Battle Report: The Alamo

The excellent Nick Stern offered to bring and host his 54mm Alamo game over to my place to run for the group.  That is an offer one can't refuse!  Nick is a great guy and I look forward to seeing him on a regular basis at our games.

54mm ... yes, these are some big models!  We used my 6 foot by 8 foot table which was only a slight challenge ...

The game plays over three "waves" of Mexican troops.  Three columns of 28 figures for each of the 4 sides of the Alamo start 30" away from the wall.  Each column advances 3D6" per turn.  Once a Mexican column reaches a wall, a ladder goes up and they can start feeding troops up the ladder.  Each column can shoot 1D6, needing a 6 to hit. 

We placed each Mexican column on the table where they the player wanted them to approach and used D6's to mark how far away (subtracting from 30") the column was from the wall.  Since casualties are removed from the front of the column (to slow its advance), for each 4 casualties (column was 4 figures wide), we added 2" to the distance the column was at.

Meanwhile, the defenders get 1D6 per model - needing 4+ to score a  hit.  If you are firing a hero or sharpshooter, the score is 3+ to hit.  There are a mix guns in the fort.  1 heavy, a few medium, and some light guns.  Heavy guns inflict 3D6 hits in wave 1, 2D6 in wave 2, and 1D6 in wave 3.  Medium do 2D6 hits in wave 1 and 1D6 hits in wave 2 and 3.  Light guns do 1D6 hits in each wave.  Mexican columns cannot be hit by artillery once they are within 12" of the wall.

While the Texan's can't achieve "victory" - the "forth wave" always wins ... if they are still alive/holding the fort at the end of the third wave it is considered a Texan victory.

Nick mentioned that the Mexicans had never failed to take the fort by the end of the third wave in previous times he had run it.  However, mostly thanks to the incredibly lucky dice of Dan Kerrick, the Texans held out!  Dan and I ran the Texans (I wasn't much help, 4+ is a lot to ask!).  Nick, Wyn, Roy and Adrian ran the Mexicans, each taking one of the sides of the fort.

This game was a lot of fun - very straight forward rules we all picked up quickly and it played very well.  Pictures below.

A great way to spend a lovely Sunday afternoon.

CabinCon - September Edition

Well, the group got together, with some out of town friends, this past weekend to once again power through a long weekend of gaming at the second CabinCon we've had this year.

We played through a number of miniature games and fun was had throughout the weekend.  I was mostly focused on playing this time around (or running games) and didn't get a lot of pictures unfortunately.  I did capture some, especially on Sunday when I got some time to get the "nice" camera out instead of snapping random pictures here and there with my phone camera.

Given the additional people in attendance, we ran 2 games at a time (simultaneously).  This made getting lots of pictures (when you are playing or hosting at the same time) difficult.

Well, enough of my rumbling, let's get to the games and pictures!

Orc Gaslands

The famous and most excellent Adam Clark was in attendance from Sweden.  He brought his "Orc Gaslands" game to host.  This uses the Gaslands Refueled rules, but is up-scaled to Warhammer 40k scale as it uses all Orc vehicles from the line.  This was the breakout hit for the weekend.  We all had an absolute blast playing this game (2 times).  Any game that gives me an excuse to "act like an Orc" for a few hours is excellent in my book!  Much carnage was had in both games.

By the end of the second game I was already ordering my own models and terrain to do this game.  Warning, major SQUIRREL event!

Mad Maximillian Racing

The man of gaming himself Mr. Thomas Foss ran his Mad Maximillian racing game at the same time as the Orc Gaslands game.  I played in this game - and got in the 2nd game that was run for the Orc Gaslands game - so I was able to play in both racing games.  Even though this one didn't have any Orcs driving, the carnage was just as high.  I ended up burning out on the 4th turn with my car in a wrecked state and unable to continue.  That was fine as two cars behind me had already rolling themselves off the track and exploded 2 turns prior.  That certainly thinned out the field, but it was too late for my poor blasted car by then.

The Lion and the Prophet - Sudan (Colonial)

Matt Hilzendrager hosted his "The Lion and the Prophet" game covering colonial Sudan. This used the "Men Who Would Be Kings" rules with some minor modifications.  The British center broke but the British left and right flanks held on to the end.

The first several pictures below are from my phone, but after that are all from my SLR camera and the best pictures I took all weekend.

Saint Vith (Bolt Action WW2)

Dan Kerrick hosted his game for Saint Vith using Bolt Action.  I didn't get a lot of pictures of his game, but it was a beautiful winter themed table with a lot of details.  I wish I was able to get more pictures from my SLR camera but I was busy over at the Sudan game at the same time.

Guilford Courthouse (AWI)

I hosted my AWI game for the battle of Guilford Courthouse.  I like this table because it was a great excuse to get a bunch of fall coloured terrain.  I had run this prior and posted on my blog so will no cover it in much detail here, but I did snap a few pictures while running it.

I took a short video of this game ... if you are looking at this on your phone you'll have to go to the bottom of this post and click "view websire version" in order to see the video.

One great thing about this weekend is my teenage son has really taken to wargaming.  He played in games throughout the weekend and did well.  Proud daddy moment here.

And on to the rest of the pictures ...

Quatre Bras (Napoleonic)

Roy Scaife hosted his Quatre Bras game using our Empires at War rules.  French pushed hard but ultimately it turned out to be a draw if memory serves (it is a bit fuzzy as I was hosting my AWI game during this same time).  This is another game we've run before so just a small number of pictures (more so because I was busy with AWI).

 

Fords of Isen (War of the Ring)

Just a couple of pictures here.  I ran this last time and have posted lots of pictures before of this game.  I hosted my Fords of Isen game that uses modified War of the Ring rules.  I ran this first thing Friday morning as may of our group would be arriving later in the afternoon on Friday.  This time Isengard was able to pull it off (Rohan won it last time).

And that is it.  Was great to get so many wargames all jammed into one weekend.  It certainly satisfied the wargaming itch.  More so, it was great to see several guys I've not seen for some time (even a while before the pandemic started).