Enfilade! 2017

Well, I spent the Memorial Day weekend at my 10th Enfilade! down in beautiful Olympia, Washington. This was a record-breaking Enfilade! of sorts. The official numbers: 350 Attendees; 135 Games; and 65 Game Masters.

I somehow managed to run (successfully I was told by non-biased folk -  like the players) not 1, not 2 or 3, but 4 Siege of Haengju games. I also managed to retain my voice - even though I was severely outnumbered 26:1 in players (cumulative over the four games) vs. game master (me). As I ran this game (again successful I was told) several years ago, I knew the rules and scenario were fine. Still, I hadn't hosted (or played) a game in months (maybe years). Anyway, I am actually looking forward to next year's con and considering what game to host again. Without further ado, here is a picture of one of the Haengju games.

Korean Elite cav and Ming Heavy cav coming on table at the bottom of Turn 6. They weren't a factor as the Japanese were never able to enter the top tier of the Korean defenders' hilltop - the former's victory condition. This was either the third or fourth game - I can't recall as I'm still nursing my wounds.

A few pictures of the plethora of games over the weekend. I actually left Sunday (today) morning, and there were still a lot more games being run. Captions taken from the official convention events listing.

Omaha Beach Presented by Greg Moore. Homebrew rules. "Omaha Beach Invasion in 10mm scale. All vehicles, landing craft, and some terrain features 3D printed. Original rule system designed for quick play. Players will all be on U.S. side and will consist of 4 pairs competing against the other pairs to accomplish the most by the end of the time limit."

Return to the Island of the Crocodile God Presented by Warren Bruhn. Pulp Alley. "A rugged volcanic island, well off the regular trade routes in the Indian Ocean, came to the attention of several national archaeology teams shortly before WW1. They were defeated by the Island. Now a few of them are back for another try. This game will be smaller than last year, with only 5 players. But it will be run 3 times to give more people a chance to try Pulp Alley."

Battle of Kalka River 1223 Presented by Mike Garcia. Lion Rampant. "The Kipchak Khan flees before a Mongol reconnaissance force. He petitions the Russians to help him fight this unknown adversary. The Russians eagerly accept. The Mongols feign flight deeper and deeper into the Steppes leading the tired Russians and Kipckaks into a trap at the Kalka River."

Test of Honor Demo Presented by Marky Erhardt. Test of Honor. "Come and learn to play Warlord games Test of Honor. This is a demo and will play multiple game over the time slot. Each game should last about 30-40 min. Test of Honor is a skirmish war game played with roughly 5-12 models on each side. Each game based around a Samurai Hero along with a variety of clan soldiers. Battles are swift and bloody as players' alternate acting with one of their warriors."

Hastings 1066 Presented by Gary Strombo. Lion Rampant. "Hastings 1066, William of Normandie makes his attempt to Invade and take England! Standing in his way is Harald Godwinson, his brothers, and 8000 battle hardened men. Who will succeed and rule this Island?! 400 miniatures on a custom table."

Battle of Lutzen Presented by Chris Leach & Rick Stevens. Armati 2. "1632, Battle of Lutzen, The Swedes and Imperialists fight it out in this classic pike and shot early modern battle of the 30 Years War. The Swedish King and warlord Gustavus Adolphus died during the battle but the Swedes held onto the battlefield to claim a pyrrhic victory."

The on game I actually was a player in -

The Search for the Holy Grail Presented by Scott S. Williams. In Her Majesty's Name. " The Holy Grail has been found- and lost again- in London's East Side! Four Companies compete to find the hidden Grail and get it off their side of the table, while keeping the others from beating them to it. Set in the peas-soup fog of Victorian London's East End docks, play as the Archaeologists, the Cultists, the Mudlarks, or the Toshers- each company has their own strengths and weaknesses."

Anyway, hope you liked my quarterly blog posting. :)

Siege of Haengju Setup

Well, I committed to running this game at our local big convention, Enfilade!, during the Memorial Day weekend. God willing, I'm hosting it in four periods. Incidentally, to beef up the Koreans I  ordered some Perry figures. These will be the first figures I've ordered (or painted) in years. Interestingly, I only kept one bottle each of Vallejo White and Flesh - the main colors needed for the figures. I threw out the few bottles of paint I had as they were almost empty and/or dried up. So much for my entry post in 2017 and for several months! Belated Happy New Year to you all!

I ran this game several years ago and figured it was time to run it again. These are some of the few figures I kept after selling off over half of my collection. It actually helped me refocus a bit regarding gaming.

A Fond Farewell and Apology of Sorts

A recent comment made by Aaron aka Prufrock made me realize that I hadn't posted anything on this blog for a few months. Although I haven't painted or gamed anything since the previous post, I believe it was rude for me not to have posted something about why this was. Particularly as I've always received such warm and thoughtful comments from all of you. Anyway, I want to state for the record that I am doing well, but have pursued other interests - namely collecting (and wearing) armor, and more recently playing the guitar. In fact, I've sold off almost half of the figures I had - all to local gamers and friends, so I'll likely see the figures again in the future. Here's a picture of my two current interests.

The two new hobbies - together for the photo, but not in practice.

Again, I wish to apologize for pretty much "disappearing" from the blogosphere without an explanation. Maybe someday I'll get back in the "mood" for painting/gaming, until then I wish you all the best and thank you for the encouragement and interest in the past. Dean

Poseidon's Warriors - Play Tested

What's this?! A gaming post, seriously?! Yes, it is :) Anyway, with the help of my gaming buddy and retired AF Tactical Air Controller, Ted H. we finally got to play test Poseidon's Warriors written by John Lambshead. Ted brought over a fine sea mat and coastline terrain which suited the Channel Dash scenario rather well. Being our first time playing the rules we of course got a few things off - like not realizing until about turn 8 that the Operational phase passed back and forth between opposing fleet squadrons. We didn't use the Artillery rules and just concentrated on Ramming and Oar Strikes. We also didn't try out any of the Advanced Rules such as Corvus, Leaders and Towers, etc. The rules are very simple with very little chart referencing. Anyway, Ted won the battle as I failed my Morale check after my fleet's flagship had taken part in a second combat. Ted passed his Morale check having lost a quarter of his fleet.

Ted's fleet in nice line ahead formation at the start of the game. Those are his little islands on his nice sea mat.

Ted's fleet now mostly in line abreast formation - looking for a fight.

My fleet trying to figure out what to do with the islands in the channel.

Ted's fleet blocking access to the sea in line abreast. One of my trireme squadrons having turned 180 degrees away from the enemy.

Having "lured" Ted's fleet into the tighter confines of the channel behind the little islands, one of my trireme squadrons (top of the photo) has Rammed some of his triremes. The rules allow for bow rams to be fought simultaneously. My fleet flagship has also Rammed one of Ted's triremes. Ted suffered the worse and lost several of his triremes. My flag ship suffered one Hull point loss.

Another view of the turn with my triremes and flag ship Ramming some of Ted's ships.

My flag ship completing a successful Oar Strike against one of Ted's trireme - actually the sole-surviving one from the squadron which fought in the previous turn.

Here's where the battle turned. Two of Ted's Quadriremes were able to Ram my flag ship, which later failed its Morale save and ended the game.

 These rules are very fast playing, and with quite brutal combat resolution. I plan to try out the Artillery rules as well as some of the Advanced rules the next time.

Tosa Clan - Boshin War

Pardon my indulgence, but just a little goofing around with a pair of matching swords - katana and wakizashi, and a $6.00 synthetic "Tina Turner" wig standing in for a red yak haired Shaguma wig.

Haven't picked up a paint brush in a long time, but do plan on hosting a game soon. I may give Poseidon's Warriors a try - but need to find a couple of play-testers. I plan to just GM (i.e. read off the rules while they're being played by others). Anyway, here are a couple more shots of the Tosa guy.

The repro blades are unsharpened and can be used for practice, or for chasing Trick or Treaters away.

The painting below shows shaguma-wearing Tosa samurai at the Battle of Ueno Temple during the Boshin War.

A Boshin War period samurai with a yak hair wig - can't tell what color the hair is, but the Tosa's were red, the Chosu's white and the Satsuma's black.

And everyone's favorite samurai wearing one.

So much for now - apologies again for nothing new on the painting front.

Edit: added shot showing the katana and wakizashi - along with a tanto, tachi and bokken.

Also, an extremely rare Shaguma dog.

Ancients Rebasing and Reflection

Nothing new on the gaming or painting front, but just a bit of rebasing figures painted many moons ago. These are Redoubt Oscans/Samnites and also Foundry and 1st Corps Hypaspists. They were previously based as singles for WAB and the like. I was never happy with the way the Hypaspists were ranked up with their lunging and hurling spear poses. They looked way too tightly packed together. Since I don't like individual casualty removal, figured they're just as well be based more in an open order way. All of these figures are on 40mm Litko squares - three figures per base. As I only wanted six bases for the Hypaspists, the spares were put on a round command base with a spare standard bearer.

Close-ups of the Redoubt Oscan/Samnites.

The shield designs are a combination of LBMS transfers and free hand painting.

Next up the Foundry and 1st Corps Hypaspists. LBMS transfers are used. The standard has a decal from VVV.

The two makers work well together; the Foundry guys are bare-legged while the 1st Corps guys have greaves.

Again, all of these figures were painted a long time ago, but I don't think they were posted before on this blog - not close-ups anyway.

As far as gaming goes, I actually feel like a burden has been lifted off of my shoulders. At last month's Enfilade! convention I sold off a lot of figures - most of my WHFB Empire foot, all of my Napoleonic Russians and Prussians, all of the Old Glory Biblicals, and all of the WW1 French and Germans. I also made private sales of some of my Napoleonic British (Perry Coldstream Guards and Household cav, and OG 71st Highlanders), some of the French (all of the OG infantry and Front Rank Dutch Lancers and Chasseurs a Cheval) and also a fair number of my Ancients collection (all of the OG and 1st Corps Hoplites; the OG Gallic infantry, Gallic and Scythian cav, A&A Companion cav, and Spanish Scutarii). I had sold off a plastic EIR army as well as some Medieval and Dark Age cav at last year's con. As you may see, I've hyperlinked to images of the figures for my own future reference/regrets :). The pricing was low, but since everything was sold to folks in the local community I am quite content. So far, I have kept all of my Trojan War stuff, all of the Samurai and Choson Koreans, the Napoleonic Victrix and most of the Perry, most of the Foundry Macedonians (like these Hypaspists), all of the Medievals and Dark Age Normans and Saxons, as well as the F&IW, Meiji/RJW Japanese, Gladiator and WW2 stuff. I now feel more focused and may even start hosting some games again.

At Long Last, An Actual Gaming Post!

Just got back from the annual big historical gaming con here in the Pacific NW - Enfilade! I left after the Saturday morning period, and the con goes on until tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. I ran a First St Albans Lion Rampant game on Friday afternoon (image below).

Here are some of just a handful of the other games going on during the Friday afternoon and evening, as well as Saturday morning periods.

Watling Street by Alyssa Faden - Bear Yourselves Valiantly

Will Ragnarok Never Come by Damond Crump and Bruce Smith - Dragon Rampant

Primordial Stew by Mike Garcia - Tusk

Khalkyn Gol Manchukuo 1939 by Bruce Meyer - Combat

Hochkirch 1758 by Kevin Burke - Shako SYW Variant

Nile Circus by Mark Johanson - TSATF

Trafalgar 1805 by Dave Kapaun - Sails of Glory

For Parliament or King by Gary Williams - home grown rules

Lutzen 1631 by Kevin Burke - Europe's Tragedy published by DBA 3.0 adaptation

Java 1942 by Victor Pecka - Bolt Action. I played in this game on the side of the winning Japanese forces.

Guagamela 331 B.C. by Dave Beatty - Armati 2

Channel Dash - Air Attack by Kevin Smyth and Dave Shueler - Mustangs (modified)

Second Martian Invasion Begins by Daryl Nichols - All Quiet on the Martian Front

Samurai Japan vs. Korea 1592 by Rick Stevens, White Rock Gamers - Armati 2

Again these are from just a handful of the over 120 games going on over the Memorial Day Weekend at Enfilade! I'm sure they'll be a lot of images posted on the Northwest Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (NHMGS) FaceBook later on - which will include the games held on Saturday afternoon and evening, as well as Sunday's games.

Samurai Armor Display Stand for $20

Here's the recently acquired samurai armor displayed on a scratch-built stand. Using an inexpensive ($13.00), but sturdy end table from Walmart, along with left over PVC tubing and a few connectors the final product is quite effective.

This is the traditional way samurai armor is displayed - sort of a seated position. Of course, an armor storage chest is supposed to be what the armor is seated on, but I didn't want to spend $200.00 for it - however nice it was.

I could cover the PVC stand with black cloth, but the back will be against a wall and not be visible.

Not pretty, but cheap and sturdy. Did I say this is part of the Frugal Armoury? :)