Sunday 29 January 2012

A&A Miniatures Playtest: Schwerpunkt AFRIKA


A quick test of the Axis and Allies Miniatures rules played with ahem, miniatures, 'Pizzabase' et al.


Simple and err, fun. The 'Pizzabase' concept also focuses the game. You don't waste an hour and a half of game time with long range sniping in the hope of scoring a hit, or frustratingly crawling your armies across the tables at 3" per turn, only to have to rush the final assault. No, 'Pizzabase' puts you right in the focal point of the action. Perhaps we should call it 'Pizzabase Schwerpunkt'.

Cheers
Mark

6 comments:

  1. What exactly is the pizza base idea?

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  2. I'm sure I've heard the name before, possibly from Wargames Developments. I think it refers to the idea that the game is designed to be played in a very small tabletop area, the size of the eponymous pizza base. Instead of trying to represent a significant portion of the battle, you're just focusing tightly on key points at the heart of the action.

    I think.

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    Replies
    1. Well done Dr V, got in their before I posted my reply below. My have been WD, we came up with it ourselves, but its not new, just a bringing tigether of ideas in the wargaming ether.

      Cheers
      Mark

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    2. Plus, it does keep my tabletop megolmania in check!

      Cheers
      Mark

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  3. I suppose it's just a mentality. Think "beer and pretzels" approach to gaming whilst confining the playing area to the size of a "pizzabase".

    In this case, a 2 foot diameter round 'pizzabase' playing surface. The game is geared to this, rules systems, 'armies', terrain.

    It makes gaming much more achievable and focuses on the fun not the dicking about. Plus, no sweating over how you are going to fill a 5x8 or even a 3x2 table with trees or ruined buildings. You don't break the bank with FoW tank Schwarms or succumb to boredom painting the same figures over and over. Plus like a pizza, we can now have a wider variety of 'toppings' on the menu. For WW2, Bulge, N. Africa, Berlin, then Arnhem, Blitzkrieg etc. A single platoon box of FoW infantry can be shared between the two of us! AK47 can be played like this too.

    Most of our gaming is done via Skype. So the pizzabase fits the camera view and can be turned as necessary to provide better inspection of the table - though we generally don't bother and treat it as fog of war.

    Cheers
    Mark

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  4. To put it in context, the armies in the game had a very rapid genesis. I was in my FLGS when I thought that the 8th Army & DAK command packs would each produce enough bases of 3 figures for two smallish A&A style armies). because the DAK included the AT guns and had less figures as a result, i was wrong but the 8th did the job. I then scraped together a bren carrier, rolls royce a/c, 2pdr portee (pig gun cut to size and glued onto a pig truck) and a vickers light tank; the DAK motorcycle, PzII, 222 a/c were also spares. each side had 4 bases of infantry. I only bought a PzIII and a crusader. you dont worry about artillery as its in a wadi a few miles away; if you want to do a jock column then a 25pdr is de riguer. I have a few bases of Italian Folgore ready to be painted. Frankly, with most Coy Hq packs you get a eneough fighty figs to make 3 or so bases along with a "weapons" base of some form; given that I once had a nail biting A&A game with 3 brit rifles, a PIAT and a vickers vs a hanomag, a 222, a m/c and 2 wehrmacht rifles, you dont need big armies. Yes, that was loosely based on Frost at Arnhem. Sadly the yanks (half track, sherman and 4 infantry) failed to get past the PAK40, MG42, hauptman and 1 MP40 that was the blocking force. In fact, once they'd sorted the not quite Grabner force, the Brits headed over to help the yanks.

    Small, fast, fun and relatively cheap. Keep the table small and focus on the main event. In that context the FIB PzBde150 is all you need....

    Cheers

    Maff

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