Saturday, January 26, 2013

Battles of the Oglio & Reggio

My friend Robert has been running a hypothetical northern Italian Napoleonic campaign that a few of us have been enjoying. The first two battles were generated and happened on the same day of the campaign. Because I have a table large enough to host both at one time we're playing them in my basement gaming room. Today we played for the late morning and all afternoon and made good progress on both battles.


Battle of the Oglio

This battle features a major river intersecting the tabletop with two bridges and troops from both armies flowing on throughout the first day of battle. Our armies (the armies of the east represented by Prussian and Russian figures) started holding one bridge, with the enemy establishing a bridgehead on the other. Turn one cavalry reinforcements for the East allowed us to contest the bridgehead. When we called it the Western army (represented by French and Austrian figures) had a considerable figure advantage but were still fighting to expand their bridgehead.  Photos below are mostly sequential with the final photo the status of the game as we broke for the day.



Battle of the Reggio

This battle features the stone-walled town of Reggio which is nestled between two major rivers and abutted with a small forest. A minor marshy stream is also present on the battlefield southwest of the town. The Western army started with two corps if infantry occupying the town with three Eastern corps assaulting. Later in the day each army added an additional cavalry corps.  Again photos are relatively sequential with the final position shown in the final photo.




We hope to continue both games tomorrow if possible. If not we will be scheduling another day of gaming as soon as possible.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

January 2013 Game Night

Last Friday was our club's first game night of 2013. We started things out with a bang with three excellent games and a huge turnout of members and guests. First photos are of Mark's WWII naval game using Axis & Allies War At Sea miniatures. The scenario pitted early war British and Free French ships against a fleet of Italian ships. I believe the allies won this game sinking many Italian ships in the process.
Next up was Earl's 28mm ACW skirmish game using Brother Against Brother rules. The scenario was taken from Sherman's march through Georgia and features all arms of the ACW: infantry, cavalry and artillery. 









I played in Charlie's 28mm Napoleonic game. This was the debut of a set of house rules Charlie is working on that are called "Napoleon's Rules of War". For a first public showing the rules were surprisingly mature and quite fun. Everyone picked them up quickly and the results of the combats seemed historically reasonable. I'm guessing we'll be seeing more of these rules in the future...at least I'm hoping so.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

2012 Year In Review

2012 was another very good year for me and my wargaming hobby. Despite losing about two months of gaming time to having cervical fusion surgery (the Peyton Manning surgery I call it) I still was able to paint a lot of figures and play in a lot of great games. Top honors for my favorite unit painted this year has to go to my 15mm Flames of War Aufklärungs platoon shown to the left. Honorable mention goes to my 28mm Numidian light cavalry for Field of Glory.
Painting totals for 2012 are quite respectable for me:

  • 25/28mm Figures Painted: 62 - Mostly Pirates, but also includes twelve Old West Gunfighters and the above mentioned Numidian Cavalry
  • 15mm Figures Painted: 130 - Entirely Flames of War WWII both early and late war
  • Painted 15mm Vehicles: 32 - Again entirely Flames of War WWII - mostly late war
  • Terrain/Misc Created: 47- Mostly laser-cut items including templates and terrain bases. Most notable were my 28mm Pirate Boats.
  • Stands Re-based: 11

Non-Painting Totals for 2012:

  • Purchased Painted 15s: 295 - Mostly Ancients to complete my Seleucid army and start a Carthaginian army
  • Purchased 15mm Vehicles: 5 - Australian Bofors Battery and transports
  • Puchased Painted 28s: 33 - Two units of AWI Americans
  • Games Hosted: 5 - Down from last year mostly due to me missing two months due to my surgery
  • Games Played: 27 - More than two games a month - not bad for missing two months!
In the next day or two I'll post up a review of last year's goals and how I did and I'll set about setting some goals for the upcoming year.