Tag Archives: boardgames

Old, Fat & Lonely in Bangkok

I worked in Bangkok for more than 6 years.  Thai people are unfailingly nice but even for all of you who are young and slim, there are times when you can’t help but feel a little lonely.

These are times when you wonder, as exotic as this city is, perhaps you’ll find a wargame store?

I found one : Battlefield Bangkok

I am going to tell you how to get there.  I am nice like that.

Bangkok has an elevated rail system [ElRR B32.1] called the “BTS Skytrain”.  Everything’s in Thai & English so it’s not hard to navigate.  Get to a station called “E11 Punnawithi”.

punnawithi

Once you get off the train, head towards the south exit, marked “Exit 6”.  You will find yourself walking along an elevated walkway under the elevated train tracks.  This keeps you away from the busy streets.

Tourney

When you see this, you should be ready to get off the elevated walkway and to make a left turn down the street.

You will see local food stalls and lines of motorcycle “taxis” as you walk eastwards.

Tourney

Don’t you feel at least a slight twang of excitement finding yourself walking towards the “Golden Pearl Hotel”, named like a bad 70s Hollywood movie?  Oh, if street food is not your thing, you will be happy see a courtyard of restaurants on your left.

Tourney

This is the Golden Pearl Hotel.  Go up those stairs.

Tourney

This is Battlefield Bangkok.

Once you push through the door, remember one thing [ALERT! ALERT!]: take your shoes off and put them on the rack.

TourneyIMG_7150

It’s a nice and airy place, with plenty of tables for people to game.  There seems to be another room behind doors where folks were playing.  I could only hear them.  Either that or they were unsuspecting victims of some sort.  I am rather happy about it either way because I was scouting this place out as an Advanced Squad Leader tournament venue!

Tourney

This guy here seems to be the owner.  I asked him for permission before I started taking photos and then I was too busy looking at the racks.  They have board wargames but it’s mostly miniatures.

Tourney

So here you go.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have made it here as well!

J168 Katyusha’s Embrace

This 1943 scenario offers the Russians a 200mm Rocket OBA with a preregistered hex.  The 200 mm is a massive but a one shot deal and it wanders by half a dr.  You can’t aim nor correct the thing (it’s automatically inaccurate)!  I started the scenario off being less than thrilled about the usefulness of it.

Since Rocket OBA uses a Harassing Fire’s Blast Area, I figured this thing will touch a 5/6 hex area (the rules don’t say whether the error’s rounded up or down.)  The GameSquad crowd pointed out there are certain merits to holding off on it so that the Germans will avoid crowding.  I put my PreReg hex on 63Q10.

The Russians (I) pushed through the middle – first by largely Assault Moving on board to avoid damage from the various machineguns trained in my direction. Then the Russians executed a Human Wave to rush into the woods ahead.  I’d love to say it’s a brilliant move but reality is that I benefited hugely from my opponent’s horrible die rolls.

Oh yes, the Russians get points for taking the multi-hex buildings and by rushing units into the circled area on the right of the map.  The Russians win when they stack up 8 points.

This one’s an interesting scenario.  I read the VC wrong though, or really, I didn’t really understood the VC.  The VC called for 8VPs and the Russians can achieve it in one of two ways:

  1. Get all the buidings in the middle of the board, rubble or not, they total to 8VPs;
  2. Move 8 units into the circle, AFV or squads.

The defender has to get the right balance between defending against the two – defend the buildings and risk getting surrounded or backup to the rear and risk losing the buildings.

Thoughts?