Gaming Weekend - March 08

Lenin paid a visit this weekend and we managed to get plenty of gaming in. It might not have gone quite as planned (no change there!) but it was excellent fun none the less!

Before "discovering" the benefits of the .45 Adventure system we had tried one or two of the scenarios from the Dragon Bones supplement using Savage Worlds (another of our favourite rule sets). We decided to try them using the rules they were made for and the two games went very well. Strangely enough the results were the same as when we played using Savage Worlds!

We also gave my eBay copy of Quebec 1759 a go. It was the first of the Columbia Games block games and certainly has a pretty simple set of rules; however, the game gives you plenty of things to think about. I took command of the French and was utterly trounced by Lenin playing the British - obviously my usual dice luck had some effect but it was more down to some poor deployment on my part and a well co-ordinated two fronted attack on his! Now that I have some idea what I'm doing I'd certainly like to give it another go.

Next we improvised a Back of Beyond game using Lenin's superbly painted Copplestone figures (along with a couple of Pulp Figures) using Savage Worlds as the rules. More than anything it was a test to see if Savage Worlds could be used for a game of this type and size. Lenin has a very sizeable collection of figures for this period and we have tried a few other sets of rules but haven't been happy with them. The result was a Russian victory - having repulsed the Chinese attack on the Russian dig site - and a decision to use Savage Worlds for future games of this type.

Having majored on 28mm we swapped down to 20mm for the next game, a WW2 scenario using Nuts! A simple take the bridge and hold until reinforced for a small Para jeep mounted unit facing a unit of German engineers (who had been ordered to destroy the bridge) - with a few pesky refugees to get in the way! It was an object example of taking and holding the initiative taking the day with the Paras having it pretty much their own way (it also demonstrated the power of automatic weapons to keep people's heads down under Nuts! - the "outgunned" rules).

Our final tabletop game was another improved Savage Worlds game - this time using 28mm Gripping Beast Normans/Crusaders/El Cid figures. Having seen that Savage Worlds could handle a large 20th Century game, we really wanted to see if Savage Worlds could cope with a melee heavy scenario. We probably didn't have enough variety in the troop qualities and so melee did tend to bog down a little (but this wasn't entirely unexpected or a-historical) but overall SW proved that it could manage to cope. With properly prepared unit cards and a little more unit variety I think we're on to a winner again.

We finished the weekend off with a couple of board games - the Crimissos River (341BC) scenario for Commands and Colors: Ancients and the first two player scenario for Friedrich (The War in the West - France vs Hanover with a little help from Prussia). The C&C:A game was a pretty close run thing but finally going to Syracruse (though not by anything like the margin they enjoyed historically). Friedrich turned out to be a lot of fun with plenty of challenging decisions for both sides. The French were doing well but the Hanoverians managed to cut their supply lines; however the French recovered and went on to capture their objectives just in time. An excellent game that I can't wait to play 3 or 4 player.

I've posted a few photos from the weekend below:

Gaming Weekend - Mar 08

Figure Review: Artizan Designs Late WW2 Germans

I picked up a few late War Germans from Artizan Designs a little while ago and whilst he was down for the weekend Lenin dropped off the painted ones. As always with Artizan the figures are a nice mix of interesting poses and painted in a mixture of camo and winter smocks they look great. I've posted a few pictures below:

The Wargame Shed - Figure Review No. 4

Wargaming Weekend Prep

It will shortly be time for another visit from Lenin - so I'm in the process of working out which games to run. We usually work on 4 miniatures games per weekend (which nicely splits into two a piece) along with various boardgames to fill the evening and between game sessions.

I hoping Lenin will have had a chance to finish my Artizan WW2 28mm figures so that I can use them for a Nuts! game. I'm also trying to work out an urban pulp game for .45 Adventure. Since Lenin will be doing the hard work for the WW2 game that shouldn't need too much work (other than working out the actual scenario of course) but the pulp game is likely to need some building construction as well as scenario creation. I've made a start on developing some repeat characters for a series of games and bought some 6 x 4 index cards to use for them. The Pulp Figures miniatures and recent reading have given me some inspiration though.

As to boardgames, I'm sure that Commands & Colors: Ancients is likely to get an outing and I'd like to give either Bonaparte at Marengo or Napoleon's Triumph a go but it will all depend on what we fancy at the time (boardgames not requiring any preparation - which is alway a plus point!). Of course there's still Friedrich which I'd like to get to the table but whilst there is a two player scenario I'd really like to try the full 3 player game - I'll need to polish up my persuasion skills and approach my better half!

Dark Ages

We've only played one Dark Age game since I started photographing them. It was a playtest of Strandhogg rules. So I dug out some of my Gripping Beast Vikings and Saxons along with some of their buildings and livestock and my Grand Manner fort. The rules have some neat ideas but some of the concepts, whilst nice, can be a little fiddly. We need to try them a few more times before making a final verdict though.

Dark Ages

Lord of the Rings - The Lost Tales

I managed to pick up a number of Vendel painted fantasy figures on eBay and so when the opportunity presented itself to use them I jumped at it. The Lost Tales is intended to be a series of short stories surrounding the Fellowship slipped quietly between the official ones from J.R.R.

The gallery contains a few images from the first tale - The Wizard's Tower:

Lord of the Rings - The Lost Tales

We ran the game using the Savage Worlds rules.

Typhon

Typhon is a set of rules for gaming Greek Mythology. We tried them out with some of Lenin's beautifully painted Foundry 28mm figures with a Jason and the Argonauts scenario. We liked both the genre and the rules and so more figures and games are in the pipeline.

Typhon

Pulp

My Pulp gallery covers a number of games in a genre which has been seeing more and more table time in recent sessions.

The first game was inspired in part by Conan-Doyle's Lost World. An aircraft crash lands on a massive plateau deep in the jungle. The crash survivors encounter dinosaurs and an ancient civilisation cut off from the rest of the world.

The next game was a scenario from the Dragon Bones supplement for .45 Adventure. At the time we were regularly using Savage Worlds so Lenin converted it. Now that we have got into .45 Adventure maybe we'll try it again!

The third game was the first part of Ice Fang the second Mission Manual from Legion publishing for Savage Worlds set in the artic in Weird War 2. The first chance to use my Brigade Games Mountain Troops and my JU52!

Pulp

In addition to the games there are a few staged photos of my Deep Ones for those into the Mythos (actually they are West Wind's Piranha Men but I think they work pretty well). The others are Pulp Figures fighting it out in front of some Microtactix buildings and die cast cars.

Science Fiction

The science fiction gallery currently covers five games and some shots of some of my other themed figures. Of the games three are set in the same SF universe which is a fusion of the GZG background, Aliens RPG and other associated sources with some Cthulhu Mythos influences. The figures used in these are generally 25mm (and I mean real 25mm) from GZG and Denizen.

The other two games are 28mm, the first being a near future Covert Drug Op which runs into an unexpected enemy and the second a Dr Who adventure.

Science Fiction

Modern

The modern album covers two games. The first was a 28mm skirmish using Two Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction 2.0 rules and Mongrel Miniatures excellent BAOR figures (Ireviewed there in an earlier post). The scenario started with terrorists taking an Ulster farmer and his wife hostage and a routine British Army patrol passing and spotting something suspicious.

The second game was a 15mm playtest of the Metal Storm rules using a US vs warlord scenario. The rules are derived from the Peter Pig AK47 Republic rules but with some significant additions - like the use of differing sized dice. The rules played fine but we weren't convinced the additions added value as were as the complications - they need another outing to work that out. The figures were from Peter Pig.

Modern

Gloire

I picked up a copy of Rattrap Productions' Gloire rules at Salute last year. They're an adaptation of their .45 Adventure rules for Swashbuckling Adventure in the Age of Kings. We decided to give the sample scenario a go with my Redoubt Enterprises super-heroic 28mm figures and they played very well - enough so for me to go off and get a copy of .45 Adventure actually!

Gloire

Colonial

Lenin has a frankly astonishing number of the Wargames Foundry and Copplestone Castings Darkest Africa figures - I wouldn't be surprised if it was all of them actually! Anyway, the ones he has managed to paint (and it's a surprisingly large number of them) don't see the table anywhere near often enough as they're very nice (as you can see). So we decided to kill two birds with one stone and try out the Antwerp Fusiliers' Afriboria rules with them.

Colonial

The rules are inspired by the Commands and Colors system but give a different type of game. We enjoyed it but there was rather too much of people being surprised by animals and eaten for our liking (not enough variety in the event cards!). It certainly has promise though.

Russo-Japanese War

Lenin picked up a load of 15mm figures for this period when he was in the States and, as you can see, has made a fine job of painting them. We had previously tried a modified version of Fire & Fury for an earlier game but they didn't quite give the feel we were looking for. So I suggested making some small tweaks to the Too Fat Lardies' Triumph of the Will rules and cobbled together the Battle of Yalu River, 1904 as a trial. The results were pretty good.

Russo-Japanese War

Renaissance

As with many period it can be quite different things that get you interested. In this case it was the figures more than anything else. Vendel Miniatures produce a number of excellent 28mm figure ranges and whilst I couldn't justify their Greeks I managed to convince myself that I needed their Border Reivers.

Renaissance

I have since extended the period with the acquisition of some of the Vendel Elizabethan Irish which I am in the process of basing.

I've tried a number of rule sets with these figures including Vendel's own Hot Trod & Red Hand, Fyre and Sword and the Antwerp Fusilier's Renaissance Raiders; however, for skirmish I think I may fall back to Two Hour Wargames' Black Powder Battles (with suitable adjustments). I'm still trying to work out which rules I will use for the Elizabethan Irish games though...

Steampunk

I have been slowly collecting some interesting miniatures to use for Steampunk or Victorian Science Fiction if you prefer. The album shows my 25mm Parroom Station Masked Minions and an Ironclad Miniatures steam tank on the surface of Mars.

Steampunk

Photo Spring Clean

I know it's a little early to be spring cleaning but I decided to organise my gaming photos - hence the massive growth of my Picasa albums. I'll be putting in additional entries for each of the new albums over the next couple of days. Some of the photos were previously published on a small Yahoo website I was running and some haven't been on the web before.

Lenin's Library

My regular opponent and the source of my many excellently painted minis, Lenin, is just creating his own website with blog. Lenin's Library, as he has named it, will be where he will blather on about his own (and sometimes our shared) projects, hopefully post pictures of his extensive collection of beautifully painted miniatures (plus some ones of girls with guns I suspect!) and general gaming stuff.

If you're vaguely interested in my gaming witterings then, since we share a lot of the same interests, you'll probably find something to interest you there too!

Review: .45 Adventure

.45 Adventure is a set of miniatures rules by Rattrap Productions for Crimefighting Action in the Pulp Era. These rules have spawned several supplements and versions for other periods including Fantastic Worlds (Pulp SF) and Gloire (Swashbuckling Adventure).

Each figure is assigned various stats familiar to anyone who has played RPGs; however, these have been allocated names suitable to the genre - shivs (melee), heaters (shooting) etc. These are allocated to one of four hit locations (head, torso, arms and legs). When hits are taken in these locations the stats are reduced and eventually the figure will be disabled or killed. Each location is also allocated a damage rating (DR) which is taken into account to determine whether a hit is effective or not.

In addition to the stats the figures may be allocated specific attributes or skills which may improve stats or provide special abilities.

The game only uses a 10 sided dice (d10) which makes is less confusing for new players than Savage Worlds, which we have typically used for this period in the past. The mechanics used are based on stat tests where a player will roll a d10 and add the relevant stat (adjusted by an appropriate modifiers) and if it equals or exceeds 10 then they are successful.

On a game turn initiative is rolled and then players activate figures alternately within each Dodge level. Each figure can then conduct a single action (unless they have a special ability which permits more) which include moving, aiming, shooting and the like. Moving and shooting is permitted if appropriate but with a significant modifier.

Figures also give the player Hero points which may be used to improve dice rolls or allow dice to be re-rolled. This contributes significantly to the Pulp feel as along with the better characters being more robust you can use the hero points to avoid results which would spoil the "feel" of the game.

All the usual combat situations are dealt with along with rules for appropriate period weapons and vehicles.

One of the key features of the system is the approach to the terrain. Rattrap have clearly recognised that most games end up being fought in a relatively small area of the table no matter its size. Consequently their scenarios are based around a 2' x 2' area. Obviously the rules will work with larger tables but the more compact approach certainly speeds up game set up and reduces the costs!

In addition to the terrain the scenarios are expected to include encounter markers which trigger events or allow figures to discover equipment, clues or whatever is required to move the story along.

The rules come with a decent number of character archetypes (which are further expanded in the various supplements) and rules for creating your own. Two sample scenarios are provided along with guidance for making up your own (the supplements go on to build in both of these areas).

Whilst .45 Adventure doesn't have the absolute range of Savage Worlds (particularly in the area of magic for example) it is much more straight forward and provides a really fun experience.

Given the minimal requirements to run a game these rules are recommended. They are available as both a hardcopy ($16) and a .pdf download ($8).

First Look: Tannhäuser

We managed a couple of games of Tannhäuser by Fantasy Flight Games at the weekend. It's a board game with pre painted plastic miniatures set in an alternative 1949 where the Great War never ended. This alternate world looks a lot like some alternative WW2 settings but obviously avoids the swastikas which would preclude the game from being sold in some European countries.

The board is double sided and is laid out with paths marked in different colours. These colours allow the line of sight rules to function amongst other things.

The 10 miniatures are plastic and painted to a decent standard (equivalent to Heroclix). They each come with a character card and a number of tokens which allow you to customise them in terms of equipment, skills and the like. The components are relatively language independent but it didn't take too much effort to work out the meaning of the various icons.

The rulebook is of the usual Fantasy Flight type but still relatively easy to understand and we were up and running pretty quickly. In broad brush terms the game pits the Federated States of the Union (the Allies) against the Reich's forces which is a battle generally between technology and magic. On the face of it some of the characters look very powerful but actually our games were pretty well balanced. Once you've mastered the basic concepts it's a fun game.

I believe more figures and expansions are on the way and this one will get some more outings that's for sure.

All Things Zombie

Last weekend Lenin and I played a game of ATZ by Two Hour Wargames. It's another of their rule sets based around the reaction system and with rules to govern the zombie movement and action it works really well solo.

The scenario was based in a ruined world following a catastrophic series of meteor strikes. Lenin had a small squad out searching for survivors and resources. His squad entered the table in two Vietnam era trucks (borrowed from the National Guard) and managed to get about a third of the way in before finding the road blocked by a bus. Failed attempts to start the bus attracted a zombie and from that point things went downhill rapidly. With more and more zombies being attracted by gunfire the squad managed to hold them off for a while but then began to struggle. After losing a couple of the team the others boarded one of the trucks and made a run for it with a huge number of zombies in pursuit. Unfortunately the driver lost control after barging a car out of the way and the truck crashed killing another of the team and injuring the driver. They managed to give the main horde of zombies the slip but ran into another couple on the way to a stronghold they though might hold the local police. Managing to evade them they crossed the bridge to find that the police had succumbed to the zombies and only just managed to get off board.

Lenin thought he'd done pretty poorly having lost half the team, two trucks and not having recovered any resources. On the contrary just managing to get anyone off the table alive in an ATZ game is a win in my book!

See my earlier post for some photos of the game.

Gaming The Red Star

If you read WebWitter, my other blog, you may have noticed that I was lucky enough to get a copy of the collected edition of The Red Star. With such powerful imagery and a compelling storyline any wargamer's thoughts turn to gaming it. Given that Lenin originally introduced me to the series we have already done a little investigation into possible sources for figures and the like. I thought I'd pass on some ideas in case you too are interested.

For figures the obvious starting point has to be Copplestone Castings with his excellent 28mm lines including four packs of Neo-Sovs from his Future Wars range along with some Partizans who might be useful for the Nokgorka rebels from Run Makita Run.


Lenin also suggested adapting one or two of the Bolshevik Heroines as Warkasters.

For those less keen on painting the Red Blok forces from Rackham's AT-43 line are also a possibility. This line also includes some walkers which, whilst I can't recall similar ones appearing in the story could easily be fitted in.


As to vehicles, I doubt that any sane person would look to try to put a skyfurnace on the table (always you had a table big enough) but some of the armour could easily be represented by the Old Crow Sabre heavy tank with a suitable paint job.

I haven't found anything which I would be happy with for Al'istaan as yet but we're still looking...

Pictures from the Gaming Weekend

Gaming Weekend - Jan 08

Gaming Weekend

Lenin popped over this weekend and we managed to get quite a few games in. As expected Rattrap had a good showing with games of .45 Adventure and their new offering Fantastic Worlds. We also had a fun All Things Zombie game and a whole slew of boardgames including a first outing from Athens & Sparta. I did take a few pictures but the lighting was a little problematic so plenty weren't up to much. I should post the few that are worth looking at soon along with a little more description of the games.

Happy New Year!

So scarily enough it's 2008 already (how many of you remember when you were younger thinking the year 2000 was a long way away!) and a chance to make a few changes. I'm hoping to get some gaming in next weekend (.45 Adventure and derivatives is likely to dominate this time) and get some of my lesser played games to the tabletop. I'm sure that, like all New Year resolutions, will fall by the wayside under the relentless pressure of real life! But I'm going to give it a go. Sorting out my figures and terrain would be a useful beginning as would labelling them!

Anyway let me wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Duell

I managed to pick up a copy of Duell, the fencing card game, which is a republishing by Ravensburger of En Garde by Reiner Knizia, from eBay. Having read the various comments on BoardGameGeek I used the En Garde rules and tried a few games with my wife, starting with the Basic Game and moving on up through the Standard Game to the Advanced rules.

The game is very simple in concept a linear track is placed between the players and pawns placed on either end of it to represent the fencers. Each player is dealt 5 cards from a deck of 25 (5 sets of values 1 to 5) and then plays the cards in turn to advance down or retreat back up the track or to attack their opponent. With the advanced rules, which include advance and attack and defensive retreats it is a really fun game that actually manages to give the feel of fencing despite its simplicity.

The production values of the Ravensburger version are fine but if you are looking for a real visual feast you might want to check out the version of En Garde being produced by Ferti (although it doesn't contain the English rules so you'd need to download those). Personally if I want to improve the look I'm going to fish out my Redoubt Musketeer figures and I'd also like to work out a way to get it into a miniatures game as it's the best fencing simulation I've found so far.

Lardies Christmas Pudding Arrives!

The Too Fat Lardies have released their latest seasonal special just in time for Christmas. Weighing in at 133 pages it's the usual excellent mix of supplements, scenarios and articles for the Lardies various rule sets.

I haven't been through the whole thing as yet - it only arrived a couple of days ago but I've found from the previous seasonal specials that, even if you don't have the rules in question, all the articles and scenarios and an interesting read. It's sure to keep my occupied over Christmas and for only £5 for the .pdf it's not to heavy on the pocket.

Which is more Important: Your Morale or Your Troops' Morale?

We played a Late Roman skirmish last week using Pax Romana and the game raised some interesting questions for me. One related specifically to the rules, and more of that later, and the other to the issue of morale. Crazy Dave was playing the Franks raiding inland from the Medway and I was fielding the Romano-Brits defending (later ably aided by Gav and Ben when the reinforcements arrived). The game started slowly with Dave picking his way through the early morning fog and eventually spotting my settlement but not before I'd spotted him and nipped off to inform the local garrison. Dave advanced his veteran troops towards my village, which was only defended by armed farmers and it looked like it was all going to be over pretty quickly. But when my lone archer loosed a couple of shots Dave decided to retire to the woods to regroup. By the time he'd got himself organised a patrol from the garrison had arrived and the fight looked like it was going to be a little more even. Unfortunately for Dave his reputation for unpredictable dice rolling was well earned and getting into the village was pretty heavy going for him. But he'd awung some of his troops in a flanking manoeuvre which surprised us from the rear and despite the patrol it started to swing Dave's way. Then more reinforcements arrived from the garrison and we all thought it was over for Dave. But despite the odds Dave moved onto the offensive and charged into the approaching units some of which broke and Dave's vets made their morale rolls. After a lot of heavy fighting Dave was eventually beaten but at a huge cost to the locals.

This all made me think, the game would have been quite different if Dave had used his aggression when advancing on the village in the first instance and had someone else been playing his troops later when the reinforcements arrived they could have simply run for the hills (which given the odds was what we were expecting!). It really highlights that no matter the morale rules for the troops the morale of the players is just as if not more important. It also goes to show that no matter what the odds any game with dice can go either way!

As to the rules one of the things that helped Dave was his veteran troops which get more actions than the less experienced troops. On reflection we were concerned that the veterans were getting rather too much of an advantage from this which was difficult to justify logically. Ben suggested using alternatives including getting several activation cards and being able to choose the highest thus allowing them to react faster. Bronze is now pondering so there may be a revised version coming.

Chain Reaction 2.0 - Available Free!

The Chain Reaction 2.0 rules are now being offered as a free .pdf download by Two Hour Wargames! These are the basic rules upon which the majority of Two Hour Wargames other sets like Nuts! and FNG are based.

The rules cover all the reaction test mechanics and provide stats for a variety of weaponry, so they make a great set for any modern skirmish.

If you haven't tried the Two Hour Wargames style rules I'd give them a go (you can't complain about the price!). They do have a learning curve but once you're over that they are excellent.

Out of the Box: Napoleon's Triumph

Having got my copy of Napoleon's Triumph from Simmons Games earlier this week I decided to get it out of the box and have a look at both the components and the rules. The pieces are almost identical to those from Bonaparte at Marengo (BaM) but there have been some slight printing alignment issues with the unit markings being printed slightly offset, but this doesn't affect game play. The Leaders are designated by metal flag markers which sit on top of the unit blocks, these require stickers to be affixed for both sides of the flags and the Leader's name (oh great more stickers!). These are easily done and set up the game looks something like this:


With this slightly closer view you can see the locale polygons designating the areas on the map:

There are some differences with the rules from BaM but given the subject matter that's not surprising but it looks like a development rather than a rewrite and they continue the streamlined approach. Now all I need is an opponent - this game doesn't have a high SAF (Spouse Approval Factor) and even if I could persuade her I suspect she'd consider it too "thinky"!

WebWitter

Given that the focus of this blog is supposed to be gaming (I know I get a little distracted at times) - decided to create a new blog to cover my other main interest, technology. WebWitter is my new blog on which I ramble on about gadgets, technology, movies, tv and such like. Have a look, assuming you can stand more of me wittering on!

NUTS! Available at a discount

Nuts! - one of my favourite sets of rules from Two Hour Wargames is their featured game this month. Which means you can get it for US$5 less than the usual list price - so the .pdf is only US$12.

All the Chain Reaction 2.0 based rule sets have a bit of a learning curve but once you get over that The reaction test system provides a different but very effective simulation. I've yet to find another set of rules at this level which gives you the "feel" that Nuts! does. It leans more to the realistic than the hollywood version of WW2 but that is what I was looking for anyway.

The Road to Milan, April 1522

We tried out the To the Banners rules by Partizan Press at the club last week. Bronze picked these up at SELWG last year IIRC and he umpired the game. The rules embody some interesting mechanisms, particularly around initiative and artillery which make good use of the d6. It did, however, become clear that the rules were really designed for two player games rather than multi-player ones (unless you enjoy lots of downtime) and that some of the mechanics could have done with much better explanation in the booklet. Added to that units have to take some serious punishment before being eliminated which isn't really compatible with our limited playing time.

The rules did simulate the difficulties in co-ordinating units and the effect of leaders and the artillery was ineffective but fun.

Overall they are nicely presented and gave a fun game but you need to persevere with some of the text and keep to two players. Given that we liked the rules I suspect Bronze will be trying some amendments to cater for multi-player games.

Napoleon's Triumph

Impressed by Bonaparte at Marengo (BaM), I just picked up a copy of Simmons Games latest release, Napoleon's Triumph (NT) from Gameslore. NT is a development of the BaM system for the Battle of Austerlitz. The board is nearly 3' x 4'!

As with BaM, NT divides the map into polygons with defined "approaches" which restrict combat and/or movement. It also uses a diceless combat system and hidden unit strengths but now adds leaders.

I am really looking forward to giving this one a go!

Friedrich - A Euro/War game Hybrid?

I managed to pick up a copy of Friedrich at Orc's Nest last week. It's a boardgame about the Seven Years War for 3 or 4 players (though there are two 2 player scenarios) pitting one player (as Friedrich) against the others, although only one player can win.

On first sight it looks like a cross between a Euro game and a Wargame with the wooden pieces, control chits and point to point map, and the mechanics repeat that approach - conflict but with a pretty streamlined system (combat using cards). The historic flavour is enhanced with the use of the Fate deck which introduces real events into the game - some of these eliminate individual nations but all the allies have a fall back to work with.

I've only managed to read the rules so far but it looks very interesting - particularly as the hybrid nature of the game should give it a wider appeal than my more traditional wargames.

Athens & Sparta Arrives!

My pre order copy of Athens & Sparta by Columbia Games finally arrived today. I've only had chance to unwrap and open the box (so I still have the unrivalled fun of the stickers ...) but the game certainly looks interesting. Obviously as a Columbia block game it has the usual step reductions and it's card driven with the map being hex based - all of which we have seen in other of their games. The productions values are the same as their other games with the same file box and sleeve arrangement with an unmounted board etc. but that's only to be expected.

I could quibble about the release delay (1 month) and the lack of any sort of communication from Columbia about that (I found out from checking their website) despite them having my email address and moving from a "Coming in September" to a "Coming Soon" message without warning. But now that I have it this seems a little churlish.

Expect my first impressions once I've got myself into the appropriate Zen state to do the stickering and run through the rules...

Have I found Solomon Kane?

In my search for a suitable Solomon Kane figure, Lenin pointed me to Black Cat Bases who have this "Vampire Hunter" in their "Civilians, Townsfolk and Mercenaries for hire" range:

He certainly looks the part to me!

Setback in San Guano

Managed to get an AK47 game in at the club on Thursday. Set in the Republic of San Guano my "rebel" forces (I like to think of them as freedom fighters - though not exactly sure whose freedom they're fighting for - wallet fighters might be better!) were narrowly defeated by the illegitimate Government forces (only 8 points in it IIRC).

What the game did do was remind me what I do and don't like about AK47 Republic. The production values are hardly top notch - dodgy coloured pages (presumably to reduce the chance of photocopying), poor layout, pretty basic illustrations and abysmal proof-reading. There are plenty of fun ideas (and some silly ones) along with a simple set of basic mechanisms which are easy to pick up. But the random scenario generation does leave a lot to be desired (you can be defeated by a few dodgy dice rolls for unit arrival - which given my reputation for dice rolling ain't great!).

But overall the core rules give a fun game (as long as you recognise what they're for!). Reflecting back on the previous Metal Storm game it did feel similar (which is not surprising given that it's based on AK47) but AK47 is still a lot less fiddly.

Kriegsspiel

I spotted that the Too Fat Lardies have managed to reprint the von Reisswitz Prussian Army Wargame Kriegsspiel so I ordered a .pdf copy of it. The book is the 1824 version of the rules with both Editor's notes and the 1828 update included. The .pdf isn't terribly printer friendly as over the first half of the book has coloured backgrounds to the pages.

The Lardies also produce scenarios and a version of the Meckel map to go with the rules and I believe Lancashire Games make the markers - so this could be yet another project (which will never get finished!).

The Savage World of Solomon Kane

I just picked up a copy of the Savage World of Solomon Kane from Orcs Nest. It's the latest Savage Worlds book and it's a beauty. The book comes in hardback, with glossy pages and lots of illustrations. It provides both the Solomon Kane background, the Savage Worlds rules, details of the Kane's world and a plot point campaign.

I really enjoyed Robert E. Howard's The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane and this book allows you to bring it to both the RPG and tabletop world with the Savage Worlds rules.

Of course now I need a figure for Kane himself...

Quebec 1759

I managed to pick up a copy of the Columbia Games block wargame Quebec 1759 on eBay recently. It was actually an old Gamma II edition but other than a couple of very minor production differences the games are identical. The box sleeve was a little more badly damaged than I was expecting but the game was complete and the block bags still sealed and unstickered - though after C&C:A I would have been happy to get one with the stickers already fixed. I've only had a chance to read though the rules so far and it's pretty much as expected. It was one of Gamma II/Columbia's early games (first published in 1972) and so is somewhat less sophisticated than their later offerings but that's what I was looking for - I want a range of games I can play with different sets of people. My other half likes board and card games but isn't keen on wargames as they're "too thinky". I'm hoping something simpler like Quebec 1759 might allow a foot in the door. Who knows - but it's got to be worth a try!

Wargames Weekend Update

Managed to get quite a few games in when Lenin visited last weekend including Troops, Weapons and Tactics, Metal Storm, Renaissance Raiders, Savage Worlds and Commands and Colors: Ancients Expansion #1.

Troops, Weapons and Tactics is heavily based on the Too Fat Lardies previous rules I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (IABSM) and that is very apparent. As the rules are lower level, with the tactical unit being a fire team rather than the IABSM section, a few additional mechanics have been added. This was only the first try out but our initial impression was that, whilst they did provide an interesting game, the additional chrome didn't produce a result which was a pleasing as Nuts! in terms of the "feel". Obviously this is highly subjective but I think the additional mechanics confuse and complicate the basic IABSM approach but don't deliver proportional added value - which is a shame as I am a big fan of IABSM and use them as my preferred rules for the next level up.

Metal Storm was another first outing. The rules appear to be heavily based on Peter Pig's AK47 Republic rules with the addition of different dice sizes and rules for more modern weaponry. As with all rules which use up and downgrading using different dice sizes (d4, d6, d8, d10 etc.) the statistics are a little iffy but the overall result was a fun game (though we're reserving judgement on the realism element) and I expect these will see another outing (though possibly with some tweaks).

For oue first go at Renaissance Raiders from the Antwerp Fusiliers, we pulled out my 28mm Vendel Border Reivers, Grand Manner Bastle House and Gripping Beast livestock for a little sheep and cattle rustling on the borders. The rules are heavily influenced by the Commands and Colors system and are intended to be hex based. Since I don't have any hex terrain I chose to restructure them slightly to allow them to be used on a normal tabletop. Again they gave a fun game but in my view the card and average dice initiative mechanic was a little too involved for the type of game we were trying and the cards needed to pop up more often (and be a little more varied) to add flavour. The core approach is sound but a few changes are what's needed for it to become ideal for a Reivers game rather than a more traditional Renaissance battle.

Savage Worlds once again proved it is a versatile ruleset allowing you to meld various genres successfully. Lenin presented an excellent Pulp meets Call of Cthulhu game which was tremendous fun.

And having spent ages putting the stickers on my Greek and Eastern Kingdom expansion for Commands and Colors: Ancients (CC:A), I was determined to actually use it - so we set up and played the Gaugamela scenario. CC:A is still a favourite and the card system provides some real challenges for each commander.

The best laid plans and all that...

Given that my plans didn't include being ill things have slipped a little but such is life.

It has allowed me to make a bit more progress with Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop which focusses on the RAF around the Battle of Britain. The book relies heavily on the author's research into the individual pilots who fought and died in that critical time. An interesting read.

I think I've also got a scenario for the Troops, Weapons and Tactics game too. Another opportunity for me to look out my 20mm bridge for an Eastern Front game!

Back from my holidays - Time for a sort out

Just got back from a family holiday relaxed and refreshed - so just in the mood to have a complete sort out! I've decided that I need to catalogue all my unfinished projects and work out a plan to get them moving again. A cursory glance in the games room revealed quite a few stalled projects which don't need a huge amount of work to get them to the table top.

I'm also planning to create a schedule to get my unplayed rules played! First off I plan to give Troops Weapons and Tactics by the Too Fat Lardies (a lower level derivative of their I Ain't Been Shot Mum WW2 rules) and Renaissance Raiders by the Antwerp Fusiliers (a set inspired by the Commands and Colors system - although hex based I plan to convert these to traditional table top). So watch this space!

News: Athens and Sparta

If you're interested in block games the latest Columbia Games offering Athens and Sparta is due for release next month. Using a combination of traditional block mechanics and a card driven approach it looks interesting, through not revolutionary. But as it's a period I'm interested in (and one I'm not likely ever to collect enough miniatures to play on the table top) I'm probably going to pre-order it.

The game has an odd back story, this release is by Tom Dalgliesh rather than the originally touted game by Craig Besinque. There appears to have been a parting of the ways some time during the development process and Carig has taken his game to GMT Games to be published as Hellenes: Athens vs. Sparta. Superficially the games seems pretty similar with the Columbia offering seeming slightly simpler/shorter (which is what I was looking for anyway). But it will be interesting to see how they compare when the GMT game comes out (it's still on the P500 list).

Oh Dear - got out of the habit

If I had left this post until tomorrow it would have been an entire month with no posts - sorry about that! Real life has been intruding and I've just got out of the habit of making even small posts (which is something I really need to try to do) - I suppose as I'm only just back from holiday and, prior to that, hadn't really had much in the way of gaming going on (way way too much work) I didn't think I had much of interest to say.

Got a couple of additional games so I'll be popping first looks up if I can get my act together. Just need to pop off and fix the TV as my wife seems to have killed it - possibly in an attempt to get a new one!

So where the heck have you been?!

Sorry folks - loads of work, a brief (very brief) holiday and a bunch of boring domestic stuff have been getting in the way of my gaming life! So not much to really blog about - but I thought I'd check in just to prove I'm still here.

I am still trying to make progress on some of my ongoing projects (but not having much success at the moment) - I've got all my Vendel and Graven Images Tudor Ireland figures out in order to finish basing them and to try to encourage me to work out the rules (not having been able to find any commercial ones that suited). At the moment they are a card based set but need some major development before they're ready for the tabletop.

I just took delivery of the balance of a Eureka order which I picked most of up at Salute. A slight ordering mix up meant they took much longer than expected. They are mostly Greek Myth figures to compliment the Foundry Greek horde I bought in their summer sale. I'll be using the Typhon rules for them - I just need to get them painted now!

I still haven't got round to taking pictures of the Brigade Games figures I got back from Lenin but I'll try to do that next weekend (no promises mind!).

XDA: eXtremely Duff Assistant

Work kindly provided me with an O2 XDA a few weeks ago so that I could get email on the go. Now me being a bit of a gadget geek thought woohoo this'll mean I can dump my palm and mobile for a single device. Unfortunately the XDA is a compromise of the worst kind - yes it's got load of features BUT and it's a big but - the battery life really sucks! If you really conserve it you might get a day and a half - compare that with my Nokia mobile and Palm Zire both of which would be well into their second week with the same usage. In addition the XDA is saddled with Windows Mobile - nice idea but oh dear is it flaky - it once crashed four times in a hour!

Hopefully I'll be swapping it for a blackberry soon and that can't be as bad - can it?

5150: Assault on Arcturus

The 5150 game we played over the big game weekend was another trial for the rules (as we were running it wrong previously) to try them again. This was human vs human so we need another trial to check out the alien specific reaction tables though. Here's the briefing:

Location: Arcturus, the Arcturus Loop (between the Borodino and Weyland Yutani Sectors)

For years the Arcturus Loop has provided a route for trade (both legal and illegal) to bypass the Core Systems. Both the ICC and the UNSC have failed to halt or regulate this traffic and this has been a source of some tension amongst the Nation States and the Corporations. The Neu Swabian League (NSL) have finally lost patience and taken direct action to deal with this problem. They have launched an invasion force bent on taking direct control of Arcturus itself and hence the loop. The initial assault wave was formed of elite teams of Sturmtroopen who have been deployed against specific strategic targets in advance of the main invasion force. One such target was Ibn Ihmael, a key control complex for the Arcturian planetary defence and communications system. The surprise assault has left the NSL in control of the complex but the Planetary Defence Forces have planned a counter attack to retake the complex and regain control of the planetary defences, possibly their last chance to halt the main NSL invasion force.

The NSL force consisted of two 5 man squads in Hard Body Armour with a variety of weapons. They were generally Rep 4 led by Rep 5 squad leaders and had the advantage of a fortified position (albeit with a perimeter too long to properly defend). The Arcturian PDF was a squad of Rep 3s in Soft Body Armour led by Rep 5s again.

A initial probe by a PDF scout quickly revealed the NSL positions (recon by death) but the first PDF assualt was quickly routed by NSL fire and the entire squad legged it for home. A more tactical approach had the NSL pinned down by one squad whilst the other attempted a flanking manoeuvre. The NSL squad slowly lost out to the greater PDF numbers and following a quick bypass being run on the main gate the outer defences were penetrated.

A short firefight between a second NSL fire team and the PDF ended prematurely with the judicious use of an anti-air missile by the PDF. The PDF advanced towards the command bunker only to be pinned down by the remaining NSL troopers. A brave assault by a PDF trooper with a flame unit failed by concentrated fire some his buddies took out the NSL trooper.

The final assault on the bunker was quickly resolved with the NSL officer being cut down before he could destroy the comms equipment and the NSL shuttle pilot thought discretion the better part of valour and bugged out.

It was a fun game (around the two hours - as you might expect) and reinforced our view that the THW system is a winner.

Our SF universe is a melding of the Aliens RPG and GZG backgrounds - more details can be found on the Encyclopedia Galactica.

A whole lot of gaming goin' on...

The main reason for the latest lack of posts is I've been preparing for a big weekend of gaming and then actually playing loads of games! Lenin popped over for the weekend and we managed to get in a record number of miniatures and board/card games including 5150, Warmaster, Triumph of the Will, Afriboria, Gloire, Commands and Colors Ancients, Shogun and Pirate's Cove to name a few. I am currently working up some session reports, a couple of brief reviews and some photos. Lenin also brought over some Brigade figures he has painted for me - so expect a figure review of those soon too.

How time flies...

I could make loads of excuses for the lack of posts but I'm sure noone would be in the slightest bit interested (indeed juding by the almost complete absence of comments I may simply be talking to myself!). Anyway most of my time has been spent at work and when I have had some free time I've been preparing for a big gaming weekend coming up over the Bank Holiday (so more of that after the event - including some reviews, or at least first impressions, of several games).

I did, however, manage to get along to my club this week and had a fun late roman skirmish game using Pax Romana. The result should have been a foregone conclusion since I had Eric (the Spawn of Satan) on my side but his usual spectacular dice rolling certainly wasn't in evidence so I can only assume that Beelzebub has deserted him for a more willing acolyte! In any event we seemed to have done enough to ensure victory when I had to leave a little early (I'm still waiting confirmation of the final result - so if we didn't win I'll blame it all on my colleagues snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!). Bronze, who was running the game, produced some lovely Gripping Beast toys and we're now giving some though to putting our collections together and running a big game - the jury's still out on which rules to use though...

Where's the post?

You'd think with all that spare time over a bank holiday weekend I'd have found some time to post something to the blog. Err...well no not really. It's amazing how much ends up getting packed into three days; however, not much actually gaming (well that's not strictly true as I did get some family boardgaming in but no wargaming I'm afraid). I've had a chance to read the various rules I bought at Salute and am now setting up some test scenarios so that I can put together a full review. I even managed to get another rule set and some other bits but more of that once I've had a proper chance to read them. So watch this space...

First Look: Troops, Weapons & Tactics

Troops, Weapons & Tactics (TW&T) is the latest ruleset from the Too Fat Lardies. It is largely based on their previous I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! (IABSM) World War 2 Company level rules but TW&T is pitched at Platoon level. Anyone familiar with IABSM will see a whole series of concepts being ported across not just the Lardies signature card activation system. The major new addition is Tactical Initiative which are points representing the orders which Big Men can give to the troops under their command. Being at Platoon level the rules have a lot more "chrome" than was included in IABSM, whether upsets the balance between flavour and playability is yet to be seen. In addition to the main rules the second part of the booklet is devoted to a synopsis of the major players in Europe in the later part of the war.

TW&T is available from the Too Fat Lardies for £17.00 in softback or £10.00 for the .pdf (be warned that the second part of the booklet looks nice but isn't very printer friendly with plenty of full page watermark pictures and colour).

Start Player: A Kinda Collectable Card Game

A recurring problem with various boardgames I have is that they don't specify who should start or, alternatively, they only give you a single option (i.e. youngest player, oldest player etc.) which becomes somewhat of a drag if you tend to have the same opponent. Bezier Games have come up with a solution - Start Player a kinda collectable card game. It's a deck of collectable cards each of which has different conditions to determine which player should start e.g. the shortest player, the player with the most body hair, the player who last bought a game etc. The cards are of pretty thin card stock and not all exactly the same size but they do come with different Board2Pieces cartoons on each and as a ten second distraction before the main game they work pretty well.

As with other, more conventional, CCGs Start Player has a starter deck (with 42 cards: 27 commons, 5 uncommons, at least 1 rare, 1 blank, and 8 rules etc. cards) and a series of booster decks are available. Unfortunately I believe it is only available direct from Bezier Games which, due to the postage, makes this relatively expensive circa US$21.95 with P&P to the UK. Bezier can also be a little slow posting the order - mine arrived about 4 weeks after ordering; however the post mark was only five days before it arrived!

First Look: Crusader

Crusader Historical Miniatures Rules by Crusader Miniatures is a set of miniature wargames rules designed to cover Biblical times to the Medieval period. Anyone who has read my earlier rant regarding Ancients as a period will have some idea of my views on this approach. The rules don't appear to contain anything radical or particularly innovative; however, this can be said of any number of other rule sets. They have a stand based approach which should avoid the need for rebasing and are both nicely presented and clearly laid out.

I picked up a softcover copy of the rules at Salute for their special offer price of £5 as opposed to the normal £7.50. Given that you get a 60+ page glossy booklet with nice colour pictures I thought the offer price was pretty good value. Obviously I've not tried playing them yet but will post a review once I have.

First Look: Typhon

Typhon by Alternative Armies is a set of miniature wargames rules designed to accompany their range of 50mm Greek Myth figures but can be used with other figure scales. Typhon is aimed firmly at Greek Myth and provides a synopsis of all the most well known stories. In addition to combat the rules allow the players to pray to the Gods for support either by granting special powers to various items or by bestowing skills or favours upon them. The object of the rules is to form your own adventuring band and create your own myth through a chain of scenarios.

I picked up a comb bound softcover copy of the rules at Salute for £12 but they are available direct from Alternative Armies either on its own or as part of a package deal with some of the 50mm figures (which are available both unpainted and painted).

First Look: Gloire

Gloire by Rattrap Productions is subtitled Swashbuckling Adventure in the Age of Kings and is a set of miniature wargames rules. Gloire is based on the mechanics of Rattrap's previous set of pulp rules .45 Adventure. As it says Gloire is aimed at Swashbuckling games and hence leans more toward the game rather than the simulation end of the spectrum.

I picked up a softcover copy of the rules at Salute for £10 but they are available as a .pdf download from either Rattrap or RPGnow for US$11 along with a few free scenarios, game aids and pre-generated characters. There is also a yahoo discussion group to support the rules.

Salute Sum Up

As always I made my annual pilgrimage to the Salute show at ExCeL in London last weekend. I arrived at around 09:30 (with doors scheduled to open at 10:00) and joined the Queuebuster Queue (an oxymoron if ever there was one as Lenin pointed out). Fortunately we were actually let in around 15 minutes early so it wasn't too long a wait. It was an expensive day out for some with the parking being a little on the steep side and with the entry price being £9 for the standard punters - along with the cost of getting there.

I must admit the new layout did go some way to reduce the feeling of wandering around an aircraft hanger but the space is still somewhat soulless. I trundled around picking up my figure pre-order and a few new rule sets (of which more in some later First Look posts) but there wasn't a huge amount that really caught my eye. There was a huge range in the games being put on from the "I'd be embarrassed to put it on in my living room" to the visually impressive but nothing that made me rush off and mortgage my house on a new project (probably fortunately). Lenin and I met up with Swiss Tony and all came to the same conclusion - we're not getting any younger and it's more difficult to generate the same excitement about a project.

Once I got home I broke out the new rules I'd purchased and they have certainly got me thinking about some new games - I've even started putting together some terrain for one of them which is a good sign. So maybe I'm not as jaded as I thought.

TotW: Spanish Civil War

Another Triumph of the Will game this week - this time the Spanish rather than the Russian Civil War. We were the Nationalists attacking a Republican held town. Things started well, that is right up until we encountered the Republicans - largely by wandering across the open ground in front of their dug in machine guns! It might not have been quite so bad had we not been facing Eric the Spy whose dice rolling prowess has led many to speculate that he has in fact sold his soul to Satan! His probability smashing rolls cut my first battalion to pieces and gave the second a darned good thrashing until eventually our return fire actually had some effect.

In the end a victory for the Republicans but a good time had by all - but your time will come Eric!

WTF: In the Night Garden...

My daughter has just been watching In the Night Garden... and I caught a few minutes of it. Have the Beeb been spending my license fee on a lorry load of illicit substances or what?!? I know this is aimed at very young children but it makes the Teletubbies look like serious drama! And don't get me started on the Teletubbies... I always wondered if it was a post apocalyptic nightmare with our cyborg descendants living in a reused fall out shelter in a (Logan's Run) manicured haven in the (unseen) ruins of our world. Their lives controlled 1984 style by an invisible narrator with their only access to our time via their embedded TV screens showing archive footage of a lost world. And then there's the Boohbahs.... arrghhh ... where's my tablets??!?

C&C:A - The Battle of Akragas

I broke out Commands and Colors: Ancients in order to teach myself the rules, so I gave the first scenario, the Battle of Akragas (406BC), between Syracuse and Carthage, a go solo.

The rules are very easy to pick up (especially to someone used to miniature wargames) and give a quick game. The command card system certainly gives you plenty of challenges as the commander on each side. The combat system is pretty straightforward but with a few little "exceptions" that you need to keep an eye out for.

The blocks work well and the cards are made from good stock. The game board sits reasonably flat if you back fold it but is certainly a weak point if viewed from a boardgamer perspective. All round it's fine if compared to board wargames but doesn't compare well to the higher production values of other Commands and Colors games such as Memoir '44 or Battlelore.

Victory went to Syracuse, not least due to them having one more command card than Carthage. I am looking forward to getting the game in front of a real opponent!

Commands and Colors Ancients: Custom Dice

I ordered a set of custom dice from Valley Games in Canada for my copy of GMT's Commands and Colors Ancients (C&C:A) a week last Monday and they arrived yesterday. That's not bad from across the pond.

They are lighter than the dice included in second edition C&C:A (the ones in the first edition weren't up to much I hear) but have the symbols etched into the surface rather than using stickers like the originals. Very nice and not too expensive too even accounting for the postage.

Operation Sealion - Back on the Agenda

I have been interested in Operation Sealion (Unternehmen Seelöwe), the planned invasion of Britain in 1940, for some time. It was reinforced when I moved to Kent and was able to have a look at some of the key locations. I even ran a short lived wargames campaign using GMT Games' Britain Stands Alone for the strategic element. As with most campaigns it ran out of steam largely due to the logistics. After that my interest waned for a period but I recently bought a copy of Invasion, 1940 by Derek Robinson which has rekindled it. Whilst the book doesn't live up to its own hype and, for me, doesn't really add anything new, it did get me thinking about Sealion again. So I will be going back through my various resources and will be making posts on the blog about my thoughts. I am also wondering about working on a new game or campaign based on it. After all it's not a new project just a dormant one being restarted. Watch this space.