Counting the Dead

Keeping track of casualties in some games can be difficult when you don't remove figures from the unit. This is especially true in Tactica Ancients rules where the whole unit stays on the table until it Breaks, usually at about 67% casualties. I have used Dice but since you roll a lot of Dice in Tactica, it is easy for the casualty dice to get mixed up with the marker Dice. Even when you use different colors, some player invariably picks up one of the marker dice to roll. Also it takes a lot a dice since some units in Tactica can have upwards of 32 casualties before breaking.

So I took to using some counters from a game called "Rummikub" which helps but they only go up to "13" and are still somewhat fiddly. Below is  a picture from one of our games. You can see the Phalanx Unit has 28 Casualties.

 What was needed was a casualty counter that went up to at least thirty two. Looking around on the internet, I found a couple of companies make counters, Litko and The Dial Dude. Unfortunately, their counters only went up to ten or twelve. So I had this idea shown below where I could make my own. At first I was stuck at sixteen , that being the most I could manage to divide a circle up into. Then it occurred to me that I could use both sides of the washer and the final design is shown below except I used laying down commercially available casualty figures instead of upright ones. These I recently got from Donnington Miniatures. http://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/casualties-97-c.asp

 

 The hardest part was rotating the numbers so they could be read as you rotate the dial. Not having any expensive graphics programs on my computer, I was able to accomplish this using MSPaint and Paint.net. Long story, short, here are the two images you need and a sheet of twelve pairs. All the hard work is done. You just need to print them out.

  

 

I used two sizes, 1-1/2 and 1-1/4 inch O.D. The circles above should be pretty close to 2inch O.D. and you just have to scale them down to whatever size you want when you print them. I'm assuming you are computer savvy enough to do that, but if not and you need help, send me a comment with your email address and I'll try to help you.

So I cut out the circles and glue them to some Fender washers which you can get at your local hardware store. I get my magnet from McMaster-Carr which comes in a three inch wide roll . Here is the link: McMaster-Carr  I use the part number 5769K52 which is magnetic on both sides and has a good "pull".

 I take a section of magnet, put the fender washer on it and cut out the magnet. Hopefully it comes out symmetrically round.

 Once the magnet is cut out, you can make a notch in it using one of the numbered circles as a guide so that only one number shows at a time. I cut it out using an Xacto knife.

 The numbered circles, I just glue onto the fender washers using a Glue Stick. If you print them out on some sort of label paper, you could just peel them off and stick onto the washer.

 

So here is the finished product, three dead Romans and a Pontic pikeman. I use the larger counters for the big pike phalanxes and the smaller ones for Roman Cohorts.

Here are some staged to see how they look. Not too bad and certainly better than dice or Rummikub markers.  With Tactica usually running about twelve units a side, with the four above I've only got about twenty more to do.

 If this was helpful to you, please leave a comment.

Historicon 2014 Report

Well I'm somewhat recovered from my two week trip back East which included going to Historicon 2014. The time change coming back really affected me, but with a couple nights good sleep, I think I have recovered. Last time at Historicon was two years ago. I think the quantity of good games and number of dealers was better then than this year but I still had fun. They have added curtain partitions in the game area which cut down the noise level and by re-designating some women's bathrooms as Men's  fixed the backup at the bathrooms they had two years ago. I managed to get in two games a day which made me feel I got my money's worth.

First game was a pick-up game of Tactica in which I played Huns vs Late Romans. I got my butt kicked big time. Wasn't even close. As at home we only play T2, I have a problem going back to the original Tactica rules. Also, I'm not good with cavalry armies. To win with the Huns you need to wear the Romans down with a lot of missile fire and not get into melee. You only have three melee units, the rest are all horse archers. That's not my style of play and to do it would have made for a very long game. I still had fun and learned I don't like playing Huns. Thanks to James Baker who put on the game.

Next was a civil war Skirmish Game where the Union was making a raid to blow up the Confederate ironclad Tennessee. I had command on the ironclad but it starts with all the gunners and crew on shore in the town. Confederates can't move until Union gets within twelve inches or starts shooting.

 

Above is  a view  of Militia unit in town supposedly sleeping until the alarm is raised. Ironclad gunners can be seen in middle left of picture. Union patrol starts from group of trees seen to left of ironclad.

 Another view of town and Ironclad Tennessee

 A view inside the Ironclad model all beautifully hand built by Game master Miles Reidy.

 I never got the gunners onto the boat as the Union boarding party moved too quick and overpowered the Confederate Militia Unit defending the town.

I was able to get the Ironclad Commander and the Marines inside the boat to keep the Union boarding party from getting inside to set their charges. Gamemaster decided to let the kid win so he changed the rules to finish the game and give the victory to the Union side.

Below is a couple of pic's of an 1812 6mm game of the attack on Fort McHenry . You can easily recognize Baltimore Harbor. Very nicely done.

 Following are some pictures of a Tactica game I played on Friday. Don Manser hosted four Tactica games at once. I was playing Republican Romans vs Later Macedonians. Figures are 25mm, very nicely painted by Don.

 This is just after Deployment, about end of Turn 2, I think. I tried to use the old "march to one flank" gambit to prevent the Macedonian cavalry from getting around my flank. Didn't work too well. Needed another turn before Deployment. I was more used to Ponts and Armenians Supplement armies which don't have to deploy until turn three.

 Macedonian Light Cavalry seen above was able to catch one of my cohorts with a Flank attack until I could rescue the unit with one of my Triari.

 On my left flank I was able to keep the Macedonian Cavalry engaged so they couldn't attack me infantry although I eventually lost all my cavalry units.

 Near end of the game, I was loosing cohorts left and right. I had made a bad Deployment of the Principes 2nd line and my opponent Richard was kicking my butt. I really thought that this gave was lost.

Final turn. I have to destroy 2 phalanxes to win. Macedonians have to rout eight cohorts.  Melee direction is right to left. I've finally managed to route one phalanx, but loose another cohort soon thereafter. Score was 7 to 1. In the center, Richard needs just three kills to make me check morale. He'd been hot dicing me the whole game while I was barely able to get one or two kills. He throws bad and gets no hits, but I score enough to make him check. He fails the morale roll. Romans win by a hair. A very close game indeed


Below a very cool looking All Quiet on the Martian Front by Alien Dungeons that was very well attended. They put this scenario on several times. You can check out their products here: http://aliendungeon.blogspot.com/

 They had a really massive layout. I don't normally like Fantasy type games, but I could go for this.

Couldn't resist taking this picture of some guy zonked out in one of the Ballroom game areas.

 Battle of Talavera, 1809 a Shako II game. I had the French Left Flank shown above.

 Game host Robert Lockley. He had his hands full with about 10 players in the game.

 At lower right side, the Brigade of two battalions from Polish 4th Regiment adavance toward Talavera and Spanish right Flank. They eventually took the town. It was a Glorious French Victory.

 My last game on Saturday was a typical TheSwordandtheFlame(TSATF) scenario set in the Northwest Frontier(2nd Afghan War). We had to march a British caravan through a Pass.

 A view from the Afghan side. They start out hidden.

My unit fighting off a charge by the Pathans. We didn't get through the pass, but by end of game, the Pathans didn't have much left to stop us. It was a very long and bloody game. Gamemaster didn't turn the cards fast enough to keep the game moving. We were exhausted after playing for some five hours.

Hope you enjoyed this brief look at Historicon 2014. Thanks to all the Gamemasters for putting on the games. Not sure I will make the next Historicon, but one never knows.

ENFILADE 2014 Report

Enfilade is the annual convention of the Northwest Historical Miniatures gaming Society(NHMGS). It is held on Memorial Day weekend at the Red Lion Inn in Olympia Washington. Although not as big as East coast conventions its still a great convention with lots of good games.

This year I put on two Tactica II games on Friday and helped my friend Gary put on Two Napoleonic Courier games 2nd and 3rd Period Saturday. The players seemed to enjoy all the games and Gary and I won "Best of Show" for the 2nd period Courier game on Saturday. I only managed to take some pictures of the 1st game we did on each day. Was just too much to do putting on back to back games and by the 2nd one each day, I was to whipped to remember to take photos.

The 2nd Tactica game was a lot closer than the first. The Romans were just 1 figure away from one of their Legions breaking which might have given the Ponts a victory. At any rate, the following is a write up of the first game. Below is the initial disposition of the Forces, pretty standard with HI in the middle and Cavalry and LI on the flanks.

Roman Army (Number, Type, Descr, FV, Morale, Weapon)

12    HC    Roman     5-6    V Javelins
12    HC    Roman      5-6    V Javelins
8    LC    Gaullic LC  3-6    V Javelins
8    LC    Allied LC     3-6    V Javelins
                           
8x9    FT    Legion I Cohort 5-6    V Pila/Swords
16x1   FT    Legion I Cohort 5-6    EL Pila/Swords
               
8x9    FT    Legion II Cohort 5-6    V Pila/Swords
16x1   FT    Legion II Cohort 5-6    EL Pila/Swords
                           
12    LI    Tribal    3-6    V Javelins
16    LI    Auxilia    3-6    V Javelins
12    LI    Auxilia    4-6    V Javelins
12    LI    Auxilia    4-6    V Javelins
                           
12    SI    Auxilia Archers    4-6 V Bows
12    SI    Auxilia Slingers    4-6 V Slings
12    SI    Auxilia Javelins    5-6 V Javelins


Pontic Army (Number, Type, Descr, FV, Morale, Weapon)
2    HC    Pontic     5-6    V    Spears
18    CAT ( I )    Armenian     5-6    V    Lance
12    CAT ( I )    Rhoxalani     5-6    V    Lance
12    LC    Skythian     3-6    V    Bows
8    LC    Thracian Light Cav    4-6 V Javelins
3    Scyth ( I )    Chariot    5-6    MG    Itself
                       
48    PH    Brazen Shields    5-6 V    Pikes
32    PH    Phalangites    5-6 V    Pikes
48    PH    Ex-Slave Phalangites 4-6 V    Pikes
24    COH     Immitation Legion    4-6 V    Pila/Swords
36    FT ( I )     Bastarnae    4-6 V    Various   
                       
27    LI( I )    Thracians w/Romphia 3-6 V Various
12    LI    Thorakatoi    4-6 V Javelins
12    LI    Thurephoroi    4-6 V Javelins
                       
12    SI    Armenian Archers    4-6 V Bows
12    SI    Slings        4-6 V Slings
12    SI    Javelinmen    5-6 V Javelins

 Above is a view of the Pontic Set Up.

 A look at the Roman side Set up.

Here is a good view of the whole table and the opening moves. For convention games I roll for the terrain as per the rules ahead of time and then let the Players set the individual pieces up where they want them.

The Pontic Cataphracts failed to get Impetus against the Roman Cohorts and ended up eventually getting destroyed. Such is the roll of the Dice. Roman Pilum were unusually deadly though and reduced many of the Pontic 1st melee round die rolls. The Pontic Scythed Chariot however did get Impetus and did some decent damage, taking out a couple of Cohorts before disapearing.

Here is the crux of the Battle. In the middle you can see the Pontic Player has placed his Army General in contact with one of his Phalanxes. A very Bad Move and I even gave them a hint telling them so, but Hey! It's just a game. Phalanx wasn't outscored in Melee, but rolled an eleven for the General casualty killing him. Unit them had to roll for "Loss of General" which they failed making them disordered. Next turn they fight disordered with half melee dice and no rank Bonus. Disordered units who are outscored in melee must roll a Control Test which of course they were and they fail again. Good Bye Phalanx!

I count up the Pontic Broken units and come up with 138. Loss of General counts as 10% which in this case is 21 for a grand total of 159. Pontic Break Point is 151, so Game Over. It wasn't as bad as it looks. Roman Legion on Pontic Right had lost 52 figures, 7 away from Legion Break Point of 59. Other Roman losses at this point were 56 so if a Legion had gone with its 88 figures, the Romans would have been over their Army Break Point of 138.

View of the last Phalanx. You can see some of  the Cohorts are very close to being eliminated. Great game, the guys had fun playing. Lesson learned, do not risk your General by adding him to a melee with one of your units that counts for almost a third of your Army Break Point.

Second game used same forces but with slightly different terrain. Romans won, but just barely in that one.

Saturday's Courier Game (Get the Message Through).

On Saturday we did a Napoleonic Courier game in which players take the roll of Hussars or ADC's trying to get a message through from Napoleon to Ney. The game has an interesting history. I moderate a Yahoo Group for Napoleonic Skirmish games  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/NapSkirmish/info?yguid=177542802.   A guy named Malcolm posted on there looking for some ideas for a game he was planning. Below is his original post"

"I'm designing a one-off game using 28mm which is for 4-5 French
couriers in the peninsula racing to get a message through enemy lines.
If at least one message gets through then the player with the most
boasts wins the game. If all messages are lost then the player with the
most shame loses. Boasts and shames are gained by having little
encounters along the way with British patrols, guerrillas, civilians,
and even priests.
The step I'm on now that is giving me some trouble is nailing down the
little narrative mini-events that can occur to our heroes. Most of
these might just be resolved with a die roll or delay him for a turn
and give either shame or boast.
In particular, what might happen when a courier pauses in his course to
explore a farmhouse. Surely one result will be finding some food and
another will be finding a maiden, but what else could befall him?
The tables that need filling out are Adventure at a farmhouse,
adventure at a bridge, adventure in the woods. Then I need to figure
out the interesting results that could come with parlying with
civilians and parlaying with priests.
If any ideas come to mind, send them along. My imagination is near
exhausted."

I gave him some ideas and he turned it into a game which was described here:
http://murat.ca/miniatures/28mm/steeplechase/AAR.htm 
At the Historicon Convention about two years ago, Gary and I met a guy, Chuck from Michigan who had taken Malcolm's idea and revised it quite a bit. He did a pick up game at that Convention which Gary and I played in and had a lot of fun. We enjoyed it so much thatI had Chuck send me his Rules. Its taken awhile but Gary and I finally got around to doing our own version at ENFILADE.

 

 We needed a long table to do this, but arrangement in the convention site prevented us from moving the table around as they would interfere with other games. So we did what Malcolm did and used a "U" shaped table where the Couriers go up one side and down the other. Above you can see the last of the Couriers fighting a British Patrol just past the Bridge. Others have entered the town for an "Adventure at the Tavern". There are 4 enemy patrols players must dodge and 4 "Adventures" they must participate in, the Bridge, the Tavern, the Farmhouse and the Woods.

 

Here is a view of thew other side of the Table showing the Farm House and the Woods. If you look closely, you can find Richard Sharpe, 95th Rifles Officer lurking in the woods. On one of the Wood's Adventures you may find yourself having to fight the renowned Richard Sharpe.

 In addition to the Patrols and Adventures, players must negotiate with a bunch of  irksome Monks before they can move on. In front of the Monastery is a patrol of Spanish Guerrillas. Heaven forbid if you get captured by them and have to roll of the Guerrilla Torture Table.
 

 Ok we're near the end now and one player has drawn an Adventure that gives him a friendly patrol of French Dragoons to accompany him for a couple of turns. They came in handy in fighting off a patrol of British Riflemen.
 

There is Ney at the end of the road awaiting his message from Napoleon. You can see it was really close with four Couriers contending to get there first. One of the players is a Spy who can win by riding past Ney. In the first game it was a kid who played but was revealed by the Farmer's daughter at the Farm House. He was soon thereafter killed by one of the other Courier's. In the second game, the Spy wasn't revealed but he was not close to the finish line at games end.
The guys had a lot of fun playing this one and Gary and I will probably do it again at next years Enfilade convention.

New Blog for Boxer Rebellion

I started a new Blog for our groups Boxer Rebellion games. Its located here: http://krautnrice.blogspot.com/
Its titled "Sour Kraut and Fried Rice" The adventures of Colonel Klink during the Boxer Rebellion. Colonel Klink is a figure from my 15mm Boxer Rebellion collection that we've had a lot of fun with. Here he is shown with some East Asia Brigade troops and German Marines.

Check it out.

What Mitch has been up to

In one of my weaker moments, I found some Victrix Napoleonics on sale on E-bay and couldn't resist. Sixty figures in a box. Wow! I thought. What a cheap way to get a bunch of figures.

 

When I opened them up. Wow! That's a lot of parts to put together. Much to my dismay, I found you had to glue everything on, heads, arms, back packs and sometimes legs. They were very fiddly.

Wow! Even more parts. So I put a few together to see how it went. The first batch wasn't so good. I was using Krylon white to  prime them with since it had worked well on other stuff. Well the paint must have been old or it was too cold, I don't know, but the paint clumped up on the figures obscuring the detail.

The first ones went into a jay of Simple Green to soak and remove the paint. Next I tried some artist's  Gesso as a primer based on something I read on the web. It worked alright, but I found it was a pain trying to paint the chest area due to the odd positioning of the arms and muskets. I managed to finish the two below and used Army Painter "Strong" stain on them.

Next two I tried painting before gluing the arms on. That worked much better, but was really fiddly. These two below I used the "Dark" stain and liked the result much better.

Here are some more of the first batch after removing the primer and some I left as there weren't so bad. There is also a mounted Afghan leader waiting to be painted for NW Frontier.

 Here its what waiting to be decaled and camoflauged for 15mm WW2 if we ever find a set or rules. the building on the left is being mounted for use with my Boxer Rebellion figures.

Rest of my Hetzers waiting to be assembled. One on the left by Command Decision are squatter. The FOW brand on the right is better proportioned, but more expensive.

 Here are some Brits being painted for NW Frontier.

 Another Box of Naps, this time from Perry Brothers. Much nicer and less parts to put together.

A view of the figures right out of the bow.You can see there are less parts to glue on. Don't know when I'll ever get to these. Another good deal I couldn't refuse. Found them at Fall-In Convention Flea Market being sold by a guy I met at Cold Wars last year.

Another project I couldn't resist. A German pre-dreadnought Brandenburg class battleship in 1:700 scale.

More fiddly parts and that's all the instructions you get.  Wonder how long this will be sitting around before I ever get to it.

Not shown. A bunch of 15mm Panzer IV's and V's. If we ever decide on a set a rules, maybe they'll get more attention. Just bought some Panzer Grey spray paint, so they'll be easier than doing the camo.

That's what is on my painting table. What's on yours?