Reduction in Force

So, moving.

Haven't done it in thirteen years. Have never done it without my dad's help; though he offered, he's in his 80s and I need to learn to do it myself anyway.

As a librarian, I have learned to weed. Wrenchingly, this often means tossing good or classic books that are in great condition, because of the irony that their great condition indicates that no one is reading them. To be fair, if I haven't played a game, I probably won't miss it when it's gone.

On the other hand, I have a library chess group and storage space to hide the board games in and occasionally bring them out, and I have a gaming clubhouse to store some of the miniature stuff in. That's all just an excuse not to throw it out, though.

I have a bunch of old White Dwarves (issues 200 and up). I've paid, perhaps unwisely, for the Warhammer+ site so have access to online issues back to #286, so there's an easy start.

A few books I've always meant to read (or reread) but not gotten to, I read and then toss. Currently working on True History of the Kelly Gang.

I've been cutting out the "mat" terrain pieces I picked up at Recon - roads and rivers done, trees still to go. (I'm undecided what shapes or sizes I want the trees in, though small seems preferable as they can be overlapped to make bigger footprints.) This frees up the large bag they were stored in for ... something else, dunno what yet.

I've taken most of my small board games to work and put them in a cupboard where I keep such things to break out during Chess Club for variation.

Speaking of which, I actually got a Portable Wargame going today. Some leftover AWI Paperboys faced off across a spare chessboard. I used 18th Century Horse and Musket rules, cut down a little by dropping formations (all units are assumed to be in line) and hit points (units, when hit, either retreat or are destroyed).

Each side got four infantry bases and one each light infantry, artillery and cavalry. The playtest went all right, the vaguely British side (foreground) losing three units to the Rebels' one before we halted. I only had one mildly confused player, though other kids expressed interest. The Perrys' Portable Wargame might be preferable since it's more obviously "board-gamey", and that's another two boxes I can move out of the apartment for a bit.

I have lots of small, loose things - mostly action figures, Star Trek ships and assorted plastic miniatures - that I'll need to figure out how to store. Probably either layers of bubble wrap or a bucketful of foam peanuts? The 8th edition 40K figures are particularly worrisome, as they're rare, heavily detailed and heroically posed (so lots of sticky-out bits to snap if I'm not careful). I still want to try playing with them, but if I can find a safe way to pack them I'll send them all to my brother for a painting project - he's eager to work on the Death Guard models. The unbuilt pre-8th edition 40K stuff (mostly tank kits) can maybe be traded to my FLGS.

GI Joes, on the other hand, can be tossed in a plastic box and reunited with their myriad accessories later.

Green Beret figure Lt. Falcon guards my paint markers.

I also have a small collection of Legos - some can be added to the library collection that we let the kids play with every fourth Thursday, but I want to keep my scale Saturn V model intact.

And there are (still and always) more books. Some of them very large and heavy enough that the boxes might not hold them...

Quiet but interesting

I'm on the verge of getting a new apartment, though not looking forward to the actual move. Have been trying to reduce books and clothes, will probably buy a couple new pieces of furniture, etc. Pro: More room for the cats, a second bedroom for a game room. Con: no washing machine and no screen door. Not that I have a screen now...

Taking a Sunday break from the increasingly nervous process, I visited the War Office for weekend DBA. Jim Dundorf was there, of course, but also a newish medieval enthusiast named Jacob. He brought some 28mm Hundred Years War minis, attractively painted with a characterful, toylike air.

French

English

Not having quite enough for a full DBA game, Jim put us through a skirmish of seven bases a side to give Jacob's figures a workout. Sometime before Agincourt, a French raiding party are trying to bypass an English rear guard to plunder the baggage train. Basically, the win would be at three points rather than four, and the French could gain their points by dashing off the English side of the table (mine). To be fair, this would not technically be in character for the fastest (ie knightly) of the French, who properly should prefer to charge the noblest enemy they could find. In practice, it was what they did anyway, after we'd got properly to grips with each other and the rules. A couple roll-exchanges included ones on one side and sixes on the other, meaning improbably quick-kills of superior units. Ultimately the French won.

The oversized field, after rolls for terrain.

Both sides set-up in line. Distances are 1.5 normal,
and touch between bases was assumed and declared due to
the unorthodox base sizes and sticky-out bits.

French horse (Knights and Light Cavalry) has separated
from the infantry - Solid Blades and crossbows for Solid Bows
- versus my even mix of Blades and Bows.

Climax in the center - fight between commanders as
one of the French Knight bases breaks towards my table edge.

My enthusiastic opponent had come upon our 18th-century stockade, so next wanted to try a siege scenario. Trouble was that DBA doesn't have rules for that, or even for artillery battering down walls. The best Jim and I could suggest was a Free-Kriegspiel wargame, with pre-1974 GM-added "events" and Warhammer-inspired rules for the bombardment mortars (proxied by ACW ones).

My opponent had never played rpgs, and became disconcerted by the fact there were no hard-and-fast rules for the events I was adding in. For example, I had secretly rolled that the fort only had a week of food, so when his army tramped onto the field they observed one of my few infantry bases in the nearby cropfield hastily gathering supplies, but did nothing about it and waited patiently for their guns to get hauled onto the board. He chose to wait overnight before opening fire, so I sent a forlorn hope to try and disable the guns; this led to our first combat when his sentries woke up and managed to wipe my unit before they did more than temporarily disable one of his three guns.

We decided that each week would be represented by two rounds of mortar fire. Fire had three rolls to it.

• - First, a misfire roll before shooting. If the gun team rolls a one, PHUT and the gun doesn't shoot that turn.
• - Second, a scatter roll after choosing an aiming point. We had no scatter dice, but used the old expedient of "a one or six is a direct hit, otherwise in the direction of the one-face."
• - Third, D6" scatter.

I secretly declared "locations" for my own bombard, food supplies, and each of my unit bases. (He couldn't see over the walls, though he could see the flagstaff of the command tent.)

Incidentally, my opponent did NOT send the traditional parley flag in to demand the garrison surrender. Nor did he expect, or accept, a desperate wave of a parley flag from the walls, or a messenger riding across the fields with an urgent message for him. The messenger was trussed up and later executed without being able to deliver a message more than screaming "The PRINCESS is in there! Please, you can't bombard us!" This was also disregarded as an obvious ruse.

Over the course of two weeks, during which each gun got to attempt two firings, the garrison lost its own gun, a week of supplies, and one base of troops to the bombardment before a breach was made in the gate. The garrison, down to two infantry bases and a light cavalry base (presumably the garrison commander and retinue) opted to ambush the first attacking base through the breach.

At this point, we reverted again to DBA rules. Even though I had an advantage, one garrison base was forced to recoil, making room for further assaulting bases to get through the breach in following turns. 

After I lost one of the two infantry bases,
I sent the hastily mounted commander in as a reserve,
but it was no good.

The garrison offered surrender; it was refused and the fort sacked and everyone in it killed.

Jim, who had been acting as auxiliary GM due to note-passing and DBA expertise, ruled that this was a tactical win for Jacob but a strategic faux pa, because there had been a high-born woman in the besieged fort and the attackers had failed to conduct themselves according to chivalric norms. To be fair to Jacob, he had never encountered a GM-run game before and was more eager to reduce a fortress than to "act" as a period commander with all the options that such commanders actually had. Since he preferred set rules for such things, I suggested next time we try Christopher Duffy. That said, hopefully we have a new member and regular for the club; it also has a new social media presence.

Sorry for the quietus on the blog. Been alternately too busy and too tired to post, but just got some deliveries in. First, from my talented brother:

My new work mascot, a sort of dwarf librarian.

And the BEF, all painted up:

Scottish Republican militia (one figure short)

Command group with mortar

SMG assault half-section

BUF section

My brother painted everything in the same scheme, so I imagine that all these chaps are Scots, with the blue cap, whether traditional or military, as the national "spot" colour. I look forward to trying a round or two of Kill Team with them.

I also received an order from Raven Banner Games. The first is a full pack of 18mm Thirty Years War skirmish figures which should be just the thing for games of The Pikeman's Lament.

Pike and Shot units.

With the addition of horses and holders, the Shot double as Dragoons.

The other is a selection of Peter Dennis AWI units. Partly to add to my 18th-century Imagi-nations, and partly for America-250-appropriate games at work.

British...

And American.

(Plus one battery of French artillery and a handful of Hessian riflemen.)

Not sure how to name the "American" Imagi-nation regiments - maybe borrow from Bob Cordery's alternate 1891 map?

Speaking of Cordery, I've been fiddling with Portable Wargames, in hopes of running one during Chess Club at work. Unfortunately, both the 18th-century and Napoleonic rulesets require two bases per unit, which at 60mm across won't quite fit on the two-inch chessboard squares. On the other hand, some folks on the Facebook group use Risk figures, and I do have a donated set. A third option is to play 3x3 and have each "square" take up 2x2 chessboard squares. Hmm... 

Where does the time go?

Five years I've been at this as of yesterday.

Wow. Doesn't feel that long.

Presently, I'm in a slump. More reading, less creativity, no play. Except occasional chess and quite a bit of Exploding Kittens on Monday afternoons, which is increasingly popular with the kids at work. Have had eighteen attendees at the last two chess sessions, so I am keen to try a Portable Wargame at some point.

I haven't been to the club or even to my local tavern for a while - too tired after work and hard to get specific days off. We are getting at least one new coworker next week, which will help.

I've been beavering away at units from the Paperboys AWI volume, currently onto French and grenadier regiments. The vague thought is to use them for a display during summer and maybe a game. Teenagers are the ideal audience for this, but even our teen advisory board has halted with the end of the school year, so no idea where this goes.

I also haven't done anything with the Pike and Shotte sets, either ECW or Japanese. For AWI and Pikeman's Lament, I've got some Wofun figures on the way from Raven Banner Games that, when they arrive, will further delay any painting or play with the paper or conventional models, but might at least get me to actually put something on the gaming table.

I'm about to move out of my apartment, as well (and putting off packing or downsizing). I'm hoping to move into a two-bedroom and use the second bedroom as a gaming room and library, because I am literally out of shelf space even after adding a spinning shelf that holds most of my gaming and history collection. My "4x6" tables take up most of my bedroom's remaining floorspace, with most of the game boxes packed under it. The other distraction is cats who are hard to keep out of the bedroom while I'm playing, building or painting - with another bedroom I can shut the door and return to a project without worry that a pet will have scattered whatever was on the table...

So I'm not looking forward to the move, but I am looking forward to extra space and, effectively, a new start.

I really feel like I've been slowing down over the last year, but according to the post numbers to the side I am actually still at an average of one a week over the entire time this blog has existed. Not too bad then.

Starting on the Fife and Drum minis.

Some Paperboys from last month.

An abortive Pikeman's Lament test I kept putting off
until I just put it away.

Over time, the constant, I think, has been engagement. I've done some solo games, but what really helps is gaming with the local group, exchanging comments with other bloggers, and even talking with my brother, who has his own difficulties that he subsumes with gaming projects. I find myself painting (with markers) whilst talking with him over Discord. Community, even the nebulous sort you get online, really helps. The comments here have slowed down, but I suspect that's partly because of my own slow posting.

Not sure how to end this post. Hope that things will be better in the future, I suppose. I was hoping not to leave my apartment until I moved out of state, but if I have to move, it might as well be into a better situation for my hobby (and my pets, who need more room too). I hope I'll have an answer soon, and some hobby progress, too. See you then, and thanks for reading.

My Gaming-Adjacent Week

Monday: Chess Club. Won one, lost two. One of the club members has an online score of 2200. (!) Also ran a hasty demo of DnD for two mothers and two kids - one about nine years old and the other about six. The six-year-old quickly got bored, though I tried to distract him with a pet for his character, and his mother did her best to enlist his help. The plot, such as it was, involved a dragon that had just stolen the town's sheep, and the party hired by a desperate mayor. The characters were a dwarf, a magic-user, an elf and a knight. Many 20-siders were rolled, generally with easy difficulties, but a couple very low rolls added tension and interest. The party headed down a forest path in the direction of the dragon, climbed a tree to look for him, attracted his attention and had to fight him while he was slashing his way through the trees and failing to flame them due to a magical shield. The session ended with an (assisted by magic) throw of the knight's sword into the dragon's mouth - he gagged, dropped the sheep on the party, and the players got their treasure and an idea of how the game works.

We also played a couple rounds of Exploding Kittens, which seems popular. and I've been idly messing with Tantrix as well (a puzzle game). I would like to try a Portable Wargame once I get some more Paperboys made, or the Perrys' box set will work as well. I nearly bought a painted set of it at Recon.

Tuesday: Cut some more Paperboys for club display, this time English knights from the 1314 volume.

Wednesday: A little more Paperboy assembly, but experimented by sandwiching them over laminating plastic for greater durability. Surprisingly stayed stuck on to the plastic well, but of course harder to cut out -a danger of dulling the scissors, I think.

Thursday: Opened my mailbox to find a handful of Bad Squiddo figures I'd ordered from North Star and forgot about. They have an amazing line of WWII women that make great character figures or small units for VBCW.

Friday: Some idle Paperboys. I've decided to work my way through the AWI book with heavier bases for possible play at work during the summer. So far have finished a 32-man regiment of American militia and started on two 16-man units of American light infantry (the intent is for Charge!)

Saturday: Started a few more Paperboys for the club, this time ECW dragoons on foot. Might do Highlanders next, as I'm looking for variety. 

My brother has finished his gift painting commissions for me! Here's the duardin bookkeeper:

Lazy Week...

So I didn't go to Recon this weekend. I sort of passed thru it like a breeze in the night, picking up a handful of Cigar Box cut-out-terrain mats from Raven Banner Games. I ordered a few other items from them, but those hadn't arrived, so I'll have them shipped. I drifted past the sale tables around the walls, but everyone wanted cash and I hadn't any, so I just said hi to a few people from the club and was off again. My aunt lives nearby so I was really there for an overnight visit. My eldest cat is at the point where I'm wary of leaving her alone for long, though she seems to be okay since I've returned. She's frantically hungry, or rather she really prefers to have me sit with her and watch her eat.

Four-hour drives are tiring, though, and next time I may try a train ride and Uber to and from the stations. So may try again in August, maybe two nights.

The only other thing I've done in the last couple weeks is assemble a handful of Paperboys units to stick on the walls of the new club.

Irish, Bavarians, and Hessian grenadiers.

Have been meaning to run a quick playtest of Pikeman's Lament on my bedroom table, but my constant procrastination gives Lex the opportunity to have her way with the setup:

The rules do say I should have an obstacle in each quarter.

Also been messing with Kerbal Space Program, for the first time in years. Last week was "National Dark Skies Week" and we always have a special event at the library; the local physicist who gives a well-attended talk couldn't make it, so as the staff space enthusiast I got volunteered. I considered running an Artemis II reenactment with the game as a demonstration, but there was too little time and in the event I just showed a few videos before we went outside and looked at Jupiter with telescopes. Usually we have 25 or so people, this time we only had five. My boss was still pretty happy. So I've been watching KSP videos on Youtube, desultorily playing the game, and thinking about how to wedge it into library programming. I never got into the sequel, KSP2, which was abandoned in preproduction on Steam but looks still pretty usable. I will wait until there's a sale before buying it. I also prefer using an autopilot (called MechJeb) and this doesn't seem to be available for KSP2, so I'll also want to hunt down a mod that reproduces it. I'm not that great at "controlling" video games, so I treat KSP as a "mission control" game rather than a "flying spaceships" game.

What next? No specific plans. Might paint a few of the Fife and Drum militia figures, cut out the terrain pieces I just bought, or consider my next vacation. Dad wants to visit Bermuda, I want to see (in order of distance and effort) Ft. Augustine, Boston, St. John's Newfoundland and Australia. (That last is on hold until my sister in New Zealand puts her own plans into action.) A summer Boston trip might not be a great idea, this year is likely to be pretty crowded. I'll let you know what I decided next post. Here's hoping for an uneventful week.

Swiss Army Blades

Just two people at Jim Dundorf's regular DBA Days at the club (formerly Das Krieg Haus, now The War Office). I don't go often to the club these days, partly because I'm only free every second Saturday, but I took this last week off work to take a breather and catch up on ... stuff. I expect to see many members at the Recon convention at the end of April; I'm planning to go just for a day, mostly to shop.

Every time I visit, the club shelves have been revamped slightly. There isn't room for all the books, some of which are going to a club in Naples. At present there are a bunch of board games, including a handful of non-war types like Munchkin that I occasionally, ahem, borrow for work. I found my copy of Charge!, which I'd left at some point along with my "'45 Rebellion" Wofun figures. 

Having become interested in the Italian Wars, I wanted to try Swiss again. Jim didn't have a historical enemy in his otherwise comprehensive collection, but he had Catalan Spanish only a bit out of time period.

My Early Swiss, mostly halberdiers (or Fast Blades in DBA).

The field of battle - ploughs, hill and forest.

Jim's Spanish - pike, light units and a couple horse, including his CO.

Jim reckoned my Fast Blades (moving three base lengths in all terrain) would kick his ass. As usual, though, my indecisiveness and poor luck with the dice got in the way. Jim feels that - despite the disparity of our armies - the game as a whole is balanced because a player can think like a general, do what that general would do in a situation, and the rules will allow it.

So I tried.

I moved my big halberd-block forward, skirting the too-defensible hill, and sent my light cavalry unit - capable of three moves a turn! - towards the opposing camp. My own was protected behind my army, with two psiloi (light infantry) in the woods on my left.

First game turn, angling towards the center. My command base is to
left of the center block, my one cavalry base is on its way to the rear.

Refused my right to avoid going up the hill, exposed my left in the process.

My General (+6 vs. infantry) tackled an opposing unit, but lost due to the dice
(mine poor, his good!). Luckily, they weren't destroyed and were still close enough
to the rest of the army to "lead."

My army a bit trapped now by that pike unit on the left, I
refused this flank as well.

Meanwhile, my horse were bashing their heads against the Spanish camp.
Its mere camp followers fought back for three turns with potatoes and hand tools.

In the end, I managed to take the camp and sweep my cav down on Jim's right-rear, at about the same time that I also flanked and destroyed his general, and that was the game!

To be fair, Jim was coaching me all the way, or at least stopping me from my usual analysis paralysis to think about my options. I'm still not familiar enough with DBA for it to be second nature yet, but he thinks I'm getting the hang of the rules. A good teacher (and a good GM for the games and tourneys at Recon).

My next step, I think, will be experimenting with Pikeman's Lament. Looking forward to it, at least if I can fully clear off the table...