Sky Galleons on Mars

 On Saturday, Bob G ran a rather silly but really fun game set in a sciFi Mars but with a colonial theme.  The best way to describe the game was flying sailing ships and ironclads.  It was a blast.  Tony and I command the British and were pitted against 3 Martian ships.

It  was a full 3D experience as bob used used plexiglass rods to indicate altitude.  It was a grand game and super creative.

Sadly about 1.5 hours into the game, I received a notification of an emergency board call for an institution that is dealing with some aspects of the Coronavirus.  I turned over my ship to a player whose floating barge Tony and I ganged up on and left the game.  That was a real shame as Bob puts on a great show.  Thanks Bob!

The call ended up lasting 2.5 hours and we ended with more questions than answers but it was the right decision to convene the board.  I try not to get political on this blog (it's just toy soldiers, after all) but I can say the lack of any coherent guidance from the Federal government is shocking.  The state of Pennsylvania's health department was competent and more importantly they were clear on what they knew and didn't know.  The Feds are a dissembling mess, which seems to emanate from the orange moron at the top. 

ZULU's!!!!!!!

This Saturday I had the chance to refight the Battle of Ishwalanda at a game hosted by Tony J.    Tony is pictured to the left explaining how his very elegant rules for the game work.

The day started out as a nice walk across the savanna for Bob and my British troops.

I was given Durnford's calvary command and guarded the right flank of the British line.  Being over-confident, I elected to try and replicated Durnfords fighting withdraw and dismounted on a ridge to await the enemy.

Then some new friends showed up to the party...

Zulus, lots of Zulus.  My poor troopers just didn't have enough bullets.  The colored markers represent ammo status - red is critical and black is out.

The combination of low ammo and poor marksmanship meant that the Zulus pretty much crashed into my line and like that about half my troopers evaporated.  The remains of my command managed to scamper back to the main line of resistance and reload.

The Zulus started taking casualties but started to overlap our lines.  Tony had some really cool surprises - including adding table space on the right flank to allow those speedy Zulus to bypass my troopers.  It was a fantastically. played surprise!  There was also a tray of hidden Zulus that joint the battle midway on our extreme left flank.  Really superb GM skills for Tony.

Our lines kept shrinking until we were finally overwhelmed.  The grey and brown rocks mark casualties as they occurred.  Tony called the game a minor British victory but I think all the credit needs to go to the Zulu players as they were both very good opponents and fun to play.

Thanks Tony for a grand day of gaming!

Gaming at Bob G's on a Saturday am

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to place a game over at Bob G's house.  Bob is a very dedicated colonial gamer and is writing up a new scenario book for the Colonial period.  H had us over to test one of the scenarios.

As you can see the setup was fantastic and the setting was German - Herero War in 1904.  The scenario involved the Germans trying to get a train of reinforcements across the table and the plucky Herero's attempting to thwart the Imperial baddies.  As with all go Bob's games, this was based on an actual incident and very thoroughly researched.

A close up of the train, the two german players (me and another gentlemen) had 4 infantry squads, a maxim and a small calvary detachment to get the train across.

We never really knew how many troops the Herero's had as the game used a very clever hidden movement and out two opponents were very crafty at making us think there were enemies everywhere so we advanced very cautiously.

Deploying out of the train to repair track work - this would happen a lot!

As with other games at Bob's - I became too engrossed in the game play and forgot to take pictures except for these last two where our Germans blunder into the Herero trap.  They stacked up track obstructions at the end and created a killing zone by keeping the bulk of their forces around that area.  Those crafty Herero's had only a few units out harassing the germans and they would hit and fade away and then rinse and repeat.  They really tricked us that we were facing the bulk of their forces  very well played.

 We conceded the game as they were picking off our track clearing crews and we had reached turn 18 of the game.  All-in-all it was a grand way to spend a Saturday morning.

I'm really looking forward to when Bob publishes his his scenarios book.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge: Submissions 11-15 - Blizzard induced productivity

 A bit of a points bomb over this weekend due to being housebound from 30 inches of snow - 5 submissions and 4 different time periods.

 First up 9 civilians from the 28mm Perry AWI line.  I'll be using these as dock workers during the upcoming Historicon game this summer.

 Some German support weapons in 28mm.  All the figures are from Warlord's Bolt Action line and there's an 81mm mortar, a MG42 (gotta have one of those!) and a Fallschirmjager 105mm recoilless artillery piece.

 A bit more WW2 in the form of three AFV's from three manufacturers.  A Warlord BA-10 armored car, a 3D printing panzer IV from RPG and a Hungarian assault gun from Mad Bob Miniatures.

 Switching periods - a 32 figure Portuguese regular infantry unit in 28mm from Frank Rank Miniatures.  I really like Front Rank and am begging to think the quality of their metals is a bit better than the Perry's.  They centennially are much easier to clean up.  The completion of this unit finishes up what I need to put on the game at Historicon.

 The last submission is just for fun - another armored War Elephant from Sgt Major Miniatures.  That brings my collection of allies to 4 and I should add building out a successors army to the to do list.

Next up for the challenge is the defensive terrain bonus round - so I got out my handy Proxxon Hot wire cutter and got to work.  What will this entry be?

You'll just have to wait and see......

Mariners Museum

Last week, the family and I went on vacation to Williamsburg, VA.  I'm a sucker for colonial Williamsburg and we had a great time.  I also had a chance to visit the US Mariners Museum in nearby Newport News, VA and I have to say I was blown away.  The center piece of the museum is the USS Montior's turret and an exhibit on the Monitor vs Virginia (aka Merrimac) encounter at Hampton Roads.  Currently there is also a great Nelson exhibit, a history of the US Navy, some wonderful exhibits on boat building through the ages and one of the finest collections of model ships I've ever seen.  To be honest this was the highlight of my trip and I'm already planning a return.

The entrance of the Monitor / Virginia exhibit is one of the Virginia's guns that was disabled during her encounter with the Union fleet the day before the fight with the Monitor.  The USS Cumberland was rammed by the Virginia and despite sinking kept firing her guns and managed to shoot the muzzle of one of the Virginia's guns.

 In the museum there is a full scale replica of the bow of the Virginia being readied for it's up coming fight with the monitor - the display shows the replacing of the gun damaged by the Cumberland.

 The interior of the Virginia - it's a lot more cramped than I would have thought.  I can't imagine what it would have been like to be inside these iron ovens while the guns are firing.

 A cross-section of the Virginnia's armor - 10 inches of pine 8 inches of oak and 2 of steel.

 The gem of the museum is it's monitor exhibits. In addition to then actual turret, there are several reproductions that show the turret as they found her when it was raised...

and a fully restored turret cross section - even tinier than the Virginia's interior.

 I was fascinated by the turning mechanism for the turret and probably spent 40 minutes trying to figure out it's detailed workings.

 The actual turret, guns and steam engine of the monitor are not on display and are being preserved in vats of chemically treated water that preserves the metal.  Here's one of the Monitor's guns.

 The day I visited the turret tank had been drained to allow some academic research - again I spent 30-40 minutes gazing at the turrets and guns in their preservation tanks.

 There is a very neat exhibit on the interior of the Monitor which wasn't as cramped as the turret leads you to believe.  The crew accommodations are not spacious but bigger than I thought.  First up is the Captain's cabin

 and then the XO's

 Some 1/1200 scale miniatures of various Union ironclads from Langton Miniatures

An amazing diorama of a US colonial ship yard in what I think is HO scale (1/87th)

 This may be the upcoming theme for my 2016 Hisotricon games......

 The ship models are fantastic and I took pictures of maybe 60 of them - here is a US Whaling vessel.

the CSS Alabama - a ship that factored heavily in my imagination as a kid growing up along the Alabama Gulf Coast.

I really can't recommend the Mariner's Museum more highly - if you're in the area it's a definite must see.

Colonial War Gaming in the Sudan

 Last Sunday I had the opportunity to play in a very fun Colonial game hosted by Bob G is his fabulous game room.  The players were Dick and Ernie commanding the stalwart British with Les and myself commanding the cunning Sudanese.  Our host Bob was the GM and did a superb job both setting up the game and explaining the rule to us (of course, in my case, he had to re-explain the rules several times!)

 The game was a race to a derailed train and the second picture shows the high water mark of the Sudanese.  Let's just say we almost got there but superior British firepower and some poor movement dice rolls slowed out attempts to throw of the yoke of British Colonial rule - at least for this time!  I'm hoping for a rematch.

 I really liked the colonial gaming theme which pits very different forces against each other in unique settings.  I must say the Bob's collection of colonial miniatures (which occupy a good part of the cabinets in the background) is very impressive.

I am tempted to start my own colonial army given the experience.  Of course, I don't really "need" another era to game, however these decisions are never made from a logical "needs" based analysis.  With Historicon coming up (along with it's large vendor hall) thinking about a new "era/army" is a very risky proposition!