Imperial Settlers and Rancor

This week was club night and Terry hosted a game of Imperial Settlers. I had a hoot! What a pleasant and interesting game of resource management.

George also hosted a WW2 plane game that I did not get a chance to watch.

I have been doing a bit of painting to finish off a commission (some broken pieces that the manufacturer replaced for the owner).

I finished the Rancor. What a lovely model! And huge!

I left it glossy as all of the movie stills show it as a touch damp or slimy.

I had some trouble getting a decent shot--it looks much nicer in person than these photos show off.

Up next: I have on last gormorrian guard who is underway and hopefully some western gaming.

Target for Tonight

Bruce put on a game of Target for Tonight this week. The rules simulate the British bombing campaign against Germany.

You each get a plane (although it would be possible to run multiple planes or even a squadron if you were keen). The crew have abilities that improve over time (if they survive).

The game has area movement and would fit on a coffee table. Below you can see the entire set up. You start on an airbase (bottom right tile). You then move (clockwise) to the coast, across the sea make landfall, fly through a flak belt, hit your target and egress. The number and type of tiles depends on mission you roll.

As you move from tile to tile, you roll for random events and the game could easily be played solo. The main weakness of the game is that there are almost no decisions for players to make--just lots of dice rolls.

When you reach your target you use a card deck to navigate across the city towards a target square (not shown in this photo). Cards affect your movement, simulating winds navigation, and other challenges. There is some decision making here, but mostly the moves are obvious.

If you get jumped by a night fighter, you flip the bombing board over and you have a brief dogfight. Again, movement is drive by a card draw with most moves being obvious.

The rules are pretty slick once you get the hang of it. Bruce put all of the tables on a two-sided QRS. The layout of the rule book itself is appalling, with historical material interspersed with the rules. A QRS is a must to avoid endless flipping. This is really an inexcusable production error.

Overall, a pretty fun game and nice to have a solo option. The level of abstraction is nicely thought out. It avoids the paper-chase of B-17. As time passes, technology changes and each side gets new tricks and counter measures. I'd totally play again.

We played twice with one (of four!) bombers returning and no successful hits. There was literally nothing we could have done to change the outcome (except roll better) which is perhaps the biggest drawback of the game.

Bomber Command Museum, Nanton, Alberta

This summer we passed through Nanton, Alberta on our way to a family vacation in the mountains. I'd recalled that Nanton housed the museum of Canada's bomber command. My wife's uncle was a tail gunner in a Lancaster so we decided to stop in and see what the museum had.

Outside there are the usual "planes on a post" but also a very moving tribute to the 10,000 Canadians killed in bomber command operations. We were able to find her uncle's name. The sheer number of names is quite staggering (both sides of the monument above).

The museum inside was pretty interesting. The only exhibit picture I snapped was of this 1/72-scale model of a training base in nearby High River.

From the museum, you enter the hanger, which is full of planes. Some you can climb into (Jessica is inside the front fuselage of a bomber created for a movie). I was a touch too big and stiff to get in there myself.

The largest plane is a Lancaster (which still runs) set up with a dam buster bomb hanging below.

There was also an ME-109. I was surprised by how big the fighters were and how small the bombers were (relative to each other). The 109 was a big plane.

There were also several trainers, commemorating the role played by Canadian training facilities.

It was hard to get a decent shot of the Lancaster due to the short sight-lines. We paid an extra $5 and got the chance to tour the inside of the Lancaster.

Even with the adjustments made for tourists (e.g., stairs, equipment stripped out), it was a tight squeeze. I can't imagine doing in the dark, in -40, with all four engines howling.

Although access to the tail gunner location was blocked off, there was zero chance I would have been able to squeeze into the slot. Talk about a lonely posting.

We also passed through Vulcan, Alberta and stopped at the Star Trek Museum (which was most a giant gift shop with some cardboard movie cut outs and some old Trek toys.

I bought a few t-shirts but can't say it was worth the detour.

1/600 planes

Bruce popped over Tuesday for another go at some 1/600 planes using a modified set of c21 airway rules. Our first game saw two flights of MiG 19s assigned to down some Skyraiders.

The Skyraiders were on a pre-programmed flight. Bruce flew a pair of Phantoms on CAP.

This started out well for the North Vietnamese as I actually managed to get in behind the ground-attack planes. But then I could not make a maneuver roll worth beans and Bruce managed to splash two MiGs. I got two skyraiders in the end but it was a pretty clear US victory.

We then switched the WW1 biplanes. Germans escorting a bomber formation against a bunch of nasty Brits.

I had more discipline this game (and less tendency to over fly the target). I think Bruce got a bomber but paid pretty heavily against my escorts.

Overall, the modifications are pretty good. Dropping the cards has eliminated a lot of the tedious guess work. We talked about making shooting in close range a touch harder but otherwise I would say these rules are ready for prime time.

Air games

I was over at Bruce's on Tuesday and we played some plane games. First we started out using C21 Airwar to play a Vietnam game. I had two Phantoms to protect some ground attack craft from 4 MiGs. Better hurry up, boys!

It had been awhile since we had played (years?) and it showed in my play. I was always one move behind Bruce. Then my one plane stalled after a failed maneuver and augured into the ground while the other one saw its missiles go offline.

I did finally manage to get into the slot for one gun shot but it was a good day for the North Vietnamese airforce. What a mess!

Bruce then hauled out some WW2 planes (British Hurricanes intercepting German bombers and CAP) and we played a stripped down version that kept the initiative mechanics from C21 as well as the manoeuvre rolls but ditched the cards.

This gave a way better game, I thought. Bruce again creamed me, with his ME110s chewing up my Hurricane's right out of the gate.

I did manage to back in the game later on but had a hard time putting enough hits in the bombers to bring them down.

Overall, much slicker mechanics here that felt more like running a squadron than flying a few planes. Much less guess work as well. Hope to try this again with jets and the missile mechanics from C21.

AirWar 21 Biplanes

I popped out to Bruce's last night for a bit of AirWar C21 that Bruce had adapted to WW1. he pulled out his new cigar box mat and some 1/700 Tumbling Dice planes and we were off. I drew the Germans with a pair of triplanes and two early Albatross. You can see the allies come in at the top of the photo. The initial contact saw me able to double team one of Bruce's planes (dumb luck, but I will take it). The fight then broke up into two furballs. 

Bruce's pilots had some trouble with their maneuvers and one of then bought the farm eventually, although one of my planes was badly damaged in return.The other dogfight saw a head-to-head flypast with one of Bruce's planes catching fire. One of my triplanes managed to get in behind and a second allied plane went down and we called it. I had two damaged planes, limited ammo and was in no condition to catch his remaining fighters.

A fun game. Simple enough that two of use could run eight planes between us. But enough grit you had think about what you were doing. The absence of explicit altitude (built into some of the manoeuvre cards) was a reasonable compromise.

Up next: Working on more superhero stuff (will post some this weekend), including a bunch of buildings to finish up the streets of Gotham. Hope to visit a train store on Friday to get some road signs and fences.

EWG April 16: WW2 planes

We had 12 guys out to the club this week, including newcomer Wesley and there were five games running! I played in Bruce's Warbirds game (basically WW2 Canvas Eagles) with Andy and Terry. I think we got four (or maybe five?) games in in about two and a half hours.

The first couple of games saw a crippled B-17 getting jumped. The first game the B-17 had an escort and the second game it did not. Warbirds is surprisingly easy to pick up but has some subtleties that take a game or two or cotton onto ("I'm going waaaaaay to fasssst..."). I think the bomber had split outcomes, with game one including a pilot killed, a mid-air collision (sorry Terry, my bad) and a plane exploded. We got better though.

We then did some dogfights. Man, the P-51 is a helluva plane. The first game was a decisive allied win with Andy landing with a dead engine and Terry piling into the ground in a spin. Game two didn't go so well for the allies with leaking fuel lines and fire... .

There was some Warmachine, some Vietnam and some insurgency being played. And Dennis and Dave played some more LaSalle. I caption this photo "God wills it, Dennis!" as Dave basks in the Sun and Dennis fishes around for less cursed dice.

Up next: Some 1/72 Romans horse are drying and some auxiliaria are underway. I also have some terrain to do this weekend.

FS painted 1/432-scale Battle of Britain models

My buddy Bruce is thinning his collection slightly and has asked me to sell some of his WW2 Battle of Britain planes. There are 93 painted planes (plus a few unpainted) and these are 1/432-scale models, based upon the pocket recognition models of the day. I don't recall why the odd-ball scale except that it had to do with the size of the actual plane at 1000 yards or something like that.

These planes are all metal and each has a ball-head pin glued to the underside. When combined with an alligator clip on a flight stand, this allows you to model the plane turning, diving and climbing (and crashing, as I often found out). The pins could also be snipped off flush with the plane without any damage if you fancy a different basing system.

First up are the British (left to right), with 11x Hurricanes (Mk1), 10x Halifax bombers and 6 x Spitfire Mk V. All are hand painted and decaled. I believe Bruce got these from John Stanoch when he first launched his "Squadrons" series of games (which I see was revived in 2010).

The Germans include (left to right above) 4x Heinkel He111 bombers, 12 x Dornier Do17 bombers and 8x Junkers Ju88 bombers. And they are joined by (left to right below) 12 x Focke-Wulf FW190s, 8x Messerschmidt Me110s, 8x Messerschmidt Me109s, 10x Junker Ju87s (Stukas) and 4x Focke-Wulf FW189s.

This set allows you to have "instance Battle of Britain". Bruce would like $100 for the lot and the postage in Canada or the US will be $15. I'll individually wrap each plane in bubblewrap for the shipping. Offers to bob.barnetson@shaw.ca.

EWG January 15

We had a good turn out at the club last night, with nine guys and two games. Stu put on a game of 6mm FUBAR for Chen and Dave. Dave kept shouting "I'm going commando on those guys!", which led to tittering from the other game.

Bruce put on a WW2 aerial game in 1/700 for Scott, Kevin and Terry (RAF) and Will, Bruce and myself (Germans, Vichy branch). Bruce had to get the stukas off the board while Will and I "escorted" them in Me109s. We faced a mix of Hurricanes and Spitfires.

I think the system worked pretty well as we had six guys all playing at once with only minimal umpiring necessary once we'd all thrown our first dice in anger (or, in Scott's case, despair).

The British won, dropping both the bomber but at the cost of three fighters. If it has been a points game and had gone one more round, I think it could have tipped towards the Germans based on the positioning of the planes. I actually shot down two planes and didn't lose anyone (totally the opposite of my usual flying--of course, no one yell "next one to shoot Bob down wins").

Up next: Some 28mm WW1 Germans on the painting table. I have a few more details to work through (rifles, metal and whatever uniform detail there is) before moving them to basing. I also primed a bunch of 1/72 19th century RCMP/militia.

More CCN: Quatre Bras

Bruce and I refought Quatre Bras last night (twice!) using Commands and Colors Napoleonics. I managed two wins with the British--once because Bruce couldn't roll worth beans and once because I couldn't miss. Close games--they could have gone either way with a bit more even luck.

The first game saw real command card mismatches, with me having only centre cards and Bruce having only flanking cards. Fortunately (for the British), a cannon in the woods (below) managed to just cause havoc with the advance on the British right. Cannon in woods (or towns) is very effective and I wonder if one is supposed to count both the firing out of and firing into terrain effects (we only counted the worst terrain effect). I also had some luck with a cavalry charge that munched a couple of cannon units.

Game two was a bit different with Bruce launching a horrific cavalry attack against me. It was awful: you so gotta watch Bruce--it looks like he's just rearranging deck chairs and then boom--he's rolling seven dice against your militia units. I only barely managed to beat the attack back and sneak a win. Who you gonna call? The grenadier guards!

Bruce also showed off a bunch more 1/700 planes from Tumbling Dice, this time from WW1.

Up next: A building is almost finished then onto some 28mm vikings. And perhaps another game with Bruce if I can get a hall pass! Alas, work is cutting into my painting time.