Tuesday Night Boardgame: Ligny From GMT's Battles of Waterloo Take Two

I haven’t had a lot of time to push counters around, but I’ve had enough to figure out a few things, including the fairly complex rules for command and control and activation of commands (corps and divisions).    The rules are rather complex, so I’m making slow progress.

Here’s the situation at the end of the 13:00 to 13:30 turn.  I don’t blame you for not making much sense of it.   The town of Ligny is in the centre, as is Blucher’s I Corps under Zeiten..   At the top, Pirch’s II Corp is beginning to march south to reinforce Blucher.  At the extreme right, the first elements of Thielmann’s III Corps is entering the map.  French are coming on at the bottom.

For the Frenchers,  left to right, Milhaud’s IV Corps CavRes, the Imperial Guard under Drouot,and Gerard’s IV Corps just starting to come on. The III Corps is out of the shot on the left.   Note that many of the units are followed by a n Extended Column marker.   While most units are brigade sized, the game has some tactical aspects, including large units taking up extra space while moving in column on roads and paths.   Units with 6 or more Strength Points  in tactical movement as opposed to road movement can flip these counters and adopt an extended line formation to maximize their firepower.

 

I haven’t quite decided how the French attacks are going to work.  I suspect it will be III and IV Corps, supported by the Guards artillery.  One of the interesting things about this game is the sequence of play, which is a chit pull system.  Depending on the Supreme Commander’s command rating, he can choose a number of chits representing Corps and Commands.    Blucher gets two, and Napoleon starts with three (his command rating depends on his health from turn to turn).  The sides take turns drawing chits, and once they are gone, they take turns trying to activate Corps and Commands that spent the turn without a chit.   I’ve pretty much got that figured out.  Now to work on the combat mechanics.

Speaking of games, Victory Point announced recently that it was discontinuing several of its titles.   I wanted two games because of their Canadian content, Operation Veritable, about the capture of the Reichswald in 19944-45, and their Juno Beach game from their D-Day system.   I also couldn’t resist getting “Toe-to-Toe Nuc’lr Combat With the Rooskies”, a tongue in cheek solitaire game about red-blooded B-52 bomber crews.  Hard to resist.

I suspect I’ll tell you about the B-52 game along with my next Ligny update.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Opening Knight in the Wargames Room

 

 

The kind and talented Jonathan Freitag held a contest recently on his blog and I was quite thrilled to receive this prize in the mail last week.   I wish I had acknowledged and thanked Jonathan sooner, but I thought it would be appropriate thanks to show that I’ve already employed this useful little book.

This book is valuable in two ways.  First, it provides 2-3 page rules for classic wargaming periods ranging from Ancients to WW2.   The rules are extremely brief and simple.   Each period has four troop types, and the rules for all these periods share an IGO/UGO turn structure: move, shoot and melee.    There are no morale or leadership rules, but for an hour long war-game, not every rules concept can be included.

The other useful thing about this book is that the second half features a set of scenarios, thirty in all, which would work for the rules in the book or for more complicated rules.  This combination of smiple rules and fast scenarios seemed like a perfect way to inaugurate the wargames room.

Since I had just unpacked the box containing my 28mm medievals figures, which have been sitting in that box for four moves and at least ten years, I decided to break them out and try Thomas’ medieval rules.  In a very simple confrontation, using the Pitched Battle scenario, the forces of Humphrey de la Tour Palouse face off against the retinue of Godfrey Mainfort.  Humphrey has allied himself with Oswry the Usurper and promised to deliver him the North in return for being made Lord of the Marches and marrying his daughter Esmerelda to Oswry’s rodent-faced son Ranulph.   Godfrey Mainfort, on the other hand, is loyal to Penric, uncle and Protector of the two young princes of the late King Bohemund the Pious.   The two armies meet on the windy moors to decide the contest.

Both sides are identical in composition:  three units of knights, and a unit each of archers, men-at-arms and levies, since both roll the same number on the random force generation table.  Duc Godfrey chooses to mass all of his chivalry on his left wing, while Humphrey only has two thirds of his knights on his right wing.

 

Humphrey’s array.   Many of these figures, including the peasants in the foreground, are about twenty years old.   I’m glad my friend James convinced me never to get rid of them.

 

Godfrey’s knights surge forward.  They will mass 2 to 1 and 1 to 1 on Humphrey’s two units, annihilating one immediately.   As you can see from the white bases at the top of this picture, I had started a rebasing project, years ago, then forgotten about it.  I suppose I should revisit that project, as most of these figures are based singly on pieces of cereal box cardboard, and the state of the basing art has progressed since then.

Lord Stanley of Barrie adjudicates the clash of chivalry.  A most palpable hit, he cries.  Now, where’s the tuna you promised me for this gig?

Humphrey’s unengaged unit of knights rides down Godfrey’s archers, which are old Minifigs castings with one Wargames Foundry figure closest to the camera.

In return, Godfrey’s chivalry, having crushed Humphrey’s right wing, ride down his archers while Humphrey’s men at arms look increasingly endangered.  In the back of the photo, a unit of Godfrey’s knights rides in pursuit of Duc Humphrey.  Some of the charging knights are RAFM and others are Minifgs.  The archers are Wargames Foundry.  I don’t recall who made the halberdiers at the bottom right.  Citadel, perhaps?

Who legs it, with his surviving knights, leaving his foot to their dubious fates.  Notice in the photo below how my collection, which was quite haphazard, combines a late medieval/WOTR era figure with early 14th century figures.   Shockingly ahistoric, but these were collected in long ago, more innocent days, when I was content to grab whatever figures I could find on a limited budget.

Duc Humphrey has escaped to plan his revenge.  The fate of the realm is far from decided.   There will be other battles.

Joanathan, thanks for your very kind gift.  It was a great pleasure, in my distracted state, to use this great little book for a cheap and cheerful battle with some old, old friends.  I will turn to this book again, I am sure.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Tuesday Night Boardgame: Ligny From GMT's Battles of Waterloo

It’s a retro post tonight as I finally punched a game I’ve had for ages, GMT’s Battles of Waterloo, a 1994 game design by Richard Berg.   I bought it and three other titles through a sale after a friend of mine told me about this new, up and coming gaming company called GMT.  My newfound Napoleonics interest made me want to go back and give it a try.

I’ve decided to start with the Ligny scenario.  It’s a big game, played on two maps (the maps are clever back printed to allow four battles in one box.  The new house gives me a study with a door I can keep closed from the dreaded kitty cats.  Even so Ligny is a big game, taking up my entire desk.  Here’s the initial setup, with the Prussians in the centre and the French just coming onto the map.

Old “Vorwarts” Blucher ponders how he can extricate his army from the French tide and link up with Wellington.  It’s quite a nice map.

While Napoleon together with Grouchy plot the piecemeal destruction of the Allied armies

Here’s a bit of gaming history.

 

In the bottom of the box I found a GMT 1994 catalogue.  Billingsley, Berg, Herman - quite the lineup of talent that they were able to include as part of the GMT team.  The artwork already has that signature style of Rodger MacGowan that makes boardgames of previous decades look so dull.   A reminder of how long ago 1994 was, the game design notes mention that Berg and the play testers were able to collaborate using an awesome piece of technology called the Genie Information System.  Hands up if you remember GEnie.   Bonus marks if you ever played a game using GEnie.

Hopefully next Tuesday I’ll actually have something to say about the game itself.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Back To The Brushes

A big accomplishment  this long weekend, other than sawing the box spring of our spare bed in half (long story), was getting my painting desk set up in the back corner of the basement.  Hurrah!  I’m hoping it won’t be too cold in the winter.  The advantage of the narrow space is that it certainly focuses my attention.

There are a lot of half-finished projects to unpack, but I thought I’d start with the first thing that came out of the box, these Perry Brothers 28mm figures from their American Civil War artillery set.   Very inexpensive compared to their equivalent lead figures.  I’m painting these as Confederates, even if that means gritting my teeth and using as many different colours (shades of gray and butternut)  as possible for the uniforms.  Nice to have the artillery cassions, as well.

 

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Settling In

We’re getting there.  Madame Padre and I have been in the house for a few weeks now.   90% of the boxes are unpacked.   Some of the paintings and family photos are hung.   Some new furniture arrives on Friday.   Madame Padre has her favourite bench swing set up in the backyard and appears to be enjoying it.

 

Luigi has been helping unpack boxes.

 

The wargames room had one wall that was an odd shade of lime green, like a sickly sherbet.  I had some tan paint left over from an upstairs room, just enough to cover it.  I guess you could say this is my first hobby painting in the new house.

 

Tonight I found the fun paints.   Looking forward to using them again.

I’ve had a week to get used to my new job.   The view out of my window is nice.   I’m in the old base high school that has been repurposed for several units, including the Canadian Forces Chaplain School.   My position requires me to be bilingual (French and English) so I have some time to brush up my rusty French before les etudiants arrive.

Most importantly, Madame Padre and I had our first meeting with her oncologist today.  We liked him a lot. As he put it, the surgery got out all the visible “junk”, and now the task is to get rid of all the microscopic junk.   To do that, Mdme. will be starting chemotherapy in a week and she is planning to tackle it head on, as she does everything.  I’m very proud of her.   Thanks for all your kind wishes and support, they’re much appreciated.

Onwards ad upwards.

Cheers and blessings,

MP+

 

Packed and On the Move

The last week has passed in a blur.   On Sunday Kay and I headed up to Barrie, our new home, since we had an appointment with or lawyer early Monday to close the sale of our new house.  We travelled in convoy, me leading the way in Appa the Volksbison, our 1985 VW Westfalia which behaved beautifully thanks to a new water pump.  Money well spent, as there are many hills on the roads north to Barrie, and Appa behaved well climbing each of them.  Sunday we stayed at a KOA, which is a very mainstream, family friendly campground.   Well, calling it camping is a bit of a stretch when there is a pizza parlour and video games centre in the heart of the campground, but it was cheerful, cheap and convenient.

Stuff with lawyers and real estate always leaves my stomach in knots, and we had some last minute drama on Monday verifying that the insurance for the new house was in place, but by 5pm, on Madame Padre’s birthday no less, we walked through the door of our new house.  Am I a classy guy for buying my wife a new house as a birthday present, or what?  Madame P wanted some painting done before the furniture arrived, since two of the bedrooms were done in garish orange and blue colours, as is the fashion for children’s bedrooms these days.   These bedrooms are to be repurposed as studies/offices, so we wanted to get that done before they were full of books and bookcases and thus much harder to paint.

Parked in our backyard, Appa was our bedroom for the two days we painted.   One of the blessings of a slightly older house is the larger lot and mature trees.   Lots of trees.  All of Kay’s talents as a shade gardener will be called on.

We also had a chance to visit the regional hospital while in Barrie, and get Madame registered with the cancer centre.    We are very impressed at how quickly her file is being handled now.  She has a CT scan to schedule sometime next week, and a visit with her new oncologist at the end of the month.  Thank you all for your kind wishes, emails, and prayers, they are much appreciated and we are better for them.

Then back to Kitchener on Wednesday night.  The packers, two young women and a man, arrived on our doorstep Wednesday morning and worked through the day.   Here is the sad sight of my wargames room and painting bench, all packed uo and ready to load on the truck.  

Even though it was a big space, it was dark and I won’t miss it.  I am trading space for light, as the new games room has glorious fluorescent lamps.  It will be heaven.

 Most of those boxes are full of my wargames stuff.   It’s an alarming amount of kit, as Madame occasionally remarks, apropos of nothing.

 

Madame bids farewell to the moving van, which was loaded and driving off by noon today.

 By early afternoon tomorrow we will have finished cleaning the house and loading some of Kay's plants, and we will be on the way.  Truck arrives at the new place on Monday morning and I report to my new job on Wednesday.  Busy times ahead.

Tonight we are in a hotel, and we went to see Terminator Genisys.   We both enjoyed watching a 68 year old Arnold S do the robot schtick, but found the banging and smashing around to be a bit tiresome, and the time travel stuff makes my head hurt.

Blessings,

MP+

Turnipograd Rises

In yesterday’s post on a Russian front battle there were some 15mm buildings featured.   Almost of them are from the Northern Russian Village set published by Paper Terrain.  As I’ve said here before, I am a fan of Paper Terrain.  This company provides a cheap and cheerful way to get decent looking terrain on the table in quantity.

I’ve gotten pretty good at assembling this stuff.    All you need is a good pair of scissors, a sharp knife for scoring the folds, glue (I prefer white carpenter’s glue, slightly diluted) and patience.   I can assemble one of these sheets in an hour while keeping one eye on Netflix, and that’s allowing time for the glue to dry between stages.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I’ve been on a basing blitz of late.   I have all but one of the buildings assembled in the PT Village set, but only five based so far. The bases show off the buildings well and allow me to use the nice little fences that come with each building.  Here is Turnipograd in happier times. 

And a sad dystopian vision of what will happen should Turnipograd ever fall into the bloodstained hands of the fascist invader.  The ruined versions of the buildings are quite useful.  Sadly, for the 4Ground models, I would have to purchase the ruined versions, which for now is an expense too far.

Of course a Mad Padre model village has to have a church.

 

Presumably this church has been repurposed by the Party as a granary or something.   Scott W includes a gold-painted wooden knob for the onion dome, which is a nice touch.  There is also a proper Orthodox cross to put on the top of the dome, though I don’t think such a cross would be approved of by Comrade Stalin.

A street view in Turnipograd.

 

A tidy little farm on a busy (Battlefront resin) road.  Judging from those tank tracks leading right up to the window, it looks like someone applied the brakes just in time.

 

That’s a 4Ground laser-cut MDF Russian house mixed with a Paper Terrain outbuilding, fence and woodpile.   They work well together, I think.

I’m thinking this is either a school or a party headquarters?  Or possibly a community hall where the Junior Pioneers can stage their children’s pageant, “Comrade Stalin’s Glorious Fiver Year Plan for Increased Agricultural Production”?

Defenders of Turnipograd.  These buildings work well with my 15mm models.

 

They also work well with 20mm models, or at least, with 1/76 scale.  These fascist invaders will soon be crushed by the Red Army, don’t worry.

So that’s the lot.  All now boxed and packed away - movers come in a week!  Very little time left for wargaming projects.  Hopefully Turnipograd will see some use in the fall or whenever I cross swords with the dastardly Kampfgruppe Manto.

 

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 19; Mounted Figures: 10

20mm:  Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1 

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5

6mm:  Scenic pieces:  7

Kilometres Run: 252