GAMING NEWS: "February MWS Meeting AAR" (10 February 2008)

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TOP: Maksim-Smelchak (me!) brought some 28mm pirate ships & crews to show off.

Hi All,

I've really fallen behind on blog updates... still trying to find a new job. The search is really chewing up my free time.

However, I'm still getting in some gaming, modeling, and other good stuff... just cut out most of the time I spent on blog writing to put towards other pursuits for the time being. I hope that when I find the new job, I'll start putting more time back into the 'ol blog.

Here's a battle report from this past weekend's MWS meet...

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MWS Meeting / Game Day Event
Date: Sunday, 10 February 2008
Time: 11:00am to 7:00pm or so…
Location: Marconi Public Library - Community Room
Link: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/M_W_S/

Attendees:
1. Joe B.
2. Bernie
3. Mark Carper
4. Chris
5. Alex F.
6. Greg
7. Keith
8. Keith TM.
9. Kurt L.
10. Richard “Dick” M.
11. Mark from Viking Hobby
12. Mike O.
13. Barto R.
14. David R.
15. Bob S.
16. Maksim-Smelchak (me!)
17. Mike W.
18. Harry W.
19. Lots of interested library spectators…

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TOP: McLovins, a pre-war bombed-out department store...

...that the outlaw gang took over as their HQ.

Game #1:
Title: Junktown Episode V “A Menace in the Wastelands”
Rules: No Limits (free download)
Genre: Post-apocalyptic Sci-fi
Opponents: Junktown’s 1rst Army Division vs. the Mekaniak Wasteland Outlaw Gangs
Scale: 28mm
Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/34130

Participants:
- Mark Carper – Gamemaster.
- Mike O. – General of Junktown’s 1rst Army Division.
- Maksim-Smelchak - Captain of Junktown’s 1rst Army Division.
- Richard M. – The Big Kahuna of the Mekaniak Wasteland Outlaw Gangs.
- Joe B. – Chief Enforcer of the Mekaniak Wasteland Outlaw Gangs.

TOP: "Air Zed," Junktown's secret weapon!

Outcome:
- The game was a draw with the early game clearly belonged to the forces of Junktown and the later game devolving into a draw as the outlaw gangs managed to hold their ground after Pyrrhic losses. However, as always the real fun in Junktown is more about abysmally bad die rolling, incredible exploits of bravery & stupidity, bad puns, good jokes, and a great feeling of camaraderie.

More photos from this game can be found here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming-2008/MWS_2-10-2008_/28mm-Junktown_2-10-2008-/

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TOP: A swirling WWI dog fight over the Continent...

Game #2:
Title: “Continental Balloon Buster”
Rules: Wings of War miniatures / card game
Genre: Great War (W.W.I.) aircraft dogfights
Opponents: German balloon and fighters vs. British fighters
Scale: 1/144 or 10mm
Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/31552

Participants:
- Mike W. – Gamemaster / German Krauts
- Barto R. – British Limeys
- Harry W. – British Limeys

TOP: British fighters successfully shot down the German Zeppelin...

...by running into it!

Outcome:
- The British managed to shoot down the German balloon although they lost two aircraft to the same balloon when they couldn’t avoid running into it. So, overall the British achieved their mission objectives.

More photos from this game can be found here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming-2008/MWS_2-10-2008_/10mm-WOW_2-10-2008-/

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TOP: An Egyptian T-62 tank battallion advances across the Sinai...

Game #3:
Title: “Duel in the Dessert, 1973”
Rules: Cold War Commander
Genre: AIW Modern warfare during the 1973 Yom Kippur War
Opponents: Egyptian forces vs. Israeli forces in the Sinai
Scale: 1/285 or 6mm
Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/26474

Participants:
- Bob S. - Gamemaster
- Greg: Israelis
- Keith TM: Egyptians

TOP: Israeli Ben Gurions (Centurions) counter the Egyptian attack...

Outcome:
- In a bloody battle, the Egyptians were defeated by the Israelis, although with unacceptable loss ratios.

More photos from this game can be found here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming-2008/MWS_2-10-2008_/6mm-AIW-1973_2-10-2008-/

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TOP: 28mm Napoleonic fun was had by many...

Game #4:
Title: “Ney vs. Wellington, 16 June 1815”
Rules: Age of Eagles
Genre: Napoleonics
Opponents: British vs. French
Scale: 28mm
Link: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/31025

Participants:
- Alex F. - Gamemaster
- Bernie - French
- David R. - French
- Chris - British
- Keith - British

TOP: Ney's French storm through a village...

Outcome:
- The British had a terrible time of it and were defeated by the French.

More photos from this game can be found here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming-2008/MWS_2-10-2008_/28mm-Napoleonics_2-10-2008-/

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There was also a mini-trade / swap meet that went on.

TOP: 28mm Normans, Vikings, Fantasy Dwarves & WWI were up for trade...

A beautifully painted 15mm WWII British Army was also on the block...

More general photos from the meet can be found here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming-2008/MWS_2-10-2008_/

Have a great Tuesday!

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).

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!

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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.

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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

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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.

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

http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

MINI WARGAMING: 6mm vs 15mm Napoleonics?

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--- In GrandeArmee, "Thomas_Hilder" wrote:
Hi guys,
I am a newbie to Napoleonic gaming and am interested in GA.
I have checked a few other systems out and think GA offers the best of fast play, command, feel, etc.
The question I have is related to figure size. It appears that most GA armies are 6mm due to the scale, etc, but that there is a large amount of 15mm gamers due to other rule, personal preference, etc.
I personally prefer the look of 15mm and am wondering about anyone who has played both and how they "feel," look, etc.
What can people tell me?
Thanks for your help.
Tom.

Hi Tom,

I'd like to start out by saying that I'm a big 6mm enthusiast and am known at TMP and several Yahoo E-groups as being one of the biggest 6mm miniature enthusiasts around.

I helped to rejuvenate this group to over a thousand members. The E-group can be found here:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/6mm_Miniatures/

To answer your question, I, of course, prefer 6mm, but can honestly admit that the both scales offer their pros and cons.

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COST:
- The cost between the two is negligibly different.
- 6mm Napoleonics can be a little less expensive, but not very much cheaper.
- Of course, the cost of the figures depends on which rule set you are using.
- Napoleonic rule sets have a very large variety of basing standards and numbers of figures required per base. There is no standard for basing Napoleonic figures among the many different rule sets to my knowledge.

PAINTING:
- 6mm is easier to paint using the dip method (Laying down a base coat and then using inks or washes), but 15mm is a larger scale and holds more detail.
- More detail is probably preferable for the Napoleonic Era, which is so well known for its wondrous colors.
- Personally speaking, I'll take ease of painting over a few more details and colors any day.
- Unless you have a pretty dedicated painter (Which the Napoleonic genre does seem to breed... ), most gamers seem to skip painting many of these details anyway.
- On counterpoint, the amount of time one would spend "detail" painting 6mm figures is probably only marginally less than the time one would spend painting 15mm Napoleonics miniatures. "Detail" painting is "detail" painting.

TRADITION:
- 15mm Napoleonics have been a staple of Napoleonic miniatures gaming for quite some time.
- 6mm miniature are a much newer phenomenon for Napoleonic gaming.
- So, in other words, there are probably many more 15mm rather than 6mm Napoleonic armies running around in gamers' hands, but that's also strictly a local phenomenon based on your gaming community.
- It may sound odd, but in my area, the most commonly found Napoleonic armies are 28mm!
- I still prefer 6mm, but my local gamers play Napoleonics in 28mm. I own a 28mm Russian Napoleonic army for that reason (Although I like my several 6mm Napoleonic armies a whole lot better.).

BASING:
- The rule set being used makes a huge difference is basing conventions as previously mentioned.
- However, many Napoleonic rule sets seem to use the same basing conventions for 6mm and 15mm figures.

TERRAIN:
- This is a category in which 6mm is very preferable in my eyes.
- 6mm terrain is much more storable and transportable than 15mm terrain.
- The biggest 6mm terrain pieces (Large churches, farms, etc.) will still probably fit in a shoe box, while large 15mm terrain pieces will probably require a very large box, which makes it that much more of a chore for you to lug your gaming accouterments to someplace other than the home field.
- Specific 6mm terrain pieces specifically intended for 6mm Napoleonic play are few (Timecast has some beautiful pieces though and Irregular makes a great La Hougement - hope I spelled that correctly... ).
- However, there are many MANY "European villages" made for WWII microarmor play and they look superb as Napoleonic terrain.

STORAGE & TRANSPORTABILITY:
- Storing your miniatures in probably about the same for 6mm and 15mm miniatures although it is probably much easier to store 6mm miniatures.
- A case full of 6mm miniatures generally takes up less space and weighs less than a case full of a comparable 15mm Napoleonic miniatures.
- I'm no Spring chicken any longer, so a lighter case gives my old grumbling back an easier load. That's an important factor for me!

PREFERENCE:
- Ultimately, the choice comes down to a personal preference when it comes to choosing between a 6mm and 15mm Napoleonic miniatures army.
- Being a 6mm miniatures enthusiast, I already had a large amount of terrain built and that, combined with the personal relationship I have with many 6mm miniature manufacturers made 6mm the choice for me.
- I think both scales (6mm & 15mm) are great although I advise against a 25mm Napoleonic army. It takes much more money and time to properly finish a 25mm Napoleonic army!

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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).