Saturday, December 6, 2025

Northern Front Gameday

Just got back from a small game day gathering up in Shoreline - about 30 minutes or so (without traffic) above Seattle. It was great to see old friends and make new ones - although there wasn't a big turn out possibly due to this being scheduled on the same day as the annual Christmas Rampant gathering at Bruce Meyer's place in Gig Harbor. In fact, this was first time I didn't attend the game day at Bruce's. I made the conscious choice to show support for our northern brethren who usually have to make the hour or more drive down to our area in Tacoma. Having so few players, GM's decided to play in each other's games. An unplanned benefit was being able to play in more games than usual. I not only hosted my own Lion Gate game, but also played in an L’Arte De La Guerre and What A Tanker game. It was first time playing ADLG, but the GM was very experienced and made the game quite enjoyable. Well, enough with the long intro, here are pics from the event.

My Lion Gate One Hour Ancient & Medieval Skirmish game set up for the first period. After playing in the ADLG game, the GM for that game and another player and I played in this game.
I ran an attacking/invading warband against to defending warbands. The HTH rules worked out really well - if the defender beats the attacker's initial "to hit" score, the defender makes a counter attack. I survived a lot of attacks this way, and inflicted hits on the attacker.
The Grave Circle worked out great for putting dead inside - to keep track when doing the end of turn unit morale tests.
The ADLG game was based upon a Punic War battle (forgot the name of the battle). I command a Roman force, and along with another Roman player, we ended up defeating the Carthaginians. According the GM and my co-Roman player, a lot of the rules, particularly movement, are similar to DBA. The GM also said it has elements similar to Armati. I am unfamiliar with both rulesets, and played maybe a game each many years ago.
I ran a Hetzer in the What A Tanker game in the afternoon period. I had very good saving rolls, but terrible hit rolls. Ended up having my Hetzer destroyed at close range by a Sherman.
The GM provided some really good gaming aids.
Here are some of the other games from the morning and afternoon periods. The Ravens Feast game set up was quite impressive.


Ancients, To the Strongest below.
WWII Air Combat using Wings of Glory below. It was based upon a Japanese resupply mission.
Flames of War North Africa game below.
All in all a great time, but it'll be interesting to hear how the NHMGS BOD will determine if this is something we'll want to do in the future. Mainly due to the cost of using the space, and the turn out. This was set up by Kevin Smyth (A Gamer's Tale) as he's our go-to events coordinator, and it was supposed to be a sort of replacement for our Museum of Flight game day - which was cancelled (indefinitely) by the museum. Thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Wargames Atlantic AWI British Grenadiers

Finished painting and based them on 25mm GW-style bases for skirmish gaming. I didn't spend too much time on details like the plates on the fur caps. Although there is some detail on the plates, they were hard to make out when painting. The shoulder wings were easier to make out and take to painting well.

As noted in the earlier post, they're painted in groups of 10 with different colored facings - green, yellow, and blue - all common colors for various units in the AWI. If they're used with Rebels and Patriots, a couple more figures per unit would be added - probably an officer or NCO and musician. However, that might be down the road a bit, as this was mainly a project to try out the figures.
They are a little bulkier than Perry plastics from their AWI range, but would match up well enough. The main difference is the Perry British plastics are in more of a campaign uniform without backpacks.
I went with a reddish brown color for the backpacks - I saw an old thread on TMP discussing this. Supposedly the canvas packs were painted for weather proofing, and this color may have been used. Incidentally, I just read somewhere that straps weren't used on the rear of the packs during this period. Oh well. 
Just a quick project as I wanted to see these figures first hand. Have a game day in a few days where I'll be hosting the Lion Gate assault game. Will update with a post game review when done. Until then, wishing you all the best.

Monday, December 1, 2025

Wargames Atlantic AWI British Grenadiers - WIP

 Finished block painting and Minwax staining the figures.

As you can see, I painted them in three different colored facings, green, yellow, and blue. They'll be used for small skirmish games; possibly Rebels and Patriots - with the addition of command figures.
Also got a 1/48th scale resin Saint Chamond tank today from ebay.
I like to get my Christmas presents early - lol!