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!

Harlem Heights part 2

Matt and I got together to finish our game of the Battle of Harlem Heights. Between games we had visited Jim's blog and read the tutorial on the rules. We had gotten most everything right and just needed a little clarification. We still wondered a little about the checking of morale on units that were shaken. We decided to play it as a shaken unit that fails one di remains shaken It's clear that if they fail two dice they route.  It was great to get all the figures on the table. We made it through about seven turns before time was called.  We didn't finish out the scenario but the victory conditions were a little vague. We'll certainly take these rules out for another game as they were easy to use moved quickly and provided a good result.

Britishwe' ford the river, 

Rifleman harass the Brits

American reinforcements arrive.

The British move to assault the American line.

Heavy fighting at the edge of the buckwheat field.

The Americans pile in.

Hessians reinforce the British line.

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.