finds himself in the Workbench with several 15mm scale Russian WWII fighters...
As some of you may have read in the forums, I've been toying for some months with the idea of using Victory as a campaign system for WWII gaming.
What's Victory?
Victory is not a miniatures game - it's a boardgame, or to be more specific, a blockgame from Columbia Games. It's an operational-level game in a fictional setting (in the original game, Red vs. Blue on various geomorphic maps) using familiar WWII technology - tanks, infantry, fighters, bombers, carriers, submarines, paratroops, Marines, and more.
The "block" business refers to the playing pieces, which are wooden blocks turned so that only the owner knows which piece represents what. This introduces a fog of war factor to the game.
Why Use Victory for a Campaign System?
When looking for a campaign system, I generally want something that won't take longer to play than the miniatures battles! Victory fits the bill due to its relatively short rules (although there are a lot of nuances in those short rules).
The other advantage of Victory is that by its nature, it generates "what if"-type battles rather than the same historical battles rehashed. The terrain is all-new, the situations are new, only the units and the tactics are familiar.
Of course, this advantage can also be a disadvantage. How do you translate "Red vs. Blue" into a tabletop scenario, using available miniatures? And how do you translate tabletop results back into the campaign game?
I have to say that I don't know yet... but I'll be doing some "experimental gaming" to see what can be worked out.