July 2012 Gaming

Here are some photos of games I've played in the past couple of weeks at Wargamers Cave in Granite City, IL.  The first set of photos is from a 28mm ECW game I ran in the middle of July 2012:

                                          28mm English Civil War meeting engagement.

                                          More 28mm ECW battle lines before the engagment.

I played the Royalists with Steve Hood against Joe Collins and Don Cox using Warhammer ECW.  The battle see-sawed.  But the Royalists finally won after we routed the Parliamentarian cavalry off the board.  That's what Cromwell gets to listening to an Irish captain named Collins!

However, I spent today playtesting Sharpe's Practice for the French and Indian Wars with Steve Hood and Joe Collins as our sadistic game master.  Steve and I had a French indian war party.  Our job was to raid and burn down an English settlement.  Joe had another player with American militia to rescue the settlers.

This was my second time playing the Two Fat Lardies system.  I am used to playing card driven systems like The Sword and The Flame.  What I don't like about the Two Fat Lardies systems is the Albatross cards that end the turn.  I like being able to allow each unit on the table the ability to react/act before a turns ends as in TS&TF.  Two Fat Lardies is different.  The Tea Time/Albatross cards end the Turn.  So if a unit doesn't get to react, then it's turn is wasted.  The only good thing is the ability of a unit to move or shoot if it hasn't done anything. 

But then there is the issue of Big Men.  They are the leaders/heroes in the game that are needed to activate units.  The higher level a leader, the more actions he is allowed to take.  And the more bonuses he is allowed in close combat.  Without Big Men, a my warbands were stuck without the ability to move 1D6" per turn.  I finally got a Big Man out of my surviving warband.  But Steve had give me a special card to leave the battlefield.  As we played the scenario, Steve and I got our war bands to burn down the settlement and capture the white women.  We also captured a child sentry and killed off all the male settlers in combat.

That made Joe rather ruthless.  He wanted Steve to pay for ruining his scenario.  Needless to say, we got our surviving warbands off the table by the game's end.  The colonial militia showed up two turns too late to do any good against us.  Again, that is the nature of a card driven system like Sharpe's Practice.  The Too Fat Lardies mechanics are simple to learn.  But I still prefer The Sword and the Flame.

Here are photos from 15mm French & Indian War game Joe Collins ran today using Sharpe's Practice by Too Fat Lardies:

                                          Sapper Joe explaining the Two Fat Lardies Cards.

                                          Colonial Settlers minding there own business.

                                          Steve Hood's War Party ambushing the unsuspecting settlers.

                                          Blake Walker and Steve Hood's War Bands burning down the settlement.
                                        

                                          Male Settlers and Their Big Man defend the fleeing women from evil Hurons.

                                          Evil Hurons finish off the male settlers as the white women flee.

                                         Our indian raiding party captures the female settlers.

                                          Steve and I have achieved our objects.

                                          Another view of our raiding party and captives.
         

                                          The colonial militia arrive two Turns too late.

                                          The victorious Hurons hurry up back to Canada.