Operation: Wargaming!

Back from Enfilade!

2012-05-27T17:52:00.001-07:00

Well my friend James and I made our yearly trek up to Olympia, WA to the convention Enfilade. Unfortunately, our good friend Garland couldn't make it this year but despite his absence we had fun. :-)

We arrived early Friday afternoon, checked in and waited for the first session to start. We bumped into friends we haven't seen since last year and got caught up with them and our friend Dean M. signed us up for his Black Powder game for that evening. I was looking forward to trying this set out since there's been so much good chatter about them on the web. During the first session I played in an Imperialism game which pitted me as one of the Zulu players against the British. We did our best and slaughter a whole lot them brits!

That evening I took advantage of playing in Dean's Black Powder game which pitted the British against the French in Spain. I was fairly surprised at how quick the game played and just how bloody the game was. As usual Dean put on an excellent game. Here's a few pictures from that game.

The game went so fast I was able to walk around and came across this rather nicely setup WWII game in 28mm. I don't know what rules were being used but the terrain looked great.

Saturday morning I took part in a Ironclad game using 1/600 scale ships and the rules "Sail and Steam Navies" by Bay Area Yards. The game was put on by Monday Knight Productions. My group and I have been trying to find a playable set of rules for this period for years. We have found it. These rules allowed a great game and we finished the game in 4 hours. Here are some pictures of the ships used and I believe they are either Peter Pig and Bay Area Yards. This were all painted by the guys at Monday Knight.

Saturday afternoon, I participated in a Force on Force game, another set of rules I wanted to try, which took place in Africa from their supplement Bush Wars. The game flowed very well and within a couple of turns we all had the basic mechanics down and were doing things on our own. I am happy to say that I was the first player to get a win with a force that shouldn't have won. Sorry but no pictures of this one.

Saturday night, I played in a Warhamer Historical battle using The Great War rules. I was in command of a Turkish company and we were tasked to take 3 British trench lines. The British players had some of the most accurate mortar fire, I've ever seen. One of the players hit a bullseye 3 times in a row on my troops. My attack faltered quite a lot. I wan't impressed with the rules at all. I will stick with Through the Mud and Blood.

Sunday morning I took over flying a jet in a Check your 6 Jet age game. Within three turns I was shot down. :-) Oh well no ace status for me today.

Over all I had a great time playing and I'm looking forward to going next year. Maybe I will get up the nerve to run a battle or two as well.

Another game store closes

2012-05-09T22:34:00.002-07:00

We have lost another game store and one that my group used many times over the last 2 or 3 years. It is a shame that the owner had to close up his shop. Chris' store gave us a warm and friendly place to game and socialize. So it begins again, trying to find a new place to game that is both accessible for everyone in the group and provides the right atmosphere to game. Good bye Knight Fall Games.

Time to fight! 1859

2012-05-03T15:52:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday the group got together and did another test battle for our 1859 campaign. All of these little scenarios have paid off. This battle went so smoothly, I didn't have to spend the entire night looking up rules and trying to make judgement calls. The rules are finally sinking in with the group and everything, for the most part, ran well.

This battle was based on the Russians finally turning around and engaging the French after suckering them into following them so deep into Russia. The Italian general was given his troop roster and told that it was time to fight after weeks of skirmishing with the Austrians and drawing them father away from their supply depots. The only other command the Italians were given was that they could pull away after 5 turns if they felt they could not pull off a victory. The Austrian commander was told that the Italians had turned and set up defenses and were waiting for them in a mix of hilly, wooded, wheat field terrain. Tired and low on morale the Austrians answered the call to battle, but in order to win they had to inflict 2x as many causalities on the Italians as they might receive. That number would prove elusive.

The Italians are deployed towards the bottom of the picture using the woods, and hills to their best advantage. The Austrians are massing at the top of the photo.

Some Austrian troops hugging the hillside looking to find a hole in the Italian left side.

The first several impulses the Austrians gained the initiative and drove for the Italians, moving along almost at will. The Italian General used his opportunity chips and raked the Austrian columns with cannon fire.

Two perspective shots from the Italian point of view of the on coming Austrians.

The Italian General stands behind (way behind) his artillery sending out orders, while his elite Bersaglieri wait patiently for the order to charge.

The Austrians continue to move up. Even though we use dominoes for our initiative system the Austrian General got lucky each time, picking dominoes with big numbers for self and only 1s, 2s and 3s for the Italians. The luck was about to change.

More Austrians cresting the hill.

Within Canister range the Italian Artillery opened fired with devastating results. The blood bath had begun. The Austrian moral chip level started to spiral downward.

Another shot from the center of the battle.

The fight in the woods seesawed back and forth with an Italian unit disrupting and running but the line behind them charging home and routing a Jager unit. The woods were a bloody affair for both sides.

On the Italian left, the Austrians succeeded in reaching the Italian line after surviving withering artillery fire. One Austrian cavalry unit was destroyed with another one only having one stand left.

A better shot of how the Italians used the battle field to their advantage.

The bloody fight for the woods.

The Austrians press on in the center but take massive losses and their morale chips are running low.

The view from the Austrian right (attacking the Italian left). That hill proved to be a tough nut to crack.

A more up close photo of that hill battle.

The Italians are holding it together despite the odds on their left side.

Gaining the initiative the Italians back off from the advancing Austrians and fire at point blank range again.

and fire again.

The Italian gunners wait for their moment to shine once more.

One final volley and the Austrian morale chips are exhausted and the army breaks and runs.

This battle was fantastic to watch. The Austrians literally had the initiative from the start, but the Italian general used his opportunity chips to thwart the Austrian advance at every turn. The battle was won clearly by the Italians and we finished the game in roughly 3 1/2 hours. The thing I did differently with this battle was only allowing the generals to roll for their units fire/melee/morale values at the point where they were attacked or attacking. This added a few tense moments for sure. I rather liked it and so did the two generals. Again we use Piquet's Hallowed Ground as our rule set.
Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Battaglia per il monastero 1859

2012-05-03T10:53:00.001-07:00

Yes it has been a long time since I posted. Just too much other stuff going on around here. Although, my group and I have gotten in some games over the last month or so. This battle was at the end of March.
Hopefully I have gotten my Italian correct. If someone out there can verify it, that would be great. My Italian is very rusty.

The Battle of the Monastery 1859

After weeks of on again off again skirmishing between the Italians and the Austrians, the Austrian commander decided to force a battle after having gathered what he thought would be enough troops to defeat the Italians. Italian scouts reported a massing of troops around the old monastery and that there were more troops coming in every day. Not wanting to fight a battle dictated by the enemy, the Italian commander forced the Austrians into a fight by attacking first. Hoping it would catch them off guard and claim an easy victory. He was wrong.

While waiting for the rest of his troops to arrive the Austrian commander built a solid defense around the monastery but never really expected the Italians to attack.

The Austrians hold the Monastery on the right and one of the Austrian Commanders (Kevin) deploys his troops.

The Austrians built their defense in depth, using the tree line and the monastery itself as protection. This would prove a tough nut to crack.

Austrian cavalry waits for the coming battle.

More Austrian troops protecting the flank of the church and holding the high ground.

The Italians line up, ready to march over the open ground.

More Italians waiting for the orders to attack.

What the Italians had to go up against. Doesn't look good.

The Italians move in taking very little causalities but also not causing many. This fight was going to be fought in very close quarters.

The Italian right did not advance as quickly as the center or left and the Austrian cavalry took advantage of the hole and charged into the flank of the guns and troops after routing some infantry.
What I didn't get a picture of was the unlimbering of the artillery and the effect of canister on the cavalry as the tried to charge home. It wasn't pretty.

These poor Italian soldiers didn't stand a chance against the cavalry.

The Italians broke through the first line of defense but the monastery would prove more difficult.

The Italian left side comes up on more Austrians waiting.

View of the battle from the Austrian point of view.

The Austrians deployed in depth facing the Italian left.

The Austrians holding their ground.

The Italian cavalry finds some cover behind the trees.

We called this battle due to time. Neither side had really broken the other and there was still plenty of morale left on both sides to continue the fight. I was sorry to see this one end this way. Again we used Piquet's Hallowed Ground and this was another test battle to familiarize ourselves with the rules and so on for our campaign.
Hope you enjoyed the battle report.

The next phase of the campaign is complete

2012-03-16T00:02:00.000-07:00

In between shifts at work and family life, I've been able to work on the campaign a little more. So for this phase I worked on getting the campaign map taken care of and the two opposing armies rosters made up.

The campaign map came from the board game Risorgimento by GMT. It is a great little game that boasts 3 specific battles for the 1859 war plus a campaign game. I have photo copied the campaign map so I won't ruin the original.
The Theater of War supplement has you create a campaign map in any configuration you wish. The book let supplies you with a grid like map to create the campaign. Each section of the map then needs two factors added to it. The first is the Victory Point for the area or areas that are of vital importance. One uses a d4 and rolls randomly for each area that needs a Victory Point. The second number is the movement point cost. Each area, hex, spot or whatever your map looks like needs a movement number. This has two purposes, the first it tells you how much it will cost you in impetus points to move into that spot and second it also determines the type of terrain you will be rolling randomly for the table top battle.
You use a d6 for this roll. The numbers break down like this:
1 or 2 is light terrain.
3 or 4 is medium terrain.
5 or 6 is heavy terrain or impassable.
Below are two photos of the map. I was able to get a photo copy done at Fedex/Kinkos for about $4.00. I'm not sure if you will be able to see it but the areas are marked with both numbers. Actually, some of the spots are blank meaning they are a movement point of 1 and are not a victory hex. In fact only a few areas on the map contain victory points.

The army rosters have also been made up. There was nothing to this part. I did some research on the units that were present during the war and used those as names for the units for both armies. Added to both rosters are the names of commanders for each CinC to assign battle groups too. I've gone with historical names as I feel it gives a little more flavor to what we are gaming.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how I can put a copy of the excel spreadsheet I created for both armies on this blog post. If anyone has any ideas on how to do that let me know.

Next up will be a test battle on March 31st using Piquet's Hallowed Ground. Also the CinC's will get their first look at the all of the materials. I still need to type up the armies initial deployment areas as I'm going with a somewhat historical setup to start with and also some of the rules of the campaign.

Preparing to start a campaign

2012-03-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

At our last game my group and I had our normal after game discussion and the suggestion came up to run a campaign. One of the guys in my group likes having the feeling of consequences to his actions in battles. For example, he may not commit to that last charge if he knows he needs his cavalry for the next battle or scouting mission and so on.

So since I'm one who is up to a challenge, I said, "Okay". Our campaign will revolve around the Risorgimento of 1859. The forces involved will be Austrian and Italian. We will be using Piquet's Hallowed Ground for our table top battles. To run the campaign I will be using Piquet's Theater of War. I've owned this supplement for awhile but had not used it.
I wish I had spent more time with this supplement sooner. It is a thing of beauty. It is designed to use your available forces (no need to paint more) and uses the existing cards from the Piquet supplements to design the campaign and terrain for the battle.
So what I thought I would do is provide some detail of how I'm setting up the campaign and then report on its progress.

Having picked the time period already, I needed to select the scale of the game. Theater of War (ToW) has three to chose from; Strategic, Grand Tactical and Tactical. The strategic covers an estimated 4000 x 4000 sq. miles and uses the seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter for the campaign turns. This was too large for what I had in mind.

Grand Tactical covers a smaller area roughly 400 x 400 sq. miles and uses months as a campaign turn. So 12 turns equals a year. This is more in line with what I was thinking.

The tactical covers an area of 50 x 50 miles and the campaign turn is a week and the campaign ends after the 4th week or more. This was a little too small for what I was planning to do.

Having decided on the Grand Tactical scale where each month would be a game turn. Now it was time to find a map to use.

ToW has it own blank campaign map grid to develop your own unique map. It also allows one to use other pre-made maps for the same purpose, whether that be a road map, game board, area map, topo map and so on. I will be using the Point to Point map from the game Risorgimento: 1859 by GMT. Regardless of the map used, points are assigned to each area, square, hex, point etc.. to determine how difficult it is to move into that spot.

1 or 2 points is considered Light so fairly easy to move through.

3 or 4 points is considered Medium and could represent a small town, more dense orchards, river and so on.

5 or 6 points is considered Heavy and represents cities, dense woods, impassable water obstacles etc..

The points are assigned randomly with a d6 or can be assigned based on knowledge of the actual area if using a board game map. The points also help in the design of the terrain when comes to a battle.

Once those have been assigned, Campaign Points are assigned to the vital areas using a d4 or again if using a historical reference the important objectives during that war, the more valuable the spot the higher the point value. This is totally up to the designer and can cover many things. Cities, road junctions, bridges, ports and anything else you can come with.

I am in the process of doing this step now and I am hoping to get a couple of photo copies of the map to hand out to my two generals for their use. If I can get a decent photo or scan I will post it here as well.

That's about all for now. I will add in the troop organization in a few days and go over that process.

The last ride of the Pope.

2012-02-29T15:46:00.002-08:00

It was a warm summer day with a gentle breeze rushing over the fields. The Pope and his army readied themselves to meet the Holy Roman Emperor in battle. This fight between the two most powerful men in the world had been brewing for some time. Insults were traded, assignation attempts foiled and the confiscation of land brought these two armies together. The time had come for the words to cease and swords would carry the day.

The area picked for the battle was open with only wheat fields and small groupings of trees. There were small rises that gave one a better vantage point but neither commander established themselves there. They both chose to lead their armies into battle.

The Pope placed his commanders on his flanks, while his Holiness held the center with his scared emblem situated so all could see it.

The Holy Roman Emperor matched the Pope's disposition and steadily advanced across the fields, while the Pope waited.

On the Holy Roman Emporer's left his forces came under heavy crossbow fire and their advance stalled as the Emporer's general attempted to reestablish order and push his men onward.

On the Emporer's right his General pushed his men along, though he too faltered under heavy bow and crossbow fire. Several times the General pushed, threatened, pleaded with his men to keep moving and to advance upon the enemy but his men held their place and waited.

Undeterred by the failing advance of his left and right, the Emperor himself pushed his knights forward. Up the center of the battlefield they rode smashing into the infantry arrayed out in front of them. In what could only be described as divine providence, the infantry held their ground and the knights routed away, unable to return that day. Still feeling empowered, the Holy Roman Emperor charged home with his own guard of Knights. This action spurred the Pope in action as he too led his own troops to meet the on coming charge.

The battle that ensued with both commanders leading their men on to victory turned into a bloody day for the Pope and his army. No one is sure which knight struck the first blow to the Pope but his men seeing him fall from his war horse, broke and ran leaving the Pope dying on the field. News quickly swept across the battle of the Pope's demise and the rest of the Papal army disintegrated into mobs of men and horses trying to escape death or capture.
Exhausted the Holy Roman Emperor halted his army and did not pursue as his center force was also licking its wounds from the hard won battle. The Emperor decided to march on Rome another day.

This chronicle was written by Giovanni Ugurieri, a noble in the Papal army.

This battle used Piquet's Band of Brothers 2. We fought the battle in roughly 4 hours. An interesting thing about this battle was that the Papal army looked like it was on the verge of routing the HRE's army at one point. Bad die rolls had caused some issues for the HRE but in a complete reversal of fortune the tide shifted with the death of the Pope. While a major victory for the HRE in killing the Pope, the HRE's army was badly beaten up and a few units killed to the man. Ultimately, I as the umpire called the game a tie. We had a lot of fun with this one.

Plastic Soldier Company's Allied M4A2 Sherman Tank

2012-01-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

Recently I purchased for the first time a kit from Plastic Soldier Company. I picked up their Sherman Tank box. There are 5 tanks in the box for $30.00 which isn't a bad price for 5 tanks.

Each tank and all of it pieces and variations come on one sprue. Each model has the possibility of being three different tanks. A 75mm Thin Mantlet, 75mm Wide Mantlet and a 76mm Cast Drive Cover.

I decided to make the 75mm Wide Mantlet version. After taking all of the pieces off that I needed, I should point out that the only instructions are one page, front and back. The different versions are color coded with a picture of what they look like on one side and an exploded view of the pieces coming together.
Everything goes together by visual representation, also there aren't any reference numbers to correspond the different variations to one model type.

While building it I did have some issues with the tracks and the fenders. The tracks come in two pieces and they require one to put the top part of the track on the chassis wheels first and then mount the chassis to the tank. This prevents the track from falling off while waiting for the glue to dry. Once that dried putting the bottom part of the track on required some fiddling as the track does not fit snuggly up against the road wheels. Also the two tracks do not touch when applied.
This will require adding some green stuff or some other filler to close the gaps.

The fenders do not have any guides or notches to place them against to ensure a proper fit. So arranging the fender so it was level proved tricky. I did a number of dry runs before adding the glue. I'm not happy with the way it went together since it left gaps on the front.

Overall the model went together quickly. I do think that it would be easier to have had rubber tracks in the kit or pre-molded tracks all ready applied to the chassis wheels.

Here are some photos of the completed model. It has not been painted as I'm waiting to finish all 5.

Ritirata! Inferno! (Retreat! Hell!) Sicily July 12th 1943

2012-01-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday my gaming group and I got together to play a WWII battle that I came up with using the Too Fat Lardies new "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" 3rd edition. This particular scenario came from my creative imagination and what I thought could have happened between the Italians and Germans if they had cooperated a little bit more during the invasion of Sicily.

The Italian commander was given the task of holding back the on rushing Americans with one Bersaglieri Platoon and 3 R35's and one Semovent 90/53. Throughout the game the Italians would receive some reinforcements in the form of one regular Italian Infantry platoon and two German rifle platoons.

The American commander had at his disposal 3 rifle platoons, 3 Shermans, 2 MMG and 3 60mm motars.

The Italians started dug in and opted not to use blinds for their concealment hoping it would slow the Americans down in trying to search them out.
This is the table setup before the American placement.

The Americans came onto the board covering a wide front and scouting for the enemy.

In an attempt to draw off some of the American forces the Italian commander released some his scouts.

The dug in Italians spotted a portion of the Americans and found the tanks almost immediately. The Italians would also draw first blood when the Semovent opened up and took out a sherman on the first shot.

Despite the loss of a sherman, the Americans responded quickly immobilizing the Semovent and destroying an R35 sitting behind a wall.

Soon after the tanks fired the American infantry found the waiting Italian infantry in a grove of trees and a house.

In the most characteristic style the Americans threw everything they had at the Italians and after a few rounds of fire, the Italians lost their bottle and took off.

Out of a 12 turn game I had planned we finished 5 turns in 4 hours and we had to call the game because of time. The reinforcements had only started to come on by this point and had no effect on the battle. I want to set this one up again because I think it has the potential to be a hard fought battle for the Americans if they aren't careful.

Playing Favorites.....

2012-01-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

A couple of blogs I follow Trouble At T'Mill and Mylardiesgames are carrying on a little game called Playing Favorites. As a war gamer you pick your favorite rules, figures, period and so on. I liked the idea and decided to follow along.....

To start off with the toughest of them all for us gamers....

Period

This is tough as there are many periods I like to game but two really stand out as the top one and two. World War I for its sheer size and the almost dogged way the armies held onto out dated tactics and ushered in a new era of warfare that changed the world forever.
The other is the American Revolution. There are far to many reasons as to why I like this period but one of them is because I grew up in NJ and lots of the battles and marches etc were all within driving distance for a young kid who loved history.

Scale

15mm fills the role of most of my armies, although I do have 10mm and some 20mm figures as well. This does not count my naval and air forces.

Rules

Piquet tops my list of my favorite set of rules. I use them to cover my interests in WWI and the AWI.

Board Game

Paths of Glory by GMT. This game has provided me and my friends countless hours of fun.

Figure Manufacturer

I love Pendraken figures. They are crisp and clean molds and they look fantastic before and after painting. In 15mm I like Peter Pig. Sometimes they can be a little chunky but the detail is excellent.

Opponent

This is easy my gaming group here in Portland, OR. We have been gaming together for nearly 12 years now. We are a diverse set of individuals and I am proud to call them my friends.

Inspiration: Film

The film, really its a series from HBO, the Band of Brothers. It is an outstanding piece of film that really captures the soldiers and their struggle to survive and function during WWII.

Inspiration: Book

Saratoga: The Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War by Richard Ketchum. This book really captures the feel of the period and brings together the two opposing forces in real detail.

Inspiration: Art

John Singer Sargent's painting "Gassed" from 1919

I hope you have enjoyed my favorites.

Some great WWII Bomber Footage.

2012-01-16T21:46:00.000-08:00

This is some great bomber footage on a raid into Japan. P-51's escort a B-29 flight on a bomber run. It's rather long around 30 minutes but well worth it.

The Last Bomb

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

2011-12-31T21:32:00.000-08:00

From my family to yours we wish you a safe and prosperous 2012.

A test battle using "This Very Ground"

2011-12-24T00:08:00.000-08:00

In the search for a set of American Revolutionary War skirmish rules, I picked up the set "This Very Ground" by Iron Ivan. Even though the rule set was designed with the French and Indian War in mind but in my mind there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two conflicts. I'm sure I will catch some flack for this.

The rules themselves were very easy to comprehend after a couple of read throughs and what I read seemed to translate well to the table top. What I mean by this, is that the movement, firing and overall flow of the game went well with very few reasons to look up different things in the rule book.

Here are some photos from our game.

The British form up to take on the rebel militia.

The rebels spread out and use the trees as cover.

The rebels swarm out into the field.

More British use the road to swarm around the rebels flank.

The rebels try to answer the British flank attack.

A close up of the rebels.

The British line takes a casualty and returns fire.

The rebels hold their own in melee.

But the British keep up the pressure.

The rebels fall to the man in the bloody melee.

The rebels in the trees open up on the british causing the british to go disrupted.

More rebels fire at the oncoming British.

More volley fire from the British.

The British start to force their way into the fields.

A close up of the British.

More melee and rebels hold their own.

A few more British fall down dead.

The rebels seize the day with the British deciding to fall back due to heavy losses.

Over all our experience with Iron Ivan's game was very positive. We like the mechanics and the feel of the game as well. The system also allowed one to use period tactics which allowed the rebels to use cover and skirmishing to their advantage but when they came out in the open against the British line they took heavy losses.

We will be playing these again.

Some vintage WWI photos.

2011-11-15T21:21:00.001-08:00

While my friends and I attended Enfilade (the Pacific Northwest's premier gaming convention this past May), my friend James purchased two books for me. They are the Collier's Photographic History of the European War and Collier's Photographic History of the World's War. The first one was published in 1915 and the second one was published in 1918. The photos included are some of the best I've seen and I have been studying the First World War since I was a teenager. Needless to say I have been devouring the contents page by delicious page since he gave them to me. In a moment of clarity I decided to take some photos of the photos and post them here. My parents always taught me to share. :-)
All of the photos have captions and most of them were written as propaganda for the viewer. After reading some of them, I have laughed out loud. Some of the photos are definitely staged as well.
So enough of my rambling, here are the pictures.

This first set contains the covers and splash pages with date of publication.

The rest of these images are just random selections from both books.

German cavalry!

French cavalry escorting German prisoners.

This particular photo above shows British Marines defending a road in 1914.

The top center photo here shows Russian artillery preparing to move out.

A German armor car observing the artillery attack on Belgium.

Recovering a British plane from the sea.

A destroyed French town.

The above center photo shows French soldiers firing over dead comrades.

French soldiers firing at the Marne. I thought it was interesting that they are wearing white caps.

Austrian Skoda gun.

Cossacks!

Planes!

Top left photo shows how planes were moved from one place to another.

The British have invaded America!! This tank went down 5th ave in NYC.

Austrian infantry advancing up hill!

French Lancers waiting for a break through moment.

The desolate, muddy, Western Front.

I Ain't Been Shot Mum! v. 3 The iPad Version

2011-10-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

It's no small surprise that I've purchased the newest version of the Two Far Lardies rule set "IABSM!" The copy I purchased was designed for the iPad and I pretty much use it for all of the .pdf rules I have collected. I bring my iPad to the games I run and turn it on and there's the rule set waiting for me. The only thing I've had to print out in the past is the QRS for the other players.

This particular version of the rules was designed for the iPad and contains some neat features. So I made a short video of using the rule set on the iPad. It's nothing fancy and I did it all in one take, so it's not perfect (so don't expect a Spielberg type movie).

I also hope Richard Clarke likes this as well. :-)

Muskets and Mohawks: Trying out the rules battle

2011-09-28T23:50:00.000-07:00

After painting up some 1/72 scale Rebels and Redcoats for some skirmish battles, it was time to find some rules to go with the figures. I'm a fan of Two Hour Wargames and while attending Enfilade one of my friends bought the rules Mayhem: Muskets and Mohawks to try. See below for our first run of this set of rules.

A cool autumn day broke over the hills and valleys of New York. My detachment was ordered to flush out the rebels rumored to be massing for an attack on one of our columns moving up from New Jersey.

I broke my 20 man platoon up into 10 men sections sending the able bodied Sgt. Fitzsimmons to the west and to push north towards one of the farms. My section pushed through the woods hoping to flush out the rebels.

The inexperienced rebels fired first and ran when our disciplined troops opened up with a proper volley.

The second detachment ran into a stiffer defense of rebels surrounding a small farm house.

After stiff fight for the farm house the leader of the rebels surrendered to our troops. I'm sure he will be hung for his sedition.

Our troops followed up on the retreating rebels, pressing hard to capture them. Our pursuit ended with some good shots from the rebels. They had found their back bone and put up a solid defense.

As we moved closer to the edge of the wood, more and more rebel troops appeared. I formed my troops into a line and waited for the rebels to make the first move.

After the fight at the farm house the Sgt. moved his troops out to a field when they ran into some rebels holding the stone wall across from them.

The Sgt. knew the rebels would run at the first sight of steel, he pressed a charge over the open field. Those rebels gave a good account of themselves and fought to the last man in a bloody hand to hand fight.

In front of us the rebels grew in strength as we fired, trying to scatter them. They did not run, but recklessly charged at us.

Our discipline held off the rebel attach and soon they scattered again back into the woods. Exhausted and out of shot we pulled back with one captured rebel captain. Over all the colonel was very happy with our expedition.

We had a great game with only a few rule snafus for a first time out.

An interesting Pod cast.

2011-09-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of the Too Fat Lardie rules especially "I Ain't Been Shot Mum!" and "Through the Mud and Blood". I find the rules fun and they have a good deal realism built into the random sequence. The Meeple and Miniatures website did a pod cast featuring the head Lardie himself Richard Clarke. Mr. Clarke delves into his theories behind writing a set of rules and his trip across the pond to the convention Historicon.

http://www.meeplesandminiatures.co.uk/ The episode is number 78. Enjoy.

A Battle of Sicilian Vespers

2011-09-01T23:46:00.001-07:00

It was cool day for August in Sicily in 1265. I had accompanied Louis IX to chronicle the events of his crusade against the Hohenstaufen kingdom that Pope Clement IV called to vanquish them. The field had been chosen as a meeting place for both armies the day before.

A large field spread across the open ground with hedges on either end. Trees sparsely dotted the landscape and no roads entered the area. Another smaller field blocked off the north east. Louis arranged his well trained army with the bravest knights in the middle, flanked by the peasant rabble that answered the call of the crusade on the western edge of the field. The Hohenstaufen forces arranged themselves in the poorest possible manner as they lacked all sense of military planning and tact.

The Hohenstaufen army proved their lack of military expertise by moving first across the field. Their knights breaking free from their kings control and impetuously galloped into our awaiting forces.

King Louis IX held his army firm with strict orders to take advantage of the enemies weaknesses. The mad dash of the enemy provided the impetus for King Louis to let loose his knights.

Our knights fought bravely suffering in the first few rounds but soon had the poor Hohenstaufen knights on the run. Soon the center was collapsing and our brave knights ready to crush the remaining forces.

The inferior king called a general retreat with his armies morale broken and King Louis IX allowed his army to pillage the surrounding country side in lieu of payment. The sun shone brightly on this most holy crusade.

This battle used 10mm figures and Piquet's Band of Brothers.

Battle of Insterburg September 9th and 10th, 1914

2011-08-09T23:39:00.000-07:00

Following the crushing defeat at Tannenburg, the Russians have commanded a counter attack against the resting Germans in the small town of Insterburg. Under the cover of fog a Russian platoon headed by Lt. Vadim infiltrated the outskirts of town, some taking up positions behind a hedgerow and the rest forming up around one of the houses. The resting Germans decided to slowly fall back instead of fighting it out against the Russians. Lt. Dieter, slowly moved his squads back against the old ruin to the west.
The Russians pressed hard on the heels of the Germans causing them to fight it out more than they had wished. One German squad under Corporal Knell, in what might be considered valiant in some circles, had his entire squad killed holding onto a house while being pressed by 2 Russian squads. Corporal Knell escaped into the fog before being captured. The Russians stumbled and were unable to push the now defending Germans out of their houses and slit trenches behind the rock walls and hedges. By the end of the day the Russians fell back to occupy some of the recently vacated houses by night fall. Lt. Dieter sent furious notes back to Headquarters asking for relief as night fell. During the night some sporadic gun fire rang through the night but no serious movement on either side happened.
Lt. Vadim rushed runners back to the Russian Battalion commander asking for reinforcements to help push the weakened Germans out of Insterburg.
During the night of Sept. 9th and the morning of the 10th, the German Battalion commander misunderstood Lt. Dieter's request to leave Insterburg as a request to hold the town. In growing fog, 2 more German Squads arrived with a HMG in tow. Flustered at the idea of holding the town, Lt. Dieter shifted his squads around and occupied the ruins at the west end of town.
To the East Lt. Vadim received word that he would receive a platoon at some point in the morning. Disheartened at the lack of initiative from the higher ups, he sent back 5 riflemen to acquire a HMG to help. Lucky for him his riflemen found one.
As dawn broke the sun was blotted out by a thick pea soup like fog. One German runner got lost trying to find the Lt..
Gaining the initiative quickly Lt. Vadim sent Corporal Igor and his 7 man squad into the soup. They rushed the nearest house taking several casualities as the fighting became hand to hand. They threw out the German occupiers and captured the German HMG. German rifle fire from the stone wall behind the house inflicted several wounded soldiers but the Corporal and his men held tight.
The northern side of the battle up by the long hedge row witnessed two Russian Squads moving against the ruins. They stumbled upon a German Squad holding a small house. Those Germans were thrown out as well. In all of the fog, no one was able to see anyone until they fired. Squads blundered into each other as they held their fire not wanting to shoot their comrades.
Finally the Germans received some relief in the form of two more squads and they pushed into the center of town. Lt. Dieter and his squad holding the ruins launched an audacious attack against the Russians who had stalled in the middle of the road. The Lt. and his men were thrown back twice into the ruins.
While on the south side of town the Germans advanced aggressively and pushed into the house that Corporal Igor had taken and broke their morale as they ran into the fog done for the day. Three German Squads pushed past this house and started to work their way around the advancing Russians caught in the street.
Just like the cavalry in an American Western, 3 Russian Squads forced marched into the battle and came in contact with a German squad holding a small junction in the road. Losing severely, the German Squad fell back into the fog.
Time being the one constant no one can stop, the battle ended with no clear winner of Insterburg. Germans took heavy losses and may well fall back into the fold of the battalion to lick its wounds and pick up some much needed replacements.
The Russians have not made any advances as of yet and are trying to replace their losses as well.

These two battles are part of a four battle campaign I put together for my group. We will fight the last battle in September. This little campaign has been a lot of fun to run.

Friction or fiction- A view of gaming.

2011-07-21T00:23:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of the Too Fat Lardies rule sets and Richard Clarke attended this years Historicon and gave a talk at the War College. He has published his talk on his blog and I'm adding a link to it here. Whether you play TFL games or not it is an insightful look at gaming. Click on the link and have an enjoyable read.
http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=508#comments

I promise to have a few game related posts up in the next few weeks. Its been a tad bit busy around here.

Platoon Forward for WWI

2011-06-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

A couple people asked me what I had changed to use Platoon Forward for WWI, so to make things easy I thought I would post it here.

The game I wrote about in my previous post was designed with two sides being controlled by actual players instead of having one side controlled by the "system".

The first part of Platoon Forward deals with designing your leaders for the game. I'll list the Germans and Russians. In this step I didn't change anything from what was written. For those of you not familiar with these rules you design the character in this order: Personality, Motivation/Interest, Combat Temperament (which changes per battle), Combat Leadership and Background (only applied to Officer's).

The Germans looked like this for the game:
Lt. Dieter- Careful- Family- Bold- Level 3- +1 (background)
Sgt. Ostertag- Unsupportive (-1)- Religion- Even- Level 2
Obergefreiter Trager- Conformist- Wealth- Reckless- Level 1
Gerfreiters Stetter- Jovial (+1)- Revenge- Reckless- Level 1
Gefreiters Pfeifer- Cheap- Position- Reckless- Level 1
Gefreiters Schaffert- Foolish- Position- Even- Level 2
Gefreiters Knell- Lazy- The Arts- Even- Level 1

The Russians:
Lt. Vadim- Idealistic- Government- Even- Level 3
Sgt. Krylenko- Cheery (+1)- Government- Even- Level 3
Corporal Gorlice- Generous (+1)- Alcohol- Even- Level 1
Corp. Kazakov- Naive- Gluttony- Bold- Level 2
Corp. Tarnow- Cocky (-1)- Wealth- Even- Level 2
Corp. Igor- Naive- Revenge- Reckless- Level 1
Corp. Oignon- Foolish- Hedonism- Even- Level 1

Once this is done you roll up your scenario. This is where I modified the charts and results for a more WWI feel.
The first roll one makes decides who will attack or defend. The chart is broken down as Axis and Allies, obviously I changed the Axis to Central Powers and Allies to Entente. I also changed the modifiers to the die rolls like this:
1914-1915- No Modifier
1916-1917 +1
1918 No Modifier
My reasoning behind these changes I felt reflected the distribution of attacks made by both sides during the war. The early years were in my opinion pretty even, mid way through the war the Entente took on more of the Attacking posture than the Central Powers and by the end of the war both sides were pretty tired with an almost equal amount of attacks done on both sides.

The next step was to roll up the scenario. For this I didn't modify anything and left it as is and I did not change the field of battle generator. Although for my previous battle I did not use the field generator at all.

For determining the forces to be used I change the available forces to reflect WWI more than the WWII choices. For most choices where Armor was called for I replaced it with Cavalry and or Armored Cars and then depending on the front and year Tanks. Also depending on the year I placed LMG, Flamethrowers, trench mortars etc...
Since this series of battles will take place in early 1914 on the Russian front then HMG and Cavalry are available.

Well I think that's it. I haven't done the after battle stuff yet, so I can't add it to this post. Let me know what you think about some of the changes I've made.

Where did they come from? Sept. 1, 1914

2011-06-23T22:41:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday my group and I ran a combined game of Through the Mud & Blood and Platoon Forward. Both rule sets are published by the Two Fat Lardies. Platoon Forward is a supplement that allows you to create scenarios, either linked or one off battles, and create leaders that one can follow through the series of battles. It is wonderful for solo play or with a group. The set was designed with World War II in mind but with a few simple changes I was able to amend some of the charts for World War I. I purchased the set to help with scenario generation but after reading through the set I decided to try a short campaign with the group and drew up two opposing sides. The first battle ended up being a Flank Attack with the Germans attacking some dug in Russians.

The scenario is set up with the defender dug in and expecting an attack from the south. The attacker rolled a d6 to pick their starting point. They rolled a 2 so they entered the board on the left of the Russians coming in the middle of the board. The attacker also received a HMG firing from the south (off board) to help pin/harass the Russians. The Germans were also given as a pre-game event and aggressive streak for the game and the Russians picked an extra move card.

The board was set up with the Russians holding a key cross road in the middle of the board.

The battle started off the receiving some off board HMG fire that turned out to be in-effective. The next card turned over was the pre-planned artillery card for the Germans. With some great die rolling the German player landed the artillery exactly where he wanted. The Russian player rolled in secret any and all shocks and kills. The next card allowed the Germans to enter.

Soon the Russians were on the move to counter the attack.

The Germans took a bold move and rushed the dug in russians in the field and took a beating. This failure seemed to derail the German attack. They became less aggressive in trying to press home their flanking move.

The Germans were able to out flank the Russians in the field and forced them to retreat after losing their bottle. This would be the farthest the Germans would advance.

Stalled on the small hill the Germans took a beating from the Russian HMG and the forming line of infantry.

Around the 6th turn the German player called in and said he could not push forward and retreated off the board leaving the Russians with a victory.

Some mistakes I made with this scenario was the ability of the Russian commander to react so quickly to the advancing Germans. I should have limited the Russians in some way, either requiring one of the squads to send a runner back to warn of the attack or doing something where the Russians could activate certain blinds depending on how close the Germans got to certain terrain pieces. Without the limitation the Russians were able to throw everything they had at the Germans within a turn or two and the surprise was lost completely. Another mistake I made was limiting the off board HMG to only fire when its card came up, instead of giving it a chance to fire once every turn.

I will be running another scenario using Platoon Forward next month with the same leaders/squads.

Terrain Conundrum: The Final Chapter

2011-06-13T22:52:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a little bit since my last post but life has again gotten in the way of my fun. I have finally finished the terrain piece I've been working on and I think it has turned out pretty well.

In my last post I believe I finished painting the walls and giving them a dusty look with a chalk pastel and then sealed the walls with a matt varnish. From this point I started to work on the little pieces wood, rocks and metal that were molded into the piece. I had thought about purchasing or making some extra bricks out of basswood. I was unable to find anything already made that was in the right scale. The basswood didn't work out either as trying to cut the wood into a small enough pieces. So I decided to skip this and just work with the debris that was already on it.

I worked on painting all of the metal parts first and then moved onto the broken pieces of wood. I did purchase a great weathering powder called the "Weather System" by Bragdon Enterprises. The rust pigment did wonders to the metal pieces. Using an old toothbrush I was able to vary the amount of rust on each piece. The harder I rubbed the powder with the brush the better it looked. I highly recommend this powdered. I sprayed a matt varnish over the whole piece to seal the paint and powder. I like how it turned out and I can't wait to get it on the table for it's first game.

Off to ENFILADE tomorrow!!!

2011-05-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

Myself and two of my gaming buddies are driving up to Enfilade tomorrow for 3 days of gaming. We can't wait to get there and start rolling dice. If I remember to bring my camera I will post pictures of the games etc....

Terrain Conundrum part IV

2011-05-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

Well I've been able to work on this piece a little bit more and I have continued with the walls. Last time I had worked on the brick work, now I finished off the plaster covering the walls.
The first layer of paint to cover the black undercoat was Vallejo Dark Sand. I went with a light color to help simulate the color of unpainted plaster. In this way when I dry brushed the colors over it some of the "plaster" would show through as chipped paint and aging. At least that is what I was hoping it would accomplish.

The next step was to paint the actual color on the plaster. I decided that the walls of each "building" would be different and the interior walls would also require different colors. Here is what I picked: Vallejo Flat Green, Yellow Green, Cam. Orange Ochre, Medium Fleshtone and Game Color Tan. Once the base color was applied I then took some Light Grey to create a highlight for each one.

After the paint dried I took out a dark brown chalk pastel and then rubbed it vigorously over the walls and bricks. This added to the dirty look of old walls and the start of damage. In order to keep the pastel color on the walls while I painted the rest of the piece I sealed the walls with a matt varnish. This also helped to tone down the bricks a little bit as well.

I will go back and add rain streaks and battle damage to the walls now without ruining the effort I've put into the walls. After that, I will tackle the wood boards, metal sheets, and other parts of the piece that look like nothing more than just molded dirt.