Southern Front 2025

I headed up to Raleigh, North Carolina for Southern Front game con last weekend. Overall, I had a really nice time. I haven't been to a con in almost 18 months so it was good to get back in the groove. 

I took my modernized What A Cowboy variant, Shakedown and hosted a game on Friday evening. I also took Rubber and Lead and three races were run for a few attendees.

My first game of the weekend was My Galley Sally, an older club-level ruleset for ancient Galley combat. I've never played that sort of game but it was a blast.

We, the Greeks!

If there's a choice, I always take yellow.

Some action.

I managed the first ram of the battle and got a terrific result, sinking the enemy vessel outright!

More boat-smashing, boarding and arrow-firing!

At the end, two ships had been captured, one Greek and one Persian and one sunk. There were many casualties as you can see! The Greeks were deemed the victors by the GM.

After dinner, I hosted my Shakedown game. We had the Latin Kings and Outlaws in a drugs for money transaction. The Cops and Bloods both showed up mid-transaction and chaos ensued.

I made some appropriate kill markers!

Officer Axel Foley and Dale Jr. get into it.

At the end of the engagement, the Bloods and Latin Kings were the big winners, with the Bloods making off with the cash and the LKs retaining possession of their product. The Cops and skinheads both took a beating. It was a mess but everyone enjoyed it!

The next morning, Mark and I both settled in for some Blood and Plunder. We were graced with a large, pretty table.

Mark and I split a detachment. He took the veteran gunners and leader and I took the less experienced melee pirates. That was intentional, to create a focused very powerful unit (not unlike a Kill Stack in Squad Leader).

Marks gunners work on capturing the pig sty.

A messy brawl on the beach!

My crew gets into it with the French buccaneers in the village. Blue markers are French casualties. 

Mark had taken a beating over to the far left there. I was ambushed by some uppity villagers who shot my boys int he backs!

My opponent and I were both decimated by the filthy villagers and our remaining fellows shook hands and decided to get out!

And there he goes, running past the mob!

Even though mark and I failed to capture the spy in the center (the gal in the red dress by the well), our teammates on the left and right flanks performed well, giving our side the win.

I hosted three rounds of Rubber and Lead after lunch. It was tough pulling in players, but those who played got hooked and kept playing.

The high degree-of-difficulty maneuver of crossing the finish line in reverse with the cement mixer!

My final game was a Western Desert 6mm game of Mein Panzer. It was set just after Rommel landed in North Africa and had started probing British positions. The game ended up being a 1 v 1 with a fellow I had hosted the Pirate game earlier. I took command of Ze Germans and Joe was the British commander.

The British started hidden so I deployed to send my tanks, a mix of Pz II, III and IVs, up the road on the left while my infantry company and aufklarung squadron handled my right flank. The three hills, circled in blue, are the objectives.

An 8-rad becomes the fist casualty. Turns out the British armored cars are on that flank!

I got a PaK38 deployed on the hilltop in short order. A PaK36 would follow a turn later.

My Panzers creep forward. 2-Pounders and A13s await them. 

I sent the motorcycles ahead to harass the positions in the center. That firebase needed to be disrupted.

The armored car battle on the right was brutal and both sides took considerable casualties. My ATGs were very effective. 

The motorcycles were also very effective once they got right up on the infantry position. 

But over on the left, my tanks had taken a slow beating which all of a sudden became a waterfall of pain. Many Panzers were brewed up and I was having real trouble silencing the Brits.

Then to cap things off, one of the command tanks was brewed up. The other command tank promptly failed a morale test as badly as one can fail (rolled a 20 on a d20). We called the game. Although I'd had some success on the right, the left and center were just too much and without a sandstorm or smoke screen in front of my tanks, I'd never get through six hull-down tanks and two dug-in ATGs. 

We really enjoyed the game and the scenario. It was a fantastic way to cap off the weekend. 

Another successful Southern Front and I look forward to the next!

Blood and Plunder and Painting

 A few of us got together for some Saturday afternoon Blood and Plunder last weekend. It was refresher situation for us - it's been months since we played last. I played two games against Mike using identical forces each time, while David played more of a learning game against one of the other fellows who showed up, Dennis.

I used my South American natives while Mike used a high-end English force with some cavalry borrowed from Dennis. Just a basic 100-point smash-em-up, nothing fancy.

My deployment. The corner in which I was deployed was a billiard table of open ground. Not even remotely ideal for a force like mine which absolutely must stay in cover.

Mike consolidated into the center pretty quickly and kept the musketballs coming a steady pace. After four or five turns, Mike put his cavalry in the open and they became easy meat for flurries of poisoned arrows. Once they were forced back, the rest of the English followed suit. 

And there they go to tell the tale of woe to any others who'd invade our land!

We reset and played the same matchup again. We did address the open terrain the second time around and flopped deployment corners, right to left.

The game ran similarly, but Mike was eager to get his mounted troops into melee this time. Unfortunately for him, charging across open ground into a full strength unit of good shooters is quite predictable. The arrows accounted for three of the horsemen and they were forced to fall back. After that, it was just another mopping up operation for my tribesmen. 

We both learned a few lessons and rather enjoyed our gaming. I haven't played with those minis in years and they were just as much fun as I remember.

There's David commanding my Spanish on the other side of the table. I think he won his game.

I ordered some more 28mm FIW troops a couple weeks ago from Sash and Sabre. I put the finishing touches on those last evening. Here are a couple shots of them - nothing too crazy, just basic colors and a wash. English Militia and more French Woodsmen for my Blood and Plunder Canada / New England battles.

Last Game of 2023

 Ziggy and I threw dice on December 30th for our last gaming of 2023. I brought out the Blood and Plunder toys for a battle between the French and English in the woods of New England. More than anything, it was an excuse to use as many soldiers as I could field and we each had around 30. 

We played a "Capture the Objective" scenario - the rectangular crate in the midst of the barrels in the picture above is the objective in this case. I commanded the English militia and Iroquois while Zig used the French and their Abenaki allies.

We both worked the flanks since going right up the gut was going to be dangerous.

Blast em!

Well, the musket-fire was pretty ineffective and the Indians smashed into my militia on the right flank taking out four.

Over on the left, it was a similar story but in my favor, with the Iroquois proving to be quite efficient.

A wider shot from the left side of the table. Those Canadian militia on the hill are quite a target, but how to get to them? It didn't help at all that the weather degraded twice during the game and it was now Sweltering Heat! That meant units moving more than once per turn would receive a fatigue point. No "run and smash" for either of us now.

I did push some militia forward right up the gut to contest the objective. They actually hung in there really nicely for a while, dice gods smiling on them for much of the battle.

At the end of the evening though, my troops in the middle had fallen and although I'd gotten two unit around the left flank, they weren't able to capitalize on their situation. My casualties continued to mount and by the end of the fifth turn, the English were done.

Blood and Plunder always delivers an entertaining game and this was no exception. The game handled the higher unit count nicely and it really makes me consider adding to the collections. Maybe after I paint all the Halflings, Goblins and Mechs!

It's a Painting and Posting Streak!

 Happy Fourth fellow Americans! And to those of you who aren't American, Happy Tuesday. I've taken a couple days off with no plans in particular. It's been terribly hot and humid the last week or so, so there's been little reason to go outside without a specific task in mind. Today's high is supposed to be 94 F / 34 C and I've been made responsible for grilling burgers, dogs and sausages for dinner this evening. I think I'm going to wait until after 7:00pm to light the grill.

  Enough of the chit-chat. I painted up a few packs of North Star Native Americans to add to the ranks of my early American colonials. I painted up half for the Iroquois and half for the Abenaki. 

The Iroquois contingent

And the Abenakis

And all together...

Be well!