Queens Birthday Napoleonic Bash

I took photo's which means I have given the game the "kiss of death" to me winning.  Due to my many problems with family and health evening games are hard to come by these days which means Andrew has to roll the dice and hope we can get a game in.  This Queens Birthday public holiday was one where the "Signs were Right" and we were able to battle away.

Picking the wrong list again (the one with the large battalions) was the wrong one, but did better performing actions against the french than the rest of my army did.  Not out-scouting the french meant that I had to resort to drawn maps and troops placement - something I fail at when anticipating my opponents intention.

Below will be photo's of action of the day with comments.  I lost, no big surprise there.  Hopefully better next time round.

Sorry for the poor photo's, I only have a tablet with which to work that has better than odds with taking shots.  So the quality will vary - sorry.

The french main deployment.  Andrew has been painting more
french - as if he needs anymore.  All his cavalry were fresh painted
troops that were getting their first blooding.

From memory Guard of some variety or another.  Bearskins for one.

french captivation with buildings is disturbing.
This lot spend most of the game holed up.

Prussians bravely advancing towards the enemy.

Never have any success with cavalry.  They either fail (90% of the
time) or extraordinarily do something that totally bemuses Andrew.

Right flank getting stuck into the "entrenched" french.
The Hussars were badly mauled by artillery overshot.

Cavalry engage.  Troops side-step or go to square, expecting the worse.

There is the much reduced Hussars from artillery fire.  One casualty
on the column, but 3 causalities on the horse.  Honestly all I can do is cry at times like this.

Well at least the other french artillery had their line of fire blocked
more times by their own troops.  Mind you the heavy artillery was nice to
see on the table.  The Elite Miniatures pieces are large!

Yes, we charged and made inroads.  I learnt a long time ago that
assaulting buildings was difficult going.  Here is where the large
battalions allowed me to soak up the damage, while reducing the
french capacity to remain viable.

 

Second unit of Hussars caught between two anvils.

french Lancers engage, they have the advantage.
Andrew failed to break me, I did two causalities, I needed sixes! 

 

Having driven off the Lancers, I was engaged and survived a round
with the other french cavalry.  Survived for a brief period before
being broken and fleeing the battlefield. 

Last throw of the die.  Taking on the artillery, sadly the shooting
phase did enough to repulse my troops and it was all downhill after that.

Fleeing and reorganisation of what I was left with.
The french gave up being brave and hid in the building again.

Left flank fighting withdrawal and forlorn hope remaining.

Star Wars Armada Game 4 with Leslie

Today was my fourth game of Star Wars Armada.  I'm not getting any feeling of dislike for this game or my opponent.  So a huge thanks to Leslie for allowing me to visit and enjoy a fun day of gaming.  It beats sitting at home with nothing but my illness to keep me company.

Leslie got to pick the missions available to choose from.
I had to pick one of the above as the mission we would play.
I chose Opening Salvo.

My first turn.  Learnt to keep my Tie Fighters close as a screen
which seemed to work in this game.  The one silly choice of tactics
was to sail my Assault Ship off on his own.

The Star Destroyers keeping formation and trying to keep their
main guns aimed at the enemy ships.  Assault Ship still alive.

Opening Salvo gave me an additional two red die.  I severely mauled
Princess Leia's ship, and she spent the rest of the game keeping out of
range of being shot at.

Now you see the Assault Ship!

Now you don't.  Only the Tie Fighter screen remained.

Rebel Fleet Admirals ship locked onto.  Destroyed.

Rebel ships just have that speed and maneuverability as can be
seen throughout these photos.  My slow speed and maneuverability
left me scratching the air a lot of the time.

Leia's ship hiding off out of range.

Final turn.

Leslie and I are coming to grips with the rules, learning where we have made mistakes from having others point them out to us.  It's all good.  The missions is what makes the game more than a set up and kill as many of the enemy ships as possible.

For instance with Opening Salvo the End of Game victory determination was "Each player increased his final score by half the fleet point cost of each enemy ship in the play area that has at least 1 damage card, rounded up."  Most if not all Leslie's ships had damage cards on them, where the only ship I had which did was removed from play as a casualty.

Looking at actual losses I lost an Assault Ship of 56 points (I think, I don't actually own the game so don't have the references available)  I think the one ship that Leslie lost for somewhere in the 40's.  Throw in the loss of Tie Squadrons lost and it would certainly have been a win to Leslie if the Mission Victory points had not been the determining factor.

So I'm looking forward to some more games soon, though there are more ships coming out, which should change play style as time progresses.

Joesph's Spanish Royal Army For Sale

Figures are 25mm scale.  
Mostly Hinchliffe Peninsular figures.

Price does not include postage.  

Pick up can be arranged for Brisbane.
Initial Sale Price $1200 for the whole consignment, including postage in Australia, overseas buyers will be charged postage.
Preference to purchaser who buys the whole consignment.

Unit 1:Lancers de La Mancha AUS$90

Unit 2: Line Dragoons
AUS$90

Unit 3: Guard Hussars
AUS$45

Unit 4: Regiment Joseph Napoleons
AUS$130 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 5: French Legere
AUS$150 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 6: French Legere
AUS$150 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 7: French Legere
AUS$150 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 8:Line Legere
AUS$130 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 9:Guard Tirailleurs
AUS$130 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 10: Irlandais
AUS$130 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 11: Ligne
AUS$130 (inc foot officer - see below)

Unit 12: Mounted officers
AUS$15 each

Unit 13: Foot officers for units above.

Blind Pig Club 6th June 2015

Thanks to Tim W for taking up Paul's mantle and fetching the returning the trailer on the day.  To Jason for staffing the counter, and the usual band of suspects for their help.

Numbers were down, but did have 18 people there on the day.  Not a great variety of games in play, but here's what was happening.

X-Wing
Armada
Star Realms
Coup
Eldritch Horror
Dystopian Wars
40K

Next club meet is the 13th June.  See you all there.

Armada in action.

Eldritch Horror.

The business card holders I mentioned in another post.

Dystopian Wars.

Coup

40K

Star Wars Armada - My 3rd Game

Today I had my third game of Aramada against Leslie.  Thanks to Jason for designing/build the Empire fleet I used.  Here are photos of the day with commentary.

The initial setup and first turn.  My brave Admiral chose to expose himself
off on my right flank with two Tie Squadrons to "protect" him.

OK I admit I don't know how to use my fighter squadron yet.  Leslie used his
ships to great effect and harassed my ships no end.  The Outpost was the victory
condition.

My Admiral watched in dismay as the fast Rebel ships zipped
across the board with impunity.

Really feeling the love from Rebel fire power.  The "Not the Admiral's Ship"
copped a fair amount of abuse, but the repair orders I had the ship constantly on
saved his bacon in the end.

End game in sight, Darth Vader shuttled across (well that's what I
was calling the mission).  I reduced the "Not the Admiral's Ship" to 0
speed and sat right next to the objective.  Even not being able to use
defense tokens allowed the Rebels to destroy it.

The end.  My "Not the Admiral's Ship" survived thanks to constant
repair to shields.  It did suffer 3 damage in the end, but no criticals.

Admiral Leslie contemplating how the hell I managed a win!

With a few games under my belt now I can say that the game is well worth investing in.  The movement stick takes out a lot of the arguments with where a ship ends it turn.  Playing the game with mission conditions makes the game more than a slug fest and adds a depth that allows victory to come by ways other than total annihilation.

Highly recommend to those who like Star Wars and space combat, it's up there with X-Wing.

What clubs had I been part of?

Someone asked me the other day to write down what clubs I've been associated with, either as a member or executive officer.  Had to have a think about that and have placed them down in roughly chronical order.

M = Member
E = Executive Officer of various positions.
F = Founding Member

Griffith University Tacticians and Strategists (M) (Unknown)
Queensland Role Players (M, E) (Extinct)
Brisbane Independent Gamers (M)
Club Tanelorn (F, E) (Extinct)
QMGC (Warhounds) (M, E) (Extinct)
The Praetorians (F, E) (Extinct)
Brisbane Strategy Gamers (F,E) (Extinct)
The Blind Pig Games Club (M)

Extinct means that as far as I am aware the club no longer functions or evolved into another club under another name.  Club Tanelorn I believe became League of Extraordinary Gamers.

Currently I devote my time and effort to the Blind Pig.

Cheers

John