The Battle of Plutusk - 26 December 1806

On Christmas day my good friend Dave and I got out Command & Colors: Napoleonic's, and setup the expansion 2 The Russian Army. The scenario played is as stated in the title of this post. Dave and I happen to be big fans of the sister series Command & Colors: Ancients and play that system quite a bit. So we don't play this series as much. The two systems are similar but not quite the same so having a long period of time between play sessions means re learning the rules again.

We ended up playing two games, the first being more of us trying to remember stuff and constant referencing to the rules. But it didn't take long for things to come back to us and so once we were satisfied we knew somewhat of what we were doing we set it up again. 

The second game was going to be what I thought another lesson taught to my good friend of why the French soldiers are to be feared. What happened instead was the lesson taught to me of why the Russian soldier is to be feared. What they lack in number of blocks they can take for causalities (some of the units at the beginning of the battle can be brought up to full strength with the Mother Russia roll at beginning of game), they make up for in their stubbornness when it comes to retreating with a built in may ignore 1 flag. There were so many times I got brutalized because I could not get an attack going to push him off terrain because he was able to ignore my retreat results. It also didn't help that my hands sucked and so did my dice rolling, while Dave made masterful strokes during his moves and rolled dice the Greek God Mars would envy! By the time we finished (I conceded) I had three useless Cavalry charge cards that couldn't get used as I wasn't getting any cards to get the infantry out of their way. Though it wouldn't have mattered much as the Russian's where dug in deeper than an Alabama tick (okay an exaggeration, but that's how it felt to me;)). 

Here are a few snap shots of the game at the start. If you haven't played this, I highly recommend that you do. Especially if you're a miniature enthusiast. You don't have to paint any minis to play this, and the feel the blocks give you is, well miniature soldier like. Enjoy your holidays.

Cheers

Kevin

Formula De (or Formula D for latest version) campaign game

Sadly I've been ill the last two weeks and unable to gather any energy whats so ever to do any hobby related stuff. It's the worst head cold with persistant cough that I've had in quite a while. But that's not what this little Posting is about.

This past November my face to face pals and I started a 6 team campaign game of Formula D. There will be 6 races with each team having a bye week (game is designed for only 5 teams and we found having more teams causes too many problems). We will only do two lap races as we have time constraints and straight up un modified cars. With 5 teams racing and each having two cars we've decided to do a mirror system start up. So if one of your cars starts on the pole position (1st car) then your other car starts in tenth position, next team that starts in 2nd position has their second car start in 9th position etc. etc. All races will be dry conditions to make it a level playing field through out. Also everyone gets a chance to be on pole so we will be using a rotational system where all cars get bumped up and lead car rotates back.

We had our 2nd Race this past Friday and we had a blast here are a couple of shots from the first lap:

Not half way through and you can see the field start to stretch out.

Some of the drivers made a mistake and coupled with a bad roll here or there and the field changes position. Notice the white car in the lead driven by the Devil aka Team Chad.

Some shots of the last lap (remember only two lap race)

Now the field really is stretching out and Team Chad's lead car (white car) has hit the corners just right and with some good die rolls he is guaranteed to win as long as he races conservatively at this point. 

As predicted Team Chad's lead car breezed to a win. Just look how far back the next car is. Amazing.

All in all we had a great time and after two races Team Chad leads by 25 points followed by Team Mark & Rob both having 12, Team Dave at 4, and finally Team Al at 3. Oh yeah Team Kevin the author of this most excellent blog, where is he at in the point standings? Big fat zero.... Oh well I can't wait till next race just the same.

Cheers

Kevin

Infidel, a game by GMT

While waiting for my copy of the new Saga rules (The Crescent & The Cross miniature rules) I started reaching out to other areas to scratch that itch. I picked up a book called "Victory in the East" by John France and, though at times it's difficult sorting out all the players he is talking about, I have found it a pretty good read. Of course that has fueled more interest and I pulled a game off my shelf that has been sitting there since release collecting dust called "Infidel" by GMT games.

All I can say is Wow! What was I thinking not getting this one to the table sooner. There are six battles in the box spread out over the time period of the different Crusades. Rules are about 14 pages and pretty easy to read, and digestible by experienced or novice players. I gave them a quick one over and played the scenario Antioch 28 June 1098 face to face with a friend. We both found it refreshingly light and fun. Having played I went over the rules again and only had a hand full of questions that where resolved by the second reading.

If you have ever played Great Battles of History (GBoH) series, you will find this a lot lighter and can easily play a game in 2 hours or less. You do sacrifice some realism for playability, but now a days I want to complete a game, drink a brew, and have a nice conversation with my opponent. My plan is to try and play each scenario before I move on to the sister game called, "Blood & Roses" (taking place during Medieval times called War of the Roses, think Tudor's, Lancastrians, Yorkist, etc.).

The game models the supremacy of Cavalry during the Crusader Era and how the different types (Knights, bowed armed light cavalry, etc.) fared against one another on the field of battle, and how the tactics evolved over the period of the campaigns. 

I liked the game enough that I got my PBEM Vassal playing friend across the Ocean to give it a go. The following is a picture of the game set up based off a current playing file (Vassal is a Java based program that allows you to play live over the Internet or play by email with anyone around the world, how far we have come since the Crusade day tech) of the battle of Antioch.What's nice about this scenario is there is practically no setup as both sides start off the board.

[Remember to left click on the image and then to see the full size right click on the image and select view image to see full size]

I highly recommend this game as a light fast playing game that you can enjoy over beer and pretzels and have enough time to set up another if you feel like.

Cheers
Kevin

Thirty Years War - Europe in Agony 1618 - 1648 by GMT games

I picked up GMT's game "Thirty Years War" a few years ago. I remember that a friend and I played it two days in a row (Holiday weekend) and I tend to remember we had fun. Well for some reason we haven't played it for a few years now, playing other games etc. and just plain forgot about it.

That all changed this past weekend. Looking through my bookshelf of games we were trying to decide what game we should try and relearn. We just needed a break from Command & Colors Ancients (which is our favorite game at the moment). We were also looking for a game we could play by email using vassal. I was trying to push my friend into GMT's "Elusive Victory" as we had played "Downtown" before but he felt it too complicated for the moment. My friend has always had a love for Pike and Musket period and happened to see "Thirty Years War" on the shelf and said let's play that. At first I tried to talk him out of it but was not successful and I am glad I did not.

This is a strategic point to point movement game using strategy cards to resolve your movements. The map is colorful and it comes with both 1/2' (leaders and game markers) & 5/8' counters (troops), and each side gets it's own draw deck that are nicely designed. Basically the componets and map are what you have come to expect from GMT games. The rules are 32 pages, but really about 20 is what needs to be read and the print is of moderate size so takes up more pages. We basically set the game up and read the rules on the fly. I was really surprised at how easy they were to pick up on, but this could have something to do with us having played other point to point movement card driven games. The game box rates complexity at 4 (out of 10, being hardest) and I would have to agree. The rules are simple and well written for understanding. In about 3 hours we had muddled through about 6 turns (a turn represents two years of real time, and is sub divided into 6 activation phases, each player getting 6 activations with Protestant player going before Catholic player). I believe once you have an understanding of how to play, you could expect to play all 15 turns in 3 to 4 hours. You have three choices on how to play. Early War Turns 1 through 5. Intervention Turns 6 through 8. Apocalypse Turns 10 through 14. Each with a clearly defined setup and special rules (like what cards to take out of the deck etc.). Finally you can play the campaign game which is all 15 Turns.

We had a blast playing the game, so much so we are currently playing by email through vassal. So mission accomplished. I believe that the game has a lot of replayablity with you being able to try out different strategies. Lastly the grognard player of the Thirty Years War may not like it for lacking more in depth rules, but that's not what this game is about.

Simple to play, gets you into the flavor of the period. So much so I went out and picked up GMT's Musket and Pike series game "Nothing Gained but Glory". While not directly about the 30 years war, it will be a good stepping stone to a tactical game on how warfare was carried out for the period. If it's a good system there are several other games in the series that cover the English civil war, and several about the 30 years war. I shall give a review of the system in the near future.

Below is a picture of the game Early War setup.

I should also mention that I found myself wanting to read more about the period. Looking at the games sources I found a recommended book on the period called "The Thirty Years War, by C.V. Wedgwood" and plan on picking that one up. I'll let you know what I like or don't like about it.

Cheers