Some Things for Under the Christmas Tree

Despite having yet to plan the Christmas game for this year, I've been gathering up a plan for 2024!

While thinking over my collection and what kind of games I most enjoy playing, it dawned on me that  "games my son will play with me" top the list. Historical games have some appeal to him, especially if they involves tanks (Panzer Kids Deluxe for the win!), but it is sci-fi and fantasy that really capture his attention and enthusiasm.

I can't say I blame him - I was the same way at his age.

Last year, he did a book report on  Skavenslayer, and this year he did a report on Trollslayer. We've been playing Age of Fantasy: Skirmish lately - he's running an orc warband (Reaper Bones miniatures) through a very loose campaign  of the best-of-five variety. And, as I may have mentioned previously, we've been playing a b/x / 1e D&D mega-dungeon campaign since July - sometimes playing three or four times a week. He is also in a 5e D&D campaign as part of an after school club he is in, and in our family & friends 5e campaigns.

As much as he enjoys all of the fantasy settings and creatures, 40K lore has more or less taken over his life (thanks, YouTube). 

While he plays some of the video games, and has mods for other games that add 40K skins, he has not been particularly driven to play anything on the tabletop. Possibly in large part because I have nothing to entice him with - although we have on occasion raided his toy bins for Star Wars figures to use with Grim Dark Future : Firefight.

I have, then, after much deliberation, decided that 2024 will be the Year of Grimdark.

Although I got him a starter paint box with three Infernus space marines for his birthday, if I can get him to paint those three, it may be a miracle. So, it's safest to assume that all of the painting will fall to me.

In that case, I might as well acquire and paint figures I want to paint. 

However, I couldn't justify buying figures for myself - austerity measures and all that - EXCEPT, I realized if these are Christmas presents for myself and I cannot do anything with them until Christmas Day, AND i'm travel immediately after until New Year's Eve, they are really just 2024 purchases that arrived early.

"The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma." - Patrick Star

Here then are much of what will be 2024's painting queue and what will be waiting under the tree for me this year.

First up, Plague Marines / Death Guard:

My son loves Nurgle. I don't know why. I guess slime, snot, and disease are fun? 

In any case, I find the Plague Marine/ Death Guard compelling as figures - sort of Lovecraftian abominations.

These were acquired fully assembled and primed from Frontline Gaming - the neoprene mat people. They also, I have learned, do a brisk business in second-hand figures. The price was quite reasonable - less than the cost of a single box of the same figures shrink wrapped on the sprue and it saves me from having to decide on options which I couldn't care less about.

Next, Space Marine: The Board Game:

This is a Target exclusive. 

You get 22 Tyranids and a single space marine character, and some other stuff that might be handy(like the play mat) plus the game itself, for $39.99 usd.

The character figure will bulk out  my son's three Infernus (the ones he has yet to paint) to a 200+ point Grimdark Future : Firefight force. The 22 Tyranids will give us a similar point force, using about 15 of the models! 

My son tells me no one non-ironically likes Tyranids, but I do. I think they're cute. Especially in light of the Tiny Tyranid shorts on YouTube.

Finally, while there is a three Intercessor and paint starter box (which would bring the space marines up to 7 total figures), there is a better deal to be had with a used copy of Fireteam which also includes enough Necrons for yet another Grimdark Future: Firefight force, in addition to a whole separate board game that looks intriguing.

That order was just placed so it's on the way and I was too impatient to wait for it before I posted. 

Speaking of board games (how was that for a slick transition?) I also picked up Der Welterkrieg: The Italian Front. My son won't play this with me most likely, but that's fine - I bought it to play solitaire:

Picture from BoardGameGeek because I'm too lazy to walk to the back of the apartment to take a picture of my copy.

I haven't been this excited for my own Christmas presents in awhile!

One Hour Wargames: Static Defence, Somewhere in Italy, Spring 1917

Two battalions of Austrians supported by a field gun battery advanced on an Italian sector in the foothills of the Isonzo mountains. Ordered to hold both the hill and the town, the Italian commander split his force - an understrength battalion to hold the village, while two companies reenforced by a own field gun battery, would hold the hill. He opted to hold a rifle company and a squadron of Lancieri in reserve in the center.

The Austrians committed to taking the hill but advanced one column under cover of the woods which had somehow survived shelling. The Italian reserve rifles advanced to meet them, supported by a company from the village. Fierce fighting followed.

Meanwhile, the attack on the hill began to disintegrate under fire from the Italian battery and machine guns.

The Italians held their own in the woods, leaving the second wave of Austrian companies to dislodge them, while on their right, their fellows still comfortably held the hill.

The Lancieri waited patiently for their moment and then struck out in a thunderous charge!

Meanwhile the Austrians in the wood were crumbling engaged on two sides by Italain troops in close combat.

The Italians held the woods, the Lancieri drove off their opponents, but the Italian defenders on the hill had suffered under the relentless pressing surge of Austrians. 

With their attack dwindling, Austrian rifles entered and crossed through the trench to dislodge the field gun battery in a final mopping up operation. The Italain commander sent the Lancieri to support the town, in case of Austrian reinforcements, while a unit of Italian infantry made for the hill to aid in the fight for the trench.

To the surprise of all, the artillery crews drove off their attackers. With nothing left, the Austrians retreated behind their starting positions.

****

Rules were One Hour Wargames "Machine Age", with my modifications. Eight units per side didn't really extend the playing time but felt more substantial as a game than the usual six.

The playing area was 3' x 2' and never felt cramped nor too large for the size of the forces involved.

The Austrian plan was determined by die roll and the Italian distribution of troops was similarly randomized.

My rules modifications are working well, but I haven't tried playing any games set in the later years of the war, where Arditi and strumtruppen might appear. I'll have to give them a go soon to see if my modifications make them overpowered.

Battle of the Alps Squared

June 1940, the Italian army, ordered by the outsized ego of Il Duce - who was desperate to have a piece of France before Hitler had captured it all for himself -  trundled across the northern alpine border into France.

The stalwart defenders of ennui and champagne had expected as much and were dug in and ready.

The Italians used the woods to cover the left wing of their advance.

The French infantry were well dug-in and extricating them proved more difficult than discretely hiding ten pounds of good salami into your rucksack.

Calling a meeting of L3s with the FT17s a "tank duel" or a "clash of armor" stretches credulity. Let us say, they fired shots at each other while snacking on loaves of bread and drinking bottles of wine, with the wine merchants being the real winners, judging by the ineffectiveness of both sides.

Eventually the French armor, despite damage incurred from the Italian battery - drove back their Italian opposites - can you blame those poor Italian pilots? They only learned to drive the L3 a few days ago. 

It was all for naught, as they were just in time to find the Italian infantry had successfully captured the village. A halfhearted attempted to dislodge the Italians met with no success.

The French had run out of time and would have to fall back. Here is the battlefield at the end:

The scenario was "Late Arrivals", a favorite of mine from One Hour Wargames. It works equally well for Austrians streaming into Italy as it does for Italians invading France. The game lasted the OHW standard 15 turns. 

The rules were improvised, based on my own squad-per-base rules - a mash of Crossfire, Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit, and The Portable Wargame - but moved up a few levels of organization and no stacking allowed. I also used ideas borrowed from Ross Mac's Fast and Furious Fifties

Initially I thought of the units as companies of infantry, platoons of tanks, three or so guns, etc. 

However, while writing my narrative it didn't really seem to matter and I could just as easily think of them as battalions. I hear Memoir '44 is a bit like that - where the nominal scale changes based on the scenario? I don't know, I've never played it, but that's my understanding.

It seemed to work here at least.

One Hour Wargames : Flank Attack (Played twice)

With some time to spare the other night after band practice before retiring for the evening, I opted to play a game of One Hour Wargames Ancients rules. I had wanted to try Peter's rules, but with limited time, I stuck with the rules I already know.

For the scenario, I chose Flank Attack (scenario 6) from OHW. It's not one I have played much and thought it would be nice to try my hand at it again.

• Bokrug Confederacy (lizards) : 4 infantry, 1 skirmisher unit, and 1 cavalry (a feathered raptor thing).
• Tanitia (orange and black Carthaginians) : 4 infantry and 2 skirmisher units (it was supposed to be one skirmisher and one archer but because they don't have bows, my brain sees skirmisher and that's how I treated them).

Both sides were aggressive in their battle plans:

The Bokrug Confederacy planned to strike first, gain that advantage and win the battle of attrition before marching off the table. The Tanitian planned to engage the lizards early,  hold up the advance while inflicting losses, and cause them to run out of units and momentum (i.e fail to get three units off the road by turn 15).

I missed taking pics of the first few turns because I was caught up in playing. However, I wanted to document the game, so we pick up around turn 3 or 4.

The cavalry in action!

 

 

By turn 9, the defenders had been eliminated at the cost of a unit of Bokrug skrimishers.

A resounding victory for the Confederacy. Their die rolling wasn't particularly poor, but by running into the threat, they had exposed themselves to flank attacks which did not help their cause.

Since,  I still had some time before bed, I reset the table and decided to try playing the defense more conservatively. The Tanitians would avoid contact for a bit, to force the Confederacy to use up their turns with movement, rather than in combat - the idea was to have the Tanitians stay stronger longer. I also chose to start a Tanitian infantry unit on the hill - giving them one quarter damage if attacked. Mostly though the Tanitians would avoid advancing until the last minute.

I do love the advancing column of lizard warriors.

 

The Tanitian skirmishers peppered the lizards but the infantry kept their distance until the opportunity to gain some decent advantage presented itself (a minor tweak to the plan). Eventually came the inevitable contact.

 

The Tanitian infantry on the hill were forced to abandon their position to protect the flank of the skirmishers on their right - so much for quarter damage. However, this time the Confederacy exposed their flanks and suffered for it - not one but two units found themselves facing an attacker to the front and one to the right.

 

The defensive plan worked - the turns spent drawing the attackers out, chewed up the turn counter. The melees had largely gone in the Confederacy's favor, but it was no steamroll like the previous game. Here is what it looked like on turn 14:

On turn 15, the Bokrug infantry finally eliminated the Tanitian infantry blocking the road.

 

However, that left them with no turns to actually get three units off the board via the road. I declared it a tactical victory for the Bokrug Confederacy, but a strategic Tanitian victory.

Probably the Biggest Influence on My Wargames Aesthetic

I was thinking about this, this morning.

Sure, there's Wells, Morschauser, Grant, Young & Crawford, Featherstone ... but those all came later in life and I didn't read most of them until after I had been gaming a bit.

However, permanently emblazoned in some part of my brain is this scene from a Warner Bros. short:

 No fancy terrain, just a grid map and toy soldiers!