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/

Fife & Drum at the Appollo.

We've been trying to get a larger game in recently but usually run out of time for a conclusive finish and/or are unable to leave the game set up for the next session. This week we were able to work things out to make it happen.

We decided to try AWI as both Matt and I have collections and wanted to get them out on the table. I've really only used mine once before. For rules we looked at British Grenadier, Black Powder and Fife & Drum AWI. We went with the Fife & Drum rules as it was decided that they would have the shortest learning curve. It was a good choice!

I took the Harlem Heights scenario from the BG #3 book as it looked like the force size would fit our collections. I layed out some Geo-hex hill and Matt placed his new purchased Cigar Box mat over them. I'm liking the look of the mat and it covers the hills very well eliminating the seems that you get with Geo-hex.  Trees,fences, roads, stream and field set down and we were ready to play.

We took a quick scan of the play sheet and made sure we both understood how the rules worked and started rolling dice.

British lights advance on the Americans.

View from behind the American line

The lights take casualties but still advance on the Rebels

More Patriot forces arrive to hold off the Kings troops.

The British commander rallies off shock.

More Rebel troops arrive forcing the Lights back

British reinforcements arrive

at the ford.

heavy fighting in the buckwheat field.

American riflemen harass the Kings troops at the stream.

We made it through five turns in about 70 minutes. The British had only two units engaged up until turn four while the Americans had about seven. A few question arose which we talked trough to keep the game moving but all in all it was easy enough to just use the play sheet. After the game I read some of the explanation on the Alte Fritz blog and it seemed we got most everything right.

We'll continue the game next week and see how it goes as more troops enter the battle. I'm pretty happy with the way the game played so far.

Looking at the photos the mat seems a little washed out. I'm sure it's a camera setting on my phone. The mat color is more vibrant in real life.

The Trifecta

a few weeks back Howard brought some figures he was looking to sell. quite a few were from the Foundry and Copplestone Darkest Africa range which is a period that always some what interested me. Being weak willed and the fact that some of the figures were painted and all were a reasonable price I picked some up. Here's part of the collection.

Since most of the figures were already prime and based I started painting right away. Most of the unpainted figures were porters or villagers wearing loin cloths. It's a pretty quick paint job when all you need is four colors. When Matt suggested Darkest Africa as a period of choice for Thursdays game I enthusiastically said yes. It was just the little bit extra motivation I needed to finish the figures. 

The finished figures layed out on Matt's great table along with some of his Askaris and Howard's Pygmies.

 This is probably the first time I have bought, painted and played with figures in the same month, actually within a week of getting them. Buying already primed figures was certainly an advantage for this as well as the type of figures. 

I applied some paint to a few of the figures that had come painted basically giving them a wash and dry brush which enhanced the paint job already on them.

 I was worried when I first bought the figures that it would affect my bought to painted count for The Pledge . My progress for this year has been pretty good(  the PledgeSeptember )so another 50 figures wasn't going to break me but as the end of the year always brings new figures I didn't want to fall behind. Luckily I've been able to keep the number even so far this month. 

update 10/23

Matt's post with more photos saltflats1929again

May I dance with your date?

After a three week hiatus last night saw us at Matt's for a game of  BattleTroll . Time was short so we came up with a scenario that was quick but not too bloody.

Howard's group had taken a young maiden from a near by village as a wife for one of his men. Tying her up lead others to believe she wasn't totally on board with this this so Matt's and my groups went off to rescue/ get her for ourselves.

I moved in quickly and engaged Howard's men.

Matt moved up a bit more cautiously but then engaged as the fight was going well for me. 

Amidst all the fighting the Maid was able to escape her bonds and run off. I managed to disengage and help her as she had chosen to run towards my side of the table.

Matt quickly responded and raced into a blocking position with his band. A violent fight ensued with me losing two karls.

I was able to open a gap in Matt's line and rush my men and the girl trough to safety. 

A quick game and all the better as I won:-) I'm suggesting a campaign be set up for this next year so we can add in the reputation aspects of the rules and develop a story line.

Here's a report from Matt's blog.

Gentlemen callers

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

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.