units with its artillery with its first attack on those units. Well, that's luck. In another, the enemy anti-tank gun successively killed two of my infantry squads which were hidden in urban spaces. The AI seems to have consistently significantly better dice rolls too. I have not managed to win a single scenario yet.

I read that the AI has incredible dice rolls in many of the reviews. In my five or six games, it seems to bear that out.

I managed a victory tonight after six or so attempts.

Panzer Corps: A Game of War and Indeterminate Units

I finally got down to playing Panzer Corps. It was reminiscent of the old Panzer General series which I had purchased but not played much due to its appearance during a stage in my life when I was very busy.

I went through all the tutorials, after which, I loaded the Kursk scenario and played the German forces attempting to force a decision at Kursk. The objective of the scenario was Kursk and several more urban spaces, presumably towns. There were quite a bit of them including some at the edges of the salient. 

The first observation made of the Panzer Corps game system is that the units are indeterminate in scale, identity and composition. One can see Nashorn units, Ferdinand units, anti-tank units, Tiger tank units. What on earth are those? Surely, they can't be corps given the namesake of this game? A Tiger tank corps? An anti-tank gun corps? A Nashorn corps? It absolutely does not make sense. It does not model reality. If one were to define them as armoured corps, then, why would a Nashorn corps have strong anti-tank values and weak defence values? In other words, the units are arbitrary, much like the units in Axis & Allies, a game with a war theme but not a conflict simulation (consim).

Secondly, there is no scale on the map. It is merely a map with units and geographical locations that seem to reflect what was there in 1943.

I will not then speak of supply nor command. It would be pointless.

Having established that this is like Axis & Allies, a game with a war theme but not technically a wargame, Panzer Corps is not like those early SPI or Avalon Hill beer and pretzel game which at least try to model reality in some form.

What are the strengths then of Panzer Corps? Based on the Kursk scenario which I completed and won on the last turn, yes, there were that many objectives. I had to dispatch units all over the map just to hold them. It does have a flavour of what you read of Operational Zitadelle. The Germans were drastically short of infantry, which did reflect reality. The Russians had a lot of anti-tank guns, infantry and tanks, most of which were easily dispatched, much like in real life. The Russians had more fighters and were able to establish local air superiority at various junctures. In that, it does reflect history. It does have a certain flavour about it.  It is full of game and it is fast-paced.

It would really depends on what one is looking for in a game or if one is looking for a wargame (consim).

Back Catalogue of Games

I spend too much time on War Thunder. I should try more games from my back catalogue. Recently, I installed and tried the following:

• Falling Stars: Warm of Empire
• Battlechasers: Nightwar
• Undead Horde
• Tank on Tank Digital: West Front (and East Front, a DLC)
• Conan Unconquered
• Assault on Arnhem
• Star Ruler 2
• reconquest
• Mechcorp
• Star Traders: Frontiers
• Cities: Skylines
• Mount and Blade: Warband
• Galaxy Squad
• Northgard

Since I do work in the day, I play them at night. I have neglected reading and drawing somewhat. Of these, I will delete about three quarters of them.

The Trump Narrative

It seems that some of my right-wing American friends are swallowing the Trump anti-Chinese narrative completely despite disliking Trump. It is ironic because they claim they dislike Trump and his policies yet, they end up being cheerleaders for him. Trump's desperation to deflect all blame will see him seek scapegoats. It is quite tragic.

I am no fan of China and its foreign policy but recent American policies have been erratic, dangerous and hypocritical.

My right-wing American friends have gone crazy. I wonder if they know it.