28mm Warlord Game, 28MAR14: AAR or Battle of the Geezers

Here are photos from a 28mm Warlord game on Friday, March 28, 2014 at Game Nite in St. Louis, Missouri.  There were only three players.  Both my friends showed up late.  They didn't start for over an hour.  They called it before it got dark.  I wanted to call this "Battle of the Geezers," however, both players are old enough to qualify as senior citizens, now.  But that doesn't bode well for me (the mere lad of the group).

                                          Kevin Joyce's Dwarfs take the field.

                                          Don Cox finishes putting out his unfinished GW Empire army.

                                          Opening moves.  Kevin brings out his dwarf battle line.

                                          Don's armored knights are slowly whittled away by the Dwarfs.

 

Kevin's Dwarfs disengage from Don's archers.  However, his halberdiermen are slammed by more dwarfs.

The dwarfs finally won.  Don called it as he lost.  It would have taken a few more turns to declare a real winner.  However, I get to play both Don and Kevin our next 28mm Fantasy game sometime this month or next.

28mm Modern Afghanistan AAR, 22MAR14

I ran a 28mm Modern Afghanistan game using Ambush Alley at Wargamers Cave on Saturday, March 22, 2014.  Steve Hood (Combat Colours) and Curtis Turner (Hostile Contact) ran the American and Taliban forces respectively.  The Afghanis were shelling an off board position with a portable rocket launcher.  A squad of US Marines and a Humvee had been sent into to neutralize the Taliban artillery.

The American player had off board air support to call in Hellfire missile strikes.  Once Combat Colours realized this, he rolled like mad to make radio contact with the circling Apache helicopter.  Steve then got lucky with his fire support rolls as Hellfire missiles rained down on the insurgent buildings.  This left cratered remains of buildings.

But I had Hostile Contact roll a 1D6.  He rolled a three.  Curtis managed to shell his off board target for three turns before retreating and claiming victory against the infidels.  However, Curtis lost an entire platoon of insurgents to Hellfire missile strikes!

Blame it on me.  I didn't balance the scenario well enough with limitations on rules of engagement for the Americans or limits on the availability of air assets.  I wanted something similar to real life.  I got it.  The US Marine held off and let their air support tear up the table.  Good simulation, but bad game.  However, I'm learning from my mistakes.  But Combat Colours was the man.  He rolled like God with my cursed dice.  I guess it could have been worse.  I could have rolled for both of them.  That wouldn't have been good, either (given my track record)....

Here are photos from the game:

                                          Taliban artillery position.

                                          Building where the Taliban advanced and then died in the trees.

                                          Combat Colors deciding where to call in air strikes.

                                          Taliban still shelling the ISF off board positions.

                                          Surveying the carnage and ruined buildings at the end of the game.

Making good on a promise...

I made a promise to myself last year to do something about the amount of figures I had in the basement.  I have lots of 28mm historical wargaming projects.  I also have WH40K and WHFB.  I want to keep my my 28mm historicals.  When I posted my open letter to GW, I had 2 WHFB armies and 4 WH40K armies.  I traded away my Warriors of Chaos for a Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth army.  I finished up painting my GW High Elves for use as a large 25mm Warlord army.  I also bought fantasy vikings to fill out my other fantasy race.

I looked at my WH40K stuff.  I own Dark Angels Ravenwing, Dark Angels Deathwing, Blood Angels, Khorne World Eaters Chaos Space Marines and Khorne demons, and traitor guard.  I'm about done with my Blood Angels.  I'm also done with my Chaos Space Marines and demons.  I'd like to add on another Baneblade and Land Raider to my DA Deathwing terminators (along with a command squad of terminators).

The Traitor Guard I hardly play.  It's all infantry with a few vehicles.  I also have all the Ravenwing bikes I need to finish up.  The only army in Battlefoam is the Blood Angels.  I could spend another $800.00 just in foam and cases on my Chaos and DA Deathwing terminators.  That isn't including any new models...

So I made the decision to liquidate the Traitor Guard and Ravenwing bike army.  I'll still have three armies.  All three of them I could use an apocalypse game.  It's just the Traitor Guard and the Ravenwing are going into a local comic book auction at the end of March.  Whatever I get for the figures will go to buy a Baneblade, Land Raider, and whatever Privateer Press Mercenaries stuff I can afford to buy.

That doesn't even put a dent in the $800.00 I'll need to buy in Battlefoam to complete my WH40K forces.  Or the Battlefoam I'll eventually need for my Warhmachine Menoth/Mercs armies, either...

Review of Osprey MAA No. 481: The Spanish Tercios 1536-1704 (ebook)

Author:  Ignacio Lopez.
Title:  Osprey MAA No. 481:  The Spanich Tercios 1536-1704 (ebook).
Publisher:  Osprey Publishing.
Copyright:  2012.
Price:  $11.49.

Overview:
This Men-at-Arms Osprey covers the Spanish Tercios 1536-1704.  These 3000 man units were made of pike, sword and bucklermen, and arquebusiers.  The Spanish used these infantry units to fight off heavy cavalry and defend themselves from other enemy infantry units.  The tercios were the forerunners to the infantry battalion/regiment other nations would soon adapt.

The tercios came into their own during the third Italian Wars between Spain and France.  They continued through the rest of the 16th century into the Thirty Years War.  The Bourbon monarch finally disbanded the old tercios in favor of the French infantry regiment during the War of Spanish Succession.

The beginning tercios wore civilian clothing.  They eventually evolved into military uniforms during the 17th century.  A tercio was normally divided between 1/3 pike, 1/3 swordsmen, and 1/3 arquebusiers/musketeers.  There are color plates in this newer ebook format.

Given the ease of electronic download, I still prefer having a hard copy of my Ospreys.  Call me old fashioned, but I like being able to go back to the hard copy and seeing what I'm doing when I'm painting.  I can't quite do that with an e-reader like a Nook.  But that's my only complaint.  Given the fact I'm running out of room for books (like Sapper Joe).  The more newer books I can read electronically, the better off I'll be in the long run.

Recommended for fans of the Renaissance.  

"Can you roll 7 '1's' on 10D6?" - A WH40K AAR

I'm done with WH40K for a while.  I played a 1500 point game with my friend, Brian Bigford, last night.  He had Ultra-Marines.  I had Dark Angels Deathwing.  Brian brought out the the new $80.00 space marine versions of CSM obliterators.  They obliterated a squad of Deathwing terminators.  Brian needed 2 or better to wound. He caused 10 AP 2 wounds.  I needed 10 saves of 5-6 on 10D6 for my invul saves. I rolled 7 "1's".

Can anyone else on the planet do that on a consistent basis?  I challenge anyone.  Sapper Joe, Hostile Contact, and Combat Colours have seen my dice rolling in person.  It's not pretty.  I've managed to roll 5 ones on 7D6 before.  But this is a new record in infamy.  Needless to say, I lost.  I'd taken pictures of the game up to that point.  Afterwards, I gave up....

What's the point me playing WH40K if I'm going to roll consistently awful?

Good question.  Why do I keep putting myself through such misery?

I'm at a loss...

The End.  For now....

Review of Osprey MAA: Fredrick the Great's Army Vol. 1-3 ebooks

Author:  Philip Haythornwaite.
Titles:  Osprey MAA No. 236, 240, & 248:  Fredrick the Great's Army (Vol. 1-3).
Publisher:  Osprey Publishing.
Copyrights:  1991, digital on demand 2011.
Price:  $11.49 each.

Overview:
These are three ebooks I bought for my Nook this year.  I plan to use them for uniform guides to a 18mm SYW Prussian army.  I wanted to purchase hard copies.  These are now out of print.  So I went with the next best thing.  Ebooks.  But I still have online resources for future 15m m SYW armies I'll use, too.

Recommended for uniform plates.

Review of Knives and Swords: A Visual History by Chris McNab

Author:  Chris McNab.
Title:  Knives and Swords:  A Visual History.
Publisher:  Sterling Publishing.
Copyright:  2012.
Pages:  360.
Price:  $12.98

Overview:

This books is a pictorial history of knives and swords starting the Stone Age to the modern era.  The weapons range from knives, swords, maces, axes, and pole-arms.  All the weapons are photographed in their present conditions.  Some of the swords and knives are corroded because of time.  Some of the weapons are in remarkable shape for their age.  Weapons from the entire world are sampled.  There small sections dedicated to particular weapons and their usage.

Recommended alone for the photographs.

Review of Osprey Men-at-Arms No. 491: Armies of the Volga Bulgars and Khanate of Kazan

Authors:  Viacheslav Shpakovsky & David Nicolle.
Title:  Men-at-Arms No. 491 - Armies of the Volga Bulgars and Khanate of Kazan, 9th-16th Centuries.
Publisher:  Osprey Publishing.
Copyright:  2013.
Price:  $17.95.

Overview:
This is a good summary of the armies of the Volga Bulgars and the Khanate of Kazan from the 9th to 16th centuries.  It was interesting to learn about the Islamic states that existed in Russia during the middle ages.

There's are whole new figure range possibilities a company could come up with if people got interested in wargaming medieval Russia and central Asia.  The problem is where would the interest come from.  I didn't even know about the different Khanates and principalities existing in medieval Russia along the Volga river.  Or the different Finnish tribes that inhabited the forests of Siberia.  All of this is new to me.  The section on Ivan the Terrible's siege and the fall of Kazan was also interesting.  

I do have a Mongol army that that's only been used twice.  I wondered what I could do with it if I have a Muslim opponent from central Asia like the Volga Bulgars.  They put up a fight with the Mongols, but 80% of the population was wiped out in retaliation.  The successor state became the Khanate of Kazan.

Like I said earlier, I'm fascinated by the different states and tribes that existed along the Volga River and its tributaries.  But trying to find 28mm metal figure ranges to compliment by 28mm Mongols will be hard it in deed.

Never the less, recommended.