Over egging the pudding

(image liberated from somewhere or other) 

Reading back on the opening comment of my last post - I have come to the conclusion that I am not very bright and the construction that was put on it by some readers was entirely natural. Sadly, Mrs. Kinch is not in the family way.  The news of which I wrote was that in what is likely to be a triumph of hope over experience I am going back to school to study law.

Sleeping Schoolboy by JB Greuze

This is going to be a big change as fitting 2-3 hours of lectures around 10 hour shifts at work is going to be challenge, but I'm looking forward to it.  I'll be studying for a legal diploma which will take two years part time. It will take rather a chunk out of my gaming time unfortunately and will make serious demands on both myself and Mrs. Kinch. I tend to vary between thinking that this is going to be a fun and challenging thing and thinking I've made a terrible mistake. 

This new interest is not a herald of any change of career or anything like it - I just like the idea of being better at what I'm doing now.  

Basing & Flocking

There's some big news coming for the Kinchs, but I'm hoping to get at least one proper game in before it happens. With that in mind I'm scraping troops together to see if I can do the two Overlord style Borodino scenarios available on CCNapoleonics.net. 

With that in mind I've been basing a flocking like crazy, going through all my boxes and going through all the stragglers. I'm cautiously optimistic that I might be able to pull Borodino off. 

My basing method is pretty simple, a spot of Constables snow over a brown base, a few drops of PVA and then a dunking in some Army Painter static grass and Robert is your mothers brother. En avant! 

D-Day Landings: Sword & Juno Beach

I actually had to extend the table to get the map to fit.

Last night we got together and played some Memoir '44 D-Day landings. Now there are six very big maps in this particular pack and they can be played in a number of ways. We played Overthrough, a game type where you stick two of the maps together and play them as an Overlord game.  We put the Sword & Juno beach maps together which covered a goodly portion of the British & Canadian contingent on D-Day. 

Landing craft steaming towards the beaches

I didn't take enough photographs to be honest as I was too busy enjoying the game, but it was excellent.  Our main was two pronged, the 6th Airborne on the left were to hit the German artillery positions, while everybody else dashed up the beach as quickly as was humanly possible.  It wasn't a particularly inspired plan, but it seemed to cover the basics. 

General Kerrigan-Smythe-Williams examines some of the German heavy artillery

There were some additional wrinkles in this particular scenario, the number of victory points required was very high, twenty nine in total. However, there were a large number available for different objectives. Each cleared section of beach was worth two as were the German heavy artillery positions. There were also points available for bridges and control of the urban areas.  What was interesting about those from a game play point of view was that because the points were awarded to one side or the other, small moves on a big map could have big effects. This meant that the scores felt sort of "swingy". A small move suddenly take four medals off one side and give them to the other. 

General Du Gourmand studying his cards

I took command of the Allied Forces, wearing a beret plastered with every cap badge I could find, while Du Gourmand took up the cudgels as the vile and evil Hun. 

The Germans commanders study the situation

The Germans had a hard time of it as they were mainly reacting to our moves. The game stalled about half way through, the 6th on the left could not shift the German artillery on the left, while the right was starved of cards.  We were pushing well in the centre though, but it probably wasn't going to be enough. 

Consider. 

This meant that General Von Fatzington was able to get some of his armour reserves into the fight and stoutly contest our advances on the right. Herr General Deegan on the other hand was faced with a more solid advance commanded with commendable aggression by St.John-Boomington. A run of centre cards and a lucky airstriek certainly helped. 

And come to a decision.

One aspect of the game was that a little unusual was a sort of odd Yachtzee style mini game. Each player rolled some dice and was allowed move (but not battle with) a unit for each flag that he rolled. He then had to match the symbols rolled against chart, which granted him a steady trickle of reinforcements. This meant that not only were there new troops coming into play, but that clearing the beaches became a top priority as reinforcements normally deployed in the landing craft, but could also be placed on an uncontested beach. 

Hungarian commander TK studies where he is going to place his panzers

By half way through the game, despite being hammered by Du Gourmand and his pals, we managed to get the assault on the right moving, while St.John-Boomington cemented his gains in the centre. The paratroopers led by Sydney finally knocked out the German guns covering sword beach, but TK had managed to roll up some panzer reinforcements and delivered a brutal counter attack to the scattered paras. 

Du Gourmand delivers a pep talk 

We had been trailing the Germans for the entire game so far, but at this point we began to overhaul them. The centre of gravity of the engagement was beginning to shift - the Germans were beginning to focus on taking objectives from us rather than vice versa. 

Von Fatzington seems somewhat skeptical

Von Fatzington's counter attack on the right was cut off and wiped out by some decisive team work between Kerrigan-Smythe and St.John-Boomington. 

General TK seems unconvinced

TK was doing great execution on the German left as his panzers chased Sydney's paratroopers around the countryside.  They were mostly hunkered down in cover waiting for relief and trying to put some fire on the unstoppable German death tanks. 

General Sydney gets his paratroopers moving, while General St.John-Boomington pours reinforcements into the centre

But while TK was murdering paratroopers, Sydney co-ordinated with St.John Boomington who moved reinforcements in from the centre to allow Sydney to grab several objectives. This meant that they were able to put together a co-ordinated push on the beach. 

The final German bunker on Sword beach falls

The final score was 29-24.  Du Gourmand and Von Fatzington have been playing the maps as two player games and both said that the Overthrough game felt much more balanced as the larger board gave much more scope for the German artillery. We were lagging behind on victory points and only managed to overhaul the Germans by about two thirds of the way through the game. Not including physically setting up the board and a brief planning session (during which I may have described our plan as Operation "Get up the ****ing beach), the whole game took two hours and twenty minutes. 

A taut and challenging game, my thanks to Sydney, St. John Boomington and Kerrigan Smythe for keeping the faith and sticking to the plan and to TK, Von Deegan and Von Fatzington for a stout defence.  Du Gourmand remains, of course, my best of enemies. 

Having played two of the six maps available - I'm definitely interested in trying to whole shebang, though we will need bigger tables. And lots of them. 

Honved Hussars

One of the problems of having talented friends is that - well - they are just so damn talented that it's hard to hate and envy them as much as one should.  Our man in Budapest, Krisztian Takacs, has been sculpting a range of 15mm figures for the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.  They are, I think you'll agree, very fine looking fellows - one could almost forgive them for being in 15mm. 

These examples were painted by TK himself and represent Hungarian hussars in the new hussar uniform introduced in 1848. A disturbing lack of shakos I know, but there are some pelisses which is something.  I keep meaning to sit down and draft some scenarios for 1848, but I've been decoyed into the Crimea. 

This picture is probably more useful to those of us familiar with Hungarian currency, but it does give some idea of the size and heft of the figures. You can see some more of TKs pictures here. 

And for those who do play in 15mm and fancy giving a new period a bash, you can find these for sale at the Hagen Miniatures Store. 

The Battle of the Alma

The Colours Advance of the Scots Guards at the Alma by Lady Butler

Young Du Gourmand and I have been discussing using Command & Colours Napoleonics to play games set during the Crimean War for years now.  What changed last week was that I finally got off my backside and did something about it.  I put together a draft scenario for the British sector of the Battle of the Alma. Du Gourmand and I played it three times and came to that classic conclusion that crops up in most research be it under graduate or otherwise. 

"More research is needed."

I rated the British infantry as standard Napoleonic British infantry, albeit with three blocks and a three hex range because of their shiny new rifles. The reason for them being reduced to three stands is that the Russians seemed to operate in larger units, so any given acreage would contain more Russians than Britishers.  The British plus one to shooting when stationary also remained. 

The Light Division were treated as British Rifles from Command & Colours Napoleonics.  British generals and horse artillery were also treated as they were in Command & Colours Napoleonics. 

The Russian artillery, generals and cossacks were treated as written, but the Russian infantry began with five blocks and ignoring one flag.  We did not use the Mother Russia rule.  

The important thing to note here is that the British infantry have a range of three hexes and the Russian infantry have a range of two.  This results in a sort of dance where the Russians struggled to get close to the British lines without getting shot to pieces and the British shied away from the Russian juggernaut.  With only three stands, a British unit that was charged by a full strength Russian unit was in serious trouble. 

After the first playthrough, we knocked the Russian infantry back to four stands because five stands was just too powerful. We might play around with the idea of four stand British infantry and five stand Russians, but the game seemed to work with three and four. 

The Battle of the Alma by Horace Vernet 

(note the size and extent of the slope) 

Normally when designing a Command & Colours scenario, hill hexes are only used to indicate changes in elevation, but the problem with the Alma is that the Russian positions are on a slope, which calls for what is effectively a multi-level hill in Command & Colours terms.  This led to the unusual situation that the Russian player was concealing troops uphill from the British player and then counter charging his men as they took the redoubt.  The point is not that that shouldn't have happened, but that the British player should have been able to put those units under fire before hand. 

This is going to prove to be a tricky circle to square - though Du Gourmand rather rashly promised that he would write me a scenario based on the French sector if I manage to get it right.

Heroquest at Targets

For those of us who were born in the eighties and liked a certain sort of game, this advert was a revelation.  I recognise now that in many ways Heroquest hit a lot of sweet spots for my ten year old self.  It was basic enough that I could play it without assistance from my Dad or another adult and short enough that you could actually get through multiple games in an afternoon.  This was a boon and while I always enjoyed playing Aquitaine with Dad; Heroquest was a game that I could pick and play without an adult interpreter.  

The Heroes knee deep in adventure

(our Wizard has been slain and can be seen lying on his side)

Target got a copy of Heroquest for Christmas last year and we've been meeting at his home to play the occasional game over the last few months. So far it has proved excellent fun and I've thoroughly enjoyed it, leaving Evan the Self Hating Elf to victory on several occasions. The game is simple enough to be picked up quickly with enough variety in the scenarios to keep things interesting.  One change that Target did introduce was using a print out of the American rules for the monsters, which were tougher than those in the UK version. This has added a frisson of extra danger to the play so far. 

The Dwarf and the Barbarian bravely take on the Witchlord

(while I bravely hide with only two body points) 

We played through three scenarios in an evening, made all the more pleasent by Targets cheese board and excellent whiskey.  Show me a man who plies his guests with Crested Ten and I will show you a man who will find me returning to his home with monotonous regularity.  The games we played formed part of the Witchlord campaign.

Target shows his usual restraint and magnanimity 

In the Witchlord campaign, we bravely broke into the Witchlord dungeon, murdered his friends and stole his house hold goods. Once that was done, he rose from the grave to smite us and we had to run away as we discovered that he could only be slain by the Spiritblade. We then toddled off, got the Spiritblade, came back and hit him for six. It is was splendid fun. 

Target also cackled rather spectacularly when Jon's Barbarian was killed by an Ork and Liz died when rocks fell on her head.  I always consider a casualty or two the sign of a good dungeon crawl, as Lady Gaga eloquently put it in her anthem for Heroquest GMs everywhere Pokerface, "...if it ain't rough it isn't fun."

Evan the Self Hating Elf 

On examining my character sheet, I have discovered that Evan the Self Hating Elf has survived quite a few dangerous encounters (six in fact) and it looks like we are going to have to embark on "The Return of the Witchlord" campaign (apparently we wasn't really dead...or was that undead?) 

An impressive piece of cutlery

Target picked this up recently.  It doesn't appear to be sharp, so I suspect it is a wall hanger, but still very nice to look at.  If it is a wall hanger, I think it's an oldish one.

The full thing

Given that those who read J&F are often interested in swords, I thought I'd take a few pictures. If it does strike a cord of recognition with anyone, I'd be interested to know. 

Detail on the hilt

But on the whole, a good night was had by all and I shall look forward to the next one.