Current Gaming Projects

Sunday, December 16, 2012

"Danger Close"


Pretty much all of us have heard of the phrase, "Danger Close".  But what does it mean and how does it effect wargaming?

Friday, December 7, 2012

What Battlefield is this? Answer to Quiz #1

This battlefield is the site of the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.  Today, December 7th, is the 150th anniversary of the battle.  It was a battle that due to very poor performance by the Confederate Generals and sheer aggressiveness of the Union forces prevented what should have been a major defeat to the Union's Army of the Frontier as the Confederate forces initially outnumbered the Union almost 2:1 until reinforcements arrived.  It is one of those battles that is hard to game because the players would never allow the historical hindrances to handicap them so. 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

What Battlefield is this? Quiz #1 (part 2)

Well, we still don't have a winner, but we did confirm that this is an American Civil War battlefield and the first picture from yesterday is an apple orchard were a deadly assault was  made.  So in this entry, I am going to provide some additional hints.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

What Battlefield is this? Quiz #1 (part 1)


Anyone care to take a guess where this picture is from?

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Liebster Award




Well, this was unexpected!.  There is a meme going around for the “Liebster Award” and I was put in by Dougie, from the “Dougie's Wargaming Blog.”  (Thank you, Dougie!) I actually got it earlier in the week, but due to work & just being so exhausted, I did not get around to saying anything until now. So staying in with the spirit of reason for the meme award, I accept this award and will follow through the rules as stated below.

-----------------------------------------------
Liebster Award Rules

Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it to you.

Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

Sit back and bask in that warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing that you have just made someone's day!
-----------------------------------------------

Honestly, I think just limiting the number to only five is very, very hard as many of the blogs that I follow are well worth the nod of recognition.  Luckily, Dougie nominated several (excluding his, which someone else did already) which I was able to remove from the list of blogs to wrestle with on naming.  So here are the five that I will name in alphabetical order:

Civil War Horrors:  This blog is by the author Sean McLachlan of several Osprey books and a couple of novels.  His blog is mainly about a subject near and dear to my heart, the Civil War in Missouri.  There is usually some great tidbits of ACW history on a very regular basis.  Also check out is travel blog about his trip to Iraq.

England Prevails…:  This blog has just re-stirred to life after a nine month coma this year.  Steve Blease of Wessex Games created this blog to do a modern English Civil War between Royalists & Republicans.  While my personal “Anarchy in the UK” project is more in lines with Mark & Matt’s “Winter of ‘79” blog (which was also nominated by Dougie) for time frame, it does provide some flavor and ideas to help fuel it.

Plastic Zombie:  This blog is by Irqan.  I have been following it and several other blogs that have been running their own zombie survival campaigns using Two Hour Wargames’ rules, All Things Zombie (ATZ).   While I have not started my zombie project up yet (it is tied into the “Anarchy in the UK” project for using the same toys, just need to buy/paint zombies), it is nice to see a different take to the zombie games with Irqan’s blog.  Unlike the other ATZ blogs, Irqan’s zombie game is taking place in the 1920’s and he is using 1/72nd plastic figures.  Plus, Irqan is a friendly and good person to email with.

SP’s Projects Blog:  This blog is by Pete, also a good and friendly person to chat with emails with.  Pete’s blog got some interesting posts on SWAT games and some ideas for resource points in doing SWAT games.  His latest entry on the zombie infection mega-game sounds fun.

Wanted: BRAINS!:  Finally, this blog is one of the other ATZ campaign blogs that I have been following.  It is pretty good and well worth the award and a mention.

And finally, a special mention to this blog as Blake is a local gamer who will run games at stores, put on convention games, paint up big armies, and basically is makes a good effort to keep miniature gaming active going and in St. Louis:  Blake’s Gaming Adventures

Cheers
Joe

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Colonel Trevor N Dupuy and QJM


Who is Col. Trevor Dupuy and what is this QJM that I am hearing some of you ask?  Well in this blog will touch the very surface about those two later. 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

11/11

If you have to ask, then I can't explain.


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Are you a proper Wargamer?

On several of the blogs that I follow have been running the following questionnaire about how much of a “proper” wargamer are you.  I always question what does it really mean to be “proper”, but that is an argument that does not apply to this fun excise.  So here we go…

Friday, October 12, 2012

Tacspiel – Gaming the Vietnam Conflict with official US Army wargame rules

About two or three years ago, I was discovered that in 1966, the US Army issued a set of rules and procedures for a “Kriegsspiel” map based training designed to train officers on how to fight a counter-insurgent war in Vietnam.   This document was called “Tacspiel – War-Game Procedures and Rules of Play for Guerrilla / Counter-Guerrilla Operations”. 
What is better is that I found out that this document was declassified and available to the general public.  With some Google searching, you can find a free copy on line.  However this copy is of a poor quality and is hard to read in places, plus it is missing some charts.  There is a nice bound reprint of this document available at a cost at www.wargaming.co, entitled, “Tacspiel – The American Army’s Wargaming Rules for the Vietnam War, 1966”.  It is edited by John Curry and it is worth to look at the website as he also reprinted several other official military wargame systems, like the British Army’s tactical game of 1956, and Dunn-Kempf, the US Army’s tactical game system from 1977-97.  Another advantage of buying the reprint book, besides a clean copy to read, is that the editor adds the missing charts and adds some comments to procedures that were not complete.  I went ahead and purchased a reprint from the website.  I finally got around to reading it and I am going to provide a simple review of it, as well as a little history about it.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley (Ret)


I just saw this bit of sad news, Command Sergeant Major Basil L. Plumley (Ret), passed away yesterday at the age of 92. 

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Maps, Scales, and A Restless Night


I love math.  I wish that I was better at calculus and physics back in high school and went more into a mathematical career.  Anyways, why am I even pining over math?  Well, last night I was sitting down with one of my 1:50000 topo maps of the Falklands thinking about how I am going to enlarge it make templates to cut out for elevations when it totally dawn on me…I was wrong on my thinking about using the altered ground scale for Charlie Don’t Surf for company battles in the Falklands and Vietnam! 
I suggested changing the game ground scale from 1:300 to 1:328 so to scale metrics to British Engineering measurements.  Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! (This is not including several other grammar and misspelling / typo mistakes I caught after re-reading the article, like on a 1:50000 scale map, 1cm=50m...sigh…that should have been 1cm=500m…that is a huge difference! I will go back and clean it up one day.)

Friday, September 21, 2012

Using topographical maps in miniature wargaming


OK, be prepared to get your nerd on!  I will be diving into some serious math down below, so I hope not to bore anyone too badly...especially considering the length of this blog entry as well! 
Just because we play with toy soldiers don't mean that we can't add some realism

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

10mm Falklands Project

(Click on the pictures for a larger version)

As I mention earlier, I will be doing a 10mm Falklands Conflict project in addition to my 20mm project for ground combat.  Both projects will cover different levels of ground combat operations.  The 20mm project will be skirmish level up to a company size element with each figure representing one man.  The 10mm project will be tactical / operational level with a battalion being represented on the board with an infantry stand representing a platoon.  The bulk of the 10mm miniatures will be mounted on 50mm x 25mm stands for platoons or 25mm x 25mm stands for independent sections, like recon or weapons sections.  As of now, I have not figured out what rules set I wish to use for this level of gaming.  Cold War Commander is set up for this level of gaming, but I am thinking of modifying Charlie Don't Surf or I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! to cover this level of gaming.  We will have to see what works out out.  One of the key things is ground scale should be about 1"=50m or close to that.  I know that the long out of print, GDW's Combined Arms was close to that scale and there are scenarios in their Harpoon's South Atlantic War supplement, which I still have in my collection.  However, I got rid of my copy of Combined Arms probably close to 12-15 years ago.

The first group of pictures is some of the rock cropping pieces from TimeCast's Falklands line which can be used for both the 10mm and 20mm gaming, except for the tents and fighting positions pieces.  I went ahead and paid extra for the pre-painted sets and I am not disappointed at all!  Matter of fact, from this point forward, anything I order from TimeCast will be the pre-painted models.  The first picture is of a 10mm and 20mm figure compared to the large rock cropping set.  As you can see, it looks great with both scales.  In the second row of the pictures are pictures of the 10mm fighting positions and tents sets.

 


Next is a series of pictures of TimeCast's pre-painted 10mm Falklands line's buildings.

This first set of buildings are the Port San Carlos house and garage.  This is based on the typical houses at Port San Carlos where the British 3 Commando Brigade landed on May 21, 1982.

This next building is the Top Malo house where a skirmish was fought between Argentine Army Commandos and the British Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre on May 31, 1982.


This  following building is based on the Estancia house and outbuilding that is located about 3 to 4 miles NW of Mount Kent and about 1-1/2 WSW of Mount Estancia.  It was secured by 3 Para on May 31, 1982.  It was from here that 3 Para prepared for their next stage in the operation, the assault on Mount Longdon on June 11/12, 1982.


Finally, the last two building sets are buildings from Port Stanley - the Davis Street bungalows (the white building) and the Philomel Store and garage (the yellow buildings).   Luckily for everyone, the Argentine forces surrendered at Port Stanley on June 14, 1982, instead of forcing the British forces to assault the city.


Pendraken is currently the only manufacture of a 10mm Falklands line of figures.  Right now, it is a limited release, but future releases will include British in helmets and Argentine soldiers, plus armor and weapons for both sides.  I ordered one pack of each British packs that are currently available and received them.  I am currently waiting for my MDF bases for them.  As I am not that good of a camera man yet to have crisp pictures of very small figures, I am posting two picture ads from Pendraken below of what they currently have available.  They have amazing detail when you realize that they are 10mm tall!


Finally, I am including pictures of the Armaments In Miniature's (AIM) 1/200 Falklands aircraft lines.  They are very nice one piece models.  I picked up one Vulcan bomber, one Canberra, two Sea Harriers, two Mirage III, two Super Etendard, and four A-4 Skyhawks.  That is all that they have available now.  AIM also has decal sets available for every model that they have for their Falklands line as well and I order one set of decals per type of aircraft.  The decals have enough to do four different aircraft with different markings.  Also, for the A-4 model, they have one set of Navy and one set of Air Force decals.  What is also nice about the models is that they are made with a metal screw in the bottom so that there is a place that you can attached a flight stand to with either a clip or a magnet.  That is quite handy, if you ask me.  Below are picture of the models with a ruler to get an idea of their sizes and the decal set(s) next to them for show.

This first set is the British aircraft with the Vulcan bomber on the top row, including a picture of how the metal screw is part of the model, and the Sea Harrier in the second row.



This following set is of the Argentine aircraft.  The top row has the A-4 with both sets of decals, Air Force and Navy, and to the right is the Super Etendard.  The bottom row is the Canberra bomber on the left and the Mirage III on the right.




In one final note, I had ordered my copies of 1:50000 scale topographical maps of the West Falkland and am waiting to get them.  When I get them, I will put up a couple of pictures for people who have never seen a 1:50000 topo map and the detail that you get with him.  Also, I am writing up in my very limited spare time a blog entry about gaming terrain, topographical maps, and how the two will effect my gaming of the Falklands and Vietnam in the future.

Be Seeing You

Sapper

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

10mm Vietnam terrain

This is a couple of pictures of some 10mm Vietnam terrain that I commissioned my friend Steve to make for me.  This is just one of the rice paddies and a piece of the stream system that was done for me.  I hope to get a better picture of the whole system later when I run another Vietnam game (hopefully next month!?!).  In the first picture I included a 10mm figure for size comparison.

Cheers,
Sapper

Monday, September 17, 2012

Just an update

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on this blog, but my wage masters have demanded a lot from me over the last few months.  Luckily, I got a little bit of a breather now with an additional person added on to the staff temporary to help me out.  This is not helping me with my time off from work, but it is helping with a little of the stress.  This project should be ending soon, maybe in a month, and I might get some time off before the next one.  But we have to wait and see about that. Regardless, I have not done anything really productive towards my hobby, i.e. paint or make terrain.  What I have done is spent money on more figures, referencing materials, and other odds and ends.  Anyway, the next list of stuff is that I had done over the past month or two.

Gaming

I had a second play test of the French Indian War with 'Sharp's Practice', specifically to try the Big Men Personalities rules.  It did not go over well and was an epic failure.  So, I am going to see about streamlining some of the rules, but keep most of the mechanics as is.  Because the play test was a disaster, I am not going to do an AAR of it.  But below is a couple of pics.



I am hoping to run a Vietnam game soon using 'Charlie Don't Surf', but as with everything else, only time will tell.

Purchases

Well, I made a few purchases in the past couple of months or so.  Most of it is related to the 15mm French Indian War project.  This is pretty much the last of it, except maybe buying the smaller fort set from Blue Moon and I forgot to add one pack of British Grenadiers to my last order, so I still need to order them.  I picked up one pack of each, as that is all I will need for my games, of the following:  Artillery (both French & British); Canoes, both short and long (also for both Indians and white trappers); Couple of wagons; the Indian assault party; Indian villagers; and several Indian lodges.  I also picked up several used Osprey books on the period.  In addition, I made and ordered a couple of custom made decks for 'Sharp's Practice' French Indian War through Artscow.

I also bought a few things for the Falklands Conflict.  I ordered 10mm UK troops from Pendraken.  I am looking forward to their release of the helmeted British and the Argentine troops.  The plan is that the 10mm figures will be mounted on 50mm x 25mm stands that will represent platoons.  That way I can do battalion size battles, like Goose Green.  I also picked up 10mm pre-painted buildings and terrain from TimeCast.  I also picked up some 1/200 aircraft to use for air support and dogfights.  Finally, I found by accident, but a happy accident, 1:50,000 topographic maps of the Falklands Islands.  I have not ordered any yet, but will do so for the areas of the nine battles.  I am already looking for to the big dig in my basement to find all of my old army land navigation stuff.  (Note:  I am actually getting so excited about playing around with land navigation again, that I am even considering joining an orienteering club.  But I probably won't because I only get four days off a month, and that is if I'm lucky, plus that would also mean giving up even more of my very little gaming time).

As I mention above, I designed some FIW cards on Artscow.  I plan to finish off my last CDS deck.  I have been also slowly working on ACW cards for TCHAE for the battles in Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas.  I might not ever do TCHAE, but I am enjoying looking up old pictures and making cards for it anyway.

Speaking of the ACW, I have been reading a few books on the subject over the past couple of months: 'The 2nd Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War - The Story of James B. Wasson, Company "B"', by Don M. Mahan; 'Fields of Blood - The Prairie Grove Campaign', by William L. Shea; and currently reading, 'Civil War Arkansas 1863 - The Battle For A State', by Mark K. Christ.  I just started that book, so it will probably be a while before I start on a new book.  But, I am probably going to read, 'General James G. Blunt - Tarnished Glory', by Robert Collins, next.


Anyway, I was also involved in an Indiegogo project.  This project is a novelization of a game of a Call of Cthulhu, "Horror on the Orient Express" by the Bradford Players from the Yog-Sothoth.com site.  The author is Nick Marsh, who's blog is over in my list to the right, and a friendly person.  I am looking forward to reading this book.

Well, that is wrap for now. 

Be seeing you
Sapper

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Angry Lurker's & Ray's 20 Questions

Well, on a bunch of blogs that I follow has been have a round of 20 questions going around that was started off on The Angry Lurker's & Don't Throw A 1 blog sites (see in my list of followed blogs to the right).  It is sort of social "get to know you" practice.  Since I have several blog followers that I have never met properly, I figure that this might be a worthwhile exercise.  The only problem being is that my answers are really only good for the seconds that I typed up these answers...like the wind, I am continuously changing.  So here we go...

1.  Favourite Wargaming period and why?

This is a very hard one to answer as I have many favorites.  Really, the answer lies with the question of who am I gaming with?  Some gamers are a major killjoy and can cause me to really dislike playing even my favorite periods.  For example, I really enjoy WWII, Northwest Europe operations in 1944-45, but I have come to dread playing that period due to rivet counters or German worshipers who have more Panthers on the board then were ever made.  Luckily, most of the gamers that I game with now, I enjoy their company and would be happy to play in gaming periods I don't care for at all.  But I digress, for the purpose of this question, I am going to limit it to periods that I have miniatures and that I have already game with so far.  So currently, I would have to say my favorite gaming period would be French & Indian War as that is the most current gaming project and I just ran a play test of it recently. 

2.  Next period, money no object?

Again, way too many to pick from.  I pretty much have started many various gaming periods that I want to do, so I guess for this comes down more towards what I really want to get finish that is barely started.  So I that boils down to the American Civil War in Missouri and west of the Mississippi River.
Lucy Hood, staunch Unionist, inspires the boys of Sigel's command at Carthage, Missouri, 1861
3.  Favourite 5 films?

So many movies to choose from as my mood for type of movies change depending on what genre I want to see.  This is what I would pick at this moment in alphabetical order:

2001: A Space Odyssey
John Carpenter's The Thing 
Maltese Falcon
Patton
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
(with honorable mention - favorite movie series: the Harry Potter movies) 


4.  Favourite 5 TV series?

I can still think of more than 5 TV shows that I enjoy, but this is a little easier as I don't watch much TV at all.  Again, this is in alphabetical order:

Connections
Due South
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
The Big Bang Theory
The Tick (both the animated and live action versions)


5.  Favourite book and author?

Again, way too many to choose from because of my different interests and moods to have one favorite.  It is very difficult to pick just one.  I guess if I have to pick just one, I have probably read "At the Mountains of Madness", by H.P. Lovecraft the most times over again. 


An ancient city at the Mountains of Madness
6.  Greatest General? Can’t count yourself!!

How does one rank greatest?  Undefeated?  Innovative?  Popular and Charismatic with his troops?  It is hard for me to say, because the challenges face by the different Generals are not equal, especially in regards to different time periods.  So, I am just going say, Nathaniel Lyons, USA, 1861.  He had the aggressiveness the most Union Generals lack in 1861. Plus he successfully save Missouri for the Union facing major challenges not by other generals, like having 75% of army available for less than for 90 days as their enlistment was expiring.


7.  Favourite Wargames rules?

This is fairly easy, anything from Two Fat Lardies.  I will give other rules a shake down, like All Things Zombie which appears to be pretty good.  Also an honorable mention to "Formula De", while it is not a wargame, I have been in some serious cut throat races with that game!


8.       Favourite Sport and team?

This is a hard one because I really don’t keep up with sports in general.  However every 10 or so years I get on a F1 Formula Racing kick for a few years.  So I will have to say that is my favorite sport and my favorite team would be Ferrari. 


9.       If you had a only use once time machine, when and where would you go?

Wow…I really have no clue.  Probably back to when I was 18 years old with all of the winning lottery ticket numbers up to now.

10.   Last meal on Death Row?

I really don’t know again.  Probably something with a lot of beans and spices so they remember me by!
11.    Fantasy relationship and why?

Lea Thompson, circa 1980’s…do you really need to ask why?



12.   If your life were a movie, who would play you?

William Scott "Jack" Elam


13.   Favourite Comic Superhero?

The Tick! (But also an honorable mention to Batmanuel.  He was no superhero, but he did become the mayor of Gotham City!)

14.   Favourite Military quote?

"Sign here and here.  Now here is a copy of your honorable discharge.  You are a free man now." - my last unit administrator NCO

15.   Historical destination to visit?

The Apollo 11 moon landing site


16.   Biggest Wargaming regret?

Buying way too much of everything!  I wish that I had spent more of that money towards other things.

17.   Favourite Fantasy job?

Idle rich so I can do anything but work and get paid for it

18.   Favourite Song, Top 5?

Again, way too many choices from me to pick from as I am very open to all kinds of music.  So I guess I will try to name five, but these could change in the next two minutes.

"One Particular Harbour" - Jimmy Buffett (This song made me into a Parrothead since 1983!)
"Alice's Restaurant Massacre" - Arlo Guthrie (This was the song that grew up on)
"Gothica / Fleurs du Mal" - Sarah Brightman (words can't do any justice to explain how amazing she is)
"The Suits are Picking Up the Bill" - Squirrel Nut Zippers (I love Big Band swing)
"Ohne dich" - Rammstein (I dare anyone not to get a little sappy watching the video to this song)

An honorable mention for "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Wars" as my most favorite album.


19.   Favourite Wargaming Moment?

I have several fun events that happen in games that I played in, but really it is the comradeship of my fellow gamers that makes those events so fun.

20.  The miserable Git question, what upsets you?

Wow…that is a loaded question and I have way too many issues!  I guess I can sum it best as…other people.

Friday, August 3, 2012

La Longue Carabine Play-test AAR

Well, I got a chance to do a play test of "La Longue Carabine", the French & Indian War supplement to "Sharp Practice" (SP) by Too Fat Lardies.  The system seems to work well, but the scenario did not go very good for the English player, mainly due his bad luck on dice to hurry up the local militia to get on board.

First a quick cover of the rules, then I will cover the actual game played.   For those who never played a Too Fat Lardies (TFL) game, their games revolved around the concept of Friction (Chaos) on the battlefield. I like the uncontrollable feel that TFL gives and the method of trying to force order into the chaos with Big Men (TFL's name for leaders).   I feel this system reflects a lot of my own personal military experiences in training and in my civilian career in directing people.  There are times that one can get very frustrated at the lack of "total control" by the TFL system, but for me, it is the best system to give you the flavor of command.  Richard Clarke wrote an excellent article about Friction and their game systems and I highly recommend that everyone should read it (Link to article.)

SP is different from other TFL games in a few aspects, but very similar in many ways.  First off, SP is light heart in certain rules and designed to be use for skirmishing with flair towards a romantic literary version of war.  Inside there are rules for pitching woo with ladies and even a task number for removing a lady's corset!  But even with rules like that, it should not be laugh off as a non-serious, quirky rules.  It has been used by many to do more serious skirmish games. 

The three biggest differences between SP and TFL's company level games, "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!" and "Charlie Don't Surf", is the lack of cards for units.  In SP, only Big Men get cards in the random turn sequence deck vs. both Big Men and units in the others.   The other big difference is the 'Grasp the Nettle' (Initiative) cards.  The initiative card gives a Big Men an additional initiative point to spend on different actions, like telling a group to do something or rallying a unit.  The third difference is a Bonus deck that can be used during the game, like a 'Forced March' for extra movement or 'Water' to put fires out.  As the game is more about literary heroic Big Men, there are also rules on fleshing out your Big Men with personalities, background history, and even looks (a handsome Big Man is more likely to get the girl, then a hideous Big Man!)

Overall, I like the differences.  The only one that I am thinking of changing is for groups not actives by a Big Man before the turn ends.  By the rules, those groups can act using their action dice, but are limited to what they can do.  One of those things that they can't do is move.  I am thinking of allowing them to move, but only away from known enemy forces or leave a structure in damage of collapse.  The reason I am thinking of doing this is during the play test, the Indians had two groups that lost their Big Man, but had completed their overall objective.  I will suspect that under real conditions they would start fading away into the forest and back towards their lodges. So I allowed them to move one dice away from the enemy until another Big Man eventually took command of them.

The scenario for the play test was a mini-version of the LLC scenario in the TFL's 2011 Summer Special, "On Company Business".  Basically I halved everything, but round up the colonial militia since I dropped the English friendly Indians due to the available number of Indians figures that I had.  I also just gave both sides three Big Men, one of each of a Status rating I, II, and III.  The general outline of the play test was for the French allied Indians to destroyed the colonial settlement and if possible capturing the white women and children.  The English settlers had a small group of armed settlers to try to hold the Indians at bay until a local militia force that was training nearby could come to their rescue and drive the Indians off.  The Indian players successfully meet their goals, but not without a bloody toll to their force.

I did take some pictures, but not many.  Blake (one of the Indian players) took several and they can be seen over on his blog here.  Also Todd from the Itinerant Hobbyist blog stopped by to pick up some 15mm WWII minis from me and also took some pictures that might show up on his blog here.  We had the play test at the Wargamer's Cave in Granite City, IL.  This is a link to their website.  If you go there, tell them Sapper Joe sent you!  You won't get anything, but a puzzle look and probably be asked, "Who is Sapper Joe?"

Basically, the scope of this play test was to see how the initiative cards work, use the Bonus Deck, have a couple of firing actions, a couple Fisticuffs (melee) actions, a couple Task actions, see how formation vs. groups work, and finally have a Big Man who is also rated as a 'La Longue Carabine' be used in action.  Most of these goals where met except, the last two in this play test.

Any way, on to the AAR of the game!  (Plus editorial comments about each turn afterwards.) I tried to be true to the events or at least be true to the spirit of the events of how the game went down.

***********

The Cooper family had a small settlement in the Ohio Valley.  The family lived in a large cabin and their hired help had a small lean-to cabin. The settlement had the patriarch of the family, Eli Cooper (Status III, La Longue Carabine Big Man), four men, four women, and one boy, Johnny.  They were a happy, industrious family and were very successful in carving out a living in the disputed territory between the English and the French…too successful as it seems.  Their success drew the hate of the local French trapper, Louis Petite.

With evil in his heart, Louis Petite approached the nearby Huron Indian tribe to launch a raid on the Cooper family's settlement.  'Chief Falling Rocks' agreed to send a raiding party as he also hated the 'La Longue Carabine' that had been responsible for so many brave warriors to have fallen.  'Chief Falling Rocks' agreed to send a raiding party of 27 warriors.  Three of these warriors were among the best of his tribe, 'Red in the Face' (Status III), 'Howling Moon' (Status II), and 'Red Shirt' (Status I).  Of the remaining 24 warriors, they were broken up into four groups of six.  One group of warriors had plenty of powder for their muskets, where the rest only had enough powder to fire a single shot with their muskets before reverting to traditional weapons of bows and tomahawks.  'Howling Moon' also had several arrows pre-made into flaming arrows to burn down the settlement.  So once the raiders had spent their last night at the lodge, they went to do the Cooper family great harm.

Unknown to Louis Petite or 'Chief Falling Rocks', the nearby militia company was having their drill meeting.  The captain of the company, Captain Henry Majors, was an old warrior in many skirmishes with the Indian tribes.  He was well known to train his militia company to be fighters and not a social club.  This drill he decided to allow his platoon leaders to get some patrolling training.  So he instructed Lt. Dan Henry (Status II), and Sergeant David Winters (Status I) to take a patrol of 16 men out around to outskirts and visit several of the settlements, one which happens to be the Cooper's.  Lt. Henry divided the patrol into two groups of eight men each to allow Sgt. Winters experience of running a patrol too.

It was an idle morning at the Cooper's settlement.  The men and women were busy working the crops and feeding the chickens.  Little Johnny Cooper was out in the nearby woods playing with a hatchet and gathering fire wood.  Slowly the Huron raiding party approached the family.  

A Peaceful Settlement
'Red in the Face' decided to break the raiding party into three groups to surround the main cabin.  He would lead the war party and 'Red Shirt' would lead one of the hunting parties near him.  On the other side of the settlement, 'Howling Moon' would lead the two remaining hunting parties.

Little Johnny was chopping up some wood when suddenly seven Indians run up on him out of the woods.  Although too surprised to try to yell out a warning, little Johnny was able to swing his hatchet and land a killing blow on one of the Indians before being clubbed and taken prisoner by 'Red Shirt'.  'Red Shirt' was fairly amazed at little Johnny's killing blow and decided to spare him so the he could be raised by his tribe to be a warrior.

(The Indian Blinds card came up before the Sentry card allowing Steve to run up is blind with a Status I Big Man and one of the hunting groups vs. little Johnny acting as a Sentry.  We did a round of fisticuffs.  After the game, I had realized that I had gave little Johnny too many dice, so the 4:1 ratio would have been meet and little Johnny should had automatically surrender - oh well, it made for a good scene anyways).

With little Johnny captured and not able to warn the rest of the family, 'Red in the Face' took the war party around some woods to get a clear shot at the Cooper family.

The war party open fired with their muskets two times before the Coopers had time to realize that they were being shot at.  The women started screaming as Eli Cooper looked stun until he realized that the home was under an attack about the time as an Indian war cry sound from the westerly woods. 

A War Party In The Woods
(With the previous turn's blind card, Steve was able to get his war party's blind into position to start shooting next turn.  Unfortunately for the settlers, their Big Man Status III card did not come up before the Indians blinds came up again.  While on a blind, a group has 3 actions instead of 2, so the Indians where able to fire their muskets, reload, and fire again.  Their fire was rather ineffective at long range, only causing some shock to the group of women.  So Steve played his bonus deck card, "War Cry" and added some more shock to the women's group.  Blake's Indians also moved up.  Up to now and a few more turns, I failed to remember that the settlers' groups could have done spotting or shooting at the end of turn card since they did not get activated by a Big Man.  However, this really did not affect them since the only blind they could attempt to spot revealed themselves and the armed male group was too far to shoot back.  With my change to allow a one die retreat for groups not activated by a Big Man, this would have allowed them to have made one dice move towards their cabin for cover.  However this did not affect the game.)

Eli quickly took command of his senses and grasp the nettle of the events around him.  "Martha, you and girls are not hurt, so quit your crying.  Take the girls inside," Eli cried out.  Turning his head back around, Eli yelled out, "Boys, get in the house and prepare to do some shooting". With that, Eli followed his family and workers into the cabin. 

Outside, 'Red in the Face' was much disappointed as now he had to cross open ground get close enough to have any real effect at shooting through the one window that was exposed to them.

'Red Shirt' brimming with confidence at his capture of little Johnny ordered his hunting party up to the north face of the cabin.  Fortunately for 'Red Shirt', there are no windows on this side.  'Red Shirt' directs his braves to start setting fire to the cabin, which is nearly successful. 

'Howling Moon' also led his two hunting parties to the east face of the cabin, which again is lucky for the Indians as there are no windows there either.  'Howling Moon's' braves were not able to reach the cabin, so 'Howling Moon' pulled out a flaming arrow from his quiver.  After lighting it, he shot at the cabin only to miss it. 

Off in a different hollow, Lt. Henry thought he heard musket shots, but shrugged it off as only being the wind. 

(In this round, several Big Men were able to use the initiative bonus cards allowing them an extra initiative or two.  In the first case, Dennis was able to use two initiative cards that came up before his Status III Big Man's card did.  This gave him five initiative pips to something, three from his status and two from the cards.  So he spent three pips to remove three of the four shock points on the women's group.  Then he spent one pip to activate the women and the remaining initiative pip to activate the men to run into the cabin.  Had Dennis not had the two bonus initiative cards, the women probably would not have made it inside the cabin due the negative effect of the shock on their movement.  Later, I came to realize that I had too many initiative cards in the deck for both sides.  Also in this turn we got to try out the tasks rules with Steve trying to set the cabin on fire.  He almost made the roll, only to miss by one point.  We got to try the flaming arrows rule, however, Blake missed.  With the previous turn with shooting, that activated the local militia to a random turn to enter on the board, sadly, Dennis' rolls were always bad for having them show up.  They did make it on board, but much too late.)

Outside the cabin, 'Howling Moon' got his braves finally up by the eastern wall.  With just a little assistance with a torch, 'Howling Moon' got the roof to finally start to blaze. 

Inside the cabin, Eli Cooper instructed the men to start shooting out towards the western woods and the women to use all of the water in the cabin to put out the fire on the roof.  Eli Cooper also took some time to finally claim down his daughters. To no mercy for the Cooper family, their musket fire was ineffective.

(In this turn, we saw Blake directly one group to move up to the cabin and perform a task of setting the cabin on fire.  As it only took one more point to ignite, it was a done deal. But to both Blake & Steve's dismay, Dennis had a "Water" bonus card which allowed him to put out the fire on the cabin.  As this was the first game that I have played with a bonus deck, I forgot all about checking for random events and possible additional bonus cards.  That is something that I will have to get use to doing when running these games.)

'Red Shirt' was upset that the fire was put out, but directed his braves to start torching the cabin again from the safety of the wall without windows. 

'Howling Moon' got both of his hunting parties to ignite fires on their side of the building.  With so many torches on the old wood, the fire started up again and spread fast. 

'Red in the Face' directed his war party out of the woods and to run towards the smaller lean-to cabin that was part of the settlement. 

Inside the smoke filled cabin, flames were starting to roll up and underneath the rafters in the cabin.  Eli knew that they didn't have much time before the roof would collapse.  "Martha, get the girls out of here and go to the Anders' farm.  You boys, we got to give the women a chance to escape.  Follow me!”  With that, the Cooper family ran out of the burning cabin. 

Martha led the women, after arming themselves, towards the southwest and hopefully safety.  Eli and the men ran out to the east to fight one of 'Howling Moon's' hunting parties. 

Eli let off a howl as he butt stroked the first brave he saw with his long rifle.  The brave's neck made a loud crack as it snapped back farther than it should go.  Eli's eldest son, Able, also knifed a warrior's across the throat before a tomahawk came crashing down on his head.  Poor Ben, the hired hand, never had time to react to the brave that drove his knife deep into Ben's heart.  Eli cried with rage at seeing Able fall dead, that he grab a tomahawk from the hands of the dead Indian and struck down another brave before being struck over the head with a club.  As Eli sunk to his knees and fell over into the darkness, the last thing he saw was his two remaining sons being killed by the remaining braves, but not before they also killed one more of the raiders. 

(This turn was a nail biter! Both Steve & Blake's Indian restarted the cabin on fire.  I didn't have rules for how long the cabin would burn before collapsing, so I rolled a d3 and got a 1.  That was a really hot fire!  Reflecting back on it, I think a dAv roll would have been better and to be counted off with the showing of the Blank card.  At the time of game, I still was following the rules that a group not activated by a Big Man could not move at end of the turn. There was a good chance that the Cooper family would all perish in the burning cabin, but fate gave Dennis his Status III Big Man card.  Unfortunately, none of the English initiative cards came up to help Dennis out.  So, Dennis used one pip to activate the women so they could run out of the burning cabin; another pip to order the men to follow him into fisticuffs; and the final pip to increase his fervor by one die.  The first round of fisticuffs ended in a draw with both sides losing two men, so fisticuffs was done again with the settlers losing all three men, included their Big Man, to two more Indians.)

Off in the distance, Lt. Henry again thought he heard the sound of musketry.  But now he saw a black smoke column rising about the wood line.     
"Sergeant Winter, do you think that is coming from the Anders' or the Cooper's farm?" 
"I don't know, sir.  I think it’s the Anders' farm." 
"Alright.  Platoon! Double quick, march!"

Martha Cooper stood in shock at the destruction around her.  Tears were dwelling in her eyes from the acrid smoke of the burning cabin, but more from the site of her beloved husband and her sons laying in a bloody mess at the feet of their killers.  Although the tears were being merciful at slowly blocking out the site of her Eli and boys, they still allowed her to see the band of Indians come running around the western side of burning cabin.  With all her strength, she swung the cast iron skillet at the first Indian that approached her and her daughters.  As the skillet made a jarring crash into the temple of her attacker, it was quite clear that he would never rise again.  

They Want Our Women!
'Red Shirt' was taken aback by the powerful blow of this woman.  But he was not alone in his awe, as the rest of his hunting party started to run away.  

That Is One Tough Bird!
(This was an interesting turn.  I had rated everyone regulars for fisticuffs, including the women - hey, these were hardy frontier's women and not ladies from a social society!  Steve ran his hunting party and his status I Big Man round the building into fisticuffs and tries to capture the women.  For all of Dennis’ bad rolls to get the militia on the table, he made up a lot of it with getting kills in melee.  With the women winning fisticuffs, Steve was force to retreat his hunting party.)

"Sir, I was wrong.  That is the Cooper's farm.  We can get there on this trail."
  Sgt. Winters panted.  "Good God!  Hurry up, men!" Lt. Henry cried.

'Red in the Face' directed his war party forward to try to capture white women.  With arrogance, 'Red in the Face' thought to himself, "That squaw for a man, 'Red Shirt', is fleeing from a bunch of women.  He is not even worth to be called a brave." 

As the war party closed in on Martha and the girls, Martha swung her skillet once more to send another warrior on his way to the happy hunting grounds.  Out of the corner of her eye Martha saw that one of the savage brutes had grabbed Sarah.  Martha screamed, "Let her go, you savage!" As Martha lunged forward drawing back her skillet, up stepped the nastiest looking savage she had ever seen.

'Red in the Face' watched the older women swinging a black, circular metal object killing one on his warriors.  He sprinted towards her with his tomahawk to strike her down.  He was a great warrior of his tribe and had many scalps to prove his fighting abilities.  She was just a lowly woman, not even worth the effort to have her blood stain his tomahawk.  As 'Red in the Face' swung his arm high up, he suddenly had vision.  Many of braves wait their whole life times to have a vision and he was having his now.  He didn't understood it at first, but he knew what it meant as soon as the pain started.  It was a mother bear defending her clubs.

Martha collapsed in exhaustion, spent from the fight and sadness. She heard the daughters' screams as she felt rough hand grab her and force her to her feet.

(What a turn!  Steve's war party close assaulted the women settlers.  Steve stated that he only want to capture the women and not kill any.  So we treated any kills by Steve's warriors as captures.  The first round of fisticuffs was a tie with one brave being killed and one women captured.  So we fought another round.  In the next round, Steve rolled a lot better capturing all of the remaining women, but not without suffering another dead warrior.  This time when we rolled to see if it was the Big Man killed, it came up he was the one to be heading to the happy hunting grounds.)

'Red Shirt' decided it was now time to leave, especially with his prize of little Johnny Cooper.  He directed his group back towards the lodge.  'White Canoe' stood over the body of 'Red in the Face', then looked back at his war party and gave the signal to start back towards the lodge with the four white women captives. 

Suddenly running into the field was Lt. Henry's patrol.  Slightly out of breath, Lt. Henry yelled out, "Form up.  FIRE!" A volley from eight muskets roared out.  The militia saw two Indians collapse.  Now Sgt. Winters patrol arrived to also deliver a deadly fire.

'Howling Moon' watched two of his braves that fought the white settlers so hard only to be shot by the forming body of white men.  'Howling Moon' was about to give the signal to the other hunting party to run for the trees, when heard the sound muskets firing again.  He felt the sharp pain as a bullet struck him.  Over the hill, 'Howling Moon' saw his grandfather waving to him to follow him over the golden hill.

They Have Our Women!
A little while later, 'Windy Bird' realized that he could be a great brave if he would just lead the remaining hunting party out.  With all three remaining Indian groups heading north towards Canada, the militia give some pursuit until they lost them in the tall pines.  

They Left Nothing But Tears
Lt. Henry looked over the scene of destruction while his men finally reload their empty muskets. Lt Henry knew that there will be lodges burning before the year is out.

(Finally, the militia shows up!  The above story covers two turns as it was pretty much a decided game as the militia could not move fast enough to keep the Indian raiders in sight and they had to use all of their actions to move and never had a chance to reload after their first fire.  Steve rolled to see if another Big Man steps up from his war party to take command and one does.  Blake, however, was unlucky to receive musketry fire from both militia groups.  In the second militia group’s fire, the kill was rolled for and it turned out to be his Big Man.  This is bad for Blake as now the militia could fire some nasty dice at his undamaged hunting party.  At this time I felt sorry and started to allow groups to move one away from the enemy or damage as an action if they had not been activated by a Big Man by then end of the turn.  After the game I realized that failed to do two things.  One was that when Blake's Big Man was shot, I should have rolled to see how badly he was wounded.  This is not the same in IABSM or CDS, so I just didn't remember since I was not use to it.  It was possible that Blake's Big Man might have been slightly wound and he could have started to run away sooner.  However, I also failed to make the Indians group roll for looting once they completed their main objective.  So, there was a good chance that Steve and Blake would not have been able to get away from the militia as easy as they did.) 

**********

So there, you have it.  It was an Indian victory, but not without cost.  Both sides lost about a third of their total force. The Indians meet their main objective by destroying the settlement.  They also made their secondary objective of capturing the white women and children.

The Victorious Indians
The English settlers lost their status III Big Man, one sentry, four male settlers, and four women settlers.  Half were killed, the rest were captured.  Also they lost the main cabin of the two buildings.  With the militia showing up so late, they took no injuries.

The Indians in return lost both their status III & their status II Big Men, as well as eight braves. 

Depending what my next available time to game is, I will probably run a game with militia band pursuing the Indians and their captives through the forest.

Until then...

Be seeing you

Sapper