From an Ambush Alley Games perspective, I’m working on several scenarios for the upcoming Force on Force Special Ops book. I’m also writing an article/After Action Report based on of the scenarios from Cold War Gone Hot for Miniature Wargaming magazine.

From a personal perspective, I’ve dusted off my Viking rules to start polishing again after the last playtesting. I’m also helping Skip Peterson put pen to paper on his Legends in the Skies WW2 dogfight game. Painting is still a few weeks off since any rotation of the left forearm is still very painful.

One week after the fall and the swelling has gone down enough for me to be able to wear my wedding ring again. Last night I actually was able to hold and file some 28mm miniatures without too much discomfort, so hopefully I’ll get back to painting soon. One thing I can’t do is lift anything with my left arm more than a coffee cup in weight, so it will be some time before I’m running demos or setting up games. In the meantime, here’s a picture of a Tomorrow’s War game we ran at Games Plus as a test of the new points system.

Defenders of the Crystal Processing Factory

http://meeples.wordpress.com/reviews/rules-reviews/cold-war-gone-hot-world-war-iii-1986/

http://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Gone-Hot-World/dp/1849085366

http://www.wittwer.nl/?p=953&lang=nl

https://privatelittlewars.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/ambush-alley-games-present-cold-war-gone-hot-a-review/

http://boardgamegeek.com/collection/items/boardgame/113825?comment=1

Overall, I am quite pleased by the early feedback. Most of the criticism is for a few typos and the desire for more content (always a challenge in this industry), but everyone seems to like the three-part format and the “Hollywood-style” scenarios. I am very honored to have worked with such a great team — Shawn, Rich, Jim and Piers, as well as the many other contributors. Dixie did a great job with the maps and my thanks to Osprey Publishing as well. I only hope the next book I’m working on turns out as well.

Hope to see you there…

The Neo-Soviet attackers were a large force consisting of a company of 9 Pegasus III tanks, moderately armored and gunned; a platoon of mechanized infantry in hover APCs; another platoon of VDV troops in tracked APCs and wearing TL2 Power Armor; and a tracked tank hunter attached to the VDV forces. All troops were TQ:D8/Morale:D8, except for the VDV, who were TQ:D10/Morale:D10. The Neo-Soviets set up second and had initiative for the first turn.

The US defenders comprised 3 Patton Heavy Tanks (also known as the Khurasan Siler tanks), 3 Ramirez IFVs, two squads of infantry and a weapons squad with 2 AT teams. All troops were TQ:D8/Morale:D10. We also gave the US tech level 3 and plasma weapons (negate one die of armor) to give them a better chance at holding off the Neo-Soviets. The US players had to set up first.

The village provided 1 extra die of cover in each building, 2 extra dice in the industrial buildings. The scenario objective was simple. Add up the number of buildings controlled by each side when time expires and the highest total = the winner.

The settlement...the US players set up to the left of the road, the Neo-Soviets came in from the right.

I should have known things would not go as I thought from the first turn. The Neo’s pushed one flank hard right from the start, using one platoon of hover tanks to fire smoke (pretty ineffectually, I might add) and then pushed forward a second platoon who drew reaction fire from two of the Pattons. That’s when things went…weird.

The Neo-Soviet advance at the end of Turn One

The first thing that happened was a Patton fired a round into a Pegasus for a quick kill. During the subsequent turn, another Patton rolled into view, and lost the draw with the surviving two Pegasi. One missed, but the second one rolled two hits with 2D8s. The frontal armor for the Patton is normally 5D12, but it was up to 6D12 because of the lower tech level of the Pegasus. Guess what? A hit, and one that proved critical: main gun knocked out. My son Steve (commanding the Pegasus in question) let out a whoop of glee! A second Patton rolled out to engage the platoon firing smoke. Moments later, the unthinkable happened again. The Patton lost the draw, but this time the return fire from a Pegasus knocked out the vehicle entirely. Harlow (commanding this Pegasus) had trumped my son’s achievement!

One burning, one main gun knocked out...one weird day!

Paying the price for the Pattons

After this, the US players hunkered down and kept in cover. The wounded Patton decided to fire at APCs and infantry targets, while the sole remaining intact Patton stayed in cover for the most part, waiting for the Neo-Soviets to close. The Neo-Soviets did just that, but at incredible cost. The AT teams, along with the Ramirez APCs, played hell with the Neo-Soviet APCs, brewing up many and causing casualties among the dismounting infantry. On the Neo-Soviet extreme right flank, the VDV dismounted and advanced rapidly to take the first row of buildings, taking fire and light casualties, but putting it to the US defenders.

APCs burning bright from expert US gunnery

The VDV advance next to the burning hulks of many of the Neo-Soviet APCs

It was at this point that time ran out with the issue very much in balance. From a “buildings occupied” perspective, the US players were in the lead, but the VDV were chewing up the US infantry and not taking much in return.

A Ramirez IFV waits for the final push

All in all, it was a fun game with plenty of momentum shifts and thrilling moments. It just goes to show you that what looks like a balanced scenario can go to hell in one turn. But unlike other games, Tomorrow’s War doesn’t necessarily stay that way, as the US forces did a very effective job of turning the situation around and making it a very close game, despite the early losses.

I didn’t do too badly on my last five projects list for 2011. I got about 1/2 the Vietnam 15mm figures that I had primered done. I finished off the Space Worms. I got a good chunk of Picoarmor stuff done. I totally blew it on the Martian Racing skiffs, however. Not a one of them even prepped for priming. Sigh.

After discussions with my son Will, we’ve decided to pare down the 28mm zombie stuff that we own. Why? Well, it takes up way too much space in our workshop/crawlspace storage. The buildings we have are mostly ‘O’ scale railroad buildings and they are huge in terms of footprint. We’ll keep the basics for smaller layouts, but the big city layout has to go. Also on the chopping block is my vast collection of unpainted Clan Wars figures. I bought heavily when it first came out, but I have yet to play a single game, and the number of painted figures still numbers less than 100. I am far more interested in 28mm historical Samurai anyway, so this stuff will be up for sale soon. Finally, I will be getting rid of the Wild West miniatures I started collecting, including the Old Glory buildings that I purchased.

In terms of painting priorities, I intend to focus on the following five areas for the 1st quarter:

1) 15mm Vietnam: I want to finish off the rest of the primered miniatures, get a few more buildings done, and add some helicopters and other vehicles.

2) 15mm Tomorrow’s War: As AAG will continue to support this game, it would be remiss of me not to support something in which I’m involved. Next up are some CMG heavy grav tanks, some GZG OUDF that my son Will painted (I need to finish the basing), and some GZG New Israeli troops. I also want to throw an alien race or two into the mix, including expanding my Felid forces from Khurasan.

3) 15mm World War 2: I want to continue building my Battlefront: WW2 units, especially for the Eastern front. I also intend to start painting and basing individual figures in 15mm for Force on Force games.

4) 3mm Picoarmor: I am continuing to write my homegrown mass combat rules and intend to use them with Picoarmor stuff for playtesting. I am focusing on two areas. First, Cold War stuff for 1980s. Second, WW2 Western Desert.

5) 28mm Miscellaneous: I am currently working on more 28mm Vikings, Saxons and Normans for Dark Age skirmish games (including my own home grown rules). I also promised Will that I would paint up some Warmachine stuff to fight his growing Khador/Menoth armies. I have pretty sizable Cygnar and Menoth forces myself, but I have started to collect and paint an Orboros army with an autumn theme to it.

If I stick to my guns, I should be able to increase the size of my painted collection, decrease the total number of miniatures I own, and clear up some space in the basement workshop. If. We’ll see how I do in 2012

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 33,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 12 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Personally, it’s been a year of ups and downs that all-in-all has ended well. Two surgeries, work craziness, coupled with my son heading off to Indiana University, my partnership in Ambush Alley Games and joining a band as a keyboard player/vocalist and it’s been a year that even Mr. Toad would say is a wild ride.

I plan to get some painting and gaming time in during the holidays, and will probably post some photos of both. But just in case, I wanted to wish all my friends, followers and acquaintances a very merry Christmas and happy New Year!