Phil has been working on Russian ski-troops and paratroops for it seems like ages and I've missed every outing of them so far. So last Tuesday the Monday Night game was Eastern Front PBI in the snow and as it was in Shedquarters I got to play.
I partnered Ian as the Russians. Harvey took the defending Germans. The terrain was unpainted polystyrene tiles with some bespoke bits and pieces. It looked very effective.
Phil has done a detailed write up over at PBEye Candy. This is balanced and comprehensive. This report will, of course, be wildly partisan and patchy.
Ian was first on the table with the ski troops.
These feature a lot of conversions and are mounted on clear plastic. They are really rather good to look at.
Alas this didn't make up for the slight casualty incurred in the parachute drop, - the incapacity of the platoon commander.
I can only just begin to tell you how inconvenient this is in PBI. Especially if you then fail to replace him in the next move. And the move after (until Phil remembered that he had decided that platoon commander replacement automatically succeeds on the second attempt). I then followed up Phil's good work with some rubbish AP rolls that meant I was unable to move from the drop zone. Very frustrating.
The rest of the game featured Ian trying to flank the position with his Aerosans, which was mildly successful. With the Germans in cover and having two nasty looking quads as well as some armour it was a difficult position to crack, even without the problems we'd had.
However in creating his impregnable position Harvey had been forced to leave two of the objectives outside his perimeter, so we occupied those fairly easily and won the game.
Great fun, nice toys, but the PBI system which requires a die roll for EVERYTHING is sometimes very annoying. A couple of bad rolls can ruin and evening's gaming and I think Phil's idea of something automatically succeeding the second time you try it has a lot of merit.
In the post game chat Phil pointed out that the odds of the disaster I encountered were very low and that if you're playing several games in an afternoon/evening as PBIers seem to do then you write it off to experience and get on with the next game.
Hopefully we'll see them all back for a second go in the near future.
I partnered Ian as the Russians. Harvey took the defending Germans. The terrain was unpainted polystyrene tiles with some bespoke bits and pieces. It looked very effective.
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| The German defensive position. |
Ian was first on the table with the ski troops.
Ian also had some Aerosans, just visible at the top of the photo.
Ian moved up to the hedge line and then launched his men forward. Alas due to a bit of a misunderstanding and some bad luck Ian got a bit close and was shot up comprehensively. No matter, I was on my way with a perfectly executed para-drop.
This was followed by my glider-born AFV. Again, perfectly landed.
I can only just begin to tell you how inconvenient this is in PBI. Especially if you then fail to replace him in the next move. And the move after (until Phil remembered that he had decided that platoon commander replacement automatically succeeds on the second attempt). I then followed up Phil's good work with some rubbish AP rolls that meant I was unable to move from the drop zone. Very frustrating.
The rest of the game featured Ian trying to flank the position with his Aerosans, which was mildly successful. With the Germans in cover and having two nasty looking quads as well as some armour it was a difficult position to crack, even without the problems we'd had.
However in creating his impregnable position Harvey had been forced to leave two of the objectives outside his perimeter, so we occupied those fairly easily and won the game.
Great fun, nice toys, but the PBI system which requires a die roll for EVERYTHING is sometimes very annoying. A couple of bad rolls can ruin and evening's gaming and I think Phil's idea of something automatically succeeding the second time you try it has a lot of merit.
In the post game chat Phil pointed out that the odds of the disaster I encountered were very low and that if you're playing several games in an afternoon/evening as PBIers seem to do then you write it off to experience and get on with the next game.
Hopefully we'll see them all back for a second go in the near future.
That picture of the Ski Troops behind the hedge is excellent!
ReplyDeleteI had reinforcement platoons ready to come on ... so I thought the next game we could simply play as a 'part 2'?
I see Martin now has a PBI3 document in circulation.
Phil
I was quite pleased with that shot as well.
DeleteA "part 2" would certainly suit, - now i've got my pltoon commanders sorted out!
I am out of the loop on PBI 3 (or is it PBIIII???). Possibly because I never really got to grip with PBI!