New Tabletop for the Game Table

With the flooring done, the next project is to revamp the gaming table.  I've removed the old top, which was really, really beat up and am working on a nicer looking replacement

I want to reduce the height of the table back down to 41 inches.  The old table top was 47 inches high after the casters were installed.

Here's a shot of the old table top (and the awful old carpet)

Lots to do this weekend!

 

Basement Flooring Done

 

The basement re-flooring project is now complete.  Well the flooring is now all down.  I still have to attach the shoe moulding around all the trim but that's on order as it appears are most building supplies these days.

I am forced to admit that my lovely yet fierce wife was right (again) this type of vinyl flooring is superb - it feels like wood, looks great and is nigh on indestructible. 

The gaming area is looks great and is now due for a major refit since everything had to be moved.  Moreover , the prospect of moving all of that "Sh**" oops - I meant to say "treasure" back really brought home that I can get rid of half of that stuff and clear out a lot of space.  I often tease my wife about her hoarding tendencies with her research papers but I now realize that I "might" have a similar issue with tiny little figures.  Somewhere in the world Marie Kondo is smiling.

The sharpe eyed amongst you might be wondering - hey where did that massive table go?

It's on wheels!  Very sporty.

I borrowed one of those large floor jacks from a friend who runs a car repair garage and used it to jack up one end just enough so I could attach some heavy duty castors and then repeated the process for the other end.  The castors have wheel locks and the table remains very sturdy when they are all locked up.

Now that the basement repairs are almost done,  I think I'm going to do a full refit of the gaming area.  At some point in the future, I will be able to host people for a game (with or without bubble suits) and I'd like to make it a memorable experience.

Adding the wheels was a great addition to the table but doing so has raise the table height from 42 inches to 47, which is a tad too high (in my opinion).  I'm going to replace the top of the table with 2 sheets of 2/4 inch plywood so its nice and flat and maybe trim the edges in walnut.  Technically the current table top was meant for storage under the playing surface but I've never used it so I can reduce the height back down to 43 inches and make the table look a bit better.  I'll give the potential changes a "think" over the next week and then get to work.

I need to move fast, as the Boss is coming up with other home improvement projects for me to do.  There are rumors of putting in a heated floor in the master bath and upgrading it's counter tops and cabinets.  We do live in perilous times.

Project Stalingrad: A Super Exciting Administrative Task

 

Hex terrain has the wonderful aspect of modularity - you can assemble them in all sorts of ways to make just about any battlefield one wants.  It does take a little planning in design to ensure things like roads and streams match up but I really like the flexibility.

Except for one thing - if one is crazy enough (or stupid - its hard to tell) to use hexes to recreate an approximation of a historical event, for example the battle of Stalingrad, well that flexibility becomes problematic.  I discovered this fact when we were setting up the a section of the board up at the club for the recent test games.

I had help from both Ed to set up a 6x4 section and it took us way too long to do so.  I was working off a picture and trying to get the hexes in the right spots was a pain-in-the-, well you know where.

The Stalingrad table is a bit of an approximation but the street pattern and location of the main historical buildings is both accurate and specific.  The location of generic buildings and ruins within blocks created by the street grid is more an approximation but the set up needs to be consistent.  A consistent set up will also be important for how I'm planning to use an off table map for sewer movement and combat.  
 

The solution is as simple as it is tedious - mark each hex's back with its specific row and column location.  Borrowing from the late and great Redmond A Simonsen of SPI fame, I'm using a 4 digit hex numbering system where the first two digits are the column (north to south) and the second two digits are the rows (east to west).  My previous attempt at just marking the column wasn't all that helpful setting up at the club.

There are 30 columns and 18 rows for the 10x4 table and I'm about 75% done.  My home gaming table is 8x4 so I can only work on a section at time.

Just like a jigsaw puzzle, I will pack away the edge pieces in a smaller tub and set them out first and then use then fill in the rest.   The table consists of 540 hexes (30x18) and the goal is to be able to set it up in under 30 minutes.

Granted hex numbering really isn't the most exciting of war game game blog topics, but it is an example of the planning that is required to pull off a large participation game outside of your home.  You need to get all the stuff there, set it up and not be exhausted or frazzled before even starting a game.  So while tedious, putting in this level of preparation is really important to ensure the game runs smoothly and your players have a great time.  If the players have a great time, so does the GM.  If the players don't, then it's pretty much a disaster for the GM.  The single biggest influencer of player satisfaction is the GM's attitude so a frazzle GM starts off at a huge disadvantage.

OK, enough about hex numbering and the logic behind it - I suspect all of you are on the edge of cardiac arrest from the pure excitement of the topic.

Maybe, if you're lucky, the next post will be about alphabetizing Vallejo paints or organizing game components and dice.  Yes, that is just the kind of edgy, avant-garde topics one should expect from this blog and it's author - that's just the way I roll, baby.

  

Historicon Has Been Cancelled & Idiotic Musings from Me

 

The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) announced yesterday that their summer convention, Historicon'21, can not be held given the continuing restrictions in place for COVID-19 and the uncertainty of what restrictions will be required this coming July.  Given the trends, I just don't see how they could have made any other decision and commend the group for both making a tough call and doing so with a good notice period.  

It would also be very fair to say I'm really disappointed, I really enjoy these conventions and had personally set Historicon'21 as a bit of a benchmark for when things return to normal.  It was a little foolish to do so, but sometimes a desire for a return to "normal" outweighs the facts on display.  The lack of these conventions also reminded me of a time during my hobby journey where the three HMGS shows (Falli-In, Cold Wars and Historicon) were my primary venues to play games with other people and interact socially in the hobby.  I suspect that is still the case for a lot of people who aren't as fortunate as I am to have a club and close circle of friends to game with locally.  Now I will not bore you with "deep thoughts" and moralizing statements but I will say as this pandemic drags on that it's more important than ever just to be kind to other people - everyone is hurting in one way or another, some show it others don't but we're all worn down.  

Civility in your comportment is always a virtue but really never more so than now.  

It does seem as if this pandemic has elected to crawl across, rather than race across the finish line, doesn't it.

Still despite the loss of silly toy soldier shows things are definitely on the upswing and I consider myself impatiently optimistic, which is a bit out of character for a CFO/Investor type who specializes in crisis management (and looks dashing in green eye-shades).  By the way, when one becomes a CFO, you are issued a designer set of green eye shades along with the secret handshake.  Its all very Illuminate-like and hush-hush.  I best not go into the details for security reasons and you'll all just be jealous of the glitzy, jet-set lifestyle we CFO's secretly lead.

I didn't say Historicon was canceled above because in a welcome bit of scheduling sleight of hand, HMGS has changed the name of it's Fall event from Fall-In to Historicon and will be adding an extra day (from 3 to 4 days) to match the planned length of the summer event.  That is welcome news and I've now declared "Historicon-Fall" as my new talisman for a return to normalcy.  The "delay" in Historicon also provides a little bit more time to make the Stalingrad game even better.  I wonder if they'll allow me to use tiny pyrotechnics during a game session?  I'm sure they will and more importantly I shouldn't bother the convention runner with silly questions as they are very busy adjusting plans for this Fall.  Besides, what could go wrong with tiny pyrotechnics in a packed gaming hall, right?

LaSalle 2

Tuesday afternoon presented a rare opportunity to game up at the club and Greg ran a game of new version of Lasalle with his 15mm figures.  We refought the Battle of Elchingen, with Steve commanding the French as Ney and me playing the Austrians as Riesch.  Greg adapted a scenario from the Age of Eagles ruleset.  This was the first time Steve and I have played the new version of LaSalle.  I I did play test an earlier version but the one that made it to print is very different.

Steve's French troops are of superior quality but must deploy from a bridgehead and then attack my plucky Austrians are setup along a ridge.  Like most games, I forgot to take a lot of pictures but history did not repeat itself.  My Austians were able to launch an attack on the French's left flanks just as they were launching their attack on my center - the French attack had trouble breaking my lines and got stuck in while my flanking attack was very successful catching some infantry battalion in square.  By mid-game the entire French left was in tatters and Steve elected to concede the field.  The Austrian victory was due more to our newness with the rules and the fact the scenario needs to be tweaked a bit more to make it more balanced.

So is LaSalle 2 Any Good?

I am intrigued with the rules, and definitely want to play them again but there are some good and really confusing aspects to them.

Good Stuff:

Sequence of Play

The turn structure is very fluid and your opponent can interrupt your turn based on your actions when your armies get close in.  I really like the structure and think it provides for a very fluid game with lots of hard tradeoffs.

Momentum Points / Command Friction

Each player is given a set number of momentum points based on force size and a minor random factor if you choose to commit your general and get a d3 roll of extra points.    The points are based on the number of brigades that are deployed on the table so it goes up or down based on reinforcements / losses.

Fire Combat

Artillery and musket fire use the same procedure that is simple and fun - you roll a d6 and every 4+ is a hit.  There is a second save roll for hits, with higher quality troops saving on a 1-4 and average quality 1-3.  An infantry battalion in line fires with 6 dice and an artillery battery fires with 4, which is double to 8 when in canister range.  There are optional rules to add flavor, so you anglophiles get one or two extra dive for the Brits.

Small Units

Infantry and calvary units consist of 4 bases - that make moving stuff really easy and for those of us from the church of six bases per battalion means our armies just grew by 50%.  You still get the grans look of a Napoleonic game but moving stuff is a lot easier - also 50% easier!

Confusing Stuff:

I haven't played enough to label anything as bad so will list out the "confusing" issues I have with the rules.

Melee Combat is Deadly - maybe too much

The close assault procedure is an opposed dice role where each player rolls a d6 and adds their current strength plus any modifiers for defensive terrain or formation (all of which are plus 1's) - so 2 full strength battalions running into one another have a strength of 6 which you add the roll of a D6.  If you loose the combat by 3 or more your battalion is destroyed and removed from the game.  Rolling a few "1's" at the wrong time can loose the game for you.

Skirmish Fire / Initiative Determination

Initiative is determined by each player rolling some D6 based on the units you have on the table, with every six counting as a success.   The player who rolls the most 6's gets the initiative for the turn and can decide who goes first.  You also get an extra momentum point.  Sounds great right?  Oh I should mention that the number of D6 you roll is based on the battalions you have on the field.  I had 6 Austrian brigades and about 22 infantry battalion (+/-) and was rolling 45 D6 each turn which was really tedious.  I understand the math behind rolling lots of dice as it evens out the chance for really random outcomes - like rolling a 1 vs a 6 in melee combat but the giant bucket of dice used here seems a bit of overkill 

Limited Role for Commanders

While we played with the basic rules, there didn't seem to be any of the Napoleonic flavor I expect from commanders - generals aren't really used expect to either add D3 of momentum points or you can plop them down once during a turn and perform a global formation change for any units within a set range.  That's it - that's all they do.  You also only have one per side - no St Cyr or Friants to help out in a nick of time.  Maybe I'm a little to "Hollywood" but I like my Napoleonic generals to be able to attach to units and influence combat or rally rolls and be at risk to enemy action.  In LaSalle your generals are essentially administrative counters

Overall, I think the rules are very promising.  They likely will not replace General D'Armee as my favorite but I think there are some really neat concepts in them and really do look forward to my next game with them.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XI is Done: What a Blast!

 

The 11th version of the Analogues Hobbies Painting Challenge (creatively named XI) is now complete.  I had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it (as usual).

I am very pleased to report that I find myself in a 3-way tie for the most points with Martin C and Noel W.  All three of use crossed the line with 3,643 points.  I'm really pleased that we tied as I think that's the best outcome.  Remember points are based solely on output, if there were any adjustments for quality of painting, I would be trailing Martin and Noel by a wide margin.  

Still, I'm very pleased with my production this year.  While my total points total isn't as high as some previous Challenges (me personal best is 5,051) this challenge represented the most I've has to do because of the large terrain component.  It's also the first challenge where I didn't paint ANY 28mm figures.  I had a few primed and ready to go but just didn't want to paint them.  In past challenges, easily 75% of my points totals came from 28mm figures so there is some interesting commentary there on how my gaming and hobby direction is evolving.  Perhaps more on that in another post.

Similar to past Challenges, I did organize XI with building out what I need to put on a large participation game whenever conventions come back.  Stalingrad is the most ambitious project I've ever tried to pull off and it's still an open question if it will work.  The main project form Challenge X, the Russo Japanese war was also finished off this year as both the Japanese and Russian fleets were painted up.  Finally this year saw a jump into 6mm ancients and the completion of 3 different armies - Republican Romans, Parthians and Seleucids.  This ancients foray is in part to the campaign we are running at the club and on the LWTV channel.

I'm sure all of you are burning with desire to understand what comprises the 3,643 point total and that's a natural - what? you're not?  That's insane 'cause you're getting it anyway.

Total Submission:                    18

Total Points                              3,634

Avg per Submission                 202

Figures Painted:

6mm

Infantry                                1,656

Cav/Guns                               439

Vehicles                                     1 (an Elephant!)

15mm

Infantry                                251

Cav/Guns                                 8

Vehicles                                  30

1/2400 Ships                          98

Terrain Cubes                        54

(Terrain is scored by volume - each 6" cube is worth 20 points)

The chart above summarizes my challenge based on points by scale and allows a nice comparison to the totals for the full Challenge.  Challenge XI was atypical for me given the lack of 28mm production and you can see that in my much higher points share for 6mm and 15mm (34.8% and 21.2%) vs the overall averages for 6 and 15's of 2.4% and 10.6% for all participants.  

One of the more interesting things I see in Challenge XI is the relatively small share of 6mm when everything I hear in the hobby points to it's growing popularity.  Of course the sample size for Challenge XI is 84 and skewed towards people who focus on painting so it's likely not fully representative of the hobby.  I was very surprised to see that my little ancients foray accounted for 63% of all 6mm figures points

Points by project is't really a surprise with the main project (Stalingrad) accounting for roughly 1/2 of the total points and the 2 big ones totaling just under 85%

As stated earlier in the post, while my points total isn't a personal best, the level of effort put into this years challenge was likely the most I've ever done.  That's all due to the terrain building effort for Stalingrad and my choice of 15mm vs 6mm in scale.  Making hex terrain is a lot of fun but it is time consuming and somewhat labor intensive - well as labor intensive as any hobby project.  The choice of hexes was made for two reasons - one practical and one emotional.  

The practical reason is speed of play.  As a convention GM of more than 100 games with 8+ players one of the things that really slows play down are tape measures, especially when you get "that player" who is measuring to 1/64th of an inch and brings their own protractor to figure angles.  Hexes eliminate the need for tape measurers and also make LOS a lot easier.  The key is to use a ruleset that takes advantage of these aspects without rendering the game to being just a hex and counter experience.

The emotional reason is that I really want to put on the best game I can for my players when we can all return to gaming in large groups.  I really miss it and I'm sure so does everyone else.  I can't remove all the stress and loss we've endured due to COVID but I can try to make sure when we get back to the new nromal that next participation game experience is both fun and memorable.  The first time I really enjoyed wargaming was playing Squad Leader and running the Guards Counter-Attack scenario - it was a blast and lead to a life long hobby.  I want to try and recreate that evocative experience in miniatures for my players.  Will I succeed, who knows? but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Thanks to Curt and all the challenge participants for keeping me motivated to grind out the Stalingrad terrain.  XI was fantastic and I cant wait for XII.  Ok I need a bit of a break so I can wait a little bit for XII.

Now where the hell am i going to store all this stuff.....

The Last Day of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XI

 

My last submission for the 11th iteration of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has been submitted - it was a 80 or so "countryside hexes" and were a nice change of pace from the grind of Stalingrad.

These hexes are intended to be used with both 6mm stuff like in the second picture and

15mm miniatures as in the third picture.

I'm not sure where I'll end up in the standings but it was a wonderful event.  I encourage you to go check out the site as the last day tends to bring out a avalanche of final submissions.

Now I need to get to work getting some flooring down and cleaning up the basement.  The combined effects of a flood and massive set of hobby projects have pretty much rendered the "man-cave a disaster of epic proportions!

Stalingrad: Second Test Game

 

Last night we ran a second test game of the Stalingrad rules using the Northern section of the table.  This game was slightly bigger as both the Soviets and Germans fielded full battalions plus support elements.  

There were three players per side, each controlling a company plus.  The scenario was based on the Soviet counterattacks of Sept 15th, 1942 which was a surprise fro the Germans as it was historically.

There were a number of rule tweaks from last time and 4 out of the 6 players had never played the game before.

The Outcome was the slimmest of Soviet victories at 25 to 24 victory points.  Artillery proved to be both devastating and unpredictable and people seemed to enjoy the rule making artillery fire persistent over a turn.  The white cotton makers outline a german strike which impact the units under the template and any units that move into those hexes over the course of a turn.  I do think its a bit too powerful and need to tone down the impact.

We played for about 2.5 hours and managed to get 5 full turns in which works out to about 5 minutes per player per turn, which is about as fast as one can get in a convention setting.  Convention games run for 4 hours of which 3.5 is real play time and I'm planning 4 players per side so I should be able to get 7-8 turns in each session which is more than enough.  

I did get a lot of suggestions for improvements to the rules which will get incorporated over the course of this week.  The new shooting rules seemed to be work well but the areas for improvement include

1) Remove / Lighten the "Free" Rally Phase

The current iteration of the rules have a rally phase for both players as the last step of every turn.  Any unit that is not in "Good Order" (either Shaken or Broken) gets a free rally roll and the results are that most units return Good Order so it's really hard to sustain an attack.  Everyone felt it was too easy to rally so I need to change this rule.  The options are to just eliminate the phase and force units to attempt to rally as part of their platoon activation or limit the number of rally attempts by forcing a platoon of company leader be in the same hex as the unit being rallied- I'm leaning towards the latter.

2) Streamline Vehicle Combat

Vehicle combat has too may steps and bogs down so needs to be streamlined.  It's also pretty inconclusive.  3 Soviet T-70's stood up to 3 StugB and 3 Panzer IIIJ for multiple turns and the germans dice rolling wasn't that bad.

3) Snipers

I didn't explain these rules very well and both sides forgot about them until. the end of the game.  One needs snipers to really do Stalingrad but its a level of chrome that may not work in a large participation game where simplicity of rules is a must.

There are a bunch of other suggestions that I need to think about but the past 2 test games are making me really confident this will be a fun game for a convention.

Now back to finishing up for the Painting Challenge.

 

Bucentaure Update

 

Spring is almost here and that means its time to get Bucentaure ready for the water.  Last July she got a little scratched up during a storm and very high tide so we need to get the hull repainted along with some other minor repairs.  The paint work will be done by professionals as I would just screw it up.

I’m going to try something new this year with the boat.  Rather than keeping her tied up at a dock during the sailing season, the boat will be stored at a “Boatel” facility.  What’s that?  It’s an steel cradle that’s on land and the boatyard uses a big fork lift to put her in and out of the water.

I’m really ready for Spring

First Test of the Stalingrad Rules

Last night up at the club was pretty momentous for me as it was the first time my rules and Stalingrad terrain were used by "real people" rather than just solitaire by me.  We played on the northern section of the board and had 2 companies plus supporting elements for each side.

 

Comrades Josh and Greg Surveying the battlefield as they prepare to meet the Axis invaders.  The third Soviet player Dave arrive just after this picture was taken.   The Germans players for the game were Tony, Ed and Dieter.

The soviets had 2 full infantry companies, a platoon of Naval Infantry and 3 T-34 tanks.  The german forces had 1 company of infantry, 1 company of Pioneers with a flamethrower and 3 Panzer IIIJ tanks.

Midway through the game as Ed has maneuvered his pioneers to assault Pavlov's house (the two white buildings in the center).  This was turn 5 and the Soviets finally rolled to bring on their tanks to surprise the Axis.

Sadly for the Russians, their shooting skills were poor and after exchanging point blank fire for several turns they managed to not damage any German tank while 1 T-34 was damaged and lost its main gun.  What this really means is that the rules for AT gun combat are too cumbersome and need to be revised.

Ed was able to mass his pioneers and swept the Soviet defenders away from the complex.

The critical point of the game came here at the 3 hex "Yellow House" in the center of the picture.  Josh was defending with a single Soviet Rifle Platoon against 4 German platoons.  It was an epic struggle which saw the Germans repulsed multiple times before Josh evacuated the house.  His staunch defense created a Hero unit and the Yellow house has been forever renamed "Joshinov's Hovel" in the annals of history.

Unfortunately for Josh his hero squad they were forced to retreat through errant soviet artillery fire and met an untimely demise.

We got in 9 turns of the planned 12 and the game was declared a narrow Soviet Victory.  

The rules seemed to work really well but there are a lot of opportunities for improvement.  Using hexes did prove to really speed up play.  All-in-all, it was a great first outing and I am very fortunate to have such great club members to inflict my game upon.

The task the for the next few days will be to make some rule revisions and retest the game next Monday.