Falklands War with Dead Man's Hand

Last Friday I took a trip over to my friend Mark D's place to help him play test a Falklands War game he's going to be running at our club this upcoming game night. The rules used were Dead Man's Hand by Great Escape Games.

I haven't played this rule set before, but I was quite impressed with the elegance of the activation system. After the game I immediately ordered myself a copy of the rules.

We drew lots to see who got which side. I drew the British. They had a unit of paratroopers and a unit of mountain troops drawn from the military academy training cadre. My paratroopers had a sniper which was a fun figure to play with. Mark had the Argentinians. Our missions crossed paths in the middle of the board insuring conflict would be quickly manifested.

I had some excellent rolls early knocking out several Argentinians. Mark compressed his two squads together into a fire base and started to bring the casualties back towards even. During this time I pressed onto both of my objectives. In each case I secured the objective, then immediately had a casualty with the capturing figure. At the end of the game I had a narrow lead, although with a full six player game who knows.
 

The rules seem fun, the scenario is quite balanced. My only regret is I'll be running a game myself at the same game night so I won't get to play in this game myself when he runs it!

Northern Conspiracy June 2018 Game Night

Last Friday was June game night for the Northern Conspiracy. There were three great games being run. First up was Ed M's late 30 Year's War skirmish game that I posted about earlier in a play test game report.

I only snapped a quick few photos of this game but from the after action Ed gave me over pancakes at the IHOP after the game night, it was a rip-roaring gunfight. Early looting turned to mayhem and killing with loot taking a back stage to combat towards the end.

More details for this game can be read at fellow conspirator Mark's blog, My Brave Fusiliers. 

Next up was Charlie bringing out an old favorite, 15mm Volley & Bayonet Napoleonics. A decade ago V&B was the majority of what we were playing for black powder period games. It's still a great option. Hopefully Charlie bringing the old favorite out will re-ignite interest in this rule set.

I played in Mark D's modern Bolt Action game. The scenario was a battle in the Falklands War.  I was part of the beleaguered Falkland defenders. My command was mostly the defensive weapon teams. Ralph and Michael on my team took the more mobile forces to defend the town from British attack. 

During the mid game Don launched a wire-guided missile at one of my bunkers. I took a chance and held tight hoping to weather the blast. The bunker held. That MG put some effective fire on Don's infantry, but my forward infantry marksman didn't fare so well, biting it from direct tank main rounds fired by Don. Late in the game Michael and Ralph teamed up to take out one of Rob's attacking squads while my MG took out Rob's MG. Kevin made some attacks against the town, doing some initial damage to Ralph's troops, but in the end Ralph was able to hold.

This was a fun game and Bolt Action seems to work well with the modern modifications Mark is using.

Moderns at Mark D's

Last Friday, Bob, Ralph and I travelled up to Mark D's place to play test his game for the upcoming Huzzah! convention in Portland, ME. The game is an adaptation of one of the recent Bolt Action tournament scenarios. Mark has adapted it for his Bolt Action Moderns adaptation. Mark and I played the insurgents, Ralph and Bob played the French led establishment forces.

With only four players Mark randomly selected partial commands for each side. Both sides ended up with a lot of the vehicles and armor and light on infantry. The French side got the worst of this with only one full squad of grunts, but all the toys: Cobra helicopter, two armored cars and two machine gun trucks. They also got a mortar and an HQ squad.

We received a technical with an auto-cannon on it. A second towed auto cannon, two heavy MGs and five squads of infantry.

This game was fun, fast paced and lots of stuff got 'blown up'. The infantry on both sides have plenty of firepower to deal with the vehicles. In the end the game was won by the French thanks to a heroic charge by their Lieutenant in the last turn. Somehow he survived taking incoming fire from no less than six of our squads/weapons. Hollywood material for sure! Look for Mark's game at Huzzah! - it's going to be a good one.

Northern Conspiracy Game Night - January 2016

Last Friday evening, our club got together for the first game night of the year. I played in Mark D's modern bolt-action game.  Mark has added in modern weapons and vehicles, but otherwise kept Bolt Action as-written. The key is getting the squad size just right to balance the added firepower of the modern squad composition. I think Mark has done a very good job of doing this.

The game pitted Charlie and Ross (shown above) as Serbian insurgents and Phil and me as the French/UN peace keeper force. The scenario had 5 objective points, three worth one point eacy in the terrain surrounding the town's cross roads and two points for controlling the cross roads.

The Serbians jumped onto all three of the outlying objectives while my UN command, in their very impressive looking white vehicles, rushed to grab the buildings on our side of the town. Phil on our right flank set up to assault the right most objective, while Ross quickly blew up Phil's Jeep silencing its 50cal MG.

I took a pasting on the left from Charlie's 'technical' civilian pickup truck with a 50cal MG on it, and from his infantry from a wood edge. In the town I did better, eventually occupying three of the four buildings and blowing up Ross' armored car using a LAW. Still it was advantage Serbians 3-2. Towards the end fo the battle Phil's troops made a mad suicide charge on the only contested objective. It was costly, but he prevailed. The Serbian counter-attack was stopped by the combined firepower of one UN armored car, my troops in the town and one of Phil's squads on the hill. Very close game right to the end and a lot of fun.

I didn't get any photographs of the other games, but I did shoot some videos. First video is an overview of the room and all three tables.

Next up is a view of Earl's French & Indian War table.

Finally, a view of Ralph's Hanibal at the Gates table.

Moderns with MarkD

Last Saturday my friend MarkD, from MarkD's Gaming Site had a few of us to his gaming bunker to play some moderns using his Bolt Action modern modifications. The game was a play test of his game for our club's upcoming game night. The mission, a UN force has to escort a VIP from a Serbian-held area. Ralph, Ed and I were the UN forces. Ralph was the UN Canadians, Ed the French and I was the Belgians and French armor. Charlie and Mike were the Serbian insurgents.

Charlie and Mike deployed in a blocking position behind a river and quickly collapsed on the Canadians defending the town. Ralph defended the first wave attack on the town slaughtering an entire squad of Charlie's Serbians. From there it turned pear shaped for the UN forces as Charlie and Mike quickly picked them apart while Ed and I tried to catch up with them across the river. My armored car crew was drunk, they had to be. They missed every shot with their huge main gun, even when shooting at one of the Serbian-held buildings in the town. Yes, they couldn't even hit the broad side of a house!

Little by little the Serbians whittled the Canadians down to just the VIP bodyguard and finally the Serbian sniper took her out - bang! right between the eyes. Fun game, good scenario, and the UN vehicles are just WAY too cool looking. Thanks for the fun day Mark.

Moderns at MarkD's Place

Last night my friend MarkD hosted another game using his own modern skirmish rules. The game was set in a fictitious country in modern Africa where local uprising forces were raiding a town to capture ammunition and supplies. I played on the government side trying to prevent the theft. I represented a small force of French 'advisors' while my teammates represented the local military forces.

The game was great fun and came down to a slim point victory for the rebel forces. My French suffered a good case of 'bad ammo' and missed a lot while my 2iC and communications officer were taken out by rebels held up in a house. My only success, a good burst of fire from my heavy machine gun which took out several charging rebel zealots.

I must apologize for the poor photos.  My camera batteries were dying and wouldn't fire the flash, so the lighting is quite variable. In person the lighting was fine for gaming, but my digital camera really wanted to back fill with the flash but couldn't.

Mark D's Inaugural Game - Moderns

Last night I was lucky enough to be invited to play a game at the new home of  friend Mark (of Mark D's gaming blog) new home to break in his new game room. The game was moderns using a set of rules that he's working based on the free rules "Special Forces" by David North. Mark has done some great work with the rules and has play tested with battles ranging from the Falklands War through current real and fictitious skirmishes in Africa and the Middle East. This battle pitted African Insurgents against a fictitious African country's government with the aid of some French elite troops.

The rules are coming along nicely and Mark has done some nice things working out a very efficient ranged combat system. The game is a squad based game and uses movement trays cut on my laser engraver which makes moving units quite easy. I'm looking forward to future games in Mark's great game room both with these rules and other rules. Now that Mark has this beautiful gaming space I expect he'll be running even more great games.