Assorted updates

 

At the beginning of the year I thought about having some kind of plan to stop me going off in random directions.  So far it’s been fairly on track... the 2 main projects were going to be based around In Her Majesty’s Name: one based around a Darkest Africa theme and the other looking at a post-apocalypse adaption.

Chain of Command and Donnybrook have come along in the meantime and steered me a little bit off course but I’ve not done too badly.  Of course Salute is coming up so who knows what might tempt me there.

The Darkest Africa project is coming along well... I’m working my way through the box of Foundry explorers I mysteriously found in the loft and have nearly finished off some North Star Cannibals.

I haven’t started on the Post Apocalypse setting yet but have just picked up a couple of packs of Copplestone Future Wars figures to form the basis of the survivors.  Annoyingly I’d seen a really nice piece of scenery down at my local 'Pets at Home'... a piece of aquarium scenery bizarrely shaped like a very 50’s style atom bomb [I’m sure the fish would love it!?]  Stupidly I hummed and hawwed about buying it and it’s no longer being stocked...bugger!  I’ve checked with various branches and online and can’t source one anywhere...If anyone comes across one please let me know.

However...

I have succumbed to a Kickstarter project for the first time!  Across the Dead Earth is a new interesting looking post-apocalypse game from Mike and Rich Chappell.  I came across references to it in various other blogs and they’ve been running regular updates here...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chappellm/across-the-dead-earth

The plans for figures look ideal for what I’d been planning and the rules look as though they unusually have a British setting... the illustration of a ruined Tescos finally clinched it and I’ve signed up, admittedly for one of the more modest options.  The release date is planned for August.

 

 

Dust tactics might be tempting [especially the Gorillas] but I’m reserving judgement till I’ve had a game.

I have been increasingly tempted by 7TV... the  kind of hard to define game from Crooked Dice.  It’s probably best summed up by British 60s style Spy/Sci-Fi series like The Avengers, Department S etc but can also be used for James Bond style adventures, crime thrillers etc. 

 

 

 

 

There are a few additional supplements around for Zombies [boo!] and Ray Harryhausen style Sinbad type adventures [yay!].   It uses the TV theme to structure the episodes  as a TV production and has a host of gadgets and abilities to confuse the opposition.

 

 

I’ve been eyeing this up for a while and have finally given in and ordered the rule book...more on this once I’ve had a chance to peruse it.

 

And on a completely random note I've just started an online course via the Future Learn project linked to Kings College London on 'Causes of War'.  Future  Learn offer a whole range of courses for free, linked to uni's around the country....I've recently learned a lot about Forensic Science, handy for when I need to dispose of the bodies!!  I'm not sure the Causes of War course will help my gaming at all but it sounds interesting.  Info on Future Learn is here...

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses

Chain of Command again..somewhere in Russia

There’s been a bit of a lull in blogging activity for the last couple of weeks... I told you getting a dog would get in the way of everything!!

 No game last week but this week I had another game of Chain of Command with Andrew at the club.  It was his first outing with the rules and I suspect he found them quite frustrating but that may have been more to do with his rubbish dice throwing rather than the rules themselves!

 We pitted a German platoon against Soviets with the Germans trying to break through to the enemy baseline.  Despite his rubbish dice Andrew actually did a good job as the Russians holding me off despite taking horrendous casualties... fairly accurate for Russia in 1941 I suspect! 

 

 

 

The usual CoC pattern of troops bogging down in cover and exchanging fire at close range happened again but there was a bit of movement from each sides armour and I suspect if we’d had time the German Pz38t would have eventually made the breakthrough and forced its way across the table.  As it was we ended with a draw with the Germans still only half way across the table and the few remaining Soviets falling back into the woods to try and survive and continue delaying the enemy advance.

 

 

 

 

 Next week I’m trying out Dust Tactics for the first time...

 

 

I’ve never really got to grips with ‘Weird WW2’ type games... my son and I once tried a really boring demo game of Secrets of the Third Reich at Cavalier during which we wandered off after half an hour of nothing happening [I don’t think anyone else noticed...certainly not the people who'd put on the game who were having a great time but not exactly facilitating a good participation game...grrr...].  The last issue of Wargames Illustrated had a free rules summary/advert and of course I walked straight into their trap! 

 

 

A friend at the club has some forces so we’ve arranged a game.   I’ not a fan of zombies but I think it was the Nazi Gorillas that sold the idea to me...everything's better with Monkeys!

 

 

 

Go wild in the country...

I managed to drag Legatus along to Guildford this week for a game... it must be around a year since we last managed this!

This time we’d planned a game of In Her Majesty’s Name as he has been painting the Servants of Ra set and these match nicely against my Scotland Yard Squad.
 

I haven’t played this for some time and all my previous games had been set in an East End type setting using some warehouses and townhouses I’d built using the printable buildings from Stoelzels Structures [link].  When I got the box out of the loft earlier in the week I realised that these were actually crap!!  Not the fault of the printed material I hasten toadd, they’re really nicely done, but solely down to a bit of wear and tear and mainly my very poor construction skills!  When I mentioned this to my son he tactfully commented   “Yeah.. I’d always thought they were rubbish but didn’t like to say!!”... Cheers son!
 

A bit of head scratching ensued before I came up with scenario B... a trip to the country for the boys in blue.  The scenario presumed that the evil Egyptian cultists were hiding out in a remote country inn, using it as their headquarters for some kind of nefarious plan, and a police raid was in about to be launched on the unsuspecting Servants of Ra.

 

IHMN games are usually based on a 3’x3’ table so nice and compact: a few woods and hedgerows around the edge and a barn, pigsty and the Inn made up the terrain.  The cultists were skulking around the Inn amongst an assortment of boxes and barrels when the police arrived at the table edge, whistles blowing and shouting “You’re nicked sunshine, etc!”.  

It's alright...we'll be perfectly safe behind these crates....

There were also an assortment of Victorian townsfolk, taking in the country air and a refreshing pint and seeming oblivious to the strange men in robes and hoods milling about.   They moved randomly throughout the game although a few of the Gentlemen seemed strangely drawn to the scantily clad assassin!

 

The police split into 2 groups with one group heading for the Inn and taking cover in the woods, while the Sergeant led a squad round the back of the barn.  The Cultists formed a firing line with their handful of armed figures [most of them only have clubs] behind some crates while their leader, Akhenaton headed off to tackle the Sergeants squad.  The Chief Inspector coordinated the police firing which quickly took down most of the minor Servants of Ra and all was looking promising for the police.  

Special Branch take up position in the woods

 

At this point the other squad ran into Legatus’ secret weapon... a giant sword and shotgun wielding Nubian, who quickly dispatched the Sergeant with a blast from the gun!  Luckily Dr Watson was on hand to run over and apply some bandages and smelling salts and he was back on his feet next turn.... no sign of Sherlock though....

Baaaa.....

 

The revived Sergeant led a charge at the Nubian which descended into a mass brawl with police Constables and Cultists being drawn into the fray.  This carried on for several turns with no one gaining the upper hand until Akhenaton armed with an assortment of magical dooh dahs waded in... he’s very much the heavyweight of the Cultists with a magical sword, armour and a range of mind-bending spells that make him very hard to deal with.  He was also joined by the scantily clad assassin Zairah who is also pretty fearsome, very fast and armed with poisoned daggers.  Between them they began slicing their way through the police ranks.

Excuse me sir...do you have a licence for that sword...

 

That'll be a 'no' then...

 

At this point one of the townsfolk... a mild mannered little old lady... threw off her disguise to reveal herself to be none other that Sherlock Holmes himself, and threw her/himself  into the melee!

The game ended with a properly cinematic finish with all the bit part characters having been dispatched [and sadly Dr Watson] and a final duel between the Akhenaton and Zairah versus Holmes and the Chief Inspector.  Unfortunately the only real way to defeat the cultist leader is to gang up on him and by this point I’d lost all my PCs so didn’t really have much hope, and sure enough both of my remaining figures fell to the Servants of Ra.  I had one remaining Special Branch officer who survived by running off into the woods!
 

All in all a great game... the magical powers of the Chief Cultist mean he’s really hard to take down with mobbing him with figures and I couldn’t get enough people in place at the right time to do it.  Holmes is also tough but could only hold out for so long against the attacks before succumbing.

I used a couple of rules that are contained in the Heroes, Villains and Fiends supplement that came out at the end of last year.  If you’re a fan of IHMN this is a useful addition to the rules.  As well as a few additional Talents and abilities, there are a load of suggested stats for animals etc as well a wide range of new factions.  These include groups from Europe, the Americas [broadening out the scope for more Wild West based games], and Africa: the latter has a lot of potential to include wild Cannibals and brave Explorers and Jungle Lords of course.
 

A further supplement is due out later this year dealing with the Far East and Pacific.

 Many thanks to Stephen for an excellent game, even if the forces of Law and Order were vanquished!

On a completely unrelated note, last year my painting schedule was severely interrupted by the acquisition of a dog, Trigger.  Well... we’ve gone and done it again!  Meet Lizzie...

 

Chain of Command: Barbarossa

Our latest Chain of Command game pitched an early German force against a Soviet platoon... I guess we're somewhere in 1941...

As Russ hadn't played before [but was ably assisted by Keith] we played out a straightforward Patrol scenario with a small village in the centre of the table and a scattering of trees and wheatfields covering the table.

As is normal for CoC each side comprised a platoon with some additional support.... the Germans had a PzKpfw 38t and a Sdkfz 221 [which never actually made it onto  the  table] and the Soviets had a T26, a Maxim and crew and an anti-tank team.

CoC uses a pre-game Patrol phase in which Jump Off points are moved across the table  until the contact each other and lock in place.  In our game this resulted on 2 opposing lines with both sides making a drive towards the village in the centre.

The Germans were able to deploy first in one of the buildings, quickly opposed by a Soviet squad.  A close range firefight ensued which was eventually won when the Soviet Maxim also deployed and added it's fire.  The Germans abandoned the house and pulled back but in turn the Soviet squad was forced back by fresh German squad that had appeared in nearby woods.

The game then settled down with a bit of a lull as the Germans consistently failed to roll suitable dice to allow them to order Leaders or units [but picked up loads of Chain of Command points!].  Both of us did, however bring on our tanks.... the T26 and the 38 may lack the power of late war amour but they have a certain charm!  They arrived at the table edge and had several rounds of long range gunfire, with the T26 ignoring the nearer infantry in favour of trying to win the tank duel [possibly a mistake but there was a bit of tanky prestige at stake by this point].  Both tanks managed to damage each others gunsights before a lucky shot from the T26 knocked out the German main gun [but left the tank otherwise undamaged]...I count that as a major victory!

The Soviets had deployed most of their squads by this point but the Germans still held the village.  A flurry of successful dice allowed Russ and Keith to bring on the remainder of the Germans and they were able to concentrate fire on the Soviets, badly damaging most squads and, crucially, forcing the Maxim to run away.

It was  looking pretty grim at this point when a few lucky shots from the handful of Soviet riflemen left suddenly inflicted heavy losses on the Germans and forced the Fascist Vipers to flee!  By this point both sides had been reduced to 3 Morale points each, meaning we had few command dice left and we decided that both patrols would report back to their respective HQs... informing them that they'd encountered at least a division but held them off with heavy losses!

Another successful outing for CoC... we got a few things wrong [activating tanks on a roll of 2 rather than 3, and failing to remember to check for casualties on Leaders] but otherwise we did ok.  We did find in this game, and in previous ones, that the game has a tendency to settle down into static lines if you aren't careful with little manoeuvre happening.  The presence of off-table Mortars or Artillery would possibly help force squads out of their positions... something to remember for the next game I think.

Cavalier 2014

My son and I ventured down to Cavalier in Tonbridge this morning.

About a year ago I posted a report on the show and, having re-read it the other day, I was generally disgruntled and unimpressed but couldn't pin down why.  This years show was broadly very similar but I came away much happier! Why?  I've no idea...maybe I just got out of bed on the right side!

The show takes place in the Angel Leisure Centre...I've always thought there's an ironic cruelty making us wargamers hang out in the same building as fit people!  The list of traders looked a bit thin this year and I was worried it might look a bit empty but it did feel as busy as usual.  TWWS had also decided to not hold a Bring and Buy this year: on their website they explain that the EBay effect has affected the quality of items and they've suffered from increasing thefts, as have a lot of other shows. It's a shame but I've certainly noticed the impact of EBay so I can understand why.

There were a number of games on, all of which were the usual impressive show standards...I've included a number of photos but as usual I struggled to remember who had put them on...apologies to anyone who I've missed out or miscredited!

The Battle of Cape St Vincent (Tonbridge Wargames Club)

Sunset over Shumshu: The Soviet invasion of the Kuril Island
of Shumshu in 1945 (Deal Wargames Club)

 

Tabletop Teasers On Tour 1709: Gentlemanly wargaming
in the Age of Marlborough and the Sun King (SEEMS)

Chrysler's Farm, 11th November 1813 (Southend and Rayleigh Wargames Club)

My shopping haul was relatively modest (as I explained to my wife when I got home!!) consisting of some new trees,  some additional vehicles for our French/Belgian Chain of Command forces, and  a Motorcycle section for the French...I'm not sure we needed them but we liked the idea of riding them around going "Brrrrrmmmmm....."!!

All in all a nice day out...it's also given us some food for thought  for future projects and shopping lists....we've decided we need to be a bit more organised before we go to our next Show... Salute!

Donnybrook review

Bugger...

Bugger, buggery, bugger....

I had a plan for 2014...I really did!  I wrote it down and everything.

Finish off the 15mm Early WW2 Germans and French for Chain of Command, work on the Darkest Africa/IHMN project and begin a Fallout Post Apocalypse variant of IHMN.  It was always quite likely that something would tempt me off course but I'd at least hoped to last beyond January.  And then along came Donnybrook...

 

This is the new set of skirmish rules from the League of Augsburg and very nice they are too.  Presentation-wise these are a 110 page bound rule book with lots of colour pics.  Throughout the book are excellent photos, often used to illustrate points from the rules...they've also included some comic-strip style illustrations which I guess people will either love or hate.  I found them very entertaining and a useful way of helping clarify the game process.

 

The rules are aimed at the period from 1660-1760 and include a number of scenarios and settings ranging from fighting Berbers in Tangiers through the WSS to Jacobite skirmishes.  Of course this is a period for which I have virtually no figures so logically this should have no appeal, but hey, we're wargamers... things like that don't stand in the way of frivolous impulse buys!

 

I do have some 15mm WSS figures but, although I've tended towards 15mm as an ideal scale for skirmish gaming [eg with Muskets and Tomahawks, Force on Force etc] this does feel like a ruleset that cries out for 28mm.  

 

The rules themselves appear to include elements of various Too Fat Lardies games with a card activation system, and Force on Force with different flavours of dice used to represent troop quality.  Like many TFL games units and characters are activated on the turn of a card, with an optional Turn End card meaning you may not get to activate everyone in every turn.  I know this is a bit of a Marmite feature that people seem to love or hate and the writers sensibly advise ignoring it if you don’t like it [... personally I do like it.. it adds a real degree of uncertainty to each game]
 

The dice used range from d6 to d10 for different types (d6 for Recruits, d8 for Drilled and d10 for Elite) and hits are scored on a 5 or  6, so the common rabble aren't going to be great shakes in a combat!

Characters use d12 so are suitable heroic and have additional abilities which can assist troops in various ways.

The rules are designed around 7 factions although it would be very easy [and encouraged] to develop your own.  The factions listed include the Army, Civilian Mobs, Cultists, Covenanters, Highlanders, Outlaws, Raparees and Tribal.  Again each of these has a number of special abilities to make them distinctive.

So given that I don’t have any figures for this era what am I going to do with the rules....

Well, a couple of years ago I went through a not very well thought out phase of painting 28mm ECW figures.  I think I had a plan to build up  Covenanter and Royalist/Parliamentarian armies [I couldn’t decide which] but clearly my gnat-like concentration span  meant that was never going to happen.  It does however mean I conveniently have enough a couple of factions for  Donnybrook... some Pike and Musket armed troops and some Scots and Parliamentarian Cavalry.  The rules are aimed a t a slightly later period but wouldn’t take much in the way of tweaking to be ideal for the Civil Wars or the 30 Years War.
 

I’ve always had a bit of an interest in the 30 years war period ever since I read CV Wedgewood’s excellent [and snappily titled] “The 30 years War” and it would be a short hop from this to other similar genres such as Pirates, Three Musketeer *  style games etc. From some of the discussion on the LoA forums it looks as though there are plans to produce supplementary resources for later and earlier periods anyway as well as some ‘darker’ material....hmmm... Witchfinder General....
 

All of which gives me the perfect excuse to link to this... the best theme song of any ...erm...’historical’... drama.....

 

There’s a bit of rebasing to be done with the ECW figures before I can try the rules out but I’m already thinking of other periods that would interest me.  Barbary pirates are tempting but I’m not sure how easy figures would be to come by.  The whole Covenanter/Jacobite period is tempting too and  there seem to be a whole host of obscure early colonial wars in North America that I’d never heard of.  The period that tempts me least is the ‘big one’ for the span of the rules... the War of the Spanish Succession.  I can see the appeal for big army games but I’m not sure about lower level skirmish actions.

Overall the rules look very impressive... a combination of mechanics that I like and at a skirmish level that I'm increasingly preferring to larger battles.  Really nicely presented too.  Recommended [on the understanding that I haven't actually played them yet but have been swayed by the pretty pictures!!]

 

*  The Three Musketeers... I have to say I’m distinctly underwhelmed by the latest BBC offering on Sunday evenings.  It might have passed muster as a Saturday teatime programme in the same way that Merlin or Robin Hood did, but as a peak time Sunday night programme it’s a bit meh...

 

Tomorrow's Star Wars

Andrew at the local club [actually one of 3 Andrews at the last count] had suggested a game of Force on Force this week but left the choice of scenario to me.  In the past we've played several games based either in Afghanistan or somewhere similar or in Vietnam but this week my cunning twist was to actually play Tomorrow's War instead!

If you've never looked at the 2 systems, you may be surprised to learn that they are to all intents and purposes the same rules.  The system is exactly the same with a few additions for the near-future setting of TW.  These additional rules include drones and sensors, roots etc as well as more sophisticated artillery and airstrike rules.  The game also features the 'Grid'... an internet type network that enhances communication and intelligence but which can be countered by ECM.

Knowing Andrew was a bit of a Star Wars fan this seemed a good opportunity to dig out my son's Star Wars miniatures.  When he was several years younger he was a huge Star Wars fan [shamefully of the more recent films... he was just the right age to get into them when they appeared] and was really keen on the series of collectible minis that Wizards of the Coast produced.  These were produced in random collections in sealed boxes so you were never sure what you were getting... the equivalent of wargamer-crack! 

We collected lots of these as well as the boxed starter set, which was actually quite a good game.  The problem with these type of collectible game is that you end up with lots of obscure figures... for every Obi-Wan you also get 10 obscure aliens that are based on a character that appeared briefly or in a novelisation.  As the box sets progressed these became even more obscure and the figure quality also declined.   It did mean, however, that in amongst all the obscure aliens, we have lots of Stormtroopers and a good random collection of Rebels.

The opening scenario in the Tomorrow's War book is very similar to the 'Contracting trouble' scenario from FoF... I think there's a post about that one elsewhere on the blog from last year.  A downed pilot [in this case belonging to the Imperials] is hiding out in a small complex of buildings.  While an Imperial patrol is en route to rescue him a nefarious band of Rebel Scum are lying in wait figuring this is a good opportunity to wipe out the Stormtroopers.



Andrew took charge of the Imperial patrol, led bizarrely by a Bounty Hunter, presumably guiding them in to scene.  Martin meanwhile had organised the Rebels who were concealed in jungle around the buildings.

Both sides were fairly evenly matched... the Stormtroopers were generally of a higher Quality rating [meaning they rolled 8 sided dice vs the Rebels 6 sided] and had a couple of heavy weapons.  The Rebels outnumbered them and were led by a certain Mr Skywalker. 

There don't seem to be any specific rules for Force type psionics in TW but I gave Luke an extra couple of attack dice reflecting his uncanny accuracy ["...use the Force..."] and allowed him to roll on the Advanced First Aid table instead of the ordinary one. Both sides also had an off table mortar with a FO attached to one of the units.

The Rebel Scum lie in wait

Andrew briefly contemplated launching an un-Stormtrooper like charge across the table before deciding to be a bit more cautious and use cover to edge into optimum range.  An early mortar attack from the Rebels caused little damage but drew the attention of the Stormtroopers and the poor little Spotting droid went down in hail of bleeps and sparks!  The return mortar from the Imperials was more effective but the jungle cover managed to deflect most of the damage.  The Rebels continued to lie low, meaning they couldn't be targeted  until spotted... one unit did break cover and after a couple of rounds of fire were all hit.  As there was no one left standing to do a 1st Aid check they remained out of action and were overrun and horribly massacred by Andrew [who was now definitely getting into the whole Evil Empire thing].

A second Imperial unit moved up to the buildings while another flanked the central Rebel squad.  There then ensued a classic Star Wars style gun fight in which all 3 units blazed away with blasters at close range and failed to hit anything!  Eventually the weight of fire told and casualties began to mount... mainly among the Rebels.

Andrew now decided to launch his cunning Masterstroke... the 3rd Imperial unit which had been doing sterling work providing Overwatch now charged across the table and into the building containing the Pilot.  The final Rebel squad who had been lurking round the back launched themselves through the other door taking on the Stormtroopers in hand to hand combat.  The Imperials failed to stand and, conveniently for them, fled heading straight back towards their own table edge with the Pilot in hand.  This placed them too close to home for the Rebels to stop them and after a few unsuccessful potshots the Rebels conceded the day.  There were a few Imperial Officers breathing slightly easier at the end of the game... their units' cowardice being off set by actually enabling them to achieve their objective and avoid Lord Vader's displeasure.

The Tomorrow's War mechanics worked well for the Star Wars setting.  I'd kept it fairly simple, so no Grid, Combat Stress or vehicles .  Despite this I still managed to forget several rules... most significantly the Morale rules!  Actually it probably wouldn't have made a huge difference... the most likely outcome for some units would have been  Pinned result but as they were hiding in jungle for a large part of the game they would probably have just stayed put.  Still a bit annoying though... I think next time I need to prepare myself of 'things to remember'... I did this for a previous game and it was very handy: I blame old age!