"Trumpeter Salute" convention March 2015

This weekend was the local annual war-game convention. It seemed that this year suffered, not from a dearth of games, but from participants as many games suffered from lack of players for all three days.  Many a game host ( including myself as I will discover) were in want of players to fill out their games.  With John Westra looking for a third player, I reluctantly entered his game, certainly not because his games are poorly done, far from it, as his games I found to be well run and his 1:300 planes very well painted with lots of cool markers; but that I am such a poor pilot - read poor knowledge of airgame rules, poor dice roller and poor "plan ahead-er",  that I inevitably get shot down!  In this game I do not disappoint as I have 3 or 4 planes downed with the third heading home having failed to create any enemy damage. I was reminded that I actually managed to collide two of my own wing together crashing both.  Sigh.
I played a wing commander of flight of Japanese floatplanes defending a destroyer convoy against American dive-bombers with some escorts.  Rather unsuccessfully.  The Americans managed to shoot down more of their planes from friendly fire than we could!

Japanese 1:300 planes above 1:700 ships (with a bit of salt as a wake.  Simple but effective)

John Westra's beautifully painted planes.  He has an extensive collection seemingly for every WW2 theatre and year!

John's well conceived bombing run.

Early morning the next day had me setting up my 28mm Waterloo game.  Again the dearth of available players had much fewer numbers than I would have liked. I joined the Allied side as the cavalry commander Uxbridge while DaveB helped assist the French players becoming Napoleon for the game.

view of the Waterloo field from the southwest with Hougomont to the left, La Haye Sainte at the upper centre of the photo and La Belle Alliance at the right.  The French attacks have just begun.

The Allies await.  The road represents the crest line of the ridge. Only their artillery and poor Eylandt's brigade (under the held measuring stick ) are shown to the French.

I used the historical set up but allowed the French carte blanche for their attacks.  These became Reille slowly moving around and attacking Hougomont, Lobau moving in column toward La Haye Sainte,  d'Erlon moving toward the Allies bringing the Grand Battery along, and the Guard infantry moving up immediately. Kellerman's and Milhaud's heavy cavalry corps moved toward the left and right flanks respectively. This left the Guard Horse to move to the east as the sole defence against the expected Prussians.
d'Erlon's attack was met with the British heavy horse, recreating the historical event.

The British heavy horse charge in historical fashion!

Reille's Corps was wrapped up in attacks on Hougomont and so when that complex finally fell, it was severely weakened.  While having suffered no brigade losses, most elements were down to one or two strength and the Allies were still in good positions and strong enough to weather further assaults. Lobau's advance stopped to take LHS which the Allies unhistorically used Kielmanegge's Hanoverians to defend, shifting Ompteda's KGL elites to fend off the open field assaults ( 'town' assaults are one of numbers and chance than that of skill and so the elites are played more advantageously in the open).  The two heavy cavalry corps were not committed leaving the Guard to try to open up the Allies lines.  However the Dutch-Belgian heavy horse attacked the Guard successfully in well timed ( and dice rolled! ) attack against the French veterans.

The Dutch and Belgian heavy horse attack the French Guard!

By now the Prussians were on the field and the French saw their numbers pour forth.
It is at this point - and the fact that the gaming-period time had expired - that Napoleon declared his army would retire quickly back while he still had an army to do so.  Couldn't disagree with his decision.

The game was tied with the other much larger table 15mm Waterloo game held during the same time for runner up for Best of Session.

the 'other' Waterloo game during the session. original set up showing "Wellington's ridge" This in 15mm. Photo by ThomasM.

I believe the 'other' Waterloo was conducted on a 12' long table. Photo by ThomasM.

With those players now departed I had a couple new guys signed up for game two.  With the limited numbers I abandoned the large battle for a smaller simple affair of a British division, Dutch-Belgian command and the Brunswickers defending LHS against two small French corps with cuirassier support.   Great battle as it turned out with both sides always rolling well for their Corps Morale rolls thus making the battle much more enduring than would be anticipated.

The second game's early moves and attacks

The Dutch-Belgian corps.  Most are plastic conversions by me.

Another view of the D-Bs

Players from both games seemed to be very pleased with the effects of the rules and we had no issues.  I think we are there.....

Quite exhausted from the day hosting and the previous late night,  I would have been quite happy to wonder around but Steve Allen looking for players ( as I say a common theme ) roped me ( once again ) into his games ( always fun however nonetheless ) this time Circus Maximus - the chariot racing game.

SteveA's chariot game table. He plans to add stands around the perimeter.

Now this game is a regular staple of the monthly game sessions and so many of the players are very familiar to the rules and indeed have formed teams (father and son) or rivalries.  Having absolutely no idea about the rules, the game, the pre-game betting (!) and horse trading,  I was the lamb to the slaughter as it were.  However SteveA guided me through the cart set up in which I apparently rolled for quite well as many were impressed by my various stats.

Like all rookies I was overwhelmed by the event and so can relate very little of the race.  All I wanted to do is go fast and stay out of trouble. How to do that best was still rather unknown so I played it safe and moved to the outside lanes as to continue to maintain speed without much "flip" testing. Lots of charts etc which were a complete mystery.  All I know is that as players moved by me in the game's random, phased movement,  they would whip my horses!  What the heck?! The responses were "Hey I need the experience points" or "Great way to slow up for the corners"

Long story short, I ended the race in a respectable fourth place of ten carts/players and third in the money as the 3rd place finisher had to pay out his bribe money to other players NOT to attack him during the race!  Lots more going on there than this newbie was aware of!


Next day again had me in casual mode.  The attractive 2mm (!) set up by Kevin Aldridge of the WHOLE campaign of Waterloo had me in conversation with him.  Later, chatting with Christine of Stronghold ( a vendor ), she remarked that indeed the game looked very good. I suggested she could play in the game and as it was near she stall she could keep an eye out for customers.  With her participation I too joined in the role of Napoleon.

A big chunk of Belgium

My French moving toward Quatre-Bras. "The crossroads. He is bound to go for them"

While maneuver command control was simple, the mere number of brigade chits made moving them a long procedure.  There was no way we could get a conclusion but we managed a preliminary battle between Gerard and Vandamme's French Corps and a Prussian corps which I forced to retreat eliminating its rear guard elements.  Both armies were concentrating at Genappe for the showdown battle as we concluded.

a preliminary (and only) battle of the campaign being conducted.  The cards are very useful identifiers as the little boys get kinda confusing after a short time! 

His simple yet effective terrain.

The game KevinA converted from a board game to the representation of 3d terrain - the various high grounds and ridges were created by hard foam cut outs and old socks ( -love it!) under the felt.  Roads are fabric softener sheets, dyed grey and cut into strips and used as they have a low profile and stick to the felt that he can thus just roll up.

A lot of a convention for me is the ideas from others. Good stuff.

A wargamer's conversation with his wife

 Packing all the many figures I have collected in the last couple of years into the boxes readying for my game of Waterloo for the local convention this weekend,  I had this conversation with my wife:

The Wife: (with her favourite sweet waved in front of her) ...and I don't need the temptation dear...unlike when a pack of Perry miniatures is placed in front of you!
The Husband: Oh, thank you for reminding me.   I want to place another order with them.
The Wife: A large one?
The Husband:  I have been trying, trying mind you, to 'perry' it down.
The Wife:  Yeah, right.  Ha. (as she removes the credit card to a safer location)
The Husband (thinking to himself) :  Well that bit of humour was as effective as a lead balloon.

"Now Maitland, now's your time!"  Scene from the Battle of Waterloo. The British First Foot Guards in action. (the 'wheat field' is simply a straw foot mat cut to fit) (plastic Perry figures)

ACW ambulance stations

Moving back into my roots a bit,  painted the last of my 15mm ACW collection.  This was remarkable in that the last time I painted 15mm ACW was some 7 years ago (!) and that for some Confederate cavalry adding to the previous endeavours some 9 years before that!

Had to do a bit of reorganizing to get all into the plastic bead trays I hold within the one carrying bag.  I include photos of both a typical tray - in this case my Union Zouaves some 180 figures - and the opened carrying bag itself which actually has all the space filled with these trays.

I have made specific instruction for the wife to grab this bag on her way out of the burning house.  Forget the wedding photos Dear, but make sure this is safe along with the adjacent terrain bag......

I also include a couple of other photo from the collection; the signal tower so I can tell my war game opponent that I indeed HAVE instant command with my far flanks and the pontoon punters to WILL allow my crossing of the "unfordable" river.  Hee hee....

some of the odder posed figures were cut in half, the muskets cut out of the hands and replaced by barge poles so that the pontoons could be pushed across.  The pontoons are solid pieces of balsa wood

I also painted the last of the Generals I had in storage for years now, including one of the famous Confederate commanders.  The stone wall I created on the base is a literal and figuratively big give-away!

All the figures are from the Old Glory 15mm ACW range which is extensive and with nice touches such as the ladies offering comfort to the wounded in the ambulance vignette.  The two identical sets can be, as I have done, painted as Union and Confederate.

Waterloo Battle #2

Prologue:
Finally happy(-ish) with the rules, I invited a group to my place for a good playtest and another go at Waterloo (being 200th and all).  Like herding cats, trying to get the guys all here and knowing the rules had the game start an hour and a half late.  As weekday evening, at only mid game were the complaints of "gotta go" heard.  And this after tea/coffee was ready and served.  Perhaps I will need to offer RedBull instead.....
Sigh.

I knew the likelihood of the reconvening was almost nil, so I slowly worked through the game myself, trying to follow the initial plans by the French and try to play out each side as well as possible.  Of course, being solo, I could co-ordinate the various commands which would be less likely with different players commanding each, but the dice seem to enjoy making this more difficult than one would believe !

Cut-to-the-chase:
The Allies win again in a very close near-run-thing!

Introduction:
The rules are specifically designed for the convention setting so simplicity is the key and I was happy to find that the players had the concept by Turn 4.
The deployments were historical but each side were allowed to develop their own strategy.

  The French decided to ignore the historical strongpoints of Hougomont and La Haye Sainte.  It was apparent from the initial moves that Reille and Kellerman's heavy cavalry were to move against the Allies right flank, dErlon to pin the Allies centre with Milhaud's cuirassiers and Lobau to attack between  Hougomont and La Haye Sainte.  At least that is what I surmised looking at the initial moves.  Other than the Young Guard and the cavalry having moved to the right to counter the Prussians just coming on the table, was the only move by the French Imperial Guard.  It stayed well to the rear.  Whether by design so it would not be overly committed in any one direction so to exploit any of the various attacks, will not be known.  It was not helped forward as Napoleon was on his "sick-bed" for extended periods during the game.

This rule had a 50-50 roll whether Napoleon was on the field and could a) contribute to any formations movement and b) move the Middle and Old Guard (the 4 infantry elements) as only he personally allowed.

  The Allies had less decisions to make in their defensive role behind a ridge.  However, coordination between commands would prove troublesome (even as a solo effort)  due to the tight confines of the battlefield.

The Terrain:
The battlefield is one of the most known of history and quite easy to replicate.  I did not make the ridgeline but used a road to indicate the crest, with movement unaffected but artillery random if firing across (only allowed one shot per element and at a major minus).  Initial reaction by the players seemed to think this was fine and simulates the historical situation well enough.  All strongpoints could be defended - but were in any event not attacked. But the Allies still had to defend with the historical elite troops despite.

I will let the photo captions do most of the talking.

Overview of the battle in its early stages looking from the east.  The lower portion shows Milhaud's moving behind d'Erlon's massed corps while the 'Grand Battery" and Quiot's Division stands guard.  In the centre, Lobau's Corps in column moves to between La Haye Sainte (grey buildings) and Hougomont (brick complex upper centre).  Reille and Kellerman's heavies move around to attack the Allied Right.

Closer view with the initial French moves done and the Allied players positioning their Generals.  

Picton's command behind the ridge and the Allies Heavy Horse behind.

French army in full display.  La Belle Alliance in the centre of this photo.

Showing the French moves on their left. Hougomont upper centre, La Haye Sainte upper right, La Belle Alliance slightly south.  A tight battlefield even by the standards of the day.  But still lots of maneuver room with 28mm on a 8x5' table.

Reille's Corps ignoring Hougomont and rounding it's west side.

Close-up of the Allied right/west flank.   The multiple commands in this area made coordination of the different arms difficult. One wonders how Wellington made it work.

The Prussians would make little impact this day.  Bulow's poor consistently poor command rolls would not allow much forward movement.

Forced into action, d'Erlon attacks would ultimately fail. 

Finally off his sick bed, Napoleon personally led his Guardsmen.  The Brunswickers ( in black) would not stand.

The Highlanders of Picton's command could finally move and thus defeated the Guard in a flank attack. 

The conclusion:
The initial game ended at the start of Turn 8 with very little combat.  I had played the game out until Turn 15 but the game starts to increase its tempo (shorter real time game turns) as morale/combat effectiveness collapses in ever increasing amounts.  Rather like the real thing.  At Turn 15 only the French Guard was left and the one element loss to the Highlanders meant Napoleon could no longer force his army forward.

Dave McN's Russian WW2 scenario-- Games 2 & 3

Well the Monday Night boys are still working on Dave McN's WW2 scenario.  While I am not really into the era - but I still can recognize a PzMkIII from a MkIV etc. - and don't have a great hankering for the rules,  it has been interesting playing the same scenario now three times being both a Russian and German player.   In fact I ended up last night as the Russian commanding the militia types, entrenched on the north side of the main road facing the truck mounted German infantry with the StuG and PzMkII support which is exactly the mirror the position and composition of my German force of last week's game! This is remarkable as the typical wargamer selection process is done before each battle.  This can be described as " Hmm, you take that and that, and I will take this and I guess, this...."

I really did not comprehend this mirroring until after Dave McN had met with overwhelming casualties that Francis suggested that Dave did the same tactical errors I did the previous week.  Looking over the photos it becomes apparent this observation was indeed spot on.  Funny how sitting on the opposite side of the table makes the perspective that much more different.

OK with that, how did the battles proceed?

Well, to understand the battle/games we must divide the table into four parts. First east and west with the river dividing the two and obviously the Russians and Germans deployed respectively;  and north and south with the main road and bridge dissecting the battlefield down the middle with a ford to each direction north and south.

With four players in each game, the normal wargamer "I take this side and you take that side" deployment emphasized by the fords was made in both games and the Russian militia was set up in entrenchments to the north of the main road while the main Panzer thrust was made over the south ford.

In the first game I took the truck borne German infantry leaving the 251s to accompany Kev's panzers. In the second game the same was done with Francis' blitz movement with the same force while Dave attacked my emplaced militia with the same truck borne forces.  Like I said: identical deployments without knowing it.

So, tactically was it the same with the different players?
Well, in a word, yup.
In the northern section of the battle, the trucks were shot up forcing the Germans to bail and often disordered prompting losses and delays.  In both battles the bridge was blocked by the Russians and the Germans had to hump it, slowing them as they moved against the poor morale but entrenched militia.  Slow going which was not to the German advantage.

During the 'briefings' Dave McN claimed to have a cunning plan.  But with my placing two of my BT-7s right dab in the middle of the road at the bridge forming a blockade what I would assume will be burning wrecks...

 ....his plan exactly as mine as it turns out ( ! )  to get into the meat of the Russian defences before needing to dismount was foiled as was mine playing the German the week before. He went to the north ford, as I did, forced to dismount, as I was, and got shot up by the damned militamen, as I did to him!   History repeats itself once again!

The Russian militia are deployed on the left (north) side of the road in the trenches between the buildings

Kev's set up of the Russians in Game 1 (above) compared to my set up (below) seen from the opposite view:

Despite Dave McN's claim to "to the same houses in the same spots" this is the same location as the photo above but now looking down from the north-east as it were but now with thatched roofs which give it a different look.

Dave forced to the north ford in Game 2:

my tank burning roadblock at the top and Dave's truck borne Germans with lots of bad news markers over the ford to the right of the photo. 

I had fairly good dice luck this game --more 9s and 10s than usual -- and his close combat attacks universally failed.  If the game was to continue, I was ready to finally move troops to help my counterpart, Kev, who was having no luck against Francis' spearhead advance:

Perhaps even Guderian would suggest this is overly tight? But it is a good 'blitz' attack.

from the previous game: a grey conga line of armor along the same route along side the southern table edge.

15mm figures and vehicles from the collections of Francis and DaveMcN.


A game quote from the latter battle:

Time to call in fire support.
-so I don't have any?
Correct.
-in other words I just have a Russian militiaman with an empty vodka bottle to his ear calling for mortar support?
Correct.

The new turn dial

Knowing the game turn seems to be a universal question most asked at any game.  "What turn are we on?".  So recording of said event is important.  I have seen various methods employed:  coins collected from pockets,  pebbles aligned in groups,  crudely scratched upon the back of the rule book, and such.  Of course dials of varying forms are most likely and I have been employing one given to me by a club mate which is basically two weak fridge magnets with card glued upon, the upside with a printed Napoleonic tri-coleur flag photocopied on the face.  Did the trick of course.

But a couple of days ago I just HAD TO go to the local game store to see what new items ( and sale items! ) they had, and to use up a gift certificate. "Dear, you want to go shopping?" Once I mentioned the area, she knew, but decided to come along away.....

Now as I buzzed around the store like a very excited and confused hamster before she got too bored, I found the '4Ground' display and came across their turn dial.

 It is simply two pieces of plywood joined together by strong mini magnets which keep the wood together but still able to turn as to expose each number.  A tab allows for positioning.

Well I liked the concept so I bought it and with my OCD kicking in, I of course had to do my thing to "blend it" into the table as not to have visual distractions.

Without spending much time on this, I painted the edges black, the tab brown, added my "earth" putty and flocking, and deciding that I wanted a bit of extra weight as not to allow the number to be changed should an accidental nudge be made, I added an existing lead Prussian casualty.  Actually the dial seemed too plain and I thought of the extra 'dead' to place on top.  I have plastic dead types but this Prussian was already painted and in hindsight the weight effect is a good by-product !

While close to the action in this photo, the dial will be no doubt placed in the corner of the table but hopefully not too eye distracting.

Quote of the day:  I have CDO.  It's exactly like OCD but all the letters are in the g*d**n correct alphabetical order !!   <grin>

Examples of our Napoleonic Markers

I like the use of subtle markers on the table rather than any paper notations or obvious coloured objects to distract from "the look" of the tabletop.

These do not have to be elaborate affairs nor do they need much effort to create.  I have done much of the work of these while waiting for the wife to finish dressing before going out,  and such.  Ten minutes of quick gluing a bit here and there can add up to finishing these mini-projects.

In our last game, Seth and I found that our corps morale requirement required us to remember which corps needed to test the following turn.  Even with only two of us and a quiet environment, we had to resort to an ad-hoc marker to remind us.  Seth finally suggested perhaps a flag or something, joking that it could be a white flag... as I was about to conduct my first test..... har, har....

A good idea nonetheless , I looked at what materials I had at hand.  Lots of those GW plastic bases with thick black edges so keeping with our basing look.  I have plastic toothpicks so, picking out the green ones as not to need paint for quick practicality and for that subtlety, mind you.. I cut them into half as height is not really the issue and hot glued them onto the plastic bases.  I cut some paper into flag shaped bits and wrapped it around the toothpick while creating the wind-wave (this I did while during commercial breaks in between my rare viewing of TV - I have no sympathy for those who say they have no time...lots of time if not wasted...rant over ).   Finally terraining the base itself to blend it into the environment.

The photo shows the 'Corps Morale' marker in action along with some of the twenty I created to cover any size of game hopefully.

The other markers are for the other various conditions;  the square blocks for, well, formations in square;  the abandoned pack for disorder, the wagon wheel for limbered status of the artillery and the ball bearings indicating ammunition status, previously required.

close up of the various markers for our Napoleonics game

DaveMcN's big 1941 Russian Front battle scenario

Another Monday night game last week with DaveMcN trying out a scenario he plans to present at the big local convention in March.
His scenario has the well-trained German Wehrmacht verses some Russians.   Apparently lots of militia/poorly trained troops as it turned out. With attacking victory conditions.....
DaveMcN in his style, seems to 'wing it' and so this version was due to be a debacle for the Russians in the game, so will no doubt not be that for the convention (he paints all these 15mm Russians you see....). Thus I will produce any no spoilers here.

early war panzers, small yet still proving to be a match for the Russian equipment of the time.

Kev's panzer grenadiers [2nd battalion I guess without the valued half-tracks] de-trucking and advancing. 

The sort of confused fighting you get as truck mounted infantry issue a joint attack against each other!

For once, the "Dice Ace" Francis, did rather poorly in the dice rolling department and I with the superior Wehrmacht types had the upper hand against his rather poor early war Russian tanks and equipment.  I rolled along - despite rolling four 1's in a roll ...on a d10 mind you! - eventually hunting down his brigade commander who had abandoned his armoured car and ran into some woods!

Yup, that is the Russian brigade commander "in" his vehicle.  I decided it was my mission to kill the bugger. Accomplished.

The usual rule arguments discussions were made, and normal confusion re-evaluation about the scenario debated.

The 15mm action in full swing.  

Quote of the Night:
Russian player:  "I really don't have any gun to take out the panzers"
DaveMcN.: "Yet.... it is still being built in Leningrad"
Welcome to fighting Germans in 1941!