AAR: Battlegroup: First Games.

When you have nearly everything really for a game, it does not take longer for me to jump right into a game and play. That was exactly what we did when we went to Hobbytown, USA. Kalissa and I brought our newly acquired 20mm to the store to test out the game, even though, she did not play it. For the following tow games I played, I had two opponent who had also never played. And for those few that had experienced my lovely wife, I somehow did not die in the process. She was nice enough to help run us through the Battlegroup while not ever reading them in advance. How I still have fingers to type after these games is still a miracle! I still have to make it through the night! Organized people tend to like to be prepared!

For the first game, I played against a newer player in our area, Chris. He chose to play the Germans leaving me with the British. Not normally my cup of tea! (See what I did there!) Anyway, Germans had four squads of Germans, two MG42's, one Forward HQ, and a Panther tank. To make things fair for the British, they had four squads of infantry, a forward observer for artillery with 1st Priority, a Vicker Machine Gun, and three off-table 17 pdr. shots. I thought that would balance out nicely. It is even better for the Germans when I roll the most amazing amount of "ones" on my D6's. I was pinned down the first half of the game. My first shots were on turn 5. I think we made it to ten turns until my morale failed.

The second game against Richard, I ran my Germans. This game ran faster, since he watched the first game. We had more of a slugfest. One of the three 17 pdr. shots killed my Panther tank. It did not get to shoot! However, the amount of death was all over. We decided to call the game when I had one MG42 in a house left out of the force, spite have some morale left. The British, I discovered were two off from their breaking point, but I am sure more artillery would have been called in.

As for the rules themselves, I really enjoyed playing them. There was a lot more strategy when you are not pinned down as much. I think this game will even be more interesting when we have more units to mess with. My only real issues is that the game speed breaks down when dealing with the artillery steps. They can bog things down. However, when I saw there is a possibly to get hit by two 240mm guns, I thought "Awesome!" So below are the rest of the photos! Enjoy!

Jumping Into 20mm: Mat Showcase

     Part of a goal that I have indirectly been trying to reach has been to used some of the rules Kalissa and I have around the household. We have several rules systems that have been collecting dust for no other reason than being busy and such. No more, I say! In this case, we bought Battlegroup. Despite the fact we could play this game in 15mm or even 28mm, I really wanted to play this game in 20mm. At one point of playing Flames of War for so long of a time, I wanted to venture out into a new scale. 20mm was the most interesting scale, since I had seen that scale played before. Plus, there are some wonderful figures for it. But then, I found 28mm, so we went that direction, even before Warlord Games released Bolt Action. And there area a lot of games that use 28mm, so the 20mm itch, so to speak, was sent to the back of the line.
     Other than having rules that use 20mm as a scale, it can back up as an idea based on convention games. Surprisingly, most of the conventions that Kalissa and I attend, we do not see many 20mm games. However, with some of the convention games I have been running and their size, 20mm starts looking like an answer for larger actions without adding more table. It has the detail. It is not too small, so individual figures can still be based individually. And I can still make my normal fur mats without changing too much on skill (not that I could not figure something out). So we bought a bunch of WWII 20mm from AB Miniatures and some buildings. For now, we have a platoon for each side. And since, I had a customer project cancelled while partial cut, I decided to make a 20mm board for them. So this post is showcasing what I came up with. Enjoy!

 

AAR: What A Tanker: Another Soviet/German Fight!

    For another fast and easy game, we have been playing What A Tanker for a simple "Join In" game. It is a quick and easy to teach game system, so it is easy to get players in. This was not a very long game, since ended up going to work. However, I truly believe that my wife is confusing this game with NASCAR racing. Everytime she gets a tank labelled with the "Fast" specialty, she races into combat with a record number of movement dice. A game not to far back, had me shooting me pointblank after crossing a ten foot table in two turns! This game was no exception. I like to think that is was seeing the future, because we happened to buy the movie "T-34" at Walmart the next day. She enjoyed that movie. Anyway, below are the few photos I happened to take. Enjoy!

AAR: Congo: The Lion Sleeps Tonight!

        For a third time playing a game, I decided to play the African Kingdom faction that I destroyed Kalissa with. I figured it would be an uphill battle, but there where no hills in this game. Instead, I got to face off with a new player named Chris who had recently moved into the area. He would be playing the British Expedition Force. Since he had never played the rules either, we did not play into a scenario. However, it all honesty, the faction I was running might fair better in an actual scenario.
     So my plan of attack was straight forward using as much terrain as possible. I did not even avoid the dangerous terrain, because I had just painted a bunch of animals. My mini-goal was to have someone somewhere die from an animal attack. Chris was aware of this, too, so he also ran into some dangerous terrain. As far as the game went, I was able to charge in and kill a unit of Ruga Rugas, which was all I could do for the rest of the game. I tried some suicide attacks that was successful at killing my own units. I tried to flee, but my wife informed me that I cannot just run off the board. I will have to look where that was written. However, I did manage to draw out a lion from he sleep. It was rather underwhelming, since I killed him with no problem. And that was how this game was turning. It was fast, becoming a PAD game (Prolonged Active Death). I ended the game after everyone with a weapon was killed.
    What I learned from the faction I was playing is that I would not have ran the list I was using. Of course, this is more based on the lack of more figures for this game and that it is the list the Northstar Miniatures provided when you buy. I think I would have switched out my Fanatical Warriors and my Scouts for more Married Warriors. The Fanatical Warriors without shooting weapons screwed over a couple of good opportunities. The Forrest Tribe in the near future, should be interesting.