December SNS games

FOW Action, 15mm. Gary R. (red shirt) gives instructions.

Back to describing the last games of the year. The Saturday Night Skirmishers (SNS) usually game on the first and second Saturdays of the month, but to satisfy the demands of our members who want more tank action, we also set apart the third Fridays as FOW night. Our indefatigable Gary Rhay had set up a Russian Front campaign to help create battles for that night, and December saw a mighty German attack in progress as the Soviets tried to escape the closing pincers of panzers.

StuG G assault guns head towards dug in Russian infantry.

I was unable to play, but stopped by for some photos. I believe I heard that the Germans are winning the campaign so far, but someone please tell me if I have that wrong.

Crusaders (foreground) vs. Saracens. 28mm Deus Vult game.

Several of our group were very impatient to play the new game Deus Vult. Thankfully, Kai has 28mm armies of Crusaders and Saracens available, so as soon as Dennis had the rules in hand a game time was set up. The game includes a fairly hefty section on activities leading up to the battle which include scouting, deployment, and terrain selection, but for this battle that part was skipped and the armies deployed for immediate action. 

Crusader Knights and Saracen cavalry clash on the Crusader left wing.

Each army was divided into three "battles' or divisions, each of which comprised three or more units. Kai's forces are based singly so that he can adapt to any rules set by placing their magnetized bases on unit bases. On the Crusader right wing, the heavy infantry and crossbows took their sweet time trying to move forward while the center and left knight units charged out to meet the foe. The Saracen bow units had trouble advancing, but did try to pepper the Crusaders with arrows. In the center and right, the cavalry clash kept us all very busy as we tried to figure out how the close combat system worked. It took a lot of discussion to try to figure out the author's intent on close combat sequence and morale results. 

The slaughtered Knights retire to their lines.

Unfortunately, one of Gary S' knight units had trouble forming up to charge, and so the combatting knights were outnumbered and outfought by the Saracens. PLUS the Crusader players rolled really bad. The knights were nearly wiped out and the remnants retreated. With nothing to stop the Saracen center, the crusader infantry had to retreat from the field.  Now that we have a better sense of the game, I'm pretty sure we'll be trying it again.

The other battles played down at GAJO were store-sponsored events, and you can see pictures of those games on the GAJO website, including one of the most fun games so far of Bolt Action WW2.

I did take pictures of the X-Wing mini-tournament.

Rebel Alliance fighters vs. Imperial T.I.E. fighters. New A-Wing fighter in the center.

In this small tournament, named "Kessel Run" or something, four new ships were introduced and were actually given out to participating players! Then players set up their 100-point forces to play against each other in multiple rounds. In each scenario, the players had to fight around 8 asteroid counters and I can tell you that it isn't as easy as you think, I took several hits from glancing blows that crippled my ships.

Slave-1 and escorts battle Rebel fighters. It's dropping a seismic charge which will destroy that A-Wing.

My brother Dave won the A-Wing fighter and I won the Slave-1 ship. The new models are awesome! Take a look at the new Millenium Falcon below:

It's big but not agile, and carries a lot of firepower.

There's something to be said about the quality of quantity. The Empire player can take lots of lower-quality pilots in T.I.E. fighters, but it gives them lots of shots which can be the deciding factor. However, the droid technology of the Alliance can be a game-decider as well. Lots of fun!

The last big game for December is tomorrow, a War of the Ring game down at GAJO, and I'll try to get there for some photos of the battle for Pelenor field.