I SANK THE AMERICAN FLEET AT MIDWAY...

And all I got was this lousy T-Shirt...

In the last few weeks I have been painting up ships for the Pacific Theater in WW2. I already had a fairly substantial collection of ships in 1/2400, but a friend has been itching to get into 1/6000 scale and try the new General Quarters III rules along with their "Solomon Islands Campaign" rules, and even generously offered to let me do the Japanese.

That isn't sarcasm. Actually I like IJN ships quite a lot, and I enjoy modeling them, playing with them, attempting to change history now and again. (That isn't an endorsement of Japanese policies during the war, so please... don't go there).

Anyway, I jumped at the chance. The campaign rules are simple and require no referee, and I always jump at the chance to play in a campaign, particularly one that seems likely to finish, let alone begin.

Initially, I'd collected a list based upon some historical information, but the GQIII campaign booklet varies somewhat from the historical presence there, and I suspect it's based upon ships available in theater rather than ships that actually took part in the actions, so as a result I was short several vessels for potential use. No skin off my back. They aren't terribly expensive.
Of course, painting the destroyers has proven to be a real "joy".

Destroyers are part of any Japanese fleet during the period. They had lots of them. With lots of torpedoes. They can be a very potent threat. Of course, they are only a potent threat with hindsight - the Japanese badly misused their destroyers and often ignored their own established doctrine for that use - but they are still a threat, just the same, particularly if you use them correctly.

In the Solomons campaign, however, there are a -lot- of them available. [At least double those of my opponent. And since GQIII now models all destroyers 1:1... that's a lot of painting of very annoying little 1/6000 slivers of metal. Not a huge deal, but... it's sort of frustrating to look at your collection of battleships, carriers, and cruisers, only to realize that you are only halfway done!

I have also been playing (very late to the game in this place) the recently re-released "Carriers at War". The classic game was essentially re-written for Windows XP, with updated graphics and a simplified interface. Unfortunately, it also dropped several of the scenarios (there have been rumors of expansions, as with the original, but it's been two years, and no sign of them), so that in total, with the most recent patch, there are seven (count 'em) scenarios. Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Coral Sea, Midway, the Philippine Sea, and (with the most recent patch) Tulagi. Curiously, no scenario for Leyte. Another thing that's been rumored, asked for, etc., but hasn't shown up yet. Most of the scenarios have "mystery variants" that add various ships, complexities, etc.

Nevertheless, it's a fun game, and the scenarios are challenging enough to be entertaining. After a brief learning curve, I dug my heels in and tried to work my way through more or less chronologically, as the Japanese (I'm a glutton for punishment, yes.) The toughest engagements so far have been Coral Sea and Midway. Unfortunately, there is no "campaign mode", and this is, I think the game's undoing.

During the Coral Sea, I sunk both Yorktown and Lexington, and lost a destroyer or two in return with minor damage to the Shoho. Not a bad exchange, and better than historically. I even invaded Port Morseby. Unfortunately, there is no "carry over" to the next scenario. First of all, one questions the need for Midway if the Japanese had won at Port Morseby, but more to the point, one would think my odds would be all the better if Midway had gone ahead anyway. No dice, though. Yorktown's there again.

I tried one of the mystery variants, just to see what would happen. It did beef up my force, but it also added the Saratoga to the US Fleet, along with swarms of US Submarines, which really start to hurt you, particularly after you've dealt with the surface elements. And deal I did. Bombarded Midway. Sank Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp, and Enterprise. Lost the Akagi and scuttled the Hosho after heavy submarine damage. Invaded Midway. Took the island. Yay.

Except that I'm now looking at the next scenario and wondering why they don't have some sort of variant to assume my success. Because the American fleet still contains the ships that I sank at Midway!

No wonder being a Japanese officer was so frustrating. These damned American Necromancers.
Ahh well. At least I got this spiffy t-shirt.

Let's hope that Mike doesn't use the "Zombie Carrier" rules in our Solomons Campaign...

POST-KUBLACON REPORT

Well, I am pleased to say that our miniature recreation of "Bar Lev" at Kublacon worked swimmingly (is that even a word?) despite a number of hiccups, to include losing one of our GMs, missing terrain pieces, etc.

The game was set up for about fifteen players total. In the event we had close to twenty. Three of us as GMs for it all on three tables. Worked pretty well, I must say. My digital camera isn't working at the moment, so I've got no pictures; Rob S., one of my partners in crime, does however have a digital cam that works and has taken several shots. I will post them as soon as humanly possible.

I can say, however, that two other things that don't necessarily require pictures did, in fact, go pretty well.

First of all, despite the "unfortunate" development of a schedule fart on the first day of the con, I managed to set up my board game based on the Election of 1860 for its first ever public playtest. There was a great deal of interest, and I managed to hand out my (brand spanking new) business cards to a few parties. None of them are publishers, as far as I know, but everyone seemed genuinely interested, and wished me luck. Not bad for a first public outing.
Incidentally, the first public game ended in a Southern Democratic Victory....

In other news, I have had some success on the writing front.

My friend, Manny, has recently introduced a new set of bat. level WW2 rules "Panzer Korps", which are already gaining popularity and some pretty favorable reviews. I had no idea that Manny was the game designer; I just thought the game looked interesting and read some favorable reviews, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him running the game. Anyway, to make a long story short, he is looking for writers for various army guides and supplements. I sort of half-seriously suggested writing a guide to the Hungarian Army, and he thought it was a great idea. He offered me the job of writing it, and I of course took him up on it. Even more interestingly, we were talking about that very subject later, and one thing lead to another before I found myself being offered the chance to write the Italian Army guidebook, too.

So, now, I'm "officially" writing at least two supplements for a popular new system, and I'm pretty excited about it. I will just say that, at the moment, I intend to start on the Italian book first, as it's a larger subject, and will require correspondingly more research. I've already added to my library of sources on the subject, and I hope to learn a lot more over the course of the project.

I have been given a very generous timetable to finish the Italian book, but I hope to have it done sometime before the ultimate deadline. I suspect that, once I find the organizational data I need, matters will be fairly straightforward to deal with, though this is the Italian Army we're talking about...

I hope to have more to say on this subject soon, but I thought I'd share the good news! If you're interested in the "Panzer Korps" system, drop by www.panzerkorps.com and take a looksee. It's carried by several distributors, and is worth considering for larger scale engagements.

At any rate, it's very late, so I'll sign off for the moment. More information, including pics of our game from Kublacon, is on the way.

-A.

p.s.

Phil M. - Got your email. However, it seems to have been swallowed whole by Hotmail before I had a chance to respond. Mind dropping me another line?

MORE PROBLEMS WITH "THE EXPERTS"; WHEREIN I AM CONFRONTED BY THE UGLY FACE OF THE INDUSTRY.

I have been involved in discussions on a number of bulletin boards/forums related to wargaming again. It was something I said I wouldn't do again, something in fact I swore I wouldn't do again, after some very nasty experiences with self-proclaimed 'experts' in the field of military history.

I suppose I should have learned my lesson.

Again, I've been taking a -lot- of flack on certain boards for making certain assertions, and stating my opinions. Nothing nasty on my part. Just statements about the use of certain equipment, questions about why that equipment isn't appearing in game, etc. By flack, I am referring to constant corrections. Individuals who go out of their way to correct everything I say by making a statement of their own "facts". 

I don't mind a bit of academic debate. It's healthy. But these are message boards. Not academic forums. And granted, I don't know -much- about European History *cough*, but you can be sure that I would go out of my way to provide a source for some sort of assertion of fact if I felt that it was worth continuing the argument. More often than not, I've found myself backing off from these discussions rather than engaging these individuals. In fact that's generally my policy.

But my temper is rising, and so is my feeling of bewilderment.

Perhaps there is something that getting a shiny "administrator" sticker, or being hired by a company that runs a website, that shelters and shields an individual from any counter-criticism. This may well be the case. If it is, I certainly wasted my time on my Masters Degree - getting hired by a company would've been much easier.

On that note, in a less ironic (though highly annoyed) vein, I have had nothing but bad luck in my attempts to get "hired" in the wargaming industry. 

My biggest attempt to date, the one that involved writing a series of army lists for the Romans and their opponents in the second century using a major ancients ruleset? That was pretty much a done deal when the guy with whom I'd been corresponding for months forgot who I was and sent me a form letter responding to my -first- email. Perhaps it was because he wanted to meet me at a recent convention, and because of the illness of a family member, I was unable to attend. I shouldn't be surprised. This was the same company that refused to hire me years ago because I told them that graduating was a priority for me. "If you work for XY," said their rep, "you have to make XY your life. School just isn't as important". (My source for that? Me. I was there, actually.)

Then there was the roleplaying company that wanted someone who knew Roman religion/mythology to write a sourcebook on the Romans. Met the guy at a convention. Very enthusiastic. Wanted me to do other stuff, too (which is great, I do like writing fantasy and sci-fi whenever I get a chance).Sent me one email, gave me a bunch of free stuff, and then disappeared off the face of the earth, presumably fading into the ether.

Finally, there was the opportunity to write historical web based articles, as a starting point, for another wargaming company. Yeah. That went well. Sent in my application. Included a sample of my writing. Absolutely no response. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. Perhaps if I'd qualified my statements on Honved.com by assuring the reader that "some equipment was used only to fight partisans"... I'd be writing a whole slew of books right now.....

*smirk*

I am as always your slightly annoyed but friendly source of "unpopular" history...

-A.

A LONG OVERDUE UPDATE

It HAS, indeed, been far too long since the last update to the Blog, and even longer to Honved.com. Lots of real life stuff going on, one thing leads to another, etc...

My current tabletop projects have been fairly varied. 

This month has seen a lot of frenzied activity in preparation for the upcoming KUBLACON 2008 convention, where our gaming group will be presenting a miniatures translation of the classic BAR LEV board game. It's been quite an interesting challenge, what with building terrain boards and painting loads of terrain and micro armor, but I'm fairly proud of the end result. This week, we're having our second play-test: this time of the Golan Heights, specifically, and I hope to get some photos, which will be posted, promptly to the Blog.

I have also been working on the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division (Battlefront calls it 'The Third Canadian Division') for Flames of War. These are the first 15mm infantry I've painted in years, and I'm  actually enjoying them, which tells me that my skills have progressed, at least minimally. The tanks are no problem - I've been doing them a lot in recent years, but typically I've resorted to buying or commissioning pre-painted 15mm infantry, as I'd found the experience of painting it unpleasant.  Actually enjoying 15mm infantry painting is very new to me.

Finally, I have managed to snag a very nice terrain piece for one of my long treasured "secret projects" - in this case, an arena for a Gladiator project. More on this next time, when I post photos of the completed amphitheater, but I'm very excited about this new chapter in my miniatures gaming, err, obsession. 

In the case of writing and game design, I have been writing the "unofficial" Early War Hungarian army lists for FOW. They have been well received, when folks take the time to eye them, but I've been disappointed by the lack of response, overall. Don't need accolades, really, but having some sort of response to my work is a huge motivation for keeping going, in that it provides the kind of critical response I need to make a "better end product." Fortunately, a couple folks have been reading the lists, commenting, etc, so they've kept me going and provided some very valuable insight. I am very close to finishing off the project, and I will continue to work on it, nevertheless.

I have also finished the third revision of my prototype for the board game I'd been working on since moving from Virginia a couple years ago. I will be having the first public playtest of "Divided Republic" at Kublacon. Quite nervous about this, but hopefully I can pull it off.

Lots of future projects in store, too, but that's where I stand, just at the moment. More updates coming soon!

-A.

WARBIRDS IN MINIATURE

Recently, the group has been playing a lot of Aerial games, WW1, WW2, and soon, Sci-Fi. We enjoy them because they're rather easy to learn, set up, and play.
Recently we've been playing with 'Warbirds in Miniature', a WW2 miniatures adaptation of 'Blue Max'.

WBIM is an interesting game, with some features that make it a little more "realistic" than, say, Aerodrome. One of the features appreciated by many is the fact that fire isn't pre-plotted, as in other games, which feels a bit more realistic for WW2 combat (though I actually think the pre-plotted fire adds to the feeling of attempting to lead your target correctly, but that's just me).

At any rate, here are a few shots from a recent game of WBIM, featuring a P-40 Kittyhawk and a Spitfire Mk1 against two BF-109Es (well, one of them was actually a BF-109T, but the stats are essentially the same... the T is a carrier variant). As is typical with my camera phone, I took about a dozen photos and three of them came out properly. Hopefully the situation will improve next time.

Here we have the typical scene throughout the game from my vantage point. Early on, my BF109-T was given a very nasty critical hit by Dave's P-40, significantly reducing maneuverability by blasting off some important wing surfaces (mainly the rudder..heh..). I spent most of the game making wide arcs, trying to tack around enough to target the enemy. In the shot here, Mike's Spitfire has taken advantage of this, and is locking me in for the kill.

Later on, of course, despite some good flying, we got our revenge on Dave and his blasted P-40. Rob hit him head on, causing a fire, which Dave spent the better part of the rest of the game trying to put out. Amazingly he managed to pull himself out of a spin just before being completely snuffed, and recovered in time to withdraw half intact, but it was a very close run

thing.

The smoke you see here is stuffing from a dog bed that my Dingo, Claudius, decided to rip to shreds . It really does the job and looks like smoke, as it's slightly tinged grey and clings very well to many surfaces. Need to find a way to get more of that stuff!

The flight stand is produced by Top Gun Marketing (you can find Top Gun Marketing on Ebay). Top Gun makes an excellent range of flight stands with a variety of options, allowing banking, turning, changes in altitude, etc... without worry of the airplanes falling off their mounts, which are afforded via the clever use of rare earth magnets. I highly recommend the product, and suggest you give it a look if you're even remotely interested in air gaming of any kind. (He also carries a great range of aircraft minis in a variety of scales, by the way).

Here we have what I consider to be the most iconic shot from the game, though of course it came out terribly. My BF109T dives in an attempt to hit a banking Spitfire Mk1 flown by Mike, while Dave's P-40 has recovered from its fire, and is stabilizing itself dangerously close to me. Looks like something right out of a Hollywood movie...

All in all, WBIM is an interesting game, and I hope to have more photos soon - hopefully in better quantity and quality.

-A.

TOP TEN ITEMS ON THE NORTH POLE POLICE BLOTTER

IN the spirit of the holidays, here's another top ten list from my library. Hope it gives you a smile. A blessed Feast of Sol Invictus to all of you..;)

10. Two white male elves caught shoplifting condoms at the Pay 'n' Save.

9. Santa stabbed for his jacket.

8. Broke up domestic squabble between Dancer and Prancer.

7. Female polar bear at disco allegedly fondled by Mike Tyson.

6. Frosty the Snowman caught urinating in the Subway; claimed he was just "melting".

5. Unidentified three-foot, six inch make wearing pointy cap and bells on shoes shot dead while eating at local Italian eatery.

4. Santa's sleigh found completely stripped five thousand miles away on Cross-Bronx Expressway.

3. Computer hacker released to custody of parents after illegally inserting name onto "nice" list.

2. Issued warning at frat party to turn down the Burl Ives records.

1. Arrested 35 year old white male who refused to get off of Santa's lap.

...

Happy Christmas to all,

-A.

TOP TEN REASONS THE BRITISH LOST THE COLONIES

RECENTLY I was going through a box of old books, looking for something funny (I've really needed a laugh lately) and came across one of my old books of 'Top Ten Lists' from the David Letterman show. Not sure which one this is from, but it made me laugh, as did a few others I'll try to share now and again.

I should keep this handy next time British forces under my command royally screw up in a Revolutionary War game...

TOP TEN REASONS THE BRITISH LOST THE COLONIES

10. Hard to shoot straight with sissified powdered wig falling in your eyes.

9. Wanted to just lose New Jersey but got carried away.

8. Colonists on steroids.

7. Spent too much time guessing who's gay in the royal family.

6. British diet: Tea and Crumpets; American diet: Raw Squirrel and Whiskey

5. Serious problems with snuff abuse.

4. Lots of painful poking accidents trying to put on those pointy hats of theirs.

3. Americans had Batman.

2. Wanted to get first draft choice.

1. Uninspiring British battle cry: "Let's win this for our swishy, inbred monarch!"

Enjoy...

-A.