Questions for the Hivemind: A Christmas Themed Game

First some background...

Over the years, I've read many blog posts featuring great and fun looking Christmas themed scenarios (for an example, see One More Gaming Project ). Encouraged by my success running a Halloween themed (well, zombie) game for family and friends in October, I decided to capitalize on the good feelings and run a Christmas scenario for them since usually, we don't have much to do on Christmas day after dinner.

I didn't have much of anything suitable for figures for the game - I really wanted some appropriately themed forces in addition to any "normals" that might appear on the table. A visit to eBay and a somewhat lighter bank account later, I had the core of my protagonists - some Memory Lane Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer figures.

For a scenario, I was thinking a "Defend Santa's Workshop" game, but 1) all of the players will be against me as the Game Master, so limiting my options as the defender makes things a little easier and 2) my players are of the "attack, attack, attack" variety. 

Also to keep figure painting and building to a minimum, a few select squads operating outside of the North Pole will be easier to cover using primarily the Memory Lane figures.

Here is a sample setup I threw down at lunch today just to test how things might fit on the table.

The final table will be far more holiday themed. Possibly in over the top fashion.

I'm planning on Santa's sleigh being shot down during WW2 (1943?) and the sleigh has landed in a German occupied village - a taste of Blackhawk Down. The village is held a squad or two (more accurately they are half-squads) and an MG team. Reinforcements in the form of the Waffen SS and some armor are on the way to pick up the sleigh for safe transport. The players will need to blow up the sleigh or try to drag it back to their baseline. There will be secondary objectives with blinds that include some that are just nothing - Santa, the reindeer, the presents, that sort of thing.

Credit where it is due, the skeleton of the  setup is based on Scenario H: A Sigh of Relief from The Men Who Would Be Kings - the sleigh is the "objective". 

For rules, I'm thinking a variation of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. and To Be Continued by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. Fistful of Lead (FFoL) rules would be great, but I don't want to overburden the players with concepts they aren't used to gaming with - Shock and morale rules being chief among them. As role-players and video gamers they understand saving throws and hit points but they are used to handling their reactions to damage.

Though, I must say really do like the activation in FFoL and can see it working great in a multi-player game, so I can see stealing that and bolting it to some version of G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

 

The Bumble will undoubtedly be a special "weapon" called in by the player controlling Yukon Cornelius. Probably some kind rampage rules after X turns or a failed Saving Throw by Yukon.

So anyway, that's the general idea.  

For the hive mind,  I have two questions:

1) If you've run or played in multi-player skirmish type games - when players control just a single squad, do you / they seem to prefer to activate the squad all at once, individually by figure, or say a combination, where a leader figure can activate the whole squad when they are activated? I realize it's all very vague because the rules are up in the air, but just looking for some general guidance.

2) Other than the characters and objective being themed to Christmas, are there any activities that you think should occur in or around the game that would be fun and capture the holiday spirit? The youngest participant is 10 (my son) and I am the oldest participant (we'll keep my age out of it!). Funny hats? Requiring singing a Christmas carol to get a bonus? Things like that. Anything involving props I can make to give to the players that their squads can find will go over well (several of the group are LARPers and live for that kind of thing). I just need ideas!

 Very many thanks in advance!

Toy Soldiers and a Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles

Thursday was Thanksgiving here in the US. And I was thankful I had a lot of opportunity to game, including a chance for a solo run of Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.

I'll let the pictures tell the story - you will no doubt recognize the scenario:

The Russians received a sound thrashing at the hands of the British 

****** Thoughts on the Rules ****

I played the simplest version of the rules - no leaders, commanders, heroes, or attributes. 

The yellow markers on the table (tiny dice) represent Shock. I really like this concept and the decision making involved in managing it. I don't particularly like the markers. I could have used the pips to indicate how many Shock markers. Next time.

I love card activation systems. Unlike GASLIGHT where the card drawn indicates which unit activates, you get to choose which unit you'll activate on the card. Not knowing when your opponent might get to act with one of their units adds tension to the decision making of the good kind. 

I particularly like the special events built into the activation deck - +1 this, +1 that, get back eliminated members of a unit!  That last one reminds me of the hospital in In Good Company, without the fiddly bit of rolling each turn to see if they make it back You just need the Queen of Hearts or an Ace you can use as the Queen of Hearts. 

Like One Hour Skirmish Wargames, I can never remember the order of the suits!

Looking forward doing a few more games and adding in the more advanced bits.

Works in Progress

Due to my desire to start everything at once, I have lot's of figures for the Venusian campaign in various stages of not-done-yet.

The Tanitians (Venusian Carthaginians) are slowly coming together. Finding that I could get the right width Micron pen for black-lining has sped things up a bit. As has the discovery on a web forum that if you seal the figures before using the pen, it won't gum up the tip and it goes on smoother.

Touch ups are still a pain - no orange paint I have can cover black in less than three coats.

For shield designs I'm mixing sort of historical with totally made-up. It is an Imagi-nation after all.

I realize these will cause some pearl clutching among the purists, but while the color STILL is not right for red-figure pottery, I think they do have an interesting effect in a group and I'm committed to seeing this idea through. There will be 10 figures per unit, and likely three units total.

Next up are some additional 28mm Reaper Bones lizards with a Reaper Dark Heaven standard bearer.

The red lizard color scheme is a  nod to all of the Warhammer lizard Age of Sigmar stuff I see online.

While GASLIGHT is pretty much focused on 10-figure units, Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles suggests 12+ figures for tribal infantry. Being cheap and lazy, I'm stopping at 12 - 10 Bones with 2 Dark Heaven command pack figures (standard bearer picture, dual sword wielder not pictured). I decided the Dark Heaven, because of their different look, are an entirely different variant of lizard warriors. They tend to be exceptionally vicious in combat but their real gift is motivating and coercing other lizards to follow their commands.

This will probably be my first complete infantry unit for the Venusian campaign.

Finally, I mentioned previously how small the Wargames Atlantic figures are. So. Very. Small. (true 28mm vs heroic or 32mm) Still, they are inexpensive, with 24 figures per box, and a unit of skinks wouldn't hurt the lizard cause:

Still need to seal this one.

The color scheme is based very loosely on the real-world red-tailed skink. It's more of a desert color scheme (actually, the color is Vallejo's German Camo Beige) which means, I might swap them in for a unit when the Marine Iguana themed lizards would be out of place too far from the water.

This is another of my many test-paints for this project and will serve as a reference when I knock out 11 more of them. Since only one leader per unit is required, I will make ten more identical to this, and then use a different weapon and/or head for the leader. 

Not pictured are the three remaining French for their rifle unit. They are on the table but in the middle of prep (which sounds like something, but just means I haven't attacked the more obvious mold lines yet).

Wings of War Over the Italian Front

Recently, as a way to get myself free shipping for some lizard warrior minis, I picked up the Wings of War WW1 Rules and Accessories pack. That it cost me more than I would have spent had I just paid for shipping is only of minor consideration and it's best if we make no further mention of it. Of greater consideration is that I now have the rule book in print form, trench cards, photo recon cards, damage markers of all kinds, and the damage decks.

With much time spent painting lately, Wings of War was an easy game to get on the table for some minis pushing fun without having to worry about setting up terrain.

I opted for a simple dog fight, with just two planes, and the basic rules.

For the Austrians, a UFAG C.I (Flik 62/S), and for the Italians, Nieuport 17 (Baracc). Neither of these have been on the table yet - indeed they were still shrink wrapped! 

As this was a play through of the basic rules, no pilot cards were in effect.

 

The pilots sight each other from a distance.

Engines buzzing they charge towards each other. Sky cavalry indeed.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT! Bullets fly as the planes pass each other. The Austrian getting shots in with it's front MG, and then its rear.

After much aerial ballet, the Italian pilot miscalculates and drifts into the cross hairs of the Austrian. Luck is on his side and he escapes with barely a scratch

The tables turn and the Italian attempts to set up his attack in the Austrian's blind spot. It's all for naught.

Again the planes dance and weave. Suddenly the A-H tailgunner has a chance to put the Italian away.

They will rib him mightily in the mess tonight.

A few more passes don't go in the Italian's favor (he has taken 10 damage of 12 max) and he heads for home.
An Austrian victory.

Total time was near an hour - I was playing and moving both sides and playing only the basic game rules.

The real fun of Wings of War, beyond putting planes on the table, is trying to guess 1) what your opponent will do and 2)just which cards will put your plane in the position you want it to be in.

As a regular solo player I have ample ideas for making (1) part of the game despite the lack of another player. However, for (2), I can only imagine will come more easily with more play because my planes almost never ended up where I thought they would! 

This planning stage of each turn is where the time of play increases. For fun with multiple players, I'd probably use a timer. After all, pilots don't have all day to consider their maneuvers.

The damage deck adds a nice level of variability to the game - will it hit for 0 damage? 1 point but force the guns to jam? Will I destroy the target in a single hit?

An interesting challenge (maybe less so if this was a head to head game), and perhaps one the pilot cards would have mitigated, but the Nieuport has to be very careful or risk ending up being caught in the rear gunner's fire arc when the planes pass.

All said, lot's of fun and lot's of sound effects! I look forward to stepping up and trying the standard rules soon.

Work in Progress: The Big Bloody Meatball

This is a work in progress, so please excuse the obvious areas needing touch up. 

Association with the Yellow King is common for Venusian elephants who have studied the collected ancient wisdom found in the depths of overgrown ruined cities deep in the jungles. As witnesses to that which no mortal creature should ever know, the corruption of their form is inevitable.

From the side he looks like a bloody meatball. Trust me on that one. For now the backstory is their cloaks are freshly acquired dinosaur skin, but I may make it a solid and brighter red for more of a cloth cloak (and toy soldier) look. The HaT elephant is kind of short  and stubby looking so it's not exactly imposing.

In general, its appearance cracks me up - like something from an early 80s science and sorcery cartoon. That said, I love it.

Clearly some touch ups needed as mentioned. And basing (well, painting the base).  And sealing. 

And i might add some things to dangle from the horns(the ones above the regular eyes are horns, the lower ones are tusks) - a unicorn skull, cyclops head, that sort of thing.

There will only be the one elephant cultist associated with the Tanitians. Again due to the  "beasts count as two units" thing in Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles. If I come upon another HaT elephant at a price I can't pass up, then I may reconsider the army composition.

Again with One Hour Wargames and WW2

It's a good rule of thumb that if you're familiar with a period, and especially if you have played other rules in a period, that the One Hour Wargames rules for said period will feel lacking. 

That said, Saturday afternoon, I set up one of my favorite One Hour Wargames scenarios (Fighting Retreat) in hopes of luring my son away from meme videos and Roblox for short bit at least. My plan was to use the rules as written, figuring they would be easy to teach and grasp. Simulation, tactical options, and overpowered mortars, were the least of my concerns. 

I called him out to the living room. Repeatedly until I finally got a response. He looked at the table and then went back to his video games. 

Oh well. 

That was an epic fail as the kids say (assuming the kids do indeed still say such things).

 However, not one to waste a perfectly good scenario, I decided to play it out using the rules as written just for giggles. 

Germans at the west east crossing.
(Please ignore the grid - it's the cloth I grabbed, but has no bearing on the game.)

Soviets in hot pursuit!

German infantry took the woods on both sides of the hill. They would prove intractable.
(I also like how in this picture the hill looks so tall, but it's just 1" of foam)

The Soviets push across, with some units bypassing the Germans in the woods. At their own peril.

End game. The Soviets were soundly beaten.

The game went 12 turns and really felt up in the air until the end of turn 11, where I felt like the Soviets had only the slimmest of chances left. Turn 12 was the final nail in the coffin.

My usual complaint about stopping observation distance apart to blaze away at each other was mitigated by the need to capture the hill and not forgetting (as I usually do) the rule that units can only move or shoot, not both. It was not enough for the Soviets to shoot the Germans off the hill (assuming they could do so), they would need to move to actually capture the hill before time ran out which meant exposing themselves to withering fire. This in turn made the woods highly valued secondary objectives for the cover advantage they provided.

In the event, the Germans who had taken root in the woods could not be budged.

True, there was at least one occasion where close combat might have made sense - and certainly it would have made for a more cinematic game had the Soviet armor been able to charge the German armor on the hill to dislodge them, but I'm not sure that is a better narrative necessarily or just one that I tend to prefer because most of my WW2 gaming inspiration is war movies, not history books.

It also could be argued that I *could* have advanced the Soviets into base to base contact on their phase of one turn, allowing the Germans to fire on their phase, and then the Soviets would fire on their next phase assuming they survived. If the Germans were eliminated the Soviets would already be on the hill. This is kind of what happens in close combat rules generally, albeit in a single game turn. 

What's missing then isn't a way to handle close combat in the WW2 rules, but an explicit mechanism to encourage players to move into close contact - in early period rules in One Hour Wargames, there are bonuses for flank attacks with close combat, for example.

In any case, the lesson I came away with was that, even as written, One Hour Wargames's WW2 rules can yield an enjoyable game for someone even if they have expectations from their WW2 rules,  provided the chosen scenario does the lifting and eliminates the sticking points. 

I suppose it helped too that neither side had artillery(mortar) with its devastating 48" range or the game might have gone differently and I would be espousing my usual complaints. But as it was, it gave me pause to consider whether the WW2 rules are as flawed as I often say they are, and reason to consider how the scenarios act to compliment the rules and shore up apparent oversights.

All of this might seem an unnecessary thing, given that there are other rule systems that are simple, such as Martin Rapier's modified OHW WW2 v2 rules, or Joseph Morschauser's rules (they may raise more questions than they answer, but the book as a whole is my favorite wargaming book bar none),  or only moderately more complex, such as The Portable Wargame and Developing the Portable Wargame books, that provide more tactical options from the get go and don't favor mortars/artillery quite so readily. 

However, I think there's a benefit to revisiting One Hour Wargames from time to time (never mind that I did so by accident this time):

One, there are lessons to learn from Neil Thomas's approach to teasing out the essence of a period, even if we think he may have gone too far for personal taste with our pet period(s). I believe it's good to revisit this from time to time if you're a rules writer/tinkerer especially as we get caught up adding rules for this or that aspect of the period.

Two, that the scenarios work as well as they do with other rules, often with minimal or no tweaking, is a testament to how well-designed they are. Indeed they are not over designed and that is a saving grace. If they were intended to complete the rules included in the book, then their universality is perhaps the unintended success story.

Three, the interplay between the One Hour Wargames rules with the scenario design is an interesting design factor in itself worth examining, regardless of whether or not this is what was intended by Neil Thomas. I am sure other rules do this -probably a board wargame or two - and explicitly too, but alas none come to mind immediately. 

I can't say I'll pull out the WW2 rules as written again anytime soon, but my feelings for them have moved in a positive direction and it has given me inspiration to gently modify the Machine Age rules to make them more suitable for 1916-18 in Italy.

Painting progress!

I have a dozen or so figures on the paint table, a rebasing project underway, and scenery making supplies piling up. With just a little over a month and half of the year remaining, I find myself contemplating how much I might get done before the new year. It doesn't matter of course, but I like those little personal challenges from time to time.

First up, the most recent figure in progress, a proof of concept paint job for a lizard warrior from the SCS Direct "Fantasy Creatures: Series 2" set.

The base and the weapon need painting still but otherwise they are done. I could not be happier with how it has turned out. The color scheme is based on a composite of many marine iguana pictures. Nature always has the best ideas about coloration. I have five more to  paint on hand - need to find seven more for the unit. They are just one of the tribes in the coalition of Venusian lizard folk.

One of their likely opponents will be the French Foreign Legion. My French have more than doubled their numbers, although one is already a casualty of a serious fall  (and thus not pictured) which chipped the paint/Mod Podge/varnish coverings!

That officer waves their hand around rather freely. Perhaps as a subtle jab to the famed Captain Danjou?

I have to touch up that one as mentioned, and then complete six more - three for this unit and three to man the Gatling.

B hooked me up with a HaT 1/32 Carthaginian elephant. I've made a few modifications with some air dry Sculpey clay.

This was taken early on in the sanding process.Once i was done, I filled in some gaps/dips with super glue and smoothed transitions with Mod Podge.

Primed and ready for next steps.

The elephant will be cloaked and bearing at least one Mythos symbol on its trunk. Elephant cultists. Literally. 

Venusian elephants have felt no compulsion to hide their intelligence from humans, who can barely comprehend the depths of emotional and intellectual ability they possess. They also have dabbled with the occult a little too freely and it has not left them unchanged.

Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles counts beasts as two units (and each side has 5-6 units plus a commander), so I probably won't ordinarily field more than one, unless I hamstring it and make it the commander.

Next up, another concept test and another attempt at the red-figure pottery inspired paint scheme. The color, if you look at examples of Greek red-figure pottery, isn't really red, but more orange. So:

3 seconds of research gave me a shield design i could reproduce. The symbol is that of Tanit - a goddess worshiped by, among others, the Carthaginians. I've dubbed my Venusian Carthaginians Tanitians in her honor.

OK. I may have gone too far to the orange but I love orange (My first car was an orange 1972 Chevy Chevelle with a white vinyl top and interior, a 350 V8 under the hood, and a "Did you hug your mom today?" bumper sticker. That was a lot of car for 16 year old me. My bedroom color when I was 6 or so until 15 was burnt orange.) 

This shade is called 'Pumpkin' and is from FolkArt. It has better coverage than 'Lava Orange" from Reaper that I had posted previously. I like the color a lot - although it's still not exactly what I had in mind. Also not sure how they will look when placed alongside their Mythos corrupted elephant allies. 

The black lining was done by a drunk monkey holding the brush in its mouth.

It took almost an hour to complete - despite only being two colors, because the orange paint coverage, though better, is not great and fixing black line errors is painful. I *may* acquire some Micron pens with .5 mm and 1mm tips - I have .25mm and while they worked for quickly lining the figure, they were not impactful the way I like black lines to be.

In the end, I may relegate this idea to "interesting for a one off figure" and just paint the flesh Lava or Pumpkin and the clothes and weapons more normally, but I let go of ideas like a bulldog willingly lets go of a soup bone.

The rebasing project pertains to my medieval collection - primary Deetails figures. I decided I wanted the units to have smaller foot prints - currently they are based on 4" squares for One Hour Wargames. I also figured that if I based them individually, they could fight my Carthaginians/Tanitians and Romans (who still need a name), or even lizard folk. 

Shades of Hyboria anyone?

If you look closely, you'll see one fellow has a rather excessive terra cotta plume. I made it from air dry clay to replace the one that was missing. It still needs paint. Clearly.

For One Hour Wargames, I can just put the foot on sabots and the horse side by side.

Finally, more scenery/terrain work is happening. I took home quite a haul of unnaturally colored lichen and plastic plants from the craft and dollar store this weekend. However, it's the paper-made ones that make me happiest:

You've seen the tree before. The bushy plant is new.

I'll post a tutorial of sorts for these shortly as I have about a dozen or so of each plant type to make!

Fictional Citadel : July 8, 1943, Part 3

On July 8th, the ground shook under the advancing Soviet 1st Tank Corps as they moved south towards Cherkasskoye in pursuit of the falling back PanGermania Division. Commanded by Divsion Commander Ouspensky, who had, since the invasion began been relatively untested, the Soviets had the benefit of three tank brigades, to the German's sole Panzer regiment.

The paper tells me the unit ID as all of my tanks look alike. All but one non-commander unit (total, counting both sides) started the battle already in a deficit of Strength Points - hence the little dice next to the units indicating such.

Unlike his Soviet opponent, General Fichte had been involved in the fighting for days. That he was forced to concede Berezovka to the 1st Soviet Guard Rifle Division, who had been supported by Ouspensky's tank brigades, made the oncoming collision a personal matter. He would command the division's PanzerJaeger battalion personally. However it was 1st Panzer Regiment that made first contact - a long range barrage that damaged several AFVs in the Soviet 3rd Tank Brigade and forcing them into a cautious defensive stance.

The German artillery advanced far to the East and set up within range of both the cross roads and the small village overlooking the bridge over the river - the Germans hoped to capture the village and the crossroad.


Ficthe had opted to keep the 1sts Fusilier Regiment in the rear to recover from their mauling the day prior. 1st Panzer Grenadier Regiment was committed to capturing the village and 1st Pioneer Battalion was sent forward to harass the Soviet right in the event Ouspensky sent his Motor Rifle Regiment forward at that spot.


The Soviet 1st Tank Brigade crossed the bridge and moved west o engage 1st Panzer Regiment and prevent the crossroads from falling into German hands.

In the event, 10th Motor Rifle Regiment advanced quickly on the Soviet right behind the 2nd Tank Brigade. Intense fighting for the village began with the German artillery reigning shells on the Soviets, followed by a German attack led by the Panzer Grenadiers, and eventually supported by the Division HQ - which Ficthe reluctantly committed to the battle due to the overall shortage of manpower and viable units remaining in his command.


Through deft maneuvering by lGerman local commanders, the 1st Panzer Regiment eliminated the 3rd Tank Brigade. Meanwhile a breakdown in command stalled the Soviets and hamstrung efforts to contain PanGermania.


Although Ficthe led from the field, himself coming under direct fire from 1st Tank Brigade when hells landed among the PAK 40 crews, Ouspensky had to be cooerced by his subordinates to make an appearance at the front.

When he arrived it was to join 1st Tank Brigade behind the hill, supported by the 1st Tank Corps recon unit. Historians continue to second guess the general's decision to take command of the 1st Tank Brigade. Ignoring that it had been forced back by accurate AT fire from both the PanzerJaegers and Panzer Regiment, without infantry support, their ability to take and then hold the crossroads was limited at best .


Meanwhile 2nd Tank Brigade and the 10th Motor Rifle Regiment engaged in a struggle for the village which the Soviets had a much higher probability of holding - and might have done so had they had the Commander's morale boosting presence.

As it was, brutal no-quarter-asked-no-quarter-given man-to-man fighting swept through the village and nearby forest, and forced the 10th Motor Rifle Regiment to abandon the village, leaving their transports behind. 1st Panzer and 1st Panzer Grenadier continued to harass the battered Soviet regiment and a last ditch effort to retake the village faltered under the lack of manpower and competent command.


Trapped in the open, they were easy targets for the German artillery. When the smoke cleared little remained of the 10th Motor Rifle.

The Soviet 2nd Tank Brigade managed to drive the PanzerGrenadiers out of the village but they were quickly replaced by the 1st Panzer regiment and the two tank units engaged in a long range exchange of fire.

With no infantry, down one unit of tanks, and with the 1st Tank Brigade on the brink of defeat, the Soviet advance could not continue and Ouspensky ordered a general retreat. (1)

Fichte having received reports from the two German divisions to the east opted not to pursue the retreating Soviets but instead held his position. It would give his men rest and allow the other divisions to advance in line.







(1) Historians suggest that it was only his personal friendships with officers close to Stalin that prevented his disposal at the hands of NKVD. In 1948, Ouspensky escaped the Soviet Union and defected to the United States. He died of entirely natural causes that should not be questioned in 1956 on his farm in rural Central Pennsylvania.

**************************

A completely surprising ending.

I thought this would be the last nail in the German coffin, but PanGermania has kept the invasion alive - or at least on life support.

I did forget that once one side reaches exhaustion you fight until the other side does as well, but in the excitement of the Germans pushing the Soviets to exhaustion (6 strength points lost in this case) while they had only lost 2 strength points, I started to tear down the table and think about the write up!

However, I think it makes more sense narratively this way.

Since the Soviets couldn't advance. the Germans could just bomb the snot out of 2nd Tank Brigade with artillery and with Panzer fire from the protection of the village. There is no need for PanzerJaeger or the Pioneers to advance any further and risk being cut up by the Soviet recon or 1st Tank Brigade, as they already had control of the crossroad.

So, if anything not attacking 2nd Tank Brigade further benefitted the Soviets.

One odd thing this game.

For the first time, I decided that a mounted unit that had dismounted and was then forced back wouldn't have time to bring their vehicles. This was wrong I think in retrospect though it mattered little in this game. The turns by my calculation are 30-60 minutes of time. And trucks wouldn't sit around in the combat zone to be shot up, they'd be at the rear already. If anything, they'd reach the fall back space first. The 10th Motor Rifle Regiment then should have 1)fallen back one space when losing the close combat 2)ended up in that space with their vehicles and 3)remained dismounted.

The biggest factors in working against the Soviets in this battle were:

1. The Soviets only had 6 units including the commander, so they could only activate 2,3, or 4 units.
2. They rolled terribly on my special events table (roll a d12 each turn after artillery fire and before drawing that side's card):
• 1 -Enemy artillery fires again
• 2 - Units in melee range of enemy must retreat 1 space
• 3 - No movement this turn
• 4 - No shooting this turn
• 5-8 Nothing
• 9 - One unit may fire twice
• 10 - Artillery may fire again
• 11 - One unit may move twice (including moving shooting and moving)
• 12 - one unit regains 1 lost SP

They rolled "No Movement" three times, "No Fire" once, and "Enemy artillery fires again" . Ten turns and five of them were negative events. It definitely made it interesting!

In any case, PanGermania is doing OK but the other German units are in pretty bad shape. The Soviets, by the rules I wrote for reinforcements will slowly be able to resupply in ways the Germans cannot - particularly Soviet units on a rail space. It's just a matter of time.

That said, it's still holding my interest so I'll play another campaign turn and see what happens!

Lizard Warriors Big and Small

One of the problems with relying on the internet for purchase decisions is that you are beholden to reviewers providing info that you need and your own ability to find said info. You would think that as a "librarian by training" (I have an MLS) I would be good at the latter, but not that is not necessarily so.

Case in point - I recently ordered and received a box of Wargames Atlantic 28mm "Lizard Men". The reviews I found talked about how well they fit with this or that figure. What I failed to grasp  or determine was that without specifying an exact size dimension and not possessing those comparison figures, I was left guessing if they would mix well with Reaper lizard warriors:

If by "mix well" I meant "could be their children" then I suppose they do indeed. However, as that is not what I meant, I'm at a bit of a loss. B, the person who I will be playing Venusian based games with in-person, suggested they might be skinks (Games Workshop makes skinks for their lizard forces that are notably smaller than then regular lizards). This is an option.

We're now looking at using the big battle version of Fistful of Lead (it has edged out G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. for now), I could make a larger than normal unit and give them some penalties for their small size. 

In any case, they are definitely not going to be the majority of my lizard troops as I was planning. Instead, I picked up a few more Reaper lizard men to top off my existing figures at a full unit, plus command and some archers for the howdah on the triceratops. I still have plenty of other unit ideas for this force.

 By far the best inexpensive-ish 54mm lizard warrior choice is the SCS Direct figure (available on eBay and Amazon):

I get the feeling the number of lizard warriors you get per box of creatures varies. There were six in my box and that means another box is needed eventually unless I can find them in job lots on eBay. 

They are a soft plastic - more rubbery than not, in my opinion. I coated this one with Modge Podge before hitting it with the black acrylic. It scales well with the Armies in Plastic French Legionnaire. The lack of pose variety (just one) might seem damning but they are hackable if that's your thing. If I get extras I may try to do some customization, but for now they'll stay as is. 

Finally, I have from time to time seen on various blogs, people posting a beverage they enjoyed while gaming or painting. So here is mine:

 

I am a sucker for new flavors of soda. Being this is Mtn Dew, I didn't go in with high hopes. And therefore I was not disappointed. It was in fact, not bad. It was so not bad, that I'd drink it again. It's not so good that I'd hoard bottles before it's discontinued.

It most definitely, and disturbingly, tastes like gingersnap cookies.