Big Game Time again soon...

Well, this upcoming Easter Sunday (the 31st) will be a big historical refight at the Nightowls, organised by yours truly once again.



I'm not going to reveal the battle as yet, as I don't want my players brushing up on it in advance, but I've been busying away on new units for my Napoleonics armies, with a British and Portuguese Battalion on their way to completion.  Army rosters are prepared, and scenario rules on their way.  The aim is for over a thousand models on a nice big battlefield.

Places for around nine players, with 5 or 6 already filled, but any locals are welcome to come along and get involved, even if you only end up as a subordinate....

Saga - Epic: Greek Battleboards

Well after some procrastination, and a few delays, the first two of my Saga Battle Boards are ready for general consumption.

Athens: The Delian League

Click for a larger view - Permission to save to your computer to print for private use granted

The Athenians are organised and strong in their classic Hoplite formations; allow your enemies to come on to you and use your superior coordination to defeat them.

Sparta: The Peloponnesian League

Click for a larger view - Permission to save to your computer to print for private use granted

A man of Sparta is worth a dozen of any other nation, and they expect the same of their allies.  Fearsome in combat and noted for their silent intimidation of their opponents.  A Spartan will always fight as if it was for his life.

All rules Remain Copyright of Tomahawk Studios and Gripping Beast, The author reserves only the right to be identified as the creator of these items.  PDF's are available on request, or even better on the blog if someone could tell me how to set such up!

I hope that these will be of some use to you folks out there, I'd love to hear what you think, and possible amendments can then be made available to all.

Coming (not very) soon (at all); Persia and Thrace.

Bolt Action - A Review of Sorts

Over the last few weeks there's been a lot of Bolt Action gaming going on for me, it is the present trend at the club and has won over plenty of converts.  That said, I'm not completely sold, and I'll explain as we go, but for a start here's an account of a recent game between myself and George.

We set up a small village using the buildings and wrecks I had made for the club display game (more on that in coming posts).  My Germans would defend, aiming to hold the centre of the village.

Whilst George's British would make an attack from the road and fields to my north.

 Whilst George had gone for a regular force with armour and transport in support, and thus had numbers on his side, I had taken a veteran forcethat was much smaller.

In game terms this proves significant for a couple of reasons.  Firstly command and control; troops are one of three quality levels - Green, Regular or Veteran - needing 8, 9, or 10 on 2d6 to activate; further modified by the presence of an officer, or by the build up of pin markers.  A veteran unit has a much bigger advantage statistically starting from a base of 10 for rolls.  Moreover veterans can only be removed as casualties on a roll of 5+, when the norm is a 4+; a huge advantage.  Sure they cost more, but they are worth it!

Germans also have access to incredible firepower at a squad level.  In simple terms infantry shooting is a number of d6 based on the squads weapons complement - a rifle is one d6, a light machine gun usually 3d6, and so on - with a base to hit of 3+.  Now this is modified by the usual values, +1 for moving, +1 for light cover, etc; but it is also modified by each Pin Marker on the unit - so a unit with three pins would get a +3 to hit modifier.

 How bad can that be you may ask; well, each time a unit takes hits from fire, is hit by artillery, or otherwise adversely affected, it takes at least one Pin Marker.  By concentrating fire, a player can neutralise a unit even if he never causes any losses.  To activate once pinned, you roll a command check minus any pin modifiers, so as units get bullied down by fire they can reach a point of near total inactivity.  Yes you can elect to keep your head down and remove one pin automatically, and if you activate you also remove one, but the only quick way to remove them is by rallying, which of course requires a successful command check, and then takes a turn.

I practice we've found that any unit with three or more pin markers is screwed.  Not only does it have a hard time activating, but if it chooses to fire the modifiers will mean that it almost always needs to roll 6's followed by 6's to hit.  Slim chances.

In the game George was playing hid and seek with my armour, whilst laying immobilising fire on unit's where he could.  The superior command structure of my Germans allowed them to blunt the British attack.

I was using smoke screens from my light artillery to screen my troops.  Smoke is a useful deterrent in the game, but overall I'm uncertain about the artillery rules, light artillery is very inaccurate but there is no danger from it if it misses.  It can readily be purchased for use on table, but for the big guns you need an observer, usually an expensive purchase, but for some reason free for the British!

Heavy artillery is very powerful and rather abstract, but it's main role is to add loads of pin markers to unit's under it's area of effect; D6+6 inches from its target point.  On the down side it has a 1 in 6 chance of being friendly fire, but either way it is devastating, and can really grind a game down.  Use with caution.

In the centre the Brits tried to storm up the road and attack the main building.  A recce section went in first and were cut down in an assault against a well equipped squad; An infantry squad lined up nervously to try next.

Assaults work simply and effectively, with each model involved usually rolling one D6 each needing the normal 4+ to cause a casualty.  Of course veterans are harder to hit, troops with assault weapons (Pistols, sub machine guns, assault rifles) get more attacks, and whilst usually the assaulter goes first, if the defender is in a building or fortifications the action is simultaneous.  There's nothing much wrong with this.

Having suffered more than half losses on their attack the recce squad needed a break test, against their modified command value, fail - as they did - and you are removed straight away.  Broken surrendered or mopped up.

Late in the game, my Panther finally got a view of the Cromwell and let loose with the big gun.

The armour rules are simple, but work.  The basic hit mechanic is the same as for infantry, but the modifiers for armour play out a little differently.  All vehicles take at least a 6+ to wound head on, and so for example a medium tank like the Cromwell has frontal armour of 9+  However get around the side, as my Panther did, and the armour is at minus -1 (or -2 for the rear).  

To penetrate the armour once you've hit it's the classic mechanic of rolling a D6 and adding your penetration value of your gun, which in my case was +6.  Therefore I only needed a 2+ on the dice to penetrate, I rolled a five and smashed through the Cromwell blowing it to bits.  There is a nice touch that although the damage table is simple, the degree by which you beat the enemy armour modifies the result, and also it is impossible for weak weapons to do any harm to super heavy armour.  Still, 'Blammo' and the tank was done for.

At the end of the game it was technically a draw, par the scenario rules, the book contains 6 fairly standard scenarios.  In losses terms the Brits had been hammered, whilst most of the Germans were able to slink away.

As for the rules, well my view (and not all will agree) is that they are flawed, but workable; get used to how to deal with some of the extreme effects of the rules as written and the game plays well enough; for what is essentially a Warhammer 40k/Battlefield Evolution inspired system, with a command control  system largely lifted from Epic 40k that perhaps doesn't work as well as may have been hoped.

Still, it is accessible, would work in 15 & 20mm just as well as 28mm, and is developing a following.  Is it the best set of rules for WW2?  Not even close; but they are, OK.

I don't think my damning them with faint praise will stop them being popular anyway!

A 'Cheap Brushes' Find

I was tipped off by Trevor over at the Headingley Club about these.  Acrylic paint brushes intended for Nail Art on Ebay:




Having used them, I can report that the three standard brushes are pretty good, my set all arrived in a matter of days, well packaged and with good points.  Far better than the equivalent Javis brushes for example.

I can't figure out how I might use the liner brushes - seldom had the need for a size 00 brush with 1-inch long hairs - but the quality of these also seems good.

The best thing was the price however; the set was only £1.89 in the UK, post-free!  For a couple of quid you can't go wrong!  That said, on Ebay they've now risen to a ludicrous price (hence no link folks); methinks the seller realised there was unusual traffic on the product and has tried to cash in.  Still you can doubtless find a similar product on-line, or in suitable stores if you cast your net widely enough.

It pays to look around.

Other Club Activities...

It's gladdening to note that the Night Owls seems to have found its place once again - after some time in a wilderness of low attendance and disquiet.

Anyway, that seems behind it now, as concerted efforts by both the fantasy and the historical contingent of the club are seeing steady attendance once again.  A point that was discussed at length over the weekend at our annual AGM.  I'm not going to discuss that in detail here, regular readers will know I'm going to be cautious with anything political!

An example of the new healthier club however could be seen with the turn out on the same day as our Greek game. Granted the Yorkshire Open contributed to the turn out, but it wasn't the sole activity, and that's a good thing!

Nice to see the place busy - if anything too busy!  But we have just got use of a second larger room for free in future so it can be handled.

After the Greek game Mark rolled out his latest creation.

An Imperial Star Destroyer game mat for the Star Wars fighter combat game.  Lord only knows where Mark finds the time!

Moreover, barring a couple of bits, it's all made of nothing more than cardboard.  The lads took it to Hammerhead a couple of weeks later to positive reviews.

At the Pass of Oion

Laurie has begun a campaign at the Night Owls for those of us with Greek Hoplites, that turns out to be a few of us.  The overall theme of the campaign, from what I can understand to be run in a narrative linear fashion, being the Pelopennesian War.

The picking of sides was to be random by draw of lots - shards of pottery, a nice touch - but before the campaign I had insisted that my Spartan army could only fight for Sparta; and so I was handed my own shard and awaited to see who I would have as an ally.

As it was, it was to be me and Laurie against the triumphrate of Mark, Stuart and Andy.  Their objective was to get at least two heavy and two light units through the either of the passes we were guarding.  Ours simply was to stop them.  To add to the period feel, each commander was to draw from the auguries, to see how the fates would treat us.  Hence units had cards attached to them that affected their performance.  In the case of Andy, his commander was so busy consulting the gods, that he wouldn't arrive until turn five; which gave myself and Laurie an opportunity.

Laurie found Stuarts Athenians seriously lacking in backbone, and was able to keep them at bay initially with little more than a handful of arrows fired.  Mark made a slow advance towards Laurie, hoping his peltasts could stop my troops from taking his flank.  Fortunately for him my troops moved no faster initially than any of the Athenians, who moved at only the slowest trudge towards their targets.

Mark made his move against Laurie, and came off badly, with a unit destroyed in moments, Stuart's Hoplites were still unwilling to commit, and so Laurie went on the offensive.

Finally Andy's pious Hoplites arrived, blocking my own force and leaving Laurie to his own devices.  I was able to eliminate some of their light troops in short order, but the nefarious forces of Mark's command were using the diversion to outflank me and make a break for the pass.

 Andy's fresh Hoplites were able to smash through my ranks, whilst his allies escaped to victory.  Laurie found himself out of touch with Stuart's troops, who made a successful run for the exit, and so turned to attack the Rear of Mark and Andy's men.

But by this stage it was too late.

Although in terms of raw losses the Athenians had come off worse, losing Three units each of Hoplites and Peltasts to our two respectively; they had achieved their goal, and a small army of them was now setting off for the Spartan hinterland.

Thus ended the first game of the campaign, its result would impact the nature of the next game, to be played in March.  Hopefully this time the Spartans will have the Gods on their side, against the ignoble and treacherous Athenians.

Why Old School? Steve knows Why...

I don't normally, if ever, go in for referencing other peoples blog posts or articles on gaming.  But I couldn't put my sentiments on this subject better than Steve at 'Steve's Random Musings' does.  Read and enjoy, and see if you spot yourself.

And to you tournament players and dyed-in-the-wool 'Workshop addicts, this is what we get from the hobby that you don't...

http://steve-the-wargamer.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/definition-of-old-school.html?showComment=1361263795989

Thursday Night is Boardgame Night

Well it has been for a while anyway.  I've had little joy organising figure games at the Headingley club over the last six months or so (one game that I can recall); but it isn't really an issue, as I can always score a board game of some sort when I do go.

In the last couple of weeks I've tried games old an new, including a second go at Cosmic Encounter:



The first time I played this I got properly smacked by the sequencing of cards and thus players conspiring against me, and so I didn't enjoy it.  Thankfully my second go was more pleasurable, and a fairer game.  The idea of the game is to gather colonies on other races planets, each player begins with five home worlds and needs to gather five colonies to win.

Each player is a different alien race, and these have their own unique powers.

In your turn, you randomly draw an alien system to interact with, and send forth your ships either in friendship or hostility, though this is not revealed until after you have recruited allies to your cause.  Both primary players may canvass for the support of any of the other players, or may elect not to involve some or all of them.  Below blue leads a crusade against white!

Once allies are decided the main players select a strategy card in secret - usually either a combat card, or a negotiation card.  If both negotiate, it is peaceful and they may trade colonies; otherwise (and more generally) it is combat, and to the victor the spoils.

Destroyed vessels are sent to the warp,  until a reinforcement card or similar rescues them.  And so the game continues until a winner is found.  A large part of the game is in the use and maintenance of alliances, which allow you and possibly your allies to advance at the cost of other players.  How you pick allies will be partly influenced by how you evaluate the value of their racial abilities, and partly by how loyal they are to you during the game.

In the end it produced a close result on this occasion, with my purple fleet coming second to a well organised surge at the end by one of the other players who attacked a weak planet without the use of allies to secure a win.  This is a game that favours four or more players, we ran with seven and it made for a challenging and close race.

The following week, I managed to arrive in time for a go at Fortune and Glory:



Rarely has a game been so easy to summarise; it's Indiana Jones, the game.

Each player takes the role of an Adventurer between the two world wars, in search of mystical artefacts - randomly generated to locations around the world, and up against one another and/or the Nazis and the Mob.

The game was absolutely loaded with components and cards, and the production standards are lavish.  But then the £80 price tag would suggest it should be.

So far as gameplay, it is pretty simple, and without the close adherance to theme it would boil down to little more than 'draw a card, roll some dice, if successful draw another card, if not stop'.

It is nonetheless a fun game, and if you can stand the expense, a good replacement for such family favourites as Monopoly or Cluedo.

4Ground 28mm Ruins

As part of the work towards the club's next display game, I was handed a pile of the 4Ground 28mm World War Two European scenery to assemble and 'make look nice'.

Which in my opinion was more than necessary, as whilst there is much to say for these models, I do take umbrage with the suggestion that they are the best thing since sliced bread.

They rather are the Apple I-Phone of gaming scenery.  Everybody has taken to them and raves about them, but I'm not convinced they are as good as people tell you they are.

Firstly, compared to a resin model, you've got the build the damned thing, most of the models comprise a DOZEN sprues of flat sheets that need pressing out individually before assembly.  Once you've carried out one build they models make more sense, but it is fair to say that the provided instructions - even with numerous photographs - are not clear enough to make assembly a straight forward procedure.

I've assembled multipart resin ruins with a hot glue gun in a matter of minutes.  Budget two to three hours of your life for one of these kits.  Also you need to allow drying time and elastic bands or clamps are essential to get an effective assembly.

Then the end result is painted, after a fashion and sort of complete:

And if you choose to it does come with the advantage of separate floors.  But it isn't really finished.  It looks like what it is, an MDF box cut out with lasers.  There is a lack of texture, and whilst in some areas the scorch marks of the laser adds to the effect - especially on the ruins, in others it draws real attention to the falseness of the model.  It may be adequate for many gamers, but for my own tastes it looks ugly and unfinished, like a prepainted gaming miniature, it can be improved vastly by taking a brush to it oneself.

And so if you want the models to look really good, expect to spend another two to three hours selectively repainting significant parts of the model:

You finally will have a finished working product you can be proud of.  But the issues may not end there.  Resin models are very tough, and can stand being tossed in a scenery box at a club, sure they'll get chipped, but for the most part they will be durable.  Plastic kits are if well assembled similarly tough, though smaller kits can be delicate.  Scratchbuilds have the advantage of allowing numerous build options and reinforcement.  I reinforced parts of these models, but honestly I cannot see them surviving normal club use.  

Thankfully ours will be kept pristine for the display game, but after that?  These are really for home use in considerate hands.

Then there is the issue of cost.

The ruined semi (of which I assembled two) costs £24, the Terraces £22 each.  The set of four buildings therefore would retail for over £90.

I know I could get a lot more resin buildings for that price, that would look more like real buildings though they would need painting.  However I could probably shop around and get prepainted models for about the same price, either as intact buildins or as ruins.  For £90, or indeed a little less, I could assemble an entire village or town from scratch, in more or less the same 20 hours required to produce these kits.

Ultimately what I expect from a kit, that makes a kit worth assembling in preference to buying a resin model, or other premade sculpt, is a level of detail and reality that the latter doesn't provide.  This is why I prefer plastic kits, even fairly simple ones, of military vehicles.  The time and labour involved in assembly is rewarded with a level of authenticity the resin equivalent generally won't offer.

Here I have a kit that offers none of the Aesthetic benefits, until you've applied so much additional effort it makes you wonder why you invested in the model in the first place.

Whilst these may very well be all some gamers would ever want from their models, to me they are a false trail.  Other alternatives are faster, more realistic, sturdier, simpler, cheaper; or a combination of several of these attributes.

The MDF models are not for me.

вперед для матушки-России!

Forward for Mother Russia!

54mm Airfix soviet infantry to face my Germans.  rather bare figures, as their from a period when Airfix really scrimped on detail.  But the actual sculpting for what the are is top notch.

Painting was fairly simple as a result, sadly the camera flash has bounced off the varnish, I'm also going to apply a second lighter layer of flock.  I got a bag of dark heather a few months back and having tried it a few times now; I've concluded I don't like it!  it's too dark.