Back In the Day

I've been gaming for a few years now and I still have some of my stuff from the early days. I started with historical gaming using Airfix figures, mostly 1/72 Napoleonic using a set of rules that I have long since lost and also WWII with a set of rules called Operation Warboard which I still have and then 1/32 WWII skirmish with a set of homegrown rules derived from an article in a magazine titled Military Digest which I don't believe is published anymore.
Somewhere along the way I got into Warhammer Fantasy followed by Warhammer 40k. I still play both those systems on and off as well as numerous historical games in various scales.

The early plastic box sets for 40k and Fantasy. The Orks were metal.

The plastic Space Marines. The have been repainted a few times over the years.

Early Imperial Guard. I still have Imperial robots to build somewhere. My son painted these.

The old and the new, well newer.

  So enough of memory lane. I've played a few games but have not improved my win/loss ratio. I played a great game of Malifaux with my Guild Ortego crew taking on the Arcanists Colette crew. Unfortunately at a crucial moment I failed to take down a powerful Coryphee model and was then locked in melee which is not my crews strong point. It was just a matter of trying to capture some VP's after that but I couldn't quite do it. But a good game anyways.

Shawn figuring out a new crew.

My crew about to do battle with the Coryphee

Looking down main street, still under construction.

Coryphee not dead...now I'm in trouble.

I also played a game of Tide of Iron, a board game by Fantasy Flight Games. This I played against my son using one of the scenarios from the main game, "Silence the Guns". It was very close but my American forces who managed to clear the hill bunker could not claim it as my son had cleverly led his reserves into a blocking position.

The beginning of the game with the Americans(me) advancing on the German strong point.

Lasalle Game

Just this week I manage to play a couple of small games of Lasalle. This is a Napoleonic miniature game by Sam Mustafa. I have always loved this period just for the look on the game table but other than a game I used to play in the 80's which I do not remember the name I have never found a set of rules that I enjoy playing. Now just to get this out of the way I only have a passing knowledge of the era and its tactics. I seem to spend all my time rebasing figures to try another set of rules which should be THE set of rules for me. I've tried Shako, Piquet, General de Brigade and a few others I can't remember off hand.

So how did I enjoy the rules? Well I actually enjoyed them quite a bit. It played fast and the mechanics were fairly intuitive. The rules seemed to make you play the tactics of the period without resorting to a bunch of complicated rules, but remember this is coming from someone who does not claim to be a scholar in this period. The key thing for me perhaps though is would I actually like to play this game again, yes. Finally I will be able to keep my figures based this way for awhile and maybe even get my 15mm Napoleonic troops to the gaming table once in awhile.

French Cavalry

The French center(a little blurry)

The British advance

The lines at the start of the battle. The brown bases represent rough ground.

 

Starting Warmachine and Other Gaming Goodness

I got in a number of games lately including trying my hand at Warmachine. I like the game so far though we are only playing with the small forces included in the starter boxes. In the group of players we have 3 starter sets, Menoth, Khador, and Cygnar. Cygnar is my main force and I have played twice with it and once with Khador against Cygnar. Unfortunately, but typically, I lost every game, once to my friend Shawn against his Menoth group and twice to my son who played Khador and then Cygnar. I believe in retrospect that I launch my finishing moves a little too early and then leave myself open for a counter strike so I will have to adjust my tactics a little. Of course with the small forces involved there is little room for recovery. But it also means you can get in a number of quick games and learn the game quickly.

My son and I also played a small game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. He played the High Elves from the Island of Blood set with the addition of a unit of Spearmen but did not include the Prince on the Griffin and I played a small Orc and Goblin force. The battle ended in a tie.

After playing a few small games now I think I enjoy playing the latest edition of the game. The previous two editions I started to find the rules too fiddly for my liking and I only played the last edition twice as I found the rules too cumbersome. I know this edition seems to be taking some flak from the more competitive players and I have to say I am not a tournament player but I like these rules so far.

I also played a number of board games including Settlers of Catan with the family and Pandemic with my son. Both were loses. Settlers I don't think I really even got in the game, it was between my son and wife and she won the game while Pandemic was a fun game but the diseases got out of control. 

So it looks like a lot of loses and no victories, ah well that's the way she goes. 

I will be helping Shawn run a Malifaux demo game at a local games day so to that end I am building some terrain and finishing off some Malifaux figures and that should fill my hobby time till then.   

The set up of the Warhammer battle. The scenario was a Meeting Engagement. I had 1 unit and my General in reserve while the Elves had 1 unit in reserve.

The forces close.

One of the Warmachine games. The forces have some base colours on them but need to be finished.

The foam core shell for a Malifaux building. The back view.

The front.

The Malifaux Peacekeeper miniature.

I painted the foam edges with glue to seal them off and primed the building.

My completed woods.