Memorial Day Weekend Activities

 It's been an awesome long Memorial Day weekend and I took an extra day off because of the late night last night. More on that in a moment.

    On Sunday I met Mike and Mark for an afternoon of gaming. I took my Renaissance Spanish and Venetians for a big Lion Rampant game (45 points per side). Each side was split into two commands and each command's initiative order was determined every turn. We played the Sausages with Mustard scenario, with the Venetians defending. Mike and Mark shared leadership duties on the Spanish side while I wrangled the Italians.

An early opening shot. You can see the four buildings in the center which the Spanish were trying to burn down. I deployed a unit of pikemen in the middle as my single forward "speedbump" unit.

The first engagement took place in the hill with the tower. Our heavy cavalry squared off with Mark successfully counter-charging me.

I got the better of the engagement and the Spanish horsemen fell back...

A wide view of the center. I was having a far better time activating units than M&M.

On the right, my crossbowmen had peppered the Spanish light cav who were facing a block of pikemen.

The center had turned into a mess. I had pikemen and greatswords in disarray. The greatswords learned firsthand how nasty arquebusiers are!

In one of my favorite moments of the afternoon was when Mike's initiative rolls had him active twice, back-to-back... fourth in one turn and first in the next. He used the opportunity to charge his heavy cav into my light cavalry. I passed the evade test and fell back into the woods. The Spanish cavalry still completed their charge but in the trees, everyone was hitting on 5+ and only had 2 armor! The equalizer paid off as the Spanish cavalry took it on the chin. 

We played a bit more but at the end of the day, the Spanish torches couldn't get the job done and no buildings burned! In all fairness, my dice were hot and both Mike and Mark rolled hot garbage most of the day. You probably don't need me to tell you how frustrating the Rampant games can be when your activations are failing early and often.

Mark and I then played an introductory game of Quar - Clash of Rhyfles. Interesting item of note... Mark has been bumping his gums for YEARS about his collection of Quar and trying to sell us on the game. He's never once offered to put it on the table and show it off. Mike picks up the new models from Wargames Atlantic and has it on the table in a fortnight. Classic.

We each had 10 troops with a mix of weapons, mostly rifles but also some SAWs and SMGs. The clear glass bauble in the picture above is our objective location we fought over.

My blues turned things into a tragedy for the greens. I was able to get a few very useful fire lanes set up, picking off enemy troops left and right.

I did lose a couple in the process, but in the end was able to take the objective, occupy the enemy backfield and overall, take the win!

Last evening, my wife and I did something quite unusual for us... we went to a WWE RAW pro wrestling event at the new area in Savannah. I got a couple of freebie tickets from work and, well... it was a heck of a lot of fun. 

and of course a cage match!

Even if you aren't a fan, it's truly quite a production spectacle and those athletes are amazing to watch. Awesome stuff.