Weekend Update

So, as opposed to a couple of thousand or so wargamers, I did not attend Historicon this weekend. With the exception of doing a drive by to pick up some bases from Phalanx Games and pay for an order from Rich and Dave at RSM that will be mailed. 

Instead, I puttered about the Duchy. Went to the movies with Herself to see "Minions and Monsters", utterly silly and ridiculous which is why I loved it. Was "generally employed in tasks", as the Ship's Log might say. 

But I did some work on my Italians and British for Five Men in Normandy. 

Figures purchased in the previous century finally getting painted

Half a section of Paras in their primed glory

And th' other half... 

Why Italians? I mean, it says "Normandy" on the tin? 

Actually, it's good for any theater and campaign. And I had the Italians already primed and mounted on pennies. So, they became the first ones in the pipeline. A bag of British paras was then magically pulled out of the WW2 Box of Shame. (Honestly, I thought I'd sold them a couple of shows back...) This now makes the ESCI Paras that arrived the other day, redundant. Or maybe I'll paint them as Poles for Arnhem. 

Either way, it's nice to see a little progress with this project. 

And next weekend is my Civil War unit's NPS weekend at Gettysburg. So, it's recommended we prepare ourselves with exercise and hydration. 

So, I went for a two-mile nature walk carrying my Little Buddy. Who weighs in at about 30 pounds or so, I'm guessing. 

I walk a LOT at work, but this was actually nice to do to prepare for our march in to camp. 

A pretty busy week is in store, so methinks I should end here.

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.