I ran three Combat Patrol(TM) games at Historicon 2016.  All turned out very well.  In two of the games there seemed to be someone who was struggling with the card-based mechanics, but after a couple of turns everyone was pretty much self sufficient and running the rules themselves.  I was relegated to the role of answering the occasional question.  In addition to my two Combat Patrol(TM) games, Eric Schlegel and Kurt Schlegel each ran a World War II game on our rubbled city terrain using the rules.  (We set up a rubbled city table on Friday and ran six different scenarios (with different rules) on the same terrain.)   Also, Duncan Adams ran a Napoleonic game using the rules.

You can learn more about Combat Patrol(TM): World War II here.

Battle Before the Battle

Duncan Adams ran his very entertaining Napoleonic game using a modified version of Combat Patrol(TM).  These variants will be published in the near future as a supplement to Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.  In this scenario, the battle focuses on the two opposing skirmish screens between the two formed units.  One formed unit is a line of infantry.  The other is an advancing column.  The idea is to fight your way through the enemy’s skirmishers and pick away at the officers and men in the formed units.

Killing enemy skirmishers score no points; that is merely a means to an end.    Points are scored for wounds and kills on the formed battalions.   The game was tied, with each side gaining twenty-six points after the planned seven turns.  The distribution of hits forced the French to take seven morale checks and the British to take five at the end of the game.  The Brits passed all of their morale checks indicating that the line held and was ready to receive the French charge.  The French passed the first six morale checks but then received a “pinned” result on the seventh one.  As interpreted at the battalion level, the French failed to close, so the game was declared a British victory.

You can see that the formed units are represented by “blocks of troops.”  This is a convenient abstraction that keeps the focus on the skirmish fight, is easier than moving hundreds of figures that do not contribute to the focus of the game, and also acts as a game timer.  The column advances six inches per turn.  This means that the advancing skirmishers need to keep advancing or get bowled over.  When the column is close enough to the line, it shakes out in to line, and the game ends.

Star Wars

My first game was as a fill-in GM.  Greg Priebe was scheduled to run a Star Wars game using Combat Patrol(TM), but then work and family issues prevented him from attending Historicon.  I offered to run his Star Wars game, since I am familiar with the rules.  Greg had already done all the work to create the stats for the different Star Wars weapons.  We didn’t have to use the body armor rules, since Stormtrooper armor doesn’t seem to have any effect except to look cool.  The scenario involved a rebel smuggling ship that was shot down by the Empire and crashed into a city that had been destroyed by the Sith many years prior.  The game was three sided, with the Empire, rebels, and a “scum and villainy” faction landing forces to collect the valuable artifacts scattered around the table by the crash of the smuggling ship.  The scum and villainy faction even had a captured walker.  The game was quite fun, and all the players got a good introduction to the innovative mechanics of Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.

The results of a hit in Combat Patrol(TM) can be a wound or incapacitation.  In the picture above, you can see a white band around one of the Stormtroopers.  This indicates that he has been wounded.  When the number of wounds equals or exceeds a figure’s Endurance attribute (three, in most cases), the figure is considered to be incapacitated and is removed from the game.  In this picture you can also see command dice next to two different Stormtrooper teams.  The one on the right is gray.  By convention, this is “normal.”  I use these gray dice, because they tend to blend into the background and do not distract from the aesthetics of the game.  The die on the left is black.  That team had previously taken one or more morale checks, and one of the results indicated that the unit was “pinned.”  To remind players, we place this black die on the unit. This indicates that the unit may only activate on black cards from the Activation Deck until it rallies.

Though I am not sure I set up the scenario the way Greg had intended, the game was pretty even.  The scum and villainy faction found 8 treasures, the Empire 7, and the rebels 6.

In this picture you can see some of the cards from the Action Deck in Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.  These cards are used to resolve movement, firing, damage, hit location, effects of high explosives, and morale.  As a result, there are no chart cards to clutter the the table.  The previous pictures were not staged or cleaned up for the photos.  This is what a table looks like during a game.

Eric Schlegel’s Stalingrad Game

Eric Schlegel ran a Stalingrad game in the rubbled city.  This scenario involves a German attack on a Russian-held area.  The Soviets are classed a Green troops for firing accuracy, which greatly restricts their effects.  They have an anti-tank gun, a minefield, and a submachine gun squad, which helps a bit.  In the play test a couple of weeks ago, the Germans successfully infiltrated and captured the required five buildings they needed.  Below are some pictures from Eric’s game.

Kerfuffle at the Crossroads 

Saturday morning I ran a World War II game.  This game involved an American paratrooper platoon defending two barricades that were blocking a German advance.  The Germans sent an understrength panzer grenadier platoon to take the town and dismantle the obstacles.

The Americans had two squads of paratroopers.  Each team (or half squad) also had a captured panzerfaust.  The American squads had belt-fed M1919 machine-guns.  The Americans also had a bazooka team.  The attacking Germans had two SdKfz 251 halftracks, a Hetzer, two squads of panzer grenadiers, a panzerschreck team, and an extra light machine-gun.

The town is a mix of Crescent Root buildings and the excellent Sally 4th corner shops building I blogged about previously.  The cobblestone area is from a craft store and came with the cobblestone pattern on it already.  Most of the trees are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.

We were a little light on players, so I took one of the German commands.  We decided that we couldn’t take the town in a head-on attack.  The Americans knew the direction we would approach and could sight in their weapons accordingly.  I took one squad, the machine-gun team, and the Hetzer.  My job was keep the Americans entertained.  JJ broke his squad into two half squads and put one on each of the halftracks.  Then as the game began, he pushed them down the right edge of the board to get behind the Americans.

The first halftrack disgorged its infantry on the American flank, but the Americans were able to quickly relax and chewed up JJ’s infantry in the field from the second floor windows and the rear terrace of the corner shops.  The second halftrack continued past the bloodbath into a patch of woods behind the American position, where its infantry dismounted.

In this shot, you can see that the American bazooka team is repositioning based on our flanking maneuver.  It eventually got a mobility kill on my Hetzer, which greatly limited its ability to contribute to the fight.

In this shot you can see that the halftracks and infantry have gotten behind the Americans.  At this point, the Americans were surrounded.  The Germans had taken many casualties.  I had half my infantry gunned down in an open field trying reach the protection of the white walled area in the upper right of this picture, and JJ’s infantry took a bloody nose in the field surrounded by the hedges, but we had also severely attritted the Americans and had them surrounded.  At this point the Americans conceded.  I think the game was a big success.  Everyone had a good time, and the game might have gone very differently.  I am happy with the scenario.

The Warsaw Uprising

Saturday evening I ran a game based on the Warsaw uprising.  The Polish underground saw the Russians approaching Warsaw and rose up against the Nazi occupiers.  The Russians then stopped outside the city and let the Germans kill most of the Poles capable of resisting the Russians’ subsequent occupation of Poland.  This scenario involved the Germans trying to clear a path through this portion of the rubble city while the Poles were trying to inflict as much damage as possible and slow the German advance.

 

The Poles began with six four-man teams on the table, and each turn they deployed one or more additional teams.  These reinforcements could pop up anywhere on the table, but they couldn’t be within line of sight of the Germans when they did so; someone would have to move at least once before shooting at each other.  The Poles did a nice job of trying to hold back the Germans, but luck didn’t go their way.  There was one Polish player who seemed to have a sniper in his team; every time he fired, he got a fatal head shot on a German.

Again, note the clean look of this table with little table clutter to spoil the aesthetics of the game.  The table is a mix of Crescent Root, Amorcast, Miniature Building Authority, and scratch-built buildings.  The rubble piles are made from model railroad blast.  The ground cloth is from Cigar Box Battles.

I thought I took more pictures of the table than this, but I was having some trouble with my camera.  In this picture you can see advancing German infantry, a dead Pole in the center of the table, and some other Poles in a rubbled building on the right.

Summary

All three games that I ran, the two that the Schlegels ran, and the one that Duncan ran were successful.  The players picked up the rules quickly, and everyone seemed to have a good time.  As mentioned previously, at first one or two people struggled with the unique mechanics of Combat Patrol(TM), but eventually they all got it.  Interestingly, the guys who seemed to have the most trouble were the ones who approached me after the game about how much they liked the system.

Sunday morning tends to be pretty light at Historicon, Cold Wars, and Fall In.  A few years ago there was a push to add Sunday morning games.  The HAWKs responded.  We typically put on at least two Sunday morning games — which constitutes about half the scheduled games.  This year Eric ran his car race game using Jamie Davis’ Future Race rules and Duncan ran a WWII naval game, using his “Charted Seas” rules.

Charted Seas uses the combat mechanic from Uncharted Seas, a modification of the activation mechanism from X-Wing, and ship data from the Axis and Allies collectable miniatures game.  I’m not all that interested in “modern” naval games, but this mashup really works well.

Eric ran a car race game through the desert that, based on the whooping and hollering, was a huge success.

If you haven’t played Future Race, you are missing out on a terrific game — and the only worthwhile thing to come from Star Wars Crapisode I.  Originally conceived to have pod races using Micro Machines pod racers, we have used the rules for air boats on the swamps, dog sled races, and flying carpet races — in addition to the pod races for which it was intended.

While these games were going on, JJ, Don, and I played in a game of the 1978 Source of the Nile game (before it was licensed to Avalon Hill) run by one of the original authors.  We had a very good time.  My expedition got lost in the desert.  My guide and half my askari and bearers wandered off looking for food and water.  Then a freak storm struck the desert, and most the rest of my expedition ran off.  A rhino killed my last bearer, and hostile natives killed my last askari.  I wandered out of the jungle, dehydrated and babbling, with only my musket and notebook, but I still managed to eek our third place.  I haven’t played Source of the Nile in 25 years.  It definitely has an old feel to it, and I think it could benefit with an update to more modern mechanics, but it was a fun and nostalgic game.

I just received this first sample card from my artist.  I think the new, special deck for Japanese is going to look quite good.

I have been working for a couple of months on Pacific War supplement for Combat Patrol(TM): WWII.  The supplement involves new morale results for Japanese units as well as special rules for banzai charges and suicide attacks on vehicles.  The new morale results have more unit results and fewer individual results to reflect the unique military cult culture of the Japanese Army in WWII.  These new morale results will be incorporated into special Japanese Action Decks.  The cards in this action deck are exactly the same as the other Action Decks except for the morale results.

I went back to my artist and asked him to create new artwork for the Action Deck.  Again, the results will be the same as the other Action Decks, but I wanted the artwork to look Japanese.

I really like the new artwork.  It is consistent in style to the original Action Deck, but it is definitely Japanese in feel.

This picture is really hard to see.  I drew it 30+ years ago in pencil on a piece of loose leaf paper.  This cartoon depicted a party of adventurers bursting into a room during a Tunnels and Trolls game.  I don’t remember why the one character had his face explode as the party entered, but I remember we laughed about it for days.  My buddy Ma’k Morin found this recently and sent it to me.

The all new Web portal for Barrage 2016 has gone live for people to register as attended and GMs.  This year the folks who bring you the popular HAWKs rooms at the various HMGS conventions have expanded Barrage from one day to two days.  Take a look at the Web portal (www.hawks-barrage.org).  Come back frequently as new games and other content is added.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a bunch of figures from Wargames Supply Dump in the Dirk Garrison range.  I had been working on them a half hour at a time most of the week, but today I had a chance to finish them up.

The figures have a very retro comic book styling to them that I really like, so I painted them in primary colors.  I finished them late and needed to use the flash to photograph them, so you see a lot of shine, and much of the detail is washed out.  The figures look better than these photos.

I really like the crew-served weapon.

This weekend, Sam Fuson hosted a gaming day at War Horse farm in Gettysburg, PA.  I had a chance to play in a modern skirmish game with Ed Duffy’s modern rules he’s been developing.  In the afternoon I ran a slightly modified reprise of my American raid on a Japanese radio site on “some island” in the Pacific.

The game went quite well.  A couple of players had played Combat Patrol(TM), but must had not.  They picked up the rules quickly and then concentrated on the fight rather than the rules.  The scenario was both ahistorical and anachronistic; the American raiding force was composed of both US paratroopers and US Marines.  The Marines had one squad and a bazooka team.  The paratroopers had two squads, a platoon leader, and a bazooka team.  The Japanese had three squads, a couple of extra light machine-guns, and a Chi-Ha tank.

The Americans ran into the compound.  The Marine bazooka team pumped three rounds into a Japanese bunker.  Though the rounds penetrated, the Marine player was incredibly unlucky in determining the effects, so the Japanese machine-gun inside was wounded and stunned, but not knocked out.

Though they inflicted a lot of casualties on the Japanese stationed around the perimeter, the paratroopers made it into the compound and were running across to the radio shack when a couple of Japanese mortar shells landed.  The paratroopers had gotten bunched up, and the mortar round landed right in the middle of the clump, killing two, wounding five, and stunning a couple of others.

The Marines never really made much progress into the compound, but they tied down a squad and a machine-gun.  The paratrooper bazooka team inexplicably charged a couple of Japanese in a foxhole.  Despite outnumbering a wounded Japanese soldier in the foxhole, the paratroopers lost the melee, the bazooka man being incapacitated and his assistant falling back.  The Japanese soldier then charged at the assistant bazooka man as the result of a morale check.  After some back and forth, the paratroopers finally ended up in control of the bazooka again.  He fired at the Chi-Ha, hit the wheels, but didn’t mobilize it.  The bazooka man never got off a second shot, as he was cut down by a Japanese machine-gun.

After the incredible Japanese mortar fire and the lost of both bazookas, the Americans called a retreat and melted back into the jungle.  They never really got very close to the radio shack.  If things had broken their way once or twice, they might have gotten it; they were very close at one point.

The people who weren’t regular gamers, but just come to War Horse a couple of times a year, had not trouble catching on, since they have no preconceived notions of how a war-game is supposed to work.  The folks who are regular gamers caught on quickly as well.  That was good to see.  After about two turns, my role became merely answering questions and calling out cards from the Activation Deck.  All of the players really enjoyed the scenario.

There will be several Combat Patrol(TM) games at Historicon next weekend.  Sign up for one of the games, come by to see if there is space, or just come by to watch how this elegant system works.

Thursday, 1400:  The Battle Before the Battle (GM: Duncan Adams):  Battalions formed; lines dressed; banners flying. The drums start and one line begins moving, steadily closing toward the inevitable, violent collision. But before the lines close there is another battle which must be fought first – between the closing lines. Today we fight that battle of light infantry struggling to weaken the enemy’s line while protecting its own.

This scenario uses the under-development Napoleonic supplement for Combat Patrol.  This is really cool scenario that concentrates on the skirmish fight between two formed units.  Lots of fun.

Friday, 1400:  The Streets of Stalingrad (GM: Eric Schlegel):  22 Oct 1942.  Elements of the Infanterie Division 389, supported by armor and engineers with flame throwers and demo charges, are ordered to assault the Barrikady and Krasny Oktyabr factories held by remnants of the 138th & 308th Rifle Divisions.

Friday, 1900:  Star Wars Combat Patrol (GM: Buck Surdu filling in for Greg Priebe):  On an ancient, war-torn world, a rebel strike team searches desperately for relics that can aid their cause. Little do they know that the forces of the Galactic Empire are already on their trail.  The card-based rule system of Combat Patrol comes to a galaxy far, far, away. Will you fight for freedom in the galaxy, or will you embrace the power of the Dark Side?

This scenario uses mods that Greg created to represent Star Wars weapons in the Combat Patrol rules.  This is a battle between Rebel troopers and Stormtroopers, not one or two main characters where the troopers die in droves.

Saturday, 0900:  Kerfuffle at the Crossroads (GM: Buck Surdu):  An American patrol advances toward an important crossroads and bumps into a German patrol in 1944.  Both forces jockey for position and call for reinforcements.  Learn to play Combat Patrol.  Fight the battle, not the rules.

I am going to change this a little from what is in the PEL.  This game will involve a Germans force sent into the town to dismantle the roadblock, while the Americans try to stop them.  In the play test a couple of weeks ago it was a close run event.

Saturday, 1900:  Warsaw Uprising (GM:  Buck Surdu):  The Polish Resistance Home Army has risen up to eject the Nazis.  The uprising is timed to coincide with the Soviet advance, but the Soviets stop short and enable the Nazis to crush the resistance after 63 days of bitter fighting.  Learn to play Combat Patrol as a member of the resistance or the German army.

During my very enjoyable experience at Partizan in June, I had a chance to look at the buildings from Sally 4th with the photo-realistic covers applied to them.  I picked up the corner shops, part of the Normandy range, and brought it home.  I had begun construction a couple of weeks ago, but life got in the way.  I had a chance over the three-day weekend to finish it.  Bottom line:  I am extremely pleased with this kit and will be getting more of them.

The basic building as an MDF kit, not unlike others.  There are a couple of unique features that I really like.  First the buildings have interior walls.  Second, all the windows and doors come with clear plastic pieces, so they look like real windows.  Finally, I really like the way the roof is constructed.  The outside, visible portion is part of the exterior of the walls.  The support for the roof fits inside the peaked portions of the walls.  This gives a very nice look with full roof support.  The MDF is thick and sturdy and does not warp.

I also found the step-by-step instructions easy to follow.  Each step included a color illustration.  This was the first of the Sally 4th buildings I have constructed, and am no good with paper models, but this kit went together like a dream, and the final product is terrific.

You can purchase the professionally printed photo-realistic covers on thick card or you can download the cover sheets and print them yourself.  In this case, I opted to purchase the cover sheets while I was at Partizan.  I figured that the pre-printed sheets on card were cheaper than me printing them at home and would look better.

The scary part for me was beginning to apply the photo-realistic covers.  Up to this point, any mistakes could be easily corrected.  Once I started cutting paper, mistakes would be harder to correct.  Since I didn’t print the covers myself, I thought that reprinting any mistakes on my home printer might not match those I purchased.  The photo-covers come in several sheets and are easily cut out with an X-acto or scissors.  The registration was perfect.  When I cut out the sheets, including cutting out the windows, and laid them against the MDF, they lined up perfectly.

The windows and doors were a three-step process.  The glazing is glued to the clear plastic and then glued into the openings.  Then the brick frames of the windows and doors are glued into place.  The effect is really nice.

You can see that the interiors are detailed with interior walls.  Sally 4th offers optional wallpaper for the building interiors and optional interior stairwells.  In the picture above, you can see where the stairways would fit.  They also sell optional bombed out roof sections to replace the nice ones that come with the kit.  I saw these at Partizan, and thought they looked great!

In the picture above you can see the awnings and the color instruction booklet.  I have elected not to attach the awnings to make the buildings easier to store, but it is nice that you have that options.

At this point, I had not picked up a paint brush.  All of this work was done with an X-acto, scissors, and Elmer’s blue.  I later applied a little dark gray paint to the tops of the chimneys and painted the shutters for the windows, but that was all.

The cylinders coming out of the chimneys were meant to be rolls of paper.  Demonstrating my poor skill with paper models, I muffed the first one and decided to cut bits of black straws instead.  My straws don’t look as good as the paper ones shown on the Sally 4th Web page.

As I said earlier, despite a couple of rookie mistakes, this building went together with little muss or fuss.  I like the way the kit includes corner brickwork that hides the seams between the cover sheets on the walls and roof.  I have already ordered the Norman church — which comes with three different steeple tops for different eras.  I will likely order a couple more of the Normandy buildings in the near future.

If you are at Historicon, I will be using this building in one of my Saturday Combat Patrol(TM) games.  Come by and take a look.

Before I discovered Sally 4th, I had been ordering one or two of the Crescent Root buildings each month.  The Sally 4th and Crescent Root buildings will mix nicely.

Again, I highly recommend this kit and the others in the series.  It took me no longer to complete this building than any similarly-sized MDF building, but the final product looks nicer than I would have achieved by painting it instead of using the photo-realistic covers.