Wiliamsburg Muster 2017

The club participated as we always do in another Williamsburg Muster.  Though this one was different in a number of ways.

The Convention itself was held over Memorial Day Weekend (May 26-28) rather than its usual time in February.  It was not just a wargaming miniatures convention, but rather reached out to our local board gaming and roleplaying game communities to help expand the convention into a greater or more universal gaming convention, and lastly, it was at a new venue, The Doubletree here in Williamsburg.

The hotel was a great improvement, and one attendee stated that “it was nice to have a hotel with hot and cold running water for a change”.  If you attended last year’s Guns of August you will know he wasn’t entirely exaggerating!

The convention was different for the club as well.  Chris had planned on running some games but his business demands (The Phalanxe Consortium) and his convention duties got in the way.  He was present as a vendor of course as well.  Poor Peter found himself laid up at home with an injured back.  This left me to carry the Legati flag as far as running games and reduced the number of games supported by the Legati in years past.

My first game was intended to be a “Big Chain of Command” game, using TFL’s expansion for multiple platoons.  It was based on a scenario for Mud and Blood in an older TFL special, “Midnight at the Oasis”.  This was part of our ongoing commemoration of the World War One centennial.

Only two players wanted to participate, however, and so the game turned into “regular” Chain of Command with just two of the original four platoons.  One of our long lost Legati, Andrew Frantz participated and gained victory with the Turks holding the supply depot.

I also provided two 7TV games.  Both were set in 1970s London and played on the same table.  That made it far easier for me to run two games on Saturday, but it also gave me the opportunity to show off the versatility of the game.

The first game was “The Beat” a gritty London detective show involving a security van robbery.  The game was undecided.  The criminal firm successfully pulled off the heist but the Met did manage to nick some of the baddies including one of the stars.

The second game was a more outlandish spy-fi game.  Department X was escorting a VIP when attacked by the mysterious SHIVA. Al and Kerry played and the VIP was safely delivered.

Overall the convention seemed successful to me, and the new venue has a lot of promise.

Until next time Cheers,

Ron

 

 

Guns of August 2014

 

      Once again Williamsburg Legati did what it could to support our local Williamsburg conventions.

 

     Chris and family were present with their company The Phalanx Consortium, and were actively promoting Skirmish Sangin and the related Radio Dish Dash products.

The Phalanx Consortium Table

 

     Chris also ran two Demo games on his beautiful Afghanistan board, one in the evening both on Friday and Saturday.

Coalition Troops patrolling the irrigation canal

 

 

Afghans

    On Saturday afternoon Peter offered his Mons game.  This was a Trench Wars game based upon one of the actions at Mons in 1914 and his the first official game of our clubs commemoration of the centennial of World War I. The scenario has German lancers pursuing a column of retreating British tommies while the rest of the German forces try to take the town.  I did get some pictures to share with you but for some reason the  were completely black when I loaded them onto the computer.  I will try to get some pics from peter to share with you all here.

    I ran two games.  The first was Friday night. this was a Sharp Practice game set in Spain.  Members of the 60th American were being chased by the French 4th Dragoons.

Peter moving his forces

       Peter and three others played in this game.  The British were so successful that they managed to make their objective (driving away the enemy and the get off the board) before the larger threat of French men even arrived! 

Dragoons enter on the first game

      All players agreed to a second game however with a few alterations one of which was to allow the reinforcements to arrive earlier!

  

Rifles defending the farm

 

    This alteration made the world of difference.  the game unfolded much like the first, though with more British casualties than the first.  However just as they left their cover and made their run for the board edge, the Dragoon reinforcements arrived!

Surprise!!

 

     The Dragoons ended up dismounting and chasing the rifles off into the hills and away from their objective. for a French victory!

    My second game was Friday evening, and was a Fall of France World War Two scenario using Chain of Command as the rules.  Again with four players, the Germans were of the advance with orders to drive the french away from their positions on the outskirts of Etalle in Belgium. 

The board before the battle

    The Germans held the initiative through most of this game though the French very valiantly repelled an assault for the farmhouse on their left.

Germans moving through the trout stream

      Perhaps cocky from their victory on the left, the French squad on the right tried to assault the other farm house.  Here it was the Germans who proved victorious.  The French realized that they had suffered to many causalities and they chose to fall back leaving the Germans victorious.

French men supporting the assault

 

    Now we are back to are usual Wednesday night schedule until the next convention in February.  See you all at Williamsburg Muster!

Cheers,

Ron

 

 

No Pasaran!

Last weekend was another Williamsburg Muster and as usual Williamsburg Legati Attended and ran some interesting games.   First a demonstration of Radio Dish Dash’s new game Skirmish Sangin on Friday, followed my Chain of Command Espana and Chris and Peter’s beautiful Ronin game.  I will leave it to others to report on those games though I was in some way involved in playing a;ll of them!

While scenarios set in the Jarama campaign of the Spanish Civil War is not something new for me, the rules were.  Chain of Command is an excellent set of skirmish rules by Too Fat Lardies.  As is common with their games the rules revolve around the leadership abilities of men on the ground.  Unlike most of their games which are card driven, CoC relies on rolls of command dice.  too Fat Lardies has very generously provided several PDFs for free to back date the game to actions of the Spanish Civil War.

The scenario, based upon the Republican counter attacks of Feb.23 and 27 1937, pitted a platoon of the Lincoln Battalion against a platoon of the Army of Africa.  Primarily this was a platoon of Spanish Legion though it was brigaded with some Moroccan Regulares.  In part that was because it was frequently done and in part because I was lacking a Section of La Legion figures.

On of the more unusual aspects of CoC is the “Patrol Phase”.  this is a phase prior to the start of the game which represents the effect of scouting and intelligence gathering from both sides which serves to create the position of the front lines for a game.  In this scenario, described in the rules as an “Attack and Defend”  The defenders begin with their Patrol Markers placed 18 inches into their side of the table.  The attacker then rolls to determine a number of free patrol marker moves before entering into the usual alternating on side to another.

   The Nationalists held a small farm  along the road, the Republicans were advancing through a wood line and attempting to drive the Nationalists back.  The IB began approaching through an olive orchard on the left of the Facist rebels. There they discovered strong resistance from the elite Legionnaires but their steadfast determination whittled away the Nationalists numbers.

   The Republicans were supported by a Machine Gun Company firing barrages from off board and a Soviet supplied T26 tank.  the tank approached up the road but found a safe spot far from the action just below the bridge.  here it was safe from the Petrol bombs carried by the Moorish scouts which were about the limit if the Nationalist Anti Tank capacity in this scenario.  The tank did what it could to help the 1 section’s advance.

   On the Nationalist right however things were unfolding quite differently.  Two of the larger squads of the Legion held the farmhouse and were engaged in quite a firefight with communists and close range in the pig sty.  One squad was pinned and nearly destroyed.  Only the presence of their capable Sargeant prevented them from breaking.

   The Nationalists took advantage of this circumstance to send their section of Moors into close combat.  Leaving the shelter of the farmhouse the charged into the communists but thanks to their brave Sargeant, not to mention the presence of the Company Commisar and a light machine gun the moors were repulsed.

  Unfortunately it was about here that time allotted for our game ran out.  I called it a draw though I suppose I could have given victory to the Nationalists as they still held their positions at game end.

      I should mention, just for the point of honesty, all the photos on this page are reconstructions.  I had my camera on the wrong setting for the game itself and all the original pictures were therefore badly focused.  I guess that makes these a re-enactment, or perhaps just propaganda as was so common in the Spanish War.

Viva Republica!