January 2014 Game Night

Last night our club had it's January game night. We had a great turn out with 23 members and guests attending and all three great games were filled to capacity. I played in Earl's French & Indian war game which used the "Muskets & Tomahawks" rules. I have to admit the more that I play these rules the more I like them. They're quite simple, with just enough detail to represent the period. There's only one sparse page of charts and half way through turn one new players have them down.

As for the game, normally I tend to think of myself as someone with very average (at best) luck. Last night I had what might be one of my best runs of luck at the gaming table. I handed out the command cards for our side completely at random as I couldn't read them due to not having my glasses on. I ended up with the British regulars - the best command on our side. My first volley from them deserved a cry of "Yahtzee!" it was so full of 6s. Our French opponents also had fairly poor luck (sorry guys) to add to the run. I'm heading to a game this Sunday, I'm afraid the scales are due a large balancing and I'm in for a tough day.

Earl's game was beautiful, well run and everyone seemed to have a good time. Even the French players took their misfortune in stride and were great sports about it. I love our club because that's more the rule for us than the exception.

New member prospect Rob ran his first game for the the club with the assistance of his club sponsor, Bruce. Their game was a DBRRR renaissance game.  I was so engaged in the FIW game I was in I was only able to snap a single photo of each of the other games. Apologies to both of the other game masters for that. On this table I believe the dice Gods also slanted the rolls heavily to one team.

The final game of the night was John's eastern front WWII game in 15mm. John painstakingly replicated the terrain of the battlefield from historical photos. When I stopped by this table mid game the news from the battlefield was the Russian T-34 tanks were starting their overrun of the village killing a bunch of Nazi infantry in the process.

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Infantry in Helmets

This is a small unit of 28mm Austrian Napoleonic infantry in helmets. These were a purchase from a private seller on Ebay. I mostly picked up the unit for two reasons: 1) the price was quite reasonable and 2) The unit came with an infantry officer in greatcoat which I desperately needed.

They're based for use with my friend Charlie's house rules, "Napoleon's Rules of War" but could also see use with Volley & Bayonet, Black Powder and Carnage & Glory.

28mm Carthaginian Veteran Spearmen (2)

This is my first completed unit of 2014. Things got so hectic over the holidays that I didn't even have time to do a year in review post. This is another unit of Veteran Libyan Spearmen for my Carthaginian army for Field of Glory and Hannibal at the Gates. This unit has white shields to help differentiate it from the other unit I painted last year. With this one I also chose to sprinkle in some hoplons, still awaiting replacement with captured Roman scutum. These figures will represent a single battle group in Field of Glory or three units in Hannibal at the gates as shown in the bottom photo. I've included a photo of the 2nd rank to show the shields as well as one of a sample of the rear view of some of the stands.

Next up on the painting table are six Carthaginian elephants. Before those hit the blog I have some purchased units to post. I apologize for the shoddy photos. I prefer to use natural light, but here in New England it's below freezing outside and dark when I leave for work and dark again when I return home. The photo booth with its less than optimal lighting is the best I can do.

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.

28mm Cairo Class Ironclad

This is a 28mm Cairo Class Ironclad that my uncle made using some parts created on my laser. It's mostly his hand work modeling this wonderful model. We've taken some liberties in the design to make creating multiple models easier and to give it a nice caricature look. This will be one of five ships in our upcoming game day loosely based on the events around Fort Donaldson in the ACW. I don't often feature other people's work here on my blog, but since I had a hand in creating the bits I thought with Ralph's permission that these photos would be enjoyable for my readers to view.

HATG Play Test (2)

Last  Sunday we got together for another game in our 1st Punic War campaign, but when the troops reached the battlefield the Syracusian general decided discretion was the better part of valor and chose not to fight. All good, we continued and had a nice small Carthaginian civil war using my uncle's Carthaginian army vs. mine in order to further examine hoplite vs. hoplite combat. The game was fun and everything worked out well. I particularly enjoyed the new battle resolution system which allows the game to complete without killing every single stand on the tabletop.

December 2013 Game Night

Last Friday evening our club had our monthly game night. We don't always get to do an event in December, but this year the dates lined up to allow us to get an event in between Christmas and New Years Day. I played in a 28mm Renaissance game hosted by my friend John (left). The game used rules I wrote about 15 years ago, Halberdier, which John has kept alive by using. I forgot how much fun they were. With encouragement from several people last Friday I may resurrect these rules for use. I had lost the files in a hard drive crash, but still have a hard copy version to start from.

The game was Teutonic Knights vs. Knights Templar with various assorted foot and dismounted figures: pikes, spears, longbows and dismounted knights. In the end the weight of the Teutonic Knight's mounted was too much for the Templar to hold up to and the victory went to the Teutonic side.

We had a very large turn out and there were three other excellent (and completely full) games run including Michael's Ships of Glory game. Michael participated in the kickstarter campaign for this game and contributed enough to get the starter box set and the very nice play mat shown in the photos. Everyone who played the game said that the rules are very enjoyable.

Kevin (standing left) ran a beautiful 15mm "Phoney War" 1939 France vs German game featuring Char 2B tanks and lovely terrain. The rules were "Panzer Blitz" and reference cards featured blown up "chits" which looked like they came from a board game but were actually made up by Kevin. These made looking up stats for forces quite easy.

 

Last but not least, new member pledge Greg ran a Carnage & Glory 9 Years War game using 28mm figures.  Our club loves Carnage & Glory and knows and appreciates how much work setting up and running a C&G game is. Thanks Greg!

Merry Christmas!

I know I've been woefully sparse in the updates department. End of the year work deadlines have me not spending much hobby time at home. Hopefully I'll get a few small projects out during holiday shut down at work. I do know that I have a couple games to go to next week which should provide good fodder for the blog.

May all of you have a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. May your figure collection grow and your unpainted lead pile shrink. May you have more fun gaming ahead for 2014 and your dice roll true.

The Battle of Tauromenion

Over the past few weeks we got together for two sessions to fight the second battle in our ongoing 28mm First Punic War campaign. Pictured to the left on the left is the Carthiginian commander and on the right the commander of Rome's forces. In the middle our arbiter, the benevolent and all powerful Mammers (aka Mars).

The game took two sessions to fight and in the end the casualties were so complete and devastating that even Phyros would have been appalled. In fact if this battle had actually taken place Phyros would have fought a series of Tauromenionian victories.  In the end Rome had a tenuous hold on the road to Tauromenion and it's garrison, which after the battle was as large as either field army. At the start of the battle the garrison was approximately 20% of the size of either army.

This was a fun game with beautiful troops and terrain. All who played had a good time. I was able to field part of the Carthiginian army with my recently painted troops thanks to my uncle providing the missing units. I look forward to the returns after the battle when Mammers sorts them out. Will there be more battles to fight? Will either army be able to field enough troops? Will Syracuse sweep both Rome and Carthage from Sicily? Only Mammers knows.