Generals of Waterloo
NEWS
July 1, 2002
2 days to Origins
Still haven't put up the pictures of the last convention - sorry
Am updating the pages for easier navigation - this will take a while (of
course)
Pacific Map is coming along - will bring the prototype with me to Columbus.
May 2002
Orion Game Con in Toronto. April 27 2002
Met up with three gamers who played me on my Large Europe map.
They of course had never seen my map but were impressed with the size and
detail.
Unfortunately two of the three did not know A&A Europe either.
After explanations of the rules and getting set up we began the game.
I played Germany and Italy. Barbarossa was devastating. I rolled
a five and used the pregame Codeword Dortmund move to clear a path for the
Axis.
The Italians slowly built up their African forces. Crete was taken
and Malta was bypassed.
The USSR made use of the cities of Leningrad, Warsaw and Kiev to take shelter
while the Axis armies rolled by. The Axis had to garrison these areas
so these forces never left their cities.
The USSR did not buy enough Infantry. And did not concentrate his
forces into fighting zones. So the Axis had an easier time in the east
than they should have. However the USSR player was lucky in that the
Siberian Army started to move west on turn #1 (could have taken 6 turns).
By turn #6 they were ready to help save Moscow.
The USSR did some good tactical moves by paradropping an nInfantry into
Romania and getting the Romanian Communist Legion to join it. A not
so good move was to pay Turkey 9 IPCs to move 3 of its ships through the
Turkish Straits (Dardanelles).
The UK went after and destroyed every Axis ship and sub in the Atlantic.
But that left only half of his fleet back in home waters. His
Gibraltor force chased a German Cruiser to Panama and thus the Italians had
it safe in the Mediterranean to transport units to Africa. When Germany
built up its fleet in the Baltic it was ready to take on the UK. The
UK player was new to all of the units types Cruisers, Battleships, Aircraft
Carriers, Escort Carriers, Destroyers, Heavy Transports, Tranports, Coastal
Submarines and Ocean going Submarines. So he placed a similarly sized
force of ships to block my path. He forgot the nearby Luftwaffe and
his fleet was obliterated. He was out gunned and he rolled badly. Germany
still had Submarines when the battle was over - these usually go as fodder.
Germany also landed forces on Yorkshire - which meant Germany took over
the production of the ships in the Liverpool Shipyard.
Having invaded England the USA immediately declared war on the Axis. The
USA had a 66% chance of doing so on its next turn anyway.
We played from 2:30 to 11:30 with 1 hour off at 6 pm.
The three players who started were Chris (USSR), Ted (UK) and Ralph (USA)
After 6 pm they left to join the Games Auction and at 7 Bryan took over
for all the Allies.
Ralph (USA) was a good ally and lend leased the UK a ship per turn while
it was neutral - unfortunately the USA was neutral for almost the entire time
we played. But that is the time frame we have set.~ each turn is a
month or a few months and between Barbarossa and Pearl Harbour is about 6
months.
It was turn #5 when Germany took the UK Home Fleet out. The UK still
had a few capital ships in the Atlantic and would come with USA ships by turn
#8 but we only played to turn #6. It was a slow game as I was teaching
them the rules as we played and I was interupted by gamers who wanted to
know more about the maps I had with me - RISK deWit, Caesars&Satraps,
Tactical: Barbarossa and the Large Europe one we were playing. I also
have Table Tactics units and these were enjoyed by a few people (Chris created
a nuclear Sub in the White Sea, gave Stalin a jeep and parked a helicopter
in Afghanistan).
The USSR was saved by having Winter for turns #4 and #5. It slowed
the German Armour but allowed German Infantry to join with the panzers.
The UK landed in France. Rouen was taken on turn #4. Retaken
by German on turn #5 and the UK fleet destroyed on the same turn.
We ended the play on turn #6
It was then 11:30 pm and I had to get my car out of the parking lot and
get home to Waterloo - normally a 1 hour drive.
Bryan was off to play Robo Rally or something and we speculated on what
would or might have happened if we played the game to the end.
Eastern Front
Germany would have had a big battle with Moscow. And Germany would
probably win there. If Germany lost in the East then they would have
had a second army there in a few turns. Germany still had much more
income that the USSR.
Africa
In Africa the Italian and Germans fought the UK forces and through
attrition both sides were weakened. Italy paradropped two Infantry into
Cairo thus stopping the UK from using its MidEast Rail lines. Italy
had free movement in the Mediterranean and only had to worry about the USSR
Black Sea Fleet which moved out of the Black Sea to attack German occupied
Greece. Greece remained in Axis control but the USSR Fleet threatens
the Italians.
Italy could continue its build up and would take Africa by turn #7 and be
in Iran by turn #10.
Atlantic
The USA would build a fleet and army and would land in Norway, France, Spain,
or Morocco by turn #11 or #12.
The UK would have to make sure to defend itself. It would have easily
retaken rkshire and removed the Germans on its turn #6. Its scattered
fleet would form up to the west of Ireland and then try to move the German
fleet out of the North Sea. This could occur by turn #9.
Total Outcome
If the USSR could hold out to turn #12 then the Allies would win. The
USA taking Norway and then liberating Finland, the Baltic States, Byelorus,
Poland and the Ukraine with the UK behind could help the USSR come back into
the game. Even a second massive front in France would help the USSR.
but it might have been too little too late.
Will have pictures here soon.
March 2002
Am selling maps on a weekly basis instead of a monthly basis. Maps
are still made in small batches of between 5 and 10 at a time.
Only have a few left of the Large 1942 and Large 1948 combination maps.
Will stop the dual map expansions. Lamination works fine but storing
the maps rolled up will tend to add creases to the map. The single
sheet map expansions are great rolled up with only a minor curl that can
be eliminated.
School work prevents me from doing more work on the maps. But come
April and May I should have time to work on the Large Pacific map.
This should be ready for Orion convention April 27th, 2002.
I played History of the World [HOTW] a few weeks back. A good
game but slightly unbalanced. The person who gets to play Britain on
the last round will usually win. I have some good ideas to use those
playing pieces and the pieces from Shogun (Samurai Swords) [SS] to
make a great expansion for both. Large map of course.
Last year I also played Battle Cry [BC]- a nice little game with
some good features. I will design a map to play other historical settings
of that era (Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery), such as Frederick the Great's
battles, Napoleon's battles, War of 1812 ... well basically any war from 1700
to 1900 could done with these pieces.
I purchased HOTW, BC and SS last year for Xmas. And also RISK 2201.
If they keep making games with small maps I will keep making larger maps.
Web pages are going slow - too much real life stuff. Also a transition
from @home to @rogers, and getting the nimda virus did not help.
Will try to add photos and web pages soon. Good Gmaing
As of December 15th, 2001
Wrote these goals Sept 7th
I have set some goals for these pages
1 - The new pages for my web sites will take a few weeks/months to
finish as I have about 10 sites now and the ~tacit site is still large and
has 50+ pages and needs to be updated
2 - I hope to visit this page (news.htm) on a monthly or bi-monthly
basis. Depends on real life.
3 - The result will be greatly organized
Am behind in this news section. Will try to do better in the future.
The @Home service I used was run by Excite which went belly up. Now
some of my sites are @Rogers instead. So that is slowing things down.
Am working on maps and rules
Large Europe Rules are excellent and so too the Tactical Map Rules.
1996 What have I done since 1996 when I
first made my ~tacit pages? (old News)
Well I actually started my first A&A pages in 1995 at another site but
that ISP was awful for service so I moved to KW.IGS.NET
In the 1990's I created my first expansions for Axis & Allies.
I advertized those on my web site and have sold a few hundred in the past
few years.
I created more expansions.
1999 In September 1999 I got onto cable
with a maximum baud rate of around 2,400,000.
More importantly with the @Home service I got six emails and six home pages
for these emails.
So I took :
getthebigpicture@home.com and http://members.home.net/getthebigpicture
worldatwar@home.com and http://members.home.net/worldatwar
rboerke@home.com and http://members.home.net/rboerke
generalsofwaterloo@home.com and http://members.home.net/generalsofwaterloo
eaglewolfbear2001@home.com and http://members.home.net/eaglewolfbear2001
gilgamesh2001@home.com and http://members.home.net/gilgamesh2001
I also own www.worldatwar.com since 1997
and purchased www.eaglewolfbear.com in 2000
Many projects to do - so little time :)
In April 2000 I bought a HP printer that prints
36" wide rolls of paper. Needless to say this costs $$ (at the time
over $6000 CDN ($4000 US)).
I then considered doing other projects. Astronomy and space has always
been a hobby of mine so I decided to print off large Hubble photos.
I have a computer and added neat looking planets and asteroids to those
images to give excellent looking alien landscapes.
I also took photographs and scanned them and created large format photos
of friends and family.
In 1999 and 2000 I went to the Origins game Convention in Columbus Ohio.
I missed this year but plan to go back in 2002.
What did I do in 2001? (new News)
I went to the Orion Game Convention in Toronto Ontario in
April 2001
That is me in the center. I got rid of the beard and will try to get
rid of the belly too.
The table has a lot of game boxes (lower right). Those belong to a
buddy of mine who owns the German Gameboard Company.
In front of me (lower left) is a game I was playing of my Large 1942
Map .
There is also a partial of the Large 1942 Map in the center on the right
edge of the photo.
Above the map on the wall (center left) is hanging my RISK deWit map,
with the two big circles for each hemisphere.
Above that is a Hubble photo of a galaxy cluster with a planet system
and comet.
On the wall at (1 o'clock) is another Hubbel photo of a galaxy with a
landscape and three moons.
Below that is a blue image of my GetTheBigPicture advertisement.
A friend of mine has two kids and I blew up a photo he sent me.
In the top right corner is a part of my Barbarossa Tactical A&A Map
. It is a hex map.
Other game related things I did this year. Played a lot of games:
German games and A&A Pacific, Europe and Original.. Purchased
A&A Pacific at the Orion show.
In July 2001 I went to the Star Trek Convention
in Toronto - no photos.
Sold one of my Space Art Pictures (Landcape with 3 Moons). Was fun.
Live long and prosper. \V/
I teach college classes and the summer was slow so I completed my two expansions
Caesars & Satraps and Large Europe.
August went by really quick.
Am doing websites for a few clients. One client had a massive PC failure
and spent about three weeks getting a new PC, restoring his data, restoring
his connection, dealing with a virus, ....
September 2001
Plan:
Client websites is priority #1
School is priority #2
Will go camping Sept 17th to 24th.
WorldAtWar - BSAA project is priority #3
Redoing all of my webpages is also priority #3
Will add to this page by Nov 2001.
Now it is December
Client websites is priority #1 Still are
School is priority #2 Still is. Have 4 courses next term
Will go camping Sept 17th to 24th. Went and it was wet but
great
WorldAtWar - BSAA project is priority #3 No time spent
but will have next week
Redoing all of my webpages is also priority #3 Came back and did
this - not too much more
Will add to this page by Nov 2001. December 2001 a little
late
* World At War will be worked on next week.
* Have more ideas for Maps - Battle Cry maps will be done in 2002.
* More Tactical Hex maps
* Large Pacific
* Blue & Gray
* Will redo my Large 1942 and 1948 Maps.
WorldAtWar - BSAA Project
I have been working on the World at War online game for about 10 years now.
Started out as a RISK like computer game and then evolved into a total wargame.
It will be run online and will be for different time periods and allow many
players to play.
The first project is World War II with 50 players.
But it also lends itself to a simplified version and becomes Blind Simultaneous
Axis & Allies.
Blind means that each player will only see his own units and the units on
the borders of his areas.
Simultaneous means that each player will sumbit turns and all turns will
be done at the same time.
The original set up of A&A will be altered and some new rules of course
need to be added.
I might also add new units like recon aircraft and/or spies.
When this game is done then I will do the same for my Large A&A
Map and then to the very large map I have for World War II. Then onto
Roman world and Napoleon and .....
All pages within www.kw.igs.net/~tacit and
www.worldatwar.com are
copyright 1996, 1999, 2001 by Tacit Memnos Infinitum,
Generals of Waterloo, Ralph Boerke
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