Hard at Work... But not This Week!

 It's been a really nice week off work the last few days. Loads of gaming and even finished up part 1 of the Dark Elf re-base project.

So, in a post a couple of weeks ago I mentioned the virtues of acetone in loosening CA / super glue. I buckled down and pulled the rest loose and the order from Litko arrived late last week. I spray-colored fifty of the bases and got to gluing! After perhaps two and half hours of effort, voila! An army that occupies only 60% of the space of its predecessor. It looks tighter and the square bases are a good bit more compatible with a variety of game systems.

I think I actually have another bag of lizard riders. I probably should re-do the Dwarves first though.

On Monday morning, Mark J came by because what else would you do on a vacation week Monday morning? We played a couple games of Command and Colors, primarily because even though Mark is 12 million years old, he's never played C&C. First game was Ancients, followed by the more complex Jacobite Uprising.

I won the first and Mark snatched the second from me after getting slapped around for 90% of the game. 

After C&C, we put Marvel United on the table. It's a co-op board game, superheroes vs. the table. Mark's collected a ton of it and never played so I sort of insisted upon it.

 

Quite enjoyable and I'd love to play through a multi-encounter campaign some time.

Last evening I went waaay off the reservation. My brother in law's D&D group was getting together for a one-shot high-level scenario and asked if I wanted to join. Of course! I put together a Gnome Sorcerer on D&D Beyond and we got together at Cerberus Legion Games in Richmond Hill. We started playing around 6:00pm and wrapped up at midnight. Our sixteenth-level characters handily dealt with three giants, an ice troll and two hellhounds before ending up in the lair of the ancient red dragon "ol something-or-other." 

If you haven't played D&D in a while, 5th Edition takes full advantage of today's technology. There's a brief adjustment period, but having a very powerful electronic character sheet to track EVERYTHING is remarkably handy, particularly for a spellcaster with a limited number of spell slots and many many options.

At one point, the monk, cleric and monk/barbarian were all on the great wyrm's back! 

After a brief early run-in with the beast, my character Beebs, suffered PTSD which limited my effectiveness during the battle since I was unable to get closer to the dragon. It managed to extend the range from most of my more useful spells. Eventually we weakened it to the point where it fled. We'd managed to destroy the scrying device she was using to command her armies so that was enough to satisfy our mission objectives. Our band of Expendables saved the kingdom!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Eat some ham and turkey and taters and dressing and greens and sleep it off... it's feastin' season!

Goings On

 Haven't posted in some time so I thought it might be good to slap together an update.

1. I'm teaching Blood Bowl to David today. It's right up his alley, being a thoughtful Starfleet Battles player. Perhaps it looks like silly football on the surface, but at it's heart it's a thinkin' man's game. Looking forward to it. That of course lit a fire under by butt to paint at least one of my teams! I finished up my Elf team. Here are some bad photos of them. Maybe some action shots later during the game.

They have a definite Anime vibe. I'm really looking forward to playing later. 

2. Zig and I played Command and Colors: Jacobite Rising last evening. Very good. Very very good. I'm constantly impressed with the creator's ability to summon period flavor out of simple wooden blocks. Now that I own Ancients, Samurai Battles and Jacobite Rising and can really compare different versions it's much more impressive.

We played the first two battles - Killiecrankie and Dunkeld. I was given command of the rebels for both battles, winning Killiecrankie handily and then getting thrashed at Dunkeld.

I was dealt a phenomenal opening hand and this became my plan.

It worked out.

Dunkeld features a few government troops in town holding off a horde of uppity Highlanders.

Should be a cake walk...

Well, fate conspired to feed me a disproportionately high number of "left" cards. Combined with one or two stupid decisions, decent shooting by the loyalists and not so great dice, Ziggy whooped me good.

Great fun. C&C is always a good time.

3. Finally, the order arrived from Newline across the pond. 

So exciting!

More French and Prussian 20mm Napoleonics. An Infantry and cavalry unit for each. The French infantry are in progress now.

April Gaming

Good morning readers! A short update on goings-on from the past fortnight. Last weekend Mark and I played a game of Stardust: Ground, my company-level sci-fi game. This battle featured blatant GW-lifted Space Marines fighting against the Robot Army who are a far cry from their GW corollary. 

Pre-game. The Marines were deployed in the center of the battlefield, the robots entering from all four corners. The 'Bots launched their attack at night, giving them a real shooting range advantage.

The only bright spot for the Marines during the early going was one of the Dreadnoughts who was rather effective smashing up Robots in close combat.

The mechanical menace just dumped an amazing amount of firepower on the superhumans; Marine armor proved to be up to the task, reducing casualties to an acceptable level, though the 'Bots were still firmly in control.

Once the sun came out though, things turned into a real blood and silicon-bath. Initially, the Marines took an massive beating and things were looking very grim, but then I was able to get a couple units into close-combat with the Robot troops.

The close combat didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped but it was rather disruptive and broke up the 'Bots attack quite nicely as they were forced to move, hide and otherwise get themselves into a worse position.

The last shot of the game... a Marine Dreadnought's cannon rips into a RepairBot's back armor.

It was a bloody, closely-fought affair that we both really enjoyed.

In other news, I ordered this beauty last week:

It showed up in short order and I got in a first game last evening with Ziggy.

 Now I don't have exhaustive  C&C experience like some of you, but I have to say, Samurai Battles didn't disappoint. It's of course a familiar experience but with plenty of tweaks and additions to give it a much different feel from Ancients and Medieval. Very happy with this addition to the collection.

Infinity AAR: Aaaargh!

Like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, I've been on quite a streak lately. I hoped to right the ship Saturday with a game of Infinity with Zig. I put together a list of Combined forces and Z used his Pan Oceania knights as usual. Umpteen weeks of "shelter in place" and he still doesn't have his Japanese assembled and primed and the PanO are also still mercilessly barely painted.

I didn't photograph much, so this isn't a very thorough batrep.

The scenery was pretty. I thought it was a nice urban park area rather than a woods meet town situation.

The boss lady and some assistants.

Critters and bots holding  up the left flank.

My Gwalios nails a sneaky snake with a rocket. Burn!

The last of my leader's fireteam is beset by the semi-painted masses.

Dr. Worm and a well-hidden hacker (that purple and white marker) hold out until the bitter end. I should have called the game 20 minute earlier but I wasn't going to give Ziggy the satisfaction.

It was en entertaining game, frustrated by crap dice and an early mistake by both of us. That mistake cost me what would have been a telling kill at the time. Oh well, spilled milk... we'll get 'em next time.

We played two games of Command and Colors Ancients after tidying up the mess. Our series ended up on the Battle of the Ticinus River - Hannibal v. Scipio. I used Carthage in the first engagement and it was a dicey affair with a good bit back and forth. In the end, I managed to keep the momentum up and got the win! Rather than switching scenarios, we simply swapped sides. This time, as the Romans, I really hit like a ton of bricks. I think the final score was something like 6-2. Ziggy's dice the second time around were abysmal and mine were at least average. If you've played C&C, average dice plus a good card draw = hard to beat and I got excellent cards at the right times. I even managed to pull off a strong Rally, patching up two medium cavalry units and a light infantry on just four dice!

So, the massive losing streak has ended. Looking forward to the next game of whatever. Be well!

Last Gaming Saturday of the Year!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Things have been busy and I was surprised to actually get in two games yesterday (Saturday). Ziggy and I got together around lunch time for some X-Wing. I got to try out a Republic "swarm" I'd put together a month or two ago.

Three Naboo starfighters and two V-19s. Low-end ships to be sure, but as we all know, quantity can be just as effective as quality. Ziggy brought out the Ghost. It had a gun shuttle docked with it and it was escorted by two Z-95 Headhunters.

It was a great swirling dogfight. My nimble Republic fighters easily able to keep up with the Rebel ships. You can see here the Ghost doing its best to run away. 😁

Zig kept it on the board though. The trouble was, it was a very predictable maneuver and I had no trouble getting every gun in the group pointing the right direction.

Pew Pew. And she's done. The smaller ships chased each other around for a bit. I lost a V-19 and most of my ships were damaged, Ziggy lost a Headhunter and the shuttle was heavily damaged.

My lessons learned in my recent games with David were instrumental to my success. I was able to chase and "wolfpack" the large enemy ship while its escorts struggled to look after it. It took David some time to learn how to effectively escort a big ship (in his case an Imperial Shuttle). I suggested to Zig that he stick with the Ghost and try a faster, more nimble escort like a A-Wing that can really give enemy ships a headache. I hope Ziggy sticks with it - it's a neat ship and it'd be cool to see him get really good with it.

Later in the evening, my bride and I game Command and Colors Ancients a whirl. She gave it to me for Christmas and was interested in trying it. I happily obliged. ( Yes, I really enjoyed C&C: Medieval a month or so ago )

I set up the board for the first scenario, the Battle of Akragas. We kept it very simple for game 1. I removed all the "special" command cards so we could just concentrate on game mechanics and objectives. I took the Carthaginian side while my wife commanded the Syracusian forces. The Carthaginians are really disadvantaged in this battle and I didn't think my bride would appreciate being handed such a headache to learn the game.

Early into the proceedings. I'd only lost one unit of chariots at this point. 

Rocket rather enjoyed the game.

Late in the game... my poor guys are getting rolled!

My bride thought it would be funny to text me scoring updates as we played:

Brutal. The final score was five to two. We both had a great time and will certainly be playing more in the future. I need some revenge.

Everyone have a safe and happy NYE and best wishes for the New Year!

Tanksgiving 2019

Last Saturday Mike hosted his annual Tanksgiving get-together down in Waycross. David, Ziggy and I journeyed down to be part of the day of gaming. Mike was setting up a game of Ogre miniatures using Dystopian Wars minis when we arrived. With six players, it looked a bit crowded, so I opted for and intro game of Command and Colors Medieval. I'd never played C&C and read so much about it so it was nice to get an opportunity to play.

I helped command the Byzantine Roman army with Randy (the game's owner and our teacher). Our Hun opponents were Wayne and Max. Max also has experience with C&C so we weren't facing two greenhorns.

Our opponents. Wayne and Max.

Randy and me, fumbling through a selfie.

We Yin-Yang'ed for a bit, both sides pushing on their left flanks and exchanging bow fire.

Then a bit of success on our right, although the marauding heavy infantry over there (with leader) eventually wound down. It's fine, they served well.

So we were dealt the card to make the left flank go bananas, and bananas we went. We out-Hunned the Huns and our cataphracts stormed forward.

Smash, smash, smash. Super Heavy Cataphracts + Leader + appropriate cards to lay down the smack = loads of dead Huns. General Flatus and company go legend.

Comidus Flatus clears the flank.

Towards the end of the game... We'd done a fine job of corralling the invaders from the steppe. I think our heavy infantry off to the right actually bagged the ninth kill kill for us. A resounding victory for Rome!

I rather enjoyed Command and Colors. It's easier to like a game when you have a very successful first outing but it does a fine job of ticking all the right boxes. C&C (any flavor) made it on my Christmas list after this outing.

The next game was Rate of Fire. This was a re-fight of the battle Ziggy and I played a few weeks prior. Mid-1943, Germans trying to capture a road intersection with plenty of Soviet resistance. I GM'ed. Wayne and Randy took command of the Germans while Max handled the Russians himself (with a little advice from me).

The German recce elements get a move on.

Amusingly, the 8-Rad gets hung up in the concertina wire, but does manage to locate the Zis-3 ATG gun the hard way! One survivor bails out.

Ze Germans appear in force. Stugs, halftracks and panzers, oh my! They're much more spread out than the way Ziggy played it.

The Zis-3 claims another victim! A Panzer IV is taken out. Towards the bottom of the frame, infantry begin exchanging rifle and machinegun fire. Wayne's hand of cheese commands the truck driver to park his Opel Blitz in front of the Russian machinegun position to block its line of sight! The truck and driver are disabled in short order.

The halftack in the center next to the Stug gets barbed wire wrapped up in it's running gear. Smirk. The Stug is smashed by a shot from the ATG and the gunner and assistant are killed. It can only move and spot now.

Max's first two reserve rolls hit paydirt and by turn five he's got two T-34s added to his mix, like he needs it!

And in no time, another Panzer is taken out! The driver survives.

The other T-34 immobilizes another Panzer IV. It's a bloodbath!

Many infantry reveal themselves. Gross. The Panzer driver (upper left) hails an Uber in the form of a Schwimmwagen.

The stationary Stug gets its act together and take out a T-34.

The craziest group of Germans you're likely to meet charges forward! The reds have four firing units that can blast away at the grenadiers. They only take a few casualties but of course are suppressed, preventing them from assaulting the machinegun position in the woods which was of course their goal.

The Panzer with the fouled running gear takes out one of the Russian tanks!

The Grenadiers on the left flank shoot up the Russian mortar team. Meanwhile, the Uber has arrived at it's destination - the Stug that's got no driver. The Panzer driver hops out of the Schwimmwagen and offers to drive. I allow it.

The lone survivor of the most recently destroyed Soviet tank gets his dander up and rushes the nearest German infantry squad. He kills one with his pistol and causes the squad to become suppressed! Chuck Norris, eat your heart out.

I didn't take any action shots, but the little Russian field gun killed a halftrack then got wiped out by angry return fire. The Stug pushed out of the wire and the Russian infantry that had been in the woods next to Stug ran towards the intersection.

That was the end of ten turns. The Germans had just run out of time, a Soviet win! The Russian infantry in the woods nearest the intersection were the squad holding the objective and I couldn't rationalize an unoccupied halftrack being able to contest it.

Wow, what an amusing game. I did allow a few Hollywood moments for the sake of awesome. The Poor German players made no friends of the dice and suffered some miserable fortune much of the game. German artillery was successfully called in ONE time in ten turns, needing a 3+ each time. Russian morale stayed reliable enough to eke out a win.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was nice being able to show off the 1/72nds to folks who've never played with them. Wayne may be a convert - he's been looking for a good WW2 skirmish scale and let's face it, 1/72 has EVERYTHING and is budget-friendly.

Thanks Mike for hosting and I look forward to returning the favor next Memorial Day!