AAR: Wings of Glory WW2 and a Kind of Review.

     It was a kind of surprising phone call to say the least. My wargaming friend, Danny called me up to tell me some good news. He bought the new Wings of Glory Box Set: Battle of Britain. This was a little bit of a surprise, because he had told me that he only had interest in WWI for dog fighting games. After all, the WWI era of aerial combat was the golden age for planes. That is until WWII when all of the pilots then surpassed the fighting abilities of their past war heroes. While listening to the whole WWI only statements, I was waiting until the bug bit! WWII Wings of Glory was around the corner for us to play whether Danny knew it or not. And it did not help that he got it for a good deal around $25.00 when it just came out and costs more of $70. Here is the product in the picture below.

     Just like it is shown on the box, it comes with the four planes, two British Submarine Spitfires and two German Messerschmitt Bf 109's. Also, it comes with the new rules, chips and counters, a map, fire sticks, and all of the lovelies that can get you started. For the both of us still learning about the WWI Wings of Glory, the new Wings of Glory was a little different. For one thing, there were no cards to determine hits. They were punched out cardboard pieces that you put into a bag or cup. I am not sure if the previous WWII version did so, but it was a little bit different. For our game, we place the chips in different solid cups with their designated letter. This worked out great until you tried drinking the chips! Maybe, this was not as thought out.
    Also, the difference going from three maneuver cards of WWI to only two was a change. Plus, the difference speed choices. The point of playing it in a simple form other than playing was to get a feel for the combat. The first shot I fired at a British Spitefire resulted in an instant explosion. And Danny pulled it from the cup! That seemed a little harsh for the first incident. After that, both Danny and I made it a point to compare the different letter cups and their deadliness. The British had all shots for the letter B cup. One B shot for long range, and two for short. The Germans had one shot from the C cup of hits at long range, but two of C and one of A at short: three hit markers on your foe! Of course, if you are using the special rules on your pilots, both sides are fairly balanced.
    We played two full games. I won both of them with my wiles of my German fighters. Danny shot one down. We found that the game was fairly simple. Only one rule was a little confusing, but we worked it out. We threw in some clouds in the second game just to make it interesting. The mats used were not Wings of Glory ones. Danny did not bring his over, so we pulled out my Angel's 20 ones just in case some one reading this thinks they got the wrong stuff in their box set. Either way, we will test a play out more games, I am sure. Here were some of the game shots. Enjoy!

AAR: Muskets & Tomahawks: Running the Gauntlet!

      It was another lovely Thursday round of wargaming with my friend, Danny. We had been playing Tuesdays originally, but this has now given way to Thursdays provided that neither of us are busy working and such on various things. This time, it was another game of Muskets & Tomahawks. I decided to run a made up scenario based on the river board I made. Also, I had added another layer to the river to mainly finish it off with exception of add a few stones and things. The mission was fairly strait forward: escape! The British forces had to run down the road dodging anything and everything to ford the river and continue off board. However, the Native Braves and the French had other plans.
  Really, this was more a random challenge for me, since I just wanted to see if I could pull it off. The answer is "no!" But who really cares if you are just playing to play. Ideally, I need to paint up the other British and Indians I have to make different force make ups. Also, I find that I need to run more Irregular troops to run them like scouts and just have some Indians on hand. The wilderness seems to demand this. Though, I did get three people to the river edge, they were immediately killed off. I did manage to kill two units of Indians making it way more bloody than Danny expected. The British just failed morale rather than continuing on. So there you have it! Anyway, below are the game shots. Enjoy!

Board shot one.

Board shot two.

The French wait in the heights overlooking the river.

Woods Ninjas!

The Natives in their element.

More Indians!

More French!

The British trying to escape!

The British fire into the woods missing, but the Indians come out to melee!

After some hand to hand combat, over Braves fire long ranged rounds at the British.

More melee action.

The local natives have been eliminated nearby.

The last Braves fire from the safety of the trees.

The few run to the river.

The only ones to make it, before the French shoot them down!

French everywhere!

The hills erupt with gun powder!

Right before they all flee for their lives!

St. Patrick's Day Aerial Shootout: Wings of Glory

    It was apparent that luck was not on my side! At least, not for the Germans sake. For St. Patrick's Day, I spend the day playing Wings of Glory against my friend, Danny at his house. It was also his birthday, so why not play a bunch of games. Most of our Wings of Glory games have been around thirty minutes long, though we did have one game that was almost two hours. That seems highly unlikely in a card driven game system. This is especially true when your plane can only take the average of 14 hits. 

    In our case, the first game was about ten minutes. A record time for this game and us playing it. I had two planes blow up in the first shots in the first turn. The remaining plane lasted one more turn. Most of these games, I had been dealt various issues and just bad cards. It seemed to be that this was an indirect present of letting Danny win all five games, despite trying to win! However, we still had some good times and some crazy flying skills. Here are some of the shots!

All For One And One For All: 40mm Three Musketeers for En Garde!

    I am finally closing in on playing a game of "En Garde!" which my wife had bought at Historicon this last year. I have always been interested in the Three Musketeers, since I read the book and well as seen plenty of related movies. The 1973 version tends to be one of my favorite movie version. It has been no secret of my interest, since I accidentally came across them in 28mm by Redoubt Miniatures. However, some one mentioned them being in 40mm by Eureka Miniatures. I should have bought them when I saw them in person at the Eureka Miniatures booth at Historicon 2015. I did not, but decided I would get them the following Historicon. Of course, they tell me the one time they did not bring that line was at the last Historicon show. Blitzkrieg Miniatures was the same for that convention when I had a plan to buy. After all, it is best to go into a vendor hall of a convention armed with a list. That way, there is no "Oops, I tripped and bought an unplanned army that no one is currently playing. This has also done a good job of stemming me from buying tons of Samurai for Black Powder in 28mm.
     Either way, I ended up doing on online order for the Eureka Miniatures website in Australia. It turns out that the U.S. store does not carry them any more. It was not too bad for about a $130.00. And after all, if it took me over a year of waiting, I am sure I could have handled it for longer. So this was a rundown of what I painted early this morning. This was priming and painting to this point until about 1 PM. If it was so cold outside, I would have planted the trees we bought for the yard. The only thing left are some more highlights and sealing them. So here are the Musketeers and characters.

The whole crew minus two characters. I have some more painting with them.

(Left to Right) Constance, Rochfort, four Cardinal Guards, and a hired Swordsmen. 

(Left to right) Armais, Arthos, D'Artagnan, Porthos, a bartender, and a beer wench. 

Constance and Rochfort.

The bartender and beer wench. Every fight needs beer!

The Four Musketeers.

Porthos. I need a new camera.

Arthos.

D'Artagnan.

Aramis

Two of the Cardinal Guards.

The hired swordsmen.