What a Tanker! Monday Knights Christmas Break Up

The Monday Knights' Christmas party was a quiet one, with only about 10 able to make it (in part people away on holidays, others not well, etc). The TooFatLardies' WWII tank combat game What a Tanker! was chosen for its simplicity and allowing us to bring a 15mm tank model of our choice. I brought my United Nations T-72, simply as it doesn't get much table time. This was just representative, as each of us had 12 points to allocate between armour and strike (the tank's gun). I went with a 5 / 7 configuration. Most other were this or 4/8. Tyler went with 6/6.

Games were of four, with the two winners of game one playing each other, and the same for the two losers (based on kills). I quickly got to grips with the rules, but my luck was not with me tonight. After two games I only managed to kill Paul.

A pretty bad year, looking forward to 2023.

NYE 2021 Battletech

New Year's Eve meant birthday celebrations at Phil's home again.

Like last year he ran a couple of games of Battletech, with each player playing one game over two map boards (non-scrolling) with players randomly assigned to one of two teams.

We were able to choose our mech, limited to 2000 BV, with a 200 BV bonus for mechs armed with less than three PPCs. Tech was limited to 3070 or earlier. Pilot and Gunnery skills were not allowed to be more than 2 points apart (e.g. 3/5, 2/4, 7/5, etc). I elected to go with my unplayed Marauder MAD-3R (two PPCs, autocannon/5, and two medium lasers) that I painted earlier this year with a Pilot skill of 4 and Gunnery skill of 2 (4/2).

Scoring would be 1 point per point of damage caused (both armour + internal structure), a bonus 50 points if your mech survives the game, and a bonus 20 points if the mech was operational and on the table at the end of the game. Game ends when all the mechs from one side have been destroyed, have left the table or after three hours.

With 12 players taking part we rolled off to see whether we'd be in game 1 or 2 and what team we'd be in. I was teamed up with Andreas (Marauder) and Andrew O (Rifleman IIC) in the first game. Our opponents were Paul G (Marauder), Tyler (Thunderbolt) and Lachlan (Awesome).

It's been a while since I played, and it showed. Young Lachlan made a game of it by deploying on a flank and turning the central axis of battle diagonally along the two maps. I strayed too far from a forest to lose the cover bonus and was shooting with weapons that didn't match the heat sinks I had. I forgot to keep track of my heat (funny as it hit 38 degrees during the day), but considering there was a few turns I didn't shoot and I only caused 35 points of damage I don't think it was an issue. I did however with my first shot manage to destroy Tyler's Thunderbolt with a head shot (again, not great tactics).

 (Ignore the blue hue, that's from the plastic sun shade overhead. Or the natural light on the planet we were battling on.)

After that it was a matter of time for Paul to go down, Andreas get killed by a head shot (that's his thing), and Lachan shot up by the Rifleman IIC and my Marauder. Game two was slightly more brutal - head shots also being a feature.

It was good to end the year with a game, and see me paint a fair few miniatures. Hope 2022 is better for all.

First Try of the New Blood Bowl Rules

I've played Blood Bowl, Games Workshop's fantasy football game, a lot from the third edition with my brother in the mid-nineties to around 2015 with Living Rulebook 6. However, I stopped playing it when the revised version was published in 2016, but have watched some games and been tempted by the new miniatures (even though I own orc, human, Skaven, High Elves and goblin teams already).

Liam and Jack had got into the latest version publish in 2020, and Ara revealed he had bought the box set too. We decided to have a night to get everyone familiar with the rules (Mike hadn't played, and Nic hadn't run his Elvis team for a few decades!) in preparation for a mini league later in the year.

I ran my goblins with Jack, while Nic, Mike and Ara coached the humans. Liam came later and helped with the rules.

We only played a half, stepping everyone through the rules. I like the changes (the main one being the skill stat for throwing and general agility being split). While I ran the goblins with a chainsaw and ball & chain, I think drafting a troll is better than eight re-rolls (!). I have two fantasy trolls that are not fully painted that I will rebase on round bases. Games (depending on lockdowns, etc) will be played over a couple of nights in August / September.

Battle of the Denmark Strait 80th Anniversary

I had finished basing my first War at Sea 1/1800 ships (see here) and it was time to use them in a game. A few months ago I realised it would be the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Denmark Strait that occurred on 24 May 1941 (during the Second World War) between ships of the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine. The British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood fought the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were attempting to break out into the North Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping (codenamed Operation Rheinübung).

Ara, Jack, Liam, Mike and Nic all were keen for some naval wargaming and I set about in organising the game. The rules were Mongoose Publishing's Victory at Sea, which Warlord Games has recently updated and re-released. They're a simple set of rules, but I like them as they're easy to pick up, have some historical flavour and are able to deal with large fleet actions (Ara, Liam and I have played the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay without issue).

To make things interesting, I also designed a set of 'Captain Cards', for each captain and fleet commander. They would award additional victory point if certain actions were performed during the battle (detailed blog post pending). They are based on historical commanders, and how they behaved during battle or orders they were given. Based on what happened during this battle, e.g. the victory conditions for Lütjens and Lindemann are not compatible.

 The cards were allocated randomly and the players commands were:

• Admiral Lütjens (Bismarck) - Nic
• Kapitän zur See Lindemann (Bismarck) - Mike
• Kapitän zur See Brinkmann (Prinz Eugen) - Jack
• Vice Admiral Holland (HMS Hood) - Ara
• Captain Kerr (HMS Hood) - Ara
• Captain Leach (HMS Prince of Wales) - myself, but later Liam

The ships were set up per the scenario in the rulebook, with the German commander having the option to choose the order the ships were deployed, Mike (Lütjens had deferred decisions to his subordinates at this stage still) electing to keep the faster Prinz Eugen in the front of the line.

I included the optional rules for the guns on the Prince of Wales (i.e. the guns not being fully operational and in part being manned by non-navy technicians), mainly as it added historical flavour. To get into the theme, I also drank an English beer (something I rarely do!).

Opening move had the British ships split to try and envelop the Germans to stop them escaping, while the Prinz Eugen went as fast as she could down the gap that had been created (torpedoes anyone?). After a few rounds of firing (and missing - Victory at Sea doesn't allow pre-measuring), the Prince of Wales already had one barrel out of action.

At this point the battle was paused as all commanders got together for blue cake (it had recently been Ara's birthday), I just love that maniacal look on Liam's face.

After a belly full of the raspberry cake it was back to the sea. Things started getting serious with the Hood receiving a few critical hits, one on her engine slowing her down and a fire breaking out.

Mike, as Captain Lindemann, confidently declared the Bismarck still had a fair bit of armour in response to the Hood's situation. The Prinz Eugen was one hit away from being crippled, while the Prince of Wales was almost undamaged.

Moments later all this changed, Ara scored a critical hit (4+ on a D6), vital systems (12 on 2D6) and a catastrophic explosion (6 on a D6); sinking the Bismarck in spectacular fashion in much the same way the Hood was historically sunk.

If that isn’t a belated birthday present I don’t know what is. Victory points wise it was a clear British victory (the Germans also had very weak overall command with Lindemann shooting before it was optimal for Lütjens' victory conditions to do so. It also made the follow on battle, recreating the last battle of the Bismarck on 26-27 May 1941, redundant. However, I plan on basing these additional ships, as the two battles are a good scenario to introduce people to WWII naval wargaming.

Finally I also picked up a few sets of Irregular Miniatures' 'GWV14 Two explosions and two shell craters' sets, that I will paint as water explosions (so mainly white). They are definitely a candidate for obscure miniature of the week.

Another Season of The Football Game

Another boardgame night last night with Ara, Jack, Liam, Mike and Nic giving The Football Game another run. I think the game works better now with having learnt to have a diverse colour (ideally two of each) and positional (again at least two, though your midfielders can cover shortfalls) squad with plenty in reserve (2-3 players). When its your turn also thinking about a B squad playing to ensure your star players don't get injured (that last lesson I didn't learn as last time we played injuries were almost non-existent).

I think there's a still a high degree of luck so you can’t take it too seriously (Liam nearly won when he took over Nic's team half way through the night so maybe that’s not true). Well done Jack on holding him off and winning the season.

We were discussing how this game could be made into a fun wargame, and by having it set in Nazi-occupied Europe with each player recruiting / managing a cell of resistance fighters competing against each other to fight ze Germans. A bit like ‘Allo ‘Allo. Trading fighters amongst cells and drawing missions with a set colour combinations (instead of the dice) would add some randomness. This would also eliminate the double black dice twice in a row situation that we had in last night's game. Event and injury cards effect the person who’s turn it is.

In addition I also worked out the probability on the dice as it was annoying me that I knew each combination wasn't equally possible. The first die is yellow, yellow, red, red, blue, black and the second die is yellow, red, blue, blue, black, black (I'm not 100% sure on the pairings here, but the spread is right).

While getting a certain colour on at least one of the dice (44.44%) and a double (5.56%) is the same for all four colours, it’s the pairs of colours that aren’t the same. And getting any same colour pair (e.g. black and black) is higher than I thought at 22.22%.

If you’re looking for yellow AND red (or blue AND black) there’s a 11.11% probability, but looking for a pair that aren’t dominate on the same die (e.g. yellow AND blue) gives 13.89% odds. Very slight advantage but with 20 rolls in a 5 player game it could make the difference.

Still love the subtlety in this game and the stress of not peaking too early, but not peaking too late in case you have injuries!

First Game of Lords of Waterdeep

Or as Jack called it - "Monopoly for nerds".

Monday night board gaming with Ara, Jack, Mike P and Nic with a game not many of us had played - Lords of Waterdeep. Essentially a Dungeons & Dragons eurogame . This was a game Ara was keen to introduce us to.

I was given the City Guard (with no in game abilities, but for flavour) with Piergeiron the Paladinson as my Lord (gaining bonus for each Piety and Warfare Quest I completed). Again my inability to quickly learning which tasks I should be multitasking on saw me fall behind in scoring points, while Nic the Landlord was slowly buying up the real estate and the others completed more lucrative Quests.

I still had fun though, and like Scythe I didn't feel you were left out while other players had their turn. I definitely should look up some hints and tricks before playing these games to make sure i focus on the right things (at the right time).

Australia Day Flames of War Game - Battle of Hannut

With group games becoming a thing again, I put my hand up to take part in Django and Nigel's 'A Thousand Tank' participation game recreating the Battle of Hannut. I played the first day of the game in October 2014 and it was a lot of fun seeing that many 15mm tanks on a table.

The game would use Battlefront's Flames of War (version 3) Total War rules, breaking the wargaming day up into two sessions, representing the first and second days of the battle. Each day will comprise six turns and would be played on a 6x8 foot table with the same terrain layout.

While you may never have heard of it, it was one of the largest tank battles in history, involving about a thousand tanks (and hence the title of the game).

Briefing
13 May 1940 - Following successful attacks on Denmark and Norway, Germany launched its forces against the combined armies of the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom.

Eastern France is secure behind the Maginot Line, a series of powerful forts from the Swiss border as far north as Sedan. Here the Meuse River turns north, marking the western boundary of the Ardennes, a hilly, forested area with narrow roads, presumed impenetrable by tanks. Further north there is a gap between the forest and the Belgian fortifications around Liege, notably Fort Eben-Emael (10-11 May 1940), which fell to the Germans (with heavy casualties) after Fallschirmjäger landed on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress.

Implementing their pre-war plan, the Allies moved into Belgium to defend the river Dyle, east of Brussels. The French and British need at least three days to complete the move and dig in. To cover this, the French High Command ordered General René Prioux’s Corps de Cavalerie to hold the area around Hannut and Gembloux for this time.

German General Erich Hoepner was given the task of the matador, demonstrating with sufficient enthusiasm in the Gembloux Gap to hold the French light mechanised divisions (Division Légère Mécanique (DLM)) in place, far from the breaching of the Meuse at Sedan and elsewhere along the wide river.

The forces were drawn from Prioux’s corps with the elite 2nd DLM and the recently formed and under-trained 3rd DLM for the French and for the Germans the XVI Armee Korps consisting of the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions.

The challenge for Andreas and I (as the Germans) to pin the best French armoured troops in Belgium (under Phil and Wal) and prevent them interfering with the crucial crossing of the Meuse, while at the some time ensure we weren't delayed to allow the First Army to dig in.

Andreas and I split our forces roughly in half, with Andreas taking the right flank and myself spearheading the centre left side of the field. The German side is on the right in the first photo. As actual Germans, Andreas communicated in German with each other. And just like the Germans with the Enigma machine we thought it was a secure form of communication...

Day 1

Day 2

Debrief
It's a long day, and coordinating that may platoons (even amongst two players) is exhausting. Andreas and I failed to push hard enough (if not towards the town in the centre then the villages on the right flank) on the first day which made the launching off points on day two that much further back than would be optimal. On the second day I failed to hold the left flank (instead making a piecemeal attack and leaving the Pakfront exposed to Wal's French tank assaults). When Andreas left early I took over his forces, and was able to break Phil's division... but he held on by his fingernails as Wal had granted him control of Somua tanks (all that was left on the right flank). We failed to create a clear line along the roads from our base edge to the opposite table edge. What didn't help was some open terrain for our truck born infantry to traverse and being terrible (extremely terrible) at being unable to unpin a lot of our units. The six-turn time limit for each day doesn't leave much room for early setbacks.

Well done to Phil and Wal (who also understood a lot of what we were saying - which was the biggest mistake we made!) on blunting this attack, obtaining a major strategic and tactical victory.

Thanks too to Django and Nigel for organising, umpiring, and letting us use your miniatures (and apologies to the ones that got a knock).

Playing on a 6’ x 8’ table really gives a good game as armour has a chance to manoeuvre and artillery needs to be deployed with care.

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 3: Running into Trouble

Derek and Patrick decided to brave Pine Creek once more, and head into the town to try and find vital medical supplies for Liam. Covering themselves in gore from downed Walkers, they sneak through the heart of infested territory.

Both Derek and Patrick had gory clothing, Derek with his hatchet and small knife, Patrick with his trusty baseball bat, (and Bitzer Maloney along for the ride again). The group would need to travel from the bottom right back to their car (top left) on the bird's eye view of the board below.

There are no supplies in this scenario (page 10 of 'Days Gone Bye'), but one of the five markers a is the "Munitions Store Special Objective" marker. Instead of using the markers on the board, I shuffled them and would flip one every time I searched an objective.

Started off slowly (though 'The Hunger' were the first two Event Cards I drew, increasing the Threat level), I had both of them sneaking and attempting to reduce the Threat Tracker (only being successful after four rolls). The first two objectives yielding nothing, but the central one was what I was after. Now to get off the board.

The only combat was when I ran my group into "Release the Kraken" Joe, as I couldn't see a gap. I failed my Noise roll (as I had run with my Gory Clothes) with Derek, so there was a second walker joining the combat. This wasn't a concern, as combined they rolled six hits (with a head shot) to take them out.

In between this I had drawn the 'Escaped Livestock' Event Card again. This time the chickens weren't so lucky...

Sneaking up to the car to avoid the herd around the chicken bones, the group managed to avoid a 'Mega Herd' and 'Fire!' Event Cards that signalled it was time to leave.

I'm planning to run this as a story based campaign using the scenarios from the first three books, and the characters and equipment that I started with, the scenarios suggest or what I find in supplies (but will have to pay for when put a group together for a scenario). So far I have:

As Derek and Patrick drove back to their camp, they were hoping that they would be able to stop Liam from turning into one of those things...

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 2: City Slicker

(* Well should really be "Small Town Slicker".)

Leaving his friends behind, Derek undertakes a short journey to Pine Creek to search for other survivors or a working car. Forced to travel on foot, Derek is initially overwhelmed by the Walkers outside a Walmart. Now he is trapped in an unknown town crawling with the walking dead...

As I had won the previous scenario, I was able to load up on what I imagine (to maintain the story telling element of the campaign) what was in the police car.

Derek dropped the screwdriver and scythe for a hatchet and small knife, a Colt 1911 pistol, ammo and a small keepsake. I would aim to only use the hatchet and small knife to prevent any Mayhem being caused. Bitzer Maloney would accompany Derek, but would have (for now) no impact on game mechanics.

The scenario requires Derek to move from the bottom centre, to the top centre. The primary aim for Derek is to find a car with a set of keys. The Audi at the top of the board with the backpack next to it would provide this.

I started off by sneaking to the supply counter to Derek's left, yielding an old gun (better than a walker or a bear trap!).

Event cards early on were not a concern for me ('Forest Walkers' and 'Fire'), and I engaged the Kekistan flag bearer in the centre of the table as I imagine he'd cause a problem later on.

Sure enough, after I engaged the walker at the car, I drew the 'Grim Recognition' event card - forcing me to roll for panic (something Derek hardly ever has to do), The 'Terrified' result meant I only had one action, but with the walker taken out I was able to search the backpack, gaining keys for the car and some bandages.

The 'Mega Herd' event was thankfully not rolled earlier, I don't think I could have handled this many walkers!

Derek whistled for Bitzer to get in the car, the fuel gauge was almost full, "Bonus" thought Derek as he drove quickly back to the others.

A successful mission (we'll never speak of the first attempt where Derek got swamped by three walkers and died...).

Game 3 can be found here.

Flags of Our Zombies Chapter 1: Gun Running

17 January 2021: Derek had just woken from a coma, finding the world a changed place. The coma was probably due to the Jägerbombs he had consumed the night before, having rented a cabin with some friends for the weekend. It was Liam's buck's and they were all happy to try and forget the horrors from a week ago when Trump's supporters had stormed the Capitol in Washington, D.C.. Reports had been coming in while they were staying at the cabin that after the rally a lot of the demonstrators had turned into things... like walking dead... the world was definitely getting weirder.

After an instant coffee to try and get themselves awake, Derek, Patrick and Liam set out for the nearest town to secure a stash of weaponry and a car with which to weather the storm...

I finished off my storming of the Capitol flags during the week (see here), and was keen to use them in a game. All year I've been wanting to revisit Mantic's 'The Walking Dead: All Out War' for some Covid-themed solo zombie games.

Although I've picked up a few things here and there since painting some of the core set a few years ago, I haven't painted anything since (though a lot of the scenery was painted in 2020). Getting some zombies from Jack for Christmas has been the kick I needed to finish off what I have.

Onto the games. I aim to play a story-driven campaign set in the area east of Washington in January 2021. I'll base it around Derek (the miniature reminds me of Bruce Willis for some reason) as the sort of Rick Grimes central character and his story. I'll add other characters as I see fit (hey - I might even paint something new!).

The first scenario (page 6 of 'Days Gone Bye') requires moving to the diagonally opposite corner and making a successful Smash roll. For this game the guns, etc would be in a looked highway patrol vehicle (top right), while the group start the game bottom left (I didn't take an overview photo to show the whole table unfortunately).

Derek was armed with a screwdriver, Liam a kitchen knife and Patrick with his baseball bat (perfect combination). Patrick moved off to the left to cover the old cabin side, taking down a walker and getting the ammo reload supply card, while Derek and Liam followed the road, taking out a walker and Derek gaining the scythe supply card. Full disclosure - for this game I forgot you can only use one weapon at a time, so all of Derek's rolls stack the scythe with the screwdriver. Must have been the instant coffee that made him so good in combat.

 

 

Liam joined Patrick in the middle of the board to take out a pair of walkers who were relentlessly waving Trump support flags. While Derek and Patrick are good at finishing off mindless walkers, Liam is definitely not suited and shouldn't be doing this on his own (I took a risk here and luckily it paid off).

 

 

Meanwhile the Event cards had been nothing too serious - slowly increasing the Threat level, and having me try and reduce it with the member's actions when I had the opportunity. At this point I drew the 'Escaped Livestock' Event and decided to place some livestock on the table (instead of it being just being represented temporarily by a terrain piece). The chickens were the first I came across in my collection and they share their storage with my 28mm dogs, so I picked my Bitzer Maloney to be the one that was chasing them (both are from Eureka Miniatures).

Bitzer moved towards the group (he didn't have many options as the next Event card was 'The Herd' that blocked off where the group had started from).

Liam searched a Supply counter (Flaming Brand) and needed rescuing by Derek.

Patrick was the first to make it to the highway patrol car, while Derek and Liam dealt with the walker that had gotten back up again, taking it down with a head shot.

Patrick wasn't successful in smashing open the patrol vehicle, so Derek tried (as Patrick was now dealing with walkers) and succeeded. Appropriately I got the 'Alarm!' Event card that causes mayhem, which meant Liam was now fighting walkers too. While he was successful in the first round, he got bitten the second time he fought the punk! Screaming, Derek threw him over his shoulder and Derek and Patrick jogged as fast as they could back to the cabin. Bitzer followed, barking at the trailing walkers.

As Derek huffed with slightly heavier than before Covid Liam, he knew that things were serious, there were so many walkers. So much had to be done before things returned to normal. At least he had a canine companion.

Game 2 can be found here.