Skip bombers attack! Check Your 6 game report

We played a fun game of Check your Six today, with American planes attacking some Japanese ships.  B-25s came in low, dropping bombs and strafing at wave-top level. American losses were heavy---three bombers shot down and the fourth damaged.  Japanese losses were one Tony destroyed and one Tony damaged, with a Zero damaged as well.  More importantly, the Americans destroyed one transport and badly damaged a second.  Pictures below, thanks for looking!

Check your Six!

I love the air combat game Check Your 6! and have wanted to get much more into the war in the Pacific.  Here are my Japanese and American air forces so far, in 1/600 scale by Oddzial Osmy and Tumbling Dice, and my flight stands.

Millennium Con 18

I had a great time this weekend attending my first Millennium Con, in Round Rock, TX.  I played a good civil war game, ran a couple games, saw some very nice tables, and bought a few figures. Also made new friends and had an outstanding drive up and back with my gaming buddies.  I'm looking forward to next year!  Pictures below and a bit of description of the con at the very end.

New Guinea 1942: AAR

We played a game of A Sergeant’s War on Saturday at Stronghold Games in McAllen, TX.  The scenario was based on the American 32^nd Infantry Division’s operations on New Guinea in November/December 1942, when they fought against well entrenched Japanese forces.  The game was hard fought, with sharp Japanese counter attacks, heavy fire from MG bunkers, and point blank shots from US Stuart tanks.  Pictures below, mixed in with a description of the game after.  Here is a link to my blog, where I have included a full order of battle, notes, and a map. 

Jungle terrain and Japanese bunkers

I am thinking that a lot of my gaming over the next year or so will be set in Southeast Asia—14^th Army’s campaigns, the liberation of the Philippines, and MacArthur’s battles in the Southwest Pacific, as well as the French Indochina War—and I decided to make some suitable jungle terrain.  Here’s the result, using plastic bamboo, floor mats, aquarium plants, and various types of flock.  The terrain is mounted on MDF and metal washers.  The river/creek is MDF.  The bunkers are small pieces of plywood, cut on a scroll saw and textured.  A friend has trees covered, so I’ve focused on brush, high grass, and bamboo thickets. I plan to still make some more, as supplies are ample.  15mm figures for scale.  Thanks for looking!

Kakazu Ridge scenario book available

Available now at Wargame Vault

War in the Pacific: US Army and Japanese Army

I have painted two opposing platoons of US infantry and Japanese infantry for use in an upcoming Okinawa mini-campaign for my rules, A Sergeant's War.  They are 15mm scale; the Japanese are mostly Resistant Roosters (available from Historifigs) and the Americans are mostly Old Glory.  I think the Americans are actually paratroopers, but they were what I have so...close enough!

Thanks for looking! Lots of pics below.

WWII Micro Armor: North Africa

I painted two GHQ WWII combat commands as a commission, one British and one German.  The customer will finish the basing at his end.

Mars Attacks!

I have finished up a commission for a sizeable number of Mantic Miniatures' Mars Attacks! range.  The regular Martian infantry are not pictured here, as they were mailed back to the customer a while back. Pictured here are the humans, some Martian command and the Martian Science Division guys.  The clear plastic helmets are to be added by the customer.

If anyone is interested in having their Mars Attacks figures painted by me, I can paint figures to this standard for $3 a figure. Thanks for looking!

Reaper CAV miniatures

I painted these Reaper CAV miniatures for the Toys for Tots charity auction at this year's Fall In.  I used very simple techniques---masking, foam brush chipping, and washes--and tried for a weather-beaten, campaign look.  Enjoy!

The Amalgam War---Clash on the Fringe AAR

Here is a battle report of a game of Clash on the Fringe a weekend or two ago.  The setting is my own, the fluff background I intend for my own upcoming sci-fi game.  Earth is in the grips of an invasion by the Amalgam, a biological infestation that behaves like an invasive species in an ecosystem, before ultimately evolving into a full-fledged military force (think the Chtorr crossed with the Borg crossed with the Posleen). The models are a mix of Ground Zero Games, Ravenstar, converted Games Workshop, and Khurasan.  Pictures below.

All Quiet on the Martian Front

I'm painting some stuff as part of the Fall In Toys for Tots painting auction, and here's the first batch of stuff: US infantry and steam tanks for All Quiet on the Martian Front.  For anyone interested in commission work, I can do figures and troops to the standards photographed below for the following prices:
Infantry, $1.25 each
Steam Tanks, $12 each or three for $30 (I will assemble them for a small extra charge)

The Mk IIIs (left) are painted in a sort of faux-caunter/dazzle scheme; the tanks on the right (Mk IIs) have a simple green/sand camo pattern

Extermination Protocol: Nordic Weasel Games photoshoot

I've been asked by the illustrious Ivan of Nordic Weasel Games to do a photo shoot for his upcoming bug-hunt game Extermination Protocol.  Here are the results.  Infantry are Ground Zero Games US Army in Hardsuits; bugs are Ravenstar Miniatures Horrid.

Thanks for looking!

15mm painting tutorial

Here is a brief tutorial on the methods I use to paint.  The model is a 15mm Ground Zero Games figure, but I use the same system on 20mm and 28mm figures, and something similar for 6mm/micro armor. 

 

Clash on the Fringe, 40k edition: Chaos Space Marines vs. Imperial Guard

 

We played a great game of Clash on the Fringe, using Warhammer 40,000 troops.   The game's rules, with minimal adjustment, captured the feel of a 40k game, but, I think, made for a vastly more enjoyable game, with more tactical choices and great excitement.  Pictures and a brief explanation of the game below, plus the stats we used for the game.  Thanks for looking!

 

28mm Sci-fi AAR: Clash on the Fringe

I played my first game of Nordic Weasel Games' Clash on the Fringe and we had a fun time.  Pictures and a write-up of the game below. Thanks for looking!

1/300 WWII armor

I finished these a few months ago and finally got around to photographing them.  Thanks for looking!

 

Punic Wars commission

I've been working on this commission for a long while now and it's nearly done. 1/72 plastics, intended for Command and Colours. Here are the elephants. More and better pics soon. Thanks for looking!

 

New ships for Rail Gun

Here are some new 2-d, print-and-play spaceships for Rail Gun.  They will be included in the final version of the rules.  Andy Nelson, author of the orbital-combat game ASAT, designed these using Lightwave.  More images after the bump, including one of the full 3-D renders. Thanks for looking!

Carrier--the hoops on the sides of the ships are "arrestors," which generate forcefields.  Fighers and bombers land on the carrier by moving into the arrestor; cranes then transfer them to the hangars.

Rail Gun---ship data sheet preview

My original idea had been simple MS Word charts for Rail Gun---but Andy Nelson, of Paper Forge (and author of the excellent ASAT) has come aboard as artist/illustrator/playtester extraordinaire and has knocked out some great drafts of the ship data charts. Here's a preview. Rail Gun has gotten a lot prettier! Click the picture for much bigger image.

Retreat from Tu Le: A free French Indochina War scenario for A Sergeant's War

Here is a freebie scenario for my WWII rules A Sergeant's War, available from Wargames Vault.  It's from the French Indochina War and features a platoon of French paratroopers attempting to slip out of a Viet Minh encirclement.  Thanks for looking!

Et Sans Resultat!---a read-through review

I recently bought Et Sans Resultat!, a grand-tactical Napoleonic wargame by David Esteness.  I have a review of the rules here, with the acknowledgement that I haven’t played yet---these are my thoughts from a read-through.  First is my summary of the game; I’ll follow up with comments and criticisms.

The brief  version:  As a gamer who is interested in recreating chaos and friction on the tabletop; who is interested in the issues of commitment/timing on the Napoleonic battlefield; and who digs the notion of a Napoleonic division being an unwieldy beast that you hurl into combat, I’m really excited to play Et Sans Resultat!  The book is high-quality and the writing is clear. The game takes into account command and control problems, the deployment of divisions, and divisions become worn down and shot-up in combat. On the down side, I am disappointed by there being no scenarios included in the book, and don’t think that the game is great solo. 

Overall: Great stuff and I look forward to playing it!

Print-and-play ships for Rail Gun

I will include a number of 2-d ships to use with Rail Gun, for players uninterested in buying and painting space ships.  Here's a sample of what I'm going for.

Rail Gun: Wargaming Rules for Starship Combat, playtest version available

I have put up my in-development space-ship rules on Wargame Vault in PDF form

Trail of Clues: Pulp Alley AAR

2 July 1923
Owen,

No doubt you've heard from the university about my recent arrest in Cairo.  That clod Yates warned me, in no uncertain terms, that my tenure would be forfeit if anything untoward happened during my sabbatical.  So, I suppose your long dream of having my office has come true.

Two sci-fi scenarios

My upcoming sci-fi rules will feature a bunch of scenarios, two of which I have shared here. "What's a Space Pirate's Favorite Letter?" is a space ship boarding action.  "Diaz Corner" is a futuristic gang-war firefight in the Corporate City (future Los Angeles).  Each game features around 30 miniatures a side and plays on a 3x3 table. The scenarios are new and I haven't done any playtesting on them.

Players can use these scenarios in their games and, if you want, can give me feedback.  They are written in the format of my rules, but should be easily translatable to other games.  I have provided information in this post to convert them to other games.

2 Free Sci-fi Scenarios

Sci-fi Fluff: Background for Off World

For my upcoming Off World rules, I am preparing some background fluff, a "future history" for players to use in games.  The fluff is by no means mandatory, and is mostly an excuse for me to have a bit of fun and burn some word document bytes.

Pulp Alley!

We played our first game of Pulp Alley today and had a fun time.  Definitely looking forward to more games in the future.  Here's a brief AAR and some pics.  Thanks!

Aliens, droids, and power armor: Off World playtest

Another playtest of "Off World" today---this time featuring the alien invaders known as The Amalgam, a polyglot force of symbiotic life forms, genetically engineered monsters, and worse--vs. human special forces, droids, and powered armored infantry.  There are some things I still need to tweak---but the game's playing well and the various stats and special rules are really making unusual, sci-fi-y forces stand out from regular troops.

Off World: Sample of play video

I am making good progress in writing Off World, the sci-fi version of my WWII rules.  I thought that a play-by-play would be useful, so that players can see how the game plays and get a feel for basic infantry combat.  And THEN I thought, what if I made a video version? So here is my directorial and narratorial (?) debut:

15 minutes long .  Thanks for looking!

Logging Road 2-16, Kyushan Highlands, Kyushu---Off World AAR

Hey all---we got another playtest of Off World in today. The United Nations of Earth and Mars Army, having taken over the occupation duties on the colony world of Kyushu after the UN Marines took control of the coast, are now moving into the highlands to pursue the shattered Kyushan Armed Forces.  The KAF has deployed militia troops and droid forces to cover their withdrawal.

The Column: A Sergeant's War After Action Report

I set up one of the scenarios available in my rules set, A Sergeant's War, for a quick game today. I had never actually played the game with miniatures, as I do my playtesting with paper and counters (to save time).  Here is a summary of how the game played, with plenty of pictures.

Vietnam, 2148 A.D.---Science Fiction playtest

I just finished the first playtest of Off World, the sci-fi version of my WWII rules A Sergeant's War.  Fluff and details, with pics, below.  The playtest went well; I know some things that will need more changing from the WWII version, to make the game "feel" more like a hard sci-fi battle.

Bocage fight---A Sergeant's War AAR

I just released my WWII rules, A Sergeant's War, in PDF form for sale here.  Here is an in-depth AAR of one of the scenarios featured in the main rules, "Row by Row," which features a heavily reinforced platoon of American infantry trying to break through a German defensive position in the bocage.  Here are pictures and a blow-by-blow account, including a description of game mechanics.

Orc-at-Arms: first playtest

I am designing a fantasy wargame, "Orc-at-Arms", and we had our first playtest.  Pictures and a description below.  We went for a quirky backstory: a portal to another dimension has opened in Northern England, circa 200 AD, and a horde of orcs have poured through.  A Roman legion, backed up by local auxiliaries, has been dispatched to defeat the beasts.  Some elves came through the portal, too, and are acting as allies and advisors to the Romans.  We used Wargames Factory Romans and Barbarians, and GW's Lord of the Rings plastics.

Row by Row, campaign pack of A Sergeant's War

I just released Row by Row,  a campaign pack for A Sergeant's War.  The pack features six scenarios which can be played individually or as a short campaign.  I have included notes in the booklet for use with other rules sets, as well.  They are availabe at Wargame Vault, here

A Sergeant's War rules now available

I have just released a new WWII rules set called A Sergeant’s War, intended for small unit combat (platoon+support) with individually- or group-based models.  They are available at the Wargames Vault, here.  Here is a brief summary and a description of the game, given in several parts after the bump.

Battletech AAR

I got to play my first Battletech game in well over a decade.  We broke out 8 medium mechs from my uncle's extensive collection and played a quick game.  My side narrowly won, destroying or crippling 3 mechs at the cost of 2--though one of my remaining mechs was shot up, and the enemy survivor was totally undamaged.

40k done differently---using No Stars in Sight to play Warhammer 40,000

I played a fun No Stars in Sight game, using Warhammer 40k miniatures.  Today's fight was a sort of "Lone Survivor" in the world of 40k skulls and swords---6 Cadian Kasrkin are waiting for extraction, with Tau and Kroot on their heels.  We made minimal modification to the rules, using the game's own special rules and stats to recreate 40k troops.