Trying to stay focused.

About a decade or so ago I belonged to a wargaming group that called itself, SASWG, an acronym for short attention span wargamers.  It seems we were changing projects every couple of weeks and not really getting anything done. 

Nothing has really changed except some of the faces I game with.

I've got the Vietnam bug, again, and having sold off all my 20mm stuff years ago and I am busy rebuilding those armies in 15mm.  Luckily, I am not spending any money as its stuff I bought back in 2007-2008 when the bug had bit yet again, but passed quickly.  (SASWG)  Well, there are a couple of exceptions, like some FOW stuff I got in the initial release last year...but hey, I'm only human.

I think what really got me going this time round was a good set of wargaming rules, Charlie Don't Surf, from Too Fat Lardies.  That, and I was teaching 20th century American history and got really into my Vietnam lecture.  I don't use powerpoint often, but when I figured out I could embed Barry McGuire singing Eve of Destruction into my lecture, and inflict it on my students, I was hooked.  Also, a good bottle of pinot noir and a viewing of "The Green Berets" and off I went...  Best lecture ever, by the way, I wore my jungle fatigues and went all "Gunnery Sgt. Hartman" on their asses.  Well, not quite, but it was fun.

Well, its coming along despite it being the end of the semester and me needing to grade term papers and other assorted odds and ends.  However, the 19th century is calling to me in the form of a couple of wars, and Black Powders' ancients version, Hail Caeser is sitting on my desk, whispering that I should play with my Late Imperial Romans and Goths.  (not the emo slashy kind of goths, proper Goths, like the kind who fought at Adrianople)  I think I might just be avoiding grading, after all, I'm typing this instead of looking over analytical book reviews and what not.

I'll keep you posted as to how things turn out.

Black Powder at Little Wars

Barcephus and I ran a Seven Years War game at the local wargaming convention, basically it was refight of the Battle of Krefeld.  Instead of the French trying to hold off a Hanoverian led assault, we had the Austrians trying to deal with the Prussians.  I guess thats what comes from not having a Hanoverian army lying around.  (We could have easily put out the French!)  I know this comes as a surprise to friends who think I have every wargaming army out there, sorry, no redcoats.  But maybe soon.  (I did buy some flags...its a start)

The game itself went very well, especially for a convention game.  We were fortunate to have one player who had used the rules before, so he had a clue.  The Prussians could have gotten lucky, but they got bogged down in the same situation we had the first couple of dry runs.  The guy commanding the Prussian flanking force got distracted by Austrian light troops holding a couple of built up areas, and he sacrificed a brigade of grenadiers, the best troops he had, to dig them out.  He did however, destroy the Bavarians and Wurttemburgers fighting alongside the Austrians, but they were enough of a speed bump to allow the Austrians to reposition and win the game.

Our group has been playing with these rules now for just over a year, and I have to say they are really popular with the lads.  We've used them for a couple of other periods, American Civil War as well as Zulu War, and we always get a good result.  I'm hoping by later this summer to have enough of my stuff for the mid-19th century reorganized to run either an Austro-Prussian War of 1866 or Franco-Prussian War of 1870 game.  I'll keep you posted.

Sorry about the light blogging

It's been a very busy couple of weeks, coupled with death of a friend, Brandon Kutka.  Brandon was the owner of Black Sun Games, the game shop we play at every week.  He lost a battle with leukemia, that oddly enough he never knew he was fighting.  Very supportive of our interest in the ruleset Black Powder, he will be missed.

Some Black Powder

Thought I should post something that goes along with the name of the blog.  Had a couple of busy days painting up a brigade of Prussian cavalry for a Seven Years War game that I will be running, along with Barcephus, at Little Wars in two weeks.  We've been playing a set of rules entitled Black Powder, they cover roughly the 18th and 19th centuries and have been a lot of fun.  I think one of the best things about these rules are they are designed to be non-competitive, not that you aren't in a struggle against your opponent, but rather in that they really can not be used for tournaments.  I'm starting to think that tournaments are the worst thing to ever happen to wargaming.  Games like Flames of War or Field of Glory that are over structured with arbitrary point systems bring out the worst in people.  Hopefully this will be avoided with BP, so far it has been so good.

Oh, and regarding red wine....today its a lovely 2009 Ferme Ville.

There are days Flames of War sucks.

Just checked out their website and am TOTALLY WIRED that they are expanding their Vietnam range.  I really regret having sold off all my 20mm stuff ten years ago.  Then I was reading up on how their vision of Nam looks.  It seems that one of the companies you can field is a US tank company.  Yes, plenty of US armor went to Vietnam but I don't recall ever reading about it being deployed by company.  Platoons and sections yes, 17 freaking M48s at the same place, not so much.  Well, at $15 a tank better you should buy 17 than 2, right?  I am so glad that when I started putzing around in 15mm Vietnam I bought Old Glory vehicles, with my OG army discount I got three M48A2C for around 14 dollars.

Also, I can only imagine how FOW would work for Nam.  I will be playing Charlie Don't Surf from Too Fat Lardies, and will check out Ambush Alley's Vietnam supplement for Force on Force when that comes out.

History is ruining my life.

Picked up a really good book, "Valley of Death" by Ted Morgan.  It's about the fall of French Indo-China, and focuses on Dien Bien Phu.  Net result, I dug out all the half painted Eureka figures I bought for that conflict and have been fiddling around with them, planing on using Too Fat Lardies "I Ain't Been Shot, Mum" rules.  Oh, and off to Ba Li to get some of those tasty Vietnamese sandwiches I love so much.  Lemongrass chicken here I come.

In the beginning.

This blog will be primarily about wargaming, which is what my life has been primarily about.

Wargaming has actually been a central theme to my life.  When I was still five years old, way back in the 1960s, I became enthralled with some plastic WW2 Japanese soldiers owned by the older brother of a playmate.  Obsessed is probably a better word, and I whined incessently to my parents about the need to have Japanese soldiers.  In January of 1969 I came down sick, I believe it was mumps at the time.  My mother got me, as a get-well and stay occupied kind of gift, three boxes of Airfix Japanese for WW2.  Mind you, these were HO/OO scale, smaller than the big chunky figures my friend's older brother had.  In fact I remember my mom telling me that the Japanese in general were a smaller people...nice way to cover that these guys fit in with no other toy soldiers I owned, and I had a good deal.

Well, my birthday came around a month later, and much to my surprise my parents gave me several more boxes of different WW2 Airfix, and my Uncle Jerry gave me  big box full of Roco mini-tanks.  (amazing what you would give to kids back then) A copy of Featherstone's first book on wargaming followed (I was one of those precocious children who learned to read at kindergarten age) and I was on my way.  My dad was a competitive chess master, so he encouraged this behavior and I went along wholeheartedly. It was the developmental stage of a life of wargaming.

By the way....while those Airfix are long gone, I still have a Japanese army for WW2.  Its in 15mm these days, but I have and always will have a WW2 Japanese army.

Clearly to be continued.