Risk Figures, Wood Squares, Cigar Boxes, and a Bottle of Wine.

      It's been over a month since my last wargame.  I have also been working overtime so haven't  had time for working on games.  However, it did give me time to think of some new ideas for my solo games.

     In the most recent issue of LONE WARRIOR, one article talks of using meeples to activate units. Meeples are man shaped tokens used for board games. Basically there would be a meeple for each unit.  Instead of the usual ugo-igo,  whatever color meeple was drawn gets to move. There is also an odd colored meeple, which, when drawn, ends the turn. I have used a similar idea with playing cards, but never being good at shuffling cards, this tended to be a disappointment. I couldn't find meeples, but I did find wood square to use instead.  I marked them as infantry, light infantry, cavalry, and artillery. For this wargame, I flipped the squares over and randomly picked 7 units for each army.  After picking each army, once again I mixed the squares up and randomly placed them on the back line of the battlefield. For this game I used the board with no terrain. This also gave me a chance to use my Risk Europe figures.   After turning over the squares and placing the figures on the board, the squares were placed in a deep cigar box with an odd colored square added to indicate the end of the turn.

     Before I go on, a side note. My wife unfortunately smokes. We have been going to a cigar shop to buy her cigarettes. The shop we go to leaves the old cigar boxes in the corner  for customers to take. If you buy something he lets you take them for free. If you just come in for the boxes, he charges $2.00 per box. The money he collects on the boxes he donates to a retired police K9 charity, so I will usually still give him $2.00 a box. I started collecting these with the hope of getting foam rubber and boxing up my semi flat figures.

   Quite simply, I start drawing squares out of the box; whatever color & unit symbol moves. Once the odd color is drawn, the turn ends and the squares go back in the box. Now, it's been a long month for me and the wife worked late last night so I decided to have a couple of glasses of wine. Once the game started, the wine started to flow.  So instead of trying to give a blow by blow, as the game got quite confusing, I will let the photos show the action.

The red army at the top. They had no cavalry, but did have a catapult. The blue army at the bottom.

Another shot looking down the blue line.

After a few squares had been drawn. The squares marked "LT" were archers.

The red army draws an artillery square. The catapult causes one cavalry unit to retreat.

This is at the end of the first move. The yellow square ends the turn.

At this point I started marking moved units with arrows, so I would remember who had moved already.

Blue archers move forward and fire at a red archer unit, forcing them to retreat two hexes. Yellow arrows show retreats.

This is an overview shot at the end of turn 2. The red army didn't get to move many units, and suffered 4 killed.

Another shot of the photo above.

Turn 3. Only one unit moved.

A red unit forces a blue unit to retreat and goes in pursuit. The blue army takes the opportunity to cut this unit off.

End of turn 4. 

Blue army tries to eliminate the trapped red unit, who lose 50%.  The red unit uses its' turn to retreat. I am using BATTLELORE rules. Being a "blue unit" by BATTLELORE rules, it can either move two spaces or move one space and battle. It chooses to use its' complete movement.

An above view of the battlefield. At this point it becomes obvious that the battle is getting quite confusing, especially if you are drinking and gaming!

The blue army becomes obsessed with the trapped infantry unit.

The red army counterattacks.

The red army wipes out a unit of blue archers; the blue cavalry overruns a red archer unit. What's more, it closes in on the red army headquarters. 

Next turn the blue army draws a cavalry square right away. If the red army can drive them out of the camp, the battle will go on.

At this point the blue army has eliminated 4 red units; the red army has suffered over 50% causalities, and so have lost the battle.

I was happy with this system of movement, although a couple of times I forgot to remove a square after the unit was eliminated.  I am thinking of using squares to randomly place terrain on the field, although I haven't quite worked that out. Of course, I could always get more squares, enough for each hex.

Some of the cigar boxes, which I hope will be put to good use protecting more fragile war-game figures.

New old books

I finally went through the box of books that I had picked up at a used book sale at a local library. Besides a couple of books that were non military, below are military books purchased.

This book is really interesting. Besides the obvious combat troops, it give all support units.

Among the units that served in Vietnam, was the 67th Evacuation Hospital, which was the unit my father served in during WW2.

Chris Platt mentioned in my last post that he would like to see my collection of books. I must admit it would be a fun project; I was looking in my bookcases and didn't realize how many military books I have.

Risk Europe Game

         Since coming back from vacation, I have had little time for gaming. In fact,, I  just haven't been interested in gaming in the last few weeks. I also have been working overtime to make up some of money spent on vacation.

        For some reason Saturday I woke up and started thinking of RISK EUROPE. This newest version has 4 different Medieval armies. What's different from other Risk games in that instead of having the same figures in different colors, this game actually have four armies, each with different figures. I went out and bought a copy of the game.

        Of course I bought the game for the figures.  Each army comes with 25 infantrymen, 12 archers, 12 cavalry and 4 siege engines. There are enough figures in each army to make up 4 BATTLELORE armies consisting of 6 infantry units, with one spare figure, 3 archer units, and 4 cavalry units.

The Red Army, which looks like the are based on the Russian  army.  They are armed with catapults. The siege weapons are  used in the game to capture castles

The green army looks like they're French. Their siege engine is a ballista.

The blue army is based on Scandinavian warriors. The best siege weapon of all; the battering ram. The cavalry man has horns on their helmets and capes that look like furs.

My personal favorites; the purple army that looks like Ottoman Turks. Their siege weapon is a trebuchet.

The RISK figure compare to a Peter Laing figure on the left, and an Airfix figure on the right.

These figures would be perfect for someone who wants to get into Medieval wargaming cheaply.  These figures might be used in a future Hyborian campaign.

More Airfix ACW Infantry and New Books

     My wife and I are leaving for one final camping trip this week. Since returning from New York last week,  I have little to report on my gaming. Try as I may, I just haven't got a game in. I did manage to start repainting my Peter Laing WW2 British infantry.
   On Ebay I found a collection of 56  Airfix Confederates in the marching pose; my personal favorite. As a bonus, they were in an original box.  I also bought 9 books  from the series "The Uniforms of the British Yeomanry Force 1794-1914.  If only I had these books before painting so many of my Peter Laing cavalry!
    Finally, I broke down and ordered fromOn Military Matters a copy of Miniature Wargames with Battlegames #402. As I just bought #400, I figure it would be around December before I could buy 402 in the local bookstore. The reason for wanting this particular issue is the "1643 Memoir" rules,  based on Bob Cordery's Memoir of Battle rules, which are among my favorite rules. It will make coming home from camping a little less painful. And hopefully will kickstart my  Peter Laing ECW project.

This collection will give me 4 more regiments of "Little Wars" infantry.

Historic Eastfield Foundation & the Eastfield Militia

      My wife and I just got back from a three day weekend from camping in New York.  The purpose of the trip wast to visit Historic Eastfield Foundation, which was the brainchild of Don Carpentier. HEF is a collection of 30 building, which Mr. Carpentier relocated to 14 acres of land his parents gave him when he was still in his teens. Most of the building were to be demolished to make way for progress. He started building on the property when he was still in high school. His first structure was to house a growing collection of antiques. As his collection of building grew,  to help offset the cost of the building, classes in traditional skills were offered. Among the classes are tinsmithing, fireplace building, fireplace cooking, and other similar skills that would be of use from the period of early America.  Students who take these three to five day courses are allowed to stay at Eastfield for free (except they must bring 10 white candles to use during their visit) in one of the inns on the property, for free. They prepare meals in the fireplace and and must make due without electricity for the time there.
     Historic Eastfield Foundation is not a museum. It is privately owned. In the past besides the classes offered, it has been used in films for sets.  With the passing of Mr. Carpentier in 2014,  Eastfield has been open to the general public for one day in 2015 and this past weekend was open again for one day, for the second annual Founders Day, a tribute to Mr. Carpentier.
    I first learned of Historic Eastfield Foundation from a magazine back in 1994. I often wanted to see Eastfield since that article; with this opportunity I decided to make the trip. To find Eastfield was an adventure in itself. To find Eastfield is difficult; the fact that they never gave directions on how to find it complicated the matter. Perhaps it was to make sure only the truly devoted would make the journey.   They did give the location using GPS. I still use roadmaps; my limited use of GPS has been a disappointment. Also, up the the hills of Eastern New York cell phone reception is spotty, to say the least.
   Eastfield had reenactors on hand to tell of the different buildings and trades. They also had the "Eastfield Miliita", a representation of an 1830's militia company. They performed the drills of the day and marched around the village. At the end of the day they had target practice; unfortunately we left before then. With my previous posts about militia, I took plenty of photographs to illustrate the militia of the period.

Hot off the press!

The Eastfield militia muster. They are representing a militia company from the 1830's.

A wife brings her husband refreshments during a break in the drill.

The militia marching trough the village to the tune of "Yankee Doodle".