Leprecon - Part Two - Kursk

Over on the Soviet right, massive carnage ensues

My contribution to Leprecon was a Memoir '44 scenario, specifically the Battle of Prokhorovka.  Now in line with my policy of stealing over men's glory, it was an official scenario. I merely added our own slightly modified version of the Overlord rules and dollied the setup a bit. 

Some background on the battle, taken from the Official Scenario notes. 

The tank battle of Prokhorovka was a clash between two immense armored forces. As the SS Panzer Corps started its advance, the Soviet artillery erupted and soon after the 5th Guards Tank Army under Gen. Pavel Rotmistrov accelerated toward the German advance. Rotmistrov's plan was to close quickly to negate the advantage held by the longer range German tanks.

The fighting became a swirling melee and soon the battlefield was littered with the shattered remains of smoking armor. Losses on both sides were enormous. Combined, over 700 tanks were lost and because the battlefield remained in Soviet control the Germans could not recover and repair their losses.

The stage is set, the battle lines are drawn, and you are in command. The rest is history.

An unusual assortment of armour. 

A Matchbox T-34 from Ebay faces a diecast Tiger. The Lendlease Cromwell was assembled by an 11 year old Kinch with crazy glue. They were £2 in a bargain shop and I bought several of them, only to paint them twenty years later. 

I'm a little sketchy on the layout of the scenario, but I think this Build Up Area is meant to represent the village of Ponyri, also known as "Little Stalingrad". I added some smoke and a firepower light to represent the ruined town burning. I think I might try and use black smoke next time. But where to get black pillow stuffing?

  

Oh dear

A Revell Panzer IV finds itself facing a horse of Airfix T-34s. The Airfix T-34 has a number of weird ridges on the turret which make it impossible to add decals.  The Russians as you can see from the Frontline Wargaming explosion markers have already taken some damage.  

The battle entire - The Soviets won this one. 

I indulged into some Warlord Games firepower lights. Here's one showing that Revell Panzer IV catching fire.

I liked it so much, I took the same shot twice. The flashing lights were a real hit and lots of folks commented on them.

One of the pleasures of playing at conventions is meeting new players. I was introduced to Comrade Bob, a pal of Arquinsel's who led the Soviet armour on to do great execution amongst some overly bold German infantry.

Though the German counter attack was brutal.

 I was lucky that Donogh and Arquinsel volunteered vehicles or I would have been in serious trouble. As for rating the troops under Memoir '44, the German tanks were in Panzer Grey if they were regular armour and camouflage if they were elite. Despite thinking that I would never need any more German armour, it appears I will have to pick up a box of Plastic Soldier Panzer IV. 

A later game, the Russians romped to victory in this one. 

The German demonstrating serious pointy helmet wearing skills. 

Deep in conference with a representative of the Luftwaffe.

Overall, I was happy with the game. It didn't break the bank. It ran four times over the weekend and the honours were even for both sides. The game took about an hour, which is about right for a convention game I think. I think the bits that I enjoyed the most were the silly flourishes, like the hats, the firepower lights and the little diorama's that I set up (but forgot to take pictures of). I won't be bringing a Command & Colours game to Gaelcon this year as I've been asked to do a Little Wars game, but I think the system is sound and I like the opportunity to put on a bit of a show. 

Leprecon - Part One

Wallace & Gromit close in on the Telly Tubbies

Leprecon was a great success with over two hundred at the con, some great games and generally a very good atmosphere. I'll be putting up some pictures over the next few days - but I think special mention has to go to the Wild Geese Wargaming Club's Telly Tubbies Game. This was run a number of years ago, but the thinking behind it is this. 

The suits at RTE have cancelled all children's television programming barring the Telly Tubbies because their success makes all other programming superfluous. The now out of a job characters decide to take matters into their own hands and descend on the Tubbies in order to kidnap them and hold them to ransom, trading the captive Tubbies for renewed contracts. 

The South Park boys advance 

I'm not entirely sure what children's show these are from, Noddy I think? 

Of course, the other characters had exactly the same idea - so what follows was a tense game of "Catch the Tubby" with quite a bit of internecine strife. 

Hammer Smurf goes in for the kill

The band close in, working out very quickly that the randomly moving Tubbies are much easier to stomp into submission if they can be cornered. 

Eeeh Gromit! Smurfs!

The South Park Boys advance while Thomas & Co chase a running tubby towards the table edge. 

The fabulous Duck brothers - their purpose was obscure

The horror - the horror 

This was an extremely silly game and great fun. I believe the South Park Boys & the Band shared the honours at the end of the day, while the Smurfs and Wallace & Gromit had succumbed to mutual annihilation. 

Curiously enough this is the rare example of a game that I enjoyed, that doesn't have me considering a new period. Well done to the Wild Geese. 

The Freemasonry of the Hobby

Shell bursts from Frontline Wargaming 

I'm burning the midnight oil trying to get everything ready for Leprecon tomorrow. Like for example these resin shellbursts from Frontline Wargaming. I using these to represent hits on armour units in Memoir '44 as cramming three 1/72 tanks into a five inch hex would just look silly. 

I'm also indebted to the Freemasonry of the hobby as both Donogh and Arquinsel have helped me out with some 1/72 armour that I was short. Stout fellows the pair of them. 

Right, back to the grind stone. 

Leprecon

Command & Colours Napoleonics: Battle of the River Coa scenario

I was busy at Leprecon over the weekend which was no bad thing. The details are mainly of interest to those who were there, but suffice to say a good time was had by all. I played a few games of Command & Colours and Donogh's Tomorrows War game attracted a lot of attention.

Battletech also made an appearance

I quite like the space football drop ship, I must say.

There was a significant presence of Warmachine players

Not really my cup of tea, but very nicely painted

Jason Soles, head designer boffin of Warmachine, proving that tweed is not an absolute necessity in a wargames author

More pictures from the Coa and the winner of our competition in the days to come.

Leprecon III: Corunna in pictures

The Battle of Corunna - 20mm figures on a 5 inch hex Hotz mat

French guns prepare the way as the Irish Brigade and the 76ieme Ligne begin the French push in the centre

Was there a man dismayed? The Redcoats stand firm

The 3ieme Legion Etranger, who were not present at the battle, but were the only French light infantry I had at the time - press on

British cavalry on the right, sadly they will have to shoot their horses later as there is insufficient room in the transports

The French assault in the centre despite heavy casualties turns the British line

The battle went on in the centre for several turns, with both sides getting cut up rather badly. Fortunately, the French blinked first, when an ill considered cavalry charge blocked the advance of the remaining French infantry. The British were able to punish the reckless horsemen sufficiently to break the French will to continue, but it was a damn close run thing...

Donogh McCarthy RA, a dissolute roue and the painter responsible for the above images. Pictured here shortly after a laudanum fuelled "consultation" with a flame haired technical expert (left). Poor McCarthy as you can see is much vexed by the news that he shall have to repaint his Afghans, as he used the wrong kind of blue.

Leprecon II: Lessons learned

An aerial view of the battle of Corunna,

British forces holding the hills overlooking Elvina

I have been giving the games that were played over the weekend some thought and there is a great deal to be pleased about. The ever fickle convention going public were willing to give a strange game a try, though the Memoir '44 factor helped immensely. While there are significant differances between the two games, people who had played Memoir '44 knew the rough outlines of the game immediately and that it was short.

The great unwashed were far more likely to play a short game sight unseen than a long one.

Foy over at Prometheus in Aspic has spoken of the crispness of the turn sequence, which I think it one of the games major strengths. I wrote to Richard Borg, the creator of the game, some years ago to thank him for his work on Battle Cry and Memoir '44. I told him that there were games that one talks about and games that one plays. I own over a dozen rules systems, several which I believe are fine games. I have in the last six weeks played more Command & Colours: Napoleonics than any of those combined - the speed at which the game is played is probably the key factor in this.

But where was I?

Behold the offending bases

There were problems however, setting the battlefield up took far too long. This was nothing to do with terrain, which was relatively simple and rather a lot more to do with how I base my figures. A rebasing experiment some years ago left deep scars in my pysche and I vowed that I would never do such a thing again. As a result, I base my Napoleonics singly and place them on sabot bases as necessary. This has worked out rather well - I've used figures singly for Savage Worlds and then placed them on bases for En Avant! and Command&Colours: Napoleonics.

However, I store them in boxes without their sabot bases and the business of laboriously transfering single figures their sabot bases ate up valuable gaming time. Also because I was using En Avant! bases, infantry battalions were exactly inch too wide. This wasn't really an issue until players began to form lines whereupon it began to be a little unsightly.

The solution? Bespoke bases five inches wide by two deep.

There are two possibilities here, steel bases with magnetic material attached to the bottom or unadorned steel bases. One of the players, a phyicist who works with magnets has assured by that the magnetic material attached to the figures will hold the bases in place. He is however, an oaf, notorious for his drunken buffonery, so I haven't committed myself just yet.

Either way, I shall cut down setup time and get more time around the table.

Leprecon - Lessons learned

1. Casual players will play C&C: Napoleonics if you convince them that it is "...like Memoir '44". This is key to ensuring that there is a pool of players available, dearth of players is the death of many a game.

2. Set-up for my large scale C&C: Napoleonics set is too long, changes to basing will solve this.

3. Five inch hexes simply will not fit guns and gun teams, I will need to square this particular circle in order to field Horse Artillery.

4. Marking the sections of the battlefield with string is effective, but it isn't attractive. I am reluctant to permanently mark my mats, but it may have to come to that.

Leprecon

The Battle of Maida 20mm figures on a Hotz mat with 5 inch hexes

I enjoyed Leprecon - it was a good chance to chance up and play some games. Numbers were badly down, something I think the committee will have to ask themselves some hard questions about. That said, the organisation of everything barring promotion and advertising was top notch and things ran very smoothly.

My proposed Tank Duel game didn't go ahead, due to lack of players, but Command & Colours: Napoleonics got a thorough working over, with ten games being played over the two days. I had Donogh as a next door neighbour. I was unable to find his zeppelin in time, so he ran some Ambush Alley scenarios instead, getting four games in over the weekend, which pleased him no end.

You can see some pictures of Donogh's work, here.

My "Yes Minister" LARP went rather well - the players negotiating the first two years of Margaret Thatchers administration without any major screwups. Though they did precipitate a a run on the Peso after the assassination of the Spanish premier by ETA. There was also that thing with the hunger strikers, a sex scandal or two and a bit of a bust up with some bin-men. But all good clean fun.

No one mention the brief shooting war with Spain over Gibraltar.

It was interesting to run a game set during the Thatcher administration where the Miners Strike was not the major policy disaster.

My Margaret Thatcher (ably played by Ms. Tootsie Royale) was splendid and really kept the players on their toes.

Hats at conventions are so passe - glue on moustaches are the new new thing
(Marshall Vincenzo modelling La Guarda Imperiale)

Command & Colours: Napoleonics was a success - we got ten games in over two days. Eight games of Maida and two games of Corunna. Honours were about equal and a good time was had by all. Most of the players hadn't played Napoleonics before and there were four players that hadn't played a C&C game before. If I had any doubts, this weekend put them to rest, Napoleonics is an excellant game - we just haven't really grasped its subtleties yet.

Some of them are laughably unconvincing...

(General Fatzington attempts to carry off an Ambrose Burnside)

A good weekend, more pictures to follow...