World at War

I swung out to Bruce's last night for our non-club Tuesday game as my daughter's soccer team had a bye. Bruce put on a small World at War scenario set in West Germany. The Germans (foreground and right) had to prevent the Soviets from occupying both hexes of the two at the top centre.

The Soviets had a small paratroop force in the town and lots of tanks coming on the board on turn three (game ran 8 turns). I decide to split my forces (face palm), leave the Leopards free to shoot, while the troops attacked the town. This had to do with the initial positions and the placement of the rivers--I was trying to get fire on the town as fast as possible.

In retrospect, I should have waited an extra turn and run both forces into town before the endless hordes of Soviet tanks turned up. Overall, a resounding Soviet win. Bad dice didn't help but I lost this one with bad tactics.

Up next: I have more 1/72 AWI rebasing underway but good weather draws me to the garden and the bicycle. MayDay is this weekend but I have work and home stuff to juggle so will only be there to start the auction off and drop off my donations.

Some rebased AWI/1812 Indians

Last night I finished rebasing about 50 1/72-scale Indians for my AWI and War of 1812 armies. These are (mostly) Italeri indians.

The non-musket-armed fellows likely aren't appropriate for 1812 and everyone is a bit too buckskin for 1812 but they will do in a pinch (since no better figures are available as far as I can tell).

I also did a pair of command bases. The British troops are mostly rebased and I'm now working on sanding and flocking them.

Up next: Some British over the weekend. I have also finished organizing all of the lots I have for the MayDay auction. There are a tonne of 15mm lots, including unpainted moderns, renaissance, Naps, SYW/FIW, colonials, and Byzantines. There is also a painted DBM army, a painted DBA army, a painted Maurice army (in 1/72-scale), some 28mm buildings and a copy of Star Trek Fleet Captains. Since others can bring their stuff to the door, it should be a good auction!

X-wing and TC Tennis

Bruce and I played a pair of games last night. I brought out X-wing. Lord Vader immediately shot Luke down and then I had to try to even things up with my remaining  Y-wing!

In the end, it came down to effectively a draw and after several rounds, we decided to call it a game. Bruce is cagey behind the controls of a Tie fighter!

Bruce picked up a tennis game from Victory Force games on the weekend. Interesting simulation of tennis--you play cards and build towards a big volley in order to gain points to win the set. Lots of colour. Not sure I'd be keen to play this very regularly--interesting mechanics but not as fun as playing tennis.

Up next: A rainy day means more basing at lunch so back to the 18th century I go. first up some Indians and then the British. I also need to get a bunch of MayDay auction stuff organized and labelled. Bruce donated two 15mm DBA armies and a 1/72-scale Maurice army.

End of the American AWI army rebasing project

I finished up the remainder of my rebel AWI army rebasing project last night with the cannons and crews. There are four (small) guns. The smallest ones are from an Imex kit; no idea on the larger ones.

There are also 10 crew in four poses. Again, a mixture of manufacturers, I think.

Up next: I am working on rebasing the Indians and have a game of X-wing planned tonight with Bruce.

Re-based AWI foot

Continuing with the re-basing, I moved a bunch of American foot through the process last night. There are four bases of command. I normally only do three bases but I wanted a militia command base.

There were 57 or so figures based individually, with more variety of poses among the militia than the regulars. The militia are a mix of modern figures and a bunch of old Airfix Confederates (one of those boxes with endless uses).

I see the left figure above has shed paint off his rifle (why make figures in eye-searing-red plastic?). And the fellow next to him has his right leg--it is just out of the shot due to the crazy charging pose.

The regulars are more numerous than the militia and have a couple of different colours of cuffs. The poses are just more uniform.

Up next: Some rebel cannon and maybe some Indians. Plus a game of X-wing with Bruce on Tuesday night.

Re-based AWI dragoons

I couldn't face the prime red figures I have so I decided to bite the bullet and start rebasing some of my older 1/72-scale stuff onto washers. I started with the AWI.

These six guys are American dragoons. I used a slightly bigger washer the normal to get each fellow onto a base with his horse. The horse wouldn't be brought forward into combat but, without the horse, it is hard to tell the dragoons from the rest of the militia.

Up next: I have the rest of the rebels drying: some 57 foot men, four command bases, four cannon and 8 crew. The Indians are off their old bases and onto new ones while the British look on with envy.

It's a Small World after all

We had a dozen guys out at the club for our last night before our MayDay convention on May 3. Michael kindly brought out Small World and taught Bruce and I how to play. Well, Bruce learned how to play--I just bumbled along, losing both games badly... . A fun game with lots of replay ability--I wonder if there is an iPad version for faculty council meetings...?

Dave brought out some Hail Caesar and Scott's team won a game. I presume Scott was not allowed to roll, touch or otherwise look at the dice.

There were also a pair of Warmachine games.

Our next club night is Tuesday, May 6th. Alas, kids' soccer prevents me from attending (unless it rains like a bastard).

Up next: I have some 1/72-scale late Roman cavalry from MiniArt underway. Not really my favourite set--the sculpting seems different from other sets. Lots of mail to paint. Meh. After that, who knows.

Some mounted barbarians

These fellows finish out a box of MiniArt 1/72-scale Germans. This is a nice mix of troops with four light horse that will fit in almost anywhere.

There are also a bunch of medium horse--chainmail tunics and whatnot.

These seem more dated but would work for late Roman or dark ages.

Finally there are some heavier guys. No idea where the fourth one is (perhaps he slide off the paint tray or got left behind on the prep shelf. He'll turn up eventually.

Up next: Some 1/72-scale late Roman heavy cavalry from Mini-Art. These are a bit out of period for me but will be hand to have.

Twilight Struggle

Bruce and I played our first game of Twilight Struggle last night. Wow. Kind of like 1960: The Making of a President on speed. So many choices. Such crappy cards to select among! This is a game that has a lot of replayability.

In the end, Bruce won decisively with the Soviets. I just couldn't keep up to him and switched strategies about half way through to my detriment. We learned a lot about the rules (played a few wrong!) and 2.5 hours just vanished. I was wondering why I was tired on the drive home!

Up next: Some more 1/72-scale Germans.

Pandemic and some Barbarians

As spring break wound to an end, jess and I got in some more Pandemic and managed to beat the game on heroic. Which kind of cries out for an expansion, no?

I also moved a few guys along to bolster the Germans. These are some MiniArt 1/72 Germans from the 4th century (roughly).

I quite like the axe men above (very dynamic) but the shields never come out (mold issue?). I also like the three fellows below on the right.

I must have been uninspired with these last guys as their shields are lame.

Up next: Some 1/72-scale horsemen and a game of Twilight Struggle with Bruce.

Counters for WW1 Square Bashing

Awhile back, Bruce McFarlane introduced me to Peter Pig's Square Bashing. Rather than buy and paint and base huge new armies, Bruce created some counters so we could try out the rules. With Bruce's permission, I have uploaded the counter sheets here under a Creative Commons license (below). Basically you can use and modify these for personal use but Bruce retains copyright. 

I turned the original .bmp files into .jpgs to save space. If you want the originals (>5MB each) I can email them to you. You should be able to save the images below and then print or manipulate. For whatever reason, there is a light inconsistency in image size below (Arabs, Russians and Turks are different) that you should be able to correct for with your printer or imaging software.

Arabs

British

Canadians

Early War Germans

Late War Germans

Russians

Turks

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Epic CCA at EWG

We had 14 players out at the club last night. I didn't follow the Warmachine of the Axis and Allies WW1 game (although there were two new guys, which is nice to see!).

I ran a game of Epic CCA with six players. Could have used two more to truly test out the rules, but i think it went okay nonetheless, with Scott and Dave doing double duty as overall and field commanders. I had to cut a few hexes off the field as the tables weren't quite long enough so I reduced the orbit accordingly.

The Romans and Gauls each won a single game and I think both games were decided in the middle. The Epic game plays faster than the traditional game because so many more units are in motion. It was a bit hard to keep track of what was happening elsewhere.  I don't recall that experience the last time I played (Kevin ran a game a couple of years back, I think).

Up next: Some 1/72-scale Germans are mostly painted and I have some 1/72 heavy Roman cavalry built and primed. After that I'm not sure what I'll be working on although I have quite a collection of donations for the MayDay auction (thanks Kent!) to get sorted out.