The Painted Thumb

This week in Tuesday night action will be Song of Blades and Heroes night. I am considering what kind of warband I will bring to the table. I remembered that I had put together a Kobold-only warband using some paper counters downloaded off the interwebs. Using the pre-made Kobold profiles from the Song of Blades and Heroes rules, I created a huge (20+figures) warband. Most of the Kobold units were 15 points or less (300 pts total). I recalled that I used this warband in one battle against Johnny Rod. I don't recall if I won that battle but I do remember the Kobolds fared better than expected. So, today, I searched my storage cabinets again. I found the old paper figs, reorganized the warband a little, and mounted the figs on pennies. The new Kobold Paper Army of Death features 18 stands, one shaman for magical attacks, some shielded warriors who can take advantage of the shield wall formation, and some elite warriors with stealth ability. Some of you may scoff at the ide

LSHM guys This past Tuesday was " Close Action, In the Age of Fighting Sail " night for LSHM . It was a massive battle with 10 players and 12 ships. The sides were drawn randomly. Half the players on the English side with HMS 'Victory' as the lead vessel. Half the players were on the French side with one allied Spanish 120 gun ship "Santa Ana" commanded by yours truly. Most of these battles include some kind of terrain like a chain of islands, a shoals, or perhaps a reef. This battle did not include terrain. It was a straight-up open ocean fight. The two lines converge The two lines of warships met up and attempted to cross each other's 'T'. The English ships reached the apex point first but shocked the French by turning starboard into the French line. The French line continued in a straight line which caused several collisions. Many ships fouled their rigging as bow met broadsides. Some the French captains decided to slow down and

The Cold War Commander campaign finally has gone in full swing. This past weekend I joined Joe, Wes, Bob, Mark B, and Biff in the second battle of the grand campaign which simulates an attack on NATO by the Warsaw Pact.  Here's the description of the campaign from Joe's briefing. This is a point-based campaign that covers the first 72 hours of a Warsaw Pact invasion of West Germany in 1985. The battle is between elements of a Motor Rifle Regiment, supported by its parent Motor Rifle Division and elements of an Armored Cavalry Squadron supported by its parent Armored Cavalry Regiment. Each side will have 10,000 points for the entire campaign with limits placed on how much can be used to build forces, modify the battlefield , or modify scenario conditions. Each day will include up to four battles. The overall victor will be determined by the highest earned total of aggression points through the course of the campaign. Aggression points are earned for inflicting casualties and

We had a special treat this past Tuesday. LSHM hosted a game of Canvas Eagles , the WW1 aerial dogfight simulation game.  Johnny Rod brought his entire setup to Dragon's Lair which included a wide selection of 1/144 scale model airplanes and a highly detailed ' hard deck ' to act as a stage for the battle royale. Johnny doesn't bring out this game often so it is a great occasion when he does. Sgt. Johnny giving the mission briefing The players were split into two groups; Germans v Brits. I was on the British side. Aircraft were assigned randomly. I was fortunate to be assigned the Spad XIII with a blue/orange color scheme, one of the best planes in the game. Detailed pic of the 'hard deck' My Spad on the far left The contest started with both flights rushing headlong into one another. The Germans must have been nervous because by the second turn Joe and Abe had crashed into each other's planes. Joe went down in flames but Abe survived to f

Sean Bean , the famous actor from Troy, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and a boatload of historical dramas, really cut his teeth on a great English TV movie series called " Sharpe's Rifles ". My friend Brian suggested these movies to me but I never found them in a store or for rental anywhere.  One day, I was browsing my local city library's DVD collection. Surprisingly, they had all 14 of Sharpe's movies for check out! Let's hear it for public libraries!  I picked up the first two movies in the series, " Sharpe's Rifles " and " Sharpe's Eagle " Sharpe and The Chosen Men For those who are not familiar, Sharpe's Rifles is a series of romantic adventure books by Bernard Cornwell. In the mid-1990's, TV movie versions were made with Sean Bean in the title role of Richard Sharpe. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in the campaign known as the Peninsular War . England and Spain are allied against Napole

Chip and Blake had invited me to play some Blitzkrieg Commander this past week. I am already involved in a Cold War Commander campaign with Joe which has essentially the same game mechanics. I am still unfamiliar with these games so this was a good chance to practice and learn. Note: Chip and Blake will be teaching summer classes to some young people and wargaming will be the subject. The kids will learn the rules of BKG, learn a little history with the games, and get to take home a unit at the end of the course.  Wow! Yet more evidence that I was born way to early. The scenario we setup was a German (Chip) vs. Soviet (me) 1000pt battle with a combined tank/infantry/cavalry units. Blake was willing to observe, teach and moderate. My Soviet force included: Troops Commanding Officer (CO) 2x Headquarters (HQ) 13x Infantry MG unit Mortar unit 3x Trucks 2x Horse-drawn wagons Mechanized T-26 2x T-28 T-34 76 (early) BT 2x KV-1B BA-10 recon unit The initial setup The

The Khet Charity Tournament this weekend was fun!  A very small group showed up to play but it was still fun.  Ran into a very old friend Mike B.  We used to pal around with an old gaming group back in the mid-1990's.  It was great to see him again and met his son (damn, it HAS been a long time!)  And we learned some Khet strategy as well. The attendance was too low to play a full tournament but we played a bunch of pickup games. At first glance, Khet appears to be a version of chess with an Ancient Egyptian theme but don't be fooled!  It plays much differently than chess.  Most pieces on the board have mirrors built into the piece which can reflect the laser fired from the 'Sphinx'.  The object is to redirect the laser so that it will zap your opponents 'Pharoah'.  The focus is not on capturing the other players pieces as in chess.  The goal is to position your pieces in such a way that the laser will reflect off the mirrors and strike the opponents Pharoah.