Saga

Around Thanksgiving I picked up a copy of the recently released dark ages skirmish rules, Saga.  These are written by Studio Tomahawk, a French game company, in a collaboration with Gripping Beast Miniatures in the UK.  After a month of reading and a bit of solo tinkering, I was able to get over to the FLGS (Your Hobby Place in Martinsburg, WV) for my first game.

IABSM: The Road To Scoglitti

Last week we got in our second game with IABSM version 3, this time using a scenario from the Sicilian Weekend scenario book published by Too Fat Lardies.  This book contains a scad of scenarios covering the first two days of Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943.

L’ Abbaye Blanche – IABSM 3

Yes, I’m still kicking…  Been a busy few months, will little time for games, much less writing about them.  Spent most of the fall playing stuff I could walk into the game store and plop down such as Blood Bowl and Warmachine, but this week I got a few guys together for a game using the new version of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum from Two Fat Lardies.  We’d played a couple of games of IABSM last spring and enjoyed them.  At Historicon I was able to play in a game of Through the Mud and Blood hosted by chief Lardy Richard Clarke and really enjoyed that game, which had a number of elements that were to be included in IABSM 3.  So when the rules became available this fall, I immediately picked them up and put together a scenario.

Historicon CY6-athon!

When it came time to register games for Historicon this year, I found myself in a bit of a pickle – I wanted to run a number of Check Your 6! games, but wasn’t sure what days I’d be able to make it to the convention.  However, I figured I’d at least be able to make it for Saturday, so signed up to run three Check Your 6! games back to back to back on Saturday.  We’ll see how my voice holds out through the entire day.  On the plus side, all of the games are on the same table, so I’ll only have to drag out my stuff one time.

Here are my games for this year’s con

S-585 – CY6! – Rude Insult – Port Moresby, New Guinea, 18 May 1942
Sat. 9 AM, 4 hrs, 6 players
GM: Brian Cantwell and Skirmish Campaigns
Sponsor: Fight’s On! Miniatures and I-94 Enterprises
WWII 1/300, Rules: Check Your 6!
Facing stiff opposition from the skilled Japanese pilots of the Tainan Air Group as well as their own balky aircraft, the young Americans of the
8th Fighter Group aggressively attacked at every opportunity. On this mission, future ace and flight leader Tommy Lynch scored his first
confirmed kill during a Betty raid against 12-Mile Strip.
Younger gamers welcome with supervising adult.

S-586 – CY6! – A Day of Firsts – Buna, New Guinea, 27 Dec 1942
Sat. 1 PM, 4 hrs, 6 players
GM: Brian Cantwell and Skirmish Campaigns
Sponsor: Fight’s On! Miniatures and I-94 Enterprises
WWII 1/300, Rules: Check Your 6!
Nine days after arriving in New Guinea, the Japanese Army Air Force’s 11th Sentai embarked on their first joint operation with JNAF units,
joining Zeros to escort Aichi D3A dive bombers attacking the newly established Allied airfield near Buna. The group had its first encounter with
two future foes: the P-38 Lightning and Richard Bong.
Younger gamers welcome with supervising adult.

S-587 – CY6! Jet Age, Arab Israeli – Turning the Tide – Sinai, 19 Oct 1973
Sat. 5 PM, 4 hrs, 5 players
GM: Brian Cantwell and Skirmish Campaigns
Sponsor: Fight’s On! Miniatures and Pico Armor
Modern 1/300, Rules: Check Your 6! – Jet Age
As the tide of the war turns against them, the Egyptian Air Force launches attacks against Israeli columns pushing west toward the Suez Canal
and Egypt. Two veteran Nesher pilots of the IAF’s 144 Squadron are vectored in to intercept EAF strike aircraft escorted by MiG-21s. Can skill
and superior missiles overcome the numerical superiority?
Younger gamers welcome with supervising adult.

Hope to see you in a couple of weeks.  If you enjoy the blog, feel free to stop by and say Hi.

The Cheese

A while back I did up a Blood Bowl Skaven team for one of the guys in our Blood Bowl league.  He had wanted them done in colors of the Green Bay Packers (this was even before the Super Bowl).  So I whipped these guys together.  I thought they came out pretty well for a rather quick job.  As soon as he saw the pics, Doug immediately named them “The Cheese”.

Thrower

Counterattack at Jandrain – IABSM game #2

The first I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! game was quite well received and the group was eager for another action.  One of the players requested more tanks, so I cast about a bit for another action and settled on the the French counterattack by SOMUA S-35s of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division  against the panzers of the  3rd Panzer Division on the morning of May 13, 1940.  The Panzers had pushed the French Dragoons out of Orp in the morning and were reported to be moving to Jandrain when the French launched the attack by the 1st Cuirassiers.

Fireball Forward – Pacific Theater

A while back I got the opportunity to go for a day of games doing more tests on the forthcoming company level WWII rules, Fireball Forward.  I’ve gotten a chance to play a few games at the HMGS cons and have liked what I’ve seen so far.  I knew Mark and the guys had been working on PTO a lot, so jumped at the chance to drive to “the city” and take in a couple of PTO games.

Pico Size, Mega Quality

How do you say "Oh! Crap" in Hebrew? 3mm IDF Centurians and M3 Halftracks with Navwar 1/300 Su-7

Last year I picked up some 3mm artillery and 23mm AA guns for use as ground targets in my CY6! – Jet Age games.  My aircraft models are 1:300 / 1:285 / 6mm, so I decided to go with 3mm to get that “stuff down there below us” scale effect.  I had heard good stuff about the Oddzial Osmy stuff from Poland and the pictures on the website at PicoArmor certainly looked good, so I ordered up a few.  They definitely looked great and so recently picked up some more stuff  (painting half on commission for Scott even payed for the order).  This time I got a variety of tanks, soft skins, APCs, and infantry.

Ambushing the Bear – Check Your 6! Jet Age

Recently I got a scenario from Scott at Skirmish Campaigns to playtest for the upcoming Arab-Israeli scenario book for Check Your 6! – Jet Age.    So I hopped up to the FLGS to put on the game.  The scenario is set in 1970 during the War of Attrition and features a clash between the Israeli Air Force and a elements of a Soviet air regiment.

I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum

Since moving to Virginia, I’ve been meeting a number of different groups of gamers around the area.  One such group meets at the FLGS (Your Hobby Place in Martinsburg) and usually plays various historical board games.  However, Jim was interested in playing I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! from Too Fat Lardies.  I’d had the rules for a while and had been wanting to try it out, so I was happy to set up a game.