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.

 

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.

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.

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.

IABSM – Blenneville or Bust: West of Pierrecourt

We recently decided that a campaign would be fun, so I picked up the Blenneville or Bust campaign from Two Fat Lardies written by Robert Avery.  This is a fictional campaign set in a valley in Normandy immediately following the landings.  The first game of the campaign involves an American reconnaissance effort.

Spoiler Alert – If you are planning to play the campaign and want to have limited intel, read on at your own risk.

IABSM: Action at Anzio

After a long lull, we recently got in another game of IABSM 3 using a scenario from the “Anzio, From Wildcat to Whale” book by Robert Avery.  This game was set during the German counterattacks that took place once the allies had exhausted themselves trying to break the German perimeter.  Apologies for the few and crappy pictures – I forgot the camera and just had my phone… plus the game was a good one  and I forgot to take many pictures.

Bathtub Primosole Bridge

The arrival of spring break allowed me a little time to organize some much needed relaxation, so I put together another scenario for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (v3).  This one was a bathtub version of some of the fighting around the Primosole Bridge during the invasion of Sicily.

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.

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.