Operation Torch - Angels 20/Bandits High Game Night

 I recently ran a game at our club game night. The scenario pits American Wildcats escorting Dauntlesses dive bombers flying in to support the upcoming American invasion by attacking Vichy gun positions and an airfield. Here at game night we had three Americans facing off against two French players. The French divided the forces into a squadron of three MS406’s and another of two D520’s. The American players divided their forces into a group of one Wildcat and two groups of a Wildcats and a Dauntless. The game proceeded well.  There were two new players and three veterans. We have great gamers in our club and within two turns the players had the rules down and were running the game themselves. 

The Wildcats are a really tough aircraft in this rules set and I tried to balance the forces by giving the French some positive pilot skills. The American players did a good job for the most part of holding the Vichy fighters off the Dauntlesses, but as one of the American players lined up a gun position for a bomb run and a Vichy D520 forced him to abort with a hit. The other Dauntless managed to hit and destroy the other gun position.

The Wildcats eventually shot down both D520’s and one of the MS406’s. One of the Wildcats ended the games crippled. This was definitely an American victory.  We did learn a lot by playing through the scenario. I’m preparing another D520 and will go with a French force of Three D520’s and two MS406’s in the next game. With the pilot skills, this should be a much more balanced force. 

Here are some photos of the game:

The furball forms as squadrons come together. 

A Wildcat takes on an MS406 at close range. 

I like the game mat. It is really for the Pacific, but works for my fictional scenario off the coast of N. Africa.

A crippled D520 tries to engage a Dauntless.

A Wildcat destroys a D520 with a vital hit roll.

My thanks to Gordon and Phil (Vichy players) and Kevin, Ralph and Michael (American players). This was a great game and I look forward to the next one at the Mayhem gaming convention in April. 

Game Stuff This Week

This week has been pretty busy on the hobby front. I got some painted figures delivered in the mail. These are for my expanding Chocolate Box Wars (CBW) collection. I also got to go to my friend Ed’s house on Friday evening for a game night. 

First, the painted figures:  These are some really nice Confederate figures that I got on EBay. I will use these figures including infantry, both regulars and zouaves, a commander figure and an artillery piece and crew. Here are some photos:

Maryland Guard Zouaves. Perry plastics. 

McClellan’s Zouaves S. Carolina. Perry plastics ACW Infantry. 

Louisiana Tiger Zouaves. Perry plastics. 

Artillery battery. Early Perry plastics. These are smaller than more current models. 

Regular infantry. Perry plastics ACW. 

These entire order of regular infantry. 

These are some really well painted figures. I find that sometimes you get lucky on EBay and this is definitely the case this time for me. With the 36 regulars and 18 Zouaves, I have 9 infantry units and the required artillery battery for my CBW force. Combined with the Confederate Cavalry regiment and commanders that I have, the force will be ready for use. Exciting to have my third CBW army ready to play!

I also got to help Ed prepare his Baroque Wars scenario for this week’s club game night. This is a homegrown set of rules for 6mm grid-based game system. The scenario is a re-creation of the Battle of Rocroi 1643 in the later stages of the Thirty Years War. Ed developed the game system and you can find his blog page about the rules at this link: https://edmwargamemeanderings.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html

I didn’t take any photos during the game. I was separated from my phone and I was having too much fun to step away from the table. Take my word for it. The figures, although small by today’s standards, are superbly painted.  Ed has uploaded some photos at his link above but the figures are much better in person. 

2025 Hobby Goals

 A freezing day here in the northeast US.  A really good day (and weekend) to huddle at the hobby desk and get some painting done. I hopefully will have some pictures to share in the next few days. 

I have been looking at my outstanding pile of shame and trying to set some hobby goals for the coming year. I think I have settled on three game systems and their related painting and modeling opportunities. Here they are in no particular order:

Cold War Commander - I have a really good start on this project with diverse units already painted for both NATO and WARPAC forces. I still have a lot of unpainted stuff including FRG, Americans and round-out both French and Czechs. We have been working on rules revisions/modifications of the base Cold War Commanders v2 rules.  Our club definitely has an approach to simplify the extraneous parts of the rules to make them more playable within our usual three to four hour gaming timeframe. Our club has never really had a set of rules for anything more ‘modern’ than WWII so I’m hoping that these CWCv2 rules will give us the opportunity to expand our wargaming experience. 

Chocolate Box Wars - As you can see from my recent posts, I’m currently working very hard on getting my first two CBW armies completed. I have the base forces done and now I’m adding some extras to have the ability to field four-player games and use different upgrades within my forces. I’m also looking at adding two other armies (ACW Confederates and Maximilian French in Mexico) during the year. I really enjoy playing these simple, yet challenging rules and I want to bring other members of the club into this gaming experience. 

One-Hour Skirmish Rules - This is a pretty simple, card-driven rules set that can be used for many different eras. My Friend AJ and I are working on specific rule changes for WWII era gaming. We have made a few tweaks and are now just waiting for schedules to work out for a test four-player game. Stay tuned for a battle report(s) later this month. Ed M. also has made some modifications to play the rules in his Age of Rifles timeframe (1850’s to 1880’s).  We have all agreed that the rules can be played as written for everything Ancients to Napoleonics. So, there will be a wide range of gaming opportunities with these rules. I have several additions that I can make to my WWII collection including Afrika Korps and 8th Army, early-war German and British and a couple of late-war German units.  I also have some Pony Wars US cavalry which I can use for the AoR era. Setting up some scenarios will give me an excuse to get these forces painted and on the table.

So there you have it, my gaming goals for 2025. Let’s see how things go.