Hot Lead 2015

Last Saturday, Beth, DJ, and I drove up to Stratford, ON, for Hot Lead, a very nice convention held every year in that fine city. It's a good size, had a number of vendors, quite a bit of gaming, and we get to see old friends we don't get to see in the winter. Andy, Martin, Steven, and Kevin had to be there early (Like 9:00am) because Kevin was assisting in the running of an early game. Our car came up later since we were there primarily for the shopping. I need my dose of lead/pewter/white metal!

"Another successful convention, guys! Just bring the cart up to the hovel there!"

A Napoleonic game in progress using Shako rules.

I watched a bit and kibbitzed with the Mad Padre who was general of the Baden contingent.

Some of the flower of Baden's metal manhood.

A Light dragoon regiment that controlled the entire end of the board...
even with a trash barrel of one rider's head.

Austrian Landwehr, fusiliers and grenadiers take the fight to the French.
Hoch Hapsburg!

Some space gaming with many and varied space ships
"In space, no one can hear you whine."
(Such a great line. I wish I'd said it first.)

A huge ancients game. Here are the Carthaginians - Gauls and the Citizen phalanx

The Roman legions form up.

Carthage's greatest tourist attraction - War elephants!
No Carthaginian army should be without them.

A Battletech game preparing to start.
That town is TOO pristine. Do something about it!

A WWI game preparing to start.
This was an afternoon offering, not the one Wayne and Kevin ran in the morning.

British and Imperial troops form up for an assault.

German troops in their staging area. They'll break into less rigid formation shortly.

Russians in the redoubt? It looks like it.

French preparing to assault? I'd think so.
A nice looking game and I don't know what rules were used.

RAFM miniatures ran a Steampunk RPG game with a huge airship and lots of adventurous folks.

The loot at the end of the day.
Pooka is doing a security check for anything edible.
I picked up some great things. More 15mm Aztecs and 15mm Pike&Shot Poles.
The bring-and-buy is always a great source of bargains

I enjoy this convention. I've been to Historicon, Fall In, and Winter War in the States. Hot Lead is not nearly as big, but it is more personable. The crowding is less, the comraderie is greater, and the stench of the unwashed is FAR less. Keep up the good work, James! I look forward to next year!

Rebel Yell and Yankee Cheer

anAndy and I decided to play an American Civil War game at the Hamilton Road Gaming Group this Saturday. Martin had gone to his ancestral home for the weekend and Bear gladly laid aside role-playing to be the Southern gentleman he'd like to be. As a pleasant surprise, Mark showed up and played. So Bear (or I should say "Beauregard") and I handled the Confederate forces while Mark and Andy controlled the Union which was made up of only Zouaves! We used our home-brewed ACW variant of Iron Ivan's This Very Ground. All photos are by Andy.

Beauregard and I won the roll and moved first. Each player had four units of infantry and a cannon. We set up 12" from the table edge and moved in. I faced Mark who advanced in march column with one unit in skirmish order holding the forested edge of a plowed field. Andy moved over an abandoned camp ground toward a small woods and pond with a farm house and summer kitchen across a small road. Beauregard advanced toward that farm house with one unit on his far right to observe and block a similar unit of Andy's in those woods. I advanced toward a fence line with two units and the cannon and advance on my far left with two unit to the edge of a wooded area.

My troop advance in loose order through a group of cows who have broken into the field. They're just window dressing. Mark's cannon missed my troops and he claimed a cow got in the way. We called "BBQ!" and he said I had to cook since he brought the meat. He didn't say if he wanted it Texas-style, Carolina-style, or Cajun-style.

Bear/Beauregard's first unit comes up to the pasture wall, having been ignored by a more mannerly group of cows.
The sheep and the dog in the foreground are minding their own business as well.

Mark's Zouaves take up a position at the rail fence. The left hand unit soon went prone.
So, Padre Mike: more Zouave envy?

From then on it became a fire fight. Three of Andy's unit and his cannon exchanged fire with Bear's three units. Bear's cannon was slowly being man-handled into place but found the way blocked by a bog. Some counter-battery fire began and Andy lost three of his five artillerymen on his gun while Bear lost three of his four gunners, leaving the intrepid gun captain to load, aim, and fire the field piece,

Andy's gun shows itself in action with a reduced crew while two of his Zouave units clamber over the rail fence into the fenced-in wooded area.

Mark and I exchanged fire over the small road. One of my units, deployed in close order, had had enough and charged the Union troops in front of them. That surprising melee lasted three turns! It see-sawed back and forth until all I had left was my drummer and his sword while Mark had an officer and one rifleman. His other two units kept firing at my unit in the woods until it was whittled down to the officer only. Yet neither unit broke in morale!

A view over the plowed field at the firing lines. The close order Confederate unit at the far end of the line was soon to charge the Federal defenders of the fence line. The loose order unit in the woods kept getting shot at by the other Federals and finally found itself down to one man left by the end of the game.

More fire fights through the farmstead. The summer kitchen on the left was in Rebel hands and was filled with Southern infantry. This is as close as the troops on this end got to each other.

Meanwhile in the woods on the far end of the battlefield, Andy's flank guards eyed Bear's troops and both just stared at each other. Yes, units were tied up for the whole game but neither unit turned the other's flank.

In the end, Andy and Mark confessed that the Union battle plan was to sweep away my troops in a right hook to hit Bear's flank while holding Bear's attention with Andy's troops. This didn't happen. Although I was seriously slapped around a bit on the north side of the battle field, I did bloody Mark's (military) nose and kept him from sweeping the flank. I was cautiously advancing with one unit which could have flanked his prone unit if I hadn't been concerned about an attack on that unit's flank by a line of Zouaves in the woods far in front of me. Both my cannon and Mark's were intact and could have added to the party had they not been screened by our own troops. We decided that neither side could do much and called it a day.  Following this we sat and discussed a plan Mark has for a future game which might include heavy fortifications, amphibious landings, and unlimited infantry for the attacking force. Sounds good but probably won't be realised until after the Christmas holidays.

Fiddling with Black Powder

First off, I don't. I have great respect for the explosive nature of the stuff. I've fired it and I've tasted it. (You're not a true War of 1812/Napoleonic reenactor until you've bitten too far into a cartridge.) Don't taste it and don't mess with it. Trust me; it tastes terrible and it goes "BOOM!"

What I meant was Warlord Games's "Horse & Musket" period rules Black Powder. Andy had the rules and suggested we do a play test at the Games Group's Saturday gathering. Since it was Board Games Day and some of our regulars -like my son- went on the "board games crawl" around London, there were only four of us at the group - Andy, Kevin, my wife, Beth, and myself. It ended up being the perfect size for the playtest. Andy laid out four battalions and one cannon for the British forces in the War of 1812 and the same for the US. Since we'd never played the game before, we decided to keep the experiment small. Cavalry played only a tiny part in the conflict (I only know of three cavalry charges in the entire war!), so they were left out.

We had all heard somewhere that Black Powder used the same mechanics as GW's Warmaster, a favourite game system of mine. (It's sometimes referred to as Warhamster.) I was not interested in doing another Napoleonic/SYW/Horse & Musket set of rules, but I was game to try these. It ends up that the mechanics of BP are quite similar to the mechanics of Warmaster with some extra detail or chrome added in. The game flows nicely and anyone familiar with Warmaster would find it familiar. There are differences in the command and control rules, in the shooting and the hand-to-hand fighting rules, but the differences make a lot of sense. The morale rules differ slightly, but again, the differences make sense.

Black Powder is quite flexible, allowing for any scale of figures so long as both opponents are based similarly. The rules cover 1700 to 1890, or the period of history from the universal use of the flintlock musket to the advent of the magazine-fed bolt-action rifle.

A few photos are in order (photos by Beth, Andy, and myself):

The "Brain Trust" looking over the field. From the left - John, Andy and Kevin.
The troops moved up fast due to the command & control rules effecting movement.

American troops advance. Andy has a huge collection of War of 1812 infantry and artillery.

The Soldiers of the King advance in turn.

We kept terrain to a minimum and kept the troop numbers down.
Next time, I hope we add some light infantry - maybe rifles and Native warriors.

The opposing sides are impressive. Andy was a long time collecting these.

Melee combat! We turned a stand sideways to indicate the unit was disordered.
Being disordered has consequences for movement, firing, receiving orders, and morale.

The business end of the artillery.

Special delivery for Cousin Jonathan! Here Kevin has moved his cannon into position to enfilade one of my battalions.
It wasn't pretty. At close range, cannon roll 3d6, but DOUBLE that when enfilading an enemy.

The other side of the mess. When a unit has taken more than 3 casualties, further casualties are considered "excess" and this has consequences for morale/break tests.

In the game, my Yankee troops of Scott's brigade had two battalions evaporate due to casualties, one fall back, and one hold it's ground. My artillery also was wiped out. One of Andy's units was destroyed. Normally I would have conceded the game much earlier, but we all wanted to "see how the monster worked" and we played on until my situation was totally untenable.

My verdict? A simple, enjoyable game that has lots of flexibility and possibilities. It is not simplistic and in all honesty, it won't appeal to those who like to remove casualties. The counting of casualties has more to do with loss of unit cohesion and morale than body count, and I have to agree with that. We made all the units equal in all their values, but there is provision in the rules for better, elite troops and for disaffected or green troops. There is an element of chance, but isn't there in every game? (If all the outcomes came predetermined, who would play?) The command & control rules allowing double or triple movement if the commander rolls well or blunders if he rolls badly take some getting used to, but as I said before, if you've played the full rules of Warmaster, you have some familiarity with that. In fact, I think the BP rules are an improvement on Warmaster. The authors (Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson, well-known names in wargaming circles) say this is more a reflection of an efficient or imcompitent staff than the sense of the general. The same comment - that BP might be better than Warmaster in some ways - could also be said for the break test rules; Black Powder provides the players with more possibilities.

I might not run out and buy the rules, but I have an itch to paint up some of my 28mm figs and base them for this set of rules. I do think this is an perfect set of rules to introduce new gamers to table-top gaming and fantasy player to historicals as well as playing in at a convention.

A few years ago, Andy made up some "personal" figures for the two of us, so we're seen here discussing the deployment, care, and feeding of model soldiers.

28mm figures in large groups make an impressive array.

The US 22nd had failed morale and was in the process of being removed when the photo was taken.
Casualties are not removed in Black Powder, although entire units can go poofters after some hard pounding.

Birthdays and Shako

Saturday was my son's 19th Birthday and his buddies took him out for his first drink. He stayed at a friend's house safely and I'm waiting to hear how the evening went. It was also Martin's birthday. So of course we played Shako and had pie at lunch. Martin, francophone and francophile to the core, ran the French (including his freshly-painted dismounted dragoons.) Beth handled her Italians, and I ran the Rhinebund troops. Andy captained the Swedes, Rob the British, and Tyler the Austrians. I envisioned a sort of "Battle of Nations" scenario, but I didn't have enough Prussians and Russians painted to do the job, so the British joined in. The game might've been a touch too big for the table and we did have a curfew (Rob had to work, Andy had a soccer game to go to and Tyler had to pick up his son), but it went fine. 

Rob and Tyler - both looking rather poleaxed - prepare for play.

Tyler studiously studies the rules or the play sheet.

We found rules for the Congreve rocket on line and Rob wanted to try them. Well... let's just say they made a nice display but were rather ineffective.

French and Italian troops contest the town with the Tyler's Austrians - Whitecoats and Grenzers.

Each player rolls for his/her initiative at the beginning of each turn and I can't remember what order things started out with. The Coalition forces appeared to wish to hold and keep the ridge line just behind the town while contesting the town. The Imperial/Allies set up a "grand battery" and a separate cavalry division in the hope of breaking the line on the ridge somewhere between the British and Swedish forces. So we all advanced.

The order of action is unusual in Shako. Artillery fire precedes movement and small arms fire and melee follow movement. Troops take casualties from fire or melee, but can also be "staggered" or hesitant in their actions because of fire. A charging infantry unit might hesitate and not charge home. The number of hits each unit can take is a function of their morale class (Guard - 6, elites - 5, regulars or "normal" humans -4, second-rate units - 3, unreliable units -2... Cossacks, Spanish Cavalry, or Neapolitan infantry are examples of unreliable types.) It seemed that no one could roll a "6" except for initiative, so artillery fire, skirmish fire, and volley's were less than effective. (Might we say that the weather wasn't quite right? Too wet and humid? Yeah! That's the ticket!) I ended up exchanging skirmisher fire with Andy who wisely kept his Swedes on the backside of the ridge, out of my line of fire. I was supposed to hold the flank and demonstrate as it were. Rob also kept his Brits behind the crest of the hill, but his Rifles came out to play, skirmishing by the stream. Tyler sent his two cavalry regiments - Austrian dragoons and hussars - on a left-hook cavalry run while sending Hungarian battalions, Jägers, and Grenzers into the town. Beth and Martin hit the town in force with Italian line infantry and French dismounted dragoons. The town was to be a bloody and long-contested pile of stone.

Italian columns - so fast moving they're blurred - assault the town sectors.

An earlier  photo - the Italians enter the town.

A better view of the exploding town melee.

The much-heralded dismounted dragoons supported by French line troops in column.

Martin noted that most towns are black-holes that swallow troops in wargames and we all agreed that was true in just about every period of gaming and every scale. It was true here. The Austrians lost a Jäger battalion and the Italians lost a line battalion. A battalion of Hungarians battled back and forth for a while and finally were relieved by the Black Watch who roared into the town at curfew.

On the Imperial/Allied left I skirmished with Andy's Swedes and brought up two Westphalian line battalions who formed line and exchanged volleys with the Swedish infantry. The grand battery blocked the way for the cavalry but when they came loose, a regiment of French dragoons (mounted this time) hit a regiment of Swedish Hussars and promptly evaporated them. They went on in a breakthrough to hit a British foot battalion, who were caught forming square and the foot troops melted away as well.

After this, Andy left for his son's soccer game, Rob left with Tyler and his son who agreed to take Rob to work. Rob got together with his buddies for a drink after his shift... and the photo is below.

Now more combat photography - by Andy, Martin, Beth, and even myself.

A side view of the blood-soaked streets of the nameless town.

Swedish light cavalry (North Skanska Carabiniers), a foot battery and their skirmishers
(from the line and the green-coated Warmland field Jägers - rifle-armed!)

Hoch-und-Deutschmeiser holds the ridge!

Rob's British line clamours forward.

British line, foot gun, with the Rifles skirmishing in front.

Swedes in the forest, including the Warmland Field Jägers.

Rhinebund and Bavarian skirmishers and two Westphalians line battalions in column.

The Imperial/Allied cavalry is bottled up by the grand battery. I could say I did not receive full deployment information... and I will!

My view of the advancing Rhinebund and Westphalian troops. 3 battalions of Bavarians and one of a small Saxon stater were coming up in support to the right.

The Bavarians and Saxons begin their movement to the left. The cavalry comes up and the guns (with any luck) make the Coalition forces sweat.

Italians, French, and Hungarians continue to contest the town under the watchful eye of the Archduke Charles!

The British light dragoons prepare for their fateful charge. They chased off the Italian skirmish line and menaced the Italian and French high command causing them to run. We had to make up "house rules" to cover the high command being disrupted by such noisy house guests!

The Coalition view of the town - Hungarians, Tyroleans, Croatians, all mixing it up in the town.

Pooka slept in the window chair during the whole battle, offering invaluable advise to Andy.
Andy caught his apathy/nonchalance/indifference in this great photo.

Later, Rob hit the Roadhouse with his mates for his first legal drink on his 19th. His sister took this photo.
I still think this looks like a meeting of the local Mob.
Happy Birthday, Son!