Merry Christmas!

Ahhh!
A very nice Christmas Mass last night, a day full of presents, games, snacks, movies, and family time, and a great Christmas dinner!  Dessert is next.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!  

'Ultramarines' the Movie

Aaron and I just watched the movie Ultramarines.  It got some very poor reviews.  I didn't think it was that bad.  Certainly not worth $30.00.  The story was a little slow at points, and it was a bit predictable.  I thought the graphics were good though.  I don't know what other's level of expectation was when this first came out, but I can understand being disappointed if the expectation was something along the lines of Star Wars. 

Aaron really seemed to enjoy it.  He's getting increasingly interested in Warhammer 40K.  We actually played a small game a few years ago so I foresee more in the near future.  Hey he's even reading "The Horus Heresy".  Hmmn...a kid spending time reading for fun and hanging out with Dad.  Who said GW was bad!

Back in Action!

Well, the paper is turned in and the semester is over.  Time for the Christmas season and some quality hobby time!  Here are some random thoughts about what I'll be doing:

1. I just finished reading "Iron Coffins: A Personnel Account of the German U-Boat Battles of WWII" by Herbert Werner.  Great book!!  And great potential for war-gamming too.  More to follow on this one.
2. American Civil War by GASLIGHT Solo Scenario - I've moved forward a bit on this.  I'm being very deliberate with this project because my real aim is to document the thought process, choices, and decisions.  I think that this is the essence of solo war-gaming.  Expect more write-ups soon.
3. American Civil War by GASLIGHT Battle Report - My son and I managed to get a game in.  It was a small encounter between reconnaissance forces.  This may take some time to get published since I took no pictures.  I do have notes and a battle map.  Getting this published may take some time as I fumble through the map making.

That's all for now.  Stand-by for updates.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all!  Just 10 days left in this semester.  I hope to be back to wargaming soon.

American Civil War by GASLIGHT Solo - The Scenario

I had a few spare minutes today after work (and before I started schoolwork) to look through "Programmed Wargames Scenarios".  I decided that Scenario 1 - Hill Line Defence would be a nice simple start point for my first solo wargame.  In this scenario, the defending force occupies a low ridge line while the attacking force has deployed off the line of march and is ready to begin the attack.  The attacking force mission is to take the hill and defeat the defending force within a day.  The attacking force knows the general location of the defenders, but has no detailed knowledge of their strength or disposition.  Also, the defending force has little knowledge of the attackers strength and intent.

The first decision is what side to play.  Neither seems to offer any significant advantage or disadvantage in terms of simplicity, so I'll play the attacking force for this game.  The defender will be the "programmed" force.

The setting for this game will be the American Civil War with VSF elements to make things interesting.  For whatever reason, my usual gaming partner (my son) always wants to play the Union force.  I'll stick with the usual and play the Confederates as the attacking force for this game

That's all for now.  More to follow soon.

American Civil War by GASLIGHT - Solo ideas

I picked up a used copy of Charles Stewart Grant's Programmed Wargames Scenarios a few years ago and it's sat on my bookshelf unused, collecting dust for tooooo long. A used copy on Amazon.com goes for $120!! I honestly don't remember where I found my copy and what I paid for it, but it was significantly less than Amazon's current price. So my mission now is to put it to good use. Life (work and school) have really limited my hobby time lately, but I was able to get a quick game in over the Labor Day holiday weekend. It was a Victorian Science Fiction American Civil War game using my favorite rule-set GASLIGHT. In fact, I received a copy of the GASLIGHT Compendium (by John R. Surdu, Christopher Palmer, Robert Beattie, and Chris Johnston) for my birthday and really like it. What I'm looking to do now is to combine these two great resources- build the scenario and play out a solo VSF American Civil War battle using Programmed Wargame Scenarios with GASLIGHT serving as the rule set (or mechanics) for fighting the battle. While this could be played out by two players, I'd really like to put Grant's ideas for solo wargaming to the test. More to follow.