Rifles in the Ardennes

There's a sale on at Wargame Vault so I thought I would try out this solo play WW2 boardgame, which sounds like a great beer and pretzels style game:

Rifles in the Ardennes recreates the tense action that characterized Ardennes in a unique single-player format.  Designer and Artist Gottardo Zancani has replaced the literal map typical of World War II games with a stylized track, allowing for endless customization of the battlefield.  

A simple solitaire system allows the recreation of small combat engagements (five to ten units per side) over a bevy of scenarios. Blind chit draws and die rolls, combined with artfully crafted charts create an impressive “artificial intelligence,” embuing the game with a true fog of war.

The rules are generic enough to cover many periods and genres (the World Wars, Classical Battles, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and more), but the units (American, German, and Russian) and scenarios are specific to the European theatre of World War II, focusing on the years 1942-1944.

Airfix Battles

I have brought Airfix Battles on holiday so will be unboxing it and re-playing the first couple of scenarios over the next few days, having not had a go at it since the summer holidays. I really liked the system when I tried it out then, even though it involved quite a lot of fiddly counters and a bit of head scratching, so this time round I hope it goes a little more smoothly!

Happy Xmas!

X Wing at Xmas

I took the kids to the new Star Wars film at the weekend, so they're all fired up to play some games of X Wing over the Xmas holidays. I have to say I wasn't impressed by the film itself, apart from the kick ass fight with the red guards, so I left disappointed at the end. Anyway, I'll be packing the X Wing collection for the holiday break along with a couple of other board games to play if the weather socks in. I still haven't opened my copy of Escape from Colditz from my birthday in January (!), so that may well be coming along for the ride too?