Memorial Day Gaming

 I had a good turnout for the Memorial Day Weekend Game Bash on Sunday. I put on two games, Dragon Rampant and Check Your 6: Jet Age. 

We started with Dragon Rampant in 15 mil. An alliance of humans and dwarves against undead and dark elves.

The suspects.

Landon, Ziggy and I commanded the forces of "good" while David, Wayne and Mark shared the "evil" army. There were three objective markers along the centerline of the table and we duked it out for control of those over the course of ten turns.

Our battlefield before the fighting got started.

Wayne and Zig slug it out for control of the giant tree at the far end of the table.

Landon and I push towards the ruins as a giant lizard and skeletal cavalry appear to challenge us.

Dwarf warrior and a group of my cavalry capture the central bridge objective.

The "Romans" gave as good as they got against skeletal warriors and the skelephant.

David's poor chariots had a tough time getting going. We corrected their watery situation after this photo was taken. Fortunately they were still floundering and hadn't actually passed an activation roll.

Similarly, David's skelegriffons were lacking in the activation department. They never once succeeded at an activation roll the entire game!

The brawl at the ruins. The giant lizard and dark elf executioners had captured the site, supported by crossbowmen, a sorceress and undead beastmen and light cavalry. My peasant rabble and Landon's dwarves didn't much care for their odds!

We ended the game after seven full turns. We good guys were way ahead on points to the point where Team Evil couldn't catch up. The uncooperative chariots and griffons in the center made such a difference, not to mention very poor activation results on turn 1 for Team Evil. We jumped on the objectives early and the bad guys had to push us away which much easier said than done. They did capture the ruins from me and Landon but Zig's "Romans" held on tight to the left flank. An entertaining game and a good time for sure.

After tidying up the table we put CY6JA on the table. The scenario was a Vietnam bombing mission featuring Navy Corsairs and Phantoms against the typical assortment of MiGs. The teams remained the same as the previous game, with Mike being added to the USN side; he showed up a bit late.

Wayne flew a pair of MiG-17s, David over there, a pair of 19's. Ziggy was the Navy's commander.

One of David's MiG-19s knocks out Ziggy's A-7. The Navy players each flew an A-7 and an F-4. The yellow tokens represented bombing targets.

Wayne's ace in the red MiG-17 scores a hit on Landon's A-7. Just engine damage. We can deal with that.

I finally rolled up a hit with a missile, a Sidewinder into Wayne's red '17. Boom, dead! YESSSS. Then I remembered the "Malfunction roll." D10 comes up a "2." Damn. Put Wayne's plane back. Stupid Raytheon.

I didn't take very many photos. At the end of the day, it was a terrible outing for the Navy pilots. Three A-7s lost and all pilots were captured by the VC. Two bomb drops over the targets but no damage done. Seven missiles fired, ZERO hits. We  probably should have slow-rolled and fired walls of Sparrows early hoping to score an "odds" kill. You figure sixteen Sparrows over the first four turns probably could have gotten one success. Probably should have sent the Phantoms in first to get the MiGs out of formation but hey, you live, you learn. The North Vietnamese players enjoyed things and got some revenge for the earlier loss in Dragon Rampant.

It was a fine afternoon of dice and toy soldiers and it was great having a houseful of buddies over. As we all know, it's not about the game, it's about the experience. Looking forward to a little D-Day Bolt Action next weekend at Mike's place. Be well and good gaming!

Blood and Plunder Spanish

 I finished up the B&P Spanish yesterday. Nice weather outside so I got some sunlight pictures of the crew.

Not a bad lot. It'll be nice to get a nice Caribbean brawl organized. I can try out those boats that have been in storage way too long. 

Earning Their Banners

 The new infantry regiments that were blooded a couple weekends ago in that Napoleonics game received their banners the following day. Apologies for the poorest quality photo, but this was more of me making good on my promises to get those boys their standards.

All prettied up and now ready for the next battle!

Currently I have some Blood and Plunder Spanish in the works. Found a box on Noble Knight for a good price.

I've finished half of them - the Lanceros and Christianized natives. I blasted them with some clear coat earlier and they're out in the garage drying. When these are done, I'm going about 6 years into the past to bring out a long-stale project. I bought some new shinies and have plans. More on that soon enough.

God bless the families of those those were senselessly killed in Texas, New York, California, you name it by the most recent asshole with a gun.

Group Photos - Infinity Starco Mercenaries

 I finished up all the Starco minis I picked up and now have a nice new group to put on the table. Many of these models have been featured here prior, but I took a few minutes this morning to put them all together in the photo box. In game terms, there's certainly plenty for some force composition variety and includes some high-end fighters as well as lower-end "cheerleaders." The so-called "cheerleaders" are important in Infinity as each model provides an order that any model can use. Orders are a resource like any other and are quite valuable and there's a lot to be said for having more orders on-hand than your opponent.. Including some chumps to beef up the order count is always a good idea. Anyway... on with the pics.

And that translates to...

Reaktion Zond and Salyut Zond (big robots in the back)
4 Alguacil troopers (blue unis)
3 Riot Grrls with a Tinbot (white unis)
4 Brawlers (dark blue/gray unis)
2 Irmandinhos (camouflage)
Clockmaker and Daktari and their helper remotes (front row far right)
Avicenna special character doctor (front far left)
Senor Massacre (front second from left)

Looking forward to taking these knuckle-heads for a spin on the tabletop for sure. Ziggy made it back from Germany in one piece so I'm sure a game will be forthcoming. Next weekend is the Memorial Day Game Bash - very exciting!

Naps Back to the Table

 The 20mm Napoleonics made an appearance on the game table over the weekend, as I mentioned in the previous post. I reached out to Mark for a game and he suggested them since I'd done so much work on them recently. It was a pretty simple matter of "throw it all on the table and bash it out." Of course my French and Prussian armies aren't exactly paired perfectly so the French had one extra unit, but to compensate, the Prussians upgraded two infantry regiments to Veteran status. Seemed fair, right?

Rather than just traffic-jamming things up, we each deployed four units then everything else would join as reserves in turns 3,4 and 5 at pre-determined locations (right, left and center). 

I started with a basic three infantry regiments and a four-gun battery way off to the left on the hill. Mark mixed it up with Jagers, Veteran infantry and a 4-stand cavalry unit, as well as his guns in two two-gun batteries.

My line trundles forward. The Prussian cav hangs back, timidly.

The view from my "this is as Grand as it gets" battery.

Turn three. My first reinforcement arrives, more infantry, streaming forward in column. The Prussians are still hanging back.

But on turn 4 things heat up! Infantry on the left engage and more reinforcements arrive. For me, it's MORE INFANTRY! Queen of battle and all, I know where my bread gets buttered.

A better shot of the center. Not much for casualties yet. You can see I have my center arrayed in a "Eff-You" arrangement against the small cavalry unit.

Fighting is fierce on the left as my troops gain a slight lead on their foes, but neither side willing to budge.

A few minutes later and the battle is met along the center! The cavalry hit and there's an almighty scrum in the middle of the field. More reinforcements arrive; the French now have cavalry for Mark to worry about.

A little closer to the tabletop for "bonus eye-candy."

Tragedy as the French infantry on the left are run off! Looks like the reserve unit behind them will soon become battle-hardened vets.

It's a real shame that my big cavalry block was centered... they'd have enjoyed plowing into a weakened infantry regiment. I might have also been playing keep-away from the Prussian Uhlans. I didn't really want to piss my horses away in an even dice-rolling match.

But on the other side, the Prussian Life Guard succumb to stout French resistance. Glory!

Meanwhile, my own small cavalry unit, Dragoons, have snuck around the right flank and now threaten the Prussian guns and left side in general!

But as the battle ground on, Prussian units were overrun (red/pink stars). The Jagers did an admirable job holding up my Dragoons (upper right).

Although the battle had been decided, we smashed our remaining units into one another, giving the big cavalry units an opportunity to lace into eachother. My Dragoons also got to exact brutal punishment on the cannons on the hill. :)

A delightful three hours of pushing lead! We both had a good time and really, what's not to like? I was happy that the plan I concocted for my reserves worked out nicely. Cover the field with infantry then bring in the cavalry at the end to quickly exploit whatever they could. Their presence really created a dilemma for Mark who had to account for them. 

Ziggy's due back from Europe, defending Western civilization against the eastern hordes, this week. I'm sure I'll see him over the weekend. They deployed just before Putin invaded Ukraine so he's been kicking it in Germany for close to three months.

Game Table Upgrades

 After the post a couple weeks ago about my gaming table, I have made a two improvements. Specifically Tom and Bill, whose comments were most appreciated. 

First, I made some 8-inch stilts to raise the playing surface to a height more compatible with my own height. A friend of mine, Jamey, used to own a game and comic books store with his dad. They were both six-foot-four and the game tables in their place were correspondingly tall. I loved playing on them because my back wouldn't suffer after 3 hours of pushing lead.

I present, TABLE STILT:

A couple 7-inch 2x4s on a 1-inch base. They were glued and screwed. To ensure that the legs of the table stayed put, I knocked the bottom "cup" part off four identical protein-shake bottles and screwed them to the tops of the legs. 

A lick of paint and some no-slip grip material completed the job. 

It was not planned, but the table is now tall enough for the chairs to slide fully beneath, handily getting them out of the way!

There was a game of Naps early yesterday afternoon. More on that later.

 

After yesterday's game, since I had everything out, I implemented Bill's suggestion about the longer edge braces with more connection points. Rather than metal brackets, I used cheap, easy to work with yardsticks. In just a few minutes, I whipped together a pair of more stabilizers. These will get their first test during the 2022 iteration of Ski's Memorial Day Gaming Bash coming up in a couple weeks.

Have a good week ahead. I'll post the AAR from yesterday's Rank and File battle some time soon. Be well!

Check Your 6 - Falklands Flying

 David and I got together last Sunday for a refresher game of Check Your 6 Jet Age. We're going to play CY6 on Memorial Day weekend and it's been a little while. Never happy to play a scenario twice, I quickly painted up some Sea Harriers in RN colors and chose the Malvinas 1 scenario out of the MRB. 

David chose the RN Sea Harriers, I was graced with two lovely Mirage IIIs of the Argentine Air Force.

The foes approach. My flight was high and fast. David's Harriers were low and slow.

Danger Zone!

Harry the Harrier

Laying the trap. Our flights pass eachother, though we're pretty far apart altitude-wise. I have a plan.

Perfect! My planes each perform a S-Turn, dropping three levels of altitude and both have the red Harrier's 6 in their front arc! Two R550s are loosed and one connects, damaging the British fighter.

A moment later, one of my planes is hit by cannon-fire, but the damaged Harrier is hit by heavy shells as well and spirals into the landscape below! Score one for the buys from America Sud!

My joy is short-lived as ol' Amarillo gets nailed by a Sidewinder and into the ground she careens!

My remaining plane hits the gas and runs for home. A near-miss from the Harrier's last missile damages the Mirage but it makes good its escape.

A damn fine 2v2 dogfight. The planes were closely matched, although David's Harriers had a noticeable agility advantage over my older speed-demons. I was able to use my speed to good advantage early on, scoring a very fortunate kill. Once the fight became a close-in brawl, I was in big trouble and it was too tough to get out and try another fast pass. The low missile count made it interesting and neither one of us was going to risk taking low-odds shots. Looking forward to the next game in a few weeks!

Gaming Space

 A new reader commented the a few weeks ago about my big game table; how it's put together, etc. I've thought about doing a post about that for some time and his comment kind of gave me the needed push. David and I played a game of Check Your 6: Jet Age yesterday and I took pics of the kitchen / dining area and how things get done when I game.

Typical 6 1/2 days a week mode.

Step 1 - rotate the secondary table. Ensure there's plenty of clearance for the fridge to open.

Move / center the dinner table and add Door Number One!

Door Number 2...

The centers and tops have been clearly labeled. This is important later.

And this is why it's important to have the tables laid out properly.

Homemade pegs and these snazzy metal brackets keep things held together while in use.

Now that the table is more or less hinged in the center, less attentive players will be inclined to rest their big sweaty stupid elbows on the edges, popping the center up enough to tip models. Normally that's not a big deal but it really is the only drawback. Dumber players will often times lean on the table edges like this Gen-Z person:

This is not encouraged at my gaming table.

Pegs, game mat... ready to rock! 84" X 72" has been nice and the "gutters" around the edges are lovely for dead minis, dice, rulers, paperwork.... you name it. The doors store pretty easily in my garage and are hollow so they're light weight and easy enough to move around. There's not tons of space on the edges for players but I've hosted groups of 6 and 7, so it's plenty fine. Be well and have a great week. I'll post the CY6JA AAR soon.