Archive for the ‘Wargaming’ Category

Under the direction and excellent organization of Adam H., another Aero hobbies (Santa Monica CA) game day has come and gone. With several events planned, even the rainy day didn’t prevent active gamers from their appointed dice rolling.  Reported by WR from Wargamerabbit.

Game presentations: WR’s 25mm /28mm Napoleonic game representing a 1805 Elchingen like action, a 28mm WAB Siege and Conquest game (storming the old french castle), and a 15mm FOW desert battle. Three different game write ups given below.

WR’s Napoleonic game was a scenario loosely based upon the battle of Elchingen 1805. Dan brought his early Imperial French so WR rostered up a 1805 Austrian force for tabletop action.

French Lannes V corps: Two French divisions of line and legere regiments (9-10 battalions). One battery of 8lb artillery for each division. Attached light cavalry brigade of three regiments (2x hussar, 1x chasseur a cheval) and 4lb horse battery. Small reserve artillery command of 2x 12lb positional batteries.

Austrian Column under FML Riesch: 8 line regiments (8×3 btns.), small hussar half regiment, my 1790′s carabinier regt for favor, 2x 6lb positional artillery, 1x cavalry batteries.

Table overview with Austrian forces deployed on the hillside (Abbey of Elchingen) and along the right side of photo.

Austrian deployment at start

Austrian plan….hold the hillside with the abbey position, then push the French right flank with strong Austrian force.Even an Austrian can follow those orders.

Austrian massed forces on Austrian left flank await the french appearance

French arrive. Their deployment was one command per turn….so the order of appearance was…French infantry division, French light cavalry brigade, French infantry division, reserve artillery (2x 12lb) if required. First French division arrives below. Two legere and two-line regiments with their 8lb battery.

First French division arrives...

Seeing the approaching French, the Austrian plan is placed in motion.

Austrian left flank advances....with light forces leading. Austrians on hill retain their positions

French expand their deployment and their light cavalry arrive to support their infantry.

French expand their deployment with light cavalry brigade arriving...

Austrians, in parade formations, advance to engage the French legere. Looking good with their SYW tactics. A few supporting battalions in square, seeing the advancing French cavalry.

With stately dressed lines, the Austrians first clashes with the approaching French infantry...

The second French division arrives and advances towards the abbey of Elchingen on the hill. Austrian freikorp skirmishers engage their counterparts as French columns push them back.

French 8lb artillery engage the advancing Austrian close order line.

Austrian lines take losses from French artillery...

French light cavalry call a charge. Some Austrian line battalion retire in confusion or disorder (shaken) before the charge. The second line Austrian squares and their grenadier support stand firm. (game note: Pre-formed squares don’t check morale from declared charges)

After some French cavalry regiments charge, the Austrian line weaken...squares are formed in second line...

Austrian senior command arrives to rally the Austrian lines….

Austrian FML Riesch rides up to steady his troops...squares are formed

Overview of the Austrian left flank action....

Austrian counter-play….Austrian heavy cavalry (using my Austrian 1790′s carabinier regiment for this battle…they never see the tabletop)...position for calling a charge. French are surprised and fall into disorder (shaken). (note the reversed miniature in battalion formation)

Meanwhile, the Austrian right ride up their cavalry to charge the started French infantry...

Charge effects….French infantry routed away, soon the horse battery will be overrun by the battered Austrian carabinier regiment.

French infantry running away after some hard close action, the venerable French horse battery was next to the disordered Austrian cavalry...

French become active on Austrian left flank. Massed columns, artillery firing and cavalry positioned to charge home on the Austrian infantry.

Left flank again, French columns crash into the shaken Austrian lines, French cavalry sound their trumpeters for charge...

Thundering hoofs, the French light cavalry hussars ride over the Austrian infantry line. Sabers carve a bloody path (ride though).

Austrian lovers...don't look...French cavalry ride over the Austrian infantry...pass the heinz...

French right flank view of the preceding...

Re-organizing themselves, the French resume their advance. Austrians on hillside watch the French advance.

French laft flank sorting themselves out after the sudden Austrian cavalry charge...

French sorted out, back in marching formations, they press forward...

French general Dan has the true measure of the Austrians….

French general Dan has"the measure" of the Austrians....Austrians on hill still look down on the advancing French infantry...

With the Austrian left command shattered, the Austrian plan in pieces….time to think about plan B for Austrians….battlefield retirement.

With Austrian left command totally scattered (40%+ loss), the French look unstoppable...

Final overview as the Austrian weakened left disengages and the Austrian position on the hill act as rearguard.

Austrians pull the plug...time to retire for another day.

Good game Dan. Austrians had their moment in time…but your steady pressure with the veteran French infantry won the day along with well timed French light cavalry charges.

Next time…..Always the next time with Austrians.

WR 

Battle of Elchingen 1805: Link for a little background material.

WarHammer Ancient Battles Game (WAB) with Siege and Conquest

From the words of Adam H., the game master and event organizer….the french castle action report:

Mark, Greg, and I were assaulting a French castle with an Army of Normans at arms in the 12th century.  French lords fighting French lords for stinky cheese, hairy women, and red wine.  The defenders were Larry and Marc.  The attacking force outnumbered the defenders and were able to collapse the main wall and pummel through the gate.  The defender’s crossbows proved lethal, as was well as their motivation to halt the Norman onslaught.  The defenders managed to carry the day, while sustained heavy casualties.

A local monk, positioned in the castle chapel, and fast paint brush work, captured the action for history. Photo and commentary below. Additional photos at: Monk Link photos taken by Monk Larry.

Initial set up....Besiegers ready to advance

Defenders on the crumbling walls

While assault is readied, defenders give he besiegers the old VO5 boiling water treatment

After some sustained door knocking, the hinges give way, and the rush is on...

Meanwhile, with some hand of god's assistance, the besiegers swarm the walls, pushing back the defending crossbowmen....

Overview of the melee besides the castle gate. Seems traffic is heavy going both ways on the same lane....crash!

More brawling under the gate...knights push their way in...

With their militia garrison scattering, two brave but foolish heroes try to stem the tide...knights are thinking speed bumps...

The crafy garrison knights seal the gateway, sealing in the besiegers knights, who are chasing down the fleeing garrison militia.

With gateway blocked and secured, all other besiegers defeated, the rallied crossbowmen go hunting knights quest...fish in a barrel.

Castle siege game (background) and WR's Napoleonic game (foreground) at Aero.

WR’s words of wisdom….castles have one way in….and only one way out. Control the toll booth. WR enjoyed watching the miniature medieval action beside his game. Thanks Adam, Mark, Greg, Larry and Marc for the free show.

Flames of War Desert Game

Now some public announcement words from Christian S. and the 15mm FOW game group.

“Since opposition was a no-show, Panzerregiment 8 held a training exercise using the new mission the Tommies seem to like: “Dust Up”.

      

Friday night at Gamex there was a large scale General Quarters WWII cruiser battle host by the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Harold Hildebrand hosted Coral Sea using Victory at Sea rules. In both battles the USN discovered that the Japanese Long Lance torpedoes were pretty deadly. There were demo’s of Uncharted Seas and Full Thrust. Mostly everyone was settling in and checking in and playing some pick up games. The HMGS/PSW members were attending their third convention in four months! Tomorrow is the big day. The So Cal Crusaders are bringing out a huge Warhammer 40K Apocalypse battle on a 16 foot table. Dave Maupin of the HMGS/PSW is laying down a great looking 100 Years War battle and the is a National Qualifier Flames of War Tournament.
On Saturday the gaming began early and participation grew throughout the day. Eric came by at 2:30pm and mentioned that we were already at last years  attendance of 1,000. There was a great WWII Squad Skirmish game hosted by Rob Boyens, and a Flames of War tournament. Harold set down a great Warhammer Ancient Battles tournament with an Age of Arthur theme. Preliminary reports indicate that attendance exceeded last years numbers by over 10%. It appears that our long winter may be coming to an end. Thanks to all of the volunteers who did such an outstanding job hosting an extraordinary event.

Announcing HMGS-PSW Mini-Mini Wars!

SUMMER OFFENSIVE

Its Summer get your friends together and come on down!!!

Get more for your HMGS-PSW dollar(s)and start the summer off right with Mini-Mini Wars, a one-day only HMGS-PSW convention (hence the Mini-Mini Wars name) to be held on Saturday June 25, 2011, at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Anaheim (some of you will know this as the place where the St. Crispin’s Irregulars group meets). The address is:

1127 North Anaheim Bl., Anaheim, CA. 92801.

Print some and send around!!!

Mini-Mini Wars Flyer in PDF

Mini-Mini Wars Flyer in DOC

Summer Offensive Final Events List DOC

Summer Offensive Final Events List in DOC

Why now, why there, and who’s doing this, you ask?

A couple of us, myself (Steve Reid) Skip Gardella, Mark Deliduka, and George Paler thought it would be nice to have a “Mini con Gathering” to start the summer so with the backing and support of HMGS/PSW  we have organized our first “Mini- Mini con. June 25th is the first Saturday of summer, so it seems like a good time to hold the first of what will hopefully be a number of one-day cons in different places, in order to make your membership even more valuable and to help us continue to grow. The KoC Hall is a little more centrally-located, and though it’s too small for a weekend-long event, it should be perfect for a smaller, one-day con. Plus it’s affordable for us and it’s got free parking and a kitchen!

Admission will be free to all paid-up HMGS-PSW members, for non-members it will be $10 payable at the door.

Non-members are encouraged to become members and attend all of our events for free of course (hint, hint)! Members can check their membership status by calling 661-816-7991 and re-up by using the “Paypal” feature on our site. http://www.hmgspsw.org/

The usual lunch and dinner fare will be served for the usual $5. Doors will open at 9 AM and games will run from 10 AM to 10 PM. That’s 12 hours of bonus gaming time to kick off the summer!

Regarding the games: There’s room for 7 or 8 games at the KoC Hall, and they’ll have to fit on 5′ x 8′ or 5′ x 12′ tables. The plan is to set up the games at 9 AM and run each game more than once, allowing players to try multiple games and allowing GMs to take a break and play in someone else’s game for awhile. To make things easy, we’re not going to have multiple sessions – the games will set up and stay set up all day long, so don’t be shy, try something you haven’t played before! Pretty cool, huh? We’ve got a few games lined up already so we only need a couple more, but preference will be for games that last 2-3 hours and we’re going to try to keep it to historical games. Contact info is below if you’re interested in running a game (we don’t have any ancients, Napoleonic, FoW, or naval games yet) but please keep it on the smaller side and be prepared to run the game more than once.

Mini-Mini Wars Flyer in PDF

We’re also going to have a “Painting Clinic” run by member Mark. Whether you’re new to the hobby and looking to learn “how-to” or an old hand looking for some new tricks, let Mark show you that it’s much easier than you think to paint some good-looking figures in a short amount of time. We really NEED some of you to donate some of the figures you have sitting around that you’ll never get to painting to make this happen though. See the contact info below if you can donate a few figures; the goal is that everyone participating (especially our newer members) can take the figures home after Mark demonstrates that painting miniatures doesn’t have to be intimidating.

The other thing we REALLY need is some volunteers to help set up and take down the tables and chairs, some kitchen help, some help to man the desk (checking for membership cards, etc.), and a few more games. To ease the work load from our already over-burdened officers Steve Reid has been tasked to coordinate the volunteers and help with all of the arrangements. If you have any questions about the games, if you can run a game, if you can donate some miniatures for the painting clinic, IF YOU CAN VOLUNTEER TO HELP, or if you just want to say “Hey, it’s great that we’re having a one-day con in Anaheim, I’ll be there”, PLEASE contact me, Steve Reid at:

frog@graphicpenguin.com

or by phone at (818) 951-1350.

Summer Offensive Flyer PDF

One last thing: If you want to come but live far enough away to not want to drive, there is an Amtrak station in Anaheim not too far from the KoC Hall. Check the train schedule at:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/HomePage

and get your tickets. If you can let us know when you’ll be arriving and departing at least one week ahead of the con we’ll make sure someone picks you up and gets you back to the station in time to catch your train. Just south of the hall at the 5 Freeway is the Disneyland bus terminal. Buses from all over pull in there all through the day and their traffic often increases on the weekend. From there a quick trip north on the 43 Bus line on Harbor Blvd. and you are just a short walk away from the hall.

That’s it fellow gamers!

Mini-Mini Wars

Sat. June 25, 2011 10 AM – 10 PM

Knights of Columbus Hall, 1127 North Anaheim Bl., Anaheim, CA.

Come on out, bring a friend, and play some games! Let’s make the first of our one-day cons a big success!

Steve Reid

Frank Patterson and his able assistant work on the Tarawa airfield. The island is set up with a lot of perimeter detail as American intelligence had the clearest picture of those defenses. As the Marines proceed inland, they are going to find the depth of the Japanese defenses.

As the battle rages, an American minesweeper braves enemy gunfire and coral reefs to support the pinned down Marines.