Friend or Foe

A few hundred counters into magnetic clips and The Italian Campaign can begin! But right now, I'm playing VASSAL game of Campaign for North Africa with bunch of great peoples. Clay who got made searchable PDFs of rules with all errata incorporated and notated. Mitch who made a stunning and faithfully rendition of the map (assuming you rightly think SPI maps are objects of sublime delight). Also contains extremely nice and sharp SVG based counters.  Tim who put together a set of spreadsheets which make running this beautiful beast a possibility. Along with several other "mere" players. Great times. It's literally been a 37 year long journey  to get CfNA played. Well, I'm playing it. And, and! Got my physical copy on the table, well on the magnetico wall. Let's Go! I am so fucking stoked right now. 

Someone brought Warriors of God to Tucson Boardgame Meetup this Sunday past.  Which is a bit odd as the meetup is generally a Euro style affair. This guy, let's call him Dave, sports a Tiger T-shirt more often than not. So, I had high hopes and good vibes. And we played 100 Years War Scenario. Well, got 5 out of 12 turns done. Neither one of us really knew the rules. I played Warriors of Japan, once, maybe, long ago... I was The English, which is proper. Dave, unfortunately was stuck with The French. It was great. The rules are really simple (relative to the other wargames I play ASL/OCS/BCS/SPI monsters). But, they are really slick in application. Often doing double duty. Like there are no logistics/supply train rules. But the way control markers are placed and units deployed "implements" being cut off, "out of supply", extending yourself too far (I speak from experience), etc. At a high level. But it works as this is a high level game. Each turn a decade, e...

Been punching, not yet clipping, ASL counters. Sigh  Croix de Guerre, For King and Country, Rising Sun, last bits of Yanks and Red October. Got Armies of Oblivion sheets on desk, glaring accusingly, "When you gonna clip us punk?"  Leaving historical modules: HiF, VotG, FB mostly alone as their counters are unique(ish) and I don't have enough bead boxes to hold them all anyhow. Hollow Legions is on it's way... the counters, they never end do they?

Playing OCS Sicily with couple local buddies.  When your Supermarine Spitfire , one of best fighters of WWII, sorties to sweep the not horrible, but not that great Macchi C.202 Folgore  and dice... At least the "1" on third die means the Spitfire was not shot down. I like to imagine the British squadron had mechanical difficulties, was unable to locate the Italian CAP before bingo fuel, or the like. The next squadron rumbling down the airstrip and roaring off , also aborted with no effect. But the third guy shot down the 202 and German 109g (5-1) under it. Then aborted the final Italian, a 205. Skies clear for lumbering bombers to give the defenders what for! Three aggressors to clear three defenders, fair?

  The esteemed Mr. Sharp or Big Board Gaming  mentioned in Voices You Need To Hear youtube series, I think #8, but I just watched four of them and old man memory is bad.  He (if I understood correctly) but forth idea that "wargames" are hex and counter.  Which I agree with. They were the first type of wargame I played.  I say "wargame" because I'm too lazy to say "Hex and Counter Wargame."  I do believe the mechanics, the style and interface of a game is the more important delimiter. Just because the subject of a game is "war", whatever that means, does not make it a war game. Card driven, area control, worker placement are going to influence me more than if the setting is Mars or Waterloo. Of course, none of this matters. The point of the post is everyone's definition's are different. Do whatever you do and enjoy doing it!

Historical Miniature Wargaming Channel Little Wars TV has put out a "record a video of your game" challenge. Quick Strike AAR Challenge "We are officially throwing down a challenge to every historical wargamer who owns a camera. We want to see your best historical miniature battles at home in a new, easy-to-produce video format that we're calling the "Quick Strike AAR Challenge!"  There just three rules for entering the challenge: (1) The video must be under 10 minutes long (2) Your report must include some historical background, the scenario description and objectives (3) Recap the entire battle, start to finish! The rest is up to you!