Ramblings and a BIG ACW game

I've been a bit lax updating here, so this update includes an eclectic mix.  Gaming has been rather lax of late, primarily because I am still feeling like a zombie half the time.  Sadly the rest of the time I am feeling worse. :(

Anyway, I am staying upbeat as much as I can(although I'm getting fed up waiting for news from the hospital now) and so I have been managing to pop along to the Monday night games.  I don't last too long there, but it's nice to get out for a bit.  Mostly we have been continuing an ongoing Twilight 2000 roleplay that we do for about 4 session each year.  They started this game long before I joined the group (about 20 years ago) and we are still running about trying to get back to NATO lines.  It's a laugh to get back to it though.  Last week we did another game of Blood age as Zob had a meeting to go too.  I left before it finished and was winning at that time so, despite the results once Zob came back and took over for me, I am claiming it as a win. ;)

I was taken out for a day last weekend as Nathan and Panjo took me up to Reveille in Bristol.  A pleasant local show, although the set up is a bit "old school" in lots of small rooms as opposed to the usual "everything in one big hall".  I picked up some tufts(to replace the ones my wife threw away accidentally), some Gripping Beast Dark Ages Warriors and some Perrys light cavalry.  We were only there a couple of hours but it was a pleasant trip and we had a good day.  I bought something else but can't remember what it was right now??????  Comments about age, senility and other such abuse will be ignored!

Union troops mass on the table

Back over the bridge boys!

 Yesterday was the Christmas game at the Devon Wargames Groups monthly meeting.  This year Chas had set up an ACW game using Regimental Fire & Fury in 25mm.  The various members pulled their collections together and set too on a large T shaped table.  I only stayed for about 2 hours but saw the masses gather and the game was just heating up as I left.  Over 2000 figures were on the table and each player had a characteristic that had some some of effect on the game.  As an example, Nathan's men hated him and got a bonus if he wasn't attached!  Bit like real life really. I'm sure that JJ is organising a post on there as I type this, so keep an eye out for better pictures and a more detailed report.

"Them dang Rebs is here sarge!"

The rest of the players

Devons mostleast wanted gather

Devons own Jon "David Bailey" Jones in action

Right, that's it for this post.  I will put up another one in a  minute with the painting efforts on it.  Back in a sec.

More painting and random thoughts

Well the week has gone by again, so here I am with another random ramble through the so-called thoughts I have had. 

Painting wise I had a pretty good week, with nearly 130 figures painted.  45 were for the forthcoming AWI game while the remainder were all Napoleonics for Andy and Keith in Cornwall.  Campaign Game Miniatures have provided almost everything I have painted, with a mix of French Guard Lancers and Dutch-Belgian cavalry getting finished.  Next up are some 15mm German Pak 40's with crew, then its back to the Napoleonics with 2 more units of Dutch-Belgian cavalry to do.  I have started a new process for painting this year, which has involved keeping a log of what I paint each month, keeping a running total of how much I have painted so far and mixing up what I paint so I don't get bored with doing one thing.  So far this year I have painted Napoleonic Prussian landwehr, Dutch-Belgian infantry,  horse artillery, light and heavy cavalry, French Old Guard infantry, foot artillery and lancers.  Mixed in between units of these I have also painted WW2 Germans, British and American infantry and some American Paras, plus AWI British and American infantry, artillery, cavalry and indians.  So that seems to be working and I am hopefully going to paint more this year than I ever have before.

Monday nights Twilight session went reasonably well, in that nobody has died yet.  We have been semi-conscripted into the Czech army, which is probably going to be a major pain in the arse.  We have had to send 8 of our team off to help them sort out some bandits, but it just seems to be a slave raid to me as we need to take as many as possible alive.  Ah well.  Thursday was care in the community day as I picked up my mate Panjo and we, along with Gus, went over to Nathans to play a couple of boardgames.  The reason for this was Mrs Panjo was having a pampered chef party and he would do anything to get out of the house.  We ended up playing Pandemic and Zombicide.  Both are cooperative games which require the players to work together and both games were won, which made a change.  Pandemic involved some real brain searching and we managed to find the final cure on the last play of the game.  Zombicide was played twice and both times we won.  I think we have now figured out how to manage the zombies fairly well, so long as everybody works as a team.  It made a pleasant change to have all the players agree to a plan and then stick to it.  Not once did we have anybody say "I don't have to do what you all say", which we have had before.  It was a fun evening and I hope we can fit some more in at some point.

Sadly I missed Saturdays meeting of the Devon Wargames Group as I went down to see my Mum.  She has just got out of hospital and Saturday was the only day we could go down to see her.  So we did and watched a dire game of rugby between Wales and Scotland.  Yes, Wales won but what a crap game it was.  Oh, and hard luck to Italy who had a better than fair chance of winning today against a poor effort by England. 

My online gaming is going to change too.  Mostly we have been playing World of Tanks, but the last few updates and changes made have taken a lot of the enjoyment out of it for me.  There are too many stupid bits that make no sense, like tanks in the open that fire at you and then magically disappear or tanks that manage to sneak up on you and get within 10 feet of you before you can see them. There are other things too, but life is too short to list them all here.  One good thing is I have rediscovered Team Fortress 2, which is fun and free.  So much mayhem and rapid fire will still ensue.

Tomorrow is hospital day, which has only taken 3 months to come around.  Hopefully Dr whoever will thing of something new and sort out my gut, so fingers crossed.  I am seriously f****d off with having stomach ache almost all the time and feeling or being sick whenever I eat anything.  So wish me luck.

I am off now to paint some AWI commander figures, so keep rolling those dice and remember to cheer on Wales in the 6 Nations decider next Saturday. 

Twilight 2000 and AWI Maurice Game

Monday night was Twilight 2000 night last week and will be again this week and next week.  Once or twice each year we dust off an ongoing Twilight game.  This game was started back before I joined the Monday night group, and I have been there for nearly 20 years now.  There are 5 players, but each has 2 or 3 characters to run and we are trying to get back to the west from Poland.  It has taken us this long to get into Czechoslovakia so I don't think we will ever finish it, but its not a terrible way to spend the evening.  We are currently holed up for (hopefully) the winter in an abandoned monastery/commune in the Czech mountains.  We need to fill our fuel tanks up again with homebrewed methanol and try not to starve through the winter.  Our group currently has 4 vehicles, two Hummers, a 5ton truck and a captured BTR-60.   It will go well until Colin or Nathan bumps into anybody (no, really, anybody....anybody at all) and then the bullets will fly, the excrement will hit the fan and we will have to evacuate the area at high speed.

Saturday saw Gus and Nathan visit my humble abode to play a game of Maurice set in the American Rebellion Revolution.  It is a playtest of the game that Gus and I are putting on at Legionary in May, so some figures are missing(hence the empty or unfinished bases) and the scenery is still a work in progress.  The buildings are all stand-ins and the trees are unfinished too.

Initial setup (Americans at the top)

 The scenario presently has a larger American force attacking a better quality British force.  The Americans had 10 regular infantry, 4 irregular infantry, 2 cavalry and 1 cannon, while the British had 8 regular infantry, 1 cavalry and 2 cannons.  The British were set up defending a plantation house that the Rebels had to capture. 

Americans advance as the British cannons fire

As the game progressed we quickly realised that the Americans were going to struggle.  The map we are using came from Battlefinder, which is an excellent source for random battlefields.  The amount of trees and the angle of the scenery in relation to the troops caused problems for the advancing regular troops, while the British held their ground and bombarded(ineffectually).

The Americans had the skirmisher ability, giving the irregulars long range fire(18cm vs 12cm).  Unfortunately they were only hitting on 6's and the effect they had was limited.

British right flank drives back the irregulars

 They did annoy the British enough for the 3 units on the right flank advanced out and chased off the irregulars.  After a few quick volleys 2 of the American units routed and the British troops fell back to their defensive positions again.

 As the game came to a conclusion due to using up all the cards, we determined that the irregulars were useless in this scenario, the British were rock hard in their defensive positions and we needed to change things.

See, that's why you playtest a game before going to the show!  So now the Americans will have no irregulars, more regular infantry and the British may end up attacking.

I love it when a plan comes together.  I am off now to spend some time with Mrs WWID before going to play Twilight later.  Have fun and keep rolling those dice.