Gamesday - August 20th - Rolins Gaff

Descent - Tomb of Ice - Quest 2 - Cousin Durnog

Overlord - Violet
Heroes - Rolin, Dan, Douglas and Aaron

Violet enjoys playing the Overlord. More than playing the Hero. She finds that when she plays the Hero, others tend to dictate what her character should do. As the villian, she can do as she pleases.

In this quest the Heroes hearts have been stolen by a vengful giant of the Durnog clan, called Kanther. The hearts have been frozen in ice. In a week the heroes will die. Kanthar is strengthened by the hearts and is too strong to take on whilst the hearts are still frozen.

The giant starts in the first room with the heroes and as he is too strong to fight directly, he becomes weaker as the heroes hearts are freed, this effectively means that he chases and/or blocks the heroes in and around the dungeon.

We are a melee heavy party with no hero effective at ranged combat and only myself with magic. The dungeon itself as with most of the tomb of ice quests is quite small.

The game was tense and exciting and went to the wire again, in fact to the last few rolls. Violet needed to kill two characters in what turned out to be the final turn. Mine had 1 hit left, Douglas I think had two, and Violet rolled a few misses that turn too. But Dans character freed the last hearts by smashing the Ice they were entombed in, which inflicted enough wounds on the giant to kill him and end the quest.
Phew....great game, well played by all, and a good start to Games day.


When Darkness Comes - Scenario One - Out of the Frying Pan

This is a game from Twilight Creations, that has been never played, sitting on one shelf or another since I bought it many years ago. Its a Modern-Day Horror setting featuring of course all forms of undead.
The game system can be played with or without a Games Master. With and its a simple roleplaying game, without its a semi co-operative boardgame. We played it as the boardgame.

When Darkness Comes board is a tile-based and there are 15 of these tiles in the set. Each tile features a building, such as a school or store. So in each game the map board cofiguration will be different.

The first core set, called The Awakening, deals with the undead (zombies, mummies, vampires, etc). The objective of the game will depend on the scenario. Some may include finding and defeating a big bad guy, finding a certain object, defusing a bomb, etc. The characters (pre-generated or created) have 7 attributes with specialized skills.

 That will determine the amount of dice rolled for a skill check. The mechanic for skill checks is a poker variation instead of using straight high roll. Players try to get a ace high, one pair, 3 straight, 3 of a kind, 4 straight, etc.

The rules out of the box are without doubt...awful. However the Twilight Creations website has an updated rules set that I downloaded some days prior to Games Day. This set is essential to play.

The scenario objective was quite simple, kill as many undead as you can without inducing panic in the town. The players must co-operate to survive but the first to kill 5 undead or collect 30 victory points, wins the game. This creates the atmoshere of the game, help another player too much and they win, not help them and they die which lowers your own chance to survive.

Everyone apart from Rolin enjoyed the game. Rolin felt it was too random in that events, encounters, weapons and allies are determined by drawing disks from a bag which are placed unknown on each tile when the map tile is moved onto. This could mean that a building might have a weapon in it or a nasty zombie. A weapon is essential for most characters, and if you do not find one quickly you are screwed....or are you?? You could always nick the weapon from one of the others....

This also was the basic starter scenario, which can be changed anyway. Why not have the players start with a weapon next time we play. I think the game has potential and I found it fun and amusing to play. It encourages players to make up the story as you go along, as encounters are revealed.

I eventual made the 5 kills, though Violet was accumulating victory points and nearly made the 30 required too.

The game comes with some unpainted minitures, which I intend to paint and I will start to pimp it soon in other ways. Also there are expansions.....

Carcassonne

Last game of the day. Played with the River starting tiles. I won with the Farmers again. At the end of the game but before the farms and products were counted the victory points were as follows -

Douglas - 114 / Violet - 79 / Dan - 56 / Rolin - 49 / Aaron - 38

After the farms and products -

Douglas - 114 / Violet - 89 / Dan - 76 / Rolin - 121 / Aaron - 126

Rolin and I shared many of the farm points, but I clinched a few extra cities which gave me the win. A fun, interesting game as always.

An enjoyable Games Day all round. Violet as the Overlord and enjoying herself at it was the highlight for me.

Descent - Journeys in the Dark - The Tomb of Ice

Quest One - Cauldron of Tears

OverLord - Violet

Heroes - Andrea, Gavin, Linda and Aaron

This is an interesting smallish quest. The first time that Gavin, Andrea and Linda had played the game and the first time that Violet had Overlorded against anyone other than me.

The basic story is that a Medusa aka "the Old Crone" has turned most of the villagers to stone, and they can be turned back to flesh by the Heroes killing her and using her magical iten the Cauldron of Tears.



After the intial scrapes with beastmen and lava beetles we came up against Shades, which having the stealth amd ghost ability proved difficult to kill, especially for my Melee based character.

The game lasted a long time (6 hours) considering the size of map, but it was most players first game. It went right to the wire. The heroes having only 1 conquest token remaining as they enered the lair of the Crone. However I used my Taunt ability (which forces most monsters to attack my charcter, which has the most armour and hit points), so that the others could eventually deal with her.

Apart from a few rules queries the game ran fairly smoothly and I look forward to the next. Violet makes for an interesting Overlord, and as her rules familarity grows so will her confidence and therefore i shall assume nastyiness!

ASL - Heroes at Leros - FT166

Pete and I continued this after a week break. The British push for the building objective whilst trying to stop the German reinforcements from reaching the building as well.

Helped with some good luck, which included the building defenders MMG breaking, I managed to get some units into the building to Close Combat a half squad defender with a leader. This turned into a melee. In Petes last turn he did not get any further units into the building and I broke the just rallied squad with some hero and leader directed fire. The melee ended up in mutal slaughter. The only survivors being my squad that had been prisioners.

My last turn, Pete failed to rally his broken squad in  the building. This left the building being denied to me wby an 8-0 leader. I advanced everything against him, and though the germans fired with everything to stop my boys from getting adjacent to the 8-0, enough did to get a 6 to 1 CC on him, and kill him to win the building and the game. So a last die roll win.

I enjoyed the game but not the scenario itself. Though I won, it was through some errors in the scenario setup by Pete and throgh some good rolls at key times on my part. Pete put his foxholes adjacent to the building, which was outside his setup area. Neither of us twigged until turn 3, by then to late to shift them. These foxholes gratly assisted the British assault on the building. Without them I would have been shot to pieces.

I would give this scenario a poor rating as it does seem to be poorly designed in other places too.

A one star scenario.

ASL - Heroes at Leros - FT166

ATTACKER - British - Aaron Sibley
DEFENDER - German - Pete Phillips

November 1943. British are to attack and take the large building on level 4 on board 9. They have 5 turns to capture the building, and travel over half the board against elite Germans. The Germans end up with 11 squads, the British end up with 14. This scenario looks very tough on the British and the ROAR rating of 0 wins for the British and 4 for the Germans seems to suggest as such.

Pete and I played using VASL and Skype. The Intial setup -

However I queried the dummies being in crags and open ground, and Pete had incorrectly placed those units. There was some minor adjustment, but the defence was essential the same. After three British turns and some weird rolls on the dice the situation is as such -

The British have cleared a path to the building and are within a hex of it with some of their forces. German reinforcements arrive. They will need to face British firepower to reinforce the buildings defenders of 1 squad and a half squad.

Situation near building after the German turn 3 -

We had to stop at that point with two turns to go. Looks like a German win as the building must be controlled.

Not a bad scenario, but not a patch on the prior one FT165.

Escape From Colditz

Germans - Aaron Sibley
British - Violet Willis
Polish - Rebecca Smith
Americans - Cameron Sibley

Bought this game at a boot fair some years ago for a single pound. Been meaning to play it for a while and I took it out of storage today, as I have fond memories of it from when I was a child.

We agreed on a time limit of 2.5 hours and set the alarm on my phone to go off after this time had past. The first allied player to make two escapes in that time would win. If not then the Germans win. I made a rules mistake as I used the guards to block the doors, but I noticed this error after about 15 minutes of playing, so I agreed that when the alarm went on the phone, that the allies could have an extra 30 minutes.

Also there was no looking at the time either, so this created a very tense atmosphere as no one was sure how much time remained.

The Allied players quite quickly picked up the essential civilian equipment required, but once they started gathering the escape equipment (rope, wire cutters, passes and keys), I kept on slowing them down with arrests inside the castle courtyards.

Rebecca finally managed to get one POW out and though I chased he managed to escape. Cameron and Violet cooperated on the chapel tunnel as the alarm went on the phone. I reset the alarm giving the Allies the further thirty minutes as agreed. I also agreed that once that alarm went too that I would press the snooze button, which would give them an extra ten minutes, to make up for rules reading, tea breaks, loo dashes etc...

The arrests kept racking up, I captured Violets tunnel escapee, but just then Cameron gave Rebecca a move to card, which allows a POW piece to move directly to a room on the map...the alarm went, snooze button pressed. Rebecca rolls the dice and her POW just moved by the card clears the walls using rope. Then Violets go, then mine...Rebecca wanting everyone to hurry up. My guard gets to within one space of Rebecca's escapee. Cameron then goes and is nearly free with one of his POW's.

Rebecca's go... She is 16 spaces away from the escape point....she rolls double six followed by a 4, exactly the roll required for a deserved win...with a few minutes to spare!

I really enjoyed the game, it had a good sense of theme and mounting tension. We made some rules mistakes which we will not make next time, but everyone had fun playing an old classic.

Arkham Horror - The King in Yellow

Great Old One - Shub-Niggurath
Investigators - Joe Diamond , Sister Mary - Aaron Sibley
                    - Bob Jenkins, Kate Winthrop - Rebecca Smith

Played with the Tattered King Herald and treating the King in Yellow play as a touring performance. This means that the intial encounters and mythos are exclusively based on the King in Yellow expansion. This makes for a tough game.

Arkham takes up alot of table space, and the time taken to play the game is extensive. This one took nearly 6 hours to play. Rebecca and I played two investigators each, as 4 investigators is the optimum amount.

Shub - Niggurath was within one space of activating, the play was in its second act (if the third act is seen, the investigators lose the game) and the citizens of Arkham were being terrorized. However the last gate on the board was closed for a tight, but satisifying win. Rebecca became the First Citizen of Arkham and our overall score was 16.

I was intending to do this solitaire, but Rebecca asked to play and as it is a cooperative game, she did not need to read any rules. She seemed to enjoy the game, got into her characters and played well. Looking forward to doing this again.

ASL - For Honor Alone - ASL 82

End of German Turn 2 Movement

12 Squads of German infantry arrive on the west edge, with the aim of slowing down the French turn 2 and 3 reinforcements. French HMG is malfunctioned in the building.

The French forward trench line is reached..

ASL - For Honor Alone - ASL 82

End of German Turn 1

The building that I thought had dummies in actually had a unit. Pete must have his VASL set not to allow opponents to remove concealed. I rush his unit there with half squads anyway. With some ineffectual shooting which ends up with a failed Final Protective Fire, the garrison breaks, gets surrounded and is forced to surrender.

Other German Infantry bundle forward as fast as they can into the huge grain fields.

The French HMG is in the large stone building, and even though choking on SMOKE puts out some effective fire (two double 1's in a row, but who is whinging?) and breaks a leader and CR a squad near the eastern most building.

Quite happy with progress so far.

ASL - Shopino Struggle - FT165

ATTACKER - Russians - Pete Phillips
DEFENDER - SS Germans - Aaron Sibley

Last night Pete and I did our first live VASL game using Skype. This was a small 4 turn scenario from "From the Cellar" pack 6. This is a selection of scenarios made by Le Franc Tireur, a French based company that make third party ASL products. I have seen some of their products, and though I do not own any, I will do as soon as funds become available, as they are of a very high quality.

This scenario pits seven poor quality SS Infantry squads armed with ATM and machine guns against 11 Russian Squads and five T34 tanks in the Kursk region, July 1943, so no panzerfausts. The Russian objective is to capture the wooden buildings on board 44. However he only has 4 turns and the SS receive reinforcements on turn 3 in the shape of a Tiger Tank, two MKIV Panzers and two full strength SS 658 Squads in halftracks.

AAR
Turn 1 the Russians stormed on board. 4 Squads riding on the backs of T34's and the other 6 squads being in 2 groups of 3 squads moving double time with the leaders. The situation at the end of turn one is shown below. I have removed all concealment counters apart from my dummies. The postions of the Russian troops is not exact as I am rebuilding the game from memory. (should have taken screenshots through the game).

Hex R7, S7, S8, BB8, CC9 and CC10 are worth 1 VP each whilst hex M3 is worth 3VP. The Russians by game end must have at least 5 VP to win. I decide not to contest the centre cluster (R7-S8), except with a half squad speed bump. With no rout paths and the abilty of the Russian tanks to go behind and surround my troops, this seemed justified. So I was set up to defend the others in strength. Russian brokies in the centre was caused by a 4FP-2 shot that Pete failed to see.

In turn 1 I skulked, big time. Russian tanks fired into vacated buildings to gain aquistion.

Turn 2 another T34 arrives with a 628 Russian squad. In the centre one T34 preps against my dummies :-). On the Russian right more prep fire against the building a critical Area Fire hit reduces a squad to a half squad, but mainly to no further avail as I am still concealed.

The Russians have flanked my on their left and threaten the M3 building, which is defended by a 237 half squad. In my 2nd turn I did more high grade skulking.

Turn 3 and Pete takes the centre buildings the 237 killed by a berserk Russki. On his right the advance is held up by a sniper that stuns the T34 and pins one squad. Near the M3 building the 628 squad dismounts but is broken by the 237 in Final Fire.

Now the SS reinforcements arrive. I send a squad, Tiger and one of the MKIV to secure the M3 building whilst a MKIV and squad go a bolster the defence of the BB8 buildings.

The T34 around the M3 building intensive fire against some of the infantry sent to reinforce the building, the Tiger fires a DUD!!!. The MK1V shocks the other T34. My infantry clamber over the T34 but fail to plant ATM's successfully. Russian 628 squad is shot as he tries to surrender.

Turn 4 Russian - With little hope of a win, Pete CX his 9-1 leader with a squad to gain access to the M3 building. He made it. and entered Close Combat with the 447 garrison. Melee! The T34 in CC with the 658 breaks it in prep. However the Tiger and MKIV kill both T34's. Pete manages to get a berserker into the BB8 hex, which also ends in melee.

Turn 4 German. I rally the 658 near the M3 building and break the Russian squad in the melee with the MKIV firing 16FP into the melee with his machine guns at +7 drm. Rolls double 1. Pete concedes at this point as he cannot capture M3 and that was his last hope. Revenge for the double one victory that he claimed from me!

Overall an excellent short scenario that took us 3.5 hours to play over VASL and Skype. The game was exciting and played at a good tempo and spirit.

The dice bot had its moments, especially in the last gameturn where I rolled 3 12's and 3 2's, and Pete rolled a few of both too.

I look forward to our next Live VASL tussel, with me being the attacker.

4 Star Scenario.

ASL - Anhalt Pandemonium FrF44

The Russians kept running for the finish line. The SS not having enough firepower in the area of the map that the Russians were running to. Not helped by the smoke cover given by the brewed up StuG.

The final Defensive Fire I was hoping that Gerard would roll a 4 on a morale test to activate my sniper in the hope that he could do some damage. But no.

He has 25VP across the line. I have 23VP. The 16FP-2 that he survived has given him the game.

Tight to the wire game, throughly enjoyable. Would play either side again. The ROAR rating has this as 60 : 40 pro Russian, so I feel that to get that close to a win, I did well.

So saying Gerard has become a fantastic opponent and I am so glad that I kept nagging him to learn ASL in 2007.

4 Star Scenario.

ASL - For Honor Alone - ASL 82

ATTACKER - Germans - Aaron Sibley
DEFENDER - French - Pete Phillips

This is the last of the Croix De Guerre Scenarios. The Germans must take and hold two buildings by the end of the game. There is 9 turns, so plenty of time, but 26 French squads to deal with, though 16 are reinforcements. The French also receive 4 tin can tanks early in the game, whilst the Germans have no armour and only 37mm AT guns.

The above picture shows the at start postions. German reinforcements arrive on turn 2 along the west board edge and turn 3 they get another AT gun with a truck. Also they receive random air support in the form of a single fighter-bomber with no bomb.

French armour arrives turn 2 and Infantry arrives on turn 3 along the southern board edge. North is to the right of the screen.

Turn has begun and one German 81mm mortar fired its only SMOKE round into the objective building, in case there is a HMG in there. The other mortar crew admitted that they forgot to bring SMOKE to this battlefield. They fired HE into a building to discover that there was no one there (dummy stack.)
* ERROR turns out there is a 458 Frenchie in there after all.

The advance has begun....

Battlestar Galactica - Sunday 17th July

There is a group of game players in the Thanet area that I discovered earlier this year. We mainly roleplay, so far having done some Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (3rd edition). We have also played a game of Arkham Horror. Yesterday we gathered to do Battlestar Galactica. None of the other players had done the game before, so it was a learning game.



Each player plays a character from the recent adaption of the first season of the TV show. The aim of the game is for the players to get the fleet through to Kobol. This is a semi co-operative game,  with the added spice that up to two of the players are working against the team as they are actually Cylons.

The players and their characters were as follows, Gavin as Giaus Baltar and President, Linda as Chief Tyrol, Andrea as Tom Zarak, Rebecca as Boomer and myself as William Adema and Admiral.

Each of the players is given a loyality card (or two in the case of Giaus), from a deck made of 12 cards which has 10 Human cards and 2 Cylons cards. These are kept secret from the other players.

Each playable character has their own abilities and weaknesses, and must all work together in order for humanity to have any hope of survival. However, one or more players in every game secretly side with the Cylons. Players must attempt to expose the traitor while fuel shortages, food contaminations, and political unrest threatens to tear the fleet apart.

I drew a cylon card!!

However as this was the other players first game, I decided to go easy on the others. Half way through the game, each of the players is given another loyality card (or two this time an extra card for Boomer). So a player for the first half of the game could be human and then gets a Cylon card and realises they have been playing for the wrong team. Once a player has a Cylon card, they are a Cylon for the rest of the game. this captures the feeling from the TV show that many of the Cylons do not know they are as they are sleeper agents.

The method of play is that each player does an action and then a Crisis card needs to be resolved. These cards usually require votes to be done, but the votes are done by cards that are usually played in secret. So that the Cylons can skew the votes so that the Humans fail and lose resources.

The Humans had managed to get to within one jump too win. They were running out of fuel and food, the Cylons had boarding parties on board and many of the civilian ships were being targeted by Cylon raiders.

At this point I revealed my Cylon heritage so that the boarding parties could progress and take the ship. Linda ( Chief Tyrol) then misdirected the Human fighter screen, revealing herself as the other Cylon. This left the civilian fleet unguarded. The shocked look on Gavins face was priceless...as the Cylons took over Galactica for the win.

An excellent game, enjoyed by all.

Quote of the game coming from Rebecca - She had just drawn her crisis card which was that one of Galactica water storage tanks had been ruptured and we were venting water into space...she had to make a decision, at that point she stood and run into the kitchen screaming, " I need a cookie!"

Games Day - 17th July - Rolins Gaff

Games day. A near monthly event of multiplayer games of variable complexity. Started doing this when my brother, Rolin came back from South Africa about 6 years ago. Then it was just the two of us doing Stargrunt Scifi skirmish games, occasional Damien my eldest son joined in.

Then when my parents came back from South Africa, my Dad, Doug, started to come too and the a work collegue of his called Dan. We did some Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2nd edition), and games such as Battle Lore, Shadow over Camelot and Lord of the Rings.

In the last two years we have been five that regularly meet. Myself, Rolin, Doug and Dan being joined by my partner Violet. The June meeting had been cancelled due to work comitments on my behalf, so I was really looking forward to this session.



Carcassonne was the first game played. This a regular favorite. Its light and quick playing, but there are plenty of descisions to be made in the game. The game was played 7 times last year and already three times this year. This was Rolins first victory at the game. He followed a strategy of city building and mild farm ownership. He won by 15 points over my second placing.



Next was Fury of Dracula. The game was played twice last year and its the 2nd time this year. This game is semi-cooperative. Four players play the Vampire hunters Lord Godalming, Doctor Steward, Van Helsing and Mina Harker. They work as a team against the 5th player playing as the Count. The aim is to destroy the Count before he sets up his Evil Empire.

Rolin was the Count, and he successfully gave the rest of us the run-around. The game ended when Violet playing as Van Helsing, was chewed upon my verocious rats in Bucherest. This gave Rolin the final two points he required for the win.

A good game, well played, but not one of my favorites. It can go on too long for what it is. I am due to be the Count in the next game, whenever that maybe.

Last game of the day and by far the longest was Arkham Horror. Violet is not too keen on this game and she was not feeling to well either, so she backed out of the game.



This is a cooperative game where the players play various investigators in Arkham fighting against a Mythos cult. The aim is to stop the cult from raising a Great Old One from the void and destroying mankind.

This was and nearly always is a tough game. The players play against the game system, which can be very unforgiving. We played the base game with one expansion, the King in Yellow, which focuses on an evil play, being performed in Arkham.



 We managed to seal the last of the 6 gates to other worlds before the Great Old One arose for the win. This game took 6 hours to play to conclusion, but was tense and fun all the way through. This game does not get played often enough, mainly because of how long it takes to play, which is unfortunate as its a classic ever time!

Overall an enjoyable day. And so far Rolins finest hour! Cannot wait till the next one in August.

ASL - Anhalt Pandemonium FrF44

Russian Turn 5 - Movement Phase continued

Gerard had not read the victory conditions fully, thinking that it depended upon how many vp we BOTH had on or north of hexrow R. I corrected the error of his ways. He must have more vp on or north of hexrow R than I have on the whole board. At the moment I have 23vp on the board and he has 10vp over the finish line. Vehicles do not count their armour value. North is to the right of the screen.

A squad survived a 16 Fire power (FP) -2 attack to get through whilst another failed on a 1FP -2, such are the variables of the dice in ASL.

The StuG fires point blank at a leader and squad, breaking the leader but the squad continues but is later stopped before the finish line too.

The final shot in this session involved an SS Squad armed with a PsK with a 10-2 leader shooting at a russian squad running for his life using a hedge as cover. I just first fired the squad wanting to save the 10-2 leader for support the squad when it fires at one of the T34 tanks with the PsK. This shot (shown by the red line in the picture above) broke the squad leaving some residual FP. I have sent the log back now waiting for Gerards next move.

ERROR - I received an email from Gerard. I fired as 6FP, but as the range is 6 hexes the shot should have been 2FP, therefore the squad is not broken and leaves no residual - dooh! I will correct.

This is going to be a close game. Though I think Gerard has enough to get to the finish. I need a little luck to stop him fully. I say I am due some....Gerard would proberbly disagree!

BOOK - The Civil War - A Narrative - Fort Sumter to Perryville - Shelby Foote

Completed this book this morning. What a read! I cannot recommend this book enough.

This is the first part of three books thta the author began to write in the 50's and completed in the 70's,  and its a masterpiece. The authors writing style is immersive and the book unputdownable at times.

The book starts with the resignation of Jefferson Davis from the Senate right the way through to the end of December 1862. Bull Run, Shiloh, 2nd Bull Run, Antietam and Perryville are all covered, but its main strength is in the descriptions of the characters involved. I learnt so much about the various generals and commanders that I never knew before.

This is History as it should be written and I cannot wait to start the 2nd Volume tonight.

5 Stars

ASL - Anhalt Pandemonium FrF44

Russian Turn 5

As Gerard put it let the Wacky Races begin. This being the last turn. No Prep straight into movement. He needs to get more VP on/north of hexrow R. He intial moves a squad that I know cannot get to the "finish" line, to tempt my fire....yeah right.

Next up a HS conscript. He moves next to my ex-Kubelwagan crew with a captured Russian lmg. He first fires and lays down a firelane, Russian conscript breaks....next!

I returned the log at that point.

SASL Campaign - Mission 1 - Sicily 1943

Allied Turn 6

1st Platoon led by Lt. Baldric, need to push onto the Axis VPO on the Allied left whilst avoiding the StuG's. Where is the armoured support? ATR are not good enough.

2nd Platoon led by Lt. Willis need to capture the Chatau to their front, but they have just lost one of their crew and are now without their mortar. This is in the Allied centre.

3rd Platoon led by Lt. Boo need to push onto the axis VPO north of the gully and mop up the melee they are involved in.

Lt Willis, shamefully failed to rally, so 2nd platoon will struggle to activate fully this turn.

Platoon 3 continued their advance, but a 81mm mtr was activated in the woods adjacent to the VPO, this fired, maintained rate and broke the Britsh squad. Another squad pushed forward to engage the mortar with fire.

Platoon 2 is starting to pull back to reform.

Platoon 1 began its attack on the VPO location and moved away from the StuG's to their rear.

The 81mm mortar continues to rain fire and destruction through the woods and the squad is CR.

Lt. Boo and the other squad joined the melee which finished with the German squad being eliminated. The conscript facing platoon 1 was KIA by a 12Fp +1 shot in the AFPh. the VPO falling into British hands during the advance.

End of Allied turn 6. Going well for platoon 1 and 3, but platoon 2 is halted and taken a Hs and crew as lost.

Good session this evening. Now to watch some old Jon Pertwee Doctor Who. what geeks we are!

SASL Campaign - Mission 1 - Sicily 1943

Axis Turn 5
No Axis random event this turn....phew we are still suffereing the effects of the last one which brought on a platoon of StuG III's.

In the Axis movement phase the StuG's turned about and threatened the Allied VPO location, before one could turn though the ATR in the building fired and knocked it out.

The Axis attacked one mtr crew in CC and at 4:1 killed them. Now ready to move onto our turn 6.

SASL Campaign - Mission 1 - Sicily 1943

This is a Soltaire Campaign that I have started, with myself and my daughter, Rebecca playing as a British Company. I have given her a platoon of Infantry and I have taken the other two platoons. We are using Starter Kit ASL rules, so no concealment etc. This way she can learn the game without being crushed by nasty old dad!

We are doing the Cautious Advance Mission and the prevailing ENEMY attitude is Hold. We have activated two boards.

Rebeccas platoon is on the Allied right.

We are just about to start the Axis turn 5 and I will keep the Blog updated with the events as they unfold.

ASL - Bloody Nose J83

ATTACKER - Axis (Rumanians and Germans) - Sam Prior
DEFENDER - Russians - Aaron Sibley

A prepartion game, played via email on VASL, for Double One, and my first against Sam. We are only into turn two due to a quite slow pace. This has for me become a slight grudge match, because at Double One Sam and I played in our groups final ( doing AP18 Village of the Damned), and I was robbed! by the dice......robbed!

Sam has to control 11 out of 14 of the multi-hex buildings at game end to win. He has a mixed force of 14 first line Rumanians and 6 first and second line Germans with 1 Pz IVF and 4 Pz 38.

To defend with i have been issued 15 first line heroes of the Soviet Union squads and some 45mm At guns. and some 80mm OBA.

We are currently doing Sams turn two movement and I will keep this Blog updated with events that transpire. This promises to be a fascinating game judgeing by the games of it I observed at Double One.

Sam and I might finish it by 2020.........

ASL - Anhalt Pandemonium FrF44

ATTACKER - Russians - Gerard Burton
DEFENDER - SS Germans - Aaron Sibley

This is (was) a preperation game for the Double One contest at the end of June. We have been doing this via VASl email, now into the last turn. Gerard as the Russians has to get more VP north of hexrow R, than I have left on all the board.

This has been a fun game with plenty of action. The Russians have 2 x IS-2m's which the StuG's have no way of taking on. I will be updating this Blog with how this game plays out.                                            

ASL - Fratricidal Fighting ASL 81

ATTACKER - Allies - Pete Phillips
DEFENDER - Vichy - Aaron Sibley
Completed this scenario yesterday using email VASL. This is the seventh and penultimate scenario from Croix De Guerre. Pete and I started doing the scenarios from this module in September 2008.
I think this one has been the least interesting, but that could be because Pete misread the map, as his monitor showed the cliffs as off-green so he thought they were hedges and planned his attack accordingly!

It ended up with both sides shooting each other and not alot of movement, then again the terrain was awful. Eventually I amassed 30CVP which meant that Pete had taken too many losses to continue.

We did this in about 10 days with fairly regular emails between each other, though I sent my setup to Pete about 18 months ago.

Would i do the scenario again? Yes sometime in the future.

Pete now has to prepare a defense for the last scenario in the module... "For Honor Alone" ASL 82.

I hope to keep a running report on this scenario on this blog.

2 Star Scenario.

Learning

Spent sometime tonight playing with the template settings.

In the Beginning

Well, I have final decided to try one of these Blog things. So where to start, and is anyone interested. I suppose it depends if I ever have anything interesting to say.....