Bolt Action Again (or is it Column, Line, and Square?)

After a long hiatus and rescheduling due to illness, convalescence, and assorted other evils, we finally  got together this afternoon for a Bolt Action game set in North Africa. Phil Bardsley had an idea for a scenario he wanted to try, so we carted in our toys and set up a game.

Dick Larsen and I were the British, Phil and Bill Stewart were the Axis. The figures used in the game were Phil's DAK infantry and tanks and his Italian M13/40; Bill's DAK infantry, sandbags, and craters; and my British infantry, tanks, and French Foreign Legion infantry (Les Kepis Blancs). Dick supplied the "gerbils" or "dust bunnies," "tribbles," etc. that represent the dust clouds raised by moving vehicles in the desert.

The Axis mustered the following:

• 4 x DAK infantry squad
• 1 x Italian infantry squad (dug in)
• 1 x DAK MMG
• 1 x DAK mortar
• 1 x DAK command squad
• 2 x Pz III (long 50mm gun)
• 1 x Pz IV (long 75mm gun)
• 1 x Pz IV (short 75mm gun)
• 1 x self-propelled sIG 33 (Pz II chassis)
• 1 x M13/40

The British Mustered the following:

• 3 x British infantry squad
• 1 x Foreign Legion squad
• 1 x British command squad
• 1 x British MMG
• 1 x British mortar
• 1 x 2 pdr AT gun (w/Bren carrier transport)
• 1 x M3 Grant (75mm/37mm)
• 1 x Crusader tank (2 pdr)
• 1 x Valentine tank (2 pdr)
• 1 x "Honey" tank (37mm)

The scenario is set in the aftermath of a sandstorm that's scattered everyone. An Italian group is laagered in on a small rise (with a bit of support from their German friends). The remaining troops from both sides are converging on the Italian position with the objective being possession of the Italian position at game end. The converging troops enter the board on turn one using random placement.

The Italians all snug in their laager

There was no shooting on turn one, but with turn two everything started happening quickly. I got the first activation and shot my 2 pdr. right into the side of Phil's self-propelled sIG 33 and propelled it into a ball o' flame.

First kill

And there was much lamentation on the Axis side, especially from Phil who had just finished painting it only to see it knocked out in the first shot of the game.

Phil moved his panzers (which came in across the board from him) against the British armor, which all came in on the far end of the table.

"Panzers vor!"

His first shots knocked out our Grant tank, the only good tank we had. Bill started his tanks in against our tanks from the other side of the table from Phil's.

Dragging a "gerbil" through the desert

My infantry got in with Bill's DAK squads and started getting the worst of it. However, I managed to chew up his two squads a bit in the exchange. Dick's shots against Phil's tanks were disappointing.

In the next turn, my 2 pdr, fresh from knocking out the sIG 33, managed a long-range shot against the rear of Phil's M13/40 and knocked it out.

Getting warmer in the laager

Dick moved our tanks up to try to close the range against Phil's tanks. Having only light tank guns now, we had to get close to avoid being outranged by the German medium tank guns.

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward

Our "Honey" was quickly knocked out, but after that point, Phil and Dick's tanks swapped shots to no effect.

Tank battle

Bill's far tank had been heading toward the tank battle, but got way-laid en route by Dick's Kepis Blancs who charged in to attempt taking out a Pz III with bayonets and pluck.

Men against tanks

The attack failed by a hairsbreadth. In the contest of science vs. pluck, science generally wins.

Phil turned his infantry against my infantry, joining in with Bill. Bill moved his other tank forward with the intention of joining in the fight against our tanks.

Bill advances past the burning wreckage

However, the temptation to machine-gun infantry took over and Bill turned his tank in and moved against one of my infantry squads, getting into close range. I took some damage, but being within 12" of Bill's tank—and inspired by the example of Les Kepis Blancs—I felt compelled to make my own charge against a tank. Besides, the only other thing to do would be to sit and get mowed down by spandaus.

I didn't succeed; nor did I expect to (though I hoped). Dick tried another attack on Bill's other tank, which by now had turned around to machine-gun him, but failed the check to go in. Bill soon gave me another burst from his tanks MGs and I was left with two intrepid survivors for my squad.

Fewer men against tanks

With no targets in range, I needed to change ground with my heroic 2 pdr. Like an old-time horse battery, I limbered up and charged to the sound of the guns.

Changing ground

But by this time, the possibility of British success was beyond likely. My three infantry squads were badly shot up. One had two-figures left, another had four, the biggest had about six. Phil's two squads were nearly intact, and Bill's two were shot up, but not as badly as mine.

Our tanks were outclassed and outnumbered to start with, but more so now. Phil managed to knock out the Crusader on the last turn, leaving only the Valentine standing alone.

Endkampf im Wusten

The Italians were untouched, apart from their tank, and still held the position. Dick's Kepis Blancs looked menacing, but were unlikely to ever take out Bill's tank that was still machine-gunning them with no place for them to hide.

Postscript

It had been so long since we played that we had to recall, dimly, what all the Bolt Action rules were. We've all been playing war-games for so long that we have rattling through the empty corridors of our brains a lot of rules that are like (or we think are like) the rules we're using. Whenever a question arose, there was much quotation about this rule and that, which could have been from Bolt Action, but more likely from On to Richmond! or Column, Line, and Square.

We tried a new method of activation for this game. Instead of activating one unit at a time, we activated groups of unit. For example, my three infantry squads were one activation. Each could receive orders on it's own independently and took hits, morale, order tests, etc. separately, but activated on a single cube.

My appreciation of this method is mixed, though I remain pretty much a skeptic. On the one hand, it seems to move the game along because you have fewer activations, but you still have as many orders. In effect, the method just elongates a single activation. We only played three full turns, I think, and it took us more than two hours. If we really want faster-moving games, we should use fewer units.

I also think that basically it skews the sense of how the rules are intended to work. Activations by pulling order cubes out of a bag is to randomize the order of units doing things. If you make larger groups of units, you get less randomization and can overwhelm a single unit by shooting at it with several units at once before it has a chance to do anything. That may happen anyway in a game if all your units get an activation cube before the other unit does. But, the probability of having three activations before the opponent gets one is low, but it's an even chance with this method.

Post-Postscript

In the post-game retail moment, I picked up some more Beyond the Gates of Antares figures. I've already completed 2 regular Algoryn AI squads, 1 AI assault squad, 1 MAG support gun, and 1 command team. I have a third regular AI squad in the works.

The figures I picked up were an AI infiltration squad, an X-launcher, and a pod of targeting drones. I've been making good progress on the figures I've done so far, so I expect to get these done in time for a first game (maybe) later this month.

La Gloire Est Bannie (The Glory Has Departed)

Yesterday, I found buried among my various quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore a 24-year old issue of Empires, Eagles, and Lions. I thought about the era of amateur wargames newsletter publishing it represented and the words of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach came to mind:

      ...Now I only hear
      Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
      Retreating, to the breath
      Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
      And naked shingles of the world.

Long out-of-print, Empires, Eagles, and Lions (EEL) was a nifty little bi-monthly newsletter put out by the, apparently now defunct or disbanded, New Jersey Association of Napoleonic Wargamers. It had a run of 118 issues being published by RAFM in Canada over a period of 20 years. After that, The Emperor's Press in Chicago took it over in 1995, gave it a cosmetic makeover, and restarted at issue #1. It soon fell into a bit of disrepair, nearly died, revived again, but after just 13 issues, it ceased publication for good.

It was a labor of love by a group that was devoted to gaming the Napoleonic era, the quintessential wargaming period—quintessential regardless of whether one considers it the apogee, nadir, or "black hole" of the hobby. As such, it was a beautiful example of a dead genre: the hobby newsletter for, by, and about hobbyists and their hobby.

EEL was mostly the product of Jean A. Lochet, who was the managing editor and a notable authority on all things Napoleon. The illustrator and "Misc. Subjects Editor" of EEL was Mike Gilbert. Back in the 70s and 80s, Mike illustrated several rules books for Fantasy Games Unlimited (including Down Styphon! which he also authored and about which I have blogged in the past). Mike's playful artwork graced many pages throughout the newsletter and included section and article headings.

As well as regular comic features.

I've enjoyed Mike Gilbert's art wherever I've encountered it (see below). He had a distinct style that was simply fun. Sadly, Mike passed away in 2000 due to complications during heart surgery.

The EEL issue I found seems to be the only one I have left, though I never had many to begin with. I discovered EEL around 1993 and managed to get about a half dozen issues or so (older and newer versions). At the time, I was much involved playing Napoleon's Battles and imagining that I would be a dedicated Napoleonics gamer. Silly me.

Mulling over my serendipitous find, I couldn't help but think that some kind of shift has happened over the last quarter century. The genre represented by EEL has died out. Sure, there are a lot of wargaming magazines, perhaps too many, but the current crop of available publications has lost something. They're a new genre unlike the old genre, which has died, is dying, and shall die.

The great example of that dead genre was Hal Thinglum's MWAN. It was first issued, I believe, by Dave Arneson (of D&D fame). I'm not sure when Hal took it over, but it became the finest example (but maybe the only example) of a one-man operation that had a very large international distribution. MWAN was a 5.5" x 8.5" (8.5" x 11" folded and stapled) format that grew and grew. By the time I started reading it, it was a fistful of paper held together by a few groaning staples (though it soon went to a perfect bound format). The articles were uniformly good and Hal, who had a real day job, did a masterful job getting it out regularly. Reading MWAN, even though one wasn't a member of the Midwest Wargamer's Association, felt homey. Hal was everybody's friend and because of that, MWAN was your local newsletter, no matter where you were.

The Courier came out in 1968 as the newsletter of the New England Wargamer's Association. It started out as a thin 5.5" x 8.5" booklet. I recall D&J Hobbies having a small stack of them on hand in the mid-70s. I'm sure I picked up a few now-lost copies back then. I wish now that I'd kept them, but like so much ephemera, they're made to be discarded, so they were. The Courier had a makeover in 1979 when it became a truly national bi-monthly publication and restarted with Volume 1, Number 1.

The Courier had a good run for a number of years. The articles were good and inspired more than a few projects (and the desire for starting even more). I picked up several copies over the years and Bob Mackler bequeathed me his collection of every issue up to the early 90s. Eventually, I got rid of them. The problem with magazine collections is that they take up so much space and the urge to purge takes over. The Courier releases became more and more sporadic. They stopped the whole volume/number system in 1992 and just went to issue numbers (and theoretically a quarterly output). If you had a subscription, you got four issues, which may have arrived over three years of intermittent publication. Dick Bryant eventually sold the magazine to Legio X publishing. Legio X kept it going until 2005, when they published the last issue (#91) and melded the magazine into Historical Miniature Gaming, which is now defunct as well.

Wargamer's Digest started in 1973 and ran until 1985, when it made a name change to Military Digest (for legal reasons, I recall), and then continued on to 2000. I cut my wargaming teeth on Wargamer's Digest (WD) all through the 70s. The articles were always enticing and they had a WW2 gaming series that I enjoyed immensely. The series featured a lot of scenarios and tactical problems that would make the basis of a nice game system. WD had their own set of rules that were a bit fuzzy. They gave glimpses of the mechanics over several issues, but never actually published them as far as I know. I had a nice stack of WD at one time, but again, the need to purge was greater than my desire to horde, so I sold them off some time back (I think, or maybe they're in a box in my garage...).

Seeing the pictures of miniatures units, like on the cover above, I'm tickled by the bare-bones basing that was de rigeur for the times. These days every base is meticulously terrained with some kind of putty to build it up and ballast, flocking, etc. to simulate the ground covering. Back then, you painted the figure base green and mounted them in multiples on balsa wood painted the same green. Some things do improve over time.

Another lost gem from our bygone era is Wargaming: The Magazine of Fantasy & Historical Simulation. The magazine debuted in 1977 and was published by Fantasy Games Unlimited. It wasn't, however, a house organ for pumping FGU games. In fact, a browse through the four issues I have doesn't show much mention of FGU at all. Apparently, there were only four issues ever published. So it goes...

The articles in Wargaming came from various contributors about many aspects of the hobby. Most were about historical miniature gaming with a minority about fantasy and sci-fi minis. There was a smattering of board game articles, mostly reviews, and a lot of advertisements for figures, rules, games, etc. all circa late 70s. Each issue also came with a little boardgame stapled inside.

There was also a lot of clever art, again contributed by Mike Gilbert (he was more ubiquitous back then than I knew), but also some cartoons by José Neira (who also contributed to The Courier) and Dick Bryant (who edited and published The Courier).

Wargames Illustrated was, for a while, the premier glossy magazine of the hobby, something referred to by some as "war-porn." But its origin in 1987 was a bit humbler. It always had a full-color cover and a color section inside, but most of it was black and white pages with hand-drawn art. The feel of being a hobby mag for, by, and about hobbyists was there.

The magazine got glossier and glossier until it was all gloss. Battlefront Miniatures took it over in 2009 and made it much more of a glossy advertisement sheet for Flames of War and Warlord Games. They even changed the magazine logo. I haven't been able to generate any enthusiasm for WI for many years, but I can always call on Phil Bardsley if I need to consult an old issue (as I have done). He has every one.

Miniature Wargames came out in 1980-something touting itself as The new monthly magazine for the discerning wargamer. MW, like Wargames Illustrated, had color covers and a color section inside. In fact, MW seemed to be almost a mirror image of WI for a long time.

They had a great series by a young Guy Halsall on wargaming early Medieval battles that came out over several issues (all of which I retain). MW is still with us and better, I think, than its near neighbor WI. MW became slicker and more professional over time, but never devolved into someone's advertising sheet.

I've also picked up over the years some issues of Gorget & Sash: The Journal of the Early Modern Warfare Society. This was a nice little magazine for a niche market. Aimed at wargamers, though not exclusively a wargaming magazine, G&S wanted to present the background historical information to gamers interested in the period 1500-1800.

G&S published its first issue in 1983. The idea was a bit of an experiment, as the editorial in the first issue states. As it turned out, the experiment didn't pan out. After 12 issues over three years, G&S folded. The production values were generally OK, not slick and glossy, and the typesetting looked to be mostly just typed. The covers of the first issues were on better stock with 2-color printing. Inside, the printing was all black and white. Later covers were black and white only, though some were printed on colored stock, which gave a tint to them.

The articles were pretty good. However, the 300 year span of focus rather than being narrow, seemed too broad. An interest in Swiss phalanxes does not necessarily translate to an interest in the American Revolution or the Seven Years War. I think that if yer gonna go niche, go niche. I would have focused on only the later 16th c. through the Nine Years War, but that's me. In any case, I'm still looking for issues in order to complete the set.

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't reflect back on my own contribution to this departed genre. Starting in 1992, I collaborated with Kevin Smyth on publishing The Citadel - The Quarterly Journal of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society. The newsletter was begun by Rich Knapton back in the 80s and taken over later by Kevin who became editor and publisher with Bill Stewart performing the tasks of production, mailing, and "guilty conscience."

When I moved out from Chicago, I started working for Aldus Corp., producer of the then-mighty DTP product Aldus PageMaker. PageMaker was a perfect tool for getting a bit better polish to our production, though that polish was an evolving thing. My initial amateur design got a little better as time went on. Kevin was editor, I took over publishing, and Bill maintained "midnight production" with the City of Seattle's printers and then collated, folded, labeled, and stamped every issue that went out. (The US Postal service then took over and made sure that several copies were mutilated before making their way to subscribers.) It was a great time, though I'm sure that Bill's tongue must have revolted every quarter at all the stamp-licking it was being asked to do.

Eventually, I took over editing too when Kevin became President of NHMGS after Dick "President for Life" Larsen stepped down. For quite a while NHMGS offices and roles revolved around a few people who stepped up to fill the needs and do the things no one else would do—except for stamp-licking, that role stayed with Bill to the bitter end.

I have a stash of The Citadel issues started with April 1991 through the time I stepped down from being editor. By that time I was getting more involved with producing the NHMGS website (www.nhmgs.org). It's quite a nice diversion to read through the articles from yesteryear. Kevin and I seemed to do the bulk of the writing overall (being wordy types with little compunction about holding forth), but there are several nice articles from other NHMGS members as well.

Doug Hamm, then VP North for NHMGS, wrote a regular column called "Cry of the North." He also debuted Larry Leadhead in The Citadel before pairing with Eric Hotz (who is actually an artist) on the more polished version.

Other contributors read like a who's who of NHMGS in the 90s: Wes Rogers (who also wrote some articles for The Courier back in the day), Bill Stewart (when he wasn't licking stamps), Mike Pierce, Bill Cooper (The Beast from the East), Charles Sharp, Russ Bauder, Lance Runolfsson, Chris Leach, Dick Larsen, Steve Walker, Bryan Booker (who provided a couple articles about his nifty self-published ancients rules Warriors of Antiquity), Phil Bardsley, etc.

Closing Thoughts

The thing that stands out from The Citadel and several of the other publications, like Empires, Eagles, and Lions, is how much fun they expressed. The contributors were not professional writers, but their creativity and enthusiasm for the hobby was obvious and infectious. The more tight-knit a group, the more likely its publication will reference inside jokes and local lore. Even though that's mostly opaque to outside readers, it still provides an expression of the pure enjoyment that the hobby brings.

I'm not totally down on the current crop of magazines available. They're well-done professional publications with high production values. But maybe that's what sets me back. By becoming more professional and publishing for profit, today's magazines have lost that essential quality that made the older, home-published, hobby newsletters so endearing. They've replaced community with business and gamers seem to have gone from being participants to spectators in regard to all that's fit to print about their hobby. That's a shame.

Of course, blogging has filled that gap to some degree, but blogging lacks editorial control. So many blogs are hit or miss as far as well-developed content goes. It's also hard to find things on the blogosphere. The sheer number of blogs is overwhelming.

I also think it represents or goes hand-in-hand with tendencies in the hobby to spoon feed games to customers. The older magazines really brought out the adventure of the hobby with articles on things like terrain building, figure conversion, figure reviews, scenario planning, etc. The Games Workshop and Battlefront/Flames of War approach is to remove from the gamer any need to research and be innovative, which is, or was, a big part of the hobby. Younger gamers playing Flames of War or Bolt Action have no idea about the history of WW2. They have a nice system where everything is supplied for them and they just build their army lists from preset unit types. The available magazines are bound to evolve to become attractive to that gamer and not the crusty older grognards who recall fondly the time they converted several boxes of Airfix ancient Gauls into Napoleon's Imperial Guard using just an X-Acto knife and hot needle.

The gentleman researcher/writer who birthed the amateur magazines of the 60s to 80s is a dying breed and his ilk won't likely come again. The glory has departed (1 Samuel 4:22).

Enfilade! 2015 - There and Back Again... And Again... And Again

Enfilade! 2015 was this weekend. As I have done a few times past now, I drove there and back each day, rather than stay in the hotel. The experience makes me appreciate the wisdom of staying at the hotel. I live 82 miles north of the convention site, so every day was a 164 mile round-trip. Nevertheless, I appreciate being home every night more than I appreciate the convenience of staying onsite.

Day 1, I brought in a car-full of goodies to sell at the bring and buy. Unlike last year, however, I committed to running no games. That made round-tripping each day a little easier because I wasn't attached to a game schedule.

Day 2, I brought Phil Bardsley down with me. He and Kevin Smyth are the only founders of Enfilade! who still make appearances at the convention. This was Phil's first appearance for a few years, but Kevin is still an annual stalwart and ran three games and survived the obligatory drinking bout with the Canadians on Saturday night.

Day 3, I went to early Mass at my parish and then down again to cash out on my bring and buy sales and take home whatever I didn't sell. After lunch in the hotel bar with Kevin Smyth and Dave Schueler, I headed north. (Although I had to stop at Dairy Queen in Fife, WA to wake up, by this time I was getting pretty groggy.) Home by 5:00 PM.

Games

The games looked pretty impressive. The White Rock and North Shore Gamers from Canada put on a couple games in honor of the upcoming 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815/2015): the June 16 Battle of Ligny, where "Boney beat the Proo-sians (Way-aye-yah!)," and Waterloo itself.

Waterloo: The Prussians move in

Waterloo: The Frenchies mass

The Ligny/Waterloo games were impressive, but looked a bit crowded for my taste.

Chris Craft put on a game of the Battle of Agincourt (an upcoming 600-year anniversary, October 25, 1415/2015) that won best of period. Unlike the original battle, the English were run over.

Agincourt: The French before the attack

Agincourt: The French press the English line

Kevin Smyth ran the first of his two Lion Rampant games on Friday night, but I didn't stay for it. Dave Scheuler and I had "bangers and baps" (and beer) in the bar and then I headed the long way home for the day. (The title pic for this post, taken by Doug Hamm, is from Kevin's first Lion Rampant game, the raid on Agen.)

On Sunday, Kevin and Dave ran their Raid on St. Nazaire game using David Manley's Action Stations rules, with some special rules of their own for the ground action as the commandos get ashore. They won best theme game for the convention.

St. Nazaire

New Stuff

I didn't buy much. The whole idea of selling things at the bring and buy is to reduce the clutter of stagnant or dead projects. I still have plenty of irons in the fire and I didn't want to just replace new stuff for old. However, I did pick up a few things:

• More Gripping Beast/Jugula gladiators. The Game Matrix had a boxed set of Famila 1 for sale plus some single figure packs. I got the boxed set and one single-pack scissors gladiator. 
• Books. Gary Williams was selling off a chunk of books from the estate of a friend of his in the West Sound Warriors gaming group in Bremerton. The friend died with a library of more than 6000 books on military history. I think Gary and his widow sold the more valuable volumes for the best price they could get, but Gary brought several boxes to sell at the price of $2.00 per book. It took me three days to realize that the price was that low, so I gleaned through what was left on Sunday afternoon, which was still enough to make me happy. One of the nicer finds is the book Redcoats and Courtesans: The Birth of the British Army (1660-1690). I've been interested in this subject and in the Restoration period of English history for many years. I started reading the book on Labor Day and so far it's an interesting read. I recall in Churchill's Life of Marlborough that young John Churchill got a good start in life through his dalliance with Barbara Palmer, Duchess of Castlemaine and somewhat neglected mistress of Charles II.
• Paint 'n' stuff. I got a few Howard's Hues paints from Monday Knight Productions. No local retailers sell them. I can order them online from MKP, but I tend to look forward to Enfilade! as the time I replace and replenish my collection. I also bought a resin command post model for 28mm WW2 gaming. It's a model of the command posts emplaced on Tarawa by the Japanese. I knew MKP had the model and didn't find it last year, so I was happy to see one available.
• Rules. In addition to the books, Gary Williams had some old rule booklets for sale at $1.00 a piece. I picked up a copy of All for One, which is a sword-fighting game for the Three Musketeers, along with a scenario booklet for All for One. The rules and the scenarios were produced for use with the Redoubt Enterprises Three Musketeers range. I also picked up a copy of Tabletop Games' Sword and Pistol Renaissance skirmish rules. 
• More rules. Dave Schueler spoke well of Two Hour Wargames' Hell Hath No Fury rules for tank v. tank games, so I bought a copy from Ed Teixeira. Ed ran a game on Saturday morning (while I was driving there), which went well. I have a lot of unpainted 15mm WW2, so I don't have to buy any new figures for it (just paint 'em).

I hoped to find some Warlord Games' Beyond the Gates of Antares figures, but no luck. Not a big problem; John Kennedy carries them at The Panzer Depot.

Other than that, I stayed pretty good. There was nothing tempting me at the bring and buy. I might have picked up some Pulp Figures from Bob Murch on Sunday. He came down from Canada to sell his figures, but he appears to have left Saturday night.

Ex Stuff

I finally sold my 28mm 3rd c. Romans. Thus passes on a project started a decade back. I also sold my unpainted Romans and Sassanids. A lot of what I thought were bits and pieces sold as well. In the end, I did quite well and cleared a lot of shelf and closet space.

I also sold off my Field of Glory Ancients and Renaissance rules and all my army lists. I sold the two painted armies I had last year. They took a lot of shelf space.

Divesting myself of old projects and unwanted toys, books, games is cathartic. So far, no pangs of regret. One thing I didn't manage to sell was my copy of Terry Gore's Medieval Warfare rules. I bought them years ago for a small fortune and never managed to play a game with them. There was another copy for sale at the bring and buy and Kevin mentioned that he almost brought his copy to sell. There is apparently no market for these rules.

Serendipitous Encounters

Ed Teixeira of Two Hour Wargames was at the convention. He used to be one of our stalwarts up here until he moved to Arizona. I have been looking for some betting rules to use with my gladiators and faux Roman coins (the best damn faux Roman coins ever). I was discussing it with Dave Schueler when Ed walks in. He has something. I'll have to email him to get it...

Lost Tribes Update

The fabled lost tribesmen of NHMGS gathered at The Panzer Depot in Kirkland on Saturday. Eschewing Enfilade!, they played an 1814 Napoleonic War scenario instead, using the Black Powder rules. John posted an account of it on his blog.

And Beyonder...

I finished my first Algoryn AI squad for Beyond the Gates of Antares (BTGOA) last night. I dallied on them for some time, but finished them quickly. A lot of the dallying was really dithering about what colors to paint them, etc. Now, having completed a squad, the color choices are pretty much baked. I hope that productivity will increase.

Body armor	Vallejo Game Color Steel Grey (72102)
Chest, Shoulder, Knees	Vallejo Model Color Brass (801)
Weapons	Vallejo Model Color Gunmetal Grey (70863)
Weapons Detail	Vallejo Game Color Hammered Copper (72059)
Body Armor Cables	Vallejo Model Color Oily Steel (865)

I dry-brushed two shades of highlight on the body armor and then dry-brushed a slight bit of silver to give the effect of wear. Once the main painting and shading was done, I applied an overall glaze of approximately one part of Vallejo Game Ink Black (72094) mixed with 10 parts of Liquitex Matte Medium and thinned with maybe 3 parts water. (Honestly, I just guessed about the glaze mix and was happy to see it turn out so well.)

The boys in steel gray

The bases are 1 1/4" metal washers. I used plastic sheet cut into 1" diameter pieces to cover the hole in the washer, then glued the figures on that. I applied Elmer's wood putty over that. After it dried, I sanded and smoothed it, then I applied some glue and sprinkled some model railroad ballast on it. I did all this before primering the figures so I'd have the same white substrate. I applied a heavy wash of Vallejo Model Air Mud Brown (71037). The texture of the base is perfect for this kind of thing. There's no highlighting or dry-brushing needed to finish it. I applied some splotchy bits of Woodland Scenics Earth blended turf and finished off with some tufts of Army Painter Battlefields Wasteland Tufts.

Basic bases

The left shoulder plate has a raised symbol thingy on it. I figure this will make for a good squad designation. At first I thought I'd paint the shoulder plates a different color for each squad, but the symbol thingy works as well and is less obtrusive. For this squad, I used the same Hammered Copper as the weapons highlights. Future squads will have silver, gold, metallic blue, metallic green, etc.

First squaddies

The detail on the figures is pretty crisp and rewards a wash technique. The figures looked pretty good before the wash, but the detail really popped afterwards.

Back of Beyond the Gates of Antares

I'm pretty chuffed with how this first squad turned out. The figures are very nice, even though I did have one with some casting flaws, it's hard to tell after it's been painted. The AI squad figures come as solid castings with just the heads separate. Two of them are bare-headed (no helmet) so you can see the genetically mutated heads of the Algoryns. I figure that the race is evolved from a 20th/21st c. politician named Algor.

Progenitor of his race

I stopped by The Panzer Depot after mass and breakfast today and picked up another AI squad, a command team, and a light mag weapon (basically a BTGOA version of a MMG). I hope ("hope" being the operative word here) to get these new figures done quickly. The prep takes a while, but once started, the colors go on pretty fast and furious. As soon as they're done, we'll get a game going at The Panzer Depot.

Pike and Shot: The Video Game

While breakfasting with my friend Rick at BJ's Brewhouse in Redmond, WA a Saturday or so back, he alerted me to a new video game for IOS (and PC) called Pike and Shot produced by Slitherine Ltd. in the UK, the same people who brought us the miniatures rules Field of Glory: Renaissance, as well as the Field of Glory ancients miniatures rules (and the video game also for IOS, PC, Android, and Mac). What could I do? I went to the App Store and bought it for $19.95.

I'm instantly hooked. I've mentioned before, I think, that the pike and shot era was one of my first loves as a wargamer. Even though I've always been an indifferent video gamer, Pike and Shot is fun and beautiful. The game is turn-based/alternate move, you playing against the AI. There is also a PBEM server you can use to play against friends. There are five difficulty levels. The default is level 2, but even at that, the AI is kicking my hiney.

The graphics are fairly nice, though not stunning. On the iPad, you can use the standard IOS pinch/spread finger resize to zoom in and out of detail. You can also maneuver around to get different perspectives, so you can see your troops from every angle. Getting around the action is pretty easy after a bit of practice (or with no practice at all if you were born after 1990 and video gaming is like breathing).

The tercios advance

The options for play cover most the pike & shot era from the Italian Wars at the end of the 15th c. to the English Civil War. There are historical scenarios and skirmish games. The skirmish games typically provide options for buying variable troop types.

Swedes vs. the Empire 30 Years War

There are a few tutorial games to get you into the play. These are heavy on providing tips about play and explaining everything going on. For later play, there is an option to minimize the amount of messaging on screen.

ECW Royalists

The skirmish games give you a lot of variety for play. You can choose the type of action (defense, attack, open battle, waiting reinforcements, flank attack), the terrain type, size of action, width of battlefield, etc.

30 Years War

You can also alternate to map view, which give you an overhead perspective. It's a lot easier to keep track of the whole scope of the battle in map view (IMO).

Dutch vs. Imperialists Map View

You can alter the speed of the play. So far, my games last about 30 minutes to an hour. The bigger historical scenarios can be quite involved. Each unit has to be moved separately. There's a unit roster that you can toggle to view so you can more easily keep track of which units have moved or fired.

Let's see, I think I'll move my gend'armes...

Dutch vs. Imperialists Battle View

One of the things that irks me is that the AI always chooses the superior force or better position. For some reason, I always seem to be outnumbered, outgunned, and attacking an entrenched enemy. My armies seem to lose heart too easily (or I just stink at this).

Well, darn.

I think, however, that I can choose either side, so I might revisit some of my past defeats to see if the odds really are stacked one way or the other, or to see if it's me. Some scenarios you expect to be losing causes. I played the Biccoca scenario. I recall the battle narrative well from Oman's The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century. The Swiss mercenaries, "inspired by blind pugnacity and self-confidence" (in Oman's words), charge an impregnable position and get their butts handed to them.

Biccoca: The Swiss Attack

Only in the game, you're able as the French player to bring up your reserves to support the Swiss, something the French commanders failed to do historically. In the game the Swiss are on autopilot; you can only command the non-Swiss forces. I managed to cause some trouble on the Imperial flank with my gend'armes and stradiots, but not much—and certainly not enough to offset the slaughter of the Swiss at the entrenchments.

The system includes one add-on (so far) called Tercio to Salvo, which covers the period from the end of the Italian Wars to the start of the Thirty Years War. It costs $9.95. I've played the Battle of Dreux scenario from it. It's another one of those where my side (the Huguenots) were man-for-man a bit better than their opponents (but just a bit); however, they were outnumbered considerably.

The French Catholics had a lot of raw pike and shot, but a couple ringers in blocks of elite Swiss pikemen. My average pike and shot could deal pretty well with their raw opponents, but I had to gang up 3:1 on the Swiss to no avail. I'm looking forward to (a) getting better so I don't constantly lose, or (b) finding scenarios where the numbers and entrenchments are on my side.

Overall, Pike and Shot is a good game. I'm looking forward to more modules, such as late 17th century (Dutch War, Scanian War, Nine Years War).

To Infinity and Beyond (the Gates of Antares)!

I have a soft spot for Sci-Fi gaming, though I don't know why. I've never played Warhammer 40K, nor had an interest in doing so (although I kind of like the figures and the flame-throwing gattling gun fully-automatic self-propelled chainsaw of doom kind of weapons they use). I have been a big fan of Silent Death and painted a huge amount of models, sold them off, and then restarted painting another collection after a hiatus of several years.

When Warlord Games came out with Beyond the Gates of Antares (BTGA) last year, I wasn't sure what to think of it. I saw a lot of hoopla about the system, but for the longest time there was no product of any kind. Eventually, you could start buying a few blister packs here and there. Last October, they released a beta copy of the rules as a PDF download.

John Kennedy has played a few games of BTGA at The Panzer Depot and gives it rave reviews. He thinks that it has a lot of features that Bolt Action should have. As a dealer, John got a few sample packs of the figures. I was happy to see that they're quite nice.

Typically, I haven't really liked the figures that come from Warlord. Their resin and metal AFVs for Bolt Action are great, but the 28mm minis have never gotten me excited. They seem small compared to other 28mm ranges. I admit I like a chunkier figure (perhaps being well-fed myself, I have a natural affinity) and Warlord lack chunk. I'm also strongly averse to plastic figures (just say NO, people!) and Warlord seems to be moving plasticwards.

The sample figures that John had grabbed me right off. They have chunk (or heft, they're often the same) and they're metal—glorious, glorious metal.

In the last few months, retail figures have been available and John carries them at the shop. I browsed them a few weeks ago, but balked at buying because of the price tag. A box set containing a squad of five figures runs $32.00 USD—that $6.40 a figure!

Just today, however, I stopped by the store and bit. I picked up a box of the Algoryn Armored Infantry (AI). The box contains a single blister and five round plastic bases. You also get a command die for the squad. (The command dice are the same used for Bolt Action.)

A whole lotta package

I wonder whether less packaging, no dice, and no plastic bases would lower the price a bit. I have buckets of command dice from playing Bolt Action and I won't use the plastic bases. Probably not. Some items, like command packs, come as three figures in a blister only with no dice or bases. The price point per figure is the same.

The good news is that squads are five figures and an army is only about three or four squads. In fact, you can get starter sets with two squads, a command group, and two heavy weapons groups for just over $100.00. In short, you don't need a lot of figures at $6.40 to make a game.

I'm sitting down this afternoon to clean and prep the figures. They come with separate heads, but are otherwise easy on assembly. I'll likely mount them on metal washers 1" round. I'm not sure yet what color scheme I'll use for them. Maybe something metallic...