Combat Patrol(TM) is featured on the Meeples and Miniatures hobby podcast, episode 180. See: https://meeples.wordpress.com. This was a very pleasant experience. Neil Shuck and the crew were very amiable. I think the interview came out very well. See what you think…
The Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (HAWKs) hosted our 20th incarnation of our Barrage gaming event. This year was the first year that we tried to run Barrage as a two-day event. We also expanded our tournament offerings to TWO Flames of War tournaments, an X-wing tournament, and an Art de la Guerre tournament. We had a number of excellent vendors with many great products on order as well as several flea market tables. We also had record attendance.
Tournaments at Barrage
Below are some views of the Flames of War Tournaments run by Kurt Reese:
If you are a Flames of War tournament player and weren’t at Barrage, you missed a chance for two official tournaments in one weekend — well worth the trip to Barrage.
Below are some pictures of the Saturday Flames of War tournament run by Bob Everson of the I-95 Gamers:
Walt Leach ran a 36-player Art de la Guerre tournament:
Andrew P. ran the X-Wing tournament:
Games at Barrage
Views of Brian Cantwell‘s very popular ancient naval game:
Brians ships are made of paper and look excellent on the table. They are crewed by 15mm figures.
Views of Matt Kirkhart‘s inspiring “Craftee Dungeon Crawl:”
The figures used in Matt’s games are made from wooden bits from the craft store and other odds and ends. The figures are extremely creative and are made extremely attractive through very excellent painting.
Richard Hefner ran his every popular Aerodrome game:
The two people in the picture below had never seen a wargaming convention before. They spent much of the afternoon in Richard’s game and had a terrific time. We always have several games for younger gamers at Barrage. In this way the HAWKs try to encourage younger games to come to Barrage.
Here are some other games at Barrage that were aimed at younger gamers:
Chris Johnson, a huge supporter of our Armies for Kids giveaway project, ran this WWI airplane game on the floor. We didn’t have as many younger gamers on Friday as we had hoped, but a host of non-so-young gamers had a great time nonetheless.
Chris also ran this very enjoyable American Civil War game on Saturday. This time he got a host of younger and new gamers.
Peter Schweighofer ran two kids games. One was Valley of the Ape. The other was Panzer Kids from Peter’s book of the same title.
Note the mix of adults and kids in this game. We had several gamers at Barrage who were new to gaming. I tried to push many of them into kid-friendly games as a great introduction to gaming.
Lee Sowers ran two games using his to-be-released Skirmish Action rules. I was able to play in one of them, and I enjoyed the game.
I ran a Combat Patrol(TM) game set in Normandy in WWII:
A funny moment came when the Americans targeted a mortar shell at some Germans behind a hedge. The round landed short and into the middle of an American unit.
The Americans made good use of smoke to screen their advance. Despite a very good defense by the Germans and some really poor American morale results, the Americans managed to work their way around the flank of the Germans and force the Germans off the first line of hedges.
Philip Gardocki ran an attractive game based on the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings:
Mike and Patrick Byrne ran a lively Force on Force game in which the Russians employ a new weapon against the Chechens. The game was going so well that it ran an hour longer than planned because the players weren’t ready to stop.
Chris Palmer ran two eight-player Frostgrave games, both of which were completely full:
Cliff Brunken ran this French and Indian War game:
Ed Watts ran a 7TV game, called the Yellow Submarine Caper that involved James Bond, The Avengers, The Beatles, and other factions.
Scott Perry ran a very cool looking naval boarding action game using the Age of Sigmar rules.
Eric Schlegel ran a cowboy game, Schlegel’s Gulch, using slightly modified Combat Patrol(TM). It seemed to be a wild and wooly affair.
Jim McWee ran this game based on the Aliens movie, called “They Come Mostly at Night, Mostly,” using Aliens Miniatures Rules. This seemed to be a very enjoyable game for those involved.
Zeb Cook ran a 1939 Winter War game using Combat Patrol(TM).
Greg Priebe ran a Star Wars themed game using Combat Patrol(TM) in which the Rebels had secured an important droid from a crashed ship and were trying to get it past the Stormtroopers.
By all accounts this was a very popular and fun game.
Dave Wood ran several Napoleonic games using Fate of Battle and 28mm figures. There is something very appealing about a table full of 28mm figures.
Mark Fastoso ran a very pretty Dragon Rampant game using Flintloque figures.
Brian Lipscomb ran The Gates of Damascus using Lion Rampant.
Emril Gletscher ran a table of short games designed to give folks something to do between other games. I played a game of Forbidden Island, and she ran Forbidden Desert, Gloom, and others. Next year I plan to give her a dedicated table and advertise this more. I also “forced” Emril to try some other games, like Chris Johnson’s airplane game and Brendan Watts’ Eat Hitler game.
Joe Richards ran this Rapid Fire game of Russians versus Germans. I haven’t seen Rapid Fire at a convention since the release of 3.0, and it was good to see this oldie but goodie on the table again.
Phil Jones ran this Volley and Bayonet game, The Golden Sun of Kolin.
Duncan Adams ran his WWI game using a mashup of Look, Sarge, No Charts rules for WWII and the American Civil War.
Kevin Lepley ran a cowboy game with the odd title, Cowboy Daze or Don’t Fall Asleep on the Wagon.
Eric Schlegel ran this Lord of the Rings game based on the late 1970’s version of the rules, “Ringbearer.”
Mike Pierce ran a modern game using Battlegroup rules. The game seemed to be VERY will received.
Tim Tilson of NOVAG ran two games for us at Barrage, including this one.
Robert Franklin ran two modern games at Barrage in 1/285 scale. He has these really clever terrain boards built into boxes for each store and transport.
Phil Jones ran the battle of Liebertkolkwitz using Volley and Bayonet.
Some other excellent games at Barrage 2016.
This was our first year of trying to expand Barrage from one day to two. We think it was very successful. We had a full slate of games on Friday and every gamer had something good to play. We hope to have even more games and gamers for both days of Barrage 2017. We will be posting the dates soon, so mark you calendar and plan to be there.
Post Barrage LARP
Having done it twice, the HAWKs now have a time honored tradition of conducting a pirate tavern brawl based on Blood and Swash. After all our guests have left, we rearrange some of the tables into a replica of the taverns that Chris, Jennifer, and I have used in many convention games. Attributes are assigned based on the quality of the costume, sides are chosen, and the game begins. As with our barroom brawl games, the objective is to get the treasure chest out of the tavern. The winner fro the previous year acts as GM for the game. This year Jennifer Palmer won the game.
I want to provide a personal and special thanks to the folks who made barrage a success:
To culminate gaming weekend to commemorate Ma’k Morin’s visit to the Aberdeen area, Mark ran a test of his fantasy rules at Wood’s Hole (Dave’s basement). It involved “bad guys,” like Orcs, insect men, fire-spitting salamanders, goblins, and others, attempting to capture the tower from the “good” guys, composed of humans, dwarves, elves, and Roomans.
You can see a lot of cards around the table. Each unit in Mark’s game has a card with all its attributes, characteristics, and special abilities. Mark wasn’t sure how many players we would have, so he planned for eight. With only four players, we had a lot of figures to control, and it was hard to find the right card. When players have the right number of units, I think managing the cards would be easier.
In this picture you can see Mark’s Roomans (with reddish fur) and my Roomans (in green) preparing to defend a strong position against the bad guys. Both Dave and Eric sent forces to attack this position. I managed to fend off the succubus and the first fire-breathing salamander, but by the end of the game, Eric’s second salamander was approach and his Elite Death Guard Cavalry was about to get behind me.
There are a few things that can be done to streamline and improve the rules, but it went pretty well as a first test.
We had been gaming since Friday evening, and we had to quit this game around 1400, so we didn’t fight the battle to a conclusion. I think the outcome remained in doubt when we quit. It was a fun game, and it was fun to see a lot of Mark’s troops on the table for the first time in 30 years.
Yesterday we tested Greg’s scenario and rules modifications to use Combat Patrol(TM) for Star Wars. It’s probably not surprising that the rules worked well for Star Wars, as the film franchise is light on science and heavy on action.
Greg built the cards for the various units. For the Rebel speeder sleds, we just used the record cards for SdKfz 251 halftracks. For the “chicken walkers,” or AT-ST, we just used the stats for the US M-5 Stuart light tank. Greg, who is much more in tune with the Star Wars lore than I am, said that these are lightly armored and easily knocked out.
The Rebels started in one corner of the board. Their objective was to get the droid (shown in the APC in the picture, above) to the opposite corner of the table and off the board. The Imperial objective was to stop that from happening.
The terrain consisted of a desert town that occupied about a third of the board. Since the towns on the desert worlds of Star Wars look Middle Eastern, I used my Crescent Root Middle Eastern buildings. Before he runs this scenario at a convention, Greg is going to build up some bits to give it a little more of a science fiction look, but in general, I think the Star Wars figures looked pretty good next the Middle Eastern terrain.
While the Rebels had to get from one corner to the opposite corner, the Imperial forces started equally divided between the other two corners. From each corner the Imperial forces had an AT-ST. These were placed in the scenario to give the Stormtroopers a chance to cut off the Rebel escape.
You can see Geoff’s reaction tot he loss of his AT-ST in this video: IMG_0091.MOV
Kurt’s APC is knocked out by small arms fire from Eric’s Stormtroopers.
Eric launches some HE at Bill’s rebels.
I had a team of Rebel infantry that was moving into the town to distract the Stormtroopers and keep them from interdicting the path of the APC with the droid. I got pretty aggressive, and Eric hit me with two teams and a bag full of grenades. It didn’t go well for my Rebels, but it did stop these two Imperial teams from repositioning to fire on my APC.
In the end, despite a lot of fire from Geoff’s infantry, I managed get close to the opposite corner with the droid. Eric or Geoff hit the driver with small arms fire, which caused the vehicle to lose an activation of movement. I dismounted the infantry and fired on Geoff’s Stormtroopers while continuing to flee with the APC. I was eventually able to drive off the table, so we Rebels won the game.
At Historicon this Summer I had a chance to pick up the Sarissa armored train for 28mm figures. Though it is meant to be a German train, I think, it works pretty well as a Polish train. In these pictures you can see that I have sprayed it in field yellow and have not air brushed the brown and green camouflage pattern. (I got out the airbrush and found out is was broken.) Last Friday I put the scenario I plan to run at Fall In (in November) on the table at club night.
In the scenario, a Polish train has parked on a road that the Germans need. The leading German forces have been tasked to capture the train so that it can be moved. The Polish platoon is trying to defeat as many Germans as possible. The idea is that a major German offensive is coming down this road, and it is imperative to get the train out of the way. The rear car of the train has a gun that has run out of ammunition, so the train’s only armament is a 37mm gun in the forward turret. The Germans entered the table along the top edge of the photo. They had two half tracks and a truck full of infantry. They had three more infantry squads and two Pz 38(t) light tanks. The Poles had a light anti-tank gun and an anti-tank rifle.
Note that the Germans did not have to destroy all the Poles. They merely needed to capture the train. Most gamers will stop and fight, regardless of the mission, but this group had seasoned HAWKs who focused on the objective of capturing the train. I defined capturing the train as having three infantrymen in the cab.
The Poles deployed no infantry in or around the train, deciding to defend well forward. The Germans wisely avoided the obvious killing ground in the center of the table and attacked along both flanks. The Germans did not know that only one of the two train turrets was operational, so they moved cautiously to stay out of its lines of sight. The shack in the center of the table was unoccupied, and the Poles didn’t really have an opportunity to occupy it. The shack did serve to limit the Poles’ lines of sight and enable the German infantry to move forward from the corn field.
The Poles had a strong infantry defensive position in the center, but the Germans avoided the area. On the Polish left, the green German squads in the halftracks and truck moved up through the woods. The Poles had place a small force on the small hill just off to the right of the picture above. Their purpose was to slow down the German advance. They did so, but at extreme cost. They even tried to toss a satchel charge into the midst of the advancing Germans but it didn’t land were intended and did no damage. As we called the game the Germans were swarming over the hill and advancing toward the front of the train.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any shots of the German armor advancing on the Polish right flank. They kept well out of line of sight of the anti-tank gun. The ATR got off a shot, but missed. The right flank Polish squad had been all but wiped out by the combined fire of several German squads and tank fire. At the end we called the game a German victory, because it was obvious that they were going to get to the train.
War-games Illustrated Magazine posted a video of Combat Patrol(TM) on their Website today. See link here: http://wargamesillustrated.net/combat-patrol-playthrough/ Thanks to Chris Abbey at Sally 4th for taking the time to travel to War-games Illustrated to show them the game.
See the Combat Patrol(TM) Web page for more information on the game, information on how to get the game, free downloads, and how-to videos.
I read a post here in which Peter Schweighofer was musing about which comes first, theme or mechanics. As he said in his post, theme gets people to the table, but mechanics keep them coming back. As a good blog post should, it got me thinking. Certainly, I have signed up for games at conventions based on the event description, theme, scenario, or historical period. Many times I have been disappointed by a game with a terrific theme that uses a set of plodding and pedantic rules and walk away thinking about the four hours of my life I’ll never get back. That is an example of what Peter is describing in his blog post.
I am always in search of the next project. For me, the answer to this “chicken or the egg” question is “it depends.” I think you need to match the right mechanic to the right theme. A light-hearted theme doesn’t fit well with a set of detailed mechanics. While many are doing it, I think that some periods and scales do not fit will with mechanics that are too simplistic. (Simplistic is not the same as simple.) So I often keep a set of mechanics percolating in my head, but instead of cramming that mechanic into my historical interest of the moment, I keep them in reserve for when they will be a good fit for a new period.
I am always thinking about new mechanics. I don’t find a mechanic and then build a game around it, however. Often I think about a mechanic for a couple of years, often while running. The card-based mechanic that I use in Combat Patrol(TM), for instance, has been percolating for over 30 years. I first saw something like it in the late 1980s. I tried it again in the mid 1990s with an abortive ACW skirmish design, called Stealin’ Chickens for Gen’l Lee.
I have been thinking about a dice-progression mechanic in which modifiers change the size of the die, not the die roll. In such a scheme, my “base” might be a d8, but if I get a +2 for some reason, that means I am rolling a d12. What I like about a single opposed die roll mechanic with a dice progression is that if one player is rolling a d4 and the other a d24, there is still a chance, albeit a small one (6%), for the d4 player to succeed. Such a mechanic generally breaks as soon as you pass d12. Each next higher sized die adds 1 to the expected value of the die. I am being a little sloppy in my terminology here, but you can think of the “average” roll on a die as the sum of all the faces divided by the number of faces on the die. As an example, the expected value of a d10 is (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10)/2 = 5.5. For common dice, you can that a shortcut of adding the highest and lowest face and dividing by 2. So the expected value with a d10 is 5.5; for a d12, 6.5; for a d8, 4.5. That’s all well and good, but what happens if you are at d12 and have to apply a +1. Some people will have you roll multiple dice. The problem with that is that one die gives you a uniform distribution, but the more dice you roll the more likely you are to have a strong central tendency, as a plot of all possible die rolls starts to approximate a normal distribution. Sometimes that’s fine. In fact in Santa Anna Rules! and Wellington Rules!, I used a d20 (uniform distribution) to approximate a normal distribution on purpose. But with a dice progression scheme, I think rolling multiple dice breaks the elegance of it. Also what two dice would you roll to get an expected value of 7.5? 8.5? An option is to “cap out” out at d4 and d12, but I don’t think this gives you enough variance. Recently I found a company that makes uncommon dice, so I have d14, d16, d18, d22, and d24 to add to the normal d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20.
If you are interested, here is a table I worked up that describes the attackers chance of winning (rolling higher than the defender, ties going to the defender) based the type of dice each are rolling. (The table is not symmetrical because of the ties.) (This is the kind of analysis I think a good game designer should do. I don’t think most of the “buckets full of dice folks” look at central tendency and probabilities.)
So this is an example of a mechanic that is percolating and waiting for me to get interested in a historical period where this might be useful. I was thinking about some sort of small-scale skirmish / pseudo role-playing game, perhaps gladiators. My attack attribute says I am a d10, and your defense attribute is a d8. But you have a shield, which is a +2. I am slightly wounded, which is a -1. So now for my attack, I am rolling a d8, and you are rolling a 12. I have a 29% chance of success.
I have been thinking about players searching around the table for the right die. The search for the right die might work against the speed of play desired in a dice progression mechanic. Most of us can pick out the normal polyhedral dice from across the table through years of familiarity. The newer dice tend to look very similar and may be difficult to distinguish. I can see players not liking having to hunt around the table in the heat of battle. As I rounded up the dice for this mechanic — for the time in which the right period provides a muse, and there is a good fit between that period and this mechanic — I made sure that each die type is a standard color. D14s are all green. I would have liked the colors to follow a coherent color scale, but the non-standard dice come in limited colors. The best I could do was ensure that each die type is a different color.
I was reading one of the Wally Simon books that have been published by On Military Matters. In one of the articles he describes the difficulty of getting two units to stop shooting at each other once their lines halt. This was echoed in the Nosworthy books and showed up as an optional rule in Wellington Rules. I have been mulling over a mechanic for an 18th or 19th century battle game that uses an action, reaction, reaction, reaction mechanic, not unlike Ed’s Two Hour War-games’ chain reaction system. My worry is that several players may be sitting around watching two people “do stuff.” This brings up another point. I will often come up with an idea for a mechanic and then spend the next couple of years thinking about all its drawbacks and how to address them. This is what I did with the card activation scheme in the Look, Sarge, No Charts(TM) family of rules as well as in Combat Patrol(TM). Every mechanic has pros and cons. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Are there ways to mitigate the cons?
I have long wanted to create a jousting game that was interesting enough that you are interested in playing more than once. Most use some sort of mechanic in which I choose my attack and you choose your attack (and perhaps defense) and then we ride toward each other. Sometimes there is a mechanic that affects the outcome of the run based on impetus. These games are fun for an hour or so between other games or as a filler at the end of the night when the main even ends early. But they quickly become repetitive and boring. I’ve collected many different sets of rules, and they are more similar than they are different. I’ve been tinkering with the idea of using the diagram of a finite state machine to enable players to try to react to what they are seeing the other player doing as they run down the list. The idea is something like this: I initially had my lance high, but I see that you have your shield high. From a high position, I can adjust my lance to medium high or medium left. The finite state machine doesn’t have a transition from high to low. You know that I see that your shield is high. You have the option to keep your shield high or move it to medium. What will I do? Staying the same might mean that my defense if more effective, but it might be the wrong defense. Moving might give me a better defense, but since I moved, I would get some negative modifier, since I was not “set” the whole time. I might even combine this with a dice progression scheme as described previously. This is an example of the theme in search of just the right mechanic.
My point of this rambling is that while mechanics and theme are both very, very important, you have to match the right mechanic to the right theme. You don’t want to sit down to play a “serious” war-game and find that mechanics are like Munchkin. (I like Munchkin, but you don’t want goofy artwork and silly double entendre when you are repeating Leipzig.) Similarly, you don’t want to sit down to a Dr. Who game and find that you are tracking detailed physical damage (e.g., that bullet nicked Amy’s spleen, ricocheted off of something and exited between the third and four rib on the right side), ammunition usage (e.g, you have 9 bullets left in your 9mm automatic), fatigue, or a dozen other details.
In a couple of years, I plan to start on a project for the American Revolution. (I have a few other projects to clear from the painting table and the game design queue first.) I have been thinking about doing it in 10mm so that you can do the major battles on your kitchen table. On the other hand, the sizes of the units are so small and vary so widely, that 25mm/28mm might be better. When the time comes, I’ll start by reading several books that describe the Revolution at the tactical level. Then I’ll go to a couple of conventions and play every RevWar game I can find to first see if there is a set of rules I like. Maybe I’ll just use Brother Against Brother by Herb Gundt or an adaptation of Wellington Rules. If not, then I will begin thinking about the period. What are the salient ideas that make RevWar different from the wars that immediately preceded or followed it? What mechanics can best bring out those ideas?
So, is it theme or mechanics that are important? Both are equally important, but it is more important that the mechanics and theme fit together.
Most games put on by the HAWKs are kid friendly, but we often dedicate a table in the HAWKS room to games specifically targeted at younger gamers. This year we put on three of them.
Dave ran a game using Blood and Swash from the Big Battles for Little Hands book. A dragon has been slain on a remote island. Before the official troops arrive, the “government” has issued six exclusive contracts to bands of fearless treasure hunters to gather as much treasure as possible. The kids ran round the table fighting each other and looking for caches of goodies.
I don’t which kid won the game, but they all seemed to have a really good time.
The showcase event was our annual Armies for Kids Giveaway. The game is restricted to kids 10 and younger. This year it was a WWII game using Milk and Cookies Rules from Big Battles for Little Hands. The paper houses you see in this picture were lovingly hand crafted by Chris Johnson, as were the hills. The figures and tanks had been donated to the HAWKs. Through a number of painting seasons we painted and based the units.
Milk and Cookies Rules were written for kids as young as five years old. It has all the basic elements: movement, fire, and morale. It is written for periods ranging from ancient warfare to WWII. Units consist of four bases. The rules use six-sided dice. There are sometimes saves if the target unit is in cover. Pretty straightforward stuff. The game lasts about 90 minutes.
The young man in the black shirt spent a fair amount of time marching and countermarching with his tanks, but he seemed to have a great time.
The girl on the right was probably her side’s MVP. At one point she had troops in both of the two buildings in the middle of the table, which was the objective of the game. While she was eventually driven out of the far one, she remained focused on the objective throughout the game. She reminded me of my own daughter who when she was younger would often win at these convention games — and games not set aside for kids — by staying focused on the objective.
When the game is over, the kids take home the army they played with during the game. They also take home an opposing army, a set of hills, a set of buildings, and the rules and quick reference sheets. They also get a tote bag full of other goodies, like paints, brushes, rulers, and dice. That is what is mean by Armies for Kids. When the game is over, they have everything they need to play war-games with their buddies at home. Every once in a while we get some feedback from a parent that the armies from previous years are getting a lot of use. We would love to hear from a teenager or young adult about their experiences after Armies for Kids.
This has been a huge success. You should see the looks on their faces when we give them all the goodies at the end. Most of the parents know what’s coming, but the giveaway is a complete surprise to most of the kids.
I think this is the sixth Armies for Kids Giveaway we have done as a club in as many Historicons.
After Armies for Kids, I ran another 90 minute kids’ game, using the War Rocket rules from Hydra Miniatures. We had a lot of fun. One side had to blow up some important satellites while the other side had to defend them.
These kid-focused games take a lot of work and a certain amount of patience, but they are fun. They are our attempt to do something about the “graying of the hobby” other than grousing about it on TMP.
In addition to the Combat Patrol(TM) games already noted in a previous post, the HAWKS ran many great games at Historicon 2016.
In this scenario the British, Spanish, and Portuguese were trying to capture two key bridges from the French. I didn’t watch the scenario in detail, but I am pretty sure the the Allies beat the French.
In the Look, Sarge, No Charts family of rules large chart cards are replaced by labels on the backs of the bases and some special dice. While a number of gamers have a visceral reaction to the labels, this greatly speeds play. Those how have tried the rules seem to agree. I make my labels in a more neutral color which makes them just a bit harder to read but improves the aesthetics greatly.
In this picture you can seem some of Dave’s bases have the more neutral colored labels, and I don’t think they stand out at all on the tabletop. They are certainly less visible than a bunch of large pink rectangular chart cards on the table.
Normally Greg Priebe runs the kinds of games that seem to attract the few female gamers at the conventions. Since Greg wasn’t at Historicon 2016, one played in Duncan’s WWI game and my Warsaw Uprising game, two played in Don’s WWII Battleground game, and four played in Eric’s Hogwarts capture-the-flag game. Eric has now taken the crown from Greg for the most women in a HAWKs game. (Greg has had more in the past, but he wasn’t at Historicon to defend his crown!)
I don’t really know anything about how the game ran, except that everyone seemed to be engaged to the end and seemed to be having fun.
Don ran a historical scenario in which the Americans were forcing a river crossing against German opposition. Don had his usual Battleground WWII / Don Hogge groupies plus a few newcomers.
Duncan Adams ran two WWI games with his 1914 variant of Look, Sarge, No Charts, which takes element from both the WWII and ACW version of the rules in a very effective way. The pictures below probably mix the two games, but you will get the idea…
Duncan places dozens of small hill on his terrain to represent small folds in the earth and partially counteract gamer questions about “why can’t those guys see or shoot at those other guys.” This is Duncan’s way to compensate for the “pool table” effect, and it works very well.
Bill Acheson organized a track of games based on M.A.R. Barker’s Empires of the Petal Throne / Tekumel mythology. There were a couple of land battles and a naval battle. This one was a gladiatorial style skirmish with six-inch tall action figures as proxies for the various strange Tekumel characters. Bill is really good at repurposing toys for war-games.
Steve Gelhard ran a game using his popular WWI rules. The terrain and figures looked great. All the players seemed to really enjoy themselves.
Mike Byrne used Force on Force to run a game based on modern Iraq. Patrick Byrne also ran a modern Chechnya game on the rubbled city terrain, but sadly I didn’t get any pictures of that game.
Duncan and Dave ran a 10mm Fate of Battle game based on a portion of the Battle of Orthez in the Peninsular campaign. Duncan had spent a weekend making the specifically-shaped hill for the scenario.
The blue masking tape does not represent a river. This was used to mark the edge of the playing area.
Don ran a large Muskets and Tomahawks game. These rules are easy to teach and learn. The players seemed to really enjoy themselves. I’m sorry I didn’t get more pictures.
I didn’t get pictures of every HAWKs game. I didn’t arrive until later on Friday, and I was running four games back-to-back on Saturday. As usual, I think the HAWKs made a strong showing and ran a lot of fun games. The HAWKs room had 41 scheduled games (which is a bit light for us) run by 11 game masters. I personally ran five; although, I had only planned to run four. I don’t have the final numbers of events that were run at Historicon, but 40-50 (the HAWKs room average) usually constitutes between 5% and 10% of all the games at the show (not counting tournaments). Rumor has it there were ~550 games, so let’s say the HAWKs ran 7.5% of the games at Historicon 2016. If there were 2000 attendees, that means that 0.5% of the attendees (HAWKs) ran 7.5% of the games. I consider that a strong showing for one club. Few if any will show up in the glossy UK gaming magazines, but I think they were of at least average aesthetic quality and above average game quality.
What is the HAWKs room? For almost 20 years, we have run enough games at the big three HMGS East conventions to justify putting all our games in the same room. This does not mean that there aren’t other games run by non-HAWKs in the room; it means that if you are looking for a fun game run by a HAWKs member, you don’t have to wonder where to look. It also means that we can easily find each other if we are sharing terrain or playing aids or forget something. Over the years we have developed a loyal following, and there are folks who spend most of their time at the conventions in the HAWKs room.
If you like the HAWKs room, you will also enjoy our two-day mini convention in late September. See www.hawks-barrage.org.
I ran three Combat Patrol(TM) games at Historicon 2016. All turned out very well. In two of the games there seemed to be someone who was struggling with the card-based mechanics, but after a couple of turns everyone was pretty much self sufficient and running the rules themselves. I was relegated to the role of answering the occasional question. In addition to my two Combat Patrol(TM) games, Eric Schlegel and Kurt Schlegel each ran a World War II game on our rubbled city terrain using the rules. (We set up a rubbled city table on Friday and ran six different scenarios (with different rules) on the same terrain.) Also, Duncan Adams ran a Napoleonic game using the rules.
You can learn more about Combat Patrol(TM): World War II here.
Duncan Adams ran his very entertaining Napoleonic game using a modified version of Combat Patrol(TM). These variants will be published in the near future as a supplement to Combat Patrol(TM): World War II. In this scenario, the battle focuses on the two opposing skirmish screens between the two formed units. One formed unit is a line of infantry. The other is an advancing column. The idea is to fight your way through the enemy’s skirmishers and pick away at the officers and men in the formed units.
Killing enemy skirmishers score no points; that is merely a means to an end. Points are scored for wounds and kills on the formed battalions. The game was tied, with each side gaining twenty-six points after the planned seven turns. The distribution of hits forced the French to take seven morale checks and the British to take five at the end of the game. The Brits passed all of their morale checks indicating that the line held and was ready to receive the French charge. The French passed the first six morale checks but then received a “pinned” result on the seventh one. As interpreted at the battalion level, the French failed to close, so the game was declared a British victory.
You can see that the formed units are represented by “blocks of troops.” This is a convenient abstraction that keeps the focus on the skirmish fight, is easier than moving hundreds of figures that do not contribute to the focus of the game, and also acts as a game timer. The column advances six inches per turn. This means that the advancing skirmishers need to keep advancing or get bowled over. When the column is close enough to the line, it shakes out in to line, and the game ends.
My first game was as a fill-in GM. Greg Priebe was scheduled to run a Star Wars game using Combat Patrol(TM), but then work and family issues prevented him from attending Historicon. I offered to run his Star Wars game, since I am familiar with the rules. Greg had already done all the work to create the stats for the different Star Wars weapons. We didn’t have to use the body armor rules, since Stormtrooper armor doesn’t seem to have any effect except to look cool. The scenario involved a rebel smuggling ship that was shot down by the Empire and crashed into a city that had been destroyed by the Sith many years prior. The game was three sided, with the Empire, rebels, and a “scum and villainy” faction landing forces to collect the valuable artifacts scattered around the table by the crash of the smuggling ship. The scum and villainy faction even had a captured walker. The game was quite fun, and all the players got a good introduction to the innovative mechanics of Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.
The results of a hit in Combat Patrol(TM) can be a wound or incapacitation. In the picture above, you can see a white band around one of the Stormtroopers. This indicates that he has been wounded. When the number of wounds equals or exceeds a figure’s Endurance attribute (three, in most cases), the figure is considered to be incapacitated and is removed from the game. In this picture you can also see command dice next to two different Stormtrooper teams. The one on the right is gray. By convention, this is “normal.” I use these gray dice, because they tend to blend into the background and do not distract from the aesthetics of the game. The die on the left is black. That team had previously taken one or more morale checks, and one of the results indicated that the unit was “pinned.” To remind players, we place this black die on the unit. This indicates that the unit may only activate on black cards from the Activation Deck until it rallies.
Though I am not sure I set up the scenario the way Greg had intended, the game was pretty even. The scum and villainy faction found 8 treasures, the Empire 7, and the rebels 6.
In this picture you can see some of the cards from the Action Deck in Combat Patrol(TM): World War II. These cards are used to resolve movement, firing, damage, hit location, effects of high explosives, and morale. As a result, there are no chart cards to clutter the the table. The previous pictures were not staged or cleaned up for the photos. This is what a table looks like during a game.
Eric Schlegel ran a Stalingrad game in the rubbled city. This scenario involves a German attack on a Russian-held area. The Soviets are classed a Green troops for firing accuracy, which greatly restricts their effects. They have an anti-tank gun, a minefield, and a submachine gun squad, which helps a bit. In the play test a couple of weeks ago, the Germans successfully infiltrated and captured the required five buildings they needed. Below are some pictures from Eric’s game.
Saturday morning I ran a World War II game. This game involved an American paratrooper platoon defending two barricades that were blocking a German advance. The Germans sent an understrength panzer grenadier platoon to take the town and dismantle the obstacles.
The Americans had two squads of paratroopers. Each team (or half squad) also had a captured panzerfaust. The American squads had belt-fed M1919 machine-guns. The Americans also had a bazooka team. The attacking Germans had two SdKfz 251 halftracks, a Hetzer, two squads of panzer grenadiers, a panzerschreck team, and an extra light machine-gun.
The town is a mix of Crescent Root buildings and the excellent Sally 4th corner shops building I blogged about previously. The cobblestone area is from a craft store and came with the cobblestone pattern on it already. Most of the trees are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts.
We were a little light on players, so I took one of the German commands. We decided that we couldn’t take the town in a head-on attack. The Americans knew the direction we would approach and could sight in their weapons accordingly. I took one squad, the machine-gun team, and the Hetzer. My job was keep the Americans entertained. JJ broke his squad into two half squads and put one on each of the halftracks. Then as the game began, he pushed them down the right edge of the board to get behind the Americans.
The first halftrack disgorged its infantry on the American flank, but the Americans were able to quickly relax and chewed up JJ’s infantry in the field from the second floor windows and the rear terrace of the corner shops. The second halftrack continued past the bloodbath into a patch of woods behind the American position, where its infantry dismounted.
In this shot, you can see that the American bazooka team is repositioning based on our flanking maneuver. It eventually got a mobility kill on my Hetzer, which greatly limited its ability to contribute to the fight.
In this shot you can see that the halftracks and infantry have gotten behind the Americans. At this point, the Americans were surrounded. The Germans had taken many casualties. I had half my infantry gunned down in an open field trying reach the protection of the white walled area in the upper right of this picture, and JJ’s infantry took a bloody nose in the field surrounded by the hedges, but we had also severely attritted the Americans and had them surrounded. At this point the Americans conceded. I think the game was a big success. Everyone had a good time, and the game might have gone very differently. I am happy with the scenario.
Saturday evening I ran a game based on the Warsaw uprising. The Polish underground saw the Russians approaching Warsaw and rose up against the Nazi occupiers. The Russians then stopped outside the city and let the Germans kill most of the Poles capable of resisting the Russians’ subsequent occupation of Poland. This scenario involved the Germans trying to clear a path through this portion of the rubble city while the Poles were trying to inflict as much damage as possible and slow the German advance.
The Poles began with six four-man teams on the table, and each turn they deployed one or more additional teams. These reinforcements could pop up anywhere on the table, but they couldn’t be within line of sight of the Germans when they did so; someone would have to move at least once before shooting at each other. The Poles did a nice job of trying to hold back the Germans, but luck didn’t go their way. There was one Polish player who seemed to have a sniper in his team; every time he fired, he got a fatal head shot on a German.
Again, note the clean look of this table with little table clutter to spoil the aesthetics of the game. The table is a mix of Crescent Root, Amorcast, Miniature Building Authority, and scratch-built buildings. The rubble piles are made from model railroad blast. The ground cloth is from Cigar Box Battles.
I thought I took more pictures of the table than this, but I was having some trouble with my camera. In this picture you can see advancing German infantry, a dead Pole in the center of the table, and some other Poles in a rubbled building on the right.
All three games that I ran, the two that the Schlegels ran, and the one that Duncan ran were successful. The players picked up the rules quickly, and everyone seemed to have a good time. As mentioned previously, at first one or two people struggled with the unique mechanics of Combat Patrol(TM), but eventually they all got it. Interestingly, the guys who seemed to have the most trouble were the ones who approached me after the game about how much they liked the system.