Sherman Leader: Board Wargame Playthrough AAR - Episode 3 (First Battle) - Dan Verssen Games DVG

[@Frigenguy1]

Just watched the first 3 episodes of Sherman leader. It was great. I like your style. It's a good balance of explanation, enthusiasm and story telling. 👍

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Frigenguy, much appreciated! These were a lot of fun to make. :) Sorry for the slow reply, I took a break over the US holiday. :)

[@MenelikiGaming]

Agreed! This is the first time I've ever seen a solitaire board game played, and I love what I'm seeing. I do like Zilla's style and enthusiasm. What a fun video. Great work!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Meneliki!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Late note: Tony Cutty pointed out to me that a "Casualty" result on infantry affects the unit, not the leader. We can easily fix that error as it happened on the last turn. Sgt. Graham will be brought back to life and we'll eliminate his machine gun team instead. Welcome back to life, Sgt. Graham! :) EDIT UPDATE: At 18:50 the German rifle unit attacks our Stuart at range 1, but it shouldn't be able to do this. Rifle units can only attack armor at range 0.

[@OldLadyPlays]

A rather bloody little fracas. Interesting game.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, we made a right mess of that bocage by the end. Two commanders down is painful though. That'll hurt us next week.

[@foxbarr2932]

My 2nd time watching. Love it. So much so i bought the game and Tiger leader trying now to play it your video will help keep up the good work

[@ZillaBlitz]

Glad you're enjoying them a second time through, that's awesome. :) This was the second series I ever made, so there is probably a higher rate of errors in this series than in later ones. Most if not all errors have been pointed out in the comments, however. In later series, I create a "Known Errors" section in the description to document errors, but I don't think I had started doing that yet in this series.

[@patrickthoma5320]

These are great vids!! Thank you : )

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Patrick, glad you are enjoying them!

[@StackingLimit]

Great game!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Definitely a lot of fun, for sure. :)

[@tonycutty598]

Great playthrough. Love this game! :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Tony! I'm guessing that you're the same Tony that made the BBG post? If so, thanks again for the corrections!

[@tonycutty598]

@@ZillaBlitz That's me :) Most welcome!

[@rodento3220]

As always well done! I am enjoying this.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Happy to hear that, Ro! Thank you. :)

[@vaele723]

Been waiting for this! Thanks for the video. ^_^ Quite bloody for a first battle, but at least it was won. Sgt. Tawanda is a beast though, hope he eventually gets promoted.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sure thing, Hex, thanks for stopping in. Sgt. Tawanda and his Wolverine saved us, for sure! I wish there were a mechanic that connected performance in battle to XP at the end, it's just 1 XP for participation and 1 XP if the enemy battalion is destroyed. I feel like a performance like Tawanda's should be worth more XP. But no worries, we'll drive on! :)

[@vaele723]

@@ZillaBlitz Indeed. When you showed how the "leveling" system works, I found it somewhat underwhelming (especially with Tawanda's performance). But the upside is when promotion does happen, it'll be all the more rewarding!

[@ZillaBlitz]

@@vaele723 I can see how a more complex system of leveling would add more tracking responsibility on the player, but I might test out a simple modified system in a future campaign. Probably wouldn't take much to add a bit of XP for kills and remove the automatic XP for a battalion kill to even things out. Adding too much XP would probably make things much easier.

[@FlakeyBwoy]

This is just really awesome Zilla! :) love watching this! :) congrats on breaking the 500 soon too! You deserve that and hundred thousands of more!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Flakey! It's been fun expanding into something new. :) And I've got your UCL final all queued up for this weekend. I'm excited to see how you make out! :)

[@igloboy]

Good playthrough! Getting this game in the future!

[@igloboy]

You can put me somewere ^^ =)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Christoffer! I'm enjoying it a lot, for sure. :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Perfect timing, kind of! I've been shooting the next episode today so I started without you, but I'm going to see if I can get you switched in, as I've just started shooting the Turn 1 stuff. I think I can work something out to get you our anti-tank team command. :)

[@robmarcjon]

Love this series

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Marc! Glad you're enjoying it. :)

[@soloboardgaming]

Poor Konczal, brave soldier, but glad they smoked that Puma! And what can we say about Graham? We thank him for his service. Such an exciting video, really enjoyed it tons! :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Yeah, that Konczal and his Stuart took a beating, for sure! It didn't help that I forgot to roll for hit negation twice. Although that may have only stopped one hit or so, they could have been the critical ones. Graham's misfortune was ... epic. Last shots at him at low odds and he gets wounded on consecutive hits and dies. The gods just struck him down. Thanks for stopping in, SOLO!

[@nheather]

Not sure about the German infantry movement - they had advance to cover - I’m not convinced that they did have two hexes to choose from because one of those hexes (the one they moved to) is further away from the enemy so strictly was a retreat to cover. Plus, as I noted in the previous video, I think there should be modifiers added to the German movement dice from both the mission and the special operation cards.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I don't recall the specifics of the situation you're referring to in this video, but I talk a lot about the rule wording and execution of German movement and targeting in upcoming videos. A little over halfway through I shift to making those decisions to the Germans advantage, rather than ours. I mention and talk about it more in the final review too.

[@thomaskonczal1465]

Sure, put Konczal Jr. in the Stuart. Let’s see how many Konczals can get killed in this Stuart! 😝

[@ZillaBlitz]

Great, we'll issue him a helmet and uniform and send him off in the Stuart in Week 2. I'm feeling a bit guilty here because I overlooked the negation rolls on those hits. The good news is that with a three-week campaign, the most Konczals we can lose is three. If we do, and we play again, we'll name the next series Saving Private Konczal. :)

[@thomaskonczal1465]

🤣

[@Phredd03]

I see my prior concerns were misplaced. Well done on getting the win. I only recently discovered your show and have enjoyed everything I've seen so far. Apparently Sherman Leader is out of print at the moment, although there is an isolated copy or two out there. You wouldn't happen to know if there are plans for a reprint, would you?

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm glad you're enjoying the series! I don't know about a reprint, but I think DVG is generally pretty good about getting stuff back in stock. Tiger Leader might be a good option if you don't want to wait, and there was a Russian Leader game (T-85?) that was in production at some point. Not sure how far along that is. :)

[@TWolf317]

Really enjoyed this vid. Maybe someone already mentioned this, but it looked like you were using the 904 card with the 920 counter and the 920 card with the 904 counter?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Tim! Hmmm. I don't recall that error being pointed out, but I've noted this as something to check when I go through and create the official "Known Errors" sections. Just need to find some time to go through things. Thanks for pointing out the potential issue!

[@TWolf317]

@@ZillaBlitz Look around 20:49.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yeah, that's definitely backwards, thanks! What I want to look back through and see if I just played 904 as the machine gun the whole time or if I had it first functioning as an infantry unit and then switched it up by mistake.

[@TWolf317]

@@ZillaBlitz I seem to remember you did everything with the correct unit card, you just were representing the attacks with the wrong counter.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes, I went back and spot checked the episode after posting this and I think you're correct. Not sure how my brain didn't notice that. :) Thanks for pointing it out again!

[@tawandamhishi1407]

Heyyy bro how are u there much love from Zimbabwe

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! You did great again! 4 kills in one battle, that's really kicking butt. :)

[@tawandamhishi1407]

@@ZillaBlitz yesssir

[@hannahmonteiro9229]

3:03 You don't get the +1 bonus to defense if you are in the same hex as the attacking unit. You're, like, crouching behind the same wall, shooting at each other.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Hannah! While I can understand your point, the rules don't mention this as far as I can see. Page 12 on Bocage: "A Bocage Hex (wooded area) adds 1 to a Unit’s Defense. A Unit in a Bocage Hex can only be attacked from a range of 0 or 1. Bocage blocks Line of Sight." Do you see somewhere else where it say the defense is negated for Bocage if the unit is in the same hex?

[@hannahmonteiro9229]

@@ZillaBlitz I remember seeing something about this in the general section regarding cover - it's not just bocage, but any kind of hex that provides cover. I further remember reading somewhere that the ruling was intended to prevent units sitting in the same light/heavy cover hex, shooting ineffectively at each other due to both sides profiting from light/heavy cover - until one of them gets lucky (you have seen that in this playthrough XD ). Then again, I might be thinking of the "Tiger Leader" rules here. Or it might be a house ruling I made for myself, because... As far as I understand it, a bocage is a open space (usually a field or pasture) that's surrounded by trees and/or bushes or hedges. From the outside, the defender cannot be seen clearly, hence the LoS obstruction, the "A Unit in a Bocage Hex can only be attacked from a range of 0 or 1" and the +1 bonus to defense. However, as soon as the attacker is in the same hex as the defender, the defense bonus should not apply anymore, since the attacker has now cleared the obstructive treeline and can see the defender clearly.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks, Hannah! I think the logic on this is sound, for sure, makes sense to me. Sounds like you enjoy the game a lot? I had a blast playing this campaign. :)

[@hannahmonteiro9229]

@@ZillaBlitz Oh, I do. I ordered the 2nd edition of Tiger Leader + the expansions and a Neopren mat of the game board a few days ago. While Sherman Leader is nice (and T-34 leader is coming soon), I'll stick to my country's troops :)

[@ZillaBlitz]

Nice! That sounds like a fun purchase! I've got to try Tiger Leader soon too. :)

[@thecustardprophet8434]

Unlucky at the end there (with losing the second commander). How does repairing of units between battles work? You seemed to suggest it could happen.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes! That was an amazing sequence of horrible luck. Two hits at 8+, no negations, and then consecutive "casualty" chits on the last attack of the game. Garg! ~ We can use our Special Options points to "fix" units at the end of the week. It costs 1 SO point to remove 1 damage factor from a vehicle. We have 5 left over from our initial unit purchases, and will get 8 at the end of the week. We'll need them for other things, too, but I'm pretty sure fixing tanks and healing wounded commanders will be a priority. :)

[@mathewkelly9968]

No stress , lived and got a kill ........ the gold is mine

[@ZillaBlitz]

You came through great, I thought! There is a way we pay SO points to reduce everyone's stress, and we might do that after the first or second week. If that happens, you might actually make it through the campaign and get promoted. But yeah, a kill, no wounds, and only 3 stress is a pretty good result. :)

[@taitchison1]

the roll of a 4 on the panzer was clear so that panzer 3 was okay

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks!

[@taitchison1]

two commanders