Littler figures bigger scale.

We broke out the 15mm WWII figures for a try at Five Core Company Command. We've been looking a larger level of WWII game and I wanted to get all those mini's I bought when I thought I was going to play Flames of War on the table. 

Once again Matt set out a great looking table. We each selected a company of infantry with some armour support and started rolling dice. As I learned from the 6x6 challenge last year it takes me about two to three games to get a decent grip on the rules., A few things were missed and some just skipped over but I felt we got the basics right and the game moved along well. The game uses a D6 for everything. Two color dice are needed one for shock and one for kills, sometimes they are rolled at the same time, we used white and red. A few things that I felt were unclear from the reading of the rules immediatly became apparent upon rolling the dice. We could have used a few markers for some action but worked our way through it. Occuping the buildings in the village was the objective and in the end it came down to a draw.

The Americans advance towards the town as the Germans move up.

US troops take cover behind the wall and open fire on the Germans.

The Puma moves down the road engaging the US squad.

An American platoon moves in to occupy the church.

Definatly a rule set that needs further exploration. Check out Nordic Weasel's  Blog for more info.

Matt has a good AAR on his blog Saltflats1929

Hits and misses of 2017

Although there are a few days left in the year it's time to look back on the plans for 2017 and see what was achieved. A broadly laid plan was posted here at the end of 2016. I can't say that everything was completed but I do feel it was a successful year.

The NWF project fell by the wayside. The Gangsters saw a 40" x 30" table set up and enough figures for about three players painted. I'd still like to get some npc figures and more cars painted. AWI had a few more figures painted, a few feet of rail fences done and a I got few games in but not the Sharp Practice games I had planned on. My US forces for WWII in 28mm are pretty much complete and another squad of Germans were added. In 15mm some mortars, HMGs and 105mm artillery were painted.  I finished the last of my units for the 40mm Shiny Toy Soldiers so that project is finished except for the four bags of figures in the drawer😀. A few more vikings were added to my forces but still I need about eight more archers. This covers most of the planned gaming and painting but as is the habit of wargamers there were several unplanned games and figures that were painted but not part of the scheduled projects.

I covered the gaming aspect of the year in a post last week. the 6x6 challenge and other gaming As with the games painting covered a wide range of eras. Warring States Chinese had a chariot added, the Cave troll was finally painted, Skralings, Hurons and Iroquois were added to the collection, War of 1812 US Dragoons saw the dreaded cloudy varnish on them and then to add insult to injury I dropped them all while carrying them downstairs. Last of all I succumbed to temptation and bought some second hand Darkest Africa figures most were painted but some were only primed. I finished these off as well as a pack of figures I had bought several years back.

The stats for buying/painting worked out to 202/328. A pretty good year of painting if I say so myself. With the exception of the Darkest Africa figures I was fairly disciplined about buying figures most were small purchases of random figures for projects I was working on or knew I only needed a few more figures. The other big purchase was figures for the GNW which will be on the schedule for this year.

So I missed a few of the goals I had set but did some other things that I hadn't planned on but hey it's a hobby and I had fun. Another thing I did get to do was visit the Wargame exhibit at the Armemuseum in Stockholm, Sweden. This has to be one of the best exhibits I've seen,truly a work that showed the passion and knowledge of the curators. http://www.armemuseum.se/utstallningar/krigsspel/
My blog post trip-to-army-museum-in-stockholm-sweden


Here's a few posts by others I follow showing their year in review. All great stuff.
A Terrible loss of Lead and Wealth

Battlefields and Warriors

Natholeons Empires

Plans for 2018 will be worked out over the next few days and posted for a final reckoning in December 2018.

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!

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. 

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

Back in the red.

Things looked to be going well. The boys were loading the truck with several barrels of whiskey and we had a rivals moll stashed away hoping to gain some cash from the ransom. That's as good as it got. No one was paying attention except maybe the cops and who would have expected that.

The town was quite as two cars pulled in and parked unnoticed along Main st. The cops were out on patrol. With the truck loaded the Boss lead the way across town hoping to sell the liquor for a tidy sum.

Then it happened. Out of nowhere a bast of tommy gun fire ripped through the vehicles. The rival gang in town to get their boss's gal back recognized the Boss and opened fire. An unplanned ambush that went surprisingly well. They killed both drivers and set both vehicles on fire. 

The cops moved in to question the gunmen about their activities and a brisk scuffle ensued. Down on the other side of town the out of towners were questioning the local reporter on the whereabouts of  the girl. They got the information they needed and headed back up town to retrieve her.

One of the boys seeing what was happening rushed over to stop them but went down in a hail of bullets.

We met at Hobby Town were Howard, Nate, Zev and I played the game despite the lack of air conditioning.  Mad Dogs with Guns is released this week by Osprey. The game comes as a hardback and the production quality is very good. We've. played several games in the past and each has been packed with action .  Though I lost badly this was still a fun game.

Death of the Warlord Again

Halvar and his band of men went a viking into the Normans land. After a meager campaign season last month they hoped to gain some riches from the men of the west. Things looked good as the stumbled across two separate wagon trains of goods led by Rogbert a wealthy but crafty Norman Lord.

Halvar sent one group of Hirdmen and Bondi to wait in the broken ground for a wagon and it escort to approach. Mean while he and the rest of the Hirdmen and Bondi moved up the center hoping to out flank the other group of wagons. Immediately the Norman cavalry attacked the Bondi.

After a fierce combat with some back and forth the Bondi were beat and forced back. Then the Hirdmen realized the wagons were escaping and raced across the open fields to catch up. One wagon escaped but the other fell to the raiders. Halvar remained behind to hold up the cavalry. He slowed their movement but fell to the overwhelming numbers.

Over on the left the northmen advanced into combat with the Norman crossbows unfamiliar with the power of the weapons they rushed across the open ground their numbers dwindling with each step. Then the Norman cavalry arrived to assist the foot troops. 

Having seen the Bondi ridden down and getting  no help from their fellows the Hirdman retired off the board.

A fun game. I'm still not sure of some of the rules and have to develop some better tactics but I have enjoyed Saga at each outing.

Some more pictures are here on Saltflats1929