V for Victory

I had my biweekly visit to PY's a week ago Monday for another game of V for Victory from Studio Tomahawk. We enlarged the game this time and added more teams as well an AFV each. We both had 2 core squads as well as 3 teams and a tank each. We played the second scenario from the book. This time I took the Germans and PY played the Airborne.

Great table as usual, it was probably a mistake to make the hedges bocage as that really slowed the action down as there was no line of sight on the table and even on the hedge unless you had previously fired you could not be seen.

I really screwed things up at the beginning as the walled compound was a poor place to enter as the high wall prevented as LOS and one could not fire from them. I was eventually able to get in one of the houses on the 2nd floor and was able to fire on the Airborne troops on the road which was quite advantageous.

My dilemma can be seen above, the troops within the compound were well protected but had no offensive capability.

Fiannly got them all out and turned the left flank into a killing ground, taking out a section of Brits as well as knocking out the Stuart.

It was an interesting game as here was hardily any combat interactions until more than half way through the game. PY decided to open it up by advancing down the central North/South road. There was a lot of back and forth before that we had both advanced our tanks to the central crossroads but neither of us could get a good shot off so we both moved to west on the table. Once the action started casualties were absorbed on both sides, I was able to kill more Brits and take out the British Stuart with my Hetzer, but PY had captured more of the points than I had. We added an extra turn to the game but it was now quite late so we called it a day. The points were tallied up...8 to 8 a tie.

The game is fun, but it is a game and I am not sure if using historical tactics really helps you with this ruleset. But the game is easy enough to pick, again I do not think I would invest heavily in it but would be always happy to play a game.

Well that is it for gaming for me until at least the middle of September, as it is holiday time. We have our yearly trip to Ogunquit this coming week and in the first 2 weeks of September, we are finally getting to see my daughter in London and then travelling on to Malta, a trip we planned more then 3 years ago but which got screwed up because of the Covid. Myself and my wife have a lot of trips to catch up on as we still have to go to Sicily and Bavaria, 2 other trips that were extensively planned over the last 3 years but had to be put off for various reasons.

V for Victory

A week ago, I had one of my regular games with my friend PY. We usually play at his house, so he generally will suggest a game to me. This time he suggested V for Victory a new game from Studio Tomahawk set in WWII. Click on the link and you find a QRS and a FAQ which will give a sense of the game.

I have been a little dubious of this game as most of Studio Tomahawks games are semi-historical or alternate historical in nature. I also would not call them simulations but rather games. As anyone who reads my blog knows, my main WWII game is Chain of Command. This is very, very unlikely to change. But I do enjoy Studio Tomahawk games and after rulesets from Too Fat Ladies there is no question that I really favour games from Studio Tomahawk, such as SAGA, Muskets & Tomahawks, Dracula's America and Congo. All great games, so I was quite willing to try V for Victory.

A lovely table as usual by PY.

I am not a big fan of markers, but these worked well.

I played a British Airborne unit and PY played the Germans

As you can see, it is a pretty small scale game with maybe 20 figures per side. we did not play with heavy weapons teams or AFV's. But I would think that the game scales up well.

Each unit has different attributes and the quality of the weapons defines the type of dice used. Negative attributes burn dice meaning that they drop down a level (d8 to d6) or that you lose a dice.

The activation method is very similar to Congo (almost exact I would say) with each player having a hand of cards with a certain number and type of actions on each card. Each card is also numbered which defines priority in play. Once each player exhausts their hand, the turn ends. I like this activation method. I should say that Dracula's America has somewhat of a similar method. Muskets and Tomahawks also uses cards but in a different way with each card activating specific unit type, either yours or your opponents.

I did eke out a victory which is unusual as PY usually beats me!

I have to say I quite enjoyed the game and would play it again. I am not planning to paint up any troops for it and have no plans to buy the ruleset except for maybe the book itself. It comes with a deck of cards as well as markers which are all well thought out. If someone sets it up at the club we have a full US Airborne platoon as well as a German Grenadier platoon which will work well for the game.