Fix Bayonets: My first game of Sail and Steam Navies

Today was the second installment of Fix Bayonets.  Held at historic Fort Steilacoom, it's a nice little gathering at a great location.

I hosted a small ACW naval game using the Sail and Steam Navies rules I bought last month.  While I'd read the rules pretty thoroughly it was the first game I'd actually played.  I chose a scenario I'd run before with Ironclads featuring the large Union wooden vessels Niagara and Vanderbilt intercepting the Stonewall with wooden consorts in stormy conditions headed for Havana.

Confederate fleet enters the board, looking something like a hydroplane race.  From top:  Texas (Thoroughbred Alabama), Bat (Peter Pig blockade runner), Thoroughbred Stonewall, scratchbuilt blockade runner masquerading as Tuscaloosa after I left my actual miniature at home! Dopey me.

The Union squadron.  From top: scratchbuilt Niagara, Thoroughbred Kearsarge, and scratchbuilt Vanderbilt.  All scratchbuilt ships by Larry Enoch.

I hadn't counted on the small table (6' X 5'), which was kind of cozy for 1/600 scale, but due to the scenario conditions it worked out-visibility and movement were both reduced to 42"

There are some real advantages to S&SN.  The rules can be played off the ship cards and a one page quick sheet.  At least in theory.  The ship cards are color coded and are provided as part of the rules package that come in a 535 page .pdf on a CD-ROM.  The ships are rated throughout the war, so many have more than one card.  Because the game is basically played on the ship cards, it's important to have the capacity to print them out in color, which can be an expensive proposition.  I printed out the cards I needed and then laminated them with my handy home laminator.

This single exchange of broadsides between Tuscaloosa and Vanderbilt resulted in a magazine explosion and plunge to the bottom for the tiny Confederate ship.

Far in the background, the sloop Niagara is pounding the Texas to splinters, while the Kearsarge and Stonewall prepare for a one sided exchange.

Stonewall has sailed through her Union adversaries and isn't looking back.  On to Havana and victory.

The game itself is somewhat less important as I was trying to to get a handle on the rules and especially to see if the players liked them.   Nevertheless, a quick blow by blow is in order.  The Confederates entered the table somewhat the worse for wear due to storm damage.  The Stonewall, accompanied by the steamers Texas (freshly escaped from a French shipyard and fitted out in the Azores), the Tuscaloosa, and the blockade runner ran headlong into the open arms of the an American squadron searching for the French-built vessels.  The super-sloop Niagara, Cornelius Vanderbilt's armed steamship Vanderbilt, and the Kearsarge.

USS Kearsarge ignominiously ramming USS Vanderbilt.  Kearsarge, with her steering destroyed, had little choice in the matter.

 The game opened outside of the limited visibility, due to rain and fog.  Speed was reduced by 1/3, and gunnery suffered a minus due to high seas.  On turn two that changed as Niagara devastated Texas with her massive broadside.  Kearsarge and Niagara continued pounding Texas, while the diminutive Tuscaloosa tangled with the massive Vanderbilt.  Meanwhile Bat and Stonewall seemed to slip through the Union net.  Stonewall connected once with her massive 12 inch Armstrong rifle, tearing through Kearsarge, causing a boiler explosion, damaging steering and killing crew.  This bit of good fortune did not prevent Tuscaloosa from suffering a mortal magazine explosion after a one sided exchange with Vanderbilt.  Kearsarge, out of control, eventually collided with Vanderbilt, nearly sinking in the process, while Bat and Stonewall steamed for Havana--only to be interned and sold by the U.S. Navy.  Based on the scenario rules, the Confederates won.

I found the rules to be more playable than Ironclads without much loss of authenticity.  There are a couple of clarifications needed to some language-as with all rules. Everyone liked the simple order writing requirements.  Some differences in the game really did unbalance the game.  In Ironclads, Niagara's 150 pdr. Parrotts and 11 inch smoothbores would fire every other turn, as would Stonewall's Armstrong rifle.  In this game only monitor guns fire every other turn.  I truly don't have a problem with this but it made Niagara the grim reaper against wooden ships.  However, against armored Stonewall, hits pretty much pinged off with little opportunity to do serious damage. 

I'm anxious to try a bit more evenly balanced game in the near future.  I think Sail and Steam Navies is a winner.

The Reduction of Fort Powell

Today the Truants met in Tacoma for an Ironclads game.  I decided to build a scenario around the aftermath of Mobile Bay.  It's a semi-historical scenario centered on the reduction of Fort Powell near the southern entrance to the massive bay.

Rhode Island trading shots with Fort Powell.  Rhode Island suffered considerable damage including a level 5 fire, which Dean extinguished just before the ship exploded.

I designed the scenario for five players, and as luck would have it we had six, but that worked out fine.  The Union players, Mark, Dean and Chris had a difficult job.  They had two missions to pull of successfully.  They had three wooden vessels, a sloop and two small 90 day gunboats returning from a mine clearing operation who needed to make it off the south edge of the board, some 64" away.  They also had the monitor Chickasaw, the captured Confederate ram, and wooden vessel Rhode Island that were pounding away on Fort Powell, a brick fort with eight guns.

Confederate forces consisting of the ironclad ram Nashville, the semi-engined Tuscaloosa, and the gunboat Morgan appeared on the north board edge at daybreak, not far behind the retreating minesweepers.  These were run by Scott, Bruce, and Tom respectively. Tuscaloosa immediately began firing on the trailing 90 day gunboat, Huron, and set her afire.  Chris was able to do little as the other two vessels also began effectively shelling her.  Huron caught fire and on turn three sank. The other two wooden vessels also struggled.  Towing small boats that served as minesweepers, Dean and Chris had to decide whether or not to cast them adrift to increase their speed, and hence sacrificing victory points.

Chippewa is madly burning, while the ram Nashville races toward Kearsarge

The same view from a different angle.

With the wooden vessels in danger of being rapidly overrun, Mark, commanding the Union ironclads, chose to pound the fort circling it in a clockwise fashion and effectively silencing Powell's guns as he traveled.  The scenario rules indicated the fort would surrender when six guns were knocked out or their crews killed. Unfortunately his direction of travel took him away from the minesweepers.

Union ironclads are beginning to peek around the corner of Fort Powell.  Nashville is visible in the background

Nashville is headed toward a ram with Kearsarge.  Kearsarge avoided the ram, but the two ships collided with both suffering damage.

 Chris's second 90 day gunboat, Chippewa suffered a fate very like Huron's.  Starting with a small fire, the little vessel quickly absorbed all the Confederates' attention and it sank in a few turns.  Chris had a generally bad day with lousy luck shooting and absorbing fire. Kearsarge, the larger sloop, began to lose guns,  suffered critical steering hits, and just missed being rammed by the massive Nashville. Things looked very bad for the Union minesweepers.

 At about this time, with the fort looking largely subdued, the the monitor Chickasaw emerged from the shelter of the fort and began lobbing 11 inch shells at Morgan.  With the wooden gunboat beginning to take serious damage we agreed to end the game and tally up the losses.

 The Union agreed the wooden minesweepers were likely lost.  The Confederates conceded the fort would surrender and the Morgan probably lost as well.  The ironclads could safely retire.  The fort also did significant damage to Rhode Island, setting her seriously ablaze and doing considerable damage before forcing her to withdraw.  With that, all recognized a minor Confederate victory.

 Though all struggled with the rules at first, everyone eventually seemed to get the hang of it.  However, this may be my last Ironclads game.  I'm looking forward to Sail and Steam Navies and determining whether it is a useful substitute.

I'll be away most of this week in Ellensburg for journalism camp.  Hope to reconnect when I get back.

Time to 'Fess Up

I have done a much better job of posting on the blog since December, but I haven't been really good with my counting stats--figures painted and figures purchased.  That's not quite true either, I do update my painted stats regularly, but I haven't included my figures purchased stuff.

I really do try to keep purchases to a minimum.  Like you, I just have too many unpainted figures for too many unpainted projects in my drawers of shame.  My chief culprits are the American Revolution and the Hundred Years War, but I have lots of other figures for lots of other projects.  So, I make it point to try to only buy figures that round out units I need for a specific game, and try to avoid buying lots of other figures that will sit for years waiting for brush to apply paint.  I've kind of done that-sort of-almost.

I've made two figure purchases since the first of the year.  The first was to RAFM for some of their Martians.  I needed a couple of figures to finish out a unit, and, being a firm believer one can never order just two figures no matter the excuse, I added another unit too to make my order a still paltry, but more acceptable thirteen figures.  Have I painted any of the thirteen?   No, but they are sitting on my painting table primed and very much on my to do list

My other order was to the Warstore.com where all Perry figures worth having live.  Son Casey gifted his mom and I each 60 bucks when he got a big bonus from his employer and I combined that with thirty five or so simoleans I'd stashed away for a future order.  I could get some serious stuff with that much cash, and I really wanted some limbers and wagons for my AWI projects, particularly Hobkirk's Hill where an encampment, artillery pieces and transport was really important.  So I did order a couple of the Perry two-horse limbers, and a powder wagon.  It would have been fine to stop right there and reinvest the leftovers in paint brushes, but I just couldn't help myself, and I spent the rest too.  I snapped up two packs of the very nice Lee's Legion foot, which I'll eventually need for Eutaw Springs.  I had just enough left over to pick up the Indian Cavalry Command figures from the Sudan range--just what I need for one of my Martian units I've got a-building in my mind.  I have all the remaining figures for the unit--just need a commander.

 There, I've come clean.  Do you have any purchases to confess?

A Look Ahead

It's a short look ahead.  Mostly to the weekend.  Because of President's Day and the extra Friday the district provides us, I've got a four day mid-winter break holiday coming up in a couple of days. What do I have planned.  I remember the days when we'd run to Whistler or stay in Seattle, leave the house for a few days. Well, we're broke, so that's not going to happen this weekend. 

What better to do than watch movies and paint figures this weekend?  Lorri's mom gave me the entire collection of Harry Potter vids, so I could check those out.  I don't recall what's in the old Netflix queue.  I dunno, I have plenty to watch.  I also have some painting to do.  I have eight or nine Hasslefree miniatures I need to paint.  I should have role-playing this Saturday so they need to get done--plus I need to work on my Serenity adventure. 

Looking father out, those sixteen semi-painted Perry AWI guys are calling my name and I really need them for Hobkirk's Hill.  And cogs, more cogs, I need lots of cogs, though not quite as many as I painted for the English. 

In any case, I'm on deadline right this very minute, so I could use a break.

Drumbeat

Yesterday was the annual Drumbeat gathering held in Seattle each January.  This year it was in a new location, the Lake City Community Center, and a little later in the month which attracted a few more bodies. I really liked the new space and saw lots of friends I don't normally get to see except at Enfilade.

28mm Napoleonics using the Black Powder rules.

Dave Schueler and I hosted our Airwar C21 game.  It was just our second playing of the game, and I gotta say I just liked it more. We didn't have a ton of players, just Dale, Larry and Denny.  I helped run the Taiwanese, and Dave ran the Taiwanese frigate. Four RoC planes and ship vs. six PLAF bombers and six PLAF fighters.  We upgraded the the Chinese J-8's to include radar guided missiles, and that paid off.  One of Denny's RoC Chin Kuo's was shot down outright and one had to be abandoned by its pilot.  Nevertheless, all of the PLAF Fantans were shot down before they reached the frigate.

Larry and Dale plot their attack on the RoC frigate in a game of Airwar C21

A look at the advancing PLAF from my Taiwanese Mirage 2000.  Each of my planes shot down an adversary and excaped unscathed. (There's a first time for everything.)

A pair of Larry's J-8's overflies Denny's burning Chin-Kuo

I think what impressed me most about the game is that there is the potential of considerable maneuver in the missile age.  We were all launching left and right, but they didn't all hit or even lock on.  The ease of play made the game a very good time.  David Manley et al should be congratulated for writing a fun, very playable set of rules.  I've got an idea percolating for a Cuba 1962 scenario.

In the afternoon I ran my Lewis and Clark game.  It was my first game running a Brother against Brother game. I was really inspired to try this by Lawrence Bateman's Northwest Indian War game at Enfilade last year.  I thought it was really great and was perfect for the size of my scenario.

 How did my game go?  Well, it wasn't god awful, but let's just say Lewis and Clark didn't make it to the Pacific.  The Americans had problems with die rolls.  Shooting, moving, you name it, the Americans didn't have much luck moving back to the keelboats, or not far enough ahead of the Spanish.  On the other hand, the Spanish rolled extremely well, shooting, moving, you name it. Hmm, sounds like a pattern.

Spanish troops crossing the Missouri River bank before they attack the Corps of Discovery's boats.

Bruce Meyer, a Brother against Brother veteran had some great suggestions for future scenarios, and I'll have to give them a try.  They were excellent.

Cogs: Work in Progress

After reading over David Manley's comments, and taking a look at my 28mm cogs, he is correct, the fighting platforms should be reversed.  Too late for these fellows.  I like to call them my block 10 cogs.  A step beyond my prototype, but with improvements to be made on future models. 

I'll be painting the vessels and gluing the  sails tonight.  I'll have to see if the sails are worth the trouble.  At least the sails should distract the viewer from the silly castle problems.

 Also on the learning curve, the large cogs seem too long and thin at 2" X 3/4".   The small cogs seem too tiny at 1"  Don't quite know whether I should just call a do-over on these or not.  I did cut some larger hulls at 2" X 1" which seem more reasonable.

The video is just kind of silly, a lot of me talking and not showing much in a very useful way I'm afraid.  Yes, my den is very messy-you don't even see the worst of it.  Final update on the block 10 cogs soon. 

2010: The Good, the Bad, and the Dumb

2010 is coming to a close at last.  In retrospect it wasn't a bad year, it just seemed long and plagued with issues that made miniature wargaming difficult.  If I had to pinpoint one major shortcoming of the year it's that I didn't get to play enough games.  Why?  Part of it was simple exhaustion.  I'm a wretched sleeper who struggles even more to snooze when confronted with stress and anxiety.  I had the latter in spades in 2010 with the JagWire trial in the spring and the continuing saga of my in-laws health, moving, and general inability to care for themselves.  On the other hand, the trial is finished, and my mother in law is amazingly on the mend. My goal for 2011 is to game at least once per month if not more.  Twice would be nice.

 One of my goals for the year was to purchase fewer figures.  I try to track purchases on the blog, but I'm really awful at it.  Updating those settings is something I really procrastinate about so I have little idea if I've purchased more than I've painted.  I can tell you I believe I'm ahead of the game.

I had a few substantial figure purchases this year.  I bought a lot of Perry AWI figures.  The good news is they are almost all painted.  The big American Virginia and Maryland units for the southern campaign are finished.  I've painted most of the British figures--about twenty left from purchases in 2010.  I've even dipped into some older reservoirs of AWI figures.  My other big purchase was of Spanish Civil War figures in 15mm.  I did a little less well with these.  I probably have close to 100 figures left to paint, and I'll close these out this year. 

I painted 540 figures in 2011, within the range of 500-600 figures I projected last year.  For the first time I struggled to keep plodding away every night.  I've talked about my eyesight issues and it's really bugged me. If I hadn't had a magnificent June, I wouldn't have come close to meeting my goal.  I have really enjoyed painting during the Christmas vacation weeks.  I simply have to find a way to paint at least an hour every day.  My down days I've really enjoyed reading, and simply put I am a reader always have been.  Somehow I need to find a balance between the two.

I have no major plans for new purchases.  Well, sort of.  After receiving a copy of David Manley's medieval and renaissance naval rules I'm looking around at some of that stuff.  Outpost miniatures and Navwar both carry medieval cogs.  Can you say Sluys anyone?  I may also pick up some Raiden planes for some Airwar C21. In terms of actual figures, I have some troops I'd like to add to my AWI.  One of my Enfilade projects is Hobkirk's Hill, and I'll need some ammunition carts and/or limbers for the Americans.  Perry makes some very nice ones.  But beyond that I have loads of figures to paint.  I also have eight Hasslefree minis on order for role playing, and I didn't order, but haven't forgotten the ship models from Bay Area Yards.

What will I paint this year?  You can depend on some AWI.  I have lots still to paint:  the 23rd regiment, Von Bose Regiment, two Guards battalions.  I'll be busy.  Beyond that, wherever my interest takes me.  I would guess I have 10-15 unfinished projects, and I just want to enjoy painting them.  It took me the better part of two months to finish the Invalids and Coffin's Light Dragoons, but in the end I enjoyed how they looked.  Maybe that's my new motto:  Take yer time and paint 'em nice. 

One of my goals is to do a bit better job keeping up with this blog.  I'll try to do more with works in progress.  Dean Motoyama over on the WAB blog does such a super job with that.  I'll also share my thoughts and suggestions on books, rules and stuff that might be helpful.  In any case as this blog nears 20,000 page views, I wish the best for you and your families in 2011.  Thanks for visiting because it keeps me writing. 

DANG: Lepanto

Each year Dave Schueler sends out his missive in October or so, prompting those of us who make the pilgrimage to his house on the Monday after to Christmas to play in his annual naval game.  The October e-mail always offers us the opportunity to choose from his suggested naval topics, ranging from the ancient period to the near future.  For the last several years Lepanto, the climactic 16th century naval battle between Ottoman and Holy League forces has appeared, but never garnered enough votes to be the big winner.  But this year was the year and today was the day.

 Daveshoe went with this interesting period, and ordered the Lepanto fleets by Noble Miniatures.  Through some fits and starts of receiving the minis, Dave managed to get them all painted, and they look quite nice.  Rules were an interesting choice. Christian Fire and Turkish Fury is a Fire and Fury one off. Ships scale is 1:7 and the units are squadrons.  There is a maneuver table, fire tables, and close combat table that would seem very familiar to any veteran of Rich Hasenauer's most wonderful ACW game. The adaptation is by David Manley who has written many games, most notably Action Stations.

Dave Schueler's 15mm Barbary Wars project.  The two vessels on the left are Thoroughbed minis, while the unfinished vessel on the right is scratch-built.

 Eight of us trekked to chez Schueler in West Seattle and nicely divided the forces into four Holy League and four Ottoman commanders.  As always, Dave had some operational commanding to do.  The rules for the operational moves were easy and quick, giving each side the opportunity to pick up some stray victory points by raiding.  As an Ottoman player, I commanded the elite Barbary squadron, and followed the orders of David Sullivan, aka, Ali Pasha the overall Turkish commander.  My mates were Paul Hannah and Dave Creager, both veterans of DANG wars past. Our squadrons were a bit dispersed, so our challenge was to try to gather our fleet together while using some of our dummy counters to disperse the Christian fleet into chasing our phantoms.  They, of course, were trying to do the same to us.

Dave's super cool operational level map.  You can see the starting positions of the fleets.

 We agreed to try a raid, as the Christians were doing the same.  We combined our fleet and moved to Crete to take on the Holy League base there, as the Christians were doing the same to our base on the Dalmatian coast.  We cheered as the Christians were forced to give up their move for the next turn.  We were horrified when our raid failed utterly and our entire fleet lost boarding factors.  We were forced to refit, taking two operational movement turns.  It also convinced us our best shot was to confront the Christian fleet as soon as possible.  Two turns later it was so.

David Sullivan and Scott Murphy commanded the Ottomans and Holy League respectively. 

As dummy counters are encountered they're removed.  Eyeball to eyeball the fleets get ready for action

 We had already assigned squadrons to the various commanders.  Each commander had certain specific characteristics.  I commanded the Barbary squadron, which was the best of the Turkish ships.  We agreed Paul, who drew the aggressive commander, would advance along the right wing Holy League, while David Sullivan would advance in the middle.  Dave Creager had two squadrons that advanced on the right.  My ships formed the reserve, intended to mop up the broken bits of center left when David got done with them.

Two views of the fleets coming into action.  The Holy League to the left and the Ottomans on the right. The nasty galleasses lie between two Christian squadrons.

Our plan was constrained a bit when Daveshoe laid out the map.  Islets on the right and left constrained the board, our fleet would struggle just to stay off the shoals.  It would also maximize the Christians' firepower advantage.  Well, always trust to the bayonet..  We followed through with our plan as best as possible.

Paul's wing was first into action.  In order to stay off the rocks, he advanced in line astern formation and tried to deploy beyond them.  Because his orders required that he move full speed he couldn't wait for the Holy League to come get him. Unfortunately he didn't realize quite what he was facing.  One squadron of galleys and another of galliots left Paul quite unprepared for Mark Waddington's two squadrons of elite Venetian galleys and some shaky die rolling.  Though they fought on for three or four turns, the left wing of the Ottoman fleet was quickly dispatched.

Death ride of Son of Barbarossa.  Constrained by the shoals Paul had to advance in an unfavorable formation.

 David commanded the Ottoman center, and they advanced on the Holy League defenders.  Each side had two squadrons of galleys, but the Christian center was pinned on three stands of galleases, oared round ships.  Though slow, they were armed with a passel of guns, and about a 270 degree field of fire.  We believed that these were dangerous, but should be through the fire in a turn to engage in close combat.  Wrong.  In the first turn of fire, David lost four ships in one squadron and one in another.  By the end of the second turn his command was wrecked and just trying to hang on, which he did, gamely, for another couple of turns.

Dave Creager commanded the two right hand squadrons.  He was faced with the difficulty of maneuvering into position while skirting the shoals, and aligned his ships into two rank lines. He engaged George Kettler's squadrons.  Both sided gave pretty much as good as they got for several turns.  Dave eventually emerged the victor on the right, but his fleet was in very ragged condition and unable to continue the fight.

The Barbary Squadron moves to the attack.  The remains of David's Turkish squadron to the left, Dave Creager's squadrons attack on the right.

 As my reserve squadron pressed past David's survivors in the center, we were met by an attack from Dale Mickel's Christian squadron.  The Barbary galleys were untouched and I began a pretty solid string of die rolls.  My flagship joined the squadron to make it six models and the action wasn't in doubt.  They came under ineffective fire from one of the galleass models and pressed on to attack the next of Dale's squadrons.  The result was the same, except that I was in range of one of the galleasses after the action, and could attack with a breakthrough move.  Galleasses were the uber-vessels in the action, and suffered no ill effects from the fact that I out numbered him 6:1.  However, David had disordered it in the last round of fire, and that combined with my elite status was enough to destroy it.

Final positions in the middle of the board.  The Venetian squadron is fully intact beyond top of picture.

 This left both fleets pretty ragged.  The Holy League had their right flank largely unscathed and their middle half intact with two galleasses ready to blow my ass off.  Their right was gone and ours was tattered to say the least.  Though my squadron was unhurt, it was just a matter of time until the superior Christian numbers and firepower began to take its effect and we called the game a Holy League victory.

 I really enjoyed the game.  We needed a few things to break our way to win.  They did, but too late, and we had nothing to pin the Christian left wing.  The rules were very fun and Dave and Lynn Schueler did a brilliant job of hosting as always.

Bringing an Old Project Back to Life

Ten years ago I played a lot of air miniatures.  Our rules was Avalon Hill's Mustangs, a board game.  Unlike many board games, they weren't overly technical, in which players captured two minutes of real time in four hours of play.  They were more like a chess match in which players planned their maneuvers ahead of time to set up their best shot.    Though I was almost notoriously bad at Mustangs, I enjoyed planning for projects and all the fun that went into them.

They were fun and interesting and for Paul Hannah, Dave Schueler, Phil Bardsley and a few others, they became what we did.  I painted up some random planes and developed a few projects that weren't random at all. My biggest projects were the 45+ planes I painted up for a jet version of Mustangs.  Based on an encounter in the Taiwan Straits between elements of the Taiwan Self Defense Force, the Peoples Liberation Air Force and elements of the U.S. Navy, I put together a sizable number of planes for an Enfilade game.

My second big air project was a WWII game based on the effort to sink the Tirpitz at anchor in Norway.  Based on a Royal Navy operation, the Brits actually flew a great many American naval fighters in Fleet Air Arm colors.  So I painted about 36 planes in FAA Duck Egg Green camouflage, about two thirds of them included Hellcats, Martlets, and Corsairs to fly against German Me-109's and Focke Wolfes.  It was an interesting game and I enjoyed it a great deal.

It's been six or seven years since I last pulled my planes out their tubs in the garage.  Paul Hannah was our spiritual leader, and he's moved on to DBA.  Paul and Daveshoe are great friends to have because they are superb at seeing the possibilities in a project. Dave is the best scenario designer I've ever known because he is so good at providing choices to the players that will inevitably destroy them.  Paul is simply genius.  He brings energy and creativity to a genre and rules set that should inspire yawns, but Paul makes them new and fresh.  He did it with Mustangs and continues to do that with DBA.  When he took up DBA, however, Paul just walked away from the planes--mystery of mysteries.   Without Paul's leadership, and formidable collection of planes, the game just sort of died.  Sad, really.

Airplane games just sort of languished until a couple of years ago when Check Your 6 was published.  I've stayed away from CY6  for two reasons.  I've had lots of other irons in the fire and have been too busy to head down that road.  The rules, supplements and mats would be costly and a distraction from investments I've really wanted to make in the Hundred Years War and AWI.  My other reason is because CY6 seems to have attracted players with a certain intensity that I just don't share in air gaming.  I loved Mustangs because it was laid back, the experience was more important than winning, and it gave me an excuse to paint airplanes. 

Last weekend I broke down and tried Check Your 6-Jets.  When Chris Rivers offered to put on an Israeli/Syrian air combat, I jumped on it. At the Museum of Flight Daveshoe and I talked about the Wessex Rules for modern air combat he had, and this gave me an opportunity to compare the two.  The big stretch for me is that Chris's planes are all 1/600, and mine are 1/300.  In any case I looked forward to trying out one of the two sets of rules.

Arrived on Saturday morning ready to play, and we ran a four Syrian Su22 fighter bombers and four MiG-23's against two Israeli F-15A's and four F-4E's in fighter bomber mode.  Each side had the same objectives--destroy ground targets while protecting the ground attack planes.  It was fun.  Reminded me a bit of my experiences with Blue Max or even Wings of War in which the speed determines which maneuvers you can do.  The mechanics were easy, though it would take some playing to implant all of the choices in my memory.  The rules were fun, and I had a good time.

The outcome of the game isn't important (it rarely is with me,) but it turned out as you might expect.  F-15's had planes falling out of the sky all over the place.  I ran the Syrian bombers and I actually did do damage to the Israeli ground targets, but none of my planes returned to base to share the story with my comrades.  Of course, they were all dead, so, no matter.  The MiG's managed to plague the Phantoms, but the Eagles shot all of them down too. 

Due to the cost of all the goodies, I'll probably go with the Wessex AirWar: C21 rules.  I can use a standard mat without hexes and I can use my 1/300 planes with my Mustangs altitude sticks.  I downloaded the C21 rules from Wargames Vault including the data annex for less than fifteen bucks.  The base rules for CY6 Jets is $30, plus all the other stuff I'd need, so there is a practicality issue for me. That said, I may purchase a few 1/600 planes I can play with when we get together.  They are very cheap and easy to paint, though selection remains pretty limited at the present time.  Don't know quite what to do about my WW II planes though--I'll have to figure that out.

Dave Niehaus Dies: Voice of Summer Stilled

Dave Niehaus died of a heart attack yesterday.  For those who don't know, Dave was the voice of the Seattle Mariners from their first game and remained the chief radio play by play announcer through the end of the 2010 season.  Through the many bad years and the good ones, Dave was the one constant for Mariner fans.  His trademark "Fly, fly away," home run call, his knowledge and his passion for the game made him special, and that he did it every game for so many years, made Niehaus feel like a part of the family, a celebrity or distant uncle that dropped by the house every night to talk baseball.  From my oldest son, Pat (whom I started taking to baseball games when he was three,) to my wife who has only known baseball in relation to Dave Niehaus, to my baseball-hating son Casey (where did we go wrong), we were all in shock when we heard the news.

I know what  you're thinking?  What the hell is he writing about now?  For me, baseball and miniature wargaming are my two greatest passions and they are inextricably wound together.  For as long as I've been married, during the spring, summer, and early fall I've come home from work, eaten dinner, and pulled out my painting and listened to baseball.  Whether my painting stuff was in the living room, the bedroom, or in its more prosperous location in the den, that is what I did seven evenings out of ten.  I painted literally thousands of figures-15mm Napoleonics, 25mm colonials, my current crop of 28mm AWI and Hundred Years War figures-all glued to the radio or television set listening to Dave Niehaus share his observations into this boys game played by men.

My best friends in the world are miniature wargamers.  But the ones I'm closest to are those who share my interest in baseball.  Mariners games and gaming, Rainiers games and gaming.  Listening or watching games and gaming.  Talking about baseball as we're playing.  Playing with the game on in the background.  Those are my life.  How many turns slowed to a crawl because we listened to Dave Niehaus tell about something fantastic on the field  (such as some silly Mariner bunting into a triple play) or just lamenting what the Mariners will do next in the off-season, or whether Brett Boone's 2001 season was really the best we've ever seen. It was. 

Niehaus would softly sing out the count, or the situation on the basepaths.  He'd tell stories about growing up in Indiana and listening to Cardinals games, his voice would build from a fever of intensity to explosion as the Mariners scored or scream "Get out the rye bread and the mustard Grandma; it's grand salami time," and I'd drop my paintbrush, thrust my fist in the air and scream "Yes!" (Unless it was the Yankees, and then I'd scream "Fuck you Yankee bastards!!") When the Mariners entered their glory years, yes they really did have some, and cable T.V. beckoned, Dave spent more time on the tube.  It was a millieu I don't think he was really comfortable with, and the last few years he spent a lot more time back on the radio.

Julio Cruz, Alvin Davis, Mark Langston, Ken Griffey, Jr., Edgar Martinez, Randy Johnson, John Olerud, Jamie Moyer, Ichiro Suzuki,  and Felix Hernandez have all starred for the Mariners.  Many left, some were traded, others retired as Mariners.  But for the Mariners fan, Dave was always the constant.  He was the original Mariner.  It's Niehaus that deserves a statue outside Safeco Field.  We love you Dave, we'll miss you.

Dave Niehaus was inducted to the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008

For those of you who can't forget, don't want to forget what it meant when Dave Niehaus, was, well, Dave Niehaus, here is a link to the game winning hit in the 1995 Division Series over the Yankees. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bf/Dave_Niehaus_Winning_Call_1995_AL_Division_Series.ogg

Museum of Flight 2010

Saturday was the NHMGS gathering at The Museum of Flight.  I'm sure I say this each year, but the Museum of Flight game day is my favorite gaming event of the year.  I run my air racing for half the day, and the second half is whatever.  This year I hung out at the information desk with Daveshoe and chatted up some NHMGS business with Bruce.  That was perfect because I was trying to overcome the results of insomnia, which is never any fun.  I'm going to keep this entry short and let Dale Mickel's great photos tell the story.  We had nine games going on including a full morning and afternoon session as well as DBA all day.  I enjoyed seeing everyone, as usual, and we had some great interaction with the public.  This is the best free day of gaming in the best venue in the history of miniature gaming. 

The first couple of photos give you a general idea of what's going on.  Bruce Meyer and Dave Schueler are busy setting up the info table.  Bruce ran the Gran Sasso raid to rescue Mussolini with Michael Koznarsky.  Dave did such a great job of interacting with those museum visitors that wanted to find out more about NHMGS or miniature gaming in general. The second shot is a view of the Blackbird, our gaming millieu at the museum.  I'm the guy in the black sweatshirt directing traffic during air racing.

Jeroen Koopman brought his 15mm WWII miniatures as well as guests to help him play his game.  His beautiful miniatures attracted a lot of attention from passersby.

 

Paul Hannah and Andy Hooper play a friendly game of DBA.  Paul stayed on the DBA table all day, played at least 15 games, and kept me up on the unfolding Husky disaster at Autzen Stadium (boo Ducks.)

 

Andy also brought his 20mm Spanish Civil War game to the Museum, which attracted a lot of attention in the afternoon session. 

Dale Mickel guest hosted a Tobruk game using micro-armor.  All the participants seemed to have a good time. Got some great pics of Al Rivers and Denny Hartung.  Al uncharacteristically won the morning air-racing, seems to be enjoying himself in the afternoon round. 

Lloyd Bowler and Dan Carter made the trip up from Astoria to host Wings of War in our morning session.  They are delightful guys who were, sadly, without sick buddy Dave Mebust.  They attracted a lot of interest from younger gamers ready to try out their wings. 

Last, but not least, I always run air racing at the museum.  We had five guys vying for the title of  "He Who Crashes Last."  A fun game this year, with nary a crash in the lot.  Al Rivers was the winner, but it was a nice grouping of racers.  Chris Bauermeister and Tom Bieker did quite well as the noobs.  Chris probably would have won the race in the Gee Bee except for a poorly timed stall in the last lap. 

A great day, and we'll do it again next year.

Interlude: Fell On Black Days

I occasionally get inquiries about this blog.  Why don't I post more frequently?  I try not to have any snide reactions, but sometimes I just don't have something to say, or the time or inclination to post.  While my goal is to post once per week-one that I am certainly not meeting at the present time-it's important to have something worthwhile to write about.  The last month or so, I haven't done a lot of gaming, and other activities have gobbled up my gaming and paint time. I'm gonna share some of THAT with you.

As you know, I'm a teacher.  One of the favorite parts of job is advising students on our high school newspaper.  Our first issue came out on October 22nd, and it was good, I liked it.  Getting the paper out requires a lot of time, a week's worth of 12-15 hour days.  Not conducive to gaming or painting unfortunately.  We enter our second production cycle this week.  More skimpy game-related schedule coming up.

It's always important to have something important to blog about.  I could share with you what I'm thinking, when I'm showering or how happy I am scratching my dog Jack's tummy, but how that relates to this blog is probably not very important.  I haven't played a game since September 18th at Fort Steilacoom.  Got busy and didn't put up a blog post about that.  However, tomorrow is our annual Museum of Flight day, one of my favorite gaming days of the year, and I'm really looking forward to that. 

I confess to a being in a bit of a painting funk.  I'm concerned about the struggle I'm having with painting.  I just am not seeing very well.  I've been to the opthamologist, gotten bifocals and those are ghastly for painting.  I'm using reading glasses.  They're comfortable, but give me a headache after about 45 minutes.  It's hard to get much done under those circumstances.  I haven't picked up a brush in about ten days.  I usually go through periods like this during the year, so not to worry, but it does impact my time on task and slow down my projects. I'm working on a couple of British AWI units

One thing I've willingly surrendered some time to is reading.  I love to read and always have, but 2010 has been a big reading year for me.  I've always been a read before bedtime kind of guy, but lately I've been a big read all evening guy.  And it's a good thing too, because I've been focused on some massive tomes.  Hersch's biography of Willie Mays weighed in at 600 pages, Massaw's biography of Andrew Carnegie was 800 pages, even Stieg Larsen's Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was nearly 600 pages.  No cheapies here.  I'm currently reading Richard Rhodes wonderful The Making of the Atomic Bomb, and I'm about 3/4s of the way through its 800 pages.

One other distraction was the baseball playoffs.  I'm a lifelong Mariners fan and usually when they are "finished" so is my interest in the season.  Despite the fact that this may have been the most ghastly season in Mariners history, I watched a lot of playoff baseball.  In this year of the pitcher, there were just too many great performances to let it slip away unwatched and unnoticed.  I loved the Giants/Rangers matchup and was thrilled to see the Giants finally win it all. Lincecum, Lee, Matt Cain, and Doc Halladay were fun to watch and it was worth the time and trouble to pay some attention. 

In any case, I hope to return this blog to our wargaming sponsor-the letter M for miniatures.  Until I do, I'll read and listen to Soundgarden or Iggy Pop (my current musical passions,) read a lot and enjoy the Museum of Flight.  Stay tuned, we'll return to regular programming soon.

1:10: The Only Scale

Before I leap too much further into sharing more of my AWI battle plans, I realized it might be worth your time to talk a little bit about scale and rules.  The American Revolution can be tidily divided between the northern war and the southern war.  The north features those classic actions such as Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, Monmouth and a host of other actions.  These tend to be good sized, actions, with Washington fielding over 18,000 men at Monmouth.  That's a passel  of troops and a worthy subject for a 1:20 action. 

My interest in the Southern campaign, however, showcases zero battles of such size.  The largest battle is Guilford Courthouse, with about 2,000 British and 4,000ish Americans.  The other four battles are much smaller indeed. It's a campaign that calls out for 1:10 scale.  Why?  Setting aside Guilford which has a bunch of 250-400 man units on both sides, most of the participating units are small.  At Hobkirk's Hill and Eutaw Springs many of the British units are 140-160 men strong.  Those are sixteen figure units, or four stands at 1:10.  At a larger scale they'd be only a couple of stands.  One of my favorite units is Kirwoods Delaware Regt., a stud unit that wears very cool bed-ticking trousers.  They are effective light infantry with an influence on a battle well beyond their 80-110 men.

There are some snags with the 1:10 scale.  I am not convinced that the groundscale always works.  I have some very large Continental units at 40 figures or ten stands.  They take up 15 inches on the game table.  That seems like a lot of room. What about large units that can fight in open order, such as the British 33rd Regiment.  What if one end of a ten stand unit is attacked?  What then?  I guess I need to do some more reading.

Despite the ground scale concerns, I can't envision another way to do the South in a larger scale.  If nothing else the historical feel is gone and you have tiny units.  How do you show the 50 17th Light Dragoons at Cowpens, or William Washington's Continental horse at each of these five battles.  Lee's Legion would be a speck.  These units and others influenced battles far more than their tiny size would indicate-and the more there are, the cooler they look. I also think it's best in 28mm.  There, I said it.  I'm slime, but I admit it.  I haven't seen any 15mm AWI I'm particularly enchanted with, and would you really trade in your Perry figures for 15mm Old Glory?  I think not!

Rules are always an open question with me.  Most of the games I want to run/plan are geared around   conventions or with friends who aren't familiar with the rules or the period.  So, they have to be fairly easy easy to pick up with reasonably simple mechanics. I own a copy of British Grenadier rules, which I hear lots of good things about.  If I had an intact group of regulars interested in the period, I'm sure I'd play these.  They are adaptable to 1:10 and have a couple of useful scenario books.  Unfortunately, that's not the world I live in.

A couple of years ago I began writing, or perhaps deriving would be a better term, a set of AWI rules from Fire and Fury.  At that time, Regimental Fire and Fury was still in its 275th beta version and publication was not on a foreseeable horizon.  I was also intrigued with the Hasenauer spawned "Wars of America" Regtl. F and F rules intended to serve a wider audience covering the American Revolution through the Mexican War.  Those rules are still unaccounted for.  Because Fire and Fury, together with The Sword and the Flame, are the greatest rules every written I decided to adapt my own version I called Tarleton's Quarter.  These were intended to be written at a 1:10 scale and aimed at the American Revolution in the South.  With those rules I hope to capture the more open formations the British used, and the closer integration of regular troops, provincials, and militia that was a regular feature of war in the Carolinas.

Number 1: Cowpens

Cowpens is the first battle of my series chronologically, and also the first of the battles I've actually run.  I covered this battle extensively on this blog in 2008 .  It's a challenging battle to do.  For those of you who don't know the action, a combined arms force of British regulars and provincials under Banastre Tarleton ran headlong into a novel defense developed by General Daniel Morgan in the South Carolina backcountry.  Morgan deployed a defense in depth of three lines, the first two of militia and the third of veteran continental light infantry with support from various mounted elements.  Tarleton was decisively defeated when his rapidly advancing troops were enveloped on both flanks by cavalry and the militia that retired in front of his advance.

It's a tough battle to game, and the mechanisms have to be right or the militia simply gets run over and the small force of Continentals is overwhelmed. It's a game I hosted at Enfilade a couple of years ago and the game turned out pretty historically, with the Brits taking some damage when confronting the line of militia, and the British Legion foot being rocked by a blast from the Continentals.  Failed charges by the British cavalry resulted in an envelopment of the British left and the end of the game.

All the units are painted and the unit strengths are based on those in Greg Novak's American War of Independence: Book Two the Southern Campaigns. 
British Order of Battle
17th Light Dragoons     6 figures (3 stands)
British Legion Light Dragoons 24 figures (3 troops of 4 stands)
British Legion Infantry     24 figures (6 stands)
Light Infantry Battalion    16 figures (4 stands)
7th Foot                         20 figures (5 stands)
1st Batt. 71st Foot         24 figures (6 stands)
Royal Artiller  1 section 3 pdrs.

American Order of Battle
Maryland/Delaware Light Infantry Battalion     36 figures (9 stands)  3rd Line
Virginia/South Carolina State troops                12 figures (3 stands)  3rd Line
Triplett's Virginia Militia                                   16 figures (4 stands)  3rd Line
1st and 3rd Continental Light Dragoons           8 figures (4 stands)    Cavalry Reserve
Virginia/North Carolina Light Horse                 4 figures (2 stands)   Cavalry Reserve
McCalls Carolina/Georgia Light Horse/Volunteer Light Horse 8 figures (4 stands) Cavalry Reserve
Roebuck's Spartanburg militia                        12 figures (3 stands)
Thomas's Spartanburg militia                          16 figures (4 stands)
Hayes' Little River militia                                20 figures (5 stands)
McDowell's North Carolina militia                  24 figures (6 stands)

Limits to Growth: My AWI Project

I just finished reading David Sullivan's blog post on having too many projects to manage.  I am sympathetic.  I do cop to his comment that I have good focus and can be productive, at least in a short term, say three or four months, then I have to take a break and do something else.

My American Revolution project is where it's at for me right now.  Yes, I definitely have other things to do too-Spanish Civil War, American Civil War in 15mm, 28mm and 1/600 naval, the First Jacobite Rebellion, 28mm War of 1812, and a plethora of others to work on, but right now AWI has me by the nipple ring.

I've written a lot about my War of Independence project.  The conflict is interesting, I love the variety of troop types, with British and American regulars, Tory regulars, militia galore and the spectre of Indians fighting on the frontier. So many battles, so many troop types and so little time. This being the case I narrowed my interest to the year following the Battle of Camden to the fall of Yorktown.  In fact I went even farther than that-I limited myself to battles in the Carolinas from 1781.

While it's certainly possible to fight a bunch of one-off battles with the pile of units that took part in this southern campaign, I am, of course, lured by the battle-sized historical actions, and there are five of them.
1. Cowpens (January 21, 1781)
2. Weitzel's Mill ( March 6, 1781)
3. Guilford's Courthouse (March 15, 1781)
4.  Hobkirk's Hill (April 25, 1781)
5. Eutaw Springs (September 8, 1781)

These omit large numbers of smaller actions that could easily be fought in  skirmish or semi-skirmish actions between formations of British infantry and/or Tory militias and American militia units under Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter and others.

It is my plan to paint each unit involved in these actions at 1:10 and apply them to the appropriate order of battle. I'll review each of the battles, together with my progress toward making them available for a game.

It's Been a Weird Month

Yeah, I know it's time for another post.  It's the first month of school and I find myself working longer hours and enjoying it a bit more, so I've had less time for game-related activities.  I also haven't had a whole lot to write about what I have been doing.

I have been painting pretty regularly and I've purchased some new figures.  I am mostly focused on my RevWar figures right now.  I'm finished painting the figures for my 5th Virginia Regiment, 40 figures strong.  It will be full strength for all the major actions it participated in-Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, Eutaw Springs-as it diminished in strength from 400 men to 180 men.The figures are Perry Miniatures, a combination of figures types from their Continentals in southern dress.  They are very nice figures, with lots of variation available. I chose an example of a thirteen star flag from Richardson's Flags and Standards of the American Revolution. The Liberty flag, which is hard to see, comes off the Danish Wargames page.

I'm also working on a new British unit, the New York Volunteers.  Okay, they aren't exactly British regulars, but they are a smallish loyalist unit that served in the south.  I'm also painting them green.  Usually that's a no-no by the time provincials headed for the Carolinas.  But it's clear they were issued with green jackets in 1780 as they embarked for Charleston, and red jackets some time later.  Would they have had them at Hobkirk's Hill? That's debatable, and I'm guessing they probably wouldn't but I'm okay with it because it adds some variation. These are also miniatures from the Perrys' British infantry in southern dress.

I'm working toward fighting Hobkirk's Hill for Enfilade.  It's a pretty straight up action, with another post to follow to explain.  I've got a couple more units ready to paint.  One is James Coffin's small unit of light dragoons, and the small converged unit of invalids that also fought at Hobkirk.