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.

Guardians

While I was in Vancouver, I happened to stumbled across these (almost literally, because I was head down trying not to get too wet):

A Ram II



And an M4 Sherman:






















These two tanks stand guard beside the Beatty Street Drill Hall, which the home of the British Columbia Regiment.
The plaque says that this tank isn't actually the battalion commander's tank. I suspect that they bodged together two completely different tanks to create this display tank. The turret and port side came from a tank that was hit many times by an MG. Even though there's some hits on the front of the turret, there's none on the front hull. It is possible that the turret was turned to face the MG and that would account for the hits on its front but not on the front hull.




Here's the plaque. You can see some of the hits pretty clearly.

Interlude

Well, it's been a while between postings and for that I apologize.

I had initially thought that not working would mean that I would be able to get in a few more hours of painting, terrain-building, and gaming. How wrong that was.

Looking for work turned out to be a full-time job in of itself. I found that even when I did have the time, it was hard to find motivation. Perhaps it was guilt: should I really be painting when perhaps there's something I could be doing to find a job?

Well, eight weeks ago that all changed. A fantastic company offered me a position and I accepted. The only catch was that I had to move to BC.

In the space of 17 days, we packed the house, painted it from top to bottom, changed the kitchen counter, staged it, and put it up for sale. Needless to say, this has made anything gaming-related hard to do. But not impossible...

2mm American Civil War: Finally Done!

It's been a long time coming but I finally finished painting and basing my 2mm ACW figures. Here is the entire lot:

 

The Union consists of the entire II Corps and the Cavalry Corps plus most of I Corps. The Confederates consists of three divisions of Longstreet's Corps.

I used the Union Corps insignia plus division colours to identify the regiments. So the second brigade of the first division of II Corps has a white trefoil on red field.

Here is a detail shot of the Union Cavalry Corps:

The skirmishers took a little time but the payoff is nice:


Here's a picture of the Confederates, including tents and a baggage train (the last thing to be painted):

Charge!


A final shot before I put them away. I have no idea when I'll use them or what rules, but at least they are ready for use.

Yeah!

Russian cottage from 4Ground

Having posted about the relative flatness of the Ukrainian house roof compared to the glorious furriness of the Russian cottage, I realized that I did not post any pictures of it. Here it is in all of its hairy glory:

And here's a pic of the inside.

I do have a couple things to note:

Pro tip #1: Don't just glue the chimney onto the fur and hope it stays in place. Actually make a hole in the fur to glue it solidly onto the MDF. Mine isn't going anywhere but it's not as flat as I would like. I'm not sure but I think the instructions called for cutting a hole and I ignored them. Sigh.

Pro tip #2: While it is nice to break up the flatness of MDF, glue the shutters back against the wall instead of having them stick out at a jaunty angle. They will be much more durable that way.

Ukrainian house from 4Ground

I assembled this house a while back but haven't gotten around to posting about it until now. As with other 4Ground kits, it assembles nicely as long as you dry fit everything first and you follow the instructions.

These kits come with nice details inside and out. The shutters and the cracked plaster on the outside are a nice touch to add a bit of dimension.

But after the lushness of the fur thatch on the Russian house that I have, the absolute flatness of the roof is a bit disappointing. I guess I could add some really thin card over some of the scored planks and add some paint, but that's pretty far down the priority list. It still looks very good on the table.

Musket and Tomahawks at Mike's

Last weekend, Mike hosted a French vs British set in the French and Indian Wars. The British were tasked with protecting the settlers and the French were supposed to burn all the buildings. As this was a play test for a convention, these divergent goals played a huge role in the outcome.

I took the British regulars and the friendly Iroquois while Larry controlled the light troops, the militia and the settlers. I hid the Iroquois in the corn fields as a surprise for the French.

Things started up badly for the French when my regulars took a long range shot at some French lights who were deployed in the open. A kill and a retreat put them out of being a threat for a while.

Luck turned the French way as the French Hurons blundered into my Indians. But the French got another Indian activation card and managed to get into an advantageous battle. Both side's Indian massacred each other. The difference was that all of mine disappeared in the subsequent recoil while the French managed to keep a few from each Indian formation. This eventually was the turning point.

Meanwhile, Larry was having problems dealing with the French militia and regulars. Eventually, numbers counted and the British lights had to give ground, which lead to the burning of one cabin and inevitable burning of the other. On my side, after the clash of Indians, the way was open for the French irregulars to burn the largest building, which they did. The remaining Hurons slipped over to the other building and set it on fire too, despite the intervention of a second British regular unit.

But remember those civilians? We had provided them with enough time to run away into the woods, and as far as we were concerned, we had fulfilled our victory conditions. So the game was basically a tie with both sides having achieved what they set out to do.

So onto my thoughts on the rules. I'm not all that impressed with them. They have the typical problem of all card driven games in which everyone else waits for the guy who has had his units activated to do something. This isn't necessarily a killer but it has the potential to really bog down a game.

The firing seems a bit clunky to me. First you determine your base to hit. Then you modify it for terrain and range. This is pretty standard but the chart wasn't great at showing it. After you hit, you then roll for effect. It's basically modelling power or lethality. The problem is that basically all of the weapons in use were a 3+ to kill and the only units that weren't using a 3+ were some of my Indians and they never got off a shot. This essentially turned the second roll into a "restore 1/3 of your troops" event.

The melee makes the firing seem smooth by comparison, It is a huge time-suck as you resolve each set of figures one on one. So instead of taking 6 dice for 6 figures and rolling them as a group, you have to do it individually. Then your opponent rolls for his defense. Then you do it all over again as your opponent strikes back. And you keep doing this attack and defense until there's no more figures in direct contact. After all of that, you finally roll for morale to see what happens to each unit in the melee. If your units recoil or flee, you have to check each figure to see if they run away completely. This is what did my Indians in.

The morale is very volatile with a roll of a 1 or 2 on a fresh unit recoiling back or a 6 saving the sole figure in a unit from running to the hills. It's OK in effect but something to remember.

Would I play it again? Yes, but it won't be my first choice. I think there should be better games out there.