Our Thursday afternoon group gathered at Miniature Market Cave Springs to pitch in and help prepare for an upcoming “History Through Another Lens Initiative “ presentation next month for the history classes at St. Charles Community College. It is truly gratifying that our gaming community pulls together doing what they can to help prepare and/or present our hobby’s advantages to the public through educational events and offerings.
The main event for the day was a practice game of “One Hour World War II“a board-game by Worthington Games, who have a pretty extensive line of historical titles. Mark Williams led the players through the set up explaining the various parts of how the game turns worked and options that each player had to them.
The players (Mark, Jay, Steve, DJ and Gregg) cast in the role of national leaders study the enhanced map and playing pieces during their individual deployment getting ready to challenge the historical outcome.
The game uses an area style movement that limits the options of the players for battles, focusing on the decision making process at the higher level command which they represent.
With a bit of a table switch to increase creature comfort the game got underway with the German player (Jay) leading off with and attack on France pushing the UK (Mark) off the continent.
Maintaining his momentum Jay made a swift move into North Africa from Italy and somewhat caught the Allies of guard.
The Imperial Japanese (Greg) forces saw an opportunity in the Pacific and seized it to not only capture the Eastern Pacific but to cut off two American (Steve) fleets heading towards Australia. This put them out of supply and put them in a position of not being able to counterattack.
Next an aggressive move by the German High Command pushed their armies successfully into Russia (DJ) through Leningrad and into Moscow capturing it despite Lend Lease support from the Americans. With political will falling quickly on the Allied side due to the numerous set backs it was determined the Axis achieved victory in mid 1941. The players all agreed that they want another chance to give this one a whirl and that it will work well for the students in the coming month.
Next Greg showed off a fast playing ACW Solo board-game also from Worthington’s list of titles. This was 1862 The War in Virginia. A game with an obvious small footprint and low unit density that makes for a perfect travel or fill in game. The active player operated the Rebel command trying desperately to keep the Union forces (driven by a card play mechanism) as far away from Richmond as is possible.
This game drew a lot of attention by the assemble group for its fast play and historical accuracy. It’s a tough slog for the Confederates and one in which they fell short in this instance, but it certainly has significant replay value. Already Pat Lewis is looking at creating a large board version of it that will very possibly fit into our “History Through a Different Lens Initiative” offerings.
A great day of gaming and support for our group’s outreach efforts by all those who made it to our Semi Regular Retirees Game at Miniature Market Cave Springs. A big Thank You to Sean and the rest of the great crew there for their continued support.
