MINI WARGAMING: "May MWS Meeting & Life" (4 June 2008)

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TOP: A Babylon-5 Centauri starship, the Primus battlecruiser.

Hi All,

It's been a busy past few weeks... I have so much on my plate and gaming has been lower priority for the most part... NOT that I haven't been getting some in! I still have some priorities! May was a good month. The MWS meeting was pleasant and we had about sixteen attendees. Two games were run.

TOP: An ASL game... Without miniatures.

The first game was a 6mm ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) miniatures adaptation game run by Eric, our local microamror houd (...other than myself, of course). He had an interesting WWII Eastern Front battle with Russians advancing across a river bridge against determined German defenders. The game went well and I was sorry I missed it. I did, however, get to help set up the board... nothing like placing some six-odd zillion littles trees down... LOL ;o) Thanks, Eric!

TOP: A Babylon-5 starship, a White Star destroyer.

The second big game was run by Russel, a local Babylon-5 Starship Maniac, and was alot of fun. Russel is well-known by my friend Chern ,who recently had a birthday (Happy Belated Birthday, Chern!), and they often see each other at local gamign conventions playing B-5. I haven't played B-5 in ages (...probably at least two to three years ago with Chern) so it was alot of fun. Russel set up two sides, an Earth Federation side with lots of fancy hardware and a League of Unaligned Planets with Brakiri and Vree ships. I, of course, took a Vree battlewagon or two nd my side was... of course, slaughtered. The Earth ships have a great mix of defensive systems (interceptors) and offensive sytems (long-range missiles and powerful beams). Of course, it didn't help that my side lost nearly every initiative round. It was a great game and I really enjoyed seeing my friends and rolling the old "knucklebones" (dice).

On the miniatures front, I've been slowly and steadly pumping out 28mm orcs & pirates. This past weekend, I built some RAFM 28mm armored orcs as well as the beginnings of a 28mm orc & gobbo pirate crew. I will hopefully have some time to put out some photos soon...

In other news, Israel Independence Day or Yom Ha-Atzma'ut just passed and I enjoyed celebrating that.

To learn more about the holiday, please check out this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Ha-Atzmaut

And to keep this post from becoming just a boring news spread, I'm sharing an amusing article I read on the Modern Crossfire Yahoo Discussion group:

TOP: The venerable Moisin Nagant rifle.

AK-47: It works though you have never cleaned it. Ever.
AR-15: You have $9 per ounce special non-detergent synthetic Teflon infused oil for cleaning.
Mosin-Nagant: It was last cleaned in Berlin in 1945.

AK-47: You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from inside.
AR-15: You are able to hit the broad side of a barn from 600 meters.
Mosin-Nagant: You can hit the barn from two miles away.

AK-47: Cheap mags are fun to buy.
AR-15: Cheap mags melt.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a mag?

AK-47: Your safety can be heard from 300 meters away.
AR-15 You can silently flip off the safety with your finger on the trigger.
Mosin-Nagant: What's a safety?

AK-47: Your rifle comes with a cheap nylon sling.
AR-15: Your rifle has a 9-point stealth tactical suspension system.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has a dog collar.

AK: Your bayonet makes a good wire cutter.
AR-15: Your bayonet is actually a pretty good steak knife.
Mosin-Nagant: Your bayonet is longer than your leg.

AK-47: You can put a .30" hole through 12" of oak.
AR-15: You can put one hole in a paper target at 100 meters with 10 rounds.
Mosin-Nagant: You knock down everyone else's target with the shockwave of your bullet going downrange.

AK-47: When out of ammo, your rifle will nominally pass as a club.
AR-15: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a great wiffle bat.
Mosin-Nagant: When out of ammo, your rifle makes a supreme war club, pike, boat oar, tent pole, or firewood.

AK-47: Recoil is manageable, even fun.
AR-15: What's a recoil?
Mosin-Nagant: Recoil is often used to fix shoulders dislocated by the previous shot.

AK-47: Your sight adjustment goes to 10, and you've never bothered moving it.
AR-15: Your sight adjustment is incremented in fractions of minute of angle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your sight adjustment goes to 2000 meters, and you've actually tried it.

TOP: The modern AK-47 automatic assault rifle.

AK-47: Your rifle can be used by any two-bit nation's most illiterate conscripts to fight elite forces worldwide.
AR-15: Your rifle is used by elite forces worldwide to fight two-bit nations' most illiterate conscripts.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle has fought against itself - and won everytime.

AK-47: Your rifle won some revolutions.
AR-15: Your rifle drove Saddam out of Kuwait.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle won a pole vault event.

AK-47: You paid $330.
AR-15: You paid $900.
Mosin-Nagant: You paid $59.95.

AK-47: You buy cheap ammo by the case.
AR-15: You lovingly reload precision crafted rounds one by one.
Mosin-Nagant: You dig your ammo out of a farmer's field in Ukraine and it works just fine.

AK-47: You can intimidate your foe with the bayonet mounted.
AR-15: Your foes laugh when you mount your bayonet.
Mosin-Nagant: You can bayonet your foe on the other side of the stream without leaving the comfort of your hole.

AK-47: Any fool can be taught to field strip it.
AR-15: Anyone with an IQ over 160 can be taught to field strip it.
Mosin-Nagant: What's field stripping?

AK-47: Service life, 50 years.
AR-15: Service life, 40 years.
Mosin-Nagant: Service life, 101 years, and counting.

AK-47: It's easier to buy a new rifle when you want to change cartridge sizes.
AR-15: You can change cartridge sizes with the push of a couple of pins and a new upper.
Mosin-Nagant: You believe no real man would dare risk the ridicule ofhis friends by suggesting there is anything but 7.62x54 R.

AK-47: You can repair your rifle with a big hammer and a swift kick.
AR-15: You can repair your rifle by taking it to a certified gunsmith, if it's under
warranty!
Mosin-Nagant: If your rifle breaks, you pick up another one.

AK-47: You consider it a badge of honor when you get your handguards burst into
flames.
AR-15: You consider it a badge of honor when you shoot a sub-MOA 5 shot group.
Mosin-Nagant: You consider it a badge of honor when you cycle 5 rounds without the aid of a 2x4.

AK-47: You can accessorize you rifle with a new muzzle brake or a nice stock set.
AR-15: Your rifle's accessories are eight times more valuable than your rifle.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's accessory is a small tin can with a funny lid, but it's buried under an apartment building somewhere in Budapest.

AK-47: Your rifle's finish is varnish and paint.
AR-15: Your rifle's finish is Teflon and high-tech polymers.
Mosin-Nagant: Your rifle's finish is low-grade shellac, cosmoline, and Olga's toe nail polish.

AK-47: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for a stiff shot of vodka.
AR-15: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for hot dogs and apple pie.
Mosin-Nagant: After cleaning your rifle you have a strong urge for shishkabob.

AK-47: After a long day the range, you relax by watching Red Dawn.
AR-15: After a long day at the range, you relax by watching Black Hawk Down.
Mosin-Nagant: After a long day at the range, you relax by visiting the chiropractor.

TOP: The Stoner rifle, which later became the M-16 AKA M-4 series.

AK-47: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to hold yourrifle over your head and shout "Wolverines!"
AR-15: Late at night you sometimes have to fight the urge to clear your house, slicing the pie from room to room.
Mosin-Nagant: Late at night, you sometimes have to fight the urge to dig a fighting trench in the yard to sleep in.

AK-47: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Mikhail Kalashnikov.
AR-15: Your wife tolerates your autographed framed picture of Eugene Stoner.
Mosin-Nagant: Are there even photographs of Sergi Ivanovich Mosin
and Leon Nagant?

A link to the Modern Crossfire Yahoo Discussion group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/moderncrossfire/

And one more link to an interesting set of miniatures photos from the recent Enfilade gaming convention:

http://max.velocity.home.comcast.net/~max.velocity/enfilade08/

Have a great Wednesday!

Good gaming to you!

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

GAMING NEWS: ASL Day! (19 February 2007)

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This is a typical ASL kit, a container of chits, a set of maps, dice, and a handy-dandy kitchen table.

Hi Everyone,

With the flu I've suffered the past few weeks I haven't been able to keep up the blog as well as I'd like to. A few weeks ago, I was able to get together with my friend Charley at his buddy Roger's place and have an ASL Day. It was a good day, and ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) is one of those "cult classic" games that is always a blast to pull out.

Charley can be an intense guy, but don't be fooled.
He's really a "teddy bear" behind the "Ted Kazynski" stare.

Now, Roger can be quite the funny man.
His jokes made me chuckle several times during the day.

ASL is best known as being a rules-heavy game. It was developed over a number of years as a hex & chit game, meaning that the game is based around chits (small square cardboard playing pieces) moving around on a hexagonal map. It has had so many expansions that you practically need a PhD to really master the game. Despite all the rules, the game can be really fun to play with the right group of friends... and this game was fun with the right group of friends.

The briefing sheet for the scenario we played "The Sons of Galilee."
It lists all the of the units involved as well as a few rules and a historical precis.

The game started off with the Syrian invading forces entering from the Southern (bottom) and Eastern (bottom right) ends of the map.
Note that almost all of the forces are covered with question marks since all of the units were as of yet unidentified at this point in the game.

Charley knows that I have a keen interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict so he agreed to play a scenario from the Genesis '48 expansion, which replicates the 1948 Israeli War for Independence. We played a scenario near the beginning of the war in which a Syrian invading force of French and British-built armored cars supported by infantry attempts to overrun an Israeli Kibbutz (village settlement) in the North. Charley played the Israeli defenders and I (Maksim) played the Syrian invaders. Roger moderated and refereed the game as well as cracking jokes all day long.

At this point in the game, you can see that the Syrian armored cars have surrounded Israeli positions as well as the Kibbutz outskirts.

And this last game shot is near the end, Charley's Israelis are clustered in the center of the Kibbutz with Syrians surrounding them.

I (Maksim) won as the Syrian player although, to be very fair to poor Charley, the dice weren't treating him well. We still all had a good time. Roger acted as moderator and offered advice at several points in the game to me since I hadn't played ASL in a LONG time. We all went out to a nice lunch afterwards. Roger is also quite the hobby craftsman as well. I took several shots of some of his fine hobby work.

Roger had several work benches, but this is one in a typical state of disarray.

This is a very interesting diorama piece that Roger built of a 1/285 or 6mm scale science-fiction robot, a "Mad Cat" battlemech from the very popular Battletech background.

This is a beautifully done 54mm "Christmas Sophie" from Reaper Miniatures.
It's still in an early stage of painting.

Roger also build plastic model kits including this excellent AFV (Armored Fighting Vehicle), one of many he had displayed.

I want to thank Roger for hosting and Charley for playing ASL with me. Many thanks, guys!

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
You can find all of the photos I took from the session here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming%202007/ASL_2-19-2007/

PERSONAL NEWS: Mazel Tov Dave & Kimbo!

. Hi Everyone,

I wanted to make two quick notes...

It was my friend Kimbo's birthday this past weekend and I wanted to wish him a belated and very loud...

Happy Birthday!

The above photo is of Kimbo (Guy in the center background glancing ominously at the patriotic cake) celebrating his birthday with some lesser guy, a "virtual unknown" (The funny-looking guy to the right) to the greater gaming community... probably a custodian or something like that... red "power" ties are so blah these days (As an aside, I have no idea who the "face" on the left is... could he be Kimbo's handservant?)...

And as a weird coincidence, U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney bears a remarkable resemblance to Kimbo although I doubt he has anything like Kimbo's world famous gaming acumen.

This next photo is of Kimbo (On the right) and I (On the left in deep, deep thought!) playing games at ConQuest Sac 2006... Kimbo gave me a real beating while playing games at this convention... I wasn't kidding about Kimbo and his renowned gaming abilities! Kimbo looks much different when out of his customary suit and tie. He usually only wears flannel when hunting and playing certain other games...

And my friend Dave...

Mazel Tov on getting married!

They're both great guys and well known throughout the local gaming community for being fun folks to game with. Dave is well known for being a fanatical ASL (Advanced Squad Leader) player and Kimbo... for playing everything and anything!

Have a great day!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Personally, I think Kimbo looks more like Ariel Sharon despite the Cheney similarity, but that's just me. I've always wondered if Arik was subtly giving the photographer the bird in this shot...

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: The Weekend Wrap Up In Sacto Gaming (22-23 July, 2006)!

Hi Everyone,

This was quite a weekend of gaming, plenty of events.

Vynnie, a local gamer, well known for his generosity and a beautifully designed miniatures web site (link to his site shown below) was among the game hosts this past weekend.

Saturday was full of gaming events...

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Whether from the Sacto Board Gamers at the Arden Dimick Public Library...

http://boardgames.meetup.com/19/about/

You can see several well known gamers in the above photo (photo taken from the Sacto Boardgamers web site) ... among them Phil the "Mighty" and Brian the "Brain."

Kevin Ellingston was able to attend this event and noted the games played here:

http://briefurl.com/Arden_7-22-2006

I have posted a list on BoardGameGeek recapping the games that were played on July 22 at the Arden Dimick Library. Since I did not arrive until 2 p.m., I suspect there may have been a game or two that were played that I did not get a record of. If you attended and played a game that is not on the list, I would appreciate it if you would add it.

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The MWSS Board / Mini Gamers at Fair Oaks Public Library...

The above photo is of Rob "Mako" Kent, a local wargamer with an intense interest in aerial wargames and Don Delis, who hosted a WWII Pacific wargame.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

MWSS also had guests from the Bay Area EBAG Club:

The EBAG guys are certainly a little strange, but are always likeable!

Why is it that so many folks with Scooby Doo T-shirts seem to resemble Shaggy?

http://www.warsweb.com/ebag.html

MWSS hosted three mini games this past weekend:

- A western "gunsmoke" game (homebrew rules) designed and hosted by the always charismatic Joe Bianchi.

- A WWII Pacific game (Flames of War rules) featuring Ozzies fighting the Japanese in the deep jungle hosted by the inscrutable Don Delis.

- A DBM game featuring the Gauls vs. the Romans hosted by the ever magnanimous Brad.

I attended this event and took some photos, which can be found here:

http://briefurl.com/MWSS_7-22-2006

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Or the local gamers that Vynnie hosted at his place...

In the above photo, a might Klingon and Orion fleet head off to deal some "hurt" to the do-gooders of the Federation. If nothing else, the Klingons have thick heads of hair, which is more than many Federation captains can lay claim to...

http://www.recon-in-force.com/index.html

I also attended this event and posted some photos here:

http://briefurl.com/Vynnie_7-22-2006

We played the popular Starfleet Battles remake Federation Cammander and had a good time. FC is a big improvement over the rules and tables heavy SFB.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/21371

Of course, as often as not, it's the company that makes the game and not the other way around.

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And Sunday also saw a number of games hosted including some games of ASL (Advanced Squad Leader), a classic war game of much renown.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/243

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And I had a great time everywhere I headed this past weekend!

Thanks to all, whether hosts, players or otherwise!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: Fun two weeks culminating in the 10 December 2005 MWS weekend meeting!

Hi Everyone,

I've been blessed the past two weeks or so...

Last Sunday I had a chance to play Assyrian Wars by Udo Grebe with my friend Vince Blackburn AKA Vynnie at another friend's house, Dave Hanifan. George and Jeff also showed up and we all had a good time. The components could have used better color differentiation, but all of us had a good time upon final consideration.

The Board Game Geek link to Assyrian Wars is here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/8626

Last Tuesday, I found out that one of my favorite local gaming shops "Hobby Monkey" is taking a turn for the worse... less operating hours and several cancelled game tournaments including the immensely popular Formula De tournament, which really irks me because my racer had one of the top standings. The owner wants to close by 9:00pm on weeknights now (...sometimes 8:00pm) which really reduces the amount of time for gaming. Bummer...

I showed up on Tuesday at Hobby Monkey to find the poor Flames of Wars guys from Yuba City walking into an empty shop. We played a Formula De game, which they all liked. I was in first place until my car blew up in an unfortunate accident. Eric-Chern of Epic-Armageddon and Babylon-5 fame came in last place, but he finished unlike THREE of the rest of us! There were seven racers... pretty lethal race.

Yesterday, MWSS (Miniature Wargamers Society of Sacramento), had our monthly games day. Three games were hosted:

- 10mm (N-scale) WWII Eastern Front game with adapted ASL rules...
- 6mm/15mm HOTT Fantasy campaign...
- 15mm War of 1812 with Guns of Liberty rules...

I played in the 6mm/15mm HOTT Fantasy campaign and had a great time. I played two smaller HOTT battles (1 decisive win, 1 moderate loss) and played on the winning side of a Big-Battles-HOTT game which featured six armies (three a side) battling it out. General HOTT Dick Mitchell's "good consortium" (Elf army, human army and my magician's army) carried the day against Ork despot General Carper's hordes (Orc behemoth/archer band, Orc blades band and Orc shaman band).

I tried out an interesting HOTT army of eight spearmen supported by two magicians in the last game. It was fun although my sides didn't do much more than have my magicians toss spells at the enemy (which scared a key enemy behemoth which was forced to flee) and have my spearmen hold part of the line looking tough.

While the games were technically part of the HOTT campaign, we won't officially kick off the campaign until the January meeting so the games were really "practice" ones. I'm already afraid of the really tough Orc armies. Marc Carper really knows his game. And what a beautiful miniatures painter he is!

Photos of his minis and all three of the games can be found in a folder labelled "12-10-2005" at the MWSS E-group here:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

After yesterday's game, Diana and I were invited to a wine-tasting by our friends Roger and Grace. Roger's my idea of a good guy to taste wine with, a former 82nd Airborne paratrooper with an attitude! He's also one of the world's premier miniatures painters and his work is regularly featured in gaming magazines in the UK and USA. We had a good time even though we weren't behaving according to "wine-tasting decorum!" We both got in trouble with his wife at one point so we mellowed out. She takes "wine tasting" much more seriously than we did... at the time! Although I still insist that a few of the wines we "sampled" wouldn't have been good for lubricating even a Peugot. More like pee-eeuhhh!

We tried three French wines and three Napa Valley wines. I much prefer the Napa Valley wines from California. The French wines almost all had a bad aftertaste and I was happy to toss the rest of them in the "slops" bucket.

After the "wine tasting" there was a "white elephant" gift exchange. It's Murphy's Law that if you're Jewish, you will always end up with a Christmas ornament at a "holiday" (really Christmas) gift exchange. We (Diana and I) ended up with a set of diet books (The South Beach Diet Book and The South Beach Diet Cook Book) along with a... yeah, guess again... a Christmas ornament. I might just make a vow someday to make a version of Frosty with a Yarmulke! Dagnabit!

We gave the Christmas ornament to Grace and were able to swap our "books" for some kind of a "fancy shmancy" lemon liqueur from Italy. It's called "Limoncello" (spelling?). I haven't broken it open yet.

I've decided, all in all, that wine-tasting may not be my thing. The husband host was good and has started his own wine label, but the wife host, was bit shmarmy and her red thong underwear were hanging out in the wind. I wasn't going to say anything though... However at the first glance of her red thong, I vowed to not imbibe generously of the wine... get my drift!

Besides enjoying the company of Roger and Grace, I met someone who was an appreciator of Russian literature so I had a good time. Diana talked Baltimore football with the host and a few other folks.

All in all, the past two weeks or so have been good to me.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.