Weekend Update

Well, the weekend I was planning for was not the weekend I experienced. 

Some minor unplanned for home repairs, relocating the air conditioner in the game room, and the kid visiting for the weekend sort of sent my painting plans onto the back burner. 

But I did manage to add a unit of 25mm Hussars to my Duchy of Arancia Napoleonic Imagi-Nation army. 

3rd (Tirrenici) Hussars heading out on patrol...

 25mm Minifig French (?) Hussars on 40mm by 60mm bases

It was nice to get some of the back log of figures off the desk. And moving the air conditioner did force me to clean a few things up in the room. 

<sigh> 

Well, we'll see what we can manage this coming week. 

Finally Back Home...

After a couple of weeks of playing 1800mm Moderns and then right to OttoDotCon 2026, I have finally returned to Turner Towers...

Uf Da, I'm tired. 

To be sure, Annual Training was busy. But it was the drive to Carlisle, PA from Vermont and then right into the show that really wore me down. 

The Society of Daisy's Annual Wargame Show....OttoDotCon 2026 edition 

For the last few years we've held this show at the Comfort Suites in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. We struggle for attendance. We usually have 30 or so stalwarts who make the trek. This year was no different. 

Except for one thing. The hotel make a mistake and double booked us with another group...

A sewing and quilting guild. 

I cannot make this up. 

And these ladies, who are in the same age demographic as ourselves, are up early and staying late. I was impressed with their dedication, their craft, and their ability to sling cotton print fabrics like ninjas. 

But back to our show... 

The Army War College CSL team was there with "Shadow and Steel", a new game being developed

Friday afternoon I ran a 6mm Cold War Gone Hot with Danes fighting East Germans. 

Keith and Dennis were kind enough to get down and still manage to get up again...but they provided really valuable feedback on the rules. And why I need to either get this up on a table or find younger players... 

Saturday morning found me in Eric Ackermann's "Battle of Tortilla Plats"

Eric took 54mm plastic figures from various cheap sources and converted them for the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. 

An example of Eric's modelling work

Steve Thorne's Alamo in 10mm Game

Saturday afternoon I was able to get a spot in Steve's 10mm Alamo game. Dennis (The Other Dennis) and Shanna played the Texicans, whilst Keith and Dennis (Not the Other Dennis) and I played the Mexicans. We eventually managed to win after 10 turns, but it was definitely a bloody victory. 

Overall, an excellent show. We had our first vendor, Josh Wartluft, who does 3D printing. He's also a gamer whom I've known for fifteen years. The site was accommodating as usual. And we had two young teenagers join us. 

Seeing friends and playing games was just what I needed. 

Russian Around For Some Danish On Mother's Day Weekend

My original choice of game to run at OttoDotCon this year, was an Irish Civil War skirmish game based on the song "Johnson's Motor Car". I was about 70% done, when Tracy sent me a John Curry book on Deception in wargaming. 

There was a section in there on "Hall Games", using the entirety of a church or school hall to use the distance between gamers to sow confusion, doubt, and uncertainly. 

I loved the whole article. Naturally, I had to do this for OttoDotCon. 

So, I pivoted and started working on two 6mm Cold War forces. For my Blue Force, I chose the Danish Army, specifically looking at a force based around the Jutland Dragoon Regiment. The opposition, my Orange Force is a fairly generic East German/Russian Tank Regiment with accompanying Mot-Schutzen mounted in BTRs. 

Danish recce Land Rovers, that most Euro of scout vehicles, and 2 1/2-ton trucks 

Danish Centurions in their two-tone camo pattern. In the foreground are some MTLBs for the "Orangeland Forces".

Before I went with the 6mm Cold War, though, I did think about going BIG. Like 1/48th scale vehicle and 1/32 scale figure Toy Soldier BIG. My choices were WW2 or, again, Moderns. 

North Shore Regiment landing on the verdant shores of Not-Normandy

Everyone's favourite Tim-Mee Tank cruising through the lawn looking for trouble

And the book that has all the goody-good stuff on playing a large-scale game with small-scale figures

There is a lot of work to do before the game is ready for prime time. To include getting a LOT more little buggers painted. But the bigger worry for me is getting all the terrain and game support material complete before I head up to Vermont for two weeks of Gub'mint sponsored fun. 

Happy May, Happy Day

I managed to squander the opportunity yesterday to post something labour-related in celebration of May Day, but I will blame it on the work week and general fatigue and weather. 

Today, however, seems a bit brighter, not the least of which because I have several hours of quiet to myself, whilst Herself is off working. Up early, coffee, breakfast, now a bit of puttering before the VWC meeting. 

I recently was gifted a book on the applied use of deception in wargaming. For a tabletop miniatures gaming perspective, there are several challenges with applying the use of deception and making it look or feel "right", so I was very interested in reading this book by Dr. John Curry, who has a number of titles he's reprinted or published on wargaming. 

The book is a short read and has several short stories about how a certain technique was applied or how a principle worked out in a game. It describes A-type and M-type deception and different styles of games where these were applied. The late Dr. Paddy Griffith has a short piece he wrote in here, which really makes this book more valuable, in my opnion. 

Overall, I think it would be worth buying, if you like running games, which I do. 

After reading it, I've chosen to change my game that I will be running at OttoDotCon at the end of May, from an Irish Civil War game based around the song "Johnson's Motor Car", to a 6mm Cold War Gone Hot scenario using Bob Cordery's wonderful The Portable Wargame rules. 

If that doesn't telegraph my intent to use deception in my game, I'm not sure what else I have to do to advertise it....In any event, I think the players will appreciate it. There's nothing evil, just a little "indecision" and friction to keep things...interesting. 

We'll see. 

And it seems the weather is cooperating too. 

Just maybe. 

Weekend Update

Busy times here in the Duchy. 

Not only have I managed to defend my thesis, but on Friday the 24th, Sandy and I celebrated 33 years of marriage. Suffice to say, there have been good times, there have been bad times, but we've managed to make it work and I could not ask for a better friend and partner in life. 

 Enjoying our first course at a rather nice Italian place. Arugula salad and baked polenta. 

My friend Bob C. likes to detail the meals he and his wife eat when they go on cruises. I suppose I could have detailed our dinner, but I just can't be bothered. 

But we did go to our favourite diner for pie and coffee for dessert...

But it's not all about food here in the Duchy...well, sort of. 

Kicking about the InterWebs, I was looking for a set of rules that was used for a Moby-Dick wargame I saw at Historicon. Well, I didn't find them, but I did find these....

Called "Whalemen Wanted", it is a board game where the player plays the role of the captain of a whaler and your mission is to go and fill your hold with whale oil. There's a bit of accounting involved, which is appropriate, and the time frame focuses on the Golden Age, around the 1830s and 1840s. 

The map of the known world...I still have to cutty-cut and paste it together...

More playsheets...

I'm currently reading through the rules, and I hope to give an account of a (hopeful) success of a whaling voyage soon. 

Hopefully it won't take two to four years like a real whaling voyage for me to tell you a whale of a tale.

The Defence of Thesis

Not a Greek island you may have not heard about. In this case today I had to present my thesis for defence to my program's committee. Two were distinguished professors, the third was the Dean of Students who is also a maritime historian. 

Well, my chosen area of expertise is the period surrounding The Quasi-War with France, 1798-1801. My thesis was regarding USS Ganges, a converted merchant ship, and her service as the first operational warship of the new United States Navy. We discussed naval policy, how the vessel made an impact, relevance to events today, and the United States Supreme Court decision involving her, Bas v. Tingy. 

An hour later, it was done. I was passed with distinction. 

Damn me. 

Now I've just got to finish one paper for my Moby-Dick course and one course this summer. 

And then back to playing with LOTS of toy soldiery things... 

Weekend Update

Last night was a trek up to see the PaWM at Mike S.'s house. Another game of Ancients, this time Romans versus Barbarians. After some discussion, we decided they were "Germanic" barbarians, for no better reason than nobody thought to say "Gallic" or "British" or something like that. 

Either way, the Hairy Buggers were in a palisaded town on a small hill which was the Roman objective. 

Hairy Barbarians....well, some with hair...Young James, anyway...

Hairy Barbarian Village in the middle of the picture

I played Romans, for a change. Usually, I prefer to embrace my inner Hairy Barbarian Self and run amok starkers with a pointy stick and sometimes a shield. But not this time. I embraced a desire for stabby-stabby and slow, methodical grinding power. 

John the OFM embracing his inner Hairy Self and moves forward in a shambling mass

Mark C. making a point (he served as Assistant GM to Mike) as John the OFM and Bernie look on...

It was a slow, plodding, grinding series of Roman legions steadily doing their Roman thing against thems who wear not the trousers...or much of anything, really... 

Bernie had exceptionally hot dice. I'd hit his warbands with ten hits and he'd save seven or eight of them. And then he'd schwack my cohorts with bow fire or pointy sticks and a Full Monty Dance and I'd save maybe half or so. 

But in the end, the Centurion Herpes Simplex Maximus rallied the twoops, and we finally managed to wear down Bernie and his Magic Dice. I broke two charges of his, and then Jim B did the same on my right, and pretty soon, the proto-Krauts were on their way back over the Rhine..

Even John the OFM cheering him on can't save Bernie's German Zulu Hordes! 

We used Neil Thomas's rules for Ancients and Medieval, modified for the 10 of us playing. Mike, ably assisted by Mark, herded cats and kept us somewhat in line. Another great time and Mike's wife Kathy made an amazing pot of chili of us for dinner, along with cornbread... yummmmmm....

But it wasn't all just about rolling dice and pushing lead. I also picked up some things from John the OFM for my 18th century collection. 

Now with siege guns, positions, and extra gabions, my French might just be able to knock Les Anglais about the continent...or maybe the other way around and my Provincials can finally take New France... 

More anon.