Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short: The skirmish game (part un)

As I posted in my 2013 retrospective, I'm tending more towards skirmish games as the best focus for my limited energies and short attention span. I have rarely had the perseverance to build vast armies of figures. I'll get excited about a new period, spend lots (and lots) of money on rules, figures, books, and then see it all fizzle out. Much of this entropic approach to wargaming is due to my peculiar tastes in wargame subjects. Terra incognita, not to mention the generally bizarre, has always fascinated me. My friend Rick once opined that if someone made figures for medieval Lithuanian bat-dung hurlers, I'd be first in line to buy them. That's a fair cop, but since no one has made such figures (alas), the actual truth of it has yet to be tested. This taste for the arcane and unknown generally means that I'm forced to go it alone on projects. That's a sure sign of impending doom—unless the project is bite sized. Hence, skirmish gaming, the dim sum of the hobby.

In this first post of the series, I'll look at why I like skirmish gaming and what qualifies a game as a skirmish game.

Why skirmish games?
Skirmish gaming, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

More bang for the buck - Since I find it difficult to actually finish big projects, they are inherently wasteful enterprises. Faced with the prospect of painting several 24-figure units just to get some skin in the game, I may complete one or two units. Most times, I fail even to do that. The garage (yes, that garage) is replete with boxes of ACW, AWI, Napoleonic, etc. figures that I will likely never paint—even though I find them hard to part with.

With a skirmish game, 24 figures individually mounted makes a sizable force. In fact, it can make two sizable forces since many skirmish games can be played with fewer than a dozen figures per side.

Better attention to detail - Because skirmish games require fewer figures overall, it's easier to take time painting them. Some of my best painting has been single figures that I lavished several hours on. This approach is a big departure from the assembly-line painting that I do for big-battle units. I'm a slow painter; when I want nicer detail on my figures, I'm slower still. Nevertheless, I've made great strides in the past week completing several figures that I've spent a bit more time with. Eight Roman triarii, eight velites, and eight Libyan javelinmen are nearly complete. Each constitutes a fearsome body of men in a skirmish game. For a big-battle game, they're not even a drop in the bucket.

Limited storage/schleppage - I've mentioned before that I drive a Nissan 350z. Nice car, but very limited hauling ability. Gone are the days that I can fill the trunk and passenger seats with stuff and drive off to host a game. Because skirmish games require so few figures and terrain, they are much more portable to gaming venues away from home, which is good since my schedule consists entirely of away games.

Also, because of the limited number of figures required, I can store whole skirmish armies in a single box or a few small boxes. Not only does it make them more portable, but easier to store, too. If I'm ever going to get the garage to stop taunting me, I'll need to reduce the footprint of my projects.

Damn the short attention span! Ahead full speed!  - Today I may be afire for ancient Carthaginians, but tomorrow someone may release those long-awaited medieval Lithuanian bat-dung hurlers. My reaction to such an event can be summed up thus: "Oooh, shiny." This reaction will kill a big project, but merely wound a skirmish game. If I'm painting four figures of Bratislavian left-handed fire-dart flingers (because more than four would be overkill in a skirmish game) and get sidetracked, that's still only four figures put on the back burner. I can easily come back to them when the winds blow my attention span, like a weather vane in a cyclone, back in the old direction. There is method to my madness.

Versatile as a boneless acrobat - Because figures for skirmish gaming are singly mounted, you don't have to fret about basing, de-basing, and re-basing when you switch rules sets. I know gamers who make rebasing figures a hobby within the hobby. I hate it, myself, and have an unfinished post I titled "As God is my witness, I will never rebase again!" I have actually rebased, however—and recently at that. I'm not a fanatic. But my rebasing has been in the direction of single mounting to 25mm x 30mm bases for foot and 25mm x 50mm for mounted. I adopted this for some current ancient/medieval projects because it works best for any skirmish system. I have other figures (e.g., WW2) that use the William Stewart Standard Size™ of 20mm x 25mm. Whatever the size of the individual bases, you can be pretty sure that figures you've painted and based for one skirmish system will be usable without modification to any other skirmish system. If not, follow Thoreau's advice and beware of all enterprises that require a new set of clothes—or in this case, rebasing.

Personality goes a long way - Individual figures allow for more personality in defining the force you play with. If the skirmish game has more detailed figure characteristics, you can put some ongoing interest in how well a certain figure does. Some skirmish games contain campaign systems that allow for figures to grow over time as they fight—and most importantly, survive—skirmish battles.

Most gamers have some units that provide fond memories of battles lost and won. I think that skirmish games, because they are individual figures, have more potential for being the stuff of legend. This is especially true if each figure used is painted to be unique in some way.

The nitty gritty of it
So, having professed my love for the genre, the following is a brief analysis on the types of skirmish games I've encountered and the various game engines and mechanics that distinguish skirmish games from big-battle games. The following points are what I see, in my quaintly myopic way, as the main things that can be used to identify skirmish rules and distinguish one set from another. I will refer to these aspects in following posts when I review skirmish rules for particular periods.

Type (To thine own self be true.) - While the sine qua non of skirmish gaming is a 1:1 representation of figures to men, it's not all that simple. I've noticed that "skirmish" games fall into one of three categories that I'll call True Skirmish, False Skirmish, and Quasi-False Skirmish (a.k.a. the bastard love-child of true and false skirmish).

True Skirmish rules treat each figure as if it were an autonomous entity. The figure moves, fights, takes morale, etc. by itself. It may be affected by what happens to its friends, but its actions and fate are solely its own. True Skirmish rules tend to be more complex in their mechanisms than the other two and as such usually require the fewest figures because each figure engages a player's attention as if it were a full unit.  A force for True Skirmish rules can be very diverse: A knight, two squires, a few mooks with pole-arms, and a crossbowman or two make for a reasonable game. Because they act alone, they don't need to be similarly armed, protected, motivated, etc.

False Skirmish rules require single figures to be organized in units, which are the basis for movement, combat, etc. Figures in the unit have no (or very limited) ability to act outside the unit. For this reason, units in False Skirmish rules have to be, generally, similar in all respects. When the unit shoots, all figures in the unit shoot as a group against a single target. When a unit moves, all figures in the unit move as a group. When the unit takes morale, all figures in the unit stand or run as a group. False Skirmish rules are false in the sense that the individual figure doesn't count; it merely adds its factors to the operation of the group. A False Skirmish game doesn't require that the representation be 1:1. Figure scale could be 1:5, for example, without losing the sense of the rules. Although figures in False Skirmish rules will almost always be mounted singly, it is possible to play with multi-figure bases and simply mark casualties on the base.

Quasi-False Skirmish rules are the result of a drunken one-night orgy between True and False Skirmish games. That's not to say that they're a bad thing. To the contrary, some Quasi-False Skirmish rules are very enjoyable. The essence of them is that while figures are organized into units, the units can contain figures with a variety of quality, equipment, motivation, hair styles and so forth. Units must still act together, however loosely, but the figures within the unit are more distinct from each other and capable of limited independent action.

Detail (What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!) - The qualities that define a figure, the "stats," can be very simple or very complex. How much detail goes into defining a figure is usually determined by the type of skirmish rules noted above.

True Skirmish rules tend to define a figure by a variety of qualities and skills, not unlike a character in a role-palying game. For example, a figure may be rated for stamina, weapons skill for each of the weapons he carries, agility, luck, strength, hygiene, etc. These ratings come into play as the figure acts. A high stamina rating, for example, may mean that the figure can fight or run for extended turns long after lesser beings tire. A high skill rating with a bow means that he can usually hit what he's aiming at. However, a high level of detail usually requires a roster to keep track of it all.

False Skirmish rules tends towards simpler definitions of the individual figure because the characteristics apply to the whole unit. The emphasis is on the average, so there's little to distinguish one figure from another. Characteristics of the unit are usually limited to things like weaponry, protection, and morale—which is essentially the same stats used for units in big battle games. The stats for units in False Skirmish rules are usually simple enough not to require keeping track of. They might simply be noted in some sort of play sheet for the game (Valerian's valiant velites of vexation: Javelin, short sword, shield, +2 morale, +6 halitosis).

Quasi-False Skirmish rules tend to define figures in a less-than-very-detailed way but not quite as uniform as the gray, drab lumpenproletariat defined in False Skirmish rules. Figures within a unit in Quasi-False Skirmish rules can vary from each other by weapons, protection, skill, courage, etc. but not by much. Quasi-False Skirmish rules may require rosters to keep track of characteristics, but it is often clear enough from the models themselves how they're armed etc.

Combat (Lay on, Macduff, and damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!') -  Combat mechanics vary widely among skirmish rules. The simplest mechanic uses a single value for combat that is added to a die roll and compared to an opposing stand. Some rules may be similar but provide different values for close combat and shooting.

More complex mechanics may require multiple stages to determine what damage is done and who wins a combat round. For example, a round of close combat may require each combatant to roll to hit against a skill score and then, if a hit is made to factor in the strength score plus weapon value and compare the blow to the armor and agility of the figure taking the blow.

The result of combat can vary widely as well. A losing figure may be wounded, knocked down, pushed back, killed outright, or all of the above. Some rules allow figures to carry wounds, which slow them down in movement and combat, but make for great bragging rights if they survive ("Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars and say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'"). In many other rules a figure is either killed or not killed, but may be put at a disadvantage in some way.

Zone of control (If we meet, we shall not scape a brawl. For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring.) - Given the free flow of individual figure stands around the table top in a skirmish game, it's important to note how well a set of rules limits a figure's ability to ignore opposing figures. It's absurd to assume that a non-phasing figure is glued in place. Absent rules for reaction, the figures must exert some kind of control over the near space around them and require opposing figures moving in that space to stop or attack, but not to move through unimpeded.

Command/control (He has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog.) - How players determine whom to move, when, and how much their figures can do is the essence of command/control. The differences here don't tend to fall into place by the type of skirmish rules. However, command/control systems that require a player to write orders for each figure tend to be found in True Skirmish games.

In most cases, there is some random element that determines the order of play. The more current systems tend to apply some kind of limiting factor to what a player's side can do rather than allow a player to move every figure however they want. For example, a player may need to dice for command points and can only do as much as his available command points allow.

Some games play in random order with figures or units activating by a chit-pull or similar, rather than alternating between one side's activations and then the other's.

Scalability (We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.) - Another significant factor in evaluating skirmish games is how well they scale beyond the one-off game between two players. I rarely game one-on-one, so being able to easily add more players into a game is an important consideration.

For the most part, skirmish games scale well and it's easy to incorporate multiple players on a side without too much awkwardness. However, there are a few holdouts and it is also worth noting that for some games, adding more players has an exponential effect on slowing things down.

What's to come
In my next post, I'll look at ancients and medieval skirmish rules.

Naughty and nice (or My Christmas vacation)

I had two weeks off over the Christmas-New Year's holidays this year. Going into it, I giddily imagined all kinds of productive activity. The aftermath is a more sober reflection on the best intentions going awry. Nothing bad happened, but much of what I intended came to nought. It was, however, a welcome time off. I think that staycations are the most relaxing time a person can have away from work. I can't say that I came back to work on Monday eagerly, but I did feel content that I had been away long enough to feel prepared for going into the lion's den of work backlog and email pile-up.

What follows is my list of the naughty and nice I did on my Christmas staycation.

Nice
On the nice list:

Resumption of painting - I'm back upstairs in the wee painting nook tucked into the closet in my den. I forgot how much nicer it is to paint on my painting table.

It was a serendipitous find at Fred Meyer about a dozen years ago. It's supposed to be a kitchen utility table and has a stainless steel top. It fits perfectly in the closet, so I can close it up and have it all out of site when I'm not painting. (However, the general clutter of my den makes closing the closet doors impossible. See the naughty list below.) When I sit at the table, the surface is about the level of my sternum, which makes it very comfortable to paint. I can support myself on the table to get better brush control without having to lean in too far. The past year of painting on the dining table was tiring. I couldn't do it for long before neck and back strain drove me to the couch to be buried under cats and thus immobilized for further painting efforts.

The lighting is also much, much better. I can actually see what I'm painting.

With a bit of music playing in the background, I've been able to sit and paint for extended periods without tiring. It nicely addresses my cat problems, too. When I painted on the dining table, Rhiannon would come up on the chair next to me and start head-butting my brush arm. (Look close at some of my figures and you'll see some wild brush strokes...) Maebh regarded the dining table as her personal playground and my work was often interrupted by a fluffy little Manx jumping up and landing in the midst of my work with her characteristic "brrrrt!" which I interpret as "Brace yourself, biped! Maebh the Merciless is here!" When I paint upstairs, the munchkins just lounge about on the settee. Perhaps the music lulls them.

D.A.N.G - Dave Schueler hosted another Dave's Annual Naval Game. This event is a highlight of the holidays and I may have missed it once in the dozen or so years Dave and his wife have been hosting it.This year's mini-campaign was Operation Landcrab, the US campaign to re-take the Aleutians in May 1943.

I was on the Japanese side. We had one glorious small action that looked to be a total loss for Dai Nippon. We lost a heavy cruiser and light cruiser from American gunfire, but the US players got too eager and pursued us right into several spreads of 24" torpedoes and two of their three heavy cruisers went down hard. The Long Lance struck! (Actually, they were type 90 torpedoes, but that's close enough to the type 93.)

The second action was much bigger and looked to be less favorable to the Japanese forces. The battlewagons came out, but the superannuated Japanese dreadnoughts were getting shellacked by the less superannuated American dreadnoughts. The socializing, campaign dallying, etc. took its toll on our time and we were unable to finish the last battle. We had a lot of long lances in the water (actual type 93s this time), but the American tactic was to keep away and rely on radar-guided gunfire to shoot us to bits. Dave rolled an ersatz resolution on our torpedo attacks that decided a bit of damage on the American BBs. However, we also figured on the Japanese losing or having badly damaged the BBs we had in action.

In the end, we figured that the Japanese gave the US a bit more trouble than they did historically, but that driving the Japanese off of Attu and Kiska was a foregone conclusion in any case.

Battlegroup Overlord - I had a chance to play in a Battlegroup Overlord game run by Chris Craft. BGO is Chris' latest WW2 skirmish crush. He pitted his American paratroopers against the Hun in a game featuring a lot of very close terrain.

Hedgerows abounded and it was pretty difficult to get fields of fire. Despite it being a very bad day for American tanks, the Germans lost. I was a Hun commanding a platoon of landsers. We took out a tank and shot up a squad of paras, but we took a lot of fire in return. I think I had a bit more than a large squad by game's end.

I couldn't help comparing it to Bolt Action, which is what I play a lot of. In the end, it was a toss-up for me. Each has its own way of accounting for the randomness of command and control. The effect of shooting is pretty much the same. However, BGO's rules about pinning create more command friction for unpinning. Also, the battle rating system in BGO makes for a more logical end point for a game. Essentially, each unit has a battle rating, the aggregate of these ratings is the battegroup's battle rating (BR). As events occur, like losing a unit or attempting to unpinning a unit, one side has to blindly pull a battle counter numbered 1 to 5 and set it aside. As soon as the the number of pulled battle counters equals or exceeds your battle rating, you lose—regardless of other circumstances on the game table. For example, we shot up the American armor and had two Tiger Is and two StuG IIIs remaining (having lost only one StugG III), yet lost because our infantry was shot up.

I have the earlier set of rules in the series, Battlegroup Kursk, which I intend to use with my vast number of Eastern Front minis in 15mm.

Monolith Designs/Graven Images 40mm Prehistoric Europe - I broke down and finally ordered figures from this range after salivating over them for a few years.

The term "prehistoric" has to be understood in context. These aren't cave-men. They're actually modeled after the European Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300-700 BC). When I was in Copenhagen in 2000, I had a chance to spend several hours in the National Museum and look at artifacts from this era, including some Bronze Age helmets and weapons.

The range was designed and sculpted by the late Jim Bowen, who passed away unexpectedly earlier in 2013. Steve Mussared, who runs Monolith Designs, produces the range and still has more of Jim's masters to put into production this year, so I expect to be be buying more soon. They're not cheap. A pack of four figures runs 10.99 GBP, but they're BIG.

At this point, I'm still waiting for them to arrive. They shipped from Monolith in the UK on Dec 20 and are caught in the devil's trifecta of the Royal Mail, the US Postal Service, and the Polar Vortex of Doom, which shut down airports and embarrassed Al Gore (just kidding, nothing embarrasses Algore). I am hoping each day now to see a little something in the mail...

I'll use them for skirmish gaming (of which more anon). I've recently discovered the Song of Blades and Heroes rules from Ganesha Games in Italy, which look like the front-runner for rules of choice.

Naughty
So much for niceness. The naughty is as follows:

The garage from hell - It haunts me. It taunts me. It calls me names and questions my legitimacy. Still, I can't bring myself to clean it. With two whole weeks off (apart from family commitments and game days), I resolved to spend a little time each day cleaning the garage and before long, voilà, a clean garage where I can once again park my nice car rather than leave it outside to suffer from the elements. Alas. It didn't happen. As I write this from the den in my townhouse, two floors above the garage, I can hear it titter and scoff. I will have the last laugh, though. Maybe this year...

Reading - I always expect to read more than I do. I have a number of books that I've partially read. I tend to read sporadically from this book and that as the mood strikes. It's probably hell for retention, but I always seem to have more that I want to read than I have time for.

I got very little read, but did manage to get through Bronze Age Warfare by Richard Osgood et al. This book was a chance find at Half Price Books a while back. Now that I'm getting psyched for the 40mm prehistorical europeanoids project, the book is a welcome resource, even though much of the evidence available comes from the Aegean, which saw a higher level of civilization that Northern Europe. Thank goodness for the bogs, which have given up several treasures (and near-intact corpses) from this period in European prehistory.

Still being slowly ploughed through are several books on the Wars of the Roses and Alexander Rose's fascinating Kings in the North about the Percy family in British history.

Eating - OK. I was a pig. With time on my hands, I cooked. Having cooked, I ate. I was also cruelly tempted by a host of Christmas goodies. Surprisingly, I gained less weight than I feared, but at 219 lbs., I am a few pounds above my best weight of last year.

Painting - Although I got back to painting in my den, it took me until after New Year's to do it. I can rationalize that until then I was busy with holiday activities, blah, blah, blah. Really, though, I was too busy eating and lazing (i.e., not painting, not reading, not cleaning the garage). As I posted earlier, I have resolved to do better this year—and so far have done.

No Tannenbaum, no Tannenbaum - I haven't put up a Christmas tree for a few years now. It's not from lack of desire. I used to get a tree delivered each year from the nursery down the street, but they went out of business and I haven't had a tree since. It's pretty much impossible to schlep a tree with my 350z. That leaves me with the option of borrowing a car or finding somewhere else that delivers, which I haven't.

Maybe next year when I can claim more nice than naughty.

2014: Out with the old, in with the new

So another annual milestone is passed in relentless frequency. It's time for reflection, resolution, and resignation. I'm a few days late with this, but here goes:

Reflection

Looking back at 2013, I'm hard pressed to think of any big achievement in my gaming life. Most of my productive energy and gaming time was spent on Bolt Action. This is not a bad thing. I like Bolt Action. It has an energy and flow to it that makes our games enjoyable. Playing Bolt Action also meant a lot more playing time with Phil Bardsley, Bill Stewart, and Dick Larsen. Longer in the tooth now than when I first met them—as am I—they game less frequently than in their relative youth, so it's nice to be a part of the few times when they game. Our games are pleasant and exceptionally non-acrimonius, which is a good thing.

Bolt Action also has the virtue of not winding me up. For some reason, certain games that I have played a lot just get me going and force a rant. Kampfgruppe Commander is one of those. I played a few games this year and always found myself getting frustrated. I'm not sure why. I think that despite its qualities, the game also has inherent flaws. It's essentially a tactical game that was re-written, streamlined, and transmogrified into an operational game without really changing the tactical nature of some of its mechanics. The lineage of KGC II goes back to Clash of Arms Games' The Clash of Armor, a good, albeit complex, set of tactical rules than no one I know of plays any more.

I think my focus for WW2 gaming is getting more towards the skirmish level. Bolt Action is the current station of that pilgrimage. I had the opportunity to play Battlegroup Overlord just before the new year. This is a big lavishly-produced offering from The Plastic Soldier Company. I have the first set of rules for the series, Battlegroup Kursk. BGK and BGO are skirmish level games, like Bolt Action, with their own command/control system that emphasizes allocation of variable command points. Fire actions can be for pinning or for effect. Pinning has a major effect on the game in that un-pinning units requires a random pull of a numbered chit (1 to 5) that counts against a force's overall rating. Once the cumulative number of chits pulled equals the force rating, the side loses. This can result in a game ending even when there are significant units still intact, i.e., no fighting to the death of the last figure. In our game, we had remaining two Tiger Is, two StuG IIIs, roughly a platoon of infantry and some other assets (like off-board heavy mortars)—but still lost, despite having brewed up most of the American armor (not surprisingly when Shermans take on Tigers). I liked the game and will post more about it, and other WW2 skirmish games, later.

I managed to complete a lot of figures, terrain, and vehicles for WW2 skirmish. I know have decent forces for British in North Africa, Japanese, and US Marines. I also have made progress on French Foreign Legion for North Africa and Russians (lots of unpainted lead for Ruskies, but I did complete "The Beast," a.k.a. a big T-35 model from Company B.

I got back into board gaming in a big way. I attended Dragonflight and Bottoscon this year and had a great time. I tend to think, incorrectly, that a board game convention is all about playing lots and lots of boardgames. But actually, the average hex 'n' counter wargame takes as much time to complete, or more, than a miniatures game. Despite the expense of most board games, it's cheaper than miniatures by far. This point would be sensible if one were an alternative to the other. I do both. No money saved in that. I see board gaming as a continuing trend. Not only are there a lot of great games coming out, but I have several that deserve a lot of play. It's a matter of finding time and opponents. This, too, increases gaming overhead.

I made slight progress on finishing my two rules projects: Row Well and Live and Pike & Periwig. The former is further along both in finalization and in models painted. I have many more galleys to complete, but more than enough to play big multi-player games. Pike & Periwig requires more editing and significantly more figures painted (see Resolutions below).

I spent little time on painting over the year. My productivity came in spurts, but there have been long down times. Between the beginning of November until just after Christmas I painted nothing at all. Nothing. I somehow managed to migrate my painting activity from my little painting nook in my den to the dining room table. This migration actually started in the summer of 2012 when I was painting a lot of ships for Row Well and Live. It was more productive to have a large space to spread out on. It also gave me the opportunity to paint in front of the TV, which I can see from the table. The den has radio or I can play DVDs or stream video through my computer, but my back is to the monitor when I paint. When I prepared to go to Bottoscon for three days in early November, I cleaned up the table lest my cat-sitter think I was completely feral. I liked the clean table so much, that I couldn't bring myself to re-migrate to it. However, I never got things going again upstairs until I had two weeks off for Christmas. Now I'm set up in my wee painting nook again and have made some good progress on some ancients figures for skirmish gaming (about which I will post more later).

Resolutions

One has to be realistic. I am not going to invent cold fusion or perpetual motion any time in 2014. I will not paint Napoleon's Grande Armée in any scale, nor any part thereof. I can, however, take a stand on a few things.

Paint more - the most prolific painters I know (e.g., Kevin Smyth and Bill Stewart) paint at least one hour a day. Whenever I've put in a little bit of painting time over a few days, I'm amazed how much I get done. Part of it is the momentum of actually painting and seeing things get nearer to completion that impels me to paint further. Then again, the inertia of not painting can be almost insurmountable. This situation requires dedication. So, I resolve to paint something—even if it's just an eyebrow on one figure—every day.

Watch TV less - this resolution is a corollary to painting more. Actually, it's video-watching since I don't have cable. I do, however, have a lot of DVDs, Netflix (discs and streaming video), and Amazon Video. It's a cornucopia of flickering eye-candy. As I've mentioned, the painting place is once again upstairs where the TV is not. I'm chagrined to reflect that I spend a lot of time watching things on Netflix or Amazon Video. I blame the cats! It's far too easy to binge-watch several episodes of an old TV series. I have to confess that I managed to watch every episode of NYPD Blue from first to last this year—TWICE! That's a lot of sitting on my butt, even though with the painting table downstairs, I managed to paint a lot while watching. However, it has been all too easy to come home at night, fix dinner (or order in, like pizza), and collapse on the couch smothered in cats (whose lethargy is highly infectious). You can't hear it enough: as a grizzled old man on my death-bed, I will not lament that I spent too little time watching the boob-tube—though I will likely lament the opposite. So, I resolve to limit my video watching to five hours per week.

Eat better - I love to eat. Who doesn't? I managed to lose about 30 pounds this year, although I gained some (too much) back between Thanksgiving and New Years. I was on a strict fascistic diet that allowed only 500 calories per day supplemented by drops of HCG, which is a hormone that causes you to burn stored fat. When I was on the diet, the results were amazing. However, I discovered that after a week of eating 500 calories a day, I wanted to eat a whole pizza—and did. Mostly I found myself jonesing for Chinese food. I would see a week of steady weight loss flushed away after downing a large order of cashew chicken. I indulge myself too much. So, I resolve to stick to the HCG diet until I get to 180 pounds and then adopt sensible eating habits of 1500 calories per day with no empty calories. Wish me luck.

Read more - This resolution is a corollary to watching less TV.  I used to be a ferocious reader. Now I find that I fall asleep the few times that I pull out a book. I get home, eat too much, watch something on the TV for too long, then pick up a book just about the time I'm getting drowsy. I'm pretty sure I'm getting stupider as a result. I can't entirely blame TV; I must also blame the cats! (I did post about this some years back.) My reading also suffers from options overload. I spend a lot of money on books. My bookshelves runneth over and my iPad is stuffed with eBooks for my Nook and Kindle apps. However, I find myself often grousing that I have nothing to read. In fact, I have altogether too much to read. It's just my short attention span asserting itself. So, I resolve to spend at least an hour every day to reading.

Exercise - I have been a full-on Gold level 24-Hour Fitness member since about 2000 and was a Gold's  Gym member for years before that. I was never a gym-rat, per se, but I did spend several days a week working out. When I bought Stately Chez Dave in 2006—and acquired three cats!—I just stopped going regularly. I went from being 180 pounds in Jan 2006 to about 245 at the beginning of 2013. I'm fatter than Grendel! Through the HCG diet, I got down to 210 in late October, but its crept back up. In addition to dieting and eating better, I need to work out. Nothing too hardy. I'm 53 now, so I don't expect to be Charles Atlas, but regular aerobic exercise will keep me less tired and regular resistance exercise will keep my bones healthier. So, I resolve to spend at least three days each week working out.

Spend less - I have never kept a budget. Never. When I reflect on it, it seems absurd—even though I'm sure that most Americans don't either. Budgets are like dieting with money, and no one likes to diet. I indulge myself with gaming stuff: lots of expensive figures I don't paint, lots of expensive rules I don't play, and lots of paint I don't use (I'm a bit more than bemused at how many duplicate, triplicate, and quadruplicate paint colors I have. I just buy without knowing what I already have. Me: "Oh look, red. I think I need red..."). The excess causes storage problems. I'm not tidy in any sense of the word, but that situation is only exacerbated by too much stuff and too little space to put it. I also buy books, as I mentioned above. Sometimes, really expensive books. I like to think I'm a collector as much as reader (which is not untrue), but I do buy a lot of books that I can't possibly read. I also spend too much on food. Eating simpler and better (resolution #3) is not just healthier, it's more economical. To spend $20.00 on a pizza is not just a lot to spend on a meal, it's fattening. I also buy lots of boardgames that I don't play. Again, I think of it as "collecting," but I have to draw a line somewhere. When I look back on what I spend each month, I'm aghast. So, I resolve to set and live within a budget. I'm on Mint.com, which helps. I just need to be stricter with myself. I've budgeted $150.00 for hobbies and $100.00 for books each month. These numbers are much below my actual average...

Declutter - Spending too much and having no space to put the excess leads to clutter. My garage is in disarray so that I can't put my car in. I meant to clean it out, I just don't like doing it. Opening up all the boxes is somewhat delightful as well as disturbing. I have lots and lots of little metal men that I meant to paint (really), but never did. In some cases, I have got back to them. However, there are a lot of figures that I've had for 10+ years and expect to be sitting around still 10+ years from now. I have a closet too full of clothes that I don't wear—in fact, my actual wardrobe is very simple, so why do I have so much else? I gave a lot away last year and should do the same this year. The clothes I have left are too small for me. The ones I gave away were the larger sizes that I expected to be unneeded as I lost weight. Oops. (I'll do better this year.) I need to take stock of what I can get rid of. For a lot of stuff, the Goodwill beckons. For a lot of gaming stuff, it's bring-and-buys or eBay. However, I need to organize and make stuff ready for sale. Books are a more difficult proposition. I regard them as resources, which I may not want to read now, but will later. I have a sordid history of getting rid of books only to re-buy them later—often for a higher price. Game rules are similar to books; I find them to be useful references and, more so than books, are hard to re-find at any price. In any case, I have much more than I need. So, I resolve to reduce my stuff-load to at least the point where I have a place for everything.

Blog more - I see that I've managed only 14 posts for all of 2013. To be fair to myself, my posts are long and often heavily illustrated. It takes a while to put on together and I don't always have time (however, less TV time will help!). I also have a lot in the hopper. My Blogger dashboard shows that I currently have 25 posts in draft mode. Many of these are almost complete, I just haven't made the final touches and posted. If I post more frequently, I may draw in more followers. Everyone needs followers. So, I resolve to post—on average—once a week for 2014. That means 52 posts overall. That may mean smaller posts, too.

Blame the cats less - However well the cats deserve my obloquy, I run them; it's not the other way around (hard as that may be to imagine). I've often reflected that the infectious nature of feline languor has much to do with my own laziness and unproductivity. Time to human up and admit that I laze around with the furry munchkins because I like to. However, the quality of torpor is more important than its persistence. I shall spend less—though better—time lounging about covered in a layer of cat. I will not let that be a drag on getting other things done.

Resignations

This is what I resign myself to not doing.

Big projects - In my younger days when time and money seemed inexhaustible, I had dreams of doing big gaming projects. It never worked back then and certainly won't work going forward. My experience with Bolt Action has shown that I can get a lot of bang for my buck on small-scale games that can be added to over time. Less than 30 figures and a tank or so is more than enough per side for Bolt Action. I am more leery of anything that requires a lot of large units. My Pike & Periwig rules call for 18-figure foot units and 8-figure horse units. Also, the rules can be played with a small number of units per side, basically a reinforced brigade, even though larger games are possible. Like Row Well and Live, I envisioned P&P as a system that didn't require huge numbers of figures/models to play. Apart from P&P, I see my gaming trending towards skirmish games in 28mm or larger.

Totally new eras/genres - As I've mentioned, I have a lot of unpainted lead and a lot of painted lead that goes unused. Part of the ever-growing-lead-pile syndrome is the tendency to get sucked into projects that are terra incognito. These projects require buying new figures, new rules, new terrain, etc. which defies all my resolutions above. I will not start any new projects this year. I need to do someting with my existing lead pile that decreases it, whether that means selling it off at bargain prices or painting it for use in a project that's been on the back burner (I have a lot of these). Anything I've started in 2013 or earlier is fair game for new figures, etc. But I won't suddenly start painting for a whole new area.

No plastic miniatures of any kind - This is more of a resolution than a resignation. The last plastic minis I painted were some Airfix HO scale Confederate infantry in 1977. I have not painted plastic minis since, nor shall I ever. I only mention it here as a response to the alarming emergence of plastic figures in the hobby.  Chacun à son goût and all that, but the day that metal minis go away, I officially change hobbies.

So there it is. My 2014 plans in a nutshell. We'll see how it all works.

Game day at Flying Heritage Collection

On Saturday, NHMGS held a game day at the Flying Heritage Collection at Paine Field in Everett, WA. The event was the brainchild of Justin Spielman, who is the education coordinator at the collection. He talked it up with John Kennedy at The Panzer Depot and Kevin Smyth, NHMGS president for life, and so it came to pass.

The FHC is quite amazing. It's a pet project of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and he has been able to collect and restore to full working condition an amazing assortment of aircraft and tanks, mostly from the WW2 era. (It's just one of those things you can do when you've got 15 billion dollars.) We were situated in the museum right next to the M4A1 Sherman. In honor of our event, Justin had the turret turned to face the area where we were gaming.

The perfect venue for WW2 gaming!

I volunteered to run a small game of Bolt Action pitting Marines vs. Japanese in the first session (10:00 to 1:00).

My Bolt Action game setup 

Doc Marshal and I were the Marines and Jerry Tyer and another player were the Japanese. We went a full six turns in less than our allotted time, which speaks volumes on the efficiency of small, multiplayer games.

There were several other games. Chris Ewick of The Game Matrix in Tacoma came up and ran an interactive Battle of Kursk game in both sessions using Flames of War rules and miniatures. Damond Crump and Lawrence Bateman ran a WW2 skirmish game using Damond's home-brewed rules Fire and Manouver.

I haven't played the rules, yet, but Damond was kind enough to give me a copy at our Fort Steilacoom event in September. They look very interesting and have a lot of good ideas that make them a bit less game-like than Bolt Action without wandering into the tedious dread of being a "simulation." I'm eager to give them a try as soon as I stock up on the D20s required for the game.

Fire and Movement game with a MiG 29 in the background

Other games included a Check your 6! game run by Paul Grandstaff and an Action Stations! game run by Dave Schueler and Kevin Smyth.

Air gaming with a Ki-43 "Oscar" in the background

Dave and Kevin's Action Stations! game

Also on hand were some people from the local IPMS chapter. It's good to know the plastic modeling community is still alive and kicking. Even before wargames caught my fancy, I was an avid plastic modeler. It's one of those hobbies that I fear is dying because of competition with video games, etc.

After my game in the morning, lunch was provided in the parking lot by Michelle Wheeler and Hugh Singh of Stonehouse Miniatures. Michelle prepared two excellent barbecue options with fixin's. After lunch, I took the opportunity to browse the collection. We were in Hangar B with the tanks 'n' stuff. Hangar A is devoted to planes and a few rockets.

The tanks were amazing. All in all, the collection has a German Jgpz 38(t) Hetzer, a RussianT-34/85, and American M4A1 Sherman, a German kettenkrad, and two German Flak 37 "88"s.

Nothing says "Welcome" like a Hetzer at the door

Despite being a guy who likes tanks 'n' stuff, apart from the collection at Ft. Lewis, I haven't seen any vintage tanks up close. Having the Hezter and T-34/85 right there was like seeing PanzerBlitz come alive.

T-34/85 in winter white

Hanger A had a few beauties like the world's only IL-2 Sturmovik in flying condition. It was acquired and restored in Russia. The original pilot of the plane, a retired Marshall, requested and got a fly-over at a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Russian air force.

The flying tank

They also had a Me-163 Komet. It looked good and may fly—but probably only once.

The Me-163: dangerous to friend and foe alike

The museum also boasts the only surviving Fw-190 D-13 "Dora" in existence. The volunteer staff syas that it's flyable, but because it's the only one remaining, they never fly it. Otherwise, the planes in the collection get taken up once a year.

Long-nosed Focke-Wulf

There are a lot of other very nice items, including V-1 and V-2 rockets, a Mitchell B-25, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk in AVG colors, etc.

I left after I took my tour and didn't stay to play in the afternoon games.

I'll have to come again and bring my dad. The FHC is only a stone's throw from where I live. The planes in the collection take off from Paine field and I have often seen them flying over the skies of Lynnwood.

To Bottoscon and Back

I'm just back from my first trip to Bottoscon in Surrey, BC, home of the world's largest Canadian flag. Rob Bottos has been hosting this convention on his own at various venues in British Columbia for several years and it's starting to get a bit of critical mass. There were 79 pre-registrations and several more people showed up and registered at the door. We probably had just shy of 100 attendees over the three days of the convention. I heard about it for the first time at Dragonflight in August. With my renewed enthusiasm for boardgames, I jumped at the chance to attend a full-on boardgame convention of mostly wargames.

In the following months, I planned four games for the convention and wound up playing in an ersatz fifth. With the exception of Conflict of Heroes, all the games were fairly new to me, having had only a single/partial play or no play at all.

Photography disclaimer: My photographic equipment on this trip consisted only of my iPhone and iPad. Of the two, the iPhone is infinitely superior as a camera, poor though it is. The iPad is truly execrable and I only used it for Saturday night's game because my iPhone was recharging. I apologize humbly in advance for the photos that accompany this post.

Friday

I left home about 9:30 AM on Friday and zoomed up in about two hours. Apart from having to sort out having the bank suspend my card because of "irregular activity" (i.e., a cash withdrawal in a foreign land), I was checked in and ready to go by about 12:30. The convention started at 12:00, but I was one of the early ones. Even Rob wasn't there until after 1:00. My scheduled opponent for my first game, also an American from the Seattle area, didn't arrive until about 2:00. I wandered to the bar to drink a rather tasty Stanley Park 1897 Amber microbrew and then started an impromptu game instead against Kevin Deitrich (KC).

Game 1: Poland fights on!

A gallant TKS holds off the Wehrmacht

The first game was a Conflict of Heroes scenario from the Price of Honour expansion. I played the Poles and KC was the Germans. There were a lot of "armored" vehicles in the game, if the term really applies to the wee Polish TKS tankettes, all but two of which were armed only with MGs. I also had two Vickers E tanks as well as two platoons of infantry. KC had a company of German infantry plus some armored cars and a panzer platoon of two PZ IIs and a Pz III.

At first, the Poles held their own against the Germans, but German firepower and concentration eventually proved effective. I was leading on points until KC captured two control points and surged up to just a point behind me.

The first position—held to the death!

My TKS tankettes were all blasted away and one of my Vickers E's lost a duel with the Pz III. I had only my fall-back position, which was held by three squads, a 46mm light mortar, a 37mm AT gun, and my remaining Vickers E. KC had lost only two units by this time, while my dead pool was about a dozen. Grim as it seemed, I was still slightly ahead on points because my points were mostly scored by not letting my control points get taken. I still had two remaining and KC couldn't get to them by game's end. The Poles squeaked out a win on points by delaying their own destruction.

The last stand

Game 2: Manfred und Lothar sind tot!

The Conflict of Heroes game ended about 6:00 or so and a group of us trudged out for dinner. We got back in by 7:30 or so and went back to our gaming. Without a scheduled game to play, I got drawn into game of Wings of Glory run by Mike Owen. Mike is a true aficionado of the game and has collected and customized a large number of the available models, and has also made some paper models at 1:144 scale for the game.

The scenario pitted Raymond Collishaw's Black Flight of five Sopwith Triplanes against four Fokker Dr.1's of von Richtofen's Flying Circus. I flew Ellis Reid in "Black Rodger" and Marcus Alexander in "Black Prince." Rob Bottos flew the other three "tripes" in the flight. Mike and another player ran the Fokkers of Jasta 11.

Reid and Alexander on dawn patrol

I've never played Wings of Glory before, though I've seen it around for years. We played some Blue Max many years ago, but that was my only foray into WW1 aerial combat. I found that being a miniatures gamer gave me an advantage over the board gamers I was playing with. For most of them, all reckoning involves a hex or square grid, or some other demarcation that regulates movement. They regard free-form maneuvering of game pieces like hippies in a commune regard flush toilets: something to be eschewed. With my experience in naval gaming, it's sort of second nature to me to pre-plot free-form movement reasonably well so I don't wind up colliding with friends, enemies, or myself. I was able to keep out of the furriest part of the fur-ball and keep on my guns on my opponents.

Reid on Lothar's tail, givin' it to 'im proper!

I got a bead on Lothar von Richtofen early on and kept peppering him. I hit him several times, and Rob got at least one burst in him, but the damage was minimal all along—no explosion or heavy damage cards. It took several shots, but he eventually went down in flames after I got a last burst at him.

A few turns later it was Manfred's turn. The Red Baron had been hit more than a few times by Rob's planes, but I got a few in myself and got the last burst in that put him down.

Reid downs another Richtofen

We called the game just before 10:00 PM. I was about to turn into a pumpkin, having been up very early cleaning the house so the cat sitter wouldn't think I lived like a feral beast, then on the road for two hours.

As a bit of serendipity, Mike awarded me a Wings of Glory Duel Pack with Richtofen's Dr.1 and Roy Brown's Sopwith Camel in recognition of my success in my first game. The 1:144 scale models are very nice. I'm not sure if I really want to get into this system any deeper than my duel pack, but the quality of the already-assembled-and-painted models makes one think...

Saturday

I got up earlier than I wanted to on Saturday because I still needed to trim out some counters for the Chariots of Fire game I was playing that morning. I spent a good deal of time trimming little cardboard counters in the run-up to the convention. Every game has hundreds of them and it can take hours of tedious work with an X-Acto knife to get them game ready. After about an hour of trimming, I went downstairs and had breakfast with Wilhelm Fitzpatrick, my opponent.

Game 1: Arrows everywhere!

As it turned out we decided to play Devil's Horsemen instead, so I might as well have slept in. Both games are part of GMT's Great Battles of History (GBoH) series. They use similar rules—with which we were both largely unfamiliar—so switching from one to another was no problem. We played the Ayn Jalut scenario. I was the Mamluks attacking the rear guard of Prince Ketbugha's army.

Initial face-off of Mamluk advance guard and Mongol rear guard

The Mongols were fully deployed at start, while I had only a small advance guard. Though technically defending, Wilhelm attacked my advance guard of light cavalry right away to little effect. The game system allows for return fire and as he drew up his light horsemen to shoot at me, my light horsemen shot back to better effect. When I started bringing on the rest of my forces, Wilhelm used Mongol feigned flight tactics, which drew only a few of my units in—but not to ill effect. It turned out that he really just got his backs to me and I could shoot with impunity as unit after unit of bow-armed Mamluks came on the board.

The Mamluks come on

Wilhelm made a strong counterattack with his heavier units (all bow armed as well) that took out a few of my light horsemen. However, weight of numbers started to tell a bit and after two turns, I was starting to turn the Mongol flanks.

The GBoH system, like a lot of GMT tactical games, uses a continuation mechanism (called momentum in GBoH) that enables players to reactivate a group of units for another go in the same turn. Momentum can stretch a single turn out to multiple activations if both sides are successful in getting it. I was able to get momentum multiple times for my light cavalry, which enabled me to do a lot of shooting and maneuvering to bust open the Mongol right flank.

Arrow fire was significant in this game. Both sides are almost entirely armed with composite bows and we spent a lot of effort whittling away at each other. Rolling a "9" for shooting results in getting a Missile Low counter, which gives you one more shot before you're out of arrows. You can re-load your quivers under certain conditions, but while marked with a Missile No counter, you can't return fire. That, in turn, allows multiple arrow attacks with no possibility of reply. Units can wither and rout quickly that way.

We called the game at about 1:00 after just two turns—but a long play time, due to unfamiliarity with the rules and multiple momentums (momenta?). It was a good introduction to the system and has me more eager to play Chariots of Fire. I also have the Chandragupta game in the GBoH series.

Game 2: Bork! bork! bork!

After Wilhelm and I concluded our game, I laid out the board for my next game and went up to my room to chill for a bit. The game was scheduled to start at 6:00 and I planned to get dinner at about 5:00 in the hotel restaurant then meet up with Dan Owsen, my next opponent for our game of Nothing Gained but Glory. However, when I stopped by the game room around 4:30 I found Dan setting up the scenario, so we just played.

I was eager to try the Fehrbellin scenario. I'd read about the battle many years ago, but with the limited information of the pre-Interwebs age, I really didn't know much about it. That mystery made it all the more intriguing for me. To my knowledge, this is the only game to feature this battle, which marked the beginning of Brandenburg-Prussia's rise to great power status.

I played the Brandenburgers and Dan played the Swedes. The Brandenburgers have two commands: one small left wing under Derfflinger holding some small hills where the Brandenburg artillery is placed, and a huge right wing of all cavalry under Hesse-Homburg and Frederick William the "Great Elector." The Swedes were in three commands: two small cavalry wings under commanders sine nomine, and a center, under Waldemar Wrangel, consisting of several infantry regiments.

I came on strong maneuvering my right wing cavalry against Dan's left wing. There was a small gap between the Swedish left and an impassable bog. I shot for that gap with the hope of turning the Swedish flank and attacking the infantry line from the rear. It went well mostly for the first turns, but Dan was successful a few times in trumping my attempts at continuation, so I wasn't able to get as much into single turns as I wanted.

After about four turns, I wound up a victim of my own success. In GMT's Musket and Pike series, every combat results in a formation hit to both sides regardless of other outcomes. Winning two combats in a row, or getting a pursuit result for cavalry, renders a unit Formation Broken. Broken formations can't move and are penalized in combat. The only cure for a lot of broken formations is to rally. I had broken cavalry formations blocking any possible exploitation of the flank. I had to change my orders from Charge to Rally.

At this point, Dan changed his orders to Charge and the Swedish infantry smacked into the Brandenburg cavalry. It was a fright to begin with, but his attacks petered out and left him with a lot of shaken and broken formations.

The Swedish right attacks Deflinger's artillery

I returned to the attack after on turn of rallying to smack into some of the shaken Swedish formations. Attacking infantry frontally is a bit worrisome. Their firepower is formidable and cavalry, who can take only a few hits before they're in trouble—or gone, can be wiped out before they come to blows. I had hoped to avoid this, but I was mostly successful in pushing back, routing, or destroying several infantry regiments. However, my losses were too great. I wiped out the Swedish left wing cavalry and badly beat up the Swedish center, but I lost a lot of cavalry doing it. When the points were counted at the end of the game, it was a decisive Swedish victory.

Broken field in the center

Dinner was a Big Mac and fries delivered by Ralph Shelton and eaten in situ while the cardboard battle raged. We concluded about 8:00 and after wandering the game room a bit, I went upstairs and to bed before 10:00.

Sunday

After a buffet breakfast in the hotel restaurant, I set up for my last game. I played Wilhelm again in a game of Sun of York. I'd only played solo prior to this, so I was eager to see how a game against another player would go.

Game 1: "A Warwick! A Warwick!"

We played two games of the Tewksbury scenario. I was the Lancastrians and Wilhelm played the Yorkists. The first game ended quickly when I took the Yorkist center by storm. We wrote that game off as a learning experience and re-played the scenario.

Lancastrians push The Yorkist center and left in game 1

In the second game, I tried a few things to see how they work. I focused on outflanking the Yorkist right, but got bogged down. My attack resulted in a repulse and the death of the Earl of Devon. Being down one leader would require me to rely more on drawing orders cards to get anything done to resume or repair that battle.

Imminent disaster on the Lancastrian left

Wilhelm drew the "A Warwick!" card, which let him play a treason attempt at one against my unengaged leaders. The attempt was successful against The Duke of Somerset and not only did he turn coat, but all the units in his battle did, too. In one fell swoop, my entire right wing disappeared.

Note: My only exception to this is that the system has some leaders that are considered "true blue" and can't be effected by treason cards. Somerset should be one of these. Three Dukes of Somerset, father and two sons, died for the Lancastrian cause. As Beauforts, they were blood-tied to the Lancastrians and never wavered, even after the Yorkist triumph at Towton and during the long years before Warwick's treason gave the Lancastrian cause a brief resurgence.

Wilhelm advanced his left battle and won initiative on the following turn, which let him capture the battle before I could respond. At this point, he also came on with his center against my only viable battle led by the young Lancastrian Prince of Wales.

I played it badly and my center battle was taken, which lost me the game.

The end of Edward, Prince of Wales

Post-game analysis was split. Wilhelm is unimpressed with the game. I like it and think it bears a lot more play. The system has the advantage of being endlessly re-playable since no two games, even of the same scenario, will be the same. There are also, I think, a lot of yet-undiscovered nuances. In retrospect, I could have played better at the crisis point of game 2, which might have repulsed the Yorkist attack on my center, although the loss of my right battle would effectively pin my center battle to the rear protecting against a flank attack from the captured battle. I might have resumed an attack with my left. A lot depends on the cards.

I got a lot of compliments on my pimped-out game board for Sun of York. One gamer described the system as a card version of a miniatures game. That has me thinking about a way to represent the units in play as stands of figures. For example, knights, bellmen, etc. could be a stand of two or three figures with two square wells that would fit two small dice: one orange die for cohesion and one black die for ability. Missile units would have three dice wells: combat ability for battle and long range, and cohesion. As cards are drawn and units deployed, the stands are used instead. Leaders, too, would be on bases with a die each for leadership and ability. It would look great, but I would have to have a strong commitment to the game system to go through the work to pimp out the game even more.

Post mortem

I enjoyed Bottoscon immensely. Rob does a great job organizing the convention by himself. I registered, booked a room, and scheduled games in a burst of enthusiasm after Dragonflight. I went through a bit of waffling in early October, but pressed on nevertheless.

There were a several multi-player games at Bottoscon, which makes sense because you can draw a bigger pool of potential gamers. At miniatures conventions or events, multi-player games are de rigeur. However, board gaming is largely a 1:1 proposition. Except for the Wings of Glory game (which is basically miniatures), all my games were against a single opponent. I didn't fully wrap my head around that for Dragonflight. When hosting a game at Enfilade!, I design a scenario for "x" players and submit it. The game will fill through pre-registration or sign-up at the event and we'll run with however many players we get, even fudging things to get in more. In most cases, I won't play myself, just run the game for others. In the months before Bottoscon, attendees arranged multi-player or 1:1 matches beforehand. I went in knowing what and who I would play. It's a bit different from what I'm used to, but I like it.

It was ironic that almost all the gamers I played at Bottoscon are Americans from the Seattle area, which let me connect with a pool of local board gamers. I'm well aware of the miniature gaming community, so I'm glad to get more involved with a surprisingly large board game community, too.

The next boardgaming convention is Game ON! in February. Game ON! is another one-man show, run by Jeff Newell in Issaquah. I played World at War with Jeff at Dragonflight. Jeff's a big WaW fan and there will be a WaW tourney at Game ON! that I plan to participate in.

Getting involved in boardgame conventions is looking like it will double my convention time. I think that's a good thing...

Loot

Apart from the aforementioned Wings of Glory duel pack, I picked up a used copy of GMT's Crown of Roses. This game adds to my growing bloc of Wars of the Roses-themed games. It looks quite involved, but I'm eager to give it a go. I also pre-ordered Blood & Roses from GMT's P500. Ralph Shelton, the game developer, is a Bellevue local who was at Bottoscon. He says the game is "in-production" and will be released soon. Blood & Roses is game 3 of GMT's Men of Iron series and covers seven battles of the Wars of the Roses. I think this game is the first to actually treat WotR battles in a hex 'n' counter format, so I'm looking forward to it. I've seen images of the game boards and counters and it looks very promising.

Breaking news! I've just heard that Arquebus is the next new title for the Men of Iron series after Blood & Roses. I'm not sure what exact period this will cover, but my guess is that it will be the late, late 15th c. and early 16th c. I suspect we'll see Gonsalvo de Cordoba make an appearance.

Cats

Yes, the cats endured. They were well cared-for and happy Sunday afternoon to have their warm-blooded furniture/bipedal humanoid cat-minder unit back to love and torment. This is the first time I used a professional sitter instead of badgering family or friends into caring for the little munchkins. I see it as the future and the sitter from Fetch Pet Care was great.

Pimp my game: Sun of York

I picked up GMT's Sun of York this summer in the orgy of boardgame buying I did after Dragonflight in August. I'd seen the title back when it was on GMT's P500. I thought I got on the bandwagon then, but apparently not. For anything that's in pre-order, I don't hold my breath. Game companies' priorities change, designers and companies part ways, or a game takes a helaciously long, long time to develop (yes, I am referring to Academy Game's years-late release of Conflict of Heroes: Guadalcanal). After seeing Sun of York back then, I just forgot about it.

When I learned it was shipping, I didn't move on it for a while. It's a card-based system like Columbia Games' Dixie series. I liked Dixie when it came out and there was a lot of interest when it debuted at an Enfilade! long ago. A lot of the enthusiasm was for the artwork by Eric Hotz; every regiment at Bull Run, Shiloh, and Gettysburg had a card with color artwork showing the uniform of that regiment. I played a few games with Kevin Smyth, but it never caught on, mostly because we play miniatures and our boardgames tend to languish in neglect.

In my post-Dragonflight enthusiasm for boardgames, I started snapping up titles I'd been on the fence about and Sun of York was one of the first I picked up. The game is nicely done and there are hundreds of cards for the York and Lancaster sides. The cards represent the historical leaders, fighting units, terrain features, and special events (like treason, fatigue, etc.). As I wrote earlier, I had some custom dice made that I could use for Sun of York and Richard III to add a little red rose/white rose flavor. I also "sleeved" the cards for protection. Sleeves are sine qua non for CCGs because continued use will wear them out quickly. I probably won't use Sun of York that much, but it's nice to have protection.

Both of these customizations to the game components were pretty straightforward, but the biggest thing I wanted to do to pimp the game was make a game mat to play the cards on rather than just bunch them in ersatz areas. The big kicker to Sun of York, like Dixie, is that there is no board. The cards are played in areas that represent parts of the battlefield. In Sun of York, there are 13 areas that represent the left, center, and right rear for each side; a middle ground; and flank positions.

I saw some game boards online that I could print out in tiles and tape together, but I wanted something better. Being a miniatures gamer, I use colored felt for the tabletop as the substrate for the terrain. I figured I could use felt for a Sun of York mat that would look something like the fields of Old England. My idea was that each area would be a separate field and the line separating the areas would be hedges.

Ye Fielde of Battaille

I got a 3' x 5' piece of felt in "pickle green." It's a somewhat mottled medium green color that looks much better for wargaming terrain than a solid green. I chalked out the lines separating the various areas. I then started masking off some areas and spraying them with various colors of Design Master paints. The Design Master colors are flat floral and earth tones because the paint is intended for use with floral design. The varied colors would produce the kind of view you see when flying over fields rather than the uniform mottled green of the felt. After I painted several sections, I used Tacky Glue and model railroad flocking to make the "hedges" that separate the areas. I'm pretty happy with the result.

View from the Lancastrian side

The Yorkist advance into the middle ground at 1st Saint Alban's

"Hedge" details

Lancastrians hard pressed (will Somerset lose his head?)

Even though it's for cards, I get a strong sense a a miniatures tabletop from it. The cats like sitting on it, too.

From start to finish, the game mat took about four days to complete with an aggregate amount of time spent being maybe four hours. Spraying was quick and easy. The longest time was spent waiting for the Tacky Glue to dry.

I'm heading up to Bottoscon in Surrey, BC next weekend for three days of boardgaming. My pimped-out Sun of York is one of the games I'll be playing. The only thing I'm lacking now are deck-holders for the cards. The decks are huge and the sleeves make then very slippery. They tend too easily to slide around and become a big mess of cards on the table when they should be a nice crisp stack. A deck holder would constrain them and make them easier to manage. I have just the thing in mind, but I don't think anyone makes it. I see a custom woodworking project in my future.