"Game 4 of 7 Normandy minicampaign 20mm ww2 on blog" Topic

OK so I got a bit of time and wrote up game 4 of a mini campaign I am playing (it is form the out of print Kampfgruppe Normandy).

I had to play the game very quickly as I had to pack up the table so a friend could stay. I am not sure when Game 5 will start. When I say quick, the whole game took and hour including writing notes.

The battle report is here:

link

This picture is from the first action of the game when the 88 opens up on a halftrack, KO's it and the remaining infantry disembark and retreat:

Shaun,

Great stuff, that was my favorite so far! Perhaps it's due to the spirit of improvisation due to the shorter table. Brother, we've got a lot in common: looking to see what the 'real' stats are after three games, forgetting about a tank, I can certainly empathize! I liked the house-clearing too, but I'll say, another thing we share is that we sure seem to get our armor beat up!

On a separate note, I started looking around your blog after reading this and your 100,000th hit post and realized something; you're blog was one of the ones that inspired me to start a blog. To be honest, I'd forgotten about it until I started rummaging through your old posts, and there they were: your 'cute' little 6mm games in the drawer using Take Cover!

I used to love looking at those and remember thinking, if this guy has got all this stuff going on but sticks with it by using little guys in a drawer and then writing them up on the internet, surely I can get off my lazy butt and get some games in. As you've seen, I've finally done it, I'm having a great time and gaming (albeit solo) more than ever! So thanks.

"I set this game up and then a few days later got a call from a friend who needed a place to stay from that night." I still say you're missing out on a helluva opportunity ;)

V/R,
Jack

Yes I agree with that other chap :) excellent stuff…my favourite also. You do realize that Jack wouldn't be happy until you coerce your friend into playing a game :)

"You do realize that Jack wouldn't be happy until you coerce your friend into playing a game :)"

We do whatever it takes. It's who we are, it defines us.

Can you imagine turning up at Jack's door:

"Hello Jack, my life has fallen apart and I am financially destitute. Can I stay for a little while?"
"Sure. Two points though. The first is you will be sleeping on the couch".
"The couch? But I thought-"
"Which brings us to the second point…you will be playing the Germans."

Oh, And two more things:

I am glad I was an inspiration as I enjoy your AARs and you obviously enjoy playing them. As I am not sure if I will have the opportunity to play with 20mm for a little while I made a 30"x20" terrain board to fit into the drawers (2'x2' was the wrong dimensions – 30"x20" is about 2/5th the size of a 6'x4' so will be easy to play rules designed for inches by using cm – the board is proportionally correct). Expect to see a few 6mm ww2 reports using different rules. I have 9 on my "must play" and another 20 or so of lesser priority.

The second thing is my friend has moved away over the last 30 years from ww2 gaming (The King Tigers and 88s from the recent games are actually his from 30 years ago) and more into Eurogames. Ok, only Eurogames really. I am not fond of Euorgames. But I did acquire Command and Colors about 3 years ago wanting to play with miniatures. I thought that might appeal so over the last week we have stuck the stickers on the blocks and played a game last night. He thought it was great fun, as did I. If this continues, I may even have to get Memoir 44, which I have played once and thought was OK. Lastly, we did play a game of Blitzkrieg Commander about 5-6 years ago and he did like that, so maybe dig out those rules for a game. I thought BKC is OK.

My children are a bit older now (5 and 7) so I could proably leave stuff setup…but maybe not :-) And I am used to map drawer playing now.

Can you imagine turning up at Jack's door:

"Hello Jack, my life has fallen apart and I am financially destitute. Can I stay for a little while?"
"Sure. Two points though. The first is you will be sleeping on the couch".
"The couch? But I thought-"
"Which brings us to the second point…you will be playing the Germans."

LOL…Shaun, TBH I can imagine that all too easily…in fact I can't see the conversation going any other way

My children are a bit older now (5 and 7) so I could proably leave stuff setup…but maybe not :-)

I don't worry about my 5 and 7 year olds (they're girls and are in fact angels in disguise) my 3 year old boy however will search and destroy Godzilla style…

What are eurogames?

I've been lucky moving from Ireland; my Canadian wife has 4 brothers who are all interested in playing and two local pals always open to playing. The problem is extracting them from my wife's immediate social gathering and going down to the basement for anything over an hour. That's the "war" part of my wargaming :)

BTW any discipling action required on that cowardly Sherman HO or what was his poor excuse…

Eurogames is another name for German games. These are games where there is an interesting game mechanism created that is then transposed to some setting. So they are very interesting *games* but not so wargames. The most famous of the Eurogames would be Settlers of Cataan. Some Eurogames have a lot of depth and require investment like chess. I find that every time I play a eurogame, I would prefer to either

a) play a wargame – either a boardgame or miniatures.
b) take up chess and learn that more than I know now.

I played another game of Command and Colors against my friend, so that is two games already. I wounder if Jack would be a little happier now?

LOL on the getting other interested parties! I have two friends who are more than happy to play but they have children as well and the limited social gathering we have would not look great to our wives if we disappeared for a couple of hours! And to be fair, we don't see each other as much as we should so socialising seems to come before gaming.

"Sure. Two points though. The first is you will be sleeping on the couch".
"The couch? But I thought-"
"Which brings us to the second point…you will be playing the Germans."

That's not what I said at all! I said you'd be sleeping under the wargame table, and you're the Germans unless we're playing Eastern Front, then you're the Russians. And if you decide to get cute and win a game or two, we're playing moderns and you're the Islamic terrorists.

My kids are 4 and 7 but they don't get trusted around my toys when I'm not there! Always loved the 'drawer-games' Shaun, and look forward to more of your batreps using them. As much fun as I'm having on the big table, there's still a special place in my heart for the little stuff; sometimes I feel the big ones are too impersonal, I don't get as attached to the troops when there's so many of them.

I've always been curious about CandC Napoleonics…

V/R,
Jack

My apologies Jack! Rather than the couch, the first point should be "The mattress would be well shaded." :-) I was assuming Western Front as that is what you are currently doing!

Napoleonics is a strange thing with me – in the 80s, the Napoleonic miniature gamers did *nothing* else, and sort of kept to themselves. So I have always this fear in the back of my mind that if I start doing some Napoleonic gaming, I will get sucked into it and do nothing else and become very unsociable! The era does fascinate me and I think I will have to give it a go – I *am* 30 years older now and may be able to resist entering a Napoleonic vortex.

Definitely gotta stay away from vortexes! What I don't understand is how I get sucked into so many vortexes while being a solo gamer. I have a forceful personality, I suppose ;)

And you're always coming from the wrong perspective, Shaun! It's nice and cool under the ping-pong table, and whacking Allies will take his mind off 'real-life.'

I've got Memoir '44 myself; while I'm a simple guy, those are just a bit too simple. I keep eyeing Tide of Iron, but it's so close to minis that I manage to keep myself from buying it. At the shop here it's about 90 bucks, so I just think of all the 10mm goodness I could get with that money.

Take care, and all this talk about the 6mm 'drawer' games had me pulling out my 6mm stuff and looking it over…

V/R,
Jack