Friday, August 19, 2016

Gathering of the Clan (4): WWII goodness

A gathering of gentlemen and various bottles of vino last evening in the Oromocto Gaming Emporium saw the break out of all of our urban terrain to produce a massive town with bisecting canal. I've included below a host of eye candy...



















Gathering of the Clan (3): gimme shelter (trees abound)

Throughout the week of gaming in the wilds of New Brunswick, eldest offspring Michael has been slaving away at producing new trees for the group. We had prepared before leaving the centre of the universe (Ontario) by purchasing various bags of Woodland Scenics tree armatures and clump foliage. The plan was (and is) to create new trees to be split between all of us (Michael, Daniel, Phil and me). Phil had also purchased a number of armatures to add to the pile. Unfortunately, Michael was stuck with most of the work and a lot of work he's done!


Armatures glued to their bases (and this isn't even all of them). 
What you don't see here is the work Michael went through beforehand: 1) dipping the armatures in boiling water to spread out the branches; 2) cutting out all the bases from mdf; 3) bevelling all the base edges with an orbital sander. 

The result of the sanding :)

Trees and bases primed dark brown.

Armatures dry-brushed (another mindless and long process) and the flocking has begun. This involves much super glue and boundless patience. In the background can be seen various trees with flocking completed. Of course, once this is complete for all the armatures, the bases need to be terrained and flocked. This is a massive operation and many kudos to the eldest spawn but these are gonna look awesome and seriously upgrade our tables.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Gathering of the Clan (2): a bit of tanking

Not a gaming post per se, but couldn't resist posting some pics from a little excursion onto CFB Gagetown, organized graciously by Captain James Brown. James took us for a little tour of his garage. Most people have boring little cars in their garage... not so Captain Brown. In his massive garage sit various models of Leopard 2 tanks that are part of his training squadron (he has one of the coolest jobs in the military). Michael and I spent an entertaining sojourn clambering over (and in) the tanks. 

Yours truly on the left with eldest Royal Canadian Air Force son Michael on the right... oh, and a massive Leopard 2A6M lurking behind (not sure if that's the correct designation...I'm not a tread-head).

Michael on then left and James to the right in front of a LAVIII (?).

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Gathering of the Clan: a gaming week in the wilds of New Brunswick

This past weekend, Michael and I made the 12 hour drive to the town of Oromocto and adjacent CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick for a week of relaxation and gaming with Captain Dan (of Red Over Blue) and various other adopted military sons (Phil and James particularly). Sunday started with a playtest of Michael's soon-to-be released naval warfare rules using my WWI collection. Sadly, no photos of that game (and to be honest, photos of WWI naval games aren't particularly engrossing). Sunday evening saw a Sharp Practice game with the ImagiNations collection. Again, no photos...sigh. Both events were quite satisfying.

Last evening, after a delicious dinner provided graciously by Mrs Captain Dan, we adjourned to Captain Dan's new gaming bunker (with swanky new 8' x 6' table) for a gentlemanly contest of wills using Black Powder. Arrayed upon the table was the entire ImagiNation collection for the first time since... ????

Nothing particularly inventive in the game set up (as I was repeatedly reminded), this was an opportunity to push around some brightly-coloured toys, partake of some Domaine Lafaivre (Phil's home-made wine... and quite lovely it is too), and indulge in pleasant and scintillating conversation (OK, that last one is a bit of an exaggeration).

On to some photos.... (blurry as they are from various phone cameras)

Gourmandie deployed on the left (commanded by Captain Dan) with their allies, the forces of Libagioni (under Phil's watchful eye) in the fortified town on the left flank; the might of KaiserReich on the right of the photo (commanded jointly by Michael and James).

The left flank of the KaiserReich army; Freikorps Radeburger anchoring the flank. The lancers of this Freikrops would do some serious damage to the Gourmandie right flank.

Initial set up of the Gourmandie right flank with the heavy cavalry of the Grenadiers a Cheval Boursin to the fore. These troopers performed as expected and quit the field before even once crossing swords with the enemy (note: this is one of, if not the most, powerful units in the entire collection and they have a distressing habit of blundering or otherwise performing ingloriously... methinks they deserve a demotion).

Frontal view of the KaiserReich deployment; infantry to the fore and heavy cavalry supporting.

Another view of the initial deployments. To the bottom left can be seen the Grand Duke and his accompanying musical sextet. And why not?

KaiserReich regular infantry on the advance. Libagioni cavalry are seen at the top left charging towards the infantry line. Foolhardy? Perhaps but these cavalry have Terrifying Charge and Bloodthirsty.

Gourmandie infantry advance from their defensive positions (with Libagioni help to the left flank).

Although outnumbered by at least 1.5 to 1 and faced with attacking a force that was partially ensconced in a fortified town, Michael and James were able to eke out a draw with their KaiserReich army. In fact, at the beginning of the game, they declared that destroying the Gourmanide grenadiers and the heavy cavalry would be used as a personal benchmark of their success. As it turned out, they were wholly successful in those goals (although routing the heavy cavalry had more to do with Daniel's abysmal die rolls than with actually destroying  them).

Tonight will see Michael's new naval rules used with Captain Dan's new Falklands War collection.