You held a Wargame Mini-Con Where?

First, sorry it has been such a long time since my last post. Our group has been more focused on board wargames than miniatures and it isn't a lot of fun to blog about board games.

Some of the board games we have enjoyed over the last couple weeks (and ratings):

• Twilight Struggle (A)
• Breakthrough: Cambrai (B+)
• 1775 (B+)
• Flying Colors (C)

This past weekend I had the pleasure of wargaming with miniatures with a couple of my good friends: Jim, Buck, Dave, and Nick. This is a small mini-con Jim runs up in Kannapolis\Concord NC every year.

We had a FULL slate of games over the weekend and I took Friday off to attend.

The strangest part is that we played at Jim's work location and the first games were played in the Dr. Office's attic\storage room! Most bizarre place I have ever played a wargame.

We moved to the break room after hours on Friday night and the rest of the weekend.

Agenda:

• Friday early afternoon - Roman Circus Chariot Races
• Friday evening - 10mm Fantasy Playtest with Buck's "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" rules.
• Saturday morning - WW2 Skirmish game (Brits vs Germans) with Buck's very clever unpublished skirmish rules.
• Saturday afternoon - Buck's Look Sarge No Charts - Napoleonics
• Saturday early evening - Star Wars X-Wing by Fantasy Flight Games
• Saturday late evening - Red Dragon Inn card game

Chariot Races - Roman Circus

This was a fast paced game with six players and 54mm Marx Chariots that Buck had recently discovered. Jim played the game at Historicon so he had the rules and the basic oval track that we used. (Jim will create a much nicer version in the future).

We were able to play two races, and I was in the dashing blue chariot.

In the first race, you can see my Blue chariot in lane V, not the best location:

Each chariot driver can pick a special ability and mine was Fast Driver which gave me a +2 to my die roll when I was going "Fast" or "All Out". Drivers start with 12 endurance, unless they have special ability which gives them 15 endurance. If you are not draft behind another chariot at the end of each turn it cost you an impetus. Going "Fast" can cost you an impetus 33% of the time, while going "All Out" will automatically cost you impetus.

Because of my lane location I tried to get aggressive, but ended up just burning endurance and eating a lot of dust in the first two laps:

Buck's purple chariot led most of the way which cost him a lot of endurance, which eventually led to fatigue and I was able to slip past him.

The finish was neck and neck with Jim's white chariot, and I was able to slip by in the end! It is not just the first one to cross the line, but at the end the turn it is the one furthest over the finish line and if in the case of a tie, then it is the one closest to lane one. You can see here, that I just beat Jim by being in line I!

The second game I was able to start in lane III, and made sure I drafted through most of the first two laps, trying to conserve my endurance.

In the third lap I broke out of the pack and tried to take the lead. Jim was running close behind me again and we took the turns at very tight cornering (lane I). I made good decisions followed by good die rolling and was able to get a second victory of the day! The Gods of War must be smiling on me!

Here is the final stats for the second race. I came across the finish line a full turn before the others, but Dave (Green Chariot) was able to slip past Jim for a nice 2nd place finish.

I would highly recommend the rules and if this is being run at Historicon this year, I definitely want to get in on the action.

10mm Fantasy Battle - Bear Yourself Valiantly

After wearing out our horse in the Roman coliseum we moved to 10mm Fantasy battle. This was a massive 6 army battle with six players, and 3 armies per side.

Good: Elven Army, Elven Army, and Human Army
Evil: Goblin Army, Goblin Army, and Human Army

I was in command of the Goblin army on the right flank of the line. I had 6 very poor Goblin infantry units, and about 10 or so Goblin Wolf riders, plus a Shaman tossed in for good luck. I was facing on of the Elvish armies which was composed of almost all lanced armed cavalry. So it was quantity versus quality on my flank.

I'm pleased to say the forces of evil were able to hold off the attacking deformed Elven armies and their lackey human allies and win the battle.

Initial deployment, and how the Evil armies went on the offensive (jimmy leading the way!) instead of waiting for the Elves to attack:

Overall battlefield, with my Goblin army closest to the camera.

Below is two High Elf lancer regiments, with a commander riding a Giant Eagle.

You can see my wolve riding goblins charging into the Elven line.

Elf mage casting a fireball. the only spell he cast during the game was "Cowardice" which made on of my unit's morale drop to a 7 (high numbers are bad).

Cool shot of Buck's Ents coming across the river.

The rules were very easy to play and I hope to help Buck with some continued playtests.

WW2 Skirmish

This game was played at 9am on Saturday, with me and David as the British "Home Guard" defending a secret meeting between Montie, Patton, Ike, and one other general I can't remember.

The rules for this one are very interesting and card driven. Here is a shot of one of the cards:

I'm not going to explain the rules, as I don't want to steal any of Buck's thunder when he announces the release of these.

The scenario had 2 squads of the Home Guard vs. 3 squads of German commandos. The battle was very hard fought, but the generals were saved even though Ike received a wound fighting a German commando. Ike dispatched the commando with a 45 slug to the head. I like Ike!

Some shots of the game, the generals were in the blue homestead:

German fire teams moving through the woods to the objective. Scatter members of the Home guard resist.

one of my home guard fire teams being finally overrun by commandos after really punishing the Germans for their transgressions.

What is left of two German commando fire teams charge the house. My Bren gunner and riflemen in the house kill 3 out of the 4. One makes it to the porch and shots Ike, but Ike takes revenge and guns him down.

Battle of Montmirail
The last big miniatures game was the massive 10mm slugfest with Buck's figures and using his Napoleonic rules (see below).

We playtested a scenario from his up-coming scenario book on the 1814 campaign in France. We fought the battle of Montmirail (January 1814). Fought on snowy ground and eventually in the dark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montmirail

It was a good playtest in order to make the scenario better balanced with regards to victory conditions, duration, along with testing the night rules. I really like how Buck's rules handle Blown cavalry in the rules. Simple and very smart.

French are outnumbered in this one and have to be on the attack. You can seem my initial starting position. Lots of reinforcements for both sides arrive at various times during the battle.

Each unit is a regiment of 2 stands. The little stands are inherent skirmishers and as the battle progresses the skirmishers have their own little fights, which is pretty cool.

Any early cavalry charge by the Prussia\Russian player blunted my attack and delayed me from reaching the town in a timely manner.

My Chevel-leger counter-charged and saved the infantry from disaster.

Massive French infantry and cavalry columns make their way into the battle.

Critical mass is beginning to form

All in!

French take part of the town.

In the end, the French gained a minor victory due to the amount of casualties they inflicted (removed from the table) with a 5 - 1 ratio!

X-Wing
Well Wedge and Luck were taking on 4 Tie fighters, and Luke was wasted very quickly. That left me as Wedge, trying to fight off the horde of TIE fighters. I was freaking out, but slowly I was able to take each fighter out and the rest fled the quadrant.

I think Fantasy Flight Games really hit a homerun with how they handled this game. I look forward to playing this game again.

Thanks to Jim, Buck, and David for running some great games and being gracious hosts!

Links:
Look Sarge No Charts: http://www.bucksurdu.com/Buck_Surdu/Look,_Sarge,_No_Charts.html
Buck's Blog:
Fantasy Flight Games: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=174&enmi=X-Wing
Red Dragon Inn: http://slugfestgames.com/games/rdi/

Siege of Praga - Vauban's Wars Historicon Playtest

I had a great time at Historicon as usual and five gamers generously gave their time and bad die rolls to playtest my latest revisions to Vauban's Wars.

The good news is that the rules will be published within a year as I feel very comfortable with the mechanics and I just have to finish writing up some of the sections.

Here are some photos of the game in progress and some minor commentary. We had some of the worst die rolls in a game I have ever seen, yet the game didn't break down and it came down the Russians pulling the Assault card before the Polish relief army arrived.

The playtest was the Siege of Praga from the Polish Insurrection of 1794, with the Russians under Suvorov assaulting the Polish forces of the Crown.

These photos should give you a sense of the progress of the siege. Click for larger images. Photos are from multiple cameras\phones.

Good shot of Russian commanders Thomas (VT shirt) and Andy (blue shirt posting photos of the game in progress), while Tim Couper (other Russian general takes a photo). I'm here in my dashing yellow shirt with beer in my hand. (Shock!) The Polish player's called me the Quartermaster as I kept advising them about Powder expenditure, which they promptly ignored!

Polish player's Adolfo (Orange) and Mike Huskey (maroon), before the battle, while I'm briefing them about the rules and objectives of this playtest.

Here you can see the Russians starting their saps, while all of their troops are deployed in the First Parallel.

Polish Bastions A & B firing into the Russian sappers. Polish roll the unique event "Relief Army Arrives" on week 2 of the siege. They were scheduled to arrive on week 6. Will the Russians be able to reduce the fortress in time?

Right side of Praga where the Russians are trying to reduce Bastion C to make a "practicable breach"

Russian sappers on the left guarded by a battalion of Russian musketeers. John Mumby (gray shirt) looks on!

Here is the view of the first signs of the Second Parallel being carved from the earth. Green marker on the sappers indicates they have been driven to cover by fire from the fortress. They will need to rally in order to begin sapping again.

Magazine Explodes! First time that unique event is happened in a playtest! The Poles had two magazines and the one on the left side of the fortress exploded, causing them to lose 2 powder (they only had 5 to start with), and they rolled 2D6 for wall damage. Up until then, the Poles had rolled hardly anything over a 2 on any die, so the promptly roll an 11 for structural damage to the wall where the magazine was located. You can see the clump of rocks (equals 10 hits), then one additional rock to signify the 11 hits. The Russians now see a second location that they can target for a breach.

Polish commanders consuming valuable food stores to prepare for the mass of Russian artillery and infantry coming forward!

Mike Huskey and John Mumby watching the Russian Siege guns smash the bastions.

After the Second Parallel was built Russians sappers under Thomas (soon to be Engineering graduate from Virginia Tech) pushed aggressively forward in order to make the 3rd Parallel. This led to many casualties for the Sappers\Engineers. In the above photos you can see Polish sappers trying to desperately repair Bastion C.

Above you can see the 2nd Parallel completed with most forces moving forward. You can see three sappers digging closer to Praga!

Trench Raid! Poles send 3 companies (stands) of Grenadiers to attack and kill the unprotected Russians Sappers. A setback for the Russians, but they can make more sappers.

Slightly different angle, which shows 34 damage to Bastion C (pile of rocks!). Note that Praga was surrounded by a dry ditch (brown paper in front of the walls).

The Russians are nearly ready to start on the 3rd Parallel. Poles have run out of Powder by now and have to husband their remaining shots for the Russian assault they know is coming.

Crash! The Russians create a practical breach in the C Bastion!

Forty hits against the C Bastion reduces it to rubble.

Oh no! The wall where the magazine exploded is also reduced to rubble! Now there are two practicable breaches.

Above, Polish sappers prepare barricades and obstacles to slow the Russians down.

This last shot shows the table at the time the Russian Assault card is turned. The 3rd parallel is completed at both locations where there is a practical breach. The Russians have massed their infantry for the assault! Normally, we would fight the assault using our favorite tactical ruleset of choice, but alas it was late in the evening and my playtest was a great success!

Many thanks to my eager and happy-go-lucky playtesters: Tim, Mike, Andy, Adolfo, and Thomas! Hopefully this has sparked an interest in siege warfare for them!

I hope to release the rules in the first half 2014, as I need to finish writing the rules and playtesting a couple more items.

If you have any questions, please email me directly: EBurgess@Carolina.rr.com

Thanks
Eric

Vauban's Wars Playtest at Historicon (2013)

Well, I have finally gotten back into miniatures after nearly a year off. I'm re-writing parts of Vauban's Wars (Siege Warfare 1680 - 1815) in an effort to stream-line the rules.

I'm going to have 5 play testers at Historicon to help me with the 10th revision of the rules!

It will be good to have 5 gamers that have never played the rules give me their feedback on game play.

We will be fighting the Siege of Praga (Warsaw) during the Polish War of Insurrection 1794!! Hard to get more unique than that with the Russians attacking the Polish garrison.

Wikipedia Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_siege_of_Warsaw_%281794%29

Here is a link to a playtest done by Peter Anderson and his team from a couple years ago (last time I worked on the rules)

http://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2011/05/siege-of-mantua-1796-97-vaubans-wars.html

My game will be run on Friday Night at 7pm so please drop by and play in the rubble!

Eric
PS - desperately trying to finish painting the fortress and guns before Historicon gets here! I may post a photo or too later. I will definitely have a bunch after Historicon.

Review: Guns of August by Worthington Games

Sorry for not blogging in a while. I've been pretty burned out with miniatures that I have been playing boardgames every week.

Hal and I have had some wonderful games of Paths of Glory, and now we have decided to try a new game I just bought called Guns of August by Worthington Games. I also bought Guns of Galicia and Breakthrough: Cambrai from MMP.

What I like about Guns of August is the beautiful counter artwork, simplified combat, and flexible setup (units setup anywhere withing 3 hexes of their HQ).

I like how artillery is intergrated into the corps size counters and combat is two rounds, first to see how the artillery impacts the defender, then rifle fire. The game covers the entire West Front in 1914.

I will update this post after we play the game on Wednesday.

UPDATE:
Brian and I liked the game, but felt that casualties were “light”. Not sure if we are just being cautious or that is how the game works.

Hal, he just doesn’t care for 1:1, 2:1 type tactical or grand tactical games. So, he won’t be playing it again. He was very timid as the French commander so my Germans were able to advance all along the front without issues. (could be why the casualties were low)

We all thought it would be better as a two player game, due to the limited amount of units you can move on the first 3 turns. I would think, that 4 players would be ok, provided all the players liked that type of wargame.

I think we got through about 12 turns. Mechanics are smooth and simple. I really liked that. We didn’t use the Fog of War option which I really thing would make it crazy scary to play.

 

The biggest disappointment was the hexsides being almost too light to even see. Worthington has posted a map update that has clearer hexsides, but I'll likely just touch up the hexsides over time.

 

Well, we are off to play Friedrich now, which is a SYW game with very different mechanics and uses cards to resolve combat. In fact, there is no dice used at all in Friedrich.

 

Cheers,

Eric