Greg's Market

Hi all,
Putting some classic (read as old) figures up for sale.
$4.00 each pack or best offer. Springals are $1.50 each. Will ship multiple packs together and postage to be at the lowest cost and paid by the buyer.

Thanks - trying to clear out some acquired figures I will not be using.

Another Crusade game - To The Strongest

Well, it has been a while since my last game and post but both should be more frequent in the future as I have RETIRED! Cheers, shouting and general celebration!

So I gathered some of our regulars and we played another game using To The Strongest (God I like these rules). In the first week of retirement I made some game markers and chits to make it even easier for new players to get into the game.

I made these for each unit in the game. We placed these directly behind the respective unit or on their base. As you can see all the information needed except what you need to hit is on the chit. We found these to help a great deal.
I also made markers to indicate the command that each unit belongs to. These are color coded for rapid identification during the game.

I converted some colorful wooden sticks acquired at Michael's into lance markers for the knights in our games. These items were found to be very helpful for all the players. 

Now on to the troops involved in the fight.

Crusaders had the following units.

Command #1

Attached  General Mounted Heroic 6 points

Detached General Foot 5 points

2 units of Knights 11 points each

3 units of Spearmen 7 points each

2 units of Light Bowmen 4 points each

Total points 62

Command #2

Attached  General Mounted 5 points

Detached General Foot Heroic 5 points

2 units of Knights 11 points each

3 units of Spearmen 7 points each

1 unit of Light Bowmen 4 points 

Total points 57

Command #3

 Attached  General Mounted Heroic Senior 7 points

 Detached General Foot 5 points

1 unit of Knights 11 points

2 units of Spearmen 7 points each

1 Mob 7 points

1 unit of Crossbowmen 7 points

1 unit of Light Bowmen 4 points

Total points 55 

Muslims had the following units.

Command #1

General Mounted Attached 5 points

General Detached Foot 5 points

2 units of Knights 11 points each units Light Bowmen

1 unit of Spearmen 7 points

1 unit of Light Cavalry Bow 5 points

1 unit of Light Cavalry Javelin 5 points

2 units of Light Bowmen 4 points each

Total points 56

Command #2

General Detached 5 points

General Mounted Attached 5 points

2 units of Knights 11 points each

4 unis of Spearmen 7 points each

Total Points 60

Command #3

General Attached Heroic Mounted 6 points

General Detached 5 points

1 unit of Knights 11 points each

2 units of Light cavalry Bow 5 points each

1 unit of Light Cavalry Javelin 5 points

2 units ofSpearmen 7 points each

2 units of Light Bowmen 4 points each

Here is a picture of the Crusaders set up. Crusaders had to set up first because the Muslims  out scouted the Crusaders.

 Above is Command #1 as deployed.

 Above is Command #2 as deployed.

Above is Command #3 as deployed.

They are set up from left, center and right.

Below are pictures of the game after the Muslims set up.

 Above you can see Bill (right) face off across from his son Jake.

The players were - Muslim - Wendell, Bill and Jamie - Crusaders - Jake and myself.

Jake is Bill's son and this was his first full game with us. I must say that his grasp of the rules was rapid and concise. He played a great game and as the Crusader's leader we played to a draw as both sides had lost the same number of Victory points at the time we had to stop.

Below are more pictures of the game in no particular order because sadly I became engrossed  in the game and the chance of actually being on the winning side to fulfill my responsibility reporting this game. I will get better.

I hope that this has provided a little bit of insight on how we are approaching To The Strongest. Many more reports to follow and a campaign if possable.

Greg

Crusade battle - To the Strongest

Hi all - it has been a while since my last post. Our little group has been trying to run a variety of games to replace the summer battles Mike presented. It is still a challenge getting over his passing. But having said that we are pressing on and still enjoy our colorful hobby but miss Mikes quit wit and sharp humor.
So on to the game. I believe that in a previous post I had mentioned that for many years I had wished to run games based on the Crusades. Having grown up with watching TV of the 50's and 60's with replays of movies from the 40's and 50's my imagination runs wild thinking about games that remind me of these fantastic shows. I could not decide on a set of rules until Simon Millers' 'To the Strongest' came out. They are perfect for my needs. The perfect amount of detail and quick play with innovative game play. Now I just had to get the rest of our group to be willing to play  them.
This game introduced a couple more members of our group their first play and a couple of us another play at them. We have the typical opponents - Crusaders and Muslims.
The rules have you play on a grid laid out on the playing area. For our games I am using a large piece of tie died fleece material obtained at Jo Anne's Fabrics - total cost of $16.00 on sale. I marked off the grid using a brown Sharpie pen by placing a dot where the four corners meet. Unless you are aware of them they are very unobtrusive.
I added some scrub and hills and away we went.
Here are a series of pictures of the game. For this event the narrative is not so important as it was intended as a learning experience (My side lost - again). For the record though the players were Bill and Wendell vs. Jamie and myself.

 If you look closely you can see the dots marking the corners of the grid.

And here are some close ups of the figures. Flags are off the computer. Figures are old, new, plastic and metal.

 Thanks for stopping by and as always all comments are welcome.
Good gaming,
Greg

And now for something completely different

Yesterday we all gathered at Wendel's home to play a game that is completely outside our comfort zone. This was a modern game using the Osprey 'Black Ops' rules. I have to say that I like the uncertainty of the card activated play. It makes the game move along as well as being exciting and uncertain.
The scenario was a rescue attempt by three separate groups trying to save a person of importance being held by a Somali like warlord and his minions.
The players were our host Wendel, who ran the Warlord and his minions, Bill who was U.S Special Forces, Jamie who was members of the standing army for this war torn country and myself as an Italian counter terrorist force. Wow that was a long sentence.
Her are a couple of pictures of the playing area. I did not take any others a s the game was very engrossing and exciting.

 

You can see that Wendel has been engaged in a very large project having built all of the buildings from scratch. Well done!
Each player entered from a different side of the table and none of us knew where the hostage was being held or where any troops were in the area. It was night time and everyone needed to roll for spotting. Noise played a big factor in being spotted and alerting the camp. If the hostage holders were successful in hearing us or spotting us they could the raise the alarm.
The game play was great as it had a very Hollywood feel at the beginning where we could move about in the dark taking out sentries without raising the alarm yet we were not assured that this would not happen. For most of us shooting was very risky due to the great noise factor but my band were equipped with silencers and suppressors for our weapons giving my team a large advantage or so I thought.
As you look at the second picture, my team entered on the right side across the river. Bill entered from the side by the bottom of the picture and Jamie came in by the upper left corner.
We had to move about searching the buildings that were marked by poker chips that were numbered. Wendel had corresponding chips that indicated what was in the building if anything.
So each group went about searching for the hostage and eliminating guards as we went from house to house. My group had a devil of a time trying to kill the terrorists even when we surprised them in their sleep at point blank range. My die rolls were terrible while Wendel displayed an amazing ability to roll 5's and 6's all day! The only thing that saved us was our near silent weapons.
While I searched my area and found a few sleeping minions Bill working in his area found the main barracks and a large group of minions sleeping inside. To get into the building he went up on the roof area and entered through a second story tower. You can see this building in the lower right hand corner of the compound in the second picture.
Meanwhile Jamie's team was working it's way into the center of the compound searching houses and eliminating guards. At this time a fortuitous event took place. While I was searching a building near the center of town I found the hostage, killed his guard and was ready to get him off the board to victory.
Then all hell broke loose!
While entering the barracks Bill's team opened fire on a couple of terrorists creating enough noise to set off the general alarm. The compound became a beehive of activity and none of it productive to my cause. All I wanted to do was sneak off the table!
A general firefight broke out all over the compound with everyone's teams taking hits. I started looking like my team was in the shower room from the movie 'The Rock' and we were not the guys on the second floor.
This was another likable part of the rules as now in an open fight everything moved quickly and it became very hazardous to anyone involved.
Well to make a long story short I did not get the hostage out of the complex. I did manage to kill the
Warlord but it would have been up to Bill or Jamie to get the hostage out. Sorry Jamie but my money would have been on Bill if the game went a bit longer as he had more team members left and was in a good position, but real life called and we decided to call the game at this point.
So in conclusion I have to say I would recommend these rules for modern combat on a one to one level. We did not get bogged down in too much detail but there was more than enough to provide suspense and action.
Take care and as always thanks for stopping by.
Greg
Oh yes I left out the part where I made a dastardly attempt to take out a couple of Jamie's team members who were in the path of my escape route. Sorry Jamie.

Our first Mike Adams Memorial game

Hello to my friends and guests.
This is my first posting since our long time friend and fellow gamer Mike Adams has passed away. We never realized how much Mike has been missed. This untimely loss has left a huge whole in our group that will take a long time to close.
So in memory of Mike we will from time to time play Ancient games in his memory. To this purpose we played the first game yesterday at Bill's house. The cast of characters was Bill and Wendel as the evil Persian empire and me as Alexander the Great. We have been gaming with Mike for over 35 years and thought it fitting for our first game to be just us, hoping that Mike was there in spirit.

So Bill put together a game using Tactica rules that he made some special changes to. Most of these changes were not explained to the poor Alexander player until they unfolded or were stumbled upon.

Here are some pictures of the initial set up.

After the set up was complete came the first surprise. Bill says - Greg roll a die. I do this and get a 5. Ok he says, remove to medium infantry units from your army. So I think to myself will these come in as reinforcements or what? After I grudgingly remove the two units Bill says now roll another die. This time a 4 is rolled. Ok says Bill now remove one cavalry unit. Good grief! The Macedonians are outnumbered as it is and now we are removing all of these needed troops. So again I comply and choose a cavalry unit to remove. Well this damned strange but hay I want to roll dice and kick butt.

The four pictures above show the first move from a couple of angles and each end. Both sides were being aggressive at this point. The Macedonians rushing to close into melee and the Persians trying to get into bow range.

As you can see from above the cavalry is heavily engaged on each flank. In the center the Macedonians start to take some heavy losses to the archers. On the other hand the Macedonians are succeeding in the fight on the left flank and holding their own on the right.

Above you can see that the cavalry on the Macedonian left is making inroads against the Persian right eventually taking out the cavalry and chariots clearing the way for a sweep and turning of the Persian right side. At the same time the Macedonians are still keeping the Persians at bay on their right flank.
But the middle keeps getting shellacked in the middle from those endless swarms of arrows. Time now for another of the unpleasant surprises. Bill has modeled four units of Persian heavy infantry to represent them as they should be. A row of heavy infantry in front with 2 rows or archers behind them. Very pretty. So the new rule he created is that they get to fire over their intervening troops to fire salvos of arrows at the enemy 24 shots for 6's per unit - four units times 24 is 96 dice a turn for 6's. Good grief Mike show some mercy here and flip a die or two!

Well the end is not pretty. Macedonian pike unis are fleeing the field having had enough of the stinging Persian arrows leaving in such numbers that victory was not possible for Alexander this day.
Win to the Persians and congratulations to Wendel and Bill.
In all fairness Bill did try to balance the game by weakening the Persian heavy infantry once the front rank was destroyed and there was a rule that if the Macedonians could kill Darius the Macedonians would win no matter the number of losses they suffered. Sadly this rule was not made clear until after we had called the game. Oh yes, I never did find out why I had to remove those troops.
Here are a couple of pictures of the troops.

 And the cast of players.

So anyway we all had a great time getting together and remembering the fallen as old warriors tend to do along with bemoaning the state of the world and how much better it would be if we ran things.
Mike I hope you enjoyed watching.Laughing at our crude attempts to match your humor and certainly matching your die rolls!
Good gaming,
Greg