Ohio Valley Skirmish - Brother Against Brother AAR

Recently, John was kind enough to host a game of Brother Against Brother for our semi-regular Thursday gaming meetups.

Bill commanded the Rebels, while John and I managed to convince Sam to put on a Federal coat. For a little while, at least.

The goal was to control the town by the end of the game.

Sam and I had each had a commanding officer and for units of infantry. Bill controlled two officers with three infantry units each, with a supporting light artillery piece. 

Units in the game activate using a deck of cards that match the letters on a unit's base. There were also two Halt! cards that, once both were drawn, ended a turn. We ended up adding one more Halt! card as turns in the first half of the game were ending too quickly. 

The Union managed to get half their forces on the table and moved up in a wide front.

The Confederates moved up along the road into town thanks to some good movement rolls (movement for infantry and unlimbered guns is 2d10 inches. On the road, units roll 3d10 and take the two highest dice). They focused on moving up behind the woods on the other side of the town. 

Since the Confederates were closer to the town, they managed to set up a defense first. But it also meant they were in range of the Union's rifles. Rebel soldiers were the first to fall from skirmishing Union fire. 

Meanwhile the Union officers were busy trying to call up reinforcements as Sam pushed one unit of Zouaves forward to force the issue in the town. 

Those Zouaves were going to be in a bad position if they couldn't get into the building. The Confederates were massing in the woods, hopping over the streams to ready an attack on that flank. 

I was trying to support Sam's advance towards the town with my own troops, but they started to take fire from both the Confederate artillery and a unit that had moved up to the fence line. 

Sam's attempt to capture the green building seemed to go well, with his Zouaves pushing the defending Confederates out. Unfortunately, a Confederate counter-charge and the dice saw the Zouaves scattered and the house reoccupied.

Other Rebel fire smashed into the leading Union units and blunted the attack. And before the Union could rally for another push, the scenario came to an end.

We discussed the rules afterwards. They were great, light set for skirmishing in the horse and musket area. There are even rules for playing games set earlier in the era, like the French and Indian War and the American War of Independence. 

A Bad Time For Tea - Rebels & Patriots AAR

I've been involved with ongoing efforts to get the SJGA involved in more outreach activities - flyers, displays, dice with our logo on them, etc. So for an upcoming military history day at a local historical site, the club will be demoing a couple games. The ongoing pandemic makes that a little more difficult - wearing masks, social distancing, restricting people from touching dice or interacting with the miniatures - but we're still going to give it a try. 

Our first game will be Osprey's Rebels & Patriots, with a straight-up brawl over a farmstead during the American War of Independence.

The British have three units of line infantry, a unit of light infantry, a unit of shock infantry (Grenadiers), and a light artillery piece. The Americans have four units of line infantry, two units of skirmishers, upgraded to be good shooters, as well as a light artillery piece.

The goal is to control the farmstead at the end of eight turns by having the most bases within the fence-line.

For this scenario we started with all units off the table, and both sides would need to activate a unit to bring it onto the table.

In the first turn, this ended up being a major problem for me, as both my Captain's unit and my light infantry failed to come on the table, while the Americans brought their full force onto the table.

Even in the second turn, the British only managed to bring the Captain's unit into the fight. Meanwhile, the American cannon smashed into the unit of Grenadiers, while the British cannon failed to spark.

Sam used his skirmishers to flank his line infantry units, moving them up through the wooded areas on the extreme flanks of the table.

Those skirmishers, supported by American line infantry, fired volley after volley into the British Grenadiers, who had leapt over the fence to get cover from the colonist's cannon. The withering fire rocked the shock infantry, bringing them down to half their original size and giving them a permanent disorder marker.

While the Grenadiers retreated, the other British units pushed forward, with the light infantry finally joining the fight - only to take a disorder marker from American skirmishers hidden in the woods.

And after joining the fight, the Light Infantry were immediately chased off the table after a poor morale test. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the Americans had established a good defensive line in the farmstead by occupying a small house and a wheat field. The British light cannon had to fall back slightly to continue firing at the oncoming skirmishers, partially hidden by the trees. 

The fight was starting to go against the British. One unit that had managed to get into the farmstead was routed after a concentrated series of American volleys. The flanks were quickly falling to the American skirmishers.

We decided to call the game at the end of turn seven, since the British had to chance to get enough troops over the fence-line to contest the farm, and I wouldn't be able to rout enough Americans to bring their number down to a manageable amount! So the rest of the British troops fled as the Americans cheered and broke out the hard cider for a good victory toast.

This game should be perfect for a demonstration. Relatively simple rules with a great visual aspect. I'm going to mix up the farm layout a little bit, and we'll start the game with all units deployed 3" onto the table so we don't have the problem of units deploying late into the game.

Hopefully it goes over well during the event!

Painting Update - ACW, WW2

Here's what I've been working on.

Progress on the 10mm American Civil War project continues. I finished four more regiments of Confederates with more variations to their uniforms.

I've begun work on my 1939 German force for the planned September Campaign re-fight later this year (if the pandemic in my area continues at a minimal level). I've got enough infantry, guns, and vehicles to field a decent variety.

This Pak 36 wasn't too difficult to put together, although there's a real dearth of assembly instructions for Warlord's metal miniatures.

Unlike machine guns, mortars, and anti-tank guns, I don't often see infantry support guns on the table of many platoon scale WW2 games. Maybe that's just an oversight on my part. But I didn't want to build my early war force without a light howitzer in support. 

With the use of Vallejo's "panzer grey" primer, painting the vehicles for this project is going to be easy.

This is a Sd.Kfz 231 6-Rad, a rarer armored car that's production stopped in 1937.

Also completed was a Sd.Kfz 222, another armored that saw production almost until the end of the war. 

These vehicles were also my first experience with applying waterslide decals. The application of the decals went much easier than expected. I used a combination of art supply gloss varnish and Testors' decal set liquid. 

Salty Squigs a'Sailing - Man O' War AAR

At what may become a regular session on Thursday, John hosted another game of Man O' War, with myself commanding the opposing fleet and Sam watching over the game.

John decided to stick with his previous Greenskin flotilla, with a Hulk surrounded by two squadrons of Drillakillas and two squadrons of Bigchukkas.

Since we were adding wind rules to this game, I commanded an small Empire fleet, with a Greatship supported by a squadron of Wolfships and a squadron of smaller Wargalleys.

Like last time, John's Drillakillas surged forward in front of his fleet, hoping to use their massive drills to sink my ships before the rest of the Orc fleet chugged into position. The Imperial fleet shifted to the right, readying their cannons.

And of course, because it's an Orcs & Goblins force, pure luck came into play against John. One Drillakilla was immobilized by a cannon from a Wargalley. Another managed to hit a Wargalley but sunk in exchange for a bit of damage. And the last Drillakilla hit the Greatship but only sunk itself!

I had to split my fleet in two, with the Wargalleys moving to intercept the second squadron of Drillakillas. These managed to do some actual damage, with one of the Wargalleys losing its oars and begin left out of the fight.

Now the fight was between the Greenskin Hulks and Bigchukkas, and the Imperial Greatship and Wolfships.

I scored a lucky critical hit early in a turn on the Hulk, which resulted in the crew panicking and wounding the admiral. This left the hulk unable to act in the turn, which gave my Wolfships free reign to turn and engage with their bow guns.

Unfortunately for John, he tried to board the Greatship with his Hulk after I rolled extremely lucky against his Smash-hammer attack (which should have done a lot of damage, but I stopped five of the six hits). Between my cannons, crew, and a Man O' War card that gave me an advantage in boarding actions, the Greenskin ship was quickly denuded of its crew.

However, the small crew I assigned to the Hulk was then boarded by the crew of a Bigchukka, who tossed the humans overboard.

That crew was then evicted by a ramming attack against the big hulk! (Although I messed up here - ships can't ram using their sails, only under oar power. Sorry, John! I'll study the rulebook more.)

The concentrated fire of the Bigchukkas was able to sink one of my Wolfships.

With the Hulk uncrewed and the Imperial fleet mostly concentrated in the same area, John decided to concede, since the Bigchukkas were outmatched.

Apart from a few rules hiccups, I enjoyed the game. Like I said, it looks like we'll be making Thursdays our Man O' War night as we add in more rules like Wizards, Magic and Fliers (and make sure to double check old rules!).

On the High Fantasy Seas - Man O' War AAR

Recently, John put out an invite to play Man O' War, the naval combat game set in the Warhammer Fantasy universe that came out in 1993. 

I was two years old at the time. Yeesh. 

Anyway, I volunteered, got shanghaied, and found myself commanding a dwarf fleet facing off against an orc armada.

The objective was simple - sink more of the other side before they managed to sink you.

The dwarves looked like they were steaming out of the late 19th century, with a Dreadnought, an Ironclad, a Nautilus (submarine) and a squadron of Monitors.

The orcs were fielding (sea-ing?) a large flotilla of barely floating ships. The greenskin admiral led from a Hulk, flanked by two squadrons each of Bigchukkas and Drillakillas.

With both sides equipped with either steam- or slave-powered paddles, neither fleets needed to worry about the direct of the wind, and so powered forward.

The Nautilus was the first to fire a shot, diving and launching torpedos at the oncoming Drillakillas. Unfortunately the orc ships were just out of range.

My Monitor squadron was less lucky, as one of John's Drillakillas surged forward, rammed, and sunk a dwarf ship of the line. The Drillakilla sunk as well.

The dwarfs had their hands full dealing with the Drillakillas, while the slower orc ships advanced in a second wave. My Ironclad and Dreadnought were able to handle the orc assault ships, defeating the crew of one in a boarding action and immobilizing the other.

The Monitors continued their run of misfortune, ultimately sinking after being rammed by more Drillakillas.

The Dreadnought and Ironclad readied for contact with the rest of the orc fleet.

I thought the Nautilus would be enough to handle the three Bigchukkas on its own, but a well aimed shot from a catapult smashed through the submarine, sinking the boat and drowning the crew.

Now it was up to the two Man O' Wars in the dwarf fleet. The Ironclad was taking a pounding, losing hull integrity and taking on water. Both it and the Dreadnought fired volley after volley into the advancing orc Hulk, watching as the massive ship and its close-combat weaponry loomed ever larger.

However, the broadsides eventually broke through the Hulk's hull, causing enough critical hits and damage below the waterline to sink the greenskin juggernaught. With only a few Bigchukkas left, the Orc fleet retreated as the dwarfs raced to rescue their waterlogged compatriots.

Well, damn. Here's another fun set of rules that I'm tempted to get into. And it's only for a game that's been out of print for nearly three decades!

Luckily, John has a massive collection of original models that are beautifully painted. I'll have to read more of the rules and learn how to move ships under sail, as well as learn how wizard and aerial units work. While I'm interested in playing as the Empire, I may join John in a campaign, pitting his Bretonnians versus a combined fleet of Dark Elves and Skaven.