Okay,
After the thread post about less games being played, I've a stupid idea
Post the games you've played in '25 here.
No need for details, let's just list them, and at various points, when I can be bothered, I'll count them up by player.
If I get really bored, I might do further data analysis, but that's unlikely.
Get the ball rolling
Wargames
Pulp Alley (a draw)
And round a friend of the Amazing Mrs Lemmey's house today boardgames
Herd Instinct (2nd)
Qwirkle (win)
Marvel Unlimited (being GM)
2 x Courtisans (lost both)
I have no idea if I will keep up to date on this, but first off:
Boardgames with friends staying over New Year
Trans America (played twice, won 1)
Noggin (played 3, won 1)
Liberdy - 28mm Wild West game - pics https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Lk6gcndVqTmB2nIUFOa8MUA31eIF4F_d?usp=sharing
I have no idea if I will keep up to date on this, but first off:
For King & Parliament 10mm test of an Irish scenario
For King & Parliament 10mm test of an Irish scenario
It's an interesting historic battle to turn into a playable scenario. We tested it once late last year and have so far tested it twice this year. Hopefully third time is the charm tonight
Eisenhower - WWII Historical - 10mm Western Desert c1942, fictional battle, but plausible historical forces
Variant of What a Cowboy featuring Triffids attacking the cast of Bonanza
Warhammer 40k. Space Marines vs Tyrannids. Good scenario, culminating in a reprise of all those scenes in the Alien movies where aliens get into the landing ship.
! GdA2 so far
QuoteVariant of What a Cowboy featuring Triffids attacking the cast of Bonanza
That sounds ace, in a mad kind of way!
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 01 January 2025, 10:59:34 AMOkay,
After the thread post about less games being played, I've a stupid idea
Post the games you've played in '25 here.
No need for details, let's just list them, and at various points, when I can be bothered, I'll count them up by player.
If I get really bored, I might do further data analysis, but that's unlikely.
What's the plan? Since retirement I have logged every game played. In 2024 it came to exactly 100. This is now the target for each and every year.
No real plan,just seeing if we are actually playing less or more.
For King & Parliament 10mm test of an Irish scenario
The third time was indeed the charm last night, we tweaked the stats on a couple of units.
We also came up with a way of measuring how badly the Royalists were defeated as they have no chance of defeating the Parliamentarian forces.
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 04 January 2025, 03:15:32 PMNo real plan,just seeing if we are actually playing less or more.
Retirement is a boon and good for my play record:
2019 58
2020 26
2021 45
2022 65
2023 76
2024 100
It must have allowed me to double my gaming!
2 games of Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth board game. Against my wife! She was willing to play a second game, which is pretty good news, as she's normally a bit a grudging board gamer. This is a fun quick and moderately complex game - would recommend.
Duel of Aces - WW1 air combat: artillery spotting mission. With the RE8s the unexpected winners!
The Seven Days' Battles (ACW).
Bloodbowl - Khorne V Halflings.
I played the halflings...I lost...
Against Khorne? Well, yes!
Two games of Xenos Rampant
Lost one, won one. 😎
Report to follow
WWII tank battle, Ukraine 1941. Played online via Discord with US buddies.
Supposed to have a game last night - cancelled due to snow
Two games of Midgard this week:
El Cid Spanish vs Almoravids (I lost)
Early Medieval Welsh vs Penda's Mercians (I won)
A write up to follow shortly
WWII 20mm homebrew rules, Kiwi assault on Ruweisat Ridge
Hail Caesar 15mm Battle of Bannockburn
Two :o 20mm Blackpowder Glory Halleluiah ACW games last night
In the first my partners wing was broken in less than hour with no loss to the Rebs X_X
In the second both Union flanks were on the point of breaking with no loss to the Rebs in about 1.5 hours X_X :-[
So Far in 2025
4 games of Test of Resolve 100Years War playtesting the Verneuil scenario - playtesting Cravant tomorrrow
2 games of Wofun ACW - not that impressed, will revert to Rebels and Patriots
2 games of Midgard Heroic Battles - will be playing a fair bit of this in 2025
1 game of Rebels and Patriots - War of the Triple Alliance
Also the board game raiders of the North Sea which could qualify as a wargame at a push
Napoleonics: Albuera (1811). Playtest of scenario for BBB Peninsular War book. A sanguinary draw.
2 games of The Men Who Would Be Kings. Both games over in less than 30 minutes, due to excellent shooting and rubbish rallying rolls!
Spanish Civil War using BKCIV & Libertad.
Encirclement scenario resulting in another minor victory for the Republicans and more importantly the end of our 1936 Campaign
First games of 2025 this week:
Monday a 15mm ACW scenario in 1862, not sure which battle, the one where the Iron Brigade won it's fame. This one at my house, where we play long games over several weeks.
last night at Burnley Wargames Club, late 1943 in Italy, 10mm 129th Panzer Bttn of 29th Panzer Grenadier Division versus 44th RTR of 23rd Armoured Brigade.
Draw on paper, Brits leaning towards winning if you count half platoon losses. We met our quota of double-6 blunders, 6 per side is the expected norm :o
I did however have the pleasure of knocking out a Daimler II with a PzB39 at 220m :D
But, lesson I keep forgetting to learn, you can't use StuG IIIs as tanks :(
But, a lesson I keep forgetting to learn, you can't use StuG IIIs as tanks....
Tell me? WWII is very much a side suit for me, but I've got a few of them; what's the issue?
QuoteWe met our quota of double-6 blunders, 6 per side is the expected norm
This rather depends on where on the graph of 2d6 rolled the evening lies - 216 is average, 6 is not a good look...
Sudan in 15mm using Black Powder rules
Quote from: FierceKitty on 15 January 2025, 03:25:14 PMBut, a lesson I keep forgetting to learn, you can't use StuG IIIs as tanks....
Tell me? WWII is very much a side suit for me, but I've got a few of them; what's the issue?
{this is our own rules, which uses a BKC style activation system}
Lack of turret mostly. So you can only opportunity fire if your vehicle happens to be pointing in the right direction; we allow turreted vehicles to move a 1/4 move and fire as if halted (up to 1/2 if fully stabilised for Cold War games), whereas SPGs if they do anything other turn on the spot or creep to the edge of a wood/BUA count as moving if they fire.
So it makes offensive combat a tad more difficult. The other issue is that due to shortages of tanks, some Panzer Battalions were issued StuGs instead of Panzer III/IVs, which is the case for the 129th Panzer Battalion of 29th Panzer Grenadier Division in late 1943-early 1944 time frame we play. Doctrinaly I have to use them as tanks rather than tank destroyers, they have slightly different fire priorities.
Europe 1848 using Rebels & Patriots. Loads of fun :) !
Warhammer Old World, Gobbos Vs Dwarves (I was slaughtered, it was hilarious).
TY.
2 games of Xenos Rampant last night, both fun
'Midgard' with Sunjester - he's posted elsewhere in this vibrant organ, but here for completion.
Quote from: Steve J on 15 January 2025, 07:40:43 PMEurope 1848 using Rebels & Patriots. Loads of fun :) !
Nice! Will you blog it? (I'm reading Christopher Clark's
Revolutionary Spring about 1848 right now.)
I've put a post up last night Chris and I too am reading the same book :) !
For Chris:
https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/01/1848-rebels-patriots-trial-game.html (https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/01/1848-rebels-patriots-trial-game.html)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpOC4TWHnaYIVRwJE8WLb0mAeeAfw4U2h9dJEEPRApM8HsHuDUbgmXZIhjvI9rO22cYc6j2uQ3i5Ltpl49VUqhmJLGmZaICp5UQ6sqS_gMq0gZzTOuxH2tAcS0elAKc6skld4cXGYjRvIyRI_S3p5X5m7jhL2Ei3j9J5mn1pPTpNQL7OGlOkNbwlj6EC8/w640-h480/P1160699.JPG)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgZYQdcWayTSU751ulmxKphd9KLaKZhDYH0pBq6hFQ9FBWySES6OcIm6vFenfG7cd5JlO9zxyMtr55ZtQjAPimPpkuV1yuR85ERyPfCptp9qwlk6Kw16y83E1lN61nnjejIkoFzXfyaBmlpsvvWM5oO5oTM1kywDGl68vY_027Q_wj9euUQ_iwreHjfEM/w640-h480/P1160702.JPG)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWQVY2Rbo4l5W5FeDp5u3R0_ZRUbw8g-cyufwpupTyCe4jqRGTom-C65lK-603A1j9Ff6fY3DnY_vTZKUC6rLZx6PxvuK7h14dsvJl7BuO5gbw2iUcpi4OHnfw2WLQK-3UZK2Tjse-vNnFjFQ-c4AqyHB0zLY5Q8OhQ-s14ilXMUIIzGy0a2ZBY22QJo/w640-h480/P1160707.JPG)
This week:
Sellswords and Spellslingers
2 x Midgard with fantasy armies
Quote from: Steve J on 17 January 2025, 12:15:43 PMFor Chris:
https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/01/1848-rebels-patriots-trial-game.html (https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/01/1848-rebels-patriots-trial-game.html)
Lovely, thanks, Steve!
QuoteEurope 1848 using Rebels & Patriots. Loads of fun :) !
And very nice it looked :-bd =D> :-bd =D>
QuoteWWII 20mm homebrew rules, Kiwi assault on Ruweisat Ridge
Quickly finished this game off tonight with the Kiwis capturing the ridge before the sun came up
Also got in another 20mm Blackpowder Glory Halleluiah ACW started last night (not all players for WWII game available) and finished off tonight after the WWII game. Despite being shaken for most of the battle the Union right managed to stay in the fight long enough for the Union left to overwhelm the Confederate right #:-S :-bd
3 games of Montebello 1859 using Bloody Big Battles
W:0 D:1 L:2
A traditional 28mm Napoleonics game: no particular battle, just a kill-'em-all line-out. Black Powder rules, five players, a brigade each. Good fun.
Just 1 game of Midgard this week.
Three games this week
Monday and Thursday continued our 15mm ACW game, the Iron Brigade being demolished because the lucky opposing player can't roll less than 7 on D10s >:( except where it doesn't matter.
Tuesday night at Burnley club, testing out the Anschluss WW2 rules The War on the Ground, with the battle of Stoumont scenario that a new player brought. Humm, dicing for spotting, really? In the 21st century of rules writing. The rules writers do admit to harking back to traditional rules, even using column shift modifiers from the now vintage TTG Corps Commander rules. Add the traditional roll a dice and add & take modifiers, which seems a bit quaint nowadays.
Stats for infantry and vehicles seem to be spread throughout the scenario books and not in complete tables in the core rules....
Good points it uses D10s and D20s, and 1mm = 1m ground scale, and 1 model = 1 tank/squad. It has rules for weather and night.
Interesting point is the move sequencing. Attacker moves-defender fires- attacker fires- defender moves - attacker fires - defender fires - end phase
Bad points is calling morale 'effectiveness' which I took to mean small arms fire factor at first :o ; not sold yet on the old fashioned DRM and column shift modifiers thingy although that's not to say it doesn't work.They also fell into the old rules writing trap of assuming the difference between armour penetration value and armour is a direct linear descriptor for percentage chance of a knock out, such that a 57mm M1 ATG auto kills Sdkfz 251 for example. eg if your gun penetrates 10cm more than the armour of the target, it gives 100% kill probability, which in fact is never the case. Even a Jagdtiger will bounce off a Stuart sometimes.
Still, the scenario books are very good, I had already bought the Sicily/Italy ones myself, as the are ideal for my own rules which operate at the same level.
And we're giving it another go next week.
Now then, what do you do when a player is so consisently lucky that it makes the game unfun anymore?
Quotelucky opposing player can't roll less than 7 on D10s >:( except where it doesn't matter.
You weren't playing Sunjester by any chance? :-\
Quote... what do you do when a player is so consistently lucky that it makes the game unfun anymore?
1. Offer to roll for them, to see if that makes any difference ~X( Point out that you are not suggesting anything but luck here :-[
2. There is a player known to many NZ gamers who could fix this by simply standing near the table when your opponent rolls ;D
The most extreme example of the Mike effect I've seen was about 8 players in a larger Modern Spearhead game all complaining their dice had turned to crap. About 10 minutes later several started commenting that their dice were finally improving. It was at this point I noticed Mike walking back into the main hall after having a smoke leaning against the building we were in, unseen by any of us until this point.
Three First Crusades Big Battle DBA games, one on Friday and two on Saturday
III/66 Fatimid Egyptian, III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish, IV/6a Syrian vs
IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine, IV/2 Cilician Armenian, IV/7 Early Crusader
The Friday and first Saturday games were clear wins to the Byzantine-Armenian-Crusader armies with their heavy infantry dominating
The second Saturday game was a lot closer win for the Byzantine-Armenian-Crusader armies, the result would have been reversed if they lost two more elements
Fun quick games with the Saturday games only taking 1-1.5 hours each as we were back into the swing of the rules and the armies. The Egyptian-Seljuq-Syrians had again got the hang of finding better match ups and screening with Light Horse
Irregular Wars, tabletop wargame in 10mm, Mongols vs Samurai - how do you say 'arrow-storm' in Mongolian?
2 x Lord of the Rings Duel - battle for Middle Earth board game.
2 x BBB Montebello 1859 - 1 Austrian win & 1 French win
1 x BBB Solferino-Medole 1859 - Minor Austrian Win
Two games of Bloody Red Skys - both 4 Spit II vs Bf109 E. Certain we got things wrong but system seemed to work well.
Quote from: paulr on 25 January 2025, 10:54:37 PM2. There is a player known to many NZ gamers who could fix this by simply standing near the table when your opponent rolls ;D
I didn't know Last Hussar had a twin brother in NZ. :d
Quote from: fred. on 26 January 2025, 08:06:27 AMhow do you say 'arrow-storm' in Mongolian?
сум шуурга
sum shuurga
according to google translate :D
Quote from: paulr on 25 January 2025, 10:54:37 PM2. There is a player known to many NZ gamers who could fix this by simply standing near the table when your opponent rolls (https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/Smileys/SoLoSMiLeYS1/grin.gif)
My friend has that effect at the same time!
I once did an analysis of his D10 rolls in a campaign we were doing. He rolls +0.5 per D10 higher than the average. Which doesn't sound much. Until you realise that is in effect +1 per every 2 D10 rolls, or +2 on one in four D10 rolls. As we use a Fire & Fury system, melees involve 2D10 per side in effect, defender shoots, attacker shoots with whats left, both roll melee roll.
More mysteriously the high rolls occur at critical sectors, eg when charging with line into grenadiers defending a wood. His low rolls occur where sufficient pluses make it not really a problem.
Dread the thought that there is more than one such deadly dice roller in the gaming world. Maybe we should get them to game each other, it would be bloodbath to the last stand ;D ;D
Sunjester...
Ask Orcs.
Mortal Gods: Mythic last Wednesday
https://madlemmey.blogspot.com/2025/01/mortal-gods-mythic-heroes-of-argo-vs.html
Rebels & Patriots, part 1 of a mini-campaign.
BBDBA - a historical scenario, the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains (451 AD). Six players, individual objectives, good fun. Yes, I played an ancients game!
Concluded the first round of our 15mm ACW game, the Iron Brigade totally wiped out but taking out 1000 Confederates of Anderson's Division of Jackson's Corps; US forces swept from the field for a 12-4VP win to the CSA.
Is a long game over several weeks still only count as 1 game for games count purposes?
First game our new VSF campaign, groups of survivors post Martian invasion (War of the Worlds style). Perhaps that should be ESF?
Steve - the Osprey website doesn't seem that clear on R&P scale (or I've just missed it!). It says 'Company'; my 10mm ACW are 6-7 on a 30mm base - would that feel odd?
It says based off Lion Rampant, so assuming the same sort of scale - 12 figures to a unit in LR - would 60-80 men in a unit (in 12 bases) look about right? Or is it literally a dozen blokes skirmishing?
With the whole LR series details such as figure scale and ground scale are not to be concerned with!
Its basic premise is 12x 28mm figures to a unit. For smaller scale figures going with 6 or 12 bases with multiple figures on the base would work fine.
If you've got the figures going with 12x 30mm bases for a unit would look suitably imposing! But as you can see from Steve's reports he's gone with a lower figure count per unit.
What I'm thinking is that LR 10mm can work, but for later periods, which are more regimented, the 12 bases cluster will look stupid.
Another 15mm WW2 battle at the Burnley club last night, second attempt at the Anschluss rules.
Three companies of panzer grenadiers in halftracks attacking head-on into a full battalion of US infantry hidden in buildings backed up by 13 anti-tank guns should go badly in any rules set, and indeed this was the case.
The morale rules are strange and the mortar ranges are plain wrong, but the latter is easy enough to alter. Overall 200% better than FoW, but data presentation needs to be better (vehicle & infantry stats are interspersed throughout the scenario books) and methodology of firing and morale (which confusingly they call effectiveness) is a bit convoluted and possibly not to current tastes.
QuoteWhat I'm thinking is that LR 10mm can work, but for later periods, which are more regimented, the 12 bases cluster will look stupid.
There is no reason not to go with 6 bases, with each base having 2 hits and 2 attacks. As long as both sides are similarly based, it will work.
I don't recall any template weapons in LR, and combat is at unit level, so base size isn't that important. This becomes part of the rules in Dragon Rampant mainly to allow big creatures.
Two games of Pulp Alley Vs Mort's 'Top League'. Unfortunately my Wakandans came out on top, twice!
Played a GQ 1/2 scenario on Saturday - Operation Vado 14 June 1940. A lesser known French Navy action just after Italy declared war on France. A French cruiser force attempts to bombard industrial targets around Genoa, Vado and Savona. In my What If scenario the French are intercepted by a Italian cruiser force heading for Genoa. The shore bombardment rules are taken from David Manley's Operation Grog scenario which covers the later British bombardment of the same area by Force H in February 1941.
Ended up a very close game with the Italians winning by 8.5 to 8 victory points. The scenario worked well and we had an entertaining evening.
This was a Jan game on Friday the 31st
Table top wargame of Dead Man's Hand, 28mm Wild West. Not sure if this is 3 games or 1 game. We played a linked set of 3 scenarios over the evening - they are escalating Scenes set within an Act.
Was a fun set of linked games, enjoyed the DMH rules, the cards add a nice bit of extra actions, without needing to remember loads of special rules. We played Tong vs Outlaws. Master Wu Jen was lethal in hand to hand combat - often scoring 7+ wounds, when 4 is enough to kill most characters.
Jan count and processing underway
From now on, Feb games please. 8)
Of those who submitted date:
88 games were played.
15 people admitted to playing these games in January
Equates to an average 5.8666666666666666r games per poled player (effectively one a week).
I tried to roughly group some (some cross into other catagories):
15 were various types of boardgames
11 fantasy (including Midguard, some of which might hae been historical, and LoTR boardgames)
7 WW2 (land)
6 Wild West
6 BBB (5 of which were 1858-9)
5 ACW (although one big game, fought over several meets, could make this higher)
5 Colonial
4 Ancients/Medievals
3 Air games
3 ECW
1 Naval
What does this tell us?
we played a fair few games with family at the beginning of the month.
Fantasy is skewed by Midguard, whether because it is flavour of the month, a certain group of frieds play it, or that covers both fantasy and ancients, but nice to see new rules making an impact.
Cowboys are the big surprise to me, did not realise they were still popular
WW2 in various forms remains on the radar
I skew Colonial...
One person can skew a result set (BBB, but it's not the author)
Thanks for collating.
No Sci Fi, and no Naps (didn't fsn finish his Naps campaign in Jan, or did he not post these to this thread?)
19th Century is the biggest with Wild West, BBB, Colonial, and ACW giving 22 combined.
For February count,
day 2 of our ACW battle started tonight, the first turn (being an hour) sees both sides advancing their right flanks into undefended woodlands, whilst an artillery duel on the Union right flank gets the upper hand, the 8 US batteries versus 4 CSA being required due to the unequal dice rolling as usual. :(
The author of BBB playing yet another non-BBB game:
Rapid Fire WWII France 1940. Victory to the defending French DLM, whose tanks sensibly didn't try to do anything complicated such as moving.
QuoteThanks for collating.
No Sci Fi, and no Naps (didn't fsn finish his Naps campaign in Jan, or did he not post these to this thread?)
19th Century is the biggest with Wild West, BBB, Colonial, and ACW giving 22 combined.
There was one Naps, forgot to add it to the list (which is the headlines). FSN did not enter his games, which would have taken Naps even higher
QuoteFSN did not enter his games, which would have taken much, much longer
FIFY
Game 1 of February
Blood Bowl Vampires 🦇 Vs Halflings
3-0 to the Vamps.
Back to the one true scale tonight at the Burnley club, 10mm WW2 in Italy late 1943, 29th Panzer Grenadier Division getting another drubbing from the British 23rd Armoured Brigade. The Company commander of A Coy 129th Panzer Bttn managed to single-handedly pot three Shermans before his StuG IIIG was knocked out. The only other impressive feat was the artillery OP shelling his own flak platoon, knocking out a Sdkfz 7/1, the rest retired off table in disgust. Out of my three blunders this evening (half the normal quota!), two were on the OP tank.....
10mm AWI Live Free or Die, Battle of Trenton. US forces scraped a win.
Another Rebels & Patriots 1848 campaign game finished this morning.
Quote from: paulr on 25 January 2025, 10:54:37 PM1. Offer to roll for them, to see if that makes any difference ~X( Point out that you are not suggesting anything but luck here :-[
2. There is a player known to many NZ gamers who could fix this by simply standing near the table when your opponent rolls ;D
The most extreme example of the Mike effect I've seen was about 8 players in a larger Modern Spearhead game all complaining their dice had turned to crap. About 10 minutes later several started commenting that their dice were finally improving. It was at this point I noticed Mike walking back into the main hall after having a smoke leaning against the building we were in, unseen by any of us until this point.
=O
QuoteMy friend has that effect at the same time!
I once did an analysis of his D10 rolls in a campaign we were doing. He rolls +0.5 per D10 higher than the average. Which doesn't sound much. Until you realise that is in effect +1 per every 2 D10 rolls, or +2 on one in four D10 rolls. As we use a Fire & Fury system, melees involve 2D10 per side in effect, defender shoots, attacker shoots with whats left, both roll melee roll.
More mysteriously the high rolls occur at critical sectors, eg when charging with line into grenadiers defending a wood. His low rolls occur where sufficient pluses make it not really a problem.
Dread the thought that there is more than one such deadly dice roller in the gaming world. Maybe we should get them to game each other, it would be bloodbath to the last stand ;D ;D
My younger daughter also has this effect!
At junior school they set a probability homework using dice: (effectively) roll 36d6, what do you expect the average of your rolls to be and why.
She put something like, "About 5 because I'm good at rolling dice". She wasn't too far out! 8-}
Battle Group - using overlord book 500pts last night. I lost :'(
Black Powder with Glory Hallelujah in 20mm
Towards the end of the evening one of the Union commanders suggested they concede the game and withdraw their forces having lost two of their five brigades. The other Union commander suggested, one more turn. In this turn they broke two Confererate brigades. This on top of the Confederate brigade that had been broken earlier gave the Union victory, a very costly one, but victory.
Live Free and Die, 10mm AWI wargame. Our first go with these rules - which we enjoyed. But the scenario felt a very hard ask for the attacking British.
Hi
QuoteLive Free and Die, 10mm AWI wargame. Our first go with these rules - which we enjoyed. But the scenario felt a very hard ask for the attacking British.
I've played most of the 'official' scenarios (some several times) and the British have yet to win one. Now remind me who wrote them..... :-\ ;)
Cheers Paul
Quote from: T13A on 08 February 2025, 01:57:57 PMHi
I've played most of the 'official' scenarios (some several times) and the British have yet to win one. Now remind me who wrote them..... :-\ ;)
Cheers Paul
We came to the same conclusion, but we still like them!
Three :D For King & Parliament games at my local Hutt Club.
We used the same terrain and 100-point forces, selected from my Cheriton troops, each time. Three enjoyable and very different games with one Parliamentarian and two Royalist victories. We played for about 5 hours including set up and pack up.
Hi
First game this year, To the Strongest! Ancient Brits v Early Imperial Romans, win for the Brits mainly down to pretty bad dice for the invading Romans!
Cheers Paul
That's an interesting coincidence, last night we made a start on a DBMM Ancient Brits v Early Imperial Romans game.
We'll finish it next weekend as it's still anyone's game, despite the Britians having lost one of their Chariot and Light horse commands. Losing their General in the first round of combat didn't help :-[
QuoteHi
I've played most of the 'official' scenarios (some several times) and the British have yet to win one. Now remind me who wrote them..... :-\ ;)
Cheers Paul
This was a fan made scenario - the only one we could find that was small enough for our currently painted troops.
It felt that the distance the British had to cover vs the time limit really made it difficult for them to just get to grips with the Americans.
Another Rebels & Patriots game as part of my mini-campaign.
Continuing our 15mm ACW battle last night. We use a control deck to see who activates next, it's a normal pack of cards. The lucky CSA player got 9 reds in a row! So used up all his activation cards, destroying most of a Union brigade in the process. Now I get to play all my activations cards in a row with what's left :)
BBB, Peninsular War - Battle of the Pyrenees
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/02/battle-of-pyrenees-1813-operational.html
2 x BBB Nachod 1866 (1 Prussian Win , 1 Draw)
1 x BKCIV 1940 German airborne assault on the Maginot Line (German Win)
1 x Bumper Boats - Ancient Naval Warfare
1 x GW Lost Patrols
Legions Imperialism,
Close loss for The Emperor's Pointy Sticks, with some typical shooting
This week:
2 x Sellswords and Spellslingers
2 x Wild West Zombies
1 x War of the Worlds post-invasion survivors game
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54324978606_02a2bcd437_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2qLvHub) (https://flic.kr/p/2qLvHub)
Only five!
You're slacking!!! =O
I must be slacking then - onlythe one Saga Age of Chivalry very bloody, the French (me) lost. Fun game.
QuoteThat's an interesting coincidence, last night we made a start on a DBMM Ancient Brits v Early Imperial Romans game.
We'll finish it next weekend as it's still anyone's game, despite the Britians having lost one of their Chariot and Light horse commands. Losing their General in the first round of combat didn't help :-[
Finished the DBMM game last night, someone lost a second Chariot General :-[ Ended up a very bloody draw
Well last night's game was more dramatic :o
20mm ACW, Black Powder with Glory Halleluiah. About two thirds of the way through the evening my Confederate partner suggested I might consider pulling back our right flank brigade as it was somewhat outnumbered. I responded, "you're assuming there will be something left to withdraw".
One regiment was hit hard by concentrated fire and rolled a double one for its break test, gone :-[ The skirmishing regiment on the extreme right was charged and hit hard. It rolled a one and a two for its break test, gone :-[ With half the brigade gone the brigade broke. With our centre about to be enveloped from the right by two Union brigades we conceded the game :-[ :-[ :-[
BBB: Shiloh. Rebs got whupped. Scenario needs some tweaks.
Warhammer Old World
My pre 1990 Melniboneans/High Elves Vs Dwarves
Tiny win for the pointy heads
Continued our 15mm ACW big game on Monday night - the CSA deployed two brigades in skirmish order to threaten my Union gunline, so drove them off with my own infantry, which then blocked the guns from firing effectively. The CSA troops closed up and counterattacked breaking one unit. Over on the extreme right flank a battle rages back and forth through the trees, where two CSA units have broken.
View from US left flank:
(https://i.postimg.cc/RJQfDH3P/200225-1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/RJQfDH3P)
view of US right flank
(https://i.postimg.cc/2VrnB2Jg/200225-2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/2VrnB2Jg)
Went away to visit family this week, but still found time for a game of Midgard, Mercians vs Welsh.
I learnt an important lesson with these rules, always play on to the end of the game. I was going to concede after King penda had been killed in turn 4, be we decided to press on and by turn 6 I had in fact squeezed a narrow victory out of the carnage!
Another really tense and enjoyable For King & Parliament game yesterday, both sides couldn't afford to lose another unit :-SS
Courtesans board game.
Lost magnificently, but loved it
Most likely the final game in my mini-campaign finished today, using Rebels & Patriots once again.
The same, but very different.
The same = BBB rules.
Different = we fought the battle of Hukou (1860), from the Taiping Rebellion (probably the third largest war ever). Full photo-AAR to follow on the BBBBlog later this week.
Got a good few games in at the weekend
Wargame - Legions Imperialis - Sci Fi - big 4 player all day game
Board games
Clank (dungeon crawl)
Architect (medieval city builder)
Rokgan River (sp) (Japanese trading)
Lord of the Rings Duel x2
Listing these out does make me feel that counting number of games isn't the most informative metric. As a 6hr multiplayer wargame counts as 1, as does a 30min 2 player board game.
Put some more description in. It does slightly annoy me that in the 'Games played' thread you don't get much - people just answer the questions. I take them as prompts and reminders, not things to be answered directly.
Quote from: Last Hussar on 25 February 2025, 04:06:25 PMPut some more description in. It does slightly annoy me that in the 'Games played' thread you don't get much - people just answer the questions. I take them as prompts and reminders, not things to be answered directly.
If I have anything more to say, I usually post a batrep elsewhere.
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 24 February 2025, 11:29:53 PMThe same, but very different.
The same = BBB rules.
Different = we fought the battle of Hukou (1860), from the Taiping Rebellion (probably the third largest war ever). Full photo-AAR to follow on the BBBBlog later this week.
Now posted:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-taiping-battle-2nd-hukou-1860.html
Couple of games of Memoir 44 at the Burnley club last night, played the Operation Typhoon scenario twice. Germans won first game sacrificing tanks to get breakthroughs. Germans lost second game trying to use infantry approach first before unleashing the panzers, giving time for Russians to dig in further and deploy their own slow tanks.
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 26 February 2025, 11:21:34 AMNow posted:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/02/a-taiping-battle-2nd-hukou-1860.html
Great report and piccies Chris
WWII: Peleliu - The Point
The scenario was the attack by K Coy, 3rd Bn, 1st Marines, to secure "The Point" and cover the western flank of the invasion force. I commanded the USMC force against Scott's Japanese. Really bloody game that came down to the last few dice, decided by a crucial objective being captured and then recaptured in the last couple of turns. Tense and difficult - just as it should be to capture the flavour of the Pacific - terrific scenario by Rob and his beautiful troops and terrain. Rules were a new set that Scott is developing. Proper HQGE ("High Quality Gaming Experience").
Back to Cowboys this Friday with Dead Man's Hand rules, we played 2 acts of a scenario, with 4 players. More good games, the special abilities on the cards add just enough chrome to make it interesting, without dominating. But 4 players does slow things down - so we will keep figure count low to allow the standard 3 acts of a scenario to be played through.
Thinking about how we quantify games (yes, I do have better things to do with my time!) would number of player hours be a useful metric (i.e. the number of players x number of hours played), so for these games it was 2 games, the first with 4 player hours, and the second with 8.
Whereas last week the LoTR dual games were just 1 player hour each, and the big epic game was 24 player hours.
That might be a fun way of doing it.
Will do the Feb count after work tonight.
Got a hard beating by some nasty necron with my eldar army, WH40k 5th edition.
:(
20250114_183913.jpg
Cool model.
Channelling Cylon raiders!
February games count (of those games admitted to)
Total games played 42 (down from 88, but it's a short month, it's the second month so the novely wears off, and less people added in their scores, plus less boardgames as it's not the Xmas break/family time)
Scores Jan/Feb
Boardgames 15/5 Wild West 6/4 WW2 7/7 ACW 5/6 Colonial 5/0 Ancients 4/3 Fantasy 11/4 Air 3/0 Naval 1/0 ECW 3/4 Naps 1/1 Med 2/2 Chinese 0/1 C19thEuro 3/3
*Between now and next month, I will practise inserting tables*
Continued our 15mm ACW game tonight, the Union right flank just got demolished, 1 battery and 3 regiments completely destroyed by 18th and 19th Virginians of Garnett's Brigade. Will the Union get chance to deploy sufficient reserves to that flank in time next week?
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 03 March 2025, 08:16:42 PMCool model.
Channelling Cylon raiders!
Yes definitely a reference for the design of the necron "croissant"
American Revolutionary War: Freeman's Farm.
Lovely 28mm figures. Revisited a scenario we played a couple of years ago, but this time we used a variant of BBB that Scott has developed. Great punch-up, victory swayed from the Brits to the US and finally back to the Brits again - but only because the variable turn limit gave them one extra turn to salvage it.
3 games of Zombie Stagecoach (Wild West zombies).
American Revolutionary War: Lexington & Concord.
This game was adapted from the scenario in the Canadian Wargames Group's "Whites of their eyes" campaign book. We played this back in 2016 using Muskets & Tomahawks rules, as reported here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2016/01/back-with-bang-waterloo-winter-war-awi.html
This time it was with Scott's BBB AWI variant. Ended up 10 VP each - a tie! Super fun scenario.
American Revolutionary War: Bunker Hill.
This is one of those battles that has to be gamed but isn't necessarily much fun: a frontal assault with very limited options for the attacker and little for the defender to do other than shoot. As one of the British players, I enjoyed it in a masochistic way. Scenario needs some adjustment so we will tweak and replay.
Mortal Gods
The gods were on my side last night, massive win.
American Revolutionary War: Bunker Hill.
Replayed adjusted scenario. Adjustments worked - better game, ended in a draw (in game terms).
Three games yesterday:
American Revolutionary War: Lexington & Concord.
A draw yet again! 5 VP each. A classic scenario.
American Revolutionary War: Bunker Hill.
Third time lucky! Plans A & B had failed; Plan C finally produced a British victory, but could easily have gone the other way. Calling this one done.
WWII air battle: "When Pigs Fly".
Brits vs Italians over Egypt in 1940. This was a scenario from CB Stevens's "Falcon of the Duce" scenario book for the "Check Your Six!" rules. It features six Ba-65s bombing British armour, while their fighter escort of Cr-32s and Cr-42s - including Italy's top fighter ace, Franco Lucchini - took on British Gladiators escorting a recce Lysander. Swirling furball ensued in which we Brits shot down all the Italian biplanes except Lucchini, without taking a scratch. Years since I last played CY6 and it was great to be dogfighting again.
Bussaco in 6mm using Black Powder
Legions Imperialis - Sci Fi wargame - marine vs marine action - 3 of us played, with one side split between two. When I left we were winning! 11 player hours.
WWII: Peleliu
Replayed with different players and plans. Crushing US victory: they ground forward keeping concentrated, none of the Japanese ambushes caused significant casualties, so the Japs were defeated piecemeal.
WWII: Death of Wittmann.
(Is this 2 1/4 games? We played it two and a bit times.)
This was a scenario of the action during Operation Totalise, near Caen in August 1944, in which German panzer ace Michael Wittmann was killed. It's one in which the German player has to grit his teeth because he knows he has to advance and be ambushed by Sherman Fireflies. First go was abortive - the Brits and Canadians sprang their ambush too early so the Tigers sat on their haunches and won the firefight from a distance on Turn 2, game over. Second go similarly one-sided in the other direction: having swapped sides, the new German players squandered light armour on their flank, then the Tigers wandered past half of our ambush to present their flanks at close range and were duly wiped out. Third game much tighter and the most fun: sensible use of reconnaissance by the Germans, a more even firefight, but the Germans just managed to get a Panzerkeil off the north edge for a clear win.
Two evenings into a 20mm Napoleonic game using our regular hosts home brew rule set
Reinforcements still arriving so at least another couple of evenings to go
One village has changed hands twice and much of the heavy cavalry of both sides has been roughly handled, including one unit of Cuirassiers losing its eagle to the Scots Greys
ACW: The Seven Days.
Playtesting a modified version of the BBB scenario reported on here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-seven-days-battles-acw-all-in-one.html
Players loved the challenge of the decisions they had to make. US suffered a devastating Confederate onslaught around Gaines Mill early on, but Jackson's men were too laggard to take advantage. McClellan responded by an uncharacteristically aggressive push towards Richmond but was kept at bay. US still had to fall back towards the James River eventually, but managed to hold up the Rebs' advance north of White Oak Creek and retain Glendale. US victory; useful playtest; successful game, much post-battle discussion of alternative plans for both sides, full of replay value.
Busy table ..
Surprised Linda didn't knit extra terrain.
Great report
North Africa campaign - WW2
Commonwealth forces conquer the heavily fortified city of Tobruk, with the 7th armored division and the 4th Indian infantry division leading the assault.
A 4 hrs friction with Alto Comando rules.
20250310_173326.jpg
That looks Awesome
QuoteNorth Africa campaign - WW2
Commonwealth forces conquer the heavily fortified city of Tobruk, with the 7th armored division and the 4th Indian infantry division leading the assault.
A 4 hrs friction with Alto Comando rules.
Looks cool - I'm interested to know what scale the game is, i.e. what does 1 stand represent, because there are a lot of lorries on that table!
Quote from: fred. on 11 March 2025, 06:29:56 PMLooks cool - I'm interested to know what scale the game is, i.e. what does 1 stand represent, because there are a lot of lorries on that table!
We're using Alto Comando rules (High Command) by Riccardo Affinati, there's the english version somewhere on the web. It's an fast and easy set of rules for WWII divided in 6 principal scenarios (North Africa, Greece, Italy, Russia, Normandy and Pacific) using divisional perspective (a single base being a battalion 500/1000 men strong). So a single truck would be a motorized infantry battalion. In this rules set a British infantry division is made of 13 bases, 1 hq, 1 recon, 9 motorized infantries and 2 artillery. I have to admit that even in the desert I managed to clog the roads with some traffic jams...
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 11 March 2025, 02:32:59 PMThat looks Awesome
Thanks! We started painting 3 years ago everything from scratch - table, items and the two armies. It's satisfying to use the same painting process for every base, table and items.
It's all Leon fault.
An absolutely beautiful game there Frederico 8) !
Honours of War, nominally Europeans vs Ottomans, 18thC.
QuoteWe're using Alto Comando rules (High Command) by Riccardo Affinati, there's the english version somewhere on the web. It's an fast and easy set of rules for WWII divided in 6 principal scenarios (North Africa, Greece, Italy, Russia, Normandy and Pacific) using divisional perspective (a single base being a battalion 500/1000 men strong). So a single truck would be a motorized infantry battalion. In this rules set a British infantry division is made of 13 bases, 1 hq, 1 recon, 9 motorized infantries and 2 artillery. I have to admit that even in the desert I managed to clog the roads with some traffic jams...
Thanks - I wondered if they were that kind of level - we have enjoyed Eisenhower games that are also 1 base = 1 battalion. I've found a page on free wargames rules for High Command, but unfortunately the links are broken.
Quote from: fred. on 11 March 2025, 08:03:27 PMThanks - I wondered if they were that kind of level - we have enjoyed Eisenhower games that are also 1 base = 1 battalion. I've found a page on free wargames rules for High Command, but unfortunately the links are broken.
Interesting, I'll give a look into Eisenhower.
The only English scenario I've got is the Eastern front, so here it is
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UlnFBnCGpahdf9mrJzwAgfZms9c4D9ho/view?usp=sharing
Hope that helps
1864 Schleswig Holstein Danes Vs Prussians. Black Powder II at brigade level.
Would describe that as a Danish defeat rather than a Prussian win!
Full report soon. 8)
Another HoW game on a 2' x 2' table, with the AAR here:
https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/03/wargaming-4play-part-ii.html (https://wargameswithtoysoldier1685-1985.blogspot.com/2025/03/wargaming-4play-part-ii.html)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA6VUYG9e8ku-CSHPapCYrTLxehwHpshVgX_z-UEoSA_FbxnsjqpJi4wdS6kIFUr8b1k8E6t7VU9sbiw_vjyWhGnMIAZ8P_zT-aQDIQ-umF1JhXc9DhMu8KwQmzpEtH7h876SETq0zrkaptHbvzw9BAmxqoxQfO4rM81jC9VPp90CqbmB11FNapxadBAw/w640-h480/P1160971.JPG)
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(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2tiHNqpKhyphenhyphen2G9P4A2SNXv3hp3GENZEIVvD4SowkB1-EzW8r-FBtVlcQWPRCTaMRP8AJjyqCT_nIa3Z-u_hxCgwqOYrRKXoppNp2QnJGIFYEnFsw-XsD7y31SdAMFB5kM9vkH3LVSUohuxpwYdocLhpUMoW4iI66SzTYdXW47IWBHas6Wup0QcjXwDDA/w640-h480/P1160983.JPG)
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What a great looking game Steve.
Thanks Will :) !
QuoteWhat a great looking game Steve.
It is! I do like the mix of figures used in these games. Has that old school imagination feel - but done in lovely 10mm!
Thanks Fred :). Having gone down the ImagiNations route some years ago, it is great to be able to use any toys you like in your games, within reason of course!
QuoteThanks Fred :). Having gone down the ImagiNations route some years ago, it is great to be able to use any toys you like in your games, within reason of course!
Really it's within whatever justification you can come up with!
Dead Man's Hand again on Friday - table top Wild West game - 2 players - 6 player hours. We played 3 acts to make a single scene - not sure if that is 1 game or 3!!! The first act was 1 figure vs 1 figure, concluding with both full gangs on the table in the 3rd act
(https://i.imgur.com/12C1zgI.jpeg)
Two fantastic games of Midgard at Herts of Lard 2025. One Middle Earth game and one Romans vs Ancient Britons.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVZ6pu-JWyMpNnBELE81LNrdEHhcsrXYlkIqF6BsTgdRLSe5eyy61NP4_zpGsLPgimxkbroHqIHeFpE4s9JvHv7vcppldOvD2t08W0SCpjGMwNPOA4yLheTcwU3zud8SqCqXX8xi5Ts3VzPlITu3hKXUeDSucqkgnKNZf3WKq6C66uzLk2P3Q5Lb3gaC0/s4624/Entwash%20(10).jpg)
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QuoteTwo evenings into a 20mm Napoleonic game using our regular hosts home brew rule set
Reinforcements still arriving so at least another couple of evenings to go
One village has changed hands twice and much of the heavy cavalry of both sides has been roughly handled, including one unit of Cuirassiers losing its eagle to the Scots Greys
A couple more evenings of the 20mm Napoleonic game using our regular hosts home brew rule set
I think we've got all the troops on the table now...
The heavy cavalry of both sides has suffered further rough handling
Both sides artillery is playing merry hell with the opposing infantry
Should reach a resolution this weekend
10mm WW1 Mesopotamia using If the Lord Spares Us.
As Sunjester said two fantastic games of Midgard at Herts of Lard 2025 on Saturday. My first game was a Middle Earth game (Crossing of the Eyewash) and the second one Romans vs Ancient Germans (Teutoberger Wald).
Edward
On Sunday I played four games of Wings of Glory at Entoyment in Poole. There were 13 of us playing:
- a 1917 dogfight Albatros D.III vs SPADs
- a three aircraft Gotha bombing raid on Paris escorted by three Albatros D.V against 5 French SPAD XIIIs (the Gothas barely needed their escorts)
- air superiority over Verdun 1916 - Fokker E.III vs French N.11 and N.16
- 1918 dogfight Fokker D.VII vs. SE-5a/Snipes
Edward
Sounds like a fun day
I own a Snoopy/Sopworth ready for the Red Baron!
To The Strongest refight of The Battle of Metaurus using 25mm figs from the 1970s
QuoteTo The Strongest refight of The Battle of Metaurus using 25mm figs from the 1970s
A nice mix of old and new!
ACW: 2nd Bull Run (aka 2nd Manassas) with BBB.
A good Union plan changed history. Full photo-AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/03/changing-history-at-2nd-bull-run-1862.html
Great report.
Nick has been busy, he was playing 1864 with us last week! 8)
Cheers, Will. Yes, good that Nick been getting a few games in lately.
Now, if only LBZ was a bit closer to Oxford ...
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 19 March 2025, 12:19:09 PMCheers, Will. Yes, good that Nick been getting a few games in lately.
Now, if only LBZ was a bit closer to Oxford ...
He's conveniently mid-way between us!
Maybe an Aylesbury Friday?
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 19 March 2025, 02:12:45 PMMaybe an Aylesbury Friday?
Now that could happen some time. I'll get in touch if it looks like I have a Friday free.
They meet from 7:30 onwards, but I usually work til 8, so would need to plan ahead.
And we could get Nick in.
MEG warm up for the weekend
Middle Post Romano British (think King Arthur) squeaked a win over Mark's vikings.
QuoteA couple more evenings of the 20mm Napoleonic game using our regular hosts home brew rule set
I think we've got all the troops on the table now...
The heavy cavalry of both sides has suffered further rough handling
Both sides artillery is playing merry hell with the opposing infantry
Should reach a resolution this weekend
Final evening of this large game last night. After 5 evenings, 13.5 hours and 28 turns it end up a strategic draw as nightfall brought the game to its end. The French had some grounds to claim a tactical winning draw.
Rapid Fire reloaded onThursday, and GenDArmee today.
Blood Red Skies Battle of Britain
Two games of MeG
Arthurian British Vs Alamorvid, close win.
Arthurian Vs Arab Conquest, bigger win!
Four player game of Dux Brittaniarum (cattle raid) on Thursday.
Edward
Two For King & Parliament games at the Hutt Club yesterday, played the Stow on the Wold scenario using the cards produced by Simon Miller and Andrew Brentnal et al.
The cards look pretty good but they did generate a few gentle comments about not using figures. The 'best' was "the sergeant major has sent me to ask if you realise you are playing cards in church."
The scenario is interesting as the Royalist will almost always lose. The suggested solution is to play the game twice and note how many victory medals the Parliamentarians surrendered. As Royalist I managed to force the surrender of 6 victory medals before being defeated. When I commanded the Parliamentarians they surrendered 8 before defeating the Royalists :( Two very enjoyable games, that played quite differently, each a little over 2 hours :) :)
A quick Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah ACW game yesterday evening. The Confederate dice were either exceedingly good :o or exceedingly bad :o
Unfortunately, exceedingly bad where it really mattered ~X(
The Confederates conceded about the time we normally break for coffee/tea. One brigade broken, one driven out of wood and a third with all but one regiment shaken :(
Can't complain about four games in a weekend :) :) :) :)
A busy week for gaming!
1 game of War of the Worlds survivors
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3 games of Frostgrave and
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1 game of Zombie Stagecoach
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The zombie western turned into a tense game of misdirection!
ACW: Gettysburg. This was our BBB demo/participation game at the Overlord show in Abingdon UK.
We used Matt's custom terrain boards and armies, as reported on his blog in 2023:
https://pushingtinwargames.blogspot.com/2023/02/gettysburg-1863.html?q=gettysburg
This beautiful layout for such a famous battle attracted lots of interest and attention and we were able to involve some participants for most of the day. Despite spending so much time talking to people, we got through most of the game. The Confederate plan of concentrating all their efforts on the angle of the fishhook didn't go well. They did burst through Gettysburg and charge up the slopes of Cemetery Hill, but had to fall back again at dusk on Day 2. Meanwhile, both their flanks were under pressure and at risk of being rolled up.
On the plus side, as Buford got wiped out on Day 1, the cavalry action at East Field was inconclusive, so no US cavalry arrived on Day 3. Pickett did, though. We didn't quite have time to play it out, but we reckoned he would have been able to get behind the US left flank into a vacated Peach Orchard, and that the resulting alarm in the Union camp would have turned a likely Confederate defeat into a draw. (Translation: the Confederates would have ended up with enough objectives to avoid defeat but not enough to win.)
:-bd =D> :-bd =D>
A very impressive looking table
After Sunday's Gettysburg epic at the Overlord show, something more modest for the club Monday night:
Coulmiers (Franco-Prussian War).
This is one of the smaller bite-sized BBB scenarios. Always felt it was a bit skewed against the French and tonight we confirmed it. Not that we French didn't dish out a fair bit of damage to the Bavarians, but it needs some tweaks to help the French reach the victory locations sooner and to adjust their victory target. Good fun regardless.
Q1: Nineteen
Ancients 1
FWR 1
Napoleonic 1
ACW 1
Boer War 3
RJW 1
WWI(Air) 1
WWII 8
WWII(Air) 2
WWII(Air) is a bit unusual as we are doing the Big Week campaign with Fire in the Sky. WWII land comprise two new rules under development: Monty / Eisenhower Unchained (E rewritten without the grid), and a card based system without dice. Our Boer War refight has moved from Principles of War to BBB! ACW is Altered of Freedom, a club rewrite of the original AoF rules.
Franco-Prussian War: Beaune-la-Rolande. (BBB rules.)
Great little battle. We swapped sides and played it twice in 3 hours.
French double envelopment came within an ace of victory but had to settle for a draw.
Different plans on both sides in the second game: Germans weighted their gun line on their left, so the French mostly shifted away from there and concentrated on the well fortified town of Beaune-la-Rolande itself in the centre. German reinforcements saved the day; German win.
Last week a game of Zombie Stagecoach, one of Fantasy Midgard and an evening of boardgames!
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd8zJVOI8b1PabIG_t3KVpTDHrqW_hZCoplW8thYf5XrGtt_I8cNTIrvnnobRVtMaw7wf_N8hZhm894NNEl0C9ZDZkjlJ31oswLdmNPwkxOu5r1jmNeLi2okGqCkp09v17dWhgKOKdUT669DDkNgJTrrzA8Wt4wB52bm-RmL5racSCNDGYz1NnvVIOs4g/s4624/20250326_063323.jpg)
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Any more March games before I begin the count?
What a Cowboy
I managed to steal a horse
Hi
Altar of Freedom (ACW)
Chaberlain (ACW version of Blucher)
Fighting Sail x 2 (Napoleonic Naval)
Live Free or Die (AWI).
Cheers Paul
Quote from: flamingpig0 on 02 April 2025, 08:35:55 AMWhat a Cowboy
I managed to steal a horse
For this forum, I'd call that a win! ;D
Quote from: sunjester on 02 April 2025, 02:29:55 PMFor this forum, I'd call that a win! ;D
I am certainly counting it as a victory.
Sergio Chinchilla the leader of my Italian rodent themed gang was most pleased
First April game, Soldiers of Napoleon.
My 10mm Imperial Guard Vs My 10mm Austrians.
Massive win for the French.
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 01 April 2025, 12:36:03 AMFranco-Prussian War: Beaune-la-Rolande. (BBB rules.)
Great little battle. We swapped sides and played it twice in 3 hours.
French double envelopment came within an ace of victory but had to settle for a draw.
Different plans on both sides in the second game: Germans weighted their gun line on their left, so the French mostly shifted away from there and concentrated on the well fortified town of Beaune-la-Rolande itself in the centre. German reinforcements saved the day; German win.
Photo-AAR now added here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/04/both-sides-of-hill-beaune-la-rolande.html
Nice report
Anything FPW gets my vote
Tested the Perry Valour and Fortitude last night. French(Italian) vs Spanish. Enjoyable game but rules could be a bit hazy. We had a French winning draw - French cavalry effectivly destroyed buth the Spanish infantry Brigades chewd up. REcomended as free set.
Over the last two weekends, two Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah ACW games interspersed with a two evening If The Lord Spares Us WWI 1914 Western Front game
Two more Dead Man's Hand cowboy games on Friday. As always these are much fun, with the straight forward core rules, but then the cards allowing for some fun special rules.
This week 2 games, a War of the Worlds Survivors Game and Sellswords and Spellslingers.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hOWcvvZo7q1bQKWA3HpVzF7sgtAELKyMwP5j-DodTD6eoavfWKkK8ztOriTEoPth4dbwD5CGWZLhW5sbM4WuPDYD5ZJGq8JSppwzD06ePQuavVswm2HR73gVpwOcS6CjNcRTSGsJoo_XhqufqzbG4U_5frp54bRtUWGUtREZdjJBpVbc1T4hDUq9p7c/s4624/20250403_111115.jpg)
Four games of the yet unreleased Peter Pig Sci-Fi rules- "The Company Rules"
Napoleonic Peninsular War battle: Braga (1809).
(For the history see here:)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Braga_(1809)
This will be one of the scenarios in Dr Mark Smith's book of Peninsular War battles for BBB. It's a really interesting match-up: French vs Portuguese, not a Brit or Spaniard in sight. The French have a high-quality force and the mission of driving twice as many Portuguese off a couple of steep ridges. The Portuguese are numerous but really poor, half-armed and quarter-trained levies for the most part. Their only decent unit is the 2,000 men of the Loyal Lusitanian Legion.
This asymmetry made for a great tabletop teaser, a tactical challenge with a very different flavour. As it turned out, our Portuguese 'speed bumps' did manage to disrupt and delay the French assault enough to claim victory, but it was nip and tuck to the last turn. Great fun. Proper report to follow.
AAR of the Braga game is up now:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/04/beware-grape-scissors-portuguese.html
2 games of XenosRamapant last night...both fun, lost 1 won 1....
Wednesday was Mortal Gods, my Thespians did a number on an encroaching Spartan warband.
WWI table top wargame - using If the Lord Spares Us rules - historically plausible scenario in 1916 French vs Germans. 2 players, 9 player hours.
Two
Big Battle DBA games - Hundred Years War
- Two French & Scots v Two English & Low Countries - 4 players, 2.75 hours - English win
- Two French & Burgundians v Two English & Free Companies - 4 players, 1.5 hours - French win
For King & Parliament Battle of Roundway Down - 2 players, 3.5 hours - Royalist win
Used the cards produced by TtS! rather than figures
7TV Planet of the Fungoids
A General d Armee game yesterday - Telavera scenario. Was about honours even, as the British C0mmander it was nice to equal froggy skimishers for a change.
This week 2 games of Zombie Stagecoach and one of Midgard (Dwarves vs Elves).
4 games of MeG this weekend, came 5 out of 6 with a big win, an absolute loss, a draw and a fair sized loss.
But I did use 10mm cavalry and sheep.
Love playing BBDBA...fast and furious games. We went for all infantry forces in the first game and the Scots Pk didn't have much fun against the Low Countries Pk and English missile troops.
We changed the French ally to Burgundians for the return match. They had 3 units shot away in the first exchange (don't roll 1's Peter 🙂) but hung on as the French right wing unexpectedly rolled up their opposite numbers in two turns. A good couple of evenings 👍
March count finally done!
71 games.
Will add full results to the spreadsheet, but...
C19th Europe 3
WWII 6
WWI 1
WWII air 2
WWI air 3
Cowboys 10
Sci-Fi 3
ACW 7
ECW 2
Nap Naval 2
Nap 6
AWI 7
C18th Europe 2
Fantasy 6
Boardgames 1
Classical/Dark Ages 8
I'll add the Q1 list from hammurabi70 to the running total too.
Well we are a varied bunch aren't we :o ;D
I've no idea what these numbers mean - other than bad news for Leon in that he has to keep producing more and more ranges of figures!
Burrows & Badgers
Mort's warband failed to rescue their Mole Friar before I handed him over to the witch hunters.
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 14 April 2025, 04:12:26 PMMarch count finally done!
71 games.
Will add full results to the spreadsheet, but...
C19th Europe 3
WWII 6
WWI 1
WWII air 2
WWI air 3
Cowboys 10
Sci-Fi 3
ACW 7
ECW 2
Nap Naval 2
Nap 6
AWI 7
C18th Europe 2
Fantasy 6
Boardgames 1
Classical/Dark Ages 8
I'll add the Q1 list from hammurabi70 to the running total too.
I am not sure how much it matters but I played 4 Sci-Fi games on the 5th April
Quite a lot, as that was March's count, and didn't have much Sci-fi. , and now you've given April a boost. Thank you.
Ran a GdA game last night....
WWI naval using GQ I/II, 4 players, 3 hours
An intriguing scenario by Pierre the Shy
Our series of games to get troops who haven't been played with for a while back on the table has definitely produced some fun games. It has also reminded us how much you can forget about a ruleset :-/
Couple of games to add
WWI wargame - French vs Germans (again!) If the Lord Spares Us. 2 players 6 player hours. This time a German attack, which initially was succesful due to concentration of force, but rapidly ran out of steam
Fantasy wargame - goblins vs dwarves, using Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game / War of the Ring. First game using these rules for many months. Gave a good game, we got through 6 turns of so. Dwarves are very though in combat! 2 players 7 player hours.
I like "player-hours" as a measure.
Maybe a measure for 2026! ;D
QuoteI like "player-hours" as a measure.
Ta, I thought it was useful as recently we've played a lot of Dead Man's Hand, which is often 3 short scenarios in an evening which scores 3 on the game count, for perhaps 6 player hours. But I've also played all day multiplayer games which just get 1 on the game count, but are perhaps 30 player hours.
My numbers are very much rough calculations, I'm not running a stop watch on my games (although when I played timed games of KoW they were fun)
Of course, the value of a player-hour depends on the game. I am not a fan of multi-player games with single-activation rules, i.e. where only one player at a time activates one unit at a time (be it by card draw or dice from a bag or initiative sequence or whatever). I was once involved in a six-player game of Saga - terrible idea, devaluing my player-hours by a factor of three compared to a simple IGO-UGO game where all the players on one side can do their thing in parallel.
I very much agree
One of my worst multi-player experiences was also 6 player Saga, where we rolled for initiative but then went clockwise round the table so I nearly always went after and before the same two players. As well as having to wait for 5 other players to complete their turns before I got another go
We do tend to play with sides in most multiplayer games were each side undertakes a simultaneous move with all players on that side. Often these end up as informal paired-off mini games within a bigger game.
QuoteOf course, the value of a player-hour depends on the game. I am not a fan of multi-player games with single-activation rules, i.e. where only one player at a time activates one unit at a time (be it by card draw or dice from a bag or initiative sequence or whatever). I was once involved in a six-player game of Saga - terrible idea, devaluing my player-hours by a factor of three compared to a simple IGO-UGO game where all the players on one side can do their thing in parallel.
Fully agree waiting for everyone else to have there go would seriously devalue your player-hours.
Over Easter 2019 I ran three multi-player
For King & Parliament refights of the Battle of Cheriton with 7-8 players per game.
FK&P is a card/chit draw game but the approach we took was that each player had their own bag of chits. So, all the players on the active side were busy activating units and their opponents were busy fighting back. We did end up with a few situations where a couple of Parliamentarian players were attacking units commanded by a single Royalist player (or vice versa). The three players fairly quickly sorted out the order they wanted to activate the various units.
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 20 April 2025, 08:20:47 PMOf course, the value of a player-hour depends on the game. I am not a fan of multi-player games with single-activation rules, i.e. where only one player at a time activates one unit at a time (be it by card draw or dice from a bag or initiative sequence or whatever). I was once involved in a six-player game of Saga - terrible idea, devaluing my player-hours by a factor of three compared to a simple IGO-UGO game where all the players on one side can do their thing in parallel.
I think that depends on your rules and who you are playing with. For example, in the Martian Invasion campaign I am currently running, if all the players and the Martians moved simultaneously...utter chaos.
Quote from: paulr on 20 April 2025, 09:05:00 PMFully agree waiting for everyone else to have there go would seriously devalue your player-hours.
Over Easter 2019 I ran three multi-player For King & Parliament refights of the Battle of Cheriton with 7-8 players per game. FK&P is a card/chit draw game but the approach we took was that each player had their own bag of chits. So, all the players on the active side were busy activating units and their opponents were busy fighting back. We did end up with a few situations where a couple of Parliamentarian players were attacking units commanded by a single Royalist player (or vice versa). The three players fairly quickly sorted out the order they wanted to activate the various units.
When I played in Simon Millar's Marlburian 5-6 person play test game of Lust for Glory at Salute we all had our own bag of chits and broadly played the player opposite which seemed to work pretty well.
I can't imagine doing a 6 person round robin without shuddering.
Edward
QuoteI think that depends on your rules and who you are playing with. For example, in the Martian Invasion campaign I am currently running, if all the players and the Martians moved simultaneously...utter chaos.
I was meaning that all the players on a side take their turns at the same time. Whether the game is IGOUGO, random activation, unit at a time etc. Basically you are choosing which side activates at a time.
My April games so far:
- 2 x Wings of Glory WWI
- 1 x 18th century (the aforementioned Lust for Glory at Salute)
- 1 x WW2 IABSM game (Eastern Front 1941)
- 1 x Frostgrave [likely to be another on the 28th]
Player hours is interesting. The two Wings of Glory (2 of us playing) were probably 3 hours in total, the 18th century (5 playing) about 3 hours actual play, the Frostgrave (4 players) about 3.5 hours, the WW2 IABSM game (3 players plus me refereeing) about 4 hours.
Edward
Mortal Gods, two hours
Anton ran a game of the Battle of Mahiwa for us. (BBB rules.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mahiwa
I believe this was the largest engagement in the whole African campaign in WWI.
Very different and entertaining game. Full photo-AAR to follow.
Live Free or Die: 1st Saratoga, this time as British.
11 turn game, almost won it, but on turn ten a unit failed a morale and fell back away from the open winning objective!
Drat!
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 23 April 2025, 09:30:50 PMLive Free or Die: 1st Saratoga, this time as British.
11 turn game, almost won it, but on turn ten a unit failed a morale and fell back away from the open winning objective!
Drat!
Commiserations! But at least you got some last turn drama.
My Mahiwa AAR is up now:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-biggest-wwi-battle-in-africa-mahiwa.html
Another bit of the Telavera scenario last night, the Spanish were well beaten, but did better than the historial result.
Two games this week, a Middle Earth game with Midgard and a Sellswords and Spellslingers bash.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytngwwNG4F8EDPwGbjRMjZqctmqTocXleCgI16OnJPGSmivJa-7HWb_4SA_wcvvc2Ipuq1TzHeXdhVjja0is8SBwPgIcf76xm98cQkM5YmgZ8Z_-qmJRX7_Si8a3UtzUuZTTeDGKYh3UBxA5oP23W59adRcWN7wzSOzyEYq9Kxsr3z0Omg6hKYTV3ZOA/s9248/20250422_110924.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54475315360_5c90ae1c9b_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2qZNenb)
Hard fought game of Soldiers Of Napoleon tonight
Both sides broke simultaneously. Real hard thinker of a game.
2&1/2 hours
Weirdest game in a long time (but not in a bad way):
Clash of Rhyfles.
28mm skirmish, vaguely WWI-style, between warring tribes of anteater people in the world of the Quar.
https://rhyfler.com/rulebooks/
A frostgrave game last night, much fun...
Three hours 🕒 of Burrows and Badgers, took a beating but it was a great game
I played (most of) a solo game of Stargrave on Sunday (4th May) using some of my son's old WotC Star Wars figures with a Republic team attempting to extract data from a separatist base and flee from it.
Worked pretty well but I couldn't finish it on Sunday because one of the cats objected to the board's presence in an upright and figure covered position ...
Edward
Cats always win
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 3.75 hours
Fighting over the Corn Field at Antietam, this is the third time we've played the scenario (or is it the fourth), the Union Commander is still adjusting his forces to try and get a win.
We started this game last weekend finished off the Union game in about 15 minutes. We then reset with the Union commanding selecting an all infantry force, up to his points limit, this time. Each of the four (or is it five) games have played quite differently and all so far have been Confederate victories but not overwhelmingly so.
Lasalle 2 1813- part of Leipzig
Back to fantasy gaming - War of the Ring Battle Game - Dwarves vs 'Goblins' lots of 10mm figures, about 8 player hours
(https://i.imgur.com/wNu0GOD.jpeg)
Five games of MeG using my Samurai.
A win, two draws, two losses.
About 15 hours playing time.
Sabresquadron in 10mm
Russian T-64s beat up Black Horse cavalry.
Full report soon, but I got extremely lucky
The Old West tonight What a Cowboy...
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 3.25 hours
Fighting over the Corn Field at Antietam again, this is the third fourth time we've played the scenario (or is it the fourth fifth), the Union Commander is still adjusting his forces to try and get a win.
We started this game last weekend finished off the Union game in about 30 minutes. We then reset with the Union commander using the same forces, using different deployment and tactics, this time. Each of the five (or is it six) games have played quite differently and all so far have been Confederate victories but not overwhelmingly so.
In this one the Confederate right most and center brigades broke but we just managed to break enough Union brigades before he could take advantage of the gaps. We definitely snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
Three board games yesterday main was Terraforming Mars. All much fun
ACW - Chattanooga (one scenario covering two days and combining the battles at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge). Doubly interesting as I visited the battlefield last year. BBB rules.
Full photo-AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/05/chattanooga-lookout-mountain-missionary.html
Not much time for gaming at the start of the month :( so I tried to make up for it this week. Two games, a post-Martian Invasion skirmish game and a Midgard fantasy game.
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbMS_Hs57SwX_2rIY5evQRPXKgn66k1k0n0UNZh6xqPEmfTEfYmf6cy8QnX0Qlaob57NTH3xftz29dGfXe9bdEZ-T1y9m4RtfEECVv7Xt9v3L5ERZhLUnFgg_f-DJ_ZUs25dkMq9XhDtfCHLQkMotrONoivrrDPYM7oqNy7AEKHPKiCympLovN5nrs8c/s4624/20250520_112009.jpg)
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Qzcu4qaX7gLdxIFSlsu3RR9KloCOy2RRcCjsh-KJfhrH5PYmFSu4x22KlMCfGAoXnTsugLZJ-O00gMyQ52ACzNiF_QlP088_gcZFJH9yqCGwPQLTN_CoU1B_tFoCWavXI1JZOngdulVpOcX1PzSVLJ641-vtABiEWDiwZGbrpR2hqC38m9OQ_hyphenhyphenGdhM/s2527/20250523_104542a.jpg)
On Thursday had a three player 15mm 1941 Ostfront game using IABSM which went for a bit under 5 hours.
Yesterday played 3 WWI dogfights and a WW2 bomber stream game at Army Museum of Flying.
Edward
For King & Parliament Battle of Montgomery scenario from the rule book using the unit cards available from Simon Miller's BigRedBat Shop. The unit cards were provided by my opponent and again generated comments about 'playing cards in church'.
An interesting game with both sides managing to rally some Horse from pursuit and one unit of Royalist of Horse managing to get back on table after pursuing off.
A leisurely 5 hours (interrupted by the club AGM and an interesting chat about the founding of the RNZAF) by 2 players
I couldn't find this thread earlier, so the MSH is here
https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,23708.0.html
Three and a half hours of Soldiers of Napoleon, close game, but my Prussians lost.
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 3 hours
Fighting over the Corn Field at Antietam for what turned out to be the final time. The Union player finally got a win :)
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 2.5 hours
Moved onto bloody lane at Antietam, a clear Union victory (with a different player commanding the Union this time)
A couple of additions from the last couple of weeks
LoTR Fantasy Battle Game - Dwarves vs Goblins - Fords of Isen style scenario - started well for the Goblins, but the durability of the Dwarves told. 2 players, about 8 player hours.
Heiho Sengoku period mass battle rules - two scratch sides to match the basing and play test the rules - ultimately a rather disappointing game, we were hopeful the rules would have good period feel, but the rules are hard work, and units were brittle and there was little attrition - both of which feel wrong in a mass battle game. 2 players 4 player hours.
Napoleonics (Peninsular War): the battle of Ocaña (1809), using 6mm figures and BBB rules.
Apparently, the biggest army Spain fielded during the Peninsular War was that commanded by Areizaga at Ocaña. This produced a very enjoyable game for us. It's a nice asymmetric match-up of French quality against Spanish quantity: a French army is outnumbered 3:2 but has to attack, which makes for interesting tactical challenges for both sides. Photo-AAR on the BBBBlog here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/06/spains-biggest-peninsular-war-battle.html
Fab report. Thank you.
Looks superb.
Sharp Practice 3 hours
French Vs British
Cuirassier unit and engineer wagon that I finished last both had interesting games.. Cuirassier deployed, got shot a lot by two British units, forced to withdraw four times, lost me three victory points, eventually rallies, and charged.
Cut one of the units to pieces.
Engineering wagon moved all of 4" all night. But it looked good.
Final score French 7, British 10. Losing draw
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players two games 2.5 hours and 3 hours
Fighting over bloody lane at Antietam, two pretty close games. The second one in particular had several wild swings and both sides just managed to claw their way back into the game a couple of times before the Confederate center finally broke
WWII Homebrew rules - 4 players 9.5 hours over 4 nights
The Germans managed to block one bridge and knocked out several British tanks but at too high a cost to their own armour. The British reserves were going to be strong enough to push through...
GdA Napoloionic - Rolica - which as written cant be won by the British - still a fun game.
Napoleonics: Peninsular War, battle of Valls (1809).
BBB rules, 6mm figures.
No Brits, but it does feature a wagon train!
Full photo-AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/06/baggage-to-catalonia-battle-of-valls.html
Nick Overland ran BBB Coulmiers 1870 in 10mm.
Close run win for the French. 🥖
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 11 June 2025, 09:21:07 PMNick Overland ran BBB Coulmiers 1870 in 10mm.
Close run win for the French. 🥖
Ooh, well done - I think that scenario's a bit skewed towards the Germans, so it's great to hear that the French won this time!
For King & Parliament Battle of Montgomery scenario from the rule book using the unit cards available from Simon Miller's BigRedBat Shop. The unit cards were provided by my opponent and again generated comments about 'playing cards in church'.
Three games played at a higher pace than last time, 2 players in each game.
| 1. | Royalist Horse had collapsed within 1 hour including set up time |
| 2. | Royalist Horse had suffered significant loss and the Royalist attack on the Parliamentarian held hill proved too costly 1.5 hours |
| 3. | A well-coordinated Royalist foot attack on the hill inflicted heavy loss on the Parliamentarian foot. The desperate charge by the Parliamentarian Horse was not successful. The two Parliamentarian Horse regiments that hadn't yet returned from foraging were sorely missed. 2 hours |
Last Sunday I was introduced to Stargrave, courtesy of the good folks at Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.
Amusing enough to play again, as and when I'm next down that way.
(Dangerous words - I have saved my hastily rolled-up squad so that they can get their experience upgrades - which may mean having to invest in a rulebook, and then figures, and ... )
Last night finished a four-evening saga, over two weekends, the battle of Tsushima 1905
Used our pre-dreadnought variant of General Quarters I/II, a very amusing time had by all with many of the ships being unable to hit the opponents that sailed past, let alone damage them. The Russian flagship and two other Borodino class battleships managed to get past the main Japanese fleet and headed for Vladivostok. The same could not be said for quite a few of the remainder of the Second Pacific Squadron.
Four players 10.5 hours playing time
Last games - Lost a Battlegroup Overlord as Germans. The there was the winning demo at Phalanx, my contribution the mustang and acidity :d
Yesterday was the BBB Bash Day convention. Full report on this excellent day will follow.
I played in one of the games: Chattanooga (ACW).
I was on the Union side. I think our plan was sound enough, working around both flanks and drawing rebel units out of their fortified positions by manoeuvre rather than frontal assault, before attacking in the centre as well.
There was one pivotal moment, an assault against one of the Confederate divisions linking Missionary Ridge with Lookout Mountain, that went in with pretty good odds but got bounced off by bad dice. Had it succeeded, we'd have been through there in time to seize a road junction objective plus help to roll up Missionary Ridge from both ends. As it was, we barely managed a draw.
Excellent scenario, full of options for both sides and replay value.
ACW: Shiloh. (BBB rules.)
Visited the Abingdon club and joined BBB newcomers Bob and Phil.
Classic bloody tussle in the woods.
Our Confederates stormed up the table past Shiloh Church and carried the Sunken Road and the Hornet's Nest.
We played all of Day 1.
At the end of it, the Union still held enough objectives to claim victory.
However, if we'd fought Day 2, even though the Union would get reinforcements, I think the Confederates could well have turned it around, because the Union army was so battered (5 of its 7 divisions on-table were Spent) that we could have rolled up.
With four players, we'd have been able to play Day 2 as well. As it was, good fun and left us with a what-if that makes me want to play it again.
Got behind on the count, whoops
Sabresquadron Korea
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 3 players 2.5 hours, with a 4th joining for the last hour on the second evening
Fighting over the Bloody lane at Antietam again, a Confederate victory this time
For King & Parliament Two games 2 hours and 1.5 hours, two players
Used 80 point armies to check how long the games would take and if there were enough troops to be interesting games
First game was a nail-biter either unit could have won the game. The Royalist Pike & Shot charged a unit of Pike & Shot that had been pinned in hedgehog but a plucky unit of mounted Dragoons. The attack went very badly, the Royalist unit was lost, breaking the army :o :(
Second game was much more straight forward. The Royalist Horse was broken forcing a unit of Pike & Shot into hedgehog. The Parliamentarian foot punched through the centre. Royalist army broke with no loss to Parliament :o :o X_X
The tests were successful, games could comfortably be played in a couple of hours and there were plenty of decisions and options for both players. A few slightly different chits in the second game could have given the Royalist a chance of victory
Great to hear people still having fun with FK&P! That includes me, by the way!
Six of us had a splendid time on Sunday fighting the three-day battle of Pered (1849).
I like to think of this as "Hungary's Waterloo" as there are so many parallels: basically, the Hungarians are trying to beat the Austrian army before the Russians can turn up to save them.
Full photo-AAR on the BBBBlog:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/07/decisions-decisions-players-gambles-pay.html
Top report Chris
QuoteQ1: Nineteen
Ancients 1
FWR 1
Napoleonic 1
ACW 1
Boer War 3
RJW 1
WWI(Air) 1
WWII 8
WWII(Air) 2
WWII(Air) is a bit unusual as we are doing the Big Week campaign with Fire in the Sky. WWII land comprise two new rules under development: Monty / Eisenhower Unchained (E rewritten without the grid), and a card based system without dice. Our Boer War refight has moved from Principles of War to BBB! ACW is Altered of Freedom, a club rewrite of the original AoF rules.
Q2: Twenty-ThreeAncients 3
ACW 1
Sudan War 1
Sengoku Period 1
WWI(Air) 1
WWII 12
WWII(Air) 2
WWII (Naval) 1
Modern 1
Good scores
BKCIV
More on this later.
One game of Guards of Traitor's Toll.
Finally got to play Sabre Squadron (company-level moderns).
Arab-Israeli tank action in 1973.
Centurions demonstrated their superiority over T-55s in both attack and defence.
AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/07/sabre-squadron-arab-israeli.html
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 04 July 2025, 07:10:42 AMFinally got to play Sabre Squadron (company-level moderns).
Arab-Israeli tank action in 1973.
Centurions demonstrated their superiority over T-55s in both attack and defence.
AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/07/sabre-squadron-arab-israeli.html
Nice report, glad you enjoyed it.
Quote from: Duke Speedy of Leighton on 04 July 2025, 07:41:45 AMNice report, glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for prompting me to pester Nick!
Quote from: Chris Pringle on 04 July 2025, 07:58:05 AMThanks for prompting me to pester Nick!
Pleasure
It's a small world sometimes. ;D
Finally got a game in after several fallow weeks!
Played Daimyo a play test version of an upcoming Osprey set - for Sengoku Jidai period - they played really well, the command token system works well, and certainly gives a good flavour of sonae style warfare.
This is good news as the search for rules for this period has been challenging!
2 players, 8 player hours.
ACW: 3rd Battle of Winchester, aka Opequon (1864).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Battle_of_Winchester
Second playtest of a scenario for the intended BBB ACW scenario books.
First one had been a one-sided Union win in which the Union cavalry was rated a bit too high and acted like Panzer divisions.
This time Matt had over-corrected a bit, not just re-rating the cav but also hampering the Union command, producing a comfortable Confederate victory.
Still a very interesting scenario with decisions and movement for both sides. One more round of minor tweaking should be the charm.
A rapid Fire reloaded game last night - set in Greece. Never seen so many 1's rolled. German victory but fun for both sides.
AVBCW pkaytest
ACW Black Powder - Glory Hallelujah 2 games 3 players 2.25 hours, 3 players 3 hours
Fighting over the Bloody lane at Antietam again, a Confederate & a Federal victory
DBMM II/49 Marian Roman v II/53 Ancient British 4 players 4 hours a Roman victory
Two games this week, a War of the Worlds survivors game from our on-going campaign and Midgard bash between Nasty Normans and Magnificent Mercians! Somehow the Mercians thrashed the Normans, even I was surprised by my dice rolling!!! ;D
Should we be surprised?
In the blue corner, the might of imperial Rome at it's height.
In the Red corner farm boy with pointy stick and Sunjester rolling his dice...
QuoteShould we be surprised?
Quote from: Last Hussar on 13 July 2025, 10:52:51 PMIn the blue corner, the might of imperial Rome at it's height.
In the Red corner farm boy with pointy stick and Sunjester rolling his dice...
:d :d :d
DBMM II/49 Marian Roman v II/53 Ancient British 3 players 5 hours a Roman victory
DBA IV/62c 100 Year's War English v IV/64c Medieval French 2 players 45 minutes, a French victory
DBA IV/62c 100 Year's War English v IV/64c Medieval French 2 players 45 minutes, an English victory
DBA II/33 Polybian Roman v II/32a Later Carthaginian 2 players 45 minutes, a Carthaginian victory
DBA II/33 Polybian Roman v II/32a Later Carthaginian 2 players 45 minutes, a Roman victory
Quote from: paulr on 15 July 2025, 08:12:45 AMDBMM II/49 Marian Roman v II/53 Ancient British 3 players 5 hours a Roman victory
DBA IV/62c 100 Year's War English v IV/64c Medieval French 2 players 45 minutes, a French victory
DBA IV/62c 100 Year's War English v IV/64c Medieval French 2 players 45 minutes, an English victory
DBA II/33 Polybian Roman v II/32a Later Carthaginian 2 players 45 minutes, a Carthaginian victory
DBA II/33 Polybian Roman v II/32a Later Carthaginian 2 players 45 minutes, a Roman victory
There's a bit of a story behind these games.....
Mrs Shy works as the librarian at the community library in the suburb we live in. The library is shared with the local primary school who use it during school hours. After 3pm on weekdays and on Saturdays it transforms into the community library.
In order to help encourage visitor numbers she has set up a number of different activities and displays, mainly on the weekend. She asked me and our small group of regular gamers if we could put on some demo games and display a few different units from various eras in our collections.
With limited table space the best solution we could easily come up with was to play DBA with various different armies. We got through 5 games, though none were taken particularly seriously as they were all demo games. We got a steady flow of visitors, mainly kids and parents, who were all quite interested in our display. We got the kids to roll the dice (the French won the second game thanks to some great rolls by one youngster who rolled a lot higher scores than I usually manage ;D ;) ).
I made up around 20 flyers giving details of the two local Wellington area gaming clubs and we finished up with four left in the end, so hopefully they may get some potential members.
All in all a very productive session all round :-bd
Good stuff there
June - ACW - Brigade Fire and Fury 6mm small action to start learning the rules. Just getting back into the hobby.
Two recent game of SYW using Honours of War rules.
BKCIV game 2, an hour and a half
Report here
https://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,23804.0.html
Yes, you may laugh.
ACW First Bull Run.
Introducing new player Mark to BBB. He said he enjoyed it.
Maybe he was being polite or maybe it was because he utterly whupped me - my Union boys didn't take a single objective.
Not because I wasn't trying or had cursed dice, but because he had a good plan and it worked.
Running it again for more new players on Sunday. I shall try to manufacture a Union victory!
What a Cowboy last night - no dead although lots of pins. Bit slow due to not fully knowing the rules to well. Turned up an Indian group, but couldn't find any details in the rule book. Any ideas?
Quote from: Lord Kermit of Birkenhead on 18 July 2025, 07:32:57 AMWhat a Cowboy last night - no dead although lots of pins. Bit slow due to not fully knowing the rules to well. Turned up an Indian group, but couldn't find any details in the rule book. Any ideas?
To clarify: "What a Cowboy" is a wargames rules set, and not a life style?
Quote from: fsn on 18 July 2025, 09:12:07 AMTo clarify: "What a Cowboy" is a wargames rules set, and not a life style?
No conmment on your lifestyle Nobby, yes its a rule set, from the Lardies, very similar to What a Tanker. No dead due to the need to roll 7 on a D6, so need to use a die to aim, move and other actions all decided by die roll, 1 move, 2 spot, 3 aim , 4-5 shoot or reload, 6 is wild. Have a pool of 6 action dice which is reduced by hostile action. Any figure or group reduced to 0 AD is eliminated.
ACW First Bull Run (reprise).
Three new players. I was nominally helping the Reb player as Stonewall Jackson, but really umpire and technical advisor to all.
The Union side had a better plan than mine was last week, but were stymied by dreadful dice on their side and deadly ones from the oppo. Did well to take two of the three objectives they needed for a win.
Anyway, good fun.
Two games of Mortal Gods, about 3hr 26 minutes of playing time
One game of Sellswords and another of Midgard.
BBDBA First Crusade 4 players 2 hours, Allahu Akbar
IV/6a Syrian, III/66 Fatimid Egyptian, III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish
IV/7 Early Crusader, IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine, IV/2 Cilician Armenian
A very close game in the end with both sides having their right wings broken (III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish, IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine). The IV/2 Cilician Armenian were then disheartened just before the IV/6a Syrian who were only one element off.
Quoteabout 3hr 26 minutes
Not being a complete nerd about timing then?
We finished at 10:36, the club starts at 7, and I was late after closing the shop.
Geek, not nerd!
Quote from: Last Hussar link=msg=372516 date=a1753549786:-\ :-\
As I said, I was late
We decided we wanted to give the same armies another run as the game had been fun and close result, so
BBDBA First Crusade 4 players 2 hours, Deus Vault
IV/6a Syrian, III/66 Fatimid Egyptian, III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish
IV/7 Early Crusader, IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine, IV/2 Cilician Armenian
An even closer game in the end with both sides having their right wings broken (III/74b Other Seljuq Turkish, IV/2 Cilician Armenian. Both centers (III/66 Fatimid Egyptian & IV/1a Komnenan Byzantine) were then disheartened in the same turn, breaking both armies :o
Phil Barker had foreseen this possibility "...and that has also lost more such elements in that bound than the enemy has lost the battle." (https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71v4arJCjmL._SY385_.jpg)
The Byzantine had lost one element and the Egyptians two in the last bound so Deus Vault
A close run thing indeed!
However, such games are often the most fun and most memorable.
Daimyo historical mass battle rules - 5 players 3.5 hours - so a massive 18 player hours! An enjoyable game, and good to get a multiplayer game in.
Peninsular War: Medina de Rio Seco (1808). BBB rules.
A proper see-saw nail-biter game of two halves, quick and clean and a triumph of scenario design by Dr Mark Smith.
Full photo-AAR on the BBBBlog:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-game-of-two-halves-medina-de-rio-seco.html
Normandy 1944 using BKCII.
Warhammer Old World High Elves (Melnibonean) Vs Chaos (Undivided)
Close win (after several turns of averaging 1 on d6).
2.5 hrs
The close BBDBA games were so much fun that we decided to play more BBDBA this weekend, this time the Punic Wars
BBDBA Punic Wars 4 players 2 hours, Carthago delenda est (because it wasn't this time)
II/32a Later Carthaginian, II/11 Gallic, II/9a Syracuse in Sicily
II/33 Polybian Roman, II/39b Celtiberian, II/8c Apulian
The Gallic warband slammed into the Roman blade and demoralised, then broke them. The Celtiberian in the centre made some progress against the Syracusans but their spear mainly held and occasional loses demoralised the Celtiberian.
A decisive Carthaginian victory, we'll see how tonight's game goes (and if some different forces are selected)
Black Powder Sudan playtest as reported earlier
On Thursday - game of Saga - Viking vs Jormsviking(me). I lost, reduced to 2 Hearth Gaurd and 4 Warriors. That said the opposition just had 10 leve and 6 Warriors left. Fun game with vagrent dice..
Played a couple more BBDBA games in the last two days, but we changed to the Punic War era.
Romans did not do too well in either game as we had to defend and so the Carthaginian Gallic allies deployed against the Roman blade and spear armed troops.
Warband can quick kill blades and spears in DBA and did so plentifully in both games, not helped by the Romans rolling 1,1,2 for PIP's for one fairly decisive turn :'(
Still I find BBDBA is (generally ;D) a lot of fun to play.
One and a half games!
ACW: Cedar Creek (BBB rules).
One and a half because we abandoned our first attempt halfway through when it was obvious that our Confederates' errors were going to be punished with crushing defeat. Swapping sides and resetting produced a much closer game and a very exciting finish.
Full AAR here:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/08/cedar-creek-yes-i-do-acw.html
Got a few games in already this month
AWI - Harlem Heights game with 10mm Pendraken figures. 4 players, around 12 player hours.
Devilry Afoot - Age of Reason Witch hunting, solo skirmish, 2 games, 1 player, around 3 player hours.
Peninsular War: Battle of the Nivelle (1813). BBB rules.
This will be one of the scenarios in the BBB Peninsular War campaign book currently in preparation.
It produced a distinctive and memorable game in which vigorous French counterattacks almost thwarted the Allied assault on the French system of fortifications.
Photo-AAR on the BBBBlog:
https://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/2025/08/90000-vs-50000-at-nivelle-1813.html
Top report Chris
BKC IV teaching game for two friends.
+You know the drill, see one, do one, teach one) big win for me as Germans, rematch demanded for next week as they enjoyed it so much.
Went well over the 8 turn limit (but to be honest, no one killed anything for the first few turns).
Two games this week, VSF War of the Worlds survivors game and Midgard Heroic Battles with Late Romans and Sassanids.
Slow moving game of Stargrave on Thursday, fun but were a bit slow with the rules
Last weekend
Friday night - two test games of the Ancient naval rules I'm working on with Simon Miller
Spartans v Athenians 430s BC, 3 players, each game 45 minutes
Saturday night - two more test games
Spartans v Athenians 430s BC, 4 players, first game 1.5 hours, second 1 hour
This weekend
Friday night - home brew WWII
Germans v Americans - each a parachute battalion jumping to capture the same bridge, 3 players 3 hours,
Germans reached their end of bridge but suffered too many casualties to hold
Saturday - two FK&P ECW games at local club
Royalists v Parliamentarians 2 players first game 2 hours, second game 1.25 hours, both close run games each side won one
Saturday night - two more Ancient naval test games
Spartans v Athenians 430s BC, 4 players, first game 1.5 hours, second 1 hour
Back in the Western Desert for more WW2 action tonight.
Germans sent home with a bloody nose but my plucky Brits (even if the Armoured Commander did blunder BEFORE reaching the table)!