Had another great Tribal game experience yesterday. It was hosted by David Sullivan of "I Live With Cats" blog. It was initially a 4-player game, but several others wanted in, and we were lucky to have one of the players bring his collection so there were enough figures. The 40mm figures Bronze Age are from Monolith Designs. In fact, the ones on the round bases are from the collection of the late Jim Bowen, who designed and sculpted the range.
These are two packs (3-figs each) of bows, and one pack with swords.
Finished up the 8-figure pack of TAG foot samurai; also painted the mounted figures, but still need to paint their horses.
Just finished up a nice WW1 E. Africa game using Bolt Action. This is a scenario by buddy has used several times in the past. He tweaked the game a bit today by using activation die assigned per company - about 3 or 4 individual units. Similar to the "Stand To" rules, but a bit more simplified. It sped up the game and got units to do multiple different actions. I played a company of Germans and Askari on our right flank. Played 6 turns in about 3 hours, which ended in a slugfest of attritition across the battlefield. It was only my second time playing the rules in about a year, and came back quite easily and quickly. It was only my second time in about a year playing the rules, having played Chain of Command more often. There are elements of both rule systems that I like, but I do appreciate the simplicity and quick play of Bolt Action.
Wanted to finish them up before going back to the remaining TAG figures.
Just wrapped up an ACW skirmish game using Warpaint at my buddy's place down the road. Had a great time, but as I mentioned in the earlier post, I have no real interest in the period. This lack of interest may be due to being of Japanese decent (third generation), and growing up in Hawaii, and having no direct relations involved in it. Also, we were taught more about whaling in Hawaii, missionaries, and sugar barons than ACW history, from what I recall. Anyway, as far as the game whent, we probably played about 50 percent of the game correctly. As the rules were a first for all of the players, and the owner of the sole copy of the rules had only read through it a few times before and never played it himself, this might explain our lack of familiarity of it. The scenario had the Union troops trying to locate more horses for ones they had lost in a previous engagment. The Confederate troops, of which I commanded several mounted units, were to scout around and gather intel from civilians at homesteads. The game devolved into several smaller battles of attrition before we called it and evaluated the game - and how much we might have deviated from the rules-proper. It was all in all a fun game, but we plan to use Sharp Practice 2 the next time for ACW. I'm looking forward to that game, although the last time I played Sharp Practice was with the first version many years ago. Here are some pictures from today's game.
Got an order of West Wind Bushi the other day, and wanted to start on them even though the TAG guys aren't finished yet. They're supposed to be lower-ranking samurai or followers. They have simple body armor without additional shoulder, arm, or leg protection. The pack of 20 figures came with separate heads, and also added a pack of helmeted heads. The sculpting isn't as nice as the TAG figures, but close enough to be mixed in with them without issues.
Took a little break from the Heian TAG samurai to finish up a Ming cavalry unit for the Imjin War project. Just three more TAG figures - which are actually Song cavalry, but look close enough to Ming heavy cavalry. The funny thing is when I placed the order for these I only added the Heian/Gempei War figures to up the order for free shipping - not realizing then that I would revisit the period in earnest. Now the Imjin War project has sort of taken a backseat to it.
The unit now has 12-figures, but I may run them in 6-figure units.
Recently picked these figures up from a game store, Mindtaker Miniatures, down in Vancouver, WA. Got about half of these with a trade of old rule books that were just taking up space. The store buys and sells miniatures and games from private sales and commissions. A lot of the historical miniatures, including these TAG figures, were bought as a lot from an estate sale in Colorado.
Just got back from my buddy's place for a General d'Armee game. There were seven of us - including my buddy hosting the game - and the first time with the rules for all of us. Suffice to say, we managed to stumble through a turn and a half. The scenario was based loosely on the 1809 Campaign with some of my buddy's vast collection of Austrians and Bavarians. I played a brigade of Bavarians, which included a battalion of skirmishers. One of the unique things about the rules is the use of ADC's - rolling D6's at the top of the turn to see how many can be assigned to the army, and then choosing selected actions for the units with the ADC. This gives the units certain advantages and bonuses. It also uses D6's for scouting and the possible uncovering of hidden units at the start of the game. Also, artillery can actually cause casualties to itself for bad die rolls. Anyway, that's about all I can remember as this was my first time exposed to the rules. It's definitely more detailed than Black Powder or even Valour and Fortitude (from what little I know of the latter). We ended the game due to time, as it was mostly a learning game and didn't really expect any victory conditions met. It's always nice to game with old buddies - most of them game together once a week with various rules. I only show up occasionally when my buddy hosts games as he's only about 10 minutes from my place. Here's a few pictures from the game.
