Invasion Malta Overview & First Look | Legion Wargames | World War 2 Wargame Board Game

[@coyi51]

Legion produce some excellent games and this is another to add to that list. A lot too keep one occupied and many hours of enjoyment as well. Many thanks for all the info.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I think this would make for a great weekend gaming experience. Start on Friday night and play out the invasion. :)

[@dizpatcher01]

Man, you do good work. Looks like something I can really get in to. Appreciate it very much.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Jim! My pleasure! :)

[@jumpmaster82nd.]

If my wargame goes exactly according to history every play then I'll just read a history book. Great looking map BTW!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Haha! Great point, for sure. :) I do like the map quite a bit here, too.

[@chrissteadman4614]

Sold! Excellent video. Very clear. Excellent production/editing.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Chris, glad you found it helpful!

[@laufetc]

Thanks ! There is much more there than I expected !

[@ZillaBlitz]

Sure thing! It's a hefty game, with a lot of research and thought put into it, for sure. :)

[@Ricocarty64]

Glad you are back on the air!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! It’s fun to be back. :)

[@henrysekurski3597]

Great review Zilla. Please note that there is errata posted for this game out on the CSW forum and BGG. The Victory point schedule chart should NOT have been included in this game and should be ignored. Everyone should follow the Victory Conditions for each scenario as listed in the Scenario Booklet.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! I actually just spotted that today, too, as I was wondering why the victory point schedule wasn't referenced in the rules. I'll add this to the video description as a Correction. :)

[@MichaelCorryFilms]

Did I see Soviet armor at 8:26? That seems odd. Is it supposed to be captured and repurposed?

[@ZillaBlitz]

You know, in the back of my head when I was making this video, I recall half-thinking, "Isn't that a Russian tank?" But I lost the thought. I don't have an answer, but I'm curious what it might be. :)

[@MichaelCorryFilms]

@@ZillaBlitz Well they are definitely profiles of a T34/76 and a KV 2. I know the Germans often reused captured vehicles, although they usually repainted them. They also gave "leftovers" to the Italians (French tanks in Sicily) but those were definitely German units. Maybe there was some obscure historical OOB slated for Malta. Interesting.

[@ZillaBlitz]

There is some text in the documentation on the order of battle. I wonder if that mentions this.

[@MalcolmRose-l3b]

Having visited Malta I wouldn't envy the Falschirmjager - the island interior is mostly, small rocky fields surrounded by dry stone walls. There'd be a high number of injuries just on landing.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Aha! That explains the armored & motorized movement rules, which limit where armor and mechanized units can go. :)

[@MalcolmRose-l3b]

@@ZillaBlitz The island is so rocky that the British Army developed a unique camouflage pattern so vehicles would blend in with the terrain. Google "Malta pattern camouflage" and you will see it.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Oh, that's cool! Thanks for sharing that.

[@pschwag1965]

Invasion Malta looks very interesting. I just finished reading "Operation Pedestal" by Max Hastings, which covers a massive British convoy heading to Malta to deliver supplies. A great book to accompany this game as you learn about the German/Italian and British sea power and air power in the Mediterranean Sea. Thanks for the first look!

[@ZillaBlitz]

That does sound like a great read to go with the game, thanks for sharing!

[@jonclark299]

Thanks for sharing this, any chance you will have a playthru? Always enjoy a few turns played to get the hang of the game.

[@ZillaBlitz]

I'm glad you liked it, Jon. I don't think I'll be able to make a playthrough on this game in the near future. I've got a backlog of commitments that I want to create content for first. :)

[@SoloBattles]

As always, your videos are well thought out, and well presented. I remember playing Avalon Hill's Invasion of Malta that came with their Crete game, and it was a lot of fun. In my solo gaming experience, this could be fun to play with lots of replayability. You can play as if the Allies had bad intel, or good intel, and set up your defense accordingly. Since you're playing solo, you're not trying to win, you're just trying to see what might happen. You can play very balanced or unbalanced. The only thing that would make me question its solo suitability is how complicated the game is. If you have too much micro managing and fiddley details, that can be a drag. If the system plays smoothly, or if your really into the subject matter, you will tolerate the micromanagement.

[@ZillaBlitz]

It's fun to have a lot of different levels of games, and one that models airdrops and naval invasions like this at this level of granularity can be a lot of fun. Definitely an investment in time, but I think this will be a lot of fun to play out the full 3-day invasions. :)

[@joeyj6808]

Looks like some excellent production value there. The rules look kind of weighty LOL. And solo friendly? You keep on finding winners! On a different note: would love to hear your thoughts on Schutztruppen, now that everybody got their copy. I'd love even more to see it played, but that's a big ask LOL. Anyway, good to see you posting! Excellent video, as ever.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks Joey! And yes, I think the only place where you'd diverge a bit by playing solo is when the German player secretly picks landing areas for the invasion force, but I think that is easy to work around. The rules definitely have some heft to them. :)

[@joeyj6808]

@@ZillaBlitz Yeah, it's bit rules-heavy for a person like me, but if I had enough dosh, I'd deffo have this game on my shelf.

[@SauronIkitalvi]

Good representation mate. 👍Just too good about very interesting topic. Strategic value of tiny Malta is so intriguing in wargames. When we played The War Europe 1939-1945 as three player I managed to invade successfully Malta playing Axis by doing diversion concentration with Luftwaffe. I gave British player immersion that Battle of Britain and Sea Lion are imminent while I already had built more airbases on Sicily where I concentrated some of Luftwaffe and most of Regia Aeronautica. Those helped to gain leverage in battle against Royal Navy with otherwise weaker Regia Marina. Anyway wish to get this game some day even just managed to promise myself no more games for while. I just bought Seas of Thunder and Littoral Commander Indo-Pacific. If I buy Invasion: Malta and my dearest gets upset may I blame you? She can't much hurt you just my ears.😀

[@ZillaBlitz]

Thanks! Nice work on your fake! It'd be interesting to see how many games have Malta in it as an active location. I was just looking at a Napoleonic game with it right in play. :)

[@vinsal072]

interesting game, nice job thanks.

[@ZillaBlitz]

My pleasure, thanks for stopping in. :)

[@johnloy9331]

Vance does good work.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Fantastic depth on this one, yes. :)

[@trekanbelluvitsh]

I am not that into hypothetical scenarios in historical wargaming. But including the not very known battle of Leros (and Kos in reality) is a very nice thing.

[@ZillaBlitz]

Definitely nice to see two games in the box. Leros looks fun too. :)

[@Phalanx11]

You mean....when the Royal Tank Regiment took the Sidi Rezegh road instead of the Coast Road, that was hypothetical??!

[@ZillaBlitz]

Ha!

[@Phalanx11]

Looks good. Your not a 'Wargamer' if your not into 'hypotheticals'....

[@ZillaBlitz]

Yes, I suppose that all wargames end up as hypotheticals as soon as they diverge from the historical outcome in some way. :)

[@joseluisojosnegros8434]

Would we see some video with an example of play ?

[@ZillaBlitz]

I would love to be able to, but so many games so little time. Gameplay videos take the most time, about 4x longer than just playing the game. :)

[@thecustardprophet8434]

I'd be interested to know when a game has this many rules (even when like you say here they are well written), how much does that impact the fluidity of playing the game? I can imagine most of the time you find your self looking through the rule book to work out what happens in a given situation. But perhaps it's not like that at all.

[@ZillaBlitz]

This is a great observation, yes. For me, there are three parts to it. One is the complexity of the gameplay, which I generally like. Another is the quality of the rules, which is super important to me. Lastly is the complexity of the execution of the rules. So I generally find it less fun in a game if it takes me five minutes to do a simple thing like move one unit. But I don’t mind looking things up in a good rule book to understand something better.

[@DarkKnight-bi7cr]

Zillow are you going to play this game and can you record it? Please?

[@ZillaBlitz]

Hi Dark Knight - While I'll likely be playing the game in the near future, I don't think I'd be able to record a game as well. I've got a large number of projects I've committed to at the moment and want to get to those first. :)

[@nicolascarvacho4998]

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