On The Road: Episode 8: Cold Wars 2017

Episode 8: Live from Cold Wars 2017

Huge podcast from the "Roadies".... Mitch and Sean head to Lancaster PA for Cold Wars 2017. A very jammed packed episode since we had so much to talk about!

• We speak to the Flames of War crowd about Version 4 that came out the week before. 
• Sean and Jesse Sheaffer do a quick AAR after playing V4
• We speak to the folks who played Secret Hitler with us! 
• After Friday's FoW doubles event we speak to some of the folks we played
• In the last segment Sean "Blitz Move" Sarah gets in berzerker mode as we hold a "Live" podcast at Cold Wars featuring the guys from Dice Devils and of course the Best's, the father/son team who are huge friends of the the show

Twitter: @MitchWWPD
Mail: WWPDMitch@gmail.com

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On the Road Episode 4

Recorded 10 December 2016

In this episode the guys go to the Game Vault in Fredericksburg Virginia  to play in a Battle of the Bulge themed Flames of War tournament.

Once again we talk to the gamers who showed up and were able to finally meet up with fellow WWPD contributor Tom Burgess who sat down with the guys. 

Sean and Mitch talk about Flames of War and Team Yankee with the crowd, discuss Napoleonic's with the most passionate gamer ever, and get a behind the scenes exclusive of the very competitive Best residence when they sit down and talk to Jim Best Junior and Senior.

Contact us at
WWPDMitch@gmail.com
Twitter @MitchWWPD

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Pardon my French, British vs French, Napoleonics, Black Powder rules

"One does not simply walk into Mordor Portugal" Sean Bean, Sharpe's Rifles.

Below, we have an 8 foot by 6 foot table, with new cloth gaming mats from http://cigarboxbattlestore.bigcartel.com/, for a rousing game of Napoleonics.   My French with foreign allies vs Scott's British.  We have been using Warlord Games' Black Powder rule set (written by a bunch of ex-GW guys) an unlike almost every other block-unit game I have ever played,  the mobility is HUGE in Black Powder, so we are starting with nothing on the board, except each unit touching the board edge, if they rolled a 4+ to deploy.  If you click the below picture you will see I only got 4 units out of 11 while he got 9 out of 11!  He also rolled to get first turn....

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Meeting Your Waterloo with “Blücher”

”It is an amazing thing when you bring together good friends, a beautifully detailed 8’ x 12’ terrain board, thousands of awesome looking 15mm miniatures, and a great set of wargame rules to tie them all together to play out one of the most iconic battles in history. That’s what happened when a group of Kentucky wargamers refought the battle, the full battle, of Waterloo in commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the historic battle.

The Waterloo Battlefield in 8' x 12' glory!

The host for this event was Mike Pfanenstiel, perhaps the most prolific wargamer in the state of Kentucky. Mike had built an amazingly detailed and massive wargame board of the Waterloo battlefield and populated that board with over 4000 15mm Napoleonic Miniatures in 91 different units. It was a splendid visual spectacle, even before dice began to roll.  We are truly blessed to have a wargamer like Mike as part of our group!

The French are ready to commence the assault!

To relive this most famous of battles, we used “Blücher” by Sam Mustafa as our rules sets (See my previous rules review). Coincidently, Mike was the lead for the Kentucky playtest group for this rules sets. Mike Pike was is main sparring opponent for these playtest efforts with some lesser support from me in the earlier stages. It was great having a lot of playtester experience going into this game, but really the rules are so easy and straight forward that our two new “Blücher” players, Don Blevins and Charles McKellar had no issue jumping right in a full up Waterloo as their first experience with these rules.

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Blücher - A Napoleonic Rules Review

By Tom Burgess

Napoleonics…it’s where war gaming all stared for me. When I was eight years old I had a friend whose father was a Napoleonic wargamer. I was instantly hooked when I first saw the Napoleonics collection and a Waterloo table that he had. I then convinced my father to buy me some figures, which even he painted the first dozen of for me. From that point forward I had always had a great affinity for Napoleonic history and wargaming.

It’s been over four decades since then. In that time I've played well over a dozen rule sets in the never ending quest for the perfect rule set and, along the way, often settling for popular rules sets just to get games in.  These normally fell short for me because I wanted to play full battles like Waterloo, in which scales and game detail made that goal unattainable for most rules sets. Some came close. I even tried to design my own set once, but none really got that balance of playability with the “Grand Tactical” perspective I wanted.  Then Sam Mustafa published “Blücher.”

Now I have to give a bit of disclaimer here. I was playtester for “Blücher” in its earlier days, but eventually I dropped out of that effort as I kind of felt left behind by the vast number of revisions and different directions the earlier versions went in. It’s really tough keeping up with Sam in play testing! Nonetheless, I still bought the Blücher rules and the 100 Days Card Pack when they were released.  After playing a few smaller games to get familiarized with the rules, I really began to regret having dropped out of play testing. But when our gaming group refought the entire battle of Waterloo with five players in about eight hours, I knew for certain that it was big mistake to drop out of the process that resulted in this incredible rule set. 

    Massed French formations approach still "hidden" allied defenders in a 1814 battle

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Napoleon at War; with Blucher and Wellington too! A Review!

By Mitch Reed

Some may be shocked to find that I do play games other than Flames of War -- before FoW I was really into playing with 1/2400 Dreadnoughts, your occasional board war-game, and now I am in love with Star Wars Armada (like everyone else). One of the games I have gotten into over the last year is Napoleon at War, which recreates the fighting in Europe from 1805-1815. 

Why Napoleonics?  I have to admit it’s not a subject I spend much time reading about or that I have more than a casual interest in.  However, in the words of the very wise Tim Grimmett “Napoleonics is like going back to the roots of the hobby”, a truer statement than this would be hard to make.  If we were to teleport back a few decades and attend a gaming event we would see the Napoleonic period stealing the show. In fact, I have always noticed tables of gamers pushing around beautifully painted soldiers in straight lines.

My British forces about to be attacked by Chris Corman's French

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Napoleonic Battle French vs. Prussians - General de Brigade rules

By Joe Moore and Eric Lauterbach

 Friday we got together and played the General de Brigade rules for Napoleonics in 15mm with French and Prussians.  Joe's figures are painted for the 1813-1815 period and we conducted a French positional defense of a crossroads against a Prussian attack.  The French had a mix of four infantry battalions, two artillery batteries and two cavalry regiments in two brigades, and the Prussians had six infantry battalions of varying quality from line through Landwehr, two artillery batteries and two squadrons of light horse.

GdB is organized at the battalion/squadron/battery level.  Infantry battalions usually have between 24 and 40 figures to the unit, while cavalry squadrons are anywhere from 12-48 figures in size.  Gun sections are represented by a gun representing two actual field pieces.  Units are given orders to assault, engage, hold, or withdraw (among others) and can only perform certain things within the confines of their orders.  Commanders are represented and affect morale, melee, and orders change.  The sequence of play is determine initiative, conduct compulsory moves from last turn (retreats/routs for example),change orders, declare charges, move fire, melee, and check morale. Since the rules are fairly new to us we decided on a meeting engagement to give it good test. The French are moving down the road when the Prussians show up to cut the road and take the village.

Prussian Lancers

The Prussain Infantry

Attack of the Band uniforms!  French in overcoats the only way to go.

The French Cavalry return to the village when the Prussians arrive.

The French at the end of the column.

The French army strung out on the road.

Oh.. no the Prussians are attacking!

The Prussians advance to cut the road.

French Battalion

Turn one the French move the cavalry 

Long range cannon and musket fire.

The French foot artllery batteries deploy

Horse battery continues its long range fire killing a few.

As the Prussians advance the French Dragoons and Hussars prepare to charge.

Prussians advance.

Landwehr Uber Alles!!

You cannot stop men who wish to be free!! Advance!!

French Horse Battery softening them up.

The Prussians advance and fire.

The landwehr wisely go to square.

The Musketeers Battalion fail their form square roll this could be bad.

The Dragoons charge home!

The battle is desperate

The Prussians shoot a few horsemen on the way in.

The Prussians press the attack on the village.

The Prussian Battalion is crushed by the Cavalry

The infantry is ridden down.

The Dragoons are well handled and obey the recall order...the Hussars not so much as they continue into a square.

The Prussian squares hold.

The Prussian infantry attack is getting hot for the French

The French are outflanked and a Battalion breaks off and runs.

Prussian Lancers attack a French square

The Lancers bounce.

With Lancers about to charge the guns the gunners seek shelter in the square.

Prussians press the village hard.

French Hussars battle the square to no avail.

French attack column counter-attacks.

The Lancers charge again!

The lines are getting confused 

The French seam to be holding.

The Prussian attack has been pushed back.

The Prussians fall back to regroup.

The Prussian attack was slowed by artillery fire and cavalry charges that stalled their left wing advance, and on the right a lone French legere battalion that went into square stymied the efforts of two squadrons of light cavalry. But the cavalry did manage to silence a French gun battery that found protection within the square.  Prussian losses mounted to the point where further attacks were pointless, but the French defenders had likewise been worn heavily by the engagement.

The rules feel right for the period and have a fairly intuitive aspect that makes them relatively easy to apply.  A single person can handle about a brigade of troops given the need for orders and the number of figures to be move turn to turn.  It's a good system.

Big thanks to Joe Moore for all his beautiful figures and showing me how to play!

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