Reduction in Force

So, moving.

Haven't done it in thirteen years. Have never done it without my dad's help; though he offered, he's in his 80s and I need to learn to do it myself anyway.

As a librarian, I have learned to weed. Wrenchingly, this often means tossing good or classic books that are in great condition, because of the irony that their great condition indicates that no one is reading them. To be fair, if I haven't played a game, I probably won't miss it when it's gone.

On the other hand, I have a library chess group and storage space to hide the board games in and occasionally bring them out, and I have a gaming clubhouse to store some of the miniature stuff in. That's all just an excuse not to throw it out, though.

I have a bunch of old White Dwarves (issues 200 and up). I've paid, perhaps unwisely, for the Warhammer+ site so have access to online issues back to #286, so there's an easy start.

A few books I've always meant to read (or reread) but not gotten to, I read and then toss. Currently working on True History of the Kelly Gang.

I've been cutting out the "mat" terrain pieces I picked up at Recon - roads and rivers done, trees still to go. (I'm undecided what shapes or sizes I want the trees in, though small seems preferable as they can be overlapped to make bigger footprints.) This frees up the large bag they were stored in for ... something else, dunno what yet.

I've taken most of my small board games to work and put them in a cupboard where I keep such things to break out during Chess Club for variation.

Speaking of which, I actually got a Portable Wargame going today. Some leftover AWI Paperboys faced off across a spare chessboard. I used 18th Century Horse and Musket rules, cut down a little by dropping formations (all units are assumed to be in line) and hit points (units, when hit, either retreat or are destroyed).

Each side got four infantry bases and one each light infantry, artillery and cavalry. The playtest went all right, the vaguely British side (foreground) losing three units to the Rebels' one before we halted. I only had one mildly confused player, though other kids expressed interest. The Perrys' Portable Wargame might be preferable since it's more obviously "board-gamey", and that's another two boxes I can move out of the apartment for a bit.

I have lots of small, loose things - mostly action figures, Star Trek ships and assorted plastic miniatures - that I'll need to figure out how to store. Probably either layers of bubble wrap or a bucketful of foam peanuts? The 8th edition 40K figures are particularly worrisome, as they're rare, heavily detailed and heroically posed (so lots of sticky-out bits to snap if I'm not careful). I still want to try playing with them, but if I can find a safe way to pack them I'll send them all to my brother for a painting project - he's eager to work on the Death Guard models. The unbuilt pre-8th edition 40K stuff (mostly tank kits) can maybe be traded to my FLGS.

GI Joes, on the other hand, can be tossed in a plastic box and reunited with their myriad accessories later.

Green Beret figure Lt. Falcon guards my paint markers.

I also have a small collection of Legos - some can be added to the library collection that we let the kids play with every fourth Thursday, but I want to keep my scale Saturn V model intact.

And there are (still and always) more books. Some of them very large and heavy enough that the boxes might not hold them...

Quiet but interesting

I'm on the verge of getting a new apartment, though not looking forward to the actual move. Have been trying to reduce books and clothes, will probably buy a couple new pieces of furniture, etc. Pro: More room for the cats, a second bedroom for a game room. Con: no washing machine and no screen door. Not that I have a screen now...

Taking a Sunday break from the increasingly nervous process, I visited the War Office for weekend DBA. Jim Dundorf was there, of course, but also a newish medieval enthusiast named Jacob. He brought some 28mm Hundred Years War minis, attractively painted with a characterful, toylike air.

French

English

Not having quite enough for a full DBA game, Jim put us through a skirmish of seven bases a side to give Jacob's figures a workout. Sometime before Agincourt, a French raiding party are trying to bypass an English rear guard to plunder the baggage train. Basically, the win would be at three points rather than four, and the French could gain their points by dashing off the English side of the table (mine). To be fair, this would not technically be in character for the fastest (ie knightly) of the French, who properly should prefer to charge the noblest enemy they could find. In practice, it was what they did anyway, after we'd got properly to grips with each other and the rules. A couple roll-exchanges included ones on one side and sixes on the other, meaning improbably quick-kills of superior units. Ultimately the French won.

The oversized field, after rolls for terrain.

Both sides set-up in line. Distances are 1.5 normal,
and touch between bases was assumed and declared due to
the unorthodox base sizes and sticky-out bits.

French horse (Knights and Light Cavalry) has separated
from the infantry - Solid Blades and crossbows for Solid Bows
- versus my even mix of Blades and Bows.

Climax in the center - fight between commanders as
one of the French Knight bases breaks towards my table edge.

My enthusiastic opponent had come upon our 18th-century stockade, so next wanted to try a siege scenario. Trouble was that DBA doesn't have rules for that, or even for artillery battering down walls. The best Jim and I could suggest was a Free-Kriegspiel wargame, with pre-1974 GM-added "events" and Warhammer-inspired rules for the bombardment mortars (proxied by ACW ones).

My opponent had never played rpgs, and became disconcerted by the fact there were no hard-and-fast rules for the events I was adding in. For example, I had secretly rolled that the fort only had a week of food, so when his army tramped onto the field they observed one of my few infantry bases in the nearby cropfield hastily gathering supplies, but did nothing about it and waited patiently for their guns to get hauled onto the board. He chose to wait overnight before opening fire, so I sent a forlorn hope to try and disable the guns; this led to our first combat when his sentries woke up and managed to wipe my unit before they did more than temporarily disable one of his three guns.

We decided that each week would be represented by two rounds of mortar fire. Fire had three rolls to it.

• - First, a misfire roll before shooting. If the gun team rolls a one, PHUT and the gun doesn't shoot that turn.
• - Second, a scatter roll after choosing an aiming point. We had no scatter dice, but used the old expedient of "a one or six is a direct hit, otherwise in the direction of the one-face."
• - Third, D6" scatter.

I secretly declared "locations" for my own bombard, food supplies, and each of my unit bases. (He couldn't see over the walls, though he could see the flagstaff of the command tent.)

Incidentally, my opponent did NOT send the traditional parley flag in to demand the garrison surrender. Nor did he expect, or accept, a desperate wave of a parley flag from the walls, or a messenger riding across the fields with an urgent message for him. The messenger was trussed up and later executed without being able to deliver a message more than screaming "The PRINCESS is in there! Please, you can't bombard us!" This was also disregarded as an obvious ruse.

Over the course of two weeks, during which each gun got to attempt two firings, the garrison lost its own gun, a week of supplies, and one base of troops to the bombardment before a breach was made in the gate. The garrison, down to two infantry bases and a light cavalry base (presumably the garrison commander and retinue) opted to ambush the first attacking base through the breach.

At this point, we reverted again to DBA rules. Even though I had an advantage, one garrison base was forced to recoil, making room for further assaulting bases to get through the breach in following turns. 

After I lost one of the two infantry bases,
I sent the hastily mounted commander in as a reserve,
but it was no good.

The garrison offered surrender; it was refused and the fort sacked and everyone in it killed.

Jim, who had been acting as auxiliary GM due to note-passing and DBA expertise, ruled that this was a tactical win for Jacob but a strategic faux pa, because there had been a high-born woman in the besieged fort and the attackers had failed to conduct themselves according to chivalric norms. To be fair to Jacob, he had never encountered a GM-run game before and was more eager to reduce a fortress than to "act" as a period commander with all the options that such commanders actually had. Since he preferred set rules for such things, I suggested next time we try Christopher Duffy. That said, hopefully we have a new member and regular for the club; it also has a new social media presence.

Sorry for the quietus on the blog. Been alternately too busy and too tired to post, but just got some deliveries in. First, from my talented brother:

My new work mascot, a sort of dwarf librarian.

And the BEF, all painted up:

Scottish Republican militia (one figure short)

Command group with mortar

SMG assault half-section

BUF section

My brother painted everything in the same scheme, so I imagine that all these chaps are Scots, with the blue cap, whether traditional or military, as the national "spot" colour. I look forward to trying a round or two of Kill Team with them.

I also received an order from Raven Banner Games. The first is a full pack of 18mm Thirty Years War skirmish figures which should be just the thing for games of The Pikeman's Lament.

Pike and Shot units.

With the addition of horses and holders, the Shot double as Dragoons.

The other is a selection of Peter Dennis AWI units. Partly to add to my 18th-century Imagi-nations, and partly for America-250-appropriate games at work.

British...

And American.

(Plus one battery of French artillery and a handful of Hessian riflemen.)

Not sure how to name the "American" Imagi-nation regiments - maybe borrow from Bob Cordery's alternate 1891 map?

Speaking of Cordery, I've been fiddling with Portable Wargames, in hopes of running one during Chess Club at work. Unfortunately, both the 18th-century and Napoleonic rulesets require two bases per unit, which at 60mm across won't quite fit on the two-inch chessboard squares. On the other hand, some folks on the Facebook group use Risk figures, and I do have a donated set. A third option is to play 3x3 and have each "square" take up 2x2 chessboard squares. Hmm...