Buck's Blog

Last night at HAWKs night Duncan ran a very interesting game, based on a concept we had discussed a couple of times.  The idea is that one formed unit is advancing toward the other.  Both units have deployed skirmishers.  The game represents the skirmish fight between the units as the gap between them closes.  In the picture above, the long blocks of wood along the left represent the front to the advancing American unit.  The right edge of the table represents the front of the stationary British unit.

Duncan chose to use G.A.M.E.R. for this game, with just slight modifications.  He used the carbine stats from WWII, created his own hand-to-hand modifiers, and made some rules for firing at formed units.  The point of the game was to get skirmishers within 24 inches of the formed enemy units and then shoot at them to inflict  casualties that would hopefully influence the result of overall battle (e.g., stop the Americans from closing or force the British to withdraw rather than stand and fight).  At the end of each turn, the advancing American unit moved six inches.  When the two formed units came within 24 inches of each other, the game ended.  Casualties on the formed units were counted up and morale checks made at the end of the game based on those casualties.

So how did the game play out?  Chris and I were the American skirmishers.  Greg and Don were the British skirmishers.  Each of us had a platoon of skirmishers, composed of three squads.  Two squads were deployed.  One was formed as a reserve.

Early in the game, one of Chris’ deployed skirmish squads routed off the table, so he had to deploy his reserve.  He and Greg beat on each other, but by the end of the game, Chris was unable to get any shots on the formed British unit.  I advanced steadily, but luck was not with my units.  Even though I deployed my reserves early, I only got three shots on the formed unit.  Don’s skirmishers really crushed mine, inflicting many casualties on the advancing American line.

At the end of the game, based on casualties inflicted on the two formed units, the British line had to make one morale check, and the American line had to make four.  In the case of the advancing American line, the result was a charge toward the enemy, followed by a pin result.  The British morale check also resulted in a charge toward the enemy.  So, while the result of the skirmish fight was a convincing British victory, Duncan declared the result of the battle a draw.  If the objective of the American line was to close with the enemy, since the American line did so, I would call that an American victory.

Though G.A.M.E.R. is still under development, it is interesting to see how other HAWKs are already using it outside its intended purpose.  When I began this development journey, I thought that I would use GAMER for WWII and science fiction skirmishes.  It works surprisingly well for black-powder era games.

Cold Wars 2015 began with a huge snow storm that crippled the Northeast.  Schools were shut down, roads were clogged, and (thankfully) Congress was closed.  I had planned to head to the convention around 1500 and play a pickup, invitational scenario using G.A.M.E.R. rules.  Because the roads were treacherous, I wasn’t able to leave until 1815, arriving in Lancaster at 2100.  None of the HAWKs were in view.  I spent about 90 minutes loading junk onto my cart and limping my way back and forth with lots of stuff for the five games I planned to run.  Due to my late arrival, the G.A.M.E.R. event did not occur.

I ran into the Goolanders, father and son, Thursday evening, and they told me about their spaceship game using G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.  One of the first things I did Friday morning, then, was look in on their preparations.  In the picture (above) you can see part of the setup.  They built a wooden box about 2 feet by 4 feet, I think.  In this they placed smaller boxes representing the various rooms on the ship.  This makes the spaceship reconfigurable for repeat play value.  Eric Schlegel played in this game and had a good time.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to participate, because I was running my own event.

Friday morning, my first event of the convention was Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, USAAF, and RAF.  I used X-Wing with custom dials and pilot cards.  Only one player had ever used the rules; although, one or two had read the rules previously.  The Allies weighted their right flank, and the “bomber” was able to maneuver to their weak flank.  In the end, the Allied inflicted few hits on the bomber before it crossed the table — a decisive German victory.

My second game of the convention was the Northwest Frontier by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.  In this scenario, the British column is trying to get Wee Willie Winkie across the table when they are ambushed by Pasha Chrismajadeen and his Pathan chieftains.  The game had a number of memorable and humorous moments — for which G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. is famous.  Chris sent Victoria Hawkes out ahead of her female hussars to melee with the driver of the Russian steam lorry.  She failed to inflict any damage and was herself killed by the driver.  Later, just as the crewmen were about the abandon the female hussars’ steam coach, a squad of Russians assaulted the vehicle.  As they clambered atop the vehicle, the crewman thought better of their plan to bail out and instead redoubled their efforts to repair the coach’s engines.  A squad of female hussars counter attached, and a roiling melee ensured atop the coach.  Two of Chris’ hussars rolled 20’s and fell off the coach to their deaths.  Meanwhile, one of the scout helicopters was shot out of the sky, and the engine of the second conked out, crashing.  On the other side of the table Pasha Chrismajadeen charged single-handedly against the 33rd Punjab lancers, who seemed to have trouble staying on their feet and instead spent a fair amount of time falling and standing back up.  Despite these setbacks, the British managed to achieve a clear victory, protecting Winkie.

 

While I was running these two events, other HAWKs were busy running other games.

Jim and Don ran a very popular, six-player Saga game that they have been developing for months.  This was Jim’s GM debut, and the game went extremely well.

Greg ran one of his Dr. Who games featuring Noah’s dungeon tiles.  The folks seemed to really enjoy the game.  Mark Ryan played the rear guard, hold off the Weeping Angels long enough for the Dr. and his entourage to patch up the crack in space-time.  Greg told me that Mark “went all rogue” and actually charged the angels, which was quite unexpected.  In the end, I think all Mark’s folks were thrown into the “vortex” by the angels, but as I mentioned, he delayed the angels long enough that order was restored to the galaxy, universe, or other large timey-wimey place.

 

Though I was remiss in capturing them in electrons, Dave ran a series of Look, Sarge, No Charts demonstration games, both Napoleonic and fantasy, all day on Friday.  His final Napoleonic game lasted until one in the morning.

Typically Greg attracts all the females at a convention for his Dr. Who games.  He has the HAWKs title of Lord Admiral High Priest Babe Magnet Potentate.  At Cold Wars 15, however, it was clear that Greg’s chick-Fu is now weak, and David Schlegel has wrested the Lord Admiral high Priest Babe Magnet Potentate title from him.  David’s games were full of females from ages 8 to 48.  Apparently all these women and girls really wanted to be the heroine from the Hunger games more that one of the Doctor’s companions.  What women David didn’t attract ended up in Duncan’s game or Eric’s games.

Our big Fate of Battle game for Cold Wars was the 1814 attack on Paris by the Russians and Prussian.  Duncan, Chris, Dave, and I worked on a piece of the centerpiece terrain element: the Montmartre Heights.  Jennifer thought the mountain was uninspiring and “eh,” but we were proud of it.

While the French fought a delaying action on their right flank, the main action took place on the heights.  Due to overwhelming numbers and really poor French artillery marksmanship, the Prussians and Russians swarmed up the hill.

Patrick, the commander of the division defending the heights failed both his unit’s morale and his player morale.  After a “dressing down” from the overall French commander, Patrick held the heights.  Everyone predicted an allied victory; however, within the next three turns, all but two allied brigades failed morale and scurried back down the slopes.

Though one Prussian unit remained on the heights, I judged the game a French victory.  For those folks who argue that war-games emphasize casualties more than morale, this was a battle that turned on morale.  All the players had a good time.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch…

… Daniel Boone was captured by the French…

… the Scarlet Pimpernel threw the French authorities into a tizzy…

… angry people bashed each other with swords and pointy sticks…

… and everyone came to Schlegel’s Ferry, including Nazis, space aliens, the adventure party from the Hobbit, Charlie Brown, and gangsters.

 

We had a brief lull in the action as the HAWKs gathered around the Elven Capital for dinner.  We took this opportunity for Sam Fuson to present some mementos to the members of the HAWKs to supporting the 114th Signal Senior Leader Professional Development event mentioned in a previous blog posting.

Those HAWKs for whom this was their first SLPD event received battalion challenge coins.  Those who have supported multiple events received a battalion coffee mug.

The kind gesture was appreciated by all recipients.

My fourth event of the convention was a reprise of the Paris 1814 game, but with Elves substituted for French and a variety of fanciful creatures substituting for the Prussians and Russians.

 

 

The elves successfully defended their capital.

While the orcs, goblins, spiders, dwarves, giant ants, and other assorted creatures was assaulting the Elves, Ed and Sam were running a modern game with Ed’s home rules.  Jim said later that he really enjoyed the game and the rules.  It was the first time the Americans won this game, I’ve been told.

Sunday morning I ran my 54mm chariot race game using Roman Circus rules.  There was a SNAFU with the convention hotel — again.  This time, they kicked us out of our room early, so we had to pick up all our gear and move to another room in time to start our games.  While I was watching four of six chariots crash, Duncan ran his Charted Seas game and Don ran a pickup game of Saga for a bunch of West Point cadets.

Attendance was off due to Thursday’s storm.  The dealer hall seemed empty all weekend.  I’m sure a bunch of dealers were very unhappy.  In the past it has been hard to get to the Old Glory booth, for instance, but many time I passed it was empty.  I did my part to stimulate the economy, partaking in a convention special on Middle Eastern buildings from Miniature Building Authority, some roads and trees from Battlefield Terrain Concepts, and other odds and ends.  Dave did his part too, by hauling a bunch of stuff away from the flea market.

I enjoyed Cold Wars.  The past couple of HMGS East conventions I didn’t enjoy.  Whether it was a bunch of recalcitrant players lousing up a game, not being able to find what I came to get in the dealer hall, or something else, the last few were starting to make me think that I should cut back on convention attendance.  All of my games went well (although a little more play testing would have made the fantasy game on Saturday a little better) and there were no spoiled sport players, so I really enjoyed game mastering.  There was enough white space that I had plenty of time to wander around looking at stuff I didn’t need and socialize with the other HAWKs.  A handful of folks I hadn’t seen in quite a while, including Patrick one of the early HAWKs, were there, which was pleasant.  I would have liked to run my G.A.M.E.R. event Thursday night for a few folks who haven’t had a chance to try the game yet, but otherwise, I had an excellent time.

Chris Palmer loaned me his collection of Star Wars miniatures from several years ago.  I don’t know if the figures are still sold, but I wanted to give the game a try.  Last night my son and I put the figures on the table and gave it a try.  We played two games.  The forces were the same.

We each took 100 points.  My son had Luke (rebel, not Jedi), Leah, Han, Chewbacca, and Lando.  I had 12 generic Stormtroopers, one Stormtrooper scout, and two Stormtrooper officers.  The Rebels won both games.

The game is VERY simple once you get used to how cover is computed.  It is a little odd that there is no penalty for long-range or moving fire, but at the ranges in the game, everything would probably be at close range anyway.

Though we had the same number of points, it seemed pretty hard for the Stormtroopers to get the upper hand.  In the first couple of turns, I got many more activations than the Rebels because of superior numbers, but one hit on a Stormtrooper was a kill, so the numerical advantage faded quickly.  There is a group fire rule that I didn’t take advantage of in our first scenario.  In the second one, I used it aggressively (note the firing line in the picture above).

Though I inflicted 110 points of damage, I was only able to kill one Rebel, Leah, before all the Stormtroopers were killed.  I think perhaps the points are not quite right.

My son said he thought the game was much more fun than he expected.

We plan to play it again.  I am sorry that I didn’t invest in any of this when it was available.  If and when my copy of Imperial Assault ever arrives, these figures might make good additions — or perhaps a GASLIGHT game.  Hmmmm.

For several months I have been working on these three Litko buildings that I bought almost a year ago.  I had assembled them and prepared them for my daughter to paint — she likes to paint terrain pieces — but then they languished for several months.  Finally in the last three weeks I finished them off.

These buildings will supplement my pulp city that has been featured in previous postings to my blog.

I know that MDF buildings are all the rage these days.  Litko began making them before they became popular.  Unlike 4Ground and some of the other manufacturers, the Litko buildings are not pre-painted.  They also don’t feature the tab and slot construction.  For pulp games they are excellent, and I enjoy painting them.

This latest batch of 6 buildings from Litko (the three pictured in this post and three others in a previous post) have laser cut clear plastic pieces to be glued behind the window and door frames.  You wouldn’t think that the clear plastic would make a difference compared to simple openings for the windows, but they have a really nice look on the table.

The shape of this pediment was crying out for something more ornate than simple painting.  I used a variety of images I found on the Web to assemble this pediment.  I think the effect is pretty good.

Yesterday I hosted a GASLIGHT game in my basement / war room.  One of the cadets who was in the wargaming club when I was teaching at West Point, Chase, is now in the State Department and getting ready to head to his first posting in Venezuela.  I wanted to have him over one last time before he deploys, and I invited a number of the HAWKs who would have met Chase when I was helping out with their gaming convention, PointCon.  I also invited another of the cadets from that same period, Colin.  Both Chase and Colin left the army as combat decorated captains.  I also invited Nick, who is the son of one of my high school buddies, and is near Ft. Meade on a co-op from school.  Finally, many of the HAWKs attended:  Dave, Greg, Eric, and Chris on the Brit side and Bill, Rob, and Duncan on the Pathan side.

In a previous convention scenario, a British punitive expedition had succeeded in reducing Wee Willie Winkie from the clutches of the evil Pasha Chrismajadeen.  In this scenario, the expedition is taking her back to their fort when they are ambushed by the Pasha’s men.  Typical in my Northwest Frontier by GASLIGHT games is that the Russians supply some “advisors” in the form of two units of infantry and several steam-powered vehicles.

Dave had a couple good volleys with the British infantry that neutralized the Russian steam lorry, but Borris “the Bear” re-manned the battling gun, inflicting some damage on the British and eventually shooting down the Female Hussars’ helicopter.  Dave charged forward with his light tank, running over a couple of Chase’s Russian infantrymen, but the Russians climbed aboard the vehicle and eventually subdued it. Meanwhile Colin’s slow-footed Pathans took their time joining the battle, eventually occupying a couple of hills.

The British plan was to create a perimeter defense and keep Winkie far from the fight.  They anchored their defense on this central hill, where several groups of Sikhs and the Female Hussars held against repeated assaults.  In the picture above you can see three infantrymen near a timber-clad Russian / Pathan tank.  They had once been the crew of a tricycle mounting a cannon.  When the chain broke, Eric spiked the gun and ran these three men forward.  They eventually close assaulted that timber-clad near them in the picture, but were eventually cleaned off by supporting Pathans.

Brigadier Smythe rode in and out of the Pathans, bravely holding them off, but eventually he succumbed to numbers.  Victoria Hawkes on horseback rode out ahead of her unit of Female Hussars to engage in melee herself.  She rolled a 20 and fell off her horse.  When she regained her footing, she rolled another 20 and fell again.  (We decided that she was not expecting a battle today and was wearing high-heeled shoes, which don’t work well in desert combat.)  By the end of the fight, Victoria Hawkes had been killed.

While I didn’t get any pictures of that side of the table, on the British left, Chris and his Punjab units fought bravely against Duncan’s and Rob’s Pathans.  Chris also close-assaulted a timber-clad tank.  There was lots of carnage on that side of the table.

The safety of Winkie was never in question.  By the end he was not only being protected by Captain Caruthers, but a unit of Highlanders was posted nearby.  While the Pathans had most of their timer-clad tanks, most of their infantry had been wiped out.  The British took many casualties themselves, but it was a clear British victory.

I think everyone had a good time — even Eric who failed his player morale and spiked his own cannon on the second turn of the game.  We followed this harrowing battle with chili dogs and post-game kibitzing.  All in all, it was a good time, and it was good to see Chase, Colin, Greg, and Nick again.

This makes my tenth miniatures game of the year.  I am on track to meet my fifty game goal.

 

This past weekend we played two games using my under-development G.A.M.E.R. system.  Those games gave me a chance to try out some ideas I’ve been kicking around regarding moving fire.  As the game is currently written, figures may either move or fire when they activate, but there is no moving fire.  I have been struggling with the best way to represent the increased firepower afforded to US squads by the M-1 Garand vs. every other army’s bolt-action rifles.

When I was a cadet at West Point, one of the history instructors showed us a film he made as part of his master’s thesis.  It involved him dressing up a full US and German squad with their organic weapons (including BARs and MG-42).  He then took them onto a known distance range and had them engage targets for a fixed period of time.  As I recall he even used the same guys for both squads to control for the possibility of better marksmen in one group or the other.  The result of this experiment was that a US squad had significantly more firepower than a German squad.  Since the BAR is not really comparable to the MG-42, you have to assign the credit to the M-1 Garand.  That has stuck with me for many years.

In Bolt Action, soldiers with Garands are allowed to conduct moving fire, but not soldiers with bolt action rifles.  I have tried to account for the differences in firepower in GAMER by enabling some weapons to fire more than one shot during an activation.  For instance, a submachine gun can fire 3 times at close range, twice at medium range, and just once at long range.  This reflects both the rate of fire and the poor likelihood of hitting multiple times with a submachine gun at long range.

This mechanism of multiple shots still didn’t address the moving fire issue.  While I like the shoot OR move mechanism for cleanness, simplicity, and speed, I understand why players of modern periods want moving fire.  The experiment at JJ CON was only partially successful, because I took away multiple shots from the Garand but allowed moving fire with a full move.

After that experiment, here is what I think I am going to do.  First, I realized that the penalty for moving fire (one column shift) was not punitive enough.  I have been thinking about making it a two-column shift for some time as a result of vehicle play tests.  A figure with a weapon that can fire more than once at the range to the target may instead conduct moving fire.  The number of shots will be reduced by one.  Movement distance will be reduced by two inches.  Moving fire is always conducted as move, then fire at the end point of the move.  Moving fire can be interrupted during the movement, not the firing, by a reaction roll.  I think this will give the right feel.

In 1981 my buddy JJ had a sleepover wargaming birthday party when he turned 16.  A bunch of us got together this past weekend to celebrate with 50th birthday with a weekend of gaming.  We managed to fit in 7 miniatures games and a couple of card games in two days of non-stop gaming.

(In the picture from 1981, most of the faces are hidden, but I will identify the faces you can see.  Most of the faces won’t be familiar to the group, and many of the faces are hidden.  Standing at the left is Mike Janes.  He was quite a bit older than us but often hosted games at his house, and he took us to our first gaming convention.  I have been trying to link up with Mike, but he has no Web presence.  Standing (and waving) in the center is me.  Seated below me is Matt Stone.  We have all lost touch with Matt.  To the left of Matt, seated, is Mark Lauzon.  Standing at the top right, with just half his face visible and the other half behind the Elton John glasses, is JJ.  Other folks who are probably in the picture but I cannot identify are John Bice, David Dziadziola, Jeff Dziadziola, and Steve Jarosz.)

From left to right, Nick, Dave, Jimmy, Rick, Mark, JJ (the birthday boy), Duncan, Eric, and David (aka Ook).  I took the picture.

We began the weekend, according to time-honored tradition, with a large Beer and Pretzels Ironclads game.  The Rebs got spanked by the Yanks, having lost most of our larger ships.

Our second game was a 2-1/2 lap chariot race using the rules Roman Circus.  Nick won the game easily, having come from behind.

While I was setting up the next game, most of the guys played Red Dragon Inn.

I ran a WWII GAMER scenario, which involved the heavily outnumbered Germans attempting to delay the advancing Americans.  The Americans had to get at least 10 figures off the table by the end of the 15th turn.

Retrograde missions are hard, but the Germans eeked out a victory, because the Americans only got five figures off the table by the end of turn 15.  Another five figures were close — but no cigar.

We set up Duncan’s game for the next morning and then went to bed.  Early Saturday morning we played a reprise of Duncan’s War of 1812 GAMER scenario from Christmas.  The Americans raided a British encampment.  Initially the Brits were outnumbered two to now, but Duncan and I each had a squad of reinforcements that arrived in time to turn the tide of the battle.  It was declared a clear British victory.

The game was quite fun.  Playing a second game with the same rules (GAMER) was good, because it was easier for many of the folks who only game once a year (or even less frequently) during JJ CON.

After Duncan’s War of 1812 game, Eric ran his Orc’s Drift fantasy game using GASLIGHT.  It was a tense, hard-fought battle, but in the end the good guys were able to withstand the assaults of the misunderstood bad guys.

We cleaned up Orc’s Drift and played another chariot race.

I was set to win the second chariot race, but my last movement roll was dismal and I barely made it across the finish line.  Dave came from second place to win.

Our final miniatures game of the weekend was a thrown-together X-Wing scenario.

The rebels were attacking to knock out the three laser turrets on the surface of an Imperial station.  This was the first time I had used the laser turrets, and I think they worked well.

The rebels knocked out one turret and damaged the other two, but they did not achieve their objective of knocking out all three.

After we cleaned up, it was about 10:30, so we elected to start a “short” game of Nuclear War (by Flying Buffalo).  The game dragged on until after 1:30 in the morning, so none of us got much sleep.

All in all, it was a good weekend of gaming, laughing, and fun.

As I continue to await the arrival of my 28mm Winter War figures from the Kickstarter campaign, I have been clearing out various odds and ends from my unpainted lead box.  Last weekend I found these pulp figures and knocked them out.  It was fun to paint a few one-0ff figures instead of a larger project for a change of pace.

I love this guy holding the brain in his hand.

I have no idea who made this cowboy figure, but I like it.  It was a flea market find.

When I was running my Tunnels and Troll campaign as a cadet, I made a typo in the description of one of the rooms.  I meant to say “guard” but instead said “gurad.”  From then on, these armored ducks who patrolled the halls of The Dungeon of the Athelfrog were known as Gurads.  You actually had to pass a saving roll the first time you saw one or you would fall on the floor in a spasm of incapacitating laughter.

I have no idea who manufactured this figure.  A buddy found it in a flea market bin many years ago.  It has been languishing in my unpainted lead box, because I had designs on making a mold and creating a full unit.  I finally abandoned that idea and painted it.  Does anyone know who made this figure?

As I have been recovering from knee surgery, I haven’t been too productive in terms of hobby painting.  As I began to feel better I found a small box of unpainted figures I had forgotten about — a mishmash of things that went into a box during our last move.  In addition, I prepped and painted six giant ants from a short-lived line of figures from Steve Jackson Games that Don Hogge found while cleaning out his basement.

One of the items I found was a bag of Old Glory figures from my last subscription to the Old Glory Army.  These were “make your own robots.”  They came with ten torsos and lots of legs and heads.

I had a rough night last night trying to sleep.  After a few Aleve, I was finally able to get some sleep.  When I woke this morning, I wasn’t in the mood for any detail painting, so I just dry brushed the ants.  I also mostly dry brushed the robots and then painted in a few details here and there.

The robots from Old Glory are pretty nice figures, but my camera pictures don’t really do them justice.

Last night would have been a Traveller night for those in the HAWKs participating in Eric’s campaign, but not enough players could make it, so Eric suggested that I host a game at my house.  I recently had knee surgery and am still not too mobile.  We pulled together a couple of folks at the last minute, and I hosted the game.

The objective of the game was for the pterodactyl “bomber” to get across the table.  It had limited mobility and had to weave back and forth across the table to avoid stressing the pilot.

I used a very slightly modified version of X-Wing for this game.  I found a site that let be build tailored order dials and another to build the pilot / ship cards.

I placed a few mountains on the table to add a little interest to the table and a few obstacles around which to fly.  It turned out that the “bomber” got too close to one of the mountains while trying to avoid the onrushing griffons and eagles and took some damage.

While the “bomber” could sustain twelve hits, that wasn’t enough.  An American with a Garand did the last point of damage, and the pterodactyl fell screeching between two mountains.

I think the sides were pretty evenly matched.  The Germans had slightly better pilots and several auto cannons that were big killers.  The Allies had numbers on their side, and even the Brits with their bolt-action rifles were able to get in a hit or two.  Very little tinkering is necessary to be able to run this game at Cold Wars 2015.  I made some mistakes on the German pilot / ship cards that I will correct.