A Trio of Recent Games

Since hosting my last game on 17 NOV in a two-player remote game of Zallaqah (see Zallaqah Round 3), my gaming table has been dormant.  Well, the armies of Zallaqah are still positioned for battle but no renewed fighting yet.

Instead, I have had the pleasure of playing in three games in the intervening three weeks.  Two of the games were played remotely in two-player games and the third was a F2F game with five players.

To recap:

23 NOV AWI Campaign Continues

In our multi-year campaign of fighting our way through the AWI in miniature using Rebels & Patriots and Matt's superb 28mm collection, Matt presented the Battle of the Clouds as our next action.  This is an action to which I had no knowledge.  Evidently this skirmish and running battle occurred following the Battle of Brandywine.  The American goal is to get their supply train across the table and exit intact at Point A in photo below.  The British goal is to prevent such exit.  Oh, and a huge deluge is expected!

Positions at start

The Americans suffer through a series of failed activations before finally seeing some steady movement of the wagon train.  One wagon makes it off moments before British light infantry overrun the American artillery piece that deployed to protect the exit point.  Good progress continues until the rain begins to fall.  Then, wagon progress slows as the roads become clogged with mud.  Washington moves his column up to slow the British advance to buy time for the wagon train.  Casualties pile up on both sides of the ledger as musketry rings out.  Then, the heavens open up and rain falls in buckets.  With powder wet, the complexion of the battle shifts to one of hand-to-hand fighting.  Washington holds off the Redcoats until the final wagon exits the table.  A Rebel victory...or was it?  Matt could have attacked the final wagon before it left the table to secure victory.  Instead, he focused his energy on attacking Washington.  He wanted the glory of taking Washington dead or alive!  I suspect he went easy on me.  See Matt's battle account at Battle of the Clouds.    

Washington and his boys get off to a slow start...

but in the end, make good their escape!

28 NOV Age of Sail

Next up was a nifty age of sail game with Peter and another one of his products of rules' tinkering.  Rules are entitled, Decks of Glory and are played on a hex grid with his homemade sailing ships.  Marvelous little models.

The rules were easy to pick up and all random decision points are resolved with a card deck.  Play was fast.  We got in three different scenarios in our remote gaming session.  The first scenario saw a one-on-one single ship, introductory engagement.  I came out on top in that one.  For scenario two, I commanded a single ship trying to escape a three-ship squadron.  I was caught and surrounded before exiting the board and struck my colors.  In Game #3, we fought a three-on-three squadron action.  I managed to come out on top here again.  Fun games and two out of three ain't bad!  Hope to give these a try again.  See Peter's battle account at Remote Napoleonic Naval Game.

Action is getting hot!

06 DEC Madhist Wars

Finishing off the last of the three games, Saturday saw me join five guys for a five-player battle in the Sudan using Battles for Empires II.  I was one of two British players facing off against three Madhist players.  Terry umpired.  Outnumbered by more than two-to-one to begin, the brunt of the native attacks fell upon my wing.  No sooner had an enemy unit or two been scattered but more popped up to fill in the gaps.  Dead Madhists were continually recycled back into the game.  This was about a four-hour battle ending in a British victory.  A slim victory, I reckon, since my wing was almost completely destroyed in the action.

Madhists look on.

Lining the ridge, my command shifts reserves
 quickly to my exposed left flank.

The enemy approaches...

and closes in ferocious fighting.

This was Game #3 for me with Battle for Empire rules.  I now have a copy that I can read through and reference for any future action to which I may be invited.  Bloody rules.  Very bloody.

This week, a double header with Matt is on the docket as we return to AWI.  Should be fun.