Britain and Sweden Go To War!

Over the weekend Wayne and I managed to get together for a game of Napoleon at War – a fun set of Napoleonics rules made by a small Spanish company. The rules themselves feel like they have a bit of a Flames Of War influence and are quite fast. Evan and the Palmerston North guys play them a lot and have nothing but good things to say about them (okay, they have a few not so good things to say, but more about that later).

 

I dusted off an old British army that I am in the process of giving a little bit of a tidy up, whilst Wayne brought his Swedes. We had pretty similar forces with a few Brigades of infantry, a Squadron of Cavalry in reserve and some artillery (Wayne had 3 Batteries to my 2, as well as an extra gun in one).

We both deployed centrally, with our reserves to fill in the flanks. The short version of the game is that I managed to grind out in the centre, where my infantry battalions shot the Swedes off the table, but on my left flank Wayne’s extra artillery battery took out my 95^th Rifles and Portugese Cacadores, allowing him to start enveloping me. On the right flank my Cavalry came flying on, only the fail in a series of tests resulting in them standing around in front of another artillery battery. Eventually they got their act together and overran the guns and some of his Cav, but the damage was done and Wayne won the right flank. At that point we called then game a win to the Swedes, a very close win, but a win none the less…

 

The game was fun but one of the biggest frustrations was referencing the rulebook during the game (this being the main complaint that I’ve heard from players) and finding rules at the right time. We’ve downloaded the FAQ and are planning on having another go soon, in the meantime we are both going to need to read the rulebook another couple of times to try and get it to sink in!

Holding the Centre

British Cav sitting in front of the Swedish guns

Before finally getting it together and breaking the Swedish lines

WWPD4Vets Gaming Day (at BF HQ)

Over the weekend we rounded up a few people to spend the day playing games all in the aid of charity. It's a hard life.....! Wayne and Mike organised a large "Return to Budapest" game with 4 generals per side and 1000 points each. I thought this could be a good chance to roll out my T-34s that I had just finished painting. 

I also dug out some old LOTR Rohan figures that I picked up for a long forgotten project and turned them in to a force for Saga (I am calling them the Ro-Normans or Ro-Bretons) for an intro game with Wayne. Finally I managed to play a couple of games with Warma-Hordes verses Casey and long time Warhammer opponent Reid.

It was great to spend a day gaming, but even more importantly it was nice to help the WWPD guys raise some money for a very worthy charity.

Wayne and Mike set up for the big game

Mike's Strelkovy move up through the factory

The Sturmtigers hold the plaza

My T-34/85s support the advancing IS-2s - The T-34s would be routed from the field but no until we had a commanding lead on Victory Points

The Ro-Normans take the field (and get smashed - probably the lack of paint)

Kara's gun line vs Casey's Legion. Too much shooting for Casey to get his head around

Reid and Gordon have a game (converting them both from Warhammer)

Kara vs Reid, seconds after her Feat and a lot of shooting remove Molik Karn

Lazy Saturday Painting?

With plenty of work and home painting projects on the go at the moment, a few of us decided to spend Saturday painting. Painting with friends is always much more fun than painting solo and if you can book out a decent stretch of time to do it you may be surprised with how much you get done!

My job for the day was to continue working on my T-34 Battalion, ideally I'll get it finished this week leaving me almost no time to paint something new for Ides of March... Sean was working on his Stormstrider, Wayne had elephants, Napoleonic French and some Flames Of War miniatures on his mind, whereas Victor was finishing his Bronzeback for Ides (and pondering how he would paint his IK RPG 'jack) and Casey was working on some Soviets for the Winter War book. Marcelle even stopped by for a visit bringing joy, sunshine... and some Miss Melicious Cupcakes (they were as nice as they look!).

So many T-34s!

Sean hard at work

Wayne removes his glasses to take on his painting persona

Either thats one big cupcake, or one small elephant!

Wayne and Victor working hard

Victor's 'jack guards his cupcake!

Casey starts the day with the airbrush

And finishes with magic wash

WWPD4Vets at Battlefront NZ

Steve and guys over at WWPD have come up with a plan to raiseat least $2,500 for the Wounded Warrior Project and other world wide veterans organisations by organising a global 24 hours of gaming! 

They got in contact with Mike and asked if we would like to help out in some way. Needless to say when he raised the idea with me I thought it would be great to participate. Now with all great ideas there has to be a few wrinkles... one, since we are in New Zealand our 24 hours does not sync up too well with the US, and two, we have some real life work stuff going on around this time with some deadlines that we cannot miss so after a little discussion we decided to get involved with a 12 hour version.

We are still ironing out a few things but we have a tentative plan to pull out some of our favourite games (both board and miniature) and generally just have a fun day of gaming with the hope that it will help raise a few dollars for a worthy charity.

To get involved head over to the WWPD4Vets website, or follow the goings on here, as well as Mike's blog or the Flames Of War website where we are planning on hijacking the front page for a day (how many gaming companies would let you show off other peoples miniature games on their front page....!).

You can find me at THE CLEURB!

In New Zealand yesterday it was Waitangi Day, a national holiday where we celebrate having a day off work. There is a bit more behind the celebration but since this is not a blog about NZ politics the less said the better. I managed to convince my wargaming-widow (wife) that since Waitangi Day was midweek we should treat it like any other day and I should head to work (and play games!).

My main objective was to get a couple of games in with my Ides Of March list(s), with both Sean and Victor volunteering to take on the eIrusk and Man-O-War challenge. Wayne and Casey rolled out the Hungarian Assault Guns and T-34/85 Battalions, whilst James strapped on his six-shooter and played a couple of games of Legends Of The Old West as other games finished. 

Both of my games were very enjoyable and have given me a little more reason to get the list painted. I am 100% un-convinced about its lethality, however I cannot see why that should stop me from looking at giving it a run. Part of me is however wondering if I should look for some other options for casters, although eIrusk's ability to let models pass through each other and giving most of my army Tough is pretty damn useful!

Nemo3 with a proxied lightning force (Sean) vs a very unpainted Khador force - 4 weeks till Ides, not a problem!

Both sides close in

Big scrum in the middle - I managed to win leaving Nemo in the sights of a boosted Destroyer

James and Victor setting up for some LotOW action

Another big scrum

Action shot of Casey (and Wayne). Casey's T-34/85 horde running into Wayne's Hungarians

T-34/85 firing line!

Zyrinis holding their own on the left flank

Victors Skorne - this is a really nice looking army up close!

First turn advancing towards each other

It was looking so good for me... and then Victor crushed my Demo Corp freeing his Immortals up to win the game!

…2013, come on down!

I meant to be put this up a week ago but with a busy first Christmas with my son the holiday period disappeared quite quickly on me. So, on with the show!

2013 is going to be a bit of an odd hobby year for me. We are only holding one GT this year, so it means a little less incentive to work on some of my FOW projects (EW French, EW Soviets or anything Mid War). I am also unsure as to how many “away” games I will get in as it may be hard to get leave passes for the long weekends, although I am in preliminary discussions to head to Napier in June (good wine country down there so I can get in some gaming, and then after that we can visit some wineries!) and Wellington in August (nicest bunch of WarmaHordes players in New Zealand – sorry fellow Aucklanders, you guys are great too but they take the title). Evan is also likely to suggest I make the trip to Panzerschreck for his doubles tournament in July.

What’s the plan?

Q1 – I need to get a 42 point force painted for Ides of March and I have about 7-8 weeks to do it. I have been tossing up between expanding my Kara Sloan list by painting my Minutemen and Gun Mages, or starting my Trolls… Last night I was playing around with War Room and got excited about an eIrusk, 2 Juggernaught, 5 Man-o-War Shocktroopers, Bombardiers and Demo Corps and a small unit of Mechanics with their Officer UA. I love the MoW units (although they seem a little underwhelming on the table) and this would get me to paint them!

I also need to paint up a T-34 Battalion for a web article I am going to be working on. It means assembling and painting up 21 tanks, as well as an additional 21 turrets. Not normally a big issue but it does mean that I need to schedule my painting time well to achieve both sets of goals.

Q2 – If I am heading to NiCon it will either be WarmaHordes teams event (with Sean and Victor) or Flames Of War at a guess. In which case I will need to paint up some Trollbloods or find something that is going to inspire me with regards to Late War (not sure what periods will be on offer, but LW is a safe bet at this stage) – good chance to paint some of the new plastic PaK40s for my Hungarians as well as some Tigers I have had stashed for a rainy day!

Q3 – Call To Arms in Wellington will definitely be a WarmaHordes weekend with either the Trolls or Kara (or whatever else I end up coming up in between). Looking at my unpainted WarmaHordes figures there are quite a few units that I want to get painted and I know that a tournament is the only way to help me achieve that goal, hence all the swapping between forces.

Q4 – Finish my 1956 Israeli Tank Company! I have the tanks done, now I need to finish my artillery, add some recon and infantry. All the figures are sitting in a box at home, they just need a little paint and a lot of time. Evan is also working on a little Christmas present for me to go with this army – more details on that later.

Throughout the entire year… play some more games in general. Other than getting out to play X-Wing at TCOW in the last part of 2012 I did not play may games so the onus is on me to get the FOW and W/H stuff out of the cupboards a little more regularly. I’m also going to get my Dystopian Wars Prussians (and Allied nations) finished this year. They are quick and fun to paint so I need to stop mucking around and just get them done! I’ll also be getting my Relic Knights pre-order at some point so I should try and get some of that painted (or maybe just assembled). Last (but not least) is to work on some 1967 / 73 Syrians to go up against my Israelis.

Well, that is the 2013 plan, I already have this sinking feeling that I have bitten off more than I can chew!

Between writing this and posting it, I managed to get in two games (WarmaHordes with Tony and Napoleon at War with Wayne) and paint some Dystopian Wars stuff – the year is actually starting off according to plan!

Sunday Gaming: Battlestar Galactica and Dystopian Wars

Had a great day of Sunday Gaming today and despite turning up late (as usual) Victor and I managed to get a game of Dystopian Wars in, before settling down for a good game of Battlestar Galactica with Sean and Casey.

Initial setup, Dreadnought and Battleship up the middle

Dystopian Wars was Victors Empire of the Blazing Sun up against my Prussians. It was really a chance to see how much of the new ruleset I managed to absorb after last nights read. In terms of the update to V1.1 I really like alot of what they have done. It feels like there is alot of streamlining, but I need many more games to really get my head around the changes. I also wish I had a quick reference sheet with the model assigned rules (MARS) to help me remember what everything is. I also need to look at sorting out some tokens as we had a lot of damaged ships limping around the table. We kept the game simple and avoided anything flying, as well as too many of the optional (or what we refered to as optional) rules like morale...

Cruisers head to the left flank, enemy in the distance

As it stood my little ships accounted for themselves well cleaning out alot of Victors destroyer screen, but his cruisers then took their toll on the survivors and my battleship. Meanwhile my gunships (think guns of a battleship but speed of a cruiser) worked over his battleship with a little help. In the end we called it a draw. I think I may need to re-read the rules again and perhaps cruise the Spartan Games forum for a few extra gaming aids / FAQs etc - either way a great game and a good test drive for my new islands (I'll have more photos of them soon). Hopefully this week my last two will arrive allowing me to create an island airfield an a table-corner industrial facility for some home-brewed scenarios.

Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Next up was BSG - the Fantasy Flight board game. If you like BSG at all, and you like board games at all, then this is a absolute MUST purchase. I've played it a dozen times now and each time is different, nail biting, back stabbing, high quality fun... and we haven't even had a single game yet using the expansions (but now Sean is hooked he will read the expansion rules and teach the rest of us!).

As they say on the site
The Board Game is an exciting game of mistrust, intrigue, and the struggle for survival which places each player in the role of one of ten of their favorite characters from the show. Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and all must work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game is secretly a Cylon, and wants the humans to perish.

The basic premise is that anyone can be a Cylon, it is just luck. As a group you try to get your doomed fleet home whilst the Cylons (who many not even know they are one yet) try to stop you.

Oh really?

Short version of the game, I was everyones favourite (Baltar) and knew that I was a skin-job from the start. I spent the first half of the game hiding, counciling the other players, trying to hide my identity. Mike was playing a confusing game and even though I knew he was a human he had the rest thinking he was a toaster at heart. I changed sides with a bang and proceeded to cause trouble whilst I waited for an ally. In the end it was Casey (Adama) who revealed himself, more through accident than anything else though. In the end the Cylons plucked victory from defeat as the humans were moments away from salvation (not may humans admittedly, more than a few perished after a massive Cylon ambush).

Assuming I make it to the next Sunday Gaming session I very much hope that we roll out another game of BSG!

Sunday Gaming

This coming weekend is the New Zealand National Convention and there will be around 150 people from all over the country coming together for a weekend of gaming, covering everything from Ancients to Napoleonics to Flames of War, Warhammer and Warmachine. Its definitely one of the highlights of the gaming year as you get to catch up with people you have not seen since the last Nationals.

As I mentioned in the last post I am taking Karchev out for a spin, but I realised that my list was not entirely legal for the Highlander event so I have had to make a few amendments. It now looks a little more like this:

Karchev the Terrible

Wardog

Destroyer

Juggernaut

Iron Fang Uhlans (x3)

Kovnik Markov

Not entirely sure that the Wardog is legit but I will worry about that on the day. On Sunday I took the force out for a run against Victor's Skorne list - an Immortals/Zaal force that I have real problems knocking over. This game looked like no exception as I pushed forward across a broad front, he did the same, my Cav charged in a killed a few of the Immortals and then were swamped and killed (along with my Juggernaut). Luckily the dice were on my side as Karchev popped his feat, 'towed' the Destroyer up field and in the process killed one his Cyclops, then the Destroyer charged into Zaal and despite having a couple of transfers managed to put him down.

What did I learn... Tow is awesome (but I knew that already), Cavalry hit hard but don't really like being hit back and that Karchev is still the man! Of course this may be my last win with the list based on previous tournament performance  :D

Ulans Work in Process on Sunday

As for painting the Cav, I've finished the horses and are now working on the riders with two nights to go. Should not be a problem as long as no-one looks too closely at them.

Either way it will be a fun weekend especially since I will have added another finished unit to my Khador army.

Lazy Sunday Gaming Club

On Sunday I got together with some friends and had a quiet afternoon of gaming. It was nice to get out of the house for a little while in the weekend and have some "bonus" gaming. Managed to fit in two games before I got a call from my wife telling me that power to our house had been lose and that power lines were down (Sunday afternoon callout.... so much for this months gaming budget!).

Anyway.... had a quick intro game of Legends of the Old West (LotOW) with Victor, more to give him a basic idea of the rules rather than anything else. This game ROCKS! and despite having not played it in a few years, I remembered some of the rules - thats a good sign in my opinion that the rules are fun. Victor's band of four guns managed to run me out of town (beginners luck). I would have taken some pictures but we were using 15mm European Buildings as stand-ins whilst I build me Perry's plastic buildings.

We then switched over for a 25 point Warmachine game. Victor put his Skorne on hold and pulled out his Dwarves: Gorton, Steinhammer, 4 Gun Bunnies (2 marshalled by Thor), a Driller and Brun and Lug. I put the Butcher on the table for the first time (he is pretty awesome), two Juggers, 5 Demo Korps, 2 Manhunters and Widowmakers. The game was heaps of fun with Victor putting me under early pressure cleaning out alot of my figures for just the loss of Steinhammer, but on the feat turn I was able to put down the Driller, Brun & Lug and a Gun Bunny (with 1 and bit Juggers and Butcher), essentially leaving Gorton with no choice but to go in and try and finish off the two damaged Juggers.... it did not end well for him!

Demo Korps and Manhunters lead the charge

The battle lines hit each other

The demise of Gorton!

Sadly the efforts on Sunday have now given me another Christmas project to do - put together my Wild West houses and put together a small town for some gaming fun!

P.S. - Congrats to Dave Taylor for adding another future gamer to this world!