It's been a while, I know...

Re-building my career has taken most of my time and energy over the last seven or eight months and I've had little time, or indeed interest, in my hobbies for a while. However, now things have settled well and my earning power has been restored (and then some!), I can go back to relaxing and having fun (well, at least the kind of fun where one keeps one's clothes on).

Painting has come to a full stop, and I have yet to find the mood to restart that. Partly this is down to a lack of brushes; the tiny 000 and 0000 ones I have got used to using for straps and tiny details are now dead, and my source for them is down south, and does not do mail order even if I was willing to risk it, which I am not.because I like to have a good look at a brush before I buy it. So I need to find a local replacement source for such brushes. Sadly the nearest model/painting shops nearby do not seem to stock brushes that small.

But my interest in boardgames has been revived, and lately I have been re-purchasing the Commands & Colors: Ancients sets, as and when I can find them. I had a full set a couple of years ago, but sold them in hard times. Sadly a few are now out of print, but I understand GMT is re-releasing them soon.

Not having played the game for a couple of years, I needed a solo run-through to get back into the swing. So yesterday I cleared some table space, and picked a scenario. Zama was deemed straightforward enough and included most of the basic unit types, and although the game dragged out through constant referrals to the rules, it porved as much fun as it always had. I love this system!

So today it is another solo game; Raphia.

 

Campaigning Across the Board

Back on the topic of boardgames, I have managed to find one that I can tie into my interest in fictional wargames. I spent a few months searching on eBay until I found one that I thought would suit.

The game, which I had previously owned (but never played) many years ago and had long sold on, was Avalon Hill's Blitzkrieg. It's a fictional wargame between two nations. Great Blue and Big Red. It's fought over a large mapboard and is based on WWII and modern era conflicts. I thought it would be ideal for generating campaign clashes between the Vulgarian and Moldovian forces, as well as possibly allowing for the inclusion of neutrals and allies.



So next month I shall start work on some campaign rules to make it work. Basically the core of the game's rules are fine, and it should be possible to just leave out the combat results for those clashes one wishes to play on the table top. The only real work will be to convert the counters' unit strengths into OOB's for the table top forces.

Another recent acquisition, this time purchased on a whim, was Iron and Fire. It's a cross between a boardgame and a tabletop game, which includes unit counters and card terrain to get one started, somewhat akin to the old Avalon Hill Napoleon's Battles system. The game dates from the mid-'eighties and covers the ACW, specifically the Shenandoah battles of 1862. It was going cheap on eBay and as I have an abiding interest in the ACW, and had some recall of seeing the game advertised way back then, I thought I'd get it.

The game itself is strange. It uses dice-less combat resolution, based on a comparison between opposing units' command, skirmish "superiority", and moral at the time of combat. It's a very odd and not at all intuitive rule system, which I suspect is the reason the games (there were two of them) sank without trace quite quickly. Nevertheless, with my devotion to all things ACW, it was worth a fiver. It should not be too hard to think up some decent rules for it.

There And Back Again, Again.

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, and a lot of things have happened over the last year, amongst them a divorce, a move from darkest Wales, a new life and a new job.

Sadly, with all of that there has obviously been little time for my hobby, and so things went onto the back burner for a fair bit. However, now I have some free time and a little money to spare I am starting to get back on track, and also making plans for some new periods, mostly fictional, of course.

The WWII-era armies of Moldovia and Vulgaria are proceeding apace, with lots of new and esoteric vehicles added to both sides. I've made up a few dozen kits but as yet have not had the time to start painting again. I've also invested in some of the Valiant Miniatures 20mm figure sets, and look forward to making them up.

The ACW stuff is on hold, as I need to restart painting a couple of regiments for the pesky Rebels.

The home-cast Lace Wars armies are being reassessed, as I really don't have the space or inclination to build those further, so the whole kit and kaboodle might well end up on eBay or at a local wargames club Bring & Buy next month.

The new project I am looking at is a fictional turn of the century encounter between those two inveterate combatants, Moldovia and Vulgaria. The plethora of 20mm plastic figures from the 1870 to 1914 period has led me to dream of a couple of "steam-punk" armies, with colourful uniforms, cavalry, early breach-loaders, Gatling guns, and a mix of horse-drawn and vintage motor transport, along with some of the wackier WWI tanks. I've already invested in some packs of figures from the HaT and Zvezda early-WW1 ranges, and the Strelets Russo-Turkish War sets. Not yet got the armies organised, but the ideas are forming and it looks like fun.

On the board-game side of things, I picked up a copy of GMT's Commands & Colours: Napoleonics a couple of months ago, and have been solo-playing it for a while. It's a great system that builds on their wonderful Ancients rules, and really gives the flavour and fun of the Napoleonic period. I must try and get my old friend John Preece interested. I think it will suit his style of play and sense of fun.

Playing With My Xmas Pressie!!

Today all the guests and visitors had finally gone, and I had my painting table back to myself again.

But before I brought in all the modelling bits and pieces down from the loft and in from the garage, I decided to break open my "unofficial" Xmas present, the 4th expansion set for Commands & Colors: Ancients. Imperial Rome.

I was aching to see how the C&C: Ancients system handled Caltrops and the new Cataphract units, both Camel and Cavalry. The answer was; very simply and elegantly, and the rules work really well.

Using Cavalry to chase away Light Foot now becomes a very risky business indeed. Before, the Light Foot had to choose to stand and fight if they were to inflict any losses at all on attacking Cavalry, and that was usually a foolhardy decision to take. Instead, they would usually evade, reducing their chances of casualties but also totally negating the possibility of inflicting any.

With the Caltrop rules, those Light Foot units listed as being equipped with caltrops (which are scenario dictated) may still choose to evade attacking Cavalry for all the usual benefits (the attacking unit will only hit them on a Circle symbol, and cannot follow up into the vacated hex), but now, the attacking Cavalry can face total disaster! Every Sword symbol rolled on the attack they make, results in a hit against themselves!

The heavily armoured Cataphract Camel and Cavalry units gain the ability to ignore the first Sword result in any Close Combat. This is not a massive advantage and doesn't make them supermen, but it can make a difference.

I picked a scenario that would allow me to try out both of the Cataphract units, and the caltrops. The battle was Nisibis - 217AD, between the Parthians led by Atrabanus IV and a Roman force led by Macrinus. It was a solo game, with me developing a split personality and taking what I genuinely thought would be the best move available for each side, given the cards available.



It was a large battle by C&C: Ancients standards, with around 25 units on the Parthian side and 20 on the Roman. I'm not going to go into a blow-by-blow account, but the game was a see-saw fight; a real punch-up, with the Roman left flank almost totally collapsing even after their legionaries had inflicted horrendous losses on the Parthian horse. And yes, the Caltrop rules worked fine, as the Parthians found to their cost. Forced to try and drive away the Light Foot in front of the Roman main line, time and again they suffered from the pesky little devices while the skirmishers and bowmen dodged back. Again, the caltrops were not a battle-winner, but they had enough of an effect to force the opposing side to re-think their tactics.

The result was that the Cavalry-heavy Parthian army became sluggish, and suffered high attrition while trying to get into contact with the main Roman Legions. Once they did, the Legions started to suffer against the strong and tough Heavy Cataphract Cavalry. The fight went right down to the wire, but in the end the Parthians lost by 8 banners to 6, as their Heavy Cataphract Cavalry got bogged down in a slow-moving, grinding match with the Legion Infantry.



The end came with a swift Roman counter-attack, which caught a distracted and weakened Camel Cataphract unit and wiped it out.

Now I understand how the new rules work in practice, I shall give my regular(-ish) gaming opponent a ring, and see if he has the time to get a game in over the New Year holiday.

Commands & Colors: Ancients.

A trip to London last week gave me the opportunuity to try and get the latest expansion set for the excellent Commands & Colors Ancients, published by GMT Games.

The series is designed by the rather talented Mr. Richard Borg, and is certainly the most elegant, playable Ancients system I have yet found. On a similar scale to DBA and DBM, it is easier to understand than either, and also has more tactical and historical detail as well as a more challenging and, in my opinion, realistic command system. It gives a fast exciting game that has enough history to satisfy me. Great fun.



This latest box is Expansion 4: Imperial Rome, and contains units to make up the later Imperial Roman Army, plus additional Eastern Empires and Barbarian units to allow players to create many of the latter's foes, such as the Parthians.

Also included are new rules for Cataphract Cavalry and Camels, and the use of Caltrops by designated light foot units, plus some new terrain cards and their rules, and a nice pair of wooden command card holders.

So the heavy box contains 293 wooden blocks, several sheets of stickers for those blocks, a set of new rules and scenarios, 15 new terrain tiles and two wooden card holders. It's around £45 over here, which is not too bad.

I am looking forward to giving John Preece a ring and setting up a couple of quick games over a glass of wine..