Egypt vs Carthage - Punic War Campaign Game

Two Saturday's ago I got together with Rob and Ralph to fight a battle in our Punic War campaign. Rob, playing Egypt is using a Republican Roman army model and I'm using a Carthaginian army and playing Carthage.

I had a solid battle plan and used my hoplite battle line well to push the Romans to their baseline, but in the end Roman reinforcements spoiled this plan and I ended up with the loss. Well played to Rob. Usually our epic campaign battles feature lots of players, but Rob and I had to each push huge armies solo during this busy time in everyone's schedule. I had always theorized that games would go faster with only one player on each side, but this is definitely not the case.

Nothern Conspiracy May 2016 Game Night

Two Friday's ago our club got together for our monthly game night. With a major convention the previous weekend and great weather outside, turn out was light. I was scheduled to run a game but had to cancel it due to lack of players. After picking up my game I got a chance to play in Ralph's early Renaissance game using his recently updated Nexus rules. I pushed a couple of tercios with my opponent, Don having the same. Don scored an early success eliminating one of Earl's pike blocks, then things got into a slug fest. At the conclusion the early gains by Don sealed the victory for his team. Great job Don.

 

The other game that ran was a WWII air power game run by Phil.  I didn't get many photos of it as I was too busy rushing to tear down my game so I didn't hold up Ralph's game.

Monmouth Courthouse at Huzzah! using The Electronic Brigadier

This past Saturday I ran my recently play-tested Monmouth Courthouse scenario which I call "Lee's Attack" at the Huzzah! convention. It's a hypothetical 'what-if' scenario where instead of only attacking with a force of volunteer soldiers, Lee instead attacks with each complete regiment that participated in the initial attack. With this successful game, I'm considering the AWI period 'close enough to done' to now continue onto other historic periods.

The scenario accommodates up to eight (8) players and I was fortunate enough to have a full table of great players. The game went off with only minor difficulties with the hotel WiFi which I eventually sorted out by using the hotspot that I brought for just such an occasion. 

The initial battle was going the way of the Americans with early successes and good focused volleys on the lead British regular units, particularly the 42nd highlanders and the British Dragoons.

The British finally started to turn the tide late in the game, bringing both of their massive Grenadier units on line as well as pressing the flank where the first New Jersey were making a move on the British column's route of march with the first guards. The first guards eventually faltered, but the NJ boys were also spent in the exchange. With more fresh British regulars guarding the flank, and with the casualties all but even, the game was declared a minor British victory. Putting it into historical perspective, the British left under the cover of nightfall, and would probably match that after this version of the battle as well, with Lee claiming the field and victory instead of Washington.

The two photos below are of the battlefield as nightfall settled onto the battlefield (convention game period time limit reached). The players played 19 turns even with time for rules explanations, and team strategy planning. Results of the battle are shown below and are very close to the historical casualties of the actual battle.

British Rear Guard Army cohesion: 71.3% Total Casualties: 580 / 6640 (8.7%) 1 routed units 1 shaken units Honors to: 103 - Queens American Rangers

American Advance Guard Army cohesion: 71.6% Total Casualties: 550 / 7420 (7.4%) 1 units dispersed 2 shaken units Honors to: 201 - 1st New Hampshire

Napoleon's Rules of War Playtest in Charlie's Gaming Loft

Two Friday's ago we got together at Charlie's gaming loft for another round of play testing of his Napoleonics rules, Napoleon's Rules of War. Rob and I played the French and Ralph and Bob played the Austrians in a small mirror scenario. Charlie's most recent round of changes were made to allow games to reach a conclusion in a more reasonable amount of time. They've done exactly that. The new changes didn't significantly effect the play mechanics, but did adjust casualties and unit deterioration. The four of us played the game to completion well within a reasonable evening session even with much conversation and fun. The result, a close affair with the Austrians pulling out the killing blow in the last turn. Not to put it in question, they actually passed the French break point by a few points in their final bound.

White Legion Princeps

Two units of Roman princeps which completes my white Roman legion. These figures are Old Glory with a simple block paint job and my (now usual) black floor wax magic wash.

Next up on the painting table are two units of praetorian guard, using Warlord figures. My hopes are the slightly larger figures will make the elite praetorian units look appropriately impressive. These twelve figures put my total this year up to 113. I'm still on a healthy pace to crush last year's excellent output.

28mm French First Chasseurs

This is a unit I purchased on Ebay. It is painted to represent the first Chasseurs. There has been considerable discussion among the Napoleonics aficionados in my club about the validity of the figures used. The Chasseurs were at one point a lance-armed unit and that potentially justifies the helmets. Either way they were well painted and a good deal as far as price is concerned.

The figures suffered dearly in shipping. Every figure was knocked off the horse, sabers were bent, paint chipped, etc. A veritable disaster. Still I pressed on, glued everything back together and touched up the paint and re-based them. They look presentable enough and round out what I believe is all the French light cavalry I'll need for some time. I'm counting this as 24 purchased figures since they're mounted, and six stands re-based.