Retro gaming with the lads, Part 2

Turn 6

Fionn captured Salt Lake City and pushed me out of the Western Region entirely, but not permanently. I saw a certain weakness here, in his plan, but he did not notice it until after the game, when I pointed it out to him.

 Aidan finally captured Houston (and great was the rejoicing) and also rolled into Dallas. I just was running out of forces here, faster than I could replace them. He tried to grab Denver, but I was able to take out his heavy units and his light units failed to score hits. However, he moved into position so that he could hit me from two regions (there is a unit max of 5 per region, so multi-region attacks are important to victory).

 Liam took New Orleans without a shot being fired. He made a tremendous effort at D.C., but three light units failed to score a hit. Yet, I was very weak on the Eastern Seaboard, if D.C. fell without my receiving reinforcements here, or without a large shift of my troops, everything north of D.C. would be lost.

I was able to retake Phoenix, once again, due to reinforcements in the Rockies. I then shifted much of my defenders in the eastern Midwest to defend Philadelphia northwards. Luckily, I had gotten some tanks in Detroit, else I would have had no troops other than the 1 infantry in D.C. and a couple of air units. It was THIS close for me to take a loss at this point.

Turn 7

 Now that the Alliance were out of reinforcements (8 units a turn for turns 2 through 6), I just had to hang on and hope I did not lose many more cities...at least ones I could not retake by the end of my turn. Fionn moved up his forces in the West and began shifting reserves towards Phoenix, in order to help retake it. He did not move enough troops southerly, as it turned out.

 Aidan captured Denver, and was very excited about it. His next target was St. Louis and was rather put out by my having retaken Phoenix from him.

 Liam retakes D.C. and pushes my troops as far as he can. Yet, he left the bulk of his reserve infantry on the coast, which is what cost him the game on this end of the map.

Making a maximum effort, combined with well received reinforcements, I manage to retake Denver and San Diego, much to the chagrin of Fionn and Aidan. At this point, if I remember correctly, they had 17 cities captured from me.

Turn 8

 Fionn retakes San Diego, but no longer has the strength on his front to seriously contest me east of the Rockies. He had lots of troops in his rear areas, but was unable to bring it to bear against me, especially as I had more partisans and reinforcements pop up in the Rockies and West.

 Aidan had a good turn and took St. Louis, Denver, and Phoenix this turn. He really turned up the pressure against me, regardless of my units in the SW Rockies, if I couldn't kick him out of the heartland, I was done for.

 Liam retook Memphis, which I had gotten away from him the turn before, but luckily for me, he still had all those infantry in the mountains of the SouthEast and coast. I was barely holding on here and hoped for lots of laser hits, but I got less than I should have; the ones that did hit took out bombers and helos.

I ended up retaking Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Memphis, due to lucky placement of reinforcements. The lads wanted to call it at this point, but I kept them at the table, to finish out the last turn.

Turn 9

 

 Fionn attempted to retake Los Angeles, but really did not have the troops to do it and I held onto the city. He has more forces out of frame at the bottom right, but they were not in a position to force the situation to any degree.

Aidan captures New Oreleans as some partisans had shown themselves after the city was abandoned by Liam the previous turn. But, at this point, Aidan's forces were quite weakened, especially after losing so many at Houston. Still, he had done very well in spite of the early setback.

 Liam recaptures Memphis from me yet again, but now he leaves a strong force in it, preventing me from having an easy battle for it. Otherwise, Liam concentrated his forces where they would do the most good for him.

Combined with multiple laser hits and good reinforcements, my forces were able to recapture San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Antonio, and Denver, sealing the game for me as a US win. The lads were mighty disappointed, but in all honesty, they had done as well, if not better, than any of my previous opponents. For the record, I have not lost this game as the US player.

After thinking on this game, I feel the basic structure of the rules would work well as a campaign setting. One could easily transfer the action to a European or African setting, using a custom map, of course.

This game is long out of print and probably will never be printed again, as the PC police (the busybody persons with long noses) would frown on the "stereotyping" of the "enemy" forces involved. Lucky for me, I have two copies of the game, including two maps, full sets of units, and the reinforcement cards and player aid cards.