Favorite AWI Blog's 2014

VolleyFireVSFwargames

New for 2013 new adventures 1895 and Beyond
http://volleyfirevsfgames.blogspot.com/

Henry has introduced me to a new set of rules look here for new tales of these adventures.
IHNM - In Her Majesty's Name by Osprey

Volleyfiresupplydepot

My newly updated blog for supplies and painting tips gleaned from the web and my general surplus miniature selling page click on the link to take you to the new blog.
http://volleyfiresupplydepot.blogspot.com/

I now have joined the electronic age and have paypal and EBay auctions.

VolleyFireOverseas

This is a blog I set up to chronicle my adventures in wargaming overseas in Scotland in 2011 and to continue following particular games overseas that I enjoyed with my new friends in Edinburgh. I look forward to finally updating this with more pics soon.

http://volleyfireoverseas.blogspot.com/

Napoleonic Campaigning in Italy

Napoleonic Campaigning in Italy
Les Grognards Blog "The sabre that Napoleon used at Marengo"

Napoleon's Drum and his Marshals

Napoleon's Drum and his Marshals
Napoleon Mulling over his battle plan

Napoleon reflecting by Iron Mitton

Napoleon reflecting by Iron Mitton
Quiet before the battle

Napoleon the morning of waterloo

More Iron Mitton Cartoons

More Iron Mitton Cartoons
Knock - Knock

Iron Mitton Cartoons

Iron Mitton Cartoons

Civility in wargaming

Civility in wargaming

Monday, February 27, 2012

AWI BLACK POWDER - BATTLE OF ORISKANY 1777

In Tribute to the SEWSC Lads - Might run this game Friday night (albight a slighty different verison and ahistorical) Based off Blenheims to Berlins Blog http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.com/2012/02/awi-black-powder-battle-of-oriskany.html

Pics will Follow on a stormy night the Relief column failed to make enough head way as the regulars with the column were overly aggressive and were out flanked by Native American Warbands.
However the 2nd brigade Militia were able to sieze part of the hamlet in vicious fighting.
While the Regulars crushed one Warband to there front. They neglected to fight decisively to their rear
and on a Bloodthirsty Charge with a reroll were sent screaming into the woods running with their scalps intact. The British were more heavily reinforced than had previously been reported nd the hamlet provided sufficient cover for an ambuscade by British forces.
The First Militia Brigade were caught in March column as they attempted to force their way across the bridge by weight of numbers and came up short against Butlers Rangers.
Oh the Onieda Indians had a stamina of 1 when they should have had a stamina of 4 and therefore melted into the woods after an earlier break test failure as per RAW

It was a fun game well worth a continued use of these Fun rules.
Might define Brigades by attributes in the future to avoid confusion.

Next opportunity might be the 16th for a refight.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Thursday Night Black Powder

Well a better game was finished tonight - French assaulting 3 Brigades of Russians in a rear guard action that the French won. Stamina levels of 5 allowed us to work through the rules a little better this time, still a few mistakes. but they are getting. Some ideas about having all infantry and artillery steady for the first break tests perhaps even the second if elite. This allows for units to play a little longer , although my break test rolls would have made better command rolls. We also generally let a side go through its entire phase rolling for command. Finally started using the shaken rules properly. Still shaky on phasing with moving skirmishers next to Enemy Cavalry. I think infantry movement with 12 or 6 inches of enemy cavalry should trigger an out of phase opportunity charge.

Initial success by the Russian Cavalry was depleted as its one large manuever brigade of Infantry was broken by French artillery and Infantry Charges. We had several drawn cavalry melees.

And bombarding a BUA with Horse Artillery just doesnt work.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Canvas Eagles / Blue Max - World War One - Larry Leadhead Website Rules




WARNING: Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is a fast paced, easy to learn and highly addictive game.


Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is a fast paced multi-player World War I (1914 - 1918) aerial combat game that is played on a hex game mat. Each game depicts a single dogfight in which each player controls a single aircraft, and attempts to shoot down as many enemy planes as possible without being shot down themselves. There is no limit to the number of players that can play in a single game.



Blue Max/Canvas Eagles is played on a hex grid game mat, with the players, using an aircrfat maneuver chart decide which maneuver their aircraft will perform on the following move. After all players have decided their moves, all the aircraft are moved simultaneously on the game mat. Players can shoot at another plane only if the enemy aircraft is within their fire arc at a maximum distance of 3 hexes. The game rules are very simple with most being contained within the game components used for game play. Referencing the rules manual is rarely necessary. After playing a few games, you can start using the campaign rules, which adds more fun to the game.

Eric Hotz & Phil Hall © 2008



Canvas Eagles/Blue Max

Looks like a great site with free downloads for the entire ruleset.
Also from the yahoo discussion group today -
Re: 10 section antennas for sale
"I checked this group today to announce something and found you guys talking about it already. So I'll just reply to this post here. I am modifying my hex flight bases to include a telescoping rod as well. It's a 5 segment with magnet on the end. The flight stand has a built in direction indicator and elevation indicator. I also finished my new magnetic mounts that can be used to indicate yaw, pitch, and roll. We use these to indicate the last turns move for instance a left turn with a climb so you can keep track visually more whats going on and it looks great.

Telescoping rods by themselves will be $3 each. 4" hex flight stands are $9 (I can make 5" if someone is trying to do 72nd scale) Magnetic mounts are $2.50 each for the small 1/144th scale stuff and $4 each for the larger 1/72nd scale ones. So for 1/144th you can have a setup for under $15. I was going to announce the mag mounts but I'm also placing an order for telescoping rods soon so if anyone is interested email me and I can add some to my order."

Mag mounts can be seen here:
http://www.corseceng.com/blog/2010/9/20/universal-magnetic-mounts-are-ready.html

Flight stands here:
http://www.corseceng.com/blog/2010/4/18/canvas-eagles-flight-stands.html

"The mag mounts can be attached to the rods I've worked out easy and secure ways for both sizes."
Jonathan Bowen - CorSec Engineering
http://www.corseceng.com/
Also below is a comparison given by
Eric Hotz between
Blue Max/Canvas Eagles and another Air Game rules set CY6
CY6 is a good game, but I want to play a lot of turns and I want to play a fast game when I play an air combat game. I find CY6 a bit complex. It may be a more accurate simulation of flight, but it sacrifices game speed to achieve it.

I like CY6, and if I had more time, I would play it more. Canvas Eagles is just an easier game to grab and play, and judging by the number of people I saw playing Canvas Eagles vs those playing CY6 at my local club, I'd say a number of people agree with my feelings.
 have played "Check Your 6" WWII and the world war one version has been played at my club. My local club used to field 20+ players for Canvas Eagles games in the past -- this was "usual" for single games. These were big events. I was away from the club for almost two years and expected, upon my return, to see everyone playing the WWI version of CY6. What did I see... I saw 15 people playing Canvas Eagles. I saw my friend Craig playing and I asked him, "Why is no one playing the CY6 WWI version?" He looked at me and said, "We tried it... its way to complicated". I haven't seen the game played since. My local club has 100+ members with between 60 and 80 showing up for game nights. This is one the largest and oldest tabletop gaming clubs in North America

Is Blue Max/Canvas Eagles rubbish? Blue Max and Canvas Eagles do something that no other game I have ever played does. They capture the speed and fury of WWI air combat. They capture the flavour of the period better than any other game I have played. When I played at the club, we would get in between 35 and 55 turns.
The last time I went to my club was last month and there was a 10 player Canvas Eagles game going on. People play Check Your 6 WWII at the club, but its a smaller group. The game of CY6 I played got in about 8 turns in two hours. With Canvas Eagles, this would have been around 20 turns. CY6 is a good game, but very detailed while Canvas Eagles is a more fluid game because the game was designed to move quickly. You sacrifice something for that.
  I could see little difference between it (CY6) and the old Avalon Hill Air Force game.

A friend of mine used to play WWII in Calgary, Canada. He played using wheeled stands. He came over to Vancouver, where I live, for a visit. When he heard I was playing a WWI game that used hexes he laughed and went on and on about what wheeled stands are the best and most accurate way to play WWII or WWI. After he played Canvas Eagles he wanted to know where to get the game. He said it was a great game.

Blue Max was never intended to be an accurate game. When you are playing on 5 inch hexes, and moving two or more hexes at a time, you lose something, but at the same time you gain speed and a very addictive, fun game for all ages.
  It simply can't be beat for its feel and flavour of the period.
Canvas Eagles is also the best convention game I have ever seen,
 especially when using these fluid rules.

So there you have it an unbiased opinion on Canvas Eagles the New Blue Max rules.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Run Silent Run Deep......

Something different tonight - Submarine warfare during WW2 in the Pacific

Watched Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster and assorted charcter actors and comedians in this
old Black and White movie on American submarines in world war two in the Pacific.

Excellent movie as only Gable and Lancaster could have done it.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run_Silent,_Run_Deep

Friday, February 10, 2012

Black Powder Friday Night Fights

More Black Powder using amendments by Tyne Gaming Club in the UK

Russian Rear Guard Action vs French pursuit. Outnumbered Russian troops defend a village dominating an important supply route.

While liking the graduated fire ranges and the response rolls / The other amendments are a little too complicated otherwise.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Objective markers

Saw something someone had put up or objective markers and will add a few ideas of my own - again pics to follow.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Black powder again More complicated than I thought!

Finishing up that battle of last week with a few minor corrections tonight
Should be interesting with the Cuirassiers hitting that unit in the center and doing the melee right this time.

Well the Cuirassier melee was interesting Steven dashed out Huge losses bu my saving rolls saved me.
But eventually the Infantry Unit Broke - We had interesting melees with squares by infantry and cavalry at least cossacks with lances. Confusion reigned in our built up area Melee. One Russian Battalion held up 5 French/Polish Battalions before succumbing to the onslaught. (Course I kept giving a win to a drawn melee to the defenders) I think it was rules creep from Fire and Fury in SOA 21 last weekend. Anyway the French finally gained the upper hand.
Pics and commentary to follow - should get a couple more games in this month

The blunder move was extremely funny (number 5) Square to Line and charge - he rolled a blunder move with Cavalry in support - rather than get complicated - I let him charge with the infantry in Line and follow with his cavalry. I can see keeping track of markers can be difficult.

Still an interesting set of Rules!
Then Super Bowl Sunday - Go Giants