Category: Wargaming

While there were many quality terrain setups at Fall In 2014, most were nice, but not unusual.  This setup was exceptional.  It is difficult to get a feel of scale from these photos, but this table was over 20 feet long.  There must have been over fifty vehicles.

Most of the buildings were made of foam core with printed paper over them.  Many had 3D windows and doors made from plastic to provide relief.  There were nice details like fire escapes, lots of period posters and advertisement, many bystanders engaged in daily activities, etc.

I did not have a chance to play in this game, so I have no idea whether it was fun, but is sure looked like a million dollars.

At Fall In this past weekend, I ran across this new product.  At least it was new to me.  This company, Eccentric Miniatures, it making plastic figures on square sprues.  They make bowmen, men at arms, etc.  The price of these figures is reasonable.  This pack of eight bowmen cost $12.

These are the contents of the box of longbowmen.  It is difficult to tell from these pictures, but the detail is good, and the anatomy seems right.  The faces are as good as most plastic figures I’ve seen — meaning not quite as good as lead, but still good enough for my painting ability.

What caught my eye, however, was a rack of sprues of swords, axes, maces, bows, pouches and other accessories that were available for $2 a sprue.  These would be quite handy for adding some variety to other figures.

For the past several years, the HAWKs have been putting together painted armies, running games for kids at Historicon, and giving the painted armies away to the kids (ten and under).  The first year we gave away AWI armies.  In other years we’ve given away Seven Years War, Napoleonic, and Civil War armies.  This year we will actually run two games and give away two sets of armies.  The first is 40mm ACW, and we are getting a lot of help on that project from generous volunteers.  The second is 20mm WWII (US vs. Germans).  In November the HAWKs are going to have their first painting day, so in preparation, I glued the US forces to popsicle sticks and sprayed them khaki.  The picture above shows most, but not all, of the US figures.

Usually a year or two ahead of rule development I start painting figures and building terrain so that when we start to work on the rules, we have something with which to play test.

The vehicle in the foreground is a 10mm science fiction vehicle for scale.  I recycled some packing material.  One held a replacement GFE outlet, and the other held a bottle of some sort of goopy stuff I got from my wife.  After painting them, I made some of the windows and doors in PowerPoint and printed them on label paper to stick on the buildings.

Rob Dean has been running Not Quite Seven Years War games in 54mm with home-cast figures for years.  A little over a year ago, Chris Palmer got the idea of doing it in 10mm with some variant of the Look, Sarge, No Charts rules.  As I had the day off today, I finished several units.

In a previous post I described how the country of Bergdorfreuthenheim has 21 infantry regiments and that the facing colors rotate in a seven-color sequence.  I completed 8 regiments of line infantry (for a goal of 9, since I had completed one some months ago).  I also complete a grenadier regiment.

Before I paint any more infantry, I think I’ll paint a few regiments of light cavalry.  I’ll add that to my purchase list for Fall In next month.

I have often said that much of the Warhammer 40K stuff looks more Victorian Science Fiction than “hard core” science fiction.  I have a few Warhammer vehicles that I have added some smokestacks and other bits to make into vehicles for GASLIGHT.  I have a hard time investing $50 for a single, unpainted model, but I found this one at the flea marker during our recent gaming day (Barrage).

I enjoyed putting together the kit and sprayed it black in its major assemblies.  I painted it separately and then assembled it.  I think it turned out nicely.  I’m not sure when it will make it on the table, but I’m anxious to see how it fares in its first combat.

 

A couple of weeks ago, we sent the files for BYV off to the publisher, On Military Matters.  Last weekend we reviewed two test specimens.  I tweaked the .pdf files as a result of reviewing these proofs and sent them back to On Military Matters.  These should be hitting the streets very soon.

In previous posts I’ve written about events at which the HAWKs have support Senior Leader Professional Development events and gaming days at Sam Fuson’s War Horse Farm.  One of the unit’s members is heading off to the career course, and as a going away event he requested that we run a Look, Sarge, No Charts:  World War Two game.  How could we turn down such a flattering request?  Since we were running these games in September 2014, it was apropos that we chose two battles that took place in September.

We elected to reprise our large Lvov scenario.  In this scenario, in September 1939, the Russians and Germans are converging on the Polish city of Lvov.  The Poles, however, may not rest on the defense.  While fighting in two directions to keep the Russians and Germans from linking up, they must also advance to seize German heavy artillery that are shelling Lvov from some high ground.

On the flank shown in the picture (above), Polish horse cavalry and tankettes fought against heavy German armor, halftracks, and infantry to hold a line along a stream.  After some fierce fighting, the tankettes and armored cars were overwhelmed, and the Germans broke through.  They were heading toward the key village of Zboiska when the game ended.

On the other flank, the Russian tanks finally broke through another Polish infantry battalion; however, the Poles along another creek and those shown on the hill in the picture (above) managed to strip off most of the Russian infantry support.  When the game ended, the Russian tanks were pushing toward Zboiska as well, despite a pummeling by Polish anti-tank rifles.

When the game ended, the Poles were on the slopes above Lvov destroying the German artillery, and the Russians and Germans were in no position to take Zboiska without a protracted fight.  We declared the game a Polish victory.

The second game of the day was a WWI game with Duncan’s modification of LSNC: WWII (with elements of A Union So Tested rolled in).  The scenario involved the beginnings of the battles around the Marne in September 1914.  This is a period of history in which I have little knowledge, but I’ve really enjoyed Duncan’s early WWI games.  In this scenario, the French were advancing to seize high ground on the far end of the table, while the Germans had to keep the French as far away from the high ground as possible.

Despite terrible casualties, the game was a marginal French victory.  The French had an isolated regiment on the high ground and another regiment in position to advance to the high ground (against substantial resistance).  On the French right (show above early in the game before the carnage), however, the French economy-of-force regiment was nearly wiped out and holding onto the village shown in the picture) by the skin of their teeth.

All-in-all, it was a good gaming day!

As Barrage 2014 was winding down, we set up a “barroom” ala Blood and Swash for some semi-LARP-ing.  The basic idea was to replicate the pirate tavern brawls and Jennifer, Chris, and I run using Blood and Swash with the HAWKs as the figures.  Note in the picture above that we used foam koozies as beer mugs.  We put koozies, paper plates, tables, and chairs around the playing area.

There were four swashbucklers in the game, and they were assigned additional players to be on their teams.  Each swashbuckler was assigned a suit of cards.  I pulled cards and announced the suit.  The swashbuckler would then determine which of his team members would act.

In Blood and Swash tavern fights the objective generally is to get a treasure chest full of gold out of the tavern.  It is every player for himself, with each player controlling three or four figures.  This game was no different.

We used standard Blood and Swash rules.  Each player was given a card with pre-rolled stats (Slug, Shoot, Sword, Save, and Hit Points).  In Blood and Swash, figures are in one of four categories from swashbuckler (best) to men at arms (worst).  For our LARP event, the more dressed up the players were, the better their character type.  Equipped with foam swords, Nerf guns, and other accouterments, we launched into the game.

Sword play, shoving attacks, and fisticuffs were handled with the GM (me) calling out die rolls, which the players compared to their stats to determine success or failure of the action.  Throwing and shooting was accomplished by players physically throwing mugs or plates and firing Nerf guns.  As in Blood and Swash, reloading took four actions.

The participants, observers (HAWKs not participating in the game), and GM all had a terrific time.  All of the things that make Blood and Swash fun, such as people slipping on spilled beer, dropping swords, and leaping over tables, chairs, and bodies, all occurred in this game.  The HAWKs are already talking about how to make this better next year.  I suspect at a minimum more people will develop costumes so that they get better characters.

As Elton John said, “Saturday is all right for fighting!”

Several of the HAWKs enjoyed this interesting soccer game.

As usual, we have a dedicate table established for games targeted at younger gamers.  Although the number of younger gamers was lower than we would have liked, the kids who participated all had a great time.

My WWII skirmish was a bit of a surprise.  I planned the game for 6 players, and I wasn’t sure if the game would fill with an 1800 start time.  Not only did the game fill, but I had to add troops at the last minute to make room for 10 players.  I think the games as quite successful.  People keep asking me when the rules will be available for purchase.  I have been developing this for myself, and having just finished the three-year slog to get Bear Yourselves Valiantly ready for publication, I’m not sure I’m ready for another rules publishing project.  WWII skirmish is a crowded field, with Force on Force and Bolt Action being the big players with hard cover books and a lot of marketing oomph.  Too Fat Lardies have the UK market sewn up.  I’m just not ready to try to suffer the slings an arrows of biased reviews and TMP sock puppets right now.