Sunday, May 18, 2008
Warbirds In Miniature Battle of Britain Game
This past Saturday, our group played a World War II air combat games using the excellent “Warbirds In Miniature” rules.
Warbirds In Miniature is easy to learn and play, and yet has what we judged was the right “feel” for the period. The game is played on a hex grid, which makes maneuvering and plane facing easy. Altitude ranges can be tracked on paper, although we used telescoping stands for visual appeal and reference. The aircraft models were 1/144 scale plastic models.
The core of the Warbirds In Miniature is the aircraft control sheet, which shows the maneuvers available to each model at different speeds. The maneuvers are illustrated as hexes, showing the plane’s movement direction and its ultimate facing. The first hex in each sequence also is marked to indicate whether the maneuver can be done in level flight, climbing or diving.
The range of maneuvers, of course, varies by aircraft. Lumbering bombers, for example, may be able to fly only only one hex at a time, and perform only a few simple turns. Fighters have much greater speed, acceleration and decelleration, and can perform a wide range of twists and turns.
At the beginning of each turn, players secretly record a maneuver, and note any changes in altitude. All action is then carried out simultaneously. Shooting comes after all movement. There’s no snap fire, but since most aircraft move at 1-4 hexes per turn, the time frame is small enough that we didn’t miss it.
Combat can occur when planes are within 1 altitude band of each other (the bands ranged from 1 to 30 in our games). Horizontal range depends upon the airplane and the weapon, as does the angle of fire. Fighters shoot straight ahead—very easy to keep track of on a hex grid. To resolve fire, firepower factors are totaled, dice rolled and a chart consulted. After determining the number of hits, the attacker rolls on a damage chart to determine what parts of the craft have been damgaged, and to what extent.
Our scenario was set during the London Blitz. A German formation of two HE-111 bombers and two ME-110 fighter bombers are being escorted to their warehouse target by a pair of ME-109s. Four British Spitfires are sent to intercept.
The bombers were great, slow pigs, and lumbered on in a straight line toward their target at one hex per turn. The ME-110s, being faster and more maneuverable, broke away from the heavier craft, while the ME-109s darted forward at the ceiling to engage the oncoming Spitfires.
After shaking off their initial engagement with the ME-109s the Spitfires fell on the bombers, almost immediately damaging the engines of one so badly that it could only stay in their air by executing a long, slow dive. The other took heavy wing and fuselage damage, eventually losing its landing gear and a gunner. Two of the Spitfires stayed on them, while the other two pursued the Me-110s.
The Spitfires stayed with their targets, inflicting more damage. That, however, made things easier for the German pilots, who maneuvered behind the Spitfires while they were concentrating on their targets.
In the rules, a player whose plane is being tailed must tell his pursuer the direction he plans to turn, as well as whether he is climbing or diving. Once the Germans had the Spitfires in their sights, it was nearly impossible to shake them. One Spitfire was shot down; another lost half its weapons. German pursuit drove them off the tails of the He-111s.
The faster ME-110s reached their target first, dropping bombs and damaging the warehouse. They suffered heavy hits, however, and one was downed by its pursuing Spitfire. One of the HE-111s took more hits and went into a tailspin. The remaining still was on its dive of doom; it likely was going to reach the target and crash a turn or two later.
By this time, however, the Spitfires were running low on ammo. One had emptied its guns and left the board. Another was shooting at half effectiveness, having lost guns earlier in the game. An ME-110 killed the pilot of the third Spitfire, leaving just one.
Meanwhile, an ME-109 that had taken damage earlier was smoking and slowly falling apart. After a series of bad rolls, the fuselage disintegrated. An ME-110 also went down.
Finally, the remaining ME-110 got a lucky shot on the remaining Spitfire. Its engine was destroyed and the pilot had to bail.
The scenario’s scoring gave the Germans the victory for driving off the Spitfires and destroying the warehouses. The price, however, was high: one ME-109, both HE-111s, and an ME-110.
It was a terrific game, and we are anxious to try the system in a Pacific was scenario. It’d be a lot of fun choosing from all those maneuvers available to the Zeros.
You can see more photos here.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Legends of the Old West Battle Report April 2008
Saturday night, the group got together for a good old fashioned Wild West shootout. The scenario had two rival gangs shooting it out for control of the town. It seems that the Marshall had gone to the next town to get married, and the hoodlums were taking advantage of the situation.
We used the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West rules. It’s a set that I’ve previously used for Plains Wars and French and Indian War rules, but strangely had not yet used for a basic gunfight. For those who haven’t played, the rules are typical Games Workshop. For shooting, you first roll a six sided die to hit, then your roll to see if you hit the cover, then you finally roll to wound. The game plays quickly, and new players can pick up the basics in a couple of minutes.
In our scenario, the sides each consisted of two gangs, each with a Desperado, two Kids and five Rowdies. I’ll call them North and South for the board edges they started on.
The players spent the first couple of turns maneuvering their gangs into position through the back alleys, taking the occasional (ineffective) long range shots as the opportunity presented itself. Both sides initially holed up in the buildings facing each other on opposite sides of the main street and began trying to pick off their opposite numbers.
Lots of shots were fired to no effect. Another tactic was needed. Then, on opposite ends of the street, each side began a flanking maneuver. On the western edge of the board, the North gang dashed across the street to an alley, losing one member in the move. At the same time, the South gang began trying to move across the eastern side. They managed to make it without taking any losses.
Now the casualties began piling up on both side, especially as the shotguns got within short range. The South Gang began having some luck with the dice, but the North Gang still was rolling blanks. They just couldn’t get a hit. Finally, in an act of desperation, the North Gang charged into hand-to-hand combat; that somehow seemed to work for them.
But it was really too late. They reached fifty percent casualties, failed a Guts check and fled the table.
The figures in the game are mostly Gurnsey and Wargames Foundry, with a smattering of other manufacturers mixed in, especially among the civilians. The buildings are all scratch built by yours truly, from foam core and cardboard.
All in all, a great game. I’m looking into using the Lord of the Rings/Legends system for even more skirmish games. You can see more photos of the game here.
You can leave comments and questions below:
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Franco Prussian War Battle Report
A couple of weekends ago, our group got together for a Franco-Prussian War mega-game, involving ten players many, many hundreds of 28mm figure. (You can see more photos here)
The game was run by Brad Northrop, who also painted the vast majority of the figures. The rules were a modified version of Fields of Honor, the (sadly) abandoned 19th Century rules set once published by Pinnacle.
The scenario was based on the battle of Froschwiller (also known as Worth), from 6 August 1870. In that battle, German forces under Crown Prince Frederick and General Blumenthal defeated the French under Marshal MacMahon near the village of Worth in Alsace.
From Reference.Com
The German 3rd army had drawn reinforcements which brought its strength up to 140,000 troops. The French had also been reinforced, but their recruitment was slow, and their force numbered only 35,000. Although badly outnumbered, the French defended their position along a ridge at the western outskirts of Wśrth. By afternoon, both sides had suffered about 10,000 casualties, and the French army was too battered to continue resisting. To make matters even more dire for the French, the Germans had taken the town of Froeschwiller which sat on a hilltop in the center of the French line. Having lost any outlook for victory and facing a massacre, the French army broke off the battle and retreated in a western direction, hoping to join other French forces on the other side of the Vosges mountains. The German 3rd army did not pursue the withdrawing French. It remained in Alsace and moved slowly south, attacking and destroying the French defensive garrisons in the vicinity.
In our scenario, the goal of the outnumbered French was to inflict heavy casualties on the Germans before they were able to bring the full weight of their reinforcements to bear. If the Germans were stalled at the beginning, the reinforcements would pile up, create a jam and night would fall before they could get it straightened out.
As the battle opened, Germans used screening forces and the ever present threat of massive reinforcements to pin down the French right. They then turned two thirds of their forces on the French left. With the overwhelming numbers, the French flank collapsed and had to fall back on Froeschwiller, in the center. Meanwhile, the French right held against German assaults, which were reinforced by ever-increasing troops and artillery. Finally, in the last two turns, the French right also fell, buried under a rain of steel from the German guns.
Unless the Germans were incredibly stupid, or the French incredibly lucky, there really was no way.
The rules played quickly with the modifications used. In the original version of Fields of Honor, two sets of dice rolls are used to resolve fire combat. The first handful of six siders rolled determines whether the shots were “on target.” Rolls that indicate “hits” are then re-rolled to determine casualties. After casualties are counted, a morale check is made. Finally, half of the casualties are returned to the ranks.
The design of this is based on the idea that troops will be at their shakiest after taking a volley (or multiple volleys) of fire. Thus, their morale rolls will be made with the full casualty effect. However, after the initial shock, some of those soldiers will discover that they are actually unharmed and will return to action.
In our modifications, the “on target” rolls were skipped, and rolls simply were made for casualties. In addition, there was no return of troops to the ranks. This
made for a much more bloody, quick and decisive game. It’s a modification that was probably needed to accommodate the large number of figures and players.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Halloween 2007 Game
Every year, I run a horror themed game on one of the weekends close to Halloween. This year’s scenario involved groups of monster hunters—a strike force from Zenda, a squad of WolfenJager and the Vatican Hit Team—who have descended on a central European town that has been overrun with monsters. To stop the infestation, the teams needed to find six books of spells that have been stashed throughout the town.
For this game, I used the Rippers miniatures rules from Pinnacle. They are uncomplicated and have and RPG feel (not surprising, considering they’re a subset of that company’s Savage Worlds RPG). You can find a free version of the basic rules, called Savage Showdown.
The game was run somewhat like an old school dungeon crawl. As the game master, I played all the monsters. The players moved through the town, entering and exploring buildings like rooms in a dungeons, fighting monsters and picking up useful items.
Each turn, there was a chance of a wandering monster appearing. These were pulled from a deck of monster cards, and then randomly assigned to a starting position. During the monster turn, I rolled a GW scatter die to determine the direction that they travelled. When the wandering monsters had a line of sight to a group of good guys, they rolled a skill check to determine if they noticed. If the good guys were spotted, the monsters would make a bee-line toward them.
As it turns out, the monster hunters had little difficulty in finding the books and destroying them. I had bad luck rolling for wandering monsters, and when they did arrive, they always seemed to head away from the players. In games past, the wandering monsters were very effective in slowing down the players and picking off the occasional figure. If the players did not move toward their goals quickly enough, the monsters would reach a critical mass and the players would have no chance.
This time, I just couldn’t get a break.
A modification that I’ll make in the future is to have an increasing chance of a wandering monster with each failed roll. My base has always been a 1-3 on a six sided die. In the future, if one doesn’t appear, on the next roll a monster will appear on a 1-4, then a 1-5, etc. Once a monster appears, the chance falls back to 50%.
A few notes on the terrain: All of the buildings, and the castle walls are home made from foam core. The town houses were coated with colored gesso; the half-timbers are balsa. The wood siding on the buildings is made from strips of cardboard, glued in rows. Roofs are either made from strips of cardboard, cut to resemble shingles, or from a plaster casting.
The castle walls are made from foam core, painted with black latex paint, into which sand was mixed. They then were drybrushed. The stone effect was made by randomly gluing rectangles of cardboard onto the surface before painting. The brick houses are made from foam core. I used Corel Photo Paint to make sheets of brick patterns, which were printed and glued to the surface.
The panes on the windows were made by cutting plastic canvas of the sort used for needlework.
Figures are from a large variety of manufacturers, including West Wind, Ral Parthal, Grenadier, Heritage, and a few others I can’t remember. I’ve been collecting them for twenty years now.
You can see more photos of the 2007 Halloween game in the gallery.
Please leave comments and questions below:
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Disposable Heroes Review, Battle Report and Photos
This past weekend, I played my first game of Disposable Heroes, Iron Ivan Games’ rules for World War II skirmish. You can see some photos here.
I’ve been looking for some years for a rules set that strikes the right balance between “realism” and playability; in Disposable Heroes, I think I’ve found it.
Disposable Heroes’ rules are simple and a great deal is abstracted, but actual play is quite complex. Each turn involves involved a great deal of thinking about the proper order in which to activate squads, and how best to use them.
The game is played by alternating the activation of squads. As each squad is activated, the player may move, fire and conduct Close Combat.
Movement is conducted by moving a single figure to a new location and then arranging the others in the unit within command range. There are no terrain modifiers for movement of foot troops. In keeping with the streamlined nature of the rules, if one figure in a unit can make it into a terrain feature, they all can.
Firing is conducted on a unit to unit basis and is resolved with two die rolls: one for accuracy and one to kill. A weapon’s rate of fire determines how many dice are rolled.
Snap fire can be conducted if an enemy unit maneuvers within 12 inches. Modifiers to the rate of fire and accuracy roll reflect the
Units that receive fire must make a Morale Check. A first failure results in a pin; a second requires the unit to fall back; a third forces a rout. Pinned units cannot fire or maneuver until they rally.
Continued...
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Squad Leader in 3D
Some years ago, I had a conversation with John Hill, the designer of Squad Leader, about how to convert the board game rules to a miniatures game. To my surprise, Hill told me that the game had originally been designed as a miniatures game, and that he had pitched it to Avalon Hill as such. He was told that, while AH had no interest in a miniatures game, if he converted it to a board game, they would buy it. So he did, and they did, and the rest is history.
Hill’s advice was to simply use the rules as-is, converting measurements from hexes to inches. He suggested a straight one hex to one inch conversion, but I think that’s because he envisioned using micro armor. Our group decided that a two- or three- inch to one hex conversion was better for 15mm figures, and we have played it that way off and on for a couple of years.
Then recently, the owner of the WWII figures (I had painted them for him several years ago) bought a couple of Hotz Artworks hex mats. This past Saturday night was our first using hexes instead of rulers.
And what a difference it made! Squad Leader played fairly well with rulers, but is a delight with hexes. Having the hexes sped up things considerably, taking measurement out of the equation, and leaving us to concentrate on the other aspects of the game.
The scenario involved a group of Germans defending a fortified position and a collective farm, separated by eight hexes. A large force of Russians was dispatched to clear them out.
After the Germans deployed, the Russians entered on the opposite side of the board. The initial strategy was to concentrate the entire attack on the fort and ignore the collective. The Russians would mass in a wood close to the fort, shoot to attempt to disorder the Germans, and then close assault.
The plan didn’t work. As the Russians attempted to take positions in the wood, they were slaughtered by massed German firepower, both from the fort, and at long range, from the collective. An assault finally was attempted, but by then there were far too few Soviets left.
Since the game took just an hour and a half, we set up again and restarted. This time, the Russians sent a smaller contingent to keep the Collective busy. Again, the horde moved up to the woods. This time, the Germans were far less effective in their fire. Part of that was that their dice had gone cold; part was that the troops in the collective now had their own problems and could not fire with impunity.
The Russians facing the collective farm then got lucky and rolled snake eyes on a low odds shot. The German leader in the hex failed his morale check, as did the rest of the unit. The second round of morale checks eliminated a third of the German flank.
The Russians facing the fortification got a similar break and were able to force their way in for a Russian victory.
Squad Leader turns out to be a terrific system for miniatures when using printed hex mats. The basic game is elegant and relatively simple. While ASL has moved on to Multi-Man publishing, I’d really like to see basic Squad Leader re-released as a purely miniatures set.
You can see more photos here.
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About the Miniature Wargaming Hobby
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
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