The Painted Thumb

For this year's International Tabletop Day, my friend Joe ran an event with his home-made rules called “G.I. Battles”. It was a WWII, skirmish-level game and it was designed to provide more realism than the typical skirmish game. The game did not disappoint in that aspect. The scenario we played came out of a book from http://www.skirmishcampaigns.com. It's the same company that published "Bloody Big Battles" and "Check Your Six". This book can be used to generate balanced scenarios using actual TO&Es from the historical research. This completely takes away the concept of 'list building' and I appreciated that. List building games seem to 'gamey' to me and too much of the game strategy is spent creating unbeatable lists. I enjoy playing historical force lists and wish to play more games this way. This particular scenario simulated a typical skirmish that occurred in the bocage of northern France in 1944. Joe arrived before me and

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the  Gulf Strike rules  . The tide seems to be turning toward the Soviet side. The Kitty Hawk is sunk and the Soviets are surrounding the northern Iranian cities.  Turn 7 At Sea, CV-65 USS Enterprise arrives in the Indian Ocean to relieve the damaged Kitty Hawk. US and Soviet subs continue their duel in the Persian Gulf.  In the Air, Backfire bombers fire on the Kitty Hawk again. The missiles strike the ship and the mighty carrier is laid low. On Land, the Soviet Afghanistan army attack Iranian forces in eastern Iran. In the north, Tabriz and Zanjan are captured. American Special Forces continue to harass the Soviet supply network, but attachment #4 from the 1/75th Ranger regiment is destroyed while conducting a raid in Yemen.  Turn 8 In the Air, F-5 planes from Tehran intercept Soviet ground attack aircraft. They push back a major air assault including bombing attacks from Backfire bombers. B-52's bom

The "Soviet-Persian War" continues using the Gulf Strike rules  . We have completed turns 5-6 and the tensions are mounting.  More units are summoned to the Middle East to replace the losses and try to get an advantage over the enemy. Turn 5 In the Air, US supports the Iranian ground defenses around Tabriz with bombing attacks from B-52's. Soviet TU-26 Backfire bombers launch from the Yemen base but are intercepted by the F-14 Tomcats from the US carrier.  At Sea, in the Indian Ocean, a superpower carrier duel is taking place. The USS 'Kitty Hawk' launches its squadrons of A-7 Corsair and A-6 Intruder aircraft and attacks the Kiev-class carrier 'Baku'.  The Baku responds with anti-ship missiles and is supported by more missiles from the a nearby DDG destroyer. The Kitty Hawk takes hits but is still in the fight. Meanwhile, the diesel sub continues to blockade the Persian Gulf single-handedly, but a US Los Angeles-class submarine has been chasing it