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ONE LAST GENCON POST

8/29/2011

There are three reasons I go to Cons.

1. To play the miniature games I don't usually get to play (done that).
2. To buy a bunch of stuff, without paying shipping (I bought a lot of terrain from Acheson Creations, and about a pound of old Ral Partha animals).
3. To play those games I've been hearing about but have never played.

On that last part I got to play three games I had never played before.

First one was Leviathans, a game of VSF flying warships. The miniatures were very nice, the game mechanics worked well for the most part (though I'm not sure a group of Destroyers could ever take out Battleship in a Naval Game with just gunfire), but I'll probably never buy it. I am sorry, but giant flying warships/areonefs just never made sense to me. They all just look like warships mounted on flying stands. Air combat should be three dimensional, with weapons that can train up or down, not just to the side.

I played Malifaux (pronounced mali-foe, not mali-fax, like I pronounced it when asking about the game). I love the miniatures, less fond of the actual rules. The use of cards to determine power levels and success seems a little too tricky for me. I'd rather have a dice-driven system where I can easily determine the odds (which I may or may not pay attention to). It seems to have so many special rules for special characters, that I would find it hard to know what would have a chance against what. Just not my cup of tea.

The last game I tried was Dust. Wonderful models, and an easy to learn and understand system. I've been tempted by Weird World War II games for several years, but managed to avoid them because I didn't already have a WWII army (I play GASLIGHT because I already had a bunch of 25mm Civil war Infantry, Artillery, and Cavalry. All I needed to do to play VSF was add a few steam contraptions). Since I don't already have a 25mm or 28mm WWII army, building a 1/48th force wouldn't be so bad. If the miniatures rules are as straight forward as the board game, I'll be very tempted to make this the next game/army I'd invest in. If only I could find somebody to play it with nearby.

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SMALL BOATS OFF SYRACUSE- Another Gencon AAR

8/22/2011

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In addition to the two games I already blogged about, I played in Small Boats off Syracuse, a match between S-boats and MTB's in the Med in 1942 (using Action Station rules). The Germans had three S-Boats, a Flaklighter, a Sibel Ferry armed with a Quad 20mm, and an armed trawler. The British/Americans had six MTB's, a Grey Goose and a British corvette (I am not sure what the largest British ship was).

The game started pretty even, with the Germans trying to escort a freighter into the harbor and an Italian sub out.

One of the American PT boats was quickly set on fire, but the Sibel ferry lost its only gun in return fire.

The F-Lighter (the German's big ship) was set on fire and then torpedoed.

After that things went south for the Axis pretty quickly. The sub was set on fire, as was a S-boat. The merchantman was chased into the harbor by the Grey Goose, who could do little damage to it because it had already fired off its torpedoes.

In the end the Axis had lost the F-Lighter, the Sub, and the Trawler, while the Allies where down only a PT boat. The remaining S-Boats were shot to hell, as were some of the MTBs, but the Corvette and the Grey Goose had hardly been touched.

Here an MTB and a S-boat hammer each other at close range with guns.

The Germans couldn't hit the broadside of the barn with their gunfire, and could never get any of the Allied big ships in their sights for their torpedoes. Still, it was fun game. Sigh, I really miss historical miniatures. Currently, I just play RPGs and Boardgames on a regular basis. It seems like I only get to play miniatures when I am at a Con.

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WINGS OVER WEMBLEY-VBCW at Gencon

8/15/2011

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As the Communists moved a French heavy tank (a Char B1) into position to shell Wembley, the Royalist Airforce responded with an attack by two light bombers protected by two biplane fighters.

An Avia B-534 (that's me) guarded an Osprey.

While a Gloster Gladiator escorted an A-8 Shrike.

The Tank was protected by a I-15 bis and I-153 with an armed Autogyro spotting for the Tank's big gun.

While the Osprey descended towards the Tank the Avia shot up the I-15 bis. The I-153 began descending to follow the Osprey.

The I-15 bis elluded the Avia and descended in pursuit of the Osprey. The Osprey missed the tank with its bombs.

The Shrike came in low from the side and knocked out the Tank by machinegunning the side mounted radiators, then blew it up with an accurate bombing run.

This was followed by a general furball in which everyone but the Autogyro took part.

The end result was the I-15 bis got on the tail of the Gladiator and it began to smoke from the damage inflicted. Meanwhile, the Avia shot down the I-153.

The I-15 bis and the Gladiator went head to head, resulting in the Gladiator breaking out in flames. The Shrike ran for home while the Osprey bravely, but foolishly, stuck around for more dogfighting. While pushing the plane at minimal altitude, the Opsrey pilot lost control and spun into the ground.

Th Avia and I-15 bis continued to dogfight with little result. Note the Osprey on the left sprialling into the ground.

The Gladiator attempted to flee the battle, but smoke begat fire, fire begat more fire.

And down it went in flames.

This left the Avia to face the I-15 bis and the Autogyro by itself. Fortunately, they collided after ending up in the same hex. The I-15 survived, the Autogyro (which had been badly damaged earlier in the game) didn't. The two surviving planes fought for another turn or so. Then I pushed my Avia, and ended up in a spin that I didn't recover from until the last minute. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, I sprinted for home, as did my last opponent (who I hadn't realized was out of ammo). After surviving a landing with damaged landing gear (the only damage I took the whole game) the Royalist survivors toasted their victory (we got the tank and I shot down a plane and survived) and their dead. The people running the game had planned on using Canvas Eagles for rules, but decided that the four machineguns on each fighter made Warbirds a better set of rules for the fight.

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A Very Divided America

8/11/2011

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Gencon Friday Evening
A VERY DIVIDED AMERICA
I had planned on playing Chinese Confusion, a BOB game, but it was cancelled. Fortunately, the guys at 19 and One, a local miniatures gaming group, let me play in this game instead. It is a basic Alt. History game. The South won the Civil War and then 65 years later, about 1930, the slightly facist Union invaded the border states (which were a seperate country from the Old South). The Old South sent some troops and equipment (but little of either, because it wasn't their war). The guy running this game plans on releasing a background and scenario book based on his version of history (like the various VBCW books that are out).

The Union Troops

Two Union aircraft. Note the facist symbols.

A Union Armored Gunboat with a MG and a Howitzer, and a Launch, each with a squad of Elite Marines, Three trucks with an MG and three Regular squads. If you look carefully the Union regulars are actually Austro-Hungarians.

Three squads of Regulars on foot with an MG. A tank with two MGs and a squad of Infantry on motorcycles

Kentucky Militia and Southern Troops

Kentucky Militia with a French 75.

More Kentucky Militia with a 37MM AT gun.

Southern Regulars with two MGs.

The Objective
The Union had to get troops off the board on both sides of the River.

The Southern/Kentucky lines.

One of the Union planes makes a bombing run against the AT gun.

Misses and takes one hit from ground fire,

The Gunboat advances and unsuccessful shells the MG nest overlooking the river. The slow loading howitzer on the Gunboat managed to miss every shot.

The Union tank advances up the middle of the left flank followed closely by the troops on motorcycles.

Unfortunately, they followed too closely, and all but one was gunned down. The last survivor fled the board as fast as he could.

A Kentucky Militia squad charged out of the brush at the tank.

And were gunned down by the Tank.

The monoplane straffed the AT gun in the open while threBiplan bombed the Southern troops behind the wall.

The monoplane straffed the AT gun in the open while the biplane bombed the Southern troops behind the wall. Once again for no effect. The biplane on it's second pass managed to kill two Southern soldiers, so much for airpower.

The Union Infantry, making carefull use of cover, moved up the left side of the left flank, while the Tank fired on the Kentucky Militia.

The two of the truck-borne Union squads on the right rushe3d the hill. One truck was killed by the AT gun while the other hung up on wire. Both Squads they contained made it to some nearby brush.

The Marines in the Launch landed on the right bank of the river. They spent their time in a rifle fight with Southern troops behind the wall.

The Tank charged forward and machinegunned down two of the gunners on the 75. The next turn the last gunner fired the 75, hit the Tank, and caused the crew to bailout and flee. The Gunboat managed to silence the Machinegun on the hill nad cut down some of the squad of Southern Regulars, at the cost of most of the Marines on the Gunboat.

After suppressing the Kentucky Militia with rifle fire, the Infantry on the right boldly charged the fence.

After crashing through the wire, the third Squad of truck-borne Infantry dismounted and prepared to race to the table edge. They almost made it, but the Southern Regulars were able to re-deploy to intecept them.

Through careful use of cover, and thanks to the distraction caused by the Tank, the Union Infantry on the left flank made it off the board.

Since Union troops had to make it off the board on both sides of the river, it was a Kentucky/Southern victory. I was running the Gunboat and Aircraft. I should have landed the Marines from the Gunboat on the right bank before engaging the enemy on the left bank. With two squads on the right bank I could have pinned down the enemy nearest the river and kept them from redeploying to intercept the one truck-borne Infantry Squad that almost got through. Of course, better die-rolling with the planes and the howitzer on the Gunboat would have helped also.

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ONE LAST GENCON POST

SMALL BOATS OFF SYRACUSE- Another Gencon AAR

WINGS OVER WEMBLEY-VBCW at Gencon

A Very Divided America

Mysterious Bill

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