Indoor Rugby!

Been a bit quiet on the blog lately but we have managed to get some games in.  I took on my six year old daughter at Kahmate, one of her favourite games:

England to kick off.

Scotland receive the kick, charge straight up the middle

and break through for a try after a couple of missed tackles.  7-0.

England reply swiftly with the scrum half weaving his way past the Scottish forwards.  7 all. (Jeering Junior Scot in the background!)

Scotland then broke through twice more to make it 21-7 as their assistant coach started to influence play (Jessica's 10 year old brother started giving tactical advice!).  However England fought back to 21-14 and then scored in the corner as the ref (Mum) blew full time (bedtime again!).  If I could slot the conversion from the touchline I would salvage a draw but the dice gods were not with me and it ended 21-19 to Scotland. 

Another close match and a lot of fun for both of us.  I can play this game "full on" against my kids by the simple expedient of improving the rating of one or more of their players to balance things out.  That said, my 10 year old son will soon have to have this advantage removed as he is beating me almost too often!   We can also play for as long or as little as we like and set up and tidy up are very quick.

Other than the big board that I made, the game packs down very small in an old wooden microscope slide box that I adapted:

We also have a travel version of this game that uses an A4 size board and counters rather than figures.  Very handy indeed, just a laminated sheet of A4 and a business card case with the counters and dice in.

Wings of War Part 2

Continued from the previous post:  (Tom flying the British Spad and Sopwith Camel, me flying the German Fokker & Albatross).

After the initial tussle over the target, the planes disperse somewhat and although my Fokker (tri-plane centre left) is nicely between the Spad (extreme left) and the target (card in centre of board), my Albatross (in the foreground) is well out of position to stop the Camel (right of picture) going in for another strafing run on the target:

As the Spad and Fokker close in a head on attack, both take damage but the Fokker is hardest hit and now in a bad way......

......in such a bad way that another burst from the Spad sees the Fokker spiralling to the ground in smoke and flames!

Reverse angle of the demise of the Fokker at the hands of Tom's Spad.

Meanwhile the Albatross uses his speed to close with the more maneouvreable Camel

But soon the Spad is back over the target and inflicting more damage to it:

....whilst my brave Albatross pilot doggedly tails the Camel

and inflicts some noticeable damage....

....but that last strafe from the Spad has left the target almost destroyed

(5 of 6 damage required)

Tom's Spad conducts a skilful Immelman turn to repeat his

strafing run on the burning ground target:

Spad's eye view as the pilot pulls the trigger and bullets dance towards the target to finish it off....

....so the Spad flies to the aid of his hard pressed friend in the Camel....

...and is able to hit the Albatross with a couple of bursts, although he takes further damage himself.

This is too much for the Albatross and so, with the ground target destroyed and facing odds of 2 to 1 he uses his speed to break off and head for home.

Boooo! to the cowardly Hun......

Off back to gunnery school after repeatedly missing that Camel

....and hurrah for the brave British chaps!

Off back to the mess for a celebratory drink.

Well, we had a blast and once again I am beaten despite Tom having the added challenge of hitting the ground target.  His Spad was in a bad way by the end with only 3 damage left but his Camel was hardly touched and although my Albatross had only taken 3 damage, with the ground target destroyed there was little point in the Albatross pilot hanging around to be ganged up on. Besides, it was bedtime!

Wings of War

Last night my son (9 years old) and I played a fun game of Wings of War - this is a game we have both loved ever since we got it a couple of years ago.  I think the intuitive movement system makes it easy for him and he regularly beats me without me weighting the odds or "bunging" the game.  This is always a plus in our games because I am a shocker for losing interest in games where I feel the need to "pull my punches".

Although this one needs a bit more space than many of our games it is very quick to set up and packs away small.  When we are away on trips or holidays we just take the movement card decks with us so we can play without the miniatures.  This is a great game to edge non gamers or non wargamers into wargaming and is about the only time I have played a wargame with my dear wife!

Back to last night's game - Tom took the British Spad and Sopwith Camel against my Fokker and Albatross and his mission was to strafe a German ground position (do 6 points of damage on the ground target card).  We find it better to set ourselves missions to add a bit more focus to our flying.   We played on the 3'x3' table with a ground cloth from Hobbycraft.

Early exchanges over the target were very intense....  Perhaps predictably we both made a beeline for the target and ended up playing chicken!

The Fokker was hit by both the Spad and the Camel in this early exchange.  This was bad for me as the Fokker is very maneouvreable (although slow) compared to the Albatross.  It was going to be hard to protect my ground position if I lost the Fokker early.

The card tray I made from a garden planter tray - makes it much easier for Tom to choose his cards.

The rest of the report to follow later.

Speedy Battles in Small Spaces!

Welcome to my gaming world - dominated by, and obsessed with, getting a quick wargame in at every opportunity. Still play some bigger battles but 15mm, 10mm and sometimes 20mm skirmishes pre-dominate. Most periods get a go although Scifi is our big thing at the moment. I'll let some pictures do the talking now:

After Dinner Wars - Battle of the Altoids

using Micromachine plastics

"Fighting on a Footsquare Flannel"

Micromachine plastics, Epic buildings, Cork rocks, Ikea flannel

"A Few Good Men"

15mm WW2 on a 16 inch board

"In space, no-one can hear you scream"

Space Hulk in 15mm

Magnetic tiles & bases, squares 18mm

My gaming is either solo or with my kids.  The reason for the small size set-ups is simply that we get more gaming in that way - we still have a crack on the "big" 3x3 foot table now and then but these handy games are just so easy to set up and store (even part way through a game). 

For rules, we love Two Hour Wargames, Ambush Alley Games and Ganesha Games but also play DBA (& period variants), Crossfire and anything else we fancy.  We enjoy the cross period mechanics of THW, Ganesha & the DBA variants.  I'm also a fan of Spacejacker's "Gut Check" Scifi rules.

Current projects include 10mm skirmish sets for Napoleonics, Colonial NWF, Modern Afghanistan and Scifi.  I'm also trying to rationalise my collection by finishing off other projects and selling them off.

Here's something a little larger:

 My son and daugher's Eldar going to the rescue of a downed Viper pilot in Ork territory.

GW figures, 3 foot square table, scratch built terrain

And really big (for us!):

2nd edition Space Hulk in all its glory on the 5 by 3 foot table

This only happens once in a blue moon!

And now for something completely different:

28mm Rugby using "Kahmate" rules

Scotland score first in the Calcutta Cup

I hope something here has whetted your appetite - I have been inspired by heaps of other bloggers (especially Spacejacker & Dropship Horizon) and felt it was time to join the party. 

More soon.