Christmas 2014

We had a great family day Christmas!  Read Luke's account of the birth of Christ, as is our family tradition, then into the presents and stockings!  Enjoyed the annual movie (The Hobbit - Battle of the Five Armies) and Chinese Buffet, then spent some time at the hobby table when we returned home.  Probably the best Christmas Day in the past four years!

My Santa was very good to me.  Along with some excellent clothes and ties I did very well on the hobby front as well.  I got a new Dremel tool to help out on vehicle and figure conversions. I also received a couple of new books, The Incomparables - Napoleon's 9th Light Infantry and Bolt Action Tank Wars.  There also are two helicopter models in the mail. I will get some photos up when they arrive.  The big gift was an airbrush!  I have never had one so it will be interesting to get some practice in and see if I can get some of these models built and painted up in the coming months.

Hope you and all your families had as wonderful a time as we did!

Have a wonderful and safe New Year's holiday.

Another Month Down!

Another month and I haven't done much on the hobby front lately.  Over the past 32 days I have only played in three games and I have only painted six measly figures!  I was doing such a good job getting things done, too! Well, I went to Carnage and hosted a War of 1812 Brother Against Brother game.  The game went pretty well, but there is still some work to be done with the OOB's.  Right now the Americans have too many high quality units with tremendous firepower.

I also hosted my friend Andrew and his son Thomas for a game using my modern skirmish rules, Special Operations Forces (SOF).  This is one of two SOF games this month.  The other SOF game was with my friend Ed.  The rules are really coming along, but they need some additional tweaking before setting up the play sheets in the final format.  I hope I will be able to get them in final form in 2015 and start using them for a mini campaign set in my fictitious African country - The Democratic Republic of Moa.

For the next month, my goals are to get in at least one game and paint 20 or more figures.  Hopefully I can keep work under control and get some time to be home and paint.  We will see how it goes.

Pirate Game Day

Wow!  It has been an entire month since my last post.  Work and personal life has taken a definite bite out of my available hobby time.  Here are some photos from the Pirate game day.  It was an extremely fun time - even though I had to leave the day early.  Enjoy!

Ralph brushes up on the rules before the start of the game.  Not that the person sailing around the largest ship in the ocean needs to consider the rules much!

One of the islands that participants would fight over during the day.

The government frigate.  A real pain in the pirates' butt!  Better behave yourselves within four feet of this bad boy!  This is the reason Ralph didn't need to really know the rules.

Another set of settlements.  As I recall, I had the pleasure of plundering both of these!

Some of the marines and crew manning a government ship.

Another island

The government cutter.  The governor's daughter sailed around on this beauty - and pirates chased it around all day long!

The figurehead on the government cutter.

Captain Randy and his mighty ship.  As you can see the Northern Conspiracy really gets into Pirate Game Day!

Pirate Game Day Playtest

Club mate AJ hosted a game at his house today to playtest rules and game set-up for the upcoming Pirate Game Day.  Here are a few photos of the event which AJ hosted in his garage.

Not a full size island as we will have on Game Day, this was the pirate haven island for the day.  Note the scurvy rat population among the palm trees!

My ship - "Scorpion" makes her way towards the pirate haven island.  At this point I am actually escorting a prize to cash it in for, well, CASH!  More appropriately - DOUBLOONS!

AJ's ship (left) dodges enemy fire.  The stands are PVC pipes secured to a wooden base with casters.  Note the ships boat on the base of the ship in the background.

Ships prepare to trade broadsides!

It was a beautiful fall day here in NH and being outdoors was a real treat! 

I really enjoyed the game.  The rules we are using are modified 'Limeys and Slimeys' which are simple but fun.  The highlight of this game for me was when I really acted the part and used my ships boat to board/capture a temporarily abandoned ship when the other crew left to search for a buried treasure.  This is one of those games that you just can't take too seriously!

We only had 8-10 ships and at the game day we will have 20 or more.  It should be a good time.

Club Game Night - Brother Against Brother

I had an opportunity to host a Brother Against Brother War of 1812 game at the last game night at our club.  The game featured Americans holding a fort and trying to get relief supplies through British and Canadian troops besieging the fort.  We had a really good time, even though the game started very slowly with really poor movement die rolls for both sides.  This was the first time that I had a chance to get my new Mule train on he table.

Here are a couple of pictures of the guys playing the game.  Many thanks to Owen, Dick, Byron, Randy, Michael and Rob for a great game. Thank you to AJ for taking photos!

Randy, Rob and Owen make British Plans

Owen moves his British/Canadian Forces against the American supply column as Mike looks on from the fort

Two Games in a Week!

My Command for the evening - An Infantry Squad, 57mm AT Gun, M8 Armored Car and Company HQ Troops

I had an opportunity last Friday to play in a Bolt Action game at my friend Ralph's house.  We had a great time playing in a very large game with 7-8 squads plus vehicles and guns on each side!  We used Ralph's house rules breaking the table into sectors.  The game was hectic and confusing at first -  especially for Earl in the center sector on our side but we eventually got the hang of it and completed five or six turns in a little more than three hours.  Pretty good I think.  Ralph will be making some tweaks before hosting the game at our club game night.  Should be a good time.

Here is another view of the command.  Problem was I didn't move forward much past the stone wall on the left of the picture.

I also had an opportunity to get my butt kicked by my son, Andrew, in a game of Brother Against Brother.  I played the British and he played the Americans in a War of 1812 game.  He did an excellent job maneuvering and getting forces into the attack when he needed to.  The fact that he rolled lights out didn't hurt him either!

I was playing to make sure that I reviewed the rules before I host a game at the club.  I am ready to go for the game night.  Terrain is ok and I think I will have the OOB's and victory conditions set.  The only question is whether or not I will have my mule train ready for the game.

The British get off a volley. doing some damage but not enough to stop the Americans

American infantry moves through the trees to attack the British defending a ford

A Month?

It has been more than a month since I last posted!  Sorry about that!  I have been very busy at work and with life in general.  Aren't we all?

So, for the last few weeks I have been working on two projects.  The first is my Brother Against Brother  (BAB) game coming up for August game night at the club.  The BAB projects have centered around terrain and getting the figures organized.  My friend Earl has loaned me a couple of wagons for the game.  He has great terrain and figures for French and Indian Wars that are also great for my War of 1812 games!

Fort Allen.  The main objective of the upcoming Brother Against Brother Game.

The Bridge just outside of Fort Allen.

The trail leading to Fort Allen.  The wagons are on loan from Earl.  Where are those British, Canadians and Indians going to come from?

Close up of some of the hills and woods along the trail.

The other project is converting my WWII 20mm collection to Bolt Action basing.  I have had the figures based for all kinds of different game systems, but now they are ready for Bolt Action!

I hope to have a game or two with my son, Andrew before he heads back to school.