CWF Game Cast

Wednesday evenings are War at Sea night at Battleground Games in Abington.  Tonight I thought it’d be fun to record my game and write it up as a battle report.  I brought my digital camera with the hopes of taking pictures.  For some reason it wouldn’t work at the store.  Either the battery died or squigs were playing a game of Blood Bowl with its innards.

Thankfully I took some pictures of my fleet before I left my house and I have peppered those throughout the battle report.  I played a 200pt game against my gaming buddy Rick.  Below is the breakdown of our two fleets.  Mine is accurate and his is as best I can remember.

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written by ^Raven^

Tags

Axis and Allies Minis, Battle Report, Collectible Minis, Historical Gaming, War at Sea, WAS Set 2, WAS Task Force.

Related Articles

• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Stats July 24, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Opened 3+ Cases Plus Stat Cards July 25, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Official Set List July 24, 2008
• War at Sea Scenario: Action Deferred July 26, 2008
• War @ Sea Set 2 Confirmed Releases February 18, 2008

Wizards has released an official FAQ for Task Force, which is the new War at Sea release.  The game became available for sale this past Friday and prompted lots of discussion regarding hopeful misprints.

Thankfully Wizards heard the dissent and answered the questions in their document.  We’ve turned their FAQ into a proper pdf file so you can download, print, and use it at your leisure.  This is a document that will be quite helpful to have at hand.  Not everyone checks online for updates and there’s a good chance that at least one member of your gaming group still believes the U-66 has speed 2.

While we could say go to War at Sea Task Force FAQ and read the pdf (you need the FREE Adobe Acrobat Reader) that wouldn’t be much of a blog article.  I know you, the reader, come here for more than my sparkling personality and superior gaming intellect.  Yes, I am jesting.  But seriously you enjoy, at least I pretend you do, my analysis and thoughts on the gaming issues at hand.

Some of the entries I knew about last week, say Thursday (after I opened several of my cases) or Friday but most people did not.  Richard Baker, lead game designer for War at Sea, announced a few of them on the official, read horrendous, Gleemax WoTC forum.  Most, however, of the entries are new.

I strongly believe that several of the entries are unnecessary expenditures of time and energy on WotC’s end.  For example of course the Jean Bart, the bane of my existence, only has one turret.  If it was supposed to have more than one then everyone who pulled one, or in my case many, would have more turrets.  At bare minimum we’d be able to compare with other gamers and see that our Jean Bart was the only one with a single turret.

The question relating to the SM.79 is yet another space waster.  The Advanced Rules book specifically states that patrol bombers cannot base on a carrier.  More exactly it says that “carriers can only base Fighters, Dive Bombers, and Torpedo Bombers (p. 31 Advanced Rules book).

Luckily most of the questions are very good and the answers very helpful.  In particular the two dealing with smoke screens provide an answer to many questions.  I’ve been entrenched in a debate on the very issue all weekend long and at last the answer is at our fingertips.  Wizards has backpedaled and said that the rules for the Lay Smoke Screen SA from Set 1 is the way to handle it.

Other entries are helpful, and in my opinion should have been addressed before the release, but the star goes to solving the smoke screen confusion.

written by ^Raven^

Tags

Axis and Allies Minis, Collectible Minis, Historical Gaming, Scenarios, War at Sea, WAS Set 2, WAS Task Force.

Related Articles

• War at Sea: Task Force Opened 3+ Cases Plus Stat Cards July 25, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Official Set List July 24, 2008
• War at Sea Set 2: Task Force Updated Confirmed Releases and Box Art May 23, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Picture Card Gallery July 27, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Stats July 24, 2008

On Saturday last we discussed the 1st official War at Sea Scenario by Wizards of the Coast.  Action Deferred: The Battle of Cape Teulada pitted the British versus the Italians in the Med Sea. Before that we shared the scenario Lions, Tigers, and Bears: The Battle at the North Cape. This time we have the 2nd official scenario to share with all you War at Sea fans. The scenario is titled In Harm’s Way: The Battle of Sunda Strait.

We found this, and the first, scenario in response to a comment made by Dane in the Lions, Tigers, and Bears article. For a long time we’ve said that reader participation makes this blog excel and Dane’s comment is yet another example. He prompted us to do the legwork resulting in our sharing two more great War at Sea scenarios.

Firstly, there are some required equipment that you will need to play this scenario. Take a gander at the list below to make sure you have everything.

1. Maps. Use Battle Map 6 from page 6 of the Advanced Rules Book.
2. Scenario Rules. Download them, read them (you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader), and print them.
3. Ships and Planes. Allies take 1 USS Baltimore, 1 HMAS Sydney, and 1 HMS Javelin (reinforcements). Axis take 3 Kinai Maru, 1 Jintsu, up to 5 Yukikaze, 2 Myoko (reinforcements), and 1 Yukikaze (reinforcements).
4. Dice, tokens, and other standard accouterments.

written by ^Raven^

Tags

Axis and Allies Minis, Collectible Minis, Historical Gaming, Scenarios, War at Sea, WAS Set 2, WAS Task Force.

Related Articles

• War at Sea Scenario: Action Deferred July 26, 2008
• War at Sea Scenario: Lions, Tigers, and Bears March 10, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force FAQ July 30, 2008
• War at Sea: UK vs Germany Battle Report August 7, 2008
• War @ Sea Set 2 Confirmed Releases February 18, 2008

This is the soon to be complete (missing 3 ships) Task Force Picture Gallery.  It shows all, shortly, cards personally scanned in by me at 600dpi per card.

The only missing cards are: HMS Warspite, Graf Zeppelin, and Zuikaku.

I hope you enjoy the card gallery.  It will be supplemented with a picture gallery of all the models as soon as possible.

We will soon have scans of the cards’ backs and make them available to everyone.  You can enlarge any of the pictures simply by clicking on them.  This will take you to a larger version where you can see all the text on the Special Abilities.

Before you click READ MORE please note that the gallery has 64 high resolution pictures.  That will be resource heavy and if you use dial-up it will take a very long time to load.  Dial-up users are better off going to Task Force Gallery Folders and peruse the folders by nation.

If you wish to download the complete gallery you can find the 18mb zipped file at Task Force Stat Card Gallery Zip (right click, save target as).

Continue reading »

written by ^Raven^

Tags

Axis and Allies Minis, Collectible Minis, Historical Gaming, War at Sea, WAS Set 2, WAS Task Force.

Related Articles

• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Model Gallery (Lots of Pictures) July 24, 2008
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• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Stats July 24, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force FAQ July 30, 2008

This is the first part of our Task Force picture gallery series featuring card scans War at Sea and we’re starting with two great American ships.  We begin with the USS California and USS Missouri

The “Mighty Mo” as the Missouri was called had a brilliant career during WWII and beyond (including the Gulf War).  It holds several distinctions being the final battleship produced by the United States, serving as Admiral Bill Halsey’s flagship in the final months of the war, and being the location where Japan signed its official surrender.

You can click the stat cards to open a larger version.

The Mighty Mo was awarded 11 battle stars tying it with sister ship USS Iowa.  The Missouri had a crew of 2,700 officers and men who expertly staffed her.  Her armament made her a feared opponent and consisted of:

9 x 16 in (406 mm) 50 cal. Mark 7 guns

20 × 5 in (127 mm) 38 cal. Mark 12 guns

80 x 40 mm 56 cal. anti-aircraft guns

49 x 20 mm 70 cal. anti-aircraft guns

She is now a museum ship.

The USS California was a member of the Tennessee class of battleships being the final one commissioned in 1921.  It was refitted for World War II and played major roles in the Invasion of the Phillippines, most notably at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, and the action at Okinawa.  She served as the flagship of the Pacific Fleet until 1941.

During the attack at Pearl Harbor she suffered major damage and settled into the mud.  Over 150 of her crew were killed or wounded in the attack including Medal of Honor recipient Petty Officer 1st Class Robert R. Scott.  Scott later, in 1943, had a class of destroyers named for him.

The California was decommissioned in 1947 and ended her life sold for scrap in 1959.

All stat cards are high resolution scans made by me.  Please click the pictures for a larger version.

written by ^Raven^

Tags

Axis and Allies Minis, Collectible Minis, Historical Gaming, War at Sea, WAS Set 2, WAS Task Force.

Related Articles

• War at Sea: Task Force Picture Card Gallery July 27, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Stats July 24, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Opened 3+ Cases Plus Stat Cards July 25, 2008
• War at Sea: Task Force Sneak Peek Model Gallery (Lots of Pictures) July 24, 2008
• War at Sea: UK vs Germany Battle Report August 7, 2008