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I hosted a gaming weekend at my place a month ago already (29-31.5.) but I've been too busy to report on it until now. The weekend drew in a record crowd of 21 people this time around so I'm really happy. The programme for the weekend was to play lots of miniature games, boardgames cardgames, wargames and so on. A good deal of barbecuing, going to the sauna and enjoying appropriate refreshments is also part of the format.

Many people chose to sleep in tents, which is a smart move if you want to sleep late.

Boardgames

The boardgames crowd is not really represented in the pictures but they were there. Being committed mostly to miniature games during the weekend, I didn't spend much time taking photos of the boardgames, but they were there, honest! Some people hesitate to come to the weekends thinking they're just about miniature games but there's a lot of boardgaming going on, believe me!

Regimental Fire & Fury: Olustee (6mm)

A impromptu addition to the weekend, we tried our first game of the regimental version of Fire & Fury. Familiar enough to anyone who has played the brigade version. I umpired this one, but we did not finish it. The Confederates were taking a beating and it was getting late so the players called it.

Muskets and Tomahawks (20mm)

Timo ran two introductory games of Muskets & Tomahawks during the weekend, but I was stuck in other games during them so I missed out. Also, these were the only half-decent photos I could scrounge so there's not much to see. I sure would like to try it out though.

Battlegroup Kursk: Caen

The main event of the weekend were two simultaneous games of Battlegroup Kursk and I played in one of them. The fighting took place during the battle of Caen in 1944. Both tables had four players. The table I was on had city terrain and had some pretty low grade German troops defending the area against an attack by the British. The British had lots and lots of tanks, but with the aid of good artillery, the Germans held the city.

The other game was an attack near an airfield. I don't know the specifics, but there was some desperate fighting going on in the woods and lots of burning tanks outside.

Chain of Command

I umpired a couple of games of Chain of Command during the weekend players who were either new to Chain of Command or new to miniature wargames entirely. The first game showed me that the tables should have lots of dead spots without LOS for the game to be entertaining. Otherwise the match too easily devolves into a gunfight determined more by dice than wits. I remedied the situation in the second game and I think it was more entertaining.

So there you have it! It was an excellent weekend and a welcome jolt to my otherwise slow gaming year. The space could accommodate the larger crow easily and I think the place could draw ten more people without much trouble. We'll see :)

The road to Gettysburg

Like everybody else, I will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg with a game. Initially I thought I'd host a Fire & Fury game focusing on the Longstreet vs. Sickles fight in the Peach orchard / Wheatfield / Devil's Den / Round tops area but I got a bit greedy. I want to play the whole three days of the entire battle!

With the Fire and Fury rules, this would be simply impossible given the number of models needed as well as take too long to play. Fire & Fury shines when you have a Corps at most per side but starts to slow down after that. I need a faster, lighter set of rules and I think I've found what I'm looking for in Volley & Bayonet.

A quick comparison of brigade level Fire and Fury versus Volley and Bayonet:

Base unit:
    F&F: 1 infantry stand = 150/200 men. About 10 stands to a brigade.
    VnB: 1 infantry stand = 1000 - 2000 men. One stand to a brigade.
Groundscale:
    F&F: 1" = 45/60 yds
    VnB: 1" = 100 yds
Timescale:
    F&F: One turn = 30 minutes.
    VnB: One turn = 60 minutes.


So, Volley and Bayonet is more geared towards bigger battles and drops a lot of micromanagement in favor of faster flow. The rationale is that when you play the role of army commander, you focus on massing your forces in the right location and send them in at the right time instead of worrying whether a singular brigade is in single or double line. That's why the only brigade formations available are close order battle lines, march column and open order skirmishing. It makes sense for the scale.


The ACW supplement for VnB is getting difficult to find without paying an exorbitant amount, but I got mine from Old Glory 25's for the original price. Their shipping calculations are crazy for overseas orders but I managed to haggle it down to standard USPS fees by just asking them about it in e-mail. The booklet might run out any time as it's a 1995 print so be quick if you want yours! The supplement is for the first edition of the game whilst I have the second edition rulebook, but there isn't a lot you need to change.

I played a test game with my friend yesterday with a Corps of troops per side and played to a satisfactory ending (all enemy divisions exhausted) in three hours on a 6x4 foot table so its not bad at all considering it was our first game. My camera ran out of battery so no pictures for you unfortunately.


Modeling-wise, I changed the sabot basing scheme I introduced in an earlier post a bit. I opted not to have a white line at the bottom and instead of blu-tack I use painters tape to fix the models and the labels in place. Painters tape doesn't leave the stands ugly and is easy to remove.

The visual impact I'm going for is fairly obvious. There is one F&F sized stand of infantry per one strength point (500 men) of infantry and it should look a bit like a brigade in double line. The unit labels are from the Volley and Bayonet yahoo groups user gbitters, who has shared these fantastic labels in the files section. I think this is his blog. Give him a visit, he has some great 3mm VnB games there using half the recommended sizes.

As for figures, I don't have the complete OOB's worth of figures. I'll combine my models with a couple of friends' and for infantry we'll be 19 F&F stands of Union infantry short. These will all be with a Corps arriving on the field on the night of the second day so I'm sure there'll be enough volunteers in the dead pile. For artillery the situation is a bit more worrisome as we're 9 union artillery stands short. I'll have to make blue chits with an artillery symbol on them to compensate if it goes to that. Good players don't lose their artillery :)

I still need to make sabot bases for cavalry, artillery and leaders and paint a whole lot of mounted officers to get all the Union division commanders represented on the field but I think I'll manage. For terrain I'm pretty much set and all I'll have to do is make some optional eye candy to sweeten up the landscape. I already have all the hills, woods and such.

So, who else is doing an anniversary game?

Concept for using my 6mm Fire & Fury stands in Volley & Bayonet

I got the Volley and Bayonet rulebook a few months back as I'm looking for a grand tactical ruleset I could use to play entire ACW battles in reasonable space and time. The game uses three inch squares to represent brigades whereas my ACW is based for Fire & Fury with 1 inch * 3/4 inch stands.

Here's my quick and dirty sabot basing scheme:

I had some leftover MDF and I took some time with a table saw to make a hundred or so of these squares. Then I just sanded the edges, painted the base brown and glued on some terrain flock mix I used for my Normandy game. I then blu-tacked some  F&F stands on the base and there you go. The white slit is the space reserved for me to print out the unit data on. By placing down one stand per strength point I can give a visual difference between the small and the large brigades, which is an advantage over "static" 3" bases. The visuals suffer a bit but I think it'll work just fine. There's just one small problem:

The Blu-tack leaves an ugly mark once I remove the stand. If I don't use anything to make them stick, I think the units will be fiddly to move around. The small stands have a magnetic strip underneath so there is an obvious and attractive solution but metal bases cost a fortune, especially as I need a hundred of them to do a battle like Gettysburg.

Ideas? The solution should be cheap and quick to do.

Fire & Fury: Cedar Mountain 1862

The main event for our group on this year's Kinkkucon was the Battle of Cedar Mountain played with my 6mm ACW collection. We used the brigade Fire & Fury rules which are well suited for a game of this size. It seems our previous experience (we've gamed 1st Bull Run, a part of Chickamauga, Port Republic, Gettysburg day 1 and Antietam afternoon as bigger games using these rules) has paid off as the game progressed quickly without much need to consult the rules or anything.

I'll leave it to you to read up on the battle in Wikipedia should you be interested in the historical events. The scenario starts on the moment Crawford's union brigade gets the drop on Garnett and the surprise attack threatens to cave in the Confederate line.

Initial dispositions. Winder is about to receive a Union assault, A.P.Hill will arrive to assist and Ewell waits for a practicable moment to attack.

Union side, looking south.

Winder and Jackson are discussing the merits of lemon eating towards eliminating harmful humors when the Union forces commence the proceedings.

Garnett is taken by surprise.

Taliaferro is killed leading his brigade in a futile defence. So is Winder.. and Jackson.

A single brigade is isolated on the Confederate left.

Hill's troops start arriving on the scene, but the Confederate center is in chaos and they have to deploy into line far away from the fighting.

Brigades belonging to A.P.Hill's and Ewell's divisions attack the Union center in hopes of capturing the valuable guns on the other side.

A.P.Hill's advance through the woods is painfully slow. The Union forces give ground in the woods and flank the Confederate brigades in the field.

Despite the enfilade, the Louisiana brigade sends the Union defenders running. A shortage of ammunition plagues the boys in blue!

The entire Union artillery train fixes their guns on the Louisianans. A whopping total of 44 fire points is poured onto the Confederate ranks. a Roll of two results in only one stand being removed. Later, the artillery get another shot during the Louisianans' charge. 50 fire points and a roll of one. Two batteries are added to the tally of Forno's brigade. They truly earned their hardtack that day.

A.P.Hill bolsters the Confederate center. Things seem to settle down.

As darkness sets in, both sides attempt final charges without much effect. Brigades are pushed to and fro a couple of inches.

Final positions looking south. The line has stabilized. Ewell didn't make it into the fight with a majority of his division, as they were held in reserve for most of the game.

The game ended as an overwhelming victory for the Union with a VP difference of 30 points or something thereabouts. The initial Union success with their charge and breakthrough charge really made a difference, especially when they killed all the opposing generals involved! It meant that the historical Confederate counter was stalled because A.P.Hill had to deploy way back in the rear, and the Union forces could hold onto victory locations for quite a while. Still, it was a very entertaining game.