23rd August Games

   A reasonable turnout last night, even if we were scattered around the Wayland Games Centre. Dave K, Steve S, Paul, Andy P, Mark and Eddie were involved in a Walking Dead campaign game in the bar area, Rob and Alan were playing the Stargrave sci-fi rules from Osprey along Steve H and myself. My game brought out the Napoleonic naval collection for a refight of the Battle of San Domingo in 1806, when a French squadron was destroyed in the West Indies. The layout for the game didn’t quite match the reality, and the French under Steve did rather better than was the case in reality. I pulled victory from defeat not by preventing the French squadron from escaping, but  when the British flagship blew up after suffering catastrophic damage, it inflicted so much damage on the surrounding French ships that they couldn’t evade the pursuing British! You take your wins any way you can...............  

 

   I understand a further Walking Dead game is planned for next week. I won’t be down for a couple of weeks, but I’ll see you all in mid September. If someone could update the Facebook page in my absence, I’d be most grateful.  

 

See yer soon,

Neil

16th August Games

Thin on the ground once again this week; due to absence and illness decimating our ranks, Andy’s Samurai game fell victim to the low attendance. While Rob and Alan played Frostgrave with some very impressive painting on display, I ran an Angels 20 WW2 aerial game for the benefit of Steve H, Andy, Mark and myself. One of the game’s great strengths is the inclusion of some of the period’s lesser known aircraft. This week, I chose to feature the French Dewoitine 520, which was entering service just as German forces invaded in 1940, and subsequently saw service with Vichy forces in Syria and North Africa. The first game therefore pitted three D520’s against two Bf109E’s escorting a Stuka to attack a ground target. The D520 pilots were graded as Ace by the data card supplied, which might be a bit unfair (but since the formula for calculation is not available, I had no choice) but the aircraft certainly performed well, shooting down the Ju87 and one Bf109 and damaging the other. The second game played two D520’s against two P-51C Mustangs, which was slightly fairer, and honours were even for this game. 

 

Next week, there is a board game session planned, but I’ll bring my Napoleonic naval collection for a pickup game to benefit any others attending.

 

See yer soon,

Neil  

9th August Games

We had a whole row to ourselves this week! Three games were running – Frostgrave with Rob, Alan and a friend, Andy P, Mark and Steve S with a Lord of the Rings inspired assault on a Rohirrim fort (?Helm’s Deep?) by a whole horde of marauding Uruk-Hai, and my play test of my DBA inspired ECW rules for the WoFun figures I acquired a while back. 

I’ll confine myself to comments on the last of these as I was umpiring while Dave K, Steve H, Paul and Eddie commanded the Royalist and Parliamentarian forces. Increased movement and firing ranges were an improvement, but some tweaks concerning the use of cover, effects of disorganised movement through the same, group movement and firing priorities are required before a further game. Casualties were light before the Royalists came to hand strokes with the Parliamentarians, and just edged a win in the last move by forcing the latter to a loss of one third of their forces. The game went well for the most part other than the points mentioned, which is always to be expected in a play test. I’ll make the necessary adjustments and email copies to the players for their comments asap.

Next week, Andy P will run a Samurai game, while I’ve offered to run a WW2 air combat game with Angels 20.  

 

See yer soon,

Neil

2rnd August Games

Greetings

 

Still a bit thin on the ground, which meant there was sufficient room for all to play Mark’s SWAT team game without my gladiator game being required (although I did bring some of the 54mm figures intended for use for the proposed show game, currently in the planning stage). The mission was to rescue a group of scientists held hostage by a mix of low level thugs and mercenaries, moving though a 3D setup Mark has acquired. Most enjoyable, proper tactics were rewarded and the hostages were rescued. Rob and Alan were playing Infinity, and still going strong after we’d completed our mission and packed up! 

Next week, Andy has organised a Lord of the Rings game, while I’ve revamped the DBA based ECW rules I devised to use with the WoFun flat figures I bought a while back, and will run a game at the same time. 

 

See yer soon,

 

Neil