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.

Camerone Redux

Back in the old days, when there was a miniatures manufacturer called Wargames Foundry, with fairly priced minis from hard to find ranges, I bought a bunch of figures from their Maxmillian Adventure range. They’re a bit small by today’s 28mm standard, but still very nice. My goal was to re-enact Camerone, the classic fight to the last man battle at Hacienda Trinidad, in which 45 or so French Foreign legionnaires fought 1,800 or so Juarista militia and regulars.

This battle has held a hallowed place in our local gaming lore. Dave Demick and I have been friends for going on thirty years or so, and we have occasionally held Camerone Day celebrations. We typically do this by adopting one of our homes for the day, chasing our wives out of the house by cooking lamb, and eating and drinking copiously. We typically throw a game or two in the works. Only once have we done a Camerone refight, which I took to Enfilade in 1999. I wasn’t happy with the game however, though, and my figures have largely languished in their boxes.

I was yakking with Dennis Trout at the NHMGS auction in February, however, and he talked about his Maxmillian stuff. We made plans to discuss it further, and Tuesday night we did. At Bruce Meyer’s house for an always fun Arc of Fire game, we discussed our resources, and agreed that Camerone was doable. We also discussed rules. I mentioned The Sword and the Flame expansion for this period, and Dennis was agreeable.

This week Dennis sent me a couple of ideas from Free Wargames Rules http://www.freewargamesrules.co.uk/ There were a couple of sets of rules for Camerone. One is by Mark Hannam, and appeared in The Gauntlet http://www.geocities.com/fenerator/maxcam.htm They are interesting but seem a bit clunky. A second set of rules by Howard Whitehouse also appear from a 1999 issue of The Heliograph. http://www.geocities.com/fenerator/maxhow.htm These rules have the virtue of being simple, but colorful, and should provide some entertainment. If we like these, I may even try to talk Dennis into running the game at Enfilade.

The game is on the 29^th, and I’ll post some pictures from the game.

April DBA at Game Matrix

The first Saturday of each month is DBA day at Game Matrix in Tacoma. I know what you’re thinking : DBA phooey! For many years I felt the same, but my feelings about the game have come full circle. I like the short games. Forty minutes per bout, means I can squeeze about five into an afternoon with plenty of time left over for shopping or schmoozing. I also like the little armies. It keeps my hands in with ancients, and has allowed me to build about 25 different armies. Probably my most favorite aspect of DBA, however, is the guys I play with. They are great, have knowledge of the game, and patient, good sports.

This month I had a new army, I/18 Minoan and Early Mycenaean. It is a chariot army matched with some pike armed elements. I built it primarily to fight my Hittite Empire army. It is an interesting match-up because the pikes are formidable, but fighting in depth, they shorten my front leaving it vulnerable to overlapping. They also have three stands of psiloi and one of auxiliaries which require some skillful use in order to draw off some bad guy elements.

My first game was against Andy Hooper. Andy is a great guy, a DBA scholar who knows the rules inside and out. He’s also a great teacher of the game. Sadly my brain is too much like a sieve to remember all he tells me. Andy took my Hittites and I ran the Minoans. I took most of the psiloi and the aux unit to the right in an effort to draw off some of his troops, while all my chariotry and pikes advanced in the middle. Though I eventually lost two of three light units, I was able to push through the middle and defeat the Hittites 4-3.

My second and third games were against Craig Steed. Craig had a new Slavic army which, sadly, I could not match up with. He, however, had a Magyar army, mostly light horse with some cav and spears to match up with the Slavs who were mostly aux. As usual, I was the attacker, and foolishly didn’t ask for clarification of the busy terrain on the board. There was a river and some hills, and I decided to send some light horse down the far side of the river, because there wasn’t much room to maneuver on the board. Things started well. I got good pip dice, and running cavalry down both board edges, Craig had to make some decisions. Looking to force the river, I drew a unit or so to me, but made an attack with my light horse on a unit on the hill. I didn’t realize it was a steep hill, however so I died in the bad going. My center advanced on his center, and things were going well. I had the advantage with troops and the overlap too. I just couldn’t win on the battlefield. Craig rolled well enough not to lose elements, and tied 3-3, my general was killed on a bad die roll. Slavs win 4G-3

My last game was also against Craig, Minoans vs. his Hittites. This was a DBA nightmare. I averaged a die roll of 1.5 for pips and combat. When that happens the game is short. I shot my lights out on the flank as I hoped, but could never move them again as the pip dice became so microscopic. Needless to say, the Hittites quickly gobbled them up and I was down 2-0. I advanced in the center, and was able to contact. Craig rolled well enough to not be slaughtered by my pikes, while my chariots rolled ones and ones, and ones. Minoans lose 4-2.

Only three games, but I did some shopping and visiting and that was fun. I have another army finished—Neo-Hittites and Aramaean I/31a. I hope to get a start on their opponent, Later Hebrews, I/34b soon.

Salute '06

This weekend I took Friday off, and traveled with my wife to Salute, a miniatures convention hosted by the Trumpeter Society in of Vancouver B.C. Lorri has been sick all week. She actually missed three days of work, and she never misses. I was afraid she wouldn't be able to travel, but she sucked it up and we drove off together. We didn't get away as early as I planned. A light snow fell overnight, and life on the road Friday morning was hellacious. Lorri also needed to complete some work at home, so instead of getting away at 11:00, we left at 1:00. We still missed most of the traffic, running into rough spots only near Everett and just across the border. We rolled into Metrotown Holiday Inn at about 5:30. We spent some time wandering the Metrotown Mall, and ate some dinner, before returning to the hotel at 8:00, some reading, and snooze time.

I love going to Salute, and I try to make it every year. I feel I have very good gaming friends there, and it is one of the few times a year I get to see them. Doug Hamm, Chris Leach, Steve Allen, Bruce Harborne and others are guys I know I would game with regularly if I lived a little farther north. And then there's Kelly Jones. Kelly has been largely out of the gaming cycle since he was diagnosed with cancer last year. I've known him through game conventions for many years, and missed him a lot at Enfilade last year. He is a vital, loud, good humored man, known for his booming voice and infectious laugh. I've never known Kelly to be impatient, intolerant or unfriendly. I should be as good a person. It was a shock to see the effect of his illness, but it was still good to see him.

Salute is held at the Bonsor Centre in Burnaby, B.C. It is a community center that is simply a wonderful site. All kinds of activities occur there, including swimming, a host of other sports and fitness, as well as the monthly Friday game nights. The game nights draw nearly a hundred participants who pay an entirely reasonable fee to play historical, sci-fi and fantasy miniatures, as well as board games. The Trumpeters usually play in a large banquet hall I would estimate at about 4,000 sq. ft, but for the convention they spread into a room across the hall which houses a large Rogue Trader tournament. One thing I really admire about the Trumpeters is the coexistence between gamers of different genres. I think there are some jealousies between the clubs and the genres to insure fair treatment, but overall they act in their mutual self-interest.

Salute is a hoo-hah big deal. There are always some amazing games on tap there, and this year was no exception. There were two great Star Wars themed games including a battle on a molten planet that was lit with flourescent lights. The same fellow had a battle on Endor game that was going to be run Sunday with much of the board taking place on large tree platforms. Chris Leach was running some great looking 20mm WWII using a set of rules called Blitzkrieg Commander. It was in hedgerow country and the modelling looked great. The White Rock gamers ran some 25mm Armati games with some beautiful miniatures. I saw the Japanese and Chinese figures, but I missed out on their other games. Bruce Harborne, Steve Knight and Wayne Johnson from North Vancouver ran a great east front World War I game that drew quite a crowd.

As super as these games looked, perhaps the most interesting game was run by Eric Hotz. He's developed a rules set called Roman Seas for Ancient Naval Battles. They are targeted at Rome, but I could easily see them expanded to the Greek and Persian Wars or other similar conflicts as time goes on. Being the talented graphic artist he is, Eric designed and built paper models to represent the ships, crewed them with 6mm figures, and added villages, sea walls and other accessories. Those I spoke to that played the game quite enjoyed them, and I hope Eric will bring them to Enfilade. He will likely sell them, as he does his Whitewash City paper miniatures, and it's a great idea. If you weren't there to see them you missed out.

The convention pulled off a significant coup in attracting a couple of B.C. manufacturers. Kingsford Miniatures showed up with their ranges that include Woodland Indians and Samurai. They're nice figures, and if I'd been in the market I would have purchased some. Perhaps the bigger bonus was the presence of Bob Murch and Pulp Miniatures. What a great guy. I tried to persuade him to come from Enfilade, but it wasn't hopeful. I did buy one pack of Chinese infantry to fill out my Cannon Fodder guys, but didn't go crazy. Bob hung out with us around our game for a while. He knows a lot about the War of 1812.

I played fourteen hours of War of 1812 games with Doug Hamm and his friend Andrew. We set up the board, and layered on the terrain. We ran three different games over the same terrain with different objectives each time. It was a lot of fun. I always enjoy seeing Doug and playing games with him, it is a highlight of my year. Andrew was a laid back added bonus, fun to game with, and enjoyable to talk to. It was gratifying to pull out the miniatures and put them out on the table. I painted a unit of Royal Marines for the game, so they were blooded. Doug wrote v.2 of the rules, with some significant changes, particularly the fire table. The rules are based on Fire and Fury, with a maneuver chart, effectiveness table and melee chart that would look pretty familiar to players of FandF. The revised edition has ditched the Hasenauer fire table for something different. After 2 and a half games we agreed it needed some tweaking, but overall they played quite well. It makes me want to pull out some more figures to paint.

We played until about 9:30 before shuffling off home and the hotel. It was a great day of gaming and visiting. The only disappointment was that a great many of my American colleagues didn't participate. It was a great con and they missed out.