Wild Wild West With Fistful of Lead

Miniatures, Review + Session Report

Finally played a game after my earlier in the month misadventures with scale.

Scenario borrowed from the Butch & Sundance final fight.  Had four figures each for the “Blue” Gang and “Brown” Posse.  Blue Gang hiding in small ranch complex, when Posse approaches and dismounts.

First random actions were to determine if the Blue’s sentry spotted the Posse before the first turn started and at what distance.  He did, at a distance of 12 inches.  There’s no running in the Rules As Written (RAW), only walk (5″) and crawl (2″).  I use a run move of 7 inches.

A card is dealt for each figure.  The card values (face etc) are called out in sequence with the highest card going first.  For solo play, I just lay them out, and then pick in the appropriate order.

Turn 1:  The outlaws are warned and get the first three plays.  The sentry runs to the house to give the warning.   One gets out of the building, rushing to the gate, and another moves to the corral wall.   The posse shoots down the cowboy at the gate, and takes cover behind the ranch wall.

Turn 2:  One outlaw runs out of ammunition (firing roll of “1”).  The posse’s rifleman shoots down the outlaw at the corral.  The remaining outlaws are now in the building.

Turn 3:  The outlaws have the first two turns and both miss aimed fire (one action to aim and one action to fire).  One of the outlaws is then pinned by gunfire.  A posse member moves next to the house, anticipating a rush.

Turn 4: The two posse shooters at the corral run out of ammunition.  A bold attempt to rush the building leaves the one posse member wounded.

Turn 5:  The outlaws manage to kill two posse members despite partial cover.

At this point, I had to shut the game down.

As advertised, Fistful of Lead is “fast and furious”.  You can nitpick the rules, particularly the inability to shoot at a moving target, but you can’t dispute this is a fun skirmish game.

Posse shoots down one of the outlaws at the front gate. Another outlaw is outside the house using the corral wall’s partial cover.
Two outlaws down!
One member of the posse ready to rush the house.

Weekend At Tim’s

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Real pleasant couple of days in Portland.  Hotter than Hell, but we stayed refreshed and hydrated.

Maybe that’s one reason not a lot of gaming took place.  Also a perceived need to view a few action films outweighed the desire to push cardboard.

We played “Operation Exporter” from  War In The Desert.  This is an operational simulation of the  Allied invasion of Syria.  Not exactly Tim’s cup of tea – low counter density, only a small portion of the map used and….gasp…..no real tanks (only a couple of Vichy light tank units with attack strengths of 1).  The Allies will win, it’s just a matter of time.  However, the victory point schedule makes time of the essence

Nonetheless, Tim did a great job as Allied Commander.  He used his one motorized asset to harass the Vichy flanks and optimized the use of his limited air assets and naval gunfire.  He also quickly assembled the two divisions available to him, with their enhanced combat power and zones of control.  The regiments and brigades that make up all the Vichy forces cannot be formed into divisions.

I played my part by having a (typical) cavalier approach to victory conditions.  While Tim didn’t win on VIPS, he certainly won the game.

I didn’t fare as well when we switched sides.

This is a good little scenario.  It’s viewed as excellent starter game as it has all of the Europa food groups, but without the counter density to make the experience overwhelming.

He’ll be out at The Pinecone Lodge around Labor Day for Storm Over Scandanavia’s hypothetical scenarios involving the invasion of Sweden.

Old Itch Scratched

Boardgames, Review + Session Report, Sessions

One of the lost games that I have fond memories of is SPI’s Oil War.  Don’t know where it went, but probably in a late 70’s purge along with the also lamented World War I.

Been looking for both on E-Bay but the high prices were off-putting.  Recently found a reasonably priced folio game and snapped it up.

Fairly quick to set up, moves along at a brisk pace, but there is one problem.  The Western nations have to really screw it up to lose.  Why?  Airpower.  Air attacks simply crush the combined Arab forces.  It will take time….but  victory conditions will be attained.

My approach was to establish airheads in southern Saudi Arabia, reducing logistical demands, snap up the Saudi oil fields, then gradually move north.  Yes, Kuwait has to be captured to assure a substantial victory, but that is an eventuality.

Arab forces need to defend airbases to deny the West their logistics benefits, and to give ground grudgingly, hoping that the game will end before losing the 25 oil fields signifying a substantial Western victory.

At the time, it was a challenging and fun game, dealing with a very current topic.  Now…..not so much, but I enjoyed playing it, and that’s the main thing.  Here’s a couple of photos.

First Time Through: Aggressiveairlanding  on the coast. Air units staged to savage Saudis defending oil fields. Significant assets attacking Qatar.
First Time Through: Too aggressive. Coastal unit just before ZOC kill.
Second Time Through: Slow and Steady.  No distractions and no sudden moves.

 

Never Say Never Reconsidered

Miniatures,

Thought I’d made a comittment to DBA 3.  Now I’ve reneged.  Played a couple of games and it just doesn’t work solo.  Need an opponent.  Tired of the lack of manuever and reliance on melee.

With all that lead, I had to come up with alternative uses.  So, in keeping with my new focus on the old, I inventoried all my 15mm Dark Age and Medieval figures – which involved several DBA armies – and came up with workable lists for WRG Ancients.

I have the basic units for Byzantines vs. Arabs using my old Tabletop (now distributed by Alternative Armies), as well as Condotta vs. Ottomans using Essex figures.  The odd troops out are my Essex Central Asian Cavalry.  With some touch-up painting they should sell on E-Bay.

How Retro is WRG 5th Edition.  Should be fun, but that fun will have to wait until Winter.  Need time and money……isn’t that always the case?

Frontburner Re-Boot

Terrain and Buildings

After my scaling disaster, I tried to cobble together something fast and workable.

Went with the familiar gleaned from an old Miniature Wargames Magazine (No. 39) article on Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid’s final 1909 shoot-out in Bolivia.  As a matter of fact, I used the layout of the San Vincente barrio using Scrabble tiles for a quick workup with the Fistful of Lead rules back in early June.  Was giggling the whole time I put this together.   Perfect reaction for a child-like game.

Here’s the nearly completed successor that will be finished this evening.  At least it is in scale, and the psychadelic table cloth is back in The Sunfish Capital Of The World.

 

Backburner…..Now Frontburner

Miniatures, Terrain and Buildings

Decided to get on the Wild West miniatures game.  This decision led to a wargaming mis-adventure.

Painting the plastic figures was fine.  Prep was a little time consuming with washing, soaking in vinegar and then brushing with white glue.  Overall, nice to get painting again.

But, had a real snafu with the buildings.  Yes, I decided to go all in and construct a western town.  Bought some foam core and was in business for about $4.00.  Worked with the 1/72 scale of the figures, and sketched up a basic building plan.

So far, so good.

Cut up the foam core, added balsa wood door and window frames, along with overhangs.

 

The plan was to finish up and play last Sunday.  But….when figures and buildings were placed on the table…..it was like this.

Here’s a picture……..except it’s a Town For Giants!!!!!!!

 

 

What’s Not To Like?…..Revisited

Boardgames, Sessions

In May I posted up about my positive impression of Avalon Hill’s old Arab-Israeli War.

Since then, I’ve played a couple of the advanced scenarios and confirmed why the game isn’t that well regarded.

The first is line-of-sight.  It can be hard to envisage, especially if the player does not have any experience with map countours, military crest, reverse slope and dead ground.  For that player, it’s a puzzler.

The second is the slow pace of play.  Slow, if the Israeli’s want to win.  The Israeli’s have to advantage of the ground, and maintain their ability to stand-off and destroy the Arab units piecemeal.  This takes patience.  No charges up any valleys.  Slow and steady working on the flanks.

The Arab player’s best hope is to delay/defend and reduce the level of Israeli victory by having the game end before objectives can be achieved.

While not necessarily action-filled armor fun, this type of play makes it an interesting challenge for both sides.

 

Where Has The Time Gone?

General

Fifty days or so since the last post.  Not that things haven’t been going on, just haven’t posted up.  So, we’re going to binge over the next couple of days with some followups to earlier posts and new business.

Here’s a laundry list of new and on-going projects that have evolved/hatched over the past 45 days.  Some real old school in here.

Old West Gunfights – 1/72 Figures and Terrain

Sword and The Flame – Boxer Rebellion With Old Minifigs (and some new recruits)

Traditional Miniatures – Flat Figures, Charles S. Grant and Peter Young classic rules.

Convert DBA to WRG 5th Edition – Dark Ages and Late Medieval

Larger Kriegsspiel Games – Additional Regiments and Other Types of Units

15mm Colonial – Old Minifigs Used With Arab/Turks for Victorian Campaign.

All of this will get me to the New Year!

 

Backburner…..

Aircraft & Vehicles, Miniatures

Getting the twitch for some new miniature games, but with minimal budget outlay.

First quasi-project is Western Gunfights using the Fistful Of Lead (Reloaded) rules.  They’re available over at WargameVault.  My real hope was to use them with smaller 10mm figures.  No real options there.  Tempted to work with 20mm “Punitive Expedition” figures, but that’s a pricey proposition for what could be a “one and done” game.  So, found this at the local vintage toy store.

Cheap, can fabricate some buildings, and if it’s fun……go to the more expensive option.

Also purchased an Osprey title on the Technical vehicles.

 

Now all revved up (no pun intended) on a miniatures treatment using 1/285 GHQ vehicles.  Again, pricey, but no real options for low cost tactical minis.  Very, very tempted.

What’s Not To Like?

Boardgames, Review

TAD at The Sunfish Capitol Of The World.  It’s a holding area for some of my older AH games.  Never know when there will be a couple of boring rainy days.

Set up The Arab-Israeli Wars,  the final iteration of the Panzer Blitz Series.  When I opened the box, I discovered three old envelopes containing the counters for Situations (they didn’t call them Scenarios back then) 2, 3 and 4.  Have no idea when I last played.  So….start at the beginning.

Before all of that, I read the rules.  Three levels; Beginning, Standard and Advanced.  Each layers on unit capabilities and additional types of units, even including fixed wing and rotary aircraft.  The usual foodgroups for tactical armor games; direct fire, indirect fire, overrrun, and close assault.

Scenarios reflect increasing complexity and number of units.  Counters are large and easy to read, maps are bland, but functional.  On the other hand, what can you do with the desert?  Well, someone did get creative with Bar Lev.

(In)Famously Psychadelic!

In short, what’s not to like for a reasonable armored combat simulation that doesn’t bog you down?

My only gripe is that the charts are on a double-faced fold out requiring all kinds of fiddling to  work with…..and some genius included the turn track.  But, the genius did add dotted lines so the track can be cut away from the charts.

It’s sunny now, but will still get in a few plays.   Here’s a photo of the whole shooting match.  Excuse the E-Bay Listing Approach.