The White Cloaks, Part 3

Some new flags for AWI

Found these on ebay from a pleasant seller called "the gaming room".  Reasonably priced and good quality.

The first ones I have put to use are the Queens Rangers.   Did the QR have flags or use them in battle?   I don't really know or care-  I have the figures so they needed flags!

When there's no more room in the closet, the lead shall walk the Earth.

The Nerdcave is complete.  Finally a place to work, shelves to hold all (almost all!) the minis and a table for gaming and projects.

Longstreet Lite test game

Downloaded the lite version from the website plus 2 decks of cards.  Dug out some old 15mm ACW my dad painted many moons ago (ps- if anyone recognizes the manufacturer please let me know.  I think they are minifigs from the 1980s but not sure)

Sample game is a basic meeting engagement at a farm.  Rebs to the left, Yanks to the right.

The first thing I had to come to grips with was having to use precious cards you just knew you would want later in the game just to get the troops moving.

Yanks move a gun and an infantry unit up the hill on the right flank.

After routing a unit of yanks out of the woods on the left flank these rebs turn the zouaves flank.



Finally coming into musket range.  The rebs threw a "swampy ground" card in front of the yanks on the right to keep them from closing into melee.

The rebs come off the loser in the musket exchamge.  At this point they reached the break point of 9 bases lost.  I had misunderstood how to play this and thought I was supposed to meet or exceed but you actually start dicing when you get within 6 of it, but I don't have enough bases to play that way.

I figured I would give the rebs their turn since I didn't know if the game should end AT the brealpoint or after it was exceeded.  With their fire the rebs knocked out 3 yankee bases to a total of 10, so by my on the spot rule changes the rebs squeaked out a win.

Somehow even when I play solo I get the feeling I lost...

Lessons learned:  I think I am better off having fewer but larger units.  4 base units just didn't throw out much firepower.  I don't think I ever had to use morale cards to lower the loses.  Having more units made it very hard to get the troops into combat range.  You only get 6 cards a turn which means you can only fire/move six units that turn but that would deprive you of any action modifiers and leave you completely vulnerable to lucky enemy casualty rolls as well as burn through your deck very fast.  It is more realistic to think you will fire/move 3 units a turn.
All in all it seems a promising game with a lot of tactical decisions to make during each phase.

Battle of Jackson Heights (A Combatpainter saga)

A WW2 action.  US Airborne supported by armor attacking through hedgerows into Grench town defended by Germans.  28mm scale.  Used Disposable Heroes rules with some home grown modifications.

I had these Force on Force Fog of War cards I wanted to make use of so we added them to the game, modifying them to match the WW2 setting and DH rules.
They turned out to be a better deal for the Americans, as they got an extra tank show up as reinforcement and the Germans had their Panther bug out halfway through the game.  The Americans had to make their way into the edge of the town defenses by turn 6 which they just barely managed to do but they had destroyed most of the German force in the process.

Another 28mm AWI game

Rumble in the Jungle. A 20mm modern Africa game

This one was a modern Africa game using lightly modified Disposable Heroes rules.  A professional strike force was attacking a rebel stronghold with objectives of killing or capturing their officer and knocking out a pesky artillery gun.   Things became chaotic right at the entry point and the professionals found themselves losing several vehicles to RPGs and ramming 2.5 ton trucks.  They retreated with severe losses. 

Playcation 2013: AWI big game

The results are in for Playcation 2013. There was a massive AWI game, featuring 5 players and just about every 28mm figure we own.
It was a fictitous contest featuring French, Germans, British and Americans slogging it out over a village and surrounding woodland. The British side managed to take most of the town but put too little on the woodland side of the table, losing those objectives to the Americans.
Miniatures are mostly Perry/Foundry 28mm.  Rules are (heavily) modified This Very Ground.

The battlefield.  Americans to left, French to back left.  British to right.

The intrepid American general.

The American militia deploy on the road coming out of the woods.  Some head up the mountain to secure one objective.

American guns atop the mountain.

British cavalry showing off.  Actually deployed elsewhere.

American regulars and French cavalry.

Deployment on the village side.   French infantry and guns near 1 objective marker.

The British right flank.  Cavalry, Light infantry and Hessians.

French left flank.

AMericans start to advance but create a traffic jam for several turns as they are plagued with failing morale from Hessian Jaeger sniper fire and unlucky activation cards.

The Hessians start to push up the right flank.

The center remains clear.  A 2 point objective marker in the middle of the road.  A 1 point marker in the foreground is covered by Hessian ammussette teams that are out of sight behind the tree.

Fighting on the right flank heats up between Hessians and French.

French regulars and grenadiers trade volleys with the Germans.

British forces in their deployment zone slow to get into action.

French guns take aim at a British unit.

British unit comes within range of the guns but veers off at last minute to avoid the grapeshot.

Light infantry snipes at the French gun crews from the houses.

British cavalry makes a charge at the French guns.  A bloody but unsuccessful gamble.

The French guns remain in control of the objective point, backed up by American infantry,

On the woodland side of the fight the Americans are having a hard time advancing against the Hessians Jaegers.

Maybe the Patriot and his boys can turn the tide!?

The Hessian Jaegers are few in number but their fire is accurate and demoralizing.

Finally American riflemen are in position to return fire and the Jeagers numbers dwindle.

Americans are finally able to charge against the pinned down Jaegers and flush them out of the woods.

French cavalry run down the fleeing amusette crews.

Mel and company grab the last woodland objective.  Victory to the US/French 7-3