The Power of Imagination: Commissions Combined with Customer Work!

      Well, as usual, I love to showcase other people's work. Especially, when I contribute to the process. For the last couple of months, I have been doing some interesting commission projects. The honest fact of the matter is that I am a little jealous of my own work I provide. A simple reasoning it based on the vision someone else places before me. I wish I had come up with the idea that! However, these are the benefits of this slight hobby job I perform. I enjoy creating clients visions to great games. Maybe, some day I will get to participate in these games they produce. I am sure just meeting my clients would be awesome enough!
   Anyway, this is a few projects that a couple of clients did. One is about Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg  for the American Civil War. Another is a Bolt Action Game at the client's house. Again, these guys do lovely work anyway. I am honored that would ask me to enhance their awesome gaming experience!

   The first batch one photos is from Jay's Wargaming Madness. He contracted me to do this board, and honestly, I do not remember it looking this awesome. That should be a good thing. For more of his test game, here is the link: http://jayswargamingmadness.blogspot.com/2016/12/acw-picketts-charge-aar.html.
   
    The next bunch of awesomeness is another job I did for a client who goes by Palidin Six. He played an awesome WW2 for Bolt Action. Again, it is awesome to see different terrain on something I made. It just causes different ideas. Ideas can be dangerous, but awesome at the same time. I am sure we will see some dangerous sometime soon!

Jay's Civil War game.

Palidin Six's game.

AAR: Pickett's Charge: My First Game Of:

     I will not lie! I expected a "Rebel Yell" from my Confederates! Instead, I got a "Rebel Whimper" in return! This was my first experience with the "Pickett's Charge" rules that my fellow Cape Fear Wargaming friend had been recently talking about. As in the previous post, we experimented with the rules. The only real reason I was not involved was a simple hangover from the night before. This was well deserved based on a case of beer and a bottle of whiskey. But I  rarely get it so badly to not understand a new rules set!
   But in this game, the rules meant more for me, because I was playing them. I am a firm believer that a rules set is best explained by playing. Even if it does not sound that great, you can be surprised! The good thing about this game is that there were no veterans to the rules. I played against a friend of mine named Tim. He ran a bunch of Union forces against my Confederates that were owned by my friend, Danny. It was going to be an interesting match, since I have never played against Tim in anything that I am aware of  in the last five years.
    What I found interesting with these rules are that you place down your troops at once. There are no back and forth placement of troops or one side down before the other. Based on this, both opponents get a tactical surprise. It our game, it was a little closer than normal rules. We wanted to get into the action as soon as possible. This was also part of the downfall with the Confederates in the game. The Union slightly outgunned me with Brigade artillery that was more scattered. And with good die rolling, the blood and death on my side stacked up quick.
   Another note was the lack of passing orders to you various general staff. If your did not roll well for initiating a staff officer, parts of your army was not allow to do anything, because they hesitated. This can have a crippling affect in the game upping the level of tension in the game. And the ones who need to move never quite get there orders. In my case, the local drunk must have been relied on to pass out orders. He never really made it.
    the last thing I thought was interesting were the rules chaos in charges. With the various modifiers, there was never the feel that it was going to be a sure thing. One assault left my Confederates standing off unformed while taking shots by Union Troops who spent their time shooting at birds instead. The other charge I had was simply repulsed! Tim charged a battery of guns to take some serious casualties. The battery somehow survived in withdrew. This seemed like the only unlikely event in the game that did not make sense. We all thought that even if the battery fired off the guns, they would have been abandoned or destroy automatically. But in truth, if we had started the game at the further distance, there was a very good chance that these guns would have not gotten into this situation. At least, the distance the Union troops crossed might have been checked, instead of flanked. We will have to try the rules out again. First blood in a set of rules is never a defining moment when testing.

The battlefield.

Positions at the beginning.

Attacking the Yankees.

One regiment retreat through the supporting one.

The one with the cross gained an exceptional modifier for shooting.

The Yankees double-quick to attack Rebel guns. 

The Confederates left flank collapses.

Testing out the Pickett's Charge Rules in 15mm.

      Despite being a holiday weekend of Thanksgiving, we still had friends come over. I figure this was a nice way to escape the in-laws and such. Kalissa and I still had a busy time, but it was nice to have friends over to play games. In this case, our friends Hugh and Bill wanted to test out the recent release of "Pickett's Charge." Between the both of them, I usually describe them as "Rule Hoarders." It sounds insulting, but they both know that this is true. They are always collecting rules sets. I even imagine that if either of them did not have significant others in their lives, there would be libraries of rules in their houses. One can say, "Thank the Lord, for PDF's!" But their rule hoarding ways are great for Kalissa and I, because we get to look at and get the rundown of various rules sets without buying them in hopes they will be good. In a way, it is like we use them. However, Bill countered that by saying they use us for terrain and a place to play. Touche!
     Since I knew they wanted to test these rules in advance, I actually made a quick board on Friday for it. It was something to keep me busy, since there was no way in this world that we were going shopping on Black Friday! Though, it was not a complete board,  I figured it would do the trick! Hugh set up the rest of the table when came over with his buildings. He also brought over his 15 mm Civil War troops for both sides. Hugh was the Confederates. Bill was the Union.
     For the game, "Pickett's Charge" seems pretty simple. The game works with initiative to decide who goes first. Then, it is rolling for brigade orders that may or may not go through. Then, there were charge declarations, movement, shooting, and morale tests during the shooting. What I thought was interesting was the trouble Hugh had getting the Confederates to move and do things. He also never once won the initiative. However, this did not seem to matter towards the end with the various charges. The Union lines faltered under the pressure and casualties that the Confederates inflicted. The Confederates got reinforcements, where as, the Union reserves failed to show up.
    Overall, I think what made these rules interesting to me was there was no grantee that your brigade commanders would follow through on orders. This was especially important towards closer engagements, since both sides would have had some serious casualties against them. I also liked the blind set up. You mark where you troops are in advance and place them down at their positions at the start of the game. Then, you have to deal with the decisions made in deployment. It is not as tactical as "Sharp's Practice," but being in a larger scale of troop formations, it works for a smooth interesting game.