Category: Conventions

GASLIGHT at Winter War 2018

2/2/2018

GEARSON'S RAID
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR BY GASLIGHT

It's the end of January, so once again I ran a GASLIGHT game at Winter War in Champaign. This year it was Gearson's Raid. The Union had to set fire to most of the freight yard and gathered supplies before a large group of Rebel reinforcements arrived (i.e. we ran out of time to play the game). The Rebs started off badly outnumbered (nine units to four) with several of their units handicapped for one reason or another.

Rebel start overview.

On their right was most of the rail yard, supplies, a Mechanical Man, and a unit of infantry. Both had their problems. The Mechanical Man could only attack machines (it lacked the ability to tell friend from foe when it came to squishy living things) and while the unit was veteran, they were at the station trying to recover form the effects of dysentery, minor wounds, and assorted diseases that kept them out of the front line. In game turns they were good shots with a minor save but couldn't charge and had terrible melee numbers.

On their left was a unit of hastily armed railway workers (poor morale and mediocre shots) and an artillery section manned by the sick and wounded.

Overview of Union Side.

The first turn advance for the Union. In the back Major Smith rued the day he let himself be talked into trading his real horse for a mechanical one. He and his bugler spent much of the game stuck at the back. Their "horses" would breakdown, start, they'd advance, one or both "horses" would breakdown and it would all start all over again.

The first turn advance for the Union saw a cannon shot land directly on a tightly packed unit of veteran Cavalry on the Union right with five hits scored! One hit killed one man and the other four randomly determined hits all struck the same guy, with neither saving. After that most of the union cavalry quickly spread out before continuing their advance. Despite being mediocre shots (shoot of 6 in game terms) the Railway Worker squad took down a couple more of the only veteran regular cavalry squad the Union had.

On the Union left, a charge by the Rebel Cavalry reinforcements almost wiped out Steamcycles, but a charge by a nearby Union cavalry badly damaged both units.

On the Union right, a Cavalry unit slam into the Rebel artillerymen before they can fire their reloaded pieces. Reinforcing Rebel Cavalry charge into the fray. In the end the dysentery weakened artillerymen hold their ground dealing out more damage than they take (in game turns they had a scuffle of 4!) while the Rebel Cavalry gets hammered and reduced down to three troopers.

To the great relief of the Rebels the Armored Train arrived. "Dr." Edward L. Ectric rained bolts of lightning from his super-science weapon while perched on top of the water tower at the Union Landship, doing little damage. Meanwhile, having finally made it forward Major Smith's Mechanical Horse breaks down yet again.

On the Union left both the Rebel and Union Cavalry fail morale. The Rebels fall back in good order, while the Union troopers flee the field! The Steamcycle unit also breaks. The Rebel Infantry unit made up of the sick and wounded advance beyond the tracks.

The Rebel line stills holds. One unit of Union cavalry takes loses from the guns of the Armored Train and the Railway Workers. The Rebel artillerymen still hold out!! Can the Union even hope to win at this Point?

But suddenly things change, with one glancing hit from the Landship'S Cannon the Armored Train flees the field. All it had to do to stay was roll a morale check at a +2 to the die. It had a full crew with leader so it could only break on a roll of 19 or 20. A 20 was rolled, then a 2 on the morale chart and the train fled in the direction it had arrived.

The Mechanical Man breaks down again, but Dr. Ectric continues to rain lightning down from his perch.

Then the Landship hits one of the legs of the tower, causing it to crash to the ground, taking it and Dr. E.L. Ectric out. The Union Cavalry on the right finally destroys the artillerymen and runs the Railway Workers off the table. But it is too late. The Union sets many fires but is forced to flee when more Rebels arrive in pursuit (in other words we ran out of time). Just three more fires and the Union could have won but the Rebels win the battle by saving enough of the depot from the Union marauders.

There should be more pictures. I never took any of the destruction of the last Union Cavalry unit on the Union left. With the time to stop rapidly approaching, I was too busy running to stop to take shots.

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Gaslight at Winter War 2017

2/7/2017

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ASSAULT ON BATTERY JACKSON

MORE ACW BY GASLIGHT

It seems that most of the wargames I have played or seen are meeting engagements. Battles with one side the defender and the other the attacker are pretty rare, despite being very common in the real world. And attacks on prepared defensive works, after 30 plus year of gaming I've only seen a handful at best. So I decided to go with an attack on the lines (Petersburg maybe, certainly some late ACW battle).

The Trenchworks and other Field Fortifications gave special bonuses to the defenders. Heavy cover of course, no automatic hits on ones, standing up and going into full cover doesn't count as moving (only for handheld weapons like rifles), and most importantly round all fractions down. In GASLIGHT fractions matter. A Shoot of 7, goes to a Shoot of 3.5 at long range. Since you have to roll under the Shoot to hit, you would have to roll a 3 or less. With this rule the shoot would go to a 3, which means you would have to roll a 1 or a 2 to hit.

To balance these bonuses I gave the attackers triple the manpower (6 squads to 2) and four Landships to two "cannons". Three to one is usually considered the minimum odds for attacking a prepared defensive position.

Union starting position, 24 inches from the Confederate line.

Confederate starting line (sorry the pictures a bit fuzzy).

A bit of fluff on my part. The USNLS (United States Navy Land Ship) Cairo. Manned by sailors and part of the navy (the Navy having created the first Union Armored Landships because of their experience with steam power and armored ships). Note the Sharpshooter next to it, which despite being able to ignore cover and having a good Shoot managed to kill no one all game.

Electrocannon (+1d6 to hit armored targets +1d6 SRM).

After some desultory long range fire, things heated up on turn 3, when a hidden Dynamite bomb killed several soldiers and knocked out one of the steam Chargers. A glancing hit burst a steam pipe, scalding the crew to death.

The general advance of the Union on Turn 3. Note the Assault Squad abandoning the Cairo because a hit from the Electrocannon killed it's driver. They decided to advance on foot rather than waiting for a new driver (and at 2 cards a turn they were faster than the Cairo anyhow).

After wading through some rifle fire, which they survived because of their good save (body armor) they stormed the Electrocannon and it's crew.

Things didn't go so good for the Union at the other end of the battlefield. A shot from the 30 pounder Parrot rifle penetrated. The penetrating round rattled around the inside and passed out of the other without doing any damage. But I had made a modification to the rules that any hit (from certain weapons) also did a glancing hit. That burst a steam pipe, killing four members of the crew (they got lucky 8 hits on the crew and four ended up being hit twice). Still they failed their morale roll and fled six inches. Since the range had closed, rifle fire started picking off the regular soldiers.

Confederate reinforcements arrived in the form of a couple green squads of Infantry and two Timberclads. The Rebs brought them in near the Electrocannon, where there was a unmanned section of the line.

Despite, or maybe because of, being green troops a squad charged the Rebel line, and gained a toehold in the trenches.

With orders from Lt. Jackson, the Electrocannon crew who had been tending the generator, charged up the hill and engaged the Assault Squad. The even killed one!!! (not easy when the Assault Squad had a save of 14).

But to no avail. Running out of enemy to fight (but forgetting to damage the Electrocannon first) the Assault Squad threw themselves at the Rebels in the nearby trenches.

With the Assault Squad in the trenches the green troops that had first taken them headed up the hill to attack the 30 Pdr Parrott.

On the far end of the trench line the Union troops were taking steady casualties, but urged on by both Lt. Smedley and Colonel Smith they advanced into the hail of gunfire. To make matters worse a penetrating hit blew the wheels off the USLS Salamander, keeping its deadly firethrower out of range of the enemy (because the Salamander was full of fuel for the firethrower I ruled that any penetrating hit went to the Catastrophic Hit Table).

The Infantry at the far end of the line, urge on by Lt. Smedley and Colonel Smith struggled across the abatis and engaged the Rebs in Hand to Hand combat. Things looked grim for them as green Union soldiers struggled with Veteran Rebs. Lucky shots from the Gatlings on the Salamander and a Steam Charger and close range fire from the Union Infantry whittled down the cannon crew and Colonel Cornpone was forced to assign his runners to keep the gun in operation. Col. Cornpone's Runners and Colonel Smith's Bugler allowed them to have a command radius of 12 inches instead of the usual 6.

The Rebels tried to drive the remaining soldiers of the Assault Squad out of the trenches with rifle fire, but they gave as good as they got (nothing like weapons that fire twice a turn without reloading to even things up).

Finally, the green Rebel troops mustered the courage to charge the trenches, forcing the squad that had gone up the hill after the cannon to charge back down into the melee. They and what was left of the Assault Squad threw the Rebels out of the trench.

A Union squad charged the Electrocannon, but just fell short. The cannon fired it's last shot of the game, which sizzled harmlessly over the USNLS Cairo. Don't you just hate it when your figures get stuck on a slope so they can't stand.

Lt. Smedley and Col. Smith joined the faltering Union squad by the abatis. The squad was quickly wiped out, leave Smedley and Smith to fight on alone (even the Bugler was killed). The Smedley, with pistols in both hands and evil grin on his face, went wild, singled handedly slaughter a third of the Rebel squad.

Down to one man, the Assault Squad fled the trenches, but was quickly replaced by the remains of another squad (complete with firethrower!!),

Which allowed the Infantry squad that had been in the trenches with the Assault squad to attack the cannon emplacement.

The game ended as time ran out and people hurried to the convention auction.

On the Union side they had a section of trench, a nearly complete squad was about to overrun the Electrocannon, more troops were coming up, and a fight was going on at the heavy cannon emplacement.

On the Rebel side Colonel Cornpone was dead, Lt. Jackson was dead, they were down to two units of green troops, and both timberclad landships had broken down (but could still shoot)'[

A minor Union Victory

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WINTER WAR 2014-DINO ROPING YEE HAH!!!

2/17/2014

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A rancher chasing a lost cow discovered the Valley of Garwhangi! A lost land, full of mosnters from another age. Upon hearing of this the famous Col. Phineas P. Barnstock, owner of Barnstock's Circus and Wild West Show (THE THIRD GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH) decided he needed a few of these beasties to display. After offering a large sum for live ones (and a much smaller sum for dead ones) several groups of cowboys, lawmen, and even bandits headed for the valley to try their luck at roping dinosaurs (how hard could it be, they're just big dumb lizards). Pulp Alley rules were used.

My group consisted of the good Colonel himself (in the middle), Sure-shot Sue (one the right), and the mysterious El Hombre. You don't think the Colonel was going to shell out money if he could catch his own for free, do you?

The one with the initiative got to hold the dinosaur skull (to make it easier to figure out initiative order) and this guy won the first initiative (seems a little too attached to that skull).

The roping started off quickly, with this one being the first lassoed.

In my group Sue gets the first rope on a big'un

But it takes three to take it down.

Three from another group ganged up on one little feller. Poor little feller, it weren't fair

Others were more sporting and went after bigger prey (the bigger they were the more money they were worth).

So, of course, somebody had to go after the biggest, meanest, critters they could find. Finback and the King.

While Finback went down pretty quick, the King wasn't such an easy capture. as he started dragging the cowboys and their horses around.

And around.

One group loses their ropes, and a rider from another band snatches one up. And that group brings the big boy down.

Meanwhile, my riders lasso another dino.

And another.

One group tries to get fancy and goes after two of the three horned critters at once.

About this time, wargamers being wargamers, trouble started. First, they began shooting at each other.

When that didn't do much, they began sabotaging each other, by releasing the dinos the other hogtied and then riding off.

Which was kind of dangerous with the large meat eaters, as one team quickly found out.

But went better with the little guys

When all else failed, they started roping each other

And if one rope didn't do it they would try two.

And there was even the dreaded soda attack!!!!

My team kept out of the fight, just kept roping and hogtieing dinos.

At the very end one team tried to bring down the biggest guy, but two ropes weren't enough.

By staying out of the fights and concentrating on roping dinos I won with three roped big dinos. If the extra turn card hadn't been played I'd have had even more, since one player started riding around letting my dinos go (let my dinos go - that has a nice ring to it).

I really liked the card action of Pulp Alley, though until I started throwing out cards the rest of the players really didn't understand what use the cards were.

One thing I had trouble with, was the lack of effectiveness of gunfire. The roping cowboys and the releasing of dinos came about because shooting the other players didn't do much good. At the very end of the game I rode my two best shooters (El Hombre and Sure-Shot Sue) into close range and, even with their great shoot scores and having both shoot at the same person, I couldn't down him. It was the first time the guy running the game had run Pulp Alley, maybe he was telling us how to do shooting wrong? Still it was a great game.

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WINTER WAR 2014- TO KILL A LEVIATHAN

2/6/2014

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Here's Marc not looking too happy about being on the side of the Rebel Scum (a true Yankee he is). In the middle you see two units of cavalry, the USL (United State Leviathan) John Adams, the Hornet and the Wasp USALs (United States Armored Landship). To the right is a unit of Mechanical Cavalry, to the left is another unit of conventional cavalry. In front of Marc is the Grand Battery of five cannons, a Whitworth breech-loader, two 12 pdr Napoleons and two 10pdr Parrots. On his right is the CSL Memphis and the timberclad Jackson. A couple of special rules. Everyone passes their sustain the first turn. and if you start on a road you don't need a sustain check. Note, the Adams is too big for the road. The objective put the Adams on one of the hills where the Grand Battery is now for the win, or get three other Union units, more or less intact, off the far end of the board for a draw.

One of the regular complaints people have made about GASLIGHT is how hard it is to kill a landship. You shoot and shoot, and rarely does anything happen. Even if you penetrate, many of the results on the table do little or no damage. Not this time. The shot from the Hornet penetrated the Memphis for a Critical Engine Hit destroying the vehicle (though 4 of the 5 crew did escape). I don't think in over a dozen GASLIGHT games that I have ran or played in have I seen such a result.

Here is a general overview of the general advance of the Union forces. The Adams set back out of range of the Grand Battery and tried to shell it at long range. It missed and promptly broke down. Note the steam-cycles heading up behind the tree line. The Hornet (by the wreck of the Memphis took a hit from the Grand Battery and lost some speed.

Here the Hornet crashes through the graveyard (bad luck that) and suffers a hit from the Grand Battery that kills the driver. Meanwhile the poor bloody cavalry loose a man to the heavy Gatling on the Jackson. But bravely they charged forth.

And got shot to pieces, The Grand Battery had two cards as long as Captain Pelham stayed alive and here they are massacring the Mechanical Cavalry.

The advancing steam-cycles were jumped by a squad from the woods, and fled ignobly.

After the Whitworth damages the cannon on the Hornet (-6 to shoot), Dynamite Jack blows off some armor (-6 to Save). The Lt. in charge of the Hornet shoves the dead driver out of the way and takes over the controls.

Captain Smith bravely charges part of the Grand Battery.

And is promptly shot down.

Charging the hill the Hornet tries to crush the guns.

While a much reduced squad of cavalry (they started with eight men) take on the other section of the Grand Battery. And loose to a bunch of Artillery men armed with rammers and other artillery tools.

Slowly the Adams advances (at eight inches a turn that is the only way it can advance). The Wasp (the Gatling armed landship to its right continues to be unable to restart its engine. Note the remains of the cavalry squad next to the Adams. Artillery fire and fire from the Jackson have reduced it down to three men. The cavalry played a bloody price for leading the charge, but they attracted the fire of the Grand Battery so the Adams could advance unmolested.

The rocket armed Zouave fires into the Hornet, killing the last crewman, after it has crushed both 10 pdr Parrots,

Cavalry Squad 2 is wiped out to man, leaving only Captain Pelham still standing amongst the carnage.

Late in the battle the Wasp (the landship at the very back) finally starts. Only two are left of the Mechanical Cavalry, one regular cavalry squad has been wiped out, another is reduced to just three trooper, but the last one is still fairly strong (the one in the graveyard). Pelham stands on the hill waving his sword about, trying to get the surviving artillerymen to return to the cannons. All the while the Adams continues its indomitable advance.

The Steam Cycles try to run the gap between the woods and the hill, but are attacked by Confederate Infantry.

The elite Zouaves start to move towards the center of the battle, followed by the Mechanical Man (which spent most the game broke down- it would fail its sustain, the start, then fail its sustain), while the Jackson also breaks down.

The other regular Confederate squad slaughters the last of the Mechanical Cavalry (who finally failed their sustain roll) but lose a man. They fail their morale check and fire at the nearest enemy. A volley of firebombs takes out the Wasp. The sacrifice of the Wasp meant that the infantry had nothing with which to attack the Adams!!!

The Adams goes up the hill. There is one final chance to stop the Adams. Professor Zappinni unleashes his electro-gun upon it. It hits but fails to do damage.

Victory for the Union Huzzah!!! Huzzah!!!

The game ends before the Confederates can launch a final assault on the Adams, as time runs out on the clock (the game started at 9AM and was set to end at 1PM).

Da Guys who played Da Game

It was a real nail-biter to the end. So many ifs. If the Memphis hadn't been destroyed on the first turn, if the Mechanical Man hadn't kept breaking down, if a morale check hadn't made one squad waste its precious firebombs against the Wasp instead of saving them for the Adams. But it is a good wargame were the result is in doubt until the end.

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WINTER WAR 2014-AN OVERVIEW

2/1/2014

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Winter War 2014 in Champaign, IL is a fairly small con, maybe a dozen games running at a time. But I like small cons, less of a crowd, a better chance of getting in the games you want, and a lot cheaper than a big con (only $15 for the whole weekend and three dollars a game!). The only downside is fewer dealers, the only thing I bought all weekend was a paintbrush (though the mapboard I thought about buying sold before I made up my mind).

This year I didn't wander around as much shooting pictures of other peoples games, but I had to take pictures of this. A multilevel hive for 40K and related games. It was not only nice to look at, but it was designed well. Miniatures didn't fall down on the ramps, big fat gamer hands (like mine) could fit in it to move pieces around, and miniatures could be easily be moved through doors and openings. It both looked good and was very playable, a rare quality. Too often I have seen terrain that looks good but is hard to move figures around (pieces fall over when placed on it or it makes figures hard to maneuver in) , or very abstract terrain that is easy to use but only so-so looking (which is what I usually use).

My first game was Dino Wrangling using the Pulp Alley system. I'd bought a copy and seen a lot of AARs on other people blogs. I finally got to try the system with someone who knew how it ran (I always like to do that before I run it myself, I always miss a rule when I try after just reading the rules). More on this game in another post.

Saturday morning I ran my game, "To Kill a Leviathan", which was a American Civil War by GASLIGHT game. I must have messed up when I listed it, because it ended up in the boardgames section of the con listing. Oh well, still had three players and a good game. More on this in another post.

That afternoon I played in the Settlers of Catan tournament. I didn't win but with a score of 27 out of 30 I didn't embarrass myself as I had in other years.

That evening I played in a Battle of Chippewa 1812 war game. I really crushed the British (caught them in a gap in the wood where the couldn't deploy well). I even wiped out on unit with just musket fire, which caused the guy running it to make a note to tweek the rules to prevent that from happening in the future (if it can be rolled it will be rolled, that is the Atlantic Wall syndrome). I took pictures of the game but I'm only going to post this one of the guy running it (too many unpainted figures on the table). Notice the War of 1812 uniform and the American Flag with the correct 15 stars and stripes.

Sunday I played a Canvas Eagles/Blue Max WWI aerial combat game. I got slaughtered. I had two planes shot down and only got off three shots the whole game. Sigh....

The one funny thing that happened was the large number of mid-air collisions. When two planes entered the same hex they had to roll a D6, if the number was the same (a 1 in 36 chance) they collided and rolled 1d6 for the number of blue hit chits they took. Out of the eight possible collisions, four resulted in actual collisions (one poor guy had to take six blue chits for hits). I think as much damage was done by collisions as was inflicted with machinegun fire (again another example of the Atlantic Wall syndrome).

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GASLIGHT AT WINTER WAR 2015- Part 1 the Confedrate Aircraft

12/2/2013

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For the past two years I have run a GASLIGHT game at Winter War in Champaign, Illinois.

In 2012 I ran
http://mysteriousbill.weebly.com/2/post/2012/01/winter-war-part-21.html

In 2013 I ran
http://mysteriousbill.weebly.com/2/post/2013/01/gaslight-at-winter-war-40.html

In 2014 I shall run TO KILL A LEVIATHAN (more about that in a later post).

But in 2015 I want to run something different, an air/sea battle with airships, ornithopters, backpack steam-powered wings, steam helicopters, steam launches, and a good size steamship to serve as the main target.

I've been collecting what I need for this game for a number of years and I think I'm ready to start putting things together.

I've got four Crucible Dwarf Ornithopters and have modified one with bits from the bits box and a Dixon 25mm Mounted figure. The second picture is a close-up, showing the light bomb in his hand ready to throw, with another strapped to his machine

But the big aircraft for the South will be a twin-hulled catamaran zeppelin. I'll use two Revell Hindenburgs with a platform between them. Possibly with some helicopter blades for extra lift (see this link for a modern design of an airship helicopter http://blog.flightstory.net/851/boeing-to-build-heavy-lift-rotorcraft/ though mine would be more VSF). Definitely well equipped with bombs and at least one Gatling.

This gives the South one large airship, and four one-man ornithopters. Since the people running Winter War want at least six players, I really should come up with some more aircraft for the Confederates. Another airship? Pterodactyls ridden by boy soldiers? I need to figure this out.

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GENCON PART THE THIRD

10/15/2013

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Sorry I am late with this posting. I kept hoping to get pictures of the Mordheim Round Robin game I took part in, but mine are crap and the guy running the game never sent me his. Oh well.

Another game at the Con was a massive Wings of War (over 40 players). To run such a large game, the people running it simplified it. See my card below for the Camel I was running.

Despite the massive number of planes on the table, I started with a one-on-one against an Albatross.

After a bit of dodging around, I settled in on his tail, using my rotary turn to blaze away at him for a couple turns (doing him little to no damage of course).

Having had enough of that, he went left when I went right and headed away from me at top speed. Unfortunately, I had taken an engine hit so had to do a slow each turn. This kept me from catching up with him (not that Sopwith Camels are very speedy anyway).

A shot of part of the hordes of gamers this game drew.

Finally catching up to him, I find that too many allies spoils the fight, as he survives by overlapping a enemy plane which kept him from getting shot at.

This happened again!

And again!!

And yet again!!!

Having had quite enough of this, I flew away from that battle looking for other Jerries to shoot. Every time I came close to a fight, the last German was shot down. So the game ended with me alive, but with no kills. Overall, it was a smashing victory for the allies, as the Huns were driven from the skies.

I learned one thing from all of this. If I am ever outnumbered, I'll fly right into the furball. It is safest there (at least it is if you are up against five or six planes being flown by different players).

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GENCON 2013 PART 2

9/2/2013

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One of the things I like to do at CONs is try out games I've never played before.

1879
1879 is a VSF game where Brits have gone through a gate and found a new world. Unfortunately for them, ancient Mesopotamians had gone through thousands of years before. In that time they develop science (rail-gun rifles) and dark magic (zombies). I really can't say the rules are OK or not. I only had two units and a hero vs. two units (one Zombie) and two heroes. Since there were only two units per side and I had initiative I pulled a fast one. He set up one on his right, I set up one near the middle. Then he set up on one his left and I put one on my right near the other unit. This let me take on each unit one at time.

First came the Zombies. Tough, but melee only troops. With fire from two units only a few made it close. And they "died" when I got off a volley as they charged in.

One of my units took some damage from the rail rifles on the hill and a really bad die roll on my part disrupted the other unit, when the rail rifles switched fire to my unhurt unit.

Eventually I got that other unit under control. I lost the other one in the meantime (though it did damage to his only surviving unit). In the end it ended up two stands to one and I squeezed out a victory despite some bad rolls on my part (those rail rifles were more lethal than my Martini-Henry's and had a longer range).

With so few units I can't tell you if the system was good or not. It really needed to have at least six units on each side, and more kinds of units (Cavalry, Heavy Weapons. Landships). I just couldn't get a good VSF vibe off of it because of how it was run.

BOLT ACTION
I know that Bolt Action has been out for a while, but this is the first time I played it. Me and two others where on the British side, and faced a father and son team on the German side. On the Brits left were a Matilda I, a Stuart, an A-10, PIAT team, and two squads of foot infantry. The Germans had a three mechanized infantry squads (two in half-tracks and one that could use a truck) Sd. Kfz. 222, a Panzer II a captured A-10 (Beute Panzerkampfwagen), a Panzer IV, a PanzerJager I and a Tiger!!!

Needless to say, I shit a brick about the last item, because on the right all I had was a Matilda I, a Grant (or maybe a Lee, I can never tell them apart without a tank books), an A-10, PIAT team, and three squads of foot infantry with enough Bren Gun Carriers to carry one of them. Down in the Wadi, between the two Brit forces, was a MKVI British light tank with a 15mm BESA. I don't know where the Brits scrapped up the obsolete A-10s and Matilda I's but to throw trash like that against a Tiger could only be suicide (but that's not the way it turned out).

The 222 pulled out of the Wadi and up on a hill, where it came under fire from the MKVI which immobilized it by blowing off a tire with it's 15MM. The MK IV moved partially out of the Wadi and picked off the Stuart.

There were two objectives on the board, a knocked out German half track, and a destroyed Churchill. The Germans ran a load of infantry in a halftrack up to one objective while another German squad ran to the other objective (while using the truck for cover?!?!). It worked but they lost their truck. On the left it was a very busy turn. The Tiger moved onto the side of the Wadi and killed the A-10 (an 88 Vs. A-10 armor, not at all an even match). The Panzer II and the halftrack full of Germans made an end move around an outcropping. A British squad that moved down into the Wadi, charged the halftrack with grenades and sticky bombs. They scored 8 hits and would have killed it on anything but a 1, so of course a 1 was rolled. The PIAT team took out the Panzer II. Then the German squad lept out of the Halftrack and close assaulted the Brits, killing four. Then the Brits with only 6 men left, made 5 kills on the Germans and won the battle (destroying the German squad and the now empty halftrack). They Don't Like It Up Them!!!

On the right flank (which I was running) my Infantry and Bren Gun Carriers took cover the Wadi. While my tanks engaged the Panzer IV and the Panzerjager I in a long range (and ultimately ineffective ) duel, I sent the squad farthest from the enemy tanks in a charge towards the objective.

Then once more in with the bayonets (They Still Don't Like it Up Them) and cleared out the German squad.

Meanwhile the Tiger made its way around knocked out and suppressed armor, all to take the last British tank (a Matilda I) under fire, because it had been firing at the last squad of German Infantry holding the other objective. Dad should have told the kid you don't get close to Infantry without other Infantry to protect you when in a tank. For the Brit infantry charged forward once again with grenades and sticky bombs. This time they got the kill and took out the Tiger

At the end no one could claim either objective. A lone German officer survived a volley of fire from the squad near the Churchill and while another Brit squad scaled the cliffs in the Wadi to deny what was left of the last German infantry squad procession of the other objective.

The last running German tank, the Panzer IV, found itself facing two squads of infantry, a PIAT team and three tanks (OK one was a Matilda I and the .50 it carried wasn't a threat). There the game ended with a crushing defeat of the Afrika Korp.

I like Bolt Action. Its a simple, fast system that is easy to learn and play. As an old time Gamer (remember Angriff) I found the armor rules a bit simplistic. I want more than just light, medium, and heavy guns and more than just light, medium and heavy armor (I'm sure there is extra heavy in both categories for Jagdtigers and JS tanks). While I would buy a copy of the rules and build myself an army, I have no one to play against. I'll just save my money for something else.

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GENCON 2013

8/19/2013

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Arrived in Indianapolis very late on Wednesday (a three hour trip that took six because of damn road construction- I hate traveling anywhere except during the winter because of road construction).

Thursday started off with a couple of quick games of King of Tokyo. A basic Kaiju board/card game in which you tried to develop the baddest monster and either winner by points or killing off all your opponents.

A fun little quick game (less than an hour) that I'll have to get sometime. Out of the five new to me games I played this is probably the only one I'll buy. One hint for playing the game, try to keep your monster out of Tokyo. I no that doesn't sound right, but the monster(s) in Tokyo get pounded on by all those outside.

Played a free game of Settlers of Catan while waiting for my evening game (the coupon book came with a coupon for a free ticket to a Mayfair game).

The evening game was Retro Raygun.

The Author of the rules, dressed up as Ace McQuire, Galacteer, somehow talked his daughters into dressing up as a Space Pirate and a Valkeeri. You can never go wrong at Gencon wearing a costume.

The game was the Galacteers vs. the Robot Legion in the search for the Galactic Key. Some where, beneath one of the structures, lay the vital Galactic Key, that would give the possessor great power. You just have to fight of the enemy, destroy the shielding devices, open the vaults to the underground to find it, and successfully get it off your table edge. Nothing could be easier ;)

Some of the Robot Legion's initial start (Legionaires lead by a Centurion, a couple of Warbots, and a swarm of Minibots). I have got to get a better camera, my wife broke my old one and bought another that is only fit for taking pictures of people, not close ups of miniatures.

Some of the Galacteer initial setup. Two squads of regular soldiers, with Dr. Zahn, Jane Hunter and Comet the Space Chimp accompanying them.

One Galacteer Squad seized the high ground by flying to the top of a mountain. They quickly flew back down behind the mountain after taking enemy fire. In this game you can shot across the board (except through very heavy cover)). Even when there is jungle between you and the target you can still shoot (at a small minus). The only reason to advance is to seize an objective or engage in hand to hand (some units like the Minibots and Hoverbots have no ranged weapons).

Because of this infinite range Queen Meckanica (lower center), after the first move, just sat back at her end of the board with her squad. With her ability to force attackers to discard their best attack and defense die she and her troopers slaughtered many a Galacteer (though the guy running claimed they just ran off and only the robots actually were destroyed) and didn't loose any robot in her squad until near the end of the game, when the Centurian was hit. In this game a hit on a squad "kills" that squad. The only way to avoid this is to have a "hero" with it to get hit instead. Then you can "kill" the hero, instead of the squad. The players on the other side didn't realize this at first and kept their heroes running around separately. While the heroes were useful, this made it easy to kill a squad, which usually had more firepower than a character.

On the right the large and imposing Warbots and Warbot Destroyers (the ones with heavy rayguns instead of hands) advanced. Despite being very dangerous looking, bad die rolls limit their kills on the Galacteers to Dr. Zahn, who was running about on his own.

On the left great masses of Galacteers advanced lead by Ace McGuire. Simon-6 split off from the unit he was with to advance on his (its?) own

Using the Vault as cover (it being one of the few things that would stop direct fire) the robots advanced. A horde of Minibots leading the way, closely followed be a Centurion with a squad of Robot Legionaries, and a Warbot.

The Warbot destroyed the force field generator and the Centurion opened the vault. Meanwhile the Galacteers blaze away at the Queen's squad doing no damage, while her squad's return shots destroy some Galacteer squads.

Through the open door the Centurion and his squad descended to the lower level, unfortunately attracting hostile creatures and natives to the Robot Legion

Such as the Giant Bug.

And the Aquaclops, which managed to destroy a Wabot. Both monsters kept the Warbots on the right busy.

The horde of Minibots advance but were downed by fire by the Galacteers. Hordes are a kind of unit in Retro Raygun. Even if not destroyed by fire or hand-to-hand they still lose one member each time they are shot at or fought. Their big advantage is rather than a set number of dice to roll in HTH, the number they roll is based on the number the remaining members of the horde. This makes them very dangerous in HTH.

For instance this horde of Hoverbots destroys this unit.

Then this one. Akk!! what a bad photo. I've got to get a better camera..

Before losing to Comet the Space Chimp. Notice the open vault door? Good old Comet managed to Discombobulate it (that's his special skill) by monkeying around with it (sorry about that pun). Jane Hunter rushed into the Vault before the door shuts behind her. There the Centurion and his squad make short work of her and soon found the Key

Meanwhile, on the surface, the Warbots finally kill the Giant Bug, but the Aquaclops battled on. The Queen's squad is finally hit after a multiple shots, but is not destroyed because her Centurion bravely (can a robot be brave?) stepped into the shot.

The other Centurion brought the Galaxy Key to the surface. After dodging some last desperate shots, he escaped off the board. A win for the Robot Legion.

I found the system to be good, quick, and rather bloody. Our Warbots seemed to be a waste of points (one even fell to a horde of four natives with spears) and the Minibots only served as shot magnets. The Hoverbots speed let them destroy two squads. Queen Mechanika's ability to force the other side to remove one success on defense or offense proved very handy. Ace McQuire also had that skill, but it didn't work out for him as well. The main problem the Galacteers had was not putting their Heroes in their units. You could sacrifice the unit to save the Hero or sacrifice the Hero to Save the Unit. They also didn't use their Jetpacks well. With them they could move 24 inches (though they couldn't shoot when they used them). Instead of spending time trying to open the Vault on their side of the board, they could have flown a couple of units across to the Vault the Robot Legion opened and use that to get to the Key. Though with the hot dice I was rolling with the Queen's squad, I'm not sure even that would have worked.

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ONE LAST AAR FROM WINTER WAR 40

3/2/2013

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I played in a Where Heroes Dare game at Winter War 40 (I also ran one but with only one player I don't feel like posting those pics). This is the first time I got to play, as opposed to run WHD and it was an interesting experience.

The Plot
Dr. Evil was exchanging human captives for Element X from the Zombies of the Stratosphere. It was up to the US Rocket Soldiers, Doc Bronze and his gang of heroes, and two units of Aiship Mercenaries (OK I forgot what the names of the groups really were, so I am making that up) to assault Dr. Evil's Sky Lair. The Airship Mercenaries were lowered from their airship, Docs landed via Autogyro, and the Rocket Soldiers flew to the flaoting sky lair. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil awaited the arrival of the Zombies for Planet X to exchange human captives for Element X. Dr. Fong's Tong was also on the Sky Lair to provide the Dr. with extra muscle.

Here you see the Zombies caustiously exit there rocketships (yeah $1 rocket sippy cups) while at the far side of the lair Dr. Evil and his henchmen await. Between them await the captives, helplessly in a cage.

The two groups of Airship Mercenaries (their motto "If you've got the money, we've got the death from the skies") charged over the hill and quickly gunned down two of the Zombies (it's nice to have the initiative). My group of mercenaries is the one on the left.

Then the US Rocket Soldiers dropped in on the ones who had made it to cover.

Dr. Evil met the other group of Space Zombies and turned over three captives to them. My group moved into cover behind a rocketship while the other mercenaries tried to get a shot in, but couldn't becuase of the captives being in the way. So they instead shot two of the "dead" Zombies that had stood back up (these Space Zombies were truly zombies, for death didn't always keep them down).

Meanwhile the Rocket Soldiers snuck back to the other side of the compound, via the underground tunnels (see the hatch), to join up with Doc Bronze and his men.

Unable to stop the Zombies from loading the captives on their rocketship (and unable to figure out how to open the door to the rocketship) my men (and one lady) charged the laboratory containing the Mind Control device with guns blazing. Maybe it was our gunfire, or maybe it was just bad die-rolls, but Dr. Evil couldn't get the device to work.

Doc Bronze and his men charged Dr. Fong's Tong, dropping some with the Mercy Bullets before KOing the rest in hand to hand.

I kept Dr. Evil's men engaged while being fired upon by the Zombies who exited their Rocket Ship (which promptly took off with the captives leaving them behind). Caught in a cross fire two of my brave men went down, but so did all the Zombies that came out to play. With the Rocket Soldier and my remaining men (and one lady) firing at the Lab with the Mind Control device, while Doc Bronze and his men took over the building right to the north of the Lab. Surrounded and out-gunned, Dr. Evil decided it was time to stop trying to get the Mind Control device to work and fled via a convienent hidden exit. Meanwhile the other Airship Mercenaries escorted to remaining captives to freedom.

A victory for the good guys. Dr. Evil's Mind Control device and a rocketship was captured, and most of the Zombies of the Stratosphere and Dr. Fong's Tong were killed or captured. The Zombies did get away with three humans to experiement on, but I'm sure a genius like Doc Bronze can figure out the remaining rocketship and go to free them.

A few things I learned about Where Heroes Dare

1. Remember the Bullet Proof Vest
I was the only group to have such an item (I bought it since the guy running the game had to short me a weapon). With so much lead flying a vest is your best chance of keeping people in the game.
2. Numbers count.
Especially in the early turns the good guys had a great advantage by ganging up on one part of the bad guys. One group of Zombies ended up facing three groups of good guys, one right after the other. By putting out one enemy group right away (Ok sometimes they got to stand up again, but since that was all they could do on their turn they'd get shot back down) it left the good guys with a real advantage. When I ran a multiplayer WHD game at a Con I had several groups, that all had different objactives and different enemies. With just two sides (even if several players) it allowed one side to concentrate on part of their enemies to gain the upper hand.

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