Here’s a quick shot of a few of the figures. These are all Warhammer Empire figures purchased on E-Bay either painted or unpainted.
Original thought was to augment my Renaissance armies, but they were just too large, especially compared to the smaller 25mm Hinchliffes which make up the bulk of those forces. Scale for these figures is roughly 30-32mm.
Great looking, which would make sense since they were sculpted by The Perrys, and they paint up well.
Finished up the crossbowmen and put together a “cheat sheet” for the “On The Seven Seas” rules. Great way to learn and retain. Here’s a link to the On The Seven Seas PDF version of the playing aid.
Set up the table for a skirmish game using the “On The Seven Seas” rules by Osprey. Yes, I know, these are pirate rules. But, when I purchased these rules, Osprey’s latest and period applicable offering “En Garde,” was not available. While the reception for “Seven Seas” has been mixed, I do like the faction/greed/fear mechanics, and the simplicity. We’ll see how they work on the table.
The game will be a village fight between two factions. One will hold the village, the other intending to loot and plunder.
I’m using houses from Hobby Lobby. These are cardboard and very close to scale for my larger Warhammer Empire figures. More on them in a followup post. I kept the four houses a neutral gray, with only red chimneys and add-on flower basins for color.
I’ll use a few figures and push through a quick couple of turns this PM.
Finally home, and one of the first orders of business was to finish the RE-8. What a perfect clunker.
Just one more aircraft to finish for the BoB Campaign. But before that happens, I need to finish up my six Renaissance Skirmish figures (more on that in my next post) and the slog-that-is-the-BoB-gunboat.
Here’s a few photos of the “Harry Tate”.
Too much time on my hands, so I started working on some variant rules for a Habbinaya campaign. Here’s a general outline. Overarching idea is to add a bombing option without layering on too many additional rules, chrome, or charts.
Aircraft Pool – Similar to BoB. Iraq pool includes German/Italian after “x” number of rounds (role for intervention each “turn”?).
Morale Points – Each side receives points which are reduced by successful bombing attacks. British morale roughly 2 times that of Iraq.
Bombing – Targets are either Iraq ground units, Habbinaya, or either side’s aircraft. Bombing resolved on fire combat table’s one resolution line using six-sided die. For aircraft hit role die for type destroyed. Ground unit/installation hit, reduce morale by “x” point(s). If bombing at Diamond altitude, get +1 on die roll.
Flak – Role six sided die on fire combat table’s one resolution line. If target at Diamond altitude get +1 on die roll. If hit, role on fire combat table’s eight resolution line.
Air Combat Rounds – This is where it gets real sketchy….critical to keep track of ammo use/short burst optional rule.,
Mission lasts “x” card plays.
Determine if mission is escorted or not escorted.
Determine if mission is intercepted or not intercepted.
Defender must disengage from escort in order to attack bomber.
Bomber must survive “y” of “x” mission card plays in order to bomb.
I’ll keep fooling around with this until I return home and can do some research on OB.
Still playing Minden Games’ Battle Over Britain. After several solo plays, decided that a campaign is the best way to enjoy the game. Similar to B-17, where the “one-of” games are fun, but a couple in a row get boring.
Along those lines, I put together aircraft ratings for the 1941 air campaign over Habbinaya, Iraq for those aircraft not available in the Battle Over Britain series. I’ve always been fascinated by that campaign and the use of antiquated aircraft to defend the RAF base.
I don’t have access to a word processing program that constructs a grid, so the ratings will be linear in the following sequence. Speed, Agility, Fire/Fire Rear, Performance and Damage.
These ratings are based on aircraft data from various sources, and comparisons of ratings in both the Minden game and Perry Moore’s Sonderkommando, an interesting simulation of the campaign.
Northrup A-17 1,1,-1/-2,1,10
Hart/Audax 2,2,-2/-2,2,8
Oxford 2,1,-2/-2,2,11
Vincent 1,1,-2/-2,1,8
Breda 65 2,1,-1/-2,1,10
DH 84 2,1,-1/-2/2/10
The next step will be to come up with the campaign parameters.
Been messing around with Minden Games‘ Battle Over Britain (BoB) the last few days. This “Tactical Plane vs Plane Air Combat Game” is designed by Gary Grabner, who also owns Minden Games, and publishes both Panzerschreck and Panzer Digest.
I’ve always liked Gary’s games, and the BoB series is no exception. First published in Panzer Digest as Faith, Hope & Charity – Air Battles Over Malta, 1940-41, the series now includes Battle Over Britain, Flying Tigers and a Solitaire Module.
What attracted to me to the series is its use of a wide variety of early war aircraft. These include CR-42s, Gladiators, a Polish P-11c, a Dutch Fokker D.XX1, and a German HS-123.
As with many Minden Games, the action is generated by the use of a deck of playing cards. These cards are used to establish each aircraft’s altitude and firing position on a Dogfight Display. This display is a simple grid using card suit and value.
Each aircraft counter has a top-down view of the aircraft, along with its Speed, Agility, Fire Modifier, Performance, and Durability Ratings. Speed indicates the number of cards in the player’s hand, Agility determines how many new cards can be drawn if the player “Yanks The Stick”, Performance rating differentials allow players to disengage from combat, and Durability is the number of hits an aircraft can take before being destroyed.
He’s incorporated a lot of chrome in both the basic and optional rules. These include ammunition, rear fire, a tailing bonus, ace status, and bailing out. The latter can be used in a campaign game. Several ideas (which Gary refers to as “abstracted”) are included in the rules.
The components are basic, but get the job done. I can see using a small terrain map with the grid superimposed, along with Tumbling Dice 1/600 aircraft to create a nice visual effect.
Gary designed this as a “fast and furious” card game with high replayability. He achieved these goals. It’s a lot of fun!
Am TAD for the next few weeks, and daily focus not on wargaming.
I left my three projects in various stages of completion pending return. Sigh.
However, I did bring few modest pursuits/games.
Right now I’m messing around with the Galleys and Galleons rules. While out at author’s blog I came across an entry about using WizKids collectible card game pirate ships.
These are inexpensive plastic ships featuring galleys, junks and sailing vessels. The galleys and junks are perfect for my East Africa Campaign, while the sailing vessels tend to be more 18th century than the mid-16th centrury. The components are punched out from credit card looking templates. While simplistic, and adorned with logos, they pass muster as an inexpensive way to fight small fleet actions.
The naval aspects of the campaign will be secondary, so building fleets for the Chinese, Turks and Portuguese without a considerable investment of money, time and effort is a most welcome development.
I am also working with an old set of WRG rules for galley warfare as a supplementary system. I downloaded the Galleons and Galleys rules in PDF at the Wargame Vault.
Picked these up the other day. Looking forward to incorporating them into my HON collection. But, these gazettes also show why this game is not loved in the (USA) Grognard Community.
The caricatures of historical figures, creation of personalities & inclusion of (caricatures, again) Hollywood war movie actors, combined with typographical errors and, what I assume are flights of Gallic fantasy (yes the publisher, Devil Pig Games, is in France), can make a serious gamer have real reservations about the product.
Despite this sometimes colloquial and sophomoric perspective on World War II, the issues (and the base game) are well worth the relatively low cost.
Issue #4 includes counters and scenarios for Brandenburgers. How fun is that! Issue #5 focuses on the Arnhem Bridge, and while it requires the use of counters from the Pegasus Bridge Expansion, includes two large unmounted maps of the (now John Frost) bridge. Plus, there are counters and scenarios to include the Poles. Even more fun!
I haven’t played the scenarios, but the additions to the inventory create even more options for the gamer with the imagination to DIY any number of small unit actions.
As always, the components are fantastic and a real option for the miniature wargamer lacking the time or patience to start painting up Bolt Action platoons.
As I’ve posted up before, the game system is fast moving, intuitive and a source of enjoyment. Hardcore simulation? No. Fun option to the drudgery of other tactical systems? Yes!
Here are Tim’s observations. Lots of great insights.
A few thoughts about the game, in no particular order.
I wish I’d found that chart with the nationalities information during the game and not afterwards…
We had made a few mistakes including: the imperials can’t recruit in Bavaria and the Danes go home if Christian is killed (which he was during his first battle).
There was a different chart that went over the foraging rules– I know I forgot that units removed due to foraging losses are out of the game…oops.
Those LOC rules are pretty important. Without them, armies are free to go pretty much wherever they please. With them, protecting bases becomes much more important, especially for the protestants since their big advantage in the early game is that they can pay most of their units.
You remarked more than once that it is hard to get a good handle for what strategy each side should use in the game. I think both sides should concentrate on grabbing electorates, which pay off big in victory points.
I think in the early game the protestants are just trying to stay alive, although I had pretty good luck in grabbing saxony. I think the Imperials should move hard into Bohemia. When you tried that in the last game, I wasn’t able to stop you.
I had mixed luck in getting armies to the Netherlands. Most of the ways of getting their involve moving through neutral territory, with the loss of victory points or through the lower palatinate (aka the valley of death). As long as the spanish are on the map in force, its probably better to move through neutral territory. I guess it goes without saying that knowing whether a particular city is or isn’t in the Spanish zone is pretty important…minor details like that can have a major impact on game play.