GAMING NEWS: Snubfighters Debut & Maks is Preoccupied With Large-Scale Miniatures!

.

Hi Everyone,

Life is still rolling along for me!

I've been keeping busy at work and with Thanksgiving rolling by, I've had my hands full.

I did get the opportunity to test out the new WOTC Star Wars collectible miniatures game the Friday after Thanksgiving and wasn't impressed with it. Chris spent a few bucks to get the starter set and some booster packs and we weren't too impressed with it. It was basically a dice fest with not too much going for it. Maneauver didn't seem too important... just pull your capital ships up in line and hack away at each other... sort of like W.W.I dreadnoughts without the excitement of the Star Wars movies.

Here are links to two of the biggest Star Wars Yahoo E-group forums:

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

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

I did like the minis, but minis don't make a game as much as rules do.

Apparently I'm not the only one that felt that way either, variants of the rules are appearing across the Internet like wildflowers. Chris and I discussed the possibility of bringing some other rulesets out of mothballs with which to play the game. We have a number of options between us... Star Warriors, Rebellion In Space (RIS), Mongoose ACTA, Renegade Legion, The Last Starfighter, Aerotech, Full Thrust, Silent Death and others...

Here's a link to my friend Zac's mod on the new game:

http://tinyurl.com/yf28vv

I must be a Super-Geek to be able to recite all those games off the top of my head! Talk about wasted brain cells!

------

I have too many miniatures projects as the moment and of those, too many of them are from heretical larger scales:

- 28mm Dollar Tree Ninjas
- 28mm WHFB Undead Pirates
- 10mm ASQL Sci-fi
- 6mm Command Horizon Sci-fi
- 6mm E-A Jopallis and others...
- 6mm DBA / HOTT
- 6mm Nappies
- 6mm Starfighters

Although right now, my major project (...and also the largest one to boot!) has been:

- Dating a life-size (Bigger than 54mm scale!) woman...

We had a nice date yesterday for her birthday... took a drive down to the Napa wine country. We ate a big meal and just whiled the day away. I remembered to bring flowers and chocolate, which I'd been advised are an important part of successful dating experiences... they worked!

That's the most expensive and time-consuming project I have...

Sometimes I miss just getting a little superglue on my fingers... LOL

------
LOCAL GAMING NEWS on 2 December 2006:

1. Meanwhile my MWS mates back in Sacto, did a little DBA & HOTT miniatures gaming:

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

http://www.freewebs.com/mwssacto/index.htm

Joe B, Joe R, Richard, Jarrod, Keith and Keith, Tony, and Jarrod's nephew (?) David showed up at our alternate site for a couple of games. While Joe R set up the HOTT battle, Richard and Joe B battled for control of Rome.

The main event was Joe R and Richard squaring off against Jarrod for a two on two army fight. Richard's dogs sacrificed themselves while Joe crossed the river and won the war of attrition. Jarrod manfully pressed his artillery heavy force forward, and managed to kill three units through fire (Doubled up two). The highlights were Richard's killing of one of Jarrod's heros in a mano-a-dogo battle, and Jarrod shooting Richard's wolfen hero down with his egg-shooting chicken artillery. The fight went back and forth before being decided by army losses.

Joe.

Just in case you're wondering, Richard runs a 15mm HOTT army composed of Werewolves and other beastly creatures... We all call them "The Dogs," which has been fodder for many a joke! ...almost as many as the nickname for "Richard," which Blogger keeps censoring from my posts.

2. Meanwhile Kimbo and some other gaming friends got together at A-1 Comics on Sunrise for some board gaming...

http://www.a-1comics.com/main/

3. And Kevin E. with yet another batch of gaming friends got together at Great Escape Games also for mostly board gaming...

http://www.greatescapegames.com/

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

4. And my friend Susan hopefully got in on a Scrabble day... at least we chatted about it. I've really noticed lately that Scrabble is a popular game among women. I wonder why...

Where: Starbucks in Arden Town
610 Watt Ave
Sacramento CA 95864

Event Description: Scrabble fans, we have another event for you! Come out to the Arden Town Starbucks (Watt & Fair Oaks) for coffee and Scrabble, 6:00-8:00 pm every Sunday. All skill levels welcome, from rookies to tournament players. If you have a Scrabble board, bring it along; otherwise, just show up and play! High scorer for the night gets a coffee drink on the house.

5. Also in local gaming news, a new Yahoo E-group has been set up for local miniatures wargaming here:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Sac-WG/

The new group is called Sacto-WarGamers and here are its motto and purpose:

Motto: All Gaming, all the time!

Purpose: This group is dedicated to the gathering of like-minded wargamers in the Greater Sacramento area. To meet and game in good fellowship. One of this group's focus games is WAB (Warhammer Ancients Battles) although we are not exclusively limited to that game alone. Everyone's welcome!

I encourage everyone to join and give the group a whirl... who knows? It might even help you find some new gaming opportunities!

------

Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Many thanks to Heather who gave me some 2 for 1 discount cards for Mervyns that were going to expire after December second. I used them yesterday evening and received yet another bonus... Mervyns was giving a $15 discount bonus on all purchases over $50! So, I bought ten towels, three sweaters and a linen set for only $61! How cool is that!

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).

GAMING NEWS: R.I.P. Scott.

. Hi Everyone,

Unfortunately, Scott didn't make it. May he rest in peace and may his family be consoled by the community that rallied behind him.

I'm including a photo from a "Weeping Willow Memorial" in Budapest that came to mind...

Tony visited him:

I visited with Scott and his family today. Scott was not conscious. Everyone is upset including me.We are hanging in there.
Tony M.

And Mark made the announcement today:

Friends,
Well, despite our prayers, our good friend, Scott Hayes, veteran of many a war game, has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family. He will be sorely missed.
I will let you know the details of the memorial service.
Mark A. Steinberg.

I suppose in one way that having a friend pass away on your birthday (Today is mine... Halloween) is a bad thing, but in another way, it's a good thing because as I understand it, Scott was in pain and not even conscious near the end so I'm glad that his pain is over and he'll soon be in a better place if he isn't there already.

------

And a little news I shared over at the Epicomms boards with a bunch of fellow gamers and friends were kind enough to wish me the best on my day:

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all of the happy wishes.

I'm still keeping up my blog...

My roommate bought me a copy of a movie we love yesterday "Office Space"...

And I've been playing this silly little game called "Swords & Sandals" here:

http://www.playaholics.com/play/swordsandsandals/

I have been going crazy with my hobby stuff lately...

- Took 2nd place in a Dreamblade tournament this past weekend with an army of left-overs I made from a buddy's cast-offs... It's good to be me sometimes! LOL

- Working on a 28mm Skeleton Pirate army made of bargain bin pirates for a friend who invited me to join their WHFB Lustria campaign AND lent me a Vampire Counts army! Wanted to do a little something in return... build him a new unit as thanks.

- Making good on the New Years resolution to get a new city board ready... well on the way to 1'x1' foot square of based buildings and city flats... I'm not sure if I'll have it ready before the end of the year, but I have all of the pieces set side for a big kaiju / Godzilla "stomp the city" game ready... planning to run one at ConQuest Sac 2007 (April 2007)...

- Still working on my long-enduring 6mm sci-fi Epic Jopalli army... found an old friend who does resin molds and casting and am working on some unique flyers for the army...

- Also have 6mm ancients historical and fantasy armies on the bench as well as...

- 6mm Napoleonics waiting in arms...

- And lastly off the top of my mind and memory of the top of my workbench, I have several 10mm sci-fi armies that have been based for ASQL (Alien Squad Leader)... GROPOS, Star Wars - Hoth, Starsiege and a few others...

So, my hobby life has been good...

I've also been kept busy working on the new Baccus Sci-fi rules... Peter wants them out VERY SOON... before the end of November!

I can only hope that the rest of you are doing as well...

Although the thing I'd like best would be for all of the old friends here to reunite, leave behind old differences and get down to what is important... our longlasting friendships and common hobby interests! Omayn! It should be such!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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: Dogfight at MWSS!

. Hi Everyone,

This past Saturday (14 October 2006) was the big MWSS (Miniature Wargaming Society of Sacramento) meeting and what a meeting it was!

First of all, we had a club business meeting (Discussion of issues, reading of minutes, etc.), which was boring as heck and then we got down to the real business of any game club... We played games!

The highlight of the business meeting for me was playing Rochambeau (More popularly known as Rock, Paper, Scissors) with my friend Mike W.'s son Connor. Connor knows a bunch of cool tricks like the flamethrower and the stealth bomber, that might have not been all that fair, but they're fun and he's eleven-years-old so I cut him a break every now and then...

However, I wasn't able to take any photos as my digital camera was unavailable yesterday... but, a few other folks took photos and told me they'd send them into me ASAP... until then, I'll just throw up a few stock images.

------
1/87 WWI Dogfight Game
- Sponsored by Rob "Mako" Kent.
Ruleset: Blue Max modified for miniatures play.

The Entente Powers (British & French):
- Connor the "Knife" flying a Sopwith Camel
- Maksim "Headhunter" Smelchak flying a Sopwith Camel
- Rob "Mako" Kent flying a RAF S.E.5
- Russell "Big Kahuna" Kent flying a RAF S.E.5.

The Central Powers (Germans):
- Mike the "Iceman" flying a Pfalz D.XII
- Brad the "Barbarian" flying a Fokker Dr.I Triplane
- Brian F. the "Executioner" flying a Pfalz D.XII
- Bernie, The Mysterious Unknown German! flying a Fokker Dr.I Triplane

This was the center ring event of the day and it went well... my only reservation is that Blue Max is very specifically a hex-based game and the hexless adaptation still had a few kinks to work out. It was absolutely fabulous of Rob to host though so many thanks to him!

The airplane flights of the opposing powers started at opposite ends of a WWI trench battlefield, complete with a WWI-era German AV7 tank crawling along the battlefield. The Entente powers had difficulty maintaining flight formations on the way in and were furiously communicating with hand signals... as the much more composed Germans kept near perfect flight order before they pounced.

On one end of the battlefield, the two Kents engaged both of the expertly flown German biplanes and quickly ended up in a rapidly turning furball. After a few passes, Russell fell wounded to German guns and his plane began to smoke furiously...

Meanwhile Connor and I had to face the near invincible German triplanes. Connor tried to make a radical turn to surprise the wiley Germans, but Brad the "Barbarian" was not fooled by this ruse. He managed to pick up Connor's tail and persistently stuck on it until Connor went down after a dozen or so turns of being whittled on.

And I, Maksim, managed to break suddently and through Bernie, the Mysterious Unknown German, out of the fight, but I couldn't keep my spot as Connor's wingman. I ended up entering the Kent furball shortly later, in which despite several succesful machine gun hits on German planes, I never managed to do more than glancing damage. Bernie eventually entered the fight and we made head-on passes at each other, but weren't able to do any significant damage...

I was eventually jumped by Mike the "Iceman," a distinguished German ace, and barely managed to escape with my life after being wounded by him. I didn't even see him coming! The game ended as a very decisive Central Powers victory!

All hail Mike, Brian, Bernie and especially Brad the "Barbarian!"

UPDATE from Rob (10-19-2006):

I just wanted to send out a note to thank those that participated in the aerial game last Saturday. It was a lot of fun for me, despite having been shot out of the air at the end of the game, and I hope you had a good time as well.

I would especially like to thank Mike W. for going to all of the trouble to glue a few extra planes together, and to get them painted, and "magnetized" in short order. They really looked great on the table. I have a soft spot for those Albatrosses, since they are such beautiful birds.

I also want to congratulate the German pilots, for their resounding dominance of the dogfight. Clearly, their techniques were superior on this day.

Maks, thanks for posting a note about the game on the website.

Just a minor correction though, the Allied aircraft were Camels and Spad VII's.The latter have a rather anemic firepower rating, so while they look nice, I can't say that I would recommend them in battle. 1 FP vs. 2 FP's for all of the other aircraft.

Best regards,
Rob, who doesn't like flying a Spad VII!

P.S.
Look for further sorties of WW I aircraft at future club meetings, using a proper hexmat.

UPDATE from Mike W. (10-19-2006):

Ha. Those planes you reported as Pfalz were actually Albatros D.Vs. The Pfalz weren't to be seen yet. I had great fun flying the Blue Ice Albatros with the executioner's ax painted on the side.

I had great fun too. The period was late 1917. If we want, we could progress through the remainder of the war: phase out older planes and introduce newer. The next would be early 1918 with SPAD 13s instead of 7s - Allies have the advantage. After that would be mid 1918 with introduction of the much feared Fokker D.VIIs instead of the Albatros and the Germans have the advantage. Finally end with Sopwith Camel with Bentleys and SPAD 13s vs the Fokker D.VIIF - even match. Need to throw together a couple of the Revell kits.

Mike "the Iceman"

------
15mm The Battle of Princeton
- Hosted by Mike O.
Ruleset: I do not recall...

- This was the classic Battle of Princeton that occurred during the American War of Independence, a battle in which George Washington fought. Greg, Mike and possibly someone else were playing this game, in which I beleive the Americans managed to pull off a historic victory, but at the cost of George Washington having been slain in the battle... alas... I didn't play in this game, but it was an amazing set-up and looked like a ton of fun.

UPDATE From Mike (10-19-2006):

Thanks for the writeup, Maksim...

The Battle of Princeton was played by Chris O. (Col Mawhood) and Greg M. (General Washington). Historically, the Rebels won, Washington was shot at and had several rounds hit his coat and hat but didn't receive a scratch and the British suffered a tactical and strategic loss. In our reenactment of the battle, The British lost tactically but received a huge morale raise when General Washington was caught up in hand to hand fighting and died.

As usual I used the superb Guns of Liberty II edition rules.

------

28mm WWII Skirmish Game
- Run by Keith and Joe B.
Ruleset: Stargrunt II by GZG modified for WWII skirmish.

- Keith and Joe absolutely love the GZG rulesets and particularly Stargrunt II... I think they've used it for nearly every historic era possible from the French-Indian Wars to Western shoot-outs and now... W.W.II! They're great guys and no matter what kind of game they host... everyone always has a good time.

In their game, they had elite American Airbourne troops facing off against regular German Wehrmacht troops over a village in Europe. Everyone had a good time... even my friend Don, who has a theory that all WWII games favor the Germans... although it appeared that the Americans pulled off victory the last time I checked on the game.

------
15mm Fantasy Skirmish Game
- Hosted by Mark Carper.
Ruleset: Battleground WWII modified for fantasy skirmish.

- Mark and Kurt are the best of friends and they love tinkering with rules as much as Joe and Keith... only in their case, they're big fans of Battleground WWII, an interesting skirmish game with random turn order determined by drawing playing cards. Mark took a group of "bad guy" Orcs, Wargs and assorted evil creatures versus Kurt, who took the "good guys," some human knights, a few dwarves and some halflings. Mark and Kurt are still fine-tuning their adapatation of Battleground WWII to fantasy skirmish games so they were playtesting. It was hard to tell who won, but as usual, it really doesn't matter since both gentlemen obviously enjoyed themselves.

------
Open Dreamblade Gaming
- Run by Mike O. & Dick Mitchell.

- Towards the end of the afternoon, Dick and Mike pulled out their Dreamblade armies and played a few games. Dreamblade is an interesting mix of game types, collectible in one aspect, chess-like in another and more CCG (Collectible Card Game) in another... They had a good time and in the last game of the day, Connor and I teamed up to give Mike O'Brien a hard time using Dick's army.

Kudos to Mike O. for being such a great sport against the fiendishly powerful rolling of Connor!

------

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

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).