Nexus Play Test

This past Friday my uncle had us over for a play test of the latest version of his 30 Years War rules, Nexus. These were the original source for his Ancient's rules, Hannibal at the Gates. Now that the latter have reached their 2nd edition, some of the lessons learned have been brought back to Nexus. This play test was to give them all a ringing out.

I played opposite Charlie who had a nice combined arms force of Swedish-model infantry, light artillery and battle cavalry. My command was similarly comprised of all combined arms, but my European standard pike were outnumbered 2:1 and outclassed. My cavalry was also at a disadvantage. My guns however, were excellent. Covering my flank was Ed with a fine selection of troops including some elite cavalry and large Tercios of pike, so no worries there, I could focus on Charlie's threats.

I sent my aggressive Croat cavalry out..er...aggressively. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Unfortunately the latter was mostly true. They took out some of Charlie's auxiliary troops, but other than that mostly just blew themselves up on Charlie's battle cavalry. My superior guns were also mediocre in their effectiveness. No fault of the guns, blame the operator.

Stripped of all the chaff, it was time to press with my pike. With Charlie's superior firepower, getting stuck in was my only real option. Unfortunately in the one turn I had to approach his infantry, Charlie scored seven (7) hits on one round of fire. That pretty much ended it on our flank. Lucky for the Catholics, the opposite flank was going equally poorly for the Protestants, evening out my misfortune. As the game drew to a conclusion the battle lines were in a classic 'pinwheel of death' with the outcome to be decided.

I expect that you'll be seeing more Nexus game play here on the blog throughout the upcoming year.

Tobacco Factory Game #2

Last Friday at the Northern Conspiracy's January game night I hosted a re-run of my Salerno Tobacco Factory game from last year's Operation Overlord Game day.

We had a light turnout for January, possibly due to incoming inclement weather. I ended up with six players for my game including several veteran Iron Cross players, so the game ran smoothly.

Kevin, Charlie and Ralph were the British whle Chris, Dick and Byron played the Germans.

Both sides planned aggressive advances into the key buildings that would dictate control of the complex. Early on Byron's listening post troops intercepted Charlie's infantry as the attempted to charge into the empty buildings. Byron's fire was telling forcing Charlie's troops to halt, slowing down their capture of the key buildings. Opposite Charlie, Chris' troops successfully occupied the central structures, only to be eliminated later in the game by concentrated British infantry and machine gun fire.

As the game developed concentrated fire from the German SdKfz 222 and Hetzer forced back the British 'Honey' Stuart, but failed to eliminate it. Mortars on each side ranged in but failed to bring home heavy casualties. AT guns on both sides commanded the southern areas of the battlefield while the armor avoided them to the north.

As we ran out of time the Germans were in possession of the central buildings, but had suffered significantly more casualties than the British in doing so. This was due to the cost of the attack as well as the excellent rallying from Kevin the British commander. Mainly a draw, the game could have used another hour to play to conclusion.

Apologies to Greg, Mike, Michael and Dick for not getting any photographs of their Saga games. I was too overwhelmed running my own game.

First Game of 2019

Last Friday my friend Charlie had a bunch of us up to his gaming loft for another game of Napoleon's Rules of War. We played a historical battle with a lot of woods to give his new terrain rules a good shaking out. This was a great night of gaming and all the new rules worked the treat.

I had a great night assaulting the Austrian lines with my elite regiment of French while Bob and Charlie bore the brunt of the Austrian's counter attacks and artillery fire. It's always better when your friends take the hits that should be coming to you!  In the end the French had a majority of the Austrian's hill, but paid a huge price for it with the outcome still up in the air. Great way to start off a new year of gaming!