Free GHQ Rules - Sort Of

Buy $100 worth of GHQ and you get a free set of rules - not bad - also they have some sales on a few of their products - Here's the content of their email:

Spring Rules Blowout

We have decided to give you a crazy offer on rules for our miniatures rules- FREE.  This offer is for our full-blown comprehensive rules, not a watered down version.  Just order over $100.00 in merchandise, add in a set of MG-1, MG-4, or MG-9, and use one of the following discount codes:

Use this code for a FREE copy of our WWII Micro Armour rules:

FREEMG1
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/mg1.html

Use this code for a FREE copy of our Modern Micro Armour rules:

FREEMG4
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/mg4.html

Use this code for a FREE copy of our WWII Micronauts rules:

FREEMG9
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/mg9.html

Those discount codes will give you a FREE copy of the rules of your choice if you place an order for over $100 worth of merchandise from now through May 21, 2012.  The cost of the rules will be subtracted from your total, and you will have some FREE rules!  You can mix and match the merchandise that you put into your cart- it does not have to be all the same, or match the type of FREE rules that you choose.

New Website Specials

We have just changed our website specials.  These specials are only available on orders that are placed through our secure website, and are only available for a limited time.  If you see something that you want, ACT QUICKLY, because these specials will only be here for a limited time.  The new Website Specials are:

P-1    TKS Tankette     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/p1.html

G-116    Marder II     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/g116.html

AC-1    P39 Airacobra     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/ac1.html

AC-15    MiG 23 Flogger B     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/ac15.html

AC-17    F15A Eagle     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/ac17.html

IJN-40    BBAV Hyuga     Was $13.50, now only $10.15, save 25%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/ijn40.html

GWB-5    CA Warrior     Was $9.95, now only $7.80, save 22%!!
http://www.ghqmodels.com/store/gwb5.html


GHQ on Facebook

GHQ has been on Facebook for awhile now, and has developed a very nice following.  Many of the things on our Facebook Fan Page can't be found anywhere else.  Some of the topics that have shown up lately have been: photos of pre-production models as they look when they come from our designers (many people have commented about how different they expected them to look), many postings from other GHQ customers who have shown off their work, first looks at newly painted items, special offers, customer polls (we really do use the information when planning models and release schedules), and much more!  So, check it out, see some neat things, have your opinions count, and support GHQ!  You can find our Facebook Fan Page here:

www.facebook.com/ghqminiatures

As always, please let us know if we can be of assistance to you with anything regarding GHQ products.

Thank you for your support,
GHQ
www.ghqonline.com

60 Followers - Thank you

Thank you to the 60 of you who've chosen to follow my posts. It's motivating to keep this up. Very cool.

Thank you.

Must Resist Another Game

Continuing from the last post where I was visiting all the cons I couldn't go to, I learned more about a couple of new games that are tempting...

Dust Warfare, mainly because the models are very cool and pre assembled. Though, I can't imagine I'll go through with it because of the scale - 28-30mm. But they are cool. The following picture is from the Fantasy Flight Website - go check it out:

The other one I learned of, Hawk Wargames (not much to see here, just a splash page), when I heard Neil's second Salute episode on the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast. HW has created a 10mm Sci Fi miniature game called Dropzone Commander. Sounds like it's going to be expensive to get started. So I may not play, but these miniatures are incredible. My 9 yr watched the video below and said, "Those would be fun to paint."
The following photo is from the Mr. Bug Man blog - go check out his post on this to see more pics.

Here's the Beasts of War interview of the creator of Dropzone Commander:



All that said, must resist the calling for another game.

Also, posting will be slim for the next 2-3 weeks because of my work with Geekway to the West as the Volunteer Enwranglement Officer + other duties as one of the board members. There's still time to register for this boardgame con featuring 4 days of 24-hour gaming fun.

3 Events I missed

Three events happened this past weekend that caught my attention - and even though I was unable to attend, I enjoyed them vicariously through my fellow bloggers, youtubers, and photographers - thank you all. I must say that I really dig this world of information we live in.

The BMHMA, Big Muddy Miniature Gaming Alliance, covering East Missouri and Southern Illinois, recently had a Game Day at Game Nite, in St Louis, MO...yes, you read that correctly. Sound like they had 9 games set up for the day - which is very good. There was quite a variety, here a few pics from the group.

Picture of Dave's Battle Cry game, courtesy of Dave S

There was Adepticon, probably not really my cup o tea, because it focuses on games I don't play, Warhammer, Warhammer Fantasy, War Machine, and Flames of War. However, based on the reports and videos I've seen, there's a lot to see and learn there. There are other games, lots of vendors and tutorials that are helpful to anyone in the miniature gaming hobby. Seeing the creative approach to the hobby is good enough for me.
Steve, from WWPD.net was there doing his thing helping out the Flames of War guys and providing some good pics and commentary.
The Garage Hammer guys provided live Ustreaming. That's pretty cool stuff for a bunch of fans.
And, of course, Shawn, over at Blue Table Painting covered it in 19+ videos.




And then there was Salute, in England. I like the sound of the Euro shows because they're typically focused on Demo games, as opposed to our participation games here in the US. I think this is because, in the historical realm, the players over there get more regular games in their local clubs. So, they go to their shows to see the latest and greatest and then to do some shopping.


And it sounds as though the demo games are played in 2-3 turns and then you move on. Here in the US, we want to have one game in 3-4 hours and have it come to a conclusion. Which is nice. But I think I prefer the short idea so that perhaps you could get 2 smaller games in the same time. Jerry kind of did this last year with Johnny Reb III at Command Con and I must say that I was moved to do the same kind of thing with BKC II and some of the other rulesets.


Matt gives a good review of what he saw over at The Wargames Table blog.
Ray over at Don't Throw a 1 blog posted his thoughts on Salute.
Neil over at Meeples and Miniatures has released a podcast (looks like more to come as well) about his experience at Salute!
And finally, below is the creator of Gruntz!, 15mm future sci-fi skirmish miniature rules, with his video:

Dave Makes the Gordan & Hague Newsletter

Dave, who's sent some content in for the blog is a wonder at converting board/mini games to more detailed miniature games. Because of this he made the Gordon and Hague Newsletter for his Battlecry adaptation using G&H minis.

Good work Dave.

Also, looks like G&H is coming out with some AWI figures.

Also, also, I really like how G&H is featuring his customers' work. That is good marketing to tie in with you customer base.

Also, also, also, he appears to have abandoned selling single stands and instead selling Battalion packs (which I believe are 3-5 stands for a battalion.) Good idea and it must be cheaper for him to do it this way as well.

His second edition of the rulebook is out and he's added some nice play aids. 

This is a fledgling company that I hope does well going forward.

Terminator is Coming True

This guy's videos are always amusing and he shows some pretty crazy stuff. Video speaks for itself:

Pre-Game Pics of Jerry's CDTOB WWI Board

Jerry is getting ready for another Command Decision WWI game in 15mm. He's been spending a lot of time on these great looking boards.

Jerry will send me more info on the boards. Ask any questions you have and he'll be glad answer them.

 

10645--View from the British lines.

10652--German hill fortress gets bombed.

10670-- Birdseye view of the battlefield.

10679--Brit tanks and infantry attack the fortress.

10680--Stosstruppen massing for a counterattack.

10684--German command group. Note the scissor scopes!

10679--Brit tanks and infantry attack the fortress.

 

Platoon Commander and 15mm Buildings

timmy! had some guys over at his house recently to play a game of Kevin and Doug's Platoon Commander ruleset. They are currently in the process of developing them which sounds fun and challenging.

I was only able to swing by as the game was winding down, so I took a couple pics, enjoyed the post game discussion, and took a look at some of the 15mm buildings timmy! recently bought from Crescent Root  http://www.crescent-root.com/15mm_index.htm.


They played a Guadalcanal game with 3 companies of Marines trying to take a ridge being held by ? number of Japanese. I believe Doug told me the figures were 25mm. They said it was a draw, but even the Marine commanders were questioning whether or not they had even done that well.

They're still making a few tweaks to the rules (does it ever end?). I wish them luck in this endeavor.

The buildings were very detailed. One thing that I wish I could do with the 6mm guys is put them in the buildings - tough to do at this scale. They felt lighter than normal resin. However, he says they are less expensive so it must be a tad different kind of resin. Can't wait to see them painted. The coolest building is the large church.

timmy! at Recruits April 2012

Jealous I couldn't have gone to what I hear is a great show, Recruits. timmy! shared with me his experience there:

My buddies and I took off at the wee hours of 0400 for the convention held in Lees Summit Missouri called Recruits http://recruits.mtswebsites.com/.

 

We all piled into Rich's van and made the three hour drive.

 

First stop was breakfast at the local Perkins restaurant.

 

One hell of a group of guys. Clockwise, Will H, Dave S, Rich W, Adam J and timmy!

 

After a nice breakfast we went to the con. Saturday seemed pretty busy with a good attendance.

The boys split up to play their games of choice. I assisted in running several Force on Force games with Shawn who is the writer of the rules

 

For the convention I debuted my 20mm dumpsters, trash bags and refrigerators that I sculpted. Many more cool items to come!  These will be listed on Combat Wombats site pretty soon. http://www.combatwombatminiatures.com/ 

 

By around 4:30 we were all pretty tired and ready to go home. All of us had a great day and look forward to attending future Recruits.  IMHO its one of the best in this area.

 

First Battletech Quickstrike Battle

I ran two lances against each other to test out the Quickstrike rules variant as published in Strategic Operations from Catalyst Labs.

I don't know the fluff enough to make some cool AAR why these two met up. Since my son's paint jobs aren't consistent with any particular faction, I want to say it's pirates/splinter groups meeting to settle a disputed territory..

Objective: learn the rules and destroy the majority of the other's mechs.

Atlas Lance contained
Atlas - skill 3
Jägermech - 4
Jenner - 4
Vindicator - 4

Cyclops Lance
Cyclops - 3
Catapult - 4
Hunchback - 4
Dragon - 4

Atlas lance was going to have Atlas and Vindicator go around the left flank while the Jenner took long range shots from the level 3 wooded hill on the right. Finally, the Jäger would skirt behind the hill on the right, staying out the fight for a few rounds and then popping in from the right to pincer the other team.

Cyclops was focused on getting to the center of the board to use the lake and woods as cover and cooling. The plan was to keep the long range firing Dragon in the woods near the starting edge to take advantage of cover.

Highlights:
Dragon changed the plan and decided to move into the woods near the lake . Bad plan, by the end of turn 2 or 3, the Dragon was destroyed as you can see in the first pic.

The Atlas took some serious hits from a massed attack by three units. Still in the game, but was suffering.

The Cyclops was part of that big fire group. Unfortunately, to do this he used all his heat and shut down. This allowed the Jenner to jump into the water, use extra heat to increase damage, and take advantage of the water cooling to finish the Cyclops off.

The game ended with Cyclops, Dragon, and Hunchback destroyed. The Jenner was chased from the battle by the Vindicator, unable to move quickly away because of a movement point hit.

Enjoyed it. Need to clear up a few things an will post some game thoughts later.

Birthday Work: The Good Kind

Didn't realize until today that I share a birthday with two of the bloggers I follow: Wargaming Girl and Ray, Don't Throw a 1. Happy BDay fellow bloggers.

The day started with opening a present from mum, or should I say "mom." Anyway, this is the second gift occasion where I've received a wargaming gift. Last X-mas is was Black Powder from dad. This year, GHQ, from mom! But that's many years after getting started in these crazy hobbies. I could completely relate to this post at Lead Doesn't Bleed about gifts and wargaming.
As soon as I saw the envelope I knew it was going to be good:
US21 Wolverine
US39 Dodge Weapons Carrier
US58 105mm Arty
US5 M7 Priest (most excited)
AC49 P47 Thunderbolt
AC8 Focke Wulf 190D (first ever two aircraft!)

Fun times ahead, now I need to order some bases from Scale Creep. (Blast, I just saw, as I was looking for the link to his store that he is having a 50% sale on many of his Baccus minis. Including Samurai - but now, most of them are gone...dang.)

After getting the oil changed, I went by the new location of Game Nite. They've moved into their new location from a mall to an old strip mall. However, they have a lot more room (and getting more). Now it's as much about minis as board games. It's also garnered (I don't think this is a good use of the word.) more of a gamer vibe than his previous location. Not sure if this is a good thing. I'll have to think about this.

Anyway, after visiting there, I swung by Miniature Market picked up a 1:3000 Wichita (city where I was born, so only appropriate on my birthday.) and a couple other things.

When I got home I worked on the bocage, hills, European manors, painted the waves on the 1:3000 WWII ships, and washed some samples of the fields to see how that affected them. In the last hour of the day I put some Battletech minis, my son painted, on the dining room table and tried out the Quick Strike rules. (I can blame this on after reading this post on Battletech Quick Strike on the blog On Wargames and Such.)The bocage turned out well. Except, I sprayed them with a spray adhesive, sprinkled flock and then sprayed some gloss finish spray...and man do those things ever stink. Spread upstairs to the point where I had to take them outside to air out. 24 hours later and they're still not good. They're in the garage. It was a lot of work. I hope I don't need to throw them out.

timmy! Plays a Developing WWII Ruleset - Platoon Commander

What follows is a quick battle report of a 15mm WWII game:

 

Late afternoon on Tuesday we had a very impromptu WW2 15mm game at my house. Due to it being a quickly scheduled game we didn't have the entire gaming group. In attendance were Dave S, Doug H, Corey S and myself.

 

We were playing a home brew set of rules written by Kevin M titled Platoon Commander 44.  These rules are a lot of fun, very well written and execute smoothly. Put up against most ww2 set of rules such as IABSM; it pales no comparison!

 

Here is a picture of the initial board.  A small French village that might be occupied by Jerry!

Assault rules explanation by Doug

Battlefront (old) & JR Miniatures Buildings

More buildings, some are Hovels and timmy! built the gated terrain himself

Placing troops one side at a time. Germans go first and take advantage of the terrain

Germans then win the initiative. Having seen the Tommy's move into the buildings, Jerry responds with initial gun fire that can be heard throughout the village.

The Brits exchanged fire causing casualties and mass confusion to the Jerry's.   :)

The Germans responded with an intense amount of fire power causing the Brits casualties and breaking their morale. The only safe place to run back to was the church.

Having been initially given the order to flank the town from the right, the Commandos decided to flank the town from the left!  Those bastards had a plan of their own the entire time.  :)

Brit commandos move forward taking the building and begin exchanging fire with the Germans.

Brits exchange fire with German machine gun crew causing casualties and breaking their moral: forcing them to leave the building.  Clearly a victory for the British!!

And around that time is when my phone ran out of juice  :(

All in all this was a great time. Fun was had by all. 

We continued to play several more turns. I would say it ended with a British victory but then again me being a brit player I am a bit biased!   :)  :)

 Here's some of info on the game, by Kevin, who's developing the game:

Platoon Commander is a 1 to 1 scale rules set designed to simulate military combat with each player taking command of a 30 to 50 man platoon sized organization along with some representative support weapons and vehicles.  The game can be played by as few as 2 or as many as 6-8 players.  Platoon Commander uses a one-to-one game scale for all units.  One infantry model equals one soldier, one AFV model equals one armored vehicle or tank, one artillery model equals one artillery gun, one aircraft model equals one aircraft and one truck model equals one soft transport vehicle.  Ground scale is approximately 1-inch equal 6 to 10 yards.  Each formation action simulates 5-15 minutes of time.  Each complete game turn simulates roughly 30 minutes of combat action depending upon how many units are involved per side.

All measurements are in inches and most action is resolved with D6 dice.  Most of the game play charts will fit on two sides of a single 11" sheet.

The rules are loosely based on a combination of Warhammer Epic and Frank Chadwick's Command Decision.  Activation is by formation, and formation is defined as infantry squad or tank platoon sized units.  They were originally conceived as a player activating  by squad for smaller games, 1-2 players per side, but more recently by platoon for larger games of 3 or more players per side or faster game play.

 

The turn sequence is simple and very open but must be followed.  Let's face it, most gamers I know only want to move and kill something, and the turn sequence encourages this.

 

1) Action Phase - a single marker is drawn to indicate which side may attempt activation.

2) End Phase - the action marker count is reset based on remaining formations and all orders except unactivated Overwatch orders are removed

 

The heart of the game is the orders.  I have always preferred games where the player makes the action decision up front and then carries it out.  It seems like a simple notion on the surface, but also seems to be difficult to master as it requires planning ahead for success.  (On that note, I am still toying with the idea of having all players secretly issue orders first; Command Decision style, and then write a new order revelation sequence.  Maybe a future play test.)  Orders available are,

 

1) Advance - your basic combat advancement with the opportunity to fire

2) Double - faster movement but reduced shooting accuracy

3) March - all out movement, but no shooting allowed

4) Sustained Fire - all out offensive shooting

5) Overwatch - opportunity fire at enemy units that move or shoot

6) Opportunity Hold - a hasty order that helps offset the anomalies of the turn sequence by allowing a unit to react

7) Hold - a default order when a unit does not pass an activation check

8) Engage - a close combat order

9) Under Command - the ability to combine several smaller units into a single formation

10) Marshall - allows units to regroup and remove blast markers

11) Call Fire - allows headquarters units only to call in off board artillery fire

 

In addition, there are several game situation markers:

 

1) Prone - indicates a formation has gone prone to help with save modifiers

2) Pinned - a unit that is broken but cannot or does not wish to fall back

3) Broken - morale is completely broken; unit must rally

4) Command re-roll - a pure game mechanic to smooth out the vagaries of the dice

 

The game mechanics for movement are pretty straight forward (all infantry moves 6" on the Advance) with the active player moving or shooting and the defensive player rolling for saves.  I prefer the idea of keeping players involved during all phases of the game by allowing them to attempt saves no matter how small the chance.  It just makes them feel better!

 

Most small arms and infantry support weapons are included except pistols and grenades.  Pistols because they make no significant impact in battle situations and grenades because they cause the most problems to define and so they are rolled into close combat.

 

The close combat sequence is somewhat lengthy but is usually bloody and decisive.  As you know, I am ready to test this process in a house to house situation which is a unique terrain situation.  My hope is it will hold up well in principal with only a few specialized rules.

 

The game is meant to include some transport and AFV's in the right proportion.  I have play tested this rule set  using only tanks and it plays well up to a point.  My feeling is, if you want lots of tanks, play Command Decision.  If you want single tank action, find an on-line simulation and go for it.

 

This rule set has the advantage of not needing to buy all of the heavy artillery pieces as the ground scale keeps most of this off board.

 

And most especially, thanks for your interest.  I can't wait for some play test feedback.

 Kevin stated that he's willing to answer some questions - send them my way or post in the comments and I'll make sure he gets them.

Naval Miniatures Based

Finally their based. Waves and labels are next.

Command Decision Normandy to Lorraine Review

A few months ago I mentioned that I was going to be listed as a play tester in the newest Command Decision: Test of Battle Scenario book - From Normandy to Lorraine, by Jake Strangeway.

I finally ordered it and received it last week. Opened it up and there I am! I showed my 9 year old and he got a big grin on his face and said, "You're famous. Kind of."

I've not played any of the scenarios yet. However, I wanted to give an overview of what's inside.

It covers U.S. v German actions from June 7, 1944 to September 19, 1944.  Strangeway decided, I think wisely to spit up the US and Commonwealth scenarios.

I like this, for a couple of reasons. One, It gets the book out to the market more quickly. I don't own any Commonwealth forces to game with anyway. And it helps me to not be even more tempted to get other forces in this year of a seriously cut back gaming budget. (Side note: nothing saying I couldn't use my US forces as proxy or use the scenarios with tweaks here and there for this or other game systems.)

 Some of the scenarios accommodate up to 12 players. However, turns out there are a couple that are suited for 2-4. Also, most take place on 6' x 8' tables.

The book has a comprehensive table of contents then includes a brief history section. I like having these because I always learn something new. Another aspect that is nice is that Jake incorporates the scenario titles so you see a bit of the bigger picture of what was going on.  For example,

"To the north, the Americans crossed near Diulouard, and secured a crossing there, beating back a German counterattack. A more complete account of the fighting can be found in Scenario 8: "Forcing the Moselle." With the German counterattack halted, Combat Command A of the 4th Armored Division began a mad dash into the enemy rear, covering 45 miles in a day and a half."

Following the history are a couple pages covering special rules, scenario guidelines, advanced rules used and how to read the maps.

Speaking of maps...they are crazy bocage heavy, obviously. Especially the early ones. Crazy, even using cm instead of inches, I would need to work for some time to get enough hedges to make a dent.

The map to the right is from Scenario 5: Duel at Barenton. This is one I play tested, see pic below it. I'm standing to the top right of the map and taking the picture to the Southwest. Here are pics from the game on my Picasa page.

The Scenarios are laid out:
Scenario Title
Date of battle
Situation
Notes: Number of Players, number of turns
Special Rules
Historical result
Map in 12" increments
Then the armies, including
Tactical notes like the following from the US side on Scenario 5:

"Your job is to press forward on your right, while checking the German advance on your left. Your mobility in your half-tracks is a great advantage, as long as you stay on the roads..."  (It continues for a couple more sentences.)

Deployment guidelines
OOBs
Special Notes for the army
Then the Army Data Chart

There are a few black and white photos spread throughout. They're OK. I liked the photos in the Operation Market Garden book better because there were more of them (It seems, but I didn''t count.) And, they were captioned to tie them to the scenarios. 

Honestly, I probably won't play many of the scenarios in this book based on their size... at least, at my house. Jerry, who I play tested these with has all the resources and group to game some of the more giant ones, and it would be years before I get there. However, I've noticed in our games that you could divide up the scenarios into sections (Left third, middle, and right third) and battle just that side for one on one. 

For example, in Scenario 8, Forcing the Moselle, the other one we play tested,  most of my time in the game was fighting one other opponent as he took the town I was in. Now, the thing you would want to do, is to have an option for reinforcements to simulate the other players on the field possibly coming to help. When we played the game we had a tank battalion that was supposed to come in and help us out. However, as it was coming on board, the German got an incredible shot, across the table, taking out the lead tank. It essentially took them out of the a large chunk of the game.

(You can see that roll and hit in the video below. This video, btw, covers all the basic steps in the sequence of play, if you're unfamiliar with CD:TOB.) Also, here are pics from the Picasa album.

To sum it up: I would buy more, especially, In the Clutches of Eagles and the Benghazi Handicap. If for nothing more than to have more scenario options and because they're well done and I want to support the crew at Test of Battle. Here's a link to the Test of Battle online store and their listing for From Normany to Lorraine.
For the main rulebook.


Command Decision: Test of Battle has a great forum, btw, if you want to ask more in depth questions of the author and players with way more experience with the game than I have.