Month: March 2014

Last night at the club meeting, I ran another play test of G.A.M.E.R. (which stands for the attributes of a figure in the game: Guts, Accuracy, Melee, Endurance, and Reaction).  I have been pretty happy with the way the infantry rules are working, but I have been needing to give the vehicle rules a good workout.  Last night I ran a game that was almost entirely vehicles.  It wasn’t a particularly realistic scenario, but it served its purpose.  I also wasn’t very accurate on vehicle mixes, as the scenario included some late-war tanks, even though the scenario was set in Poland in 1939.

A column of German tanks was assigned the task of pushing across the board.  They were supported by two tank-killer infantry teams, one with a panzerfaust and the other with a panzerschreck (recall that historical accuracy was not part of this event’s objective).  The Poles had two 7TPjw tanks, two Vickers E tanks, two TKs tankettes, an anti-tank gun, and an infantry team with an anti-tank rifle.

The game began badly for the Germans, with a Hetzer and a Marder getting knocked out by the two tanks on the far hill in the picture (above).  After a while it evened out and was considered a marginal German victory, since they still had two “real” tanks left at the end, and the Poles only had one.

As the objective was to give the vehicle rules a workout, I was glad to see Bill use anti-tank rifle grenades (again, not necessarily historically accurate) and a satchel charge against Chris’ 38(t).  I don’t think he ever knocked out this tank, but he immobilized it early.  The tank-on-tank action in the center of the table between Geoff and Sam (Germans) and Duncan (Poles) seemed to have about the right feel.  Duncan’s Polish AT gun had ammunition trouble or something, because it kept jamming.

Recall from previous posts that G.A.M.E.R. is designed to be played at three levels of “detail” or “resolution,” at the GM’s or players’ choice:

• Low Resolution: All infantry figures in a unit have the same G.A.M.E.R. attributes.  Wounds are all the same.  Wounds are tracked with markers on the table.  Vehicle crews aren’t tracked; if a vehicle is destroyed, all crew are killed.  If the vehicle is not destroyed, there is no effect on the crewmen.
• Medium Resolution:  All infantry figures in a unit have the same G.A.M.E.R. attributes.  Wounds are tracked on the record sheet.  Upper body wounds effect fire.  Lower body wounds effect movement.  Vehicle crews aren’t tracked; if a vehicle is destroyed, all crew are killed.  If the vehicle is not destroyed, there is no effect on the crewmen.
• High Resolution:  Each infantry figure has its own G.A.M.E.R. attributes.  Wounds are tracked on the record sheet.  Upper body wounds effect fire.  Lower body wounds effect movement.  Vehicle crewmen ARE tracked (at one of three levels of resolution, GM’s preference).  If a vehicle is hit, card flips are used to determine impact on individual crewmen.

Last night, I wanted to test the crew casualty resolution, so we played played at high resolution for vehicles and low resolution for infantry.  My preference will be to play with low or medium resolution on most cases, I think.  The extra steps required to determine which crewmen are wounded or killed as a result of a hit is usually not worth the effort.  But we tested it last night, and it worked fine.  I can see a lot of WWII gamers wanting the higher resolution.  It was fun to see that the gunner was wounded or the driver was killed and see the impact on the rest of the game.

We also tried the bog check rule (see previous post).  Woods and plowed field are considered “green,” pun intended.  When a tank moves through woods or plowed fields, it flips a card to resolve the “green” attack on it.  If the terrain succeeds in hitting the vehicle, the vehicle bogs down.  I was worried that this would be so frequent that players would get frustrated or so infrequent that players would forget to do it.  I think it was about right, but I’ll have to try it a few more times before I decide.  Rougher terrain might be considered regular or elite for bog attacks on the vehicle.  (This is how I plan to handle mine field as well.)  We had a TKs that bogged for three turns, and a German tank bogged down in the woods.

Part of the objective last night was to test the vehicle hit resolution procedure.  Geoff said that he had trouble remembering the sequence.  Most of the other folks who had played the infantry rules seemed to have picked it up quickly, but clearly G.A.M.E.R. is a paradigm that is different from what players expect.

I had a draft vehicle record card for last night’s game.  As a result of the play test, I revised the card.  Below is what I think it will look like.  When printed in full size, this looks like three 3″x5″ cards.  I think that experienced players will only need the one on the top left.  They will eventually learn the hit resolution procedure and the effects of a penetrating hit and won’t need the card, so I think that in a practical sense, a player will only need the single card.  At high resolution, the players will also need a second 3×5 card with the crew information.

I can see players printing this, cutting it into an L and then folding it to be a single 3×5 card.  On the hit resolution procedure card, I tried to show cards next to steps in which you draw a card, and a die next to the step where you roll a die.  (There is a d10 on the cards, so you could use a card and read the result instead of rolling a die if you want.)  The only “trick” on vehicle hit resolution is that you have to keep track of the hit location card, because if you don’t get a penetrating hit, the non-penetrating results are read from THAT card.  You don’t draw a different one.

As a reminder, here is what the infantry (or crew) card looks like:

I think it went pretty well last night, and the players enjoyed the game.  Sammy thinks that she likes it without vehicles better.  I need to come up with good stats for the vehicles I have in my collection, which I’m not looking forward to doing.  I’ll keep plugging away at it.  I think this game has potential.

For the sixth year in a row the HAWKs supported an officer professional development event for the 114th Signal Battalion.  The first year, the event just included the officers, so we ran just a single game.  Over time, more and more of the battalion’s leadership have been corralled into the event.  This year we had almost 40 officers, senior NCOs, and civilian staff of the battalion.

Last year we had a similar number of players and tried to get them into a single game.  It worked out okay, but there were a number of players who were in reserve and didn’t get to see much action.  This year we divided the training audience into three groups and ran the same battle on three tables — with a twist.  The scenario we chose was the Battle of Laon, 1814, from the Napoleonic Wars.  This is from our soon-to-be-released scenario book on that campaign.  On one table we ran the game historically, as a Napoleonic battle.  On the second table, we ran it as an American Civil War Battle, with the Rebs taking the role of the French.  On the third table, we ran it as a France 1940 WWII battle, with the French taking the role of the — French.

Dave Wood and I ran the Napoleonic game.  Eric Schlegel and Chris Palmer ran the ACW game.  Sammy ran the WWII game.  He was going to be assisted by Ed Duffy, but we had some overflow folks, so Ed ran a modern skirmish game for a few extra players with the rules he has been developing.  (I haven’t had a chance to play this yet, but it is getting rave reviews from those who have!)  The three “main” battles all used variants of Look, Sarge, No Charts.

Many of the players did not realize until the battles were over that they were fighting the same battle on each table.

After the games ended, I facilitate an after action review with the staff.  It was interesting to compare the various plans and schemes of maneuver across the tables and then to discuss how the battle developed and differed from the plan.  I tried to point out some tactical lessons, because some day, these folks might need to use these skills on a real battlefield.

I think the event was both fun and interesting.  Thanks to Sam Fuson for inviting us and to the other HAWKs for supporting the event.

 

I have been trying to talk Eureka into creating fantastic aerial forces for the other countries to match their Germans riding pterodactyls, but they have not been interested.  I had suggested Russians on giant vultures, Americans on eagles, and Brits on owls.  Since Eureka wasn’t interested, I took matters into my own hands.

For two years I’ve been looking for Games Workshop eagles in flea markets.  They cost about $10 each from the manufacturer, but in most cases I was able to get these for a dollar or two.  Actually, my buddy Don found most of them for me over the past couple years in convention flea markets.  After collecting eagles to long, I needed to shift my attention to riders.  At Fall In 2013 I met someone from a painting service, called Major Objective.  I don’t usually commission painted figures, but between Fall In and Cold Wars, the owner bought plastic figures, modified them heavily, made a mold of the resultant figure, made fifteen of them, and painted them — all for a reasonable price.  I think he did a terrific job, and I’d certainly use Major Objective again!

This weekend I was pretty busy with family activities but Sunday afternoon I painted the 11 eagles, since I picked up the riders a few weeks ago at the convention.  In the above picture you can see an example.  I don’t have flight stands for all of them yet, but I plan to hit the hobby store in the next few days.  Then I’ll take pictures of the whole wing and post them.  I plan to use these and the Eureka figures in either GASLIGHT and/or using the X-Wing game and creating stats for the Americans and Germans.

Both readers of this blog will recall that my favorite Dr. Who incarnation was the third doctor, John Pertwee.  It was the third doctor who first used Bessie.

I found a similar car in the flea market at Cold Wars and painted it up to be Bessie.  Except for the lack of a back seat, it is pretty close.

I’m not sure when this will first see action, but hopefully it won’t be long.

Every town needs a statue, and Granville is no exception.  I found this Revolutionary War figure in the flea market at Cold Wars with the idea of making a statue for my pulp town, Granville.

After painting the pedestal, I painted the figure with a green patina color.  Then I dry brushed over it with black.  Finally I dry brushed over the black with gold.  I think I like the effect.  I am going to make some sort of plaque to go on the front of the pedestal.

To get ready for our NASHCON GASLIGHT game, I threw some paint on the various fish men from Bones today.  I think they turned out okay.

I like these last ones the best.

 

Some months ago Hinterland released additional figures in the line of female hussars and sailors.  At the time, the budget wouldn’t permit an order, but a month or so ago, I finally got around to ordering them.  This weekend, I finished painting the figures.

The picture (above) shows the female sailor pom-pom crew.  The crew is just three figures, the officer in pith helmet, the gunner, and the woman carrying another box of ammunition.  The fourth figure in the background is a sailor from one of the earlier releases and is not part of the crew.

This picture shows the artillery crew.  The crew does NOT come with a gun.  Most of us have extra guns sitting around that can be conscripted into service.  Now my female hussar force has some organic, heavy support.

The princess is quite proud of her unit!

The female hussar unit is not just a bunch or pretty faces, suitable only for parade duty.  They have had a good record on the tabletop in GASLIGHT games.  In addition, they are early adopters of “modern” technology.  In this picture you can see the only non-female member of the regiment, the robotic hussar armed with a Maxim-like weapon.

In these two pictures you can see the entire force, including their new support weapons, self-propelled armored coaches, close air support, and mounted forces (both on horses and on raptor-looking “Death Jaws”).

I painted these figures just for fun.  I found the van on Ebay.  The figures are from Hasslefree.  They’re a bit pricey, but you only need a couple of figures.

This is the Scooby gang ready to do battle with real zombies instead of some guy dressed in a rubber suit with some glow-in-the-dark paint mumbling about “those meddling kids.”  The van is from Ainsty with a few small mods by me.  I found the van in a bucket of “off casts” at a convention.  When I found the die-cast Mystery Machine in the right scale on Ebay, I decided to modify this resin one to match the gan with weapons.

My first public showing of G.A.M.E.R. was Sunday AM at Cold Wars 2014.  Both readers of my blog will recall several posts describing the evolution of this concept.  Though the scenario needed more Germans for balance, the game was fun, the players had a good time, and several asked when the game would be published.

I’m still tweaking the rules and the cards.  Eventually, I’d like to stabilize the cards and get some printed through a print on demand place.  My next play test will be almost all vehicles in order to test out all the vehicle rules.

Eric and several other HAWKs ran a series of Schlegel’s Ferry games.  Schlegel’s Ferry is a fictional town on the upper Chesapeake that begins as an Indian village and advances through time, seeing battles from many different wars.  I ran Schlegel’s Ferry 1664.   The games this year were separated by 50 years.

Cold Wars 2014 was a good show for me.  Dave ran two Fate of Battle games on Friday with his 25mm figures.  Friday I ran 1664 at Schlegel’s Ferry.  Saturday I ran Montmiraile from Dave’s 1814 scenario book.  Then Dave and I ran the 12-player LaRothiere game.  Saturday night Dave ran his Fastov LSNC: World War II game.  Sunday I ran a first “public” showing of G.A.M.E.R., my new WWII skirmish concept.  I didn’t buy much, because a couple of the folks I wanted to visit weren’t at the show, but there’s always Historicon.

Ed Duffy ran this terrific looking modern game using a set of rules he has been developing.  The Americans were advancing across this table to get to some objective on the far side.  I was busy running La Rothiere in the next room and didn’t get to play this, but from all the yelling from the next room, I gathered it was a lot of fun.  In the end the body count was very lopsided, but the “bad guys” won, because the Americans didn’t get to their objective.  According to Ed, they got bogged down shooting bad guys instead of focusing on their mission.

The second game of the day on this table was Sam’s GASLIGHT game.  It featured the Baker Street Irregulars, some other law enforcement types, and Sherlock Holmes facing a large band of bad guys.

This was the first time that Sam had run a GASLIGHT game.  He knew he wanted some puzzle solving.  I cautioned him in advance that when I’ve tried this before, the players soon figured out that a way to get each others clues is just to shoot your opponents, so it becomes a brawl.

Sam came up with something using puzzle pieces and scrabble tiles that were collected by moving round the table.  I was playing Duncan’s WWI game at this time, so I didn’t see how it worked, but according to Sam, it worked really well and the game didn’t turn into a shoot-em-up.

Sam has collected some really interesting terrain pieces.  They were a combination of IMEX, Pets-mart aquarium accessories, and Miniature Building Authority.  I think the table looked quite good.

I have it on good authority that Sam’s wife (pictured above) really had a good time, despite her appearance in this picture.  🙂

The first War Horse con of the year was a success!!