Gunship 4 player!

Happy belated Easter! As is the habit of my family, we had a rather large gathering with lots of good food and fun times. This also means that there will be board games aplenty! We managed to get in a game of Zombicide which is always a great deal of fun. If you have never played it I highly recommend giving it a shot as it can be very tense.

But before that game we managed to get in a game of Gunship. One of our younger siblings wanted to learn how to play so we opted for a four player free for all. This game was absolutely chaotic and a blast to play! With it being our second game, set up was quick and easy and we even got a little more random with our initial set ups. Once the dice were rolled to see who goes first, the carrier round, which is the carriers shooting at each other, works around the table with each player picking which carrier they are going to shoot on this turn. Though you would suspect ganging up, you also don’t want to leave any one opponent too strong while everyone else is battling it out.

Experience showed with us playing a lot more cautiously with out gunships, pulling them back for repairs at a fairly regular rate where as we were a bit more reckless with them in the first game. Lots of back and forth action, trying to decide when best to attack or when to hold back which also resulted in two gunships getting destroyed when their carriers exploded. My gunship suffered enough damage to actually explode but in this game you are only out when your carrier goes down. Though I expected this to be pointless it actually made the end of the game to be rather tense. Since all of the carrier damage is card driven from the deck, there is no telling how much damage could be dealt. The last turn I was sitting on four hull points with my brother on two hull points.

I drew a repair card; effectively a missed shot and my sibling drew a single damage on me. He then launched a torpedo attack and a bombing run that sealed the game. It was a truly awesome finish! And it also illustrated how the game can really go either way due to the cards.It have enjoyed both times that I have had this game on the table and I really expect that this will continue to hit the table for the foreseeable future.

More Blue Max

Managed to get the game back on the table during the sibling game night which made me really excited as I am a fan of the era and jump at the chance to play a game with plotting and dice throwing. Lucky for me Blue max fits that bill perfectly. Unfortunately one of our siblings had to work so there was only three of us to play the game. We elected for a free for all, everyone flying Fokker Dr. 1 to try and keep things even. It actually worked out rather well.

 Apparently I am easy to read. I was flying the Baron.

 Trying to drag the other plan into the fight.

 A surprise head to head that saw engine damage for the black Dr. 1

 Attempting to outrun the black Dr.1 and score a kill. Opened myself up trying to get a lock and was shot down with a pilot kill and a broken wing.

 The end of the game was a series of circles, both pilots trying to outguess the other.

Black attempted to stall and spun the plane. Yellow circled and shot him down!

Was a fun, sometimes tense game. With the older siblings it is almost a game of guess if they guessed your move and turns out to be a lot trickier than expected. My brother in the black Dr. 1 seemed to always be right on my tail or close enough to be tailing me most of the game. My sister-in-law in the yellow Dr. 1 spent the first part of the game maneuvering while we battled, resulting in a wild chase across the board. In the end she managed to come out on top with barely a plane left to get home. The prospect of trying to get all six players on the board is quite alluring now! Bring on the chaos!

Blue Max AAR

Blue Max, a WWI air combat game by Stratelibri, is apparently a reprint/update of the original Blue Max. Though I have never played the original, I have played a number of aircraft combat games using plotted, sometimes hidden movement, and have always been a fan. When I happened across this version of it I was excited for a chance to try a hex based version and the lovely pieces were too good to pass up.

For our first play test, my younger sibling (my usual test subjects) elected for a white Nieuport 24 while I opted for the Fokker Dr. 1, Red Baron style of course! After running over the rules briefly with him, I opted for us to set up along the long edge of the map, hoping for a close, fast game. We offset our starting so that we didn’t have to just fly straight at each other and plotted our movements. For the most part we both zipped across the board, trying to close the distance to see who could draw first blood. The point goes to my sibling who managed to get in a few shots against my side when I failed to guess his abrupt pivot. A few couple moves later suddenly found my cross-hairs on his tail which resulted in the shredding of his rudder and a spiral to the ground. One kill for the Baron!

 First Blood!

The rudder gets shot to pieces.

There was enough interest that we managed to get a second game in, this time with four players. Got to love have numerous younger siblings that also enjoy board games! Side Allies, two of my youngest siblings and my regular opponents for wargames, opted for Nieuport 24s while Side Axis, myself and yet another sibling, selected Fokker Dr. 1s. This time we set up with our planes along the short board edge to allow a longer distance for maneuvering and plotting. Both sides being eager for the fight, we effectively flew directly towards each other, only truly maneuvering when the distance was down to a couple hexs. As this was still our initial play through we opted not to try altitude rules which allowed for us to ignore collisions, a good thing when four planes are darting around a six hex spread. No one could get a bead on a target until suddenly there were two planes head to head with only a single hex separating them. The dice flew and the Allies got the brunt of it, the Nieuport 24 taking enough damage to destroy the engine which resulted in a glide and crash in the following round, counting as a shot down plane.

 The white Nieuport is spinning, taking extra damage.

 A dangerous head to head that saw the Allied plane going down.

 Things get tense!

A fatal error is made.

The remaining Allied plane, a familiar white 24, went into evasive actions, attempting to outmaneuver the closing Axis Dr. 1s. Unfortunately he positioned himself directly before the Baron, against piloted by me, resulting in another burst of fire to an already damaged plane. Both rudder and wing received enough damage to be considered destroyed the Nieuport spiraled down to the earth.

Both games were a great deal of fun and received praise from the siblings as being simple but fun, something we really enjoy as it allows everyone to join in on the fun despite the age range present in our large family. I am hoping to get this one to the table regularly and add in some of the more advanced rules as we go. 

Frontiers: Liberty or Death AAR

 Frontiers: Liberty or Death, produced by Asomdee, is a miniature game without the use of miniatures, a curious concept when I first came across it. As can be seen by my previous posts, I am a fan of miniature games though I have tended towards making my own pieces and/or going the abstract route by simply using bases to represent where the forces are on the table. I suspect that that might be one of the reasons why I considered looking into this game. The other reason was that sometimes you just want a light wargame that you can throw on the table. This turned out to be just the thing.

The pieces are punch-out cardboard and beautiful, with all of the information you need for the piece right on the disc. No need to look up things in an army book, just glance at the piece for the information that you need. This really helps to speed up the game which is really helpful for the younger siblings.

Since I was hoping to get a taste of as much of the game as I could the first round through, we selected a scenario that had both sides seeking out vital information that had to be picked up in one building and moved to another. Army deployment alternates with each side placing one unit until all units have been placed along their respective edge. We both elected for similar tactics, splitting our forces to each side to secure the buildings which held the objectives. Our tanks and heavy armor, two to a side, fired shots back and forth with minimal success thanks to some rather poor dice rolling, leaving most of the good fighting to the various types of infantry units running about.

Each army also has a deck of cards, four cards in hand at the start of each turn that can be used to improve the results of dice rolls, alter orders or heal up units on the battlefield. These actually have quite an impact on engagements if played at the right time, shifting a loss to a tie or even a success. What started out as a rush for the objectives soon turned into a slugfest with both sides taking pot shots across the table. We called the game after the death of last infantry unit for my sibling as his tanks were unable to pick up the objective and therefore could not when.

It was fun but a little messy, some of the rules were a little wonky to read and contradicted some of the pieces on the board but we sorted it out and had some fun. I look forward to getting it on the table again soon and perhaps picking up a second copy as it is selling quite cheap at the moment and who could say no to having massive armies to play with!

Gunship: First Strike AAR

First up for games this year is Gunship: First Strike by Escape Pod Games. Apparently this game was funded through kickstarter and was widely successful in its campaign. Unfortunately the producer had to focus on his business and the game slipped into possibly becoming unsupported. It seems that 2016 will see a renewal of the game by the producer with many exciting new things to come.

I managed to pick up the base game, Gunship: First Strike, as well as its expansion Afterburners and several additional components when they went on sale. Let me start off by saying the art work is awesome and makes me feel like I am living out the action of The Last Starfighter! I cracked out the base game during the new weekly game night and we dove in feet first with a four player game which turned out to be simply awesome!

Each player is in charge of a gunship, hence the name of the game, which they can customize using a number of cards the represent different weapons. There are blasters, ion cannons and bombs which are used to attack the enemy carrier. The main goal is to destroy the enemy carrier which can happen from the carriers shooting each other as well as your gunship making attack runs with torpedoes and bombs. To add to the chaos, you have a wing of fighters that can attack other fights and harass your opponent’s gunship.

Though there is free-for-all, which requires each person to also have a carrier board, we went for a 2 vs. 2 as it was our first time playing. I have to say that this game is wonderfully balanced and you really can’t be sure who is going to win until the end of the game. Side 1, which consisted of my sibling and me, faced off against side two, my other sibling and sister-in-law. Side 1 started off in what seemed to be a lead, our carrier doing more damage as we whittled down the enemy fighters, even managing a couple of runs on the carrier. Side 2 matched blow for blow but it seemed they were on the back foot for the first half of the game.

Thanks to an awesome ion shot and a series of crazy events, the pendulum swung swiftly to Side 2 with my sister-in-law launching an all out attack that resulted in our carrier exploding, ending the game. We played with the basic setup on the ships and may have gotten a rule or two wrong, normal when it is the first play through, but the game was still exceedingly awesome, really encouraged working together and plotting out who could do the most damage with initiative. I really look forward to getting the game out onto the table again in the near future! Hopefully with pictures next time!

New Life in 2016!

So I have come to the conclusion that I need to get better at blogging. But I will try to get better now that life in general has become far more stable than it was last year. For a start I know have a weekly game night so that should help things! I know I don’t have any steady readers but here is to good things in the months to come!

Mechwarrior! An after action report. Game 1.

After finding some Mechwarrior pieces on sale, I figured I would go ahead and give the game a try. Who can say no to giant robots beating the heck out of each other! Using just the starter set and some Heroscape tile pieces (So many uses for those!) we set up a quick match.

I just love how easy it is to build an intriguing map with a collection of Heroscape tiles! And the hexes help the younger siblings figure out distance on the fly. I will be commanding the blue squad, BBJ the red squad. Both are Mercenary groups in the game universe.









My opponent for the day was one of my younger siblings, BillyBobJoe (BBJ) as he likes to go by. He's usually up for a good game and doesn't mind when things happen to go south for him. That's the joys of playing a game with him. When things start blowing up he's still having a good time! 
Squad Lists:

Blue Team:

Mangonel Mech "Copperhead"

Zibler Fast Strike Tank

Salamander Battle Armor

Undine Battle Armor

LRM Battery

Red Team:

Jade Hawk Mech "Blitz"

Sekhmet Assault Vehicle

Fenrir Battle Armor

PAL Suit

Pathfinders

The After Action Report!

LRM and Undine move out along the left. The LRM would fail to do any damage the majority of the game!

Pathfinders and Fenrir move in response, negotiating the terrain for cover.

The Zibler and Mangonel move to the right, the Mangonel taking a perch that would prove a strong tactical move.

The Jade Hawk and Sekhmet initially start to follow the pathfinders but shift, feeling the Mangonel is more tempting.

The Sekhmet thank rushes forward to try and take on the Mangonel, bring it into range of the Mech and Zibler.

The Sekhmet pays the price, exploding under the combined fire of the Mangonel and Zibler! The PAL suit squad watches from cover.

Fenrir and PAL units move forward in hopes of avenging the fallen Sekhmet. Jade Hawk follows after, eager for a shot at the Mangonel. The Undine move into position to lend fire support.

All hell breaks loose! Guns blazing all both sides, the dice fall short for the Red side, this trio taking a lot of punishment while only mildly damaging the Zibler in response.

The Jade Hawk takes a beating from the Mangonel but it would be the Undine battle armor (infantry) that would seal it's fate! The Pal Suit and Fenrir head for the hills in the background.

Game ends with the Pathfinders surrendering in the shadow of the Mangonel.

The game ended up being a little one sided due to some poor dice rolling, though it did effect both sides over the course of the game. All in all it was a good deal of fun and I look forward to having another go with the siblings in the near future. I have a second starter set so a two vs two battle could be in the pipe!

List of Games

So I have wanted to compile a list of the various games that I play and my current impressions of them.  

First up, Hoplon version 3:

This was the first war games system for Ancients that I tried out. While I like the design and the technique used for categorizing your troops, I believe the base system is quite complex for just beginning to explore the genre.

Warhammer Ancients:

It took me a while to track down this rule set as they are not easy to come by. However I am very pleased with this system. Everything you need to know about the units can be placed upon the bases, or in my case counters. This eliminates the need to look through the rulebook for stats on specific units, especially when there are a multitude of troops present. I have only managed a couple games with this system but look forward to working with it again.

Napoleonic Flames of War:

I have gone into this system in previous posts. I believe the rule set really plays to the period and allows the movement and use of large blocks of troops with relative ease. There are numerous rules/versions out now but I am sticking by the version I have as it has allowed for many hours of interesting gaming. A small note, I actually shrunk the size of the bases and distances, allowing an even grander scale to be accomplished.

Full Thrust:

My father raised me on Star Wars and Star Trek so I have always loved large space battles with massive ships pounding each other while fighters scream around the carnage. After looking through numerous sets of rules, I believe that Full Thrust really enables the style of play that I was looking for. Not only are you able to build completely custom ships, but the system actually encourages large ships slugging it out with multiple weapons firing in all directions. Strategy tends to be pretty straight forward but it is compensated for by dynamic close quarter firing.

Frag-o-rama:

When I first found these rules I had a good chuckle. This game is purely for entertainment sake. It is designed to be similar to a first person shooter video game and has a lot of humorous tag lines added in to the stat cards. Worth a look if you are just looking to have some beer and chips gaming.

Axles and Alloys I&II:

This gaming system is pretty much Mad Max/Death Race with hot wheels cars. The rules are simple and straight forward, allowing you to grab a handful of cars, fill out a quick statistics sheet and start playing. The design rules for cars allow a lot of creativity, especially in the second edition with allows for different styles of play.

Warhammer 40k:

This was the first war game that I ever actually played. I started in 3^rd edition and have been collecting for several years. I think the main appeal for the system as been the collecting and modeling of the figures. The game itself is quite enjoyable and can be challenging if desired. I mostly play it with siblings though so there isn’t much competition required for an enjoyable game. 

Blood in the Sand Battle Report

Blood in the Sand

So tonight I ran another round of Hoplon with the younger siblings as we didn’t really get to into the mechanics of the game the last time we played. Although we did not get any melee in due to units not meeting up properly to allow for melee, there was a ton of arrows flying. One thing is for sure, the shooting mechanics working very well and are quite accurate in my opinion. Anyways, on to the battle report, all three turns of it!

So we were running a 1v2 game of 1200 points aside. I was controlling 1200 points of Assyrians split into three Commands for ease of usage.  The siblings, Sorcess and BillyBobJoe as they wish to be dubbed, were each fielding identical Geometric Greek armies of about 600 points each. Let’s start with army lists so that you can see what was fielded.

Assyrian Command 1

Ishme, Sub General mounted in Light Chariot

Sha Shepe, Light Chariots 15 elements

Assyrian Command 2

Tukuti, Sub General mounted in Light Chariot

Irregular Peltasts, 36 elements

Irregular Bowmen, 18 elements

Assyrian Command 3

Ashur-ubullit, Commander mounted in Light Chariot

Palace Chariots, Light Chariots 10 elements

Regular Swordsmen, 12 elements

Regular Bowmen, 6 elements

Irregular Peltasts, 18 elements

Irregular Bowmen, 9 elements

Greek Command 1 & 2

Sub General mounted in Light Chariot

Irregular Light Chariots, 6 elements

Irregular Cavalry, 10 elements

Irregular Swordsmen, 24 elements

Irregular Peltasts, 20 elements

Irregular Bowmen, 12 elements

Deployment Phase:

The Greeks won deployment initiative and elected for the Assyrians to be deployed first. After rolling for Command Points, I elected to have the 1^st command attempt an outflanking move and so left them off the table. Command 2 was placed on the left half of our six foot long gaming table. Command 3 was placed on the right flank. Both commands than made a single movement bound (10cm) in deployment mode.

BillyBoeJoe [BBJ] opted to deploy against my left flank, not knowing that my outflanking forces were planning on arrive on the side of the table in his deployment zone. Sorcess deployed his forces along my right flank and both players opted to only make one movement bound before the game began.

Turn One:

Sorcess advanced two units of cavalry, one unit of bow and one unit of spear, expending all of his command points.

BBJ advanced one cavalry unit and one chariot unit outside of his command range which caused him to use up double the amount of command points.

During my turn, Command 2 had first initiative and advanced four units of Hupshu militia with bow attachments. Command 1 arrived from their outflanking maneuver and attacked the rear of a Greek Peltasts unit, killing two elements. A failed test caused the unit to route back into the command which in game terms means they were massacred. Command three only managed to advance three units of shock with their attached bow.

Turn Two:

Sorcess won initiative and advanced all of his troops due to a large amount of command points.

Command 1 was second in initiative and marched forward to find the rear of another Greek unit. They fired on swordsmern, killed three elements which caused them to rout back into the chariots resulting in another massacre.

Command 2 advanced 4 units forward and fired at Greek cavalry and light chariots. They managed to shake the cavalry and kill one element of chariots.

Command 3 moved several units forward to close into shooting range. Asharittu archers fired on Greek cavalry and killed three which caused them to route from the field. Another unit Asharittu archers fired on Greek bowmen, killing two elements.

BBJ ended the turn by advancing his units forward as best he could.

Turn Three:

Command 1 managed to win imitative and earn a total of eight command points. It used nearly all of them surging forward to find more prey and fired upon the rear and flank of Greek bowmen, killing three which caused them to route into the chariots for a massacre.

The loss of the bowmen dropped BBJ’s forces below fifty percent and so he had to take a demoralized test to see if his army still had the will to fight. Due to losses, his result was negative which means that every unit has to test to stay or rout. After rolling for units left, two units of cavalry and one unit of swordsmen broke rank and fled, the rest staying put but wavering.

Command 2 closed in on the wavering forces of BBJ’s Greek and fired half a dozen elements at the remaining light chariots, killing three elements and routing the rest.

Command 3 advanced all units forward and unleashed a rain of arrows upon the Greeks. Two elements of BBJ’s Spearmen were cut down, the rest of the unit holding their ground but shaken. Three elements of bowmen belonging to Sorcess were killed, the rest broke and ran. Two other elements of bowmen were killed by Asharittu. The Greek general was left in the open and suffered the shooting of Asharittu and Palace chariots which saw the commander slain. His fall required a demoralization test for the Greeks which resulted in a negative and saw the majority of the units fleeing the field.

We ended the game after that even though a few more round of combat could have been fought just for fun. I think it was a good learning game for the siblings and hopefully we can get them to improve their tactics. I might try to give them a different army, perhaps advancing to the city-states of Greece to see how they do as the Greek at the current era is rather unreliable and fragile.

Just for fun I decided to add up the represented numbers of soldiers present. Hoplon gives you a general range that stands represent.

Assyrian Army

Command 1         750 chariots

Command 2         250 chariots

                            13,500 infantry

Command 3         500 chariots

                            11,850 infantry

Slain                     0 total

Greek Army

Command 1&2    600 chariots

                            5,000 cavalry

                            30,400 infantry

Slain                     9,890 total

Forces of the Assyrian Empire

So I have had the itch to do some ancient warfare and with the discovery of Hoplon I have really wanted to get some pieces on the table and go a few rounds to see what would happen. I discovered two things about the game today. One that it is really quite deep and takes some time and two, that the siblings do not have the patience for the new system. Oh well, guess there was only one way to figure that one out in the end.

Anyways, last night I was trying to figure out how best to go about making pieces. I busted out a ruler, a pencil and a clean piece of paper; along with the converted measurements I would need and set to work. After drawing the lines for eighteen pieces I wondered if there would be an easier way. Wouldn’t you know it; I looked at a word document, saw the insert table tab and wondered. Turns out I can make all the pieces I want, in neat, tidy groupings with word. Gee, I wish I had considered that route back when I was making the Napoleonic pieces. Anyways, without further a due, here are some pictures of the pieces. They are shaded red so that it will be easier to distinguish them on the battlefield with the camera.

Starting with the leader or leaders of the army, we have the Sub-General unit that is representing a light chariot. The ‘BIF 2’ is the command score of the unit and it applies to various rolls in the game. I only use one at the moment but have the second for when I split the forces as I plan on running a hammer and anvil type tactic with the footsloggers and the fast chariots.

Next we have the She Shepe chariots to cover my flanks. There are eight pieces here though I can potentially field up to thirty six of them in a single army. They each have a bow and are able to shoot in any direction, making them great for hitting the flanks of the enemy. 

 

Onward, to the infantry of the army. Here is a combination unit of Asharittu Shock troops that are swordsmen and Asharittu Archers, that act as their support. This is the way that the army list requires them to be fielded and I would probably do similar if they weren’t as it is a good support element.

Here are the Hupshu Militia units that are a combination of Spearmen and Archers. You’ll notice that the pieces are a bit bigger than the Asharittu Shock as they are all loose order units compared to the Shock being close order. Again this is how the army list requires them to be fielded but I think they are a nice combination.

The battle itself was quite crazy due to trying to teach three people and learn at the same time. Managed to get a few rounds of shooting in once the forces closed ranks and found that the chariots can deliver an impressive amount of damage in the game. Didn't get to try the melee due to time constraints but there is always next time. Hope you enjoyed the pictures and thanks for stopping by. 

War Photos

This will be a short post. As promised I have uploaded the pictures from the large battle that I held last week with my siblings. There is a link to it on the left side of the blog under army pictures. While I shall be posting pictures here, the majority can be found there.

Battling the Ancients

I have always found ancient warfare to be quite interesting and strategically thrilling. Forces were rather simple and similar so it really came down to the ability of the commander to guide his forces and to keep them encouraged in the face of certain death. Due to a painfully small budget I do not have the chance to invest in rule books to sample and so I turn to the internet. Luck was with me when I happened across a set of rules for ancient battles that runs along a similar vain of the Napoleonic games, an easy transition for those younger siblings.

The rule system I am currently working with is called Hoplon 3 and though dense and a bit coded when you first get into it, it rather straight forward and seems to pride itself on the lack of book keeping that is needed to play the game. I have spent the last couple of days reading through the rules, understand the concepts and trying to run the system through my head a few times and for the most part it seems like a pretty straight forward system. Hopefully I will be able to get some games going here in the near future so that I can see if the rules really are as simple as they seem.

The one hitch I am running into at the moment, at least in my eyes, is the number of stands that is required to run a standard force. The rule set comes with a series of army lists spanning the biblical era to the medieval era and should prove to be amazing for transitions and those laughable clashes of civilizations separated by hundreds or thousands of year. Hey, if Age of Empires can do it, why can’t I? Anyways, the hitch is that I will have to make all of the pieces needed to field a small force and at last count that would be about fifty four pieces.

Obviously I will be making these pieces in the same fashion as I did with the Napoleon ones as I am mainly interested in cheap, fun war gaming until I can get a disposable income to support this wild little habit of mine. I shall keep you posted with units as I develop a good way to create and label them. 

A Grand Old Battle

So a few days I got the siblings together, designed a battlefield and set up the points values for a series clash of forces. Trying to keep within history as much as possible, I kept the alliances to a feasible level. On one side were the Swedish and the British. Across from them were the armies of the Italians, Denmark and the US. True it is not very accurate to have the American forces on European soil at the time but my brother is young and that’s the army he wanted. Because I have scaled down the system to some degree we were able to run all the forces on a standard six foot by four foot surface though things did get a little crowded whenever terrain was encountered as there just wasn't enough room to manipulate forces without some overlay. Intermingling probably would have caused disruption in the ranks but I try to keep the game on a simple level so did not bring it up.

As it was an assault mission, there were two objectives in the enemy deployment zone, which belonged to Italy, US and Denmark, and two on the field for both sides to fight for, a large manor and the town square.

Unfortunately we were under a time constraint and had to deal with a couple siblings needing to slip away for various other activities. We agreed to try and get in the full six rounds as is normal for the game system and managed to pull it off though just barely.

Turn one saw a lot of moving and plotting with little combat due to short range of muskets and even the cannons were a tad out of range. Turn two was along the same lines with units marching, rushing or changing formation all over the field in preparation for the coming storm of lead.

Turn three saw combat on the left flank and in the center between the Swedish, British, Italians and US. The Denmark forces were taking their sweet time advancing through the wheat fields on the right flank and refused to rush into combat.

Turn four saw more shooting and a daring assault by the US forces against a steady, double line of British infantry. Losses were severe for the British with five stands being cut down. But they held ground, regrouped and cut the Americans down to a man in the retaliation. The Swedish Jaegers also saw some action after securing the cathedral in the center of town and shot up an entire troop of Italian medium cavalry, killing every stand.

Turn five found the forces of the Italians and US, wheeling and shifting to try and recover from the heavy losses in the center as reinforcements rushed forth to support the British lines already in place. Swedish Jaegers decimated another band of cavalry, this time Denmark Heavy Cavalry, and sent the remainders fleeing the board.

Turn six was pretty one sides. The left flank, which the Italians had been attempting to hold, was crumbling under artillery and a combined line of British and Swedish Line Infantry. Swedish Light Cavalry went on a rampage, singlehandedly wiping out two Grenadier battalions, a battalion of Militia and a battalion of Line all belonging to Denmark.

Final points came down one sided as well. The British forces held the manor and the Swedish were in the center of town and routing enemy forces at the end of the game. Amount of forces still standing as well as the number of forces routed or destroyed were tallied up. Final victory points came down to 32 points for the alliance of Sweden and Britain and 13 for the combined forces of US, Italy and Denmark.

Overall it was a good game and a good chance to work with the mechanics of the game on such a large scale. Some tuning may be needed in the future as we work out more historically accurate encounters. We are also planning on holding another match with the same sides but trying it from the other side of the table to see what the result will be. Stay tuned for that report and the photos from this one.

NFOW British Forces

Here is a look at the pieces that I use for NFOW. This is just going to be an overview and some brief explanations with historical estimations of the number of men represented by the individual pieces.

[Click picture to expand]

The above image shows the majority of the infantry forces that I use. Going from left to right, the first three columns of the pieces are battalions of Line infantry. Each piece, or stand, is to represent roughly sixty men as there were approximately six hundred men in the standard battalion of Line infantry for the British. The two stands directly behind the columns represent Grenadiers, the heavy infantry of the day and are meant to support the flanks.

Behind those three columns are another three battalions of Line making it six full battalions of Line infantry, each with an attached company, two stands, of Grenadiers. Off to the left are four small stands of Light infantry, two stands representing a company in the British army. Below those are my two flavor battalions as I like to call them, one to represent an Irish battalion and the other and Scottish one.

At the bottom left is partial squad of Heavy cavalry and then the current general of my forces. This is an early picture of my army which now includes various cavalry and artillery to support the masses of infantry that I have. 

Napoleonic Flames of War

This isn’t a very well known game, at least to my knowledge so I figured I would spend some time today to talk a little about it while I am between rounds in a battle.

The basic format is based around the popular Flames of War, a WWII table top game using miniatures. It is still in its trial forms and the rule set that I use is only one of five different rule sets while the group developing it works out the historically specific rules. Though you can tell that the rules are rough, I think they do their job well and have made for a multitude of gaming nights with epic battles and glorious victories.

As mentioned, this is a miniatures game and is meant to have actual models to represent the men that were engaged in such conflicts. To be representational of the time period would be difficult to do as there would be literally hundred of soldiers to model. NFOW uses a scale system that is only meant to represent the numbers of men and to make modeling easy on the wallet and on the players. Because I like to test out games before I invest in them I have been using paper pieces to proxy the various pieces.

Being a fan of large conflicts and really wanting to get a feel for the dynamic battles of thousands of men, I scaled down the pieces even more, allowing twice the number to be used on the table at once. This has provided intense battles and a better sense of the multitude of men clashing with musket, bayonet and saber.

The next couple of posts will be focused on units that I have, the pieces that represent them and the various battles that have been played so far.

On a side note, if anyone is interested in trying out this game or just having a look at the rules I shall provide the link to the forum. http://forumnapofow.free.fr/index.php

First Post!

Alright so it is a little late but I have been meaning to put this thing together for a while now. I have been playing war games for about eight years now ranging from Warhammer 40K to Napoleonic battles. I am always looking to try something new and figured I would share my experiences so that other people might grow interested in these wonderful hobbies and try them for their selves.

Feel free to comment and leave notes on things. I will do my best to answer questions or help you find a direction to search in.

Currently Gaming: Napoleonic Flames of War