1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - BKCII.
2) What armies were confronted? - Republicans vs Nationalists SCW.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo, but implementing orders from remote players for a campaign.
6) What went well? - The Italian CTV command rolls (the cO played a blinder) and the International Brigades' artillery.
7) What could have been improved? - The International Brigades couldn't activate when it mattered the most.

Full AAR to follow when appropriate given it's a campaign and I don't want to give too much away to either side just yet.

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Kings of War 3rd edition
2) What armies were confronted? - Empire Army v Orcs
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Ok
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Yes, with 3rd edition.  Only played 2nd edition twice
5) How many players were in the game? - 2 me and my 10 year old son
6) What went well? - My orc hordes were very effective
7) What could have been improved? - My understanding of the rules, but it will get better with practice.

It was nice to get some gaming in, not only COVID but my family moved to the Algarve two years ago and there is not much of a wargaming scene there. The good thing was that my son really enjoyed it and wants to play more games with different armies, best I get painting.....

Well done that man

Quote from: Bunny on 08 October 2021, 06:20:57 PM
... The good thing was that my son really enjoyed it and wants to play more games with different armies, best I we get painting.....

FTFY

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Pulp Alley: https://pulpalley.com/
2) What armies were confronted? - The Cult of Hanash, Safari Hunters and Tarzan's menagerie (A three way encounter)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, something like the 17th encounter in a multi-year campaign.
5) How many players were in the game? - Three.
6) What went well? - We finally opened the gate to the forbidden city, and I sneaked Am Masudi's pet cheetah inside before the game ended.
7) What could have been improved? With hindsight, we loaded too much friction onto the table in the way of perilous terrain and hostile windlife.

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 10 October 2021, 09:34:33 PM
With hindsight, we loaded too much friction onto the table in the way of perilous terrain and hostile windlife.

I'm sorry, I'm as subject to typos as any here and I know perfectly well what was meant but .... it's too glorious a typo not to ask .... pterodactyls or SBD flatulence

Quote from: Ithoriel on 11 October 2021, 01:35:41 AM
I'm sorry, I'm as subject to typos as any here and I know perfectly well what was meant but .... it's too glorious a typo not to ask .... pterodactyls or SBD flatulence

Giant wasp/mosquito hybrids (territorial, out for blood and with a sting at either end)

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Shadow of the Eagles
2) What armies were confronted? - French vs Russian, 1812
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Pretty much, but helped by having the author playing,
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Five
6) What went well? - Russian aggressive tactics and the French left wing attack.
7) What could have been improved? - Both sides die rolling at times, but isn't that always the case?

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - General Quarters I/II
2) What armies navies were confronted? - Imperial Japanese v United States
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - Not by a long way
5) How many players were in the game? - 4
6) What went well? - The Japanese plan to advance along the coasts with two destroyer divisions lead by light cruisers - the coast reduced their visibility and the clutter obscured them from radar
7) What could have been improved? - the victory conditions were too hard on the Americans, this has now been revised

This was a refight of the Second naval battle of Guadalcanal, night of 15-16 November 1942.



When I created the scenario I was concerned that the two US battleships would overwhelm the single Japanese battlecruiser and had awarded victory points for damaging the US battleships (they were the last available shipos larger than destroyers available in the area). The mass torpedo attacks by the Japanese managed to inflict significant damage on the US battleships. When I re-assessed the result using the standard victory points it was a more appropriate tactical victory to the Japanese.

If the US had not withdrawn they may have been able to inflict enough damage on the Japanese battlecruiser and two heavy cruisers to redress the balance. But they didn't know how few of the Japanese destroyers had torpedo reloads.

What went well?

I actually managed to hit and damage both US battleships with Long Lance torpedoes at long range....a first for me and quite an achievement in GQ 1/2 

What did not go so well? Kirishima was badly pounded by the American battleships thanks to their gun ranging radars (When they actually worked) and was creeping back up the Slot at about 5 knots.

A very good game Paul.

Sorry, I'm just imagining the look on Pauls face when you rolled the dice...
Though I wouldn't fancy your chances against the Cactus air force first thing in the morning (they might be able to hit a target moving at 5 knots).
i must try to get hold of a copy of GQ (but that would be yet another project).

What do the white Covid-like things in the air represent?

Starshells.

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 10 October 2021, 09:34:33 PM
1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Pulp Alley: https://pulpalley.com/
2) What armies were confronted? - The Cult of Hanash, Safari Hunters and Tarzan's menagerie (A three way encounter)
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Yes
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, something like the 17th encounter in a multi-year campaign.
5) How many players were in the game? - Three.
6) What went well? - We finally opened the gate to the forbidden city, and I sneaked Am Masudi's pet cheetah inside before the game ended.
7) What could have been improved? With hindsight, we loaded too much friction onto the table in the way of perilous terrain and hostile windlife.

AAR now available: http://colgar6.blogspot.com/2021/10/pulp-alley-forbidden-city-perilous.html

Quote from: Rhys on 15 October 2021, 08:31:31 AM
Starshells.

Ah - obvious now you state that - thanks

Quote from: Rhys on 15 October 2021, 07:04:23 AM
Sorry, I'm just imagining the look on Pauls face when you rolled the dice...
Though I wouldn't fancy your chances against the Cactus air force first thing in the morning (they might be able to hit a target moving at 5 knots).
i must try to get hold of a copy of GQ (but that would be yet another project).

Paul was actually playing on the Japanese side......however I'm sure he smiled when I rolled a 1 to see how many torpedoes hits the Washington took. One reason I really like GQ 1/2 is that you generally need to roll low numbers to hit a target, and as you know I do seem to have a talent for rolling crap dice 

Yes I imagine that the Cactus Airforce would do to the Kirishima exactly what they did to the Hiei a couple of days eariler....i.e. sink it somewhere just to the north of Savo Island.

Navwar sells GQ 1/2 if you're tempted, so I hope you can find a functioning fax machine.....

Quote from: Big Insect on 15 October 2021, 11:35:52 AM
Ah - obvious now you state that - thanks

Yes they're starshells - https://www.fightsonstore.com/product-page/starshell-marker-2

The yellow clear plastic circles represent the area actually illuminated, but you can see sillouetted ships if they are in front of the starshell burst. There is a very, very good set of "unofficial" night fighting rules for GQ 1/2 (by David Manley?) that we use.       

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - BKCII.
2) What armies were confronted? - Republicans vs Nationalists SCW.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo, but implementing orders from remote players for a campaign.
6) What went well? - The Falange command rolls (the CO played a blinder) and their shooting die. The die Gods were on the side of the Nationalists.
7) What could have been improved? - Not a lot really. The International Brigade couldn't get into the game due to the above.

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Undaunted Normandy
2) What armies were confronted? - German and USA.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Fairly, first time out so we played at a steady pace with just one source of contention.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - First proper play, through both players had soloed in the days before the game.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two, Myself and Westmarcher (of this parish).
6) What went well? - It's an easy game to play, with surprisingly easy tactics.
7) What could have been improved? I overestimated the effect of shooting, and rolled abysmally in the second scenario.


Westmarcher visited and we broke out Undaunted Normandy - A boxed "Boardgame" from Osprey.
Having pored over the rules, and stepped through some solo turns at home we played through the first two scenarios in the book.

Boardgamers describe the game as a "deck builder".
I saw it as a fairly simple grid based wargame, with cards determining order of activation.

The first two scenarios were simple, with three or four manoeuvre units each on the table.
Squads are composed of up to four elements: Commander, Scout, Riflemen and Machineguners.
The second scenario felt authentic, with German rifles and machinegunners defending against American scouts and rifles.

Victory conditions are varied, grab objective(s) or eliminate enemy riflemen.
Cards activate, while d10(s) are used for shooting.

I've had my eye on Chain of Command (TooFatLardies) for some time, but not found the commitment to collect figures and terrain for yet another historic period.
Undaunted addresses a similar level of combat, but games take 45-90 inutes, and you're playing on a grid of tiles with cardboard counters.

Who won?
Westmarcher's stealthy scouts and doughty riflemen won both games by commanding objectives.
Something that can happen remarkably quickly unless the defender remains alert.

Quote from: steve_holmes_11 on 28 October 2021, 03:57:10 PM
........
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Fairly, first time out so we played at a steady pace with just one source of contention.
 ........
7) What could have been improved? I overestimated the effect of shooting, and rolled abysmally in the second scenario.
 .........
Who won?
Westmarcher's stealthy scouts and doughty riflemen won both games by commanding objectives.
Something that can happen remarkably quickly unless the defender remains alert.

Thanks for hosting another enjoyable afternoon, Steve. Although no miniatures were on the table, it was still good fun plus we also had a good chin wag in addition. As Steve mentions, I won both scenarios by focusing on achieving objectives (although in doing so, I sustained the most casualties) but to be fair, the first victory was as much an accident as good tactics when I suddenly realised he had left the way open to one of the objectives whilst the second victory, even though I split his fire by launching a two pronged attack, probably only succeeded because of his poor dice rolls.

If you have not played Undaunted this will probably not make much sense but for anyone who has played Undaunted, our sole source of friendly contention was the Scenario Starting Initiative.  I thought Steve's interpretation was doing him a disservice. My view was that the first scenario was giving him the Starting Initiative and if we followed his interpretation, he was unfairly at risk of losing this at outset if we bidded for this as usual (which he did).  It seemed to me that as the U.S. player, Steve was automatically awarded the Initiative at outset and so I assumed that there was no need for us to discard the usual Initiative bidding card from our Hands in that first turn (because Initiative had already been decided).

However, if I have understood him correctly, Steve's view was that the Initiative bidding procedure is the same for all Turns (there being no other rule to say otherwise) and that the purpose of designating one side as holder of the Starting Initiative is simply to clarify who should win the Initiative in the event of a tie during the bidding process (if a tie, Initiative is retained by the current holder).  

But Steve is slightly more logical than me and while I was being shot at, suppressed and machine gunned, I came round to his way of thinking - a conclusion that co-incidentally helped me feel better about beating him.    

p.s. For those interested in the game, here's a good tutorial video which Steve found.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxnWi8SVRfI

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - Congo, Adventures in the heart of Africa. http://www.studio-tomahawk.com/en/congo/
2) What armies were confronted? - Evil Zanzibari Slavers (Booo), against an fine upstanding African Kingdom rescue party (You may cheer and throw flowers now).
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Extremely
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No, this is my most-played (and best loved) skirmish game.
5) How many players were in the game? - Two
6) What went well? - A run of excellent fortune for the African Kingdom, wise force selection, fortunate random positioning, and slightly better dice than the slavers throughout the battle. Slavers cut down like savanna grass in rain. King survives and rescues his daughter.
7) What could have been improved? King's witchdoctor about as magical as Tommy Cooper, Chief slaver escaped, with a handful of followers.

An excellent game and the first appearance of the African Kingdoms.
Previous native forces have al been the Forest Tribes.
Less martial and technological than the Kingdoms, relying instead on witchcraft, terror and numbers.
Either losing badly or winning Pyrrhic victories at great cost.

The African kingdoms offer more powerful units who, can knock the stuffing out of European led soldiers or Zanzibar askaris (provide they evade the gunfire during approach).
The King - should he grace the table - may also bring his trained bodyguard, led by Egyptian officers and equipped with modern repeating rifles.

Hat tip to my friend Hugh, who laid on the game and provided the beautifully painted forces.
He maintains a blog, I'll try to remember to post a link if he reports this battle.

1) What ruleset did you use in your last game? - BKCII.
2) What armies were confronted? - Republicans vs Nationalists SCW.
3) Did you feel comfortable with the ruleset? - Very.
4) and... was this the first time you used this ruleset? - No.
5) How many players were in the game? - Solo, but implementing orders from remote players for a campaign.
6) What went well? - The spoiling attack by the Republicans went well, but they couldn't take their objective.
7) What could have been improved? - Not a lot really. The CTV spent the early part of the game suppressed and so couldn't bring their support weapons to bear, which hampered the Nationalist cause.