New Purchase - The Games of War

If you're new to the hobby of wargaming, or are looking for an all encompassing book of rules that cover every era and every aspect of wargaming, "The Games of War" by John Bobek (ISBN-13: 978-1434330284) is the book to buy.  The material in this book is broad.  It has rule sets that cover:

• Ancients all the way to to the Modern era, 
• adaptations for fantasy and science fiction battles
• skirmish actions using 1/32 scale (54mm) to larger scale actions using smaller scale figures
• land, air, and naval warfare

The main reason that I purchased this book was for the chapter on using miniature wargames as lab exercises for teaching history.  The author is a teacher in the Chicago Catholic schools and did a fantastic job with these chapters.  I definitely would have been more interested in history as a kid if my history teachers found a way to make history "hands on" rather than memorizing dates, names and places.

This book is great for beginners or those looking to branch out and explore another, maybe unfamiliar era. The author does a great job introducing each era at the beginning of chapters and provides a comprehensive list of resources at the end of each chapter in case the reader wants to delve deeper.

There are a lot of additional resources out on BoardGameGeek.  Check them out here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37718/the-games-of-war-a-treasury-of-rules-for-battles

Overall, this book is great value.  A paperback copy will cost you around $26.00.  But if your o.k. with electronic books, a .pdf copy will cost you just $3.00 on Amazon.com.  Check it out here:

• http://www.amazon.com/The-Games-War-Treasury-Soldiers/dp/1434330281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375656568&sr=8-1&keywords=the+games+of+war

   

Still Here

Ok, so "More to follow soon." turned out to be a year.  An entire year!  Moving, a new house, new job, school, family and friends have kept me more than busy.

It hasn't been an entire year without gaming though.  I've managed to play a few scenarios using Modern Naval Battles Global Warfare and tried a set of WWII submarine war-game rules.  I took good notes to turn into nice write-ups.

I also made 2 key acquisitions.  I bought Modern Naval Battles Global Warfare Campaign Expansion.  This looks like a great set of rules.  The new ship cards and ability to incorporate land based assets and targets into the games looks interesting.  I also bought Star Wars X-Wing.  I'm a huge Star Wars fan, and although the miniatures are a tad on the expensive side, this looks like a simple, fun game.  I hope to play this one soon.

So there you have it.  More to following the next few days.

School's Out!!

Yep, school is done.  And will be done for awhile.  Education is important and is always a good thing, but I reached the point where I just didn't care about it anymore.  That's the signal that it's time for a break.

We've just moved into a new house and I'm working a new job.  I have plenty of war game projects too, so there's plenty to do.

More to follow soon.

A step forward in technology

Today, I joined the ranks of iPad users! This is really just a test message using it to update the blog.

I've also started my last semester at NDU and am moving again thanks to the US Army. More to follow in July!!

Falkland Express: A Modern Naval Battles Global Warfare Scenario

(February 21, 2012)

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Scenario: "During the Falkland Islands war, the British Fleet ran desperately low on spare parts to keep their carrier-based Harrier jump-jets operational. A fleet supply ship was quickly loaded, met up with an escort, and sailed to the war zone at top speed." (Verssen, n.d. p.9)

Forces:

• United Kingdom Fleet - HMS Broadsword and Military Non-Combatant (supply ship)
• Argentina Fleet - ARA Hercules

Special Rules:

• Game lasts 3 rounds.
• Neither side can bring reinforcements.
• Neither side can use Air Strikes.

Victory Conditions:

• Argentina wins if it sinks the Military Non-Combatant.
• UK wins if the Military Non-Combatant remains afloat.

Game 1- This was the first time playing Modern Naval Battles Global Warfare, so this was a test game. I played it solo just to get used to the rules. It was an interesting, but the scenario rules really limited each side's actions. The Argentina Destroyer, ARA Hercules, only has the ability for gun combat.  In this game. it never got off an offensive shot because it didn't draw a Gun Combat action card. It did successfully fend off 3 SSM attacks by the UK Frigate HMS Broadsword. The merchant ship remained afloat after 3 turns so it was a UK victory.

Game 2- I decided to replay the scenario. Again, I played it solo. The Broadsword was the first to act and engaged the Hercules with a SSM attack. The Hercules failed to defend against the attack, was hit and sunk. A very quick game.

Game 3- I played this scenario again, only this time it was a two player game. I played Argentina and acted first. I played a gun combat card and the UK had no organic or defense through an action card. The Broadsword was damaged and took 2 hits. My son played the Broadsword and launched a SSM attack against the Hercules. The Hercules failed its roll for defense and took 3 hits of damage sinking the ship. Another bad result for Argentina!

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References:
Veressen, D. (2008). Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare Rulebook. DVG. Retrieved February 21, 2012 from
http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/mnbrules.pdf

Test Drive - Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare

I received the game Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare as a Christmas gift and finally was able to give it a test run today.  I only played one scenario, but I think that this game is very good overall.  It is a card-based game, not a miniatures game.  It may seem strange that a card game gets a spot on a miniature wargame blog.  Thanks to the long range and speed of modern aircraft, missiles, and torpedoes, simulating modern naval combat on a tabletop is just not practical.  And this was the first real day off that I've had since starting school again, so this is really all I have to write about right now! 

I can't speak to how accurately this game simulates modern naval warfare since my background is with the Army.  The rules were simple and easy to learn.  The game also seems to play fast.  The test games that I played were all complete in 30 minutes or less.  Perfect for those of us with limited hobby time!

A write up will follow soon.

Here's a link for more information from DVG's site: http://www.dvg.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/49/Modern%20Naval%20Battles%20-%20Global%20Warfare

And for even more information, a pdf version of the rules can be found here: http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/mnbrules.pdf

There's even a sample scenario and AAR here: http://images.dvg.com/www.dvg.com/mnb-gwscenarios.pdf

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

There's a lot coming up this year.  I found out that I'm being reassigned again this summer, so we're moving back to Maryland.  We still have friends there so we're very excited to be moving back. 

2012 will certainly be as busy as 2011!

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.