Enfilade 2019: Rampant days and Rampant nights

I'm just back from Enfilade! 2019. This is the annual convention of the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society. It's been at the Red Lion Hotel Olympia for 17 years now. Before that, we were in various places starting in 1992 with the Red Lion hotel in beautiful formerly bucolic Lynnwood, WA, just minutes from my house. Now I drive 85 miles to attend it.

We've gone from a two-day event with fewer than 100 attendees, to a three-day event hosting nearly 400. That's nothing by big Eastern conventions like Historical, Fall In, etc. But we're the biggest convention west of the Mississippi that caters exclusively to historical miniature gaming.

This year turned out to be a particularly fine event. It's probably the first time in many, many years that I've been actively involved in every gaming period over the weekend. I ran—alone or with confederates—three games, played in two, and helped staff the bring 'n' buy table. Of course, hanging out with friends over a weekend of gaming was the best of all.

Period 1, Friday afternoon: Weitzel's Mill, Rebels and Patriots

I pre-registered online for two games. The first was a Rebels and Patriots game of the 1781 Battle of Weitzel's Mill hosted by Peter Fry. I ran Banastre Tarleton's command of three light cavalry units and two jaeger companies.

Bloody Ban's bad boys

I was on the right flank with the mission to get at least one unit of my cavalry across the ford next to the mill, then along the road over to the opposite corner and off the table. For us to win, we needed to get at least one unit of infantry across as well.

Lee's Legion and Continental Light Dragoons come out to play

After a bit of sparring with some skirmishers immediately to our front, I headed towards the ford only to get shot at by Lee's Legion light infantry fortified in the mill. It took a while, but using my jaegers as both a screen to protect my cavalry and as long-range snipers, I cleared a path and managed to take out Lee's Legion cavalry and one dragoon unit, plus the light infantry in the mill.

A hard-pressed American line faces the British onslaught

On our left and center, the other British players were steadily pushing back the American units. The American right utterly collapsed with every unit being lost. There was nothing the Americans could do to stop the British achieving victory.

Peter said we'd performed better than the British players had in any of the pre-convention playtests. When the game was played on Saturday, the British lost.


Period 2, Friday evening: The skulking way of war, Song of Drums and Tomahawks

Kevin Smyth and I ran a game of Hurons vs. Iroquois and Dutch ca. 1630s on the Nieuw Nederland frontier. The forces were three bands of 8 Hurons defending their village against a force of two bands of 8 Iroquois and a detachment of 8 Dutch militia with muskets.

Bold Iroquois warriors

The Hurons decided to go out to meet the enemy across the river rather than fight on their own doorstep. Initially, this looked like a good idea. The Dutch musketeers took an awful beating and lost half their number early on, but then stablized and started giving back as good as they got, killing the leader of the warband facing them.

Hurons defending hearth and home

On the other side of the table, the Hurons were in trouble after just a few turns. They lost their hero and then their leader. Things went really downhill from there.

Iroquois crossing the river into Huron country

As the battle see-sawed elsewhere, the Iroquois broke through the flank and streamed into the village, winning the game.

From the wigwam Hiawatha
Bore the wealth of Megissogwon,
All his wealth of skins and wampum...

Song of Drums and Tomahawks is a game that grows on me every time I play it. I have a lot more Native Americans to paint, Hurons and Iroquois. The era of early European contact and settlement is fascinating and there is a lot to work with for creating scenarios for this game. I'd like to do some King Philip's War gaming with it. I have several Brigade Games settlers already, just waiting for me to get painting—when I can fit them into the rest of the painting backlog.



Period 3, Saturday morning: Beware a risen people, The Pikeman's Lament

After all the work I did for my Ford of the Biscuits game at last year's Enfilade, I determined to run another game with my Elizabethan English and Irish. I had several unpainted cavalry from last year, which I meant to add to this year's game, but...

I came up with the idea of a more stand up fight, but one that still had an element of mission. The scenario was an English force returning from a raid into the wild Irish countryside being attacked by an Irish force intent on recovering the loot stolen from Irish farms (or stealing it for themselves). The main goal was for the English to get a wagon train over the ford behind them before the Irish could get to it.

The English force was all veteran versus an Irish force that was all raw. I didn't figure out points, but there was a bit of imbalance in that the Irish were still more numerous and had more firepower than the English, which made it a tough go for them.

English quality proved redoubtable at first, but eventually Irish numbers started telling. On the English left,


Period 4, Saturday afternoon: Kicking a hornets' nest, Rebels and Patriots

The event that got the most planning and preparation beforehand was our Rebels and Patriots game of the retreat from Concord in April, 1775. This game was Kevin Smyth's idea. We'd initially discussed doing the Battle of Blackstock's because we both have an interest in modeling the Southern campaigns of the AWI. The war in the South was more interesting and—speaking only for myself—doesn't require painting the elaborate 1763 regulation uniforms for the British. From 1777 onward, British dress became more suited to the environment. In the South, that pretty much meant 'roundabouts' and floppy hats. No lace, no facings for the most part. That kind of figure will paint quickly.

But no. We did the retreat from Concord instead, which not only features British in spiffy regulation uniforms, but all grenadiers and light infantry who have more lacey bits on their uniforms than the center companies.

Acquiring my British to paint is a tale best told in a later post, but the upshot is that I ordered figures in January and wound up rapidly painting all my grenadiers and light infantry—and getting a lot more than I'd intended—in the few weeks before the convention. In fact, all of Kevin's and my painting was complete by the weekend before when we did our dress rehearsal playtest.

We spent a lot of intellectual effort, aided by Dave Schueler, into how to play this as a satisfying game. We even debated victory points up to a few days before the date. We seem to have succeeded. One player expressed his dire disapprobation of the British victory conditions initially, but enthused after the game at how well it went.

We planned for 6 players: 2 British and 4 American, but a late minute addition of Dave Creager to command the grenadiers separately brought it up to 3 Brits and 4 Americans. Dave is one of our inner circle of gamers and was an inspired addition. He played the grenadiers aggressively, which certainly helped the British win.




Period 5, Saturday evening: Staffing the bring 'n' buy

In a rash moment of feeling dutiful, I volunteered at some point before the convention to help staff the bring 'n' buy tables for the Saturday evening shift from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. I was there with Mark Waddington (who was in charge overall for the whole convention), Norris Hazelton, and Randy Miles.

It was a long, tiresome time with few sales being made. With four of us staffing it, there wasn't much to do. I wandered the vendors' tables in the main room. Bought some stockade sections from Monday Knight Productions. I took my newly acquired swag up to my room and took the opportunity of a bit of a rest until about 10:00, so I could come down and help shut down the section at 11:00.

I had to wrestle with my conscience a bit. Being pretty tired, I really just wanted to go to bed and stay. However, I went back down at 10:00 to sit for a while and close up the bring 'n buy area.

This was my first experience staffing the bring 'n' buy. I've always run a lot of games at the convention, helped plan the convention, and was convention director for a few years running. I have a great appreciation for the people who staff things like the registration desk and bring 'n' buy. While others are enjoying their time, they're spending a period doing less exciting things—but crucial to a successful convention.


Period 6: Sunday morning: Floating filth from the sea, The Pikeman's Lament

My last game was to participate in a game run by Randy Miles, which was a pirate attack on a Spanish port in some undetermined colony in the Caribbean. I was one of the Spanish players defending the town.

The pirates came with two forces from the sea and another emerging from the jungle on our right flank. I was on the far left of our line and managed after much effort—and much help from our center—to wipe out the rightmost of the pirate force. Our center was faring about the same as me. However, on the right, the force defending against the flank attack was soundly thumped.

The pirates land!

With that command gone, our center was getting hit on two sides. The destruction of the pirates' right came too late to save the day. Our force of 15 units was reduced to half strength. In the ensuing morale checks, I lost one unit routed away and our center lost one.

Pirates from the swamp

The unit that broke was my veteran shot, my best rated unit. They had such promise, but consistently underperformed. They failed to activate on several turns and even when activated were unimpressive. A close range shot hitting on 4+ failed to score a single hit. I'm sure the colonial governor will deal with them after the pirate mess is cleared up.

My best unit and least well performing in the game

After playing another turn, our situation was deemed hopeless and a pirate victory was declared.

Randy has a very nice collection of figures for this period. The Pikeman's Lament was a good choice for the rules to use. The units were all 6 figures strong, with five units in each command. The stats for the pirates was a bit better, but all units had a stamina of 3.

It was a fun game and a nice end to the convention.


Buying and selling

I'm trying more and more to keep my gaming possessions to a manageable amount. To that end, I've been selling off some of my past projects in order to fund new ones. This year I sold my Beyond the Gates of Antares Algoryns. This may cause some dismay the next time someone suggests a BTGOA game, but I haven't played a game with them in nearly two years and don't expect the suggestion to arise in the near future.

I also sold my Medieval (El Cid) Spanish, which I painted as a Lion Rampant army and repurposed as a Saga army. I haven't played Lion Rampant for a while (many other Rampant games to play), and have moved to a Welsh warband for Saga. The Spanish in Saga are a bit unsatisfying to play. So, adios viejos amigos. You served me well.

I also sold a couple other bits and pieces, in fact everything I brought to sell, I sold.

My buying was pretty minimal this year. K.R. Rohan was there selling Geo-Hex. I had the bright idea to buy a boxed hill. I normally use a mottled relish green felt mat as a playing surface. For hills, I've used 2" thick pink insulation board cut and beveled that I place under the mat. Around here, it's impossible to buy thinner insulation board and the 2" thickness makes for tall hills. Also, cutting and beveling pink board is a pain. The Geo-Hex is 3/4" thick. A few pieces scattered around underneath make for some nice, not too tall contours for the playing area. I used what I bought for the Song of Drums and Tomahawks and the Pikeman's Lament game.

I picked up a few things from Monday Knight Productions, including the previously mentioned stockade pieces. I can use them for stockaded settlements in Ireland with my Elizabethans and also for stockades in North America with Rebels and Patriots, Song of Drums and Tomahawks, and Muskets & Tomahawks. I also availed myself of their stock of Howard's Hues paints, several of which are staple colors for my painting.

Bob Murch of Pulp Figures was there. I picked up a few more packs of Iroquois from his Flint & Feather range. He didn't have any of the Europeans he's working on; they're not released yet. I think that Flint & Feather is Bob's finest range. I hope to see it expanded, but Bob has a lot of irons in the fire. His current passion is his Black Sun range, but there are other nascent ranges and British Colonial and Zulus to be released in the near future. Bob's a busy man.

My only disappointment was the absence of Wizard Kraft. I love Wizard Kraft's product, but it's a hard company to do business with. I've only ever bought items when he's come to Enfilade. There are too many horror stories of long delayed web orders. The website is closed for maintenance indefinitely. But I must say, that I love the product. It's the best terrain I've ever seen and I feel fortunate that I've been able to collect a large number of pieces. I had intended to spend a good amount of money there acquiring roads and any other clever new things he might have available. I hate to think it's a year at least before I have a chance to get more.


Uninhibited Rampancy

I said in a previous post that 2017 was my Year of Living Rampantly, but that hasn't really stopped. Most of my gaming in 2018 and nearly all of it so far in 2019 has involved the Rampant family of rules by Dan Mersey and Michael Leck.

Four of the five games I played in or hosted over the weekend were Rampant: I played in a Rebels and Patriots game on Friday afternoon and hosted one on Saturday afternoon. I hosted a The Pikeman's Lament game on Saturday morning and played in one on Sunday morning.

My rapid-fire dip method of painting and the Rampant rules have really got me gaming. All of the figures for the retreat from Concord game were completed this year (and only a few were started last year). My first ever fantasy army was painted for Dragon Rampant.

The distant second for my affection is Saga 2.0 and what I've painted for Lion Rampant and Dragon Rampant can easily be leveraged to play Saga. While there are other projects in the works, I see myself devoting a lot of my gaming energies towards further Rampancy—along with games I'll run at next year's Enfilade.


Me and my shadow

I haven't played a game with Randy Miles since I can recall. He's from Portlandia, so we have only ever played at Enfilade, and he's been away from the convention for a while. I think last year was his first attendance after several years' hiatus. So it was funny that we wound up being together in every single event and activity this weekend:

• He commanded the British center in the Weitzel's Mill game.
• He commanded the Dutch musketeers in our Song of Drums and Tomahawks game.
• He commanded the English left in my Pikeman's Lament game.
• He commanded the right flank British light infantry in our Retreat from Concord game.
• He was one of the bring 'n' buy staff with me on Saturday night.
• I played in his pirate game on Sunday morning.

The feline home front

With Rhiannon's death last month, I'm down to two cats who don't get along. I used the same cat sitting company as I have for the last several times I've been away. It was all much easier when my three cats were Grendel, Rhiannon, and Maebh. They got along well most of the time. Now, with Maebh and Bogart, a line of demarcation is set in stone.

Maebh is a slippery customer. She's bold and shameless with me, but fearful of strangers. She's always hidden from cat sitters in the past, which makes it hard to find her. When I returned home last year, even I couldn't find her until I contacted the sitter, who told me that she was last known to have hidden herself under the bed covers.

This year, she popped into my open closet—where I'd shoved a pile of clothing that I was planning to sort through and hand off to the Goodwill—just before I left. Ensconced there, she could smile at all her terrors with impunity. Rather than root her out, I left the closet door cracked open. This proved to be a bit of a blunder.

The sitter knew that she needed to keep Maebh and Bogey separate: Bogey out during the day and Maebh shut in the bedroom, Maebh out during the night and Bogey shut in the den. But with Maebh hiding in the closet, she couldn't tell whether she was in or out. We communicated throughout the weekend. When she said that she couldn't find Maebh, I assured her that she was likely in the closet not to be found easily.

It turns out she must have been burrowed under/within my leather recliner Saturday morning, which meant that she and Bogart were un-separated from each other.

I came home and couldn't find Maebh in the bedroom, even after rooting through the mess of the closet. I figured she must have burrowed deep and I figured a few shakes of the Greenies bag would lure her out. It did, but it was from under the recliner that she emerged, with Bogart watching incredulously. I quickly grabbed him before he could pounce and put him up in the den, thus restoring balance to The Force.

On returning to Maebh, I could see a wee scratch on her nose. Otherwise, she was fine. No apparent bites on Bogey—I'll have to keep an eye on abscesses forming—but it was clear that he'd chased her about. Under the desk in my den, there was a lot of Maebh's long wispy fur and things were knocked about. That's not much different than the evidence I'd find of Grendel and Rhiannon clashing while I was away.

Being rescued from Bogart and the fearsome stranger, Maebh was delighted by my return. She's been a constant and affectionate gadfly as I write this blog.

Retreat from Concord: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We did our second playtest of the Retreat from Concord game (using Rebels and Patriots rules) we're hosting at our Enfilade! convention next weekend. I made an ordeal of getting my contribution of figures to the game done in time. The militia was completed several weeks ago, but the British took a bit more doing with a lot of swings and roundabouts—of which I will post later.

We did our first playtest on April 6. At that point, we only had Kevin Smyth's British figures, which is just over half the total. It was a resounding defeat for Fat George's bloodybacks. Without enough light infantry to screen the column, the men marching on the roads were shot to bits.

This game I was able to supply the needed light infantry, plus another two Grenadier units.

The OOB for the scenario is based on the Smith-Pitcairn column, which was all grenadiers and light infantry. We scaled the game to make every company of British troops equal to six figures. The column had 11 companies of grenadiers and 10 companies of light infantry. We organized the 66 grenadiers into 12-figure units with one large unit of 18. The 60 lights we wanted to keep as small units to provide more flexibility and firepower.

Marching into the maelstrom

For the Americans, we had to do something that provides a mostly equal unit count, but ensure that the units aren't so good as to overwhelm the British by firepower. In the first playtest, we made all the American militia good shooters, which was massive overkill. In this game we allowed only one unit in each command to be good shooters. That may still be too much, IMO, but it gives the Americans a chance to do some real harm early on.

We have two British players, each taking half the light infantry and part of the grenadiers on the road. The Americans are four commands, each with four skirmisher units, one of which are minutemen with good shooters ability.

British (81 points)

Left command (44 points)
2 x Shock Infantry
1 x Shock Infantry (large unit)
5 x Light Infantry (small unit)

Right command (37 points)
2 x Shock Infantry
5 x Light Infantry (small unit)

American (48 points)

Command 1 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 2 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 3 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

Command 4 (6 points + 6 points)
3 x Skirmishers, green
1 x Skirmishers, green, good shooters

We used standard unit profiles, but we made some scenario rules to keep British units in the fight and allow recycling of American militia.

British rally
To reflect superior discipline and leadership, When British troops perform a successful rally action, they roll a D6 and can recover lost figures as follows: 1=no recovery, 2-4=recover 1 figure, 5-6=recover 2 figures. Units that rally don't have to be in disorder, i.e., a unit may rally just to recover lost figures. However, a units can never recover up to full strength, which particularly affects the light infantry who are small units.

Additionally, British units never rout or get eliminated by firing or fighting.  When the rules call for that result, the unit is reduced to one figure and placed behind the nearest friendly unit where it may work on eventually rallying back to fighting strength.

American recycling
There was very little leadership over the American militia. Men just came from their fields and farms in small groups and took pot-shots at redcoats. The Americans start with only two units per command on the table. The other two units per command come on if they pass an action test.

American militia units that are wiped out can recycle once in the game, which effectively gives them 32 units—just not all at once. Units recycling back on the table come in at one of two spots marked before the game. American players can also choose to simply disperse a unit that is down to 1 or 2 figures remaining and thus allow generating a new fresh unit.

At no point can any militia command have more than 4 units on the table.

Balance
The British troops are much superior pointwise to the Americans, although we didn't go by points. A large force of skirmishers can do a lot of damage. One of the things I've noted in playing Rebels and Patriots is that a 12-figure unit is at a disadvantage against two 6-figure units. It's a matter of dice. The 6-figure units are throwing 12 dice each shot (assuming they're not skirmishing or disordered) for a total of 24. The 12-figure unit is also throwing 12 dice and can only target one unit at a time.

Another factor in balance was that the skirmishers take 3 hits to remove a figure from firing; the King's vaunted grenadiers take only two. Stuck in the open as they must be for the scenario, they wither quickly under the milita's firing. Giving one of the starting militia units in each command the good shooters characteristic made a difference. Hitting on 4+ can be devastating, especially when your targets are grenadiers in the open.

As long as the fight is between militia lining the roads and grenadiers marching on it, the grenadiers are dead meat. The key is to get the light infantry in action against the militia and clear the roadside. In this case, it's basically 50 points of British vs. 48 American. The 31 points of grenadiers are good for the occasional return fire or chasing militia away from a wall, but don't otherwise have much opportunity to get at the militia. They're basically targets.

The game

Bill Stewart and I were the British. I commanded on the left and Bill on the right. Kevin, Dave Schueler, and Eric Donaldson were the Americans. Dave ran two commands opposite me; Kevin and Eric were mostly opposite Bill.

The British grenadiers were deployed on the road in column. The light infantry was divided 5 units to each flank of the column. The scenario rules allow the lights to roam freely, but the grenadiers are restricted to staying between the stone walls that line the road. They can shoot or charge a wall behind which cheeky American farmers are skulking, but mostly their job is to keep moving down the road.

Starting deployments

The American militia can deploy anywhere beyond the head of the British. In this game, there were several units deployed along the stone wall just ahead of the column.

Bill deployed his light infantry well forward with 3 up and 2 behind. I, unwisely, deployed my light infantry higgeldy-piggedly. It took me a few turns to get any kind of effective force going against the militia, which only gave the militia more chances to shoot at my grenadiers.

Opening moves
I started by marching my freshly-painted (you could still smell the dullcote) 18-figure grenadier unit 6" up the road where it could be targeted by multiple militia units. In response, the sides of the road erupted in musket fire, which took a dire toll on my wee men.

And then there were eight.

My 18-figure pride of the British army was reduced in no time to 8 confused and disordered troops wishing they were in Thames up to their neck rather than walking a country road in Massachusetts on a nice April day.

Bill immediately clashed with Kevin's forward troops and they maintained a lively skirmish. Bill got the upper hand eventually, although he took a lot of loss doing so. Even with the British rally rule, there was a goodly number of figures in Bill's dead pile.

Bill's battle against Kevin

The grenadier column pretty much got stuck not far from where it started—and went a bit retrograde at times. To keep marching forward was suicide. My options were to rally and try to recover some of my lost figures or to take offensive actions against my tormentors. At one point I charged the stone wall with my second grenadier unit (not quite as freshly painted as the other, but only by a day or so). That momentarily cleared the wall as the militia evaded away (taking a shot as they did). I also, fired a volley or two from the grenadiers, with just OK results. Skirmishers are hard to kill; harder when you roll as poorly as I did.

The lead units in trouble

The game started with just 3 grenadier units on the road, the other two following on after the column got moving. At that point I was rolling for all the grenadiers and failing to get the rear units to come on board. When they eventually did, there was a gap in the column. However, as the fighting at the road angle heated up, the column was effectively stopped. The rear units—now under Bill's command, with better activation rolls—started coming up and getting bunched together with my lead units that had stopped to fight or lick their wounds, mosty to lick their wounds.

My light infantry got stuck in with Dave's militia early on, but just in piecemeal, due to my scatterdash deployment. I discovered early on that shooting at the militia was a bit of a waste. They're hard to kill and they can pretty much ignore you and shoot at grenadiers for more bang for the buck. At this point, I noticed that all my light infantry figures has silver colored thingies at the end of their muskets. Because they're light infantry and not skirmishers, they actually have a pretty good fighting ability, despite being small units. Accordingly, I charged right in as soon as I was close enough.

Getting stuck in with Dave's militia

On the British right, it was the militia that kept charging the light infantry—not from careful consideration, but from rolling double-ones and getting the result that forces you to charge.  Those charges were either disatstrous or merely ineffectual. Most of my charges actually did something; at the very least, they would force the militia to evade and quit their ground.

The terrain, however, did a lot to dictate what I could do. The tavern was right in the middle of my line at the start and there were walls, fences, trees, and bushes all over. On many occasions all I could do was shoot, although I mostly skirmished. Skirmishing was less effective than shooting, but it allowed me to move into better positions to charge from, while still having a potential sting.

Forcing the militia captain back

Dave's minuteman unit, with the mounted militia captain attached, was a constant thorn. I whittled the unit away, but it took many turns to get him. He always managed to evade my charges and had a pretty nasty sting with its 4+ firing until he fell below half strength and was permanently disordered.

Much of the fighting on the flanks involved fence lines that provided a defense bonus and impeded movement. The militia, being skirmishers, were untroubled by difficult terrain, but fences would stop them—as it would stop the light infantry as well. I battled to the first fence line and then on to the next. Taking each fence line was met by another lined with militia.

On to the next fence line

We had to keep the column moving, but every time I advanced down the road beyond the light infantry screen, the head of the column would get shot to bits by multiple units of militia. This caused a lot of bunching up as Bill's rear grenadiers caught up to and passed the leading units. Rather than move, the grenadiers often had no better option than to fire back, with less effect than the fire coming their way.

Grenadier traffic jam

On a few occasions, the intense fire reduced lead grenadier units to just a fraction of their original strength or completely eliminated them, thus invoking the British rally rule that sent them back with 1 figure remaining to spend several turns rallying up beyond half strength.

Whittling down the head of the column

On my flank, I finally got the chance to turn in towards the road and start attacking the militia lining the road. In one particularly fortunate action, I charged a militia unit that failed to evade, and then wiped it out in fighting. The resulting morale checks for the other militia units within 12" resulted in several failures.

Into the backs of 'em

With another unit charging in next turn, I managed to clear a stretch of road that might let us advance the grenadiers a bit farther. Although there seemed to be no end of militia forming up just ahead.

A bit of clear space for now

After a couple hours of play we called it. The grenadier column still had about 6 turns of marching—unimpeded by American bullets—to get off the table. I'm not sure what the loss state of the Americans was. They can only recycle a unit once, so they may have soon been down to fewer than 4 units per command on the table. For the convention, we'll play till the game period ends and determine victory then.

Thoughts and reflections

I thought he game played very well. It's a tough scenario to get a balanced game from. When we first started thinking about it, my fear was that a lot of militia would just overwhelm the British.

The British rally rule worked out how I imagined it would. Historically, the British were hurt very badly, but not wiped out. Had the Smith-Pitcairn column not run into Percy's relief column at Lexington, they may well have started surrendering. Even after the column combined with Percy's force, they had a hard fight ahead before getting back to Boston. The rally rule ensures that no British units are completely lost, which would end the game quickly, but that they have to spend time recovering after being 'eliminated' or to avoid being eliminated.

The Militia recycling rule did a good job representing the historical aspect of groups of militia showing up, taking some shots, and then going away. The Americans have effectively 32 units of militia to employ at some point, but they can never have more than 16 on the table at one time. The militia also starts slowly with just 8 units at start.

We thought about making the grenadiers just act as automatons who march inexorably to their deaths down the road. But that's silly. Without allowing the grenadiers to fight back to some degree by returning fire or charging a wall to chase off their tormentors, the game would be badly imbalanced against the British. Without using the grenadiers to do more than just march, the balance would be 16 militia against 10 light infantry.

The grenadiers, however, are the militia's main target. It's essential that they stop the column and steadily attritt it. For the British, the trick is screening the grenadiers from militia muskets and keeping the roadsides clear.

Figures and terrain
Kevin and I painted all the minis in the game. I did 24 British light infantry, 30 grenadiers, and 36 militia. Kevin did all the rest. Also, Kevin bought Phil Bardsley's AWI figures at the estate sale we had for him last week. He'll remount the militia figures to 3-2-1 basing and get two of Phil's units in the game posthumously.

The buildings are Kevin's, the rest is from the collection of terrain bits that I've finally managed to build up after nearly 30 years. I'm particularly happy that I managed to get so much fencing and stone walls. The walls are made by Armorcast. The fences are Pegasus, with my flocking on the bases.

Baby Ree

This has been a hard post to work on. It rambles more than my usual posts because the memories and feelings flooded in without cadence or order and I didn't have the energy to sort them all out.

My sweet, fussy bobtail Rhiannon died in my arms in the early hours of April 17. For 13 years she was my sweet Baby Ree. My first sight of her in the morning was the highlight of every day. All I have now is an urn on the mantel and a million vivid memories of what I've lost.

I adopted her three weeks after I adopted Grendel in 2006. I thought he needed a companion and she charmed me at the shelter with her sweet disposition, head-butting, and her wee, waggly tail. There was a bit of a rough patch between her and Grendel at first, but eventually the two connected and were amicable and even friendly (for a while).

Christmas truce, 2006

When I adopted Maebh in 2007, the relationship between Grendel and Rhiannon faded to the same proportion that Maebh and Grendel bonded. Ree was the odd cat out, even after she grudgingly came to accept Maebh as a new housemate. Tension could get high, but I often found all three bundled together on the bed, on a couch, by the big window in the sun, or beside a fire. I have many fewer pictures of those moments than I wish, but the memories of seeing them all together are still a delight to my soul.

She was fussy and bossy, although it took her a little while to fit into her bossy pants. At first, if she wanted my attention, I would feel a gentle tapping of a paw on my knee as I worked at my computer. I'd look down to see her soulful, pea-green eyes looking imploringly up at me. That look would make me drop everything to go sit where she could snuggle with me. We'd sit together until she'd had her Dave fix and got up to potter about and eventually sit in the sun, or by the fire, or near a heat vent. She was an insatiable heat-pig.

Snuggling up to my warm laptop

Loving the warm fire

After a few years, if she wanted anything from me she'd just come up behind and yowl accusingly at me. Her face then was less imploring and more an indignant expression of "I'm not gonna pet myself." That didn't make time spent with her less sweet. To the contrary, her insistent affection endeared her to me all the more. And because she was the odd cat out, I felt all the more eager to give her my affection in return.

Working herself into hyperfuss

She always loved to be with me. In the early hours of the morning when the cats were in the preliminary stages of waking the human, she'd often come up to snuggle near my head. I'd lie on my right side with my right arm extended out. Rhiannon would lie along the length of my arm with her head in my cupped hand and her back pressed up against my arm. Her stubby tail would waggle constantly, tickling my upper arm. All the while, she'd purr and purr. If I were capable, I'd have purred myself. The last time she did that, was just a week or so before she died.

My favorite coworker

One has to be very particular with cats. You can really only interact with them on their terms. It's not for nothing that we have expressions like "herding cats" to represent the essence of impossibility. Like working with wood, when you deal with cats, you have to work with the grain, not against it. To violate that rule isn't to court trouble (well, sometimes); rather, it robs you of the natural beauty that the grain reveals when you respect it.

My beautiful girl

Rhiannon's grain was beautiful, with a few knots. She didn't like to be picked up. Not at all. I could easily sling Grendel (and now Bogart) over my shoulder without any resistance. Rhiannon would curl into a ball to make it very hard to hold her. That never really changed, although as she aged and it became harder for her to get up on things, she seemed to welcome being carried upstairs or onto the couch or bed.

She stomped. Sir Aurthur Sullivan wrote a lyric about pirates moving with cat-like tread as the epitome of stealth. Rhiannon could walk stealthily when she wanted, but many times when she wanted to make her presence—and her annoyance—known, she'd stomp as she walked. Her stomping was most distinct when she walked on pergo or linoleum, but she could even stomp on the pile carpet. Maybe it was intentional, or maybe it was an occasional effect of her being a bit on the plump side and having short legs. Whatever it was, I always had to smile when I heard her whump! whump! whump! into a room.

Hogging the orange toy thingy

Since Grendel died in 2016 I've been more apprehensive of the potential loss of another cat. I'd always had that in the back of my mind since I adopted them, but going through those terrible weeks in the late summer of 2016 let me know just how devastating the loss of one of my furry companions can be.

I noticed Rhiannon aging over the years. She was once the champion jumper of the house and regularly made a death-defying leap across the chasm of the stairwell so she could sit in the sun on the deep sill of the upper window. And it was her sill. She was the first to sit there, but soon after Grendel started sitting there too. One day, a few weeks after I adopted her, she was snuggled next to me on the settee in my den. From that spot, we could see in the glass of a framed map at the top of the stairs the reflection Grendel camped out on the sill. Rhiannon got down off the settee, stomped out to the hallway, leaped up on the banister and then across to the sill. Once there she proceeded to swat Grendel on the head several times. After that, she leaped back over and returned to her place next to me, leaving a bewildered Grendel staring around wondering what just happened. As the years went by, She no longer had the strength to jump and the sill became empty except for the cobwebs.

Feeding time was a unique situation with three cats. Grendel approached comestibles with the appalling devastation of a swarm of locusts. I couldn't leave food out for the cats to graze on or he would eat it all, to no one's benefit. Instead, I fed them in three spots in the kitchen and sat by monitoring their manners. Rhiannon's spot was on top of the island in the kitchen. It stands about 3 1/2 feet tall and she would float up to the top like a pixie and gobble her food. After several years, she needed to do a 2-hop onto a chair and then up. Eventually, I'd have to place her up there because even the 2-hop was a hop too far. Only after Grendel died did I feed her and Maebh together on the floor and let them graze.

It became more difficult for her to get on the bed. I'd awake at night or early morning to hear frantic scrambling to climb onto the bed, which would culminate with Rhiannon's face—wide-eyed and desperate—appearing at the bedside as she dragged her way up and on top. I bought little stairs for the bed and the couch in the living room. The right arm of my leather recliner is covered in punctures and scratches from years of her coming onto the chair with be by that rout.

She loved my stinky shoes

She'd been losing weight over several months. She was always a bit chubby and her weight loss really just brought her back to normal for a cat with her small frame. But having been chubby all those years, the weight loss was concerning, even though it's natural for older cats. She also showed a lot more signs of slowing down and being unstable on her four feet.

I took her in for a vet appointment with the hope that they could recommend supplements that could help her as she aged. I had every expectation that she'd live to be 20 or more. I started to think she'd outlive us all, being too fussy to die. The vet's examination revealed a large mass in her abdomen. Her kidneys and liver were just so-so. Her heart and lungs were good. Her teeth, amazingly were good. Every visit to the vet, they'd say she had a bit of tartar and gingivitis that needed watching. Grendel and Maebh both had to have teeth pulled, but Rhiannon's teeth stayed the same her whole life. But the mass in her abdomen was serious.

They took her out to do blood work and when they brought her back, she'd collapsed. She remained there for the day on I.V. They wanted to send her over to an emergency hospital for overnight monitoring, but the panic within me was afraid that if she went, I'd never see her again. By the afternoon, she'd recovered sufficiently that I could take her home. Fearing that her death may be near, I was resolved that she'd die at home, not at the vet's with tubes stuck in her.

The vet prescribed prednisolone, which I had compounded to a liquid for oral injection, and an appetite stimulant. A friend of mine also provided material and instructions for syringe-feeding her when she wouldn't eat.

For the next week, she nibbled a bit or I'd try to force some food into her. She drank a lot of water, but she'd plop her chin in the fountain and get all wet down the front and on her paws. She was clearly getting weaker, but I hoped that the prednisolone and stimulant would kick in and she'd get back to a stability that could be maintained for a foreseeable future, even though the fear still gripped me tighter that she was dying. She was 18. I could hope for more, but couldn't really expect it.

By late afternoon on April 16th I knew she couldn't last. I'd wanted to call in a vet who could put her to sleep at home the way I had done with Grendel. However, her situation seemed dire and I didn't think I could arrange it soon enough. I made an appointment to bring her into my vet for the next afternoon.

The day before she died

That night, I put her up on the bed with me, but she crawled off and flopped down to the floor and then crawled slightly under the bed. I slept fitfully dreading the next day. Just before 4:00 am, I awoke to hear her groaning. I went to her on the floor—she'd crawled during the night to the other side of the bed—and knew that she was at the end. I picked her up and brought her downstairs where I sat on the couch with her in my arms. Her head was on my left shoulder with the rest of her lying across my chest, over my heart. Her breathing was labored and she gasped several times. I petted her and soothed her and told her how much I loved her. As her breathing became less labored, I finally told her that she could go now. A moment later, she breathed her last and lay silently in my arms.

I sat with her like that for another 20 minutes or so, just petting her over and over. She had such soft, plush fur. Maebh was nearby looking perplexed. I could have stayed that way all morning, I think, but I wrapped her in a towel and put her in her carrier—she always hated being put in the carrier—and prepared to bring her into the vet for cremation first thing in the morning.

I got her ashes back just over a week later. Her urn is smaller than Grendel's, which is fitting. She was my little girl, my wee one. I called her Ree the Wee, Her Weeness, etc. From her thumb-sized tail, to her small nose and tiny paws, she was the picture of petiteness.

Two urns now

It's as hard for me to say goodbye now as it was to let her go that Wednesday morning as she lay dying in my arms. I thought I'd shed all my tears, but they're coming now as I write this.

Goodbye, baby girl. My heart aches to think that I can't hold you anymore. You were my sweet baby, the delight of my life. I always told people that I had no favorites, but it was you. Just seeing you always brightened my day. Whenever I'd been away, I never felt that I was home until you stomped up to greet me. You've left a hole in my heart that nothing can ever fill.

Tardee tarries: Rebels and Patriots AAR

We played our second ACW game for Rebels and Patriots yesterday. We got the situation from fellow local gamer Mitch Berdinka, who designed it for AWI using the Sharp Practice rules. You can see Mitch's blog post about it here.

I got a chance to use my freshly painted Sash and Saber Confederates. I painted 110 minis and two guns in about two months, in addition to working on and competing minis for other projects. For me, this is incredible productivity only made possible through the dip method that I finally adopted a few years ago. To the ur-dipper I offer my profound thanks, whoever you are.

Eric Donaldson, too, got some lead in the fight with his beautiful Union dismounted cavalry with horse-holders. The rest of the Union side was provided by Bill Stewart, who supplied all the minis we used in our first ACW game, Hardtack Hill.

In our game yesterday, Eric and Bill were the Union and Dave Schueler and I were the Confederates.

The terrain was mostly open with some woods, wooden fences, and one enclosed field enclosed by a stone wall.

The field of battle

Detail of the central position

The Union's task was to get a wagon of gunpowder across the ford and off the board. Hindering this was a Confederate blocking force of three line infantry units commanded by Lt. Beauregard LeMieux, run by Dave Schueler. One unit was ensconced behind an ersatz barricade, which counted as hard cover, and the remainder were behind some rail fences, counting as cover.

Post of honor

In hindsight, I should have positioned the barricade with its right refused and/or let the Confederates deploy on either side. As it was, the position had a dangerously exposed flank.

The Hated Yankees™ deployed next in the central position. Eric with his dismounted cavalry, a light gun, and a unit of line infantry on the river side of the central road. The line infantry was within the stonewalled field; the other units were in reserve.

There stands Donaldson like a stone wall

Bill had four line infantry units and the wagon on the other side.

The starting forces

The remaining Confederates, inably commanded by Lt. Jubal Tardee, CSA, were to come up behind the Union on turn 2.

The Union started things off by moving against Dave's blocking position. Bill had three line infantry to Dave's three, but Eric started moving his dismounted cavalry and light gun (with limber) towards Dave's open right flank.

On turn 2 when the Confederate chasing force was supposed to come on, things were not as expected, or desired. Jubal Tardee's unit failed to activate as did the other line infantry unit. However, two light guns, three skirmishers, and some light cavalry came on.

"Hey there! Rebs a-comin'—mebee not."

By turn 3, with Dave hotly engaged to front and flank, Tardee again failed to come on the field, although the other line infantry did. I started peppering the Union infantry with my two guns and skirmishing against Bill, hoping to get my cavalry in charge range and take on one of Bill's infantry in the open.

There stands LeMieux like a rail fence

The gun firing at Eric's infantry behind the stone wall was ineffective throughout. At long range (about 20") and with a target in hard cover, I had a pretty poor change to cause casualties. However, I was taking a toll on one of Bill's units. He'd put it in close order to get the extra discipline and volley fire, but that put him in greater vulnerability to my gun.

"Give 'em blizzards, boys!"

On turn 5  Jubal Tardee finally came on the field with banners flying—but too little, too late.

Hurrah, boys! Hurrah!

I managed to sneak a skirmisher unit around the flank of Eric's position behind the stone wall. I finally had a chance to open fire on it without benefit of cover. I moved the cannon up to within close range (12") to get a better chance while Eric was engaged with my skirmishers and a line unit (the other one, not Tardy Tardee's).

Sneekin' 'round the flank

My dismounted cavalry (skirmishers) and light cavalry were operating against two of Bill's line units. Not to much success, I must add. My plan was to advance the skirmish line with the cavalry behind until I got into charge range.

Itch'n fer a scrap with them damn Yankees

That happened once in the game. I was within 11" of a line unit that was just outside the woods. My "3" activation wouldn't cut it. On his next activation, Bill moved into the woods where the odds weren't in my favor. The skirmishers, too, got shot up a bit. One was reduced to half strength (permanent disorder) and the other nearly so. The cavalry, screened as it was, remained untouched.

Eric's line unit behind the stone wall eventually succumbed to the flanking fire and close(r) range artillery and rifles. He popped into half strength and failed a morale check that caused him to skeedaddle—taking "Stonewall" Donaldson along in the rout.

Fire at the blue of their bellies, boys!

Dave's force was being cut to pieces by Bill's three units and the flanking fire of Eric's gun and dismounted cavalry. He was ultimately left with just one figure—Beauregard LeMieux holding off the Yankee horde with revolver in hand and faithful cat by his side. Despite his desperate situation, he defied destruction and kept passing morale/rally checks.

With the Confederate blocking force pushed aside, Bill got the wagon moving off road towards its exit point with nothing to hinder it. As he did that, he pulled back from engaging with me. Jubal Tardee, who had managed to throw just a few ineffectual shots in Bill's direction before this, warily followed supported by a light gun.

They's showin' us their backs, boys! Advance!

Eric was bringing back his forces that had flanked Dave's position. His dismounted cavalry was exchanging shots with my skirmishers and he'd positioned his light gun behind the stone wall at the other side of the field. I placed one of mine opposite his and we were all poised for a artillery duel.

Light artillery at 10 paces, fire!

But we called the game at this point. The Rebs had no chance of catching the wagon. We didn't have the strength to engage more closely without getting shot full o' Yankee minié balls and 10-pound Parrott bolts.

We played 8 turns in just a couple hours. The game was fast-paced and moved along very smoothly. The changes I'd make in the scenario is to make the blocking position less vulnerable on the flank and to start the chasing force on board on turn 1. The lack of any serious pressure on the union for the first three turns of the game let them overwhelm the blocking force. Instead of escaping from the jaws of a pincer, they just had to punch their way out of a wet paper bag.

I'm happy that my forces weren't completely cursed by failure in their first appearance on the game table. Dave's force was wiped out except for LeMieux and his cat, but I incurred only light casualties. None of my units were destroyed or routed—although nearly so. On the Union side, only Eric's line unit—and officer—got routed. Otherwise, they took casualties on several units, but I don't think any were at half strength yet.

Pity the Reb cavalry never got a chance to get in close with pistols 'n' shotguns. It might have been glorious—or in.

Build me up butternut

It was a spur of the moment project, but I'm pretty well along with completing an ACW force of Confederates for Rebels and Patriots. I had ACW in the back of my mind, but I was planning to focus on AWI first and get to the ACW later. I forget why I rushed into it—I don't really know why I have impulses like this—but in a mad flurry I placed three consecutive orders to Sash and Saber. The initial one for a lot of infantry and guns, the second for mounted and dismounted cavalry, and the third for more infantry (because I didn't think the 70 figures I bought at first would be sufficient).

I went with Sash and Saber because my putative primary opponent, Wm. Stewart, Esq., has a large and beautiful Sash and Saber collection. We used Bill's collection in our first game, The Battle of Hardtack Hill. Sash and Saber are great minis and they have a lot of variety in their skirmishing infantry packs.

My first order arrived quickly. Sash and Saber is fulfilled through Old Glory and they're fast. I tore into them right away and got the first 22 completed and based in a few weeks.

Right now, I've got the remaining 48 nearing completion, as well as 12 dismounted cavalry, 2 six-pounders and crews, a mounted officer (Lt. Jubal Tardee—with cat), and 6 mounted cavalry. Another 30 infantry, 12 dismounted cavalry, and 18 mounted cavalry are still basic lead.

I have had a jar of Howard's Hues Rebel Butternut paint sitting around for years. I've always meant to apply it to some figures, but just didn't. I have some Sash and Saber 40mm Rebs, acquired after playing some Smooth & Rifled games with Phil Bardsley using his collection of 40s, I also had a pile of unpainted Dixon ACW (both sides), but I sold them at our last Enfilade! bring 'n' buy with the intention of doing the project using Perry or Sash and Saber minis. Now that I consider it, I should have kept some of the Dixon bandsmen minis, they make a great vignette and Jubal Tardee is just the sort to go to war with a brass band in tow.

You just don't see enough butternut on the wargame table. Everyone goes for gray, but not me. These boys'll stand out.

Bill and I have another game looming for April 6. I expect to have much more than 24 points ready to go. It'll be nice to field a company using my boys in butternut.

The AWI has not gone lacking in all this ACW activity. More on that in a post soon, but I have 24+ points worth of 'Mericans (depending on how I buy the units, it could be way more than 24 points worth). Most are militia, but I can use them as straight up line. Like the ACW, I have a lot more to paint including mounted militia, Lee's Legion dragoons, a couple units of Continentals, a lot more riflemen, and guns (a 3-pounder and a brace of 6-pounders). And someday, when my Wargames Foundry order arrives—if ever—I'll have another 24 militia to paint.