Blogs that Inspire me

I love wargaming. There really is no period that I won't play, although my circumstances prevent me from purchasing armies to play the various periods that I'd want to collect for. Through unforeseen generosity, my sons and I acquired the necessaries to play All Things Zombie from total strangers. This is something I have blogged about and, due to RL issues, while we have not have opportunities to play over the past few months, my sons and I do talk about playing again when we get the chance. So, apart from my once a month club game, I've not been able to get in a game.


Thus, I live vicariously through the blogs of other gamers and painters. I enjoy reading battle reports, learning of new projects being started, reading reviews of new rules, etc. While this activity does not "scratch the itch" for me, it does provide enough of a salve to keep me going.


Therefore, I've chosen to post about blogs of individuals who inspire me. This list is in no particular order and by no means is it exhaustive, but I needed to keep things manageable for this post. Perhaps you readers will also be inspired to make similar posts of your own.


1. Wargaming Miscellany This wonderful blog, and the other blogs associated with it is the work of a fine gentleman named Robert (BoB) Cordery.
In addition to his reports and projects for colonial wargaming, he also has wonderful projects that expand the scope of gaming for individuals who are fairly well impoverished, such as myself. This post is especially interesting as it allows one to inexpensively create a wargame table, with terrain, and play a fast and easy game.

The above pic is from a recent post

He has many other gems and nuggets of gold which provide me with ideas for my own Imagi-Nation dreams, some of which may soon bear fruit, I hope.


2. Don't Throw a 1 and The Angry Lurker Authored by Ray and Fran, respectively, I include these two blogs as a single entry because they are quite similar to Siamese twins who have been surgically separated. The two gentlemen give the reader entertaining posts, often posting wisecracks on each other's blog.

  Fran's Victorian Sci-Fi models. 

A recent battle report from Ray.

I am certainly far more interested in AK47 Republic than I have ever been, because of these two gents.

3. Iron Mitten Authored by Secundus, the artwork alone is worth every moment I spend on the site. If you are not already following this blog, at least take a gander.

If only I could afford to pay him to create an original artwork for me....sigh.

4. Quinda Studios Authored by Clarence Harrison, I often imagine how my armies would look if I had his skills at painting.

I am more particularly interested in wargaming the War of the Spanish Succession, but this site has that and much more! Yeah, I am so envious of his painting. Were I a millionaire, he could retire from painting armies for me.

There are many more blogs that I visit, which also inspire me. Forgive me if I am a follower of yours, but did not include you here. I hope to do this again in the future, but wanted to not have a wall of text and images for this one post.

I the reader does not yet follow any of these blogs, then I heartily recommend them. In fact, any blog I follow is worth reading. I hope to get my personal life sorted out to a point where I can more regularly post and also have my own table and painted armies. 

Little Generals' July 2013: WWII Beer & Pretzels

The July game for the club was put on by Jeff, an avid painter and a collector of 20mm and 1/72 WWII miniatures. The rules we used were something he got from the internet, but I never asked him the name of the set. Basically, each command (for this game, each player had a company) is dealt, face down, 2d6 of playing cards each turn. A player can allocate 1 or 2 cards to each stand or can elect to group up 3 stands to act on the one or two cards allocated to them. The color and number of the cards determined how many die would be used to move or shoot (only one action per card) and also the order in which the unit activated in the turn. Everything was placed faced down, with the exception that up to six cards could be collected by not using them during previous turns and these could be placed face up. One hit removed any order cards remaining on the stand or group of stands and two hits killed the stand. Hits could be removed by playing a face down card and then beating the value of the card on 2d6. For this game, I chose to play on the German side, with Dave, Neil, and Brent (who commanded two companies, one of which was slightly over half strength). The Russian players were Ron, Michael, and David, each playing a reinforced company (they had 12 stand companies to our 10 stand and, in one case 7 stand, companies). The objective was to control the table by taking over half of it. The Germans were the attacking force. The town, as seen from near my seat at the table. The German forces The Soviets Jeff's handiwork, as close as my ipad could get and still be clear. My company of infantry. Jeff had glued the figures on temporary bases of card, as he tends to use them as single figures in other games. The forces as deployed. Dave, Neil, and my company were all concentrated against Michael's reinforced company, 30 stands to 12. On the other side, Brent's 20 stands were matched against 24 Soviet stands. After a full turn, I've lost a stand. My lads are in the left foreground, with Dave's immediately to my right. Neil's troops are far right foreground, just a bit past Dave's. Not all of the Germans have gotten onto the table as yet. A turn later, concentrated fire by my company, with some help from Dave, has eliminated the four stands facing us in the first building. More Soviets under fire from Neil and Dave. The orange marker was used to indicate a casualty. Note: If a stand had a hit on it, it could not then receive any orders for the turn. Brent's troops are mostly hidden inside the buildings, but one can see some of Neil's lads on the far right. The Soviets attempted to strike at the Brent's incoming troops, but the terrain and the dice did not favor them. Movement is slow, with the max being 6" a turn. Dave's company happened to be fairly well pinched and I shifted left to make room for him. Terrain gave a 5+ cover save on a d6, being in the open meant the boys took the hit. The view from Neil's position. Brent's weak company, already down 2 stands from fire. Once below 5 stands, a company would only get 1d6 worth of cards for command purposes. The rest of Brent's troops. I took this pic about the time we broke for lunch. Getting some nice rolls for cards gave me the opportunity to place two cards down for groups of squads. Fortune favored me by granting me a movement weighted card and a firepower weighted card at the same time, two turns in a row. This allowed me to shake my troops into a line, within cover, and poor a telling fire on the Soviets. I felt bad for Michael, but he did make some fantastic cover saves, which allowed him to hang on for two full turns than he would have otherwise. Note the dice indicate 3 saves had just fended off 3 hits by Dave. One Soviet stand, slightly to the center right, took multiple hits and Michael saved them all, the picture showing his 5 and 6. Dave had gotten lucky by getting hits needing a 10 on 2d6, but he was again denied the kill. A couple of turns later, and Michael's company of Soviet infantry has been wiped out. The way combat worked out, he lost five stands in a single turn as overwhelming numbers were brought to bear on him. Soviet infantry had taken cover in the fountain, in a vain attempt to stem the tide against Michael (probably should be written as Mikhail for this), but he is caught by Neil who moves to attack. From left to right, foreground, mine, Dave's and Neil's companies advance to take half the map. In the distance, on the right, Brent's troops are finally able to advance and take a building as well. And at this point, the Soviets conceded the game.

With even up forces, it was a slugging match. But, with numbers against him, there was little chance for Michael to halt the tide of oncoming Germans.

It was a fun game and the rules were easily memorized after one turn. Perhaps not a game for rabid gamers, but one we could play without army lists, point values, and arguing about special rules for "unit x" just clarified in the latest online post or magazine.

BLMA's Millionth Pageview Givaway

Over in the UK a rather nice chap, appropriately named "Big Lee" by his mates, is celebrating the fact that his blog has received 1 million pageviews. LINK

My poor ol' blog just does not generate the traffic that his does (poor poor me), which may be due to my lack of a cool accent...or more likely because I don't post as frequently nor do I have cool pics to show all the wonderful stuff that his does.

Alas, mine is as it is and is not likely to change in the near future.

However, in the few remaining hours of his giveaway, I wish him great success and many more years of happy blogging.

Maybe if I have a giveaway, I can reach 50k pageviews...

Chateau Thierry: An AAR

A few weeks ago, my younger sons and I were able to participate in a WWI game of Trenchline, put on by the author of the rules and hosted by Alex from the club. I and Brent had helped cut out and assemble the foam trenchlines and no man's land, while Alex and Brent finished it all off, including making wire entanglements. The Germans had 5 divisions, the French had a small division, and the Americans, under Gen. Pershing (me), had 4 divisions. Each side had a specific objective to take, which also required making sure it was secure from an enemy counter-attack. I commanded the US/French side, with Brent as the French commander. My sons Fionn and Liam each commanded a brigade of US Infantry, Aidan was a US Infantry Division commander (tasked to closely support the French) and then two gents from the Bay Area were each given command of a division of infantry (one being elite US Marines who were the most elite force on the table). I've forgotten the Bay Area gents' names (I am very very very bad at remembering names, but will add them as I am reminded of who attended). A view of the landscape; Germans to the left, Americans and French to the right. Far in the distance, to the left is Chateau Thierry, the American objective. The French-held German objective. This is about as close as the Germans saw it.
Several individuals, not including myself, took pictures of the game, from start to finish, but I have not received the ones showing the German attack, unfortunately.

Here is one pic of the German assault from the Trenchline Yahoo Group. Thanks to Manny for the photo.
 
So, a quick summary of the German assault on their objective is that they kicked it off during the first turn. Only to receive heavy artillery fire from the Allies (2 D8s per turn). While in the trenches, the troops were fairly okay, but in the open, they suffered greatly. After about three turns of advancing, the Germans dropped smoke and gas to cover their assault, but this was in the midst of a rain squall, so the effectiveness was very poor.
This meant that the French, although suffering some losses, were able to maintain their hold on the objective, in spite of being outnumbered 2 to 1.
Meanwhile, I commanded the off-board artillery assets and I shifted my fire from anti-wire activities (more on that in a moment) to direct support of the French. Two small batteries and one large battery were able to place their rounds in a very fortunate fashion, even after scattering, and the poor Germans were thrown in disarray and the two attacking divisions retreated.
The way fire works under these rules is that every fire roll is countered by a cover roll. In the case of artillery, US fired D8 and German fired D10. In the trenches, the cover roll was a D10, but in the open it was a mere D4. Each side's commander had to make a choice of how the artillery was to be utilized before the battle, and I choose "All out effort" which gave my side 2xD8s per turn, per German battalion. The German commander's choice gave him a single D10 per turn, per Allied battalion.
If cover die ever came up as a "1", then that battalion lost its leader and also any one attachment to that battalion (armored car, tank, infantry gun, mortar, machinegun).
As each battalion took a hit, these were indicated by small d6 placed next to the unit. If 10 hits by fire were taken in a single turn, the unit was removed. If a unit, after the morale phase, had 14 hits on it still, it was removed. A unit could take 0,1,2, or 3 hits from a single die, depending on the difference between the attacking and cover die. If you had 6 or more hits, you were pinned in place; having to recover to 5 or less before being able to move again.
A battalion could recover hits by being in a trench, having a leader, being veteran, being elite, and not moving, cumulative. So, under the best conditions, a unit could remove 5 hits in a turn.
This worked fairly well, keeping the pace of the game at a good clip, but it meant everyone was rolling all the time. Also, once each day phase (a 2 hour segment of the day) off-board artillery landed and each battalion was diced for. We also had direct support artillery, which was still off map (unless deployed on the table for direct fire) which could land every turn, but had to be plotted, checked for scatter, and could only be shifted every other turn).
At the beginning of the game, there were about 30 wire entanglements in no man's land, of which 6 were directly in the way of our advancing to the Chateau and had to be removed. If my artillery did three hits in a single round of fire, the wire was taken off the table. It took me 3 1/2 turns to clear these obstacles.
While the Germans began the show early, I had given my division commanders the order to wait for MY signal. When "I" blew the whistle, they were to go and go fast, no stopping, no walking, but at the double quick and towards the chateau. I did this because it would take about 3 turns for a battalion to move through a wire entanglement, but this did not remove the wire. Each turn in the open was another turn the German artillery would pound our troops and I wanted to avoid free kills as much as possible. This proved to be one of the most important decisions I made during the course of the game.
With the wire to our front gone, I then shifted one big gun and two smaller guns to support the French. At that time, I expected the French to be pushed out of their position, but I hoped the Germans would be weakened enough that the American reinforcements behind the French position would be able to retake the objective.
As it turned out, once those two German divisions routed, that side of the table was done. Apart from continuing to pound the retreating Germans (Aidan did a great job with spotting and rolling casualties), the French were content to sit in place as the Germans beat feet towards their own trenches.
Opposite the Chateau, my three division commanders knew what was expected of them. The Marine Division was in reserve, but I specifically gave that division all the additional assets I had and it move out once the divisions in front of it advanced.
The Marine commander adjusts his lads in the trench as they prepare to move out. The other two divisions are already on the way.
I am in the back, giving the French commander a quick brief on my plans for the artillery. In the background, towards the right, you can see a yellow ring. This was for one of the large gun batteries, with two green rings for the smaller guns. You can see another yellow ring in the foreground. This was placed to pound the trenches behind our objective. Any Germans leaving their trenches here would be in a world of hurt...or so I hoped.
Note: There are NO...zero...none...nadda...zilch... Germans in the Chateau. This was due to a communication error involving the German commander and the Umpire at the beginning of the game and this was not resolved until after we'd advanced for two turns. This was a huge error on the part of the Germans and it cost them dearly. Small arms fire range was 12". With the Germans behind the objective, they lost precious ground and time that they would have had, like we did on the other side of the table. By the time they got defenders into the Chateau, we had our troops just entering it as well. With a maximum of 10 battalions, regardless of side, who could enter the Chateau, the Allies were lucky to get in more troops than the Germans. The view from the American side; two infantry divisions advancing, with the Marine Division ready to jump off.
Even with taking advantage of the German error, and the fortuitous effectiveness of our artillery, it was still a close run thing. The Germans were able to rout one of our attacking battalions out of the Chateau and we did very little in return.
Yet, some good results from artillery and air bombing on the area immediately behind the Chateau, further German reinforcements were not forthcoming. AND, we had a very good round of fire with poor German cover rolls, followed by a VERY poor round of German fire. This resulted in a German battalion breaking, causing a general rout amongst the erstwhile defenders.
With the better part of two American divisions in the Chateau or directly supporting it, and with an intact division of elite Marines only a couple of turns away from assaulting the German trenches (meaning those Germans couldn't defend themselves and also attack the Chateau), the German players conceded.
 
 3 US divisions on the attack.
I do wish the other gents who had taken pictures had gotten them to me. There are a number of shots which show the American advance on the Chateau and the positions of the defenders there, but alas, not all has gone according to plan.
The game was fun. However, to be quite honest, it became obvious that early on, two of the German players' morale was shot. The combination of their utter failure to even threaten their primary objective, followed by turn after turn of punishing artillery, and with the realization that they'd not used the terrain to their best advantage, it was evident to my entire team that we had the morale victory early.
This is not to say our opponents were bad or were quitters. No, we very nearly did not win as they were able to scramble at the last second and nearly forced a draw (which was only lost because a single turn of awful die rolls). However, it is interesting to see the process of personality dynamics in play as a team endures repeated blows. I would not have wanted to be in their shoes, that day, and it goes to show their high level of gamesmanship for sticking it out as long as they did.The Germans have been kicked out and the Americans victories. The two green and one purple ring in the left foreground were German artillery and aerial bombing plots.
It was a good game and I appreciate being able to face off against such talented players. They each did their best with what they had. Group photo. Dave B. is missing, as he had already headed home by this time. He played as one of the Germans and his artillery played havoc with one of the assaulting US divisions.

17th Century Dutch Architecture

Anyone have a recommendation for a source on Dutch Architecture for the years 1650-1700? I am looking for village, town, and city images which would give someone a reasonable view of what such would look like during the League of Augsburg and War of the Spanish Succession. I have already looked through a number of books on Dutch landscape art, but I am more in need of what a city-focused artist would have done. Of course, contemporary photographs of period architecture would also be acceptable.

I am in "training" this week for my summer teaching job; the one I have done for several years now. So, my gaming has all been internalized while I listen to the droning.

Still Catchin' Up

I've had my lads with me for the past three weeks and my time with them is now over. Apart from one son who gets to spend an extra week or so with me for some 1 on 1 time.

Thus, my attention has been kept offline a little longer, but we did get in some gaming, which I hope to blog soon.

We also learned, as a family, what kinds of games we simply CANNOT play together due to group dynamics. 'Tis sad, really, but grand-scale geopolitical games, where one must negotiate trades and alliances, does not work for us. It is either "everyone gang up on dad" or becomes a 3v2 with much "negotiation" under the threat of invasion on the part of the older brothers vs the younger brothers. What kind of strategic monsters have I raised? Oh, heavens, that I do not own Diplomacy is no longer a melancholy dream.

We have, as five sons and a father, determined that we're best suited for games which rely on us competing individually or cooperatively. Any game that lends itself to negotiation is not going to work for us, unfortunately.

The game we attempted, barely getting in four turns before starkly realizing the problem, was Civilization by Eagle Games. This is a decade old attempt to re-create a boardgame from the PC version of Civilization. Seemed to be a nice game for the lads and I, when I bought it upon release.

We sat down to play the game on Saturday. The setup was straightforward, simple, and not too many pieces. Yet, the real need for monopolizing resources early cause two of my sons to immediately ally, while attempting to gain two adherents from my youngest two sons. This left the eldest and I in a bad spot and we conducted our own diplomatic efforts.

My youngest was attacked by the alliance, who then tried to use intimidation combined with a "we only want the wine and oil resources, but will leave you with the other territories-unless they have wine or oil." Seeing an opportunity, I pointed out that his best interests lay with not agreeing to such a deal.

This counter-diplomacy was not much appreciated by the alliance.

Even so, we went another couple of turns, which saw me take pre-emptive action against one of the members of the alliance. This gutted his nation, gaining me two settlements and splitting his territories in half, preventing him from easily supporting his scattered villages and towns.

At that point, we called the game, not even leaving the Ancient Era.

I have a few pics to upload, once I can retrieve them from my ipad.

We also played Bang (the Western card game) last week as it is a favorite of the lads'. My eldest ended up winning as the sheriff, meaning I also won as I was a deputy.

I am lacking personal wargames terrain, which limits playing at home in a substantial way. Hopefully, I can rectify the issue once I get paid from teaching this summer. I want to play more miniature games with my sons, and a variety of genres requires more than a few card buildings.