Been Quiet Lately

Sorry, I haven’t posted in quite a while. Been busy but have not taken the time to post :(. I will work on gettting some drafts finsihed and posted and some pics put up in the very near future.

Posted on February 21st, 2008 by bching

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Twilight Struggle

I have been wanting to play GMT’s Twilight Struggle for some time now and finally got a chance this past MLK Day with Scott and his wife at PSC. After a brief but fairly thorough introduction, Scott and I went after it with me playing the Russians and Scott as the U.S. The card driven mechanics of the game provides some degree of unpredictability while maintaining the flavor of the period. Having grown up during the Cold War era, it was interesting to reflect back on some of the events that occur during the game.

The game play boils down to exerting influence in various countries around the world with key battlefield countries counting for more than other less significant, but still important countries. Influence can be placed using card ‘points’ or through coups and realignment attempts. The space race and nuclear war are both represented in the game. As the Russians, I kept the Defcon status pretty close to nuclear war to prevent coups attempts by the U.S.

After a bit of sparring, Scott’s wife (who took over for Scott when he went on baby duty) started putting the hammer to the Russians. Unfortunately, a couple of bad card rounds for the U.S. and a good round for the Russians, gave the Russians a victory. In that universe, everyone was speaking Russian :).

It was good to finally get a chance to play Twilight Struggle. As mentioned previously, I like card driven games, especially with simple mechanics and good depth of play. TS gives a good feel for the Cold War era and being card driven, the replayability is good.

Thanks to Scott and his wife (sorry, I am bad with names) for a fun game.

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by bching

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Wolfkreig Rocked!

Well, that was the general concensus, anyway. PSC had 47 players from KS, OH, MS, AL, GA, IN and parts in between with some of the more prominent names from the U.S. FoW scene in attendence. Tom did an outstanding job on running the tournament and Rick and Jeannie were wonderful hosts.

I had 4 great games. I am not very good at keeping track of details so I do not have any AAR. In the future, I hope to capture some games and opponents on film to post here. Instead you can get the results and some pics here http://battlevault.com/Events/Wolfkrieg-08 Flames of War/WK-08 Final Standings.htm

I do have to say that the competition, sportsmanship, painting and terrain were excellent! The nicely painted armies and equally nice terrain even pushed some bystanders off the fence and got them excited about FoW (isn’t that right, Aaron?). I can see the FoW following growing in Louisville in the very near future.

Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by bching

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Almost Done!

The Cassino board is almost finished. Just need to add some scrub brush. I think the board came out a bit too light for my taste. in the future, I will probably go back and add a wash, and detail out the creek bed with some reeds and maybe some water.

A view of the monastary from the village.

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More village….

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Even more village w/ a view of the winding road.

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A view of the village from the monastary tower.

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Another view of the village from the monastary tower.

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Posted on January 16th, 2008 by bching

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Boardgame SUN at PSC

The first boardgame SUN was held at PSC yesterday. We had 30+ gamers (not including the Pokemon kiddos) playing all different kinds of games. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera or get around to see exactly what was being played. I know there was some Battlelore, Axis and Allies (yes, it does have a board :) ) and Tannhauser. Apologies to all for not getting more details.

I played a very enjoyable game of Bonaparte at Marengo with Scott. BaM is a block game with interesting mechanics. Once players familiarize themselves with the move and combat resolution details, the game opens up very subtle strategy and tactics. I can see alot of depth in the game strategy.

My game with Scott ended in a close victory with either side having a chance to win in the last turn. I made a game breaking mistake in the last turn. Unfortunately, Scott also left himself open to the winning move and that turned the tide for the Austrians.

BaM is a great game. Hopefully, I can find a copy somewhere as it is now OOP.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by bching

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Mad Painting Spree

Having switched to the RM Commandos for the upcoming FoW tournament at the last minute has spurred a mad painting spree. That, and finishing up the Cassino terrain board has kept me busy. I will post pics of the commandos and the finished Cassino board in the next day or so. Whew! Nothing like a deadline to get my paint brush moving :)

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by bching

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Quick Cassino Board Update

Here’s a quick view of the progress on the Cassino board. It is taking a bit longer to finish as I have to wait a day for each step to dry. I ended up using tile grout/adhesive to texture the foam board. The pic shows a few details ie the road to the monastary and the creek bed running down the center of the board.

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Posted on January 11th, 2008 by bching

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Working on reducing image sizes…

A friend pointed out that the page seems to load very slowly due to the image sizes. I am working on reducing the image sizes as we speak and hopefully that will improve performance. I am testing reduced size images in the latest Cassino Board images.

Posted on January 9th, 2008 by bching

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Cassino Board Update (01/09/08)

Here’s a quick update on the progress of the Cassino Board. I have added hills and attempted to smooth out the contours using vinyl spackle. The spackle seems to be chipping off in places. I think this is due to the smooth pink foam surface (I did remember to peel the plastic off the foam :D ). I am going to try to sand the foam a bit and maybe use thinset to see if has better adhesion. I still need to texture the flat areas on the board and add a few details. then, it will be painting time. I still think I am on track to finish by this weekend.

Enjoy!

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Posted on January 9th, 2008 by bching

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Wolfkrieg Project(s) Update 01/06/08

I had a chance to playtest the two possible lists under consideration for the tournament. The first list was a Russian Rota Razvedki list with 2 ATPs, a bunch of T-34s, SU 85s, armoured cars and SU 57s. I do like the T-34s and SU 85s and the flamethrowers in the ATPs can be a nasty surprise for the unsuspecting. The list has merits and looks to be fun to play, but I think I am going to need a bit more time to get a better feel for how it all works together.

The Royal Marine Commandos are also a fun list to play. Gotta love FV and NGFS :D. Commandos in assaults are pretty awesome, but I can see I need to shephard the platoons carefully as they advance into contact. Still tweaking the support options but I think the RMs are the list I will be taking to the tournament. Better get to painting!

Posted on January 6th, 2008 by bching

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