Glenn's visit or "How many games can I get off one table?"

 My friend Glenn came to town a couple of weeks ago for a few days and we decided to find out how many games we could get off one table set up.  With just a few modifications, the answer was four.....

 

ONE, I had a full house of 6 players for a rousing game of "All Quiet on the Martian Front".  It was a really close run thing; when the Humans won the game they had two units that, if they had lost another vehicle or stand in either one of the units, the Martians would have won.....

 
 

TWO, the next day we switched to WW II.  Even though we were on the Eastern Front we left the terrain and buildings alone (*cough* too lazy 😉).  We played my published tank rules "Tigers and Stalins" in 15mm instead of the original scale of 1/285th.  Bad die rolling and the Soviets decision not to close with the Germans lead to a Soviet defeat.

 THREE, after lunch we did change some terrain around.  We went back to the US for a 28mm ACW game.  We pulled some of the smaller wooded areas off the table and added a farm house, cornfield and split rail fences.  Using the "Firepower" rules from Perry Miniatures both sides fed their units into the fight piecemeal.  Things didn't go so well for the Union at first, but again, the dice going cold doomed the Rebels.....

 FOUR, For our final game of the weekend we decided to play rules that were new to both of us.  They are called "Fictioneers: Legacy", published by RRB Minis and More  The game revitalizes miniatures from a bygone era.  They, along with the rules and the story behind them, are all available on the RRB website.

 Glenn and I picked up all the ACW buildings and fencing and put down some "Sci-Fi" looking buildings that I quickly (3d) printed and painted.  I guess you could say we were on "Barsoom" because I took the Sitan Giants (who look to me like Green Martians from John Carter of Mars) and Glenn took the Sitan Humanoids (who look to me to be the Red Martians from JCoM).

 We played a scenario out of the rule book; there was a Scientist and tech documents in the building that we needed to find and get off the board.  Glenn and I went at each other like a couple of Gamers trying rules out for the first time.  When he opened up on me from all the way across the board with his Red Mar....I mean Sitan Humanoid Cannon of Doom (my words) I gulped hard.  But then we discovered that the squishy stuff between the Green Mar....I mean Sitan Giants horse's toes was slow Sitan humanoids.....  In the end the Sitan Giants found the Scientist and got him off the board.  Then ate him.....Sitan Giants have no use for stoopid tech.....  And Scientist are tasty!

 Thanks for looking,

Dave 

 

My ACW Cornfields

They may not have been my idea, but they look good....

My Wednesday night gaming group is a very casual thing.  We play this, that and the other thing.  We're not serious about any one game or time period.  I few years ago I purchased the Perry Brothers "ACW Battlefield in a Box".  It's been used a few times, but my tabletop was missing something....

I have a terrain piece that looks like a field.  It is painted like dirt and has furrows in it to make it look like, well, a field. 

  

 Simple, mostly effective.  Usually I put a random tree in it or walls around it.  This is how it looks on my ACW battlefield...

 In this particular game it appears as a barren field.  OK, I guess that works.

 

  Last week I was in Hobby Lobby and my wandering eye spotted this: 

 

My brain immediately said to itself, "Self, you must have these.  We have an idea...".  I don't know if the idea is completely original or if I have seen it before in my years of Conventions, but I bought three packs of the Corn Stalks.  They come in rows of 7 stuck into (roughly) 5"x1" pieces of styrofoam.  When I got home my 3D printer churned out a (roughly) 5"x1" base, and 14 drops of hot glue later I had this:

 

5 more 3D printed bases, 70 more drops of hot glue and an application of Americana "Dark Chocolate" craft paint, I had these:

 And by a miracle of happy coincidence, they fit almost perfectly on my field!

So now when the fields are contested, the battles can look something like this:

 

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy.  Thanks for looking.

Dave
 

World at War 2024 - Ft. Meigs, Perrysburg Ohio

On November 1 & 2 The Annual "World at War" gaming event was held at a local War of 1812 site, Fort Meigs.  The event was well attended, a good number of games were run and mostly filled.  I ran games on both Friday and Saturday so I wasn't able to get around to take many pictures.  But here are the ones I was able to.  I'll include the information that I know about the games....

Not sure of the exact conflict but as your can see it's Pike and Shotte.  These are 10mm resin 3d printed figures.  They looked great and were beautifully painted.... 

 

These are 54mm Napoleonic figures.  They certainly did make quite the spectacle on the table!

My Colonial game in my African Imagi-nation of Butiwanto.  If was a re-fight of the One Hour Skirmish game we played back in August.  It was played once each day of the event, the first game was (finally) won by the local Duhwanna tribe....  The American players were not aggressive at all and got quickly overrun.

Out charged a mass of not too happy locals....

Not a good day to be a Marine......

The second game ended in another draw.  The American Diplomat made it to the dock only to be knocked down three times before finally being dispatched.  His corpse was dragged aboard the Gunboat after some tense combat resolutions......

A War of 1812 "Reenactment".....

10mm Command and Colors: Napoleonics

What a Cowboy

Madrid to Moscow rules  6mm

Test of Honour - Our Foo Dog is missing!!

We played our first game of Test of Honour (the original Warlord version) a bit ago. I went on a painting spree with Army Painter Speed paints and got the starter set done in record (for me) time. 

Since there was 4 of us playing we played on a 3x3 board.  Kevin and I played Clan Midori, Mike and my brother Danny, Clan Orenji.  We each had a Samurai, a "Sergeant" or Standard Bearer, and two bases of Ashigaru.  Since it was out first game the plan was simple, fight!  That was until my brother exclaimed that we had stolen his Clan's Foo Dog statue and the dishonor had to be avenged.  It was ON!!

A small stream separates the two Clans.  The sleepy, peaceful morning is shattered when it is discovered that the Foo Dog statue that stood by the Orenji Temple (in the foreground) now stood on the wrong side of the stream in front of the Clan Midori house (upper part of the picture near the folding chair)!!

 

My Samurai gathers together his men, bringing the Clan Standard Bearer for moral support...

Mike does the same, but one of his Ashigaru stands has firearms!

Danny's Samurai and Infantry Sergeant storm the bridge...

Banana flavored Twinkies.  The snack of Samurai everywhere.  They weren't as good as I hoped....

Danny's Infantry Sergeant goes after Kevin's Samurai.  The fight is a draw...

Kevin's Archery Sergeant and Ashigaru move to protect the recently acquired Foo Dog...

The battle is joined!  Musket fire is exchanged!  Kevin's Spearmen move to block the bridge as the duel between his Samurai and Danny's continue...

My Samurai and Mike's square off over a fence...

Danny's Samurai strikes a killing blow and Kevin is killed, his corpse falling off the bridge and over the adjoining hedge.  Kevin's Spearmen recoil at the loss of their Leader!

I score a wound on Mike's Samurai and push him back allowing me to cross over the fence to press my attack...

Mike's Standard Bearer joins in the fight with my Samurai as our Spear armed Ashigaru clash!  One of my Men is killed!

The battle is joined across the board.  My Samurai has been wounded twice!  One of my brother's Ashigaru stands charges across the stream.  I move a stand into the pond to try and cut him off.....

Then it happens...Mike strikes a fatal blow and my wounded Samurai is killed.....

At this point with both the Samurai of the Midori Clan out of the fight we decided to call the game.  A victory for Clan Orenji, they recover the pilfered statue and pass, the Test of Honour...

The system was a lot of fun and we all had a good time.  Except I thought the Banana Twinkies we kinda yucky.  Nothing like the 'Banana Flips' of my youth.....

Thanks for reading!