Games for Historicon 2017

Which way to Historicon?

The countdown to Historicon continues and I’m still painting 3mm guys at every opportunity.  Stay tuned for more photos of the latest progress.

In the meantime, below are the blurbs for my games from the PEL, as well as those of some buddies of mine.  Online registration for Historicon continues through June 16, so you still have time to get signed up for any of these great games or others.

Friday, 6 PM, F-541

Saturday, 9 AM, S-542

Today Capuzzo, Tomorrow Tobruk. Operation Battleaxe , June 1941

Theme World War II; 6 PM; Length: 4 hrs; Hosted by: Brian Cantwell; Scale: 1/600; Rules: Field of Battle World War II; Sponsor: Picoarmor; Prize: Prizes provided by Picoarmor (www.picoarmor.com); No. of Players: 6. With the disappointment of Operation Brevity and the arrival of the Tiger convoy, Churchill has pressured Wavell to launch his next offensive, despite minimal time for the crews to train on their newly arrived tanks. Can superior numbers, British spirit, and the Queen of the Desert carry the day and open the way to Tobruk or will the Desert Fox once again steal victory using daring and his last fuel reserve? Maneuver battalions and brigades in this division scale game of Operation Battleaxe. No experience needed, rules will be taught. Young gamers welcome with supervising adult.

Saturday, 1 PM, S-499

Operation Brevity: May, 1941

Theme World War II; 1 PM; Length: 4 hrs; Hosted by: Brian Lipscomb; Scale: 15mm; Rules: Battlegroup; No. of Players: 6. With Tobruk besieged, the British plan to push across the Libyan border and seize key positions in preparation for larger operations meant to relieve the port. This game focuses on the British drive against “weak” Axis forces holding Halfaya Pass and Fort Capuzzo. For the Axis, surprisingly determined Italians and ample Panzers mean that British hopes for a decisive victory may be overly optimistic. The new Battlegroup: Tobruk rules will be used. Experienced or new Battlegroup players welcome.

I’ll be on hand to help out with Brian’s game as soon as I can get my own morning game packed up and put away.

Friday, 2 PM, F-234

CY6! – Marianas Turkey Shoot over Guam – June 19, 1944

World War II; 2 PM; Length: 4 hrs; Hosted by: Rob Wubbenhorst; Scale: 1/285; Rules: Check Your 6!; Sponsor: Fight’s On! & I-94 Enterprises; Prize: Fight’s On! goodies & Raiden 1/300 aircraft; No. of Players: 8. After a morning that witnessed the largest air battle in history, the surviving air groups of Ozawa’s airfleet head toward Guam and the safe haven of Orote Airfield. Will the afternoon sun help them to safely reach the airfield and re-group for another strike against the Saipan invasion fleet, or will the fighter directors of TF58 and the combat air patrol of Fighting Aces VF-15 pluck some more feathers in the Marianas Turkey Shoot?

Hope to see you there.

 

3mm Madness – DAK Panzers

Headquarters of the II Battalion / 8. Panzer Regiment

I was looking back at some of the research I had done for the Historicon Opearation Battleaxe 3mm game and realized that I had read the dates wrong for the German paint colors and that the tanks should have the earlier darker scheme for Operation Battleaxe.  So I repainted the battalion that I had already finished…

Historicon 2017 – 3mm madness

This year’s theme for Historicon is “100 Years of the Tank”.  That seemed like a perfect excuse to getting really cracking on a project I’ve been kicking around on for a couple of years now – the tanks battles in North Africa using the really nice 3mm armor from Picoarmor.  I had picked up some of these in the past to use as targets in Check Your 6! games and was really, really impressed by the detail and intrigued by the possibility of doing a unit based game where the stands really look like units and not individual tanks.  A while back I bought a bunch of German tanks and experimented with painting and basing, but the project got sidetracked by various other games.

More Saga Troops

One of my hobby goals for this year is to try to get back into the swing of putting some stuff on my blog. In order to make that happen with the demands of work/kids/life, I am going to try doing more quick and dirty posts…

So in that vein, here are some hastily done and somewhat washed out photos of some recent stuff I painted for Saga. These are largely in support of my Norman/Frank/Crusader forces.

Bishop and attendant from Gripping Beast

Games for Historicon 2016

Historicon returns to the Fredericksburg Expo and Convention Center on July 14-17 this year.  This year’s theme is “Cavalry, Mounted warfare through the ages”.  Myself and a couple of my gaming buddies here in Winchester are making the trip and running a few games.

15mm Soviet Cavalry from Old Glory ready to march to Historicon

Friday at 9 AM Brett and Brian will be putting on a big Lion Rampant game.  Brian is custom building a bunch of terrain for the game and it should be a nice spectacle.

Saga Normans

Since I’ve resuscitated the blog might as well keep going with an eye-candy post of my Normans for Saga.  These are a mix of Conquest Games plastic Normans, Crusader, and Gripping Beast.  This is a nice force for Saga as the same troops can be used as Normans, Capetian Franks, or as Crusaders from Crescent and Cross.  I have been reading a good bit of the fascinating history of the Normans in Italy, so decided to give these a more arid basing scheme (which works well when fielding them as Crusaders as well).

Vyazma or Bust with Battlegroup: Barbarossa

“You can take a picture of it [the dead KV-2] if you put it on your blog.  You haven’t put anything there in years”

The picture was snapped and so the challenge accepted.  After a 3-ish year hiatus, I am back with some accounts of our latest game.

Last year at Historicon I  got a chance to try out the Battlegroup series of WWII rules from Ironfist Publishing.  I enjoyed the games a lot and so brought the rules home for the group to try, where they have also been a hit.  I’ll let others provide a review, but we have really enjoyed these as they move fast, have enough command uncertainty, and create historically reasonable outcomes.

For our latest venture we have been playing the Vyazma or Bust campaign written for IABSM and converting the scenarios to use with the Battlegroup: Barbarossa rules.  This campaign is set during the fall of 1941 as a part of the Barbarossa campaign.

Barrage 2013

On Saturday I made the trip to the HAWKS annual one-day mini con, Barrage.  I know the HAWKS from games at the HMGS cons (as well as knowing Buck Surdu for a long time), so was expecting a quality event and I weas not disappointed.  It was a great time and well worth the two hour drive over and back.

IABSM – Blenneville or Bust: Avaux

The second scenario of the IABSM Blenneville or Bust campaign featured an attack by the British against German positions near the fictitious town of Avaux.  We played this scenario way back in the spring, so details are sketchy at best, but it was a good, close run game.  As with the previous installment of the campaign, if you are planning to play the campaign and don’t want to know the particulars, consider this your official spoiler alert.

Roman Ships Going to Barrage Gaming Day

The Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (HAWKS) are hosting their annual gaming day, Barrage, on September 14 this year in Havre de Grace, MD. The HAWKS are a great bunch of guys and put on a host of very entertaining and visually impressive games at the HMGS conventions each year.  This years games run the gamut from ancients to sci-fi and include a number of kid friendly games.