Going on hobby hiatus

 About to dive into a major project at work that may lead to a nice promotion... So, I am officially standing down all hobby work for at least the rest of the year.

Have fun without me for a bit, good gaming!

What a Tanker! game day Recap

 A quick recap of our What a Tanker game day yesterday at the Spartanburg (SC) county public library.  If you are a gamer in the South Carolina, North Carolina, or Georgia area please consider joining our IO Group.  There are wargamers everywhere eager for a game!

The facilities were great, we used the conference room on the 2nd floor, lots of windows and natural light and plenty of space.  Here is the table set up and ready to go.  A Cigar Box battle mat, Kallistra (non-Hex) hills underneath, and a mix of resin and 3D printed buildings.  We used my 10mm / 1:150 scale 3d printed tanks.

 A close up of the village, somewhere in Ukraine, 1943-44.

We played 2 games, the first was two T-34/76's against two Panzer IVH's.  Here we see my wife's T-34 burst in to flames after trading point blank shots with a German for 2 turns.

The players seemed to get comfortable with the rules pretty quickly, so for game 2 I mixed it up a little bit.  We shifted the teams and ran a STuG III and a Panther versus a T-34/85 and SU-152.  In retrospect it may not have been fair, the SU-152 having a ridiculous armor and strike value. 

The first game saw the players charge in for a close in knife fight, the second saw both sides being much more cautious and camping out on high ground and shooting it out from afar.  Here are the Soviets parked on their hill.

It ended with the catastrophic explosion of the StuG and eventually the Panther as well, after much backing up behind hills, running up and shooting.

We wrapped after than, each game taking right at 1 hour, with 4 players new to the rules and a referee not much better off.  

Here are the players, thanks to Charlie, Jason, and his daughter Lilly.  But most of all thanks to my lovely and talented wife, Jozi (of whose tin man I am) , who encouraged me to do this, helped set it all up, and pushed some tanks around too.

I am looking to make this a regular thing, maybe monthly or quarterly, so stay tuned. 

What a Tanker! Game coming up Saturday!

 

Quick picture from a small WaT game I played with my wife's nephew this weekend. I finally nailed his Tiger I with my T-35/85.  Russian orthodox church was recently 3d printed. 

We are playing this Saturday, June 18th.  Please RSVP using this form, I'll bring coffee and Donuts from Krispy Kreme:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRVFgw6tWvLDDju6NN2O22AfgLsPgb9OLfsUfbTrxTE3cI3g/viewform 

Spartanburg County Public Library HQ Branch

151 S. Church Street

Spartanburg, SC 29306

Harley Conference Room (2nd floor)

 

• 10:30AM  Arrive
• 11:00AM Start Play
• ~2PM End Play, adjourn to Blue Moon (https://bluemoonsc.com/) across the street for lunch

Parking is FREE at library

 

We will play 'What A Tanker" From Too Fat Lardies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWE_ShqU5L8) and should be able to get in a training game and 1 or 2 additional games. We will play with my 12mm tanks on a 6 x 4 table, late war Eastern Front.

 

I will have everything set up and ready to go, just bring yourself, your favorite dice if you like, and lunch money. 

FOR MORE INFO, see the SCHGS IO Group: groups.io/g/schgs

18 June, What a Tanker! Game day in Spartanburg SC

I have finally scheduled a Game Day for 18 June, see below for details.  I have decided to run What A Tanker!  as I can easily scale it up for down depending on how many players how up.

Please RSVP using this form, I'll bring coffee and Donuts from Krispy Kreme:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRVFgw6tWvLDDju6NN2O22AfgLsPgb9OLfsUfbTrxTE3cI3g/viewform 

Spartanburg County Public Library HQ Branch

151 S. Church Street

Spartanburg, SC 29306

Harley Conference Room (2nd floor)

 

10:30AM  Arrive

11:00AM Start Play

~2PM End Play, adjourn to Blue Moon (https://bluemoonsc.com/) across the street for lunch

Parking is FREE at library

 

We will play 'What A Tanker" From Too Fat Lardies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWE_ShqU5L8) and should be able to get in a training game and 1 or 2 additional games. We will play with my 12mm tanks on a 6 x 4 table, late war Eastern Front.

 

I will have everything set up and ready to go, just bring yourself, your favorite dice if you like, and lunch money. 

FOR MORE INFO, see the SCHGS IO Group: groups.io/g/schgs

28mm 3d Printed Pulp Submarine

This is something I have been wanting to do for a while, now I can check off another box on my hobby bingo!

28mm Pulp Submarine on Thingiverse

I needed a 28mm Submarine for villains to pour out of when boarding the hero's tramp steamer in the South Pacific for games of Pulp Alley, Astounding Tales, etc. I needed it to be fairly big, but not too big, and historical accuracy was NOT a requirement.

So... I remixed a Oral B toothbrush holder, which is itself a remix of the bathtub U-Boat, scaled it up, and split it into 3 pieces to more easily fit onto my Ender 3.

The aft section does not fit very well, no matter how much I fiddled with it using my novice Tinkercad skills. I wound up having to file and cut to get it together, so be warned. you may want to adjust it yourself before printing.

I printed on my Ender 3 using the Fat Dragon games terrain Cura profile, but set the layer height to .12

Pulp Alley League: Doc Savage!

 Getting ready to do a Pulp Alley game day and am catching up on my league cards.  Here is a man and team that needs no introduction, Doc Savage!  

I am going to play this as a Company of Heroes, and Doc gets to pick 2 companions for each game.

You can see my Pulp Adventures and other leagues here.

Hobby Bingo Progress and 3d Printer repair

Just a quick update I am making progress on my hobby bingo.  I really need to catch up and take some pictures, but given the choice between photo shoots and painting, right now I am choosing painting!

Also, I have to replace the hot end and fan on my Creality Ender 3 Pro 3d printer.  Unknown to me, plastic has been accumulating and the fan started making a noise, so, $25 later I have a replacement.  I just need to install it now, that work is in porgress.  here is what the old one looks like...

Good gaming!
 

River of Terror! One Hour Skirmish Wargame

I had a day of hobby-ing last weekend while my wife finished her Yoga instructor certification.  She passed with flying colors and put a lot of work into this, I am very proud of her!

I did quit a bit of painting and checked off several boxes on my Hobby Bingo card, more on that in a future post.  I also managed to get in a game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames, I played a scenario I put together called River of Terror, you can find the detail here on my One Hour Skirmish Wargames page.

Here is a summary of the fight...

The cultists have blocked the river with canoes chained together so they can ambush the Miskatonic Queen.   

Soon Deep Ones begin emerging from the murky depths to attack the expedition.

Dr. Morgan faces off with a Deep One, this is worse than when he had to teach Freshman level Demonoloy. It does not turn out well for him.

Meanwhile on the other side of the boat, one of the crewmen shoot deep ones in a barrel with his trusty Chicago piano

Dr. Morgan managed to kill one of the Deep Ones, but fell prey to another, who began to rampage along the deck, even gravely wounding Captain Stuebing!

The abomination was finally stopped by two plucky sailors, who wounded the beast and then dispatched it in close combat.

While all of this was going on, the cultists on the shore and the expedition members on the top deck traded completely in effective fire (and that went on the entire game.)  Meanwhile, Professor Rice jumps on the barricade and makes his way to the shore, under a hail of fire, to free the boat. A cultist levels a MP-18 at him just as he gets to the end... but a lucky turn of the Joker saves him. 

He manages to free loosen the chain and sprint back to the Queen, which starts to chug forward.

The party is not wholly out of danger, as a few more Deep Ones jup on the deck. 

But the next draw of the Joker sees the cultists morale fail miserably... the deep ones slink back to the depths and the cultists try to figure out how they will explain their failure to their boss.

A very fun game, I am still hooked on the rules.  You should give them a shot!

next time, I will provide some hobby bingo update, meanwhile off to the beach this weekend with the kids and grandkids.  Good gaming!

Hobby Bingo

 We did survive the cruise.  It was a lot of fun because we got to spend a great time together.  Not sure how I like the HUGE ship, but the steam rooms were great and we played a lot of Forbidden Island. We even beat it at legendary level! (No thanks to me, I though we could not do it but my wife insisted)

I got both of my books read, I really enjoyed Durandal.  The Vikings and Their Enemies was good, but did not engage me.  I do know more about the period now than I did before, but I think I will dig up some more on the era. 

Since we have been back, I have fiddled around with a little painting but have felt myself slipping into one of those funks we all get in to. That is until I listened to Henry Hyde interview Sidney Roundwood and I learned about Sid's hobby bingo approach. I don't think he invented it, but seems like a great approach.

I have been fiddling with a lot of things, but have decided to focus mostly on my 28mm Dark Ages Skirmish project and 28mm Darkest Africa project (with a fictional secret conflict between Britain and Germany in central Africa.)  I'll also sprinkle in some other items. 

Here is my bingo card.  I have been keeping a Bullet Journal for the past 2 months and including hobby stuff in it. Off topic, the Bullet Journal is a great, flexible way to organize your life and I have found it makes me much more meaningful and productive in my personal and work life, let's see how it does for the hobby.  My artistic skills do not match some of our wargaming comrades, like Henry Hyde, but it will do the job.

Each box is a "do-able" sprint of work, and I can switch around between things so I do not get bored.  My reward when I finish filling out the whole thing is I will let myself start a new project.  Like 1/600 Korean War aircraft or 6mm WW1 Middle East or Thor only knows what.

The wife is busy during the day this weekend, so I intend to mark off as many boxes as I can, here is the painting desk right now.

I shall report back progress, until then good gaming!

Reading list for the cruise

 

Blog will go quiet again as the wife and I sail on the Carnival Mardis Gras for the first time. We cruise a lot, one of the advantages of having an empty nest, and will be spending a lot of that time in the steam room. (If you are a burglar, our kids will be house sitting for us, and my son in law has a Taurus Judge so good luck with that. Unless you are a Hobbit burglar, in which case have at it) 

I am trying to focus my reading for the trip, so will finish 1 fiction and 1 non-fiction work while we are gone.

I will be reading:

The Vikings and Their Enemies: Warfare in Northern Europe 750 - 1100

I am about 25% the way through already, but it is fascinating, and well written. It is a warm up for the Saxons and Vikings I am slowly painting up for my home brewed One Hour Skirmish Wargames Dark Age variant.

I will also finish:

Durandal or a Crusader with the Horde

I read an old paperback copy of Harold Lamb's history of the Crusades when I was 11, and it stoked my love of history even more.  He was a great writer and this is a rollicking story with wonderful historical detail. 

Good gaming to everyone until my return, when I suspect I will pick up OHSW again. 

One Hour Skirmish Wargame Resources and new site

 Ok, I am now fully immersed in One Hour Skirmish Wargames, it is my new favorite thing.  I have put together a fan site, with all the links to reviews and battle reports I can find. Also, I am posting house rules and scenarios.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames Resources

If you have any comments or anything you think should be added, let me know!

OHSW Task system, thoughts?

Non-combat tasks are cropping up in my One Hour Skirmish Wargames, and I need a fast way to resolve them.  Some may be defined in the scenarios and some may need to be worked out on the fly.  here are some proposed rules, what do you think?  

One Hour Skirmish Wargames

Task System

This quick resolution system is designed for figures performing any non-combat task or

covering anything that crops up during a game that is not defined in the scenario. 

Resolving a task uses action points just like other actions and ends a figure’s turn just like firing. 

Skill levels, task difficulty, and consequences may be defined as part of the scenario.

The most important rule is be a good sport and if you are not having fun, you are doing it wrong!

To resolve any non-combat task, agree with your opponent:

1. How difficult is the task? (Easy, Medium, Hard)

2. Unless the figure is specified by the scenario to have this skill, how competent is the figure

            at the task? (Novice, Ok, Expert)

        3. What is the consequence if the task fails? (None, Down, Instantly Killed, Something else…)

Now draw to resolve the action.  The player performing the action draws the number of cards indicated

below based on their skill:

Skill Level	Cards Drawn
Low	1
Medium	2
Expert	3

The opposing player draws the number of cards indicated below based on the task difficulty.

Difficulty	Cards Drawn
Easy	1
Moderate	2
Hard	3

Compare the highest card for each:

• If the active player performing the task beats the opposing player, the task succeeds

• Otherwise the task fails and the figure immediately sufferers the agreed upon consequence

• If either player draws a Joker, the task is not attempted and the turn ends as usual.

Examples:

Diffuse a bomb

Ralph and Bob are trying to rescue some hostages from the bad guys / freedom fighters, but there is a

bomb that must be defused first. 

In the scenario, the following has been defined:

• Bob is an EOD expert

• The bomb has been rated a medium difficulty.  

• If the task succeeds the bomb is defused.  

• If the task fails, look at the highest card drawn for the attempt for the active player.  If Red, then

            the bomb explodes as a grenade from the rules.  If black then the bomb does not explode and it

            can be attempted again.

Bob attempts to diffuse the bomb. As he is an expert he draws 3 cards: 3♥ , 7♦, K♠.

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J♣ , 6♠

As Bob’s K♠ beats the opponent’s J♣, the bomb is diffused!

Now if Ralph tried to diffuse the bomb, he would only draw a single card, as he does not have any EOD

skill.  Ralph draws a 3♥

His opponent draws 2 cards for the medium difficulty bomb: J♣ , 6♠

As Ralph does not beat his opponent's high card, he fails.  As his own card is Red, the bomb explodes!

Batter down a door

Olaf is pillaging a Saxon village with his Viking buddies.  He wants to batter down the door of a cottage

in order to plunder it and capture the farmers cowering inside.  There is nothing in the scenario

specifying how to batter a door down, so the two players quickly decide:

• The door is pretty stout, so it is a moderate difficulty.

• Olaf is a healthy viking, but not larger than average, and has a sword and not an axe, so he is

            rated as having medium skill. (If he had a two handed axe, you might rate him expert)

• There is no consequence if he fails, other than standing there using up action points.  He may

            try again at any time.

Olaf draws: J♣ , 6♠

His opponent draws: 7♦, K♠

Olaf may try again using more AP this turn or wait until the next one.

One Hour Skirmish Wargames Shootout with my wife!

 This was a replay of last week's game but with my wife.  The rules were a HUGE hit she likes them a lot and finds them very intuitive.  Her only complaints were my terrible QRS that only I can understand and "I really hate it when you just start making up rules."

She played the cops and I played the gangsters.  Ended in a resounding victory for law and order, although 2 police officers were killed in the action.

She is keen to play again, I am working on my next scenario, which may involve ships and Deep Ones.

Here are some poor quality pictures:

One Hour Skirmish Wargames: Wife Approved!

One Hour Skirmish Wargames Gangster Shootout

 I had a quick opportunity to get some stuff on the table and played a game of One Hour Skirmish Wargames.  I cannot over state how much I recommend these rules. They provided a fast game, with a lot of tension with the card draws.  Even though they are simple compared to many other rules, I felt they gave a good game and what felt like a realistic result.

The scenario was a group of cops led by two Treasury Agents (Agent Black and Agent Grey) raiding the illegal liquor storage facility of the infamous Bugsy and Bunny gang.  I kept it simple, the goal is to break the opponent's morale.  If the forces of Law and Order break, they will fall back to regroup and the gangsters will be able to escape.  If the gangsters break, they will surrender and face a lot of prison time.

Only special rule I made up on the fly was, police contacting any "down" gangster are considered to have cuffed them and taken them prisoner.  Prisoners require a guards (at some ratio I never defined)  I played the game solo, twice, so that was not an issue.  Both games the Police scored a win.

Here are some pictures, click to enlarge:

The table set up.  Cops block both roads exiting the booze warehouse.  They had to borrow a truck from the local university.  The cars parked about are Bugsy's covert distribution network for hootch. 

This is all the prep I had to do!

Agent Black ducks for cover and thinks about delicious Ovaltine.

Lots of moving about and shooting...

Don't be a hero, Johnny!

End fo the first game, Johnny is nicked, and Bugsy lay in a pool of his own blood.  Live by the sword, die by 00 Buck delivered at close range, as they say.

I will be playing more of this, it is becoming my go to for fast man to man skirmishes.

Good gaming!

Busy, busy...

 To my legions of adoring fans, my posting velocity is down again.  Between work and my other work (I started teaching and online course at a local community college) I have had very little hobby time. I hope to start up again in a couple of months once things settle in to a routine.

So, you guys keep posting so I have something to look at and know what i am missing!