Air Traffic Control Issues:Wings of Glory: Danny Vs. My Wife:

      We figured that it was going to be a ligh Saturday of gaming at our house. It seems that everyone was doing something for the great outdoors. Even, Kalissa and I had some plans for that day for a cook out for our friend, Lori's Birthday. But this does not stop rematch challenges in the least. A part of me cannot call it a rematch if the winner was the one who issued it. Yes, by definition, it does not matter whether a winner or loser in the previous game issues one. It just does not happen as often when the winning side asks for it.
    However, it was soon clear in the morning on why. Danny had produced an unopened box with aerial goodies inside. He had recently acquired five new planes. He got two Junker Ju 87 Stukas, one Me Bf 110, and two Hawker Hurricanes. And as a good move for Wings of Glory, they now give you the ability to customize your planes with decals. Before, we had issues with similar or the same models being played where we would maneuver the wrong plane. This is still a problem with the maneuver decks. My thoughts are to color label them for each plane. And now, you can make a historical squadron for the WWII. I have not seen whether they are going for this with the WWI. Either way, it is a good idea!
     Since Danny was going to run with Junker Ju 87 Stukas for the first time, we decided that they had to bomb a target with Kalissa stopping them. Germans win if they bomb. British win if the bombers are shot down. The funny thing is that Kalissa creates some of her own winning conditions that out weight all goals. She wanted to shoot down the large Me 110!  Out of 10 or 11 maneuvers, 3 of them were not at point blank or on top of each other.  If an operator of Air Traffic Control was involved with this game, he was fired at the end of the day! Danny won based on bombing the target, but I think Kalissa had a bigger win by shooting down the Me 110. All I know, is that this game is being played often enough that we are just going to have to make a board. Oh, the horror!

Sicily Project: Shermans, Shermans, and Yet More Shermans!

      I figured that we all should view our newest Sherman Tanks in their natural habitat: the table top. I had found some late night time to paint and mostly finish up these tanks. It is only listed as "Mostly" done, because I might add some storage and stuff to them. Also, I found that I was not thinking strait, and glued the tracks on backwards to of the tanks. I have not painted that one, since it was hanging out in the freezer. An explanation of the freezer is that extreme cold weakens the adhesive stick to super glue that has already hardened. I have since, took apart the tank for reassembling. This process works great with metal and resin; not so much with plastics.
      As in the previous post, I found out after my order that I did not get the correct Sherman Tank for the Canadians. This is a minor problem, which got me thinking during my painting. I figured that I will eventually conquer a desert tank game in the future, so I can change them. This idea resulted into time consuming, hand-crapping, hand-painting the models squadron symbols! I figured that that would save money and challenge myself to possible do it. My hands hurt while typing, and I now, hate the shape of a circle! I will be over it, but the previous sentence has only been typed out three hours, since I had finished.  They still came out great. So here are some Sherman tanks frolicking across some terrain to meet up with some Panzer III friends. Enjoy!

   

AAR: Bolt Action: Sicilian Slugfest (Part One)

       There is nothing better than meeting new people for wargaming, especially when they are fun players. That does not mean that most people in our hobby do not want to have fun in a game. Well, there might be a few out there to hurt people in games. I have seen that! I just try not let people like that bother me too much. Besides, we all could be doing something else that is boring.
    Anyway, this was  the beginning of my first game with a new Fayetteville resident, Andrew. He contacted us looking for a game of Bolt Action. Of course, I am willing to play new players in a game I love! So we invited him over. Some people tend to be wary with meeting people, and in that matter, meeting people at their home for the first time. If anything I can say about knowledge that my father passed down is the fact I tend to read people rather well. It might have been a management thing back in the day. It is just like understanding that people can be visual or just told to do stuff to get a job done. Everyone works differently in their mindset. I digress!
      So after meeting up and getting to know each other, Andrew and I starting to play a "Maximum Attrition Mission, since it was a meet engagement. Kind of a running joke, since we just met. Ha, Ha, Ha! Never underestimate the Power of the Dorkside!  I set up a Sicily themed board with the British versus the Germans. I let him pick forces, though he gave me the preference. I went with my trusty Germans. Trusty is really a loose term here.
     We made it through half of the game, so far. We stopped at the end of turn Three based on life events: Kids, wives, wives with knives, and such. Hopefully, the conclusion will happen. All I know is that so far, we were having fun! Below are the pictures as usual. Enjoy!
 

AAR: Flames of War: Playing Out a Full Game of 4th Edition.

        As a review earlier stated, I am not much of a fan of the new 4th Edition Flames of War rules. However, this is not stopping my wife and I from playing it. After all, I find that to really address the various issues with rule changes is to play them out. So Kalissa and I dusted off some of our miniatures to play out a game. In this case, I ran a Panzer Company from a list that is probably a Version 2 list and Kalissa ran her 4th Canadian Armor. We played the "Annihilation Mission", because that is what the new rule book said to do. So like little lemmings, we dove off a cliff into this second game!
    In the early statements in the previous Flames of War post, I mentioned that the company (now Formation) lost their play style based on how you decide who attacks, such as, Tanks always attack! Apparently, they have three was to decide. Rolling, wanting to attack, or who ever has more infantry units is defending. That has the potential for starting a fight before the game is even played! My wife and I just decided to roll off. And with that, the Germans would be defending.
   The first turn was rather a long one, since we had to stop multiple times to answer important questions. My wife, Kalissa really has to read rules for herself to understand them. After all, she is a teacher and there is a reason I am not.  Recce seemed to be screwed fairly bad. Also, the complex movement issues had to be addressed. Mainly, these questions were truly figuring out the real order between movement and movement orders. Once we understood what we were doing, the rest of the turns went faster. This is especially true when your wife is very bold and terrain dashed almost point blank with Stuarts behind my lines! I had to kill them with my 8.8 cm Flak Guns and one 2 cm AA truck. My Germans did not have very much of a reason to move. The only movement I had was through the woods, which are now "Skill Checks" to move through. This sounds terrible, but the rules had eliminated "Bogged Down." If you fail your trek through the woods, it just means I halt in place. This is a rule I can stand by! This way, those pesky infantry forces cannot outright kill me when I fail all of the checks in the woods or other terrain types that require so.
    The Canadians came at me from across the fields. The Common Wealth Forces lost a lot of special rules, but they did not lose their "Semi Indirect" rule. Kalissa, also. tried to use most of the Movement Order types to test their abilities. She tended to pass most of these orders, but her dice were not doing her shots justice. The picking target rule that was said in the book that stated it would rarely be used was used more than 50% of the game. Most of these targets were deterred by the "Mistake Target: rule where Kalissa rolled a 3+. This saved her Sherman Fireflies multiple times to stay in the fight. The Fireflies seemed to be the last tank in the platoon before they were killed off.
    A Good portion of the Canadian tanks were left in ruin. She managed to kill off my 88's, my King Tiger, my IC Panther, and one Panzer IV H. This did not put me anywhere near a company check, since Division Support does not count against your Formation's "Good Spirits."(Guess we should be drinking during this game!) This lack of platoons counting in a game was what resulted in the Canadians loss, because several of her formations did not count. I am kind of annoyed by this for the throw away factor. I don't have to care for this troops, because they do not help for morale purposes. It is really strange.
     Either way, the game was not too bad. If anything, we found several things in these newer rules that are guaranteed to start wargaming arguments based on wording. I am sure there will be an errata for this in the near future. Anyway, below are some the shot to our game. It seems that half got deleted in the middle of uploading. It happens!