Imigi-nations on the march!

I have not blogged in a while and I make no apologies. I've been quite busy with work (year-end reports and funerals) and my wife had major surgery. She's doing quite a lot better now, thank you, but it leaves me as the only licensed driver in the house. (My daughter has her "G-1", but she can't drive without a licensed driver in the front seat with her.) I've missed a few games and I will get to them. The game today, I have to tell you about.

     Andy, Martin, Kevin, Rob, and I put our new Imigi-nations figures on the board to try them out. We wanted to practise with the rules and clean off the "new unit" curse from all the figs. Since we're still learning the rules ("Warfare in the Age of Reason"), the game went slowly, but it was enjoyable which is the whole idea. Anyway, the legions of the Grand Electorate of Saxe-Fredonia with their allies from Gallifrey (Beth's Scots) and the Duchy of Worchestershiresauce (Rob's Anglo-American Indian army) met the troops of Frankenschwein on the field. We "set the table" according to the random map system laid out in the rules. (In my opinion, it is a wonderful way to randomise the field and well worth 'borrowing' for any game.) The Saxe-Fredonians outnumbered the Frankenschweinians (Frankenschweiners?? Yeah, that seems right.) but they had more cannon than we. We were pretty evenly matched. We had slightly more cavalry and 3 light infantry units to the Frankies one.



On the right, Rufus I with his aides meets the Frankenschweiner commander.
I didn't get his name.

 

The battle field looking west. Martin considers his options and Kevin looks over his as well.



the field looking west-southwest overlooking the Whine River.
Andy makes a point while  Rob, Kevin, and Martin look on.

The Frankenschweiner infantry advances with artillery support.
Frying Pan & Blanket artillery sets include a gun and a limber with horses.
They are little gems!

Kevin's brigades - The Fredonian Freikorps, the German Battalion, Pavkovic's Pandours,
both battalions of Regiment Stahl, a 12# battery and the Hesse-Burder Hussars.
General Heinzelmenchen is in command.



Rob's brigade including two large warbands - probably from the Heckowi and
Turtleburper tribes. (I'm making this up as I go along!) 

 

Frankenschweiner artillery in both 6# and 12# flavours. The dragoons are backing them.

The Frankenschweiner commander with an artillery battery

His Grace, Michael, archbishop of Fredonia ("Die verrückten Pastor") took the field with
his regiment who actually stood to the left out of this photo.

Both sides advanced and exchanged artillery fire which was more of an annoyance than anything else. Rob faced Martin's light infantry in the woods on the bank of the River Whine and had to retreat once formed troops came up. In the centre, my Fredonians faced nothing less than the Frankenschweiner Guard Grenadiers backed up by a battalion of line grenadiers. Regiment Luzerne lost it's 2nd battalion in hand to hand combat with the Guards when the battalion failed to counter-charge those Guards. The Guards were hurt but being larger-than-average and tougher-than-average, they carried the fight.



The Guards and grenadiers advance.

 

The Guards from another viewpoint. Their yellow uniforms are distinctive.



Regiment Luzerne takes a beating. Regiment Gibbs, to their left, suffered from artillery
bombardment. Behind them, 1/Regiment Nurn is in support.

On the left flank, Kevin manoeuvred his brigade and the Hussars to face off Andy's infantry and dragoons. At one point, his 12# battery bombed our a Frankenschweiner battery and chased it off! (a medal for those artillerists!) His brigade included the 1st & 2nd battalions, Regiment Stahl, The Freikorps (Thugs, muggers and thieves!), the German Battalion, the Irish Legion, the Archbishop's Own, and Pavkovic's Pandours.



Archbishop Michael and his one-battalion regiment

 

The Hesse-Bruder Hussars, the Irish Legion, and the Archbishop's Own.
The gigantic die kept track of the turns - we're on turn 5!



Andy's Frankenschweiner Dragoons.
He based his troops on FP&B's AWI German musketeers, grenadiers, dragoons, and gunners.




Another view of the Frankenschweiner Guards slapping Regiment Luzerne around.
The green bingo chip indicated a casualty. The white tile shows the original start
position of the charge in order to calculate possible breakthroughs.

 

Rob's cavalry - both 'regular' light cavalry and First Nations' horse - just before
their brave but ill-fated charge.
The Saxe-Bariton Shutzen watch in awe.. or something like it.

On the allied right, Rob's tribal warriors were not able to stand before formed troops and fell back through the woods. His cavalry, two half-sized units of light cavalry and Indian horsemen charged the Frankenschweiner line and were thrown back.

Curfew rang and we called it a day. The Fredonians and their allies lost a few more troops but there were more of us to start with. The affair was still undecided. Our centre was in trouble, but the flanks were strong. The Frankenschweiners had lost a gun and had committed their Guard and grenadiers from the first. Rufus' Electoral Foot Guard and Grenadier Battalion Stinner were still in reserve. Rob had not unlimbered his field piece when we called it a day.

Lessons:

• Light infantry cannot stand before formed troops, so they should be kept to deny the enemy forests, rough ground, and built up areas. We all decided that only one light unit in each army could be rifle armed.
• Deploy into line immediately. Changing formation takes valuable time and movement.
• Keep your generals handy to put some backbone into wavering troops or assaults, but have plenty of generals since they can be killed doing their jobs.

Finally some more photos:


The Fredonian left flank under General Heinzelmenchen and the Archbishop face
the enemy advance over the rubber roads.

 

Martin's Wolfen light infantry battle the tribes in the forest.

 

The Elector and his supply train. I'm afraid to ask what's in it!

 

Fredonian Artillery
FP&B German gunners and French guns painted in Austrian colours.
I suppose I have a 'thing' for Austria.
The civilian 'contractors' hauling the gun haven't run away yet.

 

His Grace, the Grand Elector, Rufus I Glowurmchen.
At least he was still on the battlefield, making cracks and being cynical
... and hilarious!

 

Frying Pan & Blanket make their tribal warriors in 7 different poses. Add in the
dismounted horse warriors and you've got quite a variety.



Martin's brigade of Andy's army set to advance with the Wolfen Light Infantry in the lead.
Martin's troops - still in the painting and basing stage (he's a very busy man) will serve the
Serene People's Republic of Rationalia. All his units are named for philosophers.

 My regiments have funny names, I know. They're often named for places I've lived (Luzerne County), old friends (Stahl, Stinner, Pavkovic), or wierdness (Nurn or Hess Brothers, after the old department store). I've named generals for various things; "Lebo" for an old fiend, "Heinzelmenchen" are the German elves that make shoes for the old shoemaker, and Dresden -who is now seconded to Rob's army for Harry Dresden from the fantasy novels. There's even a "General de Sastre." (Sound it out.) It's all for fun anyway.

Hail, hail Fredonia! Land of the brave and free!

A Desert Between Us and Them

Over the past few weeks, I've been quite busy and haven't been blogging. I've played some games and I'll do some blogging on them soon, but not today.

Today I received a link for a trailer on YouTube. This is a documentary on the War of 1812 in Southwestern Ontario, the area I live in. My entire family had a hand in this, in fact I can be seen briefly in the background behind a moving cannon. Rob, my son, is there as well, but he can really be seen in the portion of the trailer where the men condemned to hang are seen in a line. A judge walks in front of them followed by a young Redcoat - that's my boy!

Here's the link to the trailer. I hope you'll let me know what you think of it. Quite a few of my friends and aquaintences are in the film. The King's Company of Military Reenactors (unifomed as the 17th US Infantry for the most part) were in this a lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOq48y-Y8CY&hd=1

I hope you enjoy this trailer. All of us participants will get a copy when the disc comes out. For the most part, you'll have to come and see me to see the film. (Hint-clue-suggestion.)

New Year's Tabletop

Just after the coming of the new year, the entire family decided that it would be a good time to play a Warmaster game. Our family gift was a copy of Settlers of Catan, but as much fun as that game is, there isn't the visual appeal that a tabletop game has. So out came our Warmaster armies. Katie and Rob fielded their High Elf and Dwarf armies respectively. Beth ran her Kislevites and I opted for something different. I'd been working on a project of building armies using a Warmaster varient I found on-line, using the rules to run English Civil War or Thirty-Year's War games. So I decided to field a historical Swedish TYW army. I would take no magic but would take a bishop/clergyman as a magic dispeller rather than a spell caster. The infantry were all pike-and-shot regiments with battalion gun attached to three units. (With the pikes present, the units counts as "protected" as they would if they were behind a wall, but not in a  fortification. Their opponent loses one die per stand when attacking.) There were also two Scots warbands of Highlanders. (Maybe not historical, but cool.) The cavalry were divided into two styles - Cuirassiers and 'Gallopers'. The Cuirassiers were heavy with armour but got no charge bonus, the Gallopers were more lightly armoured but received a double bonus (like chariots in Warmaster) since they gallop into melee. Both could shoot their pistols all around - 360 degrees. The cannon were smaller than the Empire cannon and the battalion guns were smaller yet. The only troops missing were the lightly armoured gallopers from Finland called Hakkipelli, who would be easily shot up but REALLY nasty in melee.
I wasn't sure how a "historical" army would do in the game, so this seemed a good time to find out.

The kids set up the game in the living room. The "Stonehenge" piece was a territorial
objective as a source of power or something like that.

The Kislevite Tsarina in her bear chariot. The game allows her to ride a sled or a horse,
but after seeing the Chronicles of Narnia a while back, we decided to do up this model.

Kislevite bears... nothin' special; just battle bears.

One of Rob's two Dwarven gun batteries.

One of Katie's two batteries of Elven multiple bolt throwers.

An Elven Dragon Rider and a Dwarven Gyrocoptor. I found the dragon model at a
bring-and-buy/flea market at a convention years ago and it works great. I have no idea
 of the manufacturer. Most of the figures are Games Workshop, Old Glory 10mm, or Pendrakon.

A Swedish Pike-and-shot regiment supporting two regiments of Scots Highlanders.

Two units of Silver Helm Elvish knights lead the attack. Behind them, Elven spears
cross the ford and Dwarven Troll Slayers prepare to sacrifice themselves for any
reason at all. If they are wiped out, the Dwarf player gets the victory points.

Elven Rever knights (horse archers) lead two units of Dwarf Warriors over the second ford.
On the other side of the stream, Elven archers, Dwarf Rangers, and the deadly and always
entertainly-erratic Flame Cannon. ("Will it toast my troops? Will it explode?")

Beth's Kislev knights/winged lancers charge the Silver Helms. Pendrakon's Polish
horse archers (in blue) and the Brown bear unit are in evidence.

The Elf-Dwarf Alliance's army advances over the stream.

Looks like the Kislevites have the Stonehenge! I faked it up using Crayola's white
modeling compound, Model Magic, letting it dry, painting it and setting it up on a base.
I'm rather pleased with it.

On my side of the battle field, Elven spears backed by Dwarf warriors cross the huge bridge.

Beth's Winged lancers and unwinged lancers (Pancerni, since you asked) charge
Dwarf axemen.

Katie's general on his pet dragon. That's iced tea in the background by the way.

"The spell's range is THIS much." Katie measuring the effect of her elven magic.
Her eagle unit is also to be seen flanking my Cuirassiers.

Swedish Galloper cavalry charge two units of Dwarves.
The small stand in the foreground is a battalion gun attached to the pike-and-shot
unit just off-camera.

Okay, it's entirely self-serving to make the photo of my Scots Brigade a large photo, but they look cool.
Scots charge with a +2 per stand rather than a +1 like regular folks, but they have no armour and they die like flies.

Dwarven Gyrocoptor  - Rob started the game with two and ended with none!

Katie's eagles flank my unit of Gallopers but are hit in turn by the remnants of
the Cuirassiers. The attack was a draw and the survivors on both sides retreated.

What was left of the Scots after being flanked by Elven archers and Dwarven rangers is
supported by the Yellow Regiment of Infantry. The Scots melted away before the Dwarves in
front of them and to their left. The Yellow Regiment was cut up too.

Kislevite axemen hold their ground.

Katie moves her troops "just there."

It took us three days to finish this battle. We started New Year's Eve, but Katie had to go to the Emergency Room at the local hospital because of a very painful abscessed tooth which needed really STRONG pain-killers. So we delayed the game. Then Rob came down with the 24-hour flu which left him utterly dragged out. We finally finished a day or two later. The Humans lost less than the Elf-Dwarf alliance and we held the Stonehenge, so we'll call it a human victory... no matter what the kids say. ("Would you like some cheese with that whine?")

I was pleased with the performance of the Swedes. The infantry had a slight advantage because of being counted as "protected" in melee. I felt this was a elegant solution, showing the shot sheltering behind the pikes. The Battalion guns were helpful but not too powerful. The big artillery were placed too far back to be of much use. The cavalry - Cuirassiers and Gallopers - proved their worth. The Gallopers are lighter but hit harder than the Cuirassiers. There's a third type - Trotters - that are armoured the same as Gallopers, but don't hit as hard, but are cheaper. The lightest horse - Hakkapelli, Croat Hussars, and true Cossacks - would have the least saving throw but would be fast and nasty. The Scots? Well, the Scots were expected to die in this game, but I had to see how they worked! The variant rules allow them to shoot once in a game, and then with one single die for the entire unit. Apparently  firearms were at a premium in the Highlands. I think this exercise proves that with a little finagling, a variant historical army could meet these fantasy armies on a field. The historical troops lack magic, monsters, and terrifying units, but they carry a lot of guns and the pike rule allows a mixed unit of pike and musket to stand toe-to-toe with Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, and what-ever other nightmares are out there.

In my opinion, Warmaster is the best game GW  produced. The fact that they no longer support it except for selling figures has saved it from the company's constant tinkering with the rules to better the game (or to make more money.) I don't think I'll start ancients armies but I now have a reason to paint up the scads of 10mm TYW/ECW troops I have in cold storage. They can fight each other AND stomp on Orcs!

Christmas was in the air!

I found this Christmas to be quite busy for my family and I. I led two services Christmas Eve, had a great Christmas Day, and led a service at a local nursing home on Boxing Day. A funeral of a dear lady in the congregation followed on the heels of that, so blogging was not done.

So anyway... the Saturday before Christmas, the Hamilton Road Gaming Group held it's Christmas party with our "Traditional" Wings of War game. Snoopy arrives in his Sopwith Camel, Santa in his sleigh with an elf manning the marshmallow tail gun, and -in a new addition- Frosty the Zeppelin arrived.

Snoopy's dog house/Sopwith Camel and Santa's sleigh. If Snoopy appears a bit "thin",
it's because he's a paper model.

A Fokker Eindecker in Ottoman Turkish markings? Yeah, I'll take that!
Sadly, that plane was slow, maneuvered like a brick, and didn't last long.

One of the young folk who took part in the game. The game didn't keep their
attention for a long time; it was more fun to run around the library and eat cookies.

More action in the air.  One shot from the Albatross on an Allied flyer.

The assembled pilots. My wife, Beth, took all the photos. She had a great camera
which only enhances her skill and talent as a photographer!

Frosty the Zeppelin in a menacing pose!
He ended up being an immovable obstacle for the flyers to avoid.

Here he is, face-on. When I made him, I planned that his goggles would be on
his "forehead" but somebody thought they'd make better glasses. There's my
Eindecker being annoying.

Wings of War is our usual fall-back position when nothing else presents itself at the club. It is a fun game with really nice miniatures. It's a "packaged game" in that the planes come  pre-painted and listed by the name of the pilot. There is a World War II version that I've never played and some planes from the Spanish Civil War which could be interesting to play, although I can't imagine a SPAD verses a Me-109 for very long.

More blogs to come, now that I have photos down-loaded.

To my gracious readers, far and wide...



The manger scene at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Aylmer, ON
(this is actually the 2011 version, but the 2012 is the same.)
My wife, Beth, made the figures with her skill at crochet. The usual charcters are present - with a few guests:
the tonsured red-head on the left is Francis of Assisi who made the first Christmas Creche. Dead center is "Die
Weihnachtsmaus" -the Christmas Mouse- who is always blamed for eating Christmas treats early. The figure in
the black beret on the far right is Martin Luther who was insturmental in many of our Christmas customs.
Next to him is Chris-moose; friendsof ours in the USA said we could never have a manger scene in Canada
without a moose!

I wish all who read these poor words a very happy and blessed Christmas season and the best new year possible. If you do not celebrate the festival of Christmas, I still wish you the best of the season as you keep your festivals and a good new year.

For all of you, I wish you peace.

What's that you say? You need more nutrolls? Well, here!

See  you all in the new year!