Hot Lead 2025

 I have been looking forward to Hot Lead for some time. It's a chance to see some people that I used to play with. As it turned out, David was the only one but it was really good to see him.

I got into two games. The first was run by David and was a Japanese civil war game. Each player had two clans of varying strengths and composition. It was fun with both our flanks winning but our centre collapsed, resulting in a narrow loss.

The next game was an English civil war game featuring the Parlimentarians trying to hold off the Royalist attack. The objective of the Royalist was to exit three cavalry units off the far edge by turn 15. Due to plucky resistance, the Royalists didn't come close to these victory conditions.

Hot Lead 2017

This is a rather late posting for something that happened in late March...

Hot Lead was a bit a strange event for me. I had been really busy the previous two weeks with job interviews all while hoping that to hear back from a company in the Vancouver area. They had pushed their decision back by a week so I didn't know what to make of that. So at the time, I had no idea what was in my future and it put a bit of a damper on purchases. But I had really come for the games. (As it turned out, I got an offer from the West coast company on the Monday so I'm really glad I went because it could be a while before I get to another Hot Lead con.)

Unfortunately, I didn't really take that many pictures. I played in three games but I am unable to recall the first one. Might have been the Italian wars. Maybe.

In the afternoon session, I played Guns of Gettysberg. Very nice rule set and it makes me very interested in picking up Pickett's Charge, by the same author. I had the lead brigade charged with gaining the hill so that the rest of the Union had room to deploy.

Unfortunately, the Confederates got to move first but I shot first. My first roll was a good one and it just completely unravelled the Rebs. By the time they had sorted themselves out, my cannons were pounding their left and my line and skirmish were taking their toll.

Having taken out the lead Rebel brigade, I was able to extend my left so that a fresh brigade could occupy the road on the left. The Union brigade arrived in the nick of time.

Meanwhile, on my right, a fresh Union brigade was starting to steamroll what was left of the Confederates.

In hindsight, this was going to be a tough scenario for the Confederates to win. It turns out that the hill was a trap. If I had gone first, I would have gone over the top of the hill and got blasted.

In the evening, I played in a game of Pikeman's Lament. It was very entertaining if a little lacking in period feel. I can see why the Rampant games are popular. They are fun. I had the left flank but the game was really 4 separate games in which we made no attempt to stay in turn with the other players.

My Scots Forlorn Hope were the real heroes. They dashed into the church on my right to prevent it being occupied for one turn. (I then realized that while it was helping Chris on my right, he really wasn't in any position to take over having had real problems failing his movement rolls. Rather than have them shot to pieces, I pulled them out on my next turn.) They then dashed to the other side to take out some musketeers. Having done that, they rampaged into the enemy pikemen and dispatched them. Finally, caught out in the open with dwindling numbers, they were finally gunned down by the last enemy unit.

I didn't take any pictures but fortunately, my fellow Scot Chris Robinson on my right did. You can see a couple of pictures of the affair in his blog: http://twothreesixmm.blogspot.ca/2017/03/hotlead-2017.html. Thanks to Mark for running the game. He had a very clever scenario and made for a fun event.

Hot Lead 2016 (long delayed)

Life has been eventful for me since Hot Lead. Now that things are settling down for me, I have finally gotten around to posting some pictures.

The first game was a recreation of one of Frederick the Great's victories. The layout was beautiful and there were lots of figures on the table. I ended up with the Prussian right flank. Generally, I don't like a game set up in which the player's first action is largely predetermined. I had a brigade of cavalry and nowhere to take them but to charge straight into battle against superior numbers and while being surrounded. With some timely luck, I managed to win some encounters before being forced back across the river.

My infantry battle was the exact opposite. Despite working with an advantage in numbers, I could not roll well enough to seriously hurt the opposing Austrians.

The rules were essentially Fire and Fury but modified for 18th century warfare. I found them to be a bit slow in a convention setting.

After that, it was on to Dux.

This was a lot of fun with the Saxons on both flanks eventually taking out their opposing Britons while having the center completely collapse.

The third session was me running Big Chain of Command. I learned a few things from running it:

• Despite encouraging people to move their figures, players tend to be conservative and stay in cover. 
• In a convention setting, play across the table rather than along it even if the probe scenario is fun. The Russian players did eventually make a go of it and nearly won but then they were spent as a force.
• While the patrol phase is the coolest part of the game. it might be best to skip it and just set up the deployment points for the players.

Hot Lead 2016 progress

I have finished painting the BTD Germans but I still have to dip and highlight them and then flock their bases. I hope to do this during this week so that I can start labeling them and constructing terrain over the weekend.

Pictures when they have been flocked.

Hot Lead 2016

I've put my name forward to GM a game of Big Chain of Command. I have the horde of Russians ready to go (130 or so). Now I have to work on the German opponents. I have 55 done already but I have another 60 or so to go.

I have 8 weeks to prepare and it starts with a list of things to do:

• Complete the German infantry and support weapons
• Create more wood fences
• Shrubbery and hedges
• Maybe a creek or stream
• Design the scenario and terrain map
• List the forces
• Label the leaders 
• Use stickers to indicate different sections
• Create player packages
• Create Russian patrol markers
• Create more trees and repair the existing ones

I have made quite a bit of progress on the BTD Germans. I have the first coat complete. I'm now at the stage of fixing the overruns. Once that is done, I can apply the wash and then do some highlighting. Flocking is the final step. I think I need to complete this by the first weekend of February. 

Then I can use the rest of February to do terrain and the first two weeks of March to design the game.

Goals are good to have.

Hot Lead 2015

On the last Saturday of March, I had my annual pilgrimage to Stratford. As was usual, Hot Lead was well attended and organized. After signing up for the first game session, I hit the vendor tables to pick up some more Warlord Russian 28mm soldiers. I also picked up a box of 28mm late war Germans. I then went to MeepleMart and pick up a 45mm gun to provide my Russians with a little AT support. Having spent my budget, it was time for some gaming.

Unfortunately, the game I had signed up for was a no-go. With the pickings being rather slim, I ended up in a DBR game set in 15th century Italy with the French attempting to exit with the Italians attacking to the flank and rear. I commanded the far right of the Italians acting as the cork to bottle up the French and prevent them from exiting to the right. Here is the general battlefield with the road that the French are on off camera to the right:

I did really well rolling to maneuver and get my troops into position. I did incredibly poorly rolling for combat, resulting in me losing a lot of troops or missing out on opportunities to destroy enemy units. Here are two shots of my rapidly disintegrating command:

Eventually, my command broke. The other Italian commander near me had his attention split between two separate commands. Unfortunately, he didn't realize how dire things were for me and wasn't able to get his units in position in time to exploit the gaps I had created. The game ended and the GM ruled that the French would have been able to push our troops aside and escape along the road. I have to agree.

In the second game, it was Barbarossa but with Romanians against Russians in a battle of tin cans with cannons and infantry. The rules were Brigade Commander and they are extremely simple and stripped down. A little too stripped down for my taste. The action was a meeting engagement with the Romanians tasked with capturing the village as their objective. I placed my artillery and mortar on the hill, T70s to the left and had my infantry run to the village to occupy it.

This game I had some pretty impressive die rolling and managed to take out half of the Romanian tanks before I suffered any losses. The Romanian tanks settled for dueling it out with my tanks. The infantry formed into a massive column and tried to assault the building held by my troops. It did not go well for them.

The third game was Dux Britannia, where the Britons were defending a village. It was pretty much laid out as three separate battles and stayed that way throughout. Here is the left of the Saxon line. I had the right.

It took me a while to work around the mine to engage the Britons actually in the town. The Saxon cavalry did manage to keep the Britons a bit distracted. However, while this was happening, the Briton cavalry charged the center Saxon units and wiped out two of them. The remaining Saxon unit did manage to hold its own and eventually defeat all of the cavalry units, with the assistance on one Saxon unit from the far left. On the far left, it was two Saxon units frontally against a British shield wall. Predictably, this did not go well and eventually the entire Saxon left routed.

On the right, things went much better for the Saxons. After an aborted charge, my second charge managed to break a two unit British shield wall. My other unit chased the third British unit from the walls and into the village. However, with the rout of the Saxon left, my attacks were just too late and my command had to break off because of the collapse in morale.

The third game was the most fun of the three.

Hot Lead: purchases

One of my aims of attending Hot Lead was to pick up some figures for Chain of Command. I had intended to use 15mm but I received a box of 28mm late war Americans by Wargames Factory for my birthday. This is a pretty good box but it suffers from two major flaws: there's only 30 figures in the box and there's no heavy weapons. One of the things I was looking to do was rectify these short comings.

My first stop was the bring and buy. I happened to spot a box of Afrika Korps Panzer Grenadiers for Flames of War for $40. That looked good to me.

Well, if your going to do Afrika Korps, you need somebody to face them. A short while later, a box of PSC American Infantry was in my hands. I can use them for Tunisia, Sicily, and early Italy. I'm not sure there's a significant difference between 1943 US infantry and a year later.

But I hadn't abandoned my search for 28mm. My Chain of Command book actually has two duplicate army lists for the Russians. I took this as a sign from Rich that I must have a Russian platoon to play with. Since my opponents already have Germans and Canadian/British, getting Russians fills a gap too.

This lead me to the Russian starter pack by Warlord Games. And if you are going use Russians, you need to provide them with plenty of support to help out against the Germans. This lead me to pick up a maxim gun and an 81mm morter, which I also use as a stand-in for a light mortar.

Hot Lead: English Civil War

The third and final game was an English Civil War assault on a fort using For God and Country rules. It wasn't until we got going that I realized that I have played these rules before and I'm not terribly keen on them. They are card driven with the cards determining whether you get 1-3 actions. Since it takes an action to attack and your opponent cannot do anything while you are doing your actions, drawing a 3 while in combat represents a huge and critical advantage.

The fort was in the center of the table. I was the commander of the Parliamentarians and I took the centre force. I rearranged my forces slightly to put the forlorn hope on the extreme left because I had spotted that the wall in that direction was largely undefended (circled in the pic).

I should point out that Gary Scofield, who was running the game, created the fort from scratch. He did a truly impressive job. It really looks the business.

Meanwhile, our left advanced to take out the Royalist horse and start the assault on the walls. The cavalry did their job relatively quickly. Then, having nothing else to do, they set off on a long journey behind our forces to join our right flank.

On our right, our horse rode up quickly to take out the opposing Royalist force of cavalry and infantry. The infantry formed square, the Royalist horse counter charged, and the dragoons peppered our cavalry from behind the wall. Our cavalry accomplished little except to keep the attention of the Royalist forces outside of the fort. This proved to be the deciding factor in the battle so their sacrifice proved worthwhile. My infantry was obliged to keep advancing because of their attack orders even though I would have preferred to keep them back. This, too, turned out to be a good thing.

Meanwhile, in the centre, I flung my forlorn hope rapidly against the fort and they overwhelmed the gunners defending the bastion. Meanwhile, I sent my infantry against the other bastion. I was far too cautious. I expected it too be much harder to advance against the defenses. However, I got their in the end, and with the luck of a 3 action card appearing, overwhelmed the defending regiment.

The forelorn hope then took out some fort defenders and then swung around to advance into the center of the fort. Infantry from the left flank followed the forlorn hope into the heart of the fort.

The rest of the fort defenders started to get overwhelmed, our cavalry from our left arrived on the right to face the Royalist cavalryr, and my infantry took advantage of that same 3 action card to crush a Royalist regiment.
 

We called the battle at this point with the fort's defenders being overwhelmed by a tide of Parliamentary troops.

Hot Lead: Dux Britanniarum

My second game was Dux Britanniarum from the Too Fat Lardies. I was unlucky and became the Saxon commander. Well, rank has its privileges so I took the elite troops. I put two bands of warriors on the left and one on the right. The general plan was for the left warriors to go after the levy while my elites threatened the British elites to pin them.

The warriors on the right were to keep the British warriors near the village occupied.

Because of how slow my elites were in the first two turns (I rolled a 7 and then a 5! on three dice for both turns), I was unable to prevent the British elites from moving up to support the two units of British levy. Time for a change of plan then. The Saxon warriors changed the British elites.

(There I am in the foreground sloooooowly mooooving fooooorward,)

After a bloody fight, the Saxon warrior routed the British elites. However, the British were able to avoid significant morale loss but the situation still looked grim for them. 

(Meanwhile, the Saxon warriors on the right decided they wanted to join in the party bashing the British elite but they arrived a little late.)

The British levy turned and attacked the weakened Saxon warriors and routed them. Meanwhile, I turned to the left to go after the British levy but again my progress was slow.

The routing Saxon warriors cost us some morale points. As did the British horse attacking the leader of the routing Saxons. Meanwhile the British warriors followed those Saxon warriors, who turned to face. In a bloody battle in the woods, our Saxons routed one warrior band but succumbed to the other. The British laughed off the loss but the Saxons were worried (yet another miserable roll on the Bad Things Happen table) 

 I was finally in position, ready to charge the levy.

However, before I could do so, the third levy unit joined the others. Then the Saxon morale hit rock
bottom and the battle was over.

This was lots of fun. It was looking like an easy Saxon victory for a while and then the British could do no wrong when rolling for injured or dead leaders and routing units and the Saxons just rolled 5s and 6s.

Even if I had been able to charge in, it would have taken a miracle roll to win that clash. So the Saxons were wise to slink away and eat the stolen sheep (by the Saxon horse who invaded the village)

Hot Lead: Magnesia

On March 22nd I attended Hot Lead. The signup sheets were far less crowded this year (or I was able to get to them quickly) but there were a lot more attendees in the convention. The bring and buy had a lot of stuff and there seemed to be more dealers too.

My first game was the battle of Magnesia using Impetus. I've played these rules a couple of times before and really like them (though I've not actually won playing them). Anyway, I ended up with the Roman left flank facing a mixed force of pikes, cavalry, and a warband of some sort. I've highlighted my forces here. Not shown are two stands that I would get a bit later.

My plan was to advance to about the bend in the river and try to engage the enemy there.

Rather than let my only cavalry unit be whittled down by the opposing light horse, I took the opportunity to chase them off and engage some medium cavalry lurking behind it.

Good plan but, it what would become a theme, the dice let me down. I rolled lots of 1s and 2s on the attack and 5s and 6s for morale checks. If you know Impetus, you know this is not a good thing. My cavalry disappeared and the opposing horse barely broke a sweat. I tried to follow up and engage that horse with my Romans while they were disordered but we ended up an inconclusive melee. Meanwhile my reinforcement spear arrived on the left,

The enemy pike moved and I engaged them. Meanwhile, the warband advanced. Remember those spears I received? Well, one stand proved be even less of a speed bump than my cavalry were. I couldn't even put a disorder on the enemy cavalry.

But things did start to look up for me. The warband disintegrated under a hail of pilums (pila?). I finally killed the horse I'd been sparing with. But it was not completely sunshine for me because it cost me two units of Romans.

My forces were slowly being ground down however. I was saved from complete and utter defeat by the onset of darkness (AKA reaching the end of the allotted time). You can see the ugliness of my position. The white markers are one hit, yellow are two hits, and red are 3.