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