AAR: Muskets & Tomahawks: Evil Little Demo Games!

   As you may tell, I have been playing a lot of Muskets & Tomahawks games. Part of this seems to stem from being something new. Though, honestly, we have had the rules, but had yet to play them at this point. Kalissa and I went about the rule way of playing this game. We bought the rules before the figures. This can either play out in two forms. One, we bought the book and never got around to playing it. And the second being a six month to a year delay of playing. We seem to have a quite a collection of rule books border lining along the "Rules Whore" way of life. At this point, we have rules that are PDF's as well as rule books we have won/bought. The Muskets & Tomahawks we had for a good two years before playing it. And we had figures for it for seven months. The wargamers life can be busy with projects.
   So for this game, I finally got my friend, Danny to play. He saw the beginning of my PAD game from the post before and was still willing to try it out. To me, this seemed up his alley, since he plays ACW and was a reenactor as well. This game was a demo game to see how he would like it. He ended up play the French/Indian force against my British. I figured we could see if I could pull off the great shooting that Bill did the game before. The answer was simply "No!" Danny had some complaints on how the shooting with the Indians was sub-par. This just means he was killing two to three people per card drawn. I would take that as a good complaint. He also managed to kill everyone of the British. No Morale; just dead British!  So we had fun, despite my slaughter!
    Key thoughts Danny and I had after the game was the random events we kept rolling for did not seem to apply for any one. Such events that slow water movement or civilians. I guess this is just forcing me to do something about it. Danny had mentioned the next day that he would really like to play that game. This is great for me to motivate between projects for more force types. Kalissa found a great deal with some more Indians adding another 18 of them, and I still have more British to paint! Either way, it will be a good thing! I just wonder if he will be into the Three Musketeers I have coming from Eureka Miniatures?

The board. 

Indians like to shoot from the tree line.

The French repel the British from taking the farm!

British try to put up a fight!

Over the hill and through the woods.

The lovable "Woods Ninjas!"

British taking aim!

I definitely need casualty figures for this game!

AAR: Muskets & Tomahawks: Raid/Scouting PAD Game.

       This was another round of Muskets and Tomahawks that my friend, Bill and I played. As you can tell, we were using just my forces. This was mostly due to laziness, even though Bill brought his Colonial Militia. I should have just had him play that force instead of letting him run the British. I am not saying the results of this game would have had a different outcome. It may have not turned into a PAD game. Just for definition purposes, a  PAD game stands for Prolonged Active Death. If you ever were playing a game where you were losing so badly, but it is not the end of the game. That, my friends, is a PAD game. Your guys die left and right and all over, but they pass morale and the random events keep the game going while you can barely roll for the life of you to do anything else. PAD games often happen to give a false sense of hope in a game where you are clearly still losing. So why continue to play them out? I like to make people work for their victory out of stubbornness.
     This was the first game that I had a PAD game in that was of a different game era. All of the previous ones were WW2. And despite it not being the best of game, I do come out with a new perspective about the game at hand. Such things as " Don't do that form of stupid!" and "This force needs improvements!" The game started with the British doing a scouting mission while my French and Indians had the job raid a farm. Again, there was some laziness, since the Raid mission would have worked out way better in the buildings were places according to the mission. I had set the table up in advance and did not care about changing it.
    From the start, my side had a good start. Most of the cards in the deck were mine. However, the British first round of shooting was stellar! The French Regulars, all ten, were killed on the first shot. Then, the same happened to a small unit of Indians. Six deaths in a round. Elite Regular sharpshooters with rifles  with nearly all fives and sixes! The Indians that were left decided to run through the woods and get close and personal. They did rather well dispatching a unit of British (hence the hope part of a PAD Game). I got to three out of the four targets. The British defended the outhouse fiercely! Apparently, the British value outhouses! I can't imagine why?
    The rest of the game was the Indians dying and leaving the field. The French Irregulars stayed long enough to secure a British Victory. I was actually hoping to roll badly for morale to cause a Draw. I rolled sixes for the rest of the morale cards. Classic! So here were the game shots.

Sicily Project: German Force Addition.

    They finally arrived! I just received my models from Blitzkrieg Miniatures, and like usual, they did not disappoint. The only problem with them is the long wait time shipping to the United States. I am not sure why, but it takes longer than the other British companies to ship to me. I got my Charlie Foxtrot buildings a full two weeks before.  To be honest, this is not that big of a deal for me, since I planned for it. It might make the difference if you are trying to rush build forces on a short timeline. However, I was able to build all of these models in ten minutes. So slow shipping or not, the models are crisp resin and really simple to build. The only reason why I have not primed these was based on being out of primer. I seriously, found that out two minutes before I decided to write this blog post. And as the pictures show, there is little needed for cleaning up the models compared to my table. The Panzer III's are the Warlord Games tanks I might use for reserves or another player during the convention. The paint scheme will be similar.

Commission Project: Congo

This was the near finished product. However, some weird weather plus my normal lighting gave this picture some interesting color.

    Since the introduction of the game "Congo" by Studio Tomahawk, it was no surprise that someone would be wanting a commission mat for this. After reading the reviews for this game, it seems like a sound gaming system. The only problem I have is that it is a game that both my wife and I have to be into to get on board. This has nothing to do with our normal dynamic with wargames. Part of this is base on a lack interest in the game period. The 1920's African Adventure has not been our cup of tea. Also, if I am going to venture in an African campaign, it would be the Zulu Wars. The other is that some of our wargaming friends are not into a game/time period that also could encourage racism. To me, it is still just a game, but if people are not going to play a period because of such a reason plus the lack of interest, why play it?
     Either way, this has been a special project for me, because it is the first commission work that I have no miniatures for to play on it. Sure, I can make something up, but it just would not be the same. If we had only bought into the Eureka's Teddy Bear Wars' Zulu War, we would have had something to play on this board. We have a total of two figures from Eureka: one British bear with a suction cup gun and a Zulu bear with a suction cup spear. Kalissa won these for free after playing a game involving both forces.
    Anyway, I was commissioned a project for this game. It just seems a shame that I will not get to try this game out anytime soon. Honestly, I have so many games I am wanting to try out, it is ridiculous! However, here are some pictures of the board I tried in my own way to recreate. The first one is their publication I assume is in the rule book. The ones after are the commission. And the ones after that are just inspirational work for this game. Enjoy, as usual!