Defeated by The General...

[Pat]

No, not the General Lee charger from the TV Series Dukes of Hazzard, but my 10 year old grandson, Ian.

We constructed a 4x8' battle board and with plastic soldiers we simulated the invasion of S. Korea by the North. I was the North and had my battle formations arrayed on a small front spearheaded by tanks, followed by massive waves of infantry with the objective softened up by artillary.

I thought with my experience and proven battle tactics I would quickly defeat his defenses and rush headlong behind his llines and capture his headquarters.

Was I wrong. To rub salt in the wounds he told me before I attacked that I was falling into his trap. I looked over the battle board and didn't discern any trap. After his front line collasped I found my attack force deep in his territory where he enveloped me and wiped out my entire force in two moves.

My reserves were committed too late, he had forced marched a mobile column of light arty and infantry to my rear and with a hammer and anvil movement crushed my army. I just fell on my sword.

How does a ten year old grasp such Generalship.

Something to do on these 110 degree days.

[DOOM]

Impressive.

And yes! Reading your title I thought of the GENERAL LEE!!!

[Black Dynamite]

Obviously he's studied Alexander the Great.

And here I thought little green army men were for blowing up with firecrackers. :D

[Baconbit]

Wow very impressive and very great idea! Ian sounds like a VERY smart child with a bright future! Great way to entertain and for him to use his imagination...good thing to keep children from being in front of the TV and to teach to be hands on. I have a feeling he will own a MM one day :lol:.

[Hacklemerc]

Awesome! Nice game board.

Myself a bunch of guys at work that get together about once a month and play AXIS & ALLIES. The game board is aboout 4' X 8' with hundreds of little army men. It usually takes us about 8 hours to finish a game.

[Vortex]

I seem to recall making one of those with city streets for my hot wheels/matchboxes back in the day. Nice job Pat!

[Papillon]

Pat, that is freakin COOL!!! Smart little guy you got there!! And, like Baconbit said, it's great to see that kids aren't glued to the TV or computer or Nintendo (whatever it's called) now-a-days. Very nice! :up:

[JoeBoomz]

My boys are light years ahead of me in terms of how fast they grasp and master the same things I have in my life. Every generation improves on the last! You just have to spend the time with them to keep them steered in the right direction!

Kudos on a terrific afternoon activity that keeps them thinking and engaged.

[TAKEDOWN]

Lol... That's because you suck ol' man! Just teasin'.

[guspech750]

That's awesome. Cooler than a video game.
Sent from my iPhone
Go White Sox!!!

[Egon Spengler]

I don't get how you play. Just looks like a board with plastic figures on it. Looks like fun though, if I knew the rules!

[Pat]

Egon, the board isn't set up in the thumbnails, my 7 year old GS just scattered everything around, there are a lot more soldiers and equipment.

What we have done is called the middle of the board the 38th parallel. The N and S armies are deployed by the player on each side. Both players have equal forces, more or less, and each member or piece of equipment is assigned a combat effectiveness value. For example, a tank can destroy another tank or one emplacement or three soldiers in a grouping. There is just a very limited number of each of the pieces.
Even still they fill up the board.

The board is painted to denote forests, swamps, tall grass or schrubs and plains.

There is one big river and one small one, there are stone hedges and of course big roads and small ones. Each of these terrain features can be used to impede or aid in the deployment. Can't have the army cross a river if there are no bridges eh.

Maneuver is accomplished by each player taking turns repositioning his forces (limited) and firing his weapons within a predetermined "range". The engagement site is where the weapons are employed. Example, it's not allowed to fire a rifle and kill a target all the way across the board. However, there are snipers with those special guns you see on TV and they have a greater range but only one kill per maneuver/firing period.

I won't get into employment of aircraft or helicopters because it's really tricky and we haven't firm rules yet.

The time in repositioning the forces and "reading" the battlefield is where Ian has it over me. I'm more into organization (Montgomery) he's into innovation (Rommel).

It's fun though.

[Egon Spengler]

That actually sounds awesome Pat! I want to play! haha.