Table Talk

Have you notice the large amount of WW2 Skirmish rules lately:

Iron Ivan Games: Disposable Heroes and Coffin for Seven Brothers

                           Disposable Heroes: Point Blank

Crusader Publishing: Rate of Fire

Great Escape Games: Rules of Engagement

Warhammer Historical: Kampfgruppe Normandy

Britton Publishers: Final Combat

Two Hour Games: Nuts!

TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum

Buck Surdu: Look Sarge, No Charts

Guts 'N Glory

Osprey: Force on Force (WW2 version)

Seems all rules are cyclic in nature. I have read many reviews on some.

So which one is good: both all and none. Generally I think if the players

"feel" it realistic yet somewhat playable, it will be enjoyed. I have probably

missed some rules. It comes down to what "I" am comfortable with to

host. It's like me hosting C21 Air War with modern CY6 available.

I have thought of doing a review myself on various sets of rules I own.

Finally taking time off this week. Hope to get something hobby wise done:

C21 Air War: prep&paint planes for China vs. Taiwan scenario

Flaklighter 1/600 PT boats: paint the Pac boats

K46 1/300 WW2 Air: Put together the first 2 scenarios for play.

SBG 1/6000 Modern naval: Paint some ships.

Ok, this all won't happen this week, nice thought though. I do plan to host

a game at Battle at the Crossroads in Feb12.

Gaming in General

I was lucky and made it to ATC convention here in Ohio. I had only an hour
to stay before traveling to work so it was more a recon session. I was
disappointed for a fellow gamer who had a Friday and Saturday game.
First was a 1/6000 General Quarters III Fleet Action Imminent game, the
second was a 1/300 scale Point of Attack 20th Century Piquet rules. Both
had no players sign up. Luckily a friend was at hand to "play". It made me
think what makes a game "non-interesting":
1. Rules?
2. Scale?
3. Period?
4. All the above?
I related to his experience with my last few games pulling teeth for players.

I've sluggishly moved forward with hobby interests. I've cut down to a small
number of interests to pursue that requires $$ and time.  One is WW2 air
combat using Kamikaze 1946 by Marty Fenelon. The major difference with
this rule set vs. CY6 is K46 is more grand tactical. Similar in idea to C21 Air
War.The other is WW2 1/600 PT boat warfare using Flaklighter II.

Two conventions are around the corner: Pro or Con and Game Day Ft. Meigs.

Table Talk

Ahh, its been awhile. Home and work..... you know the drill. Recently our Great Dane
of 10 years passed away. Luckily I was in town, my wife didn't take it too well.

I have not gamed since I hosted the Flaklighter game. I'm putting together the Taiwan
vs. China scenario Dave S. kindly gave me. The bad part is I ordered the planes in
April, and still only have 80% delivered. They are H&R planes which I believe the US
distributor is The Last Square in WI. I plan to run the game in Sep, great I have THAT
much lead time.

More to come.

Flaklighter Game

Ran the Pac scenario at Drum in Ohio. It was on a 4x8' hex cloth, one side was a jungle
shoreline. The scenario was US Naval intelligence heard a very important cargo referred
to as "Rice Petal" was being transfered by barge to a local port for transfer to a seaplane
base. They figured it was the area admiral in charge. Four PT boats were dispatche to
take care of the this. The Japanese had around 13 Daihatsu barges in a "convoy". These
were escorted by 2 armed barges and a T-51 gunboat. There was also a shore gun
available.
The game started with 2 PT boats waiting off the shoreline wondering where their other
2 comrades were (delayed). Finally they spotted the barges but was unaware of T-51.
They rev'd up the engines and advanced forward. The barges immediately detected them.
Due to bad rolls on both sides, the T-51 and a PT was only 150yards away when they
detected each other. Tracer filled the air! The 2 delayed PTs slowly crept in the area,
totally unaware of friend or foe. Of course they had bad detection rolls also and found
themselves within 300yds of the front of the barge convoy. More tracers, a PT boat is
afire making it a big bullet catcher.
This activity makes a patrolling DD very interested. With the PT boats taking damage but
sinking barges, they are unaware of the DD until a starshell lights up, then another next turn.
Due to pre-plotting, a PT found itself in the starshell bloom. This attracted 4" shells. First
blood, the PT is shattered. This was one of two only boats with torpedoes. The other two
were gunboats only. The PT capt realizing he was the only one capable does a Hollywood
and goes straight at the DD for a torpedo attack. He launches 4 torpedoes at very
minimum range. The quad 25mm guns lay waste to the PT.
Tension was high when it was time to roll the dice. Out of 4 torpedoes....2 miss! The
PT capt rolls for potential damage........both DUDS!! The Japanese sailors breath sigh!
The remaining 2 PT gunboats finish sinking the barges as well as T-51. One last turn
was made to see if they both escape. They did, one boat was shot up very badly, one
only minor.A minor US victory, the barges sunk at a cost of 2 PTs and 1 heavily
damaged. Later it was determined by intelligence "Rice Petal" was cases of sake for
 the admiral. (which he won't recieve).

The top picture shows two (ok, they are unpainted) shooting at the barges. The PT  boat
withing the starshell that has the oil slick is the remains of one. The lower pic is the
Japanese DD (Tamiya 1/700 model). Yes I apoligize, I have always been prepared
with my games but work sucked away the time and energy. None the less all players
had fun. Of the 5 players, 4 were repeat players.
Photos are from Mike on Flikr. Thanks!

Flaklighter II scenario

How life slows down the hobby world! Now that I need a small bank loan to fill
the car, the hobby really takes a back seat!

I am putting together the Pacific isle scenario for Drums at Fort Meigs game day.
This will be the first time I've run a Pac game. This time I HAVE to use hidden
movement. I will be using ships form PT Dockyard and Dave's Flaklighter II rules
modified for hexes.

Torpedo movement was a problem in a "60°" hex world. So the gaming
group brain stormed alot and decided If we hexes for
ship movement, then why not use a torpedo hex move all its own.

The pic shows the red lines indicating 60° is the launch envelope.
The hex rules is for the torpedo move. The first 2 hexes are for
the torpedo arming distance. If any part of the torp ruler hex is in
a ship hex, then you have a hit.

The next brain storm was plotting movement. My last game I had the players put
"arrow" hexes to show the vessel direction at the end of the move. They placed
it for the current and next turn. The pics of the game show it was TOO much
table clutter. So I thought this:

This card shows the pic of the vessel with 2 place holders for the end of move arrow.
The wooden hexes (Litko) hides them till its turn. It's easy plotting and keeps the
table clear. Since the detection phase is prior to the move phase, if it detects an enemy
it can change orders. I have not firmly decided on the present or the both turns. Since
the turn is only 30 sec, I'm on the fence. I want to keep the pre plotting, it makes the
players forward think of where they will be. The last game we had 3 collisions, 2 of them
was with vessels who where going straight for many moves.

Being a Pac game, ship grounding is VERY high on the danger list.

Flaklighter II Game

I hosted a Flalklighter II game at "Battlefields" in Dearborn MI. It started off bad
because at 9am (start time) no one had signed up. At around 9:15 I'm groaning
about the 3 hour drive. I was saved by 3 players who walked by and wanted to
play.

The pic shows 2 S-boats lining up for a torp shot against the Brit Corvette. The
lone upper e-boats feels very lonely with 3 Brits firing at him.

The pic shows out of 4 torps fired, one hit the Corvette. Of course it went underneath
the Vosper to do it!  The Corvette crew manned life boats

The pic shows the end result of me imposing  pre plotting movement. The hexes
with arrows is my way of easy plotting. The arrow points towards the direction at
the end of movement. The corvette although hit still had forward momentum.

This pic shows a Brit tailing a Siebel ferry. It got lucky and silenced the quad
20mm. The oil slick is what is left of a 70' Vosper that tried to attack the
Trawler. The 88mm gun took care of it, making an oil slick. Also the torpedo
track barely missed the Trawler. Cheers from the crew! But it has 2
Fairmiles going after it now.

This busy pic shows:

1. A Fairmile getting hit was an e-boat torpedo
2. A Vosper who lost the bridge and collided with the Seibel Ferry
3. Another Fairmile colliding with the Trawler.

End result:

1. The Fairmile was obliterated
2. The Vosper made many toothpicks, the ferry was hurt very badly
3. The Fairmile was sunk, the trawler needed more paint! This happened
    due to a steering hit.

The Fairmile D attacked the wounded Ferry (which had 3 flooding hits).
It came down to see whether the crew could stop the flooding. German
naval training saved her, it was saved by only 2 points.

The game was called, a bloody nose for the British although ALOT of battle
damaged German ships. Good game.

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Well you all read about my missing A-4 plane at Cincycon. Well it must
be a full moon. I had set up a flee market at the con. Unfortunately it
was out of eye shot of me. (I relied on player honesty). It didn't work
this time. Someone had stolen the TSR game rules "Tractics". For those
who have been around the block, all know how much that could be
sold. I would have sold it for $20-30, thats what burns me.  Lets hope in
May when I host my Pacific PT boat game nothing happens. Damn
full moon.

CincyCon C21 Game

I hosted the C21 Vietnam USN strike game. The new facility was great. The
only bad thing was just after setting up I had all the planes out on the table.
(eye candy). I was not even 10ft away talking with a vendor when I looked back
and one of the A-4s went MIA. Luckily I had an extra to cover.

I apoligize to the person who pre-registered for my game for 3pm. The time was
changed to 11:30a but was never updated on the website.

I played the Vietnamese player with 2 players as the USN. The Iron Hand flight
once again took all missiles to take out the SAM radar. The SEAD flight was
talented in taking out 3 AA guns, but the fourth cost them an A-4. The strike A-4s
flew in and released, of the 4 only 2 hit the mark. End result the target was 60%
damaged. So far in this "living" scenario the USN is 1 for 2 in completing the
objective.

My only concern is the less and less players I am getting. I will have to change
the scenario to other parts of the world to keep it fresh.