Clash of Spears Game #2

July 2, Cecil and I got together for another Clash of Spears game.

We played the Foraging Party senario.

The herd markers are ERTL longhorn steers and G- Scale cows (representing Chianina cows) I bought several years ago from MBS at Hotlead.

 

First Clash of Spears game

 Finally got to play my first game of Clash of Spears against an opponent.

Cecil and I got to gether at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group in the Crouch Public Library last week (28th May),

My Carthaginians versus his Republican Romans.

Did not take many pictures,

 Lesson learned: 

* Cavalry is Fragile.

* Pila can be nasty. I charged a unit of 13 close order Carthaginian spearmen onto 8 close order Princepes, ate a reaction volley of pila; took 2 fatigue, therefore stalled and lost close order, then counter charged by the Princepe. The unit was quickly down to 3 figures.

Rebels and Patriots

Rebels and Patriots by Osprey Wargames, is another use of the Lion rampant engine.

I saw these rules and liked the look of them enough to Pre-order them, figuring I could use them for Napoleonic gaming as I was not overly impressed by Chosen Men, which to me seemed a kludgy re-skin of Warhammer, but this post is not to list my issues with Chosen men

Even though I planned to use the rules for Napoleonic, I only have French in 28mm and after a quick read through I wanted to try them quickly, rather than wait until I made the investment of time and money for an opponent for my French.

I have had a bag of 1/72nd figures for the American Civil war for decades and thought I will actually get to use these things in at least one game".

I had some wooden shapes I picked up a dollar store, attached the figures to similarly to the suggested basing. i.e a mix of 3 figures to a base, 2 figures to a base and singles.

Union army, This is all union figures I had at start.

Confederate forces. I ran out of bases I have at least as many again still in the bag.

I found 2/3rds of my figures are actually rebels, or at least painted as such, so I picked up a new box of Italeri's (ESCI's reissue) Union infantry and a box of artillery.

I grabbed the usable poses from the new boxes and and got painting, Painted these guys out in 2 evenings (less than 4 hours).

Had to pick up a few more bases from my FLGS, glued these guys on then flocked them and they were ready for use.

I will do a bit more base texturing in the future but these are essentially done.

Ready for a game, Cecil and I went to the Hamilton Road Gaming Group grabbed a table and played a game, which quickly turned into two.

Was hard to get a feel for the game as both playings were uneven affairs, with each player losing with the rebels, due to inability of either player to roll higher than 6 with 2d6. The second game saw my rebels lose their officer to a long range artillery hit during turn 1 which disordered my entire force (see aforementioned bad rolling) the second game lasted 4 turns during which 3 of my units routed off the table, one a turn, and I only managed to fire twice and inflicted zero casualties.

But we liked them enough, Cecil is going to get a copy of the rules, as he too had issues with Chosen men.

I will also increase my ACW armies.

HRGG - Kampfgruppe Normandy

Kampfgruppe Normandy

To celebrate the May two four weekend, at the last minute (late Friday) I decided to run a game of Kampfgruppe Normandy.

   In an attempt to avoid a repeat of the disastrous reception the rules received the last time I ran them. I chose a much smaller scenario. "A Panther Hunt" with the Americans taking the place of the British, the lack of the 17 pounders was felt. The Panther is invulnerable to AT shots from the front by the US 76mm guns, whereas the British Firefly and Achilles Tank destroyers can slice it open easily.

   I had 3 players Andy, Martin and one other guy (I didn't catch his name), I umpired and taught the rules. Martin played the Americans, he setup across the entire width of the table, tanks behind the Orchard (on his left) infantry in the middle, behind woods, and in the wheat field on the right.

   The German infantry set up behind the hedges lining their road, the Panther and PAK 40 in the woods, the Mark IV and platoon HQ behind the building.

Turn 1: US Move forward. The PAK 40, on covering fire, slays the M10. Germans fire at US in wheat field wiping out the HMG team and killing 4 from the Squad.

How the rest of the game went:
The Germans finished off the Americans in the wheat field, Shermans kill the PAK 40 crew, and a Mark IV, Panther kills the shermans and the US Infantry in the central woods, the Americans clear the house and sweep behind the Panther, but are intercepted by some German infantry but promptly blow them away and the game ends, in an American victory.

We played 9 turns in 3.5 hours

Battlefield From the U.S. side.

American advance halted by the German defenders (the M10 is burning just out of picture to the right).

A sherman, on covering fire, dispatches a Mark IV

And is promptly slain by the Panther

The last American squad trying to flank the Panther are intercepted by a German squad detached for that purpose. American firepower slays them all

Mr. Lincoln's War

Mr. Lincoln's War

I got to play my first game (solo play tests don't count ) since November.


It was my first time trying a rule set called Mr.Lincoln's War and unsurprisingly they are about the American Civil War.

They are very similar to Johnny Reb 2nd edition. Mark orders, take officer casualty checks, units are regiments or batteries grouped into Brigades. Differences from JR2, things happen at different times, shooting is per stand rather than counting figures, charges look like they are much simpler (AND QUICKER) to resolve (we didn't actually get close enough to charge) though.

The rules say they are written for 15mm figs, aesthetically it looks wrong. Artillery ranges are big, 5 feet or more for rifled artillery.

We knocked out 5 turns in 3.5 hours, which is not too bad, with 6 players (4 that had never played them before).

My infantry brigade located in the Union center.

My cavalry brigade, the Union right flank.

My troops advancing in column, the lead unit took a casualty from Artillery and spent the next 4 turns recovering.

Confederate Right advancing.

Confederate center

Confederate right, advancing, different perspective.

Confederate high watermark.

Union Cavalry. On to Richmond!

Union Left advancing, the itty bitty teeny weeny brigade.

Union troops occupying the town.

ending positions

Union Cavalry didn't make it to Richmond. Run away! run Away! Driven back by Cannon and musketry.

My general was wounded turn 4, meaning he couldn't give orders on turn 5, so I had to sit here.

Thoughts on the rules:
I would have to try them again to get a better feel for them, on the up side I would be willing to try them again.

Some rules I've tried and would not play ever again, the misnamed "Beer and Pretzels Skirmish Rules" leap to mind (you have to give individual orders to every guy in your platoon).

Gaming in London

Gaming scene in London

I maintain my local gaming group's website and the Ontario Wargamers Yahoo Group and am occasionally asked about places to find gamers in London.

So I thought I would post here about what I know of the scene.

There is the Hamilton Road Gaming Group meets every Saturday at Crouch Public Library, 550 Hamilton Road. An unstructured organization, they do a bit of everything, miniatures (any genre), role playing and even board gaming.

The Historical Gaming Association of London (Ontario), meets every 4th Sunday of the month in the community room in Police HQ, almost exclusively historical miniature wargaming, we have done some Science fiction. I'm not sure how much traffic it sees though in the 15+ years I've been maintaining the site, it has generated no new members.


There are are only two stores devoted to wargaming in London;

Games Workshop in White Oaks Mall a tiny store (a guess approximately 20' x50') with a few 3'x2' tables and a bulletin board. Exclusively GW games.

Imperial Hobbies 256 Dundas Street, carries GW and Flames of War, but has other wargaming miniature lines, board games and RPG materials. He has a website that used to announce what they play and when, but it was almost always blank. My direct knowledge is several years old, as I no longer frequent the store, ever since the owner said to me "If your too cheap to buy anything, why do you come in?"

Three Comic book stores that have some gaming, I've heard anyway. The only one I have actually seen gaming occurring at is Comic Book collector.

L.A.Moods: 350 Richmond Street.

The Comic Book Collector: 779 Dundas Street.

Worlds away:  666 Dundas Street, not sure in any gaming takes place on premises.

That is it for organised groups, for some reason Londoners don't seem to like finding new opponents, there a few gamers I know of, but they prefer to play at their homes.