A Bridge In Spain - Combat Patrol: Napoleonic AAR

Barrage 2019 was held on Friday and Saturday of the last weekend in September. As I haven't had a chance to play many games recently, the convention was a fantastic opportunity to sit down and roll some dice with games I haven't played before.

Last year I went and took part in the L'Art de la Guerre. This year, however, I didn't want to dedicate my time to a single ruleset (and the shine has somewhat worn off of ADLG for me at the moment). Plus, I plan to take part in not one, but two tournaments at Fall In! later this year. So I went down to Maryland to take part in a few participation games. 

While I had preregistered to play in a Chain of Command game Saturday morning, upon arriving I discovered that the game had disappeared from the roster! So after perusing the flea market and trader stalls, I instead signed up for a Napoleonic version of Combat Patrol. 

The game was being run by Duncan Adams of the HAWKS wargaming club (the group behind the convention. He explained that Combat Patrol was originally designed for WWII skirmishes, but had a number of alternate versions - Star Wars, the Falkland Wars, and Napoleonics. 

The scenario was a classic wargaming scene. A few units of French infantry and dismounted dragoons had to hold a bridge as reinforcements arrived over time. A larger force of Portuguese attackers (part of which I was commanding) needed to secure the bridge before the French could strengthen their positions.  

A small walled area and a rocky outcrop made for a good position for the French to start their defense in.

The main body of the Portuguese attackers launched an assault on a lightly defended area of woods, hoping that the 4-to-1 odds would quickly see the French off.

I sent my smaller command of Portuguese into the small forested area on the right, thinking to keep the dismounted units of French dragoons occupied.

The Portuguese line infantry made good time up and over the hill to support the units attacking into the woods. 

Meanwhile, the Portuguese Caçadores squared up against their French opponents. Whoever had the chance to activate first would have the chance to fire a devastating volley.

I should make some comments on the way Combat Patrol plays. It's a somewhat detailed skirmish game - individual models in squads can take different actions when activated. In an eight man squad, for example, your squad leader can direct fire (making the enemy easier to hit), as three men fire, two other soldiers move up to a different position, and two other soldiers recover from being stunned. Even shooting is done on a model by model basis.

All actions in the game are determined by cards, and each player had their own deck to draw from. These cards do literally everything - they determine how far a unit can move, how effective a model's firing is (as well as where an enemy model is hit, how effective the hit is, and what terrain might stop the bullets), morale effects, randomizing effects, determining close combat results, and more. The cards were intimidating to look at when we first started, but thanks to Duncan's explanations (and a couple HAWKS members playing that were already familiar with the rules) I was able to quickly catch on.

The assault on the woods by the main body of the Portuguese attackers eventually wiped out the French defenders, but at a high cost.

The fighting on the other side of the battlefield wasn't going especially well (although it was only later that I realized that my Caçadores should have been firing using their Elite rating instead of the Regular that I had been using).

While one unit of Caçadores was holding the line and causing damage, the dragoons on the hill were able to hit the few Portuguese that hadn't made it all the way into the cover of the woods. A bad morale result on the cards saw half the unit flee, and then become stunned - meaning I had to spend their entire activation removing the stunned status, instead of moving them into position to support.

The French defenders readied themselves, seeing their compatriots cut off and cut down.

However, just out of shot, French reinforcements were moving in to support across the river, which guaranteed that any Portuguese attack across the open ground would be a bloody affair.

And speaking of bloody affairs, a well timed series of card draws (and the application of their Elite shooting stat) meant the Caçadores wiped out the defending Dragoons in a single volley!

By that time we had reached the end of the allotted time for the game. The group decided to call it a victory for the French defenders, as it would take too long for the Portuguese elements on both flanks to reorganize and make an assault on the bridge, which was quickly filling up with more French.

Duncan ran a fantastic game, and I'll likely be picking up Combat Patrol to add to my collection of wargame rules. It makes for a quick playing (once you understand the layout of the cards) game that would work for platoon or smaller actions. It may be something I could get the SJGA to play at an upcoming meeting. 

Gaslands at Cape Con 2019

2019 has been a something of a rebuilding year for the South Jersey Gamers Association. The club has a proper logo now, as well as a discussion forum where members can talk about what they're doing (preferably I'd like more activity on there, but you can only do so much).

Visibility has been another big part of the plan to get new members into the club. It's one thing to spread information about the club via word of mouth to existing wargamers, and quite another to introduce the concept of miniature wargaming to an entirely new audience.

The local library system has been a big part of that effort (not least because I'm a librarian in it which offers some advantages). The club currently has a display in one of the libraries with miniatures from half a dozen games, and informational flyers in others.

But a personal touch is always best, which is why I volunteered to be a club representative at Cape Con, a mini comic and pop culture convention hosted at the library system's main branch.

As I mentioned in last weeks post, I chose Gaslands since it fit in pretty well with the pop culture theme of the event. Everyone I talked to instantly understood when I described it as "Mad Max on the tabletop."

There were plenty of questions, and I had about 10-12 flyers go out, and a few more people took pictures of the flyer to save the info.

I explained that the club's focus was on historic tabletop wargaming, with some fantasy and scifi as well. Next month's game of Blood & Plunder also caught some attention - people like pirates and big ships! Other interests were Saga (both Dark Ages and Fantasy) as well as the American Civil War and the American War of Independence.

Next year the event is going to be in February, since September is just too crowded for the library to compete for space. After some discussion with a few members of the SJGA, we're looking at putting on a game of Rebels and Patriots with some AWI figures.

Hopefully this means we'll have at least one or two new people checking out the club in October, but at least we're getting the word out!

Painting Update - Gaslands

With no games played since my last post, my painting progress continues. 

I've got a participation game of Gaslands coming up this weekend at a local comic convention. I'm going as a representative of the SJGA with the hope that we can entice some of the attendees - either the kids, teens, or their parents - to check the club out.

Each team consists of two cars. One has a machine gun, while the other has a "special weapon" (a rocket launcher without the extra rules) with three ammo. This helps to keep the game moving so players won't need to reference different weapons or a lot of equipment.

I had thought about adding some nitrous or oil and glue droppers, but like I said, simple is probably best.

I'll have to review the rules and perhaps run through a solo game since I haven't played in a while. But hopefully this does draw some attention, especially with the fantastic 3d printed terrain Kevyn made.

Also, Gaslands: Refueled was just released, so I may pick that up soon.

Painting Update - Warhammer Fantasy

I've been in a gaming drought recently, so I've spent my hobby time chipping away at one of my biggest projects - a 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Orcs & Goblins army.

It's something I've always wanted to do, but I didn't enter the hobby until around 8th Edition came out, and I wasn't a fan of the massive units required to play or the insane magic spells.

Earlier in the year I stumbled across an old O&G battalion set and some units in the flea market at Cold Wars, and bought them on a whim. I've since grown that force into something that could comfortably play 2000+ point games in 6th Edition, while immersing myself in the Classichammer/Oldhammer community - groups playing in older editions of Warhammer Fantasy without the looming threat of codex creep or the hot new thing.

I actually completed the first unit last month as a test, and I think they turned out well. It's a pretty simple paint scheme that has a lot of black and green but it works well together. This was also a test for the 3d-printed movement trays Kevyn made for me, which I glued magnetic sheets to the bottom. The rare earth magnets under the miniatures' bases keep them in placed for the most part, while still allowing for them to be removed.

I decided to tackle some artillery next. A pair of spear chukkas makes for some decent ranged support in an army that's pretty focused on close combat.

I then went back to the infantry. Two blocks (or a single mob) of Night Goblins from the Battle for Skull Pass set came together pretty nicely. I decided to use the troll from the set as a unit filler, and its blue skin contrasts well against the black and greens of the goblins. I'm still kicking myself for passing up the Dwarf half of that set, however!

Of course, what's a Night Goblin force without a couple of characters and randomness? They need a Big Boss, a Shaman, and a trio of Fanatics.

And to finish up the Night Goblins, I painted up a couple units of archers. Since I wasn't using the unit commands, I had to use a couple totems and a squashed goblin, but I think they add a little flavor to the units.

While I'm working on some vehicles for Gaslands now, I'm going to get back into the Greenskins to finish of

Painting Update - Battletech

I've been dealing with a lack of playing or painting recently so I wanted to do something that was fairly simple and would be quick to finish. I decided to paint up the battlemechs that came with the Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat starter set.

Since the eight mechs in the starter fit pretty easily into Alpha Strike lances, I decided to paint the mechs as a combined mercenary company - the 12th Vollone Dragoons.

The Shadow Hawk and Wolverine are decent Mediums with some maneuverability thanks to their jump-jets, and the Commando can punch above its weight-class with some careful placement. The Locust is a good old speedboat that cruises past enemy mechs, potentially spotting for long rang fire. Together they make up a Recon lance that can hold its own against enemies of equal tonnage, but be able to escape in the face of superior firepower.

The other mechs in the box make up a Heavy Battle Lance. The Catapult and Awesome are long range mechs capable of pounding the enemies with waves of missiles or staggered PPC fire, respectively. The Thunderbolt and Battlemaster are brawlers whose firepower increases the closer they get.

They're a good start to a mercenary company, and I'll be adding on to them with another lance pack from the Clan Invasion kickstarter releases in the future. They'll be up against whichever Clan I decide to paint the other mechs as, likely Smoke Jaguar or Jade Falcon. In the meantime these Battlemechs will hopefully be hitting the table either in games of Classic Battletech or Alpha Strike.