Starting 2012 Right- with game pics

15mm ACW, "Firebell in the Night"

The new year means New Years' Resolutions, and I'll have to make a good beginning this year to make up for the lack of posts in 2011. To start this year off right, I thought I'd post some pictures from games from the last 4 months. Most of these pics will deal with some of the smaller games our SNS club has played, with some from the WFHGS group thrown in as well. Some of our BIG games are posted in the Big Game section of GAJO's website.

Starting with the picture above, the WFHGS group had the privilege of being a test group for Tod Kershcner and Dale Wood's new ACW rules set, "A Firebell in the Night." We tested several games using these rules, and Matt sent in battle reports, rules questions, and change recommendations. The game is brigade-based, requires unit rosters, and has some unique rules added for supply and command.

Confederate attacks have driven a Union brigade to the river. The Yanks rallied at the last moment and successfully countercharged the Rebs.

Overall, our group felt the the new rules, as they stood in testing, did not pass the need to be better than Fire and Fury, a popular and successful ACW rules set. We weren't sure why the authors felt the market could take another brigade-based ACW set without some sort of significant difference that made it more fun than what was already out there. The command and supply rules had significant deficiencies, but those could be corrected. We also did not enjoy the paperwork required by unit rosters. Certainly there is only a small faction of wargamers who accept paperwork for ACW.

10mm. Assyrian chariots crush Egyptian foot.

One of the favorite rules sets for the WFHGS group is Warmaster Ancients in 10mm. Several games were played in 2012. Matt has a growing collection of ancient Indians and Saracens in 10mm. I think he's up to 2000 points now for the Indians, so we should soon enjoy a massive Seleucid-Indian confrontation. The Crusades also grows, as Gary increases his Norman options to include the Crusades, and Matt paints more and more Saracens. The club goal is to have enough Crusade figures to do a campaign including sieges.

You can read about recent WFHGS activities at Matt's website, http://www.wfhgs.com. Don't forget to download the PDF issues of "Warning Order" the on-line magazine that Matt publishes.

15mm. Arab armies assault Israeli positions in 1973.

SNS gamers enjoy modern armor action when we can plan it. This time the scenario and most of the figures were provided by Bart Woods and the guys in the NUTS game group, with additional reinforcements from Russ and Dennis who have quite a collection themselves. This armor fest was unusual in that we used a modified set of Flames of War to portray modern combat. I have to admit, it went very well, and everyone enjoyed the game. I think we'll be doing more of this in 2012. In fact I can guarantee it.

Our SNS gamers have been enthralled with large battles of DBR (De Bellis Renationis) and scenarios from the 30 Years War. I don't have pictures of these slugfests, but Craig does on the GAJO store website http://www.gajominis.com

28mm. One of Lynn's Vikings for playing SAGA.

Some of the SNS gamers have recently been infected with Dark Ages skirmishing. Gripping Beast has published their long-awaited SAGA skirmish rules for Vikings, Saxons, Normans, and Welsh. Several games have been played, and the rules seem to be fun but you have to carefully plan each move or you WILL be stomped. I haven't played it myself yet. One of the features of a skirmish game like this is that your army is about 25 figures or less, so you don't have a huge investment in miniatures to make.

Another Viking figure.

And, ANOTHER viking figure. Thanks, Lynn!

Dystopian Wars. Alternative Steampunk naval action.

Naval action was not lacking. In a remarkable moment, We managed to get Dennis to play some sci-fi action with Dystopian Wars, a set of naval rules dealing with a steam-punk alternative history of the late 1800's. Dennis, Aaron, Greg, Terry, my brother Dave and I managed a large game of SW during the Fall. Fun game. I need to finish the paint schemes for the Covenant and English fleets, and then will play again. Looks like Jeff also has a fleet to play.

1/3000 Japanese pre-dreadnoughts.

Terry put on an excellent game of DBN, a naval variant of the DBX rules system. He has fleets painted for the Russo-Japanese war. The rules were a lot of fun. t turns out that my Litko sets of naval markers were very useful in this set of rules, for keeping track of shots fired, minor and major damage, and catastrophic critical hits.

The Japanese fleet tries to cross the "T" of the Russian columns.

Destroyers and cruisers engage. White splashes are targeted ships. Small orange explosions are damage. Fires and smoke indicate significant damage and critical hits.

Cruiser Hashidate is in a world of hurt, and would soon sink.

Bismark faces the RN late in 1941.

We also played some more Victory At Sea WW2 action. In a "What if?" contest, the RN battle ships Rodney and KGV, reinforced by Repulse and Renown, took on Bismark in fall of 1941, supposing that she had escaped her May fate. In this case, Bismark had sortied with Tirpitz! Lots of fun, but we didn't get to finish the game.

During the Christmas break, I got in a couple of games. Jeff and I tried out a 28mm WW2 game of "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" and Lynn, Jeff and I tried the infantry rules for Rapid Fire. Of course, the year ended for me with the WFHGS mini-tournament of Warmaster Ancients. Last year, I met my goal of winning one game with my Hittite army. This year was a bit different, as I pulled of a major victory of 3 wins! I won the tournament, plus the Master of Mayhem award for most destruction caused by an army. I think I've finally mastered how to use Hittite light chariots in an attack. More on this tournament later this week.