New Top for the Game Table

 

The venerable game table has a new top and some sporty wheels.  The old table was really beat up after 11+ years of gaming and high school robotics teams and just didn't look that good.

I remove the top and replaced it with 2 laminated sheets of 3/4 inch plywood with a nice walnut edge treatment.

I also ransacked the crap - I mean - treasure I had crammed inside it and have a lot of new storage space to work with.

Despite getting a nick walnut edging while carrying the top down to the basement, I think it looks grand and cant wait until I can host some games on it.  The nick is in the corner in the third picture/. Im thinking of using a bit of epoxy to cover it up. 

While carrying this top was a bit of a challenge, it's dead flat and will be a great play surface.

The old top looked like this.  The original design concept had the top on piano hinges so it could be opened to use as a drafting board and have storage underneath.  It might have been a sound idea in theory.  However, in practice it was never used as the top was awkward to lift and usually the table is covered in umm stuff.

The table is 41 and 1/4 inches high so just a little shorter than the previous version but a nice height to game at.

Next I want to build to extensions and bracket mounts to be able to have a larger than 8x4 playing area.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this came out!

28mm Fort Part 1

 I need a fort for my upcoming game at Historicon and couldn't find any ready made forts that I liked or wanted to pay the asking prices, so I've elected to try and build one myself.  The first picture shows three fort sections as they stand at the end of today.  While there's a lot of detail work to do, not a bad start for a few hours work.  I'm planning to make up to 6 feet of fort sections and hopefully will get this done in the next few weeks.  Sorry for all the ships in the back ground - I've been too lazy to pick up last thursday's Trafalgar game.

 The fort construction is pretty simple, first the wooden walls are made out of thin stir sticks that are 1/4 inch wide.  The long lengths are 3 inches and the shorter ones 2.75 inches.  Each wall section is 11.25 inches long.  I actually started building these was section first without even having a plan for the fort.  Plans?  Who needs plans?

 Since these pieces will be traveling, they needs to be very sturdy and the under structure of the fort is made from 1x3 and 1x2 pine stock affixed with wood glue in an "L" shape.  The base for each wall section is some marine grade plywood I had left over from a boat project which was already cut to 7 inches wide.

 The wood planking for the sides and fighting platform where then glued to the pine stock under structures.  I'll fill in the gap on the inside of the fort with pink stuff and then add flocking to represent turf.

 Here's a shot with one section of the fort and the gate "populated" by 28mm figures - in this case some recently completed Dacians.  I haven't decided if the lower front of the fort (below the planking) will be stone work or turf.  Turf seems to be easier to do and may lend the fort to more uses than just ancients.  I think it would make a fun objective for a game of Saga.

The last shot is from the rear of the fort.  As you can see, there is a good bit of work do adding earthen ramps and such.  This has been a very fun project so far and I'm looking forward to seeing it completed.  I haven't figured out how to make the gate as I want it to be able to open and shut.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

6mm ACW Defensive Works & Based Union Division

 Here's a picture of my new 6mm ACW defensive works occupied by a Brigade of Union troops.  I wanted to make some sectional defensive works that both fir how I base my ACW stuff and look relatively good on the table.

 So far there are four straight sections, 2 90 degree turns, an artillery position and a breached section.  I like the look of them and will likely make some more.  I'm undecided if I should make them by hand one by one or make some molds and cast them in resin.  I'm leaning towards resin and will try one to see how it works out.

 I'm still fiddling with the details.  One comment that I received on the previous post was to glue some sand at the top of each gabbion to simulate the "dirt" filling.  I plan on doing so once I find some finer sand to use.  My attempt at texturing the sides of the gabbions didn't work that well after painting.  All-in-all these are a good first start.

In addition to the defensive works, I finished basing another Union division (pictured) and am 80% through a similarly sized Confederate division.  The next step for the Union is to add the flags and they are ready for the table.

Black Powder 6mm ACW Test Game

I've made a good bit of progress on my 6mm ACW armies.  The Union force of seven infantry brigades (each with four regiments), two calvary brigades and a bunch of artillery are mostly completed - I just need to attach some flags.  The Confederate force is still being painted and is about 2/3's complete.

I decided to set up what I had painted to do a few run through with the black powder rule set.  I apologize that the terrain is so sparse, I need to add a lot of woods sections, but it's good enough for a trial game.  The road sections also need to be dressed up a bit.

Here's a close-up of two of the union brigades.  While I'll always prefer 28mm, there is something to the mass-effect one gets with large 6mm armies. I don't really paint a lot of detail on the figures, but it seems to work.

The last photo is of two Confederate brigades defending a hill, with 3 artillery batteries in support.  I have some limbers built and awaiting painting which will be completed in the next week or so.  The Confederate bases need to be sceniced also, but that's a pretty quick project.  I should have all the mini's completed in the next two weeks.

Any suggestions for acceptable (and cheap) 1/300 or 6mm scale trees to make forrest scetions out of would be greatly appreciated.

Architects of War: Fortification Set #1

I just purchased the new Fortification Set (#1) from Architects of War - I think I'm the first US customer!  My initial reaction upon opening the box is extremely positive - the set comes with six sections of fortifications, a blister of metal siege tools, a pipette and a nicely detailed manual on painting / game use.  The scale is 28mm.  My game table is 4' wide so the you get about 44" of defensive works.  Sorry for the 15mm WWII stuff in the background, I was a bit too lazy to clear of the table for a few photo's.  The six sections consist of 2 straights (each unique), an artillery emplacement, an end redoubt, a 45 degree turn and a "under-construction" piece.   The blister of metal siege tools is intended to enhance the "under-construction" piece.

Here is a close up of the artillery section and the siege tool blister.  There are a lot of hidden details molded into the resin pieces that include powder barrels, a single shot pistol and a whole bunch of others.  I was reminded of playing "Where's Waldo?" with my son the first time I looked at each piece.  The casting is great - no bubbles and very limited flashing.

My favorite piece is the end section or redoubt.  There's enough room for a the 60x40mm 6 figure troop stands I use for my Napoleonics to line the entire interior.  I expect to have many desperate defenses of this piece in the future.

This picture is a close up of the under-construction section.  It's a nice touch to the overall set and the instructions come with some creative rules for using this piece in a siege type game.  The metal siege tool blister has a bunch of pieces designed to enhance the look including stakes to show a gabion in the process of being built.

The final picture is a side view of the set - the under construction piece is out of the frame on the lower left.  Like the redoubt, all the pieces are designed to both look good but facilitate the placement of gaming figures as there is plenty of room behind the defenses to place troops.  All-in-all its a really great terrain set and I look forward to both painting and playing with once I finish my current 6mm ACW project.  I should point out that I am friends with the owners of Architects of War (which is how I was able to purchase this product before their website was completed).  I have tried to keep my comments unbiased and truthful more for Ernies benefit than anything else.  Starting a business is a tough endeavor, but doing show in today's environment makes that task even harder and false praise would be both untruthful and unfair to a friend.  I really like the products and hope you check out Architects of War if your into 28mm gaming.

Rough Riders on the Table

I finished my little band of Rough Riders to take part in last Saturday's gaming session.  You can see the little band to the left.  The game's theme was a combination of a French Foreign Legion game on one 5' x 12' tabletop and then a very second 5' x 12' Jungle themed encounter.  The best way to describe the game was a combination of the movies "The Wind and the Lion" and the second mummy movie with Brendan Fraser et al.  As usual our host, Ernie, put on a great show and it was a grand and silly evening.

I'm pretty happy with the Rough Riders but made a big mistake basing these guys on penny's.  Penny's are not very stable bases for "large" 28mm figures and they don't hold pva glue very well.  I'll be rebasing these guys over the next few days.

Here are some random shots of the game.  The first game featured fierce fighting between the FFL and Arabs.  I was able to stay out of it by bribing my way through using a stash of monopoly money.  The second game was essentially a trek by the American column through the jungle being whittled down by various traps and surprises which included fire, the assorted dinosaur and lots of angry natives.  Lets just say that I learned that Triceratops really do not like trucks.  The US objective was to free a certain professor but we didn't know he had gone to the dark side and awakened a giant stone golem at the end of the table.  The climatic battle featured the stone golem vs the survivors of the Jungle trek and it was a very near run of things but the US prevailed.

While pulp gaming is a lot of fun I think our club will be returning to more historical fare for our next gaming sessions.  Hopefully that will mean either Flames of War or Napoleonics.

As for my current project, I've returned to the ACW in 6mm as I'm trying to write up a set of campaign rules that combine land and naval aspects of the war.  I'll be using Black Powder to fight the land battles and I'm still looking for a civil war naval ruleset.

Where Pigeons Dare: After Action Report

Well my first turn as a game host has come and gone. Overall, I think it went very well as there were no tantrums and I think my guests had a good time.  I did learn a lot about running a game but more on that later.  The first picture is from the German end of the board.  The US starts at the other end and needs to get up to the church and transport an item back to it's side of the table.

The US were aided by a band of hastily thrown together Resistance fighters - so hasty that their stands don't have terrain!  Unfortunately these resistance fighters did tell the US Rangers about the secret cave passage (to the left) which leads to the church!  How was I to know that Brett speaks French?  The night phase of the game ended with the US rangers and Resistance holding the church  and destroying a German 105mm artillery battery in the balance.

The US attack commences - the US force consists of two full companies of tanks and mechanized infantry and made slow but steady progress across the board.  Sometimes the bocage terrain held them up more than the Germans.  The US tank Platoon at the bottom of the photo soon found out, after moving forward a bit more, that it was a bad idea to move next to German paratroops as the para's assaulted the tanks and essentially wiped them out.

Rather than wait to be rescued, the Rangers and Resistance decided to attack the infantry platoon guarding the road.  It was a valiant assault during which all of the attackers were eliminated but the trucks carrying the package (the objective) managed to escape just before the German reinforcements showed up.

Here is a picture of the end of the game - it show the Germans crowding the church area.  The Germans managed to disable the truck carrying the device but before they could get across the bridge a well timed artillery strike managed to disable two tanks on the bridge and block it.  We called the game at that point as there was no chance for the Germans to catch the Americans and the US artillery was making mince meat of the tightly packed troops.  All-in-all is was a very close run affair.

What I learned about Hosting a Game:
The was the first time I've hosted a game and while the evening was fun I could have done a few things better.  Here are four things I came away with:

(1) Know the Rules
The game runner really needs to know the rules of the game cold.  I'm still learning the ins and outs of FOW and could have known the rules a bit better.  I think artillery was a bit too deadly in our game and thats more from my not understanding all the finer points.

(2) All the players need to have something to do all the time
My scenario had a large German reinforcing unit that came on after the US moved the object.  This sounds great when writing up a scenario but is kind of boring if your given command of the German reinforcements and it's 15-20 turns before you show up.  A better approach would have been to divide both the on board and off board German units between the two players so everyone has something to do.

(3) You can't have enough...
One can not have enough dice and tape measures around.  I had two tape measurers and roughly 30 or so D6's which wasn't enough for four players to use.  I also need to build so trays to hang off the edge of the table to hold all the gaming tools.

(4) Offering Great Food Atones for Bad Game Running
I was fortunate that my wife elected to make a wonderful dinner for us, which consisted of fried chicken, ribs, mac-n-cheese and a salad (for color only).  She also baked a cake, which is her speciality.   Gamers are very forgiving to inconsistent game runners if they are well fed.  Had there not been food, I may not have survived the night.  Of course I will pay dearly today in the gym for what I ate last night....

Lastly, to the left is a close up of the completed GameCraft Miniatures Church.  It's a great kit and I highly recommend it.  I'm going to detail it later today.

Flames of War: Monte Cassino Terrain Section III

Sunday was a very productive day, terrain wise, as most of the basic scenery work was completed on the "Monte Cassino" module.  I'm pretty happy with the results so far and I think it's serviceable for next Saturday's game.

The rather flat section in the upper left of the picture will feature a Monastary as discussed on earlier posts.  The church has been primed and a bit of painting work has been completed.

The next few pictures are the module from different angles:

The figures on the table top are just set out for show, I need to tweak the scenario a bit once I've got a firm count of participants.

Flames of War Scenario Play Through

I was able to play through an initial version of the scenario I'll be using when I host my game club in March.  The scenario pits a large US Tank force (roughly 2,500 points) vs a defending German force (1,500 points on the table with 750pts in reinforcements).  The game featured some variable events and was designed to help me both re-learn the rules and begin to balance the game for my club event.  The picture to the left shows the start of the game with the US force entering the table via the road with the objective of seizing the towns and exiting the map.  The US force consisted of:
1 Tank Co (17 Shermans)
1 Armored Infantry Platoon
1 Tank Destroyer Section
1 Ranger Platoon (variable entry along the left side of the board
1 Armored Car Platoon

The  defending German force was made up of 2 platoons of FJGs*, a FJG* machine gun section, 2 Panthers, 3 Stugs, 2 Armored Cars, a self-propelled artillery section and a HQ platoon.  The off-board reinforcements consisted of 2 Tigers and an Armored Infantry platoon.

* Fallschirmajager

The Scenario is loosely based on the Barkman's Corner scenario that's published in the Cobra campaign book.  We were able to get about 10 turns in before calling it a game and I think we didn't mangle the rules too badly other than confusing some of the finer aspects of firepower tests.  It was a very fun game which ended up being a draw.

To the left you can see the battle lines at the end of the game.  The US (played by Ernie) had destroyed one of the paratroop platoons and was about to overwhelm the second one, but had lost 11 out of 19 tanks in the process.  German tank loses were at a similar 50% level as 2 stugs, a panther and both armored cars were put out of action.  Perhaps the high point of the game was the loss of the Panther (in the lower right of the picture) which was dispatched by a lowly M8 armored car's 37mm gun that had managed to get behind it.  Oh the shame....
I also learned to fear US bazooka's as they put the hurt on my assault guns.

The last picture shows the ending battlefield from the US side.  The US ranger platoon managed to seize the casino on the hill but was being threatened by the armored infantry company.

All-in-all it was a great game and a good chance the re-learn the rules.  One drawback of the FOW system is that there are lot's of tables for unit stats.  At Ernie's suggestion, I will be making some summary tables for each player that represent his forces to try and reduce the page flipping.  Hopefully I'll also have a bit better understanding of the rules next time also.  Still it was a fun time

Village Ruins are Table Ready

The 15mm scale village is now ready for the table top.  I will still add some details, but the piece is playable now and I'm pretty happy with it.  I'll be adding some silly details like furniture and a wrecked vehicle.  I have loads of HO scale strip wood which will suffice.  Remember the furniture is ruined so it doesn't need to look that good!  A big thank you to Galpy from the 15mm Paint Shack who sent me some images of vintage axis and allied propaganda posters which will prove very useful.  You can see one of the posters in the upper right of the photo.  Here are some more photo's of different angles and one picture of what the piece looks like with some troops.  As always, your suggestions are most appreciated.

15MM Scenery

Since the recent blizzard here in Maryland gave me some unexpected time-off, I decided to put that time to good use by working on some scenery projects for an upcoming Flames of War game I'll be hosting for my club.  The picture to the left is of a village strong point and is built on a 1ft square piece of masonite.  I'm about 2/3's complete and need to add ground cover and some more details.  The rubble is some HO scale ballast and some odd pieces of strip wood.  The only thing I'm not really happy with is the cobblestone street in the center.  It's made from an HO scale sheet of Plastruct cobblestone siding.  I'll try a couple ways to fix it and if that doesn't work, Ill try something else.  At least I'm starting to use some of the HO model rail road stuff I've accumulated.

Here's another shot of the village. center-left building will serve as a bank for the scenario, which will be a "Kelly's Hero's" themed game with the allies assaulting the town and then trying to make off with the loot as German reinforcements try to catch them.  I still need to work out the details but I have about 3,000 points for both the Germans and Americans.  I'll post some details about the scenario for comments later.

I also spent some time working on some sectional roads and bocage pieces.  The road sections are made from strathmore board and window sealant and I'm very happy with them.  I tried some latex based commercial road sections but could never really get the paint to stick and just didn't like the "feel" of them on the table.  I find strathmore board to be a great material to work with and will probably try to make some river sections with it.  There are also some urban road sections made from the same plastruct material.  lastly, you can see the bocage sections painted up and awaiting ground foam.  A completed one is at the top left of the photo.

The weather guys are indicating we are going to get another 10-20 inches of snow today - to go on top of the 32 inches we have.  At least I'll have time to finish my projects!