Age of Reason



It has been a long while since I had dealt with all the aspects of the Age of Reason rules and I wanted to run through them again before going into more troops actions or more complicated terrains.



So my eldest son had been asking me to get into a game ... today was an opportunity.

The new matchstick armies got their first field test and Alex got to learn all about using cavalry in the center of a Horse & Musket battlefield.

He started with them in the center of his formation, unhappy that he could not deploy the infantry even further to the flanks...

I chose to concentrate on my right and give a refused left wing.

The Cavalry choices got worse as he split them into columns just as my guns got into range. BOOM down went 1/3 of a squadron.



Further advances with the same cavalry came with a snap decision to charge at the same time as my right wing got close to his infantry.

My wing went into charge, then his infantry made it into square with a good roll. Sadly his cavalry was even further away than mine was and the charge fell short, leaving the horsemen disordered and within musket range...




It was at this point that Alex chose to depart the game, having an offer to go play outside in the sunshine. I think he also understands SHAKO better now and the rules shift caused some confusion. I pressed on to see what final results could be got.



The red forces (simulating France in the 7 Years War period), did not fare so well. A musket exchange went equal, except that the Red Army command was attached and suffered a wound, not critical but he did have to retire from the engagement. Then the charge failed to go, leaving the men disordered in the face of my ordered regulars. Not a total turning point for certain and the outcome was really no longer in doubt as the blue (simulating Prussia during 7 Years War) cavalry was now round the red flank and ready to pounce on the routed militia and disordered and wounded square on the far left of the Red lines.

Certainly a good first outing for these tiny troops.

Matchstick ARMIES



After a couple of weeks, part of the time searching out my painting materials again, I have put in a whole 4 hours painting.



$2 worth of matchsticks and maybe $2 worth of glue, left over base coat and cut up cereal boxes, micro amounts of paint (less than might go on one 12 man unit of 25mm guys). Some left over craft paper flags finishes them off.



One of the neatest parts of such little troops, three armies will fit into ONE box!



Now I shall get into the 'nitty gritty' of Age of Reason and see what results...

See all about these troops and other exploits on The Duchy of Mieczyslaw

Return to the tabletop



A planned return to the tabletop gets into gear this week.

First to recover the table and gear (stored away for a while ... yes you may have noticed the lack of postings here), that process starts tomorrow.

With my renewed interest in things 6mm, I have taken a page from The Old Dessauer and spent a whopping $2 for a box of long matches for fireplace lighting, cleaned them up and glued them into the shapes required.

I have now only a bit of quick painting to do then I can start on the game table process to see what that focus and flow brings.

Plans are to expand the tales from The Duchy of Mieczyslaw to bring them into the 18th Century ...

Within another few weeks I may also have out the rest of the minis to get back into action on the Tricorne front (much to Jeff's delight I am sure).

Rules Study

Been away from the tabletop for some time now, looking at gathering back up some of my games materials and putting in some tabletop games.

While waiting I have been exploring the world of 6mm Napoleonic and Horse & Musket eras and rules sets for those games.

So far I have found at least 6 free sets and some reviews of the Polemos system.

Question for readers, have any of you used any good systems that you would recommend?

Colonial Game Plan

Jeff has setup some Colonial fun with his own metal.



I have agreed to take on a command in the campaign plan, seen above.

Check out more at Colonel Hud's blog.

Nothing Small



While not as impressive an article as may have been printed of Featherstone et al. I have my own moment in the press of my day.

This image, and others from the recent Trumpeter Salute 2011 convention are on the Burnaby Now website.

Matchstick Armies

The Old Dessauer has done a great job again of expanding on the posting regarding his matchstick troops.

I go into this subject as I have played in a fun re-fight of Minden, where some 12mm? 10mm? and 15mm miniatures were used to great effect.

It got me again thinking of the mass battles effect that can be had with such forces.

Moreover the cost factor is really good.

What are your thoughts about such quick use armies?

TRUMPETER SALUTE 2011
Convention in Review

A review from my attendance at the April 1-2-3 event.

Overall I'd rate the event a 7/10 on my games convention scale.

I spent most of the Friday night, April 1 doing a lot of 'catch-up' with the lower mainland of BC tabletop game players. Many of whom had also not come to a Salute event for a few years also. I even managed to connect with a few Vancouver Island players, including a new one that lives not far south of me here.

I was with my sons in the event, so I was careful to monitor them as they got into games and made connections with the adults in the game play atmosphere.

Now some visuals:




On Friday there was a best of session game run by Colin Upton, using a modified Sword and the Flame and his own 'flavor'.







I counted 6 players and at one point there must have been 20 crowded around the table.



My boys were attracted to the LEGO and Canvas Eagles WWI aerial combats.







Also going on during the Friday were WWII games (there were a lot of these at the event - much more than I have ever seen before), including a Squad Leader looking one...sadly the GM was not to be found.








John Westra was also doing his WWII fighters in "Check you Six".





Saturday brought a new set of tabletop opportunities.

The boys got into Star Wars minis battles (using the plastic ones) and more Lego.

I did a skirmish game with Doug Hamm, of Larry Leadhead fame, and his innovative approach to using cards as part of the movement system brought a new set of ideas for me in skirmish action games.

Then came the 'main event' Battle of the Piave River using SHAKO II rules with Chris Leach in attendance to give some rules clarifications.








Having been a player in Shako before (not version 2) I was tasked at Eugene de Beauharnais, commanding the Army of Italy. The combination of great painted minis, well done terrain and really good sportsmanship on the part of everyone involved led to a "BEST of SESSION" award for the game. The added bonus of commanding a French Victory helped my spirits.


Here is the Austrian final position as seen from Macdonald's HQ


Here is the Italian-French position as seen from Eugene's HQ


Part of the bonus I did get in a game with Colin Upton for the first time!



As a team on a winning side!

Saturday wrapped up for me with an Age of Reason rule re-fight of Minden. Amazingly enough I got tasked to the French side again teamed up with Colin Upton.

It took me a bit of review to get the rules clear again on AoR, once I had it clear we saw the best way to setup and got another victory as the British player chose to come forward with only 1/3 of his cavalry and I sent ALL of the French Cavalry after it. The British horse was routed, then the close combats got bogged down with infantry. No action on the part of the Prussians could change the result... their right flank was gone and French horse was ready to unleash behind the main Prussian lines.

Sunday brought a lighter crowd and I had my SHAKO game, a small action decided by the players as neither had ever played before. I had them roll for terrain and layed out the tabletop accordingly.

Some British and Spanish vs French in the peninsula.




With a very aggressive plan the French Player essentially RAN straight at the British lines. Their cavalry appeared on the flank as planned and cut down the British Light Dragoons, sadly the French chose to approach in columns and this cost dearly as the Royal Foot Artillery blew away one battalion and one more collapsed under the combined weight of fire from British Foot and a bayonet charge into the fresh British lines. The French cause was lost and they would soon be in retreat.

The game was excellent for demonstrating how fast from set up to conclusion of action a simple game could be. We were done in 2 hrs 15 mins.

Just as we completed a reporter from the Burnaby Now arrived and did a series of photos ... I plan to show links to them once I find out where they are.

I then did a Shako discussion with a curious gamer to show how simple the overall system was, took about 20 mins to do that in the process of saying the farewells.



Colin Upton won the best of session with this Ticonderoga, using Age of Reason, game. Followed swiftly by the announcement of Colin Upton winning the BEST OF SHOW for his two session winning games! Well done Colin!

The cap off to the day was winning a draw prize and a table host draw prize!


A few vendors were present, most notable was Imperial Hobbies.



The canteen crew were fabulous.


Much fun had by all!

Convention Game decided.

I shall take my SHAKO troops to the tabletop at Salute this year.

I am prepared to bring the Action of Sabugal to the event on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of this battle, which led to the final expulsion from Portugal of the invading Imperial French armies.

I am certain that I have the troops needed and plan to bring extras so as to, potentially, layout a meeting engagement also.

I go to gather these troops this coming Monday and may be able to put a photo or two of them on here before traveling to Vancouver and joining with the other Historical and tabletop miniatures fans at the Trumpeter Salute Convention.

Convention consternation.

I find myself torn between a local games event and a more distant larger *miniatures* focused games event.

For the local one, I could easily attend, take my children and count on having a few good conversations. There would be no historical miniatures games to play unless I set them up. Were I to do that I could not count on any players unless I convinced them to come to the event.

For the more distant one, I have now learned I can get the transportation, I have the accommodation for the many days of the event ~ I am even likely to be able to bring all my boys to it. I have now seen the games listed for the event ... not much to draw my interest at the moment.

My torn position is I could be interested in doing a game at the more distant event, yet this event has no incentive beyond the personal pleasure of putting on a game. While the more local one has *free* entrance for those game masters who put on events that other players can take part in - thus increasing the attendance *fun factor*. The game master scheduler for the larger more distant event has even made a recent email appeal to get more games put on ... yet still no incentive.

My question to you, the interested Convention Game Master and or Player:

Would you like MORE game event options, or at least a full slate of them, at a game Convention and would you be willing to pay to play ~knowing~ that the game host that brought all the minis and terrain and essentially put on the game got into the event *free*?

Do you think that all attendees, either players or GM's must all pay to be present in a Convention setting?

Back to the Tabletop

There has been some time since I have put any effort into setting up a tabletop game.

Now I find I am itching to move into a set of them at the coming Salute Convention in April 2011.

I am looking at a Naval action, the Battle of Lissa and a Campaign setup with the principle ending of the Battle of Albuera. Luckily I can also go for a straight up tabletop game using a scenario by Rafael Pardo.

Have any of the readers done Napoleonic Battles in the Peninsula?

How about smaller sail actions from the Adriatic?

What are the experiences?