Been a very busy first quarter 2018 at the WR Winnetka CA gaming warren or visiting fellow gamers.
The Games played:
1) Clash of Empires (COE) 28mm Battle of Nola 214 BC with Republican Rome facing off outnumbered by the Carthaginian army who recently crushed the Romans at Cannae in 216 BC. AAR posted to Wargamerabbit
link
2) 25/28mm napoleonic line them up pick up game at Bob's featuring the Prussians defeating the early Imperial French at the January meeting (no photos, AAR or war correspondent report provided).
3) OrcCon Convention at LAX featured two scenarios presented by Daniel and WR: The 20mm Flames of War 1945 Operation Overcast large table game and napoleonic 28mm Battle of Halle 1806 revisited. Convention and both scenario games reported on the WR blog.
OrcCon report: link
Battle of Halle 1806 AAR: link
4) Invitational 20mm FOW game for several new gamers to learn the FOW system and just blast away at the miniatures (with dice rolls). This was a follow up to the open viewing front yard game day at the warren were the local neighbors walking about could see a live military simulation miniatures game in progress. At the warren there is a steady stream of neighborhood walkers pasting by during the early evening hours. Many stopped by to see what was going on and WR collected emails (from the interested locals) to inform for future warren game events. Several were retired military veterans.
5) Play test of the upcoming Battle of Arronches 1801 War of the Oranges historical scenario game completed. Background and scenario for this battle posted to WR blog.
Arronches 1801: link
War of the Oranges: link
Production and Scenario Preparation done:
Production was strong during the first quarter. WR painted up several napoleonic divisional commands, rebased and organized his COE 25/28mm ancient armies and created proper storage boxes gridded for the same ancient miniatures. During this process a proper inventory of the COE 25/28mm miniatures was conducted and photos taken.
1) Finished ten French battalion (10x6 miniatures) of the Retreat from Moscow Perry range, including dismounted cavalrymen and general/colonels walking in the ranks. These 28mm miniatures are planned for the Berezina 1812 crossing historical scenario later in this year (Nov or Dec) and then for the 1814 campaign battles scheduled for YR 2019. They join twenty other painted battalions to provide a large selection of ragged, worn out, and half dead Frenchmen struggling out of Russia's frozen winter, not that the Russians were in better shape mind you.
2) The 28mm 1790 era Reicharmee is completed and ready for the tabletop. Two infantry divisional commands and a cavalry command (20 units; 10x7 battalions and 6x4 cavalry regiments) form the army core. They will join WR's early FRW Austrians and Prussians for the 1793-96 battles along the Rhine as WR researches his scenarios. Battle of Wurzburg 1796 scenario almost done.
3) Several independent units painted…. 10x French hussars, four regiments of French 1806 era Line infantry and organized the large 1806-07 Prussian army.
4) All the historical required 1806 Prussian regiments painted and based for the Battle of Halle scenario. Now planning the entire Prussian army for Battle of Jena 1806. See scenario for photos mentioned above.
5) Constructed several 1/72 model aircraft for future scenarios…. mostly Russian WWII planes but converted a Hudson into a Japanese transport and built a model of the Arado 234 for the Ludendorff (Remagen 1945) scenario.
6) Scenario modeling preparation for the Ludendorff (Remagen 1945) scenario done. Built the required hills, the bridge, the river terrain etc… and terrain is ready. Now just need to paint up the required 20mm German miniatures. Preparation progress and scenario notes reported on WR blog:
Ludendorff Bridge preparation: link
7) German WWII 20mm tanks and vehicles based for 20mm Flames of War gaming…. they were just lying around and WR spent time organizing platoons and finished the required basing. About 60 tanks and vehicles all told, plus some stray American vehicles while at it.
8) Per the attached photo the COE 25/28mm ancient Chinese collection was finally organized and spreadsheet inventoried. All basing finished, static grass and small bushes applied, Unit base numbering for easy pick up done. Storage boxes made and proper unit griding done then photographed for inventory. Located, cleaned, paint primed, based, and placed in army storage boxes all the unpainted miniatures for the Chinese era, organized into their units too. Finishing this weekend the large 28mm Steppe – Nomad horse armies and the Biblical army collections. Next 2nd quarter work on the rest of the Chariot era armies: Assyrians, the Indians, and the Egyptians before entering the Classical era of Greeks and Rome.
9) Scenic terrain for the up coming Battle of Arronches 1801 game purchased and proper box storage created…… WR needed scaled orange trees for Portugal. It was called the War of the Oranges for a reason.
The Future 2nd Quarter looks great:
Busy 1st Quarter….. The future 2nd Quarter game scheduling is being worked on this weekend. so if interest in any of the following games let WR know via email or call direct.
Battle of Arronches 1801 napoleonic scenario for sure.
Ludendorff (Remagen) 1945 Flames of war scenario (Ver3.0 MRB) for sure.
Peiper's Charge, a Flames of War 20mm scenario from the Bulge 1944. Large three table scenario. More soon on WR blog.
Undetermined COE 28mm Ancient match up…..with historical background. Likely chariots involved.
WR plans to attend the Gamex LAX convention with two scenario games. One 28mm napoleonic and the other a 20mm Flames of War scenario… likely Remagen again.
Plan another open front yard game day at the warren.
Continue the follow-up and on-going discussions at Pierce community college and two local private schools for setting up after school miniature gaming activities. A demonstration game event day is already planned for May.
Distant future planing has WR at the HMGS-PSW convention in October. Would like to run the Battle of Jena 1806 if the tables size can be formatted. The likely second scenario game will be Peiper's Charge for the large table convention look.
That all for now…… happy gaming to all and plan to visit the Game Warren in Winnetka CA
Michael aka Wargamerabbit (WR)
P.S. Direct contact info posted on the WR blog under the "About the Wargamerabbit" tab if needed.
