Get yer tots out for the lads

Sorry; ruddy spell check again. The title of this post should of course have read get your TOYS out for the lads. 

Hey ho.

The AWI painting has been cracking along recently, helped in part by a bit of drop off in remote gaming. Every cloud and all that I suppose. The only brake on progress has been the need to rebase everything I’d already done to fit with C & C Tricorne.

Still in the painting queue are highlanders, Indians, Hessians, cavalry, guns, and yet more tax dodging militia.

Here’s a quick photo parade of what’s been achieved so far. The photos aren’t great but I’m using a crappy camera in bad light and attempting to photograph 10mm minis. Trust me they look okay at arms length.

His majesties finest

Yet more of George’s boys

And yet more of the same.  Didn’t bother taking piccies of the Grenadier and Light battalions in the background because I’m too ruddy lazy.

And by way of a change, here’s some of the tax dodgers I’ve completed. 

When you find yourself painting button hole lace on 10mm miniatures you realise there’s no hope left for you.

I was putting them all back in the cabinet just now when I realised I’d got enough units to play a version of Hubbardton, a scenario I’d taken part in at Nundanket’s gaff back in February. 

Quick as you like I broke out the hexon and attempted to recreate the battlefield. It came out okay I think. 

Hubbardton. Sort of. The sons of freedom will be arrayed along the road nearest to the camera while zee britishers will have just fought their way over the bridge on the right.

Using Tricorne I’ll have a go at this in the week and post it up here when I’ve done.

Despite all this positive progress I have somehow managed to fall down another gaming rabbit hole this week. An airship shaped rabbit hole to be precise. More on this later no doubt.

Ooh a quick word to the wise while I’m at it. Being as I’m down with the kids and all that, the word on the street is that the cool kids are turning their back on the AWI and drifting toward the WSS. Seriously guys if you don’t want to get left behind, check out the Prometheus In Aspic blog site, where Msr Foy has some ace new rules for the period. There’s no squares on that trip daddyo I can tell you.

Toodleooh.

Galleys and Galleons in spaaaaace! Catch the pigeon

Yeah it’s the follow up to my previous Trek post so I won’t stretch your patience, feel free to click away now to something that’s more your bag. Man.

I started to write a blow by blow account of the catch the pigeon mission but realised early on that an account showing what’s possible with the rules is probably more interesting than the ins and outs of each die roll.

The game modelled an encounter between two vessels, one from the Romulan Star Empire (boo hiss) and one from the United Federation of Planets (yay for the good guys). Both ships are on different randomly generated missions and both are broadly comparable in capability. The Romulan ship is a Carrion class cruiser the IRW Varak and the Federation vessel is the Constitution class USS Eisenhower. The Ike is a bit faster than the Varak but the Varak is a bit easier to manoeuvre. Although they are both of a similar size they have differing load outs and specific capabilities.

The Varak is on patrol looking for Federation vessels near the neutral zone and has standing orders to scan any Federation vessels they encounter for new technology. 

The Eisenhower has been chasing a stolen shuttle with a Romulan agent who has some top secret plans on board. The shuttle has been damaged during its escape but has just managed to limp into an asteroid field on the border of the neutral zone. 

To win the Romulan player must obtain four elements of intelligence information from the Federation vessel but for extra points can deny the Eisenhower the ability to complete its own mission. The Eisenhower needs to catch the spy and recover the shuttle while potentially frustrating the Romulan’s objective.

The game lasted an hour and took about 13 turns. 

Anywhoo… here’s what happened.

The game area. Eisenhower on the right, Varak on the left and the shuttle (a teeny tiny counter) in the centre of the asteroid field.

 

The Romulan player procured the maximum number of capability enhancing burn cards while the federation player spent more on vessel load out. The cards are purchased but drawn randomly. He ended up with a pretty good haul as it turned out. 

The Eisenhower paid for a burn card and drew this « mutiny » card but more on this later. Neither vessel comes onto the board with its shields up and the Federation also suffers from faction specific characteristics that limit their early game options. They may never fire first, they may not raise shields unless confronted with one of five hostile actions and worse they automatically lose ten victory points if they don’t attempt to hail at least one possible adversary before the fireworks start. It’s tough being the galactic good guys. 

The Romulan player decides to screw around with the Federation player rather than prioritise his own mission. Having won the initiative but being slower than the Eisenhower he plays his extra speed burn card and gains another hex towards the shuttlecraft. Maybe he can scoop it up and get it off board, denying the Eisenhower any chance of completing its mission?  Each side rolls dice to generate up to 3 action points. Action points are spent to perform…errr…actions, unsurprisingly. The more complex the action the more expensive it is. There are never enough action points to go around, and a lot of the game is spent agonising over what to do with the number of points you’ve actually got, rather than what you’d like or need to do.

No shooting has occurred up to this point and the Captain of the Eisenhower decides to hail the Romulan ship in order to avoid losing ten of his potential victory points. It costs him a precious action and it doesn’t go well. In a dice off the Romulan Captain beats the Federation captain, gaining valuable intelligence that’s unwittingly revealed in the exchange. This counts as one of the four levels of intel he needs to obtain to complete his mission. The only plus side to the encounter for the Eisenhower is that the Romulan’s aggressive rhetoric presents an obvious threat, allowing them to raise their shields.

The Varak swings around and only has to enter the shuttlecraft’s hex to scoop it up, but the Eisenhower threads it’s way between the asteroids and attempts to drag it out of the Varak’s path with a tractor beam. Yeah, when I say tractor beam I mean a wooden barbecue skewer painted light blue. Lol. The asteroids move randomly each turn by the way, and bumping into one is not recommended. 

Somewhere around this point the Romulan player found he didn’t have enough action points to use his sensors to scan the Eisenhower for further intel, but he did have enough points to try hailing the Federation vessel and taunting them a bit. Another die roll off between the two captains saw the Romulan win again and gain a further level of intel from the exchange. The Ike’s captain should learn to keep his big yap shut! Players are only allowed two hailing exchanges between opposing vessels.

With the Federation vessel about to drag the shuttle out of the way the Varak’s captain plays his second burn card which is a « secret weapon ». I’ve not specified what the weapon actually is but its effects bypass all of the usual defence options and badly damage four of the Eisenhower’s critical systems.

The Romulan specifies which systems are to be marked as damaged. He chooses the bridge, weapons and targeting, the hanger bay and the shield generators. Ouch. If any of these areas are hit again they are destroyed and may not be repaired in game. Since they are only damaged they can’t be used for now but they can be repaired - which of course costs precious action points. The loss of shields puts the Eisenhower at a serious disadvantage in combat, while the damage to the bridge and targeting prevents the further functioning of the tractor beam. With that said, even if the tractor beam was working the shuttle couldn’t be brought into the now badly damaged hanger bay.

The gloves are finally off and the Eisenhower is now cleared to fight back, except, with the damage it’s just received it’s not able to. The captain decides his first priority is to get the shields back on line and spends two of his three action points getting them working again. 

One of the oddities in my rules is that movement, once a ship is under way, costs no action points, but changing its heading does (though different types of vessel have limitations on how many heading changes they can make in a turn). It’s a bit like skating on ice. You keep whizzing along unless you make an effort to change your velocity or vector. The Eisenhower swings wide around the Varak’s stern as further hurried repairs are undertaken and the weapon systems come back on line.

The Romulan player launches a boarding party by using his « surprise » burn card. Despite the card  increasing the combat potential of the Romulan marines the Eisenhower’s security red shirts quickly despatch them before any damage can be wrought. If boarding parties manage to get a foothold they remain onboard their target and can attack every time the parent vessel activates.

Suspecting that the Varak will pick up the shuttle, the Eisenhower tries to cut off their escape route as engineers manage to fix the bridge systems by shining a salt shaker with a blinking light on over a bunch of fluorescent tubes. With bridge and weapon systems now fully functional they can engage the enemy at last. 

The Varak does indeed scoop up the shuttlecraft and uses its remaining action points to launch a salvo of plasma torpedos from its aft mounted torpedo bay. The salvo moves two hexes straight away but after this their seeker heads will move them towards the nearest target. They remain in game for three turns before they expire or explode and no further torpedos may be launched from the parent vessel while they remain in play. The Eisenhower is equipped with a comprehensive electronic counter measures system (ECM) and could attempt to steer the torpedoes in a different direction but it’s costly in action points and not guaranteed to be successful. 

Rather than pay for a costly and possibly ineffective attempt to override the Romulan torpedoes, the Eisenhower uses another of its attributes, namely it’s point defence short range gattling phasers. 50% of the passing enemy ordnance is destroyed as the Federation ship launches its own photon torpedoes in a counter strike. 

With the photon torpedos closing in fast the Varak uses all it’s action points to cloak. The model is replaced by three question mark counters. From here on in the Romulan player can choose to reappear in a hex containing one of these counters each of which moves as though it were the ship itself. The cloaking ship breaks the target lock of the Eisenhowers torpedoes which will now continue in a straight line off the board. Meanwhile back at the ranch the remaining 50% of the Romulan’s Plasma torpedoes circle round and close in on the tail of the Eisenhower.

Whammo! The remaining plasma torpedo strikes the Ike’s aft shields. On the bridge everyone lurches from one side to another and sparks erupt from consoles, lol. The question marks denoting the Varak’s potential location begin to spread out. 

Blast weapon combat is dealt with differently to beam weapon exchanges, in that there is a much greater chance of serious hull damage. The Eisenhower suffers damage to its engines and one of the white dice used to roll for action points is changed to red - denoting hull damage as well. If you use a red dice to roll for action points and you don’t roll high enough, a whole new range of bad things happen - so there’s a risk v reward thing going on from here on in. If a vessel gets three red dice it is crippled. Hull damage can be repaired in game like system damage, but not fully. There will always be one red dice in play.

The Varak sneaks past the Eisenhower heading for its own board edge. If it can just get in a scan with its sensors it can complete its four levels of intel collection and get the hell out of Dodge. Unfortunately cloaking a ship costs a lot of action points and remaining cloaked costs almost as much. Unable to roll up enough action points the cloak drops and the Varak model is put back on the board in place of one of the question mark counters. In the turn that a vessel de cloaks it has no shields. The Eisenhower launches a second photon torpedo strike from its aft launchers.  

The photon torpedoes strike home, killing and injuring a significant proportion of the crew, causing major hull damage (red dice) and damaging the comms system. 

Which was when the Federation player dropped his single burn card. It can only be used on a vessel with hull damage so there’d been no chance of playing it till now. With only a few un injured crew remaining and major hull damage the Romulan captain rolls for mutiny and fails with three dice - causing the remaining crew to surrender. 

So the Eisenhower takes control of the Varak, seizing the shuttle craft and spy that’d been previously taken on board her. With 50 points for completing their mission, extra points for the damage caused to the Varak and no deductions for failing to communicate prior to hostilities it’s a very convincing (if not very lucky) last minute win for the good guys. Huzzah. 

This was my third proper battle with the rules and they worked splendidly, if I do say so myself. It’s gratifying to bring something to a conclusion that’s been gestating for so long. I’ve a couple more models to paint up and a campaign to organise but otherwise I can consider this an itch well and truly scratched.

If you’ve stuck with the post this far I admire your fortitude! Rest assured you’ve made an old man very happy, which is hopefully reward enough in this crazy mixed up world. 

Toodleooh.

The Final Front Ear

It’s been busy busy here at maison Broom just lately; I’ve played more games in the last two months than in the last two years - and finally got to meet, albeit over a computer screen, some of the great gamers I’ve corresponded with since I’ve been blogging. I have to say it knocks solo gaming into a cocked hat.

On the subject of cocked hats (watch out - sweet segue coming up) a close personal friend of the blog recently sent me a brand new copy of C&C Tricorne they claimed they had no need for, which was very generous of them indeed. Recalling how much I enjoy C&C in general I’ve decided to rebase my growing AWI forces to fit this rule set and my hexon hexes. It’s taken me over 40 years to settle on a figure scale that suits me and the last ten to realise I prefer simple rules and hexes or squares over open terrain and measuring. Doh. Fast learner eh!

Anywhoo… On the subject of finally getting my gaming sh*t together, I’ve also commenced play testing a Star Trek ship to ship combat rule set that’s been on my mental back burner and endlessly tinkered with since 2005 or thereabouts. 

Dad joke alert. The final front ear.

My wants were simple. No ticking off damage boxes, multiple ways to win, NO power management, no buckets of dice, no complicated tables, limited table clutter, customisable ships, use of tactics, no measuring, no turning arcs or game aid appliances, ships crews to be as important as the ships themselves and a dash of added burn card unpredictability. 

The Trek combat we see on screen does not of course follow realistic physics, and aspects of it are more like naval battles in the ocean. It was this ocean / naval connection that led me inevitably to a fantastic game system that I realised I’d been playing for a while and which I could easily co opt. I’m referring of course to Galleys and Galleons. I dropped the designer of G&G a line in 2017 to ensure he had no issues with me dicking about with it…and here we are six years later still in the testing stage. Lol.

In this post I’ll document the set up for a quick game of what I can only call « Galleys and Galleons….In Spaaaace. » and in the next one how the game itself went down…err…man. 

My setting for this whole shebang is the alternate so called Nu Trek of the 2009 JJ Abrams reboot, for the simple reason that I like the ships…and anyway Stew’s already got TNG totally locked down. Lol.

First off I drew a mission card for each of the protagonists, this gives a points limit that restricts how many or what type of vessels can be deployed. The Federation drew a catch the pigeon mission in which a stolen shuttlecraft and a hostage VIP need to be rescued from an asteroid field. The Romulan player (also me on this occasion) drew an I Spy mission where they have to scan an opposing vessel four times to pick up important intel.

The Federation player has this vessel:

The USS Eisenhower NCC-1890 (Constitution Class). The red bands on the base denote the hex sides through which it may fire its energy beam weapons.

And the Romulan player has this vessel:

The I.R.W. Varak (Corvid Class) Warbird.

All ships came from Nashstarshipyards at Shapeways and all the counters were from good old Warbases.

Both players randomly drew a one use burn card that can be deployed at any time in the game. Usually you’d keep these secret until deciding to play them, but this is show and tell time.

Each ship has a data card showing it’s points cost it’s quality and combat rating (as per G&G) and a set of icons denoting its major systems. Systems in various combinations are needed to operate the items listed under the special rules section. 

Each ship has three white dice and three red dice (which denote hull damage) though only three represent the vessel at any one time. White dice get replaced with red dice when the ship gets damaged. Three of these are rolled against a vessels Q (quality) rating every turn to see how many actions the vessel may perform. The green plastic ? Markers replace the vessel on the board when it cloaks, and the two teardrop acid green markers are plasma torpedo’s which after launch track their targets across the board for three turns - unlike energy beam combat which is instantaneous.

Not that any one is wondering, but those systems that are common to most vessels are bridge, weapons (all), crew, warp core (or equivalent energy producing doohickey), propulsion (warp and impulse), sensors, comms, hanger bay and shield generators. In addition to these the Varak has a cloak and the Eisenhower a large cargo bay. At the bottom of the card the movement potential of each vessel is listed. The Varak is slower but can turn more than the Eisenhower, while the Federation ship is faster overall.

There. Clear as mud. 

Think that lot was bad? I’m going to bore the arse off you with the next post. Lol. Feel free to skip it if its not your bag daddyo - 

I’ll be back to proper historical wargaming soon enough.

Toodleooh.

Argie bargie on the A41

Worked through my 1926 game today using rules that were designed for single model skirmish stuff using playing cards instead of dice. It’s fair to say that it went at a right old clip (done and dusted in an hour) so here’s the report - in glorious Broom battle picture library format.

The Birmingham Corporation Airforce’s only plane - met up with the ammunition convoy from Liverpool and proceeded to scout out the road ahead. 

The convoy wends its way south. The vehicles with grey bases are unable to travel cross country without the a real chance of serious damage or becoming bogged.

The DH4 spots movement at the road junction below. Inspector Knacker’s lads from ‘K’ Division saw the red tail band and they let fly with their new rifles. In a departure from Lambshead’s rules I determined the actual damage caused to machinery by using my acme damage dice (in yellow). The rozzers scored one hit and the damage dice revealed a piston icon, meaning an engine hit. The DH4 began to smoke but remained flyable…for now.

Engine trouble! A second hit on the engine will bring the DH4 down. But I can’t fly it off the board without counting it as a loss - which will affect morale. (The plane was a mixed blessing. The use of planes is not really covered in Lambshead’s rules so I freestlyed a bit. While it can move a long distance in a single turn (24inches) it is vulnerable to ground fire and obviously can’t just hover in place so needs at least one precious action point per turn to keep it moving forward in the air). 

The forces of reaction were not slow in responding. Spurred on by the overflight and the sound of approaching vehicles, the Fascist blue shirts fired up Carlotta the armored car (donated by Mussolini) and raced across the field flanking the main road. As they emerged from the edge of a copse they saw the Liverpudlian convoy stretched out along the road to their left. A quick burst of fire at the lead armoured car raked it from stem to stern, two shield icons showed hits against the Austin’s baked bean tin armour. 

…followed by a hit on one of the vehicles turrets that disabled its port side machine gun.

The convoy was forced to a halt as the twin turreted vehicle swerved off the road and crashed into a tree.

The convoy ground to a halt. Alarmed by the armoured cars sudden appearance and the destruction it had wrought, the drivers of the ammunition truck and the lorry behind it veered off the road in order to find cover - risking the possibility of immobilising themselves in the process. Two squads of Workers Factory Defence volunteers debussed from their…erm…busses…and raced towards the hedge line while at the tail end of the convoy the Lanchester armoured car hared off across the field and the ex soldiers travelling in the military truck prepared to take the fight to the fascists.

Exploiting a change in initiative the squad of Workers Defence Force soldiers rush the Ernhardt armoured car and hurl a bunch of grenades at it. The car survives intact but the Vickers machine gun barrel is badly damaged and it is unable to fire back.

The reds remaining car (a Lanchester) heads across the fields with a view to flanking the blocking forces position. Unseen, but in the background, the Liverpool militia sneak along the hedge line with a similar intention.

Unable to fire and in danger of being overwhelmed the crew of Carlotta get the hell out of Dodge.

The DH4 limps around for another pass and manages to drop one of its cooper bombs in the dug out occupied by a squad of the Rotary Club Fencibles. They are marked as “downed” for now (a mixture of killed, wounded or just taking cover) rendering them useless until their actual combat status is reassessed at the end of a turn. 

The plucky aviators are on the receiving end of another fusillade from the ‘K’ Division coppers and the observer slumps over his bomb rack, badly wounded. 

 

Alerted by the bombs explosion the Liverpudlian flanking forces close in.

The red militia swarm over the defences and defeat the squad of downed fencibles in close combat. (The civilian militia squads only sport the odd handgun or shotgun - their close range offensive potential mostly being an array of blunt instruments). Unfortunately a second group, unaffected  by the dropped bomb, are waiting for them.

The fencibles fire…and miss as the angry dockers storm the second redoubt. Rushing over in support a squadra of British Fascisti blue shirts get there just in time...

…to see the redoubt defenders fall under the iron bar wielding scousers. The blue shirts are armed with rifles AND a Lewis gun and they let rip without sparing their ammo. Even as the Liverpool lads fell under this fusillade their second squad, who’d been following close behind, stormed out from behind the parked lorry. The blue shirt Corporal traversed swiftly and caught the newcomers before they could get to grips with his squadra. Then a joker was drawn which ended the turn. (All turns are of unknowable length in these rules - being triggered by the draw of that card from either players pack). During the brief admin phase that followed both sides just scraped through their morale checks - the reds hampered by their repudiation of all officers (and thereby failing to receive any morale boost from one).

One of the only bits of useful advice my father ever gave me is hereby shown to be true. “Never charge a light machine gun armed only with a pipe wrench”, he once cautioned. Thanks Dad. Wise words indeed. There were no survivors from the two red militia squads. The Lanchester armoured car drove forward and while trying to keep a respectable distance they hosed the truck and the blue shirts with their Vickers. The blue shirts hit the dirt…

Stuck in their mobile biscuit tin, the crew of the Lanchester were so focussed on the British Fascisti that they failed to notice the heroes of ‘K’ Division sneaking up on their left. When the vehicle commander popped his head up from the turret hatch to see what damage they’d done, he got coshed on the noggin by PC 289.
The driver ignored the cries of “your nicked sunshine” and backed the Lanchester out of harms way at full speed

The retreat of the Lanchester gave the following rifle armed ex squaddies a clear field of fire. As the DH4 swooped overhead and the soldiers fired at the rozzers another joker was drawn and in the admin phase that followed it was the remaining Fascisti and the coppers that broke and ran. After “persuading” the traction engine driver to move his mobile road block the way was cleared for the ammunition convoy to continue into Brum. 

So a victory for the revolutionaries on this occasion and a salutary lesson that the government shouldn’t place all its of its faith in small irregular forces. From here on in the few remaining loyal army units were going to be needed to enforce order. 

Taken a little out of context the rules worked well, and produced a pretty satisfying narrative.

I’ll try another one of these sometime soon I think.

Toodleooh.

1926 and all that.

Look; this blogging and solo gaming thing…it’s just not working out. I’m sorry…I really am…but over the last few weeks I’ve been… I’ve been…seeing other people. 

Yes that’s right I’ve gone from Mr Billy No Mates solo wargamer to international gamer de jour. You name a continent or a time period and I’ve been there, pushing lead around like nobodies business. (Well okay just North America…but it is a big place so I’m sort of counting it as at least two).

The AWI painting has slowed a bit because of these commitments but the enthusiasm is still there and progress is still being made on my second batch of Continentals. Slowly slowly catch a monkey and all that.

What I did end up doing, despite my giddy social whirl, was set up another of my 1926 General Strike games on the premise of trying them with Mr Lambshead’s skirmish rules rather than Norm’s excellent Tigers at Minsk ones. The rules are entirely playing card driven and if you consider swapping one individual soldier (as per the rules) for a base of soldiers it sort of works. 

The scenario:

The general strike has now been on for five weeks and the wheels are beginning to come off of HM Governments response to it. With the majority of the armed forces proving unreliable the Prime Minister has begun to rely more and more on that other army of concerned citizens - the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supply - and their proto fascist militant wing.

With pressure increasing on the strikers in Birmingham the armed militants in the Free City of Liverpool have begun sending small conveys of arms and ammunition to aid their midland comrades.

One such convey is heading down the A41 towards Wolverhampton when it is intercepted by the OMS.

The workers revolutionary defence force will achieve a victory if they get their lorry full of ammo off the southern road edge. The forces of repression (sorry the OMS) will achieve a victory by capturing or destroying the self same truck.

The forces of repression: From left to right - A Squadra of blue shirts, Carlotta the armoured car donated by Il Duce, two squads of OMS armed volunteers (The Rotary Club Fencibles - as they are derisively known) and a squad of Inspector Knacker’s K Division coppers with Edgar the traction engine.

And here’s the opposition.

A nice bunch of lads having a jolly day out. Two squads of Workers Revolutionary Militia with their “transports”, a twin turreted Austin armoured car and a natty little motorcycle combo. They’re the only thing that stands between the OMS and…

….a Fryco lorry stuffed full of explosives. Behind it is an ex army truck carrying a squad of former British Army soldiers (now wearing the red armband of the Workers Defence Force) and at the rear of the column is a Lanchester armoured car. 

Fortunately for the reds they also have eyes in the sky!

“B1” An Airco DH4 of the Birmingham Corporation Air Force, toting 4 x 20Ib cooper bombs and a bad attitude. 

These days I can leave the whole thing set up, so although I’ve run out of time today I can hopefully get the game played and an AAR posted here next week.

Toodleooh for now!