While I still have a lot of Combat Patrol(TM) projects to work, I have begun to think about the Near Future and Science Fiction variant of Look, Sarge, No Charts. While Combat Patrol(TM) has been well received, it still hasn’t achieve the status of “cool rules.” Still, I have been promising folks to start on the science fiction version for several years, and I suppose it is time to start. All my battalions are painted up and ready to play.
There are some who really appreciate the placement of the labels on the bases for LSNC so that all the information you need is right where you need it for both players to see. Others don’t like the labels on the bases. While I understand the up-front effort of building, printing, and gluing the labels on the bases, I have never quite understood the aesthetic argument. If you print the labels on khaki paper, I think they quickly blend into the table after a turn or two. I really don’t like the look of big chart cards on the table. Even with Combat Patrol(TM) and GASLIGHT, where we get everything a player needs onto an index card, they tend to get scattered across the table and spoil the look of the game more than the base labels. But, to each his own. For those who don’t like the labels, I have provided downloadable rosters that players can use instead.
When I posted the news that the WWI supplement had been released for download, someone of course felt compelled to point out that he doesn’t like the labels. Another person responded that he thought it would be good if the labels were printed with a dark background. So early this morning, I decided to see what that looked like. Below is the traditional white background so that you can print the labels on a neutral colored paper.
This is what the label would look like if I changed the background to a dark olive color.
I twill be easy enough to provide both sets of labels for the game.
Both Tom’s and Sam’s Spring breaks were the same week this year, so we took a family vacation to southern Florida to see the Everglades and the Keys. We began our trip with half a day in the “Little Havana” portion of Miami, where we indulged in some terrific food. We also purchased some Cuban sandwiches to take with us to have later for dinner. During the walking tour the guide talked a lot about the Cuban community and the Bay of Pigs invasion. We also passed a relatively famous park where the old timers play dominoes.
After leaving Miami, we headed for Everglades National Park.
The Everglades were worth seeing, but frankly, they were the least impressive of all the national parks we have visited. There is not much variation from one stopping point to the next. After you’ve seen a few gators and birds, not much changes. Again, it was worth seeing, but I think we’ve checked that box.
From the Everglades we headed down into the Keys, stopping for the night on Key Largo, staying as we usually do at a mom and pop motel.
The Seafarer is on the “bay side” of the keys, pointing north and west toward the coast of Florida. From here we could see a terrific sunset.
We also enjoyed our Cuban sandwiches on the deck next to our room. The Seafarer was low on ambiance on the outside of the rooms, but the insides were very nice, and they provided a nice continental breakfast that included egg frittatas,
Cuban sandwiches made by Cubans in Little Havana. Oh, how cultural of us!
The next morning we had planned to take a boat out the reef and snorkel for an hour or so. The surf was too rough, with three-foot waves, so they weren’t taking folks out to the reefs who weren’t very experienced snorkels. It wouldn’t have been much fun under those conditions, so instead we took a glass-bottom boat tour out to the reef.
While waiting for our glass-bottom boat tour, we enjoyed the small aquarium at the state park.
After about a 40 minute boat ride out to the reef, the boat slowed and loitered over the reef for about an hour while a guide pointed out different fish and coral.
The number of fish wasn’t as high as I had expected, so after about 30 minutes, I had seen what I needed to see. If the tour had been planned for just 30 minutes, however, it might have seen too short for the amount of money we paid. This was definitely worth doing, but I think it would have been better in calmer weather.
From Key Largo we headed to Marathon Key. We had a terrific dinner at a local (but sort of expensive) seafood restaurant. The local fish is yellow tail, and I had a lot of it during the trip. It is a nice white fish that doesn’t smell or taste to seaweedy.
We had an upstairs room with a nice view of sunrise, since we were on the “ocean side” of the Keys.
Sunrise at Marathon Key
Our second night at this hotel, Tom decided he wanted to sleep outside in a hammock. It got a little chilly, but he said it was very nice.
Morning on the beach...
Marathon Key turned out to be the highlight of our vacation. We visited the Dolphin Research center and paid an insane amount of money to swim with the dolphins. As the weather was a little chilly, we rented some wet suits from a local dive shop.
Suiting up...
Each of us had a chance to get pulled around the tank by a pair of dolphins.
Then we each had a chance to perform some other tricks with dolphins, such as…
… shaking hands…
… and getting a smooch.
In this picture we’re not telling them to wait a minute or count to one. We are preparing to tell them to swim fast across the pool. They were so fast that if you blinked you might actually miss them swimming across the tank.
From Marathon Key we headed to Key West. Along the way we saw an electrician working on some power lines from a helicopter.
Here we stood on the southern most part of the continental US and found the beginning of highway one, which runs up the coast to Maine.
Frankly, Key West didn’t do much for any of us. The place seems to really be about nightlife, partying, and drunk people behaving badly. We had some very good food, and had a good time, but it is a place I am not in a hurry to visit again.
A view of Key West from the tower at the shipwreck museum.
We visited Ernest Hemingway’s house on Key West, which was interesting. We also saw the 50+ cats, a large percentage of which have six toes.
It wouldn’t be a vacation without miniature golf. There is only one miniature golf course on the Keys. Being the only one, it could have been bad and still been crowded, but it was one of the better courses we’ve played. So we played it again on our way back to the mainland for our flight home. The first time we played, three of us had 49s and one had a 50. The second time the spread was about four points between first and last place. The miniature golf has become quite fun as everyone has come close in skill.
I am proud to announce the release of FREE a supplement by Duncan Adams for Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII. The Slaughter So Swift: Look, Sarge, No Charts: 1914 is a supplement for fighting battles in the early months of WWI, when battles were fluid and uniforms were still pretty.
Duncan drew from three sources to create this supplement:
Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII,
A Union So Tested: Look, Sarge, No Charts: American Civil War, and
His own research on World War I.
He has been running games using these variants for a couple of years at gaming conventions. Based on a demand from many of the people who played in his games, I encouraged Duncan to put his ideas on paper. The result is a free supplement that you will enjoy if you are interested in that historical period.
The Slaughter So Swift is a supplment to Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII. You will need a copy of those rules to use this supplement.
SdKfz 222s advance across fields to stop the American advance
I ran two Bocage games at Cold Wars using Combat Patrol(TM): World War II. Both games went well. In fact three of the American players form the first time I ran the game came back to play Germans in the second game.
Americans take cover behind the farmhouseThe Americans didn't know what kinds of anti-tank weapons the Germans possessed, so they were very cautious. After an unsuccessful Panzerschreck shot, the Americans became even more cautions, seeking cover behind this farmhouse. A couple of turns later, the Sherman advanced up the road and was destroyed by a Panzerfaust from behind a hedge.The Sherman disabled the SdKfz222. Then the Stuart advanced to push the disabled German vehicle out of the way and try to outflank the Germans.The Sherman was disabled by a Panzerfaust shot. The Americans then changed their plan, moving the Stuart toward the road intersection while the halftrack attempted to push the SdKfz 222 out of the way.US infantry advances on line.
The second time I ran the game, the American advance was more orderly. The American infantry advanced on line with support from the Stuart and their halftracks. The Stuart took a Panzerschrek shot that disabled its tracks, so it spent the rest of the game as a pillbox.
Americans advance through another open field on their right flank. These troops ran into a hidden German squad in the hedgerow to their front and were forced to drop back into their own hedge and engage in a protracted firefight.
Both games went very well, and all the players seemed to have a really good time. They also quickly grasped the rules and were quickly self-sufficient.
Dave is writing a supplement to Combat Patrol(TM): World War II to adapt the rules to the Boer War and the Zulu War. At Cold Wars he ran a Boer War ambush scenario using the to-be-released supplement.
The HAWKs, mostly Kurt and Eric, ran a series of games on Schlegel’s Ferry. The initial concept for Schlegel’s Ferry was to run a game on the same ground in various historical periods, and update the map for each battle. Initially we ran early Indian vs. arquebus-armed settlers, French and Indian Wars, American Revolution, War of 1812, and American Civil War.
The last couple of years, Eric has run a series of games with a holiday theme, from St. Valentine’s Day to Christmas. Using Blood and Swash, these games are always a crowd pleaser.
Zeb Cook and I ran a Winter War 1939 with Combat Patrol(TM): World War II and Zeb’s Winter War supplement. The Russian objective was to advance up the road, capture some supplies, and hold open the road for later extraction.
The Russians were forced to advance across open ground. Initially they only suspected the locations of the Finns, but they soon were taking withering fire. The Russians received some very bad morale results. While they inflicted some damage on the Finns, a combination of Finn good shooting and Russian poor shooting mad the game a one-sided affair.
Russians take cover in the river bank, but they were caught in a crossfire and decimated.
Despite the one-sided outcome, I think the players still had a good time.
The HMGS Legion of Honor presented Don Hogge with an award for his excellent Congo game at Cold Wars. The game looked terrific, and the players had a great time.
Three HAWKs won awards at Cold Wars: Don (for his Congo game), Greg (for his This is Not a Test post-apocalyptic game), and Eric Schlegel (for one of his Schlegel’s Ferry holiday games).
I completed another tank battalion and a few attachments for Look, Sarge, No Charts: Near Future and Science Fiction. This battalion came from an ad hoc hodgepodge of things. The vehicle above is from a set of small Russian kits I found on Ebay. They seem to make these kits in both 1:48 (I have some for Combat Patrol) and 1:144 (for LSNC).
You can see the battalion laid out in this picture.
Most of the vehicles in this battalion began as Epic Warhammer 40k. I then picked up a bunch of turrets from Iron Wind Metals at a convention and glued them to the Games Workshop hulls. While it is clear how these vehicles began life, I think the effect is pretty good. It will make a nice “irregular” force.
The vehicles across the top of the pictures above and below are not Games Workshop. I got them in a flea market at a convention. They are for a science fiction game I hadn’t hear of before, and I don’t think they or the game are still available. I wouldn’t mind a few more of them.
Below are a few more of those Russian-made kits. They provide a number of parts that are used to customize the vehicles.
These Russian-made kits are not assigned to any of the tank battalions. I intend to use them as attachments from higher headquarters to weight the main effort or help balance the game somewhat.
