Mike's turn this week, and he wanted to get back to the sunny South Pacific. So, Combat Commander: Pacific hit the table again, this time Scenario E – an advance by US Marines along the beaches of Butaritari. This scenario's got Sighting markers and the Sengoku Hei sniper counter. Two of the new tweaks for CC:P.
Mike asked me which side I'd rather have, and as I'd been curious about using the sniper, I took the Japanese. This had the unintended side-effect of having put me in defensive posture for both our CC:P games despite having played both sides.
(In this report, I'm going to assume you know the basics of how Combat Commander works. If not there are myriads of places to get a summary – just a friendly warning.)
The (partial) map for the scenario can be found on the geek. The portion shown is the Japanese deployment zone for the scenario, and the US forces are attacking from the left. The sighting markers are placed in the 8 jungle hexes in the center of the map, and the open ground is strewn with a line of foxholes and wire. In the center of the line is a bunker with an infantry gun inside. The sniper must be deployed in a palm hex, and half the starting Japanese units must be placed in infiltration boxes.
The way the sighting/infiltration rules work is this: The Japanese player can play an Infiltration Order (which specifies box A, B, C, or some combination) and you can do one of two things: If there's nobody in the listed box, you roll on the support table, choose an appropriate unit, and put it in the box. If there's somebody already there, you instead take the units in the box and place them in a hex with a sighting marker, and remove the sighting marker from play.
Sighting markers move whenever a random hex is determined for any reason. After resolving the reason for the random hex, you then move one of the existing sighting markers onto that hex. This leads to some interesting decisions late in a scenario as you're trying to maximize the potential threats.
I got a little aggressive in my deployment. I placed a medium MG in the objective jungle hex at the bottom-right of the map with a leader. I also placed a light MG in the other objective jungle hex just above it. These are worth 4 and 2 points each according to the open objectives. I then put the sniper forward in the palm tree hex on the hill closest to the US forces. My thought was to maximize the amount of damage he could do right off and the elevated LOS would allow him to see the entire US deployment zone.
My plan, for the most part, worked. There was this matter of the sniper sucking wind, though. He got two shots off before being wiped out in a melee and failed miserably. The way the sniper works is that he's treated as ordnance. You have to successfully make a targeting roll first, and if you do, his FP of 3 is added to the product of the dice rolled, not the sum. This makes his shot a potential 39 points. And, given that doubling the defender kills him outright, you can see where this guy has the chance for serious damage. At least it's mitigated by him only being able to target a single unit, no matter how many units are in a particular hex. He managed to roll a 4 and a 5 on his two damage rolls, though. Pretty poor. (Average is 12.25)
That being what it was, everything else was going pretty well. The medium MG was slowing Mike down severely on my left, and a couple infiltrations slowed him down on my right. Some quick time triggers left us with one time triggers left before sudden death rolls kicked in and me with somewhere around 12 or 13 VPs. One thing that helped mightily was acquiring a 150mm OBA gun early on. I never killed anything with it, but it really slowed him down. Mike did get a hero in play, but he didn't do much early on.
About here things changed. Both of us were near the tops of our respective card decks, so there was likely a lot of game until the next time trigger. Right about here was when Mike disabled the light MG that was in the jungle hex near the beach. He realized there was a gap around the wire that he could get units through once the guns were down. Some fortunate Asset Denied orders (and my lack of Asset Request orders) shut down the guns, and opened up a channel for him to exit the map. His having drawn bonus exit points as his objective chit didn't hurt his cause, either. I was desperately trying to get over there and do something (or just kill what I could otherwise) but never managed to have any luck. Mike took the objective near the beach, started getting guys off the map, and got the benefit of one extra time trigger past sudden death. (I don't know that it made a difference, though, as I had little left with which to fight.)
Final score was either 19 or 20 in Mike's favor at the end. At one point just before the tide started to shift, Mike commented that it didn't matter a whole lot what he did as his position was lost. I've come to believe that that's almost never the case in Combat Commander... This game can see massive shifts in fortune. All it takes is one break (in this case the loss of MGs opening that exit gap), and some time to exploit the break, and it can all swing the other way. As it did this time.
That might have been the most enjoyable game of CC I've ever had. The story written during play is one that would fit into any history of the Pacific Theatre. (The Marines were nearly stopped trying to advance into a prepared enemy position – shots coming from everywhere, Japanese units appearing out of nowhere, snipers in the trees. It looked bad, but heroism emerged. The guns were disabled, sniper found, crews taken out, and the Marines managed to break through the position just in time.)
Oh, and Doug – Mike did have his own wonderful DSDF moment as you mentioned in the comments to last weeks' post. There was a pretty important shot Mike was taking (can't remember the details) and he rolled a four. That wasn't going to cut it, so he passed over the initiative, rerolled, and got a 2 with a time trigger. Worst possible result given the game at the time. EXACTLY the situation you predicted.
I really believe CC:P may be the best CC to date. The rules are absolutely rock solid. (Every time we had a question – which isn't much lately – the answer was right there in crystal clear language. A couple times it was even as its own single-sentence paragraph. Obviously the odd cases were thought through.) The scenario design is fantastic. While Scenario C (The Ilu River scenario we played a couple weeks ago) didn't seem particularly “pacific-ish” it was certainly well-designed.
I haven't played the cave rules yet, but that's next, I'm sure. And I've never had a chance to venture into the Random Scenario Generator yet for any of the games released to date. (A system that the game was originally designed around.) An absolute gaming treat, and it only took 2.5 hours to play.
Then again, I've yet to play Stalingrad. Could it get better? CC:Pacific sets a VERY high standard.
Showing posts with label Pacific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pacific. Show all posts
Friday, February 6, 2009
CC:Pacific - take 2
I totally spaced getting the rules for our next game to Eric before the weekend, so we had to change our plans and I chose to go back to Combat Commander: Pacific for a second play. This time we chose scenario 'E', which has the US (me) attacking a dug-in Japanese defender (Eric). (Well, I did start to set up 'D', but started reading 'E' when sorting out the counters, and then couldn't figure out how to place the Sogeki Hei unit in palm trees, when there were no palm trees on the map...) This scenario makes use of the new infiltration rules, and the Sogeki Hei unit, so lots of Pacific goodness.
I balanced my forces left and right, with the strong '2' leader in the middle. Eric's set-up was mostly dictated by the scenario, with most of his units set up for infiltration, but he set up the SH unit well forward, obviously hoping to create some quick damage.
I started the game in the normal manner, discarding my hand, a couple of times in a search for a Move card. I finally got going, and was immediately under some long range MG fire. I also was able to rush the SH unit, who apart from one '5-4' draw for a 23 FP attack, was unable to hurt me, and I didn't lose any units before I was able to melee and kill the SH unit. I'd also played an Asset Request, only to be denied, but Eric got a module of 150mm, which was to be real scary throughout the game.
After that Eric played an Infiltration and dumped a unit right on top of me, where the Sighting marker occupied an objective hex. In the ensuing melee I drew '4', used the initiative, then drew '2'. However, the objective hex was right next to my right flank force, and I was able to pour fire into the hex until Eric didn't have a Revive card and I removed his unit.
I started progressing up the left flank, again taking fire from the MG, and also his gun, but time was progressing, especially when I drew a '2', shuffled, then immediately drew another one. Eric played another Infiltrate card, placing units right in the midst of my left flank force, and things were starting to look bleak, with a lot of broken units and only two turns until Sudden Death.
However, things weren't all bad. I finally remembered that Asset Denied cards could be used against the opponent, and had silenced both his weapons, leaving just the radio. Pity I'd discarded a few of them right at the start of the game. I was able to form a large fire group on the left and remove the threat there, along with a timely Sniper event. I'd also Advanced into another melee with another unit that had Infiltrated, but Eric had two Ambush actions in hand, drawing one into hand immediately before the melee. The biggest thing, however, was that Eric's drawing had mostly gone stone cold dead, and mine picked up considerably. I found lots of Revive cards to recover all my units, Fired effectively, removing his force defending the one objective, and marched my Hero into it. He didn't draw any Asset Requests to use his 150mm, and pretty soon was down to a single squad and leader. With me finally realizing that the way to win was to get off the board, I drew lots of Move and Advance cards to allow me to build a decent lead, and was finally able to get the Time trigger I wanted and rolled the end of the game, to win at 20VPs.
The Infiltration works well, and I was never sure where units were going to pop up next. Having Infiltrate and Ambush cards are a very strong combination when Allied units are occupying Sighting hexes, and I was getting very wary of doing so. The melee structure, moving it to the start of the Allied turn, allows the Japanese player to pick his fights. The US player (don't know about the other Allies) certainly has lots of firepower, and needs to bring that to bear.
So far I'm really enjoying CC:P, but I wonder how much of that is due to our two games being fairly wackiness-free. Sure there's been the odd wacky moment, but nothing of the game ruining sort. (Like taking out the German's HMG in the first turn, when it's their main defensive armament in the whole scenario.) If we'd had the same low level of wackiness in the other games, would they be on the same level as CC:P? Then again, CC:P does feel tight, and the specific rules for the Pacific theater work well. (With a caveat for the Banzai Charge, but I'd need to play a few more times.)
I balanced my forces left and right, with the strong '2' leader in the middle. Eric's set-up was mostly dictated by the scenario, with most of his units set up for infiltration, but he set up the SH unit well forward, obviously hoping to create some quick damage.
I started the game in the normal manner, discarding my hand, a couple of times in a search for a Move card. I finally got going, and was immediately under some long range MG fire. I also was able to rush the SH unit, who apart from one '5-4' draw for a 23 FP attack, was unable to hurt me, and I didn't lose any units before I was able to melee and kill the SH unit. I'd also played an Asset Request, only to be denied, but Eric got a module of 150mm, which was to be real scary throughout the game.
After that Eric played an Infiltration and dumped a unit right on top of me, where the Sighting marker occupied an objective hex. In the ensuing melee I drew '4', used the initiative, then drew '2'. However, the objective hex was right next to my right flank force, and I was able to pour fire into the hex until Eric didn't have a Revive card and I removed his unit.
I started progressing up the left flank, again taking fire from the MG, and also his gun, but time was progressing, especially when I drew a '2', shuffled, then immediately drew another one. Eric played another Infiltrate card, placing units right in the midst of my left flank force, and things were starting to look bleak, with a lot of broken units and only two turns until Sudden Death.
However, things weren't all bad. I finally remembered that Asset Denied cards could be used against the opponent, and had silenced both his weapons, leaving just the radio. Pity I'd discarded a few of them right at the start of the game. I was able to form a large fire group on the left and remove the threat there, along with a timely Sniper event. I'd also Advanced into another melee with another unit that had Infiltrated, but Eric had two Ambush actions in hand, drawing one into hand immediately before the melee. The biggest thing, however, was that Eric's drawing had mostly gone stone cold dead, and mine picked up considerably. I found lots of Revive cards to recover all my units, Fired effectively, removing his force defending the one objective, and marched my Hero into it. He didn't draw any Asset Requests to use his 150mm, and pretty soon was down to a single squad and leader. With me finally realizing that the way to win was to get off the board, I drew lots of Move and Advance cards to allow me to build a decent lead, and was finally able to get the Time trigger I wanted and rolled the end of the game, to win at 20VPs.
The Infiltration works well, and I was never sure where units were going to pop up next. Having Infiltrate and Ambush cards are a very strong combination when Allied units are occupying Sighting hexes, and I was getting very wary of doing so. The melee structure, moving it to the start of the Allied turn, allows the Japanese player to pick his fights. The US player (don't know about the other Allies) certainly has lots of firepower, and needs to bring that to bear.
So far I'm really enjoying CC:P, but I wonder how much of that is due to our two games being fairly wackiness-free. Sure there's been the odd wacky moment, but nothing of the game ruining sort. (Like taking out the German's HMG in the first turn, when it's their main defensive armament in the whole scenario.) If we'd had the same low level of wackiness in the other games, would they be on the same level as CC:P? Then again, CC:P does feel tight, and the specific rules for the Pacific theater work well. (With a caveat for the Banzai Charge, but I'd need to play a few more times.)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Down by the River
Last week, Mike and I got together for my choice: the new entry in the Combat Commander line of games, CC: Pacific.
Now, my copy hadn't arrived yet, and when we were looking at what scenario to play, I suggested we play Scenario C. (CC:P letters the scenarios instead of numbering to avoid confusion with the other games in the series.) Scenario C had been mentioned by the developer as possibly being the best scenario design in the entire product line, but I was shooting blind in choosing it. So we gave it a go.
I'm not going to get into the actual rules of Combat Commander all that much, as I've covered them before and CC:Pacific mostly just includes changes needed to reflect the marked differences in ground combat found in the Pacific Theatre of Operations vs. Europe.
Some of the differences are that the Japanese have a Banzai posture available to them (some scenarios, such as the one we played, start in that posture while others may have it foisted on them from an event) that only allows 3 cards in your hand, but gives you the option to give Charge orders that activate every unit you have that hasn't been activated yet to move. Very human wave-ish, but the allies get to automatically activate everyone for opportunity fire. So it's a human wave everyone can shoot at. Other major rule changes involve Sighting markers that move whenever random hexes are determined – this allows Japanese units to come onto the map when revealed in those spots – gives a real feel of “where are they coming from?”
There's a lot more that's changed. Thankfully, the rules include a page that runs down nearly all the changes. Rereading the rules reminded me just how well they're written.
The scenario we chose involved the US forces attempting to fend off a wave of Japanese infantry crossing a river on Guadalcanal. The map for the scenario can be found here. All the beaches hexes above the river (as shown in that image) contain wire. So, the Japanese must spend all their MP on a turn to get into the river, and all their MP on a turn to get out of the wire. So they get slowed to an effective standstill twice. The dark green bits on the map are swamp (which blocks LOS) and the larger, lighter green bits are jungle (which also blocks LOS). I constantly thought the swamp was jungle while we were playing. Just need to get used to the new terrain. The rest of the green bits are palm trees which only cause a minor hindrance to any shots going through them.
The US are outnumbered about 2:1 to start, but have two Mgs and a howitzer available to them. As soon as the Japanese enter the river, reinforcements come on after the next time trigger, then after the Japanese get into the Palms they get reinforcements. The focus of the game is on the three objectives on the edge of the jungle facing the river.
I played the US in this one, and posted the howitzer on the middle objective, one MG just to its right, and the other on the objective closest to the beach. I tried to maximize sight lines, and was just hoping to hold out long enough. I goofed early on attempting to get radio reinforcements and managed to get a denial – this kept me from getting the radio that would come on as a reinforcement later. (Once you get an artillery denied marker, you're stuck with it.)
Mike started moving, and the swamp was blocking most shots I had for a while. Once he started moving close enough, I started opening up. I scored a few hits on units closest to the beach but wasn't having a whole lot of success. What was happening though was that my howitzer was failing its targeting rolls so badly it was hitting Time Triggers. (These are usually found on double 1s and double 6s – I kept hitting the double 1s) This was really helping me out because Mike managed to pull off a handful of Charge orders and I was really feeling pressured.
About halfway through the game, I lost the howitzer. This left the majority of my defense to the MG in the center of the map. Mike's units got fully across the river and were starting to enter the palm trees by the time we got down to the final time trigger before sudden death rolls would occur. He had units all across the line, but had focused on taking the objective furthest forward. (This was also the one I had defended the least.) He did take that, and was starting to move down to the next objective when we hit the next time trigger. Mike had initiative, but the odds were against him and the game ended at that point.
The US side starts that scenario with 23 VPs, and we ended up with me winning with 19. I'd lost five units (IIRC) and still needed three more losses before I would have lost to surrender. However, those 19 points are very tenuous, as had one other melee gone Mike's way, it would have been a 14 point swing. Much closer than the final score indicated.
I'll second John Foley's (the developer) opinion that Scenario C might be the best scenario design in the CC series. I've probably played CC a dozen or so times now, and this definitely seemed to be the best and most balanced design. Had the time triggers not come up so fast in the mid-game, I likely lose that one.
Mike felt it didn't really highlight the changes in the CC:P game, and other than the Banzai/Charge rules, he's probably right. I certainly felt pressured by the Charges, though, and was very concerned one more was coming up late. It would have made things extremely dicey on my end. I'd really love to give a scenario with sighting markers a go sometime soon. There's a whole set of rules involving caves, tunnels etc. that look like they'd be very nasty to go up against.
If you love CC, you're going to love Pacific. If you like it a bit, it might not provide enough new stuff to make you pull the trigger unless you're a bigger fan of the PTO vs. Europe. It is a standalone game, however, so you don't need any prior entries to play. If you don't like CC, well, it hasn't changed THAT much, so you probably won't like this one either.
In any case, it reaffirms to me that it's a series that belongs right a the top of what I enjoy. I'll always be eager to put that one on the table.
Now, my copy hadn't arrived yet, and when we were looking at what scenario to play, I suggested we play Scenario C. (CC:P letters the scenarios instead of numbering to avoid confusion with the other games in the series.) Scenario C had been mentioned by the developer as possibly being the best scenario design in the entire product line, but I was shooting blind in choosing it. So we gave it a go.
I'm not going to get into the actual rules of Combat Commander all that much, as I've covered them before and CC:Pacific mostly just includes changes needed to reflect the marked differences in ground combat found in the Pacific Theatre of Operations vs. Europe.
Some of the differences are that the Japanese have a Banzai posture available to them (some scenarios, such as the one we played, start in that posture while others may have it foisted on them from an event) that only allows 3 cards in your hand, but gives you the option to give Charge orders that activate every unit you have that hasn't been activated yet to move. Very human wave-ish, but the allies get to automatically activate everyone for opportunity fire. So it's a human wave everyone can shoot at. Other major rule changes involve Sighting markers that move whenever random hexes are determined – this allows Japanese units to come onto the map when revealed in those spots – gives a real feel of “where are they coming from?”
There's a lot more that's changed. Thankfully, the rules include a page that runs down nearly all the changes. Rereading the rules reminded me just how well they're written.
The scenario we chose involved the US forces attempting to fend off a wave of Japanese infantry crossing a river on Guadalcanal. The map for the scenario can be found here. All the beaches hexes above the river (as shown in that image) contain wire. So, the Japanese must spend all their MP on a turn to get into the river, and all their MP on a turn to get out of the wire. So they get slowed to an effective standstill twice. The dark green bits on the map are swamp (which blocks LOS) and the larger, lighter green bits are jungle (which also blocks LOS). I constantly thought the swamp was jungle while we were playing. Just need to get used to the new terrain. The rest of the green bits are palm trees which only cause a minor hindrance to any shots going through them.
The US are outnumbered about 2:1 to start, but have two Mgs and a howitzer available to them. As soon as the Japanese enter the river, reinforcements come on after the next time trigger, then after the Japanese get into the Palms they get reinforcements. The focus of the game is on the three objectives on the edge of the jungle facing the river.
I played the US in this one, and posted the howitzer on the middle objective, one MG just to its right, and the other on the objective closest to the beach. I tried to maximize sight lines, and was just hoping to hold out long enough. I goofed early on attempting to get radio reinforcements and managed to get a denial – this kept me from getting the radio that would come on as a reinforcement later. (Once you get an artillery denied marker, you're stuck with it.)
Mike started moving, and the swamp was blocking most shots I had for a while. Once he started moving close enough, I started opening up. I scored a few hits on units closest to the beach but wasn't having a whole lot of success. What was happening though was that my howitzer was failing its targeting rolls so badly it was hitting Time Triggers. (These are usually found on double 1s and double 6s – I kept hitting the double 1s) This was really helping me out because Mike managed to pull off a handful of Charge orders and I was really feeling pressured.
About halfway through the game, I lost the howitzer. This left the majority of my defense to the MG in the center of the map. Mike's units got fully across the river and were starting to enter the palm trees by the time we got down to the final time trigger before sudden death rolls would occur. He had units all across the line, but had focused on taking the objective furthest forward. (This was also the one I had defended the least.) He did take that, and was starting to move down to the next objective when we hit the next time trigger. Mike had initiative, but the odds were against him and the game ended at that point.
The US side starts that scenario with 23 VPs, and we ended up with me winning with 19. I'd lost five units (IIRC) and still needed three more losses before I would have lost to surrender. However, those 19 points are very tenuous, as had one other melee gone Mike's way, it would have been a 14 point swing. Much closer than the final score indicated.
I'll second John Foley's (the developer) opinion that Scenario C might be the best scenario design in the CC series. I've probably played CC a dozen or so times now, and this definitely seemed to be the best and most balanced design. Had the time triggers not come up so fast in the mid-game, I likely lose that one.
Mike felt it didn't really highlight the changes in the CC:P game, and other than the Banzai/Charge rules, he's probably right. I certainly felt pressured by the Charges, though, and was very concerned one more was coming up late. It would have made things extremely dicey on my end. I'd really love to give a scenario with sighting markers a go sometime soon. There's a whole set of rules involving caves, tunnels etc. that look like they'd be very nasty to go up against.
If you love CC, you're going to love Pacific. If you like it a bit, it might not provide enough new stuff to make you pull the trigger unless you're a bigger fan of the PTO vs. Europe. It is a standalone game, however, so you don't need any prior entries to play. If you don't like CC, well, it hasn't changed THAT much, so you probably won't like this one either.
In any case, it reaffirms to me that it's a series that belongs right a the top of what I enjoy. I'll always be eager to put that one on the table.
Friday, January 16, 2009
CC hits the beach
Eric's choice this time, so we moved from the fields of England to the Pacific islands, and rolled forward 300 years, as we got the newly released Combat Commander: Pacific (BGG entry)from GMT onto the table. This sees some changes to the base CC rules, as well as some special rules for the Pacific. The major changes are:
There are a number of smaller changes, impacting when weapons may be transferred, changes in the Actions and Events (some of which are just modifications of previous items), and such. Overall, I like the changes to the game. Mostly evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the stacking change is the biggest impact item, I think.
With this being a Pacific theater game, there are, not surprisingly, a number of rules to handle the Japanese. Major ones include:
These add some interesting flavor to the game for the Japanese player. (And his opponent, I guess!) However, we chose scenario 3, which Eric had read was one of the best CC scenarios, ever, and has the Japanese attacking at Guadalcanal, early in the war, and didn't feature Infiltration or Caves, but they are in a Banzai posture, so Charge orders were available. In a random draw, I got to play the Japanese. This scenario has the Japanese attacking over a river, attempting to take the VP hexes.
Eric set up an MMG in the middle, protecting VP hex #5 (worth 5VPs), along with a squad and weapons team. His howitzer was set up in VP hex #4 (worth 4VPs), along with a team, leader and squad. His HMG, weapon team, and a squad was in VP hex #1 (1VP), which had a good LoS to the beach hexes. His remaining squad was set up on his right, in the jungle, by itself.
I grouped my 'A' squads to the left, and in the middle, along with one of the good leaders each. The 'B' and SNLF squads were spread out in between and to the right, with the weaker leaders. My plan was to use the strength on the left against his lone unit, and mainly threaten in the middle, to see how it went. I started out slowly, taking my first three hands (of only 3 cards) and discarding them, looking for some way to move. In the meantime his howitzer is taking pot shots, to no effect.
Eventually I got moving, as I found Charge, Move, and Advance cards, all in short order. I managed to get up to the river, and across, but by this time we've had 4 'Time' events already, we're half way through the game, and I haven't even got to contact yet. On the good side, Eric tries for some artillery, but gets denied, and his MMG in the middle breaks.
Another Advance (the Japanese have 10 in the deck) and Charge gets me onto the far side of the river, and yet another Charge lets me advance onto the wire. Oh, I forgot to mention the wire. It's all over the American side. It's here that things start to go pear shaped, as his HMG, squads and leaders start to take a toll at the closer range. Still, my left flank is in good shape, and starts kicking the stuffing out of the American units, although his reinforcing garrison squads keep breaking down into teams, which makes them harder to kill. (Elite teams have higher morale than the garrison squads.) In the middle I finally get to contact, but my advance to melee in #5 goes Eric's way, when the even attack draws weak. All I needed was an even draw!
However, Time is down to the penultimate turn, I've already used the Initiative twice to reject a Time trigger, and it's getting close. I managed to assault #4, set up for an assault on #5, and even draw the required Advance card. However, it's not to be as Eric draws a Time trigger in his Fire, and with the Initiative card in his possession I can't get the double draw of '8'+ to keep the game going. Even though the score was 19VPs in his favor, it was a lot closer than that as I would have swung back 12 of those points in the next turn, just from the cards in hand.
This was one of the more enjoyable CC games I've played, as nothing too outrageously wacky went on. One or two small things, like Eric breaking his MMG in the middle early on; my 7-8 sniper attempts all drawing '7'+ (except for 1 '5'), when I needed low numbers (the numbering only goes up to '10'); Eric's gun managing to miss almost everything it aimed at, including a Fire at range 3, but at least the snake-eyes draw was also a Time trigger. Fairly minor. The critical factor was all the Time triggers early in the game, taking away half the game before I'd got sploshing through the river onto the far bank. It was a disappointment not to get to try some of the other Pacific rules, but that just means we'll have to get it back onto the table again. Bummer.
The changes to the system all made sense and worked well. I especially like the change to the stacking. However, the biggest disappointment in CC:P was the handling of the Banzai/Charge. My perception of a Banzai charge is a whole bunch of guys screaming and charging until they get to grips with the enemy and a big fight develops, with fists and rifle butts swinging. OK, maybe a Hollywood type perception, but that's what I understand it to be. And that's not what the game delivers.
The nature of the card plays means that the Charge order has you move your guys for one turn. And then they stop, piddle around, maybe Fire a little, whatever. At some later stage they may take it up again, or they may not. And that just doesn't seem right. There needs to be some sort of mechanism to allow them to carry the charge on, to keep going until they meet the enemy. Maybe it's my perceptions on the whole Banzai Charge that needs adjusting, I'm not sure, but at the moment it feels more like a 'Line Advance' card from C&C:A than a Banzai Charge.
Which is a shame, because the rest of the game is tight. The Japanese deck feels good. The new Events, Actions and mechanisms make for a better game than CC:E and CC:M, and I'm hoping that a lot of these changes make it into the v2.0 rules for the older games, and they have redone card decks, although that's unlikely.
I'm looking forward to playing more of the scenarios, especially any with Infiltration, but that whole Banzai thing is going to bug me.
- Stacking. Previously there was a hard limit of 7 figures in a single hex, but this is changed so that a player may have more figures in a hex. However, any hex with more than 7 figures stacked in it has a -1 cover modifier for each figure beyond 7. Seemingly drawn straight from Fields of Fire, I like this rule.
- Artillery. The artillery Request/Denied order have been replaced with more generic Asset Request/Denied orders. Requests allow you to obtain artillery or aircraft missions, fire for effect, or repair broken weapons. Denied orders allow you to screw with the other player, breaking his weapons or radios. Again, a neat change that fits, and seems to be well thought out.
- Exiting. Units that exit the map no longer score points based on their casualty value, but on the value of the location where they exit. In fact they can only exit off these locations, rather than anywhere on the map edge.
- Scout. Kinda like a hero, except that he is used to direct mortar fire when activated.
- Melee. Now fought at the start of the Allied player's turn, rather than immediately. Allows the Japanese player an extra draw. Also introduces the Bayonets action, which adds two to the melee strength.
- Elimination. In a Fire, if the attack strength is more than twice the defense strength, then the defender is eliminated. This makes fire groups even more useful, and building mega fire groups of death (tm) real useful. Especially when the defender is overstacked.
- Reconnoiter. A new order, it allows the player to look at the top card in his fate deck, and then either leave it there, put it in the discard pile, or into his hand.
- Recover. Replaced by the Revive order, this gives you a number of points (1-5), shown at the top of the card. Each point may be used to remove a suppressed marker or rally one unit, which is now automatic. The Rout order has also been removed.
- Road. Roads now are 1/2MP, but only if there is no enemy LoS to the hex. The -1 cover is also dropped.
There are a number of smaller changes, impacting when weapons may be transferred, changes in the Actions and Events (some of which are just modifications of previous items), and such. Overall, I like the changes to the game. Mostly evolutionary rather than revolutionary, the stacking change is the biggest impact item, I think.
With this being a Pacific theater game, there are, not surprisingly, a number of rules to handle the Japanese. Major ones include:
- Infiltration. An order, it allows the Japanese player to remove units from the map to be brought on later at Sighting marker locations. These are set up at start, and then moved each time a random hex is revealed (e.g. for a Sniper).
- Banzai. A new posture, this allows the use of the Charge order, where all units that have not been activated can be activated for movement. Before that, all now activated units lose any suppressed marker, and rally. Downside is that all remaining unactivated defenders are activated for fire.
- Caves. New type of fortification, with limited LoS rules
These add some interesting flavor to the game for the Japanese player. (And his opponent, I guess!) However, we chose scenario 3, which Eric had read was one of the best CC scenarios, ever, and has the Japanese attacking at Guadalcanal, early in the war, and didn't feature Infiltration or Caves, but they are in a Banzai posture, so Charge orders were available. In a random draw, I got to play the Japanese. This scenario has the Japanese attacking over a river, attempting to take the VP hexes.
Eric set up an MMG in the middle, protecting VP hex #5 (worth 5VPs), along with a squad and weapons team. His howitzer was set up in VP hex #4 (worth 4VPs), along with a team, leader and squad. His HMG, weapon team, and a squad was in VP hex #1 (1VP), which had a good LoS to the beach hexes. His remaining squad was set up on his right, in the jungle, by itself.
I grouped my 'A' squads to the left, and in the middle, along with one of the good leaders each. The 'B' and SNLF squads were spread out in between and to the right, with the weaker leaders. My plan was to use the strength on the left against his lone unit, and mainly threaten in the middle, to see how it went. I started out slowly, taking my first three hands (of only 3 cards) and discarding them, looking for some way to move. In the meantime his howitzer is taking pot shots, to no effect.
Eventually I got moving, as I found Charge, Move, and Advance cards, all in short order. I managed to get up to the river, and across, but by this time we've had 4 'Time' events already, we're half way through the game, and I haven't even got to contact yet. On the good side, Eric tries for some artillery, but gets denied, and his MMG in the middle breaks.
Another Advance (the Japanese have 10 in the deck) and Charge gets me onto the far side of the river, and yet another Charge lets me advance onto the wire. Oh, I forgot to mention the wire. It's all over the American side. It's here that things start to go pear shaped, as his HMG, squads and leaders start to take a toll at the closer range. Still, my left flank is in good shape, and starts kicking the stuffing out of the American units, although his reinforcing garrison squads keep breaking down into teams, which makes them harder to kill. (Elite teams have higher morale than the garrison squads.) In the middle I finally get to contact, but my advance to melee in #5 goes Eric's way, when the even attack draws weak. All I needed was an even draw!
However, Time is down to the penultimate turn, I've already used the Initiative twice to reject a Time trigger, and it's getting close. I managed to assault #4, set up for an assault on #5, and even draw the required Advance card. However, it's not to be as Eric draws a Time trigger in his Fire, and with the Initiative card in his possession I can't get the double draw of '8'+ to keep the game going. Even though the score was 19VPs in his favor, it was a lot closer than that as I would have swung back 12 of those points in the next turn, just from the cards in hand.
This was one of the more enjoyable CC games I've played, as nothing too outrageously wacky went on. One or two small things, like Eric breaking his MMG in the middle early on; my 7-8 sniper attempts all drawing '7'+ (except for 1 '5'), when I needed low numbers (the numbering only goes up to '10'); Eric's gun managing to miss almost everything it aimed at, including a Fire at range 3, but at least the snake-eyes draw was also a Time trigger. Fairly minor. The critical factor was all the Time triggers early in the game, taking away half the game before I'd got sploshing through the river onto the far bank. It was a disappointment not to get to try some of the other Pacific rules, but that just means we'll have to get it back onto the table again. Bummer.
The changes to the system all made sense and worked well. I especially like the change to the stacking. However, the biggest disappointment in CC:P was the handling of the Banzai/Charge. My perception of a Banzai charge is a whole bunch of guys screaming and charging until they get to grips with the enemy and a big fight develops, with fists and rifle butts swinging. OK, maybe a Hollywood type perception, but that's what I understand it to be. And that's not what the game delivers.
The nature of the card plays means that the Charge order has you move your guys for one turn. And then they stop, piddle around, maybe Fire a little, whatever. At some later stage they may take it up again, or they may not. And that just doesn't seem right. There needs to be some sort of mechanism to allow them to carry the charge on, to keep going until they meet the enemy. Maybe it's my perceptions on the whole Banzai Charge that needs adjusting, I'm not sure, but at the moment it feels more like a 'Line Advance' card from C&C:A than a Banzai Charge.
Which is a shame, because the rest of the game is tight. The Japanese deck feels good. The new Events, Actions and mechanisms make for a better game than CC:E and CC:M, and I'm hoping that a lot of these changes make it into the v2.0 rules for the older games, and they have redone card decks, although that's unlikely.
I'm looking forward to playing more of the scenarios, especially any with Infiltration, but that whole Banzai thing is going to bug me.
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