15mm FIW gaming

Over the summer, we played a couple of FIW games using both Muskets and Tomahawks and Rebels and Patriots. Bruce then took the activation system of M&T (which involves card play) and grafted it onto the movement, combat, and morale mechanics of R&P.

The game saw a mixed group of Brits (on the right) having to get some wagons off the left side of the board. Opposing them were some French troops plus some locals.

The British regulars and grenadiers entered the open field, hoping to put a pasting on the French regulars, On the flanks, the British provincials and irregulars worked to keep the French local allies occupied.

Eventually, the French regulars began to be driven back by casualties and we called it for the British. The card play from M&T to determine activation was much better than the activation rolls from R&P because there was more back and further and some hard choices to make about what to activate and in what order.

By contrast, the combat, movement and morale mechanics from R&P were much simpler and played much faster (almost no modifiers) than the more traditional tabletop mechanics from M&T. Overall, we thought it gave a pretty nice game with lots of hard decisions at the command level and a fairly straight-forward game on the tabke top.

Up next: Some more 20mm partisans.

1754 and CCN at the club

 We had 10 guys out at the club last week with some GW 8th Edition, CCN, and 1754 on offer.

Dave ran a pair of 10mm CCN games. I didn't see how the second one turned out but there was a fair bit of moaning and swearing at the table during the first game.

I ended up running a game of 1754 after we discovered a pivotal piece of Terry's Lobotomy game was on his desk at home. Chen took the Brits and Terry played the French. Terry had really awful die rolls for the first half of the game, taking it very well.

Chen took advantage of this, pushing up the Ohio Valley (below, foreground) and into Nova Scotia (below, background). Not much happened in the middle of the map.

Eventually, the dice came around (or at least evened up) and Terry moved down the Niagara region.

Chen played both his truce cards but the random initiative mechanic gave Terry two impulses to garb territory and (I think) he squeaked out a win with a rapid drive south towards Boston.

Overall, a very nice game.

1754 at the club

We had a dozen guys out at club this week, with two new fellows. Dave hosted a game of Pikeman's lament in 28mm.

Kevin and Elliot were playing something I hadn't seen before (can't recall them name). Cool terrain.

I hosted Scott, Craig and Jessy in a game of 1754. Below I believe Scott is saying "I'm going to go stand outside while you roll the dice, Craig."

We had a very interesting game. Some early action in the Ohio valley and at the bottom of Lake Ontario.

Then there was a bit of a tussle in Nova Scotia and the Chesapeake.

The "best" move of the game (I think) was Jessy's suggestion that we bag the second British colonial deployment area (which Scott had moved south to Albany). Keeping both of these form him meant he could not access his fled units or reinforcements which really hamstrung the Brits in mid-game.

They shifted forces around in Nova Scotia and we traded territories. In the end, I don't we played Nova Scotia optimally but I'm not sure what we should have done differently.

We then decided to end the game and made a bug push. At which point Scott and Craig freed up Albany, dropped a tonne of white troops onto the board and got enough victory points to win. A nail biter!

Overall, a very fun play against cagey opponents.

1754 Conquest

Last week, I received my copy of 1754 by Academy Games. Basically the FIW at one level of detail greater than Risk. It uses the same card-driven play and random turn sequence as 1775 and 1812. 

Bruce popped over Monday and we had a quick run through it. There are a couple of key differences. The regular reinforcements always arrive by sea while the colonial reinforcements appear at muster points (one is fixed and one you can select the location of).

Indian allies functions basically the same at 1775 but their reinforcements arrive in varying locations depending upon when in the turn sequence they are activated (a very slick mechanic that adds a nice randomness). There are also forts which are handled via a defender die roll (allowing the defender to sometimes block an attacker's subsequent kill)--also petty slick.

The final difference is sea movement. There are various ports that have sea zones associated with them. (You can see the sea zone outside of Boston below.) On the regulars' turns, you can move units into these sea zones (basically load transports) then move to any other sea zone, and unload (or battle if the sea zone is occupied). This makes sea transport more important and interesting, especially since your regulars always appear in a sea zone and you have to unload them on land.

In our game, we started with a tustle in the Ohio Valley and along Lake Champlain. Bruce then drove up Lake Champlain (or maybe moved by land through Appalachia) and bagged Quebec. C'est domage!  I managed to get it back and drove south towards Albany, grabbing one of his muster points. The rivers and lakes don't really serve as major transportation routes but the way the areas are laid out provides a similar effect.

In Nova Scotia, I made an effort to push him back and secure Louisburg from attack. The winner is determined based on victory areas held so this also contributed towards my victory conditions. With Nova Scotia safe, I then mounted an expedition by sea into the Chesapeake. Surprise!

A smart player would have used this as an opportunity to secure the Ohio Valley and the victory points there... . I chose to push into New England and got crushed. To be fair, it really cost Bruce a lot of effort to stop this, but I basically threw these troops away. In the end, I had enough victory points that I chose to play both my truce cards and end the game after 5 (I think) turns.

We only played one rule incorrectly (about withdrawing from combat in enemy territory) but it likely wasn't a big deal in light of Bruce's atrocious dice rolling (I kept looking around expecting to see Scott lurking nearby). I'm going to bring this out to the club next week.

1/32-scale plastic AWI troops

Work and aging in-laws have curtailed my gaming these days' apologies for the lack of posts. I have been doing a bit of gaming with Jessica when we find a few minutes.

Last week we managed to narrowly lose a game of Pandemic. We then played a game of Small World where some lucky draws meant a lopsided game.

My painting table has been collecting dust. To try an get back into the swing of things, I ordered from plastic 54mm troops to supplement my existing AWI metals.

These are some FIW troops sold by Armies in Plastic. After looking at them, the headgear suggested light troops. The Indian leggings were problematic but, with a bit of paint, they looked enough like cavalry boots that I decided to paint them up as dismounted dragons for the US side.

Overall, the figures are fine. They have some injection marks (see below) that are invisible on the table but really jump out in a photograph. I quite like the kit they carry.

They are a touch beefier than the All The King's Men metals (left below) and a bit slightly than the John Jenkins' Indians I have. The height is about right though. Some of the figures have the weird  compromises necessary to fit into metal molds (lack of undercuts, chunky bits).

I bought some mounted troops (still unpainted) and thought I would represent dragoon units with one mounted and two or three dismounted (as per below).

Up next: I have another eight of these guys that I will paint up as militia. Right now I'm working on a unit of a dozen line troops (another set of Armies in Plastic figures). These next figures are more in scale with the ATKM figures. I'm painting them up for the rebels. Then onto the mounted troops (all with tricornes?). Kind of weird but maybe designed to represent officers, moreso that cavalry.

Struggle for New France

So I swung out to Bruce's last night and he hauled out two more FIW games he had laying around. We played Wilderness Empires (a "new" game by Worthington Games) a few weeks ago and we wanted to compare. First up was The Struggle for New France.

As we were going though the rules, I kept thinking "this is really similar to Wilderness Empires". But we wrote that off as "same war, same level of abstraction, likely similar feel". Then we started playing and damned if it wasn't exactly the same game excepting a slightly different (and better) combat mechanism and different way of tracking troop strength.

As we played, we speculated about a design duo break-up and maybe duelling products. In the end, the British won, sacking Louisburg and holding off a rampaging Montcalm.

So I get home and look and the same guy designed both games. Worthington games just re-treated Struggle for New France (2013) as Wilderness Wars (2015) at twice the price. I guess it was a case of buyer beware on the kickstarter of Wilderness Wars (although this was never mentioned to my recollection and isn't at all clear on the Worthington website) but I cant help but feel like I got screwed. Last Worthington Games purchase for me!

Then Bruce hauled out Wolfe and Montcalm which was a campaign engine in his Habitants and Highlanders rules. We played a quick game--not completely to conclusion but far enough to see the British had it after driving up Lake Champlain.

Up next: Some HO-scale buildings and a 1/-72-scale Grant are underway.

Wilderness Empires

I backed Worthington Games' Wilderness Empires as a kickstarter and the game finally arrived last week. I was keen to have a FIW game that was less complex than Wilderness Wars and Bruce had already picked up A Few Acres of Snow.

Overall, decent components. One small map error (Indian tribe name) and the game needs to have blocks to represent armies (as having a dozen units on one location makes the map hard to see) but otherwise I'm satisfied. You win by acquiring 10 more victory points than the other guy and the French can also win by denying the British victory at game end.

Movement is point-to-point and the map is worth a careful review before play. There are basically five paths by which the sides can get at each other: One on each flank (although the French have only a single opportunity to attack from Louisburg to Halifax) and three in the middle. Lack of manpower and (as, I found out, reinforcements) means each side has to be cautious in picking battles and developing a strategy.

I played the game solo to get the rules figured out before taking to Bruce's this coming Tuesday. My American plan was to block in the middle, ignore Louisburg and try to flank in the west. This worked poorly! The west is a long slog with few benefits and it put my troops too far from the east-coast cities to help out when the French pushed south.

My French plan was to fortify Louisburg (affects French reinforcements) and then push down the centre--raiding with the Indians if the British didn't hold the west. The French got some lucky rolls and cards.

Cards are interesting. Each side gets five per year and can play four (1 each in spring and fall and two in summer). The cards add colour and unexpected events (including reinforcements) but aren't overwhelming.

There is an interesting dynamic with the cards whereby the turn sequence gives the British the initiative but the opportunity cost of play a card (and then being unable to block French reinforcements) is high. This creates hard choices, at least for the British player!

In the end, poor British choices and bad dice left the colonies unable to stop the French juggernaut from rolling south and bagging the east coast. I suspect this is unlikely to happen with two experienced players but was fun to watch.

Up next: Some more Wilderness Empires, some 1/72-scale British paratroops and a 33mm Star Wars painting commission is underway.

A Few Acres of Snow

I dropped by Bruce's place last night for some gaming. He was still sorting the solo mechanics of Fire on the Lake so set out A Few Acres of Snow. We played three times, with the British winning each time. I really like the game (deck building plus map play). When we were first starting out, the games tended to split evenly. As we've gotten better, we've seen the British side become essentially unbeatable.

This is consistent with the history and I know there is an unbeatable British strategy around the Halifax Hammer. But even without using that strategy, the British can just build their way to victory. I've tried a couple of different approaches (including a military one and an isolationist one) and can't seem to get the French even close to winning any more. I haven't tried a raiding-heavy approach yet but I'm losing faith in the game, which is a shame.

Bruce also trotted out his new 15mm command bases for Maurice. The tent above is quite cute. The carriage with princess below is impressive. Both are substantial pieces which he thinks will help players understand why relocating this piece is so costly in game terms.

Up next: I'm working on some more 54mm Britsh (a unit of lights) and the club is Tuesday.

2014 Wrap-Up and 2015 Plans

Looking back at my blog, I had a busy 2014 gaming-wise. The game I played the most turned out to be Pandemic, mostly because Jessica really likes it and other folks (wife, Jessica's friends, guests) can all be roped into playing a cooperative game. After much mulling, I'm going to buy On the Brink to expand the game. I like Pandemic but could stand some new challenges and On the Brink seems to provide the most bang for our buck. 

The Borg games (including Commands & Colors Ancients, CCN, Battlelore and Memoir) came second in terms of gaming time. These got a fair bit of play at the club and I just picked up the second and third CCA expansion. I'm hoping to play through all of the scenarios starting against Bruce on Tuesday. I've spent a fair bit of time miniaturizing the game with 1/72-scale figures but I find that the blocks are much easier to manage.

A game that has really redeemed World War 2 and modern wargaming for me is the World at War series. Bruce has hosted maybe 10 battles and I have found each one engaging (and frustrating). I find it operates at about the same level of abstract as DBA but the hex grid takes gimmicky geometry out of the equation. I don't have any hankering to buy armies or the rules but they have made many a winter night pretty enjoyable.

A game I wish I played more of this year is A Few Acres of Snow. This is a card game about the French and English race to conquer the new world. What I like about it is the asymmetry and the fact that each player is basically playing against his own hand. There is some interaction, but it is not much of a "war" game. I may break down and buy this one. I have also kickstarted Worthington Games' Wilderness Empire which is the same genre.

A game that got a lot of play is Academy Games's 1775: Rebellion. This is a four-player game that uses similar mechanics to 1812: Invasion but to much better effect. I've had this out at the club several times and have never lacked for players. I like that you can play with 2, 3 or 4 and that the mechanics allow for the asymmetries of the actual conflict.

A game I hope to play more of in the New ear is 1776: New York. This is an under-represented campaign in gaming and have a sense of chasing about it, with hidden units and time pressure on the British. I also hope to do some 54mm AWI gaming in the New Year, either using All the King's Men or perhaps Hold the Line. And most of my spring painting is aimed at completing enough troops to game with. I also have a Memoir '40 project in 1/72-scale that had stalled (but will come back) and perhaps a 28mm superhero project that I will get moving again.