Hoth, Lissa and Lake Ontario

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….

Oh yes indeedy! This is a whole lot of thematic fun with plenty of replay value

I had my first game of Star Wars: Battle of Hoth at the club last night - it was enormous fun! It has been described as ‘Memoir ‘44 lite’ in terms of how it plays and that is a pretty fair assessment. It uses the familiar card based activation system with the usual section and tactic cards with the added chrome of leader card. These are optional but certainly add to the Star Wars ‘feel’ of the game.

Scenario 1. The Empire had five infantry units and two of probe droids whilst the Rebels had seven infantry units. 

Paul, my opponent, took command of the Imperial forces whilst yours truly was the Rebel Alliance. Paul has never played a Command and Colours game so it was a good opportunity for him to try it out. We opted to fight scenario number one of the eighteen included in the game and also to take a leader each - these are represented by three cards that are shuffled into each player’s deck - so Paul took General Veers whilst I opted for Han Solo. The winner was the first player to collect four medals with the probe droids being worth two a unit (normally these are not worth any medals).

The Rebels began well enough on their left flank and quickly despatched two Imperial infantry units. The probe droids lurked in the rear of the Imperial position - only one of these was fired on in the entire game -  whilst the Imperial left flank advanced and dealt with the rebels accordingly. They also managed to take a left flank Rebel unit out as well and so reached four medals and victory.

It was only when I got home that I realised we had been playing with wrong number of command cards for the Empire - they should have had three and not the four they used - it was my fault for sure but I am not convinced t would have a difference to the outcome. 

Paul really enjoyed the game, as did I, and we have decided to work through the scenarios including the final epic scale assault on Hoth requiring two copies of the game - which I have.

The next release in the series is rumoured to be the Battle for Endor so expect to see Ewoks, speeder bikes and perhaps AT STs.

Lissa

I have certain degree of history with the Battle of Lissa in that I actually owned both fleets in 1:2400th many years ago. I cannot remember the manufacturer of the models but for some reason or another I parted with the whole lot during one of my periodic project churning exercises. As I recall it was a rules based decision as why they were disposed of - basically there was not a set around at the time that I wanted to use.

Anyway, I digress. 

As well as Lissa it also includes the actions on the Italian Lakes. Needless to say the indefatigable David Manley has covered this period - Broadside and Ram for the Lissa campaign and Krieg Am Gardasee for the lakes (a supplement for Steamer Wars). Both of these are available on Wargames Vault under his Long Face Games label

When I first heard that this book was going to be published I knew that it would inevitably find its way into my collection - and it has! I had considered using Lissa as the battle in Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame (before the ACW part was added to the title) but making the models in the time available would not have been achievable. I may yet get around to it though and this book will be invaluable when I do! 

Lake Ontario

Looking forward to reading this - nice small scale actions, easily manageable and with me looking at the smaller end of the Tumbling Dice age of sail range!

A welcome change of pace has been revisiting the age of sail. Again, I have a long history with this period although have not really done very much with it. I have a few things to look at - more at the lower level rather than fleet sized - with the war in 1812 featuring and possibly the war against the Barbary Pirates. Part of the naval activity in this war took place on the Great Lakes with Lake Ontario seeing some eminently gameable actions. The book above covers not only the naval side but also some of the land actions - again, these are of a size that easily translates onto the table top. 

As ever, plenty of things to keep me ticking over - along with new book, and my next post will provide a bit of an update on progress with this.