A question of scale

You may remember a couple of days ago, I talked about receiving Over The Channel, a campaign for fighting the Battle of Britain for the Check Your 6! rules, and I was undecided about what scale of aircraft I was going to use…

…well, after reading the book, it ended up being an easy decision.

The book contains a total of 18 scenarios. If you want to fight all of them, you need the following aircraft:

Royal Air Force:

• 9 x Spitfire I
• 9 x Hurricane I
• 6 x Fairey Battle
• 3 x Bolton-Paul Defiant
• 4 x Blenheim IF
• 6 x Blenheim IV
• 3 x Spitfire II

Luftwaffe:

• 10 x Ju 88
• 13 x Do17
• 12 x Ju 87
• 8 x He 111
• 8 x Me Bf 110C
• 8 x Me 109E
• 12 x BR.20M
• 8 x Cr. 42

…thats a grand total of 119 aircraft, including 65 bombers.

Much as I like 1/300th scale aircraft, considering that fighters cost £1 each, and bombers can be anything from £2-£3 each, from a purely economic point of view, there is only one decision to make – 1/600th scale.

Even then, you are still looking at a bill in excess of £50 for all the aircraft. Another project to complete in stages, I think…

Days when you hate wargaming

Do you find that there are days when you can really hate this hobby?

For example, I am currently refighting the battle of Asculum using Commands & Colors: Ancients, and the VASSAL online module. The latest turn came through this morning, and I could finally execute the charge that I had been planning for the last few turns.

As you can see, 3 units of my Epirote Heavy Infantry, 2 commanded by Generals, charge into a line of 2 units of Roman Medium Infantry, 1 commanded by a General.

The score is 5-4 in victory banners to me – I need to destroy 1 unit for victory…and I’m attacking with a 50% chance of causing damage.

An easy win…

…Or maybe not. This is the result of the engagement:

So, I rolled a total of 15 dice – all hitting at 50%. The result? 4 hits. I even had 10 dice to roll to cause 3 hits on a single unit…I could only manage a miserable 2.

But, to make matters worse, my opponents rolls were just the opposite. He rolled 12 dice (again, hitting on a 50% chance) and scored 8 hits.

The final result? I am now laid open to another round of combat, my opponent strikes first.

Funnily enough, I lost the game in the next turn.

I know that dice are used to represent the fact that nothing is ever certain, and this game, would it be written up as prose, would talk about an heroic defense by Roman Legionaries…

…but as someone to whom poor dice throwing seems to be a way of life, this was still a cruel, cruel blow.

Today, I hate wargaming…

Game Over Man…Game Over!

Now, I know that I have been known to be a little slow on the uptake at times…

I’ve just been sent a link to a flash version of the 1989 classic boardgame Aliens, based on the film (which is one of my all-time favourites)

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/408816

This boardgame is now very difficult to get hold of, but you can play 3 of the missions online.

The game uses original soundtrack music and effects, so is very atmospheric. It’s also pretty hard, so if you want a quick Space Hulk-esque fix, then give this a look.

New rules arrived

The postman was kind to me this morning and delivered 2 new sets of rules for my continued gaming delight…

The first is the 2nd Edition of Polemos Napoleonic. As you already know if you read this blog or listen to the podcast, I’m a big fan of these rules, and have been looking forward to the 2nd Edition ever since it was announced.

What are the differences over 1st Edition? Not a tremedous amount, although they have been tidied up and many clarifications made – but I’ll post my views on them in a future show.

The second set of rules I received were the Check Your 6! set of World War II aerial combat rules, along with the Over The Channel supplement from Scott Fisher of Skirmish Campaigns fame.

I’ve been eyeing these rules for some time now, and have been undecided as to whether to get them or not.

What finally made the decision for me was seeing the Pearl Harbour game at the Derby World Wargames Championships at the start of October. The game was using Tumbling Dice 1/600th scale aircraft and looked really good.

Also, since the game uses similar mechanisms to the World War I game Blue Max (which I play online from time to time) I was pretty much sold.

But of course, being a Brit, the Flying Tigers scenarios from the original rulebook hold only passing interest for me, so I just had to purchase the Battle of Britain scenario book Over The Channel to go with the original rules.

I’m really looking to playing this game – it just means that I now have to buy some more aircraft and a blue hex mat.

On the aricraft front, I’m sort of torn between 1/300th and 1/600th scale. I like the 1/600th Tumbling dice range of aircraft, but I also like the 1/300th planes because I prefer the size – it may simply come down to a matter of economics – it depends how many aircraft I will need to buy in order to play all the scenarios in the BoB book.

The hex mat could end up being more of an issue – I’ve looked around the web, and everyone seems out of stock at the moment…not good.

Uncharted Seas scenery – Amera

I thought I’d take some pictures of the scenery pack that is produced by Amera for Uncharted Seas, as there doesn’t appear to be many pictures of this scenery currently on the web.

The islands are pictured with the new Dwarf Anvil Heavy Crusier, for scale comparison purposes (the ship is 70mm long)

The largest Island

The 2 medium-sized islands

A closer look at one of the medium-sized islands

The 2 small islands

Finally, we have a close up of the superb new Dwarf Anvil Heavy Cruiser.

New Uncharted Seas ships

I bought some of the new wave of Uncharted Seas release from Stafford Games on Friday – tey arrived on my desk this morning – and thought that I would put up some pictures and some immediate impressions.

The Dwarf Heavy Cruisers look simply awesome! An improvement on the basic Cruiser, and including a revolving turret (the same turret that is used on the Frigates, by the looks of things). A very nice ship – very happy with these.

The Dragon Lords Heavy Cruiser is not quite as nice. The hull looks to be the same as the normal Cruiser, just with a different sail design (including a forward facing cannon, so not quite as blown away as I thought I might be.

The Dragon Lords Dragon Carrier is, if I’m honest, a major disappointment. It’s a nice enough looking ship, but my issue is with the price. It’s classed as a capital ship, and is therefore priced at the same price as the Dragon Lords Battleship – but the model is nowhere near as big as the battleship, and has only 1 sail instead of two – therefore I see no reason to justify the model being the same price as it’s bigger compatriot…other than simply a general marketing/price issue (i.e. it’s a capital ship – all captital ships cost the same amount). Also, I don’t see the full potential of this ship being reached until Dragons are released (this is just something I suspect – the rules have not been published yet) and so I’m currently wishing that I’d have held fire on buying this model just yet…

Just what we need…

…Another Zombie Game.

Too Right!

Continuing the excellent set of releases from Ambush Alley Games comes Ambush Z – just in time for Halloween!

Ambush Alley is a great game for gaming modern combat, and now this new ruleset takes us, yet again, into the modern Zombie game genre…so you can game all those cool battles from World War Z to your hearts content!

And Ambush Z is just that – it’s not a supplement, but a stand alone game. So, even if you want to game zombies, but don’t want to game modern warfare, you have no excuse.

It’s a 74 page rulebook, and comes complete with 5 scenarios. It’s only available as a PDF, but for $20 it looks to be well worth it.

Since it’s that time of year, I will shoe-horn a review of these rules into the next podcast…

Upcoming rules reviews…

I was running a poll on the Podcast Guild, asking which ruleset to review in Episode #42 of the Podcast. This has now closed.

The winner is…

Stargrunt 2

So, I will be reviewing Uncharted Seas in Episode #41, and Stargrunt 2 in Episode #42.

There is another poll still running at the Guild, which gives a list of potential rulesets to review, and asks for your preferences. This is due to expire on November 1st, so if you want to register your views on what rules you want to hear reviewed on Meeples & Miniatures, go and vote on the Guild.

Scimitar Wargames Club – 15th October

This last Wednesday saw another meeting of Scimitar Wargames Club.

Tony brought in War of the Ring, which was played by Tony, myself, Bob and Jere. An excellent game, which I will be looking at more closely in a future podcast.

Andy and Howard played Arab/Israeli war ( a blast from the past!)

Whilst Tony and Phil played DBM…

…and Dave taught Pete Napoleonic Polemos. (By the way, if anyone doubted that I exist, as I don’t appear on many photos, I’m the chap in the red and white striped rugby top in the background)

If you fancy joining us, we meet every Wednesday night 7pm – 10pm at Church Hall at Christ Church, Frankpledge Road, Cheylesmore, Coventry.

Meeples & Miniatures – Episode 40

Download Episode 40

 

Show 40 of Meeples & Miniatures – the podcast about Miniature Wargames & Strategy Boardgames – is now available to download.

 

The show features the usual mix of gaming news and comment.

 

During the show, I chat about A Touch of Evil, the new horror boardgame from Flying Frog Productions, as well as giving an in-depth review of the historical miniatures rules Basic Impetus & Impetus, from Dadi & Piombo

 

00:00    Intro

05:45    Gaming News

21:35    Rumblings – A Touch of Evil, Uncharted Seas

23:30    Charity Appeal – Combat Stress

25:20    Competition

30:10    In-depth review – Basic Impetus/Impetus

73:25    Closing Comments

 

This Week in Wargaming Podcast

Future War Commander

Hasslefree Miniatures

Ambush Alley

T.O.G. Entertainment

A Touch Of Evil

Uncharted Seas

Impetus