Wargaming the past two weeks...

Board-, Card and Role Playing Games Played:

I got in five games of Memoir '44 bringing my yearly count up to thirteen. If you play with a person not accustomed to analysis paraysis, we can finish a game in less than thirty minutes. I really enjoy this game. The first game I was the Germans attacking outside of Moscow in the Winter of 1941. Good game. The second was from the Russo-Finnish War which was far more challenging in it's careful and bold use of ski troops. It took me three tries to win as the Finns. The first gane was a wash as the cards fell totally in the Russian favor. Game two was much closers I mastered the movement of the ski troops. Game three was also very close but was a win.

Three games of Battleship StarWars the electronic version. My son pulled this out of his game cabinet. I was skeptical but found myself hooked. IT has an advanced game that uses torpedoes, sensor, strafing and bombs. And the AI is challenging. I got one game in against my son and two against the computer...not a single victory. This is worth picking up.

My buddy Joe, not a warmer came over for pizza at the tale end of a gaming session. We lured him into a game of Formula D--Monaco as he enjoys Formula One racing. The game was a success with all parties having a good time. After the game, Joe was looking over the more complicated version. In addition, his son expressed interest in playing. It was the first time I played this game with more than four players and found it gets better exponentially. I look forward to a game of this with the full eight parties.

Miniature Games:

My miniature gaming looked to be down in this period as I missed both Friday Games at Mike's. One died the death of the sweet sixteen season as all of out sitters are going to the gala parties. The other died the death of a need to volunteer at my children's school functions. Last minute, though, Igor and Tim came over for two quick games of Ganesha's Flying Lead and Fear and Faith. Igor is a fan of Songs of Drums and Shakoes as we have played three games of this one so we decided to try these other rules using some recently painted science fiction figures. On the yahoo group I had read that FL is good for hard SciFi and cinematic SciFi while F&F is recommended for Gothic SciFi; thus, we played two SciFi games.

The first used FL. It involved a faction of Tritonians defending a gate (Star?) from an incursion of Mercurians. Here you see the Mercurian force guarding the old temple gate:

Meanwhile the Mercurian scout was sneaking up.

As the Mercurians gathered behind the bush, the Tritonians flung a grenade. Unfortunately, a fumbled throw caused the Tritonain force to suffer the concussive effects for awhile. The Mercurians seemed unable to get motivated enough to advance giving the Mercurians time to recover, rally and gun them down. A lone survivor escaped while the remainder of the squad was captured.

Game two saw the Earth Force UN Rocketeers steadily push the Venusians back.

Some would say that the Venusian lack of stereoscopic vision had an effect. Others would say the steady advance of the UN Force under a hail of lead was the key...you decide.

Venusians out-manuvering the Rocketeers. Position failed against armor and firepower. Venusian Forces lacked the staying power to hold the Temple Gate.

Projects Worked On:

Colonialism/VSF: I got to read various DRAFTs of the new GASLIGHT compendium. It looks fantastic!

Doctor Who: Vehicles were sourced by a contact in the UK.

French & Indian War: I read a great article in an old Military History magazine about Ticonderoga that has me fired up to dig out mycollection of F&I troops and terrain.

French Revolution: Basing continues on the Bleus and the mob. Now I just need Magister Militum to ship off the artillery and cavalry. I started to plan the Austrians...call me crazy.

Modern: Vehicles were sourced by a contact in the UK.

South American Wars of Liberation: Planning continues here as I get ready to start my Horse & Musket painting again. I have been cataloging my various units that can do duty in South America (and North America) with a simple Standard bearer change. Steel 1 cm squares is the key--with a small slice of magnetic tape, I can change a unit to another side. So far I have identified various units that resemble other in other wars (War of 1812, Texas War of Independence and the Carlist War, not to mention other theaters of operation in the SA Wars.

War of 1812: See SA Wars above.

Painting and Painters:

Matt Slade was able to help me solve the 1960-1970-era British vehicle problem I was having. He managed to gather quite a nice collection and ship it to me...I'll let you know how they are. I definitely see some Geezers games in the future, not to mention Dr. Who, UFO, James Bond, etc.

BLOGS:

Check out this link for some post-apocalpytic goodness (!?!) in 15mm:

http://josephdragovich.blogspot.com/2011/03/war-war-never-changes.html

Two Hour Wargames has come up with Zombie Golf. The AOR is a good read:

http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/files/BatRepZombieGolf.pdf

If Cthulu is your thing, then the new Mansions of Madness boardgame is reviewed here:

http://www.playunplugged.com/2011/03/mansions-of-madness/

PodCasts:

Meeples and Miniatures had a good review and two interviews concerning the upcoming release of Ambush Alley's Force on Force...if this is interesting to you, the authors suggest pre-ordering through Amazon.com for significant discounts on the core rule book and the various theater rules. I did learn that they have cut World War Two out of Force on Force. The Theater books in the pipe are Road to Baghdad (Iraq 2003), Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Ambush Valley (Vietnam) and Cold War Gone Hot. They also have Tomorrow's War coming out this summer for the SciFi folks.

The old standby of D6 Generation was focused on a superhero roleplaying game...not my speed.

Martians Invade Vogelsdorf!

I played a SciFi game on Friday at Mike's House. It was a SciFi game using the free rules FUBAR (http://thegamesshed.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/fubar-one-page-sfmodern-rules/) played out on Vogelsdorf, a beautiful table of a semi-destroyed European town.

Everyone brought a squad from their 40K collections; but, I brought some Blue Moon Martians (http://www.bluemoonmanufacturing.com/view_product.php?product=BMM124) with a heavy weapon (http://www.bluemoonmanufacturing.com/view_product.php?product=BMM125). Since the Martians are not in battlesuits, the other players decided my troops should be Imperial Guard and my weapon was only a heavy bolter. That revelation meant my troops were doomed as everyone else had brought the same amount of Space Marines or Chaos Marines. First, the umpire "nerfed" my speed advantage, then the lasgun range advantages, and finally the weapon went from Lascannon to Heavy Bolter. It did not help that he had mixed and matched the various tables until the rules were incomprehensible. No matter, they all were terrified of my heavy weapon as it looked scary.

The sacrilege was not to use actual siting as the buildings and board are fantastic! There are all sorts of small and effective kill zones that exemplified the dangers of urban warfare.

Our forces advanced to contact. I held the center. Mitch and Mike fought valiantly but were overcome. The game MVP was Ben as his Chaos Marines outmaneuvered and out-shot Mike. By game end the Martians were caught in a pincer. All thing considered, I had a great time using a periscope, my newly painted Martians and playing on Vogelsdorf. Overall, I had fun.

Here's a shot of a Chaos Marine peaking out right before I hosed down his building. You can see his shiny helmeted head just peaking over the top of the building in the center.

Here's a distance shot of my troops blocking movement up the center. Note the fire teams in the ruins on the right and left of the heavy weapon.

How would I change it to make it have flavor and fun and still have some semblance of balance:

1) Make the Martian Weapon a Maser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maser) so that buildings and armor don't provide cover;

2) Allow the heavy weapon to move and fire as it is on a vehicle chasis;

3) Keep the Guard Stats for the Martian Infantry but let the Martians use a Saucer to beam up and down a fire team (but not the weapon); and,

4) Add a simple In Sight test when someone tries to run across a fire lane.

That would accomplish making the Marines really scared of the weapon and put it on equal footing, replace the loss in firepower and armor with mobility; and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, make the battlefield truly an urban battlefield. I would limit the player to one squad and a heavy weapon to keep the Martians from dominating.

Oh, and Blue Moon has these guys in 15mm (http://www.bluemoonmanufacturing.com/view_product.php?product=15ALN-109) but they are called the Idirion Legion, so no reason not to use them in 15mm.

Great figures, great game and good rules as long as you don't mix and match the versions...the final turns were much better when Ron arrived and ran them they way they should.

Next time, I may bring the Quar. Or maybe, I'll do the typical 40K Arms Race and bring Harlequins! That will teach them to "nerf" my Martians...

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A4HeawmE6A)