24th July Games

Bit thin on the ground last night; I shall be expecting sick notes or postcards from holidays from the missing parties in due course...

Bob, Andy and Mark ran what appeared to be a pretty short Warhammer 40K game - short due to Mark's troops being annihilated in two moves!

I ran the Eastern Front Angels 20 scenario as arranged, using a selection of recently obtained Romanian and Russian aircraft for the first time. It is fair to say the Romanian IAR 80 and Bf 109 E were outclassed by the Russian La 5 and P39, as was witnessed by two games with each side swapping round. It is of interest to note that Tovarich Bryson scored his first kill in the second game using a P39 to obliterate an IAR 80, throwing THREE sixes with my SELWG dice in the process. A picture of the dice roll is attached for those who would doubt that the dice in question actually have sixes engraved on them.

Plans for next week currently centre on a further Warhammer 40K game and an idea I have for a Napoleonic naval game; thought it was about time the 1/1200 ships came out again....

See yer soon,
Neil.

17th July Games

A reasonable turnout last night, in spite of the current hot weather. I didn't get much of a look at the impressive French and Indian Wars game that Steve and Laurie were running, but given the number of comments about whinging French colonial troops, I gather that the British had the upper hand by game's end. Similarly, Bob and Andy's Malifaux game appeared to proceed to their satisfaction. I ran a second playtest of the naval rules originally written by Bob Cordery with a couple of tweaks. These played out OK, but the rules are not best suited to the level of fleet action we favour; I intend to use these in a modified form for the smaller fleet actions of the earlier Ironclad era in due course, but the rules are going to need some work for this to be achieved. 

Next week I understand that a Warhammer 40K game is scheduled, and Steve has agreed to bring some board games as well. I hope to return to Angels 20, having taken delivery of the last of my current batch of Eastern European Axis aircraft last night. No prizes for which theatre of operations is likely to be featured in the game....

See yer soon,
Neil.

10th July Games

Firstly, congratulations to Chris, Graham, Dave Weedon, John Francis and Andy for their success in retaining the Best of Show trophy at the Battlegroup South show last weekend. To win any award in successive years is no mean achievement, but with the quality of games at this show the bar is set even higher. I understand that the War of Spanish Succession game will be offered for the SELWG show in October this year.

Last night's games are included as photographs herewith;

My predreadnought rules test required ' shell splashes' to record fall of shot. I actually found that I was running out of markers, as the attached photo shows!

Thanks to John for the WW2 game, and to Andy and Bob for their Malifaux game.

Currently we have an offer of a French and Indian Wars game from Steve and Laurie, while I intend to run the predreadnought test again, with a few tweaks to be made to the rules, which I think will help with the larger actions we tend to play.

See yer soon,
Neil

Bovington 2013

I attended the annual Bovington Tank Museum Wargames show over the weekend along with John, Chris, Dave and Graham who were running a WSS game based off a set of old school rules.
The game was a success with the public and the organisers and won the best of show category which was a pleasant surprise, especially as the guys had also won the trophy last year.

John, setting out the Teddy Bear Fur Terrain (This is humane bear fur, and
despite allegatons we confirm that no Teddy Bears were hurt during its manufacture)

The Buildings, Hovels and home made sabot bases

Chris, scratch built river

Attacking forces

 

The defenders

Battle Commences, the cannon have home made smoke to show they have fired.

More defenders holding the ridge

The venue is different with games and traders nestled between the tanks which are numerous and  fascinating in their own right. Unfortunately being involved in running the game I could not give the museum my full attention but hopefully I will get back again (may be next year?)

In addition there are facilities to camp on site, including toilets and showers as well as the all-important bear (sp) tent for latter in the evening.

The game used a nice tracking system representing fatigue where units dropped from green to black depending on how many actions they took impact of taking casualties or the fate of random special cards. The lower the fatigue rating the lower the effectiveness of the unit in shooting, melee and saving throws. The effect of this very simple mechanism  was that you were forced to think carefully about which unit you used, if you got it wrong you could end up with a fatigued unit (6+ saves) being attacked by fresh units with 4+ to hit.

The terrain is built up from Teddy Bear fur with the roads cut in with hair clippers. Buildings were from Hovels with the sabot bases scratch built. Figures from a variety of manufacturers but the core came from the new war-games factory WS plastics that allowed the core forces to be built up cheaply.

Attackers fire onto the ridge

 

Defenders fire at the closing cavalry unit

Both sides firing, with armoured cars in the backgound.

More attackers

A poor picture of the trophy with the tank on top visible.

3rd July Games

As arranged, we had a trial game with the Legends of the Old West rules last night; I have had these rules for some time, but had never really worked up the interest to run a game before. There were some - interesting, shall we say - situations arising from the test game, involving the slow dismantling of a door by bullet and size 10 boot (hi Alan!), incipient pyromania (yes, Andy, I am looking at you) and a final no holds barred gunfight in which the bad guys achieved their seriously politically incorrect objective. No photographs this week as the terrain was rather crowded due to the rapid expansion of Bryson City with the advent of the new MDF buildings on the market.

 

Next week John has offered to run a Rapid Fire WW2 game using his early way 15 mm collection; I have another set of predreadnought rules which I wish to test, and will supply all the items needed.

See yer soon,
Neil.  

26th May Games

A distinct nautical theme to last night's meeting; thanks to Dave Kightly for the War at Sea game, using his USN and IJN collections. I started rather later than expected with a play test of a set of predreadnought rules due to the late arrival of Messrs. Fosker and Crook, together with the usual business transactions etc. Pictures of both games are attached; the War at Sea game ran twice and my play test went well, but there are changes and rewrites planned for this and a set of rules for the earlier ironclads.

Next week has an Old West game planned using the Warhammer Historical rules. I have had these for some time but have never played them. I believe I have a batch of player aids squirreled away on the PC, and will send these out when I can find them which might help to get things moving on the night.

See yer soon,
Neil

12th May Games & Broadside 2013

Well, that one is done for another year! Thanks to John/Chris for the loan of the display stand (table layout features in accompanying photo) and to the two Steves, Laurie and John for helping with the three games we were able to run. Quite a bit of passing interest (including Henry Hyde of Miniature Wargames). On site trade was OK if not quite what I had hoped for but most people came away with a decent haul.

Thanks to Steve and Andy for the Flames of war and Dogs of War games they organised for Wednesday nights session; pictures are attached.

Steve tells me that Mark has proposed a SWAT game, while Steve will bring some board games. I will look at something similar (Memoir 44 or Battle Cry seem like good ideas), but any other offers would be welcomed.

See yer soon,
Neil