Wargaming from Hertfordshire & Beyond!

Sunday, 28 May 2023

Gaslands – M25 here we come!

  • Simon –  In the ex-police “Charger”
  • Chris – in the turreted “Maxim Spinner”
  • Dave – In the armoured “Dodge, Hell No”
  • Rob – Revving his engine in the sporty “Dixie Normus”
  • Phil – Lumbering along in “Arse Burner”

Well, this was a our first attempt at Osprey’s Gaslands. We opted for a really simple version of ‘Death Race’, with one car each (randomly chosen), no shooting until through the first gate and two gates before the finish.

Well, the intention may have been simple, but once the flag went down, the jostling began! No shooting did not mean any lack of aggression – collisions galore, intentional or non-intentional!

Rob did not even make the first gate, wiping out just in front of Gate 1! A helpful Chris then aligned Rob’s car, such that poor Rob missed the first gate altogether!  

Chris cleared the first gate, ahead of the pack, but was immediately shunted by Phil….Wipeout! However, this did not stop Chris then shunting Simon into a wipeout, after hosing poor Simon down with his twin MGs, just for taking the lead.

Sensible Dave quietly brought up the rear, clearly aiming to slip past the emerging chaos ahead, but he had not allowed for Rob manically circling Gate 1, desperately trying to gate through Gate 1, to enable his weapons.

This all rather left the back of the field in a mess, with cars spinning out in all directions. From this mess Simon rammed the Charger back into first and roared off for the finish line. Chris tried to slow him down, using the turreted MGs, but these were quickly out of range, allowing Simon to zoom over the finish line.


All this carnage and we were not even playing the rule on gaining Hazard tokens for Shift results!?! Me thinks that the next game could see a bit more responsible driving at the start of the race!


Monday, 8 May 2023

Undaunted Normandy - The Campaign!

The Undaunted range of games from Osprey continues to grow and, having played the initial offering Undaunted Normandy, I can see why.  The game is a small unit combat game set in the post D-Day Normandy between the Americans (US 30th Infantry Division) and Germans.  It is a mixture of card play and a board game using a board made up of 18 separate card sections, allowing a wide variety of potential battlefields.  Cards are used to move your figures on the board and casualties are represented by removing cards for your hand.  As there are a lot of good reviews of the game on line, I'll leave off explaining the mechanics further.
The game contains 12 scenarios that start with the basic units (Infantry and Scouts) and build up complexity as you work through the games (including Machine gunners, Mortars, Snipers and Guides).  For the final battles you have a wide degree of choice in terms of units and tactics to deploy.  Eileen and I played through all 12 scenarios over a couple of weeks with her taking charge of the US forces and me playing the evil Hun.  Victory varied across the battles with the Germans winning the campaign by a small margin.  A few of the scenarios seemed to favour one side or another to a small extent but overall the campaign seemed balanced and the a couple of games came down to who achieved initiative in what became the final turn.

The end of the final campaign game with the Germans securing victory by the narrowest of margins

Overall the game is fast to learn, quick to play and presents enough tactical challenge to keep thing interesting without bogging the players down in rules complexity.  If you are looking for a game that can be played within an hour and won't cost you an small fortune I'd recommend checking this game out.  Sadly this game does not cover the use of vehicles or armour but there has been an Undaunted Reinforcements set which adds both Tanks and Solo play to both this game and North Africa.  Unfortunately it is currently unavailable from Osprey and hard to find elsewhere.  Hopefully it will be re-printed at some time in the future.

Having completed the Normandy Campaign (and knowing Phil already has Undaunted North Africa (British LRDG vs the Italians), Eileen has splashed out on Undaunted Stalingrad so the next challenge awaits.  

Chris

The Long Range Gaming Group do Roman London

Roman London. Our target for the day!

The London Mithraeum. Visitors can make noises using these empty vessels (the ones hanging from the ceiling!!).
The Mithraeum, with the light glinting off something in the background!
 
One of the oldest lumps in London .... and a Roman bridge support.

The team survey the Roman Villa (brothel!) at Billingsgate. What was the weight limit on the gantry again?
Team lunch, against Simon's better instincts. Eileen decides it may be a good time to snort a line!
Chris thinks this wall might not stop any barbarian horde!
Leadenhall Market.
Simon's challenge to anyone to take him on in the arena, isn't taken up!


The end of the walk, at the Roman Fort.... and Dave is getting tired!

Friday, 5 May 2023

What a Cowboy – A Tale of Two Games

 Game 1: Scenario 5: “Scorched Earth”

Their names would have gone down in the halls of Wild West immorality, if someone had not rubbed out the Character Dashboards! Anyway, Rob & Simon’s characters were defending their homestead, with a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists and one Greenhorn. Chris, Tony & Phil controlled a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists & 3 Greenhorns, intent on burning down the barn of these darned homesteaders.

Tony’s Shootist & Greenhorn, plus Phil’s Gunslinger went right, but quickly ran into Simon’s Shootist & Greenhorn, holding out behind the privy. Initially, all both sides seemed to be able to do, was chip bits out of the woodwork, despite both having brought along a rifle! However, Tony’s Greenhorn did manage to work along the fence, to flank one of Simon’s men, sheltering behind the privy. Shock & wounds started to accumulate here and it wasn’t long before both of Simon’s characters were taken out of the fight.  

This then freed up Tony’s Shootist & Phil’s Gunslinger to pick-on Rob’s Greenhorn, who was trying to protect that side of the barn. Rob’s Greenhorn had been trying to stop Chris’s characters from coming up the trail, to the barn, but was now forced to duck back around behind the barn.


This left Rob’s Gunslinger as sole operational defender of the barn, facing off against 3 Greenhorns. These Greenhorns formed their own little firing line, forcing Rob’s Gunslinger to take shelter behind the right side of the barn. But Phil’s Gunslinger made a dash across the trail, to the barn and started trying to set light to it.

This forced Rob’s Gunslinger to come out and deal with this threat to the barn, despite the bullets now pinging around him, but to no avail, the barn was soon blazing, so Rob’s Gunslinger ducked back into the ruin next door to the smoking barn.

Things looked bleak for Rob’s men! With the Greenhorns now closing in on his own position, Rob’s Gunslinger heard his Greenhorn go down to a flanking shot from Tony’s Greenhorn. ‘Ride or Die’ test!! Rob then rolled his traditional three 6s, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and quietly slunk off into the shrubbery! This did not stop Tony’s Shootist from attempting & failing, a stunt of jumping from a window, onto some stampeding cattle (that he caused by leaving the gate open!), collecting a crushed rib cage in the process!? A victory celebration gone awry!

A good first game. We got a few little rules wrong, but overall, everyone grasped the concepts quickly and the game provides a nice balance of jeopardy, while still keeping players involved in the game, with plenty decisions to make.

Game 2: Scenario 6: “Vendetta”

Evil Chris’s and Deadpan Dave’s gang’s clash, over some petty feuds. Apparently Deadpan Dave had shot Chris’ dog and Evil Chris’s sidekick, “The Kid” had been having extramarital sex with a female relative of Deadpan Dave’s gang?! All very confusing, but someone was going to pay, in blood!!

Evil Chris wasted no time in dashing off to confront Deadpan Dave, leaving his support, Deadly Phil and Big John trailing behind. Soon a gunfight between Evil Chris & Deadpan Dave was raging around the barn.

Over on the left, “The Kid” was trying to hold off Terrible Tony & his sidekick. The Kid had hoped that his rifle would hold off these two varmints, but Terrible Tony’s feet seemed to carry him at impossibly fast speeds, right up to point blank range of the Kid! However, The Kid proved crazily capable of dodging bullets, rolling back & forth among the scrub! Terrible Tony then drew his knife and tried to ‘cut’ The Kid. Fortunately for The Kid, Terrible Tony proved to be pretty terrible with a knife!


Back on the right, Deadpan Dave looked to be in real trouble. He was facing off the Legend, Evil Chris to his front, while Deadly Phil had snuck around his rear! But then Deadpan Dave’s sidekick popped up out of the scrub and shot down The Legend ‘Evil Chris’, stone dead!!

This left Deadly Phil to try to take shelter in some nearby rocks, but to little avail. Phil had hoped that Big John would come to his assistance, but Big John appeared to be distracted by what was happening to The Kid over on the far side of the table.

By this time, despite some more frantic dodging, The Kid was thoroughly pinned down, sheltering behind a large rock, with Terrible Tony & his sidekick coming around either side of the rock! His dodging luck had finally run out! A .45 slug putting an end this phase of the feud!

{Note: Some of the names involved in this event have been changed, as they are now involved in a witness protection scheme. Nothing to do with the failing memory of the reporter!}