A Wednesday Winner

The Summer of Heat crashing against The Duchy like a suffocating wet towel has left me quite knackered and after several days of work in a row, I actually called off from a game tonight at the RAP Gamers. It was to be the third meeting of our Gettysburg Day 1 event, so for me to pull out I must be tired. 

Sitting quietly after supper, my thoughts went not to the fun I'm missing down the street, nor to Historicon, which is starting up in the next county over, but instead to a small skirmish game system I found for playing small introductory games at WW2 re-enactments. 

Five Men in Normandy (the .30 caliber edition)

I bought this after a conversation with my friend Shannon at the Wheels of Liberation WW2 event in Gettysburg. We tossed about doing a small, public friendly introductory level game for the guests as they come through the camp. And one we could play on Friday nights after the tourists go home. 

Poking around, I have 20mm and 1/72 scale figures. I have British (and Canadian) infantry and paras. I have Germans....Hmmm. My first thought was Crossfire, but that might be a bit much for people who have never done this before and it requires a LOT of terrain. 

An unguided search of the InterWebs came up with Five Men from Nordic Weasel. I know some others have really enjoyed the FiveCore system and it looks to hit all the spots. Small number of figures needed (5-7 per side), small playing area, 2 or 3 feet square, D6 based and only a handful needed, NO vehicles, although you can have Jeeps or similar, minimal terrain required.....it might just work. 

So tonight, as I'm resting up on the couch, sans television, I think I'll have a deep dive read of them. 

And the glue on eight British/Canadian paras is still drying them to their painting bottle caps, so I'll have to wait until morning to start the priming process. 

More anon. 

It's Gettysburg Season!

There are no more irrational creatures than wargamers and historians. Worse, yet, when one is both. This time of year finds us in the full throttle of "Gettysburg Season". Those first three days in July when All Things Gettysburg abound here in the Duchy. 

Yes, I am a Gettysburg Nerd. 

I don't know why, I just am. 

But on to the fun bits. The RAP Gamers played out one part of the First Day.....on the First Day of July. 

Bruce P. laid out a grand table with his 15mm ACW collection and took us back to the late morning of 01 July 1863. We used All The King's Men rules, modified for 15mm ACW figures. 

Phil G. and John F. on the left playing the dastardly Confederates (boo! hiss!) Steve T. on the right as my fellow Federal commander.

I took command of Lysander Cutler's brigade of New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians. Steve generously let me have Hall's 2nd Maine Battery as well. He took The Iron Brigade and played the role of Wadsworth, the division commander, as well. We were positioned as they were historically on MacPherson's ridge. 

Phil and John split the four brigades of Heth's division and five batteries of artillery. We began the action after Buford's troopers and Calef's battery had withdrawn. 

"There stands Cutler like a rail fence wall!" 

Cutler ordering his Gold Chip over to the 76th New York (or maybe it was the 7th Indiana) to get them to do something Army-ish

Sadly, my dice rolling was sub-sub-par. ATKM uses a system where the colour of the chip behind the unit not only shows its status (think of it like cohesion) but uses dice of the same colour. The statuses are Green, Yellow, and Red, with a success being 4, 5, or 6 for Green, 5 or 6 for Yellow, and for Red you need to roll 6's. 

It was amazing the number of ones, twos, and threes that a gentleman can roll in the course of an evening. 

The above view of John's Rebels schwacking my Federals. Iverson's North Cackalackians getting the better of my right flank. John rolled exceptionally well, above the mathematical mean, which helped. 

Phil surges across from Herr's ridge to MacPherson's, as Bruce (in red), Steve, John, and I look on.

Cutler struggled mightily to save his flank (and the soft bits he was sitting on), but three units were either destroyed or badly mauled. His other three were looking any too fresh, either. Fortunately, I was given Colonel Roy Stone's brigade of three regiments and Calef's battery of artillery. 

Calef's battery was wiped out, but managed to eliminate two Confederate batteries. Stone's three regiments filled the hole in the doughnut so Cutler could consolidate on the right. 

After three hours, we called it at 2200 (two of us are still working stiffs), took pictures to capture positions, and we'll resume next Wednesday night. I rather enjoyed myself despite getting badly handled (well, it's what happened in real life...) and I'm looking forward to playing out the rest of the game. 

Bruce was hoping for eight players, four of us showed, so it was probably a case of too many units for the available number of players and functioning ears/hearing aids. (This is the downside to being in an elder set of gamers, methinks)

Again, a wonderful way to spend a Wednesday night and to kick off my annual Gettysburg Season. 

More anon. 

Weekend Update

This evening finds me watching Red Sox baseball as the evening prime time game on the television. Most unusual, especially considering how poorly my team is playing this season, but I'll take the chance to watch when I can. 

Despite a fair amount of yard work and cleaning in the garage, I still managed to get some things accomplished this week. 

First up, more hussars. This time for Freikorps von Schony. 

The lovely 25mm RSM figures remind my why I hate painting hussars...too much frippery! But necessary frippery to get the unit up to strength to fight either their fellow Hungarians in the service of Maria Theresa or those dastardly Russians (boo! hiss!) 

This chap for my Irish Civil War collection. To whom is he speaking and what is he saying....hmmm....

My friend Roger gave me some pencil sharpeners that were from historical sites, in this case something from Valley Forge. He plugged up the hole and have removed it from the original base and mounted it on a different base. It was primed all black when he gave it to me. 

 

Finally, I managed to (finally...) finish off two more units from my upcycled 25mm English Civil War collection. The finished Freikrops von Schony behind cheering them on.

Two more weeks until school starts up again and I've a project that's overdue for my National Guard unit...but tonight, it's time for baseball. 

Let's GO Red Sox! 

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.