Return of the Thunderboats

My post-Enfilade post included a picture and some information about some hydroplane racing we did at the convention. Though it didn't attract a huge crowd, the races were full, and we had actual miniatures to work with. I also mentioned that Shawn McEvoy was going to send me six miniatures and the big hydro party would begin.

Let me just take a big step backward here, and explain my bizarre interest in this project. I grew up just outside of Seattle in the 1960's. We really didn't have any major league sports until the late 60's when the Sonics and then the Pilots arrived. Our AAA baseball team, the Angels, wasn't very good; the Huskies had moved beyond their '60's Rose Bowl teams and had settled into the mediocrity of the later Owens years. What we did have every summer was hydroplane racing. As a 10 year old in the summer of 1965, I knew the boats, what they looked like, who their drivers were, and how they were doing. The neighborhood was fairly divided between Ron Musson's Miss Bardahl, and Bill Brow's Miss Exide, with all the cornucopia of other boats mixed in for fun. Though hydro racing had moved out of the province of the underfunded amateur owners, and into the hands of commercial sponsors, it still was small enough that on any given day anyone could win. One of the lasting sports memories of my childhood was the dreadful 1966 President's Cup race on the Potomac when Musson and two other drivers were killed. Despite the lack of ESPN or a 24 hour news cycle, the disaster was big news in Seattle, and we young fans were all plunged into a state of mini-mourning.

When I was a kidlet, all those of my age on my block built our hydros out of scrap plywood, painted them the best we could, and tied them on to the backs of our bikes. We'd race them up and down the street to emulate our heroes. Summer was the race season.

Shawn's inexpensive resin-cast miniatures, together with Dave Schueler's very fun rules offered me this opportunity to recapture a bit of my youth. I'm working on my first three boats. I've finished 1955's Slo-mo-shun V. It was damaged in a flip during the same week in which I was born. Driver, Lou Fageol was in the same hospital where I was born at the same time. I'm also done with Musson's Green Dragon. It's different than the earlier Bardahl's classic lines and bronze green and orange finish. Musson's Bardahl was a national points winner from 1963-5. I'm also working on a 1965 version of the Exide. The brilliant red boat with its lightning bolts and checkered tail offer a bit of a challenge for me, but I'm hoping it will be done in the next week or so.

Yes, I know it's another weird project, a bit divorced from the medley of little men that usually constitute our hobby. I see it as simply another outlet for me to express my historical interests in miniature outside the usual shoot up, stab 'em, or blast 'em with high explosives. I really like my connection to racing games, both the air racing and hydroplanes. I fully expect a large panoply of racing games at Enfilade 2008.

Museum of Flight and Gigtoberfest

I've managed to squeeze in a couple of game days between schoolwork and family tragedy. On September 29th NHMGS held its annual day at the Museum of Flight. This is my second year organizing the event, and it is often fraught with frustration. In the past the museum hasn't been very cooperative, and our membership hasn't turned out to support the event, despite offering free admission.

This year was different. The MoF had has set up in our customary place under the SR-71 Blackbird. All the tables were ready for us, and we had plenty of space. We also had plenty of representative games filled with players for the day. I could not have been more pleased. I ran an air racing event, and that was a lot of fun for me and the participants. It also happened to be a Seattle "free museum" day, so there were lots of passersby and inquiries about our strange and wonderful hobby.

Yesterday, October 13th, we gathered at Bruce Meyer's house for Gigtoberfest. This was a day Bruce arranged as a general miniature gaming opportunity at his magnificent Gig Harbor game room. Bruce suggested we drag out our AWI figures and run a game of Guilford Courthouse. We agreed that it was a big enough game to keep plenty of folks involved, while proving an interesting experience. We'd run the game a couple of times before, but a few years ago, with a home grown set of rules. Bruce ran the game, I played Greene, and the game was a lot of fun.

The Brits made the fatal mistake of not being aggressive enough, taking a few initial casualties to chase away the nasty militia with the bayonet. My guys were under strict orders to retire to the flanks to support the 3rd line of Continentals, and too many of the Brits obligingly got drawn into a fox chase into the wooded far flanks, and were unable to aid their outgunned friends in the center of the battlefield. It was a nasty business, and Cornwallis would have had a difficult time making sufficient excuses to Parliament.

It was a great time. I saw lots of friends involved, including folks I don't always see. John McEwan of Reviresco was up from Olympia with his latest multi-media design, the Water Witch in 25mm. Clyde Carpenter made his first appearance since moving west of the mountains. I think everybody had a good time. I only stayed for the morning gaming session, due to the death of Lorri's dad this week. There was lots to do at home. Gaming continued in the afternoon with three smaller games hosted by Michael Koznarsky, Tim McNulty, and Chris Bauermeister. Everyone agreed after the event that we would try to do this again in the spring.

A Summer Like No Other

It's September 1, and summer is nearly over. I can't remember a summer like it for the sheer sapping of time and energy. A lot of the time was spent on learning new things.

I have a new job, one that I am very excited about, teaching high school American Studies and journalism at a school where I truly want to work. The principal has a vision of working for kids that I truly share--as long as my energy holds out. My job will require a great deal of my time. We are on deadline six days per month, and it will require some late evenings. I haven't ever taught in a traditional high school, and this one is unique in its asymmetrical scheduling. It's all very exciting, a little intimidating, and frightening at the same time.

My father in law has been sick, and in the hospital since July 13. It's taken a lot of our time as we worry over his recovery, make visits, and stress over his health or lack thereof. His near death in late July was almost more than the family could bear. His lack of progress is both heart-rending and irritating because we just can't move on.

I've also been gone a lot this summer. Delayed by my father in law's illness we went with niece Beth Anne to Victoria for five days. It was wonderful, I simply love that city. We did some shopping, relaxed in a great room overlooking Fisherman's Wharf, and went hiking on the Sooke Peninsula. The day after I returned, I headed off to eight days of journalism conference in Ellensburg. It was enjoyable, and I learned a lot, but it was also exhausting, and I was all in by the time I got home on August 4th.

Needless to say lots of great gaming time was lost to these competing activities. Few games played, and not even much time for painting. I did attend Dragonflight August 10-11. Enjoyed it too. Mark and I ran two big Space 1889 games which were well received. I also managed to sneak in a couple of DBA games today with Al Rivers, which were quite fun. Otherwise, game times have been scarce. I am hosting the Museum of Flight get together on September 29th, but the rest of the weekends this month are filled with other activities. A wedding, a Weyerhaeuser function, and a couple of Mariners games are keeping me busy.

Though I've had less time for painting than I'd like, I've settled in for some genuine progress the last few weeks. I've finished a couple units of Royal Marines for Space 1889, as well as some mounted troops. They look good. Next up will be some Sepoys manning a pair of Hotchkiss revolving cannon. I also finished the 7th Regt. (Royal Fusiliers) at Cowpens. These are Perry figures, and I struggled a little bit to pick out their facial features adequately, but I still enjoyed painting them. Most importantly, they are finished. I'll likely work between the two projects-AWI and Space 1889-through the rest of the year.

Hopefully, as I settle in to my new position at Emerald Ridge, and get used to life as a high school guy, life won't be quite so troubling.

Looking Toward Summer

It's been two weeks since Enfilade. I've managed to avoid the usual lull after the convention to begin painting again. Of course, I kind of suffered through that lull before the con, so it's just as well.

After the success of our Martian game, I came home and immediately painted up a British colonial gun battery (three sections of 9 pdrs.) I used some old Minifigs guns to go with my Old Glory gunners. I've also turned to some oldies for some colonial cavalry on Mars. I'm painting up Skinner's Horse mounted on Martian gashants. They're primed and ready to go, but I won't paint the yellow-coated Bengal lancers quite yet.

My current project is painting a DBA army. I'm working on II/26 Bosporans. They are an interesting mix of knights and auxiliaries with an artillery thrown in for good measure. Sadly, the Museum miniatures have a couple of failings. One is the Sarmatian lancers have a fair number of broken lance tips, and their's not much I can do about it. The other problem is that the pre-packaged army does not contain all of the options, which is a bit of a drag. I always thought it was an interesting army, due to the chief combinations. It also has some great enemies, such as the early Ostrogoths (I have this army painted,) Alans, and Early Imperial Romans (I have these armies unpainted.) The army is nearly complete, and it is one more project I've had laying around for a few years I can count as finished.

For the rest of the summer, I probably won't stay as focused as I usually do. i want to paint more for fun than for the next project. I see myself picking at my 25mm HYW figures, some AWI figures and my Martian stuff. In 15mm, I'll paint up the Alans, as well as some 15mm Middle Earth goodies.

Enfilade A Big Success

Enfilade 2007 is over. I left early Friday for the convention site at the Red Lion Hotel in Olympia. I have a few responsibilities at the convention, and the most important is setting up pre-registration and the registration desk. It's a big job. I spend about five hours in preparation before the convention, assembling lanyards, and completing pre-reg packets. This year we had some 110 pre-registrants, so it was time consuming.

We had more work to do before the convention officially opened at 1:00 as we matched badges with lanyards. I had a lot of help from committed convention regulars--Mark and Joe Waddington, Arthur Brooking, Dale Mickel and Scott Murphy. They did all the hard work of matching pre-registration packets with badges, t-shirts and caps. They also managed the initial run through of early registration for events. They did a great job. It allowed me to help with other issues, and even let me do a bit of early shopping.

The rest of the day and evening went wonderfully well. I participated in Dave Schueler and Shawn McEvoy's Thunderboats! game. Thunderboats! is a hydroplane racing game that draws extensively from Dave's Golden Age Air Racing game. Shawn is a high-end resin aircraft kit manufacturer and has produced hydroplane kits and models for the Hydroplane Museum. Last year he began making smaller scale models for this game, and he had six painted hydros for Friday night's game. The game was so popular I actually had to sit out the first heat. I did watch some though. Dave added random event cards to mix of results for pressing in corners or redlining the engine, which added a lot to the game. Most added hydro "incident" flavor, such as going airborne and suffering damage, but a helped a bit such as increased power or cursing another driver. It was a lot of fun, and I was able to finish first with lots of very good die-rolling. All of the players ordered hydroplanes from Shawn, so I'm looking forward to receiving them later this summer.

Saturday was very busy. I helped keep the registration desk rolling, and ran games in each of the three game periods--never again. The first game was Gulf Patrol. Dave Schueler and I ran this in the morning. It includes ships from the US Navy, the United Arab Emirates, the Iranian Navy and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Each group has separate victory conditions, that mostly involve keeping open the sea lanes through the Straits of Hormuz, and safeguarding territorial waters. The Revolutionary Guard is the wild card who stir things up and precipitate action. In this game the RG demanded to search all vessels in the shipping lanes and opened fire leading to a general missile tossing hoo-hah. The only player to come out unscathed was the UAE, as they set out to generally clean up the wreckage from the other three players. Fun. We used Bulldogs Away for the rules, and they worked quite well.

In the afternoon period David Sullivan and I ran our two Roman armies from different eras in a WRG 6th edition game. It was a difficult game to run, and I wasn't particularly satisfied by the outcome. We just need to play the game some more and become more expert on the difficult to follow, difficult to remember rules set.

In the evening Mark Waddington and I ran our Sword and the Flame on Mars Game. The scenario is called Mechanical Madness, and we've run it twice. Mark did a super job of upgrading the terrain. We believe it was easily the most popular game at the convention, and it was over subscribed by many, many players. It won overall best of show, and I hope to write more about Mark's incredible talent as a model builder in a later post.

Sunday was a bit more leisurely. I hosted the annual membership meeting which went well--maybe reasonably well would be a better description. I played in the DBA Open tournament, and had a lot of fun. I drew Doug Hamm as my first opponent. He had the Toltec-Chichmecs against my beloved Italian Ostrogoths, and shot down five knights in the first game. I died like a dog 5-0. I had a little more success against Andy Hooper's Trapezuntine Byzantines. I won 2G-0, and I actually got in a second game with Andy while we were waiting for the next round to begin. I love playing with Andy. He's a good player, has a lot of great insight into the game and period history, and isn't totally wrapped around winning and losing (I could do better with this.) My last game was against Henry Thompson. I've known Henry for a very long time and it was great to play him. He had Seleucids. I was able to dodge instant death from his elephants and shot my way to a 3G-1G victory. A tough day for generals.

All in all a great covention experience, except I was a little too busy on Saturday. I'm going to try to limit myself to running two games next year--neither on the same day.

Enfilade Just Around the Corner

I know, I know, I'm a slacker. In any case, here's a little bit about Enfilade and my plans for the convention. First, Enfilade is May 25th-27th at the Red Lion in Olympia. It's a great venue, and we'll have a super time. There are super games planned. Our preliminary events list can be viewed at http://www.nhmgs.org/enfilade2007.html .

I'll be running three games. All of them will be on Saturday. The first is a modern missile boat game using the rules Bulldogs Away by David Manley. I tried these last week with Dave Schueler, and though the rules read really complex, they played very easily. I really enjoyed the game and the scenario Dave came up with. I've included photos of Dave's U. S. ships and my Iranians. The vessels are all resin miniatures from P.T. Dockyards. They are a bit daunting when you first see them, but I eventually got the hang of assembly.

The second game is a re-run of WRG 6th edition ancients with David Sullivan. He's added some more later Imperial Romans, and I'm increasing the size of my Republican units, so it should be fun. We'll have to go through all those glitchy bits in the rules again, I'm sure.

Finally, Mark Waddington and I will re-run Mechanical Madness, the giant Martian game that attracted so much interest at ConQuest. We have some new stuff. I'll have a Martian Windsprint, a light floatship that can zip around the board. Mark and I each have a unit of Dead Earth Warrior women, e.g. naked Amazonians. These figures from Bronze Age Miniatures are just beautiful, and Mark has some super special Amazonian rules for them too.

On Friday night I'm going to try to slither into Sean McEvoy's hydroplane racing game. On Sunday I'm hoping to play in the DBA Open tournament. All in all it should be fun.

NHMGS Auction Reasonably Successful

Saturday was the NHMGS auction. We had to move the auction from the time and place we originally scheduled. This challenged the availability of many of our members. I think we had thirty six buyers and sellers, which meant there wasn't a lot of new cash available to take on some of the very interesting items.

We began with a silent auction at 10:00, which ran until about 12:30. There was some great stuff available. Kim Harris liquidated the late Bill Cooper's collection of unpainted stuff. There were some odds and ends from Company B, Jim Denberger had a Denberger-like collection of interesting stuff-lots of interesting Seven Years War books. Scott Murphy had the coolest item--a copy of WRG's Armies of the Ancient Middle East by the Two Nigels. This is a rare book that often goes for over a hundred dollars on eBay. Went for thirty bucks--a steal.

None of the lots went for passels of money. There were very few painted figures. We made only a hundred fifty dollars on the sales, but even so, it was still fun. It was fun to see Kim and Phil Williams as always. Dave Schueler and I did some more plotting on our scenario, and I was able to show off my missile boats.

Out of the Funk

Been in a funk lately. ConQuest just kind of wore me out. I've had a hard time focusing on any meaningful painting since February, and school stuff has kept me pretty busy and worn out. Even sitting down and painting for a couple hours in the evening was a chore, and I got very little done.

I enjoyed my trip to Salute in March. I played in the Gangsters game by the North Vancouver guys, and enjoyed my brief time there until my gang of hoods all seemed to immolate themselves in a surprise gunfight. I also had a blast with Doug Hamm, Andrew Ma and Rob LeCoq, playing in a War of 1812 scenario. We followed that with Doug's DBAish Seven Years War game, which had possibilities.

Unfortunately, I returned from Salute with a lot of stuff hanging over my head--report cards, 6th grade camp, and our vacation to Palm Springs. Not that any of that was terrible, but it has sapped a lot of my energy. In fact my return from vacation has energized me to begin work on a new and limited project--modern naval coastal stuff.

The always enjoyable Dave Schueler and I are doing this project together. Dave is the maestro of all things naval, and is the most wonderful scenario designer I've ever known. He has a lot of experience with 1/600th WWII coastal naval combat, and suggested the modern fast attack boats as a possible Enfilade project. PT Dockyards has a relatively new line of miniatures in 1/700, and David Manley has written a new set of rules called Bulldogs Away. We decided to focus on a hypothetical clash in the Persian Gulf, between Iranian and U.S. naval units.

I've finished building my ships, but the painting will probably take the rest of the week. I'll try to post some pictures of my ships soon. I've included some pics from the P.T. Dockyard site.

ConQuest '07

I am the miniatures co-ordinator for ConQuest '07. It is a multi-genre convention in the same vein as Dragonflight. It's biggest drawback is that it is a California for-profit con unfamiliar with the area. Last year was the first year of the convention and they suffered financial disaster. Sort of like the Donner Party of gaming. I attended the convention and met Gabriel "Mondo" Vega, the principal of the corporation and I was impressed by his genuineness and enthusiasm for the hobby. I agreed to coordinate the miniatures and do what I could to encourage NHMGS to support the event.

This is always a bit of a challenge to me. In my role as President of NHMGS it is unseemly for me to profit from involvement with other conventions. All of the goodies that come with volunteering for other conventions, such as Dragonflight or ConQuest, I have to turn down. This included free admission and rooms at the hotel. So, I pay my admission, and will drive back and forth to Bellevue (some 30+ miles each way) for three days in February. Oh well.

On the other hand, the miniatures portion of the convention is looking pretty good. Saturday should be a day in which we are filled up. Parts of Friday and Saturday also are busy. We'll see what happens in about three weeks.

Mechanical Madness

Yesterday we had another Martian get together out at Game Matrix. Mark Waddington and I have been hosting these games for the last several months. We have two games we're hosting at ConQuest, and we wanted to play test them with live bodies before we actually host them with strangers. The first scenario-A Sea of Enemies-involves the relief of a British hill fort, surrounded by hostiles in the Martian wastes. We've run that twice, and it's turned out well.

This second game is called "Mechanical Madness." Mark has his full compliment of amazing scratchbuilt goodies in the game. There were three of the eight-legged walkers, conversions of the Wild West Burger King toy. British walkers, of course. The Brits also had a pair of steam tanks, and two armored suits. They also had the beautiful Zepplin Mark converted and were reinforced by the piece de resistance, the scratchbuilt Aphid gunboat. Martians had mainly foot troops with some entrenchments and fortified artillery. They also had Mark's gorgeous Ranger gunboat, a conversion from the Star Wars Tatooine Skiff, and were reinforced by a pair of Merrimac walkers and a unit of German allies.

This was the first time we'd played mechanicals vs. mechanicals and with their more deadly firepower we noticed some potential for catastrophic damage. One of the British walkers suffered a catastrophic penetration and explosion from a medium gun. The Aphid likewise suffered a crippling hit that forced it out of the game, and expedited the British decision to retire from the battle on its first turn of entry.

All in all we learned a lot about how the mechanicals work in a game, the need to tweak a few rules, and that Space 1889 is a real crowd pleaser.

Museum of Flight-October 14th

On October 14th NHMGS holds its annual get together at the Museum of Flight. It's one of my favorite venues. We'll hold our games under the big SR-71 spy plane, and hope there is enough sun out to see clearly. We had four games on tap, plus some DBA and some board games courtesy of Metro Seattle Gamers.

This was a tough one to run, and it is my first experience running this event. The museum really did its part. The planning went well and we had sufficient space, tables and chairs. The hard part was getting gamers to commit to come. They don't know what they're missing. It is such a great venue, with lots of people inquiring about what's going on, the planes and the cafe. I love it.

Dave Schueler ran one of the morning games. He had a WWI Mustangs variant in 1/144th scale. He enticed a veteran miniatures gamer and his father to play and they seemed to have a great time. There was no decisive winner, but everybody seemed to enjoy flying about shooting off their ammunition.

Bruce Meyer held one of his Pacific War extravaganza's complete with seaplanes, LVT's and nasty bunker emplacements. The Americans seemed to get ashore and disembark from their armored conveyances, only to be tattooed by Japanese defenders. Maybe it would have been better to keep the Marines inside the metal contraptions and shoot their way ashore. Still, it seemed like everybody was having fun.

In the afternoon, Scott Abbott did missionary work, running Dave Creager and a bunch of interested kids through his Bombing of Japan game complete with a passle of B-29's. Though I didn't get to see much of his game, I have seen his gorgeous planes, and he did a great job with the newbies.

Mark Waddington and I ran one of our Sword and the Flame on Mars games. Mark had some steam tanks and Clockwork Soldiers to add to the feel of the game. The Brits were back, hoping to put down a Martian rebellion and capture the Martian version of the Mahdi. Just when things were looking to go their way, I pulled a Larry Leadhead and rolled a "6" on an "anything but a six" die roll. Swarmed under by flying Martians, things were looking a bit scary out on the left flank, when the game came to a close.

Paul Hannah, Andy Hooper, Richard Shagrin, Dale Mickel, and Scott Murphy got in some DBA, and introduced some museum goers to the handy little game of ancients. All seemed to have considerable fun. Ralph Shelton from Metro Seattle Gamers was able to get in some board gaming while showing off some of GMT's finest.

It was a great day to be inside. I even got a shot of my favorite museum artifact: an air racer, of course.

The Hundred Years War: In Search of Rules

I am obsessed by the Hundred Years War. I admit it, let's just start there, and move on in this discussion.

I'm looking for a great set of rules for the period, and haven't quite found them. I'm really interested in staging a Battle of Poitiers game for a future Enfilade (probably two years off.) Last weekend I tried Warhammer Ancient Battles, the Age of Chivalry supplement, which covers the later middle ages. The rules were fun, but weren't flexible enough to handle the special scenario issues Poitiers presents. I'd like to continue having the option to play WAB for the points vs. points play Warhammer does best, but I'd like to search for something else for better scenario play.

I'm seriously considering using the rules in Poitiers 1356 by Don Featherstone. They are similar to WAB, but with one less die roll to adjudicate fire. I'm also not terribly sure I like the melee system, but it's so simple the rules lend themselves to modification.

The Sword and the Flame on Mars

In 1989 RAFM released a range of figures depicting some great British colonials--although the premise was weird. They were red-coated regulars with magazine rifles. Including in the range were a bunch of yellow-skinned Martians. These figures were based on Frank Chadwick's role-playing game, Space 1889, and were supported by a set of rules called The Soldiers Companion. The premise of the Chadwick universe was that the science fiction of the late 19th century--Verne, Wells and others--was possible, making space travel possible. The age of imperialism was extended to Mars, aided and resisted by the native inhabitants there.

I began purchasing the excellent Bob Murch sculpts when they became available back in 1989, and have slowly added to them. The RAFM figures continue to be available from their on-line shop, and they have also added to them. More mounted figures, artillery, and Martian sepoys also found their way into my pile of unpainted lead. London Warroom also produces the Parroom Station range of Martian figures, which are very interesting, but I don't like them as well as the Murch figures, and they are pricey.

Finally, after some discussion and shared enthusiasm with Mark Waddington, I painted all my Martians last summer. However it wasn't until this summer we actually dragged them out to play with them.

A lot of the push to get the figures on the table goes to Mark. He is a master designer and scratch-builder. His scratch built Aphid gunboat does not appear here, but it's amazing. He brings so much to the table in terms of his ability to create whacko Victorian Science Fiction war machines. We also agreed to look around for a set of rules we were comfortable with, and he made some simple adaptations to The Sword and The Flame.

On August 19th we finally got together and played our inaugural game. It was fun, and just getting the figures out and trying out the rules was the point. The rules played out beautifully, with the potential for one or two minor modifications. We're planning another game for our October 14th date at The Museum of Flight.

Dragonflight

Last weekend was Dragonflight. Dragonflight is a multi-genre convention that has struggled over the past few years. It has had little miniature participation, and virtually no historical miniatures. As I have explained in a previous post, I was approached about running historical miniatures through NHMGS and bringing our guys along to play the games.

We pre-registered about 40 guys at a reduced fee, and we scheduled 15 games. In the past, when our members went to Dragonflight and scheduled games, they had difficulty attracting gamers to play them. This weekend every game scheduled went off as planned, though some could have handled more players. I felt that our participation was a success and I hope to continue this practice for next year.

I played in several games. Friday afternoon I played the French and Indian War Sword and the Flame variant. I had a great time. It was Norris Hazelton's game, and it was fun to play the Indians and pirates with David Sullivan and Arthur Brooking.

Saturday morning I jumped into Mitch Berdinka's General de Brigade game. It's been a long time since I played Napoleonics, and honestly I had a lot of fun. It is an interesting rules set, and I think it would be reasonably easy to learn and play. I am not, however, tempted to do Napoleonics. The scenario was Maida. We, the British, lost, but I still had a good time.

Saturday afternoon I got into Steve Winter's Spanish Armada game. It was a hoot. It is somewhat abstracted, but very enjoyable, with each team taking a turn as the English and the Spanish. I teamed with Dave Schueler and Peter Wort. We played well and had a good time, but managed to lose. It is one of those games when being unlucky matters, and we didn't have much good fortune.

I also ran a couple of games. I re-ran my Storming Party game from Enfilade. It was fun with John Kennedy, young Gil Fussell, Norris and Arthur. The English had a difficult time getting started. The French, led by John festooned many of the English attackers with crossbow bolts and ballista shafts. Eventually the English brought their onager into action and the longbowmen began to hit exposed defenders on the wall. However, the ladder assaults were costly, frequently deterred by deadly baskets of rocks dropped from the walls. The English finally killed the armored defenders and cleared their way into the gatehouse on the last turn of the game.

Saturday night I ran a scenario, I've always wanted to play--Kearsarge vs. Alabama--using the Ironclads rules. I went to a lot of trouble during the days leading up to the convention trying to get the ships painted and rigged, and they looked great. Enough rigging to give them a solid appearance, but still good wargaming miniatures. I also applied the gloss gel medium thicker over layers of blue and green paint, and the effect was a very nice watery base. In any case, the scenario was weighted heavily in favor of Kearsarge. I gave points to Alabama for doing damage to the Union sloop, and points to Kearsarge for the quickness with which it sank the Confederate raider. It didn't quite work out as I planned. Both players took turns running each ship, and in both cases, Alabama was fairly impotent against Kearsarge and earned no points. Both players earned five points by sinking Alabama on the fifth game turn, so things ended up a tie.

I didn't return on Sunday, but the weekend was certainly worth my time. It was great.

Filling In

It's been ages since my last post. A lot of it has to do with end of the school year stuff and Enfilade.

Enfilade was great. There were a lot of great games. I was able to get into Pete Panzeri's excellent presentation on Little Big Horn. Perhaps the most intriguing part of that was Pete's goal as a game master running LBH as a game--maximize confusion. I wasn't able to get in on the game, but since Bruce owns it I'll likely have a future opportunity.

My own game, The Storming Party, went well. My chief regret is that I didn't take pictures. It was pretty easy to run using Tactica Medieval rules. The game came down to the last turn. I had the feeling that the choices worked out well for the players.

Last, I had the opportunity to run in the Roman Seas game by Eric Hotz. It was great. The rules were easy to pick up at a convention. I ran with Steve Ghan and Dave Schueler against some gits from the sticks. Where did they find these guys?

I also won the DBA at the Movies tournament. It's always fun to win, but it was by some good fortune and bad, bad die rolling on the part of my opponents. Nevertheless I won't complain.

From a President's standpoint I was also pleased with the convention. It was well attended, and there were few difficulties, though there were a lot of last minute headaches.

More Than Agincourt: Resources

Though the Hundred Years War was long ago, there is considerable interest among historians today. The best part is that the current crop of historians are not simply rehashing the work of previous generations. I'll share a few valuable print resources and then pass on some useful web resources too.

For a general history one can always grab a standby, such as Desmond Seward's venerable The Hundred Years War: England in France 1337-1453 or A.H. Burne's two volumes, The Crecy War and The Agincourt War. However, the best work extent is by Jonathan Sumption's two books The Hundred Years Fire I: Trial by Battle and The Hundred Years War II: Trial by Fire. These books do an excellent job of helping the reader understand the social and economic factors faced by both nations while trying to prosecute the war. Sumption also focuses considerably more on the war in Guienne, a much overlooked theater in previous writing on the war. The only disappointment is that volume II only takes us to 1361. More is coming. Sumption draws on a greater range of sources than previous general histories have, and thus we understand the conflict better from both French and English perspectives.

There are lots of battle histories, biographies, and books on weapons and armor. However Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, edited by Anne Curry and Michael Hughes is a superb collection of essays that focuses on a wide range of military topics. Originally published in 1994, the essay topics run a wide range from battle tactics, army composition and the employment of artillery. Scholarly and dense, these are not for the faint of heart. However the contributors broaden and deepen our knowledge of battle in the Hundred Years War.

Two excellent battle histories are must reads for this period. Both put a new spin on old battle reports. First, Anne Curry's 2005 book, Agincourt: A New History challenges old assumptions about the battle. Chief among these is that the English were horribly outnumbered. She puts the French with a numerical advantage, but drawing on English pay records, the English were probably only outmanned by 1.5 to 1. Curry also rexamines the deployment and role of the archers. Finally Curry asserts that the French were not dunderheaded fools that marched blindly into mud, stakes and an arrow storm. She recounts at least three steps the French took to deal with the archers and the threat they posed. An excellent read.

The other battle book I highly recommend is Crecy, 1345, edited by Andrew Ayton and Michael Preston. This collection of essays challenges most of what we've accepted about this pivotal battle of the European history. Among the most important assertions the contributors make include:

1. Edward III wanted to bring the French to battle, and did so on ground of his choosing.
2. The nature of what is presumed to be the battlefield is in conflict with description in the sources. The traditional French approach is, in fact, not passable. The French entered the valley and into a slaughter pen.

The book follows with an incredibly interesting essay on English organization, particularly the possible nature of English mixed arrays of archers and men at arms.

Finally, it is impossible to close without mentioning a couple of old chestnuts. First, Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror remains a wonderful recounting of the 14th century in Europe, particularly in France. Tuchman explores all of the larger issues that help give context and meaning to the Hundred Years War. Though it is now dated, John Keegan's brilliant description of Agincourt at the soldier's level in The Face of Battle is one of magnets that drew me into my HYW obsession.

There are also a couple of noteworth web sources that are definitely worth the reader's while. First, take a look at De Re Militari at http://www.deremilitari.org/ This is the scholarly organization of medieval military history. Their website is full of valuable information and useful links. Ian Croxall's excellent Warflag website http://www.warflag.com/ and its accompanying yahoogroup have a number of useful flags to download and print out. Another great source for flags is the Danish Miniature Wargamers page, http://www.krigsspil.dk./ Though the site is mostly in Danish (surprise) follow the downloads link and you'll have access to their excellent work.

Next: Figures

Camerone: the Battle

On Saturday April 29th ten of us gathered at Bruce Meyer's house to try out Camerone using Howard Whitehouse's Wooden Hand of Captain Danjou's rules. Dennis Trout made the Trinidad hacienda, and it looked great. We added some Architectural Heritage buildings as sheds, and we were all set. Dennis supplied all of the Mexicans, mostly using 25mm Mexican American figures. That really helped us keep track of Mexican casualties because the units were so diverse. I dragged out my stash of Wargames Foundry foreign legionnaires from the old Maxmillian line. I'd painted them for Camerone, using information frome James Ryan's great little book to paint names on their bases. Unfortunately they did't match Howard's list, so we had to do some last minute administrative shuffling.

Five players took on the six squads of French, leaving four, including Dennis and I, to run the Mexicans. On turn one David "Danjou" Sullivan assigned responsibilities for the French. Three squads were to find debris to plug the gates and the gaping breach in the south wall. One squad entered the hacienda and the remaining two made loopholes to fight off the Mexicans. Sadly, the French were greeted by the crack of musketry from snipers hidden in the upper floor of the hacienda. However, they accomplished their various missions just as the Mexican cavalry came riding in.

For the first couple of turns, the cavalry mostly made great targets. The French fired freely at them, mostly driving them away from the walls. However, a great deal of ammunition was fired, and as the Mexicans fired back, legionnaires began to fall. Two squads entered the hacienda, having difficulty ascending to the upper floors to get at the snipers.

On turn three the Mexican infantry entered, surrounding the walls the following turn. The infantry could not only assault the easily defended portals through the walls, but could boost troops up over the walls opening avenues of attack into the rear of the wall defenders. Despite the best efforts of Bruce "bang bang" Duthie to cut down the attackers, the French began to fall back to the hacienda, leaving wounded along the way. By turn seven the walls were clear of Frenchmen and the Mexicans began to clear away debris. On the positive side (for the French) the last snipers were safely bayonetted and the hacienda was fully occupied. Ammunition was running low.

By turn eight, Mexicans were massing in the courtyard, firing volleys at the beleaguered legionnaires. Reinforcements poured in through the breach and the gates. Ammunition was down to a handful of rounds, and the makeshift hospital was under attack by Mexicans coming over the wall. On turn nine the French made their first desperate bayonet attacks, but they were swarmed under by a crowd of foes. The Mexicans set fire to the hacienda, making the desperate situation impossible. By turn ten Mexicans climbed a ladder to the upper floors and more desperate bayonet attacks were meeting swallowed by the attackers. The last French defender fell on turn eleven.

All agreed it was big fun. The game was over in about three hours playing time, with a break for lunch. Dennis and I will run this during the Sunday morning game period at Enfilade.

Goodbye to a Good Friend

Kelly Jones passed away yesterday.

Kelly was a fairly rare person in our hobby. I say this not to slight anyone in particular or the hobby in general. He was a character. Very loud, in a fun way, Kelly mastered the pirate Arrrrggghhh!, and made it appropriate for any gaming period or genre. His loud voice, big laugh, round belly and honest blue eyes were his hallmarks. Kelly was also incredibly generous with his time. He had a kind word for everyone, especially newcomers and young gamers. He was patient and understanding. Kelly was a much better person than I.

I have so many fond memories of Kelly. He came to some of our early Enfilades as a dealer. We loved dealers, so his company, Vauban Enterprises, was quite a catch. Later we played games together—Steve Knight’s uproarious Saxon Shore games were always an outrageous screaming match with Kelly’s internal Bose system on full volume. Never a great air–racer, Kelly would regularly manage to augur his racer into the ground, but entertained all of us as he was doing so. Saturday nights with the Canadians-we could have given this name to a sitcom-were always fun, usually in Kelly’s room, once including Arte Conliffe, which was sort of a surreal experience. So many great stories were told over so much beer . . .

Perhaps my favorite memories of Kelly is seeing him with my sons, Pat and Casey and Enfilade. Pat attended only one convention, and his most memorable experience is playing a game with Kelly, who didn’t treat him like a kid. Of course, on Sunday morning Kelly, nursing a monstrous hangover, reminded Patrick that his parents had sex, which pretty much ruined most of my son’s adolescence. He spent considerably more time with my younger son Casey, a more sensitive sort. Kelly played games with Casey at convention time, always asked about him, and Casey considered Kelly his friend too.

So, I take this moment to say good-bye to my friend. I knew him only as a gamer. We never discussed family, but I am sure he was a wonderful son, a devoted husband and father, and my heart goes out to his family. I will miss him dearly.

I’ve posted the only picture I have of Kelly, and it is truly wretched.

More Than Agincourt Part 2: A Historical Snapshot

The Hundred Years War is actually a bit longer than a century in length, and its causes are rooted in power (aren’t all conflicts?) The English King as a holder of certain territories in Gascony was a vassal of the French king. Edward the III upon his accession to the Crown refused to give homage to the French king, which Edward knew would lead to war in his French territories. Constantly short of funds, he sought allies in Flanders. The French, meanwhile built a fleet and hired additional galleys from Genoa in preparation to an invasion of England. The first great battle in 1340, was a disaster for the French, was fought at the Flemish port of Sluys. Basically a land battle at sea, the French lost their fleet and a great many men to English longbows.

Despite several abortive campaigns, Edward finally assembled his first land expedition north of Bordeaux in 1346. Landing in Normandy, he marched his army through villages familiar to Americans that would land there nearly 600 years later. In a pattern that would remain familiar throughout much of the HYW, the French King Philip VI, assembled an army and pursued Edward through Normandy into Ponthieu and met disaster at Crecy. Edward followed up his victory with the capture of Calais and insured a permanent military base near the heart of France throughout this conflict.

In 1348 the combatants were visited by the first wave of the Black Plague, disrupting campaigning, trade, economies and societies for years to come. Conflict remained low-level due to a lack of money and manpower until 1356, when Edward’s son, the Prince of Wales, also known as The Black Prince led a Chevauchee, an expedition devoted to accumulating loot and inflicting considerable discomfort to local inhabitants in the Loire valley north of Bordeaux. King Jean le Bon led an army south to destroy the Prince and his army, and the two forces met near the Foret de Noailles. Though the battle was hard fought, the French were defeated and King Jean was captured.

The capture of the French king and his nobles, and their crushing ransom drove the French to ask for a series of truces that left France in relative peace, though beset by political turmoil at home. It also left England in nominal control of Normandy, and enlarged Biscay possessions. The Treaty of Bretigny, in 1361, was a disaster for France and ended the first stage of the Hundred Years War.

The second stage of the conflict found both of the combatants faced with innumerable challenges and dynastic struggle. However, the premature death of the Prince of Wales, Edward III’s long slide into dotage, and the cost of sustaining a continuing campaign in France, restrained the English war effort. In 1364 a more capable monarch, Charles V, ascended the French throne. Together with his constable, the incomparable Betrand du Guesclin, Charles set about reducing the strife within his kingdom, and succeeded in winning back many of the French gains in the Angevin territories as well as much of much of the northern lands, except Calais.

By 1380 however, both nations were exhausted, ruled by young kings. Richard II became king in 1377 on the death of his grandfather Edward III. England, impoverished by years of war was immersed in the Peasant’s Revolt. Guided by poor advice, Richard was deposed by the Henry of Lancaster (Henry IV) in 1399, and England plunged into a decade of civil war and a stubborn revolt by the neighboring Welsh. France, likewise was ruled by a youth, Charles VI, for many years. Charles exhibited many signs of mental illness, and his chaotic rule plunged the country into civil war.

Succeeding his father in 1413, Henry V demanded the crown of France and led his army into France capturing Harfleur and inflicting the disastrous defeat of Agincourt on the French army. Henry showed a genius for siege warfare that his English predecessors lacked, captured and occupied both Rouen and Paris and forced a treaty on the French in 1420 that recognized his future heirs as king of France and England, and in the bargain married Katherine, the daughter of the Charles VI. Henry’s death in 1422, left his infant son under the tutelage of his mother and various advisors

The waning years of the Hundred Years War finds calamities innumerable visited on the English. The uncles that form the regency for Henry VI quarrel and the English effort in France withered due to lack of royal direction. The English besieged Orleans in 1328-29 and were defeated largely through the inspired leadership of Joan of Arc. Joan also energized the resistance to English rule, and led a successful cavalry charge on longbowmen that won the battle of Patay. Joan’s successes allowed the Dauphin, or king in waiting, disinherited by the Treaty of Troyes to enter Rheims and enjoy his coronation as Charles VII.

Though Joan was betrayed to the English and burned in 1430, her spirit energized French resistance to English occupation. Though the English, led by John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, remained victorious on the battlefield, the French adopted the successful strategies of du Guesclin, avoiding battle when possible, capturing towns from an English occupier constantly short of resources. In 1445 the French established the Compagnies d’Ordannance, professionalizing their army, and centralizing its direction. The artillery was also organized under the pioneering gunners, Jean and Gaspard Bureau. Bureau’s innovations made artillery more practical in defense, to a besieger and on the battlefield.

In 1450 an English army under Kyriell was attacked and defeated by a French army featuring two light culverins which disrupted the archers, and were ridden down by flanking French cavalry. In 1453, at the siege of Castillon, Talbot was killed rallying his troops in an attack on entrenched artillery. The subsequent defeat of this force sealed the fate of Bordeaux and British possessions in France were reduced to their fortress at Calais. The Hundred Years War was over.

The war raised France to a newly modern power, nationalized and ready to assume leadership on the continent. Henry VI, remained a weak king, beset with the burden of the loss of England’s historic French possessions. Like the boy-king before him, Richard II, Henry’s failure of leadership led to nearly fifty years of civil war during the War of the Roses.

More Than Agincourt: Part 1

More than Agincourt: Part 1

I watched Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V last night. Every time I watch the Crispin’s Day address I’m always urged to paint more figures—you know the one:

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”

Or

“Men abed this day shall think themselves accursed upon St. Crispin’s Day!!”

Together with John Keegan’s account of Agincourt in his seminal The Face of Battle, I’ve felt myself propelled toward gaming the Hundred Years War. Agincourt is the battle we usually think of as the critical moment of the HYW, much as we do Waterloo in the Napoleonic era and Gettysburg in the American Civil War. Just as wrongly, of course.

We often remember Agincourt like the Alamo. The good guys (the English) are sick, outnumbered and about to be overwhelmed by hordes of armored Frenchmen. Agincourt, however, has a happier ending with the bad guys (the French) floundering through a morass while arrows rain down in torrents.

The Hundred Years War, fought from 1339-1453 is, of course, much more than Agincourt. It’s even more than the three great English victories-Crecy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, and the intervention of Joan, the Maid of Orleans. Yet, we are often fixed with the image of armored French knights turned into pincushions, followed by lightly armed archers whacking them upside the head with a mallet. We usually also forget that the French are kind of the good guys, fighting to drive off the English invaders, and eventually they won that war—the three great victories notwithstanding. In fact almost everything we’ve come to accept about Hundred Years War is wrong according to the continuing thorough and inquisitive research that continues to publish very interesting writing about this conflict—including the best known battles. I'll follow this writing with several entries regarding the Hundred Years War: 1) The history, focused more on resources than the play by play, 2) the miniatures and rules available, 3) some of the scenarios I’ve hosted over the past couple of years.