Thunder Road

By now it is apparent that a pattern has emerged with regard to gaming at Berkeley Vale, in that we try something new to me, I knock up some models and then we NEVER PLAY IT AGAIN! not only that, but the subject in question isn't on my plan for the year and thus I'm hit with the "ooh, shiney" bug. Well its happened again, this time the subject is post-apocalyptic "Road Warrior" kind of stuff. We played Al's 20-odd year old, never played before copy of Thunder Road a few week back and now, thanks to Matchbox, Hotwheels and a pile of scrap bits and pieces I have the makings of  a nice little collection.

Its another opportunity to let one's imagination have fun, and no-one will be able to tell you that you've got the detail wrong :)

As hapens so many times in wargaming, Hobby Craft and Halfords are your friend, with lightweight metal gause making ideal mesh screens and corrugated cardboard just perfect for that "found in the scrapyard" applique armour look.

I have a bag of cars left to do, and I often take a look in the toy aisle when I'm doing the weekly grocery shop to see if there's any new cars or buggies that look useful. The main things I'm looking for just now are a bus and petrol tanker for a "Mad Max 2" finale kind of scenario. Oh and rules. Oh, and figures! (and an autogyro would be nice too!)

Any suggestions for those most gratefully received :)

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax.....

Last night saw the first outing for my "War Rocket" collection at the Berkeley Vale club. My previously completed Galacteer, Valkeeri, Imperial and Pirate fleets were just recently joined by a Zenithian saucer fleet (which had made a circuitous route from Wargames Emporium to True Cambridge via that fake one over to the East). War Rocket is a quick play and very deadly set of rules, as we found out in the two battles we completed.

In round one Imperial (me) and Valkeeri (Rodger) squadrons joined to face off against the Zenithians (Shaun) and Galacteers (Graham) in a small asteroid field.

The Zenithian squadron menaced by Valkeeri  Class I rockets whilst the Valkeeri Class III and Imperial Class Is make their way around a small moon.

 Carnage ensued, but the gallant Imperials and their lovely Valkeeri allies were vanquished. Some useful learning points - large Imperial ships are slooow, and the small Galacteer fighters, if handled well, can be a game changer as they activate last and thus have the drop against most opponents.

The Zenithian squadron before firing ensued

My Imperial Class III cruiser navigating the asteroids

Round two saw a space station (actually an old sink plug) added to the mix, whereupon was an OOGV ("Object Of Great Value"). The object of the game was to board the station, take the OOGV and exit the table.  We mixed up the sides and now the Galacteers (Shaun) and Valkeeri (me) faced the Imperials (Graham) and Zenithians (Rodger).

Zenithian and Valkeeri ships square off whilst Zenithian and Galacteer Class I rockets make their boarding attempts. At the end of the next turn the table was MUCH clearer!

The initial Zenthian and Galacteer plan was to send small ships in to board the station whilst the rest of the fleet provided cover. Easier said than done though, and made harder by the fact that docked ships counted as "stunned" and so were far easier to destroy - everyone who attempted to dock was bown to smithereens in short order. As was the Zenithian squadron which succumbed to some good tactics (and a few lucky shots) from the Valkeeri. On the other side of the table the Galacteers and Imperials chased each other around some asteroids and things were looking tense for a while as one of the Galacteer cruisers found its line of fire blocked for a while by a large lump of space rock, allowing the Imperials to make a (slow) dash for the station. But in the end the Galacteer/Valkeeri alliance prevailed, the last enemy ships were destroyed or driven off and victory was called.

The slow-moving Imperial heavies on their way to a destination with disaster! 

More learning points from this one - docked ships are incredibly vulnerable (seems reasonable), so the best way to "cover" them is to kill off all the bad guys before moving in to dock.

The Galacteer Class IV moving to engage the Imperial heavies

Anyway, a fun time was had by all, even Rodger despite being on the receiving end of a pasting in both games. More games will undoubtedly be played and some more interesting scenarios developed as we introduce more of the advanced and special rules.

Great fun, and next time I must remember to upload some Flash Gordon sound clips on my phone to play at opportune moments.

My only regret was that club member Gordon wasn't there last night..... :)

2015 - The Plan

Ok, so here we go, setting ourselves up for a fall in 364 days time :)

1) Project X - I will get phase 2 sorted out by the Summer.

2) Engage! - I'll renovate my FASA Star Trek fleets, sort out the various unpainted ships that I have to hand and will put together stat sheets for all the models.

3) FLoB - Yes, get those fleets renovated like I was supposed to do last year, and expand the 1/450 fleets for the Adriatic campaign (which means a few galleys needed)

4) Burma Skirmish - I've been picking up odd bits and pieces for this for some time. 20mm "retro" gaming, going back to my wargaming roots in the 1970s and 80s. I'll put together at least a platoon's worth of troops for each side (and possibly some US as well, especially if I can track down a 20mm LVT(A) somewhere)and get some games in. "Operation Warboard" likely to be the rules in use to complete the whole retro thing :)

5) Mad Max - Inspired by the new film coming out later this year I've always had a hankering to do some sort of "road warrior" gaming. I have an idea about some rules, and there are so many handy Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars that I think will be ideal for kitbashing.

6) BASF - Bolt Action Sci Fi. We've tried this a few times at BV. I have a pile of stuff to sort out for this. Fun to do.

As well as these major efforts there have been a few games I'd like to try out at Berkeley Vale. War Rocket being amongst the front runners.  I'll So we'll see if we can get the chaps at the club playing this a few times. Wings of Glory of course, and I supose the "7th Objective" will be the parti game I'm planning for the Naval Wargames Show in June (if I can find the models). And the elephant in the room is the Games Room - this will be the "big project" but is dependent on so many other things happening. However, the aim is to have the new gaming facility up and running by the end of the Summer. And if I can get a one day campaign in to inaugurate the new place then so much the better. Other things likely to distract me will probably include DBA, possibly resurrecting my Napoleonic fleet action rules and painting up more 28mm gunfighters (more for light relief than anything else).

Should be a fun year!

2014 in Review

As we come to the end of another year it is customary to review the annual plan and how we stacked up against it. I suspect it will not make good reading. Here goes:

1 – 15mm Colonial. Sort out those blasted Bashi Basouks and some river boats. Then look to see what we need extra (if anything) for the hinted-at Berkeley Vale campaign.

The Bashi Basouks did indeed get finished, but there was no progress on the river boat front and the Berkeley Vale campaign was stillborn due to various issues. Anyway, I'm claiming some success here :)

2 – Form Line of Battle. A surprise entry, but here because (a) I’ve remembered how much I love the rules and (b) Rodger at the club wants to give them a try. The plan here is to renovate the fleets and complete at least six ships from the “lead pile”

Well we did give them several runs out at the BV club and the chaps certainly seem to like them (and a lot more than Sails of Glory). I started with 1/1200 ships of the line, but for various reasons (in particular fragility) we've ended up playing small ship actions using 1/450 models. I think we'll be doing more of this in 2015. Alas very little fleet renovation was done, and no new ships added, at least not in 1/1200. I did however knock up several bomb vessels and coastal batteries in 1/450 so thats going down as a "tick" :)

3 – Project X. Mysteriously referred to over the last 2 years, PX has three elements to it. I will complete at least 2 of them this year. You’ll know when I do

"Project X" was revealed as my establishing myself as a wargame rule publisher in my own right, covering niche naval subjects. The first element was successfully launched in the summer, this being my rules for WW1 lake steamer battles in 1/600. The rules are indeed now available from Long Face Games (me) via Wargame Vault.

 Element 2 is nearing completion, and #3 may take  acompletely different course (or may diverge into two streams) as a result of an interesting "chat" I had in the latter part of the year. More details as and when I can let you know.

4 – 1/600 Coastal. Resurrecting last year’s objective, I will renovate the existing fleets, finish any odd models that have yet to be completed, sort out soft copies of ship data cards and get some games in! A stretch target will be to do the same for my 1/1200 models.

Not a sausage on this one. Fail

5 – Armada Invencible. Another surprise entry, but 2014 should see the rules for this hit the streets. I have a couple of the ships already and it looks like my stock of old Airfix galleons might work with them at a pinch. The objective here is to get a copy, knock up small English and Spanish squadrons and try them out. And if they don’t work then an Armada variant of FLoB may be on the cards 

Another Fail, although I do now have a set of the rules. Apart from that, no progress at all.

6 – Games. I’m well set up to run a number of games, including Wings of Glory, X Wing, Sails of Glory (of which more in the coming days I hope), War Rocket and a few others so the plan here is to get a number of games of each in. I’ll also try to run a one day campaign, maybe two. These may or may not be connected with Project X.

Here I have been quite successful, and being a member of the Berkeley Vale club has helped. I've averaged a couple of games a month there covering all sorts of subjects including RJW, Napoleonic naval, X Wing, Wings of War, various Bolt Action variants and, in recent weeks, Star Trek using the rather nice "Engage" rules. Definitely more of this in 2015! I've also run or participated in various Wings of Glory events, notably in Penarth, Doncaster, Reading, Devizes and in Thornbury where our game won the award for "best participation".

So in review, not as bad as I thought it was going to be and in part this was due to the various building works going on at home and the unavoidable delay in getting the bespoke wargames "palace" sorted out - for the last 5 months or so my wargames room and table has been filled with junk displaced form the barn whilst that was demolished and rebuilt as a granny annex, and the replacement building delayed until Summer 2015, so there will not be much progress on the wargaming front at home until the weather is very much nicer I think.

So, overall not a bad year, in fact from a wargaming perspective quite jolly. 2015 will be one of upheaval as I sort out the wargames room, but more of "the plan" for 2015 in a couple of days time :)

RIP Jeff Crane

I have just heard the very sad news that Jeff Crane has passed away. Many members of the Naval Wargames Society and, before that, the Battleship Club, will have encountered Jeff at events and shows, where he earned himself a reputation for straight talking and boundless enthusiasm. Jeff introduced the Mortimer regional group to the joys of Games Workshop's "Man o War" fantasy naval rules and his Keshian Civil War ran for many, many years both at regional group meetings and at the Naval Wargames Show. Jeff also took on the leadership of the Basingstoke regional group, running regular games at his home, and regular readers of "All Guns Blazing" will see innumerable battle reports from the wonderful games staged by Jeff there over many years. Jeff was a popular member of the society and one of the more active ones, despite his long term illness to which he eventually succumbed. He was a true friend to many, and often regaled younger wargamers with tales of his time in the Royal Navy – adding invaluable "colour" to many wargames events and Stuart Barnes Watson's wargames weekends in Cornwall. His watch now is over, and we will miss him.

Reveille 2014

Today has been a stupidly busy day (equestrian stuff dominating the morning and evening) but in the middle of the day I managed to spend a few hours of relative calm at the Reveille show at Lincombe Barn in Bristol. For once I wasn't running or helping out with a game so I had a chance to wander and enjoy the show. Reveille isn't the biggest show by any means (2 small halls and a smattering of rooms) but it is one of my favorites, probably because I catch up with so many old friends there. So of the three hours I spent at the show I probably spent at least two of them chatting, catching up and making plans for future games and campaigns, some of which might actually come off.

Walmington on Sea - looks so peaceful :)

20mm Rapid Fire form the German perspective

The emphasis is on traders but there were small number of very nice games, including my chums from Abbey Wood with a VBCW game, a "Dads Army" participation game and a medieval game put on by John Curry (which apparently was based on the "reenactor's view" of  a medieval battle. Alas I forgot to ask John exactly what that meant whilst we were chatting. There was also a very nice desert "Rapid Fire" game in 20mm.

The Germans seem to be very well equipped with capture British kit - there was a 25pdr battery somewhere else too

Shoppingwise I picked up the new YT-2400 "Outrider" for my X Wing collection and some bits and pieces for my 20mm Burma Skirmish project (Airfix Jungle Outpost, a DUKW and a set of US Marines in the old style coloured plastic that isn't garish and horrible like many of the current Airfix reprints).

As usual the cafe was busy and churning out decent grub - I got there just before the bacon ran out, which was just as well as I'd not had breakfast, and lunch was  a very tasty lamb burger. Also as usual parking was a complete pig so I ended up a goof 10 minutes walk away. But the sun was shining and the exercise did me good :)

Jerry Hendy ponders his next move in the VBCW game

Looking forward to next year, apparently we are signed up to do a Wings of Glory participation game.....

This lot soaked up the res of my time this weekend - sweeties :)

Galleys and Galleons Playtesting

This week I have (after a game of Fire and Fury at the club - my first for 18 years) been reading through and playtesting "Galleys and Galleons", a forthcoming set of piratical naval rules from Ganesha Games set in the "age of discovery". I don't want to say too much about them as we've been asked not to give away details but suffice to say I am liking these rules a lot. They are quick and simple to play, sensibly realistic within the confines of the game system, beautifully adaptable with all sorts of special features and ship types and - best of all - lots of fun! I've been playing with Peter Pg 1/450 scale models which are ideal for use with these rules, but they are scalable to use with just about any available model scale.

Being the cussed old naval wargamer that I am I have fired off a couple of salvoes of thoughts and comments based on my readings and my first few games. As with any set of rules there are "I wouldn't have done it like that" elements, but mainly requests for clarifications and suggestions for additional bits and pieces to build on the realism aspects whilst maintaining the simple and fun approach.

As you can see, one of my opponents has adopted a very laid back approach to this game and has decided it is his firm favourite (and indeed first) wargame. Ole won this game by the simple expedien of jumping up just after this photo was taken, scattering the ships and batting the dice all over the lounge. Well done Captain Mog!

Anyway, more playtesting later in the weekend. But I must say, very nicely done.