Current projects

Summer vacations have come and gone. It is now time to load up the project table. This has not changed a great deal, however, with the enthusiasm that Longstreet has generated, priorities have been rearranged. Like most gamers, I have to reorganize all my stuff periodically. My ancient Greek project has been pulled and the figures are in storage boxes. I am actually thinking about doing that in 6MM. There is a better arrangement for lighting now, so hopefully that will help when I am painting.

Here is the overall table, ACW up front, My Maurice infantry behind that and off in the distance, some 28 MM French infantry. These last are for Lead Addict, I may eventually get these done.

I was really surprised to find that my 15 mm ACW project was almost complete. There are just a few fill-in pieces that I need to complete both sides of my collection. I did not have any Union Artillery however, that was addressed. Here are the boys ready for the basing process. I use a coarse gray pumice in an acrylic medium as the base material. It has been applied. Next steps are dry-brushing the colors and then adding a little static grass and shrubbery.

While digging through my collection, I found these dismounted Cavalry boys that were on old cardboard bases. They weren't even flocked. I am changing these over to Litko one-inch square bases. That is my current project, hopefully I will get the Arty and dismounted Cavalry finished by Thursday. Once that is done, I will work on some Confederate dismounted cavalry, then gasp, my collection will be complete!

Finally, here is a picture of yours truly as photo-shopped by Baron Von J. This is for our Longstreet campaign. Colonel Frederick Joseph (Fritz) Wolfe at your service.

Current roster after first campaign battle

ACW - Longstreet

Last night the Basement Generals tried Sam Mustafa's Longstreet for the second time. We met at the Baron's castle for the weekly gaming and beer tasting soiree. See the Baron's report about this battle and the beer at his blog.

I drew one of the Johnny Reb commands. I had the confederate left flank, and my objective was the far town. The victory conditions were control of the two towns and the center hill. The towns were already occupied, so the battle was going to be for the center hill. My job was to push the Federal right flank so it could not join the battle for the center.

Greg played the Union commander controlling their right flank. He played a defensive shoot and give ground strategy that was quite effective. I chased him all the way back to the wheat fields just outside of the town, but my forces were shot to hell. Longstreet superbly allowed this defensive strategy, and gave me several options in attacking. The cards in Longstreet are the heart of the system.

The initial deployment, my troops are ready to move forward

There is quite a battle at the little rock wall as my troops moved forward. Union artillery was forcing me to spend a lot of cards absorbing hits. As we are finding out, cards are crucial.

The battle for the center hill.

On a different note - my order for more 10MM Marlburian troops arrived. With two bags of Generals! A painting weekend looms as I get these ready for Maurice.

CnC Napoleonics - Peninsular Wars

I generally get to game twice a week. This is pretty regular, but sometimes gets interrupted by work schedules. On Thursday's it is miniature gaming with the Basement Generals at the Baron's. On Tuesday's, I play board games with one of the Generals, Greg. The last few Tuesdays one of us has been busy. It was nice to play again last night.

We trotted out a favorite. Commands And Colors, Napoleonic War - Spanish expansion. Greg played the French and I played the Spanish. This scenario was based on an historical event, but I don't remember which one. It is hell getting old. Anyway, there was a valley with three Spanish artillery units. The French were on the attack and their goal was to kill all the artillery. That was the instant French victory, or either side could win by claiming seven banners.

CnC is a great rule system, we have been playing this a couple of years now. The mechanics are clean, simple and there is absolutely nothing to change for house rules. We have tried and it breaks things. It is very likely my favorite board game system. The French started this scenario with 6 command cards and the opening move. The Spanish started in deployed positions and only 4 command cards. This lack of cards would prove decisive later on.

Initial deployment - French get ready to assault the guns.

Battle lines are formed -- The Spanish get a little lucky and manage to get organized. I had used the Spanish Order Interrupt token a couple of times by now.

Here comes the Cavalry!

Charge of the French Cavalry. At this point, the Spanish forward infantry had to deploy into squares. The rule for forming square is one must reserve a card to do so. That left the Spanish with two command cards, and they could no longer react. It was pretty evident that the French were going to maul the center at this point.

The Center collapses

The last Spanish Artillery piece falls - game over.

I used every shenanigan card and Spanish trick that I possibly could. For a while, I held the French off. However, once I had to form square, just to survive, it was over. Greg and I both had some wild dice rolling last night with some good and some bad rolls by each. I think my favorite was when Greg attacked one of my infantry units with 5 dice. He rolled 4 Artillery and a Cavalry hit. No effect! The game was a lot of fun and a very nice way to close out my elongated birthday weekend.

An FPGA Train Wreck

In my previous post, I supplied a map of the situation for a FPGA battle that took place last night. I knew this scenario was going to be a tough one for the Austrians. I had hoped that the battle would be a little more challenging for the French than it turned out.

From the outset, this battle was a complete train wreck. I don't know if my scenario description was clear or not, but the Austrians immediately moved the two regiments in the center forward to engage the six brigades of French cavalry! I am not sure why the Austrian commander went on this suicide mission, but the outcome was predictable. They were mauled by the French cavalry. The entire middle was compromised and that set the tone for the whole evening.

Initial deployment from Austrian perspective.

Initial deployment from the French perspective.

In order to simulate that this was the second day of a battle, the players all rolled a 6 sided die for every base under their command. 1-2 = 2 existing casualties, 3-4 = 3 existing casualties and 5-6 = 4 existing casualties. This was for the infantry bases, Cavalry was a little fresher. This method actually worked quite well. It was quick and gave the impression that the armies had been in a bitter fight the day before. On the first turn, the French infantry held their positions and used some recovery dice rolling. It would pay dividends later as the Austrians immediately started moving in their worn conditions.

As the action started, the Austrian center moved to engage and was destroyed by the French. The Austrian left held their position and was eventually engaged by the French right. Here it looked like a fairly even battle, and then the dice rolling started. The Austrian commander had loaded his weapons with coal dust and marshmallows instead of powder and ball. This was an epic night of bad rolling. The French commander, mauled that flank.

The Center - showing the French Cavalry in possession

The Austrian Left - showing the French driving forward

With the center gone and the Austrian left collapsing, it was just a matter of time before the Austrian right was overwhelmed. The Austrian army morale broke shortly there after. The game was called after 2 hours of play

The Austrian Right - or what was left of the Austrian army

I really enjoy FPGA, it was fast and brutal. There was a decided victor after 2 hours of play. Maybe this scenario was flawed, but I think the Austrians had a chance to survive if they had played to consolidate their lines instead of a rash forward press.

Anyway we all had time to enjoy some of this fine brown Ale. I imagine the Austrian players thought it was aptly named.

FPGA - French Break Through?

This is the scenario for a Basement Generals game on Thursday, August 1, 2013. This is for Fast Play Grande Armee (FPGA). FPGA is my favorite rule set for the Napoleonic period, bar none. I bought the complete rules from Sam Mustafa's site many years ago, but once he issued the Fast Play variant we have not used the full set again.

This engagement is the day after a big battle over the three towns shown in the map. When we play tonight, the commanders will be rolling for existing casualties on their commands. At the end of the first day, both armies regrouped. The Austrians have assumed that the towns are the main focus and have made a mistake. The commanders have unknowingly weakened their center by too many withdrawals. Can the French seize the opportunity to split the Austrian army leading to its eventual annihilation?

Army deployment - early morning - Day two

I will post a battle reports and photos tomorrow.

An Evening of Gruntz

This past Thursday, Greg and Jay of the Basement Generals put on a game of Gruntz. There were seven players, so Jay decided to act as referee. Mainly because this was the inaugural game after one controlled play test.

The rules were clear, in fact by the second or third round we had all grasped the mechanics. This is the mark of a good rule set. There will be some tweaks to statistics of some of the units for future games, but as a first game it was fast and furious and a lot of fun.

There were three objectives, destroy or protect the power plant, seize or protect the cargo containers, and have the dictator escape in a plane or prevent that escape. The dictator had his units of professional soldiers and goons, while the rebels were mostly militia and some regular army that was supporting the coup.

The action opened with the rebels advancing toward the town in three teams, each with one of the objectives in mind. I played the rebel group that was trying to destroy the power plant. It didn't take long before there was a serious fire fight along the entire engagement.

This game turned out to be a rebel victory, we managed to control the power plant and were setting the charges as the evening ended. On the other flank, the plane had been destroyed from rocket fire, and in the center the rebels managed to seize several of the cargo containers.

Note, all of the scenery shown was supplied by Jay and Greg, and they put on a fantastic looking game. Hopefully they will post on their own blogs about this. I have linked to them here and here. Thanks guys, great game!

Thursday Gaming

Every Thursday night, with few exceptions, I have the privilege to game with the Basement Generals. Generally six to eight of us descend upon the Baron Von J's domicile for an evening of gaming, trash talking and camaraderie. This is a great group of guys, Thursday night is one of the bright spots of my week. The Baron is the most prolific gaming hobbyist that I have ever met. It is simply amazing what he can produce in a short time. All figures and models shown in this post are his handiwork. This past Thursday, it was a Gladiator bash and a Chariot race. This is what greeted us at the gaming table.

The Gladiator game was first, Jaye was trying a new set of rules from Two Hour Wargames. While the mechanics were easy to grasp, it bogged down. A complete review can be found on the Baron's Blog. Here is the stable of Gladiator figs:

Here two Murmulos battle forever, neither one gaining an advantage.

Once the dust settled, we tried the Charioteer rules from Two Hour Wargames. This rule set was much better. We will try this one again, since we only had time for one lap.