The Portable Wargame at Salem Church

I should have written this when some of the questions were fresher in my mind but I didn't. Part of the reason for that w=is that the floors are being re sanded and we spent much of the weekend moving things, more things than we should have. Part of all this is why playing The Portable Wargame was the choice for this weeks game.

It was just Howard and I as Matt was working and Nate is enjoying his newborn. We decided to give PW another try this time using my 15mm ACW figures. I pulled out the Salem Church scenario done by Johnny Reb as it's seemed to be the right size for this game. I used one stand per unit of infantry and three gunners for the artillery. I didn't have commanders but should have used at least two per side.

The Union advances.

Confederate's delay the Union advance.

Reinforcement arrive for the South as the Northerners advance on the left.

Yankees flanking the right.

Reb artillery dueling with the invaders.

The Union closes in on the Confederate left.

The Rebs have been flanked on the right.

An enjoyable game all in all. The squares are 2.5 inches and the board is eight by thirteen squares. I think I should have used two stands per unit to get a better look. Most of my figures based for Johnny Reb2 are on inch squares, four per base mostly. The fences were place in the center of the square to show which square would get the benefit but I think putting them on the edge would be better appearance wise and still show which square benefits. Maybe some new fences will be needed.

We had a few questions about flank attacks, line of site, figuring weapons ranges. Many had to do with the use of a grid and adjusting our own perceptions. Another reading of the rules and a few more games should get us there. 

The 6x6 Challenge and other gaming experiences of 2017

Around this time last year Kaptain Kobold of  The Stronghold Rebuilt organized the 6x6 Challenge. The idea behind it is participants would choose six sets of rules of which they would play six games each. The thinking behind it is that it takes playing six games to really get to understand them. It sounded like a good idea and so I joined. Playing thirty-six games in the year was going to be challenge enough. The Rules chosen were; Chain of Command (CoC), A Gentleman's War(AGW), Mad Dogs with Guns, Saga, The Lion Rampant family and Sharpe Practice.

So how did it go? Ok. I felt it achieved it's goal for the games I played. I didn't get the chance to play Lion Rampant or Sharpe Practice and only played four games of Saga.

I got the six games of CoC in.  It took about four games to become comfortable with the rules. The last two games I found I was focusing more on the tactics than the modifiers and other mechanics of the rules. I'm still on the fence as far as liking CoC and will still look for another set but will happily play them. I do wonder if the two hours I generally have for a nights game is not enough for these rules.

AGW was played nine times some of them were the 19th century version others the Colonial or 18th century variant. This is my favorite set of rules. The mechanics are fairly simple. There's enough decision points and I feel it captures what Toy Soldier gaming is all about. Both the variants play well for their eras.

Mad Dogs with Guns was chosen to motivate me to paint up the figures and buildings. The rules were being published by Osprey mid 2017 and so I started with the original publication. The learning curve on these was quicker than CoC, of course having the author at the gaming table helps. These are a fun set of rules that lead to lots of banter among the players.

A campaign had been set up for Saga so it looked like this would be an easy way to get six games in. With family obligations, work and distance among the participants it didn't quite work out. I did get in four games and enjoyed them all. I liked these rules, the battle boards add to the decision making and forces a small enough that they can be built quickly and you could do more than one. I'm waiting for the new version to come out before committing more time to these though.

I see the challenge as being successful. I would think that a 3x6 or 4x4 challenge may be another approach, by the fourth game either you like the rules enough to learn more and continue playing or the system just isn't for you. Picking games others in your group are interested in helps to get the games in or maybe doing something solo would be a way to go.

I played forty games this year. Twenty-two were part of the 6x6 challenge. There were three extra games of A Gentleman's War. Several others were part of Howard Whitehouse's stable of rules, Battle Troll, Flint & Feather, Alien War and a Darkest Africa game. I enjoy Howard's rules the systems are similar but tweaked enough to capture the feel of the period that's being played. Other games were LOTR SBG used in a Dungeon crawl using Matt's beautiful terrain, The AWI rules from Der Alte Fritz of Fife & Drum miniatures, theses were easy to learn and quick to play. It took us two game nights to set up and finish the battle with Matt spending some extra time breaking down, Thanks for that. Lastly, The Portable Wargame was played using 15mm Romans and Carthaginians on a 2.5 inch grid. This is a game I hope to explore further next year. I like the grid movement and firing system.

Since no blog post is complete with out pictures here's a few from our game of Battle Troll the other night.

My men defend their women folk and beer barrels.

The Hero of the village mostly fend off blows whilst an unnamed karl does some real damage to the attackers.

Twin sisters of the attacking warband offer encouragement.

As the men folk fall back the women step up to nag the invading Warlord. 

Rather than face the women rushes off to battle my Hero.

Sub coming to his wounds my Huscarle dies.

The fight rages on until realizing it's the Hero's life or loosing some chickens and beer my men run off and the game ends.

2017 was a good year for playing games. Many exciting nights were spent in great company with nice miniatures and terrain. Over the next week I'll start to look at rules to be played in 2018 and how they'll dovetail into painting projects and purchases.
Thanks for reading!

First play of The Portable Wargame

Back in the summer when it was announced that Hobby Town was closing I  started looking at other places  to play and how to deal with the options we had available. One thing that popped up was  The Portable Wargamel . It seemed like a good idea and a way to play on kitchen and dining room tables that could become our gaming space. We've been lucky in that one of our group has a dedicated wargaming room so we've been getting some great games in there. However the schedules don't always work out so this week I broke out the table I had made and Howard and I gave the Ancients rules from Developing the Portable Wargame a try.

Initial deployments

The Romans advance.

The Carthaginian line starts to falter.

The thick of the battle.

Legionnaires fend of an elephant and flank attack.

Carthage has reached exhaustion.

The rules are pretty strait forward but we managed to get a few things wrong somewhat over thinking things. Each units Has a number strength points ranging from 2-5. Combat is resolved with a D6 with hits being on a 5-6 and the roll modified by different tactical factors and troop type. If a hit occurs the a die is rolled on results table which either reduces a units strength point or allows the unit to fall back a grid area. The game plays until one army is reduced by one third of their total strength points at which time they can not longer take aggressive actions. It ends when the other side is reduced by one third. With about twelve units per side the game took a little over an hour to play. It was fun, offered some tactical challenges and yielded a firm result. I liked the grid system for movement and firing and will certainly give these another try for this period and the early 20th century set.

Check out Bob's blog for more reports and information.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/

Motivations.

I haven't been gaming much these last two weeks nor have I completed many figures. I have been inspired by the blogs of others and this weekend saw three that I felt were particularly great. So here the links to them.

 The Grand Duchy of Stollen were the collection is put up for a Grand Review.
https://grandduchyofstollen.blogspot.com/2017/10/more-photos-from-grand-review.html

Next a post from Wargaming Miscellany were Bob reports on a game played by a Father and son.
http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2017/10/bens-portable-wargame-battle.html

Over on Grid based Wargaming we have the start of a campaign with hand drawn maps and a simple set of rules to allow games to have a bit more meaning.
http://gridbasedwargaming.blogspot.com/2017/10/french-indian-war-campaign-game-1.html

These are only three of the blogs I follow, about 90 wargame related, but these stood out this week and I thought I would share them. The idea for the share came from Jonathan over at Palouse WargamingJournal

I like the idea of a grand review and plan on doing one for my shiny toy soldiers which was the reason I started this blog until the here's a few pictures of what I finished in the last two months displayed on the board I've made for the Portable Wargame.

Perry Native Americans

Kings Mountain Highlanders

unknown 25mm Colonials