PrairieCon XXXIX (yes that's "39")

This year, in accordance with ancient tradition, we loaded up the wagons and headed out to PrairieCon in Brandon, Manitoba. Conscripts Greg, Byron, and me each ran a game, and we were pretty chuffed to meet up with Original Conscript Curt who came out from Regina to play in our games and run an amazing game of his own just for us!

Here's a view of the Assiniboine Community College gym, which hosted many of PrairieCon's miniatures games. Fortunately for us, our games were tucked away in a quiet corner of the cafeteria upstairs :-)

First up on the weekend menu was my Battlestar Galactica fleet-scale game using the Colonial Blattlefleet ruleset. Due to a bit of confusion in the convention program, some of the people who signed up thought they would be playing the BSG boardgame which is... quite different from Colonial Battlefleet (they assured me that they had fun anyway).

The scenario fit into the general PrairieCon theme this year, which was "It's a Trap." The Colonials had grabbed a breather to refuel and refit but were surprised at anchor by a Cylon fleet and had to make good their escape.

The Colonials were deployed roughly around the planet with the Cylons split between the long table edges. The Colonials had to escape from either or both of those long edges.

As in the TV show, once the fleets were engaged the missiles began to fly fast and furious!

Battlestars launched their Vipers!

Then it really got fun - close quarters battle between man and machine! We found that the Battlestars were pretty impregnable though - the amount of point defense and flak they could throw out made it very difficult for the (admittedly far more numerous) Cylon Raiders and Heavy Raiders to deal them much damage.

However, as someone once said "quantity has a quality all its own" and if you get enough Raiders (red dice) into action...

...stuff is bound to blow up!

The ended as a Colonial victory... if you can count the loss of one of the three Colonial squadrons as a "victory". The fact is, every Colonial ship destroyed and crewman killed is a loss that can't be replaced. Cylons can always produce more robots and ships...

Conscript Byron ran a game of the Two Fat Lardies' "Through the Mud and the Blood":

The year is 1915, the Germans have just launched their first chlorine gas attack and pushed the Allies back.  The Canadian forces of the 10th and 16th Battalions have been ordered into Kitchener’s Wood in a counter attack in the middle of the night with no reconnaissance.  What could possibly go wrong?

Here we see the French holed up in a ruined farm, ready to defend against the German attack / bug out (delete as appropriate).

Byron ran the game with a masterful hand...

The accessories he made for the game are outstanding in quality. Here we see one of his custom cards. The unit blinds are also pretty striking.

Next up was Greg's game: Team Yankee based on the battle of Blickheim in Macksey's excellent book "First Clash":

The year is 1986, and the forces of the Warsaw Pact have invaded West Germany.  NATO allies respond, Canada among them.  The 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group moves into position to counter the advance of the Soviet 1st Guards tank division.  Leopard C1s and infantry of the Royal Canadian Regiment will clash with T-72s and Soviet Motor Rifle troops! 

In keeping with the convention theme ("it's a trap", remember?) Greg's scenario had the Soviets advancing pretty much unopposed towards a town, only to be ambushed by a mighty Canadian armoured squadron! Here are a couple of photos but Greg has done a comprehensive battle report, found here.

One last thing... I was pretty pleased to be able to pick up almost 30 classic AD&D modules from the collection of an old buddy and his younger brother. Nice eh? They were expensive, but I'm sure I could get something back from the duplicates if I wanted (I now own three copies each of "Tomb of Horrors" and "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks") and buying them all in one go saves future time and effort in looking for the ever-elusive "bargains"... at least that's what I told myself at the time :-)

Through the Mud and the Blood - Early War Second Battle of Ypres scenario

Earlier this month I headed out to visit Curt of Analogue Hobbies Blog Spot who was also a founding member of our very own Fawcett Ave Conscripts group.  The visit was for a weekend of random gaming fun with Curt and his merry band of followers, or at least his Friday night gaming group.  We played several different miniature games and even strayed into board games as well over the few days.

One of the games I took out was the excellent Through the Blood and the Mud World War 1 game by the Too Fat Lardies.  I ran a scenario set in the early war during the Second Battle of Ypres. While not historically accurate or set on any one specific battle it was one made up of elements of several fights, rolled into one to make a good game.  I had done this for a few reasons, one of which was to help with traveling light so that I could take less terrain and make it work on the new mat I got from Cigar Box Games.  It allowed me to not have to pack as many trees, no roads or rivers at all, and use whatever hills Curt had as they go under the mat. 

The game started with the Germans setup at the crossroads and the Canadians
coming on the board, everyone started concealed as blinds

The basic idea of the scenario was that the Canadians had broken through the German lines on their first night in battle somewhere along the front between Kitchener's and Sanctuary wood.  They made their way forward disrupting the German lines and pushed through to the German rear lines.  The Germans are caught by surprise at a small group of homes near a crossroad but know they have to hold our as long as they can to ensure that fresh troops have time to move up into position behind them to repulse the attack.  I borrowed the random game length idea of a "Tempus Fugit" deck that I first saw in one of the published scenarios from the Lardies to add a random nature to how long the Germans would have to hold. 

Curt and Jeremy played as the Germans, while Stacy and Sylvain led the Canadian forces.

The German HMG along with a rifle team, revealed that they had setup in the
woods and opened fire on the advancing Canadians, inflicting heavy casualties
on a section and driving that section back over the course of two turns.

The Canadian rifle team was quickly torn apart and reduced
below combat effectiveness.

The Canadians would score points for each killed or captured German, while the Germans would score points for each killed Canadian or escaped German.  German soldiers could escape based on how far they were from any Canadian soldiers when time ran out.  To represent the fact that the Germans were desperate to hold out and beat back the Canadian assault, they would need to do twice as much as the Canadians to win (so each Canadian "point" was worth 2).

A small German rifle team tries to prevent the Canadians from crossing
a small stream and flanking the German right flank.

Curt with his artistic flair insisted on an "action" shot.

 On the German left flank, the Canadians massed units in the woods opposite the crossroads and then tried to suppress the Germans before launching an assault.  The German forces were dug into better cover though and were therefor harder to both hit and hurt than the Canadians were. This meant that the firefight across the road lasted many turns despite the Canadians outnumbering the Germans by two to one.

Two Canadian sections already setup along the edge of the woods,
and three more coming up behind to support them!

The Germans only had one rifle section in the farm house,
and a section next to them in the woods, but that section was also
dealing with units coming up the road.

The game initially went very much in the Germans favour with them ripping apart one section very quickly, pinning two others, and getting lucky on both the activation and the time flies card decks.  It seemed like they would wipe the Canadians out in short order.

As is true in many battles though, the tide turned unexpectedly and swiftly on them as they suddenly ran out of luck about halfway through the game.  At that point for several turns in a row, the Canadians got almost every activation card they needed, before the German card for the unit they faced.  Worse than that (for the Germans at least), the Canadians got hot with their dice, and the Germans dice froze over.

After a few hot Canadian turns the Germans got word (the time flies deck ran out) that their reinforcements were setup behind them and they retreated from the field of battle.  It was a little too late for the Germans though, as the Canadians had closed in close enough to capture a majority of the German soldiers.

The final score was 52 to 28 in favour of the Canadians.  As the games referee I had worried early on that the Canadians would not even reach the German lines let alone get enough points for a tie, and due to a run of luck in the late game they completely turned the tables on the Germans.

The game once again reinforced for me how extremely simple the rule system by the Too Fat Lardies is, yet how well it seems to capture the real ebb and flow of battles.  It more than any other rule set for WW1 that I have played really gives me the feel of that grinding battle, yet allows for heroic changes in fate. 

Thanks to Curt for hosting and to Sylvain, Stacy, and Jeremy for playing.  It was an awesome visit and game, and one well worth repeating!

Through the Mud and the Blood - WW1 Canadians vs. Germans

Hello everyone, this is a bit late for an after action report, since the game was run when Curt was in town in July this summer.  However, after the game I got busy with work and then went on a 3 week road trip with the family.  Therefore, it's late by about a month.  The game was a lot of fun, so hopefully the report is worth the wait.

We used the excellent "Through the Mud and the Blood" rule set by Too Fat Lardies, which keeps putting out awesome rule sets that focus on the flavour and feel of an era rather than a competitive rule set. The game was based on a really interesting looking scenario that was published in one of the Lardies Winter specials that I have been meaning to try.  It uses some very interesting mechanics to track time, in the form of a "Tempus Fugit" deck that gets smaller each time you draw the one special card in it. It starts with 1 Tempus Fugit card and 4 blank cards.  Each time the TF card is drawn, one blank is removed.  When there is only the TF card left, the game ends.  A very interesting idea, and it worked quite well, running for roughly 10 fast turns before the TF card was drawn for the first time!  Once the deck started to thin out though, time really did fly!

 

The original scenario called for the Germans making an assault on a British position, however due to my collection of figures I reversed the roles, making the Canadians the aggressors.  They would have to come up a French country road and try to take a town that the Germans were trying to defend in a delaying action as the rest of their forces fell back to safety.  To win the Germans would need to dispatch twice as many Canadians compared to their own loses.  The Canadians however would capture 1/2 of any German unit that they were within 12" off at the end of the game.

Jim controlled the German force which consisted of an HMG squad, two rifle sections with 2 bombers each, and a level 3 Big Man.  They would start in the town on the hill along the right edge of the photo above.

The Canadians force consisted of 6 rifle sections and was controlled by Curt and Greg.  3 sections were from the 10th battalion and 3 from the 16th, so half in pants and half in kilts.  The Canadians also had both a level 3 and a level 2 big men to help coordinate the assault.  However, the Canadians would only start with 2 blinds on the table, with the potential to get 2 more on subsequent turns until everything was on the table.  They would also have 2 false blinds to help scout the area ahead of their main force (or potential mixed into the force to confuse the Germans).

 

The Canadians started out cautiously sending several blinds through the boccage and along the ridge line of the hill to try and reach the walled  yard along the treeline.  The Germans on the other side of the table felt that an aggressive defense was the best plan of slowing down the Canadians and advanced to the walls along the treeline and sent one blind forward along the road to the boccage and fields.

 

More Canadians arrive and start to make their way up the road.  The German blind can be seen to have moved even further into the fields, aggressive indeed!

 

Several turns into the game and the Germans revealed the forward blind as a devastating MG08 team, and worse yet they had worked their way forward to provide enfilade fire against the Canadian teams in the woods that had started to trade fire with the Germans behind the walls.

 

The Canadians reacted quickly to the new threat and moved up several blinds, and revealed one to take some shots at the MG08 team who was in the open from the new attackers!  Maybe the Germans had been over aggressive.

 Along the treeline things were heating up dramatically.  There were not 4 Canadian rifle sections facing off against 2 German rifle sections, the Germans had the better cover though and were defending.  Several rounds of fire were traded as the Canadians tried to inch closer to make an assault.  There were not many casualties on either side, but the shock was starting to add up.

 The German MG08 was extremely lucky to survive the opening volley from the Canadians and decided that discretion really was the better part of valour and retreated behind the boccage to setup for return fire the next turn.  With an open field between them, this flank was shaping up to be a stalemate unless someone got lucky on shooting.

The Canadians had finally setup their assault and were on their way in.

 

The Germans defended bravely, driving back the first wave of Canadians, but lost several men and were down to just 4 men on that flank as the second unit slammed into them.  Even with all the bonus dice for defending cover and the enemy movement, the assaulting Canadians got the best of them and overran the position.

In the end with only the MG08 section left on the table and the Canadians moving to envelope it on three sides, the Germans were forced to surrender.

Overall the game ran really well and kept flowing nicely.  The Tempus Fugit deck worked extremely well, even if it ran a bit more in favour of the Canadians by lasting so long early on.  Once a few blanks were gone though it started losing cards faster and at the end, there was only one blank card left.  If a blank or two had been drawn earlier, the Canadians may have run out of time to make the final assault and then the game would have been extremely tight on points to determine the victor.

It was another great game of Through the Mud and the Blood, I can't wait to host another!  I need to get back on track and paint up some more men though, my forces are only about 1/2 the size I want them to be.

WW1 Take the Farm - Gameplay

After a long time in the works, it was finally time to break out my World War 1 Canadian and German forces for a game of Through the Mud and the Blood.  The scenario was a fictional one looking at the possibility of Canadians taking the initiative early in the war, when historically they fought like hell, but followed orders a little too closely.  A key example of this was demonstrated in one of the 2nd battle of Ypres engagements where the Germans had a machine gun setup enfilade in a farmhouse on a flank that could have and should have been dealt with, but since it was not one of their objectives the Canadian leaders did not redirect any sections at it, not knowing if they had the operational freedom to do so.  What could they have accomplished if they knew that they had some leniency to adjust plans in the field right from the start?

This week we will be re-visiting the “Through the Mud and the Blood” World War 1 rule set that Curt introduced us to last year. The scenario is fictional, but based on several accounts of Canadian breakthroughs of the German lines in April - June of 1915 from the excellent books “Gallant Canadians” and “The Brave Battalion". Several times the Canadian troops rushed the line and took objectives that no one reasonably expected them to take, while taking casualties that would have sent other troops into retreat. Then, being still new to the war and their leaders unsure of how much freedom of control they had, just stopped. Not willing to take the initiative, they instead followed their orders to the letter.

This week we will explore what could have transpired, if one fateful night several sections of Canadians from the 10th and 16th Battalions had decide to advance into enemy territory.

Canadian Briefing: It’s early in the war, shortly after the 2nd Battle of Ypres; the lines are still confused and not quite settled back to their old grinding stalemate positions around the town after the German’s vile gas attack a few weeks ago. In an effort to gain back ground the 10th and 16th were sent forward to objective K5, a trench line on high ground leading to low lying farmland behind. The German defences had not been prepared properly for your assault and they retreated from the line. In fact, less than a mile beyond the line the farmland looked untouched by the war, all the fighting having taken place from the ridge westward.

Sergeant A.L. Lindsay has taken the initiative and ordered several sections forward behind enemy lines in the dark hours of the night, before the Germans can prepare any defence in depth or worse yet a counter attack. The plan is to follow the routed Germans in the hopes of finding a higher level commander and disrupt the chain of command so that no immediate counter attack can be launched against K5.

Just before dawn, and far behind enemy lines in the confusion, your scouts report a lightly defended farm house up ahead where they have spotted several German officers in deep discussion poring over maps. The farm house is located along a crossroad that has hedged fields surrounding it, a perfect place to sneak in close before attacking.

Can the Canadians prove successful behind the lines. or will they end up as more names to be etched on monuments, lost in the mud of Flanders fields?"

The Germans have held strategic meetings in these
ruins trying to regroup and launch a counter-attack

The Canadian commanders would be Kevin, Jim, Brian, and Bill, with Dave lending moral support.  They had 2 sections of 10th Battalion riflemen and 2 sections of 16th Battalion riflemen. Two of the sections were over-sized and had additional assault elements in them. The mission for the Canadians was to break through to a farm where German officers were spotted gathing and planning.  Once there they need to either capture any enemy documents preferably attack maps or plans, or if none are there capturing a German officer will do, as long as you can bring him back alive.The Canadians are attacking at dawn and have excellent cover to advance through.  However, they realize they are deep into enemy territory and will need to retreat as soon as the enemy realizes they are there and sends reinforcements, how long that will take, they don't know.

Pre-game look from the Canadian Side

The German commanders were Greg and Dallas.  They only had 2 small rifle sections, but did have an HMG as well.  The mission for the Germans is to simply hold out and keep the Canadians at bay long enough that re-enforcements arrive to send them scampering off.  While vastly outnumbered, and the enemy having ideal cover to advance against them, the Germans have some small artillery nearby that has already zeroed in on a few strategic choke points.  Unfortunately ammunition is limited and there will only be a few rounds of SOS fire support available. The Germans need to hold out for 10 turns before reinforcements arrive.

Pre-game look from the German side

The Canadians setup three blinds on one side of the table and one on the other, attempting a forced flank manuever up the right hand side of the board (looking from the German side as in the above photo) since it had cover further up the field.  A single section would advance up the other flank, to keep the Germans honest and not  allow them to counter attack on a flank.

The German commanders setup a blind in each building and one just behind and centralized for support options.

The first few turns went well for the Canadians, rushing forward while still under their blinds to get as close as possible to the German held farm house.  On the second turn, the German commanders reveal a rifle section located behind the other two blinds for support, and send a runner to the rear to attempt to initiate an SOS artillery strike.

On the third turn one Canadian blind gets too close and the Germans decide to reveal themselves and attempt to spot the enemy.  The Canadians have been spotted, by an HMG section!  Luckily the officer had to use his initiative to spot and the section would only be firing at the end of the turn.

The news keeps getting worse for the Canadians on turn 3 as the German artillery starts firing against the choke point in the hedgerow that they were using to advance through.  Of the 4 shells that landed that turn, one hit each of the three Canadian units coming through the hedges, and one deviated far enough back to affect the Germans themselves.  Remember everyone - Friendly fire isn't.

The artillery only had minor effect though, inflicting a few casualties on the Canadians and one on the Germans, as well as a few points of shock all around.

On turn four the Canadians, trying to advance out of the artillery fire and into the German lines assaulted on the far right.  However two sections were struck by the continuing artillery fire and left with more shock and a few casualties.  The Canadian players were getting extremely worried with shock piling up and still one more turn of incoming fire from the artillery.

Therefore only a single section could mount an attack. While the attack was swift, if met stiff resistance from the Germans dug in behind the brick walls of the farmyard.  The first round of combat saw only shock placed on either side, but then since it was a draw and a second round was immediately fought, 3 Canadians fell to only 1 German.  The surviving Canadians withdrew back through the hedges with enough shock to bottle.

Along the left flank, the Canadians advanced far enough to trade fire with one German rifle section, forcing the Germans to alternate between dealing with them and the larger threat to the right.

Turn 5 saw the last rounds of artillery landing, once again killing a few Canadians and dealing out shock in large numbers.  The Canadian forces big men gave the troops a stern tongue lashing about staying true to God and Country and they held their position.

Turn 6 saw shots trading back and forth as both sides tried to remove enough shock to accomplish some movement in the coming turns.

Turn 7 saw the Canadians launch yet another assault through the hedges at the HMG squad, this time with the remains of an over-sized sections through.  The HMG section did well, killing a Canadian and inflicting 2 points of shock, but the Canadians having them vastly outnumbered killed 3 and inflicted numerous points of shock.  The few surviving Germans had no choice but to fall back as they lost combat and bottled.

The Canadians had one of the farm houses in their possession, would it contain anything of value?  They moved into the house for cover and to start the search.

The Canadians having moved in and were rooting around in the farm caused concern to the German commander who directed all of his men to fire at them, inflicting 2 casualties and a few points of shock.  The other Canadian sections provided covering fire, but failed to accomplish much. 

The German forces across the road combined forces on turn 9 and launched a long distance assault on the Canadian forces in the farm house. This time the tides were turned, with the Germans out numbering the remaining Canadians almost 2 to 1.

The Canadians however had the advantage of solid cover in the building  and drove the Germans back after 2 bloody rounds of combat.  Leaving 2 more Canadians dead, but also saw 3 Germans fall from the 2 assaulting units. This forced the Germans to fall back from combat but not to bottle.

Turn 10 arrived and having survived the German assault, and having found several planning documents in the farm house on turn 9, it was time the the surviving members of the 16th Battalion to sneak our the other side of the farm house and make their escape just before the German reinforcements arrived.

Overall the game went extremely smoothly.  Early on the Canadians were extremely worried when the artillery opened up as it looked like they would be pinned and killed before they even reached the German lines.  The Germans gained even more confidence when the first Canadian assualt failed and was driven back and Canadian confidence faultered even more.

However, as in real history the Canadians held their nerve through everything and kept on going.

The Canadian assault on the HMG was a major turning point as it gave them free access to at least one building for searching, which turned out to be the correct one.  The Germans then felt good with an assault going against the Canadians with almost 2-1 odds, however Brian (don't tell me the odds) was rolling for the Canadians, and saved the day. 

In the end the game came right down to the wire, as German re-enforcements could have started arriving the following turn.

Hopefully everyone had a fun game, and I will break these figures and terrain out more often now that they are done.