Warmaster Ancients "Introducting a new player"

        This will be the 2nd game for Jeremy. The 1st game we went thru the gaming mechanics and combat. Gaming Mechanics are something we do now without think. Its a different world from board games. Once you cross over to War Gaming and more so Historical type War Gaming neatness and tiny details complicate the instructional situation.
        Unit conformity, unit formation, legal formations, how the units move, how they line up and why its important, The proper way to measure and move a unit. All this can make it seem like your playing with Grandpa and his Grandpa ways. Yet it is an internal part of the game.
         In the 1st game I had left out the skirmishing rule. I felt I could ignore the rule without effecting the system. This would allow me to focus on movement and combat. How a unit was ordered? How a unit moved, how far, how many times, and risks involved? When in combat the number of dice used, how it is calculated, how you can stack advantages for more dice, and negative effect on you and the enemy unit.
         As I went through each action I would take, I would talk through the action. What I intended. Where +/-s effects were located on the QRS. How those stacked and effected the out come. Combat was done the same way.

        2nd game. The whole rule set was used. There will also be terrain, 3 woods and some fields. Both armies are Rep Roman. It will be a 1000 point mirror match.
        QRS was provide and debriefed. Along with the army list, each unit, and special rules. The Skirmish rules we read through and discussed. We talked about terrain and the effects. Then we went thru the army stand by stand to insure he was comfortable with what each one represented, its battle field role, and capabilities.

        In this game I would continue to talk my way through each action. I would ask Jeremy were he would find the pos/neg on the QRS for his first few actions. I made him calculate the combat dice and results.

Of course he won. I didn't have to throw the game. Using my Tau dice, he was crushing me in every combat. Its not the dice, its me the gods hate. Next round I will send him a link to the army list generator thingy and let him pick his own forces.

Not in the correct order.

Warmaster Weekend

          This week I was covering Xmas vacation in Albany. The New England group was gaming Saturday. Way to close to pass up. I took my Tomb Kings and Blood Angels. The BAs never came out. I got two games of Warmaster in. 1st against Frank and the 2nd grudge match against Dave. Frank took his freshly painted Araby army. All proxies, from some Ape/African line.

        Pretty happy with the day. An Alexander favorite tactic was pulled. I find it very cool his strategy can work within a table top game. That is amazing! You can see the difficulty he would have experienced and the challenge of the complexity of the maneuver.

         Dave had his Dwarfs. We played the objective scenario. We both had the same number of objectives, but Dave broke my army for the win. it was close.
         The MVP was his flame cannons. They were mowing me down all game. Once he got 18 shots out of one. My Artillery brigade was chewing stands off and confusing units. But not enough to equal the flame cannons.
          I was able to swing the door with my Cavalry on the left flank. They tore up the Dwarf artillery brigade. The Cav wing forced dave to pull brigades from the center of his battle line. That created the Alexander opening and the Chariots when in. Unlike Alexander, my infantry failed to support and plug the hole in the salient. My birds pretty much sat the game out. The bone giant struggled to land hits. He got surrounded and crushed.

         I beat Frank. He give up in turn 5 with one break point left. He needed 7 more from me. Poor Frank, his entire right flank failed to active. All his Elephants and heavy Cavalry sat the game out. The flying carpets got shot and confused every turn.
        I sent out screens of my bowmen. The chariots and bone giant brigades waiting for the bait to be taken. Again the a gap in Frank's battle line developed and the Alexander charge went off. It was half hearted as part of the cavalry sat out on it. Tomb King Cavalry is junk. They bounced.

Only photos are from my game with Frank. I think they are in order by turns, maybe.

Star Wars

Saw the last movie. It didn't suck as bad as the middle 3. It still contained cheese. At least the crappy alien retard characters weren't there. The good and bad cheese. The good cheese same old way of destroying mega ships, old characters and actors from the original movies returned. The bad cheese everyone will find their own cheese.

The ending was not the ending I hoped for. But adoption and taking a name to continue an age old family was very Japanese.

15mm ACW RF&F

         The ACW armies were packed away long ago. They were stored and moved, and stored and moved. Finally they made it here. Where they have sat for 2 years. During that time they took a beating. Other sub collections were purchased.

         Games take between 90 and 340 infantry stands. Long ago I was able to host small Infantry engagements. I also started off playing multiple rule sets, before loving the Regimental Fire and Fury.  There is no better rule set. I would never go back or replace it.

         Now it stands at roughly 156 Blue and 200 grey infantry stands. The lion share of the work is done. About an additional 3rd of that number must be rebased. Every Officer stand must be rebased. Every flag needs to be replaced.
         I have enough painted Infantry and Infantry command stands for any game in the main rule book. What I need are Cavalry, dismounted Cav, and Artillery for both. That is not so many!

End of year clean up Part IV

         Short work weeks equal me sitting around. Time to put in some work and sort thru all the crap that has been piled up here and there. The place is a mess. I have been stick stuff every where. Part of the Fall In stuff never got stored correctly. There is item for ebay every where. 20mm colonials wandering around. And i dragged out the giant box of 10mm Ancients. Those little bastards are taking over. Plus my travel kit, I must of open the door and kicked it in.

         First step is to create some space. New book shelves. I bought 2, why I can't say. With one alone I will be set. It is not hard wood. Those start at 4 a piece. Sadly forced into one that I must assemble. Chip board new age crap. Time to re-engineer, I glued, clamped, and sunk 3 inch wood screws. An elephant could climb it now.

          The only up side is shelf placement can be selected. Due to those assholes that print over sized books one needs non uniform shelf spacing. Someone needs to throw those special individuals a beating. But 1st beat the extra special ass that prints in columns on pages.

         The Ancient Warfare got sorted and properly stored. All those books piled on top or standing on the side, now are set properly. With only one set up, I have tons of space.

         The Wargaming books are out of my room.

        The lighting has upgraded. I think my eyes are going. Lowes has LED 3 footers for 30 bucks. Two of them is like have a private sun.
Before

After

        Home Depot has plastic storage boxes on sale. 19 beans + Vet discount, they are a steal. They are the kind that can be mounted. I had smaller versions when I was living in New York. I failed to see their value and left them with the house. Ever sense I wish I kept them. The new ones I mounted to the blocks. Wall board would never had the lead they could contain. (and the ass that made them did not think to put the mounting holes stud distance apart.) Those concert screws are never coming out!

The drafting table got cleaned off and new project paper laid.

 The Fall In stuff got packed up. 1st the Desert box, 2nd the Egypt box, DZC table box

        The paint table's shelving got repositioned and sorted. This was more of a swear fest than anything. The way in which the anchors are set busted knuckles and things got smashed. And it took forever, 3 hours. 

End of the year clean up part II

6mm Brass Scorpion

End of the year clean up Part III

         Samurai, Hannibal's Vets, and a 20mm Wolf.

 Oda Ashigaru

 Ronin

 Hannibal's Vets

 Samurai waiting for enough base.