Kitchen Table Gaming

Kitchen Table Gaming is the way to go for games in a hurry.  I had a hour and a burning desire for a Cold War Commander game.  Actually managed two!  Both inspired by last night's History Channel's Tank Battles episode of the Six Day War.   First one, an Israeli armoured group surprises a Egyptian supply column.

The Egyptians had to exit the opposite table edge with at least 50% of their convoy to claim victory.  And it almost happened too.  Fortunately for the Israelis, their Centurions have stablizers which allowed them to fire on the move, and take out one last truck to snatch a narrow win.  

Next up, a massive Egyptian armoured force is rushing to the Suez Canal to escape the Israelis overrunning the Sinai.  Waiting for them is the same Israeli force from the previous game.  (Note the M60's doing their best M48 impressions.  The Isherman is their HQ vehicle.)

In order to negate the superior long range performance of the Israeli tanks, the Egyptians charge forward at full speed.  They take a lot of casualties but still push on and on.  When they finally reach short range, all the remaining T-55's and T-34's open up.  Their massed fire immediately takes out two M48s. 

Even the Centurions start brewing up!   Suddenly the Israelis have to take a Break test, which they pass.    Some more T-55's explode.  But the Egyptians keep on coming and keep on firing.  Two more Magachs go down, and the Israelis have had enough.  What an exciting little battle!  Cold War Commander!  GHQ tanks!

Side Two of Marcus Garvey is the one of the greatest things in this world!

It ended up being more Burning Spear than Warhammer last night.  Chaos Daemons and Elves (Joint Wood and High) met up in a forest clearing to discuss things.  The main characters:

     Prince Dalelius (who dabbles in the arts), and his pet

Franthor The Mighty!                      

In action.

                                                                                                  

Some Elves.

Summer's here

Kicked off the summer with an outside game of Rapid Fire Moderns on a 12 by 4 table.  Here's some pictures:

Father's Day on Endor

The Kid set up a beautiful forest on the floor, and the next thing we knew we were on Endor.   The Empire was serious this time about controlling that pesky moon - AT-ST's, Stormtroopers, Bounty Hunters and even "Ranster" the Rancor, were all brought in to chase the Rebels and their teddy-bear friends off of Endor.   Luckily, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca and company, happened to be vacationing and visiting old comrades in Endor just at that moment. 

Blaster fire soon filled the forest.  Jetbikes screeched over and into trees.   Ewoks tried their best to trip over the AT-ST's.   Stormtroopers fell.   Rebel troopers fell.  Then everyone got back up again.   From some deep dark part of the forest a giant Knobby White Spider appeared and joined the Rebels.  It was a good thing too because Ranster was chomping at everyone and there was no other way of stopping him.

  

          Happy Father's Day.                                                                                                                        

Imperial Commander

Every couple of months it seems I pull out the Imperial Commander rulebook, thumb through it thinking, man, I really want to play this, then I put it back on the shelf again.  Last night I decided enough is enough, set up a table, gathered some Rogue Trader Era guys (any excuse to play with them), and played Imperial Commander.  
An alert rings out at the local Imperial garrison - someone is in the Forbidden Zone exploring the ruins of New Babylon.   A platoon of Imperial troops is ordered to find and deal with these trespassers.

Anyway, the skirmish that resulted doesn't really matter, it was great, but it was the rules themselves that most interested me.  I really liked the flow of action that Imperial Commander provided.  The double movement (which works a whole better here than in Rogue Trader or early Warhammer editions), the simultaneous fire in both player's turns, the constant chance of weapon malfunction and/or ammo problems, the way rallying is handled, and especially the brilliant close combat phase, all make Imperial Commander truly quite wonderful.   I also love that it was written in 1981 by Bryan Ansell and Richard Halliwell.   I am such a sucker for 70s-80s gaming.  I really want to find and try Rick Priestley's and Halliwell's fantasy set, Reaper, sometime.  And also Laserburn.  And some Chainmail soon would be great too.   Ahh, yeah.  To game all the time.   One day.   But Imperial Commander, yeah, I hope to get in a lot more games of it. 

The Battle of Tronton, 1644

Well, after much dithering back and forth, I decided upon a English Civil War battle for last night's game with Private D.   It is 1644, and the ever-confusing English Civil War has taken another surprising turn - Montrose has turned against the King(!) and is causing a lot of trouble up in Northern England.  King Charles and Prince Rupert are determined to chase Montrose back to Scotland.   However, Montrose has been unsportingly elusive.  Week after week Charles and Rupert wear their army out trying to find Montrose.   By early August, Montrose is ready.  He strikes the exhausted English army outside the town of Tronton. 

The battle begins with both sides advancing towards each other.   Cannon fire is exchanged to little effect.  The Royalist Forlorn Hope nervously opens fire at long range.  This ends up halting the entire English army.  (I hadn't really thought out my battleline - I was too busy trying to make it look pretty.) 

The Scots use this confusion as an opportunity to attack.

The Forlorn Hope flees.  The English centre breaks.  The right flank also is about to crumble.  King Charles decides to personally lead his Gentlemen Pensioners in an attempt to save the right flank.  His unit is counter-charged by the Scottish Calvary.

Prince Rupert, not to be outdone by his uncle, charges the other Scottish flank.  Both Royals fail to break through, and both end up fleeing. 

The battle is over.  Montrose holds the field.  Super fun to play with Private D. and these figs again.  The rules were a modified Warhammer English Civil War. 

(Colonel Ansell shares a laugh with his men.)

The Battle of Kashyyyk

The Kid and I came home from school all excited to play with my brother's WOTC Star Wars collection.   And what a fantastic collection it is!  We carefully poured the bag of Star Wars Goodies out on to the mat from last night's Training Exercise.  Out tumbled Jedis, Tusken Raiders, Hoth Troopers...and Wookies!!!  It was immediately decided that we must have a Battle of Kashyyyk game.   And so...

An army of Battle Droids and Clones, led by Darth Sidious' two foul apprentices, Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus, advances on Kashyyyk.  Chewbacca and his father assemble the Wookie Clans.  Mace Windu brings in The Jedi Council to aid in the defence of the friendly Wookie planet.

The battle was fierce.  At one point things looked very bad for the good guys.  Several Wookie chieftains were captured by the Clones.   But then suddenly some Ewoks appeared.  Then some Tusken Raiders.  And then Jabba The Hutt and his entourage of Bounty Hunters!  All of these new arrivals united together against the Clones and Droids.   It was all too much for them.   Captain Rex formed a final battle line before the inevitable.

It was suppertime, and the battle was over.  The forces of Good won.  The Wookies were rescued.

                           Father and Son enjoy the afterglow of victory.  Arrrrrrrurrr.   Arrrurrrrrr.

Training Exercise

I am very excited about the prospect of gaming again with Private D. this weekend.  The only problem is that he left the period/game up to me, and there is so much that I want to play!  The other consideration is the ruleset.  I know that something simple, fast and rewarding is needed.   Using this as an excuse to play, I pulled out some modern stuff and tried to work out a one page set of rules that tries to incorporate all the things that I want in a modern/cold war game.   I set this exercise in 1987.  The Soviets have launched their diversionary attack into Germany to mask their real intentions which are, of course, in Sweden.

The Americans are ready.

And begin blasting the Soviet Hordes.

The main problem I was having was trying to find a fast, fun way to make a T-72 vs. M1 match-up not be a completely one-sided affair, and still having it have some slight basis in reality. 

Well, I think I have something that might work.  Regardless, it was a pleasant exercise. 

And there is always AK47, Coldwar Commander, Rapid Fire Moderns, FOW Moderns, and etc. to fall back on. 

The Invasion of Sweden

Whew!  Just finished a super fast game brought about by the generous loan of my brother Sgt. Strange's 20mm "Swiss Army".   Thought it would be fun to use AK 47 Reloaded for a Cold War game.  And it was!  AK 47 rules! 

So, it is 1987 and the Soviet High Command are convinced that the seizing of Sweden must be the main objective in any conflict with the West.  A crack armoured division is given the honour of spearheading the invasion, and begins motoring through Northern Sweden.  Unfortunately, the Swedish 7th Brigade, fresh from Switzerland, races to meet the invaders.

Soviets draw first blood.  The Swedes respond with American airpower.

But it is completely ineffective!  The Soviets laugh and charge forward shooting wildly.  The S-Tanks remain stationary and also shoot wildly.  The Swedes then disembark from their M113s.

They manage to successfully call in another American airstrike.  This time it is very deadly.

BTR-80's are burning, and all of the T-72's end up being pinned!  An incredible airstrike!!  The Soviets have to take a huge Morale Test with eight dice(!) and fail four of them which means they have to rout.  Zap.  Game over.