Ultramodern Wargaming – Ukraine 2024
Recommendations: 13004
About the Project
Lately, I've been running war games every weekend with members of the community via web conference. Players log on and play wargames with each other in real time, regardless of location, and we usually have at least a couple spectators as well. Many times it’s been Darkstar, but we’re also running wargames in Panzer Leader, Arab-Israeli Wars, and now Valor & Victory.
BoW/OTT community members @brucelea, @damon, @davehawes, and @rasmus have taken the plunge, leading battalions across thousands of meters of desert, starfleets in pitched battles across the heavens, or vicious firefights in the jungles of Vietnam, all without leaving the comfort of their home.
Hard-core, old-school command-tactical wargames can now be run (complete with spectators and recordings) in real time, with BOTH PLAYERS moving pieces across THE SAME virtual game board, thus maintaining player agency, speedy and instant results (no play by e-mail), interwoven turn sequences, any questions / feedback instantly received and addressed, and with the game being virtually recorded as it goes, a ready-made battle report can actually be created as we go.
All of this without the players having to install any new software on their computer, on any platform (PC or Mac). All that's needed is to agree on a time, a handful of dice, and a bellyful of courage!
Every weekend can now be a boot camp! All without costing me thousands of dollars in airfare, too!
Related Game: PanzerBlitz
Related Genre: Historical
This Project is Active
Panzer Leader in the Korean War - US Marines, US Army, Royal Marine Commandos
Here is a link to the replay video for the experimental Korean War expansion of Avalon Hill’s classic Panzer Leader. Task Force Drysdale was an ad-hoc US Marine Corps / US Army / Royal Marine Commando force put together to try and fight up Hell Fire Valley, trying to reach the key evacuation point at Hanaru-ri.
This vital road junction had to stand for any of the US Marine (5th, 7th, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division) and US Army troops (37th Regimental Combat Team, 7th US Infantry) to have any change of escaping the crushing winter offensive of Chinese troops pouring down from the north.
Suffice it to say, Hanaru-ri needs Task Force Drysdale to reinforce it, or this darkest chapter of the Korean War is about to get a whole lot darker.
70th Anniversary - Chosin Reservoir - Korean War
Today the Sitrep Podcast is taking a special trip into the Korean War. Late November and early December marks the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, one of the most desperate and blood-soaked episodes in the Korean War.
Although primarily remembered as a battle of the United States Marine Corps – US Army, US Navy, and even British Royal Marine Commando units were also involved.
It was one such engagement at the “Frozen Chosin” we’ll be looking at today (precise 70th anniversary, 29 November 1950), where a British / US Army / US Marine force called “Task Force Drysdale” makes a resolute push up “Hell Fire Valley” in a heroic attempt to reinforce the desperately-threatened evacuation point at Hagaru-ri.
This was a vital chokepoint the Allies had hold if any of the Marines were to leave the Chosin Reservoir alive, a chokepoint already outnumbered 20-1 and threatened on all four sides by four Chinese divisions … … will these “Chosin Few” survive today’s game?
Map for the game, showing about 3 x 5 km of "Hell Fire Valley" leading from SSE to NNW.
USMC units, I'll be taking out some of those Corsairs ... not sure how many yet. But the 1950 rifle platoons and M26 Pershings are ready to go.
US Army troops and (believe it or not) Royal Marine Commandos were also involved in the November 29 1950 battle up this highway. In fact, Lt.Colonel Drysdale was in overall command of this task force.
Can't have the Battle of Chosin Reservoir without Chinese... LOTS of Chinese. Estimates of total troops involved at Chosin range from 60,000 to 120,000. Smart money is around 80,000 ... against just 4,000 or so US Marines.Fallschirmjäger counterattack at Castle Hill
Join us for a live stream today at 2PM EST (7PM UK) as “Yavasa” Piotr and “Oriskany” Jim take Valor & Victory into Monte Cassino, a pivotal and bloody series of battles in Italy fought between the soldiers of no less than ten allied armies and elite German “Fallschirmjäger” paratroopers.
Specifically, we’ll be looking at elements of 4th FJ Regiment hitting companies of the 1/4 Essex Rifles and the 4/6 Rajputana Rifles, during a German paratrooper counterattack on this key position on 19 March, 1944. The objective, the bombed-out ruins of a Renaissance castle, was contested with all the weaponly and furor of the Second World War.
The system we’ll be using is “Valor & Victory” by Barry Doyle. We hope you’ll join us for a great game between long-time community members.
The completed gameplay video is posted below.
Game Video - Rasmus v Oriskany at the Hürtgen Forest - late 1944 - Valor & Victory
Good afternoon, everyone ~ We had a great stream today on Seitrep Podcast, where rasmus and I had a bloody skirmish with German and American infantry, panzerschreks, bazookas, 88s, and Shermans. The setting was the Hürtgen Forest, an eerie and hotly-contested forest along the German border in October-December 1944.
Check it out and see if the game turns out as desperate as the historical battle!
Forgotten Bloodbath in "Haunted" Hürtgen Forest - Autumn 1944
Hello, everyone –
Join us for a live stream tomorrow at 2PM EST (7PM UK) as we take Valor & Victory into the Hürtgen Forest, a forgotten bloodbath fought along the German border from October-December 1944.
Infantry elements of German 116th Panzer Division and 28th US Infantry Division will tangle in this eerie, fog-bound, frigid “haunted forest” – just a small part of a brutal battle that would go down as probably Germany’s last operational victory of World War II.
Live Stream from Sitrep Podcast: Historical Pirate Battle
Today we’ll be streaming our first crack at a historical pirate encounter, a game of Letters of Marque crafted to approximate an encounter that took place at the Bay of Hounds off the northwest coast of Cuba on 4 April, 1716.
A small flotilla of brigantines and sloops under the flag of Henry Jennings came across two pirate sailing canoes led by future pirate luminaries Samuel Bellamy and Paulsgrave Williams. They were looting a ship that thought Jennings was coming to save them. They were wrong. With his far more powerful ships, Jennings simply took pirate and prey alike without a shot fired.
While Jennings was deciding whether to cut Bellamy and Williams in on the plunder or simply kill them, a large French merchantman was discovered. Some of Jenning’s captains didn’t want to attack, as their privateering commission allowed them to attack only Spanish ships. Seeing their chance, Bellamy and Williams supported Jenning’s decision to attack, and together they went after the French merchantman Saint Marie. Meanwhile, a second French ship (either the Mary of Rochelle or Amiable Marie, records seem unclear) was also spotted, and some of Jenning’s ships gave chase to that ship as well.
Characters in this drama will also include a young Charles Vane (a crewman aboard one of Jenning’s ships) and Benjamin Hornigold, a figure who will play prominently in the upcoming “Pirate Republic” of New Providence.
Join us today at 2PM East US (7PM UK time) for a live stream where we see if our pirates can match or exceed Jenning’s plunder that bloody day.
Here is the map for today's live game! PzKpfw VI "Tiger I" Build Video - 15mm Plastic Soldier Company
Hello, everyone
– In this Sitrep video, “Oriskany” Jim takes his first faltering try at a “hobby build” video. The luckless subject of this macabre experiment is the 15mm PzKpfw VI “Tiger I” by Plastic Soldier Company.
We go through the steps of building this great kit, point out a few tricky parts that hobbyists should look out for, make a few mistakes (cough, cough), and review some of the options this kit gives the historical wargamer.
At Long Last - Benghazi Transit Game Will Run "For Keeps"
Today (Saturday, September 26) at 1:30 East US / 6:30 UK time the Thirteen Days to Thirteen Hours Project finally comes into the home stretch.
On the night of 11-12 September 2012, the US Ambassador’s Compound in Benghazi, Libya came under attack by Libyan insurgents, despite being under the protection of “friendly” local Libyan militia of the “February 17 Brigade.”
About a mile away, six ex-military, private military contractors of GRS saw the attack begin from their positions at the CIA Annex building. They were not allowed to go assist the ambassador’s compound for 35 crucial minutes, by which time fires in the ambassador’s compound had already caused the passing of the US ambassador.
Today we will run the “transit game,” where we will imagine what might have been if the GRS operators were allowed to leave right away. They’ll face much more deadly opposition from a hostile Libyan militia still engaged in a full attack on the ambassador’s compound, but just might reach the compound in time to make a crucial difference.
The end conditions of our “transit game” will impact the setup conditions for a 28mm miniatures game (yes, our Sitrep Team has built a 28mm table recreating the Benghazi embassy compound) to be run next weekend. Stay tuned for that!
But to see how many of our GRS operators make it to compound, and how fast they get there … or if they make it at all … check out tomorrow’s LIVE STREAM between myself, Gaz, and Bill!
We hope to see some of you there!
