A first outing.

Howard wanted to try out the tweaks to the A Gentleman's War AWI. Always up for a game I agreed as did Nate. We met at my house which gave me a chance to break out some AWI figures I had been painting through the years but never had the chance to play with. I  was quite happy with this.

The scenario had four British regiments supported with two units of lights and two guns defending a ridge line. The Americans had a mixed lot Continentals, Militia, Rifleman and two guns, twelve units in total, assaulting the ridge.

Having the first draws the British moved of the ridge to take up positions behind a stone wall and fences.

They didn't make it to the fence before the Militia took up the position. On the British left a fire fight raged in the woods near the farm.

Soon firing erupted along the entire line. 

finally the British center went in with the bayonet but even though they  destroyed the one unit another replaced it and the Brits were forced back. 

One of the tweaks was that at the beginning of the game six cards were drawn from each deck, we used two for this game, and each side could keep up to three cards a hold cards. In this game the British right flank got three cards, the left two both Americans had three cards each. We felt this kept the tempo of the game moving and gave the players a chance to react to the opponents moves. At the second joker all hold cards not played are surrendered. We also discussed whether firing should be one die per every two figures as opposed to the current one per three. Most units were eighteen to twenty four figures but still it took a while to wear down a unit through fire.  I feel the one per three may reflect the period better but one per two may speed up the results. Melee remains bloody and decisive.

It was a great game as usual.

The Highjacking.

We met at Toy Wiz in Nanuet for a game of Mad Dogs with Guns. On the first Thursday of the month Toy Wiz and the Club Ordo Malleus hold what they call Vets Night and the store stays open late for gamers to come in to play. It was pretty crowded with about 30 people or so playing when I arrived at 7:45. The crowd had thinned down some by 10:00 but still several games were going strong. WWII and various SiFi games were being played. Two of the guys who run the club came over and welcomed us and chatted a bit about gaming. Several others came by during the night to check out the game. A nice group of people and a great place to play with plenty of tables and light.

So on to the game. Neal "Shoes" and the boys are trying to get a load of whiskey out of town before their rivals can steal it or the Feds confiscate it. Trying not to draw attention they roll down the streets of town. As they reach the center of town guns start blazing.

Despite taking several hits to the car and truck of "Shoes" gang step on the gas and head out in different directions. Neal and his gal jump out of the lead car under the hail of bullets and try to get to the last truck. 

His rival has come into the street and jumped in the truck. Four slugs in chest leaves Neal laying on the pavement wearing his last pair of shoes.

  

The moll jumps on the truck and everyone in the gang speeds out of town.

Another fun game of MDwG. It took about an hour and a half to play and we were both engaged throughout the game. This completes my 6x6 challenge for the game but I'm sure we'll be playing again. I'd like to get a few more buildings, enough to have two parallel main streets and several side street. I'm thinking a 4'x4' or 4'x6' area. A campaign may also be in the future maybe 3-5 games long.

End of August

I just realized that I hadn't posted an AAR of my most recent game of Saga. A small 4 point game mainly played to give Nate an idea of the rules. We chose a Warlord fight and with my warlord leading the way Nate killed him on the second turn. with a few hours of gaming left we continued the game from there and pretty much had slug fest until the end.

I'm still learning some of the rules and haven't quite mastered the battle board but still have a good feeling about Saga and hope to play a few more games. 

This month I was also able to get some paint on a few. Kings Mountain Miniatures that had been gifted to me. These are very nice well sculpted minis similar in size the the Perry  figures. this has reminded me of a review I did for MWAN on the available AWI figures in 28mm some years ago. Since then Perry, KMM and Fife & Drum have come out so I may need to update this. I also don't think it is available on line anymore. I'll have to find the disc first. 

Pork the other white meat.

This week it was off to Iceland for a game of BattleTroll .

Howard and Nate decided they were hungry for nice roast pork dinner and having heard Matt's pigs were particularly well fed got in their longship and headed over to pick some up.

Matt was having none of this and sent word for me to join him. Always looking for a chance to hone my fighting skills and knowing my men and I would be well fed afterwords we headed out.

Howard wasted little time upon landing as he moved into combat with Matt.

Nate's band moved in just as I arrived and the fight spread across the village.

I was no match for Nate as he laid me out with a blow to the head. My Huscarle stepped in to finish Nate off and force his band back.

The invaders fled back to their ship with little to show for the raid but their wounds.

Battle Troll is a great game for fighting the skirmishes of the Sagas. Activation is by card with the player getting  all move or hero move and civilian move cards. A single end of turn card is used. movement is 2/3 dice inches. Missile combat is a die roll based on weapon and distance. Melee combat is card based with heroes choosing their card and regular troops drawing randomly. Results are the cross referenced on the combat table.

It had been a while since we had played perhaps a year or more but the mechanics came back quickly.  Nate and Matt hadn't played before and picked it right up. 

Here's Matt's report battle-troll-pig-hunting-in-fjords

Here's the rules at  Wargame Vault

The Exchange.

Hobby Town in Nanuet has closed. I'll miss the group of people who worked there as they were all very nice. Although they didn't carry much in the way of wargaming I don't think it would be possible for many stores to, they did have paints, tools and items for scenery. I did purchase most of my Osprey books from them as a way of compensating for the table time I used to play games. The team there stayed after hours several nights a week for people to come in and game. Avid gamers themselves this worked well for all involved. The other local store, ToyWiz, has gaming space but only stays open late one night a month. I'd like to have more options.

This brings us to last Thursday's game. We played at my house while my wife went to a friends to sew. I suggested a game of Mad Dogs with Guns since the dinner table was available and my set up is a mere 30" x 40" .  I set up the table, sorted the cards and then told Howard I didn't have a scenario. As usual he jumped in and quickly came up with something.

Howard would be game master and the Cops, Nate and I would be the gang members. The main event was to be an exchange between the two gangs of a bag of money for a bag of documents.

The Exchange

The game starts off with the cops sending the secretary out to get them lunch. The rival gangs pull into town and head towards the Tobacconists where the exchange was to take place.

Everyone is a little leary of the others but things seem to go smoothly as the men go from their cars to the shop.

Nate's accountant waits in the backroom as my boys walk in. We exchange bags and my guy leaves the shop quickly. All seems well until Nate notices I left my main guy behind and he's slipped into the back room.

Nate's accountant runs out the back door with the bag and bullets start flying every where else. Most of my men miss their mark but Nate's boys put three of my guys down. Lucky for me the coppers show up.

Seeing my bagman getting away with the cash Nate's man rushed over and pushed him into one of my cars and had his punk rough up and replace my driver. The cops busted into the shop and arrested the only gangster there who was still standing, Nate's man. Good thing I had paid off the only reliable witness before hand so all this mayhem will fall on him. 

The rest of mine and Nate's men slipped off while the Police patted each other on the back for a job well done.

Another great game of MDwG. The town needs to get expanded to have at least one more street pulse a few key building types. I see myself getting a restaurant, bank, grocery, clothing store and a few brownstones. 2018s project starting to fall in place :-)

Here's the new Facebook page for the game. MadDogsWithGuns

Bennigton History failed to repeat

A few photos from last weeks game of AWI using the 18th century version of A Gentleman's War.

Check out Matt's more detailed report here

CoC things go smoother.

It was a hot night at Hobby Town and family commitments left it to Nate and I to keep the gaming going. We decided to play a game of Chain of Command. Nate picked the last scenario from the 29 Let's Go book. Me as the Americans had to capture the farmhouse or break the Germans. This scenario seemed to favor the Americans a bit or at least not have it so difficult for them as some of the earlier scenarios.

We laid out our patrol markers and pretty much all the jump off points reached the center of the table. I was able to deploy my 50cal and two squads right off  but one was with out it's Jr leader. Nate put on a squad and his HMG. My next rolls didn't help me with more troops and I put down my Platoon Sgt with hops of getting the attack going.

Things moved a little slow as I wasn't able to get two of my junior leaders on table. I was able to break one squad of Germans and fend off an assault by another.

My tanks came up in support and was able to knock out Nate's pak 38 before being stopped by the panzer schreck. I ended up bring on my other senior leader and was then able to apply more pressure to the Germans.

We stopped the game after about 2.5 hours of playing. Another round or two would have seen me play a CoC die to force a Morale check and perhaps break Nate's force.

I think the game went well. Very little looking up things in the rule book. Placement of leaders is important and remembering command ranges helps in maximizing their value. I'm still somewhat on the fence with how much I like the rules after six games. They do give a good result, reward correct tactics and all that but it seems that games take about 3 hours to play out to a firm conclusion. I guess I looking for a game that can be played out in the 1,1/2-2 hour range for nights at Hobby Town when 2,1/2 hours is what you have all together with set up and breakdown.

Check out Nate's report at addicted to lead