Fields Of Honor a Gamers Buffet

   I went last weekend to a great  gaming convention in Des Moines, Iowa. I had nothing less than an awesome time, and regretted that I had to miss the Sunday morning set because I had to get back to Kansas City to work.
  Fields of Honor is run by a great group of people and is filled with friendly enthusiastic gamers, and great games to be played. Featuring a good mix of historical and fantasy miniature games, with RPG and board games also.
     Friday night, "Approach to Arnhem", double blind. 15mm, WWII rules by Trent Burg.

  I played British Paras. Here we are setting up, a cautious entry, as the Germans could have setup anywhere on the map. Our mission was to cross the board through the city and get to the bridges with as many troops and equipment as possible.

 Trent did a great job setting up two identical boards. For a double blind it proceeded at a brisk pace.

Saturday mornings game  "Inn of the Crescent Moon". 28mm fantasy, rules by Ryan Skow.
   The Crescent Moon Inn and Songhouse is being looted and monsters are on the loose! You will control a single hero with the goal of securing as much treasure you can. You can choose to work with the other heroes or face the monsters and traps alone - keeping the treasure all to yourself!

 This was an amazing piece of work! Six highly detailed levels. I must have took 50 pictures.

 Plenty of action and surprises kept this game absorbing.  This is the ground floor to give you an idea of the detail. I will post more pictures later.

Saturday midday "Rhodesia-Operation Uric" 28mm "Force on Force" rules terrain by Ryan Skow
   1979 near Gaza, Mozambique. The Rhodesian forces have been deployed to neutralize a training camp which serves as a major gateway for ZANLA guerrillas into Rhodesia.

I was amazed at the detail of the terrain. A well thought out game with plenty of action, in a not often played theater in the US.

Saturday eve was "Commandos to the Rescue" 28mm rules by Trent Burg.
   July 1944, a french resistance leader has managed to get himself captured. British commando's are sent to rescue him before he spills his guts to the Gestapo.

    This was a blast. The first half of the game was spent creeping into the town encountering patrols and random drunk German officers. Barking dogs and random traffic kept the tension high. As we about to assault the Gestapo house a staff car pulled up with a German general and his aids. After some intense floor to floor, fighting inside the Gestapo house, we made off with our package and a annoyed German general in a commandeered lorry . Lot's of tension, surprises, and action, kept us on the edge of our seats. I'm making plans for my own version to run.

  Sunday,I would have liked to played in Jeff Hyland's  Lots of Gauls" a 15 mm "Hail Ceasar" rules, but I had to get back in time to work that evening. Next time I'll take more time off. There were many more great games as well as a silent auction.

For future events:
Field of Honor website:
http://www.fields-of-honor.org/index.php Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/76339741587/?id=10150303305651588&notif_t=group_activity

To see better pictures of Ryan's  amazing Crescent Moon Inn:
Ryan Skow's blog:
http://blog.ryan.skow.org/

The Formicidae have arrived!

   Newcomers to our galaxy have arrived. Rumors have been filtering in from the outlying colonies that a new race has been encountered. They have not come in peace, instead they have brought machines of destruction and conquest. All attempts at communications have gone unanswered or ignored, but their intent  is clear, extermination! Now they have arrived at New Terra, and have established a foothold.  We call them the Formicidae because of their appearance, but Bugs seem to be the common terminology for them.   The Terrans have drawn the line and are determined to stop these bugs and their conquest. War is here!

  Reports of scout units armed with a plasma slug type weapons. They appear to have a natural shell armor and are bipedal.

  The Terrans have sent ad hock units in an attempt to slow the advance on outlying cities, hopping to gather intell on tactics and Terran weapon effectiveness. The swarms attack without hesitation and alway close assault with great determination. Never retreating, they depend on numbers of attrition. Infantry alone cannot stop them, they close quickly dropping their weapons, grab their opponents and rend them with their mandibles. H.A.M.R units have proven very effective as they are immune to these types of attacks.

 Heavy walker types have now been reported supporting swarms of assault groups. Also armed with plasma weapons. They are slow moving but appear heavily armored and armed. These have presented significant problems to the H.A.M.R units. Targeting the weapon systems seem to be the most effective way of dealing with them.  The bugs also have effective individually armed anti air assets that are keeping our Saber gunships at bay.

   A new Bug asset has appeared where Terran resistance has prevailed. Although not as heavily armed as the walkers, they have a very tough shell armor. Targeting their legs and openings in the center section is the only hope of stopping them. That and fielding a powerful Gauss weapon, not yet ready to be deployed.

   Large and ugly we call it the Roach. A battle wagon troop carrier with special assault troops only seen with this unit. The Roach will move up into our defenses and spew out close assault troops.

     
        More reports to follow.

Retrival, A GruntZ AAR

I apologize, but I needed to pull the AAR . Stay tune for the next GruntZ AAR.

Tomorrow's Wars Last Stand at Red Ridge

  Our club played this scenario a four times. Twice as it was written with the Special Forces getting whacked right off the bat. and twice with modifications to the Special Forces and them beating the crap out of the Brazilians. The modifications was to give the Special Forces a TQ of D10 instead of D8. In all games the IFV was less than effective. If the Special Forces escape to fall back on the hill as a group, they become a 10 dice Cuisinart. In the unmodified games the two outside Special Forces didn't survive the first round of combat. In the modified games they survived to regroup on the hill top, and maul the Brazilian units piecemeal.  Still it's an interesting exercise.


The initial set-up
.

          How I make my hills.
                         Geo Hexes place on indoor-outdoor carpet, to deter tiles from shifting.

 Then carefully lay a covering of thin felt lightly over the Geo. Starting at the top then smooth down the felt over the Geo, working your way to the edges.

Add trees, buildings, roads, and such and off you go.

I had developed this from playing winter WWII games, and it looks great in white.

GruntZ is Fun

  This will be our clubs first attempt at GruntZ. We have been playtesting Tomorrow's Wars for some time now, and decided to take GruntZ for a spin. We played two sessions with the same scenario and varied the forces, and had a great time. Gruntz is easy to learn and well presented. the only minor complaint was that because it depends on profile cards, it doesn't have gun charts. We used the profile cards from the Yahoo group and made do with some modifications.

The scenario was a Sahadeen force and Titan Marine force competing over a fallen VTOL. Yes, those are AT-43 Kolossus walkers from my Highlander Space Bug army. We left them out in the 2nd game.



 The objective: Downed VTOL with valuable weapons and data to be retrieved. Dead crew scattered about.

  Sahadeen forces on the move, Infantry with two heavily armed APCs, and a salvaged Earth Force HAMR. These guys have loads of RPGs that will make for their lack of mechanized forces.

 The Titan Marines arrive, ready to claim their property. Three squads of marines, a light and medium HAMR, and two heavy walkers.

Sahadeen forces moving on objective but were slowed by river crossing.

Titans have moved quickly and are ready to secure the crash site, but the Sahadeen are close and determined to make a fight of it.

Sahadeen fire on the Titans is intense with RPGs flying about furiously, but none have scored a hit. The Titans have smoked a Sahadeen APC though.

But the Sahadeen are moving in under cover of their HAMR and remaining APC.                                                                                        

I've got to order those Sahadeen Warrior Maidens!

End results, Sahadeen withdrew, Titans secured the crash site.

GruntZ is defiantly fun and a good intro to SciFi 15mm, allowing players to jump right in with infantry and vehicles. Profile cards are a great idea, and we're looking forward to Robin publishing more in the future. The rules are laid out well with plenty of color illustrations, short, sweet and to the point!                                                                 

Tomorrow's Wars Demo for Origins

  These are the pictures from Osprey's  Tomorrow's Wars demo, made by Jason Moore, playtested by our club.  Osprey wanted a quick and dirty demo to showcase Tomorrow's War. It was to last 10-15 min per session, and demonstrate game basics. All terrain, figures, and scenario were made by Jason Moore,
Micropanzer Wargame Studio, please feel free to check out his website for better pictures of his products. http://www.micropanzer.com/


The setting is a merc force trying to recover data from a fallen recon mech. The host runs the Aliens and the guest the Mercs.

Aliens have initiative
Fallen mech  +1 cover
Mercs use advance med table


Merc force:
TQ 8  Tec 3 Armor 2d
1 x leader w/ pulse laserACR
1 x trooper w/pulse laser ACR
1 x medic w/pulse laser ACR
2 x trooper w/ pulse laser SAW

Alien Force:
TQ 6  Tec 2  Armor 2d
Command unit:
1 x leader w/ plasma slug  pistols and energy whips
4 x trooper w/ plasma slug rifle and sonic swords

Alien Swarm unit1
4 x trooper w/2 plasma slug rifle ea.
1 x trooper w/ plasma slug SAW

Alien Swarm unit2
4 x trooper w/plasma slug rifle and plasma slug pistols
1 x trooper w/ plasma slug SAW

The Mercs have found the fallen recon mech just as the alien force begins to arrive. Both sides open fire.

Aliens have advanced on merc position taking casualties, but undeterred. The mercs tighten up around their cover.

The Aliens have paused their advance and appear ready to charge the merc position.

Both charges are blunted taking casualties , but one unit makes contact and the fight is on!

 The Mercs stand tough, and decimate one Alien unit, capturing one alien as the other unit closes in. They are better in close combat with a rifle and two pistols, but their numbers are too few and they die. The Alien command unit retreats to get more fodder.

  Time limit expires and the game is called. The Alien command unit had failed it's charge attempt resulting in a failed effort. The Mercs had hung tough and completed their mission, retrieving  valuable  data banks and destroying the mech.

 It made for a short and intense demo, not intended to be a fair fight, but to demonstrate Tomorrow's Wars combat system.


Tomorrow's Wars will be officially released at Fall Recruits Con here in Kansas City, Sept. 9-11,2011. The Ambush Alley crew will be there, selling rules and hosting games. Come and meet Shawn, Peggy , and Robby Carpenter.  Jason and.Micropanzer Studio will also have a booth with these awesome figures. Visit Recruits website for details and be sure to check out the gallery of past events.  http://recruits.mtswebsites.com/

Bugs!

   Finally got my 2 Highlander Studio Space Bugs packs based and primed. Had to pose them with the other toys I bought to support them. The At-43 Kolossus unit pack,  a Transformers Crossovers Capt Rex AT-TE, and a Transformers Crossovers Capt. Rex Freeco Speeder. They all screamed buy me for your Bug force, so I did.  Next stop the paint shop.
   My Titan Marines are demanding more HAMRs and  Saber class Gunships/ Dropships, as well as support weapon troops.