Monday, January 15, 2007
SpartaCon 2007
On Saturday, I traveled to Lansing, Michgian to attend SpartaCon, one of four big conventions held every year in Michigan. I look forward to the convention every year, and have missed on one in the last decade.
One of the things that strikes me about SpartaCon is the high quality of the terrain and minaitures that Michigan gamers offer. All of the games looked as good as, if not better, than anything I’ve seen at Historicon, and a few were among the best I’ve ever seen—even in pictures. You can see photos of the event in the gallery.).
Attendance seemed to be a bit off from previous years—although I don’t have any idea what the official results were. Part of that could be just my impression, though, since the event was held in a larger room than last I was there.
There were ten to twelve games held in each of three sessions, and all of those games were full. In the first two sessions, there was plenty of World War II, plus two Samurai games, a Viking skirmish, Cog Wars, Plains War (mine), Crimean War, Wayne’s Legion, Medieval naval Cog Wars, Warhammer Ancients (Romans), Bob Beattie’s Back of Beyond Game, Tod Kershner’s (He of Pig Wars and Warfare in the Age of Reason fame) 100 Years War, American Revolution, French and Indian war, modern micro armor, a DBA Tournament and several that I apologize for forgetting. I didn’t stick around for the third session. Visually, the most outstanding games were a Samurai skirmish, an amazing Flames of War Stalingrad game and a French and Indian war game.
The convention had four dealers, and some large table space for flea market activities (that’s a bring-and-buy for our friends over the pond). I was able to unload a couple of boxes of books and magazines.
One of hot topics of conversation was the death of the hobby store in Michigan—at least as far as miniatures gamers are concerned. The recent closure of Hobby Hub in Lansing has left that city without even a general hobby store; since the Alcove in Royal Oak cloased ten years ago, there hasn’t been a good miniatures store in metro Detroit. A lot of reasons were bandied about: bad management (there were a couple of well-known cases of that), bad service that drove customers away (there are a couple of known cases there, too), bad business climate in Michigan, young people drawn to video games, the graying of the hobby, the well-known cheapness of historical gamers and the internet.
In the end, there were no real answers.
Still, it’s a sad situation. Conventions like SpartaCon, and Pro-or-Con in the Detroit area show what a vibrant hobby miniature wargaming is.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Games Workshop’s Man O War Revisited
My gaming group engaged in a bit of nostalgia this past week as we each delved into the deepest recesses of our basements and dredged out our copies of Games Workshop’s Man O’ War.
The game was a hoot. We had forgotten just how much fun it was to play. Our scenario was a fairly pedestrian meeting engagement, with elves and dwarves on one side, and chaos, dark elves and orcs on the other; six fleets in all. The bad guys won.
For those not in the know, Man O’ War is a fleet battle game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe. It was published in 1993 as a large boxed game, and then later was expanded with two boxed supplements, Plague Fleet, and Sea of Blood.
It was—and remains—one of GW two or three best efforts. The base game and supplements all came out within a short period of time, avoiding the typical GW problem of power creep. Each of the fleets is well balanced against the other, and through numerous playings, each has won and lost equally.
Each of the fleets is pegged to obvious characteristics of the various races. The dwarves have ironclads; the elves speedy catamarans; the orcs have barely seaworthy hulks cobbed together from various worky bits; the Dark Elf “fleet” is composed mostly of sea serpents. There also were fleets for the Empire, Bretonnians, Skaven, Chaos Dwarves, Nurgle, Khorne, Tzeentch, Norse and Pirates. Most of the fleets had some sort of “flyer” in addition to the ships, enabling “carrier warfare” scenarios. The system was rounded out with magic and some very cool sea monsters.
The approximate scale of the fleets is 1/1200 (as far as we can tell), but several of the ships in each fleet are probably out of scale—especially the flyers.
Movement in the game is very simple and would fail most tests of seamanship. They get it right that sailing craft can’t go directly into the wind, but then ruin it by insisting that they go faster with the wind directly astern.
For combat, each ship has a template that shows a profile fo the ship marked with numbered locations. To shoot, you roll a number of dice depending on the weapon, and then match the die results to the locations. Each roll that matches a location has scored a hit. Saves are then attempted, and if failed, a damage market is placed on the location. Multiple hits on a location can cause critical hits (Most ships go down because of critical hits).
Each of the fleets have unique weapons systems that add much flavor to the game. The Orcs, for example, have a ship called the Drilla Killa, which is a barge with a large drill on the front (a team of orcs is inside running on a treadmill to get it going). When the Drilla comes into contact with an enemy, you roll a dice. Sometimes the Killa drills a hole through the enemy, and sometimes it sinks itself in the attempt.
To speed play and make things neater, we have photocopied the templates and placed them in plastic sheet protectors. Grease pencils are used to mark damage. This eliminates the problem of the fiddly counters.
As I said before, it’s a tremendously fun game, and we wondered why we don’t do it more often.
It was sad that GW killed the game after only a couple of years. But it’s easy to understand why. The very thing that makes it so good also doomed it. Man O War was a closed system. You didn’t need a lot of ships to play, and there wasn’t much room for expansion.You could buy all of the fleets for a very reasonable price (two of us have multiples of every ship cast.) Thus, GW couldn’t continue to make a profit by constantly adding to, and expanding the fleets. One you had the fairly limited set, you really didn’t need any more.
If you don’t have the game, and you have some money to bury, I would recommend seeing what you can pick up on Ebay.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Software For Starving Students
Most of the wargamers I know are forever in search of a bargain, so I thought I’d pass on this link: Free Software For Starving Students.
It’s a collection of incredibly useful free software for both the PC and the MAC—all free of charge. The core of it seems to be the Microsoft Office clone called “Open Office,” but there’s also a free Photoshop clone, games, and various utilities.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Refighting The Battle of Stiklestad
This past Saturday, we refought the Battle of Stiklestad using the Warhammer Ancients - Shieldwall rules. It was our first experience with the new Warhammer Ancients rules.
Stiklestad was fought in Norway in 1030 AD between the forces of King Olav and a peasant army under Hårek from Tjøtta, Tore Hund from Bjarkøy and Kalf Arnason. Olav, who was returning from exile to regain this throne, was outnumbered 2 - 1 by the peasants.
Actual numbers and the troop types that participated were not available, so I decided to fudge it. For the game, I created two armies of equal point values, but with the peasant army outnumbering Olav’s 2-1. It was therefore the classic confrontation of quality v quantity.
The battle started as you would expect Viking battles to ... with both sides closing rapidly. The peasant army’s archer units quickly came into play, but had no real effect, as the players on Olav’s side kept making their saves.
The first real action came as berserkers on both sides shot forward like naked, heat seeking missiles (now there’s an image), crashing into the enemy lines. Olav’s forces skillfully echeloned to the left, concentrating their power on the center-right of the peasant line. My forces, on the peasant left, were left to pursue the battle lines, vainly attempting to get into action. They only got into the fight at the very end.
The peasant units were getting hammered. One fled, and was caught in pursuit, being utterly destroyed. The pursuit, however, opened a salient in Olav’s line. The unit was hit in the flank. They inexplicably failed their panic test and left a gaping hole. This let another unit of Bondi through, and Olav’s right collapsed. THe King led a valiant charge with his Huscarls into the fray, and managed to hold off the tide for several turns, but was overwhelmed by numbers.
Meanwhile, the units of Hirdmen continue to fail their leadership tests and left the field. Olav was killed after making a valiant stand.
The results of the battle were historically accurate, and had the right “feel.” But they caused us to remember why we had abandoned Warhammer Fantasy all of those years ago. Most combats require three rolls—to hit, to wound and save—and all require two. You can speed that up by rolling dice in batches, but when there are mixed units, that slows things down again.
Still, as we played, we quickly learned the numbers that we needed, and no longer needed to look things up.
The big thing I learned about the rules, though, was that movement bases are a necessity. When multiple units clashed, it became difficult to determine exactly who belonged to whom.
You can see some photos of the battle here.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Unbelievable Helicoper Rescue
I just got this photo in an email from one of my friends and thoght that I’d pass it on. Here was the text:
Now . . look again: do you realize what you’re seeing?
This photo of a helo rescue mission was taken by a soldier in Afghanistan . The pilot is a PA Guard guy who flies EMS choppers in civilian life.
Now, how many people on the planet you reckon could set the ass end of a chopper down on the roof top of a shack on a steep mountain cliff and hold it there while soldiers load wounded men into its belly???
If this does not impress you, nothing ever will. Gives me the chills and a serious case of the vertigo! I can’t even imagine having the nerve . . much less the talent or ability.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Thoughts on Battlegames Issue 5
I just got issue 5 (Nov/Dec 2006) of Battlegames. It’s a pretty good effort.
My favorite articles:
Jim Purky on an effort to redo Peter Gilder’s Sudan campaign game. I thought the most interesting part was the effort to recreate Gilder’s rules from hand-written playsheets, Wargames World articles and the Pony Wars rules.
In Snowballs at Brienne, Arthur Harman offers a set of rules for playing out the snowball fight from Abel Gance’s silent “Napoleon.” That film has a young Napoleon showing his early military skills as he leads the Junior Cadets against the Seniors in a battle for the snow fort. It looks like a lot of fun.
“TableTop Teaser: Trouble on Treasure Island,” a scenario adapted from from C.S. Grants Scenarios For Wargames. In the game, two skirmish forces are in competition to retrieve a treasure, while being opposed by a force of natives. The players have to follow a series of clues to find the treasure’s location on the tabletop.
The scenario seems infinitely adaptable, and I plan to use it in a couple of different periods.
And finally, an article by Ross Macfarlane on how he developed a scenario for the War of 1812.
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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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