Go for Broke game

To prepare for the 2011 Williamsburg Muster, Jon Krigbaum, Oscar Stephenson, Jeremy Crouch and friend, Jeffrey, Scott Kidd, and myself playtested a game of Go for Broke, my WWII skirmish game. Krigbaum and Oscar are planning on running a 25mm village fight using all of Krigbaum's Miniature Building Authority buildings.

We played the game for over 12 hours and had a grand old time.

Krigbaum and Oscar led the Kraut forces. That consisted of a command team, three rifle squads, mortar team with two mortars, three MG teams, two panzerschrek teams, a PAK 40 AT gun, 20mm quad halftrack, halftrack, Opal Blitz, and a 38T Panzer.



Jeremy, Jeffrey, and Scott led the Ami force that consisted of a command team, five rifle squads, three MG teams, two bazooka teams, a mortar team with two mortars, a pack howitzer, white car, halftrack, a jeep, and four Sherman tanks.

I ran the game and a squad of French Resistance.



The game turned out great but in the end a PAK40 and a troll under the bridge with a panzerschreck did the Amis in. The game started at 11:30 am and lasted to 11:30 pm and boy did we have fun.

Things learned

• Americans on the attack need more transport
• Each side having a card with all their units listed that way when we pull the gem out of the "special" opaque container, we could place it on the card to tell us which units have gone.
• Don't give Scott tanks as he runs through walls without provocation and fires over his own men in front of his tank. Ears are still ringing in the American ranks.
• Speed up the turn by pulling the gems much like cards in TSATF until you reach another color or have pulled a go again gem.
• Only allow Jeremy to shoot as he sure sucks at melee. He lost six infantry men in hand-to-hand against two German spotters. It also took a whole other squad to blow these spotters up real good.
• Whatever you do don't give Krigbaum any transportation vehicles as he missed his calling as a bus driver.
• Don't allow Oscar to talk Krigbaum into placing a MG team on a building scaffold.

Aaaaiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!

Some Photos from Williamsburg Military History Day

Carl Sciscio, Scott Kidd, Dave Dietrich, Chuck Turnitsa, and I participated in this event this past October. We demonstrated and played Neil Thomas rules using American Revolutionary 15mm figures.

Williamsburg Military History Show

Members of the Old Dominion Military Society (Carl Sciscio, Scott Kidd, Dave Dietrich, and Chuck Turnitsa) and myself attended this show.

Our organization ran a RevWar miniature game for the public. We used modified Neal Thomas Introduction to Wargaming rules.

When Scott, Carl, and I got to the event and signed in, we explored this vast fortress called the Williamsburg Hospitality House. Whoever designed this place must have been on drugs. Because in order to find the conference rooms that the convention was being held in, you had to wander about the hotel. I will say that Osprey and Casemate did a great job with the signs though. Chuck had mentioned that last years event was not marked that well and it was hard to find everything.

Eventually Dave arrived as we set up the game. Carl and Dave played the Rebels and Scott and I the Redcoats. We did make a few mistakes on the rules though. Once Chuck arrived with the modified rules, the game went better for the British.

Although we only had two attendees play, they seemed to have had a good time. We also made many contacts with folks and told them about attending the Muster. Many of them seemed interested. As Carl said, "If we could get just one person to come from this event to the Muster, its great. As that one person will tell others.

As far as the game went, we didn't really finish the game as our interest waned and Dave, Scott and I went to lunch.

I spent most of the afternoon scoping out the dealers. I did buy a book I had been wanting to get, Tonight we die as Men. It's about the 3rd Battalion 506 PIR in Normandy and their accomplishments. I had wanted this book for awhile but it was about $30 hardbound.


Well Osprey was selling its hardbound books on one table for $10 and this book was one of them. I snatched it up.

Guns of August AAR

Guns of August has ended, now to work on our February convention, the Williamsburg Muster.

As far as Guns, there were approximately 160 attendees with about forty attendees, who worked with the dealers. So there were approximately 200 folks who attended. Not quite what I expected number-wise but we will hold it again next year. Even with this number the convention was a success.

I was supposed to run two games but my second one, which was a Go for Broke game, I ended up not playing as I scheduled it too early on Saturday and I was too exhausted to run it.

The game I did run on Friday afternoon went off real well. I ran a Blitzkrieg Commander game. It was Americans vs. Germans in the hedgerows of Normandy. The game took about two and a half hours with the Germans winning. If there had been one more turn, the Germans would have lost as they blew there command roll for breakpoint.

On Saturday I played in two games run by Matt Kirkhart in his excellent ancient game using his Craftees. One game was Macedonians vs. Greeks and the other was a battle between Alexander and Darius. The great thing was I played with my son Timothy and a friend in the last game.

The negatives I have about the convention mostly deal with the hotel itself. When we arrived on Thursday, none of the tables were set up and were stacked where dealers needed to set up. So we had to move the tables as well as set up. This is something we paid the hotel to do and they failed in this task. The other problems were dealing with the facilities. The Patriot room restroom was hot and the toilets overflowed once. There was also not enough paper towels. The hotel did not provide enough trashcans and the ones we had were not emptied.

All this put me in a grumpy mood throughout Friday, especially when some fellow BOD members kept putting me into situations they could have handled themselves or gave the task to somebody else as I was busy.

The other thing that bothered me is my camera. The damn thing kept eating batteries or was not working right. I only could take about ten photos during the event. This sucked as I wanted to create a Flicker page.

Our staff volunteers were great especially Scott Kidd, Jeremy Crouch, and all the ladies that helped us run the hospitality room and registration.

Guns of August Update

We passed the number of pre-registrations from either (not both) of the Williamsburg Musters. There are over 60 games listed on the PEL. I have my room reservations. I am ready to run my games.

The hardest part is the wait for pre-registrations to come in but we are up to 45 total and there is a week left until pre-registration closes.

This time I will not forget to take photos. I am planning to create a Flicker account to display them on the TMP.

Gettin' ready for Guns of August

It's now one month until Guns of August wargaming convention at Williamsburg, VA. I have been working on correspondence to the dealers and we are set right now with 16 dealers. Carl Sciscio and I have gone up to Williamsburg and have solicited businesses for donations either for an ad in our event booklet or gift certificates.

Chuck Turnitsa has e-mailed miniature and game dealers all over the country for donations for our raffle and has done exceedingly well.

Carl and I also have visited the Holiday Inn Patriot after we heard they had a "new" events coordinator at the hotel and made sure every thing is all set. Chuck is going to keep in touch with the hotel to make sure we have the correct sized tables and more lighting in the Washington Room.

The only thing I am frightened about is attendance. As of right now, we have only 20 early registrations and only 13 rooms were booked about a month ago. What eases my pessimism though is the fact that from the two Williamsburg Muster conventions, early registration was about 10% of the attendance and the rooms being booked was a month ago.

The good thing though is we can cover any problem we have, as we have enough money in the treasury. But if this event does not float, how will it effect attendance at the Muster.

We shall see! We shall see!

Guns of August

Two months until Guns of August, ODMS's first summer wargaming convention. This is to go along with with our winter convention, the Williamsburg Muster, which we have run successfully for two years. The second one was close with the blizzard but we had enough money to cover this event and start the Guns of August. Guns will be held August 13-15, 2010 at the Holiday Inn Patriot in Williamsburg, VA.

http://www.odms-club.com/convention/index.html

Our belief is this convention will have better attendance than the Muster, as it is in the summer in the tourist hot spot of Williamsburg, VA.

Speed Circuit

This past Friday Wayne Hill ran Speed Circuit at the Hanger. Players included John Snelling, Carl Sciscio, John Dent, Oscar Stephenson, Cliff Creech, Chuck Turnitsa, Byron Collins, and myself. Wayne ran two races. I won the first race by outdistancing everyone from the beginning of the race onward. My strategy was to use my wear early to gain a lead on everyone but not use to much. I never went over 20mph beyond a corners limit. My car was a slow starter but a great accelerator and this is how I won the first race.

The second place game worked well for me as well. The two leaders on the second lap were Carl and Chuck but they crashed and I moved right past them with Oscar on my tail. Oscar passed me in the final leg of the race because of his top speed of 200mph. I could have still have beaten him if not for a mistake of not using his slipstream. But in the end, I won the cup as I won on points, 43 to Oscar's 33.

Asleep at the wheel

I have not posted in a while as my computer with all of my STUFF went down. My son and his friends believe it is the hard drive.


Since this time, ODMS has been playing a lot (principally Scott, the McCabes, Callahan, Kai, Carl, Eric, and Chuck) of Napoleonics using Shako. I have pushed some lead and had some luck but Napoleonics isn't my cup of tea. I wonder if I would like the Age of Eagles rules better as they are based on Fire and Fury.


Fire and Fury have always been my favorite rules for American Civil War. They run a lot like Richard Berg's board game Terrible Swift Sword. I really like the command system in F&F, as it puts a bit of randomness it what truly is field command. I wonder how this would transfer into Napoleonic wargames.

Reenacting the past

Over the past three weeks, I have been cooresponding on Facebook with friends I used to reenact with 15-20 years ago. In so doing, we have been sending reenactment photos to one another over the Facebook site.

Since I joined Facebook, I have rediscovered my best reenacting friend and best man, Bob Fleming and one of my pards from reenacting Wes Clark, as well as others, like Cindy Trainor, Joe and Amy Lessman, Jack Armstrong, et al.

I have discovered in so doing how fast time flies. Many of these events we have been sharing images of seem to me like they were yesterday instead of 25 years ago.

Over time I'll post photos here to show what I did for a hobby and as a job for the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

The photo above is of me and Bob Fleming at Germantown in 1987.

Hello My name is Johnny Cash!

I've been adding photos of my reenactment life to my Facebook and I thought I would add this photo to my blog. In 1988, I was lucky enough when I lived in Texas to have belonged to an old West reenacting group called the 1880s Saddletramps.

Besides reenacting the group did color for conventions in the San Antonio/Houston areas of Texas. We were lucky enough to have acted as color for Johnny Cash who was doing a pediatric surgeons convention.

It was great Johnny and June Carter Cash, especially June, were very outgoing and friendly. We even sat stage left and watched the show.

Attending in the photo from left to right are Steve Wilson, Ricky Phiel, Steve Perkins, Johnny Cash, Carol and Jeff Fothergill, and myself.

At the Hampton400

No it was not a race but a celebration of the 400th birthday of Hampton, VA. The Old Dominion Military Society ran two games to expose the public to the hobby of miniature tabletop wargaming. Attending from the club were Carl Sciscio, Chuck Turnitsa, Scott Kidd, Cliff Creech, Dave Dietrich, Kai Weaver, Jon Krigbaum, and myself. As I mentioned in an earlier blog we used a modified version of Neil Thomas' Wargaming: An Introduction.

The club ran three games, two American Civil War games and one American Revolution game. We receive many questions from the public which were admirably answered by all the members of ODMS in attendance. The best thing the club did was allow some young gamers to roll some dice and play. This way the little darlings can see that games are more than right and left thumb events.

Thanks and congratulations to all that attended. The only thing I hated about the event is I forgot to bring a camera to post pictures of the event on this post.

Hampton400

On March 5th, ODMS will assist the Hampton History Museum celebrate Hampton400 by running two games for the public. We decided that we will run an American Revolutionary War and American Civil War Game at this event.

http://www.hampton400.com/

We have decided to use a modified version of Neil Thomas' Wargaming: An Introduction and Napoleonic Wargaming. We picked Thomas' system because of its simplicity and felt it would be easy to teach the public.

Chuck, Carl, Scott, Eric, and Cliff playtested the system tonight at the Hanger. Thomas' system is very easy to pick up and be modified.

Chuck was the gamemaster for an American Revolutionary game with Carl and Cliff playing the Americans and Eric and Scott playing the Brits. The players picked up the game real quickly and in the end it was an overwhelming American victory.

Happy Birthday George

Happy Birthday George!
A man who could have been king but like Cincinnatus of old put down his sword for a plowshare.

More Pegasus Bridge photos

Here are two more photos from the game of Go for Broke I ran at the Williamsburg Muster.

Guns of August

The Williamsburg Muster was a success even with the poor weather. This is in part as a result of the attendees and dealers who braved the weather. We couldn't have done it without you all.

As a result of this success, we (ODMS) have decided to run a summer con called the Guns of August. This miniature wargame convention will be held at the Holiday Inn Patriot in Williamsburg, VA (the same place as the Muster) on the second weekend in August.

We felt that Williamsburg would make an excellent location for a summer con because of the history and activities that the town has for the family. Another reason is that the room rates will only be $10 more than the $58 per night attendees paid for the Williamsburg Muster.

Keep an eye on the convention website and the Miniatures Page for information about this event.

http://www.odms-club.com/convention/index.html

Williamsburg Muster Pegasus Bridge Photos

These are photos of the Pegusus Bridge game I ran at the Williamsburg Muster on February 5, 2010. Jim Russell of Cotton Jim's Flags asked me to use my WWII skirmish guidelines, Go for Broke, to run this scenario. I ran it twice, once as a playtest on Thursday night with Oscar Stephenson and Cotton Jim. I then ran it again for six players at the Muster. I'm sorry I can't remember their names except for Kai Weaver and Charles Cabell. The terrain was great. Thanks Jim.

The Brits won both games. In the second game, they even knocked out two PzIV with a piat.