MINI GAMING: Miniature Games - The Good, the Bad & the Ugly!

Hi Everyone,

Well, Scott DiBartelo has started a blog and it's coming along. Just the other day or so ago, he decided to discuss the hobby of miniature wargaming and came up with a few questions he wanted to pose to his friends and readers...

Read his entire discussion here:

http://nothingbutgames.blogspot.com/

http://nothingbutgames.blogspot.com/2006/04/miniature-games-good-bad-and-ugly.html#links

======

The specific questions he posed were:

So there ya have it, my take on why I love (for the most part), miniature games. They aren't perfect - though some do come real close for me, they are open to rules lawyering - though often it's unavoidable due to the nature of the game, the look absolutely fantastic - no denying that! and they provide an appropriate outlet for my creative tendencies that is both satisfying and appealing.

How about you?

- An oddball uncle got me into the hobby in the 1980s and I haven't looked back since although I have taken several long hiatuses from the hobby several times for work and/or university studies. I started off with board games and RPGs, but quickly switched over to the entry-level miniatures games, where miniatures replace game chits / counters. I remember the early fantasy rules like Chainmail and the Star Trek mania that Starfleet Battles brought about.

- Your statement, "Show me some cool scenery or terrain and give me some nice looking figures to push around and I'm a happy camper," certainly applies to me. I also enjoy the hobby on many different levels: artisanry, craftsmanship, social interaction, intellectual challenge, historical interest, etc., etc.

Do you enjoy miniature games?

- Oh, yes. I've had a great time with the hobby over the years and one of my favorite aspects of the hobby is that it's a very calm and peaceful outlet. It's also relatively inexpensive compared to hobbies like extensive television watching (...need that big screen TV sooner or later), sports cars, boats or even bar hopping... traditional domains of the male stereotype.

- And one of the greatest benefits I've gained from the hobby is a group of great friends all over the world from...

- Dafrca down in Burbank, CA in the Greater Los Angeles area to...

- Peter "Primarch" Ramos in Puerto Rico to...

- Ronen Tamari in Karmiel, Israel to...

- Stephane in France, to...

- Ian "Cybershadow" Weir in the UK, to...

- Mark and Tas in New Zealand and Oz respectively, to...

- John VanVlak in Malta, to...

And the list goes on and on...

- John, the other day ago, posted about Easter on Malta:

http://www.epic40k.co.uk/epicomms/ikonboard.cgi?s=281f1214f9ce24f7d9f9e7ef66d4b2aa;act=ST;f=59;t=6704;st=0

- I'm interested in trying some of his Maltese recipes now:

http://www.maltagozo.com/recipes#figolli

- This one sounds particularly good: "FIGOLLI - TRADITIONAL MALTESE EASTER PASTRY"

Have you had the same kinds of experiences?

- Yes. I think I've gone the full gambit of gaming experiences, but, on the other hand, the nice thing about the hobby is that there is always something new coming down the pipe. You never know what the next popular trend or historical interest will be...

- I know that in my time, I've tried out a huge variety of games from an equally large number of historical periods and a few nonhistorical ones as well...

- Overall, my gaming experiences have been very very good. I've made some very positive friendships and had some great experiences.

Do they appeal to you for the same (or maybe different) reasons?

- Gaming for me is first and foremost a social outlet. I like the social banter, the camarderie and the feelings of warmth from interacting with nice folks.

- The collecting and craftsmanship angles are nice as well, but the social aspect is more attractive to me.

- And the historical aspect is up there for me as well. I love the interest in history that gaming often brings about. I've learned a lot about history that I might never have learned if it wasn't for gaming.

Have you played with a miniature rules lawyer?

- I think we all have at some point and they do put a crimp in the hobby, which is a bummer, but nothing is perfect.

- One of my favorite local gamers is KIMBO! And he specifically avoid miniatures games because of rules lawyers. He likes the dependability of games with less "rules lawyer'in." Bummer. Kimbo would be a fun fellow to share those sorts of games with.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/kimbo

- A trend that I've noticed is that groups often shrink and become insular to prevent entry of "rules lawyers" and other such undesireables. I can't blame such groups for the trend, but I have a sort of pet peeve to introduce gamers to each other and keep the player pool from stagnating too much. I think that that is one of the great saving graces of the Internet:

- On one hand, cyber-relationships are impersonal and keep some from interacting face-to-face, BUT, on the other hand, the Internet is great when used as a tool to gather like-minded folks. I've made a number of interest groups for the hobby and one of the most successful has over 1,500 members. I think of the Internet as a tool to help me meet quality folks and... it's pretty much worked out that way for me.

======

Scott is known for being a generous great guy and has hosted at local Nothern California gaming conventions for years and year. One of his favorite games is Man O War, the classic GW game of fantasy naval combat from the 1990s. He started a Yahoo support E-group for Man O War called "The Sea Of Claws," which now has over 1,200 members!

Here are links to his favorite game and his venerated Yahoo E-group:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2516

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

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
I dont know exactly why I picked that comic for today's post, but I enjoyed it and why not?

WARGAMING: Saturday (4 March 2006) At Great Escape Games!

Hi Guys,

Well, yesterday, I mosey'ed (How do you spell mosey?) on over to Great Escape Games with two objectives in mind:

1. Possibly play a Battleground WWII minis game with Kurt, Mark and gang and/or...
2. Play some board games with the excellent Dave Story, Kimbo and anyone else around for boardgaming day...

I came out very well, indeed!

======

Dave and Kimbo beat Kurt and Mark to the store by a good margin so we all sat down to play one of Dave's latest acquisitions:

"Conquest of the Empire," the newer Eagle Games variant.

Here's a Board Game Geek (BGG) link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/17710

And here's the BGG blurb:

This game is a remake of the 1984 classic that was part of Milton Bradley's Game Master Series. In this game you are one of many Roman generals vying for power in Imperial Rome, employing legions, cavalry, and catapults to reach your objectives.

This version of the game has two sets of rules, one set similiar to the original version (except that it has fixed the broken catapult rules) and an original set of rules based on Martin Wallace's Struggle of Empires.

Mike O'Brien and Charlie joined us so we had a full table of five.

Like most Eagle games, while it was rich in game components (...hundreds of little plastic gaming pieces and hordes of little cardboard counters), I found gameplay a little lacking.

I also suffered one of my all-too-regular curses... of playing opposite Mike O'Brien. Mike's a great guy and all, but we seem to have gameplay styles that conflict HEAVILY with one another! I ended up planted in the East with bases in Macedonia and Egypt. And, of course, Mike also ends up in Egypt and decides to make it his home base of operations... right where I wanted my home as well... ensue COMBAT!

I barely won, and only because I was persistent. And meantime, my chances for victory were utterly lost. It turns out that "Conquest" is as much a political game as a game of ancient warfare.

We ended early and Kimbo and Dave were the only two competitors. I had a good time and saved a whole ton of armies to give someone else a hard time. Poor Mike was nearly wiped out.

======

Meanwhile, Kurt and Mark showed up.

As usual, Mark showed up with some gorgeous new terrain that he SCRATCH-BUILT and a horde of 15mm WWII figures. Kurt showed up too in his trademark brown leather jacket with his trademark sense of well-honed sarcasm...

Kurt, Mark, Dick and I have been experimenting with Star Mogul from Alpha Forge Productions and have, well... been disappointed.

http://www.alphaforgegames.com/

Star Mogul has some balance issues and when Dick's forces were slaughtered in the last game, the guys decided to try and rewrite the Star Mogul rules a bit and in the meantime, find another skirmish game to play around with.

Well, it turned out that Mark liked Easy Eight's Battleground WWII (BGWWII) so... lo and behold, that'll be the next rule set!

Two links to BGWWII:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/20441

http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/ww2/bgww2.html

While, I didn't play I did observe the game and I liked it. Kurt played Russians and Mark, Germans. Mark, as usual, set up a scenario in which he was hard-pressed and Kurt's troops carried the day.

The game mechanics are good and flow well. I can't wait to play the game again.

And speaking of BGWWII, one of my friends who I played BGWWII with has recently moved (...studying in grad school) and has set up his own web site. I'm talking about Jon Compton, the editor of Fire & Movement magazine and one heck of a nice guy.

Here's a link to his new web site:

http://www.joncompton.com/bio.html

======

Meanwhile, Mike, Kimbo, Charlie and I decided to get one more game in before we headed home and somehow, we decided on Wellington from GMT Games.

BGG link to follow:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/11265

BGG blurb:

Adapted from the designer's "The Napoleonic Wars" covers the campaigns in Spain
and Portugual between 1812 and 1814.Simplified diplomacy as the four players
play in two teams (Spain & Britain vs France Nord & France Sud).

We each took the following roles:

The Good Guys (...because I played them!):
1. Me as the Spanish
2. Kimbo as mighty Wellington and the English

The French (...and Bad Guys!):
3. Charlie as France Nord
4. Mike O'Brien as France Sud

The game was an interesting historical scenario and I had a good time overall, but I wanted to mention that the event cards had some pretty confusing wording. If it wasn't that I was playing with an easy-going bunch, I could have foreseen games ending over such arguments. Rules lawyers would have loved those cards.

Well, pretty early on, it started getting ugly for French. After a few initial victories, my Spanish really started kicking Mike O'Brien around (See! I told you I end up opposite him just about every game... even when we're allies!). By the end of turn three, the French were almost entirely forced out of Southern Spain.

Charlie did a better job with France Nord until about turn two when Kimbo set out with a reinforced Wellington and started ripping holes in the French bulwarks in central Spain.

And, it just went downhill from there.

We fell into a pattern:

- The French threw everything they had at Wellington... who ran when necessary and...

- Meanwhile the Spanish cleaned up, claiming the open territories that the English created.

- Which oddly enough, are rather historically accurate results.

I won the game... allied victory that time.

======

And I also wanted to report that my friend, Tas'es new blog is going gangbusters:

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: The Tuesday and Wednesday Night Wrap-Ups!

Hi Guys,

Busy week! My old friend Eric Royer, known to many as Chern, is back in action. We met on Tuesday night at A-1 and got to exchange goodies and get a game in. He lent me "Babylon-5: Crusades" and I lent him the two "Star Wars: Clone War" disks and the second season of "Battlestar Galactica."

I was surprised to see so many guys at A-1 on Tuesday night, Apparently Tuesday night is the RPG night with at least four different games going. I was happy to see both Aaron McKinley and Aaron Morneau there among others. Fortunately for me, Eric was going to play the new boardgame "Descent" with Brecht, but Brecht flaked so Eric and I played my copy of "Ticket to Ride: Europe. " It was fun and Eric won handily.

A link to "Ticket to Ride: Europe":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14996

Yesterday on Wednesday is my regular night and I met Kimbo, Dick, Mark, Kurt and Mike O'Brien. Mark and Kurt already had a game of "Bloodbowl" (Fantasy Football featuring Dark Elves versus Lizardmen) going so Mike and I played a game of "Ticket to Ride: Europe" and I won this time around. Mike is not the sort that ordinarily goes for train games, but he enjoyed "TtR:Europe." Kurt pulled off a victory in the Bloodbowl game. Apparently Lizardmen win by pummeling the other team and Dark Elves win by being sneaky gits.

A link to "Bloodbowl":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/712

About that time, Kimbo and Dick showed up to fill out the gaming mini-party. Kimbo and Mike broke off to play "Twilight Struggle," which despite its somewhat boring sounding theme, The Cold War, is a great game. Mike played "The Evil Empire" (The former USSR) and Kimbo played "The Capitalist Cowboys" (The USA) and I observed the first five turns or so of the ten turn game. The game is card-driven and the cards really make the game, covered with period photographs and amusing captions with related events. They ended the game early of the ten-turn ending Mark with the Soviets ahead on the zero-sum scoring meter and called it a draw. The basic goal of the game is to lay down "influence points" to influence, dominate or control individual countries and entire regions. It was fun to watch Mike's "Commies" move on Asia rather than the Middle East and to see Kimbo's "Cowboys" concentrate on the Middle East. There were ony two Arab-Israeli wars in this "alternate universe" and the Israelis pushed Sadat to make peace after only two. It's almost like a world blessed witht he absence of the toothless and ineffectual United Nations. Iran and Iraq also had happier stories than exist in our "real" world. Very interesting game...

A link to "Twilight Struggle":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/12333

Dick brought "Command and Colors: Ancients" and had devised a clever system to combine DBA with "C&C:A," which worked out very well. He and Mark played one or two games with Dick's new system and it worked out very well indeed. Dick has a point system worked out for "C&C:A" as well as a straight swap between "C&C:A" pieces and DBA army lists. Both Mark and Dick had a good time so I'm guessing it worked out well.

Mark graciously agreed to let me replay the Battle of Cannae as Varro and the Romans while he reprised his role as Cannibal's Carthaginians. This battle went very differently and I led the Romans toa very solid and possibly decisive victory over the Carthaginians in this game. In the real battle of Cannae, Hannibal let the Roman center advance and then swarmed them with his more numerous light infantry, which led to the Romans being overwhelmed. This is more or less what happended the first time I played the Battle of Cannae only I made a better showing with the Romans before losing to mighty Hannibal "Mark."

This time, I was determined to make a better showing and I did. I very carefully advanced the Roman center yesterday and wasn't averse to retreating if my position didn't look viable. Several of my front-line center auxilia took a real beating and I just barely had it retreat behind my second-line medium infantry. At that point, Hannibal "Mark" was clearly ahead, but the Romans had better position; both of their wings were even with the Roman center and the Roman center was in good position to regroup. At that point, Mark tried to bring in his wings to pincer me, but the Roman center regrouped with powerful medium and heavy infantry units and decisively broke the Carthaginian center. There were Roman heavy infantry units almost to the Carthaginian edge of the map when I won. However, it could easily have turned around had I not won when I did. The Carthaginians were pressing down hard on the Roman right and defeated Varro's cavalry before retreating under pressure by Roman auxilia. Hannibal "Mark" could easily have won if I had rolled a little poorer. It was a good game and I'm very impressed with the way "C&C:A" handles these well-known historical battles.

And the biggest news on the personal front for me is that my roommate and I have been approved for a new apartment and they're ready for us to move in this weekend so they'll be little to no gaming for me this upcoming weekend!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: 28mm Fantasy Skirmish Using ARES!

Hi Guys,

Yesterday (30 January 2006) was a nice gaming get-together. Dick, Mark, Kurt and I got together to play fantasy skirmish game using the ARES rules set from MJ12 Games.

Mark has arranged a campaign in which a human empire has been trying to expand in an area full of hostile Ork and Dwarven kingdoms. all of the games are linked, which provides some continuity to add color to the games.

One of the first outings involved the great forge block of the dwarves, which had been kidnapped by the humans who were then ambushed by the dwarves trying to sneak the forge block back to the human castle / base of operations. In that action, Kurt played the dwarves and Dick and I split up the human force. The humans barely managed to hold onto the great forge block at great loss in forces including tha tragic slaying of the hero, Dax. Alas...

Yesterday, we found the humans beset by raiding forces again, this time a Ratling sorceror protected by Ork thugs and a few Ratling skirmishers. In a tough fight, the humans prevailed again, but at great cost. Luckily, the human's sole remaining ehro survived the skirmish... and just barely. He had one wound of five remaining! All of the Ratlings and Orks were butchered and cubed into feed for the local forest creatures! Poor Kurt has now lost two in a row.

The game mechanics for ARES are pretty good. It reminds me a lot of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish except... with a much less emphacised magic system. The close combat system uses opposed die rolls with different qualities of dice. Like most games, victory or loss is heavily dependent on rolling your dice well. ARES also uses playing cards for initiative, which works out very well. It's also a very quick-moving system. We have played ten and twelve-turn games ina bout a hour and a half a piece. Very smooth!

Here's a link to the makers of ARES:

http://www.mj12games.com/home.html

A link to the Board Game Geek (BGG) link for ARES:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5513

The next game in line for the campaign was a HOTT game in which the human castle is besieged by Ork forces on the rampage. It was alsoa tough scenario in which the humans had only 16 points versus the Ork's 24! Dick took command of the humans and Kurt faced off against him with the Orks. Mark and I watched and cheered for the sides. The map was a horrendus little river valley with the human stronghold securely located behind a river, which made it hard to assault, but also cut off a good portion of the human defenders from aiding the main portion of their forces in the center of the map.

It was a hard fought battle in which both sides lost multiple units, but it came down to a battle between the opposing generals in which the Ork warlord was slain by the leader of the humans! Hurray for my side!

Here's a BGG link to the HOTT rules:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5369

Afterwards, Dick pulled out his copy of "Command and Colors: Ancients" and Mark and I replayed the battle of Cannae in which the Romans were crushed by Hannibal and the mighty Carthaginians. I was cast as the well, take a guess, Romans in the historically losing role and I did my part to reconfirm history.

We started out on what looked like an equal footing, but that was quickly changed when in the very first exchange, almost the entire Roman center of medium infantry was utterly crushed by some incredible die rolls by Mark using Carthaginian light infantry. It looked really bad at that point! I was ready to press the reset button at that point, but I stuck it out because the guys wanted to see what would happen. Well, I almost had turned it around and on the very last turn, the game could have gone either way although the Cathaginians pulled it out! Mazel Tov, Mark!

I really like "Command and Colors: Ancients" and will definitely play it again as it has a huge following in my neck of the woods. It plays much like a DBA or HOTT game without the ambiguity of rules that those games have due to the "Barker Fart" of a rules set they have, which while it works very well, reads like it was written using inspiration from Hong Kong electronics manufacturers!

A link to GMT's page on "Command and Colors: Ancients":

http://www.gmtgames.com/cca/main.html

And the BGG page for "C&C:A":

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/14105

Additionally, Mark has discussed wanting to play some sci-fi skirmish games using the new Alpha Forge game rules: "Star Mogul!"

http://www.alphaforgegames.com/homepage.html

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: Holiday HoTT night (21 December 2005) Game Report...

Hi Guys,

There was a sort of informal gaming night yesterday at A-1 Comics on Douglas in Roseville yesterday. We played a series of HOTT games.

Here are a few quotes from the MWS gaming group that all of the players belong to:

--- In M_W_S, RICHARD MITCHELL wrote:
> Them Orcs aren't hapless.
> They have plenty of haps, maybe hundreds of them - they took them from my boys last night.
> Thank [insert deity of choice here, or not] for Don's trash-talking, spear-sucking, blade-licking, barbarians.
> We spotted him two army points destroyed for his poignant "Oooohhh...I'm soooooooo afraid..." taunting of the Romans before they stomped his boys into the dust shouting "Quis pater tuus?"
> Kurt Lambert wrote:
> And once again my Parthians stomped on Mark's hapless orcs, as well as taking out Don's pansy Hyborians' general and winning the field.
> They then took a well-deserved rest and sent out their (apparently untrained) understudies to take on Dick's Romans...

A link to the MWS E-group:

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

The following people were present:

- Mark Carper of the "One-Pip Ork Klan"
- Dick Mitchell of the Roman Procurators
- Don Delis of the Orator's Society
- Kurt the Mighty Ribald Man of Many Quips
- Maksim-Smelchak, Leader of the Appetizer-lov'in Spearmen

We all played at least two HOTT games each and some of us played three or even four games of HOTT.

As far as I can tell, here were the game records:

- Dick: 3W, 0L
- Don: 0W, 2L
- Kurt: 1W, 1L
- Maksim: 2W, 0L
- Mark: 0W, 3L

All had a good time and it's unfortunate that these were just practice games and not part of the HOTT campaign series since I won two games.

It was fun! I can't wait until we do it again.

Here's the Boardgame Geek link to HOTT:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/5369

Happy holidays everyone!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

HUMOUR: The Ziplocs You REALLY Need for Gaming!

Hi Guys,

I saw this post over at BoardGameGeek and enjoyed it enough to share here:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geekforum.php3?action=viewthread&threadid=81476

Subject: Ziploc responds to market - Bags for Storing Gamers!
Jon Power:
Finally Ziploc has produced a bag to keep your gamers fresh. If you have to
store gamers around the house or garage between sessions, without having them go
off, spreading germs or annoying normal people, now you can seal your gamers
away safe and secure. And the gamers love it too, with that extra "Protection
from moisture, dust, and pests".
http://www.ziploc.com/big-bags/
Ziploc, serving gamers' every need.
------
Alan Kaiser: Anyone else
feel the urge to get some of these and put a single sandwich in one, pack it
into a luchbox and take it to work! I'd love to see peoples reactions!
------
Lance Bailey: And then when you're done eating, you blow it up and
pop it.
------
Alfred Das: LOL
Make sure to include at least 1
solitaire game in the bag before storing. Keeps 'em fresh and alert.

I found it humorous and enjoyed it very much. I hope you do too!

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

WARGAMING: "Assault on Hoth" Session One!

Hi Everyone,

Tonight (24 June 2005), I finally got a chance to play the West End Games "Assault on Hoth" game with my friend, Dean Volpicelli.

Here's a link to the Board Game Geek entry on the WEG game:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3548

We played for five turns with Dean as the Imperials and me, Maksim, as the Rebels. Dean's five AT-ATs and two AT-STs took a beating.

TURN-1:
- The Rebels bunch at the front of their lines attempting to swarm the Imperials before getting slaughtered themselves. The Rebels manage to destroy both Imperial AT-STs before receiving grievous injuries.
- Rebel Snowspeeders are still approaching the front and don't reach the battle.
- Only one of five Rebel Gallofree transports manages to launch this turn.

TURN-2:
- The Imperials "strike back" destroying all but one of the Rebel's front line laser towers essentially removing all of the threats to the AT-ATs as the Snowspeeders are still approaching the front.
- Two AT-ATs dismount Snowtroopers upon which the Rebels deal heavy casualties.
- No additional Rebel transports escape this round.
- The AT-ATs advance rapidly and separate into a lone AT-AT heading for the Rebel power generator while the other four head for the location of both the Rebel power generator and Blizzard base.

TURN-3:
- The Imperials completely overrun the rebel lines throwing the Rebel defence forces into disarray.
- Rebel infantry reinforcements show up, but have no chance of destroying or even diverting the monstrous AT-AT walkers.
- However, the cavalry finally shows up in the form of two groups of Rebel Snowspeeders.
- A group of three Snowspeeders led by Luke Skywalker fires upon the AT-AT heading for the Rebel power generator scorching the AT-AT all over, which nevertheless manages to claw forward towards its objective.
- One more of the precious five Rebel Gallofree transports escapes this turn leaving three more needed to keep the Rebel flame burning...
- The second group of two Snowspeeders can't reach the main group of AT-ATs and witness the sight of countless Rebel infantry being smashed to a pulp under AT-AT feet overrunning the Rebel lines.
- Imperial AT-ATs dismount even more Snowtroopers.

TURN-4:
- Rebels score their first major victory as the AT-AT targetting the Rebel power generator is destroyed by Luke Skywalker who used the force to target vulnerable areas of the offending AT-AT.
- Rebel troops who are near helpless against the AT-ATs suddenly find targets they can destroy on the ground: Imperial Snowtroopers! In the ensueing battle, all but a handful of Snowtroopers are slain.
- However, those remaining Snowtroopers manage to destroy all but two of the remaining Rebel laser towers leaving only the Rebel Snowspeeders capable of threatening the AT-ATs.
- The smaller group of two Snowspeeders manage to sneak behind an AT-AT and take it down with a well-placed harpoon shot. Cheers are heard throughout the Rebel lines!
- However, the AT-ATs take no heed of the cheers and advance relentlessly forward breaking the last Rebel defence line.
- A ray of hope dawns with the launch of one more Rebel Gallofree transport. Only two more to go and the Rebels will have met their victory conditions.

TURN-5:
- The Imperials look as if they have the game in the bag with three untouched AT-ATs advancing on the Rebel shields and Blizzard base. The Rebels haven't even managed to launch many transports!
- A second AT-AT is taken down from a determined Rebel harpoon attack flown recklessly by Rebel pilots desperate to save their base. One of the Snowspeeders is swatted out the air after conducting the harpoon attack and leaves smoking ruins upon the battlefield. And, it was Luke's 'Speeder...
- Rebel troops and Snowspeeders are trying to chase down the remaining AT-AT, but can't keep pace with the slow but methodical pace of the mechanical beasts.
- The second-to-last AT-AT is taken down by the combined fire of all four remaining Rebel snowspeeders and a large number of Rebel light and heavy infantry teams.
- However the last AT-AT is now in range and unleashes a first shot at the vulnerable Rebel shield emitters... MISS!
- Rebel troops swarm the evil machine, but their laserfire is like the tinkle of rain on the AT-AT's thick armoured hide.
- The AT-AT's blaster batteries have recharged again and fire... another miss, but just barely...
- The Rebels try one last assault, but can't seem to stop the marauding AT-AT which has managed to advance nearly on top of the shield emitters upon which the salvation of the Rebel fleet is relying...
- The AT-AT fires again... DIRECT HIT! KA-BOOM!
- The Rebel shields fall allowing Lord Vader to overun Blizzard base destroying critically needed Rebel supplies and capturing numerous Rebel scum... Victory goes to the Imperials this game! Muuuhahahahahaaaaa!

GAME RESULT:
- Imperial Victory!

It was a great game and Dean just barely squeaked by an Imperial victory with one AT-AT left...

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.