Combat Patrol(TM) is featured on the Meeples and Miniatures hobby podcast, episode 180. See: https://meeples.wordpress.com. This was a very pleasant experience. Neil Shuck and the crew were very amiable. I think the interview came out very well. See what you think…
The Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (HAWKs) hosted our 20th incarnation of our Barrage gaming event. This year was the first year that we tried to run Barrage as a two-day event. We also expanded our tournament offerings to TWO Flames of War tournaments, an X-wing tournament, and an Art de la Guerre tournament. We had a number of excellent vendors with many great products on order as well as several flea market tables. We also had record attendance.
Tournaments at Barrage
Below are some views of the Flames of War Tournaments run by Kurt Reese:
If you are a Flames of War tournament player and weren’t at Barrage, you missed a chance for two official tournaments in one weekend — well worth the trip to Barrage.
Below are some pictures of the Saturday Flames of War tournament run by Bob Everson of the I-95 Gamers:
Walt Leach ran a 36-player Art de la Guerre tournament:
Andrew P. ran the X-Wing tournament:
Games at Barrage
Views of Brian Cantwell‘s very popular ancient naval game:
Brians ships are made of paper and look excellent on the table. They are crewed by 15mm figures.
Views of Matt Kirkhart‘s inspiring “Craftee Dungeon Crawl:”
The figures used in Matt’s games are made from wooden bits from the craft store and other odds and ends. The figures are extremely creative and are made extremely attractive through very excellent painting.
Richard Hefner ran his every popular Aerodrome game:
The two people in the picture below had never seen a wargaming convention before. They spent much of the afternoon in Richard’s game and had a terrific time. We always have several games for younger gamers at Barrage. In this way the HAWKs try to encourage younger games to come to Barrage.
Here are some other games at Barrage that were aimed at younger gamers:
Chris Johnson, a huge supporter of our Armies for Kids giveaway project, ran this WWI airplane game on the floor. We didn’t have as many younger gamers on Friday as we had hoped, but a host of non-so-young gamers had a great time nonetheless.
Chris also ran this very enjoyable American Civil War game on Saturday. This time he got a host of younger and new gamers.
Peter Schweighofer ran two kids games. One was Valley of the Ape. The other was Panzer Kids from Peter’s book of the same title.
Note the mix of adults and kids in this game. We had several gamers at Barrage who were new to gaming. I tried to push many of them into kid-friendly games as a great introduction to gaming.
Lee Sowers ran two games using his to-be-released Skirmish Action rules. I was able to play in one of them, and I enjoyed the game.
I ran a Combat Patrol(TM) game set in Normandy in WWII:
A funny moment came when the Americans targeted a mortar shell at some Germans behind a hedge. The round landed short and into the middle of an American unit.
The Americans made good use of smoke to screen their advance. Despite a very good defense by the Germans and some really poor American morale results, the Americans managed to work their way around the flank of the Germans and force the Germans off the first line of hedges.
Philip Gardocki ran an attractive game based on the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings:
Mike and Patrick Byrne ran a lively Force on Force game in which the Russians employ a new weapon against the Chechens. The game was going so well that it ran an hour longer than planned because the players weren’t ready to stop.
Chris Palmer ran two eight-player Frostgrave games, both of which were completely full:
Cliff Brunken ran this French and Indian War game:
Ed Watts ran a 7TV game, called the Yellow Submarine Caper that involved James Bond, The Avengers, The Beatles, and other factions.
Scott Perry ran a very cool looking naval boarding action game using the Age of Sigmar rules.
Eric Schlegel ran a cowboy game, Schlegel’s Gulch, using slightly modified Combat Patrol(TM). It seemed to be a wild and wooly affair.
Jim McWee ran this game based on the Aliens movie, called “They Come Mostly at Night, Mostly,” using Aliens Miniatures Rules. This seemed to be a very enjoyable game for those involved.
Zeb Cook ran a 1939 Winter War game using Combat Patrol(TM).
Greg Priebe ran a Star Wars themed game using Combat Patrol(TM) in which the Rebels had secured an important droid from a crashed ship and were trying to get it past the Stormtroopers.
By all accounts this was a very popular and fun game.
Dave Wood ran several Napoleonic games using Fate of Battle and 28mm figures. There is something very appealing about a table full of 28mm figures.
Mark Fastoso ran a very pretty Dragon Rampant game using Flintloque figures.
Brian Lipscomb ran The Gates of Damascus using Lion Rampant.
Emril Gletscher ran a table of short games designed to give folks something to do between other games. I played a game of Forbidden Island, and she ran Forbidden Desert, Gloom, and others. Next year I plan to give her a dedicated table and advertise this more. I also “forced” Emril to try some other games, like Chris Johnson’s airplane game and Brendan Watts’ Eat Hitler game.
Joe Richards ran this Rapid Fire game of Russians versus Germans. I haven’t seen Rapid Fire at a convention since the release of 3.0, and it was good to see this oldie but goodie on the table again.
Phil Jones ran this Volley and Bayonet game, The Golden Sun of Kolin.
Duncan Adams ran his WWI game using a mashup of Look, Sarge, No Charts rules for WWII and the American Civil War.
Kevin Lepley ran a cowboy game with the odd title, Cowboy Daze or Don’t Fall Asleep on the Wagon.
Eric Schlegel ran this Lord of the Rings game based on the late 1970’s version of the rules, “Ringbearer.”
Mike Pierce ran a modern game using Battlegroup rules. The game seemed to be VERY will received.
Tim Tilson of NOVAG ran two games for us at Barrage, including this one.
Robert Franklin ran two modern games at Barrage in 1/285 scale. He has these really clever terrain boards built into boxes for each store and transport.
Phil Jones ran the battle of Liebertkolkwitz using Volley and Bayonet.
Some other excellent games at Barrage 2016.
This was our first year of trying to expand Barrage from one day to two. We think it was very successful. We had a full slate of games on Friday and every gamer had something good to play. We hope to have even more games and gamers for both days of Barrage 2017. We will be posting the dates soon, so mark you calendar and plan to be there.
Post Barrage LARP
Having done it twice, the HAWKs now have a time honored tradition of conducting a pirate tavern brawl based on Blood and Swash. After all our guests have left, we rearrange some of the tables into a replica of the taverns that Chris, Jennifer, and I have used in many convention games. Attributes are assigned based on the quality of the costume, sides are chosen, and the game begins. As with our barroom brawl games, the objective is to get the treasure chest out of the tavern. The winner fro the previous year acts as GM for the game. This year Jennifer Palmer won the game.
I want to provide a personal and special thanks to the folks who made barrage a success:
Greg Priebe just completed his Combat Patrol(TM) supplement for the Falklands. It includes some optional rules, stats for new equipment and vehicles, and unit organizations. It is available for FREE download on the Sally 4th page and also on the Combat Patrol(TM) Web page.
Enjoy!
To culminate gaming weekend to commemorate Ma’k Morin’s visit to the Aberdeen area, Mark ran a test of his fantasy rules at Wood’s Hole (Dave’s basement). It involved “bad guys,” like Orcs, insect men, fire-spitting salamanders, goblins, and others, attempting to capture the tower from the “good” guys, composed of humans, dwarves, elves, and Roomans.
You can see a lot of cards around the table. Each unit in Mark’s game has a card with all its attributes, characteristics, and special abilities. Mark wasn’t sure how many players we would have, so he planned for eight. With only four players, we had a lot of figures to control, and it was hard to find the right card. When players have the right number of units, I think managing the cards would be easier.
In this picture you can see Mark’s Roomans (with reddish fur) and my Roomans (in green) preparing to defend a strong position against the bad guys. Both Dave and Eric sent forces to attack this position. I managed to fend off the succubus and the first fire-breathing salamander, but by the end of the game, Eric’s second salamander was approach and his Elite Death Guard Cavalry was about to get behind me.
There are a few things that can be done to streamline and improve the rules, but it went pretty well as a first test.
We had been gaming since Friday evening, and we had to quit this game around 1400, so we didn’t fight the battle to a conclusion. I think the outcome remained in doubt when we quit. It was a fun game, and it was fun to see a lot of Mark’s troops on the table for the first time in 30 years.
This weekend our club got together for a series of game in my war room. The second game of the day was Duncan’s War of 1812 skirmish game using Combat Patrol(TM). Duncan has been working on an adaptation of the Combat Patrol(TM): World War II for the Napoleonic era for some months. A purpose of this play test was to work through Duncan’s artillery rules. While we think that artillery doesn’t really have a place in a black powder skirmish game, since its effects are sort of “nuclear” in a game with just a handful of figures, several Combat Patrol(TM) players have asked for artillery rules.
This skirmish game involved several British units converging on an American supply dump in the upper Niagara area. The British and Canadians had to gather supplies from the cabins and wagons while we Americans had to stop them.
Because we wanted to test the artillery rules, part of the Canadian objective was to capture this American gun emplacement. The story was that the Canadians could bring a small ship to the dock to haul away supplies if the gun was silenced. I was on the other end of the table, betting slapped around by Canadians, but I understand that the two shots of canister that were fired had a devastating effect.
One of the things that is different between this set of rules and the base WWII rules is that between shots, figures must spend an action to reload. You can see some white pipe cleaners in the pictures. Those were used to mark when a musket had been fired and needed to be reloaded. In this picture you can also see a white rubber band around one figure (marking him as wounded) and a black rubber band (marking him as stunned).
There was a lot of fighting around this field.
With the small modifications that Duncan has made, Combat Patrol(TM) is working very well for the black powder era. We have accounted for the differences between close order and open order units, cavalry, and now artillery. This supplement is getting very close to being releasable. Stay tuned.
Yesterday, I had a bunch of HAWKs to my war room to play three games. I set up the gaming day because a West Point buddy, Ma’k Morin was coming for the weekend to visit Dave Wood. One of the games I ran was an initial test of the cyber phase of the Look, Sarge, No Charts: Science Fiction rules that we are beginning to pull together. The idea is that between turns, the two sides’ cyber forces fight for control of each others networks by allocating their cyber teams to attack or defend. Based on the outcome of the cyber phase, the sides draw cards that provide cyber effects that can be applied during the turn. Examples are the ability to “pin” an enemy unit, get an extra activation for a friendly unit, interrupt an enemy artillery mission, etc.
I have many of my science fiction figures painted and based; however, I haven’t put much thought into the unit attributes, so those forces aren’t ready to game yet. Instead, I put a bunch of France 1940 figures on the table but added the cyber phase. Again, the purpose was for this to be an initial test of the cyber phase.
So, how did it go? Actually very well for a first attempt, I think. The cyber effects were meaningful and interesting, but they did not overwhelm the game. In this first play test, Kurt’s company of panzer grenadiers got to the bridge (pictured above), which was their objective. Then Chris drew some really good and timely cyber effects that first pinned the armored battalion (to which the panzer grenadiers belonged) and then in the next turn, took an activation away from the panzer grenadier company. This delayed the German advance for two, critical turns.
The cyber fight went okay. While there is the potential for wild swings in the status of the penetration of enemy networks, in this first play test, the outcomes were very evenly matched, so there was little progress along the “cyber penetration” track. Only in the last turn did Chris get a strong result that propelled him to a portion of the track where he could get two cyber cards per turn. I am going to make one or two small adjustments, but nothing major until I get a couple more tests of the current ideas.
Yesterday we tested Greg’s scenario and rules modifications to use Combat Patrol(TM) for Star Wars. It’s probably not surprising that the rules worked well for Star Wars, as the film franchise is light on science and heavy on action.
Greg built the cards for the various units. For the Rebel speeder sleds, we just used the record cards for SdKfz 251 halftracks. For the “chicken walkers,” or AT-ST, we just used the stats for the US M-5 Stuart light tank. Greg, who is much more in tune with the Star Wars lore than I am, said that these are lightly armored and easily knocked out.
The Rebels started in one corner of the board. Their objective was to get the droid (shown in the APC in the picture, above) to the opposite corner of the table and off the board. The Imperial objective was to stop that from happening.
The terrain consisted of a desert town that occupied about a third of the board. Since the towns on the desert worlds of Star Wars look Middle Eastern, I used my Crescent Root Middle Eastern buildings. Before he runs this scenario at a convention, Greg is going to build up some bits to give it a little more of a science fiction look, but in general, I think the Star Wars figures looked pretty good next the Middle Eastern terrain.
While the Rebels had to get from one corner to the opposite corner, the Imperial forces started equally divided between the other two corners. From each corner the Imperial forces had an AT-ST. These were placed in the scenario to give the Stormtroopers a chance to cut off the Rebel escape.
You can see Geoff’s reaction tot he loss of his AT-ST in this video: IMG_0091.MOV
Kurt’s APC is knocked out by small arms fire from Eric’s Stormtroopers.
Eric launches some HE at Bill’s rebels.
I had a team of Rebel infantry that was moving into the town to distract the Stormtroopers and keep them from interdicting the path of the APC with the droid. I got pretty aggressive, and Eric hit me with two teams and a bag full of grenades. It didn’t go well for my Rebels, but it did stop these two Imperial teams from repositioning to fire on my APC.
In the end, despite a lot of fire from Geoff’s infantry, I managed get close to the opposite corner with the droid. Eric or Geoff hit the driver with small arms fire, which caused the vehicle to lose an activation of movement. I dismounted the infantry and fired on Geoff’s Stormtroopers while continuing to flee with the APC. I was eventually able to drive off the table, so we Rebels won the game.
In my previous post about a recent Poland 1939 Combat Patrol (TM) game, I showed some pictures of the Sarissa armored train MDF and paper kit. In a couple of the pictures you can see an empty area that was obviously meant for some sort of weapon. I thought that it would be a good place for an artillery observer or machine-gun crew. Duncan found this picture on the Warlord Web site:
While the train is obviously meant to be German, based on the shape of the turret provided for one of the other cars, I wanted it for a Polish armored train. I did some looking for Polish WWII anti-aircraft guns and found these pictures.
I figured it shouldn’t be too hard to find a 40mm Bofors anti-tank gun in scale for 28mm figures. Voila! Warlord had one in their Bolt Action line.
I figure that I could file the edges of the helmets down and make this a passable Polish crew. I have not seen the kit in person, but for every kit like this I have ever seen the carriage and the gun mount are separate. I can use this as a ground-mounted gun in some scenarios and then put the gun in the train for other scenarios. Unfortunately I just put in an order for Polish tankettes and the Wz-34 armored cars, so I won’t be ordering from Warlord any time soon, but it will go on my “next time I order” list.
At Historicon this Summer I had a chance to pick up the Sarissa armored train for 28mm figures. Though it is meant to be a German train, I think, it works pretty well as a Polish train. In these pictures you can see that I have sprayed it in field yellow and have not air brushed the brown and green camouflage pattern. (I got out the airbrush and found out is was broken.) Last Friday I put the scenario I plan to run at Fall In (in November) on the table at club night.
In the scenario, a Polish train has parked on a road that the Germans need. The leading German forces have been tasked to capture the train so that it can be moved. The Polish platoon is trying to defeat as many Germans as possible. The idea is that a major German offensive is coming down this road, and it is imperative to get the train out of the way. The rear car of the train has a gun that has run out of ammunition, so the train’s only armament is a 37mm gun in the forward turret. The Germans entered the table along the top edge of the photo. They had two half tracks and a truck full of infantry. They had three more infantry squads and two Pz 38(t) light tanks. The Poles had a light anti-tank gun and an anti-tank rifle.
Note that the Germans did not have to destroy all the Poles. They merely needed to capture the train. Most gamers will stop and fight, regardless of the mission, but this group had seasoned HAWKs who focused on the objective of capturing the train. I defined capturing the train as having three infantrymen in the cab.
The Poles deployed no infantry in or around the train, deciding to defend well forward. The Germans wisely avoided the obvious killing ground in the center of the table and attacked along both flanks. The Germans did not know that only one of the two train turrets was operational, so they moved cautiously to stay out of its lines of sight. The shack in the center of the table was unoccupied, and the Poles didn’t really have an opportunity to occupy it. The shack did serve to limit the Poles’ lines of sight and enable the German infantry to move forward from the corn field.
The Poles had a strong infantry defensive position in the center, but the Germans avoided the area. On the Polish left, the green German squads in the halftracks and truck moved up through the woods. The Poles had place a small force on the small hill just off to the right of the picture above. Their purpose was to slow down the German advance. They did so, but at extreme cost. They even tried to toss a satchel charge into the midst of the advancing Germans but it didn’t land were intended and did no damage. As we called the game the Germans were swarming over the hill and advancing toward the front of the train.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of the German armor advancing on the Polish right flank. They kept well out of line of sight of the anti-tank gun. The ATR got off a shot, but missed. The right flank Polish squad had been all but wiped out by the combined fire of several German squads and tank fire. At the end we called the game a German victory, because it was obvious that they were going to get to the train.
See Ma’k Morin’s blog post about Roomans here.
Yesterday I painted 13 that Ma’k converted to “space Roomans” by combining parts of a Ral Partha Rooman with the body of a Reaper science fiction figure. I think the conversion was quite effective.
I cut some of the arms and re-glued them to give a little more variety to the posing. It was a primitive conversion job, but from wargaming distance, they look okay.
Beware space farers when you hear the fear-inspiring battle cry of the Romman marines: “Roop! Roop! Adoop!”
