Village Games' Blog

NEW TERRAIN BOARD

Just a quick entry about a new terrain board we are testing out at the store.

The basic concept is an underlying board with removable adhesive on it. To this is stuck plain Styrofoam hills carved in whatever naturally irregular shape desired – the hills also have adhesive on them. Then the whole table is covered with an appropriately covered stretchy cloth, which is pushed down onto the adhesives contouring to every nook and cranny.

The board has worked well so far, minus some difficulties with the adhesives. It has proven durable, versatile and yet realistic in appearance. If the kinks can be worked out, we will probably due a couple more boards like this.

Here is a picture of the board in use for a Blitzkrieg Commander game:



There have been a couple of other posts on the blog with pictures of the board with different fabrics on it as well.

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

THE FORCES OF EVIL ARE GATHERING - CAN WE STOP THEM?

We are currently in the run-up to a Hordes of the Things campaign at the store. Personally I have prepped 8+ armies and won’t probably stop until I have run out of figures.

To hone our generalship skills we have been regularly playing games on Saturdays. Below are pictures of a game Nick and I played a week or so ago. It pitted his brand spanking new Lizard Army against my Woodland Rangers-Barbarians-Creatures army.



Nick got off to a great start, repeatedly repulsing the efforts of my archers on the right flank and pushing my warband back on the left flank. Then the dice slowly turned against him and for me… er, my brilliant grand strategies started to pay off – yeah, that’s it!



Eventually our behemoths began slugging it out on the right flank with mine gaining the upper hand, and given his was his general, sealing his fate. All in all it was a fun game with lots of ebb and flow.



You will notice from the pictures we are using mostly D&D 25/28mm pre-painted miniatures for our armies (since many of us have tons of these things). To accommodate the round bases on the figures, we are using modified frontages (as per the HoTT’s book). Our base widths are 4”, and base depths are 1-1/3”, 2”, 2-1/2”, 4” and 6” respectively. The ratios are all in proportion to the DBA base sizes, just bigger.

Anyone who has a HoTT’s army(s) could join us by simply placing their existing elements onto a temporary base of the above dimensions. In fact, one of the players has been giving away bases to those dimensions that work perfectly.

Also, here is a shot of the campaign map we will be using. If you are interested, you can find out more of the campaign specifics on the store’s Forum page under the “Misc. Games” section – “HoTT’s Campaign”. Hopefully as the campaign gets going I will have a few pictorial battle reports for the blog as well!



Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

DATELINE: JULY 1985, SOMEWHERE IN THE WEST GERMAN REPUBLIC…
We played another game of Cold War Commander recently. This was a pretty massive battle, with John M. playing his West Germans (4000 pts. – an under-strength battalion) and I was playing my Russians (8000 pts. – an under-strength regiment).

The Russians were tasked with breaking through the German’s defensive positions somewhere west of the Fulda Gap. Initially the rapid Soviet advance was slowed by a surprise ambush in their rear (well played by John) which threatened their anti-air capabilities, but with the threat contained the march continued.



Then it all hit the fan. As the Russians began to push into the main German defenses, the NATO commander started unleashing barrage after barrage of FASCAM – scatterable mines. In response the Soviets played the chemical card and began laying down toxic barrages of their own. Eventually everything bogged down into a morass of free-for-all shooting with both sides hemmed in by minefields and chemicals weapons.



The game was eventually determined to be a draw, although it could be argued the Germans had gained the upper hand by slowing, although not stopping, the Communist advance. I suspect this game will have to be replayed, to lay to rest the question of the rightful winner.

In any event, it was a very fun game with the usual amount of trash talking. We also further refined our knowledge of the rules, and now better understand some of the more specialized aspects of the game for the future. As always I am definitely looking forward to the rematch.

Enjoy the pictures & until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

BACK TO THE RUSSIAN FRONT

We played a great game of Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC) a few days ago on what is turning into our historicals night – Thursdays. It was set in mid 1944 or so, in the Ukraine. The Russians were launching a massive assault against dug-in German positions. The game was played in 6mm Micro Armor with Doug M. and I as the Russians, and John M. playing the German defenders.

John is pretty new to BKC (although he is quickly turning into an old pro in BKC’s sister game – Cold War Commander). He set up a marvelous defense though, with hidden minefields, barbed wire and dug-in emplacements.

The Russians started off with massive artillery bombardments and heavy use of smoke, which allowed a pretty rapid advance. For a while it looked like this would be a bit of a cake-walk for the ol’ Ruskies. Then we hit the defensive line, and hit it hard. Despite knocking out the Panther tanks dug in on a hill over looking the front, the Russians started losing tanks and infantry like nobody’s business.



Eventually the game had to be called due to time. While I think we Russians still had a chance to pull it out, it definitely felt like the momentum had shifted to the defender. A few more turns would have proved decisive.





In any event, everyone had a great time (except maybe Doug, whose forces became bogged down in the minefields and artillery fire towards the end ) A rematch was called for, and the challenge accepted so keep an eye out for the sequel to this battle.

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan