Mobirise
MY GAMING

MY GAME ROOM...a dream come true.        Mods and ideas, rules used Age of Valor a version of Age of Eagles.

Mobirise

1870

With 10 mm figures.
Exploring the idea of using the just bought excellent Age of Eagles (AOE) II  with its adaptation Age of valor, coupled with the so well done 1870 of Bruce Weigle.
Sometimes I use a command system, plus events cards. 

Mobirise

Napoleonics
with "Balls, fire and steel napoleonics"

15/18mm figures; scale 1" /=100m; units are batteries, cavalry brigades, infantry 1/2 divisions/ brigades or if big enough, down to regiments. Scales and  representation fully adaptable. My creation, my long matured baby!

Mobirise

Seven Years War or mid XVIIIth century things.

Guess what, my own rules
Balls, fire and steel, Frederick.
(adapted from the napoleonic system.) maybe, or not...Now playing Twilight of the Soldier Kings ;)

Mobirise

American Civil War

Using Fire and Fury regimental... so far.
As of  early 2020 nearly all the minis (but not the terrain) are from a local pal. very rare games...I have 200+ figs to paint plus the remnants of my former Johnny reb armies to revamp. here

Mobirise

WW2
Battlefront from Fire and Fury games
(IABSM)

Used to play, very much in general reserve nowadays. Occasional Battlefront game with a friend who has...everything for it. I'd have most of the terrain though. Typically;)

Mobirise

NAVAL  WW2
General Quarters III

1/6000th ships and 1/1200 air from last Square /Magister Militum. If only I had players!  a bit here.

Mobirise

Force on Force (finis!)

I enjoyed it very much... This one is not much solo and when I moved, selling the whole bunch to a friend (who is supposed to play well...) it filled my whole car. Little skirmish game but well, you need country houses, then urban  types, then these vehicles, then this orchards, then... 

Mobirise

Elsewhere+others

This was a test of Blücher rules with cards. I could not stand the absence of that very important and newish (when you do the revolution vs 18th century minded columns) organisational step: the division. And this 1815 Prussians who could put all their Landwehr on one side, ignoring real organization.  A good game but lacking in history.  (I even sold the cards)

Mobirise

17th CENTURY: 
By Fire and Sword
Baroque
Twilight of the divine right

15/18 mm figs. So far I learned BY FIRE AND SWORD more or less 3 times! no one wants to play and I allowed myself to forget it three times. Still very willing and have added even more troops.
And then the rules keep changing a bit... A very ancient dream!

Mobirise

Sharp Practice
American War of Independance

15/18mm figs, mostly because I already had so much available, sometimes salivating looking at the enormous mass of good stuff in 28!
Mods I use and more ideas. 
 Game AAR 
another



Mobirise

ANCIENTS AND MEDIEVALS

The return of old loves, all the fault of one ruleset: Mortem and Gloriam (mostly).

2022 PROJECTS (nothing is harder to predict than the future).

  • PAINTING 15mm- Napoleonics: Saxon division 1812+ (part will be filled by  greatcoat fillers)  24+ infantry + 6 gunners +2 guns +1 colonel+1 brigadier. 
  • 1809 Saxons  12 figures; Russians  24 greatcoats; + a few Jäger. 10 gunners.
  • Colonels and brigadiers for Waterloo to add to my player who owns the figures for 1815 , around 20.
  • More Freiwilliger and Landwehr for the Austrians  around 48 figs..
  • Prussians: Kleist Korps 1813 around 350+ figs.
  • TERRAIN: a few remaining houses, camp sites, more orchards, hills for the Borodino mat, finishing walls for the German town, homemade walls too. Winter trees.  more or less DONE
  • Las Navas de Tolosa period 20mm: 100+ 
  • 30YW: 3 units of Spanish ( 90) +4 late war cavalry (36); pikes and flags stands to recycle additional musketeers to make more late war rgts (4x 11). civilians, trains...20+ 
  • Sharp Practice AWI: as I dug out 100s of figs...  Canadian volunteers (Saratoga) 20; more Indians 7+ ; militia 28+; British regulars 40+
  • 1870: 10mm  finish  the Saxon Korps (100+); Prussian cavalry 60; French  cavalry 36;  Bavarian Jäger 30. bits  20+ IX korps finishing, fr  VIIth corps bits/ mg, some brigadiers.                  DONE
  • ACW  400+ guns wagons+++aie aieaie to be transfered to a pal.
  • Possibly medieval  Lion rampant or/and Baron's Wars 15mm as I have already bits and stuff. DONE 
  • Punic wars in 15mm mostly Wofun.  to base; paint some sk, baggages.     DONE                                                                                                                                                                                   2023  Plans (haha) 
  • Prussians: Kleist Korps 1813 around 350+ figs.
  • 100yw armies  300+ figs
  • 150 Bavarians 1809 + 130 Tyrolean
  • a bit more and polishing up the XXIst republican corps for 1870
  • 30yw flats and more to "finish" (hahah;)
  • Well those Saxons and Neapolitans etc. of 2022 still waiting.

FORCE ON FORCE STAN AND IRAK (souvenir pics- finished gaming it-sold)

 In 20 MM, started around 2010 till 2013. All given or sold as had to shrink space for storage. it all started as "a small quick game", ended up with 1700€ of spending and the thing filled the whole car when I moved it to its new home. Had a lot of fun with it. Souvenir pics. 

You can view bigger pics with right click "view image"...

Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise
Mobirise

COLD WAR COMMANDER  6MM

Set up 1/285th scale.

Where my recently done Leipzig felt mat came to unexpected use. Plenty of fields, the roads are not much what they should be but I don't have decent bitumen roads in scale. I would love to find grey chalk which would allow for it.
I chose the "exploitation" scenario from the rules, as did not want to learn the things about fixed defenses (yet). Little deviance as I allowed the defending brits a Bn of M109 in support.

turn 2

it looks good

We played with hidden deployment+ mobile for me (popov) as I can't understand post 1900 with everything seen. 
soviets had part of a DAG in general support.
2 reasonably in shape bn groups of Brits (one inf heavy with Chieftains, one lucky armor heavy with challengers: set somewhat in 1985.
Facing them two understrength rgts, one motor (BTR70+T72) one armour (T64+ bmp1/2).

We fumbled with the rules

but in the end it works quite fine.

It was quite fast to learn the basic systems but we fumbled quite a bit with the rules as we had to search  things. No wonder for a first game with only one poor sod who read the thing.
We ended up playing only with the tank rgt as I and the dice kept the motor one for "exploitation"/later. tank rgt vs brit 2coys of Challenger and 2 FV 438. The brits ended up smashed but He did not manoeuvre enough.

I was puzzled as to how many Hq to use. Brits had one per bn and one overall(brigade) Co. soviets, one per rgt plus one "division/ or rather assistant division forward post. It was a bit not enough for the soviets. Next time they will have two per rgt like the real ones one "rear" one forward

Various mistakes:

Sp122 artillery has to be a sort of bn guns, no Foo , wrongly used. I forgot the composite armour of the Challenger, to the utmost joy of the BMP shooters.

For a while we forgot the evade against ATGW. 

I did not buy the rules for the remote shooting of Fv438. I just put them behind the crest in full defile the guy with his joystick, dismounted assumed to be a dozen meters in front; I think this should be the way. The "morale" rules for collapse might have to be refined. Figured out that the brits could lose all 6 Challengers but because there were 10 other bases (FV432+ inf+ 2 fv438+2 scimitars) and still be happy. Hardly. The artillery rules are rubbish. Changed. (afterwards;) I will use proper hidden deployment with company counters and some decoys. In this game there should have been no way to know where the mech coy was hidden like I knew. Not a big deal, it forces to think and use recon. We liked the game, he also bought the ww2 version and we will test it. Might somewhat replace Battlefront as it handles armour badly. When the hidden bits are mastered, and some fine tuning, this game would go fast and be quite fine. 

Ideas and mods here. (WIP) . 

OF THE FRUSTRATION OF UNFINISHED GAMES
Because my gaming pal only normally has the 4 hours of gaming here and there authorized by his life and madame, we often, never fully finish games. Unfortunately (we used to , but that was long before…) we don’t do campaigns, to me the glory of wargaming., so our either historical, twisted historical, or one off scenarios are more often than not reaching a sort of conclusion. I’d say apparent conclusion as several time I did carry on solo when he was gone, and the winning side ended up to be different.
Past games, last century, when gamers did relish multi day, multiplayers wargames, some that seemed to be ending, that obvious ending, your opponent will try to convince you is here for all to see, well that victory, after several more hours, was fully reversed. Either dice miracles or overconfidence, sleek manoeuvers at times, rewarded that tenacity. One big Empire battle, where the allied did quite well till t one tired commander did that capital error of provoking an opportunity charge form a lousy brigade of Chasseurs, who turned out to be quite furious breaking everything, pursuing into the mass, breaking divisions and provoking M.E. tests and a great big hole in their lines. We could have stopped before that, it would have been a pity. A Midway campaign when late in the night, tired to the bones, I became careless, supposedly winning, and then that lousy remaining jap carrier sunk two of mine.  Plenty in fact.
Scenarios, artfully done, go very far towards helping out this frustration. Fine when done by another who did the job of testing, and taking time to think it thoroughly, something we do not necessarily have time for or capacity as it not easy alone in your den to think right about all. It can be quite useful to sort of “fast Kriegspiel” play the next few turns before closing. Going to the most important moves and decisions, often without moving the figures. A few dice rolls and discussions can often not be enough to get a good idea of “the End”.
When playing campaigns, either the full-blown type or the mini/simple versions, the catch is that you need to go to the end, which is often not much interesting to the losing side. It can be done in a sort of bargain to avoid that time seemingly wasted. That is if your campaign does carry over casualties, and /or morale/ cohesion losses. If done in a boardgame, it can be mercifully in the game rules. On the other end, normally a battle created by a campaign has its own self-explanatory reasons, hence victory conditions and maybe a clearer “end” that makes sense.  
OF THE HOPELESSNESS OF SOLO GAMING AND MORE.
Everything in sight, linked to, was tried. A collection of sorts, that has clever ideas aplenty, that can manage some sort of small games (notably “Adjudant introuvable”-who can only attack though) up to a point. Could not find a way to have an enemy doing reasonable things, with hidden troops (a fundamental thing post 17th century), “thinking” more than one turn ahead. It just is not interesting. Nothing can replace a decent human opponent. I will be long dead (and or we will be gone third world/dark ages by then) when a robot can do it. An old pal wargamer, known for 20 years+ is also coming once every 3-4 weeks for a 4 hours partial game. Partial for it rarely finishes the games to a conclusion, even Sharp practice at times.
I have a huge, dedicated game room full of goodies. A dream come true, but too late, the wrong century. This morning when doing exercise, I wondered what to do with this, when I give up miniature games. A sort of come back to the origins: to boardgames and now computer games?
I started gaming in my late teens, when a friend brought from Paris one of the first local historical boardgames. Hooked, we bought more; then later I organized a big (too big) tour in the USA where we visited SPI, tourists but with a wonderful set of ANG and air force bases + Dayton show. Yes, I was also modelling planes back then, and reading “Airfan”. Imagine, just write letters to “see if” to the bases Public relations officers, always getting enthusiastic simple kind answers. Back before the muz brotherhood had enough money to get everyone scared of too many things and other people. Later I moved to “the city” where I put a note on the wall in one of these shops where you found games, some figures, cards etc. Got myself into a club playing miniatures, mostly ancients with WRG! At the same time regular visits to the holy grail of wargaming, the UK brought more stuff, more games, notably Empire rules. Thus 10years of devout 6mm napo games with 4-8 players, 30 times or more a year.
You see the thing. A few years later got a dedicated game table, but not so big, and a stressful more than full time job. The dream went on, persist, that one day I will really be able to play campaigns, all the battles, big games and smaller linked games. Now theoretically I can. But in fact not; the teeming, teaming (?) gamers of the past century have vanished.
Within 1hour drive, I have say 400000 people ( 2 million within 2hours), 2/3 of whom are of the same civilization (in the 80s it was 600000 elsewhere, with 9/10). There are 3 groups of gamers (total 15?), two are clubs of maybe 4-6 playing twice a month an afternoon on 1.2x18m tables, enough for them, for decades. One club is more a social thing, most playing fantasy, boardgames (non-historical/family). Another has a bigger table at home (a beautiful room) occasionally playing but does not go anywhere.So while still attracted to , even painting new stuff (aie those printed minis!) whenever the testing , the experimenting, studying historical battles or rules will be done, I look around and ponder if this all worthwhile. Mass of money, efforts (I am more a gamer than a painter) for what?
In truth, without fooling myself, there is no way the 30yw, 7yw, 1809,1812, 1813, 1815, 1870-71 campaigns will ever be done. I have operational (with my pal for some) AWi sharp Practice; MEG Punic wars; medieval Lion Rampant (soon 100yw battles-again-previous set for DBm was sold);. 7YW, AWI sharp practice; Napoleonics (most), 1870, naval ww2+ ww3. 
When we play (when He plays) only Age of Valor (1870-offset of Fire and Fury) is mastered as so easy self-explanatory system as there are not enough games of any subject within months to keep proficient in them .It also contributes to the dwindling (despairing) interest. Games have to be challenging. 
Most players who still call themselves “historical wargamers” actually play unfinished short games on small tables, with at most 100 figures, a few trees and 2 houses, with rules that are first of all social games dressed up with a costume of history. In some ways, just change labels, costumes and that mean a new “period”. The “period” with “factions”. There is nothing wrong per se, with these games, this is just not my thing, for this as for many other things I won’t bend to fashion and herd compliance which is probably why I am alone, besides the dwindling/dying number of able gamers. Many will think this a rant of an old grumbling elitist wargamer who thinks these things too seriously. You might be right. And it surely has to do with the near complete collapse of the education system, the new products of it (already for decades-so 2nd-3d generation) unable to decipher texts, don’t even think reading 50 pages, short attention span, very low simple math ability (guess what wargames and thinking ahead?) and that missing 7 hours of playing a week, easily day after day wasted using both thumbs on images and mindless 140 characters. Sometimes I also wonder when running outside, what Chinese archaeologists in 1000 years will say of those tiny metal figures buried (dumped in the house collapse?) after I passed away and the rest too. Oh well, lets go painting those Tyrol revolt minis, it will be a valid reason, additional valid reason to go to Innsbruck.

Built with ‌

Landing Page Creator