A Year in Gaming - 2015

As 2015 winds down to just a few more hours left, and 2016 looms on the horizon, I thought it appropriate to remember some the great games I've gotten a chance to play over the past year.

Games like...

Palasé Dungeon Crawl 2015

One Hour Wargames: Dark Ages (mod)

All Quiet on the Martian Front

 Beer & Pretzel Ironclads

 Empire of the Dead

 Frostgrave

 One Hour Wargames: WWII (mod)

 SAGA

 Sails of Glory

Guild Ball

Civil War Skirmish

G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

...among plenty of others.

Thanks to everyone that's stopped by to read my blog, as well. 

So, here's to a happy 2016, and another year full of games!

The Assault on Castle Klankk - Christmas G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., Part 3

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you're enjoying the holidays.

Let's see how the attack on Castle Klankk ended...

The Prussians revealed a unit of Minions armed with electro-pistols and a rocket launcher.

Of course, emerging from the castle placed these new troops directly in front of the machine guns of the Russian tank. The Minions were quickly mowed down.

But further horrors were revealed when purple monstrosities burst forth from the bodies of the dead minions.

And more Minions came out of the castle's depths, firing their electro-pistols at the Russian tank and zapping it into stillness.

Meanwhile, the Prussian commanders threw some of the mechanical soldiers at the polar bear, hoping their metallic components would be more resilient than the tattered remnants of the flesh-and-blood infantry.

While victory seemed to be within grasp, infighting began between the allied nations, possibly fueled by old grudges from the previous year's battle. The Russians fired upon the French, knocking over and disabling one of their light tanks.

In retaliation, the British Ironclad fired on the stalled Russian tank, blowing it up and killing one of the two Russian commanders.

And the French had fired upon a unit of Penguins from the North Pole, possibly hoping to prevent them from gaining access to the castle to search for Santa.

While the Russians had lost their tank and commander from the British, they were still going strong, and had opened the castle by destroying one of the walls.

The British also continued to advance. The Ironclad fired again, knocking down and destroying von Klankk's suit of armor. Though the Prussian commander did manage to scramble out of the suit, escaping death once again.

The French, harried by Russian fire, still had a few remaining Prussian units to worry about.

And the Workshop forces continued to blast away at the last of the Prussians outside the castle's main gates.

As the game ended, the British and Mrs. Claus' troops met at the castle's front gates.

And the French and Russian eyed each other warily as they entered through the devastated rear of the castle.

In the end, it was Mrs. Claus who found Santa, and the two thanked the British and the Russians (the French were put on the Naughty List, right next to the Prussians).

But Baron von Klankk escaped, and the Russians still controlled the North Pole after the previous year's battle. It may be that this war for Christmas isn't over yet.

The Assault on Castle Klankk - Christmas G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., Part 2

And so we began the attack on Castle Klankk.

Of course, it wasn't all candy canes and sugar plums outside the castle. Abominable Snowmen lurked in the woods of Northern Prussia, and provided a challenge for anyone hoping to use the woods as cover.

The British decided against going into the woods, only to lose an infantry unit from Wilhelm's opening shots.

At the end of the first turn, the attacking forces had mostly moved forward. The Russians were hemmed in by a river, and their steam carriages were hemmed in by the woods.

The British, on the other hand, had not only lost a unit of infantry, but most of their vehicles either refused to start, or would begin to move and immediately grind to a halt. So much for Anglo-Saxon engineering!

The French, however, were on the move, with their heavy walker tank crushing its way through the woods (and the Snowman that tried to stop it). A few of the steamjet infantry even managed to land without killing themselves.

The North Pole's toy soldiers began to move forward, with the elves and a unit of penguins facing off against the Prussian armored cavalry.

The Prussians defenses were quickly compromised, however, when the armored polar bear smashed through one of the outer doors.

A round of firing from the toy soldiers and their accompanying cannon took out many of the Prussian cavalrymen. The remaining soldiers came to a sudden halt when the elves quickly assembled toy mines.

A round of shooting from the British Ironclad slammed into the Wilhelm, toppling the walker and then destroying it.

The Russians and British were advancing together on a wide front, and after two turns of the game, little Prussian resistance remained.

The forces of the North pole were steadily advancing, with only a few Prussian soldiers taking cover behind a stone wall. Baron von Klankk came out himself, in his suit of steam-powered armor, to direct the defenses against Mrs. Claus. And the bear in the castle continued to tie up precious Prussian units.

The French also continued their advance, with their light tanks fighting with Prussian units in close combat.

But the Prussians still had a few tricks hidden in the depths of Castle Klankk...

The battles concludes on Christmas Day!

The Assault on Castle Klankk - Christmas G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., Part 1

Last year, Gary ran a game of Battles by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T, in which the Prussians, led by the infamous Baron Manfred von Klankk launched an attack on the North Pole and kidnapped Santa, in the hopes of obtaining his flying reindeer technology. Luckily, Mrs. Claus was able to escape with a sleigh full of toys, saving Christmas.

With the children of the world happy once again, Mrs. Claus reached out to various world powers in the hope of finding her husband. Nearly a year later, it was discovered that Santa was being held at the remote Prussian fortress, Castle Klankk.

This year’s game would see an alliance between the French, Russians, British, and the North Pole launch an attack against the Prussian castle in an attempt to rescue Santa and, once again, save Christmas!

Gary went all out for this game, providing much of the scenery and all of the miniatures.

The Russians brought along some clockwork soldiers, two tanks (one a walker), and some Cossack infantry.

The French brought a number of walking tanks, some clockwork soldiers, regular infantry, and steamjet infantry.

The British had the most "regular" force, with regular infantry, two larger steam carriers, an armored car, and an ironclad.

Not to be outdone, the North Pole arrived with a number of toy soldiers, penguins, and a unit of toy-making elves. Most dangerous was the armored polar bear that lead the charge.

The Prussians might have been outnumbered, but their defenses were still formidable. Minion artillery lined the walls, alongside walkers of various sorts, clockwork soldiers, and armored cavalry. Most intimidating was the steam tank Wilhelm, which towered over the other miniatures on the table.

The battle will commence in part two.

Painting Update - Wargods of Aegyptus

I only have a quick update today. I finished a unit of ten Asar Slingers for my Wargods warband.

They're done up in a blue and brass color scheme that I think works pretty well.

Unfortunately, I did make a bit of a mistake. After finishing the unit, I thought I could use a little more brass (my Citadel paint pot was about to run dry). But it wasn't until after I had started mixing the old paint with the new Vallejo paint I had bought when I realized it was the wrong color - bronze instead of brass!

Now I have a paint pot with a sort of mixture of the two, and I'll either have to buy another pot of the Citadel range, or run out to a local hobby shop, get some paint pots, and fill one of them with the Vallejo option.

Painting Update - Kings of War, Wargods of Aegyptus

I've been working away on more units for Kings of War. 

I finished two Troops of Arquebusiers (with the last now on the painting table) and the Wizard I'm including in the list.

I've also decided to pick up a small force of Asar for Wargods of Aegyptus. 7th Dimension had the softcover rulebook for $10, and FRP games had the Asar starter warband on sale, along with a few other items, so I bought enough to make a 750-point force (a little over half of the points needed for a full game). I've talked to some of the other people I game with, and they do have plenty of miniatures for the game, so I can probably borrow enough other miniatures to get up to a full game.

I'll be working on these intermittently between KoW units, so I don't burn out the same same grey and green color scheme. I'm not entirely sure what color scheme I'm going to use, although I'm considering blue and bronze.

That's it for this week. This weekend in Gary's big Christmas game of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T., which I plan on taking part in. I should have a post for it next week.

Blazing Saddlebags - Civil War Skirmish AAR

Although he had to cancel his Halloween game last in October, like any good wargamer, Bob's perfectly happy to move on to the next game. So, over the past weekend, Bob put on another big community game, based around the following historical scenario:

"In February, 1862, Sibley’s Texas cavalry brigade is advancing up the Rio Grande toward Yankee-held Fort Craig. A mail wagon is dispatched from El Paso under the protection of the Second Texas Mounted Rifles. But word has reached elements of the Union army that the shipment contains the Confederate payroll."

As usual for Bob's scenario games, the players started with individual objectives and "plot cards" that could be played at any time.

The Union started on the Northern half of the map, with four troops of regular cavalry and some irregular scouts on their flank.

The Confederates began on the Southern half, with four troops of regular cavalry, one unit of mounted Confederates spies, and a cannon.

The Confederates moved up, and fighting broke out when the Confederate commander raced to the front, dismounted, and readied a volley against the oncoming Union force.

After suffering some casualties from the enemy infantry and cannon, the Union cavalry did manage to drive in a charge against the Confederates...

But were immediately forced to break off as the combined storm of lead from over a dozen rifles, shotguns and pistols nearly wiped the Union troop off the battlefield.

Meanwhile, another Union troops dismounted and positioned itself on the hill. They were forced to retreat, however, when they were flanked and fired upon by a third Confederate unit.

Hoping to make some inroads against the Confederate position, the Union launched another charge with two more cavalry troops.

This second charge was much more effective, with the Confederates forced back to the southern edge of the village. This left the spy troop out in the open, but their pistols and shotguns forced the nearby Union troops to retreat again.

While all this was going on, my own troop of Texan soldiers were skirmishing with the Union scouts. For all of both mine and Carl's (the scout's commander) efforts, we couldn't seemed to come to grips. Carl had gotten his scouts on top of a hill, but my usage of a plot card forced them to come back down and engage me in hand-to-hand combat, negating their rifles (which easily out-ranged my unit's shotguns and pistols).

With one of the Union troops killed to a man, the unit's commander was allowed to come back on as an independent group of Mexican villagers, infuriated by the battle that had been brought to their previously quiet homestead. Their initial volley wiped out a weakened Confederate unit (who's commander would then come back to command an independent unit of Apache raiders). The Confederate cannon did take the opportunity to lay down some shells into the buildings, killing a few of the newly arrived enemies.

Finally, with the Union attack seriously blunted, the wagon with the Confederate payroll was brought up.

At this moment, the Confederate spy troop decided to act on their own secret objective - stealing the gold and getting the wagon off the Western exit, across the river! Luckily, the ford slowed their retreat enough that the backstabbing spies couldn't make it off the table in one turn.

This placed them at the mercy of their former comrades, who eagerly turned on the spies. A round of shooting from the nearby Confederate troops, and a canister round from the cannon, sent the spies running. Luckily, they left the wagon behind!

The Mexicans, seeing the opportunity arise, ran over and took control of the wagon.

An early activation in the next round let them escape with all the gold, effectively ending the game as a draw for both sides (apart from the jubilant Mexican commander).

As for my fight with Carl, a lucky Confederate volley put down seven out of the ten-strong Union unit, and the remaining three were wiped out in the subsequent melee.