Maida Mayhem Magically Materializes

Those who follow Conrad Kinch's blog (which is everyone who's anyone, really) will have noticed a post in which he mentioned an experiment we have been conducting using Apple's FaceTime technology. In our first session, we found that by using our iPhones and FaceTime we could have a conversation, and see details of a wargaming table with sufficient detail to have a game. During that first session, CK was able to explain the basics of GMT's Command and Colors Napoleonics. The beauty of it was that, other than what we paid for our gadgets, the connection was free. FaceTime does not use a phone line to connect, so if you both parties have a wifi connection, you're good to go.


Last night, despite a brutal seven hour time difference (Alberta, Canada vs Dublin, Ireland) which CK gamely took on the chin, we tried phase two of the experiment and played a game of CC Nap, with CK's gaming table and figures as the battlefield. The scenario CK chose was Maida. Because CCNap is card driven and players activate select units by playing one of their cards each turn, there was the problem of how I could manage my hand without CK, who physically held the cards, from knowing what was in my hand. We solved the problem by CK holding up the cards to the camera, me writing the card details down at my end, then CK placing the cards face down, in a sequence numbered 1 to 5, on my side of the table. It worked quite well. The details on the cards were hard to see at tomes, but visible enough that I could compare what I could see with the downloaded rules. It was a bit squinty but it worked.





A shot of Kinch's gaming table from a previous setup of Maida, courtesy of Donogh McCarthy's blog.


The game itself was cracking. It was the first Napoleonics game I've played in ages and my tactics were guided by CK's kind coaching. Within an hour and a half we were able to obtain a result, a very narrow 4-3 French victory, with the French light cavalry covering themselves in glory. I quickly learned that simply pointing my pen at units on the screen of my iPad did no earthly good in showing CK what I meant. Fortunately CK uses a Hotz hex mat which made it simple for me to tell him how I wished to move my troops and to visualize ranges of fire. I am not sure how we would have managed had we been using a tape measure instead of a hex map.

So good stuff all around. As this sort of technology gets better and easier to use I think wargamers will use it more frequently as the internet allows us to find kindred spirits who are geographically removed from each other. The game was good, having a drink and a chat w CK afterwards (and meeting his cat, Sir Harry Flashman) was even better.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Maida Mayhem Magically Materializes

Tactical Problem Of The Day: Seizing Cinderella's Magic Castle

A US Marine explains the optimal approach for capturing this bastion of evil. A must-read for wargamers and aspiring tacticians.

Napoleon At The Ball Park

Some reading while waiting for tonight's baseball game to start.




H.C.B. Rogers' classic Napoleon's Army. I've pretty much decided that my first Nappy figures will be in French (seems the obvious starting point) in 6mm, probably the 1806-15 period.

Now the next question: if Napoleon were around today, what sport would he be a fan of?



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:2 St SE,Medicine Hat,Canada

Mad Padre vs Mad Padre

One of the great pleasures of my job working at CFB Suffield/British Army Training Unit Suffield is getting to meet my chaplain colleagues from the British Army. The UK padres I've met are all excellent, hard working fellows with difficult jobs. They come over with their units to train, live in fairly austere conditions far away from home for months at a time, minister to their soldiers while in the field, listen to their complaints, and sometimes help repair the damage when a squaddie goes into town on a tear and gets into trouble.

Last month I had several padres over to my house in Medicine Hat for a chance to rest and get away from camp. Several days later, I was having a brew with one of them, Kevin, chaplain to 2 Royal Tank Regiment, and he said "I noticed a wargaming magazine at your house last night. Do you wargame?". His tone was that of a fellow conspirator, and over the next hour we talked about our collections, favorite rules, and all the
other stuff that war gamers go on about. We checked our schedules, and found that it was possible to get a night of gaming in before Kevin went back to the UK.

Kevin wanted to try out The 3rd edition of Too Fat Lardies'I Ain't Been Shot Mum so we chose the third scenario, "Action at Galmanche". In this scenario, British infantry and armour have to push through SS infantry with a PAK 75 AT gun in support. We cut a platoon per side since I don't yet have enough figures for a company each, but kept the two British tank troops. The dice assigned me the Germans.

From Mobile

Kevin plans his cunning advance. My forces are woefully deployed in the buildings on the right, and in the woods and buildings in the centre. The woods above the road are impassable by tanks, so Kevin eiher has to swing around to my left or go through the hedgerows on the right. In fact he did both.

My pre-positioning was pretty dreadful. I scattered 1 Zug in the buildings on my left with the PAK forward in the woods, so no element could support another. 2 Zug was in the woods on my left, unable to support 1 Zug or the PAK, and the tank killers of Coy HQ were in the buildings on the left. I didn't notice the scenario rule allowing seven German elements to entrench, and I suffered badly from the opening British barrage. Kevin placed his stonks masterfully, and as a result my AT gun and most of 1 Zug were crippled with shock and/or down several soldiers before the game began.

Kevin's HQ came on first and my shock raddled AT crew were unable to hit them in their carriers before they dismounted.

From Mobile

Coy HQ in carriers advances. The PAK opens fire on them but note the red dice - 5 shock from the stonk! It misses.

The CSM, "Basher" Bishop, quickly got the Coy Vickers into action, killing the German big man with the PAK and driving off the crew. From there 1 platoon of his infantry descended on my infantry on my right, pinning and assaulting my lead two sections and bundling them off as easily as tossing out a drunk at closing time.

From Mobile

Kevin's infantry handly tosses my infantry out of the buildings on my right.

From Mobile

One of Kevin's two tank troops swings around my right as his infantry consolidate. The second tank in the column is a Centaur proxying for a Sherman. I have one section left in the little cafe below the road, but it has 5 shock left over from the stonk.

I had a little more success when his 2 platoon wandered into the LOS of my 2 Zug. I caught his lead section moving in the open and mowed them down.

Kevin watches his second platoon cross my front, unaware that my PZ Grenadiers are lining up on his lead section. Ha!

My success was fleeting, however. By then he was moving his Coy support weapons up on the south side of d woods, behind 2 Zug, and engaging it from two sides.

Having cleared the buildings on my right, Kevin's infantry and armour start to put the squeeze on me in the centre.

Matters were not helped by my four sections of off board 81mm mortars, which were unavailable for the entire game through my poor rolling. This caused us both much mirth as we imagined the voicemail greeting that the poor FOO kept getting. "Guten tag, ziss is zee artillery. Vee are not available right now, but pliss to leave grid coordinates, und vee shall get back to you. Auf weidersehen und have an ubermenschen tag!". Proof, if it was needed, that a good game is about how much you laugh, and not whether you win or lose.

Two things towards the end of the game lightened my spirits somewhat. Kevin, like a good tankie padre, pushed one of his Sherman troops hard and fast across my front and then hooked down towards the two buildings I held on my left. Unfortunately for them, they drove their pretty flanks right past my tankillers and a section of my infantry, who let loose with a volley of Panzerfausts and Panzerschreks.

From Mobile

Hello Tommy! The lead Sherman explodes in a fireball, while the Firefly behind it takes an engine hit (hence the little green spanner, one of the tokens that came with the IABSM bundle) and a point of shock. Not having any HE or MG, the Firefly is pretty helpless.

The second good thing about ambushing Kevin's armour was that I got to use some of the cool little burning markers I recently ordered from Litko. Before the game, Kevin didn't think I'd need them. Double ha!

From Mobile

A close up of a Litko marker adorning a burning tank. Such a heartwarming sight!

That was about all the good fortune I had. Kevin had an intact armour troop and 2 intact infantry sections worked behind my centre, and they were poised to shoot my infantry out of the woods and houses they still held. I conceded.

Getting set to winkle out Jerry.

So that was our game. The estimable Conrad Kinch wrote in the latest issue of Battlegames that the principle joy of wargaming is social. He quotes the late Paddy Griffiths that "a wargame [is] a social occasion like a dinner party", and that the most desirable quality in an opponent is really, "would I gladly have a pint with him?". Hear, hear, Kinch. One of the great joys of this summer was making a new friend in Padre Kevin, and then deepening our friendship with a shared passion for toy soldiers. I look forward to pitching up on Kevin's doorstep in the UK at some point for a rematch and a few more pints. That won't be for a while, though. Not only am I unlikely to make it to the UK anytime soon, but Kevin and his lads are getting ready for a trip to Helmand, and then a difficult time as the two Royal Tank Regiments are amalgamated into one. He's a good padre and will be up to that task, but if you wish, say a prayer for him.

From Mobile

Happy padres give IABSM 3 two thumbs up. I'm the chap with the double chin on the left. Two cracking moustaches, don't you think?

So, in summary. My tactical deployment sucks and needs to be improved. My Litko markers are fun to use. There is a second mad padre out there, and I've met him. God is indeed good, all the time.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Assault Group Appreciation

I mentioned the shirt in my last post as a good thing that happened in June. Something else that I really appreciated, beside Fran's awesome shirt, was this magnificent little 28mm pasha/sultan guy that came in the post from The Assault Group.

I can't recall how I learned about it, but I participated in The Assault Group's recent promotion (still running, as far as I can see from their website), to like them on Facebook and receive a free mini of one's choice in return. This sort of marketing is done all the time by big corporations, but for a small miniature manufacturer, it struck me as both creative, generous, and risky.

I wasn't familiar with TAG but, like everyone else, I can't resist a freebie and took part in their promotion. I had requested a German WW2 figure for my Weird War project, but I was delighted to get this fellow from their Renaissance range, as he will go well with an Ottoman army I started collecting some years back as an adversary for my SYW Russians. Besides, it seemed churlish to go back to TAG and say you sent me the wrong free figure. He'll do just fine.

Accompanying the figure was a letter from Pete at TAG, thanking me for my interest, and giving me a 10% discount good for one year at their webstore, or "indefinably" (I think Pete meant indefinitely) if I wished to contact him directly.

So thanks, Pete. I really admire what TAG has done with this promotion, I like what you've shown me of your products, and I will definitely buy some figures off you using your kind discount. I recommend TAG to the good readers of this blog.

Cheers, Mike

Not A Sausage In June, But A Nice Shirt

It's been bloody forever since I touched a paint brush, except for yesterday, during my lunch hour at work, so maybe that, and today's post, counts as breaking my slump. Travel, work, and a touch of what the medievals called accidia, or in good old fashioned English - sloth, have kept me much from the hobby. My painting project in June was to paint the fence around my backyard, which was in an appalling state, and all had to be scraped first. Well, still has to be scraped, really, since I've only managed to do one side, working the odd hour in the evening or all of the Monday of the Canada Day weekend. It's not great fun, and I'd rather be prepping little men, but when it's done at night, a beer and a half hour playing baseball on the PS3 is all I'm good for.

The scraped fence thus far. Anyone want to come help? There's a beer in it for you!

One good thing that happened in June was a shirt exchange with Fran, The Angry Lurker, who had designed some smashing shirts for his group of UK gamers, Posties' Rejects. There is a bit of a Canadian connection with the Posties, because my fellow Canuck blogger, Curt, of Analogue Hobbies fame actually made it over to the UK and played in a game with the Posties this spring. So when I proposed to Fran that I swap him a quality Canadian Forces shirt for a Posties shirt, I felt it was appropriate to have Canadian Chapter put on the back of mine.

Me with the shirt. Definitely the handsomest of the Rejects. Again with the fence!

Such a lot of silver hair. I didn't think I was that old.

Old, and mad.

This shirt goes into a special part of my wardrobe, beside Hot Lead red staff shirt and a rare Too Fat Lardies golf shirt. My son tells me that only an enormous geek would collect wargaming shirts. I tell him I'm not that enormous. So hopefully I'll get the chance to wear this shirt at a game or two soon, and that getting this post up will break the chains of lethargy and get me back to my paint bench ... in an old shirt, because I'm sloppy with paint.

TQD Castings British Infantry Part Two

Here's the second part of this post, the fellows from the TQD pack Brit/Commonwealth infantry carrying supplies. Several of these poses will be useful for troops advancing and patrolling.

Chap with Sten gun carrying a large satchel. Looks like an NCO type.

My favourite figure, and in my opinion, the best paint job of the lot. I think he shows the high end of this range, which at its best rivals anything from AB Miniatures, which to me is the gold standard for 20mm WW2 figures.

Anyone who has carried a full army jerry can, fetching fuel or water, over any significant distance, can empathize with this guy.

More dill weed as helmet camo.

The group moving up to the front.

And of course an officer comes along and gives them a change in orders.

So that's the lot. As you may have guessed, I am a fan of TQD stuff. They are small compared to some figures in the 20mm range, especially Raventhorpe and Valiant, but they are very nice minis. I also bought a section of late war Germans and hope to paint them soon. Those who dislike slotta type bases may want to stay away. I often base figures in groups at this scale, but it's useful to have some individial figures for skirmish gaming, and special roles (messengers, leaders, etc). The fellow with the jerry can raises some interesting possibilities for a resupply mission. I am considering glueing washers to the bottom of the bases to give them some weight on the table and allow them to stick to magnetic sheets in storage.