Category: Wargaming

Despite a business trip and a bunch of gaming this week, I did manage to get a little painting accomplished.

At Nashcon I found three packs of figures.  They were supposed to be promotional giveaways from some sort of tournament.  One of the vendors had them available for sale.  I thought they would be a nice addition to my growing legion of female hussars from Hinterland.

I finished these floating robots from Biller B.  I am not too happy with how they turned out.  I haven’t mastered how to get those nice clean lines on white uniforms and robots that I see in others’ examples.  I like the robot below, but I can’t remember where I purchased it.

 

On Saturday some members of my gaming club met at my house to prepare for our series of rubbled city games at Historicon 2016.

At Fall In 2015 several of the HAWKs ran a series of skirmish games on the same terrain board.  The idea was to set up an elaborate table and then use it for several scenarios.  Each GM used whatever rules they preferred, and there was no attempt to link the scenarios.  They ranged from WWII to Dr. Who.

Eric and Don (and perhaps others) determined to do the same at Historicon 2016, this time with a rubbled city.  We got together on Saturday to set up the table and map the layout.  This was to make sure that we weren’t missing anything while we still had time to make corrections.  It also gave us a chance to play test two of the six scenarios.  For Historicon, the scenarios range from WWII to modern.  Unfortunately, I had the settings on my camera wrong, so all the pictures from  yesterday have a sepia tone to them.  I had the camera set to accentuate the sky in sunny outdoor scenes, since the last time I had the camera out was in Costa Rica.

The Warsaw Uprising:

My game for Historicon will use Combat Patrol(TM): WWII.  The scenario is based on the Warsaw Uprising.  As the Germans were beginning to weaken and the Russians were advancing, the Poles rose up to eject the Germans from Warsaw.   The Russians then halted their advance while the Poles and Germans killed each other, and then the Russians seized Warsaw after the Germans had killed most of the fighters capable of resisting the Russian takeover of Poland.

The terrain consists of Crescent Root, MBA, and other buildings on a Cigar Box Battles mat.  Don has also created some nice piles of rubble and shell holes to improve the look of the city.  For Historicon we will also liberally sprinkle the table with Scenic Express model railroad blast from Eric’s five-gallon stash.

The “feel” I am seeking for the scenario is that the Germans would be moving about trying to clear the area, and the lighter-armed Polish partisans would pop up all over the place and plink away at the Germans.  I wanted something without a clear front line.

I think I achieved the desired effect.  The Poles began with five teams deployed wherever they wished on the table.  Each team was four figures, one with a submachine gun and three with rifles.  One of the riflemen also carried a captured Panzerfaust.  Two of the teams also included a light machine-gun.  Each time either the “Game Master” or “Reshuffle” card was drawn from the Activation Deck the Poles were allowed to place another team on the table wherever they wished, as long as it was not within line of sight of any Germans.  This allowed the Poles to pop up behind the Germans in areas previously cleared.

The Germans advanced steadily, knocking out the lightly-armed Poles, but the Poles delayed their advance.  Also the Poles used their ability to add new teams to create a few surprises for the Germans.

I learned a couple of things during the play test.  Of course, that’s why you run a play test.  I will let the Poles have one more team at the start of the game.  Also I will change the objectives a bit.  For this scenario, I told both sides their objective was to just kill each other.  It worked okay, but I think the scenario will be more fun if the Germans have something to do other than kill Poles.  I plan to use the same objective as my other Historicon Combat Patrol(TM) game — the Germans will have to capture and eliminate an improvised roadblock emplaced by the Poles.  This will improve the game.

Combat Patrol(TM) uses a randomized activation scheme, the Double Random(TM) activation mechanism.  In this method, each team leader rolls a d6 at the beginning of each turn.  Then cards are drawn from an Activation Deck.  All units whose command die matches the number drawn from the Activation Deck get to activate.  In this way, the game rarely involves on person doing stuff while everyone else watches; frequently several players are acting at the same time.

You can see green rubber bands scattered about.  These are morale markers.  When a figure is wounded or incapacitated, the figure’s leader accrues a morale marker.  When the unit next activates, the unit first makes a morale check for each marker accrued.  This is done by drawing cards from the unit’s Action Deck and reading the results on the morale area of the card.

Stalingrad:

After my play test, we reset the game to play test Eric’s scenario.   While different game masters will use different sets of rules for their games, Eric is also planning to use Combat Patrol(TM).  A nice thing about both of us testing our scenarios together was that it gave us a chance to reach agreement on how we are planning to treat different pieces of terrain so that we are consistent.

Eric’s Stalingrad scenario focuses on a German unit trying to seize Russian-held buildings.  The Germans had a choice of objectives.  They could choose to seize a key building and three others or to seize five buildings that did not include the key one.

The Russians were not very good troops in this scenario.  We had a hard time hitting the Germans, but the Germans had to attack, so that seemed to balance out.

The Germans did a good job of bypassing strongpoints and working their way around the Russians.  In the end, it was a convincing German victory.

 So come and play our games at Historicon — as well as the other rubbled city games.

 

 

Friday during our club night I ran a play test for the scenario I plan to run at Historicon in a couple of weeks using Combat Patrol(TM).  The table doesn’t look like much.  I had been on a business trip all week, and I couldn’t find the sheet I have for the town square or the roads.   It will look better by the time of Historicon.  The purposes of this test were 1) to further exercise the night fighting rules and 2) to see if the balance was about right.  I’ll bring the aesthetics up a notch by Historicon.

Anyway, the scenario involved a German force sent at night to capture and dismantle a roadblock to pave the way for an advance.

The Americans began deployed throughout the town at their discretion.  Until they moved or fired, I kept them hidden.  The Germans began in the nearby woods and advanced to seize the roadblock.  The German force consisted of a platoon of infantry with three halftracks and a Tiger in support.  The American force consisted of a platoon of infantry without support weapons.

In the night rules that will be published in an upcoming supplement, visibility distances are dependent on the phase of the moon.  This being a full — or nearly full — moon, maximum visibility with the naked eye was 24 inches.  This gave an advantage to the Germans, who were attacking, as it allowed them to get a little closer to the objective before taking fire.

The Germans made it into the village.  The addition of the machine-guns on the halftracks helped the Germans suppress the American defenders, and the Germans eventually made it to the roadblock.  We had to stop at 2130 hrs., so we were were a couple of turns away from a clear decision, but the consensus was that the Germans would have accomplished their mission.

Once I punch up the aesthetics a bit, I think this will be a nice convention scenario for six or seven players.

I haven’t had a lot of painting time this past week, but last weekend I started on a handful of pulp science fiction figures from Wargames Supply Dump.  Many of the Dirk Garrison figure seem very inspired by the Flash Gordon comic strips.  These Disidian Yeomen resemble the warriors under Prince Barin of Arboria.

My daughter painted these robots for me while she was home for a few weeks for Summer break.  Below are her robots facing two of Disdain yeomen.

In addition to the Disidians, I also painted a unit of Aquillians.

The Web site shows them as green, but I thought that was too cliche, so I painted them in orange.  Who says the water on the Aquillian home world isn’t orange.

The beginning of the week I was in Costa Rica on a family vacation, so I didn’t do much in the way of hobby stuff.  On Saturday, I did manage to work on a few odds and ends type figures while the kids were out with their buddies.  In short bursts I can paint the odd figure, but I like to work on painting units when I know I have a couple of hours of uninterrupted time.

My daughter actually painted these figures right before we left on vacation.  The guy on the left we dubbed “the banana man.”  These are both from Wargames Supply Dump in their Dirk Garrison range.  For someone who doesn’t like to paint figures, but likes to paint terrain, I think she did a really nice job on these.

I had seen this figure advertised, but at 2.50 GBP it was too expensive to order from the UK.  When I was at Partizan, I picked it up.  Most of the figures in this range are ridiculous, but I like this one and the one below, because they look like WWII nose art.  I’m not sure what I will do with them, but they were sort of fun to paint.  I thought I might put them in my next Captain America game where the Cap is doing a USO tour when the fighting breaks out.

A couple of years ago, I saw this figure of John Wayne in a magazine or Web page.  It is a limited edition release from Northstar.  I had been coveting the figure.  My recent attendance at Partizan gave me a chance to pick one up.  Actually, I got two for myself and one for a buddy.  I think they did a very good job of making it look like John Wayne, especially on a 28mm figure.  I am very happy with the way he turned out.

My daughter painted these robots too.  They are also from the Dirk Garrison range.  I think they would have been nicer with a little more color, but they turned out okay.

At Nashcon, Don or Greg found this figure in a bin of figures someone was selling.  I thought she would look good as a fighter to go along with my sigilist in our Frostgrave campaign.  She had a pointing thing on the front of her habit, but after I filed that off, I think she matches the sigilist well.

So… not much accomplished this week.  I have some Wargames Supply Dump figures partially completed on the gaming table.  They are supposed to be reminiscent of warriors from Arboria in the Flash Gordon comics.  I’ll post some pictures when they are done.

Late last night before packing for a family vacation, I finished 36 of these Archive Miniatures Star Ducks.

For a few of the ducks whose weapons were not well cast, I ordered some retro science fiction weapons from the Dirk Garrison line from Wargames Supply Dump.  I think these retro weapons look good on the Star Ducks.  I will treat these as some sort of crew-served weapons.

There were 36 ducks in total.  I made three ten-duck units, including a squad leader and assistant squad leader.  There are also six extra ducks that will be the platoon leader and some crew-served weapons.

My teenage daughter just finished assembling and painting this small terrain item from Sally 4th.  It is a photo booth like the ones seen at tourist attractions and shopping malls.  The kit is part of Sally 4th’s Terra Blocks line.  For £3.50, I think this was a great value.  The kit went together very easily without the need to consult any instructions.  The detailing is deeply engraved, which makes painting easy.  My daughter knocked this out from plastic bag to the condition you see in just a couple of hours.

In this shot you can see the “curtain” pushed out of the way so that you can see the screen inside.  This will make a nice addition to our zombie shopping mall game.  I can see a zombie hiding in here and then jumping out to infect an unwary survivor.

There was a recent post on TMP about whether people have experimented with painting figures in other than color.  That reminded me of these figures I painted some years ago.  At the time, I had grand plans of doing a whole game in black and white except for the camera crew to give the game that old movie look.  I was even going to make the scenery as flats like on a movie set.  These five figures are as far as I got.

I have been working slowly on these Archive Star Ducks over the past couple of days.  I need to touch up the white gloves and then flock the bases.  If you look closely you will see some of the ducks have gold crests on their helmets.  Those are the leaders.  Then I will have three squads plus a heavy weapons team ready for play.  Guard your small fish, crustaceans, snails, and worms, because marauding Space Ducks are on their way!

 

At Nashcon last weekend I picked up a few MDF kits from Impudent Mortal.  They are not very involved kits, so I knocked them out when I just had a few minutes of free time.  This set is the remote sentry weapon, but I think it will look good as some sort of crew-served system as well.  I placed a 28mm figure next to it for scale.  Note that the site of the weapon is translucent.

I started work over the weekend on three units of space ducks.  These were originally issued by Archive Miniatures and are difficult to find.  I am painting them in primary colors.  I started by priming them black and then dry brushing the whole figures in white.  Now I am painting in the various colors.  The original sculpt is a bit mushy, but they paint up just fine.

Also from Impudent Mortal, I picked up picked up this neat industrial kit.  While it is meant to be some sort of industrial tanks, I may use it as the engine room as I construct my space ship for science fiction games with Combat Patrol.

Finally, I put together these three Quonset huts from Impudent Mortal.  They are slightly bigger than the Dust Tactics ones.  These come in a pack of three.

I have begun working on an excellent building kit from Sally 4th.  Watch for a review and the finished product in a week or see when I return from a week of family vacation.