January gamefest gets better and better

Napoleon said “The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue”. I and my American wargaming buddies demonstrated the first virtue over the long holiday weekend at our annual January gamefest. We are getting better at this, as with age comes wisdom. Alcohol consumption was more moderate than in previous years. Some players were actually spotted eating salad and fruit. Conscientious objectors, perhaps?

Our game agenda had some echoes of last year’s as we again visited Waterloo and the Iran-Iraq air war. New events this time were my first taste of Team Yankee, and of Star Wars Armada, and some ACW action in The Wilderness.

 The French prepare to assault at Waterloo.

Hard to believe these fine fellows are only 15mm!
More photos of the fun and games can be found in Flickr.

Cold War gone hot: Fulda Gap, 1985

This is the war a lot of guys trained for but never had to fight, so seeing it played out on the wargames table has a particular appeal. Scott and Charlie created a scenario for a classic what-if, the Soviet invasion of West Germany through the Fulda Gap, and introduced us to the TeamYankee rules, which some found a bit dice-heavy (4 stages to the firing resolution!) but which worked OK for me. We US defenders had an infantry company, an M1 Abrams company, suitable supporting elements including some powerful air support, and the prospect of being reinforced by a German recon group. We were facing two Soviet tank battalions and a motor rifle battalion. At this period the M1 was slightly outgunned by the new T-72, so we had to be very careful with our deployment. We boldly posted our infantry forward in strength, with the tanks in depth on reverse slopes. The A-10 Warthogs did a mighty job of killing recon and artillery. Blinded and with reduced support, the Soviets got suckered into a close-in fight on a forested hill on one flank, when they should have been piling down the valley at top speed towards the autobahn. They managed to claim a minor victory by opting to keep two of their 9 companies off-table and out of the fight, but we on the NATO side were happy with our moral victory. Highlight of the game: my infantryman whose Redeye missiles shot down both Su-25 Frogfoots (Frogfeet?).

Iran-Iraq War (CY6 Jet Age) 

Playtesting of scenarios for CB’s Iran-Iraq War campaign book for “Check Your 6! Jet Age” continues. We had several bouts of this award-winning game. The technical capabilities of the aircraft and even more so of the missiles took me a couple of games to get the hang of, but by the end of the weekend I was fluent, and I don’t think I was shot down once until the last game – and then not before I’d successfully dropped my bombs on an Iraqi airbase and shot down a MiG. Playing a series of these games in the course of the weekend really gave us an appreciation of how the weapons and tactics evolved during the course of the war. This will be a terrific book when it's done. “Check Your Six, Purple Sparrow!”

Star Wars Armada

Rob had brought his Star Wars Armada collection so we played that as one of the late night games. I prefer historical, but I enjoy science fiction too, and SWA is a very slick game. This was the first time I’d tried it but the mechanisms were easy to pick up. It provides interesting tactical decisions and I’d happily play it again.

Waterloo

Mark layed on a gorgeous big Waterloo game, using his variant of the venerable Napoleon’s Battles  rules which are now in their 4^th edition. The Prince of Orange’s memoirs will claim the French were defeated by the indomitable spirit and fighting prowess of the Dutch-Belgian division around Papelotte, which shattered D’Erlon’s corps. Wellington will beg to differ and point out that the battle was won when Reille’s corps broke like a wave against the rock of British infantry between La Haye Sainte and Hougoumont. Others may just say that Eddie and Sean were both cursed by the dice gods. Who cares? We Allies had a good time!

The Wilderness

My contribution to the festivities was to run one of my favourite BBB scenarios, the Battle of the Wilderness. Charlie loves BBB, and all the guys being good American wargamers are into the ACW history on their doorstep. Scott had the advantage of having played this scenario once already at last year’s BBB Bash Day convention. A combination of his foreknowledge plus skilful Confederate play plus Union bad luck enabled the Rebs to take and hold the Wilderness Tavern. They resisted Union efforts to retake or outflank, and managed to jam up and interdict all Union attempts to move south from there, while Longstreet turned up and barred Hancock’s way. A clear win for the south. Low point for the Union: Stuart’s cavalry getting in rear and sacking the wagon trains in the traffic jam at Ely’s Ford.

This January get-together has become a fine tradition, with great games, magnificent victuals, and above all, outstanding company. I’m looking forward to January 2018 already!