Master plan 2012 - half year update

I have done this in the same format as my original master plan post

1 – Get more gaming done

Behind the pace with 29 done in the first six months – still a chance to get to 70 but can’t see me hitting 16 different venues

2 – Get more painting done

Only about 120 v the target of 600 – lets see if I can at lesat get up to 300

3 – Progress my current projects

Impetus Tournaments –  Played the only one held in Scotland o far this year and expecting to play some more

Peloponnesian Wars –Two land battles fought – no naval as yet

Henry VIII’s invasion of France in 1513 – in 28mm –no progress at all

Scottish Renaissance battles (pre Civil War) in 25/28mm –again no progress

RN Carrier Ops – in 1/300 –nope

SF – 28mm – and no again

Post WWI Baltic states / RCW – 28mm –Yes – played two games Great War and Triumph and Tragedy) and now have a small painted Freikorps army 

I have bought some of the Commando Miniatures figures for the Indonesian Confrontation – that counts as a new project for 2012 I think

5 – Play a good variety of other games

Piquet  – not yet but planned

Purple Heart Valley  - played

Force on Force – one game

FOG and Hail Caesar – used for the Peloponnesian Wars games

WRG 6^th – Oh yes

Napoleonic  - not yet

15mm WSS game – not yet

WHFB. – yes

SoA championship – no Scottish members have shown any interest in this

6 – Tidy the attic

It’s not that I haven’t tidied its just I am not sure anyone would notice

7 - Start a blog

What do you think ?  I would say that blogging has gone pretty well

8 – Review this list in December 2012

Lets hope I can plug a few gaps by then

9 – Stay married and keep my job

So far so good

Falkirk District Wargames Club

My planned visit to the Lead Adventurers MacLAM event this weekend did not happen and I had left it too late to organise a Monday night game at the club.  I went over for a couple of hours anyway and for a change was in observational mode rather than participative.

There were 12 games on.  3 Basic Baroque (2 28mm and 1 in 15mm) 3 Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 3 WW2 (15mm FOW, 6mm Blitzkrieg Commander and 15mm CAC) and 1 each of Warmachine, 15mm FOG(R) and 15mm Impetus.  All in all a pretty good reflection of the diversity that we would normally see on a Monday.

Our treasurer was not at the club so I did the fees collection service (£2 for most, £1 for concessions) and in the process did a full count of those attending.  30 members, one ex member wanting to rejoin, a new member wanting to join and one potential new member on his first visit.  I am not sure exactly how many members we have now but it must be pushing 45 which I believe is the highest level in the club's history.

What I particularly like about the Falkirk club is the way it encourages members to do their own thing and get involved.  We all seem to get along pretty well and whilst there obviously are groups of people who have rules preferences these don't take the form of exclusive cliques.

We put on Carronade each May and the show has gone from strength to strength.  This year we have also hosted some weekend events at our club premises - a very successful and well attended 2 day Warhammer Fantasy event and two single day Impetus tournaments - one in 25mm and a 15mm one planned for July.

The above might seem like a bit of an advertisement for the club, but it is simply a refection of how I see it.  I have been a member for 11 years now and look forward to many more years gaming with the group.

It’s not the taking part that counts; it’s being part of a winning team

Imagine the scene.  Cuba 1898.  Two evenly matched forces of Spaniards (in a ridiculous blue and white stripped pyjama uniform) and Yankees both head towards an isolated church to seize it for use as a strongpoint.

The brave Americans are also possessed of low cunning and start much nearer the church allowing one squad to quickly occupy it.  A long exchange of fire then begins with a squad of Spaniards cowering (yes I said cowering) behind a stone wall.  Meanwhile my brave lads dash over a high hedge to be confronted by an elite unit of Spanish and another fire fight erupts (I say elite- their stats may not have been any better but they certainly had elite dice rolls)

A few lucky shots takes down almost all my freedom loving  men but one brave fellow scrambles back over the hedge to assist his comrades in the church.  A certain amount of readjustment of the hedge was needed to set up a good firing position, but it was all done in the name of democracy.

This infuriated the pyjama clad hordes who sent volley after volley of fire into his position.  Truth be told it did put him off his aim a little and eventually he fell to a cowardly bullet much to the glee of the Spanish commanders who pronounced victory. 

Too soon - too soon.  My esteemed colleague in the church, much aided by my diversionary tactics, was able to finally put the ragged remainder of the dastardly opposition either to the bullet or to flight and we loudly proclaimed victory.

The crestfallen Spanish commanders tried to deny me my part in the ensuing celebrations, spuriously claiming that as all my men were dead or wounded I could not claim any of the credit for the American Triumph (as against the Spanish Tragedy)  but I roundly denounced their feeble attempt to diminish my hard won glory in no uncertain terms.  The question of terrain manipulation was also raised and ignored with contempt.

Death to the Spanish!

To PDF or not PDF - that is the question

I have been looking forward to the release of Augustus to Aurelian, a rule set covering the Principate Roman period or Early/Mid Imperial Rome -  when the legion ruled (sounds like a good name for a set of rules, but I digress). I like period specific ancient rules and, as I have plenty of appropriate figures wanted to give them a try out. However my heart sank when I realised that it would only be available as a PDF.

I suppose that I am old fashioned, but I so much prefer a bound book.  I have previously bought a couple of PDFs in the £5 - £6 range but the asking price for this is £12.

I would have quite happily paid £15 - £20 for a bound copy and if it had been priced at £25 -£30 would probably have bought it with a sigh.

Having posted to this effect in a couple of places most of the feedback is that £12 is not unreasonable.  When you think of all the effort that will have gone into writing, playtesting and producing these rules of course £12 is very fair.  It just that to me paying twice that amount for something I can hold in my hand as a printed version seems fairer.

I would be very interested in others comments on this topic

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold

On Monday I had another game of Impetus in 25mm, against Pete's New Kingdom Egyptians.  This is the army that I used to some effect last year with the chariots proving very powerful against almost all opposition.  Pete confessed at the start that in the 20 odd times he had used his Egyptians against Assyrians, under a number of different rule sets he had not managed a single win.  The omens were good.

I deployed first with the chariots in the centre, archers to either side, a decent unit of cavalry on the left and some scythians on the right. Pete put archers backed by spear in the centre and his chariots on his right.  His left flank was covered by a wood.

My plan was to angle my chariots across to take on the Egyptian chariots supported by the left flank archers with the other archers pinning the remainder of the Egyptian army. Pete advanced his chariots to take out the archers to their front supported by the foot archers on opportunity.

Put simply the Egyptian plan was superior!  My chariots were pretty much shot up by the foot archers and even though I was able to take out some chariots my army disintegrated before my eyes.  My charismatic general dying in the second turn, throwing a six on cohesion test and a six on a dice of destiny reroll did not help.

More like a mangy cur against a barricade than a wolf on the fold I am afraid!

Warhammer Fantasy - a bloody draw

Last Monday my Chaos Warriors, complete with new chariot and sorcerer on a floating disk took on Kev's Dark Elves

We had agreed on 2000 points which is a bit of a stretch for me so I bulked out with more magic stuff.

The scenario was from the rules and was the one with diagonal deployment.  I chose sides and then deployed first.  This scenario should help my forces get to grips earlier es but by deploying second Kev was able to pack one flank, which reduced this advantage.  His mounted knights arrived late as did a unit of my Chaos Warriors

The battle itself was a tale of two flanks.  On my leftt a unit of chaos knights did a lot of damage taking out 2 enemy units.  The late arriving warriors managed to kill off a unit of crossbowmen, which included a wizard.  The Elves success here was largely provided by a muli headed fire breathing beast which took out my mounted mauraders and was eventually able to chase down my sorcerer.

On the other flank the tardy knights went through a large unit of maurauders like a knife through butter and then took out the chaos warriors led by my general.  My lone sucess was the chariot taking out an enemy unit in one turn.

A bloody affair with by the end honours being about even.

I think next time I will spend the extra points on troops rather than magic

Update

A quick round up of my wargaming activity since my last post

5 games of Impetus, including 3 at our Impetus Tournament ‘Antonine’s Folly’  My Parthians did OK, finishing 5^th out of 10.  A lot of fun was had by all who took part.

The Renaissance equivalent of Impetus is Baroque (or will be when it’s published) and I have had a couple of ECW games of the free version, Basic Baroque.  Enough to whet my appetite – I will definitely buy the full version when it comes out, hopefully later this year,  

I have also had a game using the Great War rules for the immediate post WWI period with my Freikorps taking on some dastardly Soviet types.  This was very much an trial game, but worked well enough for a first attempt.

Most recently I have had a couple of games of Hail Ceasar, the second being Cimollia II, the next in my plan to refight the battles of the Peloponnesian Wars.  I got absolutely stuffed – the combat results can be (and were) pretty brutal with my entire centre disappearing after the first melee phase.

My only other game was at Carronade, a participation games entitled ‘A Needle in an ocean of Haystacks’ put on by the inimitable Blues Bears (I always want to call them the Blues Brothers for some reason).  My Wellington went out on a patrol over the North Atlantic looking for the proverbial needle in a Haystack and……. saw absolutely no enemy activity whatsoever.  Very realistic but not the most exciting game I am afraid!

Carronade itself was another great event.  I help organise it so don’t get a chance to see as much as I would like, it’s a very busy day.  It is a big commitment to put on a decent sized show for a relatively small club like ours but the result is always worth the effort and this year was no exception.  We had record numbers through the door, lots of entries for the painting competition and the flea market was very well utilised.  Thanks to all the traders and to the clubs who put on some fantastic games. 

As far as the blog goes the plan is to get regular postings going again, hopefully with some photos!