Village Games' Blog

A FREE POLAND...

I just wanted to mention a modern micro armor campaign that has been developing at the store.

It started out as Mike Z. and George playing a Cold War Commander scenario of Poland fending off a Russian invasion in the late 1990's. In the first scenario the Russians were attacking and the Poles had to delay their advance, and then escape themselves. As it turned out the Poles were able to do this with considerable success!

So, as a follow-up to that battle, last week the Americans lead a counter-attack into the Russian advanced guard. Mike and Tom were the Americans, while George and newcomer David (actually a veteran micro armor guy, just new to the store) ran the Russians. In this one the Russians carried the day, as the Americans were a little too aggressive leaving them vunerable to localized Russian counter-attacks.

It now appears that this was not nearly the end of the war. In two weeks there will be another installment of the campaign - I am not sure what the scenario will be, but I would bet it will be interesting. Then the players were talking of regular battles to play out the balance of the war.

The Americans (top) Rumble Towards the Russian Positions

This is where you, the gentle reader, come in - if you are at all interested in playing in a campaing simulating recent hypothetical events using micro (6mm) armor and a fast, fun set of rules come up and join in on Saturdays. I know George and the guys would love to get some old micro armor players back into the game, as well as teach the hobby to some generals.

Almost every Saturday has some sort of modern era micro armor game going on at the store, so stop by and take a gander and let Carl or I know you are interested.

Until next time...

Dan

THE PACIFIC THEATER IS FINALLY DISCOVERED!

A couple of our regulars have been feverishly building & painting armies for the WWII Pacific Theater. Doug has done a great job with his 15mm Imperial Japanese forces, and Todd with his 15mm US Army Infantry. Both have been talking about branching out into the Pacific campaign, and last Thursday they decided to kick-off it off with a battle using the Blitzkrieg Commander rules.

Todd was the American force, which was tasked with repulsing a Japanese counter-attack on Luzon, in the Philippines, during the campaign to retake the islands in 1944. Todd did have the luxury of barbed wire and some trench positions, but the Japanese had a secret weapon in a massive armor force (three Type 97 Light Tanks  J).

The Americans Try and Hold Off a Banzai Attack

All I know is the Americans made mincemeat out of the Japanese forces as they advanced, but then suffered brutally at their hand when they got into close combat. In the end, I believe the Americans were able to hold their positions, but at a pretty heavy cost. (Guys, let me know if I didn’t get that right…).

A Type 97 Tank Is Suppressed As It Maneuvers For a Shot

In any event, the battle looked like a lot of fun so a couple more of us are getting our armies ready to do battle in the Pacific (Nick & I with US Army Infantry, Chris with his US Marines…). We also need to start working hard on some realistic jungle terrain in 15mm – fortunately all of the guys have agreed to help in building it, so it shouldn’t take too long!

US PARAS RETAKE A FRENCH CHATEAU

Meanwhile on Thursday night, Nick and I got in a game of WWII Chain Reaction in 25mm. I was commanding a pair of understrength US Paratroopers squads from the 101^st Airborne Division in France, while Nick was in charge of a German Infantrie Squad – with its light machine gun still operational.  This was a double-offense game (with both sides moving onto the board at the start) but with a twist.

We were testing out a new hidden objective system for the game. Each of us drew a card at the beginning of the game which gave us our orders for the battle. Half-way through the set number of turns, we drew again for a new set of orders – but since there were duplicates of our original order cards, and “No Change In Orders” cards as well in the deck, there was a definite possibility if retaining our original orders through the balance of the game.

The cards come out of a desire by a couple of us who want to start having more deception, feints and surprises with our tactics (rather than our army lists!) during the game. Our game went pretty good although at the time we called it, it was not clear who would have won based on our orders. We were both surprised at what the other’s real objective was, which encouraged us to continue using the system.J

The US Paratroopers Survey the Terrain Before Them

Also, it was one of my first games on the new terrain boards we built. I very much enjoyed using them, and look forward to make a whole lot more. I think the pictures give a good idea of the coolness factor of the terrain.

The Battlefield With The Chateau In The Center

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

With our upcoming Warhammer 40K tournaments (‘Ard Boyz in September and Village Faire in October), and with the proliferation of historical games at the shop, Carl and I have decided to construction permanent 6’ x 4’ terrain boards for use at the store.

Besides providing a cool place to play, these should help us set-up for games faster and make it easier for Carl and I to play ourselves (I am even working on spiffing up my Space Marine army for use on these tables J)!

So with this in mind, I set out this week to construct the first two tables. Eventually we will have a dozen or more of them (and I rack I will build to store them in), but for now a “…journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

I constructed the basic boards in the same way I build all of our tables and racks – a simple supported box frame with the flat surface firmly attached. I then added some Styrofoam hills, which I covered with a plastic patching compound that really sucked – I won’t use that again.

A Close-Up of One of the Hills

Under Construction Next to One of Our Existing Tables

The Boards With Hills & Patching Applied

After some extensive sanding to prepare the surface, I then coated everything with a thin layer of brown acrylic mastic (caulk). After that dried (maybe 30 minutes) I splashed on watered-down wood glue and covered with flock.

The Completed Tables

The Completed Boards - The Fantasy Table is Closest

The tables turned out pretty good, although there are some things I will do differently next time. I made one “realistic” table for historical games (dried grass, olive greens, etc.) and one “fantasy” field (with bright greens and yellows).

The Historical Table

The Fantasy Table

Some other ideas we have for tables include one or two ruined urban ones, a desert terrain board, and an exposed “dungeon in a hill”.

If you get a chance, make a table reservation for one of the new boards and try them out!

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan

We have been having quite a turn-out for miniatures on Thursday nights. Just recently we had a couple of 6mm Micro Armor games (Cold War Commander & Blitzkrieg Commander), a 15mm Blitzkrieg Commander game as well as several painters working on future armies.

Some of the Thursday Miniatures Crowd

BLITZKRIEG COMMANDER – 6mm

Doug and Chris were squaring off in an American assault on German positions in the late summer of 1944. Chris was the Americans while Doug played the Jerries. Chris had very streaky luck that night making a string of command rolls but not able to effectively hit anything, then was devastating in his fire – when he could actually get an order off.

In the end Chris was not able to take the village from the Germans in the allotted time, but from the sounds of laughter coming from their table they both had a great time!

American Aircraft Jump Into the Fray

P-51 Mustangs Cover the American Advance

The Americans Push Towards the Village

BLITZKRIEG COMMANDER – 15mm

Todd and Nick played an infantry meeting engagement between the Americans and Germans in Italy circa summer 1944. Nick was the Americans and Todd was playing his German force.

The German Commander (Todd) Contemplates His Strategy

Ultimately Nick’s infantry let him down – becoming pinned down against the Germans who were in, arguably, better positions. Again though, from the sounds coming from the table, it appeared both fellows had a great time.

German Forces Secure the Flank

COLD WAR COMMANDER

John and Adam played a game of CWC at the back table. I am not really sure who won, as the game was over in just over an hour - and I hadn’t had a chance to check on them yet! I believe John did carry the day with his West Germans. As they were both rapidly discussing future tactics and force compositions, I would have to assume that they both enjoyed the game as well.

PAINTING FOR ME

I spent the night painting. First a pair of US Paratrooper BAR gunners in 25mm. These were actually a couple of regular US Infantryman I had gotten in a figure swap with Jeff P. almost a year ago. I had always intended on finding a way to add them to my paratrooper force, but was put off but the amount of sculpting work that would be necessary to convert them to paras.

Well, after getting my butt handed to me by German light machine guns in a couple of games of WWII Chain Reaction, I decided the time had come to work on the BAR gunners. After a few restarts, and repeated touch-ups I did eventually manage to get them to look right! I had added cargo pockets, shirt tails, webbing details, etc. with the green stuff putty and got an almost dead on match with the other figures in the unit.

I hadn’t sculpted in a while so I was very nervous about a project of this size (two figures that had to match existing figures), but I must say I was very pleased with the results. Unfortunately, I forgot to take some pictures of the figures but I will get some up soon.

In addition to the paras, I finished five M18 Hellcats for my American 6mm WWII army. I bought the pack that night and, between paint coats on the paratroopers, cleaned & prepped, primed, painted, sealed and flocked the Hellcats. Who said you can’t finish micro armor quickly?!?

Next week I will hopefully get a game in myself, or at the very least get a few more things painted!

Until next time…

Cheers & Happy Gaming!

Dan