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.

Congo

I recently finished painting my second force for the Studio Tomahawk game Congo. I had yet to play but over the last couple of days I have had a chance to look through the book. After a good look, it was apparent that this might be a good game for solo wargaming. The game is card driven, but using the option confusion you can blind your choice of activation card.

I picked two 70 point forces, one from the White Man Expeditions and the other from the African Kingdoms. The scenario had a group from each side holding a hostage and negotiating at a sacred area in the middle of the table. Simply put the story narrated that the negotiations would break down and each group would try to escape with their hostage off their respective table edges on the long axis of the table.

Original positions; essentially the Explorers group on the right has to exit the table towards the left and and the African Kingdoms to the right. Each side's groups were positioned about the table not closer than M to the sacred rock and M to each other. It worked well.

Opposing groups with their hostages.

The Expeditions group sent in their Trained Askaris to negotiate, they are holding the African King's daughter. The African King is hoping to exchange Father Marcellin for her.

Expedition's Ruga-Ruga

African King's Askaris, the only musket armed group he has.

Young Warriors lead by the King

Fanatical Warriors

Explorer's Askaris

The Explorer with his Young Warriors

Late action with the Explorer's racing to get off the table, with both Father Marcellin and the Princess

 

Well, I really enjoyed the game, it is quite simple and for solo wargaming it really worked well. I played a full 6 turns in a couple of hours, the card system went well. I am sure I made lots of mistakes but the mechanics are fairly simple with good explanations in the book. I think I might play another adventure today!